#i love these books so much

[la-pheacienne]

I'm reading the lord of the rings and I'm once again amazed at how... good most characters are. Like, they are genuinely good people. They are a bunch of kindhearted, gracious, caring people, coming together under adverse circumstances and trying to figure things out and find a solution and support each other through it all. Like Frodo and Sam meet Faramir and Faramir is a bit suspicious at first and kind of implies Frodo may be a spy, and then when he hears his story and he's like Frodo, I pressed you so hard at first. Forgive me! It was unwise in such an hour and place. And this blows.my.mind. He wasn't even particularly mean or threatening to him in the beginning, he's just such a kind, considerate man, recognizing the kindness and honesty of another man. And they're all like that. Even Gollum starts slowly changing (for a short while) when he encounters Frodo because that's the thing about kindness and humility and grace, they are contagious. They transform people, even a creature like Gollum cannot be immune to that. Like, you may consider all this simple and basic and I get it but, hear me out. It is quite rare to see that in modern media and it is also pretty difficult to pull off in a way that is not corny and simplistic. It is mind blowing that you actually don't have to present the entire palette of human cruelty and vice in order to tell a compelling story, contrary to popular belief. Lotr does the exact opposite, and it is just beautiful and it warms my heart. Especially taking into consideration tolkien's pretty grim growing-up experience, him being a double orphan without a home, raised between an orphanage and a priest and having no family apart from his brother and then the war and then he almost dies and then he's poor as hell and then a second war and it all makes sense somehow. He writes to his wife who is also an orphan two days before the marriage "the next few years will bring us joy and content and love and sweetness such as could not be if we hadn't first been two homeless children and had found one another after long waiting" and, yes, yes! The love and sweetness just radiate from his work, the entire lotr series is a little radiant bubble of hope and love and grace that he imagined in his head to deal with a dismal reality and then he just gave that to the world, and isn't that what imagination and art is all about after all?

[autumn0689]

I sometimes keep forgetting how chaotic the TOA novels are. Apollo is a simp and also being incredibly self sacrificial. Meg being claimed by Demeter and someone calling her a communist due to the symbol being a sickle. Will Solace being able to glow in the dark and Nico being friends with Troglodytes who love hats. Commodus flirting with Apollo in TDP when they met up in the stadium. Apollo being In servitude to Meg, a twelve year old. Apollo also wearing pink camo pants and peeing himself and passing out quite frequently. Apollo’s internal monologues having him loving himself then hating himself (and ain’t that a mood) and Meg just… being Meg. Dionysus calling Apollo ‘Mr A’ and absolutely loving that Apollo got turned into a mortal. Tauri Sylvestres just camping outside Rachel’s home for a few days… just because? Then most likely waiting for Apollo, Meg, Will, and Nico to arrive before they broke loose and began chasing them and Apollo telling Meg to ‘Jump The Cow’. Apollo getting woozy and kissing Nico on the forehead and smelling his hair and Apollo being healed by Mountain Dew of all thing!

There are so many other moments, but to me the absolutely most hilarious and chaotic scene to me (and also happens to be one of my favorite scenes) is when the fight Nero in his tower.

Like, plants are growing everywhere, Apollo is injured and begins muttering for Mountain Dew as Nero is frantically picking up remotes and trying to find the right one as Stayin’ Alive begins playing and TVs begin blasting and I absolutely adore the scene.

Every day I just find more things that I love about these books I swear. I love them.

[gaygirldoodles]

Thinking abt how all the einherjar will die come Ragnarok and how Magnus will probably outlive Blitz, Hearth, Samirah, Amir and Annabeth.

But just imagine, Alex dying in Magnus' arms as he tries desperately to heal she/he, knowing they will both end up dying either way, but still holding onto hope as he sees his friends fighting around him and slowly dying. He can't save them, but gods damn it, will he try.

Imagine when it's finally his turn, he holds onto the hope that he will once again see all his friends and loved ones. Those who had died years ago and those who had died more recently.

Maybe he will see them again. Maybe he won't. We don't really know for sure, but we can still hope.

[tomatette]

Random thoughts while re-reading 'Dark Rise/Dark Heir' #1

Okay, knowing what I know after reading both books, I wonder *why*. His mother obviously didn't send Matthew to help Will out of the goodness of her heart. She told him to run when she was dying.

Not to save Will - she would have killed him herself if she could. So ... to keep him away from those who actually want to bring Sarcean back?

Why send him to the Stewards? Did she hope they would figure him out and find a way to dispose of him?

Ugh, I love how everything makes perfect sense when you first read it, and still make perfect sense - just in a completely different way - when you re-read it.

[helloiamacashier]

Amma: You healed that kitten because it was the right thing to do.

Damien: No, i didn't! There's... a rat problem in this city. It was merely prudent.

Amma: Ah, so you did it to help your city!

Damien:

[followerofmercy]

My other favorite thing about Murderbot is Murderbot's internal narrative steadily shifting from 'resolutely denying that it's having an emotion' because, like, it was company property tf was it gonna do about it, to Network Effect's run-on paragraph that had me staring at the wall on my lunch break where it equates being out of control of a situation to being out of control of itself and then that's one step away from being back in control of the company

[cs-cabin-and-crew]

Guess what? I’m part of this fandom too.

Have my favorite sassy gal Saphira. I’m currently rereading the series, because I never got the chance to read the mini stories and I’m now starting to try and get to Murtaugh.

Roran keeps reminding me why he’s my favorite. Eragon is a moron as always. And murtaugh… well, I’m rereading eldest, so he’s basically dead to me right now 😆. But I still love him.

[grievingbovine]

The pool scene sticks so hard to me.

Harrow said everything that Gideon had ever wanted to hear all her life. That the 9th house tortured her, that they were wrong for it, that she didn't deserve to suffer. All that coming from Harrow, who Gideon now knows is also a victim of the 9th house, but was also a first-hand source of this torment, admit it, and call it what it was.

[jankwritten]

I have officially, finally started the PJO reread I've been saying I'd do since a literal year ago. Here we go buckaroos.

[newstarsongs]

katniss everdeen doodle page because they could legitimately never make me hate her

[thelopen]

I have been avoiding the cosmere tags because I STILL have yet to read rhythm of war despite getting a copy when it first came out but I am rereading stormlight (currently 2/3 of the way through words of radiance) before wind and truth and let me tell you when I get caught up!! I will be unstoppable

[tinydragondice]

Y’all, I love Seanan McGuire’s books a lot, and her longest running series (October Daye) has two new books coming out September and October. Needless to say, I’m beyond excited and preordered them the moment it was available.

So what do I do when I’m excited about things? I make dice! Three of this week’s dice drop sets are themed around the magical signature scents of some of the main characters.

Toby Daye’s magic smells likes copper, cut grass, and blood.

Tybalt’s magic smells like pennyroyal and musk.

And The Luidaeg, sea witch and Firstborn, has magic that smells of “Brackish water, of the point where sea meets shore, where freshwater blends with salt; peat moss and loam, like blooming bog myrtle and sweet bluebell... an entire world.”

[quiet-art-kid]

I didn't choose the httyd book hyper-obsession, it chose me

[cazzyf1]

Memes from Mike Hawthorn’s second children's book: Carlotti takes the wheel

[thepeachfuzz]

just reread all for the game and i forgot how crazy it is and THEN THE SECOND BOOK STARTS AND IT KEEPS GOING

[toaster-ay]

Alright folks. This is something I've wanted to talk about for a while now, but just now I decided to actually write it all down and hopefully make sense of myself.

Long ass ramble about BATIM and some lore from official books.

So far I've got my hands on two Bendy books, that is The Illusion of Living and Dreams come to life (I also have the Employee's Handbook but that one isn't lore important). I plan on getting the rest of the book in the future but let's look at these two for now.

The Illusion of Living is Joey Drew's memoir, written all by himself. In this book we get to know quite a lot about Joey, more or less his whole life.

We get to know that he comes from a family of shoe makers, that he lied about his age at 13 so he could join the war. Or that he likes to dress and look fancy long time before he actually is fancy, just because it makes him feel better and gives the illusion that he's someone important. We even get to know that he once joined a Detective when he was investigating murder. And that he can appreciate good art while also drawing slightly himself.

What I want to look deeper into though, is the way he and Henry met. Thanks to the game (and even fandom), most people assume they were best friends for a long time. That they would go to hell and back for each other. But that wasn't actually the case??

Joey and Henry met through a mutual friend, Abby Lambert, and he actually didn't like Henry at first. Joey didn't like the cartoon artstyle, which is what Henry mainly drew. So they didn't have anything in common.

That was until Joey got the idea for Joey Drew studios, and asked Abby for help to come up with the main character, since she could draw better than Joey. Well, Abby tried, but it didn't end up as they wanted. And then Abby took Henry for help and went to Joey together, and let me tell you, Joey actually wasn't really thrilled for Henry to come with her.

But, after a few tries, Henry was able to come up with the right design for Bendy. Joey and Henry decided to work together after that, but Henry left the studio not that long after. It's said that Abby started to work in the studio three years later, but it's also said that Abby and Henry never ended up working together. And Joey didn't really seem to care for Henry.

He acknowledges him, but isn't mad at him.

It's just so interesting, why is Joey so angry at Henry in game, if he didn't seem to actually care about him in the book? Could've been a mistake from the writer, or I don't know.

This is just something I've wanted to point out for a while, and I'm super open to starting a conversation with someone about this!

Now let's look at Dreams comes to life

This book is written from the point of view of Daniel Lewek, also known as 'Buddy', who is also the character that ends up being the Boris we all know and love in game.

I love how this book is written, since it's written after Buddy is corrupted by the ink, and he's slowly forgetting all of this, so he's writing it down so there's something left. So the truth is known.

Buddy is hired by Joey to be a delivery boy after a quick meeting when he's delivering him a new suit, but later gets promoted to an artist after Abby Lambert (who is now in the head of the Art Department) sees a drawing that Buddy's grampa actually did, but Buddy ends up lying, since being an animator is something he actually wants to do.

Buddy befriends Dot, who works in the Story telling Department, and she's a really noisy and sneaky character.

Now, something I think is interesting is that, Sammy Lawrence is probably the first character to get corrupted by the Ink machine. Buddy's first meeting with him actually traumatises him slightly, because Sammy jumps at him covered in ink after a pump bursts right above him. Throughout the book, Sammy is depicted to be really interested in ink, while also drinking some from the ink bottles.

Then Buddy has the luck to meet the Ink Demon himself, accidentally even letting him out from the room he was locked in.

And then, Sammy goes missing. That's when even Dot has the pleasure of meeting the Ink Demon, since she and Buddy went to the studio when it was shut down to see what other weird stuff they can find.

When we meet Sammy again, he's already The Prophet that we've seen in the game. And he even already made some sacrifices, Buddy and Dot (and Richie, Buddy's animation coworker) were meant to be part of them too but they were lucky enough to escape. But Buddy's coworker, Jacob, didn't. And when Buddy and Dot find him attached to the Ink machine cowered in ink (they are able to save him actually), they also find already dead bodies of Dave (another Buddy's coworker) and Norman Polk ("Of course no one would notice he was missing. Of everyone in the building. He watched everyone, but no one really saw him" – I'm sorry I had to add this, I absolutely love it)

Dot and Buddy end up having a small fight with the Ink Demon until they get rid of him. Or so they thought, because he ends up grabbing Buddy and pulling him into the ink with him.

When Buddy wakes up after, he's already in the body of Boris. Joey Drew standing above him, absolutely thrilled that they got a perfect cartoon after such a fail with Bendy.

Even if Dreams comes to life was mainly focused on Buddy, it feels like we've got so much lore for all the other characters. Joey shows how much of an asshole he can actually be. Norman shows up a few times, always unannounced and with some information no one else except him knows. Sammy and his grumpy ass that was slowly getting corrupted by ink. Hell, we even got Tom and Joey argument about the Ink machine (and Allison was with Tom!! Holding his hand!!).

These books are really worth reading, and I'm excited when I finally get my hands on the rest of the books.

Alas, that is the end of my ramble. If anyone read it all, here's a cookie for you 🍪

And I'm also super open to have a conversation with anyone about all of this!!