#s class liveblog

[milkbreadtoast]

biwan-nim's designs for the han brothers are so cute... i like that their eyes are.. not quite monolids but the eyelid crease is small & only visible on the edges... kinda like choi soobin & kang taehyun's eyes?🥺 it's a specific character design detail and soo cute...🥹🥹

and i like that both of their eyes are like this!! definitely brothers... 🥹

their designs seem generic at first glance (esp yoojin, almost every protag in the action fantasy webtoon genre is a guy with straight black hair like him lmao) but it's details like this that make them(and biwan's designs) stand out to me...

[thewertsearch]

Arise, Thief.

"UH, GUYS? 1 TH1NK VR1SK4 JUST D3SP4WN3D :/"

The Light palette suits Vriska very well.

I think I like this outfit more than John's, actually. The hood and boots make her look like a typical rogue, which suits her class perfectly. The wings are odd, but I suppose they could symbolize a thief's agility.

Also, now that I'm looking at this outfit in context, I'm pretty sure I've seen it before. Not during the comic itself, but in fanart, long before I started the liveblog. It was definitely either Vriska, or another God-Tiered Light player - but since Vriska's a fan favorite, I think it's more likely it was her.

The windy boy is dead. The tragedy is overwhelming. All hope is lost. Oh well. Time to get out of this tin can!

We're back with WV, who seems a little behind on current events. I guess he's assuming the John he met on Skaia was from further back on the timeline, so he thinks the Heir is dead for good.

Of course you still have your secret treasure, but it will almost certainly prove to be of no use to you in this dilemma whatsoever.

Put that thing away! This moment isn't nearly dramatic enough to justify using it. Does this look like an [S] page to you?

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 9/3/2024

having a lot of fun with toddler enrichment activities in this household, until we bit through the bag and the foil and the water and hated that experience

listening

fun citypop version of Good Luck Babe! by Amandumb and Sakura Wine, “ganbatte” scans to “good luck babe” SCARY well. this is both off a tiktok my best friend sent me and the spotify recommended weekly

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reading

quite frankly this makes me nervous and i am backing up my blogs as we speak. i sort of believe them when they say that we won't see a difference on the front end, but this is a HUGE migration. SOMETHING is going to go not perfectly.

William Greenleaf's TIME JUMPER (1980, 224p) and Joe Millard (my beloathed)'s Blood For A Dirty Dollar (1980 European reprint of a 1973 American book, 156p). thank you philip. time jumper is from a thrift store somewhere (possibly from the free book shelf at the umass engineering library) and the cowboy book is from ebay. they lied about the condition and the heavy smoke smell so i ended up getting it for free :) in no world is that a Very Good condition book!!!

time jumper! i do not think the back cover blurb (below) is very accurate.

COMBINED DESTINIES! One Earth of the far future, city dwellers live in a technologically advanced environment, while bands of nomads barbarically hunt and farm the plains. Hidden within the city is Erin, a crazed scientist, who is constructing a timejumper. On the plains is a nomad boy who quests after the city's secrets. Unknown to both, an evil force works to keep them apart, for it knows that if they ever meet, a new Earth destiny would be inevitable!

i looooove a bubble city. i love long lingering shots of technology and city-scapes and city politics. i would not call the nomads barbarians, bc they are a trading society who set up crop irrigation in their seasonal fields and have a giant traveling library with card catalogue. i would also not call Erin crazed or hidden, bc he is the richest man in the city. reclusive, yes. single-minded, yes. pretty sane though. he is a little person and i think the book handled this fairly deftly for 1980? most of his obstacles are physical and not societal. finally, the evil force is not working to keep them apart bc it doesn't even know about the outside kid. they mostly just want to stop anyone from leaving.

now that we know the back blurb is lies, what's the deal with this book? mostly wrestling with how automation leads to a loss of purpose and flattening of culture, breaking cycles, cyclical natures of histories thereof, and repeating old sins. however, one of the more frustrating endings ive ever read with the very last paragraph containing the suicide of a minor character. we simply didn't fucking need that last paragraph.

i found the dialogue a little bland but book overall quite evocative. it felt like a sixties scifi show constructed from castoff theater sets. it felt like this screenshot from rollerball. a lot of shapes. a lot of giant gardens. a lot of flattened textures.

i also liveblogged the cowboy book here. we've previosuly looked at the one with the balloon and the jailbreak but this is the one with the mad englishman and the imported castle and the missing scientists. i love a description of Legally Not Lee van Cleef Because We Don't Have A Royalty Agreement

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watching

X-Men: First Class (2011, dir. Vaughn) was way more fun than i was expecting??? it's fun to watch these with my bestie's husband who is a fairly intense x-men fan and Will pause the movie for several minutes to explain why a specific character's death was fucking bullshit or answer one of my stupid costuming questions

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playing

the new mesoamerican fire-aligned nation of Natlan is out in genshin impact! VERY beautiful region even though i think it is a crime, to me personally, to show me a village of observation balloons and then tell me i can't actually go there for six weeks until the next patch.

this is a little bit more of a frustrating experience bc my tolerance for the least little thing going wrong is at record lows. once you hit 100% on a map region it feels more like a true 100% ing the area, which is a little scary bc this usually means you have anywhere from 10-20% more Stuff to do and find and collect. one quest is straight up bugged for me (very unusual) and i cannot get a specific mechanic (the yunkasaur, the little green pokemon lookin motherfucker above, flame spitting) to fire with any sort of accuracy. why have a sight and a center pip if you CANNOT aim it.

some parts of the map look a little more seussical than others.

to whoever made sure this observation balloon lined up with the window when you entered this waypoint building, i see you. thank you.

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making

fallow week.

[bomberqueen17]

Liveblogging the Aubreyad: Book 3, HMS Surprise (part 1)

This one, I made notes on my phone while listening to the audiobook, so we shall see how well I distill them.

The series is hitting its stride now as a series, I think. M&C was kind of oneshottish, no real expectation of continuation; Post Captain was the pleased "oh! i get another one? great!" where he then crammed in three books' worth into one, and now HMS S is "ah. this is a series! Settle this plot down, then." pacing-wise.

So we pick up with politicians wrangling over the aftermath of the previous book, which had seemed to end so tidily and on such a happy note. Of course that is not the end-- there's a series now.

So at the end of the previous book, Jack was one of five captains sharing out a prize of some several million pounds, and this would have made him enormously wealthy and guaranteed his marriage. Of course.

In the opening scene of this one we hear that, legally, Spain had not declared war on Britain at the time, so legally, that money is not prize money, so legally, it should just be kept entirely for the government and not distributed to the sailors and officers who actually did the fighting at all, despite that being the well-established custom of the day. Legally, see, they don't have to hand it out, even though the people who designed the mission, and the people who executed the mission, all felt certain that it was a legit prize at the time and acted accordingly.

Stephen's friend Sir Joseph, head of Naval Intelligence, is arguing that of course it should be prize money, for large numbers of very good reasons, not least that he designed the mission with that in mind.

But the new First Lord of the Admiralty is a civilian politician. And he openly mentions Stephen Maturin's name, despite the fact that Sir Joseph had stressed to him that the man is a confidential agent. The First Lord does not catch the hint. And then he asks who the captains are, and remembers that Jack Aubrey's father is an opposition member in Parliament, and immediately Sir Joseph knows that it's over; this is political wrangling now, and this man will make a decision that harms the national interest and the morale of the service and everything else simply because General Aubrey is a politician he does not like.

So there is no prize money. And Jack is not out of debt. And cannot marry Sophie. And, far far far worse, Stephen's name is now exposed to a crowd of non-confidential people of no particular discretion, particularly marked as a secret agent with knowledge of Spanish affairs.

Anyway-- zooming out from that crackerjack first scene, and it is despite how it sounds, it's really well-told political intrigue with a very good layering of easy-to-understand, easy-to-deplore bullshit (and Admiral Harte gets his shitty little nose in there being a massive hypocrite, have no fear) -- the general situation is thus:

Jack, still in the Lively, is in the Med bottling up the French fleet in Toulon, and is engaged to Sophie-- legally, with all kinds of avaricious wrangles from Mrs. Williams, all the terms and conditions he acquiesced to unprotesting, so that Sophie will legally own most of their joint property. Diana has run off to India with Canning; Stephen has been collecting intelligence on them, though mostly it seems for the purpose of hurting himself with it. Stephen is to go to Minorca to do more intelligence stuff despite the fact that his name has been exposed-- the news will not have reached them, Stephen says coolly, declining to cancel the mission.

The Lively has a schoolmaster to oversee the young gentlemen's lessons. (Prior to being a midshipman, a young gentleman will be expected to have served three years of sea time, with the status of First Class Volunteer; many are listed as servants during this time, and many of them do not actually report to the ship during this time-- entering a friend's son on one's books to say he was on a ship long enough that when he joins he can just start as a midshipman with no waste of time is a perfectly accepted kind of little fraud, very common in Jack's social circles. "Young gentleman" as a category seems to include both the volunteers and rated midshipmen. But the Lively has a number of quite young gentlemen actually aboard, including the five-year-old [or, seven. he was five in the previous book but in this book, some weeks later, he is now seven] son of one of the lieutenants, as he came home from a voyage to find his wife dead and no family remaining to care for the child, so the little boy has been onboard ever since. Apparently Babbington may actually have still been a volunteer during some of the events of Master and Commander, but of course this is not consistently represented. I fully support an author doing whatever the hell he wants with timelines, and it is absolutely consistent with the inconsistency of historical records, LOL.)

Anyway-- Jack also actually went to sea as a volunteer very young, and the ship he was on did not have a competent schoolmaster, so he has suffered his entire life from not a very good education. He is sitting in on the young gentlemen's lessons ostensibly because he is concerned for them and wants to ensure they learn what they must, but in practice, he is taking advantage of this opportunity to get a proper thorough grounding in his own education, belatedly, and is thereby unlocking a real true love of mathematics, heretofore only instinctively guessed-at.

The Lively has seen long prior service in the South Pacific, and as such has a number of Asian crew members aboard. (So we do now see the word Chinaman occur, which unlike Indiaman does refer to humans, but is used as a neutral descriptor; I will nevertheless henceforth be avoiding its use, though to be fair I think it only occurs once in the book anyway.) Jack is pleased with the Chinese and Malayan crewmen, largely, as they all are unfailingly polite and have a number of useful skills, and are excellent seamen. But he finds out during an elaborate cutting-out expedition that many of them had formerly been pirates; they slaughter their opponents with absolutely stunning efficiency in a quite practiced manner despite how little combat the Lively itself has seen.

They make for Minorca to pick up Stephen but he does not make the rendezvous. Another Catalan man appears, and says Stephen has been taken, and is being tortured by the French in Port Mahon. Jack knows the city. With the Catalans, he sets up a rescue mission, and frees the prisoners, burns the house (coincidentally, the house where Captain and Molly Harte used to live), and rescues Stephen, who has had all his fingernails pulled out and has been stretched on a rack. (Touchingly, he has hallucinated Jack coming in to rescue him before, and so when it truly happens, is surprisingly calm, mistaking it for another hallucination.) It is a taut little action, badass as fuck. The officers of the Lively are disappointed when Jack won't take them, but this is not an official sanctioned expedition and there will be no glory, no report, no credit, no advancement of career-- it is simply a pragmatic necessity, and he wants only people who know the ground (his own people, Killick and Bonden) plus enough to pad out the numbers to make it work, so he takes those of the Chinese and Malay pirates who choose to volunteer, since this is just the ticket for them. (All of them volunteer.)

(A side note. The Catalan who helps them is named Joan. The audiobook narrator pronounces this Catalan man's name, which in Spanish would be Juan, and is pronounced the same, as the English woman's name Joan. Come on Simon. I believed in you.)

They get Stephen and get out, and we resume the tale in England with Stephen staying at an inn in Portsmouth. The Lively has been handed back over to her real captain, Hammond, at Gibraltar.

Jack is immediately arrested for debt as he tries to get the invalid Stephen into a carriage to go from Portsmouth to London, so off he goes to a sponging-house, hero or no; he goes quietly and resignedly. Sir Joseph Blaine is shocked to hear that heroic Jack is imprisoned; he had arranged for at least a consolation, an ex gratia payment, for the captains who were denied prize rights over the Spanish treasure, but it comes out that the agent has been slow in paying it out, and Jack is helpless without it. Blaine resolves to see it settled, at least, and does-- Jack is released. At least provisionally; there are other debts.

Sir Joseph, in his gratitude for Stephen's rescue, gets Jack another ship-- HMS Surprise, on an errand to carry an emissary to Kampong. It's a good long mission in a lovely ship (in which Jack served as a midshipman long ago), and he hopes it will give Jack's affairs time to settle.

Stephen turns to Bonden, asking him to write a letter for him, since his hands are so injured, and it comes out abruptly that Bonden is illiterate.

'Bonden,' cried Stephen, 'take pen and ink, and write -' 'Write, sir?' cried Bonden. 'Yes. Sit square to your paper, and write: Landsdowne Crescent - Barret Bonden, are you brought by the lee?' 'Why, yes, sir; that I am - fair broached-to. Though I can read pretty quick, if in broad print; I can make out a watch-bill.' 'Never mind. I shall show you the way of it when we are at sea, however: it is no great matter - look at the fools who write all day long - but it is useful, by land. You can ride a horse, sure?' 'Which I have rid a horse, sir; and three or four times, too, when ashore.'

Bonden takes the message on foot, and goes and fetches Sophie and Pullings, Sophie to write the letter from Stephen to Jack, and Pullings to carry it. This allows them to arrange for Sophie to come along to the rendezvous, so that she can see and speak to Jack briefly without her mother's knowledge. Jack had tried to release her from the engagement when his renewed troubles with debt became apparent, but she wished to refuse, but could not speak to him directly about it, so this is their chance.

She sneaks out at night and goes in the coach with Stephen, and there gets a half an hour (well, forty-five minutes; Stephen with the timepiece is soft-hearted) of conversation with Jack before they must part ways, her to go home and sneak back in to her house, Stephen and Jack to go on to the Surprise, waiting in Plymouth.

The Surprise makes her way off around the world, saddled with a moderately ineffectual but amiable first lieutenant named Hervey who has influential friends, and a second lieutenant named Nicolls who is inoffensive if clearly suffering from major depression, but with Tom Pullings as the third lieutenant, competent and familiar. They are becalmed awhile, and Jack teaches Stephen to swim-- badly, but at all, which is an accomplishment.

'Did you see me?' [Stephen] cried as Jack came nearer. 'I swam the entire length: four hundred and twenty strokes without a pause!' 'Well done,' said Jack, swinging himself into the boat with an easy roll. 'Well done indeed.' Each stroke must have propelled Stephen a little less than three inches, for the Surprise was only a twenty-eight gun ship, a sixth-rate of 579 tons - the kind so harshly called a jackass frigate by those not belonging to her. 'Should you like to come aboard? Let me give you a hand.'

Some of the men get scurvy. They run short of supplies and are down to eating rats, which they euphemistically term "millers" out of absurd delicacy. Stephen has pet rats, he is feeding them madder as an experiment.

They find St. Paul's Rocks, where Stephen begs to be put ashore for a moment to study the birds. Jack declines, as it is Sunday and one cannot ask the men to work on Sunday, but the second lieutenant Nicolls volunteers to take him over in the little rowboat for a few hours.

A sudden squall damages the ship and washes poor depressed Nicolls away, along with the little boat; Stephen survives, but is stranded, and the Surprise driven away by the wind. Some undefined time later (two days?), Babbington comes in the barge with Bonden and others rowing double-banked in a great hurry straight into the eye of the wind where the ship herself could not come, certain the Doctor must be dead but hoping against hope to find him. They do, alive, and bring him back to the ship.

Stephen claims that the extreme heat on the shelter-less rock has worked miracles on his torture-twisted tendons.

'I wish you joy of your rescue, Doctor,' said Mr Atkins, the only man aboard who was not pleased to see the barge return: Stephen was attached to the mission in an artfully vague capacity, and the envoy's instructions required him to seek Dr Maturin's advice; Mr Atkins's advice or indeed presence was nowhere mentioned and he was consumed with jealousy. 'May I fetch you a towel or some other garment?'- with a look at Stephen's scrofulous shrunken belly. 'You are very officious, sir; but this is the garment in which I shall appear before God; I find it answers pretty well. It may be termed my birthday suit.' 'That has choked the bugger off,' said Pullings to Babbington, just above his breath, out of a motionless face. 'That is one in his bleeding eye.'

During Stephen's absence, however, he finds that someone has stolen his rats, and he is furious.

Babbington is given an acting promotion to lieutenant to replace Nicolls. His perfect delight in this is marred only by his guilt at having, along with the rest of the larboard midshipmen's berth, eaten Stephen's rats, and he blubberingly confesses. Stephen revenges himself only mildly for this offense.

Jack wished to avoid putting ashore in Brazil, to avoid official delays, but Stephen suggests they just find a village and buy green stuff there, which works. Stephen of course has to go ashore. He promises not to return with any vampires, but in the event comes back with a three-toed sloth, which does not like Jack. Jack wins it over by giving it grog, in time-honored sailor fashion. Stephen discovers this and is indignant, leading to possibly the funniest line in this book:

Stephen looked sharply round, saw the decanter, smelt to the sloth, and cried, 'Jack, you have debauched my sloth.'

The dignitaries aboard are annoying and take up an enormous amount of space, including Jack's entire great cabin, so that he must room with Stephen in a smaller space. The envoy himself, a Mr. Stanhope, is dignified and kind (though a bit remote: "Once he had established that Jack and Hervey were connected with families he knew, he treated them as human beings; all the others as dogs - but as good, quite intelligent dogs in a dog-loving community"), but his head secretary, Mr. Atkins, is an officious, self-important, tale-bearing busybody universally loathed onboard.

Stephen teaches Bonden to read and write. They have their lessons up in the top, for privacy-- Bonden is not keen to be mocked on his scholarly habits, and hides the book when the midshipman Callow comes up to deliver a message. Stephen doesn't notice this.

They get, finally, to the high latitudes, where there is a huge blow, though Stephen is consoled by finally seeing the albatross. The dignitaries complain that the ship leaks and demand better accomodations. Stephen refuses to pass the message and tells the officious secretary to go tell Jack himself. The man declines to do this, as Jack is currently lashed to the wheel in the driving rain working like hell round the clock with all hands to keep the ship from broaching-to and foundering, and indeed shortly after winds up clinging for his life to a broken mast in the front of the ship trying like hell to keep the sea from overwhelming them. Surprise is damaged internally, her timbers strained, and they have to limp the rest of the way. Not a single rat is left in the ship, the stores are dangerously low.

I wasn't going to do this but I'm going to divide this. I swear I'll get better at making these short. I'm kind of doing a... rehabilitative exercise on my ability to write, here. Coming up is part two, Bombay! With critical updates on How Many Indiamen Tom Pullings Has Been In! And you'll never guess who gets the clap!

[justanothergaymess]

A Rome by any other name would be just as bleak

Assorted thoughts on Women of Xal by @plottwiststudios

Those who know me know that I have a fondness for Visual Novels, particularly indie ones. I have play-read a plethora of them over the years, with varying themes, qualities of execution, and lengths. Women of Xal is a first insofar as the liveblogging on this very blog has been read by one of the devs. It receives the dubios honour of being one of the few Visual Novels that have haunted me since starting it. And it is a first since I have to invoke death of the author on a post where I tag one of the authors - but the text must stand on its own themes and execution, regardless of paratextual authorial intent. Because Women of Xal is certainly a potent text speaking to a lot of technical and artistic skills of the author(s), but it is not as a dating sim that it remains lurking in the pit of my stomach. Women of Xal, to me, is an ambitious balancing act between horror, parody, and Brechtian theatre.

Spoiler warning and content note for sexual abuse, classism, racism, psychological and physical gendered violence, and slavery for everything under the cut.

Women of Xal casts the player-readers into the world of Xal, particularly and mostly the palace of Xanasca, as Xjena, a young woman. Xjena is secretly a seer, a person capable of accurately extrapolating the future from dreams, at the cost of constant fatigue. She has been summoned to Xanasca with four other young women to compete for the inheritance of the - still alive and seemingly well - Lady Xuna of Xanasca. By building and breaking alliances, Xjena races to find out the secrets of the palace and Xuna. Her abilities as a seer quickly get impeded by an antagonistic character named Marra - who aims to stop all seers, pitying them for being forced into government service by default once they reveal their abilities. As Xjena now cannot remember any future and past events she has already witnessed via her abilities, the player-reader still can - and guides her decisions through Xualian politics as the avatar of her magical ability and strength. It is revealed after some iterations and loops of the story that Xuna is herself a seer, and has seen the end of the world of Xal - knowing, because of Marra, very little about it, just that the five women she summoned to her palace have something to do with it.

So far, so normal a setup. Purely from the angle of a time-loop Visual Novel, WoX certainly is brilliantly crafted. The pacing, the mechanics of a visual novel having diegetic explanation and being subject to diegetic transformations, the way information are revealed and maintained across loops, antagonists vaguely aware of the existence of a player - WoX can certainly compete as a time-loop indie Visual Novel with the behemoths of that subgenre (and I will talk about the Golden elephant in the room later).

But WoX enters into an dangerous and hard-to-execute gambit in its worldbuilding: the Xualian society functions under an inverse patriarchy and shows hints of an inverse colorism, with white skin not existing whatsoever and the only white background characters ever appearing being humans visiting Xal in a diplomatic-cultural exchange between the planes. I have uninstalled enough digital and put down enough physical novels operating on the premise of oppressed-as-oppressor. WoX earned the benefit of my doubt and subsequent maintenance of attention by removing white people alltogether. Xualian society is heavily stratified by the status of its women of color (status attainable by military and government service as well as the accumulation of wealth), with the completely disenfranchised enslaved lower class being its men of color.

WoX shines truly as a parody - I understand enough about the patriarchy (and the YouTube algorithm in Germany constantly pushes anime summary videos with absolutely disgusting titles and preview pictures) that I know a genre such as the harem anime/manga exists [and I feel obligated to point out the collapse of two very different orientalisms into one within the title of the genre alone, far be it from me to know its reception and success in the West], as well as the majority of all media focusing its attention on men as agents, forming homosocial relations with one another, while women are relegated to the position of object for occassional sexual gratification. Running around Xal as Xjena, seeing all these powerful women of Xualian politics, veterans and career politicians and leaders, all fighting in different alliances and with different intentions, while men are relegated to serving Xjena both in household activities and sexually, is a brilliant parody. The novelty of said parody quickly falls off, however, and I am left with that bitter feeling in my stomach knowing that for every self-aware parody-via-matriarchy like WoX, there will be a hundred thousand novels that play the patriarchy straight, with real world consequences. When Valimer, a teenager and victim of the physical and verbal abuse of one of Xjena's competitors for the inheritance because he as a man dared to speak up against the matriarchy, continues his subsequent scenes and arc being just as worried about the well-being of his abuser, when Proxis, also a teenager and victim of attempted sexual abuse continues to smile and stay joyful and subservient despite his experiences, when Xaris, a young man with the ambition of becoming a theatre actor, breaks down crying in Xjena's arms after having suffered through sexual assault, it all is so familiar - conversations I have had with so many women I stopped counting at some point.

But the bitterness eminating from between the lines does not stop here, far from it. Xal's society does not only allude to the present-day patriarchy. In scouring the libraries of both the palace and the city, with which I spent the majority of my first loop, I stumbled upon the governing articles between the regions of Xal: Men are not only expected to be subservient to women. They are codified as property, and cannot become free unto themselves. Xal is a slave society. Proxis, Xaris, Valimer, the aforementioned abuse victims, were all legally bought by Xuna, and placed within the brothel of her palace. Men start of as property of their mothers, until at the age of 12 being able to be sold; as indentured husbands, servants, and/or sex slaves. To my knowledge, the player-reader never learns who works Xal's mines and fields; still, we know who works the kitchens, cleans the houses, maintains the gardens. Xualian notions of status and human property closely reflect Roman society, even if collapsing gendered and enslaved categories. That only heightens the severity of the society portrayed, the inherent horror. I went into Women of Xal, a game with very little documentation outside authorial posting, with no knowledge of its worldbuilding; I expected a dating sim meets political thriller where I lesbian slut my way through court intrigue in a somewhat generic fantasy setting. Instead, I am thrust unto the lowest steps of the cursus honorum, with all the baggage that implies.

The struggle I have with WoX as a dating sim, the struggle it is in a way brilliant in invoking, is that not only are the women dateable, but the men as well. Proxis, Xaris, Valimer, they are not only victims one can (optionally) support, but also romance, and also, very explicitly, fuck. Indeed, as soon as one gains control over Xjena's day, one can stroll into the brothel section of the palace and demand to sleep with the men there. Now, the ethics of slowly building up a genuine friendship with these young victims of slave trade and sex slavery and arriving at a place of mutual understanding for the negotiation of consent are not something I can debate in the space of a throwaway post I am writing freely just to get these thoughts out of my mind. But the ethics of fucking them first-day are easily labelled as nonexistent. It does not get meaningfully less disquieting dating the women. Lady Xuan, the matriarch of the local region, owner of the brothel and its sex slaves, is also a romance option. So are Clanice and Merixa, two women firmly anchored within the violence of Xualian matriarchy. Velvet, the most outspoken advocate against the Xualian matriarchy amongst the competitors for Xuna's inheritance, who ends up losing an eye to the assault by an heiress of a proud slave-owning family, still ends up policulizing up to Clanice, sending the player-reader selfies with her. As a dating sim, WoX asks me if I want to romance slaves, a "benevolent" slave owner, or slavery defenders and their girlfriends; as a player-reader, I answer that I want the slave society of Xal abolished at gunpoint and knifeedge.

The fantasy Rome of Xal comes fully equipped with its own girlbossified Cassiuses, Brutuses, and Spartacuses, not just Caesars and Ciceros. The aforementioned Marra, moreso acting against seers and their abilities, is impeding the government's ability to exploit the abilities of the seers to maintain its structural integrity while revolution is brewing. Perhaps that is merely a side effect, perhaps that is intention on Marra's side. Plenty of the slave-servants at the palace resent the matriarchy, sometimes louder, sometimes quieter. An entire region of Xal is mentioned that is semi-independent from the rest of Xal where the freedom of men is tolerated; men escaping there are difficult to be retrieved by their former legal owners [despite the social structure of Xal being so romanesque, I could not help but whisper "Mason-Dixon" under my breath in horror learning that part of the lore]. And last but certainly not least, there are the revolutionaries surrounding Tannae, a woman that appears as a side character in the story a handful of times. She openly scoffs at the matriarchy, and later attempts to assassinate Xuna and one of Xuna's lovers (who Xuna also legally owns) in an attempt to kickstart the revolution by killing the most vocal centrist reformist and her confidant. The so-called True Ending of WoX happens by carrying two words of memory across the time-loop and the amnesia imposed by Marra: "aggressive progressives", a warning Xuna designed to tell her if such an assassination against her and her confidants is imminent. The absolute absurdity of using "progressives" here, given the fact that it is a term within the present often used to designate a reformist antirevolutionary electoralist section of the settler population of the US, can be left aside. The fact is that Tannae, the revolutionaries, and Marra are right. While the revolutionaries towards the end of the story send in assassination squads into the palace and an assortment of the highest-ranking veterans, generals, and matriarchs of Xal reside there, multiple women complain that they sympathize with the cause, but draw the line at murder. I do not. The palace houses several of the people most pivotal in upholding the slave society. It is a more than valid target. The True Ending of our journey as player-readers through girlboss fantasy Rome rests in saving girlboss Cicero and her favorite slave from assassination. The beating of the tell-tale buried between the lines becomes ever louder as one progresses through the story: WoX is a parodistic horror game about being on the wrong side of history.

WoX is built upon an absurdist inversion of the status quo in its matriarchy; and, as explained before, it rests close to Rome and Roman slavery in structure. Still, it bears mentioning that in the exchange between the planes, quite fittingly, Xal maintains close alignment with the US on actual diegetic Earth. A Black man from the US gets hired by Xuna to run the day-to-day activities of the brothel; when Xjena befriends him, he mentions that he came to Xal knowing little besides that race and racism did not exist there, only to find similarly strong kinds of systemic violence in this hoped-for utopia. Xualian slavery does not espouse the same kind of bio- and necropolitics as the transatlantic slave trade and chattel slavery. And yet, given that the US is built and running on slavery, as well as the West's present-day hegemony being built upon the transatlantic slave trade and subsequently financed imperialist exploitation, between the lines of WoX run not only echoes of slavery past but also present. In that sense, I am more than willing to delete this post should any of my Black mutuals find it insufficient and wrong; if you made it this far, your attention was never expected, but is an honour to be granted for certain, no matter what you think of my writing here.

WoX therefore juxtaposes its inverted magical fantasy violence with real-world violence. This is not the first time-loop indie Visual Novel I play-read and analyze where the narration follows a path through a labyrinthian mansion filled with exploited and assaulted servants while those from an oppressor class compete for the inheritance of the small empire of the recluse head of the household. Admittedly, Umineko No Naku Koro Ni is quite different from Women of Xal, and yet, as a behemoth in both volume and impact in the indie Visual Novel scene, I kept coming back to it while playing WoX. I have play-read only the first two chapters of Umineko, and yet, I would label it as one of the very few successful fantasy inversions of oppressor and oppressed. When rich asshole fuckboy Ushiromiya Battler gets gratuitously tortured by female witches and demons in the frame narrative, often while using signifiers of BDSM, it only serves to underline the horror of the unacknowledged and mundane sexualized verbal violence he and his male family members subject female family members and servants alike to. Women of Xal is far more reserved in showing the mundane, real violence it inverts, only hinting at it from time to time. WoX also maintains a close entaglement between player-reader and main character; Xjena's actions are, by all means, the result of my personal free will as player-reader. Umineko invokes horror and gore in trying to find a language for the trauma of structural sexualized violence; Women of Xal invokes comedy and parody while placing the main character, a woman of color, and the player-reader by proxy, in an absurd, inverted oppressor class. The monstrous of Umineko is the subtle violence of everyday patriarchy coming back to haunt itself, the monstrous of WoX is the player-readers complicity while being robbed of any choice to also take up arms against the status quo.

The absurdity of WoX's base premise aligns closely with the concept Brechtian Alienation in Brechtian Theatre; through constant reminders of the performativity of the play, the audience is tasked with untangling its commentary on the real world. I do not know if the author(s) of WoX intended such a thing or not, but the Brechtian effect of WoX's base premise manages to bypass the base level of coping that I had to develop helping dozens upon dozens of acquaintances, friends, and kin through abusive relationships, marriages, and expriences of assault. Women of Xal leaves me with a haunting sense of dread in regards to the patriarchy, one that adequately fits the severity of it. Would I recommend WoX as a dating sim? No. Would I recommend WoX as an experimental piece of Brechtian horror? Yes. What else remains there to be said? Marra and Tannae are right, death to all Romes, whichever name they might adapt.

[noobsomeexagerjunk]

Aypiere and Quackity are talking!

Around 30-40 minutes in Aypierre's stream; some significant points:

Quackity is cleaning up the airplane debris and plans to build a structure there (a Mexican or a French one)

Aypierre suggests a replica of the Arc de Triomphe to fill in the space in the wall

Aypierre hands Quackity shit, to his delight

The two discuss the potentiality of Aypierre being a candidate

Quackity says he wants to hold back for the event

Aypierre believes he and the rest of the French members will be competitive about it

Quackity gives some reminders about the delivery of the manual

Quackity and Aypierre have some cultural exchanges. The constant protesting in France is real. They compare French and Mexican drinking behavior.

They begin talking about America and some cultural observations they have with it. Aypierre finds America very friendly.

Aypierre mentions his streaming schedule and kids! This reminded Quackity of dealing with Luzu's own schedule.

Quackity talked about a culture shock moment in Spain regarding the auto-ticketing of cars. He then proceeds to rant about America's car culture.

"Los Angeles is nothing like the movies,"

Quackity reminisces of his childhood visits to San Francisco

(Dang Aypierre has been to America that many times???)

Quackity proposes they go drinking together at some point

Quackity praises California weather

The two discuss being able to speak English for travel + the implications of accents

Quackity starts ranting about LA traffic

Quackity is shocked learn that one can take a 2 hour train ride from France to London

Quackity asks Aypierre to compare London to Paris—Aypierre thinks British girls are prettier but French food is better

They discuss American food. There are some good stuff but they note how processed it can be.

Quackity reminisces about Mexican food upon being asked about it by Aypierre

The two build dick statues out black wool (?) and white quartz (?)

Aypierre places down the Make Love, Not War picture he has, baffling Quackity

Quackity shows Aypierre pictures of his places/houses in the server

Aypierre has placed down an image of himself cooking

Quackity shows Aypierre a picture of his younger self

They discuss Andorra—Quackity shows Aypierre a picture of himself in Andorra

They are discussing towns with silly names, like Montcuq

Quackity is straight up showing Aypierre cursed pictures of himself

B O O B S

Aypierre dropped down a picture of beef (and I am now hungry it is almost my dinner time)

Quackity accidently poked his eye IRL

Quackity admits to having a phobia of airplane bathrooms

He drew in paint to help explain why

asskiss

Quackity, during a first class flight, held in his shit for 13 hours due to his fear of airplane bathrooms

"It was like an orgasm?" "Better than an orgasm!"

Quackity talks about roadtrip stopovers

Bad whispers to Aypierre if he could place a warp in his factory. Aypierre said yes!

(Quackity you gotta help unravel the biases Aypierre has gotten about Mexico my man just assumed kids do coke in the bathroom during recess) <- Quackity does this

(Yikes Q-man people take pictures in the bathroom like that???)

They are now talking about vulnerability in the act of defecation

Quackity starts praising toilets in Amsterdam

Between me and Quackity, one of us is wrong when it comes to pronouncing "bidet"

Eyy squatting toilets! (I encountered one of those during a trip to Beijing and I hated them so much god)

More is happening right now but I gotta stop liveblogging (Quackity is showing a picture of tacos!)

[bladekindeyewear]

Hello, what do you think of optimisticDuelist's Role-playing theory? Basically, he suggested that instead of inverting, Rose was role-playing a misinterpretation of her mother's classpect. He also suggests Terezi was role-playing Redglare's Knight class while investigating Murderstuck, and that Vriska and Aranea were role-playing each other's classes. I recommend watching "HSE: Guardians and Ancestors" for more about his theory. :D

Since I'm trying to get back in the swing of things (might still take me a few weeks), I might as well remind y'all of my earlier position:

I haven't read or watched optimisticDuelist's theories yet, and I probably ought to before I make any serious judgments on the matter. Plus, I'm not caught up with HS^2's recent new updates, and I was under the impression that oD had some input into HS^2 as a whole-- I'm not sure if Andrew gave the writers and collaborators on that project the latitude to make some changes from the system that was intended by Andrew in the original comic's run, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had, so for all we know some of those theories may retroactively fit the original comic even if they weren't initially intended! Or introduced as just a NEW thing that can happen! That's one sort of thing that I was originally so devoted to the comic's "original intent" that I wouldn't have accepted easily, but I'm coming to accept as a possibility a bit easier now, with how much Andrew has pushed Death of the Author and how much the ending of the comic showed that many of the things I judged were "important" in-comic weren't important to him at all.

However, if we're looking as far back as Act 5 Act 2, I believe there's a serious fundamental difference in scope and scale between trolls like Vriska and Terezi poorly cosplaying the trappings and aesthetics of ancestors whose classpects we didn't know at the time -- ancestors who were in fact constantly teased with words like Thief (Mindfang), Seer (Redglare), and Witch (Condesce) to match their younger descendants' classes even though Andrew likely intended for them to have had different classes all along -- and the severe, extreme, and powerful event that seems to be full-on hero role inversion.

Reading some Homestuck liveblogs lately, I was reminded of the strong and intentional connections that all of Homestuck has with Carl Jung's psychological theories and the concept of the "Shadow" self. And I'm not just talking about a superficial resemblance between the Shadow and role inversion, or the "assimilation of the shadow" and the uniting of one's Real Self and Dream Self to ascend to God Tier. No-- I mean that Jung's theories, even if somewhat discredited, are referenced by the complex stew of mythologies that make up Sburb and define how the game is played, just like all the pop and serious references to works like Lord Of The Rings that made it into the game's objectives. If you skim that wikipedia page you'll very quickly see what I mean:

Nevertheless, Jung remained of the opinion that while "no one should deny the danger of the descent [...] every descent is followed by an ascent",[54] and assimilation of—rather than possession by—the shadow becomes a possibility.

"We begin to travel [up] through the healing spirals...straight up."[53]: 160–1

There's a good reason that Rose was given an interest in psychotherapy leading into the comic. It's tightly tied to the whole story's themes! Trying to show players the potential they have as individuals, the power inherent in their very personalities, and setting them a stage to confront themselves and grow into someone who would shape the future and accept their own self-worth, is the entire point of the game and the answer to the Ultimate Riddle. Every major character had to go through the arduous process of confronting their flaws and talents and trying to accept who they were. The game IS the psychotheraputic journey from start to finish, complete with the same monumental challenges, pitfalls, rejection and acceptance (of help and of oneself!) that all sorts of different people must confront in order to simultaneously fully appreciate and become themselves, and also become the people they truly want to be. Because despite what self-loathing and toxic gender norms and all sorts of naysayers would have us believe, those two things are closer to the same thing than most can easily imagine. The journey to discover, accept, unite with and leverage the power of being you.

And when you tie Jungian Psychology to MBTI personality types, you can practically flip the letters into an opposed Shadow too, in a less literal but startlingly similar way to the class-and-aspect-flip Inversion Theory that we proposed. (DAMMIT i still need to rewrite the Aradia post to be less pretentious, that's been on my to-do list for years but I've never been up to it...)

Again, I still need to read/watch optimisticDuelist's theories (I've had a hard time emotionally looking deep into anything Homestuck for a good while now, and even though you're referencing some pretty old theories i was NEVER very good at keeping up with others' theories besides what was specifically brought to my attention, it was a serious problem), but from what I recall in-comic every time I saw someone mimic or cosplay an ancestor they were mostly... just cosplaying! Nothing is stopping a Seer from picking up a sword and trying to do some knight stuff. TRYING. The only issue is that they won't be very good at it, because they're not actually learning about themselves and leveraging the strengths of their own personality and power set. I have no idea how to use a gun or weapons; if I were to pick one up and try to suddenly join a battle, I would have no idea what I'm doing and would be more likely to get myself or others hurt rather than do anyone any actual good. And even when someone like Terezi picked up a (cane-)sword in the comic, she still mostly used it as a Seer would, as the threat to punctuate or act on explicitly foreseen possibilities. When she ran Vriska through, she was acting on a VISION borne of the realities that hinged on others' decisions and fronts, that revealed themselves through her understanding the Mind aspect. It was no martial superpower, no mental trick-- all Terezi had was the superpower of understanding how badly Vriska's move to fight Jack would play out, with the necessary certainty she needed in order to confidently stab Vriska.

(Brief edit: as an aside, many classes of Heart player might be more positioned to take on and leverage the skills and uniqueness of others. Roleplaying others was one of NEPETA'S strengths.)

Rose's inversion was very, very, VERY different.

The word "witch" was EVERYWHERE around Rose, almost moreso than the Void symbolism. "Witch" was plastered all over Act 5 Act 2 in both the text and visual representations. Other players like Eridan CALLED her a witch REPEATEDLY. We saw a Witch of Time using dual needles and magic. Andrew couldn't have shouted the word any louder. It came with IMMENSE power, the sort of power level we've deduced (and Doc and Rose hinted) comes from someone's Hero Title because it's more powerful than any other mundane, magical, or psychic power source, fitting to the Ultimate Riddle-- when someone pulls out their Hero Powers against any non-hero power source besides sometimes the Green Sun, the one using Hero Powers always wins. It isn't even a contest.

When Rose went grimdark, she looked like a Witch. She didn't look like her mother. And she didn't act like her mother either! Especially when we got Roxy Lalonde in Act 6, it was clear that Rose's Grimdark actions and modus-operandi were absolutely nothing like those of her ecto-sister, even with all the commonalities they shared as people. Whatever inspiration Rose received from her mother's behavior and aesthetics, all it seems she took from it in her Grimdark descent was the Void, and little else.

If you were to try and convince me that what Rose did in Act 5 Act 2 was meant by the author to convey to us the actions of someone behaving as a Rogue of Void and not a Witch of Void, you wouldn't just need to show me evidence of Roguish activity. You'd need to show me ENOUGH evidence that Andrew meant to hide Rogue behavior beneath an intentional Witch whitewash (like that prior tease with the Troll Ancestors being coyly made to sound like they matched their descendants that I described earlier), and that all the Witch symbology and actions were actually a bullshit red herring!!! Few readers thought there was any serious impact of her Grimdark phase to her Class until we stumbled upon Inversion Theory as an extension of Aspect Duality, and a red herring is pretty pointless if it doesn't convince anyone.

Saying that NONE of those witch hints mattered? THAT'S A REALLY TALL ORDER. "Witch of Void" is just way, way too strongly evidenced in my eyes, and almost half of our derivative understanding of classes and aspects is based on Seer <--> Witch duality! It'll be weeks before I have my mental health together enough to watch optimisticDuelist's theories, but like, Seer <--> Witch is the most confident I still am in any theory besides the Ultimate Riddle and Aspect Duality. It'd take quite a lot to make me believe otherwise, so expecting optimisticDuelist's videos to change my mind on this matter would be... er. A little optimistic.

And because of how dependent so many of my theories were on what we learned about aspect duality FROM role inversion, if Seer <--> Witch didn't happen, then you might as well throw out almost everything I've ever said on classpects with the bathwater and start over. Rightly call me biased, but I do really hope I don't have to do that!

(edit 1pm cdt: added a bit more to the second-to-last paragraph before the cut to hammer home that "Shadow (Psychology)" wikipedia article, seriously so many of the characters' journeys in the comic follow it like a playbook. edit 1:15pm cdt: fixed wandering read-more)

[henghost]

Twig Liveblog for Arc 10

an arc double-stuffed with pain and suffering... from the very beginning i had a weight in my stomach even before anything crazy had happened. there's a real sense of inevitability: sy feels that it's inevitable that he will leave, that he will disappoint lillian, and i gotta say he's probably right, awful as it may be. i've alluded before to the fundamental contradiction between sy and lillian--their radically different relationships to the academy--and here it finally comes to a head. this is not to say, however, that sy handled it in the best way possible lmao. in many ways he made the worst decisions possible, though ultimately i support his decision to leave. for all the questions of morality in this arc, none but sy have remembered the major moral imperative here: harming the academy by any means possible.

in that vein, i read lainie as a kind of lillian from a different angle. and upper class girl who becomes enamored with sy and his rebel attitude, his monstrousness, his alterity. take the dinner with the parents chapter, for example: it came into sharp relief the extent to which lillian likes sy precisely because it pisses them off. it would drive me insane too. of course, sy ultimately forces lainie to leave her bourgeois life behind, so perhaps there is reason for optimism.

it's a similar situation with mary, though her reasons for staying with the academy are a little less understandable, frankly. was not her problem with percy that he was using children for his evil experiments? is that not exactly what the academy is doing with the people she loves?? anyway, she's amazing this arc. the shooting scene was an all-timer: one must imagine me sitting alone in my bedroom just going "OH NO OH NO OH NO" over and over again. in my twigfic where everything will be perfect sy will manipulate her and they will run away together and kiss and be happy. here's how they could still get together in canon.........

the fight with the baron was very satisfying. the duel in the hollowed out church was some s-tier wildbow-pilled over-the-top anime-style battle. the image of him just lobbing a giant ass rapier at this thirteen-year-old killed me lmao. meanwhile, with the duke of francis out of action, the lord infante is my new noblekin. that guy is so fucking cool. like i know he's evil but still. i want to be him.

and then jamie is the only lamb who came to join sy and in such tearjerking way 😭 the relationship between neojamie and the previous jamie seems so touching--some kind of terrible duty. i'm not honestly sure that i could do the same. it speaks to his essential sweetness... poor baby.

PREDICTIONS (or, embarrassing myself for your entertainment)

helen will kill ibbot (the interlude confirmed for me that he is "daddy")

the need for wyvern will force sy into fray's camp (pleaseeeee)

lamb factionalism will cause strife in radham (duncan + lil vs. ashton + helen et al.??)

[shamera]

Jan-Feb 2024 Manhwa round-up

it is MARCH so it's two whole months of manhwa that I wanna talk about I'M SO SORRY so here are the top 5 new (to me) manhwa that I read the past two months!

5. Estio

The story of a boy with the ability to communicate with animals, a power that grows and evolves into something fearsome as he grows up. It's the story of Estio's search for a meaning to his life and his powers, and to understand humanity's place in the world. (This series had me crying over a cactus at 1am, so it's earned it's place on top 5!)

4. The Way to Protect the Female Lead's Older Brother

The villainess of all time. Roxanna is the reason for 'she can step on me and I will thank her' phrases. Transmigration story, except this time the lead realises that the only way to prevent the bad end is to be a greater villainess than the original character. With an entire villain family to deal with, Roxanna will manipulate, seduce, and kill her way to take them all down and save the character whose death starts the tragic novel she's now living. (Probably discontinued, but good enough to still recommend with the chapters that are out.)

3. Death is the Only Ending for the Villainess

A 'transmigrated as the villainess' story where the original villainess was merely a victim, and every choice leads to death. Thanks to the system, Penelope knows her only chance of survival is to seduce one of the romance targets before the female lead arrives-- except they're all red flags a hair's breath away from murdering her if she so much as says the wrong thing. Her manipulations and scheming in order to survive, however, is leading her to become a greater villainess than the original ever was, and that might actually be the key to her survival... if she doesn't get murdered by her romance targets first.

2. The Greatest Estate Developer

A transmigration story where... the mc's past life is relevant?? Lloyd Frontera was meant to be a scummy noble who dies at the beginning of the story as a way for the protagonist Javier Asrahan to leave the family he was serving, but when a modern day civil engineer takes over Lloyd's life, the fantasy world he's now living in is about to get an upgrade! (An absolutely hilarious story with what might be my favourite mc and protag relationship. The ridiculous artwork is a bonus and I look forward to how much more deranged Lloyd can look with each chapter!)

The S-Classes That I Raised

I started reading this 10am Jan 1st, and I know this because I have liveblogging receipts. I literally wrote 'this one is going to break my heart' and 'BRING IT ON' and then proceeded with 79 reaction comments the first day. When I finished the manhwa, I went straight to the novels and spent the NEXT MONTH AND A HALF reading all 850+ chapters. This series has catapulted it's way to my #1 manhwa in my heart, and I posted a whole powerpoint on why. It's a story about F-ranked hunter Han Yoojin and his S-ranked little brother, Han Yoohyun. It's a story about brothers absolutely doomed by the narrative and their attempts to save each other, even if they have to save the world in the process. It's about the family you choose, and about love (not even the romantic kind) bringing people together, and how people don't need to be strong to be important. It's a story of Yoojin turning back time to save his brother, and then saving a girl who needed help, and then saving a man who needed a friend... and he continues to reach out to people who didn't even know they needed human connection. It's about a doomed world that fears S-ranks as much as they revere them, because people with that kind of power are nothing short of monsters, but they are the only possible way of saving the world. It's about a boy rejected by the world, and his brother who rejected the world to keep him safe. (And later on, it's about a man who was meant to be a protagonist, but even he can't save the world from what's coming.)

Below is: IT DIDN'T MAKE TOP 5, BUT THEY WERE REALLY GOOD! The honorable mentions~

Honorable Mentions (aka they are really good! I read through all the chapters that are out and I now check for weekly updates!!):

How to Live as the Enemy Prince

MC was the prince of a country that was invaded and conquered for a mysterious time artifact, but after he was killed in battle he finds himself decades in the past as the sickly third prince of the enemy kingdom who was originally murdered before he reached adulthood. His goal was to help his original kingdom by preventing his new brother's ascension to the throne, yet he finds out that in this timeline, the king of his previous kingdom didn't have a younger brother who fought for him, and that the time artifact disappeared when he woke in the new body.

Max-Level Player's 100th Regression

MC is part of a brutal death game that he's consistently died to, only to realise right before his final regression that the last stage of the game required teammates-- and now he's on a journey not only to survive the game, but the level up the people around him so that they can finally defeat the death game. Almost made top 5 because the art is... hnnnng. So good. Also MC has a cute little brother he's very protective of, and I desperately wanted another story like S-Classes.

My In-Laws are Obsessed with Me

Genuine Fruits Basket successor, it feels like! After being murdered by her supposed loving family, MC wakes up weeks before her death and throws herself into an contract marriage with a duke powerful enough her family wouldn't dare go against, only to eventually find out that the duke's family has a mysterious and deadly curse-- one that she's immune to (because she's already died from it before), and her immunity sparks hope that perhaps the family curse can be broken after all. Really intriguing plot as it's soon revealed she's not the only one who died and then woke up several weeks in the past, and that there are outsiders who want to make use of the family's curse for their own gains.

The Crown Prince That Sells Medicine

Set in the same world 300 years after Greatest Estate Developer! A doctor wakes up as a sickly crown prince and the system once again pulls shenanigans where the only way to live is to save lots and lots of people, so he goes to save the novel protagonist who becomes his personal guard! Less than 20 chapters so far, but it's super promising and really funny!

The Newbie is Too Strong!

A great take on the tower ascension trope and streaming sponsorships-- except rather than the gods watching, it's other players who are watching the progress! After finding out the orphanage he grew up in would only have three more years of funding, MC discovers a series of videos sent to his phone that featured himself in the future challenging the tower and decides that would be the perfect way to make enough money to keep the orphanage going. By the time he's drawn into the tower, he's ready for every challenge-- or so he thinks.

Debut or Die

Reincarnation idol series with a system! MC wakes up one day three years in the past in someone else's body, with a system that tells him he has to debut as an idol within a year or die! He ends up on an idol show using unconventional thinking to climb his way to the top. Really funny concept with a lead character who has to be the most blank-faced and deadpan debut idol I've ever seen.

Pick Me Up

What I call 'I got isekai'ed into Raid: Shadow Legends' because that is what it is. MC gets isekai'ed into the mobile gacha game he played where characters stay dead if they die in battle, and now he's a character at the whim of an unseen, unknown 'master' who summons heroes and pushes them to fight-- even killing off characters by 'combining' them with others in order to help one get stronger. He has to survive the game he was playing, and this time without control of anything at all!

I Thought My Time was Up!

Hilarious. Almost made top five this time! MC is told she has three months to live, and so she proceeds to stop worrying about everything and live her life the way she wants-- and her bucket list includes having a hot boyfriend! Thus begins her utterly shameless and relentless pursuit of a fearsome Duke, winning the hearts of everyone around her with her fearless and go-getter demeanour (which is really just a result of not fearing death at this point).

Tyrant of Tower Defense

Another 'main character gets isekai'ed into the game he was playing', except with heavy Fear and Hunger and Bloodborne vibes. In a game where the goal was to defend a city against waves of monsters, each level more impossible than the next, the MC is out to discover the secret of the world he's stuck in-- because in his previous life he barely managed to defeat the game with one surviving character, and this time he wants everyone to live. Now he's out to discover just where the invading monsters come from, and why they're here.

Hunter World's Gardener

In a hunter and dungeons world, the MC is the class 'labourer' which doesn't quite allow him to raid dungeons, and thus he opens up a general store for hunters instead. My slice-of-life pick this month! Finally, a sweet cinnamon roll MC who is 1, not struggling in his life and 2, not being taken advantage of by other people in a way that will later leave them scarred or jaded! Seriously, this series is sweet in every way: a kind MC whose kindness is rewarded in turn, and people around him who genuinely want to help him keep that innocence and ensure no one takes advantage of him! (Another around 20 chapters so far story.)

My Favorite Novel has a Weird Epilogue

MC is an olympic gold medalist fencer who gets transmigrated into her favourite novel-- except 20 years after the horrible ending! All her favourite characters are dead and gone, and now she's determined to protect the son of her OTP, which means she's definitely going to do the same thing as her favourite character (his mom), and pretend to be a boy in order to be his knight. Again, around 20 chapters, but this is shaping up to be really really funny.

Moon-Painting Alchemist

Less than 20 chapters so far, and the first bl to make the list! MC is a genius alchemist tasked with creating a spell that would show people their future spouse, but when he finally thought he had it, the spell showed him-- a man? When he fixed the spell again, it showed him a boy the second time-- a boy that he soon meets, who disappears soon after right before he meets the man he saw in his spell-- who hires him to break a complicated curse. (I'd give this one a mature rating for the Duke's dirty mind, lol, but so far it's played off as humorous intrusive thoughts.)

The Tyrant Wants to be Good

This story led me to tears. About a tyrant queen who woke up at the beginning of her life after she was executed by her country, and rather than revenge and power, she decides that this time she will live her life quietly and learn to be a good person. Starting with her as a young, unloved princess, it really explores how she went down the path she did, and her quiet exhaustion as she examines what originally led her to kill her brother for the throne, and her descent into madness as she took up the crown in the first timeline. This time around, she's resigned to a life without love so long as she doesn't cause the downfall of the people she cares for. (Every scene with her and her brother had me in tears, because he loves her so much but it took her a lifetime and a half to see that.)

The Academy's Undercover Professor

I had to debate between this series and Estio on the top 5 list, because this one is also very, very good but in a different way. Complicated world-building, factions and politics, with events that will keep you on your toes-- this is almost a Sherlock Holmes-esque story where the intrigue keeps you going and you don't know who is actually who. Set in a fantasy version of Victorian England at a magical academy, the MC is accidentally roped into a role he was never meant for while he investigates criminal organizations and searches for relics that contain a hidden power, all the while being hunted by different knight and police groups.

Series I read that didn't quite cater to me but it doesn't mean that it wouldn't be good for other people (mostly because I really couldn't connect to the main character, but it doesn't mean the story is bad)!

I'm the Queen in This Life

Regressor Instructional Manual

Necromancer Survival

Global Examination

Limited Extra Time

The Villain Discovered My Identity

The Remarried Empress

Third Wheel Strikes Back

Weapon Creator

Seoul Station Druid

Revenge of the Iron-Blooded Sword Hound

F-Class Destiny Hunter

66,666 Years: Advent of the Dark Mage

Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman

Reporting for Duty, Duchess!

Doom Breaker

Cleric of Decay

[theodoraflowerday]

young royals s3e5 episode reaction:

well I really hope the cliffhanger isn't horrifying bc this week is gonna be really fucking long

let's fuckin do this

"tired" and it's just him contending w the fact that erik might have been violently homophobic

i can excuse [rolls down a 6ft long papyrus] but I draw the line at being racist - august, probably

"family" LMFAO sure dumbass

seriously those girls are acting like sara and felice broke up (and I get it, friendship breakups are horrifying but damn)

"are you on something?" MY LITERAL FIRST QUESTION SKFISJFKSJFKDJF

I feel like micke is gonna die. idk.

his own letter? why?

oh. hello ludwig. i forgot what your voice sounded like.

"it's hard for her to show weakness" yeah well so it is for all of us. be a mother. show up for your son.

naaaaaaaaaaa volvete serio ludwig

wdym he was perfect. are you serious. do no adults in this show have the slightest bit of common sense?? you're talking to erik's spare my man. erik's little brother who now has to take on everything erik had to do. be the most fuckin for real rn

of fucking COURSE

"it'll be nice to celebrate you. and to meet simon too" ok that was sweet.

yeah wille being in the choir was starting to feel too weird skfjdkfjd

okay? calm your tits my man? simon hasn't said anything?

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON????? HE'S LITERALLY DEFENDING ERIK?????????

oooooookay kristina jr.

ohhhh it was sara's locker. ok.

oh micke is dead isn't he

FELICE DOING WILLE'S NAILS AAAAAA

HE'S PAINTING THEM PURPLE SOULMATISM

also is this the writers acknowledging the nonbinary wille headcanons bc.......

I can't believe wille likes doing his nails. that's so fuckin nonbinary of him.

god I wish micke had been dead. that is SO much worse.

pls don't get into a car crash sara

linda honey no. it doesn't fit him perfectly it's goddamn huge on him.

love shouldn't be this hard I agree linda

oh fuck me

oh her little face sara no

oh sara is breaking my goddamn heart

WILLE'S PURPLE NAILS

wilhelm, why do you have nail polish remover in your room

MI WILLE I'M GONNA FUCKING BLOW MY BRAINS OUT

omg malin was willing to be bribed. back to fanon malin we go (after the shit show that was season 2)

WHY IS HE WEARING THE PYJAMA PANTS AGAIN SIMON

okay this is killing me inside. this is too much.

BECAUSE THERE'S A RISK OF POISONING SJFKDJFKJFDKFJDKFKFKFKDLRK

simon's FACE im

SHE CURTSIED @ SIMON

I know he must have felt disgusting sjfkdjfk

after pretty much 3 years of a polar opposite fanon interpretation I cannot *believe* I'm witnessing kristina and ludwig being genuinely happy about meeting simon. this is so insane

august are you staring at sara's boobs

oh a rolex

OH IS IT BECAUSE OF ERIK

IT IS BECAUSE OF ERIK OG FUCKKKKK

I missed sara and felice I'm ngl. I love my tiny baby girls

oh kristina is about to throw up isn't she lmfao

ludwig is being weirdly nice. this is so strange.

ludwig and simon chatting away while kristina is about to choke and die

hold on. IS kristina gonna die?

even during wille's birthday they can't stop yapping about erik. my god do royals genuinely only care about their firstborn? god

NOT DILF HUNTER SJROSUFOSIDOD

class bad boy slfjdlgj I think they had to have done that on purpose. I mean vincent didn't wanna give him the satisfaction of giving him another award. I can assure you.

august is such a *sad* character oh my god

I WISH I HAD DONE THINGS DIFFERENTLY WITH YOU NAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWW

oh of course she kissed him.

WHAT A SNITCH WTF

im

"please don't leave me alone with your parents like that again" honestly wille they could've eaten him alive

my god wilhelm you're being SO NASTY

OH HE'S GOING OFFF

oh ldkgldjgldjfldjffl

I can ASSURE YOU during my s2 liveblogging at one point I basically wrote "[points at ludwig] AND YOU" bc i was so fucking done with his bullshit skrjdlrkdlrkld

to hear wille going AND *YOU* is fucking sending me help

IT ISN'T EASY TO BE BOTH YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR BOSS OH FUCK OFF KRISTINA

I NOTICED BECAUSE YOU'RE SO USELESS AT BOTH HOLY FUCKING SWEET JESUS CHRIST

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD

me rn:

my god this is the most cathartic shit I've seen in my life

OH AND SIMON IS WATCHING THE WHOLE THING

god

I knew the cliffhanger was gonna be that

but I didn't expect them to cry like that nor did I expect ME to cry like that

bro I'm sobbing I can't wait another week

[milkbreadtoast]

sharing this here too.... Got up to ep 47 in the my s class hunters webtoon and asked a korean friend about Sung Hyunje's way of speaking bc i noticed he seemed to talk like an old man..... MFNSMDBSNN THIS IS AMAZING 😭😭🤭

edit: apparently there's a lore reason he talks like that that neither of us knew at the time... i appreciate everyone who's holding back from telling me what it is🫡

just to be thorough i asked about -군(-gun) too which is how SHJ calls HYJ (han yoojin-gun) (in ep 46-47 at least) (i believe the jp equivalent is -kun, which more ppl r prob familiar w)

[lotus-tower]

nice and sunny today soooo more yurizine liveblogging!

"yuri theory: a workbook": another one i've been looking forward to reading for so long! and. help the intro is just all the thoughts i had reading the class S essay lol. anyway i really love the presentation of this so much. the content is great too but the workbook structure is sooo fun. tshirt never disappoints. absenting yourself is such a key dimension that i think is missing from a lot of analysis about desire/why do people like X or Y

"Jealousy and the Dream of Innocence": oops maybe i shouldn't have read this since i was technically planning on watching every movie mentioned here. oh well i'm sure it's fine. anyway. a good essay, one i don't have as much to say about because i haven't seen any of the relevant material. but that shuzo oshimi quote gets me every time man...

"Wlw genderswaps and the elusive promised land of toxic yuri": sooo true the evil evil phenomenon of genderswapped yaoi where the characters aren't even remotely the same anymore. though i Will say that i've thought a lot about what i can only term "straight yuri" where there is no pretense at all about caring about the f/f ship, or perhaps even the original m/m ship, and the entire point seems just to have an excuse to draw cute, fashionable girls standing next to each other. this to me is somehow different than, for example, individual genderswaps that are focused on the character's, well, character (even if they usually somehow botch it completely). my thoughts on this have been very slowly simmering for a while but i don't have anything decent to share yet. time will tell

[prongsmydeer]

Ayesha Liveblogs Heartstopper S2

Alright, I have gathered my psychological strength, onto season 2!!

Charlie and Nick's little "hi"s are very sweet to me, they just always seem so happy to see each other

"Kissing at school is a terrible idea," said Nick, both accurate, and in direct contradiction to his actions in the hallway on sports day not so long ago

I understand that Nick is not happy with his rugby friends but it does put him in a rough position to be isolating himself from his long-time companions at a time when he's dealing with a lot of change

What up with Mr. Farouk, why did he yell "QUIET" at the top of his voice like anyone had really been saying anything audibly:

"No chatting, no phones, no annoying questions." Genuinely what is the point of a study hall like this!! Talking to people can help you revise!! The internet can help you revise! Why have desk partners or a study time at all if you're going to be so incredibly restrictive about what resources they use. Mr. Farouk we've just met but you seem like your pedagogy needs some work

The way neither Nick nor Charlie have any respect for authority LMAO. Both texting in class immediately after the teacher starts talking

"I want to rejoin the rugby team." The valiant return of Rugby Romance!!! It is very funny how Charlie's motivation for rugby is 1) Nick and 2) Sport, in that order

"But maybe being weird is how he expresses his romantic feelings." LMAO true

The panic in Tao's eyes upon his romantically-charged friendship touching his hair. A visual demonstration of 🚨WEE OO WEE OO WHAT'S GOING ON 🚨

"How did you know this is my favourite chocolate bar?" HAHAHAHAHA, Heartstopper joining the likes of every Thai show I've ever watched when it comes to sponsor integration. Perfect. Product placement is allowed if it amuses me:

"If we're out by the time we're on the Paris trip, we can kiss on the Eiffel tower." Nick is sooooo romantic. Also it's windy up there

Baffling to me that all these teens are allowed to have a sleepover, not only because of it a being mixed-gender event, but also because half of them are DATING EACH OTHER

Sidenote: I love that Nick does have a support system in these friends

Side sidenote: Whichever tumblr coder took away my indented bullet list ability. Meet me in the Denny's parking lot

Elle and Tao's almost kiss in the garden 🌻💛 This friend group IS incapable of platonic activities

Tao every time Nick says anything: U shut ur mouth, Rugby Boy

"You didn't like me because you're gay." "Well, I... I'm bisexual actually." YEAHHHHHHHHH Nick also fjfhfjhfjk Imogen

It makes me happy how warm and yellow the colouring of this ep is

"Nick is banned from sleepovers from now on." Hater energy, but fair hahahahaha this is what I expected

Quite honestly I am unable to see Tori as any age but 30 LOL. smth about her reminds me of Catherine Tate's Comic Relief skits:

"I can protect him," said Charlie, like he can run faster than homophobia. (I'm with you on the concern, Tori)

Is each season going to have a colour theme? Because this ep looks quite yellow too, where a lot of the last season was blue

Charlie abandoning his schoolwork stresses me out LOL BOY

Rough for Imogen to be dating Ben, he sucks

"It's not my fault he liked me before you." "I hate you because you literally assaulted him." Good for Nick for calling it what it is

"Sorry, am I not allowed to like girls as well as boys?" Ben said, bisexuality is not only for the sound of mind

Nick softlaunching his relationship with a picture of his dog and boyfriend:

Really bold of Elle to declare the art school friends as new friends for life after one (1) day of interaction but more power to her I guess. I love that she is making more friends, and specifically trans and non-binary friends because it really does change your life to meet people with shared identities 😭❤️

Fjkfkfjhf Tao representing my diasporic experience and replying in English while being spoken to in your mother tongue

"He's done some really bad stuff." "What? What'd he do?" "I can't tell you." I feel like you COULD say he assaulted someone without saying who but I respect Nick not wanting to even come close to outing someone

"I don't actually have that many friends." Colour me crazy, Imogen, but I kinda think that's cause you're never at your own school

This GCSE scene with Nick is exactly why I need psychological strength for this show, it's a visual representation of a panic attack

HAHAHAHHAHA the juxtaposition between Tao's mum, who loves Elle and wants her to live in their house, vs. Elle's mum, who refers to Tao as "that boy of yours"

"I just... I just wanted to meet the guy that, you know, turned my little brother gay." Get fucked David, and get out

David said: I am homophobic AND biphobic. I can do both

You know, I'll give my brother this credit, when he found a little gay picture of me he just handed it back and minded his business

Me @ Charlie's mum: Strict parents raise sneaky kids

"Charlie, this is not your fault," said Nick, even though Charlie would take fault for breathing if he could

Tao also representing the diasporic experience of being handed cut up fruit when you're sad

The Elle and Tao pic being Tao's phone background gjkkgjhgjhg

"Honestly, Elle could do better. And she probably doesn't even like me back, and this is probably going to destroy our friendship, it's going to destroy our friendship group, and it's going to leave me devastated for years to come. So, this is probably a really selfish and stupid thing to do, but I'm going to tell her. Help me." Wow, I did not anticipate this level of emotional honesty from Tao. Good for him!

"We're sorry about what happened at the cinema. We should've spoken up." Awwww Rugby Boys Redemption

"I know you and Charlie are really good mates." The immediate cutaway to them kissing is the funniest thing this show has ever done

Ah, well it was only a matter of time before one of the teachers so their many, many school kisses. I hope Coach Singh is cool about it

"Lots of lesbians in women's rugby. That's how I met my wife." YEAHHHHH Coach Singh! Sometimes stereotypes DO comfort me

I loooooove that Nick has a teacher on his side now. Good for him!!

"And, uh, maybe keep the kissing outside of team practice." [Nick sighs and leaves] He's absolutely gonna keep kissing at school, they're irrepressible

"It's fine. It's done." CHARLIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE why will you take responsibility for everything all the time except the one thing you need to take responsibility for, which is your history essay

Charlie submitting essential coursework five minutes before it's due. Honestly relatable

It wasn't until I heard "Je m'appelle Elle," that I remembered Elle's name is literally 'she' in French LMAO. I feel like that'd be a confusing name to have in France

"You're going to be so annoyed with me after [Paris]. " "Awww, but I love you because of how annoying you are." This is my love language

Wow, Tao, this new haircut and confidence is working for you:

As a sidenote: Cutting your hair when you believe someone else likes you is a bold move. Hair can change a lot kjghgjhgkjh

The way their friends rush them after they agree to go out!!! I love this friend group

Awww, it's fun that Isaac has a newfound relationship in James, even though I am like, 90% sure Isaac's going to be uninterested in romance as a whole

"Look after him, or you die." Tori's Pre-Party Shovel Talk

"Just think of us being out as a couple in Paris." 1) Do you think your teachers will still let you be roommates if they know you're dating and 2) Not terribly convincing when Nick looks like he's gonna be sick

Nick is truly popular against his own will LOL

"Are we ready to burn some shit?" It's INCREDIBLE how Harry, after multiple instances of Nick telling him he doesn't like him and literally getting into a fistfight, continues to throw his arm around him and act like they're pals. Nick is too kind to write him off completely at this juncture

"You're the one who said we'd always put our friendship first. You promised." "Well, I guess romance does ruin friendship." I do think Elle has been pretty unkind here. I know Tao is acting out-of-character, but he's doing it to impress Elle, and she's responded by inviting her friends, who Tao doesn't know, to the latter half of their date

Also like, what'd he do? Took her to a movie she loves and he doesn't, got a haircut, and went to a party? None of these are particularly out-of-line

"Maybe he was just nervous." "I'm fundamentally unlikeable." Oh Tao, dating do be that way sometimes

"Nick doesn't want to talk to you, Harry. Piss off." Very assertive of Charlie, good for him

Even though they're in England, it'd honestly never occurred to me that they'd be leaving for Paris on a bus

Counting Isaac and James, there's a lot of Romantic Situations on this Bus:

"What the hell was that?" said Tao, about Nick speaking French, like he doesn't know Cantonese

Skjhkjdhdjh Tao and Isaac immediately preventing Nick and Charlie from sharing a bed

SOMETHING is going to happen between Mr. Farouk and Mr. Ajayi, and while it'd be fun if it was something gay, I think it's going to be homophobic, bc this show just isn't THAT fun

HAHAHAHA Tao just slamming down the apple juice on Elle's table and running away

"I need a drink. An alcoholic drink." "We probably shouldn't drink alcohol." "I need a croissant then." WILL IT be gay? Please sirs

Isaac should also probably take the 'am I gay' internet quiz

"Oh, my dad's French." "Since when?" "Since.... his birth?" Nicolas Nelson u are so funny and cute

Does Charlie have a bit of disordered eating? We've seen him beg off having food a fair few times

HAHAHA the way Elle is like, "I don't want a man who takes me to movies I like, I want someone who jump scares me in museums!"

"It's like all he cares about is having a girlfriend." Probably true, Imogen

I do have to wonder how much anyone other than Nick knows about what happened with Ben LOL

Yikes for Charlie @ having to sit next to Ben. Also. Imogen HAS to see what the hell is up here, there's been SO MANY loaded glances

Update from like 1 minute later: Seen, spilled, and SPLIT UP:

"There's no need to call her a bitch," said Harry, suggesting he's okay with homophobic slurs but draws the line at derogatory language towards women

I love that Nick and Charlie mututally silently agree to go and comfort Imogen. They are her Teenage Guardian Angels

"Everything would be so much easier if I was into girls." Is that true, Imogen?

"You care about your friends so... loudly." A very good way to describe Tao

Tao after Nick compliments him a bunch: I have to leave immediately

Nick said: In the spirit of France, I've decided to try necking

HAHAHAHHAAH the "Oh fu—" cut off on Charlie learning he has a hickey

This is one situation in which it would be better for Charlie NOT to be out because the list of people who could've given him a hickey goes: Nick, Tao, Isaac or James, so I really don't see this being the best situation for anyone

"I don't give a rat's arse, rude boy. Grow up." Is a CRAZY response for a teacher to say to "I don't want to be with Neck Nelson."

"Charlie didn't give me a chance to figure myself out, and then you came along, and you stole him from me." 1) Can't steal a person 2) You assaulted him, Ben and 3) Figuring yourself out does not equal treating people like shit! See: Nick

I wonder how much it costs to film at the Eiffel Tower. Must be a common request

"Hey Nick. Is that hickey from you then?" "What if it was? Are you jealous?" YEAHHHHH NICK

"Did Harry just stick up for us?" "I think he did." "Weird." All Harry required was one (1) empathy lesson from Isaac to develop a conscience

"You do know it was me, right?" Nick is so proud of himself HA

Ohhhhh Tao's comment about accidentally outing Nick from last season makes a lot more sense in the context of him being overheard about Charlie

Little Charlie and Tao are soooo cute omg

Awwwww Charlie making a Charlie and Tao love lock for the bridge ❤️ Sweet boy

"People might think you gave me this hickey if you keep this up." It would be EXTREMELY funny if people assumed that Charlie had somehow gathered a gay boys' school polycule

Is the Louvre background greenscreened kjghkjghg I can't tell. The Mona Lisa shot almost certainly has something up

"You don't have to understand your feelings completely to know you like something." Hahahaha Nick being the subtle matchmaker of Elle and Tao this season is something I couldn't have predicted, but I adore

I am growing more and more sure several of the painting scenes are greenscreened haha. I guess renting out every room in the Louvre was out of the budget, very fair

"You said it was just a casual 'I love you.' You didn't mean it like that." "But you know I did. You know I do." Awww Tara

Tao and Elle, while their best friend Charlie is passed out on the floor of the Louvre:

"I don't do poses." "Yes, you do. Go on." I think Mr. Farouk and Mr. Ajayi should develop a little flirtationship. As a treat

"Charlie, I've noticed you, uh, don't really eat a lot. Generally." Me too, Nick

NOT CHARLIE TRYING TO APOLOGIZE FOR HAVING DISORDERED EATING. AIEEEEEEEEEEE

"Sometimes it feels like the only thing I can control in my life." God. godddd. Not to reveal too much of myself, but this is the only fucking time I've ever seen someone in a show with a similar relationship to food as me. Not out of body image issues, or out of personal neglect, but as like. A bad relationship with food and anxiety

"Wait, do you like that fact that I speak French?" Heehee

HAHAHAHAHA Charlie and Nick pointlessly running away from their field trip even though I'm sure Nick would be ALLOWED to meet up with his own dad. Very rebellious

Well, Stéphane, Nick's Deadbeat Dad, made a brief but impactful appearance

LOVE the double debrief at the hotel of the Tao-Elle kiss

"If you're thinking about giving me another hickey..." [High-pitched, lying] "I wasn't thinking about that."

"I get stressed about everything. You're not special." LOL CHARLIE

Another stressful moment caused by Nick and Charlie's Irrepressible PDA HAHAH:

"When you don't figure out you're gay until your late 20s, you tend to miss out on those beautiful gay teenage experiences." IT WAS THAT FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND IT WAS SOMETHING GAY!!!!!!!!! YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MR. FAROUK ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I love that every named teacher in this school is gay. 10/10. I want to give the writers a leetle kees on the lips

"You flirting with me?" "Maybe." Mr. Ajayi!!! 👀❤️

I've not really talked about the Tara and Darcy subplot of Darcy being unable to say that she loves Tara or that her parents clearly don't know she's dating her but I am curious where it's leading

Isaac's No. 1 love is books, and I do love that for him

"To be honest, I sort of had a crush on him last year." We return to Charlie representing The Only Out Kid At School Whom All Other People Figuring Out That They're Some Type of Gay May Inevitably Direct Their Feelings

This is officially THE MOST romantically charged field trip I've ever seen in my life. Even Isaac's trying his hand (and his lips):

"We keep escaping parties to hang out with each other." "Are we going to do it every time?" "I hope so." Nick Nelson, you romantic boy

Ah, the teenage experience of drinking whatever someone pours you. I do not miss those days

"I know I've said some homophobic stuff in the past, but I feel like I know better now, and I'll never say anything like that again." Harry. I don't know if this is going to be enough of an apology to get you into the World's Gayest Birthday Party

LMAOOOOOOOOOOO CHARLIE SHUTTING THE DOOR IN HARRY'S FACE. GOOD FOR HIM!!!

"I know who it was. Me. We're dating." Awwwww Nick ❤️

Also, love love love how when everyone's like "U gay?" He consistently clarifies that he's bi

"I'm going to pretend I believe you have food poisoning." I take back everything I said about Mr. Farouk's pedagogy, he's a real one

Also why on EARTH would they not take Darcy to the bathroom to vom and rally first! Unrealistic, blocked. You would not tell a teacher unless she was DYING

Nick and Charlie's very forthright conversation about how they feel about sex. They're very good communicators! 💟

"I love you so much. I know it sounds like I don't mean it, because I'm drunk. But I really do mean it. I love you." Darcy said: The alcohol was communication juice, actually

Don't look at me but Tara kissing Darcy even though she was just sick is very romantic, I said what I said:

"You could just share my bed. No, stupid--" "Youssef. I don't think it's a stupid idea." I do think you should get rid of the Sick Sheets though, I wouldn't want 'em in my room

I repeat: THE MOST ROMANTICALLY-CHARGED FIELD TRIP EVER, IN THE HISTORY OF FRANCE:

I feel from the separate delayed glances the night together between Mr. Farouk and Mr. Ajayi did not go that well

Also!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

TAO'S MUM WANTING TO CELEBRATE WITH THEIR ENTIRE FAMILY THAT HE AND ELLE ARE TOGETHER!!! 💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘💘

The shadowy figures as u enter your house. We've all been there, Darcy

Love love love all of Darcy's friends helping to pay for the prom suit

Props to Isaac for deciding to make things clear with James

"You probably just haven't found the right person yet." Hoo boy

"Like, being in a world where romance and sex are prized above everything else when you don't feel those forms of attraction. Growing up feeling about something about you is different, but you don't have the words to describe what that is." 1) I love that Isaac is finally finding words for his experience and 2) It bugs me a leetle when people phrase this idea without including the word CISHETERONORMATIVE, because trans and queer romance and sex are CERTAINLY not prized above everything else. It's a necessary distinction. Anyway, good for Isaac!

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm bisexual." AYY Sahar

Elle's safe place being Charlie and Isaac and Tao 😭💘😭💘😭💘😭💘😭💘😭💘😭💘😭💘 My heart

"Please don't base your decisions on how I feel. All I care about is you being happy, and wherever you are, I'll still want to be with you." Oh, Tao, you've come so far

"I'm glad you realize what you did was wrong, but you don't get to ambush me into forgiving you." Charlie is SO good at finding words!! He could teach a class

"It's a very attractive sport to women," said Stephane, not knowing he was literally the only person at the table who didn't know his son was dating a guy

Nick said: This is a coming out AND a Deadbeat Dadtervention, get rekt Stéphane

"And I don't know why you're acting like you are ten years old, but your bulying just doesn't affect me anymore, because quite simply, I do not care. I like who I am. I like my life." Oh Nick, David needs to hear this. Also, not to question your speech but you sound like your heart is actively breaking, so I think you do care

"You have not grown up into the man I had hoped you'd be, David." WOW. Even Stéphane knows you're wrong, David. That's gotta hurt!

Mrs. Spring, probably: Wow, so your boyfriend comes from a broken home!

"It was nice to meet your... boyfriend. I don't really understand these things, but he seems like a very nice young man." "He is." Alright, Stéphane, you get $0.000000001 knocked off your Deadbeat Dad Debt

"Talk about my brother like that again, and I'll end you." GET HIM, TORI

"I think Nick just came out on instagram." "Aw, good for him." Very nice, all I did to come out on instagram was put bi hearts in my bio

I thought it was nice that Isaac put his book down to engage with helping with prom, but alas, he is holding it still HA

This show loves a happy/sad juxtaposition, so we must pair Nick and Charlie's semi-successful family dinner with Darcy running away from home

"You should invite him tonight." Gay teachers alliance unite!!!

"And he still carries it all with him. Even though it's over. It still causes him a lot of pain. I don't know, do you think that's true?" "Yeah, yeah, I do. I think when something really bad happens, it can affect you for a really long time." Two teenage boys' first endeavour in finding words to discuss trauma

Nick's face when he learns Charlie hasn't told Tao about the bullying trauma. He knows that means he's told NO ONE

I like Elle's dad, he's fun. I really appreciate that none of the main group's parents except Darcy's appear to be mean

"We've missed you mate." "Yeah. I've missed you too." RUGBY BOYS REUNION 💗

I also haven't really talked about Sahar, bisexual prom guitarist with a frenemieship with Imogen, but I do like her a lot as well

The extra in the green dress staring intently at Tao and Elle is killing me. What a scene-stealer

"I want to go to Lambert." "I know." Shut the fuck up, Elle and Tao are sooooo cute:

[Nervously] "Well... I was going to suggest dinner and drinks next time?" [Softly] "Next time?" NATHAN ❤️ YOUSSEF FOREVER

Omg. Imogen's little musical note animations on Sahar's guitar!! Is her statement about being into girls going to come to fruition!!!

Heartstopper said: There will be NO relationships that do not involve queer or trans people. Not on my watch!!!!!!!

Nick having six of his closest friends over for a prom night chill is extremely relatable. Heartstopper really does touch upon a lot of memories for me LOL

Darcy's mum not even giving a shit her daughter spent the night in a public park. Boooooooooooo

"I hide who I am when I'm at home." Darcy 😭😭😭😭😭

I hope and feel that Darcy has a home in her friends ❤️I believe they all have a home in each other

"You never told me about... the bullying." Nick said: I'm going to drastically change the tone of this evening, Charlie

Ahhhhh, I knew Charlie's admission was coming based on the season's warning, but oof

Nick about to tell Charlie that he loves him, like we can't sense it with every fibre of his being

(Aside: I do think both Charlie and Nick should probably be seeing a therapist, or at the very least a (safe) school counsellor. They're carrying a lot)

Charlie about to text it as well!! I wish for nothing but a kinder world and brighter days ahead for these boys:

[wellcollapse]

*flails into your inbox*

wtf

what the fuck

what the ACTUAL FUCK!?!!?!

was that episode!?!?!?!

*external screaming but very quietly because everyone else is sleeping*

I was gonna liveblog the episode to you but got too caught up to do so

I'm not into The Bachelor so I was assuming this was some fake copycat show. But no. That was the REAL host of The Bachelor???? Wild! But hey, at least it's a paycheck! (Chimney was killing me with the attempts to film Joey for Maddie and Josh. I love Josh so much XD)

Athena's plot[s?] were both so heartbreaking. I want to hug Harry forever! And that poor woman, too.

Okay now for Buck, Bothered and Bewildered (and bi!)

NGL, I get secondhand embarrassment pretty easily, so there were a few times I fast-forwarded through Buck's attempts at getting Eddie's attention. He's such a dork tho, I love him so much! And I felt so bad for Buck AND Eddie when Buck (accidentally?) hurt Eddie. Glad it's not a bad injury, and that Chimney was there to help.

At least things ended well! That ending, good god I was NOT PREPARED!!!! The whispered scream that I scrumpt! The "I cannot believe THAT just happened!!!!" and other "!!!!" thoughts in my head!!! like! That happened??? THAT HAPPENED!!!!!! Tommy's bright smile (I've gotta say, I was not expecting a Tommy redemption, but I don't mind it in the least), Buck's dazed expression, like that happy and mildly confused "did that really just happen?" expression-

the legitimate TEARS THAT I CRIED!!! AND I AM NOT A CRIER!!!!!!!

Rae, I'm dead. I've died I'm dead that episode KILLED me!!!

-TWS Anon

i really wanted to reply to this with something insightful but my at the moment my brain is just 'evan buckley is bisexual!! evan buckley is bisexual!! evan buckley is bisexual!!' on a loop so i just wanna say that i'm also dead and i've died and i'm dead and THAT EPISODE KILLED ME TOO!!! i have my college classes to go to and responsibilities to take care of but i haven't been able to function like a normal person since april third and i think my brain has been fundamentally altered as a consequence of the bucktommy kiss. evan buckley is canonically bi...what a world. WHAT A WORLD!!

also several of buck's actions this ep had me side-eyeing him HARD bc. you know. Yikes. but i have to admit that i've never loved him more than the scene in the gym where he was trying to get eddie to notice him. what a pathetic wet cat loser of a man. i adore him 😅💕🥰🫶🥹

[ntshastark]

a few days ago a had a dream about batcat as a regency romance and can't get it out of my head, so i've decided to watch the closest thing to it......... *drumroll*

Gotham by Gaslight liveblog

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genuinely surprised i've never seen a single comic bro with a porn-rotten brain on twitter obsessing about this ivy dance scene

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god i can't stand period pieces set in the usa, i thought they were gonna be british in this version. isn't it about jack the ripper??

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asdfksdkfl?????

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AMAZING

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"GO LITTLE CHILDREN, FIGHT THE GROWN MAN DRESSED AS A BAT"

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i'm sorry your what

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.🥺

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WTF THEY REALLY KILLED IVY

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i assume this is funny but tbh i have no clue in hell how much a mile is, afaik this could be true

but yeah, take care of your uterus

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SHE'S HERE!!!!!!!!

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god can you fucking believe usamericans

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aw man, why have the open pigs hanging in the background, it's nauseating

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ok i was gonna get mad they had selina losing the fight but then bruce lost it too so it's fine

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ugh they're SOOOO

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OMG MY BABIES I GOT A TWOFER

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the vindication that i feel rn for all the gotham tv series made me go through.............

==

saving this one

==

kinda obsessed with this

==

i'm not even half an hour in and already posted over half the images i can in a post ughhhhhhh i hate this so much, why can't they at least make it 50

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SHOWGIRL SELINA SHOWGIRL SELINA SHOWGIRL SELINA SHOWGIRL SELINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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same

==

why are they painting this as a new thing to think sdfjlns it's not fucking poliamory, men in arranged marriages cheating is literally as old as social classes, if anything the idea that if his wife can't stray neither can he would be the disruptive modern one

==

wait who's bruce's voice actor, i think i might've listened to an audiobook recorded by him but i can't remember which one

==

THEY'RE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

==

gonna start biting stuff i'm so serious

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I'M GOING INSANE

==

LESLIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

==

god i'm crying like a bitch

==

oh my god the subtitle was wrong, jason is not "dickie"'s alias, it's the name of the ginger kid, i can't believe they did this fldsknjlds

(THEN WHERE ARE STEPH AND CASS)

==

i have friends who 100% have gone to parties in this exact place

==

ok but seriously, i don't think insane asylums EVER worked even close to this, much less in the late 19th century, what the fuck

==

why do they give bruce these lines on his face when he's batman but not when he's bruce

==

it just occurred to me that i could've been paying attention to who's left-handed to see if i could find out the killer's identity myself 🤔

==

not as funny when someone does it to you is it!!

==

gonna have to continue on a reblog bc i've hit the image limit :))))

[lampmanliveblogs]

The Symbolic Significance of Snakes

An Incomplete and Amateurish Exploration of the Symbolism Surrounding Snakes and its Significance to the Story of The Owl House (up to and including For the Future)

I love alliteration.

I gushed a lot in my liveblog of For the Future about Luz’ newly hatched palisman Stringbean (and should this be the first post of mine you read, I have not seen Watching and Dreaming yet, so please, no spoilers) And while I pointed out some of the snake imagery that hinted at the serpentine shape of Luz’ familiar, I really didn’t go into the symbolism of snakes. So I’m gonna do that.

But first, a quick recap of the aforementioned snake imagery that hinted at. This list may be incomplete or missing things since I’m just going off of memory.

Class: Reptilia (a.k.a all the foreshadowing)

As far back as episode one, season one, Luz was paying with snakes, capturing several to use during her book presentation. It might also be worth mentioning that the Good Witch Azura’s enemy in the book she was doing her report on had a Gildersnake as an enemy. Also in episode one, Camila mentions that Luz should make some friends that aren’t made up, or reptiles. So even from the beginning, Luz has had a bit of an affinity for reptiles.

(and since birds are reptiles, it makes sense she ended up with a bird-themed witch)

We also have the recent addition to the Noceda family in Vee, a basilisk/naga/legless lizard/snake type creature. Not only is she all of those things, she is also a shapeshifter, just like Stringbean would turn out to be.

Thanks to Them had a bunch of foreshadowing. In Camila’s nightmare/falshback, we see Little Luz finding a ”snake pajamas” which she excitedly shows off to the other kids at the playground. The same snake skin is framed and displayed in Camila’s bedroom.

(the snake pajamas framed and displayed in Camila’’s bedroom form a circle. This could represent infinity or a cycle of rebirth, and indeed, snakes do represent reincarnation and healing, more on that later. Or, it could be a reference to the Lindworm, a creature from Nordic myth. The lindworm is a large snake, related to dragons that will sometimes bite its own tail and roll around like a wheel. For a funny fairy tale involving a lindworm, check out THIS video by Overly Sarcastic Productions)

Also in Thanks to Them, Luz wears a shirt with an interesting design, with what looks like a staff with a snake coiled around it. One of the doodles in her notebook when she wonders what her palisman would turn out to be was also a snake.

Order: Squamata (a.k.a Snake symbolism in religion, myth, and legend)

Now, when one considers the symbolism of snakes as it relates to Luz Noceda, the main character of The Owl House, there is one particular that likely springs to mind. Trust me, I am going to talk about that one, but I have this really big book all about symbolism and I’m gonna use it.

Speaking of which, most of the information I’m getting for this segment comes from a book called Signs & Symbols, written by Miranda Bruce-Mitford. It’s great book, I highly recommend it, it’s got information about all sorts of things. And while you’re at it, consider getting Myths & Legends by Philip Wilkinson as well. It’s made in the same style.

Of note is that I’m reading the Swedish translated version, and I’m translating that back to English. The original version likely varies considerably.

Signs & Symbols has a page dedicated to snakes (pages 66-67 in my version). Here is an excerpt:

”With its unusual appearance and unique way of moving, the snake has garnered both fascination and disgust. The snake’s simple beauty is contrasted with its complex and mighty symbolic meanings.”

”The snake’s peculiarity, mystery, and the fact that it lives in holes in the ground makes it a creature of the underground. Its twisting way of moving reminded many early cultures of winding rivers, flowing hills, scrubby roots, and even the spiraling cosmos. The result was a multifaceted symbolism which encompasses dualism, fertility, primordial power, and creation.”

”Within mythology and religion, the snake is a dual force that can have both positive and negative symbolic value. It is a guardian and a destroyer, light and darkness, good and evil. Snakes can have deadly venom and swallow animals much bigger than themselves. At the same time, them shedding their skin is associated with reincarnation and healing.”

It goes on to talk about how in Christianity, a snake in the Garden of Eden convinced the first woman Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. God cursed the snake, and thus the snake became a symbol of the devil. Meanwhile, in Buddhism, the serpent king offered the Buddha protection, and is thus viewed in a much more positive light.

Since snakes often live in dark holes, they are often connected to the underworld and the power of the dead. But at the same time, they are also often associated with gods and divine power.

Snakes are often also associated with wisdom. In ancient Egypt, the cobra represented godly and kingly wisdom. The Māori people associate the snake with earthly wisdom while other cultures consider the snake a wise and cunning mediator between heaven, earth, and the underworld.

In Chinese horoscopes, the snake is sensual, creative, careful, and responsible. It can also be secretive and suspicious.

Caduceus is a winged staff with two snakes coiled around it. It is the staff of the Greek god Hermes and has a number of symbolic meanings. In alchemy, it represents the combination of two opposites, the power of transformation and the resulting balance. While interesting, a perhaps more relevant symbolic meaning is its connection to healing, as a winged staff with two snakes entwining it has often been used to represent medicine.

Interestingly enough (and this is something I learned while skimming wikipedia) is that that while the caduceus has been used as a symbol for medicine and doctors, some argue that it’s the wrongful use of the symbol. A more appropriate symbol would be the Rod of Asclepius, a rod entwined by a single snake, and carried by Asclepius, the Greek god of healing and medicine. Many emergency medical services use the Star of Life, a blue, six-pointed star with the Rod of Asclepius in it.

Suborder: Serpentes (a.k.a What does it all mean?)

Alright, alright, but how does any of this relate to our dear protagonist girl and her adorable little familiar?

I did mention in my liveblog of the episode that Stringbean being a shapeshifter represented how Luz’ may not know exactly what her future is going to look like, but so long as she puts her mind to it, anything is possible. I didn’t use those exact words, I said that ”She is Luz’ own infinite potential given physical form,” which is pretty much the same thing. Luz is a person who does not fit into any mold and shape.

So that’s the ”shifter” part of snakeshifter. What about the first half.

While not explicitly stated it is understood that Philip ”Emperor Belos” Wittebane’s motivation is heavily influenced by his religious upbringing. He grew up in the times of the Connecticut Witch Trials (which I won’t go into right now, you can look it up  if you’re). Therefore, when looking at the symbolic significance of snakes as they relate to Luz, we might want to start by looking at the snake in the Garden of Eden.

Someone more knowledgable than me could probably go in depth, but to be frank, the study of extant religions has never interested me much. The important part is this: the snake in the Garden of Eden is thought of as a symbol of the devil (or is the devil in some interpretations). The devil is an opposed force to God. What does this have to do with our plucky protagonist girl going on whacky adventures and learning to be a witch?

For one thing, witches were believed to draw their magical powers from the devil. Luz desires to become a witch, so there you have a connection. This being me, I can take it a big step further and connect the palisman with something like a spiritus or milkhare from nordic mythology; these creatures are usually created by witches for various tasks.

More importantly, at several times during my liveblog of season two, I called Belos a cult leader and a false prophet, and not to toot my own horn, but I was totally right about that. He presented himself as a prophet, the only man who could speak with the Titan and communicate his will to the people of the Isles. The Titan, whose very body makes up the Boiling Isles, and who gives shelter and power to the creatures living on it, is essentially the god of the people there.

In Christianity, the only way into the paradise of heaven is through Jesus Christ. Similarly, Belos claimed that the only way for the people of the Boiling Isles to reach a perfect utopia free of wild magic, war, and traffic accidents was through following him. Follow his every word, and the Titan shall reward you.

Cause the Titan he knows me And he knows I’m right I’ve been talking to the Titan All my life Oh yes he knows me And he knows I’m right And he’s been telling me Everything’s alright

Enter Luz ”The Human” Noceda. A being from another realm, who will do everything in her powerto get people to stray from the path Belos has laid out before them. She is the rebellious upriser leading the loyal sheep the wrong way. She is the accuser, the adversary, the opposer to his divinely inspired teachings. By now I’m sure you can see the connections.

Beyond that connection, the snake is a fascinating animal, symbolically speaking, as I went over in the previous segment.

Snakes being ”dual forces” as my book put it, could be tied into the idea of Luz being, as I call it, a child of two worlds. She might’ve been born by humans in the Human Realm, but the Demon Realm has provided much for her and indeed become a part of her. It was there she found people who accepted her for who she is and liked that person. She found a mentor and mother figure in Eda, and a little brother in King. She found friends in Willow and Gus, and an awesome girlfriend in Amity. The life, fate, and soul of Luz Noceda is very much connected with the Demon Realm, easily as much as it is with the Human Realm. 

As mentioned before, symbolically, snakes have a lot of double meanings, they’ve been connected to the vast cosmos, as well as the underground, with light and dark, with good and evil. This is kinda similar to how the Human Realm and the Demon Realm mirror each other in a lot of ways. The red trees of the Demon Realm mirror the green trees of the Human Real, rain in the Human Realm is cool while Demon Realm is scalding hot, etc.

There’s also the idea of snakes representing healing and rebirth. It might be said that Stringbean’s hatching following the heart-to-hear conversation with Camila could be said to be a rebirth of some kind. And if not an outright rebirth, then it could be seen as Luz symbolically shedding an ld skin that was holding her back from growing.

There’s also the aspect of healing. As I mentioned above, the Rod of Asclepius, a staff with a snake coiled around it, represents healing. And indeed, Luz was wearing a shirt with a similar symbol in Thanks to Them. One could see Stringbean hatching as a moment of healing for Luz. It could also be symbolic of Luz as a healer that will help heal the Demon Realm of the sickening influence of Belos (who at that moment had been reduced to little more than a parasite, sucking the life out of anything he touches).

Turns out taxonomy is mad complicated and I don’t understand it all that well (a.k.a conclusion)

I was gonna take the opportunity to talk a little about some True Facts about snakes. But to be honest, with the exception of cute cartoon snakes like my beloved snake daughter Vee, I actually find snakes kinda repulsive, sooooo….. but yeah, pretty much everything I know about snakes, I’ve learned against my will. Like did you know that male snakes have two penises? Oh, you didn’t know that and you would have preferred to not know that? Well too bad! If I gotta know, then so do you! Thanks a lot, Hank Green!

Also, HERE is a video of a snake eating an egg.

But yeah, for an actual conclusion… snakes have a lot of interesting symbolism surrounding them and I found some interesting connections to this silly cartoon. I hope you learned something interesting today. I’ll see you next time. Until then, take care of the planet Earth, and remember that anything can happen in space!