#ALSO THE BASE POST OF THIS IS ALSO ABOUT EDGAR. BTW

[everyothermouse]

I love it when victims are written as actual characters and not just victims. Characters who are just written to be poor suffering bodies at the hands of murderers and abusers are BORING. If I'm being really honest with you, I would much rather read about interesting and dynamic victim than an interesting abuser, even though I like writing both.

[capriccio-ffxiv]

24. what's your wol's relationship with food? do they skip meals or do they eat at specific times religiously? is food important to them, or is it just a means to an end to keep their body going? does food mean something cultural or personal to them?

AW LAWDY

Illyria: Honestly the fastest way to bring her back from "Feo Ul Just Put Me In the Sauce" land would be to do something food related. Nobody in her family is a culinarian but she still grew up helping her dad cook and just. Look, in Gridania, if you're 1/4 Duskwright and your dad is 1/2 Duskie and 1/2 Ishgardian and your *mom* is an outlander, look. LOOK.

I have a lot of Thoughts about Duskwright culture and cuisine, and how North Shroud culture interacts with Ishgardian refugees, and how that would interact with a born and bred Lominsan pirate given Limsa Lominsa's thing about Food.

This is based on my IRL relationship with my dad, and, like, look, I found Dad's First Cookbook, and it's literally a Dungeon Meshi style guide to Don't Die or Let the 10ish Twelve Year Olds at Summer Camp Under your Wing Die in the Fucking Canadian Woods.

Illyria is Dungeon Meshi Senshi here, if Senshi were also Gordon Ramsey, and also 7'4".

Also she makes these killer ginger-lemon cookies. To die for.

Ryuu: Right up until she got Isekai'd to the First, Ryuu thought of food as I Eat This for Sustenance. She got grabbed at the same time as Thancred though, and spending 5 years in the literal post-and-also-pre-apocalypse *really* changes your opinions on food. She's nowhere near Illyria's level of culinary skills, but she's a much, MUCH better cook than she used to be (much to Kian's surprise). But even before that? She grew up poor as dirt in Bittermill, then slightly-less-poor in Limsa Lominsa, then literally homeless in Ul'dah. She is very much of the "it got calories and won't poison me? I'll eat it." In the First, though, she's 35-ish and going "... I am too old to just shove shit in my mouth and expect it to work out, I need to actually think about what I'm eating, especially since unlike Ul'dah, I *can't* just steal what I need."

This is btw the big difference between an Ul'dah orphan and even Average Crystarium Citizen (TM) -- an Ul'dah orphan, if they're dewey eyed and winsome or swift and daring, can, ahem, procure everything they need. Even if it's hard, even if it sucks. Average Crystarium Citizen (tm) may be eating three meals a day and still malnourished because the Light leeched every damn scrap of nutrient beyond raw calories out of a thing.

Seshat: her literal main classes are actually CUL, ALC, BSM, ARM, GSM, MCH. In that specific order. Seshat is More than Senshi. Seshat is speaking to you about your gut microbiome. Literally in the fic I'm writing right now with @selene-ffxiv, Seshat is building a specialized preserving and canning device in the field from spare parts so they can preserve scavened fruit as jam. Seshat is Dungeon Meshi meets Edgar FFVI.

Hyperion: He loves plants and plant breeding and studying insects; once he and Selene petitioned for stewardship of their own land (nobody owns anything in Ancient society, but they can petition for temporary stewardship until they return to the Star, as per my headcanon), he grows. So. Many. Things. So unlike many Ancients, he and Selene actually *grow* what they eat. Mealtime for them is an intimate ritual, since they don't get to see each other often. ... I literally remember the last meal we wrote for them, it was salmon with pasta in cream sauce.

I am the target audience for Dungeon Meshi actually in that I think food should nourish the whole of the self (mind, body, soul) by way of feeding the body, fueling the mind, and connecting to community/culture.

I AM WORKING ON THAT OTHER ASK BUT I HAVE THREE WOLS AND AN ANCIENT AND YOU ASKED THREE QUESTIONS.....

[kaoarika]

So, there was a post about "white whales" of unexisting/unrealized media that basically became a reblog prompt post, but OP turned off the reblogs some time recently? I don't know, but I had a draft based on it, but I dunno how Tumblr may bypass that since the draft has been there since August 2022, so... rather than posting it, I will post my thoughts about the twt/tumblr prompt here instead (OP link was this one, with some interesting responses) and I will also turn my reblogs off just in case bc I don't want this post to surface in the tags or search and all that :P

Pop culture "white whales" of mine, or at least, some of them:

Continuation of Kia Asamiya's Corrector Yui. Imagine mystifying this version of the manga for over 2 decades and just now, a few months ago, you find that it was "incomplete" because I don't remember AT ALL anyone mentioning it in the few English fansites that existed back in the day. not even vaguely? :/c I mean, YEAH. I can SEE it only had 2 volumes, but come on.

Edgar Wright's version of the Ant-man movie. That's all.

Obviously the Dance with Devils AYAIBD 2016 event recorded footage that is PRETTY obvious Avex Media did record, but for one reason or another it was never released on DVD and/or BD. And, like, even if Avex DID recognize the existence of the event while including part of the script in the 2020 BD box-set of the series and fan recounts still exist online, the full footage never saw the light of the day. No one knows why, only speculations about it. I find it a little weird, but I have a slight idea on why they did this, as I wrote in another post, years ago.

These are much more local cases, I think? And perhaps not "famous", per se. Some stuff related to original manga-like published series in my country, Mexico. There was a time, before the internet and social media and sites like DA existed, where a couple of local publishers had their hands on publishing manga-inspired comics as anthology series-like in comic book format and in magazine form. The projects seemed to have died because they didn't sell as they wanted, and wanted to focus in better stuff, I guess. And perhaps stuff that I'm probably just scratching the surface of, because it's probably also stuff about authors' disagreements with their editors/publisher and/or more serious stuff that I may not know of behind the scenes. Many of these series were "officially" cut short. The thing is, what I'm partly? sure of is that, at least some of these creators got their works' rights back and perhaps, there's a possibility they DID publish them in some way or form thanks to more indie endeavors and/or the internet and also sold them through the anime/comics conventions circuit (especially in the Valley of Mexico, ie CDMX and its metropolitan area), a circuit I didn't frequent as I live in the north of the country :// (and I only went to the ones in my city during the summer from 2007 through 2016). But, I do remember a more scummy example :/. In a similar fashion as the infamous Tokyopop manga contests in the US, there was this animanga magazine that organized their own manga contest in the mid 2000s. The contest had a winner and I remember they even announced the winner was going to have their own series published on the same publisher and the like... Thing is, the date came and went and I don't remember the series was ever published (and, look, I know some of the magazines I used to buy back in the day had a weird distribution in the rest of the country, but I still had access to newspapers' stands as I lived in the afforementioned Valley of Mexico area until mid 2010). EVEN SO, the artist did some stuff for the magazine, yes. But, eventually the magazine changed their focus to more cartoon/Di*sney stuff and had a more tweeny/teen demography, and this isn't the only scummy thing they did that I remember, btw. I don't even know what the winner even did afterwards, but I hope they, at LEAST, has an artistic hobby or is doing some great stuff in any of the webcomic/webtoon platforms or hosting it in DA or on their own. I don't know. (To add salt to the injury I cannot look properly to what happened to the series per se because there's barely any mention online about the magazine that organized the contest, either. Be it because, again, we -lots of times- fail to archive stuff like this and, even if there was a mention about this online, many message boards from that time and era ceased to exist in the past 10 years and so)

These are all at the tip of my tongue at the moment.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

Hi Kim. Interesting page. I would like to contribute on story structure with Edgar Allen Poe and his Philosophy of Composition. It's an article and can be read in full text on the net. (couldn't post a link here). All the best Joachim Bergenstråhle

Honestly, I can't help people who think that "Kim" in a Korean name is somehow their given name. lol Do you think Kim Jong Un's given name is also Kim? Probably explains things like "Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell and "Katana" by Cole Gibson which had a JAPANESE character with the given name of "Kim".... lol But seriously, think a bit harder on this one. Why are people so preoccupied with "Kim" no matter where I put it, and can't type Yoonmi. So many Kims in Korea. lol our surname is a retcon grift, though, mostly to kiss Royal Lee's butts.

Thank you for the tip off. But the research for that era is complete and I'm not that invested in White cishet men (Poe was not abled), in general. I wanted to answer a question, which I did. That question was the shift from morality in Shakespeare's time, to emotionality during the rise of the Gothic Novel, to conflict later--what caused it and when and who.

And I answered that hands down: Aristotle(Morality)->Shakespeare (Morality)->John Locke (Emotionality)->(Kinda) Freytag (Emotionality)->Percy Lubbock (Not het, but tried to pass until people found out and tried to retcon him out of existence with mostly Barthes, because homophobic assholes).

Poe is trying to not talk story structure, if you read carefully, but about Short story and what a "singular" effect was, which is in line with other short story writing manuals, which to be clear came before novel writing manuals. (He, as expected, argues for emotionality as the story driver, not conflict. No big surprise, it's in line with what Lucy Worsley argued and everyone else from that era.) A singular effect in novels was argued against readily by A Study of a Novel by Selden Whitcomb and also Virginia Woolf, etc. Rowe messed that one up by plagiarizing. "Rules" for writing didn't so much exist in the 19th century as such. The closest we get to early on rules is the debates about morality tales, naturalism, etc.

I'm currently working through 1970's-1980's author writing books--ones that actually had impact based on later surveys of writing books that referenced them.

Kinda interesting.

One side: Men are in love with structuralism, a whole ton and there is increased literary importation from France compared to previous eras (I can't find why and no one seems to know enough history to find out why) Mostly people are copy-pasting from Barthes and importing French texts from the 1960's on literary theory.

On the other side, minorities are trying to argue hard for "development" as a story driver. (This includes women and PoCs).

This argument is a continuation, BTW, of the one between Lubbock v. Forster/Woolf. The Modernists v. Structuralists, if you will. Kinda also, I should note, why White (Mostly Western) European and European Diaspora lit has this really odd split between super technical writing and genre which is absent in other regions.

My question, beyond the obvious is why did men win for "genre" fiction--was it really about commerciality only and suppression (I think Hayes codes had a lot to do with it) and the Modernists win for Literary. I'm thinking it's mostly hinging Barthes, who also argued for the need for Comparative Lit. Also from the era, women are doing feminist things like asking why Women's writing (And other minorities) has been historically suppressed and called "Wrong" (irony here).

So with my question answered and I have a pretty good picture of the 19th century with the diversity of Story structure and story drivers, meh to more cishet white men.

1990's--I've read a lot of the seminal writing books from that period from white cishet (mostly abled) men. But yeah... by then the split between "genre" and "Literary" is codified, so I'm trying to find when did it codify and why did women's voices (at least the white ones) lose so severely before then? BTW, White Cishet men finally get in around the early 2000's-about 2010's and start mentioning women in the writing advice books and PoCs. I think Globalization had a large effect and also 3rd and Fourth wave feminism loosened things from the stringent 1980's gender ideologies.

I appreciate the rec, but moving on. I also figured out (most) of the history of East Asian Lit on the 4-act and a few others which coincides with history.

Once I move, I'll resume elucidating both in the Youtube series.

BTW, this is why Death of the Author can be destructive--if you don't go over Literature history, you stand to lose it to retcons.

[allykatsart]

heya!! i really like your dark side logan au and i have a question about your ‘Good or Bad?’ fic, which is awesome btw. in the latest chapter, logan was initially sent to retrieve virgil’s ‘dark’ hoodie but ended up with the edgar allan poe book instead. i’m assuming that logan’s dark side appearance in the fic is going to be like the concept art in your blog. so, my question is, if logan succeeded retrieving virgil’s hoodie, will his design be different?

To answer your question simply, yeah it would. The jacket has a different symbolism than the book for…several reasons. But first, I did some sketches based off of the idea.

This DS!Logan is based more off a wolf, hense the fur, ears, and teeth. He’s more aggressive and louder than Raven!Logan. I’ve seen some posts on here that more eloquently describe the symbolism of why a ‘lone wolf’ would fit Logan, but I’ll sum it up to: Clever and actually needs his pack.(Also, fluffy jacket)

Speaking of that jacket, he is indeed wearing Virgil’s old jacket. In this scenario, he would have stolen it without Virgil knowing, meaning malicious intent on his part. Because this is Thomas’ mind, that intent would have carried into the transformation. I…don’t think this would have been a good thing as Logan would be much more abrasive and unhelpful. (Also he would have never have doubted his plan to the extent he did in Virgil’s room, so his mindset would be that of ‘this is the best plan of action, why can’t you see that I’m right?’)

In the regular setting, where Logan is given the book, it’s not a malicious act. Virgil gave him the book in an attempt to help him. That intent is carried over when Logan changes to a ‘dark’ side, making him much more…agreeable. 

Logan’s motives don’t really change. He still wants to help Thomas and break the illusion of ‘light’ and ‘dark’ sides, but the methods he uses to achieve that end to are enough to make the difference I think.

[garyfuckingking]

My 10 pages long essay and Powerpoint on The World’s End and Gary King

(aka why The World’s End and Gary King are two of the most precious things that exist, aka why I love The World’s End and Gary King)

(Based on my own original idea and written after I read this post - @ineverhadadoubt thanks again for sending it to me-

Also please check out this amazing post about the pubs in the movie.)

(I thought I’d tag some people that seemed to agree with my original post and might be interested in reading this. It’s fine if you don’t btw: @smashing-anarchist-poet @jessefandomunited @shakespeareanmemes @jesusinanalcove @aknownlegend @snovyda @smuggsy @immortal-gamora @doodlerdoodle @zane-garrett @lady-dragonfruit @nogoatshere  @hum4n3rror @theforceawakcns @duskteeth - wasn’t gonna tag everyone, some I couldn’t even tag so that’ll do-)

Before I begin, I’d like for you to be aware of a few things. 

First off, this is gonna be a very very veeeeeery long post so bare with me if you can. I’m probably gonna keep apologizing for the lenght of it in between two things I’m talking about but I’m passionate, sorry.

It’s also a very big post because there’s pictures and a lot of gifs tbh. 

Like... i think like, don’t even try to read this on your phone? Idk what it will do to it. tumblr mobile ain’t that strong i think

There’s so much to be said about this movie.

TW: There’s going to be mentions of suicide, depression, addiction, ...

Also, I’m probably going to forget a lot of the points I’d like to illustrate and talk about, that’s one of the downsides of running on a three hours of sleep schedule. 

You can check the tags for some trivia on this whole post.

So if anyone wants to add something, feel free. I’d love for people to give me their opinion on the movie, etc. 

I’m also probably not gonna mention the direction of the movie too much. I love Edgar Wright with all my stone-cold heart but if I have to talk about how much of a fucking genius he is when it comes to comedy and his movies, we’re literally gonna be there all week, plus I’m not actually planning on writing a 10 pages long essay -or am I?-.

If you haven’t seen the movie, SPOILER ALERT. Seriously though. There’s some stuff in the movie you probably don’t want to know by reading this if you’re planning on watching it and I’m going to talk about everything so.

Finally, I’m going to talk about why I think the movie is not as popular as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and the rest will mostly be about Gary King and why he’s a great character but also why he’s an important one.

Well. Let’s go. This is gonna be a wild ride.

In this essay, I will...

Ok, in all seriousness.

So I guess there’s supposed to be an introduction here. This is very unprofessionnal, and I’ve learned how to write essays so shame on me. Oh, well. We’re here to talk about Gary Fucking King. It’s ok if it’s a mess, the guy’s a living mess on his own. So, when Simon Pegg comes to mind, the Cornetto Trilogy usually does as well. At least, the first movie that you probably think of is Shaun of the Dead. And often, Hot Fuzz is mentionned as well. But I never ever hear anything about the World’s End. God, even Stephen Colbert got the name wrong while talking to Simon, calling it “The End of the World”. Granted the movie wasn’t the subject, but... Why did it happen? Why is The World’s End seen as “the weakest one”, as “not as good as the first two”, is the one people don’t remember, and is assimilited to other weird claims of the sort? 

I personally feel like it’s because it’s more layered than the other two movies, actually, it’s a bit more complicated. I’m not saying here “if you didn’t get it you’re dumb” or “only smart people will get the message”. Not at all. I had to watch it a couple of times before I started to get a lot of things about Gary and the movie in general, and even today, when I watch it, I notice new things and tiny details that I never realized were there before. That happens with the whole trilogy because the three movies are amazingly well done, but I feel like it’s harder to grasp with The World’s End. But why? 

I think it’s because we directly know what Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are about. The three movies are about more than an apocalyptic scenario or living surrounded by a cult made of murderers. There’s always a message behind the main themes. 

With Shaun of the Dead, it’s kind of a given, really. The little introduction of the environment shows you that it looks like the town is filled with z****es before they even actually arrive and just with that, the scene is set, we know what -behind the parody and other elements of the film- Simon and Edgar decided to criticize about society (it becomes deeper with Shaun’s character but I’ll get to that later, same with Angel).

In Hot Fuzz, the critic of society is a bit more subtle, but still there for people to see. That’s the point right? Send a message without making you feel like you’re “being thaught a lesson”, or something like that, and these movies do it brilliantly. Because that’s the thing. People watching the Cornetto Trilogy sit down in front of their screen to have a good time, have a laugh and go one with their day. But The World’s End is different. It’s still extremely funny, but it doesn’t give off the same vibe as SotD and HF. You feel like there’s something more, you feel that it’s actually a tragic movie. 

Yes, it still has the same kind of message, here with how much of a fuck up a human being can be, how humans are stubborn even if they make mistakes, but that it’s part of life and a word with “perfect beings” wouldn’t necessarily be better. It’s about growing up and accepting that you have to leave your childhood or teenage years at some point, and all that stuff surrounding these themes. You think it was the better part of your life, but often... it isn’t (again, I’ll come back to this later). It’s just harder to grasp because of the tone and maybe because people don’t like to hear this kind of things.

So the problem is, people often miss (or dismiss) the point. 

I don’t think you know about this but there’s this French website called Betaseries. 

On it, you can have an account and have a list with the tv shows you’re currently watching or the films you’ve watched or want to watch.

You can download subtitles for the new episodes you wanna watch if you need them, you can rate movies, comment to give your opinion, you can tick which episodes you’ve seen so that you can keep track of what you’re watching and not forget where you’re at, etc. Pretty useful website, I’m always on it.

So, I obviously went to see what people thought of The World’s End. It’s got a good enough rating, really, 3.62 out of 5 stars. It’s not a four or a five but only because of two users who didn’t like it all that much. So I read their reviews. One was a 2/5 and one was a 3/5: 

“To summarize the movie: the world is invaded by a pacifist extra-terrestrial entity that kills human to exchange them with clones but that accept to leave the planet if you ask (with insults, please!) ???

To use one of the movie’s favorite expression: WTF?????!!!!!

I liked the story of “Shaun of the Dead” better ^^”

“Having liked "Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”, I was impatient to see Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s new movie, unfortunately, it isn’t as “good” as the last two. Technically perfect, the story drags on and the mid-life crisis Simon Pegg’s character goes through becomes tedious after some time… but not everything’s good for the trash! The English humor is really present, the play-on-words, the references… you don’t mind watching it. I feel like you need to watch it a second time to appreciate its real worth.

Naturally, watching it in VO is absolutely necessary.”

The other people that commented had all 4 or 5 stars and were only saying that the movie was very funny, therefore enjoyable and good.

I think that’s the thing. When you think “Cornetto Trilogy”, you think “having a good time”. You watch it, you can see that there’s a message behind it, but you don’t spend your time focusing on it or looking for it, because it’s usually pretty simple to get. You pay more attention to the comedy, the references, etc.  

And that is where The World’s End becomes different. It’s not focused on the comedy or the references (well, yes it is and it’s still incredibly funny, it was meant to be), but you have to focus on what is actually going on with Gary King to get it all. That’s why the big meanie leaves “just because they asked”. Remember what it says before leaving (and destroying the world btw)?

That’s something that’s been said to Gary a few times throughout the movie, but here, it’s clearly aimed at the three of them, hence at the humans, because they’re speaking for their entire race. That’s why it leaves. Because the message is “it’s pointless arguing with humans, they’re going to do whatever they want anyway, you can’t change their mind, etc., they have to learn thanks to their own mistakes so you have to let them make them, not force them to be perfect.” This kind of things. 

But when you read the reviews above... These are the only two reviews where you can see that they really tried to get what was going on, but maybe missed it, and because of that, they didn’t like the movie all that much and rated it badly. Gary King isn’t just going through “a mid-life crisis”. He really isn’t. There is so much more to him that it drives me actually crazy that this movie isn’t as praised as the rest of the trilogy. Literally nuts.

With that being said, I think it’s time to really get into who Gary King is, why he is such an amazing character and why there’s more to him than a “mid-life crisis”. So I’m going to talk about him (obviously), about his effect on others, about his relationship with his friends, his addiction, etc., and why it just makes the plot so much better. I hope you’re still with me. And that it’s been understandable up to this point because I really can’t express my ideas the way I want to easily, sorry about that.

The Cornetto trilogy doesn’t just have these hidden messages, morals, … A common thing between these movies is that the characters played by Simon Pegg are all flawed. They’re just flawed human beings. And these characters have to work on themselves to become better. The plot is usually what makes them realize things and help them grow to become their best self.

In Shaun of the Dead, Shaun is going nowhere with his life, he’s stuck in a routine with a dead-end job and a relationship he’s screwing up because Liz is the only one working on it. It’s not that he hates his life, but he doesn’t do anything to make it better either, he doesn’t really see the point. . He’s just there so he does what he’s got to do, but he doesn’t get out of his way to do more. And like Pete says, Shaun needs to sort his life out and do something. Here, killing z****e is apparently the way to a healthy and more positive life. (and no, I will not say the z-word and you shouldn’t either)

In Hot Fuzz, Nicholas Angel puts his work before anything else. That’s why his very serious relationship ended, it even caused him to be disliked by his colleagues and superiors. Like Janine says, he won’t ever be able to turn off if he doesn’t find someone he cares about more than his job. And throughout the movie, you see how Nicholas becomes, but also how other characters become thanks to him. I could talk about this masterpiece, about the foreshadowing in it and especially about Danny Butterman for hours on end but I’m not here for that today.

Also, Shaun had Pete to tell him what was wrong with him. Nicholas had Janine to tell him what was wrong with him. Who does that for Gary King? Because again, Gary is a very flawed character who needs to change as well. But first, we have to ask ourselves one question:

Who is Gary King?

Let’s get some answers.

Well, I’d give you a lot of answers if I had them but… we don’t really know much about Gary King, do we? Well, what we know about his past is what he told the people in the rehabilitation session. That he was The King. But it’s only later on in the movie that we’re able to get new details about him that help us get a clearer idea of who he is. 

The King, the leader of their little group, the popular kid, is also selfish and self-centered. He’s injured his friends with his reckless behavior, he injured himself, he was already a heavy drinker and was using drugs. We don’t know much about his real past, about his family, or else. We know he hasn’t spoken to his mother in eight months when the movie takes place. He arrived in a psychiatric hospital after a suicide attempt but hasn’t told anyone, clearly. His mother doesn’t even know. He doesn’t like the way the hospital was “helping” him and after a quick decision, he got out of it to regroup his old friends and make an attempt at the Golden Mile again. 

We know he isn’t happy. He’s bitter and sad, clinging onto a past he thinks better than anything else he could ever have. Addicted for most of his life and depressed to the point where he tried to kill himself. In the movie, he clearly just tries to reassure himself about his life, always lying to himself and to others.

Whenever reality catches up to him, he shies away from it, he’s not even able to look at Andy anymore. And the problem is, his friends are the reality and he’s the lie. He’s convinced himself of things so much that he believes in them and he can’t hear another version of the events that have happened, he needs to keep his embellished memories intact because he’d rather believe in a lie than in what he is.

He desperately needs the attention, because he’s so alone. He needs to live in his lie, to relive that great night, that moment when he could seduce Oliver’s sister, when his friends would have followed him to the end of the world, to finally prove himself right. And like Andy says, he’s never wrong, is he? He’d rather lie about his mother dying than face rejection and where he’s at. He’d rather have people stay with him because they pity him than because they want to be with him.

He lies about it as a last attempt to convince Andy to come along to Newton Haven, after also giving him money he had been owning him. (I’ll talk about the rest of this scene later on, it’s a very important thing to mention.)

And then, when reality is thrown at his face by Andy again, he miserably tries to get his sympathy once more, despite Andy not having it:

Just after that scene and right before they find out the truth about his mother, Peter says “I can’t help but feel sorry for him”, what Gary intended to do. He manipulates and is upset that things don’t go his way, no matter for what reason he is actually manipulating them. He wouldn’t admit it’s because he’s lonely and unhappy and that because he needs them to feel better, he’s fine with hurting their feelings again.

When he leaves the table to go to the restroom, he looks at himself and finally lets some real emotion out, only to realize what he’s doing.

He’s not proud of it. His friends have changed, yes, but he hasn’t. He’s still the same impulsive and selfish young man he used to be, but now he realizes that’s not how life works. Life doesn’t just go his way like it used to, or like he thought it used to. Life happens to you, you're not in control, and he probably realized that months ago, as he tried to end it.

Still, when the teenager arrives in the restroom, he puts his walls back up again directly, tries to show off and to befriend the young man by impressing him. He sees himself in him, a young and free man who just enjoys his time with his friends. 

That’s why he was looking at them this way earlier in the pub:

Or when both groups crossed path outside in the afternoon. Yet, when the boy doesn’t respond and ignores him, he gets upset again and is ready to provoke a teenage boy for not paying attention to a drunk guy inviting him to drink with him and his friends. 

Yes, the alcohol and the built-up frustration of the evening made him provoke that boy, but it doesn’t mean he’s not aware of the gravity of his actions every time he does something. He’s clearly aware that he manipulates his friends, that he only thinks about himself. It’s always in very short moments that you see him look away or having a hard time processing everything, because he knows the way he acts and as much as he hates himself for it, he can’t help it. To the point where he uses the terrible situation of Newton Haven, no matter if they might die, to finish the pub crawl. Why? He doesn’t care if he dies. At all. It’d probably be easier for him. 

He can’t stand himself, but he can’t be someone else. He got upset at the boy’s silence, taking it as an insult, a way of being disrespectful towards him and in his head, no one should disrespect Gary King. There was a time when he loved being himself but like Sam rightfully says:

So with that in mind, what is Gary King? 

That, I believe, is one of the most exciting part of the character. He’s as much the villain as he is the hero of the movie. 

He’s a villain in his behavior, always has been. He liked being a “bad boy”, but he really did hurt his own friends and has been selfish for a long time. A lot of things that he did and still does make him a villain in this story. Yet, he doesn’t flinch in front of danger, he throws himself in battles the way he used to when Peter would get bullied. He fights for his life and stands his ground in front of the “big boss”, speaking on behalf of the entire human race so that the enemy would leave them be. He’s obnoxious, but he’s also very lovable. Again, like Sam said:

He wouldn’t be able to make someone else happy, or maybe for a while, but he probably wouldn’t be able to resist getting back to his old antics. He’s not meant to live a quiet life with a family, he needs his freedom, as he calls it, but deep down, he’s never actually been a Bad Person™ . He does care about his friends, in his own fucked up way, but he’s too damaged to do any good around him, it doesn’t matter if he’d like to or not.

That’s why he leaves again in the end. He can’t stay there and face everything that has happened. He saw his chance to start all over again and let his remaining friends be happy together, without getting in the way. He did the right thing by getting sober, but he regained his freedom, is still a rebel by staying with a bunch of blanks and not humans, and he’s with the version of his friends he’s always wanted to be with again. Maybe it’s a bit unhealthy for him to stay with these specific blanks, but it’s a better coping mechanism than alcohol and drugs. He’s his true self, but he’s sober and definitely feels better, like he belongs there.

Now, the time has come. Let’s really introduce his friends, talk about his relationship with them before talking about how he takes responsibility for his actions and how he deals with change. (yes I’m sorry this is endless)

All his friends have little stories to tell about his behavior during the movie. He injured all of them as well as he injured himself, and even if Oliver is the only one who didn’t receive a scar, he got his own birthmark removed because of the nickname they would always use. Gary was the only one using it still during the movie, despite being told off.

I’ll introduce them using Gary’s words in the beginning of the movie. It allows us to see the way he perceives them. Keep in mind that it’s the only way he could ever see them at that point, as he doesn’t know what they became and who they really are at that point in their lives. What we, as viewers, know, is that they seem to have all become pretty successful when it comes to their careers, and they just seem to have a good life in general, compared to Gary who is in that hospital and dealing with his addictions.

So, we’ve got Oliver Chamberlain. Gary introduces him by saying: “Ollie was funny, he fancied himself as a bit of a player, but really, he was all mouth. We called him O-man because he had a birthmark on his forehead that looked like a six. He loved it.”

He certainly did not love it. Like I said, he got the birthmark removed because it annoyed him so much to be called O-man. We don’t know much about Oliver, really. He manages a boutique estate agency in North London, he’s doing good, he’s always working. His sister is Sam Chamberlain, Steve has had a crush on her since high school and Gary had sex with her in the disabled. He’s in a sort of competition with Steve to win her over. We know Oliver was already acting like a business man in school. During their first attempt at the Golden Mile, he was out of commission after the 6th pub.

He’s also often mentioning Gary’s drug abuse throughout the movie. 

He was clearly uninterested in going back to Newton Haven, he was very reluctant at the idea, but Gary succeeded in tricking him to go back. During the movie, Gary says a couple of times that Oliver is doing really good, as he didn’t go that far in the crawl the first time. He obviously doesn’t know he has been replaced by a blank in the middle of the crawl but he does say that he likes the new Oliver, the one that seems to be fine with following him around, who is able to go on with the crawl and encourages the others to join the party.

Now, Peter Page. Gary says: “Pete was the baby of the group. He wasn’t the kind of kid we’d usually hang out with, but he was good for a laugh. And he was absolutely minted.”

The cool guy hanging out with the most bullied kid in school? He indicates there that his wealth was one of the reasons he was friend with Peter, despite saying that “he was good for a laugh.” You can see that they get along pretty well during the movie, once Peter is relaxed with the alcohol. They joke around and laugh together quite easily. During the first attempt at the Golden Mile, after smoking marijuana in The Smokehouse, he was left on a park bench while Gary, Steve and Andy kept on going. He still works with his father and became his business partner. He’s the one who sold The Beast to Gary back in the day.

The scar Gary gave him was when Peter let him drive his 50cc Suzuki. Gary rolled over his leg.

He clearly was looking up to Gary at the time, probably because he was defending him whenever he’d get bullied.

There are a few moments where you can also see how submissive Peter still is, traumatized by the extreme bullying he went through in high school. He hates confrontation. He hides behind his newspaper when his kids are “fighting” at the table. It’s impossible for him to say anything when he meets his bully in one of the pubs and whenever a fight explodes, he’s the first one to try and hide, not fight.

He was killed and replaced after finally standing up against the blank that replaced his bully.

Steven Prince. Gary doesn’t have much to say about him: “Steve was a pretty cool guy. We jammed together, chased the girls. I think he saw us as rivals. Sweet, really.”

Like Oliver, we don’t have many information about his life. He had his own construction company, and he was bought out in ’05. At the beginning of the movie, he’s going out with a 26-year-old fitness instructor but the person he truly loves is Oliver’s sister, Sam. Gary and Steve got along just fine, but with what Gary says, you can see he thought he was better than Steve in different ways (shocking, I know). Gary and he used to play music together but stopped when Gary sold Steve’s bass to buy drugs.

In 1987, so when they were around fourteen, while they were playing cricket, Gary accidentally pushed Steven onto a broken bottle and Steve was left with a scar… well, on his ass. Now, we don’t know the origin of the bottle, but you certainly don’t need it to play cricket, from what I know? We also don’t know what they were drinking, so maybe I’m reaching by saying it could have already been Gary’s if he was already drinking alcohol, but we wouldn’t know so again, I might just be reaching! not confirming anything. Still, Gary injured him as well.

He wasn’t really happy when he saw Gary again for the first time, but still ends up going back. During the first Golden Mile, Steve was still there at the end. Even if they didn’t finish it, he was with Andy and Gary on the hills at sunset. 

Now, Andy is the most important one, obviously. It wasn’t a surprise. Simon and Nick always play the two main characters and they always have a very strong bond. And Gary’s relationship with Andy is quite fascinating to say the least. For someone with as much pride as Gary King, talking about the way he feels is not all that easy. At least not without disguising it a little. Before we get into that part, here’s Andy’s introduction. This time, I’ll just explain who he is, and then show Gary’s words because I’ll talk about them more.  

So, from what we know, Andy used to play rugby when he was younger. When the film takes place, he’s a corporate lawyer, he’s married and has kids. He seems to be doing quite well, even though we learn he and his wife are separated at the moment and that he's trying to get her back.

During the first pub crawl, he made it to the end of the night with Gary and Steve, ending up on the hills at sunset and failing the Golden Mile. Back in ’86, Gary injured him as well when they reenacted the knife game from Alien. Gary accidentally stabbed him in the middle finger.

We know that he remained friends with Gary until December 1997. Gary overdosed and Andy, while being extremely drunk, attempted to drive him to the hospital. He crashed his car and he had to go through a life-saving surgery that lasted for 12 hours before getting arrested. At that point, Gary who had made a “miraculous fucking recovery”, as Andy puts it, had abandoned him on the scene of the crash. After these events, Andy stopped talking to Gary and also stopped drinking.

It seems that “the accident”, as it’s referred as in the movie, drove them amm apart. We at least know they were still talking to each other in ’92, two years after they left school, because that’s when they decided to stop calling him “Fearless Leader”.

So they probably kept hanging out until the accident. Gary was certainly the glue sticking the group together but finally took it too far.

Now, when talking about Andy, Gary says this: 

“And Andy. Andy was my wingman. The one guy I could rely on to back me up. He loved me, and I’m not being funny, but I loved him.”

Why would he be funny by saying that? Because admitting he loves his friend makes him less of a badass? No, he really liked his friends. But he loved Andy so much.

And I’m not talking as a shipper or anything. I’m really not. Actually, I’ve never shipped Gary with anyone if I have to be honest. Like Sam says, he’s not boyfriend material. I’m talking about platonic friendship. A very strong friendship that still existed despite “the accident”. That’s why Andrew keeps following Gary until they arrived at The World’s End, because he still cares, and he can’t watch him destroying himself like that. That’s why they all went back. Because in a way, they cared. They kept complaining but seeing everyone wasn’t that bad. They did laugh together, even with Gary, despite being pissed at him. They also weren’t expecting much of him, they know him:

But Gary’s relationship with Andy is special.

Andy is kind of the one who made everyone come back. They clearly didn’t go back for Gary. They went because of Gary, but each of them has asked if Andy would be there first. Probably because Andy’s presence would mean that if he could get past Gary’s mistakes, then maybe they could and should give it a try. And Andy went back with the hope that maybe Gary has changed, even just a little bit. When they are sitting outside while Gary’s playing Need for Speed (for someone who hasn’t seen it, this might sound like a weird as fuck movie), he says this:

Well, of course, he then learned he got money from the other three and gets mad, but you know. He did hope for a split second that he wasn’t exactly the same and that maybe, it was really because of what he told him in his office that Gary wanted to do that again. That’s also why he cuts him some slack at the beginning)

Speaking of the dialogue in his office! Remember I said I would come back to that scene at some point? Well, here we are. Yes, you might have forgotten because this post is very long and I ramble but if you’re still with me, well… it’s not almost the end but we’re getting there.  Anyway! So, Gary lies about his mom dying and that’s the following conversation:

Again, maybe I’m reaching, but he seems so honest that I wouldn’t be surprised if he was actually using his mom’s death as a metaphor for his own suicide attempt. It got him thinking about the old days. He never really stopped thinking about them. He still has The Beast, he still has the tape Steve made him and that he was still always listening to, but these last months were probably extremely rough for him and got him really thinking about all of this in a more depressing way than he ever did. His life had been going downhill since he got out of school, but he finally hit rock bottom really hard.

He says his mother has always really liked Andy, but he might as well be speaking about his own feelings. He even says that he likes the guys, but that Andy was the best friend he’s ever had (and probably the only one he ever felt this way for.)

He has a weird behavior around Andy. He’s always acting so confident, but throughout the movie, he keeps seeking some kind of reassurance from Andy. Either because he wants his approval but also because he wants to prove himself right, or because he wants to believe everything is fine between them.

He has a really hard time expressing his true feelings, probably because he’s used to hiding them all the time. Every time he does express them, we can see how miserable he is and why Simon calls him “a walking tragedy”.

This leads me to the three most powerful dialogues in this movie, I think. I mean, in my opinion, they are the most telling about Gary’s truth, even though the movie is sprinkled with hints on what’s going on, like with this very obvious line:

We clearly know that it was something that was told directly to him, we know where, despite him acting like it’s just some trivia.

So the first dialogue I have in mind is the one with Sam. Sorry, loads of gifs are coming your way:

I feel like for the first time in the movie, he’s kinf of done with his own behavior and he’s ready to have a serious talk and admit some important things. Like when he says Steve is better than him, because he knows he’s a fuck up but now he’s ready to admit it. And in a few lines, you see something else. No, it’s not all about that night, it never was. Life doesn’t have purpose for only one night in your life. Yes, maybe it was the happiest night that there ever was, if it even was, but it doesn’t mean shit, really. But Gary holds on to it like his life was depending on it. Well, in this scenario, it kind of is. Sam tells him that it doesn’t have to be all about that night, kind of letting him know he has the choice to leave it behind and finally move on. And she can see that he gets it. But then, if Gary can’t hold onto that night, he at least wants to keep some things from it, hence his questions about the disableds. Sam agrees, giving him at least that because either way, he’s losing against his own life. If at least he’s trying, she can let him hold onto that memory.

It makes me think of the moment Gary tells Andy that the Golden Mile is all he’s got. There could be so much more, but Gary feels like he’s got nothing else, unlike his friends who have “everything”, like he says. That’s wy he fights for it, because it’s what’s important to him, like Andy is fighting for his marriage.

The second dialogue would be this one: 

No, it wasn’t his fault that Andy crashed the car. He didn’t overdose on purpose, and Andy chose to drive him to the hospital while drunk and driving four times over the limit. But he did choose to flee the scene and leave Andy to die. And Andy wouldn’t be so angry and resentful if it hadn’t hurt him so much. It hurt him because he loved Gary. 

Remember, when introducing Andy, Gary himself says that Andy was the one guy he could rely on. You’d think it would be the same for Andy, but Gary betrayed him.

Before the third dialogue, I want to elaborate on this, on Gary taking responsibility, kind of? He doesn’t talk about his mistakes.

Every time someone points out one of his past mistake or how his behavior is inappropriate, he changes the subject or tries to get his way.

He doesn’t want to face the things he’s done because he knows he can only blame himself for these situations and he already hates himself enough, he doesn’t need to be reminded of these things again and again.

And it’s also because he wouldn’t like to see his friends discover the way he really feels. Whenever his suicide attempt could get discovered or whenever he thinks about it, he quickly tries to hide the truth.

At first, I’m pretty sure he thought that Andy knew about his attempt, because he’s so surprised when he asks to see his arm. Then, when Andy tells him what injury he wants to see, he’s in full defensive mode and changes the subject again, trying to prove he’s him thanks to his memory, and not a scar.

Andy was ready to bash his head right in if for one second he believed he was a blank, but even then, Gary won’t show his arm, because he can’t let them know he hit rock bottom.

It’s the same with Sam:

The same old gary. Gary doesn’t like change. He hates it. He hates to see that his friends have changed and he knows that in a way, he changed as well, no matter how hard he tries to remain the same old Gary, the one that was happy.

When he learns that there are robots and that it’s not them that have changed but the town, he’s ecstatic.

And finally, the third dialogue I was talking about:

Getting help put Gary in emotional pain, even worse than what he already had before, because of the way he was treated. He hated it, he felt so miserable. Feeling like he’s living a lie, like nothing is what it’s supposed to be, feeling like he has absolutely no control. He doesn’t, not on life, but he could decide to do better. He just doesn’t have the courage.

Andy was already caring, way before that. And he’s always known Gary needed help. At that moment:

Andy wants to finally put the limit. It’s true, it’s the last one. Then, Gary will have completed the Golden Mile. Then, what? That’s not the point but what would Gary have done after that? He would have no purpose and like he says, the Golden Mile is all he’s got. Still, Andy doesn’t let him have one more drink.

Back in the tenth pub, he seemed to happy that Gary was accepting to let it go, to have one last drink and put an end to the crawl. He was still hoping for change.

I feel like this scene just shows how hard it is to overcome addictions just by yourself. He tried, when he got in the hospital, and he ended up leaving. He was really drinking his last beer, at that moment, but he couldn’t resist, once again, and had to have the other two. He really wanted to try, but the temptation was so strong.

Andy follows him because like his marriage, Gary is important, and he fights for what’s important to him.

Maybe Andy was able to make it on his own after the accident, but Gary isn’t Andy. He knows that Gary can’t make it on his own. He was never able to. It doesn’t mean he isn’t strong. Andy knows how strong Gary is, living through his addictions for so long, seeing that he tried to kill himself. He knows he’s strong, but it doesn’t mean he can’t have some help from people who really care about him. Now, he knows that can’t happen unless you force him to. So if he has to actually physically fight Gary to stop him, he will, because he knows his friend wouldn’t be able to stop unless being actually knocked the fuck out. He could let him have the last pint of the Golden Mile, but it would mean he allows him to do what he wants one more time. He puts a stop to it because the Golden Mile doesn’t matter, Gary matters. If he has to shatter his last chance of completing the crawl, even if he’s so close he can almost feel the beer on his tongue, he will if that’s what it takes to make him come to his senses.

Besides, he knows that Gary regrets what he’s done, both in the past and that day. He doesn’t constantly mean to hurt his friends. He does it because he can’t help it, but like Sam says, he’s not a bad person.

By the way, I often wonder what would have happened if they had forced him to show his arm when checking everyone’s scars. If Andy, Peter and Steve had discovered about his suicide attempt at that point.

Would they have understood that Gary was on a suicide mission, at that moment?

And that it was only making it all the more exciting for him?

This is Gary King, everyone. 

Also, funnily and terribly enough, he relieved the night the same way he first lived it back in 1990. Some gifs and images as evidence:

Which begs the question; was the first night even that great to begin with?

I think I covered everything I had in mind (not bloody quite but well). I don’t even know. It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this but I’m glad it did, I got to ramble about my favorite trilogy for hours on end so. And also... I’m pretty sure I was trying to prove something with all this but my point is: I’m in love with Simon Pegg. 

No, ok. Again. Seriously. 

The World’s End is such an underrated movie. And Gary King is such an important character. The movie depicts human nature in the realest way, with all its flaws. And Gary King is depicting mental illness, was written by someone who went through this kind of things. The movie is very personal for both Simon and Edgar, actually. I don’t know much about Edgar, to be perfectly honest. I love his movies, he’s an genius, but I don’t know much about his personal life. I just do know this movie is important for him too. I do know that Simon has dealt with alcoholism, if I’m not mistaken he’s been sober since 2010, he knows what it’s like to battle addiction and depression.

The movie doesn’t romanticize these problems one bit. It shows how bad it can be, and how it can be perceived as by people not knowing much about these things. Remember that comment talking about the fact that the “mid-life crisis” Gary’s going through gets annoying after a while? Welp.

Could you imagine actually living in Gary King’s head for more than an hour. Unbearable. Especially since he’s aware of some of the fucked up things he’s doing and must hate himself for it. 

Yes, there’s the humor and the crazy robot stuff going on on the side, but that was my point at the beginning. That’s why the big weird entity that invaded earth isn’t the big villain of the movie.

I always say the same thing about villains. Take Thanos in the MCU for example. He’s the fucking worst and yet, his actions are justified. Careful. Not excusable, justifiable. You understand that there’s a point for him, that he firmly believes in what he’s doing, that he’s sure his actions are what’s supposed to be done to make Earth a better world, that what he does is right. Yet, because we’re rational and fucking decent, we know that’s not the way you solve problems. Here, the enemy believes it needs to replace humanity with perfect beings, to… make Earth perfect, or something. You know that it’s pointless, because like they show, only three humans in Newton Haven were spared. Earth is filled with flawed humans, you’d have to replace everyone to make it better. And yet, these actions are “justified” by a thought process. Doesn’t mean turning humans into compost is excusable. That creature’s definitely a villain, but not the main one in the movie.

The end of the world ain’t even a bad thing in the movie. On the contrary. A lot of people survived and Andy himself says things are simpler. They’re kind of back to the Dark Age and they realized that all their problems seemed very small in comparison to such events, and they’re happier.

Here, Gary is his friends’ enemy, he’s the blank leader’s enemy, and he is his own worst enemy. He hurts absolutely everyone, himself included. Because of his own addictions and depression. That’s what can really happen in real life and that’s something I really like about the movie.

And he ends up alone. He took the decision to leave but you don’t have a dumb female love interest that falls for the bad boy and make the worst decision she could by getting with him at the end so that we’d have a happy end and so would Gary. Sam’s very honest with him, she tells him how things are until he finally understands and agrees with her. He makes the right choice (“for once,” like he says) and makes her save herself and is fine with her ending up with Steve.

He’s always known the truth, but he had to accept it and he does. It’s difficult, but he does.

I don’t think Gary’s end’s a happy one. I have mixed feelings about Gary’s end because I don’t think he’s going to be satisfied on the long term and he does deserve some happiness at that point in his life. He excluded himself from everyone and is still stuck in that circle of not growing up. He’s definitely happier and he’s sober. But what is going to happen? He’s going to grow old and the blanks won’t change and then what? How is he going to feel about that? 

It’s a real ending, not a cheesy one. But at least he always has that option of coming back at some point. He did once. And he would be more welcomed, and he’d act the right way.

Like he told his teacher back in high school, all he ever wanted was to have a good time. With the four blanks, he’s traveling and having his own fun, he does what he wants, he has the freedom he always wanted to have, he kind of found his path. That’s all he ever wanted, he just found a new way to do so. At least, he’s got that, and he knows his friends have what they want as well. Earth is destroyed but Steven is with the love of his life, and Andy got back together with his wife and lives happily. 

Well. I think that’s about all I wanted to say. I hope. That was long enough. I just hope you guys are still reading, and that you “enjoyed” this thing that took me forever to write. I’d love your opinion. I’d love it if it made other people watch the movie or enjoy it more than they did at first. I just love this movie so much. And I just love Gary King so much. 

I rest my case. Lets’ Boo-Boo.

[anongoingsoliloquy]

Hey babes! This is a day late, but better late than never right? I was having a hard time coming up with something for today’s post. Lately, even though I’ve been reading nonstop, I’ve been so enthralled with television. One of my favorite shows, Gotham, dropped a bombshell this week and the show is still on its mid-season hiatus! I’ve also been binging two separate series at once. So, as I was pondering today’s post, brilliance hit! Why don’t I give book recs based on my favorite TV series?? So, that is what we’re doing today. I’ve come up with 10 book/TV series for the “If You Like That, Try This” Book tag. Let’s get started!

1.    If you Like Gotham, try Gotham: Dawn of Darkness – Jason Starr

I know it isn’t very creative, but hear me out! Everyone that I know who watches Gotham, has never heard of this book and that is such a shame! It is a wonderfully written novel, and is different from most tie-in novels. The author Jason Starr must have watched the series a couple of time, because every detail in the book lined up perfectly with the show. So perfectly, that I find it hard to believe that a tiny throwaway line about Oswald’s shoes cannot be a coincidence! This novel serves as a prequel to Gotham, it follows the days leading up to the Wayne murders. And Jerome Valeska even makes an appearance! I gave this book a five-star rating!  

2.    If you like Ripper Street, try Stalking Jack the Ripper – Kerri Maniscalco

To be completely honest, I’m only half way through Stalking Jack the Ripper, but I have no guilt in recommending it to everyone! It’s that good! Fun fact about me, I’m obsessed with the Ripper murders, have been since I was way too young to have even known about them! I think my fascination stems from the fact that he committed the perfect murders; they never caught him! I think Stalking Jack the Ripper does a fantastic job in keeping the mystery of the Ripper at the forefront of the story. Honestly, I’m suspicious of everyone at this point in the novel! I would also recommend the book The Case Files of Jack the Ripper if you are interested in the murders. It’s a nonfiction book containing copies of police reports and autopsy photos. Really gruesome, but super interesting!

3.    If you like Merlin, try Here Lies Arthur - Philip Reeve

If you’re like me, and your favorite show to ever grace the airwaves is Merlin, then I would recommend Here Lies Arthur. This is by no means anything like Merlin. It is, however a retelling of the Arthurian Legend. It is not fun and magical like the show, and Arthur is nothing like the charming Bradley James version. In this novel Arthur is kind of a brute and the leader of a rough and tumble group for men. This story is about a girl named Gwyna, who is taken in by Myrddin the bard, who is the Merlin like character…only without magic. He is a story teller and is determined to create an awe-inspiring legend out of Arthur. Myrddin transforms Gwyna into lady goddess, a boy warrior, and a spy. Gwyna is the beginning and the end of the Legend of Arthur.

4.    If you like Grimm, try Magnus Chase: The Sword of Summer – Rick Riordan

This one is a little out there, but bear with me. I think if you like Grimm, then chances are you would really enjoy the Magnus Chase series. Both have the same underlining elements. In each, a young man is thrust into a new version of the world; one that he doesn’t really understand. With the help of his friends – old and new – the leading man is able to take on his family lineage; a lineage much greater than himself. You see what I did there? The explanations, I’ve got them. i have a review for the Magnus Chase series that you can read here. 

5.    If you like Vikings, try Vikings: Godhead - Cavan Scott

Another no very creative rec, but I feel like not many people know about this comic series. So, if you like Vikings, you should definitely read Vikings: Godhead. This comic takes place a little before and after the events in France, dealing with Ragnar’s thought process before his 10 year absence from Kattigate. There is also a subplot dealing with Ivar, Siggy and Kattigate’s fear of Ivar when he was a child.    

6.    If you like Salem, try Fiendish –  Brenna Yovanoff

Salem was one of the best shows, and my best boy Cotton deserved a better end. That being said, if you also like Salem, you should give Fiendish a go! It’s set in modern day, but it deals with witchcraft and the coming apocalypse, just like Salem. This novel is not as dark as Salem is, but there is still that unnerving undertone. Our story opens with our main character, Clementine, being found in the basement of her home with her eye stitched shut. And that’s all I’m going to say. I think it’s always best to keep quiet about mysteries!

7.    If you like The Exorcist, try Good Omens – Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

Again, hear me out. The Exorcist is my favorite show on TV right now (my favorite character is Father Marcus btw). The big, overarching plot of The Exorcist is that demons are infiltrating the Vatican and are trying to bring about the apocalypse. In Good Omens, the apocalypse is happening “next Saturday”, a little bit before dinnertime. The two main characters, an angel and a demon, have grown fond of earth and its people. So, they go about trying to stop the apocalypse because they aren’t feeling it. If that isn’t the most Tomarcus (ship name for Father Tomas & Father Marcus) thing you’ve ever heard, you’re lying! Good Omens is a fun, yet still dark novel, that I believe The Exorcist fans would love! #RenewTheExorcist 

8.    If you like Castle, try Magpie Murders – Anthony Horowitz

I think Magpie Murders would suit any Castle fan! The novel revolves around storytelling and one particular manuscript, so I think it is in the same vein as Castle in that regard. Magpie Murders is a wonderful murder mystery! The twists are so beautifully executed, that it keeps you on your toes the entire time! I don’t want to give anything away, so I would say any more about it, other than everyone should read this book!!!

9.    If you like Penny Dreadful, try The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim – Shane Peacock

I’ve mentioned the similarities of Penny Dreadful and Edgar Brim in a bunch of posts, but here we go again. The biggest connection between these two are that they both take the classic Gothic characters (Frankenstein, Dracula, etc.), throw them into the same world and spit out completely new stories. I feel like I’ve talked about this series so much so I won’t go into detail again here but I have a review of the second Edgar Brim novel, Monster. You can read it here.

10.   If you like Riverdale, try Afterlife with Archie - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Afterlife with Archie was a wild ride and I loved it! I think if you like Riverdale, you would probably enjoy this comic. It’s basically Riverdale, but with zombies. Both Riverdale and Afterlife with Archie take the classic, wholesome Archie comics and turn them on their head. The comic is the first in a series, were the zombie apocalypse begins when Sabrina brings Jughead’s dog, Hot Dog, back to life after a hit and run. The zombie plague is soon spread to the humans of Riverdale, and it is up to a few non-infected kids to find a cure and save the town. Fun fact – the author of Afterlife with Archie is one of the writers for Riverdale!

And that’s it! This was a lot of fun to do, and I think I’ll be doing it again. Let me know what you want me to give recs based off of for next time. Music, other books, animals??? I don’t know! We shall see!