#i actually kinda liked this series except the last couple books

[tozettastone]

Fantasy Novels Recommended By Vibes

A note about warnings and assumptions: I have given no content warnings, but most of these books have them, usually for violence or sexism. Except the middle grade books. I have assumed everyone knows who Tolkien and Jordan and Le Guin and GRRM are and does not require me to recommend them once more. I have also assumed that everyone following me has read and enjoyed the trashiest of fanfiction at some point or other.

Now, let's go.

"I want something that feels like reading the unhinged fanfiction of a 16 year old girl, but written by and for adults so the sex scenes don't make me feel deeply uncomfortable."

Oh boy. Okay. Don't worry, I've got you.

The Black Jewels trilogy by Anne Bishop. High fantasy. If you like to categorise things you will love the worldbuilding in this. Weird and gender essentialist, although not in the way you might expect.

The Merry Gentry series by L K Hamilton. Urban fantasy. Degrades in quality over time. I would say: read the first two, and then continue at your discretion depending on your tolerance.

"Do you have a version of this that is not quite so focused on sex as worldbuilding?"

I do, I do. Not everything that reads like unhinged fanfiction must automatically contain smut.

A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik. It's billed as adult fantasy, but it reads like YA. If you like 2010s fanfiction and wish it were better written more often, you'll love these two.

Any book by Mercedes Lackey will read exactly like fanfiction. I make no comments as to technical quality, but if you like hurt/comfort idfic, you will like these. If you're looking for a zero-romance, one-book introduction to these books, I'd try Brightly Burning.

"That's still a bit too adult. I want something that's fine to read with kids, too!"

Sure! Fantasy loves YA and kids' books, haha.

The Dark Is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper. Middle grade fantasy, leaning heavily on English folklore.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn. Young adult urban fantasy. Concerned with the legacy of slavery in the US.

The Old Kingdom trilogy by Garth Nix. Young adult high fantasy. The pacing is strong, the worldbuilding is rad.

Tithe by Holly Black. Young adult fantasy. Her later books are better loved but I reread Tithe and then went and read The Cruel Prince for the first time this year and Tithe is better.

The Tortall books by Tamora Pierce. I like The Immortals, but reasonable minds will differ on this one. Middle grade high fantasy.

The Black Magician trilogy by Trudi Canavan. High fantasy, young adult.

"Okay, now I want young adult fantasy like that, but weird."

Weird. Hmm. Okay. Try:

The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce. Horror and fantasy, young adult, but not like... too young an adult. Give it to a 15 year old, not a 10 year old.

"That's... too weird. Put some weird back. I want something suitable for teens that's committed to the aesthetics of weirdness, but is not actually weird."

Alright, here are a couple:

Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz. Historical fantasy, definitely young adult. The grizzly aesthetics of 19th century graverobbing are a gossamer veil over a cute, but not particularly sophisticated, YA novel.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Middle grade fantasy. Less weird than it thinks it is, but still fun to read.

"Enough kids' stuff. I want fast-moving urban fantasy!"

Urban fantasy occupies a weird nexus between fantasy and detective noir, which I'm kinda into. Here are my suggestions:

I think everyone who wants urban fantasy is probably aware of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, but I'll put it here anyway because there's a big fandom for the Dresden Files so if you stick it out for a bit you get access to all the fics. The first one will take you 3.5 hours and if you don't like it, move on — the writing doesn't really change. Also has a TV series.

The Felix Castor novels by Mike Carey. Urban fantasy, a little more grim, but definitely better written.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. Urban fantasy. Main character is a police officer. I recently finished the first of these books and it was pretty fun, but I can't speak to the remainder of the series.

"Tozette, I fucking loved True Blood."

You're in luck, I can make this a whole category.

I bet you've heard of the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris already, but if you haven't, it's what the TV series was based on. Urban fantasy, but actually kind of rural.

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter by L K Hamilton. Urban fantasy. Another LKH series that starts fun and degrades rapidly. The first three are fun, they come in an omnibus. I was obsessed with this series when I was 17, which both is and isn't a recommendation. Again, this series has a large fandom.

Dime Store Magic and Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong. Urban fantasy. The rest of the Women of the Otherworld series is hit or miss for me, but I do recall liking No Humans Involved.

The Blood Books by Tanya Huff. Urban fantasy. Read if you've ever wished Harry Dresden was female. Also has a TV series!

"Do you have some traditional high fantasy recommendations that aren't Tolkien, Robert Jordan, GRRM, or Ursula K Le Guin? Please?"

Absolutely. Of course. One hundred per cent.

The Elenium trilogy by David & Leigh Eddings. High fantasy. Technically there's also a sequel trilogy, but it's not as good.

The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. High fantasy. Lots of high fantasy politics.

Urshurak by The Bros. Hildebrandt. High fantasy. Extremely Tolkien inspired but with more amazon women in metal bikinis.

The Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon. High fantasy. There's four of them and while I wouldn't say they're my favourite books ever, I do think they're a solid, competently written high fantasy series that will stop you from contemplating the horrors of reality for at least three days.

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. High fantasy. A great rearrangement of European folklore. I struggled with the representations of women, personally, but they're well constructed stories.

"Recommend something that's fantasy but feels like a totally different genre."

Okay. I can do that. Here you go:

The Chronicles of the Crystal Singers of Ballybran by Anne McCaffrey. It's a trilogy that's set in space and therefore engages with a sci-fi kind of vibe, but if you scratch the surface, the trilogy is fantasy all the way down.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by HP Lovecraft. Horror, but also historical fantasy.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. The first three books of the Thursday Next series are gold, actually, but start here. This is about a literary detective living in an alternative history setting. Fantasy, but ideal for people who are going to get the rapid fire literary references.

"Tozette, what if you just recommend a single fantasy book, writer, or series, with your whole heart?"

My WHOLE heart? Okay. Here:

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer, Johannes Cabal the Detective, and Johannes Cabal: the Fear Institute by Jonathan L Howard are each different subgenres of fantasy, and all three of them are absolute fucking bangers. They are the best books on this list according to me. I love them.

[chatxkilluaxnoir]

God, I would love that playlist.

Come on, vote and make AMW Leo win for that sweet fic playlist!

(And because AMW and AMW Leo is awesome).

Playlists are great.

I love playlists.

@teainthesnow

[dittydipity]

what is kagepro? - a quick guide

you may be seeing the word "kagepro" around a whole bunch, especially during august, but what the hell is it?

you may have heard or seen something from kagepro without realizing it! you know that vocaloid song, kagerou daze, about the kids who get hit by a truck and are stuck in a timeloop of saving each other? that's actually one of the songs from kagepro.

kagepro, short for the kagerou project, is a series created by vocaloid composer jin (also known as shizen no teki-p). it's a mixed media series that has music, manga, an anime, movie, a radio talk show, books, etc but i’ll try to keep it simple!

basic premise: people who die on 8/15 are taken to another world called the kagerou daze and if they return to the real world, they will have gained a “snake ability” that will turn their eyes red when used. a group of teens that have these abilities form a little gang but are thrown into an endless timeloop.

THE MEDIA

if you want to get into it, there’s a bunch of different ways you can do it, but do keep in mind: each form of media is NOT just a different adaptation of the story.

kagepro is a timeloop story, and each form of media is actually a different timeline (or “route”). the music videos, the anime, the manga, the books - each one is only a piece of the whole story. that’s why many people may have seen the anime, mekakucity actors, and gotten super confused because the anime is actually one of the last routes haha.

but the order of media that has been generally agreed upon to be the most coherent is music videos -> manga -> light novels -> anime

a lot of kagepro media, esp the light novels and manga, are hard to find since they’re almost entirely out of print, but there’s translations or e-book versions of them available, or if you skip them there’s summaries that people have made. you can also ask me if you want :]

music videos

i’ve actually made a couple playlists for the songs! one is in release order and the other is in story chronological order (mostly).

release order: - i tried to get all the original ia/miku versions of the songs with the original pv if there was one - a couple might be a little out of order since some songs came out together in the same album

this is the order that fans got the music, so if you want to try to figure things out and put things together the way we did you can go with this order!

chronological order: - tried to grab some english covers where i could, but if you don’t like eng covers there are plenty of noneng covers or you can use the videos from the other playlist. there's plenty of really great covers out there! - exceptions to the “chronological”: children record acts as the cover/opening song for the series and summertime record is the ending song for the series - some songs aren’t in here bc they’re not part of the music route (they’re mostly from the newer albums and are kinda like ‘epilogue’ songs after the ending of the anime/good ending or are songs made for the anime)

THE STORY

if you don't want to go through all the media yourself, here’s a video explaining the whole story by breadbox/david toth! he also has other really great kagepro videos

[a bit of an extra] a very common misconception about the story/mechanics: people do not have to die in pairs or with somebody else on 8/15 to enter the daze. i didn’t realize this myself until super recently

all in all, the kagerou project is a story about finding strength and support from the people around you, moving on to look towards the future, and overcoming trauma.

there’s definitely other people who have also made guides or summaries or videos that are much better and cover much more than i did, but i hope this was a decent introduction!

feel free to reach out and/or ask me anything! i'm sure there are also plenty of people who would be willing to help newcomers understand kagepro as well :]

happy kagerou day!

[spookfished]

media roundup february

hi everybody :3 i didnt really read a lot in february i was busy 'doing school' and 'looking for employment.' sad! i have spring break coming up so im planning on using that time to read a bunch (and also apply for more jobs -_-) this post and previous can be found on my neocities!

books:

revenant gun by yoon ha lee: the last book in the hexarchate series, starting with ninefox gambit. (slightly edited from my discord review, SPOILERS INCOMING). in machineries of empire, there a disconnect between what the audience craves and what the book is willing to give them-- for example, things like Whats up with the calendar + the hexarchate, why did jedao do all that, etc. this works in the books favor (imo) by increasing tension, creating a sense of discovery, and avoiding clunky exposition.

however in the two sequels it expands not just to what the audience wants but also what they like. care about? some big examples are the weight of the remembrances* and less cheris, but also stuff like jedaos focus. which isnt bad like i like jedao. but like, if you Dont you sure do get a lot of him. also did anyone actually like brezan sorry. hes fine like for example with the end of a memory called empire, when the protag (forgot her name sorry) loses her brain buddy, it feels like a second coming of age almost--her brain buddys been a crutch but now she gets to stand on her own (albeit as a changed person, with brain buddys influence). vs cheris who kinda starts to feel like a cameo character who literally fucks off for nine years??? there is also a sort of ongoing sense of "these sacrifices for the greater good are ok (if sad) and these are not" whihc ngl sometimes feels pretty arbitrary to me. and given that machineries of empire focuses on like the Littlest most downtrodden people it really is wild yhat we dont see a lot of civilian life? anyways i enjoyed it and i think its worth finishing out the trilogy but it wasnt as satisfying as i could have hoped (ALSO NINEFOX GAMBIT IS A REALLY FUN SOLID READ. I LIKED IT A LOT)

*the rememberances are a set of ritualized tortures that create a power structure that literally powers a lot of the empire's technology. this is a very cool concept! a big part of jedao and cheris' rebellion is about making a place that Doesnt have to run on torture. except that like, besides the intellectual knowledge that Torture Is Bad as a reader i didnt really feel that invested in this? like we only get to See a remembrance happening midway thru book 3. im not like advocating for torture porn or anything but it seems weird to have that be the focal thing when neither cheris nor jedao had any scenes where they were affected by it (and so the audience didnt have anything like that either). idk it kinda just stood out to me. like yes i care about these characters but why should i care about This specifically

hexarchate stories by yoon ha lee: an anthology set in the world of machineries of empire, expanding the world and fleshing out some stories. this was pretty solid! theres a wide range of stories and lengths, and i liked the variety :3 its like a little charcuterie board. (yoon ha lee's bias for shuos jedao really stands out here though..) its kinda essential reading to me imo though bc otherwise the ending of revenant gun isnt that satisfying :| lol anyways once again if youve read ninefox gambit check it out! spoilers for the whole series tho

exordia by seth dickinson: hard scifi about agency, impossible choices, and how they shape you. also, international geopolitics! like ninefox gambit, exordia demands your attention and concentration. you kinda have to read it at a time when you have brainpower to spare. however, exordia rewards everything that you put into it :3 i ended up learning so many random facts during this book… like AGL meaning above ground level. i feel like i need to read a book about democratic confederalism now also. a couple of my other friends read this book and got lost in the large cast and intricate web of events--i didnt have as much of an issue but u might need a piece of paper or sth. exordia is a book that's dense enough to feel like three books, and that can be good or bad. seth dickinson has this really spare, concise prose that leaves a lot to your imagination but also like. can sum up a person or situation in just a couple sentences? and that leaves a lot of room for the reader to investigate which i like :3 hm what else to say…. i really liked clayton (clayton!!!!) but i found erik super annoying ymmv. the ending kinda leaves you at a loss which i honestly kinda like? like yeah obv a sequel would be nice but i like it the way it is. anyways not for the faint of heart but id still recommend<3

accidentally engaged by farah heron: f/m romance aww so cute <3 really nice contemporary romance which tosses together a bunch of tropes--arranged romance, fake dating, baking together--into something that actually works really well! the two leads were very charming and i liked reading about the good food. i liked the way the protagonist's almost-stereotypical portrait of a loving but strict south asian family (am i allowed to say this) gets fleshed into a group of honestly kinda bizarre people that love her and that reena can genuinely connect with. yay family! overall, not especially memorable to me personally but still enjoyable. rec if youre into contemporary romance

last breath: the limits of adventure: realistic fiction (?) about what it feels like to drown, die of dehydration, fall from a cliff, etc. lots of research, very thorough! (well sometimes they live and sometimes they dont). an expansion of this absolutely fantastic article about hypothermia. honestly none of the stories quite live up to this one imo but this is still a really solid and exciting read! i couldnt put it down! although it does have a touch of the orientalism that you get from like, a lot of extreme sports circles lol. i would definitely recommend reading the article, and maybe read the book if it especially interests you.

video games:

pokemon legends of arceus: a pokemon game set in the past that breaks the mold by letting you dodge roll. my opinions here coincide pretty closely with the dunkey video, which is that this is a really fun game that is also literally half finished. controls are clunky, story is paper thin, graphics are fucked, overworld is extremely empty but its also just very fun?? it took over my life for like two weeks and i missed class???? anyways i would not get this at full price but if you can borrow it from a friend its super interesting to experience. im looking forward to the kalos one :3

slay the princess: a horror? romance? visual novel about saving the princess, slaying tbe princess, and everything in between featuring the vocal chops of that one magnus archives guy. dudeee this is so fun! i think its very kind to the guy inside of me who is Embarrassingly Anxious about any and all video game choices that can like, affect the narrative. lmfao its fun to fit in a couple runs or two between other things, but i did start losing track of what previous paths id taken after a bit of a gap. however!!! i would definitely think about playing this game if you like visual novels or Narrative or Loops! or girls who kill lol theres a free demo if you want to try it out

movies:

velocipastor: action movie about a priest who turns into a velociraptor to punish the wicked!!!! so fucking cool a lot of love put into this (low budget) movie made me so sad i dont speak cantonese (? at least i think thats what it was) watch this with friends

music:

Gato by nobonoko: really fun 80s synth jazz? album written by two fictional gay furries. no wait come back ok this is one of those things i got recommended by youtube and then actually listened to it a bunch of times its just very soothing and nice :3 ive been listening to jazz pretty much my whole life so i have a huge bias. also im a sucker for fictional bands eg splatoon… also the art is so cute?? those two guys?? its hard to pick a favorite song but i think i like the titular gato! also theres a bunch of other stuff made by the same two artists

option by Crosses: i totally forgot what the genre for this is but its like when metal guys are like i need to have a song for my metal wedding. song recommended by neil -_- anyways very sappy im fond of it nonetheless. i definitely did think it said "can you promise me to the grave"

Roy by Idles: from british rock band idles new album tangk! im going to be honest i did not like this album as much as some of the other ones by idles, but thats ok! hmm when i play this song out loud during crew shifts i feel embarrassed. but i really like seeing how idles' vocalist's voice has evolved over time! the way hes branched out into more melodic and belty stuff over time is very fun. the prechorus + chorus are very fun to sing along to as well :3 its just a fun song

anyways if you read any portion of this thanks as always :3 what else to say.. i made pandesal recently and its been my only successful bread that i can remember. go me! anyways see you guys in a bit

[atopvisenyashill]

I agree a lot with the anon talking about Dany and Viserys' death. I've always seen it as Dany's equivalent to Littlefinger's show trial (as a relative and abuser brought to a painful and unexpected end by someone else on their behalf), and she was decidedly less involved in it than Sansa. A good foreshadowing example instead is her reaction when Drogo talks about invading Westeros.

Still, I've also always felt that there's an indication for Dany's ending in there as well, though not how D&D intended.

They spent several seasons playing with the idea of Dark Sansa, but Littlefinger's execution is the absolute darkest she ever got. That's where her darkness ends; meanwhile, Dany's story started with it, and she just kept/will keep going down from there. The standards for Dany's MOs were never the same as the other main characters' (save Tyrion), which shows well how villainous she was meant to become when put side by side to the heroic characters.

wait because i JUST saw a tweet (one of my rhaenicent friends quote-tweeted to make fun lol) where someone was like "oh when dany tries to reclaim her seat it's all 'she must pay for the crimes of her family' but when the starks do it it's fine" and my friend was like "okay now talk about the crimes dany herself has committed!!" so i was just thinking about this lol.

because yeah like, a lot of the problem here is that so far as we are into the series, the only comparable crime any stark has committed to dany specifically was bran warging hodor and i dare say we are going to dig into the evil of that in his next chapters, the same way george took like, an entire book to delve into the moral and ethical ramifications of trying to rule over a city you just sacked in adwd. a lot of arya's kills are pretty cut and dry self defense with the exception of daeron the singer (icr how he spells his name it might not be that valyrian spelling), and she almost immediately loses her eyesight for that one, so it's sort of like, well, arya and bran are clearly on their way to Face Some Consequences, but their moral failings are also on a much more interpersonal level here than anything going on in dany's story (because.....that's the point imo, that dany affects so much without really thinking through what she's affecting; she is not the only character being used to make this point tho, just imo one of hte more prominent).

and beyond that, show wise, like you said, the most evil sansa gets is *checks notes* murdering the two men who have been regularly abusing her for years in a way that you could say was kinda overkill. is it great when you come at it from a political standpoint? no, it's not like, fantastic. and even though it is. just the dumbest shit especially because there are once again no repercussions for it, i DO very much dislike that arya was the one that did the Red Wedding 2.0/Rat Cook thing that Lady Stoneheart/Manderly are actually in charge for (which like, listen I love Manderly so so much but obviously murdering a couple of dudes and baking them into pies to feed to their family is not like, um, great from a moral or political standpoint). so while you could definitely argue that show arya is morally bankrupt on a similar level as dany - and you can do the same for jon snow too, because that absolute idiot just hands over the north to a lady he knows is a little fire and blood happy for what reason exactly?? - you can't argue sansa is, like point blank, or bran.

and ultimately, like, idc about the show lol when i'm discussing their actions i'm talking about the books and imo while everyone's story plays with morality and ethics and politics etc etc there are some characters who are pretty clearly sliding down morality wise early on - as you say, tyrion's mo is pretty regularly threatening to rape people, and then dany spends the last few chapters of her first book trying to rationalize war time slavery and rape, and then murders her slave to hatch some dragons. jaime throws a literal child out a window. cersei helps murder a bunch of other kids, gives innocent women over to be tortured to death, and doesn't even attempt to curb the abuses of sansa. and then you have sansa, who may or may not be knowingly poisoning sweetrobin - it's unclear but seems likely she just doesn't understand how dangerous the substances she's feeding sweetrobin are - and arya who commits a few murders in self defense, then kills one or two dudes in cold blood and faces immediate consequences. bran who is in the middle of an unresolved story arc where he's mind raping someone. arianne and asha both attempt to gain power and while there are some victims they're both taking pains to limit the amount of victims, and carry a lot of guilt for the damage they've done and are trying to atone for it, in their own ways. it's like...........idk feels like a slightly marked difference between some of these characters here. it's why i can't discount a bad ending for bran - obviously i want a happier ending for him, and i think it's foreshadowed to be likely but i'm not stupid, mind raping hodor is probably one of the worst things someone has done, morally, in this series on page, and I do think he's going to grapple with this substantially, in the same way that Dany will one day have to face the truth that she murdered MMD and Drogon harmed the little girl hazzea, and those deaths - and the deaths in Astapor, Meereen, and Yunkai - are something she needs to take into account as her war effort chugs along.

[terapsina]

Send a Fandom: Legacies - 5, 18 / Ship: Hope/Lizzie - 20

For this ask game.

5. ...the scene from it that lives in my head rent free.

So, my mind is admittedly very one track and so yeah, the scene that's taken up place in the back of my head and built a very cozy, very permanent nest is a shippy one.

I can't believe they gave Lizzie an actual '10 Things I Hate About You' MONOLOGUE that honest to goodness culminates on an actual "And [I hate you] for making me love you, Hope Mikaelson."

There's everyday blatant shipping bait... and then there's putting Lizzie inside a 90's romcom modern adaptation of a Shakespeare play.

---

Another, less ship focused scene that has taken up permanent space in my head though might be the one with the extremely misfortunate vampire that tried vampsplaining their nature to the Mikaelson tribrid.

Hope feeling like it was a new low for her? Hilarious.

18. ...the perfect number of books/seasons/movies needed to tell this story properly.

Definitely more than 4.

They were JUST getting their sea-legs underneath them 😭.

More specifically... I think 7 or 8 seasons would have been just around perfect. It would have been just in that BtVS or Charmed sweet spot of a series that's long enough to explore the characters and their relationships properly, without losing steam and getting boring.

---

20. ...how and when they should get/should have gotten together.

I adore slow burns, I wouldn't change a thing about any of the stuff that happened between them before Hope snapped Lizzie's neck.

And I also wouldn't change most of the stuff that happened while Lizzie was sired to Hope (it was too freaking perfect). My one change here - and how I'd begin the process for them as the endgame - would probably be doing an actual acknowledgement of how Lizzie's "I love you." was absolutely meant as an "I'm in love with you.".

I'd still maintain those thirsty, frustrated Lizzie moments from whenever Hope's being all aggressively attractive and kinda mean. But maybe making them just a little bit more textual.

Or maybe by having the No Humanity!Hope taunt her about the feelings?

Wait... ooh, I know. I'd have moved around Lizzie and Jen bonding from after the Grand Road Trip Breakup, to before. And Hope would get a bird's-eye view that would have culminated in something along the lines of petty and jealousy-flavored (not-that-she'd-admit-it) "Well, don't you move on fast?"

Then I'd move everything back to how it went down in canon (including the bits where Hope and Lizzie both were decidedly not acknowledging the sire bond and its implication after Hope's humanity came back to the forefront).

Except that when MG dropped his confession I'd have had Lizzie telling him that she's in love with Hope.

The actual getting together thing in my perfect version of events would happen in season 6 (with season 5 being Hope healing from Landon's death, and coming to terms with her developing feelings for Lizzie just as Lizzie's trying to move on).

Said Actual-Getting-Together portion would include: one badly timed almost confession on Hope's part which would fly over Lizzie's head because they'd be in the middle of dealing with the latest disaster and Hope wouldn't actually be all that clear about it; and one brief span of time where Hope thinks Lizzie's dead and goes on a very Mikaelson rampage about it.

And then bada-boom-bada-bam there's a Big Damn Kiss that sweeps Lizzie off her goddamn feet.

The last season or two would be them just being the badass power-couple of the show (exactly as they've been the entire time, actually, except that they'd literally be a couple).

And THAT is how I'd get them together if it were up to me.

[hungergameshyperfixation]

I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS I don’t know where to begin.

Spoilers below the Read More sign!!!

Okay so we were all right about the purple. That made perfect sense. Idk if I posted this somewhere, if it’s in a draft/document somewhere, or what but I strongly subscribe to the color symbolism theories. In MY opinion I think there are a lot of ways the color purple can be interpreted here; I remember when I was younger, I was taught that “purple represented royalty,” which I kind of later internalized to mean something else but regardless. I’m not going to google/look too into it right now, but to my best memory purple represents/can represent wealth, high society ideals, arguably the bourgeoisie…? (ty autocorrect) But it also is, in our conventional knowledge, the “mix” of red and blue; I think the wealth association and the whole dichotomy that’s associated with purple is REALLY fitting here. I’ll get to this later, but the entire cover in my opinion represents dichotomy.

Also I do not mean I literally subscribe to color symbolism actually playing a large role in IRL things—I don’t care about it that much LMAO; I just meant that in fiction, I can really get into the ideas of over analyzing the color and their meanings (So “yes, the curtain really was just blue, but also I’d love to read an essay about how it’s a metaphor for sadness” that kinda thing).

Another thing about the cover color wise is of course the gold, which I figured would be present. It is a near constant on the cover, with the exception of Mockingjay I think. Plus, as I kinda hope to get into, it’s following in the footsteps of TBOSAS (both in the timeline of the narrative, and from our timeline perspective.

Regarding my point about the circles—as much as i hate to admit it, I don’t think that a lot of the cover design is like intentionally crafted with the goal of perfectly aligning EVERY little element with the story. But, as I might’ve shared before, I do fully believe that doesn’t stop people from interpreting/drawing connections to things (even if they weren’t intentional? Does that make sense? I’m literally writing this entirely off the cuff, just straight up typing). BUT back to the circles: YALL IT’S NOT EVEN A CIRCLE IT’S LIKE A HALF CIRCLE. It almost looks like it’s taking the shape of a…sunrise.

Also not to say that I kinda ate up my very rushed cover post last night, but I was right about a couple things—at least I’d say I was. I definitely am not the only one though, I think a lot of people thought what I thought and probably have made MUCH better cover analysis pieces. TBH a lot of the cover was easy to “guess,” only in the sense that this is the fifth installment of a book series that has generally consistent book covers (except for one specific part on this one…spoiler alert: the centerpiece)

I will say, there are multiple ways to interpret the elements on the cover, which I REALLY like.

NOW, onto arguably one of the more interesting is the mockingjay and the snake. I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY. Maybe I’ll save that for a follow up post because I wanna get this one off my chest.

[quotidian-oblivion]

Book recs!! ✨

Hi! So a bit ago, I met a lovely amazing anon on ao3 (who is a BLESSING compared to the other mean anons commenting out there, thanks Kat, you make mine and im pretty sure other author's days too). So we got into talking about books and I offered to make a list for her and post it on tumblr so other people too can scrounge through so here we are lmao.

I gathered this list from the personal notes I had made to myself to add these books to my bookshelf when i move out and also from another list i made for my little siblings because no way are they gonna not read the good stuff I found. It's like a rite of passage now.

Just a note: I don't read romance. But since books don't have the very convenient tags we get on ao3, I end up getting to romance-y parts. The only romance books I have read are middle school level romance lmao XD Nothing except kisses and stuff lol.

Let's go!

The Maze Runner series

Maze Runner

I love this book. This series. Ngl, one of the first books where I felt that heart-clenching feeling of hurt. Love the characters, the world-building was in the fandom for a brief while and I love the plot too. Better than the movie plot anyway XD

Mare Runner: Scorch Trials

Second book in the series, also very good. Literally an adventure. So many twists and turns. Once more, the characterization is also amazing!

Maze Runner: Death Cure

Third and last book in the series as a main. Heartbreaking. Did shed tears. Page 250 still kills me. O u ch.

The Fever Code

Also in the same series and OUCH. It's the characters before the whole drama happened and they're kids and higehrfwb 😭 No kidding I was squealing and nearly threw the book multiple times out of excitement. It solved a couple plotlines too. I adored it. Plus, it gave me some closure from the many many (inevitable) deaths.

Crank Palace

It's a novella, but clears the mysterious gap that was in the third book. Plus, it gives much much more closure but I'm still crying so do what you will with that information. I love the new "OC"s here too.

Trials of Apollo

The Hidden Oracle The Dark Prophecy The Burning Maze The Tyrant's Tomb The Tower of Nero

Listen- listen- I know this is kinda obvious and you might be asking "where's the rest of the pjo series?" but that's a given. My personal favorites are the pjo, hoo and toa series, but toa somehow spoke to me more because the main relationship wasn't a romantic one like all the other teen books I read. I also adore Apollo/Lester's character development? Like, at first he was this carefree god, then at the end of the series, he transformed into a person who cared so much and so deeply and was willing to die for others. That is peak character development and if I hadn't read toa, I would still be blundering around and confused with my multi-chap fics as to how characters actually develop. Because you can see that journey so clearly in toa.

Jinx series

Jinx: The Wizard's Apprentice Jinx's Magic Jinx's Fire

I love this series so much??? I am a sucker for fantasy novels and this was so so good. I love the storyline and-

AND I ESPECIALLY LOVE THE FOUND FAMILY ASPECT HERE. THIS. IS LITERALLY RELUCTANT MENTOR-FATHER AND HYPER AND KEEN MENTEE-SON. AHHH.

Anyway, this was my first found family novel. I loved the whole storyline too, this was also the series where I was first introduced to the concept of whump (without knowing what whump actually was).

The Mapmaker Chronicles

Race To The End Of The World Prisoner Of The Black Hawk Breath Of The Dragon

These were also some of the first whump books I read. And I especially loved this because the plot was it. A smartass scrawny boy who accidentally turned into a hero? Hmmm, I wonder who that reminds me of. (Tim Drake. It reminds of Tim Drake)

But the characters are also special to my heart. There is minimal romance in here. Any romance is to move the plot forward.

Also a mentor-mentee relationship here. Not so much found family to the heart seeing as the main character already has family back home, but the whole crew definitely is a family of their own. I especially adore Ash! Ahhh! She's lovely and amazing. Oh and Zain- *sighs* he is the perfect mentor figure to scrawny li'l Quinn. And the hateable characters are so perfectly hateable!! The author truly is talented at stories.

Although the second book could do with more whump

Nevermoor series

Nevermoor

This book was described in the reviews as "Harry Potter meets Alice in Wonderland" and it stayed true to its description. It had beautiful and amazing characters, and an evil-mentor & reluctant hero-mentee relationship (though not at first) and I am a sucker for that. Also, I just love the character herself. Morrigan is a very good and fleshed out character and I will love her forever.

Wundersmith

We explore more of the evil-mentor & reluctant hero-mentee relationship. But Jupiter, Morrigan's actual caretaker, is the PERFECT uncle/caretaker for her and he's so protective of her and i just-

*sobs* I stan.

Hollowpox

Here we discover some of that delicious power upgrades. I also love all the friends! HAWTHORNE IS MY FAVORITE AND WILL ALWAYS BE I LOVE HIM. Stunning characters here 💫 Also some wise comparison of the different isms and phobias (as in homophobia, racism etc.) here in terms of fantasy.

The Mysterious Benedict Society series

The Mysterious Benedict Society The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Perilous Journey The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Prisoner's Dilemma The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Riddle of Ages

This... was one of the first mystery books I had ever read (my actual first was Sherlock Holmes cuz I found it on my grandparents' bookshelf and read it cuz I had read every other book they owned which wasn't a lot). I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline. It was calm and just- a bunch of kids going on a perilous journey to solve a mystery to save the city. Those kind of vibes. But the vibes were so good. So enjoyable. Every time I hear about this series, I just sigh in contempt.

There are very, very interesting characters here too. The characters are what made the story so good. All of them have unique quirks which they use to crack clues and form conclusions and dive into actions. Such good characters. 10/10, honestly.

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

This is part of the Benedict society universe, but it takes place years before the main events. It has adventures of the leader of the group in the main series as a kid. This book has a special mention because the storyline was different to the style of the main series and it had tropes. Just- the friend and the character itself and- dnfhbevbiluw

Okay, I admit, Benedict here does remind me of Tim (my fav character in DC). Like y'know smol Tim with the camera? Those kind of vibes. Very strong vibes. I read this way before I discovered Tim even existed so maybe this book plays a part in my favorites?

Jessica Brody books

The fact that I put the actual author's name here should tell you something.

Addie Bell's Shortcut To Growing Up

This book... brought me to tears. This was the second book that prompted salt water to slip out of my tear ducts. It was a strange feeling. Cuz I was not used to crying for books and movies and shows.

The plot just hit hard. A 12-year-old Addie magically time-travels to when she's 16 and experiences life as a teenager. The plot gives more than you expect. There are boys, yes, but that is a side plot, not a main plot. Which is why I love the book so much. Addie wants to be one of the "girly" girls who talks about boys and stuff and goes to parties like her older sister, but then as she lives the life of a teenager more and more, she realizes just how much she lost. Friendships, family, her personality, her interests, herself.

The part that made me cry was her missing her sister. Cuz, well, I'm an older sister. And my sister who is the oldest after me has the same age difference as Addie and her older sister. It wasn't just her missing her sister in that scene, it was everything crashing down on her that moved me to tears. Amazing book. If anything, I recommend you either read this or 'Better You Than Me' if nothing in this list goes towards your liking.

Better You Than Me

This was the first book that made me cry. It has two characters, one in middle school, the other who is an actress, swap bodies. So the typical middle school kid gets to live as a famous actress, and the famous actress gets to live as a typical middle school kid. Of course, neither of them end up liking their new life very much, but that only teaches them two important messages: appreciation and communication. God, I learnt so much from this book. I was like 13 or something when I read it and it resonated within me enough to make me cry. I adore this. SO much.

I Speak Boy

I actually have a library-borrowed copy with me right now XD It's about a middle school girl, Emmy, being very confused with the opposite gender. (Very much hetero, no homo despite it being published in 2021). But, once again, the reason I love this book isn't cuz of the romance (though it is kinda satisfactory but also a bit cliché). It's how the main character realizes that boys aren't everything. Just like in 'Addie Bell's Shortcut To Growing Up'. It's a lot about friendship.

The reason why I like these books by Jessica Brody (I haven't read the others yet) is because of the Bechdel Test factor in it.

S. K. Ali books

Again you have another author's name. This time, it's Muslim fiction!

Love From A To Z

The first Muslim fiction book I've ever read. And yes, it is a romance book. But it does not have any touchy-touchy stuff (except in the Epilogue and a couple dream scenes, very vague though and only kissing). As in, the main characters follow mainstream Sunni procedures and do not touch each other as they're not married. Which just leaves room for a ton of emotional romance.

I adore this simply because I'm a Muslim Hijabi myself and I am very much biased.

It deals with so many aspects of romance though, like personality first, lust last, and whether they are the right fit or not and whether they actually like each other or the idea of each other and how families play into this and online hate and emotion control and of course, the marvels and oddities of life. It is packed with so much. And when I finished the book, I had a good long cry. This is the first book that made me cry the longest. Because- because I was starved for representation! And this book did it so well! I just- love this so much.

The author has published a sequel, Love from Mecca to Medina, I have yet to read it because I'm waiting for it to be in a library. I prefer physical copy books.

Once Upon An Eid

Okay, this is very Muslim-based, but if you treat it like Muslim Christmas, everything becomes clear XD Also, Ali wrote only one story here. This book is actually a collection of stories by different Muslim authors. And each story is so special. Many people don't really know how Muslims celebrate Eid or why it's so special (besides spiritual reasons) and what it looks like. This paints an accurate picture. And it contains most, if not all, types of Muslims celebrating Eid. Sunni, Shia, refugee, African, American, revert/convert, South Asian etc. So really diverse.

Saints and Misfits Misfit In Love

Very much love-centred, but also has very vague mentions of sexual assault/rape/non-con. Yes, in a Muslim community. It exists. A lot actually. But it's hidden and hushed down. Disgustingly.

But the first book addresses it and how a Muslim girl battles it. She's in love with a white boy, yes, but she doesn't give in to her white boy desires. Neither does she fall to a non-white boy, at least not fully.

Which is why I recommend that if you're reading the first book, you definitely, definitely read the second one along with it. Because I felt even though the ending of the first book was satisfactory, it wasn't satisfactory to me. But the second book was! Because at the end of the second book, Janna (the main character), comes to the conclusion that boys aren't everything. And even though there is a very perfect boy that fancies her and she fancies him too, she takes a breath and says that she isn't too focused on that. And I adore that. But she only comes to that conclusion after falling in love with many, many, many boys. I did get a bit uncomfy cuz romance just in general makes me uncomfy, its a personal thing, but I kept reading it cuz... Muslim fiction! Anyway, good book series. But I like Love From A To Z better.

Now, those are... a lot of books. And a lot of me talking. And there are still so many more. So I'm just gonna go through some quick filtering and put the titles and authors of the other books here in dot points.

London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (my first novel, Kat knows about this lol)

Skyfire series by Michael Adams

NERDS series by Michael Buckley (it's an acronym that stands for National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society. It's weird but I laughed a lot so)

Murder Most Unladylike series by Robin Stevens

Mallory Towers series by Enid Blyton

Naughtiest Girl In The School series by Enid Blyton

Scarlet and Ivy series by Sophie Cleverly (fuck- I forgot to add this to the main list, but this book is hella hella good and I recommend it very much)

Bounce by Megan Shull (life lessons in here)

Sick Bay by Nova Weetman

The Adventurer's Guild series by Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos

Luck Uglies series by Paul Durham ("DADDY ISSUES!" screams Quo. "I love this book because I have daddy issues among other issues and that is all.")

Time Hunters by Chris Blake (it is very much a children's book, not even middle school, but I read it because it has an intriguing storyline and interesting historical facts that had me raising my hand in every history lesson)

There are no classic books here because that will need its own separate post.

And that's it! Thank you very much!

[emblazonet]

DRAGONSDAWN REVIEW

This is a heckin weird book and I started off enjoying it until I Was Not Enjoying it.

The intro seemed interesting enough: we’ve got people who are escaping a variety of circumstances (including retired war veterans). They’re looking to colonize an uninhabited planet, which neatly sidesteps major issues in other colonial literatures, since, well, there’s no one sentient to object!

Personally, the sciencey stuff seems fine... I’m nota science person to begin with, and I was mildly interested by their tech and how it was described. Nothing stood out as weird. Maybe funny, when they refer to film or tapes, since we’ve established this is in our future and the colonists are often from actual places: Ireland, etc.

I did find it weird that they name a bunch of places after places on Earth. Why bother? Why not just make names that actually communicate something about the landscape they’re in? This is somethig that obviously colonists did here to North America—every city I’ve lived in has roads that are named ‘Hillside’ or ‘Pinevale’ or something (even if there are no hills or pines). In my hometown, Beacon Hill was a region my high school was in (and I’m not sure there was ever a beacon or a hill); in my current city, Beacon Hill is a park. It’s stupid and I hate it. Name things organically, or else it feels WEIRD. (In books. Obviously IRL just use the indigenous names and maybe please do a land back, like with Haida Gwaii!)

I know, I’m yelling about colonial problems at an author who has a weird obsession with bloodlines. And who killed off all the black characters in the first Threadfall. Uh huh. Moving on.

There are too many characters in this book, by the way. There are too many AND they are kinda bland. They run together. I don’t know why I should care about any of them. It’s weird that it’s supposed to be multicultural or whatever but it never feels like it. The way other cultures are represented is kinda uncomfortable. Spoilers and stuff upcoming.

Paul and Emily seem like they should have Main Character Energy, but neither does. They’re important people or something but the narrative never makes you feel it. There’s a whole bunch of names that keep coming up but I can never rememeber who they are or what they do... Pol, Bay etc. Idk.

Sorka and Sean are obviously telegraphed as some of the first dragonriders, they’re the sort of Adam and Eve first kids of Pern, and they’re boring and I grew to kinda dislike them by the end of the book because they’re just like Generic Hetero Couple and it was very yawn.

I liked Kenjo, I though he was going to be The First Dragonrider because the book goes on and on about his flying ability, the way he can conserve fuel, all that. But actually he dies halfway through and I hate that actually, because it feels like any build up with this character never went anywhere. His death was pointless but the story didn’t even make it about the pointlessness, so like... why?

Sallah’s seduction of Tarvi, a pretty man, was awkward as fuck. She drugs him and they fuck and then later she’s like ‘why doesn’t he seem to love me?’ BECAUSE YOU DRUGGED HIM? OH MY GOD????? At least Dragon Sex Pollen gives you an out! There’s no excuse to for this nonsense! And then when she dies, Tarvi—changing his name to her last name, Telgar—has this ‘oh I DID love her after all’ grief thing but it comes across as super contrived.

Look, I stand by actually liking Lessa/F’lar, but I’ve pretty much hated every single other romantic relationship in this series (except for Moreta/Alessan ... Moreta is the best book).

Speaking of Sallah’s tragic death aboard the orbiting, fuelless colony ship—her murderer is the Obviously A Villain Avril Bitra. Who is a mean gold-digger lady who is also a slut, and Anne, did you need to work something out with this one? Avril is set up as a villain but instead of being a threat to anything, she basically does a stupid and dies, but manages to take Sallah down with her. But her inexplicably meanness with Sallah has a weird sexual undertone to it? I’d be into it if I didn’t hate it. Like. The scene where Sallah is cut up and Avril is tormenting her is SO CHARGED and it could’ve been so good except it’s... it’s just not. It feels incredibly out of place! It’s the climax of the book in terms of intensity, but it’s in the middle and we haven’t even gotten to the dragons yet!

Thread, by contrast, wasn’t even that dramatic. Oh noo, there’s Thread.

And the dragons feel sort of rushed into the end of the book. There’s something weird about the biologist and her granddaughter. They’re Chinese, and everyone loves the grandmother, but apparently the granddaughter is an unpleasant bitch and there’s no explanation offered at all. I have no idea why the characterizations are so weird and awkward, but they really are.

How many times can I say ‘weird and awkward’ in one review???

Also, why does that one MAGA-style asshole, Ted Tubberman, try to bioenginner felines? What even was that? There’s literally nothing relevant about it? WHY WAS IT INCLUDED? Why wasn’t it cut?? It doesn’t do anything for the plot or characters except, I guess, kill off a loose end? Who was already exiled?

By the way, the glee with which everyone exiles this dude is so weird. ‘We didn’t kill him! We just ostracized him forever!’ Wow. Just. Wow. I don’t even know what to say.

In sum, basically, this book is a structural mess with bad characters. It had a fun dragonfighting sequence three pages from the end, and that was probably my favourite part.

I don’t know how a book with so much stuff happening crammed into it could be so boring, but here we are. Like, this wasn’t Nerilka-level bad: it didn’t do any character assassinations because it wasn’t a sequel to anything that came before. But it was a slog, and it didn’t even have the grace to have a lot of dragon-related screen time to offset it.

3/10, a structural disaster.

[harleyshahas]

Tagged by @gilly-moon !! Thank you!

People you'd like to know better game

Last song(s): been listening to the Barbie movie album a bunch lately, it's actually pretty good, with such bangers as I'm Just Ken and Ryan Gosling's cever of Push. I've also recently rediscovered my love for Steam Powered Giraffe. They're the only band that's ever made me cry while consistently listening to their music and I love them so much!

Currently watching: ... nothing. I don't watch things. I'm terrible about watching new things. I must be suggested things to watch, and even then, the stars must be aligned and the moon in proper position for me to actually watch it. For example, I have an active interest and investment in Good Omens 2 and still haven't started it. I'm still trying to motivate myself to watch Nimona and PussNBoots The Last Wish. I will however rewatch things I've seen a million times already, like I just watched a couple episodes of Danny Phantom yesterday.

Currently reading: also nothing, with the exception of almost 100 tabs open on my phone of various fanfictions I may never actually get around to reading and need to remember there's a Read Later button for. I have the same issue with books as I do with shows and movies. It's not for lack of interest, but rather I would rather read fanfiction because I'm basic. I am thinking of rereading the Guardians of Childhood series again tho, because why not?

Current obsession: Rise of the Guardians mostly, with some Danny Phantom sprinkled on the side if that's not already super obvious lol. These are some of the most welcoming fandoms I've ever been in and I've met some super nice and interesting people and have kinda broken our of my online shell because of it! It helps that they're older fandoms and the drama has died down significantly as well.

This was fun! Thank you for tagging me! If you want to play, I'll tag @ashgunnywolf @heartlessfujoshi @bunnimew @creamsodaprince

[raisinchallah]

the recent discourse re:yuri is so curious to me. my two cents is that some of it can be attributed to the very well researched book on yuri history by erica friedman that came out a couple years back which made the seemingly legit claim that the genre started with women authors. of course the whole picture is more fraught than the viral posts i see on this paint it. and the book itself has a long section on The Bad Parts of yuri. but the quotes i see people use and word of mouth fail to mention that part. i can kind of get the defensiveness bc yuri is so often dismissed as a genre JUST for the tillitation of men in a way that really erases the quite large subculture of lesbian/bi otaku and the women writers themselves. which tbf is often the case with a lot of these subcultures (sooo much "moe" was/is written by women but was imediately dismissed as a dude thing. this kind of radicalized me as a teen.). all of that being said there WAS an interesting shift these last few years on the stories being told and how they are told (maybe because of the critical/comercial success of kabi nagata's memoirs and of series like kase-san and yagakimi? the overall evolving discourse about lgbt people on the public sphere? the uptick in openly queer women writing independent webcomics? none of these? all of these and more? shrugs). i've been reading unhinged gay manga in dynastyscans for like, a decade by now. and it's become increasingly more common for them to feature adult women, people actually saying the word "lesbian", lesbian bars even. it still surprises me constantly. comic yuri hime actually split itself in two (the idea is that the core mag is for women and the other is for men. fostering this idea of yuri by women to women). even the kirara magazine started including a lot of yuribait in its publications. which is a different beast entirely but is amusing enough that it makes me go "okay who is this FOR? yuribros? just to snatch the stray lesbian reader?". sorry for the long message i am just fascinated by all of this.

no worries at all this is actually extremely interesting thank you so much for all these extra details yeah i have been curious about like general demographic surveys or such of major yuri magazines yeah that makes sense from a lot of my research as well erica friedman seems to be the main source of a lot of information about yuri i have also wondered in general if some of the confusion around the genre also seems to come from a lot of western bookstores manga hosting sites and so on seemingly grouping memoir and short like joke comics about lesbians and so on under the yuri label i mean im sure part of that online is cuz dynasty scans has a really wide interest in what they seek out and translate which like i love that this stuff has a wider audience but its odd to call it yuri yeah ive noticed that as well in terms of shifts in whats actually focused on i read one yuri manga that was also about broader yuri fandom i guess like about a lonely lesbian who wrote yuri doujins and so on helping another manga artist find her love for drawing again and talking about like actual stuff about being gay and so on idk very interesting the places things are going like i think thats the other funny thing about the new narrative around yuri is like as you said its often kinda surprising still when characters actually say they are lesbians cuz a lot of works kinda held onto like oh ur my exception oh this will fade etc idk fascinating stuff thank u also for the details about the states of different magazines very interesting also if u wanna discuss this more in dms :3

[kaijusrpgbrainstorm]

New Year, New Character 2: Character Bugaloo

Well, I didn't do this last year, but I did the year before, and quite enjoyed it. Although I haven't bought many new games since then, so I'll be retreading at least a couple of systems. Starting with Eden Studio's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Roleplaying Game. Specifically the revised edition. Last time, I mixed things up using material from Ghosts of Albion for a Victorian era party. This time we're bring it up to the modern day, with a couple of items borrowed from Angel. As a note, these write-ups ignore the events of the series and assume the basic set-up is still in play: One girl in all the world, and all that. So let's meet Max, the Vampire Slayer. "Welcome to Pleasantbrook, Florida, worst place on the planet. About halfway between Disneyworld and Miami, and it might as well be Chickentown, Kentucky for all there is to do here. It's just... the worst. A place that only exists because someone got tired and built a shack to rest in. After that, the shack became a town. A town grows things like schools, , churches, a hospital, and the old mental asylum that burnt down back in the 30s. "So here we are. I'm Max. Not Maxine. Max. I'm a middling student in a no-escape town with no prospects. Average grades at best. The only thing I'm good at is track and field, but the talent scouts keep skipping us. So I'm going nowhere. "And then, things changed. And not in the feel-good movie of the decade kind of way. That would have been so much better. No, I basically got the Stephen King treatment. Monsters are real. Most of them hate my guts because I'm some kind of mythical hero figure. I mean, I'm finding I'm stronger, faster, healing better. I'm not quite Captain America levels, but its something. "Except those monsters keep wanting to kill me. Or eat me. Or sacrifice me to their dark lord. And I had no idea what was going on until some British woman shows up with a big book of Do Not Want that apparently explains everything "She keeps telling me I shouldn't get close to people. Which, fine, I get, except that people keep getting involved anyway. Some guy from school who keeps being in the wrong place, somehow. An actual witch. That kinda intense guy who might just go Carrie on us all. Someone who just woke up a vampire. I don't know how that one's supposed to work. Oh, and it turns out there's a family of monster hunters out there, and their daughter is in town. We're making a pretty good team so far. Maybe we should work on a catch phrase?"

Name: Maxine “Max” Anderson

Concept: Novice Slayer

Character Type: Hero

Hit Points: 81

Drama Points: 10

Attributes (20pts)

Strength 4+3 (from Slayer)=7

Dexterity 4+3 (from Slayer)=7

Consitution 4+3 (from Slayer)=7

Intelligence 2

Perception 3

Willpower 3+2 (from Slayer)=5

Qualities (20 +2 from Drawbacks)

Attractiveness 1 (1pt)

Psychic Visions (1pt)

Slayer (16pts)

Resistance: Pain 2 (2pts)

Situational Awareness (2pts)

Detect Vampires (from Slayer)

Fast Reaction Time (from Slayer)

Nerves of Steel (from Slayer)

Hard to Kill 5 (from Slayer)

Regeneration: Con/Hour (from Slayer)

Drawbacks (6pts)

Adversary 5: Demons and Vampires (from Slayer)

Obligation: Total, Be the Slayer (from Slayer)

Love (2pts)

Secret: the Slayer (2pts)

Teenager (2pts)

Skills (20 +4 from Drawbacks)

Acrobatics 2

Art 1

Computers 1

Crime 2

Doctor

Drive

Getting Medieval 2+1 (from Slayer)=3

Gun Fu

Influence 2

Knowledge 2

Kung Fu 3+1 (from Slayer)=4

Languages 2

Mr Fix-It

Notice 3

Occultism 1

Science

Sport 3

Wild Card (x)

[ochechule]

this is definitely an interesting take and i do think the last point about movie scott embodying some questionable philosophies in the eyes of Certain People is true! however i don’t think the movie was going for that at all and doesn’t actually erase what op listed here. sure it is more shallow and quick but for valid reasons — 1. it’s a comic book adaptation and banks on visuals above else, uses beats of a comic book through camera and music, all that stuff. and 2. the series wasn’t finished at the time of filming so we were left with Edgar Wright of all people to try grasp the complexity of scott’s characterization and complete it on his own terms. and don’t get me wrong, wright is a good filmmaker, but i’d hardly call any of his characters profound and realized. still, i don’t think he did a bad job at all. movie scott does change, the curve of it and reasonings behind it different from book scott’s, but we are not meant to be left thinking that he’s a hero who got the girl. he’s continuously portrayed as a loser and the reason he and ramona walk through that door together at the end is because they are BOTH losers—losers who self-realized. their journey isn’t finished, the fight in the last act was only the “oh” moment for both of them. they both stopped hiding behind their jackassery and were able to help each other. scott apologized to kim and knives and acknowledged that yeah there is fucking evil in me but i contain multitudes and hey maybe a chill conversation with this evil me will help me understand. and once that is done, he and ramona leave to presumably continue to be dysfunctional as a couple except now they know what to work on. idk this is too long it’s 3am i LOVE the comic books and only really find the movie highly enjoyable so this isn’t like a hardcore defense of the thing, i just find the urge to criticize art solely on the basis of its reception among specific groups a little…. strange? fight club doesn’t say that to be a good modern man you gotta have a take-no-shit attitude and be misogynistic, even if that’s what a modern man who yearns to be good reads from it. that kinda thing you know

never not angry about how the scott pilgrim comics were like funny and well written and had scott’s character arc revolve around him realizing that he couldn’t keep going through life making up false narratives to absolve himself of blame and that he has to step up and take responsibility for his actions and how the movie completely erased all of that and made the message “scott gets a girlfriend due to being awesome and liking video games and being in a band” and now scott pilgrim is like a patron saint of the exact kind of shitty indie dude his character was a criticism of

[thewiddershinsme]

Finished Daughter of the Siren Queen (Daughter of the Pirate King #2) by Tricia Levenseller a few days ago!

-I was not expecting the reveal that the pirate king had Alosa’s mother held prisoner in his study for the past 17 years, trying to force her to give him more half-siren daughters. That was dark. And it was probably one of the only things that would’ve broken Alosa’s loyalty to her father so immediately and completely.

-I liked Alosa’s crew, and was glad we spent this book on her ship. I smiled at all the Sorinda and Kearan little moments, their book is going to be interesting.

-Lotiya’s death was hands down the worst. Being eaten alive by cannibals.

-I really grew to like Riden and Alosa’s relationship even more this book. I was wondering how the power imbalance “work-relationship” would work out with her being his Captain now, but it was refreshing how unconcerned Riden was with her being in charge (which was nicely set up last book with him being a first mate and not really having any ambitions of his own except furthering the ambitions of his brother, which has now shifted to furthering the ambitions of the love of his life). And it was nicely balanced in that it is made clear Riden is Alosa’s soul mate. He is the only person that can keep her siren nature from taking over, he is essential to her.

-so about halfway though the book I was headcanoning their future. I was picturing Alosa as pirate queen and Riden as her permanent lover (never getting married cause pirates don’t do marriage). And I was thinking they would never have kids (kinda like horses and donkeys. Humans and sirens can have kids together, but half-sirens can’t have kids) just because of the dangers of having kids living on pirate ships (as shown by Roslyn). But then Riden started asking Wallov about what it’s like having a daughter, cause he wanted to start preparing for having his own daughters with Alosa (cause he assumes Alosa can only have girls) and it was just so cute. It was revealed though that Alosa would have a normal human life span but never really age…which is eh (I never really like it when only one half of a couple ages and the other is forever young). But I also headcanon Riden getting killed before he gets old too so shrug (pirate queen lover has got to be a dangerous job)

-got a lot of siren lore in this book. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that sirens have two legs. Every time Alosa was in the water I kept picturing her turning into a mermaid and then back when she was no longer in the water. However, I eventually realized this was not the case.

-on a meta sense I appreciate this series was kept as a duology, as it reflected Alosa’s own nature being caught between human pirate and siren. But can’t say she was ever really torn between her two natures; she may have come to peace with her siren half (thanks to Riden’s influence) but even after learning she had a place with the sirens (as their princess and possible future queen!), she was never tempted to join the siren world. She always wanted to remain a human, and more importantly the pirate queen.

-I am actually almost halfway through the next book (yeah I put off writing these thoughts up) and am enjoying Sorinda’s pov on things.

[morallygreyvigilante67]

what made you leave the fandom? it's perfectly fair, but you keep mentioning that you've come back so i'm a little curious

No worries, I'd be curious too.

I'm not entirely sure when exactly I left the fandom to begin with, because I know I was still clinging onto it even when I stopped paying attention to new game releases but it was kind of a gradual thing.

When the teasers for FNAF 4 started coming out, I was pretty excited. There were still so many mysteries left to solve and, while I couldn't tell exactly what the fourth game was going to show us, I had a good feeling about it.

The actual trailer was dropped & the game was described as "the final chapter" which only increased that hype. I was kinda sad in a way cause I loved this franchise so much and, at the time, I wasn't ready for it to end but it had to at some point y'know?

Anyway the game itself was perfectly fine and, while not all the mysteries/plot points had been neatly rounded up, it felt like a pretty good note to end things on. Except it didn't...

Because FNaF World was announced, which is when my interest started to wane.

Don't get me wrong, when that "thank you" image Scott uploaded to his site started to change and the animatronics started to be replaced by cutesy versions of themselves, I was curious. FNAF 4 was supposedly the end, but here was this new thing that was slowly being shown to us.

I hadn't been too sure what to expect at the time, whether we were getting a new game or whether it was just gonna be one last little image for us to see unravel before he moved onto something else. I don't know, it's been a while.

And then the trailer came out. I thought it was a joke at first, the tone shift was so major that there wasn't really any other explanation I could think of...at least until the game actually came out.

I gave it a chance, I really did. But I couldn't help but think that the series was starting to be milked a bit too much, it started to feel like I was dragging my feet.

Then Sister Location was announced. This game looked to be more in-line with what we'd come to expect with the series and I thought the animatronics were pretty cool in the trailer. I was excited.

Then when the game came out I just couldn't get into it, I don't know what it was, but I didn't feel that same draw towards it that I had with the others.

But, I didn't think much of it. People were already making videos about it going over all the details and theorising, so I figured I'd just watch those...except, keeping up with all the new lore fragments and theories was starting to become more tedious and less fun.

So, I got to the point where I'd think about looking up some videos only to think "I don't feel like it today" until eventually it just stopped occurring to me to look into it.

I think this was around the time when The Silver Eyes came out, which I did read and very much enjoyed, so I figured I'd just stick with the books (specifically referring to the TSE trilogy because I haven't read the others) and maybe give Sister Location another try in the future.

Except that didn't really end up happening, because by the time I first started to think about catching up on what I'd missed, a couple more games had come out and the thought of going over all that lore and all those theories was pretty daunting so I didn't.

I still periodically checked in for new fan songs, because FNAF had the best fan songs out of all the fandoms I've been in, but for the most part? I was more or less done with FNAF.

...At least until the movie came out.

I may not have really been in the fandom anymore, but I remember I was so excited when it was first announced that a movie was under production, so I figured it was only right to check it out now that it was finally happening. A nice little thing to finally close the FNAF chapter of my life with.

Though, of course, if you've been paying attention to my blog lately...you know how that turned out haha.

There's still a lot for me to catch up on, but yeah, it might have taken a couple of years but I'm back now.

[mx-loar-tev]

Finding a show to watch together with my bf and me is hard, like really hard.

We both offer suggestions; we don't see many of them. Sometimes just the name is a big no. Other times, one doesn't like the genre. Or the synopsis doesn't sound good. There's also a lot of "I don't feel like watching that today".

Before the suggestion game even begins though, one needs to find the other in a suitable mood and not otherwise occupied. Sometimes after finding a winner at the suggestion game, the time isn't right anymore, or the mood had shifted, and the viewing is postponed until every conditions are met.

Then we start watching the selection.

If it's a movie, chances are high we watch it fully, unless it's really bad. (There is one exception though, sometimes I don't feel well and I need to stop watching.)

If it's a TW show (or an anime serie), it can go different ways. We usually watch the full pilot without problem, except if it's really bad.

The problem comes later, when we want to continue watching.

Sometimes one of us wants to see more but the other one is not as enthralled. So the enthusiastic one waits for the other to be in the mood. But let's be honnest, it ends with only one watching.

Sometimes one of us is tired when watching some episodes. They miss half the action and can't understand what's going on when they wake up. If it happens once, no big deal, either they rewatch alone or we both watch the episode again. And we get back on track.

Sometimes one misses too much because of recurring mid-episode naps. No-one's fault. Then we end up watching both on our own. No need to rewatch every two episodes twice.

Sometimes the show we watch is so good we're both excited. So excited that when one want to take a break, the other one decides to continue on their own. So each one end up watching by onerself at our own pace.

Sometimes, though. Sometimes we make it. We actually manage to watch a full show together. And it's magical when we do. We get to spend so much time together with a common interest. We can talk about the episode we just watched and discuss every plot points. We can even comment during the viewing and laugh at some ridiculousness.

Watching together is great.

+

There's actually not that many shows we managed to watch together in the past 12 years.

We finished His Dark Materials not long ago and I was overjoyed to be able to talk so much about this universe (I've read the books when I was a kid and they're still my favorites to this day)

We watched the pilot of Foundation last night. I think we might manage to see the two seasons together. 🤞

We tried a re-watch of OUaT not long ago but we failed. I wasn't feeling good and my bf was bored, he needed something to pass the time. We barely lasted a season and half.

I think sometimes he had watched the whole thing just to humor me. I mean, we watched Revenge together. I don't think he liked Elven Lied that much either.

I'd love to show him Our Flag Means Death, but unfortunately he won't watch something not dubbed in French. He hates subtitles. Why can't a French channel buy broadcasting rights?

I tried showing him Supergirl. That was a flop. (No, I have allergies, I'm fine. Yes it's hard to be alone when you're obsessed with a piece of media /j)

At least he loves Agents of SHIELD. We even managed to watch together maybe half of it in total, since we'd usually start a new season together.

That's it for the memorable ones. I'm sure we managed to finish more shows than what I can count on one hand, right?

Ugh I guess we are more of a "cinema couple"... We probably finished a lot more movies than TV shows. Which sucks because I'm a TV kinda person.