#i rec looking all of them up

[hinamie]

for @cherryys who (rightfully!) hcs lategame megumi as having a bunch of scars befitting his status as resident punching bag

[winteriron-trash]

rdj the (whitewashed) electric boogaloo

This is a reminder to everyone who's excited about RDJ's casting as Doctor Doom that this casting is whitewashing. Victor Von Doom is a Romani character and has been a Romani character since his introduction in the 1960s. (Fantastic Four Annual #2 [1964]) Not only that, but his Roma identity and the persecution he and his family faced due to it is integral to his character, it is what forms his identity. (Books of Doom by Ed Brubaker) Even if on the off chance this casting is meant to not be Victor but instead be some variant of Tony or whomever else becoming Doctor Doom, it is damaging to the character to rob him of that important cultural background. Doctor Doom does not exist without that history. Fans have been pushing hard to cast Doom as a Romani actor for years, especially since the MCU has whitewashed other Romani characters. (Wanda, Pietro, etc) This casting is not a celebration moment, it's fucking heartbreaking that the MCU repeatedly ignores the important and nuanced cultural backstories of characters.

I know I can't change anybody's mind on whether or not you want to be excited about RDJ's return to the MCU. But I do think at the very least you should be mad that the MCU is baiting us all and destroying nuanced and interesting characters for the sake of self-referential easter eggs and nostalgia bait. Because that's what it is. Feel how you'd like to feel about RDJ's return, but personally, this is soul-sucking. I had such a deep love for the MCU as a teenager, it was obviously something incredibly formative to me, especially Tony Stark. This isn't recreating what I fell in love with the MCU for. This is turning a well-planned and artistic storyline of adaptations into cheap cash grabs and fan service. Because, I think we're past the point of being able to call the MCU an adaptation of anything. They can use existing characters' names and powers, but to say they're being properly adapted is laughable.

This is not an adaptation of Doctor Doom. This is RDJ the Electric Boogaloo because Marvel's fear of losing the interest of dedicated MCU fans overrides their willingness to tell stories that are genuine to the characters. I don't know what there is to be excited about that. The MCU has lost its authenticity and aside from a few projects, feels heartless. Every movie is a copy of a copy. This announcement isn't something celebratory, it feels like a death knell of a cinematic universe that's so desperate to cling to relevancy it's resorting to nostalgia for a character/actor who hasn't even been dead for a decade. We're not getting anything new, we're just rinsing and repeating the same song and dance.

I get it. I love Tony Stark, his death destroyed me and I to this day, rue the ending he got in Endgame. It misunderstood his arc and it robbed him of a satisfying conclusion. But the solution to that isn't dragging the corpse out of the grave five years later to whitewash an existing character with rich and interesting nuance, just to forcibly tie his existence in the MCU to Tony. Whether he is a variant or not. Why would you want someone else's fave's legacy to be destroyed simply so your fave's legacy can go on? Hell, if we were really all so hellbent on the return of RDJ and/or Tony to the MCU, we have the multiverse for a reason. There were other ways to do it that didn't whitewash and ruin someone else. This just. Isn't something to be happy about.

[greenerteacups]

Hi GT,

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I absolutely love the recs you've given (you've introduced me to tomione, and I love it!) and I was wondering if it's possible to give you some recs in return? There are some books and fics that definitely have dramione / got vibes, and I was wondering if I could share them with you!

So glad you've enjoyed them! Feel free to rec me anything you want. I've read most of the classic recs in terms of fic and adjacent content (Cruel Prince et al), but I'll try anything that's well-written. My tastes run towards weird and/or audaciously creative stuff, and I can forgive a lot of weaknesses in plot on the grounds of (1) ambition or (2) character work. My turnoffs are instalove, protagonists who can't fail, and most Y/A (I'm not a hater, I swear, I just need characters who can say "fuck" when their leg gets chopped off.)

I'm also a fan of weird and fucked-up dynamics.(Wuthering Heights was my favorite book for a while, and as a teenager I wrote an AU in which the book ends on a long sex scene where Heathcliff fucks Cathy's ghost and then immediately gets murdered by Catherine 2.) Obviously, I am very normal.

[thatswhatsushesaid]

haha

it is SO rich for the jgy critical crowd to insist that it's the jgy stans who are being weird and defensive given /gestures @ all of this. like what's the opposite of defensive 🧐 because that's what this is.

as i said to someone else earlier tonight, i'm manifesting the capability to climb through these anons' phone screens so i can chase them through their houses with a nerf gun. every little foam projectile will include a relevant printed out page from the EXR translation. probably with highlights and notes in the margins. maybe some frowny faces for emphasis.

anyway this is why i'm insane

[ifindus]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. spread the self-love ❤

Thanks, Rae!! 🥰 I rarely write fics now, but it was fun to look back on what I've manage to produce in the last 10 years 😅 the quality I fear varies greatly

The Sky Pirates Ship: FrUK Words: 61 802 Published: 13. May 2018 Summary: Francis finds himself a prisoner of a group of sky pirates. He's forced to join their adventures and the people he meets along the way change how he looks at the world. It requires teamwork to get out of it alive, but Francis manages to make a mistake that will cost him dearly.

Change Ship: SuNor (unfortunately not very shippy tbh) Words: 2 515 Published: 23. December 2023 Summary: Norway is not happy with being traded around like a piece of property and he is certainly not happy with his new "boss" ; Sweden. Over the years, his opinion does not change, but their personal relationship just might.

All you have to do is ask Ship: ScotNor Words: 3 468 Published: 30. December 2022 Summary: Sigurd keeps inviting all his friends to a café just befoe the holidays. Why has he become so sociable all of a sudden? Must be the excellent coffee and nothing to do with the handsome barista.

What Love? Ship: FrUK Words: 32 296 Published: 25. July 2016 Summary: France and England have had a thing going on for quite a while, but never talked to each other about it. However, their thoughts keep nagging them and somehow they end up as neither of them could have foreseen.

Love Burns Ship: ScotNor Words: 2 649 Published: 15. October 2020 Summary: The second world war has begun and Norway had to flee his country with the Royal family. While they now are safe in England, he has taken the trip up to stay with Scotland as there is little he can do in London. Still, he longs to be back with his own people.

[filmnoirsbian]

You don’t have to answer this, but do you have any light horror recommendations? Heavy horror has a lot of triggers for me, but I do like scary

I can't really know what you consider light vs heavy horror, and what I consider light vs heavy might be different. To be on the safe side I guess I'd recommend films like Beetlejuice, Hocus Pocus, Jaws, Tremors, Nope, Zombeavers, Zombieland, Little Monsters 2019, Thirst 2019, The Menu, Bay of Blood, Friday the 13th, Suspiria 1977, The Return of the Living Dead, The Blob 1988, M3GAN, The Stuff, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, the original Evil Dead trilogy, Snakes on a Plane, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Cabin in the Woods, Chopping Mall, Eight Legged Freaks, Death Becomes Her, Shaun of the Dead, Frogs, the Scream franchise, The Blair Witch Project, the Resident Evil franchise, Trick r Treat, Pumpkinhead, Blade, The Invisible Man 1933, The Host, Fresh, and The Shape of Water, Deep Blue Sea, One Cut of the Dead, Planet Terror, Alien vs Predator, Prey

For some horror that I don't really consider heavy but which others might: 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead 1978, Us, Get Out, Pearl, The Crow, Dark Water 2002, Snowpiercer, The People Under the Stairs, Dead Snow, Train to Busan, Thirst 2009, El Orfanato, Pan's Labyrinth, Evil Dead 2013, Black Christmas 1974, Alien, The Thing, Candyman 1992, Sissy, Ma

[nostalgia-tblr]

having a vague "why am i writing this horrible story?" crisis about the anglo-saxon au fic that has taken over my mind since *checks* about two days ago. i have approx 2000 words of it written so it is going fairly well in that sense but i have gone a bit niche with my fics recently and am starting to think "nobody wants to read this, people will be annoyed at you if you post this" a bit more often, even though they probably won't because it's a free cake and it's rude to complain about free cake.

[o-uncle-newt]

I read Possession by AS Byatt after people told me "if you liked Gaudy Night you'll like this" and WELL.

Warning- spoilers for both books abound below!

So it sounded great- as a lapsed academic (though not in the field of literature by any means) there's a part of me that loves reading about academia because it's full of such obsessive people, and this book seemed to be exactly that and so I was excited.

Then I read it, and on the one hand, my first thought was "all these people are dull as heck, the only sane modern-day one is Val, and at the end of the day the historical stuff is just two people having an affair, who cares." My second thought was "there's just enough stuff here that makes me think that maybe the author knows that all of this is stupid, like the fact that Val is obviously one of the few sane ones here." But the ending made me doubt even that. Essentially, and I say this even as that lapsed academic, the author could not convince me to care about the important things at stake here, and as a result couldn't get me to care about the people who only seemed to care about those things.

I didn't care about Ash and LaMotte- they came across as two people high on their own supply who had a tawdry affair. (And each of them is the less interesting person, as a person, than their official partner!) As a result of not caring about them, I couldn't POSSIBLY care about Roland, Maud, and the rest of their crew, because their only functions were to be possessed by, and weirdly possessive of, these two entirely unworthy individuals, whose in-universe historical and literary significance Byatt couldn't convince me of, and to use that possession as a mirror for their own very lame romance. Beyond that they're utterly uninteresting, and there isn't even meant to BE much beyond that so it's not that surprising.

Anyway, I didn't like this book much, but it still made me think a lot. And there's a way in which a certain kind of person might say "well if it made you think then that's surely a sign of some positive quality" and... maybe? I don't know. I didn't hate all of it, and some parts were interesting, and I do have a whole separate list of things about the book that bug me including a breakdown of some of the book's (perceived by me) themes that I particularly disliked lol. Perhaps I'll post it another time. So I guess you can say it spurred me to thought, but loads of things that I don't like do that, and the only positive thing that that draws from me is that they're not downright dull.

The thing is, after finishing the book I was immediately struck by that "if you like Gaudy Night..." element, because it has a situation that felt weirdly similar (if for totally different reasons)- a young scholar stealing a letter from a library/archive. The circumstances are different- in Gaudy Night, the scholar does it to hide its existence so as not to contradict his thesis, and in Possession, the scholar does it so as to explore the document further, though still secretly- but there are still some interesting parallels vis a vis class. Possession goes into the class thing more than Gaudy Night does, but neither book goes much into it- the scholar is lower-class and someone who has scraped their way to their position, and is encumbered by a female partner of lower social and academic standing, and in the end they are juxtaposed against scholars who come from an elevated class and who have more money and opportunity. In Gaudy Night, Arthur Robinson is judged by the likes of Lord Peter Wimsey and a college full of women who don't have to do anything but think, teach, write, and grade papers; in Possession, Roland has to convince a bunch of academics of standing and resources to take a chance on him (and while this is more about money than class, he's the main one who's like "maybe it's good if Lady Bailey gets her wheelchair"). Byatt elides over this at the end by having him magically become in demand and on his way to achieving his academic goals, but I think in both books, the class element really could have taken on more significance in the text.

(I'd add as well that Byatt pits the upper-class and moneyed Maud, who of course is doing things for "the right reasons," vs the evil American businessman who clearly... doesn't care about Ash enough? Despite how much he clearly and obviously cares about Ash? The book was way more interesting when he seemed like a valid rival to the British team, who only thought that they deserved the letters more because of their obsession, rather than how it turned out at the end where the American dude is an actual cartoon villain. What made him genuinely less worthy besides having money without class, and of course having the bad taste to be American? What makes one scholar's possession more justified? Sayers was never this unsubtle.)

So that made me think more about Possession vs Gaudy Night, and the thing is, there are actual living people in Gaudy Night! Say what you will about the unworldliness of the academics at Shrewsbury, but you get a very keen view of their personalities by the end, even as they are (by necessity given the rules of their world) subsumed by academia, or subsume themselves in it. And the people who do fall in love are REALLY in love, and you understand why...

And somehow a book from 1935 feels far more interrogative of the possession (or lack thereof) found in love and romance, and just about the place of women in academia and relationships overall, than one from the late 80s. In Gaudy Night, Harriet accepts Peter once she has determined that despite their power differential (brought on by class, money, history, and to a degree gender) he will not threaten her personhood, because he has proven himself to her. In Possession, Maud accepts Roland because she has the power (money, class, position, even height) and so Roland actually cannot threaten her- and yet still that final scene is about her being taken by him, basically to prove some kind of a point. In contrast, in Busman's Honeymoon, the euphemistic sex scenes are about Peter trying to please Harriet.

When I say it's to prove a point, I'm paraphrasing Byatt, incidentally- who said: "And in the case of Maud I had made it very inhibiting. She was a woman inhibited both by beauty (which actually isn't very good for very beautiful women because they feel it isn't really them people love) and she was also inhibited by Feminism, because she had all sorts of theories that perhaps she would be a more noble kind of woman if she was a lesbian. And so she was a bit stuck. And Roland was timid because I am naturally good at timid men. It's the kind of men I happen to like. He's a timid thinking man, so of course it took him the whole book." I mean... yikes, but also that explains a lot. Maud can only bring herself to be with a man who is weak/effeminate (?) enough to justify whatever weird psyche Byatt has imagined up for her, but still she needs to get over her inhibitions and under him because... reasons. I don't know.

(Height is also interesting here as a point of contrast- Byatt makes Maud taller than Roland to make a point about how on the one hand she retains the power but on the other hand there is now even more of her that has to surrender. Peter and Harriet are the same medium height and wear the same size gown.)

I think the thing that most stuns me is how regressive Possession feels when it comes to gender politics on relationships than Gaudy Night does. I'd need a whole other post to talk about this, but the theme of Possession seems to me to be "relationships that produce things (whether art or children) are worth more than ones that don't." Roland is better with Maud than with Val because Val is a second rate scholar who drags him down (while supporting him financially) and Ash is better with LaMotte than with Ellen because LaMotte didn't only inspire his writing (Ellen's contributions are described only in the negative "didn't impede"), she gave him the child that Ellen refused to. Incidentally, in both cases it's the man pursuing a relationship that will give HIM something... But, to paraphrase Peter in Busman's Honeymoon, one wouldn't want to regard relationships in that agricultural light. Gaudy Night is about how two people can produce great things without each other but choose to be with each other for their own, and each other's, happiness. They aren't each less apart, and as I noted in a prior post, they don't need to solve cases together or conjoin their work in order for their relationship to be worth something. It is worth it for them to be together because it encourages some kind of inner balance within them and between them, as people. They enjoy collaborating but that is by no means the basis of their love (and, incidentally, I think that a lot of, if not most, detective series romances fail this basic test of "would they have fallen in love if they were accountants who met on a dating app." Peter and Harriet definitely would have- would, say, Albert Campion and Amanda Fitton have? I do NOT think so).

And here's the thing- another reason why Byatt's quote above is so off-putting is that it makes it clear that not only in the text but on a meta level, the purpose of the relationships is to prove a Point. I found Roland and Maud to have zero chemistry, and honestly I was expecting them to get together 3/4 of the way through and split up at the end when it turned out they had nothing in common- it seemed like that kind of book. I was kind of stunned when they only got together at the end in an "it's meant to be" way because nothing about it seemed meant to be. They were stuck together by that one thing and they each apparently needed the relationship for some kind of self-actualization or historical rhyming or other. (Whatever I say about Ash and LaMotte... at least they seemed to like each other!)

Peter and Harriet... they get together because they love each other. Do they change over the course of Gaudy Night, and over the course of the other books they share together? Of course they do. But if it makes sense, I'll put it this way- Harriet doesn't accept Peter's proposal as proof that she got over her hangups, Harriet gets over her hangups so that she can accept Peter's proposal. Her hangups only matter because they were keeping her from this particular kind of happiness- she was a fully actualized person even with them. She is a person who does things for human reasons so that she can build a mutually happy life with the person she loves, not a little plot mannequin being moved around in order to tell the author's desired Message. People can say what they want about Gaudy Night and its flaws, but despite the intricacies of its construction, nobody can call the characters' actions and motivations anything but brutally human.

Whether within their universes or on a meta level, the books have SUCH different things to say about the value and nature of love, the place of and purpose of sex, the place of art and intellectual accomplishment in relationships, all of the above in the context of femininity… and I can't help but feel that each time, Gaudy Night wins the contest. It's possible I'm missing something major about Possession, and maybe sometime I'll post the rest of my notes about the things I disliked and people can tell me what I'm wrong about- but if nothing else it made me appreciate Gaudy Night even more, so for that I'm grateful.

[wereh0gz]

Is my discomfort with my boobs gender dysphoria, body dysmorphia, or just a general discomfort with the sensations of having a human body that comes with possible neurodivergency

[insanelyadd]

Hi! I'm sure you've posted something like this already but do you have any recommendations for comics/fics that are Papyrus-centric? Trying to find stuff that's more about him that isn't out of character is really hard. He's my favorite character and I'm so tired of Fanon -.-

Well I gotta recommend my all time favorite UT fic. It's not strictly canon Papyrus, and okay, this is going to sound fucking silly, but it's a Fedora Papyrus Angst Fic. Yeah. I am being for real. It's so good. I have sent it to multiple people who were like "That's so dumb I hate this character" who come out of it Changed. A few people have cried.

Irredeemable by @drundertalescum

As for comics, I have an a few AU recs that both are very true to Papyrus' character, the first being @invertedfate and the other being @undertalethingems Unexpected Guests comic, Papyrus being a major secondary character (Frisk obviously being the main character) of Inverted Fate, and while UG isn't Papyrus-centric it features a lot of him and he is treated very well and written incredibly good.

I gotta be real with you I mainly read reader inserts (I am madly in love with this goofy ass skeleton) so I don't actually have much else to recommend. Though if you want to know other good people to ask I'd say ask Sam (Thingem) since they love canon UT Papyrus and aren't a reader-insert reader, they have very good standards for him.

I'd recommend my own Ambassador Papyrus fic but I haven't updated it in forever (pensive emoji). I want to but I've been distracted by other things.

[sesamestreep]

I started making a fake book cover for @firstelevens latest amazing fic sugar pie, honey bunch and then I got kind of obsessed with making book covers in Canva, so I decided to make covers for a few more of my favorite sambucky fics of hers to show my appreciation for her writing keeping me sane the last few months ♥️

by land, by sea, by dirigible [18K words, 6 chapters, complete] - Sam and Bucky team up with the dynamic duo from Marvel's Cloak & Dagger (RIP) and magic, literally, ensues. 🔮⚜️

sugar pie, honey bunch [AU, 55K words, 17 chapters, complete] - the plot of TFATWS except it's behind the scene of an all-star season of The Great British American Bake Off. Alliances are formed, conspiracy theories come to life on twitter, and whisks (and hearts!) are stolen. 🥐💖

a friend of any sort [AU, 3K words, 2 chapters, Part 1 in a series, complete] - Sam needs a fake date for Thanksgiving at his sister's and brings Bucky along to be the most unsuitable, obnoxious boyfriend ever, so his family will leave him alone about being single. Things do not go to plan. 🥧🦃

you can sing me anything [AU, 4K words, 1 chapter, Part 2 in a series, complete] - sequel to a friend of any sort, in which Bucky needs Sam to return the favor and pretend to be his boyfriend to get him out of an awkward situation (and into a better, but still kind of awkward situation). ☕😻

[rinbylin]

mum was asking for a cdrama to watch for the first time in years. and the only condition she had was "no guzhuang" 😭 ... unlocked a repressed part of my memory when i was more modern dramas than guzhuangs (lol who was that?? what changed me?? actually, hlht, i think) like mum like daughter really

[readmorepoets]

Hey, where is that quote about Jane Eyre as linked to Bluebeard and Beauty and the Beast from? Is it Maria Tatar’s Bluebeard book, or Heta Pyrhonen’s Bluebeard Gothic, or something else? Thank you!

hi thank you for asking!! i forgot to add the source that was my mistake. it’s from a paper i was reading titled "bluebeard and the beast: the mysterious realism of jane eyre"

[yohankang]

that moment when you really need to watch something cheerful but your watchlist is just crime dramas mixed with action thrillers 😐

[barklikeagod]

biting chewing