#honestly a fascinating story and/or character seed

[aihoshiino]

Hi there! I'd like to know your thoughts about the side stories. What do you like/dislike about Viewpoint B and 44510?

i like everything about them and dislike nothing <3 KDJSKJDSKNDKS

Honestly even joking aside it's hard for me to think of any beef I have with either sidestory because I think they're both incredible additions to OnK both as standalone expansions and when put in conversation with each other. I guess with a gun to my head I'd say I don't like that the manga ends up really fumbling Nino as a character after setting her up as such a deeply realistically complicated person in 45510 or that Kyun ends up never coming up in the main manga at all despite there being some really juicy potential for including her in the Movie Arc alongside Nino and Takamine, who both had their own complicated relationships with Ai. BUT!! That's basically it.

For 45510, like I said - I love what an incredibly complicated tangle of feelings Akasaka manages to convey with Nino's first person POV, how her stated 'hatred' of Ai is so obviously at odds with her fascination with and desire for her long before Nino ever comes out and admits her fervent devotion. But I also think it's really good and really important that even as it makes clear Nino's hostility and blame towards Ai, it never judges or blames her for it in turn.

This is actually something both sidestories do really well that I really appreciate - it does a lot to humanise the gen 1 B-Komachi girls and to make very clear that the miserable environment of the group was not the fault of any person in it, but the natural result of the way they were managed by Ichigo and the way they were treated by the rest of the industry. It doesn't downplay their culpability in making Ai feel isolated but it gives the gen 1 girls' perspective on why that isolation happened equal weight and validity to Ai's. It's not a simple black and white conflict but a two sided failure to communicate and connect.

To this end, both the sidestories touch on something that the manga itself doesn't really make explicit until the Movie Arc - how incredibly fucking frustrating "Ai of B-Komachi" is to deal with on a personal, moment to moment basis. Both Nino and Kyun talk about her being distant and having her walls up and even when you can get a conversation out of her, her words feel scripted - and this makes it impossible to get to know her. But it also makes very clear that the isolation this results in is extremely hard on Ai, too - again, that two-sided failure to communicate.

Viewpoint B is the one that best gets this across out of the two and it's definitely my favourite, though for lots of other reasons lol. It's the only place in the series where we hear the perspective of an ex-idol and what her experiences are in the wake of her own fame. Kyun's burnout and the way she's treated by society once she's no longer an idol are both really fascinating to read on their own terms and also, imo, add a lot to Ai's story as well in helping to explain and really get across just why Ai was so trapped in the entertainment industry - society is already so cruel to ex-idols who aren't autistic abuse survivors with no high school education. There really was no other place she could go to support herself.

I also just really like the prose in general - I really love how consistent Kyun's character voice is across the two timeframes is while still being distinctly informed by the stages of her life. The older Kyun feels so wistful, resigned and even a little tired while the younger Kyun really feels like someone on the cusp of adulthood, surprisingly insightful and mature at times but still dealing with her youthful hotheadedness and the fresh enormity of complicated adult feelings and responsibilities. You can really feel the seeds of her more contemplative and calm adult self starting to blossom in the younger Kyun even just over the course of her conversation with Ai and that really distinct sense of continuity between the two is super compelling to me.

And speaking of Ai: she's here!!!! Obviously we also get some time with her in 45510, but that's more in line with the main series post-volume 1 snippets of her in short flashbacks and recordings. Viewpoint B's story is a flashback, but it's only really made one because of the framing device - the prose very much places us directly in the younger Kyun's head and so it's kind of exciting to get this little snippet of extra time with Ai in the flesh. Especially because - IMO - Viewpoint B contains some of the most important Ai characterization in the series, to the extent that prior to Nino appearing in the main manga, I considered Viewpoint B way more essential reading than 45510.

Viewpoint B is the only place in the series where Ai gets a chance to really just talk about what being an idol means to her and what "Ai of B-Komachi" represents to her, personally, rather than what it means for the fans. It's also important as additive characterization for Ai, emphasizing and doubling down on aspects of her personality we see in the main series - her kindness, her efforts to understand other people despite her struggles and her blase attitude towards the persistent mistreatment she endures for basically her whole life. Not only is it just nice to get these things reiterated in a pre-twins and pre-Hikaru context (and thus establish that Ai has always been this way) but I think it's also really important for establishing that.. yes! Ai really is just like this.

It's easy to forget now we're at the end of the manga and we've had basically the whole Movie Arc jackhammering "Ai was just a normal girl and the only part of her that was fake was pretending she was perfect" into our heads, but Viewpoint B came out in March of 2023, which is when (at least in the Western fandom) the idea that Ai might be Secretly Evil or that the sides of her we see on-screen were entirely fake or a mask were still extremely popular ways to interpret her. Viewpoint B makes it crystal clear that the supposed 'real Ai' is still just Ai and that her idol self isn't some distinct, fake persona separate from the real thing - she's just a different side of Ai's real, authentic self.

I also really adore the Viewpoint B audio drama! Honestly there's still a little part of me that can't fucking believe it exists lol. Takahashi's performances as Kyun and Ai are just mindboggling. She has the range!!!! Godddddd I want to believe so bad they'll do an OVA adaptation of it someday... plsplsplspls dogakobo, i've been so good...

[rius-cave]

When and how did you start shipping Adamsapple?

I’m asking to you too cause I believe half of us summoned from you lol

I would honestly love to know people's stories of how they started shipping adamsapple, whether it has to do with me it not, I'm constantly asking that question to people I meet and it's fascinating to me how people came to like it!

As for me, I have the whole thing documented because I watched the show with my gf LOL

This was me during the finale

Which is hilarious now in hindsight, oh young Riu (from 6 months ago) you were so foolish

This was me explaining to my gf how the "now I'm going to fuck you" joke worked in spanish, and then the first seeds of the adamsapple delusion sprouted lol

And this is me hahaha shipping it for the lolz also feat. My gf's character development when she thought the idea was cursed at first (now she's a shipper too dw)

So yeah! It started with me thinking it would be funny, then thinking about sinner Adam, then I made my first adamsapple comic with that joke because haha funny, and then I think I saw some NSFW of them in twitter and.... I was doomed kakfjskffs

Enemies to lovers is absolutely my number #1 trope so honestly, I don't know how I didn't expect this ship to completely take over my life lol

[bigtedbear]

Omg I just had another thought, you can make this a request but it's honestly up to you.

Imagine a Dilf Mafia male Reader? Or maybe just a Dad! Mafia male reader? X alhaitham? Or anyone who you think is a motherly character honestly, maybe even baizhu or Zhongli.

(OMEGAVERSE THIS PUHLEASE)

Imagine that one day, his one and only son disappeared and was kidnapped by his enemies, he was a cold dad but never a bad one who wouldn't care about his child — so ofc he sent out thousands of his men to hunt down those who kidnapped his son.

But unknowingly to him, his son has been saved by a stranger who his son calls “mom”. The stranger didn't even know who the child was — all he knew was that they needed help. And so he ran with a crying child in his arms.

The child doesn't even know his dad's last name, all he knew was our name, “M/n”. So that didn't really help the stranger, but the story of how the child got kidnapped helped — “The bad guys said that they were my daddy's friends, but then they hurt me and I escaped by running very far! And they said they're gonna go for my daddy instead...” The child said.

And thus with a heavy heart, the stranger assumed that the reader was dead. And that this child was basically alone, an orphan. And thus he decided to take care of the child, and the child was happy to call him mommy — refusing to call him daddy for the reason that he already has a daddy, and the stranger couldn't beat to break the kids little heart so he couldn't refuse!

But actually it was the other way around, reader DEFINITELY wasn't dead... More like the kidnappers are. A few days, months of searching even, they finally found the caretaker of his son and immediately traveled to their location without a notice to the stranger.

And so when they arrived at the door and claimed he was the child's father, no way was the stranger going to trust shady men wearing black suits! He refused, not giving a damn what they say without proof — there was no way they were taking HIS child away from him.

He has always longed for his own, but how could he beat a seed when all his exes were too afraid to commit? When they all leave him? No way was he going to let his baby be away from him, they can't take this away from him.

And I blanked after that, I think that it could be a fluff with angst back stories and shit. I honestly think it's a cute thing I just thought of it idk. Then they fall in love in the process yada yada and boom the live as a whole family

—🪷

Everytime I open my request I wait for ur messages in my inbox because I fear your requests r so fascinating

[balalaijka]

books read in 2024, with notes

Problém tří těles (The Three Body Problem), Liou Cch'-sin

loved it, beautiful suspense, the video game aspect was very cool, felt that the last section where we see the trisolarans’ perspective makes it better thematically but weakens the dread that was so prevalent otherwise

Arabian Nights, transl. Haddawy

delightful, had some extremely raunchy parts that i wasn’t expecting, honestly it’s fascinating to see the convergence of so many literary impulses side by side

Červotoč (Carcoma), Layla Martínez

a shorter weird horror about cycles of trauma in three generations of women in a house with skeletons both metaphorical and literal within its walls

Kluci ze hřbitova (Cemetery Boys), Aiden Thomas

the plot was a bit predictable but the romance was sweet and yes, i did cry at the end a bit

Děti duny (Children of Dune), Frank Herbert

honestly i think herbert really struck gold with his writing of sibling relationships, the contrast of alia and paul’s dooms and leto ii and ghanima’s adventures were the highlight here

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

for a “problematic novel” i felt that nabokov does an excellent job of reminding us of hh’s monstrosity even if it is told directly through his pov, loved the literary references from edgar allan poe to carmen—always elegant but with the edge of almost satirizing intellectualism itself

The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson

honestly a perfect book to read even when you’re feeling burnt out—the nonlinear and rambling style makes it very interesting to read without taxing you too much, and the discussions of queerness and sexuality and art were throughly enjoyable

Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake

love this chaotic mess of a man, who’ll tell you about the chemical structures and scientific methods on one page and then describe taking lsd and brazenly admitting to apple theft on the next

The Wounded Sky, Diane Duane

as a fan of duane’s young wizards series, this is a fascinating window into the transition from her star trek novels to original writing, the banter is infectious, the alien characters delightful and the scifi jargon jargoning

EDIT: the lovely Ms. Duane herself clarified that the original fiction came first, my bad!

Binti: Home, Nnedi Okorafor

as a fan of the first book who felt that more time was needed to explore binti’s trauma, this book gives that narrative its space, and also delivers an honestly heartbreaking story about returning home but it’s not home not really because you changed but you love it but did it love you or did it only tolerate you when you fit its ideas of who you should be? the line “you used to be such a beautiful girl” made me bawl

The Devourers, Indra Das

the simple version of the summary is “iwtv but werewolves in mughal (?) era india,” it does fall into the trap of trying to make things edgy by indulging in game of thrones-style “grit”, but at the same time its a dream-like exploration of legacy and queerness

Wild Seed, Octavia Butler

a reread technically, but still holds up, butler does not hold back when it comes to fucked up power dynamics and the implications of having powers tied to genetics, anyanwu and doro remain some of the most fascinating depictions of immortals

Mind of My Mind, Octavia Butler

a shorter and more transitional work, i feel there could have been more detailing of the patternist society but on the other hand we see doro get his just desserts and it is amazing after all the shit he pulled in wild seed

Clay’s Ark, Octavia Butler

butler’s attempt at writing a horror slasher?

Bluets, Maggie Nelson

dreamy and indulgent, i generally just really love how nelson mixes up intellectualism and horniness like a cocktail and makes it amazing

Vicious, V.E. Schwab

amazingly paced with wonderful asshole characters, featuring a found family that probably shouldn’t have found each other and unapologetic vengeful sentiments

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

if you can ignore the voice in your head chanting “i would have done a better job hiding the books than montag,” this is an honestly life-changing examination of the importance of literacy??? the montag and beatty argument made me start annotating like i was in ap lit again

The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer

stories so bright and vivid you’ll be mad that movies purporting to be “realistic depictions of medieval times” are always gray and misery-filled

When We Cease to Understand the World (Un Verdor Terrible), Benjamín Labatut

while the “prussian blue” chapter remains my favorite, the whole thing is a really good examination of the tangle of scientific progress and human atrocities, though the titular chapter did drag on and verge more on “melodramatic biopic” territory rather than the dry menippean satire that the rest of the book is

[bidonica]

Hey! I see you're into fragile/higgs ship and caught myself quite like them too recently (tho i've been in DS fandom already for a year and mostly thought about them as a friends)

Just wondering why do you like them? Do you have any headcanons/interesting thoughts? I'm very curious 👀

Hi! First of all apologies for the wall of text you're about to get, but unfortunately you came knocking at my door after I spent nearly two months ruminating about this ship basically by myself sooo I'm dumping it all here

Well the short (lol) version is that in my first playthrough I mostly just absorbed the characters and storyline, but by the time I got to their final scene on the Beach I was like wait a minute... their whole shared storyline feels way too loaded for them to simply have been business associates, that shit is personal, even Higgs wanting to damage Fragile feels way too pointed to just be justified by "he was a turncloak with a secret agenda." Now, I'm not against a "they were simply close friends" interpretation, it works just as well to explain the emotional weight of their falling out, BUT I also cannot ignore the zest, the flavor, the spice of them actually having been involved romantically at some point. And honestly going into my second playthrough with the shipping goggles on I can't help thinking that Fragile speaks about Higgs like he was an ex that hurt her, and the way that she is suspiciously cagey about the specifics of their relationship makes my ears shoot up like a German shepherd.

On a Doylist level I also find it interesting that Kojima gave Higgs extra backstory that connects him to Fragile in the Director's Cut, and also how the behind the scenes for the DS2 mocap show Troy and Léa sharing a scene... I think Kojima is not done intertwining their story and we'll get more info in the sequel.

Now for the headcanons... I have enough that I might or might not be writing a long-ish fic about it, but I want to finish this Director's Cut playthrough before completing it (I could just look stuff up on the wiki but that's not fun). Also I have some art in the pipeline about it that I hope to post within the week. Anyway, the bite sized version of how I envision their relationship:

I hc Higgs as being immediately attracted to Fragile but not really acting on it, while she develops her attraction after getting to know him a little. Then she's down bad but she doesn't even realize it until it's so obvious it hits her in the face

A few people at their joint Fragile Express/whatever Higgs' operation was called co-op assume they are an item long before anything ever happens, because they just hang out together a lot. They have a similar penchant for corny jokes and puns and enjoy some light banter; Fragile finds Higgs' flair for theatrics endearing, while he is drawn to how gentle she is because he has known so little softness in his life (also he thinks she's insanely pretty, which duh. It's self evident because Léa Seydoux) (it's his first serious girl crush anyway; I hc him as bi and as having had mostly experiences with men before her)

They bond over their DOOMS condition and Higgs is fascinated by Fragile's powers, while she is less enthused by all the collateral effects. In my hc, at this point she has yet to become as skilled at traveling through dimensions as she is in the game, which makes her reluctant to agree to Higgs' requests to show him the Beach. This sows the seeds of his resentment towards her, because he feels she has a privilege she doesn't make use of and doesn't want to share.

They are both pretty touchy feely (canon!) so when their relationship goes from friendly to romantic it gets physical immediately and enthusiastically. Yes even accounting for the worldwide lowered sex drive. If there's one thing I never do is put characters in horny jail 🫡

 I think Fragile got to know a version of Higgs that was quite different from what we see in the game, which you sort of can gauge from the more optimistic pages of his diary. Like there's a part of him who's starved for love and connection and a sense of belonging and gravitates towards people like Coffin (he never had a mother) and Fragile herself; ironically, the pull towards Amelie answers to the same need but in reality it feeds on his more nihilistic, call-of-the-void side. I'm not saying that Amelie brainwashed him or anything, but I think she saw what was already there – a  deep seated resentment towards a hostile world and towards those he feels got handed a luckier deal than he did, that he countered by clinging to the notion of being special because of his DOOMS, but then there's someone like Fragile who's even more special and doesn't seem to be doing much with it. Amelie gave him a chance to fulfill what he felt was his potential and shared her power with him, but the tradeoff was severing  the connections he had, "killing" the part of him that wanted to be loved to make space for what he perceived as a higher form of love ("I found someone who completes me" which he says to Fragile specifically like he wants to rub it in her face? Like she wasn’t  enough to fulfill that role?)

That’s why I think it’s significant that he lost his hands with his power-up, because the (holding, welcoming) hands are strongly associated with Fragile; and to me it makes sense if he purposely ruins her body also because it’s a way to stifle his attraction to her. There’s also a lot of projection because HE is the one who’s felt like damaged goods all along, who grew up being  crushed psychologically and physically. I also think that both of them coming close to annihilating the other but choosing not to – leaving them in a dicey situation but not entirely without escape – shows in some twisted way that their bond still exists, which makes me giggle and rub my hands like a nasty little goblin knowing we have another game coming.

So… That’s the gist of it. Sorry for rambling on but as I said, I don’t really get the chance to talk about this ship much – greetings from rarepair hell, etc.

[randomthefox]

Man, I think the *only* things I agree with you on is Sonic emotionally manipulating Shadow and the Jet bodycount kerfuffle -- Profile and posts basically say Dead Dove, so I suppose that's on me, but you really do have a seething hatred for every other Sonic media, huh?

Perhaps if due diligence was taken you'd know that the artists are all together on an equal server to trade temp designs amongst eachother for use among the civilian Sonic populations - which would mean OCs too, of course, but to chalk that up to creators *just* wanting to see their OCs in the stories, possibly due to some self-perceived "hate" towards fans as you say, is really off-the-walls bonkers. Maybe with genuine time and consideration (i.e 24 hours of healthy self-reflection), you could find it to be projection on your part? And on Surge leaving Rest.HQ, god forgive *news and second-hand sources* existing lmao, not that it matters much. I think it's genuinely fascinating seeing how particular an insular group gets to make mountains out of molehills; same goes for the hate-boner mental gymnastics trying to understand why fans like Lanolin.

I'd say I appreciate the effort on your lot's part, got to get that Yang to our Yin, but you might do thirteen-thousand heel-turns and say 'the symbol is a vapid excuse of integrity' or something inane like that. Have a splendid day regardless!

Honestly if you agree with any one of my individual complaints then you actually agree with all of them. Because every single complaint branches out from the same core seed issue of "this isn't like the video games."

Sonic emotionally manipulating Shadow is bad BECAUSE it is contrary to how Sonic behaves in the video games

Sonic and Jet having a Rescue Count competition making light of the life or death threat those innocent civilians are under is bad BECAUSE it is contrary to how those characters behave in the video games.

Every single complaint I ever make about any piece of spin off Sonic media can be summarized as "that isn't how it is in the video games."

There is actually no nuance to any of my complaints whatsoever lol. If it's like the video games, then it's good. If it's not like the video games, then it's bad. It really doesn't go beyond that. At all. (It doesn't even need to be EXACTLY stuff from the video games. I LIKE in Sonic Movie 2 when they invented all that lore about the Owls vs Echidnas and the origin of the Master Emerald, even though that's different from the lore in the video games. But it was still LIKE the video games, so I enjoyed it.)

If you agree with me on those two instances being bad, then you HAVE to agree with me that the rest of the comic is bad too. Because it's all the exact same complaint. Every single panel. The only times I am ever NOT making a complaint is when the comic is actually passingly resembling the video games. Like when I said this panel was good. Because Amy is actually acting like how she does in the video games.

Whenever I'm NOT complaining about the comic it's BECAUSE the comic is authentically resembling the video games. And, therefore, is good.

If the comic was doing this more often THEN I WOULDN'T BE COMPLAINING AND SAYING THAT IT'S BAD. If this comic was an ACTUAL PROPER AUTHENTIC ADAPTATION OF THE SONIC THE HEDGEHOG VIDEO GAMES, then I would FUCKING LIKE IT. Because a Sonic adaptation that ACTUALLY ADAPTS the video games is literally ALL I WANT IN THE FUCKING WORLD.

Make sense? Are you following me here? Now stay with me on that logic here:

ALL of the OCs are bad because NONE OF THEM ARE FROM THE VIDEO GAMES. Any scene that is about an OC is AUTOMATICALLY bad because the OCs AREN'T FROM THE VIDEO GAMES. The Sonic franchise has so. So. So. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many characters. Why aren't they using literally ANY SINGLE ONE OF THEM instead of inventing some bullshit dumbass fucking deviant art OC that has never and will never appear in the video games?

Every single PANEL of this comic that contains an OC is bad by DEFAULT because it contains OCs that aren't from the games.

I hate ALL OF THEM because they AREN'T FROM THE GAMES.

The fact they are all atrociously fucking written despite the fact they don't even have the excuse of mandates tying the writers hands and they should theoretically have infinitely more creative freedom to write the OCs however they want only makes them worse. When it comes to the Video Game Characters, they're strung up by mandates. And the Video Game Characters are OCCASIONALLY written properly and well, from time to time. When it comes to the OCs, they have no mandates. And the OCs are ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS written BADLY.

So what does THAT tell you?

Since you're here maybe you can answer a question for me: WHY CAN'T THE COMIC JUST BE GOOD?

WHY CAN'T THE COMIC JUST BE GOOD THOUGH?

ALL I WANT IS A GOOD SONIC COMIC WHY CAN'T THE COMIC BE GOOD??? IF THE COMIC WAS GOOD THAT WOULD MAKE ME HAPPY, WHY CAN'T THEY JUST MAKE A SONIC COMIC THAT'S GOOD DO THEY NOT WANT ME TO BE HAPPY?

Hope your day is good too.

[valandhirwriter]

Pick 3 of your favorite characters. Tell us when and how you fell in love with them. Inquiring minds want to know :)

Then tag 3 or more people, hopefully who aren't shy :D.

3 of my favourite characters.... that's quite the challenge I have to admit. Because I read a lot and had a lot of favourite chars accordingly. But, here we go, I will try to give this a bit of bandwith, because I have character types that speak to me much easier than others.

Boromir of Gondor

When did I fall in love with this character? At about 13, when I first read Lord of the Rings. I remember reading through the story, and wondering why none of his companions would try and reach out to him. Legolas and Gimli waste time arguing whether bow or sword is the better weapon, while beside them their comrade is slowly drifting off into darkness. Boromir also had some vibes of Hagan of Tronege from the Niebelungenlied to me, also a character who is considered dark, fierce and also fiercely loyal. While many consider Hagen the bad guy of the story, I also liked him best. The early picture of Boromir that I had in my mind, was close to the book describtion, black hair, very tall, haunted grey eyes and a scar on his forehead. Naturally when the movies came along, my favourite actor Sean Bean had the role, and the picture changed around a little. Watching his interpretation of Boromir seeded the first ideas for a story arc about him in my brain, though it would take me another ten years to sit myself down and write the story. In that story i then explored many of the questions I had since first reading the novel: What drove Boromir to such extremes? What happened to Gondor? How did Aragorn leaving after the Umbar campaign impact Gondor long.term? Even after finishing that huge arc, I still love Boromir as a character. His story has been with me for a long time, and will hopefully remain with me for a long time still.

2. Raistlin Majere

I discovered the dragonlance books by accident in my teens. And while the quality of the novels can be called into question, their humour certainly still echoes with me. That and... Raistlin. He was the character I found fascinating at once, and not just because he was the only one in the group actually using his brain. Unfortunately the authors had set up his split from the group and later his "fall" in War of the Twins, instead of really exploring the character with more depth. There was so much potential there, so much aspects to tell a story. Raistlin had the potential to be one of those compelling dark characters, who casn make the heroes torn, because while not with them on principle, their help is still invaluable. I sometimes consider writing a story about him, beginning from before his trials at the Tower of Wayreth and building the AU from there. But I would have to take huge liberties, and have yet to find just the right story companion for him. What draw me to Raistlin is his intelligence, also his detachment, his ability to see the situation for what it is, and not need delusions about hope or good, to sustain himself. He sees what is, and doesn't despair but come up with a plan. That nickname "the sly one" hit me hard when I first read about him, because it told me how judgemental those friends of his were.

3. Eskel

Ciri arriving in Kaer Morhen, and getting frightened by one of Geralt's comrades, because his face is clawed up in some manner... I still remember reading that scene, some time in the 90ies. I was curios at once, especially as scarface, ahm Eskel, proved to be a nice guy in the few scenes he had in the book. I liked him, and I wanted to know more about him. I came up with several stories how he had gotten his scars, and who he was outside of just one of Geralt's brothers. Unfortunately the author never bothered to tell us more about him. Then came the games and I was only marginally enticed by them. Some aspects are good, others are meh... and I will honestly admit that I am still so-so about the Diedre tale. Then came Netflix... and wow was I pissed. Eskel needed his own heroic story I decided and well... it happened. He's still my favourite Witcher, and hopefully will remain so.

Honourable Mentions

Lan al Mandragoran

Wheel of time was another series I devoured in the late 90ies (and on as new books came out), and Lan was my favourite character in them. I was sure he would die in Tarmon Gai'don, but that did not hinder me devouring everything about him. And what a confrontation in the last battle. Reading that, i was sure, so sure, he'd not come out of this alive, and so happy when he did. I would love to write a story about him and Tam meeting at the Blood Snow and upsetting the entire applecart of events.

Athos

Athos from the Three Musketeers is another childhood hero, from reading the books (Three Musketeers/Twenty Years After/ The Viscount of Bragelonne) when I was a young teen. I like Athos, is aloofness, his honour, is utter reality-defying sticking with said honour, and also his haunted past. He was one of my first fanfic subjects (cringe, the stories were so bad) and i still adore him to this day.

Tagging @regis-favorite-raven, @do-androids-dream-ao3acc, @lohrendrell and @eskel-loves-lilbleater to talk about their favourite characters and how they encountered them.

[yowhoevenami]

The X-Files – Pilot

I’ve been rather couch bound with some health nonsense, so I’ve decided to jump into this. It’s been a while since I’ve watched The X-Files and I’d like to shout into the void about it for a while. Here follows me losing my mind over things like character introductions for the most part. Seriously, I feel like this show is a masterclass.  

The meeting between Mulder and Scully is so good. In a relatively short amount of time, about three and a half minutes, we are given SO MUCH. Scully’s professionalism and Mulder’s . . . um . . .contrast to that? 😉 Mulder’s sense of humor along with his sideways method of complimenting and his apparent inability to be serious most of the time. Scully’s intelligence as he lists her credentials. (His intelligence was already highlighted in the previous scene.)

Her ability to meet him where he stands intellectually. (The way that they challenge each other is fascinating to watch and is what keeps them so interested in one other. Who else could effectively match either of them?) We are shown her curiosity as she immediately starts to question what she’s seeing in the slides he presents to her. (Taking a moment of silence here to remember the times when slides had nothing to do with powerpoint.)

We get Scully’s core beliefs in this one bit of dialogue. (This world view is integral to her, and she later struggles with the difficulty of having to see beyond the surety that she has spent a lifetime cultivating.) Three and a half minutes! There are reasons that these two are so iconic and it all starts here.

Their first few scenes together he is testing her to see if she’s trustworthy and to gauge her capabilities. However, the impression is never even hinted at that he might be doubting her because she is a woman, only that she was sent to spy on him. (Honestly, this still feels refreshing as hell compared to other media that attempts to write strong women.)

We learn more about Mulder and what he might believe. His near giddy excitement over what they may have found with that exhumed body hints at the reveal later as to why he believes. This is a man that has spent his life being told that what he saw as a child, with his own eyes, was a lie. And here, before him, perhaps for the first time is the vindication of all of that? No wonder he’s practically clawing at the walls to get those tests done. And then, of course, the bathrobe scene. Is there an official name for this scene in the shipper lore because if not THERE SHOULD BE. :cough: Anyway.

Up to this point Scully has been expressing her strength and capability with little to no hint of vulnerability. Going to Mulder here, when she was afraid was one thing, the way she threw herself into his arms afterward is another. (Also, my kid wandered into the room during this scene for the hug and said “Ooooh, this is a love story, isn’t it?”) Yes, child. Yes, it is. But . . . in so many different ways and among so many other things.

Anyway, he chooses to answer her vulnerability with his own and tells the story that drives him. Here all levity in him dissipates into pure focus and drive. These are sides of Mulder that he carries with him throughout the series.

By the end of the pilot episode we have a really decent idea of who each of these people are, what is important to them, and what they want at this point of the narrative.

Side notes:

First use of: “Scully, it’s me.” (❤️)

And . . . now I’m craving sunflower seeds.

[queerbookgeek]

Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree.

Viv’s career with renowned mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn't going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk - so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it. What's a swarted soldier of fortune to do?

Spending her hours at a struggling bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted even though it may be exactly what she needs. Still, adventure isn't far away. A suspicious traveler in grey, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk could be more eventful then Viv could have ever expected. Sometimes, right things happen at the wrong time. And sometimes, we find ourselves in stories we experience together.

Set Twenty years before the events of Legends & Lattes , Bookshops & Bonedust is a stand alone cosy fantasy about the power of a good bookshop, great friends and the unexpected choices along the way.

I read Legends & Lattes early last year, I won't go into it as Bookshops & Bonedust pretty much stands alone but I will say it very easily became one of my favorite cosy books i've read, which ment expectations for Bookshops & Bonedust were high. It also left me hungry for cinnamon rolls, so this time I came prepared with fruit scones and ice tea. Also lets take a second to appreciate this super cute bookmark that I got for free when I ordered the book, a testament to why you should always buy from independent bookshops when possible. 

To say that I loved this book feels like an understatement. 

I loved all the new characters in this , a couple standouts for me are Satchel and Potroast but honestly I adored all of them, and watching Viv’s relationship unfold with them throughout the book even knowing that she is going to eventually leave is just beautiful. Also getting to see how Viv met Gallina was a lot of fun too. 

I know some people really didn't like it and I would honestly love to know why? I found it fascinating to  see the early seeds being sown in Viv’s life that would eventually lead her to give up adventuring and open her coffee shop.

The story, while slightly more adventurous than the first book, was really fun. It still very much leans more cosy than adventurous so still very fitting as a companion piece to Legends & Lattes.  

All this to say I really, really hope this isn't the last we see of Viv and Travis Baldree would so kindly give us another book about her life. 🏳️‍🌈

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 528

On games I've been playing...

Crime O’Clock is a hidden object game where you’re playing as a time detective, your job is to prevent paradoxes that could collapse the timeline or change it from the “True Timeline”. The game visually speaking has a cartoony art style like Hidden Through Time and Windpeaks, but uses the black and white with splashes of colour to highlight things found like cat hidden object games. 

It also has a storyline and minigames, making it more similar to the narrative hidden object games like Mystery Case Files. Especially because that storyline was very well written.

But what makes this hidden object game unique, is that time travel isn’t just a story plot, it is a game mechanic. The way the levels are designed is that it is a single huge hidden object scene that  the player can zoom in and move around in. However, this scene has 10 points (ticks) in the game where time moves. Every ‘tick’ is a different moment in time, and as the story progresses you are moved forwards and backwards in order to track down suspects or figure out what has happened. This makes the scenes come to live, as every single person in that scene will move and go about their life.

And honestly, this is probably the strongest quality of Crime O’Clock, because the artist(s) involved made these scenes burst with life. It is fascinating to see all the little things these people do that make you want to follow them. Even if their stories aren’t important to the main storyline, and will never even be followed in the Fulcrum Stories side quest.

By the way, fun side note, whoever makes up the Bad Seed studio are all clearly pop culture enthusiasts. All of these scenes are brimming with characters inspired from all sorts of shows, comics, and manga. It was a delight to see references to things like John Wick, Naruto, One Piece, Rick and Morty, and so much more. I played through some of the Fulcrum Stories just so I could follow these people to find out how they fit into this world.

I quite enjoyed Crime O’Clock, the story was well written in a way that I felt the stakes involved. It was a story I wanted to follow, which is always good when you have a narrative based hidden object game. However, I will admit the game may have outstayed its welcome.

While the game had hints for the primary quests, at certain points of the game where tensions are high you get no hints at all. This can be frustrating when you just want to move on with the story, and can’t find what you’re looking for. I actually had to use walkthrough guides because I was getting really stuck, and kind of over the game to a certain degree. I still wanted to know how it ended but I sort of had enough.

This might be more due to the fact I’m not used to hidden object games being this long. I hadn’t even completed all the Fulcrum Stories and I had already played for 19 hours. I’m not the fastest or best person at hidden object games, and I also was taking notes so I wouldn’t forget shit, so your times may vary, but most hidden object games I’ve played are like 3 hours long. So this had taken longer than I wanted.

I still liked it, and it’s still on my computer because I would like to do the side quests at some point. It's very different from what I’m used to, but I do recommend it.

[zannolin]

i'm still formulating my thoughts on dragonwatch as a whole and this may honestly just be my bias from when i was twelve showing but i really do wish that bracken had been more present in rotds at least if not the entire series.

like for someone who is supposed to be a love interest and is so heavily emphasized by kendra's priorities and pov he spends like almost no time actively on the page or contributing to the plot in any meaningful way (or having much character development) past like, being in prison and motivating kendra to go rescue him (and half the time she would have done the things she did anyway because it would have helped seth, or because she probably needed to try to solicit ronodin's help anyway). i'm not really sure why he's practically nonexistent, especially after playing such a major role at the end of fablehaven. and sure there's plenty of fablehaven characters like that who weren't as present in dragonwatch, but none of them were an endgame love interest for one of our two main characters. this is of course setting aside the weirdness of the age gap, in case you were wondering. i've elected to ignore it and embrace my inner twelve year old i guess.

like there's this really fascinating comparison/contrast going on between him and ronodin, and there's a lot that could have been done to flesh him out more and make his choice at the end feel more impactful and less half-assed, like it was just trying to solve the problem of him being immortal and kendra being mortal. the seeds for it are there, for sure, again with the ronodin comparisons and the series thematically being about change and growth and growing up and becoming a different person. about making hard choices and letting go of who you were. but because he's like never there and you don't even get to witness much of his reasoning behind it, or even him interacting with kendra for more than like, a hundred cumulative pages...it just feels a little forced. a little rushed. and that makes me sad because i think it's genuinely SUCH an interesting direction to take his character and makes a lot of sense, but the end result just feels lackluster compared to what it might have been with even just a couple more bracken scenes or him being a little more present instead of constantly being in goddamn jail off-page all the time. like it feels like everyone else and their relationships have had serious character and story arcs and ended up in a different place than they were at the end of fablehaven, except brackendra. the only difference is he's mortal (without hardly any exploration of his reasoning or how that's changed him) and they kiss now i guess. you know?

(i dunno if this needs to be said but pls don't be a hater in my tags or anything.)

[oaxleaf]

The whole thing about Georgie is that her arc was fully completed long before the story began. She lost something/someone significant, she learned her lesson, she started living again. While the others have extensive knowledge of the Powers' terminology, she enters the story with a deep understanding of loss, entropy and fear that the others are yet to learn. She is never exactly unattended on screen. The tapes can't follow her and are hardly there for her so so does the narrative.

sorry this took me a couple days to answer. i was sick and my brain felt like the titan submersible moments before exploding to the pressure.

anyways. people aren't ever really finished though, you know? you have periods of your life when you are changing less or more, but you'll never reach a point where you will remain as such for the rest of your life. so whilst an arc can be fully completed in the sense of a certain, contained segment of a characters development, be it for better or worse, can reach a satisfying conclusion. and some stories tie it up there and let things lie, and that's fine, but others - especially those tragic or bittersweet endings - leave a lot to be developed on, or potential new themes to be explored.

georgie enters the story from a different position than the other characters, sure, but honestly i wouldn't claim that what marks her out is her being particulary good at dealing with loss, rather just that she does it differently. she is most definitely the best at letting go of things or setting boundaries where most of the other characters struggle to let go enough of their pain, curiosity, or emotional investment to do so. since she is not a part of the institute and as such not stuck there it makes good contrast to other characters, in particular to jon who, even before his life was dependent on the statements to stay alive, was unable to let obviously harmful situations be. it's also why georgie and melanie make such a good match - melanie is (along with tim) one of the few that really do want out.

and yeah, i guess you could call that an arc already completed by the time she's introduced. or you could just call it characterization or backstory. you're right about her not being interesting to the purpose of the tapes, and she is relatively sure of herself and is typically better at handling the horrors than others, but also don't feel like that's the point? she acts as a contrast, but not as, like, a mentor figure or something like that, and it's less important that she has overcome this stuff and more important that jon, in comparison, has not. so yes, georgie is relatively static in her development during most of the show. not at all a bad thing when placed next to characters experiencing such drastic changes.

but what i aim at when i talk about her arc just starts at the end of the show if the doubts she starts expressing about this position she has held in the narrative around the last ten episodes of the show. she clearly feels guilt about the state of the world, about not being there enough for jon, about being too passive and not intervening enough - which is why it's pretty characteristic for her to be the only one even considering not actually doing anything about the change in mag 199 - and she struggles with the idea that maybe she is partially responsible for it all too, simply because she was too good about handling the horrors when others very much were not. all these things that put her in a position of safety, sanity, and relative comfort, are now things she doubts because she worries that it makes her an accomplice through means of complicity

really it's just a seed. it only appears very late in the story, but i found it very potent. what makes me call it the start of an arc, though, are the very obvious opportunities for this all being exacerbated after the fall of the panopticon. there is so much potential for struggle and guilt there, and i just find the whole idea fascinating. to me, there isn't a world where georgie doesn't eventually have a breakdown over it all, but that's stuff that can only really be kicked into full gear after the absolutely chatastrophic personal loss and failure that was mag 200. that in combination with melanie's clear wish to just be rid of it all... all i'm saying is that there's some good potential in this

[sohannabarberaesque]

Postcards from Snagglepuss

What a Summer of (Ursine) Love it must've been for the Hair Bear Bunch!

CAMBRIDGE, MN: Huckleberry Hound and yours truly decided to take lunch at a modest little cafe ahead of preparations for our Braham Pie Day Character Convocation in a few day's time, mainly to discuss preparations ... when, for some reason or another, along comes no less than the Hair Bear Bunch in their Volkswagen Kombi campervan for (obviously enow) lunch. And were they stunned (and I do mean STUNNED!) by our motorhome serving as our new mobile bivouac!

"And who do we have the pleasure of crossing paths with?" saith Huckleberry Hound as we were finalising our order.

"None other than the Hair Bear Bunch!", exclaimeth Hair Bear alongside his two ursine companions, Square Bear and Bubi Bear.

To which Square Bear added, "What a surprise it must be to come across you two!"

"Heavens to Yogi Bear!" I remarked. "And I presume you're getting ready for Braham Pie Day, after quite the summer of ursine love, mating even!"

Which saw the ursine trio sit at a booth across the way from us, and striking up conversation. "To put it honestly, Snag and Huck," Hair Bear remarked, "we bears just can't help but explore the sheer magic that is obvious in the release of tensions which sex can bring on!"

"Yeah," the young whippersnapper Bubi Bear remarked, "it can't help but just feel so releasing the clyde, so much is the magic to be found!"

Huckleberry asked Hair just how long these mating season road trips had been going on with the trio, to which he remarked, "Last several years. Admittedly, it's much better than back at the Wonderland Zoo, which we could see collapsing practically before our eyes for several years!"

Square Bear picked up the story: "Even with Botch and Peevly--"

"I take it they were the zookeepers," Huck remarked.

Square continued: "Correct; Botch and Peevly kept blaming us for all the collapse which the zoo had somehow been going through when, in fact, the zookeepers' ineptitude and deferred maintenance which made things rather awful."

Hair Bear: "It was their sheer and outright mental collapse, right in front of visitors, that was practically the last straw!"

"Heavens to Hagenbeck!" was my response.

Continued Hair Bear: "Such was certainly enough to reset our lives more than anything. We began resettling close to an isolated beach out by Malibu, where we have a secret surf and dive spot ... and boy, who could resist the surfing to be had there?"

"I've heard much about the surfing out Malibu way," Huckleberry remarked.

"And boy, couldn't you get more seriously stoked on those waves?" was how Square Bear added to the converse.

"Quite the stoke indeed! Quite the riding experience, such must be the serious clyde out of Malibu--" remarked Bubi until Square Bear's forepaw shut Bubi up in a commonplace stunt whenever Bubi's remarks appeared to go over the top, prompting Square to ask impatiently, "What exactly did Bubi say just now?!"

"At any rate, guys," Hair Bear chimed in, "sensing the limitations of the Invisible Motorbike which Square is bound to rely on in getting around, some close friends gave us a Volkswagen Campervan they lovingly had rebuilt for road trips ... and soon after, we began our summer road trip tradition of going into the north country during the bear mating season and just engage in the experience of ursine sexuality!"

I was tempted to ask whether their mating antics had much success in bear cubs ensuing from their seed, to which Square Bear remarked that "I have to admit that we're not exactly sure about the numbers; after all, it's the female as brings up the cubs almost exclusively until they reach three years of age or so."

"And from there on out," Hair Bear added, "they're on their own. It's pretty much possible that we fathered a few bears from our mating escapades, and where they may happen to be ... it's practically anybody's guess. After all, what could feel more fascinating in the summer than to camp beside some lake on a mild summery night and enjoy the evening releasing yourself with some feminine ursine company through the night--"

"--bound to be followed the clyde with some moonlight swimming and diving around; wouldn't it feel wonderful, oh the clyde, the moon reflected in the waters when you've got some girlfriends along!," added Bubi, ever the whippersnapper (as it were.)

As our lunch came along, Huckleberry couldn't help but remark in response just how exciting bear-type love must be.

"For us, Huckleberry and Snagglepuss," Hair Bear responded, "it's bound to come rather naturally ... and bound to feel so wonderful in the end!" To which Huck added a reminder that the Braham Pie Day Convocation was coming up, and that we were expecting them there.

"Agreed" was how Hair Bear responded.

*************

@warnerbrosentertainment @railguner34 @theweekenddigest @iheartgod175 @archive-archives @thebigdingle @screamingtoosoftly @princessgalaxy505 @themineralyoucrave @thylordshipofbutts @warnerbrosent-blog @zodiacfan32 @jellystone-enjoyer @haiyis-dark-void @warnerbrosent-blog

[emmettkane]

Okay, I watched Hellboy (2004). long post time. First off: context. I didn't read any of the Hellboy comics when they came out, as soon as they came out, because I wasn't alive in 1994, so I don't know what a fan of them might have thought of Guillermo Del Toro's take on it when the first live action Hellboy film released. Note, that was in 2004.

I enjoyed the tale in a very modern way: by reading pretty much all of it in a few months through the omnibus collections. That gave me a pretty clear idea of the direction of the story and the arcs of the characters, one that I'm honestly not sure that Mike Mignola had the luxury of, and it made watching that first film jarring in so many fun (see, terrible) ways.

I'm not going to jump out and say that it was bad, because I did have some amount of fun watching it, and I have nothing but respect for Guillermo.

It wasn't Hellboy though?

Okay, that's Mister Mignola's decision to make, (I know, i know, death of the artist or w/ever, but I respect the guy) but I had some serious grievances with the handling.

(If you're going to read further, keep in mind that the film was based off of The Seed of Destruction, which is the first of the four Hellboy Omnibuses)

Lets start with some critical differences 1. The nazis don't get off-screened in a b-plot due to infighting (which was critical to the comics) 2. Kroenen is just a ninja mummy now for some reason 3. WHO IS THIS WHITE GUY? WHY IS HE IN THE PLOT? (to give the audience a relatable character, in Hellboy. Yikes)

and to me, the gravest of sins: 4. Hellboy uses a gun.

Mind you The Samaritan is a radical firearm, but HB uses guns like, twice in the whole of the comics, and they blow up in his hands or otherwise fail him both times.

I could go on, about how they blew up the romance and made it central in a way that deeply detracted from Hellboy's original arc, about the addition of more generic agent characters, about not using any of the actual interesting locations from the comics and instead hosting the entire story in [LARGE CITY], USA.

I can tell you though, that after a little thought and research, all that probably came down to two things.

#1: Mike had been trying to turn Hellboy into a film for ages by this point, and people kept shooting him down (lots of reasons for that in 2004, I guess) and he probably just wanted to make it happen at that point

#2: And this is influenced by #1, but...filming restrictions. Hellboy using a gun reduced the amount of choreography work, filming in a single city reduced travel/FX budgets, having the nazis directly involved in the story shortened shooting times and simplified the overall plot. I get it. I think.

Okay, so, look. I don't know if any of that stuff makes it not-pretty-terrible anyway, but I think it's important to at least try to remember the environment people were in when they made whatever creative decisions they made. History is, if nothing else, fascinating to study. Anyway, even if I didn't enjoy the piece, I'm glad that I watched it. The real benefit to looking at "the classics" isn't to see something you'll love, but to know where the things you do love came from.

[darkcrowprincess]

My favorite books I use to(and still do as an adult) read as a kid and teen:

*harry potter series is not on this list because honestly its a given by this point. So doesn't count. I never really read or finished many book series besides harry potter anyway. *

Matilda by Roald Dahl. This book got little kid me to love reading! If not for Matilda I would have never been a bookworm. Would read that book all the time as a kid.

Witches by Roald Dahl. Same as Matilda. I was just so obsessed with this book as a kid. I loved how creepy it was with the witches and how bittersweet the ending was with the grandmother and her grandson.

And than there were none by Agatha Christie. I just love the story. We had to read it for school and I just fell in love with it. Was what got me into Mysteries and just my general love for Agatha Christie. Horrible people getting the karma they deserve in a very creepy and just interesting setting.

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. I had this copy growing up that had the play and west side story with it that I'd read all the time. Like I just love the play. Love it. I never fully understand all the words or the meanings till high school. But I love reading the book. The words just sounded pretty to me.

Where the heart is by Billie Letts. I love the movie. Was so surprised it was a book and loved it too. Would read it all the time. I don't know, I was just fascinated as a kid by a baby being born in Walmart. Plus I love the main character.

Out of the Blue by Kasey Michaels. A romance novel that I got at the dollar store one time, that i basically bought because the main female character had the same name as me. And I loved that. Its basically a time travel romance novel mixed with bodice ripper elements. All set in London England. This was the first smutty novel I ever read as a kid. And I would sneak read it late at night.

A Pocket Full of Seeds by Marilyn Sachs. This book is what kind of got me a little obsessed on learning about the holocaust and world war 2. It was so sad. But I just kept wanting to read it. And any other books I could get my hands on about the holocaust.

[mediaevalmusereads]

Lincoln in the Bardo. By George Saunders. Random House, 2017.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Genre: literary fiction

Series: N/A

Summary: February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth," the president says at the time. "God has called him home." Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returned to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy's body.

From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a thrilling, supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory, where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie's soul.

Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction's ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices—living and dead, historical and invented—to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: self-harm (cutting)/suicide, child death, rape, slavery, use of the n-word, allusion to pedophilia

OVERVIEW: Friends and family have been telling me to read this book for ages. FINE. Now I've read it. And you know what? You were right - this book is interesting. It's not historical fiction in the strictest sense - it doesn't seek to narrate a moment in time the way one might expect. But as a work of literary fiction, I find it's construction deeply fascinating, so for that reason, this book gets 4 stars.

WRITING: This book is told using a "multi-vocalic" technique; some chapters are comprised entirely of excerpts from scholarship or first-hand accounts of Lincoln's presidency (some real, some fictional), while other chapters are narrated by different souls in the afterlife, each narrating for a word, sentence, or paragraph at time.

I very much enjoyed this technique as it made me think a lot about perspective and how characters related to one another. Sometimes, characters would narrate the speech or thoughts of another (especially in the afterlife), so there was a very thin line between where one soul ended and another began (at least, textually speaking). I also liked that the more straight-forward parts told through scholarship/eyewitness accounts conflicted with one another, producing an image of the Lincolns that was both imprecise yet shockingly real and human.

The downside to this narrative style is that sometimes it can feel like form overshadows function, and there were definitely moments when I felt that. But since this book moves so quickly, there isn't really a lot of time for things to drag, so if you find yourself lost, you'll probably find your way again quite easily.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows a number of souls in the "bardo" (the intermediate state between heaven and earth where souls go after death) as they try to get Willie Lincoln - son of President Abraham Lincoln - to move on.

The parts of this plot I liked the best were when characters would reflect on things like grief, connection, unity, and empathy. Souls had to work together at various points in time, and it's very clear that in the bardo, there is very little to motivate such cooperation. Willie's presence and President Lincoln's grief, however, seems to move a lot of them, and I liked seeing them come together to help a boy let go and move on.

That being said, I don't quite think this book hit as hard emotionally as I would have liked. I can't put my finger on why, but when I was finished, I was grateful for the experience, but not left feeling gut-punched. This is hardly Saunders' fault since books affect every reader differently, but I do think more could have been done to drive home the book's main themes, especially in the last pages when Lincoln himself reflects on death on the battlefield or when Willie decides to move on.

CHARACTERS: Rather than speak of individual characters, I'm going to speak more about how Saunders crafts them.

The souls in the bardo are fascinating to read because none of them realize they are dead and all are defined by something that they hold onto from the world of the living. Roger Bevins III, for example, is a gay man who killed himself but regretted it last minute, so his soul appears as a monstrosity with multiple eyes, noses, and hands, representing his attachment to the sensory pleasures of life. His companion, Hans Vollman, has an enormous erection because he died just before he was about to have sex with his wife for the first time.

The primary way these souls "develop" is to not only accept their deaths, but to show care and empathy to each other. While all of them have easy companionships with other souls in the bardo, it is only when they band together to try to help Willie that they truly come to know each other and try to help one another. It was deeply moving, and I loved the changes in Vollman and Bevins by the end.

TL;DR: Lincoln in the Bardo is a multi-vocalic novel that centers grief and empathy over recounting a historical moment in time. While I wish some aspects of the book had been pushed to create a heavier emotional impact, the style of narration is endlessly fascinating and humanizes one of America's most iconic leaders.