#without just. explaining the entire plot of hamlet.

[theminecraftgay]

Denmark’s a prison.

[m--rtyr]

I know the post was mostly focusing on Gilf Garroth but I also just love the idea of an older Aph, one I'm her 40's or 50's because it makes the plot make sense and can be used to explain so much.

1. If an older woman lord adopts a bunch of children no one would bat an eye, as she is ensuring an heir. Also makes Alinas birth entirely more surprising as the likelihood of pregnancy can dimish as one hits their 40's.

2. Makes her entire identity of being a lord a whole lot more plausible. Simply put, if a random woman in her 20's became the lord of my village I would be deeply confused and mistrustful but if a woman in her 40's came in and took over I wouldn't think twice.

3. MILF JOKES

4. Realistically, all of the cast would be older than their early 20s, given the amount of experience each person has, and it can expand the timeline to actually make sense.

5. She is literally the Matron! There is no reason she should be a 20-year old but absolutely should be a middle aged woman who has a loving aura.

I am all for it, and even more for it if Garroth is also older because it could make Garte searching for his son be a lot more desperate. Garte is on his death bed and he knows that while Zane is amazing at politics, he cannot be trusted to lead a country. Garte is a senile old man searching for power fueled by his son who is giving very much evil brother to the dead king vibes. Giving Hamlet.

Seriously, I would love more information or ideas about it if you have them

Literally rambling about the implications of an older cast on the disc. lol. Crazy in my corner about this.

We were conversing on the concept of like if Garroth and Nicole were older. Because they would preferably both be older… considering the marriage thing.

And it could either go: they both ran away in recent years, the marriage was one done because neither agreed to marriage pacts on their own and the families had to intervene and decided this was for the best.

Or,: they’ve been gone this whole time, the marriage was decided when they were young, and they’ve both been away from their respective cities for so long that Garroth not really understanding much about Zane or his motivations makes sense, since it’s been probably a few decades since they last saw eachother. They’ve both grown into people separate from their pasts, but they can never be truly free of it. The reason they can hide so well so many years later is simply because people have just stopped looking. Until recently.

Like this whole idea of Garte being old and one sneeze from an embalming and yet without any viable heirs is a big deal. Because Zane is his only choice anymore. He’s too old to create new heirs. And it can’t be Zane. Even Garte can see that. Garte, who in his final years wants to conquer the region because it’s the last grapple he has of power before his bloodline inevitably dies out, can see in Zane something that not even he would risk giving that power. Zane cannot be his legacy. His legacy needs to be the other one.

And I’m just repeating what you’re saying but RAHH

As for older Aph. Oh my god. I love her.

I keep thinking of the Maiden/Mother/Crone thing in relation to her for some reason? Idk. I might do something with that. But either way, I’m kissing her on the mouth. You’re telling me some hot 40 year old woman comes to your village yapping on about ‘swag’ and being honestly probably clinically insane and you’re not going to ask for her hand in marriage? Bro.

I think some characters do benefit from the idea of being younger in relation to the rest of the cast. Like Dante. Just because he is meant to be very much the over-eager, super-skilled, but lacking experience type of character. Like he has the motivation and the ability, but he just doesn’t know enough. He’s gotta get knocked around by the other characters a bit before he gets his footing. He’s a blabber mouth who has technical ability but against someone like Garroth will always fail because he hasn’t really learned what real fights are like.

But again that’s just in relation to the cast. And he does end up older later on and it suits him later on. When he has that experience and has grown. And he’s wonderful.

I have more ideas I just keep thinking of older Zane in his little catholic priest fit and I can’t concentrate. I’ll say more stuff later if you have any ideas or want to know my thoughts on aging other characters particularly older or younger (in relation to the rest of the cast)

[karamazovdmitri]

What Russian movies would you recommend?

oh my god where to even start!! i really love soviet cinema so this is most of what i will suggest probably (im kind of meh on most recent mainstream russian cinema, even tho it has great pieces of guilty pleasure movies lmao) alright so settle in well okay lets start with the classics: andrei tarkovsky is my favorite filmmaker, literally anything and everything by him (just dont watch nostalghia first, but i highly recommend the mirror, stalker, solaris if you like SF, or hell even andrei rublev if thats your jam bc personally it is and i LOVED), very contemplative and slow movies though, like. you will need patience to get through his stuff, but personally i always say it feels like someone recorded a dream and you're watching that. it feels really oniric and its like you dont exactly grasp it all and when you try to explain it you cant really but good god its good

then! i will recommend one of my all-time favorite movies, and i mean it, of ALL times, the ascent by larisa shepitko. its about two soldiers during wwii who are sent off to find food, and its one of those war movies that arent really war movies you know but they are about it, and moreso, they're about like Humanity™? anyway one of the most haunting, beautiful and devastating movies i've seen ever. just beautiful in the cinematography, in the acting, in just everything honestly, its raw and profoundly human and also if youre like me and youre all about that religious symbolism? youre in for a... sad sad treat, but a treat nonetheless. it really like. got me deep like i didnt know what to do with myself after watching it but its a masterpiece 10000% (also while im there... also watch larisa sheptiko's other movie, wings)

now another classic is of course the cranes are flying, everyone knows but i need to reiterate it really lives up to the hype... just. some of the most beautiful cinnamon tography ive seen ever. like ill be honest even if i love cinematography in general i rarely go look up a cinematographer specifically but for this movie i HAD to bc some camera shots are INSANE. just one of the most gorgeous movies ive seen ever

if we're still going about aesthetic bc why not... if you liked hamlet by shakespeare, you HAVE to see the 1964 Hamlet movie its sooo gorgeous and such a good adaptation in my opinion like i just think this movie understands EVERYTHING about the essence of the play

now the next one i wouldnt necessarily put on the same scale as the others but good god is it a good watch, and its ballad of a soldier yes its another classic idc the soviet classics arent classics for nothing. this one is a really nice watch. just felt..... really nice and once again war movie thats not really showing you the war itself, i dig this hardcore

okay also ! not soviet lmfao but HUGE mention to alexander sokurov, you probably know of russian ark, if you dont, its not only a fucking prowess of cinematography, its basically one single continous shot for the entire movie and not like. a fake one like 1917 -tho dont get me wrong, loved what 1917 did-, like its deadass. press record, do the entire fucking movie, press stop. its INSANE and its BEAUTIFUL and im in love with sokurov's style, not as well known but i also loved francofonia, tho its a lot more experimental imo and is more documentary than movie, but also not documentary per se, i guess an essay of sorts, kind of confusing but i enjoyed it

i could not do this without of course mentioning one of my comfort movies™, which is я шагаю по мосве (translated as different things, like walking the streets of moscow or i walk around moscow) just a short and really sweet and light movie about . life i guess. LMAO its vague but theres really no real plot in there just a good time and very genuine and also has one of my favorite final scenes ever quick special mentions: courier, which was not my favorite but a really good movie still and it gets me bc its 1980s russia aka my jam, crime and punishment 1970 IF youve read C&P bc umm its an entire vibe, and remember when i said modern russian cinema guilty pleasure? okay well i rewatched движение вверх recently and like. it still slaps. if youre wondering (???) i need you to know i havent watched a zvyaginstev movie since i was like 16 so i dont have a concrete opinion on his stuff lmao)

sorry i wrote like SO fucking much but jaksfbajfbajsfh i hope this can provide you with some stuff of interests and btw a lot of these movies can be found with russian film hub, which basically like searches youtube and whatnot for you since mosfilm are actually pretty cool and do put their movies online

[bewaretheidesofmarchyall]

Soulmate Shenanigans

So, lucky me, I found this list of prompts!

Unlucky me, it was for a September event. Surprise, surprise, this is not September

That isn’t going to stop me from doing this, though!

So, without further ado, prompt number one!

Your Soulmate’s name is written on your wrist or palm

Warnings for death mentions galore and drowning, as well as something that isn’t drug use, but if drug use is a triggering topic for you I wouldn’t recommend you read

Not as angsty as these warnings would suggest, but there is still Angst

I don’t know how it got angsty I just work here

World building

The first recorded instance of a palm mark was when Lady Natalia of Venice nearly drowned in a canal

She’d been on her way home from a party alongside her fiance when she “tripped” (the word “tripped” here means “Was pushed by her fiance for financial reasons”) into the river. Her husband-to-be quickly exited the scene, leaving her to be weighed down by her skirts and die.

Angela (forger of swords and mixer of poisons, just happened to be in the neighborhood when she heard a scream and a splash) had other plans. She dove into the water, saving Natalia and cutting her hand in the process.

The two women spent a good deal of time together after that, the scientific Natalia claiming that she only wanted to know why her name was on Angela’s hand.

Some historians claim that the two were platonic soulmates. While this is possible, and platonic soulmates have a long and wonderful history, no one with common sense believes this to be the case

They exchanged love letters that were quite clear that the attraction was a romantic one.

Some historians also claim that there isn’t enough evidence to suggest that they killed the fiance.

Those historians are wrong.

Anyway, in modern days 97% of the population has a palm mark with the name of their soulmate

The tattoo industry has never had so many illegal opportunities

When your soulmate dies, the name doesn’t scar. It doesn’t blister, burn, or black out. All that happens is a thin, impersonal line crossing their name out. Some people don’t notice who they lost for days.

There’s a process to remove palm marks. However, it’s illegal and possibly fatal for the soulmate being removed.

Our Characters

Roman: Roman was confused by the name of his soulmate.

Who names their kid “Janus”?

Am I soulmates with a roman deity? The heck?? SO MANY QUESTIONS AND SO LITTLE ANSWERS

Roman was so excited to have a soulmate. He kept entire journals filled with things he wanted to tell Janus, part diary, part scrapbook, and part love letter. He would doodle hearts around his palm mark.

One night, in April, Roman went to sleep. In the morning, there was a line across his palm.

His soulmate had died, and he hadn’t even seen the line drawn. He broke a little.

Enough said.

Roman took the passion that he’d had for his Janus and channeled it into his acting. If he couldn’t get love, he’d get a fucking Tony Award.

Remus: Remus had been annoyed by his brother’s complaining.

“Oh, boo-hoo, my soulmate has a rare name. That means that as soon as I meet him, I’ll know exactly who he is! Roman, DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE NAMED LOGAN”

Remus was annoyed that his soulmate had the audacity to have a common name. In theory, he could date all of the 18,000 Logans in the country, but does he really have the time?

He and his brother bicker about this for a solid seven years, until the argument abruptly ends. Ever since then, he’s been on his brother’s side in everything he can.

Logan: It made total sense for Logan to not have a soulmate.

His soulmate would have been unlucky, being stuck with a know-it-all like him, at least according to most of the people he knew.

This was a simple solution to the puzzle.

It wasn’t helpful to waste time wishing for a different one.

Janus: Janus had a whole plan for when he met his soulmate.

He wrote it down in 10th grade

Step 1: Wear gloves

Step 2: Find Roman

Step 3: Say something witty

Step 4: Remove gloves, revealing palm

Step 5: This little mystery is over and done with, and hopefully my soulmate isn’t boring

This was how a lot of Janus’s plans would work. Solid ideas, but missing bits and important pieces. This includes his heist plan he scribbled out on a napkin on an April day.

Step 1: Find local con-artists

Step 2: Pretend to be a person with money (which I obviously do not have)

Step 3: Scam them

Step 4: Don’t get murdered on the way out

Step 5: Profit

He pulled off steps 1-3 with ease, but step 4 proved to be a sticking point.

As he escaped via the river, with money in his hands and a “so long, suckers!” on his lips for drama, he thought nothing could go wrong

Fun fact: It’s rather common for con artists to fatally give away their positions by yelling “so long, suckers!”. Just ask Odysseus as he sailed away from the Cyclops.

The con artists shot wildly at his boat, blowing it to pieces. As he went down with the ship, he barely had enough time to think this can’t be happening, and fuck this and I’m going to die at the same age as Philip fucking Hamilton and I really don’t want to go to hell before his lungs filled with water and his heart stopped.

And Janus died.

For a solid two minutes.

Technically, death is when your heart ceases to beat. Even though people have been revived after their hearts have stopped, it is death, and enough to draw a line across a sleeping Roman’s hand.

Janus, however, was saved by an old man, who dragged him out of the river and forced the water out of his lungs. The old man took one look at the teenager and decided that he needed better role models, which is how Patton took Janus under his wing and saved his life in more ways than one.

The Actual Plot

Roman is in a city production of Hamlet. His brother is in the audience, his friend is fixing the lighting, and he’s ready to go.

It’s a pretty good performance, by all accounts, but especially according to Janus.

He’d already been watching the main actor intently, smiling from the mezzanine, but he was even more intrigued when he read the playbill and realized his name was Roman. He could barely pay attention to act five as he planned out the lies he’d tell to get backstage.

Somehow, he didn’t get caught sneaking around, and managed to catch a glimpse of Roman’s hand in a mirror. Janus. He really is his soulmate!

Janus walks over to Roman, says something that isn’t as witty as he would have liked (but not as bad as it could have been), and removes his glove.

Now, he expected his soulmate could have a variety of reactions. He didn’t expect Roman to yell “Not today, ghost!”, throw a prop skull at him, and sprint out of the theater. Janus caught a glimpse of the line through his name.

He was reasonably sure that he wasn’t dead? He could see his reflection in mirrors, he could consume salt, people tended to notice his existence!

Jan didn’t have much time to mull over this, as he was about to be forcibly removed from the greenroom. Logan just wanted to fix the lighting and live his life, but when strangers break into the backstage and upset Roman...

Jan skedaddles as Logan chases him out of the building. The nerd has almost caught the intruder when he runs directly into a man in a green jacket holding a coffee cup full of ketchup

Why did he have a coffee cup full of ketchup?

Remus and Logan bicker as Janus escapes. When Remus realizes Logan’s name, he asks a few questions, but Logan quickly shows his two blank palms, and the matter is settled.

Everything seems over and done with.

Meanwhile, Roman is freaking out. His mind is essentially in a loop of The fuck? The fuck? The actual fuck? He’s completely unsure of what to do. Is he seeing ghosts? Does he only believe he’s seeing ghosts? Is he sane or not?

Remus checks up on his brother at around 3 am, only to find him, exhausted, and writing in his old soulmate journal. Roman tries to explain what just happened, but the narrative told isn’t exactly coherent. All Remus can gather is that

1. His brother thinks that his dead soulmate is alive

2. This is because some guy snuck backstage and told him that he was the dead soulmate in question

3. This was probably the guy Logan was chasing

Remus convinced Roman to go to sleep, and walked out of the apartment with blood on his mind. He was sure that his brother was being manipulated.

This guy might not be dead now, but he would be soon.

Meanwhile, Janus proves that he can, in fact, cross a salt circle, so he must be alive! Right?? He also can’t get a certain actor out of his head, and wonders what his next move should be.

Remus recruits Logan to help him do some investigation in case Shady Liar Dude shows up. They go on several stakeouts together, in equally improbable locations. Maybe the two of them got too far into the secret agent aesthetic. Logan had always wanted to be a detective as a kid.

They fall for each other, and fast

Roman is spiraling, and a chat with Remus has him convinced that he was wrong, and Janus really is dead. He curses himself for believing in the pretty fairy-tale. Yes, because love wins in the end and they all live happily ever after. He has a performance tomorrow.

And it’s really time he got rid of the old scar.

You don’t hang around Remus without knowing where the black market locations are. It’s relatively easy to find the cure for palm marks.

He paces around backstage, holding a journal in one hand and a small bottle in the other. The warning that destroying the palm mark destroys the soulmate causes terror to rise in his throat, even though he knows that Janus is dead and can never read his love letters no matter how many stars he wishes on.

He finally makes his choice when Remus and Logan visit him before the performance. They give him looks of pity. He doesn’t want to be pitied.

According to the label, effects should take place over the next several hours. So, he waits for Janus’s name to disappear from his hand.

Janus managed to hustle someone with orchestra seats for their tickets. Despite not getting off on the right foot with his soulmate, he isn’t going to let him go that easily. And Roman’s brilliant performance that night just reinforces that. If he was good weeks ago, he was a star now. Janus was transfixed.

When the curtain call came, Janus was the first on his feet for a standing ovation. Remus and Logan noticed him, and pushed their way through the applauding audience. Both of them almost hoped that he’d get away again so they could continue spending time together.

Roman notices him. They lock eyes. Janus waves as though to say Hi, I’m here, apologies for the awkwardness of our meet-cute, but coffee? Roman gives him a look of disdain, as if to say I can’t believe I thought you were my soulmate, you con artist. He intends to look away and bask in the applause, but before he can do that, Janus collapeses.

Roman is confused at first, and then it clicks. That’s his soulmate. That’s his Janus.

And he killed him.

Pandemonium breaks out. Roman leaps off the stage, Remus freezes in panicked comprehension, the crowd scatters, and several people try to reach the dying man.

Logan gets there first. His mind scans memories of hours spent in libraries, researching everything there is to know about palm marks. Why didn’t some people have them? How did you lose them? How could you get them back?

He instructs Remus and Roman to help carry Janus to the greenroom.

They race him there, everyone in a state of panic (including Logan, but more importantly he has a job to do). Logan tells Remus to run and get a few basic ingredients, and they wait. Time moves much too fast and much too slow, until he comes back.

Logan works chemical wonders, piecing together Roman’s hand until everything is stabilized.

A vicious scar, the type you’d except if your soulmate was really gone, forms on Roman’s palm, and it will stay there for the rest of his days.

Janus comes back from death’s door for the second time.

After The Drama

Logan and Remus eventually move past the “but I don’t have a soulmate” “and yet I still am in love with you” dithering and go on a date that isn’t for the purpose of stalking a supposed stalker.

They go to the aquarium.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot to work out between Roman and Janus. From “wow, you’re not dead” to “wow, I nearly murdered you”, we don’t have time to unpack all that.

But they do get coffee. And they talk.

Soulmate stuff! I really like soulmate aus, despite not liking to write straight up romance

It’s weird

Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

[butchhamlet]

ok [climbing onto the soapbox i stand on to yell] i do not have ocpd (so please correct me if i say anything inaccurate here!) but i do have ocd and i will rub my grubby very clean obsessive-compulsive hands on everything i love and the version of malvolio in my brain has ocpd and also deserved better

(disclaimer: obviously this is subjective and you can read/stage the play any way you want. this is the beauty of theater. etc etc etc. this is just My Hot Take)

ocpd is a personality disorder that’s similar to ocd. as you might expect from the name. it’s particularly linked to the Doing Things The Right Way aspect of obsessive-compulsive thinking (which is less of a thing with ocd than pop culture / jokes make it out to be, but still a thing sometimes!). some of the symptoms include:

debilitating perfectionism & a very strict attention to detail (malvolio does basically everything for olivia; he’s always on hand, he seems to have everything in order, AND he tends to explain himself at length, as if he’s shoring up logic for why he’s doing things Properly)

stiffness/formality/rigidity (...waves my hand... some kind of puritan... in less of a religious sense & more of a mannerism sense)

placing work over interpersonal relationships + trouble expressing feelings and thus forming relationships in the first place (could be a reason why he finds it so hard to get along with even people like feste, who’s a coworker and not just some noble who looks down on him)

feeling unable to share/delegate work in case it’s done wrong (bro does olivia have any other servants. malvolio is your back sore from carrying the entire household)

feeling righteous and even indignant/angry about their stance on the way things Should Be Done (oprah shrugging gif)

the main difference between ocpd and ocd is that ocpd is a personality disorder and ocd is an anxiety disorder. and the thing about ocd is that people with ocd are Aware it’s an anxiety disorder. because it’s hellish. with ocd the cycle of obsessions and compulsions is extremely distressing; obsessions are random thoughts (often based off of one’s worst fears) and compulsions are usually irrational behaviors, and even people without a diagnosis / who don’t know what’s going on are aware that SOMETHING’S going on because it’s like. being trapped in a cage that is also your brain.

but with ocpd there aren’t “real” obsessions and compulsions; there are “obsessions” over details in the more colloquial sense of an obsession, but the repetitive hell cycle isn’t there. and people with ocpd do not have a sense that something’s wrong. because from their perspective, everything they’re doing is perfectly rational and it’s actually everyone else in the world who is wrong.

(not to cross plays, but i once said i was going to make a hamlet-has-ocd post and i swear i will one of these days, i just know it’s gonna be long as fuck so i want to reread hamlet first and get my data in order and the reason i thought of ocpd wrt malvolio is, like... characters i see as ocd are clearly distressed by their thoughts. hamlet’s doubt and overthinking and repetitive questioning makes him fucking miserable. malvolio doesn’t have that going on which, like, okay he’s 1) a character in a comedy and 2) not the main character so we’re not in his head so much but my point still stands.)

anyway, i just think it’s interesting the way this headcanon affects the dynamics at hand in the rest of the play, particularly if you want to lean into the Malvolio Deserved Better side of things (which i do), because it introduces the idea that what toby/feste/andrew/maria see as malvolio being stuck-up and irritating is a mental illness that he can’t really help (obviously there’s stuff you can do to manage a mental illness but it doesn’t go Away), which makes their reactions / the whole gulling/revenge plot much much more sinister and upsetting. plus it all just adds a layer of depth to malvolio that imo makes him more sympathetic and interesting than “he’s that guy in your politisci class who starts every sentence with well, actually”

this post brought to you by: my neurodivergent and obsessive-compulsive ass seeing a character with very rigid Rules about life and going you

[manuscripts-dontburn]

D: A Tale of Two Worlds

Author: Michel Faber

First published: 2020

Pages: 304

Rating: ★★★☆☆

How long did it take: 5 days

I would not hesitate to put this book into the hands of any child and that, I believe, is the biggest praise for a children's book. Unfortunately for me as an adult reader some things simply did not reach their potential. Perhaps it is my own fault for not having read anything by Dickens yet (aside from The Chrismas Carol), but references may have flown over my head. The story itself is a bit too straightforward and the adventure itself, while not without its moments (among which the best is the episode in the creepy hotel), extremely simplistic - and yet never explained in a satisfactory manner. The questions of why and how and for what purpose are not answered and while that may not be necessary to a child who can simply cheer Dhikilo on, it doesn't satisfy an older reader.

The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

Author: Neil Price

First published: 2020

Pages: 624

Rating: ★★★★★

How long did it take: 8 days

Achievement of research, choice of topics and compulsively readable writing.

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man

Author: Mary L. Trump

First published: 2020

Pages: 225

Rating: ★★★★☆

How long did it take: 2 days

In spite of what you may think while going into this book, it is neither a Donald Trump biography neither a deep psychological study of his deranged personality. It is partly a memoir and partly a family portrait drawn by a person who is, in a way, inside and yet, in another way, left out of that family. Mary L Trump reveals a lot about the toxic relationships which ran and still run throughout the Trump clan, who are pretty much just a bunch of extremely mediocre, uninspiring people who got lucky and got blinded by greed. I swear that if I read about a fictional family like theirs I would dismiss it as completely unrealistic, but yet there they were, rich and privileged and disgusting. There is nothing shocking revealed about Trump himself, we have all seen his insecurities, his failures, his lies and cruelty, but it was nonetheless interesting to see where exactly has all that come from. And yet, none of the explainings makes Trump any more likeable or worth of pity.

Navzdory básník zpívá

Author: Jarmila Loukotková

First published: 1957

Pages: 510

Rating: ★★★★☆

How long did it take: 9 days

Po dlouhé době jsem ochutnala českou klasiku a ačkoliv Villon jako postava mi k srdci nepřirostl, nelze než obdivovat Jarmilu Loukotkovou, její vládu nad jazykem a schopností vykreslit tak rozporuplnou osobnost. Především však je nutné ocenit jak hluboce (vysoce?) atmosférická tato kniha je, středověk z ní vyloženě dýchá.

The Way Past Winter

Author: Kiran Millwood-Hargrave

First published: 2018

Pages: 256

Rating: ★★★★☆

How long did it take: 2 days

This could have been much, much longer. There were so much material, themes and character development to work with! But if I try and be less subjective, I need to judge this book as it was intended to be: for pre-teen children. And in that case, I have nothing to criticize. This is a story about family ties, dressed up as a chase-and-discover adventure with some genuinely exciting and some genuinely dark parts. And as usual with Kiran Milwood Hargrave, it is beautifully written.

Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire

Author: Peter H. Wilson

First published: 2016

Pages: 1008

Rating: ★★★★★

How long did it take: 10 days

This beautifully executed and designed book is a real undertaking. I decided to go with an audiobook (funnily enough narrated by a guy called Napoleon) and I am glad of it because otherwise, I would be reading this until the next year. That said this is an excellently researched and presented study of the Holy Roman Empire, its justice system, its nationalities, its ambivalent relationship with the Catholic church and many other aspects. I imagine it would work best as a reference book. But just for the sheer amount of work that went into it I have to give it the highest rating.

My Cousin Rachel

Author: Daphne de Maurier

First published: 1951

Pages: 335

Rating: ★★★★★

How long did it take: 8 days

The way Daphne du Maurier plays with feelings, thoughts and motivations is masterful, as is the language she uses. Loved this.

Vita Nostra

Author: Marina & Sergei Dyachenko

First published: 2007

Pages: 416

Rating: ★★★★☆

How long did it take: 2 days

I have a massive headache and feel like I´m on drugs after finishing this book. I went into it under a false notion of it being sort of a "Harry Potter" magical school sort of book. A little further on I thought: OK, so it is Harry Potter meets The Secret History. On crack. By the time the second part rolled by my head was spinning. There is not really anything I could liken this to, it stands completely on its own. There is not much to talk about in regards to the plot: A young girl is, under rather shady circumstances, forced into attending an obscure school in a small town and her studies slowly but surely completely take over her entire existence. However, the atmosphere created, the steps she takes and her changing mindset are all fascinating to follow. Even though the protagonist starts at 16 and ends up as 19 years old, this is far from the typical "YA" as you can imagine. The campus life, for all the bizarre things going on around it, feels raw and absolutely real - complete with countless beer bottles, stolen soaps and knickers drying on the heater. I was uncomfortable with one of the main protagonists being referred to as "hunchback", even though we knew his name (this later disappears for... reasons which I won´t spoil) and I was also uncomfortable with the teachers openly encouraging our main character to lose her virginity the moment she turned 18 because apparently, that makes you more magic (simplifying here a LOT, but it was CREEPY and unnecessary). Then again the whole school was build on "weird" and "creepy" and the book manages to make the reader queazy and uncomfortable quite a lot. The ending almost flew over my head - unless you know certain things you will be completely lost - but in a very strange way... I found it oddly satisfying. I would recommend this to people whose buzz words include: dark academia, authentic campus life, pretentious philosophy, character-driven and "REALLY weird".

Hamlet

Author: William Shakespeare

First published: 1603

Pages: 159

Rating: ★★★★☆

How long did it take: 1 day

Finally can tick this off of my TBR. I respect and appreciate Shakespear rather than like him and that is all I am going to say.

Dangerous Alliance: An Austentacious Romance

Author: Jennieke Cohen

First published: 2019

Pages: 448

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

How long did it take: 4 days

Look, if I were 13 I would probably really enjoy this one. There is nothing exactly wrong with it and if you want something you do not need to use your brainpower for, go ahead. Unfortunately, I am 30-something reader with hundreds of books behind me, not to mention sarcasm for blood. So I found it on the whole dull and forgettable. Let´s just leave it at that.

[fencesandfrogs]

an abridged history/explanation of warrior cats if you didn’t read them as a kid and have questions (a primer)

welcome. i’m going to keep things to the point, this is not a plot summary, just, well, its a pandemic and people are seeking items of childhood comfort and its come to my attention that a lot of people didn’t read these books as kids and then they come up in conversation and they act shocked so! i felt compelled to write this.

[2.5k words, 10min read. section headers, no pictures. not a ton of helpful formatting. i don’t want to say don’t read this because obviously i wrote it and think it’s worth reading, but i’ll be honest, this is a lot.]

section one: about me

i was an avid reader as a child, most of which fits solidly into “stories for another time,” and some of which would necessitate me adding tags onto this post that are, well, not necessary. so i will skip over that backstory but for those aware of lexile scores, i had one that was too high for literally any book that was appropriate to give me. so reading in school was torture and reading for fun was excellent.

now because i was a first-ish grader and my mom was trying to keep the fifth harry potter out of my hands, she looked desperately for something else to pass to me. her friend, who had a daughter a year or two older than me, was into these cat books, and my mom was like “here honey you like cats” without thinking too much about it.

which is good, because as i’ll get into, it was a really good fit for me. but like a dozen books later she asked me about the plot and well. i think at that moment she realized that it might have been better to just let me read harry potter.

but yeah i continued to read them long past the recommended reading ages and still as a Young Adult will return to them for nostalgia, and also as i will get into, some really good books. (see a list of books for “morbidly curious but i don’t want to spend 56 to 168 hours reading this”)

i’m not fully caught up on the series but this is not a plot summary so that should not impact my ability to discuss this

section two: content warnings

these books (not this post) includes the following:

discussion of castration (1.1 series 1, book 1, i’m not including this on every item/discussion because this is a complicated series but i want to demo how up front some of this is)

teenage romance/sex/pregnancy (1.1ish-1.3 or 4, continues throughout the series quite a lot, comes up again in 3.4/5, 4.4-5, and a bit in 5)

death from childbirth (1.can’t remember which book, many others)

unwanted pregnancy (se super edition, or a longer one off novel, discussed in 4&5)

sex/implied, discussed, and very very very heavily hinted but never directly said/shown (1.1-3ish, se, other)

murder (constantly, 1.1, 1.4, literally every book, 3.5, i’m just listing the ones i remember off the top of my head that were particularly graphic)

disability/illness, esp. the debilitating and/or deadly nature of it (1.3-5ish, 3.1, but all of 3, 3.4ish)

dementia (1.3-5, i’ve heard in some of the later series?)

abuse (7/8 this is reported i haven’t read these books but based on what i know it’s def there)

child abandonment (1.4-5, 3.4/5, it’s also all over the place but i think those are the only major character incidents of it)

treason (1.3-5, all over the place)

the horror/tragedy of war (background, but pretty constant)

disagreeing with an integral religion/tradition (3, based on the series title, 8, and generally scattered)

the corrupting influence of power (1.4/5, possibly 7/8, others)

racism (1, 3-5, possibly others)

sexism (se, background)

patriarchal societies (se, seems to be somewhat softened based on what i’ve heard but i’m not entirely sure about this)

and more! but it starts to get stranger and this is enough to prove my point

basically everything that could go wrong does

oh yeah! child abuse also child abuse that’s a very major theme in the first series as well as during other points. and elder abuse in the first series.

okay i’ve made my point.

section three: the appeal

look. so. i think we’re kind of pastel-ify children’s literature based on movies. see, parents have to watch children’s movies with their kids, so they can’t be gritty and intense because a lot of parents will say “not for my nine year old! they can’t deal with treason!” and that seems to be bleeding into children’s literature.

but warriors is not that. it’s intense, it borders on “too gruesome for children,” and it’s from a time where kids books got to be serious and heavy and dark because they were about animals. which was great because i couldn’t find books at my reading level that weren’t too thematically difficult, so i got to read something below my reading level, but thematically too hard, so it kind of balanced out.

and then well. so. the series grows with the audience, but the books don’t grow in terms of like difficulty so new readers start deep into it and it’s a complicated thing, the fandom history is complex, but.

the appeal is that parents don’t usually read the books their kids read and so they see a book about cats and assume it’s fluff, and kids who are starved of complex content get to read hamlet-for-kids.

section four: worldbuilding/lore

oh yeah also there’s some really deep lore to explore. so there’s two bits of appeal.

i’m not doing a full world/plot summary, but i’ll explain some common elements here.

thunder/shadow/wind/riverclan: harry potter houses for cats (gryffindor, slytherin, hufflepuff, ravenclaw, except this doesn’t work for the last two but that’s fine because no one cares about them despite riverclan being pretty important in most of the books)

-kit/-paw/-star: naming conventions. everyone has a two part name. (we’ll use cinder as an example because i like the two cinders we know, even tho neither of them get to be cinderstar.) babies are -kit (cinderkit), then when they’re apprentices, which is like being a student, you know, elementary through high school, you’re paw, so cinderpaw. then you get an Official Name from ur clan leader (cinderheart). if you become clan leader, you get to be -star (cinderstar). i know i haven’t explained clan leaders bear with me. this is kind of important because i have the names burned into my memory so i cannot simply always call firestar firestar if he was firepaw at the time of the events i’m describing. it won’t be ambiguous, cinderheart/cinderpelt are a special case. if this is tricky for you it’s fine just only read the first part of the name.

clan (leader, deputy, medicine cat, elder): roles with in the clan. leaders literally have nine lives. deputies are next in line and chosen by the leader. leaders usually go through several deputies, because deputies don’t have nine lives. medicine cats are doctors. they also have an apprentice. those are all one per clan. elders are just retired cats. they’re not a special category per say, but i wanted to mention them.

warrior: adult.

warrior code: laws.

star clan: dead cats. this ties into the religion which is pretty important to the books but for the most part if you understand that dead cats get to give guidance and send their approval, you have the gist of it.

section five: so um, what the fuck

so we start with a cat named rusty who runs into the woods to join thunderclan and then his name is firepaw and we all forget that he’s named rusty except for like that one time it comes up again. bluestar is a great leader with some corrupt deputies but fireheart eventually takes care of it and becomes clan leader which is a big deal.

then a bunch of other shit happens and suddenly ashfur is possessing brackenstar and being (more) abusive to squirrelflight (who is on the outs with brackenstar anyway for lying about their kits jayfeather, hollyleaf, and lionheart because they’re actually the children of firestar’s other daughter leafpool who had them with crowfeather after she fell in love with him but he’s from windclan and she’s a medicine cat so that’s double illegal and apparently hollyleaf is alive even though she yeeted herself into a pit and died because she killed ashfur when he threatened to reveal this but couldn’t live with being the product of an illegal meeting and then it was all pointless because leafpool stopped being a medicine cat out of guilt anyway and jayfeather is just an ornery bitch about everything but especially all of this)

i’m not explaining any of that.

section six: i repeat: so um, what the fuck

so the thing about these books is they’re soap operas and dramas about cats and that means they get just as strange and chaotic as anything else in the genre. i think a lot of people like me, who read them as children, regard the series we knew as a child (usually either the first three or the first five, plus super editions) as something good and warm and comforting (despite being dark and gruesome) because they made us feel good.

they were also a breeding ground for young fandom because of all the the drama that exists and the nature of the books providing that.

section seven: super editions

the simple answer to what a super edition is has already been given (it’s a novel length one-off about a single character, and its usually either a side character - bluestar, crowfeather - or a event/perspective we don’t get to see - firestar, skyclan, greystripe - and they’re generally more mature)

my favorite super edition is bluestar’s prophecy. i read it at like 16, slinking into the children’s library with a stack of other ya fiction and a “children’s book” which dealt with unwanted pregnancy, grief, forbidden love, and more. still not sure why that’s in the children’s section.

section eight: about the drama

so there’s been a lot of fandom drama about these books. i can’t tell you about the nuances, because i am an old fan, so i watched but didn’t partake. the highlights reel that i can recall goes as follows (please note i will refer to characters by name without explanation. it’s fine. the point of this section is to convey the pettiness of this drama):

tigerstar: did he do anything wrong? (the answer is holy shit yes, this isn’t discourse, it’s okay to like a villain)

scourge: did he do anything wrong, also what color is his collar? (also yes, doesn’t matter)

was the new prophecy (2)/omen of the stars (3)/etc good? (yes, eh, no, yes, no comment, no comment)

should jaypaw or hollypaw be medicine cat apprentice (neither of them, but jaypaw’s employment opportunities are limited because he’s blind, so its gotta b him)

uhh a massive tangle around this parentage drama between squirrelflight, leafpool, brackenfur, and crowfeather, which i used as the crux of humor for how batshit the plots can get, so i’m not even going to pretend i can make it funny, but just know that it’s batshit and the correct opinion is as follows: no one is right, but squirrelflight has done the least wrong, brackenfur is an asshole to her where it’s unwarrented, and hollyleaf is an idiot

and the current drama centers around brackenstar and ashfur and is tied directly to the point above, which is why i’ve kind of given up trying to make jokes about this because this is the culmination of like 35 novels.

section nine: i feel like i need to have some conclusive point to justify writing all of this

but i don’t have one, because this was really an excuse to ramble about an old passion for like half an hour. i mean i guess i can say, like, i think younger fans are sort of embroiled in this drama they don’t really have context for, because i’m not kidding, the current drama centers around the grandchildren of our original cast.

it’s kind of hard to know why, say, mistystar matters if you don’t know that she’s the child of bluefur and oakheart and if you don’t remember the drama that surrounded that when bluestar was dying and tigerstar and leopardstar were ruling a combined shadow/riverclan.

(i really hope that’s intelligible i tried to lay the groundwork for it. basically, there’s a biracial kid in a very segregated society who becomes the leader of one of the clans. which is obviously drama, especially considering that that clan was part of a weird supremacy movement a while back.)

& you know? i really hope one of the new series gets to be like, a soft reboot. just. end the current drama and pick up again with the latest generation. a) we’re starting to run out of names, and b) i think that it’s kind of tipped over the edge of sane.

the series also used to be very low fantasy. the cat societies are reasonably close to feral cat colonies (the biggest detail is that toms don’t all have their own territory, but there’s honestly in-universe discussion of this and it’s basically a culture thing), and while star clan/religion is a real and legitimate thing, there’s also a discussion of its abuse and most of the early books don’t really use star clan/related ideas as a physical force so much as a plot device, barring, like, when a new leader gets their nine lives.

honestly, i’ll always adore these books for serving the role they did, and a lot of the series is fantastically well written. but the fandom surrounding it can be, uh, not great because 9-14 year olds don’t really have good brains to understand this.

also, i’m very sad that i can’t find the flash game that was for the great prophecy. it was not very fun, but i enjoyed playing it, so if anyone knows the url so i can search the internet archive for it, please let me know.

section ten: i’m morbidly curious but there are 56 hours of books to read, assuming a very fast reading pace, so is there something i can start with to experience this without dedicating 4 days to it?

yes, there is.

it’s called bluestar’s prophecy. it’s standalone, and i should have given you enough of a background on the lore that you don’t need to know anything else. i’ve already given away the twist in series 1 that it would spoil, so you’re all good on that front.

if you want more, or want the original experience, the first series is self contained and quite good. i’ve given the broad outlines of the plot, but trust me, there’s a lot of surprises and all sorts of things i skipped over because while i like it, it’s not exactly fandom primer material

i also enjoy firestar’s quest and skyclan’s destiny for super editions, but you’ll need to read the first series to understand FQ and FQ to understand SD, so it’s not exactly a starting point. also, SD especially deals with a very different set of themes as the other books.

also, if you were to, say, search “readwarriorcats” (no spaces) on duckduckgo, and then click on one of the first links, you know, not the official site, the one hosted on one of those free website things, you know, not wix, not wordpress, the other one, you would only find lists of the books with hyperlinks.

;3

[dyinginlava]

3/7

Previous part

Day 9, Buried Alive:

- Titled ‘for the half of a century no mortal has disturbed’ - Edgar Allen Poe (The Cask of Amontillado)

- Inspired by the beginning of this fic

- Was always going to be a fic about immortal!Dream but initially was meant to take place at the Green Festival in an AU where the Community House wasn’t destroyed

- The general plot would have gone somewhat like this: Dream shows up at the festival without armour, Quackity panics about the plan and knocks him out with a shovel to the head, everyone else panics, they decide to just kill him three times and hide the body, Dream (being immortal) wakes up buried underground (possibly in a blocked off final control room?)

- I decided to go with a Tales-inspired fic instead after I came across the idea of Cornelius, Hubert, and Dream being the same character at different times

- For any confusion about how his immortality works in this fic: he has two normal respawns, and on the third death he leaves behind a body that reanimates after some time, also regenerating itself (how he stayed alive so long)

- I wanted to make it clear that he’s terrified of anyone else finding out about his immortality due to his experience, to the point where he might kill himself once he’s died twice just so there’s no chance of someone messing with his body

Day 10 (alt 4), Identity Reveal:

- Titled ‘we know what we are, but know not what we may be’ - Shakespeare (Hamlet)

- Original prompt was ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t know’ and I couldn’t think of anything for that so I went with an alt prompt

- I did consider something with Ranboo since he’s less familiar with the server ‘history’ than others, but it ended up being Ranboo angst anyway

- I wanted to write something with this AU ever since I saw it so that’s what I went with

- The Ranbob!Dream AU by @sezija was also an inspiration

- When I initially planned out the story I wasn’t sure how to end it, but I decided the reveal he was enderwalking the entire time fit

Day 11, Hallucinations:

- Titled ‘will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?’ - Shakespeare (Hamlet)

- Honestly not much thought went into this one

- There was a ‘Ghostbur is just Tommy hallucinating’ fic I read back during exile arc that might have inspired it

- Remember when we all thought we were getting a resurrection stream and it was the powers SMP instead?

- Yeah this was finished half an hour before then

Day 12, “Who are you?”:

- Titled ‘some things can’t be remembered’

- Ranboo is pretty much the obvious choice for this

- It’s an implied ‘bad ending’ where something bad happened in the Arctic causing Ranboo to want to forget while people from the main DSMP area chose to leave and start new places

- Awesamdude originally was planned to have a cameo but it didn’t really fit

- Also in writing this fic I learnt that they renamed the Mesa biome to the Badlands which explained some things for me

[shkspr]

santhomedusae a réagi à votre billet:

I know I don't know anything about hamlet but I know enough about hamlet to posit spiral hamlet for the consideration of the committee

this is a very good insight and here’s my full thoughts, under a cut because whoo-ee i was not lying when i said i was a powder keg of hamlet thoughts and you ignited me. explosion follows:

hamlet would be courted by several entities. he’s a prince, he’s got power and potential, and he’s got the capacity for any number of things, depending upon his decisions. and which entities covet him most changes as he grows and changes as a person. 

prior to old hamlet’s death (pre-canon), the most prominent powers in young hamlet’s life would be the slaughter, the lonely, the stranger, and the web. 

he’d make a lovely avatar of the slaughter, like his father before him, if he chose. having armies at his command and perpetuating wars with causes he can’t remember and doesn’t care about.

the stranger and the lonely come from his time at wittenberg, his fascination with theatre, his deep distrust of others and his desire to keep them at arm’s length. 

the web would love to use him because he would be king someday, and the king has that power to manipulate and shape events to his liking even without supernatural help, so it would just make sense.

during the brief interlude between his father’s death and the appearance of the ghost (1.1-1.3), hamlet would still be on the radar for those ones, but especially the lonely, and he would also be of increased interest to the buried, the end, the dark, and the desolation. 

he falls a little bit in love with death during this time, because - it’s a cliche, but nobody alive understands how he feels. but the incarnation of death itself? that inevitability, that hopeless dread? he feels it so acutely.

then of course there’s the needless, senseless destruction of having his father ripped from his life without even the chance for a goodbye. he’s ripe with despair, and the desolation would eat it up, and it would be so easy for the desolation to turn that around and recruit him.

and then there’s the cold, lonely helplessness of the others. i’ve discussed before the connection between the lonely and the buried and the end, and i think i can throw the dark in there as well. it’s just - he hasn’t been buried alive in a literal sense, but in a figurative sense, he absolutely has. 

he’s feeling every bit of that crushing, inescapable weight upon his shoulders, every bit of his own impotence, every bit of his isolation from humanity, every bit of his own ignorance. he knows exactly how much he doesn’t know, and he knows exactly how much he can’t do, and it’s killing him. he can’t move, he can’t breathe, he can’t change, he can’t see, he can’t even die. 

so again, while he would very much be a victim to those powers, he would also be susceptible to their. grooming, for lack of a better term. he’s vulnerable and hopeless, and that’s just perfect.

after he speaks to his father’s ghost, he does go a bit twisty. but along with the spiral, this period in his life (1.5-3.3) is also ruled by the eye, the web, and the stranger.

the web is just - there are so many intricate threads of plots and lies and schemes and interpersonal relationships and what they truly are vs what they claim to be, all of it arranged just so, and of course from a doylist perspective we know this is because it literally was arranged by an author, but in a watsonian sense, it’s all very mother-of-puppets.

hamlet’s whole “antic disposition” scheme is of the spiral, using the tools of the spiral for his own ends, but also - you can’t really trust the spiral, of course, and he does ultimately become a victim of his own machine. there really is no line between what is hamlet acting as a madman and what is hamlet truly going mad.

which brings us to the stranger - because hamlet the play focuses a lot on acting as a theme, the dichotomy of reality and fiction, actor and audience. every single person in hamlet’s life (with the sole exception of horatio) is playing a part to get what they want from him, and he is doing the same to them. none of them are what they seem. they aren’t really people, not as hamlet knows them, so much as they are roles to be filled.

intertwined with that theme is the thread that runs throughout the play of surveillance. the actor/audience dichotomy is also a surveilling/surveilled dichotomy. it’s about the “now i am alone” and the “i’ll observe his looks” and the security cameras in hamlet (2009) starring david tennant. it’s about polonius and claudius directing ophelia and gertrude in how to engage with hamlet while they hide and watch. it’s about hamlet watching claudius pray and deciding that to kill him then and there would be too kind.

and finally, finally, we get to the final leg of hamlet’s journey (3.4-5.2), which still plays upon all the themes of before, with extra crunchy layers of slaughter and desolation and spiral and a bit of some others.

there’s so much murder. i don’t feel like i have to explain the slaughter connection here. the second half of this play is full of senseless, needless violence, violence without a clear target, violence without a clear goal. violence for its own sake.

which is also the desolation - so much loss and heartbreak and young lives cut short and loved ones killing other loved ones. all of that delicious destruction, and hamlet is mired in it.

hamlet can have little a flesh/corruption/death trifecta, as a treat: “at supper... not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him. your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table: that's the end.”

the spiral and the mother of puppets have a strong connection here - think of how skillfully claudius seems to be playing laertes and ophelia, how much he thinks he’s pulling the strings, but of course he’s not - he’s telling lies, and all it does is drive ophelia mad and make laertes a rogue element, and hamlet knows this.

hamlet also plays the spiral a bit, himself - the way he plays up his madness after polonius’s death, the way he twists the truth to get rosencrantz and guildenstern killed and get back to denmark - but i think ophelia’s death does something to him, puts a lot of this in perspective for him. it makes him angry, of course, much like it did laertes, but unlike laertes, hamlet knows exactly where to channel that rage.

hamlet understands the inevitability of his fate, and his acceptance of his own lack of agency in this situation is actually one of the most reasonable, rational decisions he makes in the play. when he thought he could manipulate these powers for himself, he failed. now that he admits he’s not in control - ophelia’s death was proof of that - he sees clearly for the first time, and he might be furthest from the spiral here.

he goes into that fight at the end, knowing that there’s something bigger going on that he’s not privy to, and he plays his part as it’s written, he makes amends with laertes, he’s cordial with claudius and gertrude, he’s a good sport. and yes, he dies for it - but that was always a possibility, and he won’t defy augury.

in conclusion: hamlet is vulnerable to many powers, and he leans into several of them, but ultimately, his role is as a pawn in the game, not as a player. he can’t use any of the powers the way an avatar would, and his attempts to pull the strings on the spiral and the eye are what gets him - and everyone else - killed in the end. 

at a certain point - and no one can say exactly when - this ending became inevitable. at a certain point, all of the players in this game became pawns, acting out their prescribed roles to serve the ultimate end.

hamlet spends the entire play stubbornly avoiding and running from the slaughter, and he turns to various other powers for aid in that endeavor, sort of like mike crew giving himself over to the vast for protection from the spiral, only in hamlet’s case, it doesn’t work.

he actively attempts to manipulate the spiral, the eye, the stranger, and the web at various points in his journey, and he categorically fails every time. it’s only when he accepts the fact that he doesn’t have that kind of power that the play can run its course and reach its conclusion.

[reconditarmonia]

Dear Chocolate Box 2021 Author

Hi! Thank you for writing for me! I’m reconditarmonia here and on AO3. I have anon messaging off, but mods can contact me with any questions.

Elsinore | Fullmetal Alchemist | The Locked Tomb | Motherland: Fort Salem | Simoun

General likes:

– Relationships that aren’t built on romance or attraction. They can be romantic or sexual as well, but my favorite ships are all ones where it would still be interesting or compelling if the romantic component never materialized.

– Loyalty kink! Trust, affectionate or loving use of titles, gestures of loyalty, replacing one’s situational or ethical judgment with someone else’s, risking oneself (physically or otherwise) for someone else, not doing so on their orders. Can be commander-subordinate or comrades-in-arms.

– Heists, or other stories where there’s a lot of planning and then we see how the plan goes.

– Femslash, complicated or intense relationships between women, and female-centric gen. Women doing “male” stuff (possibly while crossdressing).

– Stories whose emotional climax or resolution isn’t the sex scene, if there is one.

– Uniforms/costumes/clothing.

– Stories, history, and performance. What gets told and how, what doesn’t get told or written down, behavior in a society where everyone’s consuming media and aware of its tropes, how people create their personas and script their own lines.

General DNW: rape/dubcon, torture, other creative gore; unrequested AUs, including “same setting, different rules” AUs such as soulmates/soulbonds; PWP; food sex; embarrassment; focus on pregnancy; Christmas/Christian themes; focus on unrequested canon or non-canon ships; unrequested trans versions of characters.

Smut Likes: clothing, uniforms, sexual tension, breasts, manual sex, cunnilingus, grinding, informal d/s elements, intensity.

Requesting fic; open to art treats!

—

Fandom: Elsinore

Relationship(s): Hamlet & Ophelia; Hamlet & Horatio & Ophelia; Bernardo & Hamlet & Laertes & Ophelia

I found the friendships in this game, and the different ways that characters can reconcile or try to find a way forward together, to be really sweet and moving, and I'd love to read something that focused on those relationships of trust and support. I like how important Ophelia and Horatio's counsel and friendship is in timelines where Hamlet becomes king; I like Hamlet regretting how he behaved towards Ophelia and striving to live through his depression and find out what it is that he wants, not what everyone else wants of him; I like seeing childhood friends Bernardo and Laertes and Ophelia and Hamlet, whose growing-up has stretched them so far apart, taking time to catch up and enjoy each other's company a little.

So, futurefic in one of the timelines where everything doesn't go to shit? A timeline that we don't see? (There is something narratively interesting to me in Permanence/Passion in that the entire plot of Hamlet ends up as a distant backstory to someone's full life; I don't know how compatible that idea is with these requests, but if you want to write any of these groups fucking off to Italy or Constantinople or London and living until the Elsinore pressure-cooker is a distant memory, I'd be just as happy with that as with fic about them building some kind of future together still in Denmark, trying to make it better for its people and to hold on to who they are as individuals, and friends, beyond their roles.) If you want to write Hamlet/Ophelia, Hamlet/Horatio, or for that matter Horatio/Bernardo as shippy, I'm fine with that, but I don't want a focus on the romantic aspects of their relationship.

Fandom-Specific DNW: death of requested characters within the timeline being explored, or focus on death of requested characters. These characters die in this game a lot and I don't need you to pretend entirely that it's not a time loop game, but I would like them to be happy. If you write the Bernardo & Hamlet & Laertes & Ophelia request, I'm fine with either or both names/pronouns for Bernardo|Katherine, but I don't want to read a story focused on their gender or coming-out. Please don't include Peter Quince as a character (you do not need to retcon, you know, the existence of the time loop).

—

Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist

Relationship(s): Maria Ross/Olivier Mira Armstrong

I'll admit: I am a shallow, shallow person who loves the heartwarming and id-satisfying Briggs loyalty-kink complex (The watch! Buccaneer handing Olivier a clean pair of gloves after she kills Raven! Constant and deeply sincere saluting! Olivier’s explanation of why she wants Miles around and her lack of patience for anyone’s shit) but would like an f/f manifestation of it for actual shipping. Post-canon or AU where Maria is assigned to Briggs, or works for Olivier in Central? Does Maria foil a plot against Olivier, or Olivier save Maria's life in battle? Does Olivier order Maria into a firefight? Hit me.

Fandom-Specific DNW: Olivier/men, even mentioned.

—

Fandom: The Locked Tomb

Relationship(s): Abigail Pent & Dulcinea Septimus; Gideon the First & Matthias Nonius

Dulcie and Nonius were two of my favorite additions to the cast in Harrow the Ninth (and Dulcie in "Doctor Sex" via letter). I loved everything we learned about Dulcie - her wit, her quick thinking in a pinch when confronted by Cytherea and her secret to Harrow. I found her "The only thing preventing me from being exactly who I wanted..." speech both genuinely moving and very funny, and I love her thirst for revenge. What else might she and Abigail Pent, "independent research? it isn't even my birthday!" daredevil spirit-talker par excellence who has just conjured up a ghost out of an epic poem, get up to after Harrow's bubble collapses? Or what were they up to when they weren't on screen in Harrow's dream, putting together this whole, well, play?

Nonius's arrival, entire scene, and departure to fight the Beast made me very, very happy on levels I have trouble explaining. It was so heartwarming?! Because it was impossible, and because poetry won, and because they went off to do the best they could...I don't know, exactly. I'd love to read either more about his mysterious past with Gideon the First, or about their second encounter as allies (throw in Marta, Ortus and Pro if you like as well!)

Fandom-Specific Exception: to my unrequested ships DNW, Dulcie/Cam & Dulcie/Pal. I love their three strand thing.

—

Fandom: Motherland: Fort Salem

Relationship(s): Abigail Bellweather/Raelle Collar

I fell hard for this show and Abigail/Raelle is the ship I’m most excited about - they get off to a bad start for all kinds of personal history reasons and have problems with each other, but when it gets down to the wire Abigail would do anything for Raelle and is very gung-ho about having Raelle’s unconventional but extremely powerful magic under her leadership, regardless of Raelle being a loose cannon. She told her she loved her!! <3 And by the end, Raelle also clearly knows what Abigail's going through (like when she talks her down in "Citydrop"), respects her leadership, and cares deeply about her and wants to protect her in return. I love that loyalty dynamic, and their competence as fighters/witches.

Physical combat, strength in general, magical strength, ability to work magic together, knowledge of the magical canon vs. out-of-the-box techniques...what parts of their skills and their bond could be challenged in the weird dimension that the end of season 1 leaves them in? Or when they get back home and new challenges await? (In my head, the decision not to send them to War College is not revoked; the unit becomes some kind of special-forces secret strike team rather than cannon fodder.) Maybe something where Raelle goes/has gone into a fight as a berserker-type for Abigail and then comes back to her, or where Abigail protects/has protected her soldier (her girl!! I love her protectiveness of Raelle towards the other cadets, imagine it in a battle!)? Or an arranged marriage AU where it's usual for witch soldiers to marry to combine their magic power or something...

I would also be up for smut for them, especially something d/s-y where the loyalty-kinky dynamic of Raelle being Abigail's weapon, at her command, is echoed in sex!

Fandom-Specific DNW: sex solely for magical purposes without an emotional connection (sex for magical purposes is fine), focus on Raylla (I don't need you to retcon it, but please don't dwell either on Raelle still having feelings for Scylla or on her getting over Scylla for Abigail), Scylla bashing, Abigail/Adil (I would prefer to imagine, if he is mentioned in the fic, that they’re just friends).

—

Fandom: Simoun

Relationship(s): Aer/Neviril; Aer/Neviril & Neviril/Paraietta; Aer/Neviril/Paraietta; Aer & Floef & Neviril & Paraietta & Rodoreamon & Vyuraf

Aer, and Aer/Neviril, really grew on me on my recent rewatch. I appreciated her more as the determined bit-of-a-loose-cannon, who grows into a respected role in the choir, than the manic pixie this time, and noted Neviril's comments about how she was drawn to Aer's determination. (I've written a lot more about what I love and am interested in about Neviril and the show in general, her journey of figuring out what it means to her exactly to lead an air force, here.) I'd love to know what happens to them post-canon - what is the "new world" and their travel in it like? It's an escape for them, sure, but what are they escaping to, not just from? Are there problems there, too?

I'd also be up for a poly situation where Neviril is involved with both Aer and Paraietta, her long-loyal second-in-command whom she's blessed and forgiven, as a V where they're friends or as a triangle where Aer and Paraietta are also involved (I don't quite know what that leg of the triangle would look like but I do like how they work together in battle even when they're shown as having personal issues.)

If Neviril and Aer make it back to the main world when war is brewing again, as at the end of the series, but their old cohort can't fly anymore, what do they see their role as being? Does Neviril see herself as a leader for peace, for war, for something else? How do they interact with their former squadmates, whether as part of a more plotty piece or not?

I could be interested in explicit fic for this canon, as an option - the series is, on some level, about the contrast between the reality and physicality of their bodies and the general perception of what they do (which even in its non-spiritual military capacity is removed from a connection to their bodies via the Simoun aircraft), about becoming an adult, and of course about gender.

Fandom-Specific DNW: I'm not really interested in Kaim and Alty and would prefer for them not to appear or for their backstory to come up. I would also not like to see pre-timeskip Dominuura/Limone.

[talesofafangirlwithadvr]

MAY PICKS!

WELCOME BACK TO ANOTHER MONTH OF TV/MOVIE WATCHING! 

Does it feel like it was just April or that it can’t even be May and yet it is coming to an end? I get it. Quarantine is doing weird things to my head and I can’t believe how far in the year it’s been. Looking back on my picks for this month I noticed that I have seemed to escape the world through historical period shows or movies. But that isn’t the entire bulk of the month (just half of it). Without further ado, here we go!

As always..spoilers....

THE HALF OF IT

This Netflix original movie was an early watch for me during this month and it came at the right time. I was looking for a movie, rather than a TV show, and something that was contemporary and not overly serious (although, there are serious themes in this film). As it repeatedly says, “it’s not a romance” yet it has that YA/teen romance feel. (Yes, I used YA/teen in the same description.) I really loved the Elle Chu and Paul Munsky friendship. While watching the trailer, I could tell this film would be highlighting a healthy friendship as its focal point and how your other half doesn’t have to be a romantic soulmate. A lot of times, these kinds of stories can seem very repetitive, but with the new plot of Elle and Paul in love with the same girl we encounter a new kind of obstacle. I think the resolution was pretty solid for both plot lines and I liked the train scene at the end. Certain shots felt long at times. There were lots of pauses, which I didn’t 100% like. Also, the awkwardness could feel pretty cringey. Overall, it is definitely worth the watch. I liked it and would watch it again. Paul might be one of my heartthrobs of 2020. I’m always a sucker for a sweet jock with a heart of gold. 

THE OFFICE LADIES

Yes, I know I’m late to the show as this podcast started last year, but better late than never and what better time than quarantine. Plus, I don’t have to wait each week for a new episode (even though know I’m catching up, so eventually...) At first, I was worried when I would have time because of not spending as much time in the car for commuting, but I found it’s really soothing to listen to as I’m cleaning. It feels like I’m in the room with Angela and Jenna and we’re all BFFs. I love how they’re best friends in real life and how close they are. They give the trivia you really can only get from two people who were on the show. They also have several guest stars from actors on the show to writers, directors and producers. One of my most recent listens had Creed Bratton in the studio with them and they talked about the Halloween episode. It was great. Listening to their podcast is really making me want to rewatch the series for the 100th time. As an uber fan, I already get all of their references, but with the new Easter eggs I can’t wait to go back and see them.   

STAR WARS RISE OF SKYWALKER

Not just in honor of May the 4th, but to finish up the Star Wars watch through that I was taking with my sister. I hadn’t seen it yet and while not a die heart fan, I still wanted to see the conclusion. I liked the Force Awakens a lot, but felt eh about Last Jedi. In ways this one kind of felt like a stand alone. It had a different vibe compared to the previous two. After watching I heard there was a different director for all three movies, so that makes sense-I guess. (It’s weird they wouldn’t have kept at least one to do two of them.) It also had a kind of fan fiction feel. SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! Bringing Palpatine back reminded me of Lord Voldemort having a kid in Cursed Child. BACK FROM SPOILERS! I’m happy that Rey’s parentage/lineage was revealed because it was such a major point in this series. I loved the Rey/Finn/Poe relationship. It was great to see them in the same story line and reminded me of the original three: Luke/Han/Leia. Leia :( It was so sad, but I always knew it had to happen, due to Carrie Fischer. It didn’t make it any easier to watch. MORE SPOILERSSSSS! I knew Kylo would turn back. It was nice to see that his mom was able to spark that. I did like his fight scene. I just didn’t love the connection him and Rey have/had. LOVED the ending. I’m cool with her taking the Skywalker name and the suns shot with the force them at the end had me screaming. 

OPHELIA

From one Daisy Ridley film to another. This movie just recently got added to my list when I was channel surfing. I vaguely remembered it being advertised, but it felt like a while ago. I’m a sucker for a re-telling, so I was immediately intrigued to watch it. This film was adapted from a novel by the same name. It follows Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and gives her more of a story and character development. If you are familiar with the original, you know that Ophelia is only briefly mentioned and her character’s motives are really driven by her love for Hamlet. Even her famous death scene is very ambiguous. When this film begins, a voice-over narration by Ridley immediately brings us to her death scene and tells the audience “that there is more to the story than we think we know.” I really loved the twist and re-invention of this story through her point of view. I think Daisy Ridley was fantastic in the role. I haven’t seen her in a lot of other things, so it was great to see her here in a completely different role from Star Wars. The re-telling is very creative and very feminist. You get to see how Hamlet and Ophelia meet and then see him off to school. With this addition you can really get behind this relationship and see the mutual attraction and feelings between them. When relating back to the original, I like how they cut out scenes that Ophelia was not physically apart of and instead rely the events that happened. (Specifically with Polonius’ death.) I also enjoyed the new perspective of scenes. You really can tell that Ophelia is not mad, but it is the mask she must put on to survive. The ‘get thee to a nunnery’ scene takes on a whole different meaning now. There’s also a lot echoes to other Shakespearean plays and tropes which were fun to explore. Whether you’re a Shakespeare/Hamlet fan or not, I would definitely check this one out if you’re a fan of the time period, re-tellings or a strong female lead.   

MEDICI THE MAGNIFICENT SEASON 3

I literally just finished this show this afternoon and I couldn’t wait to write about it. (Sorry if this post is pretty long, but that just shows you that you need to watch it.) I was very excited for the third and final season of Medici because I enjoyed season 2, so much. While this one might have taken me a little longer to watch, it was still a good time and I’m sad it’s over. 

Watching this season I was super impressed by Daniel Sharman’s acting. He has great range as he goes from a young Lorenzo in season 2 to an adult and father and then an elderly man. I think he was convincing throughout each stage and I’m happy they kept the same actor. His make-up to help him age looked a lot more natural, compared to Richard Madden’s, in my opinion. I feel on shows like this it’s often hard seeing a jump in time (it helps with seeing the kids grow up), so when Lorenzo starts to get sick/age I at first, was like whoa, but then it was further explained (by inheriting his father’s illness, etc.) 

Compared to season 2, I definitely liked the previous more. I not only enjoyed watching the more idealistic Lorenzo, but also plot-wise. In season 2 the Pazzi are the main antagonist/objective. Here in season 3 there were several obstacles/antagonists: The Pope, Riario, and Savonarola. Every time we thought there was a moment of peace...nope. Now, I get this is based on history and we need drama so you can only change so much, but I missed the Medici being at the top and being respected. I also know we covered A LOT of time. (I guess that shows you how connected I felt with them and the show.) 

All of the history Easter Eggs were cool. Obviously, the Renaissance was extremely relevant, but it was cool seeing the big names like Botticelli (especially with his painting at the end, which I recognized), Da Vinci, and Michelangelo. I can’t get over how many of these famous painters were recognized by the Medici family. It just shows you how important and influential they were. Also, when Nico revealed his last name as Machiavelli. JAW DROP! This show has continually brought me back to researching (and mainly using Wikipedia). The writing at the end was accurate to what I found. Wish we had another season with the legacy to see it continue. I’m surprised I got teary eyed at the end. 

WORLD ON FIRE

It may be listed last once again, this month, but it is definitely not least. The show may have finished its season a few weeks ago, but I still have two episodes left on my DVR. The last one I watched was when they were in Dunkirk and that was an intense time. I knew it was going to be, but it still didn’t prepare me. In this episode, we see many characters FINALLY meet up and join each other’s plot lines. I think that was one of my favorite parts of the episode/series. Some already knew each other, while others were meeting for the first time. While I am excited to see how it all turns out, I’m also not ready to say good-bye. Right now, I saw a potential for a season 2, but not sure if that was a fan made article or not. I’m hoping all of my favorite characters survive and get what can be considered a happier ending than what they are currently experiencing. I also hope we don’t end on too much of a cliffhanger. Either way, I’m happy I checked this show out. 

RE-WATCHING

iZOMBIE

Currently I’m in the beginning of the second season. Sometime last month I felt the pull to start re-watching this show. It’s one that I have tried once or twice to watch again from the beginning, but now that it’s been finished for almost a year, it felt like time. It was a great decision, although right now there’s some character plots that are frustrating me and that I forgot about. But there’s some great brains that Liv has experienced and it was great seeing Lowell again (for as short-lived as it was). I’m excited to continue re-watching. 

I DIDN’T DO IT

The re-watch for I Didn’t Do It basically began when it hit Disney Plus a few months ago. I just recently made it to season 2, which I remember enjoying more than season 1. One reason for this was because they get rid of the flashback format for each episode. I’m really early on, like episode 4, so I still have many more to go. Once I finish it I don’t know if I’ll explore a new Disney Plus show or watch another that I’ve seen before. 

I also have a few things on DVR that I’m still finishing up. I haven’t watched the finale of Batwoman yet and I know it’s going to be weird now that Ruby Rose has left the show. I just finished the Flash and felt blah about the whole season, so I’m unsure if I’ll watch next season. But I am enjoying Stargirl. You can find my thoughts on the first episode here. I’m excited to see the rest of the season. 

[quirkykayleetam]

i. 1,5,7,9 ii. 1,5 iii. 12

Thank you so much!  I’ll try to make the answers interesting.  :)

1. What is your favorite book that was read to you before you could read?  I have such fond memories of curling up on the couch with my dad and my brother when my dad introduced us to this new British book his colleges were mad about called Harry Potter.  We thought the Dursely parts boring, but once we got to Hogwarts, it was pure magic!

5. What is your favorite book that you read for a class in high school?  This is slightly cheating, but I first got into Shakespeare in high school.  We read Romeo and Juliet for class and I thought it was pretty cool.  Then we started studying Egypt in history and there was a box in our textbook that mentioned Antony and Cleopatra.  I got a copy, worked so hard to understand the text on my own and fell in love!  That lead me to Julius Caesar then Macbeth and Hamlet.  It started a lifetime obsession that I has served me well.

7. What is your favorite book written in the 19th century?  You asked a Jane Austen question on purpose lol.  I’ll give you a Jane Austen answer.  I actually love Mansfield Park the most.  It’s not as well-written as Pride and Prejudice or as fun to study as Emma, but I love Fanny Price so so much.  So many people love Elizabeth Bennet because she is spunky and funny and sarcastic.  She challenges social norms.  So, she “deserves” her social-norm-breaking happy ending by modern standards.  Fanny is not that person.  She’s the stereotypical angel in the house.  She’s quiet and helpful and submissive.  But when something happens that challenges her morals, she stands her ground.  She gets so much shit for it.  So many people turn against her.  And she doesn’t explain herself or yell at them like Lizzy would.  She just endures it and holds fast.  But to me she is proof that all women, no matter how outspoken they are, deserve to be heard and believed.  They deserve to follow their heart and find their happy ending.  And that is so important.

9. What is your favorite book written in your lifetime?  Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson is a brilliant YA book written in 2006.  It’s a heist book, a rags to riches story, and a social justice novel all in one.  Best of all, you will love the characters without ever seeing the ending coming.  The sequel books get wilder and wilder but always have the same heart and it’s amazing.

1. What is your least favorite book assigned for school?  This is probably me being salty because I was assigned this book TWICE in college, but The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is never going to be something I’m going to enjoy reading.  Yes, it has cool things to say about environmental conservation and government control, but the main plot revolves around explicit rape scenes of the titular windup girl.  She’s not human, but she is a character and the book puts you in her head as she’s violently abused again and again.  The point about her not being treated as human is made and yet the scenes keep coming.  It just didn’t sit well with me.

5. What is the book you’re most likely to recommend to someone regardless of who it is?  I’m really obsessed with Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card so I always recommend the first book to people: Ender’s Game.  It’s also a great book about how communication can prevent war, how none of us are as alien to each other as we think we are, and how empathy and compassion are the most important things in the universe.

12. What is a character you have profound sympathy for?  In The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson there’s a character called Teft who’s been beat down and basically enslaved his entire life.  To deal with the pain and loss he develops a drug addiction.  Then his company gets redeemed.  They get chosen for a holy mission.  A spren, or sentient mark of this power, even chooses him, but Teft can’t bare it.  He feels so guilty and ashamed and lost in his addiction and broken that he doesn’t believe that he can ever be anything else.  I really empathized with that feeling and almost cried with that spren and Teft’s friends kept taking care of him until he could come to a place where he started to see himself as a person again. 

[langernameohnebedeutung]

I think we’re being short-sighted if we talk about spoiler-culture in terms of “wow writers don’t know how to tell a story anymore!” or “everything has to be drastic and ridiculous for shock value”. We should also consider the aspect of film and television as a billion dollar industry.  Let’s say someone makes a pretty accurate adaption of Hamlet.  You know what’s going to happen. You might look at the cast and decide whether you’d watch it or maybe you wouldn’t -or maybe you’re going to buy the DVD when you heard the first reviews or if that one Shakespeare geek friend of yours says it might be something for you - That’s film (or theatre) industry without plot-twists: Merely a decision based on what you know you can expect of the story. Does knowing what is going to happen make Hamlet a bad story? No, it’s the same play I watched at least 7 different versions of at this point and they all were the same, basically word for word. 

But when spoiler culture no longer produces coherent, logical stories (and I count making people panic and worry about how knowing a major twist is going to ruin the experience as part of spoiler culture), it’s just selling something. Spoiler culture sells products, optimised to attract as many customers as possible. By telling you that your Hamlet adaption has a big fat twist and that if you know about that twist you won’t enjoy it, you are going to avoid reviews that tell you too much about the film and you can’t wait for the DVD or until you got feedback from people you trust. You have to consume it as soon as possible to avoid spoilers. And at this point, film tickets are about the price of a DVD - so it’s already a win. You might still buy the film later, so twice the win. Maybe you will even go again, if the film is in theatres for a few weeks and you didn’t wait, it makes odds higher. 

Same with streaming services. No die hard Game of Thrones fan is going to wait until the DVD release to watch it - and in they might want to, we have to make sure that they read and hear everywhere that they will hate their favourite show if they know or hear any hint of what’s going to happen (hey maybe that’s because it sucks? :) ) - But even if they streamed it legally, they will likely still want a physical copy at some point, maybe some steelbook special version, so again, you maximised profits. And guess what - Game of Thrones? Currently the best example of spoiler culture? I did quite a few Game of Thrones marathons with friends, big ones, small ones, often before a new season came out. Sometimes we would just sit down and watch Joffrey get murdered or Dany getting her dragons or something. We knew that Joffrey would die in that episode or Dany’s eggs would hatch but we still enjoyed it - maybe even more so than the first time we saw it bc we would discover new things and could discuss them. Bc that’s tv or film at it’s most fun - discovering something, enjoying the medium, sharing what you noticed, discussing it.   I remember watching a youtube review of The Killing Joke a long time ago and there’s one thing the guy who made it said that stuck with me for a really long time now: He was comparing the comic book panels and the background props in the film adaption and explained that one of the first things they did when reading a new comic book was to look at the backgrounds and how thoughtfully they were designed and how well the props fit the characters and so on. And I think that’s something you can apply to many things. It’s the reason why you can watch 100 versions of Hamlet and still enjoy each one - because you can discover something in each one, whether it’s set in Denmark or on a fucking Mars colony, you can think about whether you enjoy the choices they made there, whether they were fitting, what you would do differently. You can appreciate the actors you like, think about whose interpretation of their texts is closest to your person interpretation and whose interpretation made you consider new options. Even if you know Hamlet dies you are having a good time with a good adaption, because it’s well-written and a good director can have give you sets and costumes that you can stare at for ages and you can discover something new every single time.  But if you don’t have a good “backdrop” - if you don’t have a coherent story, if you have bad actors or your set design sucks or anything else - and you just try to make up for it with twists or brutality, there’s no point in rewatching it, because the rest of the experience wasn’t enjoyable. In fact, there’s no bigger hint that a film or book sucks than if spoilers might ruin it. If spoilers ruin the entire experience, then apparently there wasn’t much reason to watch that shit in the first place. And I think that’s what Hollywood doesn’t understand when they make cheap thrills mainstream: They will end up looking in wonder at indie films or films that weren’t honed and primed for maximal box office success who still do well - because someone put love and thought into them, and not just money and marketing.

[qrovidcore]

hi sorry for making this a reblog, my hyperfocused-ass brain cannot fit my entire pitch in a comment reply aNYWAY THANK YOU FOR TAKING ME UP ON THIS.

SO

inscryption is a videogame featuring roguelike and deckbuilding mechanics, drawing stylistically on old-fashioned point-and-click games and pixel rpgs. it’s…… sort of a horror in aesthetic only, which is why I thought to rec it to you. tonally and narratively speaking, think tragedy that uses horror tropes to tell its story. (please, ignore the ign page. every day someone sees the ign page and asks if the game is actually that scary, and every day someone has to explain that no, it is not.)

it’s a very interesting take on/deconstruction of what horror can Be. without spoiling anything too heavily, I find it very clever for how it shifts the player’s perception of what is horrific as they play – the more you learn about the characters and the antagonizing forces at work, the more you see a great deal of genuine love and care underlying the “spooky” things you encountered before. the main plot runs this deconstruction in parallel with a found-footage style b plot that, while a bit harsher, features a less traditional take on what a horror villain is. inscryption is a tragedy, but the feeling the end imparts isn’t fear, it was very specifically That Emotion You Get At The End Of Like, Hamlet. it’s incredibly atmospheric the entire way through (and most of the horror really is Just atmosphere), and if you’re in the market for mysterious spooky entities and their petty drama, You Are In The Right Place.

except like, the drama isn’t actually petty, because inscryption is actually a very thoughtful take on the act of creation and sharing that creation as an act of care and philosophical arguments about good game design and even little an philosophy about transformative works too and basically it’s a very meta Game About Games and i could probably english major it all day but.

as for horror elements to watch out for as noted by me, an extremely squickish bitch who got scared while watching gravity falls:

1. some mild body horror and injury (the latter largely inflicted by the player on themself, so you have control over when/if it happens). explicitly implied rather than shown, but is unfortunately not avoidable in plot. there are some gross noises. you may see some blood, teeth, or eyeballs, but none of it’s particularly graphic and it’s all done as like, there is a noise as the camera pans away or is briefly red. easily mitigated by muting the computer and looking away if you want, and you’ll have enough warning to be able to do so.

2. spooky computer glitch aesthetic type stuff and occasional spooky computer entity type stuff.

3. found footage stuff does feature glitching + “someone’s in the house” type stuff, also blood at one point but you don’t see anything else.

4. the gm does (slowly) reach across the table to grab you when you lose a run and it does look very ominous.

that’s… really kind of it? there’s no jumpscares or anything like that, and the idea isn’t to make you feel scared, it’s more to immerse you in the game and tell the story. again most of the horror is just aesthetic/atmosphere, plus the mentioned tropes.

anyway! I hope this has been a good and interesting pitch, thank you for letting me ramble, and if you want accessibility information or more specifics about how it does the horror stuff, feel free to ask more questions! it’s solidly one of the best games I’ve ever played and I hope you like it too ^-^

Here’s the thing: I love the horror AESTHETIC, but I hate the horror MOOD. I find “fear” and “horror” to be unpleasant emotions, ones that I don’t want to experience in my enjoyment-media.

It makes finding stuff a bit challenging, let me tell you. So like, if you know anything that fits that bill, can you share it with me? (I’m already aware of @normal-horoscopes, and I’m familiar with Welcome To Night Vale.

I like stories with things that are weird, and unnatural, and dangerous in the same sense that a river or a fire is dangerous; it cares nothing for you and can destroy you, but it also has no malice and, once you know its nature, you can work with it more-or-less safely, so long as you never think yourself “safe”.

I like dark castles ruled by ominous and mysterious beings, and I especially love the various petty drama that happens between the monsters who work in said castles.

I like things that explore the realities and challenges of different forms of unlife, of being something changed and inhuman; but I don’t like things that delve too deep into “I’m having an existential crisis and all of my former friends now hate me”, that’s a completely DIFFERENT form of horror, one which I find deeply unappealing.

[ask-shakespearehigh]

Q&A post with the Mods!!!!

This is going to be a long one oh boy

How strict is the delineation of creative control vis-a-vis characters/plays between the mods? (@pedanticlecturer)

We generally have the plays split up along lines of “what we know”— we have a list at the very beginning of the blog. Sometimes we’ll draw the others’ characters (mostly me drawing some of Star’s…) but even then the final say on characterization is up to the “main” mod for that play — mod aster

what aster said -- mod star

What is your favorite play? What is your favorite character in terms of how they were written in the source material? (@pedanticlecturer)

I think my favorite play overall is Macbeth, just because I like the vibes (and the fact that I too could kill Macbeth), the fact that you don’t say it’s name in theatres, and the fact that it’s a play I did a full read through and analysis of in class. Favorite character? Puck from Midsummer. — mod aster

uhhhh,, hmm. ive always had a soft spot for midsummer since i saw it with aster esp bc of how fun the costumes were. of the comedies it has the largest potential to be the most visually pleasing bc of the concept of fairies,,,and im gay and dramatic so i love that. id die if i got to costume design for midsummer,,,or be in it,,,yeah. fav character. hmm. probably mercutio?? i recently saw a version of romeo and juliet where mercutio was played by a woman and oh my god it was amazing!!! not to mention mercutio’s portrayal in baz luhrmann's INCREDIBLE version of r n j!!! (I based my mercutio design on him) he just spends the entire time making dick jokes. love that. -- mod star

How do you answer asks so fast? I mean it's great but I'm impressed 😂 (Anon)

Personally, it’s a mix of: notifications on, quick drawing speed, and using the blog to avoid my class work — mod aster

aster is fast and (as you can see from all of my answers) im lazey -- mod star

Are there any elements/characters of the plays you're covering that you would have liked to work into this blog's plot, but couldn't due to the constraints of the setting or the synthetic nature of the blog? (@pedanticlecturer)

I wanted to make everyone gay but unfortunately due to plot constraints we have to have some hets but that wont stop me from making it lgbt as possible. -- mod star

I did want to make The Tempest more of a central play, but it just didn’t translate well. Similarly, other supernatural elements like the witches in Macbeth. This isn’t so much a constraint mentioned, but my own time/energy means that I want to show the Macbeth backstory, in a specific format, but I can’t right now— mod aster

Is there a hierarchy of import when it comes to each play's individualized impact on shakespeare high's general arc? If so, what plays are crucial to the foundation of the story? Which ones did you do mostly for shits and giggles? (@pedanticlecturer)

This is phrased like an ACT question and i might not answer it right so sorry in advance but: mod aster and i only selected a few plays for each of us to do given we dont know all of shakespeare’s works, but we tend to put more emphasis on the the more well known. But it also comes down to 1. How much we have plotted out for each play and 2. What the followers ask about most. Our two most popular are hamlet and macbeth bc people are familiar w those but around march caesar always becomes relevant again. I didnt even have designs for some of the characters until someone asked about them. -- mod star

I would say the same as star— it generally comes down to what people ask about. I will say that the overall plot is sort of separated into “has happened” and “is happening”. Like, the human potion of Midsummer, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth are all in the “aftermath” portion, while Twelfth Night, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet, among others, are happening. We’re trying to incorporate as much as we can, and I don’t think any of them were really put in without some thought.— mod aster

What personal significance does shakespeare hold in ur guys' lives? (@pedanticlecturer)

I go to a theater school rn and so ive dealt w shakespeare (although not all of them) it also helps that i was in loves labours lost last year as moth and that i read hamlet and r n j. Theres also a theater in my state that always does One Big Shakespeare per season and they always do them super well!!! My love for shakespeare probably started w seeing midsummer at that theater w mod aster!!! So. Theater kid rights!! -- mod star

To be honest, I got back into Shakespeare Because of the blog. I’ve been friends with some people that got really Pretentious about Shakespeare, and it kinda put me off of it. I did have a book of abridged plays (the plays’ plots written out in prose, basically) that I read as a kid, which is what got me into not only the plots of a lot of the plays, but also the idea of having them illustrated. And, same as star, the theater in state does the One Big Shakespeare— and they tend to do some really cool things with the costumes, setting them in diff time periods. I haven’t been able to see any lately since I’ve moved, but they still slap. — mod aster

🥰😘💙🥰🥰💜💟🥰I 😍💗💚😍😍LOVE🖤🖤 YALL ♥️♥️🧡💛💚💝❣️💕💘💖💗💓💞💝❤️💛💜 okay now i have a question i swear— how long have the two of you been doing art??? and what were your first shakespeare plays??? (@hellaghosts)

Uhh i started drawing when i was like idk 12 and i have the giant boxes of sketchbooks to prove it!!! I moved to digital art at abt 14-15 but mostly stayed traditional until this yr when i got a Neat New Tablet so some of my sketchbooks are sitting abandoned rip. My first shakespeare was either romeo and juliet or midsummer nights dream and i love both of them v much!!! I have a very old piece of art that i did for r n j for my freshman class assignment on it and it hasnt aged well alsdjfjafd circa 2016 i think??? -- mod star

Oh man. I started drawing when I was about 10, but it was Bad. I don’t think I got much into drawing again until I was about 14? Sometime around the end of middle school/beginning of high school. I would say I started getting into drawing as more than doodling/coloring edits sometime around 2015-16? I would draw on my iPad with my finger, then I got a tablet for my computer, and now I pretty much stick to my iPad with an Apple Pencil. My first Shakespeare play was….. uh…… probably Midsummer???? I have No idea. We would go to plays when I was little, so I honestly don’t remember if I saw others before. It may have been Romeo and Juliet— I had that book where it was the original and the “modernized” with the little dog that explained things— which, if you know it makes sense, but if you don’t is probably a bonkers answer. — mod aster

Do you think this blog has like? An overarching thesis (be it b/c intentionally or simply b/c ur own take on the world has bled thru to the point where u believe it’s central to the piece at this point)? (@pedanticlecturer)

Not gonna lie, I had to read that like three times AND dm you to figure out what you were asking from us and all I have is “be gay, respect women, write your own happy endings”. — mod aster

This blog started with an ides of march shitpost and you think we have enough brain energy to write a whole thesis? I projected feelings of found family onto my half of the blog but idk if that counts. Be gay do crime 420 69 -- mod star

What’s the nature/rough dynamic of ur relationship? How do y’all know each other? (@pedanticlecturer)

Met mod aster when i was like 4 and even tho we didnt live close we became like, best friends although the Best part didnt start until we were like 13-ish and eventually we talked like non stop (about anime and homestuck. Yknow. 13 year old kid things) and we didnt see each other a lot bc of Distance and now its even worse bc aster is in colleg.,e but we consider each other siblings regardless of family bc we’re adopted into our own respective families so that bled over into our friendship and it would feel weird calling him anything other than my brother now. We’ve seen each other at our best and worst and if you really want a good insight on what we’re like as siblings watch griffin and justin mcelroy’s overview video of catlateral damage wherein i am griffin and he is the long suffering justin. -- mod star

Star is basically my long distance sibling and functionally the only cousin I recognize bc like their parents are basically an aunt and uncle and like our dads look enough alike that we’ve both accidentally gotten the wrong dad for a hug or similar so like. Anyways yeah Star is the Griffin to my Justin, complete with our absent middle brother who we love dearly— mod aster

Dubiously relevant q but what kind of music do y’all listen to when u do art (if that is indeed a habit either of u partake in) (@pedanticlecturer)

It can depend on the piece? I was working on some (unrelated) oc prints that were song-focused, and for those I just listened to said song on loop. Sometimes I have playlists. Sometimes I’ll just be in a Mood and throw a song on loop. But a lot of time for the blog, I’ll listen to The Adventure Zone for the billionth time, because I have Too Much Attention. I’ve also, on request from Star, linked the most recent “loop song”.— mod aster

I tend to obsess over the same like 3 songs every few weeks so those get listened to on repeat but it also depends on the tone of what im drawing or who im drawing i might genre switch bc of that. If im drawing ophelia i stick to lana del rey and if im drawing hamlet its the neighborhood, horatio is sufjan stevens etc. i have categorized,. Most of the characters i draw into different songs/genres/energies of music but not like i ever follow that. Sometimes i just pull up a really long nonsense video and forget to draw. Essentially: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- mod star

How’d y’all come up with ur pseudonyms? (@pedanticlecturer)

I love space so much and my main blog is starryeydsailor space gay rights!! Im also tiny and full of energy and bright so basically i;m star -- mod star

Uhhhh i was like “hey i want to do uhhhhhh flower?” And then I google searched flower names until I found one I liked —- mod aster

How did you end up deciding the rough timeline of events in canon? (@pedanticlecturer)

It’s mostly determined by like. How we choose per story? If that makes sense. Like, we just take story by story, and decide “is it happening, has it happened, and when?” And then we fit them together in relation to each other just by dint of. All existing at once. Like, I knew I wanted Macbeth to be in aftermath, because like, even though there’s no murder, the way I’ve translated it to the AU is still kinda heavy, and it’s something that I don’t know that I could do properly if it were happening right now. Also, it’s more interesting IMO to have them at different times. Tl;dr we wing it per story and slot them together— mod aster (mod star agrees I just can word better, in theory)

If you could tell the story of shakespeare high in a different format than an ask blog, would you? Obviously y'all are making very good use of the format, but would you want to write this as a animated series or like? a comic book? or is the form inseparable from the story? (@pedanticlecturer)

I kinda wanted to do a webcomic or maybe to plot develop through like, animatics but the element of surprise comes from the asks we get and really makes us think so the blog is a good start. We didnt think we’d get this far -- mod star

Pretty much what Star said— there are certain elements where it’d be neat to do as a comic or as an animatic. Like, the fantasy dream is like, an anthology webcomic of each story, where you can like, see other characters in the background and stuff. But to be honest, we develop a lot by what we’re asked— there was a post about developing worldbuilding by being asked questions and then pretending you’ve thought about the answer, and it’s not far off. Personally, it’s hard to just lay out a story, because I have a whole WORLD and what’s relevant? What are people interested in? It’s by getting questions that I can then focus in on an area to develop. And yeah, we Super didn’t think we’d get this far lmao — mod aster

Any headcanons about your characters that you don't think will ever come up on the blog through asks or plot posts? (@pedanticlecturer)

I could make a whole separate post for this!!!!! Mostly its voice headcanons (and by mostly i mean like 1 or 2) or relationship hcs!!!! -- mod star

Honestly same. I don’t think I have voice headcanons for mine, though I bet I could find some. I’ve got a bunch of miscellaneous headcanons that just kinda float around, but like they’re scattered, too numerous for this post, and also not always things I’m sure are canon yet.— mod aster

[jbrentonparker]

Plotting Method #1: The Freytag Pyramid

Now that I’m over a particularly nasty, week-long cold, I’m going to jump into breaking down the plotting methods I briefly covered in an earlier post! Here’s the quick overview I gave of the first method:

The Freytag Pyramid:

Developed by German novelist and playwright Gustav Freytag, the pyramid was really developed to map out the story structure of five act Greek and Shakespearean dramas, but it can often be modified and applied to short stories and novels as well.

In Freytag’s pyramid, there are five parts (acts) to a narrative:

Exposition, in which the background of characters and events that occurred prior to the plot are given; Rising Action, which is the series of events that lead up towards the greatest point of interest, or the turning point in the narrative; Climax, which isn’t the same as what other people refer to as the “climax” of a story–Freytag means the turning point that changes the protagonist’s fate; Falling Action, when the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist comes to a head (what is actually usually called the “climax” in novel writing); And Denouement, all the stuff after the Falling Action to the very last scene, in which the narrative is wrapped up for better or for worse.

As mentioned above, Gustav Freytag developed this story structure map specifically in relation to Greek and Shakespearean plays. With a little bit of tweaking though, it can be used to structure prose as well.

Exposition: In Shakespeare plays, this literally comes in the form of exposition in which the background for the play is stated outright to the audience. “In fair Verona where we lay our scene...” etc etc. In a novel, this would be the first chapter of Harry Potter (again, I’m going to frequently use Harry Potter as my example, since most people are at least familiar with the story). In chapter 1, “The Boy Who Lived”, the audience is given the background. Takes place in England in modern times. Strange things which are revealed to be of a magical nature at the end of the chapter are not common, or commonly known about. Wizards are a thing, but they hide from the non-magical world. Harry Potter is special, but he will not know that for many years. We learn the setting, and the state of “normal” within the bounds of the narrative is established. This is important!

Even if you are reading the most wild, out-there fantasy or scifi story ever, the reader has to know what is considered normal in the context of your world before things can start going crazy, otherwise it’s easy to lose their attention along the way. That being said, the establishment of normalcy can be quick. I’ll reference Artemis Fowl, since it’s another fairly popular middle grade book many people have read. The first book starts off in Ho Chi Minh city--bam, we know it’s set on earth. There is a cafe, Artemis and Butler are wearing suits, they drive a hummer. We know it’s set in modern day.  It is explained that Artemis is searching for something, and he worries this may be another failed attempt. We know that whatever is going on isn’t common or usual. We meet the fairy, and it is established that this is not an everyday occurance, and that Artemis’s knowledge of them as a human is singular.

So the fantasy aspect of the plot is introduced very early on, but even so, we are given a very clear concept of what the normal state of things is in these books: fairies exist, but humans do not know about them. Therefore, Artemis knowing about them is unusual, special, and worth writing a book about.

So exposition and establishing the state of “normal” in the context of your novel often go hand in hand. Neither usually last more than a chapter or two however; you don’t want to leave your readers waiting for the “good stuff” for too long.

The Rising Action: All the stuff leading up to your main character taking action, or being forced to take action, or what have you. In Hamlet, this would be all of Hamlet’s whinging about what to do, whether to take revenge or not. In Neverwhere, this would be the bits where Richard is just “along for the ride”, just trying to get his life back while staying as minimally involved in Door’s actual drama as possible.In this part, the protagonist is usually trying to avoid the conflict, or keep it from happening.

Climax: The climax in Freytags’s pyramid is very different than “the climax of a novel”! They are two totally different creatures. I like to think of Freytag’s Climax as “The Point of No Return”. This is the moment the protagonist must face the conflict for better or for worse. This is a major turning point in the story, and there is no going back to the way things were after this moment. In Romeo and Juliet, this is when Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished. Things can never be resolved peacefully now, he has slain a member of Juliet’s family, he is banished, they are now physically as well as socially separated, the rift between their two families is bigger than ever, worst has come to worst (or so they all think at the time). Often during the Climax/Point of No Return, things have gone very wrong. The protagonist is forced into action because there is no other alternative. The can no longer avoid or prevent or flee or peacefully deal with the conflict, they must face is head on like a freight train barreling down upon them. Then comes the:

Denouement: the way the characters deal with the fallout of the climax. Juliet gets her hands on some poison and sends Romeo a letter--which he never gets. Hamet stages a play “wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king”. Now this is the part where Freytag’s model as it applies to plays does no align so well with prose. In Freytag’s model, who more substages follow: Catastrophe, and the Moment of Last Suspense. Catastrophe is Romeo believing he finds Juliet dead, and killing himself, and then Juliet awakens and kills herself as well. In the Moment of Last Suspense, the two families come together and see how their behavior has led to two such bitter deaths, and finally let bygones be bygones. In Prose, however, you have the Climax instead of Catastrophe (though your climax could be a catastrophe, but it doesn’t have to be obviously).

The conflict comes to a head, the protagonist and the antagonist often clash especially in fantasy, tensions are as high as possible, the stakes are as high as possible, and the protagonist must deal with the conflict and deal with it now. In a narrative without a human antagonist, this would be, say, the scene where the protagonist gets trapped in an avalanche but claws their way out of the snow and drags themselves, half-frozen, to the side of the road where they collapse, only to be found (alive? dead?) hours later by a passing hiker. In Monsters Inc, it’s pretty much the entire last twenty minutes of the movie.

Then, hopefully, if you’re a kind writer, you end with your wrap up, your own Moment of Last Suspense--which usually isn’t really all that suspenseful, but the same concept applies. Tensions are released, loose ends are tied up, questions are answered, and we have a sense of how the conflict was resolved. You could, of course, end your story with your character half-frozen on the side of the road after an avalanche for dramatic reasons, but most readers like to see the “after” bit of the “happily (or not so happily) ever after”. I know I once read a trilogy that I otherwise adored, but the ending killed me--it just ended immediately after the villain was defeated, with the characters standing of the edge of a cliff, hundreds of miles from home, after a harrowing, month-long journey to get there in the first place. As a reader, I wanted to see the characters I loved get back home safely as much as I wanted to see the antagonist defeated, so that ending disturbed me a little. An excellent example of a satisfying wrap up, in my opinion at least, is Neverwhere. I won’t go into it because I’d hate to spoil it for those who have not yet read it, but I think it is fantastically satisfying.

I believe that more or less covers the aspects of the Freytag model and how it can be applied to prose. Stay tuned for the next detailed overview, the Three Act Structure!