#ya critical

[raviosprovidence]

hi there Ravio I just wanted to let you know that I’m reading Twilight and suffering

I don’t even know why I’m doing this anymore it started for cultural knowledge reasons cause everybody was talking about it but now I’m on book three and I think I’m just reading it to hate Edward and criticize Bella’s critical thinking skills

I’m not even on chapter two and I’m on the verge of tears

WHAT IS THIS BELLA

YOU ARENT CAUTIOUS YOU JUMPED OFF A CLIFF TO HALLUCINATE EDWARDS VOICE AND DID RISKY THINGS ON A MOTERCYCLE

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUR MOTHERS MISTAKE GIRL YOURE PREPARING TO DO THE SAME THING

Also like. Edward gatekeeps her and two paragraphs later she’s calling him the most perfect man in the world????

And so begins part 3 of my twilight adventure aka me taking notes on what not to do in a story

Wish me luck at this point I’m just really close to reading a Wikipedia summary and moving on with my life

HO boy sorry i just got to this! Been a very chaotic few days irl.

First of all god bless you for putting yourself through that. I don't know if i could handle twilight now neverminded when it was first released

It's even more ironic that Bella is seemingly aware of her mother's mistake AND it's supposed to be critical, and yet does the EXACT SAME THING but it gets portrayed as romantic and sweet. Not sure why smeyer made this decision. At best, it shows a lack of planning and a story that revolves its morals around a protagonist. At worst, it's actively misogynistic.

I wrote an entire paper on the YA genre glorifying toxic relationships and while Edward isn't the first toxic man, he certainly was the one to make it popular. Everything he does is framed as romantic because it's all "for bella" even though it's obviously moreso harmful. But it's okay because it's true love or whatever bullshit. And that's why I don't understand the twilight renaissance. At the end of the day, it's a series that is extremely racist and happily romanticizes abuse because Edward is white, a man, and powerful. Sure, people were jackasses and went after the series because girls liked it. But that doesn't erase the very real harm the series has done.

Good luck on the rest of your journey. Make sure to read/watch some good books/tv shows in order to keep your braincells o7

[bi-dykes]

YA novel covers

[anneapocalypse]

So, just curious how many writers and creators will have to be forcibly outed by relentless harassment before we acknowledge that "This queer characters was written by a cishet person and that's why they're bad" is not good criticism.

[shorthaltsjester]

if i keep seeing so many people refer to ayden as an indication of an unknown softness in pelor i will start setting things on fire. just because YOU cannot handle nuance does not mean the story of exandria has not contained it and done so consistently. in fact the first in depth interaction that any party had with pelor (vex becoming his champion) was a portrayal of him that was explicit in his complexity. taken straight from the transcript for 1x104 elysium, “[vex you] spin and look, whereas there once was a burning star-- and to the rest of [vox machina], you see the painful, endless light that averts your gaze-- it doesn't hurt your eyes as much, and you can see the faint features, the soft cheeks, the hairless head, and the bright warm eyes of he who brings the dawn. And you can see the smile there, behind the light. “there is hope.”” sunlight can warm you and burn you in equal measure.

that burning image of the sun has much in common with a teenage boy who steps into a dark room, and reminds the dm that it’s not dark. the same way that a teenage boy who stands by as a woman who will not give up her worship of pelor is punished because he has more important responsibilities he must honour has much in common with a seemingly benevolent lord of the dawn might respond harshly to a cleric who asks if he is worth saving while he is trying to find a way to survive so he might keep helping to provide light. the gods aren’t simple and they never have been. i am as psyched about the particular angle that downfall is taking as anybody but it is already frustrating watching people act like the gods are suddenly more nuanced because they’re in literally mortal bodies when the entire Point of the gods in exandria in the various stories we’ve seen so far is that the only difference they have with mortals is the bounds of their power. they carry all the same flaws and the same profundity. just because so much of the fandom has reduced that to black and white flatness or faulty mapping onto real world religions (or the various traumas those might have caused individuals) doesn’t mean that complexity has been missing at all from the story.

[tea-cat-arts]

Shen Yuan getting transported into pidw isn't "the system punishing him for being a lazy internet hater," but instead representative of "step 1 of the creative process: getting so mad at something you decide to go write your own fucking book" in this essay I will

[rosabell14]

The fact that in house of hades Annabeth is like "Nooo Percy 😭 what you did wasn't good some powers should never be used like that 😰" and then the narrative actively decides to prove her wrong in Blood of Olympus? By having Percy listen to Annabeth's ideology and nearly get killed for it in his fight against Polybotes? He doesn't use his control over poison and nearly dies from it. Had Jason not convinced Kymopoleia to help them, Percy would have died. Listening to Annabeth would have killed Percy.

(and then Percy says that he deserved to die for what happened to Akhlys and Jason is like mood bro and it's never brought up again 😑)

And THEN, in the same damn book Nico literally turns Bryce Lawrence into a ghost and Reyna who has trauma associated with ghosts goes: yeah it was scary and reminded me of my dead abusive dad, but Nico we all have darkness inside of us and we should get to release it. Plus you saved us soooo ☺️

[heybiji]

[biorust-art]

Moving forward, but not on.

-

The scene where Dorian stood beside Keyleth struck me so hard i spent days working on portraits of the leaders together. Also, Dorian's in heels.

[Image Description: A painting of Dorian Storm and Keyleth of the Air Ashari from Critical Role. Dorian stands to the left, his hair up in a greek ponytail style with a gold band around his forehead keeping everything in place. He wears a light gold, sheer shirt with a blue velvet half cape on his shoulders. A sun brooch keeps the cape in place along with a silver cord and a gold cord. The gold cord has fallen below the silver one. Dorian also has blue flowers tucked in his hair. Keyleth stands with her hair flowing to the side, with tired eyes. She has her iconic antler crown and oak leaf mantle which colors from green to orange to red as well as her blue dress on. She has a black feather earring, which also flows in the wind. Both look off camera with a mix of pride, determination and anger. End ID]

[pstelwitchcraft]

You wanna know what's crazy? Now knowing that Laura and Marisha didn't plan to be romantic this campaign at all, it is INSANE that everything went so perfectly, thematically, exactly the way it did.

The series of events from the rock breaking, Dusk showing up RIGHT as it was happening, to them making up just so Otohan could show up and kill Laudna not a DAY later literally because she wanted to get on Imogen's nerves ("Is she your favorite?"). And then Imogen obliterating Delilah with her own fucking hands for Laudna. Getting the circlet. Laudna holding Imogen on the ship they were about to crash having that Tether Talk^tm just before they were separated ONCE AGAIN.

Just the entire escalation that led to them meeting in Jrusar that day and Imogen blurting out "Can I kiss you?" in the mfing BREAD ISLE because she couldn't hold back her feelings is BONKERS.

Even down to Imogen saying she "thought dates were supposed to have sparks" after their date with pretty and telling Laudna she "has the biggest spark she's ever seen" a long ass time later in Bassuras.

The evolution of their feelings for each other, the tension that was building on that table every time they talked to each other. The fact that it all happened serendipitously with absolutely no previous plan and it went just the way it did? Immaculate. Showstopping. Absolutely astounding. If Marisha, Matt and Laura had sat down and planned this whole thing from the beginning it still couldn't have gone more perfectly.

[yashley]

candela obscura chapter 1 episode 2: arlo black & auggie james

[undead-knick-knack]

Essek is just constantly being pushed to his fucking limit

[donteatthefishtacos]

No cause see I’M FINE.

[nitewrighter]

I know the YA fiction market is this perfect storm of like, getting its mainstream start through Twilight/Hunger Games, and female romance authors getting pigeonholed into this younger market, and an adult women audience rather than *all teens* driving a significant part of the market, and I know I'm a broken record and I must sound like "but what about men!?!? It's our fault boys are getting radicalized!!" But jfc it really is so depressing how YA doesn't even seem to try to reach out to a male audience and that's a significant reason why so many of these titles feel so repetitive and redundant.

[temultsrole]

[astronnova]

wishful thinking

[teansouprmyjam]

*tips hat* lesbians