#i like mystery books a lot (which isn’t really the same but still)

[theprestigegirly]

controversial post from me but like,,,

when did people start bashing the romance genre again as if reading romance means you’re less intelligent and to be a proper respected reader you have to read classics like???? isn’t it just good that people are still reading at all???? read what you like?????

it’s like you wouldn’t watch a tv show that bored you because it was “technically good” (and if u do like what are you doing with your precious hours it’s a bloody tv show) so why would you bash someone for not reading some long ass sad deep thinking book they don’t wanna read???

like i promise a whole generation is not losing language skills because they want to read a cute romance and not like,,,,, depressing miserable stuff

[sarahreesbrennan]

I remember reading in one of your blog entries (years ago??) that in the new book you were writing, the main character's *sister* had cancer. Does that mean that Alice was originally the main character of Long Live Evil? Was she going to go into the book to save Rae, instead of Rae going in to save herself?

How extremely kind of you to remember!

No, that was actually a YA murder mystery that I wrote while ill, revised while recovering, and sent out into the world where it died on submission. (Which means we sent it out to about 12 editors and the editor either said no, or said yes and took it to acquisitions - a group of people at the publisher including sales and marketing - and acquisitions said no.)

One editor told me she really wanted and really tried to buy it. Another person who worked in publishing (and has since changed jobs, or I wouldn’t share this) said the response at her acquisitions was - if you like this writer, find the next her (implications about health and youth were made).

I was terrified my agent was going to ditch me too, but she said ‘We’ll sell that one day, for now let’s write the next thing.’

I remember another writer telling me she missed my work that wasn’t a tie-in, and I felt ashamed to tell her it wasn’t that I wasn’t writing other things - it was that I couldn’t publish them.

The tie-ins meanwhile were paying the bills (they still are tbh!) and I was and remain so grateful for them. But I also really loved writing them - especially my Sabrina tie-ins, you don’t forget the first, and it reminded me I want to write horror and poly one day - and how they got me to love and sympathise with so many fandoms.

I see the burnout of caregivers all around me, and I wanted to write the story of one. But maybe I also wanted to take a step back from cancer. I didn’t think I did, at the time. I had a whole lot of things I tried writing before Long Live Evil, and I think some of them were really good. One of my critique partners gave me a lipstick with the same name as someone in the murder mystery. There was a romance novel another critique partner said was her favourite thing I’d ever written. But none had someone with cancer at the heart of the story.

And even though Rae isn’t much like me, maybe I had to start there. You can’t make real magic using someone else’s liver. Maybe I had to wait to be brave enough to use my own liver.

I do get requests for advice on how to cope with rejection of your writing, and I always worried I didn’t have anything else to say, but I suppose my example says - if you can, (and I know it’s hard, you feel so terrible at writing and so useless) (and you love the work you’ve done so much and you don’t see a way forward to loving the next thing) (but still, if you possibly can) write the next thing.

Even if the first thing sells, you’ll want the next thing one day. Writing the next thing is more writing practise, so it’ll make you better. Write the next thing.

Ultimately I’m really glad Long Live Evil was my comeback book. I think it needed to be. It took the time it took.

But maybe it was a shade of that past book (where the heroine’s sister with cancer was six, so not much like any of the Time of Iron characters) that made me think of the YA version of this book, which I always had in my mind as something I was intentionally hewing away from - a more straightforward book, a book that might have sold better - in which shy reader Alice was the hero. She’s the one with the suggestive hero name - Alice through the looking glass - the heroine looks, and the more projectable-upon personality. She’d get called annoying less often (though still some, because she’s a girl), partly because she is (with love, Rae knows I’m right) a genuinely less annoying person. Much kinder, much sweeter, and much better at in-depth reading! Her sister being in trouble would’ve been a backstory, a catalyst point, and - you’re totally right - a great motivation for her to get the Flower. Saving a family member is a much more sympathetic and heroic motivation than saving yourself and one I do love (the Hunger Games, Labyrinth, Mahy’s the Changeover, and I write it a lot!). I think Snarky While Tragically Dying Rae would’ve been a pretty popular side character, too. I think it would’ve been a good book! Just not mine.

I love your question because I love thinking about POV, and all the decisions that are the building blocks of a story. To me, the Alice centric Time of Iron is a version that exists. As are several versions of the Lia centric Time of Iron. And versions centring other characters exist to me, too. (Eric, absolutely.)

Speaking of POV musing, I think Rahela the wicked stepsister featured more in the musical than the book. If the Time of Iron series ever became a TV show (and at this point in time I think I’d rather a movie because it wouldn’t… get cancelled…) and I got to write it (don’t know why I would…) I would start with the beginnings for three characters about to go on a journey to somewhere strange to them: Key in the Cauldron, Rae in the hospital, and Vasilisa in the icelands. There are so many possibilities! And I really wanted the sense that there were so many possibilities, too.

But I wanted the chronically ill one to be the centre of the story, and for it to be her villain origin story, and to ask a lot of questions (hence a lot of villains!) about who gets villainised and why. And I thought hers, to my mind, would be the most fun of all the possible stories.

So that’s the one I made. But Long Live Evil has a lot of origins. Thank you for remembering one of them! I don’t think I would’ve dared tell the story, if things hadn’t worked out for me (so far, fingers crossed).

And I also tell it to be clear my publisher was taking a RISK with me and Long Live Evil, and I really appreciate that, and I’m so happy it’s worked out for them (again so far, early days, fingers crossed, etc).

I hope some writers - whether in the process of submission, rejection or making the choices that are the building blocks of story - find this helpful, and some readers find it interesting.

Let this be one of the universes in which your story is told.

[shmisky]

One of the things I love about old Stancest (I think that’s my favorite era for them) is the fact, imo, that their relationship never really will be the same anymore. Not necessarily the angst of it all, but the new romantic tension that this would bring.

Ok, so. Just look at this.

Ford’s drawing of himself and his brother on the Stan O’ War II in Journal 3 is of course adorable, but beyond that, it’s clearly inspired by Ford’s beloved picture of them as kids. As if the Stans will, now, return to the same sweet camaraderie they always had. Will they, though?

This isn’t meant to sound ominous. I just don’t think that would be realistic, and that isn’t what the Lost Legends comics show us, either. Don’t Dimension It is apparently set before the Sea Grunkles era, but already after Weirdmaggedon. The behavior that we see from the Stans is, to put it simply, the behavior of an old married couple, with lots of clowning and bickering. The fact that Mabel had to intervene and advise two grown men to take care of each other instead is both delicious Stancest fuel and ridiculously funny!

Now, their relationship wasn’t always like that. I find it great that in the same book we have three stages of the Stans’ relationship: pre-Weirdmaggedon old Stans, post-Weirdmaggedon old Stans, and child Stans. The Stans as children act visibly sweeter towards each other, imo, than even post-Weirdmaggedon Stans. They haven’t quite recovered that childlike innocence, nor do I ever expect them to.

I know that at this point I might just be confirming the obvious, but 1) I promise I have a point, and 2) what I like to do sometimes is to focus on a little detail that everyone kind of already knows and think of all the implications. A bit like tearing a bread apart with my fingers, piece by piece.

There’s simply too much baggage, too much history between them now. Even if they made up and Ford apologized nonstop like Dipper tells us in J3 and Stan forgave him wholeheartedly, things won’t magically return to the point they were before Ford started to feeling “suffocated” by Stan. (I do believe the cracks in their relationship started before the science fair accident. I will expand on this in a future meta!)

Not only because of what happened between them, but because of what happened to each of them, separately. Both have changed a lot (not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well), became different people to survive, and are now deeply damaged. Both are carrying huge traumas of their own, and since they’re emotionally constipated old men with an attitude that would make Mabel shake her head in disapproval, I think it’s going to take a while before they fully trust each other with their past. They know their brother deserves the truth, of course, but it’s not that simple. There’s a lot to unpack, and I imagine that the fear of being judged and the fear of upsetting the other don’t make for a good mix. What if Stan hears a bad tale of Ford’s portal days, or Ford hears a story of Stan’s homeless days in which he barely escaped alive, and blames himself?

More than that, their own physical appearance drives the point home. Ford’s body is all athletic, likely full of tattoos (both embarassing ones and cool ones, I think) and scars. Stan, on the other hand, makes use of hearing aids, dentures, and an orthopedic pillow; probably with a few scars of his own, more than just the brand, and a slouch he didn’t have in his younger days. The contrast is even clearer when Stan isn’t wearing his Mr. Mystery suit and girdle. They still look decently like twins to deceive both the kids and Bill (and make Pacifica think Ford was Stan but hotter), and I’m sure sailing will help Stan’s health, but some of those differences are impossible to erase. They went from actually identical twins who could only be told apart by Ford’s fingers to grown men with strong characteristics of their own.

Once upon a time, I imagine, wether romantically or not, they were as familiar with each other’s secrets, thoughts, and bodies as with their own. Now they’re practically strangers. United by a very intense love and connection that couldn’t die in the 40 years they were separated, but strangers all the same.

All of this can sound a bit sad, perhaps, but I think—and that’s the point I want to make—it’s a sexy dynamic with a lot of potential. It gives space, for example, for exploring and discovering, and, since I’m a shipper, falling in love with that stranger that your twin brother became. The lack of familiarity gives way to a lot of romantic and sexual tension. Both of them know and understand a lot of what they didn’t back then. As an example, Ford, in my opinion, values Stan now in a way that he never did before. You only miss something after you lose it, after all, and they spent so much time apart and yearning and longing and repressing and overall feeling like a part of them was missing. The pent-up desire, as well, heh 😏

Imagining them being vulnerable after all of that—crying into each other’s chest (mostly Stan tbh, since Ford isn’t much of a crier), mapping out each other’s bodies, finally opening up—that’s my jam.

Perhaps they can’t recover the old dynamic, but they can make something even better.

[eternal-moss]

Good Lord I cannot stop Simonposting

Anyway. The Golbetty shrine. Is incredibly messed up and delightfully feels like the sort of thing someone would construct after comprehending the god of chaos.

It’s clearly not Simon’s first time doing the ritual in vain (we’ve already seen him try many times in the montage at the end of the show to get her back, including consulting the Cosmic Owl and Prismo), so there’s holes in the wall that correspond to Golb’s symbols. The Enchiridion is also there, which was the main source of power for summoning elder gods like the Litch (used to resurrect himself) Golb (used by Magic Man and Betty) and (attempt to) time travel (by Betty). But before the apocalypse, the Enchiridion was owned by Simon himself, and both him and Betty studied it. So it has the twofold power of being a very strong magic battery and has the emotional link to Petrigrof.

The empty bottles and whatever those terrifying lamprey looking things are in a makeshift statue, harbouring a cleaner looking idol (which he probably created himself) out of clay. Making a statue of a god at least twice? Does that mean that even if one gets broken or damaged he has the other one? Or does it make the rituals stronger?

We know that Simon knew a bit about Golb before the apocalypse- in the final episode of the main series we have a flashback of him and Betty, where he says “I keep seeing reference to this mysterious entity that embodies chaos” and “his presence is felt in every crevice where chaos lurks”. To which Betty replies “well it’s a good thing he isn’t here then.”

She sacrificed herself to keep him safe and away from the god of chaos and madness, by fusing her soul with his. Golb being this sort of god means that he’s probably the originator of MMS (Magic, Madness and Sadness) which is a canonical condition where insane/depressed characters will have a higher propensity to magic, and magic users are more prone to bouts of mania, amnesia and depression.

The crown was basically a catalyst of MMS, which caused Simon to have unnatural elemental powers (unlike the elementals which don’t experience default MMS) as well as effecting his body and mind.

Betty is pretty much the only character to have ‘diagnosed’ MMS, recognising it in most magic users, and in Simon, hoping to undo its effects on him. Her theory is proven correct in the episode ‘Betty’ by Bella Noche undoing all the magic in Wizard City and the effects of the crown are nullified, and retracts its influence from Simon, causing him to become ‘normal again’ and regain his clarity and memories.

Grief is shown to be a strong natural catalyst to MMS, which also happened to Magic Man (after his wife Margles was ‘taken by Golb’ which still has an unclear meaning, she definitely didn’t fuse like Betty, although wishing her back at Prismo’s did the exact same thing as Simon wishing Betty back which is really unusual), and Betty herself after the ‘You Forgot Your Floaties’ episode (which by the way is like one of the best episodes in the show).

Betty’s whole motive was to save Simon and free him from madness, which she did at the cost of her soul. But now, ironically, Simon’s grief is causing him to develop it again, which is how he channels the Golb rituals (like how Betty and magic man did) and also probably how the Fionnaverse portal even opened up in the first place.

Something about about Simon having panic attacks in his house and just generally getting triggered by a lot of stuff (Ice, the books he wrote as Ice King, etc) but then gently stroking the clay idol he made of the god of madness because that’s his wife is just heart breaking

Look at that expression :( it’s longing followed by guilt because he knows this is exactly what she would never want him to do.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I read ur twst chars analises a lot,n I just wanna say I really love how u write em!!! I like ur nuanced interpretation, how they r very detailed,thoughtful, n objective, even tho its not about ur favs or even ones u dislike, also made me realize how good twst writing can be. So if I may ask, which of the cast do u think is the/one of the best written char(s) in the game?? N vice versa if u may, like ones u think need improvement :^]

[Analysis masterlist here! I believe it’s currently full so I’m working on putting together a second one :>]

First of all, thank you very much for enjoying my analyses ^^ I try very hard to research and to put myself in the shoes of each character I’m writing about, and I’m glad that it seems to show in my writing.

If we’re talking about the main 22 NRC students + Grim… (I’m not counting blank slate Yuu, NRC staff, Halloween characters, RSA students, and NPCs because they have such limited lore + vignettes and I feel it wouldn’t be fair to compare.) Honestly, I feel like they’re all written pretty decently, with perhaps the caveat being that there’s more content weighted toward the OB boys due to their significance in the main story and irl marketing. Some other characters, like Jade and Rook, are purposefully more mysterious as part of their characters.

I guess if I had to point out some weaker characters, I’d say they’d be Jack and Epel? I feel like those two are pretty… one note… 😔 What do we know about Jack? He’s strong, loyal, likes to exercise, is disciplined, is a tsundere… What do we know about Epel? He wants to be cool and not cute, he YEEHAWS, he likes apples, he’s really close with his family… You can see this reflected in the core of Epel’s dream; he wants to be tall and muscular, which is very simple when put next to the other dreams.

Of the two, Epel is worse off because he actually had a character arc in book 5 where he begins to accept that beauty and femininity can be a strength and isn’t something to be ashamed of. However, almost ALL the vignettes and side content outside of the main story have Epel exclusively talking about how tough and cool he wants to be + rejecting cute/girly things, which sort of negates the main story development and feels like he has regressed so much. I get that maybe he wouldn’t change his mind right away or do a 180, but it still creates a strong whiplash. Jack is at least consistent. Sort of stale, but consistent.

Those two aren’t flat or anything, but it feels like they hinge on the same handful of traits in every appearance and whenever we learn anything new about them, it’s just the same thing we already knew before but said slightly differently. I’d like to know more about Jack and Epel outside of these areas.

P.S. SORRY TO THE JACK AND EPEL STANS IN My AUDIENCE OTL

[muscle-red]

𓂃꒰ GENERAL’S ORDERS ꒱𓂃

* Warnings: amab body, Fae reader, Reader is referred to with I/You, etc, Yuu is a separate person, Reader kinda an OC, a long plot, slow burn, Spoilers if You haven’t read book 7.

* Word count: 1009

A/N: This has been in my head for some time. There will be smut just not in Part one. Hopefully will make more parts.

┆ Lilia Vanrouge/ General Vanrouge x Male Reader ┆Part 1

+18 MINORS DO NOT INTERACT

Being In the middle of the woods should’ve been a red flag as soon as you opened your eyes Cause One second, You were At NRC then the next You were at a random forest being aimed at with weapons. I mean at least you were with People.

You glanced at the group surrounding you and the people with you. Yeahhh the odds weren’t looking so well.

Silver. The boy You never really interacted with. He was sorta Hard to talk to. His face gave off the impression that he didn’t want to be disturbed. He look quite Approachable when sleeping but why would You wake up a sleeping person? You noticed he did it a lot and I mean A Lot. Maybe he had narcolepsy? You never thought much of it. I mean why would you, You never talk to the boy so it isn’t any of your business.

You then glanced at the other green haired male within your group.

Sebek.

What a loud mouth he was. You often catch him yelling in the hallways and seemingly having a strong harden expression on his face whenever he made eye contact with everyone in class. He was a first year so you guys had most of your classes together while the other silver haired boy was a second year. They were both in your dorm last time you checked. You would think being in the same dorm would mean you guys knew each other really well but in this case? not really.

Then finally Your eyes met the other Person in your group. Yuu. A magic less student that seemingly appeared out of thin air. No home, no family. You kinda felt bad for them. Imagine having nothing and being in a mysterious place with No Knowledge of anything. Now that was a total nightmare. They were a first year as well as you interacted with them on some occasions so you were familiar with their Situation and Arrangements. They were nice from what you can tell but the other 2 were a mystery.

You then Took your eyes off the random group that seemed to have roped you in some kinda crazy situation and finally looked at the people with masks and weapons that were obviously wanting you guys dead. They all wore different masks with seemingly different animals.

One stood up and Made way to your group. They were on the shorter side and had long black locks with red highlights. How pretty. You always liked the color red.

You couldn’t see their eyes nor face but you can tell they were studying your group’s movements.

“ HUMANS!-“ Another in a mask screeched.

He was taller than the one studying you and had a mask related to a fox due to the Snout on his mask. His sword was raised as if ready to strike us any moment where we stood however before he could, The shorter one raised his hand and turned away from our group to stare the other one down, well he tried to.

“ You fools… Take a closer look at the energy around them. They have been blessed by our people. They are not the enemy.”

His voice was deep and familiar.

“Blessed…? Who are you…?”

“However, they still raise suspicion.” He ignored Silver’s question and turned away from his comrade. He had quite a big sword compared to his small body and it Was a beautiful shade of green.

Sebek’s eye’s widen when his eyes made contact with it.

“A magical lithic…!?”

“Quiet, Human. You are not to speak.” The Black haired masked figure Said, once again shutting down Whatever we had to say.

The rest of the group with them looked down upon us and started Yelling out questions expecting us to explain every single one.

“Who are you children? Answer me.”

“Speak now if you do not wish to get hurt.”

Yuu’s cat, Grim, which you now noticed was here Started struggling and proceeded to yell out about not wanting to be eaten and you couldn’t agree more.

“W-we mean no harm. We are just students from a magic school!”

Sebek was able to Stammer out and you couldn’t be more grateful. Your voice just seemed to disappear and couldn’t say anything so for once, you were grateful for Sebek’s voice.

“We’re from Night Raven College, We have our IDs with us if you’d like to check!”

Great thinking yuu!

“Night Raven College, you say…?”

“Yes, from the Sage’s Island…”

“I’ve already said I’m not interested in a school founded by humans!, You wish to “teach” me magic when all your lot can do are childish tricks? Sending in lackeys as if the letters weren’t enough. How absurd. You really think you have anything you can teach me? Don’t look down on me, brats.”

“Ehh??? We never said anything! Where is this coming from!? “

Oh god, why did you have to say that. You couldn’t help but Facepalm in your head. Great thinking *Reader*.

“N-No, we’re-”

“I’ve got my hands full dealing with those pesky Silver Owls. I don’t have time to play your silly games.” He cut silver off once again and glared as if ready to just let his comrades kill us and move on.

“I’ll let you off just this once. Get out of here, humans.”

And with that, you guys took the opportunity to Run quite a distance away and blow off the Air that you guys so badly needed. It felt intoxicating being near strangers especially ones threatening you with weapons.

[orionsangel86]

I was once again flicking through the Sandman comics and thinking about the changes made to the show (as I am pretty much always doing) and something that struck me as interesting is why they chose to swap out Tales in the Sand for Men of Good Fortune.

In the comics, The Sound of Her Wings is the last story in Preludes and Nocturns. Dream’s meeting with his sister Death closes out the first of the overarching storylines within the Sandman saga, and it ends with Dream finding some measure of peace after speaking with her, and finding joy in hearing the sound of wings.

This can be interpreted as the first bit of real foreshadowing of Dream’s desire to die. Anyone who has read the Kindly Ones knows how important The Sound Of Her Wings is as it is called back to heavily at the end.

In the comics, the next issue can be seen as a one off, but is included in The Doll’s House book. This issue is Tales in the Sand - the tragic love story of Dream and Nada.

Right after Tales in the Sand, we get to the Doll’s House, which begins the exact same way that episode 6 of The Sandman Netflix show ends - with Desire calling on Despair to begin their scheming over the existance of the vortex.

I found it very interesting how the show swapped out Tales in the Sand for Men of Good Fortune - a story which in the comics comes much later within The Doll’s House storyline.

On the one hand, it makes sense to move Men of Good Fortune outside of the Doll’s House story for pacing reasons. But by putting it where they did they have drastically changed the tone of the story in a few ways.

1. It changes the end of The Sound of Her Wings. Show!Dream doesn’t leave his sister to sit and find peace in the thought of death, instead he does the opposite, he immediately goes and seeks out the one person he knows who is quite literally the antithesis of death - someone who finds joy in living. It still ends the Preludes and Nocturns story with Dream finding some manner of peace and happiness, but not in the sound of wings. Instead, it’s in the reunion with his friend who loves life so much he refuses to die.

2. It takes the place of the only love story we are given for Dream at that point in the comics. The Sandman comics have a tendency to avoid revealling too much information about Dream too soon and up until this point in the comics, all we know about his love life is that he condemned a lover to hell 10,000 years ago, based on a very brief conversation in A Hope In Hell. Tales in the Sand is the expansion of that brief conversation, giving us at least one perspective of how the tragedy played out.

I am really curious about why they decided to leave it out of the show completely. Partly I think its because it isn’t exactly a flattering look at Dream as a character. Probably didn’t seem like good business sense to the people who wanted The Sandman to perform well to basically destroy your main characters likeability half way through the first season (imagine all the Twitter puriteens and anti types who would get on their high horses attacking Sandman fans and Neil Gaiman alike for daring to like a main character who comes across a little bit rapey in this particular story - among other horrific character flaws).

Also, Tales in the Sand generally fits better with the Season of Mists story arc overall, and I think we will get a much kinder and more forgiving version of this story in the show.

So instead of being introduced to the first of Dream’s lovers, we are introduced to Hob Gadling. Make of that what you will.

3. It makes the immediate cut to Desire at the start of The Doll’s House story all the more eyebrow raising. Part of the reason why I think Desire’s scenes follow on from Tales in the Sand is because Desire had a lot to do with Dream’s bad behaviour in that story, and what ultimately happened is partly their fault. It is brought up both in comic and show when Desire tells Despair that “Nada was a mistake” but in the show, this comment remains a mystery, whereas in the comic, it goes some way into explaining the horrific story we have just read.

In the show, instead it makes for absolutely beautiful subtext as they cut to Desire’s realm and the song Desire as Desire says “Attend sweet Sibling” whilst we have just watched Dream reunite with Hob and smile the first real smile he has had all season so far. For a split second on my first watch I legit thought Desire was talking to Dream at that point and encouraging him to hook up with Hob. It was a very confusing few seconds!

At the end of the day, I think the change to the order of these stories was a very good idea, even without the added level of shipping fodder it gives us Dreamling shippers. In changing the end to The Sound of Her Wings in the show, it removes the foreshadowing of Dream’s desire to die, which I’ll be honest, so far I can’t see at all in the show version of the story. Instead, we get a Dream who is happy for the first time after reuniting with his friend - who apparently waited an additional 33 years for him and built/refurbished a pub in that time.

I have a bazzillion more thoughts on the changes from comic to show on the Men of Good Fortune issue in particular, but that’s for another post. I just had to get my thoughts down as the more I read and re-read the comics, the more I feel like the show is considering a different direction, a more hopeful happy direction. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

[jiangfamilytherapist]

Long analysis incoming:

In a previous post, I toyed a bit with the idea of how growing up in the cutthroat, favor-seeking environment of the brothel might have taught a young Meng Yao some of the two-facedness that would characterize him later, but really, that’s just a seed. Lots of people are good liars or good actors, but not all of them put that skill towards self-serving or vindictive ends. So how did JGY become what he had become by the time he was established in Jinlintai?

For our purposes I’ll be using his Untamed early character progression, as I think that JGY’s arc is one of the few early plot deviations from the novels (and good lord there are a lot) that actually materially improved the story. The relationship between JGY and NMJ (and NHS) in the books was not as deeply rooted, and the betrayal was a little too abrupt in its vindictiveness. Like, in a “he was a monster all along” kind of way, like MY was already the truly poisonous kind of liar. The initial (might I say mutual) betrayal between NMJ & MY is somewhat lighter in Untamed, giving the mutual resentment room to fester, and the encounter at Nightless City room to be a devastating further fracture in their relationship rather than just confirmation of the previous rift. The killing of the captain in Untamed is still a selfish act of getting even (softened a little if we actually believe that the captain let Xue Yang out) but isn’t immediately followed by an frankly petty fake-out and attempt on the life of JGY’s up-to-now closest friend and benefactor. You can see how the banishment hurts both of them in its inevitability.

The next time we see MY is in Nightless City. He is a puppet master, a torturer and a turncoat. In the books this sort of comes across as confirmation of his true self, but in the Untamed there’s a moment of WOAH, how did we get here??

Like many other characters, JGY has a War Is Hell arc in his development, but it happens off-stage, which makes it possible for the change to come across as a reveal of true character (and this misdirection is kind of the point, but we’ll get back to that). Remember, Meng Yao, the young right hand man of Nie Mingjue, was clever and likely good at selling a lie, but ultimately naively struggling to follow the “honorable path” of hard work for recognition as laid out by NMJ. By the time he becomes Jin Guangyao, he has crossed several different lines. Under Wen Ruohan, he had to become a torturer, a puppet master, and an executioner. Joining Wen Ruohan made him a traitor for the first time; killing Wen Ruohan made him a traitor for the second. This Meng Yao no longer believes that the honorable path is open to people like him. When MY invites NMJ for the to kill him for the second time, it mirrors the first time in Qinghe closely, yet everything has changed. The first time was a plea: I’d rather you kill me than throw me away. The second time is a bluff: you couldn’t do it then, can you really do it now? The action is the same, but everything has changed.

By the time Meng Yao becomes Jin Guangyao, he is quietly immersed in the same post-war struggle to reintegrate into nominal peacetime as everyone else. He tries to make a place for himself through hard work again, this time in Jinlintai, replacing NMJ with JGS as the object of his dedication, but JGS wants JGY to be what he was for the Wens, and so dishonorable path it is. He does his father’s dirty work because it makes him indispensable–besides, where else can he go? He tries to communicate his reality to NMJ but meets a stone wall of resistance and a kick down stone stairs. No wonder he finally hits fuck it.

Even after ridding himself of the competing pressures of JGS and NMJ, there is still nowhere to go but down as the fallout from every deed he’s done remains hot on his heels. What is left for him but to further entrench, as some mysterious manipulator works to uncover every skeleton in his thoroughly packed closet?

The worst bit is that there were cries for help, for someone, for Nie Mingjue, to please understand, but they went unanswered. Fully cornered, there was nowhere left to go but down.

In an odd way, this parallels (albeit more malignantly) WWX in his first life: so many misunderstandings, so many cries for help, so many torn loyalties, so many perceived and real betrayals, so many secrets that can’t be told, and so many well-intended but misdirected interventions. Where was there to go, except down?

Following this parallel further, we never actually directly experience the hells that changed WWX and JGY – Burial Mounds and Nightless City respectively – and that’s the point. By giving up our omniscience as readers, we’re able to be blindsided by the changes, by the withdrawing and the self-destructiveness, right along with every person who truly knows them. Even attempts at building a life and moving on, at the Burial Mounds or Jinlintai, are thwarted.

After all, how can anyone understand what the can never be allowed to know?

[raineandsky]

ok i know you JUST posted it but im already so invested in #130,,,,, no rush but please can we get a part 2🙏🙏🙏

im glad you enjoyed it!! here is part dos - the mystery continues...

Unreported

(part 1) (part 2)

It’s been interesting to watch you play, Ma’am, but I suggest you keep yourself out of business that isn’t yours.

The words stare up at the civilian from their spot on top of her pile of paperwork whenever she’s home, and from their new spot on her desk when she's at work. The letter is crumpled from countless hours staring at it, analysing it, studying every swirl of the Ys and the dramatic crossing of the Ts. The thing is burned into her mind, and yet she still finds herself staring at it like it’ll vanish the moment she turns away.

“Morning,” her boss greets flatly, as she's busy staring at the word 'keep' like it owes her money. “You still booked in for that interview with [Superhero]?”

The civilian heaves a deep sigh. In the whirlwind of frantic research and threatening notes recently, she’d completely forgotten about that. She flips her diary open and, with confirmation that yes, she does have that interview today, she resigns herself to simply getting her notes ready for later.

-

“It’s really exciting to see this kind of change happening in the agency,” the civilian offers brightly, and the superhero nods. “Do you think adding this new technology will make your crime-fighting easier?”

The superhero smiles in that practised way most heroes do. “It’ll be the first of its kind. Not only will our jobs be easier, but I hope it will give others the inspiration to do good with us.”

“I think all of us normal people aspire to achieve just an ounce of the greatness you bring to this city.” The civilian mirrors his smile, albeit less practised and more disingenuous. “Thank you for joining me today, [Superhero]. It really has been a pleasure to hear about these developments from the genius that made them.”

“Oh, the pleasure’s all mine. Thank you for having me.”

The civilian nods, making a quick note on her pad, and with that the interview is over.

Someone approaches the superhero with a coat—an assistant, the civilian assumes—which he shrugs on with a quick thank you. He stands and the civilian follows him, half because that’s the polite way to end things and half because she realises this doesn’t have to necessarily be the end.

The superhero accepts a steaming cup and turns to leave.

“Actually—”

The superhero pauses, giving the civilian a curious glance. She clears her throat awkwardly—planning this might have been a better idea. “Uh,” she starts, super naturally, “I have a few questions of my own, off record, if you don’t mind.”

She can practically see the cogs turning in the superhero’s mind. His assistant is flitting her wide-eyed gaze between him and the civilian like she just asked to kill him outright. “Sure,” the superhero says after a long moment, the word blatantly suspicious, “but I do have a meeting in a few minutes.”

The civilian shoots him a grateful smile, settling back in her seat and watching victoriously as the superhero does the same. “Of course. I’ll make it quick.” She flips her notepad open on a clear page, her pen poised eagerly. “Now, the world has its eyes on [Hero], who has been—”

“Oh, Jesus, no.” The superhero cuts straight across her, professionalism seemingly forgotten to abrupt exasperation. “We looked for [Hero], we turned nothing up, we presumed them dead. Why can none of you journalists leave this alone?”

Not exactly a clue, but definitely an interesting reaction. “A lot of journalists are speaking to you on this but… none of those conversations are published?”

“We don’t want them to be.” The superhero scowls, leaning back in his chair. “We had enough people on our back when they first disappeared. People have moved on—I’m not about to bring that heat back by bringing it to the media’s attention again.”

The civilian makes a note in her notepad. “Right. Have you—”

“What’re you writing?”

“Oh.” The civilian holds her notepad up to him, showing him the single ‘avoiding’ she’s managed to get down. “It’s just my notes.”

“Don’t write this down. I don’t need the press reporting on this stupid thing again.”

“It’s just for me, [Superhero]. None of this is getting published, don’t worry.”

He doesn’t say anything, but his stare hardens. The civilian takes the hint and flips it closed. “Have you still been looking, even though it’s not repo—”

“Thank you for the interview,” the superhero butts in coldly. “I have to be getting to my meeting now.”

He stands without waiting for a response. The civilian fumbles to get to her feet as well.

“Oh, okay, well thanks—” is all she gets out before he sweeps out the door and leaves her with no answers and a lot more questions.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #49 – The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Anna Older

I originally had aspirations of reading every Hugo nominee for best novella as well as best novel before the actual voting, but in retrospect that was always something of a bad joke. But a few weeks too late, my library hold on this did come in – I read it over a few days of lazy summer morning’s at a friend’s cottage, which was basically the ideal circumstances. It’s hardly high art, and not really my favoured subgerne of mystery regardless, but does accomplish its aspirations of being a cozy low-tension mystery-romance with style.

The story is set on Jupiter, some time after the environmental situation on Earth became sufficiently dire that humanity fled en mass to a life aboard rail-connected platforms floating in Jupiter’s (now ‘Giant’s’) skies. Mossa is one of the Investigator’s charged with solving crimes and disappearances, most pressingly the disappearance of a scholar in classical Earth ecosystems from the easternmost platform on a line. Expecting a suicide, she nonetheless travels to the University and calls upon Pleiti, her old university ex and now an established scholar in a similar field. From there, the two of them unravel the mystery together and things go basically as you’d expect them to.

Which is to say, this is billed as ‘cozy Holmesian murder mystery’, and each part of that description is much, much more important than the one that comes after. There is maybe two pages of what might be considered tension in the whole affair, and in general the reading experience is just the relaxing experience of watching a narrative travel along well-oiled tracks without anything much in the way of surprises and reversals. As Holmes-alikes go, Mossa isn’t bad. Not amazing, probably more of an archetype than a character, but the archetype and the dynamic of Holmes-and-Watson-but-they’re-lesbians-who-dated-in-college is handled as elegantly as the conceit really allows. The murder mystery largely exists to provide a structure for everything else – and I do viscerally dislike the fact that the actual villain is only introduced on the page at the same time the whole scene is revealed in the final confrontation. Feels like cheating.

The biggest part of ‘everything else’ is the setting. The vision of Jovian life was clearly worked out with a lot of love and care, and rather more effort is spent on the details of day-to-day life and academic bureaucratic politics than is on the specifics of the ostensibly driving mystery. I can’t speak to the plausibility of any of it, but that’s hardly the driving motivation here – it does successfully feel like a real world lived in by real people (if, perhaps, mostly improbably gentle and polite ones). Society is familiar and domestic enough to still fit the comfy label, but different enough to still feel plausibly alien. Though the fact that ‘conservative’ is an actual slur does kind of verge into self-parody of the whole genre of cozy progressive sci-i, here.

The romance is fine, I suppose? I’m hardly the target audience. That the two of the would get together in the end was absolutely never in question, and the book didn’t even pretend otherwise. And so it never really becomes an object of dramatic tension – the whole romance plot basically boils down to Pleiti lightly angsting over whether Mossa is sending mixed messages on purpose, only to eventually have her reveal she was awkwardly wondering she reciprocated before asking her out. There are lots of cute moments and no conflict to speak of.

This is a quick novella (fewer than 200 slight pages, in my copy), so there’s only so much it can be expected to do – but where it fell apart for me is actually the points where its ambition reached beyond just being a cozy murder mystery. There’s this light dusting of themes – of a conflict betwee nthe classisits who are so determined to perfectly recreate the pre-apocalyptic environment of earth in one go that they will study and plan for an eternity while humanity’s exile continues, versus the villains being desperate to return to a world with flowing water and solid ground that they’re willing to take drastic, independent action. The book acts like this was a real conflict the book explored and welt upon, patting itself on the back with a hopeful conclusion about Pleiti being the perfect woman to start a new synthesis of things – but honestly I just don’t buy it. It’s implicit but only barely touched on until literally the villains big monologue in the third act, which is a shame because you could get some really good ideological and political meat off that bone. Fees like wasted potential.

But yeah on the whole, not at all my genre, but fun lazy summer read.

[via-the-ghoul]

Interesting facts about the free comic book day MH book

It starts out with a letter from Bloodgood banning all normie interactions

We then cut to Frankie and their dad, who’s trying to perfect the reanimation process, which hasn’t been done before

Frankie’s dad hasn’t left his office in a while and Frankie is worried

Frankie’s also worried that they aren’t “perfect” and Dad specifies that they’re different from the reanimation thing, and calls them “An amalgamation of the world’s greatest minds and kindest souls” which is cute

Also Frankie’s dad is in shadow the whole time it’s very concerning

Frankie then leaves due to getting a call from Cleo, who seems mad about something Clawdeen did, but we don’t know what.

Then Clawdeen calls Frankie and it seems that Clawdeen doesn’t know what Cleo’s upset about, and that Frankie isn’t actually all that sure themselves. Also, neither of them have heard from Draculaura and last year was hard on her, though we don’t entirely know what happened.

Also the Bloodgood letter I mentioned earlier specifies that the rules were put in place due to an unspecified turn of events last year, which is possibly the same event that Draculaura was involved in

Back in the lab, Frankie’s dad suddenly has an idea as to the missing piece to the reanimation thing

However, his notes have vanished, and where stolen by a mysterious cloaked figure whose also in the lab.

Frankie’s dad begs for the notes back, saying he’d do anything. The hooded figure wants him to work with them on something

Back with Frankie, they’re still talking to Clawdeen (and also looking at a photo of the two of them + Draculaura and Cleo) and saying that they think the Cleo and Clawdeen incident was a big misunderstanding.

Then the To Be Continued hits, this is basically just a teaser

We then get some cute profiles of the four ghouls in this online profile style for the MonsterNet!

It mentions everyone’s zodiac signs so in case anyone’s curious: Frankie’s a cancer, Drac’s an aquarius, Clawdeen’s a taurus, and Cleo’s a virgo.

They also have usernames, Frankie’s “FrightfullyFr4nkie” Drac’s “Bl33dingHeart16” Clawdeen’s “ClawdeensClawset” and Cleo’s “QueenCleo”

Frankie apparently likes sharing brain facts

While Toralei seems to have finished her redemption arc Meowlody and Purrsephone don’t seem very nice, specifically to Frankie

Drac’s apparently a student bloody council member and part of the monster ball planning committee, like in Gen3, so that’s cool.

Drac’s online diary entry (oh yeah they have online diary stuff up) gives some more information on The Incident. She didn’t have much free time, and couldn’t process her feelings on something. That something seems to be the thing that got human interaction banned, at least to me.

Drac also had to sit through a bunch of boring meetings, had to answer a lot of questions, and was forced to drink blood (what these meetings are for is unknown) and she’s doing it to make her dad proud

The phrase “I smile through it all though” really makes me think we have a “Drac is unhealthily repressing her emotions and is really sad under her skin” arc on our hands, which I would argue didn’t come out of nowhere? She did seem to have some serious self esteem issues in Frights Camera Action

Clawdeen does OOTDs and restyle tutorials on her blog and also has a link to her fashion catalog.

She’s been having a creativity boom, but her parents have been kinda distant lately.

So is Toralei who’s Clawdeen explicitly calls her girlfriend.

In all fairness Clawdeen says she only feels like her parents and Toralei have been distant and isn’t actually sure. She’s apparently throwing herself into her work

Clawdeen briefly considers calling Toralei to see if everything’s ok but decides against it, saying she thinks everything’s good

I haven’t mentioned it until now since it’s mostly information we already know but the profiles list the ghouls’ ages and Cleo’s age is finally fully specified, being 5,842 years old

She’s been reading a lot of romance scrolls, like, a lot of romance scrolls.

Her bio has what I think is an in-universe song lyric due to music note emojis surrounding it “the underworld’s princess, wrapped in the finest linen”

It also @ Casta Fierce, whose username is just CastaFierce. (Maybe it’s a Casta song?)

Nefera’s apparently been talking about her having a bunch of international suitors including a guy from another dimension

Cleo seems to be, and don’t yell at me for this next part cause it’s gonna make a lot of people upset, but she seems to be falling out of love with Deuce.

Like, she seems to still like him, he’s on her friends list, she just doesn’t feel like he’s being poetic enough.

There’s schedules for MH comics coming from 2024-2025. The Pride comics might actually come in May if this calendar is correct

Jacque Aye (the author who has an interview section at the end) describes the story as following the ghouls navigating major changes in their lives as students go missing. Sounds fun honestly

Also she mentions that while prior knowledge of the series is recommended, it’s not required.

That’s basically it gang! Have fun speculating!

[skyward-floored]

Whenever you get to this -- it's not terribly important, but how would you describe each of the chain's personalities to be like?

You’ve found my writing weakness Ladye, I struggle immensely with looking at a character and writing out their personality XD

That’s an interesting question! One I think about a lot when I’m writing actually, because at their core? All the Links are made of the same stuff. It can be difficult to parse out what makes them individuals sometimes (especially writing it out 😂) but I did my best here!

Under a readmore because this is LONG

Time - stubborn, responsible, and serious, but not as much as you’d expect from his appearance. Most leader-y of the group, he’s stern yes, but mostly only when he’s trying to keep the other Links safe (the Like Like incident, when Twilight is injured and insists he’s well enough to fight, etc). His overall personality seems to me more lighthearted then you’d expect at first glance— after all, he enjoys teasing the other Links, and even pranks them now and then.

It seems like he’s largely moved past and healed from what happened during his adventures, (probably due to how it’s been longer since them unlike the other Links), and not much seems to bother him. He can even joke about them a little (“the moon”), though he stays mysterious about details. He seems a pretty private person as well, except around his wife and a few select others.

Twilight - protective and stubborn to a fault, he cares deeply for those he loves. Another leader of the group, but he doesn’t think of himself as the leader-type as much. He falls into the role though, since the others tend to look to him, and he manages it well.

He has a melancholic sense about him, one that he’s only partially-good at hiding. He’s still very much getting over his complicated feelings about Midna’s departure, and that sadness bleeds into his personality sometimes. Good with kids and animals, knows how to wrangle them both really well, but he can be a little overprotective on occasion, and forgets how age isn’t necessarily an indicator of how responsible and/or skilled you are, which the younger Links bristle at.

Warriors - polished, put together, and a bit prideful, but he’s well aware of what happens if he gets too cocky and keeps it in check. The other leader of the group, he seems to focus largely on making plans, and keeping up the overall morale of the Links. A charmer, good at saying what people want to hear, and also figuring out what makes people tick. His first impression of people is rarely incorrect.

Good at keeping the group organized, and one of the few Links good at working alongside others, he also seems to be the one to break up fights if they get to be less teasing and more serious. Has a strong sense of justice as well, he hates those who would betray their allies/beliefs.

Four - Calm and focused and very mature, so much that several of the others believe him to be much older than he is. He’s very good at keeping his emotions in check and staying collected, right up to the point where he... isn’t. Gets frustrated with himself if he gets to that point and lashes out, but this only happens rarely.

One of the quietest Links, he tends to keep to himself, but he’s one of the heroes most used to being in a group, and generally handles it very well. Very book-smart and eager to learn, but has a deep distrust of any sort of magic that’s even remotely dark. Also knows how to keep the peace, and generally smooth flaring tempers... unless he’s the one who’s upset.

Wind - the youngest but by no means the weakest Link, Wind is a skilled fighter for his age and the brightest personality among the group. Exuberant and cheerful, his happy attitude can sometimes be taken for frivolousness. But he’s able to take a situation just as seriously as the rest of them— he just tends to look on the bright side of it.

Tends to be underestimated due to his age, and he’s not afraid to call people out on it. He fights hard to be taken seriously, and greatly appreciates how Time treats him as just as capable as everyone else. He still has a childish side to him though, which can be both a strength and a weakness.

Wild - fond of exciting schemes, always willing to go along with what seems like a crazy idea, and deeply traumatized with an identity crisis on top. Tends to be very argumentative and quick to make jokes, but usually he knows when he’s going too far (...usually). Highly defensive of Zelda, and not afraid to argue against any conceived slight against her. She had enough bad things said about her when she couldn’t unlock her powers, and he takes his defense of her seriously.

Greatly insecure about how much of a hero he is due to how he failed— being around so many others who succeeded is difficult, especially when they rarely discuss how close they all came to failing sometimes. Has the greatest trouble working in a group, and it’s caused several issues in the time he’s been with the Links, especially with those that are used to it.

Legend - prickly exterior, soft all the way through. Quick to tease and throw jabs, but he doesn’t truly mean anything by it. It’s a defensive measure more then anything to keep people at arm’s length. Could be a leader, but he chooses not to be— he doesn’t like all that responsibility on his head, and will only step up if the others are truly out of commission.

Reliable and mature for his age due to all his adventures, he seems totally unbothered by what he went through (though Koholint especially weighs heavy on his heart). Seems aloof at times, but cares just as much as Twilight, even if he doesn’t outwardly show it. Is younger than he projects himself to be.

Hyrule - humble and kind, he’s also got a level of sass that sometimes rears it’s head and surprises people. Tends to downplay himself and his skills, doesn’t think he’s a true “hero” like the others, despite being skilled in almost anything he puts his mind to. Has incredible tenacity and refuses to give up no matter the odds against him— he’s made of stronger stuff then he thinks.

Very decisive, knows when to act, and would make a great leader someday if he ever managed to get past his poor view of himself. Has a mysterious side to him as well, similar to Time’s in a way. Not the best in a group, generally prefers to be in either a smaller group or by himself.

Sky - seemingly open with his emotions, kind and cheerful, Sky seems a bit airheaded at times. But he has a great strength of spirit, and is deadly on the battlefield— those who have underestimated him have not lived to tell the tale.

Has a mischievous side that isn’t immediately evident, but it’s there, and its quite a sight to behold when his sassiness comes up with it as well. Tends to keep his heavier thoughts and emotions close to his chest though, and prefers to push through and not dwell on them, which is bad news later when it gets to be too much for him.

[oswlld]

oswlld's monthly wrap up: may

note: i am trying something a bit different this year, so bear with me as i figure out how i want to format this. i wanted to spend more time sharing what i consume, beyond what i rb, and put my thoughts in one place. these posts are okay to rb

--

Arsenic and Adobo, Mia P. Manansala [started 05/18, finished 06/03] I didn’t dip my toes into the light murder mystery genre until now and to be honest, I’m not sure if it’s working for me. But I have seen recommendations floating around this series with filipino characters and wanted to check it out. The main character, Lila, is eerily specific to my personal experiences and upbringing, but the writing feels severely lacking because I’m actively looking for more character development and depth. My best friend clarified that this genre doesn’t really flesh out the characters in the way I want it to. In the end, it just fell flat for me. I gave it 3.5⭐️ on storygraph (which might be generous) — Crying in H-Mart, Michelle Zauner [started 05/09, finished 06/09] Have you even got a book that you know that you’ll love, so you just end up avoiding it at all costs? This is a memoir that I needed to read this slowly because it just felt incredibly special. And so painful. If you’re a first gen aapi with a difficult relationship with your mother, this is going to be a LOT for you. Sobbing, snotty, the whole works. Take long breaks in between reads if you need it. I luckily saved the heaviest part of the book for when I was taking an impromptu trip to the lake, surrounded by so much sun, mist, and life. The world was comforting me and wiping away my tears. 5.0⭐️ on storygraph!!

23.5 Degrees, GMMTV [started: 03/08, dnf] I only had time to catch episode 9 in May. I thought I would be able to complete the series this month, but alas it might be a DNF. Please tell me that the adorable teachers got together! — Doctor Who, Disney+ [started: 05/10, in prog] It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that DW is on here. I am a DW blog first, multifandom blog second. I’m loving the spin RTD is taking with the show for this run, having the genre touch on the supernatural/mythical/fantasy. It still has the same DNA but it’s so fresh. I only caught the first two eps on premiere week and haven’t had the time to keep up with the show weekly, but I am catching up soon. — Murderville, Netflix [started 02/10, finished: 05/23] I forgot to include this in my february wrap up, but I watched eps 1-4 back then and finally got around to seeing the last two eps this month. This show is such a delight! I love the unique twist on the concept of procedural improv, where the guest star actually have to solve the case at the end of the ep. They’re not there to just play off the other actors, they invite themselves to interact with the plot without taking it too seriously. If this sounds right up your alley to turn your brain down to like… 25%, please check this out. — Attack on Titan [started: 05/26, in prog] I have quite a journey ahead of me, but I’m happy to report that I LOVED the first ep. What a strong start to my anime era! This is gonna be my summer obsession, I can just feel it. By the time this posts, I will have seen eps two and maybe three(??). Gimme them right now, in an IV please. — Devil’s Plan, Netflix [started: 04/23, ALMOST complete] Bestie and I are OBSESSED with this competition series and we just learned there will be a s2, YAYY! This isn’t a show where you can turn your brain off. Now that I think about it, I don’t think there’s been a challenge I fully understood until ep 10, but man is it fun watching the contestants figure it out. They’re all SO intelligent and SOOO charming. And the games are so creative and elevated, it makes the stakes so charged! We are a few min into ep 11, out of 12, and we are planning to finish it this week. I don’t want this show to endddd!

Whew! I thought I didn’t watch much this month, but I covered a lot of ground on the TV front huh.

Pedro, Netflix [watched on 05/05] First off, you’ll be delighted to know that the artist and subject matter of the film, Pedro Friedeberg, has two cats named Wikipedia and Netflix. What I find so refreshing about this documentary in particular is Pedro, the unwilling participant during the process. The filmmaker, Liora Spilk Bialostozky, takes great care in sharing her insecurities about it. Liora is not shy about her adoration for her favorite artist and Pedro is very firm with his boundaries when pressed about his personal life. It makes for a very delightful, yet tense friendship between the two. — Polite Society [watched on 05/31] This is still fresh in my mind but what a spectacular film! LOVE how it puts the sister bond in the forefront of this classic action film, as well as all the female friendships. It makes the tonal shift flow seamlessly because the heart of the film beats strong. The best scene was the KHAN vs KHAN fight sequence, Ria vs Lena. The bashing, the biting, and the blood! The choice to make the final blow be self-inflicted, especially when it targets my personal experience, really took this film to new heights. I want to just ‘This movie has EVERYTHING’ meme the hell out of this. It has weird girls, judgmental aunties, college dropouts who have an estranged relationship with making art, torture scenes through the use of leg waxing, reproductive autonomy, FEMALE RAGE! It deserves to be up there when people think of 10 Things I Hate About You and Clueless.

GÉNESIS, Peso Pluma [first time listening] Before Coachella, I knew very little about Peso Pluma but his live performance really shot him to the top of my list of artists to catch up on. When I was little, my dad always had corrido playing in his car radio and to this day, he still occasionally plays it in the garage. What I really admire about GÉNESIS is the modern twists the artist takes in the production and writing, perfectly paying homage to the traditional without it sounding dated. I think it’s largely due to his vocals. He doesn’t shy away from perfecting at the cost of being authentic and it shines in songs such as Rubicon and 77. The latter half of the album really packs a punch, it’s so hard to pick a favorite. Everything from Lady Gaga to the end is just banger after banger after banger. Having this album play in my car… I really do take after my father. — LAS LETRAS YA NO IMPORTAN, Residente [first time listening] I first heard of Residente from the song Immigrants (We Get the Job Done) from the Hamilton Mixtape. Even then, I made a mental note to get back to him, but lost track of time until I started listening to Peso Pluma. This compilation consists of 23 songs and it’s such a sublime experience from beginning to end! It’s cinematic, it’s heavy, it’s a party, AND it’s skipless. He has a level of talent that has me raging!!! HE’S SO GOOOOOOD TF?!?!? The first time I heard 313, I wrote a note on my phone with “hhhhhhhh???!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!how dare he” and I stand by that statement. It’s almost six minutes long and not one second was wasted. Where Peso Pluma brings the traditional corrido to the present, Residente brings rap/hip-hop into the future. Whenever I get a chance to jump back into the album in the car, the songs I tend to gravitate towards are Artificial Inteligente, Cerebro, Yo No Sé Pero Sé, Que Fluya, and Las Letras Ya No Importan. This guy doesn’t miss, I hate him (affectionate). — Everything I Know About Love, Laufey [first time listening] This album is magnificent, I am UNWELL. The way I feel about this album is the same way I felt about Five Seconds Flat last summer: a feeling so bone deep, my soul begs for release. Bewitched was such a strong outing for me, so hearing little echos of it in the album before made the listen experience all the more enchanting. I’m so in love with this album. I’m actually convinced that Above the Chinese Restaurant is the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. Ever. If I talk about this album more, it’s going to dig up so much of my deepest, darkest memories. I can’t… but also please talk to me about this album. — HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, Billie Eilish [first time listening] On gawd, what a stellar month for music, I can’t believe it! What a KNOCKOUT!! Billie and Finneas, I feel, have finally come home. They finally own their craft, refined it, and carved it into this marble masterpiece. Billie is more daring with her vocal range and exploring new avenues in her execution. The entirety of L’amour De Ma Vie was just me going “ARE YOU KIDDING ME????” 30 times over in the car. No but for real, is she joking? This is so ungodly, what am I supposed to do with myself?? HELP???? It’s a no-skip album, there is no top 5, no favorites list. It just is and it’s unbelievable that I can’t experience it for the first time all over again.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

“Crowley is Malleus’s long lost father” theory is popping off right now in like every twst social media community so I wanted to know what your thoughts on it were?

I briefly discussed this theory in the final paragraph of this post (although it is full of spoilers, so please be cautious of that). To reiterate (and to add more details), the main pieces of evidence that come up when discussing this idea are:

Malleus’s dad is confirmed missing, but we never saw a body or have confirmation of his death so we can’t 100% trust that.

Crowley’s past and motives remain a total mystery. (The crow mask he wears is also highly suspicious; why does he never remove it? Why does it resemble the masks worn by Briar Country soldiers? Because Malleus would recognize his father? Because Lilia might recognize his old friend?)

The name of Malleus’s dad may be romanized as Levan/Revan (we don’t have an official English localization for book 7 yet, so we don’t know for sure how it would be written). (Edit: EN has confirmed that his name is "Raverne".) The former looks like the word “raven”, just with the vowels swapped around. And you know who else is a black bird?? Diablo, Maleficent’s crow and right-hand man, similar to how Levan/Revan was Mallenoa’s right-hand man. Who else do we know that’s a crow? Crowley.

Levan/Revan is described by Lilia as someone who “always dumped their work onto others/him”, which is something that Crowley also does to his own students.

So I guess the conclusion is that Malleus’s dad went into hiding to protect himself (especially if we assumed that his wife got killed off shortly after his disappearance; his own life may be in danger as well)?

I think the idea is definitely… interesting??? It would also be a big rug pull since players have been joking since day 1 that Crowley gives the vibes of a deadbeat/absentee dad or someone who went off to buy milk and never came back 😂 But in terms of how likely I think it is to become a reality??? I think it’s definitely kind of shaky if we’re going with only what we know right now.

The problem I have with this theory is twofold. Firstly, it’s counting a lot of omission of information as proof rather than details present as proof (which really could be spun any which way you like if you tried hard enough). Secondly, the main thread of logic here is basically the same as “Ace traitor” theory. We’re drawing conclusions from… a name (in Ace’s case, the fact that his surname isn’t “Heart” like the other card soldiers but is “Trappola”), which isn’t a lot of solid evidence in of itself.

I don’t know if I totally buy that Malleus’s dad would go MIA for literally 400ish years either? Like… he was the princess’s confidant, right? So he must have cared for her very much. Why would he up and abandon his wife (rather than coming to her rescue), his friend (Lilia), his country, AND his unborn child who NEEDS his love magic to be hatched? Why wouldn’t he return once the war was over?? Why would he run off to Sage’s Island and become the headmaster there??? If he doesn’t want to be a present father figure, why have a child at all or put himself in a position where he now has to monitor several hundreds of children every year instead of the one child that is actually his? (I know that Lilia started off not wanting kids and then became more open to the idea over time (ie people can change), but I don't think we can conclude the same happened to Crowley given how dismissive he still is in present day and how little we really know about Malleus's dad's true personality.) And surely if Crowley was Malleus’s dad, he’s not so ignorant as to not know Malleus is his son, right…? But then why forget about his existence 90% of the time and forget to invite him when he knows Malleus is on campus and he had not been there for him all his life???? Why actively be such an asshole???

The mask thing on Crowley is suspicious as heck, yes, but I don’t know if Malleus would be able to identify his father on sight since he never saw him or got to know him before hatching. On the flip side, how would Lilia not immediately notice his friend by voice??? Or by the mask if it is, indeed, his friend’s trademark or a custom from Briar Country? Are we arguing “characters made dumb for the sake of plot”? 😭 (Believe it or not, this is actually the most credible piece of evidence to me just because of how often TWST has employed cases of mistaken identity for the sake of convenience; I wouldn’t put it past them.)

Lilia does describe Levan/Revan as someone who dumps work on others, but he says Mallenoa does the same thing. Yet there are other aspects to Mallenoa which we also learn about. Shirking work is not the entire personality of Malleus’s dad and while his overall character may be inclusive of that, there are tons of traits unaccounted for; we barely know the guy. The Crowley = Levan theory feels like taking a conclusion and working backwards/retroactively changing the interpretation of other details to prove the conclusion we began with, instead of taking suspicious details and synthesizing a conclusion from it.

Anyway! You can see that I’m hesitant about this theory. I’d like more concrete details before I get on board with it because there isn't enough to implicate Crowley specifically—but hey, that’s not to say the idea isn’t interesting or funny 🤔 I’d personally love to see Malleus’s reaction to Crowley Darth Vader-ing him, haha 😂

Side note: It’s also sort of funny how people don’t believe Crowley is Malleus’s dad simply because they think Mallenoa is “too good/hot” for a man as bumbling as Crowley www

[icaruswasadreamer]

If We Were Villains: a book review

Or, the power of environmental storytelling, amazing characterization, theatrics and what it does to a STEM student with a passion for the arts

A/N: This is my first time writing a book review, and I decided to make up a little formula for myself to follow for the rest of my reviews. Truthfully, IWWV is not my first book, but it has defintiely inspired me enough to write something for it that isn’t fanfiction so here it is. Feel free to share your thoughts and bring up discussions, as this book is dear to me in many ways and it deserves to be talked about. Do note all of this is my opinion and that is all it will ever be. Hope you enjoy this review/semi-analysis of IWWV that I am less than qualified to talk about, but that is the beauty of self-expression. Please be warned of spoilers which will be marked as to where they Start. 

How I was Introduced to the Book

I first learned of the book through booktok. And I know the implications of that statement and the reputation of booktok in the bookish community. I, myself, don’t think too highly of booktok (as it is where all the colleen hoover fans worm about), but I have to admit that it is, by far, one of the best avenues to discover authors and books, no matter the romanticization of reading as a hobby or the misinterpretation of these books. Truthfully, without booktok, I would not have asked my friend to buy me a copy of If We Were Villains for my birthday and I wouldn’t be enamoured by its narrations and characters as I am right now. There was a specific tiktoker that I followed for the fact that they have read a lot of dark academia books – which is a genre that I’m getting into right now! If We Were Villains was introduced to me as a really great book with a lot of twists and turns, and I went into it with that expectation.

The Book Itself in My Own Words

Imagine that one picture that comes up whenever you search “dark academia aesthetic” on pinterest. There is a manor at the far end of the photo, distant and castle-like. Vines and greenery cling to it as if it were the old cobblestone shrine of a forest God and its windows are hauntingly grey with dust as if it were lived in by no one except ghosts. You are only outside looking in, and there is no scene you can manage from the manor. What you can observe, however is a lake. It reflects the greyish bluish white sky above it and it does not move against the life, the nature that surrounds it. It is ever present and everlastingly still; ultimately very boring to the people who spare it a glance, but go beyond depths you and I can comprehend or imagine. Think of that image, but in book form. Oh and add several other complicated things in it too, just for flavor.

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio is a hauntingly, tragic mystery about 7 friends who made the mistake of being gay theatre kids. It’s the found family trope in reverse as you watch as their life fall apart in the incident of a murder that no one is really sure who did. We follow Oliver Marks, essentially the main character and the narrator of the story as he describes what his life is like and how it’s about to be ruined because some guy was too petty to accept that he isn’t always the star of the show. Watch the 6 of them go through the motion, pretending everything is fine and that they’re all not mentally ill in some way while quoting shakespeare that no normal person does. 

As sarcastic as I sound, it is genuinely a wonderful, captivating story about grief, friendship and art. Everything is so complicated (in a good way) and you’re not really sure what to feel about all of it, but at the same time, you stay for the ride because the feelings are worth it, just to see this show to the end just so these characters can reach their epilogue finally. The way I would describe it is imagine all those reading assignments and book reports you had to do in your english class about a sonnet or play, then mix it with all the gay fanfiction one would read in the witching hours of 3 am as you sob quietly to yourself because you know your ship will never be canon. It is a culmination of these two things, and it’s awesome. 

First Impressions/Last Impressions

I struggled with getting through Act I of IWWV. And I do genuinely believe that this was not at all the fault of the author or the story as the set up was interesting and mysterious and curious enough for me to get hooked. It just so happened that the fish was uninterested and busy with other things that I did not get into immediately as I would have hoped. Despite this – and after several months of not reading – I managed to pick up the book again and return to where I left off.

Perhaps it was the fact that there was a large gap of me not reading IWWV and then the sudden bolt of me reading it religious explains why I found the first parts of IWWV quite slow. I do recognize this as a part of the set up and exposition of the book and was entirely necessary for the emotional impact that it would give me by the end, but prowling through those first few chapters was hard as someone with a short attention span and have several hobbies aside from reading and writing. 

But now, after almost a year of trying to finish this book properly, I have to say that I am wrecked and I will never be the same again. I thought I was going to hate the endng, truthfully, as its implications was bleak and somehow, undermines the efforts of its characters. But, the epilogue had me pleasantly surprised and relieved, that I would have to say that the ending was exactly my cup of tea. I’m still not sure on where I stand with happy endings or tragic endings, but I do in fact love open endings – endings left to interpretation, the kinds that will make you tear your hair out because where is the rest of it? Why is the book just- done? And here is where fanfiction comes to play, my friend. 

The journey has been a journey, and I definitely have to say that I have learned a lot from this book and that it was easy to fall in love with the book despite the rough beginning. 

//SPOILERS START HERE//

How I fell in Love with It

The atmosphere IWWV gave me which was extremely immersive and can only be described as delightfully haunting. It is peak gray – and gay – atmosphere that I really enjoyed as it felt like the right amount of theatrics to not be too dramatic and satirical. Something also surprising is the fact that it is oddly humorous despite being a book about murder, shakespeare and what makes a tragedy. Actually, considering it is inspired by shakespeare, the humorous aspect is not so surprising if you take into account some shakespeare being pretty absurd as it is. The unironic things these characters do like randomly quote shakespeare out of nowhere is so pretentiously funny, but also contributes well to what the book is going for. 

As unnatural as that would be for like a normal person, because Oliver and his friends are so deep into the shakespeare of their classes, they make it feel natural and you get used to that as the story progresses. Oliver had a really good justification for this which he explains to Colbourne in a way that I truly resonate with. This book, as well as the characters, are so in love with Shakespeare’s words that it’s hard to not find yourself enamoured by it to. I love the way they describe taking art like this as I feel, as an artist and creative, that this is an artist’s ulttimate purpose. To capture the things that cannot be said properly through ordinary words, and to encapsulate those moments of heightened emotion and feeling. Any piece of art is an attempt to reanimate emotion, and we use art to deliver those emotions that we, ourselves, cannot fully comprehend. 

This is what I love about this book, aside from its brilliant storytelling and interesting and raw characters. It feels like it was made with the intention of appreciation for art, and I really respect that as art means so much to me. This book is art and it is about art as much as it is about this specific friend group dealing with whatever just happened, and I really really love and appreciate that about this book. 

Strong Points/What I learned from It as a Writer

IWWV is genuinely a master class in environmental storytelling. The Castle, where everyone stays at during their time in Dellecher is the most effective use of environment I’ve seen in a book (which I’m sure there’s more, I just haven’t read it yet in which I will at some point). The way the castle has a place for everyone, and the scene wherein Oliver is seen cleaning the different rooms of the Castle goes to show the amount of detail the author puts into each little cranny of their descriptions of the Castle. One specific detail I remember was in Richard’s room where a chess board was described with one horseman toppled over and another missing. I may be tweaking, but that might just imply something about story. Aside from the environments, IWWV also makes good use of its inspiration material which is shakespeare.

I definitely should have gone into IWWV with some knowledge of shakespeare and I would encourage anyone who wish to read IWWV to read at least one shakespear book, because I didnt and I am incredible lost on how IWWV uses those narratives of Shakespeare’s plays to reference its own tragedy and characters and I am extremely upset that I didn’t get to experience that other narrative of the what the play were trying to tell the reader. But of course, you don’t have to have a background in theatre or shakespeare to read IWWV. It would extremely as they constantly quote shakespeare and if you don’t know what those quotes mean, you will get lost at some point, but you can manage through it (as I said, the book does well with these quotes that it starts feeling natural enough that you, too, would start to make sense of these quotes even if you would struggle at first). But, from what I have heard from people who have read the book and Shakespeare, the plays do reference and foreshadow the story within IWWV. 

The play Ceasar directly reference how Richard is going to die and who’s going to kill him. Like Richard is the modern Julias Ceasar, he is someone who has caused tyranny in their group of friends and provoked James to hit him on the head which led to his friends eventually leaving him for dead. I still struggle sometimes with that betrayal because in truth, Richard was their friend for 3 years and then they’re just gonna throw him away like that? I think it’s just how I view friendship, but to be fair I don’t like Richard enough to be angry that he died. And that’s a good way of utilizing source material! Because who killed Ceasar if not his most intimate of friends. 

This is kind of like Chekhov’s gun in a way except we’re talking about multiple guns and you’re in a gun shop and the fact that the guns are constantly being fired. Everytime the environment is being described, it doesn’t get boring or go into super great detail. I’m always seated for those descriptions of the environment because at some point one very specific detail will mean something to the story more than you expect it would. Otherwise, it contributes to the atmosphere and helps you feel incredibly immersive. I think much of what I read are heavily character-driven (which isn’t a bad thing!) and IWWV is also heavily character-driven in terms of plot, but it uses its environment well. Like it exists and isn’t just an extension of the actors themselves, but it doesn’t just exist as a setting, it exists as a plot device. A carefully crafted set for a performance. IWWV was a wonderful case study for me to be able to spot those little details in the environment and try my hand in interpreting what they mean, like a detective looking for clues – which is very fitting!

Characters and characterization was also very good in IWWV. Every character was equally flawed and all of their actions warrant a “What the actual fuck?” from me. The amazing thing about IWWV is that despite its title, none of these characters are bad people, just very flawed with poor decision-making skills. Even Richard, I would argue, is still a gray character despite being an asshole! It was entirely his fault for becoming needlessly petty and aggressive towards his friends, but I don’t really think that undermines their 3 years of friendship together. I genuinely believe that Richard was just a guy with a big ego that was too fragile for his own good and he did really dumb and shitty stuff about that. He isn’t your 2D Villain, because his actions were triggered by the event of something – being casted as someone that wasn’t the main focus of the play. And his friends and the reader have in their every right to be angry at Richard for the shit he’s done, but you have to admit he wasn’t always like that. He changed and that is the most admirable thing about the character writing in IWWV.

Everyone is very dynamic, but not too drastic for it to be jarring. They fit well together despite having contrasting personalities and all of them have something going on in terms of their personal life. It’s a shame we don’t exactly see ther perspectives as we are limited to Oliver’s narration, but we do get glimpses of it and I believe that is enough for the characters to feel real. My favorite character, Filippa, is the most mysterious one from the group in terms of backstory, but I know enough that she is willing to do everything – even hide a murder – just to protect her friends, her family, probably because she doesn’t have one of her own in more ways than one. And I got that from a single line that she said to Oliver when he asked why she hid the fact James did it. 

“You all were the only family I had. I’d have killed Richard myself if I thought it would keep the rest of you safe. [...] I was terrified you’d do exactly what you did.”

Each main character of IWWV have their own tragedy to their character which is rooted upon the “type” of character they are in the beginning of the story. They all both defy and fit perfectly in their own roles in the narrative and that is their tragedy. Oliver is the sidekick who became the center of attention by his arrest, James is a hero who murdered a friend, Richard is a dead tyrant, Meredith is a temptress who wishes she was seen as anything but, Wren is the broken and frankly, no longer as innocent as she ought to be ingenue, and Alexander is the villain with good intentions. Filippa is the curious case as she does not have set role, this does not excuse her from being tragic, but it does makes sense how she is the only able to stay relatively stable throughout the story. In the very beginning we were already told of what tragedy these characters would have and it is all connected to their role in a stereotypical narrative, how they are type-casted in their plays.

I would go into each of the characters and their own personal tragedies and flaws, but that would be really long, so I won’t. But these characters and the play on the type-casting of these actors are perfectly executed. I would like to cite James’ arc for this as he is described as being the hero, but slowly, as we see how he and everyone else copes with Richard’s death and how he gets casted into the villain role, we saw how this changes him and how his archetype of being the hero slowly crumbles to make way for a darker James filled with immense amount of guilt that only perpetuates with Oliver’s arrest. We see how it breaks him as his hero persona is no longer his. He takes up the role of the villain, and that kills him because he was never meant to play that role. Everything about him screams hero and I think he himself believed that, so his sense of self crumbles away as it is slowly revealed that he is in fact, the villain of this story. And yet, what makes him the villain is still technically a heroic act. He killed a tyrant after all. And that is just hella clever.

IWWV almost reads as really complicated fairytale if you think of it as these characters as the archetypes of their roles. It is definitely the most fascinating and creative way of character writing I’ve ever seen and that is a feat on its own. It follows a formula, yet it defies the routinely-ness of that, the audience can understand what’s going on like in the middle of the book and I think that serves well in this scenario because now, it’s only a matter of dread and waiting for the final act to commence. I never felt like I was reading an intermission in any parts of it as everything, both character and environment, serve the plot really well. 

Criticisms/Pet Peeves

But of course, despite all my praise, this book is not free of the criticisms and I did feel frustration for some parts of it whether it was good or bad frustration. It’s not a perfect book and I have a few gripes with it. 

The way it treats Meredith and Wren specifically is appalling. It, sadly, goes into that really bad trope in some queer books of the women getting in the way of the men hooking up. I really feel bad for these women because, even if they still have their own things going on and they are able to be their own characters, they somehow become extensions of the men that they are involved with, and everytime, it is extremely unfair. 

I’ll just say it, Oliver is just using Meredith to forget about James. I don’t doubt he loves her or doesn’t think of her as attractive because he does, but there is an aspect to their relationship that they both don’t deny is really connected to Oliver’s and James’ relationship. This is a flaw of Oliver’s character that I don’t like because it’s so unfair for Meredith and the way they started their relationship is also kind of dubious? I mean, Meredith went for Oliver not only because he was “nice”, she also went for him because he was the only one available and the complete opposite of Richard. Meredith had no interest in Oliver in the first few scenes of this book and Oliver also didn’t really think of her much because she was already with Richard, but he couldn’t deny she was pretty. I just don’t like the implications of their relationship to Meredith’s character and her struggle with objectification and her constantly being sexualized by the men around her. I know Oliver wouldn’t do that, but at the end of the day, isn’t he just using her? 

I desperately want to believe in their love and I do! But it gets so bad when you mix in James because suddenly, Meredith no longer exist to Oliver. He literally went to jail for the guy, of course, his love for James isn’t equal in any way to his love for Meredith. I also just don’t agree with how the ending has Oliver and Meredith together only for Oliver to essentially leave Meredith because he finds out that James might still be alive. He admits that he was still in love with James! I understand that polyamorous relationships are a thing, but clearly Oliver has shown to be neglecting of Meredith whenever James comes to his peripheral vision! I just think that, maybe, Meredith deserves better than how Oliver is treating her. 

And god, don’t get me started on James and Wren. They, frankly, came out of nowhere! I think its because we are limited to Oliver’s perspective so we don’t see how their relationship developed and how their dynamic would go. I do see that James cares much for Wren and vice-versa and that they could totally work, but god, when you mix Oliver into it, Wren just doesn’t exist. I am extremely upset about the part where James gets incredibly drunk and then drags Wren to sleep with him for the same reasons Oliver sleeps with Meredith! And I hate it.

It’s very messy, and very well-written and very in-character, but god the implications. The way these women are being treated in the relationship drama is just to serve the men’s own relationship and how they totally belong to each other, but somehow they’re not together and they have to stay with the women and it’s really messy and Oliver is a disaster bisexual. Maybe I just don’t like love triangles or love squares, but this is just a prime example why you shouldn’t date someone in the same friend group. It’s messy and sometimes, I debate with myself if it was necessary. Either way, it happened and I can’t do anything about that.  

Overall Thoughts/Scoring

I have a lot of thoughts about IWWV and the book itself has a lot of themes and messages that really struck me. One thing that I really liked about IWWV as an aroace-spectrum person is the friend group’s relationship because despite all the tragedy around them, they manage to be really wholesome and there examples there of platonic intimacy that I don’t usually get to see in books. I love how Oliver and Filippa are essentially like siblings with how they are always there for each other and Filippa is always looking out for him and their other friends. I love the brotherly relationship between Oliver and Alexander. And despite my gripes, there are moments in Oliver’s and Meredith’s relationship that remind me that they were friends first and lovers second, and I really appreciate that.

I didn’t mention Oliver’s and James’ relationship as much because I’m pretty sure that’s what you would expect for me to say. It’s a good relationship, I like it since I’ve always been a fan of that kind of dynamic where they transcend the meaning of best friends, they’re gay essentially, but they are also each other’s person and their intimacy is beyond physical. I’m just describing sexual/romantic tension here but everytime they are in screen together, you just know that they are looking at each other with so much emotion. And of course, what Oliver did for James was incredibly stupid, but also just states what James is to Oliver. And it’s really codependent, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a kind of love that makes you feel thing.

I also would like to comment on how it tackles grief and guilt as those are major themes in the story. I appreciate how despite being dead, Richard is still ever-present in Oliver’s mind and everyone else’s that no one even bothers to go to his room aside from Oliver who just has to because he has to clean it. Guilt haunts everyone in If We Were Villains and I feel for that, especially when it comes to grief. It captures perfectly what mourning for someone who did some really bad stuff to you is like with the added guilt that you somehow contributed to his death. And it’s cruel how these people just have to deal with that major change; nothing is ever the same when someone dies and we can’t do anything about it. The show must go on, unfortunately. And that’s what happens to these characters, on or off the stage, life will continue with or without them and they have to go with out, otherwise they might end up drowning in their own misery. I think that is much the moral we can find in IWW, if it even has one.

//SPOILERS END HERE//

My scoring would be an 8/10. It’s really good and I recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of shakespeare or really into dark academia. I wouldn’t say it would be the best introduction book for this genre, but it got me into it so maybe it could work for you too!

[presidenthades]

I am doing very minor revisions of Daemon’s Handbook (mostly formatting and continuity errors), and I wanted to do some behind-the-scenes commentary before too much time passes and I forget my original thoughts. Here’s Chapter 8!

(Note that these commentaries aren’t canon to the verse until/unless the author writes them into the series. I might change my mind on a few points later, but these are the thoughts I had while writing.)

Rhaenys thinks Corlys was ignoring her letters in the Stepstones, but he was also really busy making sure Aegon and Aemond, who are teenaged boys prone to doing stupid things, didn’t accidentally kill themselves trying to nose-dive some pirates.

Luce’s status as heir to Driftmark is nebulous at first. When Laenor was alive, a) Laenor was heir and b) Corlys thought Laenor and Rhaenyra might still have a son. Now that Laenor is dead, by Andal tradition, Luce would be heir as eldest daughter (after Jace who’s slated for the throne). But one could argue that House Velaryon is Valyrian so it doesn’t need to follow Andal tradition.

Some might argue it’s better for Driftmark to stay in the male line to ensure the Velaryon name continues (which is something show!Corlys is big on), or Luce could be named heir but she has to marry within House Velaryon so she and her heirs keep the name. In this fic, Corlys affirms Luce as his heir, and not even Vaemond can complain too much about it because “daughters before uncles” is the norm for everything but the Iron Throne.

I have a thought that whomever Luce marries, Corlys might require that her eldest son/heir takes the Velaryon name (maybe all the children, who knows). So, uh, probably best if her husband is a second son/not the heir to his own lands 👁️👄🔹

*insert joke about Jace and Luce being the breadwinners while Aegon and Aemond are trophy husbands*

The more I read about medieval/Tudor history, the more intrigued I am by ladies-in-waiting. GRRM doesn’t flesh them out super well in his universe, and the show doesn’t have an infinite budget to go into the royal women’s relationships with LIW, but that’s what fanfic is for. I’ll go into more detail about it in one of the sequel fics. Jace is going to have an interesting bunch of LIW.

Rhaena and Helaena are taking notes about Luce’s suitors, but the notes are for themselves. As Rhaena discusses in Chapter 10, she and Helaena have unusual requirements for their potential husbands, and Luce is helpfully attracting a very large pool of eligible (and not so eligible) men.

I mentioned in a past commentary that Alicent likes Jace because Jace is proper and a good influence on Aegon. Alicent *does not* like Luce, whom Alicent perceives as being the opposite of Jace. (Alicent is lucky Baela isn’t interested in her children. Also when Joff gets older…😅)

I drop hints that Aegon drinks a lot less in canon. Part of it is Jace’s good influence, and part of it is that being in the Stepstones made him realize it’s really dangerous being drunk. (See: Chapter 7’s story about his hair catching fire.) He does get drunk during the wedding feast, because it’s his wedding and he deserves a treat.

In the show, all of Borros’s daughters look like adults, but in the book, Floris is 11 when the Dance starts (and Ellyn might be around that age). It makes sense that Floris and Ellyn are so young, otherwise I’m wondering why Borros has four unbetrothed adult daughters when Aemond comes knocking.

In this fic, I decided Cassandra is 16 (same as Aemond and Jace), Maris is 14, and the other two still younger. As the eldest, Cassandra is throwing her hat in the “Aemond’s potential wife” ring, and she has reasons to think she has a good chance. Baratheons have Valyrian blood and their ancestors have intermarried with Targaryens before. She’s also the heir to Storm’s End if her father remains son-less. (Unfortunately for her, Aemond is interested in a different heiress 🤭)

Baela being a mystery knight and attracting Cregan’s attention is a role reversal of the ASOIAF Harrenhal tourney with Lyanna and Rhaegar. I was originally going to have Daeron also join the lists, but I realized that was redundant with Baela in the picture, and he’s too small to pass for an adult male. So Baela got her moment to shine!

Why does Baela challenge those three Northmen? What do they have in common besides being Northern houses? I guess we’ll have to see in the Joff-centric sequel 👀 (Or you could dig deep into the ASOIAF wiki and try to find the answer.)

I decided to give House Velaryon a Valyrian sword since they *are* a Valyrian house. Corlys says Aegon and Aemond helped get the sword from Racallio Ryndoon after hosting a beach party. Racallio has many wives and he sometimes sends them to other men who seem like, uh, good sperm donors. I’m imagining that he might have made a similar offer to Aegon or Aemond or both. 👀 (In this fic verse, the boys would turn it down but the whole scenario would be hilarious, I think.)

I regretted making Daemon an idiot about fashion because it meant I couldn’t go into *too* much detail about Jace’s wedding dress. (But I have other fics in the works where I *can* go into detail!) Notice that Jace has a penchant for gold clothing and jewelry…because Sunfyre. ☀️

Is the story about baby Jace and Aegon a metaphor for how he supports her claim to the throne? Yes. Yes it is.

Jace’s Princess Diana moment is a big part of her Good PR Masterplan. She’s gonna make the smallfolk love her if it’s the last thing she does.

The little exchange between Daemon, Rhaenys, and Viserys during the ceremony reflects how I imagine their childhood was like. Daemon’s always squirming during sept services, Rhaenys pinches and pokes him to make him behave, and Viserys is a tattletale.

The Faith is supposedly based on Catholicism, so I leaned hard into the kneeling during services so Daemon has another thing to complain about.

Not gonna lie, I kinda want to write a short fic where the Dance does happen in this universe, partially because Aegon thinks he has to be king to keep/protect Jace. 🥲 Don’t know how the logic works out, but it’s fanfic, we’re here for the vibes.

During the feast, Rhaena and Helaena are talking to Daemion Velaryon and Garmund Hightower about the Fake Husband Project. Helaena will probably end up marrying Daemion (paper marriage only), but I don’t think Rhaena/Garmund is going to happen. We’ll see.

I’m kinda sorry but not actually sorry for Aegon’s song. I am proud I managed to make the rhyming and rhythm work. 😇

Chapter 9 commentary here