#dragon-music trilogy is excellent

[dragongirl-casca]

Context: I'm reading the Dragonriders of Pern series, having recently restarted and then finally finished Dragonsdawn after a long hiatus from the series.

Renegades of Pern is not a very artful book, in terms of realistic decisions, clever dialogue, or compelling narrative. The arguments characters have make little sense, and it frequently feels very expository.

But it is a very functional book, in that it introduces characters, introduces places, and creates a reasonable framework for those characters to explore those places, leading to the rediscovery of ancient knowledge.

I hope All The Weyrs of Pern is better, though.

[quibbs]

if its ok to ask do you have any recommendations, of like, songs, movies, tv shows, books, comics, webcomics,,,, like. literally anything of the sort. and similarly, if its ok to ask, what inspired soil that binds us?

ok sorry this took me so long to answer! i just kept thinking about it instead of writing about it. a problem that is common for me, lol. anyway i think pieces of media that tend to have the strongest effect on me tend to be bittersweer, have a particular focus on interconnectivity between everyone involved, and are character focused/character dynamic focused. that's what tends to wring the most inspiration and joy out of me. i also really love pieces of media that are bad but are made with so much sincerity and passion that it does NOT matter to me how bad it is- i also find those pieces of art UNFATHOMBLY inspiring.

so: soil that binds us i think spiritually had 4 influences that shines above the rest.

-NARUTO [sincere, long form, teen-oriented, shonen energy, the power of love and friendship will save us, action scenes and BLOOD, the fun matters most for a lot of it],

-HOMESTUCK [exceedingly complicated, irreverent, balancing vulnerable and invulnerable in a clinically insane way, emphasis on the protagonists psyche, interconnectivity as a priority, kind of expecting you to get lost along the way, the fun matters most]

-THE LAST OF US [a game that inspires literally everything I will ever do forever, inspired me to be more vulnerable, character driven, post-apocalyptic, finding light and tenderness whilst trapped in HELL through your relationships with others, excels in the feeling of bittersweet, etc]

-anddd DRAGON AGE [another game that literally inspires everything i do, interconnectivity, character focused/character dynamic focused, sincere, good balance of gritty and silly, the first thing i turn to to analyze characters for because none of those characters have ever left my head after 15 years .]

those are my biggest media inspirations for soil that binds us but, especially as a teenager, music shaped what directions i took the characters like playdough. a lot of what defined my characters came from this playlist as i was writing them. i always started with the feeling first (which songs are good at) and then expounded upon the feeling i found in the song in written form. highly reccomend it!!! music is so inspiring and i always turn to it when i'm stuck.

as for tv shows/movies- despite the fact that he is (rightfully) extremely clowned on now, a lot of joss whedon works shaped my skull. buffy the vampire slayer and it's less good spin-off show angel DO live in my brain forever and in a special little hall of it's own. i'm pretty sure it inspired a lot of dragon age, too, so there you go.

i wish i had more comics/books to recommend you, but i actually don't read a lot of them these days!!! which is ironic, i know. i just keep losing time. I think maybe the closest written thing i can think of that is similar to my comic is the locked tomb trilogy- and that was a series that was ALSO heavily inspired by homestuck. same with undertale. so maybe look out for anything homestuck seems to have inadvertently given birth to!! i wish you luck on your hunt for comics that scratch the itch for you.... i know they're out there, and if they're not, give it a few years haha. homestucks reach is very far. GOOD LUCK!

[notmuchtoconceal]

Red Dragon was adapted to film three times. No cinematic portrayal has yet captured the particular majesty of its literary source, nor its subtle metaphysical quality, though each is interesting in its own right.

William Petersen remains my favorite Will Graham, and Manhunter the most sublime of the film versions, mainly for what it leaves unsaid. For how it draws you into a trance state through its hyper-modern design, full of minimalist white and chrome furnishings which emphasize empty space. It remains first and foremost a Michael Mann film, capturing the professionalism of being a G-man and Petersen's Will is allowed to return to domestic bliss upon its conclusion, cementing a kind of 80's optimism complete with cheesy synth music over the closing credits.

Ralph Fiennes remains my favorite on-screen Dolarhyde, mostly for he's the only actor who embodies the character's brutish physicality, though I don't particularly like the film he's in. The 2002 Red Dragon comes off like a cash-grab, capitalizing off the success of Silence of the Lambs, and its aesthetics -- while capturing more of the decaying contemporary gothic of its literary source -- are diminished by the film attempting to please too many masters. It reminds me of the similarly inferior late 90's film of The Talented Mr. Ripley, being both more loyal to what's on the page, as if to please legions of disappointed book readers, though also -- bloating the run-time with extraneous new subplots which flatter a general audience's pre-conceived biases. It frustrates you by giving you what you think you want, then doing its own thing anyway, though not very well, and you're left wishing it had just trimmed the fat and done something new instead of faffing about and having nothing new to say.

Edward Norton is by far my least favorite Will Graham, mostly for he comes across as a total charisma vacuum. Think the logic of casting him as Will was he was also a Hulk and the Narrator in Fight Club, so he's got cred struggling with latent psychopathy. Except in this he doesn't turn into a CGI monster or have Brad Pitt to play off him. Will is a complete entity in his own right and Edward Norton seems like a mask or shell.

NBC's Hannibal is the best adaptation of Red Dragon until it comes time to adapt Red Dragon, at which point it feels largely perfunctory.

As an adaptation, Hannibal is endlessly fascinating. Bryan Fuller compared himself to a remix artist, and that assessment is spot on.

When I watched the series for the first (and thus far only) time, I had just re-read the original trilogy, so I could see with fresh eyes and hear with open ears, the ways he turned bits of interior monologue into dialogue, fleshed-out the backstory, moved things around, changed the pace and flow through subtle re-framings. The closest point of comparison really is Mary Harron's excellent film of American Psycho (which distills to a sleek 102 minutes a work of four-dimensional Dostoevyskian tragedy masquerading as brand-name gore shlock), not only for how it juxtaposes primal violence with gourmet cooking, but narratively, structurally, in how it remixes and reinvents; turning Patrick Bateman's book-end revelation of his void state from a late-onset cry of despair to a stoic thesis statement simply part of his morning routine.

Bryan Fuller reinvents so much, draws out the queer subtext so totally, and ultimately has to -- the story he's telling is fundamentally about a man facing himself, being repulsed, but ultimately liking what he sees. The literary Will spurns Hannibal's one-side affections forever, which come across simply as sardonic taunts from a predator; yearning to take shelter in a woman's arms, but ending up deformed, for his primary opposite is the wounded Dolarhyde, not the Dark Prince Hannibal.

Hugh Dancy's Will is an entirely different beast. Every episode begins with based on Red Dragon, but the emphasis is right there in the title.

I suspect Bryan Fuller felt like he had to introduce Clarice at some point and kept putting it off because she had no place in the world he created. It's not only that his Will and his Hannibal are in love, and he'd be introducing a primordial tension into his own dark fantasy. The literary Will Graham may as well become Clarice. They share the same descent into the underworld to speak to the Devil Behind Bars. They speak to the same agent of unconscious revelation to get into the mind of a killer.

They are of the same mind, being both of Thomas Harris.

The Silence of the Lambs onward is a transgender narrative, not an androphilic one. The literary Clarice, prideful, self-assured, totally lacking in bullshit other than what's been trained into her, is an immediate delight. She's the one who ends up under Hannibal's control -- consent gradually surrendered -- as her true wants are revealed through drugs, hypnosis, childhood regression, the exhumation of her father's corpse. As Dolarhyde is the literary Will's shadow, so is Buffalo Bill Clarice's. She yearns to become a lawman like her father the sheriff, he yearns to become a beauty queen like the implied memory of his absent mother.

Will sees himself as a deformed monster. Clarice sees herself as a manufactured Other. Hannibal is inside both their heads.

The Devil Likes Him Some Cornpone Country Pussy.

The third book is titled Hannibal because Hannibal is its protagonist, even if for the bulk of it we follow Clarice. I had read an Amazon review back in 2008 or so, where someone accused it of being "clearly ghostwritten" because of its shift in narrative voice, yet this is wishful thinking. Its told from the detached, birds-eye view of a hyper-lucid Luciferian madman who is accounting for and manipulating all variables, luring all the extant players into his web of associations to claim his final prize.

I enjoy Ridley Scott's film version, for it's a Ridley Scott film. He has a well-studied classicism, but also a very down-to-earth ruggedness which fits the material perfectly. Most of his excisions are sensible, considering the running time. (Margot being even more politically volatile in the early 2000's when the backlash to Buffalo Bill seemed to be the trans representation issue... none, it would seem, being better than something easy to caricature by the heterosexual masses.) I recall a comment Scott made about thinking Hannibal was "turned-on" by Clarice's sense of Justice, and it being immediately clear this was his own fetish, not necessarily something implied by the text. (Picture now, Scott and James Cameron Bro-ing out about how he leveled up Ellen Ripley.)

Julianne Moore is a great replacement for Foster, being now an older, more jaded woman. The film is so deliberate, I appreciate how it inverts its literary counterpart's Satanic ending moreso than say -- the earlier un-alluded to Purple Noon, where Tom Ripley is brought to justice as if entangled in the umbilical thread of fate. Rather than Clarice being seduced by Hannibal, Hannibal is seduced by Clarice, chopping off his own hand much like a chastised young Tyr to a She-wolf Fenrir.

Bryan Fuller's treatment of the novelistic material here is close to about the only point in the series I'd call vacuous and self-indulgent.

It feels like he's subverting the pacing for the sake of being contrarian rather than giving his story room to breathe. Maybe it's because I like Scott's Hannibal so much, Fuller's treatment of the same scenes and characters feels like a pale imitation, of both its literary source and its filmic predecessor, yet I feel intuitively I may have been overwhelmed or alienated by the void of heartbreak, my rational faculties rebelling against what seems to be implications of a telepathic reality. I suspect those episodes will always be a mixed bag, being both too slow and too fast, largely for how behind-the-scenes tensions introduced conflicts into the pacing. Now understanding that his Will is replacing Clarice, and Clarice can only become the Bride of Satan by mutual recognition, I find Will's need to dive into Hannibal's past necessary, though by this point, the characters had largely outgrown whatever sources may have inspired them, and even if the second half of season 3 is more even, it feels constrained by the skeleton of its intended adaptation.

The Silence of the Lambs has been adapted to film precisely once, and it captures the essence of the novel almost well-enough to render it redundant. There's near nothing missing. What's cut is stitched back together with a surgical elegance befitting a master cosmetician.

The film is so sleek and streamlined, its makes corresponding sections of the novel seem clunky and bloated. When I remember the events of the story, I confess, I tend to remember the film better than the book, the way William Faulkner remembered his own evolving private daydreams of Candace Compson moreso than whatever it was he'd published in The Sound and the Fury -- "If you'll excuse me, I'm having an old friend for dinner." (Lecter's chemistry-based shit joke about Chilton is an absolute riot, though. Terrible it couldn't make it in.)

Anthony Hopkin's Lecter would never have become as iconic as he is without Jodi Foster's Clarice. As an adaptation, it's a masterpiece precisely because its a collaboration. Everyone on-screen is embodying a particular flavor of unspoken obsession, and everyone behind the camera is capturing it with an almost documentary realism, the same way Harris's prose has a journalistic objectivity, even when he's touring the fetid landscapes of his own inner hell. It works so well because there's no sole author to be burdened by the weight of the material. Its dispersed throughout the entire cast and crew and everyone is there for each other.

Furthermore, the story is inherently cinematic in a way Red Dragon simply isn't. Clarice is a plucky young professional woman looking to make it in a man's world, while Will Graham is retreating into early retirement for the duress the work is inflicting upon his tattered mind.

Will's isolation is chosen. Clarice's is imposed from without. We see her running the obstacle course alone. We see how male law enforcement officers look at her on the job. We see how even her own superiors need to play mindgames and switcheroos and put her at a disadvantage.

She has to play quid-pro-quo with Hannibal. She has to open up. She has to share. Will knows what Hannibal is because he's like him in a way she isn't. He can't be seduced by him. His pain is too constant, the threat too real. The literary Will lacks a certain feminine charm, which Mads's Hannibal is well-acquainted with, already seeming to have found some part of Mischa again in his friend and protégé, the gender-swapped Alana Bloom, who is also surrogate sister to Will, making them brothers.

In contrast, the novel Red Dragon is about highly introspective men being alone with themselves and thinking intense thoughts. The portraits of Will and Dolarhyde's psyches are two interlocked soliloquies which brutally clash like gongs by the conclusion. The literary Will, Dolarhyde and Hannibal are all playing the same game of cat and mouse from a distance, each alone with themselves. Hugh Dancy's Will is not only made more cinematic, but also incidentally charmingly feminine by having his monologues cut up into dialogue, as he's forced to physically converse with Hannibal, who in this version he's meeting for the first time.

The visual emphasis is also why it's so easy to reduce the filmic Buffalo Bill to a gay monster. The ways in which they function as a dark mirror to Clarice are not as obvious when you lose their interiority. When you simply present their sensual butterfly dance while the fat girl (Hollywood fat, of course) screams for help in the pain well, they become a blank screen for the audience to project their own fears of seeing or being an Other, but in a public place -- surrounded by people similarly disgusted, each a participant in the ultimate pretension of normality.

What makes the novel of The Silence of the Lambs unique is how its unmistakably a sequel to Red Dragon. The film version of Silence of the Lambs exists in relation to nothing but itself. Thomas Harris is repeating his previous work's structure, now with different characters.

It's much easier to get Clarice's interiority on-screen when you have Jodi Foster's eyes and voice to work with, and in the book she retains Will's quality of brooding intensity, but with an awareness of how what she says aloud supports and contradicts her interior monologue, which is naturally contrasted with Bill's. You can see the Clarice/Bill entanglement as a logical repeat of the Will/Dolarhyde one, and with this absent, the filmic emphasis shifts to Clarice's darkly subdued romance with Hannibal, which similarly becomes the emphasis in Bryan Fuller's television version, but with the focus of his meet-cute being Will.

That Silence of the Lambs should be such a crowd-pleaser is no surprise. It's the only entry in the original trilogy which has a happy ending which falls within the dictates of the common tribal morality. The killer is caught. The woman is saved. Clarice is redeemed and graduates on-time. Her professional surrogate father is proud of her. Hannibal escapes. An element of danger remains. A sequel promised. It doesn't ask us to dramatically re-shift our focus or reconsider all we know.

A rare act two high note.

The Devil is in the Details, and details are the domain of long-term prose.

Reading is itself a solitary and introspective activity. That is, unless one is reading scripture. That a man should realize the degree to which he is like a Devil Himself, or how that same Devil He Is could be the sole True Want of just and upright professional woman, for the so-called "Good Men" who uphold the law fear and revile her, isn't the type of thing you'd want to share communally with loved ones, unless you're willing to take on the responsibility of hurting them in the way they need to be hurt.

[myfavouritemovies9]

“This is Berk”

In today’s blog, I'm going to be talking about the first animated movie to make my list. One of fantasy, adventure, action and Dragons. Yes, that movie is How to Train Your Dragon, one of my favourite animated movies and even trilogies that I've ever seen. Although this is starting to repeat itself in my blogs, the music in movies or cinematic pieces can change a movie from good to great just like that. John Powell did nothing short of an excellent job with the music in this movie. His choice of tone and instrument helps to convey the ever-changing emotion in these movies, again an iconic playlist in movies today.

Although music plays a greatly important role, it's not the only thing that makes this a great movie, The cinematography and scenery are another reason for my love for these movies. Something better about this trilogy rather than other movies is the element of flying. That element alone makes for some of the greatest and most ascetic scenes in animated movies as a whole. The beauty of this film is something that brings me back to it and is what keeps it up on the list.

However, the element of flying helps in more than just the cinematography, it helps in the action as well. With dragons comes crazy cool action, we see many perfectly choreographed dragon fights over the trilogy, which is only possible due to the aspect of animation.

Even so, there is one more reason for the fact that this trilogy makes my top ten. One greater than the element of action music or anything else mentioned. It's the fact that anyone can picture themselves training their dragon. It builds off the element of fantasy, where anyone can place themselves in that story or imagine a world where it is true. This was the feeling I had watching it for the first time, and the feeling that for me makes a movie a great movie.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Is It Really That Bad?

I feel this film needs absolutely no introduction.

Look, I get it. You’ve seen everyone and their mother talk trash about this movie since it dropped in 1999. You’ve seen every single show in the universe take cracks at this film, you’ve seen all the parodies and mockery of it in movies, you may have even seen that  movie Fanboys. Maybe you’ve even watched some massive YouTube review of the movie. The point is, this movie has been done to death.

But this series is about covering poorly received and infamous movies to see if their reputation is deserved, and I’d be remiss to ignore this film. And hey, these days the film has gotten something of a reappraisal by younger generations and older fans alike! After 20 years of scorn, a combination of the poorly received episodes VIII and IX, other works like The Clone Wars building off of and fleshing out the themes, Lego making really fun levels based off this movie for its Star Wars games, and Weird Al dropping one of the best songs of his career based entirely around recapping this film, a lot of people have come around to saying they unironically like this film. Even as early as 2008, the film made it on to Empire magazine’s list of the 500 greatest films of all time, scoring higher than Tim Burton’s Batman, Unbreakable, Full Metal Jacket, Halloween, The Crow, and Enter The Dragon (not by a huge margin though since it only got to 449). So there’s something there to love, right?

Well, let’s find out as I ask the question everyone else has already asked a million times before: Is The Phantom Menace really that bad?

THE GOOD

Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way: The action and John Williams’ score.

The prequel trilogy really shines in how absolutely bonkers it makes lightsaber battles. Sure, one could argue the original trilogy made them more realistic, like actual swordfights… But I don’t want realism in this series about magical alien samurai monks using telekinesis and fighting armies of clones and robots. I want to see someone do a million backflips and then slice a dude in half with their laser sword. This film delivers heartily on that front, especially in the epic final duel between Maul, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan.

Speaking of which, Darth Maul is a highlight of this film despite barely doing or saying anything. A lot of it is his striking visual design, which is actually toned down from the original concepts. It makes him look cool, creepy, and mysterious, always a good look for any Star Wars character. Ray Park doesn’t get to show off Maul’s dialogue much, but he certainly shows off his battle prowess with a bunch of sick flips and the iconic dual-bladed lightsaber. This appearance here served as an excellent foundation for the guy, because The Clone Wars would take him from an iconic but underutilized character to perhaps one of the greatest villains in the series.

And then the score. Oh lord, the score! Has Williams ever missed, even once? This movie has some really fantastic music, stuff like the celebration music at the end of the film, but it’s quite obvious that the standout is “Duel of the Fates,” one of the best pieces of music in any Star Wars film.

A lot of the characters introduced here are pretty fun and great additions to the universe. Natalie Portman is actually pretty solid as Padme; Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon is just such an aggro dick it’s hard not to love him and his underhanded ways; Boss Nass is an amusing yet underutilized gungan played by BRIAN BLESSED of all people, once more adding his trademark ham to a campy sci-fi movie inspired by Flash Gordon; Mace Windu drops in for a brief appearance to set him up for better ones down the road; and that Chancellor Palpatine guy is really cool, I hope we get to see more of him!

Then we have the pod race which, while a bit overly long, is a lot of fun and features some crazy vehicular madness, and there’s the practical effects, the creative design of the aliens and monsters, and there’s the practical effects and costumes mixed together with the CGI.... When this movie is fun, it’s a lot of fun, and when this movie is putting in the effort by god is it putting in the effort.

Oh yeah, and E.T.’s species has a cameo. No wonder he seemed to recognize Yoda in his movie.

THE BAD

Have you guys ever wanted a cool laser sword sci-fi epic to be constantly interrupted by long, boring scenes of trade negotiations, council meetings, and bureaucracy? Well boy oh boy will you love this film! There are so many stupid, dull, tedious scenes where characters are just talking about this boring trade embargo plotline, one that can’t even be ignored because it’s driving the whole plot. And sure, it leads to some really cool action scenes, but you’ve gotta sit through boring galactic council political bullshit to get to them.

This film is also the one that establishes the Jedi as a bunch of out of touch assholes. Every scene with the Jedi council (and especially if you have to look at the weird ugly Yoda puppet this film gave us before it was mercifully replaced with CGI) has the Jedi acting as a bunch of obstructive assholes who seem to go out of their way to be dicks to a literal child. Add onto this that this film reveals the Jedi essentially train kids to be child soldiers, yeah, no, maybe these guys did deserve Order 66 after all.

There is the writing, but it���s really not too strange for Star Wars to have clunky writing. The issue here is said writing is in service to really banal plots, and when the movie is getting good dialogue is usually not the thing making the scenes good. These things here may not seem like a lot when it comes to problems especially when I was praising this film so much, but the few problems are spread far and wide across this two hour movie.

THE UGLY

As you may have noticed, I didn’t mention two of the film’s most hated aspects above: Jar Jar and Anakin. There is a good reason for that.

Literally every mean thing you can imagine has already been lobbed at Ahmed Best and Jake Lloyd, and quite frankly I’m not keen on contributing to that. Anything negative I could say has already been said, and at this point it doesn’t even matter. Jake Lloyd was bullied over his performance to the point where he hated the franchise for years, and Ahmed Best nearly killed himself over the sheer blistering hatred Jar Jar received. Do I think Jar Jar is funny? Do I think Lloyd was a good actor? Does it even fucking matter at all when people harassed them to such lengths that it traumatized them?

I’ll be honest: I’m not a huge fan of Jar Jar’s antics. But they really aren’t the worst thing in this movie, and he’s not even remotely the most annoying Star Wars character. We now have people like Hux, the Knights of Ren, Snoke, Clone Palpatine, Holdo… The sequel trilogy was a buffet of characters that are infinitely worse than Jar Jar. And as is often the case, The Clone Wars went a long way towards making him a good character.

As for Lloyd, he was an actual fucking child. He was being directed by an absolute dork who wrote the goofiest dialogue imaginable for him, was there ever even a chance? A “bad” child performance is never the fault of a child, I feel; it’s the fault of a director who doesn’t bother to guide them. I’m a George Lucas apologist most of the time, but he absolutely let Lloyd down here.

Oh, and I guess I should address the other element in the room: Watto.

This guy has often come under fire as a huge negative Jewish caricature. I… don’t necessarily see it. Upon rewatching I was expecting something on the lines of the goblins in Harry Potter, but I don’t know. I think a lot of it comes from mishearing his accent; if you listen to it, he actually has some sort of weird, vague Italian accent as opposed to that stereotypical old Jewish man voice. I guess if anything, Watto is a negative stereotype of Italians, though he is far less of a hate crime than casting Chris Pratt as Mario.

...Okay, and one more thing: Midichlorians. People have this weird idea that they cause the force. The movie literally states their presence is just an indication of a proclivity towards the force. It’s basically the Star Wars version of Pokerus. This was such a stupid thing for people to get mad about, but 90% of the hate for this film is just getting mad at stupid things anyway.

IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?

The answer to this question was always going to be pretty obvious: No. Absolutely not. The sheer vitriolic backlash to this film was built off the bizarre emotional attachment adults in the 90s had to a campy sci-fi series from the 70s and 80s; the toxicity of the fandom meant there was never any doubt that upon revisiting this film I’d find the hatred overblown. And really, we’ve had over twenty years of other Star Wars stories now, a lot of them building off the foundation this laid to give us great stories in their own rights. As I mentioned above, Darth Maul, this film’s awesome yet underutilized villain, has gone on to become one of the franchise’s most iconic characters thanks to The Clone Wars. There are great ideas here in this film, but it took other people to polish them and make them shine.

The real question is, even if the backlash is overblown… is the film actually good at all? And that’s a complicated question. This film has a lot of serious, glaring flaws, but at its heart it’s still the fun, campy sci-fi series we all know and love. When this film gets good, it gets really good, but when it’s bad it’s downright boring and even a little cringey. But being a bit cringey is just an important building block of Star Wars, so in my eyes, it gets a pass in that regard.

For my part, I like it. It is far, far away from my favorite Star Wars film, but I like it more than two of the sequel trilogy at least. I think whether anyone else likes it really boils down to how much corny, campy dialogue and boring bureaucratic drama one is able to tolerate. Regardless, I think that 6.5 is a perfect score for this film. It definitely reflects the mellowing public opinion towards it, and shows that it’s not really that bad after all. It’s just not exactly great, either.

But hey… This song more than justifies this movie existing:

If nothing else, you can watch this instead of the movie for your Machete Order marathon and all you’ll miss is some great action and music mixed into boring bureaucracy. Whether that’s worth it or not is up to you!

[lordeasriel]

Getting to know you meme!

I was tagged by @jamlavender thank you very much!!!

Favourite time of the year: Spring-Summer, which is Brasil is essentially the same thing except spring is windy af. I like rainy days as much as the next person, but nothing beats a sunny, windy day!

Comfort foods: Pastel, which is a kind of deep fried pastry with different fillings (my fav is chicken and cheddar!) and Panettone, cause I’m a Christmas baby!

Do you collect anything: I don’t think I do. Maybe different pens? It’s not deliberate tho.

Favourite drinks: Orange juice, sprite and a good old caipirinha, which is a Brazilian cocktail featuring lime (usually, cause lemon is expensive here), sugar and cachaça(tm).

Favorite music artists: I shift a lot between artists, especially when they release new music, changing the vibes I met them by, but I currently really enjoy Jonathan Bree, Tom Rosenthal and CMAT. They’re very unique to their styles and I enjoy their music very much. I also really enjoy peremotka (hopefully that’s how it’s written in roman alphabet!) Their post punk vibes are smashing!

Current favourite songs: No Face by Haley Heynderickx, I Like it When You’re Gone by Tom Rosenthal, Valentine by Jonathan Bree, Peter Bogdanovich by CMAT

Favourite fics: I haven’t been reading a lot of fics recently, but I have some all time favorites to recommed!

Safe as Houses (Vera Claythorne/Philip Lombard): very good, very smutty, very sad;

Bird of Passage: The Book of Dust centric, this follows spy business from Oakley Street during TSC. I wholeheartedly recommend it if you want more to dive into Lyra’s world!

Lyra’s Uncle: some good old AU, giving Asriel a little brother and making it all very sad. Sami writes a lot of good stuff, but this is my favorite piece of hers.

Applied Heresy (Marisa/Asriel): Honestly, I love this fic to bits, I have it downloaded on my kindle and phone. It is the best Masriel experience pre-show you’ll get. The writer also delves deep into Lyra’s world pre-TBOD, but she makes it seems so believable and it’s good old worldbuilding! If you haven’t read this yet and you’re in the HDM fandom, what are you doing????

Favourite video games: I’m a massive Bioware fan, so my favorite games feature nearly everything they’ve ever done. I lovethe Mass Effect trilogy (especially the 3rd one, sorry lol) and I love Dragon Age and I have a devotion to Star Wars: The Old Republic! Been playing it strong for 8 years and I love it pieces. That is excellent Star Wars, Disney don’t interact please lol

I’ll tag @queenofnabooty @cozcat @moustache-bonnet (please feel no pressure to do this, bye)

[jessjustplay]

Ranked: 11 Video Games I Finished in 2022 (New Games Only)

December 19, 2022

I got back into gaming this year and I finished 11 new-to-me games! I'm going to rank them from my least favorite to most favorite. "Finished" means I completed the main story line/main quest.

Note: I'm only including the NEW-TO-ME games that I played and finished for the very first time. In 2022, I also finished Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, and Princess Maker 2. I've loved those games for many years and including them would throw off the results.

#11 - Cat Quest (PC)

I really enjoyed this game. Cat Quest is a cute, colorful, cat-centric action-RPG game. I think it had the weakest story of the total list, which is why it gets ranked last. [Click here to read Game Archive]

#10 - Carto (PC)

Carto was a very fun puzzle adventure game with beautiful watercolor graphics. Some of the puzzles were easy, others were more difficult. I enjoyed the seasonal and geographical changes in each area, and I think the story was simple but strong! [Click here to read Game Archive]

#9 - Final Fantasy I (PS1 Classic on PS Vita)

This is a simple, to-the-point RPG adventure and I loved that about it. You always knew what to do next because the NPCs were helpful. Truly a classic and I had a great time! [Click here to read Game Archive]

#8 - Final Fantasy II (PS1 Classic on PS Vita)

The "Town" theme from this game is one of the most beautiful songs in the entire FF franchise. I have nightmares of the last dungeons but it was still very fun and beating the final boss was one of the best moments of 2022! [Click here to read Game Archive]

#7 - Final Fantasy VII (Switch)

The music in this? Fantastic. I am glad I got to experience this beloved game. While not my favorite, it was truly an adventure! Having seen the remake, it's amazing to go back to the OG roots and see how far video gaming has developed over the years. [Click here to read Game Archive]

#6 - Princess Maker 3 (Switch)

I loved Princess Maker 2 when I was a kid. This is the first time I ever played Princess Maker 3 and while it definitely had a learning curve, when I got the hang of it, I had so much fun! [Click here to read the Game Archives]

#5 - Dragon Caffi (Switch)

This was a random purchase, but definitely a great purchase! I didn't know what I was getting into, but it's the cutest adventure. This game is FULL of adorable art - the backgrounds, the characters, and the FOOD! I loved it and can't wait to replay it. [Click here to read Game Archive]

#4 - Nancy Drew Dossier: Lights, Camera, Curses! (PC)

I haven't played a Nancy Drew mystery game in YEARS, so this one was extremely fun and also sentimental. I thought the gameplay mechanics were easy and enjoyable. The mystery was also intriguing! [Click here to read Game Archive]

#3 - Final Fantasy VIII (Remastered, Switch)

This is such a special game. I really like Squall and I enjoyed seeing him open up and develop as a character. The music is wonderful, and there's just an aura to this game that is indescribable. As cheesy as it sounds, it's magical. (Literally?) [Click here to read Game Archive]

#2 - Star Ocean First Departure R (Switch)

Ahh, my first Star Ocean game... and what a game it was. I loved the pixel art in this game. The battle system was so much fun, and the voice acting was excellent. I was always excited to jump on the Switch to play more of this. That's when you know it's a good one! [Click here to read Game Archive]

#1 - Final Fantasy XIII (PC)

Oh gosh - this game. This game is epic. This game is amazing. The storytelling??? PHENOMENAL. You see so many sides to the same story, each character filling you in just a bit more. It's fantastic. And Lightning? Absolutely amazing!! This game is everything! I can't wait to play the other games in the trilogy! [Click here to read Game Archive]

[garxite]

Best DreamWorks Movie/Trilogy

How to Train your Dragon, a movie that was released in 2010. It was a story that takes place in the world of vikings in constant battle with Dragons. It revolves around Hiccup, a scrawny viking that’s not taken seriously by others on the Isle of Berk, who befriends a dragon after shooting him down, Toothless. There's a lot of good animated movies out there, but this movie is one of the best I have seen. The franchise itself is one of the best animated film trilogy released by Dreamworks. From the story to the soundtrack itself, it's a film that many can enjoy. The story itself was the kind of story you wouldn’t typically see too often, but nowadays it's a plot line that many movies follow. The story follows the journey of Hiccup befriending Toothless and being the first Viking to ever train a Dragon. All the characters in the story are well thought out, there's not a single forgettable character, most of the characters introduced that become a part of the main story, stick around and all have their moments throughout the trilogy. The relationship that Hiccup has with his father throughout the first film Stoick the Vast, was rough with his being the chief of the village, Hiccup had to live up to all these expectations. Killing dragons was the most important thing to his father, but that was the one thing Hiccup couldn’t do. Throughout the film you can see how the relationship between Hiccup and all the other characters improve, especially with his father. The soundtrack does an amazing job at telling the story, John Powell did an excellent job with the soundtrack. When listening to the soundtrack on its own, all the music played throughout the movie can all be heard in the very first track “This is Berk”, it's almost a preview at what the whole movie is like. Throughout the film, you can hear Hiccup's theme at the beginning of the movie. When Hiccup first encounters you can hear Toothless theme play. Throughout all the tracks, you can hear their themes play during the movie all in different variations, but the same melody. During their first official test flight throughout that scene you hear their themes play individually, as they’re still trying to get the hang of flying as one, you can hear a sudden dramatic change in the tone when Hiccup loses the instructions. They end up working as one, without the cheat sheet he uses and that's when their themes play in unison, and in the scene they’re flying as one without a struggle. It’s one of the best scenes in the first film. Overall the movie in general is one of the best animated films I have seen. Having one of the best soundtracks and storylines that I’ve seen. A well fleshed out story with characters that all stand out individually all leaving an impression on the audience.

[offbeatmusicuk]

Albums Of 2022: 50-26

Welcome to another year, another countdown. My music listening time has shrunk once again, but there’s still plenty of great releases that have got multiple listens.

I’ve noticed a trend that releases are getting shorter, and people are still calling them albums when they are an EP or mini-album. So my criteria is this. If it is 9 or more tracks, it is an album. If it is 8 tracks or less and 30 mins or longer, it is an album. Any less than that, it is an EP or a mini-album and not eligible for this list.

Honourable mentions to some artists whose albums very nearly made the list but just missed out: 

Eye Of Melian, Andy Gardner of Plump DJs, The Birthday Massacre, Chase & Status, Let’s Eat Grandma, Mall Grab, xPropaganda, Riya Sawayama, Yumi & The Weather, HALIENE, The Hunna, White Lung, Witch Fever, Taylor Swift, Arcade Fire, The Anix and Röyksopp with the second volume of their “Profound Mysteries” trilogy.

Let the countdown begin.

50.

The Barnum Meserve "Designs"

3rd album of cinematic alt-rock from the Nottingham band, mellow songs building to string laden crescendos.

49.

Nova Twins "Supernova"

The self described 'Urban punk' duo, of whom Tom Morello is a big fan, deliver their 2nd album, and it's a blend of punk, hip-hop and electronics mixed up to deliver a huge amount of energy.

48.

Volturian "Red Dragon"

The Italians deliver another album of symphonic, melodic and easily accessible metal. Though there are other genres too, "Torn Asunder", for example, is completely electronic, inspired by trance and house.

47.

Tinlicker "In Another Lifetime"

A blend of deep house, progressive house and trance, on the 2nd album from the Utrecht based duo, which is hypnotic and a times beautiful.

46.

Bis "Systems Music For Home Defence"

The Glasgow indie-popsters return, with cheeky lyrics, catchy hooks and danceable beats. It's not quite up to their "Social Dancing" - "Return To Central" peak, but it's a big improvement on everything else released since then.

45.

Confidence Man "Tilt"

90s dance influenced pop bangers are the order of the day here, with tongue firmly in cheek but with a clear love for the era and the tunes from it. As a comment on one of their videos on YouTube (written by an Andy Brennan) put it "They ride that line between sincerity and parody SO WELL".

44.

Silversun Pickups "Physical Thrills"

6th album from the LA alt-rockers. Always reliably good, this might be a more varied and inventive collection than normal, and it works a treat.

43.

Sick Joy "We're All Gonna F***ing Die"

I like the band's own bio... "Cutting together malign heaviness with acidic melody then tying into place with the reigns of contagious pop." It's a good description, for this band that mix a bit of grunge, a bit of punk and a whole lot of hooks, that wouldn't have felt entirely out of place in the 90s, without being a retro throwback.

42.

Ciaran McAuley "Permission To Exhale"

Debut album from this rising star of the trance scene. The first half is a bit more mellow, seemingly taking inspiration from Solarstone's pure trance sound, the second half a bit more euphoric and club leaning (but only slightly). A few excellent guest vocalists on here too, such as Audrey Gallagher and Lisa Gerrard.

41.

Fonzerelli "Silent Dreams & Misguided Stories"

Lovely mid-tempo trance and house (and a splash of breaks), beautiful synths and pianos and some great guest vocals.

40.

Bloods "Together, Baby!"

3rd album from Sydney's Bloods who are on fine form with their punk-pop-meets-riot-grrrl tunes. Big melodies, bouncy riffy fun.

39.

Cold Kingdom "Life // Love"

Powerful, big chorused hard rock from the Minneapolis band. Fans of strong female vocals mixed with big riffs should check them out.

38.

Daxson "Face The Future"

Trance producer and DJ Dan Dobson releases his debut artist album. And it suffers from the same thing a lot of modern trance artist albums suffer from... too many tracks which are consequently too short (in order to fit them on the equivalent of a single CD). This means the tracks don't get to breathe, and some just get lost while you are listening. But regardless, there is some quality uplifting trance on here, so it's well worth an effort.

37.

Röyksopp "Profound Mysteries III"

Their third album release of the year and the final part of their Profound Mysteries trilogy, they finish the project strong. Some cracking tunes on here.

36.

Pale Waves "Unwanted"

Starting off as a goth-synth-indie-pop-rock band (is that a thing?), they changed their sound for album 2 and became an average Avril Lavigne soundalike. Tweaking that slightly here for album 3, they are now a very good Avril Lavigne soundalike. Songs filled with big choruses, singalong hooks, some joyous, some heartfelt, every track worth your time.

35.

Kasabian "The Alchemist's Euphoria"

Kasabian's first album with Serge Pizzorno stepping up to the frontman role, and it is an interesting beast. He does a good job as vocalist, and musically the album has influences of rock, hip-hop, dance, even Pink Floyd-esque moments.

34.

Bush "The Art Of Survival"

Only Gavin Rossdale remains from the original line up, but the rebooted Bush has been putting out passable albums since 2011. Their last album, 2020's 'The Kingdom' was suprisingly good, and this one is even better. Full of big choruses and chunky riffs, and though it doesn't sound exactly like 90s Bush, it feels like listening to Bush of the old days.

33.

The Crystal Method "The Trip Out"

Kicking off with an electro-rock stomper, you'd wonder if TCM have radically changed direction, but don't worry, there are plenty of breakbeat and electro stompers with various guest vocalists on this short but varied album.

32.

Muse "Will Of The People"

Ah, Muse. I loved Muse. 4 brilliant albums, one of the best live bands on the planet... then it started going a bit pear-shaped. Yes, there was still the occasional great song, but they started veering into either being too bland, or far too theatrical Queen pastiche. And then came the entirely misjudged 'Simulation Theory', essentially an electro pop album, still with the Queen influences. It was lacking in punch, credibility and tunes. So, while flawed, 'Will Of The People' is a very pleasant surprise. Yes, it still contains some strong glam rock and Queen influences, giving it a sense of spoof, but it also has some of the best songs they've done in years. 'Won't Stand Down' and 'Kill Or Be Killed' are monsters that will go down very well live, 'Ghosts' and 'Verona' are actually rather pretty, overall it's the strongest Muse album since 'Black Holes & Revelations', so there's some hope for another classic yet.

31.

Mass Sky Raid "Calm In Chaos"

Epic, melodic alt-rock from this Aussie band. Rock enough to not be middle of the road, mellow and radio friendly enough to be huge if given the right exposure.

30.

Blood Command "Praise Armageddonism"

Blood Command's 4th album and first with vocalist Nikki Brumen. There are less electronic influences this time round, but still huge energy, chunky riffs, powerhouse drumming, screams and almost poppy melodic hooks.

29.

Charlotte Wessels "Tales From Six Feet Under Vol. II"

The former Delain singer continues her solo career, full of all sorts of styles, from the symphonic metal she's known for, to rock to art-pop. This collection might not be quite as strong as Vol 1, but it still further proves we have a very special artist here.

28.

Subjective "The Start Of No Regret"

Goldie & James Davidson bring us their 2nd Subjective album, and it's a winner. Beats that range from drum & bass to trip hop via breakbeat and house, deep bass and soulful vocals, it's a fabulous listen and is arguably Goldie's best album output since 'Timeless'.

27.

Avril Lavigne "Love Sux"

Avril goes pop-punk for her best album in over a decade. Punchy, upbeat, and catchy as hell. I don't know whether it would necessarily win any pop-punk fans over if they weren't Avril fans to begin with, but it should work a treat on people like me who were Avril fans but were unimpressed by the last couple of albums.

26.

Giuseppe Ottaviani "Horizons (Part 1)"

The trance legend releases a 2 part (well, 3 if you count the remixes) album for 2022, and this first part is full of lush, mid-tempo trance that mixes in elements of deep house and almost Jean-Michel Jarre like synths. It's warm, it's uplifting, you could certainly dance to it but it also feels perfect for chilling to on the beach or by a pool on a sunny day.

--------------------------------------------------

For the first time, Tumblr didn't allow me to add everything I wanted to to a single post (by refusing to save my changes) so this year's list is split in two.

Part 2 (numbers 25-1) including links to Spotify and YouTube playlists for the Top 50 is here:

[tildeathiwillwrite]

*cracks knuckles* Okay, here goes!

S Tier:

Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. In a world of ash and smoke, a teen girl with special abilities is recruited into a crew looking to defeat an immortal tyrant. The magic system includes but is not limited to eating metal and gaining abilities such as influencing others' emotions, heightening senses and controlling metal. The sequel quartet The Wax and Wayne Series takes place 300 years later and is also amazing. This is written by the same guy who finished the Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan passed away.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones. A young hatmaker is cursed to look like an old woman and seeks out a powerful wizard, proceeds to bully his fire demon and aggressively clean his magical castle. It's two spin-offs are decent too, and the adaption by Studio Ghibli is good but not exactly faithful.

A Tier:

Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo. A group of teenage thieves consisting of an assassin who prays for her victims, a gambling sharpshooter, a girl who can make a person's heart explode in their chest, an ex-witch hunter, an inexperienced chemist, and a ruthless lockpick are hired to rescue a scientist from an impenetrable fortress. Similar in vibe to Mistborn but Mistborn is better in my humble opinion.

The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. A king is assassinated by a man in white who can walk on walls, kickstarting a war with a crab-like people who are well-versed in music theory. The story revolves around a slave with depression, a scholar seeking to steal a device for her family, and the deceased king's brother plagued with visions from a dead deity. Only in A tier because it's not finished yet, with four out of ten books published so far.

Dragonlance by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. 300 years ago, a great cataclysm reshaped the world of Krynn. Now, an army of dragon lead by the Queen of Darkness seeks to rule the world. Only a group consisting of a half-elf who despised killing, a mischievous kender, a stubborn dwarf, a morally-questionable wizard, a skilled fighter (who is also the wizard's twin brother), an honorable knight, and a pair of exiled barbarians stand in the way of world domination. The main trilogy is excellent and there is no shortage of spin-offs and sequels.

B Tier:

The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. A man named Haplo and his dog traverse four realms in search of information about a magical race called the Sartan who trapped Haplo's people, the Patryns, in a deadly Labyrinth for a thousand years, destroyed the world and remade it into the four realms, then vanished into thin air. This 7-book series is not without its flaws but the worldbuilding and magic systems are fantastic!

Beyonders by Brandon Mull. Our main character, Jason, gets swallowed by a hippo. But instead of being digested, he finds himself in Lyrian, a fantasy world oppressed by an evil wizard known as Maldor. With the aid of Rachel, a girl also from Earth, a blind king, a depressed musician, and a strange man who can pull himself apart, Jason scours the world for a magical word that is said to destroy Maldor. Children's series but vastly underrated.

These are the recommendations I can think of off the top of my head, and the authors listed also have other fantasty books that aren't named here. The summaries are as accurate as I can get them without (hopefully) spoiling.

What is your tier list of fantasy books? I am looking to read more fantasy and I have currently started reading Wheel of Time.

[nirvanox182]

Hero from Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation.

Original Drawing Date: October 3 2022.

This is probably the most popular Dragon Quest Hero. I remember playing this game in 2020 due to COVID keeping me in luckup, I loved this game so much! I played the Erdrick Trilogy while I was stuck far from home in another country for about 5 months.

Thanks to all the spare time I had I finally took a deep dive into the Dragon Quest franchise, and I loved it! Dragon Quest III was amazing, the story was excellent and the music was astounding! I liked that you could choose the members of your party, that adds lots of replayability, saddly that meant they had no personality or story whatsoever. But the story from the Hero is good enough to carry the whole game.

To think that the success of Dragon Quest II in Japan prompted that the release of Dragon Quest III to stop everything in Japan, kids escaped from school to go and buy the game, that is amazing! And after Dragon Quest III released, they never released a Dragon Quest game in a weekday.

[jedidragonwarriorqueen]

2021 Year In Review

(stealing this format from a review I did for last year. It was a tag game I think but I’m too lazy to start that up. I say after writing all this out, haha.)

Top Five Films you watched in 2021:

Your Name, 2016 (the animation! The music! The angst! Ahhhhhhhh)

Dune, 2021 (absolutely stunning, cannot recommend enough, whether or not you’ve read the book)

Wolfwalkers, 2020 (I loved the first two films in the Irish Mythology trilogy and this one completely blew me away)

Black Widow, 2021 (found family, no romantic subplots which is practically unheard of, women kicking ass, and a canon ace character? Sign me tf up)

Weathering With You, 2019 (utterly adorable and I listened to The Great Escape afterwards on repeat for hours)

Top Five TV Shows in 2021:

The Dragon Prince (Yes, we’ve been on hiatus for like 2 years. No, I don’t care. I rewatched it enough times to count)

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (recommended by @starsinyourskyes in retaliation for getting her hooked on the Stormlight Archive. Well, it worked. I’m obsessed, and I am absolute Royai trash)

Derry Girls (recommend by @iwillhaveamoonbase and her plethora of Sister Michael gifs. I laughed, I cried, good times)

The Wheel of Time (Siuanraine for the WIN. Also we're getting Aviendha next season right? Right??)

Uhhhhhhhhhhh freespace lol

Top Five Songs/Albums in 2021:

The Best Is Yet To Come by Shepard

Sky Full Of Song by Florence and the Machine

Heaven Knows by Five for Fighting

War Paint by Fletcher

Paper Planes by Elina

Top Five Books of 2021:

Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson (deep breath) (incoherent screaming)

Educated by Tara Westover

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (so. Much. Fun)

Artemis by Andy Weir (A rec from @mountainsatellite ! Let Jazz Bashara have her own private bathroom 2k21)(it's funny bc it's set in the future)

Wintering by Katherine May

Top Five Fanfictions of 2021:

Homeward Bound by @numptypylon (The Dragon Prince, an ongoing slow-burn Rayllum modern AU. It’s got fluff, it’s got angst, it’s got hurt/comfort, it’s got Rayllum being dorks--the emotional bandwith is both deep and wide!!)

delicate by @lantur (FMA, a Riza Hawkeye character study spanning from pre-canon childhood to well post-canon. Plenty of Royai, naturally. Words cannot give justice to how good this fic is and how much I love it!)

snipers solve 99% of all problems by silentwalrus (okay so like. I’m not usually a crossover person but holyyyy frick frack this FMA/Harry Potter one is fun. Still ongoing and basically 80 chapters of Edward Elric bitching about wizards and saying fuck 3,000 times. I hadn’t laughed this hard since I read The Martian.)

Son of Thorns by @truthwatcher-vez (The Stormlight Archive; I’m admittedly wayyy behind on this one, but it’s a post-RoW fic centered on Renarin Kholin. He definitely deserves some time to shine after we were robbed of content for him in RoW 😤 The author’s Rlainarin series, Chasms Between, is also excellent!)

Controlled Burn by madelinescribbles @okiedoketm (FMA role reversal where Al & Ed are climbing the ranks of the military and Roy commits human transmutation, blinding himself and getting Riza stuck in a taxidermy hawk. Ongoing fic, the characterization is soooo on point despite the role reversal, and the plot is so intriguing!)

Five good/positive things that happened to you in 2021

Seeing friends again!! I got to go visit a good college friend I hadn't seen in years since we graduated, and another friend I'd only seen once since we graduated came to visit twice! (Why do all my friends live across the country?)

I wrote. So much. Fanfiction 🤣 Hit a major slump this fall when rising COVID cases in my area started to make work hellish again, but I'm starting to get back into it!

Started therapy for the first time back in May. Also recently started a new antidepressant, after a bad adverse reaction scared me off from them for a while. Still have a long ways to go, but I'm feeling much better, and I haven't had an anxiety attack at work since.

Realized I'm asexual! Which explains soooo much about my life 🤣 Still coming to terms with it in some respects, but simply knowing brings so much peace and pride in my identity.

I got a Tumblr in 2020 but this was the year I really started becoming active in a few fandoms and really connecting with people on here! It's been a blast, and I love freaking out about shared interests with you all💕

[floatingbook]

what books would you like to recommend to everyone?

Most of the time, when I read, I’m trying to escape, to divert myself from my worries and anxieties, not necessarily learn or grow as a person. So I’m not going to list books that solely gave me feminist insight or help me; even though I grew and learnt from the books listed below. Also, not every book is fit to any occasion; the books I gravitate towards are function of my mood; none of these books should be read as a chore. If they don’t inspire you, don’t even bother. Experiencing them as tedious would ruin them, would make the whole reading moot.

The Queen’s Thief serie, by Megan Whalen Turner, starting with The Thief. I picked it by chance and these are the very best books I have read in the past ten years. The author offers us various points of view on the history of three countries, their politics and their wars, showing masterfully how facts are distorted, how history becomes legend, how loyalty and respect are made. There are so many plots entwined, so many references littered through, that reading them once is not enough. You can only read them once for the first time though, so savour it, because hereafter you will know what happens, and finding out is its own delight. These are the books I read when I’m anxious, when I cannot sleep, when I’m tired; they are a comfort, they taste like home. They are familiar like old friends, non-judgmental, and always pleasurable for their careful, exact prose. I just cannot recommend them enough.

Poetry is like magic captured into words. I haven’t found a poem that didn’t leave me breathless if I’m paying attention. Learning poetry by heart is a hobby of mine; on walks I love to loop through the verses in my mind; adding music to my experience of nature. Mary Oliver’s whole body of work, The Wild Iris of Louise Glück, Les Fleurs du Mal de Baudelaire, the Ferrat’s sung versions of Aragon’s poems, the Lay of Aotrou and Itroun by Tolkien, Eavan Boland’s A Woman Without A Country all deserve a special mention.

Another great author is Christelle Dabos, who wrote four pavés about the adventures of Ophélie. I remember being a little disappointed by the conclusion, but the two first books are excellent.

I often go back to the books I loved as a kid, despite their flaws, which grow more glaring with every passing year, but these flaws can little in the face of childhood infatuation, so I doubt I’ll ever hate them at all. Pierre Bottero’s books, which informed so many of my forest adventures as girl, the Hunger Games trilogy, still stunning, the Tobie Lolness books, Hélène Montardre’s Oceania, Harry Potter in whatever language I’m reading it at the time.

In no special order, the following books can also be enjoyable: Sorcières de Mona Chollet, la trilogie QuanTika de Laurence Suhner, everything written by Simone de Beauvoir (but especially her autobiographical novels), Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden, Ainsi soit-elle de Benoîte Groult, Mémoires de fille d’Annie Ernaux, anything by Tolkien really (if you like dragons, swords and myth-making).

[josaprcat]

Just listing them off as I think of them while I write this post:

If you haven't given it a chance, Star Trek is a sci-fi classic for a reason, I'd suggest starting with either Next Generation or Deep Space 9 for most modern audiences though.

For Mystery, I'd suggest looking into Unfiction projects and/or ARGs, there's a channel on YouTube by the name of Night Mind that has excellent in-depth dives into specific projects and what the genre is in general. That's a great place to get started with it, but the basic idea is puzzles or lore presented as if entirely real. The defining trait is you don't tell the audience it's fiction. (So tw:unreality)

As for other categories, if you haven't watched She-ra (2016), Owl House, both Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, The Dragon Prince, Gravity Falls, or Bee and Puppycat, I'd suggest every last one as an excellent example of some form of animated storytelling. I can add more specific details of why each is good, but I'll safe it for if you ask to keep this post somewhat brief.

If you want something live action, I'd suggest Sandman (tw: gore/excessive blood, internalized homophobia, body horror, long-term imprisonment), Good Omens (tw: ... blasphemy ig?), The Lord of the Rings trilogy (but not the Hobbit), and the Umbrella Academy (tw: drug addiction, excessive blood, Homophobia, gaining PTSD) are all excellent in their own very cool ways. I would also highly suggest the LUCIDS series on YouTube by Nicholas Podany, which is like the matrix, a vlog series, and a therapy session thrown into a blender and then all produced and performed by one Juilliard-trained actor at the start of lockdown (with two voice, and one acting exception, out of about 20-30 total characters).

If you want a band to follow, I Don't Know How But They Found Me, and Lake Street Dive are both very good in my opinion, even though their vibes are just about opposite.

If you're looking for something more interactive, anything by Supergiant Games, the studio behind the recent hit Hades is excellent. Their games in order of release are Bastion (post-apocalyptic rebuilding beat-em-up), Transistor (Stained-glass-circuit-board cyberpunk strategy beat-em-up), Pyre (Fantasy Basketball to escape prison wastes), and of course Hades (Top-notch rougelike based on the son of Hades and Persephone).

If you're looking for something that inherently involves other people, D&D is always good. As is Blaseball, which is basically Fantasy Baseball betting with Eldritch Horrors coming on to the pitches every few games, with every player's not-stat-based lore being community-made.

If you're wanting to read more, but don't have any specific suggestions to pick up, the Simon Snow series by Rainbow Rowell, starting with book 1: Carry On, is very good, very gay, and is basically what if Harry Potter was written by an actually competent writer who isn't transphobic (or fatphobic, or racist, or anything else JK has been shitty about).

And finally, if you're looking for YouTubers, I would highly suggest Overly Sarcastic Productions (who do fascinating and sarcastic history and storytelling), Brian David Gilbert (Who does excellent skits and musical comedy), and PointCrow (who does gaming with ridiculously extreme and silly challenges).

Feel free to ask for more suggestions on any category or just in general! As well as asking for any more information on any specific suggestion. Hope one or more of these help!

I need a new fandom I need a new interest

[penpalslgbt]

Hi everyone! I'm Amanda, a 27 year old pansexual woman who lives in Texas. My pronouns are she/her. I'm mainly looking for platonic friendships but would also be open to something romantic, eventually, if the chemistry is there.

Since it takes a fair amount of time and effort to develop an actual friendship (50+ hours according to some “experts” 😮), I would ask that only people who are committed to putting in some effort respond to this. I'm looking for a friendship that can reach a point where we feel completely comfortable talking about anything and everything with one another and that is lasting.

Anyway, on to my interests! I love reading speculative fiction, especially fantasy. The Fifth Season is probably my favorite book of all time. I also read nonfiction pretty often and will pick up anything that sounds/looks remotely interesting. Other interests include video games, listening to music, and writing.

As for the types of games I'm into, I've always loved RPGs, with the Elder Scrolls and Dragon Age being a couple of my favorite series. I also like horror games a lot and have recently finished Silent Hill 2 and 3 for the first time. Both were excellent! I'll also play some casual stuff like The Sims , or random puzzle apps on my phone. Though I've listed quite a bit here, I'm not a huge gamer and probably only play just a few hours a week, when I have the time.

When it comes to music, I enjoy a fairly wide variety and am open to a lot of genres, but in general I like alternative rock best. It just depends on my mood though really. Some of my favorite bands/artists include: Placebo, Silversun Pickups, Muse, Mother Mother, Bjork, Perfume Genius, Kelela, among many others. Always looking for new artists to get obsessed with, so I'd love to exchange music recommendations! The same goes for books and games too. 

Oh, and I suppose I should mention my writing. I actually only recently finished the first draft of book 3 in a queer fantasy trilogy that I've been working on since 2016, so, yay! None of the books are published yet, but that's the dream I'm slowly working towards.

Aside from what I've already mentioned, I enjoy spoiling my cat  Shadow with affection, watching my favorite Youtubers, and cooking (I'm vegan btw). There's probably more but I've rambled long enough! Looking forward to chatting with anyone who might have found any of this interesting. 🙂

I'd kind of like to start with email, if that's okay. Maybe beginning with an email or two a week and see from there? This is all very new to me and I'm open to suggestions! You can reach me at pancakesnchill@gmail.com

September 5, 2021