#the episode was super faithful to the novel

[shivering-teeth]

sonya and lookmhee are so amazing!!! the way they give life to pleng and wanwiva is beautiful. i just love my two crazy girls to death

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I'm reading "The Faith Trials" and am currently having so many feelings about Faith Lehane (and also Bangel, because there's a lot of emotional Bangel stuff going on in the episodes they selected for this book). My poor baby!

I'm going to have to upload the new Faith segments that aren't episodes that were written for this book, too.

[nyerus]

TGCF Audio Drama Season Two Releases on May 26th! 🎉

I'm a little late to the party, but very happy to share the news that the next season of the marvelous TGCF Audio Drama has been officially announced for May 26th! It will be available on MaoerFM/Missevan just like season one!

The first two episodes will drop simultaneously on May 26th, with the remaining episodes most likely releasing weekly for a total of 18 episodes. We will also get at least 4 mini-theaters (short bonus episodes).

We will have more info soon, so stay tuned for further clarifications! Here's a link to the original announcement on weibo.

There is an official trailer up on MaoerFM to listen to already, and I highly recommend it! Judging by the content of the trailer, season two will cover the first flashback arc, the whole of the Black Water arc, and up to the start of the Mt. Tonglu arc. So that's the entirety of webnovel Book 2, and a significant part of Book 3! (Not to be confused with the volumes of the various translations!)

Please note that the Audio Drama is in Chinese only! It is possible and very easy to listen to it with English MTL subtitles, however, until fan-translations catch up! I don't recommend it for new fans, but fans who have already read the books will likely be just fine after getting a little used to it!

Additionally, unlike the manhua or donghua, the audio drama is based on the revised version of the novel! If you do not know what that is, please check out this post where I've gone over that in more detail.

I have old guide for how to make a MaoerFM account and purchase the AD here. It is still mostly relevant, however there is now the option of using GooglePlay for Android users! This works in the US and many other countries, but of course is going to vary by region.

I also have a guide on how to turn on the MTL subs and how to deal with the barrage/scrolling text on the website here (twitter post).

Hopefully I'll be able to make a new guide soon, but for now these may be of service!

Please do buy and support the Audio Drama if you can! It's made by a very passionate team who have been doing their best to make it a very accurate and faithful adaptation! The voice acting and sound design are absolutely fantastic, and it's super affordable--only a couple of bucks per season! It's possible to pre-purchase the new season already, as well as tip the team directly via the app so please do so! 💖

[tossawary]

Live action svsss? Lmao

Oh, that is genuinely funny to me as an idea. Full-on blue-screened me for a second.

See, I'm not AGAINST the concept of live-action feature film adaptations or live-action television adaptations of other forms of media, especially not books. I personally adore the translation work and studying the translation work involved when transforming a story from one medium to another. Basically as soon as we had film, people started filming plays and adapting novels! There have been many, many TERRIBLE screen adaptations of other media, but there have also been many wonderful screen adaptations, which have sometimes been closely faithful and sometimes only used the original story as an inspirational springboard. (I personally see both Ghibli's "Howl's Moving Castle" and DreamWorks' "How to Train Your Dragon" as more of examples of the latter.)

MXTX's works have gotten live-action adaptations before. "The Untamed" is generally held to be a pretty good and relatively faithful adaptation of MDZS. And TGCF is also getting a live-action drama under the name "Eternal Faith". If it was announced that SVSSS was getting a similar drama, I would be a little baffled but fine with it, and also genuinely interested to see how they intended on expanding SVSSS into 50 episodes or something (definitely possible), and also how they intended to cover certain parts of the story without making it explicitly gay. I wouldn't even care if it was bad; I still have the original books to enjoy. Show me your live-action drama Moshang. I'm ready for some awful wigs.

(The main nightmare scenario is getting a bad or good but unfaithful adaptation that you hate but gets super popular, overrunning your book fandom with alternate characterization and pairings and worldbuilding that you can't stand. I'm sure there are book MDZS fans who absolutely loathe "The Untamed".)

The main issue with a USAmerican studio making a "Naruto" movie in my eyes (I don't even care about "Naruto" that much, I never finished it) is that 1) Hollywood is always extremely weird about anime and also Japan in general, so there's a high chance that the people at the top try to make story-breaking changes, and also try to cast white people. They do not have a good record. If this was a Japanese studio making this film, I would not blink at it. 2) "Naruto" is a very long story that doesn't lend itself easily to a stand-alone film. Either they only tackle a fraction of the story or squish way too much together. And either way, on the off-chance that the film is successful, we will be cursed to have sequels until they become unprofitable. I personally liked the live-action "One Piece" show fine, but it was a 7-hour show, not a 2-3-hour film.

I'm not even against the concept of modern remakes, personally, or even completely against the concept of live-action versions of animated films. I would give the Disney remakes something of a pass if they did interesting new stuff that took advantage of their medium or actually indicated they cared about creative quality, instead of rehashing the cartoons almost exactly but worse. The saddest part about things like "The Lion King" (2019) is that even if you kept the story exactly the same, beat for beat, shot for shot, it could have potentially been a vibrant celebration of the advancements in realistic VFX and the skill of the animators and artists involved (and there are some INCREDIBLY talented people being unfairly crunched and underpaid in these industries), but they instead chose to make everything about it visually as dull as dishwater. And I personally expect that the "How to Train Your Dragon" remake, instead of incorporating anything new or interesting, or really showing off some spectacular, well-crafted visuals, will be the same.

Anyway, this ask gave me the idea of a USAmerican studio making a live-action SVSSS film, which is what blue-screened my brain. I cannot fathom how any USAmerican studio would agree to that (it's foreign, it's gay, it's historical fantasy, it's fucking weird, it's everything that scares boring execs who crave maximum profits) and I'm sure they would fuck it up magnificently, such that I almost kind of want them to do it.

[hallowpen]

Thank you SO much for answering my question! (Not to sound like a broken record but it really does help understand the show more) I actually contemplated reading the novel because my friends said it was really good, but I opted to wait for the show (especially after how disappointed i ended up being with Dream) But also because I just like being surprised ya know?

With that said, im actually REALLY happy it was FB that ended up with this project. I feel like they’re the only pair that can truly deliver when it comes to the yearning & romantic aspect (and actually making it believable) I mean just now after the first ep I can already feel how connected their characters are. Also the child actors playing their younger counterparts are just fantastic! The little girl that plays Anin just absolutely nailed that scene where she’s consoling Pin and trying to make her laugh.

As for the MOC, even though i was excited they decided to back the series, ngl I was a little bit afraid at first that they were gonna tone everything down and make the story a super watered down version of the book…but no, they’re just letting things flow and im very pleasantly surprised by that. Thanks to their backing though, the cinematography is just on another lvl and the score?!? Omg I get goosebumps everytime I hear the main track from the OST. Gam Wichayanee (I think her name is?) has such an incredibly beautiful voice.

Anyways, im probably about to hit character limit and i’ve probably bored you at this point with my ranting lol Sorry, I just needed someone to be a fangirl with and gush about this show 😂

I’ll probably be back at some point after the second ep. airs to ask more questions (so I apologize in advance heheh)

Please... fangirl away. I've been similarly gushing to my friends about this series for months hehe

I understood the pause from the MOC getting involved... but why my faith in this series never wavered is because I trust Saint (IDOLfactory's CEO) and I knew he wouldn't compromise any of the important elements of the story just for money. He's been known to invest several million baht into his own series just to make sure the quality is to the standard he wants it be... and he would've done the same for TLP had he needed to. He said to hell with everyone's cautionary worries when he decided to produce GAP (he was being told from several sources, including potential investors, that GL was a losing bet and he shouldn't do it) because he knew how important sapphic media was to Thai queer audiences. AND HE WAS RIGHT!!! That series was being funded on a hope and a prayer... and without Saint (and FreenBecky), Thai GL as we know it today wouldn't exist on the scale that it does. Call me an IDOLfactory simp if you want, but it's not without merit 😂😂😂

I'm glad TLP ended up in the hands that it did... because we're only one episode in and everything about this series is just *chef's kiss*

[very-grownup]

So a couple years ago, I fell into watching Chinese dramas and because my posts about the most recent one garnered some curiosity, here are the dramas what I have watched.

Hikaru no Go

DID YOU KNOW. DID YOU KNOW. THAT IN 2020 THERE WAS A CHINESE DRAMA ADAPTATION OF HIKARU NO GO AND IT IS AMAZING AND MADE ME CRY ALL OVER AGAIN? It is faithful in spirit while making understandable alterations both for the setting and to avoid managing child actors for the entirety of the series (there are about six episodes with Hikaru/Shi Guang as an elementary school student before a time jump to high school).

If you are unfamiliar with Hikaru no Go I recommend becoming familiar with Hikaru no Go, my first and still one of the best sports manga. It's what Takeshi Obata was the artist on before Death Note and my hot take is that Obata post-Hikaru no Go is mid at best.

Hikaru no Go is a sports series about the most normal boy finding an antique go board that houses the soul of an ancient go master who died too young and with go regrets, so he bullies/guilts the boy into helping him play go so he can see or play a divine go move. In the process he acquires a rival/stalker in the form of the genius son of a go master. It's amazing and the drama absolutely does it justice.

The heart of the series is the relationship between Hikaru/Shi Huang and Fujiwara no Sai/Chu Ying.

It's just a fucking good series.

The Untamed

According to one description on imdb, this is about two friends solving a series of murders. This is technically true, although it neglects to mention a few details.

Sixteen years after doing a whole lot of demonic blood magic shit and dying because of it, hated by society, Wei Wuxian (Xiao Zhan) is brought back from the dead by more super demonic blood magic and is recognized by his noble and esteemed peer/friend Lan Wangji (Wang Yibo) and trying to deal with why Wei Wuxian has been brought back from the dead leads to their investigating a series of murders that result in their becoming entangled in wider political schemes stretching back twenty years.

It's got weird pacing, prolonged flashbacks to explain a lot of the relationship dynamics, and basically an entirely self-contained sub-story that brings the main plot to a grinding halt. There are creatures and CGI effects of interesting quality. There are amazing wigs. There are piles of corpses. There's physical torture and emotional torture and some doomed love stuff and sword fights and musical instrument fights and a donkey and chicken theft and brotherhood and what you're willing to sacrifice for your goals and what goals you're willing to sacrifice for and it is based on a novel that ends in the protagonists raw dogging on the side of the road.

That part's not in the show.

Douluo Continent

Ignorant country boy Tang San (Xiao Zhan) finds himself involved in the world of martial arts and magic after discovering a hidden talent and ends up in the group of fellow martial artists who are all weird or unorthodox or hiding crucial bits of their backstory like girl who is actually a rabbit and immediately decides Tang San is her best friend/husband (Wu Xianyi), guy who needs to become powerful enough to kill his older brother (Gao Taiyu), girl who rejected an engagement to the would-be brother killer and wants to fight him (Liu Mei Tong), guy who wants to ditch martial arts to become a great actor (Liu Run Nan), and girl who is too rich to be here (Ding Xiaoying). They learn together, they grow together, they fight monsters and embark on a tournament arc, and there's an overarching mystery about Tang San and his weak but simultaneously super powerful spirit summoning.

Even though the best technique is clearly the one where the boy in question can summon a sausage that you eat and heals you.

It's very much of a specific genre that can be pretty samey, but Douluo Continent has a charming cast that makes up for its predictable plot beats.

It does end on a cliffhanger that is possibly resolved in the sequel series where ... all the main characters were recast with, I'm guessing, slightly less pricey actors. Such is the way of things.

Word of Honour

Do you like knowing what's going on? Then get the fuck out of here, Word of Honour is not for you. Real ones want to be immediately submerged into chaos and confusion and secret identities. You want Mr Bones' Wild Ride in plot form. Why has former superassassin Zhou Zishu (Zhang Zhe Han) abandoned the sect of assassins he created to live in wandering drunk anonymity as he slowly dies? Why is Wen Kexing (Gong Jun) stalking him aside from poorly censored horny desires? Is Wen Kexing actually a ghost? Can any of the impressionable youths attaching themselves to Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing be stopped from their very poor choices in role models? What is up with this legendary hidden armoury and why do Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing seem unable to escape the conspiracy around it? HOW HARD IS IT TO GET WOLONG'S FAMOUS NUTS?

Not recommended for people who constantly want to know what's happening or why X is doing Y, but great if you want to watch with someone and then after an episode, walk your dogs and try to figure out what's going on and what's going to happen (you will be wrong).

Advance Bravely

What if the most ridiculously unrealistic and unhinged slashfic by a teenage girl who doesn't fully understand anything was adapted into a drama series where censorship means everything must be painted with a special "no homo" brush? You get Advance Bravely which is the most incoherently homoerotic thing I've ever watched. No one thinks you should watch Advance Bravely and you watch Advance Bravely and you agree but sometimes you just have to watch a beautiful trainwreck where the protagonist explains his lack of a girlfriend with erectile dysfunction and the series climax involves his being, essentially, trapped in a well.

Love Between Fairy and Devil

DO YOU WANT TO GO FULL SHOUJO MANGA FANTASY?

Innocent fairy Orchid (Yu Shuxin) just wants to strengthen her immortal spirit and pass the exam that would let her serve in the palace of the fairy capital so she can catch glimpses of the War God Chang Heng (Zhang Ling He) who she is hopelessly in love with. Instead, an attempt to help her crush causes her to bumble her way into the high security spiritual prison that has held Dongfang Qingcang, the Moon Supreme (Dylan Wang), for 30,000 years.

DO YOU LIKE BIG NUMBERS BECAUSE YOU WILL GET TO SEE SOME BIG NUMBERS IN TERMS OF TIME SPAN AND AGES.

Because of some plot magic, Orchid and the Moon Supreme swap bodies and loophole out of prison, much to her distress. Their fates are tied together and Orchid becomes more familiar with the wider world and the politics between the realms and how much the fairy realm's supreme ruler fucking suuuuuuuuuuuucks while Moon Supreme finds himself having feelings again after they were tortured out of him in a mystical coffin prison as a child.

Moon Supreme's closest friend is a dragon. Orchid's closest friend is an opportunistic snakeoil saleswoman. There's a pissy younger brother and a bitchy but honourable love rival. There are secret origins and reincarnation and hidden identities and the way it alternates broad comedy and melodrama and sweet romance may give you whiplash.

I just love a bodyswap, you guys.

Sailor Moon vibes but Mamoru is actually interesting and becomes likeable.

Guardian

Okay so the best thing about Guardian is not only that it's a censored adaptation of a novel with a same-sex romance, but that /the entire premise/ is altered for television purposes.

The novel is steeped in Chinese folk religion and the Underworld is real and mythical creatures secretly walk among us.

In the show?

ALIENS, BABY.

Ghosts? THOSE AREN'T REAL BECAUSE HUMANS DON'T HAVE SOULS, THEY'RE JUST ENERGY BEINGS.

It's so ridiculous it's endearing.

Anyway, it's about bros solving mysteries with a Monster of the Week vibe until it becomes about possibly the end of the world and alien domination and evil twins.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook

IT'S TIME TO SOLVE CRIMES. IN ANCIENT CHINA.

Quack doctor Li Lianhua (Cheng Yi) is just trying to live a quiet life with his dog and his horse-drawn house. Fang Duobing (Joseph Zeng) just wants to gain admittance into the martial art cop organization that's carrying on the legacy of his dead teacher, Li Xiangyi, who was maybe never actually his teacher and also wasn't killed ten years previously by Di Fei Sheng (Xiao Shunyao), the head of an evil martial arts sect who is also not dead. Not nearly as many people as people think are dead! Identities are cleverly hidden behind pseudonyms and various levels of mask!

Crimes are solved and Li Lianhua is very tired about the whole thing. It's an unwilling buddy cop sort of thing until it becomes about youthful hubris and the sins of the past and also one woman's determination to conquer the world and give it to the man she loves, even if he doesn't want the world and also doesn't love her. We love a woman who takes what she wants and if necessary cuts a man's tendons and imprisons him in a torture pool so his blood can't clot until he agrees to be her wife, don't we, folks?

Folks?

Story of Kunning Palace

The scheming empress Jiang Xue Ning (Bai Lu) dies and wakes up, eighteen-years-old, at the point in her life where she's on the verge of making the start of the decisions that lead her to the Very Bad End. She is going to make different decisions this time and prevent the things she regrets and avoid becoming the empress at all costs.

What you need to know about Story of Kunning Palace is that Bai Lu could have chemistry with a rock and she inadvertently collects a bisexual harem. Her end game love interest is Xie Wei (Zhang Ling He), the man who killed her, an advisor to the emperor, music teacher, double or triple agent, and sufferer of vampire snow madness and a fear of cats, whether adorably fluffy or badly CGI'd. But she's in love with noble civil servant Zhang Zhe (Wang Xing Yue), a pure and hardworking man who she seduced into betraying his principles, leading to his imprisonment and probable death. However, her childhood friend Yan Lin (Zhou Jun Wei) is in love with her and previously she rejected him VERY HARSHLY after his family fell into disfavour due to political machinations and Jiang Xue Ning had cemented the likelihood of her marriage to the next emperor. Also there's Princess Le Yang (Liu Xie Ning), who Jiang Xue Ning made an enemy of after the Princess fell in love with her when Jiang Xue Ning was crossdressing and did not take the reveal of her true gender well. Xue Shu (Elisa Ye) is an unfavoured daughter of a scheming lord who was the only truly loyal person Jiang Xue Ning knew as empress. ALL OF THESE PEOPLE FALL IN LOVE WITH JIANG XUE NING and you look at Bai Lu and go 'yes, that makes sense'.

It's mostly about the politics and scheming and Jiang Xue Ning trying to find a way to have a stable, satisfying life without betraying everyone she knows and standing on a pile of corpses, but the love shape Jiang Xue Ning isn't fully aware she's in is comparable in complexity to the plots between ministers and lords and dowager empresses and cousins and rebels.

The choices the characters make are maybe not always the best choices, but DAMN are they a good time.

Story of Kunning Palace is also one of the only times I have begged a character in a show to take a particular action and then she DID IT and fuck it was satisfying.

The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty

IT'S TIME TO SOLVE CRIMES. IN ANCIENT CHINA. AGAIN. BUT WITHOUT MARTIAL ARTS.

Tang Fan (Darren Chen) is a low-ranking government official and detective genius who loves food and hates routine work, but loves a fucked up crime. Since he spends most of his money on delicious food, he writes trashy porn under a variety of pseudonyms to pay his rent. Sui Zhou (Fu Meng Bo) is an imperial guard and ex-soldier with PTSD who has no time for nonsense but loves the passionate pursuit of justice and food. He's also From Money and has a very empty house that Tang Fan whines his way into after they solve a case together. Everyone is manipulated by dangerously powerful eunuch Wang Zhi (Liu Yao Yuan) who is the enemy of basically everyone, except for Tang Fan, who has the political and social awareness of a rock.

An amiably pathetic man solves a variety of mysteries, from murder to complex imperial assassination plots and also this really complicated one involving diluting the purity of silver currency, and also the executive producer is Jackie Chan.

It's missing the romance subplot that I understand is in the source novel and also apparently there's an overarching plot involving a cult?! which we don't get here, but there's lots of bombs which are almost as good as a cult, maybe? (They're not.)

Divine Destiny

This is the one we're currently watching and the ride that this show is. How many plots can be crammed into one show? How many ridiculous but true things can I say about this show?

Ji Ruochen (Ma Tianyu) is an orphan who dreams of martial arts adventures. Raised by a couple who run a Crime Inn, one day a customer robbery goes very wrong when the customer turns out to be the latest incarnation of Yin Feng, the Banished God (Marius Wang). Ji Ruochen accidentally kills the Banished God and his foster parents promptly take the body into the desert and dump it down a cliff, but not before taking a necklace made from a piece of Gu Qing, the Blue Stone Goddess (Xuan Lu), which is supposed to let her recognize the Banished God in their final incarnation. Accidentally stealing the Banished God's identity, Ji Ruochen finds himself a hotly desired commodity by the cultivation sects who are all eager to have the Banished God as a disciple for prophecy reasons. He goes with Zhang Yinyin (Angelababy), a feisty, argumentative girl who has had to work extra hard because her spirit was contaminated by a demonic root planted by the evil nine-tailed fox who is poorly imprisoned in a cave anyone can access.

MEANWHILE some dudes with amazing moustaches and a penchant for laughing in delight at their own evil have found the body of the Banished God and done some questionable mystical shit to put him in a new body and nurture a grudge against Ji Ruochen for stealing his identity.

THEN Gu Qing meets Ji Ruochen and like everyone else assumes he's the Banished God and she falls in love with him (Gu Qing having been a literal rock spirit who cultivated to immortality under the guidance of the Banished God, who followed her into the mortal realm and a cycle of 100 incarnations after Gu Qing accidentally Did A Crime) but then falls in love with HIM.

ALSO Zhang Yinyin is always at risk of succumbing to the temptation of using the demonic fox power that is within her even though that will literally turn her into a demon but maybe it's worth it if a woman who is actually a goddess who is actually a rock is making eyes at the junior you brought into the sect and are in love with and you want to be more powerful than her?

ALSO what's the mysterious power that let Ji Ruochen kill the Banished God in the first place?

IS the woman seeking revenge for the death of the Banished God's mortal incarnation his sister or his cousin or his "cousin"?

WHY is the only love language of immortals stalking?

There's a homunculus and a baby snake demon who is the most precious angel in the world and so many evil dudes delighted in how evil they are and TWO GOOD AND ALIVE PARENTS and a pair of comical monks who have a special attack with a name they have to shout out every time they use it.

Oh and the imprisoned fox demon may have an ex who just hangs out on a rock in something called the Endless Ocean wearing a mask and playing go against the homunculus he made.

And there's an ancient master who lives in an ice mountain and eats memories of love.

Also some people might be secret demons.

There's some weddings.

There's a tiny woman with an ice sword who brutally murders so many dudes.

Do you like CGI birds?

Do you like giant mechanical CGI birds that are for riding purposes?

There's a desert hermit who has a son who is a giant tortoise.

So many things are going on and terrible decisions are constantly being made and it's over a week before I can watch another episode and it's driving me mad. WHAT WILL BE THE FALLOUT OF THE MOST RECENT BAD DECISIONS?

[danjaley]

Book-Blog Intermission:

Wonderful Journeys through Time and Literature with Nils Holgerson

Like most of my generation I grew up with the 1980 anime series. And, as I'll say at every opportunity, it spoiled me for pretty much any other TV-show. A good series should follow a literary original - and quite closely. It should have gorgeous aesthetics and music. A plot centered around adventure, history, tradition, loyalty and faith. Plot-decisions should never follow external factors like availability of actors or stale marketing formulas. And it should end when the story is told out.

My mother had the mad idea to try and read the book to me when I was about 5. I didn't understand a word of it. She had a very boring copy too, without any pictures.

Aged 25 I bought the cute edition on the right and made it a reading-project. After each chapter I watched the corresponding episode of the series. And I repeat: It shows the quality of the series that you can do this. Still is was super interesting to note everything they changed. Some things only made sense to me then. Like the story of the parade towards to icy mountain. As a child it just impressed me with its scariness. But in fact it's a parable of which plants can grow how far north.

Cute as it is, the left edition was so badly translated that I went ahead and learned Swedish to read it in the original (middle). In the meantime the German book-market also spoiled me with an up-to-date state-of-the-art unabridged translation (right). So I don't even need to use a dictionary :)

There is one other edition in the house and that's my grandmother's school-copy. As it is well know, Nils Holgerson was written as a reader for Swedish schools, covering geography, history and natural history of Sweden. Since it is an absolute masterpiece, it soon became a school-reader in many other European countries too.

Especially Germany in the 1930s had a fatal obsession with all things Nordic. So every school-child had to learn all about Swedish castles too. I always wondered why nobody at least tried to write a rip-off set in Germany. Only recently, in the course of my current research, I found out that someone did. Tamara Ramsay: Wunderbare Fahrten und Abenteuer der kleinen Dott (images not mine). But it only came out in 1941 and never made it to school-reader status.

My grandmother and her class enjoyed Nils Holgerson so much, they wrote collective fan-mail to Selma Lagerlöff. She replied too. She wrote that she got her German translator to decipher their letter and that she was very glad they enjoyed her book. The translator must have been the same Pauline Klaiber-Gottschau who first translated the book into German.

The original wild geese can of course be consulted at the International Youth Library in Munich. The building (Schloss Blutenburg) is the cutest little medieval castle that's been forgotten on the edge of the city. And in winter and spring you can meet the geese spending the winter in the moat. As a child I always regretted that Nils Holgerson ends just as the geese plan to cross to Germany. I'd have loved to see their Schloss Blutenburg adventure!

My Grandmother also appears to have read most other books by Selma Lagerlöff. At least she ticked them off in the list in her copy of Nils Holgerson. The only other one to survive in her collection is Gösta Berling (here in blue).

While the dated German bothered me a lot in Nils Holgerson, I deeply enjoy reading other Lagerlöff novels in as old editions as I can get hold of (here the much-mended red Gösta Berling). In old German print they just feel like they came from the dawn of time!

Those two have actually both been major inspirations for the McCarrics. Gösta Berling includes more or less the model for Fergus' dying-scene (if you ever want to see the subject treated by a nobel-prize-winner). And Herrn Arnes Schatz (Herr Arnes penningar) has the ghostly sister as well as badass Scotsmen (here unfortunately as the bad guys).

[twig-tea]

Thoughts on Love for Love's Sake before the last 2 episodes air

Going into the finale, rather than making guesses, I'm just going to lay out some facts that we know, some of my own observations and assumptions, and capture my out-standing questions.

They showed in one of the flashbacks that the mysterious "sunbae" (who MyungHa confirmed he's forgotten outside of the flashbacks when he was looking at his notebook) had him filling out a questionnaire about what is happiness;

and the mini-missions are written as answers to questions in (as MyungHa confirmed) his own writing.

So I think the missions are ones that MyungHa accidentally set for himself while he was drunk. The ones we've seen so far:

Like-minded friends/companions

Lack of insecurity/uncertainty

To be understood/known

And the game designer has turned these into actionable side quests for MyungHa, ostensibly so that MyungHa learns to work at trying to achieve happiness.

But it strikes me that the measures for "success" are not very accurate to actual results.

For example, raising 3 mllion won won't actually prevent YeoWoon from experiencing anxiety or living in uncertainty. And gaining 100,000 followers on instagram certainly doesn't equate to being known or understood, not in the way it sounds like it was probably meant when it was written.

And this is validated by young YeoWoon who has a very specific picture of his family being intact when wishing for happiness:

The game, meanwhile, is destabilizing as MyungHa successfully makes changes to the original story that align, theoretically, with 'making YeoWoon happy', but deviate from the story.

And we know MyungHa does not believe in prescribed fate

So I have faith that MyungHa is going to find an alternative to wiping out all of his changes or seeing his grandma die or YeoWoon get hit by a car, because he's not going to accept the outcome as described. He's going to get YeoWoon a happy ending.

But beyond that, what is all of this about? Who is the sunbae who wrote the novel/game and why can't MyungHa remember him beyond the murky flashbacks?

Who is cheering MyungHa on towards a happy ending in his notes app or email or whatever that is?

And what about those weird other text messages about following folks who looked like you, breaking vases, etc? I've had a few wild theories, my favourite being that they're re-routed text messages from YeoWoon to his grandmother; but honestly them being either YeoWoon or a secret other real world person sending them to MyungHa in future is most likely.

Also who is KyungHoon's LDR? I'm going to clown theory this one as a sibling of SangWon, because he mentioned he's had feelings since childhood and they are childhood friends because their parents knew each other.

Last thing I'll say: There is clearly an element of getting MyungHa to fight for his own happiness in this story; I hope they'll continue the thread of having him learn to trust/rely on others, being brave for the present since you the future is uncertain, and letting go of a sense of responsibility for everyone and everything as part of that learning how to be happy.

I'm super stoked for this finale!

[animehouse-moe]

Spy x Family Season 2 Episode 4: The Pastry of Knowledge / The Informant's Great Romance Plan II

Being a manga reader, it can be hard to really provide commentary or share thoughts that feel novel to both myself and anime onlies. Because of that, the easiest avenue for discussion tends to be what's being done with the anime, and I think people have a pretty good grasp of that with Spy x Family.

WIT and Cloverworks have been doing a continually impressive job with this series, especially this second season considering how quick the turnaround was for it (on top of a movie, no less). Thoughtful additions and changes that really extend on the material are ever present in their approach, and they don't have to sacrifice anything from the manga to achieve that. It's incredibly faithful and does a lot to extend on that feeling with stuff like the cut of Anya and Becky running down the hallway.

First of all, a super great CGI environment, second of all, really really solid composition between it and the characters, and finally, the layout is just such a great idea. It places speed and perspective at the to top of the list of priorities, and delivers something very energetic and intense because of it compared to the manga.

And there's just a lot of that in these episodes. Lots of extra background details that they bring with the anime, more bold and fun layouts and direction. It has a lot more at its disposal compared to the manga, and it makes full use of those tools to provide something that is thoroughly enjoyable for everyone.

[bones-sprouts]

"yeah so it was this super fun well directed movie based on these super interesting graphic novels that were a deep dive into this character and his quest to beat all his new girlfriends exes in combat right? but then they come out with an anime adaptation that's advertised as a faithful recreation of the books and all through episode one that's what you think it's gonna be but then the main guy dies at the end of it and the rest of the series follows his love interest as she tries to get him back and gets closure with her exes-"

[harocat]

Tagged by @heyyo-heyyo

3 ships you like (people I love together, canon or otherwise)

Dongfang Qingcang/Xiao Lanhua (Love Between Fairy and Devil)

Hua Cheng/Xie Lian (TGCF)

Yuuri Katsuki/Victor Nikiforov (Yuri on Ice)

First ship ever: I'm not ever sure how to answer this, because I'm certain there's ships that I supported as a kid, but I can't really recall feeling strongly about them. They'd probably be like... Disney movies or something from a book I read, but I'm just like /shrug I don't remember. So, Zelgadis Greywords and Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune from the nineties anime, The Slayers. They're the first thing I was into fandom for, ship wise. And they're still one of my all time favorite ships.

Last song you heard It was Joji's Glimpse of Us. I looked up the lyrics for someone in a GC.

Favorite childhood book(s)

My favorite book as a grade schooler was The Dolphins and Me by Don C Reed. It was about a guy that worked at Marineland in the 70s/80s, and his interactions and relationships with the dolphins that lived there. I read it a lot, and it made me cry each time. It wasn't the great American novel or something, but for child me it meant a lot. Somewhere I have a signed copy of it.

Currently reading

JWQS, still. I'm so slow.

I'm also terrible about buying books and not reading them, so I have several on my shelf I'm mid-reading, but I feel like it would be dishonest to list them here because by mid-reading it's 'I read the first chapters five years ago and might get back to it.'

Currently watching

Cdramas: White Cat Legend, Love and Redemption. I'm kind of watching A Journey to Love, but it's been slow going. It's really good, and I like it a lot, but for some reason I'm just not hooked. I want to finish it for my princess Yang Ying though.

Anime: The Apothecary Diaries, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. Also watching Spy x Family season two, but very slowly. I like to just pop on an episode when I'm in a sour mood because it always cheers me up.

Not really watching any western shows ATM. I'll be back on my Doctor Who shit in May though.

Currently consuming: I had a little strawberry pie pastry for breakfast.

Currently craving: Food? Super basic, but I really want chipotle even though I had it YESTERDAY. For something to watch? I want another fun xianxia. There's so many in the pipelines that I hope are great. What I want to see most (outside of Eternal Faith which will never happen), is Lost You Forever S2 though.

For the ultimate thing I want every single day of my life? Ice Adolescence. :(

Tagging: @eldritch-bisexual, @circumference-pie, @sassybluee, @2014federalbudget, @glasscasse, @zelinxia, @quadsuki, @starrygazingpie, @xiaohuayaos, @takemetogusu

[inkmage13]

A comprehensive list of every single Frankenstein adaptation i have ever read/watched and my reviews of them

Universal Frankenstein 1931

I hate this movie with my whole being. It's like they read the book upside down and backwards. Hate the creature's design. 1/10

Young Frankenstein

A hilarious spoof of the Universal film. Gene Wilder kills it as Frederick von Frankenstein. Creature design is much better than Universal, I love the non functional zipper on his neck. So silly and goofy. 9/10 (minus one point for Creech fucking being an important joke/plot point bc it makes me uncomfortable)

Junji Ito's Frankenstein

A mostly faithful comic adaptation of the original novel. Creature design is fantastic but he has short hair for some reason. Very cool art. 8/10

Frankenstein Alive, Alive!

Literally my favorite graphic novel. Bernie Wrightson cared about the Creature so much and it really shows. Incredible adaptation exploring the rest of Creech's life. 11/10 cannot recommend enough

Frankenweenie

Great Tim Burton movie. I love Sparky. Another successful spoof of the Universal film. 7/10 (minus points for being lowkey racist/xenophobic)

The Rocky Horror Show / Picture Show

I'm lumping in the musical and movie together. I love RHPS with my whole being. And it's a weirdly good adaptation. Dr. Frank N Furter's desire to create the perfect artificial man is explicitly queer. Rocky is born and immediately starts singing about how he's confused and miserable. 8/10

I, Frankenstein

Not a great movie but I did kind of enjoy it. Adam Frankenstein is caught in the celestial war of good and evil because he is neither human nor demon. His design sucks because he's just a guy, not nearly fucked up enough. Also he's not an incel which is very out of character unfortunately. 5/10

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

What the fuck is this book. Reading it was a roller coaster ride of "ok i dig this" and "what the actual fuck am I reading". All you need to know is the author sucks the human soul out of Victor and makes Creech a furry. 2/10

Frankenstein: A New Musical

I love this musical!! It's mostly book accurate with great portrayals of every single character. The original production's Creature design sucks though, it's literally just the actor with no prosthetics or makeup or anything. The music ranges from average musical stuff to absolute bangers. 9/10

Edward Scissorhands

I love this movie so I'm counting it because the Inventor makes an artificial human which is basically Frankensteining. Edward is adorable I love him so much. I think the movie is a great metaphor for the treatment of disabled/neurodivergent people in society. 8/10

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Specifically Sally and Dr. Finkelstein. Dr. Finkelstein is a super shitty dad to his creation, and Sally just wants to go out in the world and be a normal monster girl. As a Frankenstein adaptation 9/10 also 10/10 movie

X Files: The Post-Modern Prometheus

Incredible retelling with fantastic references to the original text. Mulder and Scully get justice for a monster in a crazy small town. And the episode is in black and white for no reason other than drama. But for some reason the Creature, who is called El Mutato, r**es people so for that unfortunately 7/10

[bestbonnist]

The anime messing with Kahaku slightly in a way that I don't like: Episode 9

HE'S uuuuhhgrrrrrhgghhhhh..... he's still wearing the Guardians' symbol even after learning what Hayase did to Fushi and their friends. In the manga he never wears it again, which indicates that he's no longer placing his faith in Fushi as a god but in Fushi as a person. And the anime staff apparently thought that Ooima just got tired of drawing it... Anime Kahaku still wants to be associated with the person who murdered Parona. Anime Kahaku is still attached to his position as the leader of the Guardians. Anime Kahaku learned nothing during the Uralis arc.

The fact that anime Kahaku has the audacity to be upset that Parona's gone when he's wearing the sign that Hayase appropriated / This fucking guy.

I'm going to try to explain why it's out of character for Kahaku to be upset that Parona's form at this point in time is missing as briefly as possible, which is difficult to do without turning this into a full-blown character essay, but I will manage somehow.

In Episode 8, Fushi told Kahaku that they still needed him, and that he should "enjoy these changes too." Kahaku, having learned the truth about the Guardians' origins and ostensibly ruined everything, had no hope for the future. After hearing Fushi's words, he realized that he could still be useful ("useful" and "loved" are the same thing to Kahaku), and decided to follow them again. So: Kahaku is currently in love with and devoted to Fushi as Fushi, not as anyone else. Arguably, that was always the case, and liking Parona was a convenient excuse because he didn't want to admit that he was gay. Kahaku continues to use his crush on Parona as self-defense mechanism in this new arc of the story, but for different reasons.

On its own, Kahaku's love for Fushi is too self-destructive. We've seen hints of this in the anime, and it's just going to keep getting worse from here. Fushi is a reason to die, not a reason to live. You can blame this one on the Guardians expecting their successors to sacrifice their lives for their cause and Kahaku's fondness for romance novels, kids. Getting married to Parona is obviously never going to happen—she's not even alive, Fushi would never agree to it, and Kahaku was never really in love with her anyways. Even though Kahaku is aware of this he continues to lie to himself—if he can just get through this, his dreams will become a reality—as a way of motivating himself.

All of which is to say that Kahaku should not be reacting with shock and dismay to Parona's form being stolen. Theoretically, he and Parona-Fushi will get married but practically she's just another one of Fushi's forms.

No stutter :(

You know I hate to say this after spending four hundred words praising Kahaku for genuinely caring about Fushi and estranging himself from his family but he is not the kind of person who would be glad that Fushi was fine by themselves. A character stuttering usually means they're unsure about something. Kahaku stuttering on the line "thank goodness" makes it sound like he's not actually grateful that they're safe. Coupled with his insistence on "proving himself" by killing a knocker later in the scene, he was probably hoping that Fushi would be in danger so that he could save them. Shitty, yes, but totally on brand and super interesting characterization. The conflict between wanting Fushi to be happy and wanting Fushi to love him is an ongoing struggle of Kahaku's in this arc. Why would they even change this line? It's such a small thing, why did the anime staff choose to take it out??

[cosmiccannibalcamille]

COMING SOON: Jupiter Returns, an Astrology Novel

I've been buzzing about this for months, and the moment is almost here! My debut novel, Jupiter Returns, is about to launch on Kickstarter, and I couldn't be more thrilled to share it with you. Ever wondered what happens when The Devil Wears Prada collides with your daily horoscope? Now's your chance to find out. Get an exclusive preview of the book before anyone else, and prepare to embark on a cosmic adventure like no other! 

Join the Jupiter Returns Pre-Launch List

Wait, What's Jupiter Returns?

Jupiter Returns tells the story of my astrology alter-ego Cosmic Cannibal, a plucky, daydreamy Gemini who quits her fancy marketing job to chase a dream: becoming an astrologer in Denver, Colorado. With the rare and powerful Jupiter Return transit promising good fortune, Cosmic has only a few months to secure her dream horoscope writing job. But as she dives into fierce competition and the high stakes of the astrology world, a shocking discovery about her own birth chart flips her world upside down. Oh, and did I mention the sizzling flirtations with not one, but TWO irresistible men? 🌟💫

Why YOU Will Love Jupiter Returns

If you're a fan of chick lit novels like Bridget Jones's Diary and Confessions of a Shopaholic, or romcoms by Ali Hazelwood and Lizzy Dent, or you LOVE super funny, feminist-focused TV shows like Fleabag and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, you’ll feel right at home with Jupiter Returns. This novel blends humor, astrology, romance, and feminism into a fresh, fun story about chasing your dreams and discovering who you really are.

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[twdmusicboxmystery]

Okay so I REALLY loved this first DD episode!! Now more than ever I am feeling hopeful for Beth's return. I mean, I've been here since day 1 (8yrs or something like that) but after all the times we thought she'd appear, this feels the most legit. It all comes down to what Judith said at the end of the flagship, "You deserve a happy ending, too." Like what else would a happy ending look like for D@ryl other than reuniting with Beth? I look at it this way, they had this line repeated, not once, not twice, but 3 times in the episode, and once directly to D@ryls face by Laurent. He even asks D, "Do you have kids, a wife, etc?" The look on his face says it all...this has been a major theme for D. R!ck mentions looking for a house together with Lori, trying to relate to him and his grief over losing his SO. Even Abraham asked him, "You ever think about it? Settling down?" Whether D wants to admit it or not, a wife, kids, a home, these are what he truly wants. Yes he loves TF and protecting them and all that, but what he truly wants is that romantic partner which we ALL know is beth. The only ppl who deny it are, well you know 🙄 This emphasis on his "happy ending" is making me so excited. Writers wouldn't start the ENTIRE show off on something like that without the payoff. Even if all we get is confirmation of her being alive, it's happening. It has to. D@ryl is finally getting his happy ending to his "damn romance novel" and his new found faith is instrumental in that!! Ahh, so excited! Thanks for all your hard work for TD! We love youuuu!!!!! 💚💚💚💚💚

Aww thanks so much. I love you all too!

And I completely agree with everything you said. You laid it out perfectly. I didn't mention the whole "do you have a wife" question because my mind was so much on other things, but it's super significant that they asked this in the first episode of the series. Just as, like you said, it's super significant that they start out with Judith talking about his happy ending. That's literally the thesis statement for the entire spinoff series. So yes, he's getting his happy ending one way or another in this spinoff, and I'll echo you in saying, we all know who that will be with.

I'm getting a lot of Asks where people are saying that, because the reviewers haven't said anything about Beth, she must not be coming.

That MIGHT be true for S1, though I would remind everyone that they were sworn to secrecy about the final two episodes. As in, if she shows up, they truly can't tell us. And if it's her name Daryl almost drops, they can't mention that. They would be all kinds of fired and sued.

But even if she doesn't actually show up the first season, I still think we'll get some clues about her. And, in the end, this show is about him finding his happy ending. So, it's gonna happen one way or the other.

My fellow theorists have also been looking into some of the weirdness of the filming in the Louvre. I have lots of things to post for you guys. It's just been a busy week and I haven't gotten around to much of it, but I'll try to get more of it out this week.

Anyway, love everything you said. Totally agree. Right there with ya! Xoxo! 🍁🍂😍

[hishima]

hewwo nika. please enlighten me on the wonderful world of revue starlight... where would be the best place to start, since i know it's a multimedia series?

HI FAITH!!!! 😊 Well. Basically the revue starlight canon is the anime, movie(s), stageplays and gacha game. I haven't seen the stageplays myself and while i THINK they came first they're not as accessible as the rest.

the 12 episode anime and then "revue starlight the movie (aka revue starlight gekijouban)" are the best place to start. there's also a recap movie (rondo rondo rondo) which is basically the same as the series just condensed and with a few extra scenes regarding a certain character. (DON'T WATCH THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE SERIES FIRST THOUGH)

AS FOR THE GAME i don't think it's really necessary as such?? but you can read the stories online without having to play the game and there are some really good characters that get introduced in it :3 there's also a visual novel (iirc) coming out sometime but i have no idea if it will get localised.

AS A GENERAL THING THO revue starlight is a bit. abstract. it's worth watching the series → watching the movie → watching the series again, but with added context :3 IT'S NOT LIKE. SUPER COMPLICATED or anything like that but on my first watch of it i went through the series way too fast and missed a lot of the symbolism and subtle storytelling

IT'S SO GOOD THOUGH if u do end up watching it send me a message i would love to hear your thoughts :3 🫶🫶🫶🫶