#its literally the only book with a decent plot

[boopboopbitch]

I'm down for genderbending Sophie. Hell give us lesbian Eloise. But Michael Sterling?? The entire point of that book is based on his male privilege. Then there is Francesca wanting a child leading her to go back on the marriage mart. Despite her reluctance because she LOVED John. You literally see her torn because she feels like she is cheating on her dead husband. We won't get her and violet bonding over the loss of her beloved husband now because she never loved him in the first place! We wont get her crying because the baby was the last piece of john she had AND the keys to the earldom. We won't get the marriage of convenience that came from Michael becoming the earl because women can't inherit. Despite frannie being far more competent at the job than michael. Which was something that was both acknowledged and celebrated in the books! We wont get frannie reading michael to filth for taking advantage of his male privilege and ditching when shit gets hard.

This was like the one DECENT bridgerton book. The one with fleshed out characters and a form of complexity.

Why destroy this plot when you had ELOISE RIGHT FUCKING THERE.

Her book is terrible and very outdated ALONG WITH BENEDICTS!!!!! Those books needed a makeover NOT THE ONE ABOUT GRIEVING YOUR DEAD HUSBAND AND INFERTITLY.

Not the one discussing important topics women go through AND RESONATE WITH. What the fuck.

This was a misfire.

[fimbry]

Dragon book recs?

I read Fourth Wing and its sequel and loved that the dragons are actually characters with personality and are important to the plot.

Little did I know this would be so rare in dragon fantasy???

Spoilers for Priory of the Orange Tree and When the Moon Hatched to describe what I do not want.

I read Priory of the Orange Tree because it was supposed to be great fantasy with dragons being super important. It was literally a lesbian romance with dragons as an afterthought. The dragon rider got completely side lined in the last third of the book and her dragon spends 99% of the book incapacitated and unconscious. The lesbian romance was decent it just was not a dragon book. Not really. I think the dragons only existed to give the lesbians something to fight?

I'm reading When the Moon Hatched right now and I don't know if I can even finish. Once again the dragons are just cardboard background effects, but this FMC is so unlikeable I'm having a lot of trouble willing myself through. I know she has trauma making her insufferable, but she is reacting to everything so unrealistically it's like HELLO? 😭 You see a mythical invisible-capable powerful feline beast the size of a house and you keep sassing it instead of idk, fear or anything reasonable. Wtaf. Guess you're just that badass. 😭 Sorry of course you are THE MOST BADASS ever and everyone clapped (and kissed the ground).

What I'm looking for: Romance is fine idc either way, I just want the dragons to be actual characters with personalities and important to the plot. Any books like that?

[reel-fear]

Bendy And The Power Of Representation

So those graphic novel pages huh? Seems I posted my cover post at just the right time because literally minutes after I was informed the preview pages came out and uh. This is Buddy and Norman!

Oh dear... I'll put the full graphic novel pages down below but I have so much to say on how awful this is it'll need several posts. However, right now I want to mostly talk about representation and briefly touch on why it's so damn important + inform others about the current shit Mike and Meatly are saying about the books n such.

Now note: All the things I'm saying below are based on my personal experience, maybe some people don't care about seeing the representation of their identities in the media they consume. Maybe some will think I'm merely being dramatic and I might be but I'm not lying when I say I personally believe being represented and seen in the media you consume can be one of the most wonderful feelings in the world.

Look I'm not here to argue with people who think that Norman in particular was never meant to be a person of color, I would argue he is very coded but the points I'm making here are not about how Norman particularly had to be black. The point I want to make is the lack of diversity in our cast in general and how Norman's design has heavily dwindled it considering most people [including myself] rightfully assumed he was at least one of three black characters in our cast. Not according to this though and looking at the the rest of the pages our chances of seeing any kind of decent diverse character designs dwindle more.

So firstly... Buddy a character who has been said to experience discrimination for being Jewish, lacks any kind of ethnic features at all. That's... Cool but yeah I think this shows a rather grim future for the character designs as a whole.

Also, Norman... As I mentioned he was largely assumed to be black due to his southern dialect, his voice, and other factors. But nope, he's a generic white guy. With... Gross looking hair tbh...

Sadly this is not the first time the topic of poor representation has come up concerning Bendy either.

[note how he disregarded the other mentioned minorities and specifically cites LGBTQ+ characters]

This sucks as a response but sadly considering Mike's recent behavior it seems to fall in line with the Bendy team's general lack of care towards representing anyone who isn't straight and white.

So how did Mike respond to all of this? Well...

TDLR - "Who cares if the Graphic Novel we're selling to our fans for full price sucks, we now no longer consider the books canon."

This is horrible, I know Mike and Meatly are only really in this for the money, the fact BATIM is in the state that it is proved that, but they really couldn't have been less obvious about it?

So basically when it benefited them, AKA when it meant people would have to buy the books to understand important lore like Boris' identity... [the character you spend all of chapter 4 trying to rescue] They were considered canon... At least the author sure thought so.

Hell even in the tweet Meatly made here he doesn't say the books aren't canon, he just says they're not needed to understand Bendy's world. Now Mike is using that as a shield instead of doing the right thing and saying "You're right, the poc in our fanbase deserve better we'll have it fixed right away!" Like most reasonable people would considering how his studio has literally been accused of bigotry, poor rep, and general lack of diversity before. Why risk making more people avoid this franchise?

Also just... Imagine how insulting it would be to be an author who helps flesh out so much of this world and gives its characters depth like NONE of the games have managed to do, filling in plot holes, creating a timeline for events, etc... Then because they couldn't bother to change the graphic novel for ur story to be better they instead throw out all ur writing and declare it non-canon.

If I were her to put it bluntly I'd feel insulted and horrible. Why make her do all the work of making sure her works align with the timeline and game's canon if they're not part of it?

I can't speak for her obviously but Meatly and Mike know of her account, so speaking out against this could very much risk her being fired or at least not allowed to work on Bendy anymore... So I would take all her tweets on this situation with a grain of salt. She very much is not in a position where she could be honest if she was against this.

So with all that history now, the question I'm sure many are wondering is... Why does this even matter? Who cares how diverse the characters are when it doesn't affect the story?

Well for one thing, if you think like that consider having more empathy for your fellow human beings but also it does affect the story. One of DCTL's themes is about the bigotry of the period it is set in.

Now the Bendy team has managed to make the discussion of this book centering around their bigotry which is ironic in a way I almost find funny... Though this entire thing is just a bit too hurtful and upsetting to find any humor in, at least for me...

But another thing is representation can bring people such joy when it's done with care. It really shouldn't be understated how far it can go to make people feel more comfortable in their own sense of self to have a franchise choose to represent them and their experiences. I know this from personal experience.

Now if you've been following me for a while, you know I'm a big fan of Transformers. I no longer engage with it much due to baggage from the fandom's awful treatment of me, but before I left I remember being able to witness the release of Transformers: Earthspark first few episodes.

These introduced the Maltos the family who meets the Transformers and serve as our protagonists and guess what?

It's a family of Filipinos!

Now look I'm not Filipino, but I am half Mexican and I have a lot of love for that part of me. So seeing the representation of any Spanish culture in this franchise I loved made me so happy! I remember just watching the first episode I was happily telling my partner how fun it was to see people like me and my family in a world I love!!

But it didn't end with the Maltos in fact... There was another character who spoke to me, their name was Nightshade. Their pronouns are They/Them and they spoke about it on the show! Not just mentioning it and moving on but actually sitting down to speak about their experiences...

This clip in particular really turned them into an absolute favorite among fans and well... I'll let you see it for yourself.

This scene... Fills me with a joy I cannot describe. It is the creators of a franchise I love telling me they see people like me and find the stories of people like me important enough to include in this series. There really is nothing like being able to say there are Non-Binary characters in a franchise I have so much love for. I was far from the only one too.

This is amazing, this is wonderful, this clip and character were moving to so so many people and...

This is a joy the Bendy creators have no interest in giving their audience. They don't care how you feel as a queer and/or black person, which... Hurts...

I... Discovered I was trans while in the Bendy community... It was where I learned the word Non-Binary and started using it for myself. To me Bendy will always have that connection... But the devs themselves seem to hate the idea of being forced to actually represent that in their games... And I still haven't really gotten over that pain or betrayal if I'm being honest.

So...

With Norman now being portrayed as white here, we are down to two black characters. Thomas [who Meatly has claimed is white in the past] based on a vague conversation with Sammy in DCTL they could easily ignore... And Jacob.... A book exclusive character which according to Mike means he is non-canon.

If we don't count Thomas' vague talk with Sammy about disrespect as confirmation he's black [which the devs don't seem to think so] then we have one black character in all of Bendy... And he recently got retconned into non-existence. Great.

Look... The Bendy fanbase has always been full of wonderfully diverse designs for the staff and even more diverse people creating them. Bendy's fandom was built with the work of queer people from all kinds of places.

If the Bendy team continues to show how little they care for anyone who isn't straight or white... I wonder who they are counting on to buy this book or in general financially support their franchise?

I know right now, I am furious, I am hurt and I most certainly don't feel like buying a book that's currently just a massive fuck you to the fans and I hope I've expressed why I feel this way in an easy-to-understand way here...

Either way, I will not be forgetting this anytime soon and I hope the fanbase does the same. Maybe just maybe, if there's enough backlash to this series of horrible decisions they'll learn better.

Right now, it's kinda of our only hope for a better future, and if you know any poc who are into Bendy right now... Maybe consider making sure they're feeling okay.

I know from experience how much this sort of thing hurts, to have the creators of a world you love straight up tell you they don't intend to fix the fact no one in their stories represents your identity or life...

What I'm trying to say is...

This is a really low point for Bendy and its fans... Even more for the poc who have to witness such ignorant and careless attitudes from Mike and Meatly towards their feelings.

Please don't forget them when you discuss these tweets or this situation. That's exactly what Mike and Meatly want right now.

For them to be unrepresented and therefore... Unheard.

[lakesbian]

ok Worm Bigotry Breakdown in more detail for @silverflyingpikachu

tl;dr: author is Cishet White Guy From Canada In 2011. he ostensibly thinks he is progressive. this does not change his proclivity for tossing his Cishet White Guy From Canada Biases into the books and then saying even more bigoted things in defense of those writing decisions on forums. wildbow is just some cunt on the forums with bad opinions on wildbow's writing. the book is 1.7 million words long but i believe in my ability 2 categorize this shit with decent accuracy. everyone who has ever said worm's CWs can't be categorized, including wildbow himself, is a lying ass bitch. this will include some vague spoilers, because i can't really go in-depth without a few examples, but i'll stay away from anything too plot-critical.

racism:

- worm is fundamentally a book abt systems of power and the ways in which they suck. some of the critiques worm issues--e.g, its depiction of how school systems enable bullying, inspired by wildbow's own experiences w/ the school systems as a deaf kid--are viscerally accurate and incredibly compelling. but wildbow fundamentally doesn't understand how certain systems of oppression work--e.g policing--and subsequently, his attempts at depicting them occasionally fall flat onto their face and land in racist territory. this gets particularly nasty when combined w/ the White Guy Author propensity for racist stereotypes--for example, his chosen face of police brutality is a black girl portrayed as predatory & animalistic.

- who is also one of the only black people in the book overall, alongside--for example--an addict portrayed as having less interiority & being less deserving of empathy than A Literal Fucking Nazi. also, the main characters have to team up with the nazis "for the greater good" (defeating the mean asian villains) at one point. it is a mercy to the readers when this part of the story ends. - there are two black characters in the main cast. for the first, wildbow just Straight Up Forgot to include the most compelling aspect of their background + characterization in the text (it was provided via WoG instead, which i provide to all wormreaders like a fuckin' DLC patch when they get to where it's relevant) & entirely forgets they exist towards where the end of their character arc should have been. the second is introduced w/ the most misogynoiristic description on the planet but blessedly has a largely compelling and well-written arc as the book goes on. - depiction of china is just like. fox news level sinophobic "it's all a brainwashed indistinguishable evil cult" shit. not relevant for very long relatively speaking but insufferable to read. asian characters are also like. we got Brutal Yet Honorable Asian Man. we got Fiery Asian Girl With Blue Eyes. it fucking blows it's not good

- oh yeah forgot this one someone mentioned in the tags. #it's an insignificant paragraph and nobody talks about it but the part where it goes #“yeah literally EVERY cape in South America is with a cartel and the heroes are barely distinguishable from the villains” #fuck you #not that the others aren't bad the fatphobia gets really gross but nobody mentions this and that one got me so yeah typical Insufferable Awful Imperial Core Author Understanding Of What Other Countries Are Like - i could make this section one million bulletpoints long but the gist is summarized i think--wildbow's varied racist biases leak fucking everywhere, into character design, into narrative assumptions about who's deserving of interiority/empathy or not, into attempts at Saying Anything About Society, into which characters he prioritizes, into who he offers validity via the narrative, etc etc etc.

homophobia: - theres a girl named amy dallon in it and she is the worst lesbophobic stereotype ever known to man. no other Problematic Lesbian™ you can think of has anything on this girl. the worst part is that she genuinely has a decently compelling character concept and arc, which her being awful is integral to, so you might accidentally find her interesting anyway and then she'll move into your brain - wildbow kept accidentally writing characters that scan as massive dykes and then got really mad about f/f ships for the book being popular in the fandom. he responded by making a deranged forum post involving the phrase "pandering is pandering" insisting everyone (but the bisexual "hedonist") is straight and writing a scene into the book where one of the characters literally turns to the camera and tells the readers "not to get the wrong idea" about her hugging her friend. - over the course of 1.7 million words he finds excuses to loudly inform you that all of the relevant female characters are straight and it's sooo shoehorned in you can always tell when he's doing it - basically worm is like if naruto was about homoerotic teenage girls who do violent terrible things, in terms of levels of unintentional homoeroticism, and the author responds to ppl going "lmao gay" about the unintentional homoeroticism with poorly restrained seething rage

fatphobia: - generic brand of fatphobia you'll see in p much all mainstream media where only side/bg characters are fat and it's obliquely used as a descriptor to indicate that someone has negative personality traits or should be viewed as sort of gross

anti-addict shit: - wildbow generally likes writing about how social circumstances--i.e neglect from society, oppression, failure on behalf of systems--causes crime. he generally likes demonstrating the ways in which the villainous main characters are traumatized teenagers failed by society fumbling to keep existing & holding each other up through The Horrors. unfortunately all of this intelligent writing flies out the nearest window when addicts are involved. there is a gang comprised entirely of addicts, all of whom are portrayed as disgusting, violent, dangerous, and of course often racially stereotyped. it is a mercy to the readers when they're no longer relevant to the story. - on a more subtle level, characters are every so often just like. a little more anti-drug than they would realistically be and you can tell it's wildbow's opinions leaking into their characterization. this is largely what the anti-addict writing is kept to after The Addict Villains leave the story iirc.

if youre wondering wellwhy does anyone read this book then. to that i would say that unfortunately despite it all it'sa fucking excellent book. so we all carry on reading the parts that suck and thinking about how they suck and then reading the parts that fuck and going "ouuugh my god" and rolling down 20 flights of stairs about how hard they fuck.

[heart2beom]

Hellooo I’ve said this as an anon before but I absolutely love your writing! Unrelated, but I was wondering if you have any Beomgyu fic recommendations? I read everything I could in the long post containing fic recs on your previous 4beomy account and I loved every single one of them, but now I can’t find anything left so I’m just rereading my faves LOL Thank you! (And also, thank you for writing! Again, your fics make me so happy)

You’re sooo sweet, thank you for complimenting me not once but TWICE 😭😭?? In terms of recs, I honestly have no idea if I’ve read anything much lately so I had to quickly cruise through my likes both on here and my old blog 😭

I present to you the list of beomgyu fics I’ve decently enjoyed (hopefully no repeats from my other list):

-> Message in a Bottle by @delacyrose224

very cute stuff, best friends to lovers...everyone knows at this point, but i'll forever express my love for this basic ass trope (i literally have a full list of books for b2l. the best romance books come from this trope!!!). one thing i loved about this fic is the portrayal of beomgyu-- just a genuinely good guy. the way he was discreet about his jealousy instead of making a whole deal about it, like fuck i love a mature, healthy dynamic, its so freaking cute

-> Night In by @tqmies

a dark fic, but its so good. i especially liked the fantasy element/twist on a common trope. everything about this is well written but the ending will give you some heebie jeebies (cant believe i just used that) its some fucked up shit 😭 um but b2l beomgyu!! (shoot me in the head)

-> A Recipe for Love by @tinietaehyun

who doesnt love a good old b2l beomgyu roommate fluff!?!?! it's soooo freaking cute i swear i never giggled so much 😭 this writer in general is very good with words and imagery, it's incredibly vivid.

-> how could you not know? by @angelbythewindow

have you noticed the pattern? yeah, it's another b2l. i LOVED the use of flashbacks here and the cute usage of the childhood "beanpole" nickname like shut up do you want me to die? the emotions here were OVERPOWERING. i felt everything beomgyu felt, felt everything mc felt, it was just sosososososo well written.

-> Why We (Don't) Work by @cafeseoulmate

haha. definitely not another b2l!!! i never included this on my other blog's rec list (bcs i dont think it was out at the time) but it is my most recent reblog on 4beomy so i'm fairly sure you've seen it. but regardless, for anyone else who's looking for beomgyu fics, please please please READ THIS. i wouldn't say it's a plot sort of story, it builds off of a lot of flashbacks and whatnot, but that's what makes it so great. like you get a feel for their relationship, why both characters just wouldn't work out (hence the title) but then the more you read the more you're like...alright... YOU KNOW?? like fuck, i almost teared up by the end it was such a cute love confession. a must read for all the bamtoris.

-> slam dunk, lover boy by @qqtxt

just absolutely cute stuff. check out everything from this blog, just binge, you're guaranteed fluffy cuteness. nothing really happens between the two here, but its still really cute and ykw i wanted some change here, so this is a sprinkle of e2l beomgyu

-> Stood Up by @imaginidol

okay, it's angst, i'll be straight up. but idk it was an enjoyable read, even though a little sad at the end 😭

-> Moonflower by @sleeping-sirens

really sweet short stuff, i love beomgyu i swear

-> somniferous confessions by @gyu-xiao

i don't usually read bulleted fics (this is the only one i've read actually 😭) but this is worth the read. i genuinely squealed a few times, giggled like tons, it was so adorable i loved it.

-> be my date by @blossom-hwa

honestly a little bit of a blur, i read this ages ago, but it's good because blossom hwa wrote it like trust me.

-> i know i love you by @universecorp

tried really hard to not include smut but this is definitely a little more plot driven than it is smut, it's sweet. a little angsty but i love it. smut at the end is definitely skippale, just concluding it as the fact that they made love is cute enough too 😭

-> check yes, juliet by @fairyofthestar

-> Yours Truly by @boba-beom

so so freaking cute. we're back with the b2ls but who cares, we all know it fits him so well!!!

-> old friend by @hueningshaped

a little bit of a spin on the fake dating trope and i love it. exes pretending to be lovers? hello? i'm so happy the ending wasn't hard hitting 😭

Fics I'm looking forward to read:

-> The Case by @tinietaehyun

not beomgyu centered but idk i love everything this person has written so far so i'm going to tackle this series. give it a read, i'm sure this'll give someone a good mindfuck since it is a detective series 😭

-> Ashen by @writingmochi

i think i might read this tonight actually, but yeah definitely check this one out. i can sniff out a great writer when i see one!!!!

-> Newsflash! by @ijhyo

teaser has me hooked, like everything about the secret identity...yeah, will wait on it.

-> This Love by @delacyrose224

ive always thought a beomgyu and taehyun love triangle would be a recipe for a perfect fic like… it just makes so much sense because theyre so different in personalities and that clash is just a perfect storm for a love triangle. so i will be reading 🙏 plus, it’s decently long! does it get any better?

Hopefully I got you covered for a couple of days anon 😭 I'll go back to reblogging recommended fics again once I get my shit together at uni, too many good writers out here 💔

[checkoutmybookshelf]

It's Not A Fairy Tale Anymore

Ok, I will admit to two things: First, this book was leaps and bounds better than ACOTAR in terms of pacing. I was not bored and I wasn't begging the book to HAVE SOMETHING HAPPEN. Second, I think I hated the last six chapters. Like a lot. For some objective and some deeply subjective reasons. And bonus third admission: My reading buddy for this series and I officially have Stockholm syndrome from these books, so we're going on to ACOWAR. But that's getting a bit ahead of myself, so let's talk A Court of Mist and Fury.

Yeah, hi again. This is your SPOILER WARNING. I am going to SPOIL THE END of this book, as well as the beginning and the middle. Consider yourselves warned.

CONTENT WARNING: Some mention and brief discussion of sexual assault and consent.

Ok, so first and foremost: this book understood pacing and it understood plot and I thoroughly enjoyed like 98% of it. I also appreciated that we managed to expand the world a bit, because ACOTAR felt very, very small geographically and politically. Getting to see Velaris, the Summer Court, and getting a wider sense of the politics and intrigue went a long way toward making me feel like there were stakes and point to this book.

Another thing I absolutely adored was the Shadow Fam. I said that Rhys doesn't have found family, he has trauma pack bonds, and I stand by that assessment. That said, I really genuinely LIKED Az, Cass, Mor, and Amren. Yeah, they all have varying flavors of tragic backstory and trauma to facilitate the trauma pack bond, but after an entire book of just Feyre, Tamlin, and Rhys, I was desperate for more characters, and I will say that at the very least, I wasn't mixing up the Shadow Fam in my head. They had distinct personalities, and frankly I'd read the hell out of a novella that really digs into Mor's backstory in particular, mostly because SJM is developing a worrying habit of denoting bad characters by making them rapists (See: Amarantha, Ianthe, Mor's entire goddamn family, a worrying number of non-Shadow Fam Illyrians, etc.) and I want to see how complex this world's conception of consent is. Because Mor's entire situation was coerced, which means that the only non-fucky consent thing is her deciding NOT to sleep with Az. Because no matter what she told Cass, she was having sex with him in a situation where she very well might not have if she wasn't under the duress of a forced marriage. Literally she either didn't tell him anything and just went "Let's do the sex at each other" and he said "sure," or she went "hey, help me get out of this forced marriage by taking my virginity so other dude won't want me" (excuse me while I vomit at the pedestaling of virginity) and he said "sure." While knowing (I'm pretty sure) that Az has the world's biggest crush on Mor.

Literally nothing about this isn't messy AF, and I would a) like to see how we handle the consent stuff and b) eat this up with a SPOON.

But even in the here and now of the book, the whole Shadow Fam have individual relationships with Rhys and Feyre, and I thought that was decently well done. To be clear: its not Tolkien. It's nowhere near the same level. But for popular fun books, I have absolutely seen worse, and there was enough here for me to hang onto and enjoy. If they leaned a little into archetypes and stereotypes, well, it wasn't too egregious.

I think this is where I get to talk about Rhys a little bit too. So I have only read ACOTAR AND ACOMAF as of writing this, but I'm in a lot of book and fandom spaces, so I've heard everything from "Rhys is the embodiment of toxic masculinity and an anti-choice piece of shit" to "Rhys is the pinnacle of a male partner, can do no wrong, and I would let him rail me in a cabin on a mountain top." I'm not going to stand here and say that masculinity in these books is wholly unproblematic, but again: I have seen worse. My biggest problem with Rhys at this point, frankly, is that SJM keeps trying to have it both ways with him. But the "he's half mysterious, slightly evil Shadow daddy and half trauma puppy with a dreamers heart" was super not working for me, not even in a context where it maybe should have. Like, yeah, evil Shadow daddy as a role to protect Velaris makes sense, but then literally everything else we get is a cross between a traumatized dudebro with his buddies and trauma puppy making eyes at Feyre. The gap between the two sides of Rhysand just hit a point where my credulity stretched and broke. That's not to say I didn't enjoy both halves of Rhysand, but they didn't sit comfortably in one fae high lord lord me.

I just also want to briefly address the man pain, because after the Dresden Files, my patience for angsty man pain is THIN. I literally rolled my eyes and went "what the actual fuck" when Cassian provoked Rhys into beating on him for an hour after Feyre accepts the mate bond. Dumbass "if you can't fuck, fight" nonsense has never been my thing, and on principle I don't like it, but given that Feyre is alive and well and grabbing a snack with Mor, I can't argue too much. Battle Ground really set a new low bar for me, so I wasn't even grouchy about Rhys's POV man pain chapter right at the end of the book, because again, Feyre is alive and well and made a choice. I will allow it, but its getting some light side eye. Finally, the other major man pain scene is when Rhys is...I'm gonna call it groveling because I'm not feeling generous, but he's basically giving us a chapter-length recap of the previous book from his perspective. It's tearful, it's earnest, it's all kinds of angsty...And like...I was kinda not here for it. It was not the worst, your mileage may vary. I'm mostly just grateful it was one chapter and not an entire POV-swapped book.

I also want to just real quick tall about tokenism and some...potentially problematic things with the Illyrians. They have some savage warrior stereotypes attached to them that them being Fantasy Scots in the Fantasy UK makes sketchy, given the highland clearances and the generalized othering the England did to basically everyone. Then we get their cultural treatment of women, and the whole thing feels...deeply uncomfortable. I can't even make an oomaks joke about Illyrian wings (despite the fact that Illyrian wings have all the issue that Ferengi ears do multiplied by a factor of ten because THEY'RE WINGS) because I cannot banish the fact that they clip women's wings, which has some deeply uncomfortable resonance with female genital mutilation in the real world. Literally not even the Ferengi did that. And then we get Rhys, who is only half Illyrian, and the token "good" or "progressive" Illyrians, Az and Cass. They're trying to facilitate gender equality and banned wing clipping, but like...its made deeply clear that it's not working super well. So the general message is that of primitive, sexist Illyrians...except for the three good ones. And y'all...I kinda hate that. I'm not complaining that we have Rhys, Az, and Cass, but the Illyrians are deeply uncomfortable in a lot of ways that the version of me that did a PhD is screaming about.

And now we come to Rhys and Feyre. Rhys and Feyre, who spend 89% of this book flirting like dumbass teenagers before Feyre falls right back into the pattern she established with Tamlin where she decides she is going to give her literal all for a people, and I guess we just have to hope she has a partner who won't let her and then smother her to death. Because she is in the EXACT SAME POSITION, the only difference is Rhys. At this point, Feyre going all in is a feature, not a bug, which just makes her assertion that she belongs to herself first feel a wee bit hollow...

But I will say that Rhys and Feyre understanding that they can leverage their bond and Tamlin being just...the biggest dipshit in creation...to actually get an upper hand in this war, and I actually think that now that we've got the teen flirting out of the way, Feyre and Rhys might be a good team. I hope. Please God let them be a good team. I know we won't get Evey and Rick in The Mummy Returns, but I would take even a pale, bat-winged reflection of that relationship.

I guess we have finally arrived at Tamlin. I'm with Feyre that he's not good for her, but uh...the MASSIVE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION at the beginning of this book felt wildly gratuitous. Like, Feyre is wasting away. She's not emotionally ok. She isn't dealing with her trauma, and Tamlin isn't helping. WE GOT THAT. But that was only like, the first ten-odd chapters. So it was a speedrun character assassination, but I thought we were done at that point.

Holy shit, I was wrong.

So, there is a writing school of thought in which every villain needs to feel like they're the hero of their own story. I don't even think this is a bad tack to take. It can help motivate villains or make them sympathetic. And when Tamlin swaggers into the castle room in Hyburn after the king has captured Feyre and the Shadow Fam, you can bet your ass that he feels like he's the rescuing hero swooping in to save his true love from the shadowy douchecanoe who put a mind whammy on her to take her from him. (Which I actually think we might have Lucien to blame for that angle? Since he had to have reported back that Feyre fought him? But the timeline on that isn't clear, so IDK for sure.)

Unfortunately for Timtam, his ENTIRE PLAN makes him look too stupid to live. He KNEW what Amarantha was like. He KNEW that the King of Hyburn was a factor of ten worse than Amarantha. And he STILL made the deal to let Hyburn invade through his kingdom and somehow thought he would HAVE CONTROL OVER THE SITUATION???? And yes, I stand by this, because he keeps trying to tell the king to stop doing shit or do shit differently, and is ABSOLUTELY FLOORED when the king quite rightly laughs in his face. Talk about not thinking a plan through. Literally, I'm pretty sure Timtam was thinking, "I will win her back and be super heroic" and that thought eclipsed all other thoughts, his common sense, and his critical thinking. Which just take the character assassination of Tamlin and skyrockets it. I get that he's not the one, SJM. I got it six different dick moves ago.

Since we're talking about the last six chapters, I also want to just touch on the faeification of Elain and Nesta. Literally all I could think when they dunked our girls was one fantastic chapter title from the fantastic How to Read Literature Like a Professor: "If She Comes Up, It's Baptism." That metaphor doesn't really map perfectly over this situation, but it also isn't really a stretch. It also harkens back to the really old cauldron mythologies, which tracks for fae mythology. Mostly though, if Nesta doesn't murder the King of Hyburn after that foreshadowing (which had all the subtlety of a two-by-four to the skull), I will riot.

Hoo boy, this was a long one, but I think it's time to wrap it up. The TLDR is that this book was really fun as long as I wasn't thinking too hard about any of it. When I do think about it, I can shred it to little tiny peices, but honestly that stops being fun really fast, so I choose fun.

Also my reading buddy and I have Stockholm Syndrome with this series, so stay tuned for my eventual ACOWAR review!F

[wildshadowtamer]

it's fascinating being semi-aware of other fandoms that your not in, maybe through a mutual or someone you follow entering a new fandom, maybe just through pop-cultural osmosis. Becuase at a certain point you realise your mental concept of that fandom is wildly off from the actual thing.

like, for instance, i know the rough plot of mario, i think. if it has one. like, italian plumber brothers who may or may not be from new york have to go save the mushroom princess and stop the sort-of-tyrannical leader of a different group of mushrooms. the leader also has like 9 different kids, and ghosts and time travel have gotten involved at least once.

but, anything past that, i only know from the people i follow. of which is that luigi and bowser are gay, mario and peach have twin girls and are probably in a qpr, and that the mario movie was decent. oh and daisy exists but i have no clue what game she exists in or what her plot importance is.

and its so funny being an outsider in this way, because a mario fan could tell me literally anything about it and id have to just accept it because i dont know this shit. you could tell me hes the long lost son of bob the builder because an official book released in 1996 only in japan said so. like yeah sure man, ok. the fandom equivelant of "i'll incorpate that into my belief system"

[adarkrainbow]

Fairytale fantasy: The Wine of the Gods

... This is not actually this book's title. This is the title of the novel in French, "Le vin des dieux" - and thus the title under which I read it.

Its actual English title is "One for the Morning Glory", written by John Barnes and published in 1996:

This novel is... it is quite an unusual fantasy novel. I probably would have been better warned if I had known before that in French, before being released by Pocket Fantasy (above), it was published in a large format by "Rivages/Fantasy" (below), and the Rivages fantasy collection is known to publish these unusual, weird, bizarre or overlooked fantasy novels that form the "cult classics" of the genre:

If I am talking about this novel today, it is because it is sold as a "fairytale fantasy" - more precisely, this novel takes place in a fantasy world where fairytales are regular occurences, and the main characters themselves either try to live a fairytale, either end up in a fairytale by accident. With the main problem being that, while they are aware of fairytale tropes and cliches and structures and try to invoke and use them, they are actually not certain of which type of fairytale they are in, or what role they are supposed to play...

A very promising basis isn't it? Except that, if you are a fairytale fan, you will be... a tad bit disappointed. Because John Barnes' definition of a fairytale isn't the same as everybody. Despite the word "fairytale" being used again and again, there are actually none of the classics fairytales involve - no Grimm, no Perrault, no Andersen, none of the sort. You have some elements and vague reminiscence of some British and Russian fairytales, but no explicit references, and they do not form the bulk of the book, merely background details. What John Barnes actually means by "fairytale" in this book is a mix of European folklore and legends ; archetypal and cliche fantasy stories ; and "typical" mythology (Greek, Norse, etc...).

Mind you, the beginning and the ending of the book (the book is organized in four parts, I am speaking of the first and fourth ones) DO work as a "fairytale fantasy" by using structures, elements and a tone fitting the genre. But the second and third parts of the story do NOT read at all like fairytales, as they mix various inspirations from medieval legends to swashbuckling stories passing by Gothic novels. As a result, if you ask me, I would NOT call this "fairytale fantasy" - but given this book was sold as and apparently intended to be a "fairytale fantasy" I'll include it in this series of reviews.

The main plot: In this fantasy world, there is an exceptional and very rare wine that is only kept for the most important occasions, and that can only be found in the castles of kings and queens - the "wine of the god". This wine is typically forbidden when it comes to children, and an old saying goes that a child who drinks this wine will only be "half of their self". Nobody takes this warning in a literal way... until young prince Amatus drinks the wine of the gods and half of his body disappears, leaving him cut-in-half but still very alive and functionning. The king quickly punishes with death the four person deemed responsible for this accident: the king's alchemist, the witch of the court, the head of the army and the prince's nurse. But one year and one day later, four mysterious strangers arrive at the court to replace the four deceased. Four strange companions (whose actual past will never be explained throughout the novel) that shape and model the prince and help him through his various adventures as he fights goblins, mysterious diseases, shadow-soldiers and wicked usurpers, while making alliances with bandits, disguised princesses and riddling-beasts...

Is it a good fantasy novel? If you ask me... it is decent and enjoyable, but it is not my favorite and I would never call it "great" or "excellent". Is it a bad novel, though? No. It is unbalanced, a bit dragging, a bit rough, but not "bad". It is more of a middle-ground. It is original and has enough effort to stand out on its own and deserve a mention... but it doesn't shine at all and kind of falls short. "Unbalanced" truly is the word because the tone is all over the place, as we keep switching between humor and tragedy, parody and seriousness, the same way we switch between the tones (fairytale, fantasy story, gothic horror, dreary political intrigue...).

Which is sad because it has a very promising basis, interesting characters, an efficient plot... But most of your expectations are not met, sometimes for good (efficient subversion) sometimes for bad (it feels like the author forgot to finish a plot, or was in a rush to complete the novel). You are presented a world running on the logic of folktales and fairytales... and the author doesn't do anything with it beyond vague plot-excuses. Some key characters are introduced in the breath of one or two lines in the middle of the plot ; the mysterious part of the four companions who are an integral part of the story is ever explained ; in fact the great mystery hinted at throughout the entire story is never revealed... Some of the anti-climactic nature of the book is perfect, such as the demise/last battle against the big bad in the end, which serves as a great subversion to fantasy villains AND an homage to traditional fairytales... But the rest feels not so much anti-climactic as just "The author was lazy and so stopped there".

So overall: promising, imaginative, with some very memorable and fascinating moments ; but clearly needed more work, feels unfinished, and isn't very "fairytale" like despite its premise - but that could be the summary of this book "Makes a lot of promises it ultimately doesn't hold up to the end".

EDIT: After some thinking, I believe there was an attempt in this book at emulating the style of for example Lord Dunsany's more "fairytale like" fantasies, such as "The King of Elfland's Daughter"... But I still think there is something missing or unbalanced within this book.

[rhaenyra-first-of-her-name]

This is kind of a long rant against HotD and not structured at all so you might want to avoid it if you like TG or Alicent. Or even Daemon, sorry, I don't like him much either.

I was always skeptical of HotD even before it started but I had never expected that it would be so much worse than the source material which is, mind it, a very pro greens, biased, misogynistic spiral by some dead maester.

I don't enjoy F&B as a book and the Dance wasn't remotely my favorite part of it. Like the whole Dance of Dragons reads like a misogynistic spiral sometimes but HotD just took a biased source and dialled it to a 100.

You would think they would try to do the opposite bcoz the source is acknowledged to be biased but nope, they just had to make it worst. The Greens get to be whitewashed, they can literally not commit to any actions (Alicent committed treason by mistake, Aemond murdered a child by mistake, like wtf? Wtf are these fucking uwu passive characters and writing. Fucking commit to treason if you are gonna do it. Who half asses treason? Book Greens would gobble up Show Greens for breakfast. The Lannisters would have a laugh.) The Blacks are villainized and all the Velaryons are sidelined (which is worst with the show changing their race intentionally and then doing this).

Like the Greens have no redeeming qualities, just the narrative framing them as the good guys on their sides and I always hate how the narrative is trying to shove it down my throat. I can't stand it.

Like I don't even like Daemon but the show is stripping all the depth from him. I seriously don't like him but it's like the show can't stand anyone on the TB to have anything good or significant.

They literally showed Aegon to be a rapist onscreen and want me to root for him? Wtf are they smoking? The amount of cognitive dissonance you need to like TG is too high. Ik the show doesn't expect much from its viewers but it's like they expect the viewer to be stupid.

Show Alicent is so passive, they make me prefer the book Alicent and I hate the Evil Stepmother trope. The show acts as if Rhaenyra wasn't supposed to be the Good Mother and Good Stepmother counterpart to Alicent.

And F&B and George isn't subtle about who won the Dance. It's the Blacks. Rhaenyra might have died but her fraction won the war, her sons and descendants sat on the throne. Daenerys is her direct descendant and she brought the dragons back from death (especially given that the Dance was the main reason for their downfall and even the Targaryens' powers thanks to TG).

TG has the same fate as all the usurpers in the series- Maegor, Larys Strong, Robert Baratheon - the end of their line. Alicent 's line all dies before her eyes. The current Higtowers have nothing to do with Alicent and her line, they're not even worthy of remembrance and mention in the main series so far. Margaery is a half Hightower and despite the Tyrells' obvious efforts to make her queen and have one of their own on the throne, no one remotely mentions the only Hightower Queen ever. Imagine how embarrassing is that. You know if Alicent was a decent queen in any right, it would have been mentioned by now, the Tyrells aren't one to not use every advantage they have given that their Bannerman have more royal blood than them, which was again mentioned in the series.

Anyway, Alicent 's line dying and going to oblivion for all purposes is their ultimate defeat. I can't stand the TG stand trying to make it anything else.

And yes Rhaenicent is just queerbaiting and terribly at that. As a queer woman, I don't want them as any sort of a representation. An evil step mother aged down for a pairing where she plots treason and murder for Nyra and her sons? No, God, Daemon is a better option than that and I can't believe they made me say it.

Also, Laena was right there if they wanted to have a sapphic pairing.

When I said I wanted more morally gray female characters, I didn't mean totally irredeemable ones. There is a fine line in what characters, or crimes, you can redeem, starting a civil war out of personal greed and misogyny is not one of them. And yes, TG are all misogyny even if Alicent plays the uwu victim of patriarchy all the time. And funny how she never does anything to help any woman, not even her daughter Helena; does nothing against the man who actually harmed her and actively wants to put her rapist son on the throne instead of the rightful heir but her stans act as they or she is some kind of feminist when Alicent is no woman's friend.

And canonically, which are the books btw, not the badly written fanfictions (I am so sorry, this is an insult to fanfiction tbh) of the producers: GoT and HotD, Nyra had her mother's sigil on her flag, not Aegon the Rapist+Usurper.

(Can't believe the show tried to make some kind of gotcha moment with Alicent in that green dress. Idk why the characters even stood up. They only do that for the ruling monarch, not the consort and Alicent literally did nothing to deserve that kind of reaction. She just wore a green dress so what? Once again, the show is giving TG credit for doing nothing.)

On the last notes:

Cole is an incel.

I can't believe people ship Aemond and Luke. The former is his murderer and a war criminal while Luke was just a child. Leave my baby boi alone.

Otto is a cunt. Idk why Alicent stans don't crucify the man who arranged her marriage (and the bane of her existence) more.

Daemon is somehow better than all the men in TG which is an accomplishment especially since I dislike his character.

Once again, Aegon is a drunkard rapist.

Helena deserves better than her family.

I never liked Jaehaerys I and this is all kinda his fault. For the best king ever, he singlehandedly roped his daughters and all the Targaryen women of all their rights. Rhaena I should really have been the queen.

Viserys I, you tried but you should have done better. Aemma would have been so disappointed.

[danjaley]

Jo's school, the war, those Germans and how to write a good character purely by accident.

A literary essay that came to my mind yesterday, through the conversation with @nocturnalazure

Originally I wanted to include this in the favourite characters tag, but it required so much background information: It's easy to find good characters in well-written books. One of my favourite characters in a badly written book is Frieda Mensch from the Chalet school series (the blonde girl, in the back on both images)

I discovered the Chalet School series at a jumble sale a few years ago, and I enjoy reading it because I like to imagine what could have been done with some good plotting skills. Also it's full of motifs that only made sense in the mid 20th century (the chain-smoking lung specialist) and the German spoken by the characters is simply hilarious. (Onkel Reise - a very tall man.)

Interestingly, the series is heavily inspired by Little Women and its sequels, especially Jo's school. It's about the English sisters Josephine (Joey) and Madge (not Meg!) Bettany who set up an international school in Austria around 1930. There's also an unrelated little Amy around.

Frieda Mensch is an Austrian girl who goes to that school and becomes a friend of Joey's. So far that's nothing special, the series is literally about Joey being everyone's supportive friend. In volume two the sisters spend Christmas with Frieda's family in Innsbruck, which makes her stand out a little. Then, because her first name means "peace" and her surname means "human", the author assigned her the role of the peacemaker in her class. She's portrayed as a serious, law-abiding girl, but of course schoolgirls must also be good sports and know when to break the rules. Even if it's possibly an accidental contradiction, this gives her an implicit conflict. Gradually she becomes the main loyal friend who supports Joey if needs be (like on nightly ice-skating-rescue-missions ^).

When the girls in the books are around 19 and just left school, in real life the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany hit. By the time the school could be fictionally evacuated, war had begun too. Suddenly this Austrian girl whose name means "peace" and "human" becomes hugely symbolic. Frieda has to flee to England, one of her friends' father is tortured to death, her fiancée is also shortly imprisoned and suddenly she's a girl with a fate. She also helps Joey, who is married by then and has recently given birth, to cross the Channel. At the end of that volume Frieda gives a speech to what's left of the school, about peace and acting humanely despite political conflicts. Wars change many lives and reveal unknown strength in some people - sometimes this is even true for fictional characters.

(If I were set the task to write a novel in which an international school defies the Nazis, my first thought would be that they might have some Jewish students they must protect. Interestingly, this thought never crossed the author's mind. The Nazis turn their full force on this English school because the girls privately vowed to always keep up their girl guide ideals, even the Germans and Austrians from whom they're about to be separated. While violence against Jews is mentioned in the story, it shows how little the threat to them was taken seriously abroad. It also shows the hope that the decent-minded Germans might get the upper hand again after a while. It's strongly biased in its own way, but it's a perspective one doesn't find in books that were written with the whole history in mind. That's why I enjoy historic fiction so much.)

If I ever get so far with the McCarrics, I'm going to steal a lot from Highland Twins go to Chalet School. In fact I've already named Shiena after a character from that book.

[messy-jaxx]

Ahh, sorry I didn't get back to you the other day! I went to my neices' TWD belt ceremony and didn't get home til like 9, then fell asleep on the couch. And yesterday I had a 14 hr workday, so that was a write off.

So.

Sailor Moon.

I adore it, so my first instinct is always to say yes when people ask me if they should watch it. I want to share it with the world. However, I can also get defensive over it so I do try to sound out if they're going to enjoy it or if it will just be frustrating for both of us.

Do you like magical girl anime? Specifically, it's shojo. I know you do enjoy things with the romance framwork around the main story, that's one of the cleverest parts of Library Wars, but magical girl is its own subset.

Are you good with the fact that 14 manga chapters of canon became 50 episodes of a TV show? Because yeah there's a fuckton of MotW and character building and strange little side quests. That happens when you adapt something into a longer format.

Do you enjoy media aimed at younger people? I've almost always been oddly split in that I generally prefer things made for people older or younger than my target audience. When I was a teenager I was usually reading from either the adult section or kids picture books. I was only ever in the teen section for the Elfquest comics. I don't know your actual age, but I'm nearly positive this is going to be geared young for you. The Japanese version is aimed at preteens, and the American version is quite obviously aimed at kindergarteners (Me. I was 5 when it aired in Canada)

Can you take media in the context of the time it was made in? Sailor Moon is actually decently progressive as far as childrens' shows from the 90's, but some of the choices they make and the way they interact with the world is a bit dated. Like Usagi often forgets to actually call for back-up after they get their communicators because... she's from 1987, technically. She has no familiarity with the idea of people being immediately contactable, so in high stress situations she tends to forget it's an option. Also the tech thing is a HUGE plot point in season 5.

If you say yes to these, I would say ABSOLUTELY give it a go! You might find it's not for you, and that's okay! Art doesn't speak to every soul in the same way. Either way, though, feel free to talk about it with me if you do give it a try! I'm always down for a Sailor Moon conversation!

Nah, it's okay. I get it. Everyone has their own lives and can't get to everything immediately. ^_^ 1) I do enjoy magical girl anime (at least the few I tried when I was a lot younger). If it has romance aspects that's even better. 2) That shouldn't bother me. :3 I'm not usually good with long series though. 3) I absolutely love shows aimed towards younger audiences. A lot of time I turn to them for comfort. I still watch shows made for like 7+ and I love them more than literally anything else. I usually stick to my age demographic or younger. 4) Oh sure. It doesn't bother me at all. My parents raised me in a way that I'm kind of used to that (if that makes sense) I've heard a lot about Sailor Moon since it's a very iconic anime, yet I've never actually watched anything about it myself. I like the style, I think it's super cute (<- style is a HUGE factor of if i'll watch a show or not). Usually if my mutual likes something I try to check it out. :3

[gunsatthaphan]

Can I say that if this is the tone of Warp Effect I am scared for Only Friends? cuz this cast is already fenomenal and the series is AMAZING... but seeing what this cast did make me fear for OF cuz if any of my boys do anything remotely close to what this cast did(considering Mark is in both shows I am already geering up cuz the opening of this week episode of Warp was... SPICY🥵)

I am gonna say it of Only Friends is even remotely close in spice and plot as Warp Effect I am gonna die cuz already warp effect kills me every week(it is onestly my favourote show at the moment!) and seeing FirstKhao and NeoMark(and Force Book but in a smaller part than the other 2) like this is gonna be my undoing!!!!

Also the opening scene of yestedays episode made me think of the opening of season 3 of Sex Education lol I think Jojo really took inspirarion of that show and decided to kinda make the Thai version with his personal view and storytelling and onestly it is paying off this show is glorious

thank you for the open asks it is a nice way to express my feelings and have someone respond to them💗

I was thinking the same thing but I'm pretty certain that OF will not go as hard as the warp effect lmao. 

the warp effect literally IS about sex lmao and it uses that as its main plot device; it has a heavy focus on sex education and breaking the stigma, which is one of the many things I appreciate about the show but that's not what OF is about at all. yes, there is naughty stuff involved lol but it gives off a completely different vibe to me. My estimation, and also according to multiple interviews, is that it will focus more on the relationships between the 6 mains, rather than the graphic stuff lol. Obviously that goes hand in hand but since there's less characters involved, I think it's gonna be more tame. and by that I mean it's probably gonna be intense but we won't see scenes like that opening part of the latest TWE episode lmao.

In the end I think we're going more into a Friend Zone direction with OF aka spicy but decent and with a lot of relationship drama lol. Also let's not forget that the mock trailer is always crazier and wilder than the actual show so let's wait and see 👀 but then again considering what the show's twitter account posted this morning,,,,, I'm not so sure jdshkjgdf

xxx

[wyyrmwood]

Settle down for a green text formatted tale my friends, I have a taste of a new classic fantasy book I think you all may enjoy. Its a little long, so I added a show more break for convenience.

I present to you the plot of The Troll's Grindstone. Cannot recommend it enough and there's so much good shit I left out for the sake of not just rewriting the entire book. Its got everything, cool horses, a Kronk parallel character down to the evil right hand status and everything, your dads weird friend that you have beef with, some hot lake monster girls that totally won't eat you ahahahahah come closer baby, elves getting their pompous asses WHOOPED, ghosts, and a main character who is just a guy. No inherent powers, just a decent swordsman who really really didn't want to be here but literally can't leave (because he got teleported to the elf realm)

Imagine:

>You are an evil wizard night elf who wants more power

>tired of smelly light elves crashing your sick parties

>corrput a light elf prince who was well known for greed, arrogance, and kind of just being an all around d-bag

>"hey kid want some magic get in my van"

>commence world domination to get rid of the stinky day fairing elves

>cash in on the troll alliance aw yeah

>going better than expected, elf prince is such a little asshole that he fully doesn't care he's leading his race to extinction, just keeps betraying entire cities for you

>feeling pretty good, but poison him with fantasy heroin that only you can get for him anyway for good measure

>"yeah yeah ill give you coke or whatever just keep betraying your people and leading my little crusades"

>he does

>sick

>world domination complete, pretty easy just massacred some magic pussies and desecrated some sacred locations so I own the magic there and also kind of dunked on the sacred sites and magics ancient far more powerful race of magic elves too because I hate them and the light elves worship them as almost gods.

>kill elf princes little prince brother too for shits and giggles, takes his sword and uses it to curse all other swords in the realm to decay and never sharpen

>back to the stone age with you, fucking nerds

>"ok freaky little guy go away"

>kick out elf prince because ew light elf, he crawls back to his father and is banished for betraying his people, facing punishment for his crimes etc. etc. etc

>like 100 years pass life is ez elf prince is probably dead from super heroin withdrawal by now so no worries about him coming back

>what

>he assasinated* you (you're an evil wizard, you just turn into a giant bear for a while) and also he's back

> yeah he's actually back, he looks great and also is mad asf saying he will kill you

>also hangs out with his dads useless wizard and some coked out old homeless guy

>kind of weird but you basically made this guy and know he's a bit of a coward so its no problem to just manipulate him again, bros probably also absolutely FEINDING for more heroin because fantasy heroin withdraws last forever and also kill you so there's that

>oh yeah and everyone hates his guts for destroying their civilization and holy sites

>haha loser

>prince begins on a quest to undo your destruction of the magical sacred sites and also kick dark elf ass just because

>he's kind of actually doing it

>"ok what the fuck guy if I give you heroin will you stop look here's some heroin"

>its not working he doesn't want the heroin

>proceeds to kick your ass all over the map and purify sacred sites and everyone starts loving him again

>aw hell

>keep trying to manipulate mansplain malewife him but it isn't working like it used to and also he's not dying from the death heroin but you KNOW he loved drugs so whats up with that

>also his pet wizard is kind of getting good from all this ancient site purification

>wizard kicks your ass and destroys your cool monsters

>AW HELL

>finally get his ass and sell him as a thrall after kicking his ass for once

>"see u later smelly"

>says I'm a cunt, correct but ow

>"remember ur dead brothers wife that you are kind of into but respectfully just friends ? i have her captured and shes also a thrall now haha look"

>oh he actually got really mad about that, probably shouldn't have said anything

>guy I'm selling him to is really not into having an extremely agressive servant who would absolutely kill him so I cut his knee, bye bye leg

>holy fuck this owner guy is throwing a bitch fit about now having a lame thrall fine ill buy him back and just have him work in the mines to desecrate another sacred site

>pain in my ass but he's balls deep in a mountain that used to be a giant now mining out its heart

>huh

>what's that

>HE BLEW UP* (catastrophically flooded and collapsed) THE MOUNTAIN WITH HIS BITCH WIZARD AND OLD HOMLESS MAN?

>awwwwww hell

>find his ass outside the mountain with dying coked out old homeless man and wizard again, this is so embarrassing

>????? Wait What why is everyone laughing and not shivering their timbers

>ITS NOT EVEN THE ELF PRINCE

>A HUMAN MAN HAS BEEN WHOOPING YOUR ASS THE ENTIRE TIME PRETENDING TO BE THE ELF PRINCE

>THE COKED OUT DYING OLD HOMELESS MAN WAS THE PRINCE ALL ALONG

>the guy you've been fighting is just some guy that looked like the prince a bit who the actual prince abducted from his human realm and forced into pretending to be him

>you, a powerful wizard and nigh immortal elf, lost your entire kingdom, power, status, and prestige to Mr. Normal Human Man who didn't even want to kick your ass to begin with and got roped into all this magic shit because he went poking around the wrong barrow over in Human Land

>he kills you

Thank you all this has been the plot of The Trolls Grindstone.

[tadpolesonalgae]

Okie i'll copy you for a bit a do the quote for each comment thing so i dont get lost hehe

I don’t know? I think to us as readers of the series I kind of agree, but then he cooperated with the alliance, and also I’m on the side that if anyone should be able to see through his mask it should be the IC since hello Rhysand? UTM? CoN???? The idea of a mask/persona???

honestly this is one of the million problems with acotar because yeah when i say the ic has no way of knowing that eris isn't all bad i mean sjm keeps writing the story like that but you're right it doesn't make any sense. i mean even apart from eris doing literally what rhys has been doing since forever, how am i suppose to believe that mor knows all truth or whatever her powers even are and that rhys is a mind reader, and azriel and amren are supposed to be able to read people so well, that azriel's shadows see things that others don't but they still think eris is as bad as beron. that and both eris and mor kinda have made it seem like there's something else there (i genuinely think sjm planned on making mor and eris mates or something but then people started calling her out on having no diversity and she made mor gay out of nowhere). im also pretty sure its common knowledge in the ic that yes eris dumped her over the border without any other help which sucks but he didn't actually hurt her (that was kier) and one look at the autumn court would be enough to tell them that mor would have been hurt even worse if beron had seen her so how did they not put 2 and 2 together. i guess he still hurt her enough and as her friends they probably wont ever forgive him but it doesnt make sense logically for them to still think eris is the same as beron

This might sound hypercritical or conflictive but I’m not writing/don’t want to write Mor to be a bitch? I like Mor and while it might add to the angst and drama to have her be cruel to reader I just wouldn’t be able to commit to it 😭 In my mind it was Mor acting on the hurt reader has caused her and while it was unnecessary, emotions should be let out?

im sorry to say but mor was in fact a bitch but i get what you're saying like she's justified in her anger (in a way) but yeah trying to make someone who just attempted suicide feel bad about themselves is beyond bitchy. but im saying this as someone who doesn't really like mor most times (to me there's no depth to her character tbh like she was just there as the obligatory female friend for feyre, if you compare how developed cass and az are to mor... yeah she just falls flat idk if its bc cass and az will become the main characters in their books and mor might not get one or if its just not so great writing coming from miss maas once more)

Azriel calling Mor out??? After some of the things he’s said to reader????

i feel like this could be a good turning point though. like imagine azriel heard it and calls her out and has to admit not only to himself but out loud about all the shitty uncalles for comments he's thrown reader's way but even while admitting to it, deciding that he wants to be better to her and calling out mor on her bullshit is one way of doing it. also calling out mor is especially significant because of the whole he was in love with her for 500 years (i refuse to go with sjm's shitty ass "he loved her for 500 years and one day just stopped" bullshit - if she was a decent writer who cared a little more about character growth and plot instead of superficial romance tropes and smut she would write a whole book for azriel with no love interest but of him finding his own way and letting go of his love for mor that lasted for 500 fucking years before ever thinking of making him fall for someone else anyway i digress)

That would be so ooc of reader but I think it would be funny (in theory) for reader to suddenly do a 180° and act with them how she does around Eris and snap something smart and sassy back 😭🤭

i hope the ic gets to see her being herself with eris though and realize they really dont know shit about her

But then also idk how much the ‘thinking loudly’ was amplified by Rhys and Feyre’s bond, so whether it would even apply to reader in that way?

honestly sjm refuses to explain anyone's powers or even how magic works atp so who knows

also i saw another ask of you going in on cc and i would like to join a little. i have to start by saying i havent read the books bc i didn't do anything wrong but from the bits I've seen her writing really has been going downhill and it shows the most in the cc books. i never thought she was an amazing writer tbh like acotar reads to me like a teenager book almost but with smut so it's supposed to be ya and if it wasnt for fanfic i wouldn't be here or even remember the books. i read the first one and already had to skim through some of it but then the 2nd one was a bit more promising, unfortunately the 3rd book was going downhill by the chapter, i dont even like to talk about acosf because how is that supposed to be a book about healing when everyone that's supposed to love nesta treats her like shit and most of it is just smut that does nothing at all for the plot. so im not surprised that not only has cc been having a lot of these critics but also that sjm doubled down on the smut in that book. i also heard some of the characters are kind of copy paste from acotar but again i havent read the books. i honestly dont even know if i'll read any other acotar book because they keep getting worse and whether elain ends up with az or lucien or az with gwyn or elain, i dont think sjm will be able to pull a good book out of it when there's this big mess between all of the characters i mentioned plus her insistence on making the ic act like assholes to each other, creating a found family to make it shitty is just dumb in my opinion, but i know for a fact im not gonna read any of the other sjm series (even though tog is supposed to be the best one) and even if i did i wouldnt touch the modern fantasy if it was the last book on earth tbh. technology ends up taking a lot of the magic out of fantasy and obviously im reading fantasy because i like magical aspects. one of the reasons the later books fell off for me too tbh, she started modernizing things too much (like leggings and cans of soup?? when there are no factories or anything?) like the spring court had so many fun magic things and then velaris was a city with clubs, the moonstone palace and the hewn city felt more magical at times than the court of dreams.

i also agree that one of the biggest problems with the later books is the amount of smut. i like smut as much as the next person and dont mind reading pwp but in fanfictions not in books i pay for and that are written by professional authors. sjm tries less and less to write good characters and to keep up a plot because she knows her fantasy books were one of the first of the "spicy fantasy romance" to become popular and she's not losing that place and smut sells so who cares about a good story? definitely not her.

and with the bryce thing you're absolutely right, from what i've read she acts like a petulant selfish child most of the time and correct me if i'm wrong but she's not supposed to be like 19 like feyre so she's a grown ass woman. and yeah i definitely think sjm made her plus size because again she got called out for having no diversity in her books but treats it really weirdly. im someone who may not be plus size but pretty close to it and the way sjm writes bryce definitely gives me weird vibes. what i've seen most and even some people talk about is that a lot of characters keep mentioning how they're attracted to bryce, like sjm doesnt expect us ymto believe bryce is really hot by the descriptions she's made unless she keeps reminding us that people wanna fuck her. idk it may just be a bit of my trauma reading into it

im sorry if this ran too long im a bit drunk apologies - 🧶

Warnings: CC spoilers!, plus a little more slander, please consider looking away if you like the series! 🧡💛

‘when i say the ic has no way of knowing that eris isn't all bad i mean sjm keeps writing the story like that’

Right? Please miss Maas I want everyone to get along and be happy, let the drama between Eris and Mor be solved so that everyone can be happy and peaceful 😭

‘how am i suppose to believe that mor knows all truth or whatever her powers even are and that rhys is a mind reader, and azriel and amren are supposed to be able to read people so well, that azriel's shadows see things that others don't but they still think eris is as bad as beron.’

Also we’re kind of kept in the dark about specifics too? Mor’s just said to have ‘truth’ but what does that mean!! Can she force people to tell the truth? Can she see things in their true form?? Has she come out of the cave and seen the sun and the shadows it casts???? (Plato’s cave reference 😎)

Like I can understand to a degree why Rhys doesn’t look into people’s minds and appreciate that part of his character—that while he is morally greyish he has his own rules if that makes sense? He has his own perception of right and wrong which makes him interesting? But I might be confusing canon with fanon here 🫣

And yes I can see how miss Maas has written the IC to be flawed and Eris even says how Rhys is blinded by his love for his family so he has trouble seeing truths or discrepancies in those around him?

‘(i genuinely think sjm planned on making mor and eris mates or something but then people started calling her out on having no diversity and she made mor gay out of nowhere).’

Haha I hadn’t thought of it like that!

I’m still unsure what I’d choose between no representation vs. bad representation? On one hand it’s kind of disheartening/irritating to see sexuality used as such a cheap plot point? Unless miss Maas expands on it properly it’ll feel kind of useless to me? But then on the other hand representation is representation, like at least it’s becoming more prevalent in general media? I think another angle is some of the issues with acotar wouldn’t be as problematic as they are if the book series wasn’t so popular? But because it’s liked by so many people it’s also under much more intensive scrutiny when I don’t know if Miss Maas even planned for it to be taken so seriously as it is in some places? Not that the analysis is a bad thing, though, it’s interesting to see different things pointed out if I’d missed them the first time? (Particularly with Emerie and her descriptions of beauty? I hadn’t noticed it in the first read through but then saw some other people pointing it out, as well as other things?)

‘but he didn't actually hurt her (that was kier) and one look at the autumn court would be enough to tell them that mor would have been hurt even worse if beron had seen her so how did they not put 2 and 2 together.’

I suppose while Eris didn’t hurt her, Mor was in an extremely vulnerable position and the with Eris already being from the autumn court it would be easy to make the assumption that he would have inherited the beliefs in his father? Also with the saying of ‘if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem’—I think that’s contextual, but for the sake of the point it’s making, I’m using it here—Eris didn’t do anything to help Mor that we know of, and also according to Mor’s narrative Eris said some cruel things, but then on the other hand since Eris hasn’t done or said anything exactly to contradict what Mor’s said so I’m not going to blame the IC for being protective and standing with her on what was likely an extremely traumatising moment for her? Honestly I guess it would be kind of weird and shitty if they doubted her to be honest 😭

‘im sorry to say but mor was in fact a bitch but i get what you're saying like she's justified in her anger (in a way)’

I expressed myself wrong, sorry 😭

Mor definitely said something bad, but I’m not going to write her in cbmthy to continue making horrid comments like that when nobody else is around, it was kind of a one-off thing so hopefully she won’t be a bitch in the rest of the story, just temporarily 🤭🧡💛

‘yeah trying to make someone who just attempted suicide feel bad about themselves is beyond bitchy.’

Hard agree, I might even have to say it was a little uncalled for 🫣😳🫢

‘to me there's no depth to her character tbh like she was just there as the obligatory female friend for feyre, if you compare how developed cass and az are to mor...’

I think in the books/canon she’s a bit contradictory? Maybe? With how harsh she is with Nesta and how gentle she is with Feyre? I can understand it I suppose, thinking of it through Mor’s perception, but it does sometimes feel like Mor was added just to be the one to add drama to the books? There might be something to say about how Mor and Amren are written as female characters as opposed to the batboys who we’re supposed to like and are romantic interests? Fanon Mor though 🧡💛🫂😭

‘like imagine azriel heard it and calls her out and has to admit not only to himself but out loud about all the shitty uncalles for comments he's thrown reader's way’

Okay so this is something I (maybe unnecessarily? I’m genuinely not sure) want to stretch out for a bit and give it time so it doesn’t magically disappear? With Azriel facing some of the things he’s said to reader and why they were so hurtful to her? I think him knowing she tried to kill herself will speed things up, but only to a certain degree since there’s still a lot they don’t know about one another?

‘i refuse to go with sjm's shitty ass "he loved her for 500 years and one day just stopped" bullshit’

I guess one might be able to argue he was naturally coming out of it already but it there’s no evidence to really support that? I guess it would be difficult to implement it though due to the nature of where the story started and who it follows, but it would have made more sense in my opinion if we somehow got to see Az beginning to lose feelings for Mor, but because that would require something to be set before Feyre came along I guess it would be impossible 😭

‘i hope the ic gets to see her being herself with eris though and realize they really dont know shit about her’

They probably will, however reader is the one who intentionally or not does change how she acts around people? To a certain extent reader does try to act more ‘appropriately’ around them? Like she would never speak to Rhys the way she speaks sometimes to Eris 😭 Though I can imagine it might be funny if she accidentally did and then slapped her hand over her mouth because she hadn’t meant to 😭

‘i never thought she was an amazing writer tbh like acotar reads to me like a teenager book almost but with smut’

I was wondering, did you know anything about acotar before you started reading it? I went in blind since a friend recommended it to me, so I had no idea about how popular it was or anything, but I can see how if someone had heard how hyped up people were about it and then read it, it might fall flat and be super disappointing?

‘but also that sjm doubled down on the smut in that book.’

I know I feel quite strongly that Bryce and Hunt didn’t really have that much of an emotional connection compared to their physical one? Though to be fair I also love seeing emotional vulnerability so maybe it was just a difference in taste? If you’re someone who liked that kind of lust-fuelled romance that’s fine, but personally it wasn’t my cup of tea :/

It also felt like when Bryce and Hunt introduced that ‘no sex’ rule (I think maybe in CC2) it was Miss Maas realising she hadn’t built up and kind of tension between them and had jumped into sex way too quickly and so was trying to dial it back which irritated me? I skipped over I think all of the sex scenes in CC2 because I just wanted them to hurry along and get back to the plot? Also I feel like Miss Maas was trying to make them kind of freaky to appeal to the smutty side, like with the dry humping, the electricity (I think a vibrator might have also been used but I skimmed the scenes so I can’t remember) it was just too much for me when I wanted to read about what was happening and wasn’t interested in their relationship at all 😭

‘i honestly dont even know if i'll read any other acotar book because they keep getting worse’

I know I won’t be reading another CC book and will just wait for someone to very kindly write a summary for it, but I’m desperately hoping she won’t mess up another acotar book 😭

If she does though, isn’t it such a relief we have fanfiction? 😭

‘like the spring court had so many fun magic things and then velaris was a city with clubs, the moonstone palace and the hewn city felt more magical at times than the court of dreams.’

I absolutely adore that factor in fantasy books! I particularly like Holly Black’s version of fae, where they live off the land more and are much more tricky to deal with? More folklore-esque, and I wish we saw more of that kind of thing in acotar 😭 I agree the Spring Court with the will-o-wisps was so lovely—To Old Gods is one of my favourite pieces in that aspect and I want to write and read more of that kind of ancient/slightly mythical/sometimes eldritchy magic 😭

‘i also agree that one of the biggest problems with the later books is the amount of smut. i like smut as much as the next person and dont mind reading pwp but in fanfictions not in books i pay for and that are written by professional authors.’

I used to enjoy reading smut in books (I only started reading regularly and realising I enjoyed it in the past four years) because it was new and exciting but I think now if it’s in professionally written books I absolutely adore it and author has nailed emotional connection? And yes, pwp in fanfiction? Great! Love it! But the amount of smut in CC was unbelievable and I suppose that might be how you feel about acosf? I have to admit I liked it but I think it’s heavily to do with enjoying the characters 😭 Bryce and Hunt in CC? I don’t want to read about that, please spare my eyes 😭😞

‘so who cares about a good story? definitely not her.’

I think I disagree with you here? Maybe? I can’t remember the CC books in particularly great detail? 😭 I think actually for the most part I did find the plot parts a little slow, and Bryce and Hunt made it worse for me, however I loved the ending to CC2, and I enjoyed the asteri story but I think the power levels got out of control? (Don’t even get me started on how Bryce literally doesn’t earn her magic, it infuriates me so much!!! Feyre, Aelin, and Nesta all went through some kind of training and Bryce literally just touches a stone then inherits starlight and has the audacity to say she worked for it? Babes, no.)

And actually with miss Maas being lazy in writing—her using a pill so that Bryce can understand the acotar world was so obviously a deus ex machina. It was so cheap and basic there wasn’t a single amount of thought that went into it.

‘and correct me if i'm wrong but she's not supposed to be like 19 like feyre so she's a grown ass woman.’

Yup. She’s twenty-three 😐

‘what i've seen most and even some people talk about is that a lot of characters keep mentioning how they're attracted to bryce, like sjm doesnt expect us ymto believe bryce is really hot by the descriptions she's made unless she keeps reminding us that people wanna fuck her.’

Honestly that wasn’t that big of an issue for me? Like I get it’s fantasy so I can excuse every love interest and even some who aren’t being attracted to the fmc, but I did definitely have an issue with how lust-fuelled and physical it was 😶‍🌫️

Like with Feyre and Tarquin it’s made clear they’re both attractive/beautiful people but I got the impression that ultimately they liked (?) one another for who they were? To an extent they had a kind of understanding and felt more honest?

‘idk it may just be a bit of my trauma reading into it’

Not sure how much it will help but I’m sending you internet hugs :/ 🫂🫂🫂

‘im sorry if this ran too long im a bit drunk apologies - 🧶’

Haha, don’t apologise it was fun getting to discus all these things with you!! 🧡💛

[lolotheparagon]

Jim Carrey Movies That I Recommend and Have Aged Well:

The Mask ** - You get a cute movie about a shy guy wanting to date Cameron Diaz and ends up becoming a Looney Tune man cos of a Norse mask and ends up getting the police and the mafia after him. It’s pure unfiltered fun. Even if it has a bit of that 90s stink.

The Grinch *** - While it does reek of early 2000s writing, it’s a decent Xmas movie about how consumerism around Xmas sucks, learning to trust others again and getting revenge on your bully who’s ridiculed you since childhood and Carey’s hammy as fuck in this movie. Seriously he’s the only reason I’m recommending this movie at all.

Bruce Almighty - Some sexist jokes and a shitty third act misunderstanding aside, it’s a fun movie that takes advantage of its plot about a guy with literal God powers but learns a lesson in appreciating the small things in life. Which is an important lesson to learn if the main character’s a white guy with a good job, nice apartment and a hot wife.

Yes Man - it’s ultimately Liar Liar but with learning about openmindedness being the message rather than honesty. Also it’s more soft and less raunchy than its spiritual predecessor and l like that.

Batman Forever - yeah he was in this. Riddler has never had such an ideal casting choice until Wally Wingert came along. The movies just jam with bats on it, you’ll love it

Horton Hears a Who - Its a shame Blue Sky Studios shut down cos this is the most accurate adaptation of a Dr Seuss book and it also knows how to have fun with being a kids film. Also it’s meme-tastic.

Mr Popper’s Penguins - no seriously it’s a wacky kids movie. It’s not the end of the world. I love how Carrey only took on this movie just to tap dance with a bunch of penguins like Dick Van Dyke, who is his hero. That’s really sweet.

Sonic movies - the only time Jim Carrey has been funny in recent years. I don’t really watch his content anymore cos of obvious reasons. (anti vaxxer) but it’s nice he’s returned to his silly roots.

Liar Liar * - it’s an inherently sweet movie about a dad trying to learn a lesson in honesty to save his relationship with his son. Although Fletcher winning back his wife as well is a bit of a stretch. Has this movie never heard of exes that are amicable to each other?

Asterisks:

* - Liar Liar is really into men being SA’d for a joke and it’s really uncomfortable to see Fletcher get roped into sex by a senior executive and him getting fondled and forcibly kissed by his female client. Wasn’t the 90s all about stopping workplace harassment?

** - There was one scene in the Mask where he seduces Cameron Diaz and it reeks of Pepe LePew vibes. Although things didn’t go too far apart, the fact we didn’t have a scene of Stanley immediately regretting that or at least have him and Cameron Diaz’s character bring that up during the jail scene later on really bugs me. Also Stanley’s sleazy friend pisses me off.

*** - Someone on the crew was really horny for Martha May Whovier (mostly cos she’s played by Christina Baranski) cos she’s clearly only there for fanservice. Seriously she wears slutty Christmas dresses, there’s a scene where Grinch’s face gets plastered into Martha’s cleavage, the mayor simping for her is played by Jeffrey Tambor is just creepy. What’s even worse is that during a flashback scene we see a younger Martha May suggestively licking a lollipop at a young Grinch during class… YIKES. I don’t care if that was meant to be a joke it’s still fucking creepy.

[magicalgirlagency]

If you want to get into Star Darlings I think you should read the books first. The show’s not a very good adaptation imo, too short and the only parts they adapted were the start and end with literally no context to the events of the finale. I get every adaptation has some changes or different things but what is the point of adapting the finale if you’re not going to show the events that led up to it, and also not adapting the wish missions, literally the main plot? Also I feel like the show made everyone more…stereotypical? In the books they aren’t the most Deep Amazingly Complex Characters Ever but they have more nuance to them than the show’s version I’d say. And a lot of the Star Darlings other than the main 5 only got voices in the finale special and remained silent for the whole series otherwise. That being said I will give the show credit in that the songs are lovely and the finale/fight scene is infinitely better than the one in the books (though I still prefer the books far more as I think the characters are just better there.) Anyway Star Darlings is a fun series, I wouldn’t call it the greatest thing ever and it definitely has some flaws with its writing, but its a kids’ show/book that is pretty fun and decent. My favorite thing about it would probably be the world of Starland itself because it just feels like a fun place to be (and the art is gorgeous).

Sure, it's ain't the greatest thing ever, but it's certainly better than having to see a magical girl commit mass genocide of all mystic creatures and forcibly fuse her dimension realm with Earth.

Yes, I am still bitter as all Hell, thanks for asking!