#kai dark parables

[mb-blue-roses]

Okay I had an AU idea

^ this post, but make it Gwyrdai

Gwyn's the bored prince, Kai's the cute gardener boy, and Gerda's the other noble (for the sake of the AU, she's raised by Hansel and does Royal Moon Priestess Stuff - TBD as I flesh this out more lmao)

[foundfamilyhq]

[astral-express-family]

sometimes a family is a baker, a botanist, the king and queen, and a sentient puppet. and they take naps together 🥰

[yourfaveneedsakiss]

Kai from Dark Parables needs a kiss! 💋

Requested by @arty-girl-asks

[barbiestuffps]

Dark Parables: Ballad of Rapunzel, 2014

[darkparablesgainira]

It's the best thing I've done in a while

[fandomtrumpshate]

Unlisted Fandom Challenge

Two days ago, at our last Unlisted Fandom Challenge update, we had a 3-way tie for first. Today? One of those fandoms has taken the lead AND a new fandom that hadn't had even a single signup before has jumped all the way into a 4-way tie for second. Your fandom could do the same, in the hours still left before signups close!

At present, our leaderboard looks like this:

7 Danny Phantom

5 Carmen Sandiego (2019) 5 For All Mankind 5 Tortall 5 Yu Yu Hakusho

4 Ace Attorney 4 Alan Wake/Remedyverse 4 Formula 1 RPF 4 Ted Lasso 4 The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison 4 The Stanley Parable

3 Greek Mythology/Religion 3 Buffyverse 3 Bungo Stray Dogs 3 Call of Duty 3 Detective Conan 3 Dragon Ball 3 HBO War 3 Kingdom Hearts 3 Persona Series: 3-5 3 Professional Wrestling 3 Realm of the Elderlings - Robin Hobb 3 Shades of Magic - V. E. Schwab 3 The Mummy films 1999-2008 3 Undertale

Given the way Carmen Sandiego came from *nowhere* to tie for 2nd place, a single signup really can shake things up! And for the next few hours, signups are STILL OPEN! Do the thing!

The rest of our unlisted write-in fandoms under the cut for length -

2 Ghosts (TV) 2 Black Sails 2 Cosmere 2 CSI 2 Cyberpunk 2077 2 Dead Friend Forever 2 Death Stranding 2 Dice Punks (podcast) 2 Dimension 20 2 Donten ni Warau / Laughing Under the Clouds 2 Dracula 2 Dune 2 Firefly 2 Glee 2 Guardian/Zhen Hun 2 Hermitcraft/The Life Series SMP 2 Imperial Radch Series 2 Inception 2 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure 2 Mob Psycho 100 2 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury 2 Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint 2 Ordem Paranormal Quarentena 2 QSMP / Quackity SMP 2 Riverdale 2 Saw 2 Slow Horses (TV Show) 2 South Park 2 Stormlight Archive 2 The Bear (TV) 2 The Empyrean - Rebecca Yarros 2 The Folk of the Air (Holly Black) 2 The Radiant Emperor Series 2 Venture Bros 2 Voltron 2 Wolf Pack 1 1670 1 A Court of Fey & Flowers 1 a league of their own (TV series) 1 A Plague Tale (Videogame Series) 1 American Gods 1 Among Us 1 Bandom RPF (Bad Omens) 1 Bandom RPF (Lorna Shore) 1 Bandom RPF (Motionless In White) 1 Beastars 1 Bendy (and The Ink Machine/Dark Revival) 1 Horror 1 Bioshock 1&2 1 Blue Beetle 1 Blue Eye Samurai 1 Books of the Raksura 1 Boondock Saints 1 Breakfast With Scot 1 Bunny - Mona Awad 1 Buzzfeed Unsolved/Watcher Entertainment RPF 1 Cabin Pressure 1 Cats the musical 1 Charlie's Angels (2019) 1 Cherry Magic 1 Chronicles of Narnia 1 Cobra Kai 1 Coffee Talk (Video Game) 1 Criminal Minds 1 Death Note 1 Devil May Cry 1 Dexter 1 Digimon 1 Discworld - Terry Pratchett 1 Disney Theatrical Animated Universe 1 Divergent 1 DMBJ (Grave Robber's Chronicles) - Xu Lei 1 Dream SMP 1 Dungeons and Daddies (podcast) 1 Endeavour/Morseverse/Inspector Morse (ITV/Dexter) 1 Ensemble Stars!! 1 Fallout Video Game (Bethesda) 1 Falsettos 1 Fargo FX 1 Farscape 1 Fire Emblem (4-10, 13, 14, 16) 1 Five Nights at Freddy's 1 Friends at the Table 1 Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid 1 Grantchester 1 Green Creek 1 Grey's Anatomy 1 Grimm 1 Gundam (see below for details) 1 Hatchetfield 1 Hawaii 5.0 1 Hello From The Hallowoods 1 High School Musical 1 Higurashi no Naku Koro ni 1 Hollow Knight 1 Honkai Star Rail 1 Horizon Zero Dawn 1 Infinity Train 1 IT (Movies - Muschietti) 1 Jeff Satur - music videos 1 Julie and the Phantoms 1 Kushiel's Legacy 1 Law and Order 1 Legend of the Galactic Heroes 1 Live Free or Die Hard (Die Hard 4) 1 London Spy 1 Lovecraft Mythos 1 Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic 1 Magnificent Seven 1 Mary Grant Bruce's Billabong series 1 Mrs. Davis 1 My Little Pony 1 Nancy Drew (CW Series) 1 Narcos (TV) 1 Nine Worlds Series - Victoria Goddard 1 NU: Carnival 1 Omori 1 One Direction 1 Orphan Black 1 Outlast 1 Paranatural 1 Phantomarine 1 Re-Animator 1 Resident Evil/Biohazard 1 Sex Education (TV) 1 She-Ra and the Princesses of Power 1 Simon Snow Series 1 Skins (UK) 1 Slam Dunk 1 Starry Musical 1 Succession 1 Sunless Sea 1 Super Sentai 1 Sweeney Todd 1 Team Starkid 1 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 The Adventure Zone: Balance 1 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension 1 The Adventures of Tintin 1 The Artful Dodger 1 The Good Place 1 The Greenhollow Series - Emily Tesh 1 The Hollows - Kim Harrison 1 The Last Kingdom 1 The Left-Handed Booksellers of London - Garth Nix 1 The Lunar Chronicles 1 The Mechanisms 1 The Pairing (Casey McQuiston) 1 The Saint of Steel 1 The Shadow Campaigns - Django Wexler 1 The Terror (TV 2018) 1 Three of Hearts 1 Tin Can Bros 1 Tower of God 1 True Detective 1 Twilight 1 Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold 1 Wayfarers (Becky Chambers) 1 Weak Hero Class 1 1 Westworld (TV) 1 Yellowjackets 1 Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters

[the-kinfesssional]

the list of kins starts now with probably one of the bigger ones being

Pokemon- 34 kins (stretched across fictionkin, ockin, and otherkin)

Cookie run- 32 kins (four ockins the rest are canon somewhat)

Dream smp (the bad source)-22(one oc kin the rest are damp and adjacent kins)

hermitcraft- 10 (All somewhat canon kins, sept doom guy who is non canon but heavily headcanoned as being two peoples dad)

genshin- 4 (aether, scaramouche, Lyney, n venti. weirdest combination ever)

sanders sides- 4 (one oc the rest are canon)

regretevator- 6 (roblox games are fun)

cult of the lamb- 1 just the lamb

yandere sim(gods help us these sources)- 1 (ayato, the male stand in for the yandere main character)

the binding of issac- 1 (Azazel, lil demon guy)

Omori- 4 (kel, basil, omori, sunny)

yo-kai watch- 1 (casanono)

Henry stickman series- 1(Charles)

RTGames miitopia playthrough- 2(magical john and chat)

food fantasy- 2 (Coffee and chocolate)

kid Icarus games- 2(Pit and dark pit)

stardew valley- 3(elliott, shane, and krobus)

IB- 1 (Garry)

the amazing digital circus- 1(Jax)

FNAF- 3(Vincent, fnaf movie mike, and jeremy Fitzgerald from a altered rebornica au)

john doe- 1(john doe)

Danganronpa(the gods do not hear our pleas for it to stop)- 4(ockin, shuichi, nagito, kiibo)

vocaloid- 2 (Len and KAITO)

Kirby- 4(Kirby, Marx, Taranza, Meta knight)

Legend of zelda series- 7(JUST A BUNCH OF LINKS and one sidon)

Mario series- 1(Luigi)

splatoon series- 1(Ockin replacement for agent 8)

Wild kratz- 1(Martin)

Phighting(another roblox game yay!)- 6 (One noncanon/ockin the rest are from the source canonically)

phoenix wright ace attorney- 1(Phoenix)

the ugly duckling analog horror somehow- 1(younger version of the ugly duckling)

the stanley parable ultra deluxe- 2(Narrator and timekeeper)

don't starve- 3(Wilson, Wes, and Webber)

Mystreet/diaries(?)- 1(Zane Ro'meave)

that should be it, sorry for the long list we have alot of sources... -🕯️🐑🗡️

Intresting, and that's ALOT of kins.

/lh

Also dies I can't include every single one of your sources . Stupid Tumblr tag limit

[ask-snowfall-kingdom]

Welcome! This is an ask blog centered around the people of Snowfall (Dark Parables)! It is set around the time of The Thief and the Tinderbox, in an AU where TTatT did not happen.

Characters currently available: Gerda, Gwyn, Kai, & Snow

Rules:

Nothing NSFW

Be polite

Just... be respectful, please

I'll add more if this gets big & I need to

Mod Info:

I don't know that anyone actually cares, but oh well. You can call me 🦉 or Cel, and you can just kinda use any pronouns except she/her for me.

Ballad of Rapunzel is my favorite Dark Parables game, and The Thief and the Tinderbox is my least favorite. Kai is my favorite character. I'm a young adult, and I first played Dark Parables when I was really little.

[darkparablesthorst]

Hi! I’m going to open drabble requests (around 200-500 words) for Dark Parables, Cursery, Fabled Legends, Macabre Mysteries, and Enchantia. Here are some rules to help you how to formulate your requests. 

Request your favorite character! I can do two people max + you!

You can pitch in a specific scenario (like having a night out with Kai, getting cozy with a yandere!Crooked Man) or a general idea of what you want, i.e. angst, fluff, crack, etc. 

NSFW and SFW requests are allowed!. NSFW drabbles will be kept under a read more and will be tagged accordingly, so please block #dpthorstdrabble for the frisky fics if that’s not your cup of tea

[aestheticallynotdeerlightful]

It would be super cool to see your voice claims for the characters!

VOICE CLAIMS WOO!

Okay okay so this is a very long list, because I’m indecisive, and originally I would’ve loved to make this a video but alas I do not how to edit, nor do I own my computer, so it’ll have to wait

I was debating if I should of just sent my Google doc here of everything (because that doc has even more then I’m sending here) but I decided to just- copy and paste some of it so apologizes in advance for the length!

This list is very extensive and I’ve pulled voices from ALL over the place, I haven’t even watched all these shows, most of this I’ve just seen through clips and went “omg it’s perfect” so it’s a mess I’m sorry akdjsjd

Long post ahead!! (Italicized font are the ones I especially like the most)(I’ve also included links to some of these if you’ve never heard them)

UNDERTALE

Frisk

•Gregory (Over the garden wall)- Colling Dean

•Jessica (Craig of the creek)- Lucia Grace Cunningham

•Chihiro (spirited away English dub)- Daveigh Chase

•chowder (chowder)- Nicky jones

•niki yang, BMO (adventure time), Candy (gravity falls)

Flowey

•Yakko Warner (animaniacs) -Rob paulsen

•Richard Horvitz

Toriel

•Sigourney weaver

•little foots mother (land before time)

•Kala (Tarzan)- Glenn close and Kat cressida

•freya (god of war)- Danielle bisutti

Napstablook

•Sadness (Inside out)- Phyllis smith (although maybe a tad pitched down. But only a smidge)

Sans

•Herb (BoJack horseman)- Stanley Tucci

•Bob (bobs burgers)-H. Jon Benjamin

•Moist Cr1tikal (the YouTuber)

•Revtrosity (also a YouTuber)

•Red guy (DHMIS) -Joseph pelling

Papyrus

•Jacksepticeye (you all know who that is.)

•Scudworth (clone high)

•Skeletor (he-man) (I think this one speaks for itself)

•revtrosity (YouTube)

Monster kid

•Darwin Watterson (Gumball)

•Steven universe- Zach Callison (specifically young steven)

•Wybie (Coraline)- Robert Bailey Jr

Grillby

•Jack Skellington (nightmare before Christmas)- Danny elfman and Chris Sarandon

•Wirt (over the garden wall)- Elijah wood

Gaster

•Narrator (the Stanley parable) kevan Brighting

•bubo (bubo)- James dijit

•knight lautrec (dark souls)

•Sasha barbicon (titanic adventure out of time)

Undyne

•Jasper (Steven universe)- Kimberly brooks

���kuvira (legend of Korra)- Zelda Williams

•Yunan (amphibia)

Alphys

•Peridot (Steven universe) -Shelby Rabara

•Lara Jill Miller

Mettaton

•ENA (ENA)- Gabe V and Lizzie freeman

Mettaton Ex

•Alaska thunderfuck (hieeeee)

Burgerpants

•Hiccup (HTTYD)- Jay baruchel

•Randell(monsters inc)- Steve Buscemi

Asgore

•Mufasa (lion king)

•Aslan (Narnia)- Liam neeson

Asriel

•Lewis (meet the robinsons)

•kubo (kubo and the two strings)- art parkinson

•yes hear me out: Max (camp camp) -Michael Jones

Hyperdeath Asriel/Adult asriel

•Anakin (Star Wars)

Chara

•Connie (Steven universe)

•Kristofferson (fantastic mr fox)- Eric chase Anderson

•Marcy Wu (amphibia)

•Demetri (cobra Kai the karate kid saga continues)

•Ronno (Bambi)

Temmie

•Happy (Fairytail)- Tia Ballard

Mad dummy

•Blitzo (Helluva boss)- Brandon rogers

Gerson

•Yule (Mune: guardian of the moon)- (it’s the large green old guy)

That’s it for the Classic cast so far, I’ll make a seperate post this with my picks for the Environmentalshift au and other miscellaneous voices at a later time. This took forever

Maybe someday I’ll turn this into a video. So it’s easier

[mb-blue-roses]

Hello Dark Parables fandom. I have a thought, just hear me out.

Gwyrdai.

Gwyn x Gerda x Kai.

I really need to watch the rest of the games, but I just got around to playing Ballad of Rapunzel and I love their vibes. So, I think they should be a polycule. Tbh, I'm attached to Kai bc one of my best friends is a trans man named Kai.

~ Anywho, have a real quick incorrect quote I made up ~

Gerda: This is a very important question, Kai.

Kai: I can handle any questions you have for me. You know that. What's going on?

Gerda, very quickly: Will you marry the two of us?

Kai: What?

Gerda: What?

Gwyn, stepping forward as Gerda pulls out a ring that matches her and Gwyn's: She's asking if you will marry us.

Kai: But Gerda, you're engaged to Gw- Wait, us?????

~ I'm gonna write a fanfic for this once I'm done with a different fic I'm working on for a different fandom (it will use the quote above lol). ~

~ I'm also gonna figure out how to draw them at some point today I hope. ~

[umbralglade]

My mid year reading update

Tagged by: @jushiro-ukitake

Amount of books you’ve read so far: 19

Best book you’ve read so far in 2022:

I really have loved pretty much all the books I’ve read this year, but my most favorites have been these!

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2022:

I haven’t read a lot of sequels this year, so I just listed them all lol (and I loved them all so!)

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert (definitely could have gone in general faves)

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin (part of the Hainish Cycle, which is technically a series)

New release you haven’t read yet but want to:

SO many

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

My Evil Mother: A Short Story by Margaret Atwood

Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro

Book of Night by Holly Black

The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings

Thrust by Lidia Yuknavitch

A Half Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence... by R.F. Kuang

All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year:  

I only find out about new books once they’re already out idk! With that in mind:

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Biggest surprise favorite new author (debut or new to you):

S.T. Gibson

Naben Ruthnum

Newest fictional crush: 

I ggguess these would be fictional crushes??? Characters I imagined as........probably hot lol

The Golem AND the Jinni from The Golem and the Ginni by Helene Wecker

Breq and Seivarden from the Imperial Radch trilogy

This is not a crush but I just thought Baek Isak from Pachinko was so sweet and kind I was so sad about him and I think I was in love with him. uh

Book that made you cry:  

I love to cry at fictional things so honestly most of these books probably had me misty eyed at some point, but the books that made me actually cry were:

Pachinko, and

Crying in H Mart, read back to back, literal nonstop crying

Lonely Castle in the Sky had a little publisher’s note at the end about Japanese children’s low reported mental health/happiness, which really got me given the context of the story 

Book that made you happy: 

Lonely Castle in the Sky, in a surprise turnabout from the last question lol. Happy in the cathartic, inner-child-feels-seen kind of way!

Ancillary Justice and its two sequels - I was really excited to get into a trilogy that hooked me so much!

Most beautiful book you’ve bought so far this year (or received): 

Focusing on beautiful like design-wise, and on received rather than bought:

Golem and the Jinni (got for bday)

Lonely Castle in the Sky (got for Christmas)

Favorite rereads this year: 

I only re-read one book, which was:

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell - which I really love, I KNOW

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?:

Need to finish (hard to find/read for misc reasons):

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

Almanac of the Dead of Leslie Marmon Silko

Prioritized to-reads:

The Night Watch by Holly Black

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters (have to read one insane historical lesbian drama by this author a year)

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

The Fisherman by John Langan!! Been looking for this everywhere!!

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield!! Also this one!

Unknown Language by Huw Lemmey and uh um Hildegard von Bingen lol

Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold (book my stepdad told me to read like 15 years ago)

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us... by Ed Yong

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake 

Phew! Tagging anyone who wants to do it lol

[astral-express-family]

It's a QPR not a romantic ship but still... 🥰

[thesffcorner]

Dark Parables: Rise of the Snow Queen

The third game in the series, and it is by far my favourite one. This is really where Blue Tea Games hit their stride; the art direction and aesthetic of the series became solidified, it has the best written story, excellent level design and a really good bonus game. It’s also the first game that introduces Parables, which provide another collector’s incentive, and add to the lore. 

I both think that Snow White is the most complex and interesting character, and that this is the best best written story in the series. It’s an emotional and dark tale, while also tying in with the previous game. It also has the most satisfying ending. It’s also the only game in this series where the exploration and puzzle solving really are designed so that you slowly piece together what is happening in the castle. There is no Briar or Ivy telling you to go to a specific part or find a specific thing; everything you learn you learn organically from exploring the castle, and even when the other characters give you information, they have gotten it from the same clues you have. 

Speaking of characters, this is the first game that has proper NPCs. Marie and the bodyguard did exist, but here, the characters are present throughout the whole investigation, and actually contribute to your quest. Unlike Briar Rose or Marie who you had to rescue, Kay, Gerda and Noah are proactive members of this tale, and even the other children we meet impart information or clues. It made this world feel so much more realized now that we know other people live in it, and when we have characters we care about at stake. 

So let’s get into it. Like before, the game starts with a cutscene, this one of two children playing in the snow. The Snow Queen appears before them, and hypnotizes them with a golden apple; a moment later a beast takes them away. 

Once again, you are the fabled Fairytale Detective, this time traveling to the Mountain or Snowfall Kingdom in Switzerland. During a snowstorm, all the children from the nearby villages have disappeared. Your guide, Noah, takes you to the gates of what was once the Mountain Kingdom, and asks you to find his son Kay who has also disappeared, giving you a photograph of him.

The first thing you find is an envoy from the Underground Kingdom, (before it was, you know, underground). James has sent his soldiers to capture the Snow Queen, but the soldiers were ambushed and killed. I wonder if James knew at this point who the Snow Queen was, but even if he didn’t, I really like this detail. It shows us that James was willing to fight to get his child back and hadn’t just given up on him. 

Inside the castle, you see statues of the Queen and the Mountain King. This is odd, since the Queen isn’t exactly a positive figure for the locals. You also see a blonde child running around the castle grounds. She leads you to a crypt where you find 2 children who warn you that there is a beast around, and the other children are in the palace. You also see a memorial to a young Prince, seemingly, Snow Queen’s child. 

The beast is indeed watching you, and after you find a piece of an emblem that can get you inside the palace, he creates a snow wolf to keep you away. Defeating the wolf nets you an ice stone, which is going to be rather useful. Sidenote, if you thought James was a dick for letting you die in the caves, the beast tries to kill you 3 separate times, one of which involves putting you in a freezing cell with an already dead body. 

Inside the palace you follow a soft humming to the Snow Queen who has found Kay. She sees you, and erects a wall of ice, preventing you from reaching Kay. While looking for a way to the Queen, you run into the blonde child again, whose name is Gerda. She is Kay’s friend; when the Queen took all the children she hid, and has been trying to rescue him. She tells you she can sense magic radiating through a door, which requires a golden apple to unlock.

Looking for the apple takes you to the astronomy room, where you find a statue of the beast which morphs back into the Mountain King, as well as, many tomes on something called the Silver Moon which happened to coincide with the children’s disappearance. 

You find said apple, and just as Gerda tells you she has figured out how to tell when the beast is close (the air becomes warmer), she gets taken. Inside the room you find a golden tree, full of apples. Eating a golden apple puts the person under a trance during which they don’t remember what they did, and the Snow Queen has been feeding the apples to the children, trying to find a Golden Child. 

A Golden Child is blessed with the ability to be immune to all magic, and lift curses and charms with their tears. Their powers manifest during a Silver Moon, and the Snow Queen has been trying to find one for centuries. Just thinking about how many children have died in her search is a somber thought. 

In the workshop you find notes on a balcony the King requested be made for the Queen, that can only be opened by a pendant. You use it and witness Gerda push the apple away from Kay. The apple reverts back to being ordinary; Gerda is the Golden Child, not Kay. The Snow Queen grabs Gerda, while the beast knocks the detective out. 

You wake up in a cell, next to the previously mentioned dead body. Remember that ice stone? This is where you use it to escape, but not before you learn from your jail mate that the False Mirror is responsible for turning Snow White into the Snow Queen, and the King into a beast. If you have been reading the notes and paying attention, you already know that the King has ordered the real False Mirror be hidden in the treasury (there is a replica in the workshop). The False Mirror reflects and amplifies the worst qualities of the person; even its own creator was afraid of its power. 

Armed with this knowledge, you find the treasury and where the kids are being held, locked in an ice cage. A girl tells you the Queen has Gerda, and Kay has escaped yet again. He is actually hiding in the vault, and you manage to activate a portal that takes you to the edge of the Kingdom. 

Kay tells you that he stole a pendant from the Queen; he thinks it has to do with the crypt. Noah promises to return with supplies and rescue the kids, while you go explore. Inside the crypt you find the sleeping body of Snow White and the Frog Prince’s son, Prince Gwyn. 

The following is more or less the story of how we got here: Snow White was the daughter of the Mountain King. Her father married the Wicked Queen and bought the Truth Mirror as a gift. The Mirror showed the Queen that Snow White was the fairest and the Queen cursed her. Prince James saved Snow White from the curse and took her to his Underground Kingdom, while the Wicked Queen, cursed herself, escaped. 

James and Snow had a son, Prince Gwyn. One day while playing, Gwyn was attacked by a monster, and James’ guards weren’t fast enough to save him. On the brink of death, Snow White fed him a golden apple, placing him in eternal slumber, neither dead nor alive. No one James called could help the child, and blaming him for his fate, Snow White took him and stole away, back to the Mountain Kingdom. The King, already feeling guilt over failing to protect Snow once, tried his best to help Gwyn, but couldn’t. Whether James altered his curse in an attempt to save his son, or Snow White herself cursed him, is unclear. 

Desperate, Snow White heard about the False Mirror, the Truth Mirror’s twin and found it. The mirror, using her desperation, tricked her into wearing a shard, and giving her father one which cursed both, reflecting their worst qualities: overwhelming grief and cold in Snow and rage in the King. The Kingdom fell apart, the King murdering his council after they tried to execute Snow, his  most loyal of soldiers freezing to death, and the rest of the subjects escaping. The Mirror told Snow White that to get Gwyn back, she needs to fix it, and the only thing that could fix it is the tear of the Golden Child. The Mirror’s real intention is to reflect her grief and despair onto the world, plunging it into an eternal, frigid winter, as revenge for being locked away. 

Noah returns and tells you to use a headlight on the watchtower to show him where the children are being held. Again you are attacked by the beast, and you use the tower bell to shatter the mirror shard, freeing the King from his curse.

Noah helps you break the children out, and gives you an ax, passed down through his family that can cut the magical vines in the solarium. Inside, you find the Wicked Queen’s cottage, and the true power of the False Mirror. You also learn that there is another portal in the astronomy room, which takes you to the Mirror’s hiding place, where you find Snow, Gwyn, Gerda and the King, gathered around the False Mirror. 

Snow White forces Gerda to cry, ignoring the King’s attempts to reason with her. The Mirror rains a snowstorm on the castle, and the wounded King tells you to find pieces of a magical hammer that can destroy the mirror. He helps you forge it and you use it to shatter the mirror, releasing Snow White from her curse. 

Overcome with guilt for all she has done, she cries for her son; Gerda cries with her, and her tears wake Gwyn. Snow White and the King thank you, and you and Gerda depart. 

Bonus Game: Hansel and Gretel

The bonus level is the first one where you play as someone other than the detective; as this is Hansel and Gretel, you play as Hansel. All my praise for the base game translates to the bonus level too; my only issue is that it’s just very, very simple. 

We start with Hansel and Gretel being abandoned by their stepmother in the Ogre Woods. They stumble onto a Gingerbread House, where the Evil Witch takes Gretel. Hansel has to find a way inside the house. 

After you help an injured ogre, you get the key and inside you find Gretel trapped in some kind of glass box. The Witch’s servant, an imp asks you to free it and he will help you save Gretel. To do so you must first defeat a giant spider and find a potion from the Moon Goddess. This is also the second appearance of the Blue Tea Thief, this time having perished via said spider, Sheelob style. 

The imp tells you about an eternal sleep potion you can make which requires several ingredients. You also learn that the Witch tricked the Fairy Moon Goddess into drinking a potion that leeched all her magic and then was trapped in a statue in the forest. After you put the Witch to sleep, the Goddess returns and makes you, or rather Hansel, the first Golden Child. 

Overall, this game is good. The story is engaging, the gameplay is tight, all the characters are complex and likable, the magic has rules and there is some clever subversion of fairytale tropes. The idea that a mother’s love can blind someone so much that they can destroy the world for their child is very fairytale-esque, and I really liked that both King and Snow acknowledge that they have done terrible things to protect each other and save Gwyn. 

The only minor complaint I have is the fairytale logic of the Mirror being evil because it grew angry with its creator for being locked away, but like… it’s a mirror. Why does it have feelings?

With a smash hit under their belt, and 3 successful games, it was time for Blue Tea to step up their game in the ambitious:

The Red Riding Hood Sisters

Introduction

[bookclub4m]

Episode 167 (version 2) - 2023 Reading Goals & 2022 Reading Report

(Hello! This is a re-upload. The first version had a syncing error that snuck in at the very end of the editing process. We've re-exported it and this version sounds much better!)

This episode we’re talking about our 2023 Reading Goals! We discuss intentions, resolutions, anti-resolutions, and give a report on how well we fulfilled our reading goals last year.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards

2022: Year of Book Two

Episode 142 - Sequels and 2022: The Year of Book Two

2023 Resolutions

  Matthew:

Read more non-fiction

Meghan:

Quit trying to read fiction when she doesn’t feel like it

Read more of what she owns (borrow less from the library)

Anna:

Read more graphic novels

Take pictures of favourite reads

Jam: 

Theme for the year: Intention

Return to tracking picture book reading

Media We Mentioned

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, narrated by Kim Mai Guest, Johnathan McClain, Candice Moll, Lincoln Hoppe, Donnabella Mortel, Jonathan Todd Ross, Erin Spencer & Steve West

Illuminae Files (books 1-3) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, narrated by Moira Quirk

Steven Erikson

Witch Hat Atelier, Vol 1 by Kamome Shirahama, translated by Stephen Kohler

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol 1 by Ryoko Kui, translated by Sébastien Ludmann 

Links, Articles, and Things

Which Pokemon are the Most Goth?

Matthew reviews his manga reading from 2022 on Twitter

List of One Piece manga volumes - Wikipedia

25 Dystopian Fiction books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors to help our listeners diversify their readers’ advisory. All of the lists can be found here.

Leila by Prayaag Akbar

Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Caster by Elsie Chapman

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings

Crosshairs by Catherine Hernandez

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina

On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee

Legend by Marie Lu

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza & Abby Sher

Futureland by Walter Mosley

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder

Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi

We Light Up the Sky by Lilliam Rivera

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Freedom Race by Lucinda Roy

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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Join us again on Tuesday, February 7th. It'll be our annual Valentine’s Day episode, and we’ll be talking about the genre of Holiday Romance!

Then on Tuesday, February 21st join us for What is a Book? (part 2)!