#i feel like it did a disservice to the o p characters too. they deserved better than this story :

[cielospeaks]

i think how g b f treated nemo perfectly summed up why i dont like this fucking game and all my problems with it

[hanmajoerin]

I’m just gonna say it, y’all, Yashahime isn’t what I expected and there are elements to the series that I would have handled differently but to be honest, if I was at the helm of this all of you guys would be shitting on my version too.

My expectations–my hopes and dreams for the InuYasha cast after the end–it’s all so different from yours. I’ve read your fanfictions, I’ve seen your OC children. I respect them even if they’re not the characters that exist in my head. I respect them even if your ideas of the world after Kagome returns take three different turns than mine. This is exactly why I am urging some of you guys to brew a cup of chamomile tea and wait, at least until we have all 24 episodes of Yashahime at our disposal. I’m not the biggest fan of them, but Sunrise deserves the same respect as all of you do. And before you get all defensive and upset, don’t think for a single second that I have forgotten what InuYasha: A Fedual Fairytale did to the relationships of every InuYasha character. I feel their poor representation of InuYasha and Kagome’s relationship in the very atoms on my fingernails to this day.

Still, I have 193 animated TV episodes and four feature films to point at and criticize. And believe me when I tell you that the amount of college papers I could compose regarding the disservice that was done not just to my favorite couple, but to all of the characters that I’ve spent the past fourteen going on fifteen years of my life growing up alongside is kind of crazy. Yashahime has four episodes. F O U R  E P I S O D E S.

For some crazy reason, Rumiko Takahashi loves the cast and staff that worked on InuYasha: A Feudal Fairytale–they take annual vacations together for Christ’s sake. It sounds like Sunrise has a plan for this sequel and just because the four released episodes include elements that I didn’t anticipate doesn’t make it fair to rule out the possibility of the series’ potential as a whole. Takahashi claimed to like it and that woman is coo-coo banana crazy, but if she believes in it, I have faith too.

But something that I wanted to remind you guys about is the fact that sequels don’t happen in the Rumic World. That’s why Yashahime existing is so fucking insane to me in general. Takahashi wanted to make a new story instead of “InuYasha Two” and as a writer who tends to not be a fan of sequels myself, I know where she’s coming from. I also wanted to remind you that we are not watching “InuYasha Two” either. We have Hanyo no Yashahime. This is a series about the daughters of some characters we love carving a path sprinkled with a little bit of familiar stuff and a little bit of new stuff. The whereabouts of our favorite characters from the past (unless you’re a Sesshomaru fan, we found that guy today LOL) is the series’ greatest mystery. Sunrise is dragging us along without an ounce of remorse as the new generation uncovers it. And it’s painful, but that doesn’t make it fair to disregard the potential of an entire work so early on in its run. If you decide that the story is simply not for you and you’d like jump ship? Totally different. It’s absolutely fine. It’s expected! But if you’re discrediting any kind of potential? No way.  

What’s been confirmed so far is that Moroha has little to no memories of her parents even though she knows who they are. Today we saw her grandmother ask for regards to be sent to her mom. Instead of having an emotional breakdown like we (with our 559 chapter history with Kagome) wanted, Moroha showed the largest amount of discomfort yet. She faltered, she admitted that she didn’t really “know” her mother, and scratched the back of her head uncomfortably. Nonetheless, she agreed to send the regards. This was Moroha acting in-character. Seriously, this quarter-demon is a fucking spitfire like twenty-six hours a day; she may have bared her butt to the family, but she hasn’t shown them any signs of emotional vulnerability. Two different things. 

Speaking of two, I’ll fight anyone who says Towa didn’t deserve that scene with Sota. In Yashahime, Sota raised Towa for a decade. Towa was his first baby. Towa is so much more than just the daughter of Sesshomaru, she is Sota’s daughter. His baby girl. And he sees so much of his big sister in her, especially now that Towa’s departing on an epic journey to gather her twin’s memories like the shards of the Sacred Jewel. It felt nostalgic to Sota. It felt right for him to share this moment with his daughter instead of his tiny gremlin niece who jacked his credit card and came into his life a few days ago 😉. And it was positively monumental that for the first time, Towa called Sota “Papa” instead of “Sota Papa.” It was in-character for the lore of the show. Maybe not our hearts, but in the reality of the show and therein lies the difference. 

Please don’t take this post as a declaration stating that you cannot be upset. Sunrise can’t make us all happy, that’s preposterous! We just need to be fair. It’s been a test for me too, in some ways, but I’m genuinely enjoying Yashahime for what it is. My blog is always going to be here for fun stupid posts, sentiments fics, and anything InuYasha. I want to continue participating in the journey that is Yashahime with my followers which is precisely why I’m encouraging you to watch the series with a calming cup of chamomile tea at your side. I’m encouraging you to remember that the main cast and main supporting cast of this sequel simply do not share the same history that we do with InuYasha and his friends. We need to acknowledge the characters for where they stand–their history with the world we’ve been shown–not where we stand.

I know it’s hard, my dudes, we miss our family. I want their safety and happiness just as much as you. But, I promise you, it’s going to be okay in the end. Kagome already told us so.

[plexxable-reads]

REVIEW: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

✪✪✪

Read: 7/6/20-7/18/20

**S P O I L E R S** Please continue at your own risk. Thank you so much to NetGalley, Redhook Publishing, and Alix E. Harrow for the early ARC in exchange for an honest review 3.5/5 I’m honestly heartbroken to write this review. Taking a deep breath here... I’ll start by saying Alix E. Harrow is an exceptional author and one of my ‘Top 5’ all-time favorites (The Ten Thousand Doors of January) came out of her brain. I’d also like to add, I’m a fellow artist, a musician— I know how daunting it is to follow up such a strong debut. It sucks, honestly. Really fkn sucks. A lot. With that said... [I’m so upset to type this] I did not immerse into this like I had hoped. 🙍🏻 The pacing was really not my thing. Every time I thought I was getting hooked in, it flat-lined for me. There’s a lotttt of exposition. This isn’t always a bad thing, and if Harrow wasn’t such a skilled writer that truly has a knack for developing a unique, visceral tone for her main characters, I might’ve given up at about 40%. I would say that this is fiction, sub genre historical fiction. It’s absolutely necessary to provide a bit of context, but I felt it was overdone at times (and underdone in others????) And now, folks, the most devastating and uncomfortable critique I have— As I said, this piece has a lot of historical context to it, which I love. Unfortunately, I was disappointed that a story, centering witching, barely spent any time talking about the Black (Egyptian and Haitian) community of witches (The Daughters of Tibuta) who reside in New Cairo. I found it incredibly frustrating that there was so much given regarding our [white] protagonist Sisters of Avalon from New Salem— their history, their family history, their witching history... and yet the section when Cleo finally tells Bella about The Daughters is so lacking, I actually had a hard time finding it again when I wanted to go back before writing this review (Chapter 18). To write a historically accurate book on witching, and to neglect a key part of its history, considering the overarching theme of the novel is “stronger together” in many ways, left me pretty disappointed. Speaking of disappointment, let’s talk about Ms. Cleopatra Quinn some more— oh wait, there’s not much more to tell. 😢 Again, a huge missed opportunity here. I found her character fell into a common trope with “strong, black femxle” characters across pretty much all disciplines of narrative fiction: they’re one-dimensional and pretty much act as a plot device in service of bailing out the white characters from their messes. Harrow barely scratches the surface...throwing us a few crumbs when we finally hear about her bearded marriage to a gay man, and then it’s back to the Eastwood Sisters Show. And listen, I’m not unaware of who this story is supposed to be about. I get that. I like the sisters, I really do, but it’s quite possible to create supporting characters that are fully messy, beautiful, piercing ruckuses (which, with Harrow’s previous work, shows she’s fully capable of, by the way!) without taking away from the story’s main protagonists and I just did not feel it happened here. It just... bothered me. Again, I take no joy in sharing this, and maybe had I read this a year ago, I might not have (as a white cis person) thought twice about this, but with racial inequity at the forefront of mine and many other people’s minds, I again found myself pretty frustrated... I mean, Cleo is honestly one of the most interesting characters in this book in my opinion— she deserved better, she really did. Cleo was not the only supporting character to get the shaft— Jennie, the Sisters of Avalon’s first member and record keeper, former suffragette assistant, and as we find out at ~82%, she happens to be trans. Now, I’m all for having trans characters without focusing too much on their identities. I think this is an important evolution that needs to be made in how art tells trans stories and represents that community. To represent them as regular people who are, and need to be known as trans, but it’s not the entirety of who they are. This is necessary, so it’s not the lack of talking about her identity that I take issue with. However, this is revealed so late in the book (like, 82%???) that I actually had to double-back and reread the section again. Similar to Cleo’s small nugget of development, it came and went so fast, I was left feeling really empty from wanting to get to know Jennie better, and not being given that chance. Phew. How’s everyone doing? That was rough. I feel tired. Let’s talk about some great parts of this book, yeah? Again, I can’t overstate enough how skilled I feel Harrow is. Despite feeling like I missed out on so much of who Cleo is, my favorite sections were the dialogue between Bella and Cleo. Their romance is truly beautiful with some of the most elegant intimacy scenes probably ever written. I would 100000% read a spin-off centering them. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention our Sisters Eastwood and their masterfully crafted dynamic. Each of the three are so distinct, not just in personality and quirk, but also in the way that they process (shared and individual) trauma. Really freakin riveting character study. (Not to beat a dead horse, but that’s precisely why I couldn’t let my critiques slide for Cleo, Jennie, hell... I even would’ve taken more on August! It’s not only a disservice to what I know are such fascinating characters living in the author’s brain, it’s a disservice to Harrow as a very capable character author. Just let me in your brain, Alix!) Okay, so here’s the summarized consensus— I didn’t hate it, how could I? It’s Alix-freakin E. Harrow. It just wasn’t all the way there for me. I told myself after finishing that I’d reread it, I’ll definitely buy a physical copy once it’s officially released, but currently I’m not crazy about this one. And like, that makes me so, so sad. Thank you again to NetGalley, Redhook Publishing, and Alix E. Harrow for allowing me such an early look! (please don’t hate me...)

[chase-the-windandtouch-the-sky]

⭐star⭐

Oh my goodness, thank you love!

The section I chose was from The Price of Peace, which was the scene that started it all! The reunion scene where Clarke is being harvested and the line about Mount Weather.

Putting everything under the cut in case this gets long!

Bellamy thinks someone may say something, but not one moves. They’re all frozen in this moment, pulled by gravity and circumstance, forced to drift in the universe.

Without realizing he’s even doing it, Bellamy moves toward the figure, kneeling down in front of them. He sets his weapon aside, certain he wouldn’t be able to shoot anything with it at this moment anyway, his hands ghosting the cuffs that are keeping the person’s left arm above their head, hand dangling there black and blue. In their side is a tube, currently clamped and filled with nothing but the tint of black, cut off from whatever lies on the other side of the wall. The skin is angry, infected, and horrible to see.

I really like playing with the way time moves and the way I see it in my life. And I’m a firm believer that there are moments where time is broken, that everything fades away and you in this moment becomes infinite. That’s the feeling I was trying to achieve here with Bellamy seeing Clarke for the first time after thinking she was dead.

Bellamy’s hands hover over the hair. The hair matted by dirt and sweat, covering their face. He moves to brush it aside, afraid of what he’ll see. Afraid of what will happen when he moves the hair aside.

He does anyway.

When he does, he almost lets out a strangled cry when a set of deadened, blue eyes stare back to them. They appear to not be seeing, but they’re there, observing all the same. “Clarke,” he breathes, pushing her hair all the way back. He’s afraid to do anything else – he’s afraid to touch her, move her, jostle her in any way.

The moment he breathes her name, there’s another figure at his side. Abby runs her hands up the tubing currently in her side and arm, her breathing ragged. Bellamy knows he should move out of the way, but it feels as if everything’s stopped.

With this, it was really important to me that it was Bellamy who discovers her, sees her, and all the pieces fall into place. But also, he’s so afraid for so many reasons: how fragile she looks, how broken she is, how they forgot her, but most importantly: that maybe this isn’t real. Bellamy spent the better part of the year after her death trying to forget her, then here she is, flesh and blood. A horrible reminder of what’s going on. (skipping ahead a few paragraphs)

Abby runs her hands down the cuffs, her fingers sliding across the metal. “Raven, did you bring your tools?”

“O-Of course.”

Raven doesn’t sound like Raven either. Perhaps none of them are themselves at the moment. It feels like they’re in an alternate reality. Raven brings clamps up to where the cuff is locked, her own hands slipping. “I-I—” she says, her eyes red. She tries again, but the clamp slip from her fingers and clatter to the floor. “I-I’m sorry.”

“Let me.” Shaw states, coming up behind her and gently placing a hand on her back. He bends down and picks up the clamp, letting his hand slide off her back in order to get the tool in position. With a swift motion, there’s a snap and the cuff swings open.

I skipped a few paragraphs, because I know how long this is getting, but this moment with Raven was so important to me. In hindsight, it’s super interesting given the current season, but I was really upset at how Raven was in the anti-Clarke camp from the rumors at the time (although, nothing would’ve prepared me for S6 Raven, honestly). And I wanted a moment where Raven really saw Clarke as a person - a human being trying her best with horrible situations.

I mean, I kinda want that now in the actual canon. But to have Clarke at her most vulnerable, the epitome of humanity, was to shatter the illusion of the Great Wanheda - the person who survived so many things. After all, she is one woman who has survived a great deal, and it hurt that they all forgot that.

Her arm doesn’t fall.

It stays there, as if her bones had built themselves a fortress to remain intact. Abby surveys it and says, “I don’t know how conscious she is. If she is, this will be painful. Her arm is out of its socket, so we’ll need to lower it and pop it back in. Someone will have to hold her just in case.”

“I’ll do it,” Bellamy says, his voice low. “I’ll hold her down.”

“Be careful not to press too hard. We don’t know how much pressure she can take right now.”

Bellamy shifts to directly face her, saying, “I promise, Abby.”

Honestly, this is one of the more graphic things I’ve ever written - without blood or gore. It was a horrible thought I had, but just to show the sense of time that had passed and how Clarke had sort of been stuck in her position. 

But, needless to say, it was tough to write.

“One,” Abby counts. “Two—”

“Wait.” Echo breathes behind them.

“Why in the world would we wait?” Abby exclaims, losing it ever so slightly.

“She tracked you, Bellamy.” Echo states, pointing at her face. “When you moved to the front, her eyes followed.”

Sure enough, when he faces her again, her eyes are directly on him. They’re no longer absent and glassy, like they were when he pushed her hair out of her face. There’s something behind them – something present and alive. “Clarke,” he says softly, dropping his hands from her shoulders to brush against her cheek. “Clarke, can you hear me?”

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

When she speaks, someone gasps. It may be him. Honestly, he’s not sure.

It’s interesting, because there are 2 Echos for me: the Echo I would’ve written and the Echo that is currently in canon. Here was when I was desperately clinging to some semblance of a plot that made sense, because I’m in the firm camp that the show did her character a serious disservice by throwing her offhandedly as Bellamy’s love interest.

As for when Clarke speaks, in my mind, it was loud and soft at the same time. Foreign, even. Like a whisper of who Clarke was, to the point where they were all staring at her.

Not even Clarke sounds like herself. Her words are ragged and scratched, as if dragged across glass. A part of him questions whether he even heard something, but due to everyone’s reactions, he knows she had to have said something.

“We’re here, Clarke.” Bellamy says, his turn to lose it a little. He brushes his thumb against her cheek, her skin dry and rough. “We’re here for you.”

“I wish you would leave.” She states, tears welling in her eyes.

Bellamy drops his hand. He tries to not show the shock and hurt, but very clearly fails. “Clarke, what are you talking about—”

“I can’t have you here anymore, Bellamy.” She states, a tear falling down her cheek. It pools at her chin and stays there, shaking along with her. “I can’t handle you leaving anymore. You promised you wouldn’t be back.”

This part came from a headcanon I had about Clarke hallucinating Bellamy after Praimfaya. Thinking that he came back for her. And there’s a part of her that always knew he’d come, but it manifested in a really painful way for her in this scenario.

Because this Clarke has no hope. After all the hallucinations and the blood / marrow draws, she has nothing left to give. And Bellamy is more painful that he has ever been.

The realization hits him like a tidal wave and he places both hands on the sides of her face. “Clarke, this is real.” He states, unable to stop his own tears. It’s everything he can do to not freaking out over the fact that she’s alive, conscious, and apparently used to seeing him. “Listen to me, this is real. I’m not leaving. None of us is leaving.”

“No one ever means to leave,” she says, closing her eyes. “It just happens.”

Her words are hollow. Empty. Like something scraped out of a jar, empty and futile. He hates the sound of it. It doesn’t sound like her, it doesn’t look like her, it isn’t her.

Except it is.

“P-Please go away.” Clarke says, her eyes shining. “Please.”

This was really tough to write, but it was from my thought that Clarke believes everyone she loves dies. Her dad, Wells, Finn, Lexa... she’s just used to people leaving at this point, and in this scenario, she’s built a wall out of necessity. She needs to, to survive. She’s barely a person, void of hope.

“Clarke,” Bellamy states, putting every ounce of assurance he can in his voice. “Do you trust me?”

All he receives is a shake of the head, the motion muted and painful, her jaw clenching as she does so. “Go away.”

“Clarke, do you trust me when I tell you this is real and we’re here, and you’re getting out?”

Her eyes open and she looks at them. They’re glassy and distance, no longer filled with the fire from moments before. “Do you think this is purgatory for Mount Weather?” She asks, her voice hushed and raw.

No one moves.

No one breathes.

This. The sentence that started it all! I laughed looking back because this is chapter six - it took me SIX CHAPTERS to get to the ONE LINE that inspired this fic. If that isn’t a metaphor for my writing, I don’t know what is. 

It’s interesting with the new season being ‘Mt Weather 2.0′ since that was sort of the premise here. For me, this fic had multiple goals - people accepting Clarke, them trying to do better for Monty, and also Clarke feeling like she deserves / needs to repent for her past. And so throughout this, there was a small voice that told her she deserved it all. And it manifests in this line.

That was so fun! I hope I haven’t bored anyone who made it this far. As you can see, I tend to overthink literally everything I write... :P