#they had that exact same scene and it made me lose my mind in 2021 djkflhg

[gunsatthaphan]

"It still hurts."

#pit babe #pit babe the series #pit babe series ep8 #babe x charlie #babecharlie #pavel phoom #pavel naret #pooh krittin #pavelpooh #thai bl #bl drama #they 😩😩😩 #also this is extremely SeanWhite coded lmao #they had that exact same scene and it made me lose my mind in 2021 djkflhg

[evieonic]

I love your blog!! I was wondering if you would write about platonic Yuuji getting tickled by Gojo & Megumi? Tysm!

Hi Anon! I'm so sorry it took so long to get this posted, I had a tough time coming up with ideas and then I got sick but it's all good now! Thank you for your patience. This is what I came up with, I hope you enjoy it. This fic can also read on ao3 if you'd prefer to read it there.

Remedy For A Broken Heart (Published:  08/15/2021)

Pairing: Platonic only, characters: Gojo, Yuuji, and Megumi

Fandom: Jujutsu Kaisen

Trigger Warning: None, though technically contains a break-up and non-consensual tickling though it's all in good fun.

Length: 1595 Words, 1 Chapter. Completed.

Summary: Yuuji's heart got broken by some chick at school and absolutely refuses to go to class. Megumi takes it into his own hands to get the strawberry blond happy again by calling Gojo-sensei who has some... talented tickling fingers.

------------------------------------ Megumi sighed as he stared down at the miserable sight below him. Yuuji was curled up in his bed with the covers over himself, completely ignoring the world. There were tissues littering the bed with tubs of empty ice cream on the nightstand. There was only one explanation for a sight like this.

Yuuji… got his heart broken.

“Yuuji,” Megumi sighed once more, pulling off the covers, “I know your heart is broken and the world seems to be ending, but you still have classes.”

“No!” Yuuji grumbled, pulling the covers back over his head with a yank, “tell them I'm sick or something.”

Megumi rolled his eyes, “Yuuji, it’ll be a good distraction.”

Yuuji only curled further into his bed, completely ignoring the boy. Megumi had never seen Yuuji this depressed before. It honestly concerned him. He placed his chin in his hand, his other on his hip as he took a moment to come up with an idea. What could possibly cheer up Yuuji? Talking about girls wouldn’t help, it’d only remind him of his loss. Maybe ice cream? No, the poor boy has had enough. A movie? No, he wouldn’t focus.

His mind raced with ideas until bingo, he had it. He smirked slightly as he folded his arms over his chest, “alright. Suit yourself.” He took his phone out of his pocket, dialing his emergency cheer up number. He knew it was going to work because Yuuji had done the exact same thing when Megumi was feeling down.

He grinned slightly as the familiar voice answered, “hello?”

“Gojo-sensei, I apologize for bothering you so close to class…,” Megumi began. He always felt a little bad for calling Gojo for anything that seemed minor.

“Hey, don’t worry about it, I'm here to help! What can I do for you?”

“Well, Yuuji got his heart broken so he refuses to go to class, so I was wondering if you could-” Megumi hadn’t gotten most of the words out when Gojo suddenly hung up. “H-Hello? Gojo?”

Megumi lowered his phone, looking at the ID in confusion, about to redial Gojo’s number when suddenly, their dorm room door was blown off of it’s hitches, hitting the wall with a hard impact.

“AYO I HEARD SOMEONE WAS SAD IN HERE,” A voice yelled and Megumi immediately realized what happened. Gojo had kicked down the door.

“Gojo-'' Megumi started, anger evident in his voice, but he was interrupted by Yuuji suddenly perking up, frightened by the sound of their door crumbling down.

He blinked. He glanced at Megumi, then glanced at Gojo.

And then he realized exactly what they had planned.

Megumi couldn’t help but smirk as he saw Yuuji suddenly remember that the last time Megumi was sad, he had called Gojo over and the two of them practically tickled him to death, making his sadness go away. Megumi had sworn revenge ever since that day. Today was a perfect opportunity.

“W-Wait,” Yuuji began, sinking back underneath his covers as Gojo’s eyes narrowed at him, “w-wait, there’s been a mistake, I’m-”

Gojo was making a beeline to him now.

“W-WAIT, I’m fine! Gojo, I’m- eheh !” Giggles were already catching in his throat, bringing a smile to Megumi’s face.

“Nurse, hold him down!” Gojo ordered. Megumi immediately obeyed, though cringed at being called a nurse. He held Yuuji down by his arms while Gojo yanked his covers away.

“N-N-NO! I’m fine, Gojo, I’m good!” Yuuji stammered, panicking before turning his gaze to Megumi, giving him his finest death glare, “why did you call him, you traitor?!”

“Revenge,” Megumi said.

“How?! You needed that and you know you did!”

“Well, you also need this so…,” Megumi shrugged, “point denied.”

Gojo hummed in thought as he straddled Yuuji, looking at him and thought, “hmm, I see, I see. I can see the sadness is located here,” he poked at Yuuji’s chest, right where his heart was, “we will need to prepare for an emergency tickle session.”

“Yes doctor,” Megumi nodded, falling into the scene Gojo was creating.

Yuuji only looked at them both as if they were idiots, “the fuck is wrong with you two? Can you please let me just be sad in peace, it’s okay to be sad every now and then- it’s healthy!”

“See, now that’s a symptom of extreme sadness, which means you’re too far gone,” Gojo said seriously, shaking his head. “He’s worse than I thought. Are you ready, nurse?”

“Yes doctor.”

“Can you two at least not be weird about this?!” Yuuji complained once more but Gojo ignored him, rubbing his hands together as if he was about to use a defibrillator on him.

“Clear!” He shouted before placing his hands on Yuuji’s sides and wiggling his fingers about.

The effect was immediate. Yuuji squirmed and thrashed about, forcing Megumi to hold on tighter, keeping him pressed on the bed as laughter filtered out of his mouth. “GAHAHA-! Nohohohohoho!! Staaahap! Staahp!” He giggled, trying with all his might to buck Gojo off, but the teacher was unfortunately too heavy.

“Seems like the medicine is working, nurse,” Gojo said, a hint of a smile on his lips as he continued his attack, “perhaps we should administer it to all locations of depression.”

“I agree, doctor,” Megumi smiled, nodding as he watched Yuuji smile with glee, despite the fact that his happiness was somewhat forced right now.

“I think I can see this being a huge problem area,” Gojo said, digging his fingers into Yuuji’s ribs, making him cackle with laughter, “oh yes, this whole area is pretty bad.”

“P-Pleehehehese,” Yuuji wheezed out, gasping for air as Gojo continued his treatment, “I cahahan’t breeeeathe!”

“Oof,” was all Gojo responded with.

“Gojo!!!”

“Well are you not sad yet?” He asked, halting his fingers for just a moment.

“I’m more pissed off than anything,” Yuuji grumbled, panting and glaring at his teacher.

His teacher only raised an eyebrow before thrusting his hands underneath Yuuji’s shirt, his fingers scribbling against Yuuji’s sensitive skin, making him howl with laughter. “NOOOAHAHA! Y-YOU BASTARD!”

“Nurse, he’s becoming critical!” Gojo grinned. “I need a hand stat!”

Megumi smirked, immediately catching on to what Gojo meant, “yes doctor!”

Yuuji caught the look in his eyes, squirming more vigorously in attempt to get away, “oh no, no you don’t, no you fucking don’t, don’t you da- PFFFAAHAHAHA!!” he erupted with laughter, the sound turning into a wheeze as Megumi, wiggling his fingers around his armpits, stimulating the sensitive nerves there. He had his knees pressed down on Yuuji’s hands, preventing him from moving his arms and keeping him vulnerable.

“T-T-T-This is t-t-torture, ahaha!” Yuuji wheezed, the words barely audible.

“It’s called medicine, actually,” Gojo said, “thought I guess depending on the medicine, it is torture.”

“Y-Y-You’re - ahahaha! - b-both - heh - s-stupid,” Yuuji giggled, his words distorted. Gojo and Megumi both only smiled down at him.

“Sorry, what was that?” Gojo smirked

“Aahahasshole!”

“Are you going to stop being sad?” Megumi asked, digging his fingers into Yuuji’s sensitive nerves, gently moving them to his neck, scribbling underneath his chin. “Are you going to get out of bed, make yourself happy and go to class?”

“Y-You cahahahan’t just autaha-automaahatically make sohohomeone hahappy!” He whimpered, trying with all his might to yeet them off but having no luck. He simply just had to lay there, as their fingers sparked up giggle after giggle. It was so unfair.

But finally, after a while, Megumi and Gojo both slowed to a stop. Yuuji made a breathless giggle, his eyes wet with happy tears as he blinked a few times before glancing at them both, confused, “Y-You… finally stopped?”

“Depends. Did we cure the sadness?” Gojo asked with a smile.

“If I say yes, will you guys sto- AHAHA!! WHA- HEY?!” Yuuji glared at the sudden tickling done by Megumi. He only smirked, a twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

“Just making sure you know we can keep going with this treatment all night long,” Megumi said.

“Yes,” Gojo nods, “I am the top rated doctor in the nation, I don’t let my patients leave when I know they need more treatment.”

“I hate you both.”

Megumi chuckled and rolled his eyes, “come on, Yuuji. I know it’s rough, but you can’t stay like this.”

Yuuji sighed, finally letting himself lose the sad attitude. He was sad that he got dumped but to be honest, he didn’t really like the girl anyway. It just hurt his ego more than anything. He slowly nodded, “okay, I’m fine.”

“Is that the honest truth?” Megumi asked, moving his fingers slowly in a silent threat.

“Yes!” Yuuji said, “It is, I swear.”

Gojo and Megumi exchanged a look of doubt before finally nodding. “Okay,” Gojo shrugged, “we believe you. Now we can go get you ice cream.”

“Eh? Ice cream?” Yuuji said, instantly perking up from that.

“You know how doctors give their patients lollipops at the end of their treatment? I don’t have any lollipops so… ice cream,” Gojo said, getting up off of the poor young boy, Megumi quickly following him.

“You know if you just gave me ice cream first, I would’ve been easily healed,” Yuuji said, rolling his eyes as he sat up.

“You’ve been eating ice cream all day with that same sulky look in your eyes, ice cream wouldn’t have the same effect as it will now,” Megumi said, smiling softly as Gojo nodded, completely agreeing with him while Yuuji glared.

“Again, I hate you both,” he pouted.

“Yes we know. Now, where do you want your ice cream?”

#jujutsu kaisen yuuji #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen megumi #jujutsu kaisen gojo #jjk #jjk yuuji #jjk megumi #jjk gojo #tickle fic #tickling #platonic #platonic relationships #also on ao3 #requested by anon #fanfiction #jjk fanfic

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers (February 22nd, 2021)

Hello! Here’s another collection of anon ask answers all put together in one big post.

This might be strange considering how upbeat yall are about the fandoms for your games in general, but is there any particular trope or ship you WOULDN'T want us writing/drawing/etc. in relation to your stuff? (IE, any canon you don't want us 'overwriting' or something like that?)

Of course we would want the fan content people make to not be racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted, harmful, etc. But in terms of generally doing non-canon pairings or adding in headcanons or stuff, we really don’t mind that. People are welcome to have fun and explore their own ideas.

for the 1.2 Android update was it meant to download as a  separate app? I really want to keep my previous save files but they don't show up (also thank u for the updates I'm really excited to get back into the game!!)

We had to change the name of the file and unfortunately for some phones that meant it’s treated as a brand new game. I’m sorry your saves didn’t transfer over to the new version. You can try to look up your specific phone and see if there’s a way to access save files for games on your device and then transfer those saves over to the new build manually. It may or may not be possible.

I'm having some trouble figuring out how to get the update from Itichio without losing my save files? Is it the same game or a folder I can put in the properties? Sorry if this question is not worded well or if this isn't the avenue you'd want to take technical questions on

Are you using Android? If so, the above answer may apply to you. If you’re on PC or Mac, the save files will automatically still be included.

Hey. I really loved playing our life. It was a fun experience and I never thought I would like it this much. I do have a question, I am currently replaying the game and I am choosing choices I never chose at first. In step 2 during the road trip arc, I decided to ask Cove about what he liked to see on people. One of his response was anklets and black eyes. My MC have just happens to have black eyes. Do Cove say black eyes cuz my mc have it or it was just a coincidently programmed into the game?

He uses your eye color intentionally! If you changed your eye color he’d change what he said.

Will step 4 have 10 moments like steps 1-3? 

Step 4 is only an epilogue. It plays like the openings/endings of the earlier Steps where it’s a bunch of scenes all in a row, there aren’t any individual Moments.

hi! who was/were the artist(s) for our life? 

&

who is the artist for Our Life: Beginning and Always?

Main Sprite and CG Artist: Addrossi

Main Background Artist: Vui Huynh

Main Interface Artist: Winter Slice

Other artists who helped out can be seen in the credits of the game.

In the new ol, there are two main love interests... Would it be possible to pair them together or is that weird? 

You can’t stay single and pair them together. If we are going to add all the extra content to have a route where the two LIs get together, it’d be a full poly route where them and the MC were all dating. And that’s not a for sure option yet because it’d add a lot of extra complications. But either way, in OL the relationships all gotta be about the MC, haha.

In OL2, there will be extra LIs in form of DLCs? Like Dexter and Baxter. 

Maybe! We’ll see how it goes.

Since Cove will have 2 diff body types in s4, will the storyline and dialogs reflect this? Or all of it will be the same? Btw love the game and sorry for bad english. Hope this doesn't sound rude 😅 

Some descriptions and pieces of dialog will change, but it won’t impact the story really. And you don’t need to apologize! It’s all good.

Will you ever release the transparent sprites of the Our Life characters? 

Probably not, I’m afraid. They’ve got a lot of pieces and it’d just be kind of hard to deal with, aha.

Something I was curious about, what was your inspiration for making a game with so much customization?

Initially, the idea was just about having a romance where you actually grew up with the LI. But it was pretty stressful to try deciding how fast the relationship would progress with it taking place over such a long period of time and with no real storyline carrying it. People might not wanna play a game where the characters don’t get along as kids, but other people might not bother with a game where kids immediately liked each other. So the obvious answer came, just let the player pick themselves how it goes. From there we simply continued to add more flexibly with the MC due to the same thought process of wanting to make sure people were onboard with how their life was going.

What made you decide to change the artstyle for ol 2 so much? I of course respect all your decisions and will buy the shit out of everything related to ol 2, but i love the original style and i m honestly not a fan of the styles shown on patreon, despite me liking the painterly style in general. (I don t mind the style being changed, just that the examples shown so far all feel like there s something wrong with them.) 

We’ve always used different art styles for each of our projects. They all have distinct looks from each other. It’s just nice to do something new. I’m glad you really like how the first game looks, though. And those samples were only general concepts, rather than the exact options being decided between. We wanted to see reactions to different options. The art style we’re going with won’t be exactly like those, though I personally like all of them. I think players are gonna enjoy the style Our Life: Now & Forever when it’s revealed.

Hey! Is it ok to ask what gender ourlife2 protagonist will be and if we'll be given the same opportunity to customize an MC? Totally understand if you're keeping this under wraps for now if u don't wanna say! 

OL2 will have the same type of MC customization as OL1, but even more refined! So their gender will be up to you.

Hi! I happened upon Our Life on Steam by pure chance. It is such a great game, I am super excited about the DLC, and I just want you all to know that you are awesome! :D I have a question, and I'm sorry if it's been asked before. Do you have plans of making more games similar to Our Life, with customizable player character? The customizable player character was probably the one thing I personally have been desperate for in romance VNs. So glad there finally is one and would love to see more.

Thank you! And yep, we do have plans for more games like Our Life, most notably is another game in the franchise- Our Life: Now & Forever. We’ll also likely have other, non-OL, games with customizable MCs, though we may still have some games with set MCs in the future as well.

On the patreon dlc just curious but is it possible to play it without actually sleeping together/getting the nsfw content? I just want to spend more time with Cove 

Yeah, you can still choose not to go that far. Though the event is shorter if you pass on the 18+ stuff.

At the beginning of Step 2, did Cove end up accidentally falling asleep in your bed? Or did he fall asleep on the floor? 

He fell asleep sitting on the floor with his body/head leaning against the side of the bed.

This may seem like a weird question, but what exactly is the difference between "direct" and "relaxed" on the comfort scale?

Direct is blunter and more teasing, relaxed is lighthearted and goes with the flow.

can the MC have tattoos in step 3? 

Not in Step 3, but you can in Step 4.

how would Cove react if he visited somewhere like North Carolina in winter where it can get in the 20s(F) at night sometimes? 

He would be shocked and unprepared for what serious coldness is really like, haha. The poor beach baby would wanna go home.

Hello! I just joined the PATREON!! It’s amazing! I love your games! I have a question, approximately how much after will the nsfw be out? After or before the dlc 3 and step four? Sorry my English isn’t the best!❤️❤️❤️ 

Thanks so much! The NSFW DLC will be out after the Step 3 DLC but before Step 4. And you don’t need to apologize for that ^^.

This might be obvious but, will step 4 have dlcs? Also, where will the nsfw dlc happen? Won't bother me at all if it s in in our or his house but i do think it d be moderately funny 

Step 4 will have the Cove Wedding DLC and the Derek and Baxter romance DLCs each add a lot of new content to Step 4, though they’re also partially set in Step 2 and Step 3 respectively. The NSFW DLC happens in Cove’s room.

I keep wondering what would've happened if Mr. Holden met Lizzie first instead of the MC. I can't see that turning out well somehow lol. 

It wouldn’t have made a difference. He met the MC’s parents first and they told him about their two kids. He wanted the MC specifically to be Cove’s friend because the two were the same age.

Even though we have a way to go I'm really excited for OL 2! I was curious though, is the next main character going to be adopted again? I thought it was really clever to make the first main character adopted so when players are customizing,  they can make them look how ever they like without worrying about pesky genetics. Just wondering! 

The OL2 MC is not adopted. We wanted to go for a new dynamic. Instead their parents are their biological single mother who is partially customizable and an off-screen sperm donor father. So the mom will look generally like the MC and any other traits not from her can be assumed to come from whoever the father was.

—– —– —–

Thank you so much for all the asks ^^

FAQ   If you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

#our life #Our Life Beginnings & Always #ourlifeba #ask #gb patch #gb patch games #Our Life: Now & Forever

[letsbeoutoftouch]

Back in December 2016, during a sleepover, my friends and I decided to watch EXO's Chanyeol's most recent movie, "So I Married an Anti-Fan". It effortlessly became one of my favourite movies, so much so that I rewatch it —at least— once a year.

Therefore, when it was first announced that South Korea was going to produce a drama based on the same story, I was thrilled. The feeling only increased when I found out that the male lead was Choi Tae-Joon, whom I loved because of Suspicious Partner. Later (to be more precise, this year), I discovered that the other lead was the one and only Sooyoung from SNSD!

The drama was filmed back in 2018, and it was supposed to air a loooot sooner, but it had a few problems and it finally came out this year. Since I don't like waiting for episodes to come out each week, I waited until it finished airing to watch it... And, today, I finished it!

So, here's my review, fresh out the oven!

· · ·

So I Married an Anti-Fan is a 2021 South Korean drama, featuring Choi Tae-Joon, Choi Sooyoung, Hwang Chansung and Han Ji-Ahn. It's based on the novel "그래서 나는 안티팬과 결혼했다" (So I Married an Anti-Fan), written by Kim Eun Jun and published in 2010.

· · ·

♡ PLOT:

The story revolves around Hoo Joon (Tae-Joon), a well-known idol, and Geun Young (Sooyoung), a magazine reporter. They meet during an event, where a series of misunderstandings leads them to have a bad impression of each other.

For this reason, when Geun Young loses her job, she's under the impression that it was Hoo Joon's doing and is therefore keen on "reveal" Joon's real character. However, her retaliation backfires, and she attracts a lot of attention as his "anti-fan".

Later, a TV producer approaches them both to star in a reality show. Geun Young and Hoo Joon accept and think to give each other a hard time on set. But, as time goes by, they get to know each other better and better.

· · ·

♡ EPISODES:

It's made up of 16 episodes, running for an hour each (i.e., your typical k-drama).

· · ·

♡ CHARACTERS:

-Geun Young (FL): She's the best character, hands down (I swear I'm not being biased because I love Sooyoung).

For some reason, I've seen a lot of bad comments about this character. I don't truly understand why some people said that she didn't stand up for herself or that she was so-so, when she dealt really well with everything that had happened to her. I'd like to see all those people in her shoes—I bet they'd have cracked up quickly.

Also, she's like the least toxic character I've ever come across in a drama. She waits patiently for Joon to deal with his problems and doesn't jump to conclusions regarding his relationship with In Hyeong and Jae Joon. She lets him do his thing, is an independent woman, and tries to be as little of a burden as she can to the people she cares about. So, props to her!

▫ ▫ ▫

-Hoo Joon (ML): Although I overall liked his character, I admit that if I hadn't previously watched the movie, I'd probably be wary of him at the beginning. But, don't worry: as the story progresses, you get to know him better. He's patient and thinks of other people's feelings and well-being a lot (sometimes, a little too much for his own good, but he's a good boy).

I felt the need to include that there was this one scene where he acts... In a way that I didn't find appealing. Fortunately, he isn't like that all throughout the drama. Also, he isn't toxic like a lot of the male leads in drama-land. If you're wondering which scene I'm referring to, here's a spoiler: *SPOILER ALERT* When he and Geun Young start dating, they are requested to film an advertisement together. In the filming, he acts all "jealous" because the dress she was wearing was too short for his liking. I'm sorry, but she's the only one who has a say on how short a dress she's wearing is—not you, not even if you're her partner *END OF SPOILER ALERT*.

▫ ▫ ▫

-JJ/Jae Joon (SML): Jae Joon is the second male lead, and he was portrayed by 2PM's Chansung.

I'm sorry, but I never could come to terms with this character, not even during the last episodes. If the writers' intention was for me to hate him, they (and Chansung's acting) totally achieved that purpose.

He is incredibly selfish and keeps this attitude up to episode 13/14. Towards the ending, the story tries that the audience feels some sympathy towards him—it is shown why he acted the way he did. Nevertheless, in my opinion, while his past may explain his actions, it doesn't justify any of them. That's why I couldn't bring myself to feel sympathetic or empathetic towards him. *SPOILER ALERT* In fact, I think Hoo Joon was too nice to be there for him in the last two or three episodes. *END OF SPOILER ALERT*

He's also outright abusive. *SPOILER ALERT* I mean, he slapped In Hyeong and broke her laptop ¿?... Even though I didn't like her that much, nothing justifies that kind of violent behaviour. *END OF SPOILER ALERT*

▫ ▫ ▫

-In Hyeong (SFL): She's the second female lead, portrayed by actress Han Ji-Ahn.

Oh, man. I had a hard time trying to wrap my head around this character. I was just going to say that I couldn't stand her because she was always purposely putting a spanner in the works, making everyone's life difficult.

However, as I was drafting this review, I began reflecting on the character and felt sympathy for her. She was in a vulnerable place—leaving aside that she felt abandoned by her first love, she had trouble trying to make her career take off, and she was in a really abusive relationship. It could be argued that JJ and In Hyeon were both toxic to each other, but it was clear that he was the one with the upper hand (he was the CEO of her new agency, which brings a real disbalance of power).

Moreover, it was hinted several times that all she went through took a toll on her mental health (*SPOILER ALERT* she was always taking pills to calm down, and she freaking tried to kill herself!!!!!!! *END OF SPOILER ALERT*). I believe she needed professional help to put herself back together, so she could let go of her past and finally leave that abusive relationship.

· · ·

♡ COUPLES:

Since this drama mostly gravitates towards romantic relationships, I'm including this section.

▫ ▫ ▫

-Geun Young x Hoo Joon: They are your typical enemies to lovers.

In the beginning, their relationship was tainted by a lot of misunderstandings, which led them to hate each other's guts (but, where's the charm in a k-drama that isn't filled with misunderstandings, am I right?). Once they started to spend more time together, they began understanding each other better. In time, they were able to leave their pride aside and got rid of their prejudices (yes, the story gives Jane Austen-ish vibes, so much so that "Pride and Prejudice" is mentioned a few times).

Their chemistry was alright. I would have changed some parts of the script that made a lot of scenes to be super cringey—especially, before some of their kisses (like, what a way to ruin such an awaited moment!).

The thing I liked the most about them was that neither of them was toxic, and they knew how and when to give the other person space. They were sweet, but not unbearable sweet—just the exact amount.

▫ ▫ ▫

-In Hyeong x Jae Joon: I don't know if they can be considered a true couple, but I'm adding them here just to repeat that I HATED THEM TOGETHER.

· · ·

♡ SOME PERSONAL INTERPRETATIONS AND THOUGHTS:

For me, the story tries to show the two sides of the same coin: things that may seem completely different, but are essentially the same. You can see it with Hoo Joon/Geun Young, their friends, and even with Hoo Joon/Jae Joon. Of course, this could be argued—it is just my personal impression.

Also, while the drama condemns some of the toxic fan behaviour, it sometimes romanticises it. *SPOILER ALERT* one fan freaking kidnapped him, and everything was suddenly alright ¿¿ Nuh-uh *END OF SPOILER ALERT*

· · ·

♡ DRAMA VS. MOVIE:

As I mentioned above, there's a prior Chinese movie from 2016 that was based on this novel. It features EXO's Chanyeol, Yuan Shan Shan, SNSD's Seohyun, and Jian Chao.

For obvious reasons, the story is shrunk down in the movie. There are a lot of things that weren't included in the movie, other things were overly simplified, and some stuff was missing and/or changed.

If you want to have a good laugh, then I recommend you to watch the movie. It's filled with non-sensical comedy that, in my opinion, China excels at. However, if you are more inclined towards drama, then the South Korean version is the one for you (you'll laugh, too, don't worry).

· · ·

♡ SUMMARY:

This is, basically, a sweet enemies-to-lovers, famous-person-and-normal-person story. If you like any of those troupes, then you're in for a treat.

It's a really lighthearted story that will make you laugh. Don't expect a complicated plot because there won't be one. It's ideal to have a break from all those dramas where you can't miss a single detail because you'll get lost, or from those dramas which plots are so heavy they end up tiring your mind out.

I loved the cast, and their acting was great (especially Chansung's, because he made me hate his character with a passion, lmao).

ALSO, if you like Sung Hoon (My Secret Romance, Oh My Venus) like me, then WATCH THIS DRAMA, lol. He has a guest role in some episodes!

· · ·

So I Married an Anti-Fan is available on VIKI!

· · ·

If you read the whole review, thank you very much! I hope you liked it.

#so i married an anti fan #so i married the anti fan #kdrama #kdramas #choi sooyoung #choi tae joon #chansung #han ji ahn #review

[lizziestudieshistory]

Books of 2021: The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson

I have a few things to acknowledge here before we get into the proper review - this is REALLY LONG and VERY CRITICAL. I promise you I do genuinely love The Stormlight Archive, but if you are someone who doesn’t like to see criticism of Sanderson or Stormlight, then please don’t read this.

This review has spoilers for The Stormlight Archive - you have been warned.

I’ve made no secret of my love for the Stormlight Archive - it’s my favourite ongoing fantasy series. I’ve also avoided reviewing it, and I’ve been putting it off since I first read it back in 2016 (could be 2017? It was a while ago.) How could I review something I love so much? How do I approach reviewing a 1,100 page epic fantasy novel? I just didn’t know. To be honest, I still don’t. I adore this series, it’s become part of my identity - if you asked any of my friends what’s Lizzie’s favourite book they would probably say Stormlight. Maybe Lord of the Rings but that’s a different kettle of fish.

I’ve reread The Stormlight Archive annually for the last five years. I promise myself I won’t reread it and let myself come back in anticipation for the next book. I’ve failed miserably every year. And these aren’t small undertakings - they’re each 1,000 pages and there’s four of them now! For context I usually only read 2,500 pages a month. 

So, I’ve finally decided to review these doorstoppers dressed up as fantasy novels. These reviews are mainly for myself, they’re going to be self indulgent, long, and focus on what I want to discuss like characters, structure, and prose - rather than reviewing the things I should probably talk about (like the actual plot…) I want to work through all the things I love about this behemoth of the modern fantasy genre, but also focus on its flaws. The praise for Sanderson is everywhere, so I want to work through my honest opinion of these books, work out why I love them, and I’ll invite you on this journey of self discovery with me. 

Structure

I’m yet to work out why I’m starting with structure but we are, I guess it helps with the framing. In case you’re reading this having not read The Way of Kings, each book in the Stormlight Archive is made up of 5 main parts that follow major viewpoint characters, and the parts are split up with small interludes that expand the worldbuilding, follow important secondary characters, or foreshadow future moments. Everybook is centred on a key character - in The Way of Kings it’s Kaladin - who we follow in the present day as a major viewpoint character and explore their backstory through a flashback sequence. Each book also has a prologue which retells the assassination of the Alethi king, Gavilar Kholin, and an epilogue from Wit. 

Firstly, this book takes FAR too long to get going and even longer to get into as a reader. I’m not joking when I say there are FIVE introductory chapters: the prelude, a prologue, Cenn’s second prologue (technically the first chapter but it’s a prologue), Kaladin’s introduction, and Shallan’s introduction. It’s too much. We’re jumping around, nothing really makes sense, and we’re not sure how these characters are related. They could be taking place in different worlds for all you know on a first read.

When I first read this book I was a lot more patient with long introductions and multiple false starts - I had the time to dedicate to getting into the story. I could, and did, forgive the THREE false starts to this story before we get to Kaladin’s first chapter. However, the opening structure of this novel is a mistake. If someone gives up in this section I honestly don’t blame them - if I was reading this for the first time in 2021 I probably would too.

The prelude and prologue are both excellent. The prelude in particular is weird and confusing but also sets up a clear mystery and sense of the sheer scope of this story. Szeth’s prologue, the first time we see Gavilar’s assassination, is flawed but still wonderful. The fight scene needed a bit of cutting, for my tastes, and I think the introduction to the magic system is clumsy - there’s far too much obvious info dumping and it needed some serious editing, especially as the complicated use of the magic that Szeth uses is barely relevant in this book. However, I think the Herald’s giving up the Oathpact and a magical assassin is great! They’re a bit weird and you’re not sure what’s going on, but it’s engaging. 

Then there’s Cenn. Poor, innocent Cenn. I’m sorry but he’s completely unnecessary. Independently of the rest of the introduction to the Way of Kings Cenn’s chapter would be a pretty good prologue as he’s there to set up our main hero Kaladin from an outside perspective. We love Kaladin and Cenn’s chapter is fine for establishing him as a typical fantasy hero – he’s a warrior, cares about the people, and so forth.

However, Cenn’s chapter in the context bogs down the opening too much. It’s too long, not particularly relevant, and adds yet ANOTHER prologue to this already enormous book. Cenn’s chapter offers nothing to the reader that we don’t learn later on in the text when the content of Cenn’s chapter makes more sense. We even see the exact same sequence of events from Kaladin’s perspective in a flashback! Not having Cenn’s chapter would add more interest to Kaladin’s character and add more weight to the flashback sequence because we wouldn’t have met Kaladin at his peak (sort of…?) 

Kaladin’s flashbacks aren’t that engaging as it is, he’s a fairly standard fantasy hero from a small village who ends up leaving his happy family to go to war. So leaving a small mystery around him in addition to ‘how did he become a slave’ would help with my engagement. It would leave me wondering how reliable is Kaladin as a narrator, is he really as good with the spear as he claims? I wouldn’t know but Cenn’s chapter removes all the mystery apart from ‘how does Kaladin become a slave’. It needs to go to make Kaladin more interesting and cut down on some of the unnecessary page count.

While we’re at it… Just cut out ALL the interludes in this book, except for the Szeth through line. I KNOW they are here for the Cosmere connections and to foreshadow things much later in the series. However, new readers and Stormlight only readers don’t know this and, quite frankly, they SUCK. In later books the interludes make sense but here they add so much tedious, pointless crap to an already bloated book. They’re too much and add next to nothing – other than seeing Szeth lose it as he kills people, that was fun (in a disturbing, creepy way… Can you tell I like Szeth?) Either this stuff needs to be relevant to the book we’re in now, or painfully obvious that we’re coming back to this stuff in later books. I still don’t know why we got Ishikk’s interlude with the Worldhoppers, and I completely forgot Nan Balat had an interlude. I’ve read this book 5 times… THAT IS HOW POINTLESS THEY ARE! Sanderson should weave the necessary foreshadowing into the main text, intersperse the perspectives we do need for THIS story into the main sections, or cut them out. When I get to the interludes I physically sigh and sometimes put the book down - now I just skip everything but Szeth - but on a first read they’re really off putting. 

To finish up with my complaints about the structure, and this is a big one for me - why do we have huge chunks of this book without major viewpoint characters? I’m biased here but Dalinar is probably the most important POV character in the story because he introduces the real stakes of the story. He has the groundbreaking visions of the past, he is the viewpoint we get into the politics of the war, he is the character who does and continues to have the most impact on the development of the story on his own.Yet, we don’t meet him until we’re 190 pages in… 

Sanderson alternates Shallan and Dalinar’s chapters between the five different parts and that means they vanish for 400 pages at a time. Why? I ended up caring about them right as we’re about to lose their viewpoint again for the next part. We needed to see the three major POV characters interwoven together throughout the five parts, not randomly dropped and picked back up again. The structure of this book was a mistake. 

Okay, I promise I do actually like this book…

Worldbuilding

Something I do love is the worldbuilding of Roshar, and I usually don’t care that much about worldbuilding. I can really appreciate good worldbuilding, especially on the history side of things, but for most novels it’s just fine? If I roughly know what’s going on with the world then we’re good, I can just get on with the story and not worry about it. However, Roshar is genuinely beautifully built! It takes A LOT to get me to visualise a world as I’m not a visual reader. I can feel the atmosphere, get to know characters, but can I imagine a face or setting? No.

There are three fantasy worlds that have allowed me to actually see the world and it’s landscape: Middle Earth, Discworld, and Roshar. The bleak, storm weathered landscape of the Shattered Plains is so embedded in my mind it’s ridiculous, the only place I can picture more is the Shire – and Lord of the Rings has a film to help it!

Now, to be fair it’s hard for me to separate the worldbuilding in The Way of Kings from the rest of the series, so I now have 4,000 pages worth of worldbuilding in my head… However, it’s certainly strong and I distinctly remember having a vivid image of understanding this world, the atmosphere, landscape, and so forth, on my first read. Although it did take me until Oathbringer to realise that everything, except humanity, was basically a crab… (I think that was just me being dense.)

I do think Roshar needs much more of its history to be expanded on. We don’t have much between the Last Desolation (don’t ask me to spell it's in-world title!) and it shows at times. I don’t expect something on the level of The Silmarillion for Roshar, however, I do think we need to see something more substantial in the period between the Desolations and the present day. We know about the Recreance, the attempted takeover of the Vorin Church, and the Sunmaker? That’s 4000 years! To put it into context it’s the distance between us and Jesus’s birth TWICE, it’s like we know about the end of the 11th Dynasty of Egypt, the Reformation, and the British Empire in our own history... We need to find a balance, especially as we get so much development of science in the later books. More history please - but this is a personal issue and a series wide problem, not just The Way of Kings.

Magic System

Now, this is controversial for Sanderson, but I’m going to skip this for now. This review is already well over 1,000 words long and I’ve not even started on the meat of the novel yet. The magic system isn’t really fleshed out in The Way of Kings, we only really know stuff about the Windrunners (in an abstract kind of way) and the very basics of the Knights Radiant in general. So I’m going to discuss the magic when I get around to reviewing Words of Radiance, Oathbringer, and Rhythm of War, basically whenever I have the energy and more space.

Safe to say I actually really like the magic system in the Stormlight Archive. I usually dislike hard magic systems (I think I’m the only person who dislikes Mistborn’s Allomancy - while very well developed, it’s a bit silly and is far too much for my tastes...) as they often take some of the wonder, mystery, and excitement of fantasy out of the story for me. However, I think surgebinding is a fun system and there is a lot more of it for use to discover, preserving some of that mystery. Oh and, if you were wondering, I would be a Skybreaker!

Prose

Okay if you read the structure section and were wondering - why is this woman still reading these books, you’re in for another head scratcher. 

If you’ve ever talked to me about literature you’ll know that there are two things I look for in a really good book: characters and prose. Now characters are something Sanderson does phenomenally well in the Stormlight Archive, but that’s not something you can tell 100 pages into a 1,000 page tome. You have to sit with the characters for a long time and give the author some page time to familiarise you with the people you’re following. If you trust him, Sanderson pulls off some stunning character arcs, especially in the long term and I’ll talk more about characters later on (or you can just skip this section? Up to you really!).

However, prose is something you notice immediately, and Sanderson’s is…utilitarian at best. At worst it’s abysmal. These days I’m very picky about prose, a utilitarian style is fine but a book is unlikely to become a new favourite of mine without good writing. This doesn’t mean I want or expect the writing to be flowery or elaborate, but it does mean I want, and appreciate it when, the prose suits the tone of the narrative and world. I must acknowledge that I’m in a (vocal) minority here, a lot of people either don’t notice Sanderson’s style or like it - I certainly didn’t mind it when I first read ther series - so this is definitely a subjective opinion but one I’m certainly not alone in. 

Nevertheless, for me Sanderson’s prose is overly simplistic, repetitive, and very American. Okay so the American is probably only noticeable if you’re not American. However, I’m used to fantasy having a certain Britishness to the writing style, even when the author isn’t British, but to me (as a Brit and fantasy reader) the Americanisms are painful at times… There is no way in hell I’m ever going to acknowledge that aluminium is aluminum no matter how many times Sanderson uses it! 

Yet it goes beyond a spelling issue because, let's be honest, in this day and age American English is widely spoken and regularly used in fantasy literature - you can’t escape from it as much as I want to. It’s in the style of writing and construction of sentences. The entire narrative reads like an American has decided to tell me a story using their colloquial, everyday speech. It’s a deliberate choice on Sanderson’s part to make things accessible and digestible, and for some people this works. I do think he has a fantastic style to get readers in, especially readers who are getting to grips with high epic fantasy as it’s one less barrier to entry in an already difficult novel. But it does mean rereading isn’t always the best experience and sometimes the writing can jar me out of the story. 

In places it’s too simple and colloquial, so much so the writing becomes clunky, clumsy, and unrealistic to the world he’s creating, especially in descriptive passages and dialogue. It reads like Sanderson could have used more lyrical or formal writing but deliberately chose not to - at the detriment of the prose. This is particularly noticeable with characters like Jasnah Kholin. Jasnah is a princess, brilliant scholar, and political mastermind, she’s known for her poise, elegance, and intelligence. Yet she often speaks like an everyday 21st century American and other characters who haven’t had the same education or training as she has? I can’t believe this for a moment, her dialogue is so egregious in places that it’s like I’ve been hit over the head with my own book! I physically cringe when she says things like ‘“scoot over here”’ (chapter 70, p.1083). WHY is Jasnah talking like this?! It doesn’t make sense to me – Shallan maybe, but Jasnah? No. It doesn’t fit with what we’ve been told about her character.

(Just as an aside, I loathe the word ‘scoot’ – it should be burnt from the English language as an abomination!)

Part of the issue with this is Sanderson usually doesn’t distinguish between the character's voices, both in the dialogue and prose. Most of the time if you dropped me into a random section of the Stormlight Archive with no context I honestly couldn’t tell you who’s speaking or narrating without the signposts Sanderson gives us. This isn’t a huge issue as he’s writing in third person limited, and with context and the chapter icons we know who we’re following. However, it does mean we don’t have any idea of character voice – in the general prose, internal narration/thought, or speech. What’s the difference between Kaladin’s dialogue and Jasnah’s? I have no idea from the sentence construction or speech patterns. Certain descriptions of how characters speak help to differentiate (Jasnah is commanding, Shallan squeaks, Kaladin grunts, etc.) but from their speech patterns I wouldn’t have a clue.

All of this comes back to Sanderson’s overly simple and Americanised style. It’s his choice and it does work for many people, but personally it doesn’t always work with the characters or story. I’m not expecting him to write like Robin Hobb or Guy Gavriel Kay, but some finesse and awareness of character would be appreciated, especially if it helped to differentiate character voices.

I’m also going to throw this out as a very personal issue because I’m not sure where else to put it… Sanderson has the worst sense of humour I’ve ever had the misfortune to read. The comedic moments are occasionally amusing… However, Shallan’s puns are worse than my Dad’s jokes. Every time she says something apparently ‘witty’ and someone else remarks how clever and funny she is I want to hit them... At best she’s mildly amusing, at worst she’s cruel. It’s never funny. (This only gets worse with Lift, I almost DNFed the entire series because of the Lift interlude in Words of Radiance. And don’t get me started on Lopen.)

Characters

At last! Something I genuinely love and the reason I read these books! Sanderson has created some of the best characters in modern fantasy in this series and they are the only reason I’m still going. I like the worldbuilding and plot, but I adore the character work in this book and the series as a whole. The characters are generally so good that, even when I dislike them, it's because I dislike them personally, not that they’re badly written characters! Usually I love Sanderson’s characters though, even when they’re incredibly flawed (looking at you Dalinar!) because he’s particularly good at complex character arcs. 

Szeth – I love Szeth, slightly irrationally for how much he’s in both this book and the series as a whole, but he’s one of my favourite “secondary” characters in the series! Szeth is actually the character who made me fall in love with the series in the first place, which feels weird to say because he only has five or six chapters in the entire novel. However, a magical assassin with a strong, if morally dubious, sense of duty and obligations? Sign me up! The opening prologue from Szeth’s perspective is wonderful - it’s far too info-dumpy but it’s highly engaging and one hell of a way to open the series. 

What really intrigued me about Szeth was his role as the interlude throughline character for The Way of Kings. His internal conflict between his obligation to follow the Truthless’ laws and his personal morality is fascinating. Szeth’s character development has been one of the highlights of the entire series for me, especially as we explore his personal morality, questioning of power, and commitment to law and justice. This conflict is one of the reasons I love the Skybreakers in general and I sincerely hope we get to see more of this (and their conflict with the theoretically similar, although realistically very different, Windrunners) in book 5. However, Szeth is a promise that Sanderson hasn’t kept yet. So much has been built up around his character and we haven’t explored him properly (as of Rhythm of War) and I’m mad about it! He’s an incredibly interesting character, morally and thematically, and I hope Sanderson can live up to the hype he’s built up around him in the first four books of the series. 

Kaladin – Okay the real reason we’re all here, the shining beacon of the Stormlight Archive, everyone’s favourite heroic bridgeman: Kaladin Stormblessed. Confession time – I didn’t love Kaladin the first time I read The Way of Kings. Don’t get me wrong I liked him but I’m generally not a massive fan of underdog superhero narratives. (I’m still not a fan of Bridge Four in general for the same reason, I would apologise but I’m not sorry…)

Kaladin spends most of this novel running bridges for Highprince Sadeas on the Shattered Plains. Unjustly enslaved by a corrupt member of the aristocracy, Kaladin is fighting to keep himself and his bridgecrew alive during one of the most pointless “wars” I've read in a fantasy novel - the pointlessness isn’t actually a criticism. He’s facing systematic oppression and disregard for human life, as well as battling his own depression and forming a bond with a spren named Syl (I absolutely adore Syl! But I want to talk about her in my review for Words of Radiance.)

So… I’ve always been frustrated with Kaladin’s fundamental drive to save people and take responsibility for people’s deaths, even when there was nothing he could have done to save them. This book is probably the worst for it out of the four currently published and I just found it a bit much because I personally struggle to relate to his attitude. This level of personal responsibility is a completely alien concept to me, at least to this level, and it’s Kaladin’s entire thing - his driving personality trait - and I just didn’t get it. Kaladin and I are very different people and for a long time I really struggled to relate to him on the same level everyone else seems to in this book. It also didn’t help that the main plot around Kaladin running bridges, struggling with his depression, and trying to keep his men alive is very repetitive… So when you’re in the midst of it and struggling to connect quite so deeply with Kaladin this book can become a slog - yet, the pay off for his struggles is so satisfying and it is very much worth it for making the end feel earned. 

However, my issues with connecting to Kaladin is definitely on me and this is by no means to say Kaladin is a badly written character, I’ve always admired how well Kaladin is drawn in this book. Within a few chapters I understood who Kaladin is, and really loved the conflict he had with his depression and role as a fantasy hero. It's beautifully painful to watch and, even when you’re a bit ambivalent about Kaladin, you really care about whether he and Bridge Four are going to survive the bridgecrews – and the climax sequence with Kaladin becoming Stormblessed again at the Tower is still one of my favourite moments in the entire series!

However, on this reread of the series I had a completely different experience to what I’ve had on previous reads, and a lot of this is down to Rhythm of War. I don’t want to say too much here because it’ll involve spoilers for Rhythm of Warm but having seen Kaladin confront his, as Ron Weasley would say, “saving people thing” and really struggle to keep functioning as Stormblessed, I was so much more on board with this book. Rhythm of War’s much more personal approach to Kaladin really helped me understand him as a person, not just the underdog hero. The struggle with his sense of self, the way his depression impacts his ability to act, and the way he’s moving forward in Rhythm of War let me appreciate the character work for Kaladin in The Way of Kings. The struggle, graft, and determination, especially given his mindset, is much more admirable when I can strip away the focus on doggedly protecting everyone no matter the personal cost. 

Kaladin and I are very different people, but that’s okay and I’ve come to appreciate him a lot more in the last 7 months. Now I can happily adore him alongside everyone else, and not just nod along with the rest of the fandom because I understand he’s objectively a well written character. Also Kaladin’s mental health rep is some of the best I’ve seen in an epic fantasy series. However, I would approach this book, and series, carefully if you’re sensitive to depression.

Shallan – confession time round two: I hate Shallan. I really loathe her on a deeply personal level. And I’m still bitter about it because I used to love her, when I first read this book she was my favourite character! This was partly due to relating to her and partly due to my frustration with Kaladin. However, as I read Words of Radiance I grew uncomfortable with her and by Oathbringer it became a full on HATED of her…and it’s never gone away.

I first met Shallan when I was a shy 18-year-old, budding historian and scholar. I got Shallan, I loved her plotline, and found Khabranth a lot more interesting than the endless bridgeruns with Kaladin (sorry Kaladin!) I connected with her because she represented (projected) a lot of what I was at the time - and still am today, just an older version of that person. She was the main character that really drew me into the story - yes I loved Szeth and thought he was brilliant, but Szeth is largely absent from this novel and Shallan is the main female lead. 

And then I got hit in the face by the infamous Words of Radiance “Boots” chapter, and I immediately got iffy vibes, then there was the Chasm sequence, and so many other moments that made me uncomfortable. I’ll avoid spoilers and, for now, just say I got hit in the face by Shallan’s innate privilege, her causal abuse of social rank, and complete lack of social and self awareness. To top it off the narrative gives her no consequences for this and even rewards her for her behaviour, rather than making Shallan work through the issues around classism (something I, as a Brit, am hyper aware of and it SHOULD NOT under ANY circumstances be ignored, especially with Kaladin’s narrative running parallel to Shallan.) However, this is later book issues and a major dropped theme that I’m fuming about, but I still found I liked Shallan in THIS book when I reread the series.

Not this time. 

There are moments in The Way of Kings where we can already see Shallan’s privilege and complete disregard of anyone who is remotely lower than her in the Vorin hierarchy. The scene with the book merchant stands out. No one in that scene is innocent, and I’m much less annoyed by it than I am at the “Boots” scene, however, it shows an early form of Shallan’s complete inability to reflect on her own behaviour towards those with less power than herself. She’s casually abusive and manipulative, but no one really calls her out on it. The few moments when someone does confront Shallan about it, and the narrative consistently forgives her because Sanderson allows her to come across as the victor in each of the arguments. This isn’t to say Shallan’s causal abuse of the Vorin social system shouldn’t be present in the book. It’s actually very realistic, in our world white people (especially white women) have behaved like Shallan for centuries. However, what does matter is the narrative framing. However, I’ll dig into this when I get to reviewing Words of Radiance because a lot of my planned review for that book is centred around this issue.

I’m also resentful that Shallan’s character in The Way of Kings is a complete lie – we don’t know her at all, but not in the same way as Dalinar? We KNOW something is off with Dalinar, we KNOW he was a terrible person and a warmonger from the way people talk about the Blackthorn – but Shallan’s reveal largely comes out of nowhere in some respects and I HATE that the person I loved so much 5 years ago was a complete lie. I’m a bitter person and I will continue to hold a grudge until Shallan dies or the series ends, whichever comes first.

Jasnah – my problematic QUEEN. Is Jasnah a shitty person? Yes. Do I love her anyway? Yes. Difference is I knew Jasnah was shitty from the start… I like problematic characters, I just hate being lied to (*cue insincere smile at Shallan*)

Jasnah is a difficult character to talk about in this book because we don’t know much about her other than her public persona, however, she’s a large part of why I love it so much. I just like brilliant women who would kill me, okay? It also helps that she's an historian, I have a soft spot for murderous historians. I’ll talk more about Jasnah when I review Oathbriner, hopefully that won’t be in another 5 years…! I just wanted to highlight that I do love a female character in this book!

Actually on the topic, Sanderson is still a shitty author for female friendships – he has included more female characters in Stormlight but why are there no female friendships that aren’t rooted in backstabbing and lies?!

Dalinar – if Jasnah is my problematic Queen then Dalinar has to be the problematic King. Dalinar is my favourite Stormlight Archive character. I could wax lyrical about what a BRILLIANT character he is. You may not like Dalinar, you may not forgive him, but you have to admit he is the best written character in ANYTHING Sanderson has written, and one of the best in modern fantasy. Nevertheless, much like Jasnah I’m going to wait until I review Oathbringer before I talk about Dalinar because I can’t do him justice without his flashbacks. However, I will tell you a story about the time I first met Dalinar Kholin.

So, I first read The Way of Kings on my commute back and forth to Worcester Cathedral because I had a work placement in the Cathedral’s archives. I’d been doing this commute for months and reached the point where I knew when to get off the train by feeling, no need to check the stations (this is relevant).

 I was on my commute home, and as I was walking to the train station I started part two. I met Adolin and he was fine. I was a bit confused because this was a whole new perspective and set of characters, but I was doing okay. (Yes I was walking and reading, no I do not recommend this arrangement for health reasons.)

And then I met Dalinar. As I got on the train we got into his own head, with the mystery of the visions just starting, the hints towards his complicated relationship with Elhokar, and the amazing fight with the Chasmfiend. Bearing in mind I was automatically doing my commute through this – I’d become so invested in Dalinar, I missed my transfer on the train. I’ve never done anything like this before in my life. I’m paranoid about it! But I was so engrossed in this aged general, who was potentially going mad, that I missed the stop on my train and didn’t even notice until we hit Birmingham New Street.

I was so in love with Dalinar Kholin that I travelled to the wrong city… And my love for him has only gotten stronger*.

Conclusion

Overall I have a complicated relationship with The Way of Kings, and The Stormlight Archive in general. I love this series, I particularly adore the characters and character work Sanderson is doing as the books continue. However, it is severely overhyped. There are a lot of flaws in this book, especially with the writing and structural aspect of this novel. It’s poorly paced, clumsily written, and lacking finesse. For me Sanderson is an okay writer but a wonderful storyteller. As a storyteller he’s made a huge contribution to the fantasy genre and I’m here for the major improvement he’s made in popularising more complex character work and the inclusion of mental health representation. We’re just seeing the start of this shift in the fantasy genre and I’m excited to see where Stormlight and fantasy are going to go with this movement. 

However, as a writer he has a long way to go in improving his craft of writing. These are big books, and I will often forgive mistakes with narrative structure in books of this size because they are so huge. However, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t acknowledge them when reviewing the novel. Mistakes were made, especially in The Way of Kings, and are still being made but Sanderson has been slowly improving with the later books.

There’s a lot to love in The Stormlight Archive - the worldbuilding is insane, the characters are incredible, and the plots are gripping. I love them, and I will continue to eagerly await the next installments! But they’re far from perfect, and that’s okay. Sanderson has captured the imaginations of thousands of fantasy readers and I would highly recommend you give these books a go, despite my critical review. This is a fabulous time to be a fantasy reader and The Stormlight Archive is one of the most exciting reasons to be reading the genre!

*Dalinar and I are going to be on thin ice if Sanderson continues with his character as he did in Rhythm of War, but again I’ll address that when I review Rhythm of War.

#the way of kings #the stormlight archive #brandon sanderson #cosmere #book review #kaladin stormblessed #dalinar kholin #jasnah kholin #szeth son son vallano #not tagging a certain character because last time I had really nasty comments #i promise i really do love this book #i'm just critical of everything I read these days #especially when I've read it five times

[tbzhours]

the most magical places

haknyeon x you royal au, strangers to lovers au, fluff, a pinch of angst, implied smut 

[summary] you like to see the snow in other countries but this one time, you didn’t get to see it until you met haknyeon  [words] 4.8k

[notes] hello, dee @atbzkingdom​! i am your theb secret santa! i feel like i haven’t been a good ss because we know each other and it’s so hard to not reveal myself;; i think we got slightly closer up until here and i really hope we can interact more into 2021! here’s my gift for you! i tried to match what you like and what you experience from our secret santa interaction! i hope you like it and i wish you a lovely holiday! love you ♡

and also special thanks to the creators of this ‘december to remember’ project! the owner who messaged me deactivated but i feel like this little project brought many of us closer to each other! have a safe and warm holiday, everyone! see you next year ♡

It was cold as you shivered by the food stand, picking out a warm bread to eat. You took a glance at the sky, wondering why there wasn't snow yet in this town because every year around this time when you visited, there was always snow. Could it be luck? You couldn’t tell because you’re from a country where it stays warm all year. Maybe the heat wanted to stay with you but you shook your head at how ridiculous your thoughts sounded. 

“It’s supposed to snow tonight.” Haknyeon suddenly announced behind you. You turned around and watched him walk up to you. Your eyes were awestruck, they couldn’t leave him as you could see stars in his eyes, along with that smirk. Somehow, you didn’t feel cold anymore when he seemed to be waiting for your reply. 

He turned away from you to the vendor, ordering a soft warm bread like yours then he noticed you still hadn’t looked away or said anything. He faced his body the same way as yours, watching the people dance at the center of the town square while the musicians played christmas melodies. The scene looked very animated, vibrant, full of excitement. It was very different from your town but the energy was there. You could hear it as your eyes turned gentle. 

“You don’t look like you’re from here.” Haknyeon commented, taking a bite of his warm bread. He noticed how different your clothes were, perhaps the design that wasn’t commonly worn in his town. 

“I’m not from here.” You finally said, almost too excitedly. Your cheeks tinted up when he suddenly laughed. 

“No wonder. You couldn’t stop looking at me just now. No one does that here.” He joked, biting into his food again. 

“I did that? Ah, sorry about that.” You tilted your head away, looking at the ground with the tip of your toes twisting behind your other foot. 

“It’s alright.” He assured you then he smiled widely. “I’m Haknyeon. What is your name and your origin?” 

You told him your name and the town you were from. “It’s just a whole day away by boat.” 

He repeated your name and town softly, eyes moving to the side as if he was trying to imprint them into his mind. He sighed through his nose with a cold air appearing in the air. His lashes blinked as he looked back at you to ask, an assumption because it was common during this time of the year. “Are you here for a vacation?” 

“I guess you could say that.” You smiled, dashing looks at the ground to shy away from his stare. “Where I’m from is summer year round. Every winter, I’ve been traveling to other towns to see the snow, like here.” You looked up at the sky, sighing in disappointment. “But it hasn’t come yet.”  

“Have you forgotten what I said?” He teased in a whisper. “It’ll snow soon.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” You didn’t know why his words sounded so reassuring but your lips resembled his. “So, what do you do?” You asked. You noticed it since he predicted the forecast. His hair was wet and wavy, split right in the middle where the two ends covered his temples. His winter outfit was just like any other men in town where his brown cloak was long enough to cover his knees to keep warm. At a quick glance, you couldn’t tell what he does for a living. 

“If I tell you I’m a royal guard at the palace, would you believe me?” Haknyeon asked, grinning widely when the crowd got louder from the fun. Everyone was gathering at the middle of the square and the festive cheer made you look before you gasped back at him. 

“You’re a royal guard from the palace? And you’re allowed out here?” You were surprised but you sounded mellifluous to him. He took your hand, pulling you toward the dancing crowd because it was part of the song where everyone dances together. 

“Of course, I am. It’s not some typical fairytale you read about. Now come on, you have to experience this if you’re here for a vacation.” Haknyeon laughed when he looked back at you. “I’ll teach you how to do this too. It’s quite easy.” 

Haknyeon was right: the dance was easy to follow. You glanced a few times at him when he wasn’t looking because he was looking at your feet to see if they were moving the same as his. As you both danced along, hand-in-hand, you learned that the royal guards at this town were allowed to come out during non-working hours, which were from sunset to sunrise, and sometimes, they can switch duty hours if they want to. As for you, he learned that you’re a drawer, a painter to be exact, though you couldn’t bring your tools over as you wanted to take a break to focus on the travel. Hearing your passion, he hoped to see some of your work one day. 

It wasn’t until you told him you needed to head back when he asked if you were okay with him walking you. He was at your side as your hands were hidden inside your pockets minutes later after leaving the town square. 

It was quiet as you were holding onto the bag of your bread. Haknyeon couldn’t help to burst a tiny giggle when the bag kept making a sound. 

“Make sure to eat that when you get back. It’s probably cold right now.” Haknyeon said. 

“Thanks, I will.” You smiled shyly at your moving feet when it got quiet again. You could hear your feet clicking on the ground, making a steady beat when he got curious. 

“Say, did I ask where you were staying?” He asked, realizing that you were leading him when he offered to walk you home. 

“I have a friend whose family owns an inn. I’m staying there until I go back.” 

He nodded, humming along. “That must be nice.” 

“It is. His family is very welcoming and he has a beautiful partner, though they’re out of town right now for business. He gets lonely sometimes but he has a son who keeps him busy.” You glanced at him before you noticed he’s been listening with his eyes. He smiled before you continued, “I can show you where it is. It’s just down this way.”

When you both reached the Inn, which was next to a few shops that were closed for the day, Haknyeon stood in front of you and asked, “I forgot to ask, when are you leaving?” 

“In about a week.” Your lips slightly curved to one side. “Why?” 

“It’s just-” He paused, suddenly hesitant but he continued anyway. “I don’t know when we will meet again but if you have time, there will be a winter ball at the palace in two days. I think you might enjoy how beautiful the night looks with all of the lights and snow.”

You calculated the date in your head. “The 24th of December?” 

“Yes, at sunset.” Haknyeon chuckled softly. “I wish to show you so you have to come and see it.” 

“I’ll think about it.” You smiled at him, knowing you both would have to part now. 

“Then… Have a good night, (Y/N).” His cheeks were rosy when his smile bloomed. You adored how warm his voice was. It made you want to make him stay but you held back. 

“You too.” You smiled back. “Thank you for tonight.”

Haknyeon soon walked away, heading home but he turned around and made sure to tell you again, “Look out for the snow.” 

Haknyeon gave one last long look with a lingering smile still on his face. He really hoped to see you at the ball as he walked away and disappeared when he turned a corner. 

You finally walked inside the Inn from the cold, but you weren’t shivering. Hyunjae noticed you there and waved at you with a greeting. “Hey, how was the festival?” 

“It’s supposed to snow tonight.” You told Hyunjae, ignoring his question before walking up the stairs with the blushes on your cheeks. He didn’t see it but he blinked at himself for a second before he nodded with a shrug and a smiley frown on his face. 

Right then, he looked at the window at his side and he couldn’t believe his eyes. It was snowing. 

The next morning, Haknyeon could stop thinking about you. You were all up in his head in the middle of his private fencing lesson with Juyeon, the prince of the palace. They rallied at each other but Juyeon hit him the most. Once he won, he was smiling in surprise, almost goofy when he took off his mask. 

“You’re really out of your mind.” Juyeon shook his head at Haknyeon.

Haknyeon followed his smirk, taking his mask off too as his wet hair fell to the sides of his forehead. “Am I, really?” 

“Yeah.” Juyeon nodded close to him, fixing his own hair. “You never lose like this.” 

Haknyeon chucked, shaking his head. “It’s just someone.” 

“Just someone?” Juyeon teased. “You’re becoming like me.” 

“I am not. You’re something else.” Haknyeon laughed then he mimicked how Juyeon reacts about his future lover. “Do you think she likes me? Maybe I’m just going insane, for her.” 

“Hey!“ Juyeon shouted at how exaggerated he was. They both dropped their swords as he started to chase him around the room. Haknyeon’s laugh echoed when Juyeon threatened, though his voice became laughter when the chase got longer. “Tell me about this person before I demote you!!”

You couldn’t stop thinking about Haknyeon too, so you told Hyunjae all about it, about how you met this royal guard who asked you to the ball and how handsome he was. Even his way of words caught you staring. Hyunjae was glad to hear because every time you came to visit, you had always gone out alone, except when you hung out with him and his family. 

“You need an attire to go. Did you bring anything fancy from home?” He asked, turning back from the front desk after giving a key to a returning customer. He didn’t remember seeing any attires from your last visit as you were sitting in a chair behind him. You just awkwardly smiled at him. 

Hyunjae shook his head and asked his mother to take over before he led you to his room. His little boy was still sleeping on the bed as he passed by to open the closet for you. 

“You can pick a few things. I’ll wait out of the room. Just knock.” He smiled and walked out. 

It took you a few seconds to finally look through some of the outfits he had, and some that his partner left behind. Slowly, you got a few on at a time, letting Hyunjae and his son decide when he woke up. 

His son shook his head many times each time you came out in an outfit that wasn’t his taste. Hyunjae awkwardly laughed and shrugged so you went back in the room until you found the one. The two nodded when you came out and you sighed in relief. You couldn’t wait to see Haknyeon. 

That day quickly came. As you walked toward the crowd entering the entrance of the palace, your heart was racing. There was snow everywhere but the walkway was cleared out and once you were part of the elegant crowd, you noticed how the lights that led the way were shining brightly. Many people were laughing in cheers as they headed toward the palace. It made you wonder if Haknyeon was also waiting to see you. 

Inside the palace, it was wide and spacious. The designs around the room were very gold and bright. The king was already waving from his balcony but the prince’s was still left empty. It almost made you feel awkward walking by yourself because everyone had their own partner. Yet, you still walked around the place, hoping to find him. 

As for Haknyeon, he was with the Prince, Juyeon, waiting for him to get finished with dressing. When Juyeon turned around from the mirror, Haknyeon smiled cheekily. Juyeon’s attire was a white suit with a few golden harnesses hooked over his shoulders and down his chest. Haknyeon was in his royal guard suit, which was also white, except he didn’t have his sword with him. 

“What do you think? Do you think she will like it?” Juyeon asked. 

“I think…” Haknyeon had his fingers at his chin, tapping as he thought for a while. Juyeon sighed then Haknyeon whispered, “She’s gonna fall so bad for you.” 

“Thanks.” He turned back to the mirror to check on his hair and face with his eyebrows furrowed on one side. 

Haknyeon laughed at his funny expression then he stood next to him in front of the mirror and sighed loudly. “I’m serious though. You’re getting married to her and I can see how much she already adores you.” 

Juyeon turned to him and patted his shoulders but held onto him as if he’s been holding in his distrust about his engagement. It wasn’t arranged but sometimes he just needed someone to give him assurance. He held his head down and peeked a smile at Haknyeon. “Thanks. Thank you for not mocking your future king, but I don’t need you by my side tonight.” 

“What do you mean? I have to.” Haknyeon tilted his head, confused. Juyeon sighed when he let Haknyeon go. 

“I’m saying, you should go enjoy the ball too. It’s not like you get to every year. Beside, there’s someone you can’t forget.” Juyeon explained but Haknyeon was still speechless. Though it was his duty to be close to Juyeon at every event, he didn’t know Juyeon would allow it, but Haknyeon would gladly follow Juyeon’s words because he was going to be the next king of this town. Juyeon smiled at him and gave his last order for the night. “You’re off duty tonight. Go have some fun.” 

“I won’t let you down.” Haknyeon played along as Juyeon laughed and shook his head. 

And so, Haknyeon walked down in his royal guard attire, not needing to change. He waved at a few guards who were also off for the night though some had to solely stay within the palace for security. Some holiday carols were being played in the background as he walked to each side of the main floor, greeting some people he knew. Each time the conversation ended, he peeked around just to see if you were around. 

For a second, he was going to lose hope. He was smiling quite uneasily, though understanding but when he turned around, he found you through the crowd. 

You could see how surprised he was when he saw you. His lips turned into a big smile as he made his way to you. He didn’t know how long you had been looking but there was a tiny bit in him that you’ve been looking for him too. 

His hair was brushed straight down over his forehead, unlike his natural waves from the other day and to top it off with that white outfit, you couldn’t find any words to tell how different he looked. He looked like a new person, but with those eyes, they were the same from the way they looked at you that night. 

“You made it.” Haknyeon said after his eyes gazed into yours for a second. There went those stars again and you grinned widely. 

“I did.” You closed your lips into a soft smile, shy with your confession. “You look quite different today."

"Well, thank you." Haknyeon chuckled softly. He never thought he’d ever hear you compliment first that he found you a little cute. He noticed your attire. It was really elegant, much like other people in the room but from you, it was much more to him. "You look beautiful too.” 

“Thank you.” You smiled shyly with a hand wiping at your thigh. 

Haknyeon peeked behind you, as if someone was looking at him. You didn't follow his eyes and stayed until he looked back at you. 

The music changed because Juyeon and his to-be wife became the eye of the room as he led her to the center of the room. 

“That’s Juyeon, the prince of this palace. He’s becoming king soon, and that’s his love.” Haknyeon looked at you and you both stared at each when he continued, “He’s not so sure of their love for each other, but when you look at them, you can tell.” 

It was as if you could hear his heart beating when those stars appeared again. The moment didn’t last long when people started to move back to give room for the dance floor. Haknyeon quickly took your hand so you both wouldn’t be apart. He held your hand close to his chest and when everyone stopped moving, he let your hand go. You curled your hand, still wanting to hold his. 

“You must be close to the prince then.” You commented, smiling a small one. 

“I am.” He grinned, watching the two lovers dance the first official song of the night. He sneaked close to you to whisper a funny joke. “I keep running away from him so now I’m his most wanted royal guard.” 

“You’re quite the stealer then.” 

“The stealer of what?” Haknyeon asked, meeting your eyes again. The stealer of my heart. Your heart kept dropping each time he did that. You got distracted when the song changed. His eyes widened and his face bloomed excitedly. “You cannot miss this chance to be dancing in the palace.” 

“Why?” You asked, curiously scared. 

“There’s a myth that every lover on the dance floor falls in love when this song comes on.” Haknyeon took out his hand to you and you didn’t know if you should trust his words. His smile seemed promising that you wouldn’t mind letting him hold your heart. With him, you weren’t as scared as before. He finally asked. “Would you like to take this dance with me?” 

You wanted the myth to be true, so you took his hand without any regrets. 

Haknyeon walked you to the dance floor, following other couples. You both dance together for a moment as you warmed up to follow his steps since you weren’t familiar with the song. He held onto your hand firmly each time you slipped. Your face burned up whenever you found him smirking. 

“Don’t you do this every year?” You asked since he’s been in the palace for a while, you didn’t know how long. 

“No, this year is special because the prince is finally getting married.” He was still staring at you because that’s what dancers do. Maybe you weren’t quite the dancer when you looked away, scoffing lightly at his wit. 

“You must be lying.” 

“It’s much more of a joke.” Haknyeon chuckled then he smiled. “At least I made you smile.” 

Now, you started to realize it was your heartbeat from before, and not his. It was loud and you didn’t know how to make it go away. You held onto his hand tighter nervously. 

You suddenly remembered what he told you the night you both met and quickly changed the subject. “Anyway, you mentioned lights and snow. I don’t see it here.” 

“That’s because we’re inside the walls.” He sneaked a whisper to your ear. He could feel the heat coming from your face, that maybe you wanted to get out of here with him. He moved back and set your locked hands down. He nodded his head away to one side, “Come on.”

Haknyeon took you to a balcony in the palace where he’d always go to watch the lights, no matter what season. It always looks beautiful at night and he had to admit, it was the best view of the town. 

It was chilly, of course, but he was right: you had to come see the lights from the town and how the snow complimented it. Star bloomed in your eyes and you couldn’t stop gazing at the beautiful sight, except you felt like something was missing. The stars. You couldn’t see them at all and all you saw was a future of your upcoming last day here. 

You sat on a bench from the balcony while he was still gazing at the sight. You had a frown on your lips when he turned back at you. 

“Why the sad face?” He asked. 

“I’m leaving this town soon.” 

“You still have a few days.” He smiled reassuringly, then he leaned onto the stone rail and set his hands in his pockets. He sighed, resonating with you. “It’ll be nice for you to live in a country that has all 4 seasons so you don’t always have to move around to experience them.” 

You smiled softly, feeling thankful. You were usually okay with leaving when it was time to, but because of Haknyeon, he made you want to stay. 

Haknyeon suddenly laughed, joking, “What if you missed the boat because I wouldn’t mind to stall you to miss it.” 

“You’re very funny.” You shook your head with the same smile glued on your face, rejecting his silly joke. 

Haknyeon crossed his arms and tilted his head when something came to his mind. “Since you won’t let me stop you, how about I take you somewhere magical? No duties, just you and me.” 

You thought this view was already magical enough but you also wondered what else was there? 

It got colder when you both reached the beach beside the boats where you took. You could see all three things: the lights from the town, the snow that piled upon each surface, and the stars across the ocean. You wondered if he had read your mind when you were still awed at half the night sky. 

“Isn’t it magical?” Haknyeon asked excitedly as he followed you from behind after you ran toward the water. 

“Are you some kind of wizard or something?” You asked, turning back at him with a smirk on your red cheek. “Because it is.” 

“I can show you more places before you leave.” Haknyeon offered, one of his hands holding onto a coat that he made sure to grab on the way out of the palace. 

You were walking backwards but it slowed and you stopped to look at the snowy sand. “I’ll think about it.” 

“Going solo.” Haknyeon walked up to you and set the coat over your shoulders. “Let me know if you need any recommendations.” 

There were so many thoughts going through you. He stood next to you as you both admire the sky longer. 

Haknyeon walked you to the Inn after the little night adventures and when you both reached there, you didn’t want to let him go. 

“Here we are.” Haknyeon announced as you turned around to face him. He was shivering and his cheeks were pale but pink. “I hope you enjoyed tonight.” 

“I did. Thank you.” You smiled. “Tonight was wonderful.” 

“I’m glad.” Haknyeon's voice got softer. There was hesitance again. His eyes lingered at you, longing for more but it was already time to part. “If you ever need me while you’re still here, I’m right at the palace.” You nodded at him then he proposed farewell. “Have a good night, (Y/N).” 

“Good night, Haknyeon.” You tendered. Your smiles were filled with sadness that you didn’t want him to turn away. Before he could, you called out his name again. His eyes were large at the sound of your blaring voice. You sighed softly, hoping he wouldn’t reject your request. A moment went by, staring into each other’s eyes with so much longing before you pleaded. “Stay with me.” 

So Haknyeon did, until sunrise. As he kissed you that night in your room, you confessed to him, ”You know, I was going to pretend that I didn’t know this town well and thought it would be fun to have you show me around...” 

“So you already know the best places in this town?” He asked, surprised with an astonished smirk on his face. You nodded your head once with a playful smile then before he collided his lips with yours again, he chuckled, “You’re magical.” 

Haknyeon took you to places he enjoys going to, as well as you showing him hidden places in case he didn’t know since he’s mostly in the palace during the day. Your night outs were adventurous, like running hand-in-hand in the fallen snow, biting into each other’s food, riding his white horse on the palace grounds, and kissing in the hidden alleys. Haknyeon never knew you could take him to places he had never been, like your heart. 

When you caught him staring at one of the food stands at another festival at the town square, you grinned against the breeze. Your nose was getting red and he couldn’t help to laugh about it. He pulled you closer as you both selected the food you wanted. 

It was finally the day you were going to leave and it’s sentimental because it’s probably the first time you both met when the sun’s out. Haknyeon stood in front of you with so many words he wanted to say to make you stay, especially trying to reason with Juyeon that he had to really go that morning. 

Love makes everyone so insane, Haknyeon recalled the prince’s words, and he was right, because look at where Juyeon was now. 

Haknyeon smiled at the thought but gazing into your eyes, he might think he’s the one going insane this time. 

“Will you come visit again?” He asked, rubbing your hand in his. 

You’ve visited many places but there were not that could beat this place. “Of course. You are my favorite place.” 

“I wonder what your country looks and feels like.” He chuckled. 

“Why don’t you come visit me?” You teased him how he always did with you. 

“I can when I talk to Juyeon again. He wants to keep me here.” 

“Like how you do with me.” You giggled but you knew that couldn’t happen. You didn’t want to leave your country forever yet. Even though you could see a future with Haknyeon, you still needed time to think about how this would work. You sighed a long one, releasing a white breath from your nose. “I’m going to miss you so much.” 

“So will I.” Haknyeon pulled you into a hug, his hand cupping behind your head while the other still held onto your hand. You closed your eyes, inhaling his scent one last time before you both pulled back after a long while. You were about to bid your goodbye but he pulled something out of his pockets. He opened your palm and set a ring necklace there. The ring rested softly on your skin while the necklace fell off the side of your hand. His eyes couldn’t leave the ring when he confessed, trying not to choke on his voice. “I got you this. I just wanted to make sure no one else proposes to you before I do.” 

“Are you trying to stall me?” Your voice curled up into a grin. Your eyes were teary but no tear fell. When he met your eyes, the stars never left him. 

“I wish.” Haknyeon chuckled, his eyes softly blooming with the sunrise at the ends of the ocean. He could tell you missed home from the crystals in your eyes. He closed your hand and held onto it tightly, rubbing his thumb on it as he smiled reassuringly, “I will properly propose to you when we meet again.” 

You held in your tears but you managed to smile widely, just as Haknyeon always wished you could when you’re with him. “I love you.” 

“I love you so much more.” Haknyeon gave you one last kiss, holding his lips against yours as if his life held onto it. Instead of saying goodbye, he told you, “See you again.” 

You both parted for the last time and until he was no longer in sight when the boat moved away, you painted him in your head and marked him there like you would on a paper. 

You took the ring off the necklace and slipped it through your ring finger, how perfectly it fit. This wasn’t a goodbye because you would see him again. It wasn’t now but it was soon. You just couldn’t wait. 

#the boyz #the boyz scenarios #the boyz imagines #haknyeon #deobiwritersnet #tbznetwork #tbz scenarios #tbz imagines #tbz #juhaknyeon #ju haknyeon #royalty au #royal au #fluff #implied smut #note: the goodbye/see you again was insp by mr.sunshine

[miralenmagpie]

Sea of Solitude: The Director's Cut

Ah, Sea of Solitude. This one hit me right in the feels. As a reminder, if you don't have the spoilers tag blocked and you want to experience this game yourself, I recommend scrolling on. I thoroughly recommend this game, but do reference specific material from the plot line and have screenshots for various parts of the story.

Sea of Solitude was developed by [indie studio] Jo-Mei Games. [The story follows] a young woman named Kay who suffers from such strong loneliness that her inner feelings of hopelessness, anger, and worthlessness turn to the outside and she becomes a monster. The emotions of her manifest into giant monsters standing in her way, trying to help, but also destroy her. Kay needs to interact with and understand their underlying intentions in order to overcome the negative effects of those emotions. [Source]

I've had Sea of Solitude on my Switch list for most of 2021, so I was excited to delve into this concept game. I've been very active in my own personal quest for balanced mental health for a few years now, so the initial summaries I was reading about the game were immensely interesting to me. I've never played a game quite like this.

My first impression of SoS was based on the graphics alone. I loved the look and feel of the world immediately. I felt the darkness of Kay's state of mind and this theme continued to resonate with me throughout the story. I loved zooming on different parts of the world and taking photos, which made the Photo Mode aspect of The Director's Cut really enjoyable. You can change the look of the world around you for the exact shot you're going for. I'm glad I played this game now and not when it first launched without the Photo Mode.

Nothing should be taken at face value in the game. Everything is symbolic in one way or another, from the monsters to the shifts in environment, and even Kay's backpack. SoS is about a young woman coming to terms with her shortcomings and understanding the traumas she's endured. If you've been to therapy, this is going to sound very familiar to you.

Although spanning numerous scenes and "Chapters," I find it's easiest to describe SoS in 5 major arcs:

Lost with Kay. This is our initial impression of the drowned world we find ourselves in, the first look at Kay's "monsters," and finding our way around.

Finding Sunny. While Kay was trying to live her life and do her thing, her younger brother was experiencing some serious bullying in school. This eventually drove them apart.

Understanding her parents. Kay's mom and dad built a life with each other based on what they thought the other's expectations were and have come to resent each other, leading to divorce.

Letting go of Jack. Jack, Kay's boyfriend, also suffers from depression and is spiraling while together with her. She tries desperately to help him but loses herself in the process.

Awakening with Kay. The darkness boils over and overtakes Kay and she tries to find her way to her *sea of solitude.*

Without going into much more detail, each of these arcs during Kay's life has impacted her in some way traumatically, and it's really up to her to unpack what's happened (just like in real life). The 2nd and 3rd arcs especially hit home for me based on my personally experiences, like I'm sure they have and will for many folx, so much so that I had to put the game down for nearly a week before jumping back in. I definitely recommend this game in small batches for your own health, but also to make it last.

Speaking of timing, the main story from beginning to end took me about 4 hours of playtime, but there are collectibles and achievements! The latter took me an additional hour to sort through, and I did have to google a couple of them to figure them out. So the game is a bit short, but it's beautifully written and I already miss playing it. I feel like less value should be placed on games for their length alone, as I've played a lot of long games that haven't left me with the same feeling as this one has.

Mechanically, SoS is pretty simple. Most of the gameplay will involve running and jumping around the world, often avoiding one particular creature and finding ways around it. Exploration is big, especially by boat! If you love boating, you're going to love this game. Most of the collectibles can be found by challenging yourself to see the world like a scavenger hunt that's meant to be explored. With that said, I wouldn't let the load screens empty slots deter you from simply enjoying mindlessly exploring or just following the story. After completing the story, I went back to find a lot of stuff I had missed, but I also got more than I expected along the way from just poking around.

If you're looking for a meaningful game that will have you looking at yourself introspectively throughout the story, I highly recommend picking up Sea of Solitude.

Let me know if you decide to play, or if you have already! I'm open to chatting about this and other games, and my asks are open if you have specific questions about the game. I honestly want to say a lot more about this one, but don't want to spoil too much, haha. Thanks for reading!

Sea of Solitude is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam.

- M. Magpie

(I am in no way sponsored by or affiliated with Sea of Solitude, Jo Mei Games, Nintendo, or other parties affiliated with the release of this game.)

#gaming #sea of solitude #nintendo switch #gaming blog #mental health #mental health awareness #switch games #game review #videogames #video games #jo mei games #nintendo #review #spoilers #sea of solitude spoilers #depression #videogame review #games with magpie

[tchimurenga]

Harriet

March 2021 [][][] I didn’t see the film Harriet starring Cynthia Erivo when it first came out, but I did see it. Not a boycott ... just late as all hell. Back before I realized that #ADOS was trash, I allowed the noise chorus to influence me that it was no big deal to see this film. More than the trash about Erivo being Black British and her having said offensive remarks about NuAfrikans*, I allowed the cacophony of #blackmaletears to overload my senses. The concern about a “fictitious Black male brute of a slave catcher invented for this film, only to be killed in the end by Harriet’s former master thus positioning himself as a sort of white savior,” is how the story went. I should have known betta. I do now, and I promise to do betta from here on out. Now that I have seen it, here are my thoughts.

I hadn’t planned on this happening, but in this film I saw several positive portrayals of Black men, at least five:

Walter

Former slave-catcher-in-training, portrayed by Henry Hunter Hall. All the noise and fuss, all the whoopin’ and hollerin’ and cryin’ I heard about a Black male slave catcher in this film; how come I never, ever, not once, heard there were TWO Black male slave catchers, one of whom switched sides and became a slave free - er? How come I never, ever heard about this young brutha who says to Araminta**, “ ... since you talk to God and God OBVIOUSLY talks to you, maybe I should help you?” ? How come I never, ever heard about this young brutha who proves himself to the point where Araminta entrusts the safety of her family to him? Makes him promise her that he will get her family to safety and he says yes? How come I never ever heard about this young brutha? Because he did not fit in with the #ados (which is trash) talking point, that’s why.

Ben Ross

Araminta’s father, portrayed by Clarke Peters (my man Lester from HBO’s The Wire and Big Chief Albert Lambreaux from Treme). I saw a loving and devoted husband and family man; one who surreptitiously aided enslaved Afrikans in their escape to freedom. A father who understood his child needed to be free and instead of his love smothering her with worry and trying to keep her “safe” on the plantation he encouraged her to run. It was Araminta’s father who put her in touch with her first crucial link to the Underground Railroad, Reverend Green. When she tells her father she doesn’t trust the pastor he tells her to do as he says. Fortunately Araminta was an obedient child. When Peters’ character refuses to open his eyes to look at her before she leaves I found the scene amusing. It was done so he would be able to truthfully answer that he had not seen her. Later in the film when Araminta returns to take her brothers and a few others with her to freedom, Peters’ character now has a blindfold on so that he cannot see them. Still amused, I thought “this man really does not want to be able to see them.” I soon realized what was truly in play: the last sight of his children leaving for what could perhaps be forever may have been too much for him to endure. Lastly, when Araminta returns and informs her father that he is in danger because of his aiding and abetting enslaved Afrikans and that he must leave with her now, he realizes his baby girl’s words are wise and he doesn’t argue with her. No “man tones” or “mansplaining,” he agrees and he leaves. End of discussion.

Reverend Green

When we first meet Rev. Green, portrayed by Vondie Curtis-Hall, he is leading folks in the singing of “Keep Your Hands On The Gospel Plow,” a traditional Black church hymn. Many of us will recognize it because the rhythm is that of “Keep Your Eyes On The Prize,” sung during the Civil Rights Movement and as the soundtrack for the documentary series Eyes On The Prize. This was our first clue: Reverend Green had Black folks singing about freedom. Araminta does not trust Rev. Geen when her father tells her to go to him, and Araminta’s older brother tells her the exact same thing when they set out for freedom, and for good reason. For no sooner than he finishes leading them in a chorus of The Gospel Plow does he tell the enslaved Afrikans that they must obey their earthly masters even when the masters aren’t around. The quintessential handkerchief-headed, fried-chicken-and-biscuit-eatin’, non-violent-turnin-the-other-cheek Negro Christian pastor. Not. Rev. Green is the trickster. The OG Spook sitting by the door (to freedom). It is Rev. Green that Araminta sees when she first sets out for freedom, her first contact on the Underground Railroad. When Araminta returns after one year and brings her family members and others to Reverend Green’s door, not only does he embrace her and tell her how happy he is to see her; not only does he bring them into the church sanctuary and give them the information they need, when it is time to hide them under the church there are at least three other people down there waiting. These other individuals bypassed Rev. Green all together and just hid out. With a look of “surprised but not”, the pastor tells Araminta “the word about her returning to take folks to freedom has “gotten out.” Obviously, the word was also that Rev. Green was the man that needed to be seen. Shout out to Kasi Lemmons for the family hook-up in hiring her husband.

William Grant Still

Conductor on the Underground Railroad, portrayed by Leslie Odom. My my. Brutha Still. Looking good. So handsome. And sharp. Fine clothing. Able to read and write. And absolutely committed to breaking the law of the land to free the enslaved. William Grant Still was absolutely, positively breaking the law. And he absolutely, positively didn’t give a damn. Once he and Araminta’s relationship deepens he tells her she is too important to simply just go off on missions whenever she chooses. I appreciate this aspect of his strategic and tactical mind. What I didn’t appreciate is when interviewing Araminta upon their first meeting Still noted that she may be suffering from “brain damage” because she said God talked to her. He ain’t had to go there. Be that as it may, Still asks Araminta if she wants a new name now that she is free. She decides to take her names of her mother and husband. Araminta Ross is now Harriet Tubman, thanks to Still asking the question. Towards the end of the film when news of the Fugitive Slave Law is announced, Still shows up with white abolitionists toting guns, with real bullets, who let off actual shots. Still does not carry a firearm but he shows up on the scene with the folks who do and that’s alright with me.

John Tubman

Husband of Araminta/Harriet Tubman, portrayed by Zachary Momoh. Next to Walter, this is my favorite character. The film opens with Araminta/Harriet laying out in an open field and Tubman coming upon her. She has had one of her “spells,” blackouts from a horrendous head injury inflicted by an overseer when she was a child. Momoh’s character gently caresses her face and calls her by her nickname “Minty”. Tubman does not lose his patience or his temper with her; there is no wondering of how long he has to put up with this or why he even has to; no asking of why she doesn’t get a grip or get “over” whatever this ailment of hers is. There is a loving acceptance of who and how she is, and worry that she might forget his name. Minty begins to repeat his name, assuring him that she knows who he is and that she will never forget him. One of the most touching and loving scenes I have ever witnessed between a Black man and woman. My only other comparison of this film would be to the version that Our Mother Cicely Tyson did in the 1970s. Though young when I saw it, I got the distinct impression from that film that John Tubman “punked out” (as we used to say) and was too scared to run away with Harriet once she returned for him. In no way shape form or fashion did I get that impression from this portrayal of Tubman. The only impression I got from this film was that John Tubman LOVED-DE-DED him some Araminta. I said he LOVED-DE-DED him some Araminta. Tubman wanted to make the trek with her but we are reminded that she wanted him to stay. She did not want him to risk his status as a free man, so she made the decision to run alone.

When Araminta/Harriet returns after one year to bring her husband to freedom and he informs her that he has remarried, to say that she is shocked angered hurt and heart-broken are the least of the descriptors we can use. But it is here where Tubman details his love for her. He tells her that when she left without him, he prayed for her. When her master “whipped the sight out of his eye” (a scar crosses his face from forehead to cheek covering his eye) in an attempt to get Tubman to tell where Minty was, he prayed for her. Tubman tells Minty when he heard, erroneously, that she had drowned trying to be free, he prayed for her. “I would’ve died for you,” he tells her, “if you’d’ve let me.”

GAHT DAMN! Where dey do that?!

If the love had been any thicker it would’ve stopped the playback on my laptop.

At least five positive, redeeming qualities of Black male characters in this film about one of the greatest Black women who ever walked this earth. How sad and miserable must some folks’ lives be that they didn’t have the eyes to see this?

But I digress.

From Araminta to Harriet

This was not a film about Black men but about a Black woman. One Black woman. Although this film did not begin with Harriet’s childhood it did a good job for me of showing her develop into a confident Black woman who understood and embraced her purpose. Despite naysayers surrounding her, Harriet not only knew she needed to bring others to freedom, she knew she would be victorious in doing so. This portrayal of Harriet Tubman has made real for us the dictum of “if God be for us who can be against us?” Harriet not only believed God told her she must free others but that God guided her missions safely so she would never, ever lose a “passenger” on the Underground Railroad. There is no earthly explanation for an event such as this; you simply say Ase’ and keep it moving.

On a related note, I appreciated the film’s portrayal of Harriet’s “spells” as visions where the audience gets to see what she sees. I always appreciate when something is made manifest before my eyes as it draws me in to the story more. I love suspending disbelief. I want to be taken on a journey; it’s why I’m here!

“No Black People Were Harmed During The Filming of this Movie”

Years ago, decades, I would see that disclaimer at the end of a film about animals and wonder, why don’t we have one for Black people? This was well before we had both the phenomenon and the language of trauma porn. The energy of the past few years has confirmed that this is an actual phenomenon that concerns a critical mass of Black people; to the point where former Shadow and Act editor Brooke Obie has coined the term “Hurston-Walker Test”*** for it.

On this point, then, I was saddened and a bit unnerved at the demise of Janelle Monae’s character at the hands of Harriet’s former master and his hired slave catcher. She was violently murdered. Fortunately, if that can be said, that was the only instance of trauma porn I detected. And yet, it existed. Six of one, half dozen of another.

As for the White Savior, I saw none. I saw a demon who gave an instruction to a brute. Said demon killed said brute when the instruction was disobeyed because hey, that’s what the system of white supremacy allows. I then saw said demon attempt to kill Harriet Tubman, who disarmed him by shooting him in his hand. Should Harriet have finished him off? Of course she should have, and she would have had Thandisizwe Chimurenga been the director. But there was no white savior in this film. None.

I’m glad I saw Harriet. I wish I had seen it when it first opened and I had written this then.

Sonia Sanchez asks us what work does this do? Each of us must ask this question and answer it for themselves. I have stated above the work I think this film does. I make my commitment to doing so in writing on other films from here on out.

*NuAfrikan or New Afrikan: descendants of Afrikans enslaved in the United States between 1619 and 1865, designated at the 3rd Black Power Conference held in March 1968 in Detroit, Michigan.

**Araminta, Minty for short: Harriet’s name at birth.

***Hurston-Walker Test, named for Zora Neal Hurston and Alice Walker: “Those who love us never leave us alone w/our grief. At the moment they show us our wound they reveal they have the medicine.”

#Harriet #Harriet Tubman #Cynthia Erivo #adosistrash #blackmaletears #blackmenmatter #blackwomenmatter #blacklovemstters #lesliodom #janellemonae #undergroundrailroad #williamgrantstill #johntubman #brookeobie #hurstonwalkertest

[ducktastic]

2020 Gameological Awards

Over on the Gameological Discord, we have an annual tradition of writing up our games of the year not as a ranked list but rather as answers to a series of prompts. Here are my personal choices for the year that was 2020.

Favorite Game of the Year

I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into Paradise Killer. I knew that I liked the vaporwave resort aesthetic from the game’s trailer and figured I was in for a Danganronpa-style murder mystery visual novel with an open-ended murder mystery at its core. Those assumptions were… half-right? The game definitely plays out like the exploration bits of Danganronpa set on the island from Myst but with far simpler puzzles. What I didn’t expect was to fall so deeply in love with the environment—its nooks and crannies, its millennia of lore, its brutalist overlap of idol worship, consumerism, and mass slaughter. It makes sense that the world of Paradise Killer is its strongest feature, since the cast of NPCs don’t really move around, leaving you alone with the world for the overwhelming majority of your experience as you bounce back and forth between digging around for clues and interrogating potential witnesses. And despite what the promo materials indicated, there IS a definitive solution to the crimes you’re brought in to investigate, the game just lets you make judgment based on whatever evidence you have at the time you’re ready to call it a day, so if you’re missing crucial evidence you might just make a compelling enough case for the wrong person and condemn them to eternal nonexistence. Am I happy with the truth at the end of the day? No, and neither is anybody else I’ve spoken to who completed the game, but we all were also completely enthralled the entire time and our dissatisfaction has less to do with the game and more to do with the ugly reality of humanity. I’ve always been of the mindset that “spoilers” are absolute garbage and that a story should be just as good whether you know the twist or not and any story that relies on surprising the audience with an unexpected reveal is not actually that good a story, but Paradise Killer is a game about piecing together your own version of events so I feel that it’s vital to the gameplay experience that people go in knowing as little as possible and gush all about it afterwards. Just trust me, if the game looks even remotely intriguing to you, go for it. I’ve had just as much fun talking about the game after I finished it with friends just getting started as I did actually solving its mysteries myself.

Best Single Player Game

I honestly missed out on the buzz for In Other Waters at launch, so I’m happy I had friends online talking it up as Black Friday sales were coming along. The minimal aesthetic of his underwater exploration game allows the focus to shift more naturally to the game’s stellar writing as a lone scientist goes off in search of her mentor and the secrets they were hiding on an alien world. It only took a few hours for me to become completely absorbed in this narrative and keep pushing forward into increasingly dangerous waters. In Other Waters might just be the best sci-fi story I experienced all year and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci-fi novels, regardless of their experience with video games.

Best Multiplayer Game

Look, we all know this year sucked. 2020 will absolutely be chronicled in history books as a fascinating and deeply depressing time in modern history where we all stayed inside by ourselves and missed our friends and family. It was lonely and it was bleak. Which is why it made my heart glow so much more warmly every time I got a letter from an honest-to-goodness real-life friend in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Knowing that they were playing the same game I was and hearing about their experiences and sending each other wacky hats or furniture, it lightened the days and made us feel that little bit more connected. Sure, when the game first launched we would actually take the time to visit one another’s islands, hang out, chat in real-time, and exchange gifts, but we all eventually got busy with Zoom calls, sourdough starters, and watching Birds of Prey twenty-two times. Still, sending letters was enough. It was and still is a touching little way to show that we’re here for one another, if not at the exact same time.

Favorite Ongoing Game

Zach Gage is one of my favorite game designers right now, and when I heard he was releasing a game called Good Sudoku I was sold sight unseen. The game as released was… fine. It’s sudoku and it’s pleasant, but it was also buggy and overheated my phone in a way I hadn’t seen since Ridiculous Fishing (also by Zach Gage) seven years ago. Thankfully, the most glaring bugs have been fixed and I can now enjoy popping in every day for some quick logic puzzle goodness. Daily ranked leaderboards keep me coming back again and again, the steady ramp of difficulty in the arcade and eternal modes means I can always chase the next dopamine rush of solving increasingly complex puzzles. It’s not a traditional “ongoing” game the way, say, Fortnite and Destiny are, but I’m happy to come back every day for sudoku goodness.

Didn't Click For Me

With Fortnite progressively losing me over the course of 2020, finalizing with my wholesale “never again” stance after Epic boss Tim Sweeney compared Fortnite demanding more money from Apple to the American Civil Rights movement (no, absolutely not), I dipped my toe into a number of new “battle pass”-style online arena types of games, and while Genshin Impact eventually got its hooks into me, Spellbreak absolutely did not. With graphics straight out of The Dragon Prince and the promise of a wide variety of magic combat skills to make your character your own, the game seemed awfully tempting, but my first few experiences were aimless and joyless, with no moment of clarity to make me understand why I should keep coming back. Maybe they’ll finesse the game some more in 2021, or a bunch of my friends will get hooked and lure me back, but for now I am a-okay deleting this waste of space on my Switch and PC.

"Oh Yeah, I Did Play That Didn't I?"

I remember being really excited for Murder By Numbers. Ace Attorney-style crime scene investigation visual novel with Picross puzzles for the evidence, art by the creators of Hatoful Boyfriend, and music by the composer of Ace Attorney itself?! Sounds like a dream come true. But the pixel-hunt nature of the crime scene investigations was more frustrating than fun, the picross puzzles were not particularly great, and the game came out literally a week before the entire world went into lockdown which makes it feel more like seven years ago than just earlier this year. I remember being marginally charmed by the game once it was in my hands, but as soon as my mind shifted to long-term self care, Murder By Numbers went from hot topic to cold case.

Most Unexpected Joy

I was looking forward to Fuser all year. As a dyed-in-the-wool DropMix stan, the prospect of a spiritual sequel to DropMix on all major digital platforms without any of the analogue components was tremendously exciting, and I knew I’d have a lot of fun making mixes by myself and posting them online for the world to hear. What I didn’t expect, however, was the online co-op mode to be such a blast! Up to four players take turns making 32 bars of mashups, starting with whatever the player before handed them and adding their own fingerprints on top. It sounds like it should just be a mess of cacophony, but every session I’ve played so far has been just the best dance party I’ve had all year, and everyone not currently in control of the decks (including an audience of spectators) can make special requests for what the DJ should spin and tap along with the beat to great super-sized emoji to show how much they’re enjoying the mix. Literally the only times my Apple Watch has ever warned me of my heightened heart rate have been the times I was positively bouncing in place rocking out to co-op freestyle play in Fuser.

Best Music

Only one video game this year had tunes that were so bumpable they were upgraded to my general “2020 jams” playlist alongside Jeff Rosenstock, Run the Jewels, and Phoebe Bridgers, and that game was Paradise Killer. 70% lo-fi chill beats to study/interrogate demons to, 20% gothic atmospheric bangers, 10% high-energy pop jazz, this soundtrack was just an absolute joy to swim around in both in and out of gameplay.

Favorite Game Encounter

It’s wild that in a landscape where games let me live out my wildest fantasies, the single moment that lit me up in a way that stood out to me more than any other was serving Neil the right drink in Coffee Talk. Over the course of the game, you serve a variety of hot drinks to humans, werewolves, vampires, orcs, and more, all while chatting with your customers and learning more about their lives and relationships. The most mysterious customer, though, is an alien life form who adopts the name Neil. They do not know what they want to drink and claim it doesn’t make a difference because they cannot taste it. Everybody else wants *something*. Neil is just ordering for the sake of fitting in and exploring the Earth experience. It’s only in the second playthrough that attentive baristas will figure out what to serve Neil, unlocking the “true” ending in the process. Seeing the typically stoic Neil actually emote when they tasted their special order drink? What an absolute treat that was.

Best Free DLC of the Year

It’s still only a couple of days old at the time I’m writing this, but Marvel’s Avengers just added Kate Bishop, aka Hawkeye, and THANK GOODNESS. Almost every character in the game at launch just smashed the endless waves of robot baddies with their fists and that looks exhausting and uncomfortable. Hawkeye (the game calls her Kate Bishop, but come on, she’s been Hawkeye in the comics for over 14 years, let’s show her some respect) uses A SWORD. FINALLY! Aside from that, I’m just having a blast shooting arrows all over the place. She and Ms Marvel are the most likable characters in the game so far, so I hope they keep adding more of the Young Avengers and Champions to the game, and if the recently announced slate of Marvel movies and tv shows are any indication (with America Chavez, Cassie Lang, and Riri Williams all coming soon to the MCU), that seems to be what Marvel is pushing for across all media

Most Accessible Game

Nintendo is, first and foremost, a toy company. They got their start in toys and cards long before video games was a thing, and they still do more tests to ensure their video game hardware is childproof than anybody else in the industry (remember how they made Switch cartridges “taste bad” so kids wouldn’t eat them?). This year, Nintendo got to rekindle some of their throwback, simplistic, toys-and-cards energy with Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, a Switch collection of timeless family-friendly games like Chess, Mancala, and Backgammon, along with “toy” versions of sports like baseball, boxing, and tennis for a virtual parlor room of pleasant time-wasters. The games were all presented with charming li’l explainers from anthropomorphic board game figurines, and the ability to play quick sessions of Spider Solitaire on the touch screen while I binged The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix made Clubhouse Games one of my most-played titles of the year. Plus, local play during socially-distant friend hangs was an excellent way to make us feel like we were much closer than we were physically allowed to be as friends knocked each other’s block off in the “toy boxing” version of Rock’em Sock’em Robots.

"Waiting for Game-dot"

I get that everyone loves Disco Elysium. I saw it on everyone’s year-end lists last year. I finally bought it with an Epic Games Store coupon this year. This year was a long enough slog of depressing post-apocalyptic drudgery, I didn’t want to explore a whole nother one in my leisure time. I’ll get to it… someday.

Game That Made Me Think

Holovista was an iPhone game I played over the course of two or three days based on the recommendation of some trusted colleagues on Twitter and oh my goodness was I glad that I played it. What starts as a chill vaporwave photography game steadily progresses into an exploration of psychological trauma, relationships with friends and family, and the baggage we carry with us from our pasts. In this exceptionally hard year, I badly needed this story about spending time alone with your personal demons and finding your way back to the people who love and support you. Just like with Journey and Gone Home, I walked away from Holovista feeling a rekindled appreciation for the people in my life.

#video games #holovista #paradise killer #animal crossing #animal crossing new horizons #spellbreak #good sudoku #fuser #dropmix #in other waters #marvel's avengers #avengers #clubhouse games #coffee talk #2020

[vanessakirbyfans]

Vanessa Kirby remembers the exact moment she realized what acting might actually be. That it occurred during a performance of a “probably terrible” all-girls’ production of “Hamlet” is beside the point.

“I was playing Gertrude, probably in my mom’s clothes—complete crap,” she says with a laugh. “I remember being in a scene and then walking out into the school. I was walking up and down the corridor before going back on for another scene, and it was the first time it ever happened where I suddenly was thinking [Gertrude’s] thoughts. I was thinking, in the present moment, her actual thoughts about what was really happening. And then it made the scene coming next so much easier, because there was a blurred moment where this idea of [a] character being outside of you or someone that you have to become disappeared in a way.

“I just realized,” she continues, “Oh, it’s inside me.” Kirby has been chasing that lucid high ever since.

You may get it for just two seconds in the entire production of a film, she concedes, and longer only if you’re lucky. But she believes that its attainment should always be the actor’s primary objective: reaching that liminal space where you no longer have to think of yourself as the character and you can instead—speaking of ���Hamlet”—just be. Kirby describes getting “into that zone” where you are inside the character as much as they are inside of you.

“I always think about it as this really strange process of finding the person, because the person kind of exists in the abstract space, I guess, between you and the words on the page,” she says, “which also have come through a writer and their own experience. And so there’s this third space in the middle that you have to sort of get inside, and it takes a lot of time.”

For her new film, Kornél Mundruczó’s “Pieces of a Woman,” which earned her the Venice Film Festival’s Volpi Cup for best actress earlier this year, Kirby, by her account, had to “get inside” three separate elements. The first two, being pregnant and giving birth, are experiences shared by women the world over. But the third required her to tap into something more hushed, a sort of sad sisterhood that she thinks isn’t spoken about enough: “what it actually feels like to lose a baby just after it’s born.”

“That involved finding and spending so much time with the women who had been through that, which was a massive privilege, actually,” she says, noting their bravery. “They pretty much all said it’s so difficult, because society doesn’t want to hear about it. These women haven’t had a voice, really, in their experience of that level of grief or loss, because society doesn’t want them to talk about it.”

She cites model-entrepreneur Chrissy Teigen, who recently shared her experience of pregnancy loss online and was immediately subjected to charged responses across the spectrum, from adulation and gratitude to utter vitriol. “It just goes to show that a loss like that is really hard for people to hear about,” Kirby says. “I felt really honored to be part of this film in that way, because I think it speaks to grief universally.”

As she chats via Zoom just before Thanksgiving (though that likely doesn’t matter much to Kirby, who’s British), it’s fitting—and appropriately disarming—that the conversation begins with subject matter as heavy as infant and pregnancy loss, since the film does, too. Written by Kata Wéber, the Netflix feature (which will stream starting Jan. 7, 2021) almost immediately showcases a 25-minute labor and delivery sequence unlike any you’ve seen on film before—an intimidating prospect that was also part of the appeal for Kirby. She confesses, however, that her initial response to reading it was a more visceral “Oh, God.”  

“We see death so many times onscreen, and we don’t really see birth in this way. I also can’t remember seeing a film that dealt with losing a baby so head-on,” she says. “Doing the film has really set a kind of benchmark for me of wanting to find things that haven’t been seen or expressed onscreen before that need to be [seen in order] to generate conversation around them, to represent a side of being female that we haven’t seen. Those two things really struck me—and scared me a lot.”

In discussing her work, fear comes up quite a bit for Kirby—or rather, how to cope with it. At the age of 32, she has already had more success than many actors ever do. Most notably, she earned an Emmy nomination in 2018 for her work on “The Crown,” playing Princess Margaret on the series’ first two seasons before handing the tiara off to Helena Bonham Carter. She also starred in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” has secured a role in the franchise’s coming seventh and eighth installments, and boasts numerous prestigious theater credits.  

But an unmistakable angst hums beneath everything Kirby does. Making peace with that feeling continues to be the lifeblood of her career. “One of my friends said something like, ‘It’s always best to tell your fear [that] you can join me in the passenger seat. You’re not going to be driving the car, but you’re welcome to be here,’ ” she says. “It’s inevitable that you feel anxious or nervous, I think. I can’t just switch off my stage fright or my anxiety before going onstage, and the more I try and fight it, the worse it gets. I have to welcome it and be like, ‘It’s OK; you can be here. You’re not going to ruin the show.’ ”

The most useful tool Kirby has found to combat anxiety, nerves, fear—whatever word you want to use for that prohibitive lurking—is old-fashioned preparation. Knowing her lines inside and out, front to back, sideways and in proverbial heels, gives her the freedom to show up and be present.

t’s an odd sort of reconciliation to have prepped so thoroughly that you can act from a place of impulse, but one she considers crucial. “I learned that the hard way,” she says with a chuckle. “Sometimes I would approach jobs like, I’m just going to see what happens if I don’t learn my lines—just wing it on the day. Maybe it will be more spontaneous and impulsive, and it’ll be more flippant. And it wasn’t. Oh, my God, no, it wasn’t.”

While that trial and error informs her now-scrupulous prep work, Kirby gives credit where it’s due and admits she borrowed the approach in part from someone who knows just a bit about getting inside a character. Of course, if you worked with Anthony Hopkins, you’d do the same.    

“I just had a few little scenes in this brilliant thing he was doing,” Kirby says of the 2015 television film “The Dresser.” “He has a method that he’s always used where he says his lines out loud to himself a thousand times before doing any film. He’ll mark it on his script [and] tally it up, because he said you can’t be truly free unless it’s really in your body. You won’t be able to take the risk and go, ‘OK, I’m feeling the feeling of the state of mind this person’s in’ so that the lines can come out however which way they want to [because they’re] coming from that feeling, as opposed to, ‘I made a decision, I’ve learned my lines, I kind of know how I’m going to say them, and I’m going to turn up and just say them in a prepared manner.’ ”

In other words, you reach a state in which you no longer have to be conscious of your “choices,” because they will be externalized actions made by the internalized character. To actually achieve that symbiosis, Kirby explains, you have to practice an almost relentless empathy in order to “absolve all your judgments” of the person you’re playing.

“Acting’s such a funny job, isn’t it? How you think informs how you feel. And then how you feel, as a consequence, informs how you think,” she posits. “There’s a conversation between your feelings and thoughts all the time. And so it’s almost like trying to get inside someone else’s thoughts—so then you don’t have to worry about how the person is coming across or the mannerisms or whatever else, because you’ve built it from the inside, and that’s what happens naturally. The best acting experience, really, is when you’re thinking as that person without being conscious of yourself.”

The Catch-22, particularly for Kirby, is that fear, or even self-consciousness, will block the receptacles of empathy. If you as the actor at any point aim to shield yourself from the experiences of your character, you could be tossing out a crucial piece of their puzzle.

“As an actor, you don’t want to protect yourself. I think it’s almost the opposite,” she says. “I find I’m less shy, for example, when I’m playing someone, when I’m trying to understand someone else or some other part of humanity. You take more risks, and you sort of push into parts of yourself that you might not every day know existed, because you have to feel the things that they feel.”

That is one reason why Kirby creates playlists for her characters. In addition to drowning out literal noise on set between setups, delving into what a character’s taste in music might be—or why they’d listen to a given song at a given moment—opens a window into their psychology. In a pinch, the music can build an impromptu bridge between herself and the person within. It can also help ease her gently into a particularly formidable role, fear be damned.

“This idea of being daunted by something—I look for it. I go, ‘Oh, my God. I have no idea about this. I don’t know what it feels like to give birth, and I would love to learn about that,’ ” she says. “Of course, my dad is a cancer surgeon, so I grew up with him saving people’s lives. I always felt like acting is such a public thing, but it’s really not nearly as important as what a lot of people are doing in the world. But when you’re in a group of people who want to explore or understand something that perhaps we don’t yet know from our lived experiences, it does feel, sometimes, like such an honor.”

#Vanessa Kirby #Pieces of a Woman #Interview #Articles

[its-ashleyreads]

Finished: 27/03/2021

The Burning God by R. F. Kuang

They would take back the south with sheer numbers. The Mugenese and the Republic were strong, but the south was many. And if southerners were dirt like all the legends said, then they would crush their enemies with the overwhelming force of the earth until they could only dream of breathing. They would bury them with their bodies. They would drown them in their blood.

Rating:  ★★★★☆

Summary:

After the Dragon Republic’s betrayal, Rin returns to the south to raise an army and fight for herself and her people. But the Southern Coalition isn’t much better than the Republic, there are enemies everywhere Rin turns and while they may have the numbers, they don’t have the time or the training to win the war. But there is more than one way to win a war, Rin knows firsthand how easy ending a war can be, if you only have the right weapon…

Review:

This review has been a long time coming. I finished The Burning God over a week ago but even after talking it out with my book club, I’m still not entirely certain about how I feel about what happened. The first thing I want to mention though, is that while this was definitely my least favourite of the trilogy and didn’t leave me feeling totally content with the ending, The Burning God was a very good end to this series and I can at least sort of understand why certain decisions were made, even if I don’t agree with them. That being said, on to the review!

To start off with the things I liked, Venka, Kitay, the little nods to moments from the other books in the series, the characterization, some of the battle scenes.

Things I didn’t like, the boring trek scenes that took up approximately 50% of the book, the Hesperians and their gadgets (which were always mentioned but never explained), Nezah, the trifecta, the exact same thing happening for the third book in a row where Rin trusts someone and they stab her in the back, especially since at the beginning of the book she had a whole monologue about how she wasn’t going to let herself be used as a weapon and was going to fight for herself this time. And last but certainly not least, the murder of my innocent babies, Venka and Kitay.

This third installment of the series felt really rushed to me. Although there was roughly three-hundred pages dedicated to Rin making her way somewhere, all of the battle scenes and important moments between characters felt rushed. That whole thing with the trifecta took over half of the book but was over in two short chapters; Rin racing down the mountain after the temple was blown up took longer than the scene with Riga rising from the dead or whatever. Like, I understand that plan not working out, I do, but for how much time and effort was invested in that storyline it really should have amounted more to one boring fight. I personally think that that storyline should have taken a full book and then they could have dealt with the aftermath of Riga in another one but whatever, I’m not the author. Not to mention that Daji and Jiang both felt really weirdly characterized to me. I could tell that Kuang wanted the reader to feel some sort of sympathy toward Daji, and some sort of trepidation towards Jiang, but after two previous works making us think of them one way, it’s hard to make the reader reverse their feelings of them like that. And that’s what’s so disappointing, because Kuang did that. When Nezah betrayed Rin in The Dragon Republic I changed my mind about him so fast I got whiplash, but it just didn’t land with Daji and Jiang.

That scene where Riga is awakened was made all the more odd by the fact that the Hesperian’s just happened to show up? Kuang tried to explain it away by using Kitay and Rin to imagine what Nezah must be thinking but it just doesn’t make any sense, especially when later when they fight Nezah in battle and try to think of all the things he might do, Nezah outwits them? Which is it; are Rin and Kitay mind readers or dumb as bricks? Hesperian equipment was also so advanced and sophisticated but Kitay was able to figure out how all of their stuff worked in just a few minutes, even the weird gold bracelets that Nezah wore, Rin and Kitay seemed to figure out but was never explained to the reader? At least the other stuff Kuang gave half-hearted explanations to. The Hesperians in general were always mentioned but never actually showed up except for in the city where they found Kitay that the Hesperians had essentially converted into a Victorian steampunk city in less then six months. And I think that’s one of the big faults of The Burning God, that there’s not really any villain. I know that the first two in the series are morally grey by the ends of them, but during The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic there is a clear enemy, it’s only after that everything becomes muddled. With The Burning God, yes the Republic and the Mugenese are the enemy, but it mainly just feels like there is no enemy which I also blame on the long trekking sequences; I got so bored at some points I forgot who they were supposed to be fighting.

The real enemy of this book, however, was well and truly, R. F. Kuang since she murdered Venka and Kitay. I have spent all week trying to understand why she did it, but I just can’t. Venka, a survivor of brutal sexual assault, turned general had no reason to die in that way. I could maybe understand if Rin’s paranoia had her kill Venka with her own hand or something, but the fact that she just kind of died felt wrong and disrespectful. It was like the miscommunication trope, something dumb that could’ve been avoided but the author got lazy. Then there’s my sweet, sweet Kitay. Kitay was used and abused by Rin this whole goddamn series. He was apparently a pro strategist, but Rin always did her own thing and never seemed to listen to him. She caused him immense pain every time she called the Phoenix but did it on the reg anyway just to show off. (The scene where she calls more fire than she ever has, so much that it should have killed Kitay and neither of them ever mentions it. Also, what ever happened to Rin’s brother who Nezah may or may not have held prisoner and may or may not have killed? We’ll literally never know). But then Rin started losing her shit. I can understand why she ended up this way, after all of the betrayal this girl has had to face, I more than understand. But once they’re on Speer and she realizes what she has to do, Kuang could have found a way to save Kitay but she didn’t, and that’s what pisses me off. Rin’s story was done, but Kitay’s was not. As the author, Kuang could have had Rin even attempt to release Kitay from their bond but she didn’t even try. And the fact that their deaths happened simultaneously with only Nezah to witness it meant that most of the focus was on Rin, since he loved her. Kitay was given a few measly lines at most and I HATE IT. Chen Kitay deserved better and that is all I have to say about that.

While I seem to have focused on only the bad stuff in this review, I did really enjoy the characterization of Rin and a lot of the earlier stuff in the book. I feel more like I’m going to block parts of this book out of my memory but overall, this series was fantastic and I would highly recommend giving it a read.

#The Burning God #The Burning God Spoilers #R. F. Kuang #r f kuang #rf kuang #the poppy war #the poppy war series #tpw #tpw spoilers #tbg #tbg spoilers #the poppy war spoilers #fantasy #fiction #historical fantasy #ashley reviews #book review #4/5 #book club #kobo

[aion-rsa]

“We Have Just Never Listened to Women”: Patrick Ness on Chaos Walking’s Relevance Today

https://ift.tt/3sLzUTC

Patrick Ness’ 2008 science fiction young adult novel The Knife of Never Letting Go was published the same year as Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, but while the latter launched a dystopian YA franchise, Ness’ Chaos Walking series seemed to attract more of a cult following despite tackling similar early-2000s issues through a speculative lens. While Collins struck an arrow through the heart of reality television, Ness turned his attention to information overload, manifesting it as the Noise: an ever-present broadcast of one’s most private, cringeworthy, hateful, earnest thoughts for all to hear—but only for men.

On the “New World,” an alien planet only recently colonized by humans, the all-male settlement of Prentisstown has ascribed varyingly demanding interpretations of masculinity and morality to their members’ handling of the Noise. Todd Hewitt, the community’s sole boy, must come of age when he faces something even more chaotic than his Noise: the first girl he’s ever seen, a silent space traveler named Viola.

Over a decade later, the book’s dual commentary on information overload and toxic masculinity remains relevant. In fact, as Ness told Den of Geek, the intervening 13 years have only provided more dire inspiration for adapting his novel to the big screen. Doug Liman’s adaptation of Chaos Walking, starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, finally arrives in the UK (it hit the US last month) after a perfect storm of delays, from scheduling around two of the biggest franchise stars to dealing with COVID-19 setbacks. The film conjures a similar lo-fi dystopian setting as Gary Ross’ The Hunger Games film while transforming the book’s free-associating monologue into an ever-present visual and aural halo—not unlike the information overload depicted in more tech-y futuristic tales.

In addition to the forceful depiction of the Noise, Ness spoke with Den of Geek about the book dog’s Noise that didn’t make the final cut, the Western homages behind Mads Mikkelsen’s villainous Mayor Prentiss, and what happens when men don’t listen to women.

DEN OF GEEK: When you first wrote The Knife of Never Letting Go, it was a response to information overload circa 2007. What was it like revisiting the story to adapt it over a decade later?

PATRICK NESS: Gosh, just that the world has gotten so much noisier—that there’s just so much more information coming at us. If the original idea was about questioning how much of ourselves we feel obliged to share and give to the world, that question has only become—not more serious, but we now do it so automatically that I just want to be sure that we keep asking that question: What are we losing, and how much of ourselves do we need to keep our sense of identity? The other big thing that’s happened in the last 13 years is that we’ve all gotten so used to sharing on social media—we’ve gotten so used to what it does, that it’s such a fabric of our lives—that people have now recognized, “I can abuse this. I can use this to tell lies; I can use this to make fake enemies; I can use this to manipulate elections”—for example. The genie isn’t gonna go back into the bottle, and I’m not some doomsayer saying we need to go back to phones and blah blah blah. We need to not forget that we have a choice of what to share and that there are—for all the good things the Internet brings us, which it does—we should not and must not ignore the darker parts of it, because there are very dark parts of it.

That darkness is especially apparent in the culture of Prentisstown and their need to control the Noise. In adapting, did you find yourself approaching Prentisstown differently than when you wrote the book?

Read more

Books

Top New Young Adult Books in April 2021

By Megan Crouse

There was always meant to be a feeling of poison in Prentisstown—something has gone amiss here. And in the intervening 13 years, we have only had further and further and further proof of how we have just never listened to women. One after another, we keep having to learn this stupid lesson and then not learning it. And so the feeling of something bad in the well of Prentisstown feels like it became clearer and sharper and more dangerous-seeming, because we have so much proof now of the danger that leads [to]. There isn’t much of a step from dismissing what a woman says, to dehumanizing a woman, to pure misogyny that they have nothing to say—that’s not a long journey. The point of Prentisstown was always to show the most extreme example of what a community might do in reaction to this huge difference between men and women that happens to be made apparent in every communication in this place. But it has only—I think the world has shown us that it’s not that fictional, and that’s a scary thing. Again, the question must be constantly asked, it must be constantly second-guessed and demanded: Why does this happen? Why do we keep doing it, and how do we stop it, and how do we keep stopping it? I’m not acting like I’m some prophet, because that poison was always there, but fortunately there have been some attempts to recently counteract it—and long may that continue.

What you said about information overload and fabricating reality to influence things ties into what made the Noise striking in this movie, especially with regard to characters who can project lifelike objects and people into others’ minds. What was the thought process in depicting the Noise so visually on-screen?

That was the longest conversation, because the Noise is the movie. That’s the thing that has to work. We didn’t want it to be exposition—people sitting around thinking these thoughts that just happen to tell you the history of the planet—because I hate that kind of stuff. So we thought, it’s got to be immersive from the start; you’ve got to be able to see and guess what’s happening before it’s explained to you. My favorite Noise is that of David Oyelowo [whose preacher character’s Noise looks like hellfire]—that’s kind of what we’re after, that it’s an emotional thing, an unfiltered expression of our brains, which are a mess. I think we’re charming messes, humans, really, but without this filter—which is the thing that makes us human, the ability to decide what to say—how much of a mess does that look, because it’s a purely emotional situation. So with that basis, the conversation was always, how do we make it so it’s not confusing or oppressive—because it would be very, very oppressive, if it were real—and how can it be used, how would people have evolved to use it, if they’ve gotten used to manipulating it. 

Read more

Books

Top New Fantasy Books in April 2021

By Megan Crouse

Lots and lots of special effects tests and approaches, some really cool technology. There was a Noise unit on the film, so Tom would stand in the middle of a circle of cameras capturing him from 360 degrees, linking it up. Then the final results are a combination of all those things: technology, some artwork, some animation. My favorite little bit of it is a scene where Daisy Ridley’s walking up a hill and Tom Holland is behind her, and he’s kinda grumpy about her, and he’s complaining, and you see the complaints kinda just fly off the back of his head. That, to me, is what Noise would be.

Was there anything cut from the book, or an early version of the screenplay, that you would have loved to have seen?

One of my favorite characters in the book is called Wilf; and he does play an important part later in the trilogy, as well. But it’s a 500-page book, and at most a movie is a long short story, so you do have to make sacrifices. But what you get in exchange is, there’s a scene in the film where Tom and Daisy are under a little tarp in the rain, and something very funny happens. And that’s not in the book, but what you get in exchange is something like that, a little scene that expresses a ton that you can do visually, because [that scene] wouldn’t work in a book. I don’t mind; you give and you get. I’ve always viewed adaptations, even when it’s not my own work, as a remix. It’s not a cover version, it’s not an exact replica, it’s a remix. If I can start with that premise, then I can feel more creative.

Was there ever a version in which Todd’s dog Manchee has the Noise, like in the book?

Yes! But what you find out very quickly is that it’s all kind of about real estate. The animal Noise is very funny in the book, to me—it always made me laugh—and in a massive novel of 110,000 words, that real estate in the book doesn’t take up much. A movie is much more compressed, so every time an animal spoke, it just took up so much room in the movie. And it is funny, because it’s meant to be, but it kind of unbalanced the story, and it totally took away from what really needed to happen. Read the book, is what I would say, because I still love the idea, it still makes me laugh; but in a movie, it becomes too cartoon-y. We’re not making The Incredible Journey, as wonderful as it is! So you have to make some sacrifices.

The movie ends differently from the book, which is more of a clear cliffhanger setting up book 2, The Ask and the Answer; whereas the movie is left open-ended for sequels, but on a less dire note. What influenced this decision?

Doug Liman is an exploratory filmmaker; it’s a different approach than any director I’ve ever met. He’s really very much about what’s happening on set, what feels the right energy, where are we going—which is why there’s additional photography in all of his films. That’s always planned, it’s always in advance; we always knew that was going to happen, we just had to schedule the two biggest franchise stars in the world. But because of that, the story tends to organically develop. So we thought, Where are these two going in particular now that we have these actors, we have this situation, and it just starts to slightly change.

And I don’t mind that—again, in the remix idea—but what it interestingly has done is that it’s become more pandemic-themed, unintentionally, in that here are all these people who have been presented with a situation completely beyond their control, so how do they adapt? And there is a hopeful feeling at the end of this film, one I think is true, because they’ve really earned it, but also it’s like what we’ve done—we’re talking via Zoom, we’ve adjusted. It’s not perfect, and we’re all waiting for a better world, but we’re also probably not gonna go back to the old world, exactly. We’ve found a way, and that is kinda the whole point of the story, which is, here is the very worst example of people who didn’t find a way, as we move forward to people who do. To me, the ending makes emotional sense.

Are there plans to adapt one or both of the book sequels?

They’re optioned, they’re ready, but with a new series it’s all about if an audience wants it. 

How did your experience adapting the screenplay for A Monster Calls influence your work on Chaos Walking?

Very different filmmakers, which is interesting because I always tell people writing novels that there’s no one way to do it—as long as you end up with a novel, you’ve done it right, so find out what works for you. So, a very different experience as a writer, but interesting in their own ways. 

Read more

Books

Top New Science Fiction Books in April 2021

By Megan Crouse

The great thing about [A Monster Calls director] J.A. Bayona is a real lack of ego about ideas; an idea is good or it’s bad, it doesn’t matter who or where it came from. He’s very clear on that, he’s very sincere about that, and that really frees you up creatively. And so I really try to bring that to anything I collaborate on now; I try to never ever be any kind of snob about my ideas or anybody else’s—it’s just what’s better, what works; an idea is good or bad on its own, not because it came from somebody powerful. I think it makes everybody feel more comfortable; we’re all in it together, trying to make something interesting.

What was it about Daisy, Tom, Mads, et al, that made you feel that they were right for the roles in Chaos Walking? Mads in particular has such a striking look as Mayor Prentiss, with the cowboy hat, jumpsuit, and fabulous fur coat.

That coat is actually a tribute to McCabe & Mrs. Miller, a Warren Beatty Western from Robert Atlman. It’s interesting that they’re all European! We didn’t go out hunting for necessarily European, but also Cynthia [Erivo] is European, and David’s European. Nick [Jonas] is not… [laughs] But there is a sensibility that feels approachable to Tom and Daisy, that I think is their little movie-star magic, that they are not forbidding. Forbidding movie stars can be amazing! But they seem like somebody that you could meet, and talk to; and for a younger-centered film, that is vital, to feel like these could be my friends, and I care about them and am worried about what happens to them. That is what they bring so beautifully to the movie. And Mads has that magnificent face—he’s got such a great acting face, especially for a villain—and his manner, the sort of Scandinavian understatements, I love it.

Especially for a villain who’s trying to hide his thoughts—there’s so much still that comes through on his face.

A villain who thinks he’s right! He doesn’t think he’s a villain—and that’s the scariest kind of all.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Chaos Walking is available for premium rental at home on all digital platforms from 2nd April.

The post “We Have Just Never Listened to Women”: Patrick Ness on Chaos Walking’s Relevance Today appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3wbJf9v

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[a--knightinsourarmor]

PLEASE, READ THOSE RULES BEFORE DECIDING IF YOU WANT US TO INTERACT

MAIN HUB BLOG/SIDEBLOGS: My main roleplay hub blog is knightinsourarmor and I follow, send asks, and like from there. I currently have seven sideblogs, one for each of my muses. Todoroki Shoto (repressedkindness), Pro-Hero Todoroki Toya (hopelesslypersisting), Amajiki Tamaki (sunlitsoul), Novak Castiel (BNHA verse for SPN canon) (shatteredoptimist), Kambe Daisuke (unwaveringdetermination), Levi Ackerman (dreamsofregret), and Castiel (defectivesoldier). If somebody follows me on any of these sideblogs, I’ll assume they wish to interact with them. You don’t need to follow my main blog, but I suggest you do so. On my main blog I post ooc posts, muse updates, activity updates, memes, starter calls while any testing muses will be portrayed there. If I find you only follow my main blog… You either haven’t read my rules and my muses page or you only care for my ooc shit? 

REPLIES: I want to study as a med student and have to work at the same time. That means that I can be really slow when it comes to replies. I wish you understand and don’t feel offended or lose your interest if I take some time to answer our thread. I believe in quality over quantity. Some days I might reply to specific people. That has nothing to do with you or your writing. I just might need to roleplay a specific matter or thread or enjoy someone’s writing too much and need to focus on that for some time. Not replying may also mean the exact opposite. That I can’t come up with a good enough reply compared to yours and need some more time.

MUTUALS/NON-MUTUALS/FOLLOWING: When I follow someone, I have read their rules, about and verses pages, and some of their threads. If someone follows me and I haven’t followed back in a week or two, that means I’ve checked their blog but I can’t find myself writing with them. Non-mutuals can send me asks, like my starter calls, and reply to my open starters. If after some interactions I find myself interested in their writing, I will follow them back. When I become mutuals with someone and if I am not on a hiatus or semi-hiatus, I’ll write a small starter to break the ice. Nobody is forced to reply to it.

AGE: I am over the age of eighteen. I won’t write with anyone younger than the age of sixteen. I am open to roleplay almost anything and this will be a free NSFW blog. I won’t roleplay anything which will be considered R-rated with minors, meaning anything that includes sexual themes, intense graphic violence, drug abuse, etc. but I am open to write most things if both muns are of age.

TRIGGERS: I tag the triggers my mutuals have on their rules/about page. A doc with all the triggers tagged will be added soon. If you need me to tag a specific trigger, feel free to send me an ask or a message. I tag triggers like: ’#tw: yourtriggergoeshere’ without the quotation marks. My own triggers are ridiculous ones, but I’d be grateful if you tagged them. It’s aliens and cockroaches. That’s the reason I won’t be writing with any roleplay blogs having alien muses (those having a disgusting non-human form).

TAGGING: I have a very specific tagging system. If someone doesn’t want to see a specific character or faceclaim (you’ll need to block the character’s name again) on their dash, I tag the character in both threads and fanart as: #|| (ch.) character name || . For most anime, their last name goes first, except Shingeki No Kyojin (Attack On Titan).

SHIPPING: I prefer male x male relationships. I am a little picky with female OCs because of bad past experiences. I do not mind age gaps as long as both muses are adults (p.e. Levi x Eren) but I will not ship a young muse with someone who is like a father figure to them (Aizawa x Shoto). I am very slow to ship, for the reason I like building a relationship through threads. If there’s chemistry, feel free to discuss shipping or like my shipping call.

SMUT: I will not write explicit sexual scenes anymore. For muses of age and muses with high sex drive, depending on the chemistry between our muses, the limit is foreplay. Most of my muses are asexual. For them, it is very rare to happen anything more than kissing and cuddling. I will fade to black. I do not feel comfortable writing detailed sexual scenes anymore, the only part that interests me is the tension and trust built between our muses and aftercare. Inappropriate language may be present for all muses.

DRAMA: I don’t care for any drama or witch hunts going around. If I see any on my dash, this will result in me soft-blocking or hard-blocking you. I don’t want to participate in any of these and I find them disturbing.

FORMATTING: I cut posts and use small text and icons. If my roleplay partner doesn’t use icons, I won’t use any myself.

MULTIPLE THREADS: I don’t mind having multiple threads with the same person especially if I enjoy their writing.

POST LENGTH: My writing style is advanced literate. That means I need more than a paragraph to roleplay with. One paragraph is fine still, but as long as there’s something interesting to reply. I don’t mind how long your replies are. Just take notice that I will probably mirror you and my reply will be the same length.

SELECTIVE: I am selective when it comes to writing. I need a paragraph or more to reply. I need to roleplay in third person and I don’t roleplay on DM. I roleplay on discord so if we are mutuals, feel free to ask for it.

MAINS: I have blogs/threads which I prioritize over others. This isn’t personal. I just feel more motivated to reply to those. I don’t have exclusives.

TRACKING/REMINDERS:  I usually track my threads with an app but it takes a lot of my time. I try to use a tagging system even if it doesn’t work as well as I want it to. Don’t be scared to remind me to reply to something I might have forgotten. I could possibly forget to add it to my tracker but constant reminders make me lose my interest in the roleplay (if there’s any). I understand and appreciate for someone to tell me I have forgotten something. Myself, I will remind someone of our thread after two months or even more.

TIME-SKIP: Well, I’m someone who can enjoy something that is slow. I am pleased with anything as long as there’s some really good and inspiring writing (how many times have I said this?). I can keep a thread for years (and I have) and not be bored of it. If you start getting bored we can time-skip but I’d want to discuss this first.

DROPPING THREADS: Unless it’s a one-liner, I don’t drop threads. If you do drop one of our threads, I’d appreciate it if you told me.

ASKS: You are free to send an ic ask to all of my blogs. My main or my sideblogs, as long as you specify, I don’t mind. You can continue an ask I have answered. I actually encourage you to do so.

STARTERS: My open starters are actually open to everyone and don’t hesitate to reply to one if someone else already has. Then I’ll reply to another post and tag you. If I offer to make a starter and you accept and you don’t reply after a month, and if I have messaged you and you haven’t responded but you are actually active, sorry but no matter how specifically we have plotted our thread, I’ll assume you are not interested anymore and turn it to an open starter. I put some time into those and I don’t want it to be to waste.

CROSSOVERS/AUS: I really love writing AUs and crossovers. I enjoy the possibility of characters from other fandoms interacting with each other. I have crossover verses for some of my muses and more will be added in the near future. For characters from fandoms I am not aware of, I’d like to write with them on a modern verse or one both muns agree on. For those characters, I’ll treat them like OCs.

OCS: I enjoy writing with OCs, as long as they have enough info and our writing mesh well. For most OCs, our first thread will be one that our muses get to know each other for the first time. I’d like for them to meet as complete strangers and let their relationship build naturally.

ENGLISH: English is not my mother language. I have learnt English completely alone and it’s something that has been hard for me. I understand telling me if I have made any mistakes or ask me if you didn’t understand something but I won’t take any criticism.

MEMES/FANART: This is something I had recently started to be annoyed with. Please, do not use me as meme or fanart source. This goes for roleplay partners or not. Please, reblog memes AND fanart from the source.

SPOILERS: This blog is not spoiler-free. I will tag spoilers: #|| spoilers || and try to keep everything under READ MORE. You have been warned.

THANK YOU FOR READING MY RUMBLING BEFORE FOLLOWING ME FIRST. PLEASE CHECK MY MUSES AND NAVIGATION PAGE AND FILL MY INTEREST CHECKER. ALSO YOU CAN CHECK MY VERSES AND OPEN STARTERS. YOU CAN MESSAGE ME AND PLOT ANY TIME. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME. JUST FYI I MIGHT NOT BE TALKATIVE. THIS IS NOT PERSONAL AND DOESN’T MEAN I AM NOT INTERESTED FOR OUR MUSES TO INTERACT..

UPDATES

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16/03/2021: REWRITTEN MY RULES

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[gigageekmag]

Comic Book Review: Calico

CALICO ISSUE #1

Welcome back GiGa Community; as you all know, at fifteen years old, in 1992, I had an opportunity and pleasure of interning at Marvel Comics in Manhattan, New York; Spider-man office to be exact.  It was during that year that I had delved into the comic book industry, soaking it all in, down to my very fabric of my soul.  I loved all of the intellectual properties, their stories, and the craft; I knew I wanted Comics to be a part of my future life story.   I was a fan of some characters, and ambivalent to others, but never the less, just like family I loved them all (Some more than others of course); the environment moved my soul.  To this day, I still find being an artist to be one of my first loves, and comic books satisfied that yearning.  The culmination of efforts between a writer, penciler, inker, letterer, colorist, and editor was to me, an amalgamation of geniuses at work.  I love and respect the craft.

Sigma Comics

GiGa: GeekMagazine was contacted by Sigma Comics asking for an honest review of their newly released comic series, Calico.  I was unsure of who this new IP was that was entering the competitive arena, so I did superficial research, watched an interview, and a review; it seemed to be worth the read.   The first complimentary comic came and as busy as I am, I opened it and felt the cover art seemed acceptable for a comic book in 2021, but I didn’t have a peaceful undisturbed moment to read it, so I left it on my desk to be ready for the day I found a free opportunity to read it, then write a review.  My family and I left the house for a few hours, and when I returned I went straight to my office and hadn’t realized the comic was no longer on my desk.  A few seconds after I sat down, my daughter calls me, “Papi, look what Ivi did”!

Ivi Snow knew She really did it this time.

Ivi Snow is one of my two white German Shepherds, she is 1½ years old, so I am accustomed to finding “surprises” when we come back home; I thought it was poop again. A minute later my daughter comes to my office holding my complimentary issue of Calico in shreds.  Needless to say I was peeved and Ivi knew it. Then I remembered what the premise of the comic was.  “NYC HAS A NEW ANTI–HERO. Every day millions of animals are abused and killed. Animal rights groups and charities try to help, yet the savagery continues.”  Sigma Comics appears to be committed to fighting animal abuse. I laughed at the irony of this moment and took a picture of her with the destroyed comic, apparently, she enjoyed the comic.  I couldn’t read it, as a substantial part of the first few pages were now gone.  With that above picture attached to an email to Sigma comics, I humbly apologized and requested another review copy, I was willing to pay for it at this point, but the great people at Sigma found humor in the event as well and sent me another. When the next copy arrived I kept it in my safe this time, and that night when I was done with work, I read it before I went to bed.  I opened the cover and this time, I was able to really absorb the content.   I applauded the first impression, it was transparent in showing their allegiance to the cause, “American Humane”, as a parent to two German Shepherds, I was sold. 

The first page was gripping, showing an example of the atrocities committed upon animals and the visualization was almost too tough to bear, but I was roped in, I had to read on.  We get our first glimpse into the soul of our Anti-Hero on page two, with tears running from angry eyes, the penciler, inker, and colorist nailed the conviction this character was driven by, and we’re then introduced to Calico “A one-man arsenal of destruction in constant pursuit of justice for the smallest and weakest among us…” 

In his apartment he works his frustration on a double end bag, his thoughts speak poignant commentary as to the nature of life being nothing but conflict in every facet of existence and we see where his psychological state dwells; he’s scared and/or resentful of life and bitterly expresses this in his own twisted way.  The Boxing Gym advertisement on page 5 could easily be dismissed as fictitious until a little research clarified that it is indeed a real business; as an ex-fighter boxer, martial artist, and ex-body guard myself, I respected that blurring between fantasy and reality as it was perfectly in line with the tale that I was uploading to my brain.

The writer then takes the reader on a journey through the life of Calico, recalling childhood memories of being bullied.  This alludes to post traumatic damage; he hates bullies and had long since made the decision to suffer them no longer.  We next accompany the protagonist from his apartment to a local boxing gym where he trains and prepares for an upcoming tournament, and while there, he loses himself in the art of combat.  His thoughts become louder than spoken words; he’s a fighter with unfortunate luck, struggling skill, and lots of animosity.  Here is where the reader learns this character has no reservation about the thought of condemning the abuser to death and that animals were his only friends since his youth.

Page 8 we’re given a full frontal nude of the hero in the shower after leaving the gym, even in the shower he’s consumed by antipathy as conveyed by more flashbacks of the same bully from his youth; he’s never recovered from those years.  This memory was different, ironically, it was in this recollection where he was impressed by an alley-cat that scared off the bully and his dog, which serves as a perfect transition into revealing his super-hero outfit emblazoned with a black cat’s profile in front of what appears to be a moon.  He also has a flying robotic AI assistant named Bumble that is a metallic sphere with one camera eye. Then, we’re back to his childhood memories, this time he evokes the very first time he inflicted pain by punching that bully in the face before fleeing the scene.  Page 13 is where things escalate quickly, so I won’t spoil it for interested readers.

So here’s my honest review and rating:

Comic book Production:   I feel the writing could have been more impacting and/or expansive; a name would have been nice to have, but it served its purpose; The art is what communicated the story the most.  Lettering was great, the penciling and inking were acceptable as well, but gets a little hard to understand what’s happening during the murder scene.   

The Character: His real name is never revealed, but from how Calico was insultingly called a “Dominican York” translated from Spanish, he is likely Latino. I think the character is less anti-hero and more of a deranged, sociopathic, villain with post-traumatic stress. He’s fed a list of targets by an unknown accomplice, he intends to kill, (and/or violate) which to me is the modus operandi of a serial killer. I couldn’t see the word “Hero” being applicable to this guy in anyway.

The full frontal nude, to me, was unnecessary, but being a student at the Art Institute of Atlanta I’ve drawn male nudes before, so I respect the art, 100%.  That scene only became awkward after the second penis comment. Which helped me to get a better understanding  of the mind of the protagonist as portrayed and communicated by the writer. I think the outfit really is too similar to Black Panther.

As per the multiple male phallus related comments and insults, along with, what I found to be excessive homo-erotic language, it seemed in my humble opinion, as if there’s other unresolved issues besides being bullied that Calico has never addressed.   In one scene, I had to look at one scene under better light to understand that Calico actually violates or rapes his victim with a red hot pipe, all while making references to size; he says to his victim, “Relax! It’s only one-inch thick pipe. In penis size its only four-inch girth. You got this”.  the last unnecessary thing I read that really nailed the coffin shut for me was the statement, “F*** em. Hard. in the @ss. With no vaseline”.

Concept: I personally, don’t think the character could have longevity, and if so possibly as a novelty act; appropriate for an 8-Issue Series. He possibly may develop a fan base, but with a very niche market.  He is not a “Deadpool” type of anti-hero, I’d say this brooding character is damaged psychologically which easily could bleed over into villainy. I couldn’t see the Dark Knight tolerating this character, or working with him in any way, and would probably bring him to justice.  In comparison to other anti-heroes, such as Hulk, Ghost Rider, Blade, or the Punisher, I’d say even Frank Castle wouldn’t see his motivations, means, or ends as acceptable.  I see a more deviant sociopathic “Joker” kind of weirdness from Calico minus the smiles and laughing.

Conclusion:  It’s a comic book, it fits the criteria. I wasn’t left feeling like I want to read more, but I am only one man, with one opinion worth 2 cents.  I endeavor to say it could have been written for a broader appeal to a wider audience; for me, I feel the niche-aspect will leave some put off or uninterested.  But somehow, I’m sure this will pull the targeted audience it was meant for.  In the end, Sigma successfully this debut is a great accomplishment for the creators and production team and for that I salute and respect their creative vision, hard work, and love for the craft.  I’d give it 3 out 5 Stars ★★★☆☆ ~Jack~

Image Sources: > https://sigmacomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/sigma-comics-large.jpg > https://prnewswire2-a.akamaihd.net/p/1893751/sp/189375100/thumbnail/entry_id/1_gapzb7c1/def_height/800/def_width/520/version/100011/type/1

Comic Book Review: Calico was originally published on GIGA: GeekMagazine