#i'm doing research at the same time as i'm writing i'm living dangerously omg

[rapha-reads]

When you're 5 pages in, 1.7k words into, your essay and you're barely, baaaarely reaching the central theme of your work. Hell yeah.

I'm writing an essay on the place of fantasy literature in the global academic literary canon for my Contemporary Literary Canon class, and I'm having fun.

Originally the theme given by the prof was "choose a not very known literary work and argumente why it should be part of the canon", but I am contradictory and my bread and butter is fantasy, fantastic and science fiction, therefore I completely changed the theme WHILE staying inside it.

I picked AN ENTIRE GENRE, started by explaining what fantasy is, and why Tolkien is important and definitely should be in the canon, fuck you Harold Bloom you arrogant pretentious piece of shit, then I'm going to argue why there should be an entire canon devoted solely to fantasy works (because let's be real, it is THE main genre today), and then I'll just. Explaon why the series Ewilan by Pierre Bottero should be an internationally acclaimed literary masterpiece.

The deadline is tonight midnight, it's already 4 in the afternoon and I've just reached the second point. Send luck please.

[melanielocke]

I see emojis omg /j

📚 - Do you have any mystery book recommendations? Specifically murder mystery? Preferably female protagonist? It's okay if they're male though 🤗 (just because there aren't many good ones with female leads).

This request turned out to be a bit of a problem, because it turns out I don't really read mysteries. So instead, I gathered book that are murder mystery adjacent enough that I hope you might like them.

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw is a horror YA

It is set in a small coastal town in Oregon where two centuries ago, three sisters were accused of witchcraft and thrown into the harbor with rocks tied to their ankles. Now, every year the sisters return, possess the bodies of three girls from town and each drown a boy in the harbor.

Penny, like most people in the village, accepted their town's fate. But then just before the drowning season starts, a mysterious boy called Bo shows up, unaware of the danger he's just stumbled into, and Penny does not quite know if she can trust him.

This book is not exactly the classic murder mystery, but it does have the kind of huge twist you'd expect from one. It is very atmospheric, and I think that's where this author excels.

Winterwood is the second book by Shea Ernshaw

It is set somewhere different in Oregon (pretty sure that's where the author lives), and follows Nora Walker, a girl who lives in a very isolated mountain village, near the mysterious and potentially deadly Wicker Woods. Rumored to be a witch, only Nora knows the truth about the Wicker Woods. She and the women in her family have a special connection to the place, and one night during a full moon she finds Oliver, a boy who disappeared several weeks ago from the Camp for Wayward Boys and has no memory of what happened.

Nora comes to care for Oliver, but has no choice but to find out what really happened the night he went missing and how he could still be alive. Because Oliver is not the only boy who went missing that night.

Like the Wicked Deep, this more horror than mystery but it has a strong mystery element in it, with another twist suiting a mystery. Like the Wicked Deep, it is also very atmospheric.

There's someone inside your house by Stephanie Perkins

This is a slasher book, but it's also quite heavy on the romance. It's been a while since I read it, and I think there's also a movie of it on Netflix and I think they have a very different ending and a different killer so I'm not sure which happens in which anymore. I think the movie did better in regards of suspense and tension than the book so maybe I'd recommend the movie first? They have some of the same characters and are both slasher/serial killer stories but I think in the movie the deaths were more impactful and the reveal was more exciting.

The story follow Makani, who moved to the town from Hawaii after an incident there, which is hinted at and revealed later on (but I kind of found it underwhelming and weird), and then she makes a couple friends and meets Ollie and teens at her school start dying.

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee is not exactly mystery, but it does have murder in it

It is a dark academia set on a very fancy boarding school, and Felicity returns there for her last year after staying away for some time after her first girlfriend had died. Here, she meets new student Ellis, a teen writing prodigy with her first book out, who calls herself a method writer and is now researching an old story about witches that are said to have lived and died on the school grounds. It is part romance between the two girls, but the whole story is pretty dark and messed up and Felicity is at times convinced that these witches might be real and responsible for her girlfriend's death. This is not an easy book to explain but it really was quite good.

The Dead and the Dark is a paranormal/horror mystery set in a small town in Oregon. Because apparently Oregon is where all the spooky paranormal mystery things happen? I don't know, it seems to be a popular location

Logan's two dads host a ghost hunting show together, and have traveled to this town, which is also their hometown, for the new season. But teenagers are disappearing and there might be something really spooky going on here, and Logan has the feeling her dads are keeping secrets from her.

Ashley is a girl who has lived in this town her entire life, and her boyfriend was the first to go missing. Now, Logan is her only hope to find him.

This is a sapphic story as well as a paranormal mystery, but the emphasis is more on the mystery, I think. There are ghosts in here and a pretty sinister and quite creative explanation for what is happening in this town and why.

Last on the list is Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

More fantasy than murder mystery, but the main premise is that a boy dies and the main character, Yadriel, accidently summons his ghost. Yadriel is a brujo, and in his community brujo's can speak with ghosts, but his family was hesitant to let him use his powers because he's transgender and they're not sure if he can be a brujo or would wield female powers instead. When he summons Julian, Julian wants Yadriel to find out who killed him, and the two go on an investigation. But the longer they are together, the more Yadriel wants Julian to stay with him.

[rumor-imbris]

Hello, Lady Connor! I want to ask out of unbearable, suffocating curiosity in my heart, even though in the previous post you already said to not mention "that certain comic". Could you please enlighten me about your view on that comic and what you despise about it? I would love to read your detailed thoughts about it even if just once. But if this is too triggering for you, I'm truly sorry for your discomfort and you don't need to answer it.

Hello, dear Anon and welcome ^-^ It's weird you naturally called me Lady Connor, as usually only my little fairy @giuliettaluce does. Well, I guess her magic put a spell on everybody here!!

If you really care to know, I'll answer, but brace yourself, it's going to be very long, almost an essay, because I can be very detailed about that comic being a failure in its every part. There's so much to say. You're right, as I mentioned before, it can trigger me, but I have attentively analized it and I know it makes not a single atom of sense. So nothing can actually bother me that much, don't worry ^_-

First of all, my general consideration of the AC Reflections comic issue #4, (yeah, that thing -.-) is that of a mere attempt to desperately make Bayek's remote vision through Senu's eyes a canon feature. It was created and published in 2017, the same year AC Origins was released and yes, they needed an excuse to make believe Connor's alleged daughter inherited a skill someone (who isn't even their direct ancestor!!) that lived 1700 years ago in ancient Egypt had! OMG, this should be funny enough, but I'll go on. Also, I think it was likely a carelessly arranged way to satisfy those AC3 fans demanding a "happy ending" for unlucky Connor (quite 5 years later, of course).

I'll better go step by step to figure out where to start from, seriously.

1) In the comic, when Otso Berg opens the file related to Connor, the scene is set in "1796: Upstate New York." Now this is chronologically and spacially incoherent and illogical. We see Connor still wears his assassin outfit in it, right? According to AC Initiates (2012) in 1804 Connor invites the Dominican assassin Eseosa at the Davenport homestead to provide him some advices and further training as he's involved in the leading of the Haitian Revolution. That's a really cool character, read about him, if you want!

So, until then Connor is still an assassin, probably the mentor (by now) of the Colonial Brotherhood. He still runs the homestead and he still commands the Aquila, I guess, he's the captain still. I calculated the distance between the homestead and the then upper NY frontier territories is approximately 260 miles (quite far nowadays with cars and planes as well). Then, why the hell should he have a family located in the forest upstate NY? It sounds very unconfortable to run back and forth to reach them and go back to take care of all the Brotherhood matters, doesn't it? Unless he knew about teleportation!!! Also, wow, he lives all alone in a nice massive villa with all the comforts of that time while his children and wife still live in a Native village constantly menaced by settlers wanting to steal their land? Beside the fact that Connor, at least in my point of view, seemed at last very familiar with european way of living by the end of the game, this leads us to the next point.

2) By the time the game and the comic are set (second half of 18th century), most of the East Coast Native tribes were facing the tragic and forced migration to western and northern territories (mostly towards Canada, protected by the British) because of all the consequences of the Revolutionary War (lost territories, failed alliances, settlers advancing and buying their lands and so on). So tells us history, unfortunately. It's a fact. And this is wisely showed to us in the AC3 main game when, after all the Kanien'kehá:ka tribes had left the territory around Connor's village (yes, even those near New York, to be clear) even Connor's own tribe at last migrates west, leaving an empty ghost village. They had remained all along to protect the secret temple, but in the end they as well were forced to leave. So, to me it's highly improbable that in upstate NY, one could still find a tribe and even if so, that Connor would let his family live there and risk their safety everyday.

3) The whole comic plot revolves around the fact that Io:nhiòte has a "special gift"... She inexplicably knows how to read the ground and find animal traces, she also can perform a perfect twisted acrobatic flip in the air and land unharmed to the ground. Do we know why? No, don't ask! xD She simply knows U.U, even if right after the next scene she slips and falls miserably down a cliff xD, but... ok!! Beside that, when Connor is far away to search for some water and is about to be attacked by a wolf hidden in the grass nearby, she sees the whole scene from the eyes of an eagle flying in the sky above her. As I said before, this reminds us of Bayek's (never clearly explained) ability to see through his eagle Senu's eyes and spot dangers and enemies. Now can you tell me why the hell this little girl has super powers and a skill Bayek had? As I said, they are not even directely related, as Bayek is not one of Desmond Miles' ancestor, we know him simply because Layla's new Animus is magical and can inexplicably read fragmented DNA from people who died a thousand years ago (it can also prepair coffee, I think!). So, where did she get that from? Magic? Mysteries of life? Convenient improbable connections for marketing's sake? We'll never know and you should simply accept that and ask no question!

4) From her height, way of speaking/moving/running, I assume Io:nhiòte is at least 8 years old, 8 - 9 minimum. She's the youngest of three siblings, who must be at least two years older than her and than each other (according to a human woman pregnancy timing!). If the comic events are set 12 years after the main game ending (1784, when Connor also starts to train the young ex-slave Patience Gibbs, arriving at the Davenport homestead with Aveline De Grandpré, according to AC IV Black Flag bonus mission with Aveline), so, this means that in that same year Connor must have found hastily the love of his life in a Native village (as if he was easy to open himself with other people after all he's been through), married her, impregnated her and seen her give birth to their first child, all in the same year when (let's not foget! xD) he still is the leader of the Colonial Assassin Brotherhood at the Davenport homestead training novices. Now, this may even be possible humanly speaking, (well, if you force the things a bit and hurry up!) but highly unlikely to happen!! xD

These are the main problems affecting the logic of the comic in my opinion, the points making its foundations crumble apart. Though I'm sure there are many little others to point out, such as Otso Berg "opening" Connor's files... like what? Where did those data come out from? I remember playing AC IV Black Flag and uncovering a file where Abstergo researchers themselves closed access to his memories as there was "nothing appealing to this character anymore"! So, if no more researches were conducted on him since 2013, where did Mr Berg magically or conveniently discovered such data in 2017?

Or... do we want to talk about the cover? It shows Connor in the spirit outfit from the Tyranny of King Washington DLC, which has apparently nothing to do with the comic, since it is set in his present day and he wears his assassin standard robe. Now, I think that can be either a simple marketing choice to make the comic more appealing, as... well, that cover is so cool, let's admit that, or maybe the subtle suggestion that the events told in it are just a parallel Disney-like reality and are not to be considered true at all! xD i don't know, maybe both explanations are right.

I'm sure that the deeper i dig, the more nothing rational I'll find!

If you played the old games, if you know well the franchise and its lore, the true, good, old AC lore, you definitely realize by yourself how that comic is useless and senseless.

This doesn't mean I do not wish an "happy ending" for Connor. But I'd rather accept something coherent with the main game events and AC chronology. Also, it doesn't necessarily needs to be a "happy" ending, as they conveniently created to please complaining fans. I wished for something real... coherent with his personality, acquired life-style and endless sense of duty and values.

Maybe that's what pushed me to write my FanFic novel in the first place, after all... To give him MY OWN cohesive ending, including my love, for love is always needed, I guess.

I'm so sorry if the answer took this long in time and words, but you were warned! ^w^

Though, thank you... Seriously, thank you so much for asking. You made me reflect once more about this matter.

Come visit me again, if you want. Take care

- Rumor Imbris 🦋

P.S. Oh, and if you're interested, this is my "jelousy song", for when things like this trigger my inner witch!! xD