#year read: 2023

[nedlittle]

it drives me bonkers the way people don't know how to read classic books in context anymore. i just read a review of the picture of dorian gray that said "it pains me that the homosexual subtext is just that, a subtext, rather than a fully explored part of the narrative." and now i fully want to put my head through a table. first of all, we are so lucky in the 21st century to have an entire category of books that are able to loudly and lovingly declare their queerness that we've become blind to the idea that queerness can exist in a different language than our contemporary mode of communication. second it IS a fully explored part of the narrative! dorian gray IS a textually queer story, even removed from the context of its writing. it's the story of toxic queer relationships and attraction and dangerous scandals and the intertwining of late 19th century "uranianism" and misogyny. second of all, i'm sorry that oscar wilde didn't include 15k words of graphic gay sex with ao3-style tags in his 1890 novel that was literally used to convict him of indecent behaviour. get well soon, i guess...

[myjetpack]

My Reading Year.

(My last @guardian Books cartoon for 2023)

[mimimar]

finally completed my comic based on the song ivy by taylor swift!✿ please zoom in to read the text and see the details~

✿.✿.✿

you can get the digital zine pdf here! it includes extras like character profiles, costume design, more art of willow and ivy, zine-exclusive sketches and an illustrated guide to the symbolism of all the flowers in this comic.

you can also get prints of individual pages here!

✿.✿.✿

[altiegg]

Haunted

[jazzyslibrary]

warriors: the new prophecy #4: starlight

date started: 05/02/2023 | date finished: 26/02/2023

i love how mothwing is basically still an apprentice because she hadn���t finished her training before mudfur died, but also she’s riverclan’s only medicine cat. she’s stuck in-between being an apprentice and an experienced medicine cat. the other medicine cats can’t really argue with her decisions, like to swim across the lake to go to the gathering island. she seems so lively and fun and kinda childish but no one can question her. i like it a lot.

they have hinted at the idea that tallstar would appoint onewhisker to succeed him when he dies by having him tend to tallstar all the time and mudclaw be argumentative with thunderclan which is contradictory to the behaviour of the rest of windclan. i do like that tallstar values friendship over uhh “strong leadership”, although i am not sure if strong leadership is exactly what mudclaw has but whatever. i’m glad that tallstar appointed onewhisker, and i also like that onewhisker is close to tallstar.

i just bought tallstar’s revenge today (17/02/2023) and i know that onewhisker will be in that book so i’ll have to read that soon!

firestar is once again being told by a good friend of his, while dying, who he should appoint as deputy. and why are they always so wrong about the choices? tallstar and whitestorm are both smart kitties.

i didn’t like that tallstar commented on brambleclaw being a good potential deputy. i just think brackenfur makes more sense. graystripe already offloaded his responsibilities as deputy onto brackenfur earlier in this series (which is kinda sad because he also neglected his responsibilities as brackenfur’s mentor in the first arc). just because brambleclaw is the main character in this arc doesn’t mean he needs to be deputy! not that i remembered this, but i saw a post yesterday discussing how brambleclaw was appointed as firestar’s deputy right after he hesitated to stop hawkfrost from murdering firestar. like how does that make sense. firestar is like “well you almost let me be killed, but you didn’t. and for that, i will reward you by giving you responsibility for our clan!”. we will have to see how much that frustrates me in the next two books.

ugh and further along brambleclaw is literally saying to himself that he deserves to be deputy! i don’t think that’s ever been how it works. like you don’t become deputy after filling out your good boy points. i mean, he hasn’t even had an apprentice yet, which is one of the rules about becoming deputy. why is he so entitled! and i think that we are supposed to interpret firestar as being unreasonable. i mean, maybe he should appoint a new deputy. but it certainly shouldn’t be brambleclaw. ridiculous!!

and the next chapter, brambleclaw loses his temper at mousefur and brackenfur diffuses the situation and brambleclaw even says to himself that brackenfur deserves to be deputy over him, and other warriors too! but he blames it on his heritage rather than the fact that he’s inexperienced and entitled. firestar obviously trusts him if he gave him his warrior name, let him lead the way to their new territory, has him next to him and onewhisker while their mutual friend speaks his last words. grrr gimme back leafpaw and squirrelflight povs please!!

firestar asked brambleclaw to do an “apprentice task”, which was collecting moss for bedding. i don’t really like that tasks that help the clan have some sort of respectability tier list to them. like caring for the elders shouldn’t be a shameful task given to naughty apprentices. but brambleclaw is very upset that he’s given such a task, because he’s suuuuuch a respectable warrioooor. meanwhile we swap to leafpaw’s perspective and she mentally praises him for taking on that responsibility because she thinks he’s doing it to be helpful. if brambleclaw really cared about helping the clan, he wouldn’t care that he has to do tasks he doesn’t like. i don’t think brackenfur would be such a sourpuss about it, i think he would take on any responsibility. maybe that makes him boring with no personality, but i don’t mind a background character having no controversial thoughts. hating on brambleclaw can be fun!

i know brambleclaw has been hated on a lot from the fandom, but mostly after omen of the stars, and because he is a terrible partner to squirrelflight. i honestly think he was nice enough in the first three books of the new prophecy! i didn’t care too much for the development of his relationship with squirrelflight, but it was okay! i mean to be honest, so far, none of the romances i have read about have been interesting at all. maybe it’s because they’re cats? but i doubt it, i think that a lot of the characters just are underdeveloped. so the characters i care about are ones that i have nostalgia for and also ones that are discussed on tumblr and people have headcannons that make me think of the characters in a different way.

anyway i hate spottedleaf blah blah blah. i can’t wait for her to tell leafpool to be with crowfeather because starclan needs “the three” to be born and then shame leafpool for doing the very thing she told her to do!! i hate how much leafpool idolises spottedleaf, like i hate her for the whole firestar creeping thing, but u know, honestly that’s not as bad as how awful she’s going to be to leafpool. i wish yellowfang could have been her starclan “mentor” or “guide”. but then again, they did make yellowfang say the most foolish thing ever while she was in starclan (the thing about ashfur’s only fault being that he loved too much) so maybe it’s better that she isn’t in leafpool’s dreams too much. but yellowfang broke the same rule that leafpool did, so maybe (if someone who actually cares would write it) she would have been sympathetic to leafpool rather than shame her. spottedleaf just has no actual connection to leafpool apart from the fact that she creeps on firestar, which makes it so weird that she comes to leafpool in her dreams. if it was yellowfang, it would be because she saw firestar as a second son, and she cares about cinderpelt’s apprentice because she also took on a motherly role with cinderpelt. i just!!! wish that was the case.

if i was a writer, maybe i would do a rewrite of the new prophecy and just kick stupid spottedleaf out of the story. it would probably seem that i have a bias for certain characters though. i would want bluestar and yellowfang to have more uhh “screen time”. although that would probably make it less exciting when they do finally appear. maybe just yellowfang then. although i would also like to hear from cats like whitestorm, lionheart, redtail, stonefur. if i recall, lionheart and redtail have only appeared for firestar’s leader ceremony. and stonefur, i don’t know if he ever has interactions in starclan with his mother and mosskit. i’d like to think that when mistystar finally died they had a family reunion with crookedstar, silverstream, feathertail.

back to leafpool, and the actual contents of the book. i’m happy she finally got her full name! it’s kinda weird when siblings don’t get their names at the same time. plus leafpool has been a great medicine cat even before the big journey to the lake territory. and i love how mothwing was so proud of her. actually i just quite like the medicine cat relationships. they’re all cool and i like seeing it from their perspectives, having interactions with cats from different clans without hostility is nice.

i am wondering how hawkfrost managed to get cats from shadowclan to help him, is it because he is tigerstar’s son and there is still cats in shadowclan that would follow tigerstar were he alive? but why do they care about helping mudclaw? like hawkfrost has some motivation if mudclaw told him he would make him deputy if onewhisker is overthrown. it all seems so silly, and kinda rushed too. like if we compare it to tigerstar trying to overthrow thunderclan and taking control of shadowclan and riverclan, that happened over the course of several books. perhaps hawkfrost and mudclaw overthrowing windclan could have been interesting if it wasn’t squeezed into a couple chapters.

our only hints that this could happen are that squirrelflight, leafpool, and mistyfoot are distrustful of hawkfrost. but only because he is too “ambitious”. and then the rest was mistyfoot straight up telling thunderclan what was happening. i think it could have been interesting for thunderclan and windclan to not be sort of in an alliance for once. i like that they are friendly with each other, but maybe it would have been cool to see the friendship between firestar and onewhisker tested a bit?

i was watching sunnyfall’s trip through time video about this particular book (as i have been doing after each warriors book i’ve been reading) and she brought up that this books main plot points revolve around windclan and the leader/deputy drama. i agree that we should have had some chapters written from his point of view. why does brambleclaw need to be there for tallstar’s death? we could have been seeing it from crowfeather’s point of view. there’s so many interactions with windclan that it really would have benefitted from seeing it in their perspective.

the scene with leafpool and crowfeather at the end of the book was … strange. like those two shadowclan cats, why were they running to thunderclan anyway? and they’re just mysterious unnamed cats, because the writers don’t feel like fleshing out the rest of the clans with real characters. oh and of course they brutally die by snapping their necks, which is supposed to make me feel like, oh my gosh that could have been leafpool if crowfeather didn’t help her! and the confessions of “love” like, all of the intentional romance in these books is so bad. you guys are infatuated with each other you are not in love come on now. it’s very silly.

and i guess squirrelflight and brambleclaw are officially broken up for now because he continues to trust hawkfrost. like even if mudclaw is lying about hawkfrost’s motivations to help him, how does that change the fact that he helped a cat from another clan try to overthrow their leader? what is going on inside brambleclaw’s mind here? squirrelflight is so right for giving up on him at this point. he’s being wilfully ignorant. i mean that’s not what the erins intended him to be, he apparently just trusts his brother after all this? and despite denouncing the actions of his father every chance he has had previously, he didn’t seem to have a problem chatting to him in a dream? i know he doesn’t seem awfully evil when he’s chatting away with his sons, but he also didn’t seem awfully evil, or at all to all of thunderclan when he had literally killed redtail, attempted to kill bluestar, etc. i still remember when fireheart was filling in for bluestar at a gathering and tigerstar was there as shadowclan’s leader, and fireheart decided not to warn the other clans about his actions because “maybe he has changed!”. it’s kinda annoying for characters to be uncharacteristically stupid for the sake of the plot. it takes you out of it and makes you question the authors rather than wonder the motives of the characters.

mudclaw dying to a falling tree made me wonder, how many cats have died to trees throughout the series? off the top of my head i thought of mudclaw, firestar, and longtail. luckily the wiki is extensive enough to have a complete list, which includes micah (i didn’t know of micah because i haven’t read moth flight’s vision yet), mudclaw, firestar, rainwhisker, and longtail. and briarlight was paralysed.

[isjasz]

"[...]Plus, when it rained, the palace grounds were pretty much empty, everyone else taking shelter, so I’d usually have the whole garden to myself. Perfect time to dance around like nobody was watching.” 

“Dance around?” 

“Yeah!”

(In which the vex prince sets out on a magical journey of a lifetime, and an unassuming avian knight is dragged along for the ride.)

——————————

THE DOOR IS NON-EXISTENT ALREADY LAST BUT VERY NOT LEAST FOR HSBB FROM ME These are my pieces for @gaylotusthatexists's epic fic series "to the ends of the earth" again in @hermitshippingbigbang!! :D

This is for chapter 11 of the fic featuring THE DANCE SCENEEEEEE go. read it. it's so worth it i swear they are so SJKDADwijwa and the whole world Lotus has created within the fic is so cool!!

It's botw but epic and it's scarian and I might have immediately lost it when I saw the fic summary back in *checks dms with nox* September. and the actual fic did not disappoint it is absolutely lovely <3

GOOGGOO YIPPEE👉👉👉👉👉

[airoarts]

Leader and deputy

[Image description: a digital painting of Squirrelstar and Ivypool from Warriors. Squirrelstar is a small dark red cat with green eyes, standing in front of the much taller Ivypool, a gray tabby-and-white cat with blue eyes and many battle scars. The background is dark blue. end ID]

[evercelle]

How do you do anatomy? And when you get artblock, what are you doing?

anatomy: make stuff up use references, observe bodies in art + media + ur everyday life, look at anatomy notes! i got taco1704's book (it's in KR and EN) but they also posted a lot of it online; simodasketch and kawaiisensei also have a lot of excellent diagrams. and sometimes i really do just make stuff up

artblock: that's harder to answer :') i got pretty burned out and couldn't draw anything good for what felt like months, even though i tried every day... if you get stuck, i think it's probably better to take a break and go consume instead of create for awhile. i played a bunch dawntrail/fields of mistria and started reading orv until the worms came back home haha. recharge ur battery and look for new inspiration...!

[lunarharp]

scrappies cause HE'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 📖

[buglaur]

fireworks show 🎆

material preview version is very cute also :)

i struggled with the lighting on this one so badly, but it turned out alright in the end.

i actually started it last year for new years 2023 but never got around to finishing it, hence no progress pictures this time sadly lol. i do have a very low-res, first draft, test gif though

stills 🥳

[awkward-yet-kind]

I hate, LOATHE that Levi gets grouped in with characters that don't 'get' emotions. It's so wrong, so counter to what is easily observed about him as a character. He gets emotions, he has a mountain of empathy and is great at reading and understanding people. What he actually suffers from is not a lack of emotion, but trauma. Trauma that forced him to become rough around the edges to survive. Trauma that stunted his social skills and ability to fully express himself. Trauma that led him to build a near-impenetrable fortress around his heart and keeping his own emotions under tight lock and key. I could go on. But GOD is Levi criminally misinterpreted. He is a deeply emotional character, but the constant wave of harsh experiences in his life make outwardly showing it difficult, if not impossible at times.

Levi is a hardened character, not an emotionally lacking one.

[noxious-fennec]

A redraw of an old thing because exam season is the only time i get creative energy ig

[corvys-clover]

"I need to get out of a toxic relationship."

Thinking about my favorite guy again <3

(this one's from back in July after I first saw the film)

Commissions open!

@corvys.clover on Instagram

[lumosatnight]

23 Fic Recs 2023!

This year has definitely been a year. I've devoured so many wonderful fics by so many amazing authors. Thank you @hprecfest for the super fun rec categories and for some fic inspiration! Here are 23 fics that I read and loved in 2023 (although some are quite a few years older) ordered by ship.

🌼 - fluff | 💔 - angst | 🔥 - smut

—

💫 DRARRY 💫

1. A post-canon fic

The Discreet Gentleman's Connection by pluto (gayrights420) [Drarry, E, 80.4k] 🌼🔥 I had the absolute pleasure of beta-ing for this fic, so when I say it is amazing, it truly is just that. Fast burn on the smut via Floo sex, slow burn on the in-person falling in love. Satisfying in all the best possible ways.

2. A fic that made me laugh

AITA for being "obsessed" with my childhood nemesis? by @rainstormradish [Drarry, M, 4.3k] 🌼📲 Draco on a reddit forum is hilarious just on its own, but the banter and formatting really bring this fic to life. Amazingly creative, had me in stitches!

3. A comfort fic

The Eighth Tale by @letteredlettered [Drarry, E, 12.0k] 💔⏳ An oldie but a goodie. I constantly find myself coming back to this fic and having my mind blown every single time. Time travel timey-wimey angst.

4. A fic with art

Dating Draco - A Visual Game by @itsphantasmagoria [Drarry, M, Video Game] 🌼🎮 This is a fic in video game form!! Amazing art and lovely story where YOU get to make the choices for Drarry's happily ever after.

5. A favorite series

The Journal of Dreadful Things by @lilbeanz [Drarry, G, 112k, WIP] 🌼📖 Hilarious, witty, AND COMES WITH ART!! Lilbeanz draws and writes a wonderfully delightful series starting from Draco's First Year. His characterization had me in hysterics. Book 4 is starting soon!

—

💫 COMMON SHIPS 💫

6. Fic with the hottest smut

Moonstruck by @prettyremus [Wolfstar, E, 3.8k] 🔥🐺 Found this gem while scrolling through the werewolf smut tag (don't judge me). I love the switch in dynamic with Sirius taming Remus's wolf through, ahem, rough sex.

7. An unreliable narrator fic

Sea of White by @dividawrites [Harrymort, E, 8.6k] 🔥🤍 Deliciously hot, creepy, and strangely sweet. Love their dynamic here, the unrestrained lust. Harrymort "die" and lose their memories, so, of course, then they bang.

8. A fic that made me cry

Far Apart, Far Away by @unmistakablyoatmeal [Hinny, minor Drarry, T, 1.6k] 💔💍 Infidelity angst has never been this good. I love the layers of emotion in this fic. Quick punchy sections that really pulled me in.

9. A Muggle(?) AU fic

Pleasant Hope by @ac1d6urn, @sinick [Snarry, E, 41.6k] 💔⛪️ Pastor Severus!! The angst, pining, and self-discovery in this fic is superb! I love the interwoven magic and detailed world-building of this little town.

—

💫 RARE PAIRS 💫

10. A fav amongst faves

The Last Trial of Peter Pettigrew by @sleepstxtic [Prongstail, M, 20.8k] 💔 🐀 Holy moly, this fic!!!! Is this my new favorite fic?? Possibly. The concept is brilliant, so creative and nuanced. The Peter character study using outsider perspectives is genius. Seamlessly balances canon and new scenes.

11. A pre-canon fic

Careless by @tax-onomic [Luther, E, 1.5k] 🔥🪞 Lucius/Arthur my beloved rare pair!! I am captain of the Luther ship, and Tax's fic hits all the right spots. The pining, the sniping, the prickly personalities with emotional vulnerability underneath! And all in the middle of a hot smut scene. Perfect.

12. A canon-compliant fic

Scottish by thepadfoots [Chedric, G, 749] 💔🌟 Lovely Cho character study focused around her Asian identity and the boy she loved.

13. A fic rated G (more like T though)

Lion-Hearted Girl by MinnieQuill (odainath) [Minmione, G, 4.5k] 💔🦁 I know the large age gap might scare some, but their relationship feels very organic in this fic. The setting is grim, but there is always hope in the darkness!

14. A fic rated T

You're So Vane by @patriceavril [Romelina, T, 6.8k] 🌼💄Romilda is so delightfully characterized, I was smiling through the entire fic. Angelina is the perfect foil (and love interest) to Romilda's attentions.

15. A rare pair fic (less than 2000 fics on AO3)

Snakeskin by @cntrl15 [Bellastoria, E, 3.7k] 🔥👠 Talk about a rare pair! Astoria/Bellatrix only has 2 tagged fics on AO3: this fic and the drabble I wrote based on it. But read this fic, and you'll see why I felt the need to write more in this universe.

16. A fest fic

Master of None by @nanneramma [Snormac, G, 5.5k] 🌼🧘 Severus is so wonderfully cranky, and Cormac is fine AF. The surprise pairing of 2023 that I never knew I needed and now I'm obsessed with!

17. An under-rated fic

Sun, Shadow, Shade by @naomijameston [Snuna, G, 700] 🌼☀️ Post-war fluff. Sunshine Luna is the perfect match for sullen Snape. A short and sweet fic for this underrated ship.

18. A canon-divergent fic

but somebody's gotta do it by nocturn [Pangulus, T, 920] 😄🧟‍♂️ This fic will make you say WTF but also huh, okay that totally works. The concept is WILD but Lyra executes it wonderfully. Pansy drags Regulus out of the inferi lake and they flirt a little while he gets de-corpsified lol.

—

💫 POLY SHIPS 💫

19. A dark fic

In his embrace by @loneamaryllis [Snarrymort, het!Snarry, E, 48k] ⚡️👀 Dark and dirty but so so good. A Voldemort Wins AU where fem!Harry is taken as prisoner. Snape's mindset as he tries to save her (and is forced to rape her) is so twisted and mesmerizing. Mind the tags!

20. A thought-provoking fic

Icarus by @thistlecatfics [Millvansy, M, 20.0k] 💔🍾 War trauma, addiction, codependency! This fic is messy with emotions but has a strong, beating heart underneath. I am in love with Parvati as she deals with Pansy's addiction and Millicent's denial — three beautiful, imperfect girls.

21. A holiday fic

A Time, Dark and Divine by @moonflower-rose [Dronarry, E, 17.0k] 🔥⛱ HOLY FREAKING FUCK!! The sexual tension in this fic is off the freaking charts. Drarry seducing Ron while on vacation in Portugal. Sign me the fuck up!

—

💫 GEN 💫

22. A favorite fic under 5k

The Scrunchie by @saintsenara [Lightning Era Girls, G, 4.5k] 💖👭 Such a lovely look into some of the female background characters, all following the path of a single scrunchie. Lisa, Padma, Parvati, Hannah, Sally-Anne.

23. A fic with an ending I can't stop thinking about

Through the Middlegame by @sandervansunshine [Astoria & Peter, T, 6.6k] 💔♜ Devastating, heart-wrenching, tragic. 10000% would recommend. Kylee has already heard me screaming in the servers about this fic. If I could get a fic tattooed straight onto my brain, this would be it.

—

💫 BONUS RECS! 💫

A podfic

Plenitude by @wilfriede, written by eldritcher [Amelmione, M, 14 min] 💔🥀 Amazing voices, amazing music, amazing ambience. Wilfriede really brings one of my fav Hermione/Amelia Bones fics to life in this podfic!

A comic

War Prize by @mrviran [Snegulus, Reggiemort, M, Comic, WIP] ☠️🐍 The panels are awe-inspiring. I am HOOKED on this comic. The murder and the TENSION. Ughhhhh so good. I am so invested in Severus's arc!!

A self-rec (completely self-indulgent)

For I Have Found Salvation by @lumosatnight [Snarry, E, 7.1k] 🔥✝ My first time writing Snarry! Priest Kink, church sex, and blasphemous religious imagery. Priest Severus is oh-so-tempted by Teen Harry. So fun to write and even more fun to go back and read as a guilty pleasure.

—

⚡️ Want more fics to read? ⚡️

Try my rec tag: #lumosinthelibrary

Year in Reading, b-day oneshots, WLW Library

[jazzyslibrary]

witch hat atelier #2

date started: 21/02/2023 | date started: 22/01/2023

once again, the art absolutely blew me away! like the illustrations remind me of the ink illustrations in children’s novels with the shading done with ink. it obviously has style influence from manga and western comics, but i wonder if kamome shirahama also is trying to evoke a feeling of nostalgia for old ink illustrations in books like “the worst witch”? i would be surprised if it wasn’t her intention, given the setting and story of the book. it definitely, so far at least, doesn’t lean into any anime tropes at all. the characters feel more western, like the characters you expect in this setting.

i love it! that’s not to say i don’t like characters that are written to fit into a more manga/anime type story. but everything about this feels so different from most manga. the art style, characters, story.

i was thinking about how this could possibly be adapted into an anime. i seriously don’t think it could be done by the average anime studio. i would be keen to see it done. but i would only really trust studio ghibli to do it. or it would be cool to see studio ponoc do it. maybe stories about witches could be their “thing”. although i’m not sure what the difference between producing an animated movie vs show is. but i don’t think the digital look of most japanese animation studios would suit this. studio ghibli apparently works digitally, but i think they still have a great look to it, because their colour palettes still look traditional. the think that looks the most digital is the super thin lines, and the shiny hair and eyes. it’s a bit too smooth looking i think and just isn’t to my taste.

i was totally thrown off at the end, with coco being arrested for using forbidden magic. i am actually looking forward to the next volume! actually today, i bought volume 6 and 7 at dymocks! so i have 5 volumes to read in my collection.

[navy-leader]

Yuppeeee !!