#so all this complexity is just ramping up the tension

[ladyloveandjustice]

Winter 2024 Anime Overview: Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon)

Premise: Laios is the leader of an adventuring party, and his sister, Falin, got eaten by a dragon while sacrificing herself to save the team. Fortunately, in the dungeon they were exploring, people can be resurrected with magic. Unfortunately, if the dragon fully digests Falin, they probably can’t resurrect her. They have no time to resupply and must traverse many levels of the dungeon filled with monsters to find the dragon. Laios declares that since they can’t get food, they’ll eat the monsters in the dungeon instead-- and as a huge monster fanatic. he's unsettlingly excited about this. He’s accompanied by elf mage Marcille and hafling rogue Chilchuck in his quest, who are much more reluctant about monster-eating. They run into a dwarf, Senshi, who is an expert at cooking monsters, and the delicious race against time to save Falin begins!

...Oh what the hell, I'll say it. FINALLY, some good fucking food.

Memes aside, I love this story so much that writing a review of Delicious in Dungeon/Dungeon Meshi is daunting, because I really want to get across how great it is. But are there enough words in the English language to convey this? We can only try.

Dungeon Meshi combines cooking and adventure animanga expertly, humorously treating eating monsters with the complexity of actual recipes (and indeed, the recipes for the monsters are based off real life recipes). You can experience the warmth and contentment of sharing a meal and enjoy the way the story goes in depth about the biology of the monsters and ecology of classic RPG style dungeon. But at the same time these characters are on a classic fantasy quest and there’s lot’s of excitement as they work together overcome monsters, obstacles and their own weaknesses to save Falin.

The first thing that stands out about Dungeon Meshi is that it’s immediately entertaining and funny. A lot of humor is mined out of Marcille’s complete disgust at eating monsters (and Chilchuck’s more measured reluctance) contrasted with Laios and Senshi’s bizarre enthusiasm for it. The face game of the series is on point, especially Marcille’s.

The characters play off each other very well, have a hilarious dynamic and tons of quirks. They're immediately lovable. They're eccentric weirdos who push each other's buttons, misfits who just happen to fit together, and that's always the best.

I've seen some first time anime viewers complained about that how the early episodes are supposed to be race to save Falin, but there isn't much urgency as the characters have adventures and meals on the way. I can see that as a criticism (though it didn’t stick out to me much in the manga) but this is because we’re mostly seeing them in between the times they’re traveling, when they need downtime and mealtime. The fact that people should never neglect eating and rest if they want to succeed is a pretty important message of the show. You’ve got to let the series cook (forgive the pun). As it goes on, the urgency and tension increases ramps way up. the plot truly takes form and we see a lot of the world building from early parts pay off.

Phenomenal, intricate worldbuilding is the next big thing that stands out about Dunmeshi. Any viewers paying attention will notice it pretty quickly. Ryoko Kui doesn’t dump her complex world or her character’s detailed backstories on the viewer all at once, instead she lets it unfold bit by bit, so the viewer/reader can watch the world expand as the journey goes on, as if we are truly living this world and exploring it along with the characters.

 Everything is carefully thought out, from the structure of the societies, the cultural nuances and physiology of the different magical races, the conflicts between said races and the ways they integrate, the ecosystem and the different monsters and how they function…I could go on forever. And best of all, Dunmeshi's worldbuilding is never to the detriment of it’s incredibly rich story and characters, all of which are also developed wonderfully.

After all, Dugeon Meshi isn’t simply a story about making food and eating monsters—it’s about the ways we consume and ARE consumed, it’s about the endless cycle of life and death and the pain of struggling against that cycle. It’s about the endless hunger that drives us all and the ways we try to fill ourselves up. It’s about the ways we can find both solace and terror in the monstrous, about our struggle to accept not just monsters, but anyone who's different from us. It’s not just about natural ecosystems, but social and societal ecosystems and the ways they both hurt and help us. It’s about all the things that make good meal, one that can draw people together and help us find essential humanity that connects us.

These strong themes are all expressed through the world and the journeys of the characters. And god, do I love these characters.

Even from the start, the characters overturn RPG/fantasy archetypes. (We have an elf who’s not that into nature and dwarf who LOVES nature and doesn’t like blacksmithing)… but the most special thing about these characters is how they deepen, becoming more and more complex and fascinating as the series unfolds. None of them are quite who you think they are while also being exactly how they appear.

Marcille is one of my favorite characters in anything ever. She’s just an absolute disaster, while also being terrifyingly powerful. She’s a magic honors student who buried herself in theory but doesn’t have a lot of experience with the real world and gets upset it doesn’t work like school (I feel that). Her pride and generally high strung nature can lead to blunders that make her very funny to watch. She’s a total nerd in a way that’s so relatable, she has intelligence in spades, but not a lot of wisdom.

 But on the other hand, she’s an aching wounded soul who’s struggling under the surface, dealing with grief and loss constantly. She's obsessed with control in a world that uncontrollable. She’s incredibly driven and unnervingly dedicated to her goals. She’s also scarily devoted to the people she loves and will cross any moral line, break any taboo, and cover herself in blood and sin to save them. She refuses to let silly things like “laws” and “rules” stifle her research or get in her way .And while she's a neat freak who's grossed out by monsters, she's the first person to dive into the blood and guts and horror when shit gets real.

The contrast between her being a sweet, silly, dorky lovable nerd who flails around and being a powerful badass who has complex motivations, an intricate arc, and sometimes questionable morals is so great. Get you a girl who can do both. She's basically everything I love in a character.

Marcille’s love for Falin and infinite devotion is also key to the story, and it’s so refreshing to see a well-written relationship between women be so central to a fantasy anime like this. And yes, by love for Falin, I mean in a gay way. It’s not technically canon (Dunmeshi is not into confirming romantic relationships for any of it’s characters really) but it’s hard to interpret their relationship as anything else, and honestly it’s one of the best wlw ships I’ve seen in a while. It’s got everything, the softness, the sweet and sensual intimacy, the angst, the tragedy, the raw unbearable yearning, tearing the world apart and defying even the laws of nature for her, crawling through hell and soaking your hands in blood and not letting anything get in your way...yeah, it’s good.

While Marcille is my #1, all the characters in this story are fantastic and I love them all. They all have incredible depth and similarly complex backstories and arcs, and are all fun to watch. For instance, Laios may look like generic human fighter but he’s just the weirdest dude, a wonderfully unhinged man who absolutely has a monstersona. But then we also discover he's someone who struggles socially in a way that many neurodivergent people can relate to, who had a troubled childhood, who grapples with survivor’s guilt, and who, like Marcille, would do anything for his sister and the people he cares about. Chilchuck and Senshi and Falin and all the others the same, really interesting characters who deepen and grow. Everyone's relationships also develop wonderfully.

And on top of all that, it's a show with really well-realized and well-written female characters…who even have diverse body types! We have stocky dwarf ladies with muscles! Huge orc and oni women! They’re allowed to be messy and complicated, badass and vulnerable, and that’s definitely a part of my affection for the series. (and famously, most of the fanservice of the series is focused on Senshi’s endless pant shots (loincloth, if we’re being specific)) and while there are moments with the female characters that make me fan myself, it’s not the obnoxious anime unsexy bullshit way that treats women like objects.

And specifically for the anime, Trigger is doing great work with it. There’s so much cool and vivid animation. There are some small moments from the manga that I really miss and wish they had kept, but it’s been a largely faithful adaptation that understands what makes the story great, and I can’t ask for much more. The English simuldub is also genuinely good with all of the VA’s turning in great performances (and Prozd plays Senshi!)

Dungeon Meshi is honestly one to the best stories in recent years, and it’s easy to let it take over your brain. So come along with me and enjoy the funny jokes, the splendid storytelling, the endearing and endlessly fascinating characters and the delectable world. You don’t want to miss out on this delicious meal.

[tlbodine]

Hello, I'm a bit new to writing gore and horror and I was wondering if you have any tips on how I can keep a reader interested on the horror and all with out boring them or over killing it?

Hi Nonny! Welcome to the dark side :)

There are a couple of things to keep in mind that will help set you up for success as you embark on the quest of horrifying a reader (while holding their attention).

1 - Characters

Readers are only going to be invested in the story's outcome if they're a.) interested in your characters, b.) intrigued by the premise or c.) both. So do yourself a favor and spend some time making characters people will want to follow.

The characters in question do not need to be "likeable" or sympathetic but they do need to be interesting. The reader should either like them enough that they're worried about seeing them in danger, or find them despicable enough that it'll be fun to watch them be dismembered, or be original and strange enough that they want to stick around and understand them.

It helps, imo, if you can tie the current action to a past trauma in a character's life. It gives them a bit of depth and raises the stakes of the story.

2 - Pacing

Ideally, you'll want to alternate your pacing so that some sections are sped up and some are slowed down. you'll manage this through manipulating your paragraph and sentence lengths and the amount of white space on the page as well as how many words you spend describing things and what level of detail you go into. If everything is the same pace it's monotonous.

Pay attention to the overall shape of the story, too, even if it's seemingly pretty repetitive. If you're doing a torture story, for example, the torture should a.) become more sadistic and involved as the story wears on and b.) reveal more complexity about the characters. The torture and gore can't just exist to be gross. It has to help reveal new information or change the dynamic of the characters in some way, so that the overall shape of the story's conflict is rising action and bigger stakes.

This is true whether the danger is torture or a ghost haunting or a killer picking people off or a monster chasing you in the woods. The tension should ramp up, and the pacing should ebb and flow a bit so that there's some down time to process what just happened, let characters breathe a bit, maybe inject some humor to break up the tension, then back to the next, bigger thing.

It's honestly not much different from the way a relationship develops in a romance, if you think about it.

3 - Novelty

With gore, you want to show people something they haven't seen before. If you're going to spend time on it, you owe it to yourself and your reader to describe it in a unique way or make the cause of death/gore unique. This is not the place for cliches. Especially in slasher type fiction, people want to see innovative, creative deaths and stuff they've never thought of before. So even if you have to write something basic at first, go back through and make stuff interesting. I'm not saying it has to be 100% original never done before, but it has to have a fresh spin or be described in a new way or something. When this is done well, it becomes The Thing that people remember about a story. The hobbling in Misery. The bamboo skewers under the fingernails in Imprint. The blender in You're Next.

Hope that helps! Thanks for the question!

[mariacallous]

As Israel reeled in the wake of Hamas’s violent rampage 10 days ago and Palestinians in Gaza braced under retaliatory airstrikes, Russian President Vladimir Putin knew just who to blame: the United States. Three days after Hamas militants breached the fortified border with Israel, the Russian leader offered his first remarks on the explosion of violence in the Middle East.

“This is a vivid example of the failure of United States policy in the Middle East,” he said during a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani. Dmitry Medvedev, the increasingly caustic former Russian president, had earlier chimed in to decry the United States’ “manic obsession to incite conflicts” around the world, and Russian state TV loyally followed its cue in broadcasts that followed.

Russia may not have had any hand in or even foreknowledge of Hamas’s surprise attack that has cost 1,400 Israeli lives and about 200 hostages so far, but the country’s opportunistic president spies an opening amid the chaos that has ensued. The Israel-Hamas war has, after 600 days of fruitless fighting in Ukraine, given Moscow a priceless opportunity to turn the West’s eyes elsewhere, as well as a poisoned-chalice chance to reshape its entire approach to the Middle East.

“Putin benefits from global chaos. His goal remains the destruction of the current international system,” said Anna Borshchevskaya, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

For the Kremlin, the first and most immediate fruits of the renewed war in the Middle East are found far away—on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine and on Capitol Hill in Washington. While Israel was fending off a surprise attack, reorganizing its scattered troops, and preparing a devastating counterblow to crush Hamas, Moscow launched a hugely ambitious, if costly, 10-day attack to retake territory around Avdiivka, in the Donbas region of Ukraine. What two weeks ago would have snared the world’s attention has now struggled to make headlines, thanks to the turmoil in southern Israel.

“They might exploit it because it will distract from Ukraine,” Adm. Rob Bauer, NATO’s senior military officer, said in an interview at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters last week.

The longer-term gain could come in Washington. The Israel-Hamas war has suddenly shrunk the bandwidth of even the majority of legislators who had long supported U.S. aid for Ukraine’s fight for national survival; the need to rush aid to Israel has put immediate assistance to Kyiv in some doubt. Even pro-Ukraine lawmakers such as Rep. Don Bacon urge prioritizing deliveries of arms to Israel, precisely as the Biden administration seeks to link funding for all U.S. defense priorities in one big omnibus.

If there were tensions before over the U.S. ability to bolster Ukraine while ramping up support for Taiwan, those have only been heightened by the threat to a country that is politically near and dear to much of Washington. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, no less than U.S. President Joe Biden himself, was lambasted by conservatives for suggesting that the United States could continue to fund multiple wars. For the Kremlin, those are sweet chirpings.

What is more complicated is Russia’s position in the Middle East. For years, Moscow has been skilled at working with all parties in the region, including archrivals such as Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hamas. Russia has managed to cozy up to Cyprus while courting Turkey, even while it moved closer to Egypt, and it supported Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad. Amid the complex web of alliances and enmities in the Middle East, Russia has distinguished itself in its ability to work with all sides by making itself indispensable to various players in the region.

“The idea is you don’t side with one against the other, you play one off against the other,” said Mark Katz, a professor at George Mason University and an expert on Russia’s foreign policy.

It’s a policy that dates back to the tsarist era, Katz said, but one that might be about to change.

“Look at how Russia did not directly condemn Hamas at the U.N. Security Council—it signals clearly [Putin’s] preference for anti-American forces even as he is trying to balance,” Borshchevskaya said.

The first tripwire for Russia in the region may be its growing reliance on Iran for drones to be used on the battlefield in Ukraine—even as Tehran, a longtime backer of both Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, lurches closer to playing an active role in the widening conflict.

A limited conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza would likely come as a welcome distraction for the Kremlin. But a wider war between Israel and another Iran-backed proxy could raise the stakes of Moscow’s balancing act, forcing it to come down more on Tehran’s side, said Hanna Notte, the Eurasia director for the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. “I’m not sure that’s something that Russia really wants,” she said.

While Moscow may seek to offer its services as a mediator, experts are skeptical that the Kremlin had a realistic role to play in any prospective talks. Until last year, a few bright spots of collaboration remained in the Middle East between Moscow and the West as Russian diplomats worked assiduously with the United States to help preserve and revive the Iran nuclear deal. That all changed following the invasion of Ukraine, and countering the U.S. has become the near-singular preoccupation of Russian foreign policy.

“You see this zero-sum logic playing out,” Notte said.

[spookyserenades]

hello just wanted to let you know that I literally love Trouvaille so much. I adore how complex each of the characters are, it's impressive how I can easily tell which character is which even without their names just based on the way they act. Each character is so fleshed out and intriguing, which is double impressive considering your balancing 8 major characters who are regularly in the same scenes.

I also really like the romance/relationship writing for this fic. It's a slower burn, but has its occasional high tension/spicy moments that make it far from boring. It's interesting to be honest because I feel like hybrid fics have such a fine line between being cringe worthy with characters that are too cutesy and being enjoyable with mature characters. It makes them weirdly difficult to write for, but I think you do very well. (And honestly having mature characters just makes any fluffy moments so much better I think).

I appreciate reading a fanfic that is so plot driven because it makes the relationships aspect so much better and substantial. (Also, just my opinion, but just romance gets a little boring, so having other stuff to balance it out really just adds so much to the story.) On a similar note, I think all the plots are balanced very well here. I'll admit I was excited when I first saw this fic because I hadn't seen this kind of trope/plot mixing before. But I was looking for a good supernatural/horror fic and this was perfect lol.

Also, the undercurrents of the supernatural and paranormal for a creepy subplot are literally perfect. You have a great grasp of imagery and writer's brain that's able to make even minor events creepy. The scene with the ghost in the mirror literally was so perfectly scary. I actually checked over my shoulder a few times and turned on the lights in my room so I wasn't in the dark anymore.

Anyways I just really like your writing lol and I hope to read all you're willing to share here. (But if you ever start writing professionally- you should totally let me know----).

💚💙💜

Hello my love!! Oh my goodness... you've made my week with this message 😭💖!! It brings me so much joy that you're enjoying Trouvaille and have sent me so much love in response 💜

Thank you so much for loving all of the main characters so far, each of the boys and the MC herself have a lot going on with their backstories and personalities! It can be challenging to balance many characters in stories like this, but I'm really happy that you think they're fleshed out and distinguishable, thank you thank you!!

Ahh and their relationships so far with each other!! Trouvaille is quite a slow burn with romance, but I definitely want to add those occasional fluffy or spicy moments here and there until the romance becomes more pronounced. Hybrid fics are all unique, but a common thread I see a lot is hybrids being affectionate/clingy, which is something that I also want to build up over time! I'm so excited to keep dialing up the skin ship and slowly develop these relationships over time, hopefully as naturally and realistically as I can!

EEE so I'm such a fan of spooky/paranormal media, so I am also always on the hunt for fics with these kinds of themes! I really wanted to write something a little eerier when I started drafting Trouvaille a year ago, and I'm super excited to ramp up the spookiness in future updates. In particular, the October update will definitely have some haunted happenings, so I'm stoked for that! But I'm really so so happy you're loving the plot, frights and all, so far! 💓

fhsakhf I'm sorry for spooking you with that old hag ghost scene!! But also, it was a blast to write, and if you're like me-- it was deliciously exciting to read! I wonder if that spirit in particular will make a comeback... 🤔 this time, I think, MC will be more prepared!

Again thank you so so much for all of your kind words and this sweet message. I'm truly grateful for your support, and even more so that I can share Trouvaille with you! If I ever start writing professionally, you will be the first to know! Wishing you a wonderful weekend, love! 🥰💗

[kamreadsandrecs]

Title: The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation #6) Author: Lauren Willig Genres: romance, historical, Regency romance, thriller Content/Trigger Warnings: murder, snakes, adultery, period-accurate misogyny, racism, neglect Summary (from publisher’s website): Whisked away to nineteenth-century India, Penelope Deveraux plunges into the court intrigues of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where no one is quite what they seem. New to this strange and exotic country- where a dangerous spy called the Marigold leaves venomous cobras as his calling card-she can trust only one man: Captain Alex Reid. With danger looming from local warlords, treacherous court officials, and French spies, Alex and Penelope may be all that stand in the way of a plot designed to rock the very foundations of the British Empire… Buy Here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-betrayal-of-the-blood-lily-lauren-willig/11103225 Spoiler-Free Review: Well, this feels complicated! So I want to say off the bat that I was a little worried going into this - more worried than I was when I first read it, mostly because of the setting: India. And during this time, India was being colonized by European powers, with the British winning out in the long run. Given how colonization absolutely fucked India up on several levels, I was concerned about how the political and social situation of India would be portrayed, as well as how any Indian characters would be depicted. And I will say: some of it I think was done okay, but some of it was not. In terms of the political situation, I think those were handled fairly okay, in the sense that the struggle of the Indian city-states against the machinations of both the British and the French to bring more of the subcontinent under their control was touched upon, but it wasn’t something that the novel went into with a lot of depth, sticking only to tightly-controlled specifics that were pertinent to the plot and the specific moment in history that the story was taking place in. That was fair, in my opinion: the author had a specific plot in mind, and used aspects of the history that would work for that plot, without getting bogged down in too many details - details that, I think, they might not be best placed to talk about, given that they are a white American and some things are just better told by Indian writers and historians. This whole situation therefore brought a certain depth the overall plot, which I appreciated because it also upped the stakes significantly. Prior to this book the plots had been rather simplistic; things had been ramping up starting in the fourth book, but this is the first one in the series that REALLY feels like a proper spy thriller. The complex, tangled loyalties of the characters and the equally complex and tangled relations between the Hindu Maratha leaders (Mahratta in the book), the Muslim Nizam of Hyderabad, and the colonizer British and French forces, all make for some fantastic moments of tension and intrigue throughout the book. I was, however, disappointed in the way certain Indian characters were used. One character felt like all he was meant to do was function as the “native guide/friend” to Alex, the white male protagonist, and I wish said character had gotten a bit more depth to them than they got. I also wish that some of the more prominent Indian female historical figures had gotten some airtime - in particular, Khair-un-Nissa, wife of James Kirkpatrick. I guess her not appearing was the author’s way of making sure they didn’t muck up their portrayal of her, but given that the famous poet and courtesan Mah Laqa Bai puts in an appearance (and one that is pretty well-done in my opinion), I think it wouldn’t have been too terrible to have Khair-un-Nissa make an appearance, however, brief. After all, there are chunks of the story that takes place in the Residency, and the whole point of sending Frederick and Penelope to Hyderabad in the first place was because Wellesley strongly disapproved of Kirkpatrick’s marriage to her. As for the romance between Penelope and Alex, I REALLY enjoyed that as well, because they are both fascinating characters. In Alex’s case, his complicated relationship to his father and brother Jack, as well as his own principles and ideologies, make navigating the political landscape of the novel’s setting rather difficult for him, but interesting for the reader. It’s also through his past that we get a glimpse of the racism that was prevalent during the period, given that some of his half-siblings were themselves half-Indian and therefore suffered discrimination.  And then there is Penelope. She’s loud, she’s brazen, she’s rebellious, she doesn’t think too much about consequences before getting into something. She is, in short, the ultimate Bad Girl, in the way that Regency women and even 21st century woman would recognize. But it also becomes very clear, fairly early on in this novel, that Penelope’s rebellious and frankly self-destructive and self-sabotaging tendencies spring from a deep well of trauma that goes all the way back to her family. I felt deeply for her while I was reading, even as I felt a deep urge to shake her too. But that just made her even more fun to read about I think. Anyway, this was definitely an uptick in terms of quality of the books overall, sliding into some genuinely dangerous territory for once, and while the Indian colonization aspect was handled fairly well for the most part, I still think that it could have been rounded out a bit more. Rating: four blood lilies

[yourfavouritetasha]

Long Way To A Small Angry Planet (and its sequels if you like it) by Becky Chambers - Incredibly rich and affirming sci-fi, concerned less with "ooh space" and more with the deep and complex connections and navigations between fundamentally different peoples and cultures.

The Scholomance (and its sequels if you like it) by Naomi Novak - Classic premise of 'wizards have to go to magic school' except the wizard in question is basically a Doom Witch and the school is a fucking murder house. Interesting premise explored well, it's fun having a bitter introspective protagonist, I like her a lot.

Gideon The Ninth (...and its sequels if you like it) by Tamsyn Muir - The short pitch is enemies to ??? in sci-fi with necromancy. My pitch is that Gideon is the most enjoyable protagonist I've ever read in a book. The 1st book is from her POV and it is such a fucking joy experiencing a really dense, macabre, and quite scary world, but through the eyes of (basically) a big butch himbo. Full of jokes, a murder mystery, and just a lot of old school Gothic Tension, smashed into "but I raise skeletons and travel space." Book 1 is magnetic, book 2 (Harrow The Ninth) is actually, deliberately difficult and confusing to read which might put some people off but I like how Tamsyn plays with the form and the reader. And book three (Nona The Ninth) wins the prize for Most Wholesome (and ignorant) Protagonist Of All Time.

Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt - The best book I've read in years. A fucked horror story that is extremely fucking English and extremely about transphobia and English terfism. The setting of this book could not be mistaken for anywhere else. Unsettling, painful, scary, and at it's culmination, overwhelming. Fuck it's so good. It's so good. If you think you can engage with Spooky Transphobia, read it.

Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt - Alison getting a double posting here. Not a sequel to the first book at all, and in many ways considerably bleaker. Still absolutely about England, still absolutely about transphobia (and classism). This one ramps up the grossness and will absolutely ick you out at points (it's great). Also contains a famous British author and massive transphobe who DEFINITELY ISN'T JK ROWLING

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke - What if you spun magic through the setting and language of a historical empire book? That's the premise here and Susanna fucking nails it. The tone and culture and writing are all so of an era, all big moustaches and fears about The French, all serving as a backdrop for one of the most interesting rivalries I've seen play out in a book. (also holy shit this book came out 20 years ago now that's CRAZY to me). ALSO. Contains the single most terrifying depiction of elves I've ever encountered.

Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala - Non-fiction. Akala is hands down one of the most important figures in examining class & race in England today (imo). Also his music will fuck you up. This book does what it says on the tin, examines race and class in England, as England continues to pretend it's an empire. Importantly, this book is fucking angry.

Debt: The First 5,000 Years - by David Graeber - Phenomenal non-fiction book by an anthropologist, examining, well, debt, and how it shapes literally everything in our current world. It's not an uplifting read, but it's well written, covers and examines the subject really well, and will quite probably teach you a lot/give you things to consider. (Notably; that the system sucks and should be destroyed).

Okay imma stop there! I've realised now that there's a strong focus on books that are either about, or set in, England here. Most of them not flattering. Oh well! Enjoy 💚

Oooooh, I have most of these on a list, I think we talked about some of them, thank you for reminding me! ❤️

And I don't mind, dunno if I ever told you or anyone on here, but one of my main focuses of my research is Alan Turing, work and life, I know England's deep and nasty secrets

(and since I studied general history and loved deep and nasty secrets, no country is safe 😂)

[spiltcandycoatedpunkblood]

more on your turn table au, [grabby hands] hand the angst over

you're in luck, I've got a whole bunch more already, i was about to post but i go hype for asks so i'M READY. it's all coming together nicely. asks really get me going too, so this is perfect

- it gets to a point where the rest of the crew apart from Mac are assimilated. before, some of the crew were in protest and doubting themselves even before the first argument, but they were still doubting when it happened and either go along (pretty much involuntarily, through fear) or get turned soon after

- the crew don't just end up making accusations based on him being a Thing, they bring up dirt on him as a person just to make the whole thing worse, especially the whole idea that he's putting on this front, probs thinking he's better than people and thinking he can just tell them what to do (the turn tables indeed); it also ends up making him sound less convincing when he tries to argue back and they make his reaction as proof that he's both a) not worth it and not good enough and b) a Thing so clearly he's not trustworthy even to begin with

- even throughout some of the crew start to question but manage to hide this for fear of who could be a Thing, but unfortunately it's not easy and they get forcibly assimilated as a result

- even though you can't always tell who's a Thing without proper tests, it sucks that Mac has seen proof of the crew being Things and that he's been accused by potential things of something he's not and his own crew are being potentially dragged into securing his own demise because he's the main guy, he keeps on top of things and his own emotions to keep the peace. if he falls apart or if he gets killed, shit's gonna go wild and they can take over the base and go from Antarctica

- the guy who sabotaged his helicopter?? totally Blair. thought that would be a cool parallel from the film, besides the fact that we don't know when he got assimilated and what his destruction of the base was about

- when he does discover his helicopter's been sabotaged, they're clearly waiting for him as he moves away from it and they do it in a very dystopian like way, like, "it'd be better if you weren't able to do that, we don't know who or what you are" and "we're doing this for the best" and though he's like "bullshit, no you ain't", inside he's like "they can't trust me and I don't know who they are, what the fuck do I do" and the distrust and paranoia just makes leaps and bounds from there

- he can't tell who, if any, of the crew are not Things, and he has a feeling to appeal to one of them but he's not sure if a) they're a Thing clearly there to trap him, b) a human being manipulated and not able to help him because they'll get done over too or c) a human clearly manipulating him to get him trapped by the Things themselves

- obviously none of them can tell who the Things are, but none of them are willing to take risks to bypass their decision to kill Mac since they'll probably get done over whether that be because they'll be accused of being a Thing or colluding with Mac and therefore not on their side (the whole 'us v them' mentality)

- the whole scene with the dynamite?? almost happens, but they get to it before him and dispose of it, mocking and making threats about how if he doesn't go with them, but he manages to lock himself in the storage area in the process and has to figure out a way of defending himself before they break the door down because clearly he's fucked out in the snow without his helicopter

- it's obvious he doesn't want to go quietly so frankly they corner him at one point, or surprise and knock him the hell out, either way, because Things are bastards and will weaponise anything, even your friends against you, to take over the base, and we get this nice swap where he's the one restrained to the couch this time, and he has to bank on someone being human enough or even someone who's a Thing to find a window of opportunity to appeal to before the worst comes to the worst

- although they decide to test his blood, regardless, it gets to a point where the tables are turned yet again and they're going to kill him anyway because he's just that much of a threat and no one's gonna be able to fend them off now as they take over the base, especially it now being harder to tell who's a Thing and who's not, and frankly it was neat that they could turn the tables and make him understand whilst he couldn't do shit

- Mac is hoping to find most appeal in Windows (besides the fact I ship them, there's clearly that bond between them) although he fears the worst knowing his anxious disposition and the idea that the Things would find it easier to tell where he really stood and that his connection to Mac would make him a threat and saw him as easily disposable (and potentially able to be a manipulator that way due to Mac's tenuous but still clear appeal to him for help)

yoooo, I'm really liking where this is going!! I'm so glad I could throw some more angst at you concerning it. that's pretty much it for the moment, though it's obviously already a lot. I loved doing this, thank you so much!!

[funfunfuntillmydaddy]

Few things are better in life than the feeling of a bare cock cumming in my pussy.

Of course some guys are a bit shy when it comes to sex and fucking a girl bareback. While not common for me, especially when I’m enticing them to cheat on their girlfriends with me, every once in a while a guy insists.

And that’s what happened with Eric. Eric was one of my ‘friends’ boyfriend. They had been together for ages. He was cute but a bit shy and a bit geeky. But he had all the right attributes for me, a cute face and big hands.

What also made him adorable was how loyal he was to Hannah. My flirting can be both persistent and pretty obvious. After over a year of trying to get his attention and have some fun with him.

I was almost going to give up until one night I found myself out with a bunch of our friends including him, but not Hannah. We had started early in a bar and it had all the hallmarks of one of those marathon, multi venue nights. I locked my sights on him and made sure the guys around him kept him well lubricated with alcohol

Luckily I had dressed for the occasion with a short leather skirt and a tight white top that was just a little see thru to my lace bra.

When darkness hit and we ended up in a dance club I started my campaign in earnest. Being the shy type that he was, dancing wasn’t too much his thing. So I had to drag him on to the floor along with some others in the group.

I’m of course I woman of restraint and patience so I didn’t launch straight into the bump and grind. But I did dance with him and around him so he could get used to it. His nervousness was palpable.

Fast forward a few hours, a few venues and quite a few drinks and we ended up in one of those clubs oozing sex and all sorts of natural and synthetic chemicals. We had lost quite a few from the group. But the hardcore remained. Eric and I had become one night drunken soulmates as we took turns helping each other navigate the treacherous drunken journeys faced by any seriously intrepid bar hopper.

And now the dancing was not restrained at all. We were not just touching, we were pressed into each other. His hands were glued to my hips as I pressed one way, when spun around and pressed back into him the other. I could feel his excitement. I could feel his stiff cock. We went on and on. The dancing getting more intense and his poor balls getting bluer.

When the last ones in our group called it a night and it was just us, I decided it was time to take this to the next level. I told him we should go. He was a little surprised it was so late and it was just us. So I said we should catch one cab and since I was closer, he could drop me off first and then head home. Of course that not what I actually thought.

We found a conveniently dodgy looking taxi and climbed in. As we set off, I gave the driver a flirty look and asked if he could turn the music up. He looked back at me and grinning turned up the dance station he had on.

I told Eric that I still felt like dancing and kinda wished we were back in the club. As soon as he nodded in agreement, I shuffled over to him before I moved up and sat on his lap. I moaned softly as I felt his semi hard cock under me. Then I squirmed to the music as I rubbed myself over his lap. Similar to the club but just with some different geometry.

I saw the taxi drivers eyes in the rear view mirror and I smiled to myself. Unfortunately, of course, the change in position caused my short skirt to ride up. But not quite fully. So I helped it along with some subtle sweeps of my hands. Suddenly my skirt was totally on my hips. My ass framed by a black lace thong on display for Eric.

My face turned on an even more wicked smirk when I felt Eric’s hands move to my hips and then down to my sides, touching at least some my bare ass cheeks.

We continued for another few blocks till we got to my apartment. Now it was crunch time. I told him this area was a bit dodgy and would he mind seeing me to the door. Or he could come up and sleep on the couch if he didn’t wanna waste money on taking the cab across town, reminding him Hannah was out of state with her family.

He was all hesitant and nervous. So sweet but he couldn’t not walk with me the short distance so he went to get out and I quickly gave the driver$20 and as Eric was out the door, told him to scram. He just laughed as I got myself out and repositioned my skirt.

As we walked the short distance through the front of the building, the taxi screamed off as the driver tooted his horn. I smirked at Eric as I said it looked like he was staying here now. Of course I had no intention of him sleeping on my couch. So I decided to ramp it all up right from there.

As we stood at the entrance of my building I leaned in to him and grabbed the front of his shirt pulling him down to me as I gave him a hard kiss. He pulled back slightly but then o could feel his urges take over as he leaned in. I let my tongue dance in his mouth as the sloppy and slutty kissing continued.

After a good moment or two of this, I broke away before taking his hand and pulling him into the mid sized apartment complex. As we waited for the lift and the kissing continued. The size and layout of the complex meant it was unusual to run into other people especially at this time of night. So with the assumption of privacy I gave him a big grin as the doors closed. We only had 9 floors to go but I still managed to get to my knees and unbuckle his jeans, pull his cock from his underwear and start sucking before the doors opened.

He tried to pull away at first but was already against the wall. By the time the doors were opening though, his hands were on the back of my head, encouraging his cock into my mouth. With no urgency at all as the lift shows no sign of moving I kept sucking his cock. But then the doors closed and the lift travelled back down. As it slowed I hurriedly put his cock away while I stood up and fixed myself up.

The doors opened and a couple walked in, surprised to see us there. I smiled back at them as I pressed back into Eric. Subtext reaching behind to feel his hardness. Through his still unbuckled jeans. This time we did get out on the 9th floor as our fellow travellers continued on.

I spun around and laughed as I lead Eric to my apartment. Eric’s face looked embarrassed but he showed no sign of retreat. So I continued my assault on his morals and I lifted up my skirt again so it was back over my hips. Then as I got to my door I reached behind me and pulled him into me. I grinded back into him, unlocking the door with one hand and and pulling his cock back out with the other.

We tumbled through the door into the small apartment. The couch was right in front of us. I turned to him and offered him the couch and then after a silent pause and a wicked grin, I offered an alternative.

Adorably, he told me the couch was fine. But I just smirked as I leaned back into him and meet his mouth as we kissed. I whispered into his ear that his cock is going feel so good when it’s in my pussy. He let out an groan and then I grabbed his hand and led him to my bedroom.

Once in there I pulled his jeans all the way down, pulling his boots off and helping him out of his jeans. Then I lifted the shirt up to help him remove it. Now he was completely naked and I admired his toned body with better muscle definition than I was expecting and a nice hard cock pointing out in front.

I feel back on the bed and gave him a wink as I pulled my thong to the side. That when he killed the mood and asked if I had a condom.

That’s killed the mood in the past, but I was committed to having fun with Eric so I took it in my stride. I told him he didn’t have to cause I was on the pill but like a good little boy he insisted.

So I went into my bathroom and returned with a condom. It wasn’t something I used that often. In fact this one had expired and was also a medium sized which I didn’t think was gonna work for him. Of course, I had a pack of large ones that were brand new in my cabinet, but Eric didn’t need to know that.

I sat on the bed in front of him as I removed the condom from the wrapper and placed it over his stiff cock. I struggled to get the condom stretched over his impressive size and I could tell it was already dry and brittle. But I managed to get it two thirds of the way over his cock.

Once I begrudgingly wrapped it up I pulled him on to the bed and on his back. I straddled him and lined up my dripping pussy with the head of his cock. I lock eyes with him as I lower myself down onto him. Both of us moan as the tension of the night now focuses on his cock and my pussy. I lift up and then push down. I keep going, quickening the pace and increasing the intensity.

I keep going harder to the point where the bed starts to creak and groan. Eric’s hands make their way to my breast through my top. I pull it off to let him have a more sensory experience as I keep fucking him. He pulls my bra down exposing my breasts allowing him to aggressively fondle them.

Our combined moaning continues to crescendo as I keep fucking him. Every once and a while checking the condom to see if it has given up yet. Alas, it holds on.

Eric is getting more and more into it now. Being very active in the fucking as he thrusts his hips up to meet me. I can feel him trying to reposition himself. So I pause my assault briefly.

He moves out from under me and roughly pushes me on my back. He quickly gets in between me and puts my ankles over his shoulders. He drives his cock deep inside me and instantly restarts the hard fucking in our new position. He keeps going and going. Now his assault on my pussy becomes relentless.

His stamina holds and his nice big cock gets me close to cumming. I’m moaning in ecstasy. As he slams into me as hard as ever, I feel something different. I move my hand to the base of his cock as it slams into me to confirm. Sure enough a broken condom is now bunched up at the base of his cock. It rubs against my lips as he drives his bare cock into me. A broad smile comes across my face as a guttural moan escapes me.

I look my legs around his waist keeping him against me. I tell him that I think the condom has broke but that I’m so close to cumming I plead with him to keep going.

I see the flash of fear on his face as I tell him. He slows briefly but my pleads and moans convince him to keep going. I’m so close to cumming but need a bit more from him. My breathing is so ragged and my moaning intense. I can sense he is close to. I squeeze my pelvic muscles as much as possible to clamp his cock. He starts grunting and I feel his cock swell. I plead with him to keep fucking me and he does, with more intensity than ever. He grunts and groans loudly. We are both totally entranced.

I scream obscenities as I go over the edge. Then i feel him slam deep inside me and hold it there. My orgasm floods my body as I feel him empty himself directly into my unprotected pussy. I look at his face and smile as I see the annalistic pleasure travel through him.

We hold it there for a few moments before he pulls out and collapses next to me.

........

As the light comes into my room, I slowly open my eyes. It must be mid morning. I feel Eric spooning me and I feel his cock pressing into my ass. I’m still wearing my skirt around my hubs and my bra only slightly higher up around my waist.

I get up trying not to disturb him and go and have a shower.

I’m a little bit nervous about what his more sober and stress relieved attitude will be. I decide a cooked breakfast might help him process it and recover. So I put on a short bath robe and go to the kitchen to make breakfast.

A short while later he emerges from the bedroom wearing his boxer shorts, looking sheepish. I smile at him and tell him I’ve got some bacon on the go. He walks over and stands behind me telling me how good it smells. Then he presses his body into mine.

20 seconds later he has me bent over the kitchen bench. His bare cock driving into my unprotected pussy. I smile to myself through my moaning and groaning

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL

May 2021 Wk 3

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

It’s a cray cray Friday when Vietnam gets its eng subs up before GMMTV Thailand. What alter-reality are we in? Well, the Vietnamese offerings are better right now anyway. (Oooo, feel that burn.) 

Ongoing Series - Thai

Top Secret Together Ep 2 - pulping it up in the best possible way. Sure sound and production values are pants, and in classic Thai fashion the editing in post is exacerbating (rather than fixing) pacing issues, but it’s still CUTE AF. I don’t even mind the added university storyline, because they’ve got good chemistry (and a confident gay fresher after a panicked gay hazer is an old favorite... what can I say, SOTUS was my first love). We aren’t spending too much time with any one couple, so it’s weighted a lot better than Brothers was, but also character development is slow. 

Siew Sum Noi Ep 2 - Unfortunately, it’s just too hard to find, plus no subs. I’m dropping it in the hopes it comes back on my radar some day. 

Y-Destiny Ep 8 - (Thurs) It’s rough having a ghost boyfriend, half your friends are scared, the other half think you’re crazy, and kissing shortens your lifespan. This was a cute couple even if I wasn’t wild about the surrounding story. 

Close Friend Ep 5: (Dear My Star/JimmyTommy) - about high school penpals. It had to rely entirely on voice over work as the actors only meet face to face at the end. It’s a good thing they are appealing screen presences on their own, with good vocal control. It’s hard to imagine any other BL pair carrying this kinda plot. It’s by far my favorite of the series so far, and I’m not even a big JimmyTommy fan. 

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 7 - no subs. Do we care? Not really. Because we have... 

Nitiman Ep 3 - currently my favorite out of Thailand. It’s the university Thai BL i’ve been waiting for since... when was the last good one? My Engineer? Yowza. Anyway we got: head on my shoulder, baby is a floppy drunk (but still wants to be in control), proximity alert, boyfriend’s closet, seme gets seriously jelly, and a cute twist on feeding him. There’s something fun and complex about Jin’s character. He’s not a panicked bi. He knows exactly what’s going on, he just hasn’t decided if he wants Bb or not. He clearly enjoys being looked after, the compliments, and the attention, but he’s not sure if he’s going to like what happens if he gives in. I like that twist on the usual tsundere uke archetype a lot, cautious rather than willfully obtuse or freaked out. We can see Jin realizing in stages: I like this person, I like that they like me, I like the romantic attentiveness. But in the background is... do I actually want to f*k him? It’s a dynamic we don’t often see on BL. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 10 fin - the most ridiculous show using BLs worst tropes in a sort of weird smoothie of bitter greens and too ripe banana. The ending was the sappiest cheesiest thing ever, like cheese syrup tapped from the cheese tree. So of course I loved it, but I’m pretty sure I giggled through all the bits meant to be profound. Because, in the end, to tolerate this show at all, you just can’t take ANY of it seriously. RECOMMENDED (with some SERIOUS reservations and trigger warnings.) Full review here. 

Be Loved in House: I Do (Taiwan) Ep 1-2 - I don’t mind a damaged seme character but this one is a bit weird for me. Like creepy Cheese in the Trap level weird. On the bright side, the story has given our tsundere uke good motivation for his angst and great existing friendships, loyalty, and likability. Plus I’m invested in the cafe owner/innocent puppy side dishes. So if it’s only the seme character I’m not jiving with, and he’s the most established actor, it should all turn out fine. I believe in you, Taiwanese BL. 

Papa & Daddy (Taiwan) Ep 6 fin - speaking of belief. This such a good show but they gave us a cliffhanger ending. Now we must hope against hope for season two. That’s never guaranteed with Taiwan tho. So, I’m docking a few points and saying, RECOMMENDED so long as you realize it’s a cliffhanger. 

Love is Science? (Taiwan) Ep 1-9 (BL subplot) - this is a good het romance, but the fact that the BL subplot is a beautifully acted disaster bi + confident gay means you’re hearing about it whether you want to or not. Plus they just added in some GL! Come on! I gotta support Taiwan normalizing queer to this extent. They are fighting the good fight and if I also have to watch a career lady and her much younger softest straight boi get it on, too? Twist my arm with that service sub subtext. Go on Taiwan, TWIST IT. It’s on Viki. Join the revolution.   * Incidentally if you actually like the D/s het dynamic of this show, I highly recommend Japanese Kimi wa Petto - career woman keeps a hot young dancer boy as a pet. Oh yes, an actual pet, that IS the pitch. Never doubt Japan when kink is on the line. It’s also on Viki. Go get your kink on, thank me later. (If it helps: That was not a request.)  

Most Peaceful Place 2 (Vietnam) Ep 2 (AKA 5) - love triangles aren’t my thing, but if you’re gonna do it short form, by all means bring in the lead’s other BL pairing so the chemistry is on point. Now I've no idea who I want him to end up with. Can’t they just be in a poly triad? 

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 7 - I’m still enjoying it a lot. It’s still unabashedly queer and the tension is ramping up. We now have secret identity, blackmail, femme fatale, faen fatale, and incoming seme confrontation. Best of all, the series is still airing, which makes it longer than any other Vietnamese BL I’ve seen (aside from Tein Bromance - which is just too weird to count). 

Gossip - Thai BL 

SEVEN PROJECT TEASERS

No one is entirely sure what Studio Wabi Sabi’s Seven Project/7Project will entail. 

It might be like Close Friend (1 episode per couple, no linking), 

or Y-Destiny (2 episodes per couple, loosely linked), 

or The En of Love (4 episodes per couple, linked but independent consecutive stories). 

They’re giving the couple’s arcs separate titles. So each one would be what? Seven Project: Once Upon a Time or the like? We’re in Taiwanese title territory people and NO ONE WANTS TO GO THERE. Anygay... 

Once Upon a Time is the BounPrem (og UWMA) anchor story, and seems to be the most dramatic and likely saddest. These two can handle most of what’s thrown at them at this juncture, so it should be good. 

Vs Love is a BoomPeak (og Make it Right) university vehicle. Since I thought Boom was done with our nonsense, I couldn’t be more thrilled and surprised this pair is doing another show together. I don’t think either of them are the greatest actors but I find Peak very endearing and Boom charismatic on screen, so I’ll watch. 

Would You be My Love is the hotly anticipated SantaEarth launch. They’re a (cultivated) IRL ship and Earth is an established BL actor. They have great chemistry and high energy so this could be lots of fun. 

We are also getting a GL from this series from established BL actresses Samantha and Pineare. Nothing teased yet on that, but I’m looking forward to this installment the most. Also curious to see how the ladies handle the branding and promo side, not to mention the culture. (Thailand variety shows gonna force *girls* to play the Pepero game?) 

Secret Crush on You upcoming Thai BL with no release date, co-produced by and featuring (but NOT staring) Saint and directed by Cheewin (sigh) with all fresh faces. (Previously known as Stalker the series.) It looks like pure pulp and I’m not wild about the plot but could be better than expected as it’s adapted from a novel. Cheewin is an okay director when he has an actual story to follow. 

Don’t Say No the series. Coming from the producers of TharnType this is the JaFirst vehicle many have been waiting for. Friends to lovers + a good boy/bad boy pairing on a sports romance foundation. It’s basketball so they tapped Meen as well (he’s semi-pro). The bad news? You get one guess as to who is writing the darn thing? Yep it’s MAME. So, ya know, expect some slam dunk kidnapping, a light dribbling of rape, and me turning into a basketcase. AKA... 

Will I have to live blog this series in order to survive it? That seems to be the only way I can. So probably. Which means the bad sports puns will continue. Look, if I’m suffering, SO ARE YOU! 

Rumors of a new YinWar vehicle The Best Story (mini series) coming in July. Also rumors that their previously announced Love Mechanics (full length series) has either been delayed, is facing money issues, or is moving studios, or all three. 

Breaking News 

DELAYED (I’m talking these three off the watch list until we get new airing dates) 

Love Area’s release was pushed out but it got a trailer. 

Golden Blood was supposed to drop Weds but comments in MDL report that it is delayed due to C19.  

Love’s Outlet (Taiwan) is supposed to have started a 50 episode run (only 3-5 min each, what utter nonsense). Sadly, this delay is due to a surge in cases in Taiwan which was doing so well, but also doesn’t have many inoculations. 

Bad Buddy has started workshopping at GMMTV actual. 

Kang Insoo’s BTS for Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding is SO FLIPPING CUTE. You have to watch it. Trust me, I don’t rec behind the scenes stuff often. 

Next Week Looks Like This: 

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

[ilikekidsshows]

One thing that pisses me off not just about the miraculous fandom but modern fandoms is fans inability to consume long overarching stories.

Like so many people are complaining about how long the reveal is taking or why haven't certain characters outgrown this trait yet or why is this character arc botched or abandoned. Like guys we just got the confirmation this show will be 7 seasons long PLUS like 3 tv specials. We're only roughly halfway through the series.

Once the reveal happens half the tension in the show is gone! I'm not saying leave the reveal till season 7 and make us wait 9 years this isn't HIMYM but miraculous is not a fast paced story. It's a long haul story. I just wish more fans would be patient. Miraculous is in the extremely fortunate and rare position that it will have a conclusive end and not be suddenly cancelled. That was and still is a huge problem for shows and cartoons with dedicated fans but networks pull the plug for stupid ass reasons.

So miraculous fans please chill the fuck out on things not resolving right away. We still have 78+ episodes plus the tv specials. If we get the end to certain things now it'll be so boring.

I think the concept of Instant Gratification describes the issue with many modern fandoms today. I hate to sound like I'm anti-technology, but the constant stream of quick and short bursts of entertainment allowed by the information age has made people more impatient. It's not about waiting for the climax to get a deeper sense of satisfaction, it's about getting that instant gratification right this instant. It's why one-shot fanfics are all over the place, when multi-chapter stories used to be just as common and popular, if not even more so, and it’s also why people are less willing to read a fic that’s still a work in progress. It's why people refuse to watch Youtube video essays even as they leave comments on the topic based on the title and thumbnail alone because, while they couldn't be assed to watch a 20-minute video (let alone an hour long one), they sure can spend that time calling the Youtuber names and making arguments the video actually already refutes. It's why a lot of online arguments happen only because one party read nothing but the first and maybe the last paragraph of someone's post and skipped all the explanation for their point of view (if I've ignored an counter argument for one of my posts, it was either because I missed it or because said counter argument did this. I have attention deficit issues so I do genuinely forget responses sometimes, but I'm also not writing a second essay for someone who's proven to me they won't read it).

Of course, it's only by constantly consuming only fast-paced content that you can become this impatient. People have different ideas about stories based on what stories they have encountered in the past.

Another thing that influences the Miraculous fandom in particular is that, while I love to show off exactly how much Miraculous has done to build up the overarching plotlines, Miraculous isn't really a show that's about a single story. It's easy to understand why people think it is one though: there's one main villain, we keep discovering more about the mythology, one of the main plot threads is the romantic relationship between the leads and singular episodes and plot elements tend to get payoff later. What is the purpose of a show if not to progress the story? Because the heroes aren't getting closer to defeating Gabriel or getting together, people think that the story isn't accomplishing anything.

I'll do a comparison to illustrate why these things aren't as clear-cut signs of a continuous storyline as people think. In the Spider-Man comics, you can pick any issue up and the chances are that the villain will be a part of Spider-Man's already established Rogues Gallery, who's back for more after who knows how many defeats, and those past defeats might even get referenced in callbacks to previous issues. It's also very possible that Peter and Mary Jane's relationship is the central focus with them not being together yet, having relationship problems or even having broken up (in really old issues the girl might be Gwen Stacy and short-term options have also always been available for romantic entanglements). Does this mean Spider-Man is a continuous story where the only point is that all the villains get put away for good and Peter and MJ live happily ever after? No, it doesn't. Spider-Man is designed to go on indefinitely, so there's no clear ending point. So, what is the point of Spider-Man then, if there is no Ending?

It used to be the single issue, because comic books used to have every issue be a stand-alone story about the hero and their supportive cast. These days it's more every three-to-six issues, because superhero comics are written to have short story arcs that can then be collected into trade paperbacks. A superhero series is not a single story; it's a series that functions as a story engine, meaning the series can generate several shorter stories where the hero helps fix a problem or solve a mystery.

In the superhero genre a villain will never get killed off or removed from stories permanently as long as the writers think they can still come up with stories to tell about them. The hero's romantic life will never be completely smooth sailing unless the writer is using other things to ramp up the stakes. Everything always allows for there to be another adventure.

I think the huge success of Avatar: the Last Airbender made people think that a series that is a single story is always superior to a series with multiple shorter plots. When I was liveblogging Sailor Moon, a viewer offered to give me a list of all the non-filler episodes because they genuinely thought I'd feel like I was wasting time on the show otherwise. This attitude is simply not based on fact. It's not fair to compare Miraculous Ladybug to Avatar, because they're both setting up to do completely different things. Miraculous Ladybug is trying to become a brand, like Batman or Spider-Man. It is part of the "Zag Heroes" lineup, a series of French-created superhero franchises to compete in the America-centric superhero market. This challenge is good for the genre, because Marvel and DC have started resembling each other more and more as these companies stew in their old ideas and copy everything that worked for the other one. The superhero genre needs new blood.

Also, Avatar: the Last Airbender first became popular by doing episodic plots for almost the entirety of the first season because it's actually not a wise choice to expect the audience to be willing to commit to a story that'll only give payoff later when working with an untested IP. Very often shows with longer story arcs start with the episodic format to hook people first, and sometimes the more linear plot is introduced specifically because the audience for the show is now expected to be both dedicated enough and older and capable of keeping up. Because, here's the thing: you can't expect little kids to remember every episode or even every character you've introduced in your show. I'm not sure if people are ready to hear that but I'm throwing it out there anyway. Kids are not dumb, they can understand more complex storylines, but many kids are still training their memory, so they might not remember the details of complex storylines that go on for too long.

This is why the news that Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season was going to have a recommended viewing order originally had me concerned. Miraculous is being branded for kids. The plot requiring too much skill in memorizing story details will make it less accessible to kids and might put those two additional seasons at risk. However, it seems that the "constantly changing status quo" concept of Truth, Lies and Gang of Secrets was a fluke and the evolution of the show is more subtle, so they might not be cutting the amount of episodes for those final seasons because the show is getting too complicated for kids to follow all the important details.

Regardless, Miraculous Ladybug being an adventure cartoon TV show instead of a comic book or a more cheaper-to-produce TV drama does mean that Miraculous Ladybug isn’t expected to go on for decades like a superhero comic or a soap opera. Because of this, it can have evolution and changes and even a planned ending. The show is expected to end at some point, even by the people making money off of it, mostly because making a cartoon like this indefinitely costs a lot of money, and kids’ adventure shows tend to see a decrease in returns if they go on for too long.

[saturniandevil]

October 2021 Important Dates

AKA my notes on The Astrology Podcast’s October Forecast. Dates are based off US Mountain Time and may be a day earlier in the Eastern Hemisphere.

We’re going into the month with a Mercury that has just stationed retrograde in Libra. This was part of a larger stellium in Libra, including Mars there, and our hosts mention events at the Met Gala manifesting Austin’s images of Mars in the art gallery for last month’s podcast.

Additionally, after a few months of hiatus, this is going to be Kelly’s last episode 😭😭 She’s going to be focusing on her own projects, including classes and writing her book. She’s been doing this show with Chris for five years  so it’ll be sad to see her go, but she’s got her on YouTube channel (kellysastrology) for any who want to keep up with her.

Here’s the astro weather for the first week of October (3rd-9th)

October 3rd - Mercury (rx) trine Jupiter (pictured weekly but not monthly) Due to the retrograde, Mercury has been within 3° of trine with Jupiter and will continue to be so over the next couple weeks, and he’s also hanging out in close orb to a square with Pluto. Pluto as a planet calls us to investigate the unconscious or investigate power dynamics, which when contacting Mercury can give us a quality of truth serum. Pluto can open the door to the underworld, and Mercury can traverse all three realms mythologically, so we can describe this contact with images of exploring underground caves and tunnels--getting lost, not knowing what you’ll find, or initiation rituals. With Jupiter involved we also see the search for truth and expanding--think of searching for the truth in a way that small things get blown up into something much larger. This sequence will come back to us strongly in early November.

October 6th - New Moon in Libra, Pluto stations Direct The New Moon at 13° of Libra, with Mars conjunct both the Sun and Moon at that degree as well (Mars conjuncts the Sun one day every two years). This adds a sharp, itchy or irritating quality to this lunation, which is further emphasized by the Moon’s ruler Venus being in Mars’s sign Scorpio. With Mars in a difficult place, and with Pluto moving around here, this is the start of something that’s not quite apparent yet (we won’t be able to see Mars in the sky for awhile). Mars in Libra reminds us of tact and decorum--how do we follow the rules of engagement and still be effective? Mars being invisible takes us hidden into the earth, looking at the source of our conflicts.

Pluto stationing direct after a veeery long retrograde will further blow things out of proportion--making small things big and big things small. (See the previous transit for more on Pluto.)

October 7th - Venus enters Sagittarius With all these planets in Libra, it’ll be a nice break to have Venus leave Scorpio. Mutable, firey Sagittarius will get things going again--thought it may take a couple days to really feel because Venus is on the South Node when she first enters the sign. The Moon will join both of these at 2° of Sagittarius as well, really emphasizing the themes of the eclipse cycle from earlier this year. Additionally, rx Mercury will conjoin Mars in her sign Libra while Venus experiences decrease from the Dragon’s Tail, so be prepared for some combativeness.

October 9th - Sun conjunct Retrograde Mercury in Libra This is the renewal of Mercury’s synodic cycle, and while he’s combust when close enough to be hidden by the Sun, this exact moment elevates our solar consciousness. It’s a moment to experience a pure Mercury in Libra archetype.

Here’s the weekly astro weather for the week of October 10th:

October 10th - Saturn stations Direct in Aquarius Kelly describes this as a slow change of gears, or a change in situations where we’ve been treading water. Saturn’s getting ready to do more work in Aquarius (he’ll station direct in the sign again next year). This is going to intensify whatever Saturn’s trek through Aquarius has brought up for us. This is a good time to rearrange things before we start to have more trouble from the fixed signs in November.

Week of October 17th:

October 18th - Jupiter stations Direct in Aquarius, Mercury stations Direct in Libra Now the ball’s really rolling--Jupiter, for one, is prepping for his last hurrah in Aquarius, so this station is like an intermission before the final act of a show. Jupiter’s trek into Pisces corresponded with some lockdown restrictions loosening up in the US, so his direct station near dry, separating Saturn may indicate some new developments along those lines (likely involving some intellectual, technology-based fix).

Mercury in Libra, along with Mars and the Sun, will be making trines over to Jupiter in Aquarius, so these houses of our natal charts may be finding some harmony and help with each other.

October 20th - Full Moon at 27 Aries The Sun and Moon are squaring Pluto as well, with Mars conjoining the Sun and adding extra pressure to this lunation. Mars trines Jupiter the day before, which may offer a more constructive path, but he also squares Pluto the day after, so we may have some subtle and complex issues going on. We’ll have a more direct image of this when Mars enters domicile in Scorpio later in the month. A strong Mars can just power through whatever it needs, but when something’s sapping his vitality that might not be sustainable.

October 23rd - Sun enters Scorpio With the advent of Scorpio season comes the beginning of pressure on that Saturn-Uranus square. The Venus-Jupiter sextile on the 28th is a little treat for us before we experience the astrology of November, which Austin predicts to be the most challenging month of the year.

Week of October 24th:

October 30th - Mars enters Scorpio Mars will spend a couple months in this sign, activating the Saturn-Uranus square, and with eclipses coming up as well, things are really ramping up. Mars will also become visible before dawn again while in Scorpio. This is the beginning of this year’s final bout of fixed sign tensions--with Mars in Taurus on January 6th, and Mars in Leo back in July, I have no doubt we’re going to see some big world events next month. Mars has a lot of dignity and will square dignified Saturn as well, with Uranus aggravating their tensions once again.

Once a revolution gets started, there’s no way of stopping it. Be careful with what conflicts you join, lest you get stuck having to endure a war of attrition, according to Austin. Kelly reminds us that troops can only hold out as long as there are supplies, and Chris advises viewers to build up our supplies in October so we’re prepared to hunker down and weather the coming conflicts.

[brawltogethernow]

So, I don't think I've ever asked you this... what IS the whole point of the Spider-Sense? It really seems like something that only exists for writers to ignore or work around when they want to inject Legit Tension into a story.

I’ve thought about this power so much, but never with an eye to defend its right to exist, so I needed to think about this. The results could be more concise.

Ironically, given the question, I have to say its main purpose is to ramp up tension. But it’s also a highly variable multitool that a skilled creative team can use for...pretty much anything. It does everything the writer wants it to, while for its wielder always falls just short of doing enough.

I went looking through my photos for a really generic, classic-looking example to use as an image to head this topic, but then I ran into the time Peter absolutely did not reimburse this man for his stolen McDonald’s, so have that instead.

A Scare Chord, But You Can Draw It

That one post that says the spider-sense is just super-anxiety isn’t, like, wrong. It’s a very anxious, dramatic storytelling tool originally designed for a very anxious, dramatic protagonist. I find it speaks to the overall tone of the franchise that some characters are functionally psychics, but with a psychic ability that only points out problems.

Spidey sense pinging? There’s danger, be stressed! Broken? Now the lead won’t even KNOW when there’s a problem, scary! Single character is immune to it? That’s an invisible knife in the dark oh my god what the fuck what the fU--

Like its counterpart in garden variety anxiety, the only time the spider-sense reduces tension is in the middle of a crisis. But in the wish fulfillmenty way that you want in an adventure story to justify exaggerated action sequences, the same way enhanced strength or durability does. Also like those, it would theoretically make someone much safer to have it, but it exists in the story to let your character navigate into and weather more dangerous situations.

For its basic role in a story, a danger sense is a snappy way to rile up both the reader and the protagonist that doesn’t offer much information beyond that it’s time to sit smart because shit is about to go down.

Spidey comic canon is all over the board in quality and genre, and it started needing to subvert its formulas before the creators got a handle on what those formulas even were, and basically no one has read anything approaching most of it at this point, so for consistent examples of a really bare bones use of this power in storytelling, I’d point to the property that’s done the best job yet of boiling down the mechanics of Spider-Man to their absolute most basic essentials for adaptation to a compelling monster of the week TV series.

Or as you probably know it, Danny Phantom. DON’T BOO, I’M RIGHT.

DP is Spider-Man with about 2/3 of the serial numbers filed off and no death (ironically), and Danny’s ghost sense is the most proof in the formula example of what the spidey sense is for: It’s a big sign held up for the viewer that says, “Something is wrong! Pay attention!” Effectively a visual scare chord. It’s about That Drama. And it works, which won it a consistent place in the show’s formula. We’re talking several times an episode here.

So why does it work?

It’s a little counterintuitive, but it’s strong storytelling to tell your audience that something bad is going to happen before it does. A vague, punchy spoiler transforms the ignorant calm before a conflict into a tense moment of anticipation. ...And it makes sure people don’t fail to absorb the beginning of said conflict because they weren’t prepared to shift gears when the scene did. Shock is a valuable tool, too, but treating it like a staple is how you burn out your audience instead of keeping them engaged. Not to go after an easy target, but you need to know how to manage your audience’s alarm if you don’t want to end up like Game of Thrones.

The limits of the spider-sense also keep you on your toes when handled by a smart writer. It tells Peter (everyone’s is a little different, so I’m going to cite the og) about threats to his person, but it doesn’t elaborate with any details when it’s not already obvious why, what kind, and from what. And it doesn’t warn him about anything else-- Which is a pretty critical gap when you zoom out and look at his hero career’s successes and failures and conclude that it’s definitely why he’s lived as long as he has acting the way he does, but was useless as he failed to save a string of people he’d have much rather had live on than him.

(Any long-running superhero mythos has these incidents, but with Peter they’re important to the core themes.)

And since this power is by plot for plot (or because it’s roughly agreed it only really blares about threats that check at least two boxes of being major, immediate, or physical), it always kicks in enough to register when the danger is bearing down...when it’s too late to actually do anything about it if “anything” is a more complex action than “dodge”.

Really? Not until the elevator doors started to open?

That Distinctive, Crunchy Spider Flavor

The spider-sense and its little pen squiggles go hand in hand with wallcrawling (and its unique and instantly identifiable associated body language) to make the Spider-Person powerset enduringly iconic and elevate characters with it from being generic mid-level super-bricks. Visually, but also in how it shapes the story.

I said it can share a narrative role with super strength. But when you end a fight and go home, super strength continues to make your character feel powerful, probably safer than they’d be otherwise, maybe dangerous.

The spider-sense just keeps blaring, “Something’s wrong! Something’s wrong! God, why aren’t you doing something about this!?”

Pretty morose thing to live with, for a safety net! Kind of a double edged sword you have there! Could be constantly being hyperattuned to problems would prime you for a negative outlook on life. Kind of seems like a power that would make it impossible for a moral person to take a day off, leading them into a beleaguered and resentful yet dutiful attitude about the whole superhero gig! Might build up to some of the core traits of this mythos, maybe! Might lead to a lot of fifteen minute retirement stories, or something. Might even be a built in ‘great responsibility’ alarm that gets you a main character who as a rule is not going to stop fighting until he physically cannot fight anymore.

Certainly not apropos of anything, just throwing this short lived barely-a-joke tagline up for fun.

One of my personal favorite things about stories with superpowers is keeping in mind how they cause the people who have them to act in unusual ways outside of fights, so when you tell me that these people have an entire extra sense that tells them when the gas in their house is leaking through a barely useful hot/cold warning system that never turns off, I’m like, eyes emojis, popcorn out, notebook open, listening intently, spectacles on, the whole deal.

It also contributes to Peter Parker’s personality in a way I really enjoy: It allows him to act like an irrational maniac. When you know exactly when a situation becomes dangerous and how much, normal levels of caution go out the window and absolutely nothing you do makes sense from an exterior standpoint anymore. That’s the good shit. I would like to see more exploration of how the non-Parker characters experiencing the world in this incredibly altered way bounce in response.

It’s also one of many tools in this franchise hauling the reader into relating more closely with the main character. The backbone of classic Spidey is probably being in on secrets only Peter and the reader know which completely reframe how one views the situation on the page. It’s just a big irony mine for the whole first decade. A convenient way to inform the reader and the lead that something is bad news that’s not perceivable to any other characters is youth-with-a-big-exciting-secret catnip.

Another point for tension, there, in that being aware of danger is not synonymous with being able to act on it. If there’s no visible reason for you to be acting strange, well...you’re just going to have to sit tight and sweat, aren’t you? Some gratuitous head wiggles never hurt when setting up that type of conflict.

Have I mentioned that they look cool? Simultaneously punchy and distinctive, with a respectable amount of leeway for artists to get creative with and still coming up with something easily recognizable? And pretty easy to intuit the meaning of even without the long-winded explanations common in the days when people wrote comics with the intent that someone could come in cold on any random issue and follow along okay, I think, although the mechanic has been deeply ingrained in popular culture for so long that I can’t really say for sure.

It was also useful back in the day when no artists drew the eyes on the Spider-Man mask as emoting and were conveying the lead’s expressions entirely through body language and panel composition. If you wiggle enough squiggles, you don’t need eyebrows.

Take This Handwave and Never Ask Me a Logistical Question Again

This ability patches plot holes faster than people can pick them open AND it can act as an excuse to get any plot rolling you can think of if paired with one meddling protagonist who doesn’t know how to mind their own business. Buy it now for only $19.99 (in four installments; that’s four installments of $19.99).

Why can a teenager win a six on one fight against other superhumans? Well, the spider-sense is the ultimate edge in combat, duh.

Why can Peter websling? Why doesn’t everyone websling? Well, the spider-sense is keeping him from eating flagpole when he violently flings himself across New York in a way neither man nor spider was ever meant to move.

How are we supposed to get him involved with the plot this week???? Well, that crate FELT dangerous, so he’s going to investigate it. Oh, dip, it was full of guns and radioactive snakes! Probably shouldn’t have opened that!

Yeah, okay, but why isn’t it fixing everything, then? Isn’t it supposed to be why Peter has never accidentally unmasked in front of somebody? ('Nother entry for this section, take a shot.) That’s crazy sensitive! How does he still have any problems!? Is everything bad that’s ever happened to characters with this powerset bad writing!? --Listen, I think as people with uncanny senses that can tell us whether we are in danger with accuracy that varies from incredible to approximate (I am talking about the five senses that most people have), we should all know better than to underestimate our ability to tune them out or interpret them wrong and fuck ourselves up anyway. I honestly find this part completely realistic.

*SLAPS ROOF OF SPIDER-SENSE* YOU CAN FIT SO MANY STORIES IN THIS THING

The spider-sense is a clean branch into...whatever. There is the exact right balance of structure and wishy-washiness to build off of. A sample selection of whatevers that have been built:

It’s sci-fi and spy gadgets when Peter builds technology that can interface with it.

It’s quasi-mystical when Kaine and Annie-May get stronger versions of it that give them literal psychic visions, or when you want to get mythological and start talking about all the spider-characters being part of a grand web of fate.

Kaine loses his and it becomes symbolic of a future newly unbound by constraints, entangled thematically with the improved physical health he picked up at the same time -- a loss presented as a gain.

Peter loses his and almost dies 782 times in one afternoon because that didn’t make the people he provoked when he had it stop trying to kill him, and also because he isn’t about to start “””taking the subway’’””’ “‘’“”to work”””’’” like some kind of loser who doesn’t get a heads up when he’s about to hit a pigeon at 50mph.

Peter’s starts tuning into his wife’s anxiety and it’s a tool in a relationship study.

It starts pinging whenever Peter’s near his boss who’s secretly been replaced by a shapeshifter and he IGNORES IT because his boss is enough of an asshole that that doesn’t strike him as weird; now it’s a comedy/irony tool.

Into the Spider-Verse made it this beautiful poetic thing connecting all the spider-heroes in the multiverse and stacked up a story on it about instant connection, loss, and incredibly unlikely strangers becoming a found family. It was also aesthetic as FUCK. Remember the scene where Miles just hears barely intelligible whispering that’s all lines people say later in the film and then his own voice very clearly says “look out” and then the room explodes?? Fuck!!!!

Venom becomes immune to it after hitchhiking to Earth in Peter’s bone juice and it makes him a unique threat while telling a more-homoerotic-than-I-assume-was-originally-intended story about violation and how close relationships can be dangerous when they go sour.

It doesn’t work on people you trust for maximum soap opera energy. Love the innate tragedy of this feature coming up.

IN CONCLUSION I don’t have much patience for writers who don’t take advantage of it, never mind feel they need to write around it.

[winterhawk-olympic-bang]

Emotive Writing

Guest Poster: @thepartyresponsible​

Emotive writing is about making people Feel Things. People use this all the time to sell you stuff, but we’re out here giving emotions away for free. Here are a few tips and tricks I’ve found to make people feel the most emotions.

Word choice:

This is the most straightforward part of emotive writing. Your word choices add an extra layer of complexity to your message. You aren’t just telling readers what happened; you’re signaling to them how they should feel. Most writers do this unconsciously, but being deliberate can make it especially effective.

Here’s a non-emotive, just-the-facts sentence: The soldier lifted his weapon and turned toward the enemy.

Here’s the same sentence reworked to make you care a bit more: The exhausted soldier raised his broken shield and faced the invading army.

The actions here are fundamentally the same, but exhausted and broken invoke sympathy while invading skews negative.

The words you choose are sign posts for the reader. They indicate how to interpret the story and help your readers orient themselves and form expectations. Subtly building expectation is important because, while surprise can be effective, shock is generally numbing and confusion tends to be irritating, so word choice helps you frame things and guide your reader along.

One of the keys here is to attempt some subtlety. If every sentence about your protagonist reads like an ad campaign (effervescent, brilliant, impervious) and every sentence about your antagonist reads like a political diatribe (cruel, spineless, malicious), you’re probably overusing your sign posts. People want to know who to root for, but too much emotive language can make them feel manipulated.

Think of word choice like adding spices to food. If you put oats in boiling water, you’re making oatmeal, and the spices you use won’t change that. But if you throw in some honey and cinnamon, I know we’re headed somewhere wholesome. If you sprinkle in little discordant notes of garlic powder and cayenne, what we’re cooking is a tragedy. And if you upend an entire bottle of cinnamon, a quarter cup of nutmeg, and toss in seventeen whole cloves, I am not staying for breakfast.

Narrative distance:

Narrative or psychic distance is the space between the reader and the character, usually navigated by the intermediary figure of the narrator. Your narrator can be an omniscient figure that knows the thoughts, feelings, and intentions of every character in the world. Or your narrator could be sitting on the shoulder of your main character, close enough to hear their thoughts and know their story but not so close that they speak with the character’s voice. Or your narrator could be your character.

If you want to ramp up emotion, you usually want a narrator who is very close to one character (or, alternatively, to separate characters in turn). But you don’t have to stay at one distance for the whole story, and, just like word choice, shifts in narrative distance can be helpful indicators to your reader about the story and the characters.

A sudden, dramatic shift in narrative distance is quite jarring, like a sudden zoom-in during a movie. It can be effective, but it’ll lose its punch if it’s overused. Generally, if you want to shift narrative distance, you should build to it slowly. Here’s an example of shifting from a distant third person to a closer third person:

They wake the Soldier because the archer is missing. He has a habit of slipping his lead, disappearing post-mission. The chase grew tedious years ago, but the Soldier runs it just the same. He’ll do as he’s told. But it bothers him, when he lets it. The why.

Why does he do this? the Soldier wonders, when he shouldn’t, when it isn’t his place. Where is he going? he thinks, when he can’t stop himself. Who is he running to? But he tries to think nothing at all.

Another trick of narrative distance is to suddenly pull back to show a character who’s been compromised, shocked, or deeply hurt by something. Imagine spending a long time in a close Bucky perspective, hearing his thoughts, and then being abruptly walloped across the face with: The machine went quiet, and the Soldier opened his eyes. Zooming out can emphasize what’s been lost. Because you aren’t just taking the soul of Bucky Barnes right out of him, you’re also taking that closeness away from the reader. You’re silencing the voice they’ve been listening to.

Whether you zoom in or out during highly emotional moments depends on what you’re trying to accomplish and also on who’s involved.  Some characters have loud, messy emotions that will get louder when they’re hurt. Some characters will freeze over and push a narrator further away. You can use narrative distance to show a character slowly opening up or suddenly slamming a door. But you need the reader to have a solid understanding of the character in order to follow what the shift means, which leads to the next component.

Know your characters:

So, here’s the thing. You gotta Velveteen Rabbit this. Every character is Tinker Bell. If you stop believing, they die.

If you want people to care about these characters, you have to treat them like living, breathing, fully feeling people. They have favorite colors. They have phobias. They have Friday night plans and blisters from new shoes and sesame seeds stuck in their teeth. They have superstitions and secrets. You don’t need to know all of these facts, but you should try to give the impression that someone could know them. The more real your characters are, the more we’re going to care about them.

Since this is fanfiction, you start with a receptive audience. Your readers are fond of these characters. Figure out why. Figure out which parts of the character you can relate to and dig in until you feel like you can understand the parts of them you can’t relate to.

Try to collect things that make you feel close to that character. I always have music playing when I’m writing, so I make playlists for characters and playlists for stories. If I feel like I’m losing a character, I’ll go back to their playlist. But you could also use Pinterest boards, reread favorite fics or comics, rewatch movies or fanvids, or spend an unreasonable amount of time researching bows and tactical knives. Whatever works!

Also, remember, your characters don’t know what story they’re in. They don’t know it’s going to end well (or terribly). Maintain that tension, because that’s where the emotions are. When you watch a good horror movie, you’re not really scared of the monster. You’re scared for the characters, because they don’t know if they’re going to survive.

Emotions come from the characters. That’s why it’s still sad that Tony Stark dies, no matter how many times you watch it happen. Tony Stark was brave and flawed and usually right and often sarcastic, and it hurts to watch him die because that’s a full, unique human we’re losing. We know him well enough to know he’s choosing to sacrifice himself and why he made that choice and who will mourn him.

Know your characters, and let them be messy and weird and wrong and hopeful and cantankerous and unique. Fear is relatable, flaws are relatable, and awkward, ungainly, stubborn progress is relatable. Just remember what it is that makes their progress their progress because, if you can swap Dominic Toretto in for Ted Lasso and have the exact same story, you’ve probably lost your characters.

Plan your emotional trajectory:

Okay, time to get a bit technical. This is for people who like to plan. For those terrifying, godlike writers who just sit down and write, this might not be helpful. For my fellow planners:

There’s a theory (which you can get a general overview about here or, if you’re very into data, right here) that there are six core emotional trajectories in narratives:

1)      Rags to riches (rise)

2)      Riches to rags (fall)

3)      Man in a hole (fall then rise)

4)      Icarus (rise then fall)

5)      Cinderella (rise then fall then rise)

6)      Oedipus (fall then rise then fall)

Since rise and fall can mean different things, I find it helpful to combine these building blocks with emotional axes, which you can find some examples of here.

So, basically, for my winterhawk baseball au Got a Heart in Me, I Swear, I planned to follow the “man in a hole” trajectory (fall then rise) along the anxiety-confidence emotional axis with some bleedover from the humiliation-pride axis. Which basically means Clint started comfortable enough, nosedived deep into anxiety and humiliation, and then slowly built his way to confidence over the rest of the fic.

If the listed axes don’t appeal to you, you can very easily create your own. Just think of an emotion, identify what links it to its inverse, and then list the related emotions between the two opposites. Disgust and adoration are opposites, but they’re linked by attention, right? You can’t ignore something you find disgusting or adorable. So, here’s an example emotional axis you could follow: Disgust – Resentment – Obsession – Fascination – Reverence – Adoration. Enemies to lovers, anyone?

Emotional axes help provide a natural framework for your character’s emotional trajectory. They can be subtle; you don’t have to start on one end of the spectrum and go all the way to the other. A story that moves just a step or two on an emotional axis can be incredibly compelling. That small progress from discomfort to hope can hit really hard if the progress feels fought-for and earned and real.

Tips for writing emotions:

·         Get physical: If you want to show an emotion instead of telling it, describe its impacts on the body. Most characters won’t think I’m embarrassed. They’ll feel a drop in their stomach like someone cut the elevator cables and a hot stinging in their face like they’ve been slapped by some disappointed version of themselves. The more visceral your descriptions, the more the reader will feel them. If you want your reader to feast on feelings, you have to set the table.

·         Dramatic zoom: When something very intense happens, shift the narrative distance. In or out is fine, but a sudden, dramatic event should result in a sudden, dramatic change in focus. Characters might hyperfocus on their physical bodies (the mechanics of breathing, the ringing in their ears, the mad animal urge toward flight) or they might be kicked so far out of their own heads that they feel like they’re dreaming or watching the scene play out from overhead. This distance is useful for two reasons: it feels real, and it allows readers to absorb the situation in pieces, without being overwhelmed by it.

·         Unreliable narrator: Some emotions can be so charged that people don’t want to own them, like grief, shame, jealousy, rage, lust, and guilt. Characters might unconsciously misrepresent these to themselves as something else. A grieving mother might insist she’s tired. A rehabilitated assassin who’s fallen in love with an absolute dork might tell himself he’s just tracking a target. Everyone knows what it’s like to lie to themselves, so this makes characters relatable. And, also, everyone likes being in on a secret, so, sometimes, this is just fun.

·         Face the monsters: We’re often conditioned not to dwell on unpleasant things, which is part of why it can be powerful to examine them in stories. From small things like inglorious emotional states (envy, cowardice, resentment) to character flaws (recklessness, withdrawal, arrogance) to personal tragedies (loss, betrayal, abandonment), the negative parts of human emotional life pack quite a punch. Acknowledge them. Not only are they relatable experiences, but redemption and recovery arcs are some of the most compelling stories we have.

[badbookopinions]

The Only Good Indians - Stephen Graham Jones

A: ohhh, this was some GREAT horror. I’m going to be thinking about the Elk Head Woman when I’m out at night for the next year of my life.

Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way. (from the Goodreads page)

Jones knows that the second-scariest thing in the world is the cycles of violence and oppression perpetrated against people of colour, particularly those affecting Native Americans. So much of this novel is people constantly aware of being Indigenous in a country that’s been stolen from them. It’s not an issues book, but it’s does race so well.

Jones also knows that the first-scariest thing in the world is a really fucked-up deer. I cannot describe how sincerely fucked-up this elk is without it sounding stupid. I say she brutally stomps several dogs to death and you say ‘yeah, and?’ but you don’t understand how afraid I am of this deer!

And the body horror of the Elk Head Woman manipulating their emotions and making the main characters do violence to each other! I think the way you know horror is good is if there are images that stick with you, and holy shit do some of these images stick.

And that ending though!! Actually, all of the three mini-endings in this story, as the Elk Head Woman goes after person after person and we see each of their sanities and realities start to crumble around them, until the final climax. But that final final one was perfect.

Basically. If you’re into horror, or don’t trust deer, or want to read about a basketball game between a fourteen-year-old girl and an elk in a woman’s body where the girl’s life hangs in the balance, read this.

Plot: good, although the pacing was weird. While each story was in itself wonderfully contained, I felt like it couldn’t decide if it was a book in two parts or a book in three. This worked in the moment because the tension was so high after the end of the second part that you didn’t need it to be ramped up again for the third and we could drop right into the nearly-climax, but I think if you read the story slower it would suffer for it.

Characters: interesting. Because the story takes place in so little time, no character really develops besides going mad. The characters that we’re introduced to, though, are fully-realized and complex. I wouldn’t have minded a bit more interaction between characters, though - I think the interpersonal relationships in this story were a bit lacking. Also just announcing right here how much I loved Denorah because I love her.

Setting: good. Especially the sweat lodge where the middle act of this book takes place in, which features immaculate vibes.

Prose: there are some gems of introspection. Also some great horror description.

Diversity report: a Blackfoot and Crow cast, a well-written woman.

[chaos-monkeyy]

#9 Inflection Point?

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

There kind of was yeah! I mean for one thing, Eli and Nevil weren't really supposed to.. y'know, like, actually fall in love and stuff, but then they did and I wasn't gonna argue.

The biggest alt version though was the other version of the escape plan that I took some aspects from but scrapped the main idea. Instead of waiting to blow the charges while riding up in the elevator, they were going to blow up the smelting station and collapse the tunnels leading to it after taking out Angel & co. and the guards, impersonating the stormtroopers, and calling in the staged prisoner uprising. As though they were still suppressing it, right.

So the idea was the explosions would be meant to look like a failed prisoner revolt, with Asshole, I mean Angel, and his buddies having accidentally gotten caught in their own sabotage; the mines would have been evacuated; and stormtroopers!Thrawn & Nevil would have snagged Eli from the crowd on the way out and then gone forward with trying to get to the shuttle bay in all the confusion. With the added bonus that if they were discovered missing in the aftermath, they would probably have some wiggle room of a few days or more due to being assumed dead in the explosion or tunnels collapse.

I liked it for the action and excitement of it all, but it just... wasn't as good of a plan. Too many things could go wrong. They'd risk destabilizing the tunnels too much and killing more of the other prisoners, there would be no guarantee the Imps wouldn't just shut down the lifts and get them trapped down there during full on prisoner interrogations, I couldn't get myself believing they'd be able to just wander up to a shuttle and take off unnoticed and unchallenged if the entire complex was on emergency lockdown, etc. etc.

What I did get out of it though, was - it inspired my thoughts for Nevil's inadequate escape plan to use as a starting point for Thrawn to make a plan that may have been less exciting, but was more... elegant, not to mention a little less dangerous and more likely to succeed (as well as a perfect point of conflict between their characters and values). And it also helped me pick which of a few different mining accidents/disasters I wanted to throw into the mix to ramp up the tension and the sense of urgency to escape. (I think I'd thought of cave-ins as well as flooding... maybe a gas leak or something, not sure what they all were now, but the collapse worked really well to tie in with the Imperials not caring about the prisoners' welfare, the hints of reduced support and funding and personnel, all those little details that I thought helped tie it into the greater SW universe at the time with resources being funneled into long-term secret projects, and the Empire's increasing military focus and cracking down throughout the galaxy...)

[jadelotusflower]

Robin Hood Rewatch: 1x13 A Clue: No

“Previously on” recaps can be annoying, but there is an art to it and I love a good one. This is a very, very good one, summarising the last episode with ramping tension as the music builds, then cuts to a different take of the last scene as the theme song starts, and we’re into the opening credits.

This is a long one, so it’s going under the cut:

Guy estimates that the “inner circle” of Robin’s gang is “a dozen at the most” and I find it very funny that neither he nor Vaisey have twigged that it’s always the same five people around him. What’s more annoying than funny is that they don’t know how many are in the “outer circle” because that really should have been A Thing in the show (Forrest and Hanton should have come back to guest star! I will never let this go!) After all, we see Little John with more men in the first episode, there are other outlaws in the forest/across the shire that are either working with Robin, or pose a risk to them, and I wish this had been explored.

Djaq manhandling and holding her sword to Pitts’s throat - I love Djaq.

The first arrow Robin shoots is intended for Vaisey, but one of the guards inconveniently walks in front and gets it in the chest. The second arrow is intended for Vaisey as well but he ducks (”my tooth!”) so we can’t fault the writing for a credible attempt at Why Doesn’t Robin Just Kill The Sheriff, because in this scene at least, he tries.

Bye Pitts. You certainly were.

I actually really love this scene (which probably seemed odd given the high body count), but Robin drawing his sword and charging, with Much, Djaq, and John backing him up to avenge Marian’s apparent death/make a final stand, as the music shifts from the jaunty Rescue Theme to Marian’s Theme, just gets me every time.

Although thanks to the cast commentary, I can’t unsee Djaq flipping that guy over her head twice, but hey, it’s a badass move. Clearly they didn’t shoot enough coverage of this fight, because we get the same action from several different angles.

Other than the flashback in episode 8, I think this is the only time we see Robin in Crusader mode, and just how lethal he (and the gang) can be when unleashed and with nothing to lose. Even when the enemy retreats Robin remains kind of wild-eyed with rage unsated, and it takes a beat for him to snap out of it. It’s symbolism time - he sticks his sword in the ground and leaves it there, and we don’t see it again this episode (or much in season 2).

There’s some nice acting going on from everyone in this scene - just utter exhaustion, Allan and Will oblivious to why the rest are so distraught, Much taking it upon himself to tell them but can’t say the words, and Robin with the finality of “she’s dead.” Their faces!

Djaq is still holding two swords as she enters the cave, which is a nice character beat - no doubt the fight also brought back unpleasant memories/triggers for her, and she remains on edge, for the moment unwilling to give up her defences even when the threat is gone.

I really love this scene too (the gang mourning Marian) and I think it’s quite deftly written - Djaq’s immediate reaction being the importance of a quick burial (as per Islamic tradition), Robin trying to keep it together, attempting to ask John/Will to build a coffin but unable to, so deflecting to ask Djaq to prepare Marian’s body, before trying twice again; John soothing him and taking charge. Will’s single tear and speaking of Marian’s goodness. Much responding with “Good? Oh, she was... She was...” looking to Robin because of course his thoughts are for Robin’s grief before his own, and also that his own relationship with Marian was complex. Allan: “She was alright...yeah” that says so much, and of course John’s “Her, we liked.” Again, some fine acting, kudos everyone.

“I loved her and I never told her” is ironic because Robin still won’t tell her until halfway through the next season, and if he had in the aftermath of her apparent death he could have spared himself a lot of the angst of the rest of the episode. But of course he doesn’t tell her, doesn’t learn from this moment, because emotions are hard, and sometimes we make the same mistakes over and over again.

I really love that it’s Allan that notices that Marian is alive, and his little “told ya” flourish.

Score note: while Marian is “dead” her Theme is strings, when she opens her eyes, it’s back to the guitar.

Guy’s guilt in finding out his impending marriage to Marian is based on false pretenses - would he still have forced the marriage if he’d known that from the start?

Djaq still has her two swords as they take Marian back to Knighton.

Guy, if your first instinct when told Marian is not at home is that she’s run away rather than marry you...maybe take a hint? “She cannot run from me” is a big yikes, and this confuses me as to Guy’s motivation in this scene. Did he intend to tell Marian the truth, but then convince himself otherwise (because “the excitement of the wedding” =/= “the wedding excites her”), but then why so angry when he thinks shes run? The difference between getting someone go/being left, I suppose.

Illness is a perfectly plausible explanation for delaying the wedding that no one seems to think of.

Edward is actually pretty bang on in this scene with Robin from a father’s perspective, telling him to let Marian go if he cannot stop it, and do the right thing. On the other hand...

“I am sick of doing the right thing” is why Robin is such a compelling character for me - because it is hard to always be good, to be held to that higher standard, and make the unselfish choice. I enjoy narratives that explore that, and this show is surprisingly unflinching about it, exemplified by:

The next scene, which is one of the most emotionally brutal/hard to watch of the entire show, in which Robin lashes out and does everything to drive Much away, including calling him “a pox”  and a “small man” until Much’s heart visibly breaks.

Now I don’t want to excuse Robin here, because he is objectively awful to someone who doesn’t deserve it, who is trying to give him support but also telling him some much needed hard truths (even if it is slightly self-serving, which is what what seems to set Robin off). But at the end of the day, if he loves Marian he needs to accept that it is her choice to marry Guy, to “do the right thing” to (she thinks) protect her father - and later of he does just that. For now Edward and Much are both right, it is more important for him to try and protect the king from Vaisey, because if he is ousted and Richard back on the throne so many lives would be improved, including the people of Locksley. But Robin has been pushed to breaking point all season, and has now snapped and can’t see reason, but is stuck in his own grief/rage.

But unlike previously, when Robin said regrettable things in the heat of the moment and then immediately took them back, this is a calculated attack designed to hurt Much the most, because he loves Robin so much that it takes A Lot to push him away. It’s a bold move to make your hero so unlikable in such a moment, because Robin really is unforgivably cruel here, and trust the audience to understand why. I mean, I don’t want to bang on about the PTSD, but it’s (partly) the PTSD, based on a triggering, precipitating event causing a self-destructive spiral. Robin needs some Ye Olde Therapy.  

For all the talk about Robin getting his title and lands back, nothing is said about what happens to Gisborne once he does, other than that they can’t prove he was the one who tried to assassinate Richard. Because really, Richard probably would believe Robin even though the tattoo was burned away, and Guy’s certainly committed other crimes that could be testified to just like they’re intending for Vaisey - and let’s be real, it’s not like a king needs evidence to order someone’s death (hello, season 2 finale). Boom - Guy executed, marriage to Marian annulled, problem solved!

So, the scene between Marian and Guy, in which Marian is more concerned with whether or not Guy tried to kill the king than the fact that he stabbed her. But its understandable, because Marian thinks there’s no way out that doesn’t risk her father’s life, and it’s easier to convince herself that maybe Guy didn’t do it to make the best of things. I think she does have some kind of feelings for him, or is at least moved by his feelings for her, and believes if nothing else she can influence him/continue working from the inside; giving up the mantle of the Nightwatchman but doing the same work (in a different way) as Lady Gisborne.

And then it’s Robin/Marian angst, round 3, and it’s a far cry from their interaction in the cave milliseconds away from “I love yous” - in both tone and body language they’re back in defensive positions talking past one another. The tension, it be thick.

Marian is making her best rationalisation with “deprived of love” and Robin not at all buying the Woobification 101. Once she tells him her decision to marry Guy, he accepts it, but it’s Marian’s reaction that’s telling, she’s surprised that he doesn’t argue, deep down she wants him to fight for her, to say that the real reason she shouldn’t marry Guy is because he loves her. It’s quite a contrast from the previous scene where Guy was very open about how he feels about her, while Robin deflects, but while she was conflicted about Guy trying to kiss her, she’s frustrated, disappointed, and angry when Robin leaves.

But really, this is rather unfair of Marian, because Robin did already declare himself in the cave (”we should be together”) without her reciprocation, so expecting him to take the first step again without any encouragement is a bit much.

Would a depressed person sit slumped against a tree all night?

“But by taking Marian in holy wedlock, I will wash away those crimes. Her pure heart will cleanse mine.” Yeah...not going to touch that one. I appreciate that there’s a lot going on with Guy and many, many people find it compelling, but I’m afraid it’s not really a narrative that interests me.

Speaking of pure hearts: Much. Faced with the same choice he was counseling Robin on, but with the additional wrinkle of knowing the king’s an imposter, he still decides to stop the wedding. “Her heart belongs to another” is A Moment and I don’t know exactly why but I find his very soft pleas following this and calling her “my lady” very affecting. 

She’s beauty and she’s grace, she punched Guy in the face.

“A trap. I knew it.” I haaaaate this line. NO YOU DIDN’T KNOW IT ROBIN YOU KNEW NOTHING OF THE KIND IF YOU HAD KNOWN YOU WOULD BE EVEN MORE OF A DICK FOR LEAVING UGGGHHHH.

“We can’t be seen together” Right in front of my salad two guards on front gate duty, who get front row tickets to the kiss. Look at them! They’re right there! This show drives me absolutely bonkers sometimes.

I do love this dress though.

“An audience with the king has been suspended!” Going out on one last pun.

Regardless, I really love this episode. Despite the lack of fallout from the emotional wringer they all went through, I can’t help but smile when the gang does their silly little jump for joy at the end.