#i want this book to be good so badly

[ronanlynchbf]

tshirt that says NO LIVE ORGANISM CAN CONTINUE FOR LONG TO EXIST SANELY UNDER CONDITIONS OF ABSOLUTE REALITY

[wishesofeternity]

The thing about HotD is that it while it absolutely minimizes the agency and ambition of both Rhaenyra and Alicent, this is specifically used to glorify Rhaenyra and frame her as righteous while condemning Alicent and framing her lacking. That's the key difference in both their textual portrayals that has directly led to 90% of the fandom hailing Rhaenyra as the second coming of Christ while spewing the most hateful vitriol at Alicent just for existing. But y'all are not prepared for that conversation.

[multicolorskyz]

Finally watched the “FORD IS A BAD PERSON!” video. Commentary on it ft my friend. It took me three weeks to mentally prepare myself to watch this lol.

[ineffectualbookseller]

It just really GRINDS MY GEARS the way Crowley is keeping so much from Aziraphale this season but also I TOTALLY understand why he's doing it

The thing is we saw Aziraphale keep a huge secret from Crowley in season 1 after he got his hands on the Nice and Accurate Prophecies and went to heaven with the information about Adam rather than telling Crowley, but then we saw him grow from that mistake. He realized how wrong a decision that was and that's why he's SO committed to them working as a team in season 2. The way he immediately goes to Crowley when Gabriel shows up and keeps him updated whenever he talks to heaven and even calls from Edinburgh to tell him about the new Clue (and maybe to brag a little because he's feeling proud)

and YEAH Aziraphale lies. I'm not saying he doesn't. He's a liar. Lies to himself, to heaven, to hell, to god's face, and sometimes to Crowley. But in my opinion, the biggest lie he tells Crowley about the occult/ethereal goings-on this season is not telling him about Shax on the drive back to Edinburgh. And I think the reason he doesn't is the same reason he's SO nervous to tell him about Gabriel at first; he's afraid Crowley will overreact - will totally freak out when he realizes Aziraphale is being threatened. Which is, frankly, justified. He would.

But then Crowley is over here lying about SO MUCH all season. And some of the lies are about his own pride (i.e. not telling his self-described bestie that he has been UNHOUSED for YEARS during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC) but mostly he does it because he thinks it is protecting Aziraphale. Because he is so obsessed with saving Aziraphale.

Everyone knows it - Demons are using threats against Aziraphale as a way to intimidate Crowley all over the shop (a good tactic tbf, far more effective than threatening Crowley himself), and Aziraphale openly speaks it.

But the actual reason he does it is because he's so concerned about proving his worth to Aziraphale. We know Crowley has self-esteem issues. He's all smoke and mirrors - not a man (nb) just a flashy jacket wrapped around a bundle of insecurities and anxieties. He still thinks he needs to prove himself to Aziraphale, that he needs to make himself worthy of his partnership. He cognitively knows they should be equals, a team of the two of them on their own side, but he just can't shake the notion that Aziaphale needs a reason to fraternize with a demon.

And of course, Aziraphale doesn't. He loves Crowley as he is and sees just as much worth in the small acts of bringing him chocolates at the bookshop opening or clearing them a table at the Ritz. True, he does love that Crowley loves saving him, but not because he actually needs it, because it's part of the flirty game they play. But he's not honest enough to tell Crowley as much clearly (not that speaking it would solve Crowley's self-worth issues).

The thing is, "Saving me makes him so happy" is so much cuter when you're fully PRETENDING to be stuck in the Bastille and don't know any other way of asking your crush out on a lunch date. Because now the forces of heaven and hell are knocking on THEIR bookshop door and all they have is each other but Crowley hasn't been honest with Aziraphale about the seriousness of this threat and Aziraphale didn't warn him about Shax BECAUSE he knew he would be overprotective. Crowley needs so badly to be the hero he's undermined their power as a team.

And that's the dramatic irony of it all. As an audience, it is spelled out so clearly for us that they are at their best, their most powerful, as a team. They are a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The fact of Crowley's incessant need to prove himself, to be the hero, to "protect" Aziraphale from all this information that he has been choosing to lie about all season - it's just making them weaker.

TLDR; Crowley is lying to Aziraphale to keep him safe because he still feels like he needs to prove himself to be worthy of Aziraphale's partnership but this makes it impossible for them to truly work as a team and is hurting them both

[coern-art-very-cool-and-nice]

sekai au 👊😔

[calamitoustide]

just thought of a jegulus they both die at the end au and suddenly I'm thirteen again

[midnightmah07]

Ahhh spoilers for the new Kalim card the one that he looks like the sultan for book 7

THE WORLD IS SO UNFAIR IM GOING TO KILL MALLEUS WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS I CAN'T BELIEVE HE PUT KALIM THROUGH WHATEVER THE HECK IS HAPPENING IN BOOK 7

[fallloverfic]

I love singNsong again reminding people in Side Story that Dokja wanted other people to read TWSA (he wrote reviews and comments! It was his first wish), and he only stopped bothering because people harassed him for it. He didn't gate-keep the story. When he's avoiding talking to Sangah about it at the beginning of ORV, it's because he knows what happens when he tells people about the story, not because he's gate-keeping it from her. He notes he's not proud of his hobby (likely because he's been bullied all through his life, including for reading the thing he loves): he finds it embarrassing to talk about, and better respects her studying Spanish in her free time (learning another language is a generally accepted thing in society). He assumes she won't care or will look at him funny (or worse) for when she learns about the novel he's into.

Basically anyone writing "let's gatekeep ORV" posts because of the anime announcement or because they dislike the manhwa or some other weirdness, y'all are the villains in the scenario.

The literal climax of the story is about sharing ORV with as many people as possible. What story were y'all reading?

[hanzajesthanza]

dandelion is indeed the worst but if he’s not present in the next book i would legitimately be sorrowful as the whole thing will become a slog . you basically cannot have the “short stories” era-of-the-timeline iteration of geralt without dandelion, it would be like eating unbuttered bread.

though it’s not like season of storms did them dirty, i wasn’t disappointed with it (… with regards to them), but since it’s literally been over 20 years since the saga was finished i’m trying to prepare for any potential reality

[foxstens]

thinking about kevin and riko just kills me

they're doomed from the start there's absolutely no hope for them to be healthy in any capacity

but they did everything together for years. they knew each other so well

and while riko was never nice he was manageable. when all you know is 'bad' or 'manageable', it's very easy to equate 'manageable' with 'good'

but as they got older the pressure got worse and riko took out his frustrations on kevin (and jean)

and that probably killed kevin a little bit. because it could have been different

it could have been but it wasn't

and riko was terrible and kevin was afraid of him and maybe even hated him a little bit

AND YET. AND YET.

kevin's reaction when kengo dies and riko isn't invited to the funeral

kevin goes to riko's funeral. kevin mourns him when probably nobody else does

[immediatebreakfast]

The daily format really of today really gave me a good reminder of how dangerous is the Count, and how Lucy (and everyone around her) is still blind to this threat while coming with no explanations.

Even if the trumpets of salvation started playing when Van Helsing arrived, I forgot how so far he only has theories, a certain feeling. Van Helsing needs to rule out any illness, sickness, and disease that he knows either in depth or in surface before even touching a possible supernatural explanation for Lucy.

While Lucy still loses blood.

The writing played perfectly all of the emotions that Jack felt with both the telegram, and the letter. Once again Seward's writing style is the perfect choice to give the reader that anxious feeling of what happened after you read his words. The entry starts with this:

"Terrible change for the worse. Come at once; do not lose an hour. I hold over telegram to Holmwood till have seen you."

No greetings, no indications, no explanations, nor theories. Just a tiny paragraph that says that Lucy is in danger. A change so bad that Jack has to wait for Van Helsing to treat her before he sends any information to Arthur. A few words that only tells us the grim possibility of Jack finding Lucy almost dead in her bed.

Also, despite we the readers knowing that Dracula is the one who is responsible for Lucy's suffering the horror doesn't leave just because we have it. How many days Lucy has left? How her getting better then worse is affecting her organs? What if Dracula doesn't directly kill her, and instead she gets sick and her body can't handle it?

Then, Jack has to write to Arthur. We may breath a sign of relief that Lucy is now a little bit better, but there is something... off about this letter.

"My news to-day is not so good. Lucy this morning had gone back a bit."

These words lack the urgency of the telegram to Van Helsing. It's still not good because Arthur knows that Lucy got worse, but it certainly doesn't translate the same feeling, the possibility of the worst. There is no "Van Helsing had to come quickly."

Instead the focus of the letter is finally having the perfect solution of the societal limbo trapped in the Westenra household. At the hands of Mrs. Westenra no less, who finally decides to get help for her daughter, and now both Jack and Van Helsing can actually play the role of doctors without social restrictions.

Yet that doesn't take away the anxiety of the underlying question of Lucy's state.

"If any need I shall write, so that, if you do not hear from me, take it for granted that I am simply waiting for news. In haste."

At the end Jack, just like the readers, only has one option despite all of the dread that he is feeling... he only can wait.

[jutenium]

I FORGOT TO POST IT OMGKZKXKX

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

just watched the moment bbh read forever's letter to him from the brazil trip. the disgusted EAH sound he made is going to echo in my mind forever and always that was SUCH a SOUND. here he was all excited and soft because he got a letter from forever and then forever mentions the fucking kidnapping and bbh turns into a scorned french woman from ratatouille who has just one sound to express her ~snobbish~ disgust at a ktichen full of rats. but it wasn't a kitchen of rats he was mad at it was forever giving him a shit sandwich shit-side up

[oozeandgoo-art]

had an odd dream that i was reading a comic book. sketched a couple of the pages i could remember.

[the-chosen-half-of-one]

One of the most bizarre things to me about the Wednesday show is they looked at a property where the main appeal was how much the family loved each other despite being seen as strange/weird or unconventional, and were like okay, hear me out, what if the family hates each other and also doesn't factor into this story at all except to further manufactured outcast angst. Also, being weird or unconventional in this particular way is bad, Wednesday is bad, and this girl needs to learn to fit in with the more acceptably weird and unconventional people. They also looked at a property that thrived off its difference to the mould and were like lol, that's not gonna fly with our silly little modern audiences, get back in there; guards, dig up the early 2010s trashy YA teen paranormal romance book structure, yeah, yeah the one with the brooding outcast girl and the perky best friend and the love triangle, oh yeah of course with the weird magic school and bullying plot, yeah the one that's been done to death for over a decade that everyone clowned on, yes, yes with the evil boy plot twist you see coming a mile away, and the ignorant/vaguely offensive undertones, I know what I'm doing, I said what I said, bring it here, bring it here, I just need to change literally all of the lore and *forcibly stuffing star shape in square hole* perfect, perfect. Oh and guards, throw in that ugly ass cartoon monster to top it off, yes, I do want it to have big stupid bug eyes or else people might mistake this for an adaptation that cares. Yeah, yeah this is the money shot, *shows picture of the Plants vs Zombies zombie.* And make them use snapchat.

Anyway, the most bizarre thing to me about the Wednesday show is that it could've been good. Why did they do that to her.

[maybankiara]

no way did i just come up with an original f1 story ahhhh