#here's another novel

[unproduciblesmackdown]

Lackadaisy Enrichment

[kiisaes]

VS OMORI

[zharaely]

On the topic of birthdays...

We don't know the Original Cale Henituse's birthday, but just imagine the Henituse Family celebrating Cale's birthday. And Cale has to awkwardly play along even though he knows it isn't HIS birthday they're celebrating. While the Henituse Family is also awkward because it's been years since they got to celebrate Cale's birthday properly, but they wanted to take the chance this time now that they've gotten closer (except it's too late now). But they notice Cale's discomfort throughout the entire celebration even though he tries to hide it. Things snowball from there.

Or maybe when the day comes, Cale isn't aware that it's his body's birthday. So while everyone else is dropping hints about it being a special day, Cale is just confused about why they're acting so weird. It eventually leads the Henituse Family to misunderstand thinking Cale got so busy during or after the war that he forgot his own birthday.

(After Cale realizes, he'd also send Kim Rok Soo a gift via the God of Death. Fortunately, no churches were harmed after that conversation, but only a god's pride.)

This also works vice versa with the Original Cale Henituse in Kim Rok Soo's body. Maybe the Original Kim Rok Soo wasn't known to celebrate his birthday (with other people, or at all). So Kim Rok Soo doesn't even realize anything weird that day, except the increasing glances sent his way by his team members and other people from the company ("The team leader still went to work today even though it's his birthday…sighs"). Kim Rok Soo only finds out by the end of his shift, when he's about to go home to his niece but is stopped by someone unexpectedly giving him a small gift.

(The next time he meets with Choi Jung Soo, he asks the guy to send his birthday greetings to the man he swapped bodies with, along with a birthday card drawn by his niece. ("I don't know about over there, but I found out it was your birthday here on Earth. Happy Birthday, Cale.")) (Extra: Choi Jung Soo becomes nostalgic after remembering all his shared birthdays with Kim Rok Soo, before remembering all the birthdays Kim Rok Soo spent by himself after their deaths.)

Or, the other characters find out it was Choi Han's birthday (not knowing it's also Cale's birthday). Everyone helps to plan a birthday party, with Cale even giving Choi Han a gift during the celebration ("I wasn't able to give you a gift last time, so…Happy Birthday, Choi Han.").

Once the celebration was over, or maybe when everyone else was too busy to hear or disturb the two of them, Choi Han was the first to greet Cale a happy birthday ("…Happy birthday to you too, Cale-nim. Kim Rok Soo."). Of course, Alberu does not forget to secretly give both his instructor and his dongsaeng gifts as well, aka, "a happy birthday to the two punks who gave me headaches".

((There's also an easy solution to this entire thing: Original Cale Henituse's birthday was ALSO on November 8. Now we have 5 people sharing the same birthday.))

[skywalkr-nberrie]

Just wanna say that If Anakin only loved the “idea” of Padmé, his “vision” of her would’ve been shattered when he found out she was secretly conspiring behind his back against Palps, while keeping it a secret from him in the ROTS novel. But he quite literally says this instead:

Anakin doesn’t care what Padmé does even if it goes against what he believes in or if *hypothetically* that shatters the image of her, which it doesn’t btw, because we see she’s still his precious wife. And that’s because he doesn’t love the idea of her. He only loves her for her. Just like Padmé, he accepts all of her even when he doesn’t agree with her.

Another perfect example is how Anakin even as Vader, still continues to love Padmé after he thought she was teaming up with Obi Wan to have him killed. Literally the first thing he asks is “where is Padmé? Is she safe? Is she alright?” (while still believing, she betrayed him.) that’s called unconditional love. And when he’s told that he was the one who “killed her”, his immediate thoughts are:

“this burns hotter than the lava had.” Again, all while thinking she had betrayed him.

[lotus-pear]

bsd fic authors i understand yalls pain SO well right now why is it so fucking HARD to write dazai. like i have a whole fucking spreadsheet dedicated to tireless analysis i have done on my part so i can accurately characterize him but he is such an unpredictable and morally gray character that it's hard knowing his limits and boundaries and where he draws the line for himself.

[myokk]

Eloise is really, really bad at chess😐

(this is a scene from my fic & I typed it up here:)

"Milady, you cannot send him there! He will surely die a terrible death, and Murdoch is our finest knight!"

Eloise blinked her bleary eyes at the wizarding chess board, not really comprehending what the tiny pieces were yelling at her. The one that seemed to be doing the most talking was gesticulating wildly and jumping up and down, trying to get her attention. When she had taken the pieces out of the box Sebastian had lent her, they had immediately recognized her and started protesting, appealing to 'their benevolent lord's innate sense of goodness', but their protests fell on deaf ears. Eloise was positive that Sebastian took some sort of perverse pleasure at watching her lose at chess.

In the background, she could hear Ominis's laughter echoing through the Undercroft. His own pieces were quite happy at the moment, preening and occasionally sending rude gestures towards Eloise's, much to Sebastian's amusement. He was narrating their every action to Ominis, whose laughter was egging on his soldiers even more.

"Eloise," Sebastian said, propping his chin up by one hand (entirely too amused, infuriatingly so, why did he have to look so handsome when she was trying to be annoyed at him?), "maybe you should move the knight..." his other hand pointed to an empty space on the board, "...here."

This declaration caused an uproar. There were shouts of betrayal, tiny pieces gesticulating wildly to the carnage surrounding the board as they shouted in vain. She didn't see any other viable moves, so Eloise sighed and ordered the brave little Murdoch to where Sebastian had suggested. Chaos immediately ensued and Ominis's queen gleefully knocked his head off with a violent swing of her scepter. Eloise's pawns all doubled over, sobbing as their most valient knight fell, and her remaining bishop shook his tiny fist in outrage up at her.

After a few more minutes, much to Eloise's ashamed relief and the boys' disappointment, her pieces refused to move for either her or Sebastian. They solemnly collected the remains of their fallen comrades with as much dignity as they could muster and marched off the board and back into their box in a mourning parade of sorts.

Sebastian joined Ominis's pieces as they jeered the losing team off the board, causing Eloise to glare fiercely at him. "You were the one telling me what to do, and they're your pieces! Show some loyalty."

He shrunk away from the intensity of her gaze and held up his hands in protest. "I was suggesting the moves as a joke! After last week's fiasco, I didn't think you'd fall for it again."

Ominis was laughing so hard he was gasping for breath, and the two of them turned to watch him. Even through her irritation, Eloise couldn't help but smile at him - he was always so solemn and these bouts of mirth were few and far between. He managed to speak between bouts of laughter. "I...I couldn't...I couldn't believe it when you sent your bishops one by one into my trap! It was so obvious! And then...and then you..." Ominis dissolved into fits of laughter again and couldn't finish.

Eloise turned her angry glare to him. "We can't all be chess geniuses!"

"I've tried teaching you and you don't listen! For the next time, I'm only going to give you one piece of advice: don't listen to Sebastian." He chuckled once more to himself and then turned slightly to the board, addressing his men (and queen) and giving them a debriefing. He always did this after he won the matches; it was a strange sort of ritual that he seemed to look forward to.

[sonik-kun]

Let's remind eachother why Jiang Cheng resorted to leading the seige, shall we?

If you recall, WWX inadvertently killed JZX after he lost control of WN. JZX being JC's brother in law .. The heir to the powerful Jin sect but most importantly, his sister's husband whom she loved dearly.

EVEN THEN JC DIDN'T OUTRIGHT DECLARE A SIEGE!

We see he's reluctant, torn, but still holds some hope for WWX. This can be seen in the line thereafter where WWX loses control once again and JC cries "I thought you could control it!"

Both JC and JYL in that moment couldn't truly bring themselves to go after WWX and hold him accountable. But we can also see that they are torn. That they are unsure how to feel about WWX and the dangerous person he has now become. We see this when JYL is dying and she can't bring herself to express what she may or may not be feeling in that moment.

But love and loyalty aside, let's look at what would happen if JC didn't take part in the siege.

If JC didn't take part he would either look complicit in JZX's death or he would look like a weak coward who rolls over for his former second in command. Not only that, he would be expected to pursue justice on behalf of his sister. How would it look if he didn't raise a finger to kill or apprehend his sister and her husband's "killer?"

We don't even know if he wanted to kill WWX in that siege or apprehend him. Giving his literal job and the politics of that world, he wouldn't be wrong to do either. JC's job is to keep his people safe. And if WWX has become a threat, a threat that killed two of his family members, then I'm afraid to say it is his duty to stop him.

I would also argue in defence of his mental state at the time of his siege. JC literally lost his only remaining family left, his sister leaving behind an orphaned nephew. He's also not being fed the information we as the reader receive.

From his pov WWX had not only betrayed him to side with the sect that had nearly decimated his own, but it also looked like he had walked down the dark path and had become corrupted by his DC. His corruption had led to the death of people who he loved. In JC's eyes, WWX had betrayed him first.

Now before anyone starts, I am in no way condoning the massacre of the Wen remnants. But I would like to argue that we don't even know JC's full role in the siege other than that he lead it.

His goal was to get to WWX. If he wanted the Wen dead, he would have sided with the rest of the cultivation world in the beginning instead of defending WWX's actions and being mocked and demeaned for it. He was willing to embarrass himself and receive criticism from the other sect leader's for WWX! That to me suggests his love and loyalty for his brother.

For all we know, JC's party could have went after WWX and his fierce corpse army. Whilst the Jin took advantage and took care of the Wen. WWX never blames JC for the death of the Wen nor does he seek justice or revenge. Instead he puts the blame on the Jin when the truth of their conniving comes out. So.. if you think JC should be held accountable for the Wen, WWX himself doesn't even entertain that idea. 🤷

So no, actually. The siege does not nullify Jiang Cheng's sacrifice. JC made that sacrifice out of love for his brother without a second thought. JC only turned against WWX at the very last minute when he inadvertently got his beloved sister killed. He could have picked the easy way out and sided with the three powerful sects to take down WWX and the Wen a long time ago but he didn't. Because he loved WWX. He respected him. And he was only pushed to commit the atrocities he commited because of WWX. JC is not inherently evil.

[canon-toaster]

the lotm worms are back in business

[hanashiz]

Bungou Stray Dogs Light Novel 1 : Dazai Osamu's Entrance Exam

[daily-suyao]

[lgbtlunaverse]

I'm a little bit insane about how in novel canon the whole xiyao ending where Jin Guangyao wants to die with Xichen, who accepts, which then makes jgy change his mind and pushes him away at the last second isn't actually explicit. A lot of adaptations chose to make it so but in the novel this is all VERY up for interpretation.

Here's what actually happens in the text: Lan xichen stabs jgy, jgy moves away from lan xichen, xichen follows him, wwx realizes jgy is about to open the coffin and calls "watch out!" to lan xichen. Jgy unseals nmj, pushes xichen away, nmj kills jgy and they are both dragged into the coffin which is sealed again.

Here's what wei wuxian, our narrator, thinks is happening: Jin Guangyao wanted to lead lan xichen to his death out of revenge for stabbing him. Lan Xichen, unaware, simply followed Jin Guangyao to try and stop him from getting away. Wei wuxian's warning came too late, but Jin Guangyao- for an unknown reason- changed his mind at the last second and pushed lan xichen out of danger before lan xichen had any idea of what was going on.

Here's what most fans as well as the teams behind several adpatations think is happening: Jin Guangyao leads Xichen to nmj's coffin to die with him, Xichen accepts, because of this acceptance, proof xichen still cares for him, Jin Guangyao pushes him out of harm's way. Wei Wuxian just doesn't get that gay people who aren't him or Lan Wangji exist.

Here's what ALSO MIGHT BE HAPPENING: Jin guangyao wants to die in a different way than he is currently dying. Maybe he's afraid of what'll happen to his body after his death like he was scared for his mother's, maybe he wants to confront nmj one last time now that there's nothing more for him to lose, maybe - if he can't take her body with him- he'd at least like his final resting place to be where he buried his mother. Lan Xichen thinks he's trying to get away and follows but Jin Guangyao, who despite everything doesn't want him to die, pushes him away. Xichen doesn't know what happened until it's already happened. What he would've wanted if he had known remains up in the air.

Or, alternatively: Jin Guangyao's reasons are as above, but unbeknowst to Wei Wuxian, Xichen DOES know what jgy is about to do and either misinterprets this as an invitation to all die together, or inidividually decides he, too, is done, and wants to join his sworn brothers in the grave. To Jin Guangyao this has nothing to do with Lan Xichen, and he still doesn't want him to die, so he pushes him away against Lan Xichen's wishes.

Every single one of these interpretations is unhinged and they are all supported by the original text. It's like a choose your own adventure of tragic gay endings.

[sabo-torao]

i'm in serious need of a sabo novel. there's so much about him that can't be explored in the main manga (for timing reasons especially) but that needs to be addressed, like his grief, his thoughts after regaining all of his memories, his life before recovering from amnesia, his feelings and regrets and his turmoil after ace's death, the way he was scared to meet luffy again, his fear of being rejected or cast away, his overwhelming insecurities, and so on and so forth.

i know the novels aren't that focused on these matters, either, but they do show us the characters' train of thoughts and how they affect them, and how they act on them, if at all.

the ace novels helped us understand just how much sabo's death actually affected ace, to the point that ace didn't even have a clear purpose in mind, he didn't have any idea of who he really wanted to become, he just wanted to be better than roger so he didn't have any regrets so he could honor sabo and keep his will alive. and when he did find a place, when he swore to be a part of whitebeard's family, he showed his tattoo to whitebeard, to let him know of his late brother, to present his family to him.

not only this, but it really showed ace's insecurities quite well, making us understand his struggle to believe how someone could ever love him, not accepting/believing in his crewmates' love and care for him, viewing himself as someone unworthy of love till the very end.

law's novel, on the other hand, showed us just how much law thinks he isn't capable of being a good person, while proving time and time again that he is. it's always him saying how he only wants people to feel comfortable and be healthy because "he's a doctor, it's normal, it doesn't mean he's good", disregarding his good intentions entirely because he feels empathy differently from others. he can't be a good person because he doesn't show affection like other people, or because he's too "cold" and "distant"; basically, the novel shows us law falling for his own façade, and it helps us realize even more how much he actually cares about people, how much he's willing to give for the people he cares about, and how his heart is, ultimately, in the right place.

it also gives us an insight of his regret and guilt over corazon's death, how much he still misses his family, especially lami, it actually tells us that law has nightmares about his past, and how he is haunted by it.

again, the novels aren't perfect, these things aren't the focus, but they are explored, they're part of the story and they are used to make us understand the characters better. they're useful to us in order to get to know all the different faces of a character a little more.

a potential sabo's novel, or novels (because it would be a good thing to have one novel focusing on his life in the revolutionary army while he had amnesia, and one focusing on the consequences of ace's death and his other adventures during the timeskip, with all his memories back and robin as an ally, even though if it has to be only one the latter would be grandly preferred), would help us understand his character even deeply, and it would actually give us an insight of his thoughts, his actual feelings, showing us how he's dealing with his trauma even if for just a few sentences in a paragraph.

it would also be a great way to show the readers more of the revolutionary army work and overall organization! as a big ra's fan, i'd treat a novel like that as you would a treasure. i'd lose my mind if something gave me a tiny bit more info on sabo's relationship with the other commanders and members as well...

also, we know that sabo was on the lookout for the mera mera no mi, as he asked the revs to do him a big favor and help him retrieve it. a novel could focus on that! it would be perfect to analyse sabo's grief, mourning, his crushing guilt and insecurities while also exploring the ra's work, and it could use robin as a device to make sabo express his feelings about meeting luffy better, focusing even more on his messed up past and his (no longer) lost memories.

to sum it up, i really think sabo's character is way too interesting and way too deep to just end it in a "ace wouldn't want me to feel sad" mindset and leave it be. he's a complex, three-dimensional character that deserves something more, a side story of his own.

in any way i am saying that he's not well-developed or well-written! i think he shines in the main story regardless, i just want... something more.

i think he's worth it.

[etrevil]

Not me remembering that Dazia once put on hold a mission to prevent the end of the world by two minutes, just so that Chuuya can keep his autonomy, to make the choice concerning his humanity whether he wants to see it for himself or not, and I'm just-

[qiu-yan]

i'll write a more in-depth post later, but imo one of the reasons for the level of disagreement in this fandom is that many of us readers can see what mxtx is trying to imply about ethics through her work and simply do not agree with her base premise. like i think that there are some conclusions about the various characters in mdzs that mxtx wants you as the reader to draw. you can kind of tell even if you don't agree with those conclusions. more importantly, though, you can also tell exactly what kind of moral philosophy mxtx (consciously or unconsciously) favors, and what she treats as the granularity of morality, so to speak. the most commonly-held positions in the fandom are those mxtx intends for the reader to reach using her own beliefs about ethics as fundamental axioms.

the problem, then, is when the reader does not agree with mxtx's unspoken axioms of morality. if you come into mdzs with a moral framework different enough from what mxtx has (consciously or unconsciously) used to write mdzs, then of course you're going to come to different conclusions regarding the characters or even the object lessons of the story.

or rather, in simpler terms: the rammies, mxtx....the rammies....

[jq37]

Descendants: The Rise of Red is kind of a bizarre movie to talk about critically because, imo, it almost doesn't make sense to talk about it in the usual terms of good vs bad or enjoyable vs not enjoyable when the way more obvious tension is finished vs unfinished.

Because, more than any other movie I've ever seen, it does *not* read as a full movie. And I don't mean in a "this movie has a cliffhanger" kind of way. The Empire Strikes Back and Across the Spiderverse fit that description. They end on big dramatic cliffhangers that point to a resolution in the third installment.

But Rise of Red just sets all this stuff up and then...ends without concluding anything. It doesn't feel like the first movie in a trilogy (or duology). It feels like the first act of a two-act musical. It very specifically reminds me of the end of the first act of Into the Woods where all the main characters sing the song Ever After about how they all fixed their problems with magic and nothing bad will ever happen to them again and then the narrator ominously says "To be continued" before the curtain drops. But in Into the Woods you know there's a second act and this movie wasn't sold as the first act of a bigger story. Like sure, it has the, "You didn't think this was the end" tag at the end like all the other movies, but those movies were complete, self-contained stories even though they had sequels. This was NOT a full story. It's half of one story.

Like, if we're supposed to take this as a full story, there are so many bizarre choices:

Why did they make sure to mention that Cinderella and Charming fell in love at the ball at the top if it wasn't meant to set up Back to the Future style, "Oh no, I accidentally got my mom banned from the ball so she's not gonna fall in love with Dad and I won't be born" shenanigans?

Why did Maddox very pointedly have that bit about "you could lose your mom completely" if that was never going to come into play? Red never did anything to endanger Bridget or endanger her own birth so it doesn't make sense as a warning in that way.

Why was there all this focus on this Carrie on prom night moment for Bridget if we LITERALLY NEVER SAW CASTLECOMING? Why dance around this moment and talk about it all cloak and dagger with no specificity if they weren't building up to some big reveal that it wasn't as straightforward as it seemed? And like, they leaned in HARD with making Bridget the nicest, sweetest, cotton candy princess as a teen so I need WAY more than, "She got pranked by known bullies she's been enduring with a smile very handily up to this point" to buy that she went from that to "murderous dictator". And even if she did become murderous, I find it insanely hard to believe that she'd include her best and only friend on the list of people she wants to suffer unless there was a betrayal. I find it INSANE that there wasn't a falling out scene at any point in this movie with how thickly they were laying on the admiration and camaraderie.

(Note: And adult Cinderella def has guilty vibes re: the Queen at orientation. Which I know I'm not imagining because it's literally spelled out in the Jr Novelization!)

Before the time travel element of the movie started, I thought they were going for something like they go to the past and realize that Bridget was bullied not by the VKs but by the spoiled royals, and Ella ends up joining in the bullying once she gets with Charming, betraying Bridget and justifying her whole "Love Ain't It" philosophy. Or Ella ditching her at the last minute to be with Charming meaning she has to deal with the monster prank alone and it was the being alone rather than the prank itself that hurt her (though that is NOT a good enough reason to go all off with their heads on your subjects). The fact that, as far as we know right now, it literally was just a relatively mild and reversible prank that caused all of this is just, such flat storytelling, you know?

But! All of this makes way more sense if this is meant to be the first act of a single contained story. And I don't wanna be all "Pepe Silvia, secret good 4th episode of Sherlock" about this but I did see this picture:

Which seems to indicate that this was written as a Part One. Which, if so, idk why they wouldn't advertise it that way but whatever. The point is, if that's the case then it means that we're potentially in bad pacing territory rather than straight up bad storytelling territory. Because this isn't a bad place to be halfway through your story:

The heroes, warned that time travel is dangerous, have gone back in time to change the heart of a brutal tyrant before she can stage a coup. They seemingly succeed in their mission and when they come home, everything is great! But then, the side effects of time travel start to catch up with them. Chloe realizes that, in breaking the vase, she prevented her mother from going to the ball and falling in love with her dad (who was conspicuously absent from the final scene btw) which means she's starting to be forgotten and erased from the timeline. And Red realizes that though this new version of her mom is as sweet and kind as the teen she once met, she's a complete stranger to her (fulfilling the Hatter's warning that she could lose her mom completely). So they have to go back in time once more to make sure the Ella and Charming fall in love again, perhaps at the cost of whatever bad thing that happened to Bridget happening again and bringing back the original version of her future self. But, now with more context of how her mom became that way, Red can now talk to her mother and persuade her to give people another chance.

Boom, that gives us time to go back and hit everything we haven't yet hit. We can pay off the time travel tropes that were set up but not explored. We can go to Castlecoming which feels so obviously set up to be the centerpiece of this story (like, come on, Back to the Future literally does the school dance thing. This is Time Travel Storytelling 101). We can actually get info about what the prank was and why it affected Bridget so completely.

(Note: This is a side thing but it really strikes me as so crazy that Bridget would so SUCH a big 180 here. Like, I know the Queen of Hearts is a silly, goofy, campy villain, but she straight up murders people and there's no way to get around that if we're taking her out of the surreal story she comes from and putting her in a (comparatively) grounded story. If I wasn't doing a betrayal plot, I would make the twist that the spell that turned Bridget into a "monster" didn't just have a physical effect, it had a mental effect and it magically twisted her personality to be the way it is now. So they broke the physical half of the curse, but neglected the other half and it's been festering the whole time, turning her as evil as she was sweet. Because like, a simple physical transformation isn't that big of a deal to have such heavy security--Bridget made cupcakes with a transformative effect and that was totally fine. I'm not saying that that's what's gonna be the case. I just think it would be an explanation that makes sense for why she changed so crazy much that makes more sense than a simple prank or even a betrayal. Her mom wasn't even evil! How did she go from zero to murder without even an evil mom to push her onto the path? But I'm super digressing right now.)

(Note #2: OK, one last thing. The trap on the book presumably would have hit the VK's and trapped them in Merlin's office regardless of what Chloe and Red did, right? That's like, net zero influence on the timeline. I genuinely can't tell if that's a straight up plot hole or set up to be like, "Oh no. Actually when she said that she was turned into a monster in front of everyone it was meant in a less literal way." Like she was just made to look bad and that was the real thing that pushed her over the edge. Like idk. It really feels like the only thing they really did that would change the timeline was get Ella banned from the dance and presumably out of the way where she couldn't hurt Bridget. OK NOW I'm done.)

Anyway, my point is that this is not how I would have structured my movie and I think this was a super weird way to go into the second era of Descendants movies, but they can still tell a complete story if that's their plan. I'm genuinely really curious to see if this pans out to be a fairly competently told story that just happens to be split over two movies or a complete fumbling of the narrative bag because it could really be either at this point and it's fascinating to me.

[bardicious]

Sharing these two links

And

As these are my favorite two star trek tos novels (okay, maybe I only read these two - not totally true but very minimal reading was had regardless)

If you like Spirk, PLEASE READ THESE! The price is first, and the fate is the sequel. I don't think you'll regret it! 👀👀👀