#im not creating expectations im just having fun with speculation

[ghostlycleric]

Holy crap a parallel of this scene is looking so real to me:

YOU’RE TELLING ME. THAT WILL AND MIKE. ARE GOING TO BE OUT IN A FIELD. AT SUNSET. POSSIBLY ALONE. ONE OF THEM WITH A SHOVEL.

One may worry about something visably and the other notices (like in the desert scene)? One of them may just stop to gayly glance or stare at the other?

Something about them burying something in the desert scene. Mike putting in a lot more effort while Will barely does anything at all. Maybe, just maybe, in this s5 scene, we’ll see them digging something up together instead. Something about metaphors for feelings and the truth… if you catch my drift.

Oh I may not make it. Eating glass as we speak. Tumbling off a cliff right now.

[werewolf-girlfriend]

ive been enabled so let me share some of my thoughts on how to get ur art noticed online

if u want Engagement on ur posts then i believe that its critical to make people care about ur art. the easiest way to do this is to appeal to something they already care about, like fandom, aesthetics/subculture, current events, having fun (people love humor!). a harder but perhaps more fulfilling route is to talk about ur own ocs and projects enough until people start caring about them too

theres an infinite amount of topics people care about out there so id suggest picking something u already care about urself and channel ur art energy there. trying to make art for the most popular things out there regardless own interests is an exercise in misery, id advise against it..! if im allowed to get superstitious for a moment, i do believe that even untrained eyes can tell whether a piece of art was fun to work on or a chore. and besides! if ur having fun then its easier to create more, and the more u create the more chances ull have at getting lucky and having a post seen :)

on a very related note, art is a way to communicate ideas so the quality of the idea being presented in a piece of art is paramount to how popular a post will be. what i mean by this is that technical skill isnt the primary determinant of a posts popularity. if all your posts are portraits of original characters then people will have a hard time connecting with your posts and theyll keep scrolling, even if those portraits are masterpieces! the major exception to this is probably other artists, who ive found usually have a greater appreciation for the technical side of art (we can only speculate as to why..!)

lemme finish by saying that making popular posts and being good at art are two entirely different skillsets, ive seen many incredibly skilled artists with jack shit for notes because they dont give people a reason to care about their stuff NOT TO MENTION its a huge game of luck whether a post will get seen. so dont go insane in pursuit of recognition!

(i dont want to make this post too long so ive included examples from my own art and their note counts with my analysis after the break)

hello and welcome to the extracurricular segment to this post :) i bring yall two pieces from my art blog @werewolf-artfriend:

here we have a portrait of my fursona that im still proud of and a sketch suggesting "what if sniffers (from minecraft) were the size of mountains?" (let it be noted that the sniffer sketch was posted right during the minecraft mob vote = peak interest in the subject of sniffers).

the portrait at the time of writing has a crisp 30 notes, whilst the sniffer sketch has over 2000 notes. from the same artist, on the same blog, posted only a few months apart. i believe this is a good example both of the power of a piece of art having an interesting idea at its core AND of a piece appealing to the interests of the masses

this is of course just two convenient example posts, but i have experienced fan art of popular topics getting thousands of notes a couple of times now, amidst my other furry shit that these days get around 200-300 notes in comparison

this may sound like a really long winded way of saying "fan art make the world go round" but i just want to point out the nuances that

1) it matters what u make fan art of: if a fandom is small or dormant (waiting on new canon content for example) then clearly less people will be excited about the fan art you make. dont expect 10k notes on ur post if the average recent post in the fandom gets around 200 etc etc

2) it doesnt have to be fan art! ive also had some of my bird art get thousands of notes because people simply like birds :) and this applies to ANY topic people care about! the world rly is your oyster on this one

anyway i think ive started rambling dhgdjhgd thanks if u read this far! i hope i got my point across! and if ur feeling down about ur art not being seen then just keep at it okay! keep creating and keep having fun! keep sharing ur ideas and perspectives with the world and ur audience will eventually find u! i love you!

[eldritch-elrics]

what IS your thesis about? from the list of items im kinda imagining it's something about different communication styles relating to conveying information? (something something gaylor theory and TJLC as conspiracy vs a more authoritative but absurd documentary style with pannenkoek vs fanfiction making fans confuse canon with fanon vs reddit memes as some kind of "you're normal for thinking this"?) like that is an absurdly wide range of Things. what is he cooking ‼️

hehehe omg i did not expect to get multiple asks about this! paging @scatteredcloud and @the-rad-paramecium , who also asked about it.

my thesis is about the 2022 "nier church incident" wherein a user on the nier automata subreddit started posting extremely-credible videos claiming he'd found a new secret area in the game that no one had discovered before, and the fanbase went absolutely insane. i argue that the incident provides an interesting window into a possible religious studies framework for looking at video game secret seeking as a quasi-religious act of communal orientation and meaning-making

it's very fun to read your speculations about how all the stuff i mentioned could fit into it! unfortunately, most of that stuff is just mentioned in 1-2 sentences; the meat of the fun stuff is mostly related to nier automata, shadow of the colossus, or The Bible.

but, as requested, here is how all the silly things fit:

i use pannenkoek's video as an example of fans pushing the boundaries of games to create new mysteries that weren't intended by the developers. this is specifically in my section about how/why video game mysteries affect people emotionally!

gaylor theory & the johnlock conspiracy are both examples of (non-game) fanbases doing theorycrafting. fnaf/matpat is an example of video game fandom theorycrafting. all of these get like, a sentence each in the project

"hollow knight fanfiction" is because i use the hk fic "stag beetles and broken legs" as an example of fans writing fanfic based on fanfic (in the section where i talk about canon-building)

"kirby lore controversies" is also from the part where i talk about canon-building. specifically, i have a whole paragraph about how hard it often is to tell what video game "canon" is, and use kirby as an example of that

sorry there's actually only one reddit meme! the other one is a twitter meme. anyway, the reddit meme is this:

finally, random other fact: probably the funniest social media post ive had to cite is this one

like, it's extremely funny to have a bibliography that sometimes looks like this:

(please ignore the weird capitalization idk why zotero does that)

[plounce]

i must stop imagining potential character plotlines/arcs for yshtola in dawntrail i must i must. i will not set myself up for disappointment. see the whole thing is that yshtola's defining character traits are her distrust and distaste for central authority figures. she values being respected and being independent. she values seeking and creating her own knowledge. she is very calculatingly reckless and will do some crazy risky shit if she judges it likely to succeed. and since it seems like the scions might be approaching the same goal/problem in separate little "teams" i think it would be so fun for yshtola to strike off and form her own one person team and be working against YOU for a large part of the story. but see the other thing is that for the majority of character arcs in general characters have to fuck up and fail, and i dont want yshtola to be "punished" for her "hubris" or her self-confidence or her independence. because she's one of our major female characters lmao but also i think those traits of hers are fun. but also i want there to be more going on for her in msq than being a GirlBoss and spouting technobabble because she's one of the characters who's been around since the beginning and i just feel like she hasn't gotten as much focus!! anyway i can dream. WAIT NO. SPECULATION AND DREAMING ARE THE HOPE-MAKERS AND THE LET-DOWNERS. I MUST APPROACH SERIALIZED MEDIA WITH NO HOPES OR EXPECTATIONS OTHERWISE I'LL GROW TO HATE IT WHEN THINGS ARE IMPERFECT (WHICH EVERYTHING ALWAYS IS). ok im normal now ^__^

[mamaestapa]

this isn’t hate so don’t take it as such but it’s really confusing seeing you have one foot in, one foot out of the fandom and then getting mad when people don’t follow or understand where you’re at

I don’t read everything you post, I’m not on tumblr often but i saw you said you’re not writing for joe rn (completely fine and valid) but you answered an ask the other day about how much of a dream it would be to have him fall in love with you (when anon said you looked like liv) AND hes still your profile pic and username. I understand the username is effort to change but he is still all over your blog and some days it seems like you’re in a good mood to talk about him and the next you’re so done and it’s just really confusing at this point. if you’re done with him, that’s fine, just pls say so bc it’s confusing when you’re like “u never know!” but also “im not in a joe mood rn” but also “I’d love him to fall in love with me and that would be a dream” and then get mad when we send asks like I genuinely just don’t understand if you love or hate him? you’ve kinda given the impression of both and it’s fine either way but pls just be clear bc it seems like we’re pissing you off but you’re not clear on where you stand and idgi cjdjdmd i thought you were done with him but then I saw the liv ask where u said it would be a dream for him to fall in love with u, so I thought ‘ok ur not writing for him, but you still like him and wanna talk ab him’, and he’s ur prof pic and stuff so I was like ok safe assumption, but then it seemed like u got mad when I sent u a tweet so im just confused fjfjffjd

i hope you understand this isn’t hate and i genuinely love your blog. i just think being clear would be helpful and if ur rlly done with him, even just for now, being straight up would be better than saying youd love him to fall in love w u and then basically telling us to shut up ab him the next day bc ur in ur hockey era rn 😭

sending this with love! once again not hate just don’t like being chastised

“this is the only ask i’ll answer regarding this. “

felt like I was being told off by a teacher in school when I just didn’t know bc u said he’s your favourite last week and some other positive things the other day😭

🤍

i don’t really know how to answer this lol. first of all, i’m not mad at anyone. i just get a little annoyed.

i want to start by saying, i don’t hate joe. i hate what the joe community on tumblr has turned into. you can’t post anything anymore without receiving hate or some sort of comment that isnt so nice. it’s frustrating to see so many good blogs and genuinely nice people receive hate because of the things they post.

we’re all on here just trying to have fun and post positive things about our favorites!

i do not expect you to read every single thing i post on here. i don’t expect that out of anyone that reads my stuff or follows me.

yes, joe absolutely is all over my blog. i’m a fan of his, i write for him, he has been my blog for a whole year now. i don’t mind receiving asks about joe, literally at all. when it comes to his personal life and what he’s doing though…it’s different.

i didn’t create my blog to talk about or speculate anything about joes personal life/life outside of football. i made this blog to write about, see pics of, and meet other people who shared a love for him and the sport too. all this community has turned into the last few months has been drama and speculation which is NOT what im here for.

i’ve moved onto hockey because football wasn’t my interest anymore and that’s okay. i didn’t say to shut up about joe, you absolutely can talk about him. i simply just said i’ve moved on.

i get a little frustrated when i get asks about when in writing fics or updating for him because i’ve said multiple times that im taking a step back and taking a break from writing about joe. am i not allowed to be a fan and say i love him without him being the focus of my blog anymore? lol.

i didn’t mean to “chastise” anyone, i just was simply saying i’m not going to answer anymore asks about what the tweet was about because it’s ALL over tumblr right now. many blogs are receiving hate, talking about the subject, etc. and i just don’t want to be apart of that. i did not create my blog to talk about his personal life or have any drama.

i’ve stopped writing about joe because of what the community has become. he has nothing to do with it.

i appreciate you being honest with me on how you feel about my blog and my approach with this! i didn’t mean to come off the way i did when i answered your ask about the tweet, i just didn’t want to contribute to the conversation anymore and make it a bigger deal than it already is.

with that being said, it’s been great on here with yall but i’m stepping away from the “joemunity”. thanks for being so amazing🤍

[justjacob19]

Stuff I Watched This Past Week Or So

Completed- 

FLCL: This show rules, love the characters, plot was interesting and didn't explain much but also, you never needed to explain every last detail when its arguably more fun to speculate on that stuff. 9/10

Karas: The Prophecy- Watch for the action, npt the plot. Characters are meh and the plot goes no where, hints of one but I couldn't really find any overall themes or really interesting things it did. Expected more gore tbh. I heard this was released as two movies in the states and the other one has a better plot, but just watch the fights online, there is barely any story to be told here lol. 5.5/10

Anyone But You: "The Straights Are At It Again: The Movie" . Had some funny bits I guess but really stunk overall, kinda hated it by the end despite thinking the set up had a fun concept behind it. 4/10

Kamen Rider W: One of the best tokusatsu's I have seen, one of the best shows I have seen period. Its themes of memory, vengeance, death and loss are covered perfectly. It has amazing music, fight scenes, characters, it has everything. If you like tokusatsu, detective shows, crime shows, whatever it is, GIVE IT A WATCH! 10/10

The Iron Claw:  A powerful tragedy that was depressing as fuck to watch at points but so interesting to see. A bit goofy acting at points and WOW those wigs, plus it isn't that historically accurate, but I dont think it entirely brings the film down, especially with wrestling being more or less a backdrop to, you know, the tragedy at hand and how shitty Fritz Von Erich is. 7.5/10

Godzilla Minus One- GOSEEITGOSEEITGOSEEIT AAAAAA. Seriously, its amazing and best if you go in blind, take my word for it please. 10/10

Continued-

Futurama (Current Season/Episode S4EP4): Love this show! Where was it when I was in high school! Why did I watch south Park over this??

Ultraman Tiga (Current Episode 39):watching this as I type it, every episode is pretty fun, either being really visually and aesthetically cool or giving us what, to me at least, is interesting to see for a Ultra show (mainly talking about episodes 37 and 38 here, 37 is really trippy and beautiful, while 38's plot is "hey lets create mass panic for research purposes and also just lie to the people we have to protect, because we are the good guys!" and thankfully its not presented as a good thing lol)

Started

Gundam Seed- Watched the first two episodes and, eh, its ok so far. but im interested to see where it goes. its my first time watching a gundum show so hopefully its good

Kamen Rider Faiz- Creepy fantasy sci fi with fun tech modeled after the peak of society, the early 2000s.

[deltaruminations]

ok in the spirit of Posting Crackpot Speculation Because It's Fun, here's a breakdown of my “wingdings deltarune future player character” thing, which is to say here are a lot of words rationalizing a line of speculation that is silly on its face and is based on no evidence except 1) vague sense among the fanbase that we may play someone other than kris at some point and 2) i think it would be cool lol

my specific hypothesis here is going to hinge a little bit on the claim that part of, if not most of, an upcoming chapter (i'm going to say 6, unless it's some kind of completely alternate set of events that's hidden behind some combination of killing berdly and finding glowshards or some shit. im just. going to keep it simple here. ok.) might be a sequence set earlier in the timeline and largely meant to provide some insight into what happened to set everything in motion — ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN, the dessappearance, and the ruined cliffs area, specifically; as well as, possibly, insight into the two missing characters (dess and gaster) as the people they were before shit went completely sideways

the evidence for this claim is that there is none and i pulled it out of my ass. however my reasoning is largely utilitarian: how the hell does a lot of this information get conveyed in a way that's as complete as it needs to be for basic story comprehension, while still being engaging for a player? probably in a lot of much better ways actually but an interactive flashback is, you know, also an option that could be chosen. if you wanted to.

i’m positing chapter 6 because Gaster Number Lol but also because it’s an interesting point for a radical shakeup in gameplay & lore revelation — right after chapter 5, which is likely to be quite heavy and end on a cliffhanger, and just before the narrative resolution in chapter 7, when the information from this sequence will be most useful to the audience.

playing as kris during this kind of Past Sequence doesn’t make much sense to me since they were presumably not playing an active role in most of it (same for the Vessel, who, uh, probably did not exist then). noelle is already well-established as a NPC with a distinct and defined personality, and i expect dess will be as well, which means either of them a silent PC creates a distance between the player and the PC that feels tonally confusing as well as like an unnecessary muddying of thematic waters.

Past Alive Guy Wingdings Deltarune however 1) is probably The Guy responsible for a lot of this, meaning it makes sense for such a sequence to follow him as a POV character, and 2) is fundamentally mysterious as far as concrete personality and motivations, given that we have yet to experience him actually interacting with another character beyond WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK, Give Egg, and Wave Happily, which means he’s a good fit for a role that necessitates some amount of player immersion. thematically there’s also a degree of cosmic justice at play, making the puppeteer the puppet, gaster having to directly confront and acknowledge his mistakes in order to right them, “and cetera.” this could even open opportunities for growth both for him and the Player — gaster possibly agreeing to let us in so we can help, and we as Player being able to do so in a way that isn’t coercive. but also maybe not lol (see notes below)

there are also some purely practical reasons why i think this works, which brings me to a bunch of haphazard and probably redundant notes that i wrote like a week ago and don’t care enough to edit right now:

Chadley Deltaruminations’s Top 10 Reasons Why Pre-Shatter Gaster Deltarune Future Player Character Makes A Certain Amount Of Sense To Me Even Though It Sounds Stupid As Hell On Paper And I Don’t Actually Believe That It’s A Real Thing That Will Happen

averts the unintelligible font issue (dude can’t talk)

maintains a lot of the mystery around him (dude can’t talk AND isn’t in full control of decisions he makes, meaning personality and other character traits remain subtextual and open to interpretation)

allows conveyance of potentially complicated plot-crucial information about gaster’s role in deltarune’s narrative in a way that’s active and interesting for players and probably less corny than A Backstory Monologue and also less obtuse and inaccessible than vague allusions and/or metadata that’s unavailable to console-only players

the specific position of “player character” in the context of deltarune is tonally appropriate for a character whose storyline seems to be fairly serious and nuanced and lacks room for Funny Little Guy antics but also demands relatability and emotional investment. our experience with kris certainly has moments of levity but there’s also a deep underlying sense of gravitas to kris as PC (for obvious reasons) that’s really only rivaled by Noelle in Side B (who is, of course, taking on a similar role to Kris)

potential thematic function as a type of cosmic justice for either puppeting others or at least contributing to their being puppeted as martyrs for his ends, however altruistic they seem. like hey doc maybe if you want this so badly you should be the one to do it

in tandem with previous point(s): instantly bypasses the emotional walls of UTDR’s Most Elusive Animal by forcing him into the most vulnerable position of any RPG character. to explain this further i feel like it would be OOC (at the very least corny) for UI Gaster to just volunteer potentially compromising information about himself/the various plot-crucial ways he may have fucked up in his past given how determined he seems to be to hide himself and deflect from his possible responsibility for Anything. i feel like a lot of character development would need to happen before that and given that his only active role as of chapter 2 seems to be Send Tweet, Give Egg, Wave From Car, and Be Sad About Dead Youth, it doesn’t seem reasonable to expect him to have changed that much by the time that information is going to warrant conveyance. maybe the man needs an intervention

subverts player/villain relationship and shit…… we expect to defeat the lich, maybe later learning his tragic backstory in a bit of exposition and/or vague lore that we don’t have a ton of reasons to actually care about. we don’t expect to live out his backstory alongside him. see also magus chronotrigger

within toby fox’s own oeuvre we have existing precedent (andonuts halloweenhack. lol) for presenting a villain’s POV via Literally Entering Their Mind in order to provoke emotional investment in and sympathy for that character

u know how gaster gets weird about us putting his name in during the vessel creation sequence. im just saying.

tenth reason. uh. I Like Him,

ok. thats it. bye

[erinthesails]

Inspired by @getmean, i did a little writeup of the books i read in 2023, and a little blurb about my thoughts! read 37 total, which isn't bad considering how busy it was, this past autumn especially.

organized roughly by genre because i thought the breakdown of what kinds of things i ended up reading was interesting, and marked my faves of the year with *s!

Novels

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

Did not start strong in this category, this book was truly awful. Like, I wanted to be able to just turn my brain off and at least enjoy a fun sci fi adventure but it was like. God. the worst parts of detective/noir novels and the worst parts of sci fi bound together by an interesting concept that the author had no idea how to handle. Im getting mad about this book again just thinking about it

Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi

Really really liked this! I love Oyeyemi’s prose and the way her writing always feels surprising. Read this in a group, with people who didn’t really enjoy it, which was unfortunate, but it compelled me a lot! I think i liked White is For Witching better, but still a really lovely interesting story

*The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss

This was probably my favorite new book of the year, and it came as a total surprise! Picked it up on a whim at a used bookstore and didn’t actually expect much of it, but was actually stunning. Super super highly recommend for anyone who likes sci-fi and thought experiments and the mundane realities and sacrifices of creating a livable future for everyone. It reminded me of The Dispossessed but like, a lot tighter and with characters who felt more distinct. Which is high praise because i fucking love The Dispossessed. Ursula Le Guin stans read immediately

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Soooo good, soso good. I was skeptical at first because like. A whole book where you never hear from the same character more than once is a very tough sell. Each chapter is from a different character’s POV, displaced in both time and space from one another, but Gyasi weaves the stories together so well, I felt newly invested in both the collective tale being told and the new people we were meeting every chapter. Another absolute banger

*The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

This was a reread, because I assigned it to my students and wanted to get it fresh in my mind before discussing in class. Tearing my hair out, collapsing to the floor in tears, etc etc etc. Book of all time forever

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

This one was a shocking disappointment! I absolutely love Celeste Ng’s other work but this one fell so flat. I’m not sure if it’s because she felt uncomfortable writing a child’s POV—but that wasn’t the problem, because the chapters from the Mom’s POV were just as flat—or if she was feeling self-conscious about the fact that it was speculative fiction (despite not being marketed that way at all) or if this was just a COVID project that got pushed into the world before it was ready… I’m really not sure what happened here, but again, conceptually interesting, but so unexciting in execution. Not enough to rattle my faith in her though, I’ll be back again next time Ms. Ng…Everything I Never Told You really was just that good

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Glad to have finally read this one! One of those books i’d always meant to read and expected i’d like but just never got around to until now. And I did! Love a story where the house is haunted by the people who live in it, love fucked up sibling relationships, love a child with murder on the mind. I kept expecting it to like. Do a little more with the conversation about class and historical power. But maybe that’s just because i’d read White is For Witching recently

Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

Thought I’d like this one more than I did, but it wasn’t bad. There were parts where the metaphor really started to get muddled in a way that uh. Felt like it undercut the more interesting parts of the story. Like yes cannibalism is imperialist capitalism, but also it’s maybe factory farming? Which is a less interesting way of framing things? Imo? Also the actual descriptions were so visceral I kept getting queasy and having to set the book down, which doesn’t usually happen for me with books. So sign of effective prose I guess! But ultimately it didn’t feel like it was for me

Monkey King by Wu Cheng'en

WOOOHOOOO SUN WUKONG, EVERYBODY GIVE IT UP FOR SUN WUKONG

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

This one reminded me of Our Missing Hearts in a lot of ways, primarily that a) it felt like it was trying harder to be Important than to be complex and interesting, and b) it features a child narrator who Does Not sound convincingly like a child. It was fine tho, read it with my mom because it’s her favorite author, so that was kinda nice!

Nevada by Imogen Binnie

I always have a hard time with Coming Of Age In The Big City books, even and especially queer ones, but I did kinda like that this one felt So aimless and frustrated. I’m not sure if that was the author’s intention, as I think it was written as sort of autofiction, but I was compelled by how completely misguided the main character is, while still being sympathetic. Like you can watch her thought patterns taking her the wrong way realtime and still understand why they went there, and clearly see the core problem she’s avoiding, with it still being believable that she wouldn’t be able to see it. I like a character who has no clue what’s going on, what can I say! Unfortunately I’d also just read Zami which made this book feel lesser by comparison, but that’s not Nevada’s fault. I cannot hold it against Imogen Binnie for not being Audre Lorde lol

*The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino

This was the year of finally reading books that have been on my shelf for years!! Really liked this one a lot. It has a lot of the best parts of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s storytelling, with a bit of a thicker layer of realism, which sometimes serves it, sometimes doesn’t. Delightful overall, definitely a fave of the year! Favorite part though was reading this book with a friend who, when we met to discuss it, opened with “okay i didn’t actually expect this guy to spend the WHOLE time in the trees”

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

I happened to be reading this at the same time as Baron in the Trees, and i felt like the two resonated across each other in really interesting ways! I love when that happens, and it happened a few times this year, which was exciting. Woolf is always doing the most, of course, but a lot of the emotional landscape of the story really stuck with me, as well as the meditations on “what is art and the pursuit of creative fulfillment for, anyway?” Me too, Orlando, me too

Novellas

The Employees by Olga Ravn

Really interesting little book! Never would have heard of it if it wasn’t for a friend from grad school, but i really liked the structure of it and the way it used lots of different voices without having to necessarily make characters out of any of them

The Tale of the Unknown Island by José Saramago

Not sure if this can really be classified as a novella as I think it’s like less than 5,000 words long, but i bought it as a book, so a book it shall be! Lovely little parable and a strange moment in time captured on the page!

*Present Tense Machine by Gunnhild Øyehaug

Another total surprise picked up at random from a used bookstore! I thought the cover looked interesting and the book was too! This is like. The platonic ideal of a novella. Not too high concept, doesn’t work too hard to explain itself, but includes enough additional detail and character to allow the ideas to resonate further than it would have as a short story. Seriously, go read this is so good

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

We love a strange library! We also love an artbook! Honestly the design of the book was more compelling to me than the story itself, but it was a nice book to sit with for an afternoon and let yourself settle into the world of it

The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada

Ohhhh the tension and tone of this one is so well done…I know some people who felt like it was too slow and never got around to anywhere in particular, but I felt like the feeling it evoked while leading us by the hand was so clear and so unsettling it was worth it. It felt like the feeling was the goal, the suffocating, dead-end feeling of being locked out of the world by the expectations of motherhood and wifehood and the way suburban survival exists only to perpetuate itself…it’s good, it’s really good!!!

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez

Marquez is so good every time always. Another really excellent use of the novella form, telling a really dense story that feels like it’s meandering while actually packing in so many essential details. We’re running really hard in circles in a field and marquez is dragging us along and it feels like what the goddamn hell are we doing, what are we running towards is this anything or am i just being taken on a little adventure for no reason. Then you stop and look down and realize you’ve trampled the corn stalks down in a perfect fibonacci spiral that points neatly toward the solution. Or something.

Permutations Among the Nightingales and The Gioconda Smile by Aldous Huxley

Combining these two because I don’t have too much to say about either and they both came from the same collection. I liked Permutations a lot better than Gioconda because cyclic story structures always scratch my brain, but neither were too compelling. I’m beginning to think i just dont like Aldous Huxley

What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Hmmmm I feel like…there is a certain kind of smug, sweetiepie speculative fiction that no one acknowledges as a particular movement in the genre, but that is really notably There and that Doesn’t Work For Me. Okay that sounds really mean. I didn’t hate this book! It just felt very self conscious about its project of like. “Queering the gothic.” And ended up feeling very sanitized and boring as a result. I don’t know, I felt about this book similarly to how I felt about Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers. Like, the Concept is good in theory, but it’s expected to do way too much heavy lifting in a story that, ultimately, feels more self-congratulatory than complicated or engaging. I don’t know how to explain it, but it feels like a story that was solved before the author sat down to write it. Not objectively bad by any means but just wasn’t for me

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

Another instance of finally reading stuff I’d always meant to read! I know this story is often cited as the kind of “original” weird fiction/cosmic horror, so it was interesting to see how that played out. Definitely not quite either of those genres as I know them today, but there was still a subtlety to it that felt really satisfying. It was good! I’m glad people have drawn from it and written even better stories in its style! I can definitely see the way stories like Annihilation have roots (lol) in this story

Fiction Collection

*So Long Been Dreaming edited by Nalo Hopkinson

I often tend to meander through and not finish fiction anthologies, which is weird because i love short stories, but I almost always gravitate toward single-author collections and lit mags when I want them. But I’m really glad I finished this, because almost every story in it was excellent! I really love Nalo Hopkinson’s writing, so it was fascinating seeing her editing sensibilities at work

Fruiting Bodies by Kathryn Harlan

Just okay! Had some winners and some losers, as all collections do, but pretty much puttered along at a solid “fine” throughout. Nothing really stood out as particularly bad or particularly good, which is a shame because it seemed like exactly the kind of thing I’d be into. The title story was probably my favorite, but other than that, I honestly don’t even remember most of them

Afterglow edited by Grist

Another anthology, this one that I picked up because it had a cool cover and compelling premise (sci-fi climate optimism). Unfortunately most of the stories had the same sort of smug self assuredness that i disliked in “What Moves The Dead.” I’ve ranted about this at length but i always have mixed feelings about cli-fi, especially the subgenre of climate optimism. A story that has its tone and outcome so neatly pre-determined by definition has to work pretty hard to do anything unexpected, and most of these did not, HOWEVER, there were two standout stories I loved so much they made the whole collection feel worth it. Everyone read “The Secrets of the Last Greenland Shark” by Mike McClelland and “Broken from the Colony” by Ada M. Patterson!!!

Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz

A pretty solid collection that, again, didn’t have too many stories that really stuck out, though, again, the title story was the most memorable and it lingered with me much more closely than Fruiting Bodies

Memoir

Tranny by Laura Jane Grace

Yayyyy, Laura Jane Grace! I always see that quote from this book going around Tumblr and wanted to read it myself. I liked it a lot! It also got me to listen to more Against Me! because I’d really only listened to Transgender Dysphoria Blues before this. Which has been delightful!

*Zami by Audre Lorde

Major standout of the year, even though it took me a long time to read the whole thing. Each chapter is such a perfectly crafted, bite sized piece that I was just kind of meandering through one or two at a time, turning them over in my head as i went. I also read it right before reading Nevada, so unfortunately I already had the perfect Lesbian Coming Of Age In New York book on the mind that i couldn’t help comparing it to. We all know Audre Lorde is amazing, but this book is really truly gorgeous

A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid

Not sure where to classify this lil book honestly, as it fits here, and under novella, and under nonfiction topic, but it felt like there was a core of memoir there that stood out as i read. Another book i bought years ago and only just got around to reading, but it was extremely vivid, i love Kincaid’s voice

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Whewwwww this book was a lot. It is as good as everyone says it is but definitely hard to read at times. Not much to say other than it’s definitely worth reading

Nonfiction topic

Six Memos for the Next Millennium by Italo Calvino

Love the ideas in here, but imagine it would have been a lot more engaging to listen to them as lectures than to read them all together. Love Calvino but he does tend toward the abstract, and these were a bit dry. Got me thinking about a lot of literary goals and challenges though, which was interesting

*A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders

I liked this a lot! I tend to avoid “writing advice” type books because they’re so often preachy and not useful, but i really liked the format of this as a breakdown of what’s working in each of these stories and why. I also haven’t read many of The Russian Greats, but really enjoyed most of these ones he selected! My main takeaway is that Checkov kinda rules and Tolstoy kinda sucks. And i stand by that

Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert

Interesting collection of essays about climate change! It definitely had the journalist’s stink of “neutrality” at times, but gave some really fascinating accounts of people doing cool things in the climate change world. I really don’t read much nonfiction like this, so it was refreshing and informative and i learned a lot about carp

*Ezili's Mirrors by Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley

Okay so i really love Theory, but I never read it outside of class. I guess i always worried i would feel too lost without being able to check in with all the PhD people who are more versed in academese, but i decided to give it a go and i’m really glad i did, because i absolutely love this book. Such a fascinating mix of theory (she does open the book by saying “don’t read this as a book of theory” but like. Yeah there’s theory in here) and lived experience and history and mythology and storytelling and the myriad ways that gender is a story we tell and a story that’s inscribed onto us and a reality written by histories of colonialism and survival pushed into shape by self-expression and community……i liked it a lot!!! And if you’re interested in learning about anti-colonialism and gender, you’ll like it too!

Graphic novel

New Masters by Shobo and Shof Coker

Got this after dropping in on a panel by Shobo and Shof Coker at Emerald City Comic Con! Loved the way they talked about creating this world and you could really feel how much detail and care went into every part of it. Enjoyed it a lot, I hope to read more from them!

The Harrowing of Hell by Evan Dahm

Evan Dahm!!! My beloved Evan Dahm!!! He is always at comic cons and I was so obsessed with Rice Boy as a teen, I’m always a little starstruck by the fact that i can just walk up to his booth and talk to him lol. But I did and bought this book from him, and got it signed even! This book is so fucking cool and moody and manages to make it a story about Jesus in hell without it being. You know. The way it could be with that as the subject. Just a genuinely compelling treatment of Jesus as a character and person, with very cool art too. I also read it while i was listening to Unreal Unearth which i know is extremely. Uh. i don’t even know. Baby’s first Dante’s Inferno. But it absolutely contributed to the vibe and made it a great summer evening activity

[volskayadottxt]

time to engage in some Speculation*

*seriously, don't pretend i have secret insider info

**i could be booboo the fool here

***thats why im posting this here (no one reads this really) and not on twitter and im already beginning to have second thoughts abt keeping it up so we'll see i guess

i'm not gonna say that aaron's blog post today isn't pr-washed, it totally is (wouldn't get published otherwise). i didn't expect to see any blame laid at the foot of corporate mismanagement. but what i did expect (and did see) is creative mismanagement i've (and others) suspected for a hot minute.

team 4 originally thinking of themselves as an 'mmo team' post-ow launch, with their ultimate goal being the rebuilding of project titan, explains so many strange creative decisions kaplan and the old leadership made prior to his departure. they never really saw ow as we saw ow. we saw it as a fun competitive shooter. they saw it as a stepping stone on the way to creating this massive mmofps.

early in ow's history there were so many weird balancing decisions (example: trying to make each hero equally viable in all situations, balancing around quick play). before the closed beta, im pretty sure they only wanted ow to be playable in dedicated teams of 6. meaning no solo queue. which seems like a REALLY weird decision for a competitive fps, right?

well, now it makes sense. they saw ow as this small part into building this big mmo. chasing that white whale that was project titan. and yeah, in hindsight, easy to think "well they couldn't make it work once, why did they think they could the next time?" well they probably didn't expect ow to be a big runaway success, either. they might've felt like they had the right idea, wrong approach.

it also explains (although i think budgets fall into this as well) why they didn't want to just build a new team for ow2's endgame pve. they saw team 4 as the team that did "everything." that handled the whole franchise.

ironically, we probably wouldn't have gotten archives or (in august) ow2's story missions if it wasn't for that creative vision. we know from former ow producer tracy kennedy that kaplan was thinking of a sequel before ow1 even shipped. that was ow2 and its pve, and eventually... ow3?? the mmo?? so it was something they'd prolly planned to start exploring early in ow1's life cycle.

this also explains why the original ow2 announcement in 2019 was so controversial (thats ignoring the whole blitzchung stuff, which i have zero desire to talk about). i remember kaplan being... kinda hostile in some interviews. like, he was interviewed by nathan grayson during blizzcon 2019 for kotaku. in the published version, grayson expressed frustration that ow1's development had been put on ice for a sequel he didn't really want or expect. kaplan mentioned this first interview in a second interview later (although grayson wasn't mentioned by name). like, he was being professional abt it i guess, but he was clearly upset grayson did not understand the vision and sorta accused him of insulting his team (which i don't think grayson was trying to do, either).

but also--how were we supposed to react? we had no idea the goal was to make titan again. we just assumed ow would function like lol or dota. i guess i can't help but be a little angry. i think the team meant nothing but the best, but a lot of fandom angst could've been avoided if we were told abt what ow1 was (a stepping stone to a larger project) instead of what we thought it was (an always supported online game).

this of course ignores all the corporate mismanagement, which i suspect Jason The Video Game Reporter Guy will cover in the next few weeks. i hold no love for kotick and his goons. but if what aaron is saying is at least marginally true, then the old vision was also a problem. its very easy to lay all the blame at abk corporate and a lot should be, but someone had to pull the creative plug earlier i feel.

at the very least, we now have leadership that's willing to make the tough choices, i guess? i'm certain the mentality of many will be "well they should've done this years ago" but hindsight is 20/20. i'd rather focus on rebuilding now (which is what i think the goal is). and while i have issues w ow2 in it's current state, there's also quite a bit of things i like, and quite a lot of goodwill their narrative team has fostered with me (it helps that the lore/characters/story are my favorite thing perhaps).

i also don't really "blame" aaron or jared. it sucks they've become the face of this when it was a different team, with different members, different structure, different makeup. yes aaron was there but he also wasn't director or ep. jared's been at blizz for like 6 months. i'm not saying trust them wholeheartedly but also... don't treat them inhumanly either.

[plaguedoctormemes]

Theres a good video about it but if there’s one thing that JK was really good at, its creating something thats very easy and broad to market. Allow me to have a very long-winded essay.

Its kind of the same thing with the hunger games franchise (until it got Too Dark and Blatantly Political nuanced for some people), or fandoms with other highly devoted (or former-highly devoted) fans like Homestuck. You create these neat boxes and terminology that people can apply to themselves or others’ personality traits, and create some mildly complex scenarios for people within these groups in the narrative to act out and live in this escapist scape. But Harry Potter is marketed to children, whre Getting Attached To Things is part of Being A Kid. Now make the kid go on an adventure based from real life and transport them into a new exciting world- so different but not completely alien, something juuuust familiar enough to not be Too Scary or Confusing, and there you go. You got the makings of a fixation, something comforting and nostalgic, and a potentially lifelong customer of someone wanting to experience that “magic” again. And again. And again.

Hogwarts is a place thats easy to fantasize going to for any kid, and is a fantastic escapist fantasy for sad kids or kids living in poverty or not-so-stellar (or worse) living situations. And then it has 4 fun little boxes to assign yourself or your friends in (what hogwarts house are you?) People, especially kids, cant comprehend nuance super well so its easy and fun when people fit into neat little boxes. You’re smart, so you’re a Ravenclaw. I’m confident and cool, so I’m a Gryffindor. Jessica is mean and a bully, so she’s a Slytherin for sure. But I’m also secretly devious and I like villains in movies, so actually IM going to be Slytherin instead… so on and so forth.

And then JK created a story that “grows up” with the exact kids that were huge fans of the original book. The books age and grow more mature as the kid does. The later books are considerably much more darker and heavy than the first couple books. People that Obsess over a piece of media want to get more out of it than the creator usually predicts, and so the stories also progressively become more intense as a response. It feeds into the fans expectations (for the most part).

Homestuck is a similar situation, but it lost its momentum because Hussie does not have the same market sense that JK does. Homestuck has these fun little roles that you can be, you can speculate what your Godtier would look like and what it would be (There were so many What Is Your Godtier? Quizzes back in the day) and you could speculate what you would be like if you were a Troll, and what your blood caste would be. The characters were young and made mistakes and were selfish and brooken and confused, much like its scrappy teenage audience. Homestuck appealed to quirky teens and, too, got more complex and dark and the stakes got higher and higher, but Hussie failed what JK did by making their story a little bit TOO esoteric and just flat out spending TOO LONG telling the story and dragging things out way too much in order to recreate what Cascade was over and over again with less and less punch.

But idk thats just what I think. Oh also JK had a lot of money and connections.

TLDR; Create something easy for kids to attach to and base their own and their friends personality on, easy to make merchandise for, and make it get progressively more mature and “dark”- essentially create a customer that depends on your product for a timely dose of the good-feels of nostalgia marketing, and make it mature, or eventually mature enough, to not feel inappropriate for an older person to read.

I can never find it but I think about that post a lot that basically explains that harry potter fans got “stuck” on the one book series instead of using it as a gateway to other, better fantasy books, and that’s why they can’t let it go because it’s the only book they’ve ever managed to connect with since they don’t read any others outside of like, required school reading.

Because I’ve been able to study a die-hard harry potter fangirl in close proximity for several years now and that’s literally exactly what it’s like. I’ve recommended so many books to her and she says she “doesn’t have time to read” but… she reads the entire 9-book (?) harry potter series at least once a year, sometimes more. She just. Reads the same books over and over and over again and refuses to read anything new.

It’s like some kind of fucking. Brain parasite. It has a mental hold on her and she doesn’t want to read anything else. For her this is the peak of literature and she refuses to see if there’s anything else out there worth reading, for fear that it might be too complicated to understand or too mentally challenging or just too different and I think that has to be the case with other harry potter fans, it’s just like some kind of addiction that they can’t break away from because….?

Because why? What allows these mediocre middle school wizard books to wrap their claws around so many people’s brain stems and convince them it’s the best they’re ever gonna get? There’s gotta be some reason and I want to get to the bottom of it. Is it purely nostalgia or is it something intrinsic to the books themselves? I watched this friend read these books every day for two years and begged her to try a different book and she staunchly refused. This is it for her, this is Her Book Series and that’s all there is to it. She’s an English teacher by the way.

[calebwittebane]

people who say philip wittebane isnt interesting personality-wise are outta their minds like. him going through Smelly Ex-Puritan Redditor Who Loves To Appear Pathetic And In Pain (And Also Literally A Serial Killer) -> Ancient Barely-Human-Anymore Spiteful Bitch And A Cosmic Scammer pipeline is one thing, like thats the superficial Mess; where the fun really begins is when you look at how truly emotionally stunted he is i mean theres so much to unpack here... like hes old as balls and yet he never quite developed past the mindset of a 7 year old. like theres genuinely a developmental impact present of a shitty upbringing (im sure caleb did his best but being raised by yr older brother who was also a child who didnt know shit and probably experiencing a ton of horrible shit otherwise doesnt sound great) that philip never really did anything about, never addressed and never worked through. like hes just stuck in one place mentally and emotionally and goals-wise. and stuck recreating what he knew by doing the same thing over and over (creating clones of caleb) expecting different results. like the best he can do is yearn for the few things from his past that were good. he thinks of witch hunts like its a game hes playing and wants to be the specialest boy with the best score getting the coolest title Um Excuse Me Its Witch Hunter General.

(lmao the way he got to actually pretend to be a little kid in hollow mind, he was having SO much fun doing that. it came so naturally to him. really committed to the bit to the point where you wonder if its even a bit. the answer is no its not a bit although when it was time to be a big boy again and see the look on their faces that too was sooo fun to him. he TRULY was vibing in that episode like he was having SO much fun its horrible)

but those things were long ago and he has a skewed image of them and the way he recreates them is extremely imperfect too. he leans into his childish selfish urges without thinking. he wants the copies of caleb to be “improved” by which he means he wants them to be the caring, patient, protective caleb who always had time for him and who was endlessly dedicated to him (who, i speculate of course but, likely didnt even get to have a childhood of his own because he had to grow up fast to take care of everything and never really got to hang out with his peers - something that hunter’s experience is eerily similar to) that he remembers from his childhood. i mean we dont really know what caleb’s and philip’s entire Attitude Journey towards witches was exactly (yet) but what philip really murdered caleb for, at the core, was moving on and changing and trying to have a life and family of his own, becoming too different from the caleb he had cherished as a source of comfort as a child. caleb changed and grew up and developed aspects of his own life that philip had no access to, and philip couldnt handle that and destroyed him. and then tried to recreate him as exactly what he had wanted him to be. and failed time after time, because no matter how much he tried to prevent it, the grimwalkers too would be their own people and they too would develop into something he couldnt control. and because philip is emotionally 7 years old, he doesnt get it. to him its just a repeating nightmare of caleb Abandoning Him, not something that just like, is part of being a person

and the fucking. shitass little family he created for himself. himself, the collector, and the grimwalker. whichever grimwalker it was at the time. one of so many. himself, his Loyal Not-Brother Whos Always There For Him, and the collector who is his buddy who is also perpetually stuck being a child (i am THINKING about how well they had to have gotten along, i mean they seem very fond of each other up until the betrayal (which again doesnt negate anything, philip is perfectly capable of just throwing people out like hes discarding toys even when he used to be super fond of them. You Know, Like A Child), they had to have been VIBING, im super fascinated by this tbh and wonder if the collector ever got to see philip being childish silly and goofy. we as viewers even get to see bits and moments of philip being childish silly playful and trifling and im like imagining philip just allowing himself to be that all he wants around the collector because Theyre Both Eternal Children). like its literally kid philip’s idea of a perfect family. just he and his eternal buddy and his eternal parentsibling. both being toys he can then discard, or in the case of the grimwalkers abuse and then destroy. Shit Ass Little Family For A Shit Ass Little (6′8 tall) Loser

he doesnt do anything for religious reasons and hes not shown to be bigoted except for his hatred of witches - its like he doesnt get it and never did, because no matter the circumstances children arent born believing what the people around them do, they learn and internalize it from their environment, and he and caleb only really had each other it seems and just kind of observed adults from far away, so what philip Did internalize was this distant idea of witch hunts being something totally cool that earned you ranks and being important and Protected Humanity (also a very nebulous concept). like all of that was abstract and nebulous enough that caleb being the more mature of the two upon actually meeting witches and getting to see the demon realm immediately understands theres nothing to fear or hate and its a beautiful rich world and he can be one of them and start a life there

philip knows how to win games, he knows how to survive no matter what, he knows how to earn sympathy from people, he knows how to lie and steal, he knows how to destroy things and toss them away and take them apart and put them back together. he knows how to run an empire based on arbitrary rules he invented to play into his bigger scheme and final plan. he doesnt know how to have anything genuine without ruining it. he doesnt know how to avoid being an unbelievably cruel creepy sleazy ridiculous insufferable BEAST

like at the end of the day he did this to himself (the imagery of him gradually losing humanity and basically just wearing a person suit to hide that hes pretty much a semi-solid at best is awesome too), and he lost and is in an absolutely pathetic state now all because of his own actions, he ruined COUNTLESS lives; but theres also like, consideration given to how he became this way, how it was a combination of things he couldnt help and growing up in an environment that was cruel and didnt allow him to develop properly - but how that too was not impossible to overcome, and we get proof of that in the show, and he failed to overcome it largely due to his own decisions - and his own actions he committed with full awareness and premeditation. like hes so much more than “villain who is a product of his time” and so much more than “villain who doesnt know any better because Tragic Backstory” and so much more than “villain who is just evil because he is”. hes a great villain ok. so far the most compelling and interesting ive seen in this type of media. icon and legend. invented being horrible. a petri dish of a person, designed to be studied in a lab. cant stand her fake ass *10 seconds later* me and the bestie

[solihira]

Pause and think about for awhile now will ya?

One thing that has always stuck to me while in this fandom is that you can never please anyone.

It never fails to baffle me just how can a person put this so much investment in a mere form of entertainment.

How? How can you make paragraphs upon paragraphs of saying how much you hate the ending as if the CCs owe you a good ending- no, an ending that you prefer. How can you ramble so much that the ending is bad as if they personally consulted you on what they should and should not write for their stories?

I realized, after reading statements speaking of dissappointment and statements of 'they shouldve done this and not that', is that these content creators ended their narrative in their terms. Im glad they have done so.

Dream never predicted that he'd end up playing the big bad villain; sure Tommy joined to make it more entertaining, and Wilbur went in and added a little bit of writing to put direction to it... but did you think that all of them predicted how much this direction would change and escalate?

First and foremost, that server has been created for fun, a mere place to hang out with friends, and it succeeded in being one for the longest of time.

Then the lore, the script, the motivation to make a somewhat coherent narrative began. Then the character analyses, the theories, the speculation came through.

That was a good thing at first, it was fun reading the notes, the headcanons, and other creative interpretations that everyone had written, but at some point it stopped being a fun thing and started being a frustrating and confusing jumble of just plain demand and too high expectations.

The server was made for the CCs to try to have fun with their work, to maybe venture new things for their future ideas may it be related to the Dream SMP or not. Not some elaborate story line like high grade movie script for oscars.

You lot wouldn't have anything to have complain about if Dream and his friends didn't make the decision to make an SMP in the first place. The only reason we got to enjoy what they have done so far, is because they decided to share it to all of us.

[caffernnn]

I normally look forward to your analysis posts because they’re insightful and I always feel like I learn something new about the characters involved, but I have to say that this is one of your best ones to date in my opinion. Not only was it cohesive, but it ticked off boxes I didn’t even know I needed. I usually find new things to bounce off of, but this time I don’t have anything to add lol. In an effort to at least add something to this ask though, who do you think will be the members on the relay team in fs pt.2? I think most people expect it to be Rin, Haru, and Ikuya. I’m curious who will end up doing backstroke if the other three will be apart of it. There aren’t really that many characters that specialize in it and that are also going the pro route. I’ve seen speculations for Sousuke, Natsuya, and Kinjou, which make sense but I wish Makoto could join considering his relationship with Haru and relays.

Thank you so so much for the kind words 💚💚 Getting back into analysis talk has been fun and it’s so cool that other people are interested in talking about the series and the characters in the same way!!

As far as a relay lineup is concerned, I’m still not sure exactly where I stand, with the little context given so far. There have been enough nods to a team lineup happening in some capacity, but I wonder how it’ll all play out, or first get introduced. A scenario I’ve talked about with some people over messages is the idea of an official “Team Japan” relay team being put together, but it’s still more of a work-in-progress, meaning that we’ll watch it be created and possibly changed throughout FS2. My thoughts in that sort of scenario were Rin and Ikuya, and the other two spots left open (like, the freestyle and backstroke could be taken up by other side characters on the team, although the initial plan was to have Haru involved??). From there, assuming Haru is isolating and hasn’t had whatever moment is needed to make him consider trying out a relay, my thoughts were Rin, Ikuya, Sousuke, and Makoto in an unofficial capacity. The idea with this one is us getting to see Rin and Ikuya working on their main strokes (like they both wanted to) but also doing some fun training by practicing transitions and doing mock races with Makoto and Sousuke. If Haru was able to see that from the sidelines somehow (maybe briefly reconnecting with Makoto after his collapsing incident and tagging along to watch one of his training sessions from the sidelines?? Completely speculative but I’m just thinkin!!), see his friends work together and trust each other in the water, and come to some tentative realizations that that’s something he’s been missing, that’s something he’s been trying to sacrifice and has been suffering more than he thought because of it… it’d be a good opportunity for Haru to finally admit that he doesn’t like this path, admit how stuck he’s been feeling (like he didn’t have a choice; he was given a lose-lose ultimatum of hardening himself through isolation to be successful/stronger or remaining the same and losing everyone eventually still by being weak/disappointing), and let his friends help him make some important choices/changes.

So, unofficially, I could see Haru watching a practice run with Ikuya (breast), Makoto (back), Rin (butterfly), Sousuke (free), OR the same thing with Rin and Sousuke flipped. Although I think there should be a conversation between Rin and Haru to resolve stuff after their fight (because the core issue has been left to fester for way too many years), I can totally see the resolution on-screen happening by Rin swimming freestyle in a practice run where he knows Haru is watching; a gesture similar to when Haru tried out the IM to reach Ikuya.

Either way, if we’re going to see Haru on any sort of relay lineup, it’ll have to happen after he starts to reconnect with his friends. Like, it’d be on-brand for the series to have a relay race be the saving grace for him, plus Haru having a moment in the water where he has revelations and/or feels whole again, but I can’t see him agreeing to a relay race and swimming in one in an official capacity without some sort of preamble first (and how rich would it be, for Rin and Ikuya making these gestures through swimming like Haru did for both of them, for Sousuke to show Haru that he was able to make choices after his own sort of burnout and bounce back, for Makoto to be involved in pulling Haru out from the darkness once again like “see, we all get to enjoy this together because of you, and we’ll find a way to show you that we aren’t saying this out of expectations, but gratitude”)

I’d love to hear other theories or possible scenarios from anyone who has thought more about the relay lineup. Seeing some talk about lineups with Kaede or Rei have been particularly interesting, and even if they end up not being linked to a relay lineup, both of them could have really impactful interactions with Haru in FS2, if given the chance. More on that later, maybe 😌

[yuzhousky]

Hi bummie🤗

The post about vsm225 has really rubbed me the wrong way and I have a few things to say.

First, I have a message for the person who submitted the ask to you: if you are going to bash somebody like that behind the safety and comfort of your keyboard, the least you can do is NOT post it anonymously. Show us your name and your face. How do you expect to be taken seriously for tarnishing someone's name anonymously?

I myself have been her long time follower on instagram. Does that make me and another 1300 people stupid? Shallow? Retarded?

However, the fact that i have been her follower will not make me biased to what i have to say.

Now, on a serious note, I like what she posts on her instagram, also i like what meimei (the girl who is looking after her account at the moment and posting stuff for vsm while she is struggling with covid) has been posting for the past month as well. Well, im lying. I dont like it, i LOVE IT. I love the vibe of posts, i love how spicy and sassy they are, and that is one of the instagram profiles i have the most interaction with. Because we are all there to have a good time, NOT to state facts. Vine is a very respectful person, she never throws hate or shade towards anyone, she never forces anyone to believe in anything she posts, and she never pushes her content in the as-a-matter-of-fact manner. Yes, there are sometimes hardcore bad translations from weibo, but i never take that stuff too deep, im able to get the point of what was behind it. Also, if she posts anything misleading for whatever reason, the moment she realises that she will own up to it and apologise.

Everything else is not meant to be taken seriously, but as fun and good time. Only things regarding zz and jy work and what THEY allow US to see regarding their private life can be called FACTS, the rest is all product of our delulu, speculations, wishful thinking etc, and we choose what to do with it. Im a 39 year-old man, with a master degree and more than 2 brain cells in my head and a full on life going on, yet in my comments on instagram i will refer to zz as "queen", "wifey", "madam huang" all in the name of funny banters and light hearted content and not because i find it to be the FACT. The fact is that i have enormous respect for that boy, not that i find his sole existence to be the wifey queen of jy. The FACT is that we can all learn from him how to behave mature, be strong, stick to your guns and believe in what you do, do stuff you find to be good for you, not bowing down to anyone and losing your integrity will result in success, not whether he wore the same tshirt as jy. The fact is that zz has always remaind humble, well behaved and he never allowed the success to take the best of him, not whether or not him and jy spent 2 hot nights in sanya in february. I could go on forever with this.

Vine, and everyone else on the internet are NOT here to please the crowd but because they post the things that make THEM happy and make THEM feel good. Those are THEIR accounts. The rest is up to us - who do we find at the same wave length, whose vibe matches ours, whose posts we like, and so on. Therefore we choose who to follow, and we all should be respectful to any other work anyone else posts online. Because, behind each and every profile is someone who takes time of their busy lives and puts a lot of work to provide the content for us. I personally cant stand the profiles dedicated to johnny and reba ship, but i dont go around barking online that they suck. I simpy DONT GO THERE. I stay in my own lane, i follow the content i like and let others live. Im not going around saying, or as the person in the post casually said "POINTING OUT"- hey everyone, dont follow that person because it doesnt align with MY OWN taste level. What qualifies anyone to say that? What right does anyone have to say that? Does any of us live or spend time with the boys? Using the FACTS logic, i could come to bummies profile every so often and be like - listen girl, you have to stop leading people on with your "hints" and "coincidences" and stick to the facts only tyvm. Right? Instead, i choose to visit your blog every day, LIVING for the content you put here.

Of course, there is always the responsibilty towards what you post publicly for everyone to see, but as long as there is nothing harmful or malicious im not being nit picky about it.

There are so few profiles dedicated to yuzhou left. There is bummies blog and like another 10ish instagram profiles still actively posting about them as one. Why having any bad vibes about any of them? Why showing any negative energy to anyone? Throwing shade or hate? What is the point like? Aren't we all here because we are supporting the boys for ALL the work they have done in the last 5 years, watching their growth in life and careers and having some light, fun time while doing it? Why creating any bad blood? I mean, we are basically being gossips girls, sorry everyone, we are not saving the world here or curing pandemics to take things so seriously.

As usual bummie, im ending this by thanking you yet again so much for everything you do, keep up with the good work! 🤗🤗🤗

Thanks for sharing your opinion. However, I just wanna make some points clearer here:

Tbh I'm not biased towards anyone in this case so I'm just gonna say what I'm thinking now. The previous anonymous ask about vsm was somehow pretty harsh towards vsm and I really don't want anyone to throw shade on her at all because I know she's a lovely fan of YZ and she's just trying her best to share the latest info about the boys. I know not all of her posts are about the facts; many of them are just delulus and jokes among fans, which are normal, and of course it's her own account so she could literally share anything she wants. However, I myself prefer the clarity in news/info delivery more, I mean if the post is just a delulu or joke, it should be stated clearly in order not to cause misleading or misunderstood things, because many interfans do not have Weibo accounts to double check the info, not to mention those new fans who might get confused even more. I have to say that this isn't the first time someone asking me about the reliability of some vsm's posts on IG because of her "vague" words and translation, and then I had to find the original posts on Weibo again or double check the info with Chinese cpfs then told vsm to correct her words.

So my opinion is that we are all sharing info with a big love for our idols but we also need to care about the clarity and reliability of our content as well. Of course we do not need to please anyone on the internet but at least we're responsible for what we post and those who might read it.

[itsclydebitches]

Hello again! Im the tinfoil hat anon with the long ass asks and I finally had the time to read your response. Thank you, it makes my day reading your answers. I honestly just enjoyed them over a cup of coffee like a good book.

Now, the gun pointing scene I mentioned was in fact the one from the droid fight facility like the other anon suggested. But I really liked that you covered the boat scene too, I haven’t thought of it much myself and now I definitely have!

I also would like to mention I love your “candy bar” choice analogy and I 100% agree Hunter’s “invitation” to join back wasn’t welcoming in the slightest. It is very likely just an obligation as you said. Sort of “you gave us a chance, we owe you a chance too”.

And the problem with it is now I am struggling to figure out how the batch members might change their attitude toward Crosshair going forward, especially Hunter. As of right now Crosshair’s best relationship is not with his brothers but with Omega(as surprising as this is). And I think he does realize now she cared about him the most out of all of them during the short time they interacted(both 1st and last episodes). Even between themselves(not counting Omega) I find most of the bad batch members to be cold and distant to each other. They feel less like a family than Rebels for example. And they aren’t even a “found family”(a trope everyone loves) but an actual one! And I get that they’re soldiers and supposed to be tough, I don’t expect them to share all “the feels”. I just can’t put my finger on it but something feels off. I agree with your previous post, the show doesn’t do a very good job showing or even telling they love each other.

Will Hunter and co only start caring about their brother again only after he leaves the empire?(assuming he does at some point). What about Disney’s prevailing theme and message that “family always love and care for each other no matter what”? I guess it’s “family always love and care for each other but only if you’re good guys making right choices”. There is no room for mistakes or wrong decisions. In the last episode everyone form the batch seemed to have given up on Crosshair(besides Omega). For now their attitude seems to be just “you’re not our enemy” and that’s that.

I realize Crosshair is a “bad guy” and consciously made his choice(and we know it’s the wrong one) but to me it felt like he thought he didn’t even had a choice or rather became so lost and confused he actually thought he chose the empire as “the lesser evil”(as in the less shitty choice out of all the other bad ones). We as audience have the benefit to know exactly how atrocious the empire really is but maybe Crosshair still doesn’t realize that.

So what exactly must Crosshair do to get back “in their good graces” as you say? Start saving “the good guys”? Save the bad batch multiple times? There is a popular opinion on how Crosshair can redeem himself. That he eventually heroically sacrifices himself to save them. I personally REALLY hope it’s NOT what’s going to happen but I heard so many people speculating his story is set up to be redemption=death. I know you mentioned you don’t want “Vader style redemption” either. Personally I think it would be a waste of a character who has a lot of potential. And I just think that the batch kind of don’t really deserve his sacrifice(maybe save for Omega) after how they never tried to save him themselves and how they treated him overall. Maybe he will risk his life to save Omega at some point and that will “prove” to Hunter he cares? Although he has already shown he cares by saving her(even if in Crosshair’s own words it’s just so they’re “even”). And the thing is, he doesn’t need to prove that he loves them, he already did that in episode 15 and made it clear he does care. He actually went to extreme by shooting his squad to prove his loyalty. What were the moments the batch demonstrated they care about him? Hunter saying “you never were our enemy” and taking his unconscious body to safety? To me Hunter “not leaving him behind” during bombardment felt more like guilt about the last time it happened and an obligation to Crosshair for helping them with droids, rather than them showing care. And I kinda of think if that was any random civilian(or anyone other than an enemy or a threat) they would carry them out too just because that’s what good guys do and not because it’s their brother. You also mentioned that minutes later Hunter snaps at him with “if you want to stay here and die, that’s your choice” which I agree can be interpreted in different ways. And I think it’s one more point to it being an obligation that in Hunter’s eyes is fulfilled now. He corrected his mistake of leaving a brother behind and saved him this time, now his guilt won’t burden him any longer.

Anyway, I can’t wait for season 2 and I appreciate you and all the anons sharing the tinfoil hat, interacting and speculating together. Those discussions have been a lot of fun!

TLDR: How do your think the relationship between the brothers will mend or evolve in the next season? Do you think S2 will improve in portraying the batch more as a family rather than a group of mercs doing missions together? What are your thoughts on the popular idea of Crosshair’s redemption by ultimate sacrifice? As in, how likely do you think this scenario is?

Anon, that is just wonderfully hilarious to me. Ah yes, the sunrise, a good cup o' joe, and the overly long character analysis of a snarky, fictional sniper. Exactly what everyone needs in the morning! 😆

You know, TBB is far from the first show I've watched where there's an obvious, emotional conclusion the creator wants the audience to come to—the squad all love each other Very Much—yet that conclusion isn't always well supported by the text. It creates this horribly awkward situation where you're going, "Yes, I'm fully aware of what the show wanted to do, but this reading, arguably, did not end up in the story itself. So what are we talking about here? The intention, or the execution?" It's like Schrödinger's Bad Batch where the group is simultaneously Very Loving and Very Distant depending on how much meta-aspects are influencing your reading: those authorial intentions, understanding of how found family tropes should work, fluff focused fics/fan art that color our understanding of the characters, etc. And, of course, whether someone saw TCW before they watched TBB. I personally wouldn't go quite so far as to say they're "cold" towards one another—with Crosshair as an exception now—but there wasn't the level of bonding among the squad that I expected of a show called The Bad Batch. Especially compared to their arc in TCW. The other night I re-watched the season seven premiere and was struck not just by how much more the squad interacted with each other back then, but how those interactions added depth to their characters too. For example, Crosshair is the mean one, right? He's the one picking fights with the Regs? Well yeah... but it's also Wrecker. While they're trying to decide what to do with Cody injured, Jesse calls out Crosshair on his attitude—"You can't talk to Captain Rex like that!"—and Wrecker's immediate response is, "Says who?" and he hefts Jesse into the air. And then he just holds him there, clearly using his superior strength to do as he pleases, until Hunter (sounding pretty angry) tells him to put Jesse down. If Wrecker had put him into a more classically understood bullying position, like pinning him to the ground, it would probably read as less funny—less "Haha strong clone lifts Jesse up in the air!" and more "Oh shit, strong clone can do whatever the hell he wants to the Regs and few are able to stop him." It's such a quick moment, but it tells us a ton about Wrecker. That he's going to stick up for his brothers, no matter the context (Crosshair deserves to be called out). That he will gleefully assist Crosshair in bothering the Regs (something that is reinforced when he later throws the trays in the mess hall, after Hunter has already deescalated the situation). That he's likely been hurt by awful treatment from the Regs too. That he'll only listen to Hunter when it comes to backing off. Little of this work—that interplay among the squad that shows us new sides to them other than basic things like "Wrecker is the nice, happy brother"—exists in TBB.

Or, at least, little exists after Omega becomes an official member of the squad.

Because, as said previously, she becomes the focus. I don't mean that as a total criticism. As established, I love Omega. But if we're talking about why the squad can feel so distant from each other, I think she's the root cause, simply because the story became all about her relationships with the Batch, rather than the Batch's relationships with each other. Having dived headfirst into reading and writing fic, it occurred to me just how many of the bonding moments we love, the sort of stuff we'll see repeated in fics because we understand that this is where the story's emotional center is, are given to Omega in canon:

Someone is hurt and in need of comfort. Omega's emotional state is the focus + moments like her being worried over Hunter getting shot.

Someone needs to learn a new skill. Echo teaches Omega how to use her bow.

Someone reveals a skill they never knew they had before. Omega is a strategic genius and plays her last game with Hunter.

Someone is in serious danger and in need of rescue. Omega rescues the group from the slavers + is the most vocal about rescuing Hunter. (Which, again, is a pretty sharp contrast to the whole Crosshair situation.) Omega, in turn, needs rescuing from things like the decommission conveyor belt.

Similarly, someone is kidnapped and in need of rescue. Omega is kidnapped twice by bounty hunters and the Batch goes after her.

Someone saves another's life. Omega saves Crosshair from drowning.

Someone does something super sweet for another. Wrecker gives Omega her room. Omega gives Wrecker Lula.

A cute tradition is established between characters. Wrecker has his popcorn-esque candy sharing with Omega.

Someone hurts someone else and has to ask forgiveness. Wrecker is upset about nearly shooting Omega and they have that sweet moment together.

Note that most of these examples could have occurred between other Batch members, but didn't. Someone could have created a space for Echo on the ship too. Wrecker also could have apologized to Tech for choking him, etc. It's not that those moments shouldn't happen with Omega, just that there should be more of a balance across the whole season, especially for a show supposedly focused on the original squad. Additionally, it's not that cute bonding moments between the rest of the Batch don't exist. I love Hunter selling Echo off as a droid. I love Wrecker and Tech bickering while fixing the ship. I love the tug-of-war to save Wrecker from the sea monster. Yes, we do have moments... it's just that comparatively it feels pretty skewed in Omega's direction.

So, as a VERY long-winded way of answering your question, I think we need to fix the above in order to tackle Crosshair's redemption in season two. Now that we've had a full season focused on Omega, we need to strike a better balance among the rest of the squad moving forward. We need to re-established the "obvious" conclusion that the rest of the Batch loves Crosshair and that's done (in part) by establishing their love for one another too. To my mind, both goals go hand-in-hand, especially since you can develop their relationship with Crosshair and their relationships with each other simultaneously. Imagine if instead of just having Wrecker somewhat comically admit that he misses Crosshair (like he's dead and they can't go get him??), he and Tech had a serious conversation about why they can't get him back yet, despite very much wanting to. Imagine if Echo, the one who was rescued against all odds, got to scream at Hunter to go get Crosshair like Omega screamed at them to go back for Hunter. Imagine if we'd gotten more than a tiny arc in TCW to establish the Batch's dynamic with each other, providing a foundation for how they would each react to Crosshair's absence. Instead, what little we've got in TBB about Crosshair's relationship with his brothers is filtered through Omega: Omega's embarrassment that she knocked over Crosshair's case, Omega treating Crosshair's comm link like a toy, Omega's quest to save Hunter that just happened to involve Crosshair along the way.

Obviously, at this point we can't fix how the first season did things, but I think we can start patching over these issues in season two. It would be jarring—we'd still be 100% correct to ask where this "Brothers love you, support you, and will endlessly fight for you" theme was for Crosshair's entire time under the Empire's thumb... but I'd take an about-face into something better than not getting any improvement at all. It is frustrating though, especially for a show that I otherwise really, really enjoyed. For me, the issue isn't so much that the show made a mistake (since no show is perfect), but that the mistake is attached to such a foundational part of the franchise. Not just in terms of "SW is about hope and forgiveness" but the specific relationship most clones have with each other: a willingness to go above and beyond for their brothers. The focus on Omega aside, it's hard to believe in the family dynamic when one member of the family was so quickly and easily dismissed. I couldn't get invested in Hunter's rescue as much as I should have because rather than going, "Yes!! Save your brother!!!" my brain just kept going, "Lol where was this energy for Crosshair?" It messes with your reading of the whole story, so in order to fix that mistake going forward, we need to start seeing the bonds that only sometimes exist in season one. Show the guys expressing love for one another more consistently (in whatever way that might be—as you say, soldiers don't have to be all touchy-feely. Give us more moments like Wrecker supporting his brothers' bad habits) and then extend that to Crosshair. Which brother is going to demand that they fight for him? Which brother is going to acknowledge that they never tried to save him? Which brother is going to question this iffy statement about the chip? In order to buy into the family theme, Omega can't be the only one doing that emotional work.

Ideally, I wouldn't want Crosshair to go out of his way to prove that he's a good guy now. I mean, I obviously want him to stop helping the Empire and such, duh lol, but I'm personally not looking for a bunch of Extra Good Things directed at the Batch as a requirement for forgiveness. Simply because that would reinforce the idea that they're 100% Crosshair's victims, Crosshair is 100% the bad guy, and he's the only one who needs to do any work to fix this situation. Crosshair needs to stop doing bad things (working for Empire). But the Batch needs to start doing good things too (reaching out to him). Especially since Crosshair made a good play already, only to be met with glares and distrust. He saved Omega! And AZI! And none of them cared. So am I (is Crosshair) supposed to believe that saving one of their lives again will result in a different reaction? That doesn't make much sense. And no, his own life wasn't at risk when he did that, but does every antagonist need to die/nearly die to prove they're worth fighting for? As you say, he's already shown that he loves them, far more than they've shown the reverse. Every time Crosshair hurt them (attacking) it was while he was under the chip's influence. In contrast, the group has no "I was being controlled" excuse for when they hurt him (abandonment). Season two needs to acknowledge the Batch's responsibility in all this—and acknowledge that they're all victims of the Empire—in order to figure out an appropriate arc for Crosshair's redemption.

Right now, the issue is not Crosshair loving his brothers, the issue is how Crosshair chooses to express that love: trying to keep them safe and giving them a purpose in life by joining the organization that's clearly going to dominate the galaxy. The only way to fix that, now that his offer has been rejected, is for him to realize that a life on the run from the Empire, together, is a better option for everyone. And the only way for that to happen is for the Batch to seriously offer him a place with them again. They need to make the first move here. They need to fight for him. And yeah, I totally get that a lot of people don't like that because it's not "fair." He's the bad guy. He's with the fascist allegory. He's killed people and has therefore lost any right to compassion and effort from the good guys... but if that's the case, then we just have to accept that (within the story-world, not from a writing perspective) Crosshair is unlikely to ever come back from this. When people reach that kind of low, they rarely pull themselves out on their own. They need other people to help them do that. Help them a lot. But with the exception of Omega's reminder—which Crosshair can't believe due to how everyone else has treated him—they leave him alone and seem to expect him to fix himself first, then he gets their support. It needs to be the other way around. Support is what would allow him to become a good guy again, not "Well, you'll get our love when you're good again, not before." That's unlikely to occur and, as discussed, it doesn't take into account things like this bad guy life being forced on Crosshair at the start. If the story really wanted this to be a matter of ideological differences... then make it about ideological differences. Let Crosshair leave of his own free will, right at the start. Don't enslave him for half the season, have him realize he was abandoned, imply all that brainwashing, give him no realistic way out, and then punish him for not doing the right thing. This isn't a situation where someone went bad for the hell of it—the story isn't asking us to feel compassion for, say, the Admiral—it's a situation where Crosshair was controlled and now can't see a way out. That context allows for the Batch, the good guys, to fight for him without the audience thinking the show is just excusing that behavior. They should have been fighting from the start, but since they didn't, I hope we at least start seeing that in season two.

Ultimately though... I don't really expect all of the above. The more balanced dynamics and having the Batch fight for Crosshair rather than Crosshair going it alone... I wouldn't want to bet any money on us getting it, just because these are things that should have been established in season one and would have been more easy to pull off in season one. (If the Batch wouldn't fight for Crosshair while he was literally under the Empire's control, why would they fight now when he's supposedly acting of his own free will? It's backwards in terms of the emotional effort involved.) But again, it could happen! I'd be very pleased if it did happen, despite the jarring change. I don't want to make it sound like I think they're going to write off Crosshair entirely. Far from it, I think there are too many details like his sad looks for that, to say nothing of Omega's compassion. But the execution of getting him on Team Good Guys again might be preeeetty bumpy. I expect it to revolve around Crosshair's sins and Crosshair's redemption, even if what I would like is balancing that with Crosshair's loss of agency, the Batch's mistakes, and their own redemption towards him.

Honestly though, I just hope that whatever happens happens soon. It's a personal preference, absolutely, but after a season of Crosshair as the antagonist, I'm ready for him to be back with the group, making the Empire (and bounty hunters) the primary enemy. Whether his return happens through a mutual acknowledgement of mistakes, or through Crosshair being depicted as the only one in the wrong who has to do something big to be forgiven... just get him back with the squad lol. Because if the writing isn't going to delve into that nuance, then the longer he remains unforgiven, the longer some of us have to watch a series while going, "Wait, wait, wait, I really don't agree with how you're painting this picture."

[blackrabbit-megapig]

Hey i know this is super random but could you talk a bit about why you did not like dark rise? i was about to buy it when i saw your reply to an old post and now im like... very curious. money's tight rn and i dont want to spend it on a book that might disappoint me :(((

Hello,,,

I would like to apologize in advance if this response feels a bit off. I haven't communicated with anyone via Tumblr for a good long while. Hence, I just noticed this question sitting in my DMs. Again, sorry!

You asked about Dark Rise. I want to be fair to C.S. Pacat because I like her and I think her stories can be fun. However, Dark Rise... just wasn't my thing.

I'll start with the characters by saying that I didn't particularly care about any of them. Pacat introduces a large number of characters right off the bat but doesn't really give the reader time to become attached before she starts killing them off. The book shifts POV chapter to chapter, but even that doesn't rectify this problem. In fact, there's a character that felt like they only existed just to be a mouthpiece for the plot, listing off exposition when necessary before he's killed rather abruptly.

The main character, Will, is rather bland in my opinion, and doesn't fit the great, tragic destiny that's bestowed upon him. In the last two (?) chapters, he goes nearly full Sauron and it feels weirdly out of character. Maybe his development in the next two books will flesh him out for the better, but I don't believe Pacat did a good job of setting him up.

I will not speak on James. I liked James. Pacat certainly liked James. Will DEFINITELY liked James. James probably has the most potential for a good, satisfying character arc out of everyone in this series. However, the way he's written makes it seem like Pacat only really knows how to do ONE archetype of character with a compelling backstory. That's why I agreed that her fixation on bitchy, slightly cruel blond men is starting to feel off. It's very much giving one-trick pony.

The pacing was also an issue for me. The training the characters go through happens so fast, and then people just start dropping like flies. Everything about the world is given to you before the second half of the book and gives you zero opportunity to discover and speculate. Will's full descent into his villain arc feels like it should've happened later than it does. I don't think we should've discovered his true heritage in the first book, nor do I believe that we should've learned the truth of his parentage as early as we do.

I know this setup exists probably to cut the fat and get to the meat of the story, but it makes everything feel so rushed and sudden in the last half. What's the point of a good fantasy story if you don't slow down and bask in the world you've created? It doesn't have to be go-go-go from start to finish!

Now, my ultimate beef with this book: the world-building. Look, the math isn't math-ing in my head and despite having this premise of taking place years after this great, magical war, the world feels so...empty? I know people make the joke that if a fantasy novel gives you a map at the beginning of the book, then you know it's going to be good. Dark Rise is not that book. If anything, the map makes the story even more confusing and disappointing. Characters hop around the map like it's nothing, arriving at destinations within sentences. As I said, why was Pacat rushing? Why didn't she take any time to flesh the universe out?

There's randomly this whole lore piece about unicorns that only exists to explain ONE character and one scene. Now, I wouldn't have an issue with this if it didn't feel so janky and bloated.

I've been pulled through the high fantasy genre's asshole so many times that I've become accustomed to a certain level of finesse. I expect so much effort to be put into world-building because I figure that if you're going to tell this epic tale with fantasy creatures and magic and all this really cool stuff, why wouldn't you spend the time to make sure that all of it makes sense? Why wouldn't you make sure that locations and creatures and people feel tangible? I know that Pacat did the best she could with this first book, but it reads like so much of the world is missing. Dark Rise's world-building feels like it was created after the premise of the story was drafted out rather than the other way around. It feels like this world only exists to tell this specific story rather than existing as a setting where these characters and events could just so happen to exist and occur.

Even the made-up ancient language is baffling and makes me want to grind my teeth. I don't know if it's based on an actual language, but Pacat didn't do it justice.

As I said, this book just wasn't for me. I think it might have something to do with me going into it with high expectations and all these ideas about what a good fantasy novel should be, but my opinion is my opinion. I'm an adult now, and YA fantasy is a genre that I think is starting to just feel too juvenile for me in general.

I will say that if you're into cliche, chosen one narrative YA novels, this book is certainly for you.

Also, if money is an issue, I will say that there are ways of getting ahold of free ebooks online without surrendering your computer to malware. You can also download those books onto a Kindle now (who knew?! Not me!). I just checked a certain website and Dark Rise is on it. I'm not saying I'm explicitly endorsing pirating books, but it is an option you can consider until you're in a financial situation where you can start buying books again.

Hope this helps!

EDIT: I came back to this and added some non-spoiler examples for the points that I was trying to make. Please take my opinions with a grain of salt and read whatever books are interesting to you and make you happy!