#i didn't even know this was based on a book series for the longest time

[monstrumpuella]

Recently started rewatching some of my favorite Disney films and let me say this:

The Princess Diaries is still one of the best films ever and I loved it, adored it and it instantly took me back to my childhood. Mia was my icon I loved her so much she was me with the awkwardness the humor the kindness the determination the anxiety just being so caring

She the absolute queen 👑💞

[pandor-pandorkful]

It's time for another ADHD-fueled ramble! This one is about Homestuck, kind of. Saw a post about someone never reading it in spite of being a tumblr oldie, and that lead to some introspective reminiscing. Maybe it's interesting, maybe it isn't.

I reckon a lot of folks who read Homestuck were kind of peer-pressured into it. I was no exception, though the pressure applied was relatively passive. And if my memory serves me, I started reading Homestuck on MS Paint Adventures before I was a regular tumblr user... sometime in 2011, I think? The year I took off between grad school year 1 and 2, or maybe just slightly before that...

Anyways, around that time I noticed most of my Silent Hill fan art buddies on deviantArt suddenly switched to drawing trolls pretty much non-stop out of the blue.

I felt confused, and kinda left out. I was already feeling like being so overwhelmingly distracted by grad school had permanently damaged my connection to those friends...

So in kind of a last ditch effort to not lose yet another friend group, I dove headfirst into the webcomic, hoping to understand why the steady stream of old man yaoi had been replaced by weird preteen aliens.

If you've read the majority of Homestuck, you know what an effort that was. Its first few chapters are incredibly long and slow paced. By the time I even caught up to the trolls actually being visually introduced, I think my SH-turned-HS friends had moved on to something else entirely. :B

(Later I'd learn that the majority of HS fans during the height of it's popularity were, uh, kinda "fake fans". In that they skipped directly to the troll chapters. :B)

Granted, I had taken the longest possible road to catch up with MS Paint Adventures. When it comes to comics, any comic, I am a completionist. Maybe it's the anxiety from feeling like I'm always missing out on CONTEXT due to ADHD... My brain is broken and I must read everything in chronological release order, so that nothing is missed. (This is a big reason I never got into superhero comics.)

Homestuck was only the current series on MSPA, there were several other completed or abandoned series as well. So I started at what seemed like the very beginning, with Jailbreak. By the time I was done with Problem Sleuth I was very hooked on the throwback to text-based adventure games meets forum shenanigans baked into a comic formula.

Homestuck itself was delightful, from an adventure game mechanics perspective. It had all the frustrating backtracking and plodding story of a classic hardcore adventure, as well as the wild traditional-format-breaking jankiness of the experimental web comics imagined in Scott McCloud's "troubled middle child*," Reinventing Comics. (*as he described the book to me when I asked him to sign my copy lol)

No wonder so many readers skipped straight to the troll chapters! You really had to have a very specific string of incredibly niche, nerdy interests in order to appreciate the slow-burn of the chapters leading up to the trolls... and apparently that's exactly what I had.

Like, to the point that it took me a long ass time to warm up to the trolls at all. Maybe it was because I was an older reader than the typical HS fan and had actually experienced more eras of the internet, but the trolls were just as annoying as the real life types of internet trolls they were based on.

I don't think I started to actually like any of them until the second set of trolls were introduced. The generational conflicts between old-internet and then-current types of trolling was fascinating and honestly hilarious.

By the time I was finally caught up, the comic was close to it's first ending. (And in my opinion, only ending. As I didn't bother checking in with Hussie's later attempts to rekindle the series.)

Having read through everything on MSPA that came before Homestuck, as well as stumbling into Andrew Hussie's even older comics, blog posts and Picard/Riker ST:TNG fan edits on youtube, I had built up maybe an unrealistic hope for the future of MSPA: I was excited for the next comic project to come once Homestuck was finished.

What a big assumption! I don't think anyone would have an easy time just moving on to "the next project" after making something that had garnered as big of a reaction as Homestuck did. So watching Hussie spiral into milking HS for all he could really shouldn't have surprised me.

In an ideal world, artists, writers, creators in general would be able to just move on from project to project. Creation to creation to creation. But we're not machines, and none of us exist in a vacuum. We need to survive somehow, and our feelings of importance and self worth can get so dangerously tangled up with the reaction others have to our work.

Some may find success and never work again. Some may find success and seek to recapture that high for the rest of their life. Some will never find success and give up creating altogether. Who am I to judge or hope for anything from any creator? I'm barely holding on by the whites of my knuckles and the skin of my teeth myself.

But part of me still grieves for the "Next MS Paint Adventures Project" I made up in my head. Something that scratched the itch for interactive comics in new and exciting ways. With brand new characters, settings and bizarre lingo to get used to. There would be references to prior projects, just as HS was peppered with references to Problem Sleuth and the other MSPAs, but on the whole it would be a self-contained work, as it's predecessors were. Another volume for the abstract digital bookshelf.

MS Paint Adventures is dead, the site is just Homestuck now. Flash, the format that made up the very backbone of the comic, is dead and banished. I haven't chatted with most of my old dA buddies in over a decade. We all move on, or don't, in one way or another.

[instructionsnotincluded]

urgh i’m sure you’re sick of hearing about it but i have no friends who watch obx and idk where else to channel my feelings 😭 I AM SO UPSET. I genuinely can’t believe they’ve done this, i was lulled into a false sense of security by the announcement for season 5 because i thought surely Rudy would hang on for one final season. I was so convinced rafe would die after his goodbye to sophia that i was distracted from the real danger (sidebar i hated that they build up that relationship just to end it in one sentence over a phone call, i really had hope after rafe telling her it was okay).

I wish they’d brought it to a close this season so badly and just given them a happy ending. The worst part is i was genuinely enjoying part 2 for the most part even with the crazy plot lines. I was hopeful we’d get some real resolution following JJs crash out with him facing up to his issues and talking it out, particularly with Kiara.

The lack of Jiara was genuinely so jarring and obvious i assumed it was intentional and would come to some sort of head wherein JJ would acknowledge how distant he had been and there would be some kind of emotional breakthrough/makeup for the couple but NO. like they really gave us nothing like the handshake when they parted ways had me screaming WHAT WAS THAT.

the death was so so badly done like obviously we would never be happy with JJs death but there were so many better ways around it, having him actively die protecting the pogues not just randomly being stabbed while standing around, having him actually get to say goodbye to them?! POPE NEVER GETTING TO SAY I LOVE YOU BACK?? and like why was he buried in the sand in fucking morocco that literally broke my heart like alone and to be forgotten and never visited in the fucking desert?? Im so angry i’ve been so excited for this season for the longest time and had so much hope based off part 1, i really felt like they’d been listening to the fans and giving us what we wanted in terms of season 1 vibes and i was so hyped to rewatch it all once i finished yesterday, but now the entire thing feels so tainted??

he suffered so much for absolutely nothing and no reason whatsoever. i feel i can’t even rewatch the parts of pt2 that i enjoyed again because they’re so tainted by the jarring energy between rudy and maddison now that i know it’s not part of the plot. it’s so glaringly obvious that none of this was planned, even if there’s some truth in them initially wanting JJ killed off there’s no way they would’ve followed through with it after seeing how much of a fan favourite he became. like they really gave bro an entire arc of suffering with no resolution other than him saving sarah then just killed him??

i feel so upset today idek what to do with myself, i can no longer enjoy any of my jj content without feeling so heartbroken. at least if they’d just had him leave or given him some form of resolution before his death the whole series wouldn’t feel so tainted… sorry for this insanely long ramble i just needed to offload this somewhere. thank god for people like you working harder than these god damn writers to produce actual good plots 😭💗

Never be sorry! We're all upset! I haven't seen any post or response defending the season, like I do really think everyone hated the ending and hated the way it went down. I've seen a lot about just wishing it had gone down different, not that he didn't die, but that it was for an actual reason. Which is a complaint I have about a lot of actual books. I'm not upset someone died, I'm just upset that it always feels pointless and makes the story feel like it should never have happened.

I was also lulled into the false sense of security with season five. I thought for sure it was because Rudy wanted to leave and they decided to give it a proper ending and not doing anything drastic with his character. Oh how I was wrong. My hope is that Rafe and Sofia are able to work through things in season five, and that they can get to a better place, because I do think they really love each other, and I do think they still do. But I guess we'll see if they force Kiara and Rafe together or not...

You can very much tell that there is a lot of tension between JJ and Kiara because there's a lot of tension between the actors. It was not hidden well at all, they barely interact with one another and if you haven't watched Season three or the first part of season four, you would never know they were supposed to be in love. If anything, it looked like they hated each other.

JJ's entire death scene and the scenes following were just piss poor. Everything about it was bad, and I think it's because everyone knew that this was going to be bad. Everyone knew this would end the show. They're literally watching and filming the end of this series and these stories and they couldn't do anything to make it better. I think it feels and looks so bad, because they felt the same way we do about it.

I'm upset too, it's been a trash week and it feels like the one thing we were looking forward to made it so much worse. It's ok to be upset, and it's ok to not want to see or read anything to do with the Pogues right now. Totally understandable. I felt the same way right after, like do I want to take a break from Audrey and JJ for a while? But I decided that JJ's still alive as long as we write him, as long as we love him, and I think we all deserve that.

[thisworldisablackhole]

Sprawl Trilogy first impressions

God damnit, Gibson really did it this time didn’t he? The man really knows how to string you along and then ghost your ass mid dinner - dipping out of the bathroom window to leave you calculating the tip on your own.

Upon writing this, I have just finished Mona Lisa Overdrive, so I’m full of post-book emotions. Mona Lisa Overdrive took me the longest to read out of the 3 books. Part of that is due to the fact that I was getting distracted and spending full days writing posts on this blog about music and other stuff, and part of it is due to the fact that it is simply the most narratively dense book in the series.

After reading all three I have to say that Neuromancer is still my favourite. It had the most satisfactory ending by far, and perhaps the most cohesive vision. Count Zero is the only entry in the series that was kind of a dud for me. Upon finishing the trilogy, I think there is still some important world building information in that book that is worth revisiting, but the semi-boring characters mixed with all the weird heady spiritual stuff just didn't click for me. Not to mention the finale was much like when you try to pop a bubble on a sheet of bubble wrap and it sort of just softly squeezes out the air without making a sound. Virek going from being on the verge of unlimited power to completely ceasing to exist within the span of a few pages just made me go... "oh.... alright then".

Many people claim that Mona Lisa Overdrive is the best, and I can see where they are coming from, but I must admit I am just not a huge fan of the multi character perspective switching that happens between every chapter. Neuromancer still had it's fair share of innate complications that come from being based in a highly technological word (and written by an author who trusts the intelligence of the reader way too much), but it had a single driving perspective that was easy to stay engaged with. Count Zero caught me off guard with it's perspective shifting right away and it took me almost half the book to really pin down all the who what and where's to a point where I felt connected to each thread. Fortunately Gibson improved on this method of writing A LOT with Mona Lisa Overdrive. Even though he upped the narrative threads from three to four, the characters felt more fleshed out and were easier to connect with.

There is still so much I don't fully understand about the story. The end of Mona Lisa Overdrive wrapped up a lot of loose ends from the previous two books while simultaneously opening a pandora's box full of new questions and theories to explore. I do feel like Gibson added a bit of unnecessary information for the pure sake of complicating the plot and throwing you off balance, but it was nonetheless fascinating. Kumiko's entire involvement in particular was a huge question mark for me. Not to say I didn't enjoy her character. I loved the interactions between Kumiko and Colin. The whole idea of a handheld maas neotek personality construct that acts as a guide/companion that only she can see was really fun, but I kept waiting for her involvement in the whole switcheroo deal to make sense and then it turned out she was never really involved in that aspect of the story in the first place.

On that note, one of the beautiful things I learned to accept about Gibson's writing is that he loves to leave the reader in the dark. There were many times where I felt like an idiot for not fully understanding what was going on, only to have Gibson drop the answers straight into my lap in the last quarter of the book. I found reading this series a lot more enjoyable when I just relaxed and went along for the ride instead of asking questions. The knowledge and context you gain by the end of the books almost beg you to read them again, and that is why I refuse to do a full in depth review until that happens. I just can't do them justice until I fully understand.

[positivelybeastly]

I'm curious as to how much flack Percy gets in regards to his x-force and wolverine run.

This cap doesn't have anything to do with anything, I just find it funny.

So, in regards to Percy's writing of X-Force and Wolverine, I'm going mostly based off of Reddit and Tumblr for these general impressions, because these are the social networks I spend the most time on - minus Twitter, but Twitter is frankly always a cesspool, and people don't actually talk that much about X-Force or Wolverine on there, they talk primarily about X-Ladies.

Reddit actually just wrapped up a poll asking people to rank their least favourite Krakoa era books, and the results were. Interesting.

So, Immortal X-Men was voted the best, with Hellions and X-Men Red trailing in second and third place - well deserved, frankly, those are all really quite excellent books. But we're not here to talk about excellent books, we're here to talk about Ben Percy!

Both of Ben Percy's comics were ranked as being in the bottom third of all Krakoa era comics (not including mini series). That's. Not great, honestly. That's usually what you'd call an indicator of a not well loved comic book.

Now, that's not to say that these runs don't have their appreciators - for one thing, they are objectively drawn pretty much consistently gorgeously. For all the flack I personally give Percy, he is competent at creating interesting body horror situations. There's a firm fanbase that's quite invested in Omega Red's redemption arc.

But I don't think there are many people who actually love these comics.

For one thing, the pacing is glacial. They are the single longest running ongoings of the Krakoan era, bar none, both of them looking to hit #50 in an era where other series are getting cancelled or cut short at #10 or #18 - and they have only just started to wrap up their major plot points. Beast was established to be pure evil back in issue #9, and it took until Wolverine #35 for him to be acted upon in a meaningful manner. Colossus was established to be under mind control years ago, also, and that has only JUST NOW been resolved.

A common response to this criticism was that Ben Percy is a novelist, and therefore used to writing his stories in a certain format - to which I say, cool, but you're writing for comic books, motherfucker. Adapt your style. I don't turn up to a watercolour painting class with a can of spray paint.

Another point people like to bring up is that Percy got 'screwed' by the higher ups extending the Krakoan story arc due to Hickman leaving and the other X-writers deciding to stick around in this stage of the story for longer. The theory goes that he has a set end point, and he's had to stretch the story out to make it work.

To which I say, if he's had even more time than he was meant to have, why do we know less psychologically about Beast now than we did at the beginning of the series? Why are Sage and Omega Red and Domino all begging for table scraps of story? What the fuck was even the point of the Kraven arc? A good writer who is interested in their characters and what they can say about them relishes more time to have them talk, not less, especially if you're getting paid to write it.

How in the goddamn hell did we have a company wide crossover event featuring a godlike being that forced characters to be judged for their actions, motivations and philosophies, and we didn't hear a single thing about Beast or Omega Red?

You could also just? End the story? Would the world really be that much of a poorer place without the adamantium surfboard and the evil space Nazi prison that literally mattered so little that Beast got arrested for it, then turned up again next issue like nothing had happened?

Which leads me to my next point - Beast's descent into villainy, whether or not you think it makes sense with how the character has been treated this last decade, does not make a fucking lick of sense. Everyone on the goddamn island of Krakoa is a fucking moron because X-Force is happening and no-one is watching what obviously evil Bond villain Beast is doing.

Jean Grey is staring Beast in the face, telling him that she believes that she thinks there's still good in him, while he's mentally thinking about what dead animal carcass to throw to Wolverine to break his mind and spirit. SHE IS A FUCKING TELEPATH.

MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.

Nightcrawler says Beast is utterly unethical and he doesn't trust him. Won't talk to him, though. Or check in on him. Or act against him. Beast was running an evil space Nazi prison in orbit, got caught, got taken away in handcuffs, and just. Walks. Away. Scot free.

From the Quiet Council.

How. The FUCK. Did that meeting go?

I don't know, but we'll never see it!

And every time you bring these things up, even the X-Force defenders just kinda have to shrug their shoulders and go, look, dude, I'm just here for the rad art and to watch how far Beast is gonna go this issue. Every other run during this era makes a grand effort to be connected, for Krakoa to feel like a breathing, living island . . . except for X-Force and Wolverine. They all just kinda. Exist in their own little universe.

It's called the Percyverse, incidentally. Legitimately. There's a full on term for it, this effect is so well documented and has been an issue for so long.

So, on Reddit at least, there's a pretty common derision for these runs. Some defenders, but no-one is ever gonna say that they're their favourites of the era. Most people are just kinda like, ehh, it's fun pulp, don't think too hard about it.

On Tumblr . . . yeah, this is something I actually have some personal experience with. You see a lot of X-Force panels posted from major comic book blogs because they catch attention and get a lot of notes, especially if it's a 'Beast does something evil' panel because you inevitably get a flood of people in the comments going HEY WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS, but you wanna know what I pretty much never see?

Fan art.

Idk, maybe I'm looking in the wrong place for it, but there's no fanart, for X-Force. I've seen exactly one piece of fan art for war criminal Beast. Exactly one. I've seen more explicit porn depicting the PS5 and Nintendo Switch fucking in weird robot form than I have fanart of X-Force. Fanfics, also, are very thin on the ground - I've seen maybe five, six, maybe seven?

I actually have one of the higher rated (in terms of views and kudos) X-Force related fanfics on AO3 by virtue of the Irredeemable Beast following on from that plotline, and even then, most of my comments are from people saying, oh hey, it's nice to see Beast back to his proper characterisation again (which is really nice to see, I love that!). I've had one or two people say that they think Beast is still evil, in the context of my story, but . . . honestly, that's an audience I want to cultivate and challenge, so I don't mind that. But still.

That's. Not a lot of fan engagement.

Hell, to go back to the Reddit point - there was a thread a month or two back asking what everyone's favourite X-Force incarnation was, and most people picked Uncanny X-Force (Remender's) or the original 90s run. A few people picked the Utopia era run.

Pretty much no-one I saw picked the Krakoan era book. And I was checking. I was craving that validation. And oh boy I got validated.

There's just. Not a lot going on in these books that's going to foster a dying love in a fan for them, honestly. There's not a lot of in depth characterisation, there's no grander point to the story other than 'CIA bad (but if it were run by these good guy field operatives who understand the necessary evils rather than the stupid bureaucrats, it would be better'). It's just. A pulpy comic book with a lot of violence and a one-note villain.

Who's going to go to bat for that?

In terms of more official flack, well, it's bad form to bad mouth your co-workers, so you're not gonna see a lot of people directly telling Ben Percy he sucks, BUT.

You've seen these panels before, right?

. . . Guys, is this a joke?

And I don't mean, is this a badly produced panel that makes no sense, I don't mean, is this an insult to comic books, I don't mean, are you serious.

I . . . seriously kinda think that this panel is a joke.

Poking fun at X-Force.

Because X-Force Beast is the kind of boring psychopath who can only convey his argument through a PowerPoint. Like, that's a fucking meme. That's straight up a meme. That's the equivalent of, in this essay I will --

Now, this one is also pretty funny, but also . . .

If you were a comic book writer, and you were in charge of a comic book that was getting some fairly intense criticism about the fact that a 60 year old legacy character is being written as the worst villain this side of Charles Manson, and LITERALLY EVERYONE on the internet is screaming that this HAS to be Dark Beast because it literally just doesn't make sense . . . what would you ask editorial to do?

Would you, perhaps, ask that Dark Beast be shown on panel in a different writer's book, acknowledging Beast's evil? That would give you some legitimacy, wouldn't it? Although, that's - a pretty desperate move, isn't it . . .

Especially considering the writer of that book (Kieron Gillen) fucking loves writing Beast. Like, legitimately loves him. You can tell.

This is not dialogue you give to a character you dislike. This is dialogue you relish getting to write because it's fucking fun. This is you getting free licence to get as esoteric and as wild with your dialogue as you want because you're getting to write Beast today.

Beast is fun to write. The writers of the 90s animated show literally said he was their favourite character to give dialogue to because he's so goofy and weird and intellectual.

Not convinced?

This is the same writer, Kieron Gillen, from years and years later (S.W.OR.D was 2009, this book is from 2015).

This is why I think Kieron Gillen was digging at Percy there. Because he clearly loves this character, clearly really is invested in Beast and Abigail's relationship - they were BROKEN UP in normal comics by this point, and yet he went OUT OF HIS WAY to do this. To express a tenderness of feeling and a love and an affection for these characters that scans as genuine.

Hell, look at this.

Is . . . Gillen poking fun at the fact that this fairly important relationship was ended on a whim eight years ago and no-one knows why? Because that's kinda what this reads as to me?

When I met Kieron Gillen at a comics convention a few years ago, I got him to sign my copy of S.W.OR.D. He said, and I quote, that he was fairly certain he'd signed every copy of it ever made. We both kinda laughed, because yeah, that story sold like shit, but also . . . everyone who read it got it signed, huh? And you remember this little 5 issue mini-series that got cancelled well enough to make a joke about it not selling well, with a distinct vibe of, everyone who actually read it loved it, sigh.

Interesting.

It's also worth noting that Jed McKay, currently writing the Avengers, has said that he wished he could have Beast on the roster, but he couldn't. He went out of his way to say that in an official interview.

Interesting.

It's ALSO worth noting that both Grant Morrison and Jonathan Hickman, when asked about Beast at an anniversary livestream, said they didn't see Hank as the kind of character who should be a villain, but merely someone who got into bad situations and reacted like a human to it. Which is. Not something you'd say about X-Force Beast, is it.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

[one-half-guy]

Today I wanna, for absolutely no reason, congratulate the writers of Power Rangers Wild Force by their work in Taylor, the Yellow Ranger.

She starts pretty bossy and rude and it's undoubtedly a bitter start...

But then, you kinda understand her? Wow.

She was ranger for the longest time among this season's rangers, about a year prior to the series begin, she led the other rangers as they were chosen, she ellaborated rules that all the other rangers agreed to comply, she worked to be a good leader for them and undoubtedly done a great work.

But then this newcomer dude, who didn't even know what a Power Ranger was until being called to be one yesterday, is chosen to assume the leadership... And not only that, he also disregards the rules the team was basing on until yesterday and proceeds to bring a childish chat... That he proceeds in disregard himself later in the same day...

That's totally understandable, she's rightfully frustrated for being replaced by a newcomer after having proved how good her work is for over a year, who wouldn't?

But yet, she accepts the decision and is mature enough to get over it rather quickly and continue to collaborate with the team... 👏👏👏👏👏

A good example of a strictly-follow-the-book character who is also likeable.

[annepi-blog]

Writing meme about me!

Thanks for tagging me @daisyishedwig

1.How did you get into writing fanfiction?

This is probably my longest answer because I think I've kind of always done this?

I know my first hyperfixation was in 2nd grade with the Mighty Ducks cartoon series. I wrote headcanons for every character in a notebook and made up short stories before falling asleep, not knowing what fandom or fanfiction was.

I was introduced to fanfiction when I got Internet access and became obsessed with Lord of the Rings. That was the first time I ever read fanfiction online.

Shortly after that, my three best friends and I became huge fans of the band "The Rasmus" and I actually wrote my first fanfiction when I was 12. On paper, by hand! And I shared it with my friends in the schoolyard. They don't exist anymore, but I think it was really bad :D

Then I fell out of writing along with life, but I kept imagining stories for myself. 

I just started writing again last year. After I found Glee and Klaine during Covid, I started reading fanfiction again. When there was the attack on AO3 last year, I used the time and thought, why not write a fanfiction myself again.

2. How many fandoms have you written in?

Active on the Internet, sharing with the world, just for Klaine fandom.

3. How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

As mentioned above, somehow always, but only online for a year.

4. Do you read or write more fanfiction?

Definitely more reading! I also read in other fandoms like RWRB, Last Binding Series, or Heartstopper. Also recently read some 911 BuckTommy stories even though I have not seen the show because of all the content I see on tumblr :D

5. What is one way you've improved as a writer?

Practice makes perfect. I think it just helps to do it.

For me personally, it helps to first outline the whole story from beginning to end and then write. I cannot just start without knowing where I am going with it, I would also lose motivation in between.

I am not a native speaker but I want to write in English so I try to improve by reading books and watching shows and movies in English.

6. What's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Since I am still pretty knew to real writing not too crazy things I think. Maybe, I read the whole rule book for the Eurovision Song Contest and I looked at the divorce law and procedure in New York City.

7. What's your favorite type of comment to receive on your work?

Every comment! It makes me especially happy when people read through multi-chapter fics and comment on each chapter, telling me what they think might happen. But I appreciate every comment.

8. What's the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

Puh, I don't think I have any yet? The most uncommon thing so far might be that I wrote Klaine find each other when they were in their 50s. But I want to expand the tropes of my fiction in the future!

9. What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

I would love to write something with action or mystery, but I just can't. I don't like what I've come up with so far, it's really hard for me.

10. What is the easiest type?

I think feelings, affection, chemistry between characters. I just love when people are happy, and I am a pretty positive person, so it is easy to project that into my writing.

11. Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

At home on my couch or bed with my laptop on my lap. I just cannot work sitting at a desk :D I used to write in Word, but switched to Google Docs because it is easier to share with betas.

12. What is something you've been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

As mentioned above, action or mystery, because I also like to read it. Or a fantasy world of my own. But I haven't had enough ideas for that yet.

13. What made you choose your username?

Simply put, it is based on my real name. When I signed up for AO3 and later tumblr I didn't think I would ever write, I just needed it to read the stories of others and didn't worry about it. Now I don't want to change it because it's already established.

I don't know who has already taken part, but I'm tagging @fallevs @special-bc-ur-part-of-it @shame-is-a-wasted-emotion @nicoise @kurtsascot @cryscendo

[alackofghosts]

a little while ago @crackinthecup tagged me in this bookish meme, which i have been saving for a rainy day - apparently a very literally rainy day in this case. thank you friend, i do so enjoy rambling about books <3 also tagging @hong-ara, @gloriousmonsters, @fatalism-and-villainy if you guys fancy having a go at it (and anyone else who wants to, i love reading others' opinions on books too)

An estimate of how many physical books I own: um. at least 2000. mom did some inventory once all the way back in 2006, and this was the point at which she got bored of it. i have always lived in a library and even though that many books has certainly been a nuisance, i also find it difficult to imagine a living space without them

Favorite author: honestly a weirdly difficult question. i feel like while i do read a lot for the style of prose, i don't very often go on a frenzy to read everything by the same author. but of course you all know my deep and abiding love for richard brautigan and lately i've been so obsessed with mary oliver. ...picking poets for this is easier :')

continued under the cut

A popular book I’ve never read and never intend to read: it feels funny to say this because i have literally not even once encountered talk of this author on tumblr Organically - which tends to be my benchmark for popularity - but seeing as she's all over every other bookish corner of the internet: i have absolutely no desire whatsoever to read anything by colleen hoover

A popular book I thought was just meh: WHERE DO I BEGIN... i've talked about some of these before but a new(er) addition to this list is in the dream house by carmen maria machado which ONCE AGAIN i feel so bad for not being wildly into! i think it's mostly due to the fact that internet at large painted such an interesting picture of it in terms of viewing ones own life/instance of abuse through the lens of different genres/tropes, but actually reading it, each segment was so short and the stylistic exploration didn't really come through. like it wasn't a bad book by any means and certainly covered an important topic and one that people generally shy away from, just. not at all what i expected it to be.

i tend to pick books based on genre and maybe like top few lines of the summary so i can't conjure up expectations, and obviously with popular books that's somewhat unavoidable :')

Longest book I own: extremely boring answer but my dad's bought a bunch of those 1001 books/movies you need to see before you die compilation books over the years and those all hover around the 1000 page mark

Longest series I own all the books to: if we mean series in terms of consistent cast/story, then i think it's the saga of darren shan by... darren shan, which has 12 books that i absolutely devoured when i was 13. otherwise, while i don't own every single goosebumps book (by rl stine), i do have most of them. i was very obsessed when i was 11-12 - these were actually the first books i ever read in english!

Prettiest book I own: um. honestly no clue, my family has never been one to buy books for the covers or for the special edition-ness and even now i feel like i can't picture any of them in my mind lol

A book or series I wish more people knew about: green bone saga by fonda lee!!! ...though again this might be down to the metric i use to gauge popularity, but even so! it has such wonderful worldbuilding and intricate family dynamics and even though i have big big book fear, i practically devoured them

Book I’m reading now: the silence of the white city by eva garcia saenze de urturi. it's pretty good so far! i've had such a year of thrillers and mysteries, i feel

Book that’s been on my TBR list for a while but I still haven’t got around to it: ...ancillary justice by ann leckie. i've started it a couple of times, but the Stars Were Not Aligned on those days. so i wait.

Do you have any books in a language other than English: most of the books i have are in estonian, actually. there's a pretty decent amount in english (mostly due to me...), and a small handful in swedish and finnish.

And lastly, paperback, hardcover or ebook? eboooook. often when i read an ebook i find myself daydreaming of a physical book, but then when i actually read one i find myself getting so irritated by not being able to find a comfy position lol. i also really love audiobooks, for the multitasking value...

[shouldprobablybereading]

SA5 and beyond character predictions and opinions: Kaladin

Decided to write this down now so I can laugh at it next year when the book is out.

Death possibility

I actually can't see this happening. For obvious reasons, he's been suicidal for big parts of the series and killing him would ruin all that previous work on keeping him alive. Especially if it's a sacrifice or last stand, since his entire character arc is currently based on coming to terms with not being able to save everyone.

2. Kowt thoughts

Kaladin is overall in somewhat of a weird place for kowt where despite being THE main character he's not directly involved in the main conflict. Like currently shallan is dealing with the ghostbloods and the cosmere at large, expanding the lore. And dalinar is the one who is about to battle the villain

I assume the ishar plot is going to be extremely relevant and intersect with the others. But for the longest time I assumed kaladin would be dalinars champion which would have put the two of them in what seems like THE big confrontation of the first arc. which almost makes me think the duel is not going to be as big of a deal as it seems. I also can't actually see him helping ishar that much in only 10 days. So in short I'm just really confused and hoping sanderson knows what he's doing

3. Presence in the back 5

As said I assume he is going to be around. But going a little controversial here for a second, I am fine with and almost find it necessary for him to have a significant decrease in povs going forward. Which is not saying that I don't love his character. I just think that if they try to keep up his 100k per book wordcount average there isn't going to be enough character arc left to tell unless significant changes happen to his circumstances, which to be fair is possible given how fucked roshar seems to be in tlm

4. Actual ideas

It's pretty predictable but I kinda like the idea of keeping up his whole inventing therapy thing, his story feels like its leaning away from combat and I think this is a really good and more healthy way for him to still be able to try and look after others and help them. Maybe act somewhat of a mentor to oroden and gavinor to keep him relevant, if that type of plotline can be done without feeling to cliche.

5. Possibilty of godhood?

Didn't even think about this until I saw someone suggest he would take up honor or become a herald. I'm not fond of this at all for actually the same reason I don't want him to die. Dude who is scared of losing people becoming immortal? That just seems like a punishment and he doesn't deserve that

[the-guilty-writer]

Okay hang on wait I have a timeline question. Okay, so it’s established there is about 1 year between RR jointing the bureau & the show beginning.

The first installment within the show is Gideon leaving, which is 3x01

Reid and RR are married at this point.

The next is Rossi’s introduction episode, which is a few episodes after (is it 3x14? It might be 3x14)

This installment discusses RR and Reid’s wedding anniversary (er, proposal anniversary). It talks about it with the air of it being at least a 2 year tradition. IMO.

We can vaguely assume the season’s are a year each, based both in Elle’s having been there a year after she leaves in season 2, and Jack turning 4 in season 4, after being born in S1.

SO, exactly how long DID RR and Reid know each other when they got together? And how long were they together before they got married?

The answer is not long enough in my opinion, but it's because I wasn't smart enough to put together a timeline before I started writing the series.

I didn't think it through and made a (sort of) mistake by saying that they got married before the show started and it crunched the timeline of their relationship between meeting and mairrage to about a year.

To draw it out the longest, we can say that Reid joined the BAU in October of 2003, right after he turned 22, and RR joined the BAU in late February/early March 2004 (approximately 20 weeks apart from one another).

It's already established that Morgan ships them (in The First Case when he tells Reid to wake her up) and Spencer absolutely has a crush on her (he gets flustered by Morgan's comment). If we're being honest we all know that Gideon is trying to set them up. So I'd imagine that Morgan really pushes Spencer into asking her out fast.

So they probably go on their first date by the end of March 2004.

With their jobs there isn't a whole lot of time for dating in the traditional sense and they're already with one another all the time because of work. The phase of only going on established "dates" with specific plans and time frames would be short-lived because it simply isn't feasible with their lives.

They'd skip to the phase where they hang out at one another's apartments after work, grab quick dinner together after a case, and "the metro doesn't run this late. you can just stay over" part of their relationship fast. It's the most practical way for them to spend time together outside of work. By mid-May 2004 they both have keys to one another's places.

They're practically living together, but I think both of them would feel like they were rushing so they'd put it off actually moving in with one another depite the fact that they're just splitting their lives and belongings between two seprate apartments.

This is when I imagine the chain reaction of events takes place that begins to really force speed.

At the end of August/beginning of September 2004 something happens. I imagine Spencer's mom's care fees rise, and while Spencer has the money, it's still stressful for him. RR finds out because Spencer can't hide anything from her (she can't hide anything from him either), and she suggests they move in together to lessen the financial burden. So they move in together.

Their relationship has been serious since the beginning, but now it feels even more serious.

At the end of October 2004, something happens on a case and RR lands in the hospital in pretty bad condition. Rossi is overseas for some book thing, so Gideon is the power of attorney for RR, but he's still chasing after the unsub with the rest of the team. Spencer wants to stay with her, but because of laws, the doctors won't tell Spencer about her condition and he is loosing his mind.

She pulls through and she's going to be fine (other than the fact that she'll be on desk duty for a few weeks which will drive her bonkers) but Spencer is absolutely not fine. He was terrified having to sit around knowing nothing until Gideon and Hotch got there.

RR comes home on Halloween and that day Spencer proposes the idea of getting married for legal purposes. It makes sense from a logistics standpoint- it would give them both power of attorney, tax benefits, and if something were to happen to Spencer then RR could make sure everything goes towards Diana's care, etc.

RR says yes, but it's a hesitant yes.

Because of Rossi's three failed mairrages, RR does keep putting off the paperwork though, and Spencer understands her hesitation. They have moved fast and they're young and neither of them had great examples of healthy relationships growing up.

They're coming up on months of "engagement" and RR is still hesitant, but then... Boston. March 2005.

RR was with Hotch when it happened and Spencer was with Gideon. They're in two separate locations and all the information that is being relayed is that a BAU agent is dead. RR is losing her shit because all she can think about is how she's put off marrying the love of her life (even if it is just for legal reasons, because this is the excuse they make all the time) and now he might be dead.

When they get home the team is given time off and Spencer and RR get married. She wasn't going to hyphenate her name before, but she is now and Spencer secretly loves it.

So the answer is about a year between the time they meet and the time they get married! I don't think this is entirely compliant with everything I've written so far, but it takes up the most time.

The show starts in late September 2005 so by the time the show starts Spencer and RR would have been mairred for about 6 months!

[imaginarianisms]

alias / name : angel ( singletsona / core / host; only if we're close ) / arcana ( singletsona / core / host ) / ansale'wit ( my name translated into mi'kmawi'simk ) / ᐋᓐᔐᓃ ( my name translated into anishinaabemowin, literally spelled aanzhenii ) ; the imaginarians galaxy ( system name; please refer to us& as this when you're not sure who's fronting & please don't refer to us& as one person, everyone in the system deserves to & should have the equal amount of respect, love, dignity, honor, care & undivided attention & it's disrespectful to only ever refer to me& especially if i've& known you for years at this point; that's my& firm boundary. ). birthday : july 13th. zodiac sign : cancer sun, sagittarius moon, libra rising & leo venus. height : 5'2. hobbies : it depends on who you ask because we're& a system but we& collectively like gaming, writing/rping, worldbuilding, learning our& indigenous languages, true crime, psychology, criminology, sociology, philosophy, intersectionality, history (especially during the medieval period but certainly not exclusive), eastern history/civilization, indigenous history/civilization, ancient history, loveletters, queer shit, fashion, acting, transhumanism, alterhumanity, plurality, the occult & magick & witchcraft, the concept of apotheosis, enlightenment, fate, folklore, godhood, hope, humanity, & monstrosity, virtual reality, traveling, asmr, being a boujee native & being an educated heaux.

favorite book : a song of ice and fire series & gangsta. last song : dust bowl by ethel cain. last film / show : the love witch / gangsta. recent reads : arianne martell & sansa stark / alayne stone; the winds of winter.

inspiration : honestly for the longest time i didn't want to return to the tumblr rpc bc it made me feel bittersweet bc a lot of my old friends were moving elsewhere or inactive & on top of that it reminded me of someone i used to know & i have. a lot of bittersweet feelings around this person so. but some of us& wanted to get back into it again. tthe vast majority of our& interpretations on our& muses are heavily based in both headcanons & our& fictives' ( 4 singlets: a fictional introject ) exomemories which honestly most of the time they tend to overlap, the latter meaning that this actually happened to them & isn't something that just happened in a book or a movie or a tv series or a videogame, they're living, breathing people & for that individual, it all happened & it was all very real !! additionally, a lot of my& own personal life was used as major inspiration. being a survivor of multiple traumas that most people can't even fathom ( to the point where my doctor told me most would've kermited if they'd experienced the things i went through ) & that did unspeakable things to my brain chemistry ig so. i use writing to cope. so. yall have to deal w/ that ig. at least i aint boring. /lh furthermore ethel cain & nicole dollanganger are major inspo. & as much as i& write / rp for fun, i& also write & rp to educate others especially on topics like indigenous peoples, disabilities, neurodivergencies & mental health, especially around stigmatized disorders like did bc honestly i'm so very tired & demoralized bc of the constant stigma around did & other stuff like npd, bpd, etc. & both the media & people treating us like we're some kinda fucking soulless monsters when we're literally people who were hurt & failed in childhood & had traumatic upbringings only to be demonized, trauma & other shit so it's v important to us&. representation matters & so does keeping the light of humanity alive & well. story behind url : our& system name the imaginarians galaxy + isms! fun fact about me : my great aunt & technically a cousin of mine was a witch in the family; she passed her knowledge onto her granddaughter, my cousin, & she passed her knowledge down to me so i'm a hereditary witch. my mom dated a serial killer years ago when she was 19 & she had no idea so that was fucking wild bc i was 8 when she told me about it, thanks mom. lmao. i was also born 24 weeks premature & i quite literally died before the doctors resurrected me. basically i made death my bitch. i'm all the letters in 2lgbtqia+ at once & ppl can die mad about it lmao. i'm clusters a ( schizotypal personality disorder / schizospec / psychotic / stpd ) b ( {mild} antisocial personality disorder / aspd, {mild} narcissistic personality disorder / npd, histrionic personality disorder / hpd,, borderline personality disorder / bpd ) & c ( avoidant personality disorder / avpd ) as well as autism & adhd; i also have cptsd & h.c-did bc yknow. trauma did shit to my brain, this shit fucks with me on such a deep level & uh. the comorbidities have me fucking insane up in the club. on the physical disabilities side of things i have cfs / chronic fatigue & pots (so like. don't take it personally if i dont respond quickly) & am hoh. so i'm hoping to get a multipurpose psychiatric service dog & eventually get a wheelchair as an ambulatory wheelchair user. my paternal grandfather fought in wwii & killed nazis. my& clans are mouse / apukji'j ( mi'kmaq ) & wolf / yanariskwa' ( huron-wendat ), it basically represents a family & it has nothing to do with a spirit animal, & in the huron-wendat's case a clan is like an ancestor, who you're descended from in the huron-wendat creation story & they shared a longhouse & traced their lineage from the female line from a female ancestor bc the wendat were matriarchal so wolves are my ancestors.

tagged by : stole it from @noctuafought ( hi aphy lmaoooo ) ! tagging : @velcryons / @brokcncrowns @loyalpromise @helbroth @gutsing @sevynhells @inmydrcams @dethdvncer & anyone who breathes !!

[piepeloe]

I posted 349 times in 2022

107 posts created (31%)

242 posts reblogged (69%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@gffa

@glimmerglanger

@legobiwan

@forcearama

@captaingondolin

I tagged 191 of my posts in 2022

Only 45% of my posts had no tags

#spoilers - 85 posts

#obi-wan kenobi - 60 posts

#obi wan kenobi series - 44 posts

#obi wan kenobi spoilers - 36 posts

#bucky barnes - 19 posts

#she-hulk - 9 posts

#she-hulk spoilers - 8 posts

#bruce banner - 7 posts

#book of boba fett - 7 posts

#bobf - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 129 characters

#the story they've given her does a disservice to literally every character from catfa: steve erskine bucky not to mention her own

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Movies release on Wednesday here, so I've seen it! Will describe some general vibes then go in deeper detail behind the cut and tag for spoilers to be safe.

It's an extremely entertaining movie. It's fast-paced, as in it starts with an action sequence, doesn't make a mystery about the villain or quest or whatnot, just bam, straight to the point. Love it.

It does mean there's some very abrupt shifts in tone. I feel like it adds to the whole unsettling vibe. It's not a rollercoaster of *emotions*, but it is 'one damn thing after another' so I feel it works.

Seriously though, it goes from really creepy to introspective to ridiculous to gross to sugary sweet to sad and back.

Like with NWH I was worried the movie would have too much fun with the multiverse to do any character exploration or development. But again like NWH, it was through the multiverse shenanigans that we got that development, which is fantastic.

I am curious what both movies were like before their release dates got switched. Because they would have been very different.

There's no typical final act massive battle against CGI monsters or lasers or whatever! There's definitely a bunch of fighting and CGI, but it's atypical for an MCU movie IMO. And the resolution is based more on the characters and their emotions.

There are 2 post-credits scenes: first one is something I still need to google because I have no idea what happened. Second one was a joke/call-back to an earlier joke.

More specifics behind the cut, definite spoilers!

There's a lot of focus on Strange's relationship with Christine, which is weird since they were exes and somewhat friendly coworkers in the 1st one. But they actually use that, and examine it, and move on. The movie could have worked without it, but it's fine.

Not enough Wong. Seriously. He had great moments and I love his friendship with Strange. Not nearly enough Wong.

America Chavez was really the MacGuffin here, so she didn't get that much to do. But I can see how she'd be fun in a Young Avengers line-up.

The Illuminati were pretty much the people that everyone has been guessing. IMO, they were used well, but I feel like a lot of fans will disagree. Basically they went up against Wanda and lost. Like, it wasn't even close. We meet them, and a scene later they all die horribly.

Because yes, Wanda is the villain. And the movie commits to it. She's freaking terrifying. In what she can do, but also why, and because we know her. Like a mix of the Winter Soldier and Thanos?

I'm not quite sure what the ending means for her. It's supposed to be a Darth Vader ending with one last selfless act before dying, but I don't trust it at all. It'd be cool if they stuck with it, but there's no way.

As far as I can tell there's no major shake-up of the MCU either? Fans had expected they'd use this movie to bring mutants in, or that something else 'big' would happen. I suppose it's hard to tell what would cause a stir, since no one seems that fussed about a Celestial breaking out of the Earth either.

20 notes - Posted May 4, 2022

#4

Obi-Wan Kenobi S1E1-2: Larses/Luke

We don't see much of them, but I love what we do.

Just enough of Luke, to definitely confirm that he's Anakin's son, really rubbing that in but not going overboard. I love Obi-Wan saving up for a toy he doesn't even hand over in person.

But Owen steals the show. The performance is amazing, and the character remains sympathetic. He's not made out to be a jerk. He's just looking out for Luke. After his encounter with the Inquisitor it's absolutely clear he doesn't actually hate Obi-Wan, that he knows Luke is safer with him around, that he understands the danger.

I hope we see more of him (and Beru!)

22 notes - Posted May 27, 2022

#3

Obi-Wan Kenobi S1E1-2: Clone trooper(s)

I had gone back and forth between hoping/expecting clones and not daring to. Because Temuera Morrison would have been filming Boba Fett, but would there be clones left after 10 years? And I desperately want Cody, except I don't because they might kill him off.

After the recap I figure we probably won't get a lot of clone trooper(s) featuring in the story, so having one show up was a shock.

Totally heartbreaking one too. Love that Obi-Wan didn't hesitate and just gave him credits.

I'm really curious about this trooper now. Why is he not with the Empire? How does he still have his clone trooper gear?

People have suggested he's 501st, but I think it's the wrong color blue for that. This seems more teal, like the one clone we met on S1 of Bad Batch.

I kind of think this is all the clone content we're getting but I hope not. Because this really makes me wonder once again about what Obi-Wan knows re:the chips and Order 66.

25 notes - Posted May 27, 2022

#2

As much as I love Captain Rex and would love to see Temuera Morrison play a live action version of him, I would be kind of miffed if it was (only) him that showed up in the Kenobi series.

We know where he winds up, plus he was Anakin and Ahsoka's 2nd, not Obi-Wan's.

Meanwhile we have no idea what happened to Cody after Utapau, even though he was ridiculously high up in the chain of command, Kenobi's 2nd, and apparently invented the Bad Batch. Plus, you know, it would make sense, as he's one of the only live action clones we've seen and he was the one to kick off O66.

34 notes - Posted March 10, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

LOL, @forcearama I think maybe you're onto something with someone on the show reading your blog:

Chow added: "I mean, there are of course more stories that you could tell. There's obviously another 10 years before we get to A New Hope and with a character like Obi-Wan Kenobi, I think even just watching him ride across the sand sometimes is interesting.

71 notes - Posted June 15, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[viperwhispered]

hi nerrr!!! forda art appreciation asks, id like to throw:

5.) What genre do you like reading the best?

18.) What media do you want to get into because of artists/writers you like?

29.) What are some assumptions you have about "Apothecary Diaries" based on tumblr?

-diodellet

5) I'm a total fantasy gal. Back in middle school I'd basically browse the shelves for the thickest books / longest series I could find with the little sticker indicating fantasy/sci-fi (smaller town so we didn't have separate sections for different genres in the adult section), and that's how I ended up reading David Eddings and Wheel of Time and Redwall and what have you. After having read Lord of the Rings from my mum's bookshelf and the first Harry Potter books from the library bus that used to visit my elementary school.

Tho tbf nowadays a lot of my reading is fic / games / visual novels, and there sure is a strong romance slant there. (Thinking about it, it sure has been a while since I've read an actual book, oops.)

18) I mean, not knowing the media has not kept me from fic (or art) before… Hmm. Well, Malleus art was kind of a contributing factor to me getting into twst (in addition to hearing friends talk about the game). I suppose the various incarnations of Final Fantasy would fit the bill here? Beyond prodding FFXIV for a bit I've not played those games, but have seen some interesting things in the fandom.

Lot of the things in my sphere are gacha and stuff and I'm just trying not to add any more of those in my life, or they'll just take over all my time. So at the moment I don’t think there’s anything with a strong pull that I’m just waiting to get to or anything like that.

29) I don't think I've seen much of that on my dash, even looking at the tag it doesn’t ring a bell I’m afraid. Tho, uhh, this and this are making me kinda curious about the character dynamics. Quick glance suggests a sassy protagonist doing their own thing, but who knows if the romance(?) stuff I’m seeing is tumblr being tumblr and just ignoring all the messy plot or horrors and focusing on pleasant things.

(ask game in question here)

[foxymoxynoona]

In honor of your Two Year anniversary, which story took the most work to plan or involved the most research? which one takes/took the longest to write?

Ooooh this is a fun question!

So the first answer is the Secret Song Series books definitely have the most hours of writing and the most research. When I started writing I knew nothing about idol life and didn't even know much about BTS except that I adored them. I spend a great deal of time researching all the different themes in the story, like impact of fame on young adults, and trauma/relationship struggles for trafficking survivors, and laws about work visas and non-profits in Korea, this and that, etc. When the characters travel or live anywhere, I've researched everything from the hotel they stay at to whether they can get Korean food, etc. I "do" the shopping trips to make sure it's somewhat accurate. I make up Sasha's class adn work schedules, and JK's work schedule. It's why I ultimately decided to start posting, because I'd spent so much time on it, I felt like I might as well, even if I knew it wouldn't fit the bill of what a lot of people are looking for in an idol AU. Also just to be clear: I only learn about BTS through official things and I still have barely scratched the surface of all the content they've produced --I'm not on Twitter, I don't follow Kmedia outlets, I'm not digging around lookign for "true" private info. When I say I research, I mean that I know more about western celebrity culture but then try to learn how it compares to general Asian celebrity/idol culture and build my stories and what I want to apply to the BTS guys in my story through that theoretical long way and what fits thematically for my story/characters rather than being overly concerned with anything being "true". I'm still learning so much!

After that monster series though... The Red-Lions books. They are based in a video game world that I've learned and continue to learn so much canon about (all the manga, the supporting novels, the art and concept books, the fan theories, etc.), but if you're familiar with the games, you can probably see also how incredibly much I've added. It would not be difficult to completely separate them from the Dragon Age world they began with. I do extensive research into European and Asian history to draw inspiration, and some African as well. Probably the Viking references are easy to pick up on but the ancient Thracian tribes also provide a lot of inspiration! And so on.

That being said, if you only look at Lowlander, I think Amended may have actually taken me longer to write if you don't include the research.

On the opposite side, Sea of Indigo and Sugar Fairy were the quickest to write. I literally posted a chapter a day alternating for those stories for three months and then they were both done, the end.

[aeneaamoretto]

Thanks @serenesavagery for sparking all of this.

She really didn't do anything much other than leaving a passing comment that 'Brandon is a legend btw'.

That made me curious...

(That's never a good thing.)

So, I wanted to know what was his total written word count, what was his longest book and his shortest book...

And because I'm stubborn, I was going to do it myself. So armed with his official website, a calculator, a notepad and the internet, I began my quest.

Three books in, I switched to an Excel sheet because I am an idiot for even considering my first method was a good idea.

Here is where my overly investigative self went slightly off the rails. So not only did I have the book titles and the number of words in each book, I went on to include what category they fell under based on his site, if they were apart of a series, what type of book they were and their earliest publication date. I said earliest because some had two under different companies so I just went with the first one.

I'm here to share my findings after 2 days of research...

I mostly used the list of books from his website. So Arcanum Unbounded and Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds were used over the standalone versions. It saved me time in hunting down the others and calculating the overall word count was much easier if I didn't have to some subtractions along the way.

His four graphic novels were excluded from any of the final calculations because I couldn't get any accurate word lengths for them. For similar reasons, the audio book book he worked on was also excluded. I still put them on the list though.

The only other exclusions I had were his additions to the Unfettered, Unfettered III and Armored anthologies because I couldn't get my hand on those numbers.

I'm honestly surprised that I managed to get the one for Dreamer.

(If any of you do have them, could you please send them my way. Thank you.)

Also, I included the tentative word counts for Dawnshard and Rhythm of War because I wanted to include them in this crazy list...

There's also a fake release date for Dawnshard because I needed something there if I wanted to plot it later.

So feast your eyes on my crazy masterpiece

Yes, I also did a graph because I'm extra.

(Those sharp crazy increases were mainly due to Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, Warbreaker or The Wheel of Time. I checked.)

So the longest book he has ever written is undecided. It'll depend on how long Rhythm of War actually turns out to be but for now it's at number 1.

So his current Top 10 longest books:

Rhythm of War - 460,000 words*

Oathbringer - 454,768 words

Words of Radiance - 403,736 words

The Way of Kings - 383,181 words

A Memory of Light - 353,906 words

Tower of Midnight - 327,052 words

The Gathering Storm - 297,502 words

The Well of Ascension - 249,522 words

Warbreaker - 243,849 words

The Hero of Ages - 241,889 words

Since I don't have all the figures, his Top 10 shortest stories are up to deliberation but I do know that it'll take a lot of work to dethrone Dreamer at number 1.

Brandon Sanderson's Top 10 Shortest Works

Dreamer - 4,365 words

Mitosis - 9,034 words

First Born - 14,051 words

Defending Elysium - 14,743 words

Perfect State - 18,268 words

Snapshot - 25,079 words

Dawnshard - 35,000 words*

Infinity Blade Redemption - 37,681 words

Infinity Blade Awakening - 39,040 words

The Dark Talent - 51,711 words

Bonus: Here are the random calculations I did because I was bored and this is Excel...

(Again, his works from Armored and the Unfettered anthologies were not included in these numbers except for the final tally of works. That number is still inaccurate because I didn't get around to adding the shorter stories that became apart of Arcanum Unbounded and Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds.)

Can we take a moment of awe for this man? In the last 15 years, he has over 50 works credited to his name.

(My list only says 46 and I think like 10 of his other works didn't make the list because they were absorbed into the collections.)

He has published like 17 FREAKING EPICS !!!!!!

These lovely monstrosities are so long and he has released 17 of them.

His average word count for a single book, with the numbers I found, amounts to 149,147 words... I found the average of 39 different works and that still classifies as an epic.

What is he doing with himself? What am I doing with myself?

We need to applaud this man for everything that he was written for us and continues to write for us. He's written about 5.7 million words already and with Stormlight Archive not even halfway done, I'm not even going to be surprised if that number reaches 8.5 million. Especially considering that he has other active series going on and sequels in the works.

So, Brandon is a legend btw.

Next on my list of things that I'm going to research for the hell of it is Szeth's timeline... I really should do that before Brandon decides to alert me on exactly how much more complicated he wants it to be.

[ownedbybooks]

End of Year Reading Tag 📚

I was tagged on my main account by @therefugeofbooks so I thought "what a better way to start my new bookblr blog, then through my 2021 readings?". Thanks for the tag, Caah! <3

Let's go to the questions:

did you reach your reading goal for the year (if you had one)?

No, I didn't :( But I almost reached it! My goal was to read 55 books and I finished 2021 by reading 44 books. I was happy, though, because I've read 40+ books!

what are your top 3 books you read this year?

The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller;

La vie devant soi, by Romain Gary;

Time's Divide, by Rysa Walker.

what’s a book that you didn’t expect to enjoy quite so much going in?

Proteja-me, by Mila Wander & Josy Stoque. It was clearly from the beginning that it was a more madure and erotic book. And even though i like the spicy scenes, till this book I haven't found one that had a really good plot, characters and writing. So I started reading it with precaution, knowing it was going to be hard to me to like it. But, surprisingly, IT WAS EVERYTHING I WANTED. The writing was great, the characters had depth, the plot was more than the "i want to fuck her/him", it had drama, it discussed important topics, it had emotional growth, the majority of the female characters respected each other (even though they might despise each other at some points). Great, great, great reading!

were there any books that didn’t live up to your expectations?

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. I think that great part was from the fact that I already knew major spoilers about it, because of pop culture references. But still, I was hoping I was going to enjoy the read a bit more.

did you reread any old faves? If so, which one was your favourite?

I did reread some books, but none were previously my favourites. I don't even know if I can considere one of them my favourite rereads of 2021 ahhahah Maybe Glass Sword, by @vaveyard since I decided to finish the whole series and for that I needed to reread the first 2 volumes :)

did you dnf any books?

Only the ones I couldn't finish before the new year arrived (but spoiler: i already finished one of them):

Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop, by Timothy Samara;

Broken Throne, by @vaveyard

did you read any books outside your usual preferred genre(s)?

Even though I LOVE Historical Romance movies and tv shows, I'm not very used to it as a book genre.

So, after binge watching the first whole season of Bridgerton on 2020, I decided to read the first book of the series: The Duke and I, by Julia Queen. I thought it was okay (apart from a specific scene), but still I feel I'm not 100% used to this genre.

what was your predominant format this year?

Well… e-book and digital reading. Even thought I've read a lot of physical books, e-book was 50% of my most read format.

what’s the longest book you read this year?

Horror Clássico, a 3-in-1 ebook: it has together Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula. I am now considering myself an gothic literature affectionate hahhaha

what are your top 3 anticipated 2022 releases?

I'm not much in touch with releases… So I don't know…

what books from your tbr did you not get to this year, but are excited to read in 2022?

I don't normally do TBRs, only during read-a-thons. But I'm going to answer this question based on my "Want to Read" pile from Goodreads (which for me is kinda like a TBR):

Oscar et la dame rose, by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt;

The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel (I have even already bought it!);

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins;

Clockwork Angel, by Cassandra Clare;

The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien