#except maybe I LOVE LUMBERJANES

[themangledsans0508]

Jo is ____

Summary: Jo has to tell her cabinmates something important. Her cabinmates go through the three options they consider. It's none of the above.

Read on Ao3

“Why are we all in the cabin instead of outside hunting for some new adventure? I want to find some like buried wish-granting bass or something,” Mal complained. Molly placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Jo said she had something she wanted to tell us,” she explained.

“Maybe since we found out Diane’s a goddess, maybe Jo’s a goddess too! Maybe the goddess of science!” Ripley gleamed

“The patrons of science are actually the Muses, so maybe she’s a Muse,” Molly suggested.

“Weren’t the Muses also into like, music?”

“They’re patrons of art and science, so yeah.”

“Okay, we’re here! I had to coax Jo to come in, but she’s all in now,” April grinned broadly. Jo was sweating profusely and shaking.

“I’m not all in I’m backing out April I’m backing out.”

“Are you okay, Jo?” Ripley asked, bounding forward to grip Jo’s waist. Jo placed a tentative hand on her head. Mal and Molly stepped up behind her.

“We can help you if you’re in trouble, we’d fight an army of literally anything for you,” Mal stated confidently.

“Even an army of sea serpents?” Molly asked teasingly. Mal nodded.

“Come on, Jo. We all love you, they won’t care,” April reassured. Jo took a deep breath.

“Guys, I have to tell you something,” she said quietly.

“Are you a Muse?”

“A mythical being in disguise?”

“Are you and April dating?”

“That’s not at all what I wanted to talk to you about,” Jo said while April laughed. “Okay,” she breathed deeply “I’m trans.” The other three were silent for a split second.

“I don’t know what that means but I still love you!” Ripley shouted. Mal and Molly nodded.

“Ditto, except I know what it means. It doesn’t change a darn thing,” Mal smiled kindly. “You’re still a Lumberjane and still our best friend.”

“Were you scared we wouldn’t accept you?” Molly questioned. Jo nodded.

“April and I aren’t from the best town. There are some major jerks there. I was stupid to be worried I’m sorry,” She tripped over her words as she spoke quickly.

“Don’t apologise for your feelings, Jo! Mal, remember when I told you I liked girls?”

“Of course! It was already obvious since I had already kissed you a few times and that blush gave everything away girl.”

“Sometimes bad experiences haunt us, Jo. Come and affect us in everything. But that doesn’t mean everything happens in accordance with them, you know?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Group hug!” Ripley removed one hand and grabbed Mal’s flannel, who in turn grabbed the hem of Molly’s shirt. They hugged right in front of the door, which then opened and hit all of them.

“What the Harriett Tubman- Girls! What did you put in front of the door?”

“It’s us, Jen!” April called.

“Can you let me in? I need to grab my spare clipboard.”

“Shuffle back, ladies!” Mal ordered and the collective ten feet scraped against the floor and brought them out of the way. Jen walked in with a sigh.

“Okay, break is almost over, so don’t be late for your next activities. Where did I put the clipboard?”

“Jen, I’m trans.”

“Okay, that’s great. Did you five touch my clipboard?”

“Jen, are you listening?” April drew herself out of the clump and looked under Jen’s bed.

“Of course. Jo’s trans. I have a meeting in five minutes at Dartmoor cabin and that clipboard has what we need to talk about on it.”

“I don’t think she cares,” Molly whispered.

“Of course I care! You five are my girls, it just doesn’t change anything for me. You’re welcome in this cabin. And every other, if someone says you aren’t I will go straight to Rosie. Don’t let anyone ever make you feel bad for you, kiddo. Now please tell me where my clipboard is.”

“Oh, wait! I think it’s under my bed!”

“Of course it is, Ripley.”

“I told you, Jo,” April said, wrapped her arm around her at an awkward angle. “It wouldn’t matter to them.”

“Yeah, you did.”

[ohmykittenholy]

lumberjanes week day “three”: favorite brotp & otp (at once!!)

Uh so I lost my entire perception of time, as you do, so here’s my Diane and Molly brotp and Mally otp fic three hours after the day has ended.

Context is Molly and Diane have been getting pretty close (headcanons in other post basically apply) until Molly shows her her Greek Mythology fanfic and Diane makes fun of it a bit bc she has her own family and identity issues going on and Molly ends up really really internalizing it as she should be going to sleep, and Mal is on the bottom bunk trying to comfort her.

Trigger warning for self harm mention but no actual act, major anxiety/RSD and self hate, also it’s very very dark bc they’re in the woods so i talk about that a bunch

Sometimes Diane is an amazing friend. Sometimes Molly feels like her presence just lights her up, inside and out, her teasing and Molly’s awkward teasing back is a comfort when every word you say to everyone else is so calculated, so filtered, so...

Molly is tired of herself sometimes.

Tired that she thought she was strong enough for a new friendship like this, tired that it hurts so much after just a couple strings of words, maybe five, and a glance she keeps replaying and replaying and replaying in her head, she doesn’t want to be that girl.

This girl.

Whatever.

She’s tired that she thought she was made of the same light at the pantheon’s hearth, tired of her hopefulness that comes with daily archery practices at dawn and the zing and comfort of inside jokes and dizzyingly faster banter, almost indecipherable to anyone else. But then:

Icarus.

Wings.

She’s tired of having a heart that hurts this much, that stretches everything bad people say into painfully bright technicolor.

“Mol,”Mal asks softly, “you still up?”

“Y-yeah,” Molly whispers back. It’s pitch black in the Roanoke cabin, stars just barely peeking through the window and Molly automatically squints to find constellations, and then winces at the impulse and digs herself back into her sheet.

Luckily for them, everyone else sleeps deeply. Or pretends to, and hears Molly and Mal rambling to each other almost every night, and that’s a terrifying possibility Molly tries to block out.

She’s tired, and the other thoughts tangle incoherently in her head and it’s so much easier to focus on Mal’s voice.

“You didn’t talk much at dinner,” Mal says, like it’s a question, but it’s not.

Sometimes it hurts that she notices.

“Yeah no, um, not really.”

There’s a long, long, anxious pause.

“Can I come up there?” Mal asks, and Molly immediately feels the warmth of a blush on her cheeks.

“It’s- it’s really dark, I- you could hurt yourself trying to climb.”

“I thought you said I was brave, huh?”

It’s a joke, Molly knows it’s a joke, that Mal doesn’t mean it but...

“Mol. I would like to come up. If you’re comfy with it.”

“And I would like a girlfriend with all her limbs intact,”Molly says, her words gone wobbly, tears starting to catch in her eyelashes.

“Well I. Would like to comfort my girlfriend, and hopefully hold her hand, and that ladder is pretty stable and... this is not the first time we’ve done this, babe.”

“Okay,” Molly relents, heart twisting and twisting with the other girl’s words. She needs to stop being so sensitive, she needs to let this go, she needs-

There’s a Mal sounding creak on the other side of her bunk.

“Wow, yeah it really is dark out here,”Mal says quietly. “It’s never complete darkness in the city. You don’t think about that until you’re forced to, I guess. Spooky.”

“Comforting.”

“Sometimes, yeah.”

“You said hopefully we would...”

She’s too embarrassed to finish the rest.

“Oh. Yeah, hey, reach out your hand.”

Molly sits up and puts her hand in the void in front of her, feeling Mal’s wave around near it and then catching it and intertwining.

She thinks she’ll almost start crying again with how good it feels, but she just makes a little choked sound.

“Mol?”

“Do you ever wish you could take out your heart?” she says suddenly, their words interlapping.

“Molly,” Mal says back, her voice sounding so intently concerned it makes Molly curl up further in the dark.

“Not. It’s not about self harm. It’s a... metaphor. Do you wish you could... dial yourself back sometimes?”

“Yeah, me, of course. But never you.”

Molly doesn’t know how to begin with that, and the silence starts spooling around them again until Mal starts.

“Just... it’s like this. You still like me, right? Even though I don’t love the forest the way you do, and I’m always going to be terrified of the water and also a lot, a lot of other things, and even though I ramble to you constantly about bands you don’t care about.”

“I liked Beach Bunny!”

“Junk yeah! But, like you still-”

“It’s not even an “But I still like you.”” Molly interrupts, “I just like you. Those things are part of who you are.”

“Exactly,” Mal said, and Molly makes the sound of someone who had just walked into an obvious trap to make her feel better, and squeezes Mal’s hand.

“I’d never want you to take out your heart, Mol. I like you. So much, the whole person you are, and your feelings are so real and so valid. Someone who doesn’t understand that isn’t worth your time of day.”

“But it’s more complicated than that,” Molly starts and then stops, her point fuzzy with sleepiness.

“Sure. But it also sometimes it just isn’t.”

Molly squeezes her hand again.

“Thank you.”

“Anytime, you know?”

“Whyareyousogreat...”

“Huh?”

“Nothing, I just. I really like you.”

“I really like you too,”Mal says, and Molly can picture the smile sprouting on her face, and it makes her feel a little lighter.

She knows basically where Mal’s cheek is.

She has an outline in her head.

She kisses it, it smells like forest and the lemon face wash she uses and just Mal, and she lets it wash over her.

Catalogues it, a library of memories she wants to pull out later for when she’s not here.

“Oh,” Mal says.

“Was that okay?” Molly whispers.

“Yeah. I mean, of course. I mean- sweet Sappho.”

Molly doesn’t know how to respond to that, except start talking about Greek poets, which leads Mal to say a collection of words that are painfully familiar and has to-

“You’re quoting my fanfic?! Mal!!”

“I finally found it!”

“It took you weeks.”

“I had to use contraband phones! No one wants to share those! Unless you have an emergency and somehow according to Feryal “finding the most nerdy way to flirt with your girlfriend” is not that.”

“That sounds very hard,” Molly said, playing up the sympathy.

“I know, it’s a miracle I survived. My presence, truly a gift from the gods.”

“All of that,” Molly affirms, a smile creeping up on her face.

There’s a quick silence and a worry takes her under again. What if she thinks about my writing like how Diane did???

“Did you... did you like it?”

“Are you kidding me? Of course I did! You’re the best writer, I’m always telling you! You’ve got to teach me that play on words you did with “ichor” and how you figured that out, I need something like that for the song for the talent show. And the way you described everything! You should write song lyrics! Or poetry.”

“Mal.”

“What?”

“You’re not messing with me?”

There was a silence and then Molly felt just a small breath of a kiss on her cheek, and tried to contain her little gasp.

“Never,” Mal replied, and it was dark, darker than any city kid could fathom, but it was theirs and they could feel each other’s wide smiles like twin spirits in the pitch black night.

[lumberjanes]

I'm thinking of making a LJ Pokémon au! Do you have any ideas for me? Thank you!

I have been mentally working on a Pokemon LJ au for… So Long. I’m absolutely thrilled you’re asking me about any ideas I’ve got, so I might ramble a bit, fjsdkljfsdkl. I’d love to see what ideas you or anyone else has got, too!

Ok so first off, each character gets a Pokemon that’s like, their best pal. Their starter. Like Ash and Pikachu, right? They can have others, too, but there’s that one Pokemon BFF they’ve got. I have some ideas for each!

- Jo gets a Jolteon because I really like the pun of Jo-lteon, but also because I like to think she had an Eevee when she was a kid, and that Eevee evolved fairly close to the time Jo started transitioning, too! They enjoy working on Jo’s inventions together.

- April got a Litten as her starter, and now it’s a Torracat! Everyone is already fearing the day it evolves into an Incineroar. I chose Litten because an Incineroar looks like a fighting type, but isn’t - kinda the opposite of how April doesn’t seem strong, but is! Also April would like fire-types. April battles often, and constantly trains her team to be the very best.

- Mal got an Absol from her mom, and while they don’t battle often, Mal still wants to see if she can find an Absolite for when they do. The Absol also comforts Mal often, since it’s not only friendly, but lets her know if any kind of disasters are approaching ahead of time so she can prepare. Mal doesn’t know what kind of a trainer she wants to be yet.

- Molly’s Dartix (she raised it since it was an egg) evolved while she was at camp, so now she has a Decidueye! They enjoy practicing archery together, and they sometimes participate in contests to show off that talent.

- Ripley got a Rufflet from her family for her birthday, and they’re practically inseparable. They both tend to be a little reckless when battling opponents, but that’s still giving them experience that helps them learn. Someday, they hope to take part in the Pokemon league challenge together.

- Jen has a Clefable that she befriended when it was a Clefairy! Jen still doesn’t know for sure if the Clefable came from the moon, but it doesn’t mind her researching that topic. It also does its best to help her with keeping an eye on the Roanokes to keep them safe!

- Barney has an Eevee (maybe Marigold?)! It evolves to Sylveon very quickly, though, due to how much affection Barney gives to all of their Pokemon. They enjoy battling together, but also participate in contests from time to time - they like both!

- Rosie has a Bewear that everyone except Rosie is just a little nervous about. Rosie lets it help out with keeping the camp running (mostly things like moving fallen trees & other heavy objects), and occasionally it helps fight off some of the more dangerous supernatural beings.

Some more Pokemon that I can see them all having on their teams are…

Jo: Magneton, Joltik, Porygon/Porygon2

April: Wigglytuff, Skitty/Delcatty, Vulpix

Mal: Staraptor, Lycanroc (midday form), Marowak

Molly: Bayleef, Togekiss, Zigzagoon

Ripley: Pikachu, Mimikyu (she needs them Both!), Denio

Jen: Audino, Granbull, Dratini/Dragonair

Barney: Ralts, Alolan Raichu, Butterfree

Rosie: Trevenant, Kangaskhan, Stoutland

Yeah!!! Pokemon is like, my second favorite thing after Lumberjanes, so this was super fun to think about hflkdsjfklsd

[ventblogtobedeleted]

things to stay around for/look forward to

finish all the unplayed games in my steam library

finish omori and then crying about omori

finish kentucky route zero

play deltarune so i understand the jigsaw puppet who went to business school

finish all the sidequests in control

finish all the audiobooks on my audible account

gideon the ninth

the incrypted series

the october daye series

tv shows

finish she-ra

finish (re)watching buffy

Masters of the Universe: Revelation

WWDITS

comics

understand what the fuck is happening in batman

papergirls

lumberjanes

saga

webcomics

girl genius

too many to list you have an entire other list for this.

things that arent consuming media? ? ? ? ? i gUEsSs? ? ???? ?? ?? ?

concerts

art shows

i cant die before my online purchases arrive. no thats not sustainable in the long run. yes itll do for now. currently that at least gives me until december which, like. feels like a lot of days to survive for, even if i know its technically only a month

reaching out or reconnecting with friends

eat a mooncake holy shit who allowed them to be that dense and beautiful

things to learn/do 

improve writing skills

make a comic, either a book or a short contained narrative

program video games?

stand up comedy and then die of embarrassment probably

sculpting

finish filling out my current sketchbook

making things is hard, nvm

uhhh. people

my mom

my family, just as like. a catch all.

my friend group?

my?????? cat?????

this isnt helpful i already know itll fuck them up if i go. except maybe my cat, shes a tough cookie

my cat is pretty old and probably has about only a year or two to go so i gotta stay around for that

futures to look forward to

jacob geller is still making videos. you have to stick around to see all of those

halo head is still updating

paranatural is still updating

i dont know. uh. confinement might still be going? probably?

j. ob?

sc. h ool ? ? ?

no neither of those sound promising. you know what DOES sound promising?

idk i was hoping to come up with a punchline before i finished the sentence

other things

saying “it wont feel this way forever” feels cheap because we’ve felt this way for years, i know. i know. we’ve stagnated and it doesnt feel like theres any growth, i know. but we have grown, even if we dont see it, and even if the ptsd doesnt go away and you have to sit in the same trauma for the rest of your life, that life will change shape and there will be a future worth experiencing. maybe its not a better future, but it might not be worse, either.

“i dont want a life that feels like this forever” i hear you, i know. when you say “like this” try and remember you mean the feeling of the past year(?), and thats it. you have experienced times beyond this, youve experienced highs and lows (yes, even post-trauma) and the only way to know that your life is capable of changing is to experience it.

you dont have to be anything but curious about what comes next

you dont have to be happy to be happy you’re alive

you dont have to be loved to love yourself

itll be ok

itll be survivable

its ok.

[cindyfelicia]

Hi, I hope you’re doing well!! I was just wondering if you read comics? If so could you recommend some/ how to start getting into them? I want to start reading them, but it’s so stressful trying to figure out where to start. Also I love you blog!

Hi there! you’re all manners of sweet and kind thank u my advice abt approaching comics is going for solo runs first, this is how I, personally, did it and it’s way easier than jumping in on team books, or worse events bc they tend to be messier and need more bg info and pre-existing knowledge than a comic that focus on just the one character; I also feel it’s good to start with current or at least recent comics, you can always read the old stuff when you’re better acquainted with how comics work and which characters, artists and writers you like (or can tolerate).

actual recs under the cut because this got so long

i was gonna do a whole list of mcu characters’ solos because most people entry point to comics rn is superhero movies, and hmu if you want that, but instead I think I’m gonna rec you some good comics that are either separated enough from main marvel continuity as to be intelligible without extensive info gathering, or I just think they’re great and worth a bit of confusion (part of starting out reading comics is not knowing fully wth is going on sometimes, but stiking with it for some good art or for characters you love -I’m not gonna go so far as to say for good writing bc that’s just not realistic):

if you like yourself some spider-people:- silk (2015) and vol 2 (2016) are my absolute favorites- I’m not very much into spiderman but I read renew your vows  and it’s lovely,  it’s just not a main universe comic it’s an au where things are as, imo, they should be with ye old web slinger, and it’s good for getting your feet wet in the huge pool of spider-man comics;- I love miss jessica drew (spider-woman) but her solo is……. questionable if someone has a good jess drew intro rec pls tell me so I can pass it on, - miles morales has been written badly in more ways than one but I love him so I suffer, I can direct you without scruples only to his novel tho, absolutely lovely and not written by brian michaelbendis lmao- anya corazon is a really good character that marvel loves to forget it has, let’s not make the same mistake;- black widow 2014 and 2016 and bw: the name of the rose are all good comics (I know technically nat isn’t a spider person but like nothing about spider-woman’s powers screams ‘spider’ either so..

for wakanda I’d say good recent start-ups would be: - black panther (2016), - black panther: world of wakanda (w/ a lesbian couple as protag), - and rise of the black panther (ongoing)

some non x-men team books that are easier to approach as a beginner imho:-young avengers vol 2 (vol 1 has its moments if you want to start from the beginning with them but a lot of it involves the civil war arc and stuff.. also some characters die, the art is less good and I want to protect people from 17’s yo cassie lang’s nipples poking through her shirt.. I wish someone had protected me tbh) -I want to rec some Runaways but besides the current run (which is alright) there’s a lot to be said against the writing in most of the rest of them maybe vol 1? to have the origins pinned down-I feel like after a small read through of what exactly the hell was going on with secret wars you could approach A-Force vol 1 and the first half of vol 2 (the second half ties in with civil war II and I’m not touching that mess) and that and avenger world and sometimes secret avengers to me are good avengers books-she hulk 2014 and totally awesome hulk are my greens of choice but if you want an intro to bruce banner idont actually know, sorry-for the asgardians: thor 2014 and it’s follow up mighty thor, thor: god of thunder, angela: asgard’s assassin and its sequel angela: queen of hel, and loki: agent of asgard are my pick of this crop-we also have Fun here at marvel comics on occasion and both patsy walker aka hellcat and squirrel girl are nice in their own way although the latter isn’t really my thing

some follow up on the young avengers:- hawkeye (2013) an absolute fan favorite, good to discover that actually clint barton was a good character it’s that the avengers movies are just bad and hate people with disabilities- a couple of follow-ups to that (x) (x) and the kate bishop solo all pretty nice- america chavez’s solo (I’m just here to suggest gay comics, that’s almost all I read really)

I want to rec Champions to people but frankly it’s just a long series of event interruptions and bullshit interspersed with a couple of nice moments so far, so I’m gonna rec you some kids that are in the champions and have solos I haven’t already mentioned:- kamala khan’s book is probably my favorite ongoing series at marvel right now about any non-mutant char, I cannot say enough good about it,- nova is nice,- miles morales (spider-man) and amadeuscho (totally awesome hulk) are also there but I’ve already mentioned themalso in this house we love and respect elektranatchiosand any other attitude just isn’t tolerated.

on to the x-men, gotta love those guys, you just gotta:- like I said I prefer to tell people to start from recent comics but with the xmen that’s so difficult? it’s been 10+ bad years for them because of the movie rights situation and just marvel being shit in general, so my one recent team book to approach the x-men is prob x-men ‘92? because its based off of the xm animated series so you don’t have to straightaway deal with some mutant plague, eugenics plots, and other catastrophic events, but you can still get to know more of the char we all love - I want to say generation x vol 2, it’s not a good starting point for anything really but I love it so so much I had to mention it even tho it was cancelled and I’m still angry as hell about it.

the solo situation is better. I’m gonna be able to breathe without tasting my own bile while I type this, hurray!-all new wolverine follows laura kinney as she takes up the mantle from logan-iceman, good solid comic abt coming out and ice puns, who doesn’t like bobby really-jean grey, yes she’s a teen girl in this, yes it’s weird and I hate de-aging characters but it’s nice to see her train with different mutants, struggling with the incoming phoenix force and her adult self’s shadow, not really great entry point to jean grey but id read it anyway-if you were into the 00’s xmen movies like me, or at least a normal person’s amount the phoenix recently returned and with her adult!jean grey, it was a good book for me and good if you want to later start reading the actual phoenix saga (which is a lot of material so starting small with this might help) -I love wandamaximoff and despite what they’ve done to the maximoffs in order to bring them into the mcu (was it worth it for that result btw? really?) her recent book was good and I genuinely loved it -storm’s solo is so good, you’re gonna fall in love with an het ship and you’re not gonna regret it either-rogue and gambit, is ongoing and it’s good to get a little acquainted with these characters but mostly it’s about explorign their relationship

I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of good x-men content atm but I can’t stop thinking I need to mention that there are ongoing series you could pick up its just.. I hate them.. some started out promising (xmen gold, astonishing xmen), but they’ve not developed in good directions imo, but I still feel they should be mentioned, there’s also a weapon x comic if you want to go for a more bloody kind of book and xmen blue if you like time displaced teens or something? god its bad

jeez this is so so long and guess what? I haven’t even finished yet.. there’s some excellent indie comics out there and with those you really don’t need to worry abt knowing any 30 years old lore or anything you pick them up and they explain themselves like any other normal media out there, I know, be still my heart:

- lumberjanes is my absolute favorite, a little corny, but so much fun and cuteness and if I could go back in time I’d give it to my little bi self so she’d know she’s not alone and anything I feel that ways about has a special place i my heart js

- Motor crush, there really isn’t any other comic book with a black lesbian as protagonist out there that I can think of, good if you’re into motorcycles but if like in my case that threatens to put you to sleep, it also has a sci-fi streak and solid character work, you won’t regret giving it a try

- moonstruck, cute non-white gay werewolves and other mythological creatures are there, I feel this cathers to me specifically every time I open it?? bless

- Hi-Fi fight club or heavy vinyl (they changed the title) if you want a period piece that’s fun and cute and gay (I meant it about me reading only gay comics as you can tell)

- saga, for a space, well ya know.. saga I feel that I can describe it as romeo and juliet in space with added racial commentary except they don’t kill themselves, I have to say not my favorite but you might stick with it for the characters, I sure do

- the wicked + the divine, I feel very much the same about this as I do about saga, only this is mythology based so like.. I sold my soul to it, but please do tread with care there’s a lot of deaths in it and so many of these dead people are gays and/or poc.. I’m none too pleased about it and I’d understand anyone not wanting to pick it up, I mean the deaths are basically in the premises of the books but that doesn’t change the end result..

lastly like I said dc is not my area of expertise but I’ve been following with pleasure both batwoman and green lanterns, and mr miracle was an amazing comic so I thought I’d mention them

[roanoke-cabin]

This is so sappy I'm sorry but: what do think was the moment when Mal fell in love w Molly, and vice versa?

Oh my god no lets be sappy

Short answer:

(look at these useless lesbians)

Longer answer:

Well actually this is a hard one. Largely because Lumberjanes is so determined to buck the odds on happy sapphic couples that these two have been all in from day one, there’s no jealousy, there’s no fighting, there’s barely angst. Their storylines are about them supporting one another through external strife and coming out stronger on the other side. They aren’t a will-they-won’t-they pairing, and they aren’t slow-burn. They’re foundational to the series. It wouldn’t be Lumberjanes without these two at each others sides.

Which is amazing, love it, would not trade for anything. But it means we don’t really get to see a lot of the relationship steps that usually make up a romantic storyline. We don’t know who first caught feelings,

(But I’d bet Molly)

We don’t know who first put their arm around the other

(Except that Mal has her arm around Molly so often it must feel empty without her so, yeah it was probably Mal)

Or when they first held hands:

Even their first on-page kiss is played like it’s probably not their first ever:

Their relationship is purposely broad. We don’t need to know if they’re calling the other their girlfriend to know that Molly will have a reassuring hug for any of Mal’s anxieties or that Mal will support Molly through whatever storm is coming with her parents. They’re together. They’re happy. They’re unquestionable and they’re never subtextual. They’re the antithesis to every queer story that we’ve been tired of forever.

And that makes working out the particulars like ‘when did they know how they felt about each other’ damn hard to pin down.

But if I had to guess:

If Mal didn’t know at the start of the dino arc,

(which is, frankly, unlikely), she definitely knew by the end:

And Molly,

Look maybe it’s possible to miss that the girl you’ve been spending so much time with can impart perfect clarity and magic anagram powers with just one kiss,

And maybe it’s possible to say things like:

without being aware of just how far and how quickly you’ve fallen for the sweet anxious angel you’re leaning all over.

It’s possible, but god do I doubt it.

[gloryformore]

all the gay asks :~)

thx babe you're my favorite ;)1. describe your idea of a perfect datea picnic in the park in spring or fall, where it's warm but not stifling like the summer heat of the south. snacky foods, we bring our journals and run around taking pictures. maybe we go on a lil walk around the lake but honestly, as long as it's with someone I like (i.e. my gf) I don't really care (also museums!!!! r hella cool)2. whats your “type”femme, kind, passionate, I guess I kinda have a thing for short people??? bc I've never dated anyone taller than me3. do you want kids?yes, if that was something my SO wanted as well (vi wants kids)4. if you do, will you adopt or use some other form of child birth?with vi, I would carry the child(ren) or we would foster/adopt5. describe the cutest date you’ve ever been onlast Wednesday!!!!! vi and I went on a date for our 4 month anniversary and went to this adorable little coffee shop / art bar thing??? and it was warm outside and nice and we sat in big comfy chairs and worked on friendship bracelets and art journaling and it was wonderful6. describe your experience having sex for the first time (were you nervous? or was it easy peasy?)I've never had sex with anyone7. are you a morning time gay or night time gay?night time gay for sure!8. opinion on nap dates?yes please (vi and I are both constantly in need of naps)9. opinion on brown eyes?adorable!!!!!! beautiful!!!! underappreciated!!!10. dog gay or cat gay?BOTH I used to be dog gay but I was catsitting for my neighbor this week and fell in love with her cats???? but considering vi is allergic to cats I'm more likely to be a dog gay11. would you ever date someone who owned rodents or reptiles??????? potentially?????12. whats a turn off you look for before you start officially dating someonepeople who are rude unnecessarily. people who don't CARE about anything, don't seem to have any passions and aren't willing to express their love and excitement. people who don't care about others or themselves very much at all. 13. what is a misconception you had about lgb people before you realized you were one?that all lgb people wish would rather be straight (tbh it's the absolute opposite I love who I'm attracted to and I love being able to embrace myself and having the opportunity to challenge the biases of those around me)14. what is a piece of advice you would give to your younger selfit's okay to embrace femininity in yourself and in other people. it's okay to struggle and change and don't let anyone discourage you from exploring yourself and liking others. it's brave just to be you. you don't have to do anything more than embrace yourself. 15. (if attracted to more than one gender) do you have different “types” for different genders?n/a really? because I'm really just attracted to women and woman-aligned nb people and I kinda have the same type for both??? 16. who is an ex you regret?my first girlfriend (her name is elana) who was very rude about my struggle with mental illness and just generally forced me into boxes I wasn't comfortable with in our relationship17. night club gay or cafe gay?cafe. I hate partying. I love tea and hot chocolate. 18. who is one person you would “go straight” forcole sprouse riverdale era19. video game gay, book gay, or movie gay?book gay (movie gay is close second)20. favourite gay ship (canon or not)mal and molly from the lumberjanes comics and Betty and Veronica from riverdale! and Kelly and yorkie from black mirror: san junipero 21. favourite gay youtubercece (@problemsofabooknerd) is a gay booktuber and she does videos with her gf sometimes and they're absolutely adorable (plus she makes lots of queer recs videos!!!!!! check her out)22. have you ever unknowingly asked out a straight person?nope23. have you ever been in love?yeep24. have you ever been heartbroken?yeep25. how do you determine if you want to be them or be with someoneI think it depends on the qualities I admire in a person? like with my current gf I fell for her because of how energetic and passionate she was (qualities I already have myself) and realized those were things I wanted in an SO (someone who was just as excited about things and hype as I am about music and books and things) and things I wanted to express with her26. favourite lgb musician/bandhalsey? I don't listen to enough lgb musicians it's honestly very sad27. what is a piece of advice you have for young / baby gaysgive yourself time to explore. it's okay if you change, it's okay if you pick new labels or no labels or if your language becomes more nuanced along with your personality. it's okay to do whatever feels most comfortable for you. there's no rush, you have a long time to love ahead of you28. are you out? if so how did you come outmostly, yes. I came out as bi in 7th grade and over time have realized I'm not really attracted to men/man-aligned people so now I identify as a nonbinary lesbian and mostly I come out to people by talking about my gf (I am assumed a gay girl, which is close enough to my identity that I don't feel too uncomfortable if gender is harder to explain to certain people)29. what is the most uncomfortable / strange coming out experience you have I haven't had many weird ones????? except I came out to half of my math class when a guy said he wanted to go balls deep in me and I was like "no thanks I'm gay I have a girlfriend and you are the LAST person I would let near my body"30. what is a piece of advice for people who may not be in a safe place to express their sexualityexpress it however you can. don't suppress your identity, but please be safe. journal using code words. start a blog. find a support group. join a forum. do whatever you need to feel like you aren't destroying yourself by hiding. I promise, your safety is the most important thing. just don't let bigotry convince you that there's something wrong with you. I love you so much and you deserve to love in the way your heart wants.

[the-knights-who-say-book]

Hi! 👋 I know that you watched Miraculous Ladybug and you read a lot of books. Do you have any book recommendations that have the same witty banter and romance like that of the show? (Love square with two people not required lol)

well as long as the love square isn’t required… of COURSE i have recs! (to be upfront i’ve only seen the ML episodes on netflix so anything beyond that… i don’t know, i am floundering around moping and rewatching season one)

(I hope some graphic novels and comics recs are ok, because other young superheroes are a good jumping off point from ML)

Miss Marvel by G. Willow Wilson — Miss Marvel was the first comics series i started when I began looking into comics earlier this year! It’s bright and mostly light-hearted and i LOVED all of the volume collections out so far, even though I hate how the huge marvel universe can make gaps out of individual story lines (can marvel do ANYTHING right, you ask? no. they can’t. maybe just miss marvel). There are little romantic subplots where the characters just keep being oblivious missing each other (though it’s not romance-heavy at all) and it’s very funny at times

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson — a graphic novel and one of my faves. A shapeshifting evil (but… still the good guy) sidekick in a fantasy-sci-fi hybrid land. It’s clever and entertaining and packs some real plot twists. Basically no romance at all, but the witty banter is there!

Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson — another comic, not superheroes but a group of girls solving fun supernatural mysteries at a summer camp where something VERY strange is going on, only none of them quite knows what. A little more romance than Nimona, but i’m rec’ing it mostly because it’s fun and clever and makes me squee like ML does

Cinder by Marissa Meyer — Futuristic Cinderella-retelling in which a cyborg mechanic discovers that she is of key importance to protecting the earth from conquest by the evil Lunars. The rest of the series adds more characters and superhero-like powers until the main crew is basically a superhero team, and there’s cute romance and witty/funny/exasperated bantering.

I feel like you may also enjoy the funny exploits of girl-student-spies in the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter (checks off the romance box too, at least by the second or third book), the love story told from every viewpoint except the main characters’ in A Little Something Different by Sandy Hall (not a favorite of mine by a long shot, but i’m also not a fan of romance in general and this book had some good things going for it), and the likable, unlucky but upbeat protagonist of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han (romance! less witty banter, i think, but a very enjoyable fluffy read)

anyway, i hope there’s something of interest to you in that pile — your blog doesn’t let me search, so i can’t check if you’ve read any of these the way i normally would to avoid being redundant. happy reading!

[explosionshark]

Hi Briana! I've recently gotten into comics and already have in my collection Heathen, Rat Queens, Motor Crush, The Wicked + The Divine, Lumberjanes, and ODY-C thanks to mentions in your past posts. Are there any other LGBT+ comics you know of that you'd like to recommend? Would really appreciate it. :)

hi! gosh, those are some really good comics to start out with. uhhh here’s a quick list off the top of my head, more or less (also this is only books i’ve read myself, and i’m a couple years behind at this point, so) 

i’ll put a $ next to the books i know have LGBT creators

marvel:

young avengers (vol. 3, gillen/mckelvie) LGB

america (2017) L $

angela series (asgard’s assasin, 1602: witch hunter, queen of hel) LBT $

DC:

gotham central* L

52/the question: crime bible/the question: pipeline** L

batwoman*** L 

midnighter (2015 - 2016) G $

dc bombshells L $

secret six/villains united/secret six vol 2 (pre new-52) L

misc:

red sonja (i don’t remember the year, just start w/ gail simone and keep reading after marguerite sauvage takes over) B $

anathema (lesbian werewolf!!! but very much an old pulpy horror book in that her gf dies right away) L $

clean room (horror book by gail simone) LB (possibly more? i’m behind)

giant days (super cute slice of life college stuff, very funny) L

hellbreak (uh. marines fighting demons in hell basically? queer woc in a main role) L/B 

goldenwood chronicles (DO YOU LIKE CUTE ANIMALS BC THIS BOOK’S GOT EM) L $

jem and the holograms (2015 - ?, reboot of the classic 80s cartoon but v diverse and good) LBT $

Princeless: Raven the Pirate Princess (tbh the entire princeless series is so good? it’s about a black princess who rescues her sisters from the towers they’re locked up in, this spinoff features the character raven, an asian lesbian, and is generally geared for a YA age group instead of all ages like the rest of the series) L

shutter (this one’s tough to describe? queer woc lead in a modern/fantasy setting ties up the loose ends of her adventurer father’s legacy. v good) LBT

the spire (interesting almost steampunky fantasy setting? lesbian mutant in forbidden love w/ a princess. good shit) L

the woods (group of plucky teens + their entire school get transported into a terrifying new world, learn to deal, solve mysteries) G (maybe more??? i kinda fell out of it but i liked it a lot) $

zodiac starforce (MAGICAL GIRLS!!!! except about what happens when they beat the big bad and try to quit) LB

we(l)comeback (okay please if you try any book i rec you try this one, it’s such a beautiful love story and the art’s incredible and not enough people have read it PLEASE) L/B $

not explicitly gay but still so good you should read it please for the love of god:

teen dog (he’s a teen! and a dog! just a real feel good comic about friendship. cute jokes. it’s like reading a hug)

*okay real talk gotham central is the most important comic i ever read. it’s really heavy but it’s basically a comic about the cops in gotham city. it had two writers (ed brubaker and greg rucka) who switched off arcs between day shift and night shift. rucka’s night shift included renee montoya who through the course of the story is outed as a lesbian (I think it’s the second or fourth arc of the book. it’s called half a life. it changed my whole damn world). this book was a huge part of learning to own my queerness when i was a teen but it’s also just objectively So Good and even if you’re not a superhero person i’d rec it

**these i’d only suggest if you read gotham central and really got into montoya. and even then 52 ONLY if you’re a hardcore/completionist. it charts her ascent into the role of The Question but it’s a long series and she’s only one of the storylines. you can get the gist through reading a wiki or something tbh

***i’ve only read the Elegy arc that greg rucka wrote tbh so i can’t really recommend it beyond there, i’ve heard the subsequent books were p hit or miss

SORRY THIS WAS SO LATE I HOPE IT STILL HELPS I LOVE YOU

[culturalgutter]

At first it was the way the bears were stacked atop each other that appealed to me. I’d see ads for We Bare Bears while watching other shows and think, “That is adorable/charming/cute/apealing?” Their shape, the color arrangement. Just the whole stacking thing. But one weekend shortly after the 2016 election, I made myself chocolate chip pancakes and decided I’d watch an episode of this bear cartoon and see what was what. I ended up spending the day watching episode after episode of We Bare Bears.  My first episode—or at least the one that I remember most clearly—was, “The Demon.” In it, Ice Bear and his friend Chloe Park face the terror of the neighbor’s little dog after Chloe accidentally loses her hoody to the fiend. It is nicely done with Chekov’s potato gun appearing in the first act appearing again in the third. It has elements that I most like about the show at its best. A reliance on character to drive the plot, conflict and action; diverse characters; a careful calculus around consequences; appropriate stakes; and, resolutions that tend toward ending in a better place than the episode began. These elements aren’t easy to pull off, especially in an eleven minute episode.

In We Bare Bears, three bear bros, Grizz, Panda and Ice Bear, live together in a cave in the woods. We Bare Bears is set in the Bay Area.  A lot of cartoons and shows are set supposedly non-specific anywhere or everywhere that only make them seem even more the product a specific place, often, ironically enough, California. But We Bare Bears goes ahead and lets their place be their place and then sees what stories they can tell. You might have suspected from their names that these bears are not biologically related. The bears are a chosen family with Grizz as the oldest brother and Ice Bear as the youngest. And even though Ice Bear is, as he says, “best bear,” all the bears have their own charm. Grizz is an outgoing and enthusiastic brown bear. His wants to be cool and to have a lot of friends. Sometimes he tries too hard or is too caught up in his own enthusiasm. But he tries hard and when the bears befriend Chloe, he learns some Korean to try be a good friend and maybe to reassure her father and grandmother that being friends with bears is alright. Grizz loves 1980s and 1990s action movies and has made a couple of his own “Crowbar Jones” shorts, starring himself as Crowbar Jones and “Pando,” a comic relief sidekick clearly inspired by Panda.

Panda, aka, Pan-Pan, is as his name implies, a panda. He’s also an otaku loves anime, manga, Japanese and Korean pop music and K-dramas, though likely not Vampire Prosecutor, more say, Boys Over Flowers and those body-switching romantic dramas, like Secret Garden (2010). Panda loves the idea of being in a relationship, but it’s probably a good thing he isn’t. He has a waifu body pillow named Miki-chan. Panda is intensely involved online hoping for likes and shares and trying to meet his true love. He’s an otaku who doesn’t read or speak much Japanese or Korean.  He’s allergic to everything and is vegetarian while his brothers love meat. Panda is sweet and sensitive but also capable of becoming resentful to the point of supervillainy.

Ice Bear always refers to himself as “Ice Bear,” except that one time he was conked on his noggin and started wearing a man-bun and hanging out with tech bros. His room is the bears’ refrigerator, where he knits and watches figure skating. Ice Bear was nonverbal as a cub and his affect does not necessarily reflect what he is feeling on the inside. Ice Bear comes across as neurodivergent and probably on the autism spectrum.

Ice Bear is clearly the coolest and arguably as he claims, “best bear.” He has what Grizz and Napoleon Dynamite would call, “skillz.” He speaks Russian, Korean, Pigeon and, I expect, many more languages. He likes axes, throwing stars, martial arts, salsa dancing, cooking, knitting and making robots. Ice Bear also has a secret life his brothers don’t know about. One revealed particularly in two episodes that are We Bare Bears influenced by Drive (2011), general Nicolas Winding Refn-ness and by John Wick, “Icy Nights” and “Icy Nights II.”* The song playing when Ice Bear enters the city in “Icy Nights” recalls “Nightcall” from the Drive soundtrack.

Grizz befriends Wyatt the biker at a gas station in the desert.

The bears make friends, though. They befriend Chloe Park, a 12-year-old Korean-American child protege who comes to study them for a college biology course. Chloe is stressed and lonely being the only tween in university. And they are also friends with Ranger Tabes, who reminds me of Rosie the camp director from Lumberjanes. Tabes out for their part of the forest. And they are friends with Charlie, a bigfoot voiced by Jason Lee, so I always kind of think he’s Earl from My Name Is Earl. Charlie also hosts the Halloween episodes, each a little horror anthology. (One with a fantastic take on Scooby-Doo).

We Bare Bears has some superficial similarities with Polar Bear Cafe, which also features a polar/ice bear, panda and grizzly bear–as well as a llama, sloth and penguin. Polar Bear Cafe‘s Panda is obsessed with being cute.  Like Ice Bear, Polar Bear is responsible and can drive a car. I enjoy his attempts to teach Penguin to drive.

“Ice Bear is responsible.”

There is a grizzly bear who gets most of his clothes from the Harley-Davidson store. But Polar Bear runs a cafe. There are a lot of puns. And the show skews towards a younger audience. That said, I think We Bare Bears make a little nod to Polar Bear Cafe with the “Coffee Cave” episode, in which the bears turn their cave into a cafe. Ice Bear becomes a barrista to facilitate Grizz hanging with cool people and Panda tries to make time with a woman he thinks is cute.

I enjoy We Bare Bears‘ references to film, tv, games, comics and cartoons and even Walt Whitman. When the bears work “shushing the unshushable” in an Oakland cineplex, there are a slew of film references that would warm the heart of the most cantankerous cinephile. In another episode, the bears recall films like Phase IV (1974) and Empire of the Ants (1977) as they obey the wishes of a queen bee.

The bears listening to the queen.

Ranger Tabes in peril!

Panda is pursued by a virtual reality Doof Warrior from Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). And there’s a bit from the beginning of Quincy Jones’ Ironside theme in “Bear Cleanse” when someone is secretly eating cake. It might’ve been taken from Kill Bill (2003) or from Lo Lieh dangerous fists in King Boxer/ Five Fingers of Death (1972). Grizz knows it from Kill Bill, but Ice Bear definitely recognizes it from King Boxer. I like that the creators are using art that they like. And art that I like, too.

While the structure is episodic, there is no total reset at the end of every episode. “Icy Nights,” for example, uses a number of elements from earlier episodes—Ice Bear’s modified roomba, for example. And human characters who are almost doppelgangers of the bears, Tom, Isaac and Griff, appear first in “Panda’s friend” and then in two more episodes, “Bro Brawl” and “The Mall.”

The show alternates between episodes featuring the bears in their presumably current adult forms with ones about the bears as cubs. If you must have origin stories, the baby bear episodes provide them and do a pretty good job. The baby bear episodes also do a good job of capturing a kids point-of-view. In general, I prefer the adult episodes, but that might be because I am an adult. As always, I don’t begrudge kids’ interests being put before my own in cartoons meant for kids.  I do, however, very much enjoy “Los Escandalosos,” in which the baby bears become a tag team in a kids’ lucha libre league in Mexico. There are some sweet luchador names in that episode and mariachis sing a ballad about los Escandalosos. Incidentally, “Escandalosos” is also the Spanish name for the show. I appreciate the pun making the title, “Scandal Bears.” It only took me two days catch it, but I did.

I also appreciate that We Bare Bears rarely translates the Spanish, Korean or Russian in the show. The writers relies on us to understand generally what is going on and not freak out when we don’t understand specifically what is said. There are times when we don’t understand something and that’s okay. I particularly appreciate that while we learn why Ice Bear knows Russian, we don’t see when Ice Bear went from non-verbal to verbal. Neurodiversity isn’t exactly the same kind of plot point as that time a Russian man in the arctic took in Ice Bear. At the same time, if the writers did decide to show the first time Ice Bear spoke, I trust them to do right by him and neurodivergent folk.

The bears are trying to participate in the human world and figure out how they fit into it. They not like they other animals anymore, but that’s okay. Though it might negatively impact their health as they prefer to eat, say, pizza bagels over bamboo and seals. And they’re not quite like humans cause they’re still bears, and that should be okay, but it’s not always.

Panda being hassled by the Man.

Daniel Chong talked a bit about how one of the things he was thinking of when creating this show was the ways that this experience paralleled being a minority in America and particularly, racism in America. Sometimes people react negatively to the bears and it’s just those people’s thing, not the bears, though it is particularly distressing to Grizz.**

I mentioned before that I appreciate that whatever shenanigans the bears or a single bears cause or are involved in have appropriately calculated stakes and consequences–and not just in the sense that a cartoon meant for all ages should probably not have a lot of gruesome death in it. The person most responsible for shenanigating takes most of the damage and uninvolved people or innocent people caught up in it are not as subject to the shenanigans.*** And that’s a relief to me. It’s not a cartoon that relies on either the pleasure of someone finally getting what they deserve–one day that Roadrunner will get his/her due!–or on the shock of, say, Ren’s cruelty to Stimpy, Jerry’s cruelty to Tom the Cat or Woody Woodpecker’s flat-out sociopathy.

Sweet jean jacket.

When the bears dig a cool jean jacket with a tiger on the back out of a dumpster, they get a run of good luck. The luck is low level, but the bears are ecstatic. Ice Bear says, “This is the best thing to happen to Ice Bear” and they all agree.  Panda finds money in the pocket. Grizz gets three high fives in a row. Ice Bear finds coupons for salsa dancing lessons.

The rain stops. Streetlights go their way. Pizza bagels are on sale. A cash opens up at the grocery store and they are first in line. But when the jacket’s curse is revealed, it operates on the same level. They each want the jacket for themselves and end up fighting. Joss Whedon’s We Bare Bears would straight up have killed one of them, but instead Panda accidentally punches his own face.

They realize, ‘We’re not wearing this jacket. This jacket is wearing us. We have to get rid of it.” The temptations the jacket uses to try to get them to take it back are things like pizza mistakenly delivered to their house. All of which are stakes and consequences appropriate to the situation. We Bare Bears is about critters and people mostly trying their best and screwing up sometimes. It is a pretty gentle cartoon, though there are both shenanigans and hijinx. It seems to me that in its own way going the chill and gentle route can be more avant-garde than another manic cartoon.

*I see a little Tokyo Drifter in the part where Ice Bear is silhouetted in red, too.

**There is a thing here where I talk a bit about the Prime Directive and the ways that it is kind of butts, but we have bears to discuss.

***This is a more complicated calculation when Panda goes bad in “Braces.”

~~~

Carol Borden isn’t going to lie. She kind of covets that jean jacket.

Ice Bear is Best Bear At first it was the way the bears were stacked atop each other that appealed to me.

[themangledsans0508]

Lumberjanes Headcanons

Sometimes when Mal and Molly both can’t sleep, they’ll slip into the same bunk. Then before everyone wakes up, they go back to their own bunk

One time they accidentally slept in and April had to wake them up

Ripley in the middle of the night will go onto the other girls bunks and fall asleep

Half the time she does it unnoticed until the camper wakes up

She did this to Jen first, who woke up to Ripley sleeping on her stomach

She loves doing this to Mal and Molly while they're sleeping together because it’s like sleeping with her parents

Jo and Molly used to get bullied

April has beaten kids up for bullying Jo

Molly’s bullies better hope they never meet the Roanoke’s cause they will kick their ass beat them up

Mal and Ripley especially 

Mal especially

Molly and Jo will get panic attacks sometimes and the rest of the cabin comforts them

Molly and Jen are more like Ripley’s mom than any of the other campers

April loves giving the other campers makeovers

Molly refuses because she doesn’t like wearing makeup

It’s April’s longtime goal to give Molly a makeover

She even tried while she was sleeping

It didn’t work

Sometime Mal will start randomly flirting with Molly just to get a reaction

She does it so much the other campers recognize the face she gets when she’s about to

Except Molly

One time she said “You’re lips look lonely, would they like to meet mine?” and Molly actually kissed her

Jo can never catch fish, no matter how hard she tries

Bubbles and Marigold are dating

Molly has depression

It’s not too bad most of the times but sometimes it’s really bad and hurts her a lot

Mal is the only one who knows and she tries to help as much as she can

Some of you guys might wonder why I think Molly may have depression, I think she does because she seems to get a lot of hate away from camp. A lot of hate can really hurt some people, like me and maybe Molly.

[secretbookclub]

Books I read in 2016

I wanted to make this list sooner but had no time because of finals. It’s all the books I added to Goodreads this year. I actually read a ton of comic and added like %0.5 of them haha. Also I didn’t add books I skip-read. Here we go.

1. Goblin Emperor

It was the first book I read in 2016. I read it in my shitty phone and on a laptop. I really really love this book. I reread it a lot and it became a kind of comfort book for me. I really love Maia and sometimes get teared eye when I think about him.

2. Seraphina

Kinda meh. I think author could make a better book. It was very average.

3-4-5. Captive Prince Series

I gave the first book 3 stars, to second book 4 stars and to the last book 5 stars. I love this series. I had doubts about it when I was reading the first book but as Laurent and Damen begin to be in more equal footing I fell in love with it. The last book is absolute perfection, I loved everything about it. I think it’s the best end of series book I ever read.

6. Beautiful Darkness

Writing is meh but art was stellar. I love love Kerascoet’s art.

7. Ms Marvel Volume 1

I usually don’t like superhero comics but this was an exception.

8-9-10. Graceling, Fire, Butterblue

I can’t decide which one them is my favorite: Graceling or Butterblue? I love them because of different reasons. I didn’t care much about Fire. Graceling is a happy book. I love Katsa and Po, and their relationship was a pleasant suprise. Them may be my favorite fantasy YA couple. Butterblue is a sad book. It made me cry several times. It’s about abuse, ptsd and recovery. I love this subject but if you don’t like I think you might not like this book.

11. The Raven Boys

Oh god I’m a terrible reader and I’m still in second book of this series(for 8 months.....) I liked it. And I will continue it. Writing style was interesting.

12. Smile

Cute comic. But the target audience was middle graders so.

13. Anya’s Ghost

Another cute comic. It was average?

14-15-16-17. Lumberjanes first 4 Volumes

My favorite was second one. I liked Artemis and Apollo. It’s a cute kid’s comic but I can’t say the writings is the best. But I appreciate the queer characters etc. I don’t know why but a lot of mainstream american comics has weird pacing/writing. Maybe because I mainly read manga? idk

18. Lola and The Next Door Boy

NO. BAD. WHY IS THIS SUPER POPULAR ON TURKISH BOOKTUBE COMMUNITY

19. Ella Enchanted

I wasn’t target audience so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would do if i was in middle school:(

20. Amulet

I got bored.

21. Hellboy Volume 1

Art style is cool. But writing and pacing is giving me a headache. Like I said I can’t read american comics.

22. Rat Queens

I don’t like it.

23-24. Giany Days 1-2

Cute comic. But I hate when comics change their artists. Why?

25. This One Summer

This is amazing. Plot is not the greatest but pacing is so so soooo good. I want to buy the psychical version and cuddle it haha.

26. Maurice

The movie is one of my faves and I finally found the book. Book is amazing to. I love Maurice’s character evolution. I recommend this book to everybody. So good.

27. The Color Purple

Really really good. For some strange reason it was hard to find this book.

28. Öteki Erkekler

It consist interviews made with 6 trans men in turkey. Also some basic info about gender identity, legal, medical info etc. Only in turkish. 

29. Habibi

Bad. There was rape in nearly every page. Also very orientalist. No.

30. Understanding Comics

Well it’s like the title says haha. If it interests you read it.

31. Jughead Volume 1

It makes me so happy there’s one more canonicaly ace character. Also a protagonist. :,)

32. An Unattractive Vampire

It was funny. Also (not canonicaly) aro-are protag.

33. Twin Spica

Nice nice.

34-35-36. All for the Game Series

THIS SERIES. The writing is dramatic. A lot. But I really love how the author wrote characters. Andrew is one of my fave characters. I feel connected to him somehow. I’m so happy him and Neil finally got their happiness. I reread this series a lot too. Words can’t tell how much I love them.

37. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secret of Universe

Mega cute. The whole novel felt like a poetry. It makes me happy and warm.

38. Simon and The Homo Sapiens Agenda

Cute but average.

39. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Albus and Scorpius was so cute. Also Draco and Scorpius’ relationship. But otherwise it wasn’t that worthwhile to read. 

40. Bizim Büyük Çaresizliğimiz

Turkish book. Everyone seems to worship this book but I didn’t like it that much.

41. American Vampire

Art style was good(not the 20s one)

42. Dragons of Dorcastle

It was cute. (but the sequal was BAD.)

43. The Three Robbers

I like vintage art style.

44-45-46. Gotham Academy 1-2-3

Why did the writing got worse and worse? I really loved the first volume. Writing and pacing was weird and got weirder.

47. White Sand

I read it because -Brandon Sanderson. I think his writing doesn’t get translate to comics smoothly. 

48. Gwenpool

Cute and cool. Also art style <3

49. Hidden Masters of Marandur

Sequal of Dragons of Dorcastle. Bad. Why did they have to say they love each other could die for each other EVERY PAGE.

50. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

AA++ I love this book. The fairies was very classical(which I prefer). Footnotes were a delight. Really fun book overall.

51. Ladies of Grace Adiue 

Stories set in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell world. Very good.

52. Comics and Sequential Art

Again very specific book. It focused in pre 80s american comics, wasn’t very useful for me.

53-54. Luck in the Shadows - Stalking Darkness

I don’t know why I can’t read this books. Reading first to books fully was a drag. I skip read rest of the books in the series. I love some parts of it but I can’t read them. :(

55. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Read because of the movie. I found it a little bit too eurocentric.

56. The Gardener’s Year

I LOVE THIS. I don’t thing I ever laughed as much as reading a book. Even tho I had no interest in gardening I loved this book. Some parts reminded me my mom and dad so it was extra funny. 

57. Haydut Oğlu Haydut

I don’t know the english title. It’s a Karel Capek story.

58. R.U.R

It was really interesting.

59. Tournament of Losers

Cute cute. Also positive portrayal of sex worker character. No slut shaming or whatever.

60. The High King’s Golden Tongue

Ehh. Tournament of Losers was better. I liked there was trans characters. Also no queerphobia. Also tongue concept. But I think it was very unfinished. Also read the sequal but it was worse.

[fridaydoesmedia]

in media res [week two]

things i have watched

this time i’m genuinely woefully behind

really all i’ve watched is a lot of stargate atlantis. which is fine. it’s good background television. the only thing i’m really invested in at this point is the friendship between teyla and ronon. and ronon’s little smile when he thinks he’s going to get to perpetrate violence.

also the first episode of a series of unfortunate events. which i really liked! but also felt like i couldn’t watch too much without becoming sad. so. i’m taking it slow.

and an episode of archer? which i periodically return to despite the fact that i don’t really...like it?? it’s just noise to have in the background i guess.

i was going to see moana this afternoon but my friends bailed. i will see this movie eventually!!

but that’s it.

things i have read

i read alena while recovering from a migraine. which. maybe was not so wise? it’s so bleak!! so bleak! in a lord of the flies, everyone is awful, george orwell, everything is awful, end of the world, this is why we can’t have nice things kind of way. which. i could go on about my issues with grimdark as a stand in for complicated but i’d rather talk about other things this week so let’s say it wasn’t for me and move on.

giant days!! so cute!! i love them all! i think there’s a three way tie between daisy, esther and mcgraw for favourite character but there are a lot of great characters and i’m really excited for the next issue.

the backstagers. so cute!! v gravity falls, which is apparently my aesthetic for comics at the moment? can’t wait for the next issue to find out what kind of havoc polaroid is going to wreak.

gotham academy, second semester. obviously my most pressing question is are kyle and colton going to make out??? or just will colton get someone to make out with at some point? i hope yes!

lumberjanes & gotham academy crossover. so cute! so much cute in one place!

flutter. which i really enjoyed after a fairly rocky start where i was a bit confused.

remind. which was SUPER CUTE. i’m a sucker for anything with a talking cat (even if it’s only a side effect of a brain transplant).

foxglove summer & the hanging tree. which were as delightful as ever. see my review of the whole series for my thoughts (mostly love)

the first volume of we are robin, which i enjoyed but didn’t feel totally grabbed by. riko showing up in gotham academy was kind of cute?

things i am watching

i guess i’m still nominally watching mr robot? it’s just so stressful!!

stargate atlantis, only fourteen episodes to go!

a series of unfortunate events, with great caution.

i also think we might be getting stan back soon? which i guess means i should watch the second season of the flash.

but maybe i will just watch westworld instead, what do you think?

i plan on watching weekend this week as well but we’ll see. my track record with movies is not great at the moment, except maybe kids movies.

things i am listening to

still on fish. but i’m almost done with the archive and then we will be on to newer and greener pastures.

i’ve also regressed and am listening to a lot of music i was listening to several months ago. mostly dessa, troye sivan and (in a throwback of maybe a year) halsey. they’re all great and everyone should check them out.

also digging young the giant and eagerly pouncing on every new jack’s mannequin song that comes my way.

things i am reading

order of the stick. which is kind of a slog at this point but i do want to read it so...i’m still going.

locke and key, which i’m not enjoying as much the second time around.

abhorsen, which i’m enjoying more than i was in small bursts.

front lines by michael grant because lauracadman assures me i’ll enjoy it.

affection still because there’s just a lot in the book and it makes my brain feel weird if i read too much at once.

love from almaty because i stalled and haven’t finished it yet.

things on my to do list

all the books still sitting on my bedside table from last week.

still want to buy more lumberjanes and the wicked + the divine and start sex criminals.

want to buy across the wall and [sic]

i should probably also buy the last tom pollock book our lady of the streets. i really liked the first two! i just felt a little burnt out.