#still a good read though i recommend

[kataraslove]

as someone who has recently read the reckoning of roku, it’s really not the anti fire nation propaganda that a certain subsection of fandom is making it out to be. yes, gyatso says those words to roku, but he’s angry - at both the world and at himself for the death of his sister. he later apologizes to roku. the book does not paint gyatso out to be in the right, and neither does it paint all fire nation citizens to be in the wrong. the narrative even makes a distinction between the good fire nation citizens (ta min and roku) and prejudicial fire nation citizens (sozin, primarily), and some morally ambiguous ones like dalisay, but they’re more or less abolished from any accountability for partnering with sozin.

avatar the last airbender does not do a good job at displaying much of the context associated with the crimes of the fire nation, aka the climate and perspectives that justified sozin eradicating the air nomads and many of the benders in the southern water tribe. we know from avatar that sozin wanted to conquer the rest of the world for fire nation domination and expansion, but we’re not given much insight into the causal factors that allowed him to conduct genocide and colonialism, beyond “he was able to do it all in one day with the power of the comet,” and “he was a very bad man.”

the reckoning of roku provides the context for all of that, the factors that contributed to sozin’s blood-thirst. which means seeing sentiment from sozin that view the air nomads - and their pacifist ways of life - as inferior and below human. the novel doesn’t particularly attempt to humanize sozin, not in the way that other medias do when exploring the backstory of their villain. at the end, the takeaway from the novel is that sozin is on the road to becoming the ultimate fascist we all know him for, but this time we’re provided more context into how he became that fascist, and why roku hesitated to kill him.

is it more critical of the fire nation than most of the franchise? yes, i would say so, and having a filipino author be the one to offer that commentary is an excellent decision by avatar studios. but the extent of the critique is still more or less along the lines of “this one guy was truly the operations behind it,” which is still consistent with what we’ve seen in atla. there’s nothing too radical introduced in terms of colonial theory, unlike what parts of the fandom are saying.

which leads me to my final point: if this is how badly a subsection of fandom (aka fire nation worshippers and zutara shippers [not mutually exclusive]) are reacting to the simple notion exploring how sozin committed genocide, then they’ve hit further rock bottom than i can imagine. not only that, but this type of reactionary behaviour risks alienating other parts of the fandom; for instance, fans of the avatar novels who otherwise would have given the ship and the shippers grace.

in other words, many of these hardcore shippers “criticizing” the roku novel have no one to blame but themselves if their behaviour leads to the alienation of regular fans. this loud subsection of fandom is so caught up in their one-sided, imaginary fantasy where everything in the franchise somehow revolves around aang/kataang vs zuko/zutara, that the Evil Bryke are always targeting them, to the point that they’ll fail to realize that the fire nation and fire nation characters are often absolved from accountability across the IP, and the fire nation is explored much more than the other nations are.

[ibrithir-was-here]

"Alright Mr Virga, I hear you have a new book to pitch?"

"Yes, so, its a gothic novel, something akin to Anya Seton's Dragonwyck"

"Indeed?"

"Yes, but--we make it gay"

"Oh ho! And what shall we call this, the first gay gothic novel that is akin to Dragonwyck?"

[dreamsy990]

YAY I GOT THIS DONE ON HIS BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAJIMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE YOU RUINED MY LIFE AND ALSO MAYBE SAVED MY LIFE. WHO THE FUCK KNOWS I DO LIKE YOU A LOT THOUGH

[echolepzy]

Seeing other people experiencing ISAT for the first time is so fucking funny because like

Oh!!!! I remember how that felt! Yikes! Anyway keep going pal you’re doing great (silent screaming because It Gets Worse and yet nothing can be said without spoiling it)

[pushing500]

Hi Gracie! I adore your Rimworld comics so much (I've been following since Season One of the Jones lads and I've read back through your playthroughs repeatedly—just finished another read yesterday), and now you've gotten me into Pete Complete too! I just wanted to know, as I've now torn through two of his Rimworld playlists in two days, is there anyone else whose playthroughs you'd recommend? I can't afford the game yet, so glutting myself on other people's joy seems like a fun solution! Thanks so much for making your art and sharing it with the world! It brings with it so much joy, and I hope it gives you tenfold all the happiness you bring others! Have a spectacular day and stay safe!

Thank you for such a lovely message! I'm so glad you enjoy the comics—enough to reread them too! I thought I was the only one who did that, lol.

I love glutting myself on RimWorld content. Pete Complete is far and above my favourite, but I have other recommendations too. Here are a few of the other YouTube channels I peruse frequently:

AmbiguousAmphibian has a playlist of RimWorld challenges that I often find myself coming back to time and time again. They're lots of fun, and AA's narration style is bizarrely soothing and almost lyrical at times.

Hazzor has a similar style to AA, and I can't remember how many times I've watched through this playlist and hoped my RimWorld stories were half as interesting as these ones. I'm particularly fond of The Badgerhold Saga, and rewatch it once every three months or so.

EvilFluffyTuna is a newer channel on my radar, but I do enjoy the storytelling style, and the videos never fail to make me laugh. Also, who can say no to a Scottish accent?

Speaking of storytelling, Lore Harbour does an incredible job telling stories with RimWorld as a medium. This series is my favourite, but the others are all great as well!

If you're still looking for more and have a high tolerance for technological ineptness and grating Australian accents, I hope to stream some more RimWorld on my Twitch channel going forward. I've been using the Random Start mod, and I'm trying to see how far I can get on commitment mode. Currently, my faction is the comfortingly-named "Eye Boilers", but I don't know how long they'll last.

Here they are! Don't get too attached, they were on the brink of starvation when we finished the last stream

Thank you again for your lovely message! I hope you continue to enjoy my comics, and all the other RimWorld content that can be found!

[kyouka-supremacy]

lizandre on ao3 writes some cool stuff that looks at the sskk dynamic post mortal enemies thing that i think you might like? 'inside you there is meat. it moves' is like my favourite fic that i have ever read, its more an atsushi character study but there's sskk in there and it kinda touches on how their lives could integrate when theyre not trying to kill each other anymore.

Omg please tell me about it, I love their writing so much, it's spectacular!!! I'm especially enamoured with their Atsushi characterization, it's really one of my favorite out there; I particularly recommend i’m safe! i’m whole! i've got it under control!, which uses a kind of imaginary that's similar to the one you're mentioning here, and it's an absolutely groundbreaking piece of writing.

I adore those fics and that only speaks of how spot on you were with the kind of characterization I like, so thank you and Anon if you stumble across any more recommendations please don't heistate to hit me up!!!

[fictionadventurer]

Potential January Reads

A Brilliant Night of Ice and Stars by Rebecca Connolly

Rhododendron Pie by Margery Sharp

So Big by Edna Ferber

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Vibrant Paradoxes by Bishop Robert Barron

The Diary of a Country Priest by George Bernanos

Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope

Katherine Wentworth by D.E. Stevenson

[collectingavenuesmwue]

holy shit go read this everybody

this fic has ruined and made my day at the same time it’s written so beautifully and it’s made me cry im so serious

[thatfriendlyanon]

looking for book recs!

current favorites / general tastes / similar vibes of:

Gilead by Marylinne Robinson

Mistborn (the first trilogy) by Brandon Sanderson

Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

Piranesi by Susanna Clark

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

currently reading/about to read:

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

i'd love for you to either comment or reblog & put in the tags any recs you might have!

[looking mostly for: fiction or creative nonfiction / experimental and/or older-than-middle-grade / more magical realism]

[mosspodge]

HEY MOSSY WHATS UR FAVORITE SONG im looking for new music :]

first of all, thank you for the huge compliment!!! you should also know you are saying this to someone who spent 15 minutes listening to the spider man game pizza theme in the car yesterday so. Yeah!!!

All that sillyness aside, I listen to way too much music (my usual playlist is +1,300 songs) of way too many different genres and i am happy to share them with anyone and everyone!! Gonna try and limit this to 10~ish songs for now, since otherwise I will end up with a list 100 songs long lol. Also I am a rare Apple Music user so I'll try and link all the songs to youtube so that they're easier to listen to!!! also bc Spotify confounds me lol OK there was WAY more text than i thought so MUSIC RECS UNDER THA CUT

MOSSY'S COOL MUSIC RECS

DRIVING MY LOVE - Anri GOSH her entire TIMELY!! album is amazing, but this is the song that's been sticking in my mind the most lately. Citypop is a very fun genre of music that came about in Japan in the 70's, and Anri had (to me) some of the most fun songs in the genre :>

New River and Soap - The Oh Hellos OH BOY OH BOY THE OH HELLOS!!! I LOVE this band!!!!! If you were on art social media a couple years ago you probably have heard Soldier, Poet, King, which is by and large their most popular song. New River is one of my go-to songs when I am going through it. Absolutely love the imagery of the song, allowing new and difficult experiences carve new landscape through yourself. Soap, it is important to note, is the culmination of their four-part EP series Four Winds, and is kind of the resolution to that whole series of songs. It's really interesting and worth looking into! I must note that this is a Christian band in case you find that uncomfortable, but I would still recommend checking them out even if you do- the Four Winds EPS focus specifically on their struggles with God amidst the uh. Bad US Political Climate and all that. Most of their music on the topic is pointed and metaphorical (see: Passerine) and so that knowledge isn't super necessary to enjoy the music, I just think it's neat :] And not every song necessarily touches on the subject- these two specifically don't! Also I GOT TICKETS TO SEE THEM THIS YEAR LETS GOOOOO sorry this section is so long i just really like this band

No More What Ifs - Persona 5 Royal, covered by the 8 Bit Big Band Ok back on track lol. This song is absolutely my favorite from the game, but MAN THIS COVER. The 8BBB is one of the best video game cover bands out there imo, and they COMPLETELY outdid themselves with this one. They actually added a few extra lyrics to the song to better round out the overarching theme of both it and the game and MAN. i will never listen to another version again. The album this will be a part of isn't out yet sadly, but I would 100% recommend checking out their other stuff!

Bones in the Ocean (2023 vers.) - Longest Johns There's a lot to be said about this one but it's best if you just listen to it tbh. I will say that this is a new recording of one of the band's first original shanties, and that it includes all former and current members. Would highly recommend all the other songs on this album too, aside from this song it's a very fun listen! But ourgh this song,,,, if i had time I'd make a dozen animatics for it

エビチャーハン! (You’re Telling Me A SHRIMP Fried This Rice?!) - JamieP best miku song no quastion

'Tis Autumn - Nat "King" Cole Trio There's only one song to kick off the fall season and it's absolutely this one! Also The Autumn Leaves, which Nat King actually sung in Japanese once which is cool. He was an incredible musician and all of his songs are great, but Tis Autumn is probably my favorite :>

Catch You Catch Me (Card Captor Sakura OP) - Gumi Do you want to get ready in the morning feeling like a magical girl? Boy howdy do I have a song for YOU! Seriously the amount of people I've shown this song to under that premise who have come to me the next day saying that it worked is a lot lol. Card Captor Sakura has been a big comfort show for me and MAN the music is *chefs kiss*, especially the OPs!!! Linked the full song, but I would also recommend watching the opening itself :D

#41 - Dave Matthews Band "wow you like dave matthews lol thats such dad music" ok listen. I have been listening to DMB since before I was born. Saying I'm biased is probably an understatement here. But his songs are very good and I like them ok. Anyways #41 is a really stupid name for a song but I love the band in it, the weird lyrics, just the overall jazziness of it. If you wanna listen to more Dave stuff I would highly recommend the stuff from his solo concerts with Tim Reynolds- its just 2 guys jamming out on guitars, it's great. Stuff like One Sweet World, Still Water, Grey Street (This one's a tough listen for me but I love it). For the fun full band stuff I love So Much to Say, Ants Marching, just the older albums in general

Stay I Pray You - Anastasia (The Musical) I am allowing myself ONE (1) musical song. My sister is a huge musical fan and an even bigger Russian History nerd and an even BIGGER Bolshevik Revolution nerd so I watched Anastasia with her a lot growing up. Eventually they made the musical and it's actually tied for my favorite (Phantom is pretty hard to beat)! I got to see it tour and MAN. all the music is amazing, but this to me is the standout song- largely because this song, despite not being in the movie, actually was kinda in the movie- there's this bit in In the Dark of the Night that they took and made into a completely different song which is a fun nod to the movie!!

Music to Soothe The Savage Snake Plant - Mort Garson Got overwhelmed by my options at this point so I'm defaulting to one of my favorites! I believe another song off this album got popular recently, but I will forever know this one from it being used in the final scene in The Adventure Zone, my first and favorite DnD podcast! Honestly I could recommend a dozen songs from the podcast, but this one in particular always sticks out to me. While I'm here you should also go listen to The Adventure Zone, it's a great podcast, especially their first story (Balance, just start at the bottom lol).

wow that. was a lot more than I meant to write lol. Special shoutout to Virtual Insanity, the bane of my existence and my personal hell. It was my #1 most listened to song last year coming to a total of *checks replay* 239 plays, over 50% of which occurred within the span of a week. another shoutout to The Housebuilding Song. i swear i listen to you once a year how are you always in my top 25

[lovers-instead]

Sapphic YA Book Rec: Good Moon Rising by Nancy Garden

1996 follow-up to Annie on My Mind, this time featuring 2 girls who compete for the lead role in their high school theater department.

Links to download:

Internet Archive (to borrow)

Anna's Archive

Z-Library

[hinsaa-paramo-dharma]

My first step towards taking over the world.

[ersatz-introspective]

related to prev post, i wanna get back into reading so bad but i'm always so preoccupied with imaginary competition lmfao

[spry-the-artist]

Ink Demonth Day 15th: Colour

He was only in black, gray, and white tones now. The color had been leached from his body and he sometimes caught Henry looking out the window at the rainbow of a world around him before he would glance at himself and sigh

-Excerpt from A Drop of Ink: Prologue Part Two

Fan art of an old BATIM fanfic, and one of my favourites. Highly recommend you read it, even though it doesn’t seem like it’s continuing anytime soon (with only one chapter not being from either of the prologues)

(You have to read the first part before reading the second part so I’m not linking it here, even though this scene is from that fic)

Bonus: A version without the aura of grayscale around Henry (more book accurate, but I just wanted to add the effect because I thought it was a good idea. I like both equally so I’m including this here)

[skitskatdacat63]

I feel like Khachaturian is such an underrated composer :<

Everyone should listen to Gayaneh >:(

[navxry]

Random idea: what if I open up a yandere IDV writing blog