#the worst letter in the whole novel

[bethanydelleman]

Edmund Bertram:

Mansfield Park Memes, Ch 44

[selfaware-bungou-stray-dogs]

Imagine, Shibusawa accidentally activated his ability in real world.

The whole house is covered in fog. And all abilities are on a loose.

Even Crime and Punishment are gone.

But, they don't attack their respective ability users.

They are nowhere to be found.

You are also nowhere to be seen.

Worst of all, Dazai is also missing.

BSD Cast are panicking.

What, if abilities hurt you?!

BSD Cast is searching through the house.

They found you, surrounded by abilities, on the attic.

And all abilities are trying to get your attention.

🐯 Beast Beneath The Moonlight is chuffing, rubbing its head against your chest.

📒 The Matchless Poet creating knick-knacks for you.

👘🗡️ All Men Are Equal is guarding the window, taking short breaks to pet you.

🩺 Thou Shalt Not Die is applying cute bandages on smallest, almost healed cuts.

🌨️ Light Snow is recreating movie scenes with its power.

🐄 Undefeated by the Rain create stone figures with its bare hands.

🐰 Demon Show holding a plate with snacks.

Futon is manipulating electronics, changing channels, so you can watch some interesting show.

🍰💉 Vita Sexualis is making accessories for you.

🍷 Upon the Tainted Sorrow making things float for your entertainment.

🌂 Golden Demon is bringing you nice clothes.

🇫🇷 Demonic Beast Guivre is curled around you.

🎧 Illuminations is creating a hyperspace over you.

🗣️ Lippman's ability is sitting near you, guarding you.

🧥 Rashomon is glaring at everyone, who is trying to get close to you.

🚬 Falling Camelia entertain you by pushing around different things.

🩹🧲 Midwinter Memento is controlling metal pieces to create some cool figurines.

⭕⭐ Dogra Magra, as a little doll, sitting on your lap.

🍋 Lemonade is creating fireworks for you.

🍛 Flawless is playing cards with you.

⛩️ Hail in the Begging Bowl preparing non-alcoholic drinks for you.

💻 Discourse on Decadence is writing down interesting memories, it read from anything he could find.

🥷 Yesterday's Shadow Tag is sitting near Rashomon, protecting you.

🕶️ Another is bringing you dolls from Ayatsuji's collection.

💰 The Great Fitzgerald is bringing you cases, full of money (don't worry, it simply took them from Fitzgerald).

🦝 Black Cat in the Rue Morgue is ready to send you in any book you want.

🐋 Mody Dick is floating outside the window, ready to fly with you anywhere you want.

🍇 The Grapes of Wreath is growing grapes for you. Don't worry, they are edible.

☕ Annie of Abyss Red is playing ball with you.

🪶 Little Women is planning your weekends, while sitting in the next room

👒 Gone With the Wing is using wings to make paper butterflies fly around.

♊ Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer are floating above you, telling jokes.

✝️ The Scarlet Letter is writing your name in the air with its power.

😷 A Feast in a Time of Plague simply observing you from the corner.

🫖 The Precipice is outside, rumbling happily.

👻 The Perfect Crime is bringing you mystery novels.

⚔️ Mirror Lion is entertaining you with its sword skills.

🦇🧛 Bram's ability is handing from the sealing upside down. Protecting you.

🃏 Sigma's ability is laying near you, with its head on your lap.

🤡 The Overcoat is doing a circus performance for you.

🐀 Crime and Punishment is playing with your hair.

👧👩👵 Gasp of the Soul is cuddling your left hand.

💧 Priceless Tears is floating through the vents all over the house and bring you whatever you ask for.

🌸 Plum Blossoms in Snow is using its power to cut fruits.

⌚ Strait is the Gate is observing surroundings.

🐈‍⬛ I am a Cat is purring and doing tricks for you.

🪢🦀 Dazai, somehow, got captured, and how is in a cage, far away from anyone, he can touch to nullify.

The moment, BSD Cast stepped to the attic, abilities turned towards them, glaring at their 'hosts'.

So, you, either, will be stuck here, until Abilities decide to let you go.

Or, until BSD Cast manage to free Dazai.

[burningvelvet]

In a letter to W. S. Williams (14 August 1848), Charlotte Brontë compares Jane Eyre’s Rochester to the Byronic heroes of her sisters’ novels, Heathcliff from Emily’s Wuthering Heights and Huntingdon from Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall:

“You say Mr. Huntingdon reminds you of Mr. Rochester. Does he? Yet there is no likeness between the two; the foundation of each character is entirely different. Huntingdon is a specimen of the naturally selfish, sensual, superficial man, whose one merit of a joyous temperament only avails him while he is young and healthy, whose best days are his earliest, who never profits by experience, who is sure to grow worse the older he grows.

Mr. Rochester has a thoughtful nature and a very feeling heart; he is neither selfish nor self-indulgent; he is ill-educated, misguided; errs, when he does err, through rashness and inexperience: he lives for a time as too many other men live, but being radically better than most men, he does not like that degraded life, and is never happy in it. He is taught the severe lessons of experience and has sense to learn wisdom from them. Years improve him; the effervescence of youth foamed away, what is really good in him still remains. His nature is like wine of a good vintage, time cannot sour, but only mellows him. Such at least was the character I meant to portray.

Heathcliffe, again, of Wuthering Heights is quite another creation. He exemplifies the effects which a life of continued injustice and hard usage may produce on a naturally perverse, vindictive, and inexorable disposition. Carefully trained and kindly treated, the black gipsy-cub might possibly have been reared into a human being, but tyranny and ignorance made of him a mere demon. The worst of it is, some of his spirit seems breathed through the whole narrative in which he figures: it haunts every moor and glen, and beckons in every fir-tree of the Heights.”

Source: The Brontës Life and Letters (Clement King Shorter, 2013)

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Don't you think it's funny cause actual canon gay characters in BL manga will say "I love you" but only the shounen bromance can spew out some of the most romantic shit akin to a 19th century poet writing a letter expressing his surpressed love for his lover 😭.....

Genuniely can't tell if it's bait or not, but I'm going to treat this ask seriously anyway.

Here, have some examples of beautiful and poetic expressions of love in BL media!

I'm going to start with my favourite murder husbands, Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu from Word of Honor/Faraway Wanderers!

This happens in episode nine, less than one third into the story- it's that early, they've known each other for like a week and are already able to tell they're meant to be. They've made their decision to be together, and over the course of the story:

They defend each other multiple times and fight side by side in multiple episodes, sometimes protecting their adopted kid/mentee Chengling as well

Zhou Zishu is willing to go against the whole martial arts society for his boyfriend. With zero hesistation, might I add.

They both know the other has done horrible things (lots of murder on both sides here) and that's not only okay, it's a big part of why they're soulmates and get each other so well!

Zhou Zishu is slowly dying (poisoned nails in his chest, long story) and Wen Kexing can and will risk his life to save him. Don't worry, they get a happy ending both in the show and the novel even if the show's last episode is behind a paywall and Netflix didn't even include it for some reason?

But enough about them, let's move on to the immortal fantasy genre boyfriends Hua Cheng and Xie Lian from Heaven Official's Blessing!

Please note how Hua Cheng is ready to accept Xie Lian in whatever state he's currently in- as a god, a fallen outcast, even grieving and angry and at his absolute lowest. He's stood by Xie Lian in his worst moments, even if at the time Xie Lian had no idea it was him.

Hua Cheng has loved Xie Lian for 800 years, ever since he was a boy Xie Lian saved from falling to his death during a procession.

Xie Lian became a god, then fell due to horrible circumstances, almost committed a war crime against another nation that destroyed his country, spend 800 years wandering the mortal realm as a poor cultivator with his powers greatly reduced, and eventually ascended to become a god again. Throughout it all, Hua Cheng loved him and did his best to help him and then find him.

They're both adorable and the definition of a power couple once they're reunited- no spoilers, but they eventually fight an incredibly powerful god side by side and win & the last scene in the story is them reuniting for good since there's no more obstacles to their immortal love.

Let's move on to my favourite Japanese BL, Our Dining Table (also available as a series that came out semi-recently, but the examples below are from the manga.)

Yutaka is a lonely salesman who meets Minoru, a restaurant worker and his much younger brother Tane grieving the death of their mother.

Yutaka and Minoru hit it off by bonding through food they cook and share. The series is incredibly heartwarming, and as seen above Yutaka becomes a much happier person thanks to both his new relationship and big brother-like bond with little Tane.

As a little bonus, the whole found family together!

This post can't be complete without Golden Stage (or Golden Terrace, as the English official translation calls it).

Fu Shen and Yan Xiaohan aren't even in love at this point! This is at the beginning of the story, when their marriage has just been arranged by the emperor and they're still bitter rivals.

Yan Xiaohan is already protective of his future husband- later on, he also builds him a mansion meant to accommodate his disability (nerve damage in both legs, which requires a wheelchair and/or crutches). They're both incredibly powerful military generals, and the emperor was an idiot thinking an arranged marriage would humiliate them.

Of course they fall in love, of course they're a power couple, of course they send each other letters through trained geese when they're separated during the war, of course they run to each other as fast as they can across a wide cold river when they're finally reunited! Of course they're important to me!

....Aaand how about some Wangxian to wrap up this post? They need no introduction, an absolutely wonderful and complex relationship in a complex fantasy/intrigue story available in several forms - the books, the animated series (as seen above), the live action series, the audio drama, there's so much!

Some of their most beautiful moments:

Lan Wangji writing a song for Wei Wuxian and naming it Wangxian. Years after it's composed, Wei Wuxian plays it and LWJ is able to recognise him even in a different body.

LWJ begs WWX to come with him to Cloud Recesses, to safety, after WWX makes himself an enemy of the whole cultivation world for protecting innocent people.

They confront the final villain together, and work together to expose his crimes. This is also when their final love confession happens, and it's hilarious- in front of everyone's salad, WWX declares he also wanted to sleep with LWJ.

Despite censorship, the animated series was still able to allude to their wedding, showing them in red wedding robes (unfortunately can't find a gif rn)

Respectfully, if you genuinely think BL doesn't have beautiful love confessions and displays of romance, you need to find better BL.

[poorlittleyaoyao]

i still think the worst jgy meta is the victim blaming madam qin one

If we're thinking of the same meta--the one that goes into detail about how long the betrothal/wedding planning process would have likely gone on for--then that meta is SUPREMELY frustrating to me, because the information it brings up is worth considering, but then it draws the conclusion that "Madam Qin is the real cause of the problem here!" which is both victim-blaming and oversimplifies the whole tragedy.

The tragedy of Qin Su is that multiple people close to her decided that she shouldn't know a critical piece of information about herself. If it were just JGY, I think her reaction wouldn't have been as intense as it is, but when QS receives Bicao's letter, she receives with it the knowledge that Bicao, JGY, and her mother have all withheld this from her, and she'll never get closure on it because her mother is dead and JGY is insisting that she carry on like it never happened. QS deserved to know! This was a breach of her trust!

But at the same time, you understand why everyone makes the choices they do, and why they believe that QS will be better off not knowing. In Madam Qin's case, we can assume that she fears for the damage to QS's reputation and prospects in even a best-case scenario if she comes forward. It's fully possible that Qin Cangye could disown QS since she is not his child, or (if QCY is a real one and stands by his wife) that the Qin clan as a whole would suffer retribution from JGS for besmirching his name, since he's Chief Cultivator and they don't have any concrete proof. Madam Qin also would have feared for herself. I mean, we don't know what kind of many QCY was. He could've killed his wife for committing adultery, for all we know! Or JGS could've had her killed to shut her up! Fearing for herself isn't a moral failing!

Understanding how protracted the wedding process would have been just drives home how horrifically trapped Madam Qin must have felt. She's kept the secret of her rape for two decades, and now it's coming back to hurt her in brand new ways, and she feels so powerless that she can't do anything but watch it happen until finally, at the very last minute, she works up the courage to talk to the one man in the situation who doesn't hold authority over her (and is therefore a safer bet)... and it's too late, because her daughter is already pregnant,* and to call off the wedding now would obliterate her reputation even without the incest.

Now she has to live with the regret of not acting differently on top of everything else. It's haunting. It's awful. It's not something to point at and judge her about. And I think it's telling that, IIRC, JGY himself doesn't ever blame her, either. There is no "how dare you blame me when her own mother didn't tell her!" or "I wouldn't have done it if Madam Qin had spoken up sooner!" Instead, he simply states that Madam Qin, like him, was afraid of JGS, shutting down any questioning of either of them. JGY places the ultimate blame for all of this firmly at his father's feet, and that's where it belongs.

*(It should go without saying that I'm talking about my understanding of the novel here, because the show makes the deeply cursed choice to cut the whole premarital pregnancy thing. But it's still JGS's fault there too, and I wrote character study fic about it once if you want to have a bad time.)

[booktomoviebrawl]

We are not judging how bad the movie is, we are judging which adapted the book the worst. There are good movies that are bad adaptions.

Propaganda below the cut (spoilers may apply)

Persuasion:

They massacred my girl!! That is not Anne Elliot!! The whole point is that she's beaten down and thinks she's missed her chance at happiness and is bullied by her family, not making mean and snarky nods to the camera :( They completely missed the whole point of the dynamic and it's SICKENING! They also cut Mrs Smith who is arguably one of the most important characters as she highlights Anne's lack of focus on title and rank and her family's comparative obsession with it + it's only through her that Anne learns about Mr Elliot's true nasty nature. Also they cut the 'I am half agony, half hope' line from Wentworth's letter at the end so what's even the POINT of adapting it if you don't have that!! Oh my god!! My poor favourite Austen novel :( (I do want to make it very very clear that my issues with the movie come from the writing and adaptation and not in any way from the race blind casting. The casting is superb and I'm genuinely so disappointed that they got such a bad adaptation bc so many of the cast are literally perfect)

Where do I even start? They tried to 'modernize' both the protagonist and the love story and managed to take out everything that made it good in the first place. Anne Elliot in the novel is quiet and good and helpful, full of regret. In the movie, she constantly turns to the audience to mock everyone around her, feeling so much better than everyone, to the point where nobody understands why Captain Wentworth would still be in love with her, or have fallen in love with her in the first place. Eight years before the plot starts, she broker her engagement to him because she was persuaded by a family friend that it was a bad idea. No way would movie!Anne have let herself be persuaded. They just tried to do a Fleabag/Emma type of thing without understanding what made either the novel or those two things work and thereby ruined it completely

Whoever made this didn't understand the point of the novel at all. They completely screwed up the character of Anne Elliot (the protagonist), which in turn screws the rest of the movie, as the original story only works because Anne is the way she is. Also, it's a period piece but the characters are talking in modern slang the entire time. And not in a clever way but in a very cringey one. If Jane Austen knew, she'd probably turn in her grave, and rightfully so.

Maximum Ride:

The storyline makes absolutely no sense, and the movie is nothing like the book. You could've given the movie an entirely different name and and keep the plot I wouldn't bat an eye

the movie's just bad mate

Horrendous low budget netflix movie with effects so bad they make me feel physically ill and acting so wooden the cast is in danger of being attacked by lumberjacks. The story already wasn't the best and the film somehow made it worst. I came in with nostalgia for my dear kids with bird wings and left never to be the same again.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children:

While Miss Peregrine was one of my favorite books as a kid and incredibly unique in the way the story is written (The author basically took a box of weird antique photographs and created an underlying story behind a handful of them) the movie is incredibly boring. Like seriously I can't remember a single goddamn thing about the movie besides my extreme disappointment with it after leaving the theatres. It's probably because the original is a trilogy but they didn't want to make it a trilogy for the movie so they just scrapped the ending of the first book and rewrote a shitty climax where they threw snowballs at the nightmare child eating creatures or something. I remember THAT scene perfectly because it was so, so dumb. It was so stupid oh my God- ALSO, thank God I have a copy of the book from before the film came out because new copies don't have one of the photographs that the actual book uses as a base anymore and instead have the shitty movie poster! We truly do live in a society.

Changed way too much so it doesn't feel like the same thing. The main characters are these kids with different abilities (called peculiarities) and the movie switches around their powers and changes almost everyone's age. Emma and Olive switch powers so that Emma now floats (they also added that she can kind of control air to some extent) when she's supposed to have fire powers to match her fiery personality. Olive can make fire now and she's also aged up from an eight year old to a teenager and put her in this weird romance with Enoch. Enoch is also aged up from a grumpy thirteen year old to around the same age as Olive. Bronwyn, one of the older kids in the book and sort of a motherly figure to the younger kids, is now one of the youngest kids. Hugh and Fiona are aged down and basically have no interaction at all in the movie, even when their book counterparts had such a good relationship. The only one they didn't really change was Horace and Jacob. They also added these gorgon twins that do like two things. The antagonist in the movie is Mr. Barron who honestly isn't super memorable and isn't in the books whatsoever. The ending of the movie is weird too because they manage to turn back time somehow so Jacob's grandfather isn't dead and then he hops through loops so he can be with Emma and the other peculiars. I guess the problem of wights and hollowgasts is magically eliminated and we do not have to deal with the consequences. It took six books to fix everything. I appreciate that the movie engaged me enough to read the series but once I did, I could not believe they did my kids that dirty.

Yikes where to start. The 3 girl characters are all mixed up. There are 2 teens, one who's super strong and has a brother (I'll get back to him) and one who controls fire and is the love interest named Emma. The third girl is a child called Olive who floats. She's lighter than air.

In the movie, strong girl is the child, olive is now the fire girl and is for some reason super introverted, and Emma the love interest floats and gets given a super breath??? Power?? Like she rises a sunken ship by blowing in and keeps a man blown against a wall by blowing air at him. He makes a remark that she'll run out of breath eventually, which happens here because plot convenience, but not when she's blowing in the sunken ship.

The enemies in the book are terrifying Hollows. Creatures who have lost themselves and devour souls of those with powers... The movie decides they eat eyes now. And turn human again. And get busted up in a fair for the final act of the movie. Ugh.

The movie also decides randomly that time travelling through the loops is a thing; a loop being a pocket of time that replays the same day over and over. But apparently this means Main Character can travel back in time and stop his grandfather dying??? What?? His grandfathers death is the whole start of the movie and motivation for the character.

The movie undermines many of things that made the book amazing and even decides it's not a trilogy anymore!! Fuck the other 2 books, right?!

Tldr; it is terribly hollywood-ised and t tim Burton ruined a franchise by trying too hard to make it quirky and fun when the books already had a brilliant sombre and interesting tone to them.

[thatscarletflycatcher]

The difference between irritating academic writing on Austen vs. Gaskell is that so much has already been said about the former that coming up with something new and interesting is really difficult. Which in turn easily leads to saying something completely bonkers.

Whereas while it is true that there is now a corpus on Gaskell, it still is pretty limited. So most of the ??? takes are not the product of "everything else has already been said", but of a stubborn refusal to listen to what she has to say... to then sort of make a stereotyped guess vaguely based on tropes and trends.

Gaskell be like: here, have John Thornton summarise the whole socio-political thesis of the novel. Unsubtle, but, you know, just to be on the safe side, so that everyone understands that it is in the strength of communities built upon friendship, cooperation and mutual aid that we'll mitigate the worst effects of fallen economic systems.

Commentators: the political philosophy of this novel is confused and confusing. Gaskell cannot decide if she's a Liberal or a socialist

Valerie Wainwright: well, I think they are wrong. What she's expressing is far more nuanced.

Me: tell me more!

Her: well, you see, the incomplete ideological conversion and influence of the characters points towards Gaskell's commitment to the idea of moral development an an autonomous, self directed process, in the vein of J.S. Mill's sophisticated liberalism.

Me: ...

Me: did you know the only reference/interaction we have between Gaskell and Mill was celebrity drama? That when Gaskell wrote the Life of Charlotte Brontë she included a passage in a letter where CB criticised an anonymous article she guessed had been written by Mill? But it had actually been written by his wife? And wife guy as he was he got incensed about it and wrote basically calling Gaskell a cheap nosey sensationalist gossip? That she wrote him two letters trying to explain herself and appease him (which failed), and a third one to her editor to remove the offending passage on the following edition? I don't think Gaskell was much interested in Mill's philosophy before or after that, you know.

[rippukun]

Bookmark of Demise English Translation

This book must never be touched. Can you solve this mystery?

"Due to the appearance of a traitor, the game has started. Should you wish to escape, you must heed the following instructions and end the game. Let a pleasant Demise Game begin." One-Man Hide and Seek, the Doppelgänger, Mary's Phone Call, the Monkey's Paw... Due to a taboo said to have happened ten years ago—the Bookmark of Demise—four boys and girls become involved in a certain game. They must carry out the orders written in the mysterious letters and actualize the urban legends. If they cannot, they die. "Now please, enjoy the worst ever after in history."

Nearly a whole year after I decided I wanted to retranslate the ShuuenPro novels, I can finally post book one! (Don’t worry, the others are nearly fully translated, aside from the afterwords, and won’t take nearly as long to post. I just really dragged my feet with this one.) Special thanks go out to Pascal, for giving me translation help at random hours of the night, and to Laura, for proofreading and editing the final draft. Extra special thanks go out to my mom, for buying me all those matcha lattes. Enjoy!

View/Download PDF here.

[pilferingapples]

Since you've read most of Victor Hugo's books, how would you rank them from best to worst, and why? I really want to know your thoughts. Always love to hear it <3

!!! THANK YOU THIS IS SO SWEET and also so hard but here we go!

Les Miserables yes it's my favorite but I also do think it's the best! The most ambitious of his works story-structure and character/theme density and frankly? He absolutely lands it. I have been arguing with and about this book for over a decade now and I expect I will be doing so for the rest of my life, because it's worth it. I probably don't have to argue hard for it in top spot on the Les Miserables Webbed Site, though, so moving on:

Ninety Three /Quatre-vingt treize Not my second favorite but honestly probably just as good as LM but in a different way? Much more compact and focused, and feels every bit of the influence of more recent political events in France at the time, but just as ambitious in terms of the arguments and themes it's trying to cover. The ending is something you can have eighty feelings about in an afternoon but it is always unforgettable. Deserves to be so much better known. Toilers of the Sea /Les Travailleurs de la mer  My actual second favorite Hugo novel! A big Romanticist nature-focused love letter to the Channel Islands and to the sea! A mix of delightfully unreliable Nature Facts and Hugo's own observations about the place, that Nature-focus is always convincing either way with Hugo's descriptions. It's so very different from most of Hugo's later novels, but also *so* good, if you're willing to just sit back and enjoy the view . Gilliatt is a Forever Fave. Please more people read Toilers, it's a delight. And it has an Octopus Fight! The Man Who Laughs /L'homme qui rit Victor Hugo's Revenge on English History! I could feel my knowledge of actual English History Facts peeling away as I read this. Incredibly described scenes, iconic central characters, Ursus is one of the best-written characters of all time (though I have learned that some people have apparently never met a guy like this?? he is such a Type though!) . There's a wolf and the wolf is named Homo. After Les Mis, some old Hugo fans were lamenting about how far he'd strayed since the days of Notre Dame , and I think The Man Who Laughs feels a lot like a return to that old , over-the-top Goth style of Hugo's,but stronger, in keeping with the way his writing had grown over time-- until the end, when everything kind of feels like it wraps up too abruptly. Which makes sense! Hugo was finishing it up while his wife Adéle was in her final illness, and it makes sense that it would show--but I think it does show, and keeps the novel from being quite all it could be. Notre Dame de Paris I know it's either Hugo's most famous or second-most famous novel, but I really do think it's not as solid as the others! Which isn't a roast on him, it's a good thing for an author to get better over time--but it still leaves this novel feeling kinda messy. I can see Hugo trying to do his signature move of pulling together multiple separate plot/themes into a triumphant grand finale, but he hasn't quite got the knack yet. Plus there's still a lot of elements here that feel like Hugo relying on tropes a bit (and horrible tropes at that, too) instead of entirely speaking with his own voice quite yet. (also ohman. the Issues. but I'm trying to keep this post from being nine million screens long) All of the above range from "absolute masterpiece" to "not an entire masterpiece but still iconic", and then there's Hugo's Early Stuff, so: Bug Jargal - honestly it's not fair of me to even include this, it was a novel he wrote as a very young person, on a time-dare. If I'd written a Nano novel in high school it would have been SO bad. And this is bad! It's SO bad!! But you can still definitely tell it's Hugo by the way he makes sure to tell us, AFTER the story is over, that EVERYONE IN THE WHOLE BOOK DIED, EVERYONE, EVEN THE PETS. Stunning. Peak Romanticism XD (again though. THE ISSUES. whooof.)

Han d'Islande: Í have not even read this one. HUGO was down on this one later in life. I Dare Not XD (I probably will someday). But it has a polar bear and drinking seawater from skulls and inspired some very questionable behavior from the fans (attempting to drink seawater from skulls!) so I gotta acknowledge it!

Honorable Mention: the novelas

Not quite in the same group as the novels, but I think both Last Day of a Condemned Man and Claude Geaux are excellent, super-focused stories about the injustice of the prison system and the issue of capital punishment. Obviously they can't have the range of his novels, but that's not the point--they are much more direct statements on a single issue and they're really intense and effective in that!

This was fun! thank you for asking! And I'd love to hear your own thoughts on this , if you ever feel like writing them up:D

[linmeiwei]

The worst scene in Pride and Prejudice 2005?

No intention to be mean about a movie lots of people love (please continue loving it, I have no quarrel with you, it's just my opinion etc.).

Inspired by this post I saw, in which OP argues that the worst bit of the 2005 movie is the one in which Darcy and Elizabeth almost kiss after his first proposal. You know, this bit:

It’s bad, granted. I agree with OP that it makes little real sense, because of course Elizabeth never hated this guy more than at that point in the novel, and Darcy has really never been more furious with her.

But. My friends. I submit for your consideration the actual worst scene in the movie. Please, behold:

It is not an accident, to me, that they chose to put this scene at the end of her marvelling at the opulence and richness of his house. The whole sequence at Pemberley in the movie just reads as Elizabeth being overwhelmed by the grandeur, importance and wealth of this guy.

The portrait scene was supposed to be her finally seeing him as he really is, and also at his best, at his most natural, happy (or, at least, smiling) and youthful (it was taken while his father was still alive).

She comes away from it not awed, but feeling, well, warmth (a "gentle sensation"). I don't know, I suppose YMMV, but IMO there's nothing warm about a white marble (or plaster?) statue: it speaks of self-importance, distance, hardness, it's literally cold to the touch, it's got hard edges... just the opposite of the gentleness and warmth the scene is supposed to convey.

To me it's worse than the almost kissing, because you could argue that the almost kissing is just a metaphor for the sexual tension that you could argue exists between Elizabeth and Darcy from the beginning. And there's a real argument to be made about why Darcy is proposing to her at this point to begin with. He acknowledges it's not rational and in his letter he later admits it was an overwhelming passion. Well, how do you convey passion on screen?

Anyway, this isn't to say I like this choice (I don't) but you could make an argument for it being there.

The Darcy bust, on the other hand, is not only ineffective in conveying either Book Darcy or Movie Darcy's real character, it actively has the opposite effect. I know what the portrait scene in the book is supposed to do, but I'm stumped to understand what the loving lingering shots of a cold, blank-faced marble bust is supposed to accomplish other than confirm Elizabeth in her opinion of him as an overprivileged, pompous arse.

[vickyvicarious]

I do love the way that the vampires kind of haunt the edges of the novel in London. Like, obviously not forever, we will see direct vampire encounters again (and are beginning to, even now), but...

In his castle, Dracula was a person. A terrible person, but a person. He spoke, he interacted directly with Jonathan, we got to know some things about him and his mentality. He is undoubtedly still a monster, but like several others have commented, the supernatural aspects are kind of bonus to him being an abusive, sadistic asshole. You could remove those aspects and still keep the essence of his character/the horror in that segment.

But as soon as he starts traveling to London, he begins to slip further and further out of the narrative. On the Demeter, he was an unseen (but still undoubtedly present) menace. He begins to show powers we didn't necessarily even know he had, like the mist, and it culminates with him manipulating the very weather into a giant storm before changing shape.

But then in England, he continues this descent out of the narrative. In Whitby Lucy and Mina see him once... by the time we are in London, the most anyone sees is a bat once or twice. No one even remotely connects that to Dracula except Renfield. Van Helsing comes closest but he just knows of the concept of a vampire, not anything about Dracula as a person/individual. Yet all the while, Dracula's presence is choking the narrative. He's killing Lucy, he's twisting good intentions and convenient illnesses, his mere presence is driving Renfield into an obsessive mania.

Dracula in London truly is a supernatural menace. Unseen, unknown, and all the more terrifying for it. He doesn't keep a journal, but more than that – no one interacts directly with him so we don't hear any words out of his mouth at all. (Not really counting Thomas Bilder here since it's very brief and we only hear of it later through the news. But even if you do count it, that's one brief encounter in how much time? And by a stranger who doesn't know the significance.) And one of the ways he has corrupted Lucy is by doing the same thing to her.

As her illness progressed, she stopped writing in her journal. She stopped writing letters. For as much as this whole arc was about saving her, most of the time she was "onscreen" it was asleep or in narration that summed up what people did. She had very little voice for a while there. It was only when she had just received transfusions, or was protected by the garlic flowers that we heard from her - only when Dracula's influence was being actively denied. This culminates in her final memorandum where she sees him at the window and doesn't let him in... only to fall victim to his worst attack yet. She tells us about that, but it's nearly the last we hear from her. She barely speaks the next day, and some of her few words are repeated and twisted by her vampire self. Lucy fights Dracula right to the end, as shown by her thanking/final request to Van Helsing, but then she dies.

We know she's a vampire now, but it's been several days and we don't see her. Instead we hear of the "bloofer lady"... now Lucy has completed her transformation, she too is unseen and distanced. We are learning about her deeds through newspaper articles now. I know it's only logical given the format, but I also just think it's really cool how immediately after she becomes a vampire Lucy also gains this same sense of distance/mystery. We don't know why she is hunting children, why she's leaving them alive, if she is in contact with Dracula, if any part of her is left or if she has become something completely different... we can make guesses but the story doesn't tell us yet.

Of course, this doesn't last. And that's because of Jonathan and Van Helsing. Jonathan, who knows the person Count Dracula, immediately recognizes him on the street which is the impetus for the gang all sharing information and which will eventually lead to more proper encounters. And Van Helsing, who knows the monster Lucy has become, is going to force an encounter there as well. But without the people who know what to look for, the vampires in London would remain complete terrifying mysteries on the peripheral of the story (no matter how much they affect it).

[bethanydelleman]

I watched persuasion 2022 and 💀🥴

I kept going to the end, to see how the reconciliation would be handled and it was almost blasphemous how they had the actress face the camera head on while crying , it came across as so disingenuous to me.

I need to re read the book now lol.

I think the acting had a lot to do with it because I think the right actress could have done something with even the worst script because of how much Anne interacts with the audience. I didn't get her vulnerability, her longing , her pining, her yearning , her regret.

Same thing with the lead actor. he was just meh for me. there was no fire in his eyes about his feelings. he was just like "Anne is here! cool! Louisa is here ! cool! "

I actually thought henry Gouldings character had better chemistry with Anne lolll

I need to go look up who directed the movie now👀

(I also sent the pride and prejudice ask cause since I was in Netflix I decided fo watch that to get Persuasion 2022 out my mind, then I found myself critiquing Elizabeth Bennet 🙈)

One should always re-read the novel to take away that bad adaptation aftertaste...

I agree with your points. I think the letter barely mattered because they had that "let's be friends" talk to take away all the tension already. Wentworth was wooden. Anne didn't have any yearning or vulnerability, she was just crass. She did have better chemistry with Mr. Elliot and didn't seem to care that he was trying to deceive her family.

The whole thing is a mess, even apart from being a half-hearted adaptation, it just didn't make sense as a plot, at all.

[lgbtqmanga]

New Releases Mar. 19, 2024

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Ennead vol. 2 by Mojito

BREATH MATCH

The first of three matches for the throne of Egypt has begun! Who will last the longest underwater without breathing? Horus may be determined, but he is no god, and Seth has both cunning and divine stamina on his side. Meanwhile, Isis has plans of her own to help her son…but will they be enough to ensure his victory?

Heat × Beat: I May Be an Omega, but I'm Going to Be an Idol! by Ken Homerun

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How Do I Turn My Best Friend Into My Girlfriend? vol. 1 by Syu Yasaka

Minami and Yuzu have been besties since…well, forever! Or at least that’s what Minami thought. But when some rando confesses to Yuzu, Minami realizes that her feelings might not be what you’d typically call “friendship” anymore. It doesn’t take long for Minami to realize she wants to change their relationship status, but will she be able to muster the courage to confess? Or will she simply be happy being by Yuzu’s side?

I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl vol. 1 by Kashikaze

Quintessential good girl Sakurai finds herself trapped in the middle of a bribery scheme. Her teacher offers to write a recommendation letter in exchange for luring a truant student into attendance. Sakurai pins down the reclusive transfer student Honda, but there are strings attached. Honda demands that Sakurai grant one wish every day. The first wish is a kiss—and Sakurai finds herself feeling very eager to please…

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady (manga) vol. 5 by Piero Karasu and Yuri Kisaragi

Lainie, the daughter of a baron, is the mysterious girl at the center of the scandal over Euphie’s broken engagement. Anis, the reincarnated princess, can’t help but feel there’s something odd about Lainie, so she conducts a checkup on her-and comes to a shocking conclusion! At the same time, Anis's brother Algard, the prince of Palettia, takes the lead in a grand scheme that’ll impact the whole kingdom…

The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady (novel) vol. 6 by Piero Karasu and Yuri Kisaragi

When Anis and Euphie learn that vampires are threatening the Kingdom of Palettia, they scramble to formulate countermeasures. Then, an urgent message comes from the East, stating that a vampire has been captured-a powerful one with great ambitions!

Minato's Laundromat (manga) vol. 2 by Yuzu Tsubaki and Sawa Kanzume

Akira Minato, an ex-office worker who now owns a shabby laundromat, doesn’t know what to do when high school hottie Shintarou Katsuki professes his feelings for him. Still troubled over a past love that he never came to terms with, Akira wants to refuse-but he can’t quite bring himself to deny Shintarou’s straightforward passion. Meanwhile, Shintarou’s classmate, Asuka Hanabusa, decides to meddle in their affairs…

Mitsuka (manga) vol. 2 by akabeko

Leo is host at a nightclub, and he always thought he had no interest in men — until he slept with Takahiro, a sex worker who introduced him to pleasures he'd never felt before. Now, sex with women doesn’t satisfy him, and after begging Takahiro to sleep with him again, they agree to a “friends with benefits” arrangement.But just when Leo thinks he may be falling in love, one of his best customers asks him to sleep with her. Takahiro catches him in the act, and things take a dark turn…

Monthly in the Garden with My Landlord (manga) vol. 2 by Yodokawa

Sharing a house with the former pop idol Miyako is going smoother than Asako ever expected! But her cohabitant might not be having such an easy time?! Miyako suddenly finds herself harboring mysterious feelings towards her manga editor roommate. It’s then that she receives shocking news-her former idol unit is coming out of hiatus! Amidst all her confusion, Asako reaches out a hand of support…but can Miyako return to being the carefree landlord she once was?!

My Love Will Last Until the End of Time (manga) by Nanako Haida

Ever since he was a child, Hiroto's had memories of his previous life: a life where he reigned as the well-respected Prince Luke and fell deeply in love with a commoner… before cruel circumstance ripped the two of them apart. For years, Hiroto has searched for his beloved Mika to no avail— until a chance encounter on his college campus brings them together.But Kou, Mika's reincarnation, does not remember the past that share… and Hiroto finds himself wondering if that might actually be for the best, even as he yearns to tell Kou the truth. Their love has stretched across lifetimes, and so has the pain of their parting. Will Hiroto and Kou be able to find their happy ending together?

Number Call (manga) by Nagisa Furuya

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The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter (manga) vol. 4 by Yatsuki Wakatsu, Kazuki Irodori and Kikka Ohashi

The expedition to clear the miasma is finally setting out-and Kondou is coming along with them! However, the depths of the forest are quite dangerous, even for the average human…Luckily, this intrepid bean counter has a handsome knight captain risking life and limb to protect him! But then, on their return journey, Captain Aresh catches him off guard with an unexpected declaration…

Rooming With My Two Lovers (manga) by Anji Seina

Atsushi's earnest and indecisive nature has gotten him into awkward situations before, but this one really takes the cake! Moving out of a bad situation and into a new living space, he somehow ends up rooming with his hot but perverted ex, Enraku, and the handsome and flirty barber, Shiki, two childhood friends and rivals who always end up falling for the same person.As the two take turns seducing him, Atsushi finds himself getting carried away with deep feelings for both men. But is it really possible for him to love Shiki and Enraku enough to keep them both?

Sailor Moon Naoko Takeuchi Collection (manga) vol. 7 by Naoko Takeuchi

Features the updated translation and high page count of the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition in a more affordable, portable edition. Perfect to go wherever you or the magical guardian in your life want to take it!

Thousand Autumns: Qian Qiu (novel) vol. 4 by Meng Xi Shi and Me.Mimo

Shen Qiao is a devout Daoist priest who has spent his life honing his skills and spirit, leading his sect with martial talent, beauty beyond measure, and an earnest heart. His polar opposite, Yan Wushi, leads one of the most powerful demonic sects and is said to be unrivaled in his strength and cunning. Yan Wushi believes in the inherently selfish nature of all people—himself included—and that nobody is above committing dark deeds for their own benefit.

When a fight leaves Shen Qiao injured, blind, and with hazy memories, Yan Wushi takes in the defeated sect leader with a dark plan: test the limits of the man’s patience and faith in others to lure him onto the demonic path. Little does he know that he is about to meet the first immovable force of his life, and that two hearts can connect in unexpected ways. With the passing of a thousand autumns, who can stay eternal?

Welcome Back, Alice (manga) vol. 6 by Shuzo Oshimi

Yohei, Kei and Yui are childhood friends and things get complicated when Yohei witnesses Kei and Yui in an intimate moment. But when unexpectedly Kei moves away and returns a few years later to reunite in high school, he seems to be a bit different. How will relationships change in this latest volume?

[query-quadrant]

AVICE NEEDED !!!!11!!!!!!11!!

HELP!!! HOW2 ??? ASK SOMEONE OUT PITCH ??//?? NEED GOOD ROMANTIC GESTURE SO THEY KNOW I AM SERIOUS ABOUT THEM

BEST MOST ROMANTIC WAY YO ASK SOMEONE OUT AS KISMESES: ??!??/

ok im gonna start this off with a warning dont start shit off with a bang if you cant keep up that momentum

not to be all sparkly spade emoji vitriol emoji sparkly spade emoji on you but the most over the top romantic way ive ever been asked out is when grey sent me that insane hate letter virus thing and that idiot could NOT keep it going really set himself up for failure there

if you start shit off with a grand romantic gesture you gotta be prepared to keep that energy going 

but anyway here

dubiously good ideas: 

1. once asked a dude out by pouring bleach out in his lawn ring in the shape of a spade so it killed all the grass it was really funny and was stuck like that till it grew back lmao dude got a lot of questions about it

2. one of my best friends got a bunch of calligraphy supplies and ye old ink and a quill and wrote a very fancy looking list of all the things wrong with the girl she sent it to like it looked fancy but the actual letter wasnt it was mostly swear words and shit like “thats why youre so fucking stupid youre a freak youre a freak and your clothes are ugly" and sealed it in a fancy envelope with a wax seal and everything and like a kiss mark on the envelope with her best lipstick it was really funny

3. ok this ones gonna be long and really fucking abnormal but lets be serious here if you actually need something big and grand and unique and dont wanna ask them out normal style and also im not just yapping at you and regurgitating shit i already did or a friend of mine did or that you can find in a list online already like "buy them dead flowers teehee and make them a ransom note winky face kissy emoji five exclamation points" then i mean obviously doing something personal is best i mean grey and i have the internet feud thing going on so tech based shit is it but for you your rivalry is probably based on something else doing something rooted in thats sappy and stupid and sparkly spade gif for real

what i mean is pick something you both already compete in and do it way better than they can or make it a custom challenge for them and mix your confession into it like the stupid virus i got

if you both do baking do something really difficult and annoying or time consuming that you know they cant in the shape of a middle finger 

mod a game or just boot up marioh maker and make them a stupidly hard but also well built custom troll level and hide the confession at the end 

write a custom flarp thing and when you beat their ass have your big evil character monologue be the confession 

a whole custom pitch themed escape room could be really funny if youre rich or have the right friends 

or who knows whatever it really depends on what youre into some of these are insane and embarrassing as fuck but if it works for you it works

oh man this shit got away from me lmao but basically do something specific to your rivalry that says im challenging you im better than you and i want you idk why i didnt just say that youre not dumb you dont need examples anyway

finally heres bad advice youre here for that shit probably lets go bad advice: 

1. ok i have a new idea thats going to totally revolutionize the pitch dating sphere what if instead of asking people out pitchways you try and have the worst possible confession in a different quadrant possible just really shitty awkward insulting badly timed the works 

see if you can piss them off enough with it that they just have to have you as their kismesis its called reverse psychology its very smart and sophisticated and could never go wrong

2. you can always kill their lusus killing their lusus is totally not famous for almost always backfiring and only working in insane romance novels and really shitty movies dont worry about it

3. steal a confession from a fanfic make sure its from a fandom theyre into so you can recommend them that same fanfic later

3. ask them for advice on how to ask people out pitchways and do exactly that 

wait ok actually that one could be good thats hilarious never mind put that on the good list i mean its not romantic but it could be so funny if you did it right

[katiaodinsen]

So all over the internet I am seeing #BackToHogwarts I'm not dealing with this, this year. Yes, Harry Potter is bad. Truly no offense. But it is. It should be in every library so no one buys it. The narrative is also not ethical. Hermione is deemed foolish for wanting free the house elves and there absolutely are malicious & intentionally transphobic tropes in the text, Rita Skeeter being the big one. Also no you are not bad for your hyperfixation on it. Not what I have ever been saying. Your nostalgia is fine. I like watching it with my siblings. But if I see people wearing it I'm going to be triggered by that. *Most* trans women are. *Most* *trans people* are. *ALSO* witchcraft is a real & valid (when done correctly) non coercive spiritual practice, trashing it is cringe and yikes & ussualy misogynistic too (even when women do it) and reading about Witches is both fun & healthy (in my view) for kids to think about. .Was gonna do a podcast about it. I might at some point. But too much happened. Just *please don't give her money.* That harms my community.

Content Warning if you check it out, it also has transphobia in it, but the *first ever* magic school novel was the ancient Roman "The Golden Ass: Being the Metamorphoses of Lucius Apuleius"Lucius being the self insert charechter and was an homage of his experiences studying at actual mystery schools in real life

Magic schools were a genre trope in 80's fantasy & I know how amazingly fun they are for everyone. Also her unrecognized source material is:

The Worst Witch By Jill Murphy who wroglte it as an escape to make her boarding shcool experience more tolerable (That is where the whole aesthetic comes from)

Earth Sea (By Ursula K. Le Guinn, but Rowlig used highly maliciously as she found it not Christian enough in a deeply racist way)

The Crestomanci Chronicles by Dianna Wynm Jones

The Disc World Series by Terry Pratchet

And uhhh....Lolita (because she views it as a love story btw. And it's influence will disturb you. Gross.)

In the modern era this amplified the popularity of "Little Witch Acedemia" since it was more progresssive Dana Terrace seeing this created Owl House as a love letter to that and an alternative to Harry Potter for queer & autistic people who have been writing fanfics to have something to pivot & for new generations to have a safe space to enter that genre.

[gonzague-if]

i just played both demos of gonzague and i was wondering if there’s any way to actually kiss peyrolles at the end, or if it’s inevitable that they pull back ( ╥ω╥ ) i tried both resisting and giving into gonzague’s worst instincts and nothing changed, so i was curious if there was something i was missing if it is possible.

on that note, does it negatively affect peyrolle’s route if gonzague gives into their worst instincts? what about if they refuse to read aurore’s letter, get angry after reading aurore’s letter, or lose their temper after reading the blackmail letter? i don’t want to negatively affect peyrolles’ route but i love the scene where they bandage up gonzague’s hands (￣▽￣*)ゞ

i was also wondering if peyrolles is amab? i understand if you don’t want to answer that or my previous questions in order to prevent spoilers, though! so, here are my other, (probably) not spoiler-tempting questions:

- do chartres and peyrolles like kids? matter of fact, do aurore and nevers? i would assume so, since they have one, but liking kids typically isn’t a requirement to have them so it’s still a question worth asking i’d say. what would they all do if they had to interact with a child (whether they like kids or not)? peyrolles, to me anyway, seems like they could be either very intimidated by children or very good with them, and chartres seems like he’d get bullied by children.

- in a modern setting, what do you think aurore, chartres, nevers, and peyrolles’ jobs would be? what about gonzague?

- in a modern setting, how would they all meet?

- what are all of their hobbies in canon? what would their hobbies be in the modern world?

i really love gonzague, and i don’t know the original series (i didn’t realise it was actually based on and not just inspired by a novel until i was scrolling through this tumblr) but you’ve really made it your own! i hope you have a good day and best of luck (⌒▽⌒)♡

(p.s. is the gonzague from the novels the real phillipe de gonzague, or did he also murder his brother like your gonzague did? i’m not finding a lot about the plot online, so i can’t really tell.)

Hi anon! That's a lot of questions you got there! Thank you so much for your interest. <3

I'll answer them under the cut to avoid the post to get too long.

First of all, in the current demo you can't kiss Peyrolles regardless of your choices, the near-kiss is all you're going to get for now! Their romance will need to progress a bit before any real kiss happens.

Peyrolles is the one character whose romance is not too affected by your choices of giving in or resisting to your worst instincts. They're accepting of most MCs and only how you treat them personally will affect your relationship with them. None of the choices in the demo so far will prevent you to romance them.

Peyrolles is amab, yes. Gonzague knows it, so I figure I might as well confirm it. They pass as a man for the rest of society (at the moment anyway), few people know they don't identify as a man and Gonzague is one of those few.

Actually, Chartres has already 2 daughters by 1699, when the story starts, you'll see them in the next chapter! But he's actually pretty good with kids and gets along very well with his eldest daughter. Peyrolles has been around some children in their past, but they were never very comfortable with them. They prefer avoiding them as much as possible. Not that they don't like them, they just don't know how to interact with them. Nevers loves kids and enjoys playing with them. He definitely has some 'fun uncle' vibes lol. I think he would be a pretty good father, not a perfect one (who is?), but he'd do his very best. Aurore doesn't really know what to think of children and hasn't been around any until her daughter was born. She's got a lot of mixed feelings about the whole thing that we'll explore later. But I can tell you she's terrified of being a bad mother.

It's hard to envision those characters in a modern setting, their lives and characters are very much shaped by the world they live in. I don't know how they would meet but I can take a guess at what jobs they would have. Peyrolles is not very artistic in their original setting but that's mostly because it was an interest that was inaccessible to them in their youth. So I think in a modern setting they would at least try their hand at being some sort of artist. Maybe an independant movie maker. Chartres, being the rich, aristocratic brat he is would likely have access to high diplomatic or political positions. That he probably would try his hand at for a little bit before dropping it all and trying something else. Maybe influencer lol. Nevers I could picture as a professional athlete. Maybe even a fencer lol. For Aurore, the possibilities would multiply in a modern setting, so much so that she would probably feel a bit overwhelmed by it. Considering her interest in reading, I feel like she would lean towards something academic, but also something that allows her to get out and be active. Maybe archaeologist?

In the current setting, some of their hobbies are: Nevers: fencing, obviously Chartres: partying lol, drawing, playing music and composing Peyrolles: playing with knives <3, people watching Aurore: reading, learning I don't think their hobbies would be that different in a modern setting.

In the original book, Gonzague is the real Philippe de Gonzague, yes, there aren't any stories about a brother, it's an addition of mine. I added this backstory both to humanize the character and allow the player to choose their gender.

Once again, thank you for your questions. <3