#because the other interesting thing is in the novel

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Lesbians WIN & I'm excited about a Thai BL again!

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

April 2024 Wk 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

My Stand-In (Thai Fri iQIYI) ep 1 of 12 eps - Adaptation of Chinese novel Professional Body Double by Shui Qiang Cheng. Stars Up (Lovely Writer) and Poom (Bake Me Please) directed by the same team as KP (not a recommendation IMHO - my biggest criticism of KP was the clashing directing styles). The MDL description made it sound complicated af but actually it's not so bad. In fact it's GOOD.

Stuntman Joe dies on the job and wakes up in the body of another Joe who has an entirely different life. But our Joe just gets his new body right back into his old existence, full of friends, enemies, and one troublesome ex. Poom is absolutely killing it in the lead. Mek is perfectly cast as the Actor du Jerk. I’m not sold on Up’s bratty brokenhearted rich kid... yet. The show though, I like it. I like a one (two) night stand starting things off and I like a lot of morally gray characters. Fun fun!

Deep Night (Thurs iQiyi) ep 8fin - The lesbian moms are the cutest thing in the world and my favorite thing this week. Bar none.

Summation:

It's about a host club and all the gay boys in it and some stuff that's not important because... PEOPLE OF EARTH WE HAVE A HONEST REP OF POLY IN A BL. Stand up and raise your hands in prayer to the Thai BL gods because sure as shit no one else was ever going to give this to us. For that alone this show gets 8/10 from me. Bonus Lesbian moms and great kisses.

Two Worlds (Thurs iQIYI) ep 7 of 10 - Say what you want about MaxNat all these years that they've been paired makes them great onscreen boyfriends. And you know me, I'm a total sucker for linguistic negotiation. Makes my heart go all mushy. That said, now that the leads are together, I’m really uninterested in all the drama around the ex-boyfriend/triangle. I'm glad this is only 10 eps.

1000 Years Old (Thurs iQIYI) ep 11 of 12 - They gave me the tiniest teaser for the kinky vampire BL that I have wanted my whole life. And now I'm just fucking annoyed with the rest of the show. 

We Are (Weds iQIYI) ep 3-4 of 16 - Q & Toey are the only interesting thing going on. I actually didn’t like this pair in My School President, but I’m enjoying them here. The others are all fine but these two have my heart. I have questions like: did Phum ever get his shopping bags back? And why is Phum driving a different colored car half way through the ep?

Only Boo! (Sun YouTube) ep 3 of 12 - The quality is good (it’s GMMTV) but the acting is... not. Still I loved that Moo just made the confession for both of them. Very in character. Does this plot remind anyone else of Footloose? Just me? Side couple was cute but now a bit too stalker for me. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Unknown (Taiwan Tues YouTube & Viki) ep 10 of 12 - It’s fantastic. Such a great show. We are so lucky. This is basically Taiwan’s The Eights Sense. I didn’t know they had it in them, but I’m really glad that they did.

Living With Him AKA Kare no Iru Seikatsu (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 3 of 10 - As JBL’s go this is way more my speed (than Alaska). It’s just so sweet and awkward but charming about it. The confession was so earnest. 

Blue Boys (Korea YouTube) 2 of ? No MDL link - It’s very sexy this one. Not sure what Korea thinks it's doing, but I’m not mad about it. 

Gray Shelter (Korea Thurs iQIYI) ep 5fin - summation: About a slacker nursing a crush on the (brief) older stepbrother who abandoned him. Upon finding him again he moves in with him, upends the mans lost suffering life. A dark gritty piece with confusing subs making it too chewy to really grok. It's trying to do too much for its length. The tension is real and the acting is good, it's just everything else stymied clean execution of the core concept. Frankly I spent this show expecting (and wanting them) to just fall into bed together - in a kind of desperate fight sex. It didn’t happen, and I’m disappointed by the non-ending we got. (Whether it’s going to have more in the series or not.) 7/10 I'm open to changing the rank if a part two fixes this one's flaws.

Boys Be Brave AKA Roommates (Korea Thurs Viki) ep 1-2 of 8 - Oh dear. Terrible hair. Jock nerd pairing. OCD baby cakes. Cohabitation trope. Killer side couple. Def unhinged. 

At 25:00 in Alaska AKA 25 Ji Akasaka de (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - I’m still genuinely not sure about this one. It’s just a little too awkward for me in the wrong way. I expect all Japanese BL to have a certain aura of awkwardness so I don’t know what it is about this one turnign me off. I do enjoy that we’re getting both stories, the one between the actors, and a little bit of the roles that they’re playing on screen but... yeah

Love is like a Cat (Korea Mon Viki) eps 7-8 of 12 - The leads finally had a moment but there is negative chemistry. Why am I watching this? 

It's airing but...

Lady Boy Friends (Thai WeTV grey) 16 eps - reminds me a bit too much of Diary of Tootsies only high school. Not my thing. DNF unless it turns a corner and is truly amazing.

Memory in the Letter (Thai WeTV) - 6 eps, when it's done, tell me if I should bother?

In case you missed it

Kiseki Chapter 2 (Sun iQIYI) 6 eps - finished its run but I won't be finishing it. Stays dropped.

GMMTV announced the second half of their 2024 line up. I got excited and picked my favorites, details + trailers here. Basically my ranking is:

The Heart Killers

ThamePo

Revamp

Sweet Tooth

Perfect 10 Liners

The Ex-Morning

Ossan’s Love Thailand

Next Week Looks Like This:

What happened?

Knock-Knock Boys (Thai WeTV) - 4 college friends conspire to help their friend lose his virginity. Familiar faces like Seng (yes, Billy's previous pairing) and Best, news here. But will it actually air this month?

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENT

I have adopted him. He is MINE. I love him, your honor. (The Stand In)

I love them SO MUCH. (Deep Night)

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire

If ya wanna be tagged each week leave a comment and I will add you to the template. Easy peesy.

#this week in BL #BL updates #Two Worlds #Deep Night review #Unknown the series #My Stand-In #Gray Shelter review #Living With Him #Kare no Iru Seikatsu #1000 Years Old #At 25:00 in Alaska #Love Is like a Cat #Boys Be Brave #BL series review #upcoming BL #BL news #BL reviews #BL gossip #Thai BL #Japanese BL #live action yaoi #Taiwanese BL #Koren BL #BL starting soon #BL coming soon #Blue Boys

[copperbadge]

Immediate Writer's Block

Had a comment on another post where I thought I'd probably need more space than the notes in which to respond, so:

constant-state-of-self-discovery Oh I get the envy I feel it right now how the fuck do you manage to write without impassable writers block after 5-9 sentences because I haven't fucking figured it out lol

I do have some advice on this!

I think most writers get blocked from time to time, it's normal and my general strategy is just to wait it out, but if you're frequently blocked after only writing a very little bit, I think the problem is one of two things: either you don't know what you want to achieve with the scene you're writing, or you don't know what should happen next within the scene to achieve that goal. If you frame "I'm blocked" as "I don't have an answer I need" then often you move from just sitting there, sweating and staring at a blank page, to thinking productively about how you're going to get where you're going. It's the difference between not knowing an answer and not knowing an answer but knowing where to look for it.

An invaluable piece of advice for this, which I think I picked up from someone who got it off a National Novel Writing Month messageboard, is "When in doubt, ninjas attack." It's not meant to be literal, you don't need to have ninjas or fight scenes just because you don't know what to do, but it helps to get the creativity flowing again. If you don't know what should happen next, or you know but you're having trouble actually writing the scene, it can be very helpful to induce a moment of uncertainty or surprise -- to have a metaphorical ninja attack. One time I did this literally -- the POV character was just on the road somewhere and I didn't know how to get them from a pastoral country road to their actual destination in an interesting way, so I had them get attacked by highway bandits and have to fight them off, which also allowed me to demonstrate that the character had significant unarmed combat skills. But it can also just be like, two characters who are having a boring conversation can be interrupted by a third person, even just a stranger asking for directions, or there can be, IDK, an explosion, or something goes missing, or etc.

Sometimes it also helps to leave it alone but keep it in your mind and go do something else -- listen to a podcast, take a walk, read a book, not because those things are distracting but because all our inputs eventually feed into our brain and come out as reactions. If you're thinking about your book while you're wandering around a park, something you see in the park might have an impact on it. If you've got YOUR story in mind while reading someone else's, you might be more inclined to look at what they're saying and see what you think of it, how it might play into your work.

And honestly, sometimes you just gotta go past it. I'm working on the next Shivadh novel right now and it opens basically with Simon the chef getting into a spat with his love-interest-to-be over some cheese. He want the cheese, she won't sell him the cheese, so they get off to a very contentious start. But I suck at writing conflict especially when it's basically "A character I like is being pompous and another character I want people to find likable is being stubborn and somewhat unpleasant". I've been stalled on it for a while. But I know where the scene ends up, like I do know what the goal is, so I just...skipped it and went on to writing a scene I like better, where they meet a second time and actually discover each others' identity and that they're about to be forced into the grownup equivalent of a school project. Once I've gotten dug deeper into the story I'll come back and write it, and by then I'll have the benefit of knowing the love interest a bit better.

So yeah -- I think a lot of breaking a writer's block, especially when you don't need rest but are just stumped about what to do, is to twist and look at it from another angle. It's not that you don't know what to write, or don't want to write what you know you have to -- it's that you don't have the correct answer to a question, or you need to leave that part alone to ferment and come back to it later. At least, for me.

#writing #constant-state-of-self-discovery #writer's block #inspiration #archive

[emeraldspiral]

So another interesting thing about Jane Eyre is it's take on relationship inequality.

Like, Jane is 18 at the beginning of the story and Rochester is said to be something like 35-38. And it's not casually brushed aside like that was normal back in the day. It wasn't. Concerns about the age gap are raised within the text. But the story emphasizes that Jane feels comfortable accepting Rochester's proposal, despite the age difference, the class difference, and him being her boss, because Jane feels that Rochester regards her as an equal. When they converse, Jane doesn't feel any tension, like she has to impress him or try to read his mind and say whatever he wants to hear. She feels that he respects her and values her thoughts and isn't compelled to use his power against her if she says something to displease him. Around the midpoint of the story, Jane believes that Rochester is going to marry another woman, and resolves to leave because she's heartbroken, believing that because she is poor and plain Rochester can't possibly be as hurt by their parting as she is, and he'll forget her and move on long before she does. But it turns out to be the opposite. After finding out about Bertha, Rochester begs Jane to stay and insists he'll be miserable forever without her, while Jane, still thinking she's too poor and plain to ever attract someone like him again, resists all temptation and leaves him. And she does this specifically because she feels that if she were to compromise her morals and self-respect to be Mr. Rochester's mistress, then he would lose respect for her and the relationship would fall apart. It was only by maintaining her integrity that the relationship could stay in-tact when the reconciled at the end.

St. John Rivers on the other hand, I don't think is given a definite age, but I think he's intended to be a much younger man, probably in his early 20s. He is poor and without relations aside from his sisters or any other connections, just as Jane. Jane finds out they're actually cousins at the same time she learns she's come into a vast fortune that was willed to her rather than the Rivers, but decides to share her fortune equally with them. So she arguably had more social capital, even though she made an effort to put St. John on equal footing with her, because the money was hers by right and she could've presumably cut him off at any time, just as easily as Rochester could've terminated Jane from her job.

And yet, Jane's relationship with St. John is vastly more unequal than her relationship with Rochester. Even though Jane practically worshiped Rochester but only cares for St. John as a brother and is acutely aware of his faults, she still finds herself desperately craving his approval in a way she never did with Rochester. And St. John is willing to exploit that intentionally. He asks her to do things she doesn't want to and make sacrifices for him just because he knows she'll do anything to please him, and that's why he thinks she's the perfect wife for him. Where Rochester tries to explain himself and persuade Jane not to leave him by addressing her concerns, St. John basically tries to command Jane to marry him and refuses to accept her "no" as final. He withholds affection from Jane as a tactic to get her to compromise in order to reconcile with him when he's the one who should be apologizing to her and considering her needs and not just his own. Jane knows that she can't ever be happy with him because he doesn't respect her and his lack of respect only makes her want to seek his approval, which he is all too happy to exploit for his own benefit.

But Jane ultimately stays firm and rejects St. John's proposal of a loveless marriage, just as she rejected Rochester's proposal of an unlawful marriage, because both situations were doomed to fail if she didn't put her own self-respect first.

So this novel from 1847 was really saying that power dynamics aren't pure black and white. Age and class and wealth and status can be a factor in making a relationship unequal, but you can also be equal on pretty much all social axis and still have inequality in a relationship. What's really important is that there's mutual respect.

#jane eyre

[xbomboi]

YOU 🤝 ME

SCREENWRITING

Could you possibly elaborate more on your EQ movies?? I'm really interested in this Cove Sunset... 👀

oh yeah actually i would love to talk more about that! so basically i wrote two movies intended to be the penultimate and the final installment in the Equestria Girls series since that’s definitely never going to get an official ending. i wanted to tie up loose ends…

i made a poster for the second one of the two that i made a few years back right here. but anyway…

the first of the two is called “Royal Nightmare.” the premise is as follows: it’s now spring of the girls’ senior year, and rarity has made the decision to run for queen of the spring fling after being robbed by sunset she tried to run for princess years ago. but when rarity gets possessed by dark magic, sunset has to confront her repressed baggage from the past if she wants to save her friend before it’s too late.

basically, this one deals a lot with sunset’s past with rarity. the film has a mix of the events taking place in the present day as well as flashbacks to the past, being the girls’ freshman year. it covers stuff like sunset arriving for the first time, her meeting flash, how she rose to power, and what she did to rarity (i changed it up just a tad because the junior novelization is a Weird book). it also has a lot of focus on rarijack as well.

the other one, intended as a finale movie, is titled “Forever Friendship.” after finally graduating from canterlot high, the girls are about to move onto the next stages in each of their lives. however, sunset still has unfinished business in regards to herself. together, the girls set out on one last adventure to uncover the truth behind sunset’s family and the sunset from their world. but could this be end?

this one is basically, like, giving sunset closure. in it i explore sunset’s origin and the truth about the Other sunset shimmer. it has an entire conflict that revolves around a discussion of the moral dilemma that comes with having magic in the human world. at heart it’s about sunset finding her purpose once and for all. i can’t say much else without spoiling it.

royal nightmare is complete in THEORY but needs a lot of, like, extra fleshing out and possibly the addition of a few more scenes. also, forever friendship is now missing a song or two because i removed one scene entirely and instead repurposed the song for royal nightmare. also ALSO, they’re a bit old now and i approached them differently than i did when writing for ever after high. i wasn’t totally thinking about completely matching the tone and more about cinematics. it’s not that i bumped the ratings up, but i let dialogue be lengthy and… idk, nuanced? i guess? more so in forever friendship than royal nightmare, at least. and there’s probably an occasional typo in them both.

i would share them, but the thing that makes me hesitant is the fact that for the songs, i made an unlisted youtube playlist of myself singing them each just for people who read them to have reference when the scenes pop up. it wasn’t so embarrassing when it was just being shared between myself and my friends, but the audio is kinda bad and there’s no music it’s just me singing. i didn’t even have the same range as i wanted for some of the songs or the characters so i sound wonky in it. and i can’t redo it now because i’m older and my voice has dropped so that’s a no-go.

idk, maybe i could give in with enough convincing.

#equestria girls #eqg #sunset shimmer #rarity #applejack #rarijack #mane 7 #ramble #ask #duncontent #duncart

[astralalmighty]

One thing I haven’t seen talked about in Nimona is how young Ballister and Ambrosius are! Like we can debate their ages and all, but what I’d rather focused on is how they’ve only just got out of training by the time all those horrible things happen in the movie. They’re not the well-seasoned fighters they are in the novel. We’ve got Ambrosius getting distracted by autographs, and that asshole knight (whatever his name is) being himself, and Ballister clearly out of his depth while trying help Nimona and her arrow (dude. that is not what you should be doing with an arrow in someone’s leg). These knights are still learning, and it really makes the movie quite different than the novel. It’s refreshing, in a way, and arguably more impactful as these men struggle to learn not only what the Institution is but also how to just get through life and their jobs

#like the other thing I really wanna know is the world building behind the movie #who trains the knights? #do their parents train them? #does their family like take them on patrols and stuff #how much hands on work do they get before they’re officially knights #how often are they sent into the field #I WANT DETAILS #nimona #I’m gonna have to make another post about how interesting it is we have this dynamic in the movie #because the other interesting thing is in the novel #Ambrosius and ballister spend YEARS apart after ballister loses his arm #(presumably years) #but the entire movie takes place over the course of (maybe) a few months #mayyyybe if you stretch it could be a year #but I doubt it #and this really changes their entire dynamic #ballister blackheart #ambrosius goldenloin #OH #I also wanna know how much of their thought process is #‘remember my training’ #I want the details about them being brainwashed

[lgbtlunaverse]

Most annoying NMJ or JC take is when someone that dislikes them is like "oh you're a fan of him? *scoff* Well obviously you've only seen cql, where he was super watered down. In the novel he's a dislikable asshole and that's the objectively superior canon I'm working from instead of your woobified fanfic." Meanwhile your main canon is novel canon and you genuinely find novel Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue complex sympathetic characters.

#complaining and whining about fandom #mdzs #cql #the untamed #nie mingjue #jiang cheng #WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO THEM #it's quite funny because in nmj's case i actually see shit from cql being carried over to novel canon to hate on him #for example my's treatment under the nie was explicitly much worse in cql because they transplanted the langya captain to qinghe #while the worst we see post-promotion in the novel is cultivators (WHO AREN'T EVEN NIE!) wiping ther teacups #(they're visiting from other clans like xichen. That's also why none of them had seen meng yao before.) #you can absolutely choose to interpret that worse things were happening to him at the hands of the nie off-page #it's definitely possible! but cql has people acting like it's objective canon #also the thing about empathy being inaccurate and biased in nmj's favor #that's another cql thing. in novel canon wwx can and does see things nmj does not notice (like the teacups!) #so even if he has some insight into nmj's thoughts and feelings it quite literally can't be showing things exclusively from his perspective #it was a pretty cool ceative decision from cql! gave us some very interesting character moments! #but sometimes i see people discuss the novel going 'and this was warped by nmj's bias i bet he was even worse in reality' girl wrong medium #in jiang cheng's case a lot of hate seems to be coming from the corner of cql!mains too #so clearly it can't be *that* big a difference in likability

[mstormcloud]

I think applying tropes commonly found in Sonadow fics to other sonic ships is very funny

Like today I saw the cute posts by Blu-ish about how hedgehogs circle and headbutt eachother when courting and how Sonic and Shadow would do that and I agree.

However I think the implication that mobian hedgehogs do this is HILARIOUS when applied to ships that only involve one hedgehog.

Like Silver starts circling around Espio one day and lightly shoving him with his hip or his shoulder and Espio is like: ???? What are you doing??

Or even Blazamy like- Amy keeps circling Blaze and the less Blaze reciprocates Amy does it more to try to get Blaze to react. Blaze eventually just tries to politely tell Amy to stop cause it’s hard to hold conversation while she’s moving all around.

But later Blaze talks to Silver and is like: “I have no idea what she is trying to do…perhaps she is finding a weakness in my stance? Should I fear her hunting me for sport???”

And Silver is like: uh. Well. I think she’s hitting on you? It’s a hedgehog thing.

And Blaze just freaks out because WHAT DO YOU MEAN AMY WAS FLIRTING WITH HER

#silver would hold that over Blazes head for way too long #cause for the FIRST TIME HE KNEW SOMTHING SHE DIDNT HAHAHA #honetsly another Sonadow trope that I think would be interesting to see with other ships is the paw thing? #like yes some Sonadow fics are very strange about it I’ll admit #BUT #I really like the idea that the gloves are a culture thing it’s just very fun to think of how mobian culture would differ from human culture #like ofc I’m an espilver trigger so my brain goes there like #I love the headcannon that Espio reads romance novels #but I also feel like on Mobius a lot of romance tropes would be things usually done by mammals #since just like in real life I headcannon that mammals are commonly seen as cuter than reptiles even in Sonics world #so Espio gets a little self conscious about such things (cuz he’s a teenager and worries a lot) #he doenst ahve soft fur to cuddle or ears to flick or paw pads #but I feel like if he were to show silver his hands silver would not even care about such things #because silver just loves Espio cuz he’s Espio #looking back on my tags and noticing typos is so embarrassing lmao #like uh I meant to write espilver truther above….not trigger #Aw well whatever #silver the hedgehog #sth #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #espio the chameleon #amy rose #espilver #sonadow #blaze the cat #blazamy

[asteria-argo]

the thing about being aromantic while also liking romance in fiction is that I actually don't like romance in fiction, because no one ever does it right

#i love romance in fiction #except I hate it #I am very rarely successfully convinced that a romantic couple being romantic adds to the story over subtracting from it #because the love interests barely even LIKE each other half the time and it often just wastes everyones time #to be clear I'm not talking about romance novels where the whole point is romance #I don't usually read that shit I'd gag if I tried #I mean stories where the main focus is a fully fleshed out separate thing and romance is a subplot

[moonsun2010]

some highlights from 3 October's entry:

Top left: "With his left hand he held both Mrs. Harker's hands, keeping them away with her arms at full tension; his right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man's bare breast which was shown by his torn-open dress."

Top right: "Her face was ghastly, with a pallor which was accentuated by the blood which smeared her lips and cheeks and chin; from her throat trickled a thin stream of blood; her eyes were mad with terror. Then she put before her face her poor crushed hands... and from behind them came a low desolate wail".

Bottom left: "She shuddered and was silent, holding down her head on her husband's breast. When she raised it, his white night-robe was stained with blood where her lips had touched, and where the thin open wound in her neck had sent forth drops."

and

"Harker was still and quiet; but over his face, as the awful narrative went on, came a grey look which deepened and deepened in the morning light, till when the first red streak of the coming dawn shot up, the flesh stood darkly out against the whitening hair."

Bottom right: ""Hush! there is someone in the corridor!" I got up softly, and crossing the room, gently opened the door.

Just outside, stretched on a mattress, lay Mr. Morris, wide awake."

#my art #dracula #dracula daily #just a few doodles to get this entry out of my system because holy hell what an entry #cw blood #mina harker #mina murray #jonathan harker #quincey morris #to have all this chaos in dracula happen on my birthday makes this entry extra banger to me hahaha #cw assault #one of these is not like the others lolol #man the aftermath of this is like. chilling. like truly the low point but also the turning point? from here the count is on the run #and jon definitelt wont stop till he gets vengence lol #but i cant help but think of the seeking vengence thing in comparison with shakespeare the rape of lucrece where lucrece is telling the men #who want to avenge her by killing tarquin #that their actions are essentially useless and it wouldnt really help her #theres deeper meaning but its the about gist of it. i cant help but compare that to minas plea to jon to stay when he wanted to go and #immediately hunt down the count too like ik we readers are baying for the counts blood at this point #but its interesting to think of how this idea of vengence and honour intersects with gender stuff in the novel. esp given victorian ideals

[satorugojoswiife]

Dunno I but I actually feel kinda sad when I see people talking about Gojo like he's some kind of bad person etc etc😩 maybe I take it personally but how can I not when I love him so much😢 do you have such feelings?

No, I get you 😭 it's kind of frustrating to see how often he gets mischaracterized.

#overall gojo is definitely a good person #i feel like some people just took what nanami says in 236 and ran with it #as if panels before that gojo wasnt talking about how he feels like theres no one who understands him #its shown multiple times in the series through his actions that he does genuinely care and has a good heart #mans end goal is to literally dismantle a corrupt system to better the world and future generations 😭 #also the little things 🤧 #like in shibuya when he realizes he cant save everyone so he aplogizes to them (in his own internal monolouge where no one would even hear #him so he literally had no reason to do it other than he did genuinely feel bad that he couldnt help them all) #or when he gets unsealed and one of the first things he does is inquire about the condition of the people who got caught in his domain :( #or when he first talks to nanami in the light novel and when nanami refers to yuji as sukunas vessel gojo corrects him #and is like hes his own person #hes yuji itadori not just a vessel 🤧🤧 #but also yeah he is an asshole #hes full of himself and likes being annoying #hes self absorbed and often does things that benefit him #or chooses to do things not always solely out of the goodness of his heart but bc he thinks it will be entertaining #or he has his interest peaked #he helps the kids hes helped bc he knows they have insane potential and hes interested in seeing what that entails #but he also does it bc he thinks its wrong to take their childhood away #because hes also kind and wants to prevent things like the star plasma vessel incident #all of these can be true at the same time!!! ppl are complex!!!! #oof i rambled too much abdhankdnqkdnwkdnsjs my bad

[wullu]

Currently tearing through ORV ( I'm at chapter 410, and it's everything and excruciating but also so so good), and it's giving me a lot to think about + plus opinions I want to articulate but are still veryyyy nebulous in their articulation. Perhaps when I'm done reading and can savor and go back, I might have more coherent things to say or none at all lmao but for now, the one thing that's sticking out to me and kind of repeating ad nauseam in my head is how in ORV, as the story progresses, heroism/villainy and the definitions of what constitutes them are upended and constantly in flux. Labels are of no use because the story repeatedly emphasizes and shows that there is nuance, shades of grey in everyone, if you will. Yesterday's hero is tomorrow's villain, today's villain is tomorrow's companion etc. There are no absolutes despite names to the contrary and I just think it's really neat.

And in a very left field side note, I find it hilarious that if the names of the Demon Kings are familiar to me, even the more obscure ones, it's because I'm a fan of Marimashita, Iruma-kun! (an anime that deals with a human child in the netherworld). The very random intersection of my interests to me is a very delightful thing. Like who knew, this would be the connection!!

#omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv #word vomit #also in light of its adaption news #i would be really interested in seeing however will they adapt this novel #because its no small thing and its filled to the brim with details and references #imo this is the kind of literature that does not easily lend itself to adaption #sure theres a lot of showy visuals and fighting that would translate well to screen but what of the other intricacies of storytelling #anyway lettuce see #also can u tell i have orv brainrot #cause i do

[lurking-latinist]

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#anyway the aubrey-maturin kick is helping me with my dissertation I think #because diana is 100% an elegiac puella. all of the things that she does are elegiac puella things #right down to her name - equivalent of propertius' cynthia #(I suspect o'brien knew this he strikes me as probably knowing his catullus at least) #and it's interesting to see that such a character CAN exist in a linear narrative #because cynthia and lesbia and the other elegiac beloveds really don't #only in sort of vignettes. and that's part of what I'm writing about #so that you can reconstruct these characteristics and behaviors into a character who works in a novel #(even if she keeps disappearing to places and her letters cannot be put in order and there are five years in 1813) #(she's not SUPER strictly bound by linear time but she *is* in a novel) #dissertationblogging #this possibly only makes sense if you are inside my brain #sorry

[menstits]

Still thinking about the anon from yesterday and the more i think about it the more mad i get like you're insane for calling kaeya mid i hope you blow up. Bitching in the tags ft arguments my smart sexy boyfriend brought up yesterday while we were talking about this so credit where credit is due

#🗨️ #LIKE. #kaeya-diluc brotherly issues are interesting because kaeya is by far the most interesting character in the game sorry #like. genuinely i wanna know what they meant by the two of them having a “trope that's been handled better by other media” #because their deal is not just ougj brothers fighting #it's specifically about kaeya being adopted and about his conflict with belonging to a nation and a community and a family #and his loyalty to his duty and his birth family vs his loyalty to the city and family who took him #the only thing i could think of that has handled similar themes better is the untamed but that's literally a show based on a novel #so i feel like comparing them is a bit unfair #like ofc i know there's sibling drama out there 🙄 but that's not why kaeya brotherly issues are interesting #there's his dynamic with diluc his dynamic with crepus AND diluc's dynamic with crepus too #other than kaeya' #s whole thing with his birth father #idk. kaeya haters need to die a thousand deaths #i am Not articulate enough rn I'm still dying from back pain but you get me. you agree. if you don't you can fall over snd exlode #like there's a specific power dynamic at play in regards to the adopted child survivor of a fallen nation being rejected for that fact by #his adopted brother. on the night of their father's death. like yes i know diluc is stupid yes i know they still love each other as brother #even if their relationship is tense i know it's set up for eventual reconciliation #but just kaeya's whole deal IS about family. in general. #a bunch of characters' deals are about family in general like i could start listing them and it wouldn't end it's just like kaeyaaaaa #kaeya. is the guy of all time

[rithmeres]

ok i just got the Salad of 🅱️ongbirds and Flakes from the library and i’m gonna try to slam it in two days and then get back to mockingjay. i will continue to tag related poasts with #thg-reread even though for this book it is not a reread

#thg reread #2 pages in and it’s already so funny that tigris is described as not pretty when she is SO stunning in the movie #and the other thing that’s 2 pages in is that snow is like hmm what if my cousin prostituted herself so we could have some cash (YIKES) #i don’t know if im gonna like this book so this will be inch resting #ive never not liked a suzanne collins novel but with this one im unsure because like. who asked for this #of all the people she could have made a prequel about i really don’t care to hear about snow #will this add anything interesting or new or insightful to the canon or will it just be like. eh i didn’t need to read all that #(IT’S 517 PAGES) #the salad of 🅱️ongbirds and flakes

[thatscarletflycatcher]

I'm trying to articulate a thought: while a moral reading of a text is necessary and I'd say unavoidable, a judgement of a text cannot begin and end in its value as a didactic piece for teaching morality to the reader (or reinforcing their sense of moral selves).

This doesn't mean people should read books that make apology of things the person finds morally or psychologically repulsive, just because there's some artistic value in them anyways.

But I have seen people for whom reading (and engaging with media in general) becomes a moral race in which their enjoyment of literature must be thoroughly justified by the -often only superficially ascertained- moral value of the themes and lessons of the text, and for whom the things they read are a letter of presentation of the moral principles they spouse.

In other words, instead of the moral principles of the person delineating the framework through which they approach the text, it is a checklist of things the text must explicitly contain in order to be seen as having any worth at all.

Which is a rather sad and superficial way to engage with things.

#Pick say Dracula #to mention a book I disliked #yes part of my dislike is the treatment of Mina's character and also the approach of the lower class characters and the foreigner danger #But also the book has a very strong promising first half that quickly descends into idiot ball convenience so that Mina can get bitten #And it goes downhill from there #I can understand why people enjoy the novel #And also point out the futility and delusion of trying to say that Bram Stoker had a feminist and inclusive perspective of women #The book can be written by an author that doesn't care about women and it bleeds through the text #and you still can derive enjoyment of the interesting concepts characters and dynamics in it #That won't make you a bad person you don't need to force the text into being PureTM #The other way around #yes War and Peace features two adult men falling in love with a young teenage girl and that's yikesy #But it's also a story about how she represents life #and the way their relationship with life creates a contrast and a reflection about the meaning of life and love #Is this a good treatment of Natasha? No! #Does that mean that the whole book is bad because Tolstoy was a bad husband and in general not good to women? Also no! #So yeah it boils down to #you can enjoy quote unquote problematic media and be a good person #Your reading list does not define your morality #The way you engage with the text on the other hand yes can tell things about what you believe and the principles that direct your behavior

[pttucker]

"Yeah, well, sure. You have your reasons. Honestly, I knew you'd say no, anyway." "What? Why?" Han Sooyoung's sigh-filled replies were followed up by Yoo Joonghyuk. "Because that's how you operate, you fool." Looking at him glaring back at me with his usual eyes, I instantly realized what these two had to give up for my sake. Right. This was how I lived my life. And it was not how Han Sooyoung or Yoo Joonghyuk lived theirs. "…Sure, this type of method does suit the stupid Story of < Kim Dokja's Company > the best. I'm definitely recording today's events in my memoir later. Obviously, after surviving this place, that is." "You better worry about what to do next, instead." Han Sooyoung and Yoo Joonghyuk, two very different people. I realized something just then. I managed to get this far because these two lived on their own terms – respected my decisions in their own ways. I began thinking; with these two around, maybe not all hope was lost, after all.

Dokja finally acknowledging the power he has over not just his group in general, but these two specifically.

The two people who've actually managed to make it to the Final Scenario on their own in other worldlines and who still defer to him, the guy who's still not certain how this is all going to turn out.

Oh man, I just love seeing the three of them become a true team.

Our little group of Main Characters.

#I'm thinking back too on how utterly surprised dokja was that yjh actually saved anna croft because dokja said he needed her #not to mention all of the times hsy has been following some plan of dokja's in the background even when they weren't even that close #also an interesting thing we just learned is that the dokkaebi--at least the great ones--are aware of what happened in the 1863rd #so they can DEFINITELY see other worldlines and that just adds to my theory of the whole 'which story will you vote for' to Bihyung #talking about which of these three's story to support #orv #orv spoilers #orv liveblog #orv novel chapter 403 #omniscient reader's viewpoint #kdj #yjh #hsy