#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.

[firstofficerrose]

Stephen: I kissed a girl...

Istvahn: Nice! Not a sin.

Stephen: and then I think I hurt her feelings...

Istvahn: Not nice, but also not inherently a sin.

Stephen: And then she stepped on a severed head

Istvahn: I'm going to need you to start over

[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.

[spoofymcgee]

okay i've just finished my reread of feet of clay and i'm back to yell about how terry prachett is a goddamn genius when it comes to microcosm storytelling and character dynamics.

there's this line that angua thinks at the end of the book when they're fighting the king golem (called meshuga btw and i did forget about that bit and screeched when it was mentioned because. god.)

it's just after carrot says: "Commander Vines said someone has to speak for the people with no voices!"

(and i could go on for years about how deep the thread of fundamental beliefs about the necessity of compassion and kindness to those who need help simply because it's the right thing runs through these books, and how in canon that makes vimes kind of a witch but i won't because this post isn't about that)

angua thinks: "He really believes it. Vimes put words in his head."

and it was at this point i put the book down and yelled into a pillow for a solid thirty seconds.

because!

just before this scene carrot buys dorfl from the man who owned him and puts the receipt into dorfl's head, so dorfl owns himself. we get a stunningly described scene of dorfl understanding the concept of self and free will, and then he goes to fight meshuga.

during that fight dorfl's chem gets destroyed along with the receipt.

and he dies, temporarily, because as we've been told through the whole book the words in their head are what keep them alive.

and then he comes back. and he kills meshuga, who is the golem's hopes and dreams in physical form–because sometimes you have to kill your dreams because dreams aren't reality and if you try to make them so without adapting them to fit they crush people, because the golems don't need dreams anymore because they have action–but the point is that he doesn't need the words anymore.

carrot gave him the words and he took them and became who he is. he became a person, who owns himself and doesn't need the words themselves anymore because they're part of him and no one can take them away.

and just like him, carrot took the words vimes put in his head and became the person he is now. vimes is not responsible for it, he isn't a carbon copy of vimes, because carrot lives and breathes the words that–although he does his best to follow–vimes doesn't believe the same way. not in the same intensity, not in that it's easier for him to stop breathing than to stop following them the way it is for carrot.

vimes put words in carrot's head and carrot took them into himself and built his whole person around them.

(and this isn't even getting into the line about how vetinari invented vimes and there's a parallel there because in a way, almost unconsciously, vimes invented carrot too because he and vetinari are very very similar and in this essay i will–)

anyway. i just think that's really fucking cool.

[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