#its arguably my favorite part of the books

[crookedkingdom]

i love reading about gavilar dying over and over and over and over and over again

[crowcrash]

would you believe me if i said i’ve read legends: darkstalker at least a dozen times

[pomefioredove]

Normally not too interested in noble bell but your writing for the popping into bell instead of nrc and characters and characterizations have captivated me and quite frankly I think its INCREDIBLY fun story so far, interest definitely piqued :]

Love how Crowley extended an invite to reader. Who would have no doubt still ended up in ramshackle i feel like.

Debatably the bell tower is less moldy and rickety than that building yfYGHV

I also adore Clo and Pierrot they are very fun, wet rag and theater kid, im not gonna be surprised whatsoever if they end up tied as favorites for me

Rollo being a stalker for a hot minute is definitely not anxiety enducing for anyone whatsoever ( poor reader has to deal with that probably unintended horror and dread for abit and then The entire school tryna kill them ... rough day wmnjsb)

Hugo is fun and I like em :] goat...

Phoenix is also fun! I enjoy how he showed genuine concern in a way when he noticed reader stop in place, least some people're nice so far to em

Overall i binge read prologue book 1 parts 1 and 2 and have no regrets your writing is pretty nice I think

okay first of all anon hggggggr you guys have no idea how much I love when people analyze my writing like this. I love it sooo muchhhh I love hearing your thoughts!!!! TELL ME EVERYTHING!!!

anyway yes... I really had to include that line about crowley because it goes with my personal headcanon that he was never looking for a way to get yuu home, he just needs a boarder (free labor!) and is actively trying to keep them there as long as possible. I hate/love him so much. the staff of noble bell are just willfully ignorant and not as fun

I found characterizing the boys very difficult because like, NRC? all of the characters there are supposed to be bad people who do bad things. they're based on villains. but, arguably, victor hugo's characters, including claude frollo, are layered, humanized, morally complicated, messy human beings. I want readers to both empathize with, and kinda dislike these guys

NRC has a reputation for having a pretty cruel student body, but Noble Bell doesn't, Noble Bell has a reputation for being traditional, yet modern, in a way. in Glorious Masquerade, Rollo both praises the past of the college and Fleur City, and then says things like "oh, but that's not who we are anymore, now we're a safe and modern and accepting city!" which is obviously not true. not to me, at least. they put up the guise of kindness and tolerance but there's trouble beneath that

what I wanted the characters to be, then, are people who seem intelligent, proper, put-together etc, but who all have something, some flaw that wouldn't be accepted by their society and school, that draws them to Yuu. Rollo included

there'll be a lot more of that in book 2 (ᵕ—ᴗ—)

[wanderingnork]

Having finished all Wizard101 worlds, I can actually make a full tier list! And yes, I know some of these are DEEPLY controversial opinions. (Polaris not being best world? Le gasp!)

I’ll explain the rankings, worst to best, below the cut.

F: Avalon. It’s the worst world. I, a myth wizard with subpar gear, soloed everything except the Indigo Giant boss, who I just needed help with because of his stupid damage output. The world design is cramped: you’ll be asked to go on an epic quest to retrieve something from a villain who lives right around the corner. The entire Lakeside area, with several distinct “biomes” (I don’t know a better word), is either the same size or smaller than the Caer Lyon area—which is a single town. The cartoony square trees and simplified textures are out of place in Arc 2’s more complex world designs. Its placement in the Arc 2 narrative is jarring. Yes, it gives us some Morganthe background, but that’s not remotely the core of the plot. Sandwiched between Zafaria (atmospheric, relatively high stakes) and Azteca (somber, arguably the highest stakes in the game), it feels…silly. It could have been a side world and if it was, I’d have a lot less beef.

D: Marleybone. While it has some redeeming qualities (I do love the steampunk elements very much and the Big Ben dungeon is a goddamn blast), it’s overall…meh. Every area is virtually identical various shades of gray—at least in Mooshu, also repetitive, the color schemes change by area. It’s terribly classist and when you look any deeper than the surface things get weird. Why the fuck are we attacking street sweepers???

D: Empyrea. My complaints about cramped world design go for this one, too. The supposedly huge Aeriel Jungle is smaller than all of the city of Zanadu. As much as I love the game’s pop culture references, this world took it too far. A wink and a nudge or a clever spin is WAY different than just dumping the cast of Star Trek into the main plot. And it’s every two steps in Part 1! The NPCs are 50/50 endearing and obnoxious to me. I adore the Aero Plains, at least. It’s one of the most aesthetically pleasing areas of any world. And Part 2’s focus on the Raven-and-Spider conflict is really good.

D: Zafaria. There’s an essay to be written on the troubling tropes at play in this world and more expert people than I have written those. Tldr, the sheer volume of stereotypes, the use of the “noble savage” trope, and mishmashed cultures are really an issue. And there isn’t a lot else going for this world, plot-wise or cool-NPC-wise. I find Zafaria forgettable, unless I’m cringing. Or thinking about the awesome giraffe librarian, who is indeed awesome.

C: Celestia. It’s just really uneven. I fuckin love the District of the Stars and Stormriven, but the Floating Land and the fact that I have to deal with Marleybonians are not thrilling. The crab empire is…fine. Quirky and par for the course. I appreciate how the story advances toward the more epic elements of the setting and the postapocalyptic history as you go along, but getting that far can be a drag.

C: Mooshu. This one shares most of Zafaria’s racial issues and suffers from Marleybone’s deeply repetitive area design. Repetitive enemies, too—monstrology on that world is visually boring as fuck. But it’s a lot less forgettable. The War dungeon is one of my favorites in the game, and the first time I can remember going “oh hey this game does more than kid’s book isekai.” Taking it as a whole, and including Catmandu and Kembaalung which have gorgeous design, it’s a perfectly average kind of world.

C: Wysteria. LORD BRAMBLE WAS RIGHT GODDAMMIT WHY CAN’T I SIDE WITH HIM??? I mean…it’s a Hogwarts Triwizard Tournament expy. It’s cute. I like having a world with no vast plot impact. The library dungeon design is absolutely kickass. But it’s just not…big enough to rate super highly. It’s there and gone. If we ever get to go *back*, I’d probably put it higher.

C: Wallaru. It’s pretty cool. The Outback area was gorgeous and as a horror fan I fucking adore Freddie Kroaker. The bosses were great, I’m a huge fan of the cheats in Wallaru (soloed almost all of them). What I couldn’t quite figure out is how I feel about the politics. It felt…off, how they handled the association between this fictional world and real Australia. I’m not educated enough to speak extensively on it, just to say that it felt Weird from what I do know. And hoooo boy. As much as I fucking adored the finale with the Doom Moon, I am N O T a fan of the sudden conspiracy reveal. Can we…not do antisemitic tropes like that? Please?

C: Aquila. It’s super cool and aesthetically gorgeous but ultimately it’s a collection of cool dungeons and epic combat challenges. As a player who primarily is here for the story, I am completely neutral on Aquila.

C: Novus. This got kicked down from B (where it belongs on plot reasons) by three things. One: the puzzle monster dungeon THAT ACTUALLY MADE ME MOTION SICK. I’m sure they were trying to get creative. N O P E. Two: while I know the NPCs needed to be unlikeable, they may have taken that too far. Mario di Mario specifically was so obnoxious I like to think my wizard actually punched him. Three: the Marleybone area was dumb as hell visually. Why the fuck did they use fire hydrants as houses? In context of all Marleybone stuff we’ve previously seen, it makes no sense.

B: Krokotopia. Suffers from somewhat repetitive level design, but the color scheme changes in every area and each area’s new theme is a banger. Especially Tomb of Storms. I adore the Manders so much. The issues of Marleybonian colonialism—which will come back all the way down the line in Novus—are at least loosely addressed. Including House of Scales, which has incredible design, music, and combat, I enjoyed pretty much everything in this world. (Caveat: Selenopolis hasn’t been released as of this list. Krokotopia position subject to change.)

B: Polaris. Wonderful world. Way too fucking cramped. Why is the Forlorn Tayg, a supposedly vast area, barely the same size as the Gulag? It also moves too fast for me, I could have done with a little more lingering and sidequesting. But I fucking love all the NPCs, I love how you meet a male ballerina wearing a tutu who’s not a joke and the penguins don’t have deranged sexual dimorphism in their designs, and the Borealis Titan is incredible.

B: Mirage. Many lovable NPCs and many beautiful areas, with special shout-outs to the Chronoverge and the Alkali Barrows. Loved the cat politics. The Pacman dungeon is hilariously brilliant and the Sands of Time are glorious. Suffers from SEVERE stereotyping and racism, I spent a lot of time absolutely cringing. Brought back deranged sexual dimorphism in character designs (why are the camels Like That). I may be the only person who didn’t like Istar and I’m okay with that.

A: Wizard City. It has its ups and downs. I include the Catacombs here, as well. There’s just so much content for so many levels, you know? I love the vast majority of it, both old and new designs. I don’t love the Gobblers, that’s…always been weird to me. Surprisingly I’m not a Catacombs fan. But everything else, the Three Streets and Unicorn Way and Ravenwood and the Commons…yeah. I love it. It really feels like home, somehow.

A: Karamelle. WE GET TO JOIN A UNION AND TEAR DOWN CAPITALISM. There are gummy bears you can fight! Fields of candy corn and orchards of gumdrop trees! I did almost this entire world solo, including the optional bosses, except the Bundozer. Has one of the creepiest areas in the entire game—you know the model town where the speakers play the Karamelle theme? Ever go to the edge of that map, where the speakers fade and the whole world goes quiet? It’s great. I don’t like gross-out humor though, so loses points for Gobblerton. And…the accents were painful.

A: Dragonspyre. While it struggles with deeply repetitive area design, there are enough unique locations—the Crystal Grove, the Great Spyre, and the Grand Chasm stand out here—that it’s not as overwhelming as Mooshu and Marleybone. More importantly, to me this is where the game gets its stakes. The threat that Malistaire presents—waking the Dragon Titan—stops being theoretical. You’re walking through the consequences of the last time the Titan woke. You get your quests from the ghosts of Dragonspyre. It’s serious now. Your eventual victory means something in a way that other victories haven’t.

S: Grizzleheim. Including Wintertusk here. Has some of the best, most unique level designs in the entire game. Areas are of reasonable size to traverse, but still give a powerful sense of scale to the world. Stunning music throughout. While I affectionately call it “Grizzlehell” for being so fucking difficult, that’s actually really amazing. It feels like a true challenge, especially when the worlds around it are speeding by. The stakes grow in a reasonable way throughout the quest line, from the easy stuff in Savarstaad Pass until it makes sense in Wintertusk that you’re here to stop the end of the world.

S: Lemuria. God. I loved this so much. It falls victim a bit to the problem of Too Many Shout-Outs that Empyrea did, but here…they mean something. The use of Silver Age/pulp fiction heroes is meant as a thematic exploration of what heroism means. It’s not pop culture for the sake of the thing, it’s an analysis of that culture through affectionate parody. What does it mean to be a hero? Is “heroism” a single thing, or something more? Can something be heroic sometimes and villainous another? It’s a good interrogation of that concept, is what I’m saying. The areas are reasonably sized for easy travel, but still have diverse “biomes” without feeling cramped. Each one is so unique! The heroes of Lemuria are endearing, and Dasein is wonderful. The unfolding plot is strong, too. I was genuinely sad when I left Lemuria and cheered aloud when I got to see the Heroes again at the end of Wallaru.

S: Azteca and Khrysalis. These two have to go together. I get why people don’t like them. They’re…kind of a lot. They’re full of “defeat and collect” quests with shitty drop rates, the bosses have insane health, and there are just so damn many quests. But…not only are they both beautiful in design with gorgeous music, they also have some of the highest stakes in the game. After so many worlds of victory, Azteca’s finale is a punch in the face. With brass knuckles. You fail. You lose. A whole world is destroyed. And the narration throughout the world, pointing out your heroism and superiority, makes it hit even harder. (As a paleo nerd, it makes me smile that Azteca is dinosaur-and-Aztec themed. The Chixulub impact crater is off the Yucatán Peninsula, home of the Aztecs—the world of non-avian dinosaurs ended there. Cool nod to real geological history.) And that failure makes Khrysalis feel intense. You now know that this game won’t always guarantee victory, so stopping Morganthe has a genuine sense od suspense—will the game makers let this be a victory? Or will Arc 3 be dealing with the fallout of the end of the Spiral as we know it? And Khrysalis is fucking dark. A whole sidequest is finding a mother’s lost child, who has been brainwashed into a military cult and may die. This was changed in a recent update, but when I played through the world the “defeat and collect” quests were “kill and collect.” It pulls no punches and never tries to make things simpler or friendlier. There are pop culture references, sure, but many are to older grim fantasy stories like those of Michael Moorcock and his contemporaries. It’s heavy. There are truly high stakes. You feel like you can fail. And to me, that story makes the combination of Azteca and Khrysalis the best worlds in the game.

[kwisatzworld]

List of Valentino Rossi books and documentaries:

inspired by @pgaslys list of marc’s docs

📚 Books

What If I Had Never Tried It [English/Italian/Spanish/German/Japanese/Chinese, etc.]: Vale’s only autobiography to date, translated into a lot of languages (so many that it’s hard to keep count). The English edition is notoriously rough - think spelling mistakes and some lost-in-translation moments. Despite this, yellow fans absolutely shouldn’t miss out on this gem. Published in 2006, during Vale’s zenith with five consecutive championships under his belt, the book radiates his happiness and confidence. The narrative is casual, with chapters loosely connected, but you will still find pleasure in reading this book.

MotoGenius: the Valentino Rossi biography by Mat Oxley: Oxley remains my all-time favorite Rossi author! Initially published years ago, the latest edition is available on Kindle. It’s a treasure trove of Vale anecdotes and Oxley’s unique insights, offering a glimpse into how Vale captivated his generation.

The Valentino Rossi Files: Everything I’ve ever written about VR by Mat Oxley: Available on Kindle, this collection (in two parts) encapsulates all the articles Oxley wrote about Vale for magazines and newspapers before joining Motor Sport Magazine.

Valentino Rossi: The Definitive Biography by Stuart Barker: A comprehensive biography of Vale, chronologically organized.

Valentino Rossi: Il Dio del Motociclismo by Fabio Fagnani [Italian]: Not recommended as the author’s fan-like admiration making it read more like a love letter than a biography. The only saving grace is the interview with Aldo Drudi.

Valentino Rossi: All His Races by Mat Oxley [English/German/Japanese/Serbian]: Chronicles every race of Vale’s career, enriched with exclusive interviews.

🎥 Documentaries

When asked about a movie about himself, Vale said, “If it’s a bad movie, I’d rather it didn’t exist.” He holds a similarly cautious stance towards documentaries, and has never personally produced a documentary about himself, though perhaps that might change at some point in the future.

Faster (2003) : Premiered at the Festival de Cannes during MotoGP’s golden era, this documentary intriguingly portrays the rivalry between Vale and Max Biaggi.

The Doctor, the Tornado, and the Kentucky Kid (2006) : Focuses on the 2005 season, especially the US Grand Prix, you can see the beautiful yellow livery of Yamaha’s 50th anniversary.

Fastest (2011) : A sequel to Faster.

Hitting the Apex (2015) : Arguably the best MotoGP documentary out there. Vale and Marco riding into the sunset to ‘Wish you were here’ is a poignant moment.

Valentino Rossi: The Doctor (2016) : Produced by Monster Energy, primarily illustrating how Vale expanded his empire step by step.

Racing Together (2017): MotoGP history isn’t complete without its greatest icon, Vale features for about 15 minutes.

Valentino’s Secret Room: Inside the Doctor’s Hidden Archive (2020) : Produced by Dainese, revealing Vale’s personal collection.

Ruta 46 – Ruta 93: El camino de dos mitos (2021) : Produced by DAZN España, unfortunately I haven’t seen it yet – if you have, let me know how it tells the tale.

Tales of Valentino (2021) : A nine-episode documentary series produced by Dorna, showcasing different aspects of Vale’s career through nine significant races.

RiVale | Valentino Rossi as Told by His Rivals (2021) : Produced by DAZN Italia featuring Vale’s main rivals (except Marc), sharing their stories with him.

Rossi | BT Sport Documentary on the Career of MotoGP Icon, Valentino Rossi (2022) : Produced by BT Sport following Vale’s retirement, highlighted by Suzi Perry’s captivating hosting style.

MotoGP Unlimited (2022) : No need for a lengthy introduction – it’s probably already been watched by everyone by now.

[hopelesromantc23]

Look, as a viewer, I am charmed by Francesca being bi or gay or queer, and that her (spoilers) future love interest is a woman. I think further lgbtq storylines are superb, and I love that her first romance is exhibited in this earlier season.

However, as someone whose favorite Bridgerton book is, indeed, Francesca’s, I’m mildly disappointed that we won’t have the heartache and pining of Michael having to assume John’s role as the presumptive heir and then Francesca’s decision to get back on the marriage mart be due to her desire to have a child. I just cannot (truly, my imagination must be limited) wrap my head around how they will achieve that storyline.

If you’re going to set a series based on high-society Regency England (and its delightful fantasy of racial cohesion and man-made fabrics with plastic sequins and no bonnets), alright, I can get on board for the fun of it and I’m a sucker for romance and happy endings (see username). But what makes historical romance so attractive (lol) are the societal conventions, the behavioral limitations, and the repressed feelings for the sake of class dynamics and all that goes with it.

Michael Stirling is, arguably, one of the best Bridgerton love interests. He is constant, loyal, and, granted, a charming and sexy reformed rake, BUT he behaves honorably. One of the lovely parts of their love story is his friendship with Francesca. And Michael loves his cousin and best friend, John, and (in never wanting to compromise or hurt John) he loves Francesca from afar from the evening he meets her at F & J’s engagement party. His heartbreak at John’s sudden passing and feelings of emotional impotence in helping Francesca grieve, and his huge reluctance to assume the title Earl of Kilmartin are major facets of the book.

I love that Francesca is queer-coded, I think that’s great, and I love the representation in the show. The only thing that bothers me is that she already had so much going on as a character - which is fine, people are multi-faceted. The showrunners made her neurodivergent (great), they gave her a single-target obsession (piano - love it), they gave her “I’m moving far away and I don’t want a big noisy family” (solid), and not to mention marrying a handsome Black man who is also quiet and thoughtful. All of this to say, of course she can be queer - but how does this serve her story?

I just don’t know how the producers will make Michaela conflicted about inheriting a historically-male role, burden and responsibilities, and having an heir when that was a huge facet of the book and has been a previous plot point in the show. That being said, the showrunners have done other interesting things, have been really thinking ahead, and so let’s see what they do. I look forward to it.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, feel free to let me know what you think!

[not-wholly-unheroic]

I hope to write a full review of Peter Pan and Wendy at some point in the near future once I’ve had the chance to rewatch it a few times, but in the meantime, it makes me sad that so many people seem to have hated it, and I need to just gush about a few of my favorite parts.

(Warning: This list will contain SPOILERS for the film.)

Wendy’s very realistic reaction to having her favorite bedtime story character show up in her bedroom in the middle of the night (“How are you real?!).

The reworking of the “kiss” scene. Although the childhood romance/first love thing between the two of them in most versions is adorable, seeing Wendy sort of mentally panic and scramble to find SOMETHING to give Peter when, after getting hurt, Michael suggests someone give him a kiss to make it better and Peter says he doesn’t know what that is but he thinks he needs one is hilarious and totally something an awkward teen girl would do when confronted with kissing a boy in front of her brothers.

Mr. Smee’s good heart and kindness. Gaffigan’s Smee tries on more than one occasion to shield the kids from the worst of Hook’s wrath and/or scary situations as best he can while still being loyal to Hook. And it is openly acknowledged that there is a sort of father/son relationship between Hook and Smee due to Smee having pulled him from the sea when he was just a boy. Law’s Hook isn’t always good to Smee, but he very much recognizes he wouldn’t be alive without him. It’s also nice to see that although a bit of a dork sometimes, this Smee isn’t stupid, and actually seems pretty perceptive at times.

The sea shanties!!! I love that they found a way to work a few songs into the film without it feeling too out of place in a live-action movie that isn’t a full-on musical. The songs themselves are catchy and the lyrics (which are mostly about things in the deep that will eat you…) serve to remind us of the hellish nightmare Hook lives every day in fear of the crocodile. We also get a nod to the Disney sequel. (Props to the songwriter for managing to work the word “cephalopod” into a song and actually having it fit the rhyme.) Also, the second song arguably has a ticking motif in the slow drum beat.

The crocodile’s appearance and attitude. This thing is terrifying. It’s HUGE. There is absolutely no one in their right mind who wouldn’t run from this creature. While it wants Hook most of all, it isn’t opposed to eating others either (and does apparently nab a few men who get shoved out of the way by Hook or who aren’t fast enough). Also, all the spears sticking out of its hide. Makes me think of Moby Dick. The crew has apparently tried on many occasions to get rid of this crocodile but it refuses to die.

The similarities and differences in Peter’s fight with Hook at Skull Rock as opposed to the animated film. Hook ALMOST steps off a ledge at one point like in the animated version, but Smee is there to grab us coat and pull him back before he can fall. We also get some good shadow sequences like in the animated film…but apparently, Hook’s shadow can harm Peter’s with the effect that Peter himself actually feels it.

Hook’s reaction to the crocodile. His first words on seeing the creature are just a very quiet sort of shaky, “Oh, God….” When it lunges for him at one point, he freezes in terror for a second before his instinct to run kicks back in. This man is traumatized.

Hook and Peter’s relationship. Okay, yeah, I’m upset they went with the very cliche “Hook was a Lost Boy” deal which has been done so many times now in book retellings that it’s not even new or interesting anymore (not to mention Hook really needs to be an Etonian to make him who he is…) BUT I am very pleased at the emotional depth the actors and writers went to here for BOTH of the characters. Hook is still clearly capable of brutality but he’s also deeply wounded. Peter is selfish and cocky like any little boy might be, but he’s not evil and genuinely misses the friend he used to have in James. They weren’t black and white hero/villain tropes. They were complex characters who both dealt with things poorly, and it takes Wendy pushing on their emotional walls and asking hard questions to finally make them see they can stop hurting each other and maybe repair what has been broken.

The quotes they gave Law as Hook. So many good ones that I may make an entirely separate post about it but the entire brig scene with Wendy is gut-wrenching. At first, my reaction was, “Why is he telling her all of this?” But then, I remembered that even Barrie’s Hook has a tendency to monologue and I think part of the reason he tells her so much is simply because she might be the first person other than Smee to actually want to LISTEN to his side of things. (Much as how Tink points out later in the film that Wendy is one of the first people to really hear her.)

Peter actually needing and accepting help. While admittedly, I think they may have leaned into the “girl power” thing a little too heavily in this version, it was nice to see Peter actually realize that he DOES need people in his life and that it’s OKAY to ask for help sometimes.

Everything about the ending. Peter apologizing to Hook and flat-out refusing to fight him. Hook’s initial anger and disbelief. Peter reaching out and grabbing him by the claw to keep him from falling. The pained and terrified look on Hook’s face as he scrambles to come up with just one happy thought and can’t find any. The look of horror from Peter as he watches his former best friend fall to what he assumes will be his death. The fact that Peter MOURNS for him. The symbolism of “Hook” falling away and dying while “James” survives. The little hopeful smile he gives when he sees Peter coming back. UGH! It was SO GOOD!!! 😭 And that’s not even including the emotional scene with Peter and Wendy saying their goodbyes on the rooftop in London.

This film wasn’t without it’s flaws. The pacing was a little off in places, and it doesn’t feel quite like an epic adventure…but BOY, does it have some heart to it.

[mysticalflyte]

so uhhh... should I watch the LOGH remake or the seventy-billion-episode original? What's your opinion on them? Is one better than the other?

Hey there! I’m no authority on this, but my personal opinion from having watched both to completion is that the original 110 episode OVA is better :D

Here are some reasons:

1) The Character Designs - the OVA has beautiful and distinguishable character designs, on top of voice acting, that will always remain classic to me. As a fan artist, I vastly prefer the looks of the cast in the OVA over the versions of everyone in DNT. For example, Walter von Schonkopf’s face in DNT looks more plain and generic than his OVA counterpart:

2) The Music - DNT has fine modern orchestral arrangements, but the OVA actually inserts lots of classical music throughout the show, adding to the grandeur of the experience! For example, there’s a particularly memorable part where a small fleet of fighter jet spaceships launch out into space to do battle with Spanish Dance from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky blasting in the background that I’ll never forget 😆

3) The Story Itself - As the original source material is actually a series of novels, the story is adapted slightly differently between the OVA and DNT! DNT is arguably more accurate to the books in its order of events and pacing, while the OVA takes more creative liberties by adding more depth to certain background characters that are brushed over in the original material, while also slowing the pacing down a bit. I have talked to someone else who also has watched both and they said that they could Feel the passion and love that the OVA creators felt for each character more that way! For example, Admiral the Cat is totally an OVA invention and is so fun to watch! Yang Wen Li, my favorite character, seems less infallible and more endearingly dorky and tired of being pushed around in the OVA compared to his more perfect DNT counterpart. There are also so many more humorous verbal quips littered throughout the OVA that are very memorable. 😀

Ultimately I think it’s up to you! Keep in mind that the OVA is already fully complete while DNT has only covered like 30-40%(?) of the story at this time. Even if you were to start DNT, you would most likely have to hop over to the novels or OVA anyway later.

In all fairness, I’ll also give some more positive points on DNT:

1) Being Modern - it’s modern, so the animation quality is probably easier to get used to as it’s done by Production IG starting in 2018

2) The Battles and Ship Designs are Flashier - there is usage of CGI models for the space battles but honestly they do a pretty good job blending everything in with flashier effects not present in the OVA

That’s about it! Just my opinions, feel free to do with this information what you will :)

[mariacallous]

The inside cover of my grandmother’s cookbook is inscribed with her handwriting, “Think of me when you cook.” It is a copy of the same spiral-bound book that has been given to all of the women in my family. “The Sephardic Cooks: Comé Con Gana” has somehow made its way from one synagogue in Atlanta to Sephardic communities and families from New Jersey to California. It has all the classic recipes, including a section titled “Main Dish Pastries.” These dishes are the cornerstone of the Sephardic tradition, desayuno.

The word “desayuno” literally translates to “breakfast” in Ladino, the dying Judeo-Spanish language historically spoken by Sephardic Jews. Yet, the meaning extends beyond that one meal. In Sephardic culture, desayunois a category of foods associated with the large Saturday morning meal that would be served after Shabbat, including egg dishes and savory pastries. 

These desayuno foods are some of my favorite things to eat and the ones I most associate with my own family traditions. The blocks of crustless quajado (spinach quiche) that always seemed to be in my childhood freezer, ready to thaw for lunch. The doughy, cheesy spinach boyos my grandmother would have ready for our breakfast every time we traveled to visit her. The pasteles (mini meat pies) my great-aunt taught to a room filled with four generations of cousins at our family reunion last summer. The rice-and-cheese-filled bureka pastries my mom comes over to make with my kids and me. 

While delicious and crowd-pleasing, these are also some of the most time-consuming recipes to prepare. I picture my great-grandmother standing in a friend’s kitchen as all the ladies of the community work together to knead mounds of dough, mix a vat of filling, fold and crimp sheets and sheets of burekas. Whether this is accurate or just my imagination justifying why it feels intimidating to make these by myself, desayuno pastries do not align well with today’s fast-paced, individual lifestyle. Save for the times my mom comes to bake with us (importantly, bringing a container of prepped filling), making dough and pastry from scratch is not happening in my kitchen. 

I hope to be a part of the thread that keeps Sephardic traditions alive, yet I do not want to let perfection be the enemy of my intentions. I think my grandmother would agree. While she baked burekas with all of her grandchildren and always had a freezer full of freshly baked rosca (coffee rolls), she was never one to turn down a good shortcut. She developed her own boyo recipe featuring Hungry-Jack biscuit dough as the base and once described to me a full lentil soup recipe, only to end it with, “or you could just buy a can of lentil soup.” She loved when I would call her to share that I had tried a Sephardic recipe, such as cinnamon biscocho cookies or lemon chicken soup. Whether my attempts had been successful or a flop (like my rock-hard biscochos), her smile would be audible through the phone saying, “I’m just so glad you tried.” 

As Sephardic culture and traditions fade and assimilate, food provides an important outlet to preserve history and share it with family and friends. More important than getting it right or spending hours in the kitchen is remembering our traditions, trying recipes, talking about or simply eating Sephardic foods, regardless of who made them.  

In that spirit, I would like to propose lowering our standards, for the greater good of keeping traditions alive. Consider a desayuno with fewer parts or with a little help from the freezer aisle. Rather than the large spread my ancestors would prepare for days in advance, consider making one thing from scratch (though I won’t tell if you cook zero things). You could make a batch of burekas or a quajado, arguably the easiest of the Sephardic breakfast dishes, or even just prepare a pot of hard-boiled eggs. Supplement with frozen spanakopita, Ta’amti Bourekas or a Trader Joe’s Greek cheese spiral for a full table. 

Nothing will taste quite like homemade pastries fresh from the oven and I still aspire to make them (occasionally). Yet, even when I munch a makeshift Sephardic meal, I will be thinking of my grandmother, just as she inscribed in her cookbook. As long as we are sharing food together, talking about Sephardic traditions, remembering meals and people who matter to us, I will call it desayuno. I think my grandmother would be proud. 

[nonbinaryspy]

Meta: Titania and Knightly Devotion

My favorite way to read Titania is that in spirit, she never stopped being a knight. When Ike brings up her past as a Crimean knight, she isn't particularly pleased it's being discussed, and alludes to having a lot to worry about. Still, her Tellius Recollection profile says that "she is not ashamed of bearing the title of 'Paladin.'" Meanwhile, Greil and Elena's past gives a good indication of what Titania might have meant about her worries.

Back when Greil killed Elena and the villagers, and had to flee Gallia with his children—one of whom had amnesia and the other of whom was only a little older than a toddler—I've always assumed Titania went with him. It's stated in the Tellius Recollection book that she has been with the company since its inception, but IIRC, we don't know anything about this time from her perspective. What did she know about the medallion? How must she have felt, learning what Greil had done, when Elena was also her friend? Did she mourn Elena privately for Greil's sake, as she would later try to contain her grief for Greil?

Regardless, leaving the knights to join this broken family was a big decision. She doesn't seem to harbor any ill will toward the royal family or the knights, even getting defensive of them in chapter four while debating how Daein's invasion will turn out. Her choice demonstrates great loyalty to Greil. She certainly admires many things about him—his strength, his love of his family, and his values, which she shares. Those values contain arguably the main difference between her life now and her time as a royal knight.

As the Greil Mercenaries' captain, she helps people regardless of their status rather than focusing on serving the royal family. She serves Crimea and its common good with as much dedication as any knight, but she is able to do it in a more direct way than a knight perhaps would, without the trappings of politics. However, her Tellius Recollection profile lists her likes as justice and honesty, very knightly virtues. One of her design notes even says that "traces of her time in the Crimean Royal Knights remain." I imagine this is referring to elements of her visual design and her proper bearing, but I think it goes deeper.

Parts of the plot emphasize sacrifice as an ideal of knights, while also questioning it when Elincia refuses to let Geoffrey sacrifice himself (A post about this is absolutely coming soon, btw.). Titania, in deciding to follow Greil, sacrificed whatever her old ambitions had been as a knight. She continues to focus on taking care of others while hiding her own feelings. Even when Greil dies, she mourns him in private while working to keep the company together. Though Ike suggests that Titania loved Greil, it seems to have been a selfless love, not one where she looked for anything in return. That said, unlike a knight who might be expected to die for their liege, she lives so she can continue to support the mercenaries. This is even shown in one of her retreat quotes, where she initially intends to sacrifice herself for Crimea as one of its knights would, but withdraws at Ike's command:

Titania: Urgh! Ah… …I can still… …can still…fight… Ike: Stop it, Titania! That wound could kill you! Hurry up and retreat! Titania: For Crimea… I must… This war hangs in the balance… I cannot withdraw… Ike: No, that’s why you have to withdraw! I need you alive! We’ll be all right! Believe in us! Titania: I understand…Ike. And I’m sorry.

Just as Titania is too important to the plot to succumb to permadeath in PoR, she is too treasured within the group for her sacrifice to be accepted.

Titania has many roles within the group. She's a mother figure to Ike and Mist, of course—this is especially apparent in her Mist supports, where she's particularly doting. She tries to get Mist to relax, helps her with chores, goes shopping in town with her, buys her a dress, and even compares her own role to Elena's while offering herself as a confidant. If she left Gallia with Greil, then she would have literally been with Ike as long as he can remember.

But she's also a mentor who helps Ike finish his training after his father dies, and an advisor who guides him in both practical and moral concerns. She represents his conscience throughout the game. Even her Rhys supports feature her expressing concern that Ike may be tempted away from the ideals his father represented re: helping others regardless of reward, though she becomes certain that won't happen. She's Greil and Ike's second in command who they can trust to put in charge due to her calm demeanor and steady ideals.

But if you think of her as almost treating herself like Greil's knight, then doesn't that cast her relationships with Ike and Mist in the same light? She protects them. She supports them without question, and puts her faith in Ike to lead the group on a virtuous path. Despite having very personal relationships with them, she remains formal, stoic, and chivalrous, like a proper knight, rather than fitting the image of a rowdy mercenary. She's been with Greil for far longer than she was a Crimean knight, but she truly earns the title of paladin.

What really sells me on this reading is her A support with Ike, which I'm going to include in its entirety because it's one of my favorites:

Ike: Titania? I wish to thank you. Titania: W-what? What’s with all the formality? Ike: There’s no guarantee that any of us will see tomorrow, and I want to tell you this while it’s still in my head. Will you listen? Titania: Um… All right, but…what’s with you? And what have I done to deserve your thanks? Ike: You have done much. You helped my father build this company. He had lost his wife and had two young children to care for… I wish to thank you for that. Titania: …Oh, Ike… Ike: I’ve taken everything in my life for granted, and it was all possible because of you. My thanks is far too late in coming. Titania: It’s not necessary, Ike. What I did, I did because– Ike: You loved him. Didn’t you? Titania: …!!! …Um… Ike: Perhaps I’m wrong. Regardless… I stand here alive today because of you. And I still want to thank you for it. Had you not lent a helping hand, I would most likely be dead. And my father’s life cut short as well. You helped to keep him alive until the Black Knight brought him down… You made his final years happy. Thank you. Titania: Oh, Ike… …I don’t… …Sniff… …Sniff… …Sniff… Ike: Unlike my father, I lack both experience and strength, but… I’m learning. Please, keep aiding and supporting me. Please… Titania: …Sniff… Of course… Of course I will, Ike.

This conversation demonstrates Ike's thoughtfulness. He acknowledges everything she's done for him and expresses his gratitude, and even guesses at her hidden feelings. It shows the considerate person that he's grown into, in large part due to Titania's influence. In a base conversation, he even finally opens up about the night Greil died, a traumatic moment that Ike has not shared with anyone, because he feels she deserves to know. This helps her come to terms with her grief.

What's relevant about their support here, though, is his formality. Given the presentation of Titania as a motherly figure, and the fact that Ike is even calling out her feelings for Greil, one would expect him to behave more personally here, a step more casual compared to their professional relationship. But instead, he becomes more proper than he is in even meetings with politicians. It's almost like he's recognizing the princely role he plays in her life—the person she's sworn to follow, protect, and advise. That gives him a sense of duty to ensure she's properly appreciated, and that he has properly entreated her for her aid. It's certainly not a role one would expect him to be happy taking on, but maybe that's what happens when the only mother figure you remember is a gallant former knight. Either way, I'm glad her dedication at least gets the recognition it deserves.

[seraphcelene]

IWTV 2.7: I Could Not Prevent It

I almost hate to keep circling the drain on what this season of IwtV has done, but it's so choice and so intentional and it makes my little writer's heart sing. I love it because I love narrative. Storytelling in all of its nuanced, complex, diverse ways is a thing that fascinates me to no end. An unreliable narrator is arguably one of my favorite things because I already have an almost immediate distrust of the narrative voice. So, when an author does that shit on purpose? 😍

Oh my Fucking Gods! I have a hard on for that shit because who do you trust, what's the truth, how do we understand the story we are being told? I love the act of identifying loosely patched over edges and pulling at loose threads. There's a lie here, someone is playing all up in my face and I want the answers! And a really good writer who implements an unreliable narrator leaves tells all the fuck over the place. After all ....

"You cannot script a hurricane."

Okay, here we are in episode seven, still circling the drain of who has ownership of the story? Louis is the vampire who is being "interviewed" with the occasional footnote offered by Armand. This is in tension with the book in which Louis's is the only voice. What has changed, to make this a richer story, is how introducing Armand's perspective now turns everything on its head. It's an explicit kind of dig at the way that interviews are curated by both the interviewer and the interviewee. What are you willing to discuss? What's on the record? What's off the record? How much external research and material will be introduced? How does the story survive interpretation? What's the fucking goal here?

I'm thinking a little about the Andrew McCarthy documentary about the Brat Pack and how one New York Magazine article in 1985 turned the lives of a group of up and coming actors sideways. David Blum, who wrote the article, had an agenda. He had a point to prove and the article wasn't especially flattering. Watching the doc it becomes clear that Emilio Estevez had a different idea about what that article was supposed to be about. But such is the nature of the interview. In the end, the story shared, in all of its limited, constructed dance of questions and answers is still subject to editing, the perspective of the interviewer, and interpretation by the reader.

Here, Louis has a point to make. Exactly what that is? Who really knows. He does the first interview as a kind of love letter/suicide note to the world before he walks into the sun. This "re-do" might still be such. It also might be his attempt to understand what happened. He has questions, he knows there's holes and somewhere in the back of his mind, he knows that he can't and doesn't trust Armand. He also could want to, as I think he states in S1E1, provide an accurate accounting of what vampires are like.

Honestly, I'm on the self-discovery train.

I love how when Louis gets angry, and he has been getting angrier and angrier, he snaps hard on people. The way he shushes Daniel, "I am speaking," was delicious. Armand's discomfort was apparent and I had to wonder given this is the season's penultimate episode what we're about to find out about what happened in the past and his part in it. He's been concerned about how this was all going to go and he's only gotten MORE uncomfortable as the series has progressed.

But, and as always, what do we get to really know? Who's story is being remembered?

Louis's true and living history?

A flawed truth that Louis remembers in fragments patched over by imperfect logic? (how memory maybe really works?)

A false truth fed to him by Armand?

How about a messy patchwork of all the fucked up above.

Lestat is back. Out for blood or on the apology tour, not exactly sure. The Brat Prince himself treading the boards of the theater he helped to establish, what a sight. Lestat loves the show, he loves performance. It's definitely one of the characteristics carried over from the book. Lestat is petty and savage and a liar. He makes himself a victim, but why? What is the value of it? The trial is a farce and Lestat feels wronged and wants revenge. He wants to be as important to Louis as Claudia is. He wants to be loved in return because he is a terrible person and he knows it, but also, Lestat de Lioncourt feels incredibly deep. For all of his toxicity, Lestat was written as a character who loves to the detriment of his own best interest. And he loves Louis. I remember them from the books as acknowledging that they are that couple who are meant to be together but never CAN be together because they are too toxic to each other.

"I couldn't force him to love me. I couldn't force him to return my affections … and so … I broke him." TOXIC and PETTY AS FUCK.

Stories told by the heartbroken. What lies do you make up to explain and justify a thing that happened so that you are not culpable?

Lestat in this episode and the next is also prepping us for the shift that must, to some degree, come with Season 3. How do you turn a villain into an anti-hero into a hero? Lestat is the hero of The Vampire Lestat and of The Vampire Chronicles. I think the show runners are starting that redemption arc now. Not the smallest part of which is Lestat as an unknown quantity, uncontrollable if he doesn't want to be.

Daniel's voice is honest and unnervingly direct. He strips the window dressing off of everything, exposing nuance to a critical light that leaves everything sordid and as ugly as reality just is. In that there is, perhaps, the closest we will ever get to the truth.

Arguably, if it weren't for Santiago we might forget that alot of this is bullshit. Angry, jealous, manipulative, Santiago's performance during the trial forces the viewer to confront the reality of a crafted narrative. He knows they're lying and spitting scripted facts skewed for effect. It was brilliant to watch the bounce between his goals and Lestat's constant slide into melancholia. HAHAHA! A hurricane, indeed. That guy was SO. ANNOYED.

Episode 7 continues with the manipulation of the storyline made as clear and explicit as it ever has been. The way the music is used during the trial, Lestat's lies and half-truths, the animation running on the screen. We're being beaten over the head with this blur between performance and reality.

Watching the re-tread of how Claudia became a vampire makes me me feel like I need to go back to watch Season 1. The gaslighting is real! And then Louis' capitulation to the differences in the way he remembers it happened and the way that Lestat says it happens is perfect! Tell it Lestat's way, for the book. Because he DOESN'T REMEMBER. There are, after all, three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth.

Louis' memory has been so tampered with. By time, by Armand's manipulations, by madness, and trauma.

I still maintain that Armand is trash.

I thought the title would be a quote from Louis who in admission of his own powerlessness laments Claudia's death as an unavoidable failure on his part. That it is Armand who has ownership of the line changes the story, as always. I could not prevent it suggests that there was nothing that he could do, but the reality, as has so often been the case with Armand, is that he did not want to. The entire sham trial was preventable had he chosen Louis over the coven to begin with. The unfortunate reality is that he, like Lestat, despised Claudia for Louis' adoration of her. He was jealous and would forever be and the only way that he could have exactly what he wanted was to get rid of her. Doing it this way, he gets to blame the coven and Lestat. Arguably, Lestat for all of his machinations and insecurities, his petulant rage, actually loves and was loved by Louis in a way that Armand, despite Louis's modern protestations, never can or will be.

I'm so in love with the way the story is told that I don't talk too much about Claudia. A BOOK could be written about the silencing of marginalized female voices. Claudia, despite her diaries, has no real voice in this. She is an assemblage of half-remembrances and a yellow dress pinned to the wall. It makes it so much more poignant and electric then that she curses every last person sitting in that theater before she burns. There is no need to hide that or shade it. It was not directed at Louis. Armand's willingness to allow Claudia to burn while not doing the same for Louis is tragic. And again, all of this could have been unnecessary. I've said before that I don't think Armand was ever much of an alpha.

[veliseraptor]

twenty questions for fic writers

tagged by @feralkwe - thank you! I feel like I've done this before but if I have it's been a minute so

1. How many works do you have on AO3? across pseuds I have 1,010 works. with my "current" one I'm at 607. that is more or less my entire oeuvre, though there's a fair number of short fics on tumblr I haven't gotten around to crossposting though I'd ostensibly like to at some point. eventually. maybe.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 4,873,723. aYIKES. but hey closing in on 5 million! wonder when I'll hit that. I bet I would if I posted my unfinished wips for the mcu tbh

3. What fandoms do you write for? ever or currently? the list of fandoms I have written at least one fic for (not counting ones where the one fic was a crossover) is [deep breath] the mcu, the untamed/mdzs, supernatural, the silmarillion, a song of ice and fire, black jewels trilogy, wheel of time, doctrine of labyrinths, death note, the caliban leandros series, avatar the last airbender, kinnporsche, doctor who, buffy the vampire slayer/angel, gentleman bastard sequence, marvel comics, harry potter, temeraire, good omens, code geass, realm of the elderlings, greek mythology, dragon age, sandman, dexter, lymond chronicles, the firekeeper saga, lucifer (the tv series), crimson peak, kushiel's legacy, the x men movies, chronicles of narnia, twilight, and a couple other small book fandoms.

i used to be a lot more multifandom than i am now in terms of what i wrote for, and have been writing fic for which is how this happened.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? Not my favorite fics, for the most part. They are:

Life in Reverse (MCU)

With Absolute Splendor (The Untamed)

some good mistakes (The Untamed)

half a league onward (MCU)

The Villain Wrangler (MCU)

5. Do you respond to comments? I do not. I feel bad about it, but (a) I don't know what to say, (b) I feel unbearably self-conscious/self-important trying and (c) I already have too much I'm trying to do in my limited time/too many obligations I have placed upon myself to add another one that will just stress me out. Again, I have all kinds of guilt about this, though, which probably kind of defeats the (c) purpose of not doing it.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Almost certainly Mercy, though it's possible I could dig up others; that's the literal murder-suicide one, though, and I'm pretty sure I've only written one of those. I've written a lot where one character dies but another survives and has to live with the grief, which is arguably worse? but I still think Mercy wins. once there was a way to get back home might give it a run for its money, though.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I've actually written a fair amount of fic with happy endings! just mostly they have to suffer to get there. but trying to think of fic with a straight happy ending...I feel like I wrote some fairly fluffy fic in Black Jewels Trilogy fandom that I don't want to link to because I don't think it's very good. Maybe Life in Reverse, honestly? That's a fic where I tied up most things and resolved them in a pretty happy way.

Oh, or actually With Absolute Splendor might qualify.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I have in the past! Not a lot, but it happens every so often. Usually I just delete it, tbh; it doesn't feel worth leaving it there and I'm certainly not going to respond to it.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Sure do, primarily for pairings that are dysfunctional in one way or another, and for the most part I want the sex to say something about the inner life/psychology of the characters I'm writing. truly plotless smut does happen but I find it weirdly difficult. I have to do so much pre-justification work for my smut, at least in my head if not on page.

a lot of what I write at least has a little bit of kink or D/s flavor to it even if it's not explicitly written as such (and a lot of it is at least a little explicitly written as such). I also like to write about power dynamics (in sex) and sex that's sublimating some other emotion or desire, if that latter makes sense.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I used to, but not anymore, and I probably won't; I don't know why, but I'm just generally not a crossover fan these days. But I did write a Lord of the Rings/Cthulhu Mythos Morgoth/Cthulhu fic back in the day. No, I'm not going to link it, you can find it if you really want.

The Scarlet Pimpernel/Black Jewels Trilogy might be objectively weirder but it was because of an RP and therefore feels more reasonable to me.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I had forgotten about it until just now, but yes, actually. Including one that actually got reposted on AO3, which takes a particular kind of guts that's not the same as reposting on Wattpad or the like, imo. (I've also had fic scraped off AO3 and reposted on other sites.) The person took it down when I called them out on it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I have been fortunate enough to have a number of fics translated into a few languages! I was curious which ones so I went and looked, and it looks like I've had fic translated into Russian, Chinese, and Japanese.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? I've started co-writing a fic but never finished one.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? Might have to give this one to xuexiao, though there's a lot of room in my heart for many ships! that's just one that hit an incredible number of my favorite things squarely on the head several times, leaving me concussed and helpless. It's so much, you guys.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? There's a number of my MCU wips that I look at and am like "yeah what I have of this is good actually, too bad I'll almost certainly never finish it", among which is Dead Superheroes Walking, the fic about everyone who died in Infinity War being trapped inside the Soul Stone and having to work together to fix the ensnappening from the inside. I have about 3/4 of it written if not more and the remaining quarter will probably remain unfinished. It was Wanda POV and a lot about Wanda and Loki bonding.

another one is the one where Hela decides instead of fighting Odin to strategically back down and plan to overthrow him later, and therefore is around while Loki and Thor are growing up. I really liked what I had of this one, and really enjoyed writing Hela's POV, but again. don't think I'm going to end up finishing it.

I have a whole folder called "MCU Salvage" that's basically my MCU wips that I parsed out because I was like "these are pretty good actually, maybe someday I'll have the motivation to return to them", which is probably delusional but, well. one never knows.

16. What are your writing strengths? I think I'm pretty good at dialogue - I love to write characters having conversations, probably to a fault - and, when it comes to fanfiction, characterization.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Worldbuilding for sure is one. I hate it, I don't think I'm very good at it. also description - I feel like I lean heavily on dialogue in fic and tend to go light on descriptive language. this is probably partly because I'm not a very imagery-focused reader, so I don't think a lot about creating a "visual" with my writing, but also because I just don't like doing it as much as I like writing about internal thought processes and interpersonal verbal exchanges.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I almost certainly would not do it, as someone who is monolingual and has zero confidence in my ability to do it right in a way that wouldn't read absolutely awfully. The one exception to this is in Lymond fic, and that's because the canon did it first, so it is fully justifiable for me to have this guy spout off in five languages in one fic. Otherwise...not since I tried writing a fake Phantom of the Opera fic mocking bad Phantom of the Opera fics.

19. First fandom you wrote for? I always say Wheel of Time because that's the first fandom of my heart but technically I wrote a crack Harry Potter fic before I wrote for Wheel of Time. But in my heart it was Wheel of Time. That was certainly my first fandom in any meaningful sense of the word.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written? This question is my nemesis. My favorite fic I've ever written changes at least once a month. I have a series for this on AO3 that I'm going to link to as a lazy answer to this question even though that's sort of 50 of my favorite fics, so sue me, I've written a lot of things over the years and I actually do like a fair number of them, even if you have to make me say so.

tagging uhhhh @highladyluck, @curiosity-killed, @ameliarating, @gloriousmonsters, i'm not sure how many people i'm supposed to tag for this but if you want to do it, go ahead?

[so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site]

When has Dream ever committed war crimes? I swear you dream haters like making up shit as you go along.

"Dream hater"? Me???

Okay, okay, I KNOW you're never supposed to respond to anon hate but this legit made me laugh! For real! Dream is one of my favorite characters ever! That does not mean he is always the nice soft good boy that the fandom likes to pretend he is!

I'm not the OP of that post, but to me it seems clear that they're using "war crimes" in the fandom slang sense of "he's an asshole who did bad things". Which he is for the majority of his existence! There are very few people he is genuinely nice or friendly with! Also, some of the stuff he does arguably could fall afoul of the Geneva Convention if he'd done them as part of an international conflict... which, like. That's not great if you're having to argue on the technicality of "but the wrongful imprisonment and torture wasn't part of a war!"

And him being a terrible person/personified existential concept is an integral part of the plot. The overarching question of the entire series is "can he change?" and its tension with whether or not HE believes he can change! And I felt the actual ending of the books answered those questions in such an unsatisfactory manner that I wrote an entire detailed essay about it... I'd say that's beside the point, but you did say I was a "Dream hater" and well, you don't write academic papers for fun about characters you truly despise.

Everyone in Neil Gaiman's Sandman universe is INCREDIBLY morally grey! That's part of the point! Every single one challenges the reader to think about what they value, how they interpret the character, etc. And even if you think a character is a jerk, or even evil, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy them as a character. That's the magic of fiction! But if you completely ignore half of their actions... do you even like the character at all?

[harpoonsandmusicals]

Ok so I just got around to listening to the very first episode of Dracula: The Danse Macabre, diving in with zero idea of what its about other than the title. and guys. 😍 im obsessed 😍😍 i'm so in

Gabriel Urbina is back at it again with the most vividly real scenes you've ever seen conveyed through only audio. I was completely engrossed in the world from minute one. The bit with the flies? The wolves distantly howling at every spooky part?

I'm also enjoying the characterization, from a noble and kindhearted but slightly stupid Jonathan Harker, to a very creepy ominous Dracula, to possibly the highlight: Mina's very pragmatic, dead-pan, snarky and yet no nonsense attitude (and her trusty typewriter)

This is going to be one of the most unique, out-there Dracula adaptions around and I am SO interested to see where it winds up heading

the rest of this is going to be super spoiler heavy SO GO LISTEN TO EP 1 RIGHT NOW PLEASSSSSE ITS SO GOOD ITS ONLY GOING TO BE FOUR PARTS AND DONT SPOIL YOURSELF

i trust that everyone who has not listened is gone. so.

THOSE PLOT TWISTS FOLKS????? WHAT EVEN.

the vampire-hunting organization thing came out of NOWHERE and had me genuinely giggling in delight. I also am intrigued by the idea of Dracula being the exception to a species of mindless beasts. Is it because he keeps eating the souls of smart people? I'm not sure about him apparently thinking smart people are genetic and that he's eaten all the ones around here, that feels very icky. I hope its an intentional character belief that they're planning on unpacking and examining.

About halfway through, I began to suspect that "Jonathan" might really be Vamp!Jonathan due to the very uncomfortable tension between him and Mina, especially after Mina's rant about Jonathan being noble and kind which seemed to very much be in the past tense. I was not expecting full on Dracula-just-using-Jonathan's-voice. Wow. It's so well done, too, because the transition into the voice is so smooth (I didn't even realize they had the same voice actor for a really long time), and its straight out of the original book so I knew to expect that bit from listening to Re:Dracula (it was just as creepy as Karim Kronfli's take), but the idea that he isn't just doing it to wig Jonathan out for a minute or two, that's just his voice now??? And then of course it reframes everything we've just seen between Mina and "Jonathan" this whole time. What a twist on the central conceit of the story, our assumed protagonist is just dead now. AND. I didn't read the "about" section for the podcast cause I wanted to go in blind, but even if I had, the line "dialogue between two of the novel's most iconic characters" CAUSE OBVIOUSLY THE AUDIENCE WOULD ASSUME MINA AND JONATHAN. BUT ITS DRACULA INSTEAD. WHICH ARGUABLE FITS "MOST ICONIC" BETTER. Aah I just can't get over it.

The whole scene with Mina and the priest was priceless. I think my favorite line might be "Aw, I'm here, you're here, the corpse is here, why don't we live a little?!" Iconic. And the perfect response to casual sexism. Second fav might be the bit where Jonathan talks about lock-picking being such a fine and delicate art...*cue loud smashing sfx* "Not having time for such things, I smashed the lock." Wonderful.

I'm so endless curious about what chain of events ensue to end with MINA and DRACULA in some random cabin(?) talking to each other and putting the report together instead of, you know, MURDERING EACH OTHER???? I can't wait for the next episode. I hope it will also have me giggling from sheer delight at the immense creativity the whole time

[garden-beans]

I want what 20th century women authors were on

Ok but no literally I was reminded of my favorite (as of right now I am fickle) gothic novel. Which guys let me tell you about Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. Have you ever wanted to read Jane Austen but like also the plot is on crack a bit? Yeah, I also didn't know I wanted that until I had it.

So like, maybe spoilers but the novel was also published in 1794 so I feel like its fine. I'm going to break the book's plot down into four, and i want emphasize this, very simplified sections.

Part One: Death. We start with the death of our main gal's (her name is Emily) parents, total bummer they were like a super nice family and now she has to go live in the wack castle with her aunt. Stuff does happen before her parents die but for the sake of not ranting too much the most important pre-parental-death facts to know is that the family's fortune was in decline, Emily accompanied her father travelling the world after her mom dies and while journeying she falls in love with this guy named Valancourt. But then her dad dies and it's aunt time. Oh also she meets a woman called Sister Agnes at the convent where her father gets buried, we will come back to her. Classic set up we love to see it nothing too big happening here. But this leads us to the next plot point the castle. You guessed it! It's Udolpho.

Part Two: Udolpho. Ok to be fair im skipping a bunch of stuff but we have to get through this, so straight up gothic castle on a cliff. I could go on a whole rant about the castle being a classic example of a large scary house in gothic novels and how arguably the main character could really be the castle and Emily is just our tour guide but I digress. Emily's Aunt has married this fuck ass guy named Signor Montoni, and he sucks so much ass. He forces Emily to break off her engagement with Valancourt (yeah that happened in the stuff i skipped) by manipulating her aunt. He also before they make it to Udolpho tries to force Emily to marry his creepy old man friend Count Morano and sign over her property to him (her uncle). But then switches up real fast when his friend turns out to be like loosing his money or smth and Montoni and her Aunt drag her off to Udolpho. Ok great they get there and turns out Montoni is like a bandit king/leader guy???? and the castle is their center of operations??? And then the castle is attacked by other people and Morano shows back up and tries to kidnap Emily but fails. Also castle is allegedly mad haunted. Emily finds a creepy black curtain and has a breakdown about a frightful thing she sees behind it, she thinks it is the body of Signora Laurentini di Udolpho who the Count was rumored to be married to before. Emily thinks he killed her and put her body there. Great. Montoni ends up inadvertently killing Emily's aunt cause she won't sign over her property to him and plans on leaving it to Emily, so he locks her in a tower and she just gets sick and dies there. Skipping some more stuff Emily and a few others run away and escape Udolpho which leads to....

Part Three: Chateau-Blanc. Yay! Second haunted house time! They end up nearby where her father died and was buried. Some supernatural shit is happening here too apparently and a servant shows Emily this room with a painting of the Marchioness de Villeroi and tells her about her. Emily is like aw fuck this lady might be my real mom we look crazy related and double fuck because this room is also seemingly very haunted. So another guy is like hey i'll spend the night in here to prove it isnt haunted! and the next day he is straight up gone so that sucks. Emily then ends up going back to the convent and visiting Sister Agnes who is dying now too. And death is a hell of a drug because she confesses her whole life story to Emily and turns out Agnes is Signora Laurentini di Udolpho and had been the Marquis de Villeroi's lover. And she and him conspired to kill the Marchioness de Villeroi who is Emily's aunt not her mom. And like men do the Marquis regretted what he did and blamed it all on Agnes/Signora Laurentini and told her she had to go repent for the rest of her life. And Oops Emily should have all her aunt's land and stuff actually so she is a wealthy woman now once she recovers it all. Also! that guy (Ludovico) who disappeared earlier in the haunted room shows back up! Turns out he was kidnapped by Pirates who were trying to rob the mansion, not ghosts.

Part Four: Final Weddings and Reveals. So the book ends with Emily and Blanche (another character she is important but... you get it)) getting married. Emily to Valancourt after a series of miscommunications I glossed over. Its like a whole romance subplot of 'is he worthy of her love? is he not?' going on during the last part up until they are like 'ooo we are in love lets marry'. Idk the romance isn't why i am here. I'm here because the very end of the novel reveals to us that this whole time the creepy maybe dead body Emily saw behind that curtain was a wax figure. And it like ribs on her for not taking a second more to look, hold on im pulling out the quote for this one “Had she dared to look again, her delusion and her fears would have vanished together, and she would have perceived, that the figure before her was not human, but formed of wax". Like damn ok yeah...

anyway I just really like this novel. Like! It's mentioned by Austen in Northanger Abbey, which is knowingly a parody or satire of the Gothic genre. And Udolpho is used as like this example of a great gothic story in it. But I feel like you could argue that Udolpho is almost a parody or satire in itself? Like Emily is never actually in any danger from supernatural happenings. The worst is her new uncle and some other creepy men. And while that also can fall into the gothic genre there is also this self awareness the story has of its own elaborate craziness. If that makes any sense? Idk it just throws so many plot twists and points at you in the best way.

[choices-binglebonkus]

The Crown & The Flame: An Exceptionally Rare Critical

I have made no secret of how much I love The Crown & The Flame. One of the three original series that accompanied the launch of Choices back in 2016, it holds a very dear place in my heart as one of my all-time favorites. However, I value objectivity, and am fully aware (and even appreciative) that all of my favorites, no matter how much I love them and no matter how good they are, have flaws.

The Crown & The Flame is no exception to this, and though I think the books have held up remarkably well, they’re definitely very flawed. Particularly book three. Most of my gripes with the series come from book three, actually, and that is the very subject of this post: the issues that came with the final book in the series.

As always, these are just my personal opinions. So if you love TC&TF, that’s great! I love it too. I just thought that, since the series gets so little criticism, I would take an objective stance and take up that role.

Pacing and filler

The first issue I’d like to discuss about book three is its pacing. Compared to the first two books where everything was go, go, go, this book doesn’t really do that. And I’m not a huge fan of that since the stakes are arguably larger in this book since Empress Azura has literally threatened to kill everyone in the Five Kingdoms should they not submit to her.

A lot of the chapters are positively BLOATED with fluff and filler. The first three chapters take place in Ducitora and the only major plot points that occur are that Kenna meets Azura, Leon is killed, and Azura wages war on the Five Kingdoms as Kenna and co. make their escape. I think that the first three chapters could have been condensed into one and a half chapters bridging onto the next major plot point. At the very least, we should have gotten to see more of Ducitora and Marossi. We got to see very, very, VERY little of it, and with little substance to show for it all.

Dom’s chapters didn’t have a lot of substance to them, either. It’s mostly just Dom fighting Hex’s mind control, making some semblance of progress, immediately failing and succumbing further to her control, and getting frustrated or feeling guilty. And, while I’m thinking about it, what purpose did Dom being captured by Hex serve? In what way does it further the main plot? It honestly just felt like the writers had Hex capture him just so he and Kenna wouldn’t be together 24/7 to keep them separate for their dual-lead chapters. In other words, his capture seemed to serve primarily as filler as well.

My biggest complaint regarding filler comes from chapters 13 and 14, which are E N T I R E L Y filler, no two ways about it. Chapter 13 focuses on Kenna speaking with all the allies she’s amassed, and the chapter time is seriously cut down if you haven’t recruited any diamond allies. Chapter 14 is the exact same thing, but this time, Dom is the one who talks to all the allies. Why they needed two chapters of pure filler, I’ll never know. But I’ll tell you what: back when TC&TF was still releasing on a weekly basis, I was so annoyed that we had two whole weeks of filler. There was no need.

The worst part about all the filler was the impact it had on the buildup to the final battle. Compared to book one and two where we fought tooth and nail for the entire book to get Stormholt back or to prepare for Luther’s return, the buildup to the battle with Azura felt very underwhelming: the book was mostly just a little bit of plot here, filler there and there, here we are switching POVs to one of the side characters for a couple of chapters, here’s some more filler. In books one and two, there was practically NO filler, and the buildup to the final battles was much better for it.

A lot of books are pretty notorious for filler and fluff, but TC&TF book 3, dare I say it, may have been the worst about it given the high stakes and the generally fillerless precedent set by the previous two books.

POV flipflopping

In books one and two, you got to play as characters other than Kenna and Dom in diamond scenes, plus that one time where Val infiltrated the Nevrakis stronghold masquerading as a handmaiden. Other than that, the writers stuck religiously to the Kenna/Dom POVs, and the story was much less choppy, confusing, and generally less all over the place because of it.

This is not the case in book three. You play as Kenna and Dom, yes, but the POV flip-flops around between other characters as well. Leon, Val, Raydan, even Whitlock. I’m shocked as hell that they didn’t somehow manage to cram in a chapter where we played as Annelyse or Sei.

Of these different POVs, Raydan’s was the most important and by far the least filler-y. It still didn’t really sit well with me, though. The Crown & The Flame is Kenna’s (and Dom’s, but mostly Kenna’s) story. Book 3 is 17 chapters. Kenna—the main freaking character—is either unplayable or mostly unplayable for nine of them. Nine! But she gets off much better than Dom—the deuteragonist, mind you—who only gets three chapters where he’s the main focus. And, of course, you’ll recall my previous complaints about how Dom’s chapters were filler. So.

Having all these different POV switches was not graceful in the slightest. It was unnecessary for the most part, and at times, it really came across as a Wattpad POV fic where the pre-teen author interjects every few paragraphs with <{[CHARACTER A’S POV]}> and ~{[CHARACTER B’S POV]}~ because, like I said, it wasn’t graceful, and it wasn’t necessary. Especially since TC&TF is a dual-lead story.

The allies

I actually made a ranking list from worst to best of every recruitable ally in TC&TF across all three books. It’s currently unpublished on my blog, but it’s been sitting on my computer for a while. At any rate, most of the book three allies were ranked very, very, VERY low. There are 32 recruitable allies in all, and numbers 32-27 on my ranking list are all book three allies.

Aurynn Amanth, though I liked her as a character, doesn’t do shit after you recruit her and is only in a grand total of two extra chapters if you recruit her, and for 25 diamonds, that’s so goddamn steep. Clover Hapley also serves no real purpose for 23 diamonds, but somehow appears more than Aurynn and for two fewer diamonds. Florian Tartassis and Zenobia Nevrakis were recruited just to fill the allies roster, plain and simple. Anton Luno was just kinda…there. And Luther—the Blood King who mercilessly slaughtered the royals and nobles of the Five Kingdoms, who conquered the realm and waged war against any who dared to rise against him—does fuck all unless you give him control of the Nevrakis army, then tries to murder Kenna at the end regardless.

There were only a few book three allies I ranked higher than #27. The Mechawolf Pup, who didn’t do much, and who I also found annoying as hell, but he was kiiiinda cute I guess. Lia really stuck her neck out for Raydan by translating the anti-magic book for him, but she doesn’t do much when you recruit her. And I love Madeline to pieces, but she’s 30 diamonds and only appears in five chapters.

Hex was the second highest ranked book three ally on my ranking list at #6 overall because she was such a complex character, and though she was incredibly morally grey, recruiting her nudged her towards active atonement and the chance to actually do some good in the world. Diavolos was ranked #3, and I think he really could have been an awesome character in the series if we had gotten to know him sooner because the dynamic between him and Kenna is impeccable, and he’s such a vulnerable character when you think he wouldn’t be.

Unfortunately, most of the book three allies are just there to fill the ally roster or do damn near nothing once you recruit them. The only allies we got who were heavy hitters were Hex and Anton (recruited jointly to fill the ally spots) and Diavolos. Since book three is the highest-stakes book of them all since we fight an entire fucking EMPIRE, we should’ve gotten some seriously powerful allies. Instead, most of who we got were characters who couldn’t fight: Aurynn, Clover, Madeline, Lia, the Mechawolf Pup, Zenobia, and Florian.

What kind of sense does that make?

Finishing things off…

The Crown & The Flame, to reiterate, is one of my favorite series in Choices. I’ve replayed it time and time again and never get tired of it because it’s just that kind of story. And I do like book three. I’m not saying it’s a bad book at all: it’s actually quite a good book. I just think it’s much less of a good book than 1 & 2, which were absolute titans to compete with.

Even my faves are imperfect. But that doesn’t mean I love them any less. And TC&TF book 3 is a shining example of that: flawed, but still perfectly lovable.

With all that said, I think I’ll give the series another replay soon.