#s&b rant

[monarchteen]

i just saw a post that told me that if i started vibing, id enjoy s2 of s&b and i wholeheartedly agree

but i just cant get over it- because they tried to do it so accurately in the first season that now that they're onto the second season, that's what people expected

had they gone in from the get go and said "this shit is going to be nothing like the books," i'd be so chill about it but i was expecting it to be accurate to the books as well so i'm just shaken up

but it's the slowness of s1 compared to "well, we might not get greenlit so let's just get lit"-ness of s2, it's jarring and that's why i didn't like it

if they do end up getting greenlit, i feel like i'll just vibe because i know what to expect and even if they do butcher the characters, i can always go back to source material and vibe there, but right now, im a little mad

just a little

[irishmammonagenda]

Belphie blinks at you in greeting as you slide under the covers with him, only humming gently when you hold onto him for dear life. Dark indigo eyes noticing with interest that you haven't even started getting ready for RAD yet---not that he was one to talk---the Avatar of Sloth merely gives you a lazy smirk and wraps his tail around you under the covers as you whisper a strangled out, 'hide me'.

He nods slowly, his throat feeling much too heavy, and he himself feeling much too lazy to use his words. A pale hand pulls the covers over your head, just in time too, as Lucifer bursts into the room, ruby red eyes shining like a wolf on the hunt.

"Have you seen MC?" The eldest asks, paying no mind to the usual sound of morning chaos coming from the rest of the house.

Belphie lets out a strangled, lazy, "Nope." all the while his tail tightens around you.

Lucifer shakes his head. Looking at the you shaped lump under the covers. Merely pinching the bridge of his hooked nose and sighing, "MC. If you wanted a break from RAD, you could've just asked instead of opting to hide."

You pop out from under the covers, eyes wide like a deer in headlights, Belphegor's arms wrap around you from under the covers, his eyes sleepily tracing the features of your face as you speak.

"Right.....yeah. Sorry Luci?" You tilt your head, the Avatar of Pride's eyes soften a fraction.

"Be sure to catch up on your schoolwork, we only have room for one academic failure in this house and I'm afraid that spot has permanently been reserved for Mammon." Lucifer says sternly, though you can see the faintest upward quirk of his lips.

"Aye aye Captain." You nod, sleepily saluting the eldest.

"Belphegor."

Belphie turns to look at his eldest brother.

"Just because MC has a day off school, it doesn't mean you have one. Your uniform's hanging up by your desk." The ebony-haired demon walks out of the room.

"...Diavolo fucking dammit."

[biherbalwitch]

one thing I love about wesper (besides being uhaul gays in both book & show) is that they have a healthy, beautiful relationship with communication & support in times of conflict (perhaps the healthiest in this damn universe) while also being questionable/morally grey people who are literally part of a gang bc often in media queer relationships are either tragic, one of them is toxic OR they're perfect benevolent people with 0 flaws and yeah sure those are required ofc but I like the idea of queer characters getting to be a lil bad, be gay do crime, and deserve a good & happy love life all the same especially since Jesper is bi and I can count on one hand how many bisexual characters got to be in a nice stable relationship peacefully

[mournersandfunerals]

The thing is, I can forgive a lot of it. The scene where Kaz tries to help Inej with her wounds? I guess it was a nice nod to the CK scene, if slightly too soon. The "I will have you without Armour?" Fine. We all wanted to see that anyway. Rushing Wesper into a relationship rather than keeping as the slow-burn from the books? Okay. I really loved them on screen despite that. Kaz beating up the dregs? Definitely could have done without it for obvious reasons, but whatever. I can brush it off.

But the two things that are really grating on me are Kaz's face-off with Pekka Rollins and Inej leaving to hunt slavers. Because the POINT of these things happening towards the end of the second book is that there's a build up.

These characters go through so much. We learn everything about them, we see their struggles and we root for them. We spend SO much time learning about Kaz's thirst for revenge. We see moments where he starts to lose it when it comes to Pekka, and slowly start to learn why. And at the climax of Crooked Kingdom, there's so much on the line. We finally see him snap. There's a build up there of something that he's spent his entire life and two whole books working towards.

The first season of Shadow and Bone consisted of 8 episodes. So we can estimate that the crows had probably less than 4 hours of screen time. And we learned nothing about them, really. They were the mysterious trio that were hired to steal something. And then suddenly S2E1's "Brick by brick" turns into the peak of Kaz's character arc. It takes away the impact and the reasoning behind it.

And the same for Inej. Where is the journey? Where's the trauma that was inflicted by a woman who was truly evil? When we see Inej running into Tante Heleen for the first time in the duology, she freezes. She can't do anything. Are you telling me that the same girl who is so terrified of this woman can face her without a problem?

Again, there's so much of a development here as well. Inej has this realisation and this epiphany about what she wants to do. She wants to hunt down these slavers. She wants to make sure that nobody goes through the same stuff that she did. And when she sees Heleen after that, it's when she slowly starts to lose power over Inej. I mean, she steals the necklace straight from her neck, for crying out loud. Erasing Inej's trauma from S1 was a problem but they dug themselves in a deeper hole by killing off Heleen. She can't go through the journey that she's supposed to. Her entire character arc was just completely erased.

And the thing is, in the duology, Inej still goes through even more hell before she can get free from her indenture. The Ice Court Heist, Van Eck's torture, Dunyasha, etc. And yet... she's free before the start of the heist?

The heist is an important job for each crow. They all have a reason for being there, and they all have something on the line. None of them really think they're going to survive it, but they're trying anyway because, at this point, what do they really have to lose? And for Inej, this is her chance to get the money to leave the barrel. So... are you telling me that she's going to willingly come back to help on a life-threatening job for freedom that she no longer needs? What's going to happen with Kaz now that he's already had that stand-off?

Would love to know because right now I'm as lost as the rest of the book fans.

[a-mymble-that-mumbles]

This might be a completely unpopular opinion (and it also might be wrong because it’s been A MINUTE, to say the least) but I hate the shadow and bone Netflix series. Hate it. Despise it. I remember watching half of the first episode and internally dying. They did the books so wrong.

Unfortunately just the mixing of the plot lines wasn’t the main issue for me.

They ruined Nina.

I have nothing against the actress who played Nina, not her portrayal if she was a stand-alone character in the Netflix series, apart from the books.

But Nina is MY GIRL. She’s not a flower she’s every blossom in the forest blooming at once. She is a tidal wave. She is overwhelming. She likes food. She loves waffles. She’s a flirt. She’s big, she’s loud, she isn’t proper.

When I was a youngling reading SOC for the first time, I read about Nina and felt okay for the first time in a while. Maybe the first time in my life. Because you could be beautiful and big. You could be graceful in battle but not when you’re plummeting. You can suck at the delicate art of tailoring.

You can say ‘I do not want to see that bird’ when someone says ‘You’re light as a feather’ without the stab in the heart.

I love Nina Zenik so much, I feel like she doesn’t get enough love in the fandom. And then again, I haven’t been active in the fandom for very long. I may be completely off-pace here.

But I love Nina Zenik, and I wanted to see my happy, shameless, loud and provocative girl on screen.

[brynnewithane]

9S2B is my Roman Empire and here's why.

Spoilers! English is not my first language and this is the first time I rant about something in English so bear with me.

During Chapter 15, on top of the Soul Box, 9S proceeds to hack into the yellow core and gets sent into his virtual space. There, he encounters "2B" and her data, aka, the memories. 9S explodes as he witnesses her destroying those data one by one. He strikes her down and repeatedly stabs her in the chest, claiming the memories are his.

1:21: These belong to me and me alone!

Now, some might argue that 9S is just losing it, that it was a result of his infection with the Logic Virus, as well as his hatred for 2B after learning the whole truth, etc...

But let us not forget that this is the work of Yoko Taro - a guy who is famously known for his unconventional scriptwriting style with multi-layered characters that are flawed, morally ambiguous, and driven by their own desires and fears.

9S's rage in this scene grows not simply from his hatred for 2B, but it is also from his belief that she is destroying his memories; his memories of her.

In addition, "These belong to me and me alone!" in original Japanese, he actually uses the phrase 「これは僕の宝物だ」 which translates to “They are my treasures.”

1:45, 9S said:これは僕の宝物だ。

He refers to those memories as his treasures, and he hates her for she destroys his memories of her.

The intricate love-hate dynamic that exists within 9S towards 2B is something that forever lives in my head rent-free and I'm completely fine with it! Thank you Yoko Taro for bringing a masterpiece into this gaming industry!

That is the end of my Tedtalk. Thank you for reading.

[halohalona]

BTW I finally watched the re-animated series last night with my friend. And I love how they address a lot of stuff about boundaries but come on. That one episode with Dae, are they just allergic to addressing Addison's flaws? Her being pushy I agree is a flaw of hers but she still brought up the whole "I'm an outsider because I have white hair" thing. I was, not gonna lie, fully expecting Dae to be like: Well it's different with me. I do love the fact that bucky was right in the episode. I just feel like addison needs more growth to her character.

[that-sweet-thief]

just finished binge-watching season 2 of shadow and bone. my thoughts are mostly in disarray but the cringe is real.

this was an off-paced, haphazard fanfiction. it'd be just fine if the writers weren't paid for it but they actually are, so it's just... wow. I'm at best mediocre when writing in english and i reckon even i would do a better job of writing dialogue.

anyway, here's a list of my thoughts on the show, though it's more of a word vomit than a comprehensive series review:

no ivan or fedyor. immediate downvote for that alone. ivan should've survived so we could have a heartbreaking moment between him and fedyor across the two sides of the battlefield. i guess they thought there were too many characters and couples to juggle already. or maybe the actors weren't available, who knows.

costume design took a surprising turn for the worse: for example, nina's and zoya's dresses were eyesores. how anyone could make these two very attractive women look that frumpy i've no idea but they've managed. i liked sankta neyar's costume, sturmhond's coat aaand that's about it.

the settings were more varied, so glad we've seen a little of bhez ju. the introductory map-to-location shots were very helpful for people who haven't read the books, namely my gf who fell asleep halfway through the show. also, if the music had any tracks that weren't already from the first season i'll be incredibly surprised, it's that repetitive.

they've messed up nikolai as a character mainly because the actor misunderstood his assignment, though i don't know what else he could've done with the mess he was given. while he's still sympathetic, lovely and witty, paddy's nikolai thinks of sturmhond as just another disguise, rather than who he really is, to the point of gifting said disguise to mal. that's irreconcilable with my understanding of nikolai, whose real mask is the bastard prince.

tamar & tolya were better realised than expected. along with the exclusion of the soldat sol cult, their zealotry's scrapped which is a big win for them. i enjoyed their scenes, great casting too. though, as an ardent kanej fan, i cannot in good conscience support the blink-and-you'll-miss-it tolya/inej moment. tamar/nadia had maybe a minute of screen time but better than nothing.

sankta neyar was a pleasant surprise, great idea to show how powerful durasts can also be. people often disregard materialki so this was refreshing. what i liked about her is how formal, collected, old-fashioned she both appeared and acted, as if her manners and speech style were leftover from a few centuries ago, kudos to her actor tuyen do.

the crows' arc was... lacking in some way. maybe it's because pekka rollins' attitude towards kaz and his group is very different than how it was established in the books, here he was way too proactive and less secure in his position in ketterdam for some reason; anyway rollins' framing of the crows felt off to me.

the crows' character dynamics are interesting and the saving grace of the show, all kanej and wesper scenes were great. seriously, the tension of kanej & cuteness of wesper nearly destroyed me.

they did helnik dirty, of course, but that was a given.

freddy carter outperformed everyone this season, i really think out of all of them he's given the best performance, sometimes even better than ben barnes and that's practically heresy coming from me, his devoted fan since ages ago when i first saw narnia.

i kinda dig that they brought in a tidemaker (fruszi) who's practically an early version of zoya for the darkling's side but her death felt cheap. i mean, the crows arriving to help out nikolai and his team at the very last second was already eye roll inducing, but then nikolai shoots her in the neck? cheap. also, if she and zoya came to face off that'd be interesting since they share so many similarities. i personally don't think it will but if the series continued along with the darkling's canon resurrection, i wish she'd lived and replaced elizaveta, she certainly seemed devoted enough.

david and genya made me cry. that's all i have to say on them.

baghra... where do i even start with her? baghra's nonchalance, her one-eighty about deciding to help alina find more amplifiers is stark raving bonkers imho. yet at least most of her scenes weren't as bad as they could've been, her proving to mal he was the firebird and her saving genya as well as alina actually came across better than the ultra passive, constantly berating version in the books. her death felt less dramatic but more spiteful, though aleksander's reaction to her death was appropriately heartbreaking. ben & zoe sold it so well, my eyes actually welled up.

speaking of sasha, his death is soooo badly executed, it's impossible not to be pissed off at the way they filmed it. even the books were more sympathetic to his demise and alina herself showed much more empathy for him at the end. it's genuinely disturbing how they framed it, makes alina seem more like a villain than the reluctant hero she used to be. i guess it fits with the surprise ending: how she kinda becomes what she sought to destroy, poetic irony and all, but still...

aleksander's whole arc this season makes him seem more desperate and pathetic and so, less of a tyrant: he doesn't even take control of the country or more than a small group of grisha let alone become tsar, instead the apparat rules over ravka on behalf of the lantsovs till nikolai is coronated. he and his people constantly lose to some clever last minute thwarting by alina's allies. the only thing scary about him is the nichevo'ya, the shadow monsters, which in the books are entirely under his control and that of course makes it all the more terrifying. here though, sick and tired and dying, he's merely desperate and fearful. the lack of wins on aleksandr's part really defeats the purpose of the writers' continuous attempts at making him simply the most terrible, horrifying and supreme villain of gregverse.

nope, can't get over it, aleksander practically died in her arms in the books, here she just looks down at him like she's the villain. i guess she now is. oh and mal's retort to sasha about dying in her arms was somehow a foreshadowing, see, but sasha doesn't get that because he's evil, see? gosh, so patronising.

since they've constantly emphasised this season how it was the fold's and thus sasha's fault that grisha were persecuted (not that this explains the ceaseless mistreatment, endangerment and more often death that grisha face everywhere they go, of course, nor does it explain his backstory) i gathered they'd go for a retcon but i didn't imagine they'd exonerate baghra, the apparat and tie the border wars with shu han and fjerda to the fold's existence entirely. the reason the war broke out in the first place was because those countries' fundamental approach to grisha was to kill them or worse. that is what grisha persecution meant. and now... what, the war is over, just like that? i have no words.

also, the exclusion of the "don't let me be alone" line. now that I think about it, those writers should be fed to nichevo'ya.

alina, alina, alina... sure, she's a self-insert, so her motivations don't make sense anyway, but as sweet as jessie is and how hard she tries, show!alina is now an equally awful mess as book!alina. the two things i liked about her this season were her manipulation attempt through the tether and the ending where she goes a bit darkling. the latter, i really like. i wrote a fragment of a power reversal fic before but never put it up, might just do that now.

i'll admit: it's rather funny how mal dumps alina after losing his amplification because he doesn't feel the same way anymore. he doesn't know if it was him being an amplifier that made them love one another. see how easily he turns away from alina? if i were aleksander, I'd be laughing at her from the grave.

[rqg179]

if you're producing a show that has a specific subject or theme that might involve a lot of specific vocab, such as a sci fi or fantasy (or, say, dnd, which is what i'm annoyed about specifically), whoever is writing your captions needs to know that vocabulary! your captions need to be accurate even if, or perhaps especially if, the language is a little more complex or specific! this is basic accessibility!

[neuroticboyfriend]

tierlist but instead of being normal i rank meds i've taken by how pleasant the sedation is

[highkey-lowkey-as-hell]

i love seeing the watt tag actually be semi-active lately but it's also weirding me out that so many people are just now getting into it and i have been here for over three years just. sitting in a corner. twiddling my thumbs.

[crimescrimson]

Ada Wong & Leon S. Kennedy: The History [ Resident Evil 4 (2023) ]

[deus-ex-mona]

series i’m gatekeeping from my family vs series i’m ✨ok✨ with my family knowing i’m into:

[fiora-miriel]

The problem with Nikolai

If you think about it... Nikolai Lantsov (with that weird plot twist that he is behind the almost kidnapping), is indirectly responsible for both Alexei's and Marie's death on the show.

And for what? He wanted to kidnap Alina from the LP, from Os Alta to do what? She was already serving in the Second Army, indirectly working for the Lantsov monarchy. So what did Nikolai want with her?

Was it his plan to overthrow his father and brother with her? There is no other explanation for this, am I right?

And Alina never really questions that? She is like totally fine with the almost kidnapping, she never asks about Marie with whom she seemed to have a good relationship with. (pretty heartless?)

[sparklebear11]

I've had a bad day because my computer isn't working 💀

I litrerally can't play my favourite game 😭

[voidcat]

once again at my wits end bc of men