#no spoilers ive only read the first 4 volumes or so

[iidsch]

Im rereading the first volumes of nana and man 🧍I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about nana and shoji's relationship but ultimately i cant not feel bad for her, its so despicable of him to cheat on her like that

[meikostan]

OK finally watching oshi no ko anime, it turns out all i needed was to go outside for like an hour and im normal again

my thoughts under the cut (writing as i watch) (long) (lots of thoughts) (beautiful and true?) (manga reader) (don't read if anime only) (spoilers) (seriously) (i talk alot) (lots of thoughts)

at this point i've reread oshi no ko enough times that even if i didnt already know japanese i could probably make it without the subs SDJLF but its so cool to see lines and panels that im so familiar with brought to life!! i also liked goro's death scene, especially the way they used static and cut between shots. i keep on pulling out my physical copies of onk (well mostly vol 1) and pointing at my screen and the corresponding part of the book like

2. AIIIII little known fact about me is that ai is genuinely my favorite character... WHICH SUCKS BECAUSE SHE DIES IN THE FIRST VOLUME. seriously we only ever get to see her after this when a. her name or demeanor is invoked by another character b. aqua has his numerous mental breakdowns or c. flashbacks (including but not limited to aqua's mental breakdowns). i am always down for ai content!!!

3. its so much easier to ignore the weird vaguely sexual stuff from their babyhood because i know the rest of the series is normal and cool and not into that sort of stuff👍

4. speaking of normal yayayay it's aqua back when he was actually normal and not "normal" :D like he is just a baby. do you think now that oshi no ko is popular people will get into internet arguments about whether you can ethically have aqua as your favorite character post-normalification. actually wait this may already have been happening in the dark depths of some discord server out there.. but i dont use discord so im blissfully unaware

5. OH i dont think ive seen all of the OG b komachi before? or at least not in high detail. epic!

6. infant ruby telling people on the internet "kys" before age 2... truly a model twitter user

7. not gonna lie i havent really ever liked the way babies are drawn here (including manga)... idk their heads just look way too big like adult heads drawn on toddler bodies then ""cutified"". but this is a personal gripe

8. do you think because of infantile amnesia the twins forgot about the whole pretending to be amaterasu moment. do you think miyako still remembers. can you imagine being the foster mother of two kids who you believe to be gods sent to earth. do you think she remembers that she was "charged by the gods with keeping ai's secret" and then aqua. you know.

9. imagine: you married the ceo of a mid production company because you want to date hot men. there are no hot men in sight. you have to watch over one of the idol's twin infant babies. they reveal to you that they are divine messengers of god and also they can speak normally. there are no hot men in sight. you tend to their every need because you don't want divine retribution. you explain the intricacies of the idol industry in detail every couple of days when they complain about the injustices of the world. there are no hot men in sight. you become their foster mom after they witness the traumatic death of their mother, whose secrets you where charged with keeping safe. at least 12 years pass. they never mention any of this again. you manage the idol group one of them is in. there are still no hot men in sight. your name is miyako. every day you wake up.

10. i like how gotanda gives his business card to a toddler. whats he gonna do, call you on his fisher price dial phone? well actually nevermind aqua is probably the only other toddler (alongside ruby) who could make use of a business card

11. KANAA LETS FUCKING GOOOOO but also nothing will ever top 'lick a lying snitch/flick a crying switch'...... nothing ever... :( also taking the opportunity now to say ive always found it hilarious she assumed 'aqua' is his stage name and not his actual legal name, that's how ridiculous it is DSKLFJ

12. sobbing at the ruby ai dance... dont even have that many words i just really like it.. do you guys think ai was thinking about her own mom [& abuse/lack of relationship thereof]? not even just in this scene but in her more serious moments when she's thinking about her kids it's like "i want to make millions so they can go to the nicest schools and have the nicest things" "i want my daughter to dance freely and happily and i will support her in this" which ig can also be excused as 'thats just what a normal parent wants' but idk i like taking into consideration her own past and lack of parental support when looking at the way she tries to raise her children (not that she exactly got a chance to, even while still alive)

13. also i realized at this point that ep 1 is like an hour long not just because of the whole 'we gotta make sure no one drops this before the reveal that shows what this story's actually gonna be about', but also because it would be kinda awkward to have cut any of these scenes out? or not like out completely but like from each other. like if we had ended ep 1 at for example where they do their silly baby dance and go twitter viral (chapter 5 aka the midpoint of vol 1). that wouldve been terrible. but we can't cut it any earlier, or any later. ai's death feels like the natural conclusion to this problem. also i can't really see much of the other sections being stretched out to fit a full episode length being done very well. having ep 1 be a full 90 minutes lets them be as long as they need to be, aka a 1:1 adaptation of the manga.

14. oh boy chapter 9 time

15. i don't have anything to say about ai's outlook that has not already been said but this is the scene that made her my favorite character. not being able to tell at what point your lies become reality.. not really knowing if you've ever loved or been loved truly because your entire concept of 'love' was based off insincerity necessary for survival.. and now not ever being given the chance to explore what 'real love' means to you. FUCK

16. aww i love all these little family moments they added! very cute ^_^

17. yayy go kids get traumatized ^_^ also for some reason i remember the stalker as having really light hair o-0 fascinating. i remembered his name though!! just like ai fr

18. speaking of hair i also did not realize saitou was blond i thought he had brown hair..

19. hey the bandana (? i forget the word) guy holding the ai fan sign during the news montage is from one of the intros to the vol 1 chapters where hes like 'oh yeah i wonder where those dancing babies are now'!

20. another part of that montage shows a house with a wii in it, which came out november 19 2006. characters are shown using twitter which started earlier that same year; it was a pretty popular website even in 2008, but the mobile app only became a thing in like 2010. i'm seeing a mix of flip phones and smart phones so this has gotta take place sometime around 2010. it's kinda difficult to tell exactly what age the twins are in the main story because like the first page of vol 2 has ruby listing her age as 14, but - and the proof is not at my finger tips rn - i swear to god they're like 16 at this point. i have legitimate reasons to believe this but i need to grab exact proof adding to that we also have 15 years of lies, which if im remembering right would be referring to the twins age? i was trying to logic out exactly what year oshi no ko takes place in even though i already know the answer is 'in the modern day' but anyway yeah i'll just finish my episode and move on

21. THE IPHONE RUBY IS HOLDNIG HAS A HEADPHONE JACK. i want so badly to say that's an iphone 4 but there's like a separation between that and the power button. i also dont have an iphone 4 with me so i cant check it irl :( but anyway the iphone 4 was released in 2010, meaning the evidence is piling up for this part of the story taking place some time around 2010. or maybe i'm looking too deeply into this and should go back to actually watching the episode.

22. this is reminding me i was gonna write a fic specifically about this time period where the twins go to therapy and have to adjust to life without ai, having miyako graduate from fake mom to actual mom, aqua faking being fully recovered from the incident so he'd be released from therapy (fic concept was inspired from him stating this in like vol 6), etc. i never did because i spent like 3 hours researching play therapy and never got anywhere with it.. but maybe...

23. THE KIDS HAVING TO WATCH HER FUNERAL THROUGH THE FUCKING CAR WINDOW... I'M GOING TO KILL MYSELF

24. YESS AQUA NORMALIFICATION COMPLETE

25. AM I INSANE OR IS THAT AKANE? HER HAIR COLOR IS THE SAME BUT IT'S SO SHORT

26. MEM!!!!

27. AHHH POST CREDITS AI MAKING HER VIDEO FOR THE TWINS "i don't think i'll still be an idol by then" YEAH BUT AT WHAT COST 😭

FINAL THOUGHTS: i liked it alot ^_^ i dont really watch that much anime anymore (not that i watched an incredible amount before, but i am familiar with it) but i really liked this. i think they did a very good job of adapting the first volume! i know the rest of the episodes will be not-film length which does make me a bit sad because i think it would work out well, or at least not badly, if they were. it does also make me really excited for the future, seriously i will actually explode when i see the theater arc in full. cannot wait to see aqua mental breakdowns and ruby evil arc and and and and

the only thing i would've liked is if they could somehow have found a way to incorporate the pre-chapter intro scenes from the manga where they're talking about 15 years of lies, interviews with their pre-school teacher, etc. though both the pre-school teacher and the aforementioned bandana guy appear which may have been their way of doing it? like adding a fun detail for obsessives like myself to point at like 'my god it's those guys from exactly 2 panels in the manga'

tumblr ate my post and erased everything up to #2 while i was writing it and i was about to flip but it turns out that it automatically saves posts while youre writing them now and it was in my drafts safe and sound soooo crisis averted ^_^ anyway those were my thoughts on ep 1

[grapementos]

make no mistake

4 times you let bakugo get away with embarrassing you, plus one time you decide you’ve had enough. (gn reader)

a/n: finally here with the second and final part. hope it was worth the wait :) read part one here!

warnings: angst, mha spoilers, anger, yelling, cursing, mentions of trauma, descriptions of a toxic relationship.

III.

a week later, after study sessions and nights spent together, you felt like bakugo might have calmed down. maybe he was just having a bad week.

either way, you still massaged the knots out of his shoulders at night, and he held you and made you feel oh so special. you still shared i love you’s and laid in each other’s arms until sunrise. that’s what made the bad so easy to forget.

he could be mean and inconsiderate, but he could also be so, so nice. he could wipe away your tears and hold you until the worries of the world melted away. you’d never felt so secure before him. you were in a tug-of-war that was starting to physically pain you, climbing sporadically up and down your ribcage.

that pain wasn’t even noticeable now as you leaned back from your spot in between bakugo’s legs, head resting on his chest.

kirishima, denki, and sero were seated around the room, taunting each other as they played a video game you didn’t recognize. bakugo merely grunted at their antics, his hands conjoined over your front.

your eyes were closed as you drowned out the good-natured banter that flooded the room. all was well, you thought blissfully. thoughts of graduation started to poke and prod at your brain, but you kept them at bay by gently squeezing one of bakugo’s hands.

“ooh, kacchan’s whipped.” denki snorted from the far side of the room, earning a laugh from the other two.

you simply chuckled, opening your eyes, “quiet down, denki. let’s not bring up who you have heart-eyes for.”

that seemed to be enough to settle everyone down. the air calmed again, and the banter even quieted down to taunts here and there. everyone seemed content.

everyone but bakugo, that is, for he settled his arms behind his head instead of their spot on your torso.

“all good?” you quirked a brow, tilting your head up to study his face for any hint of anger or embarrassment.

“m’fine.”

lips pursed, you settled back down, resting a hand on his leg instead. bakugo wasn’t necessarily opposed to physical contact. at the beginning of your relationship, hugging was awkward and difficult, but you’d both grown to be comfortable with each other.

which is why you were surprised when he brushed your hand away with a grunt, a sour feeling spreading across your chest.

“kats, are you sure you’re okay?” you tried to keep your voice down, not wanting to draw the attention of anyone else in the room. bakugo loved attention, but not the kind that made people concerned about him.

“god, y/n, i said i’m fine, okay?” he snapped, “stop being so damn clingy.”

unfortunately, bakugo wasn’t as considerate of his volume as you were, so the game had come to an abrupt pause.

“hey, man, that’s not-” kirishima started after sharing a look with denki, setting down his controller with a frown.

“it’s okay, kirishima.” you assured before he could escalate the situation further, moving yourself to sit down on the floor with your back against the bed. “it is kinda hot in here.”

you chose to distract yourself on your phone, not wanting to feel like such a victim because of their sympathetic stares.

eventually, the game was resumed, but the mood never quite returned. the only banter that ensued was one inside your head.

IV.

bakugo katsuki is loud, a perfect match for his quirk. he’s prideful, confident, ambitious— everything that makes a potentially ideal hero.

and you couldn’t be prouder.

but he’s also damaged. he’s bombarded with anxiety and self-deprecation and memories. you’re well aware of the sludge villain — a story that had taken a year for him to share. and you know about how he felt at the sports festival. you watched it in your first year, flames of unmistakable anger licking at your stomach.

restraining a student in such a humiliating manner on live television? put simply, it made your blood boil.

and then there was kamino. there was no easy way to discuss what happened that day, so he never did. but he did let you hold him when he woke up from the nightmares, palms crackling dangerously. a warning.

but you never ran from him. you stayed, determined to prove you weren’t afraid.

“you’re a hero, katsuki. you have everything it takes. no matter what anyone else has to say about it.”

he cried that night, face shoved into your chest as he muttered apologies over and over. he apologized for who he was and how difficult he was to deal with, only to be met with your gentle reassurances.

“you’re trying. that’s all i need from you.”

but lately, it felt like he wasn’t trying. it felt like he’d decided that trying was too strenuous and took up too much time on his schedule. having a relationship with him was a miracle in the first place, though you didn’t like to think of it that way.

his goals would always come first, and you were fine with that, but that wasn’t an excuse to take his mood swings out on you. you brought up the issue to him in the privacy of your dorm, but you were only met with a grumbled out apology and a head on your shoulder.

it was something, you decided, so you forgave him and guided him to the bed for some much needed relaxation.

that was last night. now, you were sitting between him and sero in the cafeteria, eating and conversing with the rest of his class.

you were grateful that they never made you feel out of place just because you were from a different course. then again, you figured they could just be too afraid of bakugo to say anything.

it didn’t matter much to you, but you were starting to see why so many people were intimidated by him. his randomly targeted insults could definitely be too much at times, and you weren’t the biggest fan of them.

poor midoriya always got the brunt of bakugo's rude verbal tendencies. you tended to nudge him in the side when you felt things got too far, and it was usually enough for him to bite his tongue and begrudgimgly walk away from the one-sided argument. sometimes it wasn't. sometimes you had to physically yank him away, which earned you nothing but an earful of insults and the silent treatment.

it was their business, he'd try to justify, and you had no part in it. you argued otherwise, having to explain what your role as his partner entailed. you weren't the screaming type, but a tone resulting in anything less than a sore throat was considered patronizing in his eyes. ultimately, you were forced to drop the topic and move on to an uncomfortable silence. that is, until bakugo declared forgiveness for the both of you.

it was a cycle.

today, the cycle was continuing, in the unfortunate public setting of the cafeteria. midoriya had been in his seat all of ten seconds, continuing a conversation he'd been having with uraraka about his quirk. that was enough to set bakugo off, his target obviously acquired as he slammed his utensils down on the table.

"no one cares about your damn quirk, deku. do you really think it's cool enough for you to be able to brag about it at lunch?" he scoffed, voice rising above the rest of the laughter among your table.

few turned to pay attention-- it was normal for bakugo and midoriya to disregard their surroundings and argue.

"oh, no, kacchan, uraraka was just asking a few questions about my quirk is all."

he muttered profanities and an inappropriate innuendo about their relationship under his breath, earning an elbow to the ribs from you.

“kats, that’s rude.” you kept your voice low, not the attention-attracter he was. your reprimand was brushed off and disregarded, his attention back on midoriya as he tried and failed to rile him up.

after a particular comment about the other boy being ‘useless’, you’d had enough.

“katsuki, stop! can't you be civil for the half hour we have for lunch?” you frowned, arms crossed disapprovingly over your chest.

he sneered, pointing his utensil at you, “piss off, y/n. you're not my parent, so stop acting like it!”

you were so, so tired of arguing with him in front of everybody already. it was draining to have to dance around his moods and still constantly get embarrassed.

“i’m not acting like your parent. i‘m acting like someone who’s sick of watching you degrade your classmate.” you countered, pushing the chopstick out of your face.

“well then don’t watch and go sit with your little business course friends! see if i care!” a silence fell over the cafeteria because everyone was watching. they always were.

after a brief staredown with him, you stood, ensuring your chair scraped against the linoleum as loudly as possible when you slammed it in. “fuck you, bakugo.”

and then you stormed out, dropping your food tray into the trash on the way.

your breaking point was nearing, you could feel it, and you hated that the idea didn’t repulse you as much as it should have.

+1

graduation was just over twenty-four hours away and you were buzzing with nervous energy. each class in each course planned a pre and post celebration—you'd be attending both your class and class 3-a's parties since you were invited.

your class ultimately came first, so you spent a little over an hour with them, mingling and talking about your potential career paths. after your hour was up, you bid your goodbyes and hugged those you were close to.

that's how you found yourself in the middle of class 3-a's party, which was admittedly much wilder than the first you’d been to. there were flashing lights and a bit of a clash in theme, which was to be expected from such a diverse class.

you found bakugo away from what was deemed the dance floor, crossing the room to make it to him. things had been slightly tense between the two of you since the cafeteria incident, but you refused to apologize, and so did he. so, like all things, you just shoved it aside and ignored it.

“hey, kats.” you pressed a kiss against his cheek, “enjoying the party, wallflower?”

“it’s fine. dunno why we’re celebrating before graduation, though.”

“memories, darling. memories.” you slipped your hand into his, squeezing it as you looked out on the dance floor. mina was absolutely tearing it up—if you didn’t know her, you would’ve thought her to be a dancer.

kirishima and tokoyami were conversing by the snack table—well, one of them. momo clearly went a little overboard with her imported snacks.

after just watching for a moment, you looked over to bakugo, “we should dance. end high school right.” you proposed, gently tugging his arm.

“you know i don’t dance, y/n.” he stood stiff, absolutely refusing to move anywhere near your direction.

“but we’re graduating! we're not going to have time for this once you join an agency and i get a job!” you reasoned, eyes pleading, “c’mon, katsuki, just one dance?”

“no.”

you huffed in frustration, dropping his hand, “why not? why cant i just have this one thing from you? why cant we have the first and last dance of our high school careers? would it kill you to indulge me from time to time?”

“listen, y/n, I just don’t want to! why are you being so damn pushy about this?” he snapped, and you swore it was a mirror of what he did every other time. he gradually got louder and louder, whether he was aware of it or not. or maybe he just didn’t care.

“because i want to dance with you! i want to spend time with you, katsuki! is that so wrong?” your mood was steadily decreasing, the want to dance going with it. it was like a rubber band being pulled and pulled in two opposite directions.

“god, y/n, it’s not the end of the world. listen-”

snap.

“no, katsuki bakugo, you listen to me.” you jabbed a finger in his chest, “you’re going to listen to me, and you’re not going to interrupt me. because make no mistake, i’m not your verbal punching bag.”

his eyes were wide, lips parted in surprise, but you spoke before he had the chance.

“i’m so done. i‘m finished. i’m not dealing with you belittling my feelings anymore. you,” you inhale, fist clenched at your side, “you humiliate me without hesitation, every chance you get. and i know things are hard for you. i know how hard it is to express yourself, but you’re not trying to be better. you were, and i could see it, but now it’s like you just.. gave up.” you dropped your hand away from your chest, the adrenaline slowly leaving your body. “like I—we, aren’t worth it.”

his eyes are darting everywhere behind you, but it goes unnoticed by you as you continue after taking a deep breath.

“you’re not ready for this.” you motioned between the two of you, calmer now, “you have a lot to work on. we both do. that’s why this is the end for us.” you don’t miss the widening of his eyes or the clenching of his fists. you’d backed him up against a wall, and he had no choice but to take it.

taking a step backwards, you uttered your final words to him, “have a good life, bakugo.”

once you finally turned around, you were met with several pairs of comically wide eyes and dropped jaws. you couldn’t even bring yourself to be embarrassed, mumbling out a quiet thanks for the invitation before you were out of there.

and, for the first time in a long time, you felt free.

BONUS:

years later, katsuki bakugo earned the title of number one hero, having finally worked hard enough to swap spots with fellow pro-hero deku. it was the most demanding year of his life, but he was finally on top, just like he always wanted.

and yet, as he stood as the best man at your wedding with his best friend, he couldn’t think of a single reason to be happy.

ah, yes, lovers -> exes -> ejirou kirishima’s spouse, the trope of all tropes. anyways, all jokes aside, i really hope you guys like this! it’s 3am jsjsjsjs, but i didn’t want to make y’all wait any longer.

tag list: @jazzylove @riot-race @dorki-c

[jackiietaylor]

☕️ people saying eddie is coming back next season + the love for him but complete disregard for max

thank you for asking! this turned out really long

hmm first of all, i don't think he's coming back. i mean i loved him as a new addition and wouldn't be opposed to it if it did happen, but its not going to. thats not really what you asked but let me start with that anyway. i completely understand why people want him back and weren't happy with his death/why he died/how he died, but i can't really say i feel the same way. i mean ill be honest, i was reading spoilers for months before the season came out and knew he was a goner, so maybe thats why im not really interested in a plot where hes alive, but i think it was kinda obvious that he existed the way he did just so they didnt have to kill steve. and i think stranger things as a whole, because of the way they have handled character deaths in literally every season so far (barb, bob, alexei, chrissy, etc), has this weird phenomenon where fans get way more attached to new side characters that exist only to die than the writers have ever intended, and that combined with the constant use of fake out deaths has created this idea that everyone needs to or is going to come back even when it doesnt make a ton of sense or would set the story back. i think theres so many interesting plot lines being set up for s5 (el vs vecna final showdown, max, wills connection to the upside down/vecna, the upside down literally leaking into hawkins) and i just dont think bringing back a character who had a decent (in my opinion) death scene would be a great use of screen time. but like i said i get that people really like him and want him back so if they want to theorize that hes somehow coming back as a vampire or whatever i have no problem with it. they seem like theyre having fun idk

(i dont even know how to word what im trying to answer the second part of your message so this is a little all over the place sorry.) you bring up a really good point about the differences in reaction to eddie and max. i can't say im particularly surprised that all the attention after volume 2 went to eddie instead of max. i think just about everything to do with max's arc this season was done almost perfectly, and its really unfortunate that so much of that is being ignored. also back to what i was saying before about theories, theres so few people really talking about what happened to max/where she is (in terms of the fact that el couldn't find her in the void)/how's shes going to get freed from wherever she is. i think that part of the finale was so interesting but its largely ignored because maxs "death" was overshadowed by eddies. and I dont think that was the intention in the way that those scenes were written, I think thats entirely because of fan reaction. and kinda unrelated but ive also seen a ton of people posting about st and eddie in particular that have either a. not seen the show at all or b. only watched s4 for him, which i mean theres nothing wrong with, but it definitely shows in the discussion thats been happening about volume 2/season 4 as a whole. anyway long story short max has been one of the best characters on the show since s2 and people need to acknowledge that more, especially because so much of s4 revolved around her but shes barely being talked about, even when her plot going into s5 is probably going to be one of the most interesting

send me a topic + ☕️ and ill tell my honest opinion about it

[yuissamidare]

have you read the last drk volume yet? idk if you read japanese well or not but itd be cool if you could spoil the ending :3c

i haven’t finished it, bc i was going reread from the beginning but i took a look at the ending for you. im glad i did. yui’s birthday is august 31st, which is Independence Day in my country. she’s a virgo. ive been wanting that info since 2013. drk ending spoilers under the cut

yui, as theorized from the start, died. she was killed in an explosion in the Sirius observatory where her and kirigiri first met, and that’s also how kirigiri hurts her hands. some of yuis final thoughts were that she wishes that she could’ve been better, lived a life without making mistake — that she were a talented detective instead of just some normal stupid high school girl. she could’ve been able to protect kirigiri. in the end, yui thinks, i couldn’t protect a single thing.

kirigiri begs yui to stay with her, to live, that kirigiris going to make sure she’s going home alive, hold on, pull yourself together, please, but yui accepts her fate, and thanks kirigiri. her last words are her apologizing for treating her like a criminal and asking how she could make it up to her because at this rate she’ll..... and her last thoughts are about kirigiri too:

you were right all along, so stand proud. oh, cherry blossom petals. they’re beautiful, aren’t they, kirigiri-chan? you’re very.......

samidare yui dies.

kyouko kirigiri wakes up in a hospital bed with ruined hands, she wants to see yui. she ends up meeting salvador, and the girls from the saint annes academy, tsukiyo and nazuna from the libra girls academy case that was in vol 4 & 5 I believe?? (check jess’ blog bc I’m still working through them) because they also knew yui. salvador goes over her injuries—hypothermia, severe burns on her hands—and says it’s a miracle she survived 

“and what about yui-oneesama?” kirigiri asked. those were the first words she spoke in that hospital.

“about her...” yadorigi turned away, and the time he spent grasping for words was more than enough of an answer. kirigiri could easily guess what came next: “It was too late for her.”

“i see...”

kirigiri turned to face the curtain, and her reaction baffled the girls and tsukiyo who was with salvador. why the fuck wasn’t kirigiri crying?! she loved yui, didn’t she? they were friends right?! where was kirigiris heart?! don’t you pity her at the very least?! are you even human?! such and such. salvador tells her to cut it out. though even though kirigiri didn’t outwardly emote, she was doing her thing compartmentalizing her emotions unhealthily which was the family way u know.

in the end, tsukiyo weeps all by herself, and nazuna holds onto her. meanwhile kirigiris low key having a crisis

even still, am i detective? kirigiri asked herself. is she willing to die as a detective? she’s not a detective for the sake of helping other people, that’s just how she was bred and raised. however, the days spent by yuis side taught her that even she could feel helpless — she thought she was proud to be born as a detective, but maybe she was just clinging onto that to compensate for something else. in the end, there’s no one to protect her, and no one, not even she herself, could save the the person dearest to her.

salvador starts talking about the committee and shinsen will being passed along to new people. they need her help. but kirigiri’s angsting really really hard and says no. in her own words: 今さら自分に何ができるというの。霧切響子はもう死んだ。あの日、彼女と一緒に。

but what can she do now, on her own? kirigiri kyouko has already died. she died that day, together with her (yui).

so yeah she’s having an awful time. and she gets discharged when the cherry blossoms start falling and covering the dreary snow. neat! the irony! she goes back to Sirius bc there was a crossbow missing from the scene, and she won’t rest until this one incident is solved. shen then figures out who fucked her and yui over so bad. it could only be him, it could only be shinsen fucking mikado.

we then learn her grandpa was detained bc he was a suspect in shinsens murder, and she talked to him about yui. kirigiri gets upgraded to dsc 910. she finally has a 0 on her card like she always wanted... she can’t feel happy about it. this number doesn’t mean anything to her, anymore.

she gets a letter from yui, that she wrote in case she died first. talking about how she knew one day that she couldn’t be there for her forever, but she hoped she could take some of kirigiris burdens from her, or maybe she just made everything worse. yui had her own baggage, and couldn’t support her properly, but yui knows one day she’ll have people who love and support her like yui did, like she wanted to. she tells her to take breaks and to take care of herself — yui says she’s knows she’s more trouble than she’s worth, so thank you for sticking with her kirigiri-chan. and goodbye.

she remembers a conversation she had with salvador—yui saved her, and now she’s gone . like all the times before that, yui used her body to cover her so she wouldn’t freeze to death after the building exploded, and kirigiri couldn’t help her.

“hey, kirigiri-chan, did I take some of that weight off your shoulders?”

everything is silent. no cars on the road, no sound. 

kirigiri loses her shit, she breaks down completely despite trying so hard to suppress her feelings.

emotions are not needed when it comes to detectives... she’s been following that adage all her life, so why is it so hard to follow now? why can’t she stop tearing up? she’s ruining her bandages with how much she’s scrubbing her eyes from crying. finally she just falls to her knees and wails. she’s sorry, she’s so sorry yui-oneesama. she keeps calling her name, willing her to just pop in right next to her, because she knows she just needs to call her name, and yui will trip over herself to come to help her. yui-oneesama will definitely come save her. big sis yui. big sis yui....

so she’s not okay! and I’m not ok. I am crying. there’s a time skip where kirigiri goes to yuis hometown to visit her grave. she’s happy to see that other people gave her offerings too, she sets flowers down and prays, and asks her to keep watching over her. 

She calls salvador and agrees to help. years pass and she goes to hopes peak. naegi finds her dsc after she dropped it, bc he was looking for something sakura threw. naegis like wtf is this also are u on a job how old were u when u started being a detective and kirigiris like UGHHHH go away but then she’s like... hmmm whomst is this little twink 

the last lines of the book are “fine then, let’s have a chat, naegi-kun.”

[thuskindlyshescatters]

Team RWBY and the Very Long Day

Or maybe... not as long as you’d expect?

When the team reaches Atlas Academy and are brought on a tour, they’re dead tired. Now, as someone who’s gone on a number of college tours myself, I totally can relate. And plus, the team has had a really long day -- Volume 6 Chapter 10 through Volume 7 Chapter 2 have all been the same day.

However, it feels a lot longer for us than it should, since we saw it over a nine-month period, and they only experienced it in a day. But how long was that day specifically?

There’s a couple factors we need to consider: time zones, hour of sunset, flight hours, and actual in-show events. By evaluating this, we will determine: How long of a day were the past 6 chapters of RWBY? Is their exhaustion justified by canon events?

Spoilers, math, and lots of pointless reading below. 

I) Time Zone

According to this map (the fifth image) from the second “World of Remnant” short, we get a pretty good approximation of the location of Atlas. Argus is on the U-shaped peninsula a third of the way from Mistral to Atlas. Ideally, time zones would work in 24 hour-wide increments, so assuming there is NOT a huge Pacific-like ocean around Remnant’s back half, there is approximately a two-hour time difference between Argus and Atlas. This means the sun sets on Argus earlier than Atlas -- however, Atlas is further North, so sunset may be earlier for them relative to someone at a lower latitude in their timezone. Additionally, it also means the team may experience around two hours of jet lag upon arrival. 

II) Sunset

When the gang arrives in Atlas, it is night time. In Volume 6 Chapter 7, they arrive at Argus in mid-afternoon. Because the next episode’s scenes with Cordovin at the base and Maria in the garden do not have the same warm lighting, we can infer that those took place the next day, sometime during the middle of the day. They receive news that Oscar is missing and begin their search -- however, unless they were searching for him like in Volume 1 Chapter 16 (if you recall, that was 12 hours), it’s likely they were out of the house for no more than 4 hours. From the end of Volume 6 Chapter 8 to the end of Volume 6 Chapter 9 might have been from, call it, 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM -- meaning sunset was sometime within those hours. It is wintertime in the Northern hemisphere of Remnant (quick summary, it’s been about a year since the end of Volume 3 Chapter 12), so assuming they don’t have daylight savings time, this is a pretty reasonable estimate for when the sun would set in a city whose latitude is comparable to that of Paris. If we take a quick look back at Atlas, it is MUCH farther North than Argus, and is pretty much in the Arctic. If we compare map distances, Atlas might as well be in Iceland, as Paris and Reykjavik are 1,396 air miles away from each other. In December in Iceland, the sun sets at around 3:00 to 4:00 PM. Therefore, it is perfectly reasonable that people would still be up and about when it appears to be night time in Atlas. 

III) Flight Hours

What this means is that the team, in order to leave Argus during daytime (earlier than 5:30 PM) and to arrive in Atlas during nighttime (later than 4:00 PM) when there is a two-hour time difference between them, it works out to assume that the minimum time a flight on an Atlesian dropship would take from Argus to Atlas would be 4 hours. Even more generous would be to allow them 5 hours, considering the pace of the vehicle. 

IV) Events

I’d like to start with the evidence we see in Atlas and work backwards to make a fair assumption about when they arrive in Atlas. The amount of people on the streets and the fact that Dr. Polendina’s pharmacy is open makes me want to believe it’s before 6:00 PM. The Faunus miners we see on the passing vehicle makes me wonder if this is accurate, however, because I would assume the miners would work more unreasonable hours than that. I will chalk this up to be a case of world details being more important to show punctually than consistently. Anyways, if we say it’s 5:30 PM in Atlas when they arrive, then it’s likely 3:30 PM in Argus when they depart (accounting for a 4 hour flight and 2 hour time zone difference.)

Now, for the real numbers:

Ruby’s role in the heist takes place more or less in real time, while Blake and Yang’s excursion with Adam is punctuated by breaks of which we cannot know the duration. Therefore, knowing that Blake and Yang rejoin the group in Volume 6 Chapter 13, I will only recount the “cliff-side” events, as it were, to calculate the duration of the heist itself.

Volume 6 Chapter 10

We have no idea when the heist begins. Cordovin, being a military officer, would probably want Weiss to arrive at a sharp hour, so let’s call that hour “X:00″ o’clock. Based off of our previous calculations, the end of the heist must occur at around 3:30, so depending on their length, this hour could be 3:00 PM. (Spoiler: it totally will be.)

The episode begins on the Rooster Teeth website at 2:08 minutes, and from there it pretty much goes in real time until 4:50, which is the moment when Weiss loses scroll signal with Ruby. Ruby loses signal with Weiss at 6:02, so we can deduce that those next 1:12 minutes of Ruby’s timeline are occurring simultaneously with what we see of Weiss. From the beginning of the heist to when Ruby loses signal is 2:42 minutes in real time (how efficient of Weiss!). From 6:02 to 11:02 is the next realtime sequence, at which point we cut to Blake and Adam, but again, we’ll be ignoring them for now. Now, the heist has been in progress for 7:42 minutes; it is X:07.

Volume 6 Chapter 11

The episode officially begins at 2:08 again. The first scene of them talking lasts until 4:01, when it cuts away from them planning to attack. Let’s be generous and give them 30 unspoken seconds where some offscreen planning occurs, making that first sequence about 2:37 minutes. Then, the sequence continues from 4:01 to 9:44 (no, I’m not counting slow motion because that’s dumb). Then, we cut away again. This episode’s total real-time stacks up to 8:20 minutes. Therefore, the heist has now been occurring for 16:02 minutes, so it’s about X:16 o’clock.

Volume 6 Chapter 12

This episode actually starts at 1:57 -- wow, wild. It runs continuously to 7:25 (no, cutting back and forth between dialogue doesn’t fucking count), making this section 5:28 minutes. We cut away to Bees, but we return to Cordovin at 11:42, pretty much exactly where it left off, and that carries on to the end of the episode at 12:54. The total of the episode comes out to be 6:40 minutes, since the Bees got a lot of murder screentime. We are also now 22:42 minutes into the heist, and it is X:22 o’clock.

Volume 6 Chapter 13

Cinder and Neo take up the first few minutes of screentime, so the episode starts for our main heroes at 3:33. It kind of carries over from the previous episode, but there’s enough fighters in the air that I’ll give them 90 seconds of cushion time to compensate for realism. I will also add 30 seconds between when Weiss says they destroyed the mech to when they’re all in the airship taking flight at 4:21. Since they like skipping time so much for dramatic effect, I’ll add ANOTHER 30 seconds between when Ruby realizes she has to face it alone and they hatch their second plan at 8:39. I’m going to stop the clock at 9:55 because Ruby yells for Jinn and stops time in-universe until her Silver Eyes moment at 11:16, which, while awesome, is the first event that occurs once time speeds back up to normal. So that whole first section, including padding, was 8:52 minutes. Then, from Silver Eyes to the end of this time section when they time skip to their arrival at 13:14 is 1:58. Finally, the episode cuts to credits at 16:51, the last line being “welcome home,” making the total for the episode 14:27. 

I’d like to note that the episode was 10:50 minutes before they timeskipped to their arrival, so it was 33:32 minutes into the heist and X:33 when they left for Atlas. We said earlier it would be best if they left at around 3:30 PM, and what do you know: the number works out! We can therefore pretty confidently say the heist began at 3:00 PM, which will be important later.

Volume 7 Chapter 1

That’s right folks, we’re not done! Now in Atlas, it is 5:33 PM, just like we predicted it would be. The line “welcome home” is said at 0:38, where I’ll be starting the clock for this episode, but I’ll add the 3:37 of dialogue that occurred the previous episode. They cut away to some pretty Atlas shots while they descend into the city, so I’ll provide 60 seconds of offscreen time. From there, we stay in real time until they put the ship down, which I’ll again provide another 60 seconds for. After their encounter with the MAGA (Make Atlas Great Again, obvs) hecklers, let’s say they walk for another 60 seconds before reaching Piedro’s pharmacy. Continuing to the end of the episode, it’s pretty continuous, except for the extra 90 seconds I’ll provide for them being loaded into the airship. The realtime total for this episode is 18:24 minutes, so it’s been 4 hours and 51:56 minutes since they began the heist, and it’s now 5:51 PM in Atlas.

Volume 7 Chapter 2

The episode starts at 1:46. Let’s be generous and say they’ve been in the air for 2 minutes so far. The episode plays out pretty much in real time until 15:18 where we enter Penny’s montage, so I’ll add about 3 more minutes of travel time to and from Ironwood’s office within Atlas Academy and account the Ironqrow moment for the time it took offscreen for the rest of the group to start Penny’s tour. Then, because I’ve been on many a college tour myself, I expect they’ll be walking for about 10 minutes before they start to feel like they need to collapse. So, in total, this episode takes 29:02 minutes of real time, bringing the amount of time since the start of the heist to 5 hours and 20:58 minutes, making it now approximately 6:21 PM.

In that time, various members of the team have singlehandedly overwhelmed two Argus soldiers, taken control of an airship, fought brutally with their archnemesis, battled a giant mech, flown into the barrel of a cannon, murdered a man, entered a maelstrom of Grimm, obliterated a behemoth of a Final Boss, taken a 4 hour flight, fought an onslaught of new Grimm, reunited with former besties, sisters, and colleagues alike, been arrested, and worst of all gone on a college campus tour.

V) Conclusions

I don’t think the team is suffering from that much jetlag, but I’d definitely be exhausted with that much happening even if it was only 8:21 PM in “my time.” (International travel takes a lot out of you, man.) Additionally, they probably got up earlier in the day (maybe around 9:00 AM, Argus time, if it was a lazy morning), so at this point, they’ve been awake for 11 hours, assuming no one took a nap on the airship.

However, I was surprised to find that even though all 6 of these episodes happened in one day, the actual heist part took only 33 minutes, and their first day in Atlas was about 47 minutes, maybe actually longer. That means that a LOT of the bullshit I listed above was packed into 33 minutes, and the remaining time stretched out over a leisurely hour or so. This post also was made on 11/09, so it might even happen that the next episode CONTINUES this exhausting day, in which case, expect an update.

TLDR: In conclusion, the team deserves to be tired AF because of all the crazy stuff that’s happened to them today. However, they were not awake for an exceptionally long time, nor did the events in Argus actually take up much of their day, much to my surprise.

What was the point of this again?

[eliasbouchardisarobloxthot]

five times jon came out (and one time he didn’t have to)

spoilers up to the end of season 4, and cw for minor transphobia/cisnormativity

i. his grandmother

He was nine the first time.

His grandmother had asked him to wash the dishes, and as he did, he ran over the words in his head as he kicked one foot against the stepstool he had to use to reach the sink.

“Stop doing that,” she said sharply, her voice carrying across the kitchen from where she sat, reading the newspaper. 

“Sorry,” he said, setting the dishes aside. She clicked her tongue at him, shaking her head. 

After a moment, he approached her at the table. “Can I talk to you about something?” he asked quietly, making sure he wasn’t fidgeting or anything like that. It would only make his argument weaker if he was nervous. She wouldn’t listen to him if he was nervous.

“Well? What is it?”

“I don’t… feel like a girl,” he said, his voice shaky even if his body wasn’t. “I haven’t for a while. And… I want to start dressing and acting like a boy now. And pick another name.”

She looked up with her eyebrows raised higher than he’d ever seen them. “Absolutely not,” she said, adjusting the newspaper in her hands and looking away from him. “There is absolutely no way I am letting you destroy our reputation like that.”

“But—” He’d expected this, had sources, had a plan. 

“No buts. Continue with your chores and then start your homework. Now.”

He left the point for nearly four years, just tried his best to get on with his life and be a normal person. And then he hit puberty, and then everything felt wrong. 

From then on, he would insist at least once a month that he still wasn’t a girl, still felt wrong, still wanted to pick another name. And every single time, his grandmother would shut him down, tell him that he was going to ruin their reputation, force him back into the closet. 

It was almost convincing. He gave up on it, thought it was just a phase every girl went through—until uni, until Oxford when he was free and could shave his head and dress how he liked and be who he liked… 

ii. georgie

…and still he felt wrong. It became clearer and clearer that this wasn’t going to go away. 

He started joining online support groups. There were some that confused him, some that helped, some that were just useless to him.

His college roommate talked to him about her friend groups—and the pair of boyfriends in it. He joined the gay-straight alliance with her and told everyone to use ‘they’ pronouns for him, and it felt… good. Really, really good. Not perfect, of course, because there was still that tiny sense of wrongness tweaking at the back of his mind, but good enough that he felt really, truly safe.

Georgie, one of the girls in the GSA, started to talk to him. Then started to hang out with him. Then they started to date, and by the end of their junior year they’d made plans to move in together. And then the sense of wrongness got stronger and stronger. He spent night after night worrying about it, barely eating or sleeping, just thinking and thinking. He spiraled—deep into his own thoughts, constantly on the edge of a panic attack or a breakdown. 

He came out to Georgie only a few days later. She accepted him—of course she did, she was incredible about it. They went online and found a trading group, one that gave away binders from people who had finished their top surgery. 

And then they fought, and then they broke up, and Jon was alone. 

So he moved on. He got a job while closeted, and then was outed at work, and got fired. And then… 

iii. elias

…he did something he wasn’t proud of. 

He forged his documents. A birth certificate, resume, degree, everything he needed. He went back to the Magnus Institute, where he’d done an internship a few years before. 

The interview had been a breeze. Apparently they’d been looking to fill a researcher position, and while he hadn’t studied anything even close to research science, his English degree was close enough. He wasn’t sure that was how it worked, but he wasn’t going to turn down a job he had basically gotten with no qualifications at all. Especially one that he was allowed to present male at.

There were the usual bumps, of course—he didn’t get along with everyone there, but he wasn’t expecting himself to, and for the most part, people were actually kind of nice.

He was transferred to the archives a few years later. He didn’t know the first thing about library science, much less have a degree in it, but apparently he was somehow qualified enough to become the head archivist. It had struck him as odd at the time, of course, but he didn’t question it. The job was well paying, and if he made anyone aware of the fact that he really wasn’t qualified to be doing this, he might lose it.

So he didn’t. He just kept doing his work, recording statements, getting poorly made bagged tea from Martin, staying later and later until he barely went home. It was absolutely perfect—until his new boss, Elias, did some digging.

He didn’t know what to do until Elias said that he wasn’t going to be fired. Of course, he was completely confused by that—why wouldn’t he be fired? 

When he told Elias so, he just replied with a sigh and a shake of the head. 

“You’re a capable archivist,” he said. “If I fired you over just a tiny bit of forgery, what would I do without you? I’d have to hire another, and…” He waved a many-ringed hand vaguely. “Really, too much work for me.”

And with that, Jon was still working there. Still drinking the slightly disgusting coffee that Sasha would make, still working with Martin and still avoiding Elias as much as he could. 

Things started to get weirder and weirder, and before he knew it…

iv. tim

…there were worms. There were these terrible, awful worms everywhere and he had to save the Institute and then they were on him and he was fairly certain that he blacked out for a while because the next thing he knew, Martin had a corkscrew to his arm and he was having worms pulled out of him.

He knew where they were. He’d felt them. And there were some that they’d have to go under his binder to get. 

They’d better give me a raise enough that I can get top surgery soon was the only coherent thought running through his head. He was panicking—very slightly, but still panicking.

“I can do the rest myself,” he said, standing up quickly and practically tearing the corkscrew from Martin’s hand. 

It only took a few moments for him to lock himself in the bathroom and strip off his shirt, then his binder. He bit his lip, then drove the corkscrew into his upper chest.

It burned like hell as he drew it out of himself, but the worm was gone in moments. Then the next, then the next. He made his way down his chest, to his stomach, then prepared to drive it into his leg and—

“Jon?”

He flinched, seeing Tim standing at the door with a shocked expression on his face. His eyes flicked from Jon’s face to his chest back up to his face.

“Those look pretty bad,” he said hollowly as he stared vaguely in Jon’s direction.

“Yeah,” he said quietly.

Tim stood there in silence for a moment. 

“You’re not going to tell anyone,” Jon said, his voice shaking violently. 

“No. I’m not.”

Jon pulled his shirt back around himself. He looked away from Tim, praying he wouldn’t try anything.

He heard a sound from beside him as Tim sat down, looking straight ahead rather than at Jon. It was a small relief, but a relief nonetheless, and he tried to struggle back into his binder to little avail. 

“Hey, hey, don’t do that. You’re still bleeding, Jesus, Jon.” Tim put a hand on his shoulder to steady him. “Just… just sit here, I’m gonna get you some gauze and we’re gonna get you down to the medical team so we can get you fixed up.”

Jon shut his eyes tightly, and he leaned heavily on Tim as they both tried desperately to get him sitting up. 

“Just take your shirt—you want your jacket, too?” he asked, helping Jon to his feet. 

“Y—yeah.” He struggled into his shirt, Tim helping him with the buttons. After a moment, he leaned on Tim, clinging to the lapel of Tim’s jacket tightly. He hated feeling so helpless, but he could barely walk for all the holes in his legs.

“This changes nothing between us,” Tim said as he brought him to the ambulances outside. 

“Of course.”

v. basira

Everything was normal for a while. He could pretend things were normal for a while. 

He flat-ironed his hair less regularly. Martin grew more distant. He and Basira started working together, traveling together.

America wasn’t the best place to be, but he was tolerating it. They were hopping, motel to motel, never staying in one place too long. Staying in the same room, same bed sometimes. Didn’t matter much—Jon went to bed far later than Basira most nights, anyway. So he was careful.

Really, it was inevitable that it would happen.

They were watching a movie together, curled up on the motel room couch, closer than Jon would ordinarily have wanted to be but close enough to satisfy the pain in his skin when someone wasn’t near enough to him. He couldn’t remember a single plot point from the rest of the movie, but there was something happening with explosions and a girl with spiky hair.

“You good, Jon?” she asked, one hand on his head and one around the massive bowl of microwave popcorn. 

“Tired,” he murmured, curling up against Basira. “Really tired.”

“You want to shower and go to sleep?” she asked, turning the volume lower on the TV. He shook his head, still leaning against her shoulder. 

“You always go to bed so late, Jon. Please? For once?” 

He sighed, curling up into a ball next to her. “I can’t.”

“And why can’t you?”

“Just can’t.” Words were becoming difficult. He didn’t want to compel her to answer him, force her to do anything, but it was getting harder and harder. “You’ll—”

“Jon. Please just… just sleep. I don’t care about seeing you ‘unprofessional’ or whatever, I just—”

“I don’t care about you seeing me like that, I care about you seeing me without my binder!”

There was a long silence, where Basira didn’t move. Jon could feel himself getting more and more tense, until she finally shifted on the couch to pull him closer.

“I’m not going to judge you for that, Jon,” she said quietly. “I bind, too. Not like you’re special or anything.”

He sighed in relief. And things got easier. Travel got easier when he wasn’t hiding anything from Basira, movement got easier now that he could take off his binder for several more hours a day than he had before. They made far better time getting around than they ever had before, likely due to the fact that Jon wasn’t constantly exhausted. 

And then they returned to the Institute and things were different. Worse. They had to rescue Martin—or, more accurately, Jon had to rescue Martin, because that was the only way.

Things were not normal. Normal wasn’t real anymore. But… 

+i. martin

…what things were, that was more difficult. If Jon had to put a pinpoint on it, he would say things were comfortable. A new kind of comfortable, of course, one that sat just to the left of the end of the world, but comfortable nonetheless.

Martin was, in the most complete sense of the word, perfect. He was so caring and generous and offered to do pretty much everything, since Jon was nearly incapacitated since the Lonely and had to use his wheelchair nearly constantly. They managed to live what could have been called a normal life for at least two weeks. 

And then Jon managed to work himself into a panic over the fact that he hadn’t been on testosterone for three weeks, and locked himself in the bathroom to sit and cry.

“Jon? You in there?” Martin asked, gently knocking on the door. “Er, I mean, of course you’re in there, but are you alright? You, er, you’ve kind of been in there for quite a while…” 

“Y—” He sighed. “No. I just—I didn’t—”

“Oh, you didn’t get to bring any testosterone with you, did you? Shit, Jon, sorry. I thought there was something off, you’ve been really moody. How many milliliters are you on? You can use some of mine.”

And that was that. No need to think about it, no need to worry. Just Jon and Martin, living their lives, going into town to get things from the market, being happy.

He could get used to this. 

[michams]

VIXX “Scentist” analysis based on “Perfume”, by P. Suskind PART I  - The MV (1/2)

“Scentist” is definitely one of my favorite songs/ music videos/ concepts in kpop so last year, when I got to know it was based on a book, I went after and read it. Since then I’ve been wanting to share an analysis focused on more direct references to Suskind’s story.

In “PART I” I’ll be giving my thoughts on how the Music Video is related to the book. Since it turned out quite long, there will be two posts.

Some considerations i. This analysis does not really explain the story in the MV itself, since it has a lot more factors involving stuff (apparently) specifically made for Vixx. There are many interesting theories posted by other Starlights though.

ii. I didn’t originally read the book in English, so I’m using my own translations – which can differ from other editions.

iii. This is somewhat a personal interpretation; one could read the same book and have different opinions. Feel free to tell me your thoughts about it  :^)

iv. As referred before, English is not my first language. Feel free to let me know about any mistakes.

v. Mind that this analysis contains SPOILERS of the book.

vi. This post makes reference to sensitive subjects (such as violence), like the book itself.

The structure of the analysis I decided to follow the plot of the book rather than the sequence shown in the music video and I divided the whole analysis in parts.

The book “In the XVIII century France, Jean-Baptist Grenouille is a young man with a sublime gift – an absolute ability to perceive odors. He doesn’t have any smell himself. Obsessed with capturing scents, one day he smells an fragrance that will take him into a disturbing search for the world’s most powerful perfume – one capable of dominating people’s hearts.”

The novel is divided into four parts: in the first post (1/2) I will talk about the 1st and 2nd, and in the second (2/2) about 3rd and 4th.

                                                          * * * FIRST PART In the first part of the novel, we get to follow Grenouille’s birth and youth. When he was born, he almost died, however he was found out and taken care of by different people before being sent away to a sort of orphanage. As a kid, he went through many illnesses and accidents, which left many scars – but he was very resistant.

The boy had a late and slow development process. By this time he was conscious of his outstanding ability for smelling and began to build his inner aromas library, combining them to create new ones. He mostly shut himself from the world and avoided interaction.

[Image 01 - 0:56 sec]  This can be a representation of the young Grenouille, lost in his thoughts and imagination regarding what he smells.

[Image 01.2 - 1:36 min] The lenses some members use are the color in which the boy’s eyes are described: a tone between grey and opal-blue.

When he was 8 years old and the convent ceases from sending money, he was exchanged at a tannery. He was supposed to do the heavy work and quietly subordinates himself to his boss’ orders.

[Image 02 - 0:39 sec]  I associate this to the unique way Grenouille had to view the outside world, always on the look for the finest, undetectable smells.

“He is very greedy and takes in any sort of smell; he wished to posses all kinds the world had to offer.”

In a night of celebration, during a firework show, he felt a really soft aroma – one he had never sensed before and superior to anything he had ever known. He felt an urge in his heart to posses that scent. He is confused when he’s led to a girl, since he didn’t think a human could smell to anything good. He ends up killing her, only worrying about not missing the scent.

[Image 03 - 1:41 min]  I like to associate this scene to the night he first feels that special scent. Leo is seen with his eyes closed, which relates to both Grenouille conducting himself in the dark and being pulled by the scent, allured by that sensation.

“This is when he understands his fate is to be the greatest perfumer of all times.”

When delivering suede, he meets an old traditionalist Italian perfumer – who had  great knowledge, but not much natural talent – and tells him he wishes to be his apprentice. He proves his ability by making a perfume. At first, the man was horrified by his non-methodical ways but is suddenly dumbstruck by the smell. Grenouille frenetically created many scents everyday. This is when he learns appropriate methods to work, how to use formulas and the first techniques for isolating essences.

[Image 04 - 0:51 sec] This would represent Grenouille making perfumes by measuring the ingredients, noting and starting to view them as formulas.

[Image 05 - 0:52 sec] [Image 06 - 0:32 sec]  The images showing flowers in a sort of liquid makes reference to the process of extracting their essences.

[Image 07 - 0:55 sec] [Image 08 - 0:27 sec]  Here, Hongbin watches and waits as the drops of essence (usually oils) get collected.

[Image 09 - 0:34 sec]  I associate this scene to the fragrances Grenouille creates combining mentally the smells he knows; Hongbin and Hyuk would be the representation of his work in a kind of “inner laboratory”.

He began tracing a scheme on how he would use that knowledge in the near future plans. He starts experimenting. However, when failing to obtain essences from objects and other unusual materials, he stopped and fell deadly ill. Only after being told there are other methods, he recovers. They get to an agreement so that he would be permitted to go. With his title of auxiliary and new skills, he begins a new journey.

[Image 10 - 1:13 min]  Although I was confused by the car, I generally associate it with Grenouille’s journey and travelling (which will keep on in the future, as we will see); at this point, it would represent him leaving the city.

                                                          * * * SECOND PART This is the period when Grenouille’s seclusion takes place. The farther he walked from Paris the better he felt and his nose became more sensible the more he got used to nature. It became unbearable to have any kind of human smell around him, it was disgusting. He began walking only at night. He goes to the most isolated place in the kingdom, the peak of a 2000 meters mountain. He finds a faint stream of water, small animals and plants to feed himself with, as well as a cave; at its bottom, there were a tight place he felt had never been touched by a living being – he laid there and only left for basic needs. He would get lost for days in his inner empire, filled with the smells in his memory.

[Image 11 - 0:05 sec] [Image 12 - 1:38 min]  This would be the moment Grenouille finds and enters the cave.

[Image 13 - 0:04 sec]  I associate this with Grenouille reaching the bottom of the cave and feeling at ease by setting in that place.

He fell into a deep sleep (almost as if hibernating), and created whole settings making use of smells of the things he wanted to be a part of his perfect kingdom, where he reigned supreme. He felt home in his purple castle.

[Image 14 - 0:25 sec] [Image 15 - 0:46 sec] [Image 16 - 0:46 sec]  This represents Jean-Baptist during his sleep inside the cave, dreaming of his kingdom and palace.

[Image 17 - 2:30 min]  Here, the boy representing Grenouille appears again, this time wearing his crown, as he rules his inner kingdom built of smells.

In his purple salon, resting on a sofa, he asks imaginary servers to bring him volumes from his scents library and bottles of the finest smells to drink. As he did so, he was delighted by pleasure and peace. He drinks the girl’s aroma for last. Drunk, he falls asleep.

[Image 18 - 1:21 min]  Serving as a background throughout the MV, Ken stands in front of the scents storage, which Grenouille savors as drinks by bringing them back from his memory.

[Image 19 - 1:18 min] [Image 20 - 2:09 min]  The representation of the aroma drinks being served.

[Image 21 - 2:25 min]  N, as Grenouille, appreciating one of the memories (possibly the girl’s scent, judging by his reaction).

The outer world was completely hostile to him. He stayed like this for 7 years. However, one day a catastrophe happened in his fantasy. While sleeping in the salon, slowly, a cloud of smell began to take over the place. It was his own smell, but the boy gets desperate finding out he couldn’t feel a thing.

[Image 22 - 1:38 min]  This could a be representation of Grenouille observing and reflecting over the mist taking over his fantasy.

He screamed terribly, destroying the walls of his kingdom. Even scared by the uncertainty of not being able to smell something, when he is sure there’s no odor, he puts his clothes rags on and leaves.

[Image 23 - 0:52 sec]  The crashing glass could represent the destruction of the palace when Grenouille is taken by the fear of not smelling himself. (Note: I also considered whether this scene was related to Grenouille’s frustration when he fails to obtain the essences, during his period working for the perfurmer, specially taking to account the sequence it’s shown along in the MV).

[Image 24 - 2:46 min]  I associate this to Grenouille once again considering going out of the cave into the outside world, as Hyuk is seen bathed by exterior light.

Grenouille looked terrible; he tells people he had been robbed and kidnapped, being kept captive for 7 years in a cave. He is then taken to to a Marquis who dedicated his life to science and led a study on the relation between the proximity to earth and vital energy. He is invited to the Marquis’ castle and showed off to the academic community in Montpellier. Grenouille was fed and groomed. It was the first time he was addressed as monsieur and the first time he saw himself in a mirror.

[Image 25 - 1:26 min]  Grenouille sees himself in the mirror. We can associate this to the impression he causes in himself; somehow a boy looking at a man, with many hidden goals deep inside. He describes the image as a “(…) figure disguised as a person (...)” - he thinks all that was because of the clothes and makeup (rather than the Marquis curing him or a change of character).

Making use of some excuses, he gets to use the laboratory of a local perfumery and makes a fragrance to spray himself with and smell “like a human”. Walking around to test its effectiveness, for the first time, people finally noticed his presence (in a very natural way).

“He understood he could overcome what he just did and create a perfume able to make people love him, fall on their knees for him without knowing the reason why. He wanted to dominate their hearts. The omnipotent God of aroma.”

References used:  - Book: Perfume, the story of a murderer; by P. Suskind (2007 ed., Editora Record). - 빅스(VIXX) - '향 (Scentist)' Official M/V (YouTube). - Film:  Perfume, the story of a murderer (2006).

To be continued...here!

[dailytechnologynews]

GloFo 7nm: A Lost Hope

So as you may know GloFo 7nm was recently cancelled, in this article im going to analyze all of what this implies in a lot of levels but mostly on the technical one, both in short and long term

before beginning please have in mind:

1) im Spanish and my english writing might be poor, also this is by far the longest article ive ever wrote and it took me 2 and a half Hours to complete, there can be mistakes but don't be harsh pls

2) i currently own a bit of AMD stock, this means I focus on them more, but as you will see this doesn't affect my thinking

3) i link various articles in this one, i recommend you reading them for better comprehension

4) this article contains A LOT of estimates, they are based on public knowledge, if some of that knowledge turns out to be false or inaccurate the estimates based on it do the same, however they are the best that I can do, if I had more hard data I will use it. in particular, my estimates about TSMC 7nm are… weak and early, please don't complain about them, its the best I can do without more hard data

9001) WARNING: this article is LONG, the character count its literally OVER 9000!!!!

with that said lets begin

The first important question is WHY? Why did GloFo cancel their 7nm node? the answer is simple: MONEY, this quote from anandtech sums things up:

So, the key takeaway here is that while the 7LP platform was a bit behind TSMC’s CLN7FF when it comes to HVM – and GlobalFoundries has never been first to market with leading edge bulk manufacturing technologies anyway – there were no issues with the fabrication process itself. Rather there were deeper economic reasons behind the decision.

the full article is here: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13277/globalfoundries-stops-all-7nm-development

The second question is: how does GloFo 7nm compare to TSMC 7nm, because if glofo’s node was worse than TSMC's then the only loss here would be the competition, well this is absolutely not the case, GloFo 7nm was superior than TSMC 7nm, maybe by a wide margin, but this depends literally of thousands of factors, so the best that i can do is to approximate the final answer basing on all that we know first we have to know the specifics of GloFo 7nm, here is an excellent article containing them and more: https://fuse.wikichip.org/news/641/iedm-2017-globalfoundries-7nm-process-cobalt-euv/ if you read the article and understand most of it, you have my respect, but lets list the facts that we care about:

1) 55% power reduction at the same frequency

2) 40% frequency improvement at the same power

3) extremely tuned fin profiles

4) cobalt for some critical layers, improving interconnect speed and drastically reducing electromitigation, this is very important as the wall to reaching high clocks is interconnect speed

this looks extremely nice, but how does this translate into real world max clocks? Well if you assume the GloFo chart was linear then the results are very good, here is a calibration based in real data, done in the anandtech forums by /u/catmerc (thanks!): https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/next-gen-zen-2-3-starship-and-derivatives.2511914/page-3#post-39322122 you watched right: 4,6 GHz at the same power you would get 3,3 GHz on 14nm, WOW, this means that (again if the chart was linear) 5 GHz wouldn't be far fetched at all, this is probably too good and my estimations are that GloFo 7nm was a bit worse than what this chart implies, still I think 5 GHz would have been doable, but only for single core turbo, just in case: im referring to the SoC version, clocks on 7HPC would have been ludicrous

now we have to analyze how good TSMC 7nm is, this is harder to know and there is less data about this but lets do it anyway. first we have to get the advertised numbers, and those are 60% power reduction at the same frequency or 30% frequency improvement at the same power, source: https://www.anandtech.com/show/12677/TSMC-kicks-off-volume-production-of-7nm-chips, this is starting to look worse than GloFo from the first moment, however there is a big issue here: the bases are different, GloFo bases their 7nm numbers on their 14nm, and TSMC does it over their 16nm+ this makes comparison hard, I remember that TSMC 16nm clocked higher than Samsung 14nm which is the same as GloFo 14nm, but consumed a bit more and was less dense, I cant source those claims but if you look at the numbers they make sense, anyway this approach failed as a solid comparison point so lets move on, how about taking the words of their clients? Spoiler alert: worse than GloFo

Speed gains of 16% at 10 nm may dry up at 7 nm due to resistance in metal lines. Power savings will shrink from 30% at 10 nm to 10–25% at 7 nm, and area shrinks may decline from 37% at 10 nm to 20–30% at 7 nm, said Paul Penzes, a senior director of engineering on Qualcomm’s design technology team. source: https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333109

Arm claims that the latest 7-nm nodes will only deliver 2% to 3% more speed than the 16-nm node. “There hasn’t been much frequency benefit at all since 16 nm … wire speed hasn’t scaled for some time,” said Peter Greenhalgh, an Arm fellow and vice president of technology. source: https://www.eetasia.com/news/article/18060102-arm-announces-high-performance-laptop-cpu

so basically two clients of TSMC are saying that there are close to none clock gains on 7nm (compared to 10nm, this is important) and I know they mean TSMC and not GloFo because they both say the problem is interconnect speed which if you remember from above is one of the things GloFo 7nm improved a lot thanks to cobalt and other things, also GloFo is a much smaller fab, it was going to get into HVM later and most people were going to use TSMC anyway. So now we know TSMC 7nm isn't as good as GloFo 7nm was, but by how much? Well a little time ago I made a prediction of how Ryzen 3000 would clock on both nodes, I recently updated it to reflect that AMD will use the HPC variant: https://www.reddit.com/r/aceshardware/comments/923t76/ryzen_3000_clock_predictions/ so there is your answer, a not at all laughable 300 MHz loss, but I think you also want to know how did I get to that concussion, well… it is a bit tricky and fail prone also it has a 100mhz or higher margin of error, anyway here it goes: the base is Ryzen 7 1800X which turbos up to 4 GHz on GloFo 14LPP TSMC 16nm+ clocks higher than GloFo 14lpp but lower than 12LP, 4,2GHz is my best estimate, TSMC 10nm should give about 5% of a boost to max clocks (remember max clocks ALWAYS increase less than “performance” for high end CPUs) that gets us to >4,4 GHz, going from 10nm to 7nm should give a negligible boost of around 2% but this is just enough to put that number on 4,5 GHz, this is the number for the mobile variant, but as i discovered during the writing of this article, AMD is going to use the HPC variant which features a 7.5 track library instead of the 6 track one found in the mobile variant it also should use fater interconnects, finding how much will this variant boost clocks is again as there is EVEN LESS data on it, the only numbers that I could find are +13% perf over the mobile variant and up to 4,4 GHz speed for the sram(L* cache), cache usually is a bit slower than the CPU itself so this doesnt mean the limit is 4,4 GHz. with all of this my estimation for 7nm HPC is 4,7 GHz which is still lower than the GloFo 7nm SoC version, have in mind im being a bit cautious with this one 4,8 GHz is possible , just for laughs if we compared max clocks of GloFo 7nm HPC(IBM only) vs TSMC 7nm HPC the difference will be ~0,8GHz, LOL just LOL (the number is serious tough) as you can see this is tricky as is based on estimates over estimates, however there are some limits to how good or how bad it can clock, so while my number might (and possibly will) fail, it cant fail by much The third question is: who this affects and how does it? The answer is AMD, IBM, Intel, TSMC and maybe Samsung, so lets analyze how it affects everyone on that list

AMD: Negatively

after the previous paragraph you can see why: 300-200mhz loss its not good, but this is just the tip of the iceberg, even if GloFo continued with 7nm AMD might have chosen TSMC 7nm for ryzen 3000 because of time constraints, the really bad thing about this is that the clocks of TSMC nodes are expected to be flat until 3nm which will mean a tech change from finfet to gaafet, this means Intel has 3-4 years of wide and increasing clock leadership so the only way AMD can beat Intel’s performance in the desktop market is through big IPC increases, which are unlikely to be big enough,still AMD should be able to beat Intel in value (perf/price) by a very good margin, server and laptop market are a VERY different story and I expect AMD to do very well on those. another HUGE concern for AMD should be prices, with near zero competition TSMC can increase prices both on the short and the long term, similar to the DRAM market, this means either smaller margins for AMD or higher final product prices.

for those all reasons I did cut my personal stock price target for AMD by a BIG 20%, yes you heard right: the day before the announcement I thought AMD was going to reach a 25% (because percentages work that way) higher price than today, im not going to say what my exact price targets are but I believe AMD is going to go up from the current price, just much less than before

IBM: Negatively, VERY negatively

well.. this guys really take the worst part, basically they have no node suitable for their high-end CPUs for the foreseeable future, glofo spun off an ASIC group which is said to help port costumer designs to other nodes, the problem is that there is no high performance 7nm class node apart from intel 10nm (if they fix it)

Intel: Positively

a lot of what I said for AMD applies here in reverse, Intel basically has an assured performance lead in the desktop market over AMD, but still they will have to compete to a denser, cheaper to produce 7nm chip lineup with their 14nm one, their server market share is still posed to get lower maybe by a bog amount

TSMC: Positively, VERY positively

on the short term they get more volume and therefore revenue, and in a now 2-player game (3 if intel opens its fabs) they get the ability to increase or even pact prices

Samsung: Positively

Samsung on the short term will probably see no gains, but on the long term they might win some designs, however the big win for them is the lack of competency driving prices an therefore margins up

YOU, the consumer: Negatively

as per the points stated above you might get more expensive chips, and maybe even worse ones, cutting-edge node development is mindblowingly expensive and that maybe is an understatement, with less competition tsmc and samsung might opt to do less aggressive jumps to save a huge amount of money on RD, this remains to be seen, it may not happen, but the possibility is out there and I wont dismiss it

to end I would like to quote an excellent comment from /u/nagromo which summarizes perfectly some of my thoughts:

I was hopeful that IBM research working with them meant it would be more like "IBM 7nm, manufactured by GloFo", similar to how they've done well with Samsung 14nm. I still think there's a decent chance it really was on track, and they're telling the truth and just think they can be more profitable using their successful 12/14nm technologies instead of investing $10B+ into 7nm. I'm really disappointed to hear this. I thought it was a reasonable hope that the IBM research team would be able to achieve or approach their 40% performance, 55% power numbers. There's rumors about poor performance from TSMC 7nm. My hopes for Ryzen 3 aren't nearly as high as they were yesterday.

this article was originally wrote by me to /r/aceshardware

[aion-rsa]

Marvel's X-Men Relaunch Explained: What to Look For

https://ift.tt/31aqvXI

What do House of X and Powers of X mean for the future of the X-Men and Marvel?

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Jonathan Hickman’s ballyhooed X-Men relaunch has finally arrived! Both House of X and Powers Of X have seen their first issues released into the wild, and as the site that dug through Hickman’s entire body of Marvel work for Secret Wars, we felt it was important to get in on the ground floor of what is so far a 12-issue weekly series that blows out into six different books come October.

So with that in mind, and in the spirit of the books, here are X things we’re watching after issues 1 of House of X and Powers of X (get it, because it’s actually “Powers of Ten”?).

WARNING: This article contains EXTENSIVE spoilers about the first issues of House of X and Powers of X. STOP READING NOW if you haven’t read both comics.

I. The Art

There is no greater sign of the depth of Marvel’s commitment to this relaunch than RB Silva and Pepe Larraz handling art duties on the two books. If this relaunch was meant to be a short term spike for sales and a way to get people talking about the X-Men again without making any substantial changes to the line, there are plenty of monster names that could have handled six issues of art and sold a ton of books. Larraz and Silva, however, are only superstars in the making - staggeringly capable artists who absolutely blew away these first issues and will probably become superstars on the basis of what they’re showing in these books. Putting them on House and Powers of X gives them the space to grow into superstardom with the additional recognition.

Every page of House of X is a home run, and most of the attention is going to the sequence with Jean tearing up at the Professor’s welcome to Krakoa, but while that’s a great strip, it doesn’t capture the breadth of Larraz’s skill. He can go from that small moment, to the grandiose intimidation of Omega Sentinel on the Dyson Mastermold, to the blistering action sequence with Mystique, Sabertooth and Toad in the space of six pages. He’s been extremely good since Uncanny Avengers, but this is him taking his game up a notch.

read more: The X-Men Movies You Never Saw

Likewise for RB Silva. His art on Powers of X is superb all the way through, but what I found utterly shocking was how much emotion he put into Nimrod’s hands. Think about how ridiculous that sentence is: Nimrod, the pink and white Final Boss Sentinel from the future who just Terminator walks at Rachel Summers for like, 4 issues back in the early ‘80s, and RB Silva made his hands as expressive as Jean Grey’s eyes. As excited as I am to find out where the story goes, I’m just as excited to keep looking at the stupid good pictures.

II. What’s Left From The Old Continuity

House of X/Powers of X has been billed as a relaunch without a reboot, which implies that the old continuity will continue to exist. And in a way, it does - we’ll talk later about how much these books rely on older stories to build off of. But at the same time, it’s a pretty clean sweep from what came before.

After being reverse decimated post-House of M (if they were actually decimated, one of every ten would have died, instead of one out of every ten keeping their powers), the mutant population has been slowly creeping upward. Old mutants were put back whenever there was a narrative purpose, and mutant births started again in the last few years. But House of X goes full Morrison - humans will be outnumbered by mutants soon and extinct not long after that.

As far as recent continuity goes, there’s not much. Most of the deaths from the past year or so of Uncanny X-Men have been undone or are about to be. Xandra, Charles and Lilandra’s bird child from the delightful Mr. & Mrs. X, is destined to become Empress of the Shi’ar in 100 years. And that’s all we saw so far.

III. The Bad Guy Plan

The story is split across two books. Powers of X is looking at the scope of mutant history, starting with Charles and Moira meeting 10 years in the past (X^0), carrying through today (X^1), 100 years in the future (X^2) and 1000 years down the road (X^3). House of X so far is only focused on the X^1 timeframe, gathering the mutants on Krakoa under the leadership of Professor X and Magneto, and setting up mutant embassies around the world. And...um...I think the Professor is the bad guy.

The central conflict of the X-Men has usually been some variation on the Professor’s students fighting to protect and peacefully integrate with a world that hates and fears them, and Magneto and his followers either trying to completely dominate that world or separate from it entirely. In House of X, there’s no peaceful integration. It’s more like “threatening coexistence.”

The Professor has three speaking scenes across the first two issues: the EXTREMELY creepy scene with the pod people and the only slightly less creepy scene when Jean arrives on Krakoa in House of X; and the scene with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in Powers of X. There he talks about sacrificing for a new future, and I want to reiterate, *with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants*.

read more - The Essential Episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series

Ignoring the fact that “Charles” never takes his helmet off and looks like The Maker, the minor villain of Secret Wars; and the joy Magneto expresses through both issues (seriously, nobody is happier about this relaunch than him); all of “Charles’” interactions are creepy as hell and hard villain-coded.

IV. The toying with genetics

Breaking news: X-Men comics contain a great deal of genetic engineering science fiction talk! We also have film of the sun rising in the east, and documentary evidence of water being wet. Stay tuned, dear reader.

Seriously, though, these two issues are heavy on the genetics even for an X-Book. There is the obvious example, in Powers of X when we see the combination of mutants that made the Rasputin who has been tearing up the internet since the teaser image was released (for the record, it’s Unus the Untouchable, Kitty Pryde, Quentin Quire, X-23, and “Rasputin” DNA, which explains the metal but not the Soulsword).

And then there are the pod people in House of X, one of whom has very prominent red hair, and one has red energy bubbling out of his eyes. These are probably central to the big mystery of the story, and if you want blatant spoily speculation on what that all means, jump down to number X.

V. Omega Mutants

In yet another example of bad guy coding ruling the day, both books treat Omega Mutants like uranium: a dangerous natural resource to be exploited at all costs.

House of X goes into great detail about the definition of Omega Mutant. The previously commonly accepted definition in the comics was “extremely powerful,” but here it shifts to “primary power has no conceivable upper limit.” This both makes perfect sense - Iceman has been an Omega Mutant for some time now, and he’s basically an ice elemental, reforming himself from ambient moisture (or Havok’s piss that one time) - and is a terrifying new concept when you pair it with the revelation in Powers of X, that at some point in the near future, Mr. Sinister is going to start fiddling with omega powers to create super-chimerae who will collapse Mars in a singularity.

There are a handful of surprising names on HoX’s omega list - Jamie Braddock, Psylocke’s brother who has been off and on dead for 30 years is apparently alive and kicking again. Legion is around but unaffiliated, and Mister M (from the post-Decimation District X Bishop/detective book) is listed as unaffiliated. And Franklin Richards is flagged in red…

VI. References to Hickman’s Old Marvel Work

Avengers was as a concept basically outlined as a powerpoint, so the volume of infographics that Hickman and designer Tom Muller put into the two books is entirely expected. And because they’re very good, we get a lot of info just out of the way these infographics are presented.

I won’t go through all of them, but the two most important seeming ones at this moment are the list of Omega Mutants, and the reading order. Franklin Richards is the key to a lot of theories of the Marvel Universe (when you finish this article, go google “Franklin Richards + Marvel Time”), so it’s worrisome to see him mentioned so prominently in House of X. At least it should be to the people inside it.

The reading order, which appeared at the back of both books, highlights three issues in red: House of X #2, House of X #5, and Powers of X #6. Those three issues are supposed to be the paradigm shifts, and the first one comes next week!

read more: Best X-Men Movies Watch Order

And beyond the design elements, there’s a lot from Hickman’s old Marvel work present in these first two issues, and a lot that we can expect to come. Cyclops was notable in Avengers, but underutilized and eventually went out like a chump in Secret Wars. He gets more play in House of X, and it feels a little like Hickman finally getting to do with Scott Summers what he wanted to do with him before. Franklin Richards was a huge part of his Fantastic Four/FF run, and he’s very notably lampshaded in HoX, as are the Imperial Guard in PoX (Hickman introduced the human Superguardian Smasher for his Avengers). Apocalypse is almost certainly coming soon, and he was notable in S.H.I.E.L.D. There should be more throughlines as the story goes on.

VII. References to Old X-Men Comics

All the promotional materials for this relaunch talked about it being the next in a line of universe-shifting X-Men comics, following on Giant Sized X-Men #1, X-Men (vol. 2) #1, Age of Apocalypse, and Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s New X-Men #114. The books certainly feel like they belong there, and are self-consciously referential of those four books. Krakoa was the villain of Giant Sized, and Powers of X feels like a bold alternate reality in the spirit of AoA. And House of X is basically an homage to Morrison’s entire run, with mutants developing their own culture and Magneto spending the entire issue with the Stepford Cuckoos walking past various Xorns. But the continuity and thematic debts don’t end there, and there are two key stories that I think are more important to understanding these runs: Days of Future Past and the Utopia era.

Nimrod and the Hounds are hugely important villains in Powers of X, and they are straight out of Rachel Summers and Kitty Pryde’s futures in DoFP. It is the prototypical dark future, where mutants are all killed off by robot hunters and mutant traitors, and that is the world that is presented to us in this week’s comic.

Meanwhile, Utopia was a little bit different than Krakoa is presented here. Utopia was the floated remains of Asteroid M in San Francisco bay, a refuge for the 200 living mutants to try and survive. It leaned very hard into the paramilitary school subtext that’s always there in X-men stories, but was also political in a very different way that most of its predecessors. It’s my favorite era of X-Men comics because of how cohesive the line was (and because Second Coming was like a perfect X-Men action movie), but because it was a small number of mutants fighting for survival and not acceptance, it wasn’t a great example of the line over its history. There are a lot of strong parallels here, with the biggest difference being it’s no longer mutants struggling to survive, but mutants fighting to dominate.

VIII. Apocalypses

Not blue pencil lipped Rocks-Of-The-Eternal-Shore Apocalypse, but the ones where things end.

Hickman is no stranger to the end of the world, having destroyed the Marvel multiverse once already. But his X-catastrophes feel less like Secret Wars and more like another of his comics: East of West.

East of West is a biblical, American end, where Earth’s history diverges at the civil war before technology rushes forward and the Book of Revelation begins in a technological utopia. It is very smart (and incredibly gorgeous thanks to Nick Dragotta’s Sal Buscema-drawing-Akira looking art), but it’s very American and very specifically Christian. That is surprisingly all here, too, starting with the mutant decision to place their embassy in Jerusalem.

read more: Complete Schedule of Upcoming Marvel Movies

There is a strain of Christian belief that says that the end times begin with Israel’s geography being set in a particular way, and that includes Jerusalem being its recognized capitol. This has real world political implications, but it’s also been the source of a lot of good fiction. Putting Magneto, the arch-villain of the X-Men saga, in a Jerusalem embassy telling people that they have new gods now is essentially casting him as the Antichrist and setting the world up for the end times. Nothing about the war in the future of Powers of X indicates that this read is incorrect.

IX. The Timelines

We don’t just get multiple timelines represented in Powers of X: we get events sequenced across it and House of X, and things happening simultaneously in multiple time streams. Take, for example:

Sabertooth, Mystique, and Toad spend House of X breaking into Damage Control and steal plans for something (looks like Sol’s Hammer, the Dyson Sphere laser that Iron Man used to blow up an invading army in New Avengers, but that could be a fake out). Meanwhile, 100 years in the future, four mutant chimeras are caught stealing from the Man-Machine Alliance’s mainframe, and Percival (the Cypher-looking dead one) is repeating “Charles’” quote from House of X.

Is it possible we’re looking at the X-Men equivalent of “The Best of Both Worlds?” Where the same event is unfolding simultaneously across multiple times?

X. Our speculation.

Finally, it wouldn’t be a deep mystery without fanboys speculating wildly about what’s going on. So we’re absolutely going to do that. If you take all of this into account and where do you land?

Charles isn’t actually Charles. He’s Sinister.

Nobody has won more from this relaunch than the master mutant geneticist. He, along with the other brightest minds in mutantdom, couldn’t figure out why mutant births ceased after House of M, and couldn’t figure out how to get them back. Now, he’s got thousands of mutants to choose from and the ability to experiment however he wants. He can exist in off-books literal Black sites on Krakoa, cancerous growths undetectable to the rest of the island. And if he’s posing as Charles, he gets to steer public events to his liking. He gets to direct policy like “protect omega mutants at all costs,” or “Hey Magneto send the old Brotherhood to steal plans from the Fantastic Four please.”

Whether we’re right or not, Charles is almost certainly not Charles. He isn’t telekinetic, so lifting the thumb drive away from Mystique was a flag. And keeping his Cerebro helmet on at all times is a BIG sign that he’s a bad dude and not who we think he is.

Sinister works here. If he gets his hand on reality warper DNA (remember, Mister M, Legion, Jamie Braddock and Franklin Richards are all in the wind as of issues 1), he can do pretty much anything he wants. He could easily be covering up his forehead ruby with “Cerebro.” It makes sense, and we know he’s coming back.

For more on House of X, Powers of X, Bedhambers of X, Multiples of X or any other X-Books, stick with Den of Geek!

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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[anew-books-blog]

A Matter of Time - Volume 2 ::: by Mary Calmes

My dear Anewers!

I think it is time for the sequel of A Matter of Time Series. Here we go again in a journey with Jory Harcourt and Samuel Thomas Kage. Let’s hope things get better between these two.

Let’s cut to what matters? Synposis and starting info:

“Books Three and Four Vol. 2

Three years ago, Jory Harcourt changed his name and shut the door on a past full of pain, only to emerge stronger on the other side. He has a new career, a great working partner, and a satisfying life—except for the hole in his chest left behind when police Detective Sam Kage walked out with his heart.

Now Sam's back and he knows what he wants... and what he wants is Jory. Jory, who doesn't know if he can survive another break up or losing Sam to his dangerous job, resists returning to the arms of the only man he has ever truly loved. But when a serial killer with a score to settle targets Jory, he will have to decide if love is worth the danger as he tries to solve the case and keep Sam safe.

Title:  A Matter of Time Volume 2 (Books 3 and 4)

Author: Mary Calmes

Year: 2011

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Language: English

Pages: 298

Reading time: 3 days

Format: e-book (Kindle)

Date of Purchase: 28/07/2013 at amazon.com

LINKS: Amazon (US) Dreamspinner Press

Again, this volume has two books in sequence.

I - Cover: (1)

The only thing i will say about the cover is: Who the hell is depicted at the cover? Jory? Nah... Sam? If it is, please don't... Erase this image from my brain please! Sam is like Chris Hemsworth easily for me... So please... Just don't.

II - PoV: (4.5)

BOOK 3: Now she nailed it! The third stallment of A Matter of Time was sublime! Fast paced when needed, slowed down right on time. Not much dwelve on repeat scenes that just happened. PERFECT! Jory’s mind each time more and more twisted and interesting.

BOOK 4: Well... I will not repeat myself. Amazing. (lol), but the narrative sometimes gets a bit fuzzy, confusing.

III - Protagonists: (4.875) - HEAVY SPOILER ALERT!

Jory Harcourt: (Book 3 e 4) He was resilient about being back where all things began. Sam was out of his life completely for 3 whole years or so, and of course, who in the name of God would be, in good shape, after loosing the one person that holds your heart in his hand and then (even well justified) trashed it? Not a soul, i bet. So the reaction that Jory had about being around with Sam again was totally justified, i would personally do things a bit differente, but hey! That's Jory, not Alex.

Sam Kage: (Book 3 e 4) That persistent sonofabitch. He's adorable and perfect about the way he crumbles little-by-little the resistance of Jory. Stubborn, but both are. And his family mauling him and Jory after the definitive reunion... awesome... but let's not talk about them, the focus here is SAM. Hot as ever, still the man of anyone's dreams. I just didn't enjoyed him at all at the last chapter of book 4, if i was Jory, i would've let him alone and went home.

IV - Antagonists: (4.5) 

(Book 3): There's no antagonists at this book, i could place Aaron Sutter like it, but it wouldn't be fair to the man.

(Book 4): Caleb Reid: I can't mention him in his full feature now, because the HUGE SPOILER is coming on twists section... all i can say is this. This character is full of surprises, awesome and awful surprises. It would be interesting to read more about him messing with Jory and Sam’s life in the future.

V - Side Characters: (5)

(Book 3): General speaking... All perfect as always. I am madly inlove with Dylan Greer and her husband. The Kage's are something unreal. I miss a lot of Dane and his wife Aja. Aaron Sutter is something! Like a refined Sam Kage, but way out of Jory's league. Having nothing else to add... PERFECT.

(Book 4): Dane is back, like ACID back... He just mauled Sam's ass to submission for being back at Jory's life again. It was really awesome!

VI - Hot Scenes: (4.75)

(Book 3): There's only two hot scenes about Jory and Sam. And... WOW! The first one, the getting back sex was ASTONISHING-BREATHTAKING-AROUSING-EXCITING-SUBLIME-HOT.AS.HELL-PERFECT! Being mauled against a door, it got me right at the spot!... I can't comment any longer without pausing to take a cold shower...

(Book 4): Not so many scenes like that, and the ones that happened were as great as always, but getting too fast, should be a little bit more detailed.

VII - Story: (4.5)

(Book 3): The story is shortened as the Sam pushing real hard to get Jory's back... Or as his father said: "Hey, dipshit, when do you get your boy back?" Plain and simple, with some sidetracks: the marriage of Dane at the beginning, the pregnancy and birth of the first child of Jory's partner and BFF Dylan, the reencounter of Jory and Aaron, and two or three bad dates of Jory. No crime, no pursuit, no shots fired, or house busted, or kidnapping, torture... so on... just the plans of Sam to get Jory back. Funny and sweet. Unmisseable.

(Book 4): Despite the perfectness of book 3, book 4 starts doing a full back to books 1 and 2... and back and forth memory lane, BUT this time it was right. At least Mary Calmes doesn't lost too many time (or lines) re-explaining things... Thing is, if you never read Books 1, 2 and 3... you will be filled Crash-Course-Style everything in 3 chapters, and i meant it: EVERYTHING.

On this book, we already have the all cops-investigating-thing back again. Turns out that, the Brian Minor's case wasn't the real deal after all... but a serial killer matter, and, as you might think, "Jory is at the center of it" (well, not really), or so they thought. No more spoilers here...

This time Jory left Sam (same situation of Book 2, but in reverse) to investigate himself what's going on. And... well... read and see. It was interesting, and well developed,... BUT there's a huge ass flaw: Why the hell the police or the FBI didn't traced Jory's cellphone position to find where the fuck he was? Only when you take off the battery tracing is impossible. Moving on...

Jory's Batman-Mode is interesting, but... tiresome. Mary Calmes build this up for far too long, that i caught myself skipping some lines and paragraphs, meaning that i had to went back several times to catch up. It transited easily and fastly from interesting to boring.

But in the end, was really good, as a Hitchcock's Psycho gay version.

VIII - Plot Twists: (4) 

(Book 3): No twists in here. The story was way too forthcoming as predicted. And its not bad, actually it is awesome, no room for continuity mistakes.

(Book 4): HUGE SPOILER NEEDED! BE WARNED: The twists here are almost every single one in Jory's mind, and especially at the end when he was doing the Batman-Investigating-thing. Confused twists, first the one to Caleb Reid as the responsible for the murders, after that shifts to his mother Susan with a very poor excuse. Then Jory assumed that Sam thinks about he's being a danger for himself and the society?! Really??? Then Jory, unexplicably, tells he's wrong, Susan Reid is innocent. WHAAAAAT??? How so? The Caleb Reid hid inside the closet, really?! And the police didn't find him there? Really??? Searching 1-0-1: look under beds, furniture, inside armoires, furniture and CLOSETS!!! And Surprise-surprise! Caleb Reid has MPD! Multiple Personality Disorder. REEEEALYYYY!!!!!????? How Psycho is this?! Originality was forgotten or forsaken or forbidden? Hahaha, jokes apart: i loved it! However... the dialog between Jory and Caleb in Susan's shoes was AWESOME! Short and direct. I felt the horror Jory felt. This alone saved the entire sequence of unrealistic, unlikely, illogical, unclear and highly implausible events.

IX - Ending: (4.5)

(Book 3): HAPPY ENDING! I JUST LOVE HAPPY ENDINGS!!! So cute! And it gave you the feeling that there's room for more (a lot more). I love it! Simple as that.

(Book 4): So... Considerations on this ending... Interesting thing is, i would rather read about the full Jory/Sam wedding at Canada, some party after and they coming back to US happily ever after. This would be the crown jewel for me. BUT - in the interest of surprising people - Mary Calmes didn't do it. Disappointing? Definately yes. Bad? No.

Sam's brother, Michael's wedding with a blasting-catholic chick was the touch, but then again, i would rather see Jory this time standing his ground and obliterating that bitch over pulling out Sam and kiss the life outta him, than sucking it up and got all jealous in silence. So not Jory, even in Michael's best interest. I wouldn't toletare such thing, but then again it is me, not Jory. To avoid this i would not be at the reception, i would just be at the wedding, at the most far away bench and accept that everyone or suffer the consequences.

I would not consider this a real perfect happy ending, it was a happy ending, but with a catch. I didn't enjoy it that much. Pity.

X - Pace: (4.5)

(Book 3): Since this book has no twists (not that i can recall) tempo was right. Could be a little bit longer, but i'm not complaining at all. Perfect timing as i said at the beginning of this review.

(Book 4): This book has ups and downs. Some scenes i simply skipped, too long or visiting extensively down memory lane. Even so, not tiresome. The book have a good pace. In comparison with book 3, this one could be shorter, like WAY shorter. Too many unnecessary twists.

XI - Re-reading Factor: (5)

(Books 3 and 4): Well, this was the 8th time that i read the entire series, so... You all know what i mean by that, right?

XII - Recommendation: (5)

(Books 3 and 4): Do i really need to answer to that?

XIII - EXTRA POINTS: (+2.5)

- Bonus points:

   . Gorgeous characters, and absolutely my type;

   . Should have a TV or Silver-screen adaptation;

   . Perfect HOT Scene (wow, just wow... did i mentioned that i want Samuel Thomas Kage in my bed right fucking now?!)

- Penalties:

   . None.

Average: 4.34 of 5 (from I to XII)

Final grade (applying bonus points): 6.84 of 10

Well, a little improvement from the previous volume. Although my review on book 4 was a bit harsh, the story is really interesting, just gets confusing and tiresome at a few points.

Anyway, Mary Calmes still delivers great stories about Jory and Sam. I would mention a few things here about this series, but let’s mention only after the review of the last book, ok?

x-o-x-o

AlexM

NEXT REVIEW: “Pale as a Ghost” by Stephen Osborne.

[fic-dreamin]

Terrefic edition to the Dark Tower franchise. I'll start out by stating the one and only flaw with this book. That is if you haven't read the other dark tower novels, or at least the first four, you may not fully understand this book or it's writing style so I encourage you to read the other books first before reading this. Go to Amazon

Much like the Wizard and glass Although this tale falls chronologically between books 4 and 5, it is a standalone story. Much like the Wizard and glass, it is largely a flashback to Rolands early days as a gunslinger. Roland and Jamie are sent to a town to deal with a Skin Changer, a monster that is similar to a werewolf but can change into anything, a crocodile, a bear, a tiger. The bulk of this book is actually another story, Roland's re-telling of a story his mother told him as a small child. I enjoyed the book as a fan of The Dark Tower, but it is not essential to the greater story, just a well written side tour. I read 1-7 first, then read this book last. If I had it to do over again, I would have read Wind Through the Keyhole between book 4 and book 5. There are no spoilers to mess you up in this book, and it's a little anti-climatic after reading book 7 and knowing how it all ends. Go to Amazon

A wonderful revisit It has been a long time since I read the Dark Tower series. Waiting for each new volume to come out. This book comes to me long after Roland's story was completed. The language, the style came back as easily as one remembers how to ride a bicycle. It sparked memories of the Gunslingers travels with his Ka tet. So much so, that I'll revisit the series and read it once more, though knowing how it ends, the return to the journey will be anticipated with great joy. The Dark Tower IV -1/2 stands well on its own, The Skin Man; Tim Ross and even Aslan, who has a small part of the story of The Wind Through the Keyhole will be remembered as the spark of reigniting the flame of desire to start the journey all over again. Thankee sai King... Go to Amazon

A story in a story in a story. When I was done with the Dark Tower series, which was an enjoyable but lengthy commitment, I felt a small pang of loss. That was it, there was no more. Sad to say goodbye to Roland and his ka-tet. I wanted more. Then Steve-O granted me just another morsel from Mid World in "The Wind Through the Keyhole". Nice. And the telling of the tale is interesting too, in that King wraps this gift in multiple layers. If you have enjoyed following the Gunslinger on his quest, you will want to add this to the series. It seems to fit between Wizard and Glass and The Wolves of the Calla. Enjoy! Go to Amazon

Hello Roland My Old Friend, It's Wonderful To Hear From You Again! If you're a fan of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King then this is simply one more book that rounds out that story. If you miss Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and yes of course Oiy (apologies in advance for any misspellings of names here, forgive me Mr. King) the way I do then this book will be a total delight, a homecoming for sorts to slip back into Mid-World and spend time with friends old and new as they continue their journey to the Dark Tower. Go to Amazon

The Whole Series..... Having read the entire series, I am going to review it in total. First, this is a great read even if you are not a Stephen King fan, just a fan of good storytelling. There is so much that takes place over the eight books that it feels like a long and fun roller coaster ride. King has a plethora of references that not all readers may get depending on their age, but enough up to date ones that all readers will enjoy. Go to Amazon

I love the Dark Tower series Five Stars Fast shipping! My favorite of The Dark Tower series Five Stars Master storytelling and an excellent read. Five Stars ... amateurish reading by the author makes listening to this like a trip to the dentist Great series but king shouldn’t read the book This was a great copy considering it was a library copy (that WAS ...

[leticiatoraci]

Mid-Year Book Freak Out-BOOK TAG 2017

I saw this Book Tag on Youtube and decided to do it on my blog. So here are my answers:

  1. Best book you’ve read so far in 2017.

I have different choices for different genres. In Fantasy, there would be a tie between “A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)” by Sarah J. Maas and the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. In Sci-fi, the winner would be the awesome Comics series “Saga”.

  2. The best sequel you’ve read so far in 2017.

“A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)” by Sarah J. Maas which was better than the first book of the series.

  3. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to.

The third book of A Court of Thorns and Roses, “A Court of Wings and Ruin” by Sarah J. Maas. I started or went on reading a lot of other series and still have this one left on my TBR.

  4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

The paperback edition of “Blood of Wonderland (Queen of Hearts Saga #2)” by Colleen Oakes. I have the first book in paperback and I don’t want to buy the second book in hardcover, this would make the series look mismatched on my shelf like many other series I was too much in a hurry to finish, so I’m trying to wait patiently this time, until October!

  5. Biggest disappointment.

The book “Hounded (The Iron Druid Chronicles #1)” by Kevin Hearne because I expected much more from a series with a Druid. When I think of Druids, I think wise and ancient like Panoramix (named Getafix in English translations) from the Asterix Comics series and this one wasn’t at all what I expected. I also expected something completely different from the Celtic story world and the story itself. All the stereotyped characters, situations and not my type of jokes in this book didn’t work for me at all.

  6. Biggest surprise.

The book “The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles #1)” by Mary E. Pearson (Spoiler Alert) had the most surprising plot twist for me. It was so unexpected I still can’t really accept it… And I won’t lie, I felt kind of cheated.

  7. Favorite new author. (Debut or new to you)

Erin Morgenstern, author of “The Night Circus”. This book is the most beautifully written I read this year so far and it will stay in my heart for a long time.

  8. Newest fictional crush.

Crush is perhaps a too strong word for it, but Rhysand from “A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)” by Sarah J. Maas is a very interesting character.

  9. Newest favorite character.

Prince Robot IV from the Saga comics series because he has a television head! He made me remember a Brazilian 80’s song from Rita Lee where she sang in Portuguese that “the guy had a television face,” and this royal not only embodies that song literally but, (spoiler alert) kids can watch his dreams while he sleeps. He’s also a quite lost character, still very much in doubt about being self-centered or helpful and his main answer to most of the life’s questions is… Sex. Good that he didn’t get an STD while looking for himself.

  10. A book that made you cry.

Even with a no-books-that-makes-you-cry policy, I must confess that the Epilogue of “Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3)” by Cassandra Clare was so touching it made tears surface to my eyes. This book was a perfect ending to this trilogy.

  11. A book that made you happy.

Now I’ll have to repeat myself and go with “A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2)” by Sarah J. Maas because this was a book I felt like fist pumping and shouting ‘yes’ with the heroine choices. So I was happy with it.

  12. Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received)

I would have two different first places for this: Beautifully drawn: “Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening (Monstress (Collected Editions) #1)” by Marjorie M. Liu (Goodreads Author) (Writer), Sana Takeda (Artist), Rus Wooton (Letterer, Designer) My “own taste” beautiful: Trying Human (Volume #2) by Emy Bitner, because I really like how she draws/develops this series.

  13. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I plan to read 10 books on Writing craft this year. So far I read six books, leaving four to go, or who knows, perhaps I’ll be lucky to read more than my new year’s resolution this time.

I have now two books as audiobooks, so I’ll hear them while organizing or coloring instead of taking the time to sit and hold them before me. It worked well for the last non-fiction book I was hearing.

  14 Favourite Book Community Member(s)?

There are so many nice book tubers, readers I’ve met on Goodreads, and people I met on this blog, that I can’t name only one person.

I like all the different tastes and opinions, even if someone won’t read what I consider a must-read for this or that genre, or love a book/author I don’t care about. Isn’t diversity beautiful?

  If you do the Mid-Year Book Freak Out // Book Tag on your Blog or Youtube channel leave your link in the comments. I’m curious.

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[vitalmindandbody]

Top 10 volumes about middle age

Finding work that meets this difficult theatre of life with honesty and wisdom is not easy but these novelists demo it is feasible to done

When I started working on The Middlepause, I was desperate to read books I could learn from and insist with notebooks that would father my own, so that I could duly rebel against them. Id been sloped immediately into menopause, the result of undergoing a hysterectomy, and as I clawed my road back to health, I hungered for fresh alternatives, new pathways, the promise of hope.

What I experienced, predominantly, was self-help. Books with frivolous upbeat designations, like Fifty and Fabulous, or Fifty Is the New Fifty, which transactions in stock rebuttals and easy certainties, when what I missed was smart questioning. They assured me that middle age “couldve been” the right time of my life, if only I was smart enough to recognise it. I knew better. I knew that middle age was frumpy and schmaltzy and complain, that our hormones razz rollercoasters; that we thrill to adulterous affairs; that in midlife “were losing” parents and sometimes friends and find as if our identities are melting its why we cry over empty nests, fus over our truncated futures, accept explosions and breakups and mourn our disappearing youth.

For middle age to be genuinely transformative we need to change the script scrutinise our mistakes, admit sorrow and bitternes, confront personal neglects. Then we have to rub this catalogue of hurts into more textured and grown-up self-knowledge.

The volumes Ive picked here were, for different reasons, milestones on that passage for me. They weighed the depredations of ageing and loss against the speculate of self-acceptance. I read think, because emerging into a new appreciation of oneself is the hardest thing to do and yet its internal, essentially metabolic. And from the outside gazing in, it is invisible.

1. In Our Prime: The Invention of Middle Age by Patricia Cohen( 2012 ) An attempt to write the biography of an idea. Mostly its a social history, from the mid-1 9th century for the purposes of this, but augmented by fascinating detours through scientific and psychology. With baby-boomer upswing, Cohen contends that middle age is a malleable cultural fiction, currently being rewritten to account for detections showing that the middle-aged brain actually ripens, or that happiness contemplates point to a rise in reported high levels of gratification in midlife. The notebook is a tonic, a boon and a placebo.

2. Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas( 1846) In this sequel to The Three Musketeers, Dumas makes his immortal quartet out of retirement to cross swords with period, the nastines to both men and the forces of record. Older now, the musketeers have to deal with their physical fragility and the difficult accommodations that ageing delivers , not least the foreshortening of their scopes. I cherish the moment when Athos clunks himself down on a stool, the feather in his hat still sprightly, and complains about his weary bones.

3. Break of Day by Colette ( 1928) I dont known better I could have altered 50 without such notebook. It is my charm for midlife an joyful and rapturous paean to the unsung exultation of regal solitude and monkish self-sufficiency. Its cheeky, very, featuring a semi-autobiographical Colette who at the start of the book am of the view that she has renounced passion, exclusively to expend much of the novel flirting outrageously with a much younger suitor.

4. Force of Circumstance by Simone de Beauvoir( 1963 ) Part gossipy diary, segment thoughtfulnes on postwar Paris and her working life as a columnist, this final instalment of De Beauvoirs autobiography testifies to how unruffled and grownup she is in contrast to the still-volatile, ego-driven philosophers, the authors and artists with whom she hangs out. Theres a ringing confidence here that comes with self-knowledge, mixed with its determination to forgive her past mistakes. Formerly upon a epoch Id have misread this volume: now its exercises imbue, seeding allay and acceptance.

5. Brown Sisters: Forty Years by Nicholas Nixon( 2014) This work is quietly epic. It features portrait images Nixon took of his wife Bebe and her three sisters in the grounds of their Connecticut home, and in various locations in Massachusetts. The word-paintings start in 1975, when the sisters were aged between 15 and 25. Every year, Nixon took another photograph. The serial catalogues the sisters ageing. You see how occasion has worn pipelines into their facets, but also softened them; how they appear to have grown closer over the years, with age strengthening the bonds of attend. You wonder at the differences among relationships between the sisters. But principally you marvel at how lifes magnificent expedition can be contained in the details of the everyday.

Nicholas Nixon talks about his epic photographic assignment

6. A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan( 2010 ) Egans novel is a kind of madcap gambol through four decades, told by a dozen references on the run from their younger egoes including a stone sun organising his final suicide tour, and a disgraced PR commissioned to create a soft-focus makeover of a genocidal tyrant. The comedy is deadpan, but Egans take on ageing is brutal: get age-old, she recommends, is like being beaten up by a gang of thugs. 7. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner( 1926 ) This is a novel about conversion, inwardly channeling and then outwardly refracting womens freeing during the interwar times. Its heroine Lolly Willowes morphs from a maiden aunt, is dependant on the largesse of her city-dwelling brethren, into a wayward voodoo living independently in the urban wilderness where she enters into gathering with the demon. Women know they are dynamite, she tells him. 8. Out of Time: The Pleasures and Perils of Ageing by Lynne Segal( 2013 ) Segals gentle and sustained booking with Simone de Beauvoirs numerous writings about ageing gives a rich read that fires in multiple directions, ricocheting off psychoanalysis, literature and feminism. The volume is intensely personal, but at the same age weighs how feminists have fared in redefining culture attitudes towards ageing.( Spoiler: not that well .) 9. In Midlife by Murray Stein( 1983 ) What better than a Jungian guide for midlife? The central meaning here is that surmounting the midlife hurdle involves breaking down the persona or untrue self that we cling to in our youth. This should secrete our shadow selves from the dungeons of repression, and behind that, the contrasexual other( the animus for the status of women, the anima for a mortal ). It chimes vaguely gothic, and also destabilising, which is what it should be; for according to Jung, midlife is a zone of transition.

10. Maximising Manhood, drumming the Male Menopause by Dr Malcolm Carruthers( 1996) This notebooks the odd one out, although it was had its own various kinds of affect. Nudged into writing by Gail Sheehy( she of Passages fame ), Carruthers calls for the coming into effect of TRT or Testosterone Replacement Therapy, to bar gentlemen slumping vigour in midlife. A mirror management for a mirror condition? Or a bloated crate of nonsense? Perhaps the evidence comes when Carruthers suggests that this Hormone of Kings King of Hormones ought merely to be given to menopausal women around low-toned quantities, in case their libido may become excessive.

The Middlepause by Marina Benjamin is published by Scribe, priced 14.99. It be addressed to the Guardian bookshop for 12.74.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

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[loserlikescomics-blog]

Top 5 - February 2017, Week 2

Hey guys! I hope everyone’s having a great week this week! Don’t really have anything going on to tell you guys about, so let’s just get right into the spoilers and what have you, shall we?

5) Ms. Marvel #15 (G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazawa)

I know I say this about every stylized artist, but god, do I love Miyazawa’s art. Kamala is just the cutiest cutie ever and everyone and everything just looks so good in his style. I mean, shit man, just look up some panels from this run and you’ll see what I mean. I totally don’t have a crush on Kamala or anything you fuckin nerds shut up. Anyway. I really like the way that this arc is going! Lately we’ve really been getting a feel of just how overwhelmed Kamala is, what with keeping her two lives separate, the stuff with Bruno wanting nothing to do with her, etc etc. So, NATURALLY, we want to see her get threatened with someone (or something?) being like “I’m gonna tell everyone who you are” like every single superhero that cares goes through.

I was a lil’ hesitant at the first issue of this volume, what with the whole video game thing. It seems like it’s getting dropped, though, so my anxiety has gone down from that. I was really worried it would end up being like “KAMALA HAS TO GO DO A RAID TO BEAT THE VILLAIN” but it seems like it was more of a means to get this villain. Speaking of the villain, I’m super interested with the stinger of this issue, where it’s revealed that they ARE the virus, and I’m excited to see how Kamala deals with it all.

4) The Unworthy Thor #4 (Jason Aaron, Olivier Coipel) 

I think Thor is just cool as fuck. I mean, not just Odinson, or Thor, but like, the idea of Thor in general is really cool. So, I’m really glad that I get two different runs where I can read Thor(s) doing cool shit. I really love what Aaron’s been doing with Odinson. I remember when I was catching up to Mighty Thor, and we would keep getting glimpses back to Odinson really briefly, and I was like “Man, I wonder when we’re gonna get something about him” and then I found out that he was getting his own series and I got super stoked! Odinson being a badass and fighting his way out of this prison just by never giving up because he just needs that hammer is so awesome. This is also the first thing I’ve ever read with Beta Ray Bill, and I like ol’ horseface.

This issue in particular is probably my favorite so far of the run. I mean, it’s only 4 issues deep, but still! I like the flashbacks to Young Thor trying to lift Mjolnir, because it really sends home that message of how much Mjolnir means to him. I also really enjoy some jailbreak fights. I think it’s really awesome for Odinson to use the Ultimate Mjolnir too, because I’ve always liked the design. Not as much as the 616 Mjolnir, but I still like it. The second-to-last panel in this issue is also super fuckin’ cool, and I’m so excited that he finally got the hammer. I can’t wait for him to kick some ass next month.

3) Justice Leage/Power Rangers #2 (Tom Taylor, Stephen Byrne)

I’m not sorry. I think that even if this comic wasn’t great (it is), that I’d still love it as much as I do. There’s something about seeing the Justice League talk to the Power Rangers that just hits me in the chest super hard and makes me the happiest boy in the world. I mean, what can you not love about Superman flying next to the Pterodactyl Dinozord, tapping on the window, and saying “Miss, I need you to pull the Pterodactyl over.”? Another moment I absolutely loved is all of the Rangers shitting on Batman for being so dark and grim, and Superman is just like “Yeah, sorry, he’s just kinda. Like that.” 

In all seriousness, I think this is a fantastic cross-over. They only spent an issue and a half on the teams fighting each other for vague reasons, and I enjoy the dialogue that the two teams have with each other. I mean, the reason for the actual team-up/cross-over is kinda bullshit, but at the same time it totally makes sense and kinda works. I also think that Brainiac and Zedd teaming up is the best possible combination of villains, because it’s not too much of a threat, but enough of a threat to actually have a team-up over. Naturally, I’m super excited for next month’s issue.

2) Red Hood and the Outlaws #7 (Scott Lobdell, Mirko Colak)

I’m NEVER gonna shut up about how much I love Jason Todd. The thing I love about him the most, something that this issue especially shows off, is how his anger and cool-guy act is all a front. Deep down, he’s actually an extremely caring and compassionate person, and his recent actions have definitely shown that he’s trying to be the best version of himself that he can be, by (starting to) reconcile with Bruce, and helping him. Jason is often seen as the angry Robin, and while he does have his moments of anger, I think he’s actually a huge softie who won’t admit otherwise, completely evident by him not being able to kill Bizarro in this issue, despite Artemis telling him otherwise. 

This issue also gave some insight into Bruce and Jason’s relationship when he was Robin. Obviously, Jason was an angry problem child, but it’s nice to see that Bruce still believed in him the entire time, otherwise he wouldn’t have taken him under his wing. I also love Alfred being the mother hen to anyone that Bruce ever brings into the Batcave, always having something nice to say and some food to give them. Alfred is the true star of the Batfamily tbh.

1) Detective Comics #950 (James Tynion IV, Eddy Barrows)

Gotta be honest, I was somehow oblivious to the fact that this was a giant-sized issue until I got halfway through Azrael’s story and I ws like “Huh there’s still a lot left here isn’t there”. But I loved that it was so big! I really enjoyed all three stories that we got in this issue. Cassandra’s was my favorite for sure, though. I really liked her throughout this run, but I felt like she wasn’t getting enough attention, and I feel like this was the perfect way to give her the spotlight. Now that both Tim and Stephanie are gone from the team, Cass is probably my favorite, and I’m glad to find out mroe about her. The idea of someone’s first language being body language is really interesting, and I think that Cassandra is really well-executed in general.

I feel like I missed something, though. Did I like, skip an issue, or just forget something? Like, when did Azrael join the team? Either way, I enjoyed his story with Batwing, because their dialogue was really fun to read, and to find out more about Azrael. I’m also excited to see where that bit at the end goes, with the suit apparently hearing Batwing’s idea about being independent. The third story was the shortest, but I think it’ll probably be the most important one in the near future. Basically, Tim confronts Bruce about how he’s seemingly preparing to go to war, what with sending out Dick and Jason on missions and setting up the team that’s in Detective Comics. I just really loved this issue, and I’m excited for the stuff that’s being hinted at! 

[anew-books-blog]

A Matter of Time - Volume 1 ::: by Mary Calmes

Hiya Anewers!

I am going to begin with the very first book that i’ve read about M/M romance, and that was a perfect startup! Well, let’s go with it, right? (I am too anxious to know what you will tell me about this review. Begining with the synopsis and some start info:

“Books One and Two - Vol. 1

Jory Keyes leads a normal life as an architect’s assistant until he is witness to a brutal murder. Though initially saved by police Detective Sam Kage, Jory refuses protective custody—he has a life he loves that he won’t give up no matter who is after him. But Jory’s life is in real jeopardy, especially after he agrees to testify about what he saw.

While dealing with attempts on his life, well-meaning friends who want to see him happy, an overly protective boss, and a slowly unfolding mystery that is much more sinister than he could ever imagine, the young gay man finds himself getting involved with Sam, the conflicted and closeted detective. And though Jory may survive the danger, he may not survive a broken heart.”

Title:  A Matter of Time Volume 1 (Books 1 and 2)

Author: Mary Calmes

Year: 2011

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Language: English

Pages: 280

Reading time: 6 days

Format: e-book (Kindle)

Date of Purchase: 27/07/2013 at amazon.com

LINKS: Amazon (US) Dreamspinner Press

Yes, this volume has two books in sequence. And that, my anewers, was great, since the books are too damn short, in my opinion.

I - Cover: (2)

The cover is nice, but honestly, i would do better. Jory Keyes is depicted here as a hustler (to say the least - ok, it’s not far from how the author describe him, but even so...), the city at the background give an aura of Law & Order: SVU. It's so cliché. This could be a lot more different and less obvious.

Why the hell not depict Sam Kage at the cover too?

II - Point of View (POV): (4.5)

I never read anything in first person perspective before this one, it simply doesn't catch me, this was my first book like this... And i loved it! Mary Calmes was really inside Jory's head, sometimes gave glimpses about other characters through expressions and Jory's observation. Amazing. Total bliss everytime i read this book. (This was my 5th time reading this book)

III - Protagonists: (4.5)

Jory Keyes (Book 1)/Harcourt (Book 2) - The main guy. And yes, the very same person. He is a mix of frail around his lover, but a force of nature at the same time. Reckless, clumsy, irresponsible, crazy... But totally relatable.

He was abbandoned by his mother after birth, was raised by his grandmother until his 10s, then went to foster care. Afterwards, went to Chicago to try his luck. End up working for a huge-ass-famous architectural office, with a boss who can work only with him.

Lucky in life, maybe... but in love... he is the typical stereotype of a gay one-night-stander. When he mets Sam Kage, something clicks inside him, but fear of letting go and being hurt made him run out of it every time... I will say no more for now.

Samuel Thomas Kage, or just, Sam Kage - I must say this once and for all: I WANT HIM IN MY BED, IN MY LIFE (Sorry, hubby... but i can't hide it anymore - LOL). This man is too damn perfect to be true.

Strong, simple, straight to the point... and closeted. This is Sam. He struggles about love a man and please everyone else. I relate to him a lot, since i was in the closet until i was 23. But this is not about me.

Sam is a vice detective, who loves his profession, have problems with his temper and when met Jory and his heart kicks for him, Jory has the unexplainable ability to ground him, to draw the very best of him...

IV - Antagonists: (3)

Brian Minor: (Book 1) He is a classic thug. The one who is conceited and connected with some middle rank people. He shots a guy and is witnessed by Jory at the very beginning, and since then all of it unfolds. He appears little in the story, thing is, the story is told under Jory's POV, so obviously we wouldn't know much about him, wich is understandable. He's not appealing and definately not important for the story about Jory and Kage, he is just a plain motive to keep they both tied together.

Dominic Kairov: (Book 2) One thing bothered me about this guy. He's so close to Sam - since he was his partner at CPD - and the way he turned against him was almost unfair, but we must place this story at the real life timeline. when it's written being gay was a huge deal, especially within typical "macho"-jobs. He flipped, but the fact is he saw in that an opportunity to be off the grid again. It was nice, how come a vice detective could afford a luxurious home? He was involved with the mob, plain and simple. Mary Calmes took more time to develop this one, and... even bothering me... he was really good.

An observation is needed: I think, in the end, the real antagonist of this is the one and only Jory. He sabotages himself a lot.. Read it and you will understand what i am talking about.

V - Side Characters: (5)

Dane Harcourt: Boss, Former boss and adoptive brother of Jory. Icy is his middle name, but when he let Jory in his life, things change drastically, he have a warm and tender heart, but this side he shows only to J.

Seriously, one of the very best secondary roles that i've ever read in a book, many will not agree with me, but i don't care. I love Dane, i love the way he relate to Jory and how deep their connection goes.

Two damaged persons, but with the feelling that they are soulmates in another level, the brotherhood level. It is sweet how the author constructed their evolution from boss-employee to family.

To Jory is a fairy tale in the making...

Dylan Greer: Loud, manic, frantic, clumsy, hot headed and big hearted. BFF, partner in crime of J. The kind of friend you want to have around always - if you can manage to reach out for her.

The perfect partner to Jory by far!

VI - Hot Scenes: (5)

The first night between Jory and Sam is outstanding. Jory imagining Sam somehow insecure about being with him, but what happened was complete the opposite. He was completely aware and sure about being with him. I believed that every single person in the world wants something like at some point in life. I was breathless at the end of if. Imagining how's it going to be to have a hot-rock-hard-immense-muscular-diry-blond-sweaty-piece-of-perfection-man with his thigh over mine and his arms around my waist. Mary Calmes, you are mean! (in a good and HOT way, of course)

VII - The Story: (4.2)

In the beginning i was worried about being a cliché story, but even these kind of stories have their values. A Matter of Time Book 1 brings you to the universe of a gay cliché one-night-stand-guy who falls for a typical straight-strong-mindless-rock-hard-gorgeous-cop. BUT how it is develop is something else entirely, since it's told by the main character: Jory Keyes and his twisted view of things. It is delightful.

Actually, both books are. Book 2 goes even further. Jory was struggling about quitting his party night days to be with someone for good... having only 23 yeas old. It's not common to see a young one wanting it... and because of it i relate to it A LOT. I was 24 when i met my husband, the difference is i was never a party-one-night-stand-guy. Like i said before, this is not about me...

Book 2 show us how they finally get together... and... well... i already gave you lot's of spoilers, i will not give you the biggest one, i will just say that i am fortunate to not have read this book on it's launching and had to wait for the book 3... I was royally pissed (in a good way).

Most of this review is written like books 1 and 2 was only one, because i felt it that way. One story, divided into 2 books.

VIII - Plot Twists: (4.5)

There's enough twists in both books. But always related to Jory's behaviour. Only 2 twists aren't his fault, the ones that draws Kage back to the cop-protective-mode activated.

Good twists, but not great. For me, the only thing that really mattered at the story was how the hell Jory and Sam would end up together, and that's why i was royally pissed at the end of book 2. Again, i will say no more.

IX - Ending: (4)

I didn't see the end of book 1 as an end. It was a plain hook to book 2, and so book 2 to 3. BUT...

The end of book 1 was interesting, believeable, and somehow not unexpected as it seemed.

But the end of book 2 gave me rage rampages against Mary Calmes! I hated it, but i really understand that it was a PERFECT hook for a third story. That's why, even hating the guts of Sam Kage for what he did to Jory, i can understand why he did it. (Even didn't understanding how police regiments and laws in US works).

X - Timing: (5)

BOOK 1 has perfect timing to tell the tale. Fast paced when needed, slow paced when needed. Perfect. Following Jory's mind is challenging and super-fun.

But Book 2... Well, Mary Calmes used the memory lane too often, and sometimes right after the very scene happened, like a mexican soup opera. It was not very appealing and i caught myself skipping those small paragraphs because i've just read it. It doesn't give you the will to stop reading it, but it is totally unnecessary. Re-telling what happened in book 1 or in the very beginning of book 2 is a good thing to do, but do it at the next scene is an exaggeration.

XI - Re-reading Factor: (5)

I will only say this: Haven't i mentioned that this was the 5th time i read this book?

Well, actually it was my 8th. What do you think then? (LOL)

XII - Recommendation: (5)

Since i was reading it for the 8th time, i guess it is a must read.

Note that you can be a different impression about this story, and this is my very personal opinion about this. So, read it and take your conclusions.

XIII - EXTRA POINTS: (+2.5)

- Bonus points:

   . Gorgeous characters, and absolutely my type;

   . Happy ending or perfect hook for the next book;

   . Perfect scenes, that took my attention;

   . Should have a TV or Silver-screen adaptation;

   . Story with a rook so Strong that makes me wants more and more...;

   . Perfect HOT Scene (wow, just wow... did i mentioned that i want Samuel Thomas Kage in my bed right fucking now?!)

- Penalties:

   . None.

Average: 4.30 of 5 (from I to XII)

Final grade (applying bonus points): 6.80 of 10

What do you think about this review? Give your impression on comments below and don’t forget to check back often, ok?

x-o-x-o

AlexM

NEXT REVIEW: “Just Drive” by L.A. Witt