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fireflysummers · 1 year

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Final Thoughts on GO S2

I'm probably gonna pull back on discussing S2, at least publicly, after this. I did actually like a lot of the season, but it's triggering some of my religious trauma and also the fandom is already stressing me out. So here, let's have some final thoughts.

First and foremost: I am not a Gaiman simp. I've read a decent amount of his work: comics, short stories, essays, and novels. Aside from Good Omens, I've liked Coraline and The Graveyard Book the best by far, whereas American Gods just. Did Not Connect with me, even though it's should have, given the stuff I tend to enjoy.

However. Regardless of whether I like a given work (or even like how he adapted it, a la parts of The Sandman TV series), he is a veteran writer who has proven that he does, actually, know how to write a story with consistent characters.

Beyond that, I do actually believe that he's trying to do right by Pratchett, and loves and respects the story and characters they created together. He's generally shown up as an ally to a variety of social causes, and directly and respectfully responds to fans on Tumblr. While no saint, I feel that there is cause to give the benefit of the doubt that things will resolve satisfyingly in S3, and that there is Intention about some of the things in S2.

This, of course, does not absolve it of being "bad," but even here I think we need to articulate better the different types of "bad" that people are reacting to. There seems to roughly be three camps here: 1) People who thought it was "bad" because of how it ended, with the breakup and a lot of unresolved plot threads; 2) People who thought it was "bad" because it struggled on a technical level with its set, lighting, directorial choices, editing, etc; 3) People who thought it was "bad" because they felt the characterization was significantly off and that the internal logic of the series had been violated.

With regards to Point One, the only solution is to Wait and See. Judgement should be reserved until the story is properly finished--easier said than done, especially considering the current media landscape, and the number of series or franchises that fail to live up to their promises.

Point Two isn't something I understand well enough to contribute meaningfully, except that I suspect the pandemic affected this aspect the most and am willing to give it a bit more mercy. That aside, I for the most part I don't find it bad so much as not as good as S1. Except for the parts with epilepsy warnings, surely there could've been a better way to do that.

Point Three... that's the stumbling block for me, and I find it interesting that most of the folks who struggle with this point in particular are long time fans of the book.

I trust that instinct.

There are two different directions to go from here. The first is the assumption that these problems are a result of ego, carelessness, or lack of skill from the showrunners/writers/director. It's cynical but not unjustified. The second is the belief that the breaks in lore or characterization were intentional, building towards a much grander conspiracy. Of course, even in this case I don't think it forgives the lack of signposting that would indicate that this is a choice rather than an accident. It just makes it feel clumsy and poorly constructed, a major risk on a show that hasn't had its third season confirmed.*

However, regardless, it still feels salvageable. I've enjoyed reading a lot of meta on all this, and I've pulled some things from others (particularly That Theory by @ariaste), but I don't really want to put forth a single, defined theory myself. Instead, here's some questions I've got, why those questions are important (to me, at least). Actual theorizing comes after, and anybody who snidely mentions Sherlock in the comments or tags is going to get auto-blocked. Like seriously, I'm aware that some stuff is a stretch, but it's fun??? To theorize????? And I'm here for me and my peace of mind rather than trying to argue a point.

*I have some suspicions here, particularly with Gaiman stating that the decision from Amazon would come much faster than The Sandman's second season (which was four months). I don't know enough though to say if that's actually significant.

Questions

Who the fuck is telling this story?

This is the most important piece, in my opinion. There's this assumption when reading books (or research papers, newspapers, etc...) that the narrator who is writing the words is a non-presence, Neutral and objective. That's not the case, and an important part of literature critique is figuring out who the narrator is, and what their goals are. Oftentimes, the narrator and the author are the same person, but with Pratchett's work, particularly on Good Omens and Discworld, the Narrator was its own unique character.

This is why people struggle adapting Discworld to live action--that medium requires a Reason for having a Narrator, and especially in the age of method acting that's often considered immersion-breaking. Good Omens worked so well because they not only kept the Narrator, but they made Her God.

This added some really interesting new dimensions, such as the scene where Crowley speaks to God about his fall and the destruction of humanity. He doesn't receive an answer, but we're watching from God's perspective, so we as the audience know that She's listening.

Another advantage of making God the Narrator is that it justifies all the goofy little asides we get into the lives of minor characters (i.e. Leslie the Mailman), without losing focus. It helps the world feel like it’s full of people, rather than characters and plot contrivances, and the theme that individual people and their choices are important. The Narrator is such a central character of Good Omens that without it, the story struggles to stay focused.

It also highlights a key difference in the writing styles of the two authors. Pratchett’s work tends to introduce four or five totally unique plot threads that feel completely disjointed until the last act (if not even later), when it turns into a Chekhov’s Firing Squad. Plot twists around secret identities and backstabbing and schemes are relatively rare, as the omniscient Narrator doesn’t lie about the intentions of people or their actions.

Gaiman’s writing is typically not like that, to my knowledge. He buries characters in misdirection and hints, and you never know the true identity or motives until all the chips are down. It’s a perfectly valid way to approach storytelling, but it makes it jarring to see it in S2. The lack of a Narrator is a huge reason why S2 doesn’t feel like Good Omens to some folks.

My gut feeling is that the decision to shift from the original Narrator was highly intentional. It helps to obscure the thoughts and intentions of people, and it also muddles the insights that we’re supposed to take away. (I would have loved hearing God monologue about what’s going on in Jim’s head. I think it’d do a lot to make him seem less.... obnoxiously stupid.)

More than that, it brings up a reasonable potential plot point of: Where did God go? Why isn’t She present in the story? Even in her early appearance in the Job flashback, she doesn’t sound like the narrator for last season. After the first part of her speech (which Gabriel later quotes), her tone turns casual and condescending, which might line up with her being a bit of an asshole, it doesn’t line up with the whole “dealer of a mysterious card game who is always smiling”).

Also, I don’t think it’s safe to assume that nobody is telling the story either. Just because they’re not making their presence known doesn’t mean they aren’t there, and in a story like Good Omens, that’s concerning.

Wait, where's Satan?

Another person I saw while scrolling the tags pointed out that Satan is nowhere to be seen this season. He's really only mentioned in reference to a bet God made in Job, but then Crowley is the one on the ground causing mischief. There's no Hail Satan among demons (like Hastur and Ligur did at the start of S1).

That's might be because the writers didn't want us to think it was important (a la Hastur), but that feels off. Given that Satan speaks directly through the radio to Crowley in S1, complimenting him on his work, it's safe to say that he was at least aware of and involved in the goings-on in Hell. The fact that he wasn't even an worry for Beelzebub in abandoning their post? Feels weird.

(Also if you know where that post is, I'll happy credit + link)

What is Maggie?

Look, I love cute lesbians in love as much as the next queer, but I don't like Maggie. I don’t think she’s a person. Contextually, she’s a plot device, but I agree with That Essay that she might be an actual Plot Device.

Her characterization is simple and relatively shallow—a bit of an airhead, ray of sunshine that’s supposed to remind you of Aziraphale. When she describes her past to Nina, it’s almost robotic (also, her story implies it was Mr. Fell who first rented to her ancestor, not Mr. Fell’s great-grandfather like Nina implied). Her emotions are over-dramatic and seem to be turned on and off at random (scenes with her crying to Aziraphale about her woes had my “manipulator” senses going off for some reason).

When asked about a song, she not only IDs the song, its singer, and its year, but how and on what it was distributed. (Honestly thought this would’ve been something interesting, because she’s been pretty ditzy so far, it’d be interesting if she had like... an insane memory for music history.) And then she’s the one that sets Aziraphale on his little investigation by giving him the transformed records, while also planting the seed about her love troubles with Nina. Later, her advice to Crowley is... not awful, but feels insincere and a bit too forward, given her own self-proclaimed lack of relationship experience.

I don’t know what she is (a demon, hastur with amnesia in disguise, a literal plot device inserted by the current storyteller, etc...), but there’s something not right with her.

(Also the joke of “who listens to records anymore, it’s so old fashioned” just doesn’t land, lots of people buy records, and I’m saying this as somebody who has worked at a record store before.)

What's going on with Aziraphale?

There’s something Off about Aziraphale, and it’s not his choices at the end of the season. That makes total sense if you read him as somebody with severe religious trauma getting dragged back into the abusive system because other people need him and he’s been promised the ability to change things.

But I do think something is happening to his memory. Nearly all the flashbacks are from Aziraphale’s point of view and retelling, which means that they’re less reliable than God’s version of events in the previous season. Many of them don’t make logistical sense (post-church scene in 1941), depict Crowley as meaner or more sinister than we know he is, or frame events... weirdly. The scene with him trying food for the first time feels Really Bad, especially when the series has previously established that he’s a) prim and proper and b) his interest in food is one of the beautiful things that connect him to humanity, not some kind of gluttonous sin. Also he turns down alcohol.

Their meet-cute at the start of the universe also doesn’t line up with their reactions to each other in Eden, or the fact that knowing each other Before has never come up or been hinted at anywhere ever. I don’t know what’s causing this to happen, only that Aziraphale repeatedly looks pensive when coming out of flashbacks, and Crowley is never there afterwards to corroborate said memories.

His actions also seem pretty inconsistent with what we know of him—i.e. I refuse to believe he would ever mistreat his books, even if they’re just old encyclopedias. Also, he feels a bit too...forceful in trying to get Nina and Maggie to fall in love? I mean, he didn’t exert that much direct influence on even Warlock, when he was actively hoping that the boy would turn out angelic rather than neutral.

I don’t think this removes his agency in that last decision, so much as explains how he was in such a vulnerable place at all. He still needs to apologize and fix things, because he messed up, and even if he hadn’t he still seriously hurt Crowley.

What's going on with Crowley?

There’s something Off about Crowley. The most obvious thing, of course, is his memories. At multiple points in the present day, characters state that they remember him or have met him before, only to be met with confusion. This is especially concerning given that he has a nigh photographic memory for faces (something mentioned in the book when he immediately IDs Mary Loquacious, 11 years after a 30 second conversation).

Overall, he seems to be better known by other supernatural entities this season, in ways that often tie him back to his angelic identity (i.e. saying they fought together in the war, Aziraphale stating he knew the angel he used to be, etc...). This doesn’t feel right, because S1 we see that Hell is largely apathetic towards his schemes, and definitely does not defer to him at any point in any capacity.

Then there’s the issue of his power level. It’s always been speculated that Crowley was a powerful angel prior to falling, when he mentions in S1 his involvement with star making, his seemingly unique ability to freeze time, and creating a pocket universe for Adam before the confrontation with Satan. He also has a tendency of breathing life into inanimate objects, like his plants or car. He also has the regular demonic skillset: miracles that can adjust physical appearance; the ability to change inanimate objects (like paintball guns into real guns); the ability to manifest clothing and similar items; and summon hellfire to his fingertips. This, plus the way he monologues to God with a degree of familiarity rather than reverence seems to indicate that he was Somebody Powerful and Important Before.

But in S2, his skills are significantly expanded upon. The miracle he and Aziraphale summon sets off alarms in heaven and hell, and it’s powerful enough to mask Gabriel from the Archangels. He summons a miniature sun to rain fire on Job, which is way bigger and flashier than anything we’ve seen him summon in S1. (If he needs fire, he alters the course of a dropping bomb, without creating one himself.)

Yet he’s able to cloak his presence so well he goes wholly unnoticed in heaven, or in front of heavenly agents on earth (i.e. the Job flashback). Muriel can’t clock him as a demon, or even as another supernatural being, despite their auras usually being pretty significant, such Aziraphale immediately sensing the archangels when they arrive. He’s able to interfere with files that Muriel claimed required clearance (although I feel like that might just be a snark about Obeying Without Thinking? I would really need a Narrator to know.)

I might be misremembering, but I don’t think we’ve seen angels or demons transmogrify living beings before either. In the book, Crowley brings Aziraphale’s dove back to life after the failed magic show, and occasionally sinks ducks, but he doesn’t alter them? Not even Adam demonstrates that skill in S1. But he has no trouble turning Job’s children into lizards, however temporarily. Boy that would’ve been convenient during the flood. Or when the guard stopped then from getting to the air strip.

I don’t have any real issues with his characterization in the present day parts of S2, but there’s something weird happening with Crowley.

Where's all the people?

I really like a lot of the new characters, but how were there only like, 2.5 new humans named in the present day? Flashbacks don’t count bc the humans are all dead and can’t affect the story.

As much as I like Nina, she and Maggie don’t drive the story beyond being an occasional and awkwardly inserted plot contrivance? Both are actively robbed of their agency at several points, forced into situations that they could not have avoided or escaped. I’m not really sure what growth they’re expected to experience other than deciding not to date each other after everything. I literally can’t tell you anything about Nina other than that she remembers her regular’s orders, runs a coffee shop, and has a textbook abusive partner we never see. The only meaningful interactions they have are between those two, or in conversation with Aziraphale and Crowley.

Compare that to S1, where Anathema gets hit by Aziraphale and Crowley, but her primary relationships are with Newt, Adam, and Agnes Nutter (I think that counts as a relationship). We know that she’s got a wealthy family back in Puerto Rico, and that she was literally raised to save the world, and that she isn’t happy under all that pressure. Newt on the other hand is connected to not just Anathema, but Shadwell and Madame Tracy. He never even directly interacts with Aziraphale and Crowley. We know about his hobbies, his struggle to hold down a job, and his almost supernatural ability to destroy any electronics he touches. I don’t necessarily like how their relationship came together, but they were both very, very well fleshed out characters with unique backstories and goals. They weren’t just... waiting around to give Aziraphale and Crowley a new questline.

And while there’s no requirement to include a large cast of human characters that are exerting influence over the story, the lack of it is another aspect that makes this season feel not like Good Omens.

Also, it's just. Really weird to me that the events of S1 aren't really referenced at all? Like, Adam isn't mentioned, nor is Warlock. I don't expect them to keep track of the humans they met on the airfield for 20 minutes, but none of it is ever specifically referenced as far as I can tell, beyond Crowley threatening Gabriel. Like, I get that it's been a few years, but the pair caused a big enough disturbance that you'd expect some kind of ripples in their supernatural communities.

Promised by the Narrative (Obvious Chekhov's guns that I will be legitimately upset over if they do not go off)

A sincere apology from Aziraphale to Crowley that doesn't come with the expectation that Crowley will come back to him, but because he deserves an apology, even if the choices Aziraphale made were done with good intentions. Aziraphale does not expect forgiveness, and is shocked when Crowley grants it without hesitation.

A clear declaration of love from Aziraphale, which can't be rationalized away by either of them.

An "I'm Sorry" dance between Aziraphale and Crowley, but with greater sincerity and gravity. The most important piece is that they end up dancing together, which signifies a mutual apology and dedication to come together.

Since kissing is on the table, I expect an actual joyful, mutual kiss between these two assholes.

A shared cottage in South Downs.

Predictions/Theories (just some fun thoughts I've had)

When Adam declared that Satan was not his father, he didn't make himself not the antichrist, but accidentally crowned his human dad the King of Hell. Nobody knows this, because Adam doesn't have a good measure for "normal" supernatural situations, and Mr. Young because he's so "normal" that he explains away all the magical bullshit that's started going down.

When Adam declared that Satan was not his father, he erased Satan altogether. However, this left a vacuum in both power and reality. The defection of both Gabriel and Beelzebub only widens that crack. In an attempt to Fix things, reality is warping the story. Crowley has become leagues more powerful between S1 and S2, as the narrative is trying to force him into the role of his previous boss. Aziraphale is unknowingly being pulled into a similar version on the Other Side, perhaps to replace Gabriel or perhaps to replace God herself, who has been fairly absent in all this. The alterations to their memories or past have come about to keep the narrative running smoothly.

When the Metatron asks Nina whether anybody has ever asked for death, he was actually referring to Death, the sole remaining rider of the apocalypse.

If Maggie is indeed a Plot Device, it would be a fascinating exploration of Free Will to see her become aware of this (cue existential crisis), and then fall in love with Nina on her own terms, rather than because she was written that way.

Hastur will be back. Somehow.

The reason why S2 focuses so much on the supernatural characters is because S3 will be about how the events in S1 have changed the political landscape of heaven and hell. Angels are questioning their roles, demons are yearning for something more. It's scaring upper administration, and then the two most reliable folks in employment run away to alpha centauri. Recruiting Aziraphale and getting him back in line prevents him from becoming a martyr, control the range of his influence. The series reasserts its theme of choice and agency by highlighting that Aziraphale and Crowley aren't that special, they've just had the chance to live and grow, and that the others have free will too, if they want it.

The reason why they wanted to separate Aziraphale and Crowley, is not to get Aziraphale on his own, but to get Crowley on his own. He literally stopped time and made a pocket universe in front of Satan last season. He's powerful and dangerous and somebody wants to see that reigned in.

Wishlist (stuff I desperately want to see)

Crowley getting an audience with God and an opportunity to ask his questions, only to refuse to do so because he's found his own Answers and he no longer needs hers

Aziraphale and Crowley growing more into their book incarnations. Aziraphale becomes confident in his sense of morality, which he developed the hard way through millennia on earth besides humanity. He slowly learns what it means to be loved, unconditionally, but also is better at asserting and maintaining his boundaries. Crowley, still anxious and unwinding, works through his fear of abandonment, providing him opportunities to be kind and gentle and nurturing--all traits that he's aggressively hid since being a demon.

Hand holding. I know that Gaiman was referring to Ineffable Bureaucracy, but I still feel like we'd benefit from meaningful hand holding, especially since that got cut from the adaptation of the book.

Shifted focus away from the supernatural shenanigans, and back onto the humans that actually drive the story.

Cameos from S1 characters (if not a more substantial appearance).

The Four Other Riders of the Apocalypse.

Cursed Thoughts (why I shouldn't be allowed a social platform)

Ineffable Bureaucracy turns up in season 3 because Beelzebub got Gabriel pregnant somehow.

#good omens #good omens spoilers #good omens season 2 #good omens s2 #good omens meta #good omens 2 spoilers #good omens 2 theory #good omens 2 analysis #long post #text

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randomvarious · 3 months

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Today's compilation:

Total 2 2000 Tech-House / Minimal Techno / Ambient

I've definitely done this before, but in order to kick off this post, I'm gonna have to rely on prolific electronic music opinion-haver Ishkur at length here, because he and I seem to be completely simpatico when it comes to our thoughts on the mostly bad phenomenon that is tech-house music:

Somehow by incorporating the strengths of both Techno and House, Tech House succeeded in appealing to neither. So the result is something frustratingly banal and monotonous when it really shouldn't be… Tech House straddles the razor-thin tightrope of something that doesn't have enough funky warmth for House yet not enough cold mechanicalism for Techno, so what comes out instead is something stiff, repetitive, and boring. It's such a disappointment, like the last season of Game of Thrones. Tech House had real promise. It could have done great things with the tools it had. And it's something everyone hoped would happen, like feeding Scrabble tiles to a dog to see if it shits out a word. But instead Tech House wasted its potential on pretentious Berlin nightclubs and that aimless, meandering noodlyness that the Brits are fond of, like a 70s prog rock solo that goes on for way too long. Technically interesting but utterly soulless… Tech House can be good. There is honestly good Tech House out there. I've even heard some. But finding it is a Herculian task of Sisyphian anguish in a Kafka-esque, Orwellian realm of Dostoevskian torment. It is possible to load up your music player with nothing but Tech House mixes, hop into your car, and drive to the other end of the continent and back and never hear the same song twice yet never hear an interesting song once. The odds of coming across decent Tech House are worse than needles made of diamonds in a rough full of haystacks.

So, yes, I 100% co-sign every single word of that. Ishkur did not teach me to think this way about tech-house, he just merely put it into words that already happened to mirror my exact thinking on the subject. In a similar way to progressive house—another genre that I don't like all that much—the sounds being made to create tech-house may be interesting and innovative themselves, but the way that those sounds are then combined typically yields something totally listless and often way too steady to be enjoyed. Like Ishkur says, the pieces are literally there to make something dope, but tech-house just seems largely unconcerned with a very crucial aspect of dance songcraft writ large—one that requires a tune to excitedly or satisfyingly grow, progress, and/or change over time.

See, to me, a lot of tech-housers really feel like people who are just cynically making dance music for the sake of it. It's like they heard house and techno and said, "oh, yeah, I can do that. That's easy. It's just looping up the same shit over and over again." And it's, like, "no, motherfucker, that's actually not at all what this is about. You really have no idea, do you?"

But guess what? They're actually not totally wrong here. Tech-house may legitimately be, overall, the most boring form of dance music that I've ever encountered in my life, but there are evidently more than enough people in this world that somehow derive satisfaction from it in order for it to have been able to successfully sustain itself for over two decades now. It's just that the people who enjoy it are like the dance music equivalent of those who, after a long and grueling day of work, like to go home and kick back with a blissful session of Lawnmower Simulator 4 😌.

So here's the second dispatch from Cologne-based label Kompakt's long-running Total series, a turn-of-the-millennium sampler that, despite it having a good deal of unique quirkiness to it, still somehow manages to bore me to absolute tears. Maybe if you've been following me long enough, you remember that I once posted about the first volume of Total, and concluded that the first half was excruciatingly boring, but the second half was fantastic. No such luck here. This is pretty much just that first half of the first Total, but doubled. Most songs start in a way that'll have you thinking, "Oh, yeah, this is pretty cool, this definitely sounds like it could be good," but then Lucy ends up pulling the football each time 😩.

Case in point, M. Mayer's "Amanda," a five-and-a-half-minute song with so much promise and a neat 80s new wave-pop edge to it too. When this thing first starts up, there is no sign that this 80s edge is going to materialize itself in any way, shape, or form, but at a little past the one-minute mark, it starts to lather itself in. And then, as you find out, this early, appetizing moment actually ends up representing the song's entire creative apex! I mean, we still have, like, over 80% of this whole tune to go, but I promise you, not a single interesting thing occurs in its very large remainder. Again, like Ishkur says, it's just so utterly aimless. This song exists because someone made it, but the idea that it has any sort of actual purpose in this universe is really questionable at best.

Like, all of this is just so maddeningly confounding to me. It's like these musicians really do genuinely find themselves on to something each time, and then rather than trying to push further, they decide that they're actually finished and just let whatever half-baked thing they've built ride itself out on an agonizingly long plateau until it thankfully takes a nose-dive off the side of a cliff. It really drives me nuts, because you can hear a possibility of something enjoyably substantive coming to fruition, but it's like there's also this inherently natural aversion to the idea of having to lift more than one finger too; everyone is just so content to glide down the bunny hill, and people are more than willing to vociferously cheer it on. It really makes not a single lick of goddamn sense to me, but there you have it—my tech-house take.

Read more Ishkur.

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megarabane · 1 year

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Felix's Stardew Valley

The First Spring

The Egg Festival

[masterlist and summary]

<><><>

alternate title: the meet-cute

<><><>

Maybe I made a mistake.

It’s only spring. It shouldn’t be this hot already. Or maybe he’s just been out too long today, with yesterday’s sunburn still stinging every time his shirt drags against his shoulders, even tacky with aloe.

Felix kicks the splintered halves of his current hack-job of a split log out of the way, swearing with a word that would curdle his mother’s coffee. He crouches to take a long drag of lukewarm water from the nearly empty bottle at his feet as sweat traces a well-worn line down the back of his neck.

Maybe I’m not cut out for this life.

It’s only been four years since his grandfather’s death, and the wounds were still raw in his parents, he knew. He felt it too, when the holidays rolled around and Grandpa’s beaten old truck never appeared in the driveway. (The driveway at the house he doesn’t live in anymore, he guesses.) Felix still habitually checked every morning during Winter Star season, and every morning was a cruel reminder that he’d not be coming.

He could see the claw marks of grief in his father’s eyes sometimes; while they had been slowly healing, they’d torn back open with fresh agony when Felix had shown him the letter, wax seal broken, and the deed inside.

That was two months ago.

Clutching the water bottle in one hand and his axe with the other, Felix moves gratefully into the shade of a young oak, barely taller than he is (not that that’s saying much from where he stands at a solid five-foot-six). It’ll have to go soon, too, before it gets too thick to cut down by hand and the roots spread into his unevenly-rowed garden and ruin what he’s growing.

Assuming things are even growing.

Felix picks another heavy fallen tree branch (or a young tree felled some time ago) at random, and leaves his water bottle against the base of the oak as he approaches it. He doesn’t let himself think too hard about the ache in his back as he hefts his axe over one shoulder, eyes a spot that looks weak enough, and swings it down with both hands. It connects satisfyingly in the bark, and he coughs out a laugh of triumph.

Google had assured him that it was normal not to see parsnip growth until nearly three weeks. It’s been two weeks and a day since the seeds hit the ground, and he’s ready to pull his hair out. What if the seeds Lewis had left him were bad? What if they were never going to grow? What if he was wasting his time?

The wood groans as the axe lifts free, and Felix brings it back down with a grunt. The branch starts to splinter and creak.

Maybe he should plant the cauliflower seeds soon.

Could cauliflower and parsnips grow together?

He’s so out of his league out here.

Maybe Granddad made a mistake leaving this to me.

With a shout, Felix brings the axe down with all the strength he can muster. The branch splits cleanly in two, though unfortunately, the axe head sinks several inches into the soft dirt underneath it. Felix cusses again and crouches, elbows on his knees and head hanging, breathing through his teeth.

Two months ago, he’d turned in his two weeks’ notice at Joja, leaving his shitty desk job behind in preparation for the move to Stardew Valley. A week later, he’d dug out his grandpa’s old contact book, produced the extremely dated contact information for “Lewis (Mayor)” (his memory hadn’t been quite the same at the end) and dialed without much hope.

After stuttering his way through an extremely clunky conversation with a very confused, then very excited, Lewis, Felix had panicked when he’d been asked when should we expect you? and just given the first answer he could come up with—the end of the month.

In practice, he’d had to call Lewis back a week later to push the date back a little, giving himself a full month after the culmination of his two weeks’ to get his affairs in order (and figure out how the fuck he was going to get all the way to Pelican Town on his own dime).

After a grueling two-day bus ride (with several hasty bus switches, including an overnight in Zuzu City, a place he’d always hated), he’d stumbled off the bus, half-asleep and deeply nauseated from the stale air that stank of heat and sweat and cigarettes, to a fresh mountain breeze and Robin’s beaming smile as she welcomed him to the valley.

With just five-hundred dollars in his pocket and two suitcases of belongings, he’d balked at the sight of the overgrown farm and the…rustic little two-room farmhouse. Robin and Lewis had kept it in decent enough repair, with new windows, a functional fireplace, and no holes in the roof, so little victories, he supposed. She’d even donated a fairly new set of furniture, a minifridge, and a TV.

Lewis had left him almost two dozen packs of parsnip seeds, a set of tools from the town’s agricultural fund, a pat on the back, and a wish of ‘good luck!’, and Felix was on his own.

His back hurts. He rocks his weight against his heels and drops to the ground with a grunt, resting his forehead against one knee. He’s going to need to reapply aloe to his sunburn before much longer, if only to chase some more fleeting relief from yesterday’s dumb decision to be shirtless while he worked.

After being left to his own devices, Felix’s first order of business had been to clear the brush near the house enough to find a sunny spot and get the seeds in the ground. After that, he’d gone to the local grocer to find some food to sustain himself (things that could be made in the microwave and mostly shelf-stable foods; he only had one pitiful mini-fridge and no freezer), ended up venturing to JojaMart for the last few things Pierre’s didn’t have, and set to work on taming the wilderness of the neglected farm.

On his own.

That part was really just starting to set in.

Stupid lonely valley.

Felix stretches his neck until it pops and stares at the axe buried snugly in the dirt. At least I’ll end up fucking shredded from all this work, he reasons dully. Maybe that’ll draw some cute guy’s attention.

Not that he’d met any so far. His trip to Pierre’s and then to JojaMart hadn’t led to any fortuitous meet-cutes. Pierre was married, Gus was at least twice his age, Lewis was out of the question, and Morris made him ill to look at for too long. Abigail and Penny seemed sweet, with the former far more interested in him than the latter, but he felt that dropping the “sorry-I’m-gay” card was a little much during their first conversation, and had just…walked away afterwards, feeling awkward and out-of-place.

Much like he felt every goddamned second he spent in this quaint little valley. He felt like he stank of the city, of a white-collar job, of privilege that left his muscles weak and wanting and his hands uncalloused. He felt like he was trying to fill a set of boots he never wanted to fill—a set he’d never actually prepared for being empty.

“Hey, neighbor!”

Felix raises his head from his frustrated reminiscing at the shout, hastily drying his unexpectedly wet eyes on the hem of his shirt. Coming down the well-tended path (thanks, Robin) is a girl carrying a basket in one arm and waving with the other. Her long red hair is pulled into a plait over one shoulder, effortlessly messy-cute as bangs fly wild around her face.

“Hi,” he greets, pushing himself to his feet and wincing as his back twinges. “I, uh, don’t think we’ve met yet. I’m Felix.”

“Leah!” She draws up in front of him and sticks out her free hand, beaming. “I live in the forest to the south, and figured I ought to come say hi if we’re going to be neighbors.”

“Good to meet you.” Felix shakes her hand and only realizes afterwards how sweaty it definitely is.

To her credit, Leah doesn’t seem bothered, and shields her eyes from the sun as she peers at the place he’d abandoned his work. “You’ve already made pretty great progress on the place, haven’t you?” she offers. “I love the cute little garden you’ve got working!”

Felix glances at it, briefly embarrassed by the makeshift scarecrow he’d created from his least-cared-for clothes. “Assuming anything sprouts, I’m sure it will be.”

“These things take time,” she soothes. “I know this little piece of shi—of, uh, paradise—doesn’t have a full kitchen, so I figured”—she brandishes the basket—“you could go for some real food.”

Felix is so taken aback that for a moment, he just stares dumbly at her. “What?”

Leah, at least, laughs. “Maybe you’ve been out in the sun too long, if the idea of food confuses you. I hope I’m not being too forward—would you care for an impromptu picnic?”

He blinks. “Uh—Uh, I’m—sorry?”

“Don’t be.” Leah draws a cross-body strap over her head and shows that it’s not at all a bag, but a tightly rolled blanket with a plastic backing. “I brought enough for two, with plenty of leftovers for you.”

He just stands and stupidly watches her unroll the blanket in the shade before he thinks to stutter out, “You—You don’t have to—”

“I know I don’t have to,” she interrupts, grinning at him as she shakes the blanket out. “But I wanted to be neighborly.” She lays the blanket flat and pauses, glancing back up at him. “I—should have waited for an answer. I’m not being too forward, am I? I’m so sorry if I am.”

“Uh—no!” he finally insists. Christ, dude, two weeks of living alone and you’ve forgotten how to have a fucking conversation with another human being? “No, I—I just don’t want to—impose.”

“Oh, it’s no imposition. Come on, sit.”

Still reeling a bit, he does as he’s told, folding himself cross-legged on one corner of the blanket. Leah drops her sandals to the ground and starts digging in the basket.

“I think I’ve managed to avoid all the major food allergies in one way or another,” she says as she produces way more containers than it looks like the basket ought to hold. “I’ve got a garden salad base and all the extra ingredients separated, so you can pick and choose. Bread and cheese, strawberries, fresh poppyseed muffins—made ‘em myself this morning—and these”—she brandishes two heavy plastic boxes, holding them out to him—“are for you! Vegetable stir fry and rice,” she explains. “They keep pretty well in the fridge. Should hold you over for a few days.”

He takes the containers, staring at them, then looks back up at her. Thank you should be what comes out of his mouth, but instead, what his tongue produces is, “I’m—so sorry, I’m—I’m gay.”

Leah pauses, blinks at him a few times, and bursts out laughing. “I’m not hitting on you,” she gasps between laughs, clutching her stomach. “I’m being friendly. Oh, my God. Did you think—?”

Heat floods his face and he straightens his back defensively. “Well, what was I supposed to—?”

“I’m gay, too,” she interrupts, wiping tears from her eyes, still chuckling. “You’re not even on the table for me, Felix. I’m sorry if it came off like an advance. I’m trying to make sure you don’t die on your diet of, I assume, frozen meals from JojaMart.”

“They’re not—all frozen.”

“I assure you, that does not make it better.”

“I’m sorry.” Felix sets the containers aside and puts his hands over his face. “Can—Can we please start this entire conversation over? I—I have apparently lost all my social skills.”

“Ha, sure.” Leah holds out her hand, grinning. “I’m Leah. I like salads, meeting new people, and women.”

“I’m Felix.” He shakes her hand with more confidence than before, and manages to hold in his laughter as he says, “I hate physical labor and I like apples and men.”

“Apples,” she notes. “Got it. Want to have a picnic?”

“I want to do anything besides chop more wood, actually.”

“Great!” She holds out a wooden bowl. “Feel free to make as much salad as you want.”

They divide up the food, and as he eats, he considers just how strange this entire interaction is. Maybe it’s growing up in the city—cold and sterile compared to the equally unforgiving heat and wilderness of the valley—where knowing your neighbors was less friendly and more a sign of how many times you’d been caught unaware on the other side of the fence. That must be it.

“I will admit,” Leah says after a while, long legs stretched out in front of her as she eyes the place he’d left the axe planted in the dirt, “my motivations for coming up here were also a bit selfish.”

“Yeah?” he asks through a mouthful of lettuce.

“See, I’m a bit of an artist,” she explains. “I draw and paint, but my real passion is woodcarving. I figured you probably had more wood—and maybe more work—than you knew what to do with.”

“So, you make me stir fry to butter me up to take my wood, is that it?” Felix asks, swallowing. “Double entendre intended.”

“No, the stir fry was to butter you up to having a picnic with me,” Leah corrects, tossing her head as if to say the audacity. “I’m offering to help you with your wood-splitting to butter you up into giving me your wood. Double entendre not intended. I have zero interest in your double-entendre-wood.”

Felix takes a long drink of water, considering. He really has no good reason to say no, and he really liked the chemistry he already seemed to have with Leah. At the very least, his social ineptitude hadn’t sent her screaming away, so he counts that a victory. One for Felix, fifteen for the farm. Take that, farm.

“I’d hate to rope you into working for me for free,” he ventures.

“It’s working with you,” she amends, “and my payment is the nicest pieces of carving wood I can find. At least I asked. I could have just started taking from the other end of the farm, and we’d meet in the middle like pawns in a terrible game of chess.”

Felix smiles into his next bite. “I’m not in a position to say no to helping hands,” he relents. “Thanks, Leah. I’ll take you up on it.”

Maybe the valley isn’t quite so lonely, after all.

By the end of that week, the garden is spotted with green parsnip sprouts. Felix only cries a little bit. When Leah comes over that day, she gives him an excited hug and helps him plant the cauliflower.

He really has no plans to attend the egg festival (he’s never been a great fan of eggs, anyway), but Leah is insistent and won’t be dissuaded. They make the walk together with Leah talking his ear off about the egg hunt, all the delicious foods on the menu, the decorations, the atmosphere… Honestly, it’s all sounding a little too overwhelming, and Felix starts hastily constructing an excuse to go home. Will she buy it if I fake cough well enough?

“You’ve not met most of the townsfolk yet, have you?” Leah asks over his thought train, looping her arm through Felix’s like she can sense his flight response ready to trigger. “Come on, I’ll introduce you!”

(He deeply resents getting wine-drunk with her one night and lamenting his debilitatingly high social anxiety. How dare she weaponize it, actually.)

The town square is vibrant. Long tables are set up with colorful tablecloths and adorned heavily with surely more food than the residents of the valley could eat. The trees and bushes are hung with strands of lights and decorations, hanging heavy from branches like summer-thick fruit. Two young kids run around, chasing each other and shrieking while Penny, who he remembers meeting before, watches them like a hawk.

Leah marches him toward a group of people—a young girl with blue hair and an older woman with emerald green locks, talking to a third with their back to the pair’s approach—deaf to his pathetically weak protests.

“Emily, Caroline!” she calls. “Elliott!”

The two ladies look up and wave, beaming, and the third person turns around, tucking his long auburn hair behind one ear. And their eyes meet. And Felix’s heart stops entirely.

Oh, my goodness.

#megara.txt #fanfiction #stardew valley #my writing #fanfic #sdv #sdv elliott #felix's stardew valley

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ruby-red-inky-blue · 1 year

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list eight shows for your followers to get to know you! thanks for the tag @garethsedwards ! I love never shutting up about the same five shows 😂 (also The West Wing didn’t make my list but deserves a honourable mention!)

The Americans: to no one’s surprise. If I could only name one, there wouldn’t even be a contest. This show is SO GOOD. The drama is so layered and so beautifully underhand, the spy stuff is both grounded and satisfyingly trope-y, and it’s that rare show that has almost no “bad guys”, just a lot of very complex, deftly written characters following their own agencies. And it stuck the landing in a way I’ve never seen a show of this length do. The best finale in tv. It’s history! It’s bilingual! The main cast is a list of knockout acting performances without a miss between them. The soundtrack is incredible.

“Sometimes I wonder if you understand spies. One day with Arkady and the others at the Rezidentura, do you want to put them in jail? That's how a policeman thinks, not how spies think. We want everyone to stay right where they are, and bleed everything they know out of them. Forever.”

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries: More history! Almost always just for flavour, but when it isn’t! You get episodes like Death on the Vine, and we all know I am weak for a WWI story. And Rilke’s Liebeslied. The main characters are fantastic, and even at its whackiest this show is SO FUN. Bonus for costumes that are to die for, pun intended. You need to understand also that i watch this show purely with a shipper's heart and cannot be held accountable for how incomprehensible you may find the episode of the week. I do not care. This show is peak romance.

"[The inspector sent me] to tell you, in his words, to stay in your compartment, to please resist the temptation to interfere, and to not bandy about his name for your own convenience."

Derry Girls: Even more history! This one understands what it’s like to be a girl in her teens better than any other show I’ve seen, and has such an incredibly strong sense of place and time, an absolute standout even among period dramas. And it’s also just SO FUNNY.

“We're too delicate for prison!” "We go to convent school, Erin, for fuck's sake, we'll be grand."

Fleabag: The other best finale in tv. A main character who is lowkey Fucked Up™, but so relatable, and so real. Also, siblings! This show is so smart, and so sad, and SO funny. And romantic? My God.

"Either everyone feels like this a little bit and they're just not talking about it, or I'm completely fucking alone."

Barry: I’ve probably enjoyed a lot of shows more but the writing! Is insane!! I had no idea what to expect of this show when I first started it and it bowled me over completely with how smart and precise and thoughtful the writing is. The acting is also incredible, and it’s very funny. And it’s DEVASTATING. (Edit: this review, turns out, was for three out of four seasons. I had no idea there was a fourth. It's... something alright. It feels like a completely different thing than the rest of the show tone wise. It wasn't bad, but I preferred S3 as an ending.)

"Can you tell him that he is going to be okay and that he was right. I’m pretty sure people can change."

Doctor Who: I am so attached to Matt Smith's early seasons. I know I KNOW Stephen Moffat isn't all he was cracked up to be at the time and a lot of things are. eh. about his writing but. Listen this SHAPED me. I was a Sherlock girly but the thing that impacted my personality and probably my writing the most was the first two Eleventh Doctor seasons. They have a weird fairytale vibe and I am ABOUT that 'til the day I die, and even a still from those seasons takes me back instantly.

"You won’t even remember me. Well, you’ll remember me a little. I’ll be a story in your head. But that’s okay, we’re all stories in the end."

Veronica Mars: Again, specifically the first two seasons, and specifically *vibes*. Is this show good? Sometimes? Are the mysteries good? Rarely? Did the people running the show know what kind of show they were running? Apparently fucking not. Have I stopped thinking about in the last five years? Also no.

"Honestly, how much easier would your life be if you were indifferent to me?"

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: I don't go for a lot of straight comedy, but as you can probably tell by now, I love a crime procedural and I LOVE shows that make fun of crime procedurals. This show is so funny. Again, is it perfect? No. But it's SO funny though.

"I did it for love!" "Cool motive. Still murder."

tagging @spacepandar @moonprincess92 @rapidashmascot @peppermoons and anyone else who feels like doing it!

#yay i got tagged in something #thank you dear

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duckielover151 · 1 year

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Despair Arc Review

Well, there's no hope of this one being spoiler free, because what I mainly want to talk about is the linchpin that holds the plot together. This Despair Arc is a great example of how brainwashing is an acceptable answer sometimes… but not in all cases.

First things first, I've really been enjoying these 3 season threes so far. But enjoyment isn't always enough for a recommendation. I have to classify this one under 'Mixed Feelings,' because the Danganronpa franchise has always had one big issue… That issue being that you really can't enjoy it properly without going all in. You have to play the games AND watch the anime to get the whole experience. And I believe an adaptation should be able to stand alone, so that's a failure on its part.

You can technically get the whole story of the first game through the season one adaptation… but in a way that's really rushed and unlikely to endear you to the characters the way the game does. (Made a whole separate review for that season, so I'll try not to repeat myself here.) But the second game never got an anime adaptation, and I really don't think you can properly enjoy this arc without already knowing these characters through the game. Feel how poignant it was to step back in time and see the happier days where they all started, knowing that it all falls apart… But the reveal at the end of game two that the flawed but loveable group of kids we'd gotten to know through the simulation was actually our main villains spurring on the world's destruction out in the real world made them super intriguing. It definitely got me excited to see exactly HOW it all falls apart. Which brings us back to the brainwashing.

So. When is brainwashing okay?

For the nameless, faceless lackeys who jumped on board? Sure. The story's plausibility was always a bit of a weak point in the games. They literally just brush over it when the apocalypse is introduced at the end of the first game, don't even try to give you an explanation, because they clearly couldn't find a way to make Junko's followers make sense. Mass brainwashing kind of makes sense. (Though, for the other members of the reserve course specifically, the school's attitude and policies were truly fucked up. I feel like there was enough fuel on that fire that brainwashing wasn't exactly necessary but… Nameless, faceless. Enough said.)

For a character like Chisa, who really embodied hope? Okay. There was no believable way that Junko was going to win her over. And it became important to the rest of the story even happening that Chisa be convinced to defend her to Munakata, convince him that she wasn't behind it after all.

But for the rest of the class, the Remnants of Despair? Absolutely not. It's really important to note that the group of kids in the second game felt more openly flawed than the kids from the first game. For a lot of people, that just made them more relatable, was part of the reason why the second game was so well-loved. The characters were more rounded and just more interesting overall. But they were flawed as hell, practically bubbling over with their various insecurities. Many of them had been abused so regularly throughout their lives that they didn't even realize that they deserved to be treated better. I have never seen a group more ripe for being manipulated. So to fall back on a deus ex machina like brainwashing for THEM? Unforgivable. I get that they probably didn't have time to show Junko winning each of them over… but the material was there. They should have made time for it.

That aside, I did really enjoy the Despair Arc as a whole. There were a few other flaws. The way they chose to characterize Mukuro was really disappointing. And I'd really hoped to see more of Junko and Mukuro interacting with their class but… not enough time. I get that. It was satisfyingly brutal. I liked seeing the drama with Fuyuhiko's sister's death play out and learning how it influenced Hajime's actions and mindset. And Chiaki's death was wonderfully horrifying. The Danganronpa franchise may have its flaws… but it's never been one to pull its punches, and I love that about it.

#spoilers #Despair arc #danganronpa #Originally written for MAL #There's like 1 reference to their review system #In case anyone was confused

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chromochaotic · 1 year

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Reads of 2023 Part II (so far)

i was sad i couldn't fit all the cover pictures in my Part I post without it going off the screen, so might as well split it into 2 posts! update as of 6/11!

thoughts/reviews:

Heaven Official's Blessing: Volume 1

It's happening! My friends have been deep in this author's works/fandom for a while now, I'm pretty late to the party... Well, I guess I've dabbled in some of the animated/live action content that's out there for the different series. Anyway, this was a fun read! There's something so lush about historical dramas that definitely comes through here. When you add in the bits of humor and adventure, the whole story is really refreshing.

Even though the translation is still a tiny bit unprofessional, it's clearer than other options, haha. I was able to get a way better sense of the world and characters on this attempt (I had a good time watching the animated show! But as my friend put it, the season moved lightning fast, so it brushed over a lot of things). I don't have any other real nitpicks, other than like... the odd sexism that pops up now and then. Lmao

I am ofc in love with the main characters... They invented love... They invented devotion... I'm also delighted by the pace of things! Their relationship has managed to be both teasingly slow (like, the gradual reveal of Hua Cheng's true identity) but also very satisfyingly forward (the escorting!! the painting!! the righteous anger!!). Excited to see where things go with them, and the rest of the cast! (3.5/5—would be a 4, but the translation still kind of hampers things.)

Naomi Vandoren's Forest of Light

The second art book I bought from this artist! Same thoughts as before; for a quick browse, this was a refreshing little collection. Her style is just nice and soothing, with some fun surrealism/dreamscape vibes thrown in.

I'm not sure I'll buy any more of these, since the book didn't add quite as much insight into the works as I was hoping. Plus some of the concepts don't really resonate with me/seem that well researched...

I think one of my favorite things included was this abstract work the artist did—she wrote that she started with random watercolor mark-making, and then turned that into a piece. Those were very cool explorations! (2.5/5)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian

Done!! With the series! (Unless... It looks like there might be some followups to the main story?) I understand why the darker tone got dialed up, and other than the excursion with Nico, why the story kind of broke from the wacky-roadtrip vibe of the others. It made sense, while still keeping some of the lighthearted narration from the others, which was nice. I think what I appreciate the most about the series is the fun it has with its world. (Side note—I watched the movie based on the first book recently, and I can only assume it didn't do well! Bc omg, it completely missed the mood of the books. Instead of lingering on the whimsy, they focused on... making Grover a very cringey stereotype? Nah.) (ALSO??? THEY CUT OUT MY DAUGHTER CLARISSE????? THE AUDACITY???????)

I think my biggest gripe with the book was the very weird way the Annabeth-Percy-Rachel dynamic was handled. Like, it just got kind of tiring after a bit, especially with the way Annabeth acted so uncharacteristically catty at times. Plus, like, Percy's off falling in love with Calypso after like 5 minutes, the girl is right that he's kind of flighty. Rachel's ending also felt, just... eh.

Other than that, I was very into the last book!! There were some really moving character moments, like, Nico struggling with his place in the story, everything we learned about Luke... AND THE BIGGEST MASTERSTROKE OF ALL!!! I have been waiting to scream about the sapphic Patrochilles take??? At the end??? Clarisse has two hands and she can hold both Chris's and Silena's. She was moved to go into battle!!!! For her!!!!! She defeated one of the most terrifying foes in NO ARMOR just with a SICK ASS SPEAR and I LOVE HER. Anyway no notes, except they better do Clarisse justice in the new adaptation or I will riot. (4/5)

Secrets of the Oak Woodlands

Ooo I'm out of practice doing these reviews... Mostly from a funny cocktail of outside factors slowing me down, but also because nonfiction can be such a slog for me to get through. Tragic, because I do want to learn more ecology, I'm just... bad at it. Anyway! Bought this book on a fun West Coast road trip, I think I picked this up in the Sequoia National Park gift shop? The writing itself is great, especially how it tackles some pretty complex concepts in a way that's approachable. The book doesn't feel like Baby's First Nature Guide, but it also doesn't completely lose me when it explores why coyote populations actually rise when they're hunted or why Oak Mistletoe is a keystone species.

Even though the watercolor illustrations in the book were lovely, I sort of wish the visuals could have focused more on the tougher scientific concepts being explained. Like, instead of the illustrated "anecdote" of a quail sitting sentry, it could have been good to have a cross-section diagram of an oak gall or something. I guess it's always hard to balance interest and clarity in scientific writing, though. Overall, I think this was a pretty good eco-starter book! I'm just a square peg trying to force myself into a round hole, reading these nonfiction books. (So... 3/5?)

The Dragon's Bride

Hoo boy... Hoo boy... Listened to this audiobook at the recommendation of my friend who's very into erotica/romances. Which was an adventure, for me! To start with the good points, I really like the founding premise of this whole world/story. Deals with demons walk that perfect line for me of intricate and taboo power dynamics—and at the same time, the author satisfied my inner hopeless romantic by making all the demons (that we've met so far, at least) morally viable! So yeah, the world building and characterization is really nice, tbh.

I think my two sticking points are the smut itself, and that I didn't find these particular protags very compelling... It's interesting comparing this to, say, an above-average smut fic. On the one hand this has better prose, but on the other hand the smut veered into being a little too flowery now and then... (not to say all the sex scenes were like that. Uh. There were some choice ones.) I also personally found the frequency of the sex scenes a little ridiculous, but for most people that's probably a positive! 😂 And then, when it comes to the main characters themselves, I think they were well-rounded and the dynamic itself made sense. The personalities just aren't the kind I normally latch onto, though—they're not my blorbos, you know? So, where I'd go into a smut fic already attached (and therefore more into the smut itself), these... I could take it or leave it, haha.

That said, this installment did pique my interest for others in the series. I'm curious about the one with the succubus........ And the one with Eve..................... Those tidbits seem more up my alley. :] Also, the voice acting was pretty fun, tbh. They got separate VAs for Briar and Sol, the two POV characters, and they knocked it out of the park (even/especially in the smut scenes)! (well, except for a very funny instance where the guy VA had to voice Briar's lines in a smut scene in a Sol POV chapter. Damn, did he try.) Might pick up one of the other installments... if they come out on audiobook! (3.5/5)

Legends & Lattes

Another recommendation!! From a different friend! Apparently this book is popular on booktok but since booktok sounds like a cesspool (not really—pls don't come for me) I'm glad I didn't know that going in. As a purveyor and avid consumer of slice-of-life fluff.......... I loved this!!! First of all, the main character is My Kind of Girl, and exactly the kind of character I want to see getting a happy ending. Then, the rest of cast provided so many different kinds of delight—the warm Found Family feeling of a grumpy kind father figure and an adorable little Creature baking actual cinnamon rolls and a prim but secretly dorky girlfriend and and and—so many greats! Even the antagonists were enjoyable, in their way.

Hmmm... for the negative part of my postive-negative-positive sandwich, I think I'd just echo what I've seen in a few other reviews—I could have done with a teensy bit more of the romance. Or I guess, more of the cuteness of it? All we really got was a little bit of lead-up and then a big get-together, but I feel like the romance scenes I like most (shy flirting, a tiny bit of pining) got sort of skipped over. It's not a huge negative! Especially for this story, which seemed like it hit exactly the balance the author intended. Yeah, I might have just had the epilogue cover the main ship being cute and in love, instead of the little righteous vengeance scene that we got.

So this was a perfect little comfort listen (audiobook again! with really nice acting done by the author himself!). I saw other people calling the first chapters slow, but tbh I loved the steady, hopeful mood that came from all that straightforward hard work happening and then paying off. A great story, if you go in with the right expectations! (4.5/5) (P.S.: also this article touches on some other L&L points that I think explain why it resonates so well in post-pandemic life) (P.P.S. now I'm trying to parse out why I liked this book so much more than House in the Cerulean Sea... I think part of it is that the cast felt more respected? Like, it was more than just The Most Special-est Pretty Boy and his Plucky Boyfriend Fix Fantasy Racism)

#hi my name is chromo #book review #?#i got real slowed down on the other nonfiction ecology book that i might dnf #plus i picked up some old crafting hobbies #AND fell into binging some comfort shows after getting bad news from the vet (that turned out maybe not so bad?)#so anyway!#been an interesting few months

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tm-trx · 1 year

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currents.14/2023

selections from my week in media [3-8 april 2023]

[reading]

my head between your shoulder blades by pinkish - Until We Meet Again future fic - a series of quietly sweet Dean/Pharm vignettes - I love it.

[watching]

Awaken - I almost dropped this at the halfway point because I was 90 percent sure they were going to pull a Mouse and it’s not nearly as good to pull that kind of twist off. But I’m glad I kept going because it ended just as unrealistically yet entirely as satisfyingly as I could have hoped for. If they ever do a season two, I already know what I want the plot to be (answering all my questions about what was up with the president’s son).

Bokura no Shokutaku (Our Dining Table) - I was going to hold off on this until I’d reread the manga it’s based on, because I didn’t like it much the first time. But I’m confident I will love the series and the gifsets are too much to resist. LOL The first episode was so good and everything I love about jdramas. Another pottery studio setting was the icing on the cake though.

Chains of Heart - I so rarely figure out mystery plots that I’m so pleased with myself for figuring out this one. Go me. The emotional hook was the big 0707 date the show has been working toward and it was so good.

Kingdom: Legendary War - The performances for Road to Kingdom are what got me interested in this one, and what led me to starting Peak Time. Also, I knew ATEEZ had participated, so that moved it up the watchlist. I’m only a few episodes in and so far am loving it. I have a feeling I will love it less once the eliminations start happening, though. LOL

Till the End of the Moon - Well, I’m hooked. I try not to watch more than one of the same type of drama at the same time and this one fills the “fantasy cdrama” slot for the forseeable future. I’m two episodes in and so far it’s great. The cast is very pretty, the dubbing isn’t too distracting, the story is interesting, and Chuntao is adorable.

Unintentional Love Story - My single complaint is still the kissing. But the way Taejoon hugs Wonyoung makes up for a lot. He just envelopes him in his arms and holds on. It’s great. There was a lot of pain this week, because it was time for the truth to come out. I didn’t expect where they went, but it worked so well. So many emotions over the course of two episodes. I loved it and I’m going to miss this show when it’s over. More thoughts here.

previous Currents posts

#unintentional love story #till the end of the moon #bokura no shokutaku #awaken kdrama #chains of heart #fic rec #tmtrx watches dramas #tmtrx og #kingdom legendary war #kdrama #thai drama #cdrama #jdrama #tmtrx currents

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princesssarcastia · 4 years

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*sad trombone noises*

so i finally gave in and watched season 3 of young justice, and I have to say.....

meh. @padmerrie you were right it probably wasn’t worth watching :/

there were too many threads they were trying to tie together. also, i felt that drifting away from the season finale formula they had for the first two seasons was a definite mistake on their part. the team kicks ass and takes names, then the justice league has a big issue they need the team’s help with, and then we end with a shot of the Light being like ::even though we failed in every way possible, everything is somehow still going all according to plan::

like, there was one moral of the story at the end about being genuine and not conning your crew, if I may borrow a line from leverage. but the problem is THAT WAS THE WHOLE MORAL LESSON FOR SEASON TWO. THAT—THAT WAS LITERALLY THE WHOLE POINT OF THE DICK-ARTEMIS-KALDUR CONSPIRACY.

so that made it seem like they learned nothing from season 2.

the story for season 3 would have been so much cleaner if they weren’t fucking staging heroic rescues for their new public portion of the team. imagine the power of garfield actually creating a new team, with the purpose of inspiring people and being genuine enough to overcome Luthor’s bullshit machinations as UN Secretary General. imagine the narrative of truth being more powerful than propaganda.

but nooooo Batman’s gotta be an edgelord and take the rest of the bats, and kaldur, and wonder woman (honestly what the fuck), down with him, into his authoritarian paternalistic bullshit. HARD PASS.

I did like that people of color played a lot of the key roles in this season, between artemis and halo and cyborg and black lightning. love that the season started with one black man in charge of the justice league and ended with another one taking charge of it. (fuck batman). i did not like that the now-off-network-television cartoon then felt comfortable showing cyborg and halo in particular getting brutally savaged on screen a bunch of times.

would have honestly been cooler if big barda had saved the league and the team from granny goodness and the anti-life equation, as repayment for when superman saved her life. feel like narratively that would have been cleaner, and would tie into that message about being a genuine person with compassion inspiring others to be the same, you fucking assholes.

also, the fact that they re-used mind control of the justice league is tired; and the fact that they didn’t even use it WELL is even more tired. there should have been more tension about the fact that some of the most powerful people in the universe were under the thrall of one of the top ten worst people in the universe. season one did that BEAUTIFULLY and season 3 didn’t even try. that’s what comes of recycling your material, folks.

I feel like they sorta...made good use of Apokalypse, and sorta didn’t?? The stuff with Vandal Savage would have been cooler if like, he and Darkseid hadn’t decided they could bro-hug it out at the end, after savage literally deprived darkseid of the one thing he wants most in the entire fucking universe, but whatever. the whole galaxy wide war thing was neat.

connor “coming out” to the world as a giant fuck you to lex luthor was also neat.

i really enjoyed the dickbabs content.

i REALLY enjoyed Kaldur’s atlantian boyfriend, that was perfect.

but my FAVORITE part of the whole season was when they’re in Russia, and the team has driven off black manta, monsieur malla, and captain boomerang; and Amanda Waller in their ear can’t identify Artemis, and Black Manta says, “duh, she’s one of the leaders of the Team™.”

and waller is like, “the team?”

and black manta is like, “yeah, the team™, the justice league’s covert ops squad.”

and then waller and boomerang are like, “the justice league has a covert ops squad?!?!?!?”

thats fucking hilarious. the idea that these assholes are still covert after all the explosions they caused?? that the U.S. government is that oblivious? fucking priceless.

#young justice #dc #review #ish #ugh there was so much wasted potential #what the FUCK was that ending to be honest #seasons one and two ended so satisfyingly in a way that had me on the edge of my seat #season three fizzled out like flat soda left in the sun too long #im just dissapointed tbh #OH AND THAT BIT WITH JASON TODD WAS A PUNCH TO THE DICK #WHERE THE FUCK DO THEY GET OFF WITH THAT SHIT

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paintingformike · 2 years

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the way some people talk about not “trusting” the duffers with byler you’d think they’ve been purposely half assing the development and build up of their relationship but nooo they literally gave us THESE like. tell me any other canon couple in the show that has a cinematography that actually stands out the way theirs does. they literally get so much special treatment for a “platonic” pairing, so many one on one scenes and heart to hearts together

after all the effort they put into writing an elaborate painting storyline for them and all the time and money they spent into making their scenes look more intimate and emotional and tense and as if they were the only two people in the world...you think they’d give us an unsatisfying ending and leave it ambiguous or up to interpretation? be fucking fr if anything theyre dying to finally just allow them to meet in the middle and get together 😭 and lets not act like the painting plot isn’t quite literally leading into a giant confrontation of feelings, there’s literally NO WAY to conclude that without making the state of their relationship explicit

also let’s be real here, they were the ones who actively CHOSE to develop their relationship very seriously and with deep, emotional moments more so than any other (romantic) pairing in the show. the way they’ve treated them and framed their scenes together actually shows they care a lot about making sure their storyline is intricately written and thoughtfully planned and wrapped up satisfyingly. i never got the sense that they’d do otherwise and they never gave me a reason to believe they’d just half ass this plotline because they’ve shown that they actually care a little too much their moments together. heck, they spent nearly an entire day just to film the van scene perfectly and get it exactly right and the writing of the other characters in volume 2 (aside from lumax’s and el’s storylines ig...) just pales in comparison to will’s veiled love confession in the van scene, it’s as if they spent 80% of their energy in the van scene then half assed every other plot point like i swear they secretly see byler’s relationship as their “baby” that they subtly put double the effort into writing and developing...

and their supposed “main couple” doesn’t even get treated nearly as seriously enough? since they got together they’ve mostly only had lighthearted/playful moments and fights, they rarely get any meaningful or deep conversations as much as byler does and their relationship in s3 was used for comedic effect and they’re constantly separated from each other...and i’ve reiterated this a million times before but there’s such a clear contrast between the intimacy in byler scenes vs the lack of intimacy and effort put into mileven scenes, especially in season 4. they’re never just alone together, either will is in the background or there’s several distractions and other people in the shot that make you not focus on them or just make their scenes together look ugly. to top it all off, the monologue, which is supposedly their big romantic moment, was filmed with the ugliest lighting, had the camera constantly panning to other characters and will being in the background 90% of the time to the point it’s actually begging for your attention, you’re literally constantly reminded there are other people with them and it apparently only took around 5 takes to finish LMFAO the duffers are not as much of “mileven obsessed” as people think they are, because if they actually are then they’re doing a pretty horrible job with it.

this is why i need some bylers, but especially twt bylers who happen to be the most pessimistic, to have a little more faith and stop losing hope every 5 seconds because if you’re so convinced the duffers don’t care enough about byler to write them a satisfying ending then why would they put this much emphasis in their relationship and make their scenes together 10x more serious and emotional? i get still not trusting the duffers on certain matters and because they’re “two cishet white men” or whatever but either way it’s not even like they’re the only writers of the show, and somehow they’re able to write their gay main character in a way that hits close to home for a lot of queer people because his experiences are very authentically written. im not even trying to put them in a pedestal but despite being allegedly cishet they still did manage to write the van scene all by themselves and knew how to portray will’s feelings of alienation as a gay man for being “different” and a “mistake”, so at the very least they probably consult actual queer people/writers 🤔 even though they’re not perfect in every way, sexuality issues and queerness are actually treated a little more seriously in stranger things and they managed to delve a little deeper into its connection with puberty and conforming to what’s “normal”, unlike other shows that just ended up queerbaiting. none of those other shows have explored a queer person’s sexual identity as much as stranger things has, and they managed to do this alongside the overarching supernatural plot. it also actually ties into the themes of the show so it would make sense if they decided that their main couple should be the embodiment of outcasted and marginalized 🤷‍♀️ anyways i didnt intend for this to get this long but i hope it does manage to keep people’s confidence in check cause i always end up doing this when i start seeing people being too negative to the point it’s just irritating im sawrry 🙏

#maybe im putting too much faith in them but at the very least im confident that the duffers purposely wrote themselves into a corner #so they’d have no way out for byler anymore #the moment will lied about the painting byler endgame was already secured #like we literally already won there’s no turning back from there tbvh #byler #byler proof #byler analysis

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dumpsterhipster · 2 years

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The Trash Dweller's Dumpster Dives: 3

Welcome back for another overwritten fic rec, while I insist to my friends and family that no, promise, I don't have a problem, I can stop any time.

[1] [2] [4] [5] [6]

A Change of Seasons: Foe - by sheiruki / @sheirukitriesfandom

fandom || Skyrim rating || M categories || gen genre || murder mystery characters of note || Savos Aren status || 12/?, 28k

For once, it's not Savos Aren's fault.

With every step, the scent became stronger and stronger. Rashkan shuddered once he realised what it was: blood. Hunger began to rebel against Rashkan's common sense. That smell, gods, that smell... He sped onward, dread driving him, spurring him on as if he were a warhorse charging into battle until, at last, Rashkan discovered the source of the tempting no—he bit his tongue—distressing, awfully distressing, coppery smell. Before him, a grand sleigh lay overturned; its contents spread out around it. Its draft mules were nearby; their bodies gnawed on by ice wolves or sabre cats, flesh and bones exposed. A lone snowberry bush, thrashed about by the raging gale, clutched a shred of blue fabric. Not far from it, a shield was lodged firmly into the snow. Its sigil, resembling an ornate cross, bore deep gashes all over. Rashkan took another whiff. It was still fresh, that blood; only a day old, at maximum. Despite all his reservations, his Hunger was growing stronger by the minute—and he hated himself for it. Just what had happened here?

There are some authors and characters who become indelibly associated with one another on the Archive: for sheiruki that character is Savos Aren and for Savos Aren that author is sheiruki. Sheiruki has been quietly and single-handedly populating the Savos tag for the past two and a half years with delightful little short fics, and I was thrilled when in the middle of last year they began posting their first proper longfic. And what a fic it is! With it, sheiruki has branched out not just in scope but genre, forgoing their usual quiet, domestic slice-of-life fare for, of all things, a murder mystery. When a young man is found dead in Winterhold with unmistakable bite marks on his neck, suspicion naturally falls on Rashkan Atheron: Dunmer, mage, close friend of the Arch-Mage and vampire. Soon Rashkan, Savos and the rest of the College of Winterhold faculty are swept up in the spate of murders which threaten not just their reputations but their very lives.

Mysteries are tricky plots to nail, but nail it sheiruki does. The twists and turns and gradual build of the plot is wonderfully executed, with truly nail-biting scenes and an excellent control of pacing. We’re not quite at the end of the fic, but I can already feel it will land as satisfyingly as what has preceded it, and I’m on the edge with every update.

Sheiruki’s character writing has always been lovely, and it’s marvellous getting to see them stretch their muscles in a longer format, where characters have the space for their arcs and relationships to grow, rather than the usual more static snapshots they write. Rashkan and Savos are both wonderfully rich and detailed characters with fantastically complex inner lives and an equally complex relationship. After all, Rashkan is a vampire, and Savos both the Arch-Mage, with all the responsibilities that entails, and a morally much more ‘white’ character. I really appreciate the way sheiruki explores what being a ‘sympathetic’ vampire character in the TES universe actually looks like; they don’t shy away from showing the complexities and shades of grey inherent in unlife, and both the parallels and contrasts between Rashkan and the actual murderous vampire/s lends the fic a really interesting and deep thematic unity.

I’d also be remiss not to mention sheiruki’s worldbuilding and atmosphere. It’s something which has struck me about their writing from the first, and once again the longer format allows them to really show us what they’re capable of. Their Winterhold is rich and vibrant and so alive, both the town and the College, and they take the time to really make both parts of the Winterhold community feel connected and to make all their characters feel fully grounded in the setting. I didn’t mention the secondary characters above, but they’re all brilliantly portrayed, with an attention to detail across the board in how both setting and characters are portrayed that breathes life into every sentence and every scene. Their prose is lovely: not overly florid, but with a very deft and efficient use of language that is equally adept at portraying the open skies and wheeling seabirds of Winterhold and cloying moments of horror.

In summary, this fic is a must-read for any fans of Winterhold, murder mysteries or vampire content alike. It’s a delightfully fresh and unique fic with a wholly original and riveting plot, stunning setting and atmospherics, and a cast that could walk off the page. Tremendous work, sheiruki, and I can’t wait to read the upcoming conclusion!

#tes #skyrim #fanfiction #skyrim fanfiction #fic recs #fic review #college of winterhold #savos aren #trash dweller's dumpster dives #friend writing #dunmer #vampires #murder mystery #the elder scrolls

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bimovesinherownway · 4 years

Video

youtube

me: I'm going to edit emisue to ivy

me: makes this instead

okay but replace every "water fountain" with "orchard" and this is their song, I will not take questions at this time.

I did my big stream of consciousness thoughts on dickinson s2 in my emily video description (self promo: https://youtu.be/9zOBRJkvB3A) but I'll spare two words about emily and sue because I love them and I hate that I'm not 100% happy with their happy ending.

I get what they were trying to do with their characters and their relationship this season, and I think they mostly succeeded, too. I just think they took it a bit too far for it to be realistically and satisfyingly torn down in one single scene, even a great one like the one we got.

We needed just a couple more moments, some glances, a line here or there as any indication of Sue's feelings. I get that she's trying to repress them but even then, she wouldn't be able to control herself so completely 24/7. there was that heartbreaking scene of her folding into herself after a fight with austin, and that scene with mary - which odd choice but ok - but they didn't feel like enough, or specific enough. and yes, she does constantly tell Emily she's a genius and deserves to be published but that too doesn't really feel personal enough.

As far as Emily goes, I think her journey this season actually makes sense. Even the back and forth between wanting to be published and dreading it, as irritating as it may seem at times, feels true to her character, who's completely guided by her ever fleeting emotions. Plus it's like the biggest decision she'll ever have to make, so I think it's fair for her to mull it over for a bit.

I'm not a fan of the aggression at the end of the fight scene. Again, I understand the intentions behind it, but it felt oddly ooc for me. I don't see Emily being physically violent in any situation, not in that way.

All in all I *loved* the fight scene and Emily and Sue finally talking candidly about everything that's been going on, I just wish there had been a clearer development of it throughout the season. This argument basically mirrored their 201 scene. And I know they've been mostly apart for nine episodes but I wish we got to see them explore their feelings individually a little more - again, mostly Sue.

...yeah I lied and gave you another stream of consciousness. it is what it is. enjoy!

#dickinson #emisue #emily dickinson #Hailee Steinfeld #ella hunt #fanvidfeed #fanvideo

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me-4eva · 4 years

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IN DEFENCE OF HARRINGROVE:

Because I’ve seen SO MANY POSTS about how Harringrove is basically the devils spawn and super unhealthy and abusive etc etc etc, I wanted to offer my two cents because nobody asked for it so with all the confidence of a heterosexual white man, I am going to convince myself it matters and offer it to the world.

The truth is I honestly don’t think I would ever want Harringrove to ever become canon. I don’t think I would like it if it did. (See also: Destiel.) I KNOW there is so much bad blood between Steve and Billy that would take SO. MUCH. CHARACTER. DEVELOPMENT. to get over in a way that would not seem abusive. Billy and Steve’s relationship in the show was built on a macho rivalry that is literally just testosterone and abuse. Anyone who is anti Harringrove is currently sitting there agreeing with me, nodding along and going ‘THIS IS EXACTLY MY PROBLEM.’ I hear you anti Harringrovers. I hear you and I get you. Billy in the show is violent, bigoted and prone to lashing out and being aggressive. One of the biggest arguments against Harringrove is that nobody ever writes the characters from the show into a healthy relationship, it’s all totally different versions of the character and they worked out their issues offscreen or whatever. (Personally this to me feels like quite a narrow view of that segment of the fandom and I can point to a few fics straight off the top of my head where the characters start like the characters in the show and develop into a healthy relationship, but I hear what you say.)

THE THING IS THOUGH: that’s kind of the point. The big ships that are canon in the show (Mileven/Jancy/Jopper) don’t inspire the same level of fun for fanfic writers as Harringrove because they’re missing one crucial element: CONFLICT. Conflict is at the heart of any good story, regardless of whether it’s good vs evil or two characters getting together. (Writing 101 there...) All of those other ships have had their core conflict resolved in-story. Even delving into popular non-canon ships, for example Stonathan, Steve and Jonathan have kind of... worked out their conflict in season 1. Their conflict in season 2 wasn’t really a conflict between each other but rather a mutual love of Nancy. If you make them both fall out of love with Nancy with a ploy of getting them together... what the f are they arguing about? Where’s the conflict? Sure, you could go back to a point in canon where they hate each other and try and work it out from there but it’s already been resolved satisfyingly in canon, so yeah, you’ve got to make up a conflict between them. In the show, they barely mention each other outside the context of Nancy.

With Harringrove, however, the conflict is still there. It’s never been resolved. It’s FUN to resolve it. It’s fun to take this testosterone fuelled rivalry that is driving them to extremes and instead take it to another extreme. Their rivalry is borne out of them occupying the same space and the same circles in this high school to the point where they’re totally obsessed with each other. To get them romantically interested in each other doesn’t involve removing key ingredients of their rivalry. And it’s FUN. It’s FUN to flesh out more sides of these characters, to explore different sides to Billy who, if I may point out, we kind of barely scratched the surface of in canon. His dad beats him up. His mom left him as a kid. He’s macho af and wants to go back to California. He flirts with 40something women at the pool. There’s a lot to explore there that ISN’T explored in the show. He’s extremely convenient to explore the backstory of. (And it very definitely helps that this rivalry is going on between two of the hottest male cast members...)

The one thing I will say most of all in defence of Harringrove (and specifically as a Harringrove shipper) is that I’m also generally very on board with exploring it the other way, where it doesn’t end with them getting together but rather where the rivalry gets worse and worse. Because that is just as interesting. For all the fics that exist that take Harringrove from where they are in the show to a healthy romantic relationship, I can name just as many fics where they stay rivals and it all builds to a nightmarish head, and these are actually usually MORE interesting to me because it delves massively into the flip side of that blank slate, where Billy stays a bully and thoroughly unredeemable but also is just absolutely fascinating. Because the relationship between Steve and Billy is what’s interesting, because it’s unresolved by the time Billy leaves the show in s3. It’s open. It’s interesting. It’s fun.

That’s not to say that there aren’t poorly written fanfics out there where the relationship is still hella abusive and the author doesn’t seem to realise it as they have Steve forgive Billy for lashing out violently or something. Those definitely do exist. But if this reaches a Harringrove anti and you want a couple of good fics that explore the Billy and Steve relationship, hmu and I’ll send over a couple of fics! ❤️

#stranger things #harringrove #steve harrington #billy hargrove #harringrove anti #in defence of Harringrove

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pensivetense · 4 years

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A List Of (Mostly TMA) Fic Recs Sorted By Vibe

Not an exhaustive list by any means, just a few favourites that caught my fancy. I shortened many of the summaries for space.

I’m going to pin this here and update it as I go.

Also, I’m pensivetense on ao3

MELANCHOLY VIBES

for when you want to feel comfortably muted

(sad but not utterly bleak endings here)

Hope, Etc. (Dickenson, et al.) by yellow_caballero

Jonathan Sims, six months after the Unknowing, wakes to find himself without a daemon - without humanity, without a soul. It’s a cursed half-life, but existence as a shell without a heart isn’t so bad: between solving the mystery of a persistent illusion cast over his friends and some light pseudo-cannibalism, a life as a monster is better than no life at all. At least, it would be, if it wasn’t for the fucking Owl.

A freaking. Amazing. Daemon au. Ties the lore of Dust with TMA lore very satisfyingly, but is mostly about Jon navigating what it means to be human, or, in the absence of that, a person, and doesn’t require prior knowledge of His Dark Materials. Cannot recommend highly enough.

after one long season of waiting by nuinuijiaojiao

Annabelle is not used to having nice things. or, Annabelle heads to Upton House, muses a little, and gets some well-deserved rest

I love survivalist Annabelle and also the concept of the Web as kind of a horrible Patron, actually.

i love you. I want us both to eat well. by SmallishWormMasterOfTheUniverse

At the safehouse with Martin, Jon decides it's time to quit statements once and for all. The Eye disagrees. Martin just needs Jon to be okay. It's quite possible that nobody is going to get what they want.

Scottish Safehouse Era, Jon and Martin coping with their respective Entities... really, really good.

the friend by doomcountry

He always greets a new spider when he meets it. It’s instinct, born in childhood, the same way he instinctively counts magpies, or flicks salt over his left shoulder. A little harmless superstition. A bit of politesse.

A great Martin character study with eldritch spider horror included. The imagery regularly haunts me (in a good way).

autumn’s rare gift by bee_bro

Annually, the two meet, renewing the binding ritual where it had all started. The procedure simple: a waltz.

Singlehandedly made me ship Gertrude/Agnes so there’s that. It’s so bittersweet and bee_bro’s writing is, as always, incredibly poetic. (I’d recommend everything they write, actually.)

smile, you’re trending by Goodluckdetective

During an encounter with another Avatar of the Eye, Jon faces his past, Martin takes a turn at playing Kill Bill and Basira has a second look at the monster she’s determined to see. For three people associated with the Eye, they could all use some perspective.

Features an original Eye Avatar character who’s a YouTube personality; she is infuriating and inspired and genuinely frightening and I cannot say enough good things.

Humility by The_Lionheart

have you no idea that you're in deep?/i've dreamt about you nearly every night this week,/how many secrets can you keep?

An OC centric story but don’t let that put you off, it’s amazing. Very heavily focused around Jonah Magnus and the other Avatars as they change through the years. Also, I’d die for the OC.

oh, for one sweet second without the eye series by faedemon

Beholding does not like in the way humans do, but it likes its Archivist all the same.

I’m just so fond of the way this is done stylistically. I have a great weakness for dialogue only/dialogue heavy writing, not to mention all of the wonderful character beats and interplay of humanity/inhumanity for Jon and Melanie.

Rewind by WhyNotFly

It takes eight days of forced confinement for Jon to start hallucinating. [...] It’s Martin, though, that his exhausted brain conjures, because of course it’s Martin. After all this time, of course it’s Martin.

Jon willingly allows himself to be confined rather than hunting for statements, and examines his relationship with Martin.

for a firmament series by supaslim

There is beauty in destruction. There is art in becoming. In which Jon becomes the Archive, and the Archive becomes Jon.

Part two posted this morning and uhhh. Good. Also if you’re here for weird eldritch body horror (I am), this one’s for you.

ONES THAT JUST HURT

for when you want to feel sad

(somewhat bleaker endings here/everyone is NOT okay)

Feste by yellow_caballero

If asked, Martin would say that he became the shadow director of the Magnus Institute by accident. But nobody ever asked, and nobody ever cared, and it was in this way that Martin stopped lying to himself. Or: break free, Martin. All you have to lose are your chains. And your sanity.

Oh, this one totally didn’t go the way I expected it to. A study in isolation. Could go into the category above, as the ending is not bleak, but the tone of the whole is somewhat more depressing than most there.

Ghosts of Love by RavenXavier

Nothing made Martin more grounded in the world than yearning for Jonathan Sims.

Lonely!Martin that really captures a sort of visceral ache. Hurts me and yet I keep rereading.

i do desire (we may be better strangers) by godbewithyouihavedone

For ages, it only knew how to worship, taking human bodies and living off the fear of those who remembered. It never knew love until it became Jonathan Sims. Now it must fight against every instinct to save Martin Blackwood. Archivist Sasha, Not!Jon/Martin, and the worst kind of Fake Dating AU.

Oh, this one just made me sad. The poor not!them, which is something I never thought I’d say.

Apple Of Your Eye by fakeCRfan

In which the Eye is fond of Martin. Perhaps a little too fond for comfort.

Somehow manages to be both sweet and horrifying—the characterisation of the Eye is incredible. ‘The Eye loves Martin’ is a scenario that’s so utterly doomed to failure and yet the writing is packed with so much pathos that I just want them all to be happy. A fantastic use of themes of agency and choice, and the single best use of Beholding as a source of horror I’ve read.

The Last Press by copperbadge

Jon Sims is awake, and has begun preparations for the Rite of the Watcher's Crown. Peter Lukas, who woke him, would be content to rule at his side. Martin is very upset about all of this, and the Lukases aren't thrilled with it either.

I really can’t say anything without spoiling the end and it’s so good. An alternate take on the Watcher’s Crown. Not a pairing that I ever thought would work for me, but this made it work.

watch the blood evaporate by 75hearts

It starts, like so many things in Jon’s life have started, with a nagging itch of curiosity. Jonathan Sims uses his healing abilities throughout s4. Read the tags.

Dear God please read the tags. But this is some high quality pain if it’s for you.

the lighthouse series by low_fi

Peter Lukas is a lighthouse keeper. One evening, he gets a call from a cryptic overseer tasked with monitoring his work.

This is such a vivid and yet subtle story—from the setting to the emotions portrayed, it creeps up on you slowly. The ending was like the gentlest possible gut-punch. The sequel just completed, and yeah, just as wonderful. This one is very much LonelyEyes but I listed it here because it is just exquisitely painful.

SATISFYINGLY HOPEFUL VIBES

for when you want to feel cozy

Clutching Daffodils by Gemi

Martin has always liked the idea of love at first sight. It’s such a romantic idea, the whole thing of it. Seeing someone and instantly feeling that strange, twisting feeling deep inside that every single media likes to obsess over. Of knowing you are in love within the day, petals falling from your mouth and warmth filling your chest as love burrows deep, vines twisting through your lungs. He always liked the idea of it. And then Jonathan Sims starts working at the Magnus Institute.

Somehow manages to be lighter and fluffier than most hanahaki fare, despite the setting. I’ve reread this one a lot.

the least he could do by Prim_the_Amazing

Martin should in fact not pick this man, specifically because of how attracted he is to him. It would be the responsible thing to do. Except he’s already following him. And he’s hungry.

Fluffy vampire au which everyone’s probably already read, but was too good not to mention.

rather interesting by bee_bro

Jonah Magnus realizes that, for some reason, when he comes in contact with weed, Elias Bouchard's consciousness will come into his life banging pots and pans.

Oh boy. So these are all favourite fics but this one is a favourite amongst favourites. The way Jonah is characterised (i.e. incredibly sensitive to scrutiny) is my favourite depiction of him, and the slow-burn between him and Elias is far sweeter than it has any right to be. Also, it’s hilarious.

The Magnus Records series by ErinsWorks

In a world parallel to that of the Archives and the Institute, a supernatural sanctuary stands against a cruel and uncaring world: A world of bureaucracy and tyranny, of murder and carnage, of loneliness and surveillence, of plague and death. But in this world of fear and misery, 14 entities born of the hopes of the world have emerged. And one of them has made their home here, at The Magnus Sanctuary. Perhaps, the employees within may lead happier lives than their counterparts did in the Archives.

This is just so goddamn pure. The author writes a really imaginative, fleshed-out alternate world and alternate Entities with engaging, well-written short statements. All of the character voices are absolutely on point, and it’s overall absurdly hopeful without ever feeling overly saccharine. I love this series so much, you guys, you don’t even know. I want to print it out and paste it on my wall. I love it.

HARD APOCALYPSE

for when you want to feel dark and angsty (and eldritch)

Most of these are shorts/oneshots because it’s just that kind of genre, y’know?

Ashes to Ashes by marrowbones

A conversation at the end of the world.

Oliver Banks is one of those minor characters that I am overly attached to. Love him here.

Employee Benefits by equals_eleven_thirds

The Magnus Institute offered some normal employee benefits: a pension plan, holidays, travel subsidies, free lunch on the last Friday of each month. Rosie makes it work.

This manages to hit that perfect sweet spot of satisfying and hilarious. Rosie gets to torment Elias, as she well deserves.

a rose by any other name by Duck_Life

Part of Jon blooms in Jared Hopworth’s garden.

This one was sad and honestly too gentle to really belong in this category, but I love it.

Eye to Eye by Dribbledscribbles

In which Jonah Magnus attempts a post-apocalyptic pep talk.

Unreliable narrator at its finest, and the implications are suitably horrific.

commensalis by doomcountry

The tower is endlessly, impossibly tall, but Jon’s work is taller.

If you’re here for the eldritch imagery, then this has some of the best.

SOFT APOCALYPSE

for when you want to feel gently triumphant

apocalypse how series by sunshine_states

Humanity adjusts. The Entities have Regrets.

Some nice vignettes set in a kinder apocalypse.

ceylon series by Sciosa

The one in which Jonathan Sims decides that no, actually, he isn't going to let the world just end.

I include this only for the sake on completeness, as everyone has no doubt already read it.

rituals by doomcountry

Martin is the first person to knock on the Archivist's door since it arrived, fully, into its little waiting temple. The Archivist saw him coming from down the hall, but decides to feign interest when the knob turns, and Martin—still a little bit smaller, a little more translucent than before—stands uncertainly just outside the room.

This one’s a little less focused on the world at large and more on JonMartin specifically.

we raise it up by savrenim

Jonathan Sims reads a book and saves the world; although maybe the real salvation is the friends he makes along the way; (although perhaps the world itself and the darkness that exists behind it isn't quite as out to get everyone as it seems).

More ‘soft revolution’ than ‘soft apocalypse’, but has the same vibe. A time travel fix-it. Incomplete but worth it if this is a mood that appeals to you.

Scarred Ground by DictionaryWrites

“You see," Elias said softly, "people always have this idea that only living things can be scarred - and they're right, of course. But a building is a living thing, Martin. And the ground can be scarred, too." "I don't have any scars," Martin said. "Yes, you do," Elias said. "You just need the right light to see them.”

Falls somewhere between ‘Apocalypse’ and ‘Soft Apocalyse’ but I’m putting it here because I feel like it. Also technically a LonelyEyes fic. I found it hard to follow at first but it’s worth sticking with; things will eventually begin to make sense and come together.

LONELYEYES

for when you want to feel lonelyeyes

marrying anguish with one last wish by procrastinatingbookworm

In which Elias isn't Orpheus, and Peter isn't Eurydice, but Elias brings Peter home anyway.

Lives in my head rent free forever. My favourite lonelyeyes fic.

ouroboros by Wildehack

“You know,” Jonah says, a muscle in his calf quivering agreeably where it’s slung over Mordechai’s shoulder, “it’s really quite--fortunate--that I don’t care for you at all.”

Oh, this one hurts in the best possible way. The endless cycle of their relationship, the way it comes full-circle... yeah, good. Actually, no, this one might be my favourite. It’s a tie.

Breaking all the Rules by Thedupshadove

Elias proposes a somewhat...unusual wager.

Soft lonelyeyes? In my recs? It’s more likely than you think. Short, sweet, and... sweet.

Threefold by Sprinkledeath

Peter Lukas breaks three rules.

I’m just a slut for mythology allusions I guess.

Luck Be A Lady Tonight by prodigy

In 2014, Elias Bouchard takes a rare trip outside of his comfort zone. Peter Lukas wastes a bunch of money. You'd be surprised how many things can go wrong for two beings of cosmic power.

I love the sense of the history of them you get while reading this.

love is just a word (the idea seems absurd) by kaneklutz

"Something's wrong. It's stopped hurting" An avatar of the Lonely and an avatar of the Beholding walk into a bar relationship. It was bound to blow up in their faces.

Short, sweet, painful. Excellent exploration of their priorities.

Victor by penguistifical

elias tries something with his powers that he hasn't attempted before

The one where Elias tries to raise the dead. Not incredibly LonelyEyes centric but that’s still the pairing.

Simon Says by penguistifical

“Peter asked me to drop by and have a word with you, and, so, here I am.” Simon chuckles at Elias’s disbelieving stare. “Well, he asked in his own way. He’s not a complicated man, you know. He either comes from your arms looking like a stroked cat that’s been given a dish of cream or looking like he’s been in that toy boat of his out in an unexpected storm. He was far angrier than normal, so I daresay you weren’t cream today.”

I mean personally I’d just go ahead and rec all of penguistifical’s LonelyEyes fics but this is a standout for me.

AROMANTIC AND ASPEC MOODS

for when you want to feel Seen

The Aro Archives series by WhyNotFly

These are all just really really good. From Aro!Peter to two different aro-spec versions of the Scottish Safehouse to a long and beautiful aro hanahaki fic, this series is uniformly wonderful. The two Scottish Safehouse ones (Torn Edges and Murky Water) are my comfort fics.

and now all fear gives way by j_quadrifons

Before he can think it through, he murmurs, "Is that what it feels like? Being in love?" Martin's hand stills in his hair and Jon's stomach drops.

This one just. Wow yeah this is how it be. Another absolute comfort fic of mine.

Sweet As Roses by Prim_the_Amazing

Jon takes Martin by the shoulders, leans up on the tips of his toes, and kisses him.

I’m going to be honest—I didn’t know where to put this one. But it ended up here because the real standout of this fic for me is the portrayal of Sasha, and especially her portrayal as an aro character. So I’m putting it here. Mind the content warnings with this one!

HUMOUR

for when you want to feel delight

The Torment of Sebastian Skinner by Urbenmyth

After the Eye's victory, the statement givers are trapped in their horror stories, living them over and over again. Naturally, this works out better for some then for others.

Premise? Delightful. Execution? Fantastic. I read this one to cheer myself up when I’m sad.

Unlucky by VolxdoSioda

Jon’s dice betray him

Short, sweet DnD au, and the reason I cannot get DM!Elias out of my head now.

Voracious by beetl

A bird hits the window. Jon experiences The Flesh's thrall.

“Dead Dove: Do Not Eat” but make it literal.

The Stupid Endings by Urbenmyth

There are a lot of very deeply thought out and creative AUs on this site. These aren't among them. These ones are how the story could have ended, if Jonny Sims was a dumbass.

These are just uniformly hilarious, I cannot recommend them highly enough.

PODCAST CROSSOVERS

for when you want to make one of those “if I had a nickel for every time...” posts

The Sabbatical by morelikeassassin

Nicholas Waters is in need of an all-knowing eldritch entity beyond the confines of human imagining to help with his latest ritual. He'll have to settle for Jonathan Sims, who happens to have nothing better to do.

Crossover with Archive 81 (s3, specifically). Both fun and bittersweet.

The City And Its Sorrows by cuttooth

“What makes you think your friend is in Eskew?” David asks. He feels he can risk the scrutiny of the city that far. “I read that this is a place people end up when they get lost,” says the man. “This is a place people end up,” David agrees./The Archivist comes to Eskew.

Contemplative piece, and I love the way it presents David’s relationship with Eskew, the way he finds it horrible and hates it and yet belongs to it, is almost proud in the way he shows to to Jon. Great little vignette of two people oppressed by eldritch powers, intersecting.

Hiatus by bibliocratic

My name is Jonathan Sims, and I am in Eskew. (Jon gets lost in a Spiral city. It is not as easy as escaping.)

This one is far more focused on Jon than David, and is honestly more Eskew-weird than Spiral-weird. In the best way. Told in Eskew episode style, and is very good.

Sweet Music by Shella688

Eskew has a music to it, if you know how to listen. The percussion beat of thousands of footsteps, the melody in the squealing of the trains overhead. Today, the music of Eskew comes in the form of nine musicians, playing outside my office. My name is David Ward, and I am in Eskew.

Not TMA, but since a lot of Mechs fans go here—this one’s a Mechs/Eskew crossover. Short and simple, mostly David Ward centric, just a little well-written one shot I had to mention because I enjoyed it but it doesn’t have much traffic. Nice portrayal of the Mechs from an outsider’s perspective, and how genuinely strange and frightening they’d come across (especially if you’re already being haunted by and eldritch city). If you like Eskew-style storytelling, check it out!

NOT TMA

...but good enough that I physically cannot make a recs list without including them. Here!

#tma #the magnus archives #fic recs #long post #i'm not kidding you guys it's long #so be warned before you click read more #pinned on my blog

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ladyherenya · 4 years

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My favourite thing this year has been the Korean drama Crash Landing on You (2019-20).

It has something of a ridiculous title (I’ve ended up calling it Crash Landing or sometimes just Crash). But, to be fair, North and South was already taken.

“I can go to Africa and even Antarctica but not here. It’s a shame that you live here.” “It’s a shame that you live there.” -- episode three

To my great amusement, every month or so, Netflix has sent me an email that’s said: “Don’t forget to finish Crash Landing on You” or “Remember this? Watch it again: Crash Landing on You” or “Rewatch your favourite moments - Watch it again: Crash Landing on You…”

And I’m like: NETFLIX! Seriously, WHAT do you THINK I’M DOING?

I have now watched Crash Landing on You five times.

There are several reasons for this:

I successfully dragged other family members down this particular rabbit hole, and in a pandemic season, when things have been unpredictable (or cancelled), rewatching Crash Landing has been an appealing and comfortably-familiar distraction, as well as the source of many, many long, analytical fandom-y conversations, which has been fun.

I needed to watch it more than once to straighten out all the pieces of the story in my head. With 16 episodes, each over an hour long, it’s one of the longest stories I’ve ever watched. I’ve seen other TV series with more episodes, but nearly all have been much more episodic, rather than telling one continuous story.

I kept noticing details that I’d previously missed because I’d been focused on the subtitles or that I hadn’t properly understood some cultural nuance. And some things are ambiguous in translation -- in a good way, a fodder-for-discussion way.

I have ALWAYS rewatched (or reread) my favourite stories. And Crash Landing fits right in with those. Someone in my family described it as: “Like Lord of the Rings on steroids!” However, I think it actually has far more in common -- visually and thematically, and also in terms of my willingness to discuss the characters as if they were real people -- with my favourite historical dramas.

In terms of story, Crash Landing is easy enough to summarise: A South Korean businesswoman is paragliding when a freak storm blows her across the border; she’s discovered by a North Korean captain, who hides her and helps her get home.

But I’m going to need more words to explain why I fell in love with it.

It is fascinating and, first time round, tense and unpredictable. It’s funny and very meta -- very aware of the tropes it’s playing with and of parallels and contrasts within the story. It’s visually and aesthetically pleasing, and the soundtrack grew on me.

There are a number of coincidences and a few ridiculous fight scenes, but the emotions are intensely real and so are the consequences. It has camaraderie and found-family and thoughtfully-complicated family relationships. There are characters I love, and characters who surprised me, and so much time given to character development! It’s romantic. There’s a fake engagement (a favourite trope of mine) and while I’m not a fan of love triangles, I liked how this quadrangle-tangle is handled. And the obstacles to the romance are satisfyingly realistic; characters have sensible reasons for the choices they make.

I love how the story uses flashbacks, particularly the post-credit scenes.

The final episode isn’t perfect, but given that a perfectly happy ending would, realistically, require the reunification of north and south, I thought it came very close.

Let me elaborate.

Cut for sheer verbosity, rather than spoilers. (I’m not allowing myself to list spoiler-ish examples or dive into analysing my favourite scenes, because then I wouldn’t just be here all night, I’d be here all week).

⬦ Fascinating, tense, unpredictable: I knew almost nothing about life in North Korea, so that was fascinating and made the story harder to predict, as I couldn’t anticipate what options the characters had or what obstacles might arise. And that isn’t the only reason I found it tense -- at different times, different characters are greatly at risk if discovered; there are occasions when characters are in danger of physical violence or are injured; and they have a couple of dilemmas to which there are just not easy solutions (See also: Obstacles for romance).

While I’m on the subject of the setting, although I cannot judge how accurate this portrayal of the north was, it’s portrayal of people as people was incredibly convincing. It’s a society where people have differences in personality and in circumstances. There are orphans begging in the market, people who can afford to stay in fancy hotels -- and a lot of people somewhere in between. In the military village, people have varying attitudes, tastes in clothes, privileges, standards of living, etc. Their lifestyle differs from that in Pyongyang, and also in other parts of the country. Amongst the military, some men are compassionate, some are corrupt and some are not obviously one or the other.

Moreover, it’s clear that corruption and villainy isn’t just in the north. In the south, as in the north, we see a range of humanity -- selfishness, good friends, complicated families, happy marriages, criminal behaviour, and so on.

I’ve read an article or two suggesting that the least realistic aspect is Ri Jeong Hyeok being such a sympathetic and honourable officer. I think it’s interesting that he clearly isn’t a typical captain -- he wanted a different career, he’s spent time studying overseas (in a democratic country), and, perhaps most importantly, his father’s position gives him protection from pressures many others face. He has the privilege of being able to afford to act with integrity, and of encouraging such behaviour in the men he leads.

⬦ Humour and meta: I’ve included these two together, because so much of the story’s self-awareness and intertextuality is humorous. I am very amused by so many things -- the village women’s interactions, Se-ri’s wit and banter, Jeong Hyeok’s facial expressions, the duckling's reactions, the way Ju Meok keeps comparing things to South Korean dramas:

Ju Meok: “I haven’t seen any drama characters that don’t fall in love in that situation. That’s how they all fall in love.”

(Because my knowledge of Korean drama is limited, there are a few cameos and references which I suspect would be amusing if one was in the know. The exception is the taxi driver singing, who was funny even without recognising the actor.)

I love the commentary that comes from all the moments when other characters witness the unfolding romance. Others’ reactions are often memorably hilarious -- some of my favouritest scenes fall into this category. (The customs officer! Jeong Hyeok’s dad!) They introduce humour and self-awareness into these moments, allowing the story to acknowledge “Yeah, we know these two are being ridiculous/sappy/emotional”. These moments reveal people’s attitudes towards displays of affection, particularly in the north, and their different attitudes towards Se-ri and Jeong Hyeok’s relationship.

And as their relationship changes, Se-ri and Jeong Hyeok’s awareness of being watched and commented upon changes, too.

Which leads me to…

⬦ Contrasts and parallels: So many scenes which echo/parallel earlier scenes. Most obviously, this allows the story to compare and contrast the north and south, but it also shows changes in time, differences between characters, and differences in relationships too. Sometimes all at once!

It means some plot developments weren’t totally unexpected -- it was Oh, of COURSE, we’re going to now see that character in this situation! or OBVIOUSLY we now have to see what this is like in the south!

But I thought it was really effective storytelling and I so much enjoyed spotting and analysing these moments.

⬦ Yoon Se-ri and Ri Jeong Hyeok: These two are the heart of the story and there are so many things I love about them. Like how, even though Se-ri is dependent upon Jeong Hyeok to hide and help her -- even though they’re initially hesitant about a romantic relationship -- they quickly become very protective of each other. Often to the point of willingly risking their own safety. Often to the point of exasperating the other. It’s great.

That’s not the only thing they discover they have in common. They share some interests. They’re both highly intelligent, driven, successful leaders (he’s a captain, she’s a CEO) who are very private, lonely people carrying around grief about their family and their past. Neither of them likes to reveal their emotions -- he tries to conceal his by suppressing his facial expressions and avoiding answering questions, while Se-ri hides behind play-acting.

I like watching Se-ri trying to get to know Jeong Hyeok. She isn’t deterred by his silences (unlike someone else) and she keeps the conversation going even when he doesn’t respond. She watches him closely, and says or does things to provoke a reaction. Poke, poke, poke.

And the time they spend together is really revealing. They share meals, they share a house. They see how the other responds under pressure, but also in various social and domestic situations. They see each other in a range of moods: calm, happy, grumpy, scared, tired, upset, unwell. Crash Landing takes advantage of spending sixteen episodes with these characters. Going through so many different experiences together, they learn a lot about each other -- about each other’s values, tastes and temperament -- and this means the audience gets a deeper, more nuanced understanding of who they are, too.

Se-ri and Jeong Hyeok are also well-matched in how they show they appreciate each other -- she delights in giving presents, and he is quick to notice things Se-ri might need or like.

And it’s very satisfying when they open up, or when they cry in front of each other, because you know that they don’t do this lightly or easily.

⬦ Obstacles for romance, love triangle quadrangle-tangle: I appreciate that the obstacles in this story are not contrived or fueled by needless misunderstandings. Se-ri and Jeong Hyeok have really solid, sensible reasons to be hesitant to first recognise, then admit to, and then act upon, a romantic attraction. Even once they realise that getting Se-ri home is going to take longer than they’d hoped and she’s pretending to be Jeong Hyeok’s fiancée, romance between them is still a road that leads nowhere. She isn’t safe staying in the north and he would endanger his family if he defected to the south, and they both accept that. And they’re reticent about sharing vulnerable feelings, and Jeong Hyeok is actually engaged to someone else.

But once they really open up to each other, the narrative conflict revolves around their circumstances, rather than doubts or misunderstandings they have about each other. Because the situations they face are dangerous and difficult, with no obvious or straightforward path to a happy ending, there’s quite enough tension to drive the story forward. They still have a couple of misunderstandings, but I like how they handle those, and I like that they don’t have more of them.

As for the love triangle, it doesn’t have the angst of someone torn between, or even attracted to, two people. Jeong Hyeok’s engagement has been arranged. Having feelings for someone else doesn’t change the foundation of that engagement, nor the pressure to please his family. He doesn’t love or know his fiancée -- not well enough to risk revealing Se-ri’s true identity to her. He’s honest with Se-ri and he makes an effort with Dan.

(I have a theory that, if he had been in love before, he might be quicker to recognise how some of his behaviour towards Se-ri fosters intimacy and sends her messages he doesn’t intend, but this is all new for him.)

He tries not to mislead or hurt Dan, but she’s hurt nonetheless, and I like that Crash Landing doesn’t gloss over that. It explores why she’s hurt, why she’s so reluctant to let him go and why their relationship never really worked. (Neither of them are good at communicating with each other, and I think she takes some of the things he does for her for granted, rather than recognising them as overtures and as opportunities to get to know him better.)

Dan is not just a romantic rival, nor a narrative complication, but a person whose concerns and desire are taken seriously, and who is given space to grow.

Which leads me to...

⬦ Surprising characters, thoughtfully-complicated family relationships: As mentioned, Crash Landing takes advantage of the amount of character development 16 episodes allows, and not just for its lead couple. I was surprised by how much my opinion of certain characters changed, as I came to understand them better.

The character I was most surprised by was Gu Seung-jun.

Each time I’ve watched this, I’ve liked Dan more. I have a lot of sympathy for her now. I also like her mother, even though she’s embarrassingly over the top, because she cares fiercely about her daughter and about advocating for her.

Se-ri’s dysfunctional family are more nuanced than I expected, too. In particular, I love the attention the story gives to Se-ri’s relationship with her step-mother. I was expecting Se-ri’s father to play a larger role, perhaps because he’s nominally the one with the power and influence, and at first Se-ri’s mother seems so passive. But it was really interesting to understand where she’s coming from, why her relationship with Se-ri is broken and sad. The steps the two of them take towards rebuilding their relationship are believable.

(On a related thought, I appreciate a lot of the choices this makes in addressing these women’s mental health struggles. One or two moments arguably could have been handled better, but on the whole it’s realistically optimistic, with enough detail so that we understand the seriousness -- the impact it’s had on these women’s lives.)

⬦ Camaraderie, found family and the ducklings: Se-ri doesn’t spend as much time with the village women as she does with Jeong Hyeok and his soldiers, and when she does, she’s play-acting, in order to keep her identity a secret. But I like how they nevertheless support her, and how meeting her sparks change their dynamic with each other. They grow closer and become much better at supporting each other. It’s really heartwarming.

We gave many of the characters codenames, so we could discuss them when we were still learning their names. (I was surprised by how long it took me to learn some of the characters’ names. Because so many were unfamiliar to me, they were harder to remember; I wasn’t always sure, from just reading the subtitles, how all of them were pronounced, and sometimes it was hard to separate the sound of the names from surrounding sentences, especially when, due to honorifics and titles and so on, subtitles don’t always match exactly what is being said.) Jeong Hyeok’s men are “the ducklings”, inspired by something I saw on Tumblr: Gwang Beom is “Handsome Duckling”, Ju Meok is “Drama Duckling” and Chi Su is just the sergeant.) I love how they function as a found-family, especially in contrast to Se-ri’s real family. They’re funny, loyal and caring, and in spite of their different personalities, work well together as a team. I enjoyed seeing the different relationships they have with each other, with Jeong Hyeok and Se-ri, and how some of those relationships change. And they’re so protective they are of Eun Dong!

Man Bok has an interesting arc -- I could have mentioned him under Surprising characters. I really like how he fits into this story, how he’s connected to the mystery Jeong Hyeok is investigating, how he becomes involved with the rest of the characters and has these moments when he plays a significant role. Or gets to be funny. I like the contrast and parallels too -- he’s in a different place in his life to the ducklings, and he gets opportunities to revisit past choices he regrets.

And I’m trying not to write essays about all the characters, and it’s ahhh, I have too many thoughts and feelings about them all!

⬦ Satisfyingly realistic: I like how -- one or two ridiculous fight scenes and an unrealistic paragliding scene aside -- things which happen have believable consequences. Particularly emotionally. We see men cry! A lot! And it always feels like a genuine expression of emotion, not gratuitous or overwrought. (Well, okay, there’s a very minor character who’s a bit over the top but he’s very minor.)

When one of the characters is gravely ill, she looks it, I found it oddly satisfying that she doesn’t have to be pretty all the time.

And I wasn’t sure if this belonged here or under “Visual details” but I love the attention given to Se-ri’s clothes. She cares a lot about fashion and in the north her clothing choices indicate that she cares a lot about her appearance, while making do with a limited wardrobe and still dressing for warmth. (I’m happy to handwave that she seems to have more clothes than would realistically fit in those shopping bags.) I appreciated the practical streak, and, as winter wore on here, became envious of one of her outfits.

I don’t personally like the style of Se-ri chooses for work, but it’s different it is from what she wore in the north and from what she wears at home -- her power-dressing is like a uniform or a statement of persona she projects in her working life, and not necessarily a reflection of her personal tastes.

⬦ Visual details: I love so many of the visuals. Gorgeous scenery, interesting settings and clever framing for significant scenes. The sky, a place without borders, often becomes a focus and there’s a thematically-relevant flight motif -- paragliders, birds and kites.

I did not start noticing the product placement until a rewatch, when I stopped to think about how often they went to Subway. The first time, it just seemed like a commentary on south-versus-north, and then I was just baffled-yet-amused by it all. (That sort of thing does not make me want to eat fried chicken...)

⬦ Soundtrack: The first time round, I liked the instrumental score and the presence of piano music actually in the story. As I kept rewatching, the rest of the soundtrack slowly but steadily grew on me, and I found myself liking the songs more and more.

Now I not only recognise them by name, I can recall most of them well enough to hum them and know which scenes they’re associated with. Which is a lot harder when the lyrics are in a language I don’t speak and so I can’t use them as a prompt for memory.

⬦ Flashbacks: Instead of “previously-on” segments, Crash Landing employs lots of flashbacks whenever it wants to remind the audience of something.

Sometimes, instead of just repeating part of an earlier scene, it takes the opportunity to show the same moment from different angles or from a different character’s perspective, or to juxtapose it with a different scene or to introduce new information. This was really effective. And when flashbacks were a simple repeat, I was usually happy to revisit important moments in the story (and sometimes, having a different person translating the subtitles meant there was a slightly different perspective on the dialogue).

Then there are the post-credit flashbacks, quite a few of which take places years earlier. I love how they’re puzzle pieces about the characters’ pasts and the connections between them.

⬦ The end: The first time round, after watching the penultimate episode I was so engrossed in the story and so invested in the characters that I had trouble sleeping and I went around the next day with this tight, anxious feeling, unable to get the story out of my head.

The final episode is an emotional rollercoaster. SO. MANY. FEELINGS. There’s one particular scene which packs a powerful punch -- it’s exceptionally emotional and beautifully filmed. I love it, but I’m glad we get the aftermath too.

It isn’t a perfect ending, but as I said, I don’t think there was a perfect ending was possible, not one that was both realistic and satisfying. But this comes very close. In the very final scenes, not everything is resolved or explained, and I like how that ambiguity is open to interpretation -- I like that there are some gaps for the viewer to fill in for oneself, however one prefers to imagine the characters’ lives going forward.

I know I could easily write another four thousand words about this story -- there are aspects I haven’t really discussed but this seems like a good place to stop. For now. I really like this story. I expect I’ll watch it all again soon.

#Herenya recommends things #Crash Landing on You #thoughts I have them #Yet another CLOY rewatch

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