#not everything has to be a brilliant deep thinking masterpiece!

[borealing]

the thing about bridgerton is that its kinda contrived and bad but its also very compelling. and thats fun.

[henley-reeves]

"Wild Blue Yonder" is such a phenomenal episode and it instantly became one of the best DW episodes for a simple reason that it combines all the best aspects of Doctor Who AND it is a combination of genres AND it is entirely character driven and atmospheric.

This episode is everything - comedy, drama, horror, mystery, psychological thriller and sci-fi adventure.

It relies entirely on atmospherics and character dynamic.

They really put two brilliant actors and let them shine and give everything they got in so many different genres.

There were silly comedic moments

Heart-wrenching dramatic moments

Terrifying and bone-chilling moments

But the true testament to the acting talent of David Tennant and Catherine Tate was that the episode had only 2 actors in it and 4 characters. But it truly felt like there were 4 different people in the episode. And the task was not easy. These were Doctor and Donna but not quite Doctor and Donna. Like Donna said "The Devil's in the details". It was all in the voice, the stare, the posture, the mannerisms that made these creatures of nightmares so terrifying, because they had the essence of the Doctor and Donna but had it so horribly distorted and twisted and not right at the same time!

And the fact that David and Catherine delivered such a nuanced performance that captured these details so flawlessly deserves all the awards!

The episode is driven by themes and motifs - fear of being known, fear of the unknown and unexplained, fear of being misunderstood, abandoned, not good enough, fear of someone you love not understanding or truly knowing you. The plot also provides individual character development and exploration of relationship between the Doctor and Donna who have not seen each other in years, who are so close and yet were separated by time and space for ages and have changed so much during that time, that neither of them is the same but desperately want to be seen the same way as they used to be by each other. It is also nostalgia and desire for things to be exactly like they used to be.

What can be scarier than monsters who have no physical form or visual manifestation, who steal your personality and bear your face but distort them in the most horrific ways both literally and figuratively? What is scarier than something that has a conscience but can not be seen or touched or categorized? What is scarier than something that can exploit your fears and insecurities and turn them against you?

"Wild Blue Yonder" creates an atmosphere that immerses you in that world which is both a confined space but also the endless dark nothingness, makes you scared, sad, makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you think how the fictitious horrors of this episode are driven almost entirely by the very human fears of the unknown and being known at the same time. "Wild Blue Yonder" is a masterpiece of acting and storytelling and that's what makes this episode stand out as such a brilliant story! Doctor Who can be silly AND deep at the same time, and when it happens, it is absolutely fantastic!

[fangdokja]

"I learned to love writing the hard way: by fixing everyone else’s mess."

❤︎ Synopsis. Every writer starts somewhere—usually with a mess. This series reveals how embracing the chaos of bad drafts is the first step to creating something brilliant. Get ready to dig through the dirt and strike gold.

♡ Book. Ink & Insight (I&I): From Dead Dove to Daydreams.

♡ Series. From Crap to Craft: The Writer's Journey - Part 1

♡ Word Count. 1,038

♡ Banner's Story. He’s the savior of many—but your destruction is his true mission.

♡ Storytime: From Loathing to Loving Writing.

Do you want to know a fun fact about me? I hated writing. Yes, the person who spends hours crafting intense, darkly seductive stories with complex yanderes? That same person used to despise writing.

Why? Group projects.

Picture this: I was a straight-A student surrounded by group mates who thought "collaboration" meant dumping their half-baked work on me. I’d end up doing the research, writing, editing, and basically carrying the whole project on my back. The cherry on top? Their contributions were often so horrendous I had to rewrite everything. Imagine editing sentences that felt like they’d been written in a foreign language and translated back into English by a broken AI. Editing, in those days, was far more grueling than writing. It was like polishing rocks and calling them diamonds.

This relentless cycle of frustration turned me against writing. What was once a childhood joy—scribbling poems and whimsical tales—became something I dreaded. But as ironic as it sounds, that experience became a cornerstone of who I am today. It forced me to hone my skills, learn to write under pressure, and develop an editor’s razor-sharp eye. It was tough love from God, but it worked. Writing research papers taught me rigor, structure, and discipline, which now underpin everything I create—whether it’s a yandere villain’s confession or a psychological deep dive into their madness.

So why tell you all this? Because sometimes, you have to churn out the garbage before you strike gold. It’s not just a personal truth—it’s a universal one. Let’s dig into why this mindset is essential and how you can embrace it.

♡ The Gold Starts with Crap.

Here’s the brutal truth: your favorite creators, the ones you place on pedestals, didn’t start with polished brilliance. They started with messy drafts, scrapped ideas, and work that made them cringe. And you know what? That’s okay. Because even the work you think is trash—the stuff you want to bury under ten layers of “never show anyone”—has value.

I’ve written pieces I was certain would get nothing but side-eyes, only for readers to hail them as incredible. Why? Because as creators, we’re cursed with the hyper-critical lens that magnifies flaws and downplays strengths. This isn’t just a quirk—it’s a survival tool for growth. But left unchecked, it’ll stifle you.

The antidote? Accept that writing crap is not just inevitable—it’s necessary.

♡ Why Writing Crap Matters.

It Breaks the Perfectionism Cycle

Perfectionism is like a envious lover, whispering that if you’re not flawless, you’re worthless. Don’t listen. Waiting for perfection paralyzes creativity. Writing crap is your way out. It’s messy, yes, but it’s progress. Let go of the need to be perfect on the first try.

It’s a Foundation, Not a Finish Line

Think of your first draft as raw ore. Nobody expects glittering gold straight out of the ground. Crap drafts are the bedrock of greatness—something to chisel, shape, and refine until the masterpiece emerges.

It Builds Momentum

Writing is a habit, and habits thrive on momentum. Even if your words feel like they belong in the trash, the act of writing keeps you moving. And movement is the enemy of stagnation.

♡ Practical Tips to Embrace Writing Crap.

Set Low-Stakes Goals

Aim for something manageable: 500 words a day, a single scene, or even 15 minutes of freewriting. The goal isn’t brilliance; it’s consistency. Quantity leads to quality, but only if you’re willing to show up.

Separate Writing and Editing

Editing while drafting is like trying to sculpt a masterpiece out of wet clay while the wheel is still spinning. Stop it. Write first. Get it all down—ugly, clunky, imperfect. Save the sculpting for later.

Use Timed Writing Sprints

Set a timer for 15-30 minutes and write without pausing. Don’t overthink. Don’t backtrack. Just write. This strategy forces you to bypass your inner critic and let the ideas flow.

Acknowledge the Ugly Process

Nobody’s first draft is perfect. Not yours, not mine, not your favorite author’s. The magic happens in the revision stage, but you can’t revise a blank page. Embrace the suck and move forward.

Focus on Progress, Not Perfection

Celebrate the small wins: finishing a chapter, hitting a word count, or completing a scene. Progress is progress, and it deserves to be acknowledged.

♡ Building Habits for Long-Term Success.

Write Every Day (or Close to It)

Even if it’s just a sentence. Consistency matters more than volume. Writing regularly trains your brain to show up, even when inspiration doesn’t.

Create a Ritual

Light a candle, make a cup of tea, or play a specific playlist. Establishing a ritual signals your brain that it’s time to write. Over time, this becomes a powerful trigger for creativity.

Learn to Love Rewriting

Editing is where the magic happens. Once you’ve laid down the bones, you can add flesh, polish the details, and bring your vision to life. But first, you need something to work with.

Find Your “Why”

Why do you write? To tell stories? To escape? To connect? Keep your purpose front and center. It’ll help you push through the messy drafts and stay motivated.

Surround Yourself with Support

Join writing communities, find critique partners, or follow creators who inspire you. Seeing others struggle and succeed reminds you that you’re not alone.

Sometimes, the journey to brilliance starts with a mess. Every masterpiece begins as a draft that might feel unbearable to the creator. But that’s the process—the secret sauce. You write crap. Then you refine it. And then? You strike gold.

So, stop waiting for the perfect sentence. Write the messy one. Dig through the dirt. The gold is there, waiting for you to unearth it.

────────────

If you want to be added or removed from the tag list, just comment on the MASTERLIST of Ink & Insight (I&I): From Dead Dove to Daydreams. Thank you.

General TAG LIST of “Ink & Insight”:

[beevean]

"NFCV's portrayal of Dracula is a masterpiece, it finally gave depth to the character! His sorrow is sympathetic, he's not just an evil guy for evil guy's sake! He's deep, nuanced!"

Is he? Is he, though?

The more I think about Dracula (the games one obv), the more it angers me how the show treated him. In its best seasons, to boot.

Because yes, they certainly put a lot of focus on his grief, and took care to humanize him. And that's the issue.

The idea, on paper, is wonderful. Dracula is a monster moved by human emotions. He's a danger to the entirety of mankind, God's direct enemy, but at his core, he's a man bereft for the loss of his wives.

The very first episode nailed it! He makes an utterly terrifying entrance in Targoviste, as a pillar of fire threatening the people to move out in a year lest they face his wrath. They don't believe him. He keeps his word. He does not hold back.

And he caps it off with this chilling, yet tragic speech:

Kill everything you see. Kill them all. And once Targoviste has been made into a graveyard for my love, go forth into the country. Go now. Go to all the cities of Wallachia: Arges! Severin! Gresit! Chilia! Enisara! Go now and kill. Kill for my love! Kill for the only true love I ever knew. Kill for the endless lifetime of hate before me.

This is Dracula. This is the Devil himself who is absolutely destroyed by the loss of his love, knows that he will never be able to move on, and by all the forces of Hell, he will make everyone feel his misery.

Season 2, by all means, should have capitalized on this. Imagine the great contrast it would be: one scene shows Dracula, in his firey form, sending his forces, the Night Creatures that he forced Hector and Isaac to make all night, to raze an entire village to ashes... and the next, he retreats to his quarters to slump in his chair, speaking in a soft and broken voice, and suddenly, he is a man again. It would show his duality so well.

But the show simply forgot the first part.

The entirety of the plot in S2 is that Dracula has stopped being a villain. This is the crux of the conflict! Dracula spends his entire time moping in his chair, and he's so Depressed™ that he literally loses control of his forces... which allows Carmilla to more or less replace him.

There you have it: Dracula's entire arc in S2.

Dracula gets nothing but "humanizing" moments. He speaks civilly to Carmilla after she makes a fool out of him. He commiserates to Isaac about how no one is his friend anymore, taking care to sit by his side like they're buddies. He doesn't care about anything anymore, thus allowing Carmilla to run amok and play Hector and Isaac like recorders (I would say "like a fiddle" but that would imply talent). His plan gets described, multiple times, including by his own son, as nothing more than a suicide mission that will accidentally take down everyone with him. Most importantly, Dracula is painted as being simply a shortsighted fool, who lied to Hector to hire him and then he's surprised that he's distancing himself, who never thought ahead when it cames to blood perserves, who really, why didn't he just turn Lisa into a vampire, is he stupid?

(he's literally doing a :( face. i cannot make this shit up)

Once again: his death scene, which is at its core him being taken down by his own emotions, is brilliant in a vacuum. But in context, it breaks down spectacularly: Dracula has done nothing but feel sorry for himself for 7 episodes now. Where is the guy who made guts and man-eating demons fall from the sky? This is such a blatant attempt to defang (hehe) an iconic antagonist for the sake of 1) propping up an OC, and 2) because we are such good writers and we will fix the shallow games by giving Humanity to our antagonists, to the point where they're not even So Bad After All! (also 3) because woobiefying the dilf will make our horny fans happy)

But like. You can show Dracula's humanity without painting him as such a sad meow meow.

It is said that there was a deplorable incident. Those who did it, those who saw it, those who didn't stop it, the one who created the world, all are equally guilty.

The pain of loss  Distorted overflowing resentment Unquenchable sorrow  The claws of a trembling fist pierce the palm  Becoming a bloody hammer of violence

Gaining what was lost A power as big as sadness A person who rebels against the creator of an existence that will never be lost

One page has the narration describing Dracula's "unquenchable sorrow" that turns his fist into a "bloody hammer of violence"...

"Please, I beg of you, I’m human too!"

"My nourishment is human life and mistakes. I will disappear when humans perish…"

And the next one will have Dracula severely punish his General for daring to question him in his cruel plan for revenge.

And he'll still show some vulnerability to Isaac, but apparently he was okay with him killing Hector and bringing his head back.

And then there's the ending of SoTN, where Dracula finally asks Lisa forgiveness, but not after nearly killing his son and even swearing to wipe away his "vulgar blood" in Japanese. And then there are the implications, most obvious in Grimoire of Souls, that even Dracula has grown tired of being forced to come back over and over, but shows no sign of remorse.

[...]

It may not be shown in depth as NFCV does, but even if more is left to imagination, the games do a much better job at walking the line between "Dracula is the Devil incarnate, a spiteful monster who only desires death and destruction" and "Dracula is the former shell of a man who was broken by grief and cannot let go of his pain".

So yeah. I'm not impressed by the show trying too hard to make me cry for its ineffective, pathetic, pitiful version of Dracula.

[sitp-recs]

Masterclass in smut 🔥

Happy Friday everyone! As promised, here’s a multishipper/multi-fandom smutty reclist with my personal wank bank favorite ships doing the nasty and being 100% unapologetic about it. I could maybe split these between 2 categories, evocative and downright problematique filth - y por que no los dos??? Naturally, everything’s (very) Explicit here. Bon Appétit my horniessss

Has the Touch by professorfangirl (Bond/Q, 007, 2k) - the sexiest, most intimate and organic smut I’ve ever read, #writing goals

Bond is good with his hands.

Slip Free of My Grasp by @lqtraintracks (Harry/Sirius, HP, 3.5k) - 1st person pov goals, sinful and redeeming at once. This Sirius holds my heart

I don't want to be bad for him. I want to do bad things and still be, somehow, inexplicably, good.

Sardines by @shiftylinguini (Scorbus + Jeddy, HP, 4k) - a masterpiece with impeccable atmosphere, no one has ever made borderline incest feel so light & playful

It’s bad enough his cock is hard from listening to the impromptu midnight pornography of his brother getting off; Albus is not going to add seeing it to the list of reasons why he lost his mind, and presumably his eyesight, on the eve of his grandmother's seventieth.

Tremolo by Lilsoshie, marose (Tony/Peter, MCU, 4.3k) - stream of consciousness smut with insatiable Tony and exhausted af Peter

“You’re gonna ride me,” Tony decides, easing his fingers free and cherishing the unhappy whine the move inspires. “Up, come on.”

The Lies We Live With by @bixgirl1 (Jeddy, HP, 5k) - peak angsty smut, just the tip has never hurt this much :(

It doesn’t really count… is almost always followed by a lie, James learns, growing up.

Honeyboy by dollylux (Wincest, Supernatural, 6k) - filthy underage semi-public incest, see y’all in hell 🤠

While John's running an errand in the backwoods in Louisiana, Sam finds a way to keep Dean occupied. (Sex kitten!Sammy and trying-so-hard-to-be-good-in-public-and-failing!Dean.)

Ravishing by Miss_Lv (Newt/Percival, Fantastic Beasts, 7.6k) - give me dead dove like this or give me nothing!!!

Theseus holds a dinner party at his home and once Newt plays his part, he escapes, unaware he has an admirer following him.

Toeing the Line by @shiftylinguini (Tedrarry, HP, 8k) - nothing gets me more into Harry/Teddy than watching Harry watch Draco fuck Teddy. Filthy & sweet but really, this is here for the brilliant title plus daddy kink

Draco wasn’t sure why watching his partner fuck Teddy until he screamed was somehow less morally iffy for Harry than just doing it himself, but Draco wasn’t about to judge. Not when he was balls deep, anyway.

Only As Directed by rageprufrock (Hartwin, Kingsman, 12k) - possessive love is knowing how to share :)

“Arthur is a bad man,” Roxy had said. “Fucking tell me about it,” Eggsy had muttered, and gone to put on the tarty trousers Harry had picked out for him like a fucking high-end pimp.

Burned Silk, Buckled Leather by @ruinsplume (Sirius/Draco, HP, 12k) - stunning catharsis smut, liberating and full of kink positivity

When Sirius discovers a down-and-out Draco Malfoy lurking around the edges of a Muggle kink club, he thinks he knows just what Draco needs. He isn't expecting to run into some long-buried needs of his own.

Euphoria by birdsofshore (Scorbus + Dralbus, HP, 22k) - my go-to wank material, dilf Draco can step on my face anytime

A fire is prickling in the pit of my belly. I feel a little like I'm watching this happening to someone else. Al's sitting there, reeking of another man's sweat and come. He looks miserable and anxious... but also well-fucked. I look at his mussed hair, his bitten lips. I've never wanted him more.

From Thy Bounty by feyrelay, natureboy (Tony/Peter, MCU, 32k) - masterclass in both building and resolving sexual tension

Tony’s eyes are always dark, but now there's almost no iris left. He looks hollowed out. There’s something terribly hungry there, despite the feast they've filled themselves on.

Sötnos by Miss_Lv (Newt/Percival, Fantastic Beasts, 37k) - exquisite world building, blows my mind every time

Newt was expelled from Hogwarts but his parents managed to get him into another school, Durmstrang. There, Newt is taken under wing by the kind Professor Graves, who teaches him everything he needs to know about making new friends.

Heart Toward the Highway by Edwardina (Jo Harvelle/John Winchester, Supernatural, 43k) - the only F/M story you’ll ever need to read, I promise

Jo, fresh out of high school, has left home and wound up on the road with John, trying to learn the ropes from someone who isn't exactly sharing and caring. John, distant and impatient, isn't really a partner, friend, or role model -- which means that Jo's gotta get all stupid and hot for him. Their stoic apprenticeship starts to unravel as Jo starts to run out of clothes and John can't ignore her anymore.

Breezeblocks by hellhoundsprey (Supernatural RPF, 59k) - I have no idea how I found this, I don’t even read RPF. if you’re into cuckolding + humiliation: it doesn’t get any better than this

After months of doubts and suspicions, Jake ends up catching his husband red-handed when he comes home early one Friday afternoon. A/B/O

[ao3gobi17]

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD! THAT WAS BRILLIANT! When I saw the notification about the new chapter I literally felt my heart drop 😅 I can't imagine a better ending to this story! I'm so happy with what Quaritch did for Spider, with Spider not giving Wainfleet away .. basically everything that would take me an hour to write ♥️ thank you, thank you for writing this absolute masterpiece 💙 I wonder what college Spider will go to in the future. And who will get what sentence, if you've thought about it please share. Do you plan on returning to this AU at some point, writing additional scenes or Quaritch's POV?

Thank you so much!! I’m so glad you enjoyed 🥳🤩

I wanted to do my best by Spider so I’m glad you felt he got his best possible outcome! (I should clarify that he didn’t give Wainfleet up about the cheesecake thing but otherwise he did.. I think you were maybe referring to the cheesecake though!)

I’m not sure what Spider will do for college. I think he’s still finding his feet in some respects and he has a busy schedule, so I don’t think he’s had time to think about it. I could see him potentially not going to college if he finds something else he wants to do. He is no longer shackled to any system ☺️

Sentencing mostly depends on the court system. I decided not to dig in deep on the research for that. Also there is room for manoeuvre because this is fiction. I think Q gets convicted but the judge gives him the easiest sentence open to him and also the 9 years are deducted. I could see the Peter Ellis four maybe being counted as self-defence too. Its probably still many years. I think the other four also get sentenced and I don’t think Spider saying Lopez and Fike were kinder to him than Walker and Ja goes for much. I reckon Prager eventually gets arrested when he arranges to see his sons in the future. Zdinarsk, Mansk and Wainfleet continue to evade capture.

I might do the odd drabble on tumblr but I don’t have any plans to return to Custody in any meaningful way. It’s all over ☺️☺️ <3

[carverl]

I've been rewatching the Indiana Jones films and decided to rank them from least favourite to my absolute favourite, I'd like to note that despite what negative things I may have to say I don't think there is a bad movie in this franchise which is kind of a miracle. I love all of them to some extent, this series means the world to me, and I feel the entertainment industry is lucky to have it.

5. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I really love the first two acts of this movie; the 50s setting is fun, Harrison Ford is great as ever, Cate Blanchett plays a great villain, the action is fun and energetic, and despite how much of a shitty person Shia LaBeouf is his performance as Mutt Williams is honestly really great. Then they get to the jungle in the second half and it all starts to fall apart. The car chase is pretty terrible, the giant ants are creepy but kind of just meh and the conclusion feels very underwhelming. I will say that I don't agree with the criticism that there being aliens is a bridge too far, it's about as plausible as any of the other supernatural stuff so it doesn't feel out of place to me. Overall a fun movie just a bit messy in its third act. 6/10

4. Dial of Destiny

I was so anxious to watch this one, all I'd heard from people was that it was terrible and another wasted legacy sequel, so imagine my surprise when I sat down to watch it and found it's actually brilliant. It feels like a proper finale to the series and does a lot of interesting things with Indy and makes him more compelling in this film than he's been since Last Crusade. Mads Mikkelsen plays my favourite Indy villain in Jürgen Voller, who is intimidating yet ever so slightly campy. I love him, and his plan is so bonkers and off the wall it's amazing. Helena is a brilliant supporting character, and I love how she's kind of like a young Indy with her own version of Shortround. The overall message of the film plus how it deals with Indy's age and the ending made me cry, I felt it was truly something special. That being said, I didn't like the CGI young Harrison Ford at the start of the movie, as well as how a lot of the once practical stunts are now completely CGI, but that aside I love this film. 8/10

3. Raiders of the Lost Ark

The classic that started it all, I'm not gonna say much about this film mainly because I feel like out of all the films I have least to say about this one. It's really great with phenomenonal action, music, acting, and pacing. An adventure for the ages, everything that could possibly be said about this movie has been said. It's a masterpiece. So why is it not at the top? Mainly cause I like the next two more, nothing against this film but I feel later entries improve on what's already there. Still the most quintessential adventure film of all time. 9/10

2. Temple of Doom

My hot take is that Temple of Doom is better than Raiders and I will die on this hill. This movie is a thrill ride from start to finish with some of my favourite characters in the whole franchise; I love Shortround and think he's a great sidekick to Indy, I love Willie she's such a great comedic foil and her line delivery never fails to crack me up, Mola Ram is basically the devil himself with how genuinely evil he is compared to the other bad guys he seems to be relishing in his evil. The camp fun of this movie mixed in with genuine horror imagery and elements make it utterly unforgettable to me, I know for some people it's too mean spirited but I kind of love that about it. Harrison Ford is so great here too, he is an absolute delight in this movie in every scene. The action is unmatched in the rest of the series here with the mine cart chase and bridge collapse being series highlights for me. Overall, it's just a brilliant bit of fun that while not being very deep has such great entertainment factor that I adore it. 9/10

1. The Last Crusade

I must have watched this on VHS so many times as a kid, I was constantly rewatching Last Crusade so I have a nostalgic bias for this movie, but so what? This movie means so much to me personally, its themes of obsession and fatherhood are beautifully executed. Getting Sean Connery, James Bond himself, to play Indy's father was a genius move by Spielberg the presence of Henry Jones sr elevates this film to the stratosphere for me. The story and characters are absolutely perfect, the action is as great as ever, the character of Indiana Jones himself is at his peak in this movie with how we learn so much about his past with that incredible opening sequence with young Indy. My only slight criticism is that the main villain, Walter Donovan is the weakest of the series, but even that's made up for by Elsa, who plays the role as both villain and love interest brilliantly. I love this movie to death. 10/10

"Indiana, let it go."

[itisineffabledarling]

Good Omens Book Quote #1

This is one of my favorite quotes from @neil-gaiman 's and #TerryParchett 's book Good Omens. It is about my favorite angel, Aziraphale and it goes as follows:

"Many people, meeting Aziraphale for the first time, formed three impressions: that he was English, that he was intelligent, and that he was gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide. Two of these were wrong; Heaven is not in England, whatever certain poets may have thought, and angels are sexless unless they really want to make an effort. But he was intelligent. And it was an angelic intelligence which, while not being particularly higher than human intelligence, is much broader and has the advantage of having thousands of years of practice.

Aziraphale was the first angel ever to own a computer. It was a cheap, slow, plasticky one, which touted as ideal for the small businessman. Aziraphale used it religiously for doing his accounts, which were so scrupulously accurate that the tax authorities had inspected him five times in deep belief that he was getting away with murder somewhere.

But these other calculations were a kind no computer could ever do. Sometimes he would scribble something on a sheet of paper by his side. It was covered in symbols which only eight other people in the world would have been able to comprehend; two of them had won noble prizes, and the other one of the other six dribbled a lot and wasn't allowed anything sharp because of what he might do with it."

--Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett "Good Omens" Pg. 194

This quoted passage says more about Aziraphale and his intelligence in a uniquely subtextual way. It suggests Aziraphale is brilliant in accounting and statistics, one of the hardest mathematical subjects to learn, understand, and comprehend, while also stating one of the very few, and/or only modern thing(s) in his bookshop is a computer most likely dating back to the late 1980s or early 1990s.

It's also particularly humorous that any tax authority agents could think that Aziraphale, a literal Angel (though they don't know it), could possibly be "getting away with a murder somewhere" due to his too-perfect tax records and brilliant accounting skills.

This book is an amazing, well-written masterpiece and an insanely good read. I laughed heartily several times while reading the book. All the characters are marvelous, funny, surreal, and easy to connect with. The story is fantastical, zany, fun, comedic, and surreal. It's a beautiful reminder that everything we hold dear could be gone instantly if an apocalyptic event wasn't adverted, though thankfully it was adverted with the help of love and friendship.

[stephaniejuhnay]

I watched a video the other day of top ten community episodes (and the five worst), and realized how nearly impossible that would be for me to do bc 90% of the show is so good to me. But I’m gonna try. I’m also gonna cheat bc it’s my post and idc.

Top 10 Best (aka my favorite) Community Episodes:

Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design - I wish I could watch this episode for the first time again because of the ride it took me on. I said it on here before but if there was only one episode I could recommend to someone from the series, it would be this. It’s so outlandish and fun that it’ll hook you into watching the series to understand how this school and these people got to this point and are just okay with it. Kevin Corrigan was a gem in this also. Anywho. The rest of these are all equally at 2 for me even tho I will be numbering them. Just understand that I love them all EQUALLY.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - another episode I wish I could watch again for the first time. To tell that story in mostly bottle episode form was brilliant. Also, the acting was top notch. Again, not a lot for them to work off of in terms of action and movement, so for it to be SUCH a compelling episode with them just sitting around the study room table is just a testament to the brilliance and vision of Dan and the writers and the cast. And the Russos for directing this masterpiece.

Remedial Chaos Theory - I know this is going to be a shocker, but this is an episode I wish I could watch again for the first time. Darkest timeline intro. Cigarette gag. Pizza dance. Toilet olives. Arguably Troy’s most iconic gif (he has many). What else do I need to say?

Cooperative Calligraphy - again. Bottle episode brilliance. And the twist of it all! I remember watching it and being dumbfounded by the end. But also so heart-warmed at how the group overcame. It’s always the heart in this series that wins no matter how insane the premise might be.

Basic Lupine Urology- if I’m remembering correctly, this might be the first episode I watched live after restarting the series. I started when it aired but didn’t stick with it until til my mom caught Aerodynamics of Gender on a plane and said “Steph you gotta watch this episode of this show I just saw.” And the rest is history. But yeah. The deep regret I had watching this episode bc I’d deprived myself of 2 years of this show…no one was taking the swings community took and pulling it off THIS well. Super conceptual, super low stakes made to be incredibly important, and easily some of the best jokes of the season, maybe the series.

Epidemiology - I literally was stunned that they pulled off that concept so well. I think I watched again after finishing it the first time because I couldn’t believe it. This was also when we got the start of the dean’s iconic costumes, a cornerstone of this show. Also, I was legitimately scared the first time watching this! 😂

Critical Film Studies - I think this was some of the best story-telling on this show. A really sweet story at the heart of it (which is the show as a whole) wrapped in a hilarious and really creative premise paying homage to one of the most obscure movies ever.

Paradigms of Human History - for a long time, this was my favorite episode bc I couldn’t believe what they pulled off. I still can’t honestly, which is why it’s second on my list (remember I said these are all #2 after Conspiracy Theories). When they came back and did it again in Curriculum Unavailable, I was thrilled and once again stunned. (You can count Curriculum Unavailable as part of this list I guess). Leave it to Dan to spin the clip show concept.

Contemporary American Poultry - this episode is amazing and rightfully called one of the best of season one. This episode laid the groundwork for establishing just how whimsical and insane Greendale could be, and made everything that came after it believable. It was also so incredibly heartwarming and the start of a lot of jokes that were called back.

Basic Intergluteal Numismatics - similar to the reasons I love Basic Lupine Urology. The commitment to the genre, the callback to the ACB, a one off joke from 2 seasons before, the fact that it’s still a cold case. I love it so much.

Honorable Mentions:

Modern Warfare, A Fist Full of Paintballs, For a Few Paintballs More, and Modern Espionage - I feel like the paintball run is in a league of their own and unfair to put in a top 10 list. Clearly they are amazing and amongst the best episodes of the series. And yes I purposely left out Advanced Introduction to Finality. That was not paintball. 😭

Football, Feminism, and You - this is when the show hit its stride for me when I finally went back to watch. The pacing, the writing, the actors finally figuring out who their characters were for real, Troy’s politically conservative shamefully outdated fight raps. It’s a perfect episode of television to me and to find that so early in a series is pretty amazing.

Aerodynamics of Gender - the episode that got me back into the show. I owe it so much. Also gave me one of my favorite Troy line: “worth it.”

Regional Holiday Music - again, Harmon’s (and his writers’) mind in pulling off these highly conceptual episodes that feels real to the world they built and grounded. I’m forever in awe.

Basic Human Anatomy - YES. A season 4 episode made this list. Jim Rash wrote the hell outta this episode and it was the brightest spot on season 4.

Five Worst Episodes:

I won’t elaborate on these too much bc the basic idea is that they were not good and felt contrived despite the writers trying to maintain Harmon’s world and the actors giving it everything they had. Yes they’re all from the gas leak year.

Advanced Introduction to Finality

Heroic Origins (I like to pretend none of those origins took place bc too many plot holes)

Alternative History of the German Invasion

Cooperative Escapism in Familial Relations (we deserved a better Jeff/William conflict and resolution and so did Jeff)

Conventions of Space and Time (this was a great concept that in Dan’s hands could’ve been brilliant)

[pancakehouse]

hi i’m here from your insane captive prince one shot. let me preface this by saying I DONT GO HERE. and then say i am about to… that was so good it was literally perfect balance of all things that make the perfect one shot: yearning + good background + pining + sex. and every portion was PERFECT especially well. you know. i cant say bc i know u know. hehe the way i am raving about this you’d think it was a deep character study but it’s like pure sex and i’m like hmm yes it is this thoughtful literary masterpiece that has convinced me to read this series.. but you know what. it’s practically that but told through a diff medium. a sex medium. and i stand by it. 5 star experience ur brilliant (🌚) i’m forever in awe of everything you do. and you. hehe mwah byeee (almost signed this like a letter like all my love. ahhh i cant leave ok they’re dragging me off BYEEE)

HI I LOVE YOU SO BADDDD (girl relax) (no never!!)

this is so nice.. awkward smile.. yuck !!! but thank u my sweet for ur hand holding (we should always be holding hands just like.. those other two..) i would likely have collapsed into a fit of mortification otherwise and ALSO well my personal fav part was “if that will be all” haha like what a line there amiright !!! clever witty charming it says everything it blows the story wide open 😋😋 endless kisses my silly star serena .. All My Love,

🧚‍♀️

[tossacointoyourhotmess]

What's the best book to film adaptation you've ever seen?

This is a tough one cause that depends on if you’re asking in terms of direct book accuracy or in terms of a brilliant book has inspired a brilliant movie even though there are differences.

Let’s look at some examples.

Jurassic Park

I’m a Jurassic Park fanatic. I love the movie so much. Its a comfort movie for me, and I’ve seen it so much I can recite the whole damn thing to you. It’s a book adaptation I’m obsessed with.

Is it a phenomenal movie based on a book? Yes.

Is it book accurate? It’s not even close. Characters die in the movie that live in the book and vice versa. Character relationships are completely changed. Characters themselves are completely changed. Would you believe me if I told you that Gennero the snivelling lawyer is actually really macho and brave in the book? There are entire sections that don’t make it into the movie but end up somewhere else the movie franchise in a somewhat different but still recognisable form. And the entire book was switched from a genuinely scary survival horror into a family friendly action adventure.

So in terms of brilliant book to brilliant movie, it’s one of the best. In terms of book accuracy, it’s one of the worst because it bears very little resemblance.

The Middle Earth Saga

I’m going to start with The Hobbit trilogy here because people love to shit on that as not book accurate. And it’s not. But is actually brilliant on lore accuracy, and I will explain that.

There are things that happen in that trilogy that do not happen in the book. If you read The Hobbit, and only The Hobbit, you will not find half of the movie trilogy. However, if you read the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, you will find the movie events in there. And these events were happening at the same time as the events in The Hobbit.

You don’t find out in The Hobbit what Gandalf was doing when he wasn’t with the company, but you do find out exactly where he went and what he was doing in the appendices. And it’s the same as the movies. You don’t see how Gandalf and Thorin meet in The Hobbit, but you can read about it in The Unfinished Tales by JRR Tolkien. And it’s the same as the movies.

Peter Jackson went beyond the confines of one book to build The Hobbit trilogy because he wanted to show what was happening with all the characters, so he went deep into Tolkien lore so that he could tell the whole story. Because The Hobbit is a children’s book. Yes, it’s the official prequel to The Lord of the Rings but it is not meant to be as intense. Jackson wasn’t making a children’s movie. He was making a prequel to his masterpiece trilogy so he pulled all the intense adult drama from the wider lore while keeping the children’s story of the quest for Erebor, with trolls and dragons and gold, intact. And yeah, throwing Legolas in there and creating Tauriel was a decision, but such is the way with adaptations. Sometimes they change things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But on the whole, I think The Hobbit Trilogy is a pretty good adaption of Tolkiens lore even though it’s quite wide of The Hobbit itself.

The Lord of the Rings. What can I say? It’s another one I’m obsessed with. Everything about it is phenomenal. The scenery, the acting, the music, the atmosphere, the sheer scale of it. But even the extended editions are slim lined compared to the books.

I wish we had Tom Bombadil. I wish we had the Barrow-wrights on the Barrow downs. Glorfindel deserves better. So does Beregond. And if you don’t know those names, that’s exactly why I say they deserve better. The Scouring of the Shire would honestly have been amazing to see. And where were the rest of the Dúnedain?

But some changes made to the adaptations work well. In the books, none of the Númenór descended men have beards. Actually, in Tolkien lore, these Men of Westernesse cannot actually grow facial hair. But can you imagine Aragorn, Boromir, and Faramir without their beards? It’s such an iconic look now that it’s hard not to. But they are absolutely clean shaven in the books. Even the very brief glimpse we see of Elendil at the Last Alliance shows him with a beard. What we see of Isildur shows him with a beard. But these two are not even descendants of Númenór. They are Númenór, or rather what’s left of it. They don’t have beards.

Arwen is a blink-and-you-miss-her character in the books. You see her at a Rivendell party in the corner of the room, and then at her wedding to Aragorn. That’s it. And these references maybe take up a total of 4 lines, if that. But she’s a significant aspect of the movie trilogy. Is that book accurate? Absolutely not. Is it a good change? Definitely. Side note; I bet you didn’t know she had brothers if you’ve only seen the movie. Elrohir and Elladan also deserve better.

As Gandalf and Pippin speed across Middle Earth on their way to Minas Tirith, they see the beacons already lit. Denethor had the good sense to call to Rohan for aid before Gandalf even turned up to tell him there was a problem. But Pippin lighting them against Denethor’s wishes is such a good moment in the movie that no one’s really arguing about that change. Denethor’s madness and cruelty is given more explanation in the book and it makes more complex, more interesting, and you can begin to understand how he ended up like that. But they just don’t tell you any of it in the movies. I’m not saying Denethor deserved better cause he doesn’t and I hate him, but it would’ve been more interesting if the movies allowed him to stay a complex prick rather than be a 2D one.

I could keep going but I’ve already written an essay 😅

TLDR: Jurassic Park and The Middle Earth saga come to mind but not in terms of book accuracy. But then, in the end, it’s very hard to find a completely book accurate adaptation.

[starlit-selkie]

Namielle Marine Biology Post

Hello fellow hunters!!!

I’ve been wanting to rant about this for a little while so I’m doing it to all of you :D!

This post is gonna be about the elder dragon Namielle, and why she’s just an absolute masterpiece of a design for a sea related dragon.

As a zoology student who’s hoping to work in marine biology, Namielle immediately stuck out to me. I’m always a fan of deep sea based designs, but namielle was different because of how *real* all of her little adaptations felt. It felt to me like the team that designed her didn’t just slap colors and lights on her wherever, but took the time to understand why deep sea animals have the adaptations that they do, and to think about how that would apply to this creature. This isn’t a post that’s entirely about in-universe ecology of namielle, as monster-huntologist has already done a brilliant post on that, but instead it’ll be about various design elements on namielle, the creatures I think they’re inspired by, and how those adaptations work. This is going to be an incredibly long post, but I hope it’s interesting to y’all and that you maybe learn something new from it! So let’s get into it!

A quick disclaimer that I make no claim to be an expert in marine biology. I’m just passionate about it, and I’m not a professional yet. Plus, the nature of science is that we never really know everything, especially not for certain, so this information might become out of date or just be flat out wrong.

I’m going off of the assumption that Namielle is able to live both underwater and on land. We fight her in the coral highlands, but she has so many sea-specific adaptations that it’s hard for me to believe she’s purely a land dwelling creature. Perhaps there’s access to the sea somewhere in the lower coral highlands (assuming the highlands is bigger than the area we can access in game) or near the vale, or there’s underground water. For living on land, I’m going to assume that either she’s able to use the same system that allows her to contain water for attacks for breathing on land, that she has lungs as well as gills, or that elder dragons can just live wherever the hell they want.

I’m also applying the logic of “fuck it, it’s an elder dragon” to how namielle can exist in these environments that have wildly different pressures, since the coral highlands is, well, a highlands, and the deep sea is very high pressure. It’s an elder dragon, don’t worry about how it can just ignore pressure I guess. Anyways, on to things I *can* somewhat explain.

First, we’ll start with her body coloration. The dorsal (top/back) side of her body is black, and the ventral (bottom/belly) side of her body is paler. This is a type of camouflage called *counter-shading*. It’s exhibited by a ton of sea creatures, like orcas and various porpoises/dolphins, sharks, manta rays, and many more! the way it functions is simple but incredibly effective. Let’s say you were swimming in the ocean, and a Namielle was directly below you. As you look down, you only see the dorsal (back) side of her body, so it’s a black shape against the dark water below you. If you were directly below her, you’d see her ventral side, so a pale blue against the light water above you. Here’s a couple of drawings I did to help explain this (I did these in like 5 minutes, I’m fully aware that they’re absolute garbage lol)

Similarly, all of the lights on Namielle are on the underside of her body. This allows her to use another form of camouflage called counter-illumination, which species like squids and various fish exhibit as well. When seen from below, the lights would help merge her shape with the light scattering through the water above the prey. This would be especially effective when the namielle is in an enraged state, when the entire underside of the wings light up in ripple-like patterns. This picture from Wikipedia shows the general idea of this method.

Let’s talk a little bit more about those lights. Bioluminescence is quite common in deep sea animals, and for a wide variety of speculated reasons. The lights on Namielle closely resemble that of a comb jelly, which is a fascinating group of ctenophores (so not a true jellyfish, just related to them!) Though in the case of some comb jellies, they aren’t actually bioluminescent, but rather the comb rows within their body are incredibly reflective and scatter light like a prism as they move in the water. Since namielle has this effect on land, and we can see it happen in the dark, I’m pretty sure she is actually bioluminescent, but I could be wrong. The cells that would create this effect are called photocytes, and in ctenophores they often use calcium to activate specific proteins called photoproteins in order to generate light.

There’s a whole bunch of reasons why namielle could have these lights. They provide some counter illumination as mentioned earlier, but that’s almost certainly not the only reason. Namielle could use them for communication with other members of the species, since having specific patterns of lights would make finding each other easier in the complete and utter blackness of the deep ocean. Namielles could also use these lights like an anglerfish to lure in prey. Judging by their size, I’m going to assume that the namielle primarily eats fish or other similarly sized prey. Hell, they probably also can hunt on land, as food in the deep sea can get pretty scarce sometimes.

Let’s talk about namielle’s beautiful face for a bit. The shape of her head is quite flat, with the points on the sides of her head reminding me somewhat of a hammerhead shark. Her eyes are quite small, so I think that underwater she hunts primarily with other senses. Since she’s also able to live on land, I’ll assume that she does have good eyesight in both land and water, but other senses serve better in the darkest areas. It’s possible that she has organs similar to a shark’s ampullae of lorenzini, which are pores located on the snout of the shark that allow them to sense electromagnetic fields. Her long whiskers may also be used to hunt prey, similar to the vibrissae of a seal. In seals, their whiskers are so sensitive that they can catch prey just fine with little to no eyesight, it’s a really interesting adaptation that I definitely recommend reading more about if you’re curious. Back to namielle, she has a wide mouth with very interesting teeth. She seems to have two rows of teeth, so she might be constantly losing and regrowing teeth like a shark. The needle-like shape suggests that they primarily are used for ripping and shredding meat. An interesting detail I noticed is that her teeth are sort of transparent, which is a trait real deep sea creatures have. Take the dragonfish for example, its teeth are very similar to namielle’s. While it’s not been studied quite as much as I’d hoped, biologists have determined that the structure of the teeth is what makes it transparent. Their teeth lack structures called dentin tubules that are what normally give teeth their color, and also contain nanocrystal structures that most animals don’t have in their teeth. It’s theorized that their teeth are transparent for camouflage reasons, since bright white teeth would stand out against a black colored animal, potentially giving them away. Also credit to u/vers_first on Reddit for this absolutely hilarious screenshot that perfectly shows off her lovely teeth.

Another notable feature is the red coloration. Color is difficult to see underwater, since the wavelengths get absorbed by the water. Red is the first color to disappear, becoming dull grey at around 15-20 feet below the surface depending on water conditions. The amount of red coloration on namielle’s body, like on the wings and head, mean that when submerged in water namielle can become nearly invisible, only the blue/white and black on her body visible enough to be used for camouflage, as well as the lights. This image from the official artworks is a pretty good representation of what a namielle would look like while glowing and below ~20 feet of water. As you can see, it basically just disappears except for the lights.

Namielle is able to store water within its body, and likely mix it with saliva or mucus to produce the slime that they shoot when threatened or hunting. This likely isn’t something that namielle can do indefinitely, it’d probably need to drink lots of water to maintain this on land, and in the sea it’d get its water supply from the food that it eats. In fact, while I was reviewing my footage of namielle, I noticed that I seem to have caught her drinking/absorbing water from the blue sponge corals in the highlands!

Though, it’s likely that it doesn’t use the slime when in the sea, since goo projectiles don’t work super well underwater. It’s likely that she uses another specialization to hunt when under water: electricity!

Those who have dived into the world of monster hunter ecology likely know about the theory that thunder element is very risky for monsters to use since our nervous systems run on electricity and generally don’t react well to more of it, and that most monsters that do use electricity either have adaptations to protect themselves (like khezu using their tail to ground their bodies, or astalos being adapted to just continue to function with high amounts of their piezoelectricity shocking themselves) or by not actually generating electricity within their bodies (like zinogre’s symbiotic relationship with thunderbugs, or tobi-kadachi generating static forces in its fur)

This isn’t the case with namielle, as being an elder dragon means it can basically do whatever it wants. Namielle canonically has a special organ within its body that creates electric charge. I’m going to assume that this functions similarly to an electric eel. Those guys have special disc shaped cells called electroplaques that produce charges, which are released when a specific neurotransmitter is produced. More specifically, the nerve terminals on the organ create transient paths for the electricity that connect the inside and the outside of the cells, turning each individual cell into a miniature battery. These batteries all activate each other in a cascading effect, producing a shock in just nanoseconds. But you may be wondering why these eels (and thus namielle) don’t just fry their own nervous system with all this electricity. Truth is, we aren’t entirely sure how they don’t, but here’s what we do know. The electric cells are structured inside the body in such a way as to create a parallel circuit that is separated from important organs such as the heart and the brain, which significantly reduces the danger. They also don’t shock randomly, only when they need to. They can also shift their bodies to prevent just nailing their heart with the electric current. However, they likely feel something when they discharge a shock, since they have electroreceptors and contract their muscles when they shock something. Taking a look at the namielle armor, it has 15 thunder resistance. To me, this says that namielle has adapted to have some kind of insulation within their body that lessens the shock to their own systems when they use these electrical abilities.

Let’s talk about the wings now.

Namielle’s wings are made up of a membrane connected to its tail. The wings are incredibly flexible, so it probably has thin cartilage “finger bones” within the wings, or they have flat sheets of cartilaginous tissue within the wings like a manta ray. It could also be similar to the webbing of a vampire squid, where it has a tentacle structure that’s connected by a membranous web. It actually tucks its wings around itself in a very vampire squid-ish shape, which I thought was pretty neat. The edges of the wings have tentacle like structures, but I’m unsure how prehensile these are.

Namielle seems to have a skeletal structure similar to that of a seahorse, where it is made up of overlapping plates of bony materials beneath the skin rather than the shape that we usually think of as bones being. The seahorse in this image is very dead and has been dried out, which allows us to see the structure of the boney plates while still having skin over them. You can see the resemblance to the seahorse especially on the face and the legs, notice the ridged texture. These bones are very flexible and are able to slide and bend around and against each other, giving the namielle structure and armor. This armor is especially effective against crushing, since the force of a blow is distributed throughout the skeleton. This however is less effective on spots where the bones are smaller and thinner/more spread out, such as the legs, head, and underbelly, hence why those are the main weak spots in addition to breakable wings and a severable tail.

Speaking of the tail, the way it’s connected to the wings suggests to me that it uses is to balance itself in the water, as well as perhaps for steering. This has the advantage of working in both air and water, since flying and swimming are surprisingly similar.

The sounds that namielle makes are very interesting, as they resemble the sounds made by marine mammals like seals, dolphins, and orcas. For neat examples, listen to the spaceship-like sound of an adult weddell seal, as well as various orca calls. Namielle is incredibly intelligent (basically sapient since it’s an elder dragon) and these sounds are likely used for communication.

Overall, namielle is a brilliant example of a fantasy creature that’s designed with a basis in reality, since after all reality is often stranger than fiction.

That’s all I have for now, but if I think of any more details I’ll come back and edit this post. If you have anything to correct or add, please let me know, I’d love to talk about this more!

[a-petitefairy]

Adorbsproject : A day in My Life as Employee.

by Isabella Audynna (@Karnna on X)

another day, another campaign! my morning starts with the usual struggle to beat traffic while mentally preparing for whatever chaos awaits. first stop: the office pantry, where i bump into Enma from the copywriting team, who’s already three sips deep into her second coffee (#tmi: she claims it’s her ‘creative fuel to write’). then comes our daily huddle, led by our boss at the Marketing Division, Kak Gatot, who has this uncanny ability to make everything sound exciting—even last-minute deadlines! he’s like a walking TED talk, honestly. by the way, my deskmates are a mix of characters: there’s Marsha, the “spreadsheet queen”, who somehow manages to turn marketing strategies into beautiful, color-coded masterpieces; Rasha, our resident trend-spotter who casually drops phrases like “this meme is going viral” while scrolling his TikTok page; and Kak Fathan, who can sell anything to anyone and never misses a chance to throw in a dad joke (no one laughs, but we love him for trying!).

by lunchtime, we’ve all survived at least one “urgent” email from the client. the group chat is flooded with food polls because no one can agree on where to eat. “let’s just go to the usual spot,” says Rasha, but then Marsha protests, “again, kak?!? i’m starting to think they know us by name.” eventually, we settle on a random café nearby where Kak Fathan tries to convince everyone to try some overpriced “marketing fuel” smoothie (it tastes like grass, by the way). post-lunch, we’re back at our desks, where Kak Gatot swoops in with an impromptu brainstorming session for the next campaign. ideas fly around like confetti—some brilliant, others just plain bizarre (yes, Kak Fathan, we know you think every campaign needs a cat mascot).

by the end of the day, the office mood shifts to. “let’s just survive until tomorrow.” Enma’s coffee cup count has reached five, Rasha’s playlist is on its third loop, and Marsha is still perfecting her latest graph. meanwhile, i—Abel—am trying to wrap up the pitch deck due tomorrow while ignoring Kak Fathan, who’s cracking yet another joke about how “marketing is just fancy storytelling with a budget.” as we all log off, Kak Gatot drops by to say, “great work today, everyone!” and suddenly, all the stress feels worth it.

honestly? life at adorbs project might be chaotic, but with this little team, every day is an adventure—and we wouldn’t have it any other way!

[bookmuseum]

[REVIEW] Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

4/5 stars (★★★★)

"I don't feel better. I feel like a meme of a clueless white person."

I'm convinced R.F. Kuang was possessed by a white woman when she wrote this book, and I mean that in a half impressed, half discomforted way. I'm seeing that some people are having difficulty separating the voice of "Junie" from Kuang's, but as I read the novel it was never difficult for me to pick out which was which. I think Kuang makes a lot of sharp, witty, and bold statements -- some of them were even metatextual, which I enjoyed -- that, at the very least, proves her intelligence as a person, scholar, and a writer. This is the first book I've read of Kuang's, and from what I can see from her oeuvre it's a bit on the unserious side, but even in Yellowface I could tell I'm listening to a woman who knows her craft well and has dedicated a lot of thought on even the most simple turns of phrase or throwaway comments present in the text. Not every novel is a masterpiece, and this certainly wasn't, but I believe it showed off her talents all the same.

I had fun with Junie as the unreliable narrator of narrators. I hated her, but I hated pretty much everybody in the book. I never once liked Athena, anyone on Junie's publishing team, or even the people like Candice who were rallying for Junie's downfall. Everybody was grotesquely unlikeable, condescending, pretentious, and just overall bad vibes, which made the commentary on narrative and "what story people will believe" all the better and more hard-hitting for me. It doesn't matter who's right or what's true, it matters who has the balls to survive in such a cutthroat world that always has its eyes and claws on you and everything you say. (C'est la publishing and promoting yourself in this hellscape of influencers, marketing, and late-stage neo-capitalism, I suppose). Yellowface, especially near the end, becomes dystopic, thriller, and horror in its implications and ruminations on a litany of things like race and gender politics, "maybe-rape," online surveillance, cyber bullying, etc. It's a very timely novel. The discourse felt satirical -- almost darkly absurdist in many ways, but I've been online -- specifically in online bookish communities -- to know Kuang was drawing from real life when she wrote this book. It really is a shitshow out there. The "Twitterati" comments, exchanges, and developments all turned out exactly like I'd expected it to based on years of disillusioned experience. The (melo)drama was a large reason why I enjoyed this book: it's criticism and even satire of the bookish online community, the "Twitterati," the modern-day publishing industry and its problem with tokenism (amongst other things), and the horror and loneliness of trying to "make it" in the digital age … All of it was masterfully done. Granted, I think Kuang's portrayal of Junie's world is overexaggerated and even contorted to somewhat extreme proportions, but the spectacle of it kept me reading.

I liked how the book started out as Junie's shitty self defending manifesto, and then suddenly it was deep, multilayered introspection on the themes of guilt, authorship, sociopolitics, etc. I also loved the Lady Macbeth motif (The parts when Junie keeps fruitlessly refreshing all her social media feeds knowing nothing is going to happen except plunge her deeper into her downward spiral was a great reworking of the infamous handwashing scene). I think some of the best parts in the book where when Junie was at her worst and when you realize she's truly lost her marbles nearer the end; it's really when Kuang is at her most ruthless and observant. (I snorted out loud every time she "concluded" she was" the victim). Overall, Junie's characterization was brilliant, though I will say it was a bit on the flat side. I wished Kuang expanded more on her relationship with her family, her childhood, and why she loved writing so much, but I think she meant to deliberately keep that side of Junie hidden to maintain her unlikeable nature. (And I'm honestly not overeager to learn about the autobiographical facts of an upper middle class Ivy League graduate white woman who's simultaneously so self-aware yet so incredibly out of touch. I don't think Kuang wanted to either). Her unnecessary, microaggressive comments on how much she hated Chinese food and the smell of it, her insistence that what she was doing and the things she thought/believed "weren't racist" in spite of her never actually having a single moment in the book where she truly reflects on her whiteness, her "not wanting" to associate with the newfound MAGA and right-wing supporters that she accidentally gained through her own controversy but celebrating the up in sales anyway … I thought Kuang executed it really well. Junie is a realistic caricature. (I rolled my eyes when she pulled out the "reverse racism" card). Her fragile vindictiveness, along with Athena's insufferable personality and fatal success, were strikingly real. I've met both these women, and I'm sure you have too. That being said, at no point do I believe Kuang wants us to take Junie's "side" or overly sympathize with her beyond what's humanely obligatory. The same treatment was kind of given to Athena. As an Asian person (albeit a Southeast Asian one), I feel for her words, ideas, and concepts being "stolen" by a white "colleague," and I can understand the pressure she must've felt in that glitz and glamour world she surreptitiously maintained until her literal final moments. But I hated her all the same.

I have a lot more thoughts on the racial commentary in this book, as well as how Kuang is both astute yet also limited in her observations about the publishing industry, literacy, and popular media + cultural climate as it is inside and outside of social media. I don't want to get into them on here, however. I do think that Yellowface panders more to a "liberal," white feminist audience rather than a minority one, in spite of all my praise for it on here. As someone involved in the literary realm and its age-old discourses, I found this book entertaining and interrogative; definitely worth its bestseller status. As a brown Southeast Asian woman who both Junie and Athena wouldn't have ever given a second glance, I'm quite tired of having these same basic conversations over and over.

[safetycar-restart]

So he can’t be teased!! No no no!! He knows he’s a stupid little bunny, he knows!! So you can’t tease him about it, you have to help him!!

mhm. he's stupid. he has a little, peanut sized brain. no thoughts in it. he just wants mommy and pierre to think for him. himbo. poor, sweet himbo charles.

what gets me is the fact that he KNOWS he's a stupid little bunny. he acknowledges it, and he accepted his fate. he is stupid. he knows and he embraces it, actually. when he can't form a sentence, and instead he tries to communicate with you through his facial expressions, you'd tell him "poor bunny, can't even form a sentence, hm? so pretty and dumb for mommy." and he just nods. yes, he's pretty. he's gorgeous, actually. and yes, he's dumb. why would you have to be smart if you're pretty?

and he LOVES when you point it out. but he doesn't like you teasing him about it 98% of the time. he's okay when you tell him so in bed, but when he's having an actually hard time? oh god, please no! your poor baby bunny! he'll be in tears! the sweet thing cannot handle that, he needs your help and your cuddles. when he tries to help, tries to think of something and come up with something good, he actually tries. because he wants to help, he wants to make you happy. so it's not exactly nice being told you're dumb when you're trying to be helpful. so you don't do that, instead, you help him and try figure it out together. your bunny tries his best!

(himbo!charles is my everything he is so bbg i love himbos)

- 📓

Right I have two things to say. Firstly, himbo!Charles is now a tag because I love it and I need more. Secondly, I cant believe you sent me this masterpiece and then immediately sent me an ask saying you haven't been inspired or writing well. Because uh... THIS IS FUCKING BRILLIANT I LOVE IT?? FUCK OFF WITH THE NOT BEING ABLE TO WRITE THIS IS A MASTERPIECE.

Anyway, lets move on to the actual content of this ask.

Charles has never been the quickest of thinkers, but that gets so much worse when he's with his Pierre and his mommy. The moment he's alone with you and Pierre, he just relaxes so much and his little braincell turns off because he doesnt need to think with you and Pierre around.

He's your little bunny!! Little bunnies dont have to think!! Little bunnies just have to listen to their mommies and their Pierres and be good!!! That's it.

He loves when you and Pierre call him out on that during scenes, because it just makes him feel so safe and subby? It's never framed as a bad thing, and you and Pierre always make it very clear that you're going to look after Charles so that he doesn't have to think for himself.

Charles truly feels so happy and loved!! The happiest dumb little bunny in the world.

However, it's not the same outside of scenes.

Because Charles genuinely does struggle sometimes. He has to put so much effort into speaking sometimes, because it's so much easier to just let you and Pierre take control.

Normally, he has no problem letting you and Pierre make all the decisions for him. But when he actually tries to make a contribution and struggles to do so, then you can't tease him. He'll start crying if you make fun of him, will feel so bad and so stupid and useless.

He needs you to help him then, to hold his hand and tell him you believe in him and give him all the time he needs. He can be a smart bunny! Really, he can!

But he gets so overwhelmed and scared so easily when he tries to make his own decisions, and so he needs you or Pierre to help him calm down. Give him some forehead kisses and cuddles and help him make some slow, deep breaths.

Of course he gets so much praise when he does manage to say what he wanted to!! He did so well!!

Though the praise just turns his little mind to mush and he ends up whining and squirming in your lap.

[sitp-recs]

HP Rec Fest, Day 30

Here we come with more @hprecfest! Today I’m only reccing rare pairs since I couldn’t think of any pre-canon Drarry fics 🤔 I wonder if canon divergent / canon rewrite applies?? I don’t read them often either way, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to boost lesser known fics. I think this is my favorite rec post for the fest so far - there’s something so poetic in reccing these two specific fics alongside each other since Little Compton Street verse was my first (unforgettable, devastating) contact with Prongsfoot and 5 years later here I am reading them again - this time welcoming the pain. More embarrassing emosh blabbing below!

Day 30) a pre-canon fic:

empire builders by shecrows (James/Sirius, E, 25k)

Say, James, he rehearses in his head. Remember that time we were both roaring drunk at the end of term, and you put your cock in my mouth, and I came so hard I still get tingly thinking about it? Was that just a one off, d’you think, or did you want to do it again sometime?

Prongsfoot my beloved 😭😭😭 sometimes I feel like I’ll never feel as strongly about a ship as I feel for them which sounds so crazy because I don’t even read it! or, well. after being utterly ruined by Winter of ‘79 (curiously a fic within LCS verse as mentioned below) I promised myself I wouldn’t look for this ship anymore bc the inevitable tragedy of it depressed me way too much. I locked them away in a secret space deep within my heart and only allowed myself to re-awaken those feelings this year, with the brilliant empire builders. what a fic! a few lines in and I was hooked and completely obsessed with Sirius’ unbelievably spot on voice, the peak friends to lovers dynamics, and the unbearable sexual tension mixing guilt and devotion (my favorite shippy combo btw). fuck, they are so young and so lovable, and so attuned to each other it makes me wanna cry. never before a 25k fic has felt so short, I’ve read it in a frenzy and couldn’t stop thinking about their love for days. the best word to describe my state after this fic is “tormented” which might as well be the best compliment I’ve ever given in a rec.

Play Me Like A Love Song by @writcraft (Minerva/Will, E, 67k)

Minerva McGonagall doesn’t believe in love at first sight, which is why her instant attraction to drag king Wilhelmina ("Will") Grubbly-Plank is so unexpected. War tears apart the wizarding world and as one battle ends Minerva and Will must fight once more, this time for the lives of their friends on Little Compton Street. A love story spanning five decades defined by music, laughter and tears, in which love is not always easy, but it’s always worth fighting for.

truly a masterpiece of lesbian fiction, this fic is more like a religious experience, bold, brutally honest, romantic, eye-opening and necessary. I never thought I’d care so much for a ship like Will & Minerva but they worked their way inside my heart and I’m deeply moved by how their story encompasses everything that’s inherent to the queer experience: love, loss, resistance and hope. there’s so much joy and grief walking hand by hand, and it is our privilege to watch the characters mature and experience life as individuals and as a couple. Writ crafts oh so thoughtfully two stunning character studies (Minerva’s voice omg, please don’t @ me on my competence kink) while taking us by the hand into the magical universe of Little Compton Street, which is so completely irresistible and healing. I adore the atmosphere, the imagery, the soundtrack, and how this seductive setting allows them to explore their queerness in such a free, proud and joyful way *getting emosh* I feel like nothing I add here will make this story justice, it’s such a poignant and transformative fic but sadly deeply underrated like it happens to so many wlw tales. I hope this rec inspires at least one person to check it out and while at it please also check the entire series with a Drarry piece and a Prongsfoot piece, a perfect trifecta!