#just my extended complaining

[zhongli-lover-69]

so, i'm currently reading a court of silver flames. which, considering that it's a part of the acotar series, i really should have expected the severe amount of fucking. but. feyre's sexcapades never went on for half as many pages as nesta and cassian's straight-up porn. i feel like half this book is just straight sex in excruciating detail. which, if you're looking for a solidly lengthy porn with plot novel, great! unfortunately, i read these books for the cheesy plots and generally kinda skim the porn parts. which is really kind of annoying in this one, because i really love nesta and cassian. i really like nesta's character development, and cassian is the most fun character in the series (imo). but every time we get some good emotional development, i get absolutely BLINDSIDED with some sudden fucking. oh, conversation with friends? thinking abt rawdogging nesta last night. trouncing through an extremely fucking dangerous prison? thinking abt rawdogging nesta last night. literally about to fucking die? thinking about- you get the gist.

like. i understand that they're horny, ok, ok, whatever. but it gets more than a bit grating when nesta can't keep her mind of cassian's magical fae man meat (and vice versa) for long enough to have a serious conversation -- or just to get through a scene! it's giving me constant emotional whiplash. and as someone who cares Significantly more about the story (this is book five!! there's a decent amount of irons in the fire by now!!) than the position in which nesta is getting railed tonight, it feels annoying and unbalanced and it makes it difficult to take the plot seriously.

like. as cheesy as the first three books are, at least feyre and rhysand had the decency to separate their serious moments from their sarah j maas wing kink fulfillment moments. the serious parts were serious, and the romantic parts were romantic, and the sex scenes were placed in ways that made sense. it Flowed. and a court of silver flames Very Much Does Not. i keep feeling like i'm being jumpscared by random smut that does not match the tone at all, and it's really taking me out of the story.

honestly though, the "lack of a porn/plot balance" thing is just one of my small multitude of grievances. my other annoyances:

1. how gwyn and emerie feel like undeveloped props for nesta's character development. they are, essentially, traumatized girl 1 and traumatized girl 2, and befriending and training with them gives nesta the support she needs to become the Ridiculously Overpowered Girlboss that all sarah j maas characters inevitably become. it's a disservice to gwyn and emerie, imo. like, i understand that they're side characters, but it also feels like their importance to the plot begins and ends with their trauma.

2. feyre. reading about feyre from a non-feyee and non-rhysand point of view really makes her sheer overpoweredness apparent. she is so Magical and Special and Created from the Power of the Other High Lords and No One Else has Ever Had This Power, Her Potential Is Unquestionably Immense etc etc etc whatever whatever whatever. shut the fuck up. she feels like a mary sue -- which, again, i think is a sarah j maas protagonist thing. her only limitations are her own mind, but it was only by finding someone who truly appreciated her power that she could harness it. throws up. she's the crowning jewel of rhys' band of special little strangely overpowered idiots. again, i think this bothers me because it's a balance thing -- the night court is so cool and unique, but there are pretty much no other characters who have equivalent innate skill. only the good guys get cool fancy insanely unique powers. side characters + members of other courts (aside from a few of the high lords) get the dregs.

3. "male" and "female" instead of man and woman. makes me violently cringe. honestly, it's just another sign that this series is basically just abo for people who are into wings + magic powers instead of doggy dicks. they even have the SMELLING AROUSAL thing. like stfu!!!! this is so tmi!!!!! keep it in your pants or in your noses or whatever !!!!!!

4. the target audience has changed halfway through the series. see. first three books? cheesy, but i like the plot. they're melodramatic and magicky and overdone. i enjoy them. this book? it continues the plot, which i am casually invested in at this point, but it kills my immersion with the sudden smut. i think smut should be used like seasoning. take salt, for example. first three acotar books? a sprinkle. most of the fanfic i've read that builds up to a relationship? a few shakes. a court of silver flames? half the goddamn shaker. sodium overload. can taste naught but the salt (hehehe you see what i did there...). but. back to my main point. this is a departure from the previous books, and i am no longer the target audience. i read this book with none of the mildly obsessive zeal with which i read acotar, which i find quite disappointing. perhaps i'd care more sarah j maas spent less time writing immortals banging 20-year-old women and more time giving me a reason to like these characters.

5. and, last but not least, where tf is mor. she has always felt like one of those requires diversity characters to me (she offhandedly drops being bisexual in the third book, i think, and the building tension between her and one of the male characters evaporates with no explanation). and, this is the first real opportunity we get to spend more time with her now that she is suddenly a womanliker. naturally, sarah j maas ships her off to the continent and we don't get neither hide nor hair of her. i had already suspected that the bisexual part had been added in just to check that LGBTQ+ representation box, but this kind of confirms it for me. is it really rep if the token character gets shunted offstage at the first opportunity. and, even more, nesta's story was the perfect for mor, considering that she is one of acotar's token trauma girlies, and that nesta has made it her purpose to collect all trauma girlies she finds.

in short, this book kind of pisses me off, and i really just wanted to put my frustrations with it into writing. i hope the last 25% of it is more streamlined and interesting than the first 75%.

[pizzaqueen]

Thinking of Steve as the kind of person who will watch a horror movie, complaining the whole time about the characters running upstairs to get away or going down in the basement when they hear a noise, why are they being so stupid, etc. and so on

And Eddie will look at him, like: “Yes, it’s so unrealistic for someone to run headfirst into a potentially dangerous situation, no one would ever do that in real life.”

And it shuts Steve up…for about five minutes, and then he starts grumbling about how some building is a fire trap or something and Eddie just throws up his hands and gives up. And the next time, he kisses Steve—he misses the movie, sure, but at least it shuts Steve up for longer than five minutes this time.

[mollyrolls]

falling terrible victim to shitty phone games… this has dangerous effects for my week

[itspileofgoodthings]

.

[tearfest]

sorry to log on n rant but i need to rant

[lauronk]

the absolute lack of awareness and consideration some people have continues to astound me. (personal life rant under the cut)

i live in an apartment complex with a neighbor across the breezeway who regularly plays music so loud i can make out THE WORDS in my own living room

and a downstairs neighbor with a sound system up against the wall so when they watch a movie it vibrates our floors despite us repeatedly going down to ask them to do something about it, be it adjust the bass or move the sound system or just simply turn it down a little (and every time they’re snippy with us about it)

and people who like to gather at the pool right across from our building and play loud music until past midnight ON WEEKNIGHTS

i’m all for people having fun in their homes and enjoying life and music and parties and whatever. but also it takes just a minute to consider that there are other people existing around you and be considerate of them

[roseworth]

what the fuck was that. i literally looked back through the issue and counted the pages because that story ended so fast i couldnt believe there were actually 22 pages

[lightblueminecraftorchid]

My roommate and I had a conversation last night and I keep rotating it in my brain and I Don’t Like It

[femmeterypolka]

how could it possibly happen twice

[trainingdummyrabbit]

days since last : 0

[weathertheraine]

You guys don't know the full extent of my powers. I can make everyone a lesbian

[angelofblackblood]

I’m so tired.

[hitachiincest]

while making little jokes & memes about antis sometimes is silly & fun, like 90% of proshippers take every chance they get to just complain & complain abt antis & engage with them* (like replying to Every post they see from one of them or w/e) & screenshot + go off abt anti posts & it's like my brother in christ just go live ur life. it quite literally is not worth ur time. antis wont care abt what u have to say just like u dont care abt the shit They have to say. & posting abt antis is just repetitive annoying bullshit. no need to preach to a choir, buddy. especially not like 25 times.

block any anti u see w/o giving em the time of day & go read some fics. eat a starburst. write an analysis on the brocon tendencies between some idol boy twin duo. gush over ur fave chara. Anything Else; all better uses of ur time.

u do not have to revolve ur life around "oh my GOD look at what the antis are saying NOW theyre all so BAD & GROSS Proshippers Rule Antis Drool!!1! heres 50 posts abt discourse/antis/etc & 7 different beefs im having with ppl simultaneously" bro go watch some kuro or smth & dont let them live rent free in ur head like u live in theirs. have the upper hand by giving less of a fuck. why waste precious hrs arguing w Brick Walls when u could be watching toxic yaoi instead.

*this does not include if an anti comes after u. i think u can call them a little bitch if u want then lol. Justified.

[non-un-topo]

Let's ban group projects at the 4th year level forever

[frobby]

boy son and girl daughter are the only characters who matter in kaiju no.8

[kaeyapilled]

So with the hangout.. do you think that settles the issue of mistranslation or not of Kaeya and Diluc being brothers?

is it even possible to settle it? i feel like there must be some insane cultural difference between me as a western person and chinese people when it comes to adoptive siblings because, i honestly don't see how the biological son of the guy you consider your adoptive father isn't, by extension, your adoptive brother; how would that relationship not be familial? even when you bring in the "sworn brothers" trope as a means of queercoding, which is a concept ive had explained to me more than once – like, okay? i agree that it's true you can't properly translate/localize that, but. how else did you want them to translate it? even if the word brother was never used once in the eng translation, how do you make it so that kaeya and diluc calling the same guy "father" doesn't imply some uncomfortable things if he and diluc are romantically involved..? but then, who knows, maybe i just don't have enough knowledge about how censorship works in china, how they do queercoding over there, how they deal with adopted relationships, whatever. it's fine. different cultural upbringings, no? it's funny when it's the western side of the fandom discussing this, though. because you'll have these extremely white people arguing with you about the intricacies of chinese BL media. as if either of us knows what the hell we're talking about. anyway, none of this matters in the end because most klc shippers just... like the incest. and the day we stop arguing about mistranslations and simply accept that people either 1) see this relationship in a different light due to their cultural background or 2) are a little bit of a freak online is the day i will finally know peace as a kaeya fan