#just putting that as a footnote

[aroaceleovaldez]

I really dislike the inherent main plots of TSATS and Chalice of the Gods as they’re being explained to us currently, mostly just cause I feel like they take away from already established lore of the series and other plot points.

There is no way TSATS can go that doesn’t make either Tartarus feel cheap and/or the entire book just feel like Percabeth In Mark Of Athena: 2 Electric Boogaloo. Unless the twist is that they don’t go to Tartarus it is physically impossible. Because either they go to Tartarus and breeze through it, which makes Tartarus as a setting feel cheap and ruins all prior instances of it being used as a landscape of suffering, or they suffer Lots and Lots and it just feels like we’re rehashing the same exact plot over again purely for the sake of treating solangelo the same as percabeth, which doesn’t work because they’re vastly different character dynamics and putting them in the same situation has nowhere near the same emotional weights. Also it makes Nico’s original foray into Tartarus feel null because it makes it feel like his trauma doesn’t have any actual meaning, because why would he jump right back into it? Even with Nico’s character being extremely self-sacrificial, we’re at a point where we’re being told he’s improving on that and this is possibly the one circumstance he would think twice about. AND it makes Tartarus feel overused - Nico surviving Tartarus once? Okay, makes sense, he’s the son of Hades, and it’s cool that he’s the first mortal to ever survive it. Percabeth too? Getting iffy (especially since we see their trip in detail and that inherently means it’s lost a lot of potential oomph, because when you’re going for horrifying a lot of the time less is more) but okay, sure, Nico probably gave Percy some Tartarus Tips after being rescued and they had a literal dues ex machina or two helping them out, and they fell in accidentally so it’s not like how Nico waltzed in there. Third time? And it being Nico AGAIN and Will Solace (who as far as we know has little to no quest experience and most of his experience is being a battlefield medic) and then purposefully going there? Nope. It’s just a poor set-up. Plus “the major gay couple goes on vacation to superhell” is a... questionable plot set-up to begin with, especially when it’s been heavily implied it will be traumatizing for them, and we have already been told explicitly that references are being made to things like Call Me By Your Name so there is a self-awareness about the themes there (also that alone raises questions about how we’re going to be taking the tone of things - again, there’s two ways it can go and both would be extremely difficult to get right). If Mark Oshiro were not co-authoring this I’d be a little horrified. I’m very glad Mark Oshiro is co-authoring this. I don’t believe it can’t be done tastefully, and yeah it’s a situation ripe for symbolism, but it is definitely the kind of subject that would be difficult for a non-queer author to handle appropriately.

As for Chalice of the Gods, we know two things: A.) It takes place prior to TOA, and B.) The chalice Percy has to retrieve has the power to make anyone who drinks from it immortal. ..... so basically, without the book even being out, we are told “If Percy had waited like 20 minutes, all of TOA would be null.” Admittedly, this does give justification for Percy specifically to be doing this quest outside of “college” reasons, and in my opinion, “The gods asked Percy specifically because they have verified he adamantly does NOT want to be immortal” is hilarious. However, adding yet another universe mechanic to the repertoire that nullifies death is annoying as hell, because death as a consequence in the series has been completely ruined since HoO. The more avoiding death options there are, the more every death scene feels completely pointless and avoidable.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept 11 attacks:

15 were from Saudi Arabia (a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

2 were from the United Arab Emirates (also a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

1 was from Egypt, 1 from Lebanon.

None of the hijackers were from Iraq.

None of the Sept 11 hijackers were Iraqi.

None of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq.

[bmpmp3]

sorry to be a bit of a hater but i do wish youtubers weren't so scared of making their videos just like, "reviews", whys everything gotta be a "video essay" all the time. every day my recommendations are filled with 40 minute videos titled "_____: An Underrated Masterpiece" where the first like five minutes are reading the wikipedia definition of "masterpiece" in a somber voice with dramatic themed text on screen. please just tell me how good or bad you think something is and use the rest of the runtime to explain why. you dont need to put on all these airs

[pass3ra]

cressida's storyline was genuinely shameful tbhhh it's like they started rewriting it in the first half of the season then completely forgot about the changes they'd made to make it fit the book plot and it just ends up making everyone else look bad😐 every character in the second half got a "penelope did nothing wrong" lobotomy so we ended up with eloise completely ignoring cressida being sold off to an horrible man (when she made every effort to support her in the first half of the season) and for some reason resenting her for pretending to be lady whistledown? Then they somehow frame her ignoring colin's offensively bad pleas as it being her turning away from redemption when all she's trying to do is escape being trapped in the country with her likely abusive aunt... and it ends with her meeting her horrible fate and it still being framed as tragic only to immediately juxtapose it with the bridgerton family winning the idgaf war while gleefully seeing off francesca and her future dead husband. The bridgertons were the villains of the season frfr

[vinkandpaint]

neeew sona reeeef

[dolls-self-ships]

self shippers rb in the tags with a fictional character that you don't/wouldn't necessarily want to f/o but you like them enough and like to think they'd have a crush on/flirt with you

(proshippers pls don't interact with this post)

[aphelea]

first time we see alvar he chugs a glass of wine in a sip, talks about his 3 girlfriends and proceeds to call known facts a hoax. truly what a guy

[archiveofliterature]

wip wednesday / me, the author: omg they're flirting....

[bayetea]

I'm gonna froth at the mouth over this in the tags so bear with me but reason #1278038 why the way rick went about breaking up jiper was bad: rereading her povs in hoo where she gushes over jason feels like even more of an unreliable narrator queer girl comphet psychological horror story

[wingsforthewicked]

Tbh, another thing ive been thinking of now that i remembered once again that i can talk abt whatever wing thoughts i have here, is how not only Ryōko Kui is good at characters, natural worldbuilding and art skill, but that last thing actually seems to par with how she does wings

like of course—but what i mean with this is that, yes, maybe a good portion of the wings she does and appear on the manga arent as realistic, but those are usually the sculpted ones and in-universe art, even That makes sense. the ones that took my attention and Further made me realize "oh, she Knows what she's doing" is with the harpies, chimera falin and the winged lion himself (tho something tells me im forgetting more examples)

because. well, there was other reasons i started reading the manga, mainly because and thanks to a friend, but one of the other ones was seeing a screenshot of the winged lion's wings by another friend, and how i was mildly losing my mind seeing how wonderfully done they were...

all of this to say, this wing fact is now going into my conspiratorial board of wings in relation to artists, and—read the manga yall, is So Good-

[frikatilhi]

"There are canon events that if I just read them in fics I would think were totally unbelievable and unrealistic"

no but this is so true! like what do you mean bojan didn't even wait a month after eurovision to go to finland to spend some of his free days there? and after knowing jere for like what? only 2 months? and being comfortable enough with him already to join him on stage and take part of the piggy train!

and we all joked about bojan spending the night with the finns after the final and that's were he lost his phone, people even wrote that on their fics… and then mikke posted a photo that kinda proves it

and like joking that bojan was not gonna stay at his hotel after tavastia 2.0 and was going to jere's place instead? and then we got confirmation of that as well�� and he fucking left his underwear there for jere to wash them?

or bojan running to the dj stage in that serbian festival where they were playing chachacha just to record it and send it to jere?? he even told a fan who asked for a picture that he had to hurry lmao

Yes, some definite highlights of "too unrealistic to put in a fic"!

One of my favourites is Jere wearing the ARE YOU bracelet for ICIP music video. And watching fucking Twilight at two am. And Jere joining the tour as their little mascot? Remember how in advance we all thought it was pretty unrealistic to expect that?

[identitty-dickruption]

so funny having to justify every little choice I make in my thesis and having to like. explain it as if the reader has never heard of disability before. and by 'funny' I, of course, mean 'painful'

[13reasonstoeatthatcake]

Has anyone read Fourth Wing translated into another language and did you agree with the Violet/Violence nickname translations in said language? Because I'm reading through the Bulgarian version rn and they. Fucking transliterated it??? With a FOOTNOTE??? Explaining what Violence means in English??? Even though it's not a one-time thing but a recurring nickname and the use of Sudden English Word in-text in what's meant to be flirty, charged and tender moments later is fucking jarring??? I am Shaking With Rage.

[bmpmp3]

you know recently a bunch of my professors have been excitedly mentioning how in their classes, students have been citing their sources way more extensively and properly than past semesters. did he do this (looks to the sky where a giant transparent image of harris bombered guy is floating)

[mamawasatesttube]

i know sidearm is dead but hes so fucking funny i think we should bring him back. i love a completely incompetent supervillain i really do sjdlfkjlkd

[ratatatastic]

"me and ekky have gotten into it a couple times already 😏😏" he says with so much pride like hes showing off his contact list and pointing at the most famous person he has on his phone

his full answer is a joy though

"Everyone has been super nice, super welcoming—both to me and my wife—and that's the biggest thing. When you sign to a new team you think about your opportunity but you also think about the collective culture that, you know, a team has and their identity, how you can fit into that culture. I've only heard great things about the Florida Panthers. You know, it showed on the ice in the playoffs last year and just in the last two years, right? I was with the Boston Bruins two years ago and they killed our hopes and dreams of winning the Stanley Cup. You know what? It has to connect on the ice but also has to connect off the ice to be that good. And I'm super excited to, you know, put my little kind-of spice to this team and the guys."

LeBatard Show | 10.16.24 (x)