#i also hate romance stories in novels in general. i couldn't even get through the first few chapters of intibah

[crescentmp3]

read a summary of the novel we're supposed to read for the second exams this year. this is so stupid

[not-poignant]

Can I ask, why do you love BL romance better than het romance? What makes them better? I did not mean anything negative, and I know everyone have their own like and dislike but I want to know your thoughts....

Also what do you think that made Asian MLM (BL manga/manhwa/manhua/ danmei) romances better than western MLM romances?

Can I ask, why do you love BL romance better than het romance?

Because I had no choice for many years.

Because that choice was taken away from me by a homophobic, transphobic, queerphobic, acephobic society. So all the romances I read had to be heterosexual, all the romances I watched had to be heterosexual, all the romances I heard of had to be heterosexual.

Because I'm not heterosexual.

Because I never saw myself represented in any stories ever, for over about 20 years (queer stuff existed, but where I was situated in Perth, Western Australia, meant that I was not seeing it).

Because I was force-fed allonormative, heteronormative, heterosexual tropes, bullshit, toxicity, misogyny, patriarchal culture, rape culture and more, and because everyone assumed that was normal, which made me feel isolated, marginalised, alone, and bereft, and cut me out of knowing what a life could look like for myself, and made relationships harder, when you don't have the words or stories to latch onto.

People like me couldn't even be erased out of the media, we hardly existed in the media, and if we did, almost never under our real identities, and almost always having to pretend to be something we weren't, for many people who hated us, or wished we were dead, or simply didn't care about us at all.

So, when I finally got a choice, I made a choice.

And I do not want to read heterosexual content anymore, unless it's queer (like T4T). The only place I actually willingly consume heterosexual romantic content these days is like 80s and 90s and early 00s romantic comedies. It's the only thing I allow through my filter, because so many of them have a really strong bent of hurt/comfort in them, and it's rare to find movies that have this in general.

But yeah otherwise het is just not a thing I look for in fiction. Literally a squick. Literally reminds me of 20 years of oppression in the mass media. It's not inherently bad, it just wasn't good for me personally, to never have a choice.

So I made one :D And my life has been so much better for it. I'm never going back.

Also what do you think that made Asian MLM (BL manga/manhwa/manhua/ danmei) romances better than western MLM romances?

It's just better for me, anon! I find a lot of western published m/m (so not like m/m fanfiction which I still read) often feels stifled and too short for me, and the characterisation doesn't get as deep as I want it to get. I often can feel the rigidity of the novel structure on authors who are trying to rapid release, and the depth I'm looking for is rarely there. Sometimes that's what people want! Sometimes they don't know there's other options!

Sometimes that's true of some BL manga/manhua/manhwa etc. as well. Tbh it's probably true of a lot of it! Serial format doesn't always allow for depth either. But I find the visual format easier to read as well. If I reread western m/m it's almost always fanfiction. And tbh, I'm sure some amazing m/m was published last year, I just get tired of having to wade through it all to find something I like. It got to the point where I was reading like 60+ titles just to find one average read, and I gave up.

The recommendation systems for BL tend to be better and more on point for me, I find most people who recommend published m/m to me generally always miss the mark (which isn't their fault - I'm particular, there's a reason I write what I write - because I can't find it to read!!), but close friends like @morbidlizard who recommend BL to me almost always hit the mark!

I don't actually read much danmei, but mostly because I haven't had time to really sink my teeth into it. Aside from MXTX, I haven't explored much further.

But yeah, hope that helps! :D

[kyogre-blue]

Roundup of manhwa I've been catching up on and/or rereading recently. These are unfortunately mostly on Asura Scans, so linking or bookmarking them is useless. I really hate that about their site.

The scores are in regard to what I expect of the overall genre, not general quality per se. I'm not expecting deep, profound writing here. The range is A to F, with A being an easy recommend, B having some flaws but also having some really strong points that make it worth reading, C being extremely average, not terrible but not really doing anything well enough to recommend, and D being largely a waste of time. F is for outright offensive. But there won't really be many failing grades on this list because I just drop them and forget lol. Plus minus is based on my personal enjoyment.

Return of the Disaster-Class Hero, ch74 - Rank: B+. I really enjoyed it, but it's just that the different aspects are overall passable to good (art, humor, battles), plus it has some presence given to supporting characters (Hugo, Sungjae) and relationships, which I happen to enjoy. Additionally, the story actually advances, which can't be taken as a given lol... Unfortunately, the manhwa has been on hiatus since Aug 2023 due to the artist's health and later passing. It's unclear whether it will continue, or how it will look or progress if it does.

The Novel's Extra, ch93 - Rank: C. I was initially going to rank it higher, but while the art is nice and the characters are passable, the pacing is a mess. I genuinely couldn't tell you what the direction of the story is even supposed to be, despite how many chapters it's been. Have we even advanced at all here? I sure don't know.

The Protagonist's Younger Sister, ch33 - Rank: B, though this notably has the lowest chapter count here by a wide margin. Cute story and I like the protagonist family. It's just that it has always updated very slowly, and I'm not even sure it's still updating, so the pacing feels dragged out even if it's actually fine as a whole. But like I mentioned separately, the story has only just passed basic setup, so I don't even know for sure where it's going in the long term.

SSS-Class Suicide Hunter, ch113 - Rank: A. If I have to pick a manhwa I consider most overall impressive among those I've read, it would probably be this one. It has a very strong sense of its protagonist and what it wants to say, and it uses very distinctive arcs with strong supporting characters to do it. The murim arc was obviously a standout, but I think the romance genre arc that is wrapping up was impressive in what it dared to do. They really said "yeah, the protag falls in love and gets married, this is part of his growth as a person." I genuinely did not expect that they would go through with it and let him actually stay married. That's a thing they did. In general, this is just a very solid story, and I hope they are able to adapt it in its entirety, though that will probably take years to come.

I’m a Martial Art Villainess but I’m the Strongest!, ch92 - Rank: B. This one has a female lead (and thus a prominent romance) but it also does a lot of fight scenes and training and stuff like that. The fairly unusual (in my experience) combination of elements works well for me, though the actual contents are fairly average, nothing amazing or terrible, just okay enough. I think my biggest take away aside from the genre combination is the ML's big boobas. I seriously want the MC and ML to bang, they deserve it.

Ending Maker, ch56 - Rank: B. Actually, this one hasn't had any progress since I caught up on the TLs a while back, but I wanted to note it. I like how much focus is given to the relationship between the MC and his love interest, and I don't really have any major complaints. However, I hope they're able to flesh out the plot going forward. It's been very "go to a place, get a thing" without really giving any major weight to anything that's happened, and the supporting characters haven't really left an impression either.

The Duke's Redemption, ch50 - Rank: B-. This one also hasn't updated since I caught up on it a while back, but adding here. Pros: strong focus on the relationship between the MC and the duke, setup for potentially interesting conflict with Serpens not being chosen as the hero per the OG plot. Cons: art is kinda mid, the actual story so far has been largely filler or not very interesting in and of itself. They've built up the foundation of Shion and Serpens as a relationship, but the stuff around that could have been done a lot better.

Doctor's Rebirth, ch150 - Rank: C+, though that's being generous tbh. It is the definition of extremely mid. However, it does make me lol at least somewhat regularly about how gay the entire supporting cast is toward the MC. Truly peak shounen experience. Whether it's his master, his master's assistant (love triangle), the original novel's demonic hero protag, secondary novel villains A through D... they all want him so bad. It's very funny to me personally.

The Extra is Too Strong, ch50 - Rank: D+. I'm adding the plus purely because I spend a lot of time lolling about how buff absolutely everyone is. This includes the one notable female side character and background female characters. That aside, I'm curious what they're going to do with the original novel's protag. He's mentioned several times and with quite a bit of detail about what his deal was, plus he has a non-standard design, so I feel like we will eventually meet him and something is planned for that.

Return of the 8th Class Magician, ch81 (complete) - Rank: C. I know there's other series with a very similar title, so to be clear, this is the one where the MC has long light brown hair (lol) and regresses uses dragon tongue. A complete story that has no particular flaws, but tbh I don't think it has any particular strengths either. The thing I remember most about it is that, around chapter 60 or so, there is a note from the artist that directly says they're about to start deviating from the novel they're adapting. Immediately the main villain is introduced, dragon lore gets updated, and the MC's father is brought up, so you can just tell, yeah, his father is going to be a dragon. And he is. I didn't have any issues with the manhwa-original (presumed) ending, it was done more smoothly than I would have expected, but the whole story just didn't serve anything to make me really excited. Fine read tho, if you've got some time to kill, and the MC is quite pretty.

Trash of the Count’s Family, ch121 - Rank: C. The art is nice, and I liked the initial sections, but the pacing is a mess and nothing meaningful seems to happen. The biggest issue is probably that the MC is just not a type I care for, and the supporting characters don't feel like they're fleshed out enough to stand on their own. The entire story, with over a hundred chapters, has been just endlessly picking up power-ups in preparation for the supposed war, but 120 chapters in and we're still not to the actual war, so... I do think that I'm finally seeing the appeal of the crown prince, so there's that.

The Newbie is Too Strong, ch90 - Rank: C-. This is also a pretty basic series, but the popoi are cute, the MC doesn't annoy me, and I am legitimately interested in the plot mysteries. Also, it does seem to be promising to introduce some recurring side characters in the future, so there is some room to grow.

Overpowered Sword, ch88 - Rank: C. It's a shounen, functionally. I enjoy it in a brain off way, and I will say that I first shipped Leon with Eclid, but now I keep thinking that Karen is good, I ship Karen. However, it has a weakness in that the arcs aren't particularly interesting in themselves. Not enough emphasis on fucked up backstories for the villains and new allies, I guess. Shounen runs on fucked up backstories.

Of All Things, I Became a Crow, ch107 (complete) - Rank: C+. This is a female lead transmigration romance. It's cute! I like it well enough and it's complete. Not really a lot else to say.

[novels-lover]

Review of this son of York.

This is one of the most recent fictional novels about the life of Richard III from his childhood to his death, how is it different from other books? Well, it includes the scoliosis of Richard III as something crucial in his life that defines his character, despite the fact that the author seems to have a positive opinion of RIII in other books that she has written releated to him in this novel RIII is not innocent of all the crimes of those that history has accused him over the centuries, rather the book seeks to present us a balanced portrait of RIII, so he is not a misunderstood hero as in other recent books, the truth is that the book does not have success portraying his childhood that ended up being an illogical and simple portrait, his adolescence is affected by scoliosis and the problems of the country at this point the book does present an interesting, dark, insecure, ambitious character but not a bad person, here i would say that the book improves and becomes a quick read although it sacrifices the descriptive details in the process which does not allow you to get involved in the plot or in the scenarios, even so it becomes a good reading it develops the facts in an entertaining way, the ending is very well achieved with a dramatic and nostalgic touch, it is not a bad book but to be recent it leaves out many facts that are known from history of RIII, it is not the best book about RIII not the worst has good moments so I give it 3 stars no five because throughout the book many events become absurd.

SPOILERS

Anne Easter the author of this book has been writing novels about the family and even Richard's mistress who according to her book (A rose for the crown) gave him 3 children, and in this book she finally decided to take RIII as her character main bringing back to Kate the mistress presented in a rose for the crown, the books are not exactly a saga so it is not necessary to read the others to understand this one or any other.

Richard is a child who grows up in hard times, he faces the death of his father and political betrayals, which makes him a strong child who learns about justice and life (the lessons are credible but they are presented to him and absorbed in a rather ridiculous way), he is sent to the house of his cousin Richard Neville Kingmaker with whom he creates a bond, there he meets other childrens who will be his friends but unlike other books in this case Rob Percy is initially the closest to Richard not Francis Lovell, during these years of training Richard experiences a physical attraction a bit sexualized by Isabel Neville the eldest daughter of his mentor the kingmaker , Richard is almost a teenager like Isabel so this adoration is understandable but unfortunately she he ignores Richard because she likes Geroge of clarence Richard's hated brother with whom he can never get along because of the bulling and the incompatibility of personalities Geroge is an idiot ambitious and Richard is loyal and hardworking (the book does not do a great job showing these positive things in Richard at least not convincingly) Richard soon gets over his "adoration" for Isabel, oh by the way around fluttering like a butterfly is Anne Neville ,Isabel's younger sister who is almost obsessed with Richard whom she sees as a hero Why? No idea , he does nothing but treat her with contempt and manipulate her during those years but Anne seems to be determined to be a victim of life from the beginning. Richard soon begins to be independent and gets a mistress named Kate with whom he has a relationship of pure love and passion (quite romanticized and totally tragic: a royal duke and she a poor nobody) they have three children but Kate will hide the last one from him, Why? For Richard not to have this son on his conscience and go to his political marriage guilt-free (despite the fact that he was conceived before he got married which makes this part absurd and stupid, I mean two bastard children have to be accepeted by his future wife but THREE ?? (would be impossible according to kate's logic), the good thing is that we do not read so much of this cloying and silly romance, although it is clear to us that Kate is and will always be Richard's true love.

Richard suffers bitterly, the scoliosis feels that God punishes him and becomes pious (although he sleeps with Kate who is married and not to him obviosly ) the scoliosis bothers him a lot and is worse when he ends up in Exile in Burgundy for the second time in his life because his brother loses the throne, and more painful for Richard is knowing that his mentor Kingmaker is on the other side fighting for the Lancaster house and has also given his youngest daughter Anne Neville in marriage to Prince Edward of Lancaster that affects Richard and he is like: Nooo Anne! They say that Edward is a monster for sure it will be bad on her and now that I think about it, I would like her for a wife because of her pedigree (So Richard was an idiot with Anne but he is a Duke of York so it's okay, not that this Edward is a Lancaster so he does not have permission to be an idiot with Anne ok ....) Richard triumphs as a commander of his brothe York won and he becomes a hero, everything seems to be going well he has a good relationship with his brother the King and even with his sister-in-law queen Elizabeth, but the ugly part is that his duty is to assassinate the deposed King Henry VI whom he kills with his own hands (It sounds like something stolen from Shakespeare's play, it is also done in an absurd way, it is something like "take off clumsy mercenary I will do it ") from that moment Richard is convinced that God punishes him for this murder and the scoliosis worsens which leads him to develop mood swings and outbursts of anger, he goes to rule the north and decides to marry Anne Neville who lost her husband during the last battle of course that she is still stupidly in love with Richard, he leaves his mistress and promises to focus on his wife Anne who is a strong and sweet girl loving him nonetheless his bastards or his scolicis, she bears his mood swings, the love he always keeps in his heart for kate over the years, and waits in the sanctuary for months because Richard is a bit clumsy negotiating for their marriage with his brothers, thir life together is not so bad in general and he is faithful (in body because in mind he couldn't stop thinking about Kate even after Anne's death he falls into her arms again) he treats Anne with respect but he is not the husband of the year, for him Anne is a consolation but she will never be Kate who he sees through the years and he even uses his children as a remembrance of that love, all this while Anne goes around rubbing his sore back, being a good stepmother, a good wife, an excellent consort, and loving him madly, which I never understood, except to make love to her with charm, he does not do much to make her happy. (seriously Anne why did you love him all your life?).

Richard manages the north with efficiency and sees happy how is killed George Clarence his brother, not only he does not care about him but it seems good to him that they kill him as always they hated each other is understandable or should be but is not ( Richard felt gulty and sad for killing Henry VI, he became pious and God fearing but then he goes to support his own brother's murder for not reason apart from their childish fights every three or more years that they meet each other but it seems that was good for the plot so Richard kills someone else )

He becomes King at the death of his brother Edward with the typical version, Edward's non-legal marriage, Buckigham manipulates everything (Richard becomes alcoholic as events progress and does not use his logic much to unravel all the conspiracies), I was surprised that he will not kill the princes (Shakespeare must be disappointed), his niece elizabeth falls in love with him, Why? No idea at this point Richard is not only angry all the time but also a little out of control with the situation but she loves him, and gets angry when he rejects her "I hate you man I will marry Henry Tudor" (as if she had a vote in the bussines) The ending explains well the betrayal and the mental state of Richard I think that the most redeemable in general is this Richard that is dark quite complex but does not convince me especially considering that he was a man who even today generates hate or love, they had reasons to hate him but I saw few to love him, I think only Kate and Edward could consider him a good person in this book because he trated them well almost always, I recognize that the character is well done the author does a good job with him but I am not convinced nor do I like him I think he is terribly poorly balanced and the book for me is full of silly or a little absurd things that ruined the story, in general I am disappointed to know that now with so much information avaliable Anne easter still went for myths instead of go for facts or use her logic .