#Evil Librarian Series

[theforbiddentower]

It is so almost exactly like soaking your cuticles pre-manicure that I am half expecting Principal Kingston to whip out a nail file. Instead he glances at Mr. Gabriel and then reaches out to clamp his hands over mine, holding them in place.

- Evil Librarian, Michelle Knudsen

[threemoonwatchers]

Throwback to when my 12-yo self thought Alcatraz broke his parents’ relationship hahahaaa

[marenwithanm]

This scene made me so 😭 (she's talking about him, he's the friend he's talking badly about)

[le-velo-pour-dru]

HEY DID YOU GUYS KNOW I LOVE ALCATRAZ VS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS. WITH MY WHOLE ENTIRE HEART 💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗 OH MY GOD IT'S SO GOOD EGZHRZYKCHLKHCHZHRZJTX

[your-old-sins-tournament]

Also, in whatever Warrior Cats story I was writing, I made StarClan slightly more corrupt than they are in the books (which I mean, they're pretty corrupt in the books too so uh), and since Darktuft's apprentice just so happens to be the main character, it also ends up getting dragged into that entire thing. 👍

the more i hear about warrior cats the more confused i am (affectionate)

[mearcatsreturns]

my villain origin story is pervasive negative depictions of librarians across most media

[foldingfittedsheets]

My paternal grandmother was a librarian. I only got to see that set of grandparents once a year as they lived out of state. I fondly remember summers spent at their house watching That Darn Cat and The King and I on loop, hunting for water skippers in the back creek, and reading the entirety of the Peanuts comics.

Because my grandma was a librarian she was delighted to foster my love of reading. We made trips to the library every week. One summer when I was seven or so I got really into this kids series about princesses all named after gemstones, each had a unique magic power.

At the end of each book was a puzzle or some extra bit of lore to decode. All of them were easily copied down in some way. Until I got to Sapphire’s book. At the end of the story Princess Sapphire was in peril! She needed a hero to come save her from a terrible fate. And there, on the last page, was a decoder device. It needed to be cut out and assembled.

I had to help save the Princess!!! In the iron grip of a fever of imagination I immediately found scissors and started carefully cutting the page. The page warned only to use scissors with an adult present and I scoffed to think I needed supervision just for scissors! I was a hero!Her plight called to me from the pages, imaginings of how I would daringly rescue the beautiful sweet Princess Sapphire ran through my little brain-

And about halfway up the page toward my goal I froze. This was a library book. I couldn’t cut a library book! What was I doing?! Even now in my memory it stands as a glaring example of the first time I mastered impulse control. Tragically, too late.

I was distraught. My grandma had a sacred duty to books and I, villain that I was, had defiled a precious tome! I wallowed for some time in abject misery, experiencing the greatest amount of guilt my tiny body had ever previously held. I’d probably go to jail. For a crime as monumental as wielding scissors against a book I wouldn’t even get dessert in jail.

Gradually, I processed my way through the grief of my vile deeds. I couldn’t have the decoder, I slowly accepted. That might be punishment enough. And I had only cut the page halfway. So it was only half a crime... It wasn’t illegal to lie when you’d aborted an evil act, right?

I didn’t know but I didn’t want to face my grandma’s potential wrath. I have no memory of my grandma ever yelling at me. I waited until the next day to approach her.

“Grandma? I finished my book and when I got to the end I saw someone had cut the page! They probably wanted the decoder because I also want that but it was very bad to cut a book, wasn’t it?”

My grandma regarded me benignly. She carefully took the book to observe it and nodded. “It’s good to see that they stopped before they cut it all the way out. Let’s go tape this together, and then I can photocopy the page and we can make you a decoder.”

I was ecstatic. Rewarded for my honesty! I created and cracked codes for the rest of summer with the flimsy paper creation we’d made. I genuinely doubt my grandma believed that I wasn’t the perpetrator, but I loved that she acknowledged that the person responsible stopped.

[thatbloodymuggle]

MASTERMIND

PROLOGUE

SUMMARY: a child of light and dark, you are the Night Court’s best kept secret. After decades spent in hiding, you yearn to stretch your wings. But you quickly learn that freedom comes with a price, as you find yourself trying to outfox the fox in his own den.

PAIRING: eris vanserra x reader

WORD COUNT: 1k

SERIES MASTERLIST

WARNINGS: none for now

The Night Court was home to Prythian’s oldest and darkest secrets. Perhaps it was the rippling terror of the Court of Nightmares, or the nightfall darker than any other region, that granted it the ability to house so many enigmas. However, from the city of Velaris to the Ouroboros, each secret had its expiration date. As the old saying goes, there are no secrets that time does not reveal—and in an immortal world, time was a fickle thing. But few knew of the Night Court’s best kept secret.

She was the bastard child of Keir, the Steward of Hewn City, and Marjorie, a high fae librarian of the Day Court. Born from an unwilling affair between the two immortals, she was kept hidden from her father. For nearly two decades, Marjorie used every last drop of her powers to conceal her pregnancy and her child. The Day Court faerie knew that if her abuser ever gained knowledge of his child’s existence, it would be a death sentence. Marjorie raised her daughter alone. She grew up concealed among the infinite bookshelves of the Day Court’s libraries. She learned to read before she could walk, and speak in ancient tongues at the ripe age of five. Despite her haunting ability to sink into the shadows, a gift bestowed upon her by her ignorant father, she was a child of the Day Court, through and through. It wasn’t her spell-cleaving ability or the tendrils of light she could summon at her fingertips that made her a child of the Day; rather, it was her thirst for knowledge and sharp intelligence that even the Cauldron itself marveled. 

Morrigan, the third in command of the Night Court, was the first to find her. As the threat of Amarantha’s rise dispersed through the courts of Prythian, Marjorie knew she had to act quickly. Driven by the fear of her precious child landing in the hands of Kier, the librarian wrote to the only family she trusted to keep her daughter out of harm’s way. Despite the shock of her half-sister’s existence, Morrigan acted without hesitation. The third in command took her sister to the safety of Velaris without hesitation. Marjorie promised her weeping daughter that she would one day return; that they would meet again when all evil had been righted. But she knew. She knew in her heart that it would be the last time she would see her mother. Despite the terror that Amarantha’s invasion instilled in Marjorie, she died peacefully knowing that her pride and joy was out of evil’s grasp.

The inner circle of the Night Court was the next to learn of her existence. They were at first wary, due to the threat of war growing through Prythian. But the doe eyes identical to Morrigan’s were a window into the goodness of her soul. Rhysand didn’t need to tap into the cobblestone barriers of her mind to see her striking erudition, sharp tongue, and despite its intricacies, her pure heart. But time, in all its futility, was against him. As he travelled to Under the Mountain, where he would remain for the next half-century, she found solace in the library of Velaris. Although not as vast as her once home in the Day Court, she valued the wealth of literature and treated it with a level of admiration Clotho hadn’t witnessed in centuries.

When she wasn’t browsing through the rows and rows of titles, she found herself growing close with the other members of the Night Court’s inner circle. Amren took a liking to her quick wit. Azriel found himself drawn to the gentle curiosity, rather than fear, that graced her features when she first studied his scarred hands. Cassian admired the unrelenting fearlessness she carried from fickle debates to the training ring. And Morrigan found a piece of her heart she hadn’t known was missing since the day her father dropped her at the borders of the Forest House in the Autumn Court. She had found her sister. A sister not only bound to her by choice, but by blood. Through the constant fear of Rhysand’s absence and Amarantha’s rule, she was the silver lining; the flickering flame that wouldn’t go out, no matter how hard the winds of evil blew. 

Nearly a decade into her stay in Velaris, she began to grow restless. She had spent the first twenty years of her existence cooped up in the libraries of the Day Court. She appreciated the change of scenery that Velaris brought. But there was an incessant itch in the back of her brain she could not scratch. She had read thousands of books detailing the histories, landscapes, and people of Prythian. Yet she had never set foot into the vast world surrounding her. She was a caged bird, yearning to stretch her wings. So, she concocted a plan. Rhysand’s last ditch effort to keep Velaris safe only forced his inner circle to remain within the limits of the city.

She became Athena Ellesmere: a merchant and cartographer’s daughter, sent to each court to engage in tradings and research the vast lands and seas of Prythian. She forged relationships with citizens of each court—farmers, vendors, lower-level employees of the High Lords. She gathered intel on the inner-workings of each court, the sentiment of its people, and the status of Amarantha’s cruel grasp. She became an asset to the Night Court during the queen’s rule of terror. Upon Rhysand’s return decades later, she was officially inducted into his inner circle as the Liaison of the Night Court. During the war against Hybern, her role as a liaison was critical for reaching parts of Prythian the Spymaster’s shadows could not through conversation. Her fluency in literature and ancient tongues was invaluable in helping Amren crack the code of the book. Her allegiance to those who had saved her from certain doom at the hands of her father was unwavering. And when the famed Archeron sisters took residence in Velaris, she vowed to protect them as her Night Court family had protected her.

To Prythian, she was a merchant and cartographer’s daughter. To the inner circle, she was their best kept secret. But as the old saying goes, there are no secrets that time does not reveal.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

⚔️⚔️ Sword gays showdown, grand finale ⚔️

*Camilla fanart by @friendamedes, used with permission

Propaganda:

For Camilla:

she prefers dual-wielding two short blades but can fight with pretty much anything. she's ambidextrous she's autistic she's even sex-repulsed ace. she sighs longingly when reunited with her weapons. she's from planet academia and dresses like an off-duty librarian. literally one of the most iconic moments of the entire series is when she gets challenged to a duel and absolutely wipes the floor with her opponent even though she doesn't even like rapiers that much. 'swords don't lie.' 

OK I’m sure you’re getting just about every character from The Locked Tomb but Cam is my favorite. She's a nerd AND a jock. She is in this deeply intense and loving and unhealthily codependent soulbond partnership with her best friend second cousin and prince. She is smart and deadpan snarky and fights like a grease fire and I have never been able to get that line out of my head.

For Gideon:

she's incredibly good w/ her two hander and less good with her rapier but she's still pretty good!! she is a horny lesbian who's taste in women seems to exclusively be "girls who have tried or are going to try to kill her". she's a redhead. i love her

Gideon’s a HUGE Butch lesbian and literally always wanted to use a broad sword. Specifically a broad sword. She said fuck rapiers. Uhhh literally dies to save the girl she cares for and the sword she uses then becomes like an altar for said girl. Gideon Nav Supremacy <3

oh she is the most badass swordswoman lesbian in media. she’s her gf’s cavalier, defends her in battle, she’s incredibly butch and buff

C'mon shes THE sword lesbian like... canonically 

Loves her broadsword more than anything on her home planet and practices whenever she can. Spoiler it’s possessed by her mom. Gave everything so her best enemy could eat her soul and become the new saint. The character of all time child of two separate threesomes, child of the god emperor, she’s dead, she’s butch, she’s a dork, she’s doomed by the narrative. She’s my favorite.

girlie is literally the swordswoman supreme. she’s the cavalier primary to her necromancer. she has a fuckoff huge longsword. she gets absorbed into another person SPECIFICALLY to swordfight for them. in a gay way too.

While everyone else was developing common sense, she studied the blade. This dyke's main weapon and true love is the long sword, but she's also passable with a rapier. The sword is, in her own estimation, pretty much all she's good for. That and her smoking hot bod and terribly charming sense of humor. 

"While we were developing common sense, she studied the blade." (Direct quote from the book). She's the most useless lesbian to ever exist, and she's obsessed with an absolute wet cat of a woman. Learned longsword mostly on her own and is such a genius with the sword she learned rapier in a few months (by personal experience, it's really really hard)

Most badass broadsword wielding lesbian easily slaying bone monsters and evil space wasps

The cavalier to her necromancer. very gay. in a complicated codependant lovehate relationship with the only other person her age she knew growing up.

For Xena:

It is HER! The OG woman with a blade! 

Her show was so iconic that any lesbian over the age of 30 knows her IMMEDIATELY because this show probably helped her have her awakening. Fandom foremothers and fathers rise up and get your gal a title.

An all around badass, bisexual woman, comfortable with many different bladed weapons. Her show was so much better than Hercules people forget his exists.

Xena is one of the OGs: once a baddie who turned good, she's a warrior who uses swords, daggers, and her trusty chakram to defeat evil and defend the innocent, while traveling with her kickass girlfriend Gabrielle. 

She has many skills

[theforbiddentower]

Aaron is jumping around at the end of his tether like an overexcited dog, visibly beside himself with happiness. He's gazing lovingly at his bloody, exhausted, exhilarated fish-featured demoness with the same naked want as when she was in human form. Perhaps more. She spares him a tolerant, fond smile, which is particularly disturbing with her long eel's mouth, and I swear he almost loses consciousness from bliss.

- Evil Librarian, Michelle Knudsen

[talenlee]

Hey Talen! I'd like to hear about Read or Die! :)

okay so READ OR DIE was from the late 90s to early 00s, in the period of time when the sort of multi-media project anime you're now used to was gearing up; it had a light novel, a manga, an oav and a tv series and then more stuff spinning off that, in related-but-not-quite-the-same-thing universes. Like you could guess that some characters were the same between series but you couldn't presume anything because the rules of the universe and history were a little different.

And the premise is superpowered librarians fighting evil history zombies.

The central character of the LNs and first OAV were Yomiko Readman, a nerdy shutin book dork meganneko with a deep love of books, obsessively reading all the time and carrying around a rolling suitcase of books to read in case she got bored on public transport. Yomiko's special power is that she could control paper, telekinetically, and used this power for a host of cool effects .

In the first OAV she teams up with a super spy named Miss Deep.

Miss Deep is a super-spy who can phase through walls. She likes to play with Yomiko's hair and kiss her neck.

I am not joking around.

Anyway, the thing is, this series is at its core a sort of twee book-and-library themed superheroes doing a mystery to try and solve a conspiracy plot about someone resurrecting important historical figures who then have evil supernatural powers based on who they were in life. Like Hiraga Gennai is brought back from the dead so he can use lightning bolts made from his clay batteries.

The whole thing is built out of Bullshit Super Spy stuff, in the vein of literally James Bond style, but instead of super-tech magical geek toys, it's all got this low key urban fantasy element where Yomiko can do things like make clothes and barriers and weapons out of paper, but also nobody really comments on this beyond 'it's a thing Yomiko can do,' as a Paper Master.

So the vibes are 1990s Japan's idea of 1970s Britain as told through urban fantasy lesbians fighting history zombies.

It's really good!

The first season of the anime is about Yomiko's first girlfriend trying to find her after getting her first book published. Because she wants Yomiko to read her book. You know, in a heterosexual way. This winds up adopting a trio of sisters who are also Paper Masters, in the classic brat/bimbo/himbo trilune as they solve the mystery of Where Is Nenene's Girlfriend.

[marenwithanm]

ALCATRAZ FANDOM RISE UP!! I'll color this later lol, but for now have an Alcatraz and Bastille

[booksandchainmail]

@the-yuri-librarian

Will someone please tell me if any of these series have lesbians

(in regards to this post)

Of the two web serials featured in that meme:

Pale Lights, by erraticerrata one of its 2-4 protagonists is a lesbian. There hasn't been much in the way of romance for her yet, but the series is pretty early on, and also romance-light. One of the other female protagonists is possibly bisexual, and the male protagonist is ace. Pale Lights is about new recruits to an elite god-hunting organization in a gunpowder-and-sail era world that is also entirely within a massive cavern full of strangeness. Ongoing

Twig, by wildbow umm. ok. so how do I put this. It has ambiguously bisexual girls in an situationship? It got a lot of submissions to a yuribait poll tournament. Also in the main cast is a trans girl. I cannot in good consciousness recommend this on the basis of lesbianism, but I do like it. Twig is about a group of child lab experiments/field agents of a biopunk empire. Complete

Other web serials that may be of interest to you!

A Practical Guide to Evil, by erraticerrata Protagonist is a bisexual woman, and almost all of her romantic interests are other women. PGTE has my favorite slowburn romance of all time. Also in the main cast are (at least) two more bi women, and an aroace man (there are more queer characters depending on how you define main cast). In a medieval fantasy world where narrative tropes have metaphysical weight, a new group of villains begin fighting smarter to overcome their narrative disadvantage. Forty years later, a teenage girl from a conquered country, seeing how heroes have failed, chooses to become the Squire of the empire's Black Knight. Tagline: Do Wrong Right Complete

Katalepsis, by HY Lesbian protagonist, largely lesbian supporting cast, including a couple trans women. Lots of romance, including an expanding polycule. A young woman tries to rescue her twin sister, who was erased from reality as a child by an eldritch entity. Tagline: A web serial of cosmic horror, urban fantasy, and making friends with strange people Ongoing, almost finished (with the first "book"/major overarching plotline)

Necroepilogos, by HY I think literally the entire cast of this one is queer women (including at least one trans woman) having homoerotic moments with each other all the time. A bioengineered supersoldier wakes millennia after her death to find the world a wasteland, populated by women resurrected from across history who must now kill each other to live. Tagline: Lost girls in the ashen afterword Ongoing

PGTE/Pale Lights and Katalepsis/Necroepilogos would be my primary recommendations. Some other webserials:

Some of wildbow's other serials have more lesbians than Twig, but it comes with caveats: Worm (and its sequel Ward) are, uh, controversial for how they handle lesbians. Pale is much better, but I'm also only 1/3 of the way through so I can't vouch for it entirely. Pact has a single important lesbian character.

I lost interest and didn't finish Heretical Edge, but it does have a poly lesbian protagonist.

Time to Orbit: Unknown is not particularly lesbian in specific, but it is largely queer and genderqueer.

Another option of thing I read is quests and original/fan fiction on the forum site Sufficient Velocity. The downside here is that they mostly have really irregular update schedules (unlike the above serials, which update 1-2 times a week on a fixed day) and are prone to being abandoned. I'd recommend looking at how often/recently thy update before starting. With that caveat, some titles with lesbian (or bisexual) females leads and queer romance: Petals of Titanium, The Last Daughter, Lieutenant Fusilier in the Farthest Reaches, Castles of Steel, On the Road to Elspar, Mercy (and Other Costly Mistakes), Pound the Table, and A Little Vice

[makethosenarratorsfight]

UNRELIABLE NARRATOR BRACKETS

CLOWNS AND GHOULS WE ARE STILL CURRENTLY ON A SLIGHTLY SMALLER HATIUS! WE WILL BE BACK WITH A REVIVAL BRACKET SOON :]

Semi Finals

Kim Dokja (ORV) vs. Eugenides (The Queen's Thief)

Lemony Snicket (Series of unfortunate events) vs. Marvin (In Trousers)

Finals

Eugendies (The Queen's Thief) vs. Lemony Snicket (Series of Unfortunate Events)

CONGRATS TO LEMONY SNICKET FOR WINNING THE WINNERS BRACKET!! However, there is one more battle for him to face. The winner of the revival bracket!

RULES

For tie sweeps, im giving each match up a 0.2% margin. Additionally, you have to convince me that these two character have something in common besides being unreliable goofiers

Propaganda is very much encouraged :]

Please be nice to each other :( At the end of the day, this is a silly internet bracket with way too many obscure characters to count. remember to touch grass everyone

Polls from round 1-3 will be one day! From there, all polls will be a week, including the finals

The winner of the loser's bracket will go against the winner of the winner's bracket and that winner will be declared the most unreliable

Main tag (with polls) will be #unreliable narrator battle

NOTE; I do NOT write the propaganda on each poll. It's the propaganda I collect in submissions.

List of all characters below (+their match ups and brackets!)

(im not sure how to make them face each other?? if that makes sense. so uh. have these 4, right facing brackets :') )

SIDE A

SIDE B

SIDE C

SIDE D

I tried to evenly match everyone, however, i also metaphorically live under a rock so my view on everything might be EXTREMELY skewed. sorry.

SIDE A 

Round 1

Lemony Snicket (A series of unfortunate events) vs. Dr. James Sheppard (The Murder of Roger Ackroyd) 

Neil Josten (All For the Game) vs. Cersei Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire) 

Simon Snow (Carry On) vs. Alcatraz Smedry (Alcatraz Vs The Evil Librarians) 

The Biologist (Annihilation) vs. Yukio Okumura (Ao no Exorcist) 

Briony Tallis (Atonement) vs. Tobias (Animorphs) 

Montresor (Cask of Amontillado) vs. Margot Garcia (An Unauthorized Fan Treatise) 

Kuruto Ryuki (AI: The Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative) vs. Kaede Akamatsu (Danganronpa V3) 

Jason Todd (DC Comics/Batman) vs. Greg Heffley (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) 

Varric Tethras (Dragon Age) vs. Marco (Animorphs) 

Mysterious Man (Into the Woods) vs. Narrator of Jane the Virgin (Jane the Virgin) 

Johnny Traunt (House of Leaves) vs. Charlie Gordon (Flowers for Algernon) 

The Narrator of Greater Boston (Greater Boston) vs. Italo Calvino (If on a Winter’s Night, a Travler) 

Rebecca Bunch (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) vs. Rue Bennet (Euphoria) 

Tsurugi Kamishiro (Kamen Rider Kabuto) vs. Nishijou Takumi (Chaos; Head) 

Humbert Humbert (Loltia) vs. Ted(I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream) 

Brooke Page (Ever After High) vs. Coriolanus Snow (Hunger Games) 

Round 2

Lemony Snicket (A series of unfortunate events) vs. Cersei Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire) 

Simon Snow (Carry On) vs. The Biologist (Annihilation)

Briony Tallis (Atonement) vs. Margot Garcia (An Unauthorized Fan Treatise) 

Kuruto Ryuki (AI: The Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative) vs. Greg Heffley (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) 

Varric Tethras (Dragon Age) vs. Mysterious Man (Into the Woods)

Johnny Traunt (House of Leaves) vs. The Narrator of Greater Boston (Greater Boston)

Rebecca Bunch (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) vs. Tsurugi Kamishiro (Kamen Rider Kabuto)

Ted(I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream) vs. Brooke Page (Ever After High)

Round 3

Lemony Snicket (A series of unfortunate events) vs. The Biologist (Annihilation)

Margot Garcia (An Unauthorized Fan Treatise) vs. Kuruto Ryuki (AI: The Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative)

Varric Tethras (Dragon Age) vs. Johnny Traunt (House of Leaves)

Rebecca Bunch (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) vs. Ted (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream) 

Round 4

Lemony Snicket (A series of unfortunate events) vs. Kuruto Ryuki (AI: The Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative)

Johnny Traunt (House of Leaves) vs. Ted (I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream) 

Round 5

Lemony Snicket (A series of unfortunate events) vs. Johnny Traunt (House of Leaves)

SIDE B

The Narrators (Ever After High) vs. Louis De Pointe Du Lac (Interview with the Vampire)

Ulysses (Fallout New Vegas) vs. Phone Guy (FNAF) 

Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit) vs. Hamlet (Hamlet) 

Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) vs. The Narrator of Fight Club (Fight Club) 

Joker (Joker) vs. Ted (How I Met Your Mother) 

Alex Eggleston (YIIK: A Postmodern RPG) vs. Benjamin Brynn (Before Your Eyes) 

Odokawa (Odd Taxi) vs. Nadeko Sengoku (Monogatari Series) 

Mima Kirigoe (Perfect Blue) vs. Drosselmeyer (Princess Tutu) 

The Narrator of Slay the Princess (Slay the Princess) vs. Dr. Money (Presentable Liberty) 

The Batter (OFF) vs. Sunny (Omori) 

Submitter (Real Life) vs. Every Fic Writer (Real Life) 

Shen Qingqiu (SVSSS) vs. Cale Henituse (Trash of the Counts Family) 

Wei Wuxian (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) vs. Beatrice (Umineko) 

Haruaki Fusaishi (Raging Loop) vs. Lee Hakhyun (ORV Side Stories) 

Kim Dokja (ORV) vs. Yoon Jongwoo (Strangers From Hell) 

Prince Huai (The Imperial Uncle) vs. Fukuide Kei (Ultraman Geed) 

Round 2

Louis De Pointe Du Lac (Interview with the Vampire) vs. Phone Guy (FNAF) 

Hamlet (Hamlet) vs. The Narrator of Fight Club (Fight Club) 

Ted (How I Met Your Mother) vs. Benjamin Brynn (Before Your Eyes) 

Nadeko Sengoku (Monogatari Series) vs. Mima Kirigoe (Perfect Blue)

The Narrator of Slay the Princess (Slay the Princess) vs. The Batter (OFF)

Every Fic Writer (Real Life) vs. Shen Qingqiu (SVSSS)

Beatrice (Umineko) vs. Lee Hakhyun (ORV Side Stories) 

Kim Dokja (ORV) vs. Prince Huai (The Imperial Uncle)

Round 3

Phone Guy (FNAF) vs. Hamlet (Hamlet) 

Benjamin Brynn (Before Your Eyes) vs. Mima Kirigoe (Perfect Blue)

The Batter (OFF) vs. Shen Qingqiu (SVSSS)

Lee Hakhyun (ORV Side Stories) vs. Kim Dokja (ORV)

Round 4

Hamlet (Hamlet) vs. Mima Kirigoe (Perfect Blue)

Shen Qingqiu (SVSSS) vs. Kim Dokja (ORV)

Round 5

Hamlet (Hamlet) vs. Kim Dokja (ORV)

SIDE C

Harrowhark (The Locked Tomb) vs. Percy Jackson (PJO) 

Jonathan Sims (Mangus Archives) vs. John Gaius (The Locked Tomb) 

Kuzco (Emperor’s New Groove) vs. Goob (Meet the Robinsons) 

Jeramie Brasirie (Ohsama Sentai King Ohger) vs. Noé Archiviste (Vanitas no Carte) 

Kvothe (The Kingkiller Chronicle) vs. Darkstalker (Wings of Fire) 

Nelly Lockwood (Wuthering Highs) vs. Dr. John Watson (Sherlock Holmes)  

Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb) vs. Apollo/Lester (Trials of Apollo) 

Dean Winchester (Supernatural) vs. The Narrator (The Stanley Parable) 

Guy Montag (Fahrenheit 451) vs. Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye) 

Theo Decker (The Goldfinch) vs. Nick Carraway (The Great Gatsby) 

Pi (The Life of Pi) vs. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (How to Train Your Dragon) 

Rosie Amo (The Administration Podcast) vs. Rune Saint John (The Tarot Sequence) 

Charles Kinbote (Pale Fire) vs. Nana Daiba (Revue Starlight) 

Lloyd Allen (Shaperaverse) vs. Josh Newman (SINF) 

Kaz Brekker (Six of Crows) vs. The Maid (The House in Fata Morgana) 

Eugenides (The Queen’s Thief) vs. Grisia Sun (The Legend of Sun Knight) 

Round 2

Harrowhark (The Locked Tomb) vs. John Gaius (The Locked Tomb) 

Kuzco (Emperor’s New Groove) vs. Jeramie Brasirie (Ohsama Sentai King Ohger)

Kvothe (The Kingkiller Chronicle) vs. Dr. John Watson (Sherlock Holmes)  

Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb) vs. The Narrator (The Stanley Parable) 

Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye) vs. Nick Carraway (The Great Gatsby) 

Pi (The Life of Pi) vs. Rune Saint John (The Tarot Sequence) 

Charles Kinbote (Pale Fire) vs. Lloyd Allen (Shaperaverse)

Kaz Brekker (Six of Crows) vs. Eugenides (The Queen’s Thief)

Round 3

Harrowhark (The Locked Tomb) vs. Kuzco (Emperor’s New Groove)

Dr. John Watson (Sherlock Holmes) vs. Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb)

Nick Carraway (The Great Gatsby) vs. Pi (The Life of Pi)

Lloyd Allen (Shaperaverse) vs. Eugenides (The Queen’s Thief)

Round 4

Harrowhark (The Locked Tomb) vs. Gideon Nav (The Locked Tomb)

Nick Carraway (The Great Gatsby) vs. Eugenides (The Queen’s Thief)

Round 5

Harrowhark (The Locked Tomb) vs. Eugenides (The Queen’s Thief)

SIDE D

Narrator of Death in the Forest (Death in the Forest) vs. Singer of the Main Character (The Main Character) 

Guy Pearce (Memento) vs. Chief Bromden (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) 

Joe Goldberg (YOU) vs. Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Sixth Sense)

Daniil Dankovsky (Pathologic) vs. Amanda (Amanda The Adventurer) 

Keyser Soze (The Usual Suspects) vs. Jane (The Yellow Wallpaper) 

Narrator of Tell Tale Heart (Tell Tale Heart) vs. Victor Frankenstein (Frankenstein) 

Gareth (Philadelphia) vs. Grace Marks (Alias Grace) 

Squealer (Animal Farm) vs. Scout (To Kill A Mockingbird) 

Katrina Kim (Liar Dreamer Thief) vs. Aislyn (The City We Became)

Claudia (Monday’s Not Coming) vs. Marvin (In Trousers) 

Mars (The Honeys) vs. Jane North-Robinson (Horrid) 

Rachel (The Girl on the Train) vs. Amy Dunne (Gone Girl) 

The Mother (Pumpkin Eater)vs. Lacey (Lacey’s Diner) 

Leshy (Inscryption) vs. Taylor Herbert (Worm) 

All the Narrators of Rashomon (Rashomon) vs. Wayne Booth (The Rhetoric of Fiction) 

Christopher (The Curious Incident o the Dog in the Night-Time) vs. Alex (A Clockwork Orange)

Round 2

Singer of the Main Character (The Main Character) vs. Guy Pearce (Memento)

Joe Goldberg (YOU) vs. Amanda (Amanda The Adventurer) 

Jane (The Yellow Wallpaper) vs. Narrator of Tell Tale Heart (Tell Tale Heart)

Gareth (Philadelphia) vs. Scout (To Kill A Mockingbird) 

Aislyn (The City We Became) vs. Marvin (In Trousers) 

Mars (The Honeys) vs. Amy Dunne (Gone Girl) 

The Mother (Pumpkin Eater) vs. Leshy (Inscryption)

All the Narrators of Rashomon (Rashomon) vs. Alex (A Clockwork Orange)

Round 3

Singer of the Main Character (The Main Character) vs. Amanda (Amanda The Adventurer) 

Narrator of Tell Tale Heart (Tell Tale Heart) vs. Scout (To Kill A Mockingbird) 

Marvin (In Trousers) vs. Amy Dunne (Gone Girl) 

Leshy (Inscryption) vs. All the Narrators of Rashomon (Rashomon)

Round 4

Singer of the Main Character (The Main Character) vs. Narrator of Tell Tale Heart (Tell Tale Heart)

Marvin (In Trousers) vs. Leshy (Inscryption)

Round 5

Narrator of Tell Tale Heart (Tell Tale Heart) vs. Marvin (In Trousers)

[dangermousie]

hello! feel free to delete, if it's not to your taste.

so i just started watching kdramas and my first one was the glory because it's a lot to my taste (song hye kyo yum +revenge + plotting) and i'd love if you could give me similar recs? i also liked reborn rich but it's put off until i finish the webtoon!

thank you for listening!

You are very welcome!

I am afraid I can't be super helpful because modern revenge tales with low romance aren't super my thing - I didn't finish Reborn Rich and never even checked out The Glory. But I do have some recs.

The ones that come to mind are:

Mawang/The Devil/Lucifer (2007) - this one is a masterpiece. A series of seemingly random killings bring together a hot headed cop, an icy lawyer and a librarian who has the power of seeing the past of an object she touches. This is not a serial killer drama (or a procedural) - it's an intricate, impeccably written, tragic tale of past and long-plotted revenge. It's in my Top 5 dramas.

Resurrection - This one is def old (2005) but a really good tale of revenge and family secrets.

Again My Life (2022) - it's sort of an off-brand Reborn Rich where our protag, a prosecutor played by Lee Jun Ki, is killed but wakes up in his law school days and tries to find out what happened to him. Just as with RR, it wasn't able to hold my attention so I peaced out but it's certainly rather similar in set up.

This is not filet mignon but rather addictive fast food, but if what you have a hankering for ladies seeking and getting revenge on those who wronged them, Marry My Husband (2024) and Perfect Marriage Revenge (2023) are delightful fun about women who have been wronged by their spouses and families but get a second chance after death to return back to X time before their death and put their life on track/get revenge.

Nice Guy/Innocent Man (2012) is an older drama that I am quite fond of, though it is rather romance heavy. Our ML (played by Song Joong Ki of RR) ends up being used and betrayed by his evil gf who wrecks his life and then marries some rich dude. After he comes out of jail, he seeks revenge on her and involves her prickly same-age stepdaughter in it etc etc. It's great and a fave and written by the amazing Lee Kyung Hee, one of my fave screenwriters, but once again, it is more about dysfunctional people than revenge per se.

I am gonna throw this open to my followers and see if anyone has any more recs!

ETA: there are way more recs in comments including mine because I apparently can remember things only after I click post (not sure why I called you Anon tho sorry, I think it’s because I used to have Anon asks on and mostly got those.)

[lord-squiggletits]

Thinking about IDW Optimus again and the fandom's aversion to even acknowledging he exists bc he's a cop or whatever and like. Most of the time people literally just replace him in fic with some white bread knockoff archivist/librarian, not even bothering to keep in IDW OP's personality (which just bolsters my theory that the problem isn't him being a cop the problem is that he's too multifaceted but I digress).

And it's annoying because you could totally write IDW Optimus as not a cop while still keeping his canon personality. You just have to realize that the reason IDW OP became a cop in the first place is because his formative experiences when he was young shaped him to basically have two priorities: 1. To help people and 2. To do it by being on the ground actively doing something about the bad things happening to people.

IDW OP would not be a fucking librarian or archivist because even though those are noble pursuits that can help people and change the world, and Optimus is educated/smart enough for the profession, he wouldn't be satisfied just teaching people or spreading information about activism or social-historical studies or whatever. He's a mech of action: he needs to be doing things right now, in front of him, to people he sees/interacts with in his own eyes, improving society with concrete actions rather than indirect action or abstract inspiration.

So basically the alternate job ideas I can think of for IDW Optimus are something like being a firefighter (or any first responder really) or even whatever the equivalent would be to international charity organizations, those ones that send volunteers across the world to do stuff like build housing/infrastructure or distribute food or whatnot. I mean I can't imagine that the equivalents to these things would be exactly the same in IDW Cybertron, so you'd have to get a little creative with it, but these are just some ideas of jobs that would fit IDW Optimus' personality while still filling the niche of "not a cop" for people who are just that opposed to it.

Though I think the revulsion against coptimus is annoying in general tbh because IDW is already a continuity that rejects the idea of easily defined good/evil people or groups. It feels like people really want Optimus to be a good person in a very sanitized and academically approved way, so he has to be nice and squeaky clean but also like, a perfect leftist who knows theory and holds the most progressive opinions on every single issue....

There is no room for the idea that good people join bad institutions, there's no room for the idea that the reason people think cops are good guys who help people is bc of the government propaganda everything is saturated with. Hell there's even later issues of the Optimus Prime series by John Barber where Optimus like, MULTIPLE FUCKING TIMES, is shown in flashbacks grappling with the fact that he as a cop/Zeta's regime that he works for might not actually be improving society like they say they are, and dealing with the fact that he feels more like a lesser evil compared to the Decepticons (perhaps not "lesser" at all).

It's like there's this idea in fandom of like, fictional media and opinions on media having to strictly adhere to progressive ideals at all times. So people just go "cops bad, this character is a cop, therefore they suck" without being willing to engage with the idea of like. IDW OP is born wanting to fight injustice and protect people -> a good way to protect people is to fight the people who are hurting them and committing crimes -> surely following the law is a reliable moral code to guide him in this -> becomes a cop because he's been indoctrinated into a society (much like our own) where he was told that the state/the law exist to protect the people and being a cop means you get to fight bad guys that hurt people. There's really so many interesting concepts there that could be (and CANONICALLY IS) explored about how good, well-intentioned people can be led to harmful actions simply because they have been fed the idea that the things they're doing are good/helpful/noble. Which is especially important for a character like Optimus, I think, who has a cultural icon status as The Irrefutable and Perfect Good, so it's really important actually to use IDW Optimus as an example of how even the most noble people you know have held problematic beliefs or done bad things at some point in their life. You know, because no one is born perfect and ideologically pure, and in fact society is constructed in exactly a manner to make people drink the kool-aid and believe that the systems designed to hurt them/others are just a normal, if flawed, society.

I mean the writing in IDW literally has Optimus deal directly and indirectly with the harm he's done as a cop and how people don't/didn't trust him because of that. I don't know what the fuck else this fandom wants if the source material literally saying "OP realizes that cops suck and he hurt people and earned their disdain by doing the things he did" doesn't stop them from going EW cop bastard sucks and is the worst Optimus. Like the narrative barely stops short of outright saying ACAB and Optimus himself would agree with this sentiment.

At that point, the collective fandom beef with IDW OP isn't because he's a cop and the narrative didn't do enough to condemn that. The problem is literally just that people don't read and don't care

TLDR: Consider the fact that good people can do bad things sometimes especially when living from birth in a corrupt society that thoroughly disguises its vices/oppressive structures as completely normal parts of existence