#i wanna read the novel now

[vamptastic]

watched american psycho for the first time. it's really funny and hits the right level of confusing surrealism. very good.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

🧙‍♀️🐈‍⬛

[ask-the-crimson-king]

They said "fuck" twice in the Tithes Ep. 3.

I had to read "fug" too many times to count in Know No Fear.

And now they can say "fuck"?

[thirdeyeblue]

“Nine would have treated Martha better than Ten did”

I need to talk about this argument that never seems to stop circulating.

Note: Not a venomous/anti post. There’s more than enough of that across fandom spaces as is, and this is supposed to be a place for ✨sweet, blissful escapism✨

When making this argument, people seem to envision a scenario in which Nine never met Rose.

While I can appreciate a good hypothetical, recognizing Rose's significance to the Doctor (Nine and Ten) is essential to understanding why things with Martha played out the way they did in the first place.

In the third series, the Doctor is grieving. This grief is deliberately threaded into nearly every script, whether spoken aloud or not (and these are just a few examples):

He's burning in Rose’s wake the entire time Martha travels with him, which is why it’s so frequently called upon: It’s 100% deliberate in framing his grief. He grieved as Nine too, of course— having been fresh on the heels of the Time War — but then he met Rose, which changed everything.

Back then, he was still a rude, traumatized pain in the ass, but we watch Rose soften more of those jagged edges with every episode as they grow closer; as he lets his guard down and forms a deep connection with her.

He falls in love (against his better judgment) and it's game over.

And yes: provided S1E1 had been titled 'Martha', one can realistically assume things might have unfolded similarly to how they did with Rose. However, it wouldn’t have been that way just because the Doctor was Nine and “Nine was different” — it would be because he wasn’t already in love with someone else. The same can't be said for the start of S3.

Think of it like this: if Rose AND Martha had been in that cellar — if Nine had taken both of them along with him in S1 — we’d eventually be looking at the most melodramatic love triangle ever, what with him living in close quarters with two brilliant, gorgeous, compassionate young women... But Doctor Who is plenty “soap opera” as is with just one woman in the TARDIS.

(I certainly wouldn’t object to reading that fic, though)

Now, regarding the unrequited elephant in the room…

His inability to be romantic with Martha isn’t because he thinks her lesser, nor is it for lack of compatibility. It isn't because Rose is any better than her. It certainly isn’t just because he’s Ten.

It’s really only for one reason, which can't be denied — and now I’m a broken record:

He is still in love with Rose.

(cut from a tenrosedaily gif)

Nine is Ten, and Ten is only such a mess in S3 because he’s just lost the love of his life. Martha merely got caught in the crosshairs of a volatile Time Lord in mourning, and yes — it sucks. Absolutely.

But it also feels dismissive to chalk Ten and Martha’s relationship up to little more than some sort of mindless dance of pining, jealousy, and toxicity.

Ten trusted Martha with his life over and over again — and hers, with him. He constantly praised her brilliance, happily carting her around time and space with no intention of letting her go. In the BBC’s extended universe of novels/comics/cartoons/etc, there’s so much depth to their relationship: love and trust and trauma and sacrifice. They had their own special bond as mates, their own complexities — so it’s a bummer that it's forever overshadowed by the other things.

I’m not denying that there was a lot of stuff that sucked/was for sure toxic about Ten's S3 behavior, but so many of the things I've seen him catching flak for can be directly attributed to being A Clueless Fucking Alien Idiot (not a trait that’s unique to Ten) — as well as his flat-out obliviousness to Martha’s feelings.

So yes, I agree: if Rose never existed, he would have treated Martha differently as Nine. He also would have treated her differently as Ten. Certainly.

But Rose did exist, and when discussing canon, it matters.

“He tells me that he absolutely, 100% loves Rose... He tells me how my daughter; my wonderful, beautiful, clever little girl saved him from himself before… And he says that’s all because of me! I made her into the Rose Tyler that saved him.”

-Jackie Tyler, Flight Into Hull!

Martha got the short end of the stick in S3. She came round at the wrong place and time, but that doesn't mean it was all bad. It doesn't mean the Doctor didn’t adore her. It certainly doesn't mean the time they spent together was wasted or worthless. They were brilliant!

Sure, he could be a twat, but let it be known that he was a twat with Rose as well, both as Nine and Ten. I’m sure Tentoo can be plenty infuriating, too. So while I'll defend Ten (and Tentoo) into the ground forever and ever and ever, I'll concede that he's fucked up.

The Doctor is a certified Pain In The Ass. It’s one of the things I love so much about this character — dynamics.

But never forget that Martha was goddamn tough as nails and overcame every bit of it. She moved on with her life, and the Doctor moved on with his. One can only pray that, when they inevitably drag her back onto the show (which feels inevitable if I'm honest), we see at once that she's been living her best life for all these years.

[lloydfrontera]

y'know what's funny in a 'not really funny at all but i have to laugh or i'll start biting people' kind of way??

the adaptation team working overtime to make the relationship between javier and lloyd look so much less deeper than it actually is in the novel makes the novel look so much gayer than it already did on its own. like. sorry but your attempts to cover up the homoerotism just makes it stand out more in its absence.

because if there truly was nothing remarkable about lloyd and javier's relationship and they were just very good friends and nothing else then why take the time and effort to change it in the adaptation so they look less close than they actually are.

why skip entire scenes that make their relationship deeper. why change their dialogue and thoughts so they're less invested in one another. why give interactions that they had with each other to their romantic interests. actually why give javier a whole new love interest that did not exist in the novel.

why go through so much trouble to change something that is so important in the source material if there truly was nothing else going on in the novel.

what was it about their relationship that made the adaptation team decide they just needed to change everything about it so they weren't as close and attached as they were originally.

if they were truly nothing but platonic with each other in the source material then why change their relationship so much in the adaptation that it's almost unrecognizable.

what about it did they find so unappealing that they simply had to modify it until it was but a shadow of itself.

in trying to cover up something they only managed to call attention to it by the people who knew what was there originally. now we know that they wanted to get rid of it so badly they were willing to butcher the story and plot for it.

it's really funny :)

[darehearts]

not to be feral on main but i am going to eat this book up so bad

[swallowedabug]

9 books for 2025, tagged by @kshaar

LEENA KROHN | Tainaron

JULIA ARMFIELD | Our Wives Under the Sea

JEFF VANDERMEER | Hummingbird Salamander

NEKO CASE | The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir

GREGORY MAGUIRE | Son of a Witch

KAMERON HURLEY | The Stars Are Legion

CARMEN MARIA MACHADO | Her Body and Other Parties

MARINA & SERGEY DYACHENKO | Vita Nostra

CHANA PORTER | The Seep

tagging @diasdelasombra, @strangesmallbard, @duckuwu and i think everyone else who i wanted to tag has already posted their 9 books

[fictionalcreator]

okay saw ur tags (brilliant btw <3) tell me more about tcf and where i should read it? 👀

YES, GLADY

Okay okay, so, first things first, you can find it over at the good folks of EatApplePies, who also host The Third Wheel Strikes back if you want yet another surprising deeply developed fantasy novel with a self-sacrificing protagonist in a multiple transmigrator scenario, only this one has a gentler protagonist (who can’t stop getting targeted for assassination) and also comes with thinly-veiled canon gay marriage. Huzzah!

Not that tcf isn’t ripe with shipping potential, but as of chapter 400 no one has proposed that protag marry the Crown Prince, which is a thing that does happen around chapter 200 or so of TWSB! What can I say? Stepmom goes hard to bat for her kid.

Anyway I’ve gotten off track.

Honestly, if you’ve read ORV and/or S Classes That I’ve Raised then you’ll enjoy going in mostly blind.

I know that I was initially turned off my first attempt at reading because I couldn’t quite get into Cale as a protagonist and felt that his team was getting too powerful too easily. The first arc or so can feel like things are simply happening too smoothly? And Cale adapting to his new role so quickly doesn’t help. But I can assure you all that does not last lmao

Cale slowly reveals his layers as a person (sometimes very slowly)(but the things he reveals. Oh man. I am chewing on him. Shaking him like a ragdoll. “Emotional alienation” is a fucking UNDERSTATEMENT jfc), and before you get disappointed at how easily the team acquires op abilities, ask yourself: “what could they possibly be facing in the future that requires they have all of this strength?”

As for the actual elevator pitch…uh, i’ll put it under this cut, this is already kinda long lmao

So, imagine, you’re Kim Rok Soo. You’re taking your first day off in, what, 10, maybe 15 years? (First day off from what? Don’t worry about it)

You decide to spend that time binge-reading a novel an old co-worker recommended. You get to volume 5 before you pass out, but when you wake up, you find that you are now in possession of the body of Cale Hentinuse, eldest son of Count Deruth Hentinuse, and minor villain of that novel, who insulted the protagonist, got beaten up for it, and wasn’t really seen nor heard from again.

Cale Hentinuse is generally known as the trash of the count’s family (hence the title). He spends his time drinking and getting into fights. He hasn’t been the family representative to the capital in years. But Kim Rok Soo takes only one lesson away from the label of “trash:” trash is someone who does whatever they want.

And if what he wants is to avoid getting beaten up by the protagonist, transmigrator Choi Han, instead dragging him home to get fed and washed up like a dog, then so be it. Hope this doesn’t inspire a life-or-death loyalty that will prove completely unshakable! ‘Cause Cale is totally thinking of sending the protagonist on his way so that he can hang back and live the slacker’s life in the background. Yeah that’ll totally work out no problem guaranteed 👍

So what if he acts a bit willfully here in there? Doing things like saving the young dragon and helping a man fated to die dodge that fate? He’s still going to take those powers he read about for himself. He needs those to be strong enough to live in a land where turning over a stone can reveal a dozen deadly hidden experts. And doing something so self-interested…that’s enough to make him the bad guy here, right?

Right. That’s how these things work (don’t question his logic or why he thinks of the concept of selfishness in such terms shhhh)

But even if it’s selfish, it’s not like he’s gonna stop. After all, they have a war to prepare for. One that will rock the whole Roan Kingdom. Possibly the whole continent. Cale needs every chip he can get in the game if he wants to keep his home safe.

After all, how can you lead the proper slacker life if you’re worried about global political instability dragging your friends (and family!) into conflict?

PS Children aren’t meant to fight wars. The weak should be protected. Just because it’s unpleasant doesn’t mean it will not be done.

PPS if you want to see me yell about this book in real time i’ve been tagging my posts abt it with “tcf novel” and “fict’s ramblings” but of course spoilers up to chapter 400/776 for the most recent posts

[freaky-flawless]

Ah ok, the Ghoulfirends books have aged just as poorly as the Lisi Harrison novels.

[aclockworkreader]

I've never read Manacled, but all I hear everyone talking about is how heartbreaking it is (which one would assume if it's based on The handmaids tale...). How does romance even exists in that fic?? I can't bring myself to even skim it when SA has to be a part of it and somehow I'm supossed to root for the ship to get together...

that’s a great question anon, how can romance exist in a fic where the fmc is kidnapped and imprisoned because she is of an “inferior” race and then sold to be sa’d and bred by the mmc who is also actively committing war crimes??

you’d have to ask people who liked it

[confusedspaceotter]

(Meme stolen from Reddit

[xxplastic-cubexx]

what is your favorite thing about charles and your favorite thing about erik? separately, as in what you like most about their characters :]

a devious question this one is, my friend!!! it's hard enough for me to explain my thoughts cohesively, but having to pick ONE thing i particularly love is difficult. with characters like charles and erik, theres been so much done with their characters over the decades and so they have so many components to them that make them so interesting and fun to observe. BUT I TRY FOR YOU TODAY. under the cut i kinda ramble and the size of this text box makin me anxious

i think if i were to be simple and broad, what i enjoy most about charles is his determination to help others, even if he isn't really thanked and/or if people don't even like him. ofc, this isn't to say he hasn't done wrong- to be honest, the fact he does wrong/questionable things at times is another aspect of him i really enjoy, maybe because- broadly speaking- he's meant to be altruistic (intent vs outcome and all that). i don't know if that's super exciting to most people, but it is for me

as for erik, my reason for liking him is easier to explain tbh. To Be Simple And Broad, his progression from villain to antihero over the decades has been fun to observe (as much as i have so far anyhow) and analyze. i think to be a bit more specific, him using his rage and pain as justifications for his villainous actions is definitely what compels me the most: hurt people hurt and the sort, an idea i've always found interesting (something something vicious cycles and the like). yet now, he recognizes this wasn't really. A Just Thing To Do and is beginning to change that, which i enjoy

[killjoy-prince]

Birthmas manga and merch haul

[silusvesuius]

i legit love when a character's gender is so integral to their personality (and perception obviously.) like so concrete that if genderbent their whole shtick would just be absolute dookie. anyways i'm just writing this text so i can talk in the tags (My beautiful safe haven)

this 14 minute song is soooooooooooo FYRE

[itspileofgoodthings]

I have some kids who are excited to read Hamlet after reading Macbeth, that has never happened before lol.

[the-mononoke-facade]

I got my physical copy of Shu today, and I didn't think "light novel" meant that it would be so small (I was expecting something about the size of your average manga)

It's very cute though

Also all my bitching about bolded kanji being a bitch to read only really applies to the digital version making it obnoxiously blocky apparently, it's perfectly legible on actual pages

Now I just gotta get the rest of it