#I like genre fiction!

[young-astro]

PLEASE for the love of the universe read anti-colonial science fiction and fantasy written from marginalized perspectives. Y’all (you know who you are) are killing me. To see people praise books about empire written exclusively by white women and then turn around and say you don’t know who Octavia Butler is or that you haven’t read any NK Jemisin just kills me! I’m not saying you HAVE to enjoy specific books but there is such an obvious pattern here

Some of y’all love marginalized stories but you don’t give a fuck about marginalized creators and characters, and it shows. Like damn

#science fiction #fantasy #xenogenesis #earthseed #the broken earth #frankly I think many of the critiques of my own work are valid #but when I see the same criticisms applied to authors who fundamentally changed the genre #I’m like #hold up

[prahacat]

when the horrors catch up and you take an evening off to batch-process

#obi-wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #ahsoka tano #maybe obi-wan just read the outline for the next wip #why do i love to torture him so #one of my fav fanfic genres has to be meta fic horror #just imagine. how deeply disturbing it must be to find out you're a fictional character #somebody has *intentionally* written all those horrors onto you #and it wasn't even the guy who created you #he did his part. but the ppl who love it most to ruin your life and see you suffer are your fans #it's not enough that there's prob a lot of jedi rpf around in the gffa already. scarred obi-wan for life #lmao drawing anakin like this gave me so many flashbacks to my old ocs where almost every male character had that hair #also i have a job interview in one hour dsdsfhjgj #my art #prahacat draws

[turtleblogatlast]

Thinking about how Leo says he uses his jokes to cope and y’know, thinking harder on it I think it may very well be because of what else uses one-liners and puns and that type of humor.

Specifically, 80’s action movies and campy sci-fi. Even more specifically, the protagonists of these.

So I can imagine why, exactly, Leo leans toward this brand of humor. It’s directly linked to things he loves! But even more than that is why I think it’s used as a coping mechanism.

In these genres, these quips tend to be said by the winner - or, if not a winner, then someone who will stay alive. So there’s a confidence behind them, an assurance, almost, that even if things go wrong, things aren’t ever too serious. There’s no bad endings here! It’s all good fun, even if the stakes seem high.

Leo canonically has been known to steer his brothers away from the more brutal villains and toward more fun, lighthearted activities and not-so-dangerous criminals. So for Leo, these jokes definitely make things less heavy, make the situations they find themselves in less intense.

It’s kinda not just coping, but also can be seen as a form of escapism. A safety blanket. A way for Leo to defuse the tension of knowing just how dangerous their lives are and replace that with a levity which implies that things will be okay.

Unfortunately, levity alone does not alter reality.

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt leo #rise leo #rottmnt headcanons #how pretentious can I sound when talking about a fictional turtle more at eight #anyway I always loved to think about Leo’s quick line about coping with humor #I don’t care how much people think it doesn’t REALLY matter it’s fun to play around with tbh #also love the idea that Leo’s sense of humor comes from the protags of his fav campy series #(+ from his confident and awesome big sis April) #like idk Leo’s special interests directly paving out how he presents himself both to others and in general is so interesting to me!!! #he is someone who KNOWS people and their quirks so 100% he caught on to that 80’s style of quippy one-liners- #-and associated that with safety and levity #even the villains of these genres who spout off quips tend to be the ones who survive! #Leo desperately fighting to keep the same lighthearted genre as 87 TMNT as the horrors of 2003 and 2012 loom on the horizon #and I think something important to note is that Leo KNOWS things are real #he is WELL AWARE of how dangerous things can get for them #but he copes anyway because it’s easier to deal with everything that way #bro just wants he and his family to be safe tbh

[thermodynamic-comedian]

do you think michael distortion, kevin wtnv, and elijah volkov would get along

#i think kevin and michael would keep elijah in a cage like some sort of creature. which he is #also all of them have sharp teeth and abnormal smiles. interesting #doing research on this genre of fiction podcast guy #tma #the magnus archives #wtnv #welcome to night vale #ch&t #camp here & there #michael distortion #kevin wtnv #elijah volkov

[tariah23]

One of the main reasons why I used to avoid Isekai’s, and fantasy works in general, like the plague is because of how over saturated they’d become with things that didn’t feel like they even belonged to the genre to begin with… it’s not too hard to find works that stand out but so much of those works have been pushed down and forgotten, it just sucks.

#one of the many reasons why fantasy in general outside of a few things has never stuck with me or have even been a go to genre to engage #with if it was simply just that and nothing else added to subvert the genres 🧍🏾‍♀️ #at least enough for me to enjoy myself… and I’m an insanely picky person too so… #isekai’s really did get turned into incel shit and sm of them are pedo/incest pandering as well #the amount of times I’ve run into an isekai where the warrior ends up marrying his daughter at the end of the series- #never got over that one where the son was falling in love with his mom bro that series could’ve been so fun #and a lot of the scenes with them would have them almost appearing as though they were a couple… the Romantic scene on the beach 💩… #kms rn- #and sm fantasty stuff is full of assault as well because they want to be like berserk so badly uhhh #it’s kinda crazy #rambling #I’m mostly desensitized to a lot of this stuff in fiction depending on how they’re presented but I usual usually scroll by/read the things #as quickly as possible just to get done with it #I don’t rly skip most things tbh :( #DM is refreshing though it’s very charming and colorful #I don’t have much to say for frieren since I never really cared to get into it but I’m sure it’s endearing for most

[fictionadventurer]

The worst part about reading in a genre where you have low expectations (in this case, Christian historical fiction) is that when a book impresses you, you have no idea if it's actually good or if you're just overly impressed because it was a fraction of a degree better than the usual garbage.

#basically lately anytime i read a christian fiction book that isn't romance-based i find myself surprised by the quality #i do think that some christian publishers are getting better #and trying to tell stories that dig deeper into real faith and messy issues #instead of making only vapid squeaky clean prayer-filled tropefests #but i'm not sure *how much* better #because anything above the low bar feels like great literature #the most recent is 'in a far-off land' by stephanie landsem #and let me tell you setting the prodigal son in 1930s hollywood is a genius concept #i have some issues with the history and the mystery #but the characters! #it has been a long time since i cried this hard over a book #several chapters of solid waterworks #(and i also have the issue of figuring out if it's actually that moving or if i'm just hormonal/sleep-deprived) #i keep thinking about this book but also i worry about recommending because what if it's actually terrible by normal book standards? #(also the author DOES NOT understand the seal of confession and i was SHOCKED to find that she's actually catholic) #but also looking at the reviews makes it clear that if most of christian fiction is vapid garbage it's these reviewers' fault #here you have something that's digging into sin and darkness and justice and mercy and these people are just #'how can it call itself christian fiction if it only mentions god at the end?' #are we reading the same book this WHOLE THING is about god! and humanity and our fallen nature and how this breaks relationships! #your pearl-clutching anytime someone tries to get even a tiny bit realistic is destroying this genre #i'm gonna run out of tags so i'll stop now

[burning-academia-if]

Hello, I blinked and March was over. Another busy/hectic month in regards to Real Life things + I got pretty sick at the end of it (because being sick in February wasn't enough lol). With that being said, here's what I did get done:

Wrote 16.1k words (Chapter 2 total word count: 27.4k )

Started editing/coding in the start of Chapter 2

Did some more coding/tweaking for stat pages

Fixed some variables in Chapter 1 + added piercings and facial hair options to character customization (these will all be added when Chap 2 releases)

Posted Rhea's bday art

With that being said, I thought Chapter 2 would be a max of 30k words, but all the small branching and flavor text in this chapter is really adding up lol. Of those words written, most of it went towards the Lars/Student Warden path. I did however write one of the three endings, and one of two of the RO pov ending scene variants.

With that said the Rhea/Student Government path should be a lot shorter since it's more straight forward, and once that's done, all that's left is a handful of smaller scenes/variants to finish up and then Chapter 2 will be done! I'm guessing it'll end up being between 40k to 50k words in total. I'm hoping to finish up the writing in April and then code everything in to release it by late May! This is obviously very tentative, but unless the universe decides to cause mayhem once more, that's what I'm aiming for!

Lastly, here's another little preview for the confrontational MCs this month (ft Lars):

#BA: updates #didn't hit my word count goal either but I did lose an entire week of writing to a fever in my defense asjkflas #health>>>>>>writing #also if you're reading the tags random off topic request lmfaO #but I like to read during my hour break at work and I need book recs #I read pretty much everything in all genres and age demographics #non fiction and comics/mangas included #anyways I read a lot but I think my issue lately is I've read so much in my comfort zone and now nothing looks interesting #I've read 33 books this year and only a handful weren't fantasy (I know that sounds like a lot but like 19 of those were manga asfaklj) #the only limit is it can't be self published since it would need to be available at my library and they never carry indies

[twyrrinren]

while in other fandoms mpreg is mainly written as angst or fluff, in laios' case it would be HORROR. like he's terrified of having children? and also a baby is nurtured by his parent's body???

#dungeon meshi #labru #kabios #the best thing about fan fiction genres is breaking them #listen im terrified of pregnancy #maybe i will change my mind when i read the whole dungmeshi but #kabios mpreg is like a very wild cocktail #also pregnancy is a miracle #but miracles are terrifying even though they are good #im sorry laios i like you thats why you will suffer

[coockie8]

"You can't create fiction about X problematic thing without explicitly condemning it otherwise your readers/viewers will think it's okay to do irl!"

Okay see well I was under the impression that since I'm not creating fiction for literal 5-year-olds that my readers/viewers would already be aware of the fact it's not okay to rape, torture, and murder people in real life without me spoon-feeding that to them like they're toddlers ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If you're over the age of 10 and still don't know that it's bad to hurt people in real life without a fairy tale telling you so, then that is 100% a you problem, like I don't know what to tell you here :/

#just anti things #anti bs #proship #proshipper #proship safe #tw: rape mention #literally every time an anti tries the ''this could make someone think this is okay irl'' argument on me #all I can think is ''K? Literally not my problem if some stranger needs to be told by fiction not to rape people in order to not do that.'' #like if you need your morals spoon-fed to you by fictional media #then might I suggest you avoid horror and other ''taboo'' genres and stick to Dora the Explorer huh? #but we don't just eradicate things from existence because 0.1% of the people who *might* see it *might* try to act it out irl #like if that's the case the bible makes a grating vocal minority act like complete assholes #so are we banning religious texts now because some religious people get a little too into it and make people's lives difficult?

[fandom-geek]

so i just finished blue eye samurai and, first off, that was utterly excellent

but also, with that ending. fowler's age makes it clear that this is probably set in the 1640s-1650s, which is a very specific period in english history.

as in, it's during the civil war and long parliament. the restoration of the monarchy happened in 1660, although things eased up after cromwell's death in 1658.

so either fowler and mizu arrive in 1640, during the lead-up to the civil war, or between 1641 and 1649, during an active civil war, or between 1649 and 1660, when you've got the notoriously repressive puritans in power. the puritans, as led by cromwell, also slaughtered their way through ireland, which would make me very curious to see fowler's reaction if they're going to touch on that

like. they're probably not going to use real historical figures given that they created a fictional character for the shogun, but it's a uniquely tense period of english history and given the four men's entire deal is warfare, drugs, and prostitution/slavery, it seems like the perfect period to explore.

#blue eye samurai #bes #bes spoilers #as i understand it's decently common for japanese samurai media to use fictional characters instead of historical ppl #but it's going to be interesting to see how they deal w that in england bc that's not the norm for english historical fiction #and we don't really have an equivalent genre to samurai-ronin/cowboy fiction in that way #unless you count like. robin hood. which i wouldn't lol

[charaznablescanontoyota]

now that it's been enough weeks that it's not really spoilers can i just say that if you like fictional crossover media where the characters find out they're from fictional properties and have in-depth discussions about it and also sometimes invoke their genres to their own advantage in both fights and interpersonal interactions, uh, listen to interstitial infinity on the riley hopkins and their amazing friends feed

#a lot of the early metafictional 'oh we're fictional in each others' universes' stuff was purely like. #an idea the 5 of us came across organically in play. and it's so good it became a throughline of the season #like even in the colosseum fights there's a lot of genre clash/interplay happening in FASCINATING ways #idk i think infinity whips. if you like earnest crossover stuff that gets deep in the metafiction grit and grime give it a shot

[thebaldergatescandal]

I cant find the post which goes into how Astarion wouldnt want the player character to be their one source of blood because

1. Thats immediately entering a relationship of dependence again and he wants to be independent

2. Thats not enough blood

Let me add counterpoint 3: vampire astarion being joined by a player character to hunt animals large enough for a proper meal (and bring back drained and butchered for the others) is such a good mental image that I immediately want 10 fanarts

You may say, astarion can hunt big animals just fine on his own but I say cmon medieval boar hunting was a whole thing it was a sport it was a group activity because the animal was so dangerous in its death throes

Cant you just picture Wyll on a horse with a boar-spear like its a game of polo and Astarion running on the ground like his hunting dog?????

Halsin taking wolf form for a spin to hunt in a pack of two and when someone passes by they ignore the tableau of animals feeding until it dawns on them that one of those red muzzled creatures with their face in an elk was a humanoid not a beast???

There are some good ass images right here.

#astarion #astarion ancunin #astarion bg3 #like watching birds out the window with your cat #you gotta join your vampire in his interests #also i am from a Hunting Area im so frustrated with the way games and genre fiction never depict field dressing #(ie you do the first steps of butchery right where the animal is killed so you dont have to carry useless weight home) #also consider an astarion romance partner getting a close up view of the difference between tasting your humanoid blood with restraint #and going ape shit tearing throats out #much to think about

[the-everqueen]

for the AMA: what compels you most in a fictional character!

rage as a trauma response.

it compels me when a character spits in the face of god. when the response isn't "why did you let all this happen" but "how dare you let this happen." something about the assertion of agency in the wake of un-meaning. something about "there was never a Purpose, the point is what you make of it." this is undoubtedly because i was raised evangelical and continue to struggle with what i believe vs what i want to be true. pero also i think i was denied anger for so long (and even now my reflex when i'm hurt is to divert/repress/hide/sublimate anger) that it's cathartic for SOMEONE to get to be mad at the powers that be.

misogyny means it's usually (white) male characters who get these narrative arcs. this is evident in my blorbos: astarion from bg3, the corinthian from sandman, will graham from hannibal. (my immediate first thought was actually emilio sandoz from the sparrow, very literal autistic brain serving me well here lmao, what does it mean to be god's whore.) but my favorite female and genderqueer characters have this, too. saga anderson from alan wake 2 (LITERALLY tells both the in-game narrative force and the meta "fuck off, i'm done with other people writing my story"). essun from the broken earth trilogy (everyone who says they can't connect to her...i need you to examine yourself for misogynoir). vic from nos4a2. eurydice from hadestown. erica slaughter from something is killing the children. jade from my heart is a chainsaw.

(horror is obviously a huge medium for this...the final girl is a figure of righteous anger, the avenging angel, the woman who mows down the ultimate horror with a baseball bat or a butcher knife and she's right, she's in the right, she's the monster slayer, fuck you fear me.)

#ask games #AMA #crimeronan #this was SUCH a good ask thank you #also i'm not gonna write a whole essay here in the tags but i think part of why i adore horror #and why i have a hard time connecting to ''literary fiction'' women IS that allowance for rage #what a genre considers acceptable female rage sometimes feels So Hollow compared to what i might let myself feel irl #i like my trauma-rage bloody and awful #SOMEONE needs to pay in flesh #weirdly stephen king is really good at this when he lets himself do it? beverly from IT and arguably It from IT are peak #Women Should Do Crimes Actually #unfortunately most of the time Stephen King sucks at letting women be people #SO INSTEAD i recommend Stephen Graham Jones who just consistently does this #i ALSO don't think it's a coincidence that my favorite queer and women creators who write these arcs are also not white #nonwhite queer and female rage is Threatening To The Status Quo

[ejunkiet]

I just finished an incredibly dark and smutty original fiction novel on ao3 and I am not the same.

it's gorgeous. I want it on my bookshelf. why can't i find this in published romance.

#ao3 #original fiction #the story is 'avoiding eddie' and 'taking ten' #they're in my bookmarks #god they're incredible #i've been looking for books like this in the romance genre #ones that fully acknowledge that the situation is fucked up and explores it realistically #and the dialogue and humour and characters are just. #it's mature and beautifully handled and again #why can't i find this in published romance #WHY #they have a 200k novel that i've downloaded from ao3 #and I want to toss them a kofi or something

[seventh-fantasy]

galaxy-brained mlc take of the day: mlc is wuxia, yes and maybeee not exactly? it very much is a wuxia aesthetically, but it's actually - conceptually - xianxia story in the core. (this is different from suggesting that it is a xianxia show.) however xianxia can (or should) be considered a subgenre of wuxia, not its own separate distinct genre despite the idea of 仙 xian being fundamentally at odds with the idea of 侠 xia, because they both stem from the same belief. (as seen in mlc, it works with the conventions of traditional wuxia aka li xiangyi the sigu sect leader, to get to the real bits of xianxia concept aka li lianhua's story.) so, mlc is wuxia through and through, inside out. send tweet 🫡👍

-

ok wait I can explain

so, this must be premised on the understanding that any discussion of "仙 xian/deities" in this context is only as its abstract idea of living a life distanced, detached from worldly, human woes instead of the possibility of immortality existing in mlcverse. (if you think about the deities in xianxia stories being basically human beings who have cultivated themselves into immortality.)

this is the explanation of xianxia as a wuxia subgenre (古仙武侠) in the baidu article of wuxia genre:

武侠中的侠，是脱胎于墨家“以天下为己任”的使命感；而仙侠的侠，通常是传达着“能力越大，责任也就越大”的朴素精神。侠乃入世，仙为出世，道教阴阳的无情大道（无情指寻求自我的不断体悟，以达精神的成仙，非没有感情之意）与武侠江湖的有情众生，即是矛盾也是循环，象征着太极之道，这也就是为何古仙武侠也属于正统仙侠流派的原因。

rough tl:

the xia of wuxia is born from the mohist ideal of bearing a sense of responsibility for the world

while the xia in xianxia focuses on the idea of "with great power comes great responsibility"

the idea of 侠 xia is secular. the idea of 仙 xian is beyond the secular - it is to pursue a life of suppressing/taming your own emotions (it does not mean to be completely removed of the ability to feel. it's a pursuit of self-realisation that makes one attain the status of a "deity" spiritually.) 仙 xian is then inherently at odds with wuxia jianghu's deep empathy and connection with the secular world, but it's also connected back to it. this is why 古仙武侠 is considered to be a part of the wuxia genre.

the relationship between xian and xia is conflicting because the former is all about distancing yourself from worldly issues while the latter necessitates an active effort to do something about them.

but it also means that both wuxia and xianxia acknowledge this weight of human emotions and connection to the world. it's just their respective responses and the outcomes they want that they differ in. what is the ideal person? wuxia says it's to be someone who can propagate and execute the ideal of doing something about this weight of your connection to the world, while xianxia says it's to learn to be at peace with that connection, and it's ok to not do anything about it actually - which might even be harder than trying to do something. (and focusing on your own cultivation can be a good thing for the world, in fact.)

with this, I hope it sounds less absurd that I'm connecting mlc's story to the concept of xianxia. lxy's life was a traditional wuxia archetype. (I've already harped on enough about how he fits into the quintessential mohist model of a xia leader.) what happens after, aka his journey as li lianhua, is the real story of mlc. it's a breakdown of that quintessential wuxia hero. it is a story in which the main conflict faced by the protagonist is to struggle with all the worldly woes including his own past and the cases' victims, in defense of the serenity he has found in the past 9 years. it is a natural battle to fight for someone such as llh because as long as you're still human, you will face the implications of human connections and the innate feeling of compassion and urge to do something about it (part of this, I guess, manifests physically in bicha breaking him down and the resistance to cure).

and relating that to an excerpt from an article discussing xianxia in relation to wuxia:

武侠剧的精神内核也是仙侠剧的精神内核，而“仙”实际上是实现新形式的“侠”的手段，由此扩展了“侠”的深度和其实施的时空范围。武侠之中的侠义精神，可以强调其自在，更强调其是自为的，前者是需要逐渐成长和觉醒的。然而对于高于人的仙而言，作为上位者的“侠”之精神，则应该是内在自觉且自为的。

rough tl:

the spirit of wuxia dramas should also be the spirit of xianxia dramas. xian should in fact be another way to bring out and explore the idea of xia.

the spirit of xia in wuxia can be an emphasis on the spirit of freedom, and even more so, the idea of agency and autonomy. the former is gained through growth and awareness. but for xian aka people who occupy a realm above the people on the ground, the xia spirit they embody should manifest in their inner awakening and agency.

it goes without saying that nobody is a deity in this show, and never will be. only in ep 40.5 it came so close to possessing that otherworldly, surreal edge, but that's all to it. deities do not exist in the mlcverse.

but but. it's interesting to point out in the ep 3 flashback when lxy walked through town in the aftermath of the sigu sect vs jym battle, commoners were heard describing it as 神仙打架 百姓遭殃 when immortals fight, commoners suffer. of course they didn't mean it literally but figuratively, that those people of wulin jianghu are high above, detached from the people on the ground. which is. contradictory to the idea of 侠 xia to begin with. so... it could even be interpreted that li lianhua living the spiritually "immortal" life embodied the xia spirit even more deeply than he did as li xiangyi the sigu sect leader, the "immortal" in the eyes of the commoners. actual immortals do not have any real attachment to the people, but a cultivated "immortal" does and is destined to feel and learn to deal with it over and over like llh did. it all comes back in a circle indeed.

#莲花楼 #mysterious lotus casebook #lhl #lhlmeta #my posts #dear diary it's (only) day 45 since completion and the symptoms are getting worse #i can imagine at this moment someone putting a hand to my forehead and ask me if i'm ok #not sure if this conversation about wuxia/xianxia genres is welcomed at all but ANYWAY. i just have a lot of feelings about cn stories #i'm discussing the genres in what i think are its barest forms rather than referencing to the ways they've manifested in popular fiction #esp since i'm not as familiar with many of the classic works on a personal level #AND there are so many other elements in play in these genres!! #personally not a fan of that definition of xianxia being 'stories about mythological figures like deities monsters demons etc' #just having deities monsters etc does NOT make it xianxia. that's just 玄幻/神话 fantasy/mythology(!!!) #an interesting distinction i learnt is that mythologies like 后羿射日 and 沉香救母 could be considered as proto-xianxia #simply based on the idea of xianxia being about deities + a sense of heroism #but they would still very much be classified as mythologies instead of xianxia. there's just a lot of overlaps i guess? #went down this rabbit hole a little and just word vomitting as I go. i may not be 100% right or accurate in my interpretations so.

[abirdie]

Gael García Bernal in Desierto (2015, dir. Jonás Cuarón)

(these gifs also feature Alondra Hidalgo)

#gael garcía bernal #desierto #ggb filmography gifs #desierto 2015 #gael garcia bernal #this is ultimately a pretty standard thriller of the being-chased-by-an-inexorable-killer type #where the cast is picked off one by one until only the most conventionally physically attractive remain #this is good news for gael's character #on account of being played by gael #i think this one is elevated by the setting both in terms of beauty (it is stunning) and by making effective plot use of it #that apparently meant they were shooting two hours' drive away from the nearest towns with no cellphone reception etc. #which may be why we don't see more films set here #also elevated by the performances which are uniformly good #also elevated by the themes (jeffrey dean morgan's antagonist is targeting migrants crossing the border) #so we're back in the territory explored in documentaries like who is dayani cristal but this time as fictional thriller #this film came out as the trump wall discourse was hotting up and that was naturally something that got talked about in interviews #clever inclusion of antagonist's dog which effectively constrains what the characters could do to get out of the situation #so unlike in many films of this type there isn't a screamingly obvious course of action that they should have taken but unaccountably don't #still it remains a genre film sticking broadly to the conventions of that genre so the plot isn't going to astonish you #i've still avoided giffing the most spoilery moments though #tbh i suspect gael's character is still screwed at the end but then i think that's also the point (see: themes)