#and people just generally being very weird and self-entitled about him

[shiveringsoldier]

Who is the best actor with the worst fanbase and why is it Cillian Murphy

[undead-moth]

I gotta say I forgot until rewatching The Bear recently how much I hate Claire. I don't mean as a character. I understand why her character was introduced and the purpose it served and she's an integral part of the overarching story being told -

But as a person, if she were a real person, I hate her so much.

She bumped into a childhood friend she hadn't spoken to in years, right? From what I can tell, she and Carmy were never close friends. They went to the same school. Their social circles were in close proximity, maybe even overlapped to a degree - but the two of them, specifically, were not close friends. Not even close enough to be friends.

And she bumps into him after years without speaking to him, and basically asks for Carmy's number. Carmy's in a social situation where it would be somewhat rude, and very awkward, to deny her, and Claire is aware that's the case, and purposefully exploits it.

Then later, she finds out he gave her a fake number. She's an intelligent person. She knows it wasn't by mistake. And what does she do? She goes to fucking Fak and gets his real number, which she knows Carmy doesn't want her to have, and then calls Carmy and asks him why he gave her a fake number as if that isn't? Self-explanatory? Why do people usually give fake numbers, Claire?

And once again, she's putting him in this position where it would be very rude, and very awkward, to say, "I didn't give you my real number because I didn't want you to have my real number." She's already aware that he wasn't able to bring himself to do the rude and awkward thing the first time - she knows he won't be able to this time either. And then she has the audacity to tell him not to "make it weird," and ask him if he's actually okay with her having his number, when she knows he wouldn't feel comfortable telling her the truth!

What is wrong with her? If she were a male character we would all rightfully hate her. We would all readily recognize that this behavior is inappropriate, stalker-like behavior. And what's most infuriating about it is most women have been in this situation before, where a guy has asked them for their number and they didn't feel safe or comfortable outright saying, "No." Most women have given fake numbers, especially young, conventionally attractive women like Claire. You can't tell me that Claire has never given a fake number before.

And then? What does she do? She excuses her own inappropriate behavior by telling him that the only reason she's calling is to ask him to help her move? Are you fucking kidding me? First of all, "Can you help me move?" is the kind of question you generally only ask people who are pretty close to you, because you're aware it's a laborious and unenjoyable thing to do. But on top of that, she's supposedly asking Carmy because she knows that Carmy at one point owned a truck and might still own that truck. The same truck Neil Fak could just as easily drive! Why the fuck are you asking Carmy to help you move in case he still owns that truck, when you could ask Fak, who you are much closer to? Like? You're really going to ask someone you haven't spoken to in years, who you just happened to bump into, and who very obviously intentionally gave you a fake number, to help you move? When you already know he's not comfortable turning you down?! What is wrong with her? How fucking entitled is that?

And one thing that is frustrating is how even though we are meant to root against Carmy and Claire's relationship, and there's purposeful foreshadowing of its end, and even narrative hints that Claire isn't right for Carmy, and that she's an antagonist in this story - I don't think we're supposed to have a problem with her behavior. I don't think any of this was meant to contribute to us not liking her, or not wanting Carmy to be with her. I really think we were supposed to be endeared by all of this and think it's all perfectly normal flirtation, and not manipulative and predatory behavior.

What's more is that the heart of this story isn't about a man opening a restaurant, or a man falling in love - it's about a man learning to recover from trauma. If you found the lowest common denominator of this story and simplified it, that's what this story would be about. A mentally ill man healing.

I just rewatched the freezer scene. It is alarming - but all of it says more about how Carmy perceives himself, than how he sees Claire, or their relationship, or love. All of it is a neon sign advertising Carmy's severe mental state, and it is obvious this man needs help. He needs support. He needs reassurance from loved ones.

I understand why Claire hearing what Carmy said would be hurtful. I understand why she would be upset. I understand why she would be questioning their relationship.

And still, I think, you really just heard Carmy, this man you supposedly love, say all that - and you're just going to leave him like that? You're just going to leave and not reach out again at any point?

And especially with Claire, who is a medical professional working in the fucking emergency room. I would bet on a daily basis she gets people in the emergency room who are in a state of mental distress. Who are thinking about killing themselves, or have attempted to kill themselves. She knows what mental illness looks like, how it manifests, and the way it makes people think!

And she just left! She just left because she took it all personally and made it all about herself and how it affected her!

You can't tell me that woman ever loved Carmy. You can't even tell me that woman ever knew Carmy.

And if this was all it took - one single glimpse into Carmy's trauma - to make her leave, she was never, ever going to be right for Carmy. She was never, ever going to be what Carmy needed. She was never, ever going to be "healthy" for him, or "peace."

Sydney has glimpsed Carmy's trauma on multiple occasions now. She glimpsed it in season 1, when she and Carmy had only begun to have a mutual respect and investment in each other on an acquaintance shared-workspace level - and even though Syd left too, she came back. She came back even when Carmy's symptoms then were being purposefully directed at her and others - whereas Claire was never supposed to hear what Carmy was saying in the freezer. Syd came back even though they weren't committed in the same way, even though she wasn't supposedly in love with him, and even though what she got was worse. And she's been in that same position multiple times since, to different degrees - but nonetheless. She always knows her worth, and what she deserves - but it never means abandoning Carmy completely. It never means making his problems about her.

Fuck Claire so much, honestly. I'm so glad she's gone. This is just another way it is so obvious it was always, always going to be Sydney.

[emmitaaa4]

I want to preface this little rant by saying that I am all for ship and let ship—at the end of the day none of this has any significance, and we should all get to enjoy our silly little ships to our heart’s content. Me personally I just want Elain to do whatever the hell she wants and be happy in the end. That being said, rn I just felt like getting something off my chest.

From what I have seen and understood, most of The Other Side believes that Azriel feels entitled to Elain. That he sees her as a sexual object, or at the very most as a rebound he doesn’t truly care for, nor respect; he does not think of her beyond what he can get from her sexually. They say his attitude towards her is toxic in its ‘possessiveness’; he doesn’t consider her an equal, for he sees her as a perpetual damsel in distress he must save; his attraction to her / feelings for her are a symptom of some twisted trauma response.

We know that they believe that. We’ve heard it. Over and over and over. Since 2021. Hell, everybody’s momma probably knows it, too, with the way that rhetoric is spread. But Elriels have made it plenty clear that we have a very different interpretation of the text and do NOT agree with those assessments of Azriel (nor half the things the poor man is diagnosed with, bless his fictional soul), considering what we do know of Azriel’s character and his relationship with Elain, based on the books--and yes, the bonus (see this, this, and this post). Otherwise—i.e. if we believed him an incel x fuckboy hybrid (probs the first of his kind!) who is only interested in getting her in is bed—we would obviously not be shipping them together: most of us (99% I’d say lol) care about Elain more than we do Az, or care about them both just as much.

So it is getting pretty tiring to see us shippers—the actual humans behind the screen—labelled as having a toxic/immature view of what love is, of being “too young/naive” to see the supposed red flags, of mistaking lust for love because we have not experienced a healthy relationship (?), of actually promoting toxic relationships & advocating for toxic masculinity (which someone told me on tiktok just now)(stay away from tiktok, folks). Those generalizations are wild to me, not only because they are wildly untrue and condescending, but because Elriels are a colorful bunch, you know—when you’re speaking of the fandom Villain™, you’re speaking of people of every demographic, speaking of daughters mothers grandmothers, depressed uni students (pardon the self-insert), etc... I need to get thicker skin, but those statements can get pretty hurtful in the long run. And I’m tired of feeling the need to justify myself as if we’re wrong for shipping two people who MUTUALLY want one another and lets be serious, no its not “just lust”.

I know I know, I am probably being dramatic. But it’s just weird to see a ship being so demonized and its shippers along with it, all because louder portions of the fandom disagree with our opinions and insist on toxifying ours. Just to be clear, I know that many have had unpleasant experiences/interactions with Elriels, just like many Elriels have had the same with Gwynriels and/or Eluciens. I condone none of the disgusting behaviour I’ve seen from some shippers, and in fact I abhor it. As everyone should.

To end this on a good note.

Elriels, I say we run with it. Az wants Elain for himself. He is jealous and his mind is plagued by thoughts of her. Her presence is too much to bear, for he can’t stand to be in the same room as her and pretend like he feels nothing. He is ready to beg on his knees for a chance to worship her, and it took Nesta one look to see it.

AZ IS OBSESSED AND I SAY WE EMBRACE IT.

[all-pacas]

Unpopular opinion:as a Chase fan,I don't like his fanon self much. He seems too... Soft,for the lack of a better word? People seem to erase his harsher edges and bad attitudes in favour of a fragile person who wouldn't survive a second under House.

lmao god his fanfic self is so funny. he’s so sweet and prone to self harm and uwu. like mind you, i also see plenty of stuff on tumblr that’s like “this SPOILED RICH KID who is SO DUMB and SO ENTITLED” and i’m like calm down about that also. i’ve been reading a lot of ffn stuff recently and it’s fascinating to see what was written during the show’s run. chase really does get polished to a shine.

i think it’s easy to make chase soft on the one hand: he cries more on the show than anyone else (love that for him), he’s also kind of quiet. weirdly, i think the cam/chase romance is also a factor: the show pretty consistently… does some interesting things with that ship, but, cameron is generally (if gently/sympathetically) shown to be in the wrong, and chase to be the patient and forgiving boyfriend, right? (and this is because the relationship is shown thru cameron’s pov and lens and in terms of her character development; she gets to Make Mistakes so that she grows; chase is largely just her accessory). and then when she leaves, we get to see him be upset about it, which of course only adds to the uwu pretty sadboy filter.

but yeah! chase is prickly! like post-divorce everyone is being really nice and he is super rude and sarcastic and dismissive. he makes sarcastic little comments constantly. he is prone to sulking and passive-aggression. he wants validation and is kind of needy and when he doesn’t get those things he starts rolling his eyes and making weird comments (”works for spaghetti!”). chase also, i think, thinks… pretty highly of himself? like i don’t think he’s arrogant exactly, he’s no foreman. but he clearly doesn’t struggle with self worth. he knows he’s a good surgeon, he knows he’s got money, he hilariously thinks it’s his personality and not his looks that make women like him. he knows he is very good looking. while that isn’t to say he can’t be insecure (he really can be, at least when cameron is concerned), he isn’t self loathing. he knows he’s good at talking to people and doing his job and being pretty.

he’s pretty good at putting on a charming front when he needs to, but it’s very much a front. one of my favorite little things is that in poison he’s chatting up the patient’s mom, lightly joking, being friendly. she gets him removed from the case and he’s outraged, quote: “She complained? About me?” He is literally so mad that someone wouldn’t like him. he is offended. not hurt. not upset. it makes him angry. he is charming, intentionally, he is doing a strategy (his words), people complain about him? it comes up in the mistake, too; stacy mentions he always gets great patient reviews and foreman complains it’s because chase is fake as hell. and other times! chase is so polite and friendly to house, he is completely dismissive of foreman. he barely manages a polite front to park and masters, he can’t wait to not talk to them. he’s (affectionately) fake as all fucking hell. i love the scene in s5 where foreman/13/kutner want him to do a surgery and chase is like lol you’re not house fuck off. like he’s so dismissive. chase gets accused of having no backbone all the time, but the fact is, he has no issue sticking up for himself or being dismissive. when he likes someone he will do anything and everything with no complaint (see: house, cameron), but he doesn’t really like most people. foreman sure as hell never gets a single favor from chase, lmao.

and then to flip-flop, that isn’t to say he can’t be genuine or soft. like, he definitely bonds with children almost whenever he sees one. he hugs house with no ulterior motives. it’s also not to say he can’t be an uwu sadboy, although whenever he is depressed he tends to cover it with as much avoidance/sarcasm/sleeping around and drinking as possible. but like! the kid has been through a lot in his life! just the fact that he moved around the world and left everything behind is actually pretty tough! he’s had to take care of himself since he was a kid, he had two abusive parents, if he was to have a sadboy breakdown it sure wouldn’t be because of house. he’s a fucking survivor. he ratted to vogler because he would rather house hated him than be unemployed, and had no regrets. he’s great and i love him and he deserves it every time he gets punched in the face or called useless

[setaripendragon]

JSaMN Readalong Liveblog - Chapters 2-3

Honestly, I have no idea if I'll be able to keep up with this, the first one took an entire afternoon, and while I have a lot of free time, I'm not sure I have that much free time XD Either way, I'm going to try, and see how I get on, because this is rather fun, if time-consuming. I've never actually taken the time to write down my thoughts as I read a book before. My approach to fiction is generally that if I'm not so absorbed I forget the real world exists, I'll go read something else, which makes this sort of liveblogging a bit impossible. Alright, here we go.

Chapter 2 - The Old Starre Inn (January - Fabruary 1807)

Every time I read or hear 'the old starre inn', my mind puts it to the tune of The Magician in York. (Warning: song contains spoilers up to chapter 4 of the book, I think.)

Narrator: Chapter 2: The Old Starre Inn Me: All on a winter's day~

I find it very interesting, the fact that Norrell gives them no specifics as to the magic he's done. After all, he hangs so much pride on his status as a practical magician that you'd think he'd want to show off. But it doesn't feel at all out of character, as he sees these 'pretend' magicians as so far beneath him that why would he need to?

Which is in such contrast to Honeyfoot's impression of him as 'humble' that it's funny. But at the same time, I don't think Honeyfoot is entirely wrong in his impression of Norrell. 'Shy' perhaps gives the wrong impression, but I get very vivid vibes from Norrell of that loner kid on the playground who no one wants to play with because they're 'weird', except once they settle into their isolation and do something cool because they're just trying to have fun by themself, everyone's suddenly interested in them, and their response is 'fuck off, it's mine not yours'.

"For the nation's good. He is a gentleman, he knows his duty..." This is such an alien perspective to me. I know it's a very common attitude of the time, and something of a theme in the book, but there's a whole commentary here on community and how people's sense of belonging has changed over time that I don't have the brain-power to make right now.

"Magicians in England are a peculiarly ungrateful set of men." I love this sentence. 'Magicians in England' - you mean the rich white gentlemen calling themselves magicians? Ungrateful? Perish the thought! XD

The fact that York is 'one of the most magical cities in England' with the possible exception of Newcastle is such an interesting piece of worldbuilding, and I can't help but wonder if that's a modern (to the book) thing, that simply scholars of magic happened to gather and set off a positive feedback loop, or if there is some in-world... concentration of magic. Given the connection of nature and magic, and the Yorkshire moors being so very iconic, there might be something to that?

Also, loving another little taste of the Raven King mythos, with the mention of 'the King's city of Newcastle'. Honestly, I've never been overly invested in English history (save for Arthuriana, but that's fantasy), but the way this book builds the fantasy on top of a skeleton of truth makes me much more interested in finding out about reality as much as the in-book lore of the place. (Much in the same way Assassin's Creed made me interested in finding out the truth of the history it depicts to better compare the story to.)

I might have to go on a wikipedia spiral about the history of places like York and Newcastle at some point. If these liveblogs don't swallow my entire weekend XD

"We do not care for men who build their reputations at the expense of other men's peace of mind." I do not like this man. (I know I'm not supposed to like this man, he is a representation of the worst sort of self-aggrandizing and complacent entitlement of rich white armchair-scholars, but it bears saying; I really don't like him XD Much respect to Segundus for not punching him in the face.)

"English magicians were only ever given common ivy." Ah, symbolism. I have a lot of thoughts about why ivy, honestly, and I definitely want to do some research on this later, but the phrasing here is so telling. 'Only ever given common ivy', making it so blatantly not some sort of accolade, but something commonplace and unremarkable. There's also the fact that ivy can be associated with neglect, as it's seen so often on old, crumbling buildings, and as a symbol of nature 'reclaiming' or even taking over that which people have built. (Again with the ominous whimsy of this book; the gothic imagery of an old house all over-taken by ivy matched with the tone in which the comparison is made making light of potential drama of the symbolism.)

There's also the correlation between ivy and lovers (ivy clings and binds and twines around things. And I recall reading somewhere about it being used for symbolism in the story of Tristan and Isolde?) but I don't think that's quite as applicable here, even though my brain does love to chew on it.

I'm noticing now, as well, that the author makes excellent use of 'show don't tell'. Instead of simply telling us that the room was noisy and everyone was shouting over each other, though we do get told that, we're also given the example of an old man being very passionate about some point that no one can actually hear over the noise.

I find it interesting because I've been reading a lot of things expressing frustration with the maxim because, I think, people take it too literally. That you must never tell, and only show, which of course will absolutely ruin your pacing and make your story very boring. But this, here, is what I think it means. Of course we could simply have been told 'it got loud as everyone argued', but the art of writing is not to simply tell people what happened, but to make them feel it. And by 'showing' us this little snapshot, by giving the noise a face in this old man who cannot make himself heard over the din, despite being very engaged in making his point, it makes the whole business feel much more real.

Oh, I feel so bad for Honeyfoot and Segundus in this part. Although I find it very interesting that we never actually got to see whether Norrell did do any magic for them. We cut from him confessing that he's a practical magician to Segundus and Honeyfoot leaving, and we don't actually know what happened in between.

And, of course, neither do Honeyfoot and Segundus. Which is deeply, deeply unnerving to me when I think through the implications. Not knowing where you are is one thing, but not knowing where you have been is a whole nother level of creepy. And yet, the narrative doesn't treat it as a particularly horrifying occurance. (Again with the ominous whimsy.)

There is something of a theme of this, too, in the book, with the truly horrifying things that magic makes people capable of being treated as a sort of just a thing magic can do, rather than lingering on the violations of privacy, personhood, and autonomy. Not to say that I feel that the narrative is treating them as inconsequential or in some way not as bad as they really are, but that it doesn't pass judgement on it, and lets you draw your own conclusions (which is a bit refreshing in this resurgence of purity culture in fandom at the moment).

Like, here, Segundus doesn't react with any particular horror or upset at his confusion and disorientation. Which, honestly, I find only heightens my own horror. He's just... sort of vague and fuzzy about it all, even in his emotional reaction to his memory being vague and fuzzy. (Like how someone with mind control telling someone to 'do a bad thing' is not nearly so horrifying as someone with mind control telling someone that 'you want to do a bad thing')

I find this part particularly gave me shivers, when Segundus and Honeyfoot are being questioned about the library and they're asked of the books:

"Had they been permitted to take them down and look inside them?" "Oh, no."

Like, everything else we hear from them is just... an obfuscation of the facts? There were a lot of books in the library, some of them were very rare, and that's the impression they've been left with even if they can't remember the specifics, but that? That, we know for a fact to be false.

Which then very abruptly throws Segundus's previous assertion that he knows for a fact that he hadn't seen any magic done into doubt.

Honestly I think that whole sequence is masterfully done. Because at the time, the way Segundus explains it, we're given no reason to doubt his assertion. He says he feels as though he saw magic, but knows for a fact that he didn't. Which can very easily explain away his awareness of the extra lighting and the... (I keep wanting to call it a maze-array, but that's the wrong fandom XD) directionlessness of the hallway, as him having the sense of magic, but not, actually, knowing for sure it was such because neither he nor us the audience were shown Norrell actually casting those spells.

Except then we get that blatant untruth, and suddenly that blank space of time between Norrell's confession at the end of chapter 1 and Honeyfoot and Segundus leaving at the beginning of chapter 2 just opens up with posibilities.

There's also the contrast between Honeyfoot merely being affected in the moment he tries to explain, and Segundus having felt 'heavy and stupid' for the entire week in between meeting Norrell and meeting with the Society. I do love how clear it is already that Segundus is sensitive to magic, the way he noticed so clearly the magical lighting and direction-obfuscation in the last chapter, and now this.

"Other men may fondly attribute their lack of success to a fault in the world, rather than to their own poor scholarship." "But what is my reward for loving my art better than other men have done? For studying harder to perfect it?"

Ooooo burn! He's so catty. What an asshole (affectionate)! Not to say that the Society (and Foxcastle in particular) don't thoroughly deserve it, of course. Everyone in this room is so ready to be offended, they're actively looking for reasons. Their lives must be so incredibly boring that this is how they choose to entertain themselves, holy shit XD

Oh, god. This attorney guy. Robinson. He is so... He's something, alright. "He was so clean and healthy and pleased about everything that he positively shone, which is only to be expected in a fairy or an angel, but is somewhat disconcerting in an attorney." No kidding. And during the whole scene he's so... blandly inoffensive and faux-innocent and defferential that it puts my hackles right up. He is deeply unnerving to me.

'This would be only fair' he says, of a deeply unfair and rigged agreement designed solely to punish them. 'Then surely they would recognise magic when they saw it' he says, as if he's not perfectly aware that they've just been given an incentive to fucking lie about it. 'All your friends have done it' he says, as the only argument he can come up with to try and coerce Segundus into signing the agreement. (Once again, much respect to Segundus for not punching this guy in the face.)

Yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck. Creepy motherfucker.

I love the descriptions of scenery and environment in this book so much, they're so damn evocative:

"The very voices of York's citizens were altered by a white silence that swallowed up every sound." "The winter gloom was quite gone, and in its place was a fearful light; the winter sun reflected many times over by the snowy earth."

Oh. Hmm. I can't be sure, but I think this is the first time the narrator has inserted themself quite so blatantly into the narrative. Things have been couched as observations before, but I don't remember before this the narrator actually referring to themself, or directly addressing the reader, or positing an opinion of their own? (I may have to go back and listen to chapter 1 again to check...)

"brooding blue shadows of the cathedral's west face" "sailing magisterially around the corner like a fat black ship" "he had a strong thin face with something twisted in it like a tree root" More great description and more adjective-adjective-noun phrases.

And then we come to Segundus and Childermass's second first meeting. Again, I feel so bad for Segundus, having his mind and memory messed with like this, but, if you'll excuse me a moment, -shipper goggles on- Segundus still remembers him! "I've seen you... I can picture you! Oh, where?" Can't remember so much as taking down the books that so enthralled him in the library never mind reading them, but he remembers Childermass.

"He thought John Childermass very insolent." Aaaaa, that's my blorbo! He's so cheeky, I love him so much.

"Several looked about them before going inside, as if taking a last fond farewell of a world they were not quite sure of seeing again." And we end the chapter on yet another absolutely magnificent line. Not quite the almost-cliffhanger of the first chapter, but still extremely tantalising, baiting the reader with questions about what, exactly, is going to happen next.

Hmm. Since this one isn't quite as long as chapter 1, I think I'm going to stuff chapter 3 in here, too; try and condense things a little bit XD

Chapter 3 - The Stones of York (February 1807)

"The cold of a hundred winters seems to have been preserved in its stones and to seep out of them." I have been in old churches and this is entirely accurate. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the description in this book is really top tier. Simple, but incredibly evocative and poetic.

"Bells often went with magic, and in particular with the magic of those unearthly beings, fairies." More symbolism, and this one I know less about, but at the same time, it feels right in a way I can't actually explain. Just that the vibes, the atmosphere it creates of bells being this ominous sound associated with something dangerous.

That being said, on thinking about it, I find it very odd that bells are symbols of fairies in this book for two reasons. One is the way that humans often get referred to as 'Christians' as a whole (I remember this gets explained later as a consequence of fairies being bad at telling the difference between humans, I think?), and church bells are the most commonplace example of bells I can think of. So why, then, are bells so specifically associated with fairy magic when there's such a strong connection to the way the book talks about the people who are not fairies?

And also, one of the primary uses of bells, with more significance in the past but with the tradition continuing on to this day, is to tell the time. To put order and structure on the otherwise abstract passing of the day. Which is in direct contrast to everything else we've been told about magic so far. Magic thrives in the places that are not structured to suit humans. Trying to impose scientific reason on magic kills it.

...Okay, I am definitely reaching here, but it just occurred to me that the other primary use of bells is as a warning. I can think of a bunch of examples; ye olden ships and fire-engines, castles and forts and such. All used to say 'something is wrong, action must be taken to avoid disaster'. And that makes me wonder if the bells are less a product of the fairy magic and more, perhaps, some other magic acting as an alarm.

And the only person I can think who could have cast such a wide-reaching, long-lasting spell would be the Raven King. And wouldn't that make sense? Wouldn't a King want to have a warning that some other being is trying to abduct one of his people?

...I'm reaching, but I really like this theory actually. Even though we knew the Raven King had no compunctions about stealing his own subjects away himself. (I still think it fits, as a King would feel entitled to privileges that others would certainly not be permitted.)

Which is a whole 'nother thing I have thoughts on. It's very interesting that the second real bit of information we get about him (after the bit about him having 'only three' Kingdoms being mentioned in one of Norrell's books. I think that's the only time he's actually directly named before this?), is that despite being an Englishman, he has the fairy habit of abducting people to other lands. And that ballad about it!

"The priest was all too worldly, Though he prayed and rang his bell, The Raven King three candles lit, The priest said it was well."

What is this? What does it mean? It does answer a bit of my speculation about bells, I think - they're used as a warning/warding off it seems (given that it's paralleled with praying) - but then there's that bit about the Raven King lighting candles and this, presumably, causing the priest to say 'oh alright then, do carry on'? I'm gonna have to keep my eye out for any more candle symbolism as well, I think.

"This land is all too shallow, It is painted on the sky, And trembles like the wind-shook rain, When the Raven King goes by."

-shakes fist at the author- You weren't content giving me chills with your description in prose, now you're doing it in verse?! -weeps- God. God. I don't have words for how this makes me feel. I am going fucking feral. I want to print this song out so I can eat it. Fuck.

And it's followed up by the narrator absolutely roasting the Magicians of York, which is making me cackle far more than it probably should because I'm still high off that absolutely unnecessary bit of poetry.

I love the way the narrative builds up to the magic. We get the bells, and then a voice, and then what it's saying, and then another one, and then that it comes from a statue, and then the rest of them, and between all of it we get these elaborate descriptions of the magicians reactions and fears.

Going back a little bit. The tale of the girl with the ivy leaves in her hair. This coming in the very next chapter after we were told that magicians are associated with ivy I think can't be a coincidence. And I wonder if the girl being a magician might not be a part of why the stones care so much about her murder? Not that I think murder inside a cathedral is all that common, but I find it hard to believe it only happened once in over 500 years.

"Kings, even stone ones, dislike above all things to be made equal to others." Hmm. Given how many Kings we have this story, I have a feeling this is Significant.

The fact that the stone statues that were to be repaired flinched from the chisel is... Oof. The idea of stone having a concept of harm, enough to fear it, is wild. And it raises the question of how... aware of what they are the statues are. Obviously we have the examples of kings bickering and quarrelling because they do believe themselves to be kings. But are they aware that they are statues of kings, or do the truly believe themselves to be those kings? The first statue seems aware, talking about how 'no one saw but the stones', instead of 'I saw'.

And if they know that they're stones, then... what does it say that they're afraid of the very thing that created them in the first place? Or is the fear of being 'remade' into something different? Is it particular to that statue, and another might welcome the chance to transform?

...Apparently I am my father's child.

My dad: But what is it like to be a tree??? -overthinks it- Me: But what is it like to be a stone??? -overthinks it-

I love this conversation between Segundus and Childermass. Childermass is coming at the thing so side-ways and sneaky, and yet... he's so blatant about it? It's so obvious right from the very start that he's leading up to something, and then he just... waits for Segundus to offer, instead of actually just asking? It's such a weird approach to take.

Also, the fact that we get another of those lovely poetic descriptions of the snow and the clouds as Childermass is waiting really gives the sense of a long drawn-out silence, and I can't help but laugh at the idea of this bizarre little stand-off, these two men just... staring at each other in the snow.

-shipper goggles on- "Until all the world contained was the falling snow, the sea-green sky, the dim grey ghost of York Cathedral... and Childermass." Perhaps it's an aspect of the audiobook that doesn't come through quite as strongly in the text, but the weight put on that last? Putting him on the same level as these... rather ephemeral, magical things, the natural phenomena of the snow and the sky, and the 'ghost of York Cathedral'? As well as the contrast of these... pale, dim, ghostly things, to Childermass who's so often described as dark and ragged. Even without that description here, it makes his presence so stark against this hazy, light backdrop. (And all this implied to be from Segundus's persepective =3)

And then there's all those compliments Childermass pays Segundus once he's gotten what he wanted, too XD (Even if I do kind of get the sense that Childermass doesn't necessarily mean them entirely as compliments. I don't think he thinks very well of people who are too obliging, tbh.)

You know, this is very much my brain veering off into the wilds here, but the thing about Mr Honeyfoot pursuing the tale of the girl with the ivy leaves makes me think of... this idea I've had for a while, mostly inspired by a JSaMN fanfic, On the March, where Childermass 'wakes up' the Yorkshire moors, and the notion of how magic, which in this book is so tightly tied to nature and the wild, could so easily be affected by the location in which it's done.

And if a place like York Minster can be aware of what's going on even when magic isn't being done upon it... then are the stones aware of Mr Honeyfoots efforts on their behalf? Do they see, for whatever value of sight they possess, him fighting this battle for them, and does this earn him anything from them? Can a stone feel gratitude? Is there some reciprocity or good will there? Does Mr Honeyfoot forge a bond of some kind with, or win the favour of, the Stones of York Minster?

There's a fic in this somewhere. (Mr Honeyfoot gets into a disagreement inside the Minster, and a stone drops onto the head of his adversary. Crumbly old buildings, you know, someone ought to check and make sure it's not going to happen again!)

'The Last Magician in Yorkshire' Now there's a phrase you could build an entire other story around. Another quite powerful end to a chapter, though not quite as gripping as the last two.

Well, I'm glad these two were somewhat shorter than all my thoughts on chapter 1. And I'm now more than half way through this week's chapters. I hope I'll be able to get 4 and 5 done tomorrow (or later this evening, maybe, if I feel like it?)

[silver-wield]

The thing about aerith you just shared is fascinating. If we're going with the theme of " there's nothing I don't cherish" and the complete 180° of Zack's character with aerith in terms of stereotypes of heroism.

With Zack, Cloud cries for a good person. Someone he idolized.

With Aerith, cloud cries for uh not so good person (I'm being generous here). Someone he treated severely most of the time.

But both he was grateful for. Both he cried for. Just like with anything. Like, look at how he described jessie in Rebirth. We know she didn't treat him well but in cloud's perspective he was grateful for her reaching out to him. Giving him materia, inviting him with the gang for pizza. I think once wedge told him that she's just being a prick, he ended up being more relaxed about it. But you know what's up? He doesn't think of her romantically AT ALL. Not even a prospect even for a milisecond. She's actually very similar to the way aerith was written here btw.

But yes, long story short. He cherishes everything. Good and bad. But there's only one person he'll ever come to be attracted to and in love with. Tifa obviously duh.

But yeah, like you said, she's an awful person who so happens to be one of the "good guys" in the story. If a clumsy guy can be a hero (Cloud), if the perfect hero can be a hero (Zack), if the perfect heroine can be a hero (Tifa), then, the most questionable person can also be a hero (aerith).

Lol the Sibling energy going strong here, if you noticed what I mean 😂.

But overall, It fits. It's a game with the theme of LIFE in it. We meet so many people.

So in short Nojima is challenging us through aerith to see that. Don't lavish her with flowery words nor look at her through rose tinted glasses (puns intended). LOOK AT HER. She's a POS but she got friends who care for her. She may take them for granted A LOT but she will be there to help save the planet they live in. That's one way to look at it.

But Cloti is TOO KIND still lol. So they need better boundaries and standards for friendship.

Also low key aerith reminds me of gollum here. Gollum is ACTUALLY a hero himself. And if Frodo (cloti) didn't let him into their circle, but they did due to their kindness. They will never be able to kill sauron. So Gollum, by sheer greed and all. Bit Frodo's finger, catches the ring and falls with it. So if they never let aerith into the group, welcomed her with open arms, she wouldn't have been able to do her task and see to it as much as she can. Than alone.

That was long but yeah. Sorry to aerith fans since I compared her to gollum. But it has nothing to do with his looks, just the function he has in the story. And HE IS A VERY IMPORTANT CHARACTER.

That's what I think. What's interesting tho is at least Cloud has the interest and self awareness of knowing he doesn't or does but wanting to prove he deserves Tifa. The modernized Yamato Nadeshiko. Meanwhile aerith is the complete opposite. She just believes she's entitled to it regardless. Zack has uh, an interesting type I'd say. It cringes me he's into "city mouse" but notice the animal she's being compared to lmao. Tbh they're kind of the same in one aspect not only their upbeat personality. Zack would never bat an eye on her if she didn't had the same complexity she had with being weird and different. Same with aerith, she'd never care at all. This will never apply to cloud even if he ends up being a soldier, because he wants to be special afterall, he will never understand aerith and zack's insecurities. But Zack doesn't think being a soldier is special, he feels like a monster but still he wants to be a hero.

I mean nobody has any issues with Cait Sith, a literal Shinra spy, being a good guy. Nobody has issues with Vincent, a former turk who probably did a lot of questionable shit, being a good guy.

Cid also worked for Shinra and knew Ifalna and never tried to help her despite seeing her around Hojo's lab, but he's a good guy.

Everybody is a flawed hero, but Aerith's flaws are worse because hers cause harm to her own friends. Everybody else's personality flaws are external in nature and project outward towards other characters who aren't part of their group, but Aerith and Cait Sith's flaws project internally to the group. Cait gets ousted after betraying them and Aerith dies.

It's almost like those harmful to the greater good of the planet are removed from the party. Cait returns with a better attitude in a new robot body, but the one that betrayed them also dies.

[elvendorx]

What are your thoughts on “golden retriever” James Potter? It’s not a reading I typically leans towards. I think James is probably a warmer person on the surface than say Sirius, but he’s also a dick. Not to mention, he’s a pure blood while the Potters aren’t the Blacks I feel like he’d still have an certain kind of air about him you know? I just don’t think he’s a big silly goofy guy and it’s a reading of him that sorta confuses me. (Nor do I view him as being as preppy as most people seem to) Thoughts?

I want to say that all reading are valid. Love what you love, and if you love “Golden Retriever” James then by all mean enjoy it to its full out extent.

Hello, and thanks for this question!

As with a lot of fandom, I see where the roots of "golden retreiver James" come from but I think they lack nuance in the way they're explored (not to sound catty or snobbish). I am staunchly against any whitewashing of James or Sirius (and in general) and I think that “golden retriver James”, whether intended to or not, functions as a dampener on the unpleasant corners of James' personality.

I think it taps into two aspects of James' character well in two senses: one is the softeness he has specficially around his friends (and probably parents, as we’re told he’s been pampered). I have this vision of James as a bit of the baby of the group, he's probably the most naive and idealistic of the four and I also think he's the most well-liked, so the Marauders let him get away with things they wouldn't tolerate from the others and they're more protective of him than the others. And I can imagine in the dorms, one on one with his friends, he's softer, sillier, he's the one with the fun ideas and the excitement and the energy. You can see his playfulness in the whole show with the Snitch in SWM, but his pointing out of Snape to Sirius is very much predatory rather than playful or innocent or fun like a golden retriever.

Secondly, "golden retriever James" as the image he fosters publicly is more believable - but he also doesn't exactly hide his meanness and his enjoyment of bullying Snape, there's a whole crowd there. But James does perform to that crowd and he doesn't shy away from looking silly and amping up this impression of himself as a loveable fool - "Go on, go out with me" is putting himself on the line, I think there's a hopefulness there but he's obviously going to play it off as a joke as he seems to know (like surely he has to know) it's not going to go his way, and then the whole playing dumb/innocent "Well, it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean" - he's also not shying away from his complete dislike of Snape, so that goes against the "golden retriever who loves everyone" image. He only tones down his performance when told to stop playing with the Snitch by Sirius and he's poorly covers up that he's upset when Lily doesn't buy into the act, so "golden retriever" as a cultivated image that James consciously puts forward is the nuance that the archetype needs, imo, and is brings together the light and shadow that we see of his personality.

In terms of James as a pureblood, for sure he has that air of entitlement and self-assurance. I don't see the Potters as traditional purebloods, I think they're lowkey intended to be a bit weird and "new money" but whilst still accepted (a bit to the right of the Weasleys, maybe) so I've never seen them as having a house elf, or a manor, or balls or anything like that, but the attitude and all the privileges, absolutely.

As you say, people can read and find joy in whatever reading of James they want (just might not be actually James Potter as he's written in the book, but whatever) but I think "golden retriever James" is one of those examples that happens a lot in MWPP characterisation where one aspect, or one comment, gets blown into the entire personality and taken as gospel. I think there are shades of a bouncy, goofy side of James there but they have to be reconciled with everything else we know about him - a lot of which isn't necessarily pleasant, and that's what makes him an interesting character but one that it is difficult to completely draw out without spending a lot of time on it.

[androgynousblackbox]

Okay, so I did liked the DHMIA new show. I thought it was funny, very creative, very choatic, very clever, all the good stuff a show can be... except for the "friendship" episode. Especifically because of Warren. Like, the first moment this guy, who looks like a worm, walks like a worm and even has a fucking ID with the word worm crossed out, but he insist is an Eagle, writes Eagle on his own ID and, not only that, thinks someday he is going to spontaneisly grow wings that are stronger and cooler than other Eagles, I thought this guy was a walking transphobic joke and I can't take that idea off my head. Mostly because I don't fucking know if the idea of a worm insisting he is an Eagle was just inherently funny for the creators or they wanted to slip a little jokey joke about how some "Warrens" (aka trans people) think they are something they are not, can you belive it, isn't that ridiculous, please laugh. Like, also is just the way that Warren is written in general. He is a obviously insecure person who keeps grudges for a long time, is extremely self-centered, a annoying ass that nobody can fucking stand being around and he ruins even the creatures literally created to be as indulgent as possible. Warren Eagle literally had people indulging him on his fantasy of being that Eagle and he still ruined it because his personality is that rotten, because he wanted more attention, more praise, more control over what other people did or talked about. Everyone else on the show knows already that is not an Eagle. You can clearly see it. The computer character, who is meant to know everything because he is connected to the Internet, immediately is "eagles has wings" and prints an article about how eagles REALLY are, which obviously excludes Warren of being an Eagle. By the end of the episode he is treated like a "worm on someone's brain" and killed as such, reduced to an actual worm and not even a puppet worm. Fuck, he is killed after being revelead to have been a horrible monster who couldn't stop INVADING the brain space of Yellow Guy. That is a transphobic joke. Regarldess of what the thought process behind it was, I can clearly see some fucking terf or other transphobe looking at that and immediately going "that is exactly how trans people should be treated." Also, like, and I cannot stress this enough, the episode didn't NEED Warren to think himself of an Eagle for his character to work. He was an annoying ass who was a bad friend but still felt entitled to everyone's friendship, everyone's food and everyone's admiration. If the idea was to show how out of touch and lacking self awareness he has, then have him talking about how many people he helped with his program while at the same time he is obviously hiding multiple papers of lawsuits from people to whom he only made matters so much worse. Then the "brain friends" tell him about how "helpful and effective" his program was because he was on it and done. You have the exact same character, the exact same point, without the transphobia. That would be funny. The Eagle thing does nothing for the narrative, for the character or the message. The only thing it does it's ridicule the idea of people pretending to be something that they are not, despite all the evidence, which is exactly how transphobes view trans people.

And nobody talks about this? Nobody thought that it was weird but on a way that is icky and questionable? I don't want to cancel the show, the creators or fucking anyone for that matter by saying this. I am just so fucking confused about why this happened at all and how come no one seems to have an issue with it. The rest of the show is exactly what I expected it to be and more, except for this.

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

“Poor guy spent a thousand years thinking his dad didn’t love him, and his brother didn’t like him. Then he finds out that they DID, and he was too stubborn to see it. And that his inability to do so in time led to the death of his mother, the one person that seemed to understand him. That would certainly be humbling.”

i am so tired, so fucking tired. the other comments aren’t good either.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/comments/xqiol7/loki_gain_all_his_5_movies_character_development/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

I think I just lost a bunch of brain cells after reading that post 🤢They're all so wrong that I don't even know where to start.

Let's go with that comment you highlighted, you know what that is? Abuse apologism and a nice dose of victim blaming, nothing more, nothing less. He didn't spend his life "thinking" that, he spent his life KNOWING it.

They did love him? Oh well in that case how they treated him is fine, right? And again with Frigga's death? They haven't seen TDW?

Also I'm still trying to understand what the hell does that have to do with the elves attacking Asgard. If Loki loved his family Malekith wouldn't have attacked? Uh... what? 🤔 They do know it was Thor who took Jane to Asgard, don't they?

On that, "humbling" thing:

"He was humbled by the Hulk."

They seem to leave aside that Loki was a threat to Earth so of course the heroes were entitled to stop him - the difference in the series is that he has done nothing wrong, the TVA kidnapped him because he stole the Tesseract not because he invaded NYC. (Also beatings are humbling? holy shit balls, man)

But these people think the TVA are the good guys!

"He still tried to weasel and scheme his way out of it the first chance he gets."

"He was still trying to cheat and lie his way out most of the time."

How dare he try to get away from the TVA, he should have been happy to join and work for the fascists, right?

"Hell, he ends up betraying Sylvie when Kang gives them his ultimatum because Loki’s gonna Loki."

Loki betrayed her? Pretty sure it went the other way around, buddy. But it's funny how not even when he's being a hero he gets a pass. Also, weird that none of them judge her, she's a Loki too, isn't she?

"He acts like a generic good guy after the first episode, i couldn't even see him as Loki."

Oh right, I had forgotten Loki is in the 'villain box' for these guys. If he ever does something non-villainous they stop seeing him as Loki! These fanboys are not high on character development are they?

"Realizing that all of your schemes and plots, the greed everything you ever tried to do was simply petty and inconsequential"

"IW Loki learns that he loves his family, and friendship is worth more than greed. Series Loki learns that he wasn't as important as he thought"

"Even he only believes half of it he sees everyone he cares about die"

This is so confusing: either he doesn't care for anybody and he's 100% self-centered and scheming and plotting against them..... or he cares about them so much that a powerpoint of his loved ones suffering is enough to change him for good. So which one is it?

Also, big yikes on the "in the series he learns he wasn't as important as he thought". This is what happens when people who know nothing about psychology think of themselves as armchair therapists. Losing pride and losing self-esteem are two very different things, that a scapegoat ends up believing he's not "important" is hardly news let alone good, he's always felt inferior, the last thing he needed was for someone to tell him he was right in feeling that way.

"He gained character development in ep1"

Oh man, not this again. No, he did not. I talked about that here.

"Loki has to analyze himself and his choices after the TVA powerpoint, and he also has to analyze himself after meeting Sylvie and the other Lokis."

Why, because Sylvie is someone to learn something from? 😂😂 Learn what exactly? Come on, man, there's not a damn thing that woman can teach Loki or anyone else for that matter.

I don't get these people, it's like they don't understand what they watch or... ugh who knows. I'm tired too, dear anon 🤢🤦‍♀️

[imightgetbetter]

Hi yes I've taken a break from wiritjg for this very crucial ask.

Anon, please never do dating apps, you won't find anyone worthwhile on there I promise you and it'll do more harm than good to your own self esteem and image please for the love of god, you have way better chances just being generally social and living life, I know it kinda sucks there's no quick fix but the people worthwhile you normally find when your just doing things for you and not going out of your way

dating apps breed men (in my experience) that feel entitled to your body and your time but are never willing to give any energy or reciprocate emotions and it makes you get stuck in this vicious loop of only feeling enough when it’s about your body or something.

i know i have a weird take cause i met literally the love of my life on an app but i was literally deleting it when i found him on accident so i genuinely still say with all my heart that they are not worth your time at all.

[thisaintascenereviews]

Hardy - Quit!!

I don’t quite believe in the idea of a “guilty pleasure,” because I’m at the point in my music fandom that if I like something, I like it. The closest I’ve come to it is in the beginning of 2023 when country artist / songwriter Hardy dropped his second album, The Mockingbird & The Crow. Hardy is a songwriter turned artist himself that’s responsible for Florida Georgia Line becoming popular, ultimately bringing bro-country to the world for about five years or so. In recent years, though, he’s turned to making his own music, finally getting a breakthrough with “Wait In The Truck” with Lainey Wilson in the last couple years.

I’ve listened to his debut solo album, and it was fine, albeit generic country, but Mockingbird is a different beast entirely. It’s a double album that has one half being country and the other being hard-rock. The country half of the album was pretty straightforward and generic, but it had some decent hooks and lyricism. The rock side was a little better, despite being a butt-rock album. It had the catchier and more energetic songs, but I’m not going to pretend they were great.

The Mockingbird & The Crow was a rather ambitious record, but it was also pretty bland and self-indulgent that showed Hardy wanting to have his cake and eat it, too, especially by wanting to have a more ambitious project in a new sound that still has generic country songs that will surely be played on the radio. Fast forward two years later, and we got his follow-up, entitled Quit!! This record, along with its title track, is an ode to the “haters,” specifically someone that wrote “quit” on a napkin at an open mic.

I wasn’t looking forward to it, because that song is awful, and so were the other songs that preceded this record, but I wanted to check it out so see if maybe the songs would be better in context, or if the album would be stronger as a whole, versus the lead singles. Unfortunately, “Quit” is exactly what I would do if I put this stinker out into the world for everyone to hear, because this is a really bad album, and it’s easily one of the worst of the year. Not only does this album have no idea what it wants to be, at least when it comes to its sound, hardly any of these ideas are what I’d call “good.”

As much as I was a Mockingbird & The Crow apologist, and thought that album was “okay,” this one is bad. Right off the bat, we got the title track, and this is a very obnoxious rap-rock track that he feels the need to employ here, but it’s all about how he won’t quit, despite people not liking him. He’s really obsessed with this idea, because he also talked about that a lot on the previous album.

The subject doesn’t get any better as the album goes on, as the following track “Rockstar” is a play on songs about being a rockstar, I guess, but it’s not funny and annoying. Most of the lyrics on this album, as well as the overall sound, is pretty bland, but it doesn’t get too bad. This album is mostly the kind of bad that I don’t like at all, but it’s easy to ignore. Hell, the album mainly sticks to a country-rock sound that has some decent hooks, but the album leaves a pretty sour taste in my mouth a few times.

Sure, the title track is cringy, and the song “Good Girl Phase” is kind of weird, but they’re not offensively bad. “Psycho” is the main song on here that I’m baffled Hardy wrote, recorded, and put on this album. The song is basically about how Hardy is a terrible partner, and if his girlfriend left him, he lists the crazy things he would do to make her miserable, so she should feel guilty to leave him. Despite the song clearly trying to be a joke, it’s not funny, and it just makes him look bad, like why would anyone want to be with him if he’s going to do that?

A few other songs get close to that, such as “Soul4Sale,” which has Fred Durst sounding the worst he’s ever sounded, and it’s a painfully generic song about selling your soul to be popular or something. A couple songs are actually okay, including the couple songs about his wife, “WHYBMWL,” and “Six Feet Under,” but they’re also super bland, both musically and lyrically, they’re just not outwardly bad. They’re at least more sentimental, and they have more defined hooks and structures, versus being loud and obnoxious.

Loud and obnoxious are the best two descriptors of this album, especially at its worst. Hardy isn’t a very good singer (or lyricist, for that matter), and it shows when he has to do anything that’s out of his limited range, so a lot of these hooks are awful, or very forgettable. Now at its best, it’s generic country-rock, but also very forgettable. Quit has a few of the worst songs of the year, and I still would throw this on a worst of list, but it didn’t piss me off as much as a few other albums did throughout the year. It’s bad, but it’s the kind of bad that you’ll forget about in a day or two, instead of letting it eat you alive as some bad albums can do.

[jayne-hecate-writer]

Holy ****... I've only gone and done a sequel!

A long time ago, in a lifetime very different to that which I have now, I wrote a novel. An actual, proper-ish novel (this is open to debate obviously, given the reception it received.) in which I sent a character I had created on a road trip into her past and that of her family. It was a violent, unpleasant and politically insensitive story, based on corrupt politics, vampires and murder for hire. I entitled this novel 'Leticia, Sunset Hunter' and was genuinely proud of what I had written.

My partner and I desperately tried to find a publisher or an agent to release the novel, but being the weird neuro-atypical freak that I am, I was barely able to believe in myself, let alone the power of my words. So after three hundred letters, with only one positive reply who never write back again, I called it a day and retreated into my shell, like a sad little snail, scared of the big wide world. The rejection felt like a cricket bat to the stomach, I had been judged harshly by the world of publishing and I did not take that judgement well.

Time went by and I remembered the words of my dear friend and mentor Mr Smith... “Have you looked into modern electronic publishing?” As an early adopter of the Apple Mac, Mr Smith was way ahead of me in terms of modern gadgets. He had iPods before anyone else had ePods! (sorry for the poor alphabetical pun!). He read his morning paper on the first generation iPad and knowing him, he was probably on first name terms with Steve Jobs. Sadly both of these men are now dead and in truth I greatly loved one of them and miss him to this day.

My first attempt at publishing was with a book of short stories. This was also my first attempt at editing a piece of my writing and I was abysmal at it. The short stories contained spelling mistakes, missed letters, lost words, changes in font and variable font size. It was a beautiful disaster, but I still loved it. This went up on Amazon Kindle and I sold at least three to well meaning friends, who let me down gently as to the quality of what they had paid for. As you would expect for such a service, Amazon took seventy percent of the profit and I received a few pence for each copy sold, which after a few months added up to the grand total of fifty three... Pence.

So releasing Leticia on Kindle was probably my best bet. I worked for months, preparing the story, working on the edits and slowly going insane. My therapist helped me deal with the feelings of failure with some kind words. “By publishing on Kindle, you are staying true to the purity of your own voice.” So publish her I did and the feelings of shame and self doubt grew like a tumour in my belly. Leticia was far from perfect and in truth I would write a very different book now, but I have to be true to the purity of my voice. The me of then who wrote Leticia, was desperate to be loved. So when I recently edited Leticia, I made sure that I was kind to the me of then and all I changed was the formatting mistakes and a couple of blindingly awful spelling or grammatical errors. I also gave Leticia a new cover, ready to be joined by her sequel, David.

When people have pets, they give them cute, lovable names (except for poor black kittens who often end up being named after something demonic), my cat for example has an adorable name. He is a sixteen year old ginger tabby called Jasper Doodahs and as I write this, he is curled up fast asleep between my ankles. Naming books is just as difficult as naming pets, if not more so. I can only imagine how many modern pets have been named Grogu or other Star Wars names, I know of at least one Ahsoka, who is a beautiful little silver tabby queen. The problem with books is that you cannot use names from films, it gets very confusing if you do and can be problematic when Lawyers are called in to ask you to stop. So I use human names for my books and here I present David : Dark Walker.

What is David about? Well, it picks up hours after the end of Leticia, with David on his way to meet Rosalind, Leticia's mother, when a woman from his long forgotten past reaches out to him. From there we have yet more travel, through this world and into others with violent and unpleasant outcomes and then right at the end, we lead into a final sequel. I wish that I could tell you more about the sequel, but as we speak, the plan is in its most basic form and nothing has been written other than a few introductory lines of text.

David is finally available now and is book two in the Vampyrican trilogy. At just over one hundred and twenty thousand words, you get around ten thousand words for roughly each pound you spend on my book. I started writing David in 2017 and since then we have had Brexit, a global pandemic, financial collapse, war in Europe and an awful lot of unnecessary deaths caused by the piss poor performance of politicians globally. None of this appears in David, well none of the real stuff anyway, but there is plenty of technocratic theocracy and maybe hints of cyber punk, with maybe a lot of love for and influence from my favourite movie of all time, Bladerunner.

What this means is that with my greater experience of being a writer now, I asked someone else to pass their eye across my final manuscript and they corrected a number of irritating mistakes for me. I still do not have the money to be able to pay an editor what they are worth to professionally work on my book, but this is hopefully a better step forwards with the reading experience for my readers. So I implore you, go and read my new novel, buy it on Kindle and/or paperback. If you live local to me, I can even sign a paperback for you. What I can tell you, should you wish to read my Vampyrican trilogy, you will be getting the purity of my voice, albeit a voice that has changed and matured over the years. I still love Leticia, but David is better and who knows, the final in the series might well be better again, when she lands on your kindle reader or bookshelf. Actually, there is a hint, book three has a girl's name and she is a character all of her own.

[isagisyoichi]

PINKY STAR (RUN) :｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆

SYNOPSIS: isagi as your boyfriend

CHARACTERS INCLUDED: isagi yoichi my boyfriend of many several years

WARNINGS: swearing? i think idk i forget also yah pretend they all go to the same school and stuff. also horribly self indulgent if u couldn't already tell

A/N: if you remember my old one delete it from your memory it was literally so bad help anyways the re-up because my boyfriend deserves better. also i really like this one and i feel like it’s more in character for him :P lol i've had this in my drafts for like, ever <3 but also my last post for a while because i have ap exams and my sat soon :P

FOR: the anon that asked me where my original isagi bf hcs went :’)

after the initial awkwardness of being in a new relationship fades and you two become comfortable with each other, a relationship with isagi would be like dating your slightly awkward best friend who you make out with sometimes.

like, i don’t really see isagi being high maintenance, so i feel like a relationship with him would definitely be on the relaxed side, but still romantic, you know?

isagi’s inner monologue is so funny and he definitely lets his thoughts out to you. it makes you laugh to see your usually friendly-to-all boyfriend have his moments, too.

you guys are one of those couples that give each other a look when someone’s doing something weird in public #telepathicconnection <3

but, isagi’s really such a sweetie with you. i know user isagisyoichi may be slightly biased when they say this, but believe me when i say that isagi’s 100% boyfriend material.

walks you to class whenever he can. always either holding your hand as he listens attentively to you complaining about school.

writes down things he feels are important about you in a digital note entitled “y/n 💗,” so he can remember them in the future.

isagi's used to talking to all kinds of people, so even if you're not the most talkative, he can adjust with no problem.

and he’ll always entertain you about whatever stupid conversation you wanna have.

kinda basic with pet names. babe, baby, dork (he would, i don’t wanna hear it), are his usual rotation.

randomly compliments you/says these really romantic things out of nowhere because he can’t control himself and often blurts things out.

“yeah, of course, when we get married, i’ll-”

“when we get married?” you inquire as you cut isagi off. you two have never discussed marriage, just but the thought of isagi wanting to spend the rest of his life with you is enough to make your head spin.

isagi’s eyes go wide when he realizes what he’s said. damn his mouth that moves faster than his mind.

swallowing hard and taking a breath, isagi says, “y-yeah, when we get married,” further affirming his statement with a nod, albeit a bit of a nervous one.

now both of you guys are flustered LOL.

likes to sit his head in your lap and have you play with his hair, while you two talk or just sit in silence.

such a good listener, perfect person to rant about anything with. he’s very understanding, he’ll hold you if you need him to, wipe your tears if you’re crying, give you advice if you need it, just overall so sweet.

also always knows when you're sad because of his intuition. isagi encourages you to open up to him, but ultimately doesn’t force you, just lets you know that he’s always there for you <3

(that's kind of lie because isagi does pry a little LOL, but he means well)

takes care of you! nags you a little, tries his best to make sure you're not doing anything stupid, and if you are, that someone responsible (him) is watching you, looks after you when you’re sick, etc.

gives you his jacket when you’re cold (he’s been waiting to do that his whole life bro LMAOO), carries your things, always texts you good morning and good night, just overall sooo good to you.

but as soft as he is for you, isagi does have this tendency to get these random spouts of confidence, so sometimes he’ll say or do something really bold out of nowhere.

like, he’ll suddenly grab your waist and pull you closer to him, or he’ll kiss you out of the blue. the flustered expression that rests on your face for a change always makes him smirk *heart eyes*

in general, though, isagi's still kind of awkward sometimes regardless and does say or do things that make you go "???" and make him be like "why did i do that" LOL he's so cute though <333

he’s pretty basic with dates, usually opts for things like restaurants, walks in the parks, movie nights, or stuff like that, but they’re still really fun!

but, if you ever want to do something out of the norm, he wouldn't be opposed to it, either. but, you do have to tell him ‘cause he's not a mind reader lol.

(okay but, one time, isagi tried to watch a scary movie with you because he wanted to do that thing where he wraps his arm around you during the scary parts, but HE ended up being scared instead 😭)

isagi’s the type to put your name with a heart emoji or the date you guys started dating in his instagram bio LOL

y/n 💓 IHS Forward #10 ⚽️ *insert some soccer quote about grinding*

it’s a bit middle school, but you let it slide because you know he just wants to show you off <3

study sessions are normal between you two but, you guys always get bored or distracted halfway through and start watching youtube or something LOL.

it’s canon he’s a thigh man lol, so if he ever sees you wearing an oversized shirt, especially one of his, with shorts, isagi will literally short circuit in real life.

he keeps his hand on your thigh when you guys cuddle that day, tracing patterns on your skin, or just squeezing it every now and then.

in general, though, isagi likes poking at and playing with them whenever they're out <3

once, isagi wanted you to do that trend on tiktok where he sits between your thighs and stuff, but he had no idea how to bring it up LOL

so, isagi just watched tiktoks of it in front of you and hoped eventually you would get the hint 🙄

and you did, thanks to his incredible lack of subtly. he doesn’t even care when you giggle and tell him how bad he is at being slick, isagi got your thighs around him, he won!!!!!!

takes a picture (or two or three) to savor the moment.

(even though he could literally just ask you to do it again in the future, but whatever, i guess)

when you’re dating isagi, the team comes with him too LOL

they’re always snapchatting you pictures of isagi when they’re hanging out without you, with stupid captions like, “look how sad your boyfriend is without you 😞”

isagi’s not even sad in the picture, he’s just confused as to why they’re shoving a camera in his face 😭

isagi one hundred percent attempts to get you to run the mile with him during gym if you don’t already.

“babe, just try!” isagi pants, as he catches up to you and your friends, as you guys are still on your second lap.

admittedly, the effort is cute, but beloved, i hate to break it to you- i will not be doing anything of the sort.

he will sit down or walk around with you after you finish the mile, though. if he’s not already playing soccer lollll.

when he does choose to go with you, expect exclamations from the team about how isagi “abandoned us for his little relationship” 👎

isagi’s receiving love language is words of affirmation (also basically canon LOL) so, he really values the compliments you give him with his whole heart.

you could tell him how his hair looks nice in the morning, and isagi will think about it all day.

whether it be about how cute he is, or how talented of a player he is, isagi really is happiest when you praise him <3

speaking of soccer, isagi has this tendency to get lost in the moment and talk your head off about some soccer related tangent that probably makes no sense to you.

his eyes light up and his voice is just oozing with passion for what he does as he goes into detail about how he made this crazy goal at practice while you stare at him with the biggest heart eyes ever, adoring his dedication.

and of course when isagi realizes he was rambling, he apologizes profusely for “boring” you, like the gentleman he is.

but when you reassure him that he could never bore you and that you want nothing more than for him to go on, isagi begins to feels lightheaded due to his adoration for you <3

if you're the type to go all out when it supporting isagi at soccer- like make one of those corny signs, yell from the crowd, wear his spare jersey to games, isagi will physically have to withhold his heart from jumping out his chest.

he's a little embarrassed that you're doing all that for him, but the effort means soooo much to him.

and speaking of soccer, it would mean a lot to isagi if you not only supported him at games and stuff, but expressed an interest in learning more about soccer as a whole, too.

you know, learn a little more about the game on your own accord, ask him to teach you how to properly play, or even challenge him to a one on one, do stuff like that, and he’ll literally be head over heels for you. well, more than he already is.

(he always goes easy on you on your guys 1v1's and he thinks your efforts are adorable, no matter how much you may or may not suck)

he'd repay the effort and try to get interested in whatever your hobbies are!

also, you can get him to do almost anything if you pout and beg hard enough, you’re literally so hard to say no to in isagi’s eyes <3

isagi’s the type to not realize when other people are flirting with him LOL

he just thinks they’re being nice (unless they’re being straight up) and i don’t think he would really process it because he’s so focused on you romantically, if that makes sense.

once he realizes you’re jealous, isagi apologizes earnestly, reassuring you over and over again that you're everything he could ask for and that he would never intentionally try to hurt you and all that jazz.

although, i will admit, sometimes isagi’s kinda smug when you're jealous, especially when it’s over a dumb reason 👎

however, when he’s jealous i feel like it could go one of two ways-

on normal days, isagi would just stand there to “intimidate” the other person, maybe cough a little for emphasis until they go away lol.

but on days where he’s already mad/filled with adrenaline/or someone’s really not taking a hint and you’re visibly uncomfortable- oh boy, it’s like a switch flips in him.

has those same fiery eyes he has during the climax of a game. the energy he’s exuding is dead serious, and that alone is enough for the person bothering you to go away. not bad for a man that’s only 5’8 🥰

adding on, isagi doesn’t take any shit about you, ever. even if it’s from his friends. usually isagi’s very neutral and doesn’t actively try to start conflict, but there are some things he’ll always defend and you’re one of them.

isagi always listens/watches/reads/etc whatever you recommend him (on that note, please recommend him good anime because isagi’s out here willingly telling people his favorite anime is darling in the franxx), even if he doesn’t necessarily like it LOL

you could show isagi objectively, the worst song ever and he would be like “yeah, it was good babe!” (it was not)

also does the same thing when you bring him shopping with you, like he's absolutely NO HELP 😭

you could try on the ugliest sweater known to man and he’d like “you look nice 🙂” pls be honest isagi, you can say it’s hideous!!!!!!

but isagi’s also being somewhat truthful in his statement because he does genuinely think you look nice in everything <3

also loves when you wear his clothes- always feels a mixture between pride and slight shyness?

kinda lol idk but overall, isagi really is sooo happy you wanna show him off that much, especially when you're wearing something of his around his friends :')

he says “i love you” first, no doubt.

he’s a bit nervous when he does because he doesn’t know if you’ll reciprocate, but he really does love you and he feels like he physically can’t hold it in anymore.

“i promise you don’t have to say it back!” isagi reassures anxiously. “i know it’s a really big commitment, and if it’s too early for you right now-”

“i love you, too.”

[multifandom-onigiri]

For the literal last two days all I have been thinking about is Muu and Haruka and how to defend Muu Kusunoki from the internet

[Edit from after I finished writing this at 8:12 pm: Ok I wasn’t expecting this to take this long to write but also god I hope this comes off well written even if it’s unorganized and really not I’m anxious LOL LOL LOL]

The fact that we’re all jumping on her when honestly, all she’s shown is expressing more of the arrogant and entitled attitude that is implied to her bullied in the first place. And it is funny to me because like. That’s our fault.

On Kotoko’s birthday, we got a brief conversation between Haruka and Kotoko, where Haruka wishes her happy birthday and Kotoko comments about how Haruka’s changed because he used to not be able to talk to her properly. Haruka reasons that it’s probably because the other prisoners, especially Muu, give him a lot of attention. Kotoko then guesses that maybe it depends on how Milgram (“we”) judge them and that it affects the prisoner’s mental state.

(Translation taken from @/MFancult on twitter)

And I don’t think it’s like anything *weird* Milgram is doing (other than I think the guilty people hear whispers? Please correct me if I’m wrong.) A major factor in how we’re seeing this prisoners change from their verdicts is most likely just the verdict itself and how these prisoner’s personalities are affecting how they react to these verdicts.

It’s pretty much outright stated that Muu comes from a wealthy family with parents who seems to spoil her. She has access to things a lot of people wouldn’t have. She can ask them for anything, and they’ll give it to her. It’s no wonder she ends up being arrogant and entitled, thinking that everything can be handed to her on a silver platter. And how we voted only helped to exacerbate that attitude. We’re the ones who voted her “innocent” which, in her perspective, tells her, “What you did was right. You’re not the one who’s in the wrong in this situation. We forgive you.”

And that’s probably what she’s been wanting to hear from the moment she started getting bullied. Why is this happening to me? What did I do wrong? Is this my fault? It can’t be! Because up until now, everything had been fine and gone her way, and now it isn’t in the worst way possible. And I don’t think her being bullied, given her attitude, would really change how she looks at her own actions, but rather gives herself a legitimate reason to portray herself as the victim. Because even if she is a self-centered jerk who needs to learn to grow up, she is the victim in this situation.

I think that’s why her new season 2 voicelines says to Es that she knew she could trust them (us) to make the right call and asks us to not question the decision we made, stating that she “did nothing wrong…right?” It’s not only a combination of her upbringing but also the effects of what being bullied had on her.

It’s been more okay on this app but it’s too unbearable on Twitter to go search up anything about Muu and see she’s getting the same amount of hate as the person who wanted to beat up the guilty prisoners and did beat up some of them. (And like I forgave Kotoko when I watched her MV and I do not regret my decision very much because that was a risk I was willing to gamble. I’m still open to hearing her out through her MV.) Like…she’s just showing more of her actual attitude that we’ve already seen hints of and how that’s affecting the ongoing friendship she has with Haruka.

(I am a heavy believer of the general gist of what happened to Muu did happen, but I am also firm in the possibility that some of it was exaggerated not out of trying to hide the truth but because I feel like she could be a pretty sensitive person.)

The latter is actually very intriguing to me and I have a lot of feelings about that but I want to make it a separate post because I love both of those characters very much. I’ve projected onto both of them for two years and I’ve WANTED them to be friends ever since I got into Milgram. And I think that was very *monkey curls its paws evilly* for Milgram to do, but also thinking about why it’s turned out like this makes me very nervous in a very giddy way, and very giddy in a very nervewracking way. They need therapy NOW

(also if you managed to read this all the way through thank you for reading LOL)

[taki118]

I watched Sole Crusher, I’m annoyed and feel like these are things people arent talking about

- First I’ve seen people talking about Marinette’s “growth” in not judging Zoe from her association but like this ep would have gone very differently had she not met her earlier. 

- Chloe’s advice to Zoe does seem to be genuine it does really seem like Chloe thought she was legitimately helping her. Chloe has a very odd and childish world view though this ep also makes her like comically worse than what we saw in season 1 and it’s like blatant to make Zoe look even better by comparison.

- What is up with Sabrina this ep? No seriously. Like up until now Sabrina was Chloe’s friend that she took advantage of but like again to make Chloe just the worst this ep they upped the Sabrina abuse and kinda made it look like she gets off on it. Like that moment she kinda fawns on Zoe for imitating Chloe is super weird. 

- Zoe whole deal is so audience manipulative it like psychically hurts me. Like the shoe thing where she says it’s to write nice things people say to her so she can take it with her but only has one cause she only had one friend. It’s so transparently there to make her sympathetic (we should note that Chloe herself once confessed feeling she has no friends but we arent meant to sympathize) like they could have made the shoes important if she just said “My best fried got them for me, makes me feel like they’re here” Even her whole reason for transferring is to make you feel sorry for her. She got bullied once after she started acting like herself and not what she thought people wanted her to be. It’s not cause she wanted to connect with her mother, it’s not cause she wanted to live in Paris, nope she got bullied and it was so traumatic she moved to another country (Like you can’t tell me there’s only 1 boarding school in New York). 

- Zoe is boring. So like her habit of changing herself to people please is interesting but the ep doesn’t really do anything with it. She says she wants to be an actress but not WHY she wants to as a means to explain why she’s so good at this (something very unneeded in fact doing this and not being interested in acting could be more character building) She then says that people don’t like the real her cause she’s “Different” which I’m hoping is meant to be like “im not what they expect” and not “My personality is just so weird no one gets me” but what we see of her base personality is just the generic “nice” of all the other interchangeable side characters. If I were to do a re-write of her it’d be that she has no sense of self and feels hollow not lonely.

- The Andre stuff. So like I keep seeing how people saying Andre got redeemed in this ep and Zoe is the daughter he should have had but like I think people forget this one kinda important thing ANDRE RAISED CHLOE HIMSELF. Audrey was out of the picture for a long time and Andre was her primary care giver. Chloe is a monster of Andre’s own making because rather than set boundaries and raising her with care he spoiled her giving her everything she wanted and giving in to her every whim cause he either didn’t know what to do or was lazy as a parent. Like a child doesn’t just develop a world view of entitlement and seeing themselves as superior a parent has to nurture that and Andrea did. So no I don’t feel bad about how Chloe treats him cause it’s obvious that it’s his neglectful parenting that brought this. I do feel bad he felt like he couldn’t follow his passions but like had he been the one to raise Zoe it’s very likely she would have turned out just like Chloe. 

- The message of this ep is so muddled it’s like “Be yourself” and also “family is who you love” but these thing don’t really blend like with how the show is structured it’s kinda impossible to do both of these like even if it was over two eps. But they really shoulda just focused on the be yourself thing. 

- Also last thing making Zoe Chloe’s half sister through their mom is like the messiest decision they could have made. Like Andre having an affair and another kid extremely close in age is easy to think of like logistically but you mean to tell me Audrey carried two children so close together sequentially???? But like we all know why it was done, it’s to make Audrey look worse. Zoe could have been Andre’s kid, or Chloe’s cousin and the ep would go the same. They ONLY reason she is Chloe’s half sister through Audrey is to make both of them look worse. It makes Audrey look like a worse mother and wife and it makes Chloe look worse as a person though again we don’t know how Zoe was raised.

[thickenmyblood]

hey maca :)) I have sth that I’d love to hear your input on! (wall of text incoming so beware- I’m absolutely not mad if you don’t want to answer lmao). Basically it’s about how you portray women in your works and to what extent you see that portrayal mirrored in the canon books. I have noticed that a lot of writers tend to go a traditional route with for example daughters not being heirs like you also mentioned in an answer for a wtsioa ask on here. Considering the cultures Vere and Akielos are based on that’s obviously very logical and a lot of authors (including you) make it work fantastically! Yet personally I never got the vibe of Vere and Akielos being as patriarchal in canon, mostly because the Information we get is kind of confusing. On one hand damen is a walking manosphere (and. all of Akielos in general as well) without any prominent female figures in his life but on the other hand damen only ever speaks appreciatively of for example the female vaskian warriors. Both countries seem to ban women from the army yet Damen also refers to a warrior queen. The regent is a total misogynist but with the wording Laurent uses it almost seems like that is more the exception and not the general rule of veretian court life. Both countries also have ties to Vask, an exclusive matriarchy and Akielos is said to be similar to Patras which Pacat has stated is also partly a strong matriarchy due to vaskian occupations in the past. I could go on for a lot longer but I guess that damens overall positive attitude towards women and especially stereotypically spoken masculine women is what sticks out the most to me. It just seems kind of misplaced in a world that supposedly is as sexist as the original cultures from our world. Which is why I’d say both countries do have gender roles but are overall a lot more egalitarian than their respective real world og cultures. But that’s only my take and I’d love to hear more on what others think about the portrayal of women in canon and how they chose to portray it in fanfiction. Love you and your new work, hope you’re doing well❤️

HELLO!!! Thank you for asking me interesting stuff :, ) you always have the best questions and my sad little inbox is open to you any time, friend. I divided this into parts, so:

My portrayal of women: I need to work on this a lot lmao. I’m not proud of any female character I have ever written for this fandom, and I’m also not proud to say I struggle horribly when it comes to writing female OCs, especially if the story is not about a female character that is a literal projection of me. Or Bella Swan (yes, Twilight literally shaped my sad little brain and the way I write and consume fiction).

Authors writing female characters in a “traditional” way (for fantasy settings): I can’t speak for other authors but I definitely think, in my case, that using the “it’s a patriarchal society, women have no rights, women can’t be heirs, etc.” blueprint is a matter of being lazy. It’s quick, and easy, and it’s been done before so we all know how it works and a) it’s unlikely that you’ll mess it up (in the plot hole kind of way) and b) it’s obvious that most readers know how the usual system works and so you don’t have to spend paragraphs or even chapters explaining it to them. I am very lazy when it comes to world-building for fics. Why? Because when I’m writing fanfiction I don’t give two shits about the world, I just care about the characters doing Things and having Feelings. The moment you start to question these issues (a society where women can join the army, where they can be heirs, where maybe they can have multiple husbands, etc.) a billion issues arise because it’s not the “usual way” and so you’ll have to deal with “unusual problems”. See: plot holes, info-dumping, etc.

Vere and Akielos in canon: I think the books get very, very confusing at times when it comes to gender roles in that specific world. They also get very confusing about how royalty works, in my opinion. So:

Damen never mentions female influences in his life, not even nannies or wetnurses or anything. He mentions past queens and his mother, but even then… It’s always struck me as “what the actual fuck” that we get no information on Egeria. In TSP, he doesn’t even read as curious to me, especially when I think of that line that goes something like “oh, well, he’d never asked how tall she was”.

Then you have Jokaste, who is highborn and also… perhaps trained in politics? It’s unclear to me if she’s ever been directly involved in meetings or been an active member of the Council or even been allowed to study these issues. Clearly, she’s smart and capable and cunning, but like… how? Did she have private tutors? Is she a self-made woman? Like, what’s up with that? Are women allowed to engage in public politics? Are they allowed to be kyroi?

IMO, Damen complimenting the female warriors in Vask has to do with how appreciative he is of war-related stuff. Like, he thinks people with his own qualities are neat. We see this time and time again in the books—having honor, being brave, respecting one’s family, protecting those who need protecting… He compliments these things when he sees them in others, especially in Laurent. Obviously one of the big changes in Damen as a character is that he goes from being daddy’s boy to being like “well, actually… maybe war isn’t always the answer, and maybe war isn’t always honorable”. The Vaskian warriors prove themselves worthy of praise in a “manly” way, if that makes sense. (In the same way, Laurent proves himself in the Okton, not so much to Damen but to other Akielons). So, in essence, War > Any issues he may have about women doing Stuff.

Don’t judge me for this but I can’t remember the Regent talking about women. Do you have any quotes about that? I feel like Book 1 is super rich when it comes to world-building stuff and yet it’s the book I remember the least. I know he obviously has a preference for boys and not girls, but I don’t recall him having interactions with Vannes or ladies at court? I’M SORRY I’M SO STUPID but I don’t own the book so I can’t exactly word search my way out of this one, and so instead of saying stupid stuff, I’m asking anyone reading this (lol, you and my mom probably) to please tell me what canon says on this issue.

Ties to Vask: Er, yeah, I mean… They’re clearly not at war with Vask and have some sort of economic deal (there are Vaskian pets in Arles? Which makes me wonder if they, like, buy them from Vask? Or if the pets are Vaskian and turn into pets in Vere? Slaves are not like pets so I don’t know?), BUT just because they have deals with this kingdom/are on good terms with the ruler does not mean they necessarily approve? Like, maybe they’re like “yeah, it’s weird they give women so much power, but also I need that silk/leather/WHATEVER, so I’ll shut up about that”.

“Akielos is said to be similar to Patras which Pacat has stated is also partly a strong matriarchy due to Vaskian occupations in the past.” Is this in the books or is this something she said in an interview/post-releasing the trilogy? I know in the books there’s a quote that Akielos and Patras are similar because they both have slaves, but other than that I can’t quite remember anything about Patras? Like, I don’t recall Pacat giving us extensive and thorough world-building on either nation, at all. Once again, I am asking you for more explanations on this because I literally don’t remember.

4. My opinion and a Stupidity Disclaimer: As I’ve said above, there’s a lot of stuff I don’t remember and so I’m not trying to preach to anyone reading this or even saying that I hold the truth about… anything. I’m answering questions as I see fit and asking more questions when I run out of answers.

I believe world-building is not one of Captive Prince’s strong points. I will not elaborate on this because this is already long enough but there is simply, in my opinion, not enough material to reach any solid conclusions when it comes to world-building questions such as the role of women in Vere and Akielos, how compulsory homosexuality affects the development of highborn men and women in Vere, exactly what makes Akielos’ view on women different from Vere’s (if there’s any difference at all), the history of gender roles in this world and how it’s evolved up until canon, how Lamen can solve the heir issue without recurring to, once again, “the usual stuff” (concubines, bastards, marriage to women, etc.). It’s clear from what I’ve read that Pacat has come a long way as a writer and that her new trilogy has a lot more in-depth explanations to world-building questions, but this is not the case with CP, and so I’m afraid my answer to most of this is “I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone can know for sure”.

Lastly, I think I struggle a lot with understanding the role of women in this universe because I simply did not see enough women doing stuff, so I don’t know what’s permitted, what’s unacceptable, what’s illegal, what is straight-up execution worthy, etc. This is not me complaining about the lack of female characters in CP, at all, which I know is contradictory to stuff I’ve said in the past (I answered a couple asks a year ago about how I’d wished we’d gotten Vannes’ POV or Jokaste’s POV in the short stories). I’ve changed my mind, and so I think Pacat is entitled to write whatever she wants, just like I’m entitled to talk shit about KR with any living soul who will listen lmao.

To end this on a spicy note, I think sometimes we consume the wrong media and then complain because it doesn’t have what we wanted. If you’re looking for a trilogy with strong, fleshed-out female characters, Captive Prince is not for you. If you’re looking for a trilogy on female struggles and, I don’t know, defying… the male gaze… Captive Prince is not for you. There are plenty of books out there that focus exclusively on female characters, featuring sapphic relationships, and dealing with gender issues. WHICH IS NOT TO SAY WE SHOULDN’T BE HAVING THESE DISCUSSIONS. This is not about this particular question, but more about a lot of posts I’ve seen floating around… complaining about Pacat’s writing and the themes she didn’t explore.

If anyone has made it this far, thank you for reading, and know this is NOT me telling you what to think. This post is an open question that anyone can engage with, although I hope people will engage with this directly and on this platform, instead of… taking it somewhere else where I sadly can’t engage back! Unlike what happened with our awesome fat Laurent discussion, I will be replying to any questions I get on this (Note: I did not reply to most of those questions because a long time had passed and they were sort of repetitive).