#and i will D I E on the hill that the trojans get their first red card for defending jean and that every single one of them supports

[thespineoftherighteous]

there is something so unbearably beautiful about jean, one of the most broken characters and a person who has literally for his entire life only known pain and punishment, being taken in by the Trojans, the team renowned for being the nicest and fairest and warmest team in the league

#and specifically his being taken in by jeremy #the human embodiment of sunshine #I'm exhausted to my core right now so I'm incapable of explaining it properly but this just has me feeling things #and i will D I E on the hill that the trojans get their first red card for defending jean and that every single one of them supports #ruining their reputation for him #because that is what he deserves #and theyll make him feel loved #jean moreau #jeremy knox #usc trojans #aftg #all for the game #tfc #the foxhole court #mine aftg

[archiveacademics]

Spotlight: Some retellings

Guys, I have a confession to make. I read...a lot.

Like, so much. Just...books, everywhere, all the time.

So it’s safe to say I’ve read a lot of retellings in my day and after last week’s discussion about what I deemed “literary fanfic” I’d like to share some of those wonderful retellings with you. For the sake of not making this blog post a mile long, I’m sticking solely to fairy tale retellings and even then, there’s a lot of them. Many of them are YA, but don’t let that distract you, these are well written and well loved books.

Series Retellings

I’d like to start off with a series called “Once Upon a Time is Timeless Once Again” put out by Simon and Schuster. It’s a wonderful set of books written by a few different authors covering a number of different fairy tales. There’s a Sleeping Beauty who defies her fate and goes on an adventure, a Cinderella who grows pumpkins on her mother’s grave, the Frog Prince set during WWII, and other retellings of tales you might not know as well like Shahrazad from the 1001 Nights and story of The Magic Flute.

What I love about these books is the creativity that goes into the retellings. I guess that’s kind of what I love about all retellings, but it’s hard to pinpoint just one thing over the course of so many books, so I’ll leave my praise a bit generic. 

Next is The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker. First in a series of books about an adventurous, clumsy, magic using princess who breaks all the rules her mother sets about what it means to be a princess. This book came before the Disney movie, but has a similar beginning: Princess kisses frog and turns into a frog herself. From there, it takes a very different turn from the movie. The two hapless frogs journey from the swamp back to the castle and along the way make lots of new friends, including a dragon and a talking bat. It’s cute and fun and there’s numerous sequels, though they’re not really retellings themselves, just continued adventures. 

The Wide-Awake Princess by E. D. Baker, however, does continue its fairy tale retelling theme through the rest of the series. The main character is Sleeping Beauty’s younger sister, on whom magic does not work. When her sister is pricked by a spindle it’s up to Annie to gather together a bunch of princes and bring them to her sister, in the hopes that one is her sister’s true love. Each successive book sees Annie taking on adventures in the realm of fairy tales from Snow White to Rose Red.

Jessica Day George has written many wonderful books, including Princess of the Midnight Ball, a retelling of the 12 Dancing Princesses. There are three books in the series about the twelve daughters of a widowed king who fight against the goblins and witches that want to destroy their happiness and take over their world.

If you’re a fan of Ella Enchanted (which I’ll get to later) then you know that Gail Carson Levine is a talented author. She also wrote a series of short books called The Princess Tales and they are simply delightful. From a fairy who gives a blessing that turns into a curse and vice versa, to a girl so obsessed with parsley she eats it until her teeth turn green, the characters in the Princess Tales are not what you expect out of a fairy tale, and yet they are just what they need to be. (My personal favorite is Cinderellis and the Glass Hill.)

Last but by no means least there’s The Lunar Chronicles, begun by the Cinderella retelling, Cinder. The Lunar Chronicles are a futuristic sci-fi masterpiece that bring us a cyborg Cinderella, freedom fighter Red Riding Hood, computer hacker Rapunzel, and alien princess Snow White. I honestly cannot recommend this series enough, it is so well done and quite fun to read.

Cinderella retellings

Ella Enchanted might have been one of the first times I ever read a book and realized it was a retelling of a fairy tale. I was absolutely delighted and perhaps a bit obsessed. But this book still holds a special place in my heart and if you’ve never read I insist you must (even if you’ve seen the movie because, well, there’s just no comparison!)

Do you like choose your own adventure stories? Do you like fairy tales? Then boy howdy are you going to love Maureen McGowan. Cinderella: Ninja Warrior is the choose your own adventure you never knew you needed in your life! It does exactly what it says on the tin, and it is so much fun to go through all the different options and see what happens.

And finally, if you want a little bit more LGBT in your life, I’d suggest Ash by Malinda Lo. It’s a beautiful tale and well worth a read. 

Sleeping Beauty retellings

If you want a more modern retelling, A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn is great. Sleeping Beauty wakes up alright, right into the modern era. It’s told, at least partially, from the point of view of the hapless teen who managed to kiss her awake, only to end up having to take care of her and teach her the modern world.

Princess of Thorns, by Stacey Jay is based more on the original Italian version of Sleeping Beauty than the one you might be used to. There’s an Ogre and twin children, and lots of adventures.

Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert is a great coming of age story about a princess struggling to find her place when everything she’s known is suddenly ripped away.

Adult retellings

So all of these books are YA, but I wanted to include a few more adult retellings.

Enchantment by Orson Scott Card is a fascinating retelling of Sleeping Beauty that span continents and centuries. There’s time travel and Russia and Baba Yaga and a bear...I could go on and on about the delights of this book.

The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines is the first book of series that, according to Goodreads is apparently just called “Princess”? Either way, its a great mish-mash of different fairy tales and wonderful adventures. When Prince Charming goes missing, who better to find him than his beloved Cinderella?

And finally we’ve got the 500 Kingdoms series by Mercedes Lackey, one of my all time favorites. The first book is called The Fairy Godmother and tells the story of a Cinderella whose prince was too young. Magic has a way of forcing things to go it’s way, though, so who better to take the poor girl in as her apprentice than her very own fairy godmother?

And with that, I’ll stop throwing books at you.

So...that was just a really long list of books that I think are cool. I could list so many more. I really just adore fairy tale retellings. But this could have been a list of mythology retellings as well...

Speaking of which...I’ve actually written a couple retellings myself. It feels a bit self-important to link to them here, but...

Witches and Wolves

Cassandra

One is a fairy tale retelling, and one a mythology retelling, based on the Trojan War. 

You get bonus points if you can tell me which fairy tale the other story is based on.

[thedenfantasyleague]

The Den Fantasy League Recap: Week One

Gentlemen, 

Football is back and boy did it make a huge impact. Not only were we treated with a great Cats win on Saturday, we had a full slate of games that provided shock, awe, and extreme disappointment. There’s plenty to talk about, far too much for just one recap, but let’s get into our first weekly recap of the 2018 Den Fantasy League. 

Inglorious Staffords v. Fire Jarn

You always want to get out in front of the bad press and that’s my hope with this recap. You have to give credit where credit is due, Robbie’s team was great this week, starting with Philly D. At one point he was on pace for 145 points and ended up with the second highest point total. Incredible (and potentially fluke) games by Alvin, Mixon, and Tyreek were enough to beat me alone. I was decently pleased with my team going into Monday night and then Stafford fell apart when facing Sam Darnold (USC Trojans, Fight On). You know, I’m happy for Rob. He deserves this feeling and I hope nothing but the best for him. However, I can’t wait to see how he spins his collapse. 

The Perfect Ten v. Tidepod Taylor

As a fellow (an arguably bigger) Lions fan, I felt E’s pain last night. Going into Monday, E had a chance but added insult to injury when his Lions sealed the deal for Scott with Crowell. E had disappointing games from Deshaun, Fournette, and Amari. Scott found himself in a good spot going into Monday with big games from Tyrod, Zeke, Keenan, and the aforementioned Crowell. Scott’s biggest lost, his old faithful: Delanie Walker. How will Scott live without his beloved tight end? Can E survive that Lions debacle? Only time will tell. 

Wilmore Cinderella v. Team Timshel

The defending champ started to his back-to-back campaign with a big win against the first team to select in this year’s draft. JP was led by guys like Phil Rivers, Julio, Cobb, and Greg the Leg. Mike, on the other hand, had a rough start. Getting virtually nothing from Graham and Big Ben, and absolutely nothing from Samuels, his only hope was found in Mike Evans, Golden Tate, and Ravens D. Let’s see if JP can hold this momentum and if Mike can have a solid season despite auto-drafting. 

Virginia Reel Rockets v. Josh Gordon’s PVO

Dylan was looking to bounce back after a rough year last year but started this season with an L. (PVO) Despite having big games from OBJ, Juice, and Rodgers, his defense left him with an unfortunate -9 points to the Fitzmagic led Bucs. (PVO) On the other side of the ball, Al survived with only one player in double figures in Drew Brees and left a lot of points on his bench. (PVO) Both teams lost players to injuries in Jeremy Hill and Greg Olsen, but Dylan had the ultimate scare when Rodgers went down and mysteriously came back injury free. (PVO) Two teams with, I’m sure, disappointing weeks are looking forward to a new week to put points on the board. (PVO)

VP v. Kalabar’s Revenge

Another auto-draft victim took on a perennial powerhouse. All things considered, Vinny had a good week hitting over 100. Vinny was led by Gurley, Luck, Adams, Demaryius, and his D and kicker. Unfortunately for Vinny, G had a better week. Let by his Patriots, G found success across the board. In fact, G only had one player in single figures, his kicker with 9 points. a truly incredible week by G and I think we’re all concerned it’s a boom or bust team with him this year. 

Mr. Magorium v. Debbie Rowe

We end this on the biggest beatdown of the week. Not to throw salt in the wound (we’ll do that later) but this was definitely not Jake’s week. Granted, he didn’t have much of a chance against Gabe’s team this week. Like G, he only had one player not in double figures and was led by big games from Conner, Ajayi, Saquon, and Rams D. To his credit, Jake tried. He unfortunately had two players in double figures in Gould and Thomas. Jake needs to bounce back or this could be a long year. 

Week Two Matchups: 

Fire Jarn (1-0) v. Debbie Rowe (0-1)

Inglorious Staffords (0-1) v. The Perfect Ten (0-1)

Team Timshel (0-1) v. Virginia Reel Rockets (1-0)

Tidepod Taylor (1-0) v. Mr. Magorium (1-0)

VP (0-1) v. Wilmore Cinderella (1-0)

The Biggest Loser (PVO)

A new segment for this year is called The Biggest Loser. What is this? Each week, we’ll interview the biggest loser, determined by point differential. Week 1′s Biggest Loser: Jake Taylor.

Good luck to all as they prepare for week two and, as always, set your lineups accordingly.

Your beloved Commissioner,

Jared R. Mosqueda