#that is EXTREMELY FUCKING TERRIFYING in both premise and execution

[nitw]

in order of initial progress so far (is updating)! what the fuck is this game’s problem

EDIT: i had to make flynn’s in 2 parts because what in the sam hill. get it. s. sam ...................................

[asleepinawell]

Book Recs

I was gonna do one of these at the end of the year, but I’ve somehow managed to read 26 books this year already (12 novellas, 14 novels), almost all featuring queer authors and/or characters so this is already a long list.

Note: There’s a few on here I was kind of meh about, but in most of those cases it was a ‘book might be good but it’s not for me so i’ll mention it to put it on people’s radar anyway’ type of thing. Insert the usual necessary tumblr disclaimer about all of this being only my opinion and your opinions are valid too etc etc.

In order of when I read them:

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir - Fantasy novella from the author of gideon the ninth that’s a twist on the classic princess trapped in a tower waiting for a prince story. Quite fun. (novella)

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht - Dark fantasy about revenge and magic. m/m couple but like I said it’s pretty dark and twisted all around so definitely not a happy queer romantic story. My opinion was interesting premise that could have been executed better and probably should have been a full novel to embellish on the world building potential. (novella)

A Memory Called Empire & A Desolation Called Peace - Arkady Martine - Probably tied with murderbot as the best things I read this year. Scifi, f/f couple, wonderfully done exploration of what it means to fall in love with a culture that is destroying your own. More of the many queer anti-imperialist books that have come out recently and certainly some of the best. The second one is a direct continuation of the first. (2 novels)

The Tyrant Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson - This is the third in the Baru Cormorant series (The Masquerade) and was my favorite so far. The second and third book were originally one book that got split I believe and the second book didn’t stand alone as well (though was still great), but the third book really made up for that. Dark fantasy world starring a queer woc whose country and culture is destroyed by the imperial forces of that world colonizing and assimilating them. She vows revenge and decides to work her way up within her enemy’s ranks to enact it from within and bring an empire to ruins. Really really fascinating study of so many different aspects of our own world and the systems which enable and allow bigotry and how bigoted and violent narratives are used to control minorities. This is definitely a darker series and I was particularly impressed with some of the commentary on the racism prevalent in non-intersectional feminism as depicted through a fantasy world. Can’t wait for the last one to come out! (3 novels, 1 forthcoming)

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells - There’s six of them--5 novella and a novel--and the first is All Systems Red. Told from the point of view of a self-aware droid/android that is rented out by a corporation to provide protection in a dystopian capitalist hellhole future that isn’t that unlike our current capitalist dystopia but is in space. Muderbot hacked the chip that controlled it and instead of going rogue just wants to be left alone to watch its favorite tv shows. Murderbot is painfully relatable and the books are both funny and poignant. Highly recommended. (5 novellas and a novel).

Winter’s Orbit - Everina Maxwell - This was a m/m romance novel with a scifi backdrop of royal intrigue. Generally I’m more into scifi with a queer relationship in the background than vice versa, so it wasn’t my favorite, BUT I think it was still well written and someone looking for more of the romance angle would enjoy it. Has all your favorite romance tropes in it, especially the yearning. (novel)

The Divine Cities - Robert Jackson Bennett - Three book series. I’m very conflicted about this one. Set in a fantasy world where an enslaved nation overthrew the country enslaving them and now rules over them. It’s a story of what happens after the triumphant victory and within that it’s also a murder mystery tied into the dying magic of the conquered nation. It also has a six foot something naked oily viking man fist fight a cthulhu in a frozen river. The second book was by far my favorite, mostly due to the main character being brilliant. My conflict comes from the fact I don’t feel like the story treated its women and queer characters well. Like it had really great characters but it didn’t do great by them overall. That and the third book didn’t live up to the first two. But still definitely worth a read, can’t stress enough how cool some of the world building was. (3 novels)

Into the Drowning Deep - Mira Grant - This might be the only one on here I disliked. It’s got a doomed boat voyage and creepy underwater terror and monsters and a super diverse cast of characters, but I just didn’t enjoy the writing style. While having a diverse cast is great, there were a lot of moments where it felt like characters were pausing to explain things about themselves that felt like a tumblr post rather than a normal conversation you might have while actively being hunted by monsters. I also bounced off all the characters. But a lot of people seem to have liked it so if you’re into horror and want a book with a f/f main couple then maybe you’ll enjoy it. (novel)

Dead Djinn Universe - P. Djèlí Clark - Around the early 1900′s, a man in Egypt discovers a way to access another world and bring Djinn and mysterious clockwork beings called Angels through. As a result, Egypt tells the British to get fucked and Cairo becomes one of the most powerful cities in the world. So Egypt, magic, djinn, a steampunk-ish vibe, oh and the main character is a butch queer woman who enjoys wearing dapper suits and looking fabulous while she investigates supernatural events. Her girlfriend is also mysterious and badass. And she has a cat. There’s three novella (one of which technically might be considered a short story) and then the first novel. You should absolutely read the novellas first (A Dead Djinn in Cairo, The Angel of Khan el-Khalili, The Haunting of Tram Car 015). Super fun and imaginative series. (3 novellas and a novel, more forthcoming)

River of Teeth & Taste of Marrow - Sarah Gailey - From the book description

“In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true. Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two. This was a terrible plan.”

Queer hippo riders!!!! Very much a western but with hippos. Main couple included a non-binary character. Loved the first one. The second one I was more meh about due to one of the characters I was supposed to like having obnoxious man pain that a woman had to take the brunt of the whole time. Also there were less hippos. But queer hippo riders! Definitely read the first one, and they’re both novellas so no reason not to read the second as well. (2 novellas)

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers - I may be the only person who hasn’t read the long way to a small angry planet at this point, but I did grab her new novella and I loved it. It made me want to go sit out in the woods and feel peaceful. The world it’s set in feels like a peaceful post-apocalypse...or diverted apocalypse maybe. Humans built robots and robots gained sentience, but instead of rebelling they just up and left and went into the wilderness with a promise that the humans wouldn’t follow them.The remaining human society reshaped itself into something new and peaceful. It’s the story of a monk who leaves their habitual monking duties to go be a tea monk and then later wanders into the wilderness and becomes the first human in ages to meet a robot. Very sad there’s no fan art yet. (novella, more forthcoming)

The March North - Graydon Saunders - This was such a weird book that I’m not sure how to explain it. The prose style is hard to get used to and I suspect a lot of people will bounce off it in the first chapter. There’s no third person pronouns used at all and important events get mentioned once in passing and if you blink you’ll miss them. Set on a world where magic is extremely common to the point that rivers sometimes run with blood or fire and the local weeds are something out of a horror movie and most of the world is run by powerful sorcerer dictators, one country banded together (with the help of a few powerful sorcerers who were tired of all the bullshit) to form a free country where powerful sorcerers wouldn’t rule and the small magics of every day folks could be combined to work together. The story revolves around a Captain of the military force on the border who one day has three very powerful sorcerers sent to them by the main government with the hint that just maybe there’s about to be a big invasion (there is) with the implication of take these guys and go deal with this. The world building is extremely complex and very cool...when you can actually understand what the fuck is going on. There is also a murder sheep named Eustace who breathes fire and eats just about everything and is a Very Good Boy and belongs to the most terrifying sorcerer in the world who appears as a little old grandma with knitting. It had one of the most epic badass and wonderfully grotesque battles I’ve ever read. But yeah, it is not what I would call easy reading. Opinions may vary wildly. I did also read the second one (A Succession of Bad Days) in the series which was easier to follow and had a lot more details about the world, but overall I was more meh about it despite some cool aspects. The chapters and chapters of the extreme details of building a house that made up half the novel just weren’t my thing. (novels).

The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson - In this world parallels universes exist and we’ve discovered how to travel between them, but the catch is you can only go to worlds where the ‘you’ there is already dead. This turns into an uncomfortable look at who would be the people most likely to have died on many worlds and how things like class and race would fit into that and what we would actually use this ability for (if you guessed stealing resources and the stock market you’d be correct). The main character is a queer woc who travels between worlds with the assistance of her handler (another queer woc) who she has the hots for. She accidentally stumbles on a whole lot of mess and conspiracy and gets swept up in that. Really enjoyed it. (novel)

Witchmark - C.L. Polk - Fantasy world reminiscent of Victorian England (I think?) where a young man with magical gifts runs away from his powerful family to avoid being exploited by them. He joins the army and fights in a war and comes home to try and live a quiet life as a doctor, but a murder pulls him into a larger mystery that upturns his life. Also he’s extremely gay and there’s a prevalent m/m romance. This one was a fun-but-not-mind-blowing one for me. (novel, 2 more in the series I haven’t read)

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon - This was one of those that everyone loved but I couldn’t get into for some reason. I tried twice and only got about halfway through the second time. It’s got dragons and queer ladies and fantasy world and all the things I like, but I wasn’t that invested in the main story (which included the f/f couple) and was more interested in the smaller story about a woman trying to become a dragon rider. There are few things that beat out a lady and her dragon friend story for me and that was the storyline that felt neglected and took a different turn right when we got to the part I’d been waiting for. But, I know a lot of people whose reading opinions I respect who loved it, and if you like epic fantasy with dragons and queens and treachery and pirates and queer characters then I’d say you should definitely give it a try. (novel)

Bonus: I didn’t read these series this year, but if you haven’t read them yet, you should.

Imperial Radch (Ancillary Justice) - Ann Leckie - Spaceship AI stuck in a human body out for revenge for their former captain, but that summary does not come close to doing it justice. Another one examining imperialism and also gender and race.(3 novels)

Kushiel's Legacy Series - Jacqueline Carey - This is two series, six books total, and starts with Kushiel's Dart. Alternate universe Renaissance-y Europe in a fantastical world where sex isn't shameful and sex workers are respected and prized. Lots of political intrigue and mystery. A lot of BDSM and kinky stuff too (the main character is a sexual masochist, oh and also bi!). I first read this series when I was fifteen or sixteen and it definitely made a big impression on me. Same author also wrote the Santa Olivia series which I’d also recommend. (6 novels)

The Locked Tomb (Gideon the Ninth) - Tamsyn Muir - I mean, if you follow me, you know. If you don’t follow me you still probably know. I’d have felt remiss to have left them off though. Lesbian Necormancers in Space. Memes! Skeletons! Biceps! Go read them. (2 novels, 2 forthcoming, 1 short story)

Books On My To Read List:

Fireheart Tiger - Aliette de Bodard

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water - Zen Cho

Black Sun - Rebecca Roanhorse

This Is How You Lose the TIme War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Ninefox Gambit - Yoon Ha Lee

Also, if anyone has any recs for scifi/fantasy books starring queer men (not necessarily having to do with a queer relationship) and written by queer men I’d love them. There’s a lot written by women, and some of them are great, but I’d love to read a story about queer men from their own perspective.

[bestworstcase]

Your opinion on diadem au zhan tiri ?

😭 my beloved

oh boy

further thoughts under the cut because i have some highly controversial™️ things to say

& to be clear. yes i read the entire fic.

so. the premise here is there are “mythics,” a group encompassing both magical creatures and human mages, and at some point an indeterminate amount of time prior to the beginning of the story, the kingdom of corona drove its mythics out and pressured five of the other seven kingdoms into signing the “mythic accords,” which made it illegal for mythics to exist in these countries. diadem—the dark kingdom analogue, this is a dark prince cassandra AU—was the only country to abstain.

zhan tiri’s family (henceforth zitifam) were among the coronan mages forced out of their homes. they, and six kingdoms worth of other refugees, sought asylum in diadem. the zitifam pledged fealty to the crown of diadem and ultimately became established as a family of court mages and advisors. further notes:

1 - a fan wrote an epistolary fanfic of the fic that is an account of a group of child refugees coming from corona to diadem, which reveals in the end that these children are the orphaned offspring of mythics whom corona disappeared when they resisted the forced exile. this is directly referenced as an in-universe text in the final chapter of diadem proper, so it can be considered as ‘canon’ within the universe of the au.

2 - while it’s unclear precisely when all of this happened, it began a long time ago; in chapter 18, zhan tiri describes her family’s desire for vengeance as “centuries-old.”

3 - diadem’s streets are evidently “overflowing with mythic refugees with nowhere else to go.”

4 - 18 years ago, there was a “peaceful advocate group” of mythics known as the nightingales. their approach to reversing the mythic accords involved “lend[ing] their magic to anyone who needed help,” with the intention of “showing the people that magic is nothing to be afraid of and encouraging them to open their minds.”

king frederic turned to them for help when arianna fell ill whilst pregnant with rapunzel. their leader, an unnamed sorceress, agreed to help in exchange for the lifting of the accords in corona. it’s a little unclear precisely what happened, but the story as recounted by rapunzel (who learns of this via a vision) seems to imply that frederic intended to execute this woman after arianna was saved, and she chose to kill herself first and, in the process and unbeknownst to frederic, bequeath her magic to rapunzel.

after the apparent murder of their leader, the nightingales planned an uprising—but rapunzel was kidnapped before they could enact this plan, and frederic assumed they were to blame and raided their homes, arresting and imprisoning or exiling every mythic the guards could catch. lady caine was among the children orphaned by these raids; her father fled to diadem without her, settled down and got married, went eighteen years without trying to contact her, and kept on with the “peaceful advocacy” thing because he is a useless bootlicking centrist.

anyways,

5 - the pertinent part of #3 and #4 is that the situation in corona is ongoing. the original purges and creation of the accords happened centuries ago, enforcement appears to have lapsed for a while, and under frederic’s reign corona’s persecution of mythics ramped up again, resulting in a second purge around eighteen years ago and subsequent decades of extreme hostility. when rapunzel is outed as a mage, frederic sets the royal guard on her, that’s how bad it is. even the literal princess of corona is not safe.

6 - further, in chapter 8, it is implied that the mythic accords may have required that participating nations intercept mythics fleeing through their borders (to what end is unclear; imprisonment or execution seems likely, but we learn this by way of arianna noting that antipe chose *not* to intervene when mythic refugees passed through en route to diadem, in defiance of the accords). antipean scholars recorded the stories of these refugees and collected artifacts and enchanted heirlooms from them which are now housed in the spire. it is worth noting that when the accords are repealed in the final chapter, these items are not returned to their rightful owners.

7 - arianna, who is antipean, privately thinks the accords are bad and expresses that she has “no personal grief” with mythics and “looks back with fondness” on mythic friends she met as a young woman, but she has done nothing about this because “that matters little when you are the queen of Corona.” her hands are tied—until frederic chases rapunzel out of corona, at which point she finds the wherewithal and public support to stage a coup against her husband within a matter of days. rapunzel is a mythic and likewise just kind of sits on her ass doing nothing except pining for cass and occasionally angsting about how her father hates mythics, until the point where she’s driven out of her home, at which time her first priority is reconciling with cass and her second priority is making sure corona doesn’t face any consequences. she can understand genocide but she draws the line at going to war to stop genocide. and prince cass i’m pretty sure isn’t even aware that there’s a refugee crisis happening in her own kingdom because she is an ignoramus. our heroes, ladies and gentlefolk.

hokay. i’m pretty sure that covers everything.

it is never referred to as such in the text of the story itself, but… calling it what it is, the premise of the diadem au is that corona instigated a centuries-long genocide of mythics, resulting in a massive refugee crisis in the one kingdom that refused to participate. the zitifam escaped this genocide, eventually secured a high station in the country that offered them asylum, and now seek to use their influence to persuade diadem’s queen edith declare war against corona and end things once and for all. this is framed, in the story, as a cruel and selfish desire for revenge, but like.

um.

corona is actively doing genocide? hello??

anyway, diadem zhan tiri.

she gets her first POV section in chapter 10, which establishes her basic goals (inciting war against corona to avenge the lives destroyed by corona’s genocide and put an end to it) and also establishes that she is viscerally terrified of her own family because she will be “disowned or worse�� if she fails to accomplish this. (she is also baffled to discover that prince cass actually cares about someone, which is funny because she’s completely right, considering how utterly miserable, paranoid, and unpleasant cass is in this au)

she discovers at this point that cass’s mysterious “friend” is the princess of corona and that they’re meeting up every couple weeks to fuck in the woods. she is, understandably, alarmed by this, and takes immediate and drastic steps to interfere with their relationship before cass can do something crazy like pursue a closer alliance with corona, the kingdom that is engaged in genocide against zhan tiri’s people,

which is to say, zhan tiri makes a pact with demons to grant herself enough power to singlehandedly incite a war, in exchange for her own life. it is…pretty clear that she considers this to be a desperate last resort, and she psyches herself up for it by thinking about the anguish of her family and the plight of all the impoverished refugees living in diadem. i. i’m not even exaggerating here:

Zahn Tiri closes her eyes, breathing deeply as she disrobes. Her heart pounds in her chest, as though begging her to reconsider this desecration, but she tightens her grip on the blade’s hilt and banishes her doubts. She thinks of the sorrow in her elders’ faces when they speak of their regrets that they will likely not live to see their homeland again. She thinks of Diadem’s streets, overflowing with mythic refugees with nowhere else to go. She thinks of the stubborn queen, of how she only needs one good reason to send her warriors marching on Corona. She thinks of the day that King Frederic falls on a Diadem blade, repaying the debt of blood that he owes.

in chapter 13, we learn a bit more about what exactly zhan tiri does to herself:

This ritual is irreversible, and corrupts the magic and the very life-force of the caster forever. Such practices are incredibly dangerous, and have historically been attempted only by the very desperate. In addition to risking their own lives, mythic clans and societies do not hesitate to banish practitioners of dark magic.

and she uses this power to - rapid fire plot summary:

1 - cast a decay spell on cassandra’s hand a la RATGT in such a way that it appears to be a failed assassination attempt by rapunzel

2 - persuades queen edith to declare war against corona

3 - does her damnedest to manipulate cass into going along with this

4 - when she’s caught, flees and transforms into a massive monster a la Plus Est to attack corona by herself

which. like. good for her? good for her.

she’s canon cass with a heroic motive. she’s canon cass if the reason cass took the moonstone was to literally stop a genocide. i… i don’t know how else to say it SKDJFKSKS

1 - self-sacrificing to the point of self-destruction

2 - burning up with rage over the real injustices done to her (& her people)

3 - only “friend” is a prince(ss) with no empathy who never listens to a word she says and doesn’t give a damn about her problems

4 - out of sheer desperation turns to a dangerous and destructive source of power in order to achieve her goals

and the key difference between them is that when canon cass loses her shit it’s because she’s trying frantically to prove that she matters and when diadem zhan tiri loses her shit it’s because she is TRYING. TO. STOP. A. GENOCIDE.

meanwhile the “heroic” characters suggest that hating corona is just as bigoted and wrong as corona’s genocidal hatred of mythics, that going to war is wrong because it would be “catastrophic” and “people are going to die,” and that the right way to end literal centuries of genocide is to politely ask the people in charge to please stop because anger is bad and violent resistance is never okay.

and then like after she turns into a monster and attacks the coronan palace, cass and rapunzel kill her and everything is okay because arianna staged a coup and they can just repeal the mythic accords! and at the end when rapunzel feels vaguely uncomfortable with the fact that they killed zhan tiri, cass is like don’t be! she was awful and deserved to die! and it makes me want to yeet myself into the stratosphere.

i just 😭😭 diadem zhan tiri

she deserved so much better my heart aches

[esmeraldablazingsky]

Oh my god, pleeeeaaaseee tell us about your Wen Sibs AU!! It's always such a highlight when I see something about it on my dash!!

ok yes I am always looking for an excuse to talk about Wen Sibs AU!! It is, unlike GTRT, very feel good and fluffy (mostly. can’t have all fluff without a good dose of angst. @paradoxspaceheater is once again my partner in crime and softness) but the basic premise is this: Wen Ruohan’s distant-ish cousin, current leader of the healer branch and top doctor in Qishan, soon to be proud mother of Wen Qing and Wen Ning, manages to gain partial custody of Wen Xu (and Wen Chao when he comes along.)

(for context, my version of wq and wn’s mom is named Wen Ying, courtesy name Luanyi, and in canon she and her husband die early when Wen Ruohan has them “”“accidentally”““ killed on a night hunt bc he decides they’re too much of a threat to him)

Anyway, Wen Ying and her husband raise Wen Xu, Wen Qing, Wen Chao, and Wen Ning (listed in order of age) as siblings basically, all while attempting to instill morals and healthy coping mechanisms in these kids while also not catching Wen Ruohan’s eye and being murdered.

The Sunshot Campaign happens but the only major casualty is Wen Ruohan (there are some executions afterwards though but like nobody else’s parents die,) the Wen family adopts Meng Yao and it goes really well for everybody except Jin Guangshan, Xue Yang gets therapy because he may be a mass murderer but he’s also fifteen, and Jin Zixun gets told off for being a massive dick!!

Highlights include (under a cut bc it will probably get long lmao):

- Nightless City politics, which are stressful for everybody involved

- sibling bonding!!!! so much sibling bonding!!!!!

- Wen Ruohan being fuckin terrifying as usual + explorations of how the Wen brothers got to be Like That in canon and how they avoid becoming Like That in the au (spoiler alert: good parenting and support)

- the Wen siblings (mostly Wen Chao) befriending the Yunmeng trio (mostly Wei Wuxian)

- Wen Qing going to Gusu School and experiencing Tension because it’s the year that Sect Leader Nie died and people aren’t feeling too good about the Wens, plus Nie Mingjue was supposed to come and now cannot for obvious reasons...

- Wen Xu going to Cloud Recesses and trying his absolute best not to burn everything down— this ends with Lan Xichen disappearing, unharmed (but nobody KNOWS he’s unharmed) and Qingheng-jun coming out of seclusion! it’s very tense, especially for Lan Qiren.

- Wen Chao running the indoctrination camp but he’s trying his best to not be evil and everyone is REALLY confused (also he gets to fight the xuanwu of slaughter with Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji :D)

- Wen Chao showing up in Lotus Pier and going “hey, my dad wants me to murder everyone and I really don’t want to murder everyone, so please help me”

- Meng Yao getting his opportunity to get into Nightless City by being sent on a rescue mission to extract Wen Xu and his wife (they’re both aro and they play strategy games together for fun) from the Citadel

- The Sunshot Campaign being considerably less harrowing because the allied sects have gained such helpful people as: Wen Ying, her husband, all four of her kids, half the healers of the Wen sect, Wen Zhuliu, the Jiang parents, and Qingheng-jun

- Wen Xu and Nie Mingjue getting captured together and having an extremely harrowing time with Wen Ruohan before Meng Yao stabs him and they all, understandably, go “what the fuck” before spending the next three or so days attempting to subdue an entire city with Meng Yao’s intelligence, Nie Mingjue’s strength and about five of his surviving soldiers, and Wen Xu’s boundless drive, charisma, and refusal to stop and rest for this entire period despite serious wounds and trauma. Wen Xu honey please

- Meng Yao getting an invitation to join the Wen sect as they get back on their feet because they all hate Jin Guangshan and are absolutely certain that if Meng Yao goes with him everything will be bad

- ...and accepting said invitation, after a hot second.

- Wen Ying becoming the new sect leader and basically overhauling the entire Wen sect because MAN they have issues and also everybody hates Wen Ruohan’s aesthetic sense and excessive staircases

- Wen Xu, Nie Mingjue, Lan Xichen, and Meng Yao becoming sworn brothers

- Nie Huaisang and Wen Ning, as the chronically overlooked baby brothers of the family, deciding to fuck shit up with the occasional help of Wen Xu’s wife (Yang Mingzhu) and pranking Jin Guangshan until they accidentally find evidence of serious crimes and get him deposed via anonymous letters and an absolute masterpiece of a public scandal

- Meng Yao and Jin Zixuan striking up a tentative friendship in the wake of their father’s downfall

- Meng Yao getting to hold Jin Ling!!!!!

- (oh, and Qin Su and Meng Yao managed to sort their shit out and Qin Su is now dating Mianmian.)

- Jin Zixun refusing to stop being a dick to people including but not limited to Meng Yao, Su She, and Lan Xichen, and getting his ass kicked repeatedly by Wen Chao before eventually managing to offend Qingheng-jun of all people. This is a bad idea because Meng Yao is currently locked in an obnoxiously soft slow-burn romance with Lan Xichen, and Qingheng-jun, in addition to being mad at Jin Zixun for other reasons, really deeply hates it when people insult his sons or his sons’ boyfriends.

- Jin Zixun getting dragged up Koi Tower’s steps by an incredibly pissed Sect Leader Lan and dropped in front of Jin Zixuan, who is honestly super relieved to finally have a reason to snap at Jin Zixun

- Wen Zhuliu traveling around on his own before he apprehends Xue Yang and brings him to Qishan to face justice, which would be execution if any of the other sects were in charge but Wen Ying is like “what no he’s a teenager give him to me”

- Lan Qiren getting to relax for once

and other things!!!! but there’s so much that if I really expanded on any of this this post would go on literally forever so feel free to ask about any of the above points/how any particular character is doing lmao

[evilelitest2]

Get Out was a great movie then totally broke down in the last third

If you go see the movie, when people start screaming about keys, just leave the theater.  Don’t ask for your money back because the earlier parts of the movie are fantastic and well worth your cash, just leave and make up your own ending in your head, because it just totally fails from that point on, mostly becasue the metaphor completely breaks down and leads to some really uncomfortable places.  

Spoilers below

Ok so Get out is basically “Stepford Wives” but with African Americans and it is a killer premise, the main character Chris is visiting the mega rich mega white family of his girlfriend rose, and whats great about the movie is how much he is expecting to get fucked over by the time the movie starts.  The opening scene is him asking Rose “hey did you tell your parents that I’m black” and she is like “no it isn’t a big deal” and he has this “ah man i’m fucked” expression, its great.  So basically Chris is just being really uncomfortable and upset in this uncomfortably white environment while everybody is trying to be a well meaning liberal “i’m so not racist” white person constantly making really uncomfortable comments or just trying to be too friendly, but everybody is hyper aware of his race in this really uncomfortable setting.  What makes this effective horror is that it is depicting a very normal and common experience and then just making it a tiny bit more extreme is very effective.  

   Chris is obvious uncomfortable and when ever he sees another black person he tries to connect with them and is shocked not only when they rebuff him, but also how they are all acting like creepy personifications of what white people think happy domestic workers act like, they are smiling and extremely happy with their work, submissive, and extremely nonthreatening (to the white characters, they are threatening as fuck to Christ).  Again, like the stepford wives, it is uncomfortable because they aren’t acting like people, they are acting like extensions of the white people.  Its mentioned that Rose’s mom is good at hypnotizing people, and I’m like “oh hey, its a racial take on the stepford wives, a marginalized group being transformed into obedient servants, with all the rich white liberals who all voted for Obama don’t you know, basically doing slavery.  There is a black guy at the party named Andre (not really) and every time Chris tries to talk to him, he basically just acts creepy and inhumane, at one point Chris puts his fist out to pound it, and Andre shakes it with this automated precision thats horrifying.  .  

    Then...the twist happens.  

Actually there are two twists, and both of them are terrible.

The First twist is the basic scheme, it is revealed that the Rose’s grandfather, the runner up to Jesse Owens, devolved a procedure for old white people to basically Body Hop into young black people’s bodies, basically taking over them and living forever while the black person’s mind is trapped in this subconscious hole.  Which....doesn’t make sense with the movie themes or earlier presentation. 

   Firstly, the practical problems. All of the African Americans seen on film act really creepy, like they are lobotomized and are all talking about how work will set them free nonsense.  If those are just old white people in black people’s bodies...wouldn’t they just act...normal?  Like normal people?  Like you could do a movie about whites actively taking over black bodies in order to further their own agenda, particularly in regards to sports, acting, and music, but that doesn’t match the tone set by the movie.  Like if Andre was a white dude taking over a black man’s body, he wouldn’t have behaved so stiff and awkwardly, he would have acted....normal.  Not like...well this 

Or this scene here.  

“Walter” is actually a white guy who has taken over a black guy’s body, so why is he acting like the happy slave cliche?   “Nothing I don’t wanna be doing” is a line that makes sense if the black characters are being forced into mind slavery, but if that just is Grandpa, why is Grandpa being so weird.  “I should get back to work and mind MY own business” again that makes sense if Walter is being forced to work again his will, but if Grandpa has taken over Walter’s body, why is he acting like that?

   For that matter why would a bunch of rich white dudes take over black bodies so they could do domestic work?  I mean these guys are rich, why i are they doing all the physical labor?  Also all of the African Americans in this community are subservient to whites in this really uncomfortable noticeable, way, which just wouldn’t be true if they were these white people’s friends and family, again nobody other than Chris isn’t in on the scheme, literally everybody gets what is happening except Chris, so them being so weird doesn’t really match.  Also I just don’t buy the notion of the most privileged people on the planet willingly giving up so much privilege, there is one Japanese dude who seems to want to become black so he can avoid the racism he experiences as an Asian American and....no dude, being black isn’t going to fix that.  If there was a body hopping scheme, this community I feel would want young white people because you know...they are racist.  

  And there were like 12 other black victims of this scheme, why don’t we see them around?  If they are body hopping, there should be more black people around.  

  If this movie was going to be about white people body hopping, it also should have just been executed differently.  THe community should have been full of black people who were actually black and from Chris perspective it would look temproarily like a post racial society, the white people treat their African American friends just like other white people, and everybody is acting as if there isn’t any systemic racism...except when they talk to Chris, who they view as black.  And we could have weird scenes of white people treating Chris one way and then other black people totally different, and then those same black people treat Chris with the same condescension, dismissive, and fear that the other white people are displaying.  Chris could be like “WTF is going on” because its like the whole community is color blind...except to him.  

Instead we have scenes like this which just....feel like an entirely different theme 

   Also... metaphor broke down, the movie is about how so called progressive white liberal communities are in fact deeply racist and still see black people as nothing more than things they can exploit rather than actual living breathing human beings.  Andre feels like a literal “Black best friend” whose entire existence is just “I’m here to support the white people around me”.  This is why the bidding scene is so well placed and why the party scene is so well done, the way that all of these people (who again, voted for Obama) dehumanize Chris while genuine believing they aren’t racist is extremely powerful.  Which doesn’t really relate to experience of becoming black, that storyline would be more appropriate for something like sports or music or dance where black bodies and talents are exploited for the benefit of whites who love the product but hate the people, or possibly a different type of well meaning liberal who fetishist blackness more than people.  The entire movie prior to the twist seems to be focused on black slaves via low wage domestic labor and the way that black people in white environments are forced to conform and make themselves less threatening to the notoriously skittish white folks (and Daniel Kaluuya does a great job portraying that.)

 The other problem is Rose.  See while everybody else in this movie is mega racist, Rose is very supportive and actively bitches to Chris about how racist her family is...when they aren’t around.  The movie (at first) is a metaphor for a real like experience, and Rose is the person who left her liberal white environment and upon returning is noticing how racist and uncomfortable it actually is, but doesn’t want to cause a fight with her family about it.  There are many places the story can go with that, she could betray Chris but taking her family’s side over his, she could back down and stand aside as he is subjected to racism, she could learn a lesson and stand up to her family even if it makes her uncomfortable, she could flee and abandon him, or she could reveal her own racism deep down.  All types of stories are possible while still fitting the metaphorical story line, the movie is set up to be about how even progressive white people are racist, Rose’s status as an ally can go in many different directions

....and the film chose none of them.  Instead Rose was a (gasp) a honey pot double agent who is luring black men (and a few women) to the family in order to have them captured, and is basically a sociopath with no redeeming qualities.  And ignoring the sexism...actually we shouldn’t ignore the sexism, WTF movie.  Actually there is a scene later in the film where Chris is strangling her to death (Othello reference?) and she looks like she is getting off to it, the entire character is just really fucked up.

(trust me, the scene is really uncomfortable)

  But beyond that metaphorically...that doesn’t make sense. White liberals talking about how much respect they have for black culture while actively trying to destroy it and are terrified of individual black people?  Yeah thats a thing.  White people not able to get past their own fear of African Americans and desire to dehumanize them?  Yeah that is also a thing.  White people actively trying to draw black people into their worlds via white women......what?   No that isn’t....no.  Actually the whole community Rose is from feels like a gated suberia, aka a community that came into being via White Flight and white people’s fear of having to live alongside African Americans.  The opening line of the film is so brilliant because Rose doesn’t think her boyfriend being black is a problem when obviously it is, if this is a giant scheme to trap him because he is black...then that line has no meaning.  It totally undercuts the entire thing the movie was going for.  Rose betraying Chris makes sense to me, Rose ultimately revealing herself to be an antagonist and a racist are ok with me, and rose being shot are ok with me, but this being a giant scheme robs the metaphor of any meaning (and this movie is one giant metaphor so losing that means you lose the film).  Its suppose to be calling out white culture and specifically white allies who are very supportive around cops but shrink in the face of family who they know are being racist, but that isn’t meaningful when she is a plant who is trying to effectively lobotomize her boyfriend.  If the point of the movie is to call out the white audience, that doesn’t work because white people can so “oh...well I”m not actively plotting the destruction of my spouse so....I”m in the clear hooray”.  

The movie is fantastic until a certain point and then it kinda falls apart.  The fact that this is basically the only movie on this subject since “Guess whose coming to dinner” (another flawed film) is sad because this topic could support dozens of movies in many genres, and it would be great if this was the start of a new topic of conversation rather than the last word.  

[deathnoting]

thank you for your explanation, i agree that the crowd sourced nature of Ls character is very interesting. making a big post of them is actually a pretty cool idea. anyway, i would love to hear aforementioned self indulgent characterizations lmao

hi anon!! sorry that it’s taken my 6 decades to answer this ask. i’ve been extremely busy because i have that personality type where if i’m not booked up at least 6 days a week i start having existential crises. (also my sister was visiting

i was hoping to give you a response as extensive as the last one but i’m not running on too much steam so bear with me. bullet pointed list bc my brain runs on those

self indulgent l lawliet headcanon characterizations

spooky orphanage childhood. i like to peel back the top layer of death note’s technological-era crime thriller genre to reveal the victorian gothic just below the surface. L’s detective status is near-mythic (he’s a glorified sherlock holmes with a flip phone) and what’s hinted about his backstory (bells, stained glass, orphanage, etc.) invites us (or me, anyway) to assign him a creepy, dickensian upbringing. my headcanon wammy’s house is a spooky old manor house in the english countryside, complete with empty wings, attics, secret passageways, extensive grounds, and extensive haunting lore. a prime spot to breed some mysteries. throw in some mid-ninteis technology and a stifling ego and you’ve got my ideal l lawliet aesthetic

obligatory beyond birthday bullet point. this would need its own post tbh, but anybody who knows me can tell you that lxb is the foundation for my L characterization. there’s no canon for their relationship/acquaintance to one another, although all hints point away from the direction that i skew dramatically in. basically, for me, L & B grew up together (with A) at roughly the same time/age (i hc L as two years older than B, one year older than A) at wammy’s house when it was still just quillsh & roger’s experiment for a better world. my B has his own extensive vibe, genre, & motivations, but for the purpose of brevity i’ll shorten it down to say that B, being half-shinigami, was just born feeling strange and misaligned with reality & human understanding and expectation, went to wammy’s house as a young child, was given L as the prime example of how he was supposed to be and what he was supposed to strive for, and basically created/collapsed his identity around that. L never treated him or A well, was just competitive and dismissive and self-absorbed, and in his adult life sort of carries the dejected weight of having fucked up something really crucial when he was too young to know the difference. i think he views B as both a mystery he couldn’t solve and a victim he couldn’t save. and a bit of a dirty secret that he’s not sure how to ever make peace with.

who the wammy in wammy’s house!? it’s ya boy quillsh. i have a very specific impression of L’s relationship with watari that doesn’t align with either the benevolent grandfather characterization or the abusive child-exploiter that the fandom seems to be limited to. i think that their relationship is somewhat exploitative, but knowingly. all L’s power comes from watari’s money and the fact that he took him in and gave him a home/direction, but all watari’s power comes from L’s genius. without the other, neither of them would have gotten far with the world’s greatest detective thing. i think their relationship is probably tinged with equal levels of respect and resentment, a father/son thing mixed in with a boss/employee. except the father is the employee….. maybe (?) don’t @ me.

lxlight!!! i think that L probably views light as this sheltered kid who totally misses the point. doesn’t view him as an equal at all and just sort of constructs this narrative around their supposed friendship to entrap light in a situation where he has to be amenable. i mean, that’s practically canon. what i’m trying to say is that i think the fic trope that has L and light thinking of each other as ~each other’s only equal~ is boring. i think that light feels that way about L, but L just coyly pretends while subtly jabbing at light from every angle, which only makes light more eager to win/prove his superiority. to me, L views light as this plucky and sort of terrifying kid who should in no way be capable of the things he’s capable of, and keeps being caught out by the magnitude of light’s power/mania/competence, to the point where it. you know. gets him pretty hot

my favorite L characterization, as anybody whose ever read any of my fic would know, is post-series “L lives and doesn’t know what the fuck to do with himself.” i really like exploring the emptiness of cycling constantly through locations and people and triumphs. i do think the only people L really forms relationships with are criminals that he obsesses over for a period of time and then abandons. there’s so much in B dying quietly in the background while L hasn’t even caught up with light yet that just hurts. i like to imagine L visiting B in prison, making peace with both of their mistakes. i like to imagine L finding a way for light to live in the world even after he’s gutted it, not because light deserves forgiveness but because L doesn’t want to be alone. i like seeing him as this kind of unjust authority of justice who collects criminals because they’re the only people who he can connect with, arbitrarily bestowing mercy and then taking it away. L is presented as such a machine (powered by donuts…..?!?) and i really like exploring the breakdown of the machinery and the revelation of tender human loneliness and terror beneath

oh! i almost forgot. let me talk at you about power bottom L! to each their own, i really don’t care about top/bottom dynamics in general bc? switching rules? but i feel really strongly about bottom!L. i think as a character with such absolute power over the circumstance of other characters, seeing him wield that power over literally anyone i ship him with (light, B, misa, mello, aiber, wedy. yes. i ship him w/ everyone) in a sexual context is just a little uncomfortable for me and a lot boring. a favorite fic premise of mine, i’m sure ya’ll have realized, is situations where L is basically light or B’s sugar daddy/boss/the only thing keeping them out of prison or execution but also he bottoms. light or B fulfilling the role that watari took for L? like driving him around and doing his laundry and meeting with his clients and shooting his enemies with sniper rifles? my #1 kink forever.

sorry this is so scatter-brained and also not as deep as i want to get. i just have so! many! L feelings! if you want me to expand on any of this, hmu.

thanks for the questions, anon. and for your patience.

[mermaidsirennikita]

Book Roundup -- March 2017

The Gilded Cage by Vic James.  2/5.  This book really bothered me, because it started out strong.  Essentially, it’s a dystopian/urban fantasy story in which the UK is run by the Equals, who are Skilled--magically empowered.  Those without powers are required to put in ten years of slavery, though once they’re eighteen they get to choose when they do their years.  Luke is sent to what’s basically a workhouse, whereas his sister Abi and the rest of their family is sent to work relatively cushy jobs at the manor home of one of the ruling families.  This was all very interesting, except Luke’s storyline rapidly became a typical rebel against the machine dystopian story, while Abi was discovering the secrets of this fucked up family--until she fell in love with the Boring Brother.  Nope.  Nah.  There were a million viewpoints as well, and ultimately too many cliches.

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller.  1/5.  I feel bad about giving this a bad rating because its cover is adorable and the author seems nice.   But I can’t pull punches with this one.  Basically, this is about Alosa, the titular daughter of the pirate king who lets herself get kidnapped by lesser pirates in order to steal a map.  The idea sounds like fun fare, and I wasn’t looking for anything super historically accurate or intellectual.  I was expecting something POTC-esque.  But like... Elizabeth Swann at least cared about functionality.  Within the first thirty pages, Alosa had gone on and on about her clothes and her need for corsets and I was like listen girl I’ve worn corsets you’re not swashbuckling in that shit???  Like I’m all for weaponized femininity but no???  The whole thing read as parody or satire, which I’m cool with too, BUT IT WASN’T FUNNY.  Every bit of dialogue was flat and delivered in a straightforward manner.  Alosa’s inner monologue was boring and every other paragraph felt like an info dump.  Just no.

Beautiful Broken Girls by Kim Savage.  2/5.  After sisters Mira and Francesca commit suicide together, Mira’s one-time love Ben begins finding notes left in the seven places where they touched.  In doing so, he’ll discover why the girls killed themselves.  This book gets points for the writing style, which was evocative and lovely.  It also has an interesting focus on Catholic ritual, especially stigmata.  But honestly, it was just a downer throughout.  It’s not that you expect a happy, upbeat book when you’re reading something about teenage suicide (don’t do it!).  However, The Virgin Suicides tackled the same subject matter with an air of mystery and depth.  These characters all seemed shallow and boring.  The book also deals with the issue of pedophilia rather poorly, in my view.  It romanticizes the survivor as “damaged” and “broken”, and it’s just... not well done.  Good idea, poor execution.

The Beast is an Animal by Peternelle van Arsdale.  2/5.  Essentially, this is the story of Alys, who, after an encounter with the soul-eating twins outside her village, feels connected to them as she grows up.  The soul-eaters are feared by her village, as is the terrifying Beast.  After discovering that she has certain powers, Alys must balance her village’s fear of witchcraft with her own desire to get to the bottom of the twins’--and the Beast’s--origins.  I felt zero connection to this story, which disappointed me greatly because the first few pages were so compelling.  I just didn’t care about Alys--I wanted to know more about the twins.  The prose was lovely, but everything was far too internalized for me.  I’m sure some people would love this, though!

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer.  4/5.  Clearly, I was going through a reading slump.  Therefore, I picked up something completely different.  Krakauer is a very good writer; but I’m not going to lie, I was worried about this.  I’m always hesitant when men choose to write about the sexual assault of women--it can be botched very quickly.  Krakauer, towards the end of the book, owns up to his own privilege and ignorance, which I appreciated. He approaches the topic with sensitivity; he interviews the rapists when possible; but he doesn’t pretend that he isn’t biased, and here that is good.  Krakauer believes in these women, he supports these women--whether or not their rapists were found guilty in court.  This is extremely difficult to read and quite graphic, but worth the time.  A revealing look at rape culture in America.

Long May She Reign by Rhiannon Thomas.  3/5.  This tells the story of Freya, twenty-third in line to the throne when most of the royal court--including everyone in line ahead of her--is poisoned at the king’s birthday celebration.  Suddenly queen, Freya must not only deal with adjusting to a role she thought she’d never have, but the issue of who assassinated so many nobles, and what they’ll do next.  This book had a great premise; it approached relationships in a different way that I suspect will appeal to readers tired of romance; and it gave us a likable protagonist.  But I think it just read too young for me.  Freya is interested in science, which means that she spends much of the book trying to solve the murders like she’s a cross between a mad scientist and a detective.  I was more interested in the courtly goings-on, and that side of things didn’t ring true for me.  But it wasn’t bad.  We just didn’t gel.

Hunted by Meagan Spooner.  4/5.  This Beauty and the Beast retelling is peppered with Russian folkore, and gives us our Beauty in Yeva, a young huntress whose father goes missing in the woods.  Upon discovering his body, she is taken captive by the Beast he was tracking, and finds herself imprisoned.  I could say more but it would spoil a lot; this story is definitely very much a fairy tale take on BatB.  Retellings have been hot for the past couple of years, and it was nice to see one that more along the lines of Robin McKinley than Sarah J. Maas, though both have their places.  Spooner’s writing is lovely and lyrical--and she tackles some of the darker aspects of the original fairy tale sensitively.  (Yes, she confronts the Stockholm Syndrome issue.)  It may not reinvent the wheel, but it’s engaging and well-written, with a smart heroine and a legitimately scary beast.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.  4/5.  After hitting her head a the gym, Alice loses the past ten years of her memory.  She thinks that she’s twenty-nine, happily married, with her first baby on the way.  In fact, she’s thirty-nine, about to be divorced, and a mother of three.  Not only is her relationship with her husband Nick terrible; she’s also barely speaking to her sister Elisabeth and barely recognizes herself.  Moriarty has a great way of being both entertaining and kind of good at navigating the human psyche.  Her characters are all flawed, all realistic--Alice and Nick’s issues are real ones, and they aren’t easily fixed.  Not gonna lie, as someone who recently watched her parents go through a hideous divorce, this was difficult to read at times.  But I was also pulling for Alice and everyone she loved to make something good of their lives, because they were endearing, they were people you wanted to see happy.  Moriarty is good at slowly unfolding reveals as well, and I didn’t expect one issue in Alice and Nick’s marriage to be what it was--but it was much more nuanced than what I’d been assuming.  At times this got a little corny, of course, and it’s not quite as edgy as Big Little Lies.  But I really enjoyed it.

The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers.  3/5.  Seventeen-year-old Placidia marries thirty-two-year-old Confederate Major Gryffth Hockaday right after meeting him; she’s somehow compelled by him, and he needs a mother for his infant son following the death of his first wife.  The pair spend two nights together, during which they quickly fall in love--only for Hockaday to be called back to war.  After over two years’ absence, he returns to find Placidia much changed, and rumor has it that she both bore and killed an illegitimate child while he was gone.  The book is in the format of letters and Placidia’s diary entries, slowly telling the story of what actually happened while Hockaday was away.  The morality here is very gray and nuanced; in many ways, what actually ended up happening was more mature than what I expected. (Although one aspect of the story--a crucial aspect--I found so obvious that the reveal wasn’t even really a reveal, and that was... disappointing, not gonna lie.)  While it’s definitely a compelling read, I had to dock it from four to three stars because I felt like Rivers gave a pretty dated portrayal of slave-master relations in the book.  It felt very “Gone with the Wind”.  Placidia owned these people, but the realities of that were kind of glossed over, and some moments felt very “happy slave” to me.  It’s worth the read for the mystery, but other aspects could have been much better.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides.  4/5.  After thirteen-year-old Cecilia Lisbon commits suicide, her four sisters become gradually more sheltered by their parents, leading to eventual disaster. The events are narrated--rather creepily--by a chorus of neighborhood boys obsessed with the Lisbon sisters.  This story is probably familiar to you; but if you haven’t seen the movie yet, read the book first.  Both are great, but the movie is actually very faithful to the plot and feeling of the book, so I feel like I lost something by seeing it first.  Like, definitely see it, it’s a great movie.  Just read this first.  Eugenides gets the weird, obsessive natures of teen boys so well--and the Lisbon girls just kind of destroyed me.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.  4/5.  In 1959, four members of the Clutter family were brutally murdered in Holcomb, a small Texas town.  Deciding to try out a new style of creative non-fiction, Truman Capote traveled to Holcomb, getting to know who the Clutters were, the investigators, and most importantly, the murderers--Perry Smith and Dick Hickock.  Capote’s following of the case and the eventual captures of Smith and Hickock would become “In Cold Blood”.  This book is honestly more disturbing than I thought it would be.  I’m into true crime, but something about the way Capote writes just hammers home exactly how chilling these murders were.  At the same time, it’s clear that he had a lot of sympathy for the devil--specifically, Perry Smith.  Part of what makes this book so fascinating Capote himself and the way he chooses to portray things. 

A Year Of Ravens by Stephanie Dray, Kate Quinn, S.J.A. Turney, Vicky Alvear Schecter, Russell Whitfield, and E. Knight.  4/5.  This collaborative novel tells seven separate stories, all surrounding Boudica and her rebellion.  From Roman soldiers to druids, a variety of different perspectives are given, shedding light on the grayness of the rebellion.  I can’t really call this an anthology, because everything is connected and works very well together.  The only one of these authors that I consistently read is Kate Quinn (her entry to the novel is one of my favorites, of course) but everyone did at the very least a decent job.  The only story I didn’t connect with is Russell Whitfield’s story of Agricola, a Roman tribune--but that’s not his fault, and it didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the novel as a whole.  Kate Quinn’s The Warrior is super interesting, focusing on an aging champion of Boudica’s and a Roman woman he took as a slave during the rebellion; E. Knight’s The Daughters is just heartbreaking and excellent, telling the dual perspectives of Boudica’s daughters; and Stephanie Dray’s The Queen is also especially memorable in that it tells the story of Cartimandua, a client queen with a story very parallel to Boudica’s.  As a whole, I definitely recommend checking this out if you want some fast-paced, surprisingly intelligent historical fiction.

A Song of War by Kate Quinn, Christian Cameron, Libbie Hawker, Vicky Alvear Schecter, Russell Whitfield, Stephanie Thornton, and S.J.A. Turney.  4/5.  Another collaborative novel by the same team (give or take a few members), this tells the story of the Trojan War, from Paris and Helen’s elopement to the fall of Troy.  Again, it’s in seven parts, told from the perspectives of everyone from Odysseus to Cassandra and Philoctetes, avoiding some of the more traditional viewpoints of Hector, Paris, Helen, and Achilles.  In some ways, I found this story more engaging than that of “A Year of Ravens”.  Maybe it’s just because I’m more interested in the Greeks than the Britons, but there was something about this book that was so... tragic.  Without beating you over the head with sadness.  It was very gripping, but there was a sense of doom throughout each story.  For the most part, I found it to be pretty evenly split between the views of the Trojans and their allies and the Achaeans.  With a couple exceptions--Paris and Helen are portrayed in a really unflattering light.  I see why, and Helen had enough pathos where I... got it.  (She was Helen by the way of Cersei, in my opinion.)  But the characterization of Paris bothered me.  It seemed pretty shallow, and honestly I’m kind of tired of Paris being portrayed in a straightforward, cowardly manner. His backstory lends itself to some really interesting issues, and I feel like the traditional “ugh Paris stealing women and shooting people with arrows nOT FIGHITNG LIKE  A MAN” reeks of toxic masculinity.  On the other hand, Achilles, who usually is either glorified to hell or trashed, gets a really nuanced depiction here.  I kind of just wanted everyone to get that, and for the most part a lot of people did; so the whole “pretty snakelike girly man archer Paris” thing really stood out as weaker characterization.  He doesn’t have to be great, but like... I don’t know, isn’t there something compelling about someone who’d be smart enough to take everyone out via arrows but dumb enough to start a war over Helen?  Just my take.  With all that being said, I still really enjoyed the book and recommend it to anyone who’s interested in the Trojan War and fast-paced historical fiction.

The Confessions of Young Nero by Margaret George.  1/5.  This is the fictionalized beginning of Nero’s life, from his first memory to his second marriage--and it’s actually going to continue with a sequel, which needless to say I will not be reading.  Honestly, I think I’m done with Margaret George.  I love her “Memoirs of Cleopatra” and really like “Helen of Troy”.  But I couldn’t stand this book.  I won’t pretend to be an expert on Nero, and maybe he wasn’t as bad as he’s cracked up to be...  But I’m also pretty sure that he wasn’t the constant victim George presents in this book.  At like, three, this kid is critiquing the political moves and morality of Messalina.  (Who is presented in a stereotypical manner, as is Agrippina the Younger.)  He’s never the one at fault; people always do things without his permission, especially if they’re female.  (Excepting his lover, Acte, who I assume was an original character?)  The thing is that as this is a fictional autobiography, Nero not being aware of his own faults makes sense, especially if he’s mad.  But George does the same thing here that she did with her “The Autobiography of Henry VIII”--except she might take it further here, it’s been a while since I’ve read the older book.  Even when we see the perspectives of others, they’re just like “poor Nero, being led astray by X vile woman”.  And I just...  He’s the fucking emperor, let’s get real about how much responsibility he may or may not have had.  It was boring at some points and offensive at others, and honestly, I’m kind of disturbed by how eager George is to leap to the defense of powerful men who victimized and killed the less privileged.

Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch.  2/5.  Upon the death of her mother, teenage Lina is sent to Florence, Italy, to live with Howard--the father she’s never before met.  Soon after her arrival, she not only meets a boy--the charming Ren--but is given her mother’s journal, which should answer the questions of what happened prior to Lina’s conception, and why her mother never told her about Howard.  Basically, I expected a fun, beachy read from this.  The author apparently spent her high school years in Florence, which to me added a certain level of authenticity--in theory.  Maybe her Florence was different from mine; but nothing about this fault authentic.  Especially the part in which Howard took Lina to a pizzeria right outside the Duomo.  I don’t buy a guy who’s lived in Florence for nearly two decades giving a girl her first pizza at the Duomo.  I went to a pizzeria outside the Duomo once and literally had pizza in Piazza del Duomo again.  Aside from that snobby little gripe, I found Lina pretty irritating--yes, she was going through a lot, but she seemed to be super dismissive of the experience of living in Florence--and I guessed the twist like...  Thirty pages in?  Maybe others would enjoy this, but it’s not for me.

Book of the Month: A Year of Ravens.

[localgayanimeboy]

Anime Overview 2018

So as the year comes to a close and this blog just gets started, I thought it would be interesting to look back on the shows I watched this year and just collect some general thoughts on them. I watched at least some of 14 anime this year, which is a decent number, considering the amount of schoolwork I’ve had and just my life in general, but I would have liked to watch a few more so that I would have more to talk about, but whatever. Note that some of these shows aren’t from 2018, I just watched them this year, so yeah I’m late to the party on a few things. None of this is actual analysis or anything either, just whatever came up over the past few days, so some of these are just a few short sentences and others are pretty long paragraphs.

Top 3, Aka: Shows with Unbelievably High Amounts of Fucked Up Shit Going On (in no particular order)

Devilman Crybaby: What even was this. Like, I know what it was, because I watched it twice, and enjoyed it both times. But what was this. Everything about this show was insane, and yet somehow it came together into something that was both incredible and mostly comprehensible. I will say that I was sad to discover that the whole show was not going to be rendered in the crazy color schemes from the first episode, but maybe it's better that way in the long run, and the more desaturated colors in the rest of the show also have an interesting effect, so I'm not really complaining. I also wish i had gotten around to reading the original manga at some point during the year, since I know it’s completely different, but alas, school kept me away from it, even though I have a physical copy of the first half waiting on my manga shelf. Other things: I fucking love the animation in this show. Its weird and kind of ugly, but I love it because it’s supposed to look like that and it works perfectly for portraying all of the crazy things that happen. The soundtrack also absolutely slaps, 10/10. If you ever want to feel depressed listen to the last song on this soundtrack, it’s guaranteed to work.

Made in Abyss: So pretty much everything about this show is amazing. Even if the plot and world building hadn’t been incredible (which they were), the soundtrack and the art would probably be enough to keep it on this list. I didn’t really know what to expect here other than “children climb into a giant hole filled with monsters”, and I definitely did not expect it to be one of the most existentially terrifying shows I had ever watched, but here we are. Part of this is the actual scale of the Abyss, which is a kilometer across and a completely unknown depth, part of it is the fact that a lot of the characters, including some of the adults, are really adorable and do not blend in with the atmosphere of the show at all, and a lot of it is the fact that I am willingly watching two 12 year olds get mutilated and traumatized by going to a place that one of them physically cannot return from. But I also could not stop watching all of this go down, which I think the show is very aware of since unlike the other two shows on this list, which usually censored some of the fucked up shit in some way, nothing here is covered up or cut away from (unless it absolutely had to be for TV reasons), so you’re just forced to deal with it (points for one scene literally making me want to throw up). I love this show and I am so hype for season 2 hopefully next year.

Banana Fish: If you read my review of this, then you might be thinking what I am also thinking right now, which is that it might not be fair for me to make this type of judgement on this show since I don’t feel like I have a good grasp on it yet. Which yeah, you’re right, but there were enough really strong elements in this show to make it stand out to me as something that was worth my time, and despite my many problems with its execution, I still love this series a lot and have no problem putting it on this list. Some of the other shows on the complete list were also very good and could have ended up in this spot; some of them may have even been better shows at a technical level, but when I get right down to it, this show affected me more than the others, and just fit better into my personal preferences. It’s here because I feel like once I do have a better grasp on it, it will have earned its place on this list. It’s complicated.

Bottom 3 (also in no particular order)

Darling in the Franxx: I don’t have much to say here because I only made it 5 episodes into this. Mecha anime is already not at all my jam, and this was just, awkward to watch. If you’re unfamiliar, giant robot monsters exist in a post apocalyptic world that can only be defeated by mechas piloted by pairs of teens sitting in not-so subtle sex positions. It’s uhhh, yeah, interesting. Apparently there were some themes about adolescence and sexuality to be found here, but either they were communicated extremely poorly or I didn’t watch enough to get to those themes. It doesn’t really matter though, because I have no intention of ever finishing this.

Kado: the Right Answer: I have a whole post about this show coming up, but in summary, the first half is a masterpiece, and the second half is so bad that it was all I could think about for about 3 days after finishing it because I was so mad about it. If you do not like CG anime, this show will also not work for you, although that’s really the least of its problems. Also, queerbaiting bad. I will say this though: if the concept of this show interests you, go watch episodes 0-7 and then write your own ending, I promise it will be better than what actually happens. If you’ve already watched all 14 episodes, I’m sorry.

ACCA 13: I honestly have no idea if I actually watched this show this year or late last year, but I remember being upset because the premise was pretty interesting, but it kind of took a weird turn that I wasn’t expecting. It isn’t necessarily a bad show, but of the ones I watched this year, it was just okay. I also put it on this list because I can’t really remember anything about it other than that, so maybe I would enjoy it if I watched it again, but since it didn’t stick with me the first time, that seems unlikely.

Other shows I watched (again:no particular order)

BNHA/MHA Season 3: It’s BNHA. If you’re watching it, cool. If not, also cool. Season 3 was good, as always. I don’t really know what else to say here.

Hinamatsuri: Spring 2018 was pretty good to us, and I generally liked this show, although I wish it had stuck to more comedy in the later episodes rather than shifting towards a serious plot structure. Yakuza man attempts to raise a preteen girl with psychic powers who just appears in his house. Chaos ensues. Love that. It was weird, and I don’t really have any serious complaints, so there it is.

Yoitsuiro Biyori: This is a show about 4 attractive dudes running a cafe. They have a very cute cat and help people with their minor life inconveniences. That’s pretty much it. And despite my love of fucked up shit in shows (see my top 3), I really enjoyed this one. Maybe more than I should have. It’s chill. There isn’t anything to complain about because there’s nothing going on. In fact, if I had to make one complaint, it’s that there are moments where they attempt to create drama for one of the main dudes. Stop that. Also a fun thing: you can feel free to ship none, all, or any combination of the main characters and all of these choices are justified by canon. I’ve rambled enough here. Watch this show.

Houseki no Kuni: Yes I’m late to the party here. I am aware. I’m not sure how I feel about this show yet though. I love the concept, and the animation looks pretty amazing for CG (also, that soundtrack… seriously good shit), but I can’t get over the fact that the plot structure of this show is just… weird? At the beginning I felt like I had a decent idea of what kinds of things would happen and what it would be about. And then it wasn’t that, which is fine. But I never felt like I had a good grasp on what it actually was, and by the end of the season, it had oddly looped back to the original concept anyways, which was confusing. I think this is just one I’m going to have to read the manga/wait on season 2 to fully understand, which is fine with me.

Gakkuen Babysitters: Similar to Yoitsuiro Biyori, there really isn’t much substance here to discuss. If watching teenage boys take care of disgustingly cute toddlers fits within your interests, then you’ll love this. If not, then there really isn’t anything here for you. Then again, I never would have imagined myself enjoying something like this, and I still had a pretty decent time with it, so maybe you’ll surprise yourself.

Baby Steps: Okay so I didn’t finish this, but I’m definitely planning to, because for some god forsaken reason I am in love with this show. I’ve never enjoyed sports anime, and this show looks like shit 99% of the time, but for some reason I could not stop watching it when I started it at the end of the summer, and ended up watching like 25 episodes in 2 or 3 days before I had to do something else. Why do I love this show from 2014 (I refuse to believe this was created in 2014 but I suppose I have to trust wikipedia here) about a high school student giving up his position as the smartest person in his class to learn to play tennis instead? It is a mystery to me. I don’t even know if I can really recommend it, but if you’re looking for sports anime, it's there I guess, just don’t expect it to look as good as pretty much any other sports anime.

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens: Where do I even start with this show. I make no promises about if it is actually that good, but I do love it a lot (it would probably be #4 or #5 on the list). The concept here is that 3% of the population of the Hakata ward in Fukuoka are employed as hitmen, and from there you can probably assume with a good amount of certainty what kinds of outrageously wild situations end up occurring as a result. I don’t really know how to categorize this series, because on one hand I think a lot of it is completely serious, but on the other hand, there are multiple scenes in which the main characters, all of whom are hitmen or other criminals, get together and play baseball against other teams of criminals. And don’t get me wrong, the serious parts of the story are pretty good, but my favorite moments were things like the baseball scenes, where the show just does whatever the fuck it wants because why not? Even something that isn’t inherently weird or funny like trading business cards suddenly becomes the funniest thing ever because the reality of this series is that hitmen and torturers and all types of criminals run into each other on a regular basis and need a way to trade information about their services. It’s ridiculous and I love it.

Neo Yokio:How much of this did I watch? 1 episode. Do I feel mentally capable of watching another episode? Absolutely not. Did I enjoy my time with that 1 episode? I don’t know. I’m also not sure I didn’t enjoy it. This show defies categorization and maybe that’s okay. Is this even an anime? Uncertain.

And that’s it for this post! I’m already working on a bunch of stuff for 2019, so I should be able to post ~twice a month (that’s the goal, anyways), and the next Banana Fish review will hopefully be written by mid-January, so in case you haven’t seen me say enough about it yet, do not worry, there is a lot more. It’s sounding like my first anime of the year might be Forest of Piano because a friend recommended it to me earlier today (this may be surprising, but no I do not enjoy torturing myself with CG anime), so we’ll see how that goes and if there’s anything worth writing about. Anyways, Happy New Years everyone! Hopefully 2019 will be a good year for all of us!