#ReRead Project

[pantherlover]

An Artificial Night Re-Read: Part 3

Hello again! Onto part 3:

Chapter Seven:

'The odds are against me ever having a knowe of my own' I don't know, Toby, I think there's at least a non-zero chance at this point.

Toby's definitely gotten better at eating whenever she can than she is in this book.

I wonder if Fetch's names are always connected to the person they've copied.

Did Sylvester mention Amandine because he thought she wouldn't like Luna sending Toby into danger, or because he thought she'd be able to stop Blind Michael?

Okay, it makes more sense that Toby was so blase about Blind Michael in the first book if most of the time he was 'old man yelling to get off his lawn' levels of nuisance.

I'm honestly super curious about what Luna's relationship with the Luidaeg looks like. Luna's Blind Michael and Acacia's daughter, so does Luidaeg fight with herself about liking a descendant of Titania, or is Luna being a child of her favourite brother enough to make her at least neutral to her? Luna seemed okay enough with her that she wasn't worried about sending Toby to the Luidaeg for help; have they interacted with each other at all? Or do they politely pretend that the other one doesn't exist?

Chapter Eight:

Can we talk about how Toby and Luidaeg have only known each other for, what - two years? A year and a half? - and Luidaeg already feels comfortable enough with Toby that she doesn't assume that Toby's calling because she needs her? I know Luidaeg is terrifying, but her capacity to love is pretty awe-inspiring.

Also Luidaeg has to help kill her brother! Her favourite brother, one of her only siblings left, because she knew her brother would eventually become a monster and she's the only one who can make sure Toby has a chance to do it.

Luidaeg calls Toby a child of Oberon and Toby ignores it. Luidaeg might not have given the most direct hints, but she really did try to tell Toby about her heritage when she could.

"He'll hold them until Halloween night... and then they'll Ride. It's [Blind Michael's] way of remembering our mother. Her Rides were always held on Samhian night." This is kind of surprising to me, given that we just learned in the latest short story that part of the reason he became Blind Michael in the first place is because he went to his mother for vengeance after his children were murdered and she turned him away.

I have to try to pay attention to when a fancy knife is described now, just in case the knife Luidaeg commissioned to kill Eira with shows up.

Chapter Nine:

Raj!!!! I forgot how many characters we were introduced to in this book!

OOF, Raj is having a *bad* day. Have Raj, Dean and Chelsea argued over who was having a worse time when the met Toby?

Chapter Ten:

"The Luidaeg is the only Firstborn I've ever dealt with on a regular basis, and her power is subtle, damped down until she can seem human to the casual observer. [Acacia's] power wasn't hidden at all." Given that Toby's regularly been around *two* other Firstborns at this point, this makes me wonder how Amandine and Evening were able to hide what they were for so long. I could see Amandine being able to hide her power through some type of blood magic, but what about Eira? Part of it could've been explained by Toby just not having a good grasp on what a normal Daoine Sidhe's powers looked like compared to Evening, but Evening hid it from *everyone*. Were her illusions just that good?

"It's Raj. I... the forest is very dark." Oh noooooo Raj would HATE it but I want to bundle him up in a blanket and hug hiiiiiiim

'"My father says Uncle Tybalt's friend October is an adult." He paused. "And a hussy."' I realize there's no way I could've appreciated this enough the first time I read this, given we hadn't met Samson yet, but this is seriously SO funny. I desperately want to know what Tybalt's behaviour looks like from his Court's perspective during this time period.

Chapter Eleven:

"[Blind Michael] hadn't just changed them on the outside. He'd changed them all the way down to the bone." Do we know what Blind Michael's first children were/what they could do? What Toby's doing here sounds like some kind of blood magic, but I don't think Maeve's descendants are really known for that; plus, everything Toby's ever about her powers are that you can take away a bloodline but you can't add one, which is exactly what it sounds like Blind Michael did. Is it just a really extreme form of transformation?

There's something extra brutal about Blind Michael taking one of the few Roane left, possibly during one of his first Rides. I wonder if that's what caused Luidaeg to try to kill him?

"You're Amandine's daughter, aren't you? You are. I can smell it on you. Why are you here? She never came, and once a road is set aside, no other feet should claim it." So THIS implies that Amandine had a road she could've used to save kids before, or at least used to visit Blind Michael's lands. I would've guessed it was the Blood Road, but as far as I remember the only issue was using that road was that Toby ran the risk of bleeding out before she got back, not that it was closed off from anyone to use. So if it wasn't the Blood Road, could it be a road connected to Janet?

That's it for now! Please feel free to come to discuss things with me. See you next time!

[rorynni]

I’m rereading all of the VBS stories right now and Toya must have looked so out of place singing on Vivid Street before he met Akito and started getting his outfits picked out and styled by him.

[xulips]

meiko

[kakaja5]

precious memories

[justablah56]

I love you fics that are people clearly just projecting their thoughts about being arospec onto a character.

[ylize]

The squeakquel to a previous gk redraw i did, based off of this:

[5h0w1sh]

This is what Sonic the hedgehog is about, right?

[swedenis-h]

Armand/Lestat beef you will always be famous

[mydetheturk]

they've known each other for half a chapter and they're already standing back to back! nightow what fresh hell is this!!!

[iwouldliketoeatrandy]

Inspired by this post, I wanted to fancast Iron Widow! I really liked these picks, especially Nini who would do a great job as Wu Zetian, but didn't want to just copy and paste.

Li Meng as Wu Zetian

She was a wonderfully cruel and charismatic villain in The Double and I would love to see her rage and passion in Wu Zetian's character.

Yu Shi as Li Shimin

Ok listen I think he's handsome, but also he could do it.

Tan Jian Ci as Gao Yizhi

For our wealthy scholar. His 2023 and 2024 characters were polar opposites characterization wise, and I'd love to see him continue to challenge himself with a unique character like Yizhi.

[pantherlover]

A Local Habitation Re-Read: Part 1

Ha ha, SO: my break was a little bit longer than I expected it to be, but I'm so excited for the next books that I decided to keep going with my re-read. Hopefully I'll keep going for more than one book this time!

As always, this is not a spoiler-free recap, and please come talk to me about stuff!

Chapter One:

Kerry and Stacy!!! We don't see Kerry very often, which is a shame, because I love it when she pops up. Hopefully she'll show up more in later books. (Also: Stacyyyyyyyyyyyyyy)

Tybalt's first appearance! And Toby's continued *flawless* understanding of her and Tybalt's relationship. I'm totally sure he's there because you're in debt to him, Toby; it doesn't have anything to do with how you almost died three or four times in the last book, or how he wants to check on you to see if you're okay.

And finally, she gets her leather jacket! I'd almost forgotten that it was Tybalt's jacket first, and then it was SUPER disorienting in the first book when she didn't have it.

Seeing how Toby's relationship progresses both with Tybalt *and* the Shadow Roads is honestly one of the most interesting parts of my re-read. It's fun seeing her go from HATING the Shadow Roads and being entirely dependent on Tybalt to navigate them to being the one to get Tybalt off of them more than once. It's such a natural progression in the books that it's super jarring to go back to where it started.

Chapter Two:

There's a lot of reasons that I want an October Daye TV show; seeing how rose goblins would be depicted is very high on that list.

Toby and Sylvester's non-conversation about coming to live in Shadowed Hills makes me wonder if Toby will eventually give up her residence in the mortal world and permanently move to the Summerlands. I don't think that she'd move into someone's court, given that Tybalt probably wouldn't be comfortable living in the Divided Courts even after he gives up his position as King of Cats. Maybe she'll establish or takeover a knowe if/when she re-establishes Home?

One of the reasons for Toby not wanting to live in Shadowed Hills being that Rayseline would kill her in her sleep is another great example of how the relationships in this series progress (or regress). I would never, in a *million* years, have thought that Rayseline would eventually ASK Toby to let her come live with her.

First mention of Duchess Riordan!

I think Toby gets better about tempting fate in later books, but *wow* is she bad about it here. 'How many precautions did I need?' Be the Serpent!Toby would never.

Chapter Three:

Luidaeg!!! She shows up MUCH faster in this book, although I don't think we ever see her in person? I have to say, as much as I love Toby's and the Luidaeg's relationship now, I'm surprisingly fond of the 'Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning' era of their relationship.

'Be careful out there. Don't go into the dark alone; don't let their eyes fool you. Remember what you're looking for. Don't trust what the blood tells you. Always look back.' I don't think Toby was *terrible* at following this? But maybe Toby should've taken the Luidaeg giving her vaguely prophetic warnings as a sign that this was going to be a lot more dangerous than babysitting duty.

I wonder if the Luidaeg is worried her geas is going to force her hand about killing Toby. Maybe the Luidaeg's hoping that she'll be able to put if off until Toby can get rid of it so she won't have to hold herself to it?

Toby talking about how the Luidaeg's lonely makes me so saaaad. And she doesn't even know!

It was Real Weird when Toby grabbed the bat (and Dare's knife) to arm herself instead of having her knives as consistent accessories. It keeps being a bit of a shock how vulnerable Toby is in the first few books - few weapons, way more killable, NO understanding of what she is/what she's capable of doing. It's fun knowing how much Toby's going to be capable of doing, but I feel, like, retroactively anxious for her right now?

That's it for now! Hopefully it won't take me too long to get back into doing this, but we'll see how it goes!

[dropthedemiurge]

Love for Love's Sake - Director's commentary

[Extra content from Bluray boxset]

If you take it to other platforms, please leave credit and original link. And don't share links to videos publicly as well, thank you ^^

[Translation by AmetistLex]

Director Kim Gyuna: When I got to know about "Love Supremacy Zone" from our CEO, I stayed up all night reading original novel. I immediately knew when I read it, that this was a work I must create no matter what. I kept reading and imagining how to film the scenes. I told CEO that I really want to make this project.

Q. Stories about each main actor's casting?

During the first round of audition, I was really surprised that Taevin came extremely prepared. We gave actors a small script that he memorized but Taevin also read original novel and webtoon, so we could have a deeper talk with him (even during first audition). That's how we realized that with this actor we will be able to bring to life such difficult character as Myungha. We cast him quite quickly.

In the case of Joowan, playing role of Yeowoon, he was cast a bit later. There were a lot of actors trying for that role, but we had a very clear vision for the character so it was difficult to find someone matching that image. But when Joowan entered the room, we were immediately shocked: he was very tall and very cool looking. But at that day he could barely speak. We asked him whether he was nervous, but it turned out that he practiced the script for 2 weeks, 12 hours a day (from 10am to 10pm) before the audition, to the point of losing his voice. His passion was so impressive, and we thought that even if he ended up lacking somewhere, he'd be able to overcome it with this passion. That's how we decided to cast him.

We picked an actor for the role of Sangwon quite fast, too. The fans admit that all our actors fit the images of the original characters really well, and this actor (Minsu) matched a lot traits of Sangwon character in the original novel. Fierce/wild and manly, with a deep voice. Of course, his acting was good, too, so we chose him.

And finally, we didn't cast Woongki through audition. We made an offer to him instead. CEO said that there's this guy - even though he's an idol, he's been acting since he was a kid. So we contacted him and asked to meet us because we liked his image. Surprisingly, he was also very good at acting, his entertainment charms were a great help to match Kyunghoon's image too. Woongki is energetic and bright, but as we kept talking with him, we realized how solid/secure he was.

It felt like a fate to cast these actors in LFLS. Of course, there were difficulties but it all worked out perfectly.

Q. How would you brag about each actor?

Lee Taevin always prepares very diligently, and he's smart. So no matter the discussion, he receives feedback well. It's a lot of fun to work with him. The production team has to prepare more than actors, but he studied the source very passionately and kept saying "I want to try acting like this, what do you think about doing that?". I thought many times that he's a true actor who's overflowing with the passion.

When it comes to Joowan, like I said, he can practice for 12 hours a day. If he wants something, he'll do it even if his body breaks or if he's in pain. He won't even say anything - actually, there were many times when it broke our hearts. We kept telling him that he should speak up, it's okay to tell us (if he needs rest or something), but without any complaints, he worked until the work was done, that's what kind of person he is. That is very amazing of him. When someone is physically exhausted, inevitably there are things they won't be able to do but Joowan is the opposite – after finishing filming, he'd tell someone else how (badly) he made it through. Then we'd ask if he's okay, why didn't he say anything, but he'd go "No, I'm really fine!". His willpower is very strong, he's reliable.

Minsu has a great depth. He listens more than he speaks, thinks about details a lot and has many deep thoughts. I realized he studied Sangwon's character so much that he could talk about him in such depth. He contacted me a lot, even after script reading has just ended, he'd call and say "I had this thought on my way, what do you think?" And after we discussed, his memo app would be filled with a lot of notes. His depth and sincerity are his charms.

And Woongki has the most overflowing energy. Of course, other actors are energetic too but his vibe is just different. I thought that he might be the reason the four main actors were able to bond so well. And like I said, he has a great trait of being solid/secure. It might be a simple word to describe it but I mean he has amazing inner strength that can't be faked. When other actors struggle with their acting or emotions, he helped build them up. So beside just being cheerful, that's his biggest virtue.

Q. What was the most difficult during filming?

We had a lot of discussions with the cinematographer/operator. Since there's a lot of CGI in this project, we worried about how much we could actually film. And we thought a lot about how to visually convey all the complicated details of this fantasy story. We worked tightly with CG team but sometimes executing our ideas was difficult due to various restraints. I had a fear we wouldn't be able to deliver our ideas properly so we discussed everything a lot together with our teams. I think the result was good.

Q. What was the moment you enjoyed the most?

Preparing and post-production are fun but I enjoy shooting on set the most. You can immediately get feedback from everyone's energy, they give good or bad reactions. Creating something together is a lot of fun. And since our actors are good, when the scenes I imagined in my head came to life, it was extremely joyful.

Q. If you had to choose your favourite scene?

I really liked a lot the cut from episode 7 when Yeowoon says "I love you". I had a vision of this scene in my mind but reality was even better, so I thought this would definitely made viewers' hearts flutter.

I also love the scenes where the four characters are together. Even though the story focuses on Myungha's character and his relationship with Yeowoon, I actually love all four characters. So the scenes like one in the restaurant or rooftop when they grill meat have totally different energy. Comparing to the scenes with only Myungha or Myungha with Yeowoon, scenes with four characters together are full of complete joy. Even when shooting was hard and everyone was exhausted, filming those scenes was a lot of fun. If I had to pick one scene as a highlight, it'd be the one where four friends are eating meat together.

Q. What other parts of novel you'd like to put in a drama series?

Our characters are high school students, and usually at that period of life you mostly study. But since our story is about finding happiness, we removed a lot of studying scenes. But there were a lot of studying scenes in the original novel, like Myungha and Kyunghoon studying together, teaching Yeowoon and eating fruits. I thought such scenes could add one more spoon of sweetness to the drama.

Q. What are flaws and advantages of the novel and drama series?

I don't think none of them have flaws, both novel and drama complement each other. The novel, because of being just the text, relies a lot of reader's imagination and sometimes author's intention doesn't get delivered properly. And in the drama, we can visualize and show those messages more clearly. So I think both formats help each other.

And novel has scenes that we couldn't show in the drama, as well as more details for the emotional moments. Even fans say they can't choose one or another. This mutual supplement creates an effect of the loop.

Q. What did you try to bring to life the most from original novel?

We mentioned it during our group reaction to the series as well: I really wanted to bring to life the sunset scene. After I read the original novel, I had three key scenes that I definitely wanted to properly visualize. To the "world is changing" scene when main characters meet for the first time, we paid attention the most. Then, the final kiss at sunset in the ending. Since those were the beginning and end of the story, I wanted to open and close the story well so we focused a lot those scenes and had a lot of ambitions.

Q. Say a message for the actors.

Taevin, Joowan, Minsu, Woongki, every time I have to wrap things up with you, one phrase always comes to mind: "I'm always grateful to you, you did so well". I really want to say this to you guys. I was very happy to work with you on this project for such a long time, it was a very meaningful time. Thanks to you, Love Supremacy Zone received so much love and stayed in the hearts of many people. I believe you will become amazing actors – one day, one project, to anyone. I hope you will be happy in the future, thank you and I love you~ Let's be happy!

Q. Message to the fans who loved this series

First of all, thank you. I want to express my love as much as you've loved us. I think the biggest reason this project was completed was the love that you, fans, gave us. Without your love, we wouldn't even end up here, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Actors and staff think this way too. You gave us so much love and we were able to work on this project so joyfully. Thank you a lot for all the love. If you keep loving us in the future, we'll love you even more too. Thanks to you, we were able to complete this project. Thank you and be happy. Goodbye!

// other Love Supremacy Zone extra content //

[firestorm09890]

holy shit

[kerizaret]

Grown-ups

[glassboxesofsaline]

Andy Weir: Contact with Alien life would be almost impossible, everything would be completely different. Will they be able to tolerate our atmosphere? Their number system would probably be different as base ten doesn't actually have any scientific backup, how would that affect the way they view the world? How would their friendships be formed? What phrases would be interchangeable and how would that match their worldview? How would our relationships with them be formed? What about non-verbal signals? How would they see or hear? How would this be affected by their environment? How would this affect the way we talk to them? What about small and specific customs? What inconsequential things do humans have strict rules around?

Marvel: Yeah Thanos speaks English.

[tsukasalover]

wip