#really fucking good book tho

[toothpuulp]

so i just finished universal harvester (and loved it don’t get me wrong) but i’m so utterly baffled by the pull-quote on the back from the person claiming it’s the most unsettling thing they’ve read since house of leaves. it’s not even a horror novel??

[inkskinned]

this is just my opinion but i think any good media needs obsession behind it. it needs passion, the kind of passion that's no longer "gentle scented candle" and is now "oh shit the house caught on fire". it needs a creator that's biting the floorboards and gnawing the story off their skin. creators are supposed to be wild animals. they are supposed to want to tell a story with the ferocity of eating a good stone fruit while standing over the sink. the same protective, strange instinct as being 7 and making mud potions in pink teacups: you gotta get weird with it.

good media needs unhinged, googling-at-midnight kind of energy. it needs "what kind of seams are invented on this planet" energy and "im just gonna trust the audience to roll with me about this" energy. it needs one person (at least) screaming into the void with so much drive and energy that it forces the story to be real.

sometimes people are baffled when fanfic has some stunning jaw-dropping tattoo-it-on-you lines. and i'm like - well, i don't go here, but that makes sense to me. of fucking course people who have this amount of passion are going to create something good. they moved from a place of genuine love and enjoyment.

so yeah, duh! saturday cartoons have banger lines. random street art is sometimes the most precious heart-wrenching shit you've ever seen. someone singing on tiktok ends up creating your next favorite song. youtubers are giving us 5 hours of carefully researched content. all of this is the impossible equation to latestage capitalism. like, you can't force something to be good. AI cannot make it good. no amount of focus-group testing or market research. what makes a story worth listening to is that someone cares so much about telling it - through dance, art, music, whatever it takes - that they are just a little unhinged about it.

one time my friend told me he stayed up all night researching how many ways there are to peel an orange. he wrote me a poem that made me cry on public transportation. the love came through it like pith, you know? the words all came apart in my hands. it tasted like breakfast.

[gxlden-angels]

Bro I hate fundamentalists and culturally-fundie parents they'll say shit like "spare the rod spoil the child am I right haha yea my parents used to have to beat my ass with a switch almost everyday but I sure did learn my lesson" but like??? no you didn't??? you were hit multiple times for something you very obviously did not, in fact, learn

Like studies about how harmful even lightly spanking children is aside, you're literally contradicting yourself?? Some even admitted they got worse as they got older cause they wanted to see how far they could push their parents before they got punished

And studies not aside, you're gonna get child raising advice from the same book that tells you to stone your wife if her hymen doesn't break on your wedding night instead of the decades of research we have now?? Just say you're a bad parent and move on my guy. Skill issue

[salsa-di-pomodoro]

Ok but can we talk about the absolute horror of being watched and monitored 24/7 that the ancients must have had. The citizenship drones being like an Alexa that's constantly following and listening to you (except it's five pebbles and not Alexa lmao). The fucking OVERSEERS. THEY'RE CALLED THAT FOR A REASON. BECAUSE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WATCHING THEIR CITIZENS AS WELL AS THE ENVIRONMENT ALL THE TIME. (I would talk about the fact that they all show arti fucking ads as well but honestly idk what else to say about that. Capitalism got yet another society 😔). That's some fucking nightmare fuel dystopian society settings we are being hinted at. You know the Big Brother Is Watching You thing. The book. Yeah that's what it reminds me of.

The Iterator Is Watching You.

[no27-autonation-honda]

congratulations to Mme. Pascale Leclerc, who has surely just experienced both the funniest and most unhinged weekend a mother could ever have. Dear fucking christ, I hope your middlest son brought you a bottle of champagne for yourself, ma'am.

[rosesradio]

”oh boo hoo annabeth is still black in the show (even though it’s been like 2 years since the initial announcement)! wahh why can’t we just have book accurate—“

the show is badly written. the show is badly written! it just is! they replace important book moments with weird new ideas that don’t quite pan out, it’s shallow, the dialogue is weird, the characters are flat. it’s very rushed, with stakes built up to an anticlimax. it arguably doesn’t retain any of the previous themes that the books did. it’s not a good adaptation. a 12 year old black girl trying her best despite the writing she was given is not to blame. if you’re gonna complain about the show (as you should), at least do it right.

[queenerdloser]

so thinking back i haven't reread the captive prince trilogy since kings rising came out. which is wild bc it's one of my favorite series in the universe BUT also tracks bc when it exists in a subsect of my books where i know if i read it my entire personality will be subsumed. but i'm rereading them now now and my GOD what a delight. i devoured the first two in a day and remembered exactly why they were so so so so good. and i've saving kings rising bc that one changed my brain chemistry when it came out, i've never read such a tightly done, masterfully paced final book in a series to match it.

[n0heart]

.

[name-doggo]

One thing I really wish the FF Community would Stop doing is Removing All Nuance from the Parents in Those Stories in order to Make Them Abusive Supervillains who Never Loved their Kid.

Like... In the Four Years I've been here, and for how Small the Community really is, you'd be surprised how many Times I've seen it-

[vaguely-concerned]

It's really interesting that Wynne actually has quite a measured, bordering on downright sympathetic response to hearing what Jowan did in the prologue -- if the mage Warden says "I still can't believe Jowan was that stupid", her answer is something like a thoughtful "Stupid, or desperate, or merely curious?". She seems to think of Jowan as a kid who got in over his head, rather than any less charitable interpretation. I do believe she genuinely is as against blood magic as she publicly expresses and as the Circle party line demands, but as a private person she clearly has a more nuanced and potentially kinder understanding of the reasons why someone might resort to it, at the very least.

(related: when she says that part about Irving telling her what happened, there's no dialogue option in the first stage of the conversation (except choosing the 'leaving the conversation' one) that doesn't net you +2 approval! no matter how the warden feels about it, she is ready to recieve it. I think that says something sweet about how Wynne conceptualizes younger mages and the honest real affection she has for them. if you didn't snitch on jowan and say you stand by that decision, though? +3 approval, apparently! what Wynne says and what Wynne thinks is not always the same thing indeed, her idea of where personal loyalty and integrity stands vis-a-vis a mage's responsibility to the circle may be more flexible than she'd have people believe, you'll be surprised to learn lol)

I have always liked wynne and found her interesting, in all her hypocrisies and her earnest care, but with slightly older eyes she's extra fascinating to me in the same ways that Iron Bull is -- seeing someone whose mind has had hollows carved out in it by the need for double-think and compartmentalization imposed by the oppressive systems and ideologies they live under, and the quiet fight of the self to still preserve vital parts of itself that the system deems unacceptable in the hidden backstage areas of the soul, as it were. (and for both of them part of that self is love and protectiveness of specific other people, beyond what their 'role' dictates is acceptable for them.) I think Wynne has managed to sneak more of her internal self through the meatgrinder relatively intact than Bull overall, but it's the same logic underlying it, for me, and it makes me feel such intense affection and compassion for them both to see how hard they try

[atopvisenyashill]

What if asoiaf characters ended up in the world of Narnia? How would they react to the world, Aslan and Jadis?

Okay caveat i haven’t read narnia in a long time BUT all the magical characters are probably in their ELEMENT here I mean

Arya and Lucy would be besties anyway, so you know Arya is having the time of her life

Narnia is a place filled with magic and romanticism and happy endings (if sometimes with a bit of bitter laced with sweet, as the jump from childhood to adulthood always is) and I think all of that would appeal to Sansa on such a deep, fundamental level. When I tell you Sansa and Arya would have a blast!!!

Jon Snow magical girl who puts his entire arm into his prehistoric dinosaur wolf bestie's mouth for funsies would be hella excited about all the talking animals

BRAN STARK. PLS. NEED I SAY MORE HERE.

I think Robb would have a blast too and not just for magical animal reasons but him and Peter have that same "put upon eldest brother" vibe that I think Robb would thrive at being given the chance to really shine as a brother first and a king second

tbh i think the amount of prophecies might freak Dany and Theon out a bit actually - look me in the eyes and tell me Theon would not be tempted by Jadis the way Edmund is, lmao - but I think under some circumstances they could bounce back and have fun exploring the magic that exists there

I know saying Melisandre would like it here is a wild choice but I think the more fairy tale, straightforward morality would appeal to her a lot. Whether she gets obsessive about the wrong kind of magic is um, a different convo. I did make myself sad thinking about poor little slave Melisandre praying to some sort of divine power to save her and Aslan being the one to answer however so that's fun

Kind of along the same lines, in that Narnia often appeals to children who feel lost due to extreme upheaval, I think Missandei would crawl right through the wardrobe, see the lamppost, and just fall in love with the world around her. She's so smart and inquisitive and brave, I just think she'd be delighted. I think if Missandei and Dany went through together, they'd be alright <3

Actually now that I think about it, if Theon went through with the Starklings, he'd end up okay in the end too.

Kind of obsessed with the idea of little Lannister siblings all crawling through at some point or another. Cersei being unable to access the wardrobe, chalking it all up to a dream after she marries and all her dreams turn to ash. Jaime being unable to cope with having adult memories in the body of a teenager. Tyrion (shout out Peter Dinklage, hah) finding a world where his intelligence and wit is respected and growing increasingly dejected with his real life. Wow I made myself sad now.

DUNK AND EGG IN NARNIA. Egg just crawling through one day and Dunk is like now where The Fuck did this kid go and has to crouch his tall ass through that fucking wardrobe after Egg, and Egg is already running into the woods and playing in the snow and Dunk is grumbling after him. DUNK AND EGG ON A ROAD TRIP IN NARNIA. DUNK MEETING A CENTAUR. EGG BEING DISRESPECTFUL TO THE BEAVERS.

Personally I think it would be really funny if Euron came through and Peter takes one look at him and is like "alright fine give Lucy a weapon" and they unleash her on that blue lipped freak. Lucy with a gun >>>>>> Euron and his godhood magic btw

Also Quent. Poor little frog prince would love Narnia. (also, being like Fantasy Spanish with Caspian is kind of funny imo) (I can't remember if Caspian's country are also Fantasy Spaniards in the books or they just made Ben Barnes do that accent for funsies).

[mermaidsirennikita]

Rules for a Proper Governess, which is what I'm approaching as a "everything you like about Sir Philip Book but without the bullshit" novel, thus far features:

--a pickpocket heroine who steals the lawyer hero's shit, after which he chases her down to the like... basement... where she lives? Goes "bitch you live like this???", has a minor panic attack about his dead wife, and passes out

--(he wakes up and realizes she's like dragged his unconscious form so that his head is on some pillows lmao I died)

--(they make out when he wakes up)

--he does a good "get your head IN THE GAME, Sinclair!!!" @ himself, only to come home like two days later (during which she JUST. STALKS HIM.) to find that his governess has left because his children are nightmares, our heroine is there because stalking, and the kids love her

--so he's just like "FINE. YOU CAN BE GOVERNESS FOR NOW" before watching her walk away and resigning him to just. not sleeping. because boner.

Already, \this is much better.

[eightspringdays]

Just saw a TikTok complaining about fanfics that didn't have "enough dialogue" because "reading more than three sentences" was hard.

I'm not against heavy dialogue-oriented fics; they are fun, but... that's a script. You want to read a fucking script, hope you know that. A writer isn't "bad" because they are... you know, writing. Just say it isn't your thing and move on, but categorize something as "bad" because you lack the ability to fucking read... ain't the author's problem; it seems like a "you" one.

[buildoblivionthenwewilltalk]

the funny thing about atla is it’s the closest I’ve ever really come to liking something as a ‘casual fan’ yet I’m still convinced it’s one of the greatest shows ever made

[yuridovewing]

This would definitely... Bloat some things, but I still want to do it cause then it involves all four clans like it Should, but man I love the idea of each clan having their own "Power of Three" trio. Like a lot. Originally I was going to make them all descendants of the current leaders and spread the litters throughout TNP, Po3, and OotS, but that didn't quite seem right to me. There aren't a ton of descendants for me to work with to this end (especially for Blackstar, who I've decided is Darktail's dad who never has another litter in the clans). Soooo instead, I want all of them to be forbidden kits. Half clan and medic children, baby. So obviously this includes the ThunderClan three, and the other litters I'm considering are Tawnypelt's kittens (moved to be born late in Po3) who would technically be ThunderShadow kits... that or I'm changing who the other parent is. (Here comes TawnyFeather with the steel chair...? They could meet again in Outcast... owo?) and Sedgewhisker and her sisters who are apparently WindRiver kits?? Which I didn't know was a thing til now.

That just leaves the RiverClan three who I'm not totally sure on. My friend Vio suggested Icewing's first litter, which I kinda like cause that includes Beetlewhisker. Makes his fate in the Dark Forest all the more terrifying. But I'm also considering Minnowtail and her siblings (reviving her brother Tumblekit). I do not remember if those guys have confirmed dads but if they do, uhhhhhhhh. Well they aren't their dads anymore. Officially halfclan now.

[meat-loving-meat]

one of my dear wonderful treasured friends confided in me that he didn’t really enjoy ender’s game so I IMMEDIATELY started composing a reading order/rec list in my mind of all the books that I’ve read that I think would maximize someone’s enjoyment of ender’s game. So far I’m at:

• The Bible

• Songmaster

• The entire Imperial Radch series

• Barbie as Rapunzel (not a book but very important anyway)

• Ender’s Game->Speaker for the Dead->Xenocide->Ender’s Shadow

• Ender’s Game again

• Songmaster again

• The Left Hand of Darkness

• The Girl-Thing Who Went Out For Sushi

• Ender’s Game one final time