#a guide to being just friends

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🦇 A Guide to Being Just Friends Book Review 🦇

"Sometimes we don't know who we are until we find the right person. The one that helps us see ourselves in a way we never did before."

After a bad breakup, Hailey Sharp throws all of her attention toward her new business, By the Cup. Her quaint salad bar is located on a strip alongside other booming businesses in San Verde, California, though it's not quite drawing a line of hungry customers yet. Next door is an already bustling coffee shop, Baked, where she bumps into Wes Jansen--an investor who assumes Hailey has arrived for a blind date, only for the two of them to initiate an awkward, tense meet-cute instead. Fate throws them back into one another's orbit yet again, and the two become fast friends. While Hailey is focused on growing her business, Wes works alongside his two younger brothers to help their community flourish, even extending his design skills and business acumen to aid By the Cup. Hailey, not wanting to depend on anyone for support, only accepts if she can help Wes in exchange, further driving their ever-growing friendship into something far more.

Sophie Sullivan excels at developing complex, driven, adorable characters that thrive off one another. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't aware that there were two books before this one (featuring Wes' younger brothers and their significant others). Even so, this book can stand beautifully on its own as it delves into Wes and Hailey's friendship. Wes learns how to creatively navigate Hailey's stubborn independence while Hailey encourages Wes to pursue his passions. The slow burn, friends-to-lovers tropes don't feel forced or cliche; you can see Wes and Hailey growing to rely on and trust one another in every passing scene. The secondary characters all have their own rich histories and motivations, and while those details are established in the series' previous books, you don't need to read them to feel the shared love, trust, and respect between the Jansen brothers or their significant others. Both Hailey and Wes rely on their friends and family members as much as they rely on each other, creating a "found family" dynamic that breathes off the page.

However, the transition from friends to more seems rushed. Wes is analytical, pragmatic, nerdy, and a little uptight. Hailey is funny, playful, hard-working, and optimistic. The "opposites attract" vibe that makes them a great match as friends doesn't translate well into their romantic relationship; in fact, it causes them to butt heads. Instead of hitting a moment when the tension between them bursts, the novel transitions into their romantic relationship as if they've always been there; no sweet first date, no payoff, no steam. While romantic comedies don't need steamy scenes, the silent, mutual pining they had as friends doesn't reflect in their newfound relationship. The slow burn as friends is dragged on for so long that their chemistry as a couple seems to flat line.

Overall, I enjoyed A Guide to Being Just Friends as a friends-to-lovers romance with a HEA. This book is a comforting, swoon-worthy, emotional romantic comedy that perfectly balances both sides of a budding relationship. If you're looking for a heartwarming read, this is the book for you!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

🦇 Major thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

#book review #books #booklr #book lovers #currently reading #arc #arc book review #a guide to being just friends #sophie sullivan #battyaboutbooks #batty about books

[oracleofmadness]

Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!!

This book practically defines "friends to lovers trope" to the extreme! A slow burn that was full to brimming with an amazing friendship between two individuals that finally turned into love.

I liked this read. Both of the main characters, Hailey and Wes, have their own baggage to work through. While both seem to think they are handling their fresh starts in California well, it turns out that when friendship turns to love, some of that baggage can resurface.

Out January 17, 2023!

#book #bookish #books #bookworm #book review #currently reading #read #bookblogger #reading #romance books #romance tropes #romcom #friends to lovers #slow burn romance #A Guide to Being Just Friends #Sophie Sullivan #netgalley review #netgalley

[genieinanovel]

What I Have Out From the Library (August 2023)

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts, despite using the library constantly. However, I think I need the inspiration to actually read these books that I have out from my hometown library. Then I can focus on taking books out from my new library job (hehe). So, let’s see what I currently have out. Books I Have Out From the Library The Restaurant by Pamela Kelley I’m just…

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#a guide to being just friends #adult fiction #bibliophile #book blog #book lover #book review blog #books i have out from the library #genie in a novel #librarian life #the writing retreat #this is not a personal statement #using the library #young adult fiction #young adult novel

[marisareadsalot]

Who knew a salad shop could be the start of a whole new life for a brownie lover?

There’s really nothing like 3 brothers, amazing girl friends, living out your dreams, and an ex we all love to hate. It’s the best recipe for a romance novel ☺️

I add all the books I read to my Amazon Storefront (in bio) for easy access. All 5 star reads are labeled on there too!

#friends to lovers #romance books #a guide to being just friends #quick reads #book recs #summer reading

[jolieeason]

Bookish Travels---January 2023 Destinations

I saw this meme on It’s All About Books and thought, I like this!! So, I decided to do it once a month also. Many thanks to Yvonne for initially posting this!! This post is what it says: Places I travel to in books each month. Books are lovely and take you to places you would never get a chance to go. That includes places of fantasy too!! So….enjoy!! Please let me know if you have read these…

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#A Guide to Being Just Friends #A Suitable Boy #Accident #Adam Wright #Agustina Bazterrica #Alabama #Ana Reyes #Anna Bennett #Argentina #Before the Coffee Gets Cold #Bookish Travels #Boston #Brahmapur #Budapest #California #Capitol #Cara Tanamachi #Catherine Steadman #Chestnut #Chicago #Chosen #Colorado #Columbia #Crooked Tree #Dearmont #Elizabeth McKenna #Emily Wildes Encyclopaedia of Faeries #England #Erin E Adams #Florida

[densewentz]

Take Your Kid to Work Day (with Dream's decidedly more alarming version of an artist rendering their kid's drawing)

#dreamling #alternate title: #Hob Gadling's Guide to Being a Supportive Dad Despite the Horrors #hob gadling #dream of the endless #morpheus #matthew the raven #dream x hob #the sandman netflix #the sandman #the sandman fanart #kid fic #my art #dream isnt wearing his robes because im amused by the idea of the anthropomorphized human unconscious being just some Guy in jeans and a t #sometimes love is a puppy-eyed princeling and his fucked up frog friend #hobs going to lilo and stitch it and just tell everyone shes a dog #an older kian this time #as a treat #long post

[bruhstation]

can't it even be more obvious thomas. why are you surprised that a sudrian historical site filled to the brim with armor and weaponry that dates back to the middle ages has old people afflicted with the gold dust working around the castle

#thomas the tank engine #thomas and friends #ttte glynn #ttte millie #ttte stephen #casa tidmouth #senjart #MORE OF LADY'S EXPERIMENTS GONE WRONG #WHO UP ULFSTEADING THEIR CASTLE #stuff for the kotr arc of casa tidmouth. now this is where gold dust has historical significance #going crazy right now. my friends are influencing me #I had 12 tabs opened just to draw young glynn's armor. they dont have plated armory in the 10th century!!!! only mails!!!!!! #(looking at you KOTR intro) #I remember reading some inputs on my 1k milestone poll and saw someone put ''the misery of growing old'' and honestly. Checks out #glynn's eyes are goldish brown because well. that's the perks of being the first bearer of the gold dust horrors #lady during 989 AD do not know anything about human thoughts and ethics and emotions. she was literally freestyling that!!!!! #Oh a wounded soldier on the verge of death. what if I *dumps 200 kg of gold dust on him* yeah that'll do the trick. #then she saw how glynn aged so so slowly and went Oh well I messed up. Good thing there are lots of other sudrians here #funny coincidence that young cstm glynn's helmet resembles canon glynn's funnel #I wanted to make millie's design resemble a tour guide more with her scarf and more stylish than usual tie #shes so pretty. I'm so proud of her design #(AND I REALIZED TOO LATE THAT HER TIE HAS THE COLORS OF THE FRENCH FLAG) #<--- said the guy who has beef with the french #stephen's crown is translated to a hat decor! was about to draw a top hat but whatever just imagine he has a collection of various hats #that he can put his crown on #also I want to give him that cool hip-with-the-kids I-am-still-young-at-heart energy #sir robert norramby is balling in the background. #hope you enjoy..... won't be able to draw as much from now on but I'm excited #also whos ready for old man yaoi........... 2!!!!!!

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

having Marina and Acht be old buddies separated for years like this was so RUDE

so WHY'D side order have to stab me in the heart with this friendship like that huh?? why'd they have to DO that!!!!

I AM UNWELL

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH

#splatoon 3 #side order #acht mizuta #dedf1sh #marina ida #AND THEY WERE OLD FRIENDS #!!!!!!!!! #AND THEY CARE SO MUCH #AFTER ALL THIS TIME #THE SYMBOLISM OF ACHT HAVING A WOUND THAT CANT HEAL #BUT THEN THEY MEET MARINA AGAIN #AND SHE DELETS THE WOUND #SO HER AND ACHT CAN JAM TOGETHER AGAIN #THE PARALEL OF MARINA BEING TAKEN OVER BY ORDER- BC SHE WAS SCARED OF CHANGE #AND ACHT DEALING WITH CHANGE BY FOCUSING ONLY ON MUSIC- ENDING WITH THEM GETTING SANITIZED #AND AND AND #ITS NOT JUST THEM HELPING GUIDE EIGHT AND PEARL #GOING UP THE SPIRE SAVED THEM TOO!!!!!!!

[cienie-isengardu]

Sokka's sexism

Sokka’s sexism from the earliest episodes is an interesting case, because the Southern Water Tribe, at least from what was presented to us on screen, doesn’t seem to operate that much on gender roles? Especially when compared to the Northern Water Tribe?

I mean, yeah, warriors (men) went to war, while women, children and the elders stayed at home. But as Hama’s story shows, when Fire Nation attacked Southern Water Tribe, both female and male benders were fighting against invaders arm to arm and it seems like they were the actual first line of defense there, not the non-bender warriors.

In contrast, during siege of North Pole, in the final of Book 1: Water, we don’t see any female bender helping defend their home except Katara, who was involved in protecting Aang when he was in Spirit World.

Since all the waterbenders were captured from the Southern Tribe, it makes sense that non-bender warriors stepped in and got involved with war, while the kids and elders were left under women’s care.

Another example comes from “a ceremonial test of wisdom, bravery and trust”, known as ice dodging. As Bato explained, it is a rite of passage for young Water Tribe members and in their village “done by weaving a boat through a field of icebergs.” When a child turns 14, their father was supposed to take them to ice dodging, so they could earn their mark. Though the episode itself was focused on Sokka’s ceremony, Bato never specified it as something that boys alone should do and not only Katara (girl) but also Aang (outsider) is allowed to take part in the ritual. Once Sokka proved himself, everyone of their group got a mark, as a sign they passed the test. Interesting thing to note, since Bato did not specify it is a rite of passage for boys alone, it suggests girls were expected to know how to sail in boats of the Southern Water Tribe. Of course, again, war didn’t allow to continue this tradition as men (Hakoda, in case of Sokka & Katara) left to fight against Fire Nation.

Later, when Sokka and Katara reunited with their father, Hakoda did not try to send away Katara nor relegate her to just a medic job during the invasion. In Northern Water Tribe episodes, we learned that teaching for waterbenders there was defined by gender - women were allowed to learn only how to heal, while men how to use their bending in fight. Hakoda, nor Bato nor other of their warriors even for a moment questioned Katara’s presence on the battlefield nor the presence of women in the ranks of their allies like a blind, 12 years old Toph or the female water benders from Swamps or female(?) soldier from Earth Kingdom

And during battle, Katara did not fight in rank with other soldiers, she first alone secured Appa during submarine attack, then alongside her brother and father took down guardhouses - Hakoda himself told her and Sokka to attack one when he took down the other one

showing how much he trusted his 15 years old son and 14 years old daughter while ordering them attack on Fire Nation adult soldiers hidden in well guarder place.

Later, when Hakoda got seriously injured and Sokka temporary took the command of their forces, we could see that Hakoda relied on Katara to follow his troops and not ever once tried to send her back “to safety” or argued she should leave him behind, as often it happens with heroic (male) figures. Quite the opposite. When Katara offered him to “wait here if you want”, Hakoda firmly said “I want to press forward with the others”, which meant his daughter needed to come with him directly into an already ongoing fight (even if they stayed more at the rear of their army, they were still on battlefield).

She and her brother, alongside with the youngest members of Invasion, were forced to flee on Appa once the battle was lost, but no other adult woman was included. During Zuko’s coronation, when all war prisoners were released, in the background we could again see the female character(s) from Swamps.

And let's not forget how impressive Hakoda was by Suki when she single-handedly captured the warden at Boiling Rock prison and did not try to stop her from fighting against Ty Lee alongside Zuko and Sokka against Azula.

Understandably, we have no idea how the Southern Water Tribe and its culture looked like before the war, even arguably, the characters themselves may not have a clear idea due to growing up in dire times. But my point is, Hakoda and Bato, the two main adult Southern Water Tribe’s warriors that Avatar: The Last Airbender allowed us to know more about, have never shown any direct sexism toward Katara or other female characters. And though Sokka was the oldest boy at their village, there is no reason to think women did not hunt in absence of men, because one person would not be able to provide for a whole community 24/7. Also, as Hama proved, the Southern Water Tribe’s waterbenders were capable of fighting and their gender did not play any vital role the way it happened in their sister tribe at North Pole. 

Of course, Fire Nation’s repeated attacks affected residents of South Pole and their living conditions but from the little bits the show gave us, I think it is correct to assume if Sokka grew up with Hakoda around to guide him as he should, his behavior would be different from the sexism and dismissive attitude toward Katara or Kyoshi Warriors. For one, logically thinking Southern Water Tribe’s warriors need to do all the cooking, sewing and keeping their camp clean all on their own during war so it is not a “girly job” but a vital part of a warriors skills to survive and ensure their equipment is in the best condition. But Sokka doesn’t know it, because there is no one to teach him the importance of those skills. All Sokka had was father’s farewell words to cling to - and I’m not sure if Hakoda truly expected his son to be able to protect Katara and the village in his absence, or he just tried to make Sokka feel a bit less depressed about being left behind. You know, by giving him purpose and a Big Important Job to focus on and to feel needed and trusted. 

Which leads me to think that Sokka’s sexism is not rooted in Southern Water Tribe’s culture itself, but in his own insecurity and pressure of being the oldest boy in the village. If girls could be warriors - and be better than him - it would put into question all his self-worth, purpose and the trust given by father. Once Sokka met Kyoshi Warriors and later all the skilled girls, it challenged him on a very personal level, but he accepted the truth and moved on and alongside, finally became a true warrior and a man. 

And I find it indeed an interesting case, as Sokka’s sexism and dismissal of girls is not necessarily stemming from the culture he is part of, but rather is the effect of not knowing said culture & pre-war history of his Tribe. And of course, from his own insecurity. 

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #sokka #hakoda #just some thoughts #because bato and hakoda seems pretty okay toward katara and include her in rite of passage for sokka and invasion battle #like her age and gender doesn't matter #with dad and dad's friend (bato) like that where comes sokka's dismissal? #so i guess this is about sokka's insecurity and growing up without father to guide him #good suki straighten sokka up pretty quickly #i'm pretty sure SWT has some sense of gender roles but not so strict take like northern water tribe #no arranged marriages and no true aristocracy and waterbenders being fighters and so on #sokka though lives in destroyed by war tribe to understand yet what was done to his community i guess?

[patolemus]

Stiles sits in the front row at the funeral.

He’s next to Mellisa, who hasn’t been able to stop crying since she got the news. Stiles’ dad had organized the whole thing, talking with the funerary home and picking up the coffin and the arrangements. He’d only asked Melissa what she wanted on the headstone.

Raphael had showed up the day after. For the first time in his life, he’d looked a mess, hair everywhere and clothes wrinkled as he stormed into the house asking what had happened to his son, tears already gathering in his eyes before he even got a look at Melissa’s face. Stiles hadn’t made fun of him. Stiles hadn’t said anything at all. Raphael sits on Melissa’s other side now, and she grips his hand tight enough it turns white. He hasn’t been back for five years.

God, Scott hadn’t seen his had for five years, and now he’s dead. Scott’s dead.

Stiles thinks it still hasn’t sunk in. He’s in the middle of his best friend’s funeral - it’s closed casket because his body was so mangled up that the EMPs could barely recognize him. Stiles had heard his dad on the phone with one of his deputies talking about it, before he’d realized just whose body they were talking about - and it still hasn’t clicked that Scott won’t be coming out of his casket, that this isn’t some kind of sick practical joke for getting him out of bed the night before school started.

Stiles is not crying. He hasn’t cried once since hearing the news. His dad is crying, sitting on his other side. Scott’s like a second son to him.

Was. Scott was like a second son to him. Was because he’s gone now. Because he’s dead.

Scott’s dead.

His best friend since preschool is dead. His brother is dead. The kindest, most caring person in the world is dead. Stiles goaded him into going to the preserve to look for half a dead body - and God, he’s such an asshole. A dead body? What was he even thinking? - and now Scott doesn’t even get to show his face at his own funeral because whatever killed him barely left any of him to bury.

If only he’d stayed. If only he’d told his dad Scott was with him that night instead of leaving him there. But no, Stiles hadn’t wanted Scott to get grounded because he dragged him out of bed, so he’d kept quiet. Even when he’d seen the pair of red eyes and that— that thing in the corner of his eye. Stiles hadn’t said anything. He thought they’d laugh about it at lunch the next day.

Now Scott’s dead.

Scott is dead.

And Stiles knows exactly what did it.

(He’s going to fucking kill it.)

#and god will cry out au #stiles is not having a good time #and he's about to make it everyone's problem #or well not everyone's #just derek's #how to piss off every supernatural-related individual in ten days: a guide by stiles stilinski #he’s going to speed run this series if it fucking kills him #because he’s nothing if not efficient and he’s got a great motivator #you think you’re safe from the scrawny human because you’re tough? think again #he’s got a baseball bat and his morals died when his friend took the power of friendship with him to the grave #sterek #stiles stilinski #derek hale #eternal sterek #eternalsterek #teen wolf #teen wolf au #teen wolf rewrite #scott is going to be so important even though he's dead #like this boy is going to haunt stiles till the end of times #to clarify scott has no appearances in this universe #stiles is just very guilty #not sure how I feel about scott being importsnt(tm) in any fanfic of mine #but i guess it’s okay given the circumstances #i killed him before he got a gf he gets to haunt my narrative

[wanderingskychild]

🛏️ IKEA WIZARD!🪄

Can’t wait to read y’alls theories! This was an unexpected lore drop!

#sky children of the light #thatskygame #sky colt #skyblr #sky: children of the light #sky: cotl #skykid #sky cotl #season of nesting #nesting guide #does forest elder supply materials for nesting guide #a lot of the wood furniture would make sense to have come from forest #it would be strange to think they were just simply friends #I’m mean they’re an almost godly being #hmmmmmmm 🤔🤔🤔

[deweyduck]

NED'S DECLASSIFIED SCHOOL SURVIVAL GUIDE | 03x14b "Extra Credit"

#ned's declassified school survival guide #ned's declassified #nickelodeon #nickelodeonedit #userjessica #usermatida #userlaro #singinprincess #userraffa #user.tee #useralxndr #usergui #usersitcom #smallscreensource #usersource #usercreate #userzackmartin #tvarchive #comedysource #*edits #i love how meta this show is dhsuifhsudhf #something else i really appreciate about it is that i actually buy this trio as a genuine friend group #i think it probably has a lot to do with them being so close irl and it just comes across with their characters too

[rxttenfish]

Asking because I’m extremely curious about this, how did MonProm’s writing get different over time? I remember you saying that the lore and characters feel different, and that it's missing sincere character interactions, too. I know almost nothing about the lore and I’ve only seen a few people mention the characters, so I’d be interested in a rundown of what aspects you think got worse in the series

I wouldn’t mind a very long response since I’m not that active in the fandom, I need to catch up on what happened

sorry for taking so long to answer this! i kinda waffled on it for a long bit, mainly because i started doubting myself again, and whether or not this was me simply overreacting or being tinted by nostalgia or simply being extremely picky and choosy in what i like (the last of which is true, i seldom get into fandoms at all for this reason and stay away from most popular media, but i wasn't sure if it applied here). i've posted about it already, but i'm in the middle of a psychotic episode where i can't feel a lot of pleasure to begin with + most things i do experience ending up solidly in the "very bad" category, so as you can imagine, i really didn't want to mislead and check that i was actually in objective reality.

as it is, this is also when a lot more screenshots started to be posted in the monster prom tag, and that helped me bridge the gap back into returning to the games themselves and feel like i was making a more accurate judgement. if you're one of those people who have been posting screenshots, i sincerely thank you, and i appreciated seeing you in the tag greatly.

for those not in the know — i've been in the monster prom fandom since it first released, prior to even the first additional ending to be added (the "Punch the sun" ending, and i recall the minor fandom drama that happened at that time due to it). my impression of monster prom is very much influenced by this, as what got me into the first game was the fact that the characters genuinely seemed to care for each other and were friends with each other (not merely tolerating each other's presences nor dressing it up, they sincerely thought of each other as friends and were open about that fact), on top of the wide variety of small details and statements that, if taken at face value, could create compounding complexity in the lives of each and every character and had wider implications for their lives.

no, they were not necessarily explored nor even necessarily "real", with so many conflicting events and statements, but i liked this too, because it meant a wider flexibility in what you could imagine, helping to create a more tailored experience for everyone who thought about these characters. this was what i liked about the early fandom too. what was baseline "canon" was so vague and minimal that you could have wildly different interpretations of the same characters' histories and relationships with each other. you would have radically different perspectives on what the world itself looked like, what it was like, that there wasn't really any wrong answers so long as their personalities remained the same. this is where you got the old headcanon of polly and liam being childhood friends who knew each other as humans, or that the world of monster prom was post-apocalypse where humanity itself had gone extinct or only existed in tiny pockets, or my personal headcanon that both monster and human society existed right next to each other and had minimal crossover for petty cultural reasons. this was also prior zoe-as-ro, and there were wildly different interpretations of zoe's personality, with most going for a far more disquieting creepy-cute than the deep nerd we got.

this is why you get stuff like the timeloop theory, where everyone is repeating the same weeks leading up to prom over and over, and are perhaps vaguely aware of it but broadly unconcerned. this is also why it felt like the joke that, the characters were still in high school but were all fully legal adults with most in their 20's, best landed, because it was absurd and strange and didn't quite make sense, but the world itself was inherently absurd and semi-malleable to begin with. realistically, i felt like everyone understood it was making fun of the trope of having adults play teenagers in american sitcoms and wildly casting outside the age range, but for more in-universe explanations it wasn't any different from the way that you would have a large, dramatic ending in which everything changed, but then you'd restart and everyone would be right back at the beginning with nothing different, or even having conflicting events in the same run. it was a dream-logic that fit with the tropes and, thus, diagetically made sense.

to be clear, i don't mind canon having a set, well, canon on which it refers back to itself. i don't mind expanding that or including more things which are set in stone. but there was a perceivable shift in how the games handled this over time, becoming a lot more... bitter, it felt, towards all of these different branching ideas and concepts that, yeah, the people making them knew wouldn't necessarily be "canon" because "canon" already liked to contradict itself so much. most people weren't even sold on any one idea, and there was a much greater sense of enjoying and appreciating all the varying ideas people would come up with even if you personally didn't share them. making the characters be out of character was the real crime, because then it didn't diagetically make sense in the same way, didn't wholly fit.

(again, this is not to say fanon didn't happen and characters weren't smoothed down into a simplified personality that fit these varying fan-interpretations instead of the game itself. certainly damien love/lust was just as bad as it had ever been, and everyone loved to mangle his character into a more stereotypical "bad boy with a heart of hold" all the time. but it certainly felt less set-in-stone about it than it does now, with any deviation from the norm being considered strange and odd and even broadly shunned from the wider fandom.)

all of this is setup for establishing what the writing, lore, and characters felt like in the earlier days. the characters were the strongest part, with their relationships to each other being equally as important. the lore played it fast and loose and was far less interested in setting anything in concrete because that wasn't the important part. the lore wasn't the important part, which was what made it all the more intoxicating to think about, all the more fun to play with.

montrip is easily the biggest offender when it comes to setting everything in all-or-nothing terms and demanding absolutism from the world. broadly i blame the hitchhiker conversations for the worst of it, but i think ultimately the way they handled the entire premise of the game is where this problem stems from. it's not really an exploration in the same sense that you might explore the first game, discovering different perspectives and different people with different relationships to each other. it's an exploration in the sense of a sequel that over-explains the monster, that takes the most boring option out of all those that were possible and floating around and settles on something that was blatant, obvious, typically rejected not because of how novel it is but how trite and par for the course it is in the rest of the genre.

yeah, okay. humans know nothing about monsters and there's a "monster dimension" that exists separately from the human dimension. there's no crossover between the two of them. of course there's a big grand-scale fight between the eldritch powers that zoe used to be a part of, from which not only are slayers the main organization against them, but also the merkingdom has some horse in this race too. it's an urge to make things so universal in explaining them, in revealing connecting threads which unite everything that's ever happened in here, that makes the worldbuilding and lore immediately much more boring than it ever was before.

and it didn't have to be this way! nothing in the first game contradicts any of this too explicitly (see the above, the first game loves to contradict itself), and i would even be happy if this was basically canon but never stated or confirmed to be the big overarching everything going on underneath it all. i believe you should probably know these things about any world that you create and have them in the back of your mind. the difference is that you can know these things and keep them in mind, even focusing on things where its very relevant, and still not reveal them. this is why you have lore bibles, after all. every horror writer knows exactly how their monster works and the full underlying reason for everything that happens, but that doesn't mean the audience will see it or possess this same information too, and leaving it intentionally obscure will make far better stories.

which, this is bad enough, but it wouldn't be the breaking point for me if this was all there was.

but the worst thing of all has to be the slow decay of the very same characters that sold me on this world, this lore, this game in the first place. monster prom is nothing without the characters in it. it's a dating sim, it has nothing but characters to get you to play, and liking these characters are the entire reason anyone would pick up monster prom in the first place.

and the first game pulls this off extremely well. it's all in the tagline: be your worst self. they are, indeed, all terrible people. yes, even that character that you just thought of right now. they all have points in the game where they commit atrocities, where they kill or hurt people, where they do inexcusable things that could not be ignored in a more serious setting.

but that's the point. i think there's something very powerful in creating a character who not only do you love and love their personality and the way they interact with the world, but who also are inapologetically terrible, and to have the humor and the charisma be so good that you don't get bogged down in the "this is awful". likewise, it never feels the urge to really go out of its way to justify what's going on. this is not to say theres no discussion of if someone "deserved it", but usually there's still the sense that the joke is on them, that this is still an extreme reaction specifically for comedy and not necessarily something that can be justified. you can have damien set leonard on fire and have it feel earned, without prompting the needed reaction of what it's actually like to watch someone burn to death.

this is what sets the prank masterz ending apart from the rest of the game, and really establishes it as the first real "bad ending". because nothing that you do or happens in the prank masterz ending is any different from anything else that happens in any other run. you summon evil beings from other dimensions as a throwaway gag on how visiting one location raises your stats. you kill other people and damn them to terrible fates. you watch as body horror happens. the only difference is that, in the prank masterz ending, the laugh track doesn't play.

the rest of the game and the writing echoes this philosophy, this careful interplay of tropes that keeps everything tongue in cheek and yet sincere enough to make sure emotional beats still land when they're needed. the characters feel true to themselves and their own emotions, even when the world is extreme and excessive, when everything else runs on comedy logic.

this is also what i noticed failing first as time went on.

like i said, fanon has always existed and there's always been very specific ideas as to what characters are like in the same way fanon always flattens down characters into the same tropes over and over. scott is stupid and innocent and doesn't know what sex is. damien is violent and hot and too cool for anyone else. miranda is the idiot girl character. repeat over and over and over until you get sick of it.

but it's been an issue as time has crept on that canon has started to approach fanon and began to merge with it. now, scott is so innocent that he can't even curse. polly starts being mean to her friends and saying things that would be very hurtful to hear. the merkingdom isn't really super evil and fucked up, it's just miranda that's like that. they become simpler, easier to digest, streamlined for social media posts and mass-sharing. they become less and less subversions of existing tropes and moreso just another example of them, something else to add to the collection, not their own individual stories.

even further from this, what more complex traits they had are now stated and not shown. polly is stated to be smart and clever in a way that her party girl persona doesn't imply and to be sincerely rather down to earth with the people she cares about, but we seldom ever see this anymore unless its the game specifically trying to make a point about it, in which case it won't let her do anything that implies cleverness and moreso will just outline it in the narration. vera is stated to care for people in a very genuine and heartfelt way, but seldom will get a chance to do so, and every opportunity for her to do so to their faces is missed while she will just outright state it later. it does not feel consistent, it does not feel like any of these are intended reads of their actions. it feels like the devs have something they want to do but no idea on how to actually do so. and forget it if you want these traits to manifest in small ways that show up in unrelated moments and scenes.

the dialogue becomes harder and harder to tell between each speaker, if you are just looking at what's said and not at the pictures attached to it. the characters' distinct voices have been eroded away, so that they speak more and more like each other, relaying the same terms and ideas in the same words. perspective becomes a suggestion, instead of a must.

this is something that started back in monster camp too, as all of the endings in that game felt ultimately the same as every other ending. it's very hard to place or define the full reason why, why there feels like there's no emotional stakes nor investment, why everything feels moreso like selecting different coats of paint and trying to find all the different ending pictures rather than being interested in exploring the characters as characters.

stranger yet, the series that started with the tagline of "be your worst self" has experienced a kind of... softening, for lack of a better word? what i mentioned about being able to handle the balance between terrible people who do terrible things and the light tone of the game starts to change, as abruptly the same characters who were down with violent murder in the first game start to lose their nerve, acting more and more on more typical morality. it's one of those things that feels like it's starting to damage the tone, as abruptly it's not as absurd as it used to be, demands less suspension of disbelief which could buffer and support the rest of the setting on it. there's even a part in one of the endings in montrip which involves current-polly and current-scott looking back on their monprom selves and reacting in horror at how violent and careless their pranks are, in a way that fundamentally felt like it was undercutting and disparaging all the things that felt fun and made monprom what it was.

which is odd, really, because more and more i feel like the characters in these games like each other less and less. the friendships and genuine enjoyment of each others company that brought me to this game in the first place has gone. now they don't mention each other as much, don't care for each other's feelings and reactions as much, aren't as willing to support each other. they are more and more found on their own, relied on their own, seem to seek out contact and interaction with their own friends less and less. it feels like they're all separating out into their own worlds, but also feels like they wouldn't willingly want to interact with each other if they weren't already forced together by some other outside contrivance.

if anything, i'd compare it to every other dating sim out there, where you, the player, are the most important person in these characters' lives, and they only feel ambivalent or antagonistic towards every other character. which, again, is not why i picked up monster prom or why i liked it so much in the first place.

and it's because of this that it feels like the current state of the series has to focus on its increasingly weak worldbuilding and lore, trying to form a more serious foundation without character relationships being so tightly bound together, without the characters themselves being more developed and rich, without an aspect of absurd humor to rely on.

more and more i've noticed monprom has to rely on referencing other series to make itself funny and create humor, which, again, it's always done. it was just easier to ignore back then, if you didn't know what was being referenced, because there was always more going on in the exact same scene to bolster it and give context clues as to the setup and punchline at play. it feels like the current games are much more dependent on you knowing pop culture references in order to have any fun with it, and i'm someone who, again, is very picky in what i like or what i'll seek out. i'm not interested in a stream of references about other things that i would much rather be doing than playing through a game that feels like it hates that i like it at all, when i could, again, just be engaging with the thing that takes itself seriously and knows what it wants.

#all the care guide says is 'biomass' #monster prom #asks #vanillabeenflower #this is. so long i am so sorry. #and its still not my entire thoughts because i have so many thoughts #this is an unedited ramble tbh and im very sorry for that #i have more complaints like #how fucking snide and condescending the narration is to its own characters #which it already had but gets even worse in the later games #which is why despite loving aaravi i dont want to play moncamp at all #where a character says they like something or feel something and the narration has to be so. sarcastic about it? #like how i mentioned about how it feels like how its looking down on them as people #instead of whats probably the intended read which is #more jokingly calling them dumb in an affectionate way like how you might do with friends #and ofc theres the whole miranda rant #i hate what theyve done with the merkingdom and i HATE adrien as a concept i wont lie #just. cool. this female character is too stupid to count as a lore character. we obviously need a MALE character to fill in instead #we cant just have miranda talk about this or center any of the other female characters #and how they feel about this and whats going on for them #no we need to make up a new man to talk to instead #im. im still really bitter about it i wont lie. #like i said i could go on and get way more specific about it #i just feel like any and all emotional weight to this has died and the characters are more and more obviously actors on a stage #for your own self gratification rather than their own people living their own lives #this is so bitter and i really shouldnt put this in the main tag #i am so sorry everyone who will see my rant. but my peace must be made. #dont worry im already asking myself if im just making all this shit up myself #what if some of us liked that the characters were so mean to the player and had no qualms about aggressively rejecting us #because it gave some illusion of them being able to make their own choices and decisions in what they wanted

[justarandomhelluvablog]

having thoughts about how Husk actually has very little left to redeem bc he started his journey of self-change before even coming to work at the hotel, but at the same time redemption isn't even his goal- he ain't even aiming for heaven, he just wanted to be a better person and maybe now with friends and especially Angel, who he supports so much and wants to see succeed, maybe now he has a reason to be a better person

#hazbin hotel #husk #warning I am about to ramble in these tags O7 I have a ridiculous amount of thoughts about this cat bird man #thinking about that word of god from vivzie that Husk is actively fighting his gambling addiction in hell #which besides the pilot we've only seen his gambling mentioned in the past #and idk if it's just because they had to focus on other things but we don't see him drinking as heavily as he did in the pilot #and first few episodes. like he actually wants to be sober #we know he used to be an overlord and we assume that comes with all the terrible overlord qualities #(aka there's no such thing as a good slave owner) #but the Husk we know now has been on both sides of this chain #he knows and respects boundaries. consent is super important to him. this feels like a moral you can't really have to be an overlord #he also sees everyone as more than just what they can do for him specifically. he gets NOTHING out of being Angel's friend #he gets NOTHING out of defending Angel and Cherri during the fight with the Exorcists #he knows when to open up and who to open up to and trust. and he extends a hand to someone in need. someone he ain't even close to- #and if it hasn't changed he is trying to beat his own vices despite not even being a guest of the hotel. he's staff. he doesn't HAVE to #participate in their activities or try to change. he was dragged into this #but dammit he does it anyway #(also if he is still trying to beat his gambling addiction I wonder if the pilot was a relapse. hm) #anyway ig what im trying to say is husk isn't a guest at the hotel but plays the role of a guide for the guests bc he's already #got a very strong and *GOOD* set of morals considering they're in hell #like his level of morals we've only seen /explicitly/ shown in hellborn. and yeah consent and boundaries is rock bottom even for Earth #but they're in hell so somehow the bar manages to be even fucking lower than that so I consider it a win #ALSO THE FACT THAT HE STOOD BETWEEN ANGEL & CHERRI AND THE EXORCISTS??? this mf is willing to DIE for these people #I am 100% sure that if Husk's soul didn't belong to Alastor he would already be redeemed #we don't know what he did in life and we don't know how bad he was as an overlord but we know who husk is /now/ #and that person is a pretty damn good guy #he might have some work to do sure but he's already at least started his redemption before the show even began and #we're just seeing the tail end of it #god damn I really rambled in these tags i am so sorry #I just have so many thoughts about him

[jolieeason]

January 2023 Wrap Up

January was a busy reading month for me. Because of that, I could complete all my reading challenges for the month!! Woot!! It was also a busy month, personally, for me. The highlights of this month are: Miss B left her dual high school and college credits program. Snickers going to the emergency vet with a bloody eye. She came home with a torn tear duct and a torn lower lid. BK going back to…

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#2023 January Wrap Up #A Body Washes Ashore #A Guide to Being Just Friends #A Suitable Boy #Adam J Wright #Agustina Bazterrica #All Hallows #All the Dangerous Things #Ana Reyes #Andrew Hook #Anna Bennett #B. Kristin McMichael #Before the Coffee Gets Cold #Bradley Pay #Cara Tanamachi #Casey McQuiston #Catherine Steadman #Chad Miller #Chosen #Christopher Golden #D.L. Soria #Dead and Gondola #Elizabeth McKenna #Emily Wildes Encyclopaedia of Faeries #Eugen Bacon #Fatal Intent #Han Kang #Haunted from Without #Heather Darwent #Heather Fawcett

[puhpandas]

coming up with a fic where Tony is a ghost tethered to Gregory after GGY kills him and it's just Tony having watched Gregory be mind controlled and then free himself unknowingly and wake up with memory loss and survive a night at the pizzaplex all while Tony cant talk to him or even help him.

afterwards Tony finding out how to show himself as a ghost and Gregory seeing him and just being reminded of GGY and everything that happened and remembering it all and freaking out.

the idea of Tony being a ghost and stuck tethered to his killer + ex-friend but maybe hes actually good? and he doesn't know how to feel about it because as a detective he realizes that Gregory isnt himself while doing all of these things but also... Gregory killed him

#also when i typed ex-friend it autocorrected to ex-boyfriend #damn tony trouble in paradise? #ex-boyfriend ONLY because his ass literally died #anyways already have some ideas #probably wont be long #i actually do plan to write it tho #pandas.txt #pandas talks #sneak peak of the name of the fic just so i can add it to the tag #tonys guide to being (irrationally) a ghost #tgtb(i)ag #au #ggy #tony becker