#can't recommend this series enough

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Do you like sci-fi and indie animation? Check out Monkey Wrench!

[thundergrace]

I love Harlivy so fucking much.

Some people don't like that Ivy is a bit short with Harley sometimes or grumpy but that's literally apart of her personality. It's not like just whips it out just to be mean to Harley.

They're very VERY different people, and they will ALWAYS have this dynamic because they have major contrasting differences in their personalities, mindsets, and expression.

What's important is that they always work through their conflicts no matter how big or how small. They apologize when they're wrong or hurt the other. They talk about what went wrong in their communication, and the relationship grows a little stronger every time.

I mean, they're wonderful. What a treat to see representation like this on one of the most absurd and ridiculous shows in the history of adult animation 🤣

[inafieldofdaisies]

Invasion (2023) | Season 2, Episode 8 “Cosmic Ocean” | Favorite scenes

"In Hindu mythology, there's this sage, Markandeya. One day, he climbs up and out of the belly of the world and finds himself looking out through the mouth of the great god, Vishnu. The cosmic ocean. His mind snaps with the enormity of it. He stumbles. Falls back down the god's throat. Smack-down to earth. He spends the next several millennia searching for a way back out."

[necrotic-nephilim]

Tell me why Kara Zor-L is one of my your favs! I'm been meaning to make the jump from the CW show to the comics. Any recommendations?

- @cicero-in-gotham

@cicero-in-gotham oh i would LOVE to!! Kara Zor-L is my darling beloved.

firstly for suggestions, i'll be honest Kara can be... a hard character to read for. you have to slog through a lot of really shitty "male gaze" content to get scraps of interesting stuff. the top comics i'd recommend are

Power Girl: Power Trip

Power Girl Returns

Power Girl (2023)

some people like Harley Quinn & Power Girl. i'll be honest... i did not. and Power Girl (2009) has... ups and downs, is the nicest way i'll say it. but it's also solid for what it is. certainly better than her New-52 content so i can't really complain.

anyhow, i always am enamoured by characters who are disconnected from their "family", especially due to trauma. bc no one really counts Power Girl as part of the Superfamily. and even within the Superfamily if people are talking about the "outcast" of the family, they always say Kon. (which, eh? maybe New-52!Kon but i wouldn't say the main Kon is an outcast, his issues are internal) but to me, Kara far better suites that role. it's one thing to be one of the last survivors of Krypton. it's another thing to be one of the last survivors of your entire *universe* as well. she lost everyone, *twice*.

i adore characters who feel like imposters and Kara is *peak* imposter syndrome. everything about her identity is constructed around not feeling like a "real" Super, or a "real" Zor-L. she has to live with knowing she's on an earth that has Supergirl, meaning they don't need her. she didn't wear the S crest for so long even on her own earth, because she felt like she didn't server it.the only thing she feels like she has going for her is her sexual appeal and so it's so amped up she lacks a personality outside of it. she has been isolated again and again by her trauma and she struggles to face her grief, masking with humor and oversexual appearances. i find that to be so interesting. she lost *everything*, twice. and now she's an imposter who will always hold herself at a distance from the Supers because she doesn't want to make them uncomfortable with her existence. she has to live on an Earth and know everyone is... slightly off. she has Clark, but it's not *her* Clark. she has the Justice Society of America, but it's not *her* JSA. and she doesn't have her best friend, Helena Wayne at *all*, because this earth has Helena Bertinelli as Huntress. (unless you count New Golden Age stuff but that's future timeline nonsense)

i find Kara's lack of identity interesting, and the way she just sort of drifts. she has done a lot of things, but lacks a sense of self importance bc she will never view herself as a "real" Kryptonian of this universe. she's just so neat to me. i also love the JSA personally, they're one of my favorite superhero teams, so i love any character connected to the JSA, they're always so underrated.

the Power Girl Special (which is collected in Power Girl Returns) is like, genuinely one of my favorite single issues ever. that comic just lives in my bones. it also has one of the *best* internal monologues i've ever read. something something comics are art. this is cutting some stuff out but just to show you have beautiful the writing is, this is an excerpt from that comic

people tend to think of hatred as love's opposite. but i disagree- i think hatred is just love's sharpened edge. it's the same passion. the same potency, the same intensity. just a different flavor. so no, hatred isn't love's opposite. grief is. grief is the void left behind after something you once loved was violently ripped away. grief is what happens in love's sudden absence. love is when your cup runneth over. but grief is hollow. a chasm. there is no negotiating with grief. it does what it wants to you, when it wants. you will never outgrow or outrun it. but... you can find ways to grow around it. i never got to say goodbye. i was loved, once. i was once loved so much that my life was prioritized above all else. i will never feel worthy of that love or sacrifice. but i'm realizing now that to freeze or falter in the shadow of that love is the only way to fail their sacrifice. i have to live in the light. i can step out into the sunlight, and still carry them with me.

like that is??? so Character to me. she is Everything. i'm just. so unwell over her internal struggles and how she faces the world, i cannot recommend her enough. she means the world to me and that comic has stuck with me since i read it for it's conversation about handling grief. i am begging everyone to be a Power Girl fan i know she's confusing but once you get the hang of her backstory she's so cool i swear-

[vivvy-of-the-lake]

damn, you wouldn't believe the hands that trans bocchi fanfics have

[musemelodies]

a summary of the big good wolf:

mickey: haha, i can fix him. :D

big bad: (eats an entire town)

[auroralynne]

Amirya - Cosmos

Cosmos flowers are associated with simplicity, joy, and beauty. They're also a symbol of order, harmony, and balance.

Amirya is my pick for a Mother's Day post, as uncertain as her fate is... She's Nadraya's older sister and a very wise woman, so lovable and brave. Amirya is a character from @skaylanphear's fantasy novel "Deathborne", from the Dragon Seer series. It's seriously so good!

You can fin it here:

[rosielav]

Desperately need to find another currently ongoing podcast to listen to. I have nothing in my feed that releases new episodes except for MBMBAM and that's not nearly as exciting as I'd like it to be haha

PLEASE REC ME YOUR FAVORITE PODCASTS, PREFERABLY ONES STILL ONGOING OR WITH LOTS OF EPISODES!!!

Blease 😭😭😭😭

[malewifehenrycooldown]

yeah yeah i got recommended that Henry Cooldown analysis video whatever. i am still not over people comparing Henry to a medieval knight, NOT even taking the time to unpack that said mental image of a knight is 'mostly' associated with the British Monarchy*, an extension of its Empire that *checks notes* did a long list of atrocities like imperialism and colonialism, and also (multiple) genocides.

Henry is NOT British, he is Irish. Although considering the history of Ireland and how poorly the British Empire has treated them (amongst SO MANY OTHER COUNTRIES AND DIASPORAS), yeah it's NOT surprising that an Irish man like Henry is essentially forced to adopt quote on quote 'British sensibilities' to 'survive'. <- intentional imagery or not, the implications are not lost on me.

Like okay, calling out the comparison is cool but it sure would be nice if people went further to unpack what that means and implies in the long term. you know, like ACTUAL CRITICAL ANALYSIS?!

[floralovebot]

What character in any media do you think is similar to garth?

I thought really hard about this but honestly I couldn't come up with a good answer.

I really wanted to say bbc's Merlin, and tbh I do still think they have a lot of similarities with their personalities and story arcs, but it's not the best answer. The thing about Garth is that he's a Good person - not just good, but "pure of heart". And like,,, that's hard to find unless you're specifically looking at children's media aimed at like,, five year olds. Anyway, while Garth and Merlin share a lot of similarities (extreme selflessness, tragic destinies, people around them being Mean, abandonment and isolation being major elements), Merlin also has a darker side to him that is just so,,, Not Garth. And in the later seasons, he starts to become very somber and cold.

Personally, I feel like the Garth/Merlin parallels are at their highest during the earlier seasons!

[hawkinslibrary]

forgot how much i love fanvids. i used to spend so so much time on youtube watching them and i'm kinda falling back into that habit now. there's sooooo many good st ones out there too. people are so creative and the editing skills and attention to detail are amazing

[isfjmel-phleg]

I've talked about the role of the narrator (or lack thereof) in the YJ boys' solos, Grant's, and Ray's. Next up is Will's very short miniseries, Triumph. (If I've lost you, see my intro to this obscure character here.)

Unlike the others, Will is not a teenager but a young adult, but the concept of a guiding/parental voice still applies to his solo because his relationship with his father is a driving factor of this story.

Therefore, it is significant that Triumph has no narrator, for the most part. Present events unfold without external comment or a protagonist telling us the story. Will is too private and closed off to offer the reader first-person narration for any reason. No journals, no (heaven forbid!) letters to friends. We get the occasional look at his thoughts, especially in contrast to what he says and how he presents himself. But he's not introspecting in any way that we have access to. There are numerous panels of him (both past and present) clearly going through a lot inside his head, but we are left to read his expressions and body language, not his innermost thoughts.

The closest we get to narration is in flashbacks to Will's past. Incidents from his childhood--the most vulnerable memories, the events he least wants to remember or share--are often accompanied by taunting words from a villain trying to demoralize Triumph; this seems to be more of a monologue than narration. Not only does this highlight the villain's connection to Will's past, but it also demonstrates how detached Will has become from the eight-year-old who waited silently in the rain all day for a father who never came home. He can't acknowledge these events out loud; someone who hates him has to do it for him.

But Will does briefly narrate at one point, as he relates how he reinvented himself into a hero. It's a factual, emotionless account, and one intended to make him look good despite revealing that he in fact led a sad and solitary single-minded existence.

There is a lot of audio communication in the story between Will and his team, to the point that it often gets confusing. This could be seen as a sort of narration, although most of it is moving the plot forward rather than commentating or introspecting. However, there is a sort of guiding voice in Wilma (codename of Lester Holmes, a middle-aged man who is the team's Voice With An Internet Connection), the group's dad-friend who often directs concerned or critical remarks to Will through their private line. Even so, Will tends to hold him at arm's length too.

Will cut off all ties with his father a long time ago and has dedicated his life to making sure that he is nothing like James MacIntyre. He has no mentor. He tends to buck against guidance of any kind. All he's got is just his own plans and idealizations, so naturally there is no narrator, no parental voice, in his solo.

It ends with James MacIntyre driving away as Will, silent and alone, stands watching him disappear from his life. Right back to where he was as that hurt child he has tried so hard not to be anymore.

[reservoirreputation]

We're cutting the cord on Netfilx at the end of this month, so I'm trying to focus on original series and movies from the platform. I've worked my way through Midnight Mass, after putting it off for years, and guys.

If you only use Netflix for one month, this is a must-see series.

Like many Flanagan projects, it will enrage you, tire you, make you ball like a baby. Both feel beaten down and inspired, and the meditations on grief, of very human flaws, thematic elements mirroring each other and coming together so neatly by the end. This is the level of cathartic sorrow that I could only dream of touching (and god help any readers if I figure it out), but it's still so damn hopeful. You never leave a Flanagan series feeling that all is lost ('Usher' may beg to differ, but we shall see, it's up next). There is always hope, a sense of comfort, a sense of reassurance even through all the tears. Netflix has seriously fucked up, letting this guy go.

I wish Mike Flanagan and his recurring actors the absolute best, because that's exactly what they are.

[saunter-vaguely-into-a-bookshop]

It's 2:30 and I've been knitting for 7 hours and now YARN CHICKEN at the end of a TEST KNIT that's overdue because of a FUNERAL are you SHITTING ME

[owlyflufff]

still thinking of how I finished reading the Trigun Maximum manga last month but that series is forever engraved into my very soul like it's so raw, emotional and I haven't been the same ever since-

[space-blue]

I am very sorry. I just saw any leech stuff and freaked out because I just finished that book and O U G H

- 🐀

Don't ever be sorry for freaking out about a good book. If I were still a bookseller I'd be slapping people across the face with it.

I really love me a narrative shift like this book pulls. AND it's on top of multiple layers of unreliable narrator? Boss move.

I really like the hive mind concept in general, and loved the way it was handled in A Fire Upon The Deep, if you care for crazy scifi. It was also very interesting in Ancillary Justice, which also has unwilling hosts/a parasitic quality.

If you want a recommendation for a book that mind fucks you over time in that same way, I recommend you read Sheri S. Tepper's book Grass, and then the second one Raising the Stones.

I often describe her way of writing as making me feel like a snake, properly charmed. She pulls the wool over your eyes. I frequently thought about Tepper's work while reading Leech. Things not being as they seem, the slow buildup of evidence that flies under the radar, the pov shift that leaves you scrambling...

I was still super surprised by the bold choice of having this Franco-English pigdin language. It felt very tailor made for a bilingual reader like myself, but idk how hostile that must have felt to a monolingual reader. The whole world slowly revealing itself to be far future instead of fantasy gothic alone... Genuinely this book felt like a puzzle at times, with lots of missing pieces.

Very very fun! Glad you liked it.