#pretty great in terms of character development and story pacing

[lynxgriffin]

How would you rank the Kingdom Hearts games by how much you enjoyed them?

Okay, just going by the ones I have actually played, so this does not include every game that is out right now. But for all the ones I played, from best to worst:

Birth By Sleep - This one just feels perfectly balanced to me in terms of gameplay, Disney worlds featured, and story. Fun to fight in, great story, Command Board kicks ass.

Kingdom Hearts II - I was so excited to play this that I blazed through the whole game in about a day or two, and then have replayed it multiple times. My fav Disney movie gets a world here, Drive Forms are great, and the whole endgame is well paced and solid.

Kingdom Hearts - Feels the most coherent in terms of story and tone, really does feel special and set apart from the rest of the series. That said, it lacks some of the gameplay improvements and the camera can be a huge pain.

Dream Drop Distance - Story can be hit or miss (I feel like the endgame is a bit of a mess) but once I got the hang of Flowmotion it was legit fun to bounce around the worlds, Fantasia world was a huge fav, and I absolutely went to the trouble to max out all my Dream Eaters.

Kingdom Hearts III - Really good gameplay through most of it, with some parts where getting around the world felt a bit tedious (looking at you, Frozen). Felt a bit spoiled for choice in gameplay abilities to the point where it's hard to work out what to do, and the endgame's pacing is a hot mess. (I have not played the DLC.)

Chain of Memories - Very interesting story stuff that basically kickstarted the fandom into overdrive with the Organization's introduction, loved the Mickey and Riku interaction...but the card-based battle system is kind of a nightmare. I basically wrecked my thumbs on some boss battles playing on the GBA. That said, once I learned proper deck building in Re:CoM, gameplay improved a lot for me...even if it is still pretty samey.

358/2 Days and Re:Coded are basically tied for opposite reasons: Days has good and interesting character development, super crap gameplay, and no new Disney worlds. I hated Leechgrave so much. Re:Coded was the opposite: bizarre story that really didn't go anywhere, feels like Maleficent and Pete were just shoved over here, but I actually got pretty engaged doing the command building and item collection for this game.

[phantasmiafxndom]

Out of all the animes you’ve watch what ones are your favorites

...you know what, you get the serious answer. I used to track my anime watching, so out of the 450+ completed ones on my list, here are some of my top recommendations! (In terms of quality, more so than what I've spent the most time dwelling on.)

. . .

One Piece — I haven't technically watched all of this one, but after falling back into the fandom after an 8-ish year break, I really can't understate the quality. One Piece's story is amazing, and I'm consistently impressed by the author's characters/worldbuilding.

Dominion Tank Police (1988) — I have FEELINGS about the villain in this one... Overall, 80s sci-fi vibes mix with themes of ethical responsibility and societal peacekeeping, and the "don't you just want to go apeshit? :)" protagonist (who's also extremely aromantic-coded) is a hilarious, yet wonderfully earnest little menace!

Kyousougiga — I've been rewatching this one recently, and the sheer detail in every scene is STUNNING. I keep having to pause to mentally scream about the symbolism, and tbh, knowing the plot from my original watch is only improving the experience.

Tekkon Kinkreet — This one's a movie, not a series, but SKLJKHS IT HAUNTS ME. Absolutely chilling, by the time the big plot twists roll around... Beyond that, the overall aesthetic/vibe is impeccable, and the exaggerated, messy art style only adds to that.

Kemonozume — Monster/human forbidden romance with stunning art and a great soundtrack. The plot started out a bit confusing, but all of the scattered story elements came together nicely in the end!

The Tatami Galaxy — The "get your shit together and start enjoying your life" anime. It's plenty good as just a story, but I got some excellent life lessons out of it too. Solid mix of comedy, drama, and charismatic-yet-extremely-bizarre characters interacting.

Monster — Excellent slow-paced, psychological horror packed with ethical dilemmas, traumatic backstories, and so many Extremely Depressed Men. In other words, there's a very good reason why Johan Liebert used to end up on so many "best anime villains" lists.

Paranoia Agent — I have nothing but praise for Satoshi Kon's work, in general, and Paranoia Agent has been my favorite of the ones I've seen so far. Compared to his movies, it really benefits from the extra space for plot development, and the big emotional twist hits hard.

Revolutionary Girl Utena — A true classic. <3 There are enough tumblr essays about this tragic yuri masterpiece that I won't go into detail myself, but yes, it's every bit as good as you've heard.

Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail — The entire Black Lagoon series is excellent, but Roberta is my special girl. Unfortunately, the OAV adaption compresses the manga's version of her arc pretty heavily (and the altered ending is kind of dumb), but I still have to recommend it. Babygirl's breakdown is a REAL mess kjshghs

Claymore — Excellent pseudo-medieval fantasy with badass female characters, lots of body horror, and top-tier monster design. The manga is MUCH better than the anime after a certain point, however.

Kuuchuu Buranko — An episodic series about an eccentric psychiatrist interacting with his troubled patients. The mixed-media animation style and bizarre characters are what sold it for me, along with the exploration of mental health through storytelling tropes.

Cannon Fodder — An artistic short movie that's twenty minutes of aesthetic experience and fascinating worldbuilding implications. I love the vibe, and the "one, long horizontal frame" style is neat.

Flowers of Evil — The art style. The VIBES. The whole thing is incredibly eerie and off-putting, with a plot that's pretty much: "congrats! two shitty teenagers are tearing each other's lives apart!".

[vikenticomeshome]

Cyberchase Character Discussion (for your local Cyberchase trivia quiz) - #3: Jackie

Here we go again. I've made this style of post about Inez and Matt, and now it's Jackie's turn.

#3: Jackie

Let's start with her bio from "Meet the Cybersquad". Again, this almost 25 years old now, so who knows how much of it is still canon.

So, we get our introduction to Jackie. She's smart, funny, has a plan, and is over-the-top. Yeah, that's accurate so far.

For some reason, this page was not in her original bio when they released it in 2001. They went back and added this page later in 2002. This is the only bio that I have seen that had content added like this. This page lets us know that her favorite color is yellow, and she loves tofu burgers. I don't know if the show has confirmed that she is a vegetarian or vegan. She is shown to care about animals, so I wouldn't be surprised if she was canonically a vegetarian.

Her favorite book is one that I hadn't heard about until now: "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech. In this story, the 13 year old protagonist, Salamanca (Sal) Hiddle, goes on a cross-country road-trip to visit her mother. There are themes of coming to term with loss and building new relationships. It makes me wonder if, at some point in development, the show-runners might have been interested in giving Jackie a tragic loss similar loss to Sal. I haven't seen the later seasons where they bring in the kid's families, but I don't believe they have gone that route so far.

For her favorite music, we get two bands: Destiny's Child and NSYNC. These are very much a product of the time. Destiny's Child actually disbanded in 2006, as the members went off to do solo work. NSYNC disbanded in 2002, and then reunited in 2023. Well, we know that Jackie loves her R&B and Pop music, so I'm sure she found other bands to follow since then.

Her favorite movie is Shrek, which only came out in 2001. Matt and Inez have definitely sent her all the memes that have come out about that movie since then. Her pet peeves are bugs and anything messy. Yeah, that still tracks. She has a "Wheaton Terrier" named Brandy. I don't know if the spelling has changed over the years, or if they just made a spelling mistake in her bio, but I have only seen it spelled as "Wheaten".

Jackie also gets a bio from Nelvana, which is pretty cool. I've only been able to find surviving archives of bios for her and Matt. They have sections for Inez, Dr. Marbles, Motherboard, The Hacker, Buzz, and Delete. However, all of those are left empty in the surviving archives of the pages. I don't know if bios were completed for those other characters.

We get emphasis on the point of Jackie being organized. We also get more insight into how she solves problems. She uses diagrams, charts, and graphs among other things. She also touched on her tendency to use initials as shorthand for things. I remember the Blue Bunny Place (B.B.P) from "Of All The Luck". Was she hip in 2002? Is she still hip now? I'm not qualified to say.

We also get an introduction to Jackie through the official prequel web comic, "How It All Started: Episode 3". We see Jackie making her own skirt out of strips of fabric. I assume it is for cheer-leading.

Narration: Meanwhile, on Earth, three kids who don't know each other are about to have the adventure of their lives.

Jackie: I gotta organize this stuff

Narration: meet Jackie, who has her own sense of style...

Narration: And her own way of doing things!

Here's Jackie's Official Cyberchase Trading Card.

When they picked her favorite line as "Make room! I gotta pace!", they probably picked her most iconic line. She loves video games, piano, and foreign languages, which is great. We do get to see her play an unnamed videogame during Season 1 Episode 25 "A Battle of Equals". The hero "San Man" is trying to save the environment by stopping the villains that are trying to pollute it. One villain is called Johnny Grime. There are number riddles, and they are the same sort of riddles that the kids solve during the episode.

I don't think we ever see her playing piano or speaking a second language on the show. Quick question: What are those shoes that she wears? Inez has a pair or blue boots. Matt has a pair of red and white sneakers. Jackie's shoes are a little harder to place. They are purple, and they have considerable heels. Were these meant to be high-tops? I don't know that I've seen high-tops with heels in that size before.

The big thing that people remember Jackie for are her dramatic outbursts. And her most iconic one is probably from Season 3 Episode 4 "A Piece of the Action". You can tell that someone in the animation department had fun with this one.

Here's a transcript.

Jackie: Great! Now we'll never get into Hacker's control center. And if we can't get in there we can't stop Hacker. And if we can't stop Hacker, he'll erase Motherboard's memory with the magnetite! Cyberspace is doomed! Doomed I tell you! Doo-hoo-hoo-hoomed!

Matt: And the award for best dramatic outburst of today goes to Jackie!

Jackie: Matt!

What else can I say about Jackie. Well, she has an amazing tolerance for cold weather. Even in Arctic Cybersites, she still made do with the same short skirt.

Anyway, here's the prototype for Jackie. She had a completely different hairstyle and outfit. She was also called Julie. Again, I consider her current design an upgrade from the prototype.

And here's the Who's Who document on her.

We get more discussion on Jackie being a gymnast and artist. She loves Instant Messaging. I guess that would have been AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) at the time.

[xiaolanhua]

So here are my thoughts about In Blossom!

This post may have some spoilers!

I finished watching it yesterday and decided to make a post about my opinions while the drama is still fresh in my mind.

So, the drama made me interested from beginning till the end and overall it's great! It's nothing really revolutionary in terms of plot/story (historical dramas tend to have some similar stories) but it delivered what was promised: mystery, romance, investigation, a bit of thriller with amazing shots and gorgeous costumes!

About the leads:

Liu Xue Yi as the male lead really raised the level of this drama. His performance was one of my favorite things while watching it and i'm so grateful to whoever casted him as the lead because he deserves it (enough with playing the bad guy who never gets his happy ending or the girl 🥲).

At first, I was a little bit concerned about watching because I wasn't a fan of Ju Jing Yi's acting from the dramas I've watched with her but after finishing this one I think she made a solid performance (it's not the best one but definitely her best one yet) and it didn't compromised the drama at all. I've seeing a bunch of not so nice comments towards her specially because people were not happy with the actress "swapping" and although I think the "original" Yang Cai Wei did a great job I'm still satisfied with how things turned out and I like both "Cai Wei".

About the main couple:

For me, it's really poetic how Pan Yue loved Cai Wei since childhood, got to reunite with her after 10 years from being apart of each other, to think he finally married her and then "she" dies on the eve of the wedding, and how he goes insane about her death that get white strokes on his hair and goes on a mission to know who is behind her murder WHILE Cai Wei it's alive by his side but with the face of someone he despises (Shangguan Zhi) and when they start to work together on the cases, they begin to be close to each other and he hates himself for developing feelings for Shangguan Zhi thinking he's betraying Cai Wei's memory. It get's even better because he's falling in love again as she's behaving like the Cai Wei he knows so he get's even more confused and watching all of this was a delight!

They had chemistry, their scenes were fun, interesting, tender and sometimes even hot so it's a win for me actually.

About the second couple (SPOILER!!!!):

Their interactions were pretty cute and they had chemistry but it's a shame what happened to them, specially with Lan Jiang (he deserved better). I always felt that they were a "doomed" couple and I'm sad that I was right about it, my heart hurts for them both as the characters themselves and the ship that didn't sail.

About the cases and the story:

Another thing i liked about this drama is how the cases were introduced, they were directly or indirectly related to the main "mystery" and every case were solved so they didn't left any loose ends. Some dramas of this genre tend to abruptly solve the cases and they end up not adding much to the narrative so I'm glad this were not the case here.

The pacing of the drama was pretty good but I do feel like the last two episodes were a bit rushed. We can't have it all, can't we?

The ending was good as expected (not for some characters I would say) but still good. SPOILER!!! I liked that the cliffhanger did not affected the characters so it could have a second season if the producers wanted but it's not necessarily needed (My Journey to You can't relate).

Overall, it was a pleasant watch so I rate 8.9 out of 10. It's not perfect but I would totally recommend!

[sylvyspritii]

RWBY ramble

(EDIT: I originally wanted to make a very small post about RWBY but i accidentally kept typing because i have feelings okay) Okay listen i only have ONE really strong RWBY opinion okay? Ironwood in volume 7 was a totally different character than Ironwood in volume 8, the writers completely ruined his character, and his turn in volume 8 was totally out of character and unbelieveable They ruined the most interesting morally grey character in the series to get a clear black and white conflict, and in my opinion, it was a waste of potential, especially for the long-term story To be honest i could go on and on about how volume 8 ruined RWBY for me (EDIT: i did) I was one of those fans that came in RWBY really late, i remember it really well, it was around 2019/2020-ish, i watched the first 2 volumes as a joke because i heard how "cringe" it was, and i legitemately found the first 2 volumes to be pretty bad, aside from the fight scene animations, but i kept watching for some reason Then when i got to volume 3, well, holy fucking shit??? Like, it went from "i'm watching this ironically to see how bad it is" to "WAIT THIS IS ACTUALLY KINDA GOOD THO?!?!?!" VERY quickly, like wow, volume 3 actually really impressed me Volume 4 was a bit slower paced, but i think it's really great that they took more time to develop the lore and backstory of the world beyond Beacon Volume 5 and 6 were "alright" to me, but it's volume 7 where things REALLY started to click for me, the stakes were higher than ever, we got awesome returning characters, familiar faces in the direst of times, combined with more spotlight for characters that needed more fleshing out, and pretty decent new characters, combined with the REALLY GOOD rising tension of the looming threat, i fucking loved volume 7, and Ironwood was a HUGE part of what made volume 7 so memorable, having that kind of morally gray "i'll do what's right at all costs" kind of character with trust issues was exactly what the happy go lucky gang of the main cast of RWBY needed to balance things out, but its his genuine trust and willingness to believe the main cast that makes his downfall all the more sad, Ironwood sacrifices so much in order to help everyone, including the main cast, even promoting them to huntresses, which has been a huge goal for them since the start of the series, and yet, in volume 8, it feels like the Ironwood from volume 7 becomes a different person in the span of the gap between the two seasons, it's ridicolous, all the nuance was removed Yes, i am still disappointed about this years later, not particularly because of Ironwood specifically (altough i do admit i liked him a lot because he was such a good balance for the main cast to make things more mature and nuanced instead of black and white), but because of the downfall of my expectations when it came to the quality of the writing since volume 3 took my heart by storm (positive), it felt like my journey with RWBY was such a rollercoaster, it was like, "this is cringe let's keep going as a joke" to "I GENUINLY CARE ABOUT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU AND THIS WORLD AND IT KEEPS GETTING BETTER HOLY SHIT" to "...they ruined everything", i have yet to watch volume 9, but my expectations are very low because of volume 8

[animehouse-moe]

Dandadan Volume 7: Moe! Moe! Tri-Beam!

Yukinobu Tatsu really does have such a winning formula with Dandadan. Every twist and turn is incredibly interesting, and their narrative work plays right into the palm of their artistic talent. Volume 7 is an outstanding example of that thanks to how little fighting exists within the volume.

This volume is really all about Momo and Okarun- though like previously slower paced segments- mostly Okarun. And it works really well (unsurprisingly). Okarun takes center stage but it's through other characters.

He's able to stand front and center because of his relationship with Momo, or the second fiddle he believes himself to play to Jiji, or whatever else. Ultimately though, our eyes always gravitate to the depressed speed demon.

Though, Tatsu does do a pretty good job of ensuring that readers are forced to look elsewhere, what with things like a heavy metal exorcist band or a group of classical musician ghosts with impossibly large heads.

It's really great work, and perfectly represents the impressive synergy of Tatsu's written and visual work. Story blends effortlessly with the absurd visual identity of the story, and that happens both with the extreme and the mundane.

The easiest example of the simple work is Tatsu's incredible character blocking. Their awareness of depth and motion within panels is incredible, and it gives so many of the sequences an impressive amount of life.

Tatsu is able to create an impeccable flow that takes even the simple things like Okarun taking Jiji to the bathroom into a fun and interesting sequence.

Though, this has largely focused on Tatsu's visual work, but the narrative capabilities of Dandadan really aren't anything to scoff at. Tatsu's able to perfectly grasp the sort of nondescript and fearful approach teens take to relationships- both in terms of new developments as well as breakdowns.

On the plus side for example, we see Okarun and Momo's relationship grow a considerable degree as they look for the same thing in one another, but neither has the confidence to take the next step. They silently creep forward, hoping to not incur the wrath of a label upon their bond- and I think it's really fun to read. There's plenty of uncertainty and awkwardness with the pair, but their passion and feelings still come through quite clear.

On the flip side, we have Okarun and Jiji, a pair that's had a... tense, friendship so far. Okarun has mostly gotten past his struggles of inadequacy with Jiji, but they ultimately still linger- evidenced by his reaction to the Evil Eye laying hands directly on Momo. It's nothing so serious, but ultimately represents the challenges of that sort of relationship.

Jiji feels isolated and regretful for what he did, but he can't find the words for either Momo or Okarun. Similarly, Okarun understands that he's overreacted, but he can't quite bring himself to face Jiji (and by extension the Evil Eye) just yet.

In a sense, Yukinobu Tatsu has come a very long way from the beginnings of Dandadan, it's just been a path with very little relation to their visual work.

Tatsu set themselves apart with the ridiculous nature of their work (much like their previous employer Tatsuki Fujimoto did with Chainsaw Man), but has been steadily proving that they have far more to offer than that.

The series remains as crazy as ever, but having confidence in the foundation of Dandadan, Tatsu has been exploring more and more of the sincerity and depth at the core of this work, and it's made for some great reading as of late.

[wondereads]

Review of The Absinthe Underground by Jamie Pacton

Summary

Sybil and Esme are best friends, roommates, and maybe a little bit more. They are also poster thieves, though Esme only reluctantly plays lookout. One night, they are caught by Maeve, the owner of the Absinthe Underground, the premier nightclub in the 1920s-inspired city of Severon, and she offers them a deal; the funds to do anything they want with their lives in exchange for stealing the jewels of the Moonshadow Queen, Mab. And who could resist such an offer?

Plot 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Unfortunately, the plot of this book, while it boasts an intriguing presence and beautiful setting, is very rushed and never really takes the time to build tension. Throughout the book, Sybil and Esme must steal three items to then help them steal Mab's jewels. There's a lot of potential for each of these heists to be a clever, hair-raising scenes, but each of them lasts maybe five pages each. While Sybil is portrayed as a daredevil poster thief, she definitely doesn't have the skill set for these high security heists, and Esme absolutely doesn't. They get through these situations far too easily, and it causes the tension to fall flat.

The worlds of Severon and Fae are very aesthetically pleasing, and there's nothing really major excluded in terms of worldbuilding. However, there are some questions I just generally wish were answered, like some things concerning Sybil's family and what the actual power of the jewels is; if there is anything.

Characters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The characters are definitely the saving grace of this story. Esme and Sybil have greatly distinctive personalities and pretty decent development. Esme in particular learns to stand up for herself, and their relationship, even just platonically, grows a lot. Despite the lack of plot tension, there is good romantic tension, and the romance is very cute. It was probably the most enjoyable part of the book for me.

There is also a good side romance and some good side characters, but I will say that there are some side characters that really aren't well developed. Their personalities are flat, and their motivations seem to be curated just for the main characters to have aid in their quest.

Writing Style 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

I'd say the writing for this book is pretty average for a YA novel. The descriptions of Severon really hit that 1920s, art noveau aesthetic, and, like I mentioned, there are quite a few scenes with some good romantic tension. Unfortunately, there is a general issue with telling instead of showing, especially concerning the main characters' thought process. There are many times when the characters explicitly explain why they think something or their reasoning for doing something instead of trusting the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Also, as I discussed in the plot section, the pacing is way too fast in this book. I don't often say this about a book, but it needs an extra 100 pages or so. The story would benefit so much from being taken more slowly, getting more spread out, especially the individual heists.

Overall 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed by this book. It has a great premise, the aesthetics really come through, and it's got a cute sapphic romance. The execution falls short with just the lack of space for the story. Things happen far too quickly when there are many scenes that really need space to breathe. It affects the tension and doesn't give much room for the side characters to show their personalities. The writing tends to tell instead of show, which may contribute to the rushed nature of this book. This book could have been quite good, but it ends up being somewhat mediocre.

The Author

Jamie Pacton: American, also wrote The Vermilion Emporium and The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly

The Reviewer

Hi, I'm Rose, this is my blog, Wondereads, and I review, discuss, and recommend books! You can check out my pinned post for more info :)

[alexissara]

I Don't Know Which One is Love Volume 1 Review

Note - This Manga currently has not been officially translated, you should bother Manga companies to release Volume 1 then buy it if you end up liking it too.

So this is a manga I saw on Pixiv randomly browsing Yuri and then I had to find scanslations cuz this art featured above made me think, "Poly lesbians, I'm in". It didn't end up being that but a lesbian Harem manga which has potential to go into the Polyamarous route, I hope it does but for Volume 1, I accept a bit of monogamy brain. Plus it's by the creator of Cheery Amnesia which is the series that helped me start to deal with my fear of memory loss and just a story I love a lot.

The story starts off by showing a bit of lesbian reality, the protagonist getting rejected by her long term crush in high school when she finds out she got a boyfriend. Her dreams and heart crushed she is determined to get a girlfriend as she enters college. 5 women meet her each of which instantly start to fall for her. Some are more blunt while others are more subdued, we get a look at each in their own chapter with chapter 1 and chapter 6 being chapters where we get to see a higher amount of the girls and even a little bit of the interaction. There is a flow between the girls in her new college life and it moves smoothly.

Romance here is very fast pace, our protagonist is in love instantly and most the women are falling for her instantly and falling deeper the most they hang out. So far we haven't gone super super deep into any character but we have seen some interiority for each of the 5 women. I really enjoy the blazing hot pace and much prefer it to slow burn and this is a thing that really makes this series stand out to me. The first volume ending with someone asking her to be her girlfriend and then another girl walking into the room.

I think this story really shows a cute sense of humor, gags are mostly in over the top reactions and great facial reactions but it's solid for a story that is trying to keep a fast pace, it doesn't need big jokes. The art style is very cute but not in a way that makes the horniness creepy, everyone is clearly an adult and drawn like them. As of chapter 7 the horny doesn't turn into sex and it is mostly people desiring other people. I like that each girl represents on of the 5 senses in their desire for Mei [our protag], it's a cute way to short hand a difference in attraction. It's rare to get a bigger look into desire and it is something most harems totally fail to do.

This story features Student/Teacher relationships as one of the 5 relationships. While it doesn't bother me at all when their both adults and as of this volume because of the power dynamics she actively choses to not go further with the student, yet. I know this is a very potentially triggering subject so I think anyone going in should know, hey if you don't like this, it's there maybe skip this one. I should also warn that there is a character who is not really following consentful boundaries, our protagonist likes it and is pretty happy about it but still this is also potentially upsetting.

Personally I really loved this manga and I really want to see more of it, I hope it's successful. I have worries about a potential forced "I can only have one GF" route as a polyam as fuck girl I can't relate to that. What I can relate to is a bunch of girls being in love with me and me loving them back. I really hope to see more of that going forward but this volume served as a perfect introduction to the characters an world and I hope we can see these loves all develop and bloom.

5/5 Stars

[bookwyrminspiration]

what’s kotlc and is it better than the great library? i read the latter and it was fun, perhaps not the height of literature but fun

OKAY! Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger is a long, ongoing middle-grade fantasy series following Sophie Foster, a 12-year-old high school senior who can read thoughts following a bump to the head at age 5--or so she thinks, until she's approached by a cute stranger who reveals she's really an elf who's been hidden away.

She's whisked away to a secret, supposedly perfect world of elves, goblins, ogres, and more. Sophie wants nothing more than to be normal, and tries to fit in--go to school, play with friends, etc.--but all her abnormalities have followed her from the human world. She's still weird, and it turns out it might be the result of bigger forces working behind the scenes. Forces she needs to uncover to learn who and what she truly is--but there's no taking it back, and plunging into the underbelly of her supposedly "perfect" new world opens a seemingly never-ending rabbit hole to try and understand and save it from itself. Full of rebellions, corruption, mysterious notes, stuffed animals, a large cast of characters, and so. many. sparkles. there's a lot going on for Sophie to discover

I think tgl and kotlc are hard to directly compare. tgl has a lot of explicit found family, fast-paced action, and is, like you said, just genuinely fun to read. it's quick, speaks to booklovers, and embraces a variety of different moral stances in a way that distinctly characterizes everyone. but it does falter in terms of consistency, and there are several contradicting details throughout it. kotlc is more structurally sound, but it is meant for a younger audience--which is not to say it's bad, but that it does impact reading. There are some cliches, such as experiment children, excessively powerful ocs, a love triangle, etc. It also has a fairly developed and explored world on several fronts, though there are some gaps. It does, however, want for diversity and representation. There are few non-white characters, few disabled characters, and no acknowledgement of queerness so far--though given recent releases it's possible that last part will change.

While kotlc is a special interest of mine and I'm quite attached to it, I don't necessarily recommend it to people outside the middle-grade age range. It's a solid series despite its flaws, but that doesn't mean you'll be head over heels; if you read it, I think it would be similar to how tgl was fun but not the height of literature. It's enjoyable and there are a wealth of characters to get attached to, compelling plotlines/character pasts, but unless you really click it'll just be a solid, time-filling read.

The series has also had a rough few years recently; the author has a lot going on in her personal life--which is totally fine, it just means there are long waiting periods currently. And not everyone thinks its worth it, because the story is going an unexpected direction and there are some creative choices made not everyone likes (too much focus on the love triangle, deposing the main character, butchering character arcs last minute, etc.).

All this to say kotlc has radically altered the course of my life and is an incredibly dear series to me, and I will be keeping up with it and blogging about it until the end of time with anyone who wants to join, but it's also not my favorite series I've ever read, if that distinction makes sense. If you do want some simple, if long, reading--go for it! We're always excited to have new people around and would love to have you. There's actually a pretty consistent, if small, fandom and a lot of art, fic, and other things to explore. But we'd also all understand without any pushing if it's not for you.

That was longer than I meant it to be, but if you have any further questions please do ask :)--and again, this is my view on it! Just my opinions and assessments

[alectology-archive]

a day of fallen night final thoughts below the cut, but to summarise I think this is a book people can enjoy easily but it didn’t really do anything particularly great for me in terms of the themes it was dealing with (although I do feel very positively about it’s scathing criticisms of monarchical systems of power especially when they wield power in alliance with the fantasy!church. also that climate fiction is always delicious to read about). spoilers include the ending and partly the general character arcs.

thoughts on the technical aspects of the book:

having finished the book I still strongly believe that the pacing of the story progressed at break-neck speed and left no room for the characters to breathe. I do think this is specifically an issue with the editors involved with this book because all of her other books have never given me the same impression and samantha has repeatedly mentioned that her editors trimmed a lot of words from tpotot and adofn. male writers get to keep nonsensical bits of useless exposition; she should’ve been allowed to throw in a couple more thousand words to let the characters breathe and develop and feel. not that it necessarily means that the manuscript didn’t need to shed some weight, but you know what I mean. the scenes also cut off pretty abruptly sometimes to shift POVs which is well. not good.

… speaking of which a lot of scenes that we build up to take place off-screen despite having a lot of emotional and narrative significance (for instance we learn off-screen that wulf spent 9 months in the priory and also that he was easily convinced that cleolind really defeated the nameless one). this happens multiple times, and made for a very frustrating reading experience - I think dumai’s storyline particularly suffers from this.

I never really felt my heart leap in my chest the way it did multiple times while reading priory and tbs - her writing style involves making her characters face a continuous stream of conflicts that seem insurmountable which is kind of what really drew me to her books in the beginning. I suspect this might be because I kind of have a sense for her writing patterns now that lets me predict her style of storytelling.

I think glorian’s storyline should have started around the time preceding/following sabran vi’s death because I really tired of her POVs before that - it just didn’t have any plot significance. I also admittedly don’t care for reading about characters who’re in their teenhood any more.

with dumai’s storyline, the story seemed to promise court intrigue but failed to really deliver on it. samantha’s also pretty good at writing flawed antagonists but none of them landed well for me in this book.

adofn also seemed to feature a lot of Telling rather than Showing, but this might also be a personal issue because I prefer books to be a lot more subtle with their character development and themes. this was not really the case when I was 16, so I’m not sure if I’ve just become more critical of her work (it’s probably just that).

I think samantha isn’t very good at writing Nice Male Characters. I say this fondly. I love that she excels at writing terrible men, though. jaxon tbs sucks! I love him.

we spend more time with training sequences than we seem to with scenes with conflict between the protagonists and antagonists which is kind of a shame.

this is a very vague criticism and people might not agree, but I also did get the impression that samantha had a hard time letting women just be… horrible in this book. really morally questionable in a significant way. this was not a problem she had in priory. I do think it’s interesting to really deconstruct the concept of a witch in the woods and instead present her as a person who seeks to protect the land, but it also seemed to… contradict kalyba’s pre-established characterisation? like she retconned her background while working on this book? just…. let women be horrible lol. nikeya also wasn’t nearly half as devious as the narrative tried to convince us she was.

she often clarifies how a certain character is queer sometimes in ways I don’t necessarily like (this is specifically referring to the point about how I’ve gradually grown to appreciate more subtlety in books recently). in nona the ninth, we learn that camilla hect has two dads and tamsyn muir never descends into discussing the minutiae the way samantha does.

while the climate and balance element of the magic system was dealt with a lot of nuance a lot of the antagonists lacked the depth that the magic system had with a bunch of conflicts being painted as black and white scenarios (it doesn’t really turn out that way at the end of the book, but you do spend most of the book with certain assumptions that are only countered in the very last chapters of the book. it doesn’t make for an fun reading experience).

kediko onjenyu should have waged a war against the priory. prince guma and robart ellar should have been allowed to mount a more formidable political opposition to glorian. the river lord and nikeya shoild have done more politicking. there was a lot of opportunity for more politicking that was wasted as empty threats.

I was personally a little annoyed that religion played such a heavy role in every single POV we got, but it’s fine, it’s not a big deal. I love examinations of religions in text, but I also don’t enjoy stories that have a high density of religious characters because I don’t like the touch of false belief that religion infuses into the narration of the characters who keep strong faith.

While her writing style was really the one I first remember falling in love with, I do think you could tell when certain sections of the book were better edited and went through more rewrites. it’s fine! she cares a lot about writing as a craft and that’s all I really expect from an author. it didn’t particularly wow me this time, although I continue to love her usage of metaphors.

thoughts on thematic coherence:

the single most frustrating narrative was the very unsatisfactory conclusion to siyu’s storyline - it ended with the narrative seemingly concluding that she needed to properly submit to the suffocating structure of the priory that caused her severe psychological and emotional distress ie it ignored the family as a tool of oppression. I’m not saying the criticism was entirely absent - the narrative is pretty sympathetic to her and generally indicates that she was treated very cruelly - but that criticism is negated when it’s ignored in the latter half of the series. why would you do this to her! I’m glad she was allowed to go to inys at the end of the book, but the conversation where tunuva and esbar apologised to her should have taken place, and it never did. ead’s storyline did focus more on the need for reform in the priory, but I don’t recall if it really dealt with the questions siyu’s storyline was posing.

^^^ speaking of which I do think it’s weird to reaffirm the need for siyu to integrate into a system that has hurt her when samantha specifically writes with the intent to critique the concept of family and marriage. she needed to do some more retrospection in that department, I think :/ also I’m probably making it sound worse than it really is, but the resolution was still Not Great.

the reproductive burden that women face in continuing bloodlines and its significance in monarchies particularly was dealt with excellently, as was the mechanisms through which the institutions of power that they were a part of played a role in the dehumanisation of women and in denying them any real autonomy over their bodies.

samantha’s personal struggles with mental health also give her an informed view on depression and I could Relate. excellently done, no notes, I did mark the quotes so I’ll hunt them down and post them later.

the individual endings presented to us in the epilogue were all pretty great though! I always love her endings - particularly, the touch of tragedy she infuses into them always makes them very satisfying.

[magicalyaku]

August felt soo long. At first, it was great with my vacation and a successful convention and great books and then reality came crashing back in with developments at work that left me reeling for a bit. I'm bad with change. /D Anyway, on to the books! I had a lot of train time this month, so there's quite a few.

Slippery Creatures, Subtle Blood, The Sugared Game (The Will Darling Adventures 1-3) (KJ Charles): Ooh, these took me by surprise! I read two of the author's other books last month and needed something light and easy for my train trips. These were so much more delightful than I expected. I read all 3 of them within five days. Fun! Adventure! Intrigue! Characters I actually like! No really, I loved Will and his attitude. Sure, he has kind of a short temper and resorts to violence quickly, but … everyone deserved it! (And it's just a book.) This is my fantasy, you know. Actually spitting people in their face when they annoy me. Actually telling them off no matter the consequences. Hah. I guess, this is why I like this sort of character. (The Tarot Sequence's Brand and All for the Game's Andrew come to mind … Interestingly, just like Kim in here their partners are lying little shit's as well. And seen from that angle, Laurent and Damen of Captive Prince fit that category as well. I'm starting to see patterns in what I like to read. :'D) So anyway, I had a lot of fun reading this series! <3

Lose you to find me (Erik J. Brown): I have things to say. 8D First of all, yes, it's cute. It made me smile when my day was shit and while the characters had their annoying phases I'm glad it turned out how it did in the end. Before reading, though, I was so disappointed it was just a contempory romance. After All that's left in the world with it's postapocalyptic but not too outlandish setting I was hoping I'd get more of that "a little different". Yeah, didn't work out, but the pain eased a little because the book was nice actually and we reconciled for real with author's afterword. And to be fair, usually, I'm all in when authors do different things with each book instead of writing the same all over again, so I have to give him credit for this. But there's still one more thing I have to mention. Why is there no content warning for SEVERED BODY PARTS?! Like what the hell seriously. I'm not squeamish usually but one of my coworkers cut off a part of his finger permanently at the beginning of the year, so this was waaay too real to me. A warning would have been appreciated. /D

Prince in Disguise (Perilous Courts 2) (Tavia Lark): More stuff that's easy to read. I liked the first volume better because the stakes were higher but it was still pretty okay. I definitely like how close these volumes are in timeline and story while still being separate adventures. I wish Whisper's mission in this would have had a little more impact but well, it is what it is. (I think I just like Whisper more than Bell or Rakos 8D). Also new mascot animal. Cute! I wonder if there'll be one in volume 3 as well … 8D

Afterglow (Golden Boys 2) (Phil Stamper): After Lose you to find me I was in the mood for more contemporary YA and as it turns out the themes in this one are similar. High school graduation, college applications, self-discovery. It also felt very American to me. As a European reading books like this is always like a cultural study. :'D I think, what I liked most about Golden Boys was its quiet tone. It had its dramatic moments but, at least in my memory overall, it was more calm and understated and while I love my adventure stories reading something nice and calm was a good change of pace. And the sequel takes it even one step further. While there's anxiety towards the future it's never the kind of overwhelming where I have to squeeze my eyes shut and take a moment to calm my nerves before I can continue reading. 8D In terms of content this works because it's a sequel and we already know everyone and their previous struggles. I have a lot of respect for the writing process. Juggling four boys and the timeline? Ugh. And yeah, I liked the book and the paths the boys take. All these different perspectives on life. It's not just another "where's the next party" and "oh he doesn't like me what should i do" but focusses on the characters and their indivual worries and their friendship. It's nice and it's warm. :)

Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston (Esme Symes-Smith): Well … I wish I liked this better than I did. The story is fine, the characters are fine (in comparison to the next book below they a stellar), the themes are important and I can see what it wants to do and most of it it does pretty well, but … Yes, in order to overthrow a system you first need to establish it. But the first third of the book was hard to get through as the world Callie steps into is very rigid in its rules surrounding gender and stuff and it's making Callie hurt, angry and defensive and even though I knew it would eventually lead to a better place, it was making me angry as well and I get angry easily everytime I step outside, I don't really need that in my books. It gets better once the kids actually meet for real and spend more time with each other. But there's the other part that I didn't like: There's something jarring about the writing style. Like bumps on a smooth road - the more bumps we ride over the more annoying they get. It happened most noticably with distances and the passage of time. The hole that Callie's mother left in her heart took years to grow over, but never fully healed. But they've only been away from said mother for two years. When Callie confronts Peran, Papa draws them backwards, Neal steps between them, yet Peran's face is so close, they can see coloured specks in his irises. He's also way taller than them, so how does that work? At one point I wondered if the author might have less visual imagination power than I do because all the descriptions of distances around the castle, the town, the bridge and the forest just felt jumbled to me. (Or maybe I was just not reading well.) Last example: Callie and Edwyn circle around the dragon and attack their back with swords and it's said in a single simple sentence like it's nothing. But that dragon must be huge, because their face is as large as a human, and also it was flying a few minutes earlier and directly afterwards it's said how there's fire all around them. But yeah, apparently that swing was super easy to do, so one sentence is enough to say it happened. It just felt weird and it happened so often. And I feel bad for picking at a book for kids with a good cause but damn. All these things are so easy to make better and more coherent. :I

The Last Fallen Moon (Gifted Clans 2) (Graci Kim): Ugh, I don't know, this might be the first middle grade book I read where I'd say "I'm too old for this." Not really a fan of the humor and the attempted quirkiness, the pop culture references (and how it basically says that all (Korean?) celebrities are witches which I find actually offensive. Pretty sure none of the kids reading these books will have any magical abilities, so they won't ever make it to stardom or what no matter how hard they try? Hmm.) It was also hard to be patient when things are so obvious and still get treated like a big revelation pages after (The Stairbucks toilets?!) And the characters felt so bland to me. I couldn't tell you a single interesting thing about any of them. Things got better towards the end, when everything starts to fall into place instead of being a string of small tasks that can never be completed because there's suddenly some new issue. The two things I liked are that Riley gains a brother rather than a love interest (or a brother who is a love interest … 8D) and that her sister has an active part this time. Will I read the next installment? …. Probably not?

Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett): Oops, something totally different in here for once. I like theatre, but liking in this case means, that I know all plays by Eugene Ionesco and Oscar Wilde, topped with a singular Wedekind and this one. :'D I'm terribly picky and not actively seeking out new stuff. But the Theatre of the Absurd especially has a way with words and weird situations that I always found fascinating. I read Godot a long time ago and went to see it on stage a couple of years ago but when I thought of it recently I realised I didn't remember anything so I reread it and well … I understood why my memory failed. I don't know if I'd actually call the piece good. It's weird, it's weirdly sad and therefore it's weirdly endearing. But most of all it's a giant "what the fuck is going on". It made me think of all that "Is our life a simulation"-crap since Estragon seems to be the only one capable of remembering previous events. But I'm not going to try to think about what it all could mean as it will lead nowhere anyway. :'D

Dark Rise (C.S. Pacat): The sequel is coming in November so I thought it time to refresh my memory! I own the English edition but went and borrowed the German edition from the library for all the things I might have missed and because it's interesting to read the translation vs. the original. I remember having a blast reading this for the first time (I think this was the first time for me writing something book-related on my blog because it was just too wild to contain 8D). And now, knowing the twists and turns it was delicious to look for the foreshadowing (and the twists and turns were delicious as well like hnng!!). And now waiting for the next volume is even harder. Damn!

For September I have planned something nice! Please look forward to it!

[moviemunchies]

WHAT

There is absolutely NO REASON that a sequel to a movie from over a decade ago, which itself was a spin-off of the Shrek movies, should be THIS GOOD, and yet…???

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish goes like this: Puss in Boots, the outlaw hero, is happy to celebrate his skillz and invincibility after once again winning. However, he gets killed in the ensuing revelry. Not a problem! He’s a cat, after all, and he’s got nine lives. Except it turns out that right now he’s on his last life after blowing through his previous eight, and after a close brush with a seemingly invincible enemy, he decides to lay low and give up the life of an adventurer. Until he hears about a quest for the Wishing Star, which will grant a wish to whoever claims it. Puss plans to use the Star to get his lives back. But he’s far from the only one who is after the Wishing Star: along with his old flame Kitty Softpaws, Big Jack Horner, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears are after it for their own reasons.

Also, he’s joined by a therapy dog.

Like many others, I had absolutely no intention of seeing this film when the trailer was released online. I have seen only the first Shrek all the way through (though I have seen lots of the second and third one on TV), and never seen the first Puss in Boots. Dreamworks also hasn’t been at the top of its game in the past few years. Look, How to Train Your Dragon 3 wasn’t *bad* but it was also lacking in that spark, in part because the whole ‘The thing you liked about this series has to go away now’ was a running theme in animated movies for a couple of years and it was old. I didn’t bother with The Boss Baby. I hadn’t seen The Bad Guys but it didn’t particularly interest me, though it seemed like it did fine enough. I saw this one getting good reviews and was confused, but moved on. It wasn’t until I kept seeing rave reviews, and people I knew telling me it was fantastic, that I said, “Okay, let me look into this.”

What. The actual fudge.

This is one of the best things I’ve seen from Dreamworks. This movie is an absolute triumph. This is, in fact, astonishing in its storybook imagery animation, its thrilling action sequences, its complex character development, and dark themes. It’s amazing.

The Shrek spin-off did a story about a hero coming to terms with his own mortality.

[throws up hands in confused but impressed gestures]

HOW???

Aiding this movie is its amazing animation. In the days when Disney has sort of settled on an animation style in their CGI films, and yet is still dominating the market, it’s really cool to see a movie that is playing with how animation. The style of this movie is meant to look much more like the art you’d find in a storybook. It reminds me (and I’m far from the only one to remark this) of Into the Spider-Verse in that it’s trying to copy a specific type of artwork, and there are interesting little tidbits that are really cool if you pay close attention. Puss’s sword has a little impact mark when it hits against other blades, for instance. It feels as if someone has taken colorful pieces of concept art and brought them to life, and given how much I love concept art, I very much enjoyed this animation style.

Building on that animation point: the action scenes in this film are top-notch? The final duel between Puss and the Wolf is one of the best sword fight scenes I’ve seen in years, especially out of a new movie. Many movies don’t seem to know or care how to do a great, fast-paced sword fight, and it’s rare to see it in an animated movie either. This movie somehow managed it. In fact just about ALL the fight scenes are fantastic to watch, with the sheer amount of energy they have in them.

The performances in the film are pretty great? Antonio Banderas is playing a cartoon cat, and yet he still manages to imbue him with a lot of character? Not only is Puss in Boots an arrogant braggart at the beginning of the story, but he’s forcibly humbled, and he goes through the wringer, and Banderas’s performance reflects that pretty well. When Puss is having panic attacks at the sound of the Wolf’s creepy whistle, it’s surprisingly effective how much you feel his terror.

I also don’t think that a couple of the other performers sounded like themselves? That sounds like a dumb thing to say, but with celebrity voice actors, they’re sometimes directed to just talk into the microphone without doing anything with their voices. But I didn’t find that Kitty Softpaws sounded too much like normal Salma Hayek or that Goldilocks sounded much like Florence Pugh. Then again, I’m not overly familiar with their voices so maybe I’m wrong on that count.

That being said, I ‘ve see quite a lot of people claiming that John Mulaney’s turn as the villain Big Jack Horner was especially amazing, and while he does well, and he makes an entertaining villain, I didn’t find his work to be something particularly incredible. I wasn’t blown out of the water by his performance, is all I’m saying.

Also this movie’s hilarious. I haven’t emphasized that enough, but it is a really funny movie. Some of the humor in the film was surprisingly dark? I know that animated films sometimes can have dark humor, but there’s a lot of it here, and most of it lands. The humor fits the tone of the movie, I suppose, but it threw me off how many of the gags in the film involved things like murder and casual violence.

I fully expected Dreamworks to crank out a cookie-cutter sequel, and I should have known better. When Dreamworks is trying, really trying, they knock it out of the park. They probably knew they had to if they wanted to release a sequel to a movie from over a decade ago and make it land with audiences. It would probably have been better had I seen the previous Shrek and Puss in Boots movies, but it’s not strictly necessary, as this entry has enough explanation of past events that you won’t need it.

[missgryffin]

Hi missgryffin! Firstly I’m such a huge fan and avid reader of your works, especially ES which is an absolutely beautiful story! I know you’re taking some time rewriting etc to update to your current style and I obsess over every snippet haha. My question is, after publishing work how do you feel like a story is finished to your liking? I know I struggle with feeling like things I produce are ever properly finished and I can only assume rewrites on ES is such a massive undertaking, what prompted you to revisit the older chapters? Secondary to that, would you ever consider putting the old version up along with the new one? Obviously it’s your artistic choice and you’re rewriting for a reason but I personally would be so interested to read and compare the two, especially because I adore your snippets and it’s crazy to think you could upgrade a story I already love so much haha. I hope that’s not overstepping! I wouldn’t want to offend! Anyway, I love you’re writing and I hope you have a great day!

Hey! Ahh thank you so much!! 🥰 Under the cut for length 🫶

Oh this is such a good question and honestly there's no easy answer. In the short term, whether a chapter/story feels finished really is just a feeling. I've become more of a plotter over the years, so I am better about knowing what needs to happen to close the arcs of the story and have it feel resolved. (Or, if it's just a chapter, have it feel like it's propelling the story forwards.) Also, when I'm first starting a fic, I have a pretty good idea of the mood and imagery I'm wanting to evoke with that story. (And I love making moodboards for myself for this purpose.) So something I look for when I'm rereading what I've written is whether what I see when I read matches what I'd imagined in my head.

In the long term, I think a sense of completion comes from time. The wonderful thing about fic is that you can always update works if you catch a mistake or spot something you want to fix. (I usually find at least one small thing I could change every time I reread something of mine, lol.) But whether it's "finished to your liking" is really a measure of, when you reread it a year or two later, are you still happy with it? And where you're at in your writing journey (/how much your writing may have improved or changed over time) will bear on that.

For example, when I reread for the hope of it all earlier this summer, I found some typo mistakes and edited some phrasing here and there, but it really did feel like I was just doing a proofread with fresh eyes. The story itself felt complete; I didn't want to change a thing, and I was so proud reading it.

By contrast, when I reread Eternal Summer earlier this year, the document became unrecognizable from how much I marked it up. Once, that draft felt complete to me, but this time (two years later), I felt like I was reading an early draft I'd outgrown. For one, ES was written in past tense, and I've now been writing almost exclusively in present tense. For another, I felt like I'd crammed too much into my chapters, resulting in scenes feeling rushed or overlooked simply from the sheer volume of stuff happening. I wanted to tease certain things out more and pace things differently so that everything got its ~moment~. In the first go-around, I had veered significantly off my original outline as a reaction to reader feedback/pressure at the time, which resulted in me getting myself very, very stuck. This time, the experience of writing these characters for 2+ straight years allowed me to think about the plot and the character development more holistically. I have a better understanding of how to "show not tell" in terms of relevant backstory and Jily's respective head spaces. I took prior times where readers were confused into account, and I knew how I could address/resolve them in the new narrative. I still very much loved the ES world and the plot I'd created—and there were so many scenes I felt so proud of (and many I'd forgotten that I loved!) —but the overall feeling was, I can elevate this story. I can tell this better. Knowing I wanted to continue ES into the rest of their seventh year and beyond, I simply couldn't continue writing without addressing all these thoughts I had about it. (And believe me, I tried 😅)

As for whether I'd put up the old version with the new one…I haven't thought about it much, but my initial reaction is leaning no. Idk, I'm open to hearing thoughts on it, and it's a ways away anyway. I just don't want people getting confused by what's "true" and what's not anymore if they're looking at the old version.

[bthump]

hi! I love your analyses, I've been reading a lot of them as preparation for a fanfic I'm writing (lol) focusing on griffguts and casca, and though this is a unrelated, what do you think of the entire black dogs/wyald arc? i'm.. of the personal opinion that it should be ignored entirely, even as a new berserk fan, i felt it added nothing in terms of character development, except making guts a little more dislikeable pre-eclipse, and torturing casca more. the only cool scene was the reveal that wyald was a weak old man.. but honestly i overall pretend it doesn't exist

(I also think the anime adaptations did a good job when they adapted it out entirely. I dunno, pacing wise I liked it more. there's no epic fights, no pillaging villages because of them, just the band of the falcon, desperate and lonely, running away from Wyndham)

Thank you very much!

Honestly I think I have a minority opinion in that I think the Wyald sequence is significant and, aside from the gratuitous sexual assault ofc, I actually like it. Though I do think the adaptations were correct to get rid of it, pacing-wise.

The main reason I think it's valuable is in showing Guts' "dream" in action - he wants to fight stronger and stronger enemies, well, here he is doing it. And it makes Casca cry, it nearly kills him, Zodd's still the one who ultimately takes Wyald out and saves Griffith, and Guts behaves as though he's driven by a personal vendetta when he fights Wyald, holding a grudge over Zodd and, subtextually, lashing out because of his rape trauma. "No matter what, I've gotta settle the score with him... with them... by my own sword."

Like it definitely makes Guts less likeable, but I think that's important, to show that it's not just the Eclipse that drives him in the Black Swordsman arc - it's something deeper than that, that the Eclipse just added more anger to. And also to further show that his year long vacation of dream pursual wasn't that great either, and didn't make him a better person. We've already seen hints of that with his philosophical speech to Casca after which she screams at him for only caring about his sword, and honestly I think the cocky attitude he displays at the tournament we see is a little reminiscent of the Black Swordsman arc - much less dark, much happier, but he's still a dick in some similar ways that we didn't see during the rest of the Golden Age, in a way that feels transitional - and which is underlined during the Wyald fight.

Also the flashback to Godo's where Erika suggests he just wants to fight Zodd again after Guts nearly kills himself with his training exercize and she's like 'you're gonna die my dude.' I'm a little salty that both adaptations cut that actually because I think it's one of the most important character notes for Guts. (The anime essentially wrote in the exact opposite of this scene in their cliche training montage lol, and I think that's my single most hated creative decision in the anime.)

And on top of that, I also think it's significant for Griffith - both Wyald's dressing down (which the anime preserves, thankfully) and his sense of isolation and worthlessness when he can't do anything to help the Hawks, or even comfort Casca.

And tonally I think it works pretty well to lead into the Eclipse. The Eclipse coming out of nowhere works better, imo, when you don't have the entire Black Swordsman arc hanging over the Golden Age's head. You can play it as a shocking turn in an adaptation where we've never seen a sacrifice and don't already know what happened to turn Griffith into Femto. But after the BS arc, and especially after Count Slug's scene, I feel like it just works better to sort of slowly reintroduce that kind of more extreme dark fantasy to the story, and build up to the Eclipse with Wyald saying he has business with Griff soon, begging Griff to call the Godhand, Zodd telling Griff the behelit will return, etc. After the BS arc it gives the late Golden Age a very 'oh shit here it comes' vibe, which I personally love lol.

Anyway yeah, I absolutely get why people don't like it and I think that's totally fair - it's kind of weird to have a 10 chapter long big monster fight interlude between the rescue and the Eclipse, Wyald is obnoxious as hell, the aforementioned gratuitous assault and really shitty mistreatment of Casca by the narrative, etc. But overall I'm still into it lol.

Thanks for the ask, and good luck with your fanfic, hope you have fun writing it!

[ryansjane]

hi axelle! do you have recent or currently airing BLs to recommend? I'm bored LOL

hi :) yes I do! I've honestly been enjoying the latest bl batch so much tbh, like it's not incredible but I'm having a great time! in order from my fave to my slightly less fave (I also included shows that stopped airing less 2 months ago):

be my favorite: it's no secret that I'm HOOKED to this show already! it really has the potential to become a favorite of mine if it plays its cards right bc I love the premise of someone disatisfied with their life traveling time to make it better, as I find it highly relatable. I also love the characters already and I think the writing & pace of the show is extremely well done so far :) episodes watched: 2/10. grade so far: 8,5/10.

bokura no shokutaku: I started this show with zero expectation & we all know that's how you get the best surprises. and yup this show has stolen my heart entirely. I literally spent the last episode clutching my chest while smiling like an idiot, it's such a wholesome, feel good show while also working through the characters' traumas & the ship is SO good! I absolutely love it :) episodes watched: 9/10. grade so far: 8,5/10.

la pluie: idk the general opinion of this show & I don't wanna know (unless it's my followers, share away babes!) but I really like it. I think the characters are very lovable, especially the brothers saengtai & saengtien, I think the acting is good, the plot is simple yet interesting & makes you want to watch more, the chemistry is very good as well, and some of the themes of the show about love, soulmates & breaking up are definitely worth exploring. overall it's also a show I look forward to every week :) episodes watched: 6/12. grade so far: 8/10.

a boss and a babe: a show I did not plan on ever watching, but I'm so glad I did! even though it's a pretty simple show &, yes, is still definitely an hr violation lmao, I really liked it. it really shows that you can make a basic show so much more interesting by developing all of its characters including its side characters, touching on their mental health & other traumas well. you can tell the writers really cared about their characters & it made for a surprisingly healthy & heartfelt show. definitely hope to see more bl shows like this one in the near future :) episodes watched: 12/12. grade: 8/10

step by step: even though this is a basic show, I also really like its writing. all of its characters are treated with care & developed well, even when it means not rushing the main relationship which might make the show boring for some. I really appreciated that the last relationship of the main character is developed so well too, it's rare to see a bl show build up the secondary lead that much, even having him kiss the main character before the main lead. it also feels more like a show about a queer relationship than a bl show to me. so while, yes, it's not perfect, and it's also definitely another hr violation lol, I am enjoying it. I wish all bl shows put in this much care into their story & characters, bc it really adds something. episodes watched: 7/12. grade so far: 8/10

love mate: I wanted to include some korean bl lol, this one was really cute & the chemistry was frankly perhaps the best I've been coming from a kbl. it's short & sweet, nothing too out of this world but I would recommend it :) episodes watched: 8/8. grade: 8/10

house of stars: lastly, this will be my controversial pick bc from what I've seen people don't like this show, and I don't love it either, but I'm kinda fascinated by it so I needed to include it. there is a lot in this show that I would change, yet I am so intrigued by its main character gun lol, I'm lowkey obsessed with him, and I am so intrigued as to how the love triangle will resolve. I don't expect it to become better with time, but I think this show stands out insanely from other bls & contrarily to what the trailer let us think it's not nearly as exploitative in terms of sex as I thought. just bc of all of that, I would honestly recommend it if you're looking for something messy, mysterious & that will probably let you down in the end lol. if you're watching it come tell me what u think of it in my asks so we can try to make sense of this show! episodes watched: 6/12. grade so far: 7,5/10

xxx

[okeydrama]

every drama i’ve seen so far pt.4

my roommate is a gumiho

3/5

i love her

the chemistry between her and both male leads was so good

the main romance was so well organized and we had so many domestic scenes which i loved

the fantasy element was not as flushed out as i would like

there were a few things that seemed convenient/rushed/nonsensical

those things didn’t take away from my enjoyment though

i loved how lighthearted it was

the second lead was acted really well and i found myself liking the two of them together because of the angst he brought (the way he watched her 😩)

this was actually funny at times

i like how goofy it was

the secondary couple was really good because they brought a rare romantic dynamic

the way scenery/settings were shot well and it was generally aesthetically pleasing

i think this was solid overall but also not very memorable so not an all time favorite but extremely good and worth the watch

descendants of the sun

3/5

the male lead is hilarious

the bromance was hilarious

this was the first drama of this kind that i have watched

the plot was well developed

i liked how much of a subplot the romance was

the secondary couple once again was enjoyable to watch

i think there was too much drama for me and it was slow at times

i might have watched it too quickly because it wasn’t very memorable once again

squid game

4/5

omg i got the hype

i have a lot of complaints but overall it is closer to good than bad for me

first and foremost the unique settings and costuming makes this drama so memorable and vivid and have its own impact

the characters were well flushed out and i believed their motivations/actions/turmoil

introduced me to hoyeon <3

the casting was 10/10

i loved that we got different challenges every episode

the deaths all had an impact

things i didn’t like was the cheap ‘plot twist’

i also didn’t think this plot was particularly unique in concept but very unique and interesting in execution

the cop and his antics were not satisfying at the end which bothered me

the end in general bothered me

hometown cha cha

3/5

this couple was so god damn cute

this story was almost perfect

the almost is because of how annoying the last two episodes were

i don’t like when the couple goes through a third act conflict for absolutely no reason

once they get together it was boring af for two episodes of unnecessary drama

the townspeople were so cute and didn’t detract from the story for me

i love the small town vibes

there was no need for the secondary lead in terms of the romance but i do like the jealousy he pulled out of the male lead

once again cute but not too memorable (i’m not completely a fan of slice of life)

all of us are dead

5/5

omg omg omg

served what it needed to

this was beautifully executed start to finish

was on the edge of my seat and engaged the entire time

the settings, characters, plot all worked

the side romances were still dynamic and engaging which i loved

the betrayals and twists and characterizations were excellent

talented team all around and a great drama

extraordinary attorney woo

4/5

i loved this lollll

the different case per episode format was great

the cartoons that came in randomly were so cute and fun

i think it is a pretty good interpretation of an autistic person but i‘m not on the spectrum so i can’t really say

the romance was so cute and there was just enough in the drama

i loved the side characters like a lot

the friendships were just as important as the romance which i loved

the dad was so cute

the star removed are because of a few issues i had with the pacing and the random things said that i’m going to blame on cultural differences/mistranslation

user not found (web drama)

4/5

this was such a random watch and my first web drama

this was cute overall and it did what it needed to which was entertain me

it took a while to get used to the format and acting and stuff but i think it is typical of a web drama so it didn’t bother me

the friendship between the female lead and the other girl with her same name was so cute and fresh

the romances were basic but i still liked them lol

i was interested from start to finish so that was great

that’s the update! i’ll take recommendations in the comments if you have any