#or not so much a review but me squeeing about it to myself

[jokersenpai-thenavigator]

Why You Should Play: Oxenfree

*Spoilers for an 8yo game!*

Oxenfree’s story isn’t terribly complex. It takes maybe 4 - 6 hours to beat, depending on how much of the collectable content you’re aiming to grab. Game play primarily consists of walking around the island, talking to your friends, and fiddling around with your pocket radio.

But DAMN does Oxenfree do well in its execution.

The aforementioned radio, as your primary means of interacting with the island, is an amazingly implemented mechanic. You can go through the entire game, only using it for its intended purpose, and it is entirely valid.

But.

If you take the time to scroll through the radio stations in different locations - even outside of the “anomaly” areas - you’ll get little pieces of information and world building.

Music stations exist, though they only play music from the 1940’s.

Certain stations in certain places will broadcast messages in Morse code, which, coupled with the opening call signs from the anomaly stations and the freaking beats in the game’s main music track, led to an ARG back in 2016 when the game was released.

Sometimes, you’ll get clips from old interviews.

And sometimes…you’ll hear yourself. Having conversations that haven’t happened.

And that’s just the radio mechanic.

Another main gimmick of the game are time loops. You’ll occasionally get stuck in a loop, only able to escape once an old magnetic tape player appears, allowing you to break through the frequency of the loop. The time loop will visually appear on the screen as almost VHS quality static, like the world around you is physically being paused and rewound each time you make it to the edge of the loop.

The screen distorts with static, gets flipped upside down and your dialogue choices reversed, still images of nautical blueprints and old photographs flash for a brief second. In the background, seemingly innocent trees and stones will twist and distort into towering monsters, eyes glowing bright against the darkness of the island, there for only a second, leaving you to wonder if you actually saw something, or if it was just your imagination.

There are moments in the game where Alex’s reflection will speak to her, giving her advice. At the moment, the information seems…strange. Nonsensical. You tell yourself to let Jonas speak to his mom - who is dead. You tell yourself to let Michael know to stay with Clarissa - despite Michael having died years ago.

The information doesn’t make sense…until you approach the end of the game. And then you have to decide whether or not to believe your reflection, and make your choices, until at the very end of everything…after everything that you’ve experienced in your play through, everything you’ve learned…you have to tell your past self what to do. The entire time, it was you.

The game ends, your futures are set…and then, as Alex is narrating her closing statements…the audio distorts. Alex says that she has to pick up Jonas for Ren’s trip to the island. The screen gets staticky, and goes black.

And then fades in on Ren, describing the history of Edward Island.

You are on a boat.

At the beginning of the game.

And you are aware that you’ve been here before.

**Link to information on the ARG, because HOLY SHIT I WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN THERE FOR THIS!!! https://wiki.gamedetectives.net/index.php?title=Oxenfree#:~:text=The%20Morse%20code%20in%20the,to%20go%20to%20Edwards%20Island.

[absolutebl]

My Top 10 BLs of 2022

I also chose 22 runners up for 22, but the top 10 includes reviews etc.. These are IN ORDER, which means I made it really hard on myself. Ready? 

1. Semantic Error (Korea Viki) 

The only 2022 BL that earned a 10/10. Korean hits peak KBL and lucked into killer chemistry. It’s a deadly combination. Sexy older boy discovers pouty younger boy has outed him as a slacker, starts out bullying him, accidentally falls madly in love instead. Korea hits it entirely out of the Parks by doing a university BL with everything we expect from BL just done exactly right. Korea's signature quality executed perfectly with added bonus good story, great pacing, stunning visuals, and fantastic chemistry. You cannot ask for more from a BL, let alone a KBL. Full squee here. 

All three of these next three actually hold the #2 spot in my heart depending on how I feel that day. 

2. Old Fashion Cupcake (Japan Viki)

This show had me from the moment they broke the egg yolk with the chopsticks in the opening credits. It’s about a younger man with a long cherished crush on his boss (ten years older and going through a mid life crisis) who decides to save and seduce said boss with pancakes. It’s wholesome, comforting, sexy, and a very necessary narrative about still having hope, interests, and openness to affection at any age. It’s a stunningly filmed late-in-life coming of age/queerness story packaged in a subtle critique of expectations around masculinity, love, and loneliness... and it’s beautiful. Full review. 

3. Minato's Laundromat (Japan Gaga) 

AKA Minato Coin Laundry AKA Wash My Heart! AKA Minato Shouji Koin Randorii AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry

A classic age gap romance where a high school student pursues the man of his dreams (who runs a laundromat). This BL is so steeped in yaoi tropes and archetypes, not to mention a typical romance arc, that it will overload some, but those of who love this genre for its DNA will adore it. It made me very happy because it did everything I want a BL to do - there’s not much more I could ask of a BL than this. It’s the closest Japan has come to perfect live action yaoi since Seven Days (and I never make that comparison lightly). Squee watch-along here. 

4. Takara & Amagi (Japan Gaga & Viki) 

AKA Takara-kun and Amagi-kun AKA Takara-kun to Amagi-kun

I gnawed on my knuckles and squealed a lot with this show. Reserved cool kid who must learn to communicate to keep the tiny disaster nugget he’s madly in love with. It is beyond charming: soft and gentle, packed with cuteness and high school angst, thirst, & yearning. Did anything actually happen? No. Was it emotionally tense and paced well enough for me not to notice? Absolutely. Was there plot? Not really. Did I enjoy the hell out of it, anyway? Oh yes. Full review.

5. Cherry Blossoms After Winter (Korea Viki)

Korea took on early Japanese sweet yaoi but gave it their signature softness and precise production with a STUNNING color palette (beautiful pastels, sun-saturated over-exposure), manga framing style, some traditional BL character archetypes, that tiny edge of bullying roughness and out-of-control seme, plus FINALLY a palatable take on the stepbrothers trope and it was, in a word, classic. Sophisticated and understated CBAW is not slow, it’s just subtle. It's dream-like and atmospheric, as if the whole thing took place under cold water on a warm spring day. Is there plot or peril? Not really. Do we care? Also, not really. Look, I can’t help it, I’m old school and so is this show. I grew up reading sweet yaoi, and this was THAT YAOI just on my screen. There’s no objectivity with me and this show. It’s a beautiful pastiche and I loved it for how it made me feel and what it reminded me of. It’s not flawless, but it is a wonderful experience. Full review. 

6. Bad Buddy (Thailand YouTube)

This was GMMTV’s flagship BL and it started 2022 on a BANG (okay no actual banging but you know what I mean), starring heavy hitters Ohm & Nanon in a pitch perfect university Romeo & Romeo masterpiece that will give you domesticity meets pain whiplash throughout and jet lag at the end. Some of the friendship and family dynamics are overworked, but it has great production values, killer acting, and some conscious effort to correct for half a decade of Thai BL’s anti-queer mistakes. Full review. 

7. Blueming (Korea iQIYI)

It’s a tiny bit dark and a tiny bit bittersweet, almost too honest to a university experience and first love for BL, but if you want your mind ever-so-slightly messed with and your intimacy hellishly sweet, this BL will do it for you in a coldly distant manner, while bitch slapping you with self worth issues. I wasn’t into it at first, but the leads are solid and by ep 5 it got really good, becoming a narrative about self discovery meets understanding and accepting others people’s flaws without hurting them. Ultimately we witnessed two characters maturing because of each other and their mutual affection, without that affection becoming the conflict point. Instead, tension was built around other aspects of identity, popularity, and self-worth. While production values were a touch lower than usual for Korea, Blueming included decent kisses and other forms of intimacy and a satisfying ending plus there’s judicious and very elegant use of tropes, this is a great BL. Full review. 

8. My Ride (Thailand Gaga)

Thai BL grew up with this pulp (the first ever to make my end of year top 10). It’s a truly lovely and special little show featuring the extremely rare pairing of sunshine/sunshine (AKA a cinnamon roll couple) plus mature explorations of relationships using one of the softest, sweetest and most innocent friends to lovers vehicles. Kindly, overworked doctor meets broken-hearted motorcycle taxi driver in an “other side of the tracks” slow burn romance. The support cast is excellent, making for great friendship groups and family dynamics. With honest queer rep that adds to, but doesn’t impede, the story, and genuine conversation about the nature of class, wealth, and classism, not to mention communication, honesty, and respect for boundaries, you can’t go wrong with this show. In other news, I am a sucker for a single dimple. Full review. 

9. Not Me (Thailand YouTube)

GMMTV gave us a dark disestablishment narrative (in a time of civil unrest) with established queer award-winning director Anucha and starring the biggest guns of BL, OffGun and THIS WAS AN AMAZING THING to get to experience at the time - nerve racking but remarkable. But was it ACTUALLY BL? It certainly has a lot of BL elements, but in the end romance was not what this show was about, or even what it was genuinely trying to be as a performance piece. Still a remarkable moment in Thai cinema, certainly worth your time. Don’t worry, it all ends happily. Full review. 

10. My Tooth Your Love (Taiwan Gaga)

From the producers of We Best Love, earnest dentist hottie with sad eyes who worries too much is smitten by an adorable sunshine neurotic bar owner with serious anxiety issues. They fall madly in love while courting each other with food, plushies, and naps. Then, shocker, talk about their feelings and try to actually sort out their problems so they can have an adult relationship. Bonus crumbs = 18 year old poor little rich kid in mad crush with a much older man. I really enjoyed this show, it had a fun premise, killer dialogue, there was a solid lead pair with charming chemistry, soft flirtation, and delightful smiling kisses and stinkingly cute domesticity. All that said, I wasn’t wild about some of the darker themes it explored, even though it did a good job with them. And while the crumbs and sides were v adorable they were underused. In the land of May/December, baby boy kabedon is my kryptonite! Why so little of them? Kabedon is My Krytonite = also the name of my indie band’s first single.) 

Absolute BL 2, like ABL1 is technically unrated since I consider them mockudramas not true BL. But both are greatly beloved by me and deserve a mention.

22 Runners Up for 2022

DNA Says Love You (Taiwan) 

Cutie Pie (Thailand) 

About Youth (Taiwan) 

Choco Milk Shake (Korea)

The Eclipse (Thai) 

Tinted With You (Korea)

Roommates of Poongduck 304 (Korea) 

Plus and Minus (Taiwan) 

Oh! Boarding House (Korea)

What Zabb Man! (Thai) 

Vice Versa (Thai) 

Love Stage!! (Thai)  

Love Class (Korea) 

Ocean Likes Me (Korea) 

Cherry Magic the movie (Japan) 

Behind Cut (Korea) 

Star in My Mind (Thai)  

Mr Cinderella (Vietnam)

Mr. Unlucky Can Only Kiss (Japan) 

Happy Ending Romance (Korea) 

My Only 12% (Thai)

Dear Doctor, I'm Coming for Your Soul (Thai) 

Just a note my average rating for all BLs each year (6/10) - over the years I have been watching the mean has not changed. So for me, at least, Asia continues to produce about the same amounts of beloved, average, and crap. In other words: more BL this year (by a lot) has meant that there is more BL I love (and give high ratings too), but it also means there is more BL I dislike (and give low scores to). 

Streaming Platforms

The platform that hosted the most of my top rated 32 shows was, actually, YouTube with 10. Viki was a close second with 9, equal if you add in ABL2. It was Choco Milk Shake that made the difference (a KBL on YT? cray cray). 

Gaga scooped (or shared with Viki) many of my top 10 favorite BLs though, so whoever selects and curates over there shares my taste. 

Still, official recommendation as of 2022 is that if you only choose one streaming service to pay for? Viki is the best subscription platform for new BL. However, if you can get it there with ads, and really are strapped for cash? Go for Gaga. 

(source) 

[agent-troi]

Fannish Year Review - 2023

thanks for the tag @frogsmulder!

1. your main fandom of the year: still the x-files but i did join the west wing fandom this year lol👽

2. have u watched a film this year: other than fight the future i can’t recall lmao🛸

3. your favorite book this year: after all the hype about the movie on twitter i gave in and read the ballad of songbirds and snakes and omg it was so good, it was dark in a good way and very deep, much deeper than the twitter fangirls had led me to believe lol🕊️🐍

4. your favorite album or song this year: obviously i have to say staring at the stars aka the dreamland song!! i’m so happy it was found and i can listen to it on repeat over and over again whenever i want✨

5. your favorite tv shows this year: txf, the west wing, svu

6. your favorite tumblr community this year: ever and always the txf fandom, but i’ve found myself coming back to the star trek fandom a bit lol🖖🏻

7. your best new fandom discovery of the year: does this mean discovery of a fandom or discovery of something about/within a fandom? if it’s the former then the west wing, if it’s the latter then it was learning that the dance at the end of post modern prometheus wasn’t scripted❤️

8. your biggest fandom disappointment of the year: literally every time there’s drama in the txf twitter fandom, like guys please just chill we’re all here to enjoy the show

9. your tv/movie boyfriend and/or girlfriend of the year: mulder of course!!🥰

10. your biggest squee moment of the year: seeing josh and donna finally kiss for the first time!! i can’t believe i willingly put myself through another seven year slow burn lmao

apologies if you’ve already been tagged lol @tofuttim @virtie333 @welsharcher @scullysexual @mulderno @enigmaticxbee @unremarkablehouse @doctorbeverlycrusher

[londonspirit]

2022. 

Well, it has been a year indeed. 

Talk about rollercoaster. 

Looking back, two things immediately come to mind: the loss of my father, and OFMD. 

Yeah, I know, that’s some insane comparison. 

But once again, fandom helped me through real life horrors.

Losing dad was hard, but (yes, there’s a but) overall it was a relief. He’s been sick and weak for a while, and everyone who only remotely knew him, knew how terrible that was for him. He wasn’t able to do the things he wanted to do, couldn’t really do anything much at all towards the end. He was suffering a lot (as was my mom) so him finally finding peace was the best for him. I know it sounds harsh, but it’s what it was for us. 

The time after that was…weird. 

But we got through it, made sure mom was doing okay; and after the funeral life continued - as it tends to do. 

Everything was a tad dulled and tinged with grief but when I (finally) listened to Tumblr which kept raving about that ‘gay pirate show’, well things… changed.

I will forever be grateful for those i follow that they kept screaming about it otherwise i’d never checked it out. But I was fandomless, there wasn’t anything I was currently obsessing over, and I needed something to distract me from that massive loss. 

And by the Gods, that they did. That perfect little show, full of queer love and wonderful friendships, of beautiful sentiments and funny quips was JUST what I needed. It filled the empty space in my heart and helped me through the toughest times. 

I have lost count of how many times I’ve watched it by now (and will again once the UK will finally get it officially just to experience the SQUEE that will happen when it airs!). 

I love every damn thing about that show: its amazing creator, that insanely talented cast and the wonderful crew making sure every single one can shine and sparkle as they deserve!!! 

Nothing was ever the same after April 3rd, the day I left hanging with the most gruesome cliffhanger in a while and no renewal in sight!!! 

Once again I am soo soo glad for the friends that fall in love with the same things - but then again, this damn show is just soo fucking perfect and everyone else really need to get their shit together to even get close to the level of perfection that show has!!! 

The show and its cast has occupied my mind ever since (and will continue to do so once season 2 comes out so expect more screaming about it in next year’s review). 

But there have been more lovely and wonderful things - it’s almost as if this year wanted to make up for the pain. 

I’ve been to London again!! TWICE!! Six glorious days in the summer, and four in autumn. Summer was on my own, and boy did I enjoy that. Having time for myself, doing the things I wanted to do, being on my own with  my thoughts - there’s nothing better to recharge the batteries. 

But I wasn’t lonely: finally met some old friends again and got to spend some quality time with them; I saw one of my fav musician again, after almost a decade of not being able to do so. London in summer is gorgeous, London during Pride month is even better! I saw an amazing queer Shakespeare which I wished I could’ve seen twice; Come From Away will ALWAYS make my heart soar and I’ve spent hours in a beautifully immersive Van Gogh exhibition. 

When I came back, I even got to spent more amazing time with my dear C, went to see Queen - even though the one souvenir i didn’t ask for put me in quarantine for 10 days! (Still so thankful for 3 vaccinations and a very mild case!) 

There was a brief visit at B’s to see her boys and spent some time with her as well - it’s been too damn long since I’ve seen her (even though I LOVE her video chats when she can squeeze them in in between her kids!) 

Another London trip, seeing David Tennant (hating the play - a very first!), LOVING Letter Live at the RAH (beautiful beautiful place; def going to go back!); getting tipsy in the skies and walking all the steps!!! 

And just when I thought the year couldn’t get any better, there’s the chance to see the one and only Taika Waititi live and in colour! (Massive shoutout to the like minded and equally obsessed people that helped me secure a ticket for the show!) 

GAH!! That’s still a thing I never thought to happen! And yet it did. And once again, a new fandom always comes with the most lovely people - thank you, Twitter (even though you’re currently a terrible hell hole!) for connecting fandoms across borders!!! 

WHAT A NIGHT that was!!! Even though he was tiny and far away on that stage, that night will forever be seared into my memories! (hell, even just typing it out makes me grin like a loon!) 

There was one small hiccup as mom had to go to hospital for an astonishing four weeks, but she’s back home again and feeling more or less okay, so I’ll take that!!! (Plus, she’s gotten through her 1st Covid infection rather nicely, thanks to 4 vaccinations and despite everything else a rather healthy constitution it seems!)

And now it’s New Year’s Eve - another one for the books. 

Closing out 2022 on a more optimistic note though. 

Pandemic slowly but surely turning into an endemic which means less restrictions and more travel for me. Maybe even working without face masks in the spring. 

It’s getting there.  And I'm hopeful, and looking forward to all the things 2023 has to offer. 

For seeing old and new friends again. 

For seeing my beloved London again. 

For making plans and doing things and enjoying life to the fucking fullest because it is too damn short to not do all the things you want to do!!! 

BUT once again, I will not make too many plans, these days being spontaneous is the better way to do things without being too disappointed. 

So, for the new year: hug your loved ones; tell them you love them; look after them; make friends; let go of the things that are not good for you! 

ENJOY life as much as you can. Be it in big things or the small ones - as long as it brings you joy and makes you smile, it’s a GOOD thing!!! 

Here’s to a glorious 2023 - have the most wonderful year, my darlings!!!

[tanenigiri]

Review #27: Sasaki and Miyano (Volume 6)

Japanese title: 佐々木と宮野 (Sasaki to Miyano)

Story and art: Shou Harusono

English publisher: Yen Press

Number of volumes: 6 in English, 9 in Japanese (ongoing)

Worth all the wait.

(This review contains story spoilers.)

Even if they’re the core of quite a lot of climactic chapters across the series I’m covering for this project - and across a lot of romance manga in general - I don’t really find myself talking about confession and response scenes that much. Of course, I recognize how important they are, and well-done ones always make me squee, but what I find myself talking more about are either the events leading up to them or the aftermaths. Confessions and especially responses are usually the result of some major character development happening in the story, and I find those a lot more interesting than the actual big events.

The exception, of course, is Sasaki and Miyano, as not only does Miyano’s response to Sasaki’s confession take up an entire chapter of Volume 6, but it’s a great reminder of how fleshed out the main characters of this series are. It’s rare for any series to blatantly hype up something and deliver in its execution, but I feel like this confession had just about everything I could’ve asked for in terms of developing Miyano’s and Sasaki’s characters and finally kickstarting their relationship. I found this confession to be just as satisfying as the buildup, and it really was worth the 11-episode slash 30-chapter wait.

But before the volume gets to that, we do get some last-minute buildup that has some of my favorite scenes in the series. Probably the most memorable one for me - and a lot of this has to do with how I reacted to it when I saw it in the anime - is the scene about Miyano’s bag. Sasaki notices that Miyano frequently transfers his bag from his left shoulder to his right whenever they’re about to walk together, and Miyano shyly answers that it’s because he doesn’t want to hit Sasaki with it. Both the manga and the anime proceed to give flashbacks of these bag transfers happening, and it’s one of the biggest “aww!” moments of the series so far.

Sasaki is a lot more overwhelmed at the revelation, though, and he’s too overcome with emotion to restrain himself from wanting to kiss Miyano. While this catches Miyano off-guard, I’m pleasantly surprised that the story went down the route of Sasaki being the one to feel bad about this, as he didn’t want to be forceful to Miyano, especially since they weren't dating at that time. Quite a lot has already been said about how this series does a great job in subverting a lot of BL’s less appealing tropes, and I think this is one of the main examples of it.

This does lead to my favorite manga sequence so far, as in Chapter 30, we momentarily see the page split into two, with one half looking at Sasaki’s perspective and the other looking at Miyano’s. I’ve already raved about this format in some of my previous reviews - there’s a scene in Dekoboko Sugar Days that’s done the same way, and a slightly larger parallel happens across chapters in There Are Things I Can’t Tell You - but I think it’s a fantastic decision to bring out this format as it shows just how different their mindsets are going into Miyano's response.

And what a conversation it was. Chapter 31 is obviously a very romantic scene and the culmination of a lot of things that the first 30 chapters have been building up to. One of the things that stood out to me about it, though, was not the fluffiness or the cheesiness - although they were very much welcome - but the awkwardness. Despite Miyano being absolutely sure this time - and we know this for certain, as he wouldn’t have wanted to confess if he wasn’t sure - he still stumbles over his words in his attempt to convey his feelings toward Sasaki. Not only does it make a nice parallel to Sasaki’s own confession - which, while Sasaki does manage to keep calm for most of it, also sees him stumbling over his words once Miyano asks him a follow-up question - but it’s very much in character for Miyano, who has not really been the best when it comes to expressing himself to other people.

Sasaki’s reactions were really sweet, too, especially his initial one where he tells Miyano that he can take more time with his decision. While his jumbled up thoughts going into this conversation definitely had something to do with it, I think that he was overpreparing himself for a “no” and already imagining all those scenarios in his head, and the almost-kiss earlier in the volume made those imagined scenes much closer to realities in his head. So to not only get a “yes” from Miyano but also reassurance that he does want to kiss him must have made him overwhelmed with emotion.

(I also have to note that this chapter features some of the best-looking panels of the series so far. No surprises there considering what this chapter contains, but there are quite a lot of wordless pages that really lets you focus on the drawings instead.)

Surprisingly, this volume does have a few more chapters after this pivotal scene, and it features the first full scenes in the main story that didn’t make it to the anime. Probably my favorite one is the early morning in the train station, where Miyano wishes Sasaki good luck on the day of his college entrance exams. It’s a really short and sweet scene, but it does show Miyano taking the initiative this time and sending off Sasaki with a hug. Sasaki has shown quite a number of times in earlier volumes that even the littlest things Miyano does puts him in the best of moods, so I could only wonder how acts as big as this would affect him.

In the afterword of this volume, the mangaka said that the original plan was for the series to end with Miyano’s response, but then the plans changed to extend the series due to the positive reception as well as the want to “reward” Sasaki for his patience. I do think it was a good call to add more to the story after this confession, as there is a lot of character development to be had for both Sasaki and Miyano now that they’re officially a couple. And after reading the scanlations of the future chapters, I can say that their relationship really has made them even more fleshed out characters, and it’s amazing to see how much they’ve both grown from their first meeting.

When I first watched the Sasaki and Miyano anime, my initial reaction focused on how cute and sweet it was, but it took the rewatch for me to appreciate just how great the character development and dynamics were throughout the series. Reading this manga has not only solidified that opinion for me, but it’s also given a lot more depth to these developments and dynamics. I’m not surprised at all that it’s continued to receive a lot of attention and acclaim, and I definitely think it deserves it.

Random thoughts that I couldn’t fit elsewhere:

I haven’t talked about him much in any of my reviews for the series, but since he had a lot more screen time in this volume, I figured I’d finally say a few words about Tashiro. There is, of course, the really funny scene at the start of the volume where he reveals that he’s been expecting Miyano to get together with Sasaki, and the nonchalant way he says it catches both Miyano and Kuresawa off-guard. He carries the same nonchalance when, in the last chapter of the volume, Miyano tells him that he and Sasaki are actually dating, and all Tashiro asks is what kind of things two guys do when they’re in a relationship together. Miyano obviously doesn’t have an answer to this - and it actually becomes a running theme of that chapter - but I gotta admire how Tashiro simply sees his relationship with Sasaki as another facet of his friend’s life.

Another character that gets some notable screen time here is Hanzawa, and we find out in this volume that the reason why he’s so interested in Sasaki and Miyano’s relationship is because two of his brothers have come out to their family as gay. He’s seen to be quite worried about how his brothers would fare in the relationship department, but he feels more at ease when he sees how happy Sasaki and Miyano are with each other. He tells Miyano about these worries later on, and he admits that he can’t help but worry about his kouhai and his classmate as well, but Hanzawa does believe that they’ll be able to weather any challenges that come their way. I definitely didn’t expect this plotline to go in this direction, and I was actually a bit confused with how it was presented in the anime, but reading it in the manga made me appreciate it more.

I gotta talk about the back covers of these six volumes. All of them feature two pairs of characters, with one pair having Miyano and the other having Sasaki. The other two characters are usually the supporting cast that gets notable screen time in the volume - Volume 2’s back cover has Hirano and Ogasawara, for example, with the former being in almost all of the scenes and the latter being introduced in that volume. But Volume 6 sees both Sasaki and Miyano together, with Hirano and Hanzawa taking up the other slot. It’s a really nice and subtle nod to what this volume contains.

Thanks for reading! You can read my review of the first three volumes here, and my review of Volumes 4 and 5 here. Sasaki and Miyano has really grown on me ever since I first watched the anime, and now it’s solidly in my top five series. I know I mentioned wanting to talk about the future chapters here, but I think I’ve already said a lot just with talking about Volume 6. I’m really excited for Volume 7 though - from the scanlations alone, I can already say it’s my favorite out of all of them so far.

[catofadifferentcolor]

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

"To say that Nothing is True, is to realize that foundations of society are fragile and that we must be the shepherds of our own civilization. To say that Everything is Permitted is to understand that we are the architects of our own actions and we must live with their consequences, whether glorious or tragic."

As I’ve been reading a lot about the Crusades recently, it seemed a natural progression to try playing Assassin’s Creed for the first time since the franchise began a decade and a half ago.

And I honestly can't think of anything to say other than I am in love.

Don't get me wrong - I adored AC2 with an immediate, earnest passion that I've only felt a handful of other times in my life. I loved ACB as well - not in the same way, perhaps, but in the way someone might love what in retrospect felt a little like an extended AC2 DLC. But from the moment Assassin's Creed: Revelations started to the bitter end, I was in love.

Part of this was the opening, which hit hard on all the right emotional notes, and the first memory sequence, which was just enough tutorial to suit without twisting itself into knots to explain why the Master Assassin and Mentor of the Brotherhood needs a refresher. And when Ezio does have to learn new skills, it was handled pitch-perfectly with Yusuf acting like the beloved nephew teaching his favorite uncle how to use some newfangled bit of tech. (Ultimately, it was this addition of new skills which sets ACR above ACB rather than the leap forward in graphics, making everything new and exciting. Everything about ACR was new and exciting and fresh in a way most fourth installments of a series lack, and there was no end of squee during my play through.)

It has its faults - the Den Defense was something I never figured out, as somehow nothing I ever did seemed to work no matter how far ahead I was when the Templars started rolling siege equipment through the streets of Constantinople, which stretches credulity. Yusuf's death hurt and had an air of pointlessness to it that really twisted the knife when Ezio just addressed his replacement as Assassin instead of so much as a name. The switch of Eagle Vision from Y to LS on Xbox tripped me up for a good third of the game, and while I liked the upgraded Eagle Vision in general, it did take me longer than I'd like to realize you had to hover over each target with the cursor rather than automatically find the gold one.

And yet, I loved it. I loved it so much that I played the last few memory sequences at a crawl, for as desperate as I was to know what happened next, I didn't want it to be over. I didn't want my time with Ezio to end. His story arc was practically perfect in every way, as was the addition of Altair's later memories to reinforce everything Ezio was feeling and thinking, and the idea of giving him up hurt. It still hurts. There's a part of me that wants to go back and replay all the Ezio trilogy even as the rest of me wants to know what happens in AC3.

Hell, I've even dragged my heels writing this review because it felt too much like closure.

Ezio is one of those video game characters that comes around so rarely I honestly can't think of an adequate comparison. It's rare you get a character that accomplishes so much while still seeming human - trying, failing, making mistakes, trying again. On the face of it he should be a ridiculous stereotype, and yet he's anything but. His whole story arc of setting aside revenge, of realizing he will never have all the answers he seeks... it is beautiful and poignant and I'm more than a little in love with him. (And, no, it's not fair he somehow managed to get hotter for ACR, and there are things I didn't need to know about myself, thank you very much.)

Hell, I fell a little bit in love with all the characters we got more than five seconds with. Yusuf was bright and brilliant and deserved better. Clay was - well, I don't have words beyond wishing to have seen more of him. Sophia was someone I could honestly see Ezio retiring to be with. Altair was a delightful treat to see again. And Desmond... well, I really wish his memories were actually playable, as I got so nauseated trying to fall correctly at the end of the second one that I had to lay down in the dark for about an hour after.

That may honestly be my biggest complaint - Desmond's memories were something you could skip over. (Something you had to skip over if you wanted to keep your lunch.) I think if they had found a way to incorporate that into conversations with Clay on Animus Island instead of monologues in confusing first person settings without clear goals I would have had to give this game an 11 out of 10.

ACR is a game I came out of with a lot of feels, nearly all of them positive. It was a fun game that was just challenging enough to feel like completing parts of it was an accomplishment without the utter frustration that came from Leonardo's flying machine in AC2 and ACB. As sad as I am to give up Ezio, it was a worthwhile conclusion to his story, and now that I've had nearly a week to mourn I'm ready to move on to AC3. But I'll definitely be coming back to replay this one. 5 out of 5 stars, cannot recommend enough.

[crienselt]

Holy shit, Bloodmarked. Finished my ARC a week ago, and I still just feel like...enveloped by it. This book was so good, and every review that says you’ll be clamoring for the next book after you finish is dead right. (Oh, Bree, I hope you know what you’re doing!) Putting my preview thoughts under the cut.

“Briana Irene, forever leaping before she looks...”

Bree’s journey continues to deliver and I love her oh so much. She is an amazing protagonist, perfectly flawed and achingly real. It is impossible not to root for her. The other characters–old and new, protagonists and antagonists–are similarly well-drawn. And, man, are there some new characters to loathe! Don't worry; there are some newbies to love too. Lots of “screen time” for William and Alice. Less so for Nick.  As for Sel, let’s just say there’s a reason Sel is on the cover.

For the Sel-antis made nervous by this, let me just say the totality of Sel’s actions in Legendborn are addressed on page and then some.

Shipping: Let me preface this by saying that I don’t necessarily consider myself a shipper of either ship. BreeNick was sweet and nice and fine. But I’m here for the slow burn, and they got together before I had a chance to actively WANT them to get together. If that makes sense. Meanwhile, BreeSel wound up taking up more page-space and was obviously being set up for further exploration. To me: BreeNick felt like a plot point, but BreeSel felt like the story. So I was cool with BreeNick but not invested in it while also open to BreeSel and sort of anticipating it. I also like my pairings ironic and am down for well-done (KEY) enemies>friends>lovers. I 100% trusted Tracy’s ability to pull it off. That trust was not misplaced.

Because...BreeNick isn’t starving, but holy smokes! BreeSel is FED. Whole multi-course meals. They got me. I’m getting all squishy just thinking about it. (I mean this as the highest of praise: we’re talking fanfic levels of squee!) There’s also at least one new ship I think most will get behind.

The plot: It does start off slower, necessarily so, but ultimately moves at a nice clip and does a great job of setting the stage for the next book while standing firmly on its own. The world expands nicely and the magic system is both broadened and more fully detailed. I promise you, whatever you think this story is about/is going to happen--you are probably wrong. Can't wait to see where it all goes from here!

The writing remains amazingly immersive. Pulls you in and latches right on to your senses and emotions. Tracy knows how to tell a story, that's for sure!

And ahh! I can't wait until November when I can re-read in physical form and highlight the hell out of my ebook and re-experience it all again in audio. Much love.

[popculturebuffet]

Doris Doodle Review: A Hidden Gem You Need to Read (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! I’m Jake, I review comics and cartoons and I have a question...

Because today we’re diving into a heartbreaking masterpiece released over 2020 and 2021 that I hadn’t heard of till kev asked it to be reviewed. 

For those of you, especially those who are fans of minnie and betty brought here, Doris Doodle is a webcomic created by hasini walker. It’s hard to classify as at it’s core it’s an original idea; in a world where toons and humans live side by side and toons are largely actors, Doris Doodle is a washed up 1940′s toon who tries to make a second stab at a career and soon finds herself mentoring a sardonic younger retool of herself. It’s full of clever ideas about how a world like this would work, meta commentary on reboots and how fans react to them, and scathing if well trod comendation of hollywood’s history of sexual abuse. Speaking of which

CONTENT WARNING: this review discusses sexual abuse, assault and attempted date rape. If these are triggers for you, please stay away for your own mental health or if you procede, do so with caution. Thank you

The thing that makes it hard to know what to say about it is ... it’s part fancomic. Several toons of various eras make cameos, Betty Boop is a member of the main cast, and both Minnie and Red from the Tex Avery shorts have small but still massively important scenes. Not only that it’s toon town.. is the same one from Roger Rabit as Marvin Acme, the same murder victim from that film makes a crucial cameo late in the story. And while I strongly feel this story can and should be adapted as it’s own work, with the important liscened characters retooled into legally distinct copies, part of the power of this original version comes from the use of these characters. So it’s very much i’ts own animal while still needing to be a fan work for it’s max power. 

If all that sounds intriguging, then come on down to toon town with me as I tell ya the sad story of doris doodle. 

To make this easier on myself i’ll be doing the flashbacks first.. minus the last one as it’s a big, climactic moment in the story and answers it’s driving question: what caused the end of Doris’ Career, and I feel it’s best to save for when it’s narratively right. But for the most part while some flashbacks do have a meaningful connection to the main story as it goes on, most just sorta happen because there happens to be enough of a break in the action to put in the next segment. It feels like they constructed most of the present day story first, and while they had a clear place for the final flashback, the rest just sorta show up when needed and ocasionally synch up really well with the story. This feels like it would’ve been better as 2 or three parts instead of just scattered about. 

Anyways Doris Story beings, chnologically with her as a bright young toon, introducing other toons for a kids show. She has a loyal agent named Roy who seems nice enough, and a bright career. The only speed bump and the first sign of things to come.. is when Doris refuses to pose for some racy model shots, and Roy gets in trouble, and with her career in danger Doris buckles and does whatever it takes. Where it takes her.. we’ll see much later. The one other scene of note out of all of this I liked was Doris meeting Minnie. Not only is minnie happy to help the starstruck new toon but in a bit that had my heart squee, Minnie reveals she’s married; she and mickey simply keep it to boyfriend and girlfriend in the pictures because that’s what disney wants. It does mean no children.. but Minnie’s made peace with that. It’s a small scene but i’ts just so engaging and gets the character so right i’d love to see more of this in an adaptation.. obviously with a stand in for minnie but still, having to live knowoing you can’t be married to your partner on screen or ever have kids ... it’s gotta suck and i’td be intresting to see how she was impacted decades down the line. 

In present day though Doris is a depressed, reclusive woman, no longer living in Toon Town proper and having become essentially a ghost to most people. She runs into Betty Boop who uninetonally rubs how bad things have gone for doris in by pointing out that while she has no reboots or anything.. Betty still has TONS of merchandising sales to keep her. Betty is essentially the Mr Peanutbutter to Doris bojack, though Doris honestly feels like an inversion of the horse from horsing around: both were chewed up by the system but while Doris left early, and unfairly thanks to jackassery that we’ll get to in a while, Bojack stayed but slowly became more and more corrupted before becoming a washed out husk. 

After the encounter Doris goes to the agency and gets a new agent Harold whose genuinely kind but admits he can’t get her much. It’s understandable:  Doris had barely a career and thus not much for any prospective network or streamer to go off. 

Since a social media presence would help and Doris has all the computer literacy of one Sensei Johnny Lawrence, Harold has her get a computer.  Doris struggles with the magic compubox and gets help from a kindly anthro saleslady.. whose boss is creepily hands on in both sense of the word and whose intrusions put Doris on high alert. 

Her creeper senses are not wrong as she notices him get even more handsy when he prepares to leave and properly reminded of her own traumas, goes over and publicly confronts the asshole before giving him a good old glove slap.. with an anvil inside. 

As is internet law, bitch slapping a belivgerent asshole makes Delores viral. And what happens to the person she defended? Does the girl get fired? does she seek doris out? what happens to her after all of this?

Yeah for some reason the story just.. drops this character. They didn’t even have to make her  a lead: just have her show up grateful for what Doris did later.  It feels weird to have the story just.. blow up this girls life with one brave act Doris does for her and then never address what happened to her or the fucker Doris bitchslapped in front of the internet. 

So with that Doris gets a guest spot... on Ellen

Yeah this aged about as well as Harry Osborn’s “fu Man chu face fuzz”. In the span of a year. In the writer’s defense they wrote this cameo before it came out she was an abusive monster, and Ellen would’ve been a good choice ANY TIME in the past decade. I would’ve done the same in their shoes. Doesn't make it less awkward but sometimes awkard shit just happens when someone turns out to have been an asshole this whole time. Can’ tbe helped. 

So the interview goes horribly wrong as not only did Ellen book Betty Boop, who Doris had an awkward encounter with earlier but in this work betty is kind of an ass without meaning too, framing Doris disappearing as “without explination”.. even though Doris resulting freakout and rage at her shows yeah clearly SOMETHING bad pushed her out. Ellen tries to coax it out of her because getting people to do stuff they don’t want to even when it’s none of her business is her thing, but Doris is just too shellshocked

Somehow this hurts her.. I didn’t belivie it at first but then I remember people suck and will sometime belivie the worst version of say a panic attack like this instead of spotting it as “well clearly she has trauma”.

Harold’s suggestion is an image change, bringing us to one of the book’s best concepts. See in this universe, reboots and redesigns.. are done to the character themselves, using something similar to cosmetic surgery. Except it can also alter personality and other important stuff. It explains how say the Teen Titans became the teen titans go, with starfire later cameoing in her go design. This raises a LOT of intresting questions: how much of the previous versions memory is kept? how do they do crossovers with previous versions? do they clone them or do they make temporary copies? can toons just do this like they would cosemtic sugery or is it stuido mandate only? And I don’t mind them not answering them either: It makes the dread later when one character is faced with the prosppect of being heavily altered personality and all that much more terrifying that we DON’T have clear answers. 

Doris ends up barely changing only going with a red nose, which limits her prospects.. but what I like, and what ends up contrasting Roy.. is that Harold never seems to NOT be in Doris’ corner. He warns her that certain decisions will make things harder on her, sure. But he never once tells her not to do something or tries to push her into something harmful just for the sake of it. He’s a good guy, if a bit creepily drawn. But that’s not his fault.. the humans in this comic.. just don’t look great. Like I get their trying to make a clear line between toon and human, that’s fine, but there’s so many lines it haunts me. SO.. MANY.

Eventaully though Doris does get a break.. with a catch. She’ll be in a tiny toons style reboot, mentoring a younger versoin/reboot of herself that she’ll show the ropes. She ends up agreeing to it both because she dosen’t have other options, and because after watching Tiny Tunes and seeing Bugs great mentor relationship with Buster, she warms to the idea. And frankly I love that scene: her not being on board at first seeing daffy play the fool.. only to see the genuine good she could do for another toon. 

So naturally this lasts all of five minutes before she actually meets her younger counterpart: Dawn, a snarky teen who mostly plays on her phone and when she does ask questions.. Doris dodges them because their massively uncomfortable. So yeah not a great day one though i’ve seen far worse. Doris also agrees to drive Dawn herself after seeing Dawn get an uber as she dosen’t trust them.. which.. fair. Doris was nearly sexually assaulted, again we’ll get to the details, and comes from a diffrent time. And even being told i’ts like a taxi I can see how someone coming from decades ago with only exposure up to say the late 80′s judging by bits and pieces we get later to the wider culture would find the entire idea of Uber or Lyft exestintally dreadful. I find the idea useful.. and I still find it exestially dreadful. 

So Doris takes Dawn driving on Errands.. aka “drive around in circles while trying to desperatley avoid talking about your traumatic past and hope the cyncial teenager dosen’t notice”. Not suprisingly, Dawn notices and Doris agrees to go to one place and if Dawn hates it, she can leave. So Doris takes her to the old soda shope she used to go to, ran by the same guy. Things go well at first, Doris catches up with an old sorta uncle figure, Dawn finds a new friend thigns are fine.. till Doris goes to the bathroom and along the way notices a bunch of pinups of herself.. and the guy putting his hand on dawn. 

Doris yanks her out of there and Dawn naturally notices things flipped from nostalgic memory trip to “i’m taking dawn bye!” really quick, but dosen’t pry, letting Doris have an out and agreeing to see a movie with her, the two finally bonding. The two’s relationship.. is really what makes this comic special. While “snarky character defrosts” isn’t NEW, having it be because she starts to see Doris less as a relic to contrast as she was clearly built to and more as a troubled but sweet woman as she is, is really charming. It helps the comic really get going as while the first fourth of it or so before dawn isn’t bad.. it is REALLY depressing. By design and it works better once yo’uve read the whole thing, but it can be hard to read. And i’m not knocking the work for being depressing: being dark and gloomy with a POINT I can respect like with Bojack Horseman’s darker moments. Same with say F is For Family or in comics term stuff like Watchmen. It’s not stuff i tend to gravitate towards, Bojack again being the exception, but it has a place and comics and animation, something this shares dna of both with, should be allowed to go there. It’s when it goes into grossout or edgelord nonsense to try and APPEAR adult that’s the problem. 

Harold is happy at their progress and the twos next adventure has them running into betty, who dawn invites along just to torment Doris whose too polite to simply say “fuck off”. The two get Doris to actually try on outfits and while most of it dosen’t work, she does take on a gold accented necklace after Dawn tries a used place. 

So things are going pretty well.. so naturally even with the comic slowly getting more optimstic.. the other shoe has to drop: They annoucned the reboot.. and this being the internet the redesign was met with mass scorn. The good news as Harold points out is it means Doris already has fans willing to defend her. The bad.. is that they have to change Dawn, something Doris objects to both due to her own past and due to having grown fond of her. Dawn seems fine with it. .but is fidgity all the next day. After all whatever happens .. it’ll change her. While the kid puts up a brave front.. it’s only because she knows she has no choice and only has so many hours left as herself. 

Doris isn’t happy about any of this and when trying to pull out of the reboot fails, as Harold points out they still have the rights so this won’t save dawn and Harold KNOWS this is why she’s doing it and feels bad about the situation but hands are tied etc, tries appealing to Dawn , trying to get her to take a united front with Doris. Dawn harshly rejects this... she knows even togehter they can’t CHANGE this and she’s stuck. It’s a ncie, harsh take on how fans tend to treat reboots; by using dawn as a metaphor for the creatie process; instead of being given a chance to be what she’s meant to, Dawn is changed and ripped apart simply because people got up and arms. And don’t get me wrong sometimes it’s necessary to do so: some reboots geninely suck and somne redeigns are terrible. The backlash the Snow White Live Action film is getting for first still using dwarves as peopl ein caves and now for having them as magical creatures, not fixing the problem EITHER WAY, either playing into sterotypes about people with dwarfisim or erasing them from their own story, is warranted.  But a lot of the time people spin out simply off a design without getting to know it: a lot of assholes complained about she ra, not getting the redeisgns were to go with the times and to you know, not sexualize a character, especially one who would be a minor. And rise of the tmnt got WAY more backlash than it deserved in hindsight. If you don’t like it on merit fine but many just hated changing up the turtle’s style and who was in charge.. in a franchise that has gone to far dumber places for far less reason so maybe wait to see if i’ts bad first. And spoilers it was not. 

That’s more what Dawn represents: changing something to appease people barking at something they know nothing about. Or just complnaing because somethin’gs “too woke” or diverse” and on those last ones I offer a hardy go screw yourself. Having more diversity in a work is what people should strive for, not something to be hissed at and constnatly deridded. 

So Dawn takes off in the rain.. and Doris soon finds out she just ran off. She thankfully finds a way around though, using Dawn’s social to track her to a club for teen toons and yelling the bouncer into letting her inside like a good mom should. 

From here we get a FLOOD of great cameos: We see Starfire (in TTGO form which while it hurts to see, is a nice nod to the way reboots work here) on the dance floor, Heather from Total Drama talking with Pacifica Northwest (which begs the question of how age works here.. .questions for later) and see Jonsey side eyeing them. It’s a neat scene showing the teens here, who may not even be teens anymore thanks to how time works, letting off steam. 

The one cameo I take exception to is Duncan from Duncanville, a recent fox show that i’ve tried but just can’t get into mostly for Duncan himself who, as the shows OWN DESCRIPTION put it is an agressively average teen.. and as such dosen’t really have much of a character in most episodes i’ve watched. He’s just a dumbass teenage son. I’ve seen it so many times in adult animation and sitcoms it physically hurts me. 

And weird enough while the character is indeed one I clearly do not like, they get him wrong as he’s smugly taking a look at one of the characters from Splatoon’s ass. The creepy peak fits, he’s a teenage boy but the smug expressoin dosen’t as he’s more of a vauge dum dum than a horny guy and there are PLENTy of other teen characters, including again Jonsey who could’ve fit in that spot. 

We get some more as Doris passes Velma and Hot Dog Water, awww, and bumps into Gwen from Total Drama, a faviorite of mine and one of the first boys of mine a show massacred, and also a show I should cover at some point, maybe when the reboot comes round. And also Rouge the bat. Which raises MORE questions as to how video game actors work in this universe and makes me want more of this universe to get the answers to that. 

Doris finds Dawn who depsite having a soda is drunk.. and unsuprisingly someone dosed her drink. Who?

No not him. Though Benson from Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts makes a cameo trying to help. 

In a clever twist turns out it was dosed with paint thinner, not enough to actually harm her but enough to attempted date rape her. So Dawn recovers and has to charge her phone. With seemingly only hours left together before the big reboot and their relationship reconciled, Doris takes dawn somewhere special and to one of my faviorite scenes of the work. 

She takes her to a house.. that turns out to be a small safe haven/support group where female toons talk it out, ran by Red from the tex avery cartoons, an excellent choice. We also see a cameo by Alex from Totally spies and erin from the progressive comercials, and some more I honestly forgot. 

But the point isn’t cameos.. but for Doris to FINALLY tell her story.. and finally tell us, and dawn, what drove her there. It’s why, while the flashbacks needed better pacing, I do feel this element works: while what drove her form it is a driving question, the way i’ts revealed, not in some big emotional breakdown but in doris deciding to take agency and share the story with dawn so she feels less alone as she faces something awful, gives her the power back.

As for what happened.. it’s thorughly unsettling. As you’d probably guess by Dori’s behavior.. we get into some sexual creepiness as Roy takes her to a party.. where TONS of classic cartoons are wrapped around creepy older men, clearly forced by their managers and circumstance to sleep with these creepy old dudes. What makes it unsettling is who their using: Characters like Toodles from ton and Jerry or Penelope from the pepe le pew cartoons. Pieces of my childhood forced to be pieces of meat for creepy men just to get by. It shows how even powerful women, huge monmentous sex symbols.. were forced to play powerless playthings just to suprise and it’s just.. horrific and uncomfortable. 

So naturally Doris is forced into this with Marvin Acme.. yes the guy who died in roger rabbit. Yes.. REALLY. I’m not sure I agree with this.. I don’t doubt a 50′s toon tycoon would’ve been this creepy, that makes sense, I just feel making someone else’s character a sex monster crosses a line. If they already were close to one, fairs fair. But while Marvin’s a bit character, it feels weird to just not only plop him in here but have him nearly rape the pprotaganist, trying to put his finger inbetween her thighs. 

Roy when Doris runs out. .is unhelpful, berating her for everything and being an abusive prick, with Doris running like hell and planning to quit, and not wanting ot make it this way... while Roy blames it on her. “if you were drawn like that why won’t you” is basically his logic

Doris is basicall blacklisted as a result and her final flashback is a heartbreaking one, not only seeing herself replaced on her gig.. but running into Minnie whose been redeisgned but still remembers her. So some memories remain , I just wonder if personality changes effect that and.. okay not the point. And Minnie gets another powerful moment as after hearing from Doris.. she hugs the poor girl, telling her to hang in there and this is not the end. That she should stand firm and keep going.. and i’ts heartbreaking because Doris tried but eventually just.. gave up, figuring her story was over.

But Dawn points out it’s not.. she has another chance and while she dosen’t say it it shows the one beauty of being a toon.. and of properties like this: there’s ALWAYS a chance something you love can come back and be done well. And ther’es always a chance for your dreams no matter how badly the world treats or tries to abuse you. 

Dawn is inspired by this to try another approach and not give up herself on the ride.. and as such the next day, after the surgery.. the only changes are dawn looks slightly more like doris, having the gold necklace and bigger hands, but otherwise is the same. In a brilliant and heartwarming twist Dawn had filmed her interactions with Doris.. and since Doris didn’t open up to the world this gave Dawn a chance to show the world Doris. As such the show is retooled in a way that saves dawn and puts Doris from mentor supporting character to lead again: her teaching dawn, filiming their life and Dawn moving in with her. After so much suffering and heartbreak.. there’s a truly happy ending. Doris gets her daughter saved, Dawn finds hre place in the world and the two live happily ever after ending on watching one of Doris’ old commericals. Ther’es also a heartwarming bonus strip where Dawn tells her happy mothers daw. Awww

Final Thoughts: This comic is excellent and you can check out the whole run starting HERE  and I highly recommend it. IT’s heartflet, engaging, well built and deserves a sequel, spinoff or adaptation asap. Not much else to say really I said what I needed to so thanks for reading and if you liked this review join my patreon

HERE

A dollar a month at the least helps me pay for bills and helps me hit stretch goals. The owl house season 1 is next wink wink! Just one more patron joining and 5 dollar backers get a guarnateed reviw a month. So sign up today and i’ll see ya real soon. 

[lutawolf]

Okay so I read Secret Crush On You and it was pretty good. Thank you to @scmatise for suggesting it. As promised my thoughts. I'll do my best to not give spoilers away.

I found an interesting development. I like the characters in the book more but enjoy the plot from the series more. The Daisy/Intouch date didn't happen but instead a sleep over on the couch, however, it worked better this way I think.

NueaToh: Are waaaaay too cute in the book. Nuea does not come off as an asshole just more confused and prone to being standoffish. Toh is still stalkerish but Nuea is loving it, which makes it more fun and dorky then cringe. However, I will say in the book Nuea struggled with liking Toh and I appreciate that they didn't add that to the series. I'm also happy to report that the whole having him touch his body and saying "you should have muscles like this" moment. Was actually a hilarious moment in the book because all Nuea was thinking about was having Toh touch him intimately. He didn't really care what he had to say to get that to happen. I was completely here for how horny Nuea was cause I'm clearly not right in the head.

Skyjao: I can't even begin to explain how cute these two are in the book. I found myself squeeing several times. That being said there were a few changes in the series that I'm not exactly here for. For instance there was a lot more come backs from Jao, Sky, and Friends when Jao's weight was brought up. To be fair though, I think the series was trying to meet in the middle and just executed badly. I loved the fact that Sky in the book makes it very clear he is physically attracted to Jao. Cause as a big girl, I can assure you that I would not get with someone who said "it's what's on the inside that matters" Like do you want to strip me naked or not? Cause physical attraction matters.

IntouchDaisy: I'm so in love with both of these characters that lawd.. I would totally marry Intouch, not even kidding a little. If I had a dollar for every fictional character I fell in love with, I could finally pay for the therapy I clearly need. You guys, Intouch is so sweet and patient with Daisy. When Daisy gets confused he just calmly follows along until he can get to the bottom of things and then is like "no, honey I'm not going to respect this cause it's not really what you want, you're just listening to people who don't matter." Then when someone hurt Daisy, he kicked their asses, like literally. It was so hot. Daisy is just cute, cute, and cute. Did I mention she is cute?

SomTor: I like these two much better in the series to be honest. I'll be interested to see how they get together in the series cause in the book it was just chaos.

So there ya go. That's the end of my chaotic Secret Crush On You character review. Please feel free to hit me up in comment or reblog with anything you might want to discuss. Much love, as usual it's just my opinion don't come at me.

[earlgreytea68]

Hi! I loved your post about fanfiction and “official” literature, it resonated with me on a multiple levels. I started reading fanfics at the age of 16, I guess, and never really stopped since, now I’m in my mid thirties. Sometimes I read more of it, sometimes I got sucked into the new novel by my fave author, but I always come back. Because reading fanfiction opened up multiple universes I could wander through endlessly, and never get bored. I switch fandoms, and every time I discover something unique and awesome. I can’t stop thinking about how many talented people are out there, I’m so grateful for all of you guys, and I hope you get all the love appreciation you really deserve. And also, having the amazing possibility to say how much in love with a certain work you are, or even discuss something about the plot or ask a question directly to the person who wrote it, maybe even in the process of creating the said story… I think it’s a very special privilege, we all should be grateful to have it. Bless you, and I mean it! Oh, and this bit about seeing all the reviews of hmt and aren’t able to read them, really got me in the feels. I totally understand how it must be tough for you at the moment, and I sincerely wish, that maybe later this year, around Halloween or with a cup of hot wine in your hand near the Christmas break, you’ll find yourself in the right mindset to read some of them, and enjoy it. I only got to see one of those on my dash, and reading through it made me happy and hopeful, I have a very slim chance to see them, and god knows how it will look like next year, but the sentiment is still there, this guys make me happy. I wish you a very nice and cozy fall season, stay safe 😊

Awwww this is a very sweet and lovely ask, thank you, anon.

I have a whole rant that I do elsewhere in my life about how fanfiction is its own genre, that's not confined to "work based on other people's creativity" but is, in fact, a type of story-telling that is based more heavily on characters and emotions than on plots. Once you find this genre, you might read outside of the genre every once in a while, but you go back to fic the way someone who likes mysteries gravitates toward mysteries. It doesn't actually matter the fandom, the storytelling vehicle remains the same.

And I agree, that we are so lucky how many of us want to share and create with each other in this space, and how we can all interact, in a way that published fiction really never seems to have. I've been a published author, and I missed desperately the community of fandom: the other writers whose stuff I could squee over, the readers who feel comfortable telling me what they loved, what they hope for, what confuses them, etc. All of that makes the stories we tell so much richer, because they are not the stories *we're* telling, but the stories we're *all* telling, together, in this vast interrelated tapestry, and that is how storytelling was in the very beginning of its history and I think it's actually what humans need storytelling to be (hence the enduring popularity of fic in the first place, the need for humans to engage with the stories they're being told instead of just being passive consumers of it). And sometimes I worry about fandom going away, about people thinking that this way of creating isn't worthwhile because it doesn't make them money, and it makes me sad because I think it is the BEST kind of creating and we should all be so lucky, as writers, to find people who want to love our characters so much that they chat with us about them. Like, that is the dream! It's just so incredible!

~~UNCONNECTED HMT BITTERNESS LOL~~

I really am trying to be A Bigger Person about the whole HMT thing but there is a vast gulf between "thing I know I should be able to get over" and "thing which irritates me every time it comes up" lol. I have tried really hard to just...be all happy about HMT, but in truth the effort of trying to force myself to be happy just ends up making me extra-resentful, and so it's better that I just...try to avoid HMT in the hope that maybe eventually, someday, I won't find it so annoying and will be able to think about it without wanting to cry lol. I mean, emotions just take time to work through and become more rational, and it has not been nearly enough time for me, in my trauma-exhausted pandemic state, with all the other stuff I'm also trying to emotionally manage right now. At one point I just realized that the whole HMT situation was taking up way more time and mental and emotional energy (and money) than Fall Out Boy honestly really deserved, considering they have no idea who I am and don't care about me lol. Anyway, I haven't broken up with Fall Out Boy, which is good, because I worried I might, but we definitely seem okay; I've just broken up with HMT. I am really, really, really pleased that the tour is almost over and maybe I can go back to following FOB social media again and maybe I can be more successful pretending this tour never happened lol. And probably eventually someday I'll forget all about why I was upset and it'll all be fine, as you say. I know that everyone else seemed to have a really lovely time at their concerts and I'm very glad that they did.

[snowflakechallenge]

Meet the Mods!

Akamine_chan created The Fandom Snowflake Challenge back in 2012 as a way to remind herself “why I loved fandom so much”. Over the years the challenge itself has come to mean a lot to many of us, so by way of introduction some of the mods for this year have written about what [community profile] snowflake_challenge means to them and why they are excited about it.

Spikedluv: Hello to all returning and new Snowflakes! I love Snowflake and I’m thrilled to be part of the group bringing Snowflake to you again this year. Especially after the year we've all just had. For the second time! The best thing about this challenge is that it reminds me of all the great things about fandom. The feeling of community. The comments and feedback. The squee that comes with discovering new fandoms and new fic and new friends. And while Snowflake only lasts for one month, these are things we can take with us into the rest of the year. As I’ve said previously, Snowflake has taught me that I need to be the change I want to see in fandom and gets me pumped up to go forth and be a more active participant.

Seleneheart: The [community profile] snowflake_challenge is *the* best way to start the new year, in my opinion. This is my fourth year modding for the comm, but the work I put in is returned to me many times over. I love the interactions with other fans, the new ways of understanding fandom, confronting new ideas, and revisiting old friends. The world is a rough place, but the [community profile] snowflake_challenge is a warm blanket on a chilly day, wrapped around us by a friend. I hope that among these challenges, you can find something that will warm your heart and soothe your soul.

Tjs_whatnot: Hello! So Happy to be back with you all this year! When I looked back on my DW, I was horrified to discover that the last time it got regular postings was during LAST year's Snowflake. So, if this is really all of fandom that I give myself every year (though I hope it's not) I am going to make the most of it! I hope to get to meet you all through the month for shenanigans and hijinx!

Muccamukk: mostly writes fic and reviews, usually in western media fandoms, and can never turn her back on a kink meme. She's been participating in the Snowflake Challenge off and on since year one, helping mod for the last three, and there still hasn't been any cake.

Goddess47: I'm a multifandom person but my primary fandoms are Stargate Atlantis, Harry Potter, Teen Wolf, and (new this year) 9-1-1. I read and write in those fandoms, although I can be seduced by the pretty. ::grin::

I was a mod for Snowflake for the first time last year and it's a blast to do! There are amazing folk out there in a huge variety of fandoms and modding gave me an even bigger appreciation for the breath and depth of fandom.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Turps: Hello all! I'm Turps and I've been taking part in Snowflake since the very beginning, though this year is the first time I've helped out as a mod.

I love this challenge. It always gets my fannish year off to a great start, but what I love the most is how low pressure it is. Some years I've managed to complete every challenge, and others only a couple. Sometimes I've done a challenge but not linked at the comm, and that's fine. I've never been made to feel bad about that at all.

I've made some good friends due to Snowflake Challenge, and many times have ended up commenting to and checking out posts from people I only see once a year. It's like meeting old friends who I have a quick natter with before heading off into the virtual distance, and I'm looking forward to doing that again.

Cornerofmadness: Hi I’m Cornerofmadness. I’ve been taking part in the Snowflake challenge for a few years now, helping out where I can. It’s such a fun start to the year. It’s a great way to get the creative juices going. The best part is, it’s low pressure. If you’re not feeling a challenge, there’s no need to finish that one. No time when a prompt comes up, that’s okay too. You can work them on your own time frame which is wonderful.

I love seeing all the different fandoms and original works that come up occasionally. It’s fun showcasing my own fandoms as well. I’ve met new friends through this challenge. I’ve been in the fandom world since the 80s and I never tire of seeing all the creative energy fans bring with them. This challenge is a good way to tap into that energy, see what old friends are up to and find new ones.

Paulamcg: Hello! I'm PaulaMcG, and this is the second time I've offered to help out a bit in the Snowflake Challenge. Two years ago, when I was still struggling to find interaction in fandom after a long hiatus, I was glad to come across Snowflake and I enjoyed doing all the challenges. I still write fic (and occasionally dabble in fanart) only in the Harry Potter fandom. Snowflake is a wonderful opportunity even for someone like me to see more of the creative, subversive, inclusive and encouraging community that is fandom, to interact with new people, and to make new friends.

Enemytosleep: January is always a really tough month for me, but Snowflake is a bright light in the chaos. I look forward to seeing everyone again this year!

Coyoteclaw11: Although I don't always participate, Snowflake Challenge is one of my favorite times of the year. I love connecting with people who share my fannish enthusiasm even if we don't share the same fandoms, and I love celebrating the joys of being a fan! I hope as a mod this year, I can share that joy with all of you.

Sjh2009: Hello, I'm StarbucksSue. I've enjoyed taking part in Snowflake on many occasions over the years and, last year, was delighted to take part as a Mod and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I'm fairly quiet in fandom these days, particularly this past year which has been a difficult one for me, but Snowflake always brings me out of the woodwork and I love reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones, seeing all the fandoms I'm unfamiliar with and the enthusiasm participants have for their chosen fandom or fandoms and checking many of the fandoms out for myself.

Flamingsword: Greetings, Mighty Snowflakes! Allow me to introduce myself; I am Flamingsword, fannish being and friendly commenter. I know that we all share a love of fandom and hygge vibes, and so I would like to spread the winter comfort with you this year. With our mutual enthusiasm, I'm sure that we can work out an arrangement which will provide mutual squee and enable us to avoid any unpleasant moderation. As a token of my goodwill, I will be helping mod Snowflake this year as well as participating. I am hardworking and hope to serve you well.

If it sounds familiar, it’s bc I’m a SW fan, and haven’t had coffee yet, so I stole the Mighty Jabba speech from SW: RotJ and filed the serial numbers off.

Lilly_c: Hello all, I'm lilly_c and I've been in fandom for a long as I can remember. I've participated in Snowflake for a few years now and always had a ball. This is my second time helping out with Snowflake and I can't wait to see what we all come up with over the month.

Tellshannon815: Hi, I'm tellshannon815, I've been participating in this challenge the last few years and after helping out with Sunshine last year I wanted to take a more active role in Snowflake too. Fandom has been the one thing keeping me sane for a while and I hope to give something back. Looking forward to meeting new people through the challenge.

Kitty_fic: Hi, I'm Kitty! This is my second time to join the mod team. I love this time of year and reflecting on new goals and dreamcasting plans for the new year. The snowflake challenge is such a fun way to interact with fandom and to start the year off on a great note. I love how it brings people from all corners of fandom together.

Perspi: Hi, I'm perspi! This is my second year volunteering for Snowflake, and I've enjoyed the way it connects us fans together and helps us find each other. I mostly enjoy reading fic lately, and I'm looking forward to finding new folks to get fannish with!

As you can see the challenge means so many things to the mods, and to everyone who has participated before, and will hopefully also be meaningful to anyone joining us for the first time this year. You’ll find us all wading through comments, welcoming everyone, answering questions, keeping the peace, so if you need anything, don't hesitate to flag one of us down.

Tomorrow starts the first of the fandom challenges, so hope you all are ready for some fun times! Feel free to do any challenge that strikes your fancy (or all of them), or leave a comment on someone else’s challenge response at anytime.

[jeannereames]

Hi, Dr. Reames! I just read your take on Song of Achilles and it got me thinking. Do you think there might be a general issue with the way women are written in mlm stories in general? Because I don't think it's the first time I've seen something like this happen.

And my next question is, could you delve further into this thing you mention about modern female authors writing women? How could we, beginner female writers, avoid falling into this awful representations of women in our writing?

Thank you for your time!

[It took a while to finish this because I wrote, re-wrote, and re-wrote it. Still not sure I like it, but I need to let it go. It could be 3xs as long.]

I’ll begin with the second half of the question, because it’s simpler. How do we, as women authors, avoid writing women in misogynistic ways?

Let me reframe that as how can we, as female authors, write negative (even quite nasty) female characters without falling into misogynistic tropes? Also, how can we write unsympathetic, but not necessarily “bad” female characters, without it turning misogynistic?

Because people are people, not genders, not all women are good, nor all men bad. Most of us are a mix. If we should avoid assuming powerful women are all bitches, by the same token, some women are bitches (powerful or not).

ALL good characterization comes down to MOTIVE. And careful characterization of minority characters involves fair REPRESENTATION. (Yes, women are a minority even if we��re 51% of the population.)

The question ANY author must ask: why am I making this female character a bitch? How does this characterization serve the larger plot and/or characterization? WHY is she acting this way?

Keep characters complex, even the “bad guys.” Should we choose to make a minority character a “bad guy,” we need to have a counter example—a real counter, not just a token who pops in briefly, then disappears. Yeah, maybe in an ideal world we could just let our characters “be,” but this isn’t an ideal world. Authors do have an audience. I’m a lot less inclined to assume stereotyping when we have various minority characters with different characterizations.

By the same token, however, don’t throw a novel against the wall if the first minority character is negative. Read further to decide if it’s a pattern. I’ve encountered reviews that slammed an author for stereotyping without the reader having finished the book. I’m thinking, “Uh…if you’d read fifty more pages….” Novels have a developmental arc. And if you’ve got a series, that, too, has a developmental arc. One can’t reach a conclusion about an author’s ultimate presentation/themes until having finished the book, or series.*

Returning to the first question, the appearance of misogyny depends not only on the author, but also on when she wrote, even why she’s writing. Authors who are concerned with matters such as theme and message are far more likely to think about such things than those who write for their own entertainment and that of others, which is more typical of Romance.

On average, Romance writers are a professionalized bunch. They have national and regional chapters of the Romance Writers of America (RWA), newsletters and workshops that discuss such matters as building plot tension, character dilemmas, show don’t tell, research tactics, etc. Yet until somewhat recently (early/mid 2010s), and a series of crises across several genres (not just Romance), treatment of minority groups hadn’t been in their cross-hairs. Now it is, with Romance publishers (and publishing houses more generally) picking up “sensitivity readers” in addition to the other editors who look at a book before its publication.

Yet sensitivity readers are hired to be sure lines like “chocolate love monkey” do not show up in a published novel. Yes, that really was used as an endearment for a black man in an M/M Romance, which (deservedly) got not just the author but the publishing house in all sorts of hot water. Yet misogyny, especially more subtle misogyny in the way of tropes, is rarely on the radar.

I should add that I wouldn’t categorize The Song of Achilles as an M/M historical Romance. In fact, I’m not sure what to call novels about myths, as myths don’t exist in actual historical periods. When should we set a novel about the Iliad? The Bronze Age, when Homer said it happened, or the Greek Dark Age, which is the culture Homer actually described? They’re pretty damn different. I’d probably call The Song of Achilles an historical fantasy, especially as mythical creatures are presented as real, like centaurs and god/desses.

Back to M/M Romance: I don’t have specific publishing stats, but it should surprise no one that (like most of the Romance genre), the vast bulk of authors of M/M Romance are women, often straight and/or bi- women. The running joke seems to be, If one hot man is good, two hot men together are better. 😉 Yes, there are also trans, non-binary and lesbian authors of M/M Romance, and of course, bi- and gay men who may write under their own name or a female pseudonym, but my understanding is that straight and bi- cis-women authors outnumber all of them.

Just being a woman, or even a person in a female body, does not protect that author from misogyny. And if she’s writing for fun, she may not be thinking a lot about what her story has to “say” in its subtext and motifs, even if she may be thinking quite hard about other aspects of story construction. This can be true of other genres as well (like historical fantasy).

What I have observed for at least some women authors is the unconscious adoption of popular tropes about women. Just as racism is systemic, so is sexism. We swim in it daily, and if one isn’t consciously considering how it affects us, we can buy into it by repeating negative ideas and acting in prescribed ways because that’s what we learned growing up. If writing in a symbol-heavy genre such as mythic-driven fantasy, it can be easy to let things slip by—even if they didn’t appear in the original myth, such as making Thetis hostile to Patroklos, the classic Bitchy Mother-in-Law archetype.

I see this sort of thing as “accidental” misogyny. Women authors repeat unkind tropes without really thinking them through because it fits their romantic vision. They may resent it and get defensive if the trope is pointed out. “Don’t harsh my squee!” We can dissect why these tropes persist, and to what degree they change across generations—but that would end up as a (probably controversial) book, not a blog entry. 😊

Yet there’s also subconscious defensive misogyny, and even conscious/semi-conscious misogyny.

Much debate/discussion has ensued regarding “Queen Bee Syndrome” in the workplace and whether it’s even a thing. I think it is, but not just for bosses. I also would argue that it’s more prevalent among certain age-groups, social demographics, and professions, which complicates recognizing it.

What is Queen Bee Syndrome? Broadly, when women get ahead at the expense of their female colleagues who they perceive as rivals, particularly in male-dominated fields, hinging on the notion that There Can Be Only One (woman). It arises from systemic sexism.

Yes, someone can be a Queen Bee even with one (or two) women buddies, or while claiming to be a feminist, supporting feminist causes, or writing feminist literature. I’ve met a few. What comes out of our mouths doesn’t necessarily jive with how we behave. And ticking all the boxes isn’t necessary if you’re ticking most of them. That said, being ambitious, or just an unpleasant boss/colleague—if its equal opportunity—does not a Queen Bee make. There must be gender unequal behavior involved.

What does any of that have to do with M/M fiction?

The author sees the women characters in her novel as rivals for the male protagonists. It gets worse if the women characters have some “ownership” of the men: mothers, sisters, former girlfriends/wives/lovers. I know that may sound a bit batty. You’re thinking, Um, aren’t these characters gay or at least bi- and involved with another man, plus—they’re fictional? Doesn’t matter. Call it fantasizing, authorial displacement, or gender-flipped authorial insert. We authors (and I include myself in this) can get rather territorial about our characters. We live in their heads and they live in ours for months on end, or in many cases, years. They’re real to us. Those who aren't authors often don’t quite get that aspect of being an author. So yes, sometimes a woman author acts like a Queen Bee to her women characters. This is hardly all, or even most, but it is one cause of creeping misogyny in M/M Romance.

Let’s turn to a related problem: women who want to be honorary men. While I view this as much more pronounced in prior generations, it’s by no means disappeared. Again, it’s a function of systemic sexism, but further along the misogyny line than Queen Bees. Most Queen Bees I’ve known act/react defensively, and many are (imo) emotionally insecure. It’s largely subconscious. More, they want to be THE woman, not an honorary man.

By contrast, women who want to be honorary men seem to be at least semi-conscious of their misogyny, even if they resist calling it that. These are women who, for the most part, dislike other women, regard most of “womankind” as either a problem or worthless, and think of themselves as having risen above their gender.

And NO, this is not necessarily religious—sometimes its specifically a-religious.

“I want to be an honorary man” women absolutely should NOT be conflated with butch lesbians, gender non-conformists, or frustrated FTMs. That plays right into myths the queer community has combated for decades. There’s a big difference between expressing one’s yang or being a trans man, and a desire to escape one’s womanhood or the company of other women. “Honorary men” women aren’t necessarily queer. I want to underscore that because the concrete example I’m about to give does happen to be queer.

I’ve talked before about Mary Renault’s problematic portrayal of women in her Greek novels (albeit her earlier hospital romances don’t show it as much). Her own recorded comments make it clear that she and her partner Julie Mullard didn’t want to be associated with other lesbians, or with women much at all. She was also born in 1905, living at a time when non-conforming women struggled. If extremely active in anti-apartheid movements in South Africa, Renault and Mullard were far less enthused by the Gay Rights Movement. Renault even criticized it, although she wrote back kindly to her gay fans.

The women in Renault’s Greek novels tend to be either bitches or helpless, reflecting popular male perceptions of women: both in ancient Greece and Renault’s own day. If we might argue she’s just being realistic, that ignores the fact one can write powerful women in historical novels and still keep it attitudinally accurate. June Rachuy Brindel, born in 1919, author of Ariadne and Phaedra, didn’t have the same problem, nor did Martha Rofheart, born in 1917, with My Name is Sappho. Brindel’s Ariadne is much more sympathetic than Renault’s (in The King Must Die).

Renault typically elevates (and identifies with) the “rational” male versus the “irrational” female. This isn’t just presenting how the Greeks viewed women; it reflects who she makes the heroes and villains in her books. Overall, “good” women are the compliant ones, and the compliant women are tertiary characters.

Women in earlier eras who were exceptional had to fight multiple layers of systemic misogyny. Some did feel they had to become honorary men in order to be taken seriously. I’d submit Renault bought into that, and it (unfortunately) shows in her fiction, as much as I admire other aspects of her novels.

So I think those are the three chief reasons we see women negatively portrayed in M/M Romance (or fiction more generally), despite being written by women authors.

------------------------------------

*Yeah, yeah, sometimes it’s such 2D, shallow, stereotypical presentation that I, as a reader, can conclude this author isn’t going to get any better. Also, the publication date might give me a clue. If I’m reading something published 50 years ago, casual misogyny or racism is probably not a surprise. If I don’t feel like dealing with that, I close the book and put it away.

But I do try to give the author a chance. I may skim ahead to see if things change, or at least suggest some sort of character development. This is even more the case with a series. Some series take a loooong view, and characters alter across several novels. Our instant-gratification world has made us impatient. Although by the same token, if one has to deal with racism or sexism constantly in the real world, one may not want to have to watch it unfold in a novel—even if it’s “fixed” later. If that’s you, put the book down and walk away. But I’d just suggest not writing a scathing review of a novel (or series) you haven’t finished. 😉

[lemonluvgirl]

Just saw it was your birthday and want to wish you a very, very happy one! Also, I'm just about to dig into the other half of 'Dear Brother, Promise Me' because I'm totally in love with that story. Like, I had to stop myself last night (morning?) and finally go to sleep lol. I will make sure to continue leaving rambling, squee-filled reviews along the way! Again, happy birthday and I hope your birthday cake tastes like it was made by Peeta! :)

thanks so much! 😁 I am so into your reviews on my fic! They are so sweet and kind! Im happy you are liking the story!!! 😃 I consider it a great birthday gift to have one of my fave mutual and fanfic author friends like my writing!

[rhymingteelookatme]

The Dolls of New Albion 2014 review

Production details:  Clockwork Hart Productions, presented at Corpus Christi Auditorium, Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford.

~First of all, I know a low-budget production when I see one; I’ve been in a fair few myself. I have all the sympathies. I do feel they made the most of what they had vis-à-vis set pieces, lighting, etc.

~I loved the costume design, by and large, with only one exception: the opening ensemble outfits. The actors appeared to be cosplaying as Annabel’s notes. It was mean of me to laugh, I know; thank god they couldn’t hear me.

~Deeply appreciate the visual signal of actors portraying dolls by putting a line of buttons straight down the center of each of their costumes.

~Give it up for our own Ben Below on the drums and accordion!

~The Narrator is engaging without being ostentatious. And, oddly, she is also barefoot. They must keep that stage very well swept indeed. 

~Act-by-act notes under the cut.

Act I

~Annabel had the acting down, if not always the singing. She was charming and I enjoyed her portrayal so very much. That’s a face to win hearts on sight.

~The dual portrayal of Jasper in Act I- the dancer as his soul, the singer as him in the doll- excellent choice, excellent. Doesn’t hurt that dancer!Jasper is so skilled. Those legs! For days I tell you! And then we hear the singer hit the perfect reedy timbre to portray the doll’s radio “voice”, and I was completely sold.

~Jasper’s makeup design: also excellent. Really hits the center of the Venn diagram between ventriloquist dummy, the emcee from Cabaret and the Somnambulist from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Eerie and sympathetic and compelling. Those little bee-sting lips! Love that! Not to mention that neat triangle design beside his left eye, which also manages to look like a skewed capital A. Annabel bby you wanted him to be your angel so much, I’m so sorry.

~The dancers during “Annabel Has A Doll” are the perfect expression of Annabel’s mood during the bulk of that number.

~It was certainly a choice to depict the destruction of Jasper’s initial doll body via the ensemble-as-notes snapping his neck. 

Act II

~What’s it time for? That’s right, it’s time for OUR OWN TIM LEDSAM AS EDGAR, WHAT WHAAAT!

~He looks so good. So good! Again, I’m sure they’re glad I wasn’t there, as I would have been barely able to contain my squees the instant he came onstage at the top of the show. Now here he is with his goggles and his hair all neatly braided back and his snazzy pinstripe SUIT, oh my GOD-

~Of course I took pictures. I’ll be posting those separately. They’re kinda fuzzy screencaps but I will Take what I can Get!

~Ah yes, the restaurant song, for which my note reads “TIM MY BOY WE DINE AT CHEZ REHEARSAL BOX.” Again, I fully recognize the limited budget here, but something about that damn rehearsal box wrapped in black tablecloth is just so funny and I’m so sorry. 

~Very good choice of Fay; she acts the part well, and as a bonus her voice sounds v. nice with our Tim’s. 

~His face, his face, I know he’s merely portraying his heartbreak in stellar fashion but it breaks our hearts to watch. 

~Oh look, it’s the return of dancer!Jasper, along with what seems to be dancer!Annabel, during “The Old Trunk in the Attic.” I like that choice a whole lot! It works well with the ghostly melody. 

~Tim finds a fur-collared coat in the said trunk, not only Annabel’s notes. Yes! Add that bulk to your shoulders, that’ll show you’re a Snappy Entrepreneur. 

~”Edgar Builds A Business” is so well staged: Tim standing on the rehearsal box that was our erstwhile restaurant table, whilst three dancers perform as dolls around him. He has an excellent air throughout of that false self-deprecation that can so greatly aid salesmanship. 

~Then of course we come to the deeply skeevy coercion of Fay, for which the box becomes a table once again. Loooove the way Tim/Edgar arranges the bottle, glasses and chairs just so. 

~Dang, Fay, slugging right from the bottle. She’s got the fire. 

Act III

~Three words: Byron’s leather pants.

~we LOVE those leather pants, they are sending me beyond space and time

~I spy those stripy Sally-esque socks on Amelia. I see what you’re doing there, costumer. And then they even have her do the left-hand-clutching-right-forearm pose during “The Movement 2.” Oh yes, I see what we’re doing here.

~Byron really has the spirit, well done that man. The foolish grandstanding in his speeches, the barely-contained inner torment over his hopeless love for our unfortunate doll.

~Don’t think you can hide our Tim from me, I see him in the ensemble. Got a shot or two of him here as well. 

~The general look of the Voodoopunk costumes is, again, a Choice. I will say that the silvery circle pendants indicating membership in the cult sometimes sit confusingly with the buttons on the dolls. I also wonder whether the cast members were given some free reign to choose their own costumes for this act. Visually they do all mostly hang together. 

~Did we mention dancer!Jasper’s unhinged shoulders? He has those. It’s incredible.

~”Elysium” staging was a beautiful thing: doll!Jasper gets to move freely as the rest of the cast remain frozen, staring at the spot from whence he begins and ends the song. Note how he pays attention particularly to Amelia. Also, at some point he’s acquired gold eyeshadow, and it really accentuates those soulful eyes. 

~What’s this? Why it’s a lightning fast appearance of Tim as Amelia’s horrible father during her last number. An unexpected bonus for we Mech fans. 

~Said final number ends with Amelia up on the infamous rehearsal box, one arm raised, falling backwards into the arms of a select few ensemble members. Unclear whether this is meant to depict hanging or a deliberate casting herself out the window. 

~Slightly underwhelmed by “Bonfire of the Dolls” and Byron’s performance therein. However, I do like the dance in the red spotlight to cover the rest of the cast as they flee offstage to change costumes for the final act.

Interlude

~Oh, I know, I know, this could have been a perfect Jonny song. 

~The Narrator has been shedding costume elements throughout the show; she now appears in the core of her costume—that is, her pants, white shirt, necklace, and omnipresent off-center head goggles.

~Love to watch those dancers whirl round and round to the accordion refrain. Although I do question having them keep it up for the duration of the number, considering that the Gambler (hi, Fay’s actress) and Monk are sat on the floor. Could we not have moved the rehearsal boxes further downstage? Let them sit on those?

Act IV

~Priscilla is very sweet in a desaturated green floral dress. Then she opens her mouth and she sings just as sweetly as she looks. A feat, considering that she and Jasper are also on the ground with their own eternal card game. It’s not the easiest position to sing in, let’s put it that way.

~The soldiers’ white full-face masks are extremely creepy; a fantastic design choice. However, it is odd that only Soldier 7285 gets a snappy hat to go with his costume. I suppose hats wouldn’t stay on with the masks.

~There is a tendency, and I fully recognize this in my own attempts at casting, to assume that it’s not important if Soldier 7285 isn’t the strongest or most in-tune singer. This could not be further from the truth. He gets the final emotional punch of the show; he needs to be every bit as good as our other named characters.

~Dancer!Jasper returns, this time with a dancer!Priscilla, during the actual P & J’s first duet. This is some good stuff, but I did find it a bit distracting, despite the clear intent to have the choreography reflect the content of the lyrics. It would perhaps have been better to have them accompany “Priscilla Contemplates.”

~Instead, a few ensemble members come on to gesture rhythmically to our final heroine’s solo. However, Tim is among them, so I am pleased to watch him.

~The soldiers are miming their weapons, which I suspect was deliberate rather than a mere lack of funds.

~Oh, it’s the return of the neck snap to send our poor Jasper finally back to the afterlife. And he has an excellent death pose. Priscilla, meanwhile, gets gunned down in a hail of invisible bullets. This is realistically excessive.

~Again, I feel terrible for laughing, but the way the other soldiers leave the stage one by one so that 7285 can have his big solo moment strikes me funny.

--And then it’s bows time, and I cheered wildly for our Tim and Ben, and I had a marvelous time overall!

[maryellencarter]

SO! A week or two ago I got the DVDs for both seasons of "Justice League: The Animated Series", which I hadn't seen in ten years and remembered loving a lot. Spoiler: I still love it a lot. I put off watching it for a while because I was scared I wouldn't, but then I watched it pretty much straight through without even stopping to liveblog.

So. THOUGHTS! ^_^ Any of y'all who've ever shared a fandom with me know I'm always around for one particular character. In this case, that's J'onn J'onzz, the big green guy, whose official comics codename (sensibly not used on the show) is Martian Manhunter.

(There's a bit in one of the tie-in comics where a parent is telling their kid "don't be scared, honey, he won't hurt you, that's the uhh... Martian Maneater..." which has never ceased to amuse me.)

Anyway, we all know I have a tendency to give reviews in the vein of "Good story but no werewolves", and it must be granted that I never did bother watching Justice League Unlimited because Carl Lumbly (J'onn's voice actor, Minnesota born and raised with Jamaican parents, which is apparently how you get a Martian accent I couldn't place to anywhere on Earth) wasn't a regular anymore. But y'know, it's a really good ensemble team too, even if I like Tim Daly's Superman (from Superman: The Animated Series in the same animated universe) a lot better than George Newbern's. Or, well, I did. I haven't heard *him* in ten years either. Anyway! Off topic.

SO ANYWAY. Obviously, spoilers hereabouts, although it's what, fifteen, twenty years old by now? But if you care about spoilers for somewhat elderly TV, you might not be following me anyhow.

So the meta premise, just in case anybody was unfamiliar, is thuswise: First there was Batman: The Animated Series, in which Mark Hamill was the best Joker while not being an asshole as a person, because he is a competent actor and not a dickwad. Then there was Superman: The Animated Series, which I remember as being a delight and I want to watch it again too someday. Then, because apparently if you have Batman and Superman the next step is the entire Justice League, there was this.

The actual premise is, that during an alien invasion of Earth, Superman and Batman rescue a prisoner, J'onn J'onzz, the last survivor of the Martian society the invader aliens wiped out. (J'onn and Clark get little bits of bonding over the last-of-their-kinds thing but I've always wanted more. In a fandom auction I once donated $60 for a fic on the topic, but life happened and I do not hold it against the person. Still a little sad though. It's not something I've ever quite been able to write myself.) J'onn has a whole grab-bag of superpowers including telepathy, with which he summons additional heroes The Flash (speedster, this one is twentyish goofball Wally West), Green Lantern (specifically John Stewart, a black ex-Marine), Wonder Woman, and Hawkgirl (a winged humanoid-alien woman with an energy mace). Together, they fight crime! Mostly.

Specific episodes: I'm going to use "episode" to refer to the runtime covered by a single title so I don't have to say "two-parter" or "three-parter" every single time, because this show had literally only one single-part episode out of the whole 52 episodes.

* Secret Origins, three-parter: In which the Justice League is formed and repels the invasion of Earth by the aliens who wiped out J'onn's people. A very strong start, good character intros. I will never be over the very small worldbuilding fact that J'onn is rescued by Superman and Batman, and has seen nobody else on Earth yet but invader aliens (these are what used to be called the White Martians but the show does not use this name either which I think was a wise choice), so when he shapeshifts from his more alien "natural" Martian form to the look which will be his default for the series, he chooses a briefs-and-cape look because based on the two examples he's seeing, that's what Earth people wear. It's not explicitly called out, but it's a great way to make it a little less... comic-booky that you have no less than three extra-beefy guys with almost identical costume silhouettes here.

I think the arc between Batman and J'onn is one of my favorite parts of this, the way Batman starts out being like "I still don't trust him" and winds up trusting him enough that it's their teamwork which saves the world this go-round. Also, speaking as a fan who likes me some whump, can we talk about the scene where J'onn is being mindprobed with all those tentacles under his skin? I have so fucking many feels about that scene, okay. God, that whole climactic sequence is so damn good. And his tiny lil smile at the end of the last episode! I do love me some microexpressions, nonetheless that they are animated. (I can't draw so I am constantly boggled by just the skill it has to take to draw a character so on-model that varying one line by a few pixels Says Things.)

* In Blackest Night, two-parter: The one where the extremely Kirby-designed cop robots frame Green Lantern into believing he blew up an inhabited planet. Introduces several alien members of the Green Lantern Corps. Flash trying and failing to act as GL's lawyer is fairly embarrassment-squicky to me; many of the things anybody does with Flash on this show are fairly embarrassment-squicky, although he does get some great moments. René Auberjonois does two voices, as a spherical Green Lantern and as the "witness" who helps frame GL. The climactic scene is great -- sometimes the Green Lantern ditty just doesn't work, but between the sound design and the animation and Phil Lamarr's voice acting, this scene blows me away every time. I feel like this one could have been shorter though.

* The Enemy Below, two-parter: In which (blond) Aquaman guest-stars, J'onn takes on the first of many roles where he acts as bait by impersonating a villain's target, and the thing where Aquaman cuts off his own hand to escape a manacle is very tastefully handled for a kids' show. I probably would have found that scene way too suspenseful and traumatic as a kid but I was an extremely sensitive small child. Opinions on this episode: I don't really have many. This universe's Aquaman is a *dick* who appears to live by the rule that you must always fight a superhero when you meet one on the street before explaining your business. I always squee when somebody turns out to be J'onn, because I've usually forgotten. (He usually is people and not animals or, like Odo more than once, a bag. I wonder if he has some conservation of mass thing going on or if it's just easier to animate when you keep your same basic arrangement of limbs.)

* Injustice for All, two-parter: Lex Luthor, dying of kryptonite poisoning, puts together the Injustice Gang to try to destroy the Justice League. He didn't invite the Joker, but Hulk expy and heavy hitter Solomon Grundy is also voiced by Mark Hamill, so the Joker naturally turns up around the point where Luthor captures Batman, commentating on Luthor's misguidedness in keeping Bats alive and generally providing a running peanut gallery. Clancy Brown and Mark Hamill are both always fun, so this one is pretty entertaining.

* Paradise Lost: Wonder Woman backstory-ish episode. A sorcerer turns the other Amazons to stone, then blackmails Diana into stealing four artifacts for him, which he assembles into a key to free the god Hades from Tartarus. Notable mainly for the extreme mangling of Greek mythic cosmology into an aggressively Christian shape. Not good. It does have J'onn and Flash teamed for a bit, which is interesting, and J'onn gets to one-punch a giant magic brass cobra, but that's about all there is to speak for it. It looks like the writer also did my very least favorite two-parter of the whole series, unless this is some sort of Alan Smithee situation, because the name is Joseph Kuhr and I have a half-memory I can't catch that there is *something* more than coincidence in the whole, you know. "Joe-Kuhr" thing?

* War World: Apparently this one was pretty nearly universally hated. I do not hate it, because the concept "Superman and J'onn are accidentally blown across the galaxy together and sold to an alien gladiatorial arena" is something I am 110% down for, but I wanted a lot more interaction between them and possibly a lot more fic. I can't decide if I actually want to ship them, but they're obviously very close and I want to see more than snippets of that, dammit.

That's halfway through season one. Imma go sleep. more later.

[kristallioness]

Here's a piece I started work on for pride month last June, in 2019, but left it unfinished since I was exhausted from my internship and barely had time for anything else.. And apparently, I forgot to post my notes / (short) review of "Ruins of the Empire: Part One" as well. TT_TT

BUT, I'm gonna make up for my mistake by posting them at once. I hope you like it! I really loved this trilogy (well, so much that I felt the need to draw these two gay lovebirds, as you can clearly see..). I mean, look at Korra's cute, excited face when Asami kisses her on the cheek in this panel:

She's soooo adorable and in love! (｡◕ヮ◕｡) (They both are.) This scene was practically begging for a redraw, I couldn't help myself. You can read my review under the cut.

Twitter | my art / sketches

Varrick has to schedule a date with his wife.

That subtle handholding between Korra and Asami when Zhu Li greets King Wu. I'm grinning like an idiot and my heart's bursting with joy. That's so sweet!

Please note that Mako's hand isn't in a sling anymore. Kya has done an amazing job. I'm so proud of my lesbian cloudbaby (and so is Katara).

Grandma Yin is still great, she has a portrait of Wu, too.

Wu getting nervous before breaking out in song is a relatable feeling when public speaking.

In the panel where Zhu Li takes over to answer the journalists' questions she seems so beautiful and elegant and intelligent. I love that this trope for women is represented in the Avatar world as being successful in life, especially since she's a rather quiet type of person and a.. conservatively dressing one.. and slightly nerdy-looking, if you will, but she's one badass President.

Besides Irene Koh, the previous author of the "Turf Wars" trilogy, I'd like to thank these authors for also drawing a character wearing a hijab in the background of the panel where Kuvira's war crimes are being read aloud.

I love the world map in President Zhu Li's office and the modest, but cosy interior design.

Korra looks forward to meetings with her, she's so sweet to say that.

How do Korra and Asami look so pretty in every single panel in this comic? (I'm talking about the one where Asami reminds Wu that Kuvira surrendered to Korra.)

Reading this comic reminds me how much I loved Book 4 and all the new characters like Wu and Kuvira and how much I loved this series in general. Gosh, I desperately need a rewatch, it's been 3 4 YEARS!

Aww, poor Bolin! I hope he finds his calling soon.

Korra and Asami are holding hands again, I'm squeeing.

Again.. the handholding when Korra comforts her.

Korra's freaking adorable face when Asami kisses her. I can't handle the cuteness in this panel!

"And let's not forget how she ruined my coronation!" Oh my gosh, Wu, not the best timing! Everyone's expressions / glares are hilarious.

"I promised I'd always have your back Korra. So I'm in." Mako is making me cry, that was his last line in the series. This is so nostalgic and heartwarming!

"We might be working together, but we are not teammates. If you step out of line, or do anything to harm my friends, I won't hesitate to take you down. Do we have an understanding?" This threat reminds me of Katara's talk with Zuko right after he joined them and began his redemption arc.

Republic City's silhouette / landscape is still breathtaking and beautiful.

"Let's go, Wu. It's starting to stink in here." "Sorry, I tooted." Okay, this was pretty funny.

Korra comforting Wu that the United Republic took time to iron out its political kinks. That's really cool she's talking about the history of the fifth nation and its origins. Katara must've taught her so much, being there together with Aang when it all began after all...

I freaking LOVE protective and fierce Asami defending herself and her girlfriend from Kuvira. I mean: "I'm exactly where I want to be-- protecting Korra from YOU. So whatever little game you're playing it's not going to work. You're not going to drive a wedge between me and Korra."

"I've seen what lies at the end of that path-- DEATH AND DESTRUCTION." This is such a powerful line.

Naga is growling as Commander Guan hands in his candidacy, good girl!

Korra's lit up face when she mentions Toph.

We all knew Toph was gonna come back, but we didn't know WHY and now we do and I'm excited!

All in all, I am thrilled to have read this book and to own a copy of it 'cause, exactly like with "Turf Wars", it felt like an actual episode of the series. It was just.. SO.. GOOOOD!