#you know the great thing abt this book is in some ways it allows for you to make the story whatever tf you like rly

[alicentsgf]

book alicent and rhaenyra showing up to dinner in each others colours really was gay as shit actually like... did they coordinate it? how? if they supposedly never sought out each others company nor saw eye to eye on anything? who suggested it?? who approached the other to discuss it?? were they ironing out the logistics of it together? if it was for viserys sake then did they speak of him? of alicents marriage? did they allow for any emotional catharsis at all?? if not, how do you convince your most bitter opponent to put up a front WITH you? and if they didnt coordinate thats even MORE gay they just show up to dinner and catch each other across the room and rhaenyras in green and alicents in black?? whose to say they didnt truly want peace? maybe it wasnt a facade. what an 'oh?' moment if they just Happened to have the same exact idea to begin to rebuild the bridge and the INTIMACY of that ??? there is not a single way i could think of this going that doesnt include some kind of ineradicable epiphany

[wcbblife]

Ok I have another one, can you do juju x fem reader where reader is on live and she’s reading comments and someone says “ juju mid asf” and reader defends her by saying “ juju and mid don’t belong together in a sentence unless ‘not is between them’ ” or something like that (idk I was half asleep when i wrote this in my notes so you can change that if you want 😭). Then blocks the person cause she doesn’t allow anyone to talk abt her gf like that . Then juju gets sent the live from her teammates, so she txt reader or post it on twitter saying “my girl 🫡” or something 😭 I just had to write it in my notes before I forgot bruh 😭

Live Love

a/n: Kinda cheesy and short but I like it ngl. Hope you like it anon!

You’re live, chatting with your followers, enjoying the rush of interactions. The comments are flowing in, and you're responding to questions. After seeing fans online practically begging for you to go live following the volleyball team’s tournament win at home, you figured it’d be a great way to kill time while waiting at the airport for your next game. It was mostly fun, a comforting distraction.

You scroll through the comments, selecting a few to answer.

What’s your favorite thing to do on a day off?

“Great question! Honestly, I love just chilling at home, maybe cooking something new or catching up on shows. If Juju’s free, we’ll go grab some food or watch a movie. It’s all about relaxing and recharging.”

More questions flood the chat, and you pick another one.

Any book recommendations?

“Absolutely! I’ve been reading ‘The Song of Achilles’ lately. The writing is beautiful and so immersive. Highly recommend it. It’s a bit sad, though, so read it if you’re into that.”

Do you have any pets?

“Juju got a little puppy recently. You guys should see him—he’s the cutest. Juju calls him our kid now.”

As you continue engaging with the audience, the flood of comments and emojis feels like a warm embrace. But then, a comment stops you in your tracks, and your smile falters.

juju mid asf 😂

You pause, staring at the screen in disbelief. Juju’s been working tirelessly and seeing someone dismiss her like this hits unexpectedly hard. You take a deep breath, trying to calm the fire spreading through your body.

“Now I know I ain’t just read what I think I did, right? Juju mid as fuck? Don’t overstep. Juju’s my girlfriend. Juju and ‘mid’ don’t belong in the same sentence unless ‘not’ is between them, and I’m not going to stand by while people talk down about her in front of me.”

You pause, steadying your voice, determined to stand your ground.

“Keep her name out of your mouth. She’s achieved so much, and she deserves respect, not baseless criticism. You’re not going to get on my live and talk bad about my girlfriend, that’s for sure. I’m blocking you, bruh. Get out of here with that. If you don't have anything nice to say, shut your mouth. Let’s keep the vibes positive.”

Blocking the user brings a wave of satisfaction and relief. You continue engaging with your followers, but a part of you is still buzzing from the need to defend Juju.

“Alrighty, y’all, I’ll have to cut the Q&A short. We have to get on the plane now. Peace!”

Meanwhile, Juju’s phone buzzes with notifications. Her teammates have sent her clips from your live stream that fans had recorded and posted on TikTok. Watching, she feels a swell of pride.

Feeling touched and a bit playful, Juju opens Twitter to share a thought:

“My girl 🫡 #Proud #NotMid”

Shortly after her tweet, your phone vibrates with a text from Juju.

“Saw your live. Thanks for having my back. You’re amazing.”

A smile spreads across your face.

“About to take off. Love you.”

“I love you too, babe. Call me when you land.”

[padfootswhiskers]

With all respect, I think u guys give jkr's writing skill too much credit . Ik she said she planned everything abt hp books from the beginning( I don't believeit tbh), but she wrote some of the weirdest dumb stuff ever for the sake of the plot that don't make any sense ... Remus's life and even his name, for example.The fact that Remus hasn't visited Harry for almost 12yrs is ridiculous . "He thought Harry was safe - he felt worthless. He was a coward. " wtf?! No he didn't do it bc Harry shouldn't know abt his parents and wizarding world the End. srslyWheree were lily's friends? Oh they all passed away...Harry's grandparents THEY ALL PASSED AWAY ...problem solved (jkr is so good at this) and plus imo that also happened simply bc if Remus checked on Harry, he would be a father figure to him 100% (the role given to Sirius), and jkr didn't want Harry to have the same close connection with Remus as he did with Sirius. It would make harry -Sirius's relationship unimportant... Take Sirius's other relationships, for example. When he escaped Azkaban, he had no family, no lover, no one. Initially, I was like, "Yeah, okay," and that seemed fine. But later, it occurred to me that maybe he was written that way because he had to be solely for Harry. Like, he shouldn't care about anyone but Harry. Sirius isn't allowed to prioritize anyone over his godson.

to be fair, anon, i think two things can be true at the same time. a lot of stuff does happen in the hp universe for plot reasons---this doesn't necessarily mean it's always bad writing.

the plot required harry to be unaware of the wizarding world, alright. i don't see how this means remus would've taken, like, custody of harry or something if it hadn't! remus IS a coward. he IS extremely self flagellating. it IS completely plausible that he knew petunia wasn't a great person and left harry there anyway!

(take DH for example. he says tonks will be safe with her parents right after he tells them that her parents have been tortured for information. he isn't a stupid man, he's being deliberately cowardly.)

i understand that you probably really like remus, or at least the good bits of him, but character traits you dislike do not equal bad writing. remus consistently shows himself to be extremely passive-aggressive, conflict avoidant and unable to actually follow through on his conscience. i don't know about you, anon, but i can definitely see a man who convinced himself that withholding information about a wanted murderer was OK, convincing himself that harry is safe and better off without him.

jkr didn't have to use plot reasons to thwart remus and harry's budding relationship so that sirius could step in because...there isn't a scenario that exists wherein canon remus would step in to be an orphaned harry's father figure. i'm genuinely curious as to why you think he might. THAT, if anything, is what seems ooc to me.

as for lily, that seems to be pattern with jkr's 'popular girls'. i can't name five of ginny's friends if my life depended on it. it was also obviously done so that the snape reveal would have a greater effect. but lily isn't an established character the same way remus is.

as for sirius? i don't think it's unrealistic that he didn't have a lover/anyone waiting for him. i think people tend to forget he was only barely 22 when he got locked up; plenty of people haven't begun sorting out their lives at that age. lest we forget, he was also fighting a war pretty much the second he left hogwarts. not great for the dating scene, that. i don't think it's unrealistic at all that he hadn't thought about girls (or boys) or settling down at that time in his life.

but even if he had, i can't fathom a world in which he wouldn't transfer the love and devotion he had for james to james' son.

[sharkwithfeelings]

ik there’s a lot of sarah j maas discourse rn, in general a lot of ya/na fantasy authors are getting looked at with a more critical eye, but i haven’t seen much abt the illyrians of the night court, who are undoubtedly indigenous-coded, and for the most part seem to be a mix of a lot of different indigenous cultures.

like, they live in mountain villages, they’re an old race of faeries, they have warrior cultures, and they’re generally described as being dark-haired and darker skinned than a lot of the other faeries in the series. and, i will admit, i haven’t read the books since middle/beginning of high school, but it’s kind of hard to forget that illyrians were at once portrayed as uncivilized but also extremely practiced in the art of war to a degree that they were a resource to the main characters in their times of need.

all the og members of the Valeris Squad (or whatever they call themselves i can’t remember) describe illyrians as “backwards” and “savage.” the illyrians are also known to beat kids, make them compete in blood sport, and they clip the wings of female illyrians so that they can’t fly and are reduced to only being housewives. they have a rich culture of tattooing, which most indigenous societies have. it’s an insanely patriarchal society that rhys and cassian and azriel are single-handedly fixing. their rites of passage into warrior status are centuries old and their communities have existed in the mountains for like forever. they’re undoubtedly supposed to be native, 100%.

and while there is plenty to be said abt how some cultures operate with regards so how they treat children and women (cultural relativism gets messy), i don’t think this is how you go about doing that. not to mention, the book doesn’t position “reeducating the illyrians” as a discussion on how one incorporates equality into a culture, it’s just like another thing that the Bat Boys do to seem like they’re more moral. the maybe only saving grace is that they grew up in the culture, so it’s not like they’re outsiders coming in and being like “your traditions are evil and bad, change them,” but i don’t know why they had to be constructed that way in the first place.

it’s weird, idk, i just think fiction is such a great place for exploration and education about how to deal with the real world but with much lower stakes, and i hate to see popular fantasy neglecting the fact that it should take real-world issues seriously, and that you can do that while also being a popular series. indigenous people across the world are systematically stolen from, colonized, and erased from the annals of history because other people step in and say, “hey we don’t like the way you do things, this is much better,” and again, yeah, some of the practices of the illyrians are pretty harmful, but how is their only good contribution to the world that they know how to do war good??? they don’t have anything else of value, they just fight and kill??? like that’s not accurate indigenous writing, that’s just harmful stereotypes.

there’s plenty more to say abt a lot of authors in the fantasy space, especially right now when so many ppl are getting book deals just for blowing up on tiktok, which i’m slightly conflicted by because more books getting published is good but also like, what books are we allowing to go to press? anywayyyy, just some thoughts

[qelflinq]

Every porn take I see blow up on here says the exact same thing and it’s wild to see 20,000 people play absolutely stupid every single time lol. “2 people should be allowed to record themselves having good angel consensual sex and that’s why porn is good actually so stop saying it’s bad😇” Ok how come that’s your position that’s not even a very divisive thing to say. Come on now defend the porn made in a studio with a pornstar man and a pornstar woman whose Instagram comments are full of old men describing how they’d like to violate her (best case scenario). Like WHO is taking up an issue with the ethical shit when they talk about porn. That’s literally 2% of porn you assholes KNOW the other 98% (the pornhub most searched , the shit most curious 11 year olds will see first) is simulated rape/incest/pedophilia (oftentimes all 3). I’m not saying the straight guy favourites are all like this, but even the majority of “normal” porn reestablishes really fucked up ways to view women (as do things like weightwatchers and razor ads but that’s probably pushing it a bit too much on here). I guess part of the problem is that hardly anybody on this website can think or see beyond themselves and their own porn habits. Like sure maybe (maybe) Rocko| 23| he/they only gets off to AO3 fanfiction but the kink freedom warriors don’t love mentioning the swaths of men that go abt their day fantasizing about controlling or hurting women. Do they just not exist when we consider the effects porn has on us? Or are they not supposed to be a problem, and I’m just another grouch yucking somebody’s yum? The men that are our classmates and coworkers and family members etc etc the men we have to interact with daily. Like I’m sorry but not everyone lives in Tumblr world 100% of the time lol it doesn’t make us anti sex crones to think it’s weird that porn is so accessible and commercialized and STILL so influenced by misogyny (again I’m talking THE MAJORITY of it not the ethical shit everyone uses as an example when defending porn). I’m starting to get ads from onlyfans telling me to sign up 👍 telling me hey girl this is such a fun opportunity to make money. Is that not like, evil?? Is that not scary to anyone? Like now it’s the company itself explaining how good and empowering it is to have your income dictated by how jackoffable you are deemed by strangers forming fantasies surrounding your body? Whether my body is a particular fetish? Nobody online rly wants to talk about the other side of sex work. Abt how it’s so closely linked to addiction and poverty in real life. It’s not just silly cute cosplay photoshoots that stay within the greater queer community. And even when it is, if you come across any trans OF creators twitter, a great chunk of their comments are (often conservative) men who want to hurt/degrade them. It’s not a new or made up phenomenon. You can very much witness it for yourself. Most people DO witness it, I guess it’s just not really a priority so it’s better ignored? It’s useless trying to have a normal conversation about these things cause everybody reblogs the same posts to show they share the same opinions. When the internet is this fast ur priorities shift, I get it. It’s easier to form opinions based on others safe agreeable pre-written ones. So often I see or hear someone regurgitating some shit I KNOW they read on a Tumblr post or heard in a YouTube essay cause bro I saw it too. Sometimes it’s straight up word for word. Like what ! Does nobody read books anymore. Or go to work. Or go outside and talk to people. I know it’s hard to find time to think about things much when there r so many tiktoks to watch, posts to read, pictures to chuckle and so little free-time in your day to do all that. It’s crazy to me that if you’re not a woman on here , you’re probably not gonna think about how women are treated at all.

[shadeslayer]

I wanna thank you for being so open and real about fat love and fat liberation and all. I've known for a while that I like fat bodies, my own, my partner's, others', but it felt like something I had to keep quiet even within my own mind. I could admit to it but I couldn't be proud of it, you know? but after having followed you for a while and seen other perspectives, I've gone from tentatively acknowledging my feelings to fully joyfully embracing them. being fat makes me happy! seeing fat people makes me happy! I felt overwhelming amounts of joy about this. thank you for sharing what you do it's changed my world.

YES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i saw this as i was going to sleep last night it melted my heaaaart <3333 FAT IS SEXY !!!!!!!!

theres a lot of stuff with marginalization where we can only be allowed to exist if we're ashamed of it, if we don't enjoy it, as long as its not a choice and as long as we dont actively want to be the way we are. and theres been good moves along trans joy, queer joy, being proud of your heritage and your skin and the same is happening if quietly within fat movements too and its the best shit ever. i understand peoples concerns but personally im fucking over it and im done with having to play nicey nice "im so sorry im fat skinny people look prettier skinny people are the ideal" games because im NOT sorry and fat people DO look prettier and fatness IS the ideal IMHO (in my huge opinion) !!! its great being fat and i love being fat and i love it when other people are fat and when other people are fat they look hot as fuck and the world is literally a more beautiful, more sexy, more vibrant place with fat people visibly existing in it. if people wanna be fussed about that thats THEIR problem !

if youre interested in fatlib and anti-diet movement/s i do have some book/blog/zine recs i can give you! but honestly its like. its so good to be able to say truthfully w ur whole chest that yeah i love the way fat people look, i love fatness, seeing fat people makes me happy and fat people are the ones who turn me on.

im also deeply flattered bc there are people im friends with / who i follow who have been formative like that for me, and im surprised i blog about fatness enough to count LOL. i feel a lot of it is all on my nsfw blog which isnt like suuper popular or anything. but honestly if u love fat talk u shld see me in the dms with my fat femme bestie bc we tear bitches up in there. i dont like to make waves too much esp w fatness bc it can be sooo divisive and intense (bc there is so much trauma in all of us over it, so i get it!) so i dont post much of my Real Hot Takes but im glad the fat love gets across. impossible 2 contain, same as my SEXY TUMMY IN THESE TINY SHIRTS !

literally it is so healing in ways that are innumerable. the way i live in my body has improved so much now that im proudly loving and excited abt and happy abt fat. so many little things and moments in my life have been turned around where i see myself as sexy when my shirt rides up, when my pants dont fit, when i get food on my shirt. that shit is hot. and dont let any COWARDS tell you differently

ALSO: being into fat and talking abt it as a fat person w ur fat partner is so fucking amazing and i promise if u start that discussion you will get some of the red hot sexiest pics u will ever see from ur partner bc thats happened in my rship and its like. [redacted for nsfw]

took a couple selfies to trace and drew this for u darling. go forth and be FAT

[eerna]

ngl i find it hilarious that they just speedran crooked kingdom while matthias was just sitting in jail like 🧍‍♀️

IT'S SOOO FUNNY it was literally "Crooked Kingdom but they never got Matthias out of jail". He was just sitting there praying, drawing in the sand, developing friendship, and having sexy thoughts. Bless

I totally remember when everyone was still debating whether the bathroom scene will be present in future seasons after the sea whip plot when season 1 was released in 2021.. but now we got a Walmart version of it 🙃 No hate to Freddy and Amita.. Like I believe they could totally pull the canonical CK scene off if the showrunners cared about a steady paced plot.. So far, the only thing I frankly like about this season is the set designs

Bro I thought I could give up hope and get over it, but when I saw them in their final scene together,,,, how GOOD they were if the writing is plucked straight from the books and allowed some subtlety.... I was sitting there imagining they were on the Ferolind and it was 2 different scenes and dyin from happiness. Freddy Amita you deserved better

what made me super duper extra mad was the pekka confrontation scene included the other crows. like only inej is supposed to be there you really think kaz would say SHIT about his brother in front of everyone????? he literally called jesper jordie in the books and refused to elaborate on it when jesper kept asking. and even inej doesn’t get the full story out of him.

YEAH LOL this season took some truly important scenes for Inej and Kaz and just. Wrote Jesper into her place instead. And also Nina. And Inej is now the one with the LEAST context for his trauma (except for Wylan, who still knows Nothing). This is not who Kaz is this is not what he would have done this is NOT HIM

The way I don’t even care abt getting kaz’s backstory anymore in this season and can’t be convinced to watch it bc the show already butchered literally everything else with his character. Speaking of I don’t think I’ve seen anyone even go into detail or talk abt it much which probably says a lot abt everything else the show is doing lol.

NJKnkjnkj you see, the writers just decided to tell us his entire backstory in shittily-placed flashback during the first half of the season, so waiting for his backstory isn't a thing. There is no buildup. No hints. You find out most of it in ep1. Remember how bad and scary it was in the books? Well here it is really lazily shot and cliched and just seems like not a big deal at all, which is probably why no one is mentioning it

@jfkisonthemoon asked:

okay wesper IS being sped through as terribly as kanej. but i do have to say that theyre at least fun to watch and the dynamic from the (end of the) books really is there. it probably helps that the casting is perfect and that im looking for any crumbs of non-ruined book content, but still.

Crumbs help us cope, no worries, that's great for you! But I honestly really disliked their new dynamic, is was very flavorless. What, Jesper just decides to be monogamous out of the blue because Wylan told him he doesn't seem like someone who would do it and also played a few bars on the piano???? It's killing me because Jack is such a good Wylan, they nailed the balance between assertiveness and cuteness he needs, but for WHAT

[kind-of-a-shitty-wizard]

I've been thinking about him for some time already (YOU KNOW WHO...) and I think. he's just Like That ™. the gentleman killer. Haskillcore boring old man stuff enjoyer that spends weekends reading newspapers and philosophy books. looks down on people that lack manners. DOES want to serve for the best of his abilities and be appreciated. But ALSO I get the vibes... that he's the way he is because he's a shitty wizard.

HEAR ME OUT... It was just a joke at first but his fiasco with messing the most basic spell and being thrown out of the train..... I feel like he, in fact, can be incompetent wizard and that can fuck him up SO BADLY... like inferiority complex... I can imagine him being young & dreaming of becoming a great wizard & failing painfully. So now he compensates it with self-taught magic and dark arts (his necromancy interest). “dark magic is just misunderstood, not evil"...

I also get vibes from him of being bullied? I would take away his lunch yk. And now he allows people to walk over him and it's not just a job thing he's just like that. Until the moment he snaps. And murder may be the way for him to feel being in-control, which he usually lacks. Feel like he hass power. He doesn't feel nor act like purple guy jeff the killer (he's too old for that) but. Sometimes he thinks “It would be nice to kill someone right now. I also need cash. Hmm.” and that's now it happens. Maybe he feels alive when he does that, but it's only in-moment feeling that doesn't stay. I feel like he's pretty sensitive and can say when he feels bad(offended) or good(proud), but doesn't really have emotional intelligence? The feelings are there, what to do with them? who knows. not him. he goes out on the streets at night. depreesion)

I think he knows a lot about magic and artifacts (found out about the relic by private investigation or smth) but he can't use that intformation himself! what a shame! I get the vibes that he can be almost . cursed . to be a bad wizard. he's probably not but it just feels that way. so many potential in such cringefail loser (/affectionate). and he knows that and mourns that! what does he do with his life!

I rotate him in my mind he's so interesting what is wrong with him . . .

NODS VIGOROUSLY ALONG WITH YOUR POINTS im sitting here taking notes for my fic fr!! i actually hit on a lot of the same conclusions you did which makes me so happy, but one of the main differences was i thought he might actually be a good wizard, BUT i think your reading that he's ACTUALLY just a shitty wizard is more interesting character-wise....

like you said "he knows a lot about magic and artifacts but he can't use that intformation himself" <- YESSS. i think the exact way that he's shitty is that he definitely has the theoretical knowledge, but he can't apply it for shit. <3 like at the end of rockport limited he clearly knew the flame spell he was going to use, he just... fucking misses by a country mile LMFAO, even the meat monsters seem a little cobbled-together, like he knows the the theory but there's little finesse in the execution.

"he's the way he is because he's a shitty wizard." <- OK BC THIS BASIS IS SO GOOD. hes got so much ambition but no talent, and that informs everything about him!! - it's my headcanon that he grew up lower-middle class, and i think combining that with being bullied and being bad at magic contributed to an inferiority complex. and he likes refined things precisely because he likes the image of himself as this powerful refined (rich) person when he's really just grasping at it desperately :)))

aaand i think the dark arts provide shortcuts to power for the price of sacrificing another living thing, SO FOR JENKINS, who was a shitty wizard and an asshole who's totally willing to sacrifice people for power, it suited him perfectly :)))))))

not to mention all the points u brought up abt why he kills are so good. i think it's firstly a practicality thing (he needs the money, like u said), but then secondarily an outlet for his anger (he's a bit emotionally unintelligent like u also said lol). i think he learned how to deal with this simmering hatred in the exact wrong way, where he bottles it up during the day when ppl push him around and then lets it out during his murders. instead of yknow... learning to not let ppl push him around, and manage his anger and deal with it less destructively SDFLSDFKJ. and it became a cycle. so now he's a serial murderer cos he's into this repress-release pattern, someone get this man into therapy or get him a boyfriend who can fix him !!

AND... okok final point bc its getting a bit long. "so many potential in such cringefail loser (/affectionate). and he knows that and mourns that! what does he do with his life!" <- YES. perhaps even. he is not cut out to be a wizard..... he clearly has ambition, and good taste, and a flair for the dramatic, and mental problems, which means. of course. he is perfectly suited for the theater--//SHOT

[intertexts]

GMORNING !!!!! u know what time it is

EPISODE 8 TRIVIA:

- the big monster they fought in the beginning was called a Crawling Apocalypse which looks like this. terrifying !!!

- bizly really liked that william banished it. he was originally not gonna let him do that but then "i realized your character can do so little and that was cool so i said fuck it" we love william pity points he is such a loser and he rolls so terribly <3

- they start talking about one piece because grizzlys saying things abt how certain parts of dakota are inspired by luffy and bizly goes "ive never watched anime" which is the biggest lie in the world

- grizzly: "yknow we were about an hour into the episode before i realized wow i havent done anything productive yet"

condi: "you just hit on vyncents mom for like 20 minutes!!!!"

- and then they start talking about how dakota and chip (bizlys pc from riptide) would either be best friends or hate each other which is really funny bc there are now MULTIPLE what if crossover episodes where they meet and interact and thats exactly the dynamic . i love them

- condi wasnt expecting his dad to be dead, he thought theyd have to fight him

- he kind of hesitated taking the sword !! vyncent doesnt really know how to feel about using something that belonged to his father

- he wasnt entirely Present for the part where his dad betrayed the party, he was sort of fading in and out of consciousness so theres a chance he didnt actually get the full picture. condi knows this out of character and vyncent knows it in the back of his mind somewhere that his dad might not actually be fully evil but hes too angry to come to terms with that yet

- hes struggling a lot with the fact that his mom.doesnt know about the betrayal. he doesnt want to tell her because "its not his fathers pride at stake, its his mother's memory of him" and that makes me so . :(

- THE GREATS!!!!!!!! THE GREATS ARE HERE i love the greats. surely nothing bad is happening to them

- they have a couple theories as to whats going on with the greats:

-- condi: theyre in this state because vyncent took too long getting them back here out of his head

-- condi: they were killed when they got transported to the other world and there was no way to get them back completely

-- charlie: something happened in the time where vyncent was transported to prime and the greats had died, so someone did something to keep them alive by putting them in his head. maybe they could only be kept alive by being in vyncents head

- grizzly tries to insight check bizly irl to see if any of their theories are close so far. this does not work . he rolled a 17 btw

- none of them trust minerva they think she might be secretly working with the lich. bizly defends her by saying "shes also in the middle of basically an apocalypse i think shes allowed to be a little mean to you"

- le frog is the only french person ever. this is brought up with NO context no explanation

- bizly is sharing some of the thumbnail art from youtube because this was right around the time the first few episodes were being put up publically !! most of them are just the same as the official refs but the most important one is le frog bc im not actually sure if youve seen his offical design yet . also tide used to be white. we dont have to talk about white tide

- bizly says pd feels more like a DC comic than a Marvel comic. hes right about this

- charlie starts talking about marissa meyer books and this is important 2 me because the lunar chronicles was an extremely formative piece of media for me . she apparently has a book called renegades thats superhero themed and i have not read it yet but i put it on my list specifically because of this. wahoo!

tgis is SUCH good trivia for this ep thank u dude... ouagh. really solid meal here. i love these last couple episodes so much.. there's so much fun stuff happening here i'm enjoying all of the greats stuff & getting like a solid Vyncent Moment for a while.

i LOVE the william pity points its great! it WAS cool as fuck!! also i gain +5 hp every time a gm goes "who give a shit if this isn't technically how the game mechanics should work, it's fun for everyone at the table & makes for something cool and makes sense narratively."

that being said. i DID take SO MUCH PSYCHIC DAMAGE from how long dakota spent hitting on his fucking mom. Please. Please king !!! sob.

I ALSO WAS EXPECTING THEM TO FIGHT VYN'S DAD???? still not unconvinced that some lich undead bullshit isn't going to happen with that. god i'm so invested in figuring out what HAPPENED there... i love this type of murder mystery situation. & i also was genuinely unsure if he would take the sword or not!! really kind of an ohhh shit! moment when he did. imo. vyncent virion sol i love u.... also it's still INCREDIBLY funny 2 me that he's still in his normal clothes. i have not forgotten that he is just doin his fantasy bullshit thing in the just some guy drip. (<- i might have forgotten something but i've been assuming they no longer have/wear Official Hero Drip since they're no longer really sanctioned or on great terms w/ them? also i've been assuming that the episode-specific clothes & shit isn't really permanent... now that im thinking about it though please tell me wiwi hardcore blue flame black leather kickass spiky biker jacket remains. it's too cool for him. but. still.)

I LOVE THE GREATS SO MUCH... i hope nothing permanently bad happens to them :( i like them so dearly..... you know they r really solid folks because they spent a YEAR and change living in a teenager's brain & came out of the experience still bein so nice 2 him.... augh. also in general big fan of the system-adjacent bullshit :] i love it when theres. guy with guys in his head. etc. will b sad ab their departure but i hope they r OKAY and return 2 Being Alive & shit!! nervous laughter. also god i can't wait to find out what Actually Happened with them. hhrhrghghgghh.

THIS IS SO TRUE ALSO???? free my girl minerva she did nothing but have Literally Normal Reactions to TERRIBLE things happening!!!

I DON'T LIKE THAT LEFROG FACT. it raises the question of is he actually even french or like, is there even a point of reference for his behavior. like. What is going on there. Horrifying thank you!!!! also man this entire degree im working on would be useless! well. maybe prime quebec exists. somehow. independently of a hypothetical europe. HIS DESIGN IS SO FUN BTW. its so cute.. i WAS kind of imagining a mutant Big Real Fucking Frog situation but i think this is a lot more reasonable. also literally ignoring white tide I Do Not See it. It Does Not Exist.

ALSO. NOT GOING TO START TALKING AB COMICS FOR EVEN MORE PARAGRAPHS. BUT. he is so so so right. (<- dc comics guy with Opinions. well. technically im not even much of a dc guy im just a vertigo guy. but. still.) hghghghbhgh.

[familyabolisher]

re: annihilation im glad im not the only one who disliked it lol! ive struggled thru the second book as well bc people keep telling me the third is the best but. we'll see. id be curious abt ur thoughts & if you have similar critiques (lack of interiority for the mc for one, a lack of clarity on Whats Going On but not in a fun way imo but in a way that makes me really unsure what the Point of it all is, & (book 2) just. the most tedious mommy issues ive ever had to read thru) or if its something else entirely. no pressure tho! i just like hearing ur opinions on things.

tbh my immensely pedestrian answer is that i just couldn’t get on with the style at all—it felt very clumsy and, like, amateurish. i got the sense that vandermeer wanted to narrate The Horrors in a quotidian, somewhat clinical tone that established a discordance around an effort to record and empirically tackle something that resisted the boundaries of human language and communication, and i think a more skilled writer could have pulled that off to great effect; however, as it was, he neither leant far enough into that voice that the discordance could fully emerge & exert a significant enough narrative force to make the piece compelling, nor relaxed it enough to allow his language to play around with the lurid, macabre, paranatural setting. 

like, for example, i’ve just gone to a random page to give you some sense of what i mean.

This was really the only thing I discovered in him after his return: a deep and unending solitude, as if he had been granted a gift that he didn’t know what to do with. A gift that was poison to him and eventually killed him. But would it have killed me? That was the question that crept into my mind even as I stared into his eyes those last few times, willing myself to know his thoughts and failing. As I labored at my increasingly repetitive job, in a sterile lab, I kept thinking about Area X, and how I would never know what it was like without going there. No one could really tell me, and no account could possibly be a substitute. So several months after my husband died, I volunteered for an Area X expedition. A spouse of a former expedition member had never signed up before. I think they accepted me in part because they wanted to see if that connection might make a difference. I think they accepted me as an experiment. But then again, maybe from the start they expected me to sign up.

this is like … the first time we get a real, direct account of the biologist’s backstory. it’s like a speedrun of heterosexual our wives under the sea (also a bad book btw lol) and is supposed to pack a pretty hefty emotional punch, but it’s just … well, i mean. “a gift that was poison to him and eventually killed him.” like, the extract falls back on cliches; the prose lands in a very ‘safe’ register and feels a little afraid to push anywhere significantly outside of that. this is pretty representative of (what i read of) the whole book, tbh—and it stings especially when you have things like a mysterious tunnel-tower seemingly made of flesh that only the narrator can see that’s spawning fungi spelling out sentences as other characters in the novel start to die … like, that’s good, and that’s just really not being communicated on the page in any compelling manner. 

it felt as though vandermeer had established this fascinating world and then just failed to communicate any of it to any memorable standard. also, the pacing was all over the place, lol—like, take your time with it a little more, spend some time on setting and description! or if you want to lean into that clipped, clinical account, maybe experiment a little more with the texture that that could lend; like, journals, reports, the kind of temporal weirdness that those can generate (as is common in the gothic novel, for instance) … like, there were just a lot of ins where vandermeer could have negotiated a more interesting piece of work than what i was reading.

it just felt very, like—the word coming to mind for me is ‘timid.’ like the text found its own concepts a little too unwieldy and pared itself down into a very meek prose rather than rising to the challenge that its scaffolding presented. and as a result, i was just, like, bored and irritated trying to read it. i’m told that the film is very different so i might give that a go at some point, but i really couldn’t push through to the end of the book, lmao. maybe it’s worth reading for like the last 70 pages, but i’ll never know. sad! well there’s other genre fiction

[doloresdisparue]

Hi! Just preemptively, because I'm sure running this blog can be exhausting: this ask is about whether a half-baked idea I had for cover art of Lolita as a teenager has ever been used on a real book cover-- nothing heavier than that.

So! The Kubrick movie was so bad that as an adult I turned it off 10 minutes in, but I watched the whole thing when I was 17. I don't remember exactly what Dolores' "Midsummer Night's Dream" costume looked like, but it must have had a bunch of leaves/forest debris glued onto the shoulder, because I was very taken with the idea of creating an image where she's in the costume and HH looks normal/is gripping her shoulder, but when you take a closer look instead of a hand he has a talon digging into her shoulder, slightly camouflaged by all the woodland stuff on the costume but readily apparent if you look at Dolores for more than half a second. when I tried watching it as an adult I turned it off after about 10 minutes, but as a teen, I thought a great way to depict the threat of HH lurking in plain sight/barely obscured would be to have him clutching Dolores' shoulder while she's still in the costume for "A Midsummer Night's Dream"-- only instead of a hand, he has a talon digging into her shoulder, slightly camouflaged by the woodland debris on Dolores' costume but easily spotted if you look with even the slightest bit of attention.

Nowadays, I don't support that imagery for the story-- HH's real hand on a real child is far more horrifying, I agree with Nobokov abt how images of Dolores shouldn't be on covers, etc-- but I was wondering if you've found any similar imagery over the course of your research?

(Literally just curious though, so no worries about answering if for whatever reason you don't feel like it. Thanks for sharing such great analysis on here, and best wishes on your thesis!)

Hi! Thank you for the lovely message and the concern - though honestly this blog is helping as a sort of vent space for what I have to work through for my thesis anyway.

I have not seen any cover resembling your old idea! I have actually barely seen any cover that leans into the fairytale aesthetic despite that being a strong recurring motif even outside of the "Enchanted Hunter" play/hotel. There MIGHT be some out there that combine the popular butterfly motif with the little girl and end up making her look like a bit of a fairy but I can't find any right now.

This might come closest to what you described in spirit, though it is not a cover but a flyleaf from a Russian edition that I can't actually find the cover of.

More vaguely interesting editions under the cut

Theres this 2009 Russian edition but Humbert doesn't appear on it and there is no subversion of the romantic imagery

This 1987 German cover for the Enchanter (not technically Lolita) has that aspect of Humbert as a (decidedly human though) monster but it's missing the fairytale aspect:

This Russian edition goes full literal nymph but, again, we are not subverting anything and this is definitely not a costumed little girl but an actual magic creature

Russia again, 2000, (interesting pattern) but this is a costumed little girl, though without Humbert and not her movie costume. Might also be a child bride, not a reference to the play.

Ukrainian. Humbert's "talons" prominently featured. Might have had some impact if Dolly's dress wasn't transparent for some godforsaken reason.

These are the ones with the closest vibes that I've come across. And while you're right in that it's not ideal wrt making Humbert a literal monster that obscures how human he is and featuring a little girl prominently I do think cover artists could do something by leaning into the fairy tale thing in some way. If we allow ourselves the leeway of featuring body parts there might also be something with just showing Dolly's shoulder and Humbert's hand resting on it, fatherly at first glance but digging into her skin and holding her tightly when you look closer. God knows, I'm no illustrator but there are so many options I'd love to see more. Also Stanley Kubrick rot in hell <3

[autisticempathydaemon]

Hiya I’m here for the redacted matchups thing? If you’re still doing it that is (“^^)

A breakdown abt me is I have I’m an friendly introvert which has allowed me to deceive a lot of people into thinking I’m extroverted- I’m not I actually need very long hours of recharge after social outings. I’m an infp and I’ve been described to have “black/ginger cat energy” (tsundere and bites people according to some)

For the questions

- currently there’s been 2 songs stuck in my head. Into my arms by the Maine- there was this one specific part that’s goes she had the most amazing…smile. Bet you didn’t expect it she made me change my ways… and the lyric play was really cute. It was sung as if intending to say smthg sexual but he just went ‘smile’ instead and ties it in with how the listener prolly didn’t expect him to say that either implying that she “changed” him. It’s funnier considering later on he comments abt how she had “legs that went on for days” it gives a “I’m more well versed and mature now but at the end of the day im still a Man (/pos)” I found it really cute. Oh and Cupid is so dumb from Cupid by fifty fifty cause mood

- I love ytb essays! I watch movie critiques or essays on certain animes I watch and why they’re great/sht. Oh also shanspeares stuff

- i had a childhood friend called Casper. He was this “protector” kinda friend that would hang out with me talk to me.

- asmr. (no surprise) aside from sleep aids I actually dabble more into traditional tapping scratching or pampering soft spoken stuff when the insomnia hits.

- there is a character from Rick riordans magnus chase series, their name is Alex fierro. I had a very weird relationship with gender?? Aesthetics?? You could say? When I was young. I just had a lot of moment where I didn’t really like my long/short hair or jsut how I looked too fem/masc. Alex (other than being a total badass and child of mischief) was gender-fluid and I looked up to them a lot so ye.

- oh that’s hard I like a lot of them ;-;. I guess the highest I can possibly think of rn is inversion’s more than a promise and right here. I just love the deep conversations asher and David and Damien and Huxley had amidst all that chaos. And how they were there for each other. The voice acting was chef kiss and I was crying.

- …Sam. I used to i really did but now he and darling feel more like characters is ship than me being darlin being with him

- heroes of Olympus and book of life

- Huxley. He is so friend shaped.

- onigiri, ramen and a drink! (Could range from boba to juice to jsut coffee)

- a playlist that seems like it’s for long distance relationship but it’s really abt being in love with someone fictional and being really hurt they’re “far away”. And few other dedicated/inspired by characters I like. There’s one for denki kaminari I really enjoy and it’s just songs with the general “you’re way out of my league yet I still got you how tf-?” Vibe

I’m so sorry for talking so much.

Oh, this is easy. I’ve thought actively about the parallels between BNHA and Redacted characters, and Asher Talbot is the Denki Kaminari who’d love a black/ginger cat partner.

First things first, I like your music taste for him; you seem to like really fun music that brings you joy, and I think Asher would always vibe with it, you know? I can easily see him singing along with “Into My Arms” while y’all are riding along in the car and giving you this cheeky grin when that verse comes on. He feels charming, clever, and cute singing it even though he didn’t write it, but goddammit, he is really cute though.

Another fun thing is that I think you’d both like a lot of the same things! Asher definitely strikes me as having been a Percy Jackson/Magnus Chase kid, playing Camp Half-Blood campers with the other Shaw kids, deciding who would be in whose cabin. Asher’s one of the Redacted bois who I can see as an anime fan- BNHA, One Piece, Naruto definitely but not ashamed to watch a little shoujo, a little Horimiya perhaps.

Song:

Angels danced the day that you were born/ Oh I'm so sure/ They celebrated when you arrived/ You're so bright/ I swear you swallowed the Sun/ And I am so in awe/ Just basking in your light

One, this song is super cute and romantic and singable. It’s a sweet, little bop; I highly recommend it. Two, it’s a song about Tamaki Amajiki being in love with Mirio, an introvert in love with their comfort, sunshine, golden retriever extrovert. It works beautifully.

Runner-Ups:

You know who definitely watches anime and would love anime-related video essays? Guy, and he knows the obscure shit- anything but horror. Now, hear me out- the Casper thing would be a really cute basis for a relationship with Regulus if he weren’t insane, I’m just saying-

Note: Have you heard the song “When Someone’s In Love With Me” by Jacob Oman? It’s literally a love song that sounds like it’s pining over a ex, but it’s actually about fictional characters setting your standards too high, it’s really good. Also, you could never talk too much. Let your words be heard; they’re lovely ❣️

Read this post and send me an ask if you’d like a match-up of your own! 💌

[cntarella]

Tagged by @domokunrainbowkinz haven't actually done one of these in a while.

Rules: in a text post, list ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard — they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you.

Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux — Read this when I was 7 and it became my entire personality for 20+ years, I don't know who I'd be without this book because it so profoundly shaped my aesthetic and literary taste.

Paradise Lost by John Milton — I'm just saying that if I were one of those pretty penitent Catholic school girls who first got to see the installation of la genie du mal, I too would've wanted to fuck the devil. Paradise Lost has the same effect on me.

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson — To me, such, such an underrated author and book. I know it won the World Fantasy Award but I think people should be talking about this book more!!!! putting aside the incredible setting (1940s new york mafia assassin with superpowers handed down from the trauma of their ancestors), ADJ is a superb writer who manages to gut you and gut you and gut you scene after scene. The ending of this book has one of the most scream-worthy letters I've seen since Amberlough and Persuasion (WHEN WE RETURN TO THE WHEEL OF LIFE YOU AND I, WE WILL FIND EACH OTHER AGAIN SEVEN LIFETIMES AND SEVEN LIFETIMES MORE. im literally taking a knife and eviserating myself rn thinking about it)

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman — cheating, cause this is a series but i'll allow it cause it is a series of all time. Also one of the few authors I've found to ever create a non-annoying animal companion to go with you on a quest. Lyra and Pantalaimon, you will forever be famous.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov — love of my life fire of my loins my sweet beloved who is constantly misrepresented on here, the illiteracy website. I wish I could take back everyone's reading experience of this until we've had a discussion about authorial intent. Aside from that, Nabokov is one of my favorite writers of all time; his word choice is inspired and decadent, and one of the more digestible Russians to grace my bookshelf lmao (sorry doestoevsky and tolstoy, i love you but sometimes...)

Pictures of the Floating World by Amy Lowell — A hiss of gold/ Blooming out of darkness,/ Rockets exploded,/ And died in a soft dripping of colored stars. J U S T how do words how do poetry. i love you amy lowell lesbian icon i want to eat all of your poems up in one bite

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wollheben — one of the few nonfictions I recommend to everyone. I think we could all benefit a little more from learning about trees, and especially trees not just as part of the ecosystem but as individuals who form a community. This book really opened my eyes to how connected every single living thing is in this world, and how everything speaks to each other :))) trees i love you trees i'd die for you

The Doloriad by Missouri Williams — Now here is a fucked up book. I wish all the incest girlies of tumblr would read this and talk to me about it. I haven't been able to stop thinking abt this book since I read it, and Missouri Williams' writing is honestly top-tier, super slippery and well crafted

Prince's Gambit by CS Pacat — enjoyed this whole series but this middle book is simply top tier, which is honestly amazing cause second books generally tend to be the worst. I want to dissect Pacat's brain to figure out how they manage to make the pay off that delicious. Laurent my original little meow meow you've done nothing wrong in your life

Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente — i know the tumblrinas have gotten this one out of their system in like, 2015-2017, but i think we should talk about this more!!!!! who is doing it like Valente.

Idk who to tag, but feel free to do this if you would so like and tag me in it. I love hearing about ppl's formative books.

[wee-miss-noone]

For the Choose Violence ask game - Discworld 12, 17, 18, 22

Hello! And thanks fro the ask <3

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Igor from the Monstrous Regiment. It's not that she's unpopular but she's not as talked about as other Discworld character, which makes sense since she's just a minor character in one novel, but I just wish I could see more of her. Igors are such interesting family/species (are they an idependent species? not sure) but most of the ones which appear in Dicsworl novels are men and it would be very cool to see how female Igors operate. also Igor was such a badass - just sew her own scalp on, can switch her face however she wants - would make for a great undercover agent and I really want to see that kinda story

Also Letitia Keepsake. The girl starts as the stereotypical shallow fiancee of a man Tifanny may or may not fancy but then proves to be such empathetic caring girl with incredible potential to be a witch. She gives a Teddy bear to a wailing ghost! And a pumpkin to a headless rider spectre so he could carry it around instead a head! Her mother is this awful bosy judgy woman and it would be easy for Letitia to be just her mother's brainless lackey and I mean she is under her mother's thumb in a way, but she also does her own things and is curious and kind and brave and frankly a bit too good for Roland but I digress. Anyways I want more of her.

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

There should be more art of the entire Monstrous Regiment regiment. Most art is of Poly and Maledicta but all regiment members are so cool. Also more Angua fanart.

As for fics I think every fandom should have *insert character that dies in canon* meets Death (or Susan bcs Death is on the vacation) fic, just for fun and to help deal with the trauma

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

I feel like I don't see people talk about the discworld trolls that much. Which I feel is usch a shame because they are such an interesting species… I mean they get stereatyped as being big and dumb but they're actually quite clever only they are constantly in an enviroment which does not allow their intellect to be shown.

Also idk if this counts but I find it said no one is discussing paralels between Lavender Jack the webcomic and Captain Vimes (specifically in Nightwatch). I know it's random and most people do not talk abt it bcs they just have not read the Lavender Jack. still I think it's be cool

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

I'm basic bitch so I don't think I have a bit which only I appreciatte. But as soemone who studies psychology I have great fondness to that one bit where Vimes explains that you cannot deduce someone's entire life from one time you pass him on the street because many things can have different meanings like a tattoo can mean the man spent time with navy or that he made a drunk decision to get tatttoed when he was a teenager. And that's rings so true becuase in psychology there are a lot of symptoms and behavioral patterns hwich can mean certain mental condition... or another condition which is completely different or it can be normal behavior given the right circumstances - and that's why diagnozing is so hard, even though I met a lot of people in my life who think that just because someone acts certain way they have to be *insert diagnosis here*. which is according to these people *bad*. My point is basically that I like the aknowledgement that things are not always striaght cut becuase HUMANS ARE COMPLICATED

Also, but this is more of a language barrier thing and technically not and issue relating canon - something I really love but a lot of people have no chance of experiencing are the joys of czech tranlsation of the books. The translator Jan Kanturek did absolutely masterful job and he often adds his own translator notes to make some interesting comments (not like adding to the Discworld lore, but like to explain certain real world references or highlight soem hilarious parts) and I mean if oyu like disworld footnotes from Sir Terry I can guarantee these ones are also great. (There was this one where he explained the czech/slovak word "kurva" (meaning wh*re) used to be an archaic term to refer to girls in general so about a century ago a proud parent somewhere in Moravia may proclaim something like "we have two little boys and a little wh*re" and idk but I still remember that one to this day and like to quote it on people to show how the language changes)

Also also - unrelated but ever since I read I Shall Wear Midnight my dream wedding ceremony invovles jumping through fire and while the officiant calls me and my significant other profanities XD.

[suhmayzooka]

Please tell us more about your thesis topic I love hearing your thoughts on the Aeneid

omg?? i'm so flattered!

idk how familiar u are with the aeneid already, but basically it's an epic poem written by a guy named vergil, kind of like the iliad and the odyssey by homer, but roman. it follows the adventures of aeneas, a trojan hero and son of venus, who flees his home (troy) with his family and his men after the greeks attack (you may know abt how they came to the city hidden in a wooden horse--that scene is in the aeneid! it's always heartbreaking when ppl read homer and are like "i thought the trojan horse would show up" noooo read the aeneid!)

aeneas must go to italy bc he's destined to found rome, but on the way he does cool things like hook up with queen dido of carthage and, what i want to discuss, go down to the underworld to learn about his fate from his dead father. 

the whole poem is 12 "books" long, and the underworld happens in book 6.

going to the underworld is a common thing in classical epics. it's called a katabasis (literally means "going down") and many mythological heroes do it—odysseus, orpheus (he's important), hercules,, lots more (and it's not exclusive to ancient greece/rome, most cultures have some kind of myth about characters going down to the underworld to speak with the dead)

if you know dante, or really anything about christianity, you already have some idea what vergil's underworld is like. dante's Divine Comedy is about vergil (the aeneid guy) showing dante around the underworld, which became the basis for how the church understood the afterlife. the christian interpretation of the afterlife and hell is heavily influenced by the aeneid's depiction, which is one reason this specific episode has been the source of many many years of study. 

that's not what I'm actually writing abt, though, i just wanted to give some background. 

aeneas doesn't just go down to the underworld, see his dad, and return to the land of the living... several very specific things happen

first, he doesn't go alone. he must be led by a sibyl, a prophet. she instructs aeneas how to enter and acts as his tour guide, pointing out different areas in the underworld and explaining what's going on

before going, aeneas must take a golden bough (branch) to give to the queen of the underworld, proserpina (persephone in greek), which will allow him to travel through the underworld

vergil prefaces the journey with an invocation to the gods

the actual book basically is divided in two parts: the first half describes aeneas’ journey in the underworld, the final half is about aeneas talking to the ghost of his father who tells him about how his descendants will go on to found rome and be a long line of great leaders

there are two gates through which aeneas can leave the underworld: one is made of horn, which is for “true shades/ghosts,” the other is made of ivory for “false dreams” to pass through. aeneas goes through the gate of ivory and returns to the living world 

overall this book follows many examples of prior katabatic tradition, with the katabasis being a place where aeneas gains knowledge that’s really otherworldly in a place that functions very differently from the living world

what i want to write about is how the whole poem is like one big katabasis for the audience to experience, with vergil being our version of the sibyl guiding us along. different things aeneas experiences in the underworld mirror different things the audience experiences in the rest of the poem. for example, aeneas meet his father halfway through the book to gain new knowledge; this book, where we (the audience) gain new knowledge, is halfway through the whole poem. there’s a distinct shift in the two halves of this book, just like there’s a distinct shift in the two halves of the aeneid as a whole.

or how vergil begins the katabasis with an invocation (calling upon) the gods, he begins book 1 of the poem with an invocation to the muse (as is the epic tradition). how aeneas experiencing various contradictory aspects in the underworld mirrors how the aeneid as a whole is both a celebration and a criticism of rome. before he learns his future, aeneas must see reminders of his past, the ghosts of people who died earlier; the audience is being reminded of rome’s past throughout the whole poem, especially here where we see the line of roman rulers (like caesar), whom the audience is already familiar with. now i’m gonna find other parallels, like narrowing down which episodes in the epic could correspond to, like, aeneas plucking the golden bough, and a few other scenes which i think are katabatic in nature

basically along these lines ^^

overall i’m not so much interested in the actual plot of the epic, or even vergil’s intentions as the author, than i am interested in thinking of it as a mirror for the audience. 

(not to derail but that’s basically what i was talking abt earlier here with bat comics, like i’m less interested in what the actual story is than i am interested in how (or whether) the audience is acknowledged. it’s also the mindset i’m coming from with posts like this bc like… to me i find it interesting how bruce denying something the audience already knows, like he’s gaslighting himself and the audience, mirrors how an abusive parent gaslights themselves/others (even though i know it’s not intentional, it’s fun for me to think about from the perspective of being the reader who watches these events happening then to see them changed in the story like a denial of facts brought on by immense grief/trauma)... but i guess it didn’t come across well enough hahah ;;)

uhh yea that's the basic idea! thanks for asking !!

[pinkcannibal]

I just wanna say how much I love your writing. During my freshman and sophomore year, I had a teacher whom I had a really good bond with, and people were aware of our closeness. She knew that I was the “yeah ofc, I’d do anything for you” type of girl to her favorite teacher. She knew everything about me such as my relationship with my parents and things going on in my life in general. She knew my parents were both verbally and rarely physically abusive with me so I guess she took that as an opportunity to slot herself into my life to play a role as a supportive adult that I never really had growing up. Oftentimes, we would talk in social media even though she made it clear that she doesn’t follow her students until they graduate, but somehow made an exception for me, she would give me little gives four times a week, offer to take me out on weekends, and all that. I knew what we had was wrong but I didn’t care because I was blinded by the attention I was given from her. I allowed her to do anything in my life, even if that meant to ruin it, and it was something I found attractive. In my sophomore year, I introduced her to my girlfriend and a few days later, she somehow emotionally manipulated me into breaking up with her because she knew “I could do better.” Anyways, I’m trying to say that you’ve got to be my favorite student x teacher writer imo. This is the first book that I feel like I actually connected with the reader and her relationship with Marilyn, just without the sex. This book is so addicting to read because it’s kinda like a small reflection of things happening in real life to me, and maybe some other people too. You really know how to make your readers shiver with how good Marilyn’s dialogs have been throughout the whole book. I’d do anything to read this for the first time again because oh lawd- I just wanna say thank you for writing this amazing piece because it’s seriously a #1 in every teacher x student I’ve ever read. You’re so underrated and I believe that you deserve more than what you have right now. Your style of writing actually touches my heart and makes my stomach flutter. In your latest chapter, chapter 15, I love how you made Marilyns first instinct to understand and try ti reason with the reader, rather than arguing back with her. I just wanna say thank you, and I love you so much for this amazing piece. Keep up the great work and I hope to see that you get more recognition soon!

oh wow! first off i just wanna say im really sorry you went through something like that, and how its affected you, but i also can see that this story is therapeutic for you in the way you've worded this message, and im glad it can be cathartic and an outlet in that way! thanks so much for the kind words abt my writing that is seriously so nice x ksdksd its sweet being referred to as 'underrated' so thanks! hope ur well!