the-mage-of-timeshenanigans

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dryad

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How does it feel? I don't know

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Never getting over how differently howl's moving castle book and movie treat the scarecrow

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thanks, google ai

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maybe this time picking at Textures on my skin will lead to being silky smooth

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"☺️ Ailette is waving her hands in the air again" remains (imo) one of the most romantic lines in the entire webtoon

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foreshadowing done well makes me go feral like there’s NOTHING better than getting to the end a book or an important storyline moment and realising that the author laced information so intricately into their writing that weren’t noticeable upon first read but when you read back sections they’re light giant red flags like wow writing is amazing

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my gf said something sooo insane about helly the other day and i cannot stop thinking about it. she was like. helena and helly’s relationship is almost maternal. the way helena created helly as an extension of herself, to serve her interests, to try and impress her own family. she scolds helly, talks down to her like a child. “i understand you’re unhappy with the life you’ve been given” “i am a person, you are not”. the way she envies and resents helly’s freedom. the way she feels entitled to helly’s life and is now living vicariously through her in the most literal sense. what if you created life and now they’re experiencing the things you’ve always wanted for yourself. what if you created life and they were flawed and loud and demanding and they were loved more than you’ve ever been. and you hated them for it. the mother/daughterisms are insane my girlfriend is insane

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One very funny thing about Severance to me is how like, they reveal Ms. Cobel lives next to Mark and I thought "oh wow the company really keeps a tight eye on their employees." Then time goes on and it becomes increasingly obvious that no actually this woman is just a huge freak about Mark specifically. She's baking him weird cookies. She's breaking into his house. She's making him spend time with his dead wife he doesn't remember. She's skipping work to pretend to be his sisters lactation consultant. She's going to parties with him and hugging him when he says he'll quit Lumon. I'm obsessed with how much she's obsessed with him I need to know what her fucking deal is.

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i was cheering for him...

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Employer red flags to look for in interviews:

1. You tell them you want the job because you feel like you’re choking on your dead wife’s ghost and they hire you.

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chronological lineup of the main characters of "Arnica" - our project based on Tandem AU, which has been in development for almost a year (we started coming up with it somewhere around January 2024)

our heroes are called Nico and Arthur

Arthur is a young king who had to ascend the throne early

Nico is a little genie, currently chained to his mirror. Arthur's loyal friend and assistant

the kids' lives are full of difficulties, and only by being each other's support do they get through them

unfortunately, I won't share with you any more details about this story for now, since we would like to keep some secrets until the comic with them starts to come out, for which we have everything ready in terms of the plot ^^

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UPDATE || Thursday January 23rd || 2025

--Current readers, click *here* for the update--

* NEW READERS || PATREON || BLUESKY || INSTAGRAM *

Special thank you to @barbelzoa for making every update so much more beautiful!!

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sketchbook

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Commemorative Xmas Cover, from mstoryhub's twitter

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Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine - Propaganda Post

S-Class Heroine is my all-time favourite Otome Isekai for sure. I've reread the available webtoon chapters a stupid number of times, then read the webnovel and became even more insane about the story. Here's why you should read it too!

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The premise of the story is pretty standard. Lady in her 20s gets hit by a truck and is reincarnated as a mob character who's destined to die early. Her new world is full of danger because dungeons filled with demons can spring up whenever, but she has the help of a game system and its benevolent moderators (the gods that transmigrated her there) cheering her on.

Top 3 things that make the story stand out from other OIs:

No romance while they're children

It's a low bar but one that lots of OIs fail anyway, so it's worth mentioning.

Excellent Pacing

Speaking of childhood arcs, the author has the good sense to skip all the unnecessary skill grinding. We're only with the MC in the important parts where (1) worldbuilding mechanics are introduced (2) she makes important friends, or (3) she acquires fundamental skills that she's going to use for the rest of the story. You never lose track of the stakes involved because the story isn't dragged out. But it also isn't rushed; the story takes the time to pause for jokes and small moments too.

The in-universe the tutorial/childhood period is 10 years long, but we're only with the MC for like a couple of months in total. Can't imagine being in the childhood arc for 100+ chapters. (sorry Matriarch. I did love you but I simply cannot see why the last 3 arcs I read needed to exist at all)

ML doesn't fall into any of the typical archetypes.

I dunno how to describe Tesilid. He's a hero, he's a damsel in distress. He behaves saint-like but he doesn't even really want to be that way.

His character revolves around some magic restrictions on his behaviour. He has to adhere to the 7 heavenly virtues and abstain from the 7 deadly sins, which basically means that he's always very kind and gentlemanly. He's also a doormat who's constantly betrayed and taken advantage of because he's essentially not allowed to stand up for himself.

He's such a funny guy ever because when he's like 10 and still not very great at handling himself, he petulantly mutters and complains under his breath about why he's the only one who has to live so rigidly. You can definitely tell that if he were given the choice, he definitely wouldn't be doing so many saintly things, but here he is anyway and looking like an angel while at it. But he's also not a selfish prick. He's the guy who in the original novel died 80+ times trying to save the world. He consistently wishes for others to avoid living the same restrictive life as he does in the in-universe church, even though this incurs penalties from committing the sin of envy.

imo Tesilid doesn't feel like a typical bland ML, maybe because he's quite literally an action fantasy MC who's now in a rofan lol. By the grace of the transmigration gods he now has a transmigrator who wants, above all, for him to have a freer and happier life.

His interactions with FL are both very cute and somehow devastatingly sad and hopeful at the same time. She's the only one with whom he is exempt from the penalties of committing the seven deadly sins, which means he can actually be himself around her. If she's the one giving him food, he can eat it without it counting as the sin of gluttony. So after the childhood arc they have this wordless agreement where she piles food on his plate without being asked and he cleans the plate. They look like a married couple to everyone else, but they're probably rationalising it on the inside. It makes me want to combust.

FL also became strong in order to defend him. I love how narratively speaking, lots of times Tesilid is the damsel in distress. There's no ML coming in to solve all the FL's problems, because he's constantly weaker than her. But it's not demeaning, because it means that for the first time ever, someone is there to catch him when he falls. And despite being weaker and being rescued by the FL lots of times, he's also never stripped of agency. He's always thinking and acting to protect her in turn. And as he gets stronger, she sometimes ends up having to keep up with his plans and antics instead.

TLDR; romance aside, Tesilid is a really interesting main character because his entire thing is about resisting the Saint-like character and destiny imposed onto him. I know OIs are about romance, and this one does have (slow-burn) romance, but I love it when stories transcend that and make their characters more than just their relationship with their love interests. Also it's very nice how he and FL flipped the damsel in distress dynamic and without making it emasculating or demeaning for either party.

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Anyway there's more good things about the story, like it being really funny and having excellent art. I would explain and also talk about the MC who's also so funny and so driven, but unfortunately Tesilid has my entire brain in his grip. I could talk about him forever but he has already made this post long enough.

Please read S-Class Heroine ❤️ The pacing is so good and also Tesilid exists. Thank you for listening to my TedTalk.

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Tesilid and Ailette really do act out the opposite sides of the typical FL-ML dynamic and tropes in the otome isekai genre.

Tesilid (Female Lead):

Keeps getting kidnapped and needing to be rescued and protected. Damsel in distress situations all the time.

Being sexually harassed and receiving unwanted advances is a prominent and recurring theme in the story

Is unable to effectively rebuff his harrassers. The love interest wards off such people for him

Can the world give him a fucking break already

Love interest interferes in his social life too because it's too bloody toxic (Ailette literally stealing him from the Vatican and creating their own order and [lol] bribing his friends with food)

Very rich and messy interior world and past that no one else in-universe is privy to

Ailette (Male Lead):

Literally living her best life, coasting with both martial and political power. Everyone either loves her already or is forced to give in to her.

Royalty

Constantly coming in to save the day

Cool, suave, most things don't catch her off guard and even if they do, she's strong enough to come out the other side alive

Doesn't know the most important things about the love interest, actually

Habitually puts a tracker on the love interest in case he gets in danger, and actually has to use it (thankfully it's only something she does when they're in dungeons and Tesilid wanders out of her sight)

I love that this reversal of roles isn't super in-your-face either. You could write a whole story that's premised on the FL being tom boyish and the ML being meek, but s-class heroine has so much more going on and both leads are so much more than just these tropes