#lacks the experience she has in her actual plot but this is kinda what he actual job is when she's not a teenage disaster or an amnesiac

[staraxiaa]

sunflowers, the afterword:

author's corner/first thoughts.

okay. so. i am insane. i am a god. i just wrote 18k words for a fic that i thought of, planned, and created fully in less than two days, bc someone said i like to make ppl suffer and yes i do. but then i was like, i am GOING to write fluff and i took it personally. to that one reader, thank you!! anyways. i wrote this with the intent of using the prompt "you wanna kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid" and barely even ended up using it. i don't know whether to laugh or cry. i hope it doesn't flop but also it's okay if it does bc i literally spent almost 48 hours brainrotting and word vomiting like it's out of my brain now and this feels glorious. it was random unfiltered thoughts and grinding away at 3am until i am empty. no thoughts left in my head. can you see? i could eat the world raw, the itch has been scratched. the sheer amount of motivation i had w this fic is never happening again. cheers! will update as i think of things! sorry to anyone who ends up reading this fully. i have been unreasonably fixated and have brainrotted over this for two hours, inclusive of sleeptime. while sleeping. i kid you not. i would wake up and something would click and i would hop over to the laptop and fucking grind away i am so sick of myself

unwritten scenes, headcanons

you guys are 20. you haven't started dating yet. you're a doctor. you guys are yelling at each other. you say 'you want to kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid.' katsuki's so angry that he does. ⇁ this was the original ending btw but i thought this one kinda fit better he brings you sunflowers sometime. real ones. he's sneezing all the while. you take one look at him and you die of laughter. he's still sneezing. you tell him: you know i actually didn't even care about them until i found out you were allergic. ⇁ if i could write nsfw i would do it here like dude do u see the vision omfg a whole side plot where he's like what the fuck do you mean you weren't dating deku. you're like. what the fuck. are u stupid. someplace where you actually address how you treat midoriya, his lack of a quirk, and how you stood by and watched it all happen ua sports festival. you kick everyone's ass. #you have been trained by eraserhead and you are super duper cool i also don't remember if i included this, but: your mother asks you after the first evening. "you're not really friends are you." you say: "nope!" and it is the happiest she has ever seen you. the ua boys try to flirt with you and get hurt really stupidly a lot on purpose. you wonder why they've stopped showing up. it's bc katsuki gives them a whole earful. and you're like bitch what the fuck im a doctor and and hes just tsundere about it first kiss scene instead of the ending where he's like you care and you're like of course i do??? what the fuck?? are u stupid?? you guys start yelling at each other and you're both acting like ur 2. he calls you stupid and blind. you call him ugly. he's so mad he literally just lurches forward and kisses you. it's awkward and messy and you guys are so mad at each other. you literally headbutt him in the face. ah young love. ⇁ this was another alternative ending more exploration behind reader's character, her insecurities, and about some of the stuff i info dumped before the start of the katsuki povs? i feel like i didn't handle that as well as i could have, but i also didn't want to go on 10 billion tangents for things that had very little relevance to the story. i also think the transition to the last scene was a little abrupt, but tbh at that point i was just so ready to call it like. i just didn't see the point. i think it would have made for a more natural reading experience, so here's the tea: he's proud of u but u guys are angsty and ignore each other until after training camp. [more brainrot pining moments]. if i had to write the above scene, i think i'd do something along the lines of: you're first aid relief at the sports festival, not actively participating. dunno if you'd be nearly as badass, though. you definitely get pissed when they muzzle katsuki and probably get rly mad but ofc u cant show it. so u just unmuzzle him and walk away and hes staring after u. this is ur ??? elsa arc? i dont remember the disney princess. the training camp is torture. aizawa makes u run with them. you tell him straight up that u hate his guts. he grins like that is the best thing anyone has told him in his life. katsuki definitely blows up some earth monsters for u. but while ur not looking. he's angsty like that. the bath scene? oh lord u just know he blows mineta up. maybe he lowk fucks it up too and you have to heal it! the potential HAHAHA. i dont know how you end up getting kidnapped, but id probably just bullshit a reason like ur the #1 healer in the world hurr durr and afo wants u! idgaf if the plot makes sense or not this is entirely secondary to my scheming. katsuki just about loses it when he hears you're one of the targets -> how you get kidnapped? idk. you're not a remedial student, so you're probably participating in the game (odd number of ppl right). unsure of how i'd handle the news of your kidnapping: just know katsuki loses it again. for like the 5th time. yipppeeeeee

character notes, thoughts

your quirk is literally just you take people's injuries into your own body and heal it yourself. you're superhuman. i put 2 thoughts into this: 1) you're a healer and 2) i like cool characters. congratulations. you have now been born. i don't even remember if i kept the shouto scene. but anyways i think my bias was showing. just had to throw him in there. also the kuroo mention. sorry i'm totally normal and i mean it ⇁ btw i love you all (everyone who likes/interacts with my fics) but i joke to my friends everytime someone interacts w my first bakugo/midoriya ones from lacuna bc guys!!! my shoto fic is RIGHT THERE!!! the baby that launched the entire collection. please show him some love this reader is probably one of the favorite ones i have written, more of an oc at this point i think, and i wasn't expecting her to grow on me so much. but lowk i love her and am so proud of the way i wrote her growth!! i do feel like i wrote her very soft, but i hope her flaws were made very clear⏤ she is meant to be a sort of unreliable narrator, so she also is overly critical of her own, but there were several things that were not addressed as i was writing, particularly concerning midoriya. (quirk, the bullying, bystander's guilt.) however, i think that including them would have made me go off on a tangent, and detract more from the main point of the story i also do think i wrote katsuki a little ooc, if only because i didn't see the point of including what's already there in canon. sorry. my brainrot did not extend that far, and by the end of this, i was literally ready to drop. his perspective isn't meant to be all-encompassing (in the story, it may seem like it purely bc of how i paced it) but those are meant to be like. random thoughts that appear in several scenes. reader does not have bakugo living rent free in her head 24/7, and neither does he. they're just stupid and pining and i just wrote all the moments in my head where they do.

[chibishortdeath]

Alright I’ve thought about, I’m gonna actually start posting some of my criticisms of Netflixvania starting with the first season. I actually have a notepad document on my computer somewhere that’s just various rants about it that I’m gonna take from lol

Rant under a cut cause it’s long, spoilers, and also cause uh tldr I do not like the show 💀

Ok let’s start from the beginning of the show, episode one.

The first episode isn’t terrible, it’s a bit rocky, some red flags here and there for what was to come, but that’s kinda expected of animations like this. It usually takes them a couple episodes to pick up and grow into their own, so I was skeptical, but not gonna knock it entirely when I first saw it.

My biggest criticism of this episode was the complete missed opportunity to introduce certain characters from this section of the series’s story. Imagine if they had shown Isaac and Hector in the background of the castle or something at this point for foreshadowing later, as they would’ve already been studying under Dracula at that time. Imagine if that old woman Lisa helped ended up being one of Lyudmil’s family members, cementing them as friends of her for later. Alas, Netflix just decided not to use most of the already written backstories for most characters. But eh, that’s getting into nitpick territory.

And then the second episode happens… I honestly genuinely hate the concept of the Speakers and it’s because they completely replace a much more interesting (especially for the tone and themes they were going for) group for Sypha to be a part of: The Church. In the game, Sypha is a witch, something that’s currently not very good to be at this time, however the church employs a bunch of male wizard soldiers. This is already a perfect opportunity set up and ready to go for them to make their points of the church being hypocritical, add some intense dramatic irony with maybe the audience getting to know Sypha is a witch before anyone else does and seeing her interact with a bunch of people who would have her dead if they knew, and create a super conflicted situation where these church soldiers all die during their encounter with the cyclops, but yet they scrapped it for uh random group of magic users that kinda exist entirely for a plot that didn’t need a new device to work. And Sypha just being all hood down and no hiding just takes away something interesting about her character, making her kinda bland in the process. Like it’s one thing to have the Girl™️ who owns the braincell trope and another to have a character with some actual immediate conflicts. They totally could’ve played up the “oh no if Trevor knew would he kill me” dynamic, especially with witches being commonly lumped in with ‘monsters’ in a lot of other media and Trevor being ya know a monster hunter. And already just from this one design choice she completely loses her symbolic putting the hood down scene for much later in the story to show that she actually trusts people and feels safe enough to not need to hide anymore because she’s got people on her side now.

Also the lack of Grant is just a crime in itself. Grant could’ve worked perfectly as like the everyman of the group. Hell, with his background of being a former noble turned thief presumably after hard times to straight up losing his entire hometown to flames and leading a revolution about it, Grant literally has like almost every common not magical vampire hunter person experience. He could’ve given the group any of those perspectives and been told the perspectives of the vampire hunting life he hasn’t had, ya know? And he’d help differentiate the personalities and humors of the group in general. I literally can’t think of a negative to having Grant in the group.

So we were robbed of character development for Sypha and the existence of Grant, what’s next—

The Bishop character is someone that could’ve been interesting if he was written with any kind of nuance, but instead he’s extremely on the nose and blatantly laughably evil. Otherwise this guy is pretty forgettable besides how lame it was that they used Blue Fangs to kill him instead of ya know an actually recognizable enemy. Like the Blue Fangs design wouldn’t be bad if it was in literally anything else, but compared to the designs of most Castlevania monsters it’s just really lame. I’d’ve even accepted a Warg or something, idk. Personally I think having Death walk in taking the form of Zead and going through that speech while eventually turning into the skeleton form we know him as woulda gone hard but for some reason Death isn’t a thing until seasons later which sucks.

I also absolutely hate Alucard and the Cyclops being in the catacombs! Hate it! The Cyclops kinda had like a courtyard area for it and made sense being there since it was standing guard on the way to the castle. Literally what it is even doing in the catacombs 💀💀💀. Standing guard for… eepy Alucard? Why??? And the whole sleeping soldier thing or whatever they called him is just so obviously an excuse to have him appear faster and make it seem like it tied into the plot. Alucard absolutely should not have been introduced to the main group this early on because again that robs him of a bunch of opportunities for background and character development. He got maybe the one oh no dad don’t commit mass death that’s bad scene and nothing else when they had plenty of time to show him initially following his fathers orders and eventually growing to stand against him. And again??? Missed opportunity for anything radio drama related??? Like if there’s any opportunity to get any of that story more known it’s in an animation? And besides, it’s less work to just use whatever materials and supplemental materials already existed for the game!

Dracula’s Curse and CoD have:

Two games

Two manuals

Three manga (TokyoPop and Preorder)

A couple game guides

Flashback sequences in a radio drama

Flashback sequences in SotN AKA: the game everyone knows

A ton of references in later games cause IGA is a big Dracula’s Curse fanboy

Pachinkos

That is plenty of material to make an animation based on, especially because most games don’t get half of that, especially not NES games. They were literally handed like the NES game to adapt lottery and decided not to scratch like half the ticket 💀💀💀.

Alucard also being able to levitate kinda negates a lot of things. Like what the hell is the point of having a bat/mist form and a double jump then? If he can just be flying vampire Jesus immediately or whatever people call him idk. And you can’t tell me Alucard wouldn’t be painfully embarrassed if someone ever saw him shirtless come on this is the guy that wears like 5 layers of clothing in every game he’s in to the point that even in the modern era he’s choosing a suit over casual clothes. Every action he makes in this introduction to him is obviously fanservice for the sake of fanservice with very little thought behind it, except I’m not feeling very served right now. And having Trevor kinda lose that fight is a reoccurring problem this show ends up having: putting down other characters just to make certain ones get the cool fanservice moment. Contrary to what the writers of this show may believe, it actually doesn’t make me go “oh wow, Alucard is so cool and much badas”, it just feels weird and uncomfortable that Trevor is getting cheated out of one of his canon achievements because the writers preferred one character’s tits more than him.

So, basically, the show starts out with missed opportunities, concepts and characters getting cut out, watered down versions of characters that did make it in, cheap fanservice, poor explanations for things, etc etc. this all culminates into a resounding m e h + dread for later seasons being worse (boy was I correct on that fear lol).

Here’s some other things for the first season I didn’t know where else to fit:

None of the humor hit for me at all, like not a single joke. The humor was either a no response at best, but definitely a physically wincing from secondhand embarrassment at worst. Related to this, I feel like most of the dialogue reads like either someone who just learned what swear words are and thinks they’re really cool and funny or genuinely forced. At times most of the characters talk with the same delivery, cadence, personality, etc, it’s really obvious they were all written by the same person or group. And that even goes for background and side characters, too. This is a criticism I’ve never seen said: I really don’t like the voice acting in this show. I’m sure it’s no fault of the voice actors at all, but there were times in this where I either could not hear characters properly or could not understand characters properly and I had to watch it with closed captions on. The clearness and volume of the characters voices varies A LOT even just between scenes sometimes. And that combined with all the characters having really similar speech patterns, there were a lot of times where if I looked away from the screen, I genuinely could not tell if it was Alucard or Trevor speaking cause it sounded like it could reasonably have been either of them (and in some cases it literally didn’t even matter that much which character was saying what). It’s an absolute tragedy that the color schemes in this show are not remotely similar to Dracula’s Curse too. I understand why some color combos wouldn’t make it for eyestrain reasons, but the pixel artwork in all the NES titles is beautiful. Same goes for music, like I am never going to forgive this series for using Bloody Tears for a Dracula’s Curse ‘adaptation’ and not Beginning or Aquarius or Dead Beat or Ghost Ship or Clockwork or— ya know? These are two things that the series are really known for so you’d think with some of the fanservice they did they’d be all kinds of ready to use stuff like that for more of it.

Anyway, past season one is when I started watching the series primarily through clips/episodes reposted on YouTube or elsewhere cause I had completely lost any interest in it. I’ll probably go through synopsises online again for season 2 just to try to better remember what happened in that one because I do remember having very little good to say about season 2 as well and I gotta do that research so I can hate things properly :3.

There’s a certain part of this where I just kinda blanked on things to even say, partially because Season one is kinda bland in general, but partially because I started getting sleepy while typing. So if I feel like I missed anything season one specific I’ll just put it in the beginning of the season two post. d(_ _ )

[oh-my-may]

hi hi hi!

Wanted to pop in rq to talk about recent game stuff again :)

I played Cyno's story quest! After noz liking his first one, I gotta say that with this second one they really stepped up the game and I'm glad about that. I feel like Sumeru kinda got thrown under the bus after giving us some of the most important in game lore when it comes to Khaenri'ah and Irminsul. I've seen lots of people talking about how they didn't like Sumeru as much, criticising the Archon Quest etc.... which I never understood. The desert expsnsions were vast and did get on my nerves a bit but since I love the exploration process it wasn't a huge problem for me. The AQ of Sumeru is my second favorite because you can really see the change in comparison to the other nations... even the story quests of characters were largely really good - Nahida, Tighnari, Alhaitham, Wanderer getting a whole Interlude Quest...

Just Cyno's fell kind of flat following the "old" pattern of the quest somehow completely shifting focus to some NPC and barely having significance to Cyno. THE SECOND QUEST HOWEVER. So good. It really falls in with other recent story quests (that I have all enjoyed): involvement of other playable characters that we as pöayers care about, interaction between beloved characters, spinning in some big lore that ties to the characters and thid time IT ACTUALLY IS ABOUT CYNO. HIS BACKSTORY. HIS ORIGIN. YESSSSS.

I think people should experience the quest for themselves so I don't want to talk abput the plot too much but just... so many Sumeru characters made an appearance and it was so nice to see them again :(( i miss them. It was about time we visited Sumeru again, there has been a suspicious lack of Sumeru content throughout the Fontaine patches, whereas other nations got bigger events etc...

SETHOS MY BELOVED. I can NOT wait for his release. And the fact he's gonna be on Clorinde's banner <333 my collection of electro characters continues. Really like his character design (especially his hair omg???) and generally think it's so interesting of hyv to introduce this story... him and Cyno being two parts of one whole thing but growing up so differently... yet somehow understanding each other when they meet face to face... HIS EYES ARE SO CRAZY TOO LIKE??? HUUUUH???

The cutscene of their fight be my favorite now (not counting Archon or Harbinger fights). IT WAS SO LONG??? EPIC?? The way they were so similar with using the power?? The parallels? Insane.

So yeah... I really enjoyed it. Hopefully Sethos gets a Hangout event soon. I'll definitely build him when he comes out. However I wasn't able to watch the 4.7 livestream (yet) because of my horrendous work times yesterday... gonna do it this evening after work I think. Definitely excited to finally get Clorinde tho <33 depending on how nice she is to me I might try snd get her weapon too ... but I at least have enough pulls atm to get her no matter what (and hopefully some Sethos too...)

So far so good! I actually took some screenshots during the story check it out!

[monsieuroverlord]

NYX #1 Thoughts:

It was alright, very Kamala/Ms. Marvel and Sophie-focused. It was a decent set up of the premise, and I'll keep an eye on it.

Spoilers:

The Krakoan is Julian Keller/Hellion as everyone called it. Just in case anyone missed the leaks on Twitter.

Him and the rest of Cuckoos are apparently working with Empath, and the current implication is that he may be amping up and/or twisting their post-Krakoa emotions.

Anole, we didn't see much of, other than he's a bartender now.

Not only is David teaching, but he's also a tenure-track professor.

As someone who works for an American university, I'd be so curious to see how that happened. I mean, at least for the department I work for (very research-heavy stem field), its a LOT to negotiate tenure-track, even with years of experience and a Ph.D. Its like a 3-4 day marathon of presentations, wining-and-dining, meetings after meetings, tours, and a red-eye flight back home. You basically gotta meet everyone in our department and not only show that you know what you're talking about, but also that you won't be an asshole to the established professors (I know this, because I'm the one assisting in organizing everything and making sure the right faculty shows up on time to give a lab tour to the applicant, lol)

I think in some areas, you can get away with an M.S. degree for tenure, but in most cases, its Ph.D.

And that doesn't even mean you are guaranteed to get tenure. There's a whole other review process for that.

Anyway, Sophie is right to call it out here. It does kinda feel like a hand-out. I wonder if that will come into play later?

I'd like to see David's point of view first, though. Maybe there's a secret plot where some of the faculty are evil and its an anti-mutant trap to lure him into a false sense of security. But he's too smart for that and plays them. I don't know.

Or maybe he got his P.h.D. That'd be dope.

I don't trust David's new boyfriend. He hasn't said much yet, but I don't trust him.

This issue is heavily focused on Kamala's point of view, and strongly features Sophie as well. It makes sense, as Kamala is the "newer mutant" in a sense, and serves well to introduce the reader to the setting and potentional storylines to follow.

Sophie and Kamala also have a budding friendship, and I think it's very cute.

I think the next issue at least is supposed to shift to Laura's point of view.

We also don't see too much of Laura, and she didn't appear to be in the college class? Maybe she joins later, or is a guest speaker, I don't know. OR maybe she's going undercover?!?!

We did get this pretty image on the opening page:

Laura only runs into Kamala while she's investigating a mutant terrorist attack.

I love her new look so much. It's very fashionable and actually makes her look distinct from Logan while she's still clearly a Wolverine. Props to the designer.

And now Marvel needs to free Akihiro from Hellverine psuedo-death-ressurection and give him a unique outfit and/or codename too. Thank you.

Laura really only says this though:

I don't know how I feel about her characterization here. I mean, its not the worst thing, but it lacks context for me.

I mean, what is Laura doing? Where is Gabby? Is Akihiro still dead and she's surly with grief? (because Hellverine hasn't finished yet and we don't know how that will end) Does she feel like she has to pick up the pieces and play hero because Logan fucked off to the Canadian Wilderness again?

I have many questions about my girl and her general well-being.

In general, I'm currently on the fence about her characterization. It could go either way.

I suppose we'll have to wait until next issue ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In summary, it was a decent set-up. I read the X-Men Monday interview, so there was nothing that surprised me. Art is very good.

Also, this is me being a grumpy old bastard, but I hate the QR code pages they're doing now. Just print the damn page. I tried the scanner on both my phone and tablet, and it kept redirecting me to a broken link and I get a "500 Internal Error" message. I have no idea what that page is about. I personally don't like this concept of secret QR code pages and is irritating.

For digital reading, its more okay, but I also buy physical copies. I don't want to have to whip out my phone and/or tablet just for a gimmick to get the full issue. And who knows if the website eventually goes defunt years from now and then the QR codes are rendered useless. Then what?

[raayllum]

Do you think that I’m season 5 we’ll find out why Rayla came back. I mean she kinda just showed up. Also, do you think some traumatic thing happened to her? If so, what do you think it was?

Given that S5 is likely going to be Ocean and Callum by the end of S4 has going through his initial block and will likely be way more willing to talk / expressly want answers in S5, I think so, yeah!

Also yes, I 100% think that something traumatic happened to Rayla during her time away, if not a few things. Keep in mind that everything she’d been through from S1-S3 and TTM — turning against Runaan, almost losing her hand, almost losing Callum, almost dying times like five, being Ghosted by everyone, the nightmares and PTSD, etc — were not enough to take away her core ‘saviour complex’ (for lack of a better term) that she had in early S1 and all the way through S3. 

Now, in S4, we see she’s shut that part of her down - eerily reminiscent of the way Callum has heavily emotionally repressed his own ability to feel. For any other character, leaving the drake in the forest wouldn’t be out of character (Callum and Ezran were both willing to, ultimately, in 2x07 after all) but it is a massive shift for Rayla in particular, and that feels purposeful.

We know, bare minimum, she was travelling entirely on her own for at least six months if not maybe a full year, since Stella is still a baby in an almost teething like stage of comfort, gnawing, and cuddles. Real life human babies start teething around 6-12 months, for example, and other animals even younger, so she’s on the early stage in Rayla’s life, absolutely

So I have one to like, five factors I think could have heavily played a part

The initial isolation of 6+ months and being on her own heavily wore her down and was a new experience for her, since Rayla had never been that alone before, always travelling with her troupe and then the boys. I doubt her nightmares about Callum suddenly vanished when she did, lol, so that’s another layer too

Possibly a near death experience or drowning, whether accidentally or in an attempt of saving someone, would likely deeply rattle her given her history. This could be what inspired her to come home. Oneshot pending

There was someone Rayla could not successfully save, and they asked her for a TW mercy killing. She did it, meaning she knows Aaravos isn’t assessment of her isn’t entirely accurate even if it’s still true about Viren. This would mean she killed someone she 1) didn’t want to and 2) wasn’t even her target. Also oneshot pending

Rayla possibly ran into the Bloodmoon Huntress, a dangerous Moonshadow villain from her childhood named Kim’Dael, resulting in one of the two aforementioned options

Compounded by everything or nothing, an emotionally and physically exhausted Rayla decides to throw herself into actually trying to Move On and Let Go for the first time, and knows the first step there is going back to Katolis to face the music

The same way Rayla coming back to Katolis forces Callum to stop emotionally repressing everything he was feeling about her and thereby get back to being more genuinely and wholly himself (which is going to be very important considering possession is about being stripped of autonomy and identity in equal measure!!), I think Callum is going to help Rayla restore herself back to the heroic selfless figure she was, but in a healthier way than ever before. It won’t surprise me if Rayla doubles down in future seasons on a self-destructive route (possibly in S5 depending on how the coin plot goes) now that she’s tried to let go and failed, but she’s also lost some of what made her selflessness a good quality - and they’ve always been heavily tied to each other’s identity and having an ultimately positive, if sometimes painfully transformative, impact on each other

[fangirlinglikeabus]

been a while since i've done one of these but under the cut are my thoughts on the novelisations of doctor who, season 8

doctor who and the terror of the autons by terrance dicks this is one of those early actually pretty decent dicks novelisations. it's the little details i think, like having a lot of What Characters Think of Each Other (without stating the obvious) that gives it some substance, or the physical effects of action like the ropeburn being paid attention to. MY personal favourite added detail is yates encountering the master (who he doesn't know is the master) and as a result briefly fantasising about what HE'D look like with facial hair. also we get an evil auton energy octopus, which is a nice added detail. there are recaps of several different stories when they have bearing on this one's plot, but the mention of liz is cut altogether, which means that the novelisations as well as the tv series are lacking in any clarification as to her departure. to my great regret the other thing that's cut is jo going 'oh! hello :)'. in terms of actually bad bits, there's a relatively minor but pretty glaring issue in not only the master being consistently referred to as foreign looking but the evil doll subsequently being described as having 'a slant-eyed oriental face', both of which seem to link the human(oid) foreign/other to the villainy of aliens invading england. there's also a line about jo and women's intuition that bothered me a bit but not nearly to the same extent. overall: i think it manages to differentiate itself enough from the tv version to be an interesting skim at least, but go in forewarned at the handful of dodgy bits.

the mind of evil by terrance dicks i have NO idea if this is worthwhile. for the record i'm not too big on the tv serial (i like it well enough until the missile plot comes to the fore, at which point i almost completely lose interest) so keep that in mind…but i think the novelisation is this weird mix of legitimately good and frustratingly half-arsed, with some racism sprinkled on top. i can't speak on dicks' rendering of hokkien, which is presented from the brigadier's point of view ('it sounded like…') so i'm assuming is not a 100% accurate transliteration. however the bit i REALLY have an issue with is the description of barnham having a 'low bulging forehead, protruding jaw and huge powerful hands' like…why are we reviving victorian criminal science in my little sci-fi book. there's also a really gross line comparing the master's black chauffeur to the car he drives. the narration also really doubles down on what i SEEM to remember as a mike line from the original about chin lee's attractiveness by describing her face as 'marred' by a near permanent scowl. sorry she's not constantly performing beauty for you guys! the final bit i have actual beef is that the doctor thinks of jo as 'this feather-headed child' which isn't problematic so much as it feels mildly mean-spirited. ON A LIGHTER NOTE there's a cute bit where benton pretends to be james bond, and there's lines like 'naturally, the master was lying' which made me laugh. i also think it's got a really strong opening, which builds up to the keller machine experiment by describing it to prisoners' reactions to executions throughout the ages. we get a greater elaboration of the fear visions than seen on tv too (the benefits of not needing to worry about budget!). overall…i think there are interesting points to this one, but also some Very Dodgy Bits, and it does kinda fizzle out by the end which disappointed me given i enjoyed the opening.

doctor who and the claws of axos by terrance dicks ok i need to open with this because 'author describing character's hair as a colour i would never consider it' is becoming a recurring Thing so for the record jo's hair is described as brown in this. tardis wiki has a whole List of changed things in this serial but tbh i think a lot of them were so small that i didn't even pick up on them, so for that reason i'm not certain if its worth it, personally. a brief rundown: as per usual the violence/body horror is a bit more pronounced than on screen, and the special effects are improved on in prose. i quite liked the opening wrangle with chinn and the brig, not least because it tells us that the brig forgot to establish the doctor's official existence and i found that funny. chinn's 'britain for the british' argument with the doctor is cut, and while i SORTA get that for space reasons, i think it also diminishes the critique of his character if his general behaviour/philosophy no longer so explicitly tied to xenophobia. there's a nice new closing scene where jo goes to join everyone arguing how to get the tardis down for some rubble while thinking 'it was nice to see things were going back to normal'. there was also a line i liked: 'in the space/time continuum axos traced an unending spiral course, whirling forever in an endless figure-eight'. but overall….i'm kinda 'eh' on this one.

doctor who and the doomsday weapon [aka colony in space] by malcolm hulke the most significant change in this is PROBABLY that its position in jo's time as companion has been moved: she's now in her very early days at unit (just become the doctor's assistant, hasn't met the master) which is understandable given this was one of the early novelisations where hulke perhaps felt the need to have an excuse for providing necessary context and easing the reader in - he does a similar thing by expanding the prologue bit with the time lords, positioning one as a trainee who doesn't have knowledge of the doctor's life - but i was disappointed that as a mechanic it's dropped very quickly. this is not a story that lends itself well to exclusively focusing on jo, given that she gets sidelined in the second half; still, i felt it was a missed opportunity, especially since she knows the doctor less well than on tv and is understandably thus a lot more combative when this comparative stranger whisks her off to another planet, before the plot snaps back into the path the tv version takes. in terms of that path: if you're looking for a novelisation that addresses some more questionable aspects of the original then i'm afraid this isn't it - if anything it exacerbates any issues of racial coding and its relation to the real world that a story about the colonisation of a planet inhabited by a 'savage' race already has, with lines like 'a few primitives, who, if handled properly, would be no trouble.' there's also a few minor moments that suggest a pretty gender stratified society among the colonists that hulke is depicting unquestioningly, which is frustrating but not unexpected. on the other hand, there's actually quite a lot of detail about the imc men and life back on earth that i appreciated being included. we also get a few funerals that weren't depicted onscreen. ashe has some jesus imagery surrounding him that MAY be making a link between christianity and morality (since in this horrible grasping future the bible apparently isn't very well known) but it's not so explicit that i can say that definitively. there are a few lines that jump out to me as cuts - 'i want to see the universe, not rule it', the gag about the brig saying 'come back at once' and, most tragically, 'wiggle away'. we do get a dr who pun to make up for it though. aside from that, the moment where the doctor finds out jo is tied to a bomb is reduced to summary, which seems an odd dramatic choice to me but i do also realise that hulk had to cut a six part story down into 40k words, so something had to go. final point: dent makes a comment about how imc never break the law and the narrator immediately contradicts him, and personally i feel it would be more interesting if that was TRUE - what does it say about a society where THEY'RE not actually breaking the law? anyway i realise this might sound like i'm complaining a lot but after the last two i found this one quite refreshing in how much detail there was to it, and i do generally enjoy reading hulke's novelisations. it's probably not his best, but it's interesting enough to check out even if it does maintain the original serial's flaws.

doctor who and the daemons by barry letts what is there to say about this one, except that it's a very solid rendering of an already solid tv story? one minor quibble in terms of the process of adaptation is that the scene near the beginning where the gang are watching tv is something i found less interesting when we're not watching with them - because it's prose, we lack that moment of complete identification where we're ALL watching tv together. but otherwise i think the writing is lively, and while it may not diverge significantly from the tv version it does flesh out what's already there for the prose medium. a personal favourite for me was azal being 'as amused as a man warned to leave his own home by a kitchen mouse' when the doctor tells him to leave the planet. it's been a while since i've seen the tv version but i did a brief skim of the transcript and i THINK most of what goes on with the villager (and at some point cult member) stan is new to the novelisation. various minor heads' up: there's a character in chapter three who's a bit self-conscious about his weight, and a bit later on a brief mention of a child being hit as punishment; the inside of the barrow has carvings of the "old witch religion, literally thrust into the darkness of the underground by the light of christianity" which is a characterisation of christianity-as-civilising-influence that i suspect originates in the genre dr who is cribbing from here; barry letts describes azal as having a hooked nose which isn't necessarily INaccurate to his screen depiction but i do think letts is still unconsciously drawing on cultural assumptions of what (racialised!) facial features signify evil. also there's a bit where stan acts to help jo 'as quickly and as naturally as one might reach out to prevent a child from falling' which just minorly irritates me - jo is an adult, please don't compare her to a child here. other than that…i'm a big fan of letts' 'trying to teach the kids road safety' bit where jo falls out of bessie and the doctor thinks 'if only she had put on her seat belt!' oh and jo is wearing that white robe OVER her clothes and therefore wasn't stripped by any of these men, thank you very much. on the minor edits level, letts keeps the mary had a little lamb joke but he rewords 'five rounds rapid' and the brig's response to mike asking him for a dance. but he also says the doctor's name is doctor who so i win! this is longer than i meant it to be but i think my overall conclusion is that this is maybe marginally less of a must-read than it was in a time before home media and the internet made the daemons easy to watch - letts makes more tweaks than i've listed here but i think they're mostly minor - but i never felt that he was phoning in the process of turning it into a novel, and AS a novel it's largely enjoyable.

[jayflrt]

if you left any clues in this chapter, i let you know I can’t pick it up because i felt they were left in some kinda human experiment. how have they not got alcohol poisoning atp ?? i have no clue on alcohol, since I don’t drink but assume that many shots of alcohol would be bad. or did math be wrong in my mind ? the haze felt like, it was they lived a normal life in the morning and at night some magical creatures 🧛🧛🧛🧛🧛. I feel like this was a mild haze because most insane thing was doing exercises after shots. Also Jay is so smart for the presentation thing, I would have thought of it and made some kinda random thing. talking bout a broad topic but giving one single message that’s smart 🫡 I want Jay so bad honestly. be MINE JAY AHHH 🐺🐺 it’s time for me to get into my thinking chair (pls get the blue’s clue reference) and put my thinking hat on. so far im just so taken back with everything however, I haven’t lost my goal yet. I have grown some suspense towards sunoo and rest of yn’s friends. first sunoo has been acting kinda weird lately, I always had my suspense with the friend group. most close people are on the suspect list always. after the small thing Chaewon pull im so confused idk if this small agenda against yn because of her past. but I don’t want to put her on the suspect list because only issue is heeseung was in love with yn while dating chaewon. people can be nasty but I don’t think she would go that far ? but she does fit the unknown doing it for their personal gain ?cuz a little revenge for ruining her relationship (as in chaewon’s) with no actual faults of her (yn) ? I know we are nearing the time yn finds about Jay but if i ignore maybe it’s not real 😅. actually what if you feel evil and go “surprise it was yn !” the whole time and she wanted to see how far jay was willing to go hide his secret. It because equal level of betrayal on both sides 😅 okay no don’t this because wtf that’s actually insane. pause, this might be nice approach because her dad has so high expectations and shit. maybe ? just…. okay no. anyhow I have no additional, suspects so far. I saw you say this maybe be 80 parts long well sign me UPPP im so invested. wait did you already reveal the secret that they blackmails Jay with ? cuz for some reason in my mind he has fake the administration and shits like that ? and maybe manipulate with the scores for him to be closer to suspect ?? or am I just tripping ??

ALSO NEXT UPDATE ARE WE GETTING LIKE THEM CONFRONTING YN ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED OR NOT BECAUSE ILL LAUGH 🙏OR DID SHE ALREADY TELL ANTON ALONG THE LINE OF “hypnotically speaking, what if you fucked (with clothes on) your crush who is also friends with your ex and childhood bestie who is still in love with me, totally didn’t happen to me asking for a friend ?” at most random hour of the midnight 😅. I just know yeonjun would be first one to question it from both yn and jay, THERES NO WAY IN HELL HE WILL LET THAT GO. I KNOW HES NOT CONVINCED praying for jayn HAHAHAH ‼️ actually non of them is convinced im praying both of them. Jayn wanted a put of sight out of mind situation but now everyone kinda knows. and curious.

theory anon

LMFAOO i used that chapter more for relationship developments between different characters (especially jay) and i Did seed some plot points that i want to incorporate later but nothing that would be obvious right away if that makes sense 🤧 LMFAOO yeah it's kind of a lot but they'll live!! with terrible hangovers the next morning probably 😃 yeah the exercises added with their lack of sleep the entire week would've been brutal 🥲 and the constant anxiety that they're doing something wrong or gonna get in trouble for something,, and i def used this chapter to flex how smart jay's supposed to be LOL that is MY main character <33

sunoo and mc are weirdly secretive of their friendship i'd say so definitely some suspicion there ! and chaewon's intentions with trying to put jay and mc on the hot seat are interesting too,, and could potentially be because of heeseung?? jay now knows her father was the one who wrote the article on mercy health too so if not her, her father does know something about what happened there 🫢 and anything can happen !! but you're right that we're just about nearing the time that mc finds out about jay 🥲

also yes it's gonna be around 80 parts!! maybe longer?? hopefully not because i don't want to have to make a second masterlist 😿 but i gotta do what i must for the storyline 🙏 also jay's "secret" hasn't been revealed yet!! also his client got his admission into yale falsified (not his scores) but that's also somewhat hanging over his head and keeping him working for someone he doesn't necessarily like or agree with because he's already in too deep of a hole :')

LMFAOOO pretty much all of them know Something is going on between jay and mc but just don't say anything because they either don't wanna accept it (the case for hoon and heeseung LMFAO) or they're just satisfied watching it unfold before them (100% yeonjun)

[aboutdragons]

Hiya, I love your fic! I find it so amazing and I can't tell you the amount of times I've laughed out loud because of it. I find it really interesting that instead of Daelyra being close to Rhea and hating Daemon you took the opposite route. I don't think I've seen anyone do that. Your story has now made me want to write a hotd oc story of my own (though admittedly its still in the planning stages).

In responds to the ask game that you have up -

What inspired you to write the fic this way?

Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn't listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

What do you like best about this fic?

What scene did you first put down?

Ahaha thank you! I'm really happy it makes you laugh, I do my best to put a lot of levity in the things I write because, really, life is lived best when you find joy in the little things. And yes, I'm aware it's common for Daemon to not even know he has a kid with Rhea, but I felt it would make for a much more interesting dynamic if he was the parent taking care of her. Gives him more depth and an interesting dichotomy between a genuinely good father but still an overall shit person.

Ahh I love inspiring people, and if you have a story to tell by all means go tell it! As for planning; from personal experience, you absolutely must know how things start, how things end, and what important things happen in the middle. The in-between stuff is easy enough to fill in, and who knows - maybe interesting plot points will sneak up on you on their own. They have the tendency to do that.

Answers for the questions under the cut because I ramble:

What inspired you to write the fic this way?

Loaded question, because there are multiple parts to the fic. Lyra and Daemon's relationship was inspired by the multitude of father-daughter manhwa I read (very specifically, 'Male Lead's Adopted Daughter'). Also in general GRRM's work; mostly it's lacks, because I'm a fantasy hoe, and his stuff has fantasy as a sidenote most of the time. I wanted more.

Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

Not necessarily, unless my friend throwing ideas at me to see what sticks counts.

Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Kinda yeah but also no; there IS a Modern AU version of ttad in the workshop but it is, chronologically, the sequel to the current story. So on one hand it is an AU, on another it's a direct continuation so no clue if it counts.

What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn't listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

Either podcasts or lofi. I don't listen to get myself in the mood but to fill in the silence, so I don't really have recommendations except in one specific case where Lyra claimed the Cannibal and I was listening to How To Tran Your Dragon theme while writing it.

What do you like best about this fic?

I think Lyra, actually. She's one of my favorite OCs that I made, even though she's quite formulaic. I guess her face claim being Rhea Ripley helps in that lmao.

The plot is close second though, I just love me a good sandbox to throw some dragons, ancient lost cities, and civilizations-spanning mystery.

What scene did you first put down?

I genuinely do not remember. I have a whole doc file for unrelated snippets for future reference and I don't know which one came first, but I'm reasonably sure it was Lyra returning to KL circa 128 and interacting with Aemond. Kinda started braining the story ass-backwards lmao.

[mr-independent]

EP 4, aka the one with the real Tom Selleck vibes

-- Ted work pj's to prom and then went to jail?? The backstory keeps unravelling and it's always fascinating

-- Rebecca either already keeps her gala clothes at the club or she specially shipped them over there just bc she's indecisive and takes the whole day to decide her outfit. Either way, respect

-- the Keeley/Jamie puppy play is just. Weird. Good on him for being an asshole who still goes down on his girl, gotta love it

-- Isaacs suit is fucking stunning and Sam learning the names of all the journos 🥰

-- Ted parent trapping Jamie and Roy is fucking hilarious, especially since that's a 10-top. The other five people at that table are forced to watch this dramatic mess and i for one would pay so much money to be one of them

-- is Beard an actual name, or is it a nickname? Does he have a name? Did Ted rescue him from some weird genius clone experiment? The questions never end

-- idk how anyone didn't think Rupert's appearance was skeevy af. He loses the club to his ex bc he blatantly cheated on her with a uni student, then crashes her first big appearance just to one-up her in an all white suit??? Supervillain behaviour

-- Colin still has a concussion from the club scene the episode before, so this all happened within a week, closer to three days probably. So Keeley gets heart eyes over Roy standing up for the kit man, and immediately starts comparing him to Jamie and finds Jamie lacking. She has a habit of falling fast and hard huh?

-- that was Bex betting on Jamie, right? What a fucking nightmare. The old owner of the club takes over the auction from under his ex wife and gets his new beau to bet on a date with the star player of said club, to the behest of his girlfriend? Also what was Rupert's plan there? Seduce Jamie away from Richmond? He didn't even have a club at that point

-- Rebecca finally trusts Ted ❤️ also him following her out of the auction to check up on her is mirrored later with the karaoke panic attack which is just. Cinematic poetry

-- is it just me or do Jamie's tattoos kinda...appear and disappear at will?

-- they added an intermission to an auction? I know it works plot wise to have Jamie and Roy talk between Keeley bidding on them both, but still.

-- ah right it's not Bex it's Jamie's...plus two? At a different table?? Which Rebecca knew about??? Who is...still Bex????? Which makes it even messier tbh. Your sugar daddy is taking your bid over your plus one to the sugar daddy's ex's auction? Where you're betting against the man's current girlfriend? This is giving me a fucking headache

-- colins wearing a hot pink tie, how fucking gay (affectionate)

-- im sorry i still can't imagine Beard with a ponytail. Literally a single year before the series started. Like, headbanging heavy metal hair? Sure. A ponytail tho???

-- also i Love the scene where Ted chases after Beard after the party bc it really shows the difference in...not quite their personalities but their influences in life. Beard, we know from the Trivia thing and context clues, is somehow indebted to Ted, presumably bc of excessive drug use but that's debatable. He runs from the party a little crazed, a little off kilter, and Ted follows stick straight with an almost cartoony James Bond type of swagger. It's just a very visual way of showing the core of their characters

[olddirtybadfic]

James and Meowth Do A Fluffy Experiment (part two of two)

This story is slightly less fluffy when you remember that they're having the kitten as part of an experiment for a criminal organization that has mistreated their test subjects, but thirteen!me did not write by that logic.

Also, it seems that Jessie kinda forgot the conversation she had with James the previous night. She probably remembered the Iron Fleet, though.

Part one is here.

This fic contains:  Pokémon/Human romantic relationship (warning because some people might be disturbed by it, even though Meowth can consent in this story); unexplained mpreg/male pregnancy; shaky grasp of the realities of pregnancy and childrearing; bizarre focus on James's virginity (it disturbs me how often this shows up in these warnings); lack of medical knowledge; possible out-of-character moments for Jessie, James, and Meowth (weepy!James and generic boyfriend!Meowth are back); odd ideas about romance; Dr. Fuji is miraculously alive somehow (and also out-of-character); weird plot inconsistencies; "deflowered" doesn't mean what thirteen!me seems to think it means; boomer humor pregnancy gags; HOLY SHIT I REMEMBERED MONDO EXISTS?

-O-o-O-o-O-

Jessie was watching TV when James and Meowth came in.

“James, how did the test go?” she asked.

James was crying. He didn’t seem to have heard her. He ran into the bedroom, crying.

“James, wait! Please let me talk to you!” Meowth said.

Jessie knocked on the bedroom door. “Can I come in?” she asked.

“Yes,” James said.

Jessie came in. “What happened? Why are you crying?” she asked.

James sniffled for a while, then answered. “The experiment worked and now I’m pregnant,” he said.

“Meowth did that to you?!”

“Yes.”

“Weren’t you a virgin before?”

“Yes, but he had to do it. We would lose our jobs if we didn’t,” James said.

“But didn’t you value your virginity?”

“Yes, sort of. But that doesn’t matter. What am I going to do about the kitten?”

“I think you should just rest now. I’ll go talk with Meowth.”

Jessie went back into the living room. “Meowth! Shame on you!”

“What did I do?”

“You deflowered James!”

“But I had to. And I love him!”

“You do? It’s not just lust?”

“Yeah. Got a problem with that?”

“No. It’s okay, then.”

They heard soft snoring from the bedroom.

“I hope James will let me talk to him when he wakes up,” Meowth said.

-O-o-O-

James woke up about two hours later. He just lay there in bed, thinking about this whole mess.

He was going to have Meowth’s kitten.

Meowth came in. “James….I’m sorry for doing this to you. You probably had other plans to do this with someone else. If you don’t forgive me, I’ll understand,” Meowth said.

“You don’t need to apologize. I love you. I had other plans, but they were plans with you. Actually, they were just dreams that I thought would never happen. So it’s okay. I’m glad I did this with you,” James said.

“Are you sure we don’t just have a crush on each other?”

“No, I’m sure it’s true love.”

Meowth decided to just agree with James on that one. Usually James was right about things like this.

They knew they’d be able to make it through this ordeal.

-O-o-O-

The kitten would be born after nine weeks. James and Meowth got married.

The kitten would be small, so James probably wouldn’t show very much.

Fortunately for James, he didn’t get morning sickness. But he did get mood swings and weird cravings.

Skipping to the fourth week of pregnancy, Jessie and Meowth were staring at James while he was getting a snack.

“What is that?” Meowth asked.

“Beef jerky with peanut butter,” James answered.

“James….Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Meowth asked.

“I’m fine, Meowth.”

Another time, Meowth tried to kiss James on the lips.

“What are you doing?” James asked.

“Kissing you.”

James didn’t look very happy about it. In fact, he looked frustrated. He let out a frustrated sigh and walked away.

“What did I do?” Meowth said.

“Well, you have been trying to make out with him a lot. Maybe you’re crowding him,” Jessie said.

Meowth decided to give James some space for a while. After an hour, he just couldn’t take it. He had to go see James.

He found James in tears, in the bedroom.

“James, why are you crying?” Meowth asked.

“I’m so sorry if I hurt you. I’m just scared.”

Meowth hugged James.

“You don’t have to be scared. It’s okay. I’m here for you, Jimmy,” Meowth said.

-O-o-O-

James was a little over nine weeks pregnant. He was only a little bigger, but he still wore a maternity shirt. He also still wore his Team Rocket uniform boots.

“Don’t your feet get hot in those boots?” Jessie asked.

“Yes, but I don’t want anyone to see my swollen ankles,” James said. He felt ready to give birth to the kitten any minute.

One day, Mondo came over.

“The lab sent me over to check on all of you. It’s about the experiment,” Mondo said. “What exactly is this experiment, again?”

“Well….It’s sort of weird. James and Meowth did it and I just watched, so I think they should explain it,” Jessie said.

“Where is James, anyway? I haven’t seen him for over two months.”

“There’s an explanation for that.”

They turned around and saw James, standing in the doorway.

“He’s wearing a maternity shirt,” Mondo whispered to Jessie.

“I know,” Jessie whispered back.

“That experiment that Meowth and I did was an experiment to see if humans could have babies with Pokémon. And it worked,” James said.

“Congratulations, James!” Mondo said happily.

“Thanks, I guess,” James said.

“Why aren’t you excited?” Mondo asked.

“I don’t know if I can handle it,” James said.

“Of course you can handle it!” Mondo said.

“Yeah, Mondo’s right! You can do anything you set your mind to, James,” Jessie said.

James smiled shyly. “Thanks for the support,” he said quietly.

“You deserve it,” Mondo said.

-O-o-O-

James went into labor the next day. The scientists at the lab helped him give birth.

“It’s a girl,” James said to Meowth.

“What’s her name?” Meowth asked.

“Her number is #0775,” Dr. Fuji said.

James looked Dr. Fuji straight in the eye. “She has to have a name,” he said solidly.

Dr. Fuji was somewhat unnerved. “All right, then. What’s her name?”

“Her name is Willow.”

James got to keep his kitten with Meowth.

-O-o-O-

Epilogue

James and Meowth are living happily together with Jessie. Their daughter, Willow, is very smart. Mondo visits them.

They all quit Team Rocket. They got jobs with decent salaries.

The twerps don’t blast them off anymore.

The trio was meant to be happy after all.

-O-o-O-o-O-

Moral of the Story: If you have a baby as an experiment for a criminal organization, they'll totally let you name them and won't immediately whisk them away. They'll even let you keep the kid if you quit!

At least they didn't make James eat the placenta.

[lesbian-trash-panda]

✨Q Rated - Victor/Victoria

✨Q Rating: A✨Q - Amazing and Queer :)

Summary: Paris, 1934. Down-and-out soprano Victoria is 5 minutes away from selling her body for a meatball when she meets Carroll “Toddy” Todd, an equally success-less aging gay performer who just got fired. Believing Victoria’s only problem getting work is her lack of a gimmick, Toddy hatches a plot to rebrand Victoria as Victor, Toddy’s new boyfriend and “the world’s greatest female impersonator.” Victor has a lot of success on the cabaret stage, eventually attracting the attention of King, an American mob boss who gay panics HARD and spends most of the movie being in denial and trying to reveal that “Victor” is actually a woman

Starring Julie Andrews (The Sound of Music, The Princess Diaries, my childhood) and Robert Preston (The Music Man), Victor/Victoria a fun, saucy musical that recreates 1930s cabaret aesthetic and antics in 1980s cult classic charm.

Why You Should Watch It: It is a musical and has Julie Andrews in a suit? That’s really all it took to sell me on this.

Victor/Victroria is, essentially, a queer historical piece twice over. It is a loving homage to the style, look, and verve of cabaret, specifically “The Pansy Craze” of 1930s Paris, the birth place of the drag star (though of course drag the art existed prior). The movie is from 1982, fully 42 years ago, which seems not that long ago but is actually WHOLE GENERATIONS of queer kids ago! Some of those kids aren’t even kids anymore! And I bet most have not heard of this film. It’s Pride season, kits! Respect our elders and check it out!

Also, it’s just a lot of fun. It’s fun to follow along on this wild, outrageous romp - there’s singing, dancing, costumes, stunts, jokes, slapstick, and antics that keep getting more ridiculous as it goes on. In contrast to, say, Cabaret, Victor/Victoria showcases the fun, zaniness, and charm of the nightlife scene of that era.

I love old Hollywood actors getting to do classic stage vaudeville schtick and if you do too, this is a great choice. Julie Andrews EATS as Victor, particularly in the Shady Dame from Seville. Robert Preston also eats in the finale in a different but spectacular way. And though you don’t see a lot of screwball comedies anymore, sometimes, all you really want is a scene where four miscreants are sneaking into different rooms in the same apartment just seconds apart and then oops someone else walks in unexpectedly oh no now that guys is stuck on a balcony how will he ever get out of this??? Great stuff

The story is inherently genderfuck in that classic Shakespearean way - the main character is a cis woman playing a cis man playing a cis woman, essentially “an incognito drag king pretending to be a outcognito drag queen.” But despite the jokey premise, it has nuance regarding its subject matter. My read is that it’s not intended as a trans narrative outright, but the idea is there, the same questions are being asked and the same norms challenged, and there is a great scene between Victor and King where V calls out K for being small-minded and hypocritical for being attracted to Victor “as a woman” and then getting angry and blaming Victor for that attraction later. The queer politics of this film are not cut and dry; Toddy essentially commodifies queerness, which is also kinda what the film is doing - it’s straight people playing gay “for the straights.”

But even so, as a genderqueer raccoon who grew up with this flick and saw some of myself in Victoria & Victor’s experiences, I appreciate that the story is not interested in giving clear answers or being overly didactic. It’s a romp. It successfully romps.

Recommended for: Fans of musicals, screwball comedy, slapstick, vaudeville, gags, silliness, schtick, people interested in pre-Pride queer history, anyone who is into the gif below

Content Warnings (Spoilers): The main love interest is a classic macho-boi asshole and he sucks for a lot of the story, including being homophobic, transphobic, and spying on Victoria while she showers. He is challenged on a lot of his opinions and he changes for the better, which is what dynamic characters do, but, you know - prep for some scenes about a real jerk. Also, as an older movie about a historically queerphobic era, there may be some outdated terminology/attitudes, but imo it’s more progressive and nuanced than some stuff you see today, so - your call! Enjoy responsibly!

[the-cat-chat]

January 27, 2024

Christine (1983)

JayBell: My understanding before going into this movie is that it's Herbie but with murder. And honestly, it's kind of true. I will say this movie actually wasn't as silly as I thought it was gonna be. It could've been wayyyy sillier.

My major issue with this movie is how sharp and sudden the transformation of the main character is. Like the big deal is that he makes a supernatural connection with this car, and the car begins changing him. But because the first part of the movie is from the perspective of the friend, the viewer doesn't actually get to see his change from nerdy dude to asshole. He just shows up one day, already full asshole and lacking glasses and with a new wardrobe. It would be nice to see this as a progression and not a sudden change.

The construction of the plot feels odd. It's broken up into segments. The friend's point of view, and then the main character's, and then it switches back to the friend. I also think the investigator guy isn't as incorporated into the plot as he should've been.

It's basically the plot of Carrie, but focused on a young guy instead of a young woman. Well-meaning best friend, controlling parents, supernatural force (aka car) used as instrument for revenge against bullies. It has almost all the elements of Carrie, but Carrie is way more sympathetic and has a more interesting dynamic with her mom.

Rating: 5/10 cats 🐈

Anzie: I really have no clue what to say other than this is a total experience. And that I loved it while also being simultaneously baffled and cringing bc of the weird behavior or the characters. First off I could see how Arnie was kinda cute (later to realize it’s the younger Matty Healy rat boy look- and then even later to change my mind when Arnie loses his mind). Andrew the old man selling the car?? I’m not saying anymore on him he needs to be forgotten. But let’s divert- the guys at school- ummm they’re all at least 35 right??? Did they really look at them and say sure he’s 17, sure he looks full of youth??? Bc I didn’t. And again the teenagers in this are almost as gross as the Halloween ones- actually grosser maybe. And what they do to Christine?? Annnyway, I really don’t understand his mom’s whole conniption over the car??? And it seemed excessive?? And then Arnie “changes”- can we talk insane??? Love how we get no insight into how he linked up with the girl his friend had asked out- he just shows up at the football game with her. And it’s actually nuts bc his friend gets so distracted he almost, AlllllMoST becomes paralyzed. I think it’s interesting that Christine didn’t do anything but maker Arnie “cooler” I guess until people kept saying that they hate her. Like would everything have been good?? Bc I know she did the same mind control/ killing thing with the guy who owned it before?? But this time it seemed only when there was a threat to Arnie keeping and owning the car. I don’t know cray it’s cray either way. Also???? Just remembered bc the car like bit?? The guy on the assembly line- then killed the other guy that worked there too. So nevermind im wrong I know nothing. And then the murders! And Harry Dean Stanton as the cop?? Who does nothing? And all the other kids that bullied Arnie get murdered too.

I really was wishing that the car was doing all of it alone without taking over Arnie- but alas that’s not what happened and Arnie dies too :( —— I hate how they try fighting the car - and it takes forever- and they’re like Christine will come- ok and your shocked when you kill your best friend??? Why not steal it and crush it with something when he’s asleep, or drive it off a bridge. But nnnoooo. And in the cringy words of the girl - she said it best- and the weirdest/ “we didn’t do so hot” ——- he’s dead!!!! You didn’t do so hot!!!! What!!!! It was his best friend???? And you knew him for what like a month and half that time he was scary/ borderline aggressive and verbally abusive?bc his car took over his mind and soul. Oookkkkk.

Rating: 4.5/10 Cats 🐈

[pink-pages]

Shadow of the Fox

This book has been on my to-read list for about a century and a half and I finally got around to reading it. BOY, AM I GLAD I DID!!!! I'm going to try to make this review as spoiler free as possible, but seeing as I have specific opinions on the ending, that may be a bit difficult. I'm just going to issue a spoiler warning for the entire review.

One of the things I absolutely loved about Shadow of the Fox was Kagawa's writing. Her descriptions, particularly the descriptions of the settings were so fucking fantastic that if I closed my eyes, I probably would've been able to trick myself into thinking I was in Iwagoto. Her descriptions of people were also brilliant, I just had a hard time imagining the clothes. I don't know much about what kimonos and other traditional Japanese clothing look like so I just kept imagining Yumeko in a hanbok (which is Korean and therefore from the wrong culture entirely).

The pacing of the book was also pretty nice. It started out with a bang, like, first chapter and there's already an army of demons. That was pretty nice because it really hooked me in and kept my attention through the next few chapters of exposition (you know, the part where the author sets up the plot and introduces the characters which is kinda necessary but also not terribly exciting). Then when the whole adventure started, it was pretty much one thing after another. It was a good mix of epic action scenes and scenes centered around dialogue.

Characters

Yumeko: I FUCKING LOVED Yumeko. Some of my favorite quotes in the entire book (I prefer funny quotes to profound ones) were made possible because Yumeko did not understand sarcasm. One of the things that I loved the most about Yumeko is that she didn't fall into the damsel in distress category (which would've been easy considering her lack of experience of life outside the temple) but she also didn't fall into the inexplicably a warrior category (you know, put the girl with absolutely no training against an enemy and suddenly she's got a black belt in Capoeira). She was able to hold her own and even save Kage Tatsumi (the infamous demonslayer) on occasion and she did that through things she had already mastered (her illusion magic, for example).

Kage Tatsumi: Ok, so, I must admit, I wasn't as fond of Tatsumi as literally everyone else who read this book but that's not because he's badly written or anything, it's because I rarely love the dark-past emotionally-constipated mysterious-badboy type characters. I did love his levels of badassery though. I guess I just wish we could've seen more personality although I suppose the whole point of his character is that he's not SUPPOSED to have a personality.

Okame: He was definitely the character I had the most fun reading about by far. Okame was hands down the funniest and I think he added a lightheartedness to the squad that was severely needed. I also always appreciate an archer. Personally, I think archery is cooler than swordplay. I also think his character as compared to Tatsumi brings up some interesting points. He's constantly talking about being an honorless Ronin as opposed to Tatsumi who is a Samurai and abides by the code of bushido but that begs the question of what honor really is.

Taiyo Daisuke: My favorite character!!! I swear, Kagawa created this man specifically to make me fall in love. I mean, a young nobleman (who's actually noble and not an asshole) with pretty features and long silver hair. Yes, please. Aside from the fact that he's totally my newest book boyfriend, I also think that Daisuke is the purest character in a way. He's the only character who's not either keeping secrets/decieving/misleading the other characters (Yumeko and Tatsumi) or in possession of questionable morals (Okame). Of course, that also makes me a bit anxious because he seems to0 good to be true

Reika: She may have come in a little close to the end, but I still consider her to be pretty important. Reika is another one of my favorite characters. She's a shrine maiden, not a warrior, so she's probably not embarking on many dangerous missions. Still, she does not hesitate to do extremely dangerous things to protect the shrine. Reika is the character I respect the most.

Lady Satomi: The big bad. I didn't have any huge opinions on Satomi and interestingly enough, I hated her more for abusing her waitstaff than for, you know, sending an army of demons to steal a magic scroll and attempting to kill the main characters multiple times. She was a worthy villain but there was nothing about her that really stood out to me

I said at the beginning of this review that I have opinions on the ending. I really loved that Tatsumi gets possessed by Hakaimono at the end because I was dreading the moment Tatsumi uncovered Yumeko's lies and carries through his orders to kill her but with Hakaimono possessing Tatsumi, that heartbreaking moment never actually happened. Yeah, I know that also means that one of the most dangerous demons Jigoku has to offer is now running around the mortal realm in the body of an elite warrior, but at least Yumeko and Tatsumi don't hate each other.

I do have a bone to pick with the epilogue, though. I feel like Lady Satomi's death should have been more dramatic. She does all this crazy evil badass magicy stuff but in the end, she's just stabbed in her bed chambers?! It's just a bit underwhelming. At the same time, though, I understand why Kagawa had her killed that way. She was too powerful to fight head on, so having a character sneak in and assassinate her was probably the best way to ensure that she died.

[polarnoid]

⭐ all the combos let's goooo

MULTIMUSE MEME: Send a " ⭐ " and I will list muses I would be interested in throwing at yours, or potential muse combinations if you are also a multi.

okay i get the feeling its gonna get long and im taking in the ones in your active tag but if you also want to expand on this and or other combos lmk...also not putting down anything we have talked about already...also kinda cheating and adding the guys from scoops hehhee also also there are some combos i might be interested in but like i wanna wait until i know more about the characters so ill dm you about those specifically...also edit i forgor giselle was here so... adding that to the mix

julie & villanelle

baby murderer meets grown up assassin, there is like these differences between them that would make an interaction kinda funny??? there's a lot julie could learn and idk it would be a good thing to explore...maybe the difference on why they kill and how they see killing like idk idk that's interesting to me...julie used to be the popular girl, she kinda is still....something we can cook there

fiona & martha

so fiona is a girl from the 16th century dropped into the modern world to reunite with her husband...perchance she could be a time anomaly, something funny there. martha has time traveled, has endured things for the sake of guy and has had that whoops what did i get myself into moment...which i think is one funny because it paralelles what fiona goes through but also like idk something IS HERE...friends....fwiendship....

patrick & aimee

oh well i could give him a st verse and like ...heheh hoo hoo bad boy alert, but there's this myths and shit that are so untrue about him. so like that could definitely be funny to explore, also he is a pretty guy and can be emotionally open and understanding !! hell we could even recreate the movie plot with st in the background jkhrkjhg there is SOMETHING HERE OK?

patrick & adam

oh damn two guys ...two dudes with a bad reputation and while adam is more angry than sad patrick is kinda more like stoic and sad than angry,, idk neither of them like opening up so maybe they can hangout and not talk about their feelings at all until they grow emotionally and idk be a safe space for each other but like in the cool guy way

richie & dustin

ummm mike's annoying queer cousin....he is like a funny lil kid, i think there isnt necesarilly a funny lil kid his type of brand in the party, he also is a geek (not a nerd) so putting them into situations would be fun, also lil kid who has also dealt with weird ass happenings in one's town so he would be extra annoying i think ! funny banter here...also them bickering at each other is a guarantee ! fun !

alice & el

alice's st verse has her as an experiment, so hehehe hooo sister's vibes. she is also very much different from the people el usually surrounds herself with, she is very much a weird girl, and her powers have developed way past the default here...also bonding over their share trauma,,, she also has a scientist dude who basically killed her family and alice wants him dead...so like hehehe fun stuff there

aimee & luna

listen aimee is part of the pack, luna is in the pact, she isn't as clueless as aimee can be but i feel like they both can be girls, girls, so i think a friendship is definitely in order ! also another dog friend who doesn't want that ???

clem & luna

wow the way luna would absolutely take in clementine in as a younger sister, i think even though kane tries i feel luna and clem would connect a bit better over the whole turned into a wolf thing, especially because i think luna also got turned by necesity like clem did, also clem has this edge that kane also ocassionaly has but luna actually lacks...luna might learn a thing or two from clem

anamaria & muireann

mermaid and pirate, maybe ann gets attached to anamaria, and now anamaria has a whole ass mermaid to deal with...a whole ass feral mermaid, but maybe muireann has her back...can help anamaria kick ass hehehe

joe & giselle

wow ?? repeat customer at her tavern...an annoying lil guy who can bicker with her? he is also sorta friends with dave, since they kinda go back. a fun way for giselle to find out about dave's past like the parts he doesn't disclose necessarily...but also maybe a fling,,, he's a fun guy to be around most of the times,,, i think kghkjsdhfjsf

ophelia & giselle

wow two of the most important women in dave's life, would be fun to compare and contrast....they both ran away from what was home and family to them. so that's hehehe hooo ?? ophelia is also a lil weirdo sometimes. and i think she definitely needs feminine energies in her life especially someone that has a strong personality like giselle, teach her your ways ... perchance?

rosa & morgana

hehe hoo hoo witches magic users on opposite sides of the good evil spectrum? interesting very interesting. we could do like a modern thing for them or maybe even make it high fantasy...maybe friends turned rivals turned enemies, they would be at odds on the topic of use of dark magic...and if they were friends at some point wouldn't that be a lil sad :((

@immobiliter

[fieldsofvarley]

Hubert importance to the plot is kinda underlying sexism of the game. Dimitri and Dedue get retainer that follow them and don't question their moral, but Rhea and Edelgard got men presented as more rational than them that critize in some way their course of action? Hubert get to be quite a center of the plot, to the point where he's more the one making the incredible plan than Edelgard, nearly being more the center of the rivalry with Claude than her. Edelgard is portrayed in some way as the emotional one who still has hope and dreams, making relation with other people and being the figurehead compared to the down to earth Hubert who's here to remind Edelgard to be more rational and who's actually doing the meat of the war through strategy. ( There's more, stopping here to focus on the main point )

I'm not saying retainer should be like Hilda or Dedue, Seteth and Hubert are more interesting in many way... Hubert is an amazing character that people keep misunderstanding, and his relationship with Edelgard as well as his place in fe3h story is good in many aspect. But maybe Hubert having more importance wouldn't be a good thing in the current state of fe3h?

( Sorry for the rant )

i will preface this with saying that a) that was just a silly post i made in the middle of the night of me wishing we could see more of a character i really like. it wasn’t a long thought out analysis of the game or the politics of it b) i have not played blue lions, nor silver snow, so my knowledge of dedue and dimitri’s and rhea and seteth’s relationships is very bare bones. i don’t know half of anything, and none of my opinions are set in stone. i’m always willing to hear out other takes and ideas! however:

i don’t want to get into the whole politics of sexism, i don’t have sufficient knowledge of all the lore to make judgement like that; i don’t know how dedue handles dimitri, but my favourite lord is claude, so i feel quite confident in saying that he does get challenged - albeit in hopes, because his 3h writing is what it is and there was simply not much to challenge there at all, because they did not really bother to give him as much conflicting emotions as edelgard and dimitri. i can’t think of anything claude needed to be challenged on. as for hilda, she’s only ever truly been a retainer in name only, because, as much as i love her, she really does nothing - claude appoints judith and nader as his retainers and advisors, and we do see pushback from them both in houses and hopes.

don’t want to comment on rhea’s rationality or lack of it, because i know it’s a sensitive matter and i do not wish to be swarmed with more discourse - all i will say is that i do not care much about the church folk, really, at all. much like dimitri, there are gaps in my knowledge of the dynamics there.

hubert being more plot-centric makes sense. he was there for it all, and as we know edelgard does not remember a lot of things - and i wouldn’t call her irrational or unable to make her own calls. she’s severely traumatised and affected by the experiments. she has blinds spots hubert covers, as someone who was close to her, the imperial family, and the insurrection. edelgard’s an emperor. her role is to stand as a figure head, as an ideal, a leader that inspires and marches forward and stands ever tall. she does not need to be worrying about every small detail and plan; she has people to do that for her. but regardless of the war, my point was hubert’s importance to the slithers plot only - because that’s His war, his house’s, Not edelgard’s. the game tells us that explicitly.

as for him being more in rivalry with claude than edelgard, i just simply don’t agree with that. i do not really see a rivalry between them, anyway; not a true one, at least. their goals are the same. and they should have been allies in every route, just like in golden wildfire.

i guess it all boils down to if you consider edelgard a main character regardless of route. every other lord’s situation changes dramatically depending on the side you choose - but she’s there always, moving the plot forward, being the reason for it all. if you do agree with that, then hubert being ‘above’ other retainers is a no brainer. he’s another catalyst. house vestra is tied to horse hresvelg in a way no other retainer is to their lord. you can’t separate them like you can dimitri and dedue or claude and hilda.

if you subscribe to the idea that each lord is a main character in equal measure, and the rest are supporting cast, well, then i suppose we won’t really see eye to eye. which is fine :) it’s a massive game that makes a big point of ‘no side is the one truly right side’. we can all coexist with different views on things just fine.

again, that was just me wanting to see more of hubert’s dealings because i enjoyed it. i really don’t want to discourse about the politics of it if i don’t have to. the game’s done and over - there’s no weight to anyone’s wishful thinking, anyway. we can play with it however we want. nothing will change.

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here friend and well, we knew this week would be grim but I wasn't expecting last night's truly spectacular level of stupid. KR really is going the full RNM with "you know what this character needs? to regress!! for the drama...". It seems her true talent lies in finding new and increasingly annoying ways to employ guest actors. Also who wrote this lady's dialogue, how did they not cringe when they edited it? Anywho, tonight's LS isn't looking much better since its combining two of my most loathed Owen storylines, his LI and distinctly-not-firefighting-related detective work. Yay. At least Paul will get some screen time out of it. We're not even at the wishing luck on episodes stage anymore, its just pure "let's hope we don't do permanently damage to our liver getting through this". Anyway cheers bestie, here's to all the amazing fic writers (yourself included!) who manage to find ways to fix this shit into something sensible 🍷🍷🍷.

Bestie that was some of the biggest cringe-fail interactions I've seen in a looooong time. (Oliver, blink twice if you're bombing your chemistry with these potential love interests on purpose, we won't tell anyone, promise!) And even besides the lack of chemistry nothing about this character worked. Oh, we need a character who helps the elderly and dying find peace? Maybe you shouldn't have a bright-eyed bushy-tailed youngster who acts like she's never met someone who has been clinically dead before? Maybe have someone with an ounce of empathy who doesn't treat someone's death experience like a sideshow when they're clearly uncomfortable and barely able to get the words out? IDK that whole conversation was so icky to me. And I *might* could go with it as intentional if it wasn't for the cemetery scene and kr banging on about Buck continuing this pursuit for the next several episodes. I have always loved Buck even in his awkward moments because he always felt genuine and earnest, but that cemetery scene felt like someone shoving words into his mouth to push the idea of this new relationship, and completely disregarding Buck as a character and his other relationships in the process. Another instance of kr twisting characters around to fit a plot idea instead of allowing the characters to drive the plot and actually move forward. At least Madney are still cute and funny even if their storyline is kinda trash too. And don't get me started on the stuff with Shannon. At least we have the sperm donor mess, L return, and a possible tay kay jumpscare to look forward to! 🙄🙄🙄

As for LS, I'm just ready to mindlessly stare at the tv for an hour, have a chuckle or two, and then erase every pointless bit of Owen from my brain.

Cheers my friend, we are gonna need it! Also, I maaaaay be working on a fic. An AU not fix-it, but I'm pretty excited about the idea (SaL based, of course) and some of the things I've come up with for it (suuuuper stoked personally for how I worked the chapter titles because I think I'm clever), so hopefully I can work on that and get something to tease soon!