#if not for the generally cringe and unrealistic writing

[chainedspectre]

do you ever just sit and mourn what the 13th doctor could have been

[glorified-red]

I'm seeing all the hate The Sun & The Star is getting on this hellsite and its so obvious that people aren't reading this book for what it is.

It's literally a children's novel written for children. The book is supposed to be easily digestible and stupid and explicitly written because kids books are supposed to be completely laid out.

Rick has always written dorky things in his books but he has also prioritized writing about real world issues and struggles. He's written about trauma, abuse, PTSD, depression, anxiety, etc. For years.

So here he is writing about deep rooted insecurities and self-doubt and learning to accept all those dark parts of yourself as well as others, AND tackling internalized homophobia and queer struggles, and we're upset the book is too focused on the relationship?

The entire point of this book is to teach the audience how to navigate a rocky relationship with compassion and understanding. It's showing that relationships aren't perfect, you can be upset with your partner and your partner can be upset with you but the point is that you talk about it and you try to do better.

Is it such a bad thing for young teens to be learning this?

Is it such a bad thing for them to see that love is effort? And can and will be flawed and that's okay??

This is the first time we've seen this topic discussed by Rick and I've never seen a book tackle this topic because we always see the Hollywood depiction of love---yet that's unrealistic.

This is showing that love can be flawed but still be oh so beautiful. That you can be traumatized and still worthy of love.

And I am so proud of Rick and Mark for not only showing a healthy attempt at a relationship but also showing countless times that those lessons apply to any relationship. They put significant stress on platonic and familial relationships and how that love is also effort, compassion, and understanding.

Yes, it focused on Solangelo a lot.

Yes, it had soooo many flaws that even I cringed and got disappointed at times.

But the fact that we got a book that finally lets two characters talk about their feelings is incredible, and the fact that this new generation gets this book??

If I had a book like this when I was young, showing me how to navigate conflict and that relationships CAN be hard?? My god, the healing that lesson could have done.

Perspective is everything for this book. Hell, perspective was everything in HoO. It showed that how characters are perceived is very different from how they perceive themselves.

Leo was literally always shown as comedic relief and nothing more until we saw how incredibly lonely and sad that kid was from his point of view.

Percy was always said to be intimidating and powerful, but in his perspective, he's a kid who has no clue what he's doing.

So yea, in this book, it may seem like these characters have shifted, but once again, Rick is relying so heavily on perspective.

Nico was edgy and depressed for as long as we knew him, even in BoO when we first got his POV. But now that he's accepted, loved, and healing, why are we getting mad that he's a dork again---how he was before all the trauma? Why are we mad that Nico is growing and healing and becoming himself again because he feels safe enough to do so.

Ofc he's gonna feel different than how he was written a canon year ago.

And this is the first time we've had Wills perspective. He's always been seen as this sunshine happy character but we FINALLY get some acknowledgement that he's deeply terrified. He's shown as a leader and camp counselor but he's got anxiety written in his bones.

He felt like a burden this book because he's a healer. He's absolutely terrified to be a fighter and yet we got to see him become one in his own way. He was out of his element but he was trying.

Because he's so goddamn afraid of losing someone else.

Call Will an asshole all you want, but Nico had been to Tartarus and the Underworld more times than he could count.

Will is literally walking into a place he's never been to before and is the complete opposite of anything he's ever known---for Nico. The comments he makes about plants and lack of sunshine? It wasn't him being a dick, he was him being genuinely confused because hes only ever known earth logic.

If I saw flowers blooming in a pitch black room I'd be a little confused too. He says the Underworld is depressing because it's literally draining his energy.

You yell at Will for not being open-minded yet won't comment on the fact that Nico hardly made an attempt either. Nico could have been more understanding about the fact that Will, a guy who's exploring this place that's slowly killing him, might not like the place at first because he doesn't understand it.

Because Will wanted to understand.

And the second Will finally began to understand the beauty of the Underworld, he was nothing but supportive.

You get mad at Will for making mistakes yet refuse to acknowledge that he learned from them.

The Sun & The Star tackled a hard topic that doesn't get talked about often. It portrayed a queer relationship and it emphasized characters who learned and grew. It's different from other Rick books because that was the point. (And it wasn't just Rick writing it)

This book was about accepting change within yourself and "daring to be different."

And the fact that you can't even accept a book that does the same just shows that the lessons this book taught went straight over your head.

I've never been more disappointed in this fandom. We begged for this book. We begged for queer representation. Yet here we are criticizing every little thing about it as if we aren't lucky to be getting this book in the first place---a book about two side characters.

This book had soooo many flaws but it wasn't a bad book.

Isn't that the point of it all? To love something even though it's flawed? That flaws dont necessarily mean it's broken and bad forever?

It's okay to hate a book.

That doesn't mean it's a bad book.

It just wasn't for you.

There are dozens of other books in this fandom to love and cherish, but don't hate this book just because it's different from what we're used to.

[alittlefrenchtree]

So. The Idea of You.

It’s not spoilers free. I’m talking about details and a couple of (very expected) plot twists.

As quickly mentioned before, I hadn’t huge expectations for the movie and I’ve watched only because I’m interested with what Nick as an actor, even on projects that aren’t for me or that I’m not really enthusiastic about.

My main goal was to not be angry at the end of it. And I’ve kind of succeed? I was briefly angry after one hour and forty minutes BUT nobody acted on the said stupid idea so I didn’t stay angry at the end. Yay.

Things I liked about the movie :

-Roughly the first… Lets say 50 minutes to be generous (roughly until the night at the nyc hotel included). It was silly and cringe and absolutely ridiculous but it was fun. I think it’s even funnier if you followed a band when you were a teenager and read or write the same self insert scenario in fan fictions. And since I did, I laughed a lot. Both Nick and Anne sold the thing from their first scene together. As seen during the promo tour, the duo works quite well on screen.

-The very few glimpses we had at the weight of celebrity on Hayes’ shoulders. When Solène asked if it happens a lot, when he gets recognized in the car, when simple daily life things as even grabbing a thing to eat is an impossible problem to solve, when he understands it’s because he’s famous that he’s loosing his relationship… It’s one of my favorite subjects to write about so I would have been on board with that anywhere and anytime but watching it on Hayes Nick’s face broke my heart all the same. I know this is not that kind of movie but I would have been delighted if it was more about that.

-The very few tries at portraying how boysbands created around a casting process destroy the kids they’re hiring. How each member is pushed in a little box to fit a role that is identifiable, very narrowed and marketable. How music is never at the center of anything for this kids who are dreaming of it. How they all have an expiration date and how they’re all left alone with huge mental health problems that usually leads to self-destruction. I find ironical that in a movie that is described as something for 40yo women who were told they have an expiration date, it’s the 24yo male character who is the target of that through an industry of billions of dollars in their script.

Things I disliked :

-…everything else? I swear I tried to keep an open mind about light, fun and silly cute but the majority of what I’ve watched and heard only felt shallow and empty. I was hard to root for a couple when the majority of the development of their relationship is glossed over. In the second half, bounding and solving problems are mainly portrayed the same way (tonguing each other romantically kissing). Any attempt to develop something past the first half of the movie is terrible. The writing is atrocious even for a light and fun thing. There are cute and fun moments in the second half but there are so little and rare I was mostly bored out of my mind.

-the person who wrote the PR kit and sent Anne and Nick in front of every camera around the world to say that it’s a movie about female pleasure and that female pleasure is a whole character of the movie on the base of an unrealistic 12 secondes fingering scene alone. Straight women around the world, you have my whole compassion, because that was sad as fuck. I understand all too well the need to take liberties with marketing speeches but damn 💀

Here you go! Remember that every word is a personal opinion, disliking half a movie is different from hate and hating the people who worked on it and if you want to write to me saying you disagree with every word I wrote, it’s ok too. But I suggest you to write more arguments than insults if you don’t want to waste your time 😘

[seriousbrat]

As someone who has been in this fandom for a long time, I can assure you that the Marauders fandom pre-Jegulus also treated Lily very poorly. For example: Lili was often portrayed in fanfics as a completely humorless person who was a huge killjoy. Another very common thing was that her negative feelings for James were portrayed as a major flaw, several times a character would tell her: "Lily stop being a bitch James is amazing" It wasn't James who had to become a better person for Lily to like him, it was she who needed to wake up to the "great man" that James was. Another disgusting thing that was common in fanfics was locking Lily and James in a closet so that she would "accept her feelings for him" as if she had no right to choose. Her negative feelings for James were never valid either she was "too stupid to understand James" or they were "unresolved sexual tension."

Yes this is true! I've been in the fandom a while myself, but the era when I first started being active in specifically the jily fandom (2012-ish) coincided with the advent of third wave feminism and the MeToo movement, at least here on tumblr, so there wasn't as much of this in my personal experience or in my circles. By that time, usually anything outrageously misogynistic like that was quickly stamped on. And this predates Jegulus by a decade at least, so I think most of what you describe is pre-tumblr. Like Cassie Claire/livejournal-era LOL. Tbf idk what the fandom was like on other websites.

But that being said I think things did slip through the cracks even then, because misogyny is learnt and reproduced by everyone, and you could still see hints of what you describe in the fanfic that was being written at the time.

At this point the idea that James constantly asking her out and haranguing her was sexy was just starting to be questioned and pushed back against. Because those kinds of narratives were just starting to be questioned in general, similarly Snape's unrequited love for Lily started to be seen as less sympathetic and less romantic around the same time. So as I recall we started seeing more portrayals of James as Flawless Feminist King, which I now find unrealistic for a teenage boy in the 70s and a bit cringe lmao. I don't think he was harassing her but neither was he a virtuous woke paragon. Back then we were all (mostly) young girls/women writing our idea of the perfect man haha.

And obviously Woke King James was set against Evil Incel Snape (this was also around when the incel movement and bronies emerged, GamerGate happened, etc.) which led to the marauders/jily fandom largely justifying Snape being bullied, and this still happens today. (although these days he's also been upgraded to a raging homophobe lmao.) In my last post about that fan film I was complaining about the opposite haha, but for the record I've just had to close two separate jily fics earlier today for portrayals of Snape that were too one-dimensionally nasty for my tastes.

[butmakeitgayblog]

This is meant with so much love but sometimes I read your interactions and you're such a millennial it's endearing! Coming into this fandom felt like joining an old lady's knitting club lmao 😭 (like with the emojis, genz uses the crying emoji as crying with laughter, y'all just use it as sad-crying. You frequently use 🥰 unironically, and it gives me such a whiplash) love you tho xx

Well I don't take this offensively - tho it is condescending, just know that about yourself - because I AM a millennial, but I do honestly feel a bit bad for you lol. I'm 35 years old and the fact that you seemingly think that is "old lady" age is??? I also mean this with love, it's gotta be terrifying living life and thinking that you have maaaybe a decade after you get out of your teens to feel young and have fun and enjoy things. Or that being young is (???) synonymous (???) with speaking like a teenager.

Just in reality here, your brain isn't even fully developed until you're 25, and you don't really begin to emotionally pull your head out of your own ass until about 30. So 30-50? That's when the real fun begins babe like idk how else to explain it you just have to live it. Hobbies are better, the sex is better (by far), the friendships are better, the freedom is so much fuckin better.

So yeah no you're right I don't think as hard on emoji meanings as zoomers do because I'm just having a good time interacting and talking rather than worrying if I'm being the 'right' kind of ironic, idk. I suppose I feel less need to make myself perform for other's approval online, but I did it in my own era, so I get your impulse. Also, I know it's a cyclical thing with pm all 15-25 yo's thinking that 30+ is like some crypt keeper style deadline for being fun or young. It's just a rite of passage, every generation thinks that way about the generation before them, we've all been there. And it is hilarious because when you do get past those ages and into your 30s, you will look back and realize exactly how clueless you were 🥴 that's also a rite of passage, believe me. Your moment will come

Mostly tho I just hope that you appreciate that the only reason this fandom is as good as it is or has lasted so long as it has is because of people my age and older. Most of the classic memes/lore/fics that this fandom is known for come from people 30+, because we have been where you are and lived it and actually made it past that smoke-and-mirrors stage of life that is your 20s. We can write about actual life and love and strife without sounding full of shit or unrealistic because we pour actual life experience and fully shaped senses of humor/character growth/etc into our work which most younger people simply cannot do (not all, I know a few brilliant younger writers and they deserve their spotlight). You too will get there eventually tho babe you will. And when the next generation laughs at you for your ~cringe~ emoji usage or whatever the litmus is for their era, you'll remember this message and then pat them on their sweet naive baby heads too 🥰

[luveline]

I don’t know if you’ve answered this question previously, so feel free to ignore lol, but one thing I’ve been wondering is have you ever experienced the type of love you write about? I know on some level it’s mildly unrealistic because it’s all fiction, but the way you write all the characters makes them feel so real (even though I have to remind myself they unfortunately are not) so sometimes I believe that the type of love you write about is attainable, but then another part of me says that it’s unrealistic.

Ofc your writing makes my day and I appreciate the time you take to really write in all the characteristics of each character, I guess I’m just curious❤️

I think I have!

I agree that perhaps it can be unrealistic because life is much harder and people are more complicated, but I've definitely experienced that kind of love and hopefully I've been able to give that kind of love to other people as well, lots and lots of the feelings I write about are feelings I've felt. Like, I believe that I can give that kind of love to another person, I think I'm capable of loving someone (cringe) deeply and even generously, I HAVE loved people intensely and I love people right now, and I think it's already been said in some way by someone before me, but I try not to do others the disservice of believing I'm the only person capable of this kind of love and this eagerness to love, so it must exist outside of me, does that make sense? It sort of makes me think about depression (please stay with me) in that when I was at my worst I often thought I was the only person to have ever felt that way, but it isn't true and there's proof of that even if I didn't think so, and I think that can be said about love. You won't really know if someone else is capable of loving you the way you want until it's happening, but there's definitely proof out there that people can love one another like they do in my fics cos I love this way, and I have friends who love this way. Does that make any sense at all?

I am not trying to dunk on you or tell you off in any capacity so I'm very sorry if it sounds that way anywhere, I promise that's not my intent. I think its natural and expected to wonder if love like this is out there when you see horror stories of relationships in your life and on TV, or feel it sorely lacking. Lots of the time I think I'll never be loved, and I worry, but I think I must know deep down it could happen one day because I keep writing about this stuff anyways. altogether I certainly don't think it's unattainable, just hard to find. But again I don't blame you for thinking that my love I really don't!

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

Cricut: are there any characters you've had to "cut" from a story? Are there any moments/chapters/stories you've had to "cut" entirely?

Thanks for stopping by! (From this OC writing/ask game)

Cricut: are there any characters you've had to "cut" from a story? Are there any moments/chapters/stories you've had to "cut" entirely?

Yep!

Draft One had the elderly couple Lizzy and Ted (Liz and Charles in Draft Two) that I realized made Carla and George redundant in Draft Three, so they're no longer included. There were also a lot of side characters planned for Draft Two, but most never saw the light of day to begin with. Any other characters evolved into a new one.

I try not to cut full stories, since they usually evolve into something else. But I have cut moments and chapters from TSP. Here are some from Part One (only including Draft Four and Five):

- flashback chapter where Gwen and Lexi meet in their math class (established earlier, we didn't need to see it)

- flashback chapter where Noelle and Lexi met in theater class (this is just no longer canon; we see them meet in gym now)

- flashback chapter where Rose and Lexi met (just unnecessary in general)

- the original chapter in which Gwen met everyone in the Aequales (changed powers, names, personalities, and it was also lame so just rewrote it)

- originally there was one scene with Lexi and Ash in the training room that used to be in Lexi's POV (I realized it was unnecessary so rewrote it in Ash's and combined it with the previous chapter)

- like three separate angsty chapters with Lexi during her feud with Ash that I cut and replaced with two Ash chapters in this plotline (I have no idea why I was married to Lexi's POV in this plotline for so long)

- originally Carla told Ash her backstory before we saw it (realized this made it redundant and cut Carla talking about it)

- I also had Jedi's sister be revealed to be Inutilia as well two years later before they left (redundant and unfair to Jedi)

- Robbie had this odd arc where he hid his personality and interests (unnecessary and unrealistic and a little cringe)

- a scene where Gwen and Ash interacted in band class (was added for padding; I planned to cut it)

- a fun Mario Kart scene where they set up the Halloween party (lame, broke it into two other chapters)

- post Halloween party scene where Gwen and Akash officially start dating (decided to just put this in the party)

- Rose asking her mom to go to Lexi's party original scene (replaced it with something that I think is more compelling)

Thanks again!

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

@nebula--nix @literarynecromancy

[acourtofthought]

if it weren't for one of the Valkyries being a possible love interest for Azriel we wouldn't have seen this much hate toward them istg... or maybe even worse bc they're women.

Saying that it's unrealistic to win a blood rite when you only had trained for 9 months while reading a fantasy book- wait scratch that A ROMANTASY is crazy imo. Like honey none of this is real, faes are. not. real. and on top of that the main plot is about the romance, the books are not here to give you logic!! How this is unrealistic while Feyre a 19 years old human girl killed a fkn giant wyrm with some piece of bones and mud is completely normal to you but you go around and say its unrealistic for Valkyries win the blood rite?

Or how they call the Valkyries goofing around with the house, childish and unlikeable while half centuries warriors having snowball fight is not childish or cringe?

I mean this is what happens when they only read the books for e/riel scenes while is none existence in acosf... they should enjoy them while they can cuz they're not gonna happen anymore. Watch something like this happens with CC3 bc they're only reading it for a none canon ship and when they get disappointed they blame it on writing and sjm...

(ps: I love both Bat Boys and Valkyries silliness and I believe in my high lady and the first Valkyries in centuries🫡)

I agree that there wouldn't be quite so much negativity towards certain characters if Gwyn were not set up to be an Az love interest. And you're right, there is a lot said about the Valkyrie's friendship and their accomplishments as a result.

The only thing I will say is that there's maybe a few valid points being made and I'll get to them in a second, though the problem is their agenda against Gwyn makes their arguments look more petty than coming from a place of interest in actual debate.

This is a fantasy book and wild and crazy things happen so them winning the Rite should be entirely plausible for that reason alone.

I think the problems come in when you look at the history of the Rite. Illyrian boys, at about 11 years old, are taken away from their family's for years and years to be trained all day in an extremely grueling and sometime violent manner.

I've seen some say that the girls were able to make it through the Rite because they had Cassian's training but he is the general of the Illyrian army's. If his training methods made it possible so that three adult females with absolutely no training prior (no exercise prior), can spend a few months training while still running a business (Emerie), working in the library (Gwyn and Nesta), in an encouraging environment rather than a punishing one, and become elite warriors in exactly the same way Rhys, Cassian, and Az did then why is that same kind of training not being pushed for in Devlin's camp rather than taking young boys from their homes? And if the moral of the story is that "friendship" is what got them through, then why aren't Rhys (the HL of the NC) or Cassian (the general) demanding that Devlin make changes to the training program to encourage more comradery and teamwork? Isn't it in their best interest to train the best warriors to protect their lands? Training them in what is clearly the most efficient way?

I've also seen some say Briallyn fixed it so Nesta won which is what made this Rite different from the bat boys but does that then make their win a true win if there was manipulation involved? I think the overall message is an amazing one while the execution left something to be desired as that particular storyline raised a lot of valid questions.

I don't begrudge the Valkyries their win at all, I think they are a fantastic addition to the series but I can see how it does seem a bit backwards, knowing that a few select adult females were taken under Cassian and Az's wings while allowing the children of their court to be forced at such a young age to train and placed under the care of Devlin who seems like an asshole.

With that said, maybe this will be SJM bringing about a new era and changes will be made to the Illyrian training program as a result. Maybe Devlin will be taken out and Az or Cassian will be put in charge of training the male Illyrians (which I think would make a great storyline for Az) while Nesta, Gwyn and Emerie train the females.

[cherubmm]

(🕊️) - 𝐆 𝐔 𝐈 𝐃 𝐄 𝐋 𝐈 𝐍 𝐄 𝐒 ||

(✟) 𝑷𝑶𝑺𝑺𝑰𝑩𝑳𝑬 𝑻𝑹𝑰𝑮𝑮𝑬𝑹 𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑮:

"Yandere in general" "Unhealthy & Toxic behavior" "Invasion of Privacy" "Captivity/Imprisonment" "Dubious & Nonconsensual Touches" "Delusional mindset" "Unrealistic attraction" "One-sided pinning" "Violence" "Manipulation & Gashlight" "Sexual theme" "Cringe-y writing & drawings" "DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT"

The warnings above indicate the types of content you may encounter when interacting with my posts. Fortunately, my content tends to lean more toward cringe-worthy themes rather than darker ones, so you may not come across them frequently. Nonetheless, the warnings are there for your awareness"

(✟) 𝑹𝑼𝑳𝑬𝑺:

𝑫𝑶𝒔'

Gender neutral & Male reader (y/n)

Age-up

Platonic & Romantic Relationship

Dominant, power-bottom & submissive reader (you)

Canon × Ocs'

Agalmatophilia (ex. Zoophilia, Necrophilia, human × non-human pair)

𝑫𝑶𝒔' 𝑵𝑶𝑻

Female reader (you)

Nsfw involving minors (this includes Age-up characters)

Character × character

Yandere reader (you)

Mpreg

Foot fetish, fat fetish, food play, piss kink, etc.

Masochist reader (you)

Reader (you) having a physical attributes (we love good ol' Mannequin y/n here)

[cherrrysue]

AUTHOR RECOMMENDATION

These are author recommendations by my personal preference and opinion. Feel free to add yours, submit them to my inbox xx

Velvetoscar

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Everyone probably knows this author. They wrote Young and Beautiful and Gods and Monsters. What more can I say? Beautiful beautiful writings, the way they build the aesthetics is impeccable. 99% of the time they uses Lana Del Rey's lyrics as their title and it really brings out the vibe throughout the whole story, every story they told have this particular feelings of being in a posh Victorian building with lights reflecting from shiny marble tiles and crystal chandeliers. Some of their words might be heavy and took few moments to digest as a non-native like myself, but what's a reading without learning new things, right?

isthatyoularry

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They wrote Unbelievers, probably one of the most infamous fic with their iconic "fuck you're tight" line. I dare to say in unbelievers they successfully wrote the best writing in enemies to lovers trope, or maybe the best writing in general, without being cringe or unrealistic at all. Continuing to write Unbelievers in other POV, Bloodsport, they attract crazy amount of audience. You might say "it's just a coincidence, they can be overrated," but they're not I promise.

dolce_piccante

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One of their most famous story is escapade, is actually the most famous story before unbelievers and y&b blew up in stan twt. They also wrote Soft Hands, Fast Feet, Can't Lose, probably one of the most famous fics back then. They wrote so beautifully yet so realistic, the ugly and the bads and the awkward is there to snap back us from the reality. But regardless, they deserve applause from every word they wrote.

indiaalphawhiskey

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To be honest I never knew they were an author until a week after I followed them. But after I found out I go into binge reading. My favorite is obviously Our Lives, Non Fiction, it releases 3 years ago. If you're looking for a more easy-reading, this one is perfect for you. Their story never fails.

pinkcords

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They are probably my most favorite out of the other four on the list. Every single one of their stories have this particular character that I can't explain. It makes you feel like driving your jeep in the shore when your face is kissed by the sunset or to dig your toes in the sand beach as the ocean mist sprays into your face. It just gives me a lot of comfort reading them.

my other favs !!!!

MediaWhore

Lis (domesticharry)

pinkgelpen (crybaby)

stylinsoncity

infinitelymint

iwillpaintasongforlou

LoadedGunn

istajmaal

please give reblog and like xx ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚

[ocdhuacheng]

thoughts on 3 body so far (episode 5), as someone whos read the books and not yet watched the drama

to get the obvious out of the way its very unnecessary to set it in england :/ but we all know that so.

i love wenjie i think zine tseng is perfect for her i really love wenjies scenes (for the most part. whhyyyy did they make her get with evans. like i groaned so hard. and they completely skipped over her actual husband and how she well. murdered him.) but yeah in general i think her parts are done really well. few complaints there. also she is gorgeous. Rosalind chao is great as well but I think the writing for old!wenjie is not as good as for young! Wenjie. That’s not ms Rosalind’s fault tho obviously I think she did really well with what she got.

besides wenjie i really like jin cheng as well. i get shes filling part of wang miao's role from the books and she is partially based off of cheng xin from book three and i think jess hong is a really good choice for her. even just appearance-wise she is perfect for what i imagined cheng xin to look like. and her attachment to the follower character in the game is a great set up for how her story might go if she follows cheng xin's footsteps.

i think auggie should be older. it seems like they want to make everyone all like a group of school friends so thats why they made her younger but i dont really think that it works.

lemme elaborate....... i........ do not care about auggie at all lmfao. honestly i welcome more female characters but if she is to fill wang miao's place as the nanotech expert... wang miao.... who is a man in his fourties... why are they replacing him with a girl who barely looks out of grad school. and shes cso and developer of groundbreaking tech already? SHE SHOULD BE AT THE CLUB. not trying to be MARY SUE ALERT but its unrealistic, and it kind of ruins making him into a female character imo. she should be middle aged!! fucking cowards!! it seems like they just made wang miao into a woman just so they could have a pretty face to slap on as the main character (though she is SO not my type but whatever thats not important.) if they wanted to genderbend and actually be ~feminist~ or whatever, they would have cast a 40+ year old. again, i get they want it to be this friend group so maybe it would be strange that she would be older than the rest of them but also they could have just.. not done that. so anyway. yeah. she kind of annoys me. she is too young. too pretty but in like such a hollywood way that it turns me off. also shes boring. and annoying.

in general, other than wenjie and jin, im not particularly attached to any of the characters. not necessarily a bad thing bc the books themselves were much more plot driven over character driven, so yeah. kind of a neutral statement. i do like will (even though...... he should be chinese -_- though i guess i am grateful that they did seemingly make an effort to make the cast diverse, rather than just make them all white brits.) and i like uhhhh *checks notes* tatiana, mainly because i think shes extremely pretty lmao. i think the guy who plays old!evans is great, i do Not care for the guy who plays him when he is young. cringe. gigachad looking ass. wade is good too, when i saw his name show up i was like omg what are you doing here????? hes a bastard but hes fun. also like shi, i think the actor they chose is great and fits really well. i did prefer him in the books tho he was so much fun in the books. saul fits in well, if hes the luo ji character i can Definitely see him wasting government resources to do fuck all as a wallfacer lmao. godspeed king.

i think them making all these characters who are going to go on to be key players in the future all know eachother to begin with is funny. and not a great choice. unrealistic. in the books like most of these people had nothing to do with anyone else, either to begin with or at all. and now theyre all somehow friends? in the books the main characters were scattered all over the place (or.. well.. at least all over china) but now u gonna tell me 90% of the ppl doing important shit for the human species were all like buddies in college or smth instead of just some randos in the right place at the right time with the right (debatable) credentials? less believable to me. like for example the zhang beihai adjacent character being the cheng xin adjacent character's boyfriend before everything goes down. like girl did they even meet in the books? idr

sophon is gorgeous, so is her outfit, though i hope they keep the japanese aesthetic shes got going on from the books, i think it was a very telling and important, if not large part of the books for her to latch onto japanese culture specifically.

the sophons... in the book it was just miao who was given the universe blinking vision but now its basically everyone on the nightside of the planet? how did they do that with just 2 sophons. i mean. idk maybe. sure. they do travel close to the speed of light. i aint doing the calculations to know what is or is not plausible at those speeds. but damn these poor things are so overworked. they need to unionize. wish they kept the numbers on the photographs tho instead of just in their retinas. that could have been really cool.

the sequence of the sophons unfolding over earth was cool and all just kinda funny bc they had just established in a previous scene that they needed like a supercollider in orbit to unfold one and now they can just unfold willy nilly? ok.

uhhhhhhhhh. yeah thats all for now. i have more onions but im sleepy tired and thats all i can rememver i wanted to say. im enjoying it. just kind of bitter at them making it british but thats old news. i think if i were watching this blind without there being a book series to compare it to its very solid! some hollywood esque quippy humor and added annoying romance (particularly with wenjie) and stuff that im not thrilled with but over all its well done imo. definitely going to have to reread the books when im done and also watch the drama :)

[yukkining]

In my opinion some reasons why people don't understand most things on Step by Step bl Series and Pat (people be making fun of him or disliking him) is the focus on too much unrealistic bl or things generally and it leads to not understanding simple realistic things.I fully understand this series ,I understand JENG feelings,Pat feelings,the very realistic setting,the characters.(i feel like writing a whole essay about what really is happening)but am too lazy ,I have done a lot to help people understand.This SHOW IS PERFECT AND HAS LITTLE IMPERFECTIONS I KNOW, BUT IF YOU DON'T LIKE THIS SHOW (IT IS NOT YOUR TYPE OF BL AND GET OUT AND IF YOU WRITE A WHOLE HATE COMMENT ON THIS Beautiful BL SHOW......................................THUNDER FIRE YOU!!!!!(I ain't playing) "Too Slow"-----it is supposed to be slow "Too long"----how are we supposed to understand this bl better uh tell me ?????? "IT ain't burning"-----It is gonna burn fire FUEL on ep10 and it was burning ..just ......slowing surely "Pat is cringe"-----Pat is a 25 year old i know immature,very kind not like you guys being very disrespectful to him and I know he as done very stupid stuff ,but at the end he makes it up ,,,like an actual mature person /that's why i like him/ "this show is cringe like scoy"------I swear am about to have an heart attack by chuu 😚/cuz are you guys ok? cuz i don't think so/ And if you guys say on bad thing about Daddy Jeng...... Jaab/Jane---- well they are the side couple so for course they will have little screen time and yes realistically...... getting back to someone takes time,emotions,and Crying days ok

sorry if this is too rude for you but I am saying things to make you guys understand that this series is fine like looking fine so........BYE

[saaraofthesand]

My Thoughts on The Sun and The Star.

I’ve organized my thoughts into some lists. Enjoy.

I polled my followers and they said they wanted this so you can’t get mad at me.

I must first emphasize that at 20 years old, I’m hardly this book’s target audience. I am fully aware of that.

Second, this book is fine. It’s not bad, it’s not insulting to queer people, but it’s also not the most interesting work of fiction I’ve ever read.

Third, I never finished the Trials of Apollo. I don’t think it hugely affected my reading experience with this one as I’d read all 10 of the other books and could use context clues for anything I didn’t know about. But I thought I should mention it.

Fourth, a lot of my problems with this book have also been present in all of Rick Riordan’s books post-pjo. So, these aren’t new.

Fifth, I went into this book with basically zero expectations. I’m not active in the pjo fandom (this is an anime blog), so I wasn’t seeing the book hyped up or anything. Before this, I’d basically only talked about it with my family and friends. I also don’t really read pjo fanfics. I have because I’ve gotten curious before, but I haven’t read enough to know about general fanon interpretations of characters.

Okay,

Nico has been my favorite PJO character since I was a kid (yes I grew up gay with abandonment issues shut up), so I was excited for this book.

The queerness is well done. There isn’t any “othering” of Nico, Will, or their relationship due to their queerness.

We got Italian! Nico moments, which I’ve been wanting more of since forever, so I’m happy about that. They did an okay job rounding out Will’s character. And Nico and Will’s relationship got a lot of good exposition (even if I felt that they were unrealistically mature about it). Nico’s experiences with homophobia felt very real.

Okay, now on to my critics:

Without a doubt my biggest criticism of this book is that it is very clearly fanservice. It doesn’t exist because it has a story to tell. It exists because fans wanted more Nico and Will content.

I didn’t like that the book was written from third person. I had this same critic of the Heroes of Olympus books. Rick Riordan’s strength has always been first person POVs, starting with the original PJO series. I feel like the funny chapter names, the breaking of the fourth wall, the sidebars, etc. are the reason that Rick’s prose stands out. A first person perspective is the reason the books are as funny as they are. And this book lacked that spark.

The choice to write from third person is part of what contributes to the fanfiction-esque writing style of this book. As someone who both reads and writes fanfiction, I can tell you that almost all fanfics are written from third person. This is because, for the most part, the characters you’re writing are not your own. First person is way too intimate a POV for that type of writing, and it’s why most fanfic authors don’t use it. That’s what I feel like is happening here. Oshiro is writing characters that aren’t theirs, and that means they can’t bring the intimacy of a first person POV or even a more intimate third person POV.

The book is also very on the nose with its themes and ideas. Generally, this is fine in this type of literature. This is a piece of middle-grade fiction. The target audience is middle schoolers. But also, middle schoolers can pick up on subtext. They’re young, not illiterate. There was far too much telling when they were already showing.

A good example is the title of the book. It’s very clear that “The Sun” is Will and “The Star” is Nico. I assumed that before I even opened the book. That imagery is incredibly obvious, so the authors don’t need to state it in the text. But… they do. Bob refers to Will and Nico as “My sun and star.” It was one of the moments in the book that really made me cringe.

The book has major pacing issues and is too long. I felt like it was going on forever. There were full scenes and segments that I think could’ve been cut without affecting the plot.

This book really put on display that even though Will and Nico work as boyfriends, they don’t work as partners. This contrasts Percy and Annabeth, who do work really well together since they were partners first. But Nico and Will are so bad at working together that their quest dynamic isn’t fun.

Generally, I don’t love the characterization in this book.

Nico and Will are supposed to be on this dark, dangerous quest. One so horrible no one would ever want to undertake it. It’s the House of Hades (Nyx’s Version). Except it really isn’t. It felt like they wanted to make it more psychological than the previous books, but they also weren’t totally willing to commit to everything that would entail.

Despite all the fluff in the book, it takes itself just a little too seriously. Nico and Will are 15-16. I feel like they could have had more fun with it while still tackling darker themes. Again, I know Riordan is capable of this because *gestures at the original PJO books*

Nico and Will have this weirdly mature outlook on their relationship that doesn’t fit their ages.

We don’t get PJO-esque jokes until 80% of the way through the book (yes, I kept track). There’s the “Travel Brochure” joke and the “Saturday Sundae” joke during the Nyx confrontation. Both of which invoked the feeling of reading the original Percy Jackson books. I got really excited.

Immediately after those jokes this became one of the cringiest books I’ve ever read. And I do not care to elaborate on that because I’m just happy that the book is over at this point.

Lastly, I wasn’t sure where to put this, but I read it, so now, you have to too. “‘Will, he said it has to be both of us,’ said Nico. Will hesitated at first, but an epiphany dawned in him, and his eyes went wide. ‘Together,’ he said.” After reading this, I immediately recoiled in disgust and went “UGH!” And there are multiple lines like this in the book. Absolutely horrible -7563/10. Rick, never allow another sentence like that into one of your books again. This isn’t YA. You can’t be throwing lines like that at me out of nowhere.

In conclusion:

I’ve seen people saying the criticisms of this book are the result of homophobia and… y’all no they aren’t. Most of the people I’ve seen criticizing the book are queer, including me! I’m tired of this idea that queer people just have to appreciate whatever representation they’re given without having any criticisms about it because at least it’s something. No! If Nico and Will were a straight couple, I’d still have the exact same critics of this book. I’m gay and it’s my godgiven right to dislike books that focus on gay people if the stories aren’t good.

Something that I do think is sad here is that Oshiro’s name is now on this substandard book forever. They’re a new author, and they don’t deserve that. Rick Riordan will be fine if this book isn’t received well, but Oshiro is less likely to be. That upsets me deeply as a queer writer myself. That sucks. I hate that. Go check out their books instead of this one tbh.

[ao3feed-gav900]

The Android Experiment

https://ift.tt/poBti2k by Mina-Sanno (DarkVincentFantasy) this story takes place after the good ending of DBH, where everyone lives-no one dies. this story may be cringe because it was written in 2018 when i wasn't as good at writing. i can't remember what prompted this idea in the first place honestly lol - Things had been looking up for those who had narrowly escaped the start of the android purge, androids were getting rights and were being treated as human. Hank's and Connor's working relationship was stronger than ever. It looked to be a bright future for everyone yet going on's in the dark, hidden in an underground laboratory, something is released with the sole mission of changing the world as everyone knew it...by ANY means necessary and they will stop at nothing until their mission is fulfilled - murder or otherwise. Words: 11184, Chapters: 10/10, Language: English Series: Part 1 of The Android Experiment Fandoms: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M, Gen, M/M Characters: Original Android Character(s) (Detroit: Become Human), Hank Anderson, Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Upgraded Connor | RK900, Gavin Reed, Markus (Detroit: Become Human), North (Detroit: Become Human), Simon (Detroit: Become Human) Relationships: Hank Anderson & Connor, Upgraded Connor | RK900 & Gavin Reed, Hank Anderson & Connor & Gavin Reed, Connor & Gavin Reed, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900, Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed, Hank Anderson/Original Male Character(s) Additional Tags: Found Family, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, Deviant Upgraded Connor | RK900, the main villain is a confused mess, this story is so old, it was 2018, Science Experiments, unrealistic science, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe, Post-good ending, markus and others kinda make an appearance, the jericho trio are mentioned, they're kinda there, Implied/Referenced Torture, Platonic Relationships, Family Dynamics, Family Fluff, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name, Hank Anderson & Connor Parent-Child Relationship, Connor (Detroit: Become Human) Whump, minor F/F relationship, implied hank x omc, 3 endings, Soft Upgraded Connor | RK900, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has Feelings, Protective Hank Anderson, half human shit, OOCness, everyone is ooc, oc is a mess, Parent Hank Anderson, rk1000 is my oc

[sophsun1]

Your gifs yesterday made me think about season 3 and i love that season as much as I have problems with it because of Ethan. But i think forever my biggest problem was and will be is that nobody ever found out what Mikey said to Brian at Mel and Lids’ party where he got punched. I remember first time I watched it a few years ago I kept hoping Debbie would find out but nope. Ugh, but anyway, your gifs are waking up the sleeping beast inside me again and i love it.

Hey anon!

Yeah qaf and not following up on plot points is a issue within the show in general. I agree not having one single soul wondering what on earth could have made Brian punch his best friend since childhood was very unrealistic.

Sure they've gotten into verbal arguments before but Brian is not a violent person and has never put his hands on anyone so they must have known it would have to be something major to make him lose it like that.

I did not appreciate Debbie automatically assuming that it was Brian's fault the next day when Michael has a black eye and calling him out in the diner. Alongside the long standing problem with the group always thinking the worst of Brian and writing off all the growth they have seen him go through and Debbie saying it's not surprising that Justin left Brian when he never showed him he loved him. Even though she was the one in S2 who got him to silently admit that he did and she told Michael but now they've broken up it's all his fault and he doesn't know how to love anyone. Wtf get out of here with that shit!

I've slowly been watching bits of the Ethan storyline but he's so cringe that I can only handle snippets at a time. But interestingly I had forgotten they gave Ethan a backstory that his ex was basically a Brian type of guy in that he would go to clubs, fuck around as a way to connect with Justin and Ethan didn't want that type of lifestyle and wanted monogamy.

So to then have him instantly cheat after one day is hilarious and the cheating plot was weak writing anyway. Ethan was insufferable enough without it and he and Justin had other cracks in the relationship that would have ultimately broken them up.

I'm glad my gifs are doing their job and it's nice to see more and more qaf fans popping up in my asks and notes compared to before :)

[declaredmissing]

The contradiction of airplanes in the sky

Whenever I’m in an airplane, I think of the contradiction that experience it embodies, and how it seems to be a metaphor for modern life. There’s so much wonder in flying thousands of miles into the sky, and yet we do it in a cramped, claustrophobic quarters that dilute or negate the magic. That’s what living today is like, is it not?

But of course, despite myself, being in an airplane always makes me feel wine-drunk with awe. When I flew back to Kansas last winter of 2021, I watched the sunset from the JFK airport and thought about the cycles of disappointment in love that I’d gone through that year, and thought about who I used to be, with my naive optimism and defensive arrogance protecting a shaky self image. At that time, I cringed to remember my past self.

But looking back now, I think of how I was just 22 and trying to figure it out. How much I love the boundless naive optimism that I carried with me throughout all the different selves I became, and how natural it seems that I would end up in Anakbayan – and how much that experience changed me. It affirmed my stance of joy as defiance.

There’s a word in tagalog that we use to refer to each other in the movement – “kasama”. It loosely translates to ‘together’, and ‘with you.’ What binds us in the movement is a current that’s deeper than political affinity – it’s shared vision, a shared history of “filipino and not-filipino.” The variable we share in common is that we’re all taking a gamble, staking our lives to a future that remains dark.

When I joined the movement, I was shocked to see people my age quoting Mao, identifying as radical anti-imperialists, and re-enacting guerilla theater of rebels. Up until then, I thought that organized resistance was a dead pipe dream of the 60s. To discover that it was real, even if only in the margins, shifted everything that I thought was possible.

I gained a specific kind of optimism that comes from seeing what revolution looks like in practice. It’s a feeling I haven’t found a language to quite articulate or describe or understand yet, though I think it has to do with resisting the state of psychological domination our culture is paralyzed by.

Of course, this spirit of optimism isn’t a constant. There are times I often look around and think, we really are just a small group of ragtag organizers. When I first joined, there would be times I would question the worth of our work in the larger scheme. It was easier to be a cynic than to dare to hope. Years after joining, I told my kasamas that this felt like the only sane space to me, and they all exchanged incredulous looks. And I understand, because actually, it does seem to feel that you have to be a bit insane to pursue the unrealistic and improbable.

To be radical is to change the parameters of what we can fight for. That was the most critical question in college, that I’ll always carry with me in my heart. What does it mean to be radical? Years later, as I’m writing this, I have an answer. To decide to eliminate the chair itself.

This work – the work of revolutionaries – goes against the dominant culture, which is why it’s so fucking difficult to do in isolation. It isn’t praised, or popular, or funded, or accepted in the mainstream, which makes it easy to question ourselves every step of the way – which can make us doubt ourselves – if we lose an inch of conviction. I admire my kasamas deeply for the courage it takes to ask for more than what’s realistic.

I think part of our optimism comes from – and is part of – the way we feel part of history. We share the understanding that the work we do in our lives goes beyond the brevity of our lifespan. There’s comfort knowing that even if change doesn’t happen in my lifetime, we’re building on the groundwork that generations before us have set, and generations after us will continue to build on, and whatever we accomplish, no matter how small, it won’t have been for nothing.

There are some who compare this kind of faith to the kind you find in organized religion, and that brings with it warnings of the dangers of idealizing any kind of ideology. The fear of being absorbed into an ideology is what made me initially hesitant to join a movement. But I’ve been part of a church before, and to me, there’s a clear distinction between political work and being a christian, even though they’re also familiar. It’s about committing to a value system and world view. The difference is that while I think political ideology offers a way to transform my values into action, by no means do I turn to it for either a blueprint or final answers.

There was a deep, fundamental change in my life finding the movement. I think my stance of optimism has somehow come from the gradual radicalization of my politics, and how that led me to recover hope and the spirit to fight. I found a home for my values, and an alternative to aspirations for material success and personal ambition that wasn’t just protecting my own individual happiness for the time I’m alive.

I think I write about this because I wonder what leads people to a movement. What radicalizes someone. Because I’m interested in what kind of spirit counters the fatalism of capitalist realism. A word for the opposite of loneliness. Because the words kasama and political home didn’t exist in my language a few years ago. For all the ways I’ve changed since accepting ‘revolutionary’. My shifting perceptions of the words “radical” and “revolution”. Paradigms upended. Wondering about the common variable behind the emotions of joy, agency, self-determination, the willingness to struggle, optimism, hope, faith, these supercharged euphorias. Courage and strength, all entertwined with love and rage and compassion and kindness. The seedling of an understanding that if we want a revolution, we have to understand how these emotions all can be transformed and channeled into revolution. Into people power. There’s an answer, somewhere, in the optimism that comes from seeing other people care and believe, just as much, in what used to seem to be an untenable fantasy: revolution. Genuine change within our lifetime. That what we dream of is not to much to ask for. But we have to start with naming what we are fighting against, and what we are dreaming of. James and I joke, without really saying it, that the answer is revolution. What is to be done with this world? Where are we going?

I’ve been thinking about the premise of my conclusion in college – how the word utopia is an ancient Greek pun on “ou-topis”, meaning “no place”, and “eu-topos”, meaning “good place”. It was originally coined by Thomas More, and implies that a perfect political state cannot actually exist. I have no masterplan for saving the world. I don’t have the details of what an ideal world would look like. But we always ask each other, what do you want for your community? What are you fighting for? As if these questions are worth asking, are serious questions to consider, and not frivolous at all. I do think we are entirely capable of asking for a different present, of dreaming for the way that we can live right now.

Hannah Arendt believed, above all, that if we could say, I don’t want to live this way–and that if we projected these longings into the world–we could work to address the lonelinesses we inflict on others; the isolation that drives us to destruction and our desire to dominate. In her biography of Lessing, you can find Lessing’s notion of love threading throughout her work; the kind of love that simply says “I want you to be”. She believed that in order to rebuild cultures from the politics of exclusion and division, ones that make truth and justice meaningful in the world, communication and changes in modes of thought had to happen between two people. She believed we could imagine only by understanding, by living and knowing together.

___________

Somewhere outside the invisible net cradling earth, satellites are spinning in the yawning empty black and the pulse of cities is so far away. People are dying from a pandemic, in the antiseptic halls of hospitals. In future dystopias, a love song waltzes from an underground bunker.

It’s spring now, and I find myself caught in the still warmth of an evening where I have absolutely nowhere to go. The busyness of the day fading to twilight, bright shadows thrown up against the skyscrapers of Manhattan. It’s an alien feeling, the relief to realize I have no obligations. I stand for a moment in Brooklyn as bodies rush past me, looking at the sky, looking at people, a still point in a crowded intersection, feeling for the first time in a long time that I longer have to be anywhere. A breeze on the back of my neck, the air tasting like lemon and sticky asphalt, and no one knows who I am.

On my way to Coney Island, I accidentally dislocate the chain from the gears with my shoulder, and so I stop in the middle of the sidewalk to lock it back in place, wipe the grease from my fingers onto my backpack. Beyond the language of nuclear radiation and retreating shorelines, there’s a place where we go on and survive.

despite how difficult it is, how widespread futility and cynicism are, we are all suffering together and finding joy somehow, and there’s comfort in that.