#imo the 2nd book is the best in the series

[kh3finalmix]

Need to let you know I finally got around to reading the Lab and I'm already half way done :) I'm enjoying it a lot so far tbh!

omg thats awesome!!! im really glad to hear that you’re enjoying it, it makes me really happy to hear! i know i don’t talk about them as much anymore but its still definitely one of my favorites so if you ever want to talk about it let me know :D

[kenobihater]

me: awww YEAH this new fantasy book i bought sounds great!! the reviews are awesome and the synopsis really pulled me it! let's crack it open!

the book: *turns out to be written in first person pov*

me:

[eerna]

Heyyy i actually really loved the first Throne of Glass book back when the book first came out, I was rereading and rereading it before the 2nd book came out it was so good imo

Assassin girl who loves shopping but then who also has morals? Hot guys in the opposing side? Evil guys idek why they're evil for now (then)? Mystery and magic? Sure! Premise any 17 year old would love!

No my innocent 17yr old mind couldn't comprehend the killing off of the one poc character was totally unnecessary for the drama effect. Not yet by then but my senses were tingling. I was learning.

And then the 2nd one came out and she just began butchering the story. Look I'm not saying I'd be a better writer but the way she just ripped apart the characters that were supposed to have been on the mc's sides in the first book, blaming them for everything, moves on...and then uses the conflicts to basically make them into the bad/gray characters?

....then in the same breath just meets these new characters who's cooler (?) have more powers, and then she keeps unlocking more names (??) and became infinitely more powerful like a pokemon,

...her choices were All Right and the people she left became the Enemies?? It could've been sm more interesting to have the mystery and magic actually have had terrible cause and effect, an actually Good magic system instead of basically plummeting the mc into....magicdom of rightness

This is why HB magic series is so much better

ToG was just....it reeked of something like...a child's story, like if a teenage girl had a writing idea and then became too hormonal to write an actually good story. If we can rename an entire series, I think I wanna rename ToG as 'She Was Always Right'.

I'm not saying we can't have characters make bad decisions but to totally dunk them to make the mc look good?? No accountability on the mc because she's just All That?

And so I began hating on the series. I kept following up on the rest of it tho to see if it gets better. Spoiler, or not, it doesn't.

Then Acotar came out and i heard more things about it. What I picked up on was that the main male character Rhysand kept coming back to the bad guy to just rip him apart even when he's not doing anything to them. Rhysand is also a hot fae (im gonna vomit) similar to Rowan who's basically the Best male main character there is compared to anyone else

And it made me theorize, of how...this may have been venting of some sort by the writer from their own experiences lmao like what if sjm had an actually bad breakup that she keeps using as the punching bag in her mind for the characters that she dislike? just like Chaol that she hates sm to the point she had to cripple him, then make it like all was his fault? And then whoever this guy in Acotar is? Who's basically the placeholder for bad bad guy because now...that seems personal the way her main characters are always right.

I can't be the only one who thinks she's projecting herself into her characters, and not even in a good way

And so now i stay away from her books. You could've been cool, SJM, I'm sorry I thought you were

ToG anon here, lol i just wanna say that. I think for me and my bestie who adored the first book, and now can't and won't touch sjm books with a 1000ft pole, we were just really disappointed with how it turned out. And hate as we know is sm stronger when it actually started with loving something a lot. It Could've Been Good. Lots of magic stories are good in a way that her stories aren't. She just takes alllll the magic system and make it the mc bitch because she buffs them up sm her mcs are basically untouchable beautiful powerful ladies, it's Stupid. It became a fanfiction of selfprojection and self-righteousness and no accountability. If other people think we don't like her books because Sex. Then they're wrong. I couldn't care less about the sex. I read lots of books that have em that don't annoy me. Ok I'm gonna stop now sorry lmao

(I hope this is the ask you meant to continue on, my inbox is a mess rn so I'm sorry if I connected 2 different people)

Vent your frustrations, you're welcome here!! She has a tendency to discard the initial cast and write a whole new one for the MC and this romance/friend group is the bestest and the most powerful and the coolest found family in the WORLDDDD!!!! Years ago there was a supposed interview where she said she names characters she dislikes after her ex boyfriends, but I can't find a source for that so take it with a grain of salt. BUT I do have to say that in ToG she at least tries to fix it, giving Chaol an entire 600 page solo book and allowing Chaol, Dorian and Aelin have their entire "besties who have forgiven each other" conclusion in the final book. And also I didn't mind that retcon all that much bc all of my fave characters showed up thanks to it, and I really disliked Chaol from the get-go so I liked how everyone kept clowning on him bsdjakbaksfk. But it is totally a valid complaint, it is understandable that seeing characters you're interested in be discarded and character assassinated is really annoying.

[hayleblackburn]

I love the idea of Iko being the ultimate girlboss post-series. Imagine how excited tiny pear-shaped Iko would be if she got to meet escort-droid Iko!

iko will see all crew dying oh my god...probably after cinder dies she'd want to close her system but crew's children convince her ithink

Over time, her AI would continually advance, and with it her sense of mortality. Humans do not want the burden of immortality if it means seeing everyone die, and I think she'd feel the same. I think at some point she would die, whether or not it's alongside her friends or much later is up to the imagination.

Remember also, Androids can die. If their software is damaged like in The Little Android, they will expire. And Iko was killed in W&N volume 2 when her personality chip was crushed. So perhaps over time her escort body stops working, and with technology changes, her personality chip becomes incompatible with modern androids. Maybe there's a power surge that fries her personality chip. Or maybe she decides not to backup her personality to a fresh chip, accepting that if her current system were to fail, she'd be ready to let go.

In any case, the older she gets, the human she'd get. Maybe her final act of being human would be doing what all humans do.

[yonemurishiroku]

How do you feel about Will as bi rep (a major issue for me, a bi dude), is it okay or is it kind of the same as the rest of the book?

First, just let me apologize for the agonizing waiting time. This ask is from May 2nd. In my defense, it took me just that exact time to ruminate for the best answer and still I barely have any clue what I'm talking about. I'm not good at this. I'm really not.

Anyway. Back to the point.

At first glance, I think there's another thing we need to address before going into the details of Will as a bisexual. And that is the definition of what, exactly, is considered representation.

Because Idk about you but I have some criterias when it comes to representation.

Sometimes people just write/ draw/ talk/ etc... about something because they want to or they like, you know? It doesn't have to be representation all the time just because they mention it. They don't want to represent, they just want to... express themselves, so to speak.

Imo, if something wants to represent a concept, a community, whatever, it needs 1/ to be done with a certain level of dedication, knowledge, and awareness, 2/ have some focus on their distinctive traits, and 3/ leave a memorable impression on their consumers/ audience. As the main purpose of representation is to include and to show, you should definitely make your appearance count.

Now, do I consider Will's bisexuality representation?

Eh. I don't know.

Tbh I don't have much of an impression of that... I mean. I'm aware. And it's great that Bisexual Will is finally canon after so many headcanons. And that's all. The weigh of the fact is, well, that of a fact. It doesn't leave an imprint on me.

I, personally, don't have a problem with that. As in: I would understand if Rick just want to include a bisexual character (demigod. Bc we all know Apollo and the Greeks is the whole LGBT spectrum). It doesn't have to be something big all the time, really - Kinda like the way Malcomn Pace's, Paulo Montes's, or Jake Mason's sexuality is left up to interpretation.

So, let's just assume that Will is a bi rep. What do I have to say about this?

I'm assuming you're asking specifically about that part of Will and Persephone (since I don't recall anything else...), so I'm gonna follow that path. I just want to make it clear that:

-Whilst slightly baffled, I have nothing against Will being attracted to Persephone.

-I don't consider it a good choice as bisexual representation.

The first point I have explained in another ask that: as long as it makes sense and fits into the plot - as in, plot-wise, logically - I don't have problem with it, and Will's attraction to life as a whole isn't something new. The principle of what it means, however, is another matter which depends on how the events themselves progress.

The second point: I just... don't think being interested in your boyfriend's step-mother is a good choice for bisexual rep, you know...? Like. I mean. Gods this is hard. I mean you have to admit it's a little weird, to some extent. I have seen weird stuff my whole fandom life but even I were like. "Okayyyy hold up a little---" It's kinda funny, yeah.

Not mentioning blatantly admitting it to your boyfriend's face. And no, Nico's "bisexual chaos" does not help.

Of all the famales in a series and Rick chose Will's boyfriend's step-mother. Bold, really. I'd give him that.

In conclusion: I have to say that I'm not good at this, and I'm at no position to speak for the bisexual community. Though since you ask, I'd say that I, as a AroAce still trying to figure out myself, can't be happy with canon Will as a bisexual representation, and neither do I hold it against the author(s).

[multifandomweirdo11]

Hello! This is my intro post for this Blog! 🎄🕎

This post will cover the fandoms I’m in and what I post on here.

•DNI ❌•

Zoophiles, MAPs, Proshippers, Xenophobes, Racists and Homophobes/Transphobes

• INTERACT PLZ 🫶•

Fandoms of these types of media;

YTTD — I LOVE YTTD. ONE OF MY FIRST DEATH GAME HYPER-FIXATIONS. (KeiSara and KaiSara shippers, especially, DNI.) WOULD LOVE TO DIVE DEEPER INTO THIS GAME, BUT SPOILERS SO.

Amphibia — I love this show SO much! The dynamics between Sasha, Anne and Marcy are immaculate and play off of the frogs, toads and newts so well; you have to watch this show if you haven’t yet. This goes for the whole list BTW. ^^

Owl House — I love this show, but I feel less of a connection than Amphibia because I watched Amphibia first ;-; THE BEST thing about this show is the characters. Amity, Raine, Hunter, Luz and Gus are the best characters IMO.

Deltarune — OMIGOSH PLZ TALK TO ME DELTARUNE FANS. TELL ME ALL OF YOUR THEORIES AND HC’s. If you cannot tell, I love Toby Fox games. Especially this one. I am Noelle (real) /j. Love all of the characters in this game. Not one I don’t like. (Maybe King -7-)

LOVE UNDERTALE. Don’t think I have to say that since they’re probably connected, (sorry Toby i just don’t trust you when you say that they aren’t ;u;) I will post about Undertale when we get news relating to the game!

Walten Files — Woah, if you’re reading this part this probably means you at least know what this is. Yeah that analog horror videos on YouTube. Also TW if you watch this… Uhh, used to be really into this one, but my interest has faded. I will be all over TWF4 whenever it comes out, but until now I’ll be posting about it scarcely. (SOPHIE AND JENNY KINNIES I SEE YOU OUT THERE.)

Disventure Camp — YES, THIS IS BETTER THAN TDAS, TDPI AND TDA. And yes, that was my opinion ofc. Anyway, more about Disventure Camp… ALLY, TESS AND HUNTER ARE ALL IN A POLY-RELATIONSHIP. Again, my opinion, but it makes so much sense! I’ll ofc respect your opinions. Also Aiden and James all the way.

Also I will interact with some Total Drama content, but not heavily. (Dave, Cameron and Sky IRLS DNI.)

Danganrompa Another — SORA AND YOUROKO IS MY COMFORT SHIP. Respect to Weeby Newz (YT) for getting me into this amazing fangan. So much better than the Source material. I recommend this fan-game for everyone but HUGE TW for the first game and a even bigger one for the sequel. We all meme on Mitch here. (Anyone glorifying Mitch Higa without being ironic DNI)

Danganrompa Edens Garden — OOH THE PROLOGUE LOOKED SO GOOD. If you’re looking for a alternative from the problematic air around the Main Danganrompa games, look no further than this game. ME AND JETT DAWSON ARE LITERALLY DATING. but … if I can’t have him cause he’s not real … he can date Mark. BUT I WONT BE HAPPY ABOUT IT. /j (I’m also a MarkDawson shipper so <: )

Inanimate Insanity — POSSIBLY MY OLDEST AND FIRST HYPER-FIXATION?? Bright lights forever! Anyway,,, Plot and Pacing: 2nd Season. Quality: 3rd Season. Sorry not sorry, the First season is problematic and unfunny. Anyway Cabby can marry me. (/hj) This animated YouTube series is so good!

I also do like other Object Shows! BFDI and ONEhfj are some I love. the ones I will post about will probably II and TPOT

Dead End: Paranormal Park — I NEED THE BOOKS AHHH. Love this show for the amazing Rep alone. THAT ALSO GOES FOR THE OWL HOUSE AS WELL. The story is great. It’s somehow Realistic and Supernatural at the same time!!?!

Omori — I like this game! The story is intriguing and heartbreaking </3 My Omori phase is passing away, sadly.

More Info About me:

If you’ve scrolled this far, you prolly wanna know more.

I’m Gay (MLM) and use They/it/he pronouns ofc!

I’m into Graphic design and MIGHT be getting a vinyl sticker printer soon!!!

I draw on paper and IBIS Paint X. I do have a drawing tablet, however it’s difficult to set up, it doesn’t help that I have a pitiful dell computer that’s on the edge of deaths door ;^; xd

anyway, like just ask to talk! Always open to that. <3

[bluelockednyx]

i read your metapost #3 (its super fun btw) and came across this line: the author has a secret favorite (aka Rin), so im curious that are there other moments you noticed in the story that either subtly or clearly support this? And does the author also have other secret favorites?

*shoves you Nagi and Reo's entire relationship and Episode Nagi* if how much screen time these two get, to the point where we have a whole spinoff that's just to show off their relationship, doesn't convince you that they are Kaneshiro-sensei's favourite ship, I don't know what else will. It's not secret. It's not subtle. He's said that Nagi's his favourite in extra materials. Fans actively complain about how much the main series is dedicated to telling their story at the expense of the main plotline of Isagi's rise to be the best striker in the world (Manshine City arc fatigue, anyone). I personally find their individual character arcs, as well as their relationship, an interesting exploration of the story's themes, though the execution... leaves some stuff to be desired.

I say that Rin is likely Kaneshiro-sensei’s secret fave for a couple of reasons, which I'll stick under the cut.

The most glaring one, imo, is the constant variety of nicknames he has compared to the other characters. Like. Why. Why are you giving us so. Many. Nicknames. of this character unless you personally think that it’s fun and cute?? That you think this character is cute?? And that you want your readers to see him that way after he's stopped being an obstacle for Isagi in the 2nd Selection Arc??? And the emphasis on his bottom lashes... like...... character design to make your cast stand out from each other is natural of course, and you do want to make your characters stand out too, from the saturated animanga industry, but bottom lashes is????? I have a load of questions about why, bottom lashes specifically, for your stereotypical shonen 2nd mc, of a sports manga no less (ignoring the fangirl/fujoshi brigade to net them sweet cash), but in light of the next point...

Although Rin is the deuteragonist and thus far most important rival of the series to Isagi, the way he’s been framed and set up since his introduction, plus their relationship build up, comes much, much closer to being read as Isagi’s romantic interest than anyone else in the whole series. I talk about this in the final part of the meta. Skip right to the narrative motifs section if you don't want to read the whole thing. It's a pretty brief, but imo nice contrast of Isagi's relationships with the other major cast and his relationship with Rin. Also, chapter 110. Kindly read the Rin at the leg extension machine scene and keep in mind that in the guide book, Isagi's fetish is thighs. Look at the panels and how he's drawn. Yeah. You can argue that it's also for fan service, but the way it's done is more... subtly erotic, compared to say, the time Isagi-Nagi-Barou met Kunigami-Chigiri-Reo in the baths, which was a straight up fan service chapter wrapped under the guise of moving the plot along. The other more suspicious scene is when Isagi thinks that when he defeats Rin, that's when he's ready to be playing at world level. And. Of all the things that Rin could have been doing while Isagi's having this monologue. Kaneshiro-sensei shows him lacing up his shoes. With the lace. In his mouth. Again. Why??? It's weird. Who the heck laces their shoes while nomming a lace in their mouth. W H O.

Rin also has one of the more impactful and better developed/positioned character backstories in relation to the story's main themes, even if you don't take into account the extra materials like the light novels and character guide book. His backstory is fuller and richer than the rest, with a more complete timeline from his youth till now, and given the tie-in and connection to Sae, who appeared so very early on in the series, there's definitely more that Kaneshiro-sensei has planned for us to see where Rin's concerned, especially since he is so drastically important to Isagi's growth, and thus far, seems to be the symbol of victory in Isagi's mind.

Also, he's been consistently winning the character popularity polls too, there's no way he's going to be dropped out of the story when he's a money maker and a fan favourite

TLDR; why make him seem cute when you didn't need to by giving him a ton of nicknames emphasizing his bottom lashes, why frame him like a romantic interest with those motifs of eye and heart and parabole when he's supposed to be the rival/boss of arc/villain, why have him and Isagi choose each other, their character arcs practically tied into showing that choosing each other is right for them, why subtly sexualise him so often (why sexualise him at all in the main story when your core audience should be dudebros), why make him so important to Isagi's development that he's turned into some insane combination of rival, love interest and mid-to-final boss for the series (not that I'm complaining).

[ixirian-archive]

its clear from looking at your profile that you like the character of charlie emily in the fnaf books a lot, why is that? i hear people complaining about these books, i would be interested in hearing a positive perspective on an aspect like this.

This turned out to be a longer answer than I thought, sorry about that! Wasn't sure if you were asking about the novel trilogy or books as a whole, so I answered both

Tldr at the end

There are 3 fnaf book series out there, and the novel trilogy is generally considered to be one of the better ones (at least the first book the silver eyes, is). Imo it's pretty solid for the most part (though the 2nd book suffers from what i call the "middle child curse" of falling a little flat and being less liked than the others) and the twist at the end with Charlie is better if youve read it yourself and got to watch all the minor odd details about her and the things around her build up to that point. As for why I like her specifically, I couldn't really give you a solid answer? She's relatable to me in some ways, and honestly sometimes I just like a character a lot more than others for no real reason other than I just do-this happens a lot lol

only thing I dislike is how her existence as a robot is misunderstood by half the "so and so is actually a robot" theories, because like the whole thing about her was that she wasn't actually possessed by the Charlie who died, but was a doll given life by Henry's painful emotions (think of those kids stories about toys who were loved so much that they became alive, but in a sad and negative way)

In general, when it comes to people complaining about the books, there are fair criticisms of them, but a lot of them I've noticed are from people who clearly haven't read them or even looked at a proper summary (some people even take shitposts at face value and its very strange to me)

I totally get some things like them starting to complicate things or important stuff being put there other than the games, but other things, like decrying a whole novella series because of like 2 or 3 weird individual stories, are just kinda....eh

When it comes to the books themselves as, well, books, imo the novel trilogy and Tales From The Pizzaplex have the strongest writing as a whole, while Fazbear Frights was fun but also just kinda felt like they kept throwing shit at the wall to see what stuck. TFTPP has a lot of interconnecting details between stories making it feel more grounded in its own world, while the novel trilogy is more fleshed out and gives you more time to get attached to every character involved + exploring the characters of Henry and William more

the best way I see it is to look at the books yourself and just judge that way, because you can't experience them 2nd hand like you could by watching a YouTube let's play of a game-most libraries should have the books for free and I believe the youtuber Ozone does audiobooks of them? So you still don't really have to buy them to experience them (though buying 3 of those novella books is cheaper than buying security breach once)

Tldr; a lot of the time I see people who havent read the books at all complaining about them, + a lot of people like to treat every single one as all bad because of like 3 weird stories out of....a lot, which imo isn't quite fair? Best to experience them yourself, which you can do for free with the power of libraries! Anyways that should be it for what I have to say, once again I'm sorry for being so wordy it just has a tendency to happen with things I like

[xserpx]

The first book is very much an advert for the 2nd book, especially in setting the 'traditional fantasy' scene, which is important later on. The 3rd book is where the pieces really comes together. In your original post you wondered why people call it grimdark? The 3rd book. I hope you stick with it.

I will also say, more in reply to your TBI review, that although the first trilogy doesn't have the best representation, Abercrombie took the criticism he recieved on board and all of his later books (which IMO tend to be better than the first trilogy) feature much better female characters & he especially takes toxic masculinity to task in some fantastic ways. The racial aspect is still ropey I think - he's said before that he doesn't want to get it wrong, which I think is fair enough, I don't quite trust him to do it right, and now I'm remembering all the gripes I have in that regard, so yeah, I think this is not a series to read if you want strong non-white representation. Even so one of my favourite characters in the series is a non-white POV, so I don't really get why he can't include more of them, like, come on dude 😒. Aaaanyway... His latest trilogy features someone who is the best queer character I've ever seen - I would argue he's the best charactee Abercrombie has ever written. And I think his criticism of masculinity leads to some really interesting genderqueer ideas, especially in Best Served Cold, the Heroes, & the Age of Madness. It all adds up to a fairly progressive feeling series, despite the issues in the first trilogy IMO.

I was all like “maybe I’ll read the next first law book” but since I finished the first installment I keep asking myself what’s going to happen in dagoska, if the bloody-nine is just a berserker mindset, if jezal is a wizard love child, and if ardee and ferro will get more development, so I’m definitely reading the next one lol.

[tripod-fish]

why snufmin (2019) matters

tl;dr: mlm rep in media (especially childrens’ media) SUCKS but not snufmin

note: i am someone who is mlm and these are my thoughts. i touch on a few wlw relationships but only 1 majorly (lumity). also i am talking about snufmin within the canon of the 2019 show!

-

honestly in media there are 3 kinds of MLM characters. stereotypes, irrelevant, and people who won’t stop talking about sex/their whole mlm identity is based on nsfw things.  it’s not like shows that pride themselves on queer acceptance (spop, toh, su) are free from this. spop is a great show but bow’s dads (especially the one with the glasses) are just stereotypes of gay men, plus he and his husband also fall into the “irrelevant” category. people like frosta have more significance in the story than they do - they only show up in a few episodes and apart from their debut episode, they’re never touched on extensively. su basically pioneered queer rep in childrens’ media but honestly the only mlm relationship i can think of is mr smiley x mr frowney, which isn’t even stated in the show. mr frowney only appears in 2 episodes and only speaks in one of them. toh’s nb and wlw rep is great!!!, but the mlm rep is... severely lacking. the only gay mlm couple is willow’s dads, and from what i remember, they don’t get any speaking lines and if they do, they clearly aren’t major enough for my mind to latch on to. they have a similar problem to mr frowney; they only appear in a few episodes and in one of those, it’s just pictures of them. the one show i can remember pressing mlm themes at all is kipo and the age of wonderbeasts. benson explicitly says he’s gay, which is a major win!! but the thing is that his boyfriend doesn’t get much development, nor does their relationship. it’s cute that they end up together don’t get me wrong, it’s just that imo benson isn’t as major of a character as, say, hugo. benson doesn’t get very much development. he’s just there. invincible is a pretty good show in general but the gay character, whose name i can’t even remember, is all “haha secks gay people i love men and dilfs”. and doesn’t really have much of a personality beyond that. he’s just “the gay one”. warrior cats is actually pretty okay with the mlm rep and has semi-major characters who are in gay relationships, but the problem is that none of the characters get POVs in the mainline series. ravenpaw is a recurring character and was a big player in the first book but doesn’t star majorly in any other books aside from his novella. tallstar has a similar problem, he pops up in the main series but outside of his super edition, no mention of his relationship with jake exists.

in my opinion, lumity is probably the “biggest” wlw relationship by virtue of it not being endgame (unlike catradora and korrasami) and of it being between 2 actually major characters (one of them even being the main character). their relationship is spotlighted and has clear development. it’s a major, developed queer relationship in media between 2 major characters.

how does this relate to snufmin? as i said before, mlm representation in media kind of sucks. the lumity relationship is great in my opinion and in the opinion of one of my friends, and i think the snufmin relationship is somewhat comparable to the lumity one.

moomintroll is the main character of the 2019 series, with snufkin being a major one. he gets an episode all to himself (the spring tune) and has a major role in other episodes, mainly night of the groke, snufkin and the parkkeeper, and november. the 2 have a clear relationship of some sort, with snufkin saying he really wants to see moomintroll in the 2nd episode, being ready to abandon his harmonica (his most prized possession) for him, and everything that happened in november. moomintroll waits for snufkin every spring and when he has to leave (like when the volcano was about to erupt), his main worry was about snufkin. he also worries about how he won’t see snufkin ever again when he moves to the lighthouse, etc. their relationship (in the eyes of a romantic one, which is heavily implied) is clearly defined between 2 characters where you KNOW one of them wasn’t just made to be in a relationship (cough cough dude from kipo and the age of wonderbeasts (imo)), is between 2 major characters, and isn’t haha funny sex.

snufkin and moomintroll are 2 unique, clearly defined characters. they have their own personalities and ideals and both are major, with one being a main character and the other being his “best friend”. they are not irrelevant. they are not stereotypes. they are not characters whose “gayness” comes from them talking about sex and whatever. snufkin and moomintroll are normal people, and that’s what makes them great.

[pvrrhadve]

I trust ur taste in books, so can you recommend some? 🥺🥺🥺

yes absolutely!! this turned out obnoxiously long so i'm putting it under a read more

at this point you definitely all know about 2 of my favourite series, the queen's thief and the locked tomb

on the jellicoe road, also by melina marchetta. my fav ya contemporary, about a girl at a boarding school in the australian bush trying to figure out where she comes from, where she belongs and how to heal. marchetta's writing style can be a little difficult to get into for some people but she really really does it for me.

while tqt is my #1 favorite series, my 2nd favourite is melina marchetta's lumatere chronicles which is both kinda dark and full to the brim with love and hope and healing. some of my fav characters ever are in these books and the ending is so warm and radiant it straight up made me weep. some tw's that i go into here

the darkest part of the forest by holly black. ya fantasy. she wrote this specifically for girls who absolutely would've bargained years of their life away to the faerie king to become a monster-hunting knight when they were 11. black's magnum opus.

the girl who drank the moon by kelly barnhill. mg fantasy about a little girl who is accidentally given magical powers by a friendly bog witch. reads like a ghibli movie.

this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone. a lyrical and devastatingly beautiful epistolary sci-fi wlw love story about 2 enemy time travellers.

abhorsen/old kingdom trilogy by garth nix. a ya fantasy classic about grief, duty, dead things and primordial cats and dogs. definitely holds up.

tess of the road by rachel hartman. ya fantasy. one of the best books i've read this year, had me completely emotionally invested by chapter 2. tess is SUCH a good character and her arc is so beautifully done. a companion novel/future series to hartman's seraphina duology but imo you don't need to read them first to enjoy this (you can ofc, but while the 1st (seraphina) is a really good scholarly fantasy about identity and also dragons, the 2nd (shadowscale) sadly didn't do much for me). tw for sexual assault (recounted as a memory, not graphic) and religious abuse.

the colours of madeleine by jaclyn moriarty. young ya/older mg contemporary portal fantasy. i picked these up on a whim a couple years ago and didn't expect much from them but was very pleasantly surprised by how fun and original they are. i reread them this summer and they're just as good the 2nd time around.

in other lands by sarah rees brennan. ya portal fantasy deconstruction. it's borderline satire and one of the funniest books i've ever read but it's also very sincere and intelligent in how it deals with its main character and his struggles.

middlegame by seanan mcguire. fantasy/sci-fi. honestly could not explain the plot of this book to you or why it's so good but there's psychically linked alchemically engineered twins who have various and sundry powers and i loved it.

sunshine by robin mckinley. paranormal urban fantasy. another book that i cant really explain but love anyway. i mean it's in the very general neighbourhood of "vampire romance" but like... weirder and frankly whatever you're expecting it to be it's probably not that.

keturah and lord death by martine leavitt. fairytale-like and haunting. every hades and persephone retelling wants what this book has.

the scorpio races by maggie stiefvater. her iconic standalone horsegirl fantasy <3 deeply atmospheric and about how being stuck on an unspecified celtic island in an unspecified but vaguely modern time could understandably be enough to drive you to fuck around with the local carnivorous water horses.

braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer. honestly if i could make everyone read just one book off this list it would be this one.

lab girl by hope jahren. beautifully written memoir about life, love and botany. one of my fav nonfiction books.

[dressedsalad]

I’d agree, and I’d also say that there’s definitely an appeal in fucked up stuff, but imo there’s different flavors, and i don’t find all of them worthy of praise. When you’re trying to build a maths field, starting by an intuition and then trying to create definitions that fit your intuition as best as possible, weeding out everything that shouldn't fit the description, and you stumble into a fucked up counterexample, that’s not rly an interesting object in itself, its value is simply telling you not to do/assume a certain thing. For example the staircase (present in the poll) isn’t a cool concept, it’s just a reminder that you can’t take certain things for granted. Topology is full of these, stuff like “not all spaces w this property have that other property“ where the counterexamples are ugly as hell. These counterexamples are fucked up, but aren’t usually interesting objects to study on their own. Dealing w this kind of fucked up objects a lot makes you enjoy a lot more the more elegant and painless stuff. Then there’s objects which are built from the ground up to be fucked up. Hyperreal numbers and wheels are an example. In these cases, the fuckedupedness doesn’t make them cool by itself, cuz it feels artificial. If you can use these objects in a meaningful manner then yea, they regain some coolness, but otherwise they feel empty. The fucked up objects i find the coolest are the ones you find once your theory is established, which seem unavoidable by every standard posed by your intuition. The monster group is a brilliant example, but also the hopf fibration from the 3-sphere to the 2-sphere, or even e^(i pi)=-1 (a note on this last one, my dad (a physicist) and later my maths teacher (w a degree in physics (not tryna start any beef (lying))) tried to explain to me this identity by first *defining* e^(ix) to be equal to cos(x)+i sin(x) and then showing that it works out, on the other hand, the complex analysis books i read started by defining e^z from its taylor series, or by the visual proof w derivatives and uniform circular motion. The explanation my dad gave me wasn’t enticing, cuz it felt artificial (it felt like the 2nd type of fucked up objects i described), while a more natural approach leads to a more satisfying understanding of it) Their fuckedupedness can be intuition shattering, ground breaking, and inspire further research into a field. I will mention that sedenions in all of this are in an awkward position, since i would say (from my limited experience) that they’re closer to the 3rd type of fucked up than the 2nd or the 1st, however i still find them a bit unsatisfying, here’s why: The complex numbers are the fucked up version of the reals! cool awesome, infinite applicability, elegant etc etc The quaternions are the fucked up version of the complex numbers! kinda cool, behave a bit weird, still has some applications, a bit less surprising than the complex numbers etc. The octonions are the fucked up version of quaternions! not very surprising, very weird etc etc The sedenions are the fucked up version of octonions! At this point, all charm has been lost, i can get behind people studying algebras pointing out cool features of sedenions, but the spark that started it all is no more

HOW did more people vote for groups than for sedenions or wheels in the ugly mathematical object poll?? Crimes against algebra (well sedenions and wheels are algebra but you know)

[foxghost]

Hi....if you don't mind me asking, what are your top 5 favorite danmei novels that you've finished? And why do you like them? Sorry if you've answered this question before....

So on seeing your question in my inbox I went to my danmei rec spreadsheet and sorted it by "hearts" for all the ones I marked that I especially liked, and then checked the row number and realised

I apparently marked 72-1(toprow)=71 books "favourite"??? Now lemme try to pick 5 ...

The obvious picks are: Spring Once More (Da Feng Gua Guo), Yingnu (Fei Tian Ye Xiang), Perfection (Jin Gang Quan). I've left reviews for them on novelupdates. So let's skip those right over and pick another 5 :D

颱風眼 Eye of the Hurricane by 潭石 Tan Shi: Tan Shi's best novel, imo -- well-written, well-plotted, well-rounded characters. The melodrama is reasonable, and I can never get enough of the "mend the broken mirror" trope. They switch. That gets extra points.

貌合神離 Lovers In Name Only by 困倚危樓 Kun Yi Wei Lou: The best in class for melodrama. I don't actually go for melodrama, but this one gave me feelings. It has all the dogblood - kidnapping, amnesia, lovers forced apart (and stay apart), break ups, reunions, your ML is basically the BIG BAD -- it sounds like a terrible combination but KYWL just made it work.

吞海 Swallowing the Seas (Po Yun 2) 淮上 Huai Shang: I'm not a Huai Shang fan, but I think they've finally left the land of "rape = uncontrollable love" behind and started writing things I'm interested in. Both in this series are good, but I especially love the 2nd one for plot. Huai Shang just has this thing with action scenes, they’re just so well done and feel like watching a movie. (alas for the fade to black though)

長相守 Til Death Do Us Part by 魚香肉絲 Tangstory: I've talked about this one before; it’s one of the few books that's ever made me cry droplets of tears. (And it's HE ... dying of OLD AGE is HE ...) 

譚先生的譚先生 Mr. Tan's Mr. Tan by 五六狸 Wu Liu Li: actually pretty typical tyrant-president x innocent and perfect shou, love at first sight, marriage and divorce, a whole pile of melodrama (amnesia included) with massive # of misunderstandings, but it gave me so many feelings. The MC used to be a radio host on one of those chicken soup storytelling shows so of course there’s an audio drama.

[stilldancewithyou]

Is this unpopular..i thought the show was much better than the books. I watched the show and than read the books and was kind of surprised at how much i didn’t like the books. It had the same feel but i felt the show was done much better. They improved almost every character and made everything feel cohesive. The books are just not well written imo. No disrespect to Jenny han. I love her and really like the tatbilb series and feel she’s the main reason the tsitp tv series is so well done.

I totally respect this opinion. I feel like everyone is different when it comes to books vs screen adaptations and that's totally fine. I really liked the show and most of the changes. I loved the way you got to see the characters POVs better in the show which is a really cool think about screen adaptations. I liked that we got to see more of Steven and I liked what they did with Taylor's character. I thought it was for the most part extremely similar to the books, like it felt like I was watching the book just chapters that weren't included in it if that makes sense. I think the show did some things better and the book did some things better. I still prefer the books though, but I could possibly change my mind when the whole show is out lol but probably not?? idk.

I agree to a certain extent with you on the quality of the books. There were things about the 1st that I thought could have been done better, but overall it was pretty good. I've def read way worse writing though. I thought the 2nd book was much better and the 3rd book the best of the three (from a writing standpoint). It's important to remember that TSITP is her first published book, and I felt like you could kind of see the progression and improvement of her writing between the three books, they weren't bad to me but the fact that it's her first books shows. And TATBILB is her second trilogy, so I think it was just done better because she had more experience and expertise at that point if that makes sense. Also, I read an article a few weeks ago where she said that at first she didn't intend for tsitp to be a trilogy, it was originally going to be a one off. So idk if that played a role in the execution or not. I'm glad she waited so long to do the show tho bc it gave her so long to think about how she wanted to do it and to figure out what could have been executed/done better and fix that for the show.

a random but related fun fact about me- I read TATBILB first and loved it and Jenny Han's writing which is what made me read TSITP (as soon as i read the synopsis I was like "oh i'm gonna love this") and I found that I actually liked TSITP more. I love both trilogies though

[bagofbonesmp3]

Since you have a working brain and have read sjm: do you think she has a ghostwriter? or maybe some trouble with her editor? I read the first 3 acotar books & there seemed to be such a big difference in quality between the first 2 (and also between the 2nd and the 3rd tbh, imo the 1st one is awful, the 2nd improves a lil and it seems like a masterpiece in comparation to the 1st, and then the 3rd is like, not as bad as the 1st but smth happened there) & i saw saying that the suppossed ghost writer was the one to fuck up the quality but imo sjm can do that herself

i think that as time goes on, she has become more and more unsupervised? which can be either a good or a bad thing, depending on the story. she 100% doesn't have a good editor anymore, whoever is doing it is just making sure she doesn't have grammatical mistakes and that's it, cause as I've been told, her latest is TO THE BRIM with maasisms.... i always favored her throne of glass series, and you could blame it being her debut to the first one being kinda boring, but now that's she's become booktok's best, she knows she doesn't have to deliver a good manuscript... just with enough porn and tropes as necessary. if she has a ghostwriter she should fire them cause they suck ass

[imperiuswrecked]

To me, it doesn’t make sense to make Magneto the main villain because it has been done so much before and it would connect it so much to the Fox Films. Also I think there is a GREAT laziness in writing Magneto especially in films. He generally didn’t want to kill all humans, subjugate them yes because he doesn’t trust them. Which isn’t a ‘good guy’ move in itself and he slips in and out of.

He legit murdered genocide I think when he was going to kill all humans. Like no.

I also think that the average cinema goer likes Magneto too much… or maybe that is me. It would also require them to recast the most famous faces of the franchises?

Like is anyone going to care if they recast Jean, Scott, Iceman, Rogue, Kitty, Beast even Mystique but Magneto? I don’t know. I have long been a fan of an actual Jewish actor playing Magneto but following Ian McKellan would be difficult for the casual fans to accept. I don’t think Fassbender left such an amazing impression.

Even my most average MCU fans friends (and god they love the MCU 😤 but I see past it) still talk about how much they want to see a Magneto solo film.

To me I would put the focus on their reveal and sentinels. Then again I thought they’ll go through Krakoa stuff. Like it turns out the mutants have been living on this Island etc

With the ‘simpler times’ comment I have to for the sake of my sanity have to think that it was because Pietro knew where he was. Things were clear to him, as much as it hurt he had his sister. The following trauma had not occurred. Again I don’t think this is true but I am trying to reason bad writing. He didn’t doubt his morality but was indebted and controlled. Shitty actions were out of his control.

I don’t read Avengers so I didn’t know he was shelved for so long.

I think the Trial of Magneto is trying to ride on the coattails of Wandavision because even though she’s not a mutant a lot of the internet was wanting Magneto to show up. So what is the best way to get those fans who wanted to see that? Set up a family comic book where they establish the family again because I guess the MCU fans heard they’ve changed their background and themselves didn’t like it.

I see the Trial of Magneto as something poorly thought out as they saw what the audience was interested in. The timeline kind of clashes uncomfortably with Inferno. Which makes me think it was wedged in there to ride the Wandavision train and undo the retcon on the side of the main storyline.

Thank you for reading my essay/rant

Ok so I'm going to first say you have a lot of great thoughts and great on picking up the whole forced feeling. You are right, it does feel wedged in there and it does feel forced because that's exactly what Marvel did.

The Trial of Magneto was supposed to be an X-Factor plot, it was Leah Williams next arc, here's an article link talking about her podcast: link (yes I know it's bleeding cool but I don't have time to listen to the podcast)

Leah Williams tells us that X-Factor was canceled because Leah's pitch for the Magneto/Wanda story for X-Factor, now called Trial Of Magneto, became such a popular pitch at Marvel but they thought the reader numbers for X-Factor wasn't big enough for this story, so they wanted it as a separate comic. And canceled X-Factor #10 rather than seeing it run as originally planned, with the Trial beginning in X-Factor #15. Williams says she only learned about the cancellation of X-Factor when she was writing #9, so as she had to finish the series quickly, squeezing six issues worth of story into those last two issues, calling it "cramped and rushed".

So I'm not a fan of Leah but the way Marvel treats it's writers has always been terrible so this cancellation doesn't surprise me. Could this be about W*ndaVision? It's likely, but it's more likely this has to do with Hickman bowing out. It's no secret literally everyone hated the retcon and I always knew it would be undone but I didn't think it would take 6 years but here we are.

Hickman leaving is a bigger thing, he stated in an interview ( link ) that he had planned Krakoa and X-Men to be a 3 arc story, and he wasn't allowed to move onto the 2nd arc because the clowns at Marvel liked the idea of Krakoa too much and I'm so mad because that's exactly the kinda behavior that annoys me with the fans, them thinking Krakoa is just a fun playground for the mutants to mess around with.

"Oh, plans have changed entirely," Hickman says. "When I pitched the X-Men story I wanted to do, I pitched a very big, very broad, three-act, three-event narrative, the first of which was House of X. And while this loosely worked as a three-year plan, I told Marvel upfront that I honestly had no idea how long the first part would last because there were a lot of interesting ideas that I had seeded that other creators would want to play with, and so, we left this rather open-ended. I was also pretty clear with all the writers that came into the office what the initial, three-act plan was so no one would be surprised when it was time for the line to pivot." Hickman continues, "However, I also knew that I was cooking with dynamite, and it was very possible that what I had written in House of X, and the ideas contained within, was not actually the first act of a three-act story, but something that resonated more deeply and worked more like Giant-Size X-Men, where it would represent a paradigm shift in the entire X-Men line for a prolonged period of time. So, during the pandemic, when the time came for me to start pointing things toward writing the second-act event, I asked everyone if they were ready for me to do that, and to a man, everyone wanted to stay in the first act. It was really interesting, because I appreciated that House of X resonated with them to the extent that they didn't want it to end, but the reality was that I knew I would be leaving the line early."

I'm so MAD because the thing I was predicting, that Hickman would have it come crashing down and everything would be revealed to be terrible and Mutant Death Sex Cult Island wasn't a paradise is never going to happen because the fucking CLOWNS at Marvel don't want him to move past it. I may have my personal gripes about some of Hickman's writing but we can't deny the man wrote one of the best if only the best Marvel Event with Fantastic Four/Avengers/Secret War.

As for the simpler times comment, like I have my theories that I wrote out here, and that's what I think is most likely but I do think Pietro's life has never been easy or simple once his adoptive parents died. Pietro could be drinking to a time before the Brotherhood.

I would love for a Jewish actor to play Magneto and any other characters who are Jewish. I would love for a Jewish writer to be able to write them too. However Ian's performance literally set him in the minds of the people as Magneto, not even Fassbender's bleh one note Magneto could compare. Imo the only reason people liked the younger Magneto was because he was young, handsome (? ig idk i dont simp for him) and they could ship him with young professor X (cowards. where is the old man ship???) But I feel like a new actor could definitely fill the role if they are Jewish and the writing was good.

Magneto's writing in comics... well I just wish we could have a Jewish writer for him. There's some great stuff for him but I feel like characters like him and Doom could be written better by non white/american writers.

Although by today's standards the og X-Men trilogy doesn't hold up I will defend the first two movies with my life simply because after Blade these movies opened up the idea that a good serious, non campy version where characters called Magneto and Cyclops were taken seriously. X2 in my mind was the definitive X-Men movie. Was it totally comic accurate? No, but it doesn't do what the MCU does, it doesn't treat the watcher like they need to have their hand held through all the military propaganda and "hints to the comics". Also side note; the reason no one cared about any of the other X-Men being recast is because all through most of the X-Men movies the focal story point has been Professor X vs Magneto. If they really want people to care about those characters/actors then we would need stories that focused on them. Not like how Storm barely had any character growth or plot in the og X-Men and even young Ororo got mishandled by the script. This is why I feel we should have "origin movies" for the X-Men that don't do what Wolverine Origins did and try to make a whole new cast but instead should use the stories as they are. If it was Kurt's story then we would see him join the X-Men, and have the other actors revolve around that. Same with each of the others, the X-Men work best when they are working off each other and each given enough screen/page time to shine. Unfortunately we all have our favorites, even movies and writers, so those are who are going to be pushed for fans to love.

Thank you for your long rant and sorry for my own long rant/reply.