#the trilogy specifically i know i know im getting to the others

[nerves-nebula]

Hello. I have never seen an "teenage mutant ninja turtles" show, comic, or movie. The characters however, appeal to me. If any one show or movie would suffice, where should I begin? Other sources have not been helpful.

OHHH GODDD OK WELL. OK SO. the thing is that different iterations are SO different i'm not entirely convinced that comparing them to each other is very ?? helpful?? a lot of people these days get into tmnt through the 2018 animated show Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles. HOWEVER, that show only has like 2 seasons and is not the end all be all of the tmnt universe.

it's kind of hard for me to advise you to watch or read any one specific piece of tmnt media to get into it, because I kind of just already knew about it the entire time growing up?? like i never really actively watched it but i was generally aware of the concept for my entire life.

and i'm not sure exactly ABOUT the tmnt characters interests you, so i wouldn't know where to point you.

with all that as a disclaimer here's some of the more popular film/tv shows (I'm about as lost as you when it comes to the comics to be honest)

ROTTMNT/rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles. it's the newest series as far as i know and it has fantastic animation. it's very funny and lighthearted most of the time and the boys even get magic powers (eventually) it's the one that really got me into tmnt. this one kind of switches around the roles of the characters. Usually you'll see Raph being depicted as the rash one, or the one with anger issues who strikes out on his own (and i still think thats true to an extent in rottmnt) but he, as well as Leo, are definitely portrayed in a different way than normal in rottmnt. which i like tbh it's fun. (i could write a whole essay about how their characters are different but also kind of the same in rottmnt vs other media but that would take all day)

TMNT 2012 series. The 2012 series is very influential as well, and heavily beloved by many. I haven't seen all of it yet, but it's biggest drawbacks (to me at least) is its very 2010's american childrens show style of comedy which can come off as uncomfortably cruel/annoying if you aren't ok with it. it's also an early years CGI animated show, so sometimes things don't look as good as they could. STILL it's definitely interesting and i like the dynamics between the brothers there so I'd give it a chance.

TMNT 2003 series. honestly i havent heard a lot about this one, but i really like the style and ive watched a few episodes of it, and it's definitely solid, sorry i can't say much more than that.

TMNT 1987 series. also can't say much about this one but it is hella goofy from what i've watched of it. it's also the original cartoon series i believe, airing as a sort of "saturday morning cartoon" situation.

TMNT 1990 movie. this one is part of a trilogy of tmnt movies, but i've only seen the first and a half movies. I really enjoyed the first one, it was a fun time and kind of campy, and the guy who plays casey jones is cute. this one is live action and the turtle costumes can look off putting to some people, but personally i liked them.

im sure people in the replies/reblogs of this post will add their opinions too haha

[musicoftheheart]

i am not in a Positive Mood atm and so i will be picking a bone with disney because there is one song that has frustrated me since the day i heard it and i vow here and now that one day i will rewrite it and that song is My Once Upon A Time from descendants 3

for context, the song comes right after all of mal's closest friends and her fiance have just been turned to stone. unless she can find a way to turn them back, they are - for all intents and purposes - dead, essentially. and, as she says in the song, its her fault. i dont 100% agree with that, but its not the bit i want to pick at

no, what id like to rant about is the fact that the whole song - the whole song - is her talking about how she needs to fix it because its not how she wants to be remembered. what?! im sorry, her friends have been turned to stone and shes concerned about whether she'll be portrayed as a hero in history books? what the fuck.

allow me to point to a song that achieved exactly what mouat shouldve: the next right thing, from frozen 2. in this song, anna learns her sister is dead, because olaf (who's life relies on elsa) dies in her arms. anna's song shows how she picks herself back up, not for herself but because she has people relying on her who need her. because its the right thing to do. not because she wants to be seen as a saviour, but because she wants to save the lives of everyone still in danger. shes already lost her sister, she doesnt want to lose her kingdom, her people, too.

tnrt in frozen 2 was an impactful and emotional moment. mouat in d3 showed mal brushing off the fact her friends were gone and instead focused on her reputation. and i get it - i get that the whole point of the descendants trilogy was that you get to write your own story, and that nobody is wholly good or bad, and that youre in control of your own decisions and whether they help or hurt - but this should be a moment of pure emotion for mal as she recognises how her own actions have led to the loss of her friends, but that she has to carry on if she ever wants a chance to save them; to save everyone. it should not be focused on her being good for the sake of reputation

and, to add to this, im fully aware that throughout the three movies, we see how mal values other people's perception of her, especially so at the start of d2, and then again at the start of d3 both as her role as future queen, and when she doesnt tell her isle friends that it was her call to keep the barrier closed. shes afraid of how theyll see her, yes, but we had the character growth during d2 where mal became more confident about not fitting with the perfect princess look (represented by her transformation into the dragon, and continued use of such magic despite it coming from her evil mother, as well as her dress changing from auradonion colours to her signature purple), so any insecurities there shouldve been wrapped up. and her lies in d3 were, ultimately, for the good of everyone, and only temporary. the barrier had to stay closed until they could figure out a way for it to be safe for everyone. if she had let them bring down the barrier too soon and a villain had caused chaos, then that would ruin the chances of the barrier ever coming down forever. and if she had told her friends - specifically evie - that it was her call, then she knew that evie would convince her to change her mind. but changing her mind at that point was not for the greater good, therefore she lied. as much as a small amount of it was for her reputation among her friends, it was also for the good of auradon and the isle

therefore i refuse to believe that muoat shouldve been focused wholly on her reputation. we know mal cares so much about her friends and about ben, so why didnt the song dive into that? why were we not looking at her guilt, or her determination to carry on so that she could save her loved ones and her home? why, instead, did we focus so hard on the way she wants to be remembered for her heroics and good deeds?

i also understand that mal may be compartmentalising to an extent, by ignoring her own grief for her friends and instead focusing her attention elsewhere to keep herself going. she very clearly does have insecurities about her decisions and her role in auradon, so it would make sense to distract herself with that rather than letting herself break down over her friends. if this was what they intended, though, i think it was poorly done. at least, i certainly wouldnt have brushed past it quite so nonchalantly. mal hardly seemed to care that her friends had been turned to stone after the first - what - two lines of the song? and even then all she says is that she deserves it. she deserves it?? like it had just been a shove in the playground or something, and not an attack on her loved ones - one that, remember, could very well result in her losing them forever

quite literally, her only lines in the song about losing her friends are: "here you are alone and you deserve it // your friends have turned to stone and thats on you" and that is it. everything else is about her story being written, or about serving a cause, or her reputation not being linked to her parents'

i really do not like this song. i havent watched d3 for over a year, so i do apologise if ive missed/forgotten important context, but from everything i remember and listening to the song itself, i do not believe it does the moment justice. i want to rewrite it one day, ive no idea if i ever will or how, but i dont like it the way it is.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Hi

I need some book recommendations

I want to get back into reading but I’m finding it hard since my dyspraxia and ADD diagnoses

I want to read more fiction as I usually read non fiction

So first, I read a lot of thriller books. Adventure thriller, murder thriller, legal thriller. I'm not really into women's fiction as much as I used to be, but I do read them from time to time. (I hope some people will jump in the comments with recommendations for that genre since I'm not very current.) I do like a good historical fiction or a dystopian/alternative reality book.

I'll do series first, in case that's your speed, and then individual recommendations.

Series/Authors

Dan Brown, Lee Child, James Patterson - I'm specifically suggesting these because they have short chapters. A friend of mine with ADHD (which I know is different from ADD) swears by authors with short chapters or short stories because it's easier to find a natural stopping point when her ADHD acts up and she can't stay focused. (I also like them too; Dan Brown more than the others. Digital Fortress and Deception Point are my favorites; the Robert Langston series is ok but I've never picked up those books again. I reread Digital Fortress and Deception Point almost every year.)

Marcia Clark has two series, one about a prosecutor and one about a defense attorney. Both are enjoyable, and one of them (I can't remember the title but it's part of the prosecutor series) is essentially a retelling of the OJ case. (Marcia is one of the prosecutors from the OJ trial.)

Stacey Abrams is a compelling legal fiction writer (she doesn't get into politics in her fiction books) and I like her Avery Keene series (I can't vouch for the books she wrote under her pen name).

Meg Cabot for more lighthearted reads. She has two series that are my go-tos whenever I need something light and quick.

Heather Wells. Heather is a former pop star (think Britney) who is a dorm advisor in NYC and her landlord is a private investigator that she has the hots for...who also happens to be the older brother of her ex-boyfriend, who is also a pop star. It's rom com + mystery.

The Boy series - these are epistolary novels, where everything is happening in emails, text messages, voicemails, newspaper articles.

Recently I've been reading Alex Michaelides and Eric La Salle. Both are thrillers/adventure-type books. I will warn you now; Eric's series deals with the Catholic Church abuse scandal, which I know is touchy for a lot of people for many different reasons. (Though that said, there is a twist in Eric's Laws of Depravity that I did not see coming at all, and usually I can suss these out.)

Always a good read is the Maggie Hope series, by Susan Elia MacNeal. She's a WW2 spy and gets into shenanigans. There are some dark parts of the series but overall, it's fun.

Individual Books

Thirteen by Steve Cavanaugh blew my mind. A serial killer sits on a jury, and that's all I'm going to tell you.

Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead. I've recommended it a few times here on tumblr. It's about a utopian society that regulates religion. It's part of an incomplete trilogy (the publisher cancelled the series for poor sales). The first book (this one) is better than the second.

Murdle. It's like Wordle or Quordle but with mysteries. It's a puzzle book but each puzzle is like a short story.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn. WW2 spy novel that takes place at Bletchley Park. Kate's grandmother makes an appearance. :)

Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke. An epistolary novel that takes place over IM/DM. It's a little weird but a bit silly. A very light and easy read.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart. Part sci-fi, part crime thriller. The Paradox Hotel sits at the "end of earth" next to a port for time travel. January is an employee at the hotel who must make sure that the time travellers don't bring anything back they're not supposed to. It's like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel + the Loki series + Doctor Who.

The Company of the Dead by David Kowalsky. Time travelers save the Titanic and the ripple effect through history. It's some heady shit, but it's a really interesting theory about what today would be like if the Titanic (and its shipload of rich people - that's important to remember) never sank.

If anyone else wants to add to these book recommendations, please do! Submit in the comments or asks. I'll use the tag #reading list for all of these.

[kohyuuu]

about me / writing info / masterlist 。. !

✄ ———————————————-

- i go by koh (cuh-oh) / kohyu / kev or kevin !

��- the bolded are names that me and other people use mainly x

- non binary-masculine presenting! / any pronouns <3

- vietnamese-american xx

- panromantic / cupidromantic asexual

- minor !!

- an introvert !

🎀 🌙 🩵 !

—— (i know that it may not be possible to be cupid + pan but those are labels im generally comfortable with)

♫ ° › ↓

my music taste!!

✄ ———————————————-

k-pop:

— newjeans, txt (ult group) & seventeen / svt

——- i own three seventeen albums, and one txt album

albums / photocards i currently own!!

seventeen:

- bss second wind album

- attacca ep

- your choice (8th mini album)

txt:

- thursday’s child album

photocards:

- two (three) photocards of seungkwan (svt)

—- I LOST MY YOURS TRULY SEUNGKWAN PC AND IM ACTUALLY TWEAKING BRUHHHH 😭🙏

artists outside of k-pop:

- sabrina carpenter

- olivia rodrigo

- renee rapp

- wave to earth

- suggi

- tv room

- melanie martinez

—- im aware of the allegations against them, but i can’t let go of their music. i don’t listen to their music directly from their youtube channel or stream on any platforms so she can’t generate revenue, i’ve also never made any recent purchases on their albums, eps, and merchandise

—- i also only listen / watch full shows of their recent concert tour, the trilogy tour lol

- chappell roan

✰ ˚ ❥ ↓

my interests !

✄ ———————————————-

- writing

- reading (depends on what i read tho)

- drawing / doodling

- playing video games

- being lazy 🤣

- overusing “x” or “xoxo” LMFAO sorry it’s fun to use

—- i’m not going to directly post my art here but ill let it shine through my writing works if there is art / drawings / doodles attached to them.

—- im insecure about my own shitty art and i don’t want anyone else to feel how i feel, plus i don’t like calling myself an artist x

📖・。↓

favorite games / movies / books !

✄ ———————————————-

movies:

- m3gan (2022)

- matilda (1996 & 2022)

- barbie (2023)

- mean girls (2004 & 2024…? bro ion know how to feel about that one gang 😭🙏)

- wicked (2024)

- minecraft (2025)

—- y’all i’m planning to see that one in theaters so ill let y’all know how it is LOL

games:

- class of 09 trilogy (visual novel)

- roblox (w game 💪)

- minecraft (also a w game 💪)

- genshin impact

—- i actually left genshin in march 2023 but i might come back again x

- stardew valley

- splatoon trilogy (1, 2, & 3)

- who’s your daddy

- hello neighbor series

- octodad

- dead island duology (1 & 2)

—- i only finished dead island 2 once as dani and im playing it again as bruno !!

books / books i wanna read:

- percy jackson series by rick riordan

- hello universe by erin entrada kelly

- charlie & the chocolate factory by roald dahl

- matilda by roald dahl

- the witches by roald dahl

📝 。・↓

writing information:

✄ ———————————————-

my boundaries for writing:

- im never going to write smut, anything dirty or perverted simply because im not comfortable with it, so expect a lot of fluff and dating headcanons for my ocs x

- if any asks or requests for characters or franchises are made towards me, ill try to complete them if my motivation is up for it !

—- i can’t promise that i’ll respond to every ask / request but i’ll try to ! im going to make it clear that i’m a person just like you and i can’t do that many things at once. i may also not respond due to mental health, school, etc. but i’ll eventually get back to you! so please watch out for that xx

- ill try to attach a doodle or a drawing on my writing works! that also kinda depends on motivation and if im not feeling self-conscious about my art skills today LMAO

- because my blog is an x reader blog, im always going to make my reader androgynous. i won’t write for male or female readers specifically because i want my writing to be enjoyed by everyone xoxo

- all my ocs are written to be panromantic or biromantic!!

📒 。・↓

masterlist:

✄ ———————————————-

—- there will probably be a part 2 to this, so ill leave a link below to the second part of the masterlist if there ever is one LOL

⤷ school/real world ocs

・current ocs

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

It is because of you specifically that im on board with the whole Michael is the vengeful soul thing but when i talk to other people about it It makes less sense to them. Every one seems to think its one of the kids. but i know the truth

imma be real i have no idea how "oh, the vengeful spirit is DEFINITELY the golden freddy kid" became so ingrained in fandom to the point where it's considered canon. i haven't seen like, any evidence to suggest that that can't be easily explained away.

"there's a lot of golden freddy in ucn" yeah man he's the cool creepy ghost easter egg from game 1. also heavily likely to be the animatronic that killed cc so yeah his image would be fucking with afton(s) in hell. "we get cassidy's name in the logbook" ok so we know that's a ghost name that doesn't say anything about the vengeful spirit; heck, her name was used for the bonnie possessor in the novel trilogy, while golden freddy was a wholly different kid. speaking of wholly different kids, andrew is literally a completely different kid possessing a completely different animatronic in a completely different timeline, i dont think we can use him as a "gotcha," that's supporting evidence at best. "vengeful little girls are fun" ok well you got me there that's completely valid actually

[discoveredreality]

CHAT IM NOT GOING TO BE ON TUMBLR FOR IDK HOW LONG (ty to my lovely parents for that <3) also sorry if i dont reply to ur dm/ask/tag/whatever lol rip

new intro post :D

ok the last one was getting really weird and chaotic so 😭

stuff u should know

i am a minor so interaction with adults is fine just no weird stuff pls

dms and asks are always open im fine with pretty much anything if u want to be friends pls say hi pls (im desperate loll)

sometimes i can't reply so pls be patient and if i don't reply in a while pls text me again idk but i swear im not ignoring u on purpose 😭

also if i do anything to make you uncomfortable pls pls let me know cause i'm kind of shit at social cues and stuff

dni

if you are racist, homophobic, transphobic, idk anything like that

also specifically if you support jk rowling literally get out

also if you hate on ships literally just block or ignore it there's no need to made a big fucking deal

or if you're just a bitch kindly fuck offfff <3

ok anyways lol intro post under the cut (not nearly as bad as my previous one yay :D)

about me :D

i'm ari (not my real name) (feel free to call me whatever tho) ✰ she/her ✰ minor ✰ ravenclaw ✰ istp-t ✰ cancer ✰ indian but i live in australia ✰ timezone is aest (suck on that everyone else im in the future :DDD) ✰ master of procrastination hehe ✰ i know english, shitty hindi and some bengali

fandoms :D

marauders ✰ soc ✰ drarry ✰ mcyt (specifically hermitcraft and trafficblr) ✰ kinda tma ✰ and kinda kotlc ✰ and more but i'm not into other fandoms as much loll

these artists could run me over and i would apologise

taylor swift (MOTHER) ✰ conan gray mll ✰ chappell roan omfg ahhh ✰ olivia rodrigoo ✰ sabrina carpenter ✰ david bowie <3 ✰ and idk a lot of other random stuff lmao

books and authors

harry potter (fuck jkr tho) ✰ soc ✰ shadow and bone ✰ kotlc ✰ inheritance games ✰ agggtm ✰ divergent series ✰ the selection ✰ powerless trilogy ✰ girl in pieces ✰ dictionary of lost words ✰ pjo ✰ more but i can't remember

karen m mcmanus ✰ chetan bhagat ✰ amish ✰ lauren roberts ✰ leigh bardugo ✰ and a bunch of other authors cause this is very short loll

userboxess

my pfp is the makowka picrew here

all the photos are off pinterest loll

the dividers are by @/saradika

[bytedykes]

maya fey for the character ask thingy :3

Sexuality Headcanon: WOMEN!!!!!! maya likes women for SURE i dont have like, a specific label for her but she is into women

Gender Headcanon: honestly i dont really think abt it that much so i guess cis woman but i have seen some really good transfem maya stuff before!!! im not a transfem maya truther but i believe in their beliefs <3

A ship I have with said character: basic ass answer is franmaya... i do actually like them together, i think it could be a rlly fun dynamic to explore. also maya/regina was cute in case 2.3 (one of the only things i liked about it rip) i've seen some good maya/blackquill stuff before also but its not really something i ship just an interesting dynamic. in general though i dont really devote much time to shipping maya w anyone i think her canon platonic/familial relationships are already very interesting

A BROTP I have with said character: PHOENIX!!! nick and maya 4EVER they are so good. !!!!! i loveee their dynamic, they work so well together and really bounce off each other well. i also like the more serious aspect of how mia's death connected them and how they both share this grief even in very different ways. i like how even if mia hadn't died they still would've probably been friends when she introduced them :) anyway phoenix and maya are very fond of each other and i think it's really sweet - bridge to turnabout is one of my favorite cases in part bc of the very present bond between them and how much phoenix cares about maya (same w the engarde case, but that one is almost better in this regard bc of how maya's care for phoenix is also heavily present). also big fan of the silly part of their dynamic where maya steals his wallet and hits him over the head with evidence <3

another really interesting relationship that's less canonically present is maya & godot. what we see of them in bridge to turn about is soooo compelling, and i would have loved to see more of them. i think in a world where godot eventually gets out of prison he and maya could work to have some kind of relationship to both their benefit. <- its interesting how mia and mia's death is kind of a driving force for maya's connections to people, maya & mia is also deeply interesting and compelling but i could write an essay about them so i will just say that i love them a lot as well lol

A NOTP I have with said character: phoenix... dislike the age gap + i just think they're better as a platonic relationship lol. maya/phoenix is like the one aa tag i actually have filtered kjaskd

A random headcanon: if u assume that in aaverse lawyers are famous and there is law twitter fan spaces . maya 100% has an account where she posts "lawyer spotting" pics of phoenix (and also edgeworth). neither of them know abt it . maya is lawtwt famous

General Opinion over said character: I LOVE HERRRR she's the og aa weirdgirl !!! maya is very dear to me, she's definitely one of my favorite characters and i love seeing her. currently my friend and i are playing aa4 and i miss her so bad :'( maya in general is a very endearing character, and she + her family is a big driving force in the trilogy which i find very compelling. she's also just cool! i love it when teenage girls have weird superpowers! i think maya is a very caring character who is silly but has really impactful serious aspects to her which are so awesome to see <3 anyway i did draw maya every day for months last year so like yeah u could say i like her a normal amount lol

TY FOR THE ASK CHEREN <3 mayaaaaa maya fey i love her sooo much. girl ever<3

[oohbuggypie]

it's both my God given right and duty to never shut up so i am going 2 not be quiet about BullDon 🫡 putting all text ("analysis", fanfic reccs, general rambling) under a read more so those who don't gaf can scroll easy 🩷 HERE WE GO !!

(all fanfics and their respective author are linked within their titles 🩷)

-------------------------------------------------------

K WHERE DO I START . their dynamic, past the obvious matador and bull trope, is so interesting to me. i think that their backgrounds have so many similarities; Don is a matador and is shown to have hundreds of people gathered in a stadium to watch his match, and Bull is watched relentlessly by the paparazzi. but they both have very different reactions to the fame and attention they receive. Don soaks it up and Bull can't stand it, and i think it contributes to their odd, almost mirror dynamic a lot

past that is their personalities and ethics,, both of them are SO full of themselves i actually almost forget, with Bull only being slightly more humble (cuz he can't exactly brag about his looks 😭) . Don is more prideful than he is cocky imo; but he's VERY expressive of his anger and distaste for losing, which makes him kind of paralell to my idea of Bull. though this follows more of a headcanon of mine and not whats in the game, i think Bull is really calm outside his persona in the ring (i.e his intermissions,,, he's being friendly if anything with Doc and he speaks so calm and low in Title Defense). unlike Don, he's shown actually building endurance and managing his emotions compared to his Contender cutscnene, essentially the OPPOSITE of Don, who only gets more sour and negative after he loses. i think in that aspect they're complete opposites but that switch makes their dynamic and relationship so much more complex to me

in the ring i think they share the factor of channeling their anger to help them succeed; Don is stronger when he's pissed at his missing toupee and Bull is .. Bull ? the Bull charge and his gut punch in Title Defense are very telling if his entire character isn't about how genuinely angered that man can be and i think that gives them a more complex element to how they'd work together; they're both sour and ugly about being perceived/looked at (more literally) in a way they don't want to, so that's just another thing that i find so interesting .. they have a BUNCH in common yet they're drastically different when you look at their characters generally

K NOW FANFIC RAMBLE TIME 🩷

Suficiente:

if anybody knows the author DetectiveCapan from AO3 personally im so dead srs when i say u should message them and praise them. i could not stfu about their BullDon writing and im not going to in a paragraph or two here but OH MY GODD. i have always avoided both actual books and fics alike that are written choppy and simplistic, and especially ones that lack atmosphere simply cuz they're just unappealing and hard to make me feel what's actually going on. but their BullDon trilogy ?? somehow their style of writing, which doesn't use complex words or long sentences packed with detail, is genuinely some of my favorite that i have EVERR read . they make the emotions the characters are feeling SO easy to understand and feel even without exaggerated expressions and dramatic descriptions it's actually kind of incredible ? and the bit of humor isn't overbearing, it's just silly and it sets up the atmosphere, which never ends up terribly serious. they write relationships with a familiarity in the atmosphere and actions that have been unachievable in any other piece of fiction ive read and the gestures omg .. IM GONNA BE SPECIFIC IN MY RECCS SO YOU'LL HEAR MORE ABOUT IT BUT OMGG. DETECTIVECAPAN IF U SEE THIS BLESS UR HEART SERIOUSLY UR AN AMAZING AUTHOR 🩷🩷 PLEASE KEEP DOING WHAT U DO UR WONDERFUL AND I'D LOVE 2 SEE MORE OF UR WORK ABT BULLDON / PUNCH OUT!! WII IN GENERAL 🥹 now the recc list!!

possibly my favorite out of all three and it's literally the first one 😭 ough i could gush about this one FOR SO LOOONG ,,, i love how they immediately establish Don's mindset and attitude with how he both admires and pities the World Circuit for what they get and what they go through. when Don's out of the shower and he sees Bull half dressed there's no implication of sexual tension despite them being mostly undressed in front of each other and thats actually SO special to me because i had a morethanfriendship just like this and they captured the reality of it in a perfect way, like feeling for feeling . same in the way that Bull watches Don get dressed; they mention he stares but he doesn't have a corny, shocked "omg i hope he didn't notice me" reaction to catching himself. instead they mutually understand that they're admiring each other and they just smile about it . LIKE UGH THATS SO SPECIAL TO ME OMGG. and also Don putting on his - what'd id assume - rosary and then dabbing cologne behind his ears .. literally clutched my own cross necklace like omg that detail makes me crazyy i love the religion mention sm 😭

also UGH Bull's mannerisms .. a little annoyed at Don but there's such an endearing thing about it; he's annoyed at his demands but he complies anyway cuz even though he knows Don is purposely trying to make him a little pissed, he likes him enough to and he knows it'll make him happy .. THERE'S A DEEPER SENSE TO IT AND I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IT IS BUT IT'S HARD TO WORDD 😭 also Bull being quick tempered about small things like the radio playing static and the music not being his taste .. and just the mutual like attachment they have with each other.. Bull never says anything about taking Don "home" (his hotel room) but Don knows exactly to get in his car and go with him anyway ,, and i cannot stress hard enough that it's just the little things seriously. i will never ever be regular about Bull liking to tie Don's boot laces, or promising to get his favorite beer when he offers it, or purposely (and patiently) waiting for him to get out of the shower so they can talk 🥹 like all those little gestures of love that show that he really does care . also possibly my favorite thing about this whole trilogy is that they have a very unestablished relationship ! it's never explicitly stated that they're dating or in love or anything even romantic but there areee quick mentions that imply (if im reading them correctly) that they're def a bit more than friends i.e Don mentioning how he thought his skin would burn from being in Bull's shower water temps ,, but the fact that it's not an established relationship and they don't outright express romantic interest in one another makes it SO much more special. it sets a completely different tone that creates warmth, familiarity, and comfort between them 😭

that's about that for Suficiente .. I LOVE IT SO MUCHH 😭 PLS READ IT, LEAVE KUDOS, AND IF U CAN COMMENT UR PRAISES !! 🩷 it is so well deserved genuinely. now on2 the next:

La Cosa Sobre El Pelo:

ugh i love this one equally as much. im gonna be repeating a lot of the same praises and ideas from "Suficiente" bcuz the whole trilogy creates the same kind of atmosphere but i still wanna gush about and explain it 🥹 omgg the paragraph about Don having a bald ass head and it scaring away the ladies made me giggle SO BAD . also UGH okay .. the sentiment of Don being vulnerable enough to confess his biggest insecurity to Bull, and for Bull to actually reflect and think about it so long after he's been told and reciprocate the vulnerability by showing Don a photograph of him before he lost his hair .. OUFFFGGHH actually the cutest and sweetest thing ever . also i am a nitpicker and a sucker for small details and i just absolutely LOVE how naturalistic the author makes the characters move. like Don doesn't get up and stand to grab the photo off the nightstand, he leans over and props himself up with his elbow and continues sipping on his beer when he's observing it like any other person would .. ugh i LOVE that detail , i get a little bothered when people write characters to be unnaturally animated in a setting where it doesn't exactly make sense to be, so that's another aspect of their writing that i appreciate soo much 😭 also it's the gestures omg .. when Bull grabs Don's thigh and shakes it and Don doesn't jerk away or question the closeness , he just leans back onto the bed and continues/ends their conversation about how he'll look bad with no hair and Bull looks good without it ,, I LOVE THAT SO BAADDD again it's the familiarity the meaning of Bull's gestures ,, the care that they quietly express instead of directly saying it .. GAWDD that's like my fav thing 😭 there's something so special about the silent concern and care that Bull has for Don in their writing; the small actions and the thought behind them do so much more than what words could say and i think it's super in character for him as well .. literally stellar i think i need to reread and add onto this one once i look at it again but I LOVE THIS ONE SO SO MUCHH 🩷

[catastrxblues]

hiii ik you love the hunger games (i do too) but I have a couple questions about the books (one in specific) is the ballad of songbirds and snakes part of hunger games? I haven't read it and idek if it is a part of the series. Also is it like worth reading/watching (I love the hunger games and any books like that so im wondering if it's worth buying bc if it's anything like the hunger games/a part of the series than that's instantly a green light for me to like go and buy it) also feel free to rant about everlark or just the hunger games in general bc rant posts about them are like my FAVOURITE things to read especially yours lmao

(and yes, I do ship Katniss and Peeta because there is no other option. Not a correct one anyway. Sorry to the people who ship gale and katniss)

That's about it lmao

Have a great day

(sorry i wrote a lot axsgxjklhsh)

OKAY HI LUCY IM READY THANK YOU FOR THIS I LOVE YOU.

yess, the ballad of songbirds and snakes is part of the hunger games!! it's a prequel about young president snow and the 10th hunger games and how everything about the games was changed there. i'm always kinda nervous talking about this book because i'm still currently reading it BUT i can safely say that if you (a) loved the hunger games (b) want to know more about how the games came to be and why and how the people there could just agree with it (c) is curious about how the people in the capitol were before their glory decades that was shown in the original trilogy (d) or is interested to see the other side's perspective about the first war 60 or so years before THEN.

i would definitely definitely definitely recommend it to you.

because HONESTLY suzanne is such a genius. this story is told from snow's point of view right. someone who was very much so ambitious, and bitter, and power hungry, and snobby, etc etc. we already knew how terrible he is as a person from the original trilogy, so i mean, we expected no less. but the thing is, in this story, he was also an 18 year old boy, still technically a teenager, and was still traumatized and healing from the war that had destroyed him (the loss of his parents, the sound of the bombs, poverty, lack of good food, others). you also got to see the human side of him that we never did in the original series.

and what's so interesting is that we get to see how murky? everything was in his mind. we saw how his mind worked in such such details (from the pathological people pleaser of it all, to how he saw others and his brutally honest criticization of them, to his disgusting feeling of entitlement to lucy gray, and to other worse things i can't remember or haven't gotten to).

like one minute i feel bad for him, and then another he was resenting and mocking sejanus and his mom in his head simply because they were from the districts and snow thought the district people are barbaric slums and was in a fair comparison with animals. one minute i thought he was effortlessly hilarious, and then the other i thought he was just sick in the head.

another thing!!! is that this book also shows how, earlier in the games, the capitol used their very own children too to achieve their political goals.

they used district children to be the ones who did the killing and got killed, to remind the districts of how much power the capitol held against them and to keep the war fresh in their minds. so they can avoid from becoming the prey.

but, these people (and i'm mostly talking about the gamemaker at this time, dr. gaul) also used their very own brightest students in the capitol, who were still children when the war first happened and most never liked thinking about it (of course with a few exceptions), who just wanted everything to stop, to help them succeed the 10th game and make people watch, get people to forget what the real problem is (pg 202 for a quote reference on how one of the mentors felt used, there's def more from what i can remember). how the casualties in all of these hunger games affairs are the children. how children were always the ones exploited by the adults who made the mess in the first place when it comes to this.

AND ALSO I JUST THINK that what's so great about this is that this isn't some romanticizing the villain kinda thing. we saw his human side, we saw his sufferings, but we also saw how his decisions lead more to the bad side rather than the good, we saw how he became this terrible person in the end and that just made us understand him more, not justify his actions.

i think it's such a thought provoking book, especially if you loved and knew the context of the first three books. like the juxtaposition of it yes, but also the similarities!! so many similarities. and so many aspects reflected the real life world too, just like the hunger games series did.

like there's just SO many more things about this book, so many to talk about. sometimes i can feel my mind going on 20000 miles per hour when i'm reading it.

ALSO, we got to meet tigris here and oh my god <333 i love her so much, she had such a sweet soul. and we also got to meet sejanus, whom i personally love and care about a lot. and they're just so!

(SO SORRY i ended up ranting so much about this book 😭)

but yeah. i definitely would recommend it, if you thought there could be any chance at all you would like it or interested in it. BUT, a warning though, i do think it's a bit on the slower pace. and you might get bored sometimes. it's worth it though in my opinion, and i'd recommend giving it a try!

HAHA THANK YOU. i tend to just keysmash when talking about this series and everlark but i can't help it so. many. thoughts.

i can't take people who ship gale and katniss seriously to be honest. because, i mean, i remember when i was deep in my hp phase like a few years ago, i once saw an entire article talking about peeta and gale and they were making an argument about how one is better than the other (i can't remember which one though) so the first thing that came to mind was, naturally, "oh. this series is about some sort of dystopian love triangle, okay." because i truly knew nothing about it. BUT HOW WRONG I WAS.

and then a few years later, this year in june/july i finally read it and i was like??? "what love triangle, gale was barely there, you all got to be joking 😭😭" and i just never saw it as one? which is a good thing because i tend to dislike love triangles but seriously. it was so obvious from the very first book who was katniss going to end up with. so so obvious. katniss and peeta had the greatest love story of all time, and katniss and gale had a falling out.

also, in mj, they literally couldn't stop arguing. "i'm not trying to start a fight" but that's all they were doing. understandable, given the situation in district 13 and the war and the losses, emotions were running high yes, but truly it was just plain to see. both katniss and gale are stubborn, they couldn't balance each other out like katniss and peeta did.

one thing to just sums everything up :

"that what i need to survive is not gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. i have plenty of that myself. what i need is the dandelion in the spring" like HOW CAN YOU ARGUE WITH THAT. she said it herself folks, she said it herself. how could there still be discourse about it, i'm sorry.

OKAY that's it asjkldg SORRY THAT THIS IS SO LONG. and so chaotic too.

my turn to ask questions now just for a sec!! what's your favorite character from the series?? and what's your favorite book or your favorite movie from the trilogy?? <3

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS LUCY. I hope you'll have or are having a great day and take care!!!! 🫶🏽🫶🏽

[noodleblade]

Miscellaneous Tag Game (stolen title <3)

thank you bestie:3 @searchingfortheuniverse I'll be working on this while im on and off phone calls~

A band you don’t like that many others do: UM idk...my music taste is all over the place and I really only know the bands i think?? oh- maybe Mother Mother, only because I have not bothered to listen to their music past Junkrat hype videos and that's probably tainted my view a little. For better or for worse.

A childhood memory that you remember vividly: during a summer in greece, idk how, but I got roped into selling watermelons off the side of the road. I couldn't have been more than 6 or 7, but I remember I would put the watermelon in a plastic bag and the farmers thought it was really funny because that's such a...united states thing...to bag 1 whole watermelon in plastic. Anyways, they paid me in cucumber slices with salt.

Least favorite animal and why: HUH LEAST. I'm not a huge fan of like reptiles? Specifically those smaller than a bread box. Too fast, too squirm. Im worried I'll crush them in my hands. (im thinking of specifically florida geckos...idk they are cute but i freak out trying to hold them).

Hot fandom take: just because something is popular and fandom-wide accepted doesn't mean it is good. and not agreeing with it/wanting to engage in it doesn't mean you or your own opinions are bad. the monopoly on accepted 1 true canon is boring.

Do you wear any jewelry, if so, what’s your favorite piece: I try an rotate my jewelry around but I'm usually wearing a few rings, a necklace and a pair of earrings. My favorites are the rings. They are my mom's old ones and I typically wear the same two every day. One is a gold key of greece and the other is a thin black bar but the sides have really small thin heart cut outs.

A movie others liked but you didn’t: HMMMMM probably the new star wars trilogy. felt unnecessary and i just didn't like it? big shruggies

Three things you love about yourself: my writing- its something that I enjoy the most in the world and something that I can claim as mine. I also think I'm pretty funny in a sillay way which is poggers. I like my openness to trying things. Think that's helped make me more well-rounded. I hope so at least.

A place you hope to visit in the future and why: HMMMMM. I want to visit Japan again. For a new place, I want to go to South America. Peru maybe??? Mexico would also be nice. So that's what I'm gearing up towards next.

An actor that gets on your nerves and why: Uh Matt Smith? No reason behind this. but I see his block head and kind of just look away.

Things you’re excited for in the nearby future? I have a lot of little house projects I finally feel like tackling which is exciting. Ive lived in my house for almost 2.5 years and still havent felt like parts of it are complete yet.

Least favorite ship in a fandom you’re in: oof I lowkey kind of hate saying things I don't like on here. bad experiences in the past when people were upset I didn't like a thing they did and got mad at me. But uhhh not the biggest fan of most rodimus ships? but I think mega/rod is my least favorite of them. sorry!

What’s the most toxic fandom you’ve been in? hahaahahahhahahah can you believe Game of Thrones wasn't the most toxic???? it was jjba. I got put on a ban list which was kind of funny. I also got kind of show-ponyed in a toxic discord server for a while which has completely ruined me in the ability to act normal on discord outside of my irl friends. that account is deleted but the ao3 is still circling around.

List three things you find beautiful about life: Friends and family- sometimes I want to kill but I really do love them so so much. I like creating things and creating things with people. I also really like my area as far as nature goes. the beach to swamp ratio sings to me.

Any dreams for the future? I want to go on a really long hike. Maybe like a 2 day one? (< says the person that has gone on a max 2 hour hike before). Also just working on my original fiction again. I miss those fellas.

How are you really feeling today? Motivated!!!! Im a little groggy still, but I've been really excited about life and betterment lately so its overcoming my sleepy brain.

Tags: feel free to do or not: @honkytonka, @elmonstro, @huanted-dennys, @feral-birb-husband, @solarstormstuff @anyone else who wants to!! I'd be happy to read them:3

[ebisul]

TCW Rewatch: Season 1 Episodes 19-22

These are probably my favorite episodes of Season 1. I dont think we get that many Windu-centric episodes so thats like a special little treat for me

Episode 19: Storm Over Ryloth

* Separatists are blockading ryloth and the people are starving

* This seems to be a common trend of the separatists using starvation specifically to their advantage

* “We cannot allow the republic to invade this planet” baby YOURE invading the planet

* Anakin pulling out that false surrender

* Thats a war crime? I think? I need to start a scoreboard for most warcrimes committed

Episode 20: Innocents of Ryloth

* Using the citizens as living shields because they know the jedi wont risk the twilek lives is so shitty but not surprising coming from the separatists

* Okay boil lets not do any slurs please your daughter is down there

* Codywan interactions are always nice…well…

* Wooley is here thats cool, fuck that recon droid tho

* Boil is not good with kids, waxers a sweetheart. We love numa

* This episode is like 80% boil complaining

* Obi wans jedi tricks coming in handy, Cody knows whats up

* ofc he does thats his boyfriend

* Cody with obi wans lightsaber as usual

* Not killing the droid in the cage is so telling of the jedi and obi wan honestly

* The Twileks are freed

* Obi Wan in a tank goes hard actually

* Twileks being freed and like almost immediately beat the shit out of the droid that held them hostage the first chance they get is so real

Episode 21: Liberty on Ryloth

* Ok i understand now, Anakin is fighting ships, that was episode 19, Obi Wan is specifically freeing the Twileks held captive, last episode, and this episode is the front lines with Mace WIndu to take back the capital, i see

* Most of the generals with their clone commanders we’ve seen so far have great synergy, like blyla, codywan, wolffe and Plo are all like known for their great relationships but like Ponds and Windu also have a like respectable relationship it seems although its different from the others

* Its bc they aren’t shipped and windu isnt exactly fatherly but the mutual respect seems to be there and Windu cares about his men

* Anakin and Obi wan have both progressed with their objectives Windu needs to take back the city and capture wat tambor

* The GAR plans to ally with Cham Syndulla and his freedom fighters against the warnings of the senator of ryloth and palps

* Maybe its just me but i thought star wars was pro resistance or at least neutral so why does it seem like they always wanna villainize their resistance leaders like cham syndulla and saw garrera this is more prevalent later in rebels and tbb if im remembering correctly so maybe i need to wait until i rewatch the og trilogy but thats for later it just feels icky i blame filoni

* Twileks were massacred without the help of the Republic in the face of the Droid Army and forced to surrender.

* The separatists tried to exterminate the surviving twileks

* Fuck thats a warcrime right there, bombing a village presumably with civilians inside

* Cham just wants a free Ryloth and willing to make a compromise with the senator for the safety and wellbeing of the twileks

* This bitch only cares about his position of power he sucks at least Cham is out here doing shit

* Fuck the Senate

* Ponds, Windu, and Cham Syndulla is such an interesting trio to me idk why

* Is the silence supposed to be shellshock or to indicate focus in the force bc im getting shellshock vibes?

* I like the effect tho for whatever reason

* We dont see jedi fight like windu a lot

* Or maybe hes just being intentionally depicted as more competent… or maybe we do and i just dont notice

* The tactical droid is overthrowing Wat Tambor??? They can do that???

* Anakin coming in clutch

* Wat Tambor captured i assume? He Surrendered

Episode 22: Hostage Crisis

* CAD BANE LETS GOOOO ig aurra sing is there too or whatever

* Anakin wants to spend time with his wife but also his wife is a very busy very important senator who is busy bc theyre in an active war

* Ani is getting real toxic here already weaponizing their love like that it actually only got worse the longer the scene went on

* Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill??? What does that entail???

* Wow… another hostage situation… im so shocked…

* Ok i see what their goal is, freeing ziro the hutt, but why? Information?

* Background riyo chuchi??? Fuck yeah

* Palps agrees to release Ziro, Senator Free Taa has to be the one to go to the prison

* Ofc there are bombs

* Ziro the hutt is cartman core

* Senator taa has an anxiety disorder for real

* Is that fox or thorn??? Im usually good at identifying clones by armor, i think it was thorn?

* She calls him master jedi, is that a term used for all jedi generally? I thought that was just jedi masters

* Also lackluster season finale

War Crime Counter

Separatists: 7

Republic: 1 🎉babys first war crime🎉

[basslinegrave]

whatever i was thinking about maxs timeline and

if future max is the same as past max then after his events he wouldnt have a sam anymore but the timetravel bs is so specific i dont think that would even be the case so i started thinking up a story where past and future max have a talk about sam and their feelings towards him and perhaps future max is looking at it very negatively, in a "dont bother" sort of way (i always had that vibe from him at least, just fed up with everything, but having a soft spot for sam at least, staying with him to take care of him) if were talking romantic he could even tell past max to not show his feelings to sam cause they dont have that kind of future or something but after sams death, past max would (hopefully) send his kid self and future self back to their dimensions and just maybe, as he would be sending off future max, he catches a glimpse of him and future sam meeting again, future sam all worried where he was and pulling him into a big hug - maybe it doesnt make sense but perhaps his future timeline has changed and he would be in fact in a different relationship with sam there... (future sam letting him know what happened similarly to how past sam learns about current sams timeline?) im also considering whether to keep his doggy dementia or not, its very sad and bittersweet to me with how max stays at his side but if i could take it away and let them just be old men, happy together with no problems, i would... for past max, he sees them together as hes leaving and it shows him what exactly he has to do, not hide his feelings from sam because he can change the future. this ties to my headcanon that the two different endings in tdph split into two different timelines, 1st was the crime fighting ending (hope thats the right one, i mean the one where they stay) which would happen in general or specifically in the first release of tdph and lead to the events of ttiv. (bad end. /hj - theyre so divorced there) the second adventuring ending (where they leave) would happen with the new knowledge of what happened in maxs timeline in the remaster and its more open there (and hopefully - in a headcanon, they could be a couple there and not be so weird with each other there)

and aside from all this, if there are ever more games by skunkape, it would be nice to see a soft reboot with mentioning of these past events, but not a specific year or timeline mention, just imply its somewhere else. all that ttiv got wrong, as for me the sam and max media is fun in the way where you dont have to fit it all into one huge timeline, they just happen randomly except the trilogy which has a set order. by stating that ttiv is happening 11 years later, even though its important to the plot (them getting old, looking for someone to carry on the freelance police thing in the future - though i find this soo ooc for them) it kills 11 years for no reason and any opportunity for skunkape to continue the story right after tdph as they have to tie it to ttiv in the end, which being their worst game id think nobody even wants to do that. (best case scenario is they "forget" about it, second best is its not mentioned but they show an easter egg with the aquabears or something and carry on)

as for kid max i think he would forget about these events partially as he gets older or perhaps its just a trigger to make him even more protective of sam

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 4/25/22

where the fuck were we

listening

Tongue by Rêve. i do not care for this latex aurra sing album art, but this instantly went on the "somebody come fuck this (GAY)" playlist. a fun danceable party bop about oral. other than a concerning line regarding "gamey like venison", what more can you ask for. spotify

Yeah Yeah Yeah by Blood Orchid. starts out with some very straightforward drums and then gets SLUDGY. this makes me want to sing along with the chorus with as much vocal fry as i can manage. i think the band is american, but the pronunciation of "yeah" is something i have only heard from posh brits? i think it works here. spotify

Praising You (feat. Fatboy Slim) by Rita Ora. this is somewhere between a cover and a reimagining? fun if you already know and like the original, fun if you don't. short, peppy, got me through a lot of mopping on saturday. spotify

reading

very long title by susan pinsky. checked this out mostly for any advice on moving, which was limited to two paragraphs that said "get rid of everything possible, the most efficient packing is not always the thing that will get you through a move in one piece, hire people to do everything for you if possible". this was unhelpful to me.

the author is not adhd, but is writing it out of the experience of having an adhd daughter and a ton of clients who probably had adhd. it feels like it is largely geared toward people who have a wife or child with adhd. while the version i read had been updated, it did feel very out of date at several points, especially with regards to calendaring/planning systems and (if possible) forcing everyone to call you at your home phone so you can check your wall calendar that you keep on your wall and not double book yourself. like what.

while i had independently derived some of the specific tips through great trial and error and much of the book simply did not apply to me, it did give some interesting background on why specific things (open storage, clear bins, open shelving, the concept of having one or two shelves free as a staging area in each place you have shelves) work with rather than against us.

i can see this being useful to someone who has recently been diagnosed as an adult, or is managing a family with multiple adhd/otherwise neurodivergent members, but i certainly wouldn't buy it. her big thing is Get The Fuck Rid Of Your Shit while not really providing a lot of pointers on how to go about that, so i could see how pairing this with one of marie kondo's books might be helpful? neither pinsky nor kondo really give a whole lot of advice on like "so you're an adult, here are things adults have in their house to make their lives easier" so perhaps a third unknown book might complete the perfect trilogy. idk man. im cranky her advice about moving was half a page.

Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms, a collection of erotic lesbian fairytales edited by Sacchi Green. this was objectively fine. i skipped one completely bc it would have been a fucking hysterical short skit but did NOT translate to the page at all. as is ever the case with anthologies, some of them were decent, some of them not so much, almost none will stick in my brain even though there was some very nice butch representation. the one that does stick in my brain, Woodwitch by M. Birds about a princess trying to break a familial curse re: war, and a witch who follows the army, was memorable more for its leadup and acknowledgement of how a marching army works? like yeah! historically that is how armies move and camp and feed themselves huh, this is surprisingly well-researched for lesbian erotica!

the level of explicit erotica is...sort of on the same level as most modern f/f fic? this came out a good five years ago and people sure are having sex on the page, but there's a lot of metaphor and various other veiled imagery.

unfortunately, i want to read about women gettin absolutely nasty with it. i want to read about a pussy written with the same fervor as the average m/m cock in fanfic.

it's misogyny is what it is.

watching

rewatched For A Few Dollars More (1965, dr. Leone). in my heart he fucked that old man

You Can't Win Em All (1970, dir. Collinson) bc a very western-ish screenshot had me absolutely baffled about why a mauser was in a western. this is not a western, this is about some american mercenaries during the 1922 turkish civil war. this is not a very good movie (my main beef is that it spends twenty minutes trying to convince itself why its leads should work together, and the contrivance it lands on isn't particularly compelling or comprehendible after carting through us a whole bunch of other failed inciting incidents). this movie doesn't even manage enjoyably bad, but it sure is a spectacle of a war movie. great calvary columns riding through the prettiest goddamn landscapes you've ever seen. all forms of transportation are covered, including "armored train" and "trio of biplanes". my personal tolerance for exotic travelogue movies is fairly high, yours may not be.

if you want an actual cowboy western with different triple-crossing american mercenaries played by burt lancaster and gary cooper, Vera Cruz (1954, dir. Aldrich) is like a proto-revisionist western? quite a bit darker than i expected for 1) an american western made in 2) 1954

playing

sort of tied in with the making section-- i am deeply unhappy with how much time i am spending with fallou/t 4 bc it is not a game that makes me happy. however, the startup cost to finding a new game that makes me happy is pretty steep. so i spent some time on saturday flinging games into various folders, bc i forgot that was a thing steam lets you do now. maybe a different organizational system will fix me.

do not need to look at again: lots of demos and prologues from my old job, a couple things that aren't on steam anymore, some stuff that came in bundles that i'm not interested in, any strategy games.

done: my time with this game is at an end but i may want to return to a handy list to remind myself of what i have finished. lots of short indie experiences, wolfen/stein the new order, night in the woods, the portals, firewatch, things of this nature

old faithfuls: fnv, fo4, dishonored, sable bc i love simply zooming about.

hard bounce: this is mostly to make myself stop trying to click with hollow knight. i am never going to like fiddly platformers. and that's okay.

try again later: i'm deeply annoyed i'm not clicking with hardspace shipbreaker bc on paper it's the perfect fucking game for me. in practice even after fucking around with all the sensitivities it's still too fiddly for me. i need much, much more forgiving games with a shotgun-close-enough mentality.

making

important moving prep: cleaned out the storage unit that still had the dregs of my last move plus boxes from three grandparents and my mom. this took three full fuckin days bc it was extremely hot, i had to stop to cry a bunch, and a lot of goodwill trips.

the great thing about siblings is that if you've been caretaking a family heirloom that makes you feel weird due to your fractious relationship with the dead person in question, you can foist it off to a sibling who had a completely different less fractious relationship with the dead person in question.

once again i have failed to take a pic of the baby blanket in real daylight but we are slowly chugging along, halfway through repeat 6/10

[jennilah]

jenna gone got high and started rambling about nothing again

the amount of times ive drawn something that i thought i would be appealing or even only make sense to an audience of me and maybe 2 other people, only for it to get blown out of the water with response is shockingly often

like hoffman and strahm from the Saw franchise getting high together, yeah

but also my nonsense comics about Michael Myers from specifically the Thorn trilogy, the RZ remake, and the Green sequel hanging out like weird brothers

or every time I draw a weird AU like slashers as fish. or mini characters that live in the pockets of either someone else or the normal versions of themselves

any self indulgent crossover ive ever made like Jason hanging out with Godzilla and Mothra

and i do it for every fandom. if anyone remembers my old spn comics and AUs, some of those were off the wall cryptic and nonsensical. to the likes of which i havent come close to recreating

many of these get hundreds to thousands of notes/likes/whatever on various websites. so many people just see my nonsense and let me take their hand, no questions asked

thats it i just think its funny

jk im not done that reminds me,. the results of my dumb little poll came in where i asked what people sort of ideally want from me and im kind of surprised

i think i rambled this already but deleted it bc it felt too dumb but actually i dont think its dumb. i think its really interesting and relieving that people actually want my sketches and doodles and dumb things.

& yea i enjoy occasionally making a fully rendered piece but i mean. its not easy, and im never totally happy with the end result most of the time. but if im only posting sketches and doodles and sketchy doodly comics i feel bad like i feel like im just holding people over until the next piece where i actually put in effort.

but it turns out people are totally ok with stuff that i dont kick my own ass trying to polish. people arent settling for it, people voted- they want it.

and i dont know where this attitude against myself came from because i was never unhappy seeing sketches from artists i like

maybe its the part inside of me, which im pretty sure is inside every artist who has ever experienced self doubt, which makes me feel like i should be putting my best effort into everything. like, if i could only just muster up the courage to fully render some of these comics I do, then they would be even better...

but i wouldnt have as much fun. thats too much work, i get overwhelmed

so, they stay sketches. with varying degrees of refinement and shading.

so idk im glad ppl like them

anyway rambling done i think ive made my non-points

[neverlearnedtoread]

The Dragon Republic

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐; rin making bad decisions like they’re going on sale at the market, arms full of regrets, guilt, mistakes, and self-destructive coping mechanisms: i can fit in one more

Oh?? 👌😉😏

rf kuang gave us an unflinching exploration on the cycles of violence and oppression, dissected the ever-escalating chain of vengeance, and the good good of eastern-inspired mythology?? like ma’am.....the good food im eating at your feast.....ive been so hungry

the lore deserves its own point. it was so effortlessly woven into the story, especially the way it tied into certain characters’ backstories. i can’t say much more because spoilers but if you like integrated worldbuilding and you like chinese-inspired magic systems get over here!!

the friendships. namely rin 🤝 kitay. miss kuang you know what really matters, and its not 10398 handsome men, its one ride-or-die bff holding you back or yeeting you into the midst of battle as needed

grimdark, but not oppressively depressing? im not sure how to describe it..the story gives you enough adrenaline to power through with the sheer speed of reading to find out what happens next, but doesn’t pull its punches. i think its partly that rin herself ploughs through the narrative like she’s trying to outrun the events, giving the reader the momentum to move with her

No.. ❌🤢🤮

i took a screenshot when my friend and i were planning to do a buddy read together. the trigger warnings took up an entire page. do not screw around with this. there’s no shame in tapping out for any book, but especially this one

some characters die, and i specifically blame rin for it. i mean there were a lot of other factors, but in the spirit of the phoenix herself i am choosing to close my eyes to the rationality of working through my feelings of grief in a healthy way and plunge straight into being pissed off about it, forever. *wipes tear* just like rin taught me

did suffer from a bit of middle book syndrome, at least to me. i mean, i finished an 800~ page book in 8 hours of reading time, so maybe don’t believe me, but the first half of the book dragged more than i remember the poppy war did. i will admit a lot of that was because rin was in no position to be a rational, active protagonist. the narrative needed her to flounder, and she did.

Summary: Rin goes unhinged 2: water dragon boogaloo (ive tried and tried to write an actual summary for this book but i don’t think i can top this throwaway line i wrote as a placeholder)

Concept: 💭💭💭💭💭 Where to start? There are historical influences, commentary on social issues and the impact of violence on communities both physical and otherwise, the slow and terrible descent of a beaten-down protagonist. Basically a checklist of stuff I like exploring in high fantasy settings!

This is the second book in a trilogy - spoilers ahead!

Execution: 💥💥💥💥 Rin doesn’t like politics, and I think that made the narrative drag a lot initially as the moving parts tried to be interesting but through Rin’s jaded lens were stripped of their veneer. Kuang was more than ambitious with her sophomore book, and I know that she was open about struggling with the pacing of TDR while she was writing it - still, I think there’s more than something to be said about shooting for the stars! I didn’t think any part of the book dropped the ball, but the nature of all the heavy topics it was trying to handle became a hefty meal to swallow

Personal Enjoyment: ❤❤❤❤ Like I said, I read this book over 3-ish days in 8 hours. The library copy I had said it was 800 pages. I felt as powerful as Rin when I finished. The first half was a little dead in the water (which is a pun, yes, how many damn times did someone fall into the water and nearly drown in this book?? smh) but nothing I couldn’t handle with a little exasperation at Rin’s...*gestures* mental landscape. But when we reached the lore about Su Daji, and the Trifecta, and their chosen gods....i broke into a flat-out sprint. I was naruto-running through the plot.

Favourite Moment: it’s a battle to the death between the scenes with the trifecta backstories and the rin 🤝 kitay scenes

Favourite Character: chaghan, because i loved his backstory so, so, so much....also I didn’t know that handholding scene in the mountains was like. canon. and not fanon. rin really looked homosexuality in the eye and said ‘huh?’ with her whole chest.

[chewingonsneakers]

i don’t know how to explain this but. i’m really not ready for tsc to come out (i’m still on the 12th and i’m vibrating). lots of people have said this but i wanna elaborate what it means to me. don’t get me wrong, i am so fucking excited to burst into tears and read the damn thing, but i’m not ready for others to read it yet. that sounds so selfish let me rephrase. i struggle with change more than anyone else i know, and im not prepared for things shift on the good side of the aftg fandom. i’m not ready for fanart to become irrelevant, im not ready for the wonder and freedom that came with individual headcanons on jean and the trojans, im not ready for people to start forgetting about the feeling that came specifically with neil josten’s part of the story. i’m not ready for all focus to be shifted. i understand that not everyone is just going to immediately stop talking about tfc, it’s just a very specific feeling that comes with only having the og trilogy that i’m terrified of losing. it’s too comforting to me. this probably makes no sense but i had to try and put it into words because it’s almost paralyzing.