#like it feels like it's from 2009 because of the author and she tried to hide her dated sensibilities with that in universe excuse

[thornsnvultures]

this book I'm reading feels like something from wattpad in 2009 but I can't put it down. like there's plenty here that's cringe (the long denim and corduroy skirts, describing every outfit in detail, the casual misogyny brushed off because the mmc gives puppy dog eyes and says sowwy), but there's just enough good that I can't stop reading it.

[zahri-melitor]

Okay, I just finished The Victim Syndicate in Detective Comics #943-947, and I was struck by a few things when reading this storyline.

I've heard people claim that Steph is not particularly well-written by James Tynion IV. I'm not actually sure that's the case. What I think the major complaint might actually be is "Steph's characterisation in Tynion's 'Tec does not match Batgirl 2009" in terms of what I've read so far.

Because what I saw on the page? That characterisation looked an awful lot like pre-War Games characterisation of Stephanie Brown. In fact, I'd take a gamble and say it's the most in-character writing for Steph I've read since 2004 where 'in-character' means in accord with what the Bat Bible under Dennis O'Neil had for Steph. (And whatever you want to say about Batgirl 2009, it is undoubtedly true that it departs from pre-2004 characterisation for a number of Doylist reasons, due to the multitude of out-of-book issues).

Steph's relationships with Harper and Cass from Batman Eternal and Batman & Robin Eternal and Batgirl 2011 are preserved.

She’s written as stubborn and determined and angry and raging at a wrong she sees. She IS very wrapped up in Tim but to her eye her BOYFRIEND JUST DIED, and Steph's always been fairly obsessive about Tim and measured herself against him, going all the way back to their first meeting. So many of her actions over the years have either been to spite her father, or to get a reaction from Tim.

And she gets her hands on Tim’s protocols from a program Tim wrote and then uses them on her allies, a classic Spoiler move where she's disrupting an authority-figure's plan (in this case Batman) as she doesn't feel she's being listened to, with a move that is reminiscent of you guessed it, the lead into War Games.

Like that SURE IS some Stephanie Brown like behaviour. Mad at Bruce and yelling at him. Feeling hurt and doing something inadvised with specialised information. Determined that SHE knows better than people with more training and experience than she has.

I dunno. It feels like pretty in-character Steph to me. And circular "Steph gets told she's not good enough, Steph tries to prove herself, Steph screws up, repeat" is a classic, CLASSIC storyline for her all the way back to her first appearance.

And here what is happening? Bruce is telling her to take a break due to her emotions over Tim, the situation goes wrong and Steph steps in to help anyway as she's there, Steph gets benched, Steph STILL gets called in after a villain shows up to talk to her, Steph thinks she knows better than everyone else and arrives with a threat in hand to try resolve the situation, including using PROTOCOLS on ALLIES, Steph gets people to stand down but ends up hurt and told off.

...That's a Steph story. That's always been the shape of a Steph story and the sort of actions she takes.

[katy-133]

Merc Shipping Vs The Administrator (AKA, The Power of Love Vs The Power of Hate)

Something I keep thinking about is the Romeo and Juliet parallel between BLU Soldier and RED Demoman in the WAR! comic, and how you can apply it to every merc ship configuration.

Because I think the Romeo and Juliet parallel is definitely intentional on the part of the comic creators. Canonically, Soldier and Demoman's relationship is one of friendship (it's given that label by the Administrator), not romance. But the whole thing is purposely framed like a forbidden romance story. So it's not canonically a romance, but it's read like a forbidden romance. It feels like a forbidden romance. Because it uses the tropes familiar with a forbidden romance story. To elaborate...

The study of tropes is the study of patterns in storytelling. As you experience different media, you start recognising patterns and what different patterns are trying to communicate to the audience (you). By doing this, you are gaining media literacy by understanding the language of storytelling. And by "language," I don't mean "French/English," I mean colour theory, subtext, and tropes. Media has its own language beyond English.

So, breaking down parts of the WAR! arc, the Administrator gives the following in-game dialogue regarding Soldier and Demoman's relationship:

"Betrayal will not be tolerated." "You cannot hide anything from us, mercenaries. And now you will pay the price." "It's not too late to repent, kill your friend now and end this. Listen to your conscience!" "Friendships are in direct contravention of mercenary conduct as delineated in your contracts; and on a personal note: I am very, very, disappointed with you." "I won't single any one of you out. I will just say that some of you have betrayed the trust of your employers...and because of that you must die. The rest of you are *cough* satisfactory." - The Administrator

There's additional bark lines, but I'm highlighting these because they focus on the forbidden aspect of the friendship, and how the friendship is a thing to be punished for. Stick a pin in this.

To do a quick summary of what happened, the Administrator discovers a series of surveillance photos showing BLU Soldier and RED Demoman hanging out together in various places outside of work hours. The Administrator is now finding out about this because she is their boss (and has the authority to have access to this surveillance stuff) and because Soldier and Demoman didn't tell anyone about their friendship (read as: they knew it would be frowned upon and tried to keep it a secret).

This "person of authority discovers their wards are having a forbidden relationship in secret" moment is a trope as old as the hills. In Romeo and Juliet, it was their family finding out about their romance, and before that, the fear of being discovered is what hangs over them for the majority of the story. Like Soldier and Demoman, Romeo and Juliet are on opposite sides of a feud that has lasted longer than their own lifetimes. And it is expected of them to take part in this feud as enemies.

(Season 1 Good Omens spoiler in next paragraph, feel free to skip it.)

If you want a more recent and modern example, there's the fantasy romantic comedy Good Omens, wherein Aziraphale's boss, Archangel Gabriel, finds out through surveillance photos that the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley have been hanging out together in secret, while Aziraphale insisted to Gabriel that he and Crowley were enemies in the Heaven and Hell war. The scene beat for beat feels the same as the Administrator finding out about Soldier and Demoman, complete with a "photos splayed across the table" shot.

Even Team Fortress 2 has used this "photos across the table" trope before, and it was for the reveal of RED Spy's romance with Scout's mother. TF2 used it in association with forbidden romance before the WAR! comic. (Meet the Spy released May 2009, while WAR! released in December 2009.)

Some other romantic connotations I observed in WAR! were that the different photos illustrate a different romance trope.

In one of the photos, Soldier and Demoman go to Las Vegas together. Visiting Las Vegas is a trope in fiction where the main character goes there and spontaneously gets married during their stay. This is because Nevada, America does not require a waiting period between obtaining a marriage licence and the marriage, making it ideal for writers trying to justify a surprise marriage storyline. The trope was also popularised by the 2003 slogan, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," and has since been associated with the implication that characters who visited Las Vegas together secretly got married while there.

There's a joke in the series Gravity Falls that references this trope:

In the Las Vegas photo, Soldier and Demoman are with two women (so they are not just together by themselves), but the marriage association is still there.

Soldier and Demoman also went to a museum together, a sports game, a bus tour, and went on a fishing trip together. Bonding outings where they got to know each other. These can be read as going on dates together if you are using a queer reading to view the story.

So, there's two readings happening on top of each other. There's the canon reading (or text reading), and there's the subtext reading (specifically, a queer reading). And you can read both at the same time.

Canonically, this is a friendship where it's forbidden because Soldier and Demoman are on opposite sides of a war. The Administrator doesn't want this friendship to continue because it puts her plan (of secretly playing to both sides) in jeopardy.

A subtext reading is that this is a romance where it's still forbidden because Soldier and Demoman are on opposite sides, but it can also now be read as forbidden because gay relationships were criminalised at the time (Team Fortress 2 is set in 1968, which is exactly one year before Stonewall happens). Historically, gay relationships in fiction have this association with forbidden romance in particular because its criminalisation required secrecy and discreetness for the gay relationship to exist, and socially it wasn't accepted by the general public (it was stigmatised as a criminal act) and was thus seen as taboo. So in stories, it had (and still has) this association with forbidden-ness and secret-keeping.

There was also the Hays Code, which was created (in part) to stop films from including gay characters and gay relationships and that criminal acts should be punished by the end of the movie. Filmmakers got around these rules by queer coding villains (using queer signifiers to imply a character as queer without making it canon) and using subtext and metaphors. The Hays Code has since been removed, but it was used during almost the entirety of the Golden Age of Hollywood (read as: formative years that created many of the staples of filmmaking), so its effects can still be seen in today's media. Such as writers using secretive friendships as a metaphor for forbidden queer romance.

If you edit the plot to Soldier and Demoman having a secret romantic relationship rather than a friendship, the plot arguably stays the same and requires minimal changes to the plot beats.

And in addition to this relationship jeopardising her plan, the Administrator may not want the mercs to form romantic bonds between them that could stop them from fighting and killing each other and get them to question the point(lessness) of the Gravel War.

Basically, she doesn't want the Gravel War to end through some act of the Power of Love. Which, thinking about it, the Power of Love is the antithesis of the Administrator's way of getting what she wants. She runs on the Power of Hate. She uses it to keep the war going, by arranging things so that the Mann brothers never end their rivalry. She found a way to prolong both of their lives so that their feud would not end through death or forgiveness. She benefits from hatred and it's how she retains her power.

So, the Administrator uses her power to break up Soldier and Demoman. She tries to incentivise them with new weapons and items. That doesn't work. She lies and tells them that the other merc betrayed them, using fake evidence and the merc's trust in Miss Pauling. She uses her knowledge of what the mercs fear most to manipulate them into thinking the other betrayed them. It's only then that Soldier and Demoman agree to killing each other.

Using the romantic interpretation, the Administrator is using her power to end the forbidden relationship. Making Soldier and Demoman star-crossed lovers that were pulled apart by an authority that watches over them.

Alongside the WAR! comic, the game had an update where you played as Soldier or Demoman and got rewarded for specifically targeting and killing the other. These kills were tallied collectively and used to basically vote for which class got a particular new weapon/item reward, which changed the game's design and changed how Soldier and Demoman played.

Even if you missed the WAR! arc update that happened in-game, you still get to play out an aspect of it through completing this achievement for Soldier:

And this achievement for Demoman:

They killed each other 500 times.

Respawning, although not talked about in the comics, is mentioned enough that it appears to be canon or at least acknowledged in-universe by the mercs. It's not just a video game thing you're meant to forget about or pretend doesn't exist.

"See you in five minutes." - Sniper, upon killing a merc.

Medic's Reanimator device in Mann Vs Machine mode is also shown in The Sound of Medicine Valve animation and is used to bring Heavy back to life. So in-universe, death does not stop the mercs, and they therefore can die repeatedly as a punishment.

This is why merc shipping has such a strong element of danger and stakes to them, whether it's a cross-fraction or same team ship. If they are all aware of the Administrator's authority and how much she spies on them, they would all be fearful of being in a relationship with another merc because they'd be worried about the punishment they would receive if they got caught.

The Administrator didn't just go, "You're fired," or, "You're dead." I think this is very important to keep in mind. Those two options weren't good enough. The Administrator punishes people on the level that GLaDOS does because she has that same authority. She instead went, "You're going to kill each other 500 times over. Each. And you're going to enjoy it. I'm going to arrange things so that you hate each other by the end of this."

Can you imagine what she would do if she had so much as an inkling that the mercs have fallen in love?

Going back to canon, I still don't know how the TF2 comics will end, but if issue 7 ever comes out, I wonder if the Administrator's ultimate plan will get foiled through the merc's teamwork. Does teamwork defeat a century-old plan created by rivalry and greed?

Does the Power of Love defeat the Power of Hate?

[youritalianbookpal]

Top 10 books for 2023

I tried to give this some order but I am not the most organized being alive. I am proud of having read 49 books, and I take it as a symbol of the fact that I have finally been able, in the past few years, to go back to reading. My love for books and words got me through hard times, and now that I'm doing better and I can make more time for myself, I'm glad I can dedicate myself to this.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Most beautiful and haunting book I've ever read. Kind of hope no book will ever hurt me like this ever again. I loved it but at the same time I had to talk to my therapist best friend multiple times about this because the damage it could have done to me...

Still. Most beautiful book of the year.

2. Beautiful World Where Are You by Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney gets me in ways I'm not sure I want people I know to get me, let alone a random book I pick up because I liked Normal People like three years ago.

3. Palestinian Trilogy by Mahmoud Darwish

Anthology made up by Journal of an Ordinary Grief (1973), Memory of Forgetfullness (1987), and In the Presence of Absence (2009). It's one of the most poetic and heartbreaking books I've ever read, and one of the books I have been recommending since I finished it in early 2023.

4. Ghosts by Dolly Aderton

Dolly Alderton also gets me in ways I'd rather perople not get me, and she makes me laugh a lot. And cry.

5. The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Silvia Moreno-Garcia could write a grocery's list and I would read it and love it.

6. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Technically a reread, but this was my favorite book at 17 and I'm glad it still is as beautiful as I remember.

7. The Wicked King by Holly Black

I technically rated Queen of Nothing higher than Wicked King but... I think this is more dramatic and iconic and if I have to choose between a kidnapping and an exile I'll always choose the kidnapping.

8. Tutta intera by Espérance Hakuzwimana

Best Italian novel I read in several years. If it doesn't get translated in 204610464 languages then what's the point.

9. Tre ciotole by Michela Murgia

This year we also lost author and activist Michela Murgia. It still feels like I lost my cool auntie, and I know it shouldn't, but it does. To cope I read this and... yeah.

10. If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura

If we consider how short it is and how much I cried reading it... it was probably a sob every two pages.

Honorable mentions:

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (not incluced because I wanted to keep only 1 book per author).

Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong (extremely tough decision between this and Genki Kawamura, but I had to go with the book that made me cry the most. I will remember 2023 as the year of the Shanghai duologies though, and this is by far my favorite book of the series).

[himluv]

DA Review Series - The Stolen Throne by David Gaider

Since I finished my original fiction novel at the end of February, I've started replaying the Dragon Age games and the long process of re-reading all the Media Tie-Ins. I thought, since I'm doing all of this, I might as well share my thoughts along the way.

I'm following this list that I made last year, if you'd like to follow along :). Now, onto the review!

Title: The Stolen Throne Author: David Gaider Publication Year: 2009 In-World Year: ~8:96 Blessed to ~9:00 Dragon (there are discrepancies) Verdict: Skip. There isn't any real lore value here, and it's mostly just teen angst wrapped in sexism.

The Stolen Throne is a prequel to Dragon Age: Origins, which introduces us to teenaged Maric Theirin just after his mother has been assassinated. The book follows Maric and his friends over the course of about four years as they lead a rebellion to free Ferelden from Orlesian occupation. We also meet young Loghain MacTir and Rowan Guerrin – both important figures to the Ferelden we experience in DA:O.

Unfortunately, I don't have much good to say about this book. I first read it in 2011, and remember really liking it then. I was 21, and while a voracious reader, I was not a reader of much Fantasy at the time. I've grown a lot since then, and this book does not age well.

I tried to re-read it in 2020 and couldn't finish it. I tried again in 2023 and, again, abandoned it. But this year, while playing DA:O I was able to slog through it and FINALLY finish it.

So, why was it such a slog?

The writing is, uh, bad. Just, on a basic prose level, this feels like a rough draft. Adjectives and adverbs run rampant over this book. Descriptions are winding and don't always make sense. The amount of times I rolled my eyes while reading this book, y'all. It was a lot.

But, if the story had been good enough, I could have overlooked the bumbling execution. The problem is, the story isn't all that compelling. Yes, I expected the overthrowing of Thedas's most influential political force to be an exciting read. Instead, this book isn't so much about the politics of Thedas and the tolls of war, but about... love triangles? Quadrangles?

Without getting lost in the details, basically Maric is betrothed to Rowan, but Loghain loves Rowan. And Maric is in love with Katriel (which is a whole 'nother problematic can of worms) and cheats on Rowan. And Rowan... is upset about this, but I don't really know why because she doesn't love Maric. And she sleeps with Loghain, but also.... I don't think she loves him either? IDK, man. None of it made sense.

And that is the crux of this book. So little of the characters' motivations made sense. And so much of the book hinged on those supposed motivations and feelings. But they didn't make sense – at least, not to me.

Sadly, there wasn't much lore to be gained from this book, either. we learn a little about Maric and his mother Moira. A little about Loghain, but even what I did learn didn't make me more sympathetic to him. He's still a dick. In fact, the only characters I did like were Rowan and Katriel, both of whom are dead by the end of the book. Neither of whom had any real power over their own lives. In fact! When Katriel attempted to flex what little power she did have, Maric KILLED her. And he supposedly loved her??? No. Uh-huh. And Loghain basically goaded him into it, so they both suck.

The one good thing from this is I think it does make the Orelsian hate in DA:O more believable. When the Warden comes on the scene, it's only been ~30 years since Maric and Loghain ousted Orlais. People are still living and working who fought in these battles, who lived under occupation. So, that's some good context. Don't think we needed over 400 pages of misogyny to get it, though.

David Gaider wrote two more Dragon Age novels, so wish me luck. I think I'm going to need it...

[palluniskillas]

Ideas for my 2009's humanstuck au:

• Nepeta, Sollux, Karkat and Terezi are close friends.(Karkat is their internet friend in common because he lives in Argentina and they live in the US).

• Nepeta is an otaku and fan of warriorcats, likes to rp with terezi and Feferi. Likes to draw and animate in her nintendo ds.

• Sollux is a computer wizard, a huge gamer (mostly plays Cod) and likes to spite Karkat and his gamer skills. He is a sarcastic king and charges people $20 to fix their computers.

• Sometimes Sollux pirates Nep's favorite animes for her and they watch them together.

• Terezi is blind in this au. She likes candy. A LOT(the reason why she wears braces) specially those cherry jelly gummies. She likes 90's fashion and watching dragon tales (couldn't be more proud about this fact)

• Feferi is a huge fan of everything sea related (coughmermaidscough). Attends to swimming lessons along with Eridan. Has a plethora of mermaid swimming tails. She also likes to take care of her fish pets, sometimes a little too much.

• Fef's mother is kind of absent, her big sister, Meenah, too. So the staff in her mansion take most care of her. Nonetheless, she always has a good spirit, even if she feels somewhat alone.

• Eridan is the typical snobby teen with straight A's and a rich family (which might be the reason for the A's). He often goes to parties with his "friends" in the academy, but really the only friend he has and understands him is Feferi. He often feels alone because his father leaves for business trips, leaving him with his excuse of an older brother.

• Eridan likes and owns all of the Harry Potter Saga (at the moment) but prefers not to nerd out in fear of rejection (only nerds out to Feferi). He is also an avid fan of greek history and mythology.

• Tavros (who is a pokémon encyclopedia) is close friends with Aradia, sometimes they trade pokémon cards and have a few matches. His family immigrated from Spain to Argentina.

• Tavros is best friends with Gamzee, they hang out often and have rap jam sessions with basic rap beats coming out of Tav's family computer.

• Gamzee is...you know how Gamzee is. He likes Porta and ICP, sometimes he ends up at the hospital for drinking too much soda. Likes drawing and making tye-dye tshirts. His father owns a huge furniture store but most people in town think the store is just a facade to hide more..criminal matters.

• Karkat sometimes hangs with Gamzee, but he's more close with Kanaya and Ter. He likes programming and playing Cod, but not as much as watching the pirated romcom cds he hides under his matress with Kan.

• Karkat also has a slight obsession with the telenovelas his dad watches(coughMaríaladelbarriocough), which are the same ones Kankri criticises for being too problematic.

• Kanaya attends a catholic school her mom is a teacher in with Karkat and Rose. She likes to buy fashion magazines and tries to copy the models with the patterns they provide. Has a small academic rivalry with Rose Lalonde, but there's also some sparks there.

• Aradia lives in the same neighbourhood as Karkat and Tavros, and is internet friends with Sollux, who she met on club penguin a few years ago. She is more of an outgoing kid, and is not often seen inside her house unless she is initiating an excavation in her backyard in search for bones. Any kind of bones.

• Aradia is also internet friends with Nepeta and Terezi (they talk sometimes in skype) they're planning to one day meet up in the future and play dnd together, with their new addition to the group, Vriska.

• Vriska lives in the US in Equius' neighborhood. She has been Terezi's friend on and off, because of differences between eachother. She also met Tavros on the online game "8 ball pool" and tries to teach him how to ace pool like her.

• Vriska is kind of the problem child in her school, a punk at heart. She skips school often and disrespects authorities. Nobody but Ter knows the reason behind this jealousy towards her older, more successful sister, Aranea (and perhaps some neglecting from her mother too).

• Vriska likes fantasy books (often where the hero is NOT weak and is VERY awesome) and likes to imagine herself in those worlds as a form of escapism. She also likes Avril Lavigne and has a pet spider, which is very demanding when it comes to food.

• Equius is the quiet but kind kid..if not a little weird. His family proudly owns a robotics company his father initiated in the 90's, Equius is the nervous heir in line.

• He is very close friends with Nepeta, to the point of having grown together. They have a small tradition of celebrating eachother's birthdays with a tea party. Nepeta likes her tea without milk, Equius prefers more milk than tea.

[nicomrade]

i didnt read nearly as much this year (2023) compared to last, i mostly re-read my faves that ill maybe post about one day and i read non-fiction from libraries. I am a Communist by Park Kun-Woong and Ichi-F by Kazuto Tatsuta are the two that id say stood out the most in that regard, but i kinda wanna keep these retrospective posts to fiction only so lets go for my actual 6 picks naow

Poison City - Tetsuya Tsutsui (2014-2015) opening with my favorite author, poison city is about art censorship- specifically of mangas in japanese libraries- how it happens, why, by and for whom, who it affects, how it shapes the publishing industry and so on. it was written after tsutsui found out his own work (manhole) had been banned in a prefecture, without him ever being notified. its only 2 volumes but the most nuanced discussion of the topic ive seen. like all tsutsui work it is in my brain forever like a worm and if i see it IRL i get an urge to reread it right there right now. which happens often cuz french libraries (justifiably!) love it

Gekiga-Yose: Fallen Words - Tatsumi Yoshihiro (2009) i got into a little gekiga rabbithole sometime last spring that segued really nicely into a rakugo moment for me. Fallen Words is neatly at the junction of the two and maybe the best way to experience rakugo stories if you cant watch performances? its not rakugo but it tries really hard to make the original jokes work in a new medium. fascinating project that i really enjoyed and laughed outloud at while reading. it also helps other rakugo-based fiction have more context and depth for a non-rakugo liker audience

Blood on the Tracks / Chi no Wadachi - Oshimi Shuzo (2017-2023) "this is not a work that wants to teach you how to heal, how to cope, or give you catharsis, or tragedy." chi no wadachi is about parental abuse and keeps to following the protagonist for as long as his mom has influence over his life, in all of the ways that she does, and nothing more. its heavy, its hard, and its something you need to meet halfway. not the oshimi shuzo work id necessarily start with but its the one i read fully this year and also the one i got into comment fights on mangadex about lol

Billy Bat - Naoki Urasawa & Nagasaki Takashi (2008-2016) billy bat is about art and its about making art and its about what if there was a bat on the moon that gave you catharsis. its got historical fiction its got protagonist changes its got walt disney its got an insane amount of historical research put in. its got two bats. its art as an universal language, as something its artist owns but that also belongs to everyone who's ever connected with it, art as the root of humanity, as the lense through which people view and shape the world. and its about a japanese-american artist named kevin.

Bokurano: Ours - Kitoh Mohiro (2003-2009) bokurano is about kids who are roped into a mecha war for earth's survival. it questions whether you can live without harming others, the nature of remorse, childhood trauma, and so on. its dubiously a death game- i count it as one but its also explicitely interested in this very question- "is this a game?". is bullying a game? Is csa a game? Is parental abuse a game? Neglect? Sibling violence? War? Is that what a game is? anything that children do?

Undercurrent - Toyoda Tetsuya (2004-2005) its easy to say reading undercurrent feels like youre drowning because the water motif is already omnipresent but this really is a piece where the story and the artistic motif are just in symbiose. undercurrent explores one woman's life managing her bathhouse almost on her own at the same time as she's dealing with more personal issues, and my first instinct upon seeing the cover is always to hold my breath. cannot say anymore just read it

+ bonus mention to Gantz - Hiroya Oku (2000 - 2013) for ruining my whole life. i didnt start it in 2023 but i was overcome by some sort of fever in january that made me finish this fucking manga and it hasn't left me since. don't read gantz. you can watch the live action movies they cut out 95% of the manga and make it actually good also akagi's actor (kanata hongo) plays my fave character in them. but whatever you do, don't read gantz.

[cedarboughs]

I visited Forks, Washington this week, which is on a bit of land amidst reservations and logging cut blocks and national parks, a place where the local burger joint still charges $4.00 for strawberry lemonade and calls it “Vampire punch,” written on the menu in what I’m pretty sure is the font used for the title on the cover of Twilight. It’s a beautiful area, and solemnly atmospheric, gothic in its fundamental character, isolated on a peninsula in the pounding Pacific, the apex of all that makes the Pacific Northwest unique – surrounded by primordial hemlock forest, perpetually in shadow and concealing countless silent mossy hollows where who-knows-what could be lurking. A centre of deep-rooted social conflict between capitalist resource extraction, indigenous tradition, poverty-driven job seekers, and conservationists driven far from the heartland seeking out the last ancient places still worth protecting. Pretty much the perfect setting for a haunting supernatural novel populated with a cast of outcasts and subtly, allegorically exploring those conflicts and the purpose of shadows and forests to the many outcasts of America and those on the literal and euphemistic edge—

And Twilight is the fantasy novel that laid claim to it?

Im not upset, it just feels like there could have been more, like Meyer could have really dug into the place and its literary feel, or like it could have been written by an author more familiar with the region. And, er, less Mormon.

Like, imagine: the vampire mythos intentionally contrasted with the American capitalist ethos of sucking the land dry for sustenance. I know that there’s like good vampires and villainous vampires, right? And that the vampires and werewolves are at odds because reasons? Imagine that one clan of vampires stays out of the sun beneath the trees, where they can hide in humble shadows, while another stays out of the sun in boardrooms and limos and penthouses using power as a means to blood. To commit the ultimate Washington State heresy and put a Fleet Foxes lyric in a Twilight-adjacent post, the men who move only in dimly lit halls and determine my future for me. Imagine shape-changer tricksters based in the real mythology of the Northwest (there’d have to be more ravens; see Eden Robinson’s Trickster Trilogy.) Imagine our human heroine, disillusioned with her home in some flyover state where the sun glares constant and remorseless, plants shrivel in the dry air, and the sky induces borderline agoraphobia, entering into this world first through a love of the woods and the life-filled solitude of the place itself, and then realizing the solidarity she feels with one (or two? And on some level all) of the ultimate outcasts, thriving in the shadows of the cedars for almost the same reason. And imagine the ultimate conflict being a truce of solidarity between indigenous Tricksters and the one group of vampires, who are descended from colonists but have tried to minimize the blood-sucking that their economic system I mean vampiric curse requires of them, against the true vampires, who like Stoker’s Dracula being of old nobility have built everything around it, who’d take away the trees that both factions of rivals love – the spirits more ancient than any of them – because they shelter in their own trees of steel.

I should admit that I haven’t actually read any of the Twilight books in full, and it’s been more than ten years since I saw one of the movies, so for all I know, all of this might actually happen. But from everything I’ve heard, I doubt it. And I want to make it clear that I don’t hate the series or anything. It’s not 2009 anymore and I’m not in late elementary school anymore. It’s more like, I’m a bit melancholy thinking about the wasted storytelling potential of a place and concept that has so, so much potential.

[justmybookthots]

Hush, Hush

The reason I read this? Because a booktuber I was following shared an hour-long video of her reacting to the entire series and I was like: hey! I read part of the first book as a teen! And since I just recently reread City of Bones (see review), why not continue my streak of rereading trashy YA relics? It's the archaeologist in me speaking, I swear. And also the masochist!

Now, after finishing this book, I have come to announce in my review that I am really, really burnt-out. 😂 It's… a lot of teenage angst. I'm only done with the first book and this madwoman pushed herself and read ALL FOUR BOOKS:

The sheer IRONY of her video title given that I read it because I saw her video, LOL.

So I don't even know how to begin this review. First of all, I definitely found City of Bones more enjoyable than this. Does it mean City of Bones is a better book? Eh. I think CoB had more things in the plot to distract me (finding the Cup, lots of magical adventure) from the main leads, but this book circles a lot around Patch and Nora. 

And boy were both of them the weirdest people to exist. 

I want to say they're a product of their time, and in a way they are, but I've also seen other books in this time that aren't this bad. Regardless, you can really see how aged the book is from this interaction here:

All the mean-girl Marcie did call Nora was "geek" and "freak" but Nora? Not just did she slut-shame Marcie, she called her an anorexic pig. This is our heroine, guys. This is who we're supposed to root for. It's genuinely hilarious how the masses collectively ignored how problematic this was in 2009.

In any case: Nora spends most of her days swooning over Patch while simultaneously telling herself how dangerous he is. I get the "dangerous" part, but the swooning? What? HOW? Other than him looking (I guess?) physically attractive, there is NOTHING about him to swoon about. He is so creepy, I swear if he said half the things he did to me IRL, I'd call the cops and file a restraining order. LIKE, I'M NOT KIDDING. THIS MAN HAS ZERO GAME. ZERO. When asked by the biology teacher what he looks for in a mate (I know. The question was already, um, hella weird), Patch says things like: 

"Intelligent. Attractive. Vulnerable."

Vulnerable?? VULNERABLE. This is Creeper 101. Also during his first meeting with Nora, out of nowhere, he goes:

"Do you sleep naked?" he asked.

There's a thousand more examples of him saying the weirdest, creepiest shit, but it'd be tomorrow by the time I list them out. My point is: if this is him trying to flirt, it's giving police sirens. And Nora's reaction, instead of running from him, is to dwell on how conflicted she is about her attraction (??) and fear towards him. At some point, she's stalking his workplace to interview his coworkers if he's a felon or has a criminal record and I KID YOU NOT, her last question ending this is: Does he have a girlfriend?

And I don't even want to talk about her best "friend", Vee. I use quotation marks because this isn't really a friend but bless the author, she seems to believe Vee is remotely some kind of friend to Nora. When Elliot (some dude in the story) assaults Nora, this is what Vee says:

Guys, Elliot is going to feel so horrible tomorrow after assaulting Nora. 🙁 Vee is SO right, we need to worry about the pain he's in instead of taking the matter of assault seriously.  Because fuck your best "friend" since Elliot is more important, am I right?

To make matters worse, Elliot was assaulting Nora to try to coerce her to go on a camping trip with him and Vee. So get this: Vee, despite hearing about the assault, STILL tries to persuade Nora to go on the camping trip because it'd be fun! In the end, Vee going for the camping trip causes Nora to have to rescue her (since Elliot is obviously a deviant), and Nora practically endangers her life to save Vee's sorry ass. Me, I'm not so kind. I'd munch popcorn and sip wine and have a jolly good time picturing Vee getting murdered. Cheers!

Anyway. Negative points aside, I didn't see the Jules twist coming, and I kinda did like that. The downside, however, is that everyone is an idiot, especially Nora. For example, the new therapist Miss Greene was clearly shady from the start—she'd say the sketchiest nonsense, and Nora would just be vaguely suspicious before taking it all in stride. It's WILD. Her behaviour for 80% of this book makes zero fucking sense. The only thing I can commend her for is that she's proactively trying to solve an investigation for most of the book... even if she's going the worst possible way at it.

And also when Patch says at the end of the book that he's fallen for Nora and no longer plans to sacrifice her? I was like, WHEN? When did you fall for her? Most of your interactions were just you saying creepy stuff and her thinking about how hot and dangerous you were. When did the falling-in-love happen, exactly?

I AM SO CONFUSED.

I don't really have more to say about this book other than I am really, really hoping we (as readers or writers) have collectively moved on from this madness in 2023. In any case, will I continue this series? I don't know. I do like trashy reality TV, but too much of it and I might get a stroke. Reading City of Bones and then this almost back to back has taken me out. (And yet… there is a distant INANE part of me that's whispering: Time to go back and reread every trashy YA series circa 2010.)

- 16 Nov 2023

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. Welcome to Too Much Information Tuesday.

People who are in love get fewer colds.

On average, 12 new-borns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

By 2050, about half of the world’s population will be short sighted.

A zoilist is someone who gains pleasure from finding fault.

Women who snore are more likely to struggle to orgasm.

About one person in twenty can't visualise images in their head.

Until 1899, the list of official diseases at the Royal College Of Physicians included nostalgia.

In 2002, actor Vin Diesel saved an entire family from a burning car wreck.

The annual awards ceremony of the UK porn industry is called the SHAFTAs.

According to a recent study, procrastination can be a sign of poor physical health.

750,000 tons of cigarette butts are dropped on the ground around the world each year.

The phrase ‘pipe dream’ originates from the fantasies induced by smoking opium.

Many Japanese bathrooms have a button that, when pushed, plays the flushing sound to mask the sound of you doing your ‘business’.

A single share of Coca Cola stock that was purchased in 1919 for $40, would be worth $9.8 million today.

To try and be a better person, Tolstoy wrote a list of rules for himself that included, “Visit a brothel only twice a month.”

Scientists have observed male bottlenose dolphins masturbating by wrapping a live eel around their penis.

A 99 year old man divorced his 96 year old wife after having been married for 77 years because he discovered an affair she had in the 1940's.

In 2014 Margaret Loughry won the Northern Ireland lottery jackpot which consisted of £27 million. She donated 26 million of it to her own hometown to help transform it into a tourist destination.

In 2013, a man in Michigan whose house was set to be demolished, switched his house numbers with his neighbour. The demolition crew never realised until it was too late.

A 2009 study found James Bond has had ten times as many lovers as the average British male has in a lifetime, with a doctor reporting that, “the likelihood of him having chlamydia is extremely high.”

The African Union intends on having a single, continent-wide currency modelled after the euro. The most popular proposed name for the currency as of right now is the afro.

Edward 'Boy' Jones was known in the Victorian era for getting caught breaking into Buckingham Palace when he was 14 years old and stealing Queen Victoria's underwear.

In 2013, the 'Breaking Bad' team were offered $75 million to produce three more episodes after the final season concluded, which was estimated to be more than their earnings in 5 years. They declined.

The Hanover Country School Board in Virginia tried to ban ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ in 1966. When she heard about this, author Harper Lee sent a letter to the school board asking if they were literate and offered some money to enrol them in first grade.

In February this year, at an art exhibition in Russia, a security guard ruined a painting worth $1 million by drawing a pair of eyes on it with a ballpoint pen because he was "bored". It was his first day on the job.

In 2012 a man sued Pepsi after he found a mouse in his Mountain Dew. However, Pepsi fought and won the case. They knew the can was 74 days old and could prove that any mouse would have easily dissolved in Mountain Dew after 30 days.

How do farmers party? They turnip the beets.

Sadie Renee Johnson from Oregon started a wildfire in 2013 in order to give her bored firefighter friends some work, except that it spread to 206 square km and cost nearly eight million dollars and two months to bring under control.

In the late 1900s, Howard Hughes bought an entire casino named Silver Slipper just so that he could tear down their neon sign. It was visible from Hughes' bedroom and apparently it was keeping him up at night.

In 1988, a woman named Jean Terese Keating disappeared while awaiting trial for drunkenly killing a woman in a car crash. She was arrested 15 years later after bragging at a bar about having gotten away with the crime.

In 2012, a nineteen year old teen secretly lived in AOL's headquarters for two full months in California. He ate free food, used the gyms and showers and even slept in the conference room while working on his own startup.

And, finally, a quiz. What does this list of acts have in common? Loose Ends, Doug E. Fresh, Steely Dan, Lee Dorsey, Otis Redding, Sly & The Family Stone, Hall & Oates, The Turtles, The Detroit Emeralds, The Monkees, The Emotions, Sly Stone, Funky Four + 1, Johnny Cash, Syl Johnson, The Fatback Band, Eddie Murphy, Run DMC, Cymande, The Commodores, Bo Diddley, The Real Roxanne, Five Stairsteps, Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor, Jefferson Starship, Gregory Abbot and Cerrone. If you know the answer, well done! Keep it to yourself!

Okay, that’s enough information for one day. Have a tremendous and tumultuous Tuesday! I love you all.

[notasapleasure]

The Unforgettable (2009)

Right, this DVD is in Italian. The subs are supposedly in Italian. I have...ok French. I watched without subs (then realised they weren’t there anyway), because concentrating on one set of vibes at a time was enough, but it’s not a complicated film and by and large I think I got the gist. Please forgive my attempts at spelling Italian though.

It’s 2007 and Yash, the famous author of Sex: The Parasistic Desire, is having a Sad as he prepares for his final public appearance and remembers the 1980s...a simpler time. We flash back to 1986, Mauritius, where Yash is a cynical vol-cel type whose attitudes you can gather from the title of his book. He falls madly in love with Padma, who is much more free-living, can go toe-to-toe with him on discussions of what an orgasm is (is it a loss of control? Wonder why that upsets Yash?) and wins him over with lines like ‘what’s your name? I want to know who the author is of the book I’m never going to read’.

They have lots of steamy sex, then Padma disappears, after Yash has become quite clingy and fond of declaring his love for her. About one hour into the movie, Yash manages to track her down to a big villa in the countryside, where she tries to get him to see it wasn’t love, just two consenting adults having a good time. Padma explains that it’s finished. Paraphrasing my understanding of the Italian, Yash: “Why is it finished?” [per que de va finire?]

OH HERE HE IS

swag

Aditya Roy! Padma lives with him in his grand villa, and he’s back early from his conference.

He’s very impressed by the great author [il grande scrittore!] Yash, and invites him to a party he and Padma are having (to celebrate them being together? Married?)

Padma is clearly uncomfortable and says Yash won’t be able to come because he’s leaving - predictably enough, Yash says actually he’d love to come to the party.

Aditya is delighted. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) he leads Yash off for a chat.

Party time!

It’s still the ‘80s! And the slicked back hair isn’t staying slicked back...

Actual babygirl.

Padma is perpetually having the worst time ever, while Aditya giggles like a schoolgirl with his other guests

Padma makes her excuses to go and see her friends, Yash makes his own excuses to follow. Aditya is having fun anyway :’)

After a while, he wonders where Padma is (upstairs, I want to say....being made out with by Yash rather than so much ‘making out with’)

All alone at his own party!

Padma manages to get Yash off her and get away before Aditya finds her to check everything’s ok.

Some time later, Yash is hanging about their house again, trying to win her back. Aditya comes home with good news and Yash hides in the cupboard.

on his KNEES

I CAN’T BELIEVE YASH IS HIDING IN THE CUPBOARD WHILE THEY GET IT ON AND THIS IS ALL WE GET

CHEATED!! I FEEL CHEATED

omg it’s Aditya who should feel cheated and not just because of Yash! Padma’s still seeing the other guy from earlier too! Oh, maybe not exactly...she’s not as keen for it as he is, and luckily Yash walks in and punches him. Yash storms off. He gets absolutely blasted on scotch and borrowed spliffs, watches some guys fighting, then goes to Padma’s (she’s still just hanging about on her own in her room) with a gun to make a load of grand declarations about love and death. He threatens her, then he points the gun at himself. She wrestles him, it falls and goes off, Padma looks horrified, and then Yash leaves.

One year later...

I think he describes himself as Padma’s husband?

Oh he’s here about ‘affari de cuare’? Affairs of the heart? Definitely looks a bit teary-eyed too.

Also says alcohol doesn’t agree with him(?), but Yash shouldn’t let that stop him indulging.

He’s so out of focus in this scene and idk why :/

Oh, he’s not interested in banal formalities. He was thinking ‘hm, Yash is a real guy’ (?) so came to talk to him

como esta Padma...that’s an interesting question, apparently.

Yash claims not to understand and downs his drink (same Yash) (I did try to check the subtitles at this point, only to find out they don’t actually exist)

He says he has to go and catch a flight but Aditya says he’ll come with him as he’s going to the airport too.

Aditya’s waxing poetic in the taxi on the way to the airport and Yash is still like ‘?? don’t understand you mate’

Honestly it would probably make more sense if they were Italian?

I think, to summarise, it’s become clear that Padma’s love is for Yash, not Aditya - who talks about how he was like a man in the middle of the desert before she came along. Aditya gets exasperated with Yash’s politeness, and then Yash comes clean (I think), while Aditya is really going through it. He says how lucky Yash is.

He gives Yash a letter from Padma, asks him not to open it until he’s alone, and um. Dries his tears on Yash’s hand?

It’s not me you should be thanking, it’s Padma.

oh SHIT she dead? She dead! The gun that Yash dropped went off and the bullet ricocheted and hit her in the back. Apparently....complications ensued. I don’t think she told Atidya all those details...he nursed her until the end anyway :’)

In 2007, Yash has written a book called ‘Love Conquers All’, which his publishers seem alarmed by, but which apparently sets the world ablaze in a best-selling way. He makes his final appearance and gives a speech that I understood very little of. But thank goodness for dead women teaching men how to feel emotions!

---

Rating

Dead? Aditya is not dead, no!

Evil? Not at all. A doting husband and businessman with amazing fashion taste. I’m fascinated by whatever was going on with all that physicality in the taxi.

Affects the plot? Not really, sorry babe.

I’m really pleased I managed to get hold of this! There was so much more Joplin than I expected (though I do still feel cheated out of a cupboard-voyeur sex scene). Given what it intended to do, I think the film was better than I expected in some ways - though worse and more formulaic in others. It’s never radical to have the woman be the emotional saviour (even passively) and then kill her off. Nevertheless, if I can ever get hold of an English version I’ll happily watch it again - I wouldn’t rule out watching it again in Italian either, but I’m not going to learn Italian for the sake of it ;) it’s no And Then We Danced (a movie I did actually go out of my way to learn a language because of). A solid 3/5.

[unwelcome-ozian]

Do you have any knowledge on people limiting interaction with other humans/having majority of social interactions be with animals?

Do you know anything about the use of logic such as "you don't exist," "you aren't human," "your existence is inherently inhuman" and "you pretend to be human but will never be one" ? Or "because of your previous experiences you will never be able to understand reality, so your words, perspective, options and ideas will never be actually real" ?

In the first 4 years of my life I was usually kept in 1 room and other than taking orders, being ignored, or being abused, I had extremely little social interactions with other humans. I wasn't allowed to learn to speak (eventually learned how to) nor was I really taught how to do human things (other than completing orders). However I did get social interactions with animals (cats mostly) and picked up on much of their social cues instead of human social cues. I was later raised with the concepts of me not existing as a human, my "soul" being an alien one, everything of me being planned and programmed so I am only an extension rather than an individual, etc etc, .

Here are some instances of children being raised with/by animals:

7-year-old Russian bird boy (as called by the authorities), Vanya Yudin. He was trapped by his mother in a virtual aviary inside their two-bedroom apartment. While he was never harmed physically by his mother, she just never spoke to him and treated him like another pet. He was found in 2008 by Russian healthcare workers, surrounded by cages with dozens of birds, bird feed, and droppings. He did not understand the human language and communicated by chirping and flapping his arms like birds.

In 2009, welfare workers were led to an unheated flat in a Siberian town where they found a 5-year-old girl they called "Natasha." While technically living with her father and other relatives, Natasha was treated like one of the many dogs and feral cats that shared the space. Like her furry companions, Natasha lapped up food from bowls left on the floor. She didn't know any human words and only communicated with hisses and barks. The father was nowhere to be found when authorities rescued the girl, and Natasha has since been placed in an orphanage.

Argentinean police discovered an abandoned 1-year-old boy surrounded by eight wild cats in 2008. The cats reportedly kept the boy alive during the freezing winter nights by laying on top of him and even tried to lick the crusted mud from his skin. The boy was also seen eating scraps of food likely foraged by his protective brood.

Logic is a method of reasoning that involves a series of statements, each of which must be true if the statement before it is true.

Is it true that you don’t exist? Is it true you aren’t human? While you may feel you’re not human, is it true you're not?

This statement: "because of your previous experiences you will never be able to understand reality, so your words, perspective, options and ideas will never be actually real" Is a form of gas lighting and abusive.

Oz

[mysticdragon3md3]

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6:14 AM 4/26/2023

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I still like to read El's fatal flaw as her unrelenting Resolve. The same ideal that's advocated by so much Shonen Manga and anime in general, shows off it's negative, flip side in FE3H through her. As I've said before, she never doubts herself, but that also means she never checks herself. She is always moving forward, unquestioning her path. In my opinion, it's also why she neither seriously considers changing her overall strategy, nor questioning the costs/"ends justifying the means". She laments the costs of her path, but she never lets it change her---which I think is the big difference between Dimitri's past of "villainous deeds" vs her past/present of villainy. (She's the villain of 3 out of 4 routes, the character designers put horns on her head and dressed her all in red like a devil, and then named her house "black" like darkness even though her house color is clearly red. FE3H did a lot to hint she's the villain. But that doesn't mean she still can't be the hero of her own story, and I think the FE3H devs honestly wanted that too.) I think it's symbolic that at the end of Azure Moon, she tries to kill Dimitri with the dagger that he had given her once in their childhood, which she says encouraged her to move forward, and a second time as adults, while Dimitri told her to use it to cut her own path. At the end of Azure Moon, El is defeated and Dimitri offers her a truce. But she is so myopically focused on her predetermined path, that she brings out the dagger that symbolizes her moving forward with her plans, no matter who/what she has to cut through or at what costs. And she uses it to try to kill Dimitri, because she honestly thinks she can still win. She can't see any other path for herself, besides the one where she wins thru force and conquest. But as admirable as Determination and Resolve are, in and of themselves, she demonstrates their tragic aspects by not even considering the alternate path of cooperation and drastically changing her strategy.

It's kind of ironic that she is so tied to her predetermined path of solving all of Foldan's problems through conquest, even if that path was determined by herself. Because she has so many moments where she almost sighs forlornly up at the sky, like at Gronder, and simply moves forward saying "And so we fight on", as if she's so sad about fighting all her old classmates, but helpless to stop it---or worse, willing to push down and ignore those feelings of dissonance and compassion, in order to make their deaths acceptable costs. And that latter is supposed to be "strength"??? El demonstrates a lot of good questions that the writers probably want us to ask, but blindly following her like she "did nothing wrong" deprives people from those productive questions. As I understand it, she has many moments throughout her route, of feeling bad for what she "must" do. But for all her "strength" in following her Determination and Resolve, she seems more helpless against it and powerless because of it. The ironic thing being that it is within her own power at any time to stop the war, cooperate instead, and/or pinpoint her attacks onto specific problematic authority figures (whether Rhea, the Agarthans, or those Faerghus nobility she mentioned, I think in 3Hopes, who were too tied to the Church). But instead, she is helpless against a predetermined path of her own making…knowingly, because she thinks it gives her strength.

(Not to bring up Sengoku Basara 2009-2011 again, but… This is just like Toyotomi Hideyoshi, thinking he has to prove his Resolve to himself, and thus his commitment to becoming "stronger" or his Resolve in being "strong", by killing the person he loved the most. As if killing those you care about are proof to yourself that you can achieve Resolve and walk a path towards "strength". But is it really Strength when you're killing off your compassion towards others? Making calculations weighing some lives as worth the nebulous "better future world" you're still speculating to make?)

Anyway, another thing I thought interesting was how each of the 3 main lords seem to represent different paths by contrasting each other.

People often say they don't understand the point of the Golden Deer, as if Claude's route seems too unrelated to the personal drama between Dimitri and El. But I think Claude was a vital contrast to El. Not only was he someone who was shown in his Supports to question himself, when confronted with being wrong, immediately pivoted to fix his flaws, but also when confronted with his blind spots, he took them in earnestly and head on. He is not someone who only finds Strength in rigid Resolve, but also in flexibility and adaptability. He also constantly reminds us that there are better ways than war to get even the dirty jobs done. I find it so strange that we have one lord, El, who acts like war/conquest is the only solution, while we have a prominent lord character, frequently reminding us that poisoning, subterfuge, and manipulation ARE A THING. To paraphrase an old ninja saying, a general killed in his bed in his sleep, is just as dead, as if you had sent hundreds of your soldiers to die on the battlefield, trying to take the general down. It is continuously ironic to me that El worked with subterfuge practitioners like Hubert and the Agarthans, and yet she is too set in her ways to consider making full use of such tactics.

The 3 main lords tell 3 different types of stories, which are made more interesting in how they clash and contrast with each other. El is on the anti-hero path in her route and the villain path in 3 other routes. She is in a tragedy story, because she refuses to acknowledge or change her flaws; she does not change/Grow. Dimitri is on a more typical hero or anti-hero route. He has a fall and does a lot of terrible things for a long time, but we witness his journey through that, towards repentance and redemption. He CHANGES and is the one forever bringing up his commitment to change and repentance. Claude on the other hand is on more a paragon story. He has already done almost all his Growth before the main story even starts. By the time he reaches Fodlan, he has already settled into an ideal of turning his tragic experiences into fuel for constructive change in himself and compassion extended outward to others, while not letting his past bog him down into sadness or obsession. And his plans to extend his compassion outward, also takes into consideration, respecting others' differences and accepting the hard work it would take to persuade dissenters without always resorting to violent force. He is already mature enough to not be looking at only himself and his past trauma, unlike the other 2 main lords. Meanwhile, we experience with Dimitri, his obsession with his past trauma, his reconciliation with his past trauma, and his eventual mature state of mind, focusing his efforts more on others than on his revenge, just like Claude. Meanwhile, El uses it as motivation for all her actions, which could be said to be pretty much revenge against the Church, the Agarthans, her past, the systems of Adrestia, and the whole world. She does all this self-focused mindset and actions, while refusing to acknowledge how she's centering everything in her world around her trauma and in a non-constructive manner towards others, thus still actually making everything about herself and her trauma. Meanwhile, Claude has already looked past his trauma and focuses more on others, and Dimitri's entire story is about his process of working to look past his trauma, to focus on others instead. As someone mentioned once, the majority of Claude's Supports are him offering help to the Golden Deer and solving their problems. Similarly, Dimitri takes on the mantel of king as a responsibility to serve his people, taking it as even more important than whether it's a position he deserves or if his past crimes can ever be redeemed.

I once said of Sengoku Basara 2009-2011's Date Masamune that his infinite Strength came from his heart being externalized outward. He seemed invincible because the thing he cared about most, wasn't obsessing over his past trauma or his own selfish wants---which he demonstrated in episode 1 he was willing to forgo for the sake of others. The thing he cared about the most, were his soldiers, the normal people of Sendai, the normal people of his entire country, who just wanted to live peaceful lives. There are only 2 times in that series when he actually puts his hand to his eyepatch, as if his traumatic lost eye was actually painful to him: When he worried about endangering the lives of his soldiers. A warrior of Strength and maturity, extends their concerns outwards, not centered on themselves. A general, waging wars to prove their own "strength" to themselves, to become "stronger", to avenge their past traumas, all while ignoring how it effects the normal people, who shouldn't have to be soldiers, is not a good leader. Whether Toyotomi Hideyoshi or El.

But since El is all about "the ends justify the means", why not interpret this by her own terms. She's doing all this horror, in order to establish a system that will supposedly be more beneficial for all. And that's where I think the contrast with the other main lords becomes interesting again. Claude is repeatedly said, within the canon text, to have the same goals and interests as El. Yet they contrast in their methods to achieve those goals. In a war story like Fire Emblem, it would be very easy, and often is the case of such stories, to just assume war as the only option. It's how the plot happens for the expected genre. But it's very interesting that we have a 3rd lord like Claude, who comes in to remind us that not only can conflicts be resolved through negotiation, but he is often spoken of (and in 3Hopes, shown) to be actually doing the hard work of negotiation with other authority figures, until he can convince them to his side. The best part being that Claude is flexable enough that we can trust him to be open to compromise, rather than rigid stubbornness in his positions. We've seen him admit mistakes and blind spots in his Support conversations. He knows how to meet conflict with a laugh, then actual practical argument points (see his Support with Lorenz), as well as pivot to integrate what he can learn from those that he has had conflict with. Even with people he conflicts with, Claude is always smoothing things over and encouraging cooperation. (Not just in his Lorenz support, but also in his Fire Emblem Heroes conversations with El. He is always luring her in with agreement, but then sliding in a contradictory point to consider, with the least amount of intimidation, until he moves the conversation the way he wants it to go.) Claude demonstrates that El's methods are unnecessary and methods more true to Compassion can achieve the same goals.

(And anyway, as the video essay "Edelgard Will Always Lose" by BOOFIRE191 noted, she is essentially creating the same system and similar problems as Rhea. A pure meritocracy always sounds nice, until you realize it's ignoring needed equity, for twisted versions of equality, while pretending external misfortunes don't exist, as if everyone in misfortune deserves it for not "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps". Or as Dimitri said, "It is the path of the strong, so it can only benefit the strong.")

Anyway, that was too much rambling about my problems with El. I guess I had stuff to get off my chest for a long time. As someone mentioned, Claude's flaw was being too secretive and still having a little more Growth to go, towards being as open to forging bonds with other people, as would have ideally better facilitated cooperation. Maybe some people wouldn't have felt the need to start wars if they were earlier and better made to feel they could collaborate with and trust others. Who knows? And Dimitri's flaw was his obsession with his revenge. We know that; we saw his entire Growth through his story. But that's as even as I'm willing to get about the 3 lords' flaws. I still have more problems with the Emperor, than the other 2 lords.

[romilly-jay]

Think P!nk

Earlier this summer, I walked through Chelsea, a route I'd never taken before, on my way to meet a friend at the Saturday food stalls thing outside the Saatchi Gallery. I've been there twice now, both times with the same friend, and both times, the feeling of the day has popped with relaxed, touristish enjoyment. Really, a moment of experiencing the city I live in as if it's a city I'm visiting. For fun.

[Makes me wonder why it's so hard to hold onto active appreciation of the place I live in, why the gaze clouds, overlooks opportunity... maybe it's about my typical reluctance to Join In? I've got a bit of a default No Thank You I'd Rather Not going on.]

This particular day was towards the end of the Chelsea Flower Show and all kinds of shops, restaurants, cafes, etc. had these extravagant flower installations. I wasn't actively seeking these out but I had the advantage of the fresh eye, the vanishing ability to see a street before it fades into unseen familiarity - and so I took a few photos in passing, including the one that illustrates this blog [above].

There's another, wider view of the same cakeshop which I would have liked to use, because it had a mother/daughter in lovely silhouette passing by on the street at the same time. Except, when I looked on a larger screen, they weren't simply outlines as I'd imagined. They were identifiable and the girl was upset. The photo felt intrusive, as though I'd deliberately tried to catch her moment of drama. I didn't use it.

But it did make me think about why THIS shopfront, not any of the others I'd also walked past? Because it was so PRETTY and so PINK.

Not, by any stretch, my signature colour, but the heart wants what it wants, right? I suppose I'm noticing it because I'd typically be tempted to mock baby pink as a colour choice (have been tempted to mock? have been guilty of mocking?). Yet here I am loving it.

Another loop round Letting People Like (/Dislike) What They Like (/Dislike) - without feeling the need to control or correct them.

[Again, this excludes the situation where what someone likes is - racism / torture / etc. terrible harmful and/or illegal thing.]

So then I went off on a little hunt for other Pink things I've loved. There are really not as many of these as I was expecting (based on a quick search through my iphone photo history and old FB albums).

Actual P!nk, the artist, YES. Still so impressed by her acrobatic athleticism when I saw her on tour at the Millennium dome in 2009. A concert I accidented into live-blogging - on Twitter perhaps? - because our two friends/housemates who were supposed to be joining us were traffic-chaos-crazy-late (and I think ultimately abandoned the attempt to join us altogether?) and so I described what they were missing in real time. Which on reflection was probably not as inclusive or comforting as I imagined in the moment.

Pink Martini - a love I 'inherited' when I got together with SWR - and no regrets. They are eccentric and wonderful IMO.

A bad photo - one of the first I took on my Shiny First Ever iphone, from the first gig I saw them play - in London at the RFH.

Side-stepping to another thing-someone-loved-that-took-on-a-larger-life - I've been reading Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time, which grew out of a lockdown obsession with Ridley Scott's The Terror, about the doomed Franklin expedition in the Arctic, 1840s.

The author has centred her timetravel-anticolonial-romcom on one of the members of the expedition, Commander Graham Gore, a minor figure in polar history, notable here because he wrote the Victory Point Note which was first/only written account of what had happened to the expedition (added to later in the margins with confirmation of deaths that post-dated the original note, May 1847).

She writes him - and his fish-out-of-water experiences in the 21st century - beautifully IMO and for me the absolutely best parts of the book are those interactions. [Am I crazy that I feel faintly uneasy about colouring a whole life and romance for an Actual Dead Person? Yeah, probably. Not like it's going to make any difference at all to the man himself - he died. And everyone who knew him has also been dead a very long time. So, there's no-one to harm - and anyway, it's a flattering portrayal of someone briefly described in the historical record as a calm and amiable personality. It's easy to feel an attachment to the fictionalised persona, and I do. And I'm a freak, presumably, for feeling that I'd be happier if he were 100% fictional.]

Back to Pink Things and there's at least a smattering of pink on the covers of the Emily Henry books I've been tearing through recently.

I embarrassed myself with the US/UK versions of the title of EH's second (?) book - You and Me on Vacation (UK) versus People We Meet on Vacation (US) - by claiming to the same person, on different days but in quick succession, that the Other title was better.

Only realised I'd done as much from the puzzled face in response. Ugh, be consistent, much! I was right the second time BTW (probably). Y&MoV is a better fit for the story. Perhaps PWMoV is a better title in general, or a better title for the influencer's blog, if I assume that this is what it's referring. Anyway, back to the topic - there is PINK in evidence across the universe of Emily Henry romance titles book covers though really VERY much not all of them.

References

§Bradley, K. (2024) The ministry of time. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

§Henry, E. (2021) You and me on vacation. London: Penguin Books Ltd.

[bitterrobin]

1,8,13 for the hate ask game 💃💃

a character everyone gets wrong -- The character I'd say that everyone truly gets wrong is Talia. With the exception of dedicated Talia fans and certain Damian or Bruce fans, pretty much everyone in wider fandom has some kind of negative view on her. If its not about Talia's relationship with Bruce, then its about her relationship with Damian. People will pop up with "Talia's a rapist!" Technically, yes, but that got retconned years ago and the writer admitted their own mistakes. Even then, why are you so adamant that Talia, historically one of few Arab/Asian characters in DC to be at least morally grey and portrayed positively romantically with a main hero, be immediately villainized based on the work of a single author? And then, there are also Damian fans who still swear by "Talia's an abusive mother!" when if her character wasn't so butchered, drawn and quartered by DC writers she would never treat Damian that badly? (Much less have a child raised in the League??) I've noticed some fans will stab at any flaw of the mother and dismiss the flaws of the father - it doesn't just happen w Talia it happens with almost every mother in Batman adjacent fandom. Talia, Janet --and then Bruce's clear flaws are ignored or explained away, Jack's actual present involvement in raising Tim is either dismissed or also turned up to eleven. I should stop here before this gets any longer lmao. There's more succinct and well-read Talia stans out there who carry the same complaints.

8. common fandom opinion everyone is wrong about -- A lot of misconceptions float around the fandom its hard to just choose one. But "Dick sent __ to Arkham!" and "Damian aggressively tries to kill Tim every chance he gets" are the worst contenders. No, SpongeBob, Dick didn't send Tim to Arkham, he was trying to get Tim to see a therapist. No, SpongeBob, Dick didn't sent Jason to Arkham, Jason got arrested by the GCPD and put there by them. No, SpongeBob, Damian doesn't feed Tim rat poison every day and try to slice his head off every hour, Damian's only seriously attacked Tim (in the Reborn 2009-2011 era) twice. Once, in his introduction where Damian was clearly set up as a nothing-character who wouldn't appear again until Morrison decided to project their "child of divorce" arc onto him. Again, the line cutting in Red Robin, when Damian was retaliating for something Tim did against him. Was it justified? No. But people really portray Damian as a child psychopath over these incidents. Some Tim-fan's genuine hatred seeps into their fics and become laughably awful to the point Tim doesn't seem like a sympathetic character anymore. And yes, Tim may be insecure and grieving but guess who also was??? Damian, who also lost his father and doesn't know where he fits into the family. Is it so hard to admit that Tim and Damian were equally bad to each other, and there is no side to take? Is it so hard to admit that Dick was also dealing with serious shit, also lost his father, and he couldn't make the "right decisions" for everyone? I feel like I have to get on a megaphone and yell "EVERYONE WAS GRIEVING AND TERRIBLE! THERE IS NO RIGHT OPINION OR OPTION THAT WOULD SAVE THEM!"

13. worst blorbofication -- *siiiigh* Objectively speaking, every character gets blorbofied, not even my fellow Damian fans are exempt from this. But the absolute worst offenders are of course, Tim and Jason and occasionally, Dick. They do get blorbofied for different reasons and in different ways though, which I'll admit does affect my opinions for each of them and their fans. Tim gets blorbofied to hell and back because its easy. Thats it. The longest running Robin has tons of fodder to explore, and I get it. Tim is easy to warp into whump mode, but that doesn't mean I'll turn a blind eye to how utterly fucked over everyone else has to get in order to get Tim to that state. You can explore Tim's terrible moments in life without making everyone the villain. Jason gets blorbofied in two ways: the struggles of his childhood and the ever-present specter of UTRH. Jason's fodder for whump is basically singular - its his death/resurrection and rarely anything else, maybe his parents if a fan's feeling bad about it. I get it, again, Jason's narrative is interesting to explore. Some fans just delve too deep into justifying all of Jason's feelings and actions and shoving Bruce into the "terrible dad/mourner" machine that I've grown apathetic to it. We get it, Jason's death was terrible and Bruce is terrible for moving on like a normal person would /s. Finally, Dick is a strange case. Ive seen more fans of other characters blorbofy Dick than actual Dick fans. I think this mostly because Dick's sources of trauma have been widely explored and agreed upon, or at least his history is so expansive that the fandom just doesn't get into it (cough the non-comic readers cough). Frankly I don't have major issues with Dick whump, just that it sometimes weirdly centers other character than actually around Dick. Tarantula/the multiple incidents of SA/Bludhaven getting nuked/Dick's subsequent mental breakdown always seems to get explored in terms of "how will these characters react to it?" rather than how does Dick feel about it? It bothers me when fics veer into "and Jason is a good brother/good arbiter of justice because he kills the rapist and everyone is fine with it and everyone clapped" when Dick canonically would just feel even worse about it if that happened. The scenario is set up to justify Jason's philosophy and history, and again, no one cares what Dick would really want. I actually think that's the only instance where Dick gets blorbofied in fics, correct me if i'm wrong, and its at his own detriment. I've read Dick being weirdly wrong or mean to other characters than fics where people are exaggeratedly mean to him.

(ask q's from here)

[captnjacksparrow]

I don't want to be disrespectful, but I'm also curious to know if you find something off in the way Kishi talks about his family? He said he was surprised that a lot of people expected Naruto to end up with Sakura and that even his wife was angry over the fact that they didn't end up together. He tried to convince her that Hinata was modeled after her, but she caught onto the fact that he was lying. (Doesn't his wife know that he basically wrote a tragic gay love story?) Didn't he also say that she was like Kushina? But Naruto is his self insert? And Boruto is a message to his son? (Please correct me if any of this information is wrong). Do you think he's even divulged the true story he was writing to anyone? I don't know the writing process, but do you think his editors or assistants even know? I guess I'd just like some perspective or to be told that I'm wrong because the stuff my mind is coming up with just makes me think Kishi must be living a lonely life

Heh... You too thought all these things, Anon??? Well, I too gave a thought and then I ignored it altogether...

However, Naruto is Kishi's Self-Insert... A Fact which everyone knows, even Japanese readers made fun of that many times.

Firstly, He said to his wife that Hinata was modeled after her... But an interview later he said Hinata was nothing but her b00bs.😶

Secondly, Didn't Kishi made both Sakura and Hinata to be those shallow girls who never understood anything about their Husband as to who they are and how they feel deep inside??? But His wife who also couldn't Pick up/ Understand the real story his Husband was writing all along is weird as fuck for me. [[Sorry Kishi!! That’s so weird to me]]

I mean, she doesn't have to find Gay Subtexts and ship SNS but atleast she could have found out a simple fact that Sakura is totally irrelevant to the story. Right???

Okay, Let's forget about SNS. But why Kishi always says it's uncomfortable/creepy to date with the female characters that he created??

I don't know why it's creepy to date with a Girl, Hinata but he don't feel shy to date a Boy, Shikamaru🤔🤦🏻‍♀️

That’s kind of spooky...!!!!

I also found another thing to be hilariously weird... But take this as a funny coincidence or a simple joke... Or whatever suits your preference.

So, in December 2013... He gave this following interview..

He said he wanted to go Honeymoon...

In 2014, that is right after the Manga ended...

He still said he wanted to go on a Honeymoon.

But in 2015, New York Comic Con...

Even the Interviewer himself asked about the Honeymoon to which he deflected it by citing 'School' as a reason XD XD XD

This reminds me of...

That time Naruto always showed his Interest in Dating Sakura...

But when she confessed him...

He rejected it🤷🏻‍♀️

Hilarious.... Coincidence (???).

Do you think he's even divulged the true story he was writing to anyone? I don't know the writing process, but do you think his editors or assistants even know?

Can’t say for sure whether he divulged it to his Friends or Family. But When it comes to writing process, He couldn’t have been keeping it secret from his Assistants or even from his Editor forever. My hunch is that not everyone (even his Assistants) would have picked up the Subtexts from the Get-Go. Atleast Not in Part 1. 

They might have very well taken that Accidental Kiss as another Joke and Sasuke dying for Naruto is just a basic Shonen/Chinese novel Concept for Brothers & Friends. Not something specifically Romantic.

But as the series progressed further and further or at least by the end of VoTE1, his Assistants and Editors would’ve found out what he was trying to write. There’s no way that they could be Oblivious beyond that point.... And not for 699 chapters.

Look at this. 

This interview was from a Fanbook that was released around 2008 or 2009, I don’t remember exactly when. But The Author was trying to get a Green Signal from his Editor to use Reverse Harem no Jutsu in his Manga. Well, if that isn’t an Important thing or it's just another Joke which doesn't mean anything, then he didn’t have to be this persistent, you know. And it’s precisely because of it’s Controversial Nature, the Editor refused outright for all those years. 

Do you think that The Editor or Those Assistants didn’t know anything about any of this???

Of Course, they do. 

My guess is that, his Family members might have thought that Kishi was writing some ‘intense’ friendship between Naruto + Sasuke and nothing more... Or they didn’t bother to ask him further as to what's going on with his Story Or they are not at all interested in what he was doing... That we will never know.

But what piqued my curiosity was this...

“I had almost no friends” 

But It feels like he is projecting his true self most of the times... He started out as someone with no acknowledgement, No friends... He failed many times before he got a chance to prove himself as a mangaka... Finally he became a Successful mangaka... And then he casually said that Boruto movie is all about Parent-Child love because he missed spending his time with his Children since he was busy drawing Naruto Manga just like Naruto not spending his time with his Children... 

In that Parent-Child movie, we know that Boruto is the Child... But who is the Parent??? Because that movie was all about Sasuke and Boruto + Naruto.... Man!!! More and More Questions...