#literal random foreshadowing in the first book

[romitricrazed]

Oh, Rose

Rereading the DPOV Series and again seeing how Rose was like disgusted at the prospect of two guardians running away to marry in the first book and im like: Oh, Rose, you have no idea whats coming for you

[armageddidnt]

Welcome to My Collection of Random Thoughts during my nth* rewatch of Good Omens Season 2

*only amazon prime knows the exact number at this point but I’m fairly certain it’s in the double digits

Episode 1: Gabriel’s fly lurking in the box when Aziraphale first takes it inside 👀

Crowley’s promise of “two minutes” basically means that he’s been homeless and living in his car for the past 4 years strictly so that he can be within 2 driving minutes of Aziraphale at all times in case his angel needs him I’m not crying you are

So here I think the key word is “fragile,” Crowley knows they are ostensibly safe from their respective sides but that could change at any moment so he’s basically spent the last 4 years in anxiety-ridden terror hovering as close to Aziraphale as he can to try and protect him from heaven, hell, and anyone else that would want to bring him harm after all that business they pulled in season 1 with stopping Armageddon

Episode 2: I just happened to pause the episode while Aziraphale is lying to the angels about his miracle and LOL Michael really outdid himself here (Sheen, not the Archangel)

Gabriel trying to swat flies and almost smashing the repository of every single one of his memories

I’m cAckling

So if Good Omens exists in Good Omens, does that mean Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett exist in Good Omens?? Do you think they based their Aziraphale and Crowley characters on Aziraphale and Crowley??

Episode 3: So I’m trying to find any hints or foreshadowing of the Gabriel Beelzebub thing bc tbh I did kind of feel like it came out of nowhere which is really the only issue I have with them. I found this one scene where Beelzebub almost ?? seems to be concerned about Gabriel ?? But it’s blink and you miss it and there could be lots of other reasons why Beelzebub doesn’t want to fail in locating Gabriel (pressure from/leverage over heaven, etc) so idk

More Foreshadowing Fly content ��

Episode 4: So here we’ve seen that Shax can just appear inside the Bentley bc she did it earlier to talk to Crowley. Shax only pretended to be a hitchhiker so she could be invited in because Azirpahale was driving so technically she needed permission to cross the threshold of an angel 👀

This scene will never not destroy me the 1941 flashback is the absolute sOFTEST thing ever to happen on this show

We really need more context here I need to see the Crowley-Furfur Monkey Rides

Episode 5: ahahaha thank you google translate for absolutely destroying my sanity this evening

POP goes the Ziraphale

Okay I know you can’t hear it in the gif but just before Nina takes Maggie’s hand, there’s a very quiet miracle noise, like Azirpahale literally MADE Nina dance with Maggie, he said I’m writing a Mina Jane-Austen-Ball-AU and my otp will KISS godDAMMIT

Azirpahale seems lowkey kind of manic this whole scene tho, he’s controlling literally everyone to force Nina and Maggie together and whenever Crowley says anything that pokes holes in Aziraphale’s Magical Jane Austen Ball Fairytale, Aziraphale just straight up denies it. He wants Nina and Maggie to dance and he wants him and Crowley to dance and he refuses to acknowledge anything beyond that.

Is this just Shax insulting Crowley for how much of a nuisance he’s been or a reference to his former status as an angel ???

They’re both completely dismissive of each other when they’re trying to say something important and that’s the main issue they’ve been having this entire season tbh

Episode 6: I think it’s funny that Crowley describes the angels as bees here because in the book, Neil/Terry describe humans the same way. Guess we have more in common than we thought huh?

So the metatron was the one who originally decided Gabriel would be memory wiped and not sent to hell, and he was also the one that decided not to sound an alarm about Gabriel for some reason and said ‘just go find him yourself’ instead. The metatron has definitely got his own agenda and you can bet he doesn’t want Aziraphale up there in heaven because he’s a “leader” and he’s “honest” like that’s exactly what Gabriel was and look where it got him 👀

There’s just something I can’t quite put my finger on about the metatron bringing Aziraphale a coffee from “give me coffee or give me death” and then asking Aziraphale if he’s going to take the coffee he’s giving him…

I have not seen a single person talk about this since s2 came out but Nina literally calls Maggie “angel” because that’s the term of endearment they hear Crowley using for Aziraphale !!!! I’m still going fERAL over this and I can’t believe no one else is eitHER

Something about this part of The Final Fifteen compared to this scene from the first episode is so representative of the entire season. Azirpahale keeps saying “my way or get out” and Crowley finally hits a wall and can follow Aziraphale no further. So he does just that. He goes.

I’m sure a lot of us by now have seen this post that brings up how Aziraphale literally pushes the remains of Crowley into his mouth and swallows and it’s the only thing I see when I watch this now

We still don’t know for certain if Crowley queued up this song to play on their way to the Ritz or if the Bentley started playing it all on its own and it’s driving me insane

Basically how I am doing after my Truly-Alarming-Number-th watch of this traumatizing episode/season. WELP hope you enjoyed this garbage dump of my thoughts and feelings time to go cry for a bit again BYE

[genericpuff]

All That Glitters is Not Feminism - An Analysis of LO's Brand of "Feminism" and What Remains of its Fanbase (The Twist)

Alright y'all, I've been waiting a hot minute to talk about this because I wanted to see how it fully panned out before saying anything about it. And it's not even specifically about LO, but I do think it's very adjacent to it in a way that I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear. Much of it speaks to how we prop up white writers even at the expense of POC.

This is 'the twist' attached to my first post that I made just a couple hours ago that concerns an entirely other topic but I feel ties into this subject very well.

If you haven't heard, there's this author who recently fucked around in the Del Rey publishing scene.

Her name is Cait Corrain.

In the original tweet calling this person out, names were not dropped, but it was made very clear that what Cait did was unacceptable behavior.

You can read the entire thread that started it all from Xiran here:

There's also a GREAT recap thread from one of the affected authors, Bethany Baptiste:

I want to make it clear that Cait Corrain isn't just a debut author.

Cait Corrain is - or now, was (foreshadowing is a literary device that-) - a debut author who had an agent, a publishing deal with Del Rey (an imprint of Random House which is a MAJOR publisher) and even an upcoming Illumicrate deal - meaning, her book was going to be packaged in a monthly loot crate subscription shipped directly to people's doors, quite possibly one of the best marketing deals a debut author could ever get, usually unheard of in this industry. All the pre-reviews were strong and positive.

Cait's book was literally set up for success. All she had to do was sit back, relax, and watch the fruits of her labors roll in. She had written the book. It was ready for release. The hard part was technically over.

But I guess the racism brainrot got to her because as it turns out, since April - for EIGHT MONTHS - she's been making alternate accounts on GoodReads to review bomb the indie and debut works of her friends and peers, most of whom were POC and did not have the same opportunities set up for them as she did. There are loads of receipts to back this up that you can find in those above threads ^^^

To say that this is appalling is an understatement. This was an intentional and deliberate act of racism by a white queer writer who claimed to be "jealous" - of what, I can't imagine - so much so that she deliberately sabotaged her peers, people who had supported her and her book.

And then when she got caught? She doubled down on it and claimed it was a "friend", also an alternate account she made up.

The exchange between her and this made-up person is actually the funniest shit out of this entire thing, it's so poorly written and as soon as people noticed the time stamps were out of order, that was when it truly cemented her newfound clown status.

"oooooh he's standing right behind me, isn't he?" energy right here LMAO

yes keep expositing cait, that's really selling the "this is a genuine conversation that really happened with a real person" bit 🤡

Anyways, it became abundantly clear that Cait was just going to continue to dig her heels in over something she caused.

This has been a hot topic in the UnpopularLO Discord, not just because of how crazy of a situation it is that we had to talk about it - and we have people within the community who work in the literature and media sector - but because we noticed one very telling thing in the list of series that she had review bombed in her very own personal act of wrath.

You see, Cait made one fundamental mistake that led to her undoing - she didn't just review bomb the works of her peers, she positively reviewed her own book and others.

What's her book about though?

It's an Ariadne x Dionysus retelling set in space.

It's literally another "modern retelling" of Greek myth.

And wouldn't you know it, guess who else created a modern retelling of Greek myth that she included in her positive review raiding while she was sabotaging the work of her actual peers?

Now, I think it goes without saying that what I'm about to say should be taken with MOUNTAINS of salt, I'm sure a lot of you are reading the headline and going, "Ugh, really? You're gonna make this about LO? Could you give it a rest already???"

I need you to understand, with the current state of Rachel's fanbase and 'modern' Greek myth literature as a whole, at this point Lore Olympus - and the works that are literally inspired by it such as A Touch of Darkness - has basically become the shopping cart litmus test of basic decency. It's like when someone says they like Harry Potter - you can't take it automatically at good faith anymore, because there isn't a whole lot separating someone who simply liked Harry Potter as a kid and still rewatches the movies from time to time from someone who fully supports the politics and agenda of J.K. Rowling. No, not everyone who still watches the movies or reads the books fondly is a TERF by default, but it's justifiably a reason for suspicion when the consequences are often too dire to risk.

There's this thing that's been happening in the LO fanbase that I frankly saw coming, but has really recently started to hit its peak. It's what I call the "Kanye Effect", where the comic has become so absurd and backwards in its misogyny and white feminism that the only people who seem to be left supporting LO are the people who are legitimate white feminists and misogynists - because all the normal level-headed people fell off the comic ages ago (or transitioned into the critical side of the community).

I mentioned it in my last post, but it bears repeating - Rachel's fanbase has literally been shipping Hera, a victim of abuse, with her abuser, Kronos. I'm really hoping a lot of them realize how fucked up that is now that Hera herself has called it what it is - abuse - within the comic, but I also can't count on the LO fanbase picking up on that or even noticing it with how quickly people swipe through it each week, it's very apparent at this point that most of LO's readers don't know how to chew their food and don't pay attention when Persephone and Hades aren't onscreen.

But I'm digressing. Or am I? We're talking about Crown of Starlight after all. The debut Dionysus x Ariadne sci-fi/fantasy romance that was quite literally advertised using Lore Olympus as its baseline-

This. This is what the ongoing cultural erasure and white feminist uwu-fication of Greek myth is doing to the literary zeitgeist surrounding Greek myth as a whole. This is why we criticize Lore Olympus and works like it that are created by disingenuous people who only seek to use the assets of Greek myth material as a way to shoot themselves up into fame and stardom. This is why we demand better standards in the literature and webcomic industry, so that people like Rachel and Cait can't use their privileges to quite literally erase the source material that they used to make themselves famous in the first place.

If anything, Cait's actions didn't just affect the people she negatively review bombed, or the people she was affiliated with, but also the people she positively reviewed. While I don't support what Rachel creates, she wasn't the only one who Cait went out of her way to review positively from her alt accounts, there were many others as evident in the Google Doc - but all this really does is tarnish the legitimacy of these books and their ratings by artificially jacking up their numbers that are advertised to others.

Making Greek myth fanfiction or fun creative retellings was never the problem, but it's now being sabotaged alongside so many other genres and mediums by toxic white individuals who can't even keep themselves from committing hate crimes, let alone create something purely for entertainment that's transparent in its illegitimacy, lest it destroy the illusion that these people are qualified to speak over those whose voices are being stifled, often by these very same people. Many of these writers get caught and are still allowed to continue what they're doing - that was certainly what we feared with Cait.

Until today.

It was revealed today that Cait's book will no longer be featured in the Illumicrate May 2024 box.

Del Rey has dropped Crown of Starlight from their publishing schedule.

Daphne Press will be hopefully following suit.

And, most telling of all, Cait's own agent has severed ties with her.

For anyone not familiar with the inner workings of the publishing industry, Cait has essentially been blacklisted. Without an agent or a publishing house, she'll have to entirely rely on her own resources through self-publishing. Unless she manages to sneak her way back in under an alias (which I wouldn't put it past her to try) she no longer has access to the mainstream publishing industry that was already guaranteed for her before she let her 'jealousy' get the better of her.

Her career was already made for her. She had a red carpet laid out for her debut. Her book was getting good pre-reviews and she had quite literally nothing keeping her from her success. The best thing she could have done was nothing. Somewhere in her head, she made up a threat that didn't exist, and sealed her fate in acting on it, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I think in these situations such as with Cait Corrain, Rachel Smythe, and - also recently and relevant - James Somerton, we need to become increasingly aware of how white voices are still overpowering POC voices, not just in their actions, but in the opportunities they're given over others which they then use to further stifle the voices of those they feel "threatened" by or feel entitled to speak over. While neither James nor Rachel have used sock puppet accounts to "take out the competition" (at least as far as we know lmao) James did quite literally steal the words and voices of queer writers who were deserving of their time in the spotlight, and Rachel's work is being quoted as "rewriting Greek myth" as if its blatant gentrification and appropriation should be marketed as some sort of positive.

It's all too common for these deeply-rooted prejudices to rear their ugly heads and for the people who carry them to act out in this way while justifying it as "jealousy" or "a mistake". This isn't jealousy. This isn't a mistake. This isn't someone "starting drama". This is genuine, targeted hate, with the intention of snuffing out the voices of others who should be empowered, not silenced.

All that time and effort, and for what? Racism and petty jealousy? It just goes to show, it doesn't matter how many opportunities you're given, how high up on the ladder you already are - it won't fix the deeply-rooted insecurity and racial pettiness that spurs people on to do such horrible things.

I've spent enough of my time and words today talking about Cait, and James, and Rachel. So to end this off, I want to join in with all the others who have highlighted the books that were review-bombed by Cait, and help in uplifting them so they can have successful debuts. I'll be pre-ordering a few of them, so I'll be happy to make dedicated posts for them in the future after they release. Please consider purchasing them for yourself if you want some new reading material <3

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste:

So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole:

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X Chang:

Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White:

(I'm sure there are plenty others so if I missed any here, please let me know so I can add them here and check out their books!)

If there's any silver lining to this, I hope that it makes people aware of the media they consume and who it's being created by. I hope it makes people more willing to seek out the books that aren't getting the same opportunities as Cait Corrain and Rachel Smythe. I hope it's a wake-up call to the industry that matters like this need to be taken seriously and that POC writers are still being silenced under their own noses. And most of all, I hope it's a reminder that we shouldn't even need at this point that this behavior is not okay, no matter what level a person climbs to - that just because someone is part of one minority doesn't mean they're not capable of sabotaging another. It sucks that that has to be said, it sucks that despite these groups being so intersectional there are still people within them who submit to their deeply-rooted insecurities and find ways to feel threatened that they use to justify hateful behavior.

Having a platform is a privilege. It should never be weaponized against your own peers or those who you simply feel "threatened" by for no reason beyond your own imposter syndrome or doubts or internal struggles. Because as much as you may feel like you've earned where you are, that never gives you the right to weaponize your opportunities against others who were never given those same opportunities in the first place. "Feminism" is not using your power to crush "other women". "Progressiveness" is not exclusive to the progress that only benefits you.

I wish only the best to those who were affected by the actions of Cait Corrain. You deserve to be heard and seen and appreciated for the work you do and the abuse you've had to tolerate. I look forward to your debuts in 2024 <3

[novella-november]

I forgot to actually type up a new proper post and now its 2 30 in the morning so here's the writing advice:

If you want to have an Unreliable Narrator that is not an excuse to make stuff up as you go along with no plan because "my character doesn't know whats really going on, so its fine for me to not know either"

-- in fact just the opposite. If you want a well-written Unreliable Narrator, then you, the author, need to have a solid understanding and knowledge of events that are going on around your main character, and what ripples your character sees as a consequence of the actions taking place outside of their view/understanding.

You don't need to know every single thing while writing for Novella November because we're focusing literally just on first drafts,

but it Is important that once your first draft is done , You are going to go back and do major editing to give your world consistency and make it make sense:

That things are being built up to, foreshadowed; that when something Big is revealed later in the book, It isn't literally just coming out of nowhere, you need to establish it in the background radiation of your work so that astute Readers will be able to spot the signs of its approach even if your main narrator does not, and anyone who didn't notice the foreshadowing the first time they read the book will be delighted to find all of the little bits of foreshadowing the second (or more) time through reading the book.

The best ""plot twists"" are the ones that built up to and foreshadowed within the narrative, not just doing a random, out-of-left-field twist for the sake of a twist.

Its perfectly fine, going into your novel to not have a plan and make stuff up as you go along, but once that first draft is done and its time for your second draft, you also need to make sure you're adding those things back into earlier parts of your story to have proper continuity and internal consistency.

[aelinfireheartgalathynius]

I get that some people think it's funny to call SJM books "faerie porn" and that's fine, but...

It's gotten to a point where, when people talk to non-SJM readers who ask about the books, SJM readers will say with their whole chest "oh they're faerie porn books haha it's literally just porn!"

And it's started to get really grating for me. I've been reading SJM since Throne of Glass came out. These books are SO much more than the sex scenes, or even the romance (tbf romance is a common thread in all of her books, though same with a lot of male-written fantasy and those books don't get called romantasy, but I digress).

These books are something utterly unique and magical within the fantasy genre. I've been reading fantasy since I was in first grade (I'm 29) and I can honestly say that I have not come across anything like these books. Yes, SJM has flaws. Her books, especially early ones, have flaws. But overall, they are feats of world building, master classes in plot pacing and foreshadowing, and filled with enthralling characters and worlds and histories.

Diminishing them to the few sex scenes (a few of which are admittedly wild), most of which are also very emotionally significant to the characters, is doing Sarah and all of her books a disservice. And honestly, it's doing other potential readers a disservice when they decide not to read SJM due to the internet referring to it as porn and not "real" fantasy.

No one says that about authors like Patrick Rothfuss, but the second book in his hit fantasy series spends a significant amount of time focusing on the main character learning all about sex from a random forest faerie (don't get me started). Many male adult fantasy authors include sex scenes, some of which are extremely graphic, but no one calls their work porn — no, it's often referred to as "real" fantasy.

[ponett]

i played through alan wake for the first time. here are some things i loved along the way:

the literal first words spoken in the game being "stephen king once wrote..." as alan tries to gas himself up as a writer

alan only being able to jog for a little while before getting tuckered out because you're playing as a novelist

alan feeling the need to point out an extremely obvious The Shining reference in his narration

you put the lime in the coconut

all of the random shit the taken say, but in particular stucky going on about his hot dog rankings

looking at the novels on alan's shelf and realizing how fucking huge he made his name compared to the actual book titles

all the episodes of night springs, but in particular "the quantum suicide" and "absence of creativity" ("Is that too moronic, indeed? Who can tell? It's a fine line between the stupid and the sublime... in Night Springs.")

barry's puffy red jacket being the brightest, most saturated color present in any scene he's in

agent nightingale being a direct inversion of cooper from twin peaks, who HATES small pacific northwest towns, AND having to work with their sheriff's departments, AND their coffee, AND their trees!!

the never-ending list of author names nightingale will call alan

the evil bulldozer that tries to kill you, foreshadowed earlier by the manuscript page "Wake Attacked by a Bulldozer"

one of the patients at the lodge being a game dev and hartman going "he works on... video games. it's trash, of course. but it does involve some small creative effort"

when you're talking to the old gods of asgard at the lodge and tor is routinely smacking the table with his squeaky hammer the entire time

alan and barry driving with the cardboard cutout of alan in the back seat

the rock concert segment

alan jumping like this

the dopefish poster upstairs in the bookstore

the camera panning over during the live action talk show bit to reveal that the other guest sitting next to alan is sam lake himself, who does the max payne face when prompted by the host

the fact that this game has driving segments and you can do donuts and drift into enemies

and, of course... the energizer and verizon product placement

great game

[elainsgirl]

It’s actually been really comforting seeing elucien and gwynriel theories and realizing that they have zero basis in canon and reality. There hasn’t been a single prediction from that side that makes sense to the actual story. They can’t even agree on who the next book should be. Everything they say is based solely on their own headcanons and willful misinterpretation of the text and it shows how doomed they really are whenever they post a new one.

At the end of the day, the only story moving forward that makes sense is elriel. We don’t have to come up with insane theories and twist the narrative to make it work; the author, SJM has already done that for us and that’s why I’m not worried, despite how loud and aggressive the other side might be. And when every single hint that’s come out this year has pointed towards elriel, it makes it that much better

This is so real. I think when you first see Gwynriels/Elucien’s theories they can be daunting as they always get so many likes, making you doubt yourself yet when you actually sit down and read their arguements….it becomes so clear how biased, nitpicked and contradictory it is.

Tbf - 2021-2022 was peak anti era where they were coming out with semi-logical arguements. Now they don’t bother to put any effort in, can’t even blame them. There’s only so many times you can twist and lie about canon. I will say though - its come to a point where antis are just discrediting themselves the more they speak. If you’re with a straight face telling me you saw 0 romantic foreshadowing between elriel but Az glancing at Gwyn during training was enough for you to believe they’re endgame - how am I suppose to take that seriously? You literally can’t because its just ridiculous. Eluciens yapping about how the rejected fates storyline will be between loa/helion/beron - when Sjm specifically mentioned bonds being wrong in a conversation about elucien/elriel…like. Once you actually start thinking about each theory/point/HC it all unravels very quickly.

4 years later - do we still know wtf an elucien/gwynriel book will be about? Like, they say random plot points but never connect them to each other or explain how one book would lead to another etc.

So I fully agree with you. When I come across an elucien/gwynriel point - these are my reactions: 🤨 🙄 💀

Their posts just makes me even more sure of elriel being endgame.

Look, im being frl - ask any elriel what they believe the general gist of the next book will be about and we all have the same ideas and theories - reaching to a similar conclusion. Ask gwynriels/eluciens and they differ from each other, each year it’s something new.

LMFAO You know its a win for elriels when antis start making fun off us and acting all bitter trying to prove us wrong. Spotify commented under an elriel video about guilty as sin?

“Omg elriels are soooooo desperate, they’d rather believe the word of a random person running the Spotify account whose job is to get attention then actually pay attention to the author”

next day? You have an anti lying about how spotify/audible commented under gwynriel/elucien videos’ as well…yet no SS to back up that claim. You have another one trying to show how guilty as sin is actually gwynriel by making up a HC out of nothing about Gwyn thinking of Az and it being wrong - which btw, why would it be.

Not to mention, Sjm literally worked with spotify and shared a tidbit about the next book.

We always win and thats the best part about being an elriel. Everything is coming together and all the signs point to Elain and Az. As we all knew it would.

[lovemyromance]

yeah, see, I don't really care that people think everything from the white of Gwyn's teeth is actually foreshadowing the snowy Illyrian mountains therefore she's going to be their white savior or whatever -

Like that's not foreshadowing, first of all. Foreshadowing is a solid connection from A to B. Not A to B to C to Z. If you have to add multiple stops to your "foreshadowing", then it's a theory not foreshadowing. Because with each additional "stop", there's a less likelihood of ALL that being correct. It's just.. basic probability logic.

Foreshadowing exists in canon text. Often through comparison. Elriels always get mocked for bringing up "the potato steam" but it literally says in the books:

It's not like we're out here pointing to random steam and saying it reminds us of Azriel. SJM chose to write that. Why describe potatoes that way? Why bring Azriel into a scene as simple as Elain making dinner?

Its not like Elriels said "oh we think Elain's potatoes foreshadow a relationship with Azriel because in an interview SJM did in 1882, she mentioned the Angel of Death Azrael was the patron saint of Potatoes" 🤡

(Not to mention I've literally never seen any Elriel actually use the potato steam as Elriel foreshadowing, even if it IS explicitly stated. It's usually the "Sit, I'll take care of it" we point to as Elriel)

Another example of foreshadowing is when you have repeated imagery:

Rose = Elain

Shadow = Azriel

The Mother - mentioned in an Elriel / mating bonds / fate context multiple times now

Foreshadowing is sometimes even posed as an explicit thought:

It literally has to exist in the canon text for it to be considered foreshadowing.

So no, SJM interviews are not foreshadowing. The inspiration she takes from mythology is just inspiration, not foreshadowing either.

People are mixing up theories and speculation and calling it "foreshadowing". Not everything can be "forwshadowing", btw. And we can sit here and play this game and spin it so every random reference to shadow and sunshine could mean Azriel or Lucien or Helion or Apollion the Prince of Hell - but it's not.

Y'all can't just call everything foreshadowing and then use it as "evidence". You can only call something foreshadowing if you know the conclusion, and you can look back and say "Oh, I see! When the author mentioned A, it was alluding to B."

"Foreshadowing" an incomplete series is literally just guesswork. Show me explicit evidence in canon, and then maybe you'll have a leg to stand on.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

😑😑😑

"Aang is a bad main character because the world has to adapt to his world view. Meanwhile I love Zuko for his brilliant arc that concludes with him making his nation to adapt to his world view now that he is in charge" fuck these people. "Younger generation fixes the problems the old ones created" is only bad as a theme when they don't like the kid in question.

"He has to save Katara, the weak damsel in distress" So we're really just gonna ignore all the times she saved his ass, and how she literally BROUGHT HIM BACK FROM THE DEAD just to pretend the show is sexist?

"He has to pretend the world isn't in agony" Are you high? Aang is constantly pushing himself to do things he doesn't wanna do (go with Zuko willingly, confront Hei Bai, go to the Fire Nation on the solstice, intentionally trigger the Avatar State, cross the serpent's pass despite having permission to go through a safer path, let go of Katara and risk losing her in the battle for Ba Sing Se, and even accepting he'll have to kill Ozai in the finale) just to innocent people won't suffer. For fuck's sake, he has plenty of compassion for the guy that SENT AN ASSASSIN AFTER HIM. Just because he's still holding onto whatever childhood innocence he can, doesn't mean he's blind to the issues around him.

"Zuko's arc is independent from Zuko's" They have a fuck ton of parallels, and entire EPISODES dedicated to said parallels. Zuko himself said chasing Aang fueld his fire - and he said that when he learned a higher form of firebending ALONGSIDE AANG, who had just saved his ass from being burned alive by the dragons by figuring out they were supposed to dance together.

Zuko was so obsessed with Aang he tried to engage in a conversation AFTER AANG'S SOUL LEFT HIS BODY, and he had a weird fever dream where he literally BECAME Aang. We get confirmation in book 3 that Zuko never forgot how Aang mentioned the possibility of them being friends if things were different, and the show ends with them as best friends in an obvious parallel to Roku and Sozin.

You know who had fuck all to do with Zuko's arc though? KATARA, yet these people keep insisting she's totally important to it.

"Episodes centered on Katara and Sokka are good because they ignore Aang" No they don't, he's just not front and center, same for Toph, or Zuko, because that's how FOCUS works.

Also, for all the shit "The Headband" gets for supposedly being "filler", it's shocking to me how people act like "Sokka's Master" was briliant and not at all rushed. It's honestly as irrelevant as "The Great Divide" for me.

"Aang had lots of Deus Ex Machinas" He had one, the lion turtle. The Avatar state is introduced right away, and explained in depth a whole season before the finale, AND it was not that easy to use.

Katara bringing him back from the dead is even less random. In the first episode of season two, we are introduced to the concept of "Aang can still be killed in the Avatar State and that is REALLY bad", to the the character that will kill him and how she'll do it (Azula with her lightining), and to the water of the spirit oasis - which the show goes out of it's way to remind us of before Aang is even dead. That's a fuck ton of foreshadowing and proper narrative set up.

"Deus Ex Machina" does not mean "Protagonist survives major battle" or "Hero defeats a super powerful villain", it means "Day is saved by a thing that had never been mentioned in the story before so the audience could have never guessed what would happen." These people want to talk shit, but only show they have no fucking clue how some REALLY basic storytelling stuff works.

[doctorjuvenile]

Things from WtA The Book of Hungry Names you should know pt. 2

pt. 1 here

I'm about to start my fourth playthrough lol

5. The coordinates Daphne sends you for investigating the Pattern Line are a real location in Northampton, Massachusetts.

> I’m willing to let you condescend to me if you’re willing to help me out CrestFolder180IQ Your terms are acceptable. CrestFolder180IQ Meet me at 42°25'50.3"N 72°40'49.3"W at 10:30 PM.

Right at the tip of this path. (sooo IRL Garou meetup when?)

6. By my best estimates, the game takes place over the course of 2022-2024.

Now, the game plays pretty loose with exact dates, and I'm sure the ambiguity is intended. What we know for sure though is that Book of Hungry Names takes place over two and a half years (from beginning to epilogue).

Nonetheless, because I'm obsessed, I'm basing my assumption off of some strong hints:

The game definitely takes place after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, since Stormcat literally refers to it once you're in the second half of the game (foreshadowing the Jigsaw Plague chapter)

Will Northampton be ground zero for the next pandemic? Even I do not know.

2) Honestly, my biggest clue here are the years Melodie and Harmonie graduated high school (2016 and 2013 respectively), and the fact that she is 23 when you retrieve her from Ashfield.

Harmonie Palys graduated Berkshire Regional High School in 2013. Her sister, Melodie, graduated in 2016.

Melodie, who is twenty-three, angrily sips her Kir Pamplemousse.

Going off of the North American education system (where I myself graduated high school in 2014, and am presently around 27 years old), and assuming no skipped or repeated years, Melodie should be about 25 by the game's epilogue, which must take place in 2024. Harmonie would be 28 if she were still alive today.

Working backwards, that means it's 2022 in the first half of the game (where Melodie is stated to be 23). The timeline just works perfectly.

3) In the second half of the game, Nin will "talk your ear off about the new Blood Ceremony album." The album (The Old Ways Remain) dropped in 2023, thus further perfectly fitting in with the 2022-2024 timeline.

7. Speaking of guessing character's ages, I have a good idea of the rest of them...

Elton: I tried guessing Elton's age and he's anywhere from 24-26 over the course of the game to 29-31. My clues here are how you can find a picture of him and Katherine in a newspaper after arriving in Northampton early on and researching in the library. The photo states he's 19, and the photo itself is "maybe five to ten years old."

...the picture is labeled "Linus Harrowman, 46, Elton Dey, 19, and Katherine Aslanian, 20, have opposed the Broad Brook expansion, which would--" Then it turns into a more randomized babble. The photo is in color, the newspaper maybe five or ten years old.

Player Character: I am certain your character starts the game at 20 years old. The ID Daphne gives you shows your real age, which is below the legal drinking age in the U.S. (i.e. 21), but by the time a year passes in-game, you are now able to drink legally.

[Early game:] To your considerable irritation, the birthdate on the ID is the same year as your real birthday, which means you can't get into most bars. [Second half of game, one year later:] Armed with your Massachusetts State ID that finally says you're 21...

You, Podge, and Nin: Regardless, the whole pack drinks together in the epilogue at the last Hog Throne show, implying your entire pack is now at least 21 (legal American drinking age). So by this point, I think PC is 22, and Podge and Nin are legally 21, meaning they would be about 19 or 20 at the start of the game.

8. Intelligence isn't just tied to your book-smarts or occult knowledge, it also influences whether you can catch pop cultural/musical references.

I mean, my first two characters (galliard/December and theurge/October) had good-to-excellent INT (3-5pts), so the text described Elton's Mezzanine shirt, Highlander halloween costume, Podge being dressed up as the girl from the "Everyday Is Like Sunday" music video, Nin's Sophie Scholl hoodie, etc all by name or direct reference.

But I noticed with my third ahroun (January) character, whom I deliberately kept at 1 INT the entire game, that she didn't catch ANY of that -- the Mezzanine t-shirt is a "white t-shirt with a black insect scrawled across half its surface," she thinks Elton is dressed as the Scarlet Pimpernel, that Nin is maybe wearing a hoodie with her own face on it, etc. (You can get some pretty funny extra dialogue out of being so clueless.)

This makes sense when you consider that your Academics and Intelligence tutor in this game is a badass art teacher who used to be in the '90s demoscene.

[sunreys]

As much as I love the netflix shadow and bone and I really enjoyed watching it, let's be so fucking for real: it's not a good adaptation.

Season 1 was not a bad start. Like yeah you can have your complaints about certain acting choices and cgi and whatever (it is a Netflix show let's keep our expectations,,,,,level) but it was not that bad! It was fun, it was pretty faithful to the characters! In terms of book adaptations, it's honestly up there in quality. Season 2, though.

This whole show has been compared to a crack fic, and I second that---its not really the grishaverse. It's like someone's six of crows/shadow and bone crossover fic. Meaning we're smashing together two stories that are each already full of so much content on their own that it would be hard to do it all justice in an 8 episode netflix series. Even harder when you're combining 2 books, random storylines we pulled out of our asses, and scenes from soc and ck that had no business being there. I understand why they did this: six of crows is much more popular than shadow and bone, and the people at netflix wanted to get the most money possible from this. Alas, this hinders the story of the show so so much. For all it's flaws, there is so much good shit in the shadow and bone trilogy. There is SO MUCH that is so interesting, so poignant, so fun, etc etc that we entirely skipped past and cut out because we jammed so much other shit in there that had no reason to be. We skipped almost the entire plot of book 2! And while there's stuff in there that certainly drags on and could be cut, why did we cut out Alina and Mal's time in hiding? The Darkling finding them and everything else with Sturmhond? All the political shit that goes down with Vasily? Alina's struggle with being seen as a saint, her genuine struggle with being plagued by the Darkling? The reveal that Vasily was a fucking idiot and led the Darkling and the Fjerdans to the capital? The CHURCH SCENE??? WHITE HAIRED ALINA??? And that's just book 2! And then we get the canon divergence. Now I'll admit, I was slightly curious to see where they were gonna take this plot. However, if it was gonna go how they seemed to be setting it up, it would've been disappointing. I'm not a fan of stories where after the big climax the female lead loses her magic powers in favor of some peaceful life as a housewife or whatever. However, I loved the way the shadow and bone books ended. It was set up and foreshadowed that using merzost would have a cost. Alina willingly chose that cost to save mal, to have her happily ever after and her normal life which is what she always wanted. To prove the Darkling wrong. That's the important thing. Instead I guess mal goes "damn I know u literally brought me back from the dead but I'm gonna break up with u now bc I hate destiny I guess". And it seems as though the show was planning to have a storyline where Alina deals with having the Darklings power and struggles with whether or not she should succumb to the Darklings ideals or whatever. Which sounds like an interesting plot right? But guess what? WEVE ALREADY SEEN THAT SHIT IN THE BOOKS. IF THE SHOW ACTUALLY SHOWED US WHAT HAPPENED IN THE BOOKS WE WOULDVE HAD ALINA STRUGGLING WITH HER LITTLE VILLAIN ARC INSTEAD OF WHATEVER TF WE WERE HEADING TOWARDS AT THE END OF SEASON 2.

Anyways. Netflix execs get ur shit together and start greenlighting adaptations that fans of the original material---who you are literally appealing to by making this adaptation in the first place---will actually enjoy.

[hockeyspiral23]

I’m gonna be real: I think Violet manifesting her signet in Iron Flame is complete bullshit because they would’ve made a big deal out of it just like her first one. The only thing that actually hints at a signet is her Venin dreams which is a little soured when you realize she was supposed to turn at the end of the book.

This also implies that it’s possible for some riders to have manifested their signets already and just didn’t know until it was too late (Like what if a schizophrenic rider was an inntinnsic? How would they know the difference?).

... I have THOUGHTS on this (... as do probably most of us 🤣). Tbh, I actually do think it IS plausible that she has manifested her signet in Iron Flame, and not just because RY told us so, AND that she doesn't know what it is because she's already been channeling. Her having two dragons is literally the only thing that makes sense here because she's not necessarily looking for her signet. In FW, she was so she didn't explode in flames from not manifesting it.

That being said, the rest of my second signet thoughts below the cut.

Even disregarding the (probable) editing error that the venin dreams were supposed to be foreshadowing for Violet to turn, I still don't believe they're her second signet manifesting. Why? For one of the same reasons that I don't believe she can see the dead (Liam) - she was having the dreams in part one ... when Andarna was in the Dreamless Sleep. Violet can't get a second signet until Andarna becomes her sassy, snarky, amazing self (okay, grows up). Andarna does not wake from that until part two.

(the other reason re: the dead thing is the obvious fact that she was blocked from her dragons and therefore had no access to magic.)

Going through the page-by-page notes I made ... the first possible non-dream use of a second signet is during the whole Cordyn venin fight scene in terms of timing. While I like the idea of a slowing down time signet - particularly in terms of Andarna because of her feathertail gift - I highly doubt it's manifested here because Violet can't even sense Andarna that far away from her; I doubt she'd be able to channel from her, either.

I don't think the signet manifests until after p.442, which is the rune lesson with the fliers, and the first conscious time Violet reaches for Andarna's power, and is the first time we see it described. Sawyer also (probably but maybe not - who the fuck knows at this point!) coincidentally flies backward at the same time.

There are options galore with everything with Cat at the end of ch.45/beginning of 46 - during the fight, Violet mentions power searing her veins and lifting the hair on the back of her neck - given Andarna and her bloodlust (gods I love her), I could plausibly see her working through Violet here to "kill the ally." (this is out there, but funny to me)

The throne scene gives one of the best options, when Xaden (unintentionally) pushes his thoughts into Violet. Right after that, when she comes - "... coming apart at the seams of what I think is me but might be him." (IF, p.462). All of this is extremely similar to what happens in the wardstone scene when she feels Xaden's anguish on the battlefield. The explanation AGAINST this is that Xaden's shields are fucking toast during that fight, so that's why she feels all of his emotions when she lets down her own.

Next option is on p.491 ... after she's figured out how to raise the wards, but wants to tell Xaden ... but she in theory doesn't see him until right before the rune hunt ... and it says she falls asleep curled up next to him. Which this could be a MASSIVE editing error (... plausible), or she's somehow a distance wielder (which is a signet that RY has been hinting at in random interviews and it could be Violet and NOT Cam/Aaric like some have theorized). Truthfully, I think this one is more editing error, but I will happily eat my words if not.

SPEAKING OF THAT RUNE HUNT, there's a seemingly casual conversation between Violet and Andarna on p.501 when talking about second signets - "'I don't know,' I answer, glancing back at Andarna ... 'Will I?' 'Why are you asking me?"" Dragon is awfully casual with this response. I also don't buy the Violet-as-amplifier theory given Sloane's signet manifestation in this whole sequence either because signets have canonically manifested under stress (and, the other example, with Rhi and the dagger, was in part one when Andarna was snoozing).

Next option: p.519, after the Aretian wards go up - "I shift my weight, energy tingling in my fingers, slowly filling my cells, saturating me in preparation instead of drowning me as usual." - subtle signal of channeling from Andarna? A sign of Violet FINALLY GAINING SOME FUCKING CONTROL? Or the second signet helping with that? If anything, I'm going with options A and B.

Personal thought that part of the reason Violet never realizes she's even manifested a second signet yet is due to the fact that she always goes for her Archives door (p.533, example), which we know is for Tairn's power, as opposed to the window (p.442) she uses for Andarna's power. Does she completely forget that the window is right there?

There's my personal, out-there belief that has to do with her actually being able to talk to more dragons than just her own, since canonically you shouldn't approach/talk to ones that you haven't bonded with, but she does it MULTIPLE times during the Battle of Basgiath - on p.590 with Silseag, p.605 with Codagh ... arguably ordering her OWN dragons around on p.618 (which I feel like would normally be a bad idea). Plus the girl NEEDS information (p.544), and who has the most information in the *~Empyrean*~ series? Oh right, the FUCKING DRAGONS.

... but also, there's the time seemingly slowing down scene during the Battle of Basgiath when she watches her squad work together perfectly in slow motion. But I don't think that slowing time is it, tbh.

...

In conclusion, I don't fucking know. Do I believe that Violet's second signet has manifested? Yes. Do I have any idea what the fuck it actually is? No. Will anything surprise me at this point? Probably not. Do I hope and pray that Onyx Storm is better edited? OH PLEASE GOD YES. Am I going to enjoy this ride regardless? Obviously.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, and bless you if you've actually read this far. 🤣❤️

[scienter]

I didn't think that my excitement for Wind and Truth could be any higher, but Chapters 5 & 6 raised it quite a bit. It also put me at ease (for now).

Who the fuck is the author of Knights of Wind and Truth? I initially thought it was either Szeth or Kaladin but the chapter 5 & 6 epigraphs pretty much ruled that out. At this point, I have no idea who's writing it.

Chapter 5:

“It was the day when a set of parents had, for the first time, wanted her.”

🥹 Aww. I sometimes forget that the Kholins are Shallan's in-laws. lol

Shallan can glimpse into the Spiritual realm? Hmm. Interesting. I wonder if this power is limited to her/Lightweavers or if it's something other radiant orders (e.g., Bondsmiths) can do too . . .

Chapter 6:

“Wearing a Kholin blue uniform with his glyphs on the back: the tower and the crown.”

Like everyone else, I immediately thought of “He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!” death rattle from the Way of Kings. Because other than foreshadowing, why would Brandon bring up such a random object/moment from the first book? It must be significant, right?

A moment later . . .

Dalinar held out the sheet to Kaladin. “I will not force this upon you, Kaladin. But I will ask, because I must. Will you be our heir?”

More evidence that the death rattle theory is correct!! 😁

I've wanted the death rattle theory to be true because (1) it fits Kaladin's narrative arc, (2) this plot will challenge Kaladin beyond the battlefield, and (3) it could mean that Kaladin survives Wind and Truth.

I am so down for this development. I hope Kaladin accepts this because it'll take his character in a new direction, which I think he needs at this point. After five books, I think it's time for Kaladin be something other than a soldier. He needs new challenges and a new role. I am excited for Therapist-King Kaladin to take center stage.

Of course, this raises the question of wtf would happen to Dalinar and Navani? I've always thought that Dalinar will lose the contest of Champions and Wind and Truth will have a dark cliffhanger much like The Empire Strikes Back. The protagonists aren't going to succeed/defeat the villain five books into a ten-book series. I think it's reasonable to conclude that Dalinar will lose and become a fused. I don't think Navani will die either because she's the one reasonable for Towerlight working in Urithiru. I think Navani will be so overcome with grief that she'll forfeit her claim to the crown and let Kaladin lead.

Nonetheless, I do think someone or multiple characters will die by the end of this book. There are too many death flags in these early chapters. I don't know who though. This chapter gives me hope that it's not Kaladin though. 🥺

I know there's more going on in this chapter (Szeth & Syl), but I'm still processing Dalinar asking Kaladin to be his heir. It's huge. And I've wanted it for a long time.

Oh, I almost forgot! Someone on Reddit pointed out that Kaladin's chapter icon is a spear with the Kholin banner (source). So Kaladin's chapter icon is a literally picture of a tower, a crown, and a spear! More evidence that the Kaladin death rattle theory is correct! 😊

[genericpuff]

Cait comp'd her book to The Locked Tomb. THE LOCKED TOMB COMBINED WITH LORE OLYMPUS. NO. NO NO NO. IN WHAT WORLD ARE THESE TWO IN THE SAME SENTENCE. I NEED TO SCREAM.

Apologies in advance, but these are two polar opposite series and it's a joke Cait thinks she can combine the two without Gideon Nav manifesting in her apartment and throwing hands. Oh my god.

I won't try to do spoilers here because I think you would personally vibe with the series, it's right up your alley and I highly recommend the audiobooks, especially while drawing. It's currently three books and the last one (the fourth book) should be out in Fall 2024. The Locked Tomb is starkly gothic and dark (gruesome death, resurrection, body horror, weird twins, turbo cancer (an actual quote from the books), and so much more), full to the brim with horror, sci-fi, and modern-day political commentary, and is apologetically queer as fuck. I'm talking lesbian enemies to friends to lovers, I'm talking Maori-coded rugby player who loves to talk about her porn magazines while trying to keep her homeless chihuahua of a girlfriend from getting herself killed (said chihuahua controls skeletons), I'm talking using clever ways to sneak in memes, I'm talking loving the side characters as much as you love the leads and the author loves them all too, I'm talking Catholic guilt but make it sexy and gay, I'm talking a literal ghost shows up with a fucking gun. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's a series you need to re-read multiple times to try and figure out every little detail and people to this day are still finding out foreshadowing from the first book alone. There is no random lines or dropped ideas, every little detail is planned out and connects. It's great.

To compare a series made by an insanely smart and openly queer woman (who is also from New Zealand, shout out to Tamsyn Muir) to a series that obsesses over a straight couple down to making it a Blue Boy and Pink Girl, a series that acts like putting in queer characters are a chore, a series that treats sexual assault like a minor inconvenience at worst, a series that can't even plan a week ahead much less years, a series that is written by an immature woman-child like Rachel, is so offensive to me.

Well damnnn I'll take this as a glowing recommendation! It def sounds like something I'd enjoy. I've been wanting to get more into audiobooks so maybe I'll make The Locked Tomb my first stop ;3 If/when I do get around to it, I'll definitely let y'all know my thoughts! <3

[lakesbian]

[slapping diagrams up on the wall and taping them into place] I Have A Theory. i am unironically fucking sure that the first four seasons of infinity train were foreshadowing some shit about the structure of the train and the wasteland that would have been fully revealed in the last four seasons if it hadn’t been cancelled. 

there’s this one little line in the tape car that was never really paid much attention by the fandom (at least not to my knowledge) beyond mild interest, and that’s always been weird to me, because...

come on. the fact that lake even says “that robot’s out of his mind” in response to it? it’s absolutely screaming “obvious foreshadowing for a major aspect of the train’s functioning obscured only slightly by the fact that it’s being delivered in a quirky-random one-one line.” 

this is how one-one works as a foreshadowing tool, it’s established time and time again in book one. he says something with intense implications like “my memory has been terrible ever since the change,” atticus and us viewers go “what change?” and one-one follows up with “my new haircut, didn’t you notice?”

...and then later you find out that the “change” he’s referring to is That Time Amelia Took Over The Train And Tore Him Asunder.

so one-one casually saying that one of the cars on the train has “the universe projected on the outside”? pause the goddamn video, we’re gonna take a second to think about The Fucking Implications of that one! 

obviously, outside of the train is the wasteland. [hits my remote button to cue the wasteland structure slideshow]

(spot lake and alan dracula in that last one for a bit of megalophobia about the scale of the train!)

the wasteland appears to stretch on infinitely in all directions, to accommodate the infinite train, with curvature implying some sort of spherical structure. despite this, attempts to venture too far horizontally from the train result in meeting an incredibly strong repulsive force akin to an invisible barrier in a video game environment. when a passenger receives an exit, the wasteland’s apparent sky opens up in a circular vortex to produce a flexible glowing tube which the passenger can travel through to return to earth.

two things here:

1. the horizontal invisible barriers imply that the wasteland has built-in structural limits or “walls” of sorts rather than being a natural and unlimited environment.

2. the vortex and tube that appear when a passenger receives an exit are analogous to structures we see on the train. to a more limited extent, so are the invisible walls. 

when simon tries to find an exit to the debutante car by going through the ceiling panels, he reaches the equivalent of an out-of-bounds area in a video game. he reports with legitimate terror in his voice that “grace, there’s literally nothing out there. it’s just a black void.” a reminder that all car environments are artificially designed with built-in structural limits as opposed to being natural and extensive locations. very much similar to the invisible walls in the wasteland.

when lake enters the tape car, what appears to be the legitimate ceiling/roof of the car opens up into a circle to allow the pod in. 

when the unfinished car starts coming apart and opening up, what appears to be the legitimate sky of the car forms a circular vortex. when the sky breaks into fragments and disappears, it’s revealed that the sky was just part of the car’s ceiling rather than a true sky. it was illusory, 2-D. the real frame of the car is behind it.

when we see the inner workings of the tape car, it’s shown that passengers travel from the memory farm to the number machine by...being sucked into an opening that looks a lot like a miniature circular vortex and then down through a flexible tube.

yeah. flexible, glowing tubes.

the tape car “projects the universe on the outside.” the outside is the wasteland. the wasteland can open a circular hole in the top, in what appears to be its sky, to let passengers in or out. just like how the top of the tape car opens a circular hole to let pods in. just like how the unfinished car forms a circular hole when its faux-sky is opening. just like how a circular hole with a vortex-like appearance is opened in the passenger farm to take passengers in. passengers are taken in through the wasteland via a flexible, glowing tube, and similar tubes are used to ferry passengers through other parts of the train.

i don’t think the wasteland is a discrete environment or dimension the train happens to be traveling through, i think the wasteland is part of the train. the wasteland is being projected by the tape car. it’s the car’s universe projected on the outside. i’m gonna go as far as to say that the wasteland itself is a car with its environment being generated outside of the car’s frame structure instead of inside of it. the vortex and glowing tube look like other parts of the train because they are part of the train, and everything about them is operating on the same technology. the vortex is the same mechanism as the tape car’s pod opening on a larger scale. the wasteland exit tube is a type of mechanism related to the other tubes we see. the invisible barriers are there because cars have artificial limits like the black void outside the debutante car building.

nothing about it is more incomprehensible or supernatural than the rest of the train. the vortex, the invisible walls, the tube--they’re technological aspects of a simulated environment just like parts of any other car! the sky is a very real ceiling that can open to take passengers in/out the same way the tape car’s ceiling can open to take pods in! the wasteland is a really fucking long box with horizontal barriers and a ceiling that looks like it’s a sky but is still a ceiling. the wasteland is the self-generated pocket dimension the train runs in. the wasteland is the car that has every other car in it. 

hell, it even fucking has denizens!

amelia turns atticus into a ghom by shooting him with an orb gun. there are orbs for ghoms, just like there are orbs for every other train asset and denizen. ghoms aren’t some random fucked up monsters from nowhere, they’re denizens that had to be intentionally placed in the wasteland via construction using their orbs, and they exist for the same purpose as the invisible walls--to keep passengers out of the wasteland and on the train. the wasteland is quite literally the car that holds every other car in it, complete with its own denizens. it’s big and extremely inhospitable, but it still checks every single box for being something designed as part of the train.

in conclusion: 

...wait, don’t go anywhere yet. bonus observation about train doors, because it’s related enough to this post that putting it into a separate one would be weird and contextless:

when lake and jesse receive their exit, we get a really good shot of the tube. look at the perspective here! the door is opening into the wasteland, and the tube is extending through it and connecting to the door. we should be seeing the inside of the tube, but instead we’re directly faced with arizona. arizona is inside the tube. it’s like rather than the tube being ready to take us up through itself and back to earth, the tube is displacing earth, pulling it down through the tube and putting it right in front of us.

it actually looks like it’s just working exactly like tesseracts do in a wrinkle in time. which i absolutely cannot paraphrase coherently, so here’s a screenshot:

i think that when passengers go through the doors, the wasteland’s ceiling opens up much like how the tape car’s ceiling opens up--except because the wasteland is opening into earth, a location which exists outside of the train’s pocket dimension, it’s more complicated than just pulling open a circular hole. time and space are bent. the vortex/tube is the train opening up to pull earth into the wasteland car, bringing it directly to the door within the train so that exiting for the passenger is as simple as stepping through.

passengers taking their exits are being pulled through the entire tube and simply just taking one step through a doorway at the same time. note how long the tube is in lake’s view of it from inside jesse’s tape, and note how a mere second after jesse and lake run into the tube they step out the other side. time and space are being fundamentally crunched, stretched, and altered to make the exit through the wasteland’s ceiling feel seamless despite the interdimensional fuckery involved. it is Straight Up A Tesseract. 

thank you for coming to my tedtalk i will now be heading out to bang on hbomax exec doors so i can demand the last 4 seasons in which it Surely will be revealed that basically everything in this post is real and true

[romanticatheartt]

Rereading ACOTAR

Note: Before I start, this is not an anti post (well... maybe for Tam/in... definitely for him!) and if you think talking about the literal canon and call these unreal characters out on their flaws means that I hate these characters (which I do but that's my personal beef with Tamtam), then idk what to tell you lol

So 3 months ago after I read hofas I decided to reread acotar for the first time because I miss Feyre (and Rhysand... and the whole IC) like crazy. And I thought it be a good idea to read the original trilogy but since I'm a very mood reader I only read the first book lol. I had this post on my draft for 3 months now and I think I was scared to share them but now I don't really care.

I normally don't do rereads at all, my mind gets bored (I read my favorite scenes but never the whole book) so I decided to try something else and listen to the audiobook instead. And now I have thoughts!

This became longer than I intended but also I'm not going to add anything crazy that someone hadn't already pointed out so I'm just sharing some of my random notes (50 to be exact... it's long post) and thoughts of mine while reading this time around :)

This is definitely NOT a friendly-Tam/in post. If stating fact is considered as not friendly that is...

anyway ->

1. We have 2 chapter of the sisters in the beginning of the book and jeez both Nesta and Elain are the worst and as older sisters it pained me to read it for the first time. 2. I don't understand Elain, so I rather not talk about her and wait till her book comes out but she acts as a damsel in distress or be ignorant to the point Feyre questioning if she understand they're poor 💀 3. Although I have to admit, knowing Nesta now it was easier to go through it this time and not curse her in every page lol. But while reading the book I noticed that every time Feyre is thinking negatively of herself the voice in her head is the voice of Nesta. or whenever she wants to scolds herself, she call herself the names Nesta had called her. and it breaks my heart:

"and the part of me that spoke with Nesta’s voice had laughed at the idea of an ignorant human trying to admire faerie art."

"A half-wild beast, Nesta had called me." (2 times)

"Illiterate, ignorant, unremarkable, proud, cold—all spoken from Nesta’s mouth, all echoing in my head with her sneering voice."

4. Later on we see her actually coming after Feyre to saves her but this doesn't changes the fact that she verbally abused Feyre (and she acknowledge it!! trauma or not she abused Feyre to the point it left a mark on her so please don't turn her into a saint after one act of kindness lol) 5. There isn't much to say about papa Archeron except that he wasn't a great father. I understand depression have different effects on different people, but trauma is no excuse for how he was as a father (I genuinely believe a true parent would do anything for their children but some people are not cut out to be one and it's alright. but once you bring them into this world you have to guarantee that you can provide for them because they didn't choose to be in this life) 6. I know for a fact that if Feyre hadn't promised her mother to protect her family and didn't have a purpose to live her life, she would've been worse than Nesta. Because when she was in Spring Court, for at least 5 times she was guilt-ridden, thinking her family doesn't care about her at all (specially Nesta) or thinking about her shortcomings… (and like I said Nesta had a big role in these kind of thinking) 7. The first Feysand foreshadow was her painting night sky on her drawer<3 8. Lucien and Tam/in (specially Lucien) were so dramatic on their hate toward Feyre? she triggered a 48 years curse. It was always suppose to be this way. Andres knew what he was doing and accepted the fact that he might die. yes you can grieve but It's not really her fault now is it?

9. “You go somewhere new—and you make a name for yourself.”

^: well she definitely did that… 10. One of the things I noticed is that Tam/in was never NEVER Lucien's friend. he was Lucien's High Lord first then his friend and it's obvious from their very first scenes.

11. “We’re not going to bite.” Lucien’s white teeth gleamed in a way that suggested otherwise.

^: him and Cassian will get along well... 12. Feyre hates hunting... she says that to both Lucien and Tam/in. she does that out of necessity, if it's provoked. and not for the first time I realized Feyre is a mix of both Nesta and Elain. 13. Did we all got the vibe that Timtam was mad at Lucien spending time with Feyre because he knew he didn't have a chance once Lucien opens his mouth? 14. Feyre had real fear for Tam/in. in so many occasion we have her being genuinely scared of him. he even said it himself:

"But I could smell the fear on you, more than anything."

And in acomaf we have Rhysand saying he never felt fear of him from Feyre. and when they were UTM Feyre question herself that why she was always so quiet and submissive (not excatly the word she uses) toward Tam/in but with Rhysand she doesn't have that instinct. 15. This ship is the definition of Someone who doesn't know how to love x Someone who has never been loved and that's never a good pairing in any world. it takes one to be in a relationship with someone like Tam/in to understand that... 16. She always felt little, weak, stupid and so very human with Tam/in and Lucien and they never hide their feeling on the matter. 17. Feyre is such baddie istg... she killed a faerie, then went for a stroll and captured a suriel, THEN killed 2 nagas and a fkn wyrm while being a human... GURL- 18. Okay apparently every one says mature age in acotar world was retcon but Alis was talking about lesser fae not high fae? or specially their kind? idk I read that scene and all she was talking about was their kind and not high fae. 19. Timtam was never in control of his power... his power and anger had him on a leash not the other way around. 20. Feyre is always honry (LMAO)... but the sad part is Tam/in never matched her passion. he was always afraid that he's going to hurt her with his claws and bla bla bla BUT MY GIRL wanted him to claw at her💀 savage lol. all I'm saying is that he never gave all of himself to Feyre. 21. It always piss me off that Tam/in never taught her how to write and read. (and ig we all know why) 22. In chapter 19 we have Feyre asking if Fae can be mated to humans and in the next chapter we have Calamnai and something in her chest was pulling her to go and see and next thing we know she met Rhysand (aka her mate)

23. "There you are. I've been looking for you,"

^: PEOPLE DIED! 24. Imagine reading Feyre saying before her was the most beautiful man she has ever seen and not to think that it's fkn over for Tam/in lmao (point to this post of mine) It's also hilarious when she saw Tam/in after his mask was removed, she was like "handsome👍🏼" 25. Rhysand is such Theater kid istg (specially after hofas, the way he was just showing off)... he's like let me show her some tricks *walk around her and stars ripple from him* *blinking to show off the stars in his eye* *PURR* OK PEACOCK! 26. May I ask why on earth we never had a sex party like Calamnai in Night Court? I'm actually so mad because we lost the greatest opportunity WTF? Feyre was so hot and bothered about it and the reason they told her to stay at the manor was because Tam/in knew he will choose her and Feyre was like "oMg hE wOuLd chOoHe mE?" *tuck her hair behind her ear* girl- IT WOULD'VE FIT FEYSAND SO FKN WELL... maybe not on acomaf (even if it could be so healing) or acowar... BUT ACOFAS WAS RIGHT THERE!!! 27. One of the things I hate about the events after Calamnai is Lucien and Tam/in laughing at Feyre... ok... you weren't yourself, but the least you could do was to apologize for hurting and scaring her. it give off the vibe when people say "why was she out so late at night? what was she wearing?" it genuinely made me uncomfortable like the first time. 27. Something I noticed when I read the book for the first and I went 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩:

“No, I don’t want you to live somewhere else. I want you here, where I can look after you—where I can come home and know you’re here, painting and safe.”

"But his glamour had been ripped away. His auburn hair burned like hot metal, and his russet eye smoldered like a bottomless forge."

Damn I was right... 28. Tam/in always kept the truth from her, even the truth that wasn't a part of the curse :) 29. When Feyre drank that faerie wine she saw through Lucien's glamour... does he always have that glamour?:

interesting... 30. Tam/in is fkn coward! in more than 2 occasions Feyre was like why he's not attacking Rhys? why he's not kicking him out? and mf never once tried to stop Rhysand. NOT ONCE. yknow... sometimes in romance novels when you see your loved one in danger you don't care if he's the most powerful being in the world you just act and try to save the ones you love even if you don't win (and we know someone does exactly that at the end of the book)... it's effort that matters!!! and this doesn't stop here either it's even worse at UTM... 31. it's funny that Feyre is "in love" with Tam/in but doesn't stop to appreciate the beauty (Rhysand), even if he's in his villain era and making the love of her life beg on his knee and breaching her own mind... 32. Why Rhysand never called Feyre "love" anymore? the first time I read it I had put away my phone and take a deep breath lol. just like that "good girl" he called her at UTM... sjm knew I would've died if she used it more. 33. Never say never... Lucien:

“Those clothes are enough to convince me I never want to enter the human realm.”

The Mother humbled him real quick lmao. 34. ELAIN IS NOT AN INTROVERT FFS I'm so tried at everyone calling Elain an introvert while she's a social butterfly and we see that in this book!! and it pains me to see Elain stans are like "I'm a introvert myself so I understand Elain..." no you don't. she's traumatized, she's at her lowest in acosf. just because, like Nesta, she doesn't throw tantrums and drown herself in alcohol and sex means she's fine? you should be more worried for the person who looks fine!! 35. I adored the scene where Feyre teaches Nesta how to paint🥹 it just warms my heart<3 and now that Feyre has a art studio I want to see them paint together again or read Nesta's smutty books together at HoW!! (I read a fanfic that Nesta teaches Feyre how to read with a stick on the snow pre-canon and it just warmed my heart<3 don't get me wrong I love how Rhys taught her lol but there's something else in sisterhood...)

36. “There is a better world, Nesta. There is a better world out there, waiting for you to find it. And if I ever get the chance, if things are ever better, safer … I will find you again.”

^: Stop...😭

37. “Amarantha is High Queen of this land. The High Queen of Prythian,” Alis breathed, her eyes wide with some memory of horror.

^: That's why the whole high king and high queen will never work. people will never accept one even if they're a just person. they had the worst experience for 49 years. they can never trust a person to rule for all like that again. and honestly I hate the whole thing bye... 38. To me Amarantha and Tam/in are mates... for obvious reasons and it's fitting! idc what anyone else says 39. The whole chapter where she kills that wyrm is so hot!! and the fact that she's human and she's so calculated and plans in the span of few minutes to kill it and doesn't just attack and uses her brain instead is so hot!! I understand why Rhys fell in love!! *HOFAS spoiler* and it's funny to me how an Illyrian, a Starborn and a Valkyrie with a deadly mask struggled to kill the wyrm 😭💀 40. The only person, THE ONLY ONE who bet on her that she'll survive? who would that be? THE LOVE HER LIFE? no... and that's not something to just move on from! there's only two assumption we can make. one, he never believed in her to begin with, two, he's a fkn coward... which I think it's both. Rhysand was r*ped and tortured for 49 years and he never stopped helping Feyre and believing in her. and knowing Amarantha wouldn't be pleased with betting on Feyre, he still did it... 41. UTM Rhys supremacy... That's it. don't ask me anything... 42. How Feyre remembered the riddle for 2.5 months is beyond me... 43. Feyre appreciating Rhysand's beauty so randomly like... GIRL FOCUS!! 44. When Feyre questions her reason for why she's doing all these, for "just a few decades", should've been the sign... 45. How Tam/in finding a way to get Feyre alone right before the night of her last trial pissed me off the first time I read it… the fact that this was a goodbye to him. That in the past 3 months he didn't try to even react to her but the night before her last trial decided to fuck her instead of helping her to get out… he can find a way now, he can get out of Amarantha sight for more than 5 minutes to fuck her, but he couldn't have done that in the past 2.5 months… yeah sure this is true love. like I said it's the effort that matters not whether you succeeded in it... Tam/in disgusts me for a better word. 46. no note... *sound of my heart breaking*:

“When you healed my arm … You didn’t need to bargain with me. You could have demanded every single week of the year. Every single week, and I would have said yes.”

"And if you had any stomach for cruelty, you’d go to Amarantha and tell her the truth about her whore. Perhaps she’d give you Tamlin for it.”

“I know,”

47. This MF sat there until he got healed while every bone in Feyre's body was breaking and when he somewhat healed he began kneeling and begging?... KNEELING AND BEGGING!! JUST FKN KILL HER! (the way Feyre kept saying that) I don't want to hear one single word about how he was injured, bla bla bla he's a fkn high lord and a warrior I'm sure he experienced worse. the least he could do, was his fkn best to stop Amarantha. and this time around reading it piss me off so bad that I wanted to throw my phone out of the window... but you know who got up even when he didn't have his full powers? to save her, to kill Amarantha, to die with her because he didn't want her to be alone while she died? yeah... The fact that the first time I read it I thought this was the reason Feyre was going to leave him and what did she do?... my girl has no self-respect istg... Love blinds people I suppose... 48. Whenever Tam/in touched Feyre after this whole thing I wanted to throw up... when he cradled her dead body? oh I wanted Rhysand to mist him so fkn bad. he doesn't deserve to touch her, he didn't deserved Feyre's love, not once... 49. In my language we have an expression "whoever does the final task, they are the one who finished the job" obviously in my language it has more rhyme to it lol but it's a silly idiom and a stupid one at that; and When people start thanking Tam/in I was like: FOR WHAT EXACTLY? he just killed Amarantha at the last minute while he watch Feyre getting tortured? he just sat for 2.5 months while Feyre and Rhysand (and Lucien) do the works to free not just him but the whole Prythian... all the while he was in his home and you lot were imprisoned UTM, away from your home... who are you thanking to? (at least they thanked Feyre as well...) 50. Feysand's balcony scene has a special place in my heart:

“Why?”

“Because when the legends get written, I didn’t want to be remembered for standing on the sidelines. I want my future offspring to know that I was there, and that I fought against her at the end, even if I couldn’t do anything useful.”

“Because, I didn’t want you to fight alone. Or die alone.”

“Thank you,”

“You never told me you loved the wings—or the flying.”

“Everything I love has always had a tendency to be taken from me. I tell very few about the wings. Or the flying.”

“Be glad of your human heart, Feyre. Pity those who don’t feel anything at all.”

whew... sorry this is so long! if you read this till the end I LOVE YOU. anyway I might do one for acomaf as well whenever I reread it. and I'm pretty sure Tam/in is going to make me see red even more than the first time!!

And I'm glad I was one of those few who saw the red flags in Tam/in even for the first time...

first time read: ⭐⭐⭐

second time read: ⭐⭐⭐.5

I noticed so many foreshadow in this book! and so many other 🚩that I didn't noticed for the first time! for some reason I can't give this book 4 stars because I tired to go easy on Tam/in but it got worse lmao💀