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gffa · 2 months

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Hi, since you’ve been reading the star wars books, do you have one you’d recommend as a starting point for someone who’s never read any of them and is interested in seeing what they’re like?

Hi! This is going to be very subjective, given that I'm not sure what your favorite characters are or which era you're interested in, and if you're interested in the best books out there or ones that typify what the books are overall like. BEST BOOKS: - Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover, god-tier ability to take my favorite SW movie and make it even more emotional and hard-hitting. It adds even more depth to the story, has beautiful writing, and just is a really satisfying read imo. - Padawan by Kiersten White, which is a story about a young Obi-Wan going on an adventure by himself and I think really captures how I see his youth, that there was struggle and difficulty, but overall it explains why he loves being a Jedi and why there's so much joy in his life. - Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule is good for if you're interested in the High Republic stories and I still think is easily my favorite of the entire line. There was so much good foreshadowing and banger lines that really got Star Wars and was an exciting plot to really hook me on THR.

BOOKS THAT MOST TYPIFY WHAT SW BOOKS ARE LIKE: - Brotherhood by Mike Chen is one that I have some stuff I side-eye in it (everything with Mace) and some stuff I was over the moon for (everything with Obi-Wan) and some stuff I was in the middle about (everything with Anakin). That's Star Wars novels in a nutshell for you! (I also think Dooku: Jedi Lost by Cavan Scott is another good starting place, it's an audiodrama, but it gives an interesting backstory to the character, has some interesting Jedi worldbuilding, and does some really great character work with Asajj Ventress.) - Wild Space by Karen Miller is a Legends book (and I usually try to stick to Disney continuity just for ease's sake) but it has some eyeroll-worthy stuff, some unearned stuff, and some absolutely batshit bonkers in the best way stuff. It's a RIDE to read and maybe not one to take super seriously but I feel like it captures the spirit of SW books. (Alternate suggestion: Dark Rendezvous by Sean Stewart is a really good Yoda & Dooku book with a lot of good appearances by other Jedi characters and one of the better books for Jedi stuff, plus lots of feelings and banger conversations between characters.) (Alternate-alternate suggestion: Another Legends suggestion, since there are a lot of SW books in that continuity, you could read the Jedi Apprentice series by Dave Wolverton and Jude Watson, as long as you know they're aimed at a pre-teen audience and are written accordingly and they are SUPER dramatic and put Obi-Wan through the wringer. I'm not always wild about Watson's writing, but when she writes a banger line, she writes a BANGER line, and they're very fun books that a lot of fandom still folds into their writing.) - The Aftermath trilogy by Chuck Wendig is a good place to start if you want to explore the connective tissue between the originals and the sequels, though I always recommend that I think they work a thousand times better as audiobooks. It's mostly new characters (which, welcome to SW novels) but it also has some really good Leia and Mon Mothma scenes, too. - Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray is for if you're more interested in the Original Trilogy characters and while I wish there'd been more worldbuilding in this one, it's a solid story from someone who genuinely loves this character, and will give you a good idea of what you can expect from Leia books. (If you're more interested in a Han/Leia story, The Princess and the Scoundrel by Beth Revis is on the same level. Solid story with occasional moments of fantastic. I had a blast with the Leia sections especially!)

#lumi.txt #star wars #novel recs

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centrally-unplanned · 2 months

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A vaguely related movie take that I am right about screw the haters is that A New Hope is definitively better than The Empire Strikes Back. ESB lovers really focus on its "set pieces" and in particular the ending, which totally fair does slap. And everything in Dagobah is pretty great.

But when you step back from that the movie is a bit of a structureless void - it starts off barely acknowledging the events of the previous movie, with a cast that has no momentum fighting the same old enemy. Luke pretty much just gets fetch-quested to find Yoda out of the blue, the events of the Hoth Battle Sequence kind of like...don't matter, right? What is the Alliance trying to achieve in this movie? I know the answer is *survive* but our main characters have no plan around that, they just run off individually. Han & Leia spend the middle of the film fucking around in the belly of an asteroid worm, you might not even remember that. Its pure cheese.

It is obviously this way because the first film wasn't made with a sequel in mind, it didn't do the work of setting that up and so ESB flails around to find its footing. But that is just the reality, the trilogy was poorly planned out, and ESB suffers for it. Meanwhile ANH is immaculate in its pacing and structure, its distilled Hero's Journey. Like sure its not as "mature" as ESB in its themes, but A: I don't know true that really is, ESB is just "darker", I don't think that is the same thing. And B: that is more of a genre choice than a judgement, Back to the Future would not be improved by being more "serious" or whatever. ANH is a magic space adventure, and it does that job peerlessly. Its an S tier movie, and ESB just isn't.

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datcloudboi · 5 months

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List of Video Games Turning 10 Years Old in 2024

Alien: Isolation

Assassin's Creed: Rogue (the one where you play as an Assassin turned Templar.)

Assassin's Creed: Unity (the one set during the French Revolution.)

Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky

Azure Striker Gunvolt

The Banner Saga

Bayonetta 2

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea (the DLC where you go back to Rapture)

A Bird Story (a sort of spin-off of "To the Moon")

BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! (is this a sequel to 1 or a prequel to 1? I forgor)

Bravely Default (in North America)

Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (the one with K*vin Sp*cey)

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (to date, the last new Castlevania game to release)

Child of Light

The Crew (going offline at the end of March)

D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (a wonderfully strange game from the guy that made Deadly Premonition)

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (in North America)

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (in North America)

Dark Souls II

Deception IV: Blood Ties

Demon Gaze

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

Disney Infinity 2.0

Divinity: Original Sin (from the team that would go on to make Baldur's Gate 3)

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Dragon Age: Inquisition (the winner of GOTY at the very first TGAs)

Drakengard 3

Earth Defense Force 2025 (EDF! EDF! EDF!)

The Evil Within (from the creative director of Resident Evil)

Fable Anniversary

Fairy Fencer F

Far Cry 4

Freedom Planet

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign

Hyrule Warriors

Inazuma Eleven (in North America. And digital only.)

Infamous: Second Son (as well as its expansion, First Light)

Kirby: Triple Deluxe

The Last of Us Remastered (just one year after the original version came out...)

The Legend of Korra (the game from PlatinumGames that you can't buy anymore)

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

Lego The Hobbit

The Lego Movie Videogame

Lethal League (from the team that would go on to make Bomb Rush Cyberfunk)

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (the third and final chapter of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy)

Lisa: The Painful (yes, really)

LittleBigPlanet 3

Lords of the Fallen (not to be confused with Lords of the Fallen, which came out in 2023)

Mario Golf: World Tour

Mario Kart 8 (the original version)

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes (the prologue to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which came out 18 months later)

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Might & Magic X: Legacy

Murdered: Soul Suspect (it's like Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, but not as good)

Natural Doctrine

Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! (a from the ground up remake of the first Oddworld game from 1997)

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (yes, it got a sequel. I don't know how or why.)

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

Pokemon Omega Ruby & Pokemon Alpha Sapphire

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy (the last time that Professor Layton himself was the protagonist. At least, until the New World of Steam comes out)

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Pushmo World

Risen 3: Titan Lords

Sacred 3

Samurai Warriors 4

Shadowrun: Dragonfall

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (the 3rd one)

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

Shovel Knight (yes, really)

Skylanders: Trap Team (the 4th one)

Sniper Elite III

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal

South Park: The Stick of Truth

Steins;Gate (in North America)

Strider (the one from Double Helix)

Sunset Overdrive

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS (or Smash 4 for short)

Tales of Xillia 2

Tales of Hearts R

The Talos Principle

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call

Thief (the reboot)

This War of Mine

Toukiden: The Age of Demons

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark (this game merged the storyline of the War for/Fall of Cybertron games with the storyline of the Michael Bay movies. I’m not joking)

Transistor

Valiant Hearts: The Great War

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Wasteland 2

Watch Dogs

The Witch and the Hundred Knight

The Wolf Among Us (sequel this year!)

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z

Yoshi's New Island

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piglet26 · 5 months

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Jason Fry Interview about Reylo

There's a really great interview with Jason Fry, who wrote the novelization.

Comments on Kylo Ren

I think Ben is disappointed by all his father figures, which is a part of what fuels his rage. He sees Han as a scruffy criminal, Luke as a jealous rival and Snoke as an uncaring manipulator. He rejects all these father figures as wanting and can’t fill the void that’s left -- until he reaches that pivotal moment on Kef Bir.

Do you feel by the end of TLJ that Kylo was turning back to the light or solidifying his stance in the dark side?

Neither. He’s won a battle but lost his personal war, and is adrift. The Resistance has escaped, his chance at vengeance has been lost (complete with the great “no dice” joke when they disappear in his hand), and Rey has severed the connection between them.

What do you think Kylo was suggesting to Rey in the throne room? Do you see it as a strictly force partnership or did see his words as meaning more than just that and an actual relationship?

It wasn’t clear to me, because at that moment I don’t think it’s clear to Kylo. He sees Rey as a partner in the Force, absolutely, and there’s obviously this incredibly powerful connection between the two of them. But Kylo’s still working through his own issues there, including what that connection means to him.

He tries to use Rey, which is why she’s so disappointed in him – she thought she could bring him back to the light, and the first thing he does after she thinks she’s succeeded is to try and make her a partner in his ambitions.....that connection goes back to The Force Awakens, when Kylo tries to pry open Rey’s mind and instead lets her into his own. That’s pivotal for both of them – it unlocks Rey’s nascent power, because she sees how Kylo can do what he does, but it also leaves Kylo’s deepest fears and insecurities open to her.

I think this is additional wonderful insight into criticism around Finn's storyline in the The Last Jedi.

Along the same lines, I think the world of John Boyega, who’s a wonderfully dynamic actor and someone whose voice Hollywood needs to listen to. But I also think his criticism of Finn’s storyline in TLJ is misplaced. I think TLJ did a good job with Finn, and what fans who dislike his storyline are missing is that it’s a middle chapter – all complications and reversals and missteps, particularly for Finn. Finn is a remarkable character whom I’ve called the conscience of the sequel trilogy, a child soldier with a moral compass strong enough that he shakes off his programming and refuses to kill for the First Order. But he’s also in search of an identity after making that decision. In TFA he devotes himself to Rey, and that’s where he still is in TLJ. His new friends expect him to dedicate himself to the Resistance, but that’s the last thing he wants – he just stopped being a soldier for a cause, and he’s not signing up to do that again......... Finn’s one of my favorite characters, but I think he got shortchanged in ROS, not TLJ.

#reylo #jason fry #rey skywalker #rey star wars #finnrey #kylo x rey #kylo ren #star wars #ben solo #ben solo x rey #ben solo deserved better #rey nobody #rey palpatine

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battlekidx2 · 1 year

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Across the Spider Verse Thoughts

Across the spider verse was my most anticipated movie of 2023. I came in with sky high expectations and yet somehow the movie managed to surpass them.

By the end of the opening sequence across the spider verse had me sold that this was going to be one of my favorite spider-man movies and when the movie finished that belief held true. Spider-Man across the spider verse is easily one of my favorite superhero movie sequels of all time (I actually think it might be my favorite). The movie just came out and I’ve already seen it, what my brother has dubbed, “too many times” (Though I vehemently disagree with him on that point).

It’s a movie sold on its scope and love for all of spider-man and his lore and yet it never loses its heart in the spectacle. It manages to be a fantastic middle chapter to what is quickly becoming one of my favorite film series of all time.

There’s a lot I want to talk about so I’m just going to get right into it.

Miles is a great protagonist

Miles Morales is a character that I felt Into the Spider Verse really elevated. I had read all of the ultimate comics spider-man run that was his debut series and, while I liked Miles, he was never in the top tier of my favorite superheroes, but that quickly changed with Into the Spider Verse. They managed to explore his struggle and hesitance to accept the Spider-man mantle in a way that was far more compelling than his comic book counter part.

Across the Spider Verse takes the already really strong basis that Into the Spider Verse created for Miles and builds on it through a brilliant meta narrative on what it means to be spider-man and asking the question of whether or not Miles really is spider-man.

Trauma is so ingrained into the creation and growth of spider-man as a character. Ask anyone to list what the most iconic moments in spider-man comics are and you are bound to get answers that include uncle ben’s death, the death of gwen stacy, the death of Jean DeWolfe, Captain Stacy’s death, etc.

There are a lot of moments of loss within the spider-man mythos that define the character and these moments are carried over into a lot of spider-man media outside of the comics. Miles’ rejection of this narrative and the necessity of loss to make a hero in this movie is what truly makes him become spider-man.

The first movie had him accepting the mantle but this is where he truly grows into the role.

Outside of the mask Miles is a unique and three dimensional character as well.

Miles has a youthful charm and good heart that feels authentic to a high schooler that has yet to experience a lot of what life has to offer without falling into feeling like a middle schooler or a caricature of a teenager like MCU Peter Parker tends to do at certain points in his trilogy.

I think this is displayed really well in his relationship with Gwen. There’s an innocence and inexperience there that shows that this is his (an her) first attempt at a real relationship but it never feels surface level because the movie does a great job at selling their bond and how they are similar in key ways that makes it so the understanding they find in one another feels natural.

This elevates the betrayal he feels when it’s revealed that Gwen and Peter B Parker knew everything Miguel reveals to him the whole time and it makes his goodbye to Gwen all the more impactful.

Another relationship I want to shed light on is the one Miles has with his parents.

Miles’ bond with both his parents in this movie is phenomenal but the relationship that is really allowed to shine is the one between Miles and his mother, Rio.

I loved the expansion of Rio Morales’ role. In the first movie she was a memorable but underused character (understandably) and her relationship to Miles took a backseat to his relationship to his father. But here we get to see their unique bond and her attempts to understand him and learn to give him the space he needs to grow into his own person. It felt earned that she was the one he was going to reveal his identity to first before it was revealed that the Rio he told wasn’t from his universe.

As it stands Miles’ arc isn’t complete, but what is shown and the place he is left in make for a strong set up for the finale of this three part story. I have complete faith that this trilogy will stick the landing and provide satisfying conclusions to the arcs and relationships that have been set up. Miles has really become one of the best iterations of the spider-man character and one of my favorites to hold the mantle. I can’t wait to see what they do with him in the next movie.

Gwen’s increased role

One of my favorite changes from the first movie is the amount of emphasis put on Gwen and her arc.

I knew after Into the Spider Verse that if they were going to make a sequel Gwen would likely have a much bigger role considering the seeds they planted to have her connection to Miles grow and the fact that where she was on her journey as a spider-person had her in the perfect place to be a foil to him moving forward. It felt like a natural progression, but even knowing that and having read the Spider-Gwen comics, the way the movie utilized her was better than I ever could have hoped.

Across the Spider Verse took the potential for Gwen as a character and foil for Miles and ran with it by creating a duality in how their arcs compare to one another.

The opening sequence very purposefully made her a dark parallel to Miles, a cautionary tale of what could go wrong if he unmasks himself to his parents and an extreme case of the isolation he could experience throughout his journey. But also just like Miles she’s very early on in her journey as Spider-woman. She’s not even out of high school so many of her canon events haven’t happened yet and, like she learns later on in the film, her story isn’t set in stone.

She’s on that same journey of self discovery and forging your own path that Miles is and having this contrast between them elevates both their arcs.

She’s not just an amazing foil for Miles. She’s also an excellent vehicle for the movie’s themes.

Across the spider verse is centered around themes of isolation, fate, the weight of life, and making your own path and, while Miles is undoubtedly the protagonist of the feature, Gwen is the one the movie tells a complete arc with surrounding these themes.

Her loneliness was hinted at in the first movie but it’s put on full display here with the opening 20 minutes hammering home just how isolated she is in her world and how much the loss of Peter Parker and her role in his death has effected her.

Gwen lacks any sort of support system at the start of the movie. Even before the showdown with Vulture there’s a disconnect between her and her police captain father that stems from the fact that he’s leading the hunt for Spider-woman, her alter ego, because he believes she killed Peter. She struggles to open up to anyone else and make friends in her world because of her life as spider-woman and how intrinsically tied it is to her issues. And she’s lost the only people she feels could understand her with no way that she knows of to see them (particularly Miles) again.

The opening culminates with Gwen losing the last person she has left in her own world when her father tries to arrest her after she unmasks herself to him and she flees her world to join Miguel’s spider society.

This all sets up a very powerful arc dealing with her loneliness and struggles with doing the right thing in the face of her fear of rejection and loss where she finally really opens up to other people and “starts her own band” to stand against Miguel O’Hara through her connection with Miles and desire to help him as well as her reconciliation with her father.

This movie asks questions about whether or not trauma and loss are necessary to make you spider-man so it’s significant that it is instead through healing from parts of her trauma, reconnecting with her father, and making genuine connections that Gwen is able to grow as a hero. It says a lot about what this movie believes makes someone “spider-man”.

Another moment in Gwen’s arc that exemplifies what the movie believes makes a hero is actually Gwen’s reconciliation with her father where he reveals he quit the force. That moment proves that Miguel’s belief is wrong and that breaking the canon isn’t the end of the multiverse as they know it. This coupled with the fact that it’s Gwen’s speech about her desire to do what’s right and protect those she loves that gets her father to quit tells you everything this movie is trying to say about heroism. It’s not the loss and trauma that makes you spider-man but the character of the person behind the mask.

The opening also does a great job of establishing just how much Miles impacted Gwen in the first movie. He broke through this wall of isolation she put around herself and for the first time in a long while she found a genuine connection with someone who could understand and know all of her. It sells you immediately on how much this bond means to her and makes her conflict moving forward really compelling.

This relationship is a linchpin in the narrative of this film so if it didn’t work then the impact the movie’s story and themes would have been severely hampered.

If I’m being honest Gwen’s arc is where the movie hit me the hardest. I think everyone has dealt with loneliness and that feeling of isolation that can come from being different and/or grief. There’s always that underlying desire for understanding and community that many people fear they’ll never have and seeing that portrayed in Gwen hit for me.

It’s the kind of desire I know I feared I would never get, but when I left home and went out on my own I was finally able to find people who understood me and accepted my idiosyncrasies in a way no one ever had before. And I always get emotional when I see that same isolation I felt portrayed in such a raw way and when those characters I see it in finally find the connection they need.

It’s also this isolation that goes a long way to explain why so many spider-people would join Miguel’s task force and go along with his plans. There’s a sense of community where all these people who have lost so much can find other people who understand them. That understand their unique form of grief, loss, and isolation that they struggle to find anywhere else because of the path they chose to take with their life. And won’t reject the half of them they are usually forced to hide from those they care about. Without showing this through Gwen’s perspective the last act of the film could have felt forced.

Gwen is a strong character that really grew into her role as the deuteragonist of the film and the role of spider-woman and serves to strengthen the themes of the film. She’s a great character that has so much potential moving forward and I look forward to her role and eventual reunion with Miles in Beyond the Spider Verse.

The animation

It’s no secret that spider verse changed the animation industry after it came out. Before spider verse many animated movies had started to feel like they fell into a very similar style that focused on realism above all else and in many ways I felt didn’t fully capitalize on what animation could do as a medium (there were exceptions but a lot of studios were starting to lean on the Disney/Pixar animation style). But now there are shows and movies that are taking a page out of spider verse’s book and experimenting. Studios are less afraid to let their animators get creative and it’s been incredible to see.

Across the Spider Verse continues to push the envelope and goes beyond what they did with the first one to create one of the most visually stunning movies I’ve ever seen.

The way they experimented with the animation in different dimensions to bring comic book art styles to life (Gwen’s universe) and further accentuate the character and culture they are centered around (Hobie and Pavitr’s universes) really served to elevate the story, heighten the emotions of every scene, and make this truly feel like a multiversal epic.

One of my favorite visual flares in the movie is how color is used in Gwen’s universe. In the opening it really plays up the stark divide she feels between her and everyone else. She feels like she’s completely separate from the world around her through the very deliberate contrast in coloring and the way the background bleeds and morphs around her. She’s frequently portrayed in shades of blue while the world around her is full of vibrant pinks, oranges, and white.

I also love how the paint like aesthetic of her world’s backgrounds are used to heighten the emotions of scenes like the talks she has with her father. The background bleeds and the colors morph to reflect the emotions of the characters talking. When Gwen is desperately trying to reach out to her father in the beginning after she unmasks herself and at the end when she admits how powerless she feels to protect those she cares about the background starts to run and the colors bleed together and it captures how her world is falling apart and her path forward is no longer clear.

I also want to point out how the lighting is one of the major hints that Miles isn’t on earth-1610. The lighting of every scene from the moment Miles is sent to earth-42 is some shade of purple or green which immediately gives the world a different feel than Miles’. It’s not so noticeable at first that it gives away the twist but it’s enough that it gives you an uneasy feeling the first time through and it’s details like these that elevate the reveal on rewatch.

This level of care and attention to detail permeates every frame of the film. There isn’t a single second of this movie that is wasted and it really uses the medium of animation to its fullest potential.

I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us in Beyond the Spider Verse. If it’s anything like this then it will be amazing.

conclusion

Spider-man is far and away my favorite hero. I’ve read many of his comic book runs, I own all his movies and video games, I’ve seen all his shows, etc. I’m the massive fan that probably understood way too many obscure references that this movie made and I loved every second of the movie I got to see.

I had so much fun with this movie and I hope everyone who watched the movie managed to get some enjoyment out of it. I can’t wait for Beyond the Spider Verse to come out and to finally get to see the conclusion to this animated trilogy.

side note

Spider-man is a character that is able to speak to a wide range of people because of the struggles he faces. Having a movie that understands the diversity of the people who relate to the character and reflect that on screen through the many (canonical) spider-people portrayed is amazing.

I love that so many people will get to see someone like them being the hero they admire. Stan Lee himself said that anyone can wear the spider-man mask. He wanted people to be able to see themselves in the heroes he created which was the basis of spider-man (and the x-men but that’s another story). And that’s something that I will always love about the character.

#across the spider verse #atsv #miles morales #gwen stacy #peter parker #miguel o'hara #hobie brown #spider-punk #pavitr prabhakar #spoilers #this movie is amazing #animation #sony animation

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justmeinabigolworld · 5 months

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You wanna know why I love middle grade books so much compared to YA?

One, they feel much more optimistic than YA, and more likely to try new, off-the-wall things

And two…

They don’t have all that gratuitous romance. Like, I already don’t read a huge chunk of YA books because they’re pure romance, and even in the books that aren’t explicitly about romance, there’s romance. Just when you think you’re safe, it pops up.

Oh, look! A fantasy book with a creative setting and a female protagonist! I’m gonna read it! Okay…good so far…wait, there’s this guy…oh, I don’t like where this is going…aaaaaaand they kissed. And the guy tends to be awful, too. Really mean to the protagonist, but she loves him anyway, because…she has to. It’s YA. I mean, sometimes the guy is fine, but sometimes he’s a piece of shit.

It’s like there’s some kind of law stating that all YA with a female protagonist must give her a love interest, complete with an angsty romance subplot, no matter what the story is about or how much (or little) it fits with the actual plot.

And you know what? I’m seeing more books that give the heroine a female love interest, which is great, even though that means the book has to be marketed as a “queer book” (so as not to upset the homophobes who would otherwise pick up the book or whatever). Still, a love interest is a love interest, and even though I enjoy seeing more queer representation these days, what I’d enjoy even more is a YA section that’s not dominated by romance.

Come on, people. We teens aren’t that horny. Not every book needs romance. Like, with how prevalent love interests are in teen fiction, why are you guys surprised that teens feel bad for having never kissed anyone? Hell, I’ve never kissed anyone, and I’m 19 at the time of writing this. Do I feel like a loser? Yes. Is it because of teen media? Yes…and it’s also due to seeing my classmates in relationships and feeling bad in comparison, but shush.

Also, this is gonna sound weird coming from a girl, but I’d like to read more YA with male protagonists. Everything seems to be about girls these days, and it’s good to have female protagonists, but let’s not leave guys out. As a plus, they have less of a chance of having a love interest. Hooray.

Seriously, though, not every girl constantly thinks about romance, and not every girl wants to read about it. Okay?

Hell, who am I even talking to? It’s not like the publishers are gonna listen to me.

But, uh, yeah. Read middle grade, it’s awesome. I’ve got some recommendations if you’d like.

I’ll probably make a post that’s just a list of good middle grade books and series, but here are a few:

The Thickety by J.A. White: really good dark fantasy, stuff that would even disturb adults, great worldbuilding and characters, and yes, there’s a love interest, but there isn’t much of a romance element. Feels really unique.

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell: yes, it was a series before it was a movie, and yes, the books are better. Very different from the movies, but that’s not a bad thing. The series gets darker as it moves along and Hiccup grows up, and things the characters took for granted are looked at with a more critical eye. Really interesting.

My Life With the Liars by Caela Carter: a book about a girl who grew up in a cult. Every time I read it, it gets more disturbing because I realize things that a younger me didn’t. Still, the book is more about Zylynn’s trauma and how she begins to heal and reach out, even as her worldview crumbles.

The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch: witty, charming, and secret! Apparently, some people find the author’s frequent asides and footnotes to be annoying, but I love them. The sequel trilogy isn’t nearly as good, though.

Okay, that’s it for now. I hope at least some of you can understand my frustration, and I hope you’ll check out these books!

#Reading #bookblr #ya #middle grade #fiction #young adult #rant #the thickety #How to train your dragon #the secret series #my life with the liars

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headspace-hotel · 2 years

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what are your favorite books? and why? ☺️

I saw this earlier and I feel like I fail to answer asks like this usually because I get too indecisive.

Like I have authors where I love their worldbuilding so much I want to explode, but frequently can't stand their characterization (looking at you, China Mieville), and others where the characters were great but the plot sucked in some way, and it's Very Hard to narrow down to the "best." I have a lot of books like "yes this book is amazing and visionary, yes I rated it 3/5 stars"

Also I read a lot of nonfiction or books that aren't my "usual" genre and it feels weird to compare them you know

The Epic of Gilgamesh was the first book that I could feel it changing me forever as a person. I am still genuinely obsessed with it.

Robert Jackson Bennett's Divine Cities trilogy is so fucking underrated, his characters are SO good and so is his worldbuilding.

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer. it's actually better than Annihilation imo

The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers

All of the Malazan series (that i've read so far), by Steven Erikson

Leviathan and sequels by Scott Westerfeld

A Natural History of Dragons and sequels by Marie Brennan

Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch

The Edge Chronicles series by Paul Stewart. Give your child this series instead of harry potter

Railsea by China Miéville was pretty great and The Scar was also great in terms of worldbuilding but i hated the main character so much and also it should have been at least 3 books

This is a weird one but The Twistrose Key by Tone Almhjell is WAY better than a middle grade book about a girl going to an afterlife where pets go to has ANY right to be. It's got this super lush, VIVID world and it's just really, really good for SOME REASON

What If? by Randall Munroe. Yes it is nonfiction, Yes that's the guy that made xkcd, it's GREAT

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein bc it decided who I am as a person I think

#books

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save-the-villainous-cat · 1 year

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*deep breath, dee* I’m not here to fight…as an avid Tolkien reader, what are your reasons for hating the Hobbit movies? How, pray tell, are they so “terrible”? I’m just curious. That’s all.

Is it the cinematography? The actors? Missing scenes? Give me something here. So many people hate on the movies but never give reasons. It starts to feel like it’s because it’s simply not LOTR- and the fact that there’s an age gap. The Hobbit is baby. LOTR is everyone’s great grandmother who makes you warm cookies every time you visit.

Oh boy, here we go.

Lucky for you, I am an unhinged movie nerd and I have lots of food for you on here…

When we talk about the Hobbit, we also have to talk about Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit got published in 1937 and is a fantasy novel for children. Tolkien wrote this book for his kids, so it was a silly story with a simple moral. An episodic narrative with a message about greed and trust, adding lots of adventure and fun. It’s one of the best-selling books ever written. It’s a classic.

Fellowship of the Ring got published in 1954 and is not intended for children. Simply, Allen & Unwin (Tolkien’s publisher) wanted a sequel to the Hobbit and Tolkien provided with a story that is more mature. Because his kids grew up. And those kids who had read the Hobbit had also grown up. Which made Fellowship a perfect story for those grown-ups/teenagers.

And that’s the thing. Fellowship works as a sequel. The Hobbit does not work as a prequel.

We have two completely different stories here on our hands: a story about a ring a bunch of people would like to have and a story about dwarves fighting over their home and…a bunch of treasure. The central conflicts have nothing to do with each other. The Hobbit doesn’t set up the worldbuilding of middle earth, doesn’t tell the story about Sauron nor the rings. And that is because it is not a prequel. It is its own story with its own central conflict.

This made this book a bit difficult to adapt. We either have the chance to turn this childlike story into a movie or turn it into a trilogy that works as prequels to Lord of the Rings (which they desperately tried to do here). I’m not saying there wasn’t any other way — I think they should’ve let Guillermo del Toro do his two movies (as originally intended) that included the overall spirit of the books and could be their own movies without having to reference Lord of the Rings all of the time but we ended up with three movies that can’t be their own thing because trilogies and because money.

The Hobbit is a relatively short book. Roughly around 95,000 words. Fellowship, just Fellowship is around 187,000 words. And it makes sense to make a movie trilogy out of a book trilogy, especially because those books follow a much more Hollywood structure.

But get this. We take the Hobbit with roughly 95,000 words. And we turn this book into a trilogy which leaves us with nine acts in total. Nine acts which leads to adding a bunch of stuff to fill all the plot points. A bunch of mini climaxes that go nowhere, character movements that come too early or too late, adding characters and subplots that absolutely no one asked for (at least of all the story).

For example, the scene at the end of the first movie where Thorin respects Bilbo is way too early. Their relationship doesn’t evolve at all in the second movie. Sure, they fight or whatever in the third movie but wouldn’t it have made sense to show Thorin’s respect for Bilbo when Bilbo frees the dwarves in the barrel plot point? It was originally set to be there but now that it’s not, the barrel plot point is super weak and doesn’t work for character/relationship development at all. It is there because the plot needs it to be there. Bilbo doesn’t have to prove anything, he just does it because the plot needs him to.

And why is that? Because we needed this little climax at the end of movie one (because storytelling and story structure) where Bilbo, a character who is known for his intelligence, who is — unlike the dwarves — not a fighter, fucking knocks over an orc. Don’t tell me this was character development. If this was character development, then he would’ve started killing orcs in movie two and three. Bilbo is not a fighter. He is characterised by his wits. But because the plot needed him to, he had to do this. Weirdly, he doesn’t really do it again, does he?

Originally, the first movie was supposed to end with the dwarves arriving at Erebor/Laketown with movie two starting with getting into Erebor. Smaug’s death would’ve been the midpoint of movie two. Not the most anticlimactic thing to have ever happened in movie three.

Seriously? You kill the main antagonist before the opening title? What were these guys thinking? The death of the Cumberbatch lizard was supposed to be the thing and they just killed him off in the most anticlimactic way ever, thanks to the structure of turning a little book into three movies.

Which makes us watch a bunch of stupid shit: dwarves are — according to the Desolation of Smaug — fire-resistent, we get scary CGI, we get the White Council because, guys, have you heard of lotr, we get a horrible love triangle, a horrible Tauriel who has no character whatsoever, we get Legolas, because guys, remember this trilogy you liked when you were younger, do you remember lotr, we get a river fight scene that is unnecessary, we get Galadriel x Gandalf for whatever reason, a Beorn chase scene, a random trip to Angmar that leads nowhere, Elijah Wood because, hey guys, do you remember LOTR? We get Radagast with poop on his head because we need to tell the people the forest is dying and something bad is coming because lotr, remember? We need Sauron in here because…wait a minute these movies try to be prequels to Lord of the Rings??

It doesn’t work like this. The Hobbit is episodic and not related to Lord of the Rings plotwise. Yes, Bilbo finds the ring but that is that. Help, the ring is actually evil is the only thing that connects these two stories. Nothing more.

But now, we have these three movies full of stuff that doesn’t make any sense, full of characters that stand for nothing, full of contradictions, full of — sorry — bullshit because we needed three movies and as much lotr in it as possible.

Why is Tauriel there? Why is Legolas here? The Necromancer was a plot device to separate Gandalf from the dwarves (which was important for dwarf/Bilbo bonding time) but now the Necromancer is Sauron? Why? Why?

There is more wrong with this trilogy (and don’t get me started on all the stuff regarding the production/New Zealand) and if you’re interested in that, you should watch Lindsay Ellis’ videos on YouTube. She’s an amazing writer and movie critic — a great inspiration— and sums up my thoughts on it pretty well.

But I hope this is somewhat understandable? As someone who grew up with the Lord of the Rings, I am very passionate about these movies and the nostalgia they give me. It is very sad that we ended up with something like this and not Guillermo’s version. Like…c’mon if I recall correctly, these movies came out in December which makes them perfect Academy material and the Academy loves Guillermo…win win for everybody, but no…

#luve u dee!!#no writing #an answer for an ask

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aurorawest · 9 months

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Reading update

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers - 3.75/5 stars

I hate myself a little bit for using this word to describe this book, but it's a meditation on modern (western) culture, the drumbeat of living a purposeful life, and, imo, the millennial condition.

It also, separately from that, made me think of the song 'New Constellations' by Ryn Weaver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13EX7qGdUGI

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles - 5/5 stars

This book features Gareth Inglis, a member of the gentry whose father shipped him off to his uncle when his mother died. Gareth never saw or heard from his father (who remarried and had another child) again, and no one knew he existed because his father was a piece of human garbage. Which meant I couldn't stop thinking about my former father-in-law, who had two sons from his first marriage whom he, as far as I could tell, never had any contact with after remarrying and having another child. Life imitates art?

Anyway, it's KJ Charles, so you pretty much can't go wrong. I saw someone refer to this as enemies-to-lovers and realized my toxic trait is railing against people who want to apply enemies-to-lovers to everything. Spoiler alert, this is not enemies-to-lovers. But it is lovely, and includes Gareth and Joss Doomsday (a smuggler) bonding over beetles.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by SA Chakraborty - 4.5/5 stars

It was no Daevabad Trilogy, but then again, I remember finishing City of Brass and being like, yeah, it was fine, I'll probably pick up the sequel at some point. It wasn't until Kingdom of Copper that I grew to really love the series, so I'm hoping the same happens with this. This book was a lot of fun, and the fact that all the characters were middle-aged was pretty delightful. I'm definitely excited to see where this series goes.

The Long Run by James Acker - 5/5 stars

Excellent YA book about two lonely jocks in New Jersey.

Feel the Fire by Annabeth Albert - 3.75/5 stars

His Accidental Cowboy by AM Arthur - 4/5 stars

Brida by Paul Coelho - 1/5 stars

One of the reviews for this book on Storygraph says it 'aged like milk' and I can't put it better than that. This is a soul mate AU where souls undergo cell division, essentially, and your soul mate is from your same base soul from before the soul split in half. Okay, great. Oh but wait, the soul always divides into male and female. And your soul mate is always someone of the opposite sex, even though that doesn't make sense because as souls divide again and again, that means there are a lot of people out there who came from the same original soul as you. Also, witchcraft? Also also, even though the book is called Brida and is ostensibly about the title character, her whole journey was really just to serve the unnamed male character, the Magus. This isn't implicit either, it's completely explicit. At the end it's like, 'sometimes young women come along to show men the way' (I'm paraphrasing but...not much).

This went straight to my give away pile, and I hated it so much that the rest of my Coelho books joined it (except The Alchemist).

Enlightened by Joanna Chambers - 5/5 stars

Or, For The Love Of God Please Give David Lauriston And Murdo Balfour A Break, And Preferably A Happy Ending.

They got one, btw.

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao - DNF

Honestly, the Mad Libs YA title should have warned me off of this one, but I always give my Illumicrate books a try. Cartoonish villains and protagonists I find myself liking less the more we get to know them. The prose is quite good but not enough to make up for the character deficiencies.

Solomon's Crown by Natasha Siegel - 5/5 stars

Blurbed by no less than Tamora Pierce (Song of the Lioness supremacy!), Rainbow Rowell, Freya Marske, and CS Pacat. Did I go into this book with insanely high expectations? Yes. Did it mostly meet them? Yes! If you're a Captive Prince fan, this one's for you.

Siegel tells us up front, before the book even starts, that it's a romance and not historically accurate. So don't go into this expecting a historically accurate love story between King Richard of England and King Philip of France. It is, however, a gorgeous romance. The world-building is top notch. Even if it's not totally accurate to the High Middle Ages, it feels accurate, if that makes sense? Siegel really captures the feeling of being in a different world. Lush writing, amazing sexual/romantic tension, lovely sad boys. Highly, highly recommend.

Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian - 4.75/5 stars

I docked .25 stars because it bugged me that they didn't move in together at the end. Idk, just felt too 'look, I'm subverting romance conventions!' Still good, obviously.

Like Real People Do by EL Massey - 4/5 stars

A very wholesome and low stakes hockey romance. I found myself often thinking that the interactions of the men on the hockey teams seemed unrealistic, but it was charming and sweet enough that I didn't care.

The book reads like fanfiction, which is because it was fanfiction—but it's in a mostly good way, not a bad way (*cough* All The Way Happy *cough*). Apparently the original version was Check, Please! fanfiction, which I am vaguely familiar with as a thing that exists. Apparently it's a web comic? Anyway, I enjoyed the book enough to pick up the sequel.

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literary-illuminati · 20 days

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2024 Book Review #22 – Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

This was a bit of an odd read for me. I grabbed it because I have vague but generally quite positive memories of reading the first book in the trilogy a few years back, and having finished this I’m not really sure why. It’s not that it’s necessarily an awful read – it’s engaging, the moment-to-moment prose is fine, I finished it easily enough. Hell there’s a decent chance I read the sequel at some point. But my main feeling finishing it is that it’s an artistic failure, that I can see the things it was trying to do and generally speaking it just didn’t manage them. Which is a pity, really.

The book picks up right after Black Sun ended, with the crow god reborn massacring the Watchers and plunging the city of Tova into chaos, and world into permanent twilight as the crow and sun gods battle in the heavens. Inconveniently, the actual sun priest survived, having faked her death and fled to the undercity following a coup shortly before everyone involved died, leaving the ritual incomplete and Serpio (vessel and host of the Crow God) alive. The story basically follows the fallout from this, with the sun priest, crow prophet and three other POVs each showing the political trajectory of some different part of the world as things spiral inevitably toward war.

Which is the first problem, really. This is the middle book in a trilogy, and oh you can feel it. The entire book is spent moving pieces into place and just, table-setting for when the actual dramatic plot kicks off in book three. Now, personally I actually quite enjoy books full of intrigue and conversations on the road as people travel places, but it gets a bit excessive. It doesn’t help that half the POVs get barely any development and feel like they end the book in the same basic emotional/ideological place they started it with no progress at all to their arcs. The whole thing ends up feeling like a giant prologue to the actual story.

A feeling which is not helped at all by the book’s length. I’m not at all opposed to fantasy books being less than 400 pages. I am in fact incredibly in favour of it, the ideas of reading another 1100 page tome just makes me exhausted. But when you’re trying to do a George R. R. Martin-style continent spanning politics-heavy cast-of-thousands epic fantasy, you really need the extra wordcount. The result felt incredibly choppy and rushed, almost more like an outline or storyboard than a completed story. Each main character rushes from pivotal scene to pivotal scene with barely any time for establishing status quos or building relationships and connective tissue – instead things are basically introduced once and then the POV’s internal monologue just explains its importance to you, pivotal events in the plot explained either after the fact or not at all. Maybe one or two character dynamics in the entire book actually worked for me, the rest just felt like reading the ‘relationships’ section of a character sheet. It made getting invested in the whole thing remarkably difficult.

The feeling of reading an outline of a book wasn’t really helped by the lore. We got lots of interesting tidbits and implications, even some grand revelation – and essentially none of them are ever followed up on, or given the weight they really need to really land. The revelation of the Sun Priest having no shit miraculous magic powers after three hundred years of them violently suppressing any sorcery especially is, not exactly brushed over, but certainly no one seems to react to it have as violently as you would expect. Similarly, there’s a great book in here of just Tovan political intrigue and festering generational grudges and conspiracies colliding in the dark, but then that would require cutting out Xilla and Balam’s entire plotlines to make room for it. (I still kind of love the idea of the entire Golden Eagle hierarchy being pretty bitter that the coup they’d been carefully planning for years got derailed because a rival house pulled a messiah out of their ass and wiped out the entire governing elite of the city).

Then there’s things like the magic system – or honestly I feel like I should put that in scare quotes. There’s this idea brought up a few times that every form of magic fits into a neat schematic, associated with a particular god and specifically opposing and counteracting one other type of sorcery. Which I honestly kind of hate, for the same reason that I kind of hate the fact the crow god of shadows and death apparently really is exactly as vengeful and cruel as you might expect from that. Which might be building up to a big reveal in the third book! Who knows. But as is, the entire metaphysical setup just feels terribly like something out of a midbudget tabletop rpg setting, and not at all in a good way.

Which is a shame, because generally the setting is just a delight. No small part of that is just from the novelty of an epic fantasy stories that’s painted in the colours of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica instead of Medieval Europe. But even beyond that, the interplay of the different cities and factions within them is very fun, and it’s just a breath of fresh air to have no straightforward hereditary monarchies in one of these at all. I can’t say is felt really real (it is an agricultural society, plunging the world into permanent twilight as the winter ends isn’t dire and ominous, it’s an imminent famine of apocalyptic scale), but the aesthetics of everything were certainly entirely on point. I was left pretty sad this isn’t a series there’s more high quality fanart for, really.

#book review #fevered star #rebecca roanhorse #sff #tht

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boasamishipper · 5 months

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20 questions for fic writers

tagged by the lovely @doodledrawreblogs - thanks cy!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 104 (it will be 105 after my yuletide fic is posted)

2. What's your total Ao3 word count? 1,296,866

3. What fandoms do you write for? i've written fic for legend of korra, milo murphy's law, the dragon prince, star wars, ted lasso, top gun / top gun: maverick, 9-1-1 lone star, what we do in the shadows (tv), a league of their own (tv), mission: impossible, our flag means death, perry mason hbo, and night court.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

when i see your face (top gun, icemav, 1.4k) - 5018 kudos

Moving In Slow Motion (top gun, icemav, 7.5k) - 3044 kudos

Make A Wrong One Right (top gun, icemav, 18.8k) - 2313 kudos

baby, baby, i'd get down on my knees for you (top gun, icemav, 18k, cowritten with @academicgangster) - 2290 kudos

Word on the Street (top gun, icemav, outsider pov, 3.8k) - 1991 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? yes! if you are kind enough to read one of my fics and leave a comment, i always do my best to reply, even if it's just a string of heart emojis.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? probably Like Attracts Like - it's a companion piece to my legend of korra mash au sometimes you hear the bullet, and ends with zhu li (the radar of the story) getting word of varrick's plane going down a la henry blake in abyssinia, henry. truthfully, i'm not a big writer of angsty endings. angsty beginnings and middles, definitely, but i prefer all my fics to have a happy ending.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? see basically all of my fics have happy endings, but i think the happiest ending i've written goes to the end of I Know I'm Home, my robisanya au where sam matched with dani on bantr and not rebecca. in the final chapter, all the loose ends get tied up: richmond wins the premier league, roy and keeley get married, and sam and dani have the 'i'm going to marry you someday' talk. nothing but sweetness all around.

8. Do you get hate on fics? the only hate i've ever gotten on a fic was for one of my star wars sequel trilogy rewrites, and that was from some reylos who didn't like the anti-reylo things i was saying on my star wars sideblog, so... nah.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? i do and i have definitely gotten better at it over the years (though i still have a Long way to go lmao). i've only published m/m, but i've written some f/m smut (as you will see when i publish my degas/paris fic next year 😏)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? indeed i do. craziest (or at least most ambitious) has gotta be there's a raging fire in my heart tonight, my top gun/mcu crossover. (craziest crossover i've ever come up with is the night court / perry mason hbo crossover that @saltyfilmmajor and @bornforastorm have been enabling me to write)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? no thankfully

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? yes! when i see your face has been translated into korean and chinese, Lead Me On (To The Other Side) has been translated into korean, and (I Love You) A Bushel and A Pallet and Moving In Slow Motion have both been translated into chinese.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? yes, i wrote baby, baby, i'd get down on my knees for you with @academicgangster and wrote Austin Alone with @lilalbatross

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? i'm picking three for how they have influenced me and my writing: boasami, finnrey, and icemav.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? there are So Many of these....my google drive is essentially a graveyard of unfinished wips

16. What are your writing strengths? dialogue for sure. i've also been told my characterization is great and i have good comedic timing.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? action scenes and smut

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? i've done this before - usually i run it through google translate and then check other translation sites to be sure it's as accurate as possible. i've included the to-english translations in some fics (namely my top gun ones where i've written ice speaking russian) but mostly leave out the to-english translations these days. usually when my characters speak a different language you can pick up what they're saying from context.

19. First fandom you wrote for? the first fandom i wrote for was (i think) icarly, but the first fandom i published fic for was legend of korra.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? varies depending on the mood i'm in (and also i have written a Lot of fic so it is difficult to choose lmao). right now i'd say Word on the Street - i'm still really proud of how that one came together.

tagging @icemankazansky @lookforanewangle @lilalbatross @hacash @saltyfilmmajor @bornforastorm @maverickcalf @academicgangster and anyone else who wants to do this :)

#thanks for tagging me!#my fics #i have written. So Much Fic #god help me

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final-girl96 · 8 months

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My Boyfriend's Back Chapter Forty-Two

The Next Day

Sidney and I decided we would go to the L.A.P.D. Just as we walked into the precinct we saw Dewey, who was in the middle of trying to get a hold of one of us. We did our greetings and then went back to meet Detective Mark Kincaid. He was definitely Sidney's type; dark hair, tall, very handsome, nothing like Billy. He asked us questions and we talked. We also found out that our mother was once an actress that went under a different name. The killer has been leaving her pictures at the crime scenes.

"Can we go where this picture was taken?" I asked. Detective Kincaid nodded his head. "Yeah, sure. It was taken at the studio." We then left with another detective and a few police officers in tow and went to Sunrise Studios. When we got there, we saw the metal stairs that were in the background behind our mom. "Why didn't she ever say anything? I mean, she went by a whole different name back then. Do you think dad knows about this?" I asked, Sid. "I don't know. He did say she had a lot of secrets," she said.

We were walking past one of the trailers when the door opened. I jumped back with a small yelp before looking up to see who it was. "Jesus, Randy! What the hell are you doing here?" I asked. "Who else is going to tell you the rules of a trilogy?" He shrugged. I rolled my eyes and pushed past him into the trailer. Sidney, Gale, and Dewey were close behind. We all sat down and listened to Randy go on about the rules of a trilogy.

"Okay, so here's the critical thing. If we find ourselves to be dealing with an unexpected backstory and a preponderance of exposition, then the sequel rules do not apply. Because we are not dealing with a sequel, you are dealing with the concluding chapter of a trilogy," he explained. "A trilogy?" Dewey asked, and Randy nodded.

"That's right. It's a rarity in the horror field, but it does exist, and it's a force to be reckoned with, because true trilogies are all about going back to the beginning and discovering something that wasn't true from the get go. 'Godfather', 'Jedi', all revealed something that we thought was true, that wasn't true. So if it is a trilogy we are dealing with, here are some super trilogy rules." Great more rules to try and remember while fight yet another fucking killer.

"One, we got a killer who's gonna be superhuman. Stabbing him won't work. Shooting him won't work. Basically, in the third one, we gotta cryogenically freeze his head, decapitate him, or blow him up." I raised my eyebrow at that, "really? Can't we just shoot him in the head and be done with it?" He shushed me and continued on.

"Number two; anyone, including the main character, can die. This means you, Sid, and you," he said, looking at me. "I'm sorry, it's the final chapter. It can be fuckin 'Reservoir Dogs' by the time this thing is through. Number three; the past will come back to bite you in the ass!" He gave me another look and I cleared my throat. "Whatever you think you know about the past, forget it. The past is not at rest, any sins you think were committed in the past are about to break out and destroy you."

He never took his eyes off me while saying that. I knew he was talking about Stu. This time around all that I've been hiding would come out into the public and then I'm fucking six ways to Sunday. "I'm just glad I got to be here and tell you all this. I made a tape back at Windsor as a just in case. Honestly, I'm surprised I survived since I lost my virginity to Karen Kolchak in the back of the video store in the porno section," Randy said.

"Creepy Karen?" Dewey asked, and I snorted, trying to keep from laughing. "Shut up! She's a nice girl!" Randy argued. "He went on a date not too long ago with her," I blurted out. Everyone looked at him, and he huffed out a heavy sigh. "She's a nice person!" After Randy was done with all his rule telling, and we calmed down from teasing him about Karen, we left the trailer. Sidney had to go to the bathroom, so I went with her while Gale went off to do her own detective work, and Dewey and Randy waited outside the sound stage for me and Sideny.

I stood at the sink, looking at myself in the mirror. Randy's words about the past coming back rang in my mind. I was so caught up in my own head that I didn't notice Sidney coming up beside me. "You okay?" I shook my head and looked at her. "Mmhm. Yeah, I'm fine." She turned the faucet on and washed her hands. We were getting ready to leave the bathroom when a noise from one of the stalls had us stopping in our tracks.

Sidney pulled out her pepper spray, and we slowly walked over to the stall. I took a deep breath and looked at Sidney, who nodded her head. She had her pepper spray ready, and I pushed the door open. A girl with short brown hair looked up at us after dropping her bag. I looked down to see a ghostface mask. Sidney bent down to help her pick up her things. "I wanted a souvenir. I didn't think anyone would mind," she said and quickly put all her stuff in her bag.

When she stood up and got a good look at us, her eyes got a little wide. "You're Sidney prescott! I'm you! Well, I mean, I play you in the movie, or I was supposed to." Sidney smiled at her, "it's nice to meet you…" The girl held her hand out, "Angelina. Well, I better get going. It was so nice to meet you both." Then she was gone.

"Well, that was weird," I said. Sidney bent down and picked something up. "Wait! You forgot your brush!" She headed for the door and rushed out into the sound stage. "Sidney, wait up!" I went after her, and we walked through a door, and as soon as I realized exactly where we were, I stood dead in my tracks. "Sidney, wait!" It was too late though she was already out the door.

I slowly walked through the hall and spun in circles. I was standing in the entryway of Stu's house. There were so many memories that came flooding back. It was unreal how accurate it looked. I looked into the living room. The first memory that came to mind was Randy going on about the rules to survive a horror movie.

"You don't know the rules?!" He stood up. "Great. Thanks, babe." He shrugged and looked at Randy. "Have an aneurysm, why don't you?" Randy stood in front of the tv and started his whole rule bullshit. "There are certain rules that one must abide by in order to successfully survive a horror movie. For instance, number one: you can never have sex." Everyone booed and threw popcorn at him. Stu kissed my neck. "It looks like we're dead, baby." I laughed and lightly hit him. "BIG NO NO!" Randy said, swatting at the popcorn.

"Sex equals death, okay? Number two: You can never drink or do drugs." There were cheers, and everyone raised their bottles. "The sin factor! It's a sin. It's an extension of number one. And number three: never, ever, ever under any circumstances say, "I'll be right back." Because you won't be back." Stu pulled out from under me and stood up, kissing my forehead, and then stood by the kitchen door. 'I'm gettin'' another beer, you want one?" He asked.

"Yeah, sure," Randy told him. Stu held his arms out, "I'll be right back," he said and backed into the kitchen. "See, you push the laws, and you end up dead. Okay, I'll see you in the kitchen with a knife."

That was all before shit really hit the fan and I learned that my boyfriend was a fucking psychopath who helped kill my mother. If only we could go back to the times before all this. Before the murders. Before our lives were made into a movie. We would never get away from this no matter how hard we tried.

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ayaspen · 11 months

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Is “Across The Spider-Verse” a great sequel ? Yes.

One thing to know about me, is that I’ve always been a spider-man girlie, granted I wasn’t even born when the Raimi’s trilogy dropped, and it took me twelve years after to discover that Spider-Man was not actually blonde (my younger brain always thought he was for some reason) but there’s no denying that Spider-Man has always been a pop culture symbol, even if you don’t know his story, there’s no way you haven’t heard or seen pictures of the masked vigilante who swings around the city with his webs.

And although there were different interpretations to his story, he was always the ordinary kid in Queens (or in our case Brooklyn) who’s got too much power in his hands and is struggling what to do with it, to later become the masked vigilante who saves people and understands the responsibility he have toward his people.

When Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse dropped in 2018, people had mixed reviews on the subject, (and I was a middle schooler who stumbled upon the trailer by accident but was intrigued nonetheless) I think people were afraid that this was going to end up not meeting their expectations, and boy did it exceed them!

The movie did very well (and for good reasons!), and managed to re-introduce the story of The Spider-Man with a twist, in this case introducing the Spider-Verse, and everyone went nuts about it, from the music to the animation to the well-crafted story. The movie was one of the best movies of that year, if not of all times.

But what happens when that movie has a sequel ? 4 years later and with a very enthusiastic fan-base ? Will it be a disappointment or another win ?

Today, I’m ready to say that Across The Spider-Verse is as good if not better than the original, and here’s why…

Hello and welcome to Butterfly Scribbles, I am the Butterfly in question, and today we’re going to cross the multiverse…I mean the Spider-Verse, my bad!

So ladies and gentlemen, let’s do this again one last time!

(This review may contain spoilers for the movie, so If you haven’t seen it, I highly encourage you to do so, and then read my review after, have a nice time!)

PLOT:

Miles Morales, is very much accustomed to being “Brooklyn’s one and only Spider-Man”, he loves his job, but him leading a double life starts to interfere with his life as Miles and his relationship with his family (and his grades), which leads to him feeling the loneliness this job imposes and starts terribly missing his spider friends.

After that he gets a visit from his best friend Gwen, and learns that there’s a whole universe full of Spider-people teaming up to protect his very existence which leads to a great conflict and a “Spider-hunt” to stop him from going to change his fate and protect the people he loves most in his life, all while redefining his story and doing what he thinks is his role as a hero.

I think the plot of the movie does a really great job of solidifying Miles as his own hero, he is constantly put into situations that tests his morals and beliefs of what he thinks he is doing right, while everyone is treating him like some ignorant teenager, there’s even a great scene where miles stand up for himself and says: “Everyone keeps telling me how my own story is supposed to go, Nah, Imma do my own thing” which is nothing if not great character development.

The twists at the end of the movie are also sure to leave you feeling blown away!

Characters:

Miles:

Like I said before, this movie gives the best arcs to its main hero, Miles goes through a journey of self discovery and finding himself all while struggling with the distance he creates with his family, especially his mom whom he keeps lying to, and her trying to understand what is going on with her son, to the point where she’s scared of him moving away from her.

Miles also feels like an outcast even with his peers, when he discovers the Spider-Verse, Gwen and Peter are against him joining the team for his safety, Miles then feels pressured to prove himself in order to gain respect and inclusion, which does not end up really well.

In the end, he chooses to do it his way, and decides to have fate in his powers and do what perceives to be the right thing, and save people when he has the chance to do so, even if it means having to deal with bigger consequences.

Gwen:

Gwen was one of the fan favorites after the release of the first movie, but the sequel gives more depth to her character, and expands upon her struggles, how she lost her best friend, peter parker, how he looked up to her and wanted to be “special” like she is, also justifying her choice to not be involved in friendships anymore.

Gwen also has an ongoing conflict with her dad, the captain of the city, who hates Spider-Woman and is leading a manhunt against her, blaming her for the murder of Peter, and how that creates a conflict with her father as Gwen, which leads to a confrontation and an identity reveal.

I think it was very smart to include Gwen as one of the protagonists of the movie for obvious reasons, now we know more about her, we sympathize with her as a heroine, and its show

the similarities her and Miles are experiencing, establishing her role to be more than a love interest and I’m all here for it!

Other characters:

I think the highlight of this movies is the hundreds of Spider-people we see, each with their own personality, costumes and very funny cameos too!

My favorites have to be Spider Girl (Peter’s baby), Spider-Woman, Pavitr and Spider-Punk!

Animation and Music:

I think it’s necessary to have a whole section on this review dedicated to praise the animators and the song mixers for this movie, and It’s safe to say that without these two, the magic of the film wouldn’t be the same, I mean just imagine if It wasn’t an animated movie! and If it didn’t have such great singles like “What’s Up Danger”!

truly a tragedy.

The animation for this movie specifically was really amazing, they combined multiple coloring styles to create the personality of each story like Gwen’s watercolor world in the start of the movie, the battle scenes are epic especially in the Spider hunt scenes with Miles and Miguel.

For the Score of the movie, I personally like the last track “Across The Spider-Verse (Start a Band)” track,I think the music really fits the last and best moments of the movie!

In conclusion, and If you haven’t got it yet, I’m In LOVE with this movie! (I mean, why else would I write a whole essay about it right ?) It’s the perfect sequel to a perfect first, and I’m convinced it’s the best movie of the year and one of the best superhero movies ever !

So if you haven’t watched it yet, I highly encourage you to do so, because It is a great watch even for people who know nothing about Spider-Man.

If you did, well let me know in the comments so we can talk about it even more, cause I’m not even close to being done with it yet!

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triscribe · 5 months

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WIP Tag Game

Tagged by @crystalshard, which may prove to be a miscalculation, 'cause boy-howdy do I have a lot of works in progress...

Rules: In a new post, list the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

/cracks knuckles

Star Wars: -Fulcrum & Family, the new Tano & Twins re-write -Dreamwalkers Luke and Leia -History Reversed with sequel trilogy Ahsoka, Luke, Ezra and students dropped back in the Clone Wars -Birds Fly sequel Can We Start Over, Bly's pov -Something Big is Happening (Misc/Understudies crossover) -Clone Wars Cass (DC/Batman crossover)

Marvel -The Big One (5+1 Spidey saves Morgan, Pepper meets Doc Strange, Another Chance conclusion with Wanda) -Kids Club, post-Civil War kidnapping fixit -MCU Miles Morales, title tbd -Spider Assassins AU, multi-continuity-combination -X-Fire, Laura/Wolverine, Gabby/Honeybadger, and Rachel/Phoenix -Heroes of Tomorrow re-write with way more kids from different superhero groups/families

DC -Pantheon AU -the revised Alf-verse (22 Bat-grandkids and counting) -Rotten Luck re-vamp (Young Justice season one Team in the Justice League Unlimited universe) -Continuations: The Batman "seasons six and seven" if I ever get around to re-writing the early stuff (my very first fan fic ever, I've improved a lot since those high school days) -Teen Titans meet Robin's horde of younger siblings (original cartoon) -Battorian AU (Diana is human, Clark's a demigod, Bruce came from another planet) -Mandalorian/Star Wars AU (Mando Alfred adopts orphaned Bruce. This is the Way.)

HP -Pair of Potters sequel, year two for Heather, official year one for Harry, the beginning of a long headache for Dumbledore -Founder Foundlings, reincarnation fic -Cheers to the Wish, more Guardian Ghosts Lily and James -Philosopher's Mirror, canon-divergence of the unintended resurrection variety -the third effing chapter of Muggle is as Muggle Does -Thief!Harry AU, my all-out middle finger to the Author Who Shall Not Be Named

Transformers -Terratron AU (Bee meets Dragonfly, Elita makes Artemis, Bee and Fly stumble across Megatron and Rion, Prowl and Beats, Beats finds Jazz, accidental babysitter Serrate, Hornet and her big race, etc etc) -Hard Facts and Simple Truths, humanformers AU -TFAnimated swapped 'verse, with Elita Prime and her team of spacebridge technicians: Arcee, Ironhide, Wasp, and Jazz -G1 sparkling-Starlane AU -TFPrime crossover with Hot Wheels: Battle Force Five

Atla -follow-up to A Small Condition, aka the "Monk Gyatso goes into the iceberg with Aang and Zuko assumes *he* is the Avatar" AU -continuation of Ursa leaving royal life and stumbling across a dying dragon who entrusts her with a baby and two unhatched eggs -Avatar!Yue learns airbending from Aang's grandkids and that whole big mess of world-altering changes

My Hero Academia -Doubles AU (finishing Brand New Day and getting a move on with Double Take as a canon re-write with Pro Hero Shimura Tenko) -continuation for Great Beasts of the Mountain -third chapter of Instinct, my first A/B/O attempt -more next generation fluff, the Archive and Guardian saga

Misc -Sea Beast fic where Crow gets injured, suffers total amnesia, the doctor who patches him up sends for Jacob, and there's a very awkward dance between them and Maisie and Blue as the old man slowly gets his memories back -The Faceless Wolf, a mildly (make that incredibly) ambitious Game of Thrones canon-divergence attempt -Jamie Reagan and the Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Day, a Blue Bloods whump idea I've had rattling around for a while -Milo and Claggor Survived AU from LoL Arcane -Grandboss Gibbs, a bittersweet NCIS fic that would, in my opinion, have been a better end to the series than trying to go on without the main character of the show -Storm Hawks past-and-present-collide idea with some previous generation OCs -Edge Chronicles TWIG GETS TO MEET HIS MOTHER DAGNABIT -may as well throw in what will be my second self-published book, Trials of Youth, because the current draft is definitely a work in progress

Aaand we'll call that good. Now to see if I get any nibbles...

(I know the game says tag a person for each WIP but I don't think I've got that many writing acquaintances on here, so instead I've got one person per fandom grouping)

@wafflesrisa @eirianerisdar @jinxquickfoot @theredscreech @resamille @tarisilmarwen @icarussmicarus @gallusrostromegalus

#tag game #wip game #ask game #all the fandoms #but NOT all the wips in my files #the full list would've needed a Read More #...honestly this probably needs a Read More... but ah well

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garthofshayeris · 5 months

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MY OFFICIAL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ON AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM. Spoilers ahead.

OKAY. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. It was very fun and it did not have the problem of too many villains that I was expecting based on everything I read. If that was the result of the rewrites and reshoots, I am happy for them.

A lot of the visuals and smaller adventures felt very Silver Age! There were certain creatures that were directly from the 60s, which I appreciated. Topo was lovely. If you know me, you know one of my major gripes with some of the recent Aquaman comics is that they do not lean into the animal sidekick thing anymore. And the group of whales straight up killing all those people? THAT is the Aquaman content I like to see.

The horror elements were just enough to balance out the sillier parts. Although I knew Arthur Jr was never in any actual danger, this is the closest DC has come since the 70s to making it even somewhat realistic that they would kill a baby. Like, I knew they wouldn't. But for once I said to myself, "they've established this enough that I believe this threat." You know my stance on DC trying to bait another Death of a Prince...

The cursed Trident possessing Manta was giving such Preboot Orm vibes. I liked it, I appreciate a slow possession arc. Manta was scary and felt like a real threat, which is difficult to achieve when he's a human and he's fighting people so much stronger than him. Shin was also SO good, you knew he was going to redeem himself but it still felt very natural for him to do so. Idk why Manta trusted him with the baby duffel bag tho, after all the times Shin clearly was snooping and giving Manta disapproving looks. Also why did they put that baby in a duffel bag lmao

Overall, it was a pretty straightforward story that felt easy to follow. This isn't always the case for superhero films, so it was refreshing. And a good end to the franchise. This actually felt like it would have been a great end to a TRILOGY, and that we were missing a middle story...

HOWEVER.

Not to make this about me and my blorbo but.......this would have made a lot more sense as a story about Arthur and Garth. I'm sorry, but it's true. Every time I saw a Silver Age reference, I just said to myself "oh yeah, that's a story with Aqualad in it, but now it's Orm." I KNOW that Orm needed his lil redemption arc, but if Patrick Wilson was not besties with James Wan, I don't think he would have gotten one.

Because Kordax was Slizzath. He just was. They took Slizzath's story and renamed him Kordax. So many parts of the movie I was like "this is adapted from Tempest (1996)" BUT IF THEY HAD USED SLIZZATH WITHOUT GARTH I WOULD HAVE BEEN PISSED so I get it but I don't get it, you know? But Kordax was just Slizzath.

I posted a few years ago about my ideal Aquaman trilogy, and tbh this felt like my ideal third movie, plot-wise and tone-wise......except my vision was about Garth, not Orm. Orm could be there, I guess, but imo he should have had a sequel redemption and then the third movie should have introduced the evil sorcerer thing. It would have made perfect sense to need Atlan's blood, thinking they're fine because they saved the baby but then Garth accidentally bleeds on the altar and unlocking his powers, and releasing Slizzath. PLUS then he could freeze the ice caps again with his new found powers lmao I'm worried about the implications.........nobody in this universe has ice powers.....

I get that it would have been hard to introduce a new character for a sequel with absolutely no chance at a third movie, so I do understand that Garth was never an option....but holy shit, Garth would have been a perfect fit for this movie.

AGAIN, not to make it about my blorbo .......

also I cannot believe they killed Vulko via plague?? I almost laughed out loud. It's absolutely because they could not reconcile that if Vulko was alive, Arthur would not need Orm's help lmao RIP Vulko I choose to believe you were hanging around as a ghost like in Vol 5

One last gripe but omg Atlan's trident looked so BAD in some scenes??? It looked very prop-like, and not metal at all??? did anyone else notice it? It's really bad on the iceberg scene. The costumes were actually great but omg that trident prop lmao

OVERALL, it was a really fun movie. I'm happy to say that I liked it. I think it will get bad critic reviews and really good audience reviews. It just felt very fun and heartfelt. The action scenes were also well lit and easy to follow, and that alone should convince people to see it

I'm going to see it again tomorrow and I want to make a list of the other random things that I noticed. I know I'm missing a lot. How did ya'll feel about it??

#aquaman #aquaman and the lost kingdom #yes I DO need to make everything about my blorbo sorry besties

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