#not going to spoilers tag this because i think honestly its fairly generic and can just be about s2 marketing in general

[thesherrinfordfacility]

what a time to be alive

[sternbilder]

Hi!! Stumbled on your blog via the buried stars tag and I'd like to say thank you so much for the kr>eng translations! There aren't many english-speaking fans so I was happy to read about the game & its characters. I was wondering, what do all the characters call each other in Korean? Or what honorifics they use? I could hear it in the audio sometimes (Gyu-hyuk: "Do-yoon-ah", or I think Seil: "Inha-ssi" ?) but I didn't catch all of them. Google tells me some of it is based off of (1/2)

(2/2) Google tells me some of it is based off of respect, friendship/closeness, or just being older/younger than one another, but I'm still new to the intricacies of what it implies about the characters' relationships and how their individual personalities are. If it isn't too much trouble, I'd love to know ^^

Hello!! You're very welcome and in fact thank you for the question, I'm always receptive to more excuses to talk about this game!

It seems like you already have some context on rules surrounding Korean honorifics. There is a lot of nuance, obviously, but to put it simply...Yes, I'd say the speech patterns the cast (particularly, the TOP5—the others are a bit more complicated) uses are what you'd see in a casual social setting between people who already know each other somewhat, but aren't necessarily friends, which is what I think I would expect from a group of twentysomethings who probably had a chance to bond socially as a cohort throughout the whole audition process (it's explained in the Q&A that they lived together in a dorm for most of the show, too). And as you've pointed out the rules there I would say are much more tied to age and closeness. I'd generally characterize their speech patterns as informal, but polite—basically, you have to use the polite form with people who are older than you, but you can use casual speech (banmal) with people who are the same age or younger. The exception is if you are close enough with someone that you mutually decide it's OK to drop honorifics despite the age difference. More on that later.

The order of the age of each of the main cast are as follows: Seungyeon (33), Juyoung (28), Gyuhyuk (27), Doyoon and Inha (25), Seil (24), and Hyesung (20). So with no other caveats we'd expect, for example, Doyoon to use polite form with Juyoung and Gyuhyuk but not with Inha and Hyesung, etc. Now, with that as the basis, here are some notes based on what I can remember, though disclaimer that my memory isn't perfect, and there are also things I might have missed because I haven't done a full playthrough yet with Korean text.

(Character spoilers for the "Other" section at the end; otherwise a few minor spoilers)

TOP5

Juyoung (28)

Juyoung is the oldest of the main cast, so she uses banmal with pretty much everyone and refers to them by name, or name + ah/ya (which is the casual vocative marker), and it's perfectly acceptable for her to do so.

The rest of the TOP5 call her 언니/누나 (unni/noona, lit. "older sister" but more generally used to refer to any slightly older female acquaintance; which one is used depends on the speaker's gender). They also sometimes call her 영이 언니/누나 (Young-i unni/noona) for short, which I thought was cute. There's actually a Q&A question that asked about this because it is a very familiar/affectionate nickname, and the director explained that Juyoung asked the others to call her that because she was afraid of seeming unapproachable due to her age and because of the fact that she was a former idol.

Gyuhyuk (27)

As the second oldest, I believe he uses banmal with everyone but Juyoung. The younger male characters all call him 형 (hyung, lit. "older brother", see above), though I can't seem to remember Inha calling him 오빠 (oppa). I might be projecting that assumption onto her based on her somewhat brash personality, since 오빠 can come off as a bit...Girlish? Cutesy? Flirtatious? in certain contexts? Idk.

Doyoon (25)

What's notable about Doyoon is that he uses the polite form with Juyoung, but not Gyuhyuk. He calls Gyuhyuk 형 (hyung), of course, but he uses the casual form, which suggests that they're close enough with each other that they've already agreed to drop formalities. Their first rapport event gives me the sense that they're especially close, too, compared to the other contestants (as does just like...waves in their general direction, but anyway,)

Inha (25)

Inha is the same age as Doyoon, so you would also expect her to use polite form with Juyoung and Gyuhyuk. However, she doesn't with either of them IIRC.

As for Juyoung, I don't remember how much of this came through in the text of the game itself, but I would guess they were probably already pretty close in a way similar to Doyoon and Gyuhyuk were. At the very least, I think I remember one of the Q&A answers indicating that they kept in touch very frequently after the events of the game.

I don't really remember too many interactions between Inha and Gyuhyuk, tbh. I do recall that she (not sure if any others do) refers to him as 규 (Gyu) at least once, which I think is adorable, LMAO. This might indicate that they may have been on close enough terms to use casual speech? But then again, she did seem to resent Gyuhyuk at least a little bit for the scholarship thing, and according to the Q&A she took much longer than Juyoung and Doyoon to see him again after the game, so??? She could just be kind of disrespectful like that, which...Kinda tracks, honestly??? 🤷‍♀️Like I said, I don't remember too much about these two, so don't take my word on this.

Hyesung (20)

Hyesung is the youngest, so you would expect him to use polite speech with everyone, but he, uh, does not. With anyone. LMAO. Maybe he's just super tight with everyone, but something tells me it's more because he's a rude little shit who's just Like That. (I mean, he uses banmal with Seil, who does hate his guts, so.) He does call everyone 형/누나 (hyung/noona), though, at least—though, now that I think about it, Seil might be an exception to that, LOL.

Since he's the youngest, everyone just calls him Hyesung.

Also, this is tangential, but I also just wanted to throw in that Hyesung notably has a slight "old man" dialect in that he sometimes uses expressions and slang that you would expect from the older generation, because growing up his only friends were the other vendors at his mom's fish market. This is unrelated to politeness, but it does come off as really funny considering how young he is, and definitely gives his speech a unique vibe.

Staff

Seil (24)

The speech patterns between Seil and the TOP5 are pretty similar to speech patterns within TOP5 itself, which is to say, fairly informal but still polite. He uses polite form with everyone older than him, and uses banmal with Hyseung. I actually wouldn't necessarily have expected this to be the case since he technically has more of a professional relationship to the TOP5 than they do with each other (so I wouldn't have been surprised if he actually used formal speech, rather than just polite), but it's probably because he's in that same age range and because he was the staff member who was closest to them socially.

I believe you are correct that he calls Inha, and Inha alone, -씨 (-ssi), which is actually formal, rather than simply polite. Probably just indicating his high level of admiration for her in particular.

The rest of the main cast just call him Seil. Hyesung also occasionally calls Seil 세일 FD님 (Seil FD-nim) which is technically extremely formal, but obviously said in sarcasm.

Seungyeon (33)

I believe she calls everyone by their full name, and uses casual speech with them. Makes sense. She's the boss.

Everyone else calls her PD님 (PD-nim, formal). Including, notably, Hyesung. AFAICR Seungyeon is the only character Hyesung shows even an ounce of deference toward in this game. 😛

Other

Suchang (27) & Suyeon (18)

AFAIK Suchang only really has in-game interactions with Doyoon and Suyeon, and Suyeon only has interactions with Suchang, who she of course calls 오빠 (oppa), in the familial sense. Though IIRC at the very end she does once refer to Doyoon as 그분 (geubun, lit. "that person") and 도윤님 (Doyoon-nim), both of which are extremely formal/deferential in tone but in kind of a "little girl talks about her crush as if they were Prince Charming" sort of way...Which causes Suchang to hilariously go into overprotective/jealous older brother mode.

The Ha siblings use casual speech with each other, which is standard among siblings. However, Suchang also talks down to Doyoon, which is pretty audacious of him considering they're strangers—he basically talks to Doyoon as if they're already friends. He's kind of an audacious guy in general, though, so I'd say that kind of fits his character.

Doyoon, on the other hand, being the polite young man that he is, uses polite speech with Suchang. There's a funny scene where he accidentally slips up and uses banmal, and then immediately gets called out by Suchang, who chews him out for talking down to someone older than him. (Though ofc Doyoon had no way of knowing this, and also, Suchang shouldn't be using banmal with a stranger in the first place.) At the very end of the true ending when they finally meet, Doyoon actually takes it up a level and calls Suchang 수창씨 (Suchang-ssi) but Suchang tells him to drop it and just call him 형 (hyung). It's sweet.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Julie and the Phantoms Theory

Wow so I just binged watched julie and the phantoms on netflix and this show is amazing, like really really fantastic. It is aimed at a younger audience than most of the series I watch but it really doesn’t matter, I do think this is a show that any age group can enjoy. The music in it is so so good and I’ve been listening to the songs on replay non stop. Also have two new ships I am obsessed with Juke and Willex. If you haven’t seen the show it is defo one I would recommend. However despite watching the whole season I have soo many questions that need answering and well anyone who has read any of my posts ever know how much I love to over analyse and obsess/ theorise about tv shows. The rest I am going to put under the tag because of spoilers so if you want to hear some thoeries/ analysis then read on, but I should warn you I am going to be talking about the sensitive topics of death and bereavement so only do so if you feel comfortable. 

 So one of the biggest questions I have is regarding the deaths of Alex, Luke and Reggie. Now I know that they die from eating bad street hotdogs and I know alot of the reason why they die that way is for the comedy aspect of it. I mean one of the many things this show did really well was balancing the comedy aspects with the emotional aspects. I appreciate that as the audience we are suppose to just accept this somewhat wacky death and go with it but well thats just not me and I kept wondering what exactly was wrong with the hotdogs that it actually killed them. Some things about it just don’t add up and I hate not knowing the answers so here are some theories I have, some more outlandish than others. 

Theory 1- Food Posioning (Honestly this isn’t really a theory but lets just go with it)

My first thought when I first watched it is the most obvious one which is they got food poisoning. I mean the place they got the hotdogs from didn’t look the most sanitary. However here’s the part that doesn’t add up for me and that is how quickly they died. We know from Alex’s comment to Willy in episode 8 that they were two hours away from going on stage the night they died. This means they had to have started showing symptoms within those two hours before the show which lead to the ambulance being called. In the first episode Reggie says that after they floated out of the ambulance they went to a dark room. The part that caught my attention here is the line about the ambulance as this tells us that they died in the ambulance before they ever got to the hospital. Now I don’t know how far away the hotdog place was from The Orpheum but I’m assuming it was fairly close considering how important the show was to them, I personally wouldn’t go too far from the venue if I had a big show in just a couple of hours.  According to my google search the nearest hospital to The Orpheum is Diginity Health California Hospital Medical Center. This hospital is only 5 mins away from The Orpheum, obviously I know this time would be effected by traffic amongst other factors but the point is the time between ingesting the hotdogs and them dying was relatively short. Which makes it unlikely that they died from food posioning. Whilst food poisoning can kill its very rare and usually takes a lot longer than a few hours I mean ordinarily it takes days. So the likelihood that all three of them would have been killed by food posioning that quickly is actually slim to none.

Theory 2- It was Premeditated.  

My next theory is much much darker and definitely more out there. It also depends on how dark they plan to go with Bobby/Trevor’s character. But we know that Bobby stays behind and doesn’t go for hotdog’s claiming to be a vegetarian (which was a lie), he also seems to be pretty eager for the other three to go. Now in the scene it seems like the reason for this is so he can be alone to filrt with Rose but what if Bobby had more sinister plans what if he had some hand in the boys’ deaths and had actually posioned them or arranged for them to be poisoned. Maybe he always planned to steal Luke’s songs and take all the credit, fame and money for himself. When Julie looks up Sunset Curve on her phone you can get a glimpse at the article she reads. In the article it says ‘There was a surviving band member, Bobby, but no one has been able to track him down...’ This article seems to have been written about a week after the night they died which shows that Bobby went under the radar pretty quickly after his bandmates died. Now again this could be explained away as Bobby grieving and wanting to stay out of the spotlight as he worked through that and that him stealing the songs was a more opportunistic act than him premeditating his bandmates murders. 

Another possible variant of this theory is that it was still an orchestrated death but it wasn’t Bobby who wanted the boys dead but Caleb. During that opening scene they were still alive and we know normally lifers can’t see ghosts so for all we know Caleb could have seen them perform and had decided then that he wanted them as his house band, he didn’t want to wait for them to die so he took matters into his own hands. We assume that the first time Caleb hears about the band is from Willie but there was that scene from the first episode where he bumps into Alex and to me it almost seems like he recognises the group. Also I don’t think its a coincidence that he bumps into them right outside The Orpheum. It could be that he knew they would show up as ghosts at some point and figured they would go back to The Orpheum when they did and so would sometimes patrol that area just waiting for them. It could also explain why he’s willing to let Willie skate around the streets of LA maybe he was hoping Willie would do exactly would he did and bump into one of the boys whether Willie was aware of this plan is a whole other kettle of fish I feel like most likely he wouldn’t have because I feel like he would have told them Caleb had sent him to find them when he told them about the jolts. Point is the whole thing could have been one big elaborate plan of Caleb’s to get the band for himself, his obsession with the band could have been bigger than what we were shown in the first season. 

The last variant of this theory could be a mixture of the previous two. Maybe it was an elaborate plan made by Caleb but with the help of Bobby. Maybe Bobby made a deal with the devil so to speak and in exchange for fortune and fame he gave up his bandmates. Maybe he even gave up his own soul too but he gets to live out his dream life first. We know through Willy that Caleb has made deals with lifers that are part of the Hollywood Ghost Club so it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to think he could’ve made a deal with Bobby. 

To be honest I’m not completely sold on this theory purely because the show is aimed at a younger audience and although it does cover some mature themes around death and bereavement I think murder might be a little too dark for its target audience. But then on the other hand they did have that storyline of Caleb trying to destroy the boys with those jolts so maybe I’m wrong.

Theory 3- The Car Battery. 

Ok so this theory I think is the most likely out of them all. When you think about what we know about the boys death and the timeline its that 1) They ate hot dogs that tasted bad. 2) They obviously started to show worrying symptoms that lead to somebody calling an ambulance, these symptoms showed up in under two hours. 3) They died in the ambulance before getting to the hospital (which was approx 5 mins away). Also from the sound of it they all died around the same time, as in all of them were in the ambulance it wasn’t a case of one of them died at the scene, another in the ambulance and another in the hospital. Meaning the effect time was pretty consistent, we know that they all took the first bite at the same time. So keeping all that in mind lets look at the scene again. The first thing I want to point out is that when the boys get the hot dogs they don’t show us them actually being handed the hotdogs, when we see them they already have the hotdogs and they are at the condiments adding their pickles and sauces. This in my opinion tells us that the hazard did not occur during the cooking process but at this moment when they were getting the condiments. Also we see Alex talking about how he couldn’t wait to eat someplace where the condiments weren’t in the back of a car. This scene opens by showing us said condiments and also whilst Alex is talking focusing in on the car battery. Right after his comment about the condiments Alex goes up to the seller and apologises for getting pickle juice on his battery cables once again this draws attention to the battery and its close proximity to the food. The seller just laughs it off stating that maybe it will help with the rust. This seems like a throw away comment but it could actually be a big clue into what happened to the boys. This tells us that not only is the battery near the food but its rusting and in a bad condition and if its in a poor condition it could be leaking. Ok so why is this important to how the boys died? Well because car batteries have sulfuric acid in them. I said before that the whole food poisoning thing didn’t add up for me because generally speaking when things go wrong during the cooking process such as something being undercooked or unclean, it doesn’t tend to kill you and in the rare circumstances if it does it usually takes days to weeks; but the chances of surviving food posioning are very high. However if someone were to ingest sulfuric acid even a couple of drops could be fatal. For examble if there was any sulfuric acid in the bottom of the trunk it could have gotton onto the utensils they used or onto the bottom of the sauce bottles which could then have tranferred over to the food. 

Also sulfuric acid usually kills a person within a few hours and can start having an effect on the body pretty much immediately. The mortality rate of sulfuric acid poisoning is very high the survival rate is only around 35% which would make it much more likely that not only did they all die but that the all died around the same time after exposure. The reason why it can kill so quickly is because it can effect the airways. Also the comment the seller made about the rust could have another possible explanation because whilst a leaking battery could have contaminated the food, sulfuric acid can also be found in some anti rust treatments. So if the seller was trying to treat the rust on the battery without removing the condiments from the trunk then that too could have created an opportunity for the food to become contaminated with sulfuric acid. 

So yeah this is my best guess at how the boys died, they accidently ingested sulfuric acid that had contaminated the condiments that had been stored next to a rusted car battery. It’s tragic and more tragic than that is that although it can only take a few drops obviously the less posion a person ingests the more chance they have at surviving. We know that even though the first bite tasted weird they continued to eat the hotdogs but if they had stopped after that first bite they might have actually survived. Obviously I’m not an expert on any of this so I could be totally wrong but to me this is what makes the most sense. 

Anyway what theories do you guys have? Also what questions are you hoping to get answered if we get a season 2 (we better get a season 2 or I’m gonna be real mad)? 

[trashcatsnark]

5 and 7 for the get to know your V thing

Ahhhhhh, thank you so much for the ask, nonny! You made my night!~  Also, SPOILER WARNING!!!!

5. how do your loved ones (LI, found family, etc) feel about you being a merc? or if you’ve given up the life now that everything’s finished, what was their reaction?

THIS GOT LONG AS FUCK AND I APOLOGIZE!!!!!!!

So, my V is a former nomad with this whole convoluted backstory about how her clan is Raffen Shiv, darwinistic asshole bastards and she left and now they wanna gut her for betraying them essentially. So, her blood family is less concerned about her career choices and more concerned with putting a bullet in her head. 

However, her found family, initially is Jackie, Misty, Viktor, and Mama Welles. Jackie’s her partner in crime and kinda brought her into it, though she was doing similar work in the Badlands already. And honestly, a part of me thinks Jack sometimes feels some guilt over that. My V is in her early twenties, fairly young, whereas I do believe Jackie is canonically 30. So, theres definitely a part of him thats like I dragged a fetus into merc work what have i done. Which is probably why he’s a little protective of her on gigs. Misty worries about them both, so does Viktor, and Mama Welles of course. And in terms of found family later on, generally speaking, they worry about her a lot. 

Judy still sees a walking corpse, scared of when V’s luck is gonna run out. I think she also struggles a lot with the dichotomy of V to her and the V she knows exists. Because after the initial, rough start of their friendship, Judy sees V as a good person who helped her. But V is also a merc, she kills for money, lives have price tags to her which seems so opposed to the same V who helped her find Evelyn who supported Judy and grieved with her. Its a weird contrast that Judy isn’t always sure what to make of. 

Goro obviously doesn’t think much of mercs, we see this in game, he’s got kind of a judgey vibe. And as he ges closer to V, I definitely think he finds himself wishing they’d switch professions, but he knows they feel the same way towards his life. He told them he can’t be taught new tricks, so, as much as he’d like to its not really fair to push them to change when he won’t either. 

Kerry is terrified of the day she goes on a gig and doesn’t come back, I feel like he’s the kind of friend to offer financial help in hoping to coax her out of it, but she refuses it every time which drives him up a wall. Because he wants to help, V has become his closest friend (other than Johnny) and between her allowing Johnny to take over for concerts or just giving them time to talk without her and her merc work leaving her always bruised, always bloodied, always with a new wound. He feels like he’s watching his best friend slowly kill herself and no matter what he can’t help her, because she won’t let him. 

River, I don’t know much of at this point, but I feel like given his job he’s seen what night city does to people, the horrors she must be facing and the danger she’s in, and wishes she’d find something safer. From what I have seen he seems to be big on like settling down, having a normal life, and I think he’d want that for V too and doesn’t always get that it isn’t something she wants. 

Panam seems to do smuggling work mostly, like a lot of nomads (most extreme job she mentions is smuggling a corpse, not being the one to pull a trigger) so she of course worries about V’s more dangerous jobs and tbh especially with my V being a former nomad; I think Panam would also almost see V as a warning sign of what could happen to her if she continues to stray from the Aldecaldos. 

And of course, Johnny worries more than he lets on. At first maybe just cause their lives are linked in some ways, but overtime it’s more because of a genuine concern for her. As ironic as it may sound for our terrorist rockerboy, it genuinely worries him to watch how much danger she puts herself in on a regular basis.It feels like despite everything they’re trying to do, she doesn’t truly care about her own life, and at a certain point it terrifies him because he can’t help but think that eventually there will come another morning and he’ll feel like something is missing and it’ll be true, that he’ll search and search for that sense of relief of having her but it will never come because she’ll truly be gone. 

7. if offered enough money/power, would you be willing to join the corpo lifestyle? if you’re former corpo, would you go back?

Not in a billion fucking years! My V was anti-corp and anti-capitalism long before Johnny came into the picture. Because she’s a nomad, she knows what led to nomad groups, it was the corps taking and destroying land. And now, the corps go on news and talk about how evil nomads are for having the nerve not to bow down and lick the corp boots. As much as she dislikes her nomad family at this point, she still agrees with certain viewpoints that were instilled in her, one of them being the dangers of corps and capitalism. And hell, if she’s being honest, she blames corps at least somewhat for her nomad family situation. Because their initial actions that spurred nomad families traveling and the continued smear campaigns on nomads helps foster the isolation of certain nomad groups, an isolation that can give leaders within these families the unchecked power to do whatever they want with no consequences. She gets why people do become corpos, why if you’re scouted out and have a chance to live a life so many never could dream of why you’d take it. When the choices are starving or licking the boot; you do what you gotta. But, for herself, she couldn’t ever compromise her morals like that. 

[shadowsong26x]

EPIX/Rise of Skywalker Reaction Post

So, I got back from seeing EPIX this morning, and I figured I should get all my thoughts down!

Everything spoilery is behind a cut, and this post is also tagged with the spoiler tags I’ve listed here. If you want me to add any additional tags, let me know and I will to this and any future EPIX posts.

Okay, so, before I really get into this, I should mention two relevant contextual things that probably strongly impacted my feelings on this movie.

I’m not super-invested in the sequel trilogy. I love (most of) the characters, I’m not really into the story that’s being told with them.

Given where TLJ left us, I went into the theatre expecting something between A Trainwreck with Some Delightful Moments and A Delightful Trainwreck. Basically, it was going to be a Hot Mess and I knew it, but I was pretty sure there was going to be something to love, even if the film as a whole didn’t delight me (which, honestly, is even where I stand with TLJ, which remains my least favorite film of the series). And, you know what? I got exactly that. A Sometimes-Delightful Trainwreck. I’d say it’s even towards the upper end of that Delightfulness scale.

All right, moving on to actual thoughts. I’m trying to focus on the positive here, mostly because I did overall enjoy this movie, but I also had some Problems with it.

I’m gonna talk about Kylo Ren first, mostly because I want to get this out of the way. I will say that--when I first saw TFA, I thought I could be interested in this character. I thought they were gonna maybe go the burnt-out gifted kid route with him, which would be hella interesting to explore for the child of Heroes like Han and Leia, and the Legacy he had to live up to. Obviously, they didn’t, and while the direction they went is certainly topical, it’s not super engaging, at least to me. I know it is to some people, and far be it from me to harsh anyone’s squee, but he basically doesn’t do anything for me. I personally don’t find him particularly interesting or intimidating.

Basically, I don’t particularly care about Kylo Ren. (I don’t know if I’m quite at the point where, as my roommate puts it, I aggressively Do Not Care, but the Not Caring is definitely a thing.)

Anyway, that disclaimer aside--his arc was okay, I guess? I mean...I think my general feelings on the subject are not that it felt phoned-in, exactly, but that it was mostly there because the writers thought it should be there, rather than it flowing organically from the character(s) involved. It also felt rushed, but that goes back to a problem with the movie as a whole that I will get into later in this post. But, given that, the actual beats that were involved in said arc I thought were effectively done. The bit with Han in the wreckage, in particular, was nice.

As for that Kiss though.

...I mean. I’m actually kind of pleased that the end of the film left the romantic threads dangling? It gave me plenty of OT3 feels (though I felt like, especially in the first third or so, the film was leaning more towards Rey/Poe and Finn/Rose, but there was some later stuff that seemed to hint at the full OT3 with a question mark on where Rose stands.)

But I do have a problem with the fact that the only on-screen kiss between Major Characters was between Rey and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo. That being said, I can backfill/justify it in that...you know how some people headcanon that Luke’s initial crush on Leia was some sort of “There is a Connection Here that I Cannot Name and it’s probably supposed to be Romantic given our ages and genders and presumed lack of other relationship so let’s go with that?” Between something like that and the fact that he just gave up his life for her in a very literal way (side note: the Force has always been New Powers as the Plot Demands; but the healing thing was a) if not actually in a canon novel at least strongly implied and b) ALL OVER fanon so even if I had a problem with Random Force Powers suddenly occurring I wouldn’t have an issue with this one; the Force Diad thing was ~handwave plot device~ sure fine whatever). ...anyway, given all of that, I can backfill it to a way where I don’t hate it (i.e., if he’d lived, I don’t think it would’ve been followed up on very much/they would’ve settled into a non-romantic relationship of some kind, whatever that might’ve been). Except that it’s the only one, which kind of leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

Then again, he did immediately die, so...yeah, I can live with this. I don’t like it, and I don’t think I ever will like it, but I don’t hate it either and it’s not a dealbreaker for me.

Most of the other problems I have with this film come down to structure and pacing. In that, thanks to where TLJ left us, this move had to do so much to bring the story to any kind of cohesive end, and not enough time to do it in. Trying to squeeze too much plot into too small a space.

(I actually had the same problem with ROTS initially--although that was more due to the PT having pacing issues as its Primary Narrative Flaw; TPM was way too slow; AOTC actually had good internal pacing but couldn’t quite make up for it; and then ROTS was as a consequence of that really rushed. Meanwhile, with the ST, I feel like the writers are relying on “it’s all there in the manual” a little too much, so not really...trying as hard, if that makes sense? To make it all connect within the film, I mean, as opposed to depending on people going into other/outside/supplemental material to connect the dots (still not as bad as the Prisoner of Azkaban movie on that front, but it’s still Bad; and, like, all film versions of novels leave some stuff out, just look at the LOTR films; but POA left out a key plot point and that--is a rant for another post. Back to EPIX). It’ll be interesting to see what kind of deleted scenes come out, or if it’ll grow on me in future watchings. Not that it’ll ever become a favorite, I don’t think, but it might improve in my eyes.)

Anyway, basically, a lot of this felt rushed or like...introduced but not really addressed/wrapped up in any kind of satisfactory fashion? Kylo Ren’s arc in particular, as I’ve mentioned before, plus the Threepio stuff felt rushed and non-consequential, and also with Rey’s arc to an extent (it...again, all the beats worked for me/I thought it was fairly effective, but it really needed two movies to pay off as well as it could have). ...I mean, there are more plot threads I could probably mention here, but those are the three that stuck out the most.

Also, this movie needed More Rose :( I LOVE HER and she was barely here!!!!!

Another thing I would’ve liked to see is...okay, I really liked the Overlapping Voices bit, but it would’ve been nice to have more Presence from the ghosts? Like...there’s a bit at the end of season 1 of Sailor Moon where she’s in the Final Battle, the other four have died (or just been left behind, if you’re watching the English dub), and their ghosts show up and place their hands on hers and lend her their strength? A visual cue like that would’ve been great and helped the arc feel more complete. Especially since Palpatine had all of his predecessors/Sith ghosts backing him in a more visible fashion. But, then again, that’s a Personal Taste thing and while it would’ve, IMO, made that moment better, not having it doesn’t make it worse, if that makes sense?

(Also, the credits moved too fast for me to track, but I definitely saw Qui-Gon Jinn listed, though I don’t recall hearing him, and I definitely recognized Anakin/Hayden Christensen and Mace/Samuel L. Jackson and Obi-Wan/Ewan McGreggor (and Alec Guinness I’m pretty sure?) and obvs. Yoda/Frank Oz when actually listening, but I couldn’t identify the other voices--anyone have the full list? Was Ahsoka and/or Kanan and/or Ezra involved, or was it restricted to movie-only Jedi?)

But...yeah. Apart from the Kiss being very ....:/ for me, most of my identifiable problems with the film is stuff like this.

I think the other thing I want to talk about in detail is the Rey Palpatine reveal.

So, up until this movie, I was actually in my corner flying my tiny but determined Rey Kenobi flag, and the more I think about it, the more I like Rey Palpatine for some of the same reasons? Like...I don’t remember everything I’d thought through about Rey Kenobi, but it had to do with the cyclical nature of Star Wars, and bringing it back where it started--and we get that with Rey Palpatine, in a nice arc, healing some of the damage her grandfather did, both to this family and to the galaxy as a whole.

That being said--those of you who know me and my fic projects know I’ve been writing a child (daughter) for Palpatine for quite some time now, and I have no intention of stopping, lol. Am I going to take this/Lavinia’s (presumably) half-brother into account in future projects? ...probably not. But I am looking forward to/hoping we get a novel or something about him and Rey’s mother. Because that is actually a story I’m interested in--why canon!Palpatine chose to have a kid, and how said kid managed to break away and got to this point. [...y’know, I actually think Rey Kenobi’s background/thread of descent would be less interesting to me? Since I subscribe to the idea that a) Korkie Kryze is Obi-Wan’s biological son; and b) Obi-Wan had many Friends With Benefits throughout the galaxy and figuring out exactly which one Rey descends from carries less weight for me.]

...okay, I think that’s all the Detaily Bits I want to get into, so here are some bullet points of things that really stuck out to me, in no particular order:

Bawled like a baby re: everything involving Carrie Fisher. Just...yeah. Miss you Space Mommy.

LANDO! I loved his entrance, I loved him adopting Jannah at the end, I loved all of it.

Chewie’s fake-out death was also actually pretty good/well-handled. I mean. First Boom happens and I’m like DDDDDDD: but then I remember how people reacted to his death in Legends and I’m like would they really do it and then DELIGHT.

HUX. Okay. I never really cared about this dude before, and honestly I still don’t really care about this dude but at the same time, those of you who know me know I have a Thing for double-agents and defectors and I LOVE THIS WHOLE ENTIRE PLOT THREAD. I LOVE THIS SHITHEAD TURNING TRAITOR FOR THE MOST VENAL REASONS AND STILL BEING A BAD GUY/EVIL/AN UNREPENTANT JACKASS. THIS WAS PERFECT.

(Also Finn shooting him in the leg instead of the arm as requested was DELIGHTFUL)

SPEAKING OF DELIGHTFUL gotta love Zombie Skeev Palpatine Unliving His Best Afterlife. Was he as Delightful as he is in ROTS or ROTJ? No. Did I still enjoy every minute of his scenery-chewing nonsense? You bet your ass. So happy, Ian McDiarmid looked like he was having tons of fun and honestly what more could I have asked for?

The whole scene on Ahch-To was just *chef’s kiss.* Use of Yoda’s theme with the rising X-Wing, Luke being snarky and kind and beautiful, him emerging from the fire with the saber...just loved it.

LEIA HAD JEDI TRAINING AND HER OWN LIGHTSABER. BB!MARK HAMILL AND BB!CARRIE FISHER’S FACES.

LEIA TRAINING REY. REY CALLING HER ‘MASTER.’

USING THE BOND TO ARM KYLO REN okay like I said I have Mixed Feelings about the arc as a whole but that moment was SO COOL.

Poe’s ex-girlfriend was pretty great, ngl.

JANNAH AND EX-STORMTROOPERS YESSSSSSSS

HINTS OF/SHREDS OF EVIDENCE FOR FORCE-SENSITIVE FINN GIVE THEM TO ME NOW.

D-0 was pretty cute!

All of the Badass Finn.

Also that MOMENT where Finn runs up to Poe like “I NEED TO TELL YOU A THING” and Poe is all “I NEED YOU TO FIGHT WITH ME” and Finn just interrupts himself to thank Poe and they have that “General” “General” moment and it’s SO CUTE I’m love it.

The entire thing at the Lars farm at the end. Just. Burying the lightsabers, seeing the twins’ ghosts, claiming the Skywalker name, Rey having her own saber now. This movie was a Hot Mess but it definitely ended on a high note.

...that’s pretty much what I have for right now. I will probably have more thoughts after discussing it with other people/seeing it again (because I will be seeing it again). But overall...do I like it? Well, it’s Star Wars, which I love and which frankly always has some Super Dumb and/or Frustrating Stuff, and the things I disliked weren’t bad enough to Ruin It for me, so yes, I liked it. Is it my favorite Star Wars/good for a Star Wars movie? ...not really, no. It did have some gorgeous moments, but it doesn’t really hang together. Like the rest of the ST, it relies way too much on It’s All There In The Manual and, between that and the fact that TLJ didn’t do the work necessary to set it up, the movie felt rushed and a little bit...I don’t want to say hollow, maybe shallow is a better word? I mean, I know this is Star Wars and It’s Not That Deep (but the ground is soft and I’m ready to dig or however the quote goes), but this felt particularly shallow even for Star Wars. Like...cotton candy, fairly good/tasty but a little bit prone to melting away and with very little substance holding it together. On that level, I’d actually probably rank it around Solo (which, let me say, I really like)--so, better than TLJ, but still A Hot Mess of a movie. But I enjoyed myself, and I think overall my feelings are middling-to-positive on it. Even if...honestly, even like less than four hours after the movie ending, I’m already forgetting like half the plot points...? Like I said. Cotton Candy.

What did/do you guys think?

[moviestorian]

Les Mis BBC final thoughts

Alright, on monday I finished the 6th and last episode of the most recent, mini-series adaptation of Les Misérables. I was slightly hesitant about posting my thoughts (mostly because of the tag being largely dominated by negativity; any effort to post anything else seemed kind of pointless to me), but I eventually decided to go for it. I still wanted the entire show to sit in for a while (I also want to do a rewatch, because I can't guarantee that my feelings remain the same; I might just as well change my opinions completely). But let's begin!

Tldr; Also, unpopular opinion alert: I actually enjoyed it. A lot. I genuinely liked the miniseries. Yes, there were some choices and things I wasn't exactly fond of, but I have the same thing about literally every single adaptation I have seen so far (mostly thinking of the stage musical and 2012 film). Cause you know, you can like something and still see its flaws, and the other way round - you can dislike it and yet admit it is not inherently bad.

Now, the longer "review" comes in. It's gonna be reaaaally long. Also: spoilers.

The negatives/things I'm indifferent about/what could have been better:

- I'm following the popular trend of disliking that font. I care a lot about cinematography and visual parts of films and shows, so I wasn't satisfied with this particular choice. They could do better, honestly.

- For most of the time, the music was a bit meh. Nothing really striking or to hate, but compared to the War&Peace 2016 soundtrack (which was amazing!), this one was very undermining. There were some individual songs I liked a lot, though.

- The overall cinematography was ok. Again, nothing super special, but there were some pretty nice shots, too. I had some minor objections about cgi in a few scenes, but let's that the 2012 film wasn't exactly flawless in this aspect, too... If not worse.

- Ok, confession time & another unpopular opinion alert: I genuinely think the script is not half as bad as some people on this site try to tell everyone and the majority of their issues is either exaggerated to an enormous extent or comes from a huge prejudice. Or a general but pretty clear misinterpretation of certain scenes. Having said that, I had issues with the script, too. Davies did a waaay better job with his W&P, really. Although I actually like some of his changes or narrative choices, there is one thing I can't exactly ignore: how certain scenes were pure exposition. I think it got better in the later episodes, but I spotted at least two(!) examples just in episode one alone. Davies, being the experienced author as he is, should really know that it's not a good way to write scenes, especially in the first episode (which is supposed to encourage the viewers to keep watching). There's nothing more annoying to me than being treated, as a viewer, as a person who needs a straight-in-your-face explaination of what’s happening on screen.

- Another fairly popular trend: the brothel & the wet dream sequences. Even though I expected both of these to be A LOT worse, given what the fandom was saying (exaggerating again), and I don't think they are "out of character" or unrealistic in terms of the setting, I tried to cut these out from the episode (in my head ofc). And I think we could do without them; the brothel scene could remain in the final cut, but I would make it way shorter.

- What I REALLY disliked: a minor thing, but it bugged me a lot. I mean the main dialogue being in English, and the background dialogue in French. Christ, how I hate when they do such stuff in the movies...(thankfully the main characters didn't try to pull off their fake French accent, that would be even worse) Either you do it in French, or in English. One has to be consistent.

- The pissing scene in ep1 was...weird.

- Valjean being mean to Gavroche.

- The timeline was sometimes a bit odd, if not crazy, but could’ve been way worse (nothing can surpass P0ldark and its weirdly ageing children and even more weirdly, or not at all ageing adults)

- Valjean firing Fantine left me with very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I think it makes sense narratively, in this particular adaptation, it’s also not the first one who makes Valjean responsible for Fantine’s misery (to a smaller or bigger extent). On the other one, it’s not a choice I’m super happy about so...

Now, let's move on to the positives!

- Excellent choice in casting. I think all of the actors did a solid job. Obviously they had some veteran, experienced or acclaimed actors like Bradley, Sumpter, Jacobi, Colman, West... You couldn't expect any less from them. BUT there were also some younger and fresh faces, who's interpretations of their characters I really loved - Lily Collins, Erin Kellyman, Reece Yates, Josh O'Connor. Liked Joseph Quinn and Ellie Bamber a lot, too, especially the former. Obviously, I cannot NOT mention David Oyelowo! He was particularly impressive in the last episode.

- You have no idea how grateful I am for the entire Pontmercy storyline, honestly. I have so many feelings about Georges Pontmercy it's not even funny. Also baby Marius!!! Huge props for the Marius/Guillenormand dynamics.

- Fantine's storyline. I love the focus on her in this adaptation, and instead of merely showing her "downfall", we got to see her entire background story and many faces of her character. From naivety and joyful innocent to her determination to survive, and, finally, her desperate attempts to feed her daughter. I love that we got to see a glimpse of her relationship with Cosette. I love that, heartbreaking as that scene was, we got to see the moment of her leaving her child with the Thénardiers. Loved that she was also outspoken at times. I really felt for her in this series. Naturally, I always do have tons of empathy for Fantine, she's one of my favourite characters in general, but I found Lily Collins' version to be particularly relatable.

- Btw: I disagree that Fantine and Cosette were overly "sexualized" or fetishized. And don't even get me started on the supposed "sexual undertones" between Cosette and Valjean, cause this is utter bullshit.

- I actually liked the relationship between Cosette and her Papa, especially when she was little!

- I loved Gavroche in this adaptation. I'm usually not a huge fan of his, but Reece was so charming and impossible to resist!

- All the side characters (good or bad) we finally got to see at least for a while! I already mentioned the Pontmercies, but I also mean: Petit Gervais, Tholomyès and his gang (+Favourite and Zephine), Azelma, Gavroche's little brothers, Mabeuf, even Victurnien. And Sister Simplice, I love that woman. And Rivette. 😁

- Huge thumbs up for portraying the Thénardiers as the evil/malicious people they were (but not one-dimensional, esp. Madame Th.) instead of as some comic relief only.

- Contrary to the popular opinion, I count Les Amis as the positives. I actually think that narrowing down the number of the students to focus on was a good choice (like, excuse me, but giving a few lines to a character in an ensemble song is not enough to give them personality. Even in the book some hardly had one). And guess what? I legit cared more about this Enjolras or this Courfeyrac than in other adaptations. I liked Quinn's version of Enjolras more than I like Hugo's original character. This is obviously a personal preference, but to me personally Quinn's slightly toned down version, sort of a hybrid of Enjolras and Combeferre was way more appealing (I also think Quinn had more innocence and wide-eyedness in his eyes and face than some most popular actors who have played the role. To me, the accurate hair colour is the least sygnificant thing, honestly. Especially that some of the fans' favourites hardly fit the book description in that aspect).

- The Enjolras/Grantaire execution scene.

- Small interactions between Enjolras and Courfeyrac. Especially the ones in the final moments of the resistance. Oh my...

- Overall, the barricade scenes were very good.

- I liked Marius a lot, which is quite a thing! I loved that we got the awkward, but still adorable side of his. I had seen Josh in The Riot Club and I remember him being good but not memorable; I was impressed with his performance in Les Mis, he was so different!

- Erin's Éponine broke my heart. Especially in episode 5, she was fantastic. So many expressions in her eyes; I loved her fidgety hand moves, too!

- I appreciate that they started the show with something other than the galleys/bishop Myriel. That was a nice and quite refreshing take.

What else do I like about this adaptation? That it revived my passion for Les Mis; that it made me want to reread the book (or certain chapters at least), rewatch the 2012 film, listen to songs from the musical, check out other adaptations. That it’s gonna bring new people to the fandom. And, whether you like it or not, it DOES offer new interpretations of the characters and actually does give a fresh take. Every adaptations gives us something new to discuss, this one included. I also don’t believe it’s the worst thing that ever happened to Les Mis or whatever; I happen to think it actually is a good adaptation overall. Is it flawless or 100% accurate in everything? No, because it’s impossible to turn such a huge and detailed book into a 100% faithful adaptation; also it’s really not what the adaptations are for. I too would have added/cut out some stuff from various versions of Les Mis, but this is because it’s my interpretation; the fact that we imagine some things differently does not mean that other people’s interpretations are bad.

Since films and tv shows belong to the visual media, I think that Les Mis BBC could have done better in that aspect - I wasn’t exactly satisfied with it, as I wasn’t exactly over the moon about some choices in the script. It’s not a masterpiece, but I never expected it to be one; neither it is a “piece of shit”. Despite its flaws, I still found the miniseries to be very enjoyable and I will gladly rewatch it in the near future. I feel that it might even become one of my favourite adaptations(I will decide once I’ve seen them all, or most of them!), save for the interpretation of JVJ, which could’ve been better tbh. For me, it’s a nice 7,5/10

[anxietywontmakethewordsgo]

Okay, SOMEBODY HAS TO DISCUSS THIS

....so I will be the first to brave it.

Okay, so I’m tagging this as spoilers but just in case; DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED EPISODE 21.

So lemme just say, this episode pissed me off for a number of reasons, and i’m probably going to make individual posts for all of said annoyances;

FUCKING GABRIEL AND ROWENA TAKING THE TRAIN TO POUND TOWN

The COMPLETELY erratic characterization changes (especially for Lucifer) in this episode ALONE

The low-key incest crotch face plant (the incest isn’t what bothered me; its that it just wasn’t necessary)

The inconsistencies of how weak Gabriel is portrayed as (not having enough juice to open the rift, but having enough to change his form and make Lucifer walk right back into the bar)

THEM FUCKING LEAVING SAM BEHIND

there are most definitely more that I’m missing, but aren’t in the forefront of my mind right now. The one that REALLY pissed me off is the first one.

Just to be clear before I start my rant; I AM NOT TRYING TO BASH ROWENA/GABRIEL SHIPPERS. If that’s what makes you happy, then you do you, boo. Same goes for the Cas/Gabriel shippers; despite my dislike of that particular scene, I am not alluding to the actual ship - I am alluding to how the characterization reactions are wrong.

ONE LAST TIME NOW; this is going to be a rant, meaning that if your little heart cant handle criticism of episodes and their plot lines, then you should skip out now.

Okay, so this is the specific thing that pissed me off and kept me up last night;

(idk if the gif is froze up for you guys too, but you get my point)

so I originally wasn’t going to post a rant about this; i didn’t want to be “that person” that immediately went on and bashed someone else’s ship just because I didn’t like it and wanted this ~other ship~ to become canon instead (*cough* Sabriel *cough cough*). I honestly thought at first that that is all it was - shipper disappointment.

so I dealt with said disappointment and kept it to myself.

but then I realized the actual reason WHY it bothered me so much.

Now, Gabriel/Rich has only been in 10 episodes COLLECTIVELY. He has always been portrayed as a sexual, deviant being, and you know what? That’s okay. It fit his character, and it became a trademark thing for him.

HOWEVER, it does NOT fit the path they had created for him this season.

I actually made two posts about this, here and here. Between the relationship Lucifer and Anael had with sexual undertones related to sharing grace, and the utterly ridiculous amount of subtext and sexual innuendos in this episode, we can definitely concur that the sharing of or taking of grace this season is seen as very *private*, very personal. It is essentially part of every angels very BEING, and the way they portrayed it this episode makes me think it is the closest thing angels have to DNA. this completely negates what we were shown in season 9 and 10, but whatevs, right? (sighs)

So, who the FUCK thought it would be a good idea to add this scene???? JUST FOR COMEDIC RELIEF?!?!?!?

I will admit that they are alike in some ways, but that’s for another post. I did originally believe they could be good friends, and i still do, but THIS SCENE WAS NOT NECESSARY OR FITTING.

Lets start with Gabriel, shall we? In my two original posts on the topic of sexual undertones this season, I pointed out that based on this subplot, Gabriel’s situation with Asmodeus appeared to be almost rape-like, having something very personal taken from him forcibly (and, as we learned in ep. 20, this happened for YEARS, tortured every day). He was violated to his very core, for YEARS. Even for an archangel, that is not something you just GET OVER (see; my lil bean’s face at the end of ep 20).

So why the FUCK would they ruin his trauma subplot with this?!?! Between the fear of being touched in episode 17, his dissociative state in ep. 18, his outburst in episode 20, and his overall characterization change BECAUSE OF his trauma, who felt it would be a good idea to just toss all that out the window for some comedic relief? You can do better writers, I know you can!

Now, I did consider the fact that MAYBE all the sexual innuendos about him not being ready (Rowena saying “premature”, the angel blade going limp, the rift closing, only a tiny amount of grace, and wanting to extract it himself, yada yada) would lead to him refusing, or stopping in the middle. But, THAT ISN’T WHAT HAPPENED. Sooo uh? I’m not really sure what was going through the writers minds when they did that. I do have to admit though, the amount of subtext was funny as shit; it just didn’t fit with the character’s current mindsets.

speaking of which, let’s move onto Rowena now. She is also seen as fairly sexual, between her general personality and her little orgy that resulted in Crowley (I cannot believe I just typed that out). However, keep in mind that despite being weakened, Gabriel is, as he argued this ep, STILL AN ARCHANGEL. He is still inhuman, still has a most likely terrifying true form. Now, what was Rowena so scared of in regards to finding Lucifer? HIS TRUE FACE, the fact that he is an ARCHANGEL. So tell me, why the HELL would she be sleeping with one and then getting choked by the other in the same episode? Gabriel may not have been the one to kill her, and he definitely has not shown her his true face, but that doesn’t negate the fact that he and Lucifer are on the same league, in terms of both power and true forms.

Based on these insights, these two should at the very least be WARY of each other; Gabriel having low-key sexual trauma, Rowena having been killed by Gabriel’s brother.

Maybe the writers were thinking of their similarities in both personalities  and how they died, rather than this season’s subplots? I don’t know, you guys. All I’ve got to say is; there will be more posts like this coming, and while I want to discuss them all, I am almost certain that NONE of them will piss me off as much as this scene did.

If there are any grammatical/punctuation errors in this, blame my night of shitty sleep.

@roleplauuniverse @altyex @flamerush101 and I’m not sure who else to tag bc I’m wading through a minefield of Rowiel/Gabrowena shippers. Thoughts?

[kbrown78]

Monthly Wrap Up: June

June wasn't as good of reading month as May. I only read 6 books as compared the 11 books from last month and while I didn't have as many books that I hated, most of the books were just mediocre, so I didn't have as many highs either. I will say that was a good month for expanding the genres I've read and the diversity of the authors, but next month I will be doing Tome Topple and reading books over 500 pages for the first two weeks, then the rest of the month will be dedicated to doing rereads and revisiting some old favorites of mine and see if I love them just as much now.

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu: I loved this book! It's a little hard to do a full review for this one because it's a collection of short stories by Ken Liu, but I'll do my best. First I love all of the stories, I honestly couldn't pick one favorite. Even ones that weren't one of my favorites were still very well written. The mesh of multiple Asian cultures and histories with American culture and history is so well done, and I liked the references and dedications a the end of some of them. All the stories were very touching, some darker than others but they all had a sort of bittersweet tone to them. I also loved how all the stories were varying degrees of science fiction, some having technology so similar to today's that it could have almost been a literary fiction story. The themes were all amazing (especially how the complexity of each one was written), the characters were all well written in each story. There's really nothing bad I can say about any of it. I also liked how in many, if not all, the stories had a theme of storytelling in theme and how that identifies a person or brings people together. The Paper Menagerie received 5 out 5 stars from me.

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman: This is going to be my full, spoiler review because I tried to tag the book as I read it but I really struggled with that. In part because of the format. It is unlike anything I have ever read, and in hindsight I probably should have done this one on audiobook.  It is a compilation of interviews, military reports, surveillance videos, data from the AI, online messages, and more. It's a unique format, that can work well, and at times it did, but there were too many names just  dropped that I could not remember, and with about 600 pages in this format, the plot dragged. I think this book should have honestly been 100 to 200 pages shorter, to keep the fast pace going. The first tenth of the book I was really invested in and flew through it, but then nothing happened and I just got bored with the story. Once the virus became more of an issue and AIDAN's POV was introduced then I became reinvested. Speaking of AIDAN, the ships AI, that was without a doubt the best part of the book, with Kady coming in a close second. Any AI can bring up the question of what it means to be human, and AIDAN contributed an interesting perspective to that discussion. No, I haven't seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it sounds like there are similarities to that AI and AIDAN. Over the course of the book, AIDAN killed thousands of people, and is rather remorseless about it because it believes it did that for the greater good. AIDAN keeps up this cold, mechanical behavior until it starts to interact directly with Kady. In fact their “relationship” was what revived the book for me. The more time AIDAN spends interacting with Kady, they start to almost become friends and Kady definitely humanizes AIDAN and gets it to question everything it's done. Ezra and Kady's relationship was cute, since they just broke up but when the cards are down they need each other for emotional support, and Ezra was a decent guy, but he was a little generic for me and I also felt he wasn't as well developed as Kady. Kady I really liked, which is funny because she's that hard person with a heart of gold and I don't usually like that type. She doesn't deal with authority well and is absolutely willing to go rogue to help save lives, which is good in this book because most of the people in charge just make things worse (even if they don't mean to) and cause more death. So real quick the highlights of this book were: AIDAN, Kady, the unique format, the first and last 10% where the action was fast pace. The things I didn't like about this book were: how long this book dragged for, too many characters to keep track of , very few relationships (platonic or romantic) that I was invested in, didn't get to learn more about the world, Ezra's mother being the big bad (kind of tired of family drama being the plot driver in media). All in all I didn't love this book, it was okay, but I'm not sure if I want to continue with the next book (fortunately its a companion series so I don't have to read the next one). Illuminae received 3 out of 5 stars, and was pick for the PopSugar promt “book with two authors.”  

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco: This was one of the very few books that comes as close to a cover buy as possible. The cover is stunning and I do think reflects the personality and power of Tea, the protagonist. I did look at some reviews and the worst thing I can find was that this book has a lack of plot, which is something that I'm willing to overlook, particularly in first books. But this book really didn't have any plot. It started out interesting with a resurrection through dark magic, but then that story was pushed to the side until the last few chapters. The book has two separate story lines one being Tea's origin story which takes up the majority of the book, the other takes place in the present with Tea having gone dark, but the end of the book still doesn't explain why Tea was in exile. So more back story is needed which will only be in the second book, which makes the first book feel incomplete. I liked Tea, but she felt a bit naive at times and didn't drive the action forward but I could still believe that the powerful, morally gray character in the future was also this little girl. The side characters were okay, a little bland aside from Likah who was barley in the story. I did not like the romance at all because it was very sudden and one sided. The readers also see in the future how obsessed Tea still is with the guy she was in love with, which was actually kind of creepy. Most of the story was boring and I strongly disliked how similar many scenes were to Memoirs of a Geisha. The general aesthetic of the story and the imagery and symbolism was amazing. The end conflict in Tea, the old in power serving themselves and only themselves, was interesting in itself but the fact that it came in only at the very end made it feel like it was just a plot device to explain partly why Tea is so angry in the future. The Bone Witch received 2. 5 out of 5 stars because the aspects I liked were well done, but there wasn't much about this story that I liked.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Partick Ness: This was a book I had been looking forward to reading, because I loved A Monster Calls but this was something completely different. Unfortunately, I didn't like it. This story is from an uneducated 13 year old boys point of view, and it reads like that. Had I read this book when it first came out and I was still in junior high, I probably would have liked it better, but reading it as an adult I find it to be a little immature and simple. So while the writing itself was good and the world was kind of a unique science fiction/ dystopian blend, I didn't love any of the characters, I wasn't invested in the story and there was so much unnecessary drama because no one tells Todd or Viola anything. Also there was a death in this book, that I didn't cry at, but it made me want to throw up my arms and go “Why!” I do think Patrick Ness is a good writer and I still want to read other books by him, but because of how basic the whole story was I'm not sure if I'll continue with the rest of the series. The Knife of Never Letting Go received 2 out 5 stars from me.  

The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh: For me this book was a fairly mediocre read. I knew I was going to read it at some point but it was an unexpected buy this month and I started getting excited for it and decided to pick it up immediately. I was hoping that it would be a sort of Snow Like Ashes, where I didn't expect much in the first book but would be pleasantly surprised. I also thought that since it's just two books that I would get more in the first book. Unfortunately neither of those happened. This story is a 1001 Arabian Nights retelling and places a heavy emphasis on the romance between Shahrzad, the protagonist, and Khalid, the man Shahrzad marries in the hopes that she kills him. For the romance being a hate to love one, it wasn't bad. I personally have a very hard time enjoying hate to love ships, but this one I think was done well because I felt like the evolution of the romance felt natural and the reason these two start out at odds with each other wasn't based off contrived drama. That being said I didn't like the lack of communication these two had and I don't get attached to cold characters and Khalid was definitely that. The side characters were decent, although the male character all felt similar (actually come to think of it the female ones did to), but I am fascinated by the transformation Shahrzad's father underwent and I wish I could have seen more of that. The friendships in here were decent, but were never the center of attention and I was never invested enough in the side character to be invested in their relationships. As for the world building, that was actually sub par for me because I thought there was going to be some magic, but there was hardly any in the story at all. In fact magic is discussed, so the readers know it exists, but never shown any performance of magic. The rest of the world I barley know anything about, so that all was disappointing. The pacing of the story was good, loved the tie ins for the retelling parts and incorporation of story telling, until the end when everything was just rushed and a bit confusing. It was decent and I'll probably read the sequel since it's just one book but I haven't read anything that motivates me to read it, so I'm not in any rush to read it. The Wrath and The Dawn received 3 out 5 stars from me.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein: Like The Paper Menagerie I had a difficult time doing a wrap up for this one, but for very different reasons. I rarely read books that are set entirely in our reality, and also don't read historical fiction, so I can't approach reviewing this book quite the same way that I usually do. Also it's difficult to review this book without giving away any spoilers. This novel is broken into two different parts, each one in a different POV identified by their code names. This is an emotional and powerful story about the friendship between two girls that takes place during WWII. One is a pilot and one is, for lack of a better term, a spy. The emotions and relationships were fleshed and well delivered in this story but there were parts that dragged the story a bit for me, so I was going to give this book 3 stars but the last 15% really got to me so I had to boost up the rating. I will say this is a very character driven story, again focusing on the two girls and their experiences in the war effort and some of the harsh realities of being involved in that. I would recommend this one to people looking to read a fictional WWII story, and Code Name Verity received 4 out 5 stars.  

[toast-the-unknowing]

lydia-st-james tagged me in a writing in review meme, which, man. That takes me back. I haven't done one of these in ages.

Main take-aways: 1. 2017 was the year of the long-ass fic titles, apparently. 2. It only took ten freaking years but I can mostly write romance without dying of embarrassment. Mostly. 3. Ten years has not been long enough to teach me how to start something and just finish it already before starting twenty more things. Seriously, there are so many stories that I started this year that I keep thinking ya'll have read already and then I remember that no one has read those because I haven't finished them yet. Oh well. Maybe 2018 will be a year of extraordinary personal growth and self-discipline. Spoiler alert: it won't be.

Anyway. These are the things that I've published so far this year.

Listed in chronological order of publication, with one exception:

new worlds for the weary, new lands for the living Okay, so, I don't know if anyone else thinks of any of their stories this way, but I have a very small handful of fics that are my heartsong fics. I don't think of them as being stories. I think of them as being thousands of words of meta and criticism and gushing and character love and, just, me, pouring my heart out over some aspect of canon that is important to me, and then maybe if I'm lucky, I trick people into reading it and thinking it's a story.

Yeah. This is one of those. I started this story before I had even finished Blue Lily, Lily Blue, which is not a thing I do. I always finish canon (to whatever extent canon exists at the time of my joining fandom) before I start writing. But I wanted so badly to write about Adam and Ronan and how I felt about their relationship that I couldn't wait.

This was something like a five month writing process all told, and I'm really happy with the end result. The moment where Ronan smears ink on Adam's face, in particular, I'm very proud of. I'm proud of that whole fight scene, really, but that moment is such a strong visual, and I'm not generally great at creating those.

don't think about how much it will hurt God, I still hate this title, but I do love this fic. It exists because I had been toying around with a canon-divergent AU that I quickly realized was going to take a shit-ton of work and not actually be that interesting. I ditched the AU, but there was one scene I liked enough that I didn't want to give up on it (Ronan trying to provoke Adam into punching him and then holding his hand while wondering wtf he's doing), and I realized it could pretty easily be made canon-compliant and given the legs to stand on its own.

I briefly considered tagging this as "preslash if you consider fighting and bad decisions to be flirting, which if you ship pynch, you probably do," and then I considered how poorly that would match the tone of this story. I am very happy with the tone of this story. It was hard to write, and I think it's hard to read, and it's a better story for it.

the more we move ahead the more we're stuck in rewind NO ONE ON EARTH READ THIS FIC BUT I DON'T GIVE A SHIT I LOVE IT. There are so many, many, many things in this fic that make me happy: -Clarke being an unholy mashup of my sister and talldecafcappuccino -"You thought that there was an intersection of sentimentality and camp that Miller wouldn't be interested in?" -Just, Murphy. All of Murphy. -The Inseparable, Indestructible Blake Siblings (which is when the Blake siblings are at their best, fuck you, canon) -"Do you ever worry that we're going to turn out to be warped people with unhealthy relationships/Honestly at this point I'm counting on it." -the whole scene where Raven friend-dumps Clarke -Monty taking "gas grass or ass" too seriously -Nate's stupid "you know what they say about those guys with Bigfoot" t-shirt (I would wear that t-shirt)

Like, I know why this story wasn't successful as an item of fan culture. And I acknowledge that there are weaknesses in the writing. But I still fucking love it.

so familiar, like an old bedtime song Ugh, this was called "came in quiet with the rain" right up until the very second I published it and then I changed my mind and I still regret it. Never second gues yourselves, kids. (Either way: "Raising Cain" is a good Adam/Ronan song.) I wrote about half of this on a whim and then shoved it in a corner waiting for inspiration for the longer story that I thought it was meant to be a part of. Then I was sitting around on Adam's birthday/my birthday weekend, a little tipsy in the middle of the day, and I decided, nah, this can be a standalone. I'm not kidding myself that it's great literature but I think it does what it sets out to do well.

The Fake Geek Boy Job This is a rare example, for me, of coming up with a title first and writing the story around it. So that was fun. I was so, so, so happy with the response to this fic. I've written case fic before, but I'm not good at heists, and I was really worried that the way I handle the heavier plot elements here – basically cutting around them and explaining all of the offstage action through snarky banter – was going to feel like cheating. Like, there's probably a version of this story that's 20k words longer and is twice as good, but it would have taken ten times as much work. It seems like people understood the plot as it stands and didn't feel robbed, and it was such a relief to hear that.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name IT IS THE PROUDEST ACCOMPLISHMENT OF MY ENTIRE LIFE that there are only two fanfics on AO3 tagged with the relationship tag "Quark & Jake Sisko" and I wrote both of them. Though I fully admit that "Everybody Comes to Quark's" is the better story of the two. This one feels like the first half is from one story and the second half is from a different story and neither of those two stories is complete, per se. But love a lot of the individual lines, character moments, etc. Also, just, any times spend with my beloved ridiculous giraffe boy Jake is good time.

faith, hope, all that bullshit This is the best thing that I have ever written that is based on a typo. And...I don't really know how to talk about this fic beyond that. It took something like seven months of on-again-off-again work; I am super grateful to Pynch Week for giving me the kick in the pants to finish it. There were so many things that were challenging about this – I hated everything in life the entire time I was writing Matthew. Plus trying to write all the characters as being a little older and more mature and their relationships as having progressed. But it was worth it because there are so many moments in this fic that just are still living in my head, even though I've put the fic down.

I think my favorite scene of all is the Christmas Eve scene, partly because I love Declan and partly because I love the "fucking Cain ruined it for the rest of us" exchange. But from a craft point of view I'm proud of that scene a lot. The first scene is its own contained story with beginning/middle/end; the Christmas Eve scene is what makes the proposal scene the beginning of a longer story, and it happens without the POV character understanding that it's happening. I'm pretty happy with how that all turned out.

People really liked the wedding scene, which is gratifying and totally baffling. That scene was murder to write. I don't even want to plan my own wedding, now I got to make one up for someone else? Of course, I mean. I cheated, because I didn't actually write the reception. Maybe the lesson here is if I don't even want to write a scene then for sure no one would want to read it?

Word on the Street This is another one, like The Fake Geek Boy Job, where I think there's a version of the story that's twice as good and eight times as long and a hundred times more work to write; I'm satisfied with my version. Also, I think the longer version is much more serious, whereas this is a comedy and I am happy with it as a comedy. Adam maybe comes off a little poorly, in the way that comedy characters sometimes come off dickish/rude/sociopathic. But it makes me laugh and honestly if I make myself laugh I'm happy. (That's not to say I'm never going to write the epic tale of how Ronan becomes Greywaren – I know what the first line of it is – but it's a real low priority).

come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls OKAY I WROTE THIS IN LIKE LITERALLY TWO DAYS AND YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW HAPPY THAT MAKES ME. Even just writing something of this length usually takes weeks if not months between when I start it and when I finish it. This was like a dirty little fling, and as someone who never has dirty little flings either in life or in writing, that was a fun change of pace.

The Dragon's Nest Avatar: The Last Airbender is, in my eyes, basically a perfect television show, and it's a lot harder to write fic for something that you think is well-written/complete on its own, because where do you and your fanwriting fit in? As such, this was a challenge, but I'm pretty happy with it. Alchemicink, for whom this was written, mentioned being happy just from seeing the "intergenerational friendship" tag, and I gotta say I was happy just from getting to use that tag. And any day you get to write Toph stomping around yelling at people is a good day.

while we're on the subject, could we change the subject now So credit where credit is due: lydia-st-james gave me the prompts here and put up with my intermittent screeching as I was working on it. It took me a while to get it all done, but I wrote literally 13k words of this in the first four days, which is bonkers; I'm usually much more of a percolator in the early stages of writing. As such a lot of the outlining process is lost to the sands of time. I don't remember making an actual decision to set this in LA; I think my subconscious realized before I did that this was going to be a story about loneliness and depression, and, fairly or unfairly, I associate loneliness and depression with the city of Los Angeles. In any case, it gave me lots of opportunities to throw shade at LA and I'm always down for that, and I've loved hearing people respond to the specificity of the location.

It's funny to me that people are responding to this one so strongly because I don't generally groove on fake dating; I’ve never written it as a trope and I always find it hard to swallow as a reader. I wonder if there's something to be said for writing tropes one is somewhat critical of. Though I don't think, generally, it works out when people write a thing they actively hate. It's a theory I'm tinkering with, anyway.

[reactingtosomething]

Solo Reaction to Orphan Black Episode 510: “To Right the Wrongs of Many”

Well Done, Show.

The Setup: This is it, Clone Club. The final ride has ended, and I for one loved the hell out of it. Check below for my final Orphan Black solo reaction. Spoilers for the last five years, basically.

SARAH: Art knows what they need and is not the one who is Helena’s twin, clearly she should go be with Helena and he should get the medical supplies. I mean I know it had to be Sarah vs. “PT” at the end, obviously. But in-universe I’m right about that logic. But yeah, Sarah killing him with very little ceremony and none of his acolytes to watch was pretty appropriate.

OH GOD they pulled no punches with that suffocation visual.

This is EVOLUTION. More on that later.

The Sarah/Mrs. S parallels during the births, though. Sarah (and all the clones) are moving out from under the control of their lives and destinies. They are not S’s to watch over or Neolution’s to control. They are the adults. They’re raising each other and their kids.

Sarah and Helena’s joyful laugh/cries after the birth(s) are just lovely.

Is Sarah getting her GED?? I’m so proud! She’s turning into such a grownup, but is also still herself. Well done, show.

Honestly I do think that Sarah should sell the house. She needs to become her own version of an adult, not just step into S’s shoes entirely. Like, don’t move away to wander the earth apart from the whole support system, but get an apartment instead maybe.

Sarah. Get your ass back in there and take the GED test!

“I don’t know how to be happy. There’s no one left to fight and I’m still a shit mum.” There is SO MUCH here. For one thing that language is super telling—Sarah may not always be good at being a mother, but she’s far from a shit one compared to Coady, the other person who’s been described as such. There’s no question about Sarah being wrong here. (Admittedly she has not always been a good mother but she has been improving and she does always have Kira’s best interests at heart.) For another thing, this is very important and realistic. Ending an all-consuming battle and returning to normal life is never simple. Sarah was good at guerrilla warfare, essentially. Those skills don’t immediately translate to healthy coping mechanisms or finding a day job. Sarah is still Sarah. They’re all still the people they were before and during this shitshow. Alison is still the woman who sold drugs and hot glue gunned her husband. They’re all still just people and they can’t go from living one life to living a totally different one with no bumps, even a normal/“easier” one. Just because Sarah can’t do it immediately doesn’t mean she can’t do it at all.

None of them are perfect and they’re all in it together and it’s the most mellow but effective multi-clone season ender ever. No one look at me.

HELENA: This is basically a nightmare birth situation and I am NOT a fan.

Helena is preparing for vengeance even while ACTIVELY CONTRACTING and all I can say is damn, woman. Props.

OH MY GOD Art and Helena are such a good team! That was highly effective tag team murder.

It’s a boy. Of course they’re boys. Kira was (nearly) exploited the way Kendall and the Ledas' birth mothers were. Kira and Charlotte are the intermediates, the ones who are part of the Leda story but won’t grow up entirely within it, but these boys are the true next generation. They’re not just repeating the script over again, they’re a departure from the Neo controlled past.

That is the cutest and creepiest mobile ever.

Orange and Purple!! Ok, but babies lose their socks ALL THE TIME. This is an imperfect method.

“Always when I eat, he poops.”

Super into her Hawaiian shirt over overalls look.

“Where does this sand come from?”

They’re still not going to explain the black part of Orphan Black, are they?

I’m touched by the significance of naming the boys after Donnie and Art, but doesn’t that get confusing? Sure, call the baby Arthur instead of Art, but there’s nothing that far away from “Donnie,” sound-wise. And at least for now they live on the same property. (The one bit of Judaism that has managed to enter my psyche the most is the custom of not naming kids after living relatives, so I’m a little weird about this kind of thing.)

RACHEL: Is Rachel coming? Is that the secret person Felix is expecting? Yesssss. Even if she can’t be a part of the happy family, she is still a part of this and the show/Felix acknowledges it.

So we’re just straight up discussing this in front of the uber driver?

She gave them the list of Ledas. Rachel’s final redemptive act saves the rest of the clones she helped to subjugate, and is a final screw you to the people who made her do it for so long.

General Rachel thought: Rachel needed redemption. She was cruel and a part of the structure that controlled and killed a lot of people. She was a product of a deeply abusive situation that made her that way, but she still was that way. She still stomped on the potential cure, she still ordered the deaths of clones and others. In a way she and Helena are a better “two sides to the same coin” comparison than Helena and Sarah are. Both were raised largely without love or proper socialization. Both were made “self aware” while fairly young. Both are taught that they are the special one, and can only continue to do they terrible things they do by believing that fact. Both self-harm. Both learn that their extremely black and white world views are limited primarily by being exposed to the family of their clones, primarily Kira. Helena made the change much more quickly, but they are both on that arc.

ALISON: “I was a drug dealer for Pete’s sake” is peak Alison Hendrix.

The Hendrixes have joy and laughter as a part of their sex lives and I am happy about this.

I know this is not from this episode, but it’s amazing

COSIMA: Cosima is curing the Ledas!! She is doing it! And of course she feels like it’s not enough because she’s Cosima, but she’s doing it!

Science monkey! I love this.

Cos, you don’t have to be good with kids if you don’t want to be. Although she actually is excellent with kids, just not babies. So I guess the point is you don’t have to be maternal if you don’t want to be. You can love the children in your life without wanting your own. And if you do want children, being scared doesn’t mean you can’t do it.

Cosima is coming so close to meeting all of these women, but not quite. That’s beautiful and sad in its own way. She’s always been the one to embrace sisterhood the quickest, so I imagine she loves each of these sisters a little bit. But she’s not destroying their lives by telling them about all of this when there’s no need to. There is an argument to be made about not making the decision for them by keeping the info from them, but telling them would also be making that decision for them. I’m going to choose to believe that they leave a semi-conspicuous web trail so that any Ledas who start to become self aware can find clone club if they’re looking.

Also, can we talk about how gorgeous this artwork is and how I’m now obsessed with it? Please illustrate all of their adventures around the world.

TONY!!!! Guys, Tony has at least been acknowledged again! He and Krystal are cured and that is good.

EVERYONE ELSE: Goddammit Coady why are you so resilient?

“PT” (AKA JOHN) losing his grip is both terrifying and delicious. I was honestly hoping he would die of a heart attack—none of his cruelty or his science could save him from a simple failure of the body. But again, it being Sarah’s action was probably necessary.

Honestly, this was an underuse of Enger after they set her up to be such an interesting character in such small moments earlier. Clearly the focus here is on the Ledas more than their subjugators, but come on. I wonder if she had anything that ended up being cut for time? I’m excited to follow the actor’s career.

I know I already used this one, and it wasn’t from this episode. But look at how compelling she is! And this ^ isn’t even as good as the toothbrush scene!

There really is a kill them in the throat theme this season.

Art calling people sestra is adorable!

274??? Living or total ever? That’s so many!

I’ve done a lot of discussing parenthood as a sign of adulthood, and I certainly don’t want to say it’s a 1:1 situation. I think it has come up a lot this season especially because the show is a discussion of both family and evolution. It’s hard to have evolution without future generations, so there is a lot of kid focus. I don’t think the show goes to far in the direction of accidentally suggesting that motherhood is essential for adult womanhood—that’s the beauty of having a lot of women in your show. You can tell multiple stories, and multiple versions of the same story without suggesting that it is The Story.

I have no idea how intentionally Fawcett and Manson created this discussion of feminism and bodily autonomy. I think the later was the main intent and the feminism came out of the realization/acceptance of what they were already in the midst of creating. By making the lead a woman, they made most of the leads women, who all had to be different from each other. They couldn’t fall into the tropes many writers do when it comes to female characters. And when they began discussing This may be wrong and ungenerous of me—they may have had exactly this intent from the beginning!—but two things: 1) I think if they had a huge focus on feminism from the beginning there would have been more than one director who was a woman in the entire run (Helen Shaver, 3 episodes) and 2) Honestly, them learning the lesson as they went and freaking going for it is kind of great. Without meaning to (from the beginning—I’m not suggesting they were totally unaware this whole time!) these guys made a show that is all about women reclaiming their bodily autonomy from a big-for-tv version of forces that are very real in our lives. Realizing that that was the story and leaning into it effectively and without becoming a morality play is impressive and it gave us the show we have known and loved.

Ok, “this is evolution.” So true, on the science side and the personal side. Sarah and Helena have always been the outliers. It was a quirk of biology that lead to twins. And then their birth mother was willing and able to keep them safely away from Neolution. And they are actually able to conceive. None of these facts were intended or planned for. Evolution comes from gene mutations. Sometimes mutations are harmful, but sometimes they’re beneficial or neutral, and they get passed on and help the species become something new. If that happens enough times, you get a whole new species. There’s nothing intentional or graceful about it. You can’t plan for it, and you can’t do much to control it. “PT” tried to, and it never worked out for him. There were always other changes, or not enough change, or the small detail of people being people and thus not entirely controllable. He was beaten by the results of the uncontrollable parts of evolution, an unexpected twin who unexpectedly became a mother. And Sarah has evolved as a person because of both of those things, as well as everything else. In killing “PT" she completes the final step of not just no longer running from her problems, but truly stepping out from underneath them.

Finally, let’s talk happy ending. Finishing this was hard—I’ve had trouble taking a long view of anything this weekend, in light of the events in Charlottesville, VA. This is the first time I’ve sat entirely still in at least a day. It’s made me even more glad that this show, which has always contained darkness and some shocking violence, let the “core four” of clones and most of their nearest and dearest survive. There were deaths along the way, and a shit ton of suffering, but they could have gone much darker about the ending for the sake of Realism and I’m damn glad they didn’t. The show was about finding the light and hope and family amidst all of this darkness. Sarah has been trying to be allowed/allow herself to be a part of her family since she got on that train. It doesn’t look like what she thought it would, but neither does she anymore. This is the version of family that works for this version of Sarah, and it works for the show too. Everything’s not perfect. S is dead, Rachel will never be a part of the family. They’ve all suffered massively. But they made it, and they have each other for support moving forward. Bad things can end. Good things can endure. That hasn’t always been an explicit message of the show, but it is the one they chose to build to.

That’s all, folks. For more weekly reactions, check out Kris’s GoT series. For more ass-kicking genre women, check out Wynonna Earp. For more of Miri have a lot of feeling, check out The Bold Type (and I guess this blog in general).

[raiswanson]

Tagged by @typeaadventures, thaaanks!

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

*helpless shrug* Hell if I know. I started building my bookshelf sort of all at once so it’s a bit fuzzy on what I put in there first. One of the earliest I remember buying is my box set of the first three books of Ranger’s Apprentice. So that’s what we’ll go with for now I suppose lol

2. What is your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next?

Uhhhh I’m always reading like 4 different books at once (or not reading them, as if the current case) but the one I’m most invested in right now is The Last Wish. Love me some Witcher.

Last book read wassssss...The Hollow Boy, I think. Of the Lockwood & Co series (which is great and I highly recommend ;o)

Next on the list would be Luck in the Shadows....if I can ever get my rear and gear and read more than once a blue moon hahaha

3. Which book does everyone like and you hated?

This one is hard to answer because I’m struggling to think of any books I’ve read that “everyone” liked OR hated. I usually grab books at random in 2nd hand bookstores or sale racks so usually no one else has read what I have. >.o hm.

I really don’t know. It’s kind of hard to think up a book I hate in the first place. The Historian? Let’s go with that. I know a few people at least liked that one and I LOATHED it. (SPOILERS, build up for a big showdown with Dracula through the entire book, then meet and kill him in like one page. Incredible.)

4. Which book do you keep telling yourself you’ll read, but you probably won’t?

Twilight’s Dawn, because after learning what happens to certain characters I don’t think my heart can take it. :’l

5. Which book are you saving for “retirement?”

Is....is this a thing? What does this mean. I’m definitely not putting off any books for a deliberate span of time...if that’s what this is asking?

6. Last page: read it first or wait till the end?

Sometimes I’ll poke the final chapter a bit if I get invested in a character and want to see if they stick around to the end, but for the most part I don’t skip ahead any farther than what I’ve read already. Kinda spoils the fun a bit to know the end when you’re only in chapter 3?

7. Acknowledgements: waste of ink and paper or interesting aside?

Do I usually read them? No. Do I think they’re a waste? Also no. It’s a nice thing for the people it’s relevant to. Which isn’t me. I have no problem skipping them.

8. Which book character would you switch places with?

Jack from the Dragonback series. I would 100% be down to host a neat dimensional-warping space dragon on my skin. No problem. Hop on buddy.

9. Do you have a book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time)?

The first generation of Warriors books make me think of Middle School but otherwise, nah

10. Name a book you acquired in some interesting way.

Uh. As boring as it is, I’ve acquired my book the old-fashioned way of buying them or receiving them as gifts for birthdays/Christmas. I guess there’s always me hopping between like 4 bookstores trying to get a copy of The Little Prince? *sweats* I do not live an exciting life. Sorry.

11. Have you ever given away a book for a special reason to a special person?

Nope. I’m the only one in my circle with a great love of books so I don’t think anyone would appreciate a book as a gift from me lol

12. Which book has been with you to the most places?

...you know how I said I was boring. Yeah. I don’t take books with me places. I don’t go anywhere that I’d have time to read while there.

13. Any “required reading” you hated in high school that wasn’t so bad ten years later?

No. Hell no. I enjoyed Timeline when I read it, and hated every other book I had to read. And to this day I maintain that each of those disasters can fuck off. :V

14. What is the strangest item you’ve ever found in a book?

....this list is just turning into a rude account of how boring I am. I’ve never found anything in books except for fairly normal bookmarks. TTwTT

15. Used or brand new?

I prefer brand new or as close to new as possible, mostly because I like my bookshelf to look nice and am not fond of having to be careful with a book for fear of it falling apart. But I don’t pass up a used book if its in good shape.

16. Stephen King: Literary genius or opiate of the masses?

He’s....alright??? I don’t think I’ve actually read a single one of his books. I know that I snub the majority of his writing tips that I see tossed around here though. Definitely not my kind of author. But if you love him then good for you pal.

17. Have you ever seen a movie you liked better than the book?

I haven’t read Stardust yet, but from what I’ve seen I don’t think I’ll like the book as much as the movie lol. Not from a quality standpoint or anything, just from the way I’ve heard the book is much, much more tragic :C

18. Conversely, which book should NEVER have been introduced to celluloid?

I’ll give you a hint. It involves a blue dragon with a name like a gemstone.

Why was it so bad. Why.

19. Have you ever read a book that’s made you hungry, cookbooks being excluded from this question?

....no?

20. Who is the person whose book advice you’ll always take?

Honestly most of the time I’m the one giving book advice. As I said before I’m really the only one in my group that reads that much. I’ve loved what few books my friend @ghostmumbles has suggested to me though ;p

Ummmmmm for tagging idk who I’ve seen do this one so I’m just tagging who I can think of. If you’ve done it already and I tag you, I guess just ignore this lol  @tundra-tiger @otramble @the-average-procrastinator @h-brook-writes @authorloremipsum @throughthemarshes @prycarious @helenpowers @scribbledwriting @tangledlinescrumpledpaper @crispyninjadonut @silenceleaflin OKAY IS THAT EVERYBODY??? I THINK IT IS? WE COOL? COOL.

[while-i-procrastinate]

10 Answers and 10 Questions

Oooh, my first tag ever (Yes, I’m new-ish)! Thanks to @overthinkingkdrama for tagging me.

What’s a drama you hate that everyone else seems to love?

Moonlight Drawn by the Clouds is the unfortunate answer to this question. I adore Park Bo Gum as much as the next person, and this drama looked so fluffy and pretty that I really wanted to love it. But alas, we just weren’t meant to be :( 

Perhaps hate is too strong a word for it, but mostly I found this drama a little bland. I gave up on it when it originally aired and later went back to it thinking that time and distance were what was required. But the more I watched it, the more it reminded me of one of my first and ultimate favs, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, and not in a nice way. While that show gained depth from it’s amazing treatment of its secondary characters Moonlight never quite rose above basic characterisation. Also, it seemed like the drama made a lot of effort to not fall into the trap of using general kdrama relationship conflict tropes, but my personal feeling was that a lot of issues were resolved without much introspection on part of the characters. Finally, I don’t generally have a problem with fluff, but this was a little too saccharine for my taste. I fully understand why people love it so much though. The drama was just so well done. It had a great cast, good direction, amazing production values and cinematography, it just didn’t click for me.

What drama do you love but everyone else seem to hate?

Because I generally decide on dramas to watch based on fandom opinions there are not so many dramas that come to mind in this category, but I do remember really enjoying Blood when it first came out. The show was admittedly not great, and I think if I were to watch it again I wouldn’t enjoy it nearly as much. However, I really liked the world-building aspects of the show. The idea of vampirism as a viral disease with a team of doctors trying to find a cure was cleverly used.

Who is the most unfairly maligned idol actor you would defend to your dying breath?

IU. I really loved her as Cindy, and though a lot went wrong with her character in Scarlet Heart Ryeo, I blame the writers of the show. With the patchy and inconsistent character given to her, IU did the best that can be expected honestly. (Also, I just really love her!)

Honourable mention:  Infinite’s L. I know he sucked in My Lovely Girl, but so did everybody else in that show. He was pretty good in Shut Up! Flower Boy Band, and I have high hopes from Ruler: Master of the Mask.

What’s do you consider the most important fact for your drama watching enjoyment: a unique/interesting premise, good pacing, a satisfying ending? (You can only pick one.)

Because I’m the kind of awful person who reads spoilers on Wikipedia and the ending of books to ensure that the OTP gets together etc etc, I would have expected myself to opt for satisfying ending. But then I was pretty obsessed with Moon Lovers (the very anti-thesis of a satisfying ending) and more recently Ms. Perfect (not a bad ending, but not satisfying). 

What I’ve realised while waiting for a full week for new drama episodes that if the show is not paced well, I lose interest and give up looking for new episodes the next week. Even if the drama is super fluffy and ends happily, if it loses steam midway through, I lose the will to go on as well (eg, Descendants of the Sun [finished it painfully], Oh Hae Young Again [Gave up around episode 12]).

Is there a show you watched toward the beginning of your kdrama career and you opinion has since changed drastically for better or worse since then?

Secret Love Affair. I watched it in the very early days of my kdrama watching journey, in an attempt to watch more ‘serious’ and ‘arty’ dramas [As opposed to Boys over Flowers :P]. While the fact that the show was beautifully shot and acted was not lost to me even then, I failed to grasp a lot of the emotion behind it. It was a rather superficial watch to be perfectly honest.

Since then however, I have watched the show two more times, and like fine wine, it was only gotten better. A lot of my increased enjoyment of the show actually has to do with a better understanding of Korean culture and society, and also language. There a lot of subtle things in the drama watching experience that just get lost in translation. Now nearly one year later, I am able to pick up on them more easily, and not take subtitles so literally. 

Also, I now realise what a (beautiful beautiful) unicorn this is in dramaland. 

When would you say kdramas became a regular part of your life?

About January 2016 I would say, so nearly a year and a half ago. Kdramas came into my life when a lot of things in real life were particularly hard for me. They provided a very safe and welcome escape, something western TV shows with their increasing cynicism and sci-fi focus had utterly failed at . 

Which common kdrama romantic convention have you seen a million times but you still can’t get enough of it? (Tying shoes, drunken piggyback rides, umbrellas, buying medicine for the love interest, first snow kisses/confessions, etc.)

Umbrellas. Give me all the umbrellas!

Is there anything that says I-love-you-and-I-want-to-protect-you-from-all-the-hurt-in-the-world better? Also, it always involves the umbrella-giver getting a tiny bit wet because they’re focused on making sure that the umbrella-taker is all covered up and dry. I live for this kind of bullshit. 

Which common kdrama convention do other people go gaga for but you just don’t get?

Piggyback rides and CPR-is-actually-a-kiss. In that order. 

Which actor do you avoid like the plague?

At the risk of alienating nearly everyone, Lee Jong Suk. None of his dramas interest me particularly really. 

Is there a particular writer’s body of work you find yourself drawn to? Who and why?

I had to think about this for a while. Watching out for drama writers is fairly new to me. Where I’m from (India), it’s directors, much more so that writers, who set the tone of the movies and shows. 

Jung Sung Joo is the writer behind two of my favourite dramas, Secret Love Affair and A Wife’s Credentials. I also really enjoyed what I watched of her latest drama, Heard it Through the Grapevine (didn’t end up finishing it for personal reasons, but I think I’ll take it up again) as it deals many of the same themes as the previous ones that I mentioned.   

Recurrent themes in her work are snobbery, corruption, and the desperation with which the upper-middle class tries to iron out all kinks in their public image, despite heavy turmoil underneath. She has many more dramas to her credit which I haven’t watched, but the reason I chose to mention her over say the writers of Signal or Age of Youth (both beautifully written, well crafted shows) was that I recently read a bit of the script itself, and it proves what I had always felt: the heady atmosphere of these dramas that is at once mysterious melodrama and slice of life emotional exploration is written into the script itself. Every silence is accounted for, every hand gesture is carefully calculated. Those scripts are a thing of beauty. 

 My questions are as follows:

Your most favourite scene in a drama ever?

A drama you could scrub the memory of so that you could watch it again for the first time?

Romantic comedies or Angsty romance?

A terribly typecast actor/actress?

How willing are you to overlook moral/ethical issues in dramas if they are otherwise enjoyable?

An actor/actress you would watch a drama for due to the mere fact of them being in it?

A drama from a genre you don’t ordinarily watch that you loved?

Favourite non-main character in a drama, and why?

Sageuk favourite?

Most over-hyped actor (You can’t say Lee Min Ho!)?

I tag @wyndrider, @achiara and @belladonna2017 if you feel so inclined :)

[i-am-the-entertainer]

An Attempt At A Comprehensive Review of RWBY Volume 4

I did a couple of posts reacting to RWBY4 as it was coming out, which you can find in the rwby4 tag on my own page. But I figured now that it’s been a few weeks I can write a more comprehensive review.

FULL SPOILERS FOR RWBY VOLUME 4. And sorry this is long.

First thought: IT WAS SLOW AS FUCK.

I mean sweet jesus, that dragged. If I were to think of the whole volume as one long movie, I could count a full hour of content going by without a single fight going on. Which, I mean, you can get away with in a full-length movie, but with a show like RWBY, which was co-created by a guy known for his fight animation, that comes out in 20 minutes spurs every week? That’s really, really bad. I mean, I guess they sort of got away with it in past volumes (not really though), but that’s mainly because the episodes were a lot shorter. And the World of Remnants coming out at seemingly random points made it all the more worse. I mean, I sat down and watched the whole thing through recently, episode by episode, and honestly it was alright. But watching it in process? That was torture. Plus it didn’t feel like the more interesting arcs going on were getting enough development time.

Second thought: Pretty good world building

Okay, slowness aside, for me the World of Remnants painted a fascinating picture of...well, of the world of Remnant. A lot of thought was definitely put into the mechanics, and Vic’s voiceover as Qrow getting increasingly drunk made them all the more entertaining. But again, I’d prefer it if they came out concurrently with the episodes rather than in place of an episode. As some have noted, that doesn’t build hype, it pisses you off.

Third thought: Meh Fight Choreography

RWBY’s was interesting to me in the first place because of the fight choreo, though I stuck around because I wanted to see what happened with the characters. Since we don’t have Monty and Shane on hand anymore to animate RWBY, their animation which to some extent was RWBY’s signature is gone. Of the fights in RWBY4, I felt that only two felt like something resembling Monty or Shane’s work––the character short and Qrow v. Tyrian, though both of these fell flat.

Fourth thought: Animation style and design was beautiful

Barring the snore-worthy fight choreography, the switch to Maya this season definitely improved the quality of animation drastically. The animation in Volume 1 was deplorable, the animation in Volume 2 was better but still kind of lacking, Volume 3 was an improvement but they could still have done better. With Volume 4 the design elements were done really well, and in the Maya engine they came out in ways I don’t think Poser could have achieved.

The Grimm this year were especially terrifying. I loved the added touch of the black smoke they emitted, and the Nuckelavee Grimm was pretty cool.

But again, I think there’s a problem when you at first have good fight choreography and poor animation, and later have good animation but poor fight choreography.

Fifth thought: Too Many Plotlines

Six different stories and about 3 hours to tell them? Really, really bad idea.

This is something you do in a show like Game of Thrones. I get that RT Animation is fairly small, but if you’re gonna have this many plotlines you need much, much longer episodes, at least 30 minutes per chapter I reckon. But 10-20 minutes means a plot that starts one episode doesn’t pop up again until almost a month later, by which point you’ve forgotten about them or ceased to care.

Sixth thought: Underdeveloped Plotlines

I would call this a side effect of the previous one. I think the first...three or so?...episodes introduced quite a few compelling plotlines (at least to me). Cinder’s recovery following the number Ruby did to her at Beacon, Yang learning to live without her arm, Blake running away from her problems, Weiss dealing with her parents, Oscar.

But as the season dragged (and boy did it drag) a lot of these plot points were seemingly dropped or at most didn’t serve as much importance as the first few eps implied. For example, I thought they would have more about Cinder’s recovery or how the team was dealing with Pyrrha’s death, but most of it only appeared in a few eps and would be brought up––sometimes randomly––several episodes later. Yang’s arc felt especially truncated––the prominence in the opening made it seem like it would be a major point this year, but they had only two episodes of her dealing with PTSD, and all of sudden she has the arm and is all better. I mean, I liked what little I saw, but I really really wish they’d shown more. If you’re gonna take on a topic like that you need time to show it, and the way this season was set up there wasn’t enough time.

The thing is, the way this year went you can sort of tell when Miles and Kerry went, “Oh crap, we went in over our heads.” I think it was around episode 4, when we had a World of Remnant, a RWBY episode, then another World of Remnant, which I think is the first time a WoR has appeared so soon after a previous one. To me that inconsistency signals a point where the team realized they were nearing the halfway point and the plot wasn’t going fast enough.

That’s a failure of the production structure: if you’re gonna take the show to an epic scale like this, you need to have everything ready before the first episode, or at least somewhere in advance. RWBY is largely produced as it’s being released, and the result is they don’t have enough time to review everything and realize when something’s not working. If Rooster Teeth Animation doesn’t have the capabilities or the time to take a plot to its full potential, that plot needs to be dropped.

The only really good plot this year I thought was Weiss’s arc. Well-written, good performances by the voice actors (more on that later), and fairly well-developed. But it was stretched out over a long period of time, so in retrospect that made it a little difficult to follow.

Seventh thought: Voice Acting Was Great

Maybe it’s experience or the fact they hired more professionals, but the voice acting this year was really good. All four of the Team RWBY voice actors were great, but I’m singling out Barbara Dunkelman and Kara Eberle for best performances, as I think their arcs provided the best range of emotion for them to portray; this especially shows in comparison to their performances in the first volume, which I rewatched back in December while this season was in full swing. I think ultimately though Yang’s plotline was too truncated for us to see how much Barb has improved since 2013. Kara, after portraying Weiss’s icy personality in the first few volumes, really showed a surprising range of emotion for Weiss’s realization of just how vain her family and acquaintances are.

The real MVP of this season was Neath Oum. He’s by no means a professional voice actor, but knowing he took on the character in honor of his younger brother and the surprisingly substantial role Ren and Nora served this year, he honestly killed it.

Minor thoughts

The best moment I thought this season was Qrow and Raven’s discussion in Higanbana in “Chapter 4: Family.” Great voicework from Vic Mignogna and Anna Hullum, well-written dialogue, good camera angles, and an interesting way of developing the plot. Only problem is it was a few minutes in an early episode, and the discussion was never brought up again––hopefully next year?

The best episode was “Chapter 10: Kuroyuri.” I thought the voiceover work for young Ren was kind of eh, but I liked that we got more of Ren and Nora’s tragic backstory, which was only alluded to in the first few volumes. We get a glimpse of Ren’s semblance and the start of their friendship, plus a genuine glimpse at what kind of enemy the Nuckelavee is. But I think it happened too late in the season––at that point I was just too invested in what would happen to the other characters to really want a flashback episode. The stakes needed to be raised earlier, and though we got hints at the Nuckelavee in Chapter 2, there wasn’t enough in the rest of the episodes to make us aware how big of an enemy it was.

Moving on/Too Long; Didn’t Read

As a general assessment, this season had vast improvements from previous seasons, but overall the result was a disappointment. Too much going on with too little time to tell it. Moving forward I think RT’s best decision is best case scenario make longer episodes, worst case make more episodes. I suppose a better in-between ground is reuniting Team RWBY, but at this point that’s probably not gonna happen until the end of Volume 5.I was, again, disappointed, but I was invested enough in the characters that I want to see what happens to them next year...this September...whenever the hell they start up. So for now I say goodbye to RWBY proper, and look forward to whatever ridiculousness they bring to RWBY Chibi this year.