#don't mind me just being a hater

[lobstermatriarch]

So my book club is reading Ir*n Wid*w for our meeting this weekend and I was.

so excited.

Nonbinary author, main character in a poly relationship, rooted in Chinese mythology and folklore, reportedly feminist and queer perspective, 4+ stars on Goodreads. It’s perfect on paper.

I’m now almost 2/3 of the way through and giving up, I’m just disappointed and angry. How do you pretend to be a feminist book when for 200 pages the MC is the only named character who’s not a dude? It’s this hugely misogynistic setting and yet the MC is the only girl who is Super Special enough to have an Opinion about what’s going on, all the other women are docile/obedient or treacherous. And even then, MC’s agency is pretty limited! She spends a lot of time thinking angry, rebellious thoughts or spitting badass one-liners, but for the most part the narrative is relying on her boyfriends and luck to actually move the plot forward. She has no friends, no interests except love interests, no complexity or personality besides being angry and reacting to the things men do. I also understand that there’s some big twist and government overthrow coming up too (and I can only hope that it’s the MCs idea), but again, I’m almost 2/3 of the way in!!! I can’t wait forever for this super special Strong Female Character to start having some agency again!!!!! It would help if the writing itself was better, but I mean... it’s serviceable. It’s fine. I’ve enjoyed books that have had worse technical writing, but that’s not a huge point in anyone’s favor.

Love that a nonbinary author of color is getting so much attention and popularity, but, like... this is not the revolutionary work I was sold on. This is barely beyond the H*nger Gam*s, and at least in the H*nger Gam*s the sister that MC wanted to protect/avenge had a personality!! I can’t get invested in a book that hasn’t really passed the Bechdel test halfway through despite having a female MC, especially when said MC barely has an inner life of her own. We don’t even know where the anger comes from! It’s this horrible misogynistic world and without any in-universe explanation for how she learned this stuff she is operating on our morality system. Do you think that maybe, maybe there could have been a series of smart women who figured this out over time and taught it to her? Nah, as said above, all other women in this world are meek and submissive and she's just smart and special enough to figure this all out on her own.

(Even worse, her boyfriends have figured this out before the other women, so they are the only people she has had any positive interactions with at this point. It just helps to drive home the message that you can’t trust or rely on other women, only the hot guys! Great stuff for “feminist” YA!!!)

Another quick aside, the fact that this was pitched to me as a queer book makes me wanna scream. I’m bi! I like dudes! I like that she has multiple men interested in her and each other!! But this is a fictional society that has been maiming and killing women for centuries and you can’t be assed to actually, I don’t know... include some women?? Plus it is so clearly not written for gay/bi men, so having the big queer relationship being a flimsy romantic interest between the MCs two boyfriends feels more like old school yaoi voyeurism than queer lit to me.

I can’t help but feel like this book’s popularity is just an influencer following at this point. I don’t think I’d be so viscerally angry if it wasn’t held up as this new YA standard for feminist, queer lit, and if the author themself wasn’t making such a huge deal about “breaking down barriers.” I’m frustrated and sad that this is what we’re holding up as the future, when in so many ways it’s taking a few steps backwards.

tl;dr read a book that was pitched over and over across various platforms as this big breakthrough in YA fiction and found it less compelling/progressive than a lot of 90s shoujo anime

[apertures-angel-archive]

your imagines are nice. however you like a.ot. begone

[jasontoddssuper]

'Argumentative,antiethical dreamgirl' is a REAL Taylor Swift lyric??????

[lunar-years]

when people say Jamie only loves Keeley because she's basically Georgie and Roy is attracted to Georgie because he loves Keeley and then they never elaborate on how, exactly, Keeley is "just like" Georgie... tell me why beyond "they dress alike" (which like...even do they?) and "they both care about Jamie." go quick!

[reduxulousoctopus]

Oof. I just finished watching episode four of X-Men 97 and no spoilers, but I'm starting to remember why I don't usually like X-Men.

[keii]

I still can't believe how much more appealing Yoosung is in everyone else's route besides his own LOL. Tho' one thing remains is that no matter what, Yoosung really is a ride or die for mc. Like... he will NOT care if he gets the shit beaten out of him if it's for mc's sake, he will do crime and trust that it's for a good reason (and that Seven and Jumin would bail him out LMAO). Even tho' he's a crybaby, he will let anyone know EXACTLY how he feels, doesn't care if everyone doesn't agree. He's extremely loyal, honest, and open to whatever if that means it would make mc happy. His innocent nature allows others to let their guard down around him and pamper him, but deep inside he's obsessive, possessive, and pretty scary-- And so I love him.

[papayafiles]

just went and watched charles' renewal video for the first time and it's not at all similar to lando's? they're both videos with music that feature drivers talking about their teams. that's. that's it.

so tell me why lecfosis on twitter (and on tumblr apparently... i cannot believe they're on tumblr. please keep your twitter toxicity to twitter!!) are analyzing it frame by frame trying to find similarities to accuse mclaren and lando of copying it and rushing it out in a day (for WHAT reason?). "they couldn't even bother to colorgrade it" have you considered they made it black and white on purpose to contrast with the fluoro logo. it looks cool! we all think it looks cool bc we're not miserable losers trying to find things to be mad about!!! "it's so obvious to any editor that it's poorly edited" have you considered mclaren hires professionals who know how to video edit better than you, a random weirdo on the internet who clearly needs a job? (just a question) "SO weird that they'd drop this the day after charles" okay babes have you ever considered that mclaren doesn't give a fuck what ferrari is up to because they have their own better car and their own better drivers and their own far less dysfunctional team environment to focus on?!?? maybe invest this energy into getting ferrari to hire therapists idk what to tell you

[doushiteworld]

Proseka friend told me that both God-Ish and All I Need Are Things I Like are being added to the game on JP covered by Nightcord (God-Ish) and Wonderlands x Showtime (All I Need Are Things I Like) and oh boy am I scared. They're also adding (Not) a Devil but it's not covered so I'm not worried about that

[anthonycrowley]

whats tacc? i assume its an acronym for like the gomens tjlc equivalent but what does it actualy stand for lol

no literally it's just a post/google doc that went around like last week we started calling it tacc (the azcrow conspiracy) like directly comparing it. the doc is here sorry i don't feel like looking for the post

(also please be chill on the actual thing if you see it the person who wrote it is blocking people who are being mean on it which i actually think is very healthy good for them set fucking boundaries but even aside from that there's no reason to be mean on the post itself you can be critical of it outside of their direct view unless the author asks for it yanno)

[girlwiththegreenhat]

who give a shit about tayIor swift

[michaeljoncarter]

sry but dc publishing a jason/kyle teamup is really my worst nightmare lol. like jaykyle is fun and all, and i’m glad y’all are having a good time, but if dc ends up watering down & nerfing kyle to the point where it’s feasible he’d start running around with jason in the main timeline and the weakass woobified version of kyle twitter/tumblr has invented to pair them together leaks into actual canon, i’m quitting my job to become a full time batfam hatepage

[wretchedspecimen]

i've been seeing a lot of posts about the way children don't get treated as human beings deserving of respect but i want to talk about the way so many of these negative experiences children have with adults come at the hands of people whose literal job is to deal with children (parents, teachers, healthcare workers etc.)

[mintharan]

i'm gonna be honest a lot of the people who are super vocal about the emperor's manipulation being the reason why they hate him scream of that post that goes 'no one is gaslighting you, that's just lying, you're not worth all the effort of gaslighting'

[shesgonnachangetheworld]

gonna be real, i find it kinda weird that people are smugly making "lol @ 'let people enjoy things' is me being a hater really going to ruin your enjoyment, weakling?" posts on the website most known for viciously attacking people for Liking The Wrong People Kissing

[lord-squiggletits]

I think one of my least favorite takes on Optimus annexing Earth is the surprisingly common opinion "he should've just left Earth alone and minded his own business because they didn't ask for help," not because it doesn't have truth in it but because it's a massive oversimplification of the whole situation and seems to pretend that Optimus annexing Earth was just completely stupid and had no reasoning whatsoever.

Like, it just bothers me when people talk about it as if Optimus leaving Earth alone would've been the not-bad-guy thing to do despite the fact that the Decepticons were literally about to try colonizing Earth again under the command of a guy who was literally from the Golden Age generation that made colonizing and genociding organics popular, Galvatron. I mean Galvatron was literally there saying "so when are we going to kill these fleshlings" and even being a Functionist asshole to Soundwave's cassettes. The last time the Decepticons invaded Earth in All Hail Megatron they killed literally a billion human beings. Are there seriously people in this fandom that are out there believing with their whole ass that "Optimus should've just ignored the openly genocidal Decepticons returning to a place they had already tried to colonize just a few years ago because it's none of his business and the humans can handle themselves" like what.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

if any of y'all think i will not go all in on stomping on my blorbo's haters for basically going out of their way to ignore his development, i am sorry, you are incorrect