#but also Lovelle was such a treat

[mihqorio]

My little exchange piece for @anjiefiction featuring her evil cat lady lovely and completely innocent Sidestep Lovelle. I just wanted to see her thriving and happy and I know how much both you and Lovi enjoy the furry critters!

Have a wonderful new year, my friend ❤️💕🥰

[cerealbishh]

i am kinda excited for animal control but it's next thursday. my gay heart is so ready for vella and alvina's characters

[inkonsistentsky]

so opium wars and the emergence of tensions...as most know, the glorification or fetishisation of asian cultures is not a recent phase that has cropped up in history. this is more relevant for this period of british aggression against the chinese people, no i will not be correcting the wording of this because again i'm not going for nuance. anyway i thought it was interesting just how thoroughly they switched from idolising and presenting china as a pinnacle of morality and intelligence ( i think it was a french philosopher who upheld the chinese for this perception of them being greater than many other nations, he was super popular at the time but i can't quite recall his name? i think the research paper was 'search for modern china' under obviously, johnathan d. spence, i want nobody to tell me how generic of a choice that was, or i will cry:< I THINK IT WAS VOLTAIRE BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER PLS TELL ME IF SOMEBODY ELSE KNOWS THIS PAPER)

anyway kinda forgot where i was going with that but yes they went from this sort of idealisation of china and saying like "AWW CHINA scrunkly guy i like your art and culture:>" to "dude what are your policies lmao, cancelledddddd". essentially french philosophers? decided that china's policies achieved little to no progress and that they were ruled by pointless fear instead of reason when establishing a law or a societal norm. i'm not saying whether or not i agree with that...but i'm just saying europe had a lot of greed in their policies so i'm not sure if they're ones to talk. anyway yeah fun lil tangent thing! this is by no means a comparison of voltaire's idealisation of china's cultural climate as equal to the modern day's fetishisation of east asian cultures and her peoples. (it was more prominent or, at least, more obvious during the? mm i wanna say 1940s-1960s, like somewhere between world war two and the vietnam war but i haven't gotten into much of film or cultural impacts of the cold war and the prior wars, or quite frankly the relationships between anything other than the big three and china/korea so i'll say it's a tentative time period)

anyway yeah. :/

[kindlespark]

omg i was just going through ur babel posts and i was wondering if u had any more details abt the cohortswap au, it looked super interesting! love ur art btw <3

HELLO. I AM SO SO MAD THIS TOOK ME SO LONG TO ANSWER BC I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO ASK FOR MONTHS but i haven't had like a single free hour until now ANYWAY OF COURSE THANK U SM FOR TAKING INTEREST

MAJOR BABEL SPOILERS AHEAD //

cohortswap is basically an au eren @chromathesia came up with where griffin and robin swap places in the story; robin is now the older golden child gone astray, and griffin is now the younger second failure. and the rest of the cohorts get swapped with them!

we have a lore doc that is like over 14 pages long but we are keeping the full thing under wraps for now because eren is writing a massive fic they don't want to spoil too early lmaooo

some foundational deets:

ramy still dies... so sorry. except in this case he and robin planned to run and leave babel for the hermes society together (the um. romantic eloping is implied but unfortunately i don't think either of them get a real chance to act on it), and they plan for victoire to stay behind to keep leaking information out to them. letty finds out and betrays them the same way; calling the cops and barging in with a gun and. yeah. except this time, because it happens outside their dorm rooms, robin manages to escape, and drags ramy's body across half of oxford to bury him in the garden of the old library. he is deeply deeply fucked up from this

professor lovell doesn't die... so sorry. furious about robin's betrayal, he blames it on robin being corrupted by spending too long in his home country, and rips griffin out of china early. but he realises very quickly that griffin isn't fluent in chinese and can barely hold a candle to robin's talent. he never tells griffin about robin but very much takes it all out on griffin, who grows up feeling compared to a ghost his whole childhood. when he first meets robin it all clicks, and he can't help but resent his older brother for the hell he got put through

to save herself, victoire sucks up to letty, tells her that she almost got hooked by hermes and wants out and to put it behind them after everything, and letty is so desperate to believe it that she pulls all her strings to vouch for her and keep her safe. victoire remains at babel and she keeps working covertly with hermes under letty's nose. my comic was about letty and victoire first seeing griffin in babel, and mistaking him for robin. letty doesnt take it well lmao but also in her bullheaded stubbornness starts to treats griffin as her second chance to prevent robin's "mistakes" from happening again lollll

so that's like the general premise! here's some other fun deets:

robin is... severely depressed but is determined to follow through on hermes' work and not give himself an easy out like ramy implied. griffin is so desperately eager for more of hermes when he finds out, but robin keeps him at an arms' length for ages because he's literally been wanting to die for years and is not prepared or willing to have a little brother to look after now. they end up butting heads more often than not and it's a very strained relationship (as griffin and robin's relationship is in canon)

when griffin fails his silver-working test, it's because robin tries to help offhand by giving him a matchpair he came up with. griffin can't get it to work in the exam, but worst of all, chakravarti recognises it as robin's work. he doesn't report griffin for it since he's also a part of hermes, but he tries to give griffin a second chance to come up with his own, and griffin can't, so he fails. up until that point griffin had been trying to hide from robin how little he knew, so the look on robin's face when griffin next sees him is unbearable, like, the mix of pity and anger that griffin didn't tell him, the disappointment that griffin wasn't the connection to robin's culture he wanted, the guilt that robin let lovell rip someone else out of their home, and now griffin knows exactly what letting down an older brother feels like. but it all happens in the half second before robin squashes it all down and gets down to business because there are more important things to worry about and maybe it's good that can't get caught up in griffin's life like this. to quote eren: "i think the worst part to griffin would be that robin just treats it like a setback. like okay, that's one less tool for you to use, you'll have to make up for that deficiency somewhere, moving on, when he wants robin to react as though it's personal to him that griffin doesn't measure up because it should be, because griffin's not good enough for their father (and robin always rolls his eyes when griffin tries to claim lovell and griffin knows why but lies to himself that he doesn't) so he must not be good enough to this tarnished golden child, the prodigal son that lovell tried to recreate. but no, he's just slightly more ineffectual gear within the revolution now, that's a slight hiccup at best and not an entire childhood snatched away from a boy whose clearest memory of canton is the smell of sesame oil in a wok" 

robin warns griffin about recruiting evie very early on, but doesn't tell him about letty or ramy for a long while because the wound is still fresh. griffin still persists, and robin is forced to whisk griffin out of babel after he kills evie. and he's just a mess whispering "you were right you were right im sorry im so sorry" because robin told him this could happen, but he let love and idealism cloud his judgments with evie, and robin has NEVER seen griffin like this, and any angry berating about griffin's stupid misjudgments die on his lips

griffin/anthony is so so very real. anthony is recruited by victoire separately, so griffin isn't even aware for a while and i think anthony actually held off on telling griffin bc of how close he was with sterling LOL. griffin and sterling had something insane going on at first, with sterling trying to be genuinely sympathetic to griffin's plight as an attempt to distinguish himself from his uncle's legacy, before the years drive them apart and griffin becomes aware that everything sterling conceded to him was merely lipservice. anthony and griffin get really close after they realise the other is already apart of hermes and post-evie as well. eren writes sterling as a critique of armchair radicals who see a sliver of violent liberation in practice and easily revert back into believing that the oppressed are savages. evie is a critique of white woman tears <3 i do believe she cries every time someone called her out for saying anything a little racist

yeah um there is way more and we both have comic/fic wips we're working on for the au but i will end this post here because it got so insanely long christ above. thank you so much for the question though i have soooo many thoughts about cohortswap au it's been absolutely taking over my brain

[thembolaura2]

Babel is a book that came highly recommend to me from people I trust, and honestly I can see why. On it's surface, it should've been something I was really into - a book about anti-imperialism set against the backdrop of the Opium Wars while also being about etymology and the inherent imperfections of translating between two languages. Hell it even quotes Frantz Fanon at one point.

And yet.

I've been thinking about it a lot recently, and I think I've come to some conclusions of the things about it that really rubbed me the wrong way - major spoilers for the whole book follow.

Fundamentally, it comes down to one word: class. I think RF Kuang has a massive blindspot around class and classism, and it seeped through in this book in a way that I found quite aggravating.

I'll start by saying that the only working class characters that I can remember are Professor Lovell's housekeeper Mrs Piper, and the northern strikers. And kind of Griffin.

Mrs Piper is basically shown as a stereotypical loving, kindly housekeeper. She's Scottish and makes scones for Robin! That's...about all there is to her character, aside from one particular thing that sticks out to me - there's a bit early on where Robin gets beaten by Lovell for hyperfocusing and missing the start of his lesson, and Mrs Piper gets judged (not by Robin mind, by the book) for not acknowledging anything was wrong:

Some other child suited to better, kinder treatment might have realised that such nonchalance on the part of adults like Mrs Piper [...] to a badly bruised eleven-year-old was frightfully wrong

Now ignoring that this is a book set in 1830s Britain where this would have been a common occurrance anyway (yes it still would've been wrong back then but given the cultural context I don't think there were many other children "suited to a better, kinder treatment"), what grates me about this is that there's absolutely no interrogation of why she might not want to speak out about it. Her job is as a housekeeper. Presumably she is reliant on this job to survive. If she spoke out about this, chances are she'd both lose this job and potentially any future housekeeping jobs. And like, it's not a huge thing, but it's an early sign that the approach to class is at best, lacking.

So then we come to the northern strikers. First introduced as a rowdy, scary crowd - fine, it's from Robin's perspective and he's had a very bourgeois, sheltered upbringing after being picked up by Professor Lovell. They come back later, now on Robin's side, to act as. Uh. A barricade. Only one of them, Abel Goodfellow (lol) is the only one who gets any particuar characterisation, the rest are just a faceless crowd of people who the book doesn't seem to have any real interest in. The only reason they exist is to give the Oxford students and professors an extra layer of protection so none of the actual characters are in any sort of risk for a few chapters.[1]

Which brings me to one of my biggest issues. This whole book has been leading up to this "revolution" - but the revolution is a bunch of academics hiding in the big Colonialism Tower, while a bunch of proles are the ones who actually put themselves at risk. They are basically treated as cannon fodder to protect the brave academics, but then end up getting cold feet when it seems like they might be in some actual danger.

What the fuck.

What puts an even bigger point on this is knowing, throughout the entire book, that RF Kuang herself went to Oxford and pulled from her experiences. While this makes her exploration of the racism in the upper echelons of British society very real and is a legitimately good critique, it also makes the way she approaches the working class in this book feel extremely patronising - made worse by my recent discovery of just how bourgeois the rest of her background is (she went to a Greenhill School where each year costs upwards of $30k, Georgetown University which has a dispropotionately high ratio of students from wealthy families, studied at both Oxbrige unis, and finally an Ivy League uni in Yale.)

And I get it, I'm white, that is absolutely a privilege I have that she does not. I would never deny that, and I never want to talk over people who have experienced racism. But also, class-based oppression is very fucking real. So to have a literal Oxbridge scholar write a book decrying British imperialism and colonialism, criticising Oxford for being a racist driver of these things, while simultaneously glorifying the glamourous aspects of the institution [2] and just glossing over the intensity of classism in British society is, quite frankly, fucking galling.

Oh also, if you want me to be sympathetic to a character, maybe don't make them the fucking prince to another empire??? Utterly bizarre choice.

[1] As an aside, this section is another good example of her blindness towards class:

Despite all expectations, Abel's supporters grew in number over the following days. The workmen strikers were better at getting the message out than any of Robin's pamphlets. They spoke the same lanugage, after all. The British could identify with Abel in a way they could not with foreign-born translators.

The implication I get from this is that because they're foreign academics, those stupid, racist proles ignored them, but like. There is a long, storied history of solidarity across racial lines among the British working classes - admittedly my knowledge of this history doesn't go back as far as when this would have been taking place, but either way, the fact it's not mentioned that the British working class would see them primarily as Oxford toffs just seems like such a weird thing to skip over.

[2] Honestly my issue with all the anachronistic things like the oysters isn't that it's anachonistic but that it comes across as bragging about all the special things she got to experience at Oxford

[hacked-by-jake]

Duskwood boys – their favorite way to pick up/carry you around.

Characters: Jake, Richy, Dan & Thomas

A/n: Tumblr suggested a post about this topic, so I was inspired by it and it’s not my idea. Unfortunately I lost the post so the credits for the idea go to the person. But I like this kind of writing and I wanted to do it for Duskwood, I wanted to start something like this for a long time. So if you have ideas that go in that direction, my requests are open for it. I hope everything is understandable and you like it. Have fun. 💚

Jake

Definitely piggyback but from the front. Hands under your butt to lift you up so that you can/ must wrap your legs around his hips, as well as your arms around his shoulders, and he can feel your body as close as possible to his. It it Jake, it makes him feel like you need him to protect you. He wanted to be your savior as always and it made him feel like he was. He could also keep an eye on you. Whether on you, on your figure, or someone else approached you, even if it was not possible in your apartment. But after such a long time on the run, he was a little paranoid. He could observe every little emotional change in your eyes on the spot and immediately take care of any discomfort on your part or similar. Besides, he was addicted to your kisses and that way he could perfectly combine both. But also, of course, bridal style was one of his go-to’s. He loves to carry you on hands in any situation, and this position allowed it almost literally. You were everything and you deserved to be treated like a royal.

Richy

Oh, he definitely loved taking you piggyback style, like a little backpack. Richy was quite and perfectly the most playful and funny. So he loved to piggyback you and then run with you. He loved hearing your laughter and the fun you have together. In addition, he enjoys the feeling when you have to completely cling to him. After all, this way he doesn’t have so many possibilities to hold you. So most of it to not fall down has to come from you, and he loved how much you trust him to still not let you fall and hold on to him. But Richy was also a fan of 'over the shoulder', also here, it was a very playful gesture and thanks to his job he had more muscles than you can see at first glance. And he loved to feel your trust when he carried you over his shoulder and you weren’t worried for a second because you couldn’t see where he was going but you trust him without ifs and buts that you can’t get hurt and he wouldn’t do anything bad to you.

Dan

Definitely over his shoulder. I mean, the man loves to flex his muscles and show them. His loveling hobby was the gym, and he was a little macho who was more playful than he would let you see if one spoke to him normally. So he loved to grab your legs and throw you over his shoulder and then carry you to his destination. Of course, this also offered him the perfect view of your butt and allowed one or two claps on this. He always commented that with a little, rough and kinda dirty laugh. But he was a gentleman through and through, as he himself always emphasized, so bridal style was also something of a duty for him. (Also because this gave you a good view of his biceps)

Thomas

Definitely the most bridal style, it just suited him the most. He was the little softie, nothing negative, who always wanted to carry his partners on hands and always wanted to take care if them completely. He wanted to make sure his partner could rely on him 100% every second and you could feel how much he loved you. Of course, the bridal style had a meaning for itself in general. But in this way he could always perfectly look at you with eyes filled with pure love, look into your face and make sure that you could absolutely let youself down and he would always carry you on. He would never let you go/fall.

[capcavan]

I love media analysis and I saw your discussion questions so...yea sorry about the length. (I'm open to discussion)

Look, I'm new here (been here for about a month) so I wasn't aware people don't like Riko? I personally quite like him as a character and didn't know that's not a particularly popular opinion? But I'm of the firm belief that not all villains are meant to be "redeemable". You can understand or sympathize with their motivations and character, but that's not the same as having redeeming qualities. And I think Riko is one of those characters who doesn't have redeeming qualities. He's supposed to be a hated villain. Heck, his first appearance in the series is literally him swooping in on stage to dark ominous music, dressed in black like a bloody supervillain. He gets all the "classic abusive ex" lines, an obscene amount of power, and some really bizarre unhinged moments (ex. handcuffing Neil to a bed and spitting in his mouth).

We're told right at the top, "Hey, this guy is a villain and he's not going to stop being a villain." So he's pretty easy to hate if you are just trying to get through the story. The last character in a novel I really hated was Professor Lovell in Babel by R.F. Kuang. He's another one of those characters you are meant to hate but you're also meant to comes to hate him slowly. You see him from the eyes of the person he abused so you get to see what it's like for the main character to slowly realize that this man who starts off by saving him and giving him a home is and has always been, a terrible person.

Riko doesn't get that treatment. We see him first from the perspective of someone who has never met him but already hates him (Neil) and second, from the perspective of someone who's suffered him and hated him for a long time and is already done with him (Jean).

If he ever had any good sides, the reader doesn't see them so it's easy to hate him. But I would argue, that's the point. We're supposed to see Riko as the insane abusive ex and we're supposed to wonder along with Neil and Andrew why the fuck Kevin can't let him go. Like, what's so good about this ludicrous supervillain that you can't even shit-talk him behind his back?

But Riko's not actually a one-dimensional supervillain. Neil says it straight up and gets it exactly right (he's kind of just spit-balling but Riko reacts to it like he's been read to filth) -- that Riko was brought up as a commodity and not as a human, that his delusions of grandeur were encouraged and that no one ever wanted him as a human (not his uncle, not his brother, certainly not his father). TSC does a lot to confirm it with descriptions of how he was treated by his uncle and how he obsessed over the letter about Kevin's father along with Kevin.

But ultimately, I think the reason why Riko doesn't get as nuanced a treatment as one might like is because the main conflicts the characters overcome have nothing actually to do with Riko. Neil overcomes fear and mistrust in others, Andrew overcomes his fear of letting himself have anything good. Even Kevin's conflict is more about asserting himself than about fighting Riko. (And Jean has so much trauma, Riko's barely a drop in the bucket.)

Anyway, I like Riko because I think properly sadistic villains are fun and because I think he's an interesting character.

This ask read like very sexy Riko fanfic anon drop your ao3 so I can check something for myself ty, if not let me commission you for some riko writtign after I get cash

[thrilling-oneway]

Alright sappy post incoming...

4 years ago today my friend made me download sif because my ds died when we were playing miitopia and he wanted to play a game with me. He'd been trying to get me to download it for like two years and I finally gave in, but told him I'd delete the game after we were done. I forgot.

The next day I played it a bit just to see if I had any interest in keeping it and. Well I was absolutely captivated. It wasn't actually my first gacha or rhythm game but the card arts were really pretty and the songs really captivated me. I still remember my first beatmap (Strawberry Trapper) and my original favourite song (GENKI ZENKAI DAY! DAY! DAY!).

I...actually didn't watch the anime in full until late last year and through this year but I did watch an abridged cut of sunshine's dub not long after getting into the game (rip forever LLSunshine dub but only the good parts). I found out the plot via the wiki and watched loads of youtube videos about love live and basically had a chika discovers μ's moment with this franchise. To say it changed my life is an understatement.

Love live helped me with my depression (also likeeee it was 2020 lol) a lot which is a weird thing to say but if any of my project sekai followers are reading this all that hope and joy shit they say about mmj is true. It also helped me come to terms with my queerness because i was 14 and had a load of issues and had never really seen something like love live. i mean i came right out the she ra fandom into this LOL but it was like. woah. riko reads yuri. and she just does. mind blowing shit. also helped me realise i was transmasc somehow but that's a whole different can of worms.

love live has genuinely been a life changing franchise for me and i wouldn't be the person i am today without it. it feels weird to say that about a franchise like don't bow down the corporate overlords and that but ive seen so many people say the same thing. like whether it's just the music or the profound lessons about regrets and youth and being alive that the anime teaches you this franchise is one that leave a mark on so many people.

i wasn't gonna write something like this until next year for my 5th lovelive-versary but then aqours announced they would be doing their final live and i have. so many feelings about it it's hard to put into words. aqours changed my life. saved it maybe. but as i said already this franchise has had such an impact on my life but i have to give aqours in particular so much credit. the anime taught me so much, their music resonated with me not necessarily on a personal level all the time but i feel every word even if it's coming out of the mouths of anime characters. i can't go to beaches anymore without writing aqours in the sand, even if i look like a fucking weirdo doing it. it's the best i can do to a thank you since i'll never be able to see them irl.

i wouldn't be where i am now, running a dumbass project sekai trivia blog and treating it like a job if i didn't get into love live. i wouldn't have met people through prsk if it wasn't for love live first. so on and so forth this franchise has given me so much.

anyway that's enough sap. watch love live.

[vanguard-if]

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Jayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeee!!

Lemme just bother you for a bit by putting you into a relationship quickly. Shhh it's not weird ok.

So I'm asking all my fav authors who among their wonderful cast that they created in their weird ass brains. If they had to romance an RO for a totally real totally serious commited relationship who would it be and why?? 👀

Also you know my parasocial dumbass just loves bugging the hell out of you. I hope school's treating you well and if not fuck them teachers they can go jump into a firey lake.. no not really but it's the thought that counts. Right? ♥️

HIIIIIII ALWAYS SUCH A TREAT TO SEE YOUR MESSAGES IN MY INBOX and stoppp im one of your favourite authors?! combusted and exploded actually. if this is considered bugging me..please keep bugging me. and school is. Okay. It is okay.

this is such a loaded question. i have so many thoughts on this. my mind immediately goes to Emilio, Cirrus, or Vera. which i think most of you expected anyways.

realistically? Emilio. i mechanically engineered this man the way i think a man should be so…yeah. he’s so bizarre. and i can really appreciate that in a man. in my mind i want to date Vera and Cirrus but let’s be 100% honest i absolutely CANNOT pull them and i know it. Emilio though? he’s strange and kind of pathetic and i can fuck with that. and fun fact, he’s actually smart! and without being the 🤓 “erm ackshually” kind of man (i have had enough of these people, i’m in STEM.)

the entire cast of Vanguard are dateable to me because i am sad and bisexual and think they’re all pretty. Emilio is also extremely romantic, in the hand kissing, gift giving, gentlemanly kind of way, and this is something that is so URRGRHHHHH in people. especially men.

okay enough. i’m done now. long story short, i have a crush on Emilio. like i didn’t want to say it, but he’s straight up just hot as well. his face card NEVER declines!!

save me Prince Emilio Lovell save me . save me Prince Emilio Lovell save me save me Prince Emilio Lovell save m

[frozenmikan]

Liella! Cross Talk 03 - Date Sayuri, Aoyama Nagisa, Suzuhara Nozomi

Check out the original interview in the LoveLive! Days Liella Special, available for purchase on Amazon JP here.

An interview with the voices of Shibuya Kanon, Hazuki Ren, and Sakurakoji Kinako. We asked them about how they feel now after starting from the open auditions and overcoming the same hurdles together.

Interview by Okada Moeka

I feel like Kanon-chan grew so much throughout the second season that I’m being left further and further behind

It’s been half a year since Liella! became nine. Has the group’s atmosphere changed since then?

Aoyama: I think we’ve settled down a little compared to when we first started out as nine. Now that we know what everyone else is like and what kind of people they are on the inside, we’ve managed to figure out the appropriate distance between us.

Date: We really were trying too hard back then, weren’t we? (laughs) Feels like we’ve settled down and are now much more comfortable with one another.

Suzuhara: Like, the first-generation members have always just been a group of people on the other side of a screen, so… Now that we’ve gone for meals together, I find that I can be quite frank when talking to them.

Date: I’m actually quite shy, so I’m not very good at initiating conversations. I decided that I might as well just be myself from the very start if putting up an act wasn’t going to work anyway, so I just treated everyone like I would have when we only had five members.

Aoyama: I’m also not very good at starting conversations, so I kinda get that (laughs).

When was the first time that it truly hit you that Liella! now has nine members?

Aoyama: When I watched the archive for our release event.

Date: !! (Nods with eyes wide open)

Aoyama: What’s with that reaction? (laughs) Now that we have more members, it’s not so easy to grasp what everyone’s facial expressions are like during dance rehearsals, unlike before. Of course, we do have recordings of the rehearsals, but you can’t really see everyone’s expressions clearly from that alone. So, when I first watched the recording of the event… That was when I felt like we could reach even greater heights together as nine.

Date: Yeah! I felt the same way right after the event. During the rehearsals, I usually focus only on what I was doing, not to mention the fact that we were wearing masks. So hearing our fans’ comments and watching the archive after the event was when it first hit me. It was also the first time I felt truly grateful that we had become nine.

Suzuhara: I watched Liella! perform as five for quite some time, so for me, a Liella! with nine members just didn’t feel right, probably even more so than the first-generation members. Watching the archive of our release event finally made me think, “Maybe I can call myself a part of Liella! after all…” more often. 

It sounds like you’re still in the process of discovering what it means for you to be part of Liella!.

Suzuhara: I spent a lot of time thinking about that, but there’s a part of me that’s still chasing after the five-member Liella!. A Liella! with nine-members is still Liella!, of course, but there are times when I think that they’re just not the same. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, though, so I’ll continue chasing after them!

This question is for the two first-generation members: is there anything that’s different about performing on stage with nine members instead of five?

Aoyama: It’s amazing just how much more reassuring it is to perform when there are more of us on stage. When performing as five, sometimes it shows on my face that I’m thinking about what my next line is, but now I feel like I can put on a more natural expression when performing.

Date: She’s right. You’re also really close to the person next to you! Our second release event was held in the same venue as our first event, Hajimari wa Minna no Sora, but the stage felt much smaller than before. Of course, part of it was because the seats were now filled with all our fans, but it felt like the stage had become more colorful than before. It really has gotten livelier, hasn’t it?

Suzuhara: We’ve all been strung along by Ookuma Wakana’s passion.

Date: Passion? (laughs)

Suzuhara: She can make very big movements with her head. I’ve always wondered how she manages to do that, and I even asked her that very question today during practice. Looking at her makes you realize how much fun it is to perform on stage, and seeing that in turn has made me want to make even bigger movements when I’m dancing, to use as much of the stage as possible and to make everyone enjoy themselves as much as possible. I’m sure Wakana’s dancing has infected the rest of the group, and Liella!’s dance moves now have much larger movements thanks to her… (voice getting softer with time)

Date/Aoyama: What’s wrong?! (laughs)

Aoyama: I totally get you! (laughs) Actually, I think it’s precisely because Kumachan dances so dynamically as Shiki-chan that her dancing shows off something different from just Shiki-chan’s dancing. She made me start thinking more about how I can incorporate her strengths and look even more like Ren-chan when I’m performing on stage.

Date: Kanon-chan doesn’t really have that much of a link to dancing story-wise, I guess. Now that we’ve become nine, I’ve spent more time thinking about how Kanon-chan would dance, more than I used to for our 1st Live Tour and 2nd Live. That’s one of the things I’m chasing after at the moment. Up until now, I’ve pushed through by just trying my best to have as much fun as possible, but now that she’s in her second year and trying to win Love Live!, I’m sure she has thought about how she should perform to achieve that goal, so I’m trying to figure that part out by re-watching parts of the anime.

How was your first time performing on stage, Suzuhara-san?

Suzuhara: I had loads of fun! I couldn’t picture in my head what it’d be like to actually perform on stage during the rehearsals. I did appear on stage for the fan meetings, but that experience wasn’t linked to actually performing live. I now know that performing live is really, really fun! I found myself naturally smiling when dancing, and I’m so overjoyed at being able to stand on stage as Kinako-chan that I find myself fully enjoying myself. I’ve always loved singing and dancing, so finally being able to do that, finally being able to show everyone that made me really happy as well.

That was when I felt like we could reach even greater heights together as nine

This may be a sudden question, but is there anything about the others here in the interview today that you particularly admire or would like to be able to do too?

Suzuhara: I’ll go first! I really admire Sayuchan’s loud voice—

Date: Loud voice?!

Suzuhara: I’ll talk about some other things later! (panicking) When we’re in a circle, or when push comes to shove, the way her voice resonates through the room is just so cool, which is something I really look up to. That, and her communication skills are top notch! Though I’m pretty sure she’d argue otherwise.

Date: That’s the thing I’m the worst at!

Suzuhara: She’s really easy to talk to, and talking to her is always so enjoyable, so I really like that about her. Her singing and dancing is amazing too, so I really look up to that part of her as well! As for Nagichan, she can do anything.

Aoyama: No way.

Suzuhara: I wanna do a segment where we try to find out just what it is she can’t do.

Date: I wanna join in too!

Aoyama: No, please~

Suzuhara: Oh, and she’s also really good at sports, which I really envy. I’m terrible at sports, so… She really can do anything. In fact, what is it that you can’t do?

Aoyama: There’s a whole lot I can’t do! I can’t speak Chinese or Spanish, for example.

Suzuhara: And that just makes you even more amazing! …That’s all.

Date: (Laughs) Guess I’ll go next. I feel like Nagichan knows herself really well. I’ve learned so many things from just talking to her. She speaks from her own experiences and gives really good advice on what I should do in every situation, and that has helped me out countless times. The other day, she recommended that I eat some meat—

Meat? You mean protein?

Date: Yeah! She says it a lot, things like, “You gotta make sure you get enough protein!” I’ve started incorporating more protein into my diet thanks to her, and I feel a little more cheerful than I used to be. So I have her to thank for that.

Aoyama: That’s such an interesting thing to talk about! (laughs)

Date: And, as for Nonchan—

Suzuhara: You don’t need to force yourself, just skip me… (softly)

Date: Now that we have nine members, our group definitely has more prominent personalities than before. When I first started out, I used to compare myself a lot to the others around me. Things like wondering why I couldn’t do something even though someone else could do it without any trouble. But Nonchan is different. She has a very strong sense of self, and seems to work towards improving herself step by step without ever comparing herself to someone else. Am I making any sense?

Aoyama: Totally get you!

Date: Oh, and because she doesn’t really say much about what she’s thinking, she has this cool, mysterious aura about her. Being able to use what she observes in others and converting it into something of her own is quite an amazing quality, and something I’d like to be able to do as well.

Suzuhara: (While slowly shaking her head, in a soft voice) Thank you……

Aoyama: I guess I’m up last. For Sayurin, it’s gotta be her smile. I’m sure her fans already know what I mean. She’s just so cute when she has this huge smile on her face! Her very presence brightens up the atmosphere in the room, so she’s definitely a natural idol. Every word she says to her fellow members is also filled with kindness, and she can always find just the right words to say. She’s a kind soul that brings with her a soothing atmosphere no matter where she goes.

Date: I’m gonna cry…… Thank you so much!

Aoyama: That really is something that’s unique to Sayurin. Nonchan, on the other hand, is a really strong person on the inside, though she doesn’t show it often. At first, I had no idea what she was thinking. But, now that I’ve spent more time with her, I’ve realized that she has a really strong sense of self. Now that we’re close enough to be frank with each other, I’m really glad that she speaks her mind to me. She’s even more diligent than everyone thinks, so I do hope she can relax just a little. Don’t push yourself too hard!

Suzuhara: Really~? But am I really pushing myself too hard? I find myself tensing up quite often, so I want to learn to relax like Nagichan does.

Going back to the original topic, did anything in particular stand out about the release event?

Aoyama: Our previous release events didn’t have an audience, so being able to perform directly in front of an audience made me really happy. We performed Watashi no Symphony in the audience seats during our first release event, so when the second-generation members were performing the first verse, I had flashbacks to when I sang the same lines standing to the right of the audience seats.

Date: We all performed Watashi no Symphony together, but I’m sure it resonated so strongly this time precisely because the second-generation members were performing it. It made me realize just how much the mood of a song is affected by the people singing it. I’m really glad we got to hear a version of it with the second-generation members.

Suzuhara: I was watching as a member of the audience when the first-generation members performed the song during their first release event, so that came to mind. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect myself to be standing on stage singing the same phrase I saw Sayuchan sing from where I was sitting in one of the audience seats in a corner. I’ve always thought, “If that was me performing, there’s no way I’d be able to sing that phrase,” so I was really surprised when I found out that I was assigned those starting lines. I practiced that part again and again, but I was still very nervous… How are you even supposed to sing those lines?

Date: Huh? But the release event is already over! (laughs)

Aoyama: You did great!

Suzuhara: Even though I spent so much time practicing, I felt like my mind would be completely blank when I actually got on stage. But being able to sing those lines was, to me, a really big accomplishment and my success story for this release event.

Date: There wasn’t an audience when I sang it, so you’re really amazing, Nonchan!

Suzuhara: It’s a precious song for the first-generation members, and also a very emotional song for the second-generation members and all the fans, so I was really, really nervous…!

The theme printed on the teaser visual for the anime’s second season was “Chasing after them, surpassing them.” How did you interpret this theme?

Date: In the teaser illustration, the second-generation members were chasing after the first-generation members, so that’s how I interpreted it. The second season of the anime really gave off the feeling of “Liella! is nine,” so I’m now convinced that it also has something to do with striving to become a better version of yourself, as well as the relationship between the cast members.

Suzuhara: The second-generation members took on this challenge with a similar mindset (laughs). But, hearing Sing! Shine! Smile! made me wonder if it’s the entire school that’s chasing after and surpassing something together, as a whole.

Aoyama: I too interpreted it as being broader than just referring to the second-generation members. I think the second season is a story of Liella! achieving something together as a whole. I guess you could even extend that to the entirety of Yuigaoka moving forward together.

I’m so overjoyed at being able to stand on stage as Kinako-chan that I find myself fully enjoying myself

I believe you’re all now in the midst of rehearsing for your 3rd Live Tour. Suzuhara-san, is there one goal or target in particular that you’d like to achieve during this tour?

Suzuhara: There are too many to count. I really love singing and dancing, but on the technical side of things, I still have a long way to go. I want to improve as much as I can given the time we have to prepare. We’ll be performing quite a few songs with pretty difficult choreographies for our 3rd Live Tour, not to mention Go!! Restart, in which only Kinako-chan performs with all the first-generation members… I’ll do my best during practice so I can get through it with a smile on my face!

We actually asked the first-generation members this same question in the Liella! special.

Date: I mentioned how I couldn’t do the Starlight Prologue twirl, didn’t I? (laughs) I didn’t manage to do it in the end either, but I think the most important thing was not panicking. I performed that twirl with all kinds of negative thoughts in my head, like how I’m wasting everyone’s time, or why I couldn’t do something as simple as this… But I realized that just enjoying myself and not thinking about anything negative while performing usually went better.

Aoyama: I think I talked about not being sure whether my facial expressions looked natural. But, seeing with my own eyes how everyone was supporting us naturally put a smile on my face, so I can now stand on stage without worrying about that. Now, my goal is to perform in such a way that even if all of us were performing with the exact same hairstyles and costumes, anyone watching would be able to tell at a glance that I’m Ren-chan. Of course, dancing dynamically or very energetically is bound to attract attention, but I don’t think that’s how Ren-chan would dance.

Suzuhara: When watching our dance recordings, it’s always so easy to pick out Ren-chan! So you are paying particular attention to that! 

Aoyama: Thank you!

Suzuhara: I actually think I’m too similar to Kinako-chan… When I first saw the script for the anime’s second season, her actions and words made me think, “...are they writing about me?” There are times when I can’t tell where the border between the two of us lies. Which emotions actually belong to me, and which are Kinako-chan’s?

Date: The two of you really are alike.

Aoyama: That’s amazing. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing?

Date: Whether or not I look like Kanon-chan… That’s something I’m working on too, actually. I feel like Kanon-chan grew so much throughout the second season that I’m being left further and further behind. Up until now, just having fun took every ounce of my effort, so I too am trying to find out how I should be moving to look more like Kanon-chan, and how to get closer to that.

Last but not least, a message for the fans!

Suzuhara: Our 3rd Live Tour will be the second-generation members’ first live tour, not to mention our first live tour after we became nine. Right now, I’m more nervous than anything else, but I’ll do my best to enjoy myself so much that I forget all about my nerves! I hope I can show how much I’ve grown since the release event, and put on a performance that stays in everyone’s minds as an amazing one even after it ends. I hope to see you there!

Aoyama: It’s our first time going on a live tour with all nine of us, so I hope to be able to say wholeheartedly that I really enjoyed myself. We’ll push each other to even greater heights and I’ll do my best to put on a performance even better than our release event!

Date: After our 1st Live Tour, the way I think about things changed completely. I’m sure our 3rd Live Tour will also become the starting point for some sort of change, so I’m looking forward to it. As the nine of us go around the country, I’m sure we’ll experience both fun and painful things, but I hope to not let the negative emotions overwhelm us and complete the tour while keeping the importance of having fun ourselves at the forefront of our minds. Yuina-san is coming along with us as well, so let’s get through this together!

Translator: xIceArcher Quality Check: Yujacha (@yujachachacha)

[duckprintspress]

September General Imprint Releases: Three New Titles from Duck Prints Press

We’ve got three new short stories out September 28th 2023!

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Title: A Ghost for Halloween Author: K. B. Vimes

General/No Relationship, Family and Siblings, Ghosts, Mourning and Grief, Child Point of View

In the spirit of Color by Owl Outerbridge, The Offered Ones by A. L. Heard, and The Fairy Garden by Rhosyn Goodfellow, K. B. Vimes continues our authors’ tradition of writing compelling stories that explore the fears and hopes attendant with raising children in the modern world.

Halloween is Maggie’s favorite day of the year; she just wishes she knew why her parents hate it so much, why they always refuse to go trick-or-treating with her, why her mother spends the night drunk. At least this year, she’s found another kid to go with her. He’s strange, but Maggie will overlook a lot if it means she gets to have a friend.

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Title: Be Not Afraid Author: Nicola Kapron

M/M, Angels and Demons and the Apocalypse Oh My!, the Hardest Part of the Post-Apocalypse is Finding a Job, There’s Only One Bed (but the Roommate Doesn’t Sleep)

Nicola Kapron returns with her seventh story published with Duck Prints Press, this time exploring how “the end of the world” can mean very different things depending on one’s circumstances.

Tora survives the end of the world, and so does his sister, even though he can’t escape the niggling feeling that one or both of them shouldn’t have. Still, that’s not his immediately problem. No, he’s more concerned about his demon roommate and his odd-job daily gig.

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Title: Commute Author: Eliot Lovell

F/F, the Inherent Awkwardness of Sitting Together on the Train, WLW Disaster Flirting

Fluffy f/f is one of our most popular short story genres. Eliot Lovell’s debut story with Duck Prints Press joins our extensive catalog of works by such authors as A. L. Heard, Violet J. Hayes, Annabeth Lynch, and D. V. Morse. You can check out all of our f/f general imprint titles here.

Eloise intensely dislikes when she has to work in the city, not least because of the commute by train. But the longer the beautiful woman sits across from her in the facing row of seats, the more she starts to think maybe commuting isn’t so bad…

-

Also Now Available: The Summer 2023 General Imprint Bundle!

The Summer 2023 General Imprint Bundle Includes:

Little Witch’s Apothecary by J. D. Harlock

Chinaski’s Dirty Work by J. D. Harlock

Count the Number of Seeds by Lyn Weaver

Entanglement ‎ by Lyn Weaver

Awkward and Oblivious by R. L. Houck

if it’s meant to be by Tris Lawrence

Chrysopoeia by Zel Howland

Usually $9.93, you can now get all seven of these stories for only $7.99! Come on over and check out a selection of what Duck Prints Press has to offer!

[mocolococoffeesimp]

General oc info in this post. (Trying to do "wiki" style for this.)

Name: Candi.

Candi and Zoe reacting to a cockroach in the house.

Candi and Zoe intro dialog with certain characters.

Theme: Give me the night, Artist Des Rhocs. (Imo, fits Candi well as a character who just wants to have fun.)

Alias: Troublemaker, Greedy twink.

Race: Human.

Gender: Male. (Is gender-nonconforming.)

Age: 26.

Height: 167cm/5'5.

Weight: 64kg/138lbs.

Blood type: O.

Origin: Unknown.

Birthday: January 15.

Eye color: Hazel.

Hobbies: Watching movies/shows, playing games, reading comics, pick-pocketing, lock-picking, jogging.

Likes: Sodas, jokes, puns, movies, arcades and money.

Dislikes: Stoic people, getting caught, boring movies, spicy foods.

Occupation: Thief, information gatherer.

Weapon: Bare fists and boots.

Voice claim. (I am extremely uncreative with my voice claim choices, I am aware of it.)

English: Faye Mata/ Erika Harlacher.

Japanese: Ayumu Murase.

Story.

Background.

Wherever Candi goes trouble follows him. More often than not, it is because of his own actions. He performs on the streets, while he is looking for the next loot. As much as he loves money, he also respects anything worth of value. No job is too small or big for him, for the right price.

Fun loving and chill Candi is no stranger to heated situations. There are times, when he has two options: Run or talk his way out. If, neither of those work, he will throw punches. His fighting relies mostly on evading and trying to make his opponent making a mistake. After a gig gone wrong, he spent some more time as a street performer, still emptying occasional pockets. This habit of poking his nose, where it didn't belong has gotten him to the bad side of Conclave. As he has stolen and sold off their property.

Name:Zoe.

Zoe with s/o who has rough/calloused hands.

Candi and Zoe reacting to a cockroach in the house.

Candi and Zoe intro dialog with certain characters.

Zoe with a photographer s/o+ going to movies with Candi.

Theme: Go!, artist Santigold.

Alias: Ice princess, Duchess.

Race: Human.

Gender: Woman.

Age: 30. (Will tell you, she's 24.)

Height: 170cm/5'6. (175cm with heels.)

Weight: Private information.

Blood type: B+

Origin: Unknown.

Birthday: March 8.

Eyecolor: Yellow/Orangish.

Hobbies: Doing nail art, cutting and styling gems, shopping.

Likes: Nail art, gems, fashion, spas, wine, beautiful things.

Dislikes: Dirt, unfashionable people, people not treating her with respect.

Occupation: Royalty and gemonologist.

Weapon: Magic, gems she summons. (Fan is aesthetic choice.)

Voice claim: Vella Lovell.

Story.

Background.

Born into royalty, Zoe is prideful woman of her status and looks. Wherever she goes, she does so with style. Her being born into royalty wasn't only thing she gained right off. She was born with the power of gem manipulation. Her parents used her powers, as ways to find gem-sites and dig them. When Zoe was old enough keep the business going herself, she had already mastered her powers. Not only could she sense them, she could manipulate them and summon them.

Zoe is a prideful and powerful woman. As her status as a royal and somewhat intimidating woman, she has gotten a status of a ice queen, which is quite true. Zoe won't trust people easily, always thinking what others might gain from her royalty status.

Zoe was roped into assisting Ky, for one of his missions as it had something to do with gems and her business. This eventually led to her being the first person, called whenever there is something gem related. Which, she is happy to do. But, often times that means fighting and getting her clothes for the day dirty. Much, to her dismay.

[themidnightcircusshow]

This is the context for the "Henry V was very straight" thing. The author is one of the intense Ricardians (except for Francis Lovell?). Anyway, I can see the fun in such a post but it kinda takes all the weird takes modern commentators have and puts them on the historical figure? Also, I feel like if you've got at least five shocking exposes of your horribleness masquerading as biographies, you aren't really "inordinately praised". I'm not also not sure how Henry VII ended up on that list!

It definitely makes more sense in context, but I think it's really interesting when and why Henry V gets portrayed as "very straight". Because, while there are certainly portrayals of him that have him simply be straight because that is seen as the default (especially if you want to up the romance of him and Catherine), I think every time I've seen him be treated as "very straight" have been the same portrayals that are trying to deconstruct his "hypermasculinity"--something he doesn't actually seemed to have had. There seems to be this trend with Henry V that is not people interpreting what is actually there but rather imposing their own ideas of masculinity onto him, usually to then critique it. I see it a lot with criticisms of the Shakespeare play-- Henry is over-glorified (uhhhh) and very masculine (maybe in Henry V, but as Hal?) and is very, very straight (even though he literally uses his sexuality as a ploy). It's starting with a conclusion and moving backwards-- the military is a heightened performance of masculinity> masculinity is overly heterosexual> Henry V must be overly heterosexual.

But also My Own Private Idaho exists.

[lynnrainham]

Putting my Babel by R.F. Kuang thoughts here instead of Goodreads because I am a coward.

Random thoughts: R.F. Kuang can still write beautifully. She continues to have a great grasp of action scenes and creates a hell of an atmosphere.

I love the lead quartet, their backstories, and how even before you know the backstory their actions give you a rough idea of them. Where they fall on the spectrum of ideas in the novel makes a ton of sense.

I like Robin, but I would literally murder for Victoire's book.

There are big ideas in here that are laid out well-ish. If you're familiar with concepts like colonialism and racism, you might find the explanations a bit unnecessary. (And it’s clear from reading some of the reviews that this was necessary. Sheesh!)

These big ideas make the whole book a bit academic and a tough slog. The right people will love it (me). I think a lot of people DNF'd this as soon as everyone got to Oxford.

[Spoiler alerts from here on in]

This is the second character R.F. Kuang has written that destroyed an old world and chose death over a role in the new one. It's slightly more complicated than that for both Robin and Rin, and it makes sense in different ways for both of them. But I'm personally not super into this pattern. Looking forward to Yellowface because I'm hoping for something different.

I understand that this book isn't about solidarity and how to build coalitions to accomplish things - but if Abel and the other workers are going to show up in the final act to help save the day, maybe those ideas should have been explored with similar rigour? We have the one protest in the middle of the novel (complete with academics expressing disgust at the protesting workers), and the scene where Robin sees Abel in the street. (I'd also like to propose that the version of this novel that stars Victoire or Ramy doesn't have this problem because they come from working families).

I love how Professor Lovell and Griffin are complete characters but they still are able to represent competing ideas. It's the real love triangle of the novel. And it's a fitting piece of symbolism that Robin kills Professor Lovell when he realizes how bad Britain treats it's "trading" partners. Justice for Griffin though, sure it was about motivating Robin to commit violent acts, but we really didn’t need another mentor figure to die. 

[werewolfetone]

hi Jory! idk if you’ve answered a similar ask before, but can you talk about coleridge’s wife?

Yeah absolutely! Her name was Sarah Fricker, and she was born in 1770 as the eldest of three sisters and one brother in Bath. Her family had quite a bit of financial trouble, leading to her having to work as a seamstress, and she and her sisters were very modern, worldly girls, who had all been well educated and all really liked new ideas. Coleridge met her through Southey, during their abortive Pantisocracy scheme, which was essentially a plan to go to America to live in a proto-anarchist commune. Southey and Coleridge, and their friend Robert Lovell, who sadly died before he could make any mark on the world, had determined that for this they would all need wives, and as Lovell's wife who he had somehow gotten on board with the plan had two sisters who also liked the idea, Southey decided to marry one sister (Edith) and that Coleridge should marry the other one. Coleridge didn't really like her at first but quickly convinced himself that he did, including writing a variety of sappy poems about her, so they quickly married and moved out to the seaside once the Pantisocracy plans fell through.

(A portrait miniature of Sarah Coleridge in 1809)

Throughout his life Sarah was very supportive of Coleridge no matter what was going on with him at the time, including when he was in the throes of drug addiction and treated her horribly. As his health worsened she began taking care of the children more, and even as he fell in love with another Sarah, Sara Hutchison, she still kept house for him etc etc. It was noted that she wasn't really "in" with the club that Coleridge, the Wordsworths, and the Hutchisons had when they lived in the Lake District, they all treated her like an outsider and tended to exclude her and write nasty things about her in their journals--Dorothy Wordsworth in particular said some choice things about her, and also apparently would sometimes wear her clothes without permission if Dorothy's clothing was too wet or muddy or something, just to give an example of how their treated her. Eventually in 1804 Coleridge separated from Sarah, he laid all of the blame on her but honestly it was mostly his fault. After that she raised their children pretty much singlehandedly and they didn't speak much, until his last years before his death in 1834. Sarah died in 1845 in London, at the age of 75.

[leahsfiction]

poetrychat: jttw edition

part 1: comparing the Lovell 2021 and Yu 2012 translations of this passage from chapter 5

part 2: making our own translations - here's mine:

---

The Great Sage arrived squarely in the middle of the brawl.

"Make way!" he hollered. Drawing his iron staff, he shook it around - with it now as wide as a bowl and twenty feet long, he fought his way through.

Which of the Nine Luminaries could withstand him? Beaten back for now, they called from their ranks: "You reckless stablehand! You've committed the Ten Evils - stealing peaches and wine, turning the Festival of Immortal Peaches upside down, and moreover stealing Lord Laozi's elixir pills, then making merry here with pilfered sacred wine. Isn't it clear as day? You add sin upon sin!"

The Great Sage laughed and said, "Oh those few things, I admit - I admit! But the question for you is, what now?"

---

under the cut, translation notes (more to be added when i have more brain) and the original Chinese

正嚷間，大聖到了，叫一聲：「開路！」掣開鐵棒，幌一幌，碗來粗細，丈二長短，丟開架子，打將出來。九曜星那個敢抵，一時打退。那九曜星立住陣勢道：「你這不知死活的弼馬溫，你犯了十惡之罪：先偷桃，後偷酒，攪亂了蟠桃大會，又竊了老君仙丹，又將御酒偷來此處享樂。你罪上加罪，豈不知之？」大聖笑道：「這幾樁事，實有，實有。但如今你怎麼？」

this is part of a longer paragraph in the original, and Yu's translation preserves the paragraph structure

the Lovell is an abridged translation (36 chapters total); she condenses the text semi-frequently, whereas Yu seems to want to reproduce as much detail as possible

Lovell also simplifies all the names/epithets (of which there are many) down to one or two names per character, e.g. "Monkey" for Sun Wukong, the Beautiful Monkey King, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Pilgrim Sun, etc., etc. -- personally i don't really like the Waley inventions (Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy) that Lovell carries forward but i guess i respect their established use. idk. they sound too cutesy for me. also you know me, epithets are SEXY they CARRY MEANING -

my translation of "Drawing his iron staff, he shook it around - now as wide as a bowl and twenty feet long, he fought his way through." is a literal rendition of the sentence structure in Chinese, and i happen to like it and understand it, but i know it doesn't make perfect English. too bad i'm not gonna fix it right now

Yu's strange invention "BanHorsePlague" for 弼馬溫 bimawen (stablehand/stableboy/protector of horses) is ugly. i'm sorry. it looks and sounds equally clunky, whereas bimawen rolls off the tongue!

"reckless" is literally 不知死活 buzhisihuo (treating living and dying as one), which is such a fun expression to use on someone