#this isn't a criticism of Gideon

[mayasaura]

Harrow got so unbelievablely horny dreaming about Gideon's rolled up sleeves exposing her lean, taut muscle, a little dewy with sweat and steam but you know what.... thinking about it. Gideon does not disrobe basically ever, except in private to bathe. A tantalizing glimpse of forearm may legitimately be the most Harrow's imagination has to work with

[beefy-babe-showdown]

How are those submissions coming? Can't wait to see all the beefy women 🤤

yeah it's going really well actually! we're already at 208 submissions, I could probably close it early if I wanted, but I'll leave it open at least a few more days. I also haven't fully counted anything up yet, so I don't know exactly how many are actually different characters and how many are repeats, but it looks like we're standing a good chance of a 64 character bracket here

[franzmasc]

not only are the butch tournament guys stupid about rgu gideon is going to lose badly..... pathetic

[direquail]

I think what bothers me most about how John is talked about in the fandom is the implication that a different (implied: better) person would've done things differently and somehow more right than he did.

When the text goes to lengths to explore how suddenly coming into an incredible amount of power in a fatally constrained situation cannot lead to a good outcome.

If you're putting John in dialogue with the concept of the "magical girl", which Muir has said he is (a little tongue in cheek, but)--these are young, often profoundly unready people, who often get taken advantage of by the people who give them their powers. And like, yes, John is not a teenager, but I think that's part of the point, is that at no point is a person really prepared to become as powerful as he did--even before he merged with Alecto. Even when he was fully in control of his powers, even when they were given with honest intent and trust, even when he used them with the best of intentions and tried to do the right thing, there was no way for him to be prepared, especially given the situation he was in.

And it's funny to talk about how bad John must be in bed, but also, this isn't a scenario where John is some self-deluding Elon Musk-like villain or loser. He is genuinely trying to do the right thing, in terms of rescuing the Earth's population, rescuing the Earth Herself, and doing it ethically (see: M--'s insistence that they perfect the cryo containers until they could transport pregnant women).

I really do think this is something people are blocking out, because it is one of the uncomfortable parts of Muir's message with the series. But ESPECIALLY because the people "critiquing" him as an embodiment of patriarchy and empire are failing to see that part of Muir's critique is of human vulnerability to power: That is, that power corrupts.

And this even has echoes with Gideon & Harrow's story! Harrow begins the series in a deeply unequal dynamic with Gideon! And she does horrible things, not just because she is traumatized, but because she is traumatized and has the power to act her desires out on Gideon. She might have the motive (trauma), but that's not enough without the means (power).

And, yeah, I do have a semi-salty angle on this because people are frequently loath to think critically not just about axes of oppression but individual relationships of power when it applies to them and to people they like. ESPECIALLY when there is a very vocal segment of the fandom that is enthusiastically pro-harassment. It's very convenient to villainize John and actively dis-identify with him, because otherwise, you'd have to face the question of whether you'd do any better in his place. But the thing is, the mission of revenge he embarks on is a lot closer to many peoples' hearts than they'd like to consider.

That's the whole point.

[locked-in-the-tomb]

A Theory (or, Jod help me, I'm yanthy posting again)

As per always, I've been pondering the implications of The Unwanted Guest and what it might mean for Ianthe in atn. And I've come to a realization.

(Major spoilers for Nona the Ninth and The Unwanted Guest to follow.)

It's been a hot minute since I've reread htn, but from what I recall, Ianthe generally presents as femme and seems to push "femme-ness" on women in general, to the point that she manipulates Harrow's body so her hair grows out and there's an entire scene in which she dolls up Harrow in preparation for the big lyctor dinner party.

But then in ntn, we see Ianthe: 1. Is strutting around 100% of the time in a uniform that could be described as either gender neutral or literally masculine 2. Is calling herself a "prince" (recall that Naberius Tern was a prince) 3. Has literally renamed herself Ianthe Naberius (a female and male name shoved together, among other things)

(Another detail I want to mention from htn: Ianthe's eye is color constantly changing, showing how she is struggling to assimilate Babs.)

Moving on the The Unwanted Guest, we see Ianthe taking on anonymous dueling opponents and criticizing their form, then recounting Naberius' duel with Gideon as though she were present (she was not).

Now, consider this in light of the other lyctors, who lived for thousands of years without noticing themselves taking on characteristics of their cavaliers or recognizing it happening in the others. You'd think if a lyctor generally started virtually transforming into their cavalier as quickly as Ianthe, somebody would have picked up on that by now, right?

Now consider the one thing that makes Ianthe different from every other lyctor in the series: she ate her cavalier's soul against his will.

My theory is that Naberius is trying to take control of Ianthe. They are a house divided against itself. I think in atn Ianthe is going to be torn apart (maybe literally??) by the division in her soul. Hell, maybe we'll even see Babs take over for a scene. They are already a half-dead Frankensteinian wreck of a human being. Even though Ianthe is far from the worst (in terms of committing large-scale atrocities) character in the series, I think she is going to end up suffering one of the nastiest fates. Because for her, after a lifetime of trying to find a way to prove her worth, losing herself forever is the worst thing that could happen. Ianthe can't prove that she's better than everyone if there is no Ianthe! Ianthe Tridentarius is gone. (Long live İ̵̧̡̛̤̟̗̟͈̼̻̰̺͉̺̂̏͐͆͗͂͊͝ă̴͔̞̺̥͕̗͚͗̏̿̍̏̈́̎̏͊̆͑̚͠ṋ̴͕͕͕̥̰͓͖̬̪̖͖̩͙͗͜t̸̖̘̓̈́͜h̵̛̪͙̯͚͙̲͕̫͓͙̪̽̓̓̆̏̂̒̀e̸̡̛̫͙̩̭̼̙̤̱̪̩̦͇͑͒̂̈́̆̀̐̑̄͜͜͠ ̸͎̣̫̹̱̦̯̘̥̞͌N̵̢̨̢̛̬͉͖̰̖͈̝̦͗́̈̀̈́́̄̕͝͠ͅą̸̧̢̡̩̼̯̯̻͎̯͔̻̺͗̿̽̒̉̑͂̀̋̾̔͐́͘͝b̵̨͎̪͖͍̙̮̎̓̽̾́̉͂ę̷̩̻̼̼̙̯̭̩̘̳̖̅͗͐̍͘͜r̸͕̲̘͚̘̮̙̺̟͙̐͛̏̎̔͛̂̌̓̈́̐̿͆͌̏i̴̠͙̗͎̣̻̽̃͐̇̚͜ư̷̛͙͔͉̅̀͂̎̉͠s̶͙̤̗̻̫̹̯̞̦͔͛͑̌̃̒̏̊̊͌̉̆̄́̕).

Basically, we're going to find out what happens to someone who consumes a soul against that person's will. And it isn't going to be pretty.

[docholligay]

I've heard a lot of criticism about how Gideon's POV is "memey" and "distracting" and "I want her dead. i want her dead in a way far beyond the universe."

But I think what Muir is really tapping into is that sense of disconnect that the isolated young milennial feels. Remember that Gideon was basically the only one of her kind other than Harrow, and Harrow had loads of ritual and also, you know, propping up her dead parents to occupy her time. Not Gideon. So, even in a world where the internet isn't really present, she's trying to give that sense of "raised by forums" that a lot of us young milennials sometimes feel--remember, she's my age--and so the language employed is the most internet addicted of our age.

Gideon downplays the beauty or resonance of situations because "oh lol" is the emotional response she's been raised ("Raised") to employ. She speaks in Miette, because Miette is, to her, is just as emotionally compelling as anything else. We are the things we learn to be, and she's trying to communicate, through a language that most of us understand, that Gideon is emotionally stunted by the way she was raised.

[calisources]

THE   CW'S   REIGN   SEASON   FOUR   QUOTES.   all   these   sentences   were   taken   from   season   four   of   the   historical   fictional   show,   reign.   change   pronouns,   locations   and   names   as   you   see   fit.   

I'm not looking for a man to love, I'm looking for a weapon to use against her and her throne.

Men forget that women have ears.

My child will be heir to her throne, to both nations. 

Mary, this is a course you cannot step back from. And if you take it, I fear I'm looking at a dead woman.

We all die, Gideon. The question is what we stood for while we lived.

Are you saying that we should marry?

Although I am curious. Have you already named our children? Or did you leave at least that part for me?

Where Knox has sown hatred, we will scatter seeds of hope.

Earn my respect then, as I earn the respect of my men. In combat!

 Duels only lead to dead men, not respect.

Oh really, Lord Darnley? I was unaware that your crushing defeat was an act of charity.

Now, you take your assassin and you get out of our country. Or we will drive you out.

I want you to tell me why you keep pushing me away. I'm going to be your husband!

I had a husband! And I loved him and he was murdered in cold blood before my eyes.

As King and Queen, our lives will always be in peril.

 We're going to be in danger no matter whether we're together or not. Because of who we are, Mary. Because of our blood.

You will be my husband in name only. And we will never be happy. And I will never forgive you.

It is my duty, my God-given birthright and my crown. And I will defend it from anyone who attempts to take it.

I had hoped that our marriage would be a partnership in every way. 

I will be a true King. And we will finally be equals.

We are married because I couldn't take England without you. What makes you think that you can take England without me?

He will hang. And I will enjoy watching him die. 

Men will never willingly bow to the weaker sex.

And they will suffer greatly for it.

The Prince of Spain came to France whole, and left with an enormous piece of wood sticking out of his skull.

A daughter joining her mother for an evening stroll is hardly a crime.

Why, Claude, how nice of you to take time away from your grief to criticize me.

You'll take what under advisement? What, you're just going to mouth kingly words?!

The only monster in this castle is gossip. And we must not feed it, or it will bring us to our knees.

I should have your entire family burned at the stake.

You think that political manipulation and poisoning are my only skill?

When one Valois is weakened, the entire line is threatened.

Tell your son to come to court. Or I will have him dragged here. On his knees.

I will not be remembered as the queen that drew first blood.

 She wasn't your friend, Elizabeth, she was your prisoner. What a grotesque curse of royalty that you cannot even tell the difference.

A royal marriage gives one political clout.

Mary, revenge is not meant to ease pain. It is meant to balance the scales.

I've missed you. Perhaps that's reason enough for you to stop being an ass and stay for the party.

What? I-I can't. You and I are married. Until death do us part.

I lost both the man I love and the man I could have loved.

 My family has royal blood in our veins. 

Trust is given, but loyalty is earned. And you, my queen, have not earned mine.

He does have his father's history to overcome. You knew that when you chose him.

I am married to the most powerful man in the world, and I will not be threatened by my damaged brother who is unfit to rule. 

I suppose there's nothing to be done... Except stay for the King's wedding.

Because being married to a woman who is in love with another isn't exactly the ideal union I dreamed of either.

[faithfromanewperspective]

jesse deep dive cause i can't sleep

was thinking about the Controversial Jesse Scene and--before i do any hard takes or really have opinions on it--i can't help but think the way he perfectly captures Traumatised Victorian-Edwardian Man. how we don't see how he's feeling most of the time, considering he's not a main narrator and nor is he in a position where he's constantly able to talk about his emotions. In fact it would be canon consistent to assume he actually has never been able to talk about his emotions with anyone ever. Nor is he or has he really ever been able to show them or express himself in any way. With Grace he could express his love for her, but he was always in a bit of a carer position for her; she was never really there for him to confide in properly. He's not overly guarded about everything--his trauma doesn't manifest like that. He recognises a generally caring community when he sees one; he applies all his skills on how to be respectful and kind and connect with people that he no doubt had to teach himself (Tatiana not being the best role model and all, and also keeping him away from the rest of the world for the most part).

With this background, it makes perfect sense for him to latch onto the Herondales, whom he's realised over decades how unfounded and exaggerated his mother's hatred of is. He's heard horrible things about them, and they're nothing like that when he gets to know Lucie and she tells him about her family (which as much as she vents about them in her first writing project, she actually loves her family and finds them generally supportive and not a source of trauma or hurt, so different from Jesse's experience of family). To him, getting to know the Herondales is a bit like leaving a restrictive cult and realising that rock and roll and dungeons and dragons are actually great and not charged with supernatural villains at all (and of course, subsequently getting far more into them than if they had never been forbidden in the first place). He idealises the Herondales a bit, and if I'm honest--I can't really blame him. They gave him the life he always wanted and his in-laws and wife are always going to feel like a sort of rebellion against and liberation from his mother, especially when she inadvertently but also kind of intentionally put him through you know, the whole possession thing. In which he 'did' everything he's worked so hard to not be anything like and which would've been traumatising on so many levels.

I know possession is a supernatural trauma and not really relatable to any of us (as far as I'm aware, can't ever say never) on here. But when it comes down to it: Jesse was raised solely by an arguably evil if not at least bitter, vengeful and delusional (in terms of feeding herself lies because she can't face the truth until they become her truth, I'm not sure if I'm using the word correctly here and understand it can be a sensitive and ableist thing if I'm not) woman, who isolated him from the rest of the world (much like a cult does). I know Tatiana did things to Grace she didn't do to Jesse. But it's also not a competition of who had it worse: each of their childhoods was what it was. Jesse has known literally nothing else. And yet he figured out how to be generally a good person, he researched how to be a shadowhunter and trained himself and his sister, did all the things that Gideon and Gabriel didn't figure out about their family until they left it, without actually ever leaving. We don't really get page time talking about these things, but it's pretty impressive when you think about it. But it also means his (relative, okay, okay) morality has been hard-fought for, and even though he logically knows none of what Belial did in his body isn't his fault, it's still as if he failed in the one thing he thought to be critical, more critical than what he wants or prefers: breaking the cycle of hurt breeding hurt that Tatiana lives in.

Combine that with the fact that he's never had anyone to hold space for his feelings. Had to figure that all out on his own, and grew up in an era (has it really changed though??) where it's virtuous to be calm on the surface even if, as we know, it leads to emotions simmering into rage when they do eventually surface, making an anger/trauma response when it does happen bigger than if, say, hurt was felt and processed and grieved with others who offer a corrective experience as would be ideal. And the fact that though he has a new network around him, they're not there to all be his therapists and he's still the new guy, still super polite and trying to make a good impression and super grateful and kind of surprised when they do include him--so he's not about to process, really, how to look past his own trauma and be there for his sister, when, in his eyes, she's had more agency than he had in his possession, something he would have longed to have just a smidge of so he could hopefully stop it, and seemingly taken the easy way out and done the thing that Jesse could never, ever condone and honestly thinks he raised his sister to be better than. It feels like a betrayal of Jesse: his morals he fought so hard for. And it reminds him too much of what he went through: James, who he's heard how much Lucie adores and all the times she's been worried about, not being in control of himself and accidentally hurting people (Cordelia at least, Lucie fills him in on that) for three and a half years.

Yes, he isn't taking into account the dynamics of power and abuse and how what Grace went through, too young to know better or really have any choice in the matter until it was normalised, held over her in ways she couldn't fight until Tatiana was briefly out of the picture (at which point she did straight away). Going with the cult metaphor, the brainwashing and gaslighting and blackmail and total under-thumb squishing was exactly what Grace was going through, she was being controlled as well, but from Jesse's point of view she had a little bit of autonomy, she didn't use it or even come to him for advice and help, and it just feels like a betrayal especially given all his unprocessed trauma. It's too much of a shock for a man who's just been resurrected (which would also have some jarring effects one would imagine). Yes, he wasn't kind in how he treated her, the way he should've been. Yes, he hurt someone so vulnerable and it's always going to be there in their sibling relationship history. Yes, the shock wears off and she's still his sister, James and Cordelia are back together, yes he should've stood up for her more but. I don't think it's out of cowardice, even if one could call it morally grey. He's behaving like someone with his resources and trauma would, arguably better than many. He did make a brother out of that event, putting in an effort to reach out to James. So many people don't know how to mediate, and honestly, this is a really tricky situation for all who do (Christopher mainly, who does accidentally belittle James' pain in a way and brush over it with the turn-the-other-cheek-privilege rhetoric, which is in some ways the attitude Jesse places on himself and those around him including Grace if you get where I'm taking you and the irony of it).

Anyway, I have thoroughly enjoyed every fic exploring this relationship and everything that went down with this event in every different way. I don't have a problem with saying 'oh Jesse should've' but I also don't see the point in expecting him to be morally perfect when we don't expect that of other characters, and when it happens to the extent the imperfections that make him three-dimensional are washed away, when he has so few of them to begin with and he's probably the least fleshed out male character of the main cast (not saying he's complete cardboard!!! he's just the amount of fleshiness many of the female characters are, who we also tend to expect to be morally perfect!) like yes it creates an island for Grace in many ways that Tatiana all but orchestrated the way she did Jesse's death--a lasting punishment if you will, for ceasing to be her 'weapon' by exposing her to the others she forced her to hurt. It's a shitty situation in so many ways and I hate that she gets this legacy even from beyond the grave. I only don't think Jesse should bear the full responsibility for bridging everything and processing it for all of them

[mayasaura]

Hello I see you are succumbing to the Ace Attorney Brainrot TM. If Harrow is Edgeworth, then presumably Gideon is Phoenix. Does that make the very bad teens or Palamedes her court-assigned weird little girl?

WELL, thank you for asking!!! You might just live to regret it.

The main connection is really Harrow 🤝 Edgeworth: I only think I killed my own father daddy issues, and that special kind of dorky tsundere approach to relationships. "Thanks to you, I am saddled with.... unnecessary feelings." vs. "[You were born so attractive] because everyone would have throttled you within the first five minutes otherwise," ect.

Then, of course, there's the counterpart of Gideon 🤝 Phoenix: "All books are basically the same size, right?" vs. "I tried to read a law book, and it made my head hurt. Then I dropped it, and it made my foot hurt." A sarcastic internal monologue that rarely becomes external, a drive to help others boarding on the self-destructive. And, of course, so desperate for a certain someone's attention, they'd switch career paths and life's ambition rather than be ignored. If some spoilers I've seen for later AA games are to be believed, they also both get the depression and hole themselves up in response to the world's overwhelming shittiness. 😔

So! To finally answer your actual question, Gideon's court appointed weird girl could go two ways:

1) Jeannemary and Isaac assigned baby siblings at crime scene when Gideon's mentor, Abigail, is murdered.

2) Completely change the dynamic, and Camilla is the "assistant" who herds Gideon around, gives her hints in court, and is occasionally possessed by Gideon's kind and wise mentor, Palamedes. I think I like this one better because Abigail never actually met Gideon, and making her Mia is trading solely on her psychopomp cred. Palamedes and Gideon had a connection. She trusted him. And Camilla standing trial for Palamedes' murder is so juicy.

I think that's about as far as I can take it. Slotting the rest of the characters into the Phoenix Wright setting would mostly take writing entirely new mysteries.

Unless.....

Pyrrha should be high up in the police force, but she's no Gant. If John isn't Von Karma, he could be Gant as a different breed of genial monster with a taste for the grandiose. Ianthe has potential as Lana—extremely unhelpful, in over her head, and trying to protect her sister.

Ortus is Gumshoe. I am not accepting constructive criticism at this time. <3

[mswyrr]

people supportive of harrow/gideon against criticism but specifying "of course in real life they should NEVER be together! because it's not ~healthy~"

i do agree that fiction is a place to explore all kinds of things that you do not intend to be a recommendation of in real life. but there's also limits to how much we should control and define what is mandatory in real life too.

relationships either work for the people involved or not. and if there are things that don't work they can either choose to change those together or split up.

no worthwhile shrink is going to sit down and flat out tell a woman to stop dating her gf because they don't meet an arbitrary set of metrics, though. nobody really does.

there's no mandate of god that a relationship has to look a specific "normal" way. the very concept of "normal" as a thing that even exists , let alone a box we must force people to fit or else, is an invention of eugenics science.

both of them have extensive trauma and c-ptsd. harrow is canonically mentally ill. there's real world violence in the idea that human beings and their relationships have to take a certain "normal" form wherein "normal" is defined by neurotypical people with power in certain ways. all of that isn't "wholesome" in its underpinnings or logic actually.

if two women got out of a cult and had a ton of baggage but deeply loved each other and wanted to be together while trying to cope well and function together well, including seeking support and improving their communication? then they absolutely damn well should. that has all the components--consent, cooperative work on making the relationship functional--necessary to a "healthy" relationship actually.

[mothfishing]

i never read tlt myself but i have a bunch of friends who have and have been begging me to read it to and so i’m super confused ??? i have never heard about the racism…

anonymous asked: can u tell me about the racist elements of tlt... id never heard this before and i follow a lot of people who talk about the series a lot

anonymous asked: I hope this isn't rude but what even is the deal w the locked tomb. I remember vaguely hearing abt it being like "the best shit ever" and then that it had some really intense scenes/Themes then learning the creator was a grade A creep and then like nothing. What is even going on in the book???

yeah ofc! lumping all three of you's questions together since it's essentially the same one (also at #3 it's not rude)

oh god where do i start...so i read the first book and hated it pretty early on, but my intention had been to read the entire series so i could more completely express what was so grimy about it, since this book gets a lot of praise. despite my best efforts it was too rancid and i stopped partway through book 2.

thus i'll focus on book 1 criticisms first cause that's the book i finished, but i do have some series-wide criticisms as well. warnings for racism, pedophilia, ableism:

the author has this absolute obsession with physical features, and in particular she frequently praises features associated with whiteness while denigrating features associated with people of color. like constantly constantly constantly you see blue, purple, and hazel eyes given loving descriptions like amethyst, violet, while brown eyes are almost exclusively compared to dirt whenever they're mentioned.

only two characters in the first book are described as brown-skinned, jeannemary and colum. jeannemary is a "brown, bricklike thing", and colum is a yellow-brown lump. gideon's own personality is stupid horny idiot who's only good for her strength, which uh...A Choice given that, while she isn't described as brown in the first book, the cover art does still depict her with brown skin and harrow with light skin.

i'll also note that colum and one other character, silas, are both from the eighth house. outside of the book muir said they were both white, but in-book they're quite frankly associated with caricatures of east asian people to the extent that best case scenario is she used said caricatures to prop up her depiction of white people you weren't meant to like. like........in particular i wanna note silas constantly reciting religious mantras, as well as their description as "violently servile", which is so strongly associated w caricatures of east asian people. and once again she literally describes colum as yellow,

the post didn't mention it bc i wrote it in 2 seconds out of frustration, but it's also astonishingly ableist to the point where, while reading, i got frustrated and made a list of every time a symptom came up so gideon could insult whoever had it................arthritis, osteoporosis, blindness, hyperthyroidism, all of these came up as insults. "oh but the first three are because they're old" do you have to bring up conditions associated with elderly people???

plus cytherea is a character with a romantic terminal illness, constantly described as beautiful because of her frail (and white, blond, blue-eyed) body...im disabled myself i'm not saying disabled people can't be described as beautiful/hot/etc, but it felt fetishistic here and like the focus was less on her personhood and more on how she was weak and "rescuable" basically.

i'll also note the age gap between palamedes and dulcinea, people who literally met when they were 8 and 15, which was romanticized as "oh dulcinea took his feelings seriously because she's used to not being taken seriously because of her illness :)"

now series-wide...i didn't get to this myself so i don't have a whole lot to elaborate here, but the whole thing is a christian imperial empire run by a māori man and i just don't trust a white kiwi with that sorry.

also-also i'm not a lesbian/wlw at all myself, but friends of mine who are read the book with me and we noted gideon was. not even butch. both her presentation and protector role had been foisted upon her by someone who did not let her forget she owned her. everyone talking abt lesbian rep and then the main couple is a master and servant whose culminating arc in the first book is gideon becoming the perfect servant...also once again, harrow is light skinned and gideon is brown skinned.

finally, tamsyn muir has written even more explicit creep shit so i just genuinely don't know why it is she got popular in the first place. you don't need to know this to despise her work, but wow! (sorry to the person whose reblog this is, op deleted)

[girlboy-frankensteins-monster]

books i read this january:

1. 'station eleven' by emily st. john mandel

5/5 stars — literally so good, such a great start to the year. i loved the writing style and the story and the characters and i am forever grateful to the friend of a friend who kept telling me i should read this because he was totally right and it's so good. definitely recommend this if you like apocalyptic stuff that's more an exploration of humanity than action/thriller

2. 'ghosts: the button house archives' by mathew baynton, simon farnaby, martha howe-douglas, jim howick, laurence rickard and ben willbond

3/5 stars — everything i wanted from a ghosts book tbh, loved getting to hear more about the characters but i would've liked a bit more serious stuff about fanny (this isn't really a criticism just wish there had been because she's such a compelling character to me)

3. 'i am malala' by malala yousafzai

4/5 stars — really good for anyone unfamiliar with pakistani culture and politics to help explain recent history as well as being genuinely very interesting. definitely recommend

4. 'heartstopper: volume 5' by alice oseman

3/5 stars — cute and nice to read as a queer british teenager, i like alice oseman's art a lot and i liked how she approached the topics discussed in it. only 3 stars just because like it doesn't really speak to me personally not because it isn't good or anything

5. 'never let me go' by kazuo ishiguro

4/5 stars — i have a weird relationship with his writing i feel like with both the books i've read by him the endings have just been a bit lacking for me? but not for a reason i can actually define and i still really liked the rest of the book and i really like his writing style as well

6. 'yellowface' by rebecca f. kuang

4/5 stars — not my favourite work by her but i found it really interesting to read. idk it's been quite controversial and i don't think i know enough about the issues discussed in the book to have an opinion but it did make me think about a lot of things i'd never really considered before which was why i found it interesting

7. 'gideon the ninth' by tamsyn muir

5/5 stars — this book was right up my street; i absolutely love gideon and the way the book's written. gideon and harrowhark's relationship was really compelling and i love the concept. if you read this book (please do) i would recommend that you read the glossary before you start the book because i spent at least the first 50 pages with no idea what was going on but after that it was amazing

8. 'the seven husbands of evelyn hugo' by taylor jenkins reid

3/5 stars — kind of just not my thing, sorry to all my friends who love it (none of them are on tumblr lol). i thought it was interesting but it just wasn't really my taste

9. 'tsunami girl' by julian sedgwick and chie kutsuwada

4/5 stars — i definitely didn't expect to enjoy this as much as i did but i actually really liked it the whole way through. the characters were great and i found the romance subplot way more well-written and believable than i expected (this might just be me because i'm a bit weird about reading relationships as romantic in books so a lot of straight romance where they sort of just expect you to pick up on it as romantic purely because it's a boy and a girl comes across as really flat to me and i end up just deciding that they're only friends to me whereas in this book i actually did read their relationship as romantic and wanted them to go out)

10. 'nation' by terry pratchett

5/5 stars — i think this is the first terry pratchett i've read other than good omens and i really, really enjoyed it. it took me a while to get into but i liked the characters and also found the sort-of-romance in this believable which was cool. also just really interesting to be honest, i recommend this as well

[captorations]

addressing this in fic form very shortly but i may as well talk about it here too. so, lyctoral masking. the thing where lyctors can't sense other lyctors, can't see inside them, can't manipulate them. it was a pretty critical part of HtN, leading to harrow's murder soup, mercymorn's entire skillset, and the ability of g1deon to ambush harrow at all.

but hold on a second. how did harrow and gideon kill cytherea, again?

huh. well, isn't that interesting

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 16 of Harrow the Ninth

That diary was probably full of evidence of Gideon's existence, so obviously it had to go. It's a shame, I would have liked to have gotten to read it

"Whilom" is an archaic word for "formerly", I guess to go with the use of "hight" in the first book in e.g. "Lord Priam hight Noniusvvianus" from the letter in Chapter 3. But I think "hight" actually has some decent recognizability (or at least it does to me, maybe mainly/only because I read Le Morte D'Arthur as a teenager), whereas I wonder how many people would actually recognize "whilom" or even parse it as an archaic word, since it frankly looks kinda goofy

I guess this is intended as a visual metaphor for "the Hand of the Emperor"? I've seen Lyctors referred to as Hands now several times, and I think once someone referred to themselves as a finger. Hands seem a little odd, since there were seven original Lyctors (or at least seven who were Saints), unless only the first two are actually considered Hands? But I think I've seen Harrow and/or Ianthe also being referred to as Hands

The narrator continues to criticize Harrow's lack of sword vocabulary. This black rapier was probably Anastasia's, I guess?

I wonder how much of Ianthe's behavior in this book is actually Naberius?

This whole conversation is very interesting. What I get out of this:

Mercy and Augustine have some shared secret from John, and it sounds like they'd both love to tattle on each other but that would mean telling on themselves too, and they absolutely hate each other but are stabilized by a threat of mutually assured destruction

Harrow isn't actually just hallucinating that Cytherea's body has been moving, or has been moved, but neither Mercy nor Augustine are doing it

Augustine thinks Mercy might be planning to tell John whatever the secret is

I'm guessing this refers to the war against BOE and not his struggles with the Resurrection Beasts, indicating that he cares about them more than he's let on to Harrow, and also has a more aggressive role in that war than he's admitted so far

Was A.L. a bodyguard? I'm curious what happened to her. I don't think he absorbed her the way Lyctors absorb their cavaliers, because he already had all of his powers before the Lyctor experiment, if I understand the timeline correctly

I know she's forgotten about Gideon, but didn't her family value her highly? I mean, they also kept reminding her, over and over again that she was 200 dead children and drove her almost to suicide, but I did get the feeling that as far as they were concerned, she was the best, and as far as I'm aware she hasn't lost the memory of that

The narrative again criticizes Harrow's unfamiliarity with swordfighting?

I gather Ianthe is still internally fighting with Naberius?

Did Anastasia have some big disagreement with them over something, and that's why she never came to the Mithraeum? Did she actually die, or is she still around somewhere else?

That's kind of interesting, Harrow's experience of deceiving people for her entire life is quite different than Ianthe's experience of deceiving people for her entire life. Harrow's deception relied on appearing stronger than she was, while Ianthe's relied on appearing weaker than she was, it's not that surprising that Ianthe gets along better with Augustine and Harrow is at more of a social disadvantage here, regardless of the fact that she's also at a necromantic disadvantage as well

So earlier, John said that people die by their souls osmosing into the River, and I wondered why that wasn't happening constantly. Is this the whole reason it doesn't happen constantly? Because Augustine specifically has built a barrier? Obviously people managed to live before Augustine was around, but is there something about living on a thanergenic planet that makes you like, I don't know, closer to the River, or something?

50,000 km in diameter is about the size of Neptune, or Uranus. So if that's meant to be unusually large, this obviously isn't the soul of Neptune or Uranus, let alone Saturn or Jupiter. If the Resurrection Beast numbers match up with the House numbers, Number Seven should be the soul of Venus. I'm not entirely sure that when Augustine says it's 50,000 km in diameter he actually means that there is a planet Venus out there that is that big, or if he's just talking about the diameter of like a swarm of ?heralds? or something, but Ianthe is assuming it's a physical planet and is worried about its gravity well, so let's see if that's actually worrying:

The mass of Neptune 1.024e26 kg, but its density is only 1.64 g/cm^3, because it's a gas giant, whereas Venus's density is 5.24 g/cm^3, over three times as much. So how massive is a planet that's as dense as Venus and as big as Neptune? Neptune's volume is 6.254e13 km^3; so 5.24 g/cm^3 is 5.24e15 g/km^3 is 5.24e12 kg/km^3, multiplied by 6.254e13 km^3 is 3.277e26 kg. But Jupiter's mass is 1.89813e27 kg, that's still like five or six times the mass of this hypothetical Venus-but-its-as-big-as-Neptune planet. I think if they can navigate around Jupiter without issues, they would not have any trouble with this hypothetical planet. It's not like they'd be dealing with something as massive as a star or a black hole, here, and I don't think it's going to be flattening any galaxies, either

I remember when John was explaining about planet souls to Harrow at the beginning of the book, it sounded like conquered planets would eventually die, but would die slowly rather than suddenly. So, I guess sending down the Cohort to kill a lot of people just starts the process of the planet dying, just basically a slower method of how Harrow killed the planet? So it's not just that they're killing people to fuel the necromancers, but actually the whole planet, too. I don't think Harrow's all that unique, it sounds like every necromancer in this universe is also 200 dead children

Ok, so this is all going to be eusocial insect hivemind terminology, then

Is this is the narrator finding Harrow irritating?

Right, so this is why they need to be able to fight

I think this kind of contradicts stuff from earlier? If Lyctors projecting their souls in the River can't be hurt by the ghosts, and the Resurrection Beast is projecting its soul there the same way, then it also shouldn't be able to be hurt by the ghosts, and also, he's saying that the ghosts don't go near the Resurrection Beasts anyway. But previously, we learned that Cassiopeia tried to bait a Resurrection Beast deeper into the River so it would get attacked by ghosts, and she herself was also attacked by the ghosts and died. So can they, or can't they be harmed by the ghosts in this scenario?

[bloodyshadow1]

just some negatives and nitpicks about Scott Pilgrim takes off. The show is still great, but I need to get these out of my head to enjoy the show fully. It's just a me thing. Ignore if you're not interested, but if you're curious you're welcome to look under the read more

First off, I know the limits of what they had, they only had 8 eps, that's all they could do, but I'm still going to complain about somethings that couldn't really be changed in that regard.

I think the other members of Sex-bob-omb were underutilized. I completely understand why, but I feel liek they moved on from Scott's death really quickly and it would have been nice to see them team up with Ramona throughout the series instead of just the second half,

I think some of the evil ex's, at least Roxie and Lucas, were underutilized too. Roxie and Lucas were the only members of the league who I have sympathy for and they are the only ones that seem like they got real closure with her. I know Lucas shows up in the episode where he becomes Gideon/Gordon's bro, but Roxie disappears until the climax. I think the two of them should have stayed and maybe helped with Ramona's quest to find Scott as part of their stories. They just kinda get closure and go. Having them turn around and actively help Ramona is different than just moving on.

Which leads me to my next negative, we still don't really see the relationships between members of the league which I think is a shame. I get that they're not friends, barely even allies, but still, if you're going to reimagine the story, why not delve deeper into the relationships between the ex's. we know Lucas and Todd don't like each other since Lucas became an ex because Ramona left him for Todd, but that's it. Gideon and Lucas' bonding moments in the show were some of the best, and it would have been nice to see more interactions even if they're negative. They just kind of see Gideon get deposed by Matthew and then barely even interact. There's not any interaction in the comics either, I just think it's a waste

Even though it's set up for Ramona to get closure with her exes while investigating them for Scott's disappearance but she really doesn't. Gideon is deposed and moves on with Julie, Matthew took the rejection as well as you would expect but moves on by running the company he took from Gideon and finally becoming a theater star, Todd moves on from Ramona to obsessing over Wallace and is more depressed over getting dumped than he ever seemed to be with Ramona, and Scott comes back before she even investigates the brothers. I'm not sure if she even has a conversation with the brothers, they just move on because of future knowledge and that's it. I really liked how she was able to heal with Roxie and Lucas to the point of wanting more, while the others are just suspects if that and then she leaves them. and it just feels like a waste

Wallace... he just seemed to be a one note character in the series and that note is just about every mean gay man stereotype. He gets around, which isn't an issue since he's like that in the comic too, but his fling with Todd just seems unnecessarily mean and he doesn't communicate what it is until he dumps him. He's supposed to be snarky and sassy, but still a decent friend to Scott helping more often than not. In the anime, he's just mean and bitchy and it just felt unnecessary to me. Every one of Scott's friends moved on really quickly after his 'death' but Wallace felt more like Julie instead of himself.

Scott never really goes through the character development that he does in the comics. I have my criticisms about Scott as a character, but the one big important part of the series is him realizing he's a dick, that he's the hero in his own mind, and needs to grow up. He doesn't do that in the anime, sure he still fights and evil alternate version of himself, but he still doesn't really wake up to his own flaws, as much see the flaws in his future self. Which I can kind of get behind, but it still doesn't make much sense that he gets together with Ramona at the end.

this is the only one that I think is really controversial, but I still don't care about the relationship between Ramona and Scott. I understand that it's built into the DNA of the series and the franchise as a whole, but I still don't care.

Little nitpick to end on, but the sparks are a lazy way of writing and if they were in the original comic I would still feel the same way. They seem to be used as a signifiyer of true love, which is lazy writing in it's own way. Relationships are about growing and learning from and about each other. there's no reason to place such a significance on a first kiss. Yes I understand they're a metaphor for the spark you feel when you meet someone for the the first time, or kiss someone for the first time, but in real life that feeling will actually lead you astray and making it something concrete in universe just seems like weak writing to me.

I always seem to have more negatives to say about the shows I like than positives, but it's mostly because I think about the positives more while, the negatives are things that I kind of wish I could wish away or change for the better. Still, Scott Pilgrim takes off is awesome and again, highly recommend it

[zorlok-if]

I got an ask recently inquiring about any suggestions I have on learning to write/improving your writing. Since then I've been trying to come up with a helpful, coherent, and relatively concise answer, but that's taking a long time.

So, for now I'd say my biggest piece of advice is the cliché: if you want to become a better writer, read (or watch/listen to/etc.) everything you can. Everything. Engage with media from as many different creators as possible and from as many different backgrounds/experiences/cultures as possible. Seek out things you don't know a lot about. Venture into new territory and always try to expand your horizons. This includes engaging with media you would never drift towards naturally, even towards things you don't expect to enjoy (which isn't to say read things that will disturb you or be dangerous for your mental health, more that you should try reading things you know you won't love or that fall way outside your genre comfort zone). You can learn a lot about writing from things you don't like or aren't blown away by. I imagine it like XP farming in a video game. Even if some of what you're doing/reading isn't particularly exciting or interesting, it'll level up your writing skill all the same. You may come away with a better understanding of what you don't like and don't want to do. You may come away with some new idea you wouldn't have thought to include in your normal body of work. You may discover a love for something you never expected. Who knows?

This advice applies to more than books—watch shows or movies, play games, listen to podcasts or free YouTube lectures/video essays, whatever you want. Just try to reflect critically on what you encounter (for example, "how can I incorporate (or avoid) ___ in my own writing?").

If you want any recommendations, I'm more than happy to give some. If you want me to clarify any of these points, just let me know. And since it may interest someone/provide a point of reference as to what stuff I'm reading, here's an incomplete, visual (and hopefully somewhat helpful or interesting) snapshot into some of the media I'm engaged with. I present to you...

All the Items I Currently Have Checked Out from the Library:

(A Cautionary Tale)

Currently Reading:

Hainish Novels & Stories, Volume One by Ursula K. Le Guin, Frank Herbert's Dune the Graphic Novel, Book One by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (illustrated by Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín), Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, American Gods (graphic novel) by Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell, and Scott Hampton, The October Country by Ray Bradbury, The Books of Earthsea, The Complete Illustrated Edition by Ursula K. Le Guin (illustrated by Charles Vess)

Just Read In or Found Through My Current Courses:

Nat Turner (graphic novel) by Kyle Baker, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn (play adaptation of the novel), Bad Indians by Deborah A. Miranda

Fun Stuff/Miscellaneous:

How to Slay a Dragon by Cait Stevenson, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019), Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Walker, Unmasking Autism by Devon Price, PhD, 100 Prompts for Science Fiction Writers by Leslie and Jarod Anderson

Writing Books:

How to Write a Mystery edited by Lee Child with Laurie R. King, On Writing Romance by Leigh Michaels, How to Write a Damn Good Thriller by James N. Frey, Writing Fantasy & Science-Fiction by Orson Scott Card, Phillip Athans, and Jay Lake, The Art of Time in Fiction by Joan Silber, Writing Without Rules by Jeff Somers, Fabulous Monsters by Alberto Manguel, The Art of Description in Fiction by Mark Doty, The Essential Guide to Freelance Writing by Zachary Petit, Beginnings, Middles, & Ends by Nancy Kress, Mastering Suspense, Structure, & Plot by Jane K. Cleland, 45 Master Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt

Cooking/Food Books:

Pure Vegan by Joseph Schuldiner, The Soup Book (new edition), Neuroenology by Gordon M. Shepherd, The Italian Vegetable Cookbook by Michele Scicolone, Wine Simple by Aldo Sohm with Christine Muhlke, Cook Korean! by Robin Ha (graphic novel)

Coding Books:

Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours (7th Edition) by Phil Ballard, CSS: The Definitive Guide (4th Edition) by Eric A. Meyer & Estelle Weyl, CSS: The Missing Manual (4th Edition) by David Sawyer McFarland, Learning JavaScript (3rd Edition) by Ethan Brown