#and where i've been hyping this book already :D

[laufire]

yesterday I finally finished my ARC of ✨ "When The Stars Alight"✨, and I have now posted reviews in goodreads and storygraph ^-^

(c&p under the cut)

I had the honour to receive an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

(this review might contain some very vague spoilers) 

The first thing that merits mentioning in this book is its prose. With an omniscient narrator and lush descriptions of the settings, the characters, and every grand or minute detail, reading it feels like being immersed in a vivid moving painting. I’d recommend the story to those of us who appreciate this kind of writing style; and to those who might be on the fence, I’d ask them to be open-minded, to take their time, and to welcome it in in order to enjoy everything else this story has to offer. I must also commend the artist that illustrated the beautiful cover, as well as the art inside the book, for aiding to the sensory experience. 

As for the book, I’m particularly enamoured with the worldbuilding. WTSA, and the universe it introduces us to as a first installment, can’t be called a typical fantasy story. If, like me, you both love this genre but tragically find yourself disappointed by how repetitive, superficial or conservative some of its examples can be, this book could be just what gets you out of that slump. The world it presents is utterly different from our own, with original fantasy species, each wonderfully distinctive. On the one hand you have Solarites: powerful star maidens fallen from the sky that benevolently rule over humans (some of them with magical abilities of their own) and other races like the sprites (another immortal race of monster slayers with a strong connection to nature); on the other you have the Occassi, a more demonic race in the artic. Here in particular the prose becomes indispensable, presenting two opposing races and their societies, constantly contrasting them with light/dark, life/death symbolism without falling into black and white thinking. From the matriarchal society lead by the Solarites, filled with more subtle (yet still dangerous) political power-plays, to the more patriarchal, militaristic Mortos; the luminosity and abundance of one setting and the more gothic, tenebrous and scarce environment of the other. As the lead travels from one to the other, we discover these differences with her. 

This leads me to the next point: this book puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to a matriarchal society, filling it with outstanding female characters and showing us women in power across all fields: diplomats, scientists, soldiers, etc. 

Laila, the protagonist, is the clear star. She’s delightful, curious, adventurous, with strong morals paired with a deep-seated insecurity. She’s also a political animal; charming, manipulative, with ambition that’s presented as a positive. Her optimism can be a sign of her youth and naivety, but born out of genuine compassion and want for progress. It all comes together into a lovely, complex lead character that I can’t wait to see grow and develop. 

Someone else I found unusual and fascinating was Amira, Laila’s mother. She’s powerful and seemingly untouchable, exacting, and the opposite of nurturing. Her influence over Laila is never-ending, both as her maternal figure and as her monarch, influencing all aspects of her life and looming over all of her relationships. 

Another one with key importance is Lyra, a sprite. She and Laila were past lovers, and in the present have a deep, sometimes difficult friendship that goes beyond most princess/lionheart dynamics. Lyra is irreverent, with a sturdy sense of justice that comes from sympathy for the underdog, and often the blunt warrior to Laila’s diplomat. 

Others that, while less prominent, still tell us a lot about the world are the Odakan scientists (whose part foreshadows what might come in future installments), full of excitement and purpose to change and explore the world; or Dr. Mielette, with a small part, but that offers insight into Solarite culture. We see less of the women in Mortos, so far, but they serve their purpose. In Vasilisa, the Regina, you can see the precarious, risky position of a woman who is ostensibly at the highest one of her kind can come in a misogynistic society. The looming absence of Serafina, the king’s former lover, or of Katerina, another blood sorcerer, both women who sought power outside society’s confines, contrasts with her. 

But Mortos’ most prominent representatives are the men in the Calantis family. Most significantly Darius, the male lead. He’s the king’s bastard and eldest son, resentful of his lesser position in court, and eager to retake the place he thinks he deserves. His more intellectual pursuits (he definitely incarnates the mad scientist archetype, a favourite of mine) haven’t always been of help among Occassi, who value brute force above all. He’s charming and sophisticated, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, which can fool others, audience included, into not fearing his monstrous nature. 

The other members of the family are Lanius, the tyrannical father and king opposing Laila’s diplomatic efforts, a poison in the family and the kingdom; and Dominus, the younger son and reluctant heir. Both brothers do take part in a love triangle with Laila, but it’s not your typical, never-ending F/M/M triangle; as someone who sometimes side-eyes such trope, I must say I appreciated how this one develops, with Laila’s differences in approach, in chemistry, and in the emotional risk she incurs in each relationship. Related to the love story, because I know this will be of interest: the book’s sex scenes are delightfully written, just as beautiful and descriptive as any other, steamy and evocative. 

To finish off, I’ll say that this story was perfectly crafted to appeal to both my baser and higher interests. Its world and its characters have raised quickly in my list of favourites, it makes me think and wonder and speculate about what will come next, and it will stay with me for a long, long time. If you enjoy this book half as much as I did, I recommend checking out the author’s page for any other related stories or materials.

[seraphinitegames]

The Wayhaven Chronicles—Update 21/April/2023

I have this weird thing where I both love and hate planning, hehe! :D

I love it because I get to decide everything that's coming up and get hyped about the scenes I'm going to get to write (some of them I've been waiting over a decade to turn from notes into actual scenes, so I am intensely excited about that!).

On the other hand...because there's so much I wanna write I just want to be writing it now, lol!

But I definitely learned from Book Three that I can't rush the planning stage. Especially not with how varied the branches are becoming and wanting to get those stories weaving around each other. The more work I put into planning now, the smoother writing will go!

Writing definitely is always a learning experience! :D

I'm focusing on the overall story at the moment. I tend to find it easier to look at the story as a whole and break it down into the basics: beginning, middle, end. Just the story for Book Four. Once I've got that down, then I can start seeing how the other branches will work within it.

Book Four is a big one for me as it's not just the ball we've all been waiting for, but the antagonist has...motivations that are different.

They are still after the MC drawn in by their blood, as all the villains generally are, but it's for a different reason...which makes it all the more interesting in how that plays out with the vampires and especially the love interest!

Plus they're the first antagonist that is a supernatural made up specifically for Wayhaven and not based on an existing legend! (And in true Wayhaven tradition, I am of course a little bit in love with them already, hehe!)

Next week will be continuing on with big picture planning and getting the beats for that solidly set.

Hope you all have the most amazing weekend! We'll be offline as usual, so I'll update you all again next Friday <3

[possamble]

Question to a fanfic writer: do you think that, in Marcille’s research ways *And* her love for romance novels… would result in her writing some in-universe fanfics of her own? Like, maybe she hypes herself up on something and get disappointed, or maybe she finds some character decision isn’t as ideal as she thinks it could be? Or it’s as simple as she wants to play around with the characters and see what happens?

I can’t help but imagine a scenario where she’s struggling with some romantic trouble irl and she’s struggling with deciding on what to do, but then the answer slaps itself upside her head when she rediscovers her fanfics and how she LITERALLY made a character or two do the exact romantic decision she needs to do? It would so silly but yet I can’t help but find it so charming. Hell, just the imagery of her writing romance fanfics of her own At All is just… delightful to me hehehe.

you know I've been rotating this in my head since I saw it this morning and. I went through a wild journey of opinions before I realized... Marcille wouldn't think about fanfiction like we think about it. In the modern age, yeah, she'd be a complete tumblrina -- but we're talking about a 17th century-ish fantasy setting.

Writing before the digital age was a physical commitment to investing ink and paper into your thoughts -- and this is even before mass production can make pens and notebooks kind of whatever to buy and use on a regular basis. I'm sure the situation wasn't dire, but I really can't see Marcille, perfect honor student, using her allotted supply of stationery at the academy on super frivolous things.

Fanfiction has been normalized incredibly fast in the past few decades. Think about now normal and popular D&D is nowadays compared to how much people looked down on it 20-30 years ago. Fanfiction was a freakass nerd thing to do until relatively recent history, something that was even considered offensive to the original creators.

Remember, we've already seen Marcille react to adaptations with disgust. She's kind of a hater and an elitist fan. She also considers herself a Reputable Academic. In a setting where a digitized culture hasn't reframed fanfiction as an act of appreciation and creativity, she would absoluuuuuuuutely think that fanfiction was complete loser shit.

If she did write anything about her favourite books... She'd. She'd be one of those assholes who writes huge scathing reviews of Dal Clan translations into Common. She'd be the fantasy equivalent of those Weebs/Japanese elitists on twitter tearing through every single localization choice in anime and JRPGs and being so so annoying about it.

If we're being charitable, we could say she'd be able to appreciate non-faithful translation choices that still do a good job of carrying over the original spirit of what was said. But I think we also have to acknowledge the possibility that, at her worst, she'd really really be like those guys who were malding about the Unicorn Overlord localizations so hard the (correction: Final Fantasy Tactics Creator, not the Unicorn Overlord devs) had to step forward and ratio them. (The silver lining is that she'd never get published in the arts review newspapers/journals that she submits her essays to. those poor editors just have to deal with her being persistent.)

[chickycherrycola]

Okay, I have the same questions for you! How long have you been writing and what are some of your favorite tropes/storylines to write? Also, do you have a movie/show/book you’d consider a hidden gem or under-hyped fave??

Hello there Tower! 🎶 thanks for providing me with a wonderful distraction while I work from home today ehehehe *rubs my tiny fly hands together*

How long have I been writing:

Truly, kind of all my life? I've loved books, reading, and words since childhood - I was that quirky little kid who preferred going to the library over going to the park 😅 I wrote a LOT in high school and college, but I doubted myself too much to ever do anything with any of it. I never submitted short stories to publishing houses, never posted any of my fanfics online as a result. I took a long break from writing after graduating college and only recently got back into it, about... late 2021, I want to say? I re-read some fave old Soul Eater fanfics and got inspired to take up the metaphorical pen again, and I'm so glad I did. Now it feels like all I do with my life is write and I wouldn't have it any other way tbh!

Favorite Tropes/Storylines To Write:

Boy oh boy, where to even begin? I love romance, comedy, and the wonderful intersection of the two in the form of the ROMANTIC COMEDY, which im sure is pretty obvious given the kinds of fics I tend to post. I write as a form of escape from reality and use humor to cope and process big feelings, so writing rom-coms with a lot of heart and mature themes at their core is my jam.

In terms of tropes - my faves are the following, in no particular order: Friends to Lovers, Idiots In Love, Boy Falls First, Found Family (im actually a HUGE SLUT for this one and want to write it so badly!), Second Chance Romance, Animal Companions (i utilize this one a TON in my original fiction), Cozy Fantasy and/or stories that seamlessly weave magic or supernatural elements into the "real" world... and lastly, not really a trope, but Character Driven Stories are the GOAT.

Also... I just really love writing smut. PWP one-shots are my guilty pleasure. >:3

Hidden Gems/Underhyped Faves:

I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED!

Books (though two of these are comics technically):

-SAGA by Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples: adult graphic novel space epic series full of memorable characters and absolutely gorgeous art that tackles a lot of tough stuff and has made me feel the full spectrum of human emotion

-The Tea Dragon Society by K. O'Neill: a wholesome, heartwarming all ages comic chocked full of pocket-sized dragons and the COZIEST fantasy vibes EVER

-The Locked Tomb series: idk if it counts as an underrated fave/hidden gem cause the book series has a pretty sizable and active fan base, but im recommending it anyway cause Harrowhark Nonagesimus is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction, and if you like stories that explore both romantic and platonic partnership dynamics, you should give it a read if you haven't already!!

Shows/Anime:

-D. Gray-Man: shounen anime set in Victorian England about exorcists and featuring the most Cinnamon Roll Main Character in the Universe who I will always love with my whole heart, Allen Walker

-Re:Creators: a reverse isekai in which fictional characters are suddenly pulled from their universes into the real world and tackles the question of what fiction/art mean to us humans, one of my favorite shows of ALL TIME with excellent music composed by Hiroyuki Sawano

-Baccano!: a sort of steampunk/fantasy caper involving alchemists, immortals, outlaws, gangsters, an immortality elixir, and a murder mystery on a train, told in a non-linear format that really puzzles the brain on the first couple of watches

-Witch Hat Atelier: is technically a manga but is getting an anime soon! A series about a young girl who goes to magic school to become a witch, featuring an excellent magic system and gorgeous art

Movies:

-this answer is already soooooo long so ill just recommend my favorite movie of all time, PACIFIC RIM, which if you haven't seen you should WATCH RIGHT AWAY because it has the partners trope you love! Its a 2013 sci-fi flick directed by Guillermo del Toro about kaijus invading Earth from outer space, and the giant, dual-piloted robots that humanity devises to fight back with, and was so revolutionary in its portrayal of its main female character that it created a whole new benchmark for assessing portrayal of women characters in fiction (The Mako Mori Test).

In conclusion - thanks for giving me an excuse to ramble on and on, and I do truly hope you enjoyed all this drivel! 🙏😁

[angelofthepage]

24 Bendy Questions/Opinions!

So user BeninjaLIVE over on Twitter has this Bendy thread happening that asks a bunch of opinion questions, and you know what? I'm feeling a little playful tonight, so we're gonna answer them here. If you didn't have a baseline of where I stand as a Bendy fan before, well here you go!

1. Which is your favorite game? feel free to say any of the unreleased ones too!

See this is already hard. XD I really love the original BATIM for its story and characters, definitely my favorite story, but I've enjoyed the experience of Dark Revival a ton too. I've probably been exposed to it more times as a result of friends casually booting it up to play in calls, and the fan service for the original was great, Chapter 4 still breaks my heart. But I am a lot harder on its storytelling since, I don't think it did as good of a job as Ink Machine, especially in terms of how fleshed out its characters were. So I guess, Dark Revival for overall experience.

2. out of all the games, Which Character is your favorite?

I think my answer is still a tie between Sammy and Malice. XD They are my beloveds.

3. Which character installs the most fear / is the most horrific?

That depends on the context! From a gameplay perspective? Carley scares the crap out of me (I love you ghost girl, I want to give you a cookie, even though you're mean to us). From a writing perspective? The ink demon is pretty horrifying both in that he's this terrifying monster and was horribly mistreated within his backstory. A victim turned predator.

4. If you were in charge of directing the new Bendy game, what would change? (new features, new characters, changed gameplay, etc)

This is a dangerous question to ask me. X'''D I would put more focus on story and have more time spent with characters so that we get to know them and care about them a bit more. If we're specifically talking about The Cage, I want more of Sammy and Joey (and Boris, I would kill for a Boris reunion). I want to get to know them (if we're continuing the "Joey Drew learning to be a better person arc" I want him to try and be kinder to Henry and mess it up in his own Joey way). I want to know Henry's feelings about what he's going through. But most importantly, I would be putting Archie Carter, Evan, Buddy Lewek, Constance Gray, and/or Abby Lambert in this game. It doesn't have to be big, but for the love of all that is good and Bendy, PLEASE give us a book character cameo in this game, I beg of thee Meatly! We literally just had a book release involving a ton of Gent stuff, please give us an audiolog from one of these guys while going through the horrors of it, I would be SO HYPED for that!

5. What is your LEAST Favorite Character

This is the silliest thing, but there's only one Bendy character I actively dislike, and it's that puppet in the mop bucket from the prologue of BATDR. That thing creeps me out. I'm so sorry. ^^''''

6. smash or pass the ink demon

Neither, I'm extremely ace and not here for smashing, but I'm not passing up on interacting with him. I'm instead inviting him over for some cookies and hot cocoa.

7. Opinions on Bendy and the Dark Revival? this goes for gameplay, lore, characters, everything.

Already covered this one earlier, but to reiterate, I like it! I just wish we spent more time with the characters. I do have some issues with the way the story was handled. As much as I loved Chapter 4, I do kind of wish we got the reveal that Audrey was the daughter of Drew sooner, or at the very least, gave her more time/scenes to grapple with it. Because love the ending as I might, Joey's speech about her being born of darkness just, doesn't hit for me when she doesn't seem to feel that way about herself at any point? Like we see her struggle with it once and then never again, it needed some more build up and punch. But overall? I loved it. I loved this cast, I love the atmosphere and locations, I loved the expansion of the ink demon's character, Memory Joey was a hit despite doing some things that kind of lessen the horror of the previous game, and Twisted Alice, as nonsensical as her plan was, was such a treat, I was so glad to have her back and have her be such a menace. XD

8. Do you have high hopes for any new bendy games? (mainly Bendy - The Cage)

I have a reasonable level of optimism and curiosity! I'm sure it'll be an interesting entry. Curious how they'll handle more disturbing horror after how disturbing the last game was. I'm trying not to expect too much, going in with fewer expectations makes for a better experience for me personally.

9. How did you feel about BATIM's ending when it first came out?

Mostly confused, but really excited that Henry didn't die. X'''D No joke, when Chapter 5 first came out, I was so freaking anxious about what was gonna happen. A friend got on call and watched a playthrough with me so I didn't like lose my entire cool. X'''D Still one of my fondest memories in this fandom. The ending wasn't everything I hoped for, but I still appreciate it and the rest of Chapter 5 as a result of the experiences I had with friends during it.

10. looking back on it now, how do you feel about Chapter 3 of BATIM?

When the original came out, it needed some balance and bug testing badly. But in its current state? It's not as bad as people make it out to be, but it is tedious. I get so lost in it as someone who's directionally challenged, but like, -gestures at Malice- my GIRL! How can I not enjoy it at least a little when my queen is right there giving some of the best and most informative dialogue of any character in the game?

11. if you could change / improve ONE THING about Bendy and the ink machine (the singular game) , What would it be?

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I would want it to have some gyroscopic control on the Switch port. I'm sorry gamers, I don't know how you play games where you have to aim with the analog sticks, I can't do it, I'm so bad at it. X'''D I use motion controls for stuff like aiming my view in Splatoon, give me that as Henry and I will be unstoppable.

12. Opinions of MAlice Angel / Corrupted Susie Campbell?

She is everything, she is the moment, she is my beloved, and I want to bake for her and tell her she's beautiful, because she IS! She was such a fun antagonist and I want more of her backstory! Like she has been an enjoyable part of every game she's been in. Boris and the Dark Survival with the Milla Tapes? Underrated Alice moment, she was GREAT there.

13. Do you think Sammy dying, and THEN coming back was good or bad?

I don't think I can classify it as good or bad, but I did enjoy it! Like hey, ink creatures don't necessarily stay permanently dead, and they can have some really interesting mental things happening when reforming, that was cool world building! And then when we got to see under the mask, and he's ready to kill us? Oh MAN, oh that was a thrill. Would not trade that brief Sammy boss fight for anything, that's my GUY right there!

14. On a Scale of One to Ten, how convoluted do you thing Bendy's lore as of Present Day?

Eh, gonna roll with the devil's number and say a 6.6. It's not that bad. BATDR convoluted it more than BATIM did, and there are some book moments that puzzle me, but it overall? It's workable, and I only drive myself a tiny bit nuts over it (I say as I've been going "NOTHING IS TRUE THE CANON IS A LIE" for like two weeks trying to assemble a series timeline and classify ink creatures).

15. Opinions / on a scale of 1-10 on the Bendy Books?

Dreams Come to Life - 7/10, needed more clarity in parts, had some good moments with returning characters, Dot we love you, JACOB WE LOVE YOU

The Lost Ones - 7/10, was a little weird not seeing most of our studio cast and being so far removed from the studio itself, but it's an enjoyable read, really liked our new characters and swapping perspective, living for that Wally intro, and I have a lot of questions about what ink can do to your brain and Tom's mental state in 1946

Fade to Black - 9/10, by far my favorite, great balance of old and new, Joey Drew was DELIGHTFULLY UNHINGED (something something that's the Joey I knew), Rose was fun, Evan was fun, DOT HI I MISSED YOU, Archie Carter was THE BIGGEST SURPRISE and I ADORE HIM, never thought we'd get a YouTuber cameo audiolog character as a MAJOR PART of a book, Wilson was a treat, and the studio sections of this one destroy me, I love it love it love it

The Illusion of Living - 7/10, the greatest Joey Drew character study to ever exist, which is great but difficult to read when he jumps all over the place and rambles about who knows what for pages at a time, offered some really great moments that I can't imagine the series without, and it solidified my love of Abby, please give Abby a spot in the games, this book made it very clear she is important to the Joey and Henry backstory, and I am so frustrated that we have not referenced her ONCE in these games when she's one, the head of the art department, and two, the one with the braincell of this trio, also Detective Sinclair's murder mystery was fun, I didn't know I would enjoy that genre so much, also Sammy and Jack were GREAT in this book

Employee Handbook (the original) 6/10 - It's a game guide mostly, but I go back to this thing often since it's one of the few things in the series that ACTUALLY GIVES US DATES for when things happened.

16. Opinions / on a scale of 1-10 on the Crack up Comics?

Crack Up Comics is a solid 9/10 for me, it was genuinely fun to read. Sucks that so many comics got spoiled for me on Twitter (much like the ending of DCTL, still sore about that), but the art is really cute, there's a small bit of lore, and the characters are written in such a fun way. Bendy you little scamp, I love you. Hindsight being what it is, I'm still a bit sore there was no cameo appearance for Carley in this book, and I feel the same way about all the toons from this book not appearing anywhere in Dark Revival. What is the point of having fun cartoon characters if they're not at least making a small appearance on a wall poster or something? That is such a missed opportunity.

17. Best Toon Character? (Out of Bendy, Boris, and Alice)

Alice, by far. Don't get me wrong, I love Bendy and Boris too, but Alice has such a fun character, especially in the comics, I LOVED her.

17 (2). Best Butcher Gang Member? (toon)

Edgar. I've warmed up to Charley a lot over the years, but Edgar is my baby boy, I want to hold him and squeeze him and love him, he's so SWEET.

18. Not a question; but SHOW US YOUR / AN OC!! FEEL FREE TO LORE DUMP !!

So hiiii, this is my girl Bella Ewe, a young woman who got roped into Joey's shenanigans as an apprentice animator (after he accidentally broke her leg), and accidentally ends up in the cycle. She gets sacrificed by Sammy, ends up as a searcher that steadily evolves, he has regrets about it, and now with Jack, they're working as a trio called The Shepherds to try and help break the narrative that everyone's been forced to play a part in. Her dive ability allows her to plunge into the depths of the ink, where she talks to people to try and help them regain their humanity. She goes from timid and hopeless to fiery and surrounded by found family, and she is my beloved sheepy daughter.

19. Best Human Character? (Out of Henry, Joey, Audrey, Wilson)

Oooh, that's hard. I'm gonna have to say Joey. I love Henry and Audrey, but the two of them don't get a lot of characterization. Joey however, we get to know him throughout multiple stages of his life AND an inky memory of him, and all of them are such a fun time to explore.

19 (2). Best Human Character? (Out of Wally, Nathan, Sammy, and Bertrum)

Okay that's not fair. X'''D Sammy is my favorite, I love his human iteration just as much as I love his inky one, but Wally is also high up there. He's a fun comedic relief.

20. Best Inked Creature? (Out of the ink demon, Malice, Sammy, and Buddy Boris)

This also isn't fair, how dare you make me pick between my wife and my husband. X'''D But I'm gonna have to say Alice. She's got the more compelling story, but Sammy is also really good as our first introduction to what can happen to a human tainted by ink, he's the one that pulled me into liking Bendy in the first place.

20 (2). Best Inked Creature? (Out of Shipahoy Dudley, Lost Ones/Searchers, Allison, and Tom Boris)

This is hard, but I think I'm gonna say Searchers and Lost Ones. Back when BATIM Chapter 4 dropped, you know that part where that one Lost One goes "when can we go home" and then you open the door to see a room FULL OF THEM? Shivering and miserable? That broke me, I just kept whispering "I'm sorry" as we went through there. (Also Porter and Heidi are great, I hope we see them again someday.)

21. Whats the best ink demon variant?

BATDR, hands down. He is a much more intimidating monster, the voice gives me chills (thank you Sean), I can't get over his silly little hooves, he's great. Still love all the others though, they're good in their own ways.

22. The Better gloves? three lines or two dots?

I prefer the two dots for Bendy, but it doesn't really matter. Alice got infinitely cooler gloves, I'm sorry. X'''D

23. Did you prefer Wally being Boris, or Buddy being Boris?

I'm a Buddy Boris kind of gal. Buddy stole my heart in the books, and I love him a lot. That said, I think they both have merit, and I can appreciate fan content that explores both of these options. When the original game was in development, and Wally and Boris were the characters that were left, all the others we could make pretty reliable guesses about the fates on, so him being Boris was a process of elimination theory that people tried to justify with details like him knowing his way around the vent system. And it would have been so sad as a twist since his whole thing was "I'm outta here," him not getting out would be the unfortunate punchline. I get why it was popular, and like I said, I enjoy a number of fan works that use it. But I won't lie, it didn't ever feel like that was the canon for me, not enough information to back it up. I mean Buddy has a similar problem, but at least we know he's a Boris. Whether or not he's Henry's Boris friend is the inconclusive part. Regardless of canon, that's how I write him at least.

24. Did you like Joey being inky or the newer lore?

I'm not sure what this is asking, but I get the sense this has to do with the old theories about Joey being the Ink Demon vs. what we have now with Memory Joey and the human Joey being dead? I'm okay with it to be honest. Would I have liked Joey to be the big bad that also suffers as a monster for his crimes against his co-workers? Yes, that would be very satisfying. But I think in a lot of ways, his current lore can still be satisfying too. It's no secret that I have some mixed feelings about his slideshow presentation, but let's reiterate for anyone who doesn't know me, because I think it ties into this in an important way.

I struggle with the decision to change the lore for Henry and Allison, and it affects my feelings about Joey. Memory Joey is a great character, he's a Joey Drew that's trying to be a better person, and that's what I like about him. He's imperfect, because he's a Joey and Joey is far from perfect, he's going to make mistakes and botch things up, but he's trying. He cares about Audrey, he's trying to help her through the studio without overstepping the boundaries, because again, he's still figuring out this whole "being a better person" thing. And ultimately, that was what endeared me to him. You don't need to change the lore of the previous games to give Joey Drew a redemption arc. All we needed was Joey choosing to try and be better. It doesn't erase his sins and all the bad stuff he did along the way, it doesn't change how he treated people, it doesn't change the literal murder and chaos he caused, the lives he ruined. And it shouldn't. Redemption arcs aren't about a character being forgiven or given a pass, they're about a character choosing to be better regardless of how the world sees them, and that's what's SO POWERFUL about Memory Joey! Joey Drew in life was so concerned with how the world saw him at several stages, so much time is spent being stuck in the past, despite his insistence that he doesn't want to think about the past. And finally we have an iteration of him that has tried to move past what he was before, and I am SO PROUD OF HIM!

That was all we needed, we did not need Henry and Allison being clones to soften his crimes. That does not help with Joey's redemption arc, in some ways it kind of cheapens it for me. Instead it has caused more confusion on whether or not ink creatures require a soul, lessens the horror of the original BATIM for Henry's characterization, brings about SEVERAL questions about who is and isn't a clone now (looking at you Tom), and just like, it's been really weird when it comes to Joey's murder and victim count. Like, the guy has been responsible for multiple deaths in BATIM and the books, why are we deciding now that these two aren't part of that? Also the one note about the ink children that came before Audrey, that is also a can of worms and I'm very exhausted thinking about it.

Overall, I like Joey as he is now. As stated before, I think Fade to Black has some of the best Joey writing in the entire series (as does TIOL, even if it was a bit of a slog to get through). I like Memory Joey a lot, I mean I wouldn't have made a doll of him if I didn't. X'''D He's alright.

Thank you for these wonderful questions! You guys, if you made it to the end and wanna go engage with the original, here's the link one more time, just so you don't have to scroll to the top. XD Have fun.

[pastelwitchling]

Hiii,

I have been following you since RNM (I haven’t watched the show after season 2 I think, only occasionally followed some Malex stuff on here) when I saw you posting about the new Percy Jackson show on Disney. I hope I don’t overstep but I have been dying to talk to someone and share my two cents. This is pretty much a rant so feel free to ignore it.

This rant stems mostly from the fact that I expected things to be closer to the plot in the books.

I must say that I am disappointed after so many people hyped up the show. To be honest, I expected more, especially because RR is involved so deeply and critiqued the films so much which let me to believe that he’d be more peculiar about the show (and I guess that’s true, just in a different way). And I agree that while the show does include more actual scenes from the books right down to copying lines directly, they miss a bit of the character of the books. It started strongly and got worse from there. That being said, the show is fine though I am not sure I will stick around for the second season should there be one.

What annoys me the most is - and that is something you touch on regularly, correct me if I am wrong - that they tell more than they show.

In the books, Percy figures out that Mr D is Dionysus, in the show he gets told.

In the books, it’s suggested that Hades is ‘the god who turned’ and if I remember correctly he’s also directly told in the show (again, correct me if I am wrong).

In the books, he figures out who Aunt Em is, in the show he gets told.

In the books he agonises over who of his friends will betray him, keeping the prophecy mostly to himself. In the show he talks about it.

In the books he figures out the time trap himself, they don’t know it before they enter like they do in the movies as you already mentioned.

For me, this not only is boring but it also takes away a big part of Percy’s character imo. He’s smarter than his opponents believe, can put two and two together - at least in the books. To me personally, he’s not the hero he’s in the books. The scene where he surprised me the most was when they were on the Arch and he tricked Annabeth and “sacrificed” himself.

Also, the whole encounter with Aries was much too harmless imo, as was Gabe and the argument Sally had with him (it looked more like a lover’s quarrel to me). Maybe it’s because it’s a Disney show, I honestly don’t know but I miss Percy’s sass and the more heavy topics which were always addressed in the books but never really spelt out (child abuse, abusive relationships in general).

Oh and the solstice part?? Such a shame to change such a big part of the storyline (the pacing, the urgency, the despair) once again.

And that they took away Annabeth’s love for architecture is a crime in itself. It made her much more approachable because the way she talks and races about it in the books is easy to understand for people in fandoms. I don’t feel that in the show.

I’m sorry if this is overstepping a boundary or too negative, so you can just delete if you don’t feel like answering. But I agree with you that we should be allowed to criticise.

Hi. I'm glad you felt comfortable enough to critique with me, so that's mighty kind of you 😂 (I'm not being sarcastic, I know it looks like I'm being sarcastic, but I'm not being sarcastic, I've actually been waiting to be able to talk to someone about this stuff, so my wholehearted thank you.)

Anyway, this is a lot (which is awesome), so I'm just going to go through it bit by bit.

First of all, I don't blame you for not wanting to watch rnm after season 2. Not kidding, I'd deliberated it for a bit after The Episode That Must Not Be Named, and if it wasn't for Alex, I wouldn't have bothered anymore. But anywhodle.

I'm sorry to hear you might not want to watch the second season of pjo. Personally, I enjoy the show for what it is now, and just love Percy Jackson too much to ever stop supporting the adaptations, but I totally understand the disappointment. Honestly, if RR is as involved as I think he is, and this might get me threatened, but that might be the reason the show isn't as strong as it could be. I think a lot of people forget that there's a difference between books and movies/shows. In a book, you can have characters just talking for several pages. In a movie/show, it's boring. I think, again, RR was so focused on not doing what the movies did that he missed the fact that it was at least entertaining because they had Chris Columbus behind the wheel. He directed the first two Harry Potter movies, and I think we can all agree that those movies proved he can do atmosphere and fun. If I hadn't known that a book author was so involved in the show adaptation, I might've been able to guess because a lot of it feels like someone moving the pages to the screen with no consideration in regards to "how do we make this visually interesting?"

What's important to RR seems to be more that they adapt more scenes of the books, which is what the movies didn't always do, rather than keeping things entertaining for such a different medium.

Yes, I definitely think there's more telling than showing, and in some aspects, there's just completely erasing. I've said this before and I'll say it again; if I watched the show before I read the books, I wouldn't have completely understood what was going on, why anybody thinks Percy's the lightning thief, what the quest really is, or even that Percy is a forbidden child. I got ALL of this information super easily from the movie, and the urgency of everything going on, because it knew it had to present all of this information in simple and entertaining ways, and it did. With a few lines, the movie managed to do what the show couldn't in several passages.

I'm not kidding, the way the show just constantly has characters standing there talking and talking and talking, basically taking passages right out of the book, as though that makes it a good adaptation? I couldn't follow half of what they were saying because they mumble their way throughout. No one ever really laughs. I think Percy smiles once in amusement throughout the whole show (the scene with that lizard thing during Capture the Flag).

RR was so upset that they'd raised the ages in the movies to seventeen, but what does it say when the movies starring seventeen year olds are more fun, a lot brighter and more colorful, and faster paced and more ENERGETIC than the adaptation with the kids??

Percy has shown little to no leadership so far, he's just kind of on the sidelines because Annabeth has to be the one to solve the crimes, Annabeth is suddenly the one talking back to the gods, Annabeth is the one taking care of everything. It's like RR's forgotten that this is Percy's hero journey. The entire series takes him on this arc so that he can lead the other demigods into war during the Battle of Manhattan.

Look, all I'm saying is that by the end of the Lightning Thief book, I totally believed that Percy was going to grow into a great hero that other demigods would trust to lead them into battle, but I don't see myself feeling the same way at the end of season one of the show because they've been so busy putting Annabeth in the spotlight that Percy hasn't had much of a role, at least not a role that seems in any way significant for a forbidden child of the Big Three gods.

At this point, it really feels like they could've put any demigod instead of him, and they would've done the same thing!

And yeah, I'm sad that we haven't gotten to see anything of Annabeth's fangirling over architecture, that was her big love! Instead, the show acts like it'd be too childish if she had any... interests? Hobbies? We never see her reading, we never see her admiring any buildings or structures, we never see her being a, you know, twelve-year-old girl.

I don't know, I do enjoy this show, but like I said before, if RR thinks this is the best adaptation of his books, then I'm convinced he hasn't read his own books in far too long.

[lawonderlandwriter]

That post will age poorly when you inevitably watch HoTD and post about it

You must be new here.

The only reason I ever watched GOT was because of Daenerys. I thoroughly enjoyed other characters like Bran and Arya, but really, what kept me invested the whole time was Dany's storyline. When there were episodes without her, I itched for the next episode so that we'd see her on screen again.

I have zero interest in the world of ice and fire without Dany. Had Season 8 gone differently, I might be somewhat excited for HOTD. But I still wouldn't be hyped for it the way GOT used to get me hyped because Dany's not in it.

I'm hardly familiar with any of the actors in HOTD. I know Matt Smith was in Doctor Who, but I never watched it. In fact, the only thing I have actually ever seen him in where I remember him is a single episode of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, which I didn't even get to enjoy the reference because again, I've never watched Doctor Who.

I'm not excited about Miguel Sapochnik showrunning because of the shit he's said about Dany's character, and I can only assume if that's his opinion of her, then he likely has a very low opinion of Rhaenrya as well. And though I'm not invested in Rhaenyra as a character, I side with her on principal. But how can I get excited about watching her character even, when we already know her terrible, unfair fate?

I mentioned in a YouTube comment recently, there is absolutely no point to House of the Dragon as a television show other than for the flash and the spectacle. For fans of the original series, it holds nothing new. At least a Long Night adaptation would have given fans more information on the world of ice and fire because we didn't get any of that background in GOT.

But HOTD gives us nothing new. All that story is contained within Fire and Blood, and because of GOT's abysmal ending, there is no point to me in investing in Targaryen characters when their House was shit on by D&D. For fans of Targaryen history, I'm sure the show has appeal and those people are probably the ones who stick up for GRRM taking his time with TWOW and spending his time on these other spin-off projects. But that has never been me.

The only reason I even purchased Fire and Blood was because I was hoping it held some sort of insight into Dany's foreshadowed ending because GOT S8 hadn't come out yet.

The only reason to watch HOTD, I think, is because it's big-budget live-action fantasy. And though yeah, I am a fan of that genre, I now have plenty of other shows to choose from. Witcher Season 3 just started filming (and unlike fans of the books or video games, I have no problem with the show). I really liked Wheel of Time Season 1 and am looking forward to Season 2. Witcher is getting a spin-off Blood Origin that comes out this year that I'm interested in watching.

So why would I deign to watch this spin-off series when 1) I have many other things to invest my time in, and 2) the original series gutted me, and 3) involves characters I have absolutely zero interest in? Believe it or not, it is possible to just, not watch popular or incredibly hyped series when you don't have an interest in them, and there are plenty of them out there that I have yet to watch and likely never will. House of the Dragon is just one of them.

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

8, 24, 27, 33, 42 (tried to ask ones I didn't already know the answer for ^^)

8. What hero doesn’t deserve their hype?

My immediate knee-jerk reaction here is Wolverine. Dear God, am I sick of Wolverine. I never found him all that interesting to begin with, and he has been in every thing X-Men related for most of the time that I've been reading comics. Back when he was first introduced, the writers knew he was supposed to have flaws, but nowadays, he's the biggest badass of the team who is also friends with or respected by everyone and has dozens of women throwing themselves at him and mentors more teen sidekicks then Batman, even though he's supposed to be an anti-social jerk. And I don't mind Wolverine softening and changing and becoming friends with, say, Storm and Nightcrawler, but when he's written badly, he's an anti-social and murderous jerk who can say and do whatever he wants, is still loved by everyone, and is sometimes inexplicably the moral center of the team. To be honest, I dislike a lot of the manly-man soldier types that seem like male power fantasies, like Cable. Interesting character, too many damn guns. (Bishop's cool, though, he can stay.) I would probably tolerate Wolverine much more if he wasn't everywhere. Phoenix Wolverine? Give me a damn break.

But with all that being said, I know Wolverine has some depth to him, and he can be interesting when written well. The character is popular for a reason. So instead, I'm gonna say Fantomex, who has all the power fantasy bullshit of Wolverine and none of the depth, and who has become a writer pet character for some reason. Every time he shows up I lose interest immediately. Also, he killed Darkstar.

24. Ship(s) that makes you cringe.

Hmmm.....there are a lot of ships that I don't love, but I just kind of tolerate. I've never been particularly fond of the Rogue/Magneto thing. It just doesn't work for me, and I don't see any reason for them to be a thing. It's all good, though, Rogue/Magneto shippers, you guys keep doing your thing. At least it's not as bad as Rogue/a certain other villain. One who likes.....apple pie. Also, I've actually never really liked Scott/Emma. Give me Emma/Banshee or Emma/Namor, or what the hell, Emma/Jean.

27. What comic book trope do you hate the most?

Probably hero vs. hero fights, at this point, especially in the form of a massive crossover event. AvX, IvX, Civil War, fuck off already. What could be an interesting and nuanced story in which no one is really completely right or wrong usually turns into a cluster-fuck in which characters from both sides get dragged through the mud. And then fans latch into the bad characterization that villianizes or sanctifies certain characters, and won't let go for years.

Also, the constant limited runs and rebooting of series, especially compared to how long series like X-Men or X-Factor previously ran. Just when a series is finding it's way and giving the characters great development, the whole thing shuts down, and the characters may or may not land on new teams, where their development may or may not be acknowledged. Series need room to grow and breathe.

33. Which character that deserves a solo didn’t get one?

Pyro, obviously!

Nah, just kidding. I'd read the hell out of that, but I accept that my boy's a D-lister. Although a Mystique solo that focuses on the Brotherhood boys and Destiny as her supporting cast would be *chef's kiss*

I think a lot of the classic "core" X-Men have gotten mini-solo's of their own over the years, and I'm not sure which of the new characters I'd potentially elevate to solo status. I'm gonna say Callisto. A Callisto solo could show her leading the Morlocks and further develop some of them, with Storm and other X-Men guest-starring as regulars.

42. What’s a fandom trope you hate?

In terms of fan-fic, probably omega-verse stuff. I generally won't read it, even with characters I like. Just not my thing.

In terms of fandom discourse - this trend to treat favorite characters and shipping as some kind of moral declaration as opposed to just liking the stuff you like. I mean, if people want to discuss aspects of certain ships that bother them, that's all perfectly fine. I've delved into over-analyzing this stuff myself, many times, and there are often real-world issue to be discussed. But when it turns into "You can't ship that because it's toxic and abusive," that's when I stop paying attention. We're all doing this for funsies, after all.

[solomonish]

ooooh wait! tell me about ur old books!! or like, if you could experience reading a specific book again as if it was your first time reading it, which would you pick?

OK. HI. HELLO. I didn't mean to leave you in my inbox for so long I was simply asked a question and then forgot every book I've ever read ever alskdjfdfklkf

BUT I don't usually reread books because I can remember them pretty well so I don't have any book I've thought this before, but I wish I could read the hunger games series for the first time again? I think this is equal parts the books were good and also I wish I was reading them while they were popular because that was just fun. I kinda miss that era where there were like three major book series being turned into movies (I think it started with twilight from like 2009, then the hunger games came out 2012, then the great gatsby movie came out the next year, then in 2014 we got the giver, the divergent series and the maze runner series so it was a hot time for books to get movie adaptations and WHILE THE BOOKS WERE ALWAYS BETTER.........they hype was fun. i say this only having watched twilight, the hunger games, the giver and the first divergent and only having read the hunger games and the giver and the first twilight book haha)

the only book i've reread is hatchet by gary paulsen because I read it in 5th grade on my own time and then it was required for 6th grade and my teacher got mad at me when i told her i already read it aldkjfdkfdsk

when i was a kid...i never really liked many children's series because i've been an advanced reader since day one, so when many big series were being introduced i was uninterested because they were too easy :/ i do remember really liking the Magic Treehouse series though! and also anything by Lois Lowry???? She is a LEGEND oh my GOD

I got into these books when I was a bit too old for them but liked them because they were cute - the Ramona Quimby series? The big, multichaptered books. Those were cute.

OH OH the Sweet Valley Twins? I LOVED those books too. I was a kid in the 2000s so they weren't new when I was around but schools always had lots of worn and random installments of the series and I would always try to find ones when I was done with my work for free reading.

Um.........I read the first three books of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole and those books are why barn owls are one of my fave animals lol they were good!!! although i recently looked up a summary of them and sometimes i wonder how adults come up with the ideas for children's books lmao but more power to ya man i ate that up and if I still had the books I'd read them again!!

I also read a few books of the Mary Kate and Ashley series, both the ones where they're detectives (the Case of Camp Pom-Pom??? Hello) and the one where they're teens (Never Been Kissed? I wanted to be them so bad)

Yeah I used to be a reading monster when I was younger. I had this giant tub of books from when my older sister was younger and just random ones I'd collected from family members giving them out and gifts from school and events and stuff and I've read through all of them. A few years ago I got rid of them but I remember sorting through that tub and being like huh. nothing new just like last time lol

I remember being SO BORED as a kid when we'd have to do reading in class because I'd get done so quickly! And there was a time where every week we had to pick a book from a small collection the teacher had and I read through the entire collection before the school year was up and the teacher didn't have more for the program and she got frustrated with me (no shame to her I imagine forcing a gaggle of children to read and then having one need more books that the school can't/won't pay for is tough) but it just struck me as being so frustrating! because i wanted to read and do as i was told! but alas my brain was too big smh

These are not all of them by any means but some of the bigger series that i remember off the top of my head lol. Did you read any of these? Or did you pick up some other series that I've never touched?

[earthbovndmisfit]

I hope this isn't too weird of a message to send, but doesn't it seem like Jonawagon doujinshi are pretty uncommon? I've only seen maybe 3 posted online & I have a copy of a SpeedJona doujin but aside from those I haven't come across any. Is it like a rare pairing or something? I thought they were fairly popular

It isn’t weird at all, anon! All the opposite actually, cause I love getting asks even if i'm not always around or it sometimes takes me a hot minute to get to them gfjhkjh

This is gonna be long and probs gonna have bits that might sound rant-ish to some, but I hope that’s alright! :'D

For starters, sadly, jonawagon/jonaspeed/speedjona or however you call the ship is quite an underrated ship. This has to do partly with the wrong perceptions some folks have built around it and around the characters as well (that them both and the couple itself are the epitome of "purity" and "innocence", sometimes even labelling them as "boring" as a result even though both characters are far from that, that "it could only be a one-sided thing" on Spw's end despite both showing and sharing a certain bond/closeness towards each other -closeness that sometimes Jonathan didn't show towards anyone else-, etc), partly because of the many timeskips in PB and all the scenes the anime cut out and people wrongly assuming that the main events happened in the span of a few days and thus people dropping the ball on the ship/characters when Jonathan and Speedwagon actually knew each other for as long -sometimes even longer- than other more popular characters/ships in jjba did, partly because neither Jonathan or Speedwagon are as popular as other characters in the franchise as a whole, and also partly because, as sad as it is to say this, the ship lacks a LOT of support, especially from it's own fanbase. While jonawagon is a popular and well liked ship overall (in the sense that even general fans who don't care much about shipping, or those who are still on the fence about mlm ships, or those who just don't actively ship jonawagon actually like and support the ship or the idea of it upon seeing the actual dynamics between the characters and their potential and the fact that the ship can actually coexist with jonaeri without altering the characters/making them ooc, nor altering the story and so on), it still lacks a lot of support from it's fans. I often see most other ships/characters get lots of reblogs and exposure from their fans on literally any and all platforms, helping those ships/characters reach new audiences and gaining more popularity and drawing interest from potential new fans, while jonawagon stuff as well as solo Jonathan or Speedwagon stuff usually only get likes and a few reblogs at most from their fans, which is nice and all, but it doesn't give the artists/writers any exposure nor get those works or the ship any farther than that and just keeps them within part of the already existing fanbase at best, which often times makes the artists/content creators lose interest in continuing to create stuff for the ship/characters. This is also why I always strongly ask -almost beg at this point ngl- for people to support the artists/writers/etc via reblogs!! The ship having a bunch of different names also might have an impact on all of this, as it's not always as 'easy' to tag/find contents if you don't know how to tag/search for it. Jonawagon (normally used in the western parts of the fandom), JonaSpeed/SpeedJona (Western version of the ship's most popular names in Japanese: ジョナスピ/スピジョナ or JonaSupi/SupiJona respectively], SpeedStar (a name that became a bit more popular more recently after a mini jonawagon event in 2019), being the most common ones afaik, asides from the standard JonathanxSpeedwagon/SpeedwagonxJonathan ie and others. In short, Jonathan and Speedwagon as well as jonawagon are quite well liked and even popular to an extent, but they lack a massive amount of support from the fans, which also usually translates into artists and content creators for this ship losing interest in continuing to create new material for it and thus end up not making any more contents.

In regards to doujinshi more specifically, I’m a bit disconnected when it comes to Jojo doujinshi in general, but it seems to be a bit like that for most of the non "crazy popular" Jojo ships if you ask me, which is kinda normal considering the massive amount of characters in the whole series. Putting my experience as example, if it helps, I used to collect doujinshi from one of my previous fandoms, which had a shit ton of them for plenty of it’s ships and it was somewhat easy to acquire hard copies of despite it being an “old anime” basically while most Jojo doujinshi (especially anything that is not parts 3, 4 and 5) seems to be a bit hard to come across regardless of the ship(s) in them, even in auction sites or places like pixiv that sell digital copies if the author puts them up on sale, which is understandable since the aforementioned parts are some of the most popular parts in Japan, where most doujinshi is created, and thus take most of the fandom's interest -authors’ and readers’ alike-, as well as the hype for parts like Phantom Blood being long dead (with it being dead/dormant since the original airing of the anime ended in 2013, and it coming back ocassionally whenever there's a 'special' re-airing of PB in Japan or when events such as the Joestar Radio take place), so maybe my parameters on the whole subject are somewhat disproportionate?

This is also gonna sound all boomer-like, but I’ve also noticed, or it seems to me at least (still in comparison to the doujinshi from my previous fandom), that doujinshi books as we knew them aren’t /as/ common nowadays as they used to be a while back. Even the works themselves don’t seem to be much that way either. For example, doujinshi anthologies used to be a big thing a while back and, while they still exist, they don’t seem to be too common anymore (these worked as "promo books" of sorts for all the artists featured and they also helped lesser known/popular artists and ships to get some exposure to newer audiences). Nowadays such thing still exists, and I actually recall seeing a Jonaspeed/Speedjona anthology being made “recently” (recently as in 2019, if I’m not mistaken? it was published and sold during the mini Jonaspeed event they held at a Jojo con in Japan that year), but they aren’t nearly as common as they used to be, since now most artists can post any samples they want (much more reduced tho, cause you normally get a few pages instead of a full mini story) in places like Twitter or Pixiv. And it’s kinda the same with regular doujinshi. Before, most doujinkas had to publish a book in order to get their stuff out and get some exposure, so they were always working on new stories and making new books to sell and promoing their stuff, sometimes one after the other and even creating multi-volume stories in some cases. Now, thanks to how "easy" it is to get some exposure on social media, it’s much more common to see doujinkas for any ships/characters making short stories (1-4 pages, sometimes more) or just 1 page illustrations instead and posting them on their social media every now and then as a promo for their works. They also still make and sell their books (a few jonawagon artists on twitter do, at least), and these short stories/illustrations serve to boost their works instead, which is not a complain at all cause I think it's amazing tbqh! But this also translates into less stories/doujinshi being created as many of these artists often opt for leaving those stories that years ago would have been their own book or a mini story in a book as a prompt or a short story only.

As for actual jonawagon doujinshi, while it is not as common as say pt 3 doujinshi, there is quite a bunch of it. Some date from 2012-2013 (when the PB anime was originally aired), some are much older than that and some others are much more recent (as there are still some active jonawagon doujinkas around). There are also "fanfic books" that are also considered doujinshi and that seem to be a thing sometimes, but these contain little to no art at all and are usually written 100% in Japanese. The problem here is that not many of them have been scanlated/translated yet, sometimes because they aren't easy to find on sale online, sometimes because re-sellers who do have them set high prices for them plus shipping costs, sometimes because the artists/online shops won't sell stuff overseas, sometimes because those who do own doujinshi copies don't always know how to properly share them (since scanning a doujinshi in high or decent quality without destroying the book can be hard af) among other reasons.

All that said, there is a bunch of jonawagon doujinshi that has been scanned and is available online! but it can be tricky to get sometimes due to the different names this ship can go by and because of the "translations" of said names into different languages (as some doujinshi can only be found in Chinese sites, or Russian ones, and so on for example, so it can take some serious time to figure that out and have a successful search).

In all honesty, anon, I'm a dumdum and I had never thought about doing so in a more public manner until now, since I've already shared my entire jonawagon collection (pics, doujins, etc) with friends who have requested it more privately, but I can upload the doujins I have scans of if anyone's interested?? (I’d post the links where I found most of them but since my hd is pretty much dead and I can’t access Windows or my windows/mozilla profile, I’ve p much lost all my old bookmarks). They were only like... 8 last time I checked (9/10 if you count the Japanese and English versions of the "Joestarsaaaaan" one), but it's something :D Just be aware that some of them are nsfw! and that a couple are either part of a book that has stories from other ships in them (I only have the jonawagon parts tho) or contain other ships implied or openly shown in the jonawagon story.

I also have about 4 more, but the scanlator of one of them openly requested for the file to not be reuploaded, so Idk if it'd be alright to share it? (and they also deactivated their blog, so there's no way to ask them for permission). The other 3 are scans a friend sent to me of their own doujinshi copies, so I also don't know if it would be okay for me to post them?? (i haven't seen this friend in over a year so idk gfhgjkjlkñ). 2 of those 3 are nsfw.

[survivor-ingary]

Episode 2 - "I DON'T WANT THE MYSTERY MOUSE-CA-TOOL BESTIE" - Ellie

At the tribal, Ping was voted out of the Pendragon Tribe nearly unamimously. Tribal immunity for this round is Pictionary.

I bet all these bitches know i voted for Keith and now they are going to come kill me in my sleep if i die i blame dylan

yass round 2 i either think im in the best position on this tribe or theyre all secretly coming for me thats all

Tribal went as well as I expected it to go. No major drama. It seems like Keith is in real trouble if we do go to tribal again though which would put me in a very tricky spot. For now, though, I will be trying my best in the upcoming challenge. The problem is, however, timezones and schedules. Jon is going to be our drawer, but he can only do it tonight or in the early afternoon tomorrow which I will not be there for. Additionally, Keith is asleep so we have no idea what his schedule is going to be so we basically had to schedule the challenge without him. And Nya could only do right before the deadline tomorrow which Jon cannot do. I hate this for us, truly. I just hope that Moth and I can rub our brain cells together for this one so that we can pull out a win. OR somehow the other tribes fail horribly. On the bright side, I am finally starting to catch up on Duolingo exercises. They're a lot easier than I thought, but it is still going to be tedious af to save up enough coins for some of the higher end products at the shop. As a final note, I am going to work with Nya in the long term as we promised each other to. Hopefully that actually works out. Time to actually be loyal and be a hero this time around. Need to try something different.

If we lose this challenge, I will be very upset. We went so hard on this challenge!!! I believe that we can at least get second place, but I don't know how crazy the other tribes are. So, let's see what goes on

Ayyyyy soooooooo looks like the four, Colin, me, Ava, and Brayden are officially in an alliance!? I’m really hyped to be working with everybody and already have sights on who should go if we have to go to tribal 👀 but like I’m gonna feel so bad if we go to tribal and I orchestrate a whole plan to take someone out I gotta do it when I’m not in my feels and the planets aren’t fucking with my emotions too heavy. But go alliance ! This means I’ll be able to stay safe until hopefully a merge and hopefully we can avoid a tribe swap till then which I get those vibe from it !! But I’ll be here to survive two more tribals just in case which is pretty rad. Other then that hopefully me offering to draw doesn’t end us up in the bottom and we can keep killing ! But anyways that is it as off know hopefully I have a lot more coins tomorrow morning and I get hit the hat shop bright and motherfucking early.

Just got asked to be apart of an alliance <33333 the besties in the group trust me which maybe ain't the right move but for now we gotta love the bonding. exciting!!!

YAY FOR ROUND 2! Okay, so I meet once again with the Hat Shop and... third times the charm! Except,,, the charm is getting nothing AGAIN lmao I'm not complaining though, still got that extra vote :P I stayed up at 1 AM for this challenge, and I honestly think our team popped off. Anastasia was guessing a ton, and Riley was amazing at drawing real quick! I have a relatively good feeling about our performance, so I hope I wake up to the news of our tribe being immune :D

so yesterday I set myself on a mission to get an alliance. I wanted Ava + Brayden + Toph + me as a majority alliance. it was our day off from tribal so I thought it was the perfect day to do it!! I talked to Brayden about it first because he's the person I feel the most comfortable with, and then after a lot of coordination and careful communication I was able to pull it together!! I think the most important thing when making alliances is making everyone feel like they're a big part in it. So I was careful to ask each person how they feel about the others, about the game, and made a point to say that I wanted to work with them specifically. Some may call that a little manipulative, but I wanna make sure that I'm an essential part of the alliance!! i need everyone to feel like they need/want me there.

all of this happening so soon into the game is a testament to how aggressive I'm playing this time around. I usually like to lay low and just rely solely on my social game in the start, but I'm trying this out to establish myself early on! I wanted to play the tribe leader and I think I'm doing that in a smart and subtle way!!

so yes now we have a 4 person majority alliance named "duolingo owl hate club" because fuck that guy. I think we're the 4 most active and present people on the tribe so it's only natural for us to work together, but I think it's definitely worth noting that I was the one that was pulling the strings here.

We just did the pictionary challenge, I have a good feeling about it!! Toph was an amazing artist, and if we win, all credit rightfully goes to him!! I think the guessers also did great of course, but like come on, the artist has to be the mvp. I'm really hoping we pull through!! I don't mind going to tribal, but I genuinely don't wanna vote anyone out yet. I'm fine just playing the game in a precautionary way. I know I'm in a great position if we do go to tribal, but it's always preferred that we don't go.

Everyone else on my tribe: doing the challenge and kicking ass

Me: I’m sleep

Riley (Tumblr has once again chosen violence so only the first 10 get banners 🥲)

I think our challenge went pretty well! My team were good guessers. Feeling like I've established some Integrity now. Hope it keeps me safe later!

Toph Soooooo we finished the challenge with 32 points and like wig !! I was a quick as drawer for 32pts expect when my internet lagged, but still ! I think we whooped some ass and if we do go to tribal I know it won’t be me going, thanks to Duolingo owl hate club but I’m also worried same could have and advantage because they seem pretty kean on learning a lot in like 3 hours and then tried to cover that statement to not seem so threatening but like babs s a huge threat too apparently they love Duolingo and know 5 laugnes ? This is from brayden but If so go babs ! That’s absolutely iconic for real Life but fucking scary in this game ! I gotta be buddy buddy with them so hopefully if they do have something it won’t be them going home first and it will be Ava. But I’m thinking we might get second place again unless someone is a fucking wizard at this.

Dennis hmm i think we did well enough in the challenge to not see tribal tomorrow but who knows i guess we shall find out tn

the way ellie was so on top of stuff yesterday only to oversleep the challenge makes me giggle maybe shes freaking out about it which makes me also giggle but i dont think its really a big deal

anastasia asked me to call yesterday and i was like sure lets talk but it is damn near impossible to hold a conversation with her idk i tried BUT she did tell me “yeah i just got off a call with ellie” im like i see. she says shes down to work with ellie but that quickly switched from ellie being ~experienced~ but good to know ellie is also playing hard. anastasia also mentioned that she talks to riley a fair amount who i still have yet to connect to well. but dat makes me think ellie is def talking to riley too miss debate team is definitely a talker. but good on her for the social game i guess

kenneth keeps being like haha we’re the same person and im like yeah👁 i bet we are👁

i just wanna win and not think about tribal just keep it slow and chill for now keep learnin my welsh i guess

Ava Second challenge was Pictionary and I had a ton of fun playing. The tea is: toph did a great job. He was pretty vocal about not being a great artist but really I think he did great. However, Babs was super inactive yesterday and ~too late~ said they were a great artist and should've been picked to draw. It was kind of like.... k babs thanks for the belated "help". They did do great guessing which scored a point in my book. Brayden was supposed to play but last minute logged off without saying anything so we did the challenge without him :/ sorta a bummer. Anyway the lack of participation from Sam is kind of popping off so we'll see where that leads them... Overall a fun game and fingers crossed we did well!

Moth I think we did okay at the challenge. Today I am dying from the heatwave so I’m not thinking too straight! Stay cool everyone

Ellie So yesterday Anastasia and I called for about an hour!!! I’d say we’re definitely way closer, she’s someone I really wanna work with although the idea of her and Brayden eventually being on the same tribe is kinda scary cause I know how close they are. Still she’s so fun to talk to and I just love her energy so much!

Pictionary challenge results: Jenkins Tribe wins with Penadragon second, Hatter Tribe has to go to tribal council on the following day.

Ava Well well well seems our bob ross, toph, didn't pull through (y'all think babs would've pulled it out for us or slept through our challenge like they said they almost did?) I can't wait for tribal. I'm in it for the drama. I'm hashtag voting Sam off - didn't even bother to be apart of our challenge and not too sure they've even been online for a full 24 hours. Weed out the weak.....

Anastasia

Brayden https://imgur.com/n60Lz0c

guys i dont know what to do someone help me out

Dennis i hope damn brayden gets the boot

Raffy Woo! We don't have to go to tribal again! We stan!

Ellie So I figured I’d go idol hunting today cause the shop was about to close and I just wanted to see what had been bought and what possible hats there were, I see that there’s a hat I have enough for that hasn’t been bought and I decide fuck it let’s get it

APPARENTLY ITS SOMETHING THAT IM NOT ALLOWED TO KNOW WHAT IT IS OR HOW TO USE IT YET???? THEY SAID ILL FIND OUT ABOUT IT LATER

I DONT WANT THE MYSTERY MOUSE-CA-TOOL BESTIE

Sam Well you see. I like all my tribe people. And I think we did real good on that music video! So, I think rather than voting anyone else off, I think I should just vote myself off if that is possible! Ahhh

Babs So sad to see Sam not only go but go through what they're going through :( same w Toph :( they all seem so lovely

Keith Not sure if i submitted a confession after the last tribal. But if I didnt here it is.

Happy I made it out of that tribal. I had raffy backing me with whom I played. Last time we played. We were at odds. We didnt work together but whats worse that we were against each other. It was either him or me goin out. Hopefully thats the past n we can work together. I jus need to keep things calm n show that Im not here itching to make big moves. So they dont feel threatened by me. N its easy cause right now. I havnt made that kind og bond with anyone on my tribe. To even think of such moves. Lets see what round two holds for me.

Colin so uh

we lost! :(

I was really bummed tbh. Like I thought we did well but circumstances with the challenge were just really unfortunate, from conflict about who wanted to be the artist to people disappearing the moment the challenge started, I think we did well despite all of that. Except we did kinda get stomped anyway. Oh well!! The game moves on. Tribal has to happen.

Initially I was gonna push for Babs, just because I feel like I don't wanna attach myself to them too early on. I've seen how much of a bitter player they can be, and lets just say I'm not the most loyal ally to have. however! 9 minutes after we lost, Ava announces to our alliance that she's voting Sam. I wasn't surprised, Sam has been the one not really pulling their weight. But I had some good connections with her!! we both did colorguard and shes so sweet and easy to talk to. I was really conflicted for a little bit, debating on whether or not to actually push for Babs. I think brayden sensed my hesitance but we both knew there was nothing really I could do to stop Sam from being the vote. At first tribal, the initial name always spreads like wildfire.

However, my mess was stopped abruptly by Sam asking to be voted out. welp!! okay then!! babs stays i guess!! i'm not too bothered. I'll never turn down an easy vote hehe.

Pretty sure there's a swap tonight. I'm kinda scared of that

uwu

Brayden

i almost forgot to upload this but dont worry i just remembered

Colin screams

Toph So we’re going to tribal in 20 and all I have to say right now is if there is a tribe swap after I’m gonna so scared but I ducking called I had a vibe and it was right that’s what is gonna win me this game trusting my intuition. I’m holding on now and gonna be the biggest comp beast next challenge in case I get fucked on this swap !!!! Or at least if it is a swap 🤔

Riley I don't know what this announcement's gonna be I'm worriedddd... Ginny said it probably means we're swapping teams but I don't wannaaaa I like our team.

Toph Sam self sacrificing made this the easiest vote ever and me being safe is a plus I guess 😎

[rfassholes]

Hey! Could I request how the RFA+V+Saeran would react to an MC who was learning Korean as their third language and is still pretty choppy/needs them to talk a bit slowly? Like I've known Japanese and English since birth pretty much, and I might learn Korean in the future, so maybe something like that if it makes sense? You don't have to use those languages btw! Sorry if that's too specific! I love your work so far, and I hope I see more from you soon, have a nice day!

Hell’s yeah I can! Don’t apologize either, sweet person, you have done no wrong. Also, don’t worry about how specific it is; it helps me understand what you’d like to read! I think it’s pretty rad that you’re learning another language, too! Thank you for supporting what I write and enjoying it. I hope you have a nice day, too; much love!

Yoosung:

He had to take a couple English classes to gradate highschool and get into uni, so he completely understood if you weren’t 100% fluent!

If you were pretty good at reading it, he’d lend you some random books so you could get practice

Wouldn’t pressure you to speak Korean in public either

that shit’s scary sometimes

He was really excited that you could speak Japanese, too

languages are really scary sometimes, okay?

Yoosung would brag to people on and off campus about your ability to speak multiple languages

He’s just really hyped that you’re really smart

He’d want to learn really cheesy phrases in Japanese and English

Extra excited if you wanted to learn Korean ones

Would be really nice to correct you if your grammar or pronunciation was off

8/8 would try to learn another language with you

“Yoosung, I’m already trying to figure out one right now” “But it’d be fun!” “You’ll probably stop practicing after a couple of weeks” “Well you’re not wrong, but-” “Yoosung, no” “Watch me”

Now he would say random things in Italian because sOMEONE missed the opportunity to when he signed up for a class

Jaehee:

You knew that Jumin probably had her be somewhat proficient in a couple of languages for business affairs

She might’ve only dealt with that for less than three years, but Jaehee wanted to enrich herself anyways

Then she found out that your Chinese was really good on top of your Tamil

Jaehee was happy that you were fluent in some of the languages of the countries she dealt with the most (no, I totally didn’t google what countries south korea imported and exported with the most)

You two became the couple that spoke different languages at home than in public

However, your Korean wasn’t as close to fluent as you’d like

I mean, she could tell from phone calls early on by your accent that Korean wasn’t your native

She really liked to sit by you while you were translating something aloud and she was working

Those were her favorite nights

Especially since you usually got her to pause working to help you work out a sentence or two

Then it turned into encouraging cheek kisses

Then she couldn’t completely focus

oH WELL

guess you both just have to….be….cute..what..a….tragedy

She would also buy you cute-looking books that were in Korean

It may or may not have been so she could get more of those nights 

Zen:

He’s probably had some scripts that weren’t completely in Korean, so he’s familiar with some language patterns and can say “je suis un pomme”

dAMMIT, ZEN

Okay, so you were just slightly offended, because he thought he was saying he’s a prince

You’ll admit that knowing English and French then deciding to move to Korea was a bit odd

But c’mon, man

“…you do realize you just said you were an apple, yeah?” “No, I called myself a prince’ “We’re speaking in English right now” “That’s correct” “It’s literally prince in French” “Well, how was I supposed to know” “Dumbass”

You wouldn’t let him live that down for weeks

Zen then tried to get you to speak a bit more Korean when you were on set rather than confusing people

oh shit

my cover’s blown

Well, now you were the one getting made fun of

“You called me a table” “That may be true” “A tABLE, MC” “At least I said you were a pretty table?” “You called me a moist table, MC” “Okay, okay, you see-” “Mhm” “Shut up, pretty boy” “I thought I was a table?” “That wasn’t even funny” “…” “You’re still a dumbass”

Nobody in the rfa chats knew what you meant by calling him an apple

Then Zen just had to talk about The Table Incident

MC has left the chat

cue him running into the living room

“but, bAAAABE” “Leave, you apple” “MC, love meeee” “I already do” “Can I at least get a hug” “Nope”

MC has entered the chat

He then tried to get take the phone while you were typing out The Apple Prince Incident

You got Seven in on it to change his name in the messenger to je suis un pomme for a week

Seven: (slight route spoilers, but I changed it a bit anyways)

blah, blah, taxes, blah, author of several books in Arabic, blah, likes cat

w a i t  j u s t   a   d i d d l y d a r n   s e c o n d

Arabic? And Portuguese?

aww yisss

This was probably when he approved you and went straight to V

Plus cats?? That was a bonus

He really liked talking to you with the messenger even if your grammar was a teensy bit off

may or may not have recorded a few phone calls to hear your accent

Once you had gotten to meet him at the apartment

whoo, boy

He was getting on your nerves just a bit

You snapped just a bit and kinda sorta went off on him in Arabic and he just sat there

“You done?” “Yes, was there an issue?” “Yeah, it was kinda hot”

*narrator voice* He realized he had Fucked Up right Then And There

“You didn’t hear that” “Sev-” “Good day”

This time he wasn’t staying away to protect you, he just didn’t want to turn as read as his hair next time he had to see you

He finally had been able to hold a conversation after staying stonefaced in an attempt to forget

You didn’t tho

After everything had gotten sorted out and you had understood why he was acting like that, it was pretty okay

Neither of your dumbasses realized that you were both speaking Portuguese during the Incident, so the only time he heard your Korean was on the phone

He’d take breaks from working whenever you wanted to practice the language

I mean, if he could be fluent in seventeen, so could you

Seven regarded your ability to speak Arabic as something “holy” and was ecstatic that you were one of the few that didn’t need his help to get home

Jumin:

Once he found out that you could read and listen to Korean, but not speak it all that well, he immediately found a tutor

He’d like when you’d hold short converstaions with him in his native

However, Jumin just didn’t know that you were fluent in Russian and German

It took him a couple of weeks until you greeted him as “dorogoy” (my dear) when he came home from work one night

Jumin knew a fair bit of other languages, so you both spoke to each other in this odd Franken-language (lmao but that’s German already)

He really loved it when you’d forget a word in Korean and looked confused for a second before saying it in German

Would always help you with a word or slang phrases

just because he had to look them up does not invalidate this

Definitely would buy you so many books

You’d probably end up with the same book as multiple copies in other languages

He just wanted the best access to literature for “mein liebling“ (my beloved)

Would be the Softest if you had a question or wanted to carry longer conversations in Korean

V:

So! Supportive!

Since he’s traveled so much, he knows how to ask and follow directions, ask how someone’s doing, and general things like that in a variety of languages

Once he found out you spoke Dutch and Hebrew, he wanted to learn more about the languages

You’d lean against each other on the couch at night and ask questions about each others languages

“How do I call you my moon?” “Mijn maan” “I like that; it suits you” “How do I call you my star?” “Naui byeol” “I think that suits you, too”

If he ever went to a country where many people spoke either languages, he’d ask you to come

Definitely took photos of you interacting with people and reading plaques at exhibits

Was kind of an excuse to take you on a vacation

V would also would carry both a Dutch to Korean and a Hebrew to Korean dictionary for you if you couldn’t remember the word to say something to him

Started having you write descriptions of his work for exhibitions so he could broaden his market

Would 784282/8 continuously help you if your speaking was a bit choppy and lessen any anxiety you had about it

Saeran:

“Just buy some dictionaries” “Yeah, well, what if I don’t want to?” “Then google translate” “But then I’d end up saying something stupid” “You always say stupid things, though, MC” “Don’t be an asshat” “Suggestion taken” (haha, what? me? use google translate for the languages I don’t speak for this post? pssh)

He’d be the ones to leave passive aggressive sticky notes in other languages if you weren’t paying attention

Also the one to label things if he didn’t understand the yelling in Haitian Creole

he’s trying, okay?

Saeran may speak multiple languages but not whatever that spewing was

“Saeran, that was Korean” “Yeah, and I’m a cat” “Hey, at least I tried” “You asked me if the parakeet gave a prophecy, MC” “…That’s besides the point”

Would correct you bluntly

Would continue with the sticky notes on everything

started learning Greek and Haitian Creole so he could add proper translations to things

One morning, he woke up with a sticky note on his forehead that labeled him as “내 사랑, αγάπη μου, doudou mwen”

He ended up keeping that in a drawer on his nightstand

I’m sorry that I write this at several different times. I’d be glad to fix any of these if you don’t like them. Especially Seven’s. I did horribly with his. I hope that they were semi-decent, though, and that you enjoy a few of them!

Please correct any mistakes I made with the languages. I can only vouch for the ones I speak, the rest were google translate. If there’s any other issues, I’d be glad to fix them as well!