#well imo i think it was the best out of the trilogy which is rare

[clowningaroundmars]

very odd that the "you have to understand when there's gay sex happening even when there isn't any gay sex happening" website seems to be pissed off abt no gay sex happening in venom 3 even tho the entire movie was basically shoving it in your face if you actually cared to look

[oodlyenough]

aa6-5 turnabout revolution

finished 6-5 over the last couple weeks, which means we've only got the DLC left for soj and the main series of games.

i gotta say ... i liked this finale a lot more than i expected to. i thought it was fun, and in turn that elevated SOJ overall. by far not the best ace attorney game i've played, but definitely not the worst. from the way fandom talks about this game and especially the finale i expected something awful, but i thought it had some fun ideas with mid execution, which is how i would describe ... basically every AA game after the og trilogy lol

anyway. more specifically (spoilers)

the first half of the case -- apollo vs phoenix -- is way up there on the "great idea, mid execution". i was immediately willing to assume phoenix had undisclosed reasons for doing his thing so i was immediately willing to let it slide, lol. "maya is kidnapped again!!!" is not the most compelling angle they could've done, but, whatever. also NPC nick seemed to have a brain in his head unlike player-nick, so that was nice

i also got a huge kick out of phoenix playing (essentially) the role of the prosecution and doing every dirty trick the prosecutors have done to him for 6 games: hiding evidence, leading the witness, manipulating the judge, etc. this prosecuting shit is easy!!! i imagine him making pointed eye contact with edgeworth in the gallery every time. also the idea of edgeworth and phoenix creeping around off screen for the first portion of investigation day 1 was awesome lmfao.

the fey lore was ???????????????? but i guess we can assume paul was lying about most of it lmfao so ... i guess. i WAS very annoyed by the kurain storyline mostly being about dudes and i did spend the whole case certain we were building to a reveal that the crystal of ami fey=the founder's orb bc ami=the founder. but uh. no i guess not. whatever

dhurke is a character i knew to be relatively popular in fandom but i can see why, he really cracked me up. actually his whole return out of the blue and apollo's extremely prickly reception are one of the relatively rare moments of interesting and competent character writing in these later games imo. i thought their relationship was handled pretty well and quite interesting. i mean, i suppose i find it a bit unreasonable that apollo got over 14 years of abandonment in like two days but lots of things in AA happen in hyperspeed

over in khurain i still found that case pretty good and even the trial days kept me pretty engaged, something SOJ had struggled to do to that point.

nahyuta is a bit of a weird one in that i find him overall underwritten and a little dull but i absolutely cannot fathom why fandom hates him so so so much while loving others lol, esp blackquill whose motivation is the same but more inexplicable. is he my favourite prosecutor? not by a long shot, but his circumstances were insane and his motivations were clear by the end and i ultimately just felt kind of bad for him. i liked him much more than blackquill or godot lmao sorry fandom.

but i still cheered when he was not the prosecutor for the last case LMAO bc i LOVED garan and her crazy anime transformation lmao, finally khurain delivers the True Fey ancestor experience: insane sisters who hate each other. chefs kiss. rayfa + garan + the dhurke/amara drama was very interesting imo. i knew that chick couldn't channell!! maya for queen tbqh

rayfa's a good character and i enjoyed her a lot. i was frustrated in the end that they tried to make it seem like her big development/inspiration/etc was apollo ... like ... it should definitely be phoenix, who spent more time with her and investigated with her and started trying to show her other ways of thinking etc. plus she just lost her parents and is clearly searching for guidance and it makes way more sense for her to find that in phoenix than apollo who showed up 2 days ago. i guess they're trying to 1. use the player character 2. push the dhurke connection, but it was stupid when shes obviously more attached to phoenix and/or nahyuta lol

jove "jangly" justice is the funniest name i've read maybe ever and i assume apollo's middle name is jangly. it's so funny how they build to doing his divination seance only to spend almost no time on him fhgkghhklg

anyway in conclusion i liked 6-5 a lot more than i expected. i thought it was pretty fun. i don't really get why fandom is so negative to this game, like even way moreso than DD, when this game is better by any possible margin from gameplay to animation to story coherency imo.

stray other thoughts:

-apollo's backstories are such a meme but i thought his backstory in this game made sense enough with aa4 (where he had no motive/little backstory at all and wasn't much of a player in his own story), and the characters implicated were real characters we got to spend time with and interact with. unlike clay.png

-edgeworth is there for No Reason At All (fanservice) and i find that deeply hilarious. he's nick's +1 and he had to sleep on the floor with a bunch of strangers and crawl through the sewer. hysterical.

-for maya fey's big return game i sure thought maya was going to get to do stuff besides what she always does in a finale, be absent for plot reasons. sigh. oh well at least i got a laugh imagining her and edgeworth spending the rest of the trial arguing about the plumed punisher while nick and apollo are held at gunpoint

-athena cykes sweetie i'm so sorry your role in this game was a fucking embarrassment. so insulting that they turned it all into impressing simon and shit, fuck off man!!! my earlier criticism of this game being sexist even by AA standards remains. even phoenix is like well i can't have you risking your life you're too young (reasonable) and then "simon would kill me" which she acquiesces to???? hfjhgkjg

-nahyuta bamboozling apollo's perceive power by being like "thats the secret... i'm always anxious" was so goddamn funny

[sneakyscarab]

i cant think of a clever intro for this one, so lets just get right into it.

nina's thoughts on Touhou 16 - Hidden Star in Four Seasons

HSiFS is a solid entry with a good mix of brand new ideas and old mechanics. in some ways it almost feels like a remake of PCB in terms of the themeing and how the main mechanic works. compared to that game though, HSiFS executes its ideas in a much better way (imo).

the big new thing in this game is the dual-season system. each character has 1 main season thats fixed for that character, and each character shares the same 4 subweapon options, each also based on a season, being smaller counterparts of the main season of the same type. your main season is powered up using P as usual, but the sub-season has its own power meter that's filled by collecting season points, going up to a total of 6 options. season points come from shooting enemies and grazing bullets mostly, similar to cherry items in PCB. as long as you have at least 1 option of sub-season, you can execute a 'release' which sacrifices all (or just 1 in summer) options to create a circle of bullet-safety that acts differently depending on the season. any bullets that are destroyed by the release are converted into green-point items that increase the value of point items.

speaking of points, this game does away with life pieces, going back to the classic method of dealing out 1ups at certain point thresholds, and as drops from certain midbosses. pieces aren't gone entirely though, as bomb pieces do return, acting almost exactly as life pieces did in SA: one drops anytime you clear a boss phase without screwing up, and 5 of them give you a new bomb. you can also get whole bombs from certain midbosses or enemies.

you definitely need all those bombs and season releases cause this game is tough. not LoLK levels, thankfully, but it felt a lot more challenging than the UFO-TD-DDC trilogy. granted, thats not saying much since i still did clear the game within the day, but it took me a pretty solid chunk of runs, about 4 each per character, and i tried out a lot of different character-season combos to find what worked best for me.

without further ado, lets get into the actual characters! HSiFS has 4 playable characters, one for each season of course. we have Reimu representing Spring, with homing cherry-blossom bullets. the spring sub-season also comes with some homing shots, and the season release flashes a circle on your character that instantly clears a lot of bullets and then disappears. theres Marisa representing Winter, with a frosty beam array. the winter sub-season comes with another beam, and the season release places a small lingering circle for a few seconds and boosts your dps while active. we got Aya, appearing as playable for the first time in a main game, representing Autumn. shes got a wide fan spread, and vertical piercing while focused. the autumn sub-season has the same, although with less spread and no piercing, and the release acts like a miniature version of Aya's bomb in SA, attaching a small circle of protection to your character and boosting your speed for a few seconds. lastly is a brand-new character to the touhou series: Cirno with a Tan! i mean its just Cirno, but the game specifies her as Tanned Cirno as if shes an ultra rare gacha variant or something lol. Cirno represents Summer, ironically, having an ultra-wide angle ice blast. the summer sub-season has randomly firing ice bullets, and the release places a very small, short-lived protection circle on your character at the cost of only 1 option instead of your entire stock. of all the choices, i liked all of them pretty well, but the autumn sub-season was my most favourite for how fun the season release was to use. i got my 1cc using Reimu with Autumn sub, after just barely failing to do the same on Marisa w/ Autumn.

for the new characters, of course the top of the class has gotta be Eternity Larva! she's an insect fairy based on the swallowtail butterfly, having large butterfly wings and the signature Y-shape 'horn' found on swallowtail caterpillars. she is absolutely adorable and it is a CRIME that ONCE AGAIN the bug-type character has been relegated to a stage 1 boss position. at least, unlike Wriggle and Yamame, Eternity actually does have relevance to HSiFS's plot, since the actual incident with the seasonal chaos is caused by the fairies of Gensokyo going wild. her and Cirno seem to be buds, so i like to think Eternity becomes a member of Cirno's squad and her and Wriggle become BBFFs (Best Bug Friends Forever <3)

Aunn Komano is another really great character, shes a Komainu statue that helps protect shrines (namely Hakurei Shrine) but typically does so unnoticed. due to the events of this games plot though, Aunn is up and about, causing great confusion to Reimu who had no idea that she was ever there before, and when Aunn starts talking to her as you would an old friend, Reimu assumes that shes trying to pull some kind of scheme and beats her up anyways lol. in the other paths her interactions arent quite as funny, but shes still great. i like how for some reason her outfit is like something youd see on vacation, with what looks like a Hawaiian shirt (apparently the JP version called a Kariyushi shirt?) and wide shorts . her outfit almost looks more geared toward summer than anyone, although she's the 'springtime' boss.

my third pick of the new characters in HSiFS is gonna be Narumi, who like Aunn is also an old statue come to life, being a Jizou statue that came to life from the energies of the Forest of Magic she resides in. also like Aunn she mostly keeps to herself, only being brought into the limelight because of the big plot, although her conversation with Marisa does show that the two have met before, and that according to Marisa shes a "shut-in introvert". she apparently has the power to control life energy, and is implied in Cirno's route to have attempted to use that power to delete Cirno, but it didn't work because she was also being powered by seasonal magic at the time. lucky for her, Cirno is too stupid to realize that she just confessed to attempted murder so she gets away with it lol.

HSiFS is overall a really fun entry, and i liked both the return to form for mechanics like score-based life, as well as the weird new stuff in the seasonal releases and shared sub-weapons. plus, you gotta love seeing more classic characters show up as playable, and Aya and Cirno are both great picks, even if they already show up pretty often in other ways. I dont know if i would call this one my favourite entry, but its certainly pretty up there in the rankings! im glad that LoLK was just a weird one-off in terms of quality. tune in tomorrow where i will probably have beaten touhou 17, unless something goes wrong :P and remember, #justice4bugyoukai!

[asexualbookbird]

I'm doing a rare thing for me; I'm purchasing a physical book from barns & noble. I need like one or two more books to make shipping free for me and i think you got me into murderbot. So my question to a fellow ace is, what books do you recommend i add to my cart? I enjoy sci-fi/fantasy and I'd like the MC to be an actual adult instead of teenagers ☺️

oh gosh lots of responsibility here

I don't know if you're asking for ace specific books, in which case I'm not the best to ask because I'm Very Bad at reading ace books. I have a List, somewhere, probably in my tags, of ones I INTEND to read. Someday. Eventually. But I'm so bad at reading lol

I LOVED Marth Wells' other series, The Books of the Raksura, though I've only read the first (because I owned it and keep forgetting to order the rest from the bookstore). It deals with family, and identity, and while it does focus on relationships and sex, it doesn't prioritize it? It's really about finding who you are and finding your family. Also, bewinged folk. Love bewinged folk.

I recently discovered The Founders Trilogy, by Robert Jackson Bennet and it was a RIDE. More found family (I like what I like), steampunky magic, thieves, guilds, mad scienctists, GREGOR MY LOVE, main character is in a relationship with a woman. Book one is pretty stand alone, but there's an overarcing plot. Book two is three years after book one, and book three is not yet published and I'm cranky about it. It's fast paced and funny, but also deals with identity (okay I'm sensing a theme here) and generational trauma. Pretty bloody, but not gratuitously so. No sexual assaults on page, but it's alluded to. Slavery is a big theme, and people are non consensually experimented on off page. I really liked the magic/science system and the guild houses politics. The humor/angst was very well balanced imo! the author definitely has some fatphobia to work through, but other than that its great (that'st literally the only thing keeping these books from a five star rating for me).

I'm always going to throw The Locked Tomb out there, but if you want more necromancy, then The Bone Shard Daughter was an interesting one! It follows a few POVs, adults and older teens, but it was fun to try and figure out what was up. Again, the magic system was neat. I'm waiting for book two to come out in paperback becuase I MUST know what happens next. Loved the lesbians they were very cute.

Also in the necromancy category is The Bone Maker which is more character driven than anything else and about, you guessed it, found family! Love the magic here, but mostly? I love the characters?? so much???? Kreya, my love, you NEED to let your friends help you. It's about trauma, but also about healing from said trauma. It's about facing your traumas, not alone, but together. Healing can't be done without support! Love to see it!! And everyone heals differently. It warms my heart. It's also a standalone, which I feel is hard to come by these days lol

The Unbroken is part of what twitter called The Sapphic Trifecta and is a good choice if you like enemies to lovers and a good commentary on colonialism and more generational trauma. I read it summer of last year and have not stopped thinking about it and would love to give it a reread now that my head is less foggy

I should just call this the Found Family Rec List because A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet is also a good choice if you want something hm not really low stakes but. Episodic? The plot is in the title, they take the whole book to get to the angry planet, and they find each other along the way. I'd call this book leisurely. Very comforting, even in the more action packed parts. I mean it when I say episodic, though. Its chapters are like how tv used to be, each has its own mini plot and characters to drive it, but there's a bigger plot throughout the whole book. Made me feel fuzzy inside.

I'll end with The Wayward Children series, if you liked Murderbot you'll probably like this! Each novella focuses on a different child, but some are more intertwined than others. First book has an ace character, but its queer rep all the way down. Yes, more found family, but also finding yourself! Finding your place in a world you feel like you don't belong in! Finding your world you DO belong in! Finding comfort in others who share similar experiences and traumas! I've yet to read a Seanan McGuire/Mire Grant book I haven't enjoyed tbh I'd recommend anything by her (Into the Drowning Deep remains the only book to have ever truly Spooked me, turns out my horror is Deep Water. Read for a spooky time with mermaids and the deep sea.)

[sometimesrosy]

I'm looking forward to seeing how they deal with mal and alina's, relationship in the second season. for me I really enjoyed them in the third book but not as much in the second (mostly due to us not seeing what mal was thinking and feeling so I think it will definitely be interesting to see that on screen). what are your thoughts?

YES. Bardugo really didn’t SHOW mal and alina. Frankly, imo, in the whole trilogy.

So I’ve been writing and reading romance almost exclusively for the last two years... make that five or six years, because before that, I was writing and reading fanfiction, and that is essentially romance, and what I saw in The Grisha Trilogy is the set up for an epic romance. The plot was based around this romance of two children, best friend who grew up together, Alina’s unrequited pining, then Mal’s longing for her as soon as she left, a love triangle with the Darkling, then a love triangle with Nikolai, Mal as an alpha male who never sleeps with another woman after realizing he’s in love with Alina, that whole ‘meet me in the meadow’ thing, and then the final thing which I’m not going to mention because it’s too much of a spoiler but which is SO MUCH a meant-to-be true love thing. 

But there was very little romance written in the narrative. 

Most of it was about how they CAN’T be together. And yeah, that’s kind of an essential part of any romance-- what keeps them apart-- but it lacked the moments that drew them back together. There were few interludes that explored what their connection WAS. And I mean, that doesn’t make sense because they ran away together. They were sharing a BED. Sure they weren’t. EVER. alone. But we should have gotten confidences and connection and emotion. And we just didn’t.

For a series ABOUT Malina, honestly when you come down to it, since being together or NOT being together was such an essential part of every book, and it was always bracketed by an intro about the girl and boy and ended with the resolution which required Mal and Alina, (and had an epilogue about Malina) I feel like it should have shown more of their relationship and interactions and intimacy. Maybe it was because it was all Alina’s internal monologue, which kept Mal out. IDK. 

It was like it was TELLING us it was a romance, without ever (or rarely) SHOWING us the romance.

I think we won’t have that problem in the show. They’ve already shown to be more interested in showing the connection between Malina, and seem to know how to do romantic tension. Also, a lot of it is about the *looks* they give each other, which Bardugo never really showed. It’s subtext. Which Bardugo left out. You can keep the romance subtle and just read into actions and visual shots and parallels and such. But in the books, most of the romance was displayed with JEALOUSY. Well. I think she didn’t know how to write romance, that’s why jealousy was the only aspect we really got on a regular basis.

I mean, Mal’s jealousy was understandable, but it’s the only thing that was explored as romance. She was ALSO jealous, so it was used for both of them, and they both wrote letters regularly and when they got no response they both went, *shrug* ‘I guess I didn’t mean anything to them.’ But this was the person each was closest to in the world. WHY would they come to that conclusion? Makes no sense. I mean, the boy got a giant tattoo, and the emotional and romantic resonance of THAT was ignored. He was devoting his life to her. He would sacrifice his life for HER. And while the actions were there... there was little direct discussion of it. Men kept asking Alina to marry them and Mal acted like he had no claim on Aline, which he DID. They ran away together. It was romantic. And Alina was just like *shrug* I guess I should think about marrying some other guy not my soulmate, even though he’s RIGHT there and just risked his life for me AGAIN. And never talked to him about it? And I frankly did not understand that. 

Maybe she’d never been in love and didn’t understand what it felt like? But I think she wasn’t that young when she wrote it. Maybe she just didn’t know how to write romance? MAYBE she didn’t VALUE romance and so never bothered with it. Frankly I think that’s it, because she went to Yale, and let me tell you about academia’s disdain for genre-- ESPECIALLY romance-- as a non literary form of narrative. Or perhaps there was a bit of the disdain which kept her from understanding what it means to write a romance or learning how to. That might also explain the kind of confessional writing style. Because even though this IS fantasy, and academia has disdain for SFF (not as much as romance) lit fic focuses on character over action or plot, which that internal monologue fits better. I went to college only five years before Bardugo, so essentially the same era, and it took me YEARS to get rid of that naval gazing internal monologue.

So what do I think of Malina in the books? I think it did not live up to the promise of the narrative. And I think the show will probably be able to make good on that promise, because romance is good tv, so they won’t shy away from it. The scaffolding of a great Malina story is there, but the details that make it rich and compelling are missing. 

So my opinion of book Malina is not that it’s toxic like some people believe. It’s not. It’s probably IMMATURE. But that’s not really wrong for a couple of twenty year olds, both of whom are immature. I think the writing didn’t go far enough. It wimped out on the romance, and whether that was deliberate or unintentional, it’s a flaw in the story of the great epic romance that it was honestly narratively designed to be. 

I’m looking forward to what they can do with it in coming show, though.

[val-aquenta]

Ok so I got asked to talk about sexism in Star Wars. Specifically the judgement from fans being harsher for female characters as opposed by their male counterparts. 

I’m often hesitant to talk about sexism in general because I’m not super well-versed on this topic despite being a woman myself lol. And I’m also hesitant to talk about it in relation to Star Wars because the fandom is so very sexist, but I’ll give it a shot. 

So the big issue is pretty obvious in the sequel trilogy. Rey was, and still is, heavily judged for a multiple things that are ignored for male characters. Off the top of my head, I can think of the whole training thing. Many people say that Rey doesn’t really do any training, meaning she is undeserving of any of the powers she has. While, to a degree, I agree here. (The whole force healing thing was pulled out of thin fucking air ok) I don’t think she deosn’t do training. She knows how to fight with a staff, it’s demonstrated. Despite the fact that a lightsaber is different, the skills do translate over, so it makes sense that Rey is able to weild a lightsaber as good as she handles a staff, which she is hown to be really comfortable with. Main problem is that lots of folks are mad about this, but fail to see similar things happening with otehr characters who are male. Honestly, I see both sides of the story. I think that yes, Rey knows how to weild a lightsaber from her staff, it makes sense. I’m not greatly versed in the OT (I mainly stick to prequel era garbage. I love my Jedi ok) but I do recall that Luk loses his first fight with Vader because he isn’t trained well enough. Similar to that, Anakin loses a hand on the first fight we see with him a decade after he begun training, but imo that was about him being reckless not untrained. Anywas, my point is Rey can weild a lightsaber well because of her staff fighting, and that completely makes sense. what doesn’t make sense is the amount of fucking hate she gets for this. The problem is peopl nitpick so so fucking much at Rey, but then they fail to do the same to male characters who got hrough similar shit. There is this double standard in that men can learn at very fast rates and there be no issue bu god forbid a woman do the same. 

Next part is about Luminara lol. I fucking love her ok. So, there are plenty of characters who are reserved in Star Wars. Obi-Wan is pretty reserved especiall in tcw, Cody and Fox are both reserved. Mace Windu as well is reserved when he has to be, yet they are never called out for it, or they very rarely are. However, when a female character is reserved, suddenly they’re eMoTIoNleSs. For example. Cody is beloved despite seeming pretty reserved (imo especially pre s7) and many people really love Cody. I do too. Obi-Wan as well is one of my favourite characters despite his reserved and calm nature, and especially in tcw for some reason. One of the reasons I love him is that he isn’t like a volcano of emotion like Anakin is, and knows to control himself lest he become a threat to his friends. This is one of the reasons I love Luminara and Shaak Ti, because it is obvious that they do care, but they know that they can not get carried away with it. It’s why I love Jedi traditions/philosophy. Controlling oneself is extrememly important, and I love that there is a group of people who are like that when it’s so often shown that being overly emotional is good. However, for some reason, a lot of people really hate Luminara and blame lots of dumb shit on her. I would probably say a lot of it is sexism because women are ‘meant’ to be ‘emotional creatures’ so when a character breaks that mold and doesn’t fall apart at the idea of possibly losing someone they love, they’re villified for it. And my thing is, why do so many people hate Luminara for being reserved and knowing that being overly emotional is not the best answer, when they like other characters because they’re reserved. Big example is Obi-Wan as he is one of the most liked characters (I think. Lol I’m biased) But yeah. he’s pretty stoic, but no one says shit about him that much, but god fucking forbid Luminara be the same.

And kind of going off on a tangent here, but the sexualisation of women in Star Wars. Yikes. Like of course Padmè had to wear an artuflly ripped crop top version of her skintight white thing at Geonosis. Of course. And putting a 14 year old Ahsoka in a tube top and leggings....? HUH? Kinda yikes. I get not making a flowy nun outfit or whatever, but Obi-Wan isn’t wearing a tube top thing, is he? They could have given Ahsok cool robes like Shaak Ti or Luminara but no... they’re going to give her some ridiculous skintight thing. Anyways yeah. Also the amount of nitpicking over a character is always on a character who is female of a POC or something like that. I don’t see people nitpicking about shit for Kylo Ren, but of course y’all hate Rey for no reason other than existing.

So... yeah. I hope I was able to communicate my thoughts properly? If you need clarification, just ask Sorry if it’s salty, but yeah. 

@jedimasterbailey hope this was good? I’m not super good at articulating my thoughts, but here it is. 

[rawliverandcigarettes]

Mass Effect Retribution, a review

Mass Effect Retribution is the third book in the official Mass Effect trilogy by author Drew Karpyshyn, who happens to also be Lead Writer for Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2.

I didn’t expect to pick it up, because to be very honest I didn’t expect to like it. 9 years ago I borrowed Mass Effect Revelations, and I still recall the experience as underwhelming. But this fateful fall of 2020 I had money (yay) and I saw the novel on the shelf of a swedish nerd store. I guess guilt motivated me to give the author another try: guilt, because I’ve been writing a Mass Effect fanfiction for an ungodly amount of years and I’ve been deathly afraid of lore that might contradict my decisions ever since I started -but I knew this book covered elements that are core to plot elements of my story, and I was willing to let my anxiety to the door and see what was up.

Disclaimer: I didn’t reread Mass Effect Revelation before plunging into this read, and entirely skipped Ascension. So anything in relation to character introduction and continuity will have to be skipped.

Back-cover pitch (the official, unbiased, long one)

Humanity has reached the stars, joining the vast galactic community of alien species. But beyond the fringes of explored space lurk the Reapers, a race of sentient starships bent on “harvesting” the galaxy’s organic species for their own dark purpose. The Illusive Man, leader of the pro-human black ops group Cerberus, is one of the few who know the truth about the Reapers. To ensure humanity’s survival, he launches a desperate plan to uncover the enemy’s strengths—and weaknesses—by studying someone implanted with modified Reaper technology. He knows the perfect subject for his horrific experiments: former Cerberus operative Paul Grayson, who wrested his daughter from the cabal’s control with the help of Ascension project director Kahlee Sanders. But when Kahlee learns that Grayson is missing, she turns to the only person she can trust: Alliance war hero Captain David Anderson. Together they set out to find the secret Cerberus facility where Grayson is being held. But they aren’t the only ones after him. And time is running out. As the experiments continue, the sinister Reaper technology twists Grayson’s mind. The insidious whispers grow ever stronger in his head, threatening to take over his very identity and unleash the Reapers on an unsuspecting galaxy. This novel is based on a Mature-rated video game.

Global opinion (TL;DR)

I came in hoping to be positively surprised and learn a thing or two about Reapers, about Cerberus and about Aria T’loak. I wasn’t, and I didn’t learn much. What I did learn was how cool ideas can get wasted by the very nature of game novelization, as the defects are not singular to this novel but quite widespread in this genre, and how annoyed I can get at an overuse of dialogue tags. The pacing is good and the narrative structure alright: everything else poked me in the wrong spots and rubbed how the series have always handled violence on my face with cruder examples. If I was on Good Reads, I’d probably give it something like 2 stars, for the pacing, some of the ideas, and my general sympathy for the IP novel struggle.

The indepth review continue past this point, just know there will be spoilers for the series, the Omega DLC which is often relevant, and the book itself!

What I enjoyed

Drew Karpyshyn is competent in narrative structure, and that does a lot for the pacing. Things rarely drag, and we get from one event to the next seamlessly. I’m not surprised this is one of the book’s qualities, as it comes from the craft of a game writer: pacing and efficiency are mandatory skills in this field. I would have preferred a clearer breaking point perhaps, but otherwise it’s a nice little ride that doesn’t ask a lot of effort from you (I was never tempted to DNF the book because it was so easy to read).

This book is packed with intringuing ideas -from venturing in the mind of the Illusive Man to assist, from the point of view of the victim, to Grayson’s biological transformation and assimilation into the Reaper hivemind, we get plenty to be excited for. I was personally intrigued about Liselle, Aria T’loak’s secret daughter, and eager to get a glimpse at the mind of the Queen Herself -also about how her collaboration with Cerberus came to be. Too bad none of these ideas go anywhere nor are being dealt with in an interesting way!!! But the concepts themselves were very good, so props for setting up interesting premices.

Pain is generally well described. It gets the job done.

I liked Sanak, the batarian that works as a second to Aria. He’s not very well characterized and everyone thinks he’s dumb (rise up for our national himbo), even though he reads almost smarter than her on multiple occasions, but I was happy whenever he was on the page, so yay for Sanak. But it might just be me having a bias for batarians.

Cool to have Kai Leng as a point of view character. I wasn’t enthralled by what was done with it, as he remains incredibly basic and as basically hateable and ungrounded than in Mass Effect 3 (I think he’s very underwhelming as a villain and he should have been built up in Mass Effect 2 to be effective). But there were some neat moments, such as the description of the Afterlife by Grayson who considers it as tugging at his base instincts, compared to Leng’s description of it where everything is deemed disgusting. The execution is not the best, but the concept was fun.

Pre-Reaperification Paul Grayson wasn’t the worst point of view to follow. I wasn’t super involved in his journey and didn’t care when he died one way or the other, but I empathized with his problems and hoped he would find a way out of the cycle of violence. The setup of his character arc was interesting, it’s just sad that any resolution -even negative- was dropped to focus on Reapers and his relationship with Kahlee Sanders, as I think the latter was the least interesting part.

The cover is cool and intringuing. Very soapy. It’s my favorite out of all the official novels, as it owns the cheesier aspect of the series, has nice contrasts and immediately asks questions. Very 90s/2000s. It’s great.

You may notice every thing I enjoyed was coated in complaints, because it’s a reflection of my frustration at this book for setting up interesting ideas and then completely missing the mark in their execution. So without further due, let’s talk about what I think the book didn’t do right.

1. Dumb complaints that don’t matter much

After reading the entire book, I am still a bit confused at to why Tim (the Illusive Man’s acronym is TIM in fandom, but I find immense joy in reffering to him as just Tim) wants his experimentation to be carried out on Grayson specifically, especially when getting to him is harder than pretty much anyone else (also wouldn’t pushing the very first experiments on alien captives make more sense given it’s Cerberus we’re talking about?). It seem to be done out of petty revenge, which is fine, but it still feels like quite the overlook to mess with a competent fighter, enhance him, and then expect things to stay under control (which Tim kind of doesn’t expect to, and that’s even weirder -why waste your components on something you plan to terminate almost immediately). At the same time, the pettiness is the only characterization we get out of Tim so good I guess? But if so, I wished it would have been accentuated to seem even more deliberate (and not have Tim regret to see it in himself, which flattens him and doesn’t inform the way he views the world and himself -but we’ll get to that).

I really disliked the way space travel is characterized. And that might be entirely just me, and perhaps it doesn’t contradict the rest of the lore, but space travel is so fast. People pop up left and right in a matter of hours. At some point we even get a mention of someone being able to jump 3 different Mass Relays and then arrive somewhere in 4 hours. I thought you first had to discharge your ship around a stellar object before being able to engage in the next jump (and that imply finding said object, which would have to take more than an hour). It’s not that big of a deal, but it completely crammed this giant world to a single boulevard for me and my hard-science-loving tastes. Not a big deal, but not a fan at all of this choice.

You wouldn’t believe how often people find themselves in a fight naked or in their underwear. It happens at least 3 times (and everyone naked survives -except one, we’ll get to her later).

Why did I need to know about this fifteen year’s old boner for his older teacher. Surely there were other ways to have his crush come across without this detail, or then have it be an actual point of tension in their relationship and not just a “teehee” moment. Weird choice imo.

I’m not a fan of the Talons. I don’t find them interesting or compelling. There is nothing about them that informs us on the world they live in. The fact they’re turian-ruled don’t tell us anything about turian culture that, say, the Blue Suns don’t tell us already. It’s a generic gang that is powerful because it is. I think they’re very boring, in this book and in the Omega DLC alike (a liiittle less in the DLC because of Nyreen, barely). Not a real criticism, I just don’t care for them at all.

I might just be very ace, but I didn’t find Anderson and Kahlee Sanders to have much chemistry. Same for Kahlee and Grayson (yes we do have some sort of love-triangle-but-not-really, but it’s not very important and it didn’t bother me much). Their relationships were all underwhelming to me, and I’ll explain why in part 4.

The red sand highs are barely described, and very safely -probably not from a place of intimate knowledge with drugs nor from intense research. Addiction is a delicate topic, and I feel like it could have been dealt with better, or not be included at all.

There are more of these, but I don’t want to turn this into a list of minor complaints for things that are more a matter of taste than craft quality or thematic relevance. So let’s move on.

2. Who cares about aliens in a Mass Effect novel

Now we’re getting into actual problems, and this one is kind of endemic to the Mass Effect novels (I thought the same when I read Revelation 9 years ago, though maybe less so as Saren in a PoV character -but I might have forgotten so there’s that). The aliens are described and characterized in the most uncurious, uninspired manner. Krogans are intimidating brutes. Turians are rigid. Asaris are sexy. Elcors are boring. Batarians are thugs (there is something to be said with how Aria’s second in command is literally the same batarian respawned with a different name in Mass Effect 2, this book, then the Omega DLC). Salarians are weak nerds. (if you allow me this little parenthesis because of course I have to complain about salarian characterization: the only salarian that speaks in the book talks in a cheap ripoff of Mordin’s speech pattern, which sucks because it’s specific to Mordin and not salarians as a whole, and is there to be afraid of a threat as a joke. This is SUCH a trope in the original trilogy -especially past Mass Effect 1 when they kind of give up on salarians except for a few chosen ones-, that salarians’ fear is not to be taken seriously and the only salarians who are to be considered don’t express fear at all -see Mordin and Kirrahe. It happens at least once per game, often more. This is one of the reasons why the genophage subplot is allowed to be so morally simple in ME3 and remove salarians from the equation. I get why they did that, but it’s still somewhat of a copeout. On this front, I have to give props to Andromeda for actually engaging with violence on salarians in a serious manner. It’s a refreshing change) I didn’t learn a single thing about any of these species, how they work, what they care about in the course of these 79750 words. I also didn’t learn much about their relationships to other species, including humans. I’ll mention xenophobia in more details later, but this entire aspect of the story takes a huge hit because of this lack of investment of who these species are.

I’ve always find Mass Effect, despite its sprawling universe full of vivid ideas and unique perspectives, to be strangely enamoured with humans, and it has never been so apparent than here. Only humans get to have layers, deserving of empathy and actual engagement. Only their pain is real and important. Only their death deserve mourning (we’ll come back to that). I’d speculate this comes from the same place that was terrified to have Liara as a love interest in ME1 in case she alienated the audience, and then later was surprised when half the fanbase was more interested in banging the dinosaur-bird than their fellow humans: Mass Effect often seem afraid of losing us and breaking our capacity for self-projection. It’s a very weird concern, in my opinion, that reveals the most immature, uncertain and soapy parts of the franchise. Here it’s punched to eleven, and I find it disappointing. It also have a surprising effect on the narrative: again, we’ll come back to that.

3. The squandered potential of Liselle and Aria

Okay. This one hurts. Let’s talk about Liselle: she’s introduced in the story as a teammate to Grayson, who at the time works as a merc for Aria T’loak on Omega, and also sleeps with him on the regular. She likes hitting the Afterlife’s dancefloor: she’s very admired there, as she’s described as extremely attractive. One night after receiving a call from Grayson, she rejoins him in his apartment. They have sex, then Kai Leng and other Cerberus agents barge in to capture Grayson -a fight break out (the first in a long tradition of naked/underwear fights), and both of them are stunned with tranquilizers. Grayson is to be taken to the Illusive Man. Kai Leng decides to slit Liselle’s throat as she lays unconscious to cover their tracks. When Aria T’loak and her team find her naked on a bed, throat gaping and covered in blood, Liselle is revealed, through her internal monologue, to be Aria’s secret daughter -that she kept secret for both of their safety. So Liselle is a sexpot who dies immediately in a very brutal and disempowered manner. This is a sad way to handle Aria T’loak’s daughter I think, but I assume it was done to give a strong motivation to the mother, who thinks Grayson did it. And also, it’s a cool setup to explore her psyche: how does she feel about business catching up with her in such a personal manner, how does she feel about the fact she couldn’t protect her own offspring despite all her power, what’s her relationship with loss and death, how does she slip when under high emotional stress, how does she deal with such a vulnerable position of having to cope without being able to show any sign of weakness... But the book does nothing with that. The most interesting we get is her complete absence of outward reaction when she sees her daughter as the centerpiece of a crime scene. Otherwise we have mentions that she’s not used to lose relatives, vague discomfort when someone mentions Liselle might have been raped, and vague discomfort at her body in display for everyone to gawk at. It’s not exactly revelatory behavior, and the missed potential is borderline criminal. It also doesn’t even justify itself as a strong motivation, as Aria vaguely tries to find Grayson again and then gives up until we give her intel on a silver platter. Then it almost feels as if she forgot her motivation for killing Grayson, and is as motivated by money than she is by her daughter’s murder (and that could be interesting too, but it’s not done in a deliberate way and therefore it seems more like a lack of characterization than anything else).

Now, to Aria. Because this book made me realize something I strongly dislike: the framing might constantly posture her as intelligent, but Aria T’loak is... kind of dumb, actually? In this book alone she’s misled, misinformed or tricked three different times. We’re constantly ensured she’s an amazing people reader but never once do we see this ability work in her favor -everyone fools her all the time. She doesn’t learn from her mistakes and jump from Cerberus trap to Cerberus trap, and her loosing Omega to them later is laughably stupid after the bullshit Tim put her through in this book alone. I’m not joking when I say the book has to pull out an entire paragraph on how it’s easier to lie to smart people to justify her complete dumbassery during her first negotiation with Tim. She doesn’t seem to know anything about how people work that could justify her power. She’s not politically savvy. She’s not good at manipulation. She’s just already established and very, very good at kicking ass. And I wouldn’t mind if Aria was just a brutish thug who maintains her power through violence and nothing else, that could also be interesting to have an asari act that way. But the narrative will not bow to the reality they have created for her, and keep pretending her flaw is in extreme pride only. This makes me think of the treatment of Sansa Stark in the latest seasons of Game of Thrones -the story and everyone in it is persuaded she’s a political mastermind, and in the exact same way I would adore for it to be true, but it’s just... not. It’s even worse for Aria, because Sansa does have victories by virtue of everyone being magically dumber than her whenever convenient. Aria just fails, again and again, and nobody seem to ever acknowledge it. Sadly her writing here completely justifies her writing in the Omega DLC and the comics, which I completely loathe; but turns out Aria isn’t smart or savvy, not even in posture or as a façade. She’s just violent, entitled, easily fooled, and throws public tantrums when things don’t go her way. And again, I guess that would be fine if only the narrative would recognize what she is. Me, I will gently ignore most of this (in her presentation at least, because I think it’s interesting to have something pitiful when you dig a little) and try to write her with a bit more elevation. But this was a very disappointing realization to have.

4. The squandered potential of Grayson and the Reapers

The waste of a subplot with Aria and Liselle might have hurt me more in a personal way, but what went down between Grayson and the Reapers hurts the entire series in a startling manner. And it’s so infuriating because the potential was there. Every setpiece was available to create something truly unique and disturbing by simply following the series’ own established lore. But this is not what happens. See, when The Illusive Man, our dearest Tim, captures Grayson for a betrayal that happened last book (something about his biotic autistic daughter -what’s the deal with autistic biotics being traumatized by Cerberus btw), he decides to use him as the key part of an experiment to understand how Reapers operate. So he forcefully implants the guy with Reaper technology (what they do exactly is unclear) to study his change into a husk and be prepared when Reapers come for humanity -it’s also compared to what happened with Saren when he “agreed” to be augmented by Sovereign. From there on, Grayson slowly turns into a husk. Doesn’t it sound fascinating, to be stuck in the mind of someone losing themselves to unknowable monsters? If you agree with me then I’m sorry because the execution is certainly... not that. The way the author chooses to describe the event is to use the trope of mind control used in media like Get Out: Grayson taking the backseat of his own mind and body. And I haaaaate it. I hate it so much. I don’t hate the trope itself (it can be interesting in other media, like Get Out!), but I loathe that it’s used here in a way that totally contradicts both the lore and basic biology. Grayson doesn’t find himself manipulated. He doesn’t find himself justifying increasingly jarring actions the way Saren has. He just... loses control of himself, disagreeing with what’s being done with him but not able to change much about it. He also can fight back and regain control sometimes -but his thoughts are almost untainted by Reaper influence. The technology is supposed to literally replace and reorganize the cells of his body; is this implying that body and mind are separated, that there maybe exists a soul that transcends indoctrination? I don’t know but I hate it. This also implies that every victim of the Reaper is secretely aware of what they’re doing and pained and disagreeing with their own actions. And I’m sorry but if it’s true, I think this sucks ass and removes one of the creepiest ideas of the Mass Effect universe -that identity can and will be lost, and that Reapers do not care about devouring individuality and reshaping it to the whims of their inexorable march. Keeping a clear stream of consciousness in the victim’s body makes it feel like a curse and not like a disease. None of the victims are truly gone that way, and it removes so much of the tragic powerlessness of organics in their fight against the machines. Imagine if Saren watched himself be a meanie and being like “nooo” from within until he had a chance to kill himself in a near-victorious battle, compared to him being completely persuaded he’s acting for the good of organic life until, for a split second, he comes to realize he doesn’t make any sense and is loosing his mind like someone with dementia would, and needs to grasp to this instant to make the last possible thing he could do to save others and his own mind from domination. I feel so little things for Saren in the former case, and so much for the latter. But it might just be me: I’m deeply touched by the exploration of how environment and things like medication can change someone’s behavior, it’s such a painfully human subject while forceful mind control is... just kind of cheap.

SPEAKING OF THE REAPERS. Did you know “The Reapers” as an entity is an actual character in this book? Because it is. And “The Reapers” is not a good character. During the introduction of Grayson and explaining his troubles, we get presented with the mean little voice in his head. It’s his thoughts in italics, nothing crazy, in fact it’s a little bit of a copeout from actually implementing his insecurities into the prose. But I gave the author the benefit of the doubt, as I knew Grayson would be indoctrinated later, and I fully expected the little voice to slowly start twisting into what the Reapers suggested to him. This doesn’t happen, or at least not in that slowburn sort of way. Instead the little voice is dropped almost immediately, and the Reapers are described, as a presence. And as the infection progresses, what Grayson do become what the Reapers do. The Reapers have emotions, it turns out. They’re disgusted at organic discharges. They’re pleased when Grayson accomplish what they want, and it’s told as such. They foment little plans to get their puppet to point A to point B, and we are privy to their calculations. And I’m sorry but the best way to ruin your lovecraftian concept is to try and explain its motivations and how it thinks. Because by definition the unknown is scarier, smarter, and colder than whatever a human author could come up with. I couldn’t take the Reapers’ dumb infiltration plans seriously, and now I think they are dumb all the time, and I didn’t want to!! The only cases in which the Reapers influence Grayson, we are told in very explicit details how so. For example, they won’t let Grayson commit suicide by flooding his brain with hope and determination when he tries, or they will change the words he types when he tries to send a message to Kahlee Sanders. And we are told exactly what they do every time. There was a glorious occasion to flex as a writer by diving deep into an unreliable narrator and write incredibly creepy prose, but I guess we could have been confused, and apparently that’s not allowed. And all of this is handled that poorly becauuuuuse...

5. Subtext is dead and Drew killed it

Now we need to talk about the prose. The style of the author is... let’s be generous and call it functional. It’s about clarity. The writing is so involved in its quest for clarity that it basically ruins the book, and most of the previous issues are direct consequences of the prose and adjacent decisions.The direct prose issues are puzzling, as they are known as rookie technical flaws and not something I would expect from the series’ Lead Writer for Mass Effect 1 and 2, but in this book we find problems such as:

The reliance on adverbs. Example: "Breathing heavily from the exertion, he stood up slowly”. I have nothing about a well-placed adverb that gives a verb a revelatory twist, but these could be replaced by stronger verbs, or cut altogether.

Filtering. Example: “Anderson knew that the fact they were getting no response was a bad sign”. This example is particularly egregious, but characters know things, feel things, realize things (boy do they realize things)... And this pulls us away from their internal world instead of making us live what they live, expliciting what should be implicit. For example, consider the alternative: “They were getting no reponse, which was a bad sign in Anderson’s experience.” We don’t really need the “in Anderson’s experience” either, but that already brings us significantly closer to his world, his lived experience as a soldier.

The goddamn dialogue tags. This one is the worst offender of the bunch. Nobody is allowed to talk without a dialogue tag in this book, and wow do people imply, admit, inform, remark and every other verb under the sun. Consider this example, which made me lose my mind a little: “What are you talking about? Kahlee wanted to know.” I couldn’t find it again, but I’m fairly certain I read a “What is it?” Anderson wanted to know. as well. Not only is it very distracting, it’s also yet another way to remove reader interpretation from the equation (also sometimes there will be a paragraph break inside a monologue -not even a long one-, and that doesn’t seem to be justified by anything? It’s not as big of a problem than the aversion to subtext, but it still confused me more than once)

Another writing choice that hurts the book in disproportionate ways is the reliance on point of view switches. In Retribution, we get the point of view of: Tim, Paul Grayson, Kai Leng, Kahlee Sanders, David Anderson, Aria T’loak, and Nick (a biotic teenager, the one with the boner). Maybe Sanak had a very small section too, but I couldn’t find it again so don’t take my word for it. That’s too many point of views for a plot-heavy 80k book in my opinion, but even besides that: the point of view switch several times in one single chapter. This is done in the most harmful way possible for tension: characters involved in the same scene take turns on the page explaining their perspective about the events, in a way that leaves the reader entirely aware of every stake to every character and every information that would be relevant in a scene. Take for example the first negotiation between Aria and Tim. The second Aria needs to ponder what her best move could possibly be, we get thrown back into Tim’s perspective explaining the exact ways in which he’s trying to deceive her -removing our agency to be either convinced or fooled alongside her. This results in a book that goes out of his way to keep us from engaging with its ideas and do any mental work on our own. Everything is laid out, bare and as overexplained as humanly possible. The format is also very repetitive: characters talk or do an action, and then we spend a paragraph explaining the exact mental reasoning for why they did what they did. There is nothing to interpret. No subtext at all whatsoever; and this contributes in casting a harsh light on the Mass Effect universe, cheapening it and overtly expliciting some of its worst ideas instead of leaving them politely blurred and for us to dress up in our minds. There is only one theme that remains subtextual in my opinion. And it’s not a pretty one.

6. Violence

So here’s the thing when you adapt a third person shooter into a novel: you created a violent world and now you will have to deal with death en-masse too (get it get it I’m so sorry). But while in videogames you can get away with thoughtless murder because it’s a gameplay mechanic and you’re not expected to philosophize on every splatter of blood, novels are all about internalization. Violent murder is by definition more uncomfortable in books, because we’re out of gamer conventions and now every death is actual when in games we just spawned more guys because we wanted that level to be a bit harder and on a subconscious level we know this and it makes it somewhat okay. I felt, in this book, a strange disconnect between the horrendous violence and the fact we’re expected to care about it like we would in a game: not much, or as a spectacle. Like in a game, we are expected to root for the safety of named characters the story indicated us we should be invested in. And because we’re in a book, this doesn’t feel like the objective truth of the universe spelled at us through user interface and quest logs, but the subjective worldview of the characters we’re following. And that makes them.... somewhat disturbing to follow.

I haven’t touched on Anderson and Kahlee Sanders much yet, but now I guess I have too, as they are the worst offenders of what is mentioned above. Kahlee cares about Grayson. She only cares about Grayson -and her students like the forementioned Nick, but mostly Grayson. Grayson is out there murdering people like it’s nobody’s business, but still, keeping Grayson alive is more important that people dying like flies around him. This is vaguely touched on, but not with the gravitas that I think was warranted. Also, Anderson goes with it. Because he cares about Kahlee. Anderson organizes a major political scandal between humans and turians because of Kahlee, because of Grayson. He convinces turians to risk a lot to bring Cerberus down, and I guess that could be understandable, but it’s mostly manipulation for the sake of Grayson’s survival: and a lot of turians die as a result. But not only turians: I was not comfortable with how casually the course of action to deal a huge blow to Cerberus and try to bring the organization down was to launch assault on stations and cover-ups for their organization. Not mass arrests: military assault. They came to arrest high operatives, maybe, but the grunts were okay to slaughter. This universe has a problem with systemic violence by the supposedly good guys in charge -and it’s always held up as the righteous and efficient way compared to these UGH boring politicians and these treaties and peace and such (amirite Anderson). And as the cadavers pile up, it starts to make our loveable protagonists... kind of self-centered assholes. Also: I think we might want to touch on who these cadavers tend to be, and get to my biggest point of discomfort with this novel.

Xenophobia is hard to write well, and I super sympathize with the attempts made and their inherent difficulty. This novel tries to evoke this theme in multiple ways: by virtue of having Cerberus’ heart and blade as point of view characters, we get a window into Tim and Kai Leng’s bigotry against aliens, and how this belief informs their actions. I wasn’t ever sold in their bigotry as it was shown to us. Tim evokes his scorn for whatever aliens do and how it’s inferior to humanity’s resilience -but it’s surface-level, not informed by deep and specific entranched beliefs on aliens motives and bodies, and how they are a threat on humanity according to them. The history of Mass Effect is rich with conflict and baggage between species, yet every expression of hatred is relegated to a vague “eww aliens” that doesn’t feed off systemically enforced beliefs but personal feelings of mistrust and disgust. I’ll take this example of Kai Leng, and his supposedly revulsion at the Afterlife as a peak example of alien decadence: he sees an asari in skimpy clothing, and deems her “whorish”. And this feels... off. Not because I don’t think Kai Leng would consider asaris whorish, but because this is supposed to represent Cerberus’ core beliefs: yet both him and Tim go on and on about how their goal is to uplift humanity, how no human is an enemy. But if that’s the case, then what makes Kai Leng call an Afterlife asari whorish and mean it in a way that’s meaningfully different from how he would consider a human sex worker in similar dispositions? Not that I don’t buy that Cerberus would have a very specific idea of what humans need to be to be considered worth preserving as good little ur-fascists, but this internal bias is never expressed in any way, and it makes the whole act feel hollow. Cerberus is not the only offender, though. Every time an alien expresses bias against humans in a way we’re meant to recognize as xenophobic, it reads the same way: as personal dislike and suspicion. As bullying. Which is such a small part of what bigotry encompasses. It’s so unspecific and divorced from their common history that it just never truly works in my opinion. You know what I thought worked, though? The golden trio of non-Cerberus human characters, and their attitude towards aliens. Grayson’s slight fetishism and suspicion of his attraction to Liselle, how bestial (in a cool, sexy way) he perceives the Afterlife to be. The way Anderson and Kahlee use turians for their own ends and do not spare a single thought towards those who died directly trying to protect them or Grayson immediately after the fact (they are more interested in Kahlee’s broken fingers and in kissing each other). How they feel disgust watching turians looting Cerberus soldiers, not because it’s disrespectful in general and the deaths are a inherent tragedy but because they are turians and the dead are humans. But it's not even really on them: the narration itself is engrossed by the suffering of humans, but aliens are relegated to setpieces in gore spectacles. Not even Grayson truly cares about the aliens the Reapers make him kill. Nobody does. Not even the aliens among each other: see, once again, Aria and Liselle, or Aria and Sanak. Nobody cares. At the very end of the story, Anderson comes to Kahlee and asks if she gives him permission to have Grayson’s body studied, the same way Cerberus planned to. It’s source of discomfort, but Kahlee gives in as it’s important, and probably what Grayson would have wanted, maybe? So yeah. In the end the only subtextual theme to find here (probably as an accident) is how the Alliance’s good guys are not that different from Cerberus it turns out. And I’m not sure how I feel about that.

7. Lore-approved books, or the art of shrinking an expanding universe

I’d like to open the conversation on a bigger topic: the very practice of game novelization, or IP-books. Because as much as I think Drew Karpyshyn’s final draft should not have ended up reading that amateur given the credits to his name, I really want to acknowledge the realities of this industry, and why the whole endeavor was perhaps doomed from the start regardless of Karpyshyn’s talent or wishes as an author.

The most jarring thing about this reading experience is as follows: I spent almost 80k words exploring this universe with new characters and side characters, all of them supposedly cool and interesting, and I learned nothing. I learned nothing new about the world, nothing new about the characters. Now that it’s over, I’m left wondering how I could chew on so much and gain so little. Maybe it’s just me, but more likely it’s by design. Not on poor Drew. Now that I did IP work myself, I have developed an acute sympathy for anyone who has to deal with the maddening contradictions of this type of business. Let me explain.

IP-adjacent media (in the West at least) sure has for goal to expand the universe: but expand as in bloat, not as in deepen. The target for this book is nerds like me, who liked the games and want more of this thing we liked. But then we’re confronted by two major competitors: the actual original media (in ME’s case, the games) whose this product is a marketing tool for, and fandom. IP books are not allowed to compete with the main media: the good ideas are for the main media, and any meaningful development has to be made in the main media (see: what happened with Kai Leng, or how everyone including me complains about the worldbuilding to the Disney Star Swars trilogy being hidden in the novelization). And when it comes to authorship (as in: taking an actual risk with the media and give it a personal spin), then we risk introducing ideas that complicate the main media even though a ridiculously small percent of the public will be attached to it, or ideas that fans despise. Of course we can’t have the latter. And once the fandom is huge enough, digging into anything the fans have strong headcanons for already risks creating a lot of emotions once some of these are made canon and some are disregarded. As much as I joke about how in Mass Effect you can learn about any gun in excrutiating details but we still don’t know if asaris have a concept for marriage... would we really want to know how/if asaris marry, or aren’t we glad we get to be creative and put our own spin on things? The dance between fandom and canon is a delicate one that can and will go wrong. And IP books are generally not worth the drama for the stakeholders.

Add this to insane deadlines, numerous parties all involved in some way and the usual struggles of book writing, and we get a situation where creating anything of value is pretty much a herculean task.

But then I ask... why do IP books *have* to be considered canon? I know this is part of the appeal, and that removing the “licenced” part only leaves us with published fanfiction, but... yeah. Yeah. I think it could be a fascinating model. Can you imagine having your IP and hiring X amount of distinctive authors to give it their own spin, not as definitive additions to the world but as creative endeavours and authorial deepdives? It would allow for these novels to be comparative and companion to the main media instead of being weird appendages that can never compare, and the structure would allow for these stories to be polished and edited to a higher level than most fanfictions. Of course I’m biased because I have a deep belief in the power of fanfiction as commentary and conversational piece. But I would really love to see companies’ approach to creative risk and canon to change. We might get Disney stuff until we die now, so the least we can ask for is for this content to be a little weird, personal and human.

That’s it. That’s the whole review. Thank you for reading, it was very long and weirdly passionate, have a nice dayyyyy.

[tfw-no-tennis]

the animorphs continues, david trilogy style

here we are...we finally arrived....the david triology

I did remember a good amount of these books from when I read these when I was like 11. but I also forgot a lot an hooooly shit 

WHERE TF DO I EVEN START. so that shit slapped obvs. it really felt like the series has been leading up to this - all the characters have had to make really difficult no-correct-answers decisions, and it leads up to this - the ultimate shitty situation with absolutely no good, clear solutions, and everyone gets to contribute to the awful conclusion! 

one thing that really stood out to me is that with David's inclusion as this kind of ‘outsider’ within the group, even though none of it was from his POV, we still get a huge sense of the animorphs being an extremely well-oiled team, who all know and trust each other very well - especially w/Jake as the leader - Jake has to make a lot of decisions in these books but the other animorphs always listen to him 

this all probably didn’t help David, who was already thrown into a completely crazy situation, and who now has to deal w/this group of kid superheroes who work very well together. it also doesn't help that David doesn't really try to find his place on the team 

anyways I love how much wild shit happens in animorphs always. like they try to steal the blue box as birds and then David chases them off w/a bb gun? and then they end up in this huge alien showdown with visser 3 and his troops in David's house? batshit

also the hilariously 90s part w/the email...lmao. like its the 90s so there's no way to shut off the automatic email remotely, they HAVE to go to David's computer, and they also can just unplug it...lmao they should've just taken out the phone lines tbh

also I completely forgot about the whole plot w/the world leaders meeting and the yeerks and stuff. that really served to ramp up the tension and also make it obvious that David was an outsider as he consistently fucked things up then played it off

also KAA did a masterful job of making David juuuust a little sympathetic in book 20, but still Off enough that you're like ehhhh I don't know about this guy...then he goes full awful creep and it becomes obvious that there’s no way they’ll be able to let him stick around in any capacity 

the bit where David kills the crow for no reason is the first Real indication that this is gonna go seriously wrong. but even before all that, his conversations w/Marco gave me like, school shooter vibes 

these books are full of some REALLY good tension. the whole end of book 21 was so tense - they've been gearing up for this mission for days now, and they’ve had to do some crazy stuff to get where they are, so the realization that it’s all a trap is completely chilling 

and then when David tried to betray them to visser three...the gravity of that decision is unmistakable, because then the yeerks would find out that the animorphs are (mostly) human children, and they’d even know who they are, and that would be the end

I loved the part where David tries to act like he was just setting up an ambush w/his betrayal to the visser, and Jake immediately has everyone play along - and they do. earlier in the series someone - probably Rachel or Marco - likely would have ignored Jake bc of how slimy David was acting, but they've basically become a highly efficient military squad at this point, and it was a perfect slow slide into that over the last 20 books, and now is the time when the reader kinda realizes this (at least for me)

even if they don’t agree w/Jake and think they should just address the David problem right then and there, they all trust Jake as their leader to make that decision 

also the fact that these are the first books to do the ‘to be continued’ thing rather than wrapping the plot up...it really made it feel all the more tense 

in other books I normally look at the page count and go ‘ok so this conflict will be solved in this scene cause there are only 15 pages left’ (which is st I do a lot I now realize lmaooo I can pretty much gauge what’ll happen based on how many pages are left - and I do this when I read fanfic too, by looking at where the scroll bar is...anyways)

BUT w/these books its totally up in the air cause they can end anytime and just get continued next book, which makes it so much more tense imo

also I fucking loooove the part in book 21 where they’re hiding out with that little pool of yeerks - and I actually bookmarked some pages for these liveblogs, so I have quotes, this one from Jake - 

‘There was something wrong about killing defenseless slugs. I was pretty sure about that.’

Oh, Jake, that opinion is gonna change someday....

it is a little ironic considering he jacuzzi’d those yeerks in like book 7 or w/e. but alas its still a fantastic line that serves to show in the end how much things have changed 

also I love that the decision not to kill those defenseless yeerks end up helping them later - the yeerks check the pool bc they’re so certain that if the andalite bandits HAD snuck in, they surely would have killed the helpless yeerks. but they didn’t, so that means the andalite bandits didn't sneak in....

I like when the characters do a morally good thing and are then rewarded by the narrative for it - it’s pretty rare in this series, where there are usually NO morally correct choices (such is life) or they’re actively punished for making a ‘good’ decision (one could argue that the decision to make David an animorph instead of letting him become a controller was a morally good decision, but it had dire consequences). 

Ok and the part I have to talk about w/these books of course - everything w/Rachel. bc damn Rachel really goes through it in this trilogy. I absolutely LOVE the character development she gets, and I especially enjoyed the way her and Jake's relationship was developed

anyways, one of the best and most fucked up quotes of the series, from Jake’s POV in book 21  - 

<Ax? I think Tobias is dead,> I said. <I think David killed him.> <That would be a most terrible thing,> Ax said.  <Yeah. Get Rachel. If David’s killed Tobias, we may have to do a terrible thing, too. Get Rachel.>

AUGHHHHH fucking chills I swear. also eternal love for them saying dead/killed/etc and never shying away from it. it really wouldn't have the same impact if they used the normal kid-safe PG words 

but yeah Jake asking for Rachel when he thinks that they may have to hunt down and kill David? phewwww. 

and the significance of this is never downplayed. this essentially confirms that Jake sees Rachel as the one who is willing and able to do the dirty work - and specifically in this case, it’s also likely bc it was Tobias who was ‘killed’ and he knows how Rachel feels about Tobias

but like, that’s so fucked up, I love it. they give this situation the exact amount of weight it requires - ch1 of book 22 has this part from Rachel - 

‘If David had hurt Tobias, I would... But what was the point in making threats? I didn't need to make threats. I knew what I would do. So did Jake. That’s why he’d sent Ax for me.’

at first, it seems like Rachel is on the same page as Jake, but when it becomes clearer later that Jake sent Ax specifically to get Rachel bc she could do the terrible thing that had to be done - instead of just bc they needed reinforcements and she was closest - then things change 

but even when Rachel gets rightfully upset later over this, you get the sense she still never really sees any option other than to kill David. it’s not even the ‘killing David’ part that upsets her, it’s that Jake, her cousin, immediately thinks of her as the person to do the deed 

so, another fantastic quote from Rachel - 

‘Tobias was dead. Jake might still die. And I was going to have to go after David. I was going to have to hunt him down.  I was going to hunt him down and destroy him.  No, not destroy. That was a weasel word. It was vague, meaningless. I was going to kill him.’

fucking WOW. like really. that bit right there is just perfect quintessential dark animorphs. it just subverts the classic kid-friendly phrasing, using words like ‘hunt down’ and ‘destroy’ instead of kill. But Rachel says it like it is. she’s not going to destroy David, she’s going to kill him. 

But then a few pages later, after Ax tells her the quote where Jake asks for her specifically - 

‘It definitely made me feel strange. Jake had called for me specifically. Because he wanted someone who would do precisely what I was planning to do.  Like I say, I’m not big on feelings, but something about that felt wrong.’

I say it a lot but wow do these kids need So Much Therapy. these are like...8th graders. jesus christ. when I was in 8th grade I was busy planning sims-playing get-togethers w/my fellow 13 year old friends. christ animorphs 

and fuck, the part where Rachel threatens David’s family, and shoves a fork in his ear? jesus. and the fact that Jake knew that Rachel was going to threaten David and let her go do it...

and then afterwards, Rachel says - 

‘I felt...not exactly ashamed. But I knew I never wanted to talk to Cassie about what I’d just told David. Or Tobias. Or even Marco.’

I'm gonna make some leaps here but I think it’s really interesting that Rachel even mentions Marco here, and says ‘or even Marco.’ like, the ‘even’ seems to imply that Marco would otherwise be somebody she WOULD talk to about something like this.

which...kinda tracks, tbh. Marco is Mr Ruthless, he’s a cold, pragmatic strategist when he isn’t cracking jokes as a coping mechanism. it makes sense that Rachel would talk to him about things like this - he would make jokes, but he’d also understand 

I'm just so interested in all the highly varying dynamics that exist within the group okay 

and then right after Rachel says - 

‘But I swear at that moment I hated Jake far more than I did David.  I should have told them all what had happened. But Jake already knew, didn’t he? Jake, the smart, determined leader, already knew all about me.’

that's fucking daaark okay. It paints this picture of Jake having become this master manipulator who knows all about Rachel’s violent tendencies and is using them to his full strategic advantage

Oh my god okay and then all the stuff w/Saddler, christ. I had completely forgotten about that plotline but there was so much fucked up stuff there, too

and the scene where Rachel gives some good life advice to her little sister, and it’s a good bit to remind the reader and characters of the world outside of animorphs conflict...and then David speaks up. 

that was such brutal mood whiplash, when you realize that David is morphed and hidden in Rachels room somewhere...fucking chilling 

that whole scene just oozes disgusting creepiness. David’s fixation on Rachel specifically, and his rage at being ‘bested’ by her, really feels like misogyny to me. while David butted heads w/Marco, you never got the same sense of anger and disgust that he displays towards Rachel.

and the line where he says ‘hey, enjoy your shower’ made me shudder in disgust. christ. there are a lot of revolting, dark implications there.

also, book 22 obviously does a ton of fantastic character work for Rachel, but it does the same for Jake, too. and Cassie, but ill get to that later

we get to see so much of Jake as a leader and a strategist here, and pitting him and Rachel against each other (so to speak) makes for some excellent characterization, like when Rachel starts questioning why he asked for her - 

“I thought David had killed Tobias. I thought he might kill me. I wanted...firepower.”  “I see. You wanted me for my morphs.” It was a good answer. It could have almost been true. 

and then we get a brief pit stop at the children's hospital where the fucked up parade continues - David morphed Saddler, Rachel and Jake’s injured/dying young cousin, and is pretending to be him, miraculously recovered from his accident

and meanwhile he DUMPED THE REAL SADDLER’S BODY DOWN AN ELEVATOR SHAFT. I literally cant, what the FUCK. 

and they never really follow up on it but the whole family and all the Drs think its this miraculous recovery against all odds, but then obviously David disappears and therefore so does Saddler - do they ever find his real body? how completely fucked up that must have been - so much worse than if saddler had just died from his injuries - the miraculous recovery completely overturned by a bunch of stuff that doesn’t even make sense to anybody except Jake and Rachel....

anyways, after all that completely fucked up bullshit, we have the Jake and Rachel confrontation, Jake’s whole speech about Rachel is amazing, but here are my highlights - 

“I think you’re the bravest member of the group. I think in a bad fight I’d rather have you with me than anyone else. But yeah, Rachel, I think there’s something pretty dark down inside you. I think you’re the only one of us who would be disappointed if all this ended tomorrow.”

I mean, christ. imagine your fellow 13 year old cousin saying this to you. oh MAN. and I love so much that Jake isn’t wrong, but he also is? he understands what Rachel will do, but not why she’s doing it. and I talked abt it before but Rachel has found herself in this box of ‘the brave/reckless blood knight,’ and feels pressure to live up to that reputation. 

so how much of it is a façade that she puts on bc she’s expected to, and how much of it is how she really feels? well, she got that reputation initially for a reason, but she gets pushed more and more in that direction as the series progresses, both bc of the unintentional pressure to live up to her role as the Xena of the group, and bc it’s really, really useful to have somebody like Rachel on your side

Then Rachel says -

‘I tried to look at myself the way Jake saw me. Was it true? Did I love this war?’

I'm gonna lose it, these poor fucking middle schoolers. Rachel, listen, you’re 13, you’re a child soldier, of course you don't love the war you’re fighting...I need every child therapist on the block to come here right now

like jesus being 13 is hard enough without all this nonsense. it’s such a tenuous time in development, and add something like this - someone like Rachel, who is somewhat pigeonholed by society as ‘vapid, pretty blonde who loves to shop’ would of course flourish in an environment where she gets to show how much of a 3-dimensional Person she is - she can love shopping and also kick ass! nice! but also, like, trauma. 

So then Rachel says this about Jake - 

“Jake, you’re a leader now. You make life-and-death decisions. All the time. You’ve learned to do that. And,” I added bitterly, “you’ve learned to use people. You use them for their strengths and their weaknesses.” 

Fucking read, wow. I feel like Rachel is absolutely correct here, if not simplifying things a lot. like, yes, Jake does make these unfathomable decisions on the regular, but he’s got tons of conflict over every single thing he does, and there was a lot of uncertainty and trial-and-error leading up to this. but she is correct that he’s learned, and is clearly a lot more comfortable in his role as a military leader now. 

I just love the contrast these two have. Rachel, with the burden she carries as the bravest - the fighter of the team, who must be relied on in battle and to do the things that nobody else will do - and Jake, the leader, who has to make decisions knowing that he could get his friends killed at any time, and still trust that they’ll listen. 

And then Jake says - 

“But everyone draws their own line[...] For example, see, I used to think my line was drawn at using my friend, my cousin, to do my dirty work. Guess that turned out not to be true. Sorry, Rachel.” 

And then they hug and vow to murder David together, as a team. Heartwarming cousin bonding! Again, so much therapy. 

So yeah I love that scene. especially when you take into consideration Rachel’s ultimate fate, and Jake’s part in it. excuse me while I go weep. 

Anyways, to the end. THE ENDING....it gets me every time. I’ll never be over it. I don’t remember much about animorphs from when I read it at age 11 but I really really remember the ending to book 22. The way they masterfully set David up, the rat morph, the pipes, THE LEGO, the reveal that they planned the entire thing, the moment when David realizes what’s going to happen to him....oof. It’s not something I could forget, even w/my notoriously horrible memory when it comes to media 

Also I feel like there was more subtle misogyny when David insists on humiliating/subjugating Rachel, just because she proved earlier that she was stronger and smarter and better than him...eugh David is just such a disgusting creep that you don’t even end up feeling bad for him even though he’s a middle schooler being handed a fate worse than death. I mean, he tossed a dead/dying kid’s body down an elevator shaft in a children's hospital. I’m pretty sure he deserves this. 

And here’s the part where I talk about Cassie. because even though she didn’t get a POV book in the David trilogy, she still got some brutally fantastic character development. here we see David starting to realize what’s happening - 

‘Cassie was crying.  David hadn't asked who the mastermind of the plan was. Who it was who had so accurately appraised his emotions, his need to build his ego, the fact that he would choose me to be his “companion.” Cassie, of course. Cassie had worked it out, step by step, after Jake and I had failed to come up with anything.  For Cassie, it was an improvement over the alternatives. See, no one was going to have to die.  But David’s life would end, just the same.’

CASSIE. The dark horse, except not really, bc this is perfectly in line with what we know about her, especially coming off book 19, her last POV book before this. in that book she makes some absolutely awful decisions, all to avoid having to kill somebody. 

After all of Jake and Rachel’s badass vows to take David down, it’s Cassie who finds the solution. 

To a lot of people, David’s fate could be considered worse than death. To Cassie, it’s a better alternative. That speaks volumes about her, and I love it. 

Also, the MANIPULATION. Cassie in the David trilogy really gets to flex her interpersonal manipulation skills, which I love to see. It’s such a fascinating aspect of her character; a really interesting use of empathy

Like the scene in book 20 where David freaks out as a roach and she manipulates him into not giving them away by pitting him against Marco, someone who David doesn’t get along with, by saying ‘if Marco can do it, can’t you?’ because she knows he’ll fall for it. And he DOES. 

And then the part in the cafeteria where she basically plays the ‘good cop’ to everyone else in the group’s ‘bad cop.’ Not ONLY does she manage to get David to shut up and listen to her, she also posits her theory that he wants to blue box to trade it for his parents - which his reactions to her questions confirms as true. and nobody else in the group suspected this. 

She lures him into a sense of security by talking kindly and quietly about how she understands how he feels, then hits him with what she knows and gets him to confirm it, which then allows Rachel to accurately threaten him. 

And then Cassie, offscreen, comes up with the entire plan on how to trap David as a rat, because from the beginning she had him figured out. David didn’t pay much attention to Cassie - more misogyny tbh, as Cassie is the girl on the team who isn’t an aggressive, feminine blonde - and that ended up being a huge reason for his downfall. 

David also didn’t pay much attention to Tobias, and clearly didn’t see him as human at all, and that made Tobias very valuable after David assumed he had killed Tobias. 

Ok, back to the ending - the fact that it was Rachel and Ax who stayed there to wait the two hours for David to become a nothlit....

Rachel says - 

‘Jake’s a good leader. He knows when to use us. He knows when to protect us. He knew he had to protect as many of his people as he could from what was going to happen.’ 

fucking brutal. TWO HOURS of listening to this awful kid beg and threaten and barter. I can’t even imagine. 

And Ax too! He gets overlooked a lot as an alien, and it’s probably true that all of this impacts him differently than the other human animorphs, it can’t be in any way pleasant to have to sit there for two hours and act as a living timer to count down this kid’s life. Ax is a kid, too, and an isolated one at that, being the only Andalite on the team. 

So yeah that scene is awful. Rachel even says - 

‘Two hours. But that two hours of horror will last forever in my mind. If I live a hundred years, I will still hear his cries, his threats, his pleading, each night before sleep takes me. And beyond sleep, in my dreams.’

I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but jesus christ, THEY NEED SO MUCH THERAPY. The fact that one of the constants in all of the POVs is the nightmares that all the animorphs consistently have....geez

Okay so I know in my last two liveblogs I ended them by comparing animorphs to another series - hxh and mtmte - but I honestly am drawing a blank for this...

I guess the only thing I can think of is to compare it to mob psycho 100, which is another very good, very subtly subversive series 

In mp100, the entire Point is that the very powerful psychic middle schoolers DON’T end up using their powers to fight life-or-death battles against adult enemies in order to save the world and whatnot. the Point is that that’s fucked up, and these kids shouldn’t be responsible for something like that, no matter how powerful they are 

and basically the character who says all that is Reigen, an adult who actively prevents the middle schoolers from joining what would be some very traumatizing fights 

basically my point here is less to compare the two shows and more to say - the poor animorphs could really use a Reigen huh. like, they seriously need an adult who’ll step in and say ‘wait a second, these kids are doing WHAT? hold the fucking phone, no way, get some actual adults in here to solve this shit. not today!’

the closest they could've come to an adult figure in their lives is Elfangor and he dies like 5 minutes after giving them superpowers, soooo....

man mp100 slaps I should rewatch it. anyways yeah the theme of this post is ‘the animorphs need therapy and also a stable adult figure in their lives to help them not get traumatized all the time’ thank you for coming to my ted talk

[jedimordsith]

I apologize in advance if I asked this before, though I don't think I have. What advice, tips, tools and/or resources could you give to someone trying to make a hard-magic system? or... maybe not perfectly hard, like the Avatar series or much of Brandon Sanderson's works, but not too soft either. Like the Force, which seems to hug a middle ground. Also, we know your thoughts on enemies to lovers, but what about other common x-to-lovers tropes?

This is a great question! I’m fairly sure I’m not the best person to answer it, but here’s what I got (mostly from my own reading of writing advice blogs and amazing Comic-Con panels with published authors).

1. Track Your Work. You can do this digitally or old-school in a fun notebook or binder but do yourself a favor and keep track of the rules/items/etiquette/history that you make up as you go along. This will save you buckets of time in the long-run by making it easy to cross-reference things for consistency. 

2. Embed Drawbacks in the System. As a rule, the most satisfying magical systems are the ones where magic isn’t a cure-all or a get-out-of-jail-free card. There need to be limits and costs to using it. The examples and possibilities of this are fairly endless, but common examples include:

- Magic counting as physical exertion that can leave a character drained and wiped out

- Some types of magic, such as healing, being painful for the user or taking a long time to complete

- Needing rare, expensive, or time-consuming ingredients to perform a spell  Feel free to mix-and-match, too! Different drawbacks/benefits for different types of magic or by levels of magical ability or something. 

3. Don’t Neglect the Social Aspects. Often, a big part of what magic has to offer your story has less to do with the magic itself than with how people respond to the magic. For example, in both The Sword of Truth series and Netflix’s The Dragon Prince series, the fact that the world is split into areas that have magic and areas that don’t is a defining feature in the worldbuilding and influences everything that happens. 

Alternatively, in The All Souls Trilogy (and a bunch of others) it is how magic users regulate themselves and their own that causes huge problems/threats. This aspect can be critical and high-impact no matter what kind or degree of magic you write about. 

4. Consider Using Existing Sources. I really completely loathe the saying “don’t reinvent the wheel” but it applies here. There are approximately a million RPG systems that have already (literally) done the math and developed systems of magic that, for the most part, are very solid. There is absolutely no reason you cannot base your magical system on one of those systems and build out from there. You don’t have to keep the world-building, of course, and you can adjust as you go, but these are great resources and less like likely (IMO) to lead to plagiarism-y writing than using someone else’s novel/series as your starting point. 

5. Remember to Consider POV. It’s worth remembering that you don’t have to have your entire system codified upfront, depending on your POV. If your main character, for example, is from somewhere without magic, is very young, is from an exceptionally sheltered living situation, etc. they may legit not know much or may even have serious misconceptions about magic. If they fall in with someone who can do magic, there is no reason that person is necessarily going to want to explain it all to them -- even if they could. So don’t think that you have to have everything nailed down all at once before you can even get started. 

Re: tropes: I like friends-to-lovers and idiots-to-lovers when it is done well. I like arranged marriage plots when they’re done well, too, and I’m not so much sure it’s a trope, but I also like “people who have reasons to fear/distrust one another” to lovers. (Like Oracle.) 😁 Generally, as long as it is well-written and doesn’t involve cheating I’ll give most things a try, though. 

Thanks for these great questions!

[wemblingfool]

With Beast Wars triumphant return, as well as Cheetor and Skybyte appearing in Cyberverse, and Barricade finally getting pulled out of the bayverse, it's really wonderful to see the G1 deathgrip finally beginning to loosen.

But there are still a ton of characters and designs who deserve to be rescued from obscurity. (Mine is by no means a complete list)

Beast Era- There was just so many, that if I don't limit myself, this list will be nothing but BW. Avoiding Beast Wars US show characters because they get 90% of the attention.

Razorbeast: Was just an empty toy-only character until Furman got ahold of him and did his typical magic to obscure toy only characters. Razorbeast was the best thing from IDW's terrible BW comic.

Botanica: The first (and only serious) plant TF. She would be amazing to see expanded.

Jetstorm: Like a bad gameshow host, Jetstorm was a joy to watch in Beast Machines. He also had a brilliant design that never got justice.

Hydra: From Beast Wars Neo, Hydra was a really lonely Predacon.

Killer Punch: Also from BW Neo, he was a conspiracy theorist on the level of The Question, or The Lone Gunmen. Imagine him sitting in his mother's basement (if Destrons/Predacons had mothers), blogging on the internet about how the original Megatron was secretly an autobot double agent.

Robots in Disguise- Everyone, honestly. Y'all really need to stop the RiD hate train. But here are the stand outs (for me)

Scourge: Is much more interesting a character than anything that's been done with "Nemesis Prime," since.

Gigatron: I go with Gigatron because IMO, he was much more interesting than his US Megatron version. Six modes and driven insane to the point of each mode having a unique personality.

The Predacon Trio: Darkscream, Slapper, and Gasskunk. Skybyte makes the occasional appearance recently. He needs his troops, who were fun enough on their own.

The Autobot Brothers: Sideburn, Prowl, and X-Brawn.

TAI: The best computer the autobots have. In any continuity.

Unicron Trilogy- The biggest continuity outside of the extended G1 continuity. As usual, too many to list.

Thunderblast: Not the most interesting toy, but she was a fun character

Shortround: Dude was a toy collector. He's one of us. He deserved to be brought back.

Brushguard: A decepticon botanist who loves old b-movies. What's not to love?

Ransack & Crumplezone: One of the most iconic duos in all TF

Landmine: We need more grumpy old robots, beyond Ironhide and Kup. Also, autobot construction vehicles are very rare.

Vector Prime: Amazing given how important he was/is, at how little he's been used since. The "multiversal singularity" thing was hands down one of the dumbest narrative moves, but that's no fault of Vector Prime's.

Override: She was an interesting design, and deserves to have more done with her.

Bayverse-

Blackout: neat design and a fairly blank character

Ransack: He's a friggin' biplane!

Sideswipe: same

"Daytrader": A Steve Buscemi transformer. Another Swindle-type character. He deserves to be rescued!

Crosshairs: Fairly big personality, which is rare for a bayverse TF, and an interesting design. I'd take him before G1 Crosshairs.

Animated- Just turn TF into animated for a few more years and I'll be happy. But, in terms of moving characters forward

Prowl: What's not to love? Peaceful nature loving ninja.

Bulkhead: A clumsy, sweet gentle giant with the soul of an artist. Everyone thinks he's an idiot, but he's the best spacebridge technician on Cybertron.

Sentinel Prime: Never been a more fun Sentinel, and never will be!

Lugnut: He just kinda got dumped.

Blitzwing: Would kill to see a future Blitzwing take after him instead of the dull as dirt G1 Blitzwing

Aligned- To be honest, i hate this trainwreck as much as I do Bayverse. But there are still concepts and characters worth salvaging

Knock Out: Dude was a blast. One of the only enjoyable things in TFP.

Soundwave: The only interesting Soundwave out there, imo.

Strongarm: She deserves moving forward

NuRiD Decepticons: Unique and fun designs, all of them! Would love to see Steeljaw and Bisk again!

Bumblebee- It is small. And it is broken. But it is still good... Yeah. Still good.

Shatter & Dropkick: Very much afraid these two will be quickly forgotten about and abandoned.

Cyberverse- it did a lot of new things with old characters. But it did bring some new and unique characters to the table.

Clobber: Sorta stole TFA Lugnut's design while being an amazing new character. She's something we've never seen before- a female big muscleheaded idiot brute. Female TFs are now becoming common enough that we're starting to get variety.

Wild Wheel: Nothing about him wasn't amazing. The show was cancelled before he even appeared, though.

Thunderhowl: Like Wild Wheel, didn't show up until Cyberverse was cancelled.

Hammerbyte: same

Botcon- While under Fun Publications, Botcon became nothing but milling out more G1. But under MiB and 3H, and even in FP's early days, they did give us some unique characters.

Fractyl & Packrat: I don't think there's a more iconic set of characters to Botcon than these two.

Shadow Striker & Roulette: Shadow Striker has gotten to move forward a bit. She appeared in the movie line, which that version was then the inspiration for Cyberverse Shadow Striker, but her sister has been all but forgotten.

Flareup: She's a very bubbly and upbeat personality, who happens to take an almost fiendish glee in blowing stuff up. She's the best thing FP ever did.

Landshark: One of the most hated FP characters, and I've never understood exactly why. He'd be brilliant if he got good fiction:

Landshark doesn't know where he got his name from and he doesn't really care. Some 'bots tend to confuse it with "Landmine", but once Landshark pulls his fist from their abdomen they don't seem to get it wrong anymore. Always the practical jokester and seen by his peers as a wiseguy, he often makes light of even the most dramatic situations. Once, he had one of his power claws ripped off of his body by a blood thirsty Narliphant. Landshark didn't fret about the situation; he simply turned to Flak and asked, "Can you give me a hand?"... Flak was not amused. Able to transform his auxiliary battle platform into a hydraulic booster pack, he has the strength to wield two massive power claws capable of ripping open an enemy's armor plating. This feature also gives him the ability to cling onto or climb up almost any structure. While in vehicle mode, Landshark enjoys intimidating, and then plowing down, anyone that stands in his way.

Like I said, these are all just scratching the surface. But these are all some of my most favorites.

[magpiefngrl]

Book Recs Jan-Jun 2020

I’ve been reading voraciously these past six months (my Goodreads challenge says 68 books so far). Here are some memorable reads, grouped according to what you might be into.

I want queer romance please:

Brothers of the North Wild Sea by Harper Fox (m/m historical)

This book ruined me (in a good way). Or maybe it isn’t good that I’ll be carrying it inside my heart for ever and ever till the end of my days, my lip wobbling at the mere thought of it. A wonderful romance, a pairing I adored, gorgeous prose, a fascinating historical background (medieval times, north of England, Viking invasions). There’s a faint supernatural undercurrent that becomes more prominent at the very end. I sobbed through the last few pages with fear, with relief, with happiness. Highly, highly recced.

Bitter Springs by Laura Stone (m/m historical)

Every historical novel I’ve read is set in the UK, so the fact that this is a US historical book was fascinating to me. Two POC cowboys fall in love while seeking mustangs in the wilderness of Texas (?? idk where Del Rio is). It’s sweet and loving with a side-serving of jealousy when a former lover briefly appears on the scene; but mainly it’s two men getting to know each other and falling in love in the desert. I loved the horses too.

The Sins of Cities trilogy by KJ Charles. (3 books, 3 different couples, interconnected, m/m historical)

OK so the first book in the series didn’t do much for me. A pairing who loves to be domestic and sweet and to drink tea by the fire is cute... but I got bored. The second one, though... I think my eyes popped out of my head from the sheer heat of it. Justin Lazarus shot to the Top-5 of my fave characters of all time, and I’d willingly kill all of you for him, sorry that’s how it is. The trilogy is a murder mystery set in Victorian London, and unlike most romance series, you’ll need to read the books in order. Overall, this isn’t my fave series of KJC, but it was fun nonetheless, and it does have Justin in it so it’s worth a read.

Slippery Creatures by KJ Charles (m/m historical)

This one is amazing!!! This is KJC’s latest, first in a trilogy with the same pairing, which means the HEA is 2 books away (it doesn’t mean that this ends unhappy; another reader called it the WNDY ending -- We’re Not Done Yet). Boy, this is a scorcher. Set in the 1920s, it features spies, secret societies, murder, lies, kidnapping, grey characters with elastic morals: these are all catnip for me, and I inhaled this novel twice in a week. Highly recced for anyone into a gay historical romance, who loves a bit of pulp with their gay sex. The second installment is out next month.

The 13th Hex (novella) and Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk (both m/m historical paranormal, but different universes)

I can’t say I’m enamoured by Hawk’s writing skills; in fact, I usually feel a tad let-down by the prose, mainly because the books have such potential. Hawk’s plotting is fantastic and his world-building fascinating and truly unique. I just love both of these worlds and their magic systems. Hot sex too. I don’t want to discourage people: I’m possibly just too fussy with prose. Hawk is super popular and you should give his books a shot. Widdershins is free! (In case it sways you: Hawk recently came out as a trans man.)

Unnatural by Joanna Chambers (m/m historical)

I read a few romances by Chambers lately, some less satisfying than others. This one is a standalone companion novel to her most popular series, called Enlightenment, set in Regency Britain. It’s a well-written fast read; a friends-to-lovers romance, with lots of tension and chemistry between the leads. As in all Chambers books that I’ve read so far, there’s lots of angst about one’s homosexuality (very era-appropriate) and lots of pull-and-push before it ends in a very HEA.

****

Do you have anything with fantasy and/or magic, my kind lady?

His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik (alternate history, Napoleonic wars with dragons)

Do you like dragons who talk and bond with honourable officers during times of war? Do you love soulmate bonds and sentiments such as: “I’ll do anything for you” and “You’re mine” but when it’s people, it makes you uncomfortable? Well, here former Naval officer Lawrence and his dragon Temeraire (and all dragons with their handlers) have this bond, and it’s the best thing ever. I’m in love with Temeraire, I shiver at the profound bond between Lawrence and his intelligent dragon, and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series by a beloved author (ahem).

The Dark Artifices by Cassandra Clare (YA urban fantasy)

I don’t hold the best opinion of Clare’s writing skills so I was pleasantly surprised when I read the first installment a few years back (Lady Midnight). I decided to reread it during quarantine, and then I moved on to the second one, Lord of Shadows. They’re both long novels, tightly-plotted, with several romances evolving on page.

I was excited to read the last one, A Queen of Air and Darkness, but alas! I didn’t love it. To start with, it’s 1000 pages long, and unlike books of that length that I’ve read, you feel it. The book drags. Everyone and their mother has a POV and a love story on page. There are no subplots, because they’re all Plots: all afforded equal space in the narrative, so there’s lots happening at the same time, but the story doesn’t feel like it’s moving forward with a good pace. As the end of the trilogy, Clare indulges in some of her fave elements, namely mentioning someone’s eye colour every three pages, or having every single person paired up by the end (something which bothers me a great deal). There are a few plot contrivances that ensure her main pairing conveniently gets their HEA. I confess I skimmed most of the last part of the book. I’m happy I read it and got to the end of the story, but I can’t say I was satisfied. If you’re looking for an undemanding, escapist fantasy, though, it’s the ticket: it certainly worked for me when I had quarantine brain.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amar El-Mochtar & Max Gladstone

Sci-fi, literary af, two time-travel agents from opposing Agencies bent on destroying each other, exchange letters and fall in love. I’m completely torn in half: half of the book (the prose, the imagination) left my jaw on the floor. The rest of it left me cold and indifferent. Wonderful prose, couldn’t get into the characters. Short and dense.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

Queer fantasy novel that gives strong Dangerous Liaisons vibes. Written in 1987, one of the first fantasy novels to feature a society where same-sex is accepted. The writing is beautiful, the plot twisty. There’s no actual magic, but there are sword fights, courtroom drama, intrigue. Good fun if you like that kind of thing.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

Adult fantasy. So far (I’m half-way through) it’s phenomenal. I’ve seen it recced everywhere and was so happy to see that Scribd offered it in my subscription. Set in a Chinese-inspired world, it features a vivid setting and memorable characters, and I’m loving it. I predict it’ll be my new fave. Do heed the content warnings (pretty much every CW you can think of applies); it’s quite dark as it progresses.

A bunch of novellas and short stories by Aliette de Bodard

This author came to my notice about a year ago. I’ve been following her on twitter ever since, but didn’t have the chance to read any of her work until I saw she had a bunch of stuff available on Scribd. I read a couple of sci-fi novellas set in a Vietnamese-inspired future; The Citadel of Weeping Pearls was my fave.

She’s also published a fantasy trilogy with fallen angels and magic set in a war-ravaged Paris, which sounds awesome. I haven’t read it, can’t afford to yet, but I did read two short stories set in that ‘verse and they were fabulous. The atmosphere, the setting, the premise, the Fallen of the Dominion universe just sounds like very much my thing. Here’s a link to some free stories they offer, if you want to check out her writing.

The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage by Alix E. Harrow

I read a short story by Harrow several months ago and was blown away. I’ve rarely fell so fast and so deeply in love with an author. I haven’t read her debut yet, but I came across this short novella and she blew me away again. It’s a story set in the US, magical realism rather than fantasy imo, and it’s about colonialism and the land, and it’s so powerful. You can read it for free at Tor.com. Please do, it’s incredible.

******

[wickymicky]

my top ten favorite kpop singles of 2021 so far: first quarter edition (january-march)

10. Pixy - Wings: I’m not as into this song as other people, but it’s grown on me, and I think they have a lot of potential. I did not expect a group called “Pixy” to have this dark of a concept haha, I like that. I like the choreo and overall performance of it too, I think that’s the highlight for me

9. G Idle - Hwaa: Not my favorite G Idle title track, but I do think it’s in the top half. It’s interesting to me that they did this song, since it is pretty much all in Korean, there’s no English whatsoever (the only English is a “yeah” at the beginning haha), which for a group like G Idle who has used a lot of English in the past and is very popular internationally is kind of a bold choice, and I’m into it

8. Ateez - Fireworks (I’m The One): I’m still not fully sold on Ateez’s direction post-Wonderland/Answer, with the “end” of their pirate concept (possibly, it seems complicated lol, idk, but you know what I mean anyway), but I do kinda like this song! It sounds kinda like... European lmao. Like I keep thinking I hear accordion in the drop, but idk maybe I’m just imagining things. I mean all that in a good way, btw. Like a good kind of European (if you can imagine such a thing)

7. Shinee - Don’t Call Me: As someone who only got into kpop in 2019, and didn’t even get into a single boy group for like 6 or 7 months (and even then, for a while I just had one single token boy group lol), Shinee isn’t a group that I had checked out much from until fairly recently. I’m still new here, I suppose lol. But yeah idk, this song is good! I love the production and their obvious charisma and talent. Like, I can tell even just from this song that their reputation is earned. It’s just a solid release

6. Purple Kiss - Ponzona: I do prefer Skip Skip, but I decided to limit this to singles and title tracks. I also prefer My Heart Skip a Beat (by a lot, actually), but that came out last year lol. This song has really been growing on me a lot though! Like, a lot actually. I like the violin, I think that’s a really interesting touch haha, I feel like that adds so much to the way the song sounds overall. Yuki’s rapping is impressive too, I like her flow in every song I’ve heard her in so far, especially since she writes her raps herself and Korean isn’t her native language. Honestly that’s one of the most impressive things about Purple Kiss... they seem to be involved in writing all of the things they do! That’s SO RARE for a group to do right from debut, especially for a girl group! I think that’s a great sign that things are changing, and girl groups are being taken more seriously and being allowed more creative freedom than ever before. Ponzona was literally a song written for a monthly evaluation when they were trainees. That’s really impressive. Skip Skip was too, but yeah lol. 

5. Pentagon - Do or Not: I mentioned that for a while I just had one token boy group that I liked, and that was Pentagon haha, they were my first. I like that this is a return to their fun sound, but in a different way... like, this song doesn’t sound anything like Shine or Naughty Boy lol. Pentagon are just really good at conveying passion in their songs and I think that shines through here too! I like the way the bass and percussion sound, that’s just quality mixing lol. I also love that even though it’s this kinda pop-punk-ish-doo-wop-ish kpop song, it still has a bit of sadness underneath the fun, which is something I think is a trademark of Pentagon’s style haha. But mostly, it’s fun

4. Tri.Be - Doom Doom Ta: The main reason I checked this out was because it was written and produced by LE from EXID, and you can really tell haha. In fact, her voice is in the song at certain points, and like... she has a really distinctive voice lol. Anyway this song is like a pretty hard commitment to this Latin/moombahton kind of sound, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that trend in kpop, but either way, I do think this song is a bop. I’ve had it on repeat way more than everything below this point, in fact all the songs in this top 4 I’ve had on repeat like an order of magnitude more than the songs from 5-10 lol. it’s been a slow beginning to the year. I don’t have a lot of specifics to mention here about Doom Doom Ta, I just think it’s an earworm 

3. Weeekly - After School: This was really highly anticipated for me, because I love their previous title tracks. Tag Me especially is a song I consider to be almost perfect, which is not something I say about very many songs at all haha. I personally don’t think After School is quite as good as Tag Me or Zig Zag, but I do really like it! It’s always good to get more fun, exciting, unashamedly catchy songs haha, it’s a breath of fresh air. I love this concept for them too, I think it fits them really well! They’re just a lot of fun. This mini-album, We Play, is my favorite of theirs so far too, though that doesn’t necessarily affect my placement of this song in particular

2. Cherry Bullet - Love So Sweet: God damn, this song is really good. It’s really simple, but that works to it’s advantage imo. I love that the background melody of the instrumental during the verse is the same as the vocal melody in the chorus (or at least very close), that’s just super satisfying. Ending the song with an extended “da da dadada da da” segment was a big risk too lol, that could have been annoying, but idk I think that really is one of the highlights of the song. This song feels like the kind of song where the songwriter came up with that melody and went “YES! this is IT! YESSSSS” and they knew they had come up with something really, really catchy, and they built the rest of the song around showcasing it. And it works!

1. Dreamcatcher - Odd Eye: This probably isn’t much of a surprise lol. But similar to After School... This isn’t my favorite Dreamcatcher comeback, and tbh I think it’s my least favorite of the Dystopia trilogy. But like... that’s still enough to make it my favorite song of the first quarter of 2021. It’s great, I love the way they do the cyberpunk concept and sound without going into the synthwave direction like Everglow La Di Da did. I love La Di Da a ridiculous amount, but I just mean that it’s nice to see variety even within a similar overall concept. Also! Handong is back! And she crushed it! In previous title tracks she and Gahyeon often got the least amount of lines by far, and the least amount of screentime and such, and Gahyeon definitely got times to shine during Scream and Boca and made it clear that she’s leveled up a lot, and I was really hoping that Odd Eye would be able to do the same for Handong (without sacrificing Gahyeon’s screentime and lines)... and yeah, it really was, lol. Handong was all over this song, and her voice reaaaaaally complements this sound. This group has no weak links, and obviously all of us already knew that, but now even the people who only casually listen to them know that without a doubt too.

idk... i’m not totally sure about this list but that feels mostly right to me i guess. I feel like Odd Eye is definitely my favorite so far, but to be honest I don’t feel like it’s the Song of the Year. like, if it had been released in 2020, I don’t think it would have made my top 10. If nothing better than Odd Eye comes out for the rest of the year then sure, it will be my SOTY haha, but idk, I just think that there hasn’t been anything *truly* great so far yet. And that’s okay... I’m very picky about this kind of thing. I don’t give high scores to things that don’t deserve it lol... and like in my opinion there were only 4 songs in 2020 that are the kind of near-perfect instant-soty song I’m talking about, and three of those four came out in the second half of the year. So the fact that I don’t think anything so far has been at that top level isn’t a bad thing, and isn’t really something I’m worried about. I think we definitely have not gotten the best songs of the year yet (unless everything else ends up sucking lol, but idk i hope thats not what happens...)

oh also there was an WJSN comeback today, and that would probably have been on this list, but I havent heard it yet because i was waiting until I finished writing this haha. like, since it came out on March 31st, tbh I’m just gonna count it as an April comeback, so i’m sure it’ll be in my list for the second quarter that i’ll post at the end of June lol. i mean, unless i dont like it. but i’ll probably like it haha.

[hyena-frog]

Hey I’m sure you’ve been asked before but what’s your opinion on the audiobooks of Red Rising? Personally I think Tim Gerard Reynolds’ narration as Darrow is what elevated the series to being my absolute favorite. As for the other narrators in IG and DA, Ephrim’s narrator really grew on me and I’m so sad Ephrim is gone. I’m glad Lyria got recast in Dark Age. I skip her chapters when I re-listen to IG. I think Lysander’s first narrator was much better. His new voice sounds 40 but he’s only 20

Sorry it took me so long to answer this! Fun fact, but you actually sent this around the same time I decided to re-read Iron Gold (via the audiobook) to help flesh out a theory post I’m drafting. So I didn’t want to answer until I’d gotten a taste of each narrator. That’s some A+ psychic premonition on your part.

Unfortunately, I’ve yet to finish the IG audiobook because of Real Life but I’ve at least heard all of the narrators, so even if I’m still not very far in, I’ll give my opinions on them.

So, confession time, Dark Age is the first Red Rising audiobook I have ever listened to, even though I've heard good things about the RR audiobooks in general. Audiobooks aren’t really my thing. But I was taking too long to read that monster of a book, so I figured listening and reading at the same time would help me finish it faster. And boy, did it!

Now, Iron Gold is the second audiobook I’m listening to... I’m going about this all backwards, it seems. So, I’m going to give my opinions on the narrators in the order I experienced them.

Dark Age —

Tim Gerard Reynolds:

The GOAT. I’ve only heard good things about his narration, including from Pierce Brown himself at both signings I’ve been to. Now that I’ve experienced it for myself, I have to agree! I’m definitely going to need to listen to the original trilogy audiobooks at some point to get more of this guy.

He made you feel every ounce of exhaustion Dark Age Darrow felt, especially in Part I, and during the finale. His rare moments of levity (Sevro’s Palace) were delivered impeccably. His character voices were enjoyable; his Rhonna was great and his Atalantia gave me the creeps. Any moment Darrow thought of Virginia made me feel the full gamut of emotions. Anytime he summoned his righteous anger and went into Reaper mode, Reynolds sucked you in with the drama of it all.

Darrow’s always been my favorite but hearing Reynold’s interpretation of Darrow’s inner narrative really elevated why he’s a fantastic character. This guy is great.

John Curless:

Honestly? If Reynolds weren’t in the picture, he’d be my #1. Calling him my second favorite narrator doesn’t do him justice. His Ephraim injected much needed comedy into this narrative. Curless balanced Ephraim’s other nuances very well too. His deep psychological issues, his continued grief over Trigg, his budding love for the kids. It was beautifully executed.

One chapter that still haunts me is when Pax forces him off the Z cold turkey. Curless nailed Ephraim going into withdrawal. He was frightening and it was great. I also loved his reunion with Volga, even if his Volga voice was jarring to me after hearing Moira Quirk’s interpretation for most of the book. On that note, his generic Obsidian accent (Scandinavian-ish) never became too annoying and he differentiated the main players pretty well (namely Ozgard and Sefi). I really liked his Sefi voice. Quiet and whispery, very Sefi.

Don’t talk to me about Ephraim’s fate, I’m still in pain. 😭 I actually liked IG Ephraim a lot, not as a person but I thought his story was interesting. But his DA development was incredible. He really grew on me, and the fact he won’t be back, meaning Curless’ amazing narration won’t be back, is devastating.

James Langdon:

I didn’t mind his Lysander too much. I mean, I hate Lysander, but I thought he did a decent job portraying him. Maybe it’s just because he was my first Lysander voice. Although, I do agree he sounds too old for the role, but then again, Reynolds sounds too old for Red Rising Darrow (16) so? -shrug-

My main complaint with this guy is that sometimes, during the height of the action, he sounds as detached as a BBC newscaster. Which is fine, when Lysander uses the Mind’s Eye, but even when he’s full on panicking, this guy sounds so levelheaded.

His character voices are... ok. The growly voice he puts on for Ajax, and little bit for Cicero, is a bit weird. His Atalantia is sensual and creepy af and I loved his Atlas voice. One chapter that stands out to me is Kalindora’s confession toward the end. Langdon blew me out of the water with that one. Kalindora was never my favorite, but he made me really feel for her in that scene.

Moira Quirk:

I love her. I think she’s great. She has a very strong voice that pulls you along the story with ease. I think Lyria has the best DA story line and Quirk’s narration only made it better. She embodied Lyria’s temperament wonderfully; the anger, the kindness, and the stubborn resolve to keep living after initially giving up.

I keep harping on about character voices but they’re important, alright? Quirk’s character voices are some of the best. Her Victra is high and mighty and I felt Lyria’s annoyance along with her. But she also did Victra’s vulnerable moments wonderfully. I LOVE Quirk’s Volga. She’s so cute! Her accent reminds me of Sypha Belnades from the Netflix Castlevania series, which is not at all correct regionally, but it’s so adorable that it is officially The Volga Voice in my mind.

Not much else to say on this one, except, I hope the next book keeps this Lyria or I will be so sad.

Rendah Heywood:

Hail Sovereign! Another amazing narrator. At first I wasn’t sure what to think because I didn’t have any headcanon for what Virginia’s voice sounds like, but Heywood’s narration quickly convinced me this is The Virginia Voice. Very classy, very calm, could kill you but chooses not to, so don’t push her, understood?

She really gets across Virgnia’s main frustration of being smarter than everyone and being right like 99.9% of the time but rarely being listened to, VERY well, without making her seem unnecessarily whiny or something. It’s just a fact that she’s smarter than everyone else and the worlds would be better place if you took her advice.

Virgnia’s always been a bit of a mystery but Heywood really makes her into a Real Person, you know? Her fun interactions with Holiday and Theodora, her devastation after the Senate upheaval, her drive to escape from her captors... Expertly portrayed.

Her character voices are pretty good. I thought her Sevro was hilarious. I’m already missing her voice in IG (since I’m reading these backwards). I’m really looking forward to her return in the next book... Virginia will still be a POV character in the next one, right Pierce? Right??

Iron Gold —

Tim Gerard Reynolds:

I’m repeating this guy only to say: Reynolds is making sure I feel every molecule of exhaustion in Darrow’s body and I’m not very far in. I’ve already read IG, and I’m just coming off DA, so I know it won’t let up but still... have mercy on me.

John Curless:

Repeating again to say, goddamn, does this guy nail Ephraim’s development between books really well. IG Ephraim is no fun at all. Barely cracked a joke yet and is still very much wallowing in grief... Curless’ narration really makes IG Ephraim bearable, tbh.

Julian Elfer:

Hmmm. I don’t know if I’d agree he’s better than James Langdon. They’re both ok to me. Elfer is certainly more age appropriate. However, he’s a bit monotone and his reading cadence is a little annoying to me. He sounds like someone reading his own writing at a book club more than a professional narrator. I don’t mean that as an insult! He’s pleasant enough to listen to but he’s not on the same level as the others imo.

Idk. I’m still not very far into the IG audiobook, so it’s not fair to compare him to Langdon without the full picture. Maybe he gets better. However so far both Lysander narrators are. OK. That said, I don’t think Elfer is atrocious enough to warrant a re-cast? I heard people complained about him and Lyria’s IG narrator and that’s why they were changed... but Elfer isn’t terrible so I’m confused on that one.

Aedin Moloney:

Oh dear. I hate to be so blunt but... I hate her narration. A lot. Coming off of Quirk’s incredible Lyria, Moloney’s performance is... jarring, to say the least. She doesn’t give Lyria the same spunk that Quirk does. Moloney’s Lyria is too out of character for me. Lyria’s life is a shitshow and her weirdly whimsical voice is way too out of place. And during the more frenetic scenes, she’s way over the top.

I guess the problem with this narrator is she gives Lyria Too Much. Lyria is a very practical, very down-to-earth person, not prone to expressing a lot of deep emotion. Quirk balanced this very well, making her inner narrative just emotional enough without contradicting her outer expression. Meanwhile, I can barely follow along with what Moloney was saying when Tiran got shot because she was So Distressed and Hysterical. Good thing I had the book open.

Again, I’m not very far in, so maybe she gets better... idk. Take my opinions on Elfer and Moloney with a grain of salt because I haven’t finished IG yet.

Thank you for the ask! I’d love to hear opinions from anyone else on the second trilogy narrators (because I think we all agree Reynolds is great).

[zukkacore]

i didn’t know people were being racist shits in their sokka depictions ?? Also why would people portray him as dumb did they even watch the show? ugh, i feel the same about lance from voltron (those two guys rlly remind me so much of each other) but in voltron the show itself treated lance like trash so i can at least see where the confusion comes from. i’ve only seen one season of atla but love sokka with all my heart and have heard he got a gr8 arc ahead of him

Yeah ngl my exposure to it has been thankfully minimal (I’m picky abt which Atla ppl I follow ngl) but I still see & hear abt it on Twitter and shit & here too. Idk ppl treat him purely as flat comic relief which is so dumb bc imo he has the second best arc in the show (like, after zuko) & has some of the most obvious growth? He’s clearly brilliant and necessary to the dynamic of the gaang bc he’s a strategist & an innovator and incredibly resourceful and creative. Sokka’s idea of a “vacation” was to go to the library! I literally have no idea where ppl get these horrible ideas abt him being useless and stupid are, I rly think they’re just buying into their own racist biases. Or they take the most offhand gags and assume that’s his entire personality and ignore any contributions he makes to the gaang. Like, he’s not the best artist, or he forgets Toph is blind sometimes & for some reason this gives ppl cart blanche to act like he’s an idiot.

(Actually I have a theory abt this bc I think ppl just have a lack of understanding or empathy for characters that display adhd traits whether coded or stated canonically, just look at the way everyone is HORRIBLE to Percy Jackson or Leo as an example & mischaracterize both of them as stupid when rly they’re both smart they’re just kinda out-of-sight-out of mind type ppl. Sokka can be selectively forgetful and he just can’t help that! He’s not always the best communicator, oh mood)

I’ve joked abt him being dense before but it’s with the caveat that he’s mostly just a dumbass in the way most teenage boys are dumbasses? Like, i call Zuko a dumbass too but they’re both smart, they’re literally just both teenagers and teenagers have some real brainrot moments. Really It’s nice when Sokka gets to be childish & silly honestly (bc ppl mischaracterize him as all sunshine too which is not the case like he’s cynical and snarky but he also paints rainbows into scenes when there aren’t any!)!He’s a 15 yr old traumatized by imperialism, he deserves moments of playfulness. But ppl take moments of him getting an actual childhood as signs that he’s “immature”.

(People treat Katara in a similar way, honestly they’re probably worse to her bc she’s also a girl & misogyny in fandom is nothing new they just depict her in the flattest way possible like she’s nothing more than a motherly figure.)

Also bring up the show that shall not be named to me omg. Bc I’ll have a chip on my shoulder abt the v-slur forever bc I ADORE Lance McClain (Lance 🤝 me = Latines w inexplicably white last names) but that show treated him like garbage and I am STILL heated abt it, but so did the fans. The show had no idea what to do w him but he was like weirdly important to me for a show that I now hold so much hostility for in my heart of hearts

Ppl just don’t know how to write or sympathize w (bisexual) brown boys & I would say idk why but I think we know the answer. All they do is get reduced to jokes and their intelligence gets diminished. But the think abt Sokka is that he IS a well written character and sadly that’s rare as hel. Ppl wanna fit zvkka into their fav cliche mlm conventions so bad but like they’re both PEOPLE, they’re both interesting people with rich characterization and I think they would have a genuine connection based on common interests & complimentary temperaments. The fact that Sokka and Zuko can both be grumps is actually something I rly like abt the pairing! The fact that they’re both nerds who have an appreciation for the arts! the fact that they have parallels in their arcs as they cope w feeling inferior to their prodigy sisters! And there ARE fans who I know treat the relationship w respect and nuance (lol, fans of color) but we have to get lumped in w ppl who I don’t feel like I any affiliation with & openly critique (& imo zvkka as a ship w a bad reputation isn’t comparable to a case like r*ylo bc even tho I didn’t see any chill r*ylos anyway, I think willfully ignoring Finn/John Boyega’s importance to the sequels trilogy & enabling or outright contribution to his harassment & willingly associating w a fandom like that is causing harm to an real black person irl. Zvkka has it’s problematic implications bc Zuko is a former colonizer but bc they’re fictional characters I think there’s a way it can be handled more ethically than others, but way too many ppl don’t give a shit abt that and just indulge in ya kno, racism)

[gamesception]

Sception’s Switch Port Wish List:

Dragon Age, first game only.  Fun game, even on console.  Best of the series easily - the second game’s rushed dev time forced so many cut corners that there’s hardly a game left over, and the third game is so bloated with tedium that every time I try to play it my eyes glass over and I slip into a boredom coma before I can get a quarter of the way into it.  But the first game?  Way better on PC with mods and keyboard/mouse controls, but even so I’d jump at the chance to play it again on switch. Chances of it happening?  Low.  EA doesn’t want to remind people of when Bioware made good games, and they aren’t interested in releasing anything on the switch that isn’t an exploitative microtransaction store.

Mass Effect Trilogy: First game was good, second game was better, and, yeah, ok, the series didn’t finish on the best foot, the third game suffering from tone problems and a final ending that just flat out sucked, but Mass Effect 3 has a several key moments that stand out as among the best in the overall series, and while the ending is kind of bad, at least the series *has* an ending - something Dragon Age fans will probably never get to see. Chances of it happening?  Again, low, for the same reason as Dragon Age.

Arkham Asylum.  Just Asylum, not the rest.  City’s not bad, but the loss of focus costs the experience more than the larger world and better boss encounters can win back, imo.  The rest of the series, though?  Bleh. Chance of it happening?  I don’t know.  Bunch of Warner Bros games on switch, of varying port quality.  Asylum was developed by Rocksteady, not sure if that would introduce rights issues.  Better chance of this than of most other games on this list.

FF6.  Sure, Square has ported over PS and PS2 titles, but what about earlier ones?  FF6 is the best game in the series, imo.  Sure, it’s way too easy, like most JRPGs are, but the engaging story with a huge ensemble cast of likable characters is amazing.  I’ve never seen a game with so many playable characters where I liked all of them this much, and the couple of multi-party dungeons reward you for spending time building up all of them.  You also don’t frequently see this kind of story heavy jrpg game with a real ensemble cast, with no obvious ‘main character’, letting the player engage with whichever characters they like rather than forcing you into the shoes of a Chrono or a Cloud or some other default Hero, characters who are sometimes good but rarely the most interesting or engaging member of their respective games’ playable casts.  So yeah, FF6 is great, but good portable versions aren’t easy to come by.  The GBA version is amazing, but good luck getting your hands on it.  The mobile port is trash.  Phone emulators have to deal with awkward phone controls.  A switch port - whether of the original snes version, or the PS1 port with additional pre-rendered video bits, or the GBA version with it’s not-terrible extra postgame dungeon and bosses, would be great. Chance of it happening?  Frankly, I’m confused why it hasn’t happened already.  Square has ported a bunch of old final fantasy games to switch, I have no idea why they cut those games off at the PS1 era.  I would say the chances should be good that FF6 will come to switch, but it’s such an obvious port that the fact that it hasn’t happened already implies to me that there’s maybe some behind the scenes bullshit ruling it out.  And if it does come over, it might be a port of the ios version, which would be terrible.

FFTactics.  I will buy this on any platform it’s released on.  But if we could get a port of the PSP version, with post game multiplayer dungeons intact?  Maybe with online multiplayer support - the turn based nature of the game letting it bypass some of the lousiness of switch online?  Please. Chance of it happening?  Again, I’m confused why it hasn’t happened already.  FF7, 8, and 9 are ported over, but not Tactics?  As with FF6, it seems like an obvious and very likely port, except that it’s so obvious and so likely that the fact it hasn’t happened already maybe implies that there’s something specifically preventing it from happening.  At least if they do port the ios version it wouldn’t be a tragedy here, though I would still lament the lack of the post game content from the PSP version.

Fallout 3 / New Vegas.  Really Loved 3, and loved New Vegas too, though I never did get around to finishing it.  Would love to see these games on the switch, provided Bethesda didn’t use the opportunity to stuff them full of microtransactions.  New Vegas, despite bugs and some cut corners, remains probably the best 3d fallout game, and 3, despite the not-undeserved hate it gets for its main story, is still probably the most fun I’ve had just randomly exploring a world in a bethesda game. Chance of it happening?  You’d think the chances would be ok, Bethesda’s had a bunch of games ported to switch - Skyrim, Doom, Wolvenstein, etc.  That said, Fallout 3′s reputation among the Fallout fan community has plummeted in the last few years so Bethesda might not think a port would be worthwhile.  And as they’re still trying to push 76, I can’t imagine their eager to remind people that their Fallout games weren’t always the hottest of garbage.  So... better odds here than of Mass Effect or Dragon Age, but I’m not holding my breath.  As for New Vegas, I doubt Bethesda has any interest in reminding people that the best Fallout game to be released since they picked up the license was developed by someone else.

Morrowind - Still probably the greatest Bethesda game, though I understand it was already showing the trend towards streamlining and loss of depth coming off of Daggerfall that would eventually lead us to the likes of 76 and Blades.  But yeah, another classic I never got around to beating, that it would probably take a switch port to get me to try again. Chance of it happening?  Some but not great, largely for similar reasons to Fallout 3.  Skyrim sold quite well on Switch, IIRC, so you’d think other Elder Scrolls ports would have been a natural choice, but years later and nothing but Blades means it probably isn’t going to happen.

Mother Series, especially Earthbound - which like tactics I’ll buy and replay on any platform it’s released on - and Mother 3, which seems fantastic, but the only time I’ve tried it I didn’t make it very far due to the SNES emulator I had at the time ruining the rhythm based combat minigame.  So yeah, an official port would be great. Chance of it happening?  Actually good for once, for the first time on this list.  As with FF6/Tactics I’m kind of surprised that it hasn’t happened already, but Nintendo being Nintendo I’m more inclined to blame that on them either just not getting around to it yet or trying to hold off on a cult classic to use it to spike excitement in a dull release window later down the line.

Demon’s Souls - Great game.  Sadly my play through was killed by a hacking incident, but yeah, a classic, laid down the souls game fundamentals while pulling of some aspects better than any of the games that followed it.  And a remake has officially been announced for release on PS5, would be a great opportunity to release a port of the original to the Switch market... Chance of it happening?  Unfortunately, Sony owns the rights, so I just don’t see it happening... not unless Sony really plans to abandon the mobile market and instead push interaction with switch.  They did include that “would you be interested in PS4 remote play on other devices - including Switch” question in a survey a while back.  Still doesn’t strike me as likely, though.

Dark Souls 2 - like Fallout 3, Dark Souls 2 has become the black sheep of its series in fandom eyes.  Not entirely without reason, but there’s some interesting and novel design choices that get overlooked and unappreciated as a result.  I’ve never made time to play it myself, despite it sitting in my Steam library never downloaded, but would absolutely play it on the switch. Chance of it happening?  Without the fan crowd clamoring for a re-release, an updated port seems unlikely.

[ducavalentinos]

Hey, what are in your opinion the best fiction and nonfiction books about the Borgia family? And why?

Hey anon!

It took me awhile to answer this because is always a tricky question for me lol. I think I’m rather picky when it comes to them, but also I’m constantly changing my mind. Anyways here it goes:

Best:

The Poisoner Mysteries, Sara Poole:  So, I must say that the main character, Francesca, can be very annoying and completely unrealistic as a woman in the 14th. But these trilogy has been my favorite so far because the Borgia family is written amazingnly well. I was suprised actually! The writer achieved such a wonderful characterizion of Cesare, a rare balance of giving him his humanity, but also acknowledging his flaws. I adore her Cesare. Her Lucrezia is fine here, didn’t bothered me, she has great dialogues. And her Rodrigo is pretty much how I see him irl. Also there’s a lot of mysteries, which I love. I just had a lot of fun reading it, it was delightful.

Fuyumi Soryo, Cesare: Il Creatore che ha distrutto: I think is brilliant how Soryo showed that serious, historical fiction about the Borgia family can be done without resorting to old clichés and sensationalistic gossip, and still make it fun and entertaining. I’m grateful for the respect and dedication her and her team have showed towards Cesare. And I just love everything about her manga. The main character, Angelo, is great. The relationship he develops with both Cesare and Miguel is so so good! The Medici family is also great here. Lucrezia is adorable! Rodrigo is again, exactly how I see him. And last but not least, the drawings! especially the coloured ones are stunning. So much detail, it’s a work of art, really.

Mario Puzo, The Family: It’s like a classic Borgia fiction, some people hate it, but I absolutely love it! If you must take advantage of all the rumors and misdeeds that surrounds the Borgia family, then I expect you should do it as masterfully as Puzo did it.

Sara Bower, Sins of the House of Borgia:  I love it because 1) The main character is super relatable to me sorry not sorry lool, 2) Bower wrote Lucrezia so so well. A complex, well rounded character, that’s neither a victim nor a poisoner. Which it’s how I see her irl. Her writing is beautiful too. Those Cesare and Lucrezia’s letters had me dying!!!!! That being said, I must say that nowdays her Cesare feels ooc sometimes, and her Vannozza still feels rather harsh and unfair imo. But overall it remains a favorite of mine.

Françoise Sagan, Le Sang Doré Des Borgia: I actually haven’t read the book, but the book is basically the transcription of the tv series, which I watched and it’s my favorite Borgia adaptation! I don’t know how Sagan did it, but her Lucrezia is amazing and accurate and ughh what a queen!

Worst:

Jean Plaidy, Madonna of the Seven Hills/ Light on Lucrezia: OH MY GOD, these books are so cringely bad I think the only reason I was able to finish is because it was my first borgia fiction and even then, I suffered getting through with it. Everyone is ooc af. There is one or two good dialogues between Lucrezia and Cesare, but overall what a disaster! I still don’t understand wth the writer was thinking while she was writing that, nor how you can get the WHOLE family all wrong at the same time??? But yeah, I guess that happens sometimes idk lmaoo.

Sarah Dunant, Blood and Beauty: Listen, if you go to Goodreads, you’ll see how praised this book is. And I do admit Dunant is a good writer. However, she is on this side of my list for a very simple reason: she made me hate Lucrezia. Goddd, she tries way too hard to present Lucrezia as the good girl™, beacon of innocence and goodness, and what comes out of it is this incredibly annoying, dull and stupid character that made me roll my eyes each time I had to read her dialogues like: Oh no, more bullshit! can we just go back to Cesare and Rodrigo? their servants? Juan? Joffre? literally anyone would be more interesting to read than her Lucrezia istg. Also if you are a cesare x lucrezia shipper, just know that in order for Dunant to keep Lucrezia on this ridiculous and unrealistic pedestal, their relationship had to be sabotaged. So don’t be fooled by the hardcover copy, nor the lovely dialogues at the beginning, it gets bittesweet pretty fast. And as if all this wasn’t enough, I still had to read with my own two eyes Dunant claiming her book is as close to real life as possible. Just no. Unacceptable. I realized this ended up becoming a mini-rant, sorry anon! I just really loathe this book. It broke my confidence on Goodreads’s review system, that’s for sure.

Elena/Michela Martignoni, Cuore di Tiranno/Verdugo de Tiranos: Too sensationalistic and badly written. And it does have unnecessary violence against women. It would be one thing if they could back that up with hard evidence, which they can’t. All we have is a bunch of theories, so how their minds went where it did there is kinda disturbing imo. It’s not type of reading.

Dumas, The Borgias: Not so much for how he uses and abuses of all the Borgia alleged “sins”, but because his writing is very confusing. It’s too dry to be fiction, but it doesn’t work as non-fiction either because there are some dialogues sometimes. It’s weird and I couldn’t finish it.

Non-fiction:

So, I kinda answered this one here. I would only add that Woodward’s bio on Cesare is not too bad. I mean there were times I wanted to quit reading it, but his last chapters are ok and he offers a good amount of sources and evidence, which I always appreciate.