#this story is really so well written it has some fantastic turns of phrase and the different povs are all such distinct character voices đâ€
Aww positivity night is my favorite, đ„č! For the positivity Friday I want to send some love to some of my favorite authors and people heređ:
@roosterforme :
- Even though I have already said it many times I will repeat it forever, I really like her ability to insert small details into her stories and continue to use them throughout the rest of the story. I also love the care she takes in describing scenes that apparently seem normal and yet she manages to transform them into wonderful ones by adding small actions or gestures that make them unique. Without forgetting her skill in characterizing the characters, who are written so well that you fall in love with them from the first words and the precision she puts into writing about Bradley, differently depending on the series but always in a way that is impossible do not fall in love with him. I literally love her entire masterlist, Is It Working For You and the entire Bradley and BG universe was the first series I read by her and it has a special place in my heart, I love reading it and rereading it. She is truly amazing!
@bradshawsbaby :
- I've said it plenty of times about her too, but her skill in transporting the reader precisely to the place where the story is taking place always leaves me speechless. The precision with which she takes care of every detail of the environment is truly special and fascinates me every time. Si Vis Amari Ama is the series thanks to which I discovered her blog and I am madly in love with it. One thing I really appreciate about this series is the fact that she included phrases or words in Latin, this once again confirms the passion and care that she put into her works. As well as it is written, every time I'm in Rome I feel like I've been catapulted into the series! I also find her talent in making the relationships between characters real and her artistic sense when she makes mood boards incredible.
@beyondthesefourwalls :
- The first series of her that I read was Remember you even when I don't and I read it in one go because it had captivated me from the beginning. Her ability to write and make you feel the emotions of the characters is fantastic. I love how in her stories it's like riding a roller coaster for everything you feel and I love even more how in many of her stories she talks and underlines how certain loves never end, no matter what they have to face, they often go through immense turns and then return. This love came back to me is the perfect proof, which made me shed more than one tear and which I loved immensely.
@notroosterbradshaw :
- I madly loved her series The boyfriend experience, the slow burn that occurred between the characters, how they understood that they had feelings for each other and how they let themselves go and got together. I love how she can write about happy feelings as well as sadder feelings. With Slow Dancing in a Burning Room my heart is strained with every chapter, but I can't help but read the series because of how well it is written and how real the situations and conversations between the various characters are.
@mamachasesmayhem
- I recently discovered her Honey and Jake universe and fell in love with it after reading the first few lines. I love her ability to create stories not only by writing them beautifully but also by building the entire outline. With the presentation of the various main characters, inserting photos of them as she imagined them, writing their background and their nicknames. Not to mention the various mood boards that she creates and the various digital Daggers that always manage to make me smile and are so carefully done.
@sailor-aviator :
- And last but not least, you! I discovered your blog by chance while seeing the Foolâs Fare prologue. And inside I thought "wow a series about pirates with Jake as the protagonist must be interesting" so I read the prologue and to say that it literally enchanted me would be an understatement. I love your skill in describing the entrances and introductions of the characters as well as how you manage to bring the reader even further into the story thanks to the drabbles you write, making known various details and different points of view, and also thanks to the research that you do and share about clothes or jewels, to name a few, that you then talk about in the story. As I already told you, right now I'm literally obsessed with your new series Stranger like me, I love the idea and how you're developing it is really beautiful!
You are all extremely talented, sweet and kind! Reading your stories and interacting with you is always a pleasure! I truly appreciate the passion, love and time you all dedicate to your work and for this I can never thank you enough! đđ«¶đŒâš
Fabiola, I donât think positivity night would be complete without giving you a shoutout too! I love reading every comment you leave on my works, and it makes my day so much brighter!! Thank you for reading everything and taking the time to leave the comments that you do!!
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20 questions for fic writers
@erisenyo tagged me, thanks! it was really interesting to read some of your process here
1. how many works do you have on ao3? 24
2. whatâs your total ao3 word count? 195,338, and iâm pretty sure half of that came from in flammam flammas alone
3. what fandoms do you write for? currently atla but iâve dabbled in merlin, ancient history rpf (lmfao), and danmei before
4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?
nip it in the bud (what can i say, zukos nips are obviously enrapturing!)
lan eye for the bland guy (a testament to the people power of the mdzs fandom)
in flammam flammas (always felt like she should get more love! proportional to the sheer bloody labour i put into her đđ)
deep and creamy (doesnât deserve it. galactic repairman is way better, i wrote this as a shitty lil voice test fic for zuko pov!!)
the iconoclast (neck to neck with deep and creamy actually, will defs surpass in the next couple of days)
5. do you respond to comments? i make an effort to respond to each of them to show my appreciation. the only time i dropped off was when i wasnât actively writing and ppl were commenting on stuff from the stone age đ
6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? definitely religio, in which i killed arthur. granted arthur dying is very much canon and literary convention unrelated but for that fic i asked my latin lecturer at the time about my translation of a passage that ended up in it lolol
7. what is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? in flammam flammas. itâs a triumphalist ending, itâs one zuko has absolutely fought for, and now he gets to reap all his rewards. the joy of overcoming adversity to become a stronger, better person, a force for good in the world
8. do you get hate on fics? thankfully not! besides the occasional leery/perhaps poorly phrased comment. but i cut those some slack
9. do you write smut? if so, what kind? yes i love writing smut [40,000 words of plot laterâ]
10. do you write crossovers? whatâs the craziest one youâve written? noooo idt i have actuallyâŠ
11. have you ever had a fic stolen? nip it in the bud was plagiarised once actually. plotline down to the story beats and the actual phrasing. it was pretty brazen and it was upsetting to discover
12. have you ever had a fic translated? nope!
13. have you ever co-written a fic before? i allegedly co-wrote a fic with my ex once⊠i donât recall much of the process though so i suspect she actually wrote most of it and i maybe edited/chimed ideas/drew art? otherwise the closest iâve gotten is collaborating with reikah, which iâve really loved. i think itâs the ex-grad student in me that loves bouncing ideas with someone else, getting a second opinion, getting pushback. i come up to reikah with all these ideas (usually chunks of prose bc writing is my planning) and iâll say some shit like âi want chapter 2 of nipfic to be structured in a chiasmus!â and sheâs amazing at for instance going in to figure out HOW to practically (re)structure all of that. just like. concrete ways to bring the lofty vision into fruition đ«¶
14. whatâs your all-time favourite ship? noooo i canât sayyyyy cos what if it changes?! but i do really love writing zukka atm for their ethnic4ethnic energy. i love writing characters of colour and delving into ideas about empire and colonialism and theyâve been the perfect vehicle for that
15. whatâs a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? well thereâs one that i abandoned for uh. political reasons đ€Ą i was writing an au based on an event extremely close to my heart and i poured a lot of love into it. but the situation irl took a pretty bad turn and while i wondered at first if i could post anon, i became worried about being harassed or doxxed over it
16. what are your writing strengths? i think im good at writing on a technical level. i used to write poetry and it was a fantastic exercise in wrangling words as an art form. so many lessons carried over into my prose. thereâs a sonic element to mine that is i think quite distinctive. plus i can be critical of my own writing and im receptive to feedback
17. what are your writing weaknesses? structure can be a little tricky if there are a lot of moving parts. REALLY grateful to everyone whoâs beta read to give a second opinion about those elements. and the bit i hated writing the most in iconoclast was the freakin chapter 2 sports montage. i am not a sporty person
18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? ehh. whatâs the point? itâs all well and good if thereâs a point to it, which isnât just âlook, i the author can speak other languagesâ. untranslated, i just think a whole bunch of dialogue in another language can have the effect of alienating a reader see donna tarttâs goldfinch
19. first fandom you wrote for? merlin i lied. itâs hetalia genfic i wrote when i was thirteen years old on fanfiction dot net
20. favourite fic youâve written? recency bias maybe but iâm becoming VERY fond of the iconoclast. itâs definitely not a fic i thought would take off (zukki is a smaller ship! and the story is balls to the wall bonkers in a way that im sure isnât up some ppls alley!) but i uncovered so many fascinating ideas and concepts while researching i felt like i HAD to try do them justice. i challenged myself writing more violent fight scenes & more ruthless/complex characters. i wrote the fucking haiku đ€Ą and the plot is a bit of a beast. but i can sense it coming together and im writing the insane fic i wanna read!
gonna tag: @faux-fires, @dickpuncher420, @adriancatrin knock urselves out! đ„łđ„łđ„ł
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More asks, yes? YES?
đwhat's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language
đdescribe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change
đ€Čwhat do YOU get out of writing?
đ§żwhat steps do you take to not take things personally if a fic doesn't do well, or if your writing/posting/sharing experience isn't going how you'd like it to?
And I'm going to invent my own because I want to use an emoji, that's it that's the reason
đŠ What would you like to see MORE of, in the fandoms you're following. Could be writing/art related, could be fandom culture related. What would you like to see exist that doesn't at the moment (or doesn't anymore)?
HELLO! AH. I like that birb emoji :3 Always feel free to make up extra questions đThank you for these!
Here are some Fic Writer's Asks for ya'll!
:D Here's the ask game.
đwhat's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language?
Well! I can tell you my favorite part of writing a story (or reading one!) is character, followed closely by worldbuilding. But what's most important is a little more difficult to simply pick one thing. A good story has all of these things in spades. A good, solid plot idea. Characters that the author knows well. Clever worldbuilding aspects that make the setting seem real...and a good handle on language and grammar all work together to create a fantastic experience. So there's no most important part -- just that all of it has been given the author's best possible effort (:
đdescribe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?
Ohhh I love this. Mostly because it's such a Thing (tm) in art spaces and is always a topic of conversation. I don't hear about it much for writers, except maybe "voice/tone" in critique circles. All I can say is that style regardless of medium is composed of certain habits the artist incorporates into their work.
For writing, that's going to be specific turns of phrase that tend to be used, perhaps it can be a series of tropes or situations the writer tends to focus on or include in their work. Just like with art, style changes the more skill you gain in your particular craft. Even so, a style may still seem "fixed" to the average reader, even if with each project, you improve and things change to suit.
So my go-to style is usually writing close third limited with rotating pov characters (: But even if I were to say, switch to first person with just one character through the whole story and posted it anonymously there's certain ways that I word things and certain themes that might make a reader be like "Oh this sounds like something Mareena might have written." It's weirdly difficult to describe exactly... but I hope that kind of makes a little sense lol
đ€Čwhat do YOU get out of writing?
This is an excellent question, my goodness. Writing fic has been so healing for me for so many reasons. I've had a really rough time the last few years irl with life throwing everything it can at me to try and grind me down. For a bit, it actually did, I suppose, and I'd stopped writing much at all. I hated everything I was producing, if anything at all and it was just a bad time.
Things looked up a little when I decided it didn't matter how good the writing was, but that I got something down on paper. I'd just finished a month-long art challenge for myself (I painted 31 pokemon and it was a lot of fun, even if it wasn't perfect) and I wanted to plan out something similar -- low stakes, just for fun. With the help and encouragement of some of my irl friends, a little help with an idea and MANY MUCH planning, The World on Our Shoulders started as a challenge to write and post daily, damn the consequences.
Since then, I've been revising. Some of my characters (not all just the MC either) have been given some of my problems. I like to write hope into hopeless situations anyway. It's cathartic to see characters experience the same huge emotions I can relate to and make it through to the other side. I get to write that. I get to be in control of the narrative for them, no matter how hard it gets before its resolution. It helps me believe in myself and my own strength, too. It's funny how art does that, I think. (:
đ§żwhat steps do you take to not take things personally if a fic doesn't do well, or if your writing/posting/sharing experience isn't going how you'd like it to?
Well I suppose the "doesn't do well" part mostly doesn't affect me because of my stance on social media and hustle culture. At the end of the day, it's not about how many comments or kudos or likes my fic/posts get, it's about having fun making the content. I am writing for myself first, in this case, and for the readers second. I am lucky to have a circle of mutuals that I love hearing from regarding fandom things here on tumblr and discord. We support each others' creative endeavors and that is, in my eyes, doing well. If it brings joy, even just to me, it's good. It's doing well. My steps are simply to write, and share. The rest is nothing to worry over.
đŠ What would you like to see MORE of, in the fandoms you're following. Could be writing/art related, could be fandom culture related. What would you like to see exist that doesn't at the moment (or doesn't anymore)?
Well, would I even be me if I didn't say I wanted to see more Teldryn fics in the TES tags (: So yes, that. But more than that, I'm interested in different takes for the character. For any characters, really. I want to see deep stories with lots of different perspectives on lore and the handling of different quests in the game. I want adventure, I want witty dialogue, I want flawed OCs that team up with the coolest NPCs to go out and discover what they're really capable of. If they happen to be Teldryn stories, all the better.
I do want to see people finish some of their WIPS, too. I know that's a big ask. But there's so many on AO3 at least that have been unfinished for months, years even and I want to encourage all those writers and cheerlead their work. I know very well that sometimes life just gets in the way of being able to devote so much time to a project. But I hope everyone who has an unfinished and/or back-burnered TES fic (or any fic, really) sees this and knows I'm rooting for you. Your work is WORTH IT. Your stories matter. (:
So I guess another facet to this answer is, for fandom in general, more cheering each other on. Writers ought to stick together, after all. I'd love to see even more supportive, kind words for each other. More encouragement in general. I see too much silliness and arguments over the details in fandom and the only way to change that is to loudly support each other as often as possible.
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hiiii! okay. this may sound a little weird, but after reading your post about Thomas I wanted to write to you. I just had to.
All your thoughts?!? You've literally explained perfectly how I've always felt about cc's questionable writing choices regarding Thomas's character in choi.
First, Thomas is also my favourite favourite hehe, I just relate to him a lot and he's 100% the tsc character I got more attached to. However, my overall impression after choi was that cc had somehow reduced all his complexity...or more like she hadn't valued it enough? And this by simplyfing all his mental processes and creating little inconsistencies concerning his thoughts and words. Literally all the things you've pointed out!!
And yeeeah, the âhe reminded himself, he didn't much like Alastairâ line confused me so much. Not only it felt extremely wrong, but it also didn't make sense at all...? Especially if we consider the fact that apparently Thomas has been aware of his attraction to men and deep feelings for Alastair the whole time.
It was like all the introspective and thoughtful povs we're used to when it comes to Thomas, were kind of left out/semplified in choi.
And it makes me genuinely upset because Thomas is such an amazing and complex character with so much potential, but, as you've pointed out, it feels like he's been completely sidelined in the writing process.
I'm not gonna add more stuff since you've already phrased everything perfectly jwjsl, but know that I'm so glad someone finally talked about this!! Everything you've pointed out is just *chef's kiss*
Also. forgive me if I'm being a little long-winded, but I absolutely got to tell you. I adore your fic. It's just so so beautiful. And one of the main reasons why I love it so much, is precisely because of the way you've written Thomas!!
While reading it I was just so happy, because it felt like Thomas's complex interior world I've always felt a special connection to, had been finally explored?? *feeling incredibly emotional at the mere thought*
Basically, your Thomas just shines!! And for a person who relates so much to his character your fic is just so so comforting. (Also I'm generally very fond of the sea since I live by the seaside, so the whole story is literally perfect to me kskzj).
Anyway, this was supposed to be just a brief *I agree with all the stuff you've pointed out about thomas in choi* ask, but turned into a *I'm a huge fan of your fic, you're such a fantastic writer and your thomas is perfect* monologue, oops :'')
I probably would have sent you an ask some day, but after that post I just jumped at the opportunity to rant about your fic as well jwksj
okay, guess I'm donee, hope this doesn't sound too intrusive or anything!! Have a good day/night!! <3
OMG ! !!!!! !!! this ASK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First of all. Can we be friends?? đ„ș and second, I hope u donât seriously worry about being long winded or whatever u said because I would take every WORD of this & have it TATTOOED on my SOUL. Putting that out there to begin with.
Iâm really glad my ramblings about how Thomas was mishandled in choi resonated with someone because I truly had no idea if anyone would agree with the weirdly specific grievances I have, but they REALLY bothered me and honestly the longer I think about them the more frustrated I get. The new snippet made me really nervous too because it seems like itâs (potentially) signaling more of what weâre talking about. But THANK U for engaging with me on this, and thank you @melanielocke for giving me an excuse to write a stress-fueled essay about it in the middle of the nightâif thereâs anyone I can count on to validate the things I care about way too much for anyoneâs good, it is this fandom.
Speaking of caring about things way too much for anyoneâs good, I lowkey want to cry about the second half of your ask đ„Č because what youâre describing is exactly what Iâve been trying to do and itâs so incredible to hear that Iâm not just doing it for myself but for other ppl who love Thomas too??? I wasnât kidding when I said thatâs a huge part of why I started writing the fic, to give him some time to shine/explore his interior world, so Iâm just so glad thatâs landing the way it is for you, and please feel free to come talk to me about Thomas anytime!!! I mean this!!! I so resonate w every single thing you said!!!!
Also thank you, if I didnât make that clear â€ïžđ„° this was such a lovely thing to receive!!
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What the Heck Is This Thing??? A Manifesto of Unnecessary Length
Introduction to the Snow
FELLAS. If you already stumbled across this blog somehow despite being a blog dedicated to a comic that does not yet exist that is also currently fresh from the womb by a person who has basically never used Tumblr before and also barely uses the internet in general, congratulations, I guess? This post is meant as a newcomer guide which will mostly be useful for when this blog actually has stuff in it, so I guess you're in the right place.
The Good Stuff
This is a blog for the (currently) upcoming webcomic I call Lunar Rhapsody, which sounds pretty chill, maybe you should go like read it or something when it comes out.
As for the comic itself, it's a modern-day-ish fantasy/sci-fi story about this 22-year-old who just graduated high school, Alice Weaver, who's also a magnet for fun descriptors like "high profile thief", "quote-unquote vampire", and "annoying". She gets involved in an incident with a piece of experimental technology trying to steal from a mysterious company called Knight Biochemical that's run by her former therapist. She is then forced to work for him both in the lab and in the summer camp he runs as a front. Wacky hijinks ensue as she gets caught between corporate ambition, domestic terrorism, vigilantes of questionable moral standing, extradimensional horrors and the unhinged antics demanded by the voices inside her head.
This blog will serve as a sort of companion to the comic, detailing its production process, additional information about its characters and world, Q and A, and bonus art, as well as any other stray thoughts that go unrepressed in my brain. I will have a bunch of other social medias carrying this same content (as of right now I have a Twitter with nothing of substance and an Instagram with some miscellaneous art. A YouTube channel about writing in general I'm making with a friend will be existing soon as well.) Now I said I'm new to Tumblr, but out of all the popular social media platforms available this one seems best as a "home base" due to its personalized, text-based nature, so that's what it is now. Whoops.
Content Warnings
This is, believe it or not, a thing not for kids, as it will contain mild gore, drug use, strong language, sexual themes, and revealing clothing but never full nudity. As the main characters are fresh out of high school, I want them to talk and act like people their age in the real world and address the kinds of issues they would be expected to confront (in addition to the more fantastical problems). However, I also intend to leverage these elements to generate appeal, but never more than what I (keyword: I) would consider the line where it becomes shock value or genuine porn. But unless you work at a really cool place, it will (to use a turn of phrase) probably not be safe for your workplace. Use your own discretion with regards to that.
The Immediate Future
This blog's gonna get slowly populated with content over the next few months as production is in full swing. So stay tuned if you're interested.
The comic's first update is expected to be released by August of this year (hopefully earlier), and I'll post details about where it can be read. I'll also post the first few pages to my various platoforms. It will be in the format of a somewhat but not completely self-contained chapter, which will be roughly a third of the first self-contained story or "episode". Each update will be another chapter, constructing each episode piece by piece. I'm deliberately not going to give the traditional page-by-page updates because that makes my schedule less flexible and, in my opinion, ruins the experience. As the comic is gonna be written and drawn more or less exclusively by me, a college student working on a Physics Bachelor's who's self-taught in writing and art, we'll have to see how things go in terms of production speed and quality.
Feel free to ask questions in the question asky box over on my page if you feel inclined for... some reason. I'll answer them probably within a day of receiving them, not because of any sense of urgency or importance, but because I (evidently) like making words happen a lot and frequently.
Legal Stuff
Oh. Also. Not that it's important now, but the whole thing's gonna be under some form of Creative Commons license, so if something I make tickles your fancy for some unholy reason I will never take legal action against anything you do with my creations. And that includes stuff that makes you money without me getting any of it. Hope the power doesn't go to your heads.
Peace,
Willy Tombstone (pseudonym) aka The Author Guy
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My Cousin Rachel
This book is like watching the Bachelor or the Circle or something--you know when youâre watching someone make horribly stupid mistakes right in front of you, and thereâs nothing you can do but clap your hands to the side of your face and go, âWhat are you doing????â but itâs fun, because you donât actually care about these people and their lives except in the most outside sense? That is the best non-spoilery review I can give of this book. Itâs reality TV, but Victoriante though.Â
And so some of you may say: Oh, so itâs not good then? No, it is FANTASTIC, and immense fun, and well-written, heavily atmospheric and touches of influence from the Gothics in the corners. But it is very much a mystery story, and you wouldnât have to get anything deeper than that out of it if you didnât want to. You can absolutely have a wonderful time reading this as a light entertainment.Â
Spoilers under the cut!
----
I forgot how much I enjoyed du Maurier until I was about 100 pages into this book, remembering how much I like her turns of phrase and the subtle ways that she plays with character ideas. Itâs a stroke of genius that she has the whole thing narrated through Phillipâs eyes. It does not allow us to really ever develop an outside idea of Rachel, drug through the twists and turns as we are by Phillip.Â
I think what makes it so interesting as a reader is that, Phillip being our frame of reference and knowing how he loves Ambrose, weâre set to fight with Rachel as well. But whatâs amazing is I think a lot of readers probably donât go along with Phillip as he starts to fall in love with her. She begins to excuse her, but we do not, even given from his perspective, and I think that takes a fair amount of artfulness on Du Maurierâs behalf. Sheâs constantly trying to keep us on our toes.Â
In some ways I wonder if this isnât just her general idea of âguess how stupid men are, I will show youâ. So much of it relies on seeing what Phillip is doing and watching in abject horror as he gives up everything to a woman because heâs taken by her aspect. The narrative even gives us another woman in the form of Louise to be astonished by all the things that Phillip ends up doing in service to Rachel.Â
He actually is kind of a shit to Louise, who I think exists as the sort of balance to Rachel weâre meant to see. I donât think Louise is out of line to imagine she might marry Phillip, given the time and place they both find themselves in, and the fact that they know each other well. But maybe thatâs a part of what Du Maurier is saying: Men are not in love with women so much as they are in love with the ideas they project upon them. We see more and more of this as the book goes on, for example, when Louise is confronting Phillip about what heâs done for Rachel. He tells her that sheâs wrong, that Rachel is a âwoman of impulse and emotion, and hr moods are unpredictable and strange. God knows, but it is not in her nature to be otherwise.âÂ
Heâs putting on her this mysteriousness, this idea that the things she does are a part of her but almost come from outside of her, something she canât control, and Louise sees it for something very different: âHad you been less vulnerable,â she said, âMrs. Ashley would not have stayed. She would have called upon my father, struck a close fair bargain, and then departed. You have misunderstood her motives from the first.â Louise sees exactly what Rachel is doing, and itâs interesting because thereâs a point in the movel I canât find right now where Rachel herself says that women see things much more clearly than men. I wish I could find the page. So is that, do we think, just more of Du Maurier saying, âHi hello here is my thesis statement, that men canât stop seeing what they WANT to see long enough to see whatâs actually there?â This book was written in 1951, so remember that you have to take yourself outside of your current place and time and imagine her saying this back when women were considered like, the dark country that no man can know. I think thatâs interesting! This idea from the author that these ~little wimmins~ are constantly outpacing and outthinking these men who control their lives and yet have no capacity to stop being blindsided.Â
Iâd be interested in knowing who comes down on the side of Rachel being guilty, and who comes down on the side of Rachel being innocent. Du Maurier herself is extremely intentional about avoiding answering the question--thatâs part of the fun--she leaves just enough of an opening either way that you could make an argument. I think that she was guilty, and that says something interesting about me, I think. I would assume most people think sheâs guilty, and Iâd be fascinated to see who has a presumption of innocence here.Â
Why do we think Ambrose and Phillip are so vulnerable to Rachelâs work, if we believe, as I do that it was all a trick? I think Du Maurier is saying something about what happens to men who deliberately keep themselves from womenâs company. They allow women to become ideas and objects, and so have no ability to see them in the way that they would a man, to their extreme detriment. Ambrose makes a huge point of saying how heâll never marry and woman are all a bother, and passes that idea onto Phillip, who idealizes Ambrose so highly that he literally wishes his name was Ambrose. Because they canât see Rachel as a person, they can only see what they want her to be, and essentially romance themselves. Rachel gives them just enough rope to hang themselves. She takes the fascination of gardens, the planned wild, and manipulates it into perfection with Ambrose. And I donât doubt that she does like gardens, but thereâs something more to it than that, in the same way she sees that Phillip longs for someone who has an air of fineness about her. It doesnât hurt that Ambrose loved her as well, given Phillipâs desire to be like Ambrose in all things.Â
Who Rachel truly is, I think, is the real mystery. I come away having no idea what I think she likes or who she truly is, because I think so much of her life is about becoming that which she needs to be. She is a simple English woman for Ambrose, a particular woman of refinement for Phillip, a party girl for Sangalletti. Truthfully, I respect the hustle. I simultaneously want a story from her point of view and absolutely do not want any of the mystery of how she came to be so cunning and quick taken a way from me. Maybe Iâm guilty of the same thing as Phillip, of wanting to project my desires for what she could be onto Rachel.Â
Letâs say, though, that Iâm wrong. And that Rachel was guilty of absolutely nothing.Â
If Rachel was not guilty of the crime, than is Phillip guilty of murder by allowing her to go on her walk? Do we think that Phillip had an inkling that she would walk across the weak bridge, and that it could collapse beneath her? Because the second question must be true if we want to even bother engaging with the first. If he had no idea, he had no idea, and so there can be no sin but one of ignorance, right? We canât be held to account for honest ignorance. But letâs say he had an idea, that Rachel would go there--she loves the gardens and the expansion of them was a major passion project for her--is allowing someone to come to harm when you could stop it the same as murder? For me, on a religious basis, itâs not the SAME, in that Judaism doesnât do that âAll sins are the sameâ thing, but it is most definitely prohibited and thereâs even a rabbinic opinion somewhere about not overly protecting yourself, so like, you can and should risk a little danger to save someoneâs life. But just standing by and letting someone die, or knowing there's a large chance of it? If sheâs not guilty of the crime, I think thatâs, if not murder, a cousin to it.Â
 I mean even if she is, do we think, if Phillip knew, is he still culpable of something? I think he is. I donât think we get to stop being moral when people hurt us. Especially if that hrm is because weâre fucking idiots and let ourselves be taken in by the idea of what we want someone to be. Whatever she did, it was not a capital crime. She didnât deserve to die for taking advantage of a fool. Is it kind? No. Is it also something I would consider prohibited? Oh absolutely. But that is pretty much irrelevant to my idea of Phillipâs responsibility here. I think that if he knew, what he did was a cousin to murder, regardless of what she did.Â
I guess, though, point here. If she was trying to poison him, it would have been a capital crime if she succeeded, but he in no way needed to kill her to avoid his death, he just needed to stop drinking her fucking tea, so, having had that thought and circled back, I still think that he canât really claim self-defense or any of ther kind of reasoning for it.Â
Letâs talk about the opening and ending! Itâs going to go in the books as a top ten ending line for me, it just hit me like a ton of bricks and brought all of it home. âThey used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days. Not anymore, though.â I think I liked that the most of all, because at the beginning I had no idea where it was going with that, and the end implies that Phillip DOES see himself as a murderer. And when we think about the beginning in context with the end, where Phillip is talking about what the manâs wife might have done to push him to kill her, we can imagine Phillip telling himself all of these things and trying to square why he let her die, and THAT final line is why I think he must have known that she was going to go out on that extremely tempting bridge over the sunken garden, and he knew she was going to get hurt, and he let it happen. He let it happen because it was the only way for the property to revert back to him, and heâll have to live with this because no one is going to hang him for the crime.Â
I often say, and believe, that whether I liked something or not is the most boring thing I can say about anything, but I think at least part of these is people wanting to know if I liked the book: I did! I think it was an immensely fun book and I would recommend it to just about anyone who enjoys screaming at a fictional character about how stupid they are over and over again. I thought I was going to like this, based on how I liked Rebecca, but its always a delight not to be wrong on that.
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rating every demon fight in kny bc i can
non-biased, completely objective rating (more or less) of every significant demon fight in kny based on a number of factors, including:
cleverness of fighting tactics
placement in the storyâs timeline
integration of character backstories
cohesive themes between characters
etc
by non-biased and objective i mean iâm not skewing the rating if a death felt fair or whatever
everything past where the anime ended will be under a read more so anime onlys who havent watched mugen train, youre safe lol
oh and i reread the manga like 20+ times (reread the latter arcs at least 40 times, haha hyperfixations am i right?) so be rest assured im not pulling these ratings out of my ass
also ill randomly be bolding certain phrases just to improve readability
anyways letâs gooooo
VS NEZUKO
[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and Nezuko. Tanjirou is fending her off by putting the axe handle in her mouth, keeping her from eating him. End Image Description.]
10/10
i like how realistic it is, because yeah tanjirou would react the way to he did with zero fighting skills against a demon
very clear why tanjirou is fighting nezuko and shows a bit of worldbuilding on how normal people react to their family becoming demons
always nice to see worldbuilding
giyuu is the perfect example of a seasoned demon slayer whoâs good at his job, and he juxtaposes tanjirou very well in that aspect
my only complaint is not directly in this fight itself but how nezuko is handled throughout the story as a whole
like bro, it is literally never explained why nezuko is different from demons
could have been easily explained if maybe her familyâs ghosts like slapped her hand every time she wanted to eat a person but nope
sheâs just built different lol
so yeah youll see future ratings get points docked off bc nezuko unlocks some secret power with no prior explanation other than she angy >:3
VS TEMPLE DEMON
[Image Description: Manga panel of a demon. The demon has a sharp-nailed hand over his neck and there are four text bubbles around him saying âBut a wound like this... will heal in no time! See? The bleeding already stopped!â End Image Description.]
10/10
may be more forgettable compared to like rui but still good
tanjirou did exceptionally well in this fight and his ability to think on his feet is once again beautifully illustrated here (trapping this dudeâs head against the tree trunk with the axe)
very clever
again, establishes more demon worldbuilding regarding regeneration and still being able to move without their head
and the demons burning in the sunlight thing since nezuko wasnât able to show that
the ending where tanjirou hesitates to kill the demon also serves to show his sympathetic nature towards demons that will last throughout the entirety of the first 60-ish chapters
:)
weâll talk about what the hell happens to tanjirou after that
or not, it could honestly be its own post
VS HAND DEMON
[Image Description: Manga panel of a many-handed demon. He has six hands around him, three of them covering his mouth while he chuckles, two of them grabbing his cheeks, and one holding on to the top of his head. There are two text bubbles saying âThatâs how many of Urokodakiâs students I have eaten! Iâve decided to kill all of his students!â End Image Description.]
10/10
ooooh probably the first big fight against a demon in the series
oh yeah not doing the two random demons tanjirou one shot in a single blow bc eh
anyways hand demonâs pretty goddamn scary, considering the fact that this is the 5th demon or whatever tanjirou has had to face so far
very nice way to show us how much tanjirouâs innate intuition and all his other random abilities (sense of smell, hard forehead) can come together and help him decapitate this guy
i liked the mini history with urokodaki this dude had and why he had beef with our favorite mentor figure, it establishes that urokodaki was in fact a super good demon slayer and its cool to see that actually shown
i also liked that small moment of compassion tanjirou gave this demon, staying consistent with tanjirouâs established kindness
the demonâs sad tale with killing his own brother very much humanizes him when all the reader has seen up to this point is that this guy is a monster who eats people
sets up the theme of demons just being humans but being victims of circumstance that unfortunately doesnât hold up as well in arcs past mugen train
VS SWAMP DEMON
[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou fighting off three horned demons as they appear from below. There is a spiky text bubble saying âThree of them!!!â End Image Description.]
10/10
not my most favorite fight but it still portrays everything alright and im not allowed to let my personal opinions mess with the rating so
i like how tanjirou mentioned the fact that he trained in conditions similar to the bog and explains how he pulled off the whirlpool form
using past experiences to aid him in the present, nice nice
tanjirou and nezuko dont quite work together very well but its yknow the first mission so ill chalk it up to simple inexperience
also the way the muzan curse thingie was hinted at here? fantastic way of showing that little bit of demon worldbuilding
...
oh god, it mentions nezuko being stronger than normal demons
ok its not a problem here per say since i can still suspend my disbelief, but later on it just becomes a glaring problem that gets worse over time
VS SUSAMARU AND YAHABA
[Image Description: Manga panels of Susamaru and Yahaba. The first one is a joyful Susamaru about to throw a temari ball. There is floating text saying âIs she one of Kibutsujiâs minions?!â The second image is an annoyed Yahaba, holding one of his eye-hands to cover himself. There are two text bubbles around him saying âMy kimono got all dusty. Tch!â End Image Description.]
9/10
why dont these bitches have a good looking panel together dammit
anyways amazing entrance, the way yahaba used his hand eyes to track down tanjirou is really neat
the synergy yahaba and susamaru have is incredible, its awesome dude, they work extremely well together and it shows
tanjirou actually mixing his water breathing forms together is a god tier move and i absolutely love how he can show off his ability to think on his feet once again
establishing how yushiroâs bda works early on is really well done
establishing tamayo as a fugitive this early on is also super well done
not to get into spoiler territory but both these things pay off
how tamayo ended up defeating susamaru is literally awesome in so many ways
shows off both how smart she is by exploiting the muzan curse
and speaking of the muzan curse, we actually get to see what happens to demons who even say his name, back when it was hinted with the swamp demon
tamayo is amazing dude, and we get some real evidence of the horrible suffering demons go through if they even accidentally attempt to betray muzan :D
...
now heres what keeps this fight from being perfect
nezuko somehow grew stronger against susamaruâs temari
with no explanation
which could have been easily explained if tamayo was like âoh yeah the drug also boosts a demonâs strength temporarilyâ
but nope
god, i just dont like how gotouge handles nezukoâs power boosts throughout the series bc like i said before
no explanation is given anywhere
this is a huge issue, this isnt a pokemon game, you cant just kill demons and get exp at the end of every battle, level up, get some sweet stat bonuses and move on
(actually if gotouge established that this is how nezuko grew in power, than all my complaints about this would be gone, im not even joking)
anyways i get that nezuko is supposed to be âspecialâ but thats too vague of a descriptor
how the hell is she special? ya gotta be more specific and stick with that explanation or that suspension of disbelief is going to disappear
VS TONGUE DEMON
[Image Description: Manga panel of a four-eyed demon with horns and a long tongue. He is crawling in an awkward position, one foot in front of his tilted head. There are two text bubbles around him saying âHeh, heh! Iâll slurpy slurp your brains out through you ear!â End Image Description.]
10/10
not much to say, showcases zenitsuâs true abilities really well
nicely done
VS HORNED DEMON
[Image Description: Manga panel of a big, single-horned demon. There are three text bubbles saying âYou dodged! Youâre awfully lively for a human! Itâll be a treat to carve away your flesh!â End Image Description.]
10/10
would have ignored this fight if not for the fact we havent seen inosuke fight before
it definitely shows how very fast-paced and wild inosuke is
no complaints here lol
VS KYOGAI
[Image Description: Manga panel of Kyogai, a demon with tsuzumi drums attached to his shoulders. There are four text bubbles around him saying âWhy?! Why does everyone keep sneaking through my house? Itâs so aggravating. Itâs my prey! Itâs my prey! Found in my territory!â End Image Description.]
10/10
establishes marechi blood pretty early on, once again expanding the worldbuilding of kny which is always cool
interesting terrain where itâs always shifting, tanjirou once again proves his ability to adapt really quickly by altering one of his forms to work with the turning room
(man, i wish the form mixing/form modification thing carried on throughout the rest of the story, but it really didnt which is just a shame)
the injuries tanjirou had prior to this mission actually affecting him was a nice touch
oh yeah, kyogai gives us more worldbuilding (which is always nice) regarding the 12 kizuki, and the aspect of him being cast out due to being weak shows a lot about muzanâs indifference towards his own demons if they arent strong
his backstory being a failed writer once again humanizes kyogai as a former human being and not just a monster
tanjirou shows his sympathy and compassion again by not stepping on his written work and complimenting his bda
well, tbh tanjirouâs actions kinda came out of nowhere but its a very minor thing and not enough to dock a point off, like it didnt affect the outcome of the fight that much if at all
(so if you see future battles where points are docked off for things not logically making sense, its bc whatever nonsensical concepts were integrated into the fight actually turned the tide of the battle and thats a big no-no)
very good fight and if you remember how kinda bad tanjirou was at accurately slicing the swamp demon, you can see that heâs already improved leaps and bounds
im so proud of him
VS MOTHER SPIDER DEMON
[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and the Mother Spider Demon. There is a light shining down from the top right on to the demon as Tanjirou slices her head off, rain following in his wake. There is floating text saying âWater Breathing: Fifth Form - Blessed Rain After the Drought!â around them. End Image Description.]
10/10
i mean does anyone disagree?
all the demon slayers getting their necks snapped by her threads was pretty horrific, probably more horrifying than anything else we have seen in the entire series if im gonna be honest
the death scene is probably the most beautiful one in the series
it reveals a water breathing form that we havent seen before thats the 5th form
as far as i know, no other breathing style has this merciful sword stroke so it shows a lot about the original water breather and what they might have been like
but enough about them, really the focus is on tanjirou bc this is like the best example by far of how kind and sympathetic he is to demons
dunno what else to say, its perfect
VS SON SPIDER DEMON
[Image Description: Manga panel of Agatsuma Zenitsu performing Thunder Breathing 1st Form: Sixfold on a spider-like demon. Zenitsu is crashing through the roof of a shed, and a zig-zag path is left behind. There are sound effects all over the panel, saying âBam!â in large font. End Image Description.]
10/10
chose a picture without a huge spider on it bc i would like to not scare myself half to death
anyways extremely amazing fight, showcases zenitsuâs immense talent and skill, adapting the 1st form of thunder breathing to be a more versatile move
theres a moment where his backstory with kuwajima and kaigaku were revealed and his hidden insecurities are out in the open which is super nice and further develops a character weve only considered as comedic relief until now
the anime made the backstory scenes and the killing scene so much cooler
while there is no thematic connection between zenitsu and the demon, it really isnt necessary to keep this fight interesting
anyways another pretty much perfect fight
VS FATHER SPIDER DEMON
[Image Description: Manga panel of Kamado Tanjirou and Inosuke slashing at the Father Spider Demon. The demon has blocked Tanjirouâs sword with his arm, and Inosuke is slamming both his blades down on the demonâs other hand. End Image Description.]
10/10
again, not my most favorite fight but it does everything right
i do have to say it was excellent how gotouge hyped up the father spider demon to be the big bad, only just so the plot twist later takes the readers by surprise
nicely done
VS DAUGHTER SPIDER DEMON
[Image Description: Manga panel of Kochou Shinobu and the Daughter Spider Demon. Shinobuâs back is seen and her haori looks like a butterflyâs wings keeping her afloat as she holds her stinger blade out to the side. The demon looks surprised as blood gushes from her side, arm, shoulder, chest, neck, and forehead. There is floating text on the panel, saying âInsect Breathing - Butterfly Dance - Caprice!â End Image Description.]
10/10
first time weve seen shinobu and her fighting style
what i love most about this is how much it shows her true character, appearing as a carefree and naive individual so she seems underwhelming
then bam, reveals exactly how dangerous and uncaring she is of demons, listing out the specific ways she would torture the daughter spider demon in grotesque detail
her using poison to take demons by surprise is also super clever and brings back the worldbuilding established way earlier about wisteria being poisonous to demons
amazing integration of that concept
anyways this fight really encapsulates who shinobu is as a character and thats why it gets a perfect score
VS RUI
[Image Description: Manga panel of Rui holding his hand out directly towards the viewer. There are two text bubbles around him, saying âGive me your sister. If you hand her over quietly, Iâll spare your life.â End Image Description.]
8/10
not only is it a super scary fight but there is a deeper conflict between rui and tanjirou, what it means to be family
they are opposites in the sense that while tanjirou believes love is what makes a family, ruiâs subconscious desperation for an unbreakable bond drives him to use fear to keep his âfamilyâ together
excellent juxtaposition of their values, and this is only further emphasized when rui expresses out loud what he was going to do to nezuko
i also like the symbolism regarding ruiâs bda, how he uses threads or the âfamilialâ bonds to cut up his fake family with it if they act out of turn or annoy him
super neat detail
alright what i dont like about this fight is nezuko (again)
mostly her unlocking her bda to turn the tide of the battle bc her mom was like âyo, wake up, your brother is going to be killedâ
feels... forced ig
her bda in general is confusing and not consistent
man, i wish i could make a stronger argument for this but i do believe the problem stems from the fact that we dont ever know what nezuko is thinking, and what she thinks of tanjirou specifically
if she even cares for him as a sibling or if shes only going along with what her family is saying to her, things like that which would have been fixed if gotouge actually gave her thoughts some screen time
so the action feels pretty shallow
im also conflicted over tanjirou somehow remembering how dance of the fire god works
on one hand, hes using past information and applying it in the current setting so he doesnt die, which is understandable
but on the other hand, this was a teeny bit random?
i think what could have fixed this is if there was a scene in the beginning of the series where tanjirou was performing it himself, like practicing before he actually had to do it for new years
so that when the rui fight rolls around, it would have felt less like throwing dry spaghetti at a wall
but yeah
overall super good fight, giyuu ending up having to kill rui instead of tanjirou was super good in that tanjirou didnt become a pillar this early in the series and to show how strong giyuu is
there are some odd bits regarding the ultimate âbeheadingâ of rui using nezuko and tanjirous supposed bonds but it doesnt kill the fight entirely so it deserves its pretty high score
***under read more is manga-only fights so beware***
VS ENMU
[Image Description: Manga panel of Enmu holding his hand out directly at the viewer, with a mouth on the back of it. There is floating text to the top right of Enmu that says âWhispers of Forced Unconscious Hypnosis!â End Image Description.]
9/10
id say this fight is definitely overshadowed by the dream stuff prior to this but its pretty good in its own right
enmu fusing with the train was kinda confusing, like when was it established that demons could fuse with objects?
this worldbuilding element doesnt even appear again so yeah thats why it loses a point
how the kmbk gang end up defeating enmu is pretty sweet though, tanjirou using dance of the fire god to sever the neck bone was really nice and shows that him using the breathing style in the rui fight wasnt a one time thing
while kyojuroâs role was smaller in this part, the next part makes up for it so i cant complain
anyways ye, almost perfect score but its pretty good
VS AKAZA (MUGEN TRAIN)
[Image Description: Manga panel of Akaza holding his hand out to the viewerâs left. There is a text bubble saying âWhy donât you become a demon?â End Image Description.]
10/10
this encounter is literally amazing okay?
after the crew kills the big bad, it seems like everything is fine
but plot twist, upper moon 3 appears out of nowhere
this is the first time the reader has seen an upper moon, let alone the 3rd/4th strongest demon in existence and the way gotouge handled this twist is fucking amazing
kyojuroâs death scene really shows just how human even the strongest pillars are against demons with incredible power
its just
amazing
VS OBI DEMON
[Image Description: Manga panels of the obi-like demon. The first image shows the obi hung in the air and strung over each other like decorations, with women-shaped patterns in its folds. The second image is Hashibira Inosuke fighting the Obi demon which now has lips and eyes. There is floating text in that panel saying âBreath of the Beast: Sixth Fang - Jagged Gnaw!!â End Image Description.]
10/10
on to red light district
this fight is admittedly super forgettable and not very interesting at least compared to the main fight with daki and gyutaro
but it wraps up the sub plot of the women and uzuiâs wives going missing so it gets a perfect score for not messing that up
oh and it establishes the stretchy neck thing daki has going on which is very good
VS DAKI AND GYUTARO
[Image Description: Manga panel of Daki and Gyutaro. Daki is sitting on Gyutaroâs shoulders. There is a text bubble on the top right that says âThe two of us are one, after all.â as well as floating text that reads âThe power of the irregular siblings...!? Next issue lead color and the fight reaches its climax!!â End Image Description.]
8/10
love how this battle challenges tanjirouâs sympathy and kindness towards demons, just simply bc daki and gyutaro are horrible people
(too bad nothing came of this, which ill explain in the hantengu portion)
daki and gyutaro are very good villains and kept this fight super interesting from start to finish
uzui acting as a foil to gyutaro is nicely integrated and properly shown with how jealous gyutaro gets over seeing uzuiâs perfect form and stature
tanjirou not only mixes forms but mixes breathing styles as well, which is so fucking awesome
(too bad it was only used like once throughout the entire series, its quite unfortunate)
the super high tension right after inosuke gets stabbed and tanjirou wakes up was expertly portrayed and handled, it felt like the kmbk gang and uzui were actually going to lose
super awesome
the tanjirou and gyutaro parallels are expertly portrayed, with how gyutaro taunts tanjirou over failing to protect his little sister, and the more visual thing where tanjirou imagined his own neck underneath his blade, that was super duper nice
the ending is extremely tense and emotionally gripping, gotouge did a really good job with that artistically too
the demon mark acquisition scene was surprisingly not frustrating, considering that it wasnt really explained prior to the battle
i do think it has to do with how it was explained later just exactly how they worked so its not just some random thing gotouge pulled out of their ass
so pretty good
/
what i dont like is nezuko and her full power demon form
first of all where the fuck did that come from? she just got angry and suddenly shes as powerful as an upper moon
like
how?
that doesnt make sense???
her extremely quick regeneration makes no sense
her ability to manipulate her bloodâs properties makes no sense
and it doesnt even appear again so what was the point of that existing
none of this is even explained later which annoys me
that one part where tanjirou sings a lullaby to her to calm her down was alright ig but nezuko in this fight makes me extremely irritated and frustrated
just ugh
VS HANTENGU
[Image Description: Manga panel of Hantengu opening a shoji door. He is crawling inside, his hand in a gnarled, unnatural position. There is a text bubble saying âEeeeeeek.â End Image Description.]
1/10
swordsmith village
this fight can go fuck itself /j
no but seriously it has so many problems that it would be shorter to name its redeeming qualities (which ill do later)
first off, the nezuko full power form thing again
i hate it so much with a passion
again, where did her ability to regenerate instantly even come from???? this is never explained, ever
and why did she cut herself on tanjirouâs sword anyway
did she somehow know that it was going to turn red if she burned it?
gotouge what the fuck, there is literally no reason why nezuko would do that and we cant even read her mind to see her thought process
gotouge hates nezuko, i swear
/
remember when i said uzui is meant to be a foil to gyutaro in the rld fight? its pretty obvious that those two are opposites, it was nicely done
... what the hell does mitsuriâs insecurities about strength have to do with whatever the fuck hantengu has going on (which is basically nothing)?
so no meaningful connection between mitsuri and hantengu
theres no meaningful connection between tanjirou and hantengu other than tanjirou getting pissed off for like the second time
also tanjirouâs thing with being kind and sympathetic to demons was entirely dropped at this point
but instead of it leading up to a corruption arc of some sorts, it just doesnt
like honestly if something actually came of that anger he exhibited in this arc and from red light district from this point forward story-wise, i would have counted this as an amazing writing decision
but it literally doesnt so who cares
(god, i really start to hate what happened to his character after this )
and genyaâs revealed motivation also doesnt fit at all with hantenguâs thing, heâs not a foil, not a parallel, nothing, there is nothing
/
tanjirou being the catharsis for development for mitsuri and muichirou, who he has only talked to like twice
theres definitely a better way to handle those twoâs developments without his help
like gotouge, you have a big cast of characters, use them lol
/
i want to kick hantengu in the face for being boring as fuck (at least his clones have cool looking weapons)
doesnt even have a proper backstory, just a single spread of him being blamed for shit as a human
like... thats it? this is upper moon 4 what the hell
/
theres no clever form mixing here at all (regarding tanjirou) which probably would have helped with foreshadowing the 13th form for dance of the fire god/sun breathing better
also gotouge established that as tanjirouâs thing and now he doesnt do that stuff anymore which sucks
/
oh hey remember when tanjirou actually learned how to do zenitsuâs speed boost thing?
if you didnt, i dont blame you bc it literally doesnt appear again, ever
you could argue that he adapted it into his âwaltz flashâ technique or whatever the fuck that is but the way it was integrated into this fight was like throwing dry spaghetti at a wall
which is just a shame bc its meant to be representative of how tanjirou and zenitsu are good pals but the way it was utilized is forgettable as hell
/
i absolutely loathe the crimson blade concept as a whole and im mentioning this now bc its going to come into play why future instances where this goddamn thing comes up again causes points to be lost
its inconsistent as fuck ill tell you that
/
at least some yoriichi stuff appeared here and not shoved into the final battle with everything else
so the yoriichi stuff later didnt come out of absolute nowhere
genya and mitsuriâs unique fighting styles expand the kny worldbuilding just a little more which is always nice
tanjirou got a cool sword out of this which would have been cooler if him and yoriichi had a deeper connection that was actually explored
but we didnt get shit so whatever
other people getting demon marks being revealed here is also okay so that again, the final battle isnt filled with absolutely everyone getting their marks at once
demon marks have their own slew of problems but its not as bad as the fucking crimson sword shit
god i hate the crimson sword shit
...
dude this section needs a tldr, even i cant sit and read through my shit
TL;DR - this fight sucks and crimson swords are bullshit (more on this later)
VS GYOKKO
[Image Description: Manga panel of Tokitou Muichirou and Gyokko. Muichirou is looking to the left while Gyokko is looking to the right, both with their backs to each other. There are mist clouds billowing in the foreground and background, as well as a slash mark going across Gyokkoâs neck. End Image Description.]
7/10
this fight suffers from the same lack of cohesive themes through characters like the hantengu battle bc the antagonist is given nothing
but its better
we havent actually seen mui fight before so theres no consistencies that the reader has to keep track of for now
and there arent like 10 characters in the fight so this fight gets a lot of points just for being a lot more coherent
i do like that this fight shows just how good mui is that he can defeat an upper moon by himself
muiâs backstory is neat
gyokkoâs bda is very interesting too
... thats pretty much it lol
ye, anyways not the best fight but not the worst fight either
VS KAIGAKU
[Image Description: Manga panel of Kaigaku holding the hilt of his blade with one hand. There is two text bubbles around him, saying â...As usual, youâre still shabby. Itâs been a while, Zenitsu.â End Image Description.]
9/10
alright on to final battle arc
theres some good fights and then some really sucky ones, but this one was pretty incredible and very emotionally charged
theres a clear reason why zenitsu and kaigaku are battling each other (kai betrayed the corps and inadvertantly caused the only parental figure in zenitsuâs life to die, and zenitsu is rightfully pissed off about that)
the visual yin-yang symbolism is awesome too
zenitsu winning due to using the 7th form he created himself (which i have reason to believe was inspired by tanjirou) was the perfect ending to the fight, really couldnt ask for anything better and is a perfect example of how much of an effect tanjirou has had on zenitsu
the 7th form is what tanjirouâs waltz flash should have been lol
/
what keeps this fight from being absolutely perfect is lack of development prior to this conflict
(since the final battle arc is basically a culmination of all the hinted developments through the series, im going to actually factor in how much and how well these conflicts were foreshadowed)
anyways if we had actually seen zenitsu, kaigaku, and kuwajima actually interacting with each other and showing how they were essentially a family (not just through flashbacks), it would have made zenitsu placing the responsibility of killing kai onto himself a lot more tragic
but like, apart from brief flashbacks where zenitsu actually met kaigaku off screen and that one thing all the way back in natagumo where both kuwajima and kai were introduced, thats pretty much it in terms of thunder family development
so yeah its underdeveloped for sure
also one random thought, i personally think zenitsu should have gotten his demon mark in this fight, it would have been cool to see
VS AKAZA (INFINITY FORTRESS)
[Image Description: Manga panel of Akazaâs face. There are two text bubbles around him, saying âOkay, letâs get started. Itâs time for the feast.â There is also floating text saying âThe inspection of the strong has begun...â as well as a simple box on the lower left, denoting its the end of chapter 147. End Image Description.]
6/10
oh god please dont hate me for this
ill list the good things first how about that
this conflict was foreshadowed perfectly in mugen train, you bet the readers were expecting a tanjirou vs akaza battle after the death of kyojuro and gotouge delivered
akazaâs power is shown extremely well with how many close calls tanjirou and giyuu had while fighting him
akaza eventually giving up on his own volition was really nice and fit into the context of the battle very very well, like sure tanjirou and giyuu wouldnt understand why he gave up but us readers do know
akaza is a really good character and a good villain
/
now notice how im only mentioning akaza and not giyuu or tanjirou in the good aspects
bc those two are eh
no form mixing at all from either tanjirou and giyuu
i know i said form mixing was kind of tanjirouâs thing but youâd think giyuu would have gotten more creative with his moves once akaza said that he was getting predictable
(well he said he âran out of water breathing formsâ but same thing)
so its kinda bland lol
speaking of giyuu, his whole thing with his insecurities of being weak wasnt handled well (it was sort of immediately brushed off in pillar training, and its unclear what part of his character arc he was in)
like sure him announcing that heâs going to protect tanjirou is cool but it feels like he was haphazardly dropped into the tanjirou and akaza conflict
isnt he supposed to be both their foils? that wasnt really explored that well in this fight and theres no deep meaning behind him even being here just analyzing what he did in it
he could have been handled better or even given more focus is what im saying
the anatta state came out of nowhere, im sorry okay? just bc inosuke like barely hinted at not being able to sense grandma hisa bc she had no fighting spirit and tanjurou magically taught his son how to achieve this state doesnt mean it was properly integrated into the fight
if the anatta state was actually explored prior to this battle, i would have given it a pass but it just feels like a cheap and poorly developed trick to get around akazaâs technique development (which is overpowered as fuck might i add)
gotouge should have just given akaza a plausible weakness to his technique development instead, especially since they dont use or even mention the anatta state after this
the transparent world shit makes no sense but ill elaborate on that in the koku battle analysis
oh and this thing doesnt affect the score but why wasnt there a âyoriichi visage overlappingâ moment when tanjirou was fighting akaza? hes an upper moon, he should have gotten those visions but he didnt
for some reason
anyways this battle was alright and has good set up but the middle and end parts didnt hold up as well bc random concepts were thrown at us without prior explanation or development
VS DOUMA
[Image Description: Manga panel of Douma licking Shinobuâs butterfly pin. There are two text bubbles around him saying âAnyway, tonight is a good night. Such fine feasts keep showing up one after another.â End Image Description.]
9/10
damn, such an amazing fight
the build up to this was properly foreshadowed
shinobu finally showing her true anger after hiding it for so long is amazing
douma is a super interesting character and fantastic villain
shinobu showing off her true power and determination against douma was sooooo nice
shinobuâs poisonous body plan is so clever and so interesting
if i was to rate the shinobu part of the fight alone, it would have gotten a 10/10 no question
the reason why its knocked down a point is because of the kanao and inosuke part
dont get me wrong, the way kanao is able to hold her own against douma by herself is pretty cool, how shes meant to parallel douma with their similar struggles surrounding human emotions and demonstrate how she has grown as a person, how she regains the ability to cry
that shit is cool, inosuke also getting in touch with his emotions after learning what happened to his mom was super neat as well
however
bc this battle takes place in the final arc with everything else, there wasnt proper build up regarding many things, the kotoha reveal especially
so inosuke feels kinda forced into the kanao shinobu and douma conflict, similar to how giyuu felt forced into the tanjirou and akaza conflict
its quite unfortunate bc if the kotoha stuff was actually explored prior to the confrontation, this âforcedâ feeling would have disappeared
i know some people have suggested that the douma fight should have just been its own arc, and i very much agree, it would have certainly helped fix this problem regarding inosuke and kotoha
last random thought, i wish shinobu, kanao, and inosuke got their demon marks
VS KOKUSHIBOU
[Image Description: Manga panel of Kokushibou looking directly at the viewer, holding the hilt of his blade as if heâs going to pull it out. There are text boxes around him saying âThis... is Upper Moon One... Heâs so different compared to the other Upper Moons. He looks so dignified and majestic.â The text boxes are narrated by Tokitou Muichirou. End Image Description.]
5/10
this fight is... mediocre
at least theres a more tangible connection between muichirou and kokushibou
even though that was handled kinda poorly
tbh there really was no point to revealing that mui is kokuâs descendant like at all, it just had no significant bearing to the plot of the fight
sanemiâs backstory being here is... okay ig?
idk the whole shinazugawa conflict has fundamental problems that i just cant think of any other place to put it without changing the entirety of canon
the marechi blood concept coming back was nice though
genya is there
him getting his bda was cool and helped turn the tide of the battle in a satisfying way (before kicking the bucket but thats not the focus here)
gyomei is a hollow husk of a character who barely got anything at all
but his fighting style is extremely cool and conveys his immense power very well
oh and him and sanemi are amazing at working together, like better than giyuu and tanjirou, and better than kanao and inosuke
theyre that good yet pretty much nobody acknowledges it which is sad
koku himself is pretty interesting and pretty tragic, very nice villain
but everyone together?
gonna be honest but this is such a random collection of characters, there was basically no foreshadowing that these four were going to go up again kokushibou, they are not that connected very well
i know there was this one post that focused on the theme of family that was common in all 5 characters in the fight but its just not enough
it would have been more cohesive if gotouge emphasized gyomei, mui, sanemi, and genya being like different aspects of yoriichi coming together to kill kokushibou hundreds of years after yoriichi failed to kill him
lmao its not like the 4 of them defeated koku with the power of family or friendship, they just smacked him over and over with a flail, shot him with magical bullets, and stabbed a crimson sword into his abdomen
wouldnt have been too hard to switch over to kokuâs pov and go âdamn these bitches are like my stupid brotherâ
...
speaking of crimson swords
i fucking hate the crimson sword concept oh my god can i complain about it now? im gonna complain about it now
unlike demon marks, the crimson blades werent even given any proper conditions, you just hold the stupid thing hard enough and it somehow imbues it with magical properties with no logic behind those properties
what part of crimson swords completely destroys a demonâs body in an instant? even muzan didnt go through that process when he was almost killed by yoriichi so where in the goddamn fuck did it come from
it could be explained bc the sword was left in the same spot for a long time but this tactic doesnt even appear again in a meaningful way (didnt kill muzan when tanjirou and giyuu held the sword together) so what the fuck was the point of having this even exist
its so underdeveloped and confusing and i hate it
the transparent world stuff is also confusing as shit and its pretty much never explained how they work aside from the vague âclose your mindâ advice, like why did it exist, it did nothing to help the present day demon slayers
its just so... poorly integrated
yeah anyways this is around the same rating as the akaza fight but a little worse bc there wasnt that strong set up beforehand
VS KOKUSHIBOU (SENGOKU ERA)
[Image Description: Manga panel of a bag getting ripped open, pieces of a wooden flute tumbling out. End Image Description.]
10/10
easily 10/10
this fight shows the tragedy of kokushibou giving in to his envy and hatred, when yoriichi cries over seeing his own family commit terrible attrocities against the people he wanted to protect
and yoriichi dies, now carrying the fact that he couldnt even save his own brother from the influence of muzan on his conscious forever
what a sad ending for yoriichi
and after koku angrily slashes apart yoriichiâs corpse, having him find and keep the flute he gave to him when they were kids to the present day gives him a small shred of humanity in the midst of his monstrous anger
VS NAKIME
[Image Description: Manga panels of Nakime. The first one shows a low quality version of her playing her biwa. The second one is a close up of her eye. There are spiky text bubbles saying âItâs Upper Rank... 4!â End Image Description.]
0/10
no nakime backstory
not even a goddamn fight
forgettable
useless
VS MUZAN
[Image Description: Manga panel of Kibutsuji Muzan in his white-haired, mouth-covered form. There are text bubbles around him saying âNot a single one was of use to me. I will crush the demon hunters tonight. Iâll massacre them all right now.â End Image Description.]
1/10
._.
i have many complaints but ill try my best to not make this another hantengu rant section lol
first off, obanai deserved better
im serious, this poor dude was forgotten until pretty much the end when we finally get a backstory out of him
and then he died
what a waste of a potentially amazing character
mitsuri getting taken out early was ehhh
pretty sure someone else made a post about her supposedly being extremely strong but she was nerfed in this battle which i agree with
literally none of the pillars work together very well, like remember how i praised sanemi and gyomei for being super coordinated? lmao that doesnt exist anymore
you could say this is caused by desperation though and you wouldnt be wrong, its just boring to sit through
that causes issues bc this now basically requires the crimson sword and transparent world concepts to be there to spice things up
but in this fight, they do nothing in the long run (except for tanjirou using the crimson sword at the very very end)
youve already heard me talk about why those two things are super shittily integrated and i cant be bothered repeating myself so moving on
kanao, inosuke, and zenitsu
they... exist? they didnt do much tbh, which i guess is the point but like, now its boring again
nezuko could have been used as a potential way to raise the stakes and make things interesting again (like âah shit, muzan might actually be unkillable if he gets nezuko but its okay bc shes not here- oh fuck shes here this is not goodâ)
but nothing came of her running off except confirmation that she became human again so whatever
uzui and shinjuro are useless, why werent they at the fight?
like they could have followed nezuko and contributed to the battle even a little but they just didnt and now theres literally no point to them appearing in this arc at all
wasted potential
tanjirou
i wish him going absolutely apeshit had actual substance behind it, like it being a part of his character arc or something
i remember having this one theory that he had a corruption arc (due to dropping his kindness thing towards demons) and i wanted this to be true so badly
but it doesnt exist
not with how the series ended
god
the only thing that saves this fight from being complete trash is tamayoâs poison thing being amazingly executed
and the part where everyone got blasted away, losing limbs and shit, that made things a little more interesting again
but thats it
VS MUZAN (SENGOKU ERA)
[Image Description: Manga panels of Kibutsuji Muzan, Tamayo, and Tsugikuni Yoriichi. The first one has Muzan and Tamayo, while the second one has Yoriichi pulling out his sword. There are text boxes saying âAnd the moment I met him, I understood that I was born into this world to defeat this man.â End Image Description.]
9/10
finally something good again
while short, thatâs just the nature of all of yoriichiâs battles with demons
anyways pretty nice, theres a clear reason why this battle exists (shows the scenario that made the original breather get super close to defeating muzan in detail)
adding tamayo here was a nice touch
my only complaint is that it seemed extremely coincidental that yoriichi somehow developed a breathing style specifically countering muzanâs multiple organs without even knowing prior that he had all those brains and hearts floating around freely in his body
like thats kind of ridiculous, even for yoriichi whos supposed to be âblessed by the godsâ
could just be me though
VS TANJIROU
[Image Description: Manga panels of Kamado Tanjirou in his demon form. The first image has his eyes closed. The second image has his eyes opened and the tumor on his face almost completely faded. There are text boxes around him saying âYou will destroy the demon hunters in my stead.â End Image Description.]
1/10
hoo boy
ok first off, demon tanjirou lasted for 2 chapters
thats it
2 chapters
so thats already a problem
i am aware its meant to parallel the beginning of the series but also its ridiculous how completely vague and rushed this entire thing was
nezuko doesnt do shit through not just this battle but this entire arc which i already explained so not gonna go into it further
kanao magically having a demon cure on her made very little sense
the scene where tanjirou leaves muzan in purgatory is pretty but if you look at it in the context of everything else, its ambiguous and confusing
(if someone could explain it and see how it connects to the original theme of âdemons just being victims of circumstance,â i would love to hear it)
/
actually you know what makes me so mad about this âfightâ as a whole? there was so much potential to do more with this concept
and im not talking about him escaping and nezuko becoming a demon slayer roleswap au (even though its a pretty cool concept)
him becoming a demon could have been a metaphor for his lost kindness and sympathy towards demons halfway through the series
it could have been a punishment for letting his anger towards muzan cloud his judgement
it could have symbolized literally anything about him losing his humanity as he got stronger
but those three things are just scenarios from my head, they dont exist in this series just based off of what weve seen from these two chapters
its disappointing
the only thing keeping this from getting a 0 is the one part where inosuke couldnt chop off tanjirouâs head bc he cared about him too much
that at least shows inosuke had grown as a character
everything else is just meaningless and convoluted garbage and âconvolutedâ is not what you should be aiming for if this is supposed to be the ending of your series
IN SUMMARY
early kny is very good, later kny is questionable and the ending is just a mess of wasted potential and disappointment
i get why gotouge had to have the transparent world ability, crimson blade ability, and the demon marks appear before they all appeared on yoriichi but theyre all just so underdeveloped and terribly handled in the battles they are used, it makes me want to kick a wall
like lmao, i could literally think of so many ways they could have been properly integrated, hell, im even writing a whole goddamn rewrite using my ideas for these three things (link to that is in my pinned)
just, god
if you want to debate over these ratings, my ask box is open ig? idk
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December Fic Rec
With this month being busier than most I didnât get to read as many new fics as I wouldâve liked, but that just means more for next month! (I also found that Iâd misplaced my writing mojo and so I re-read quite a lot of my own stories to try and find it again - oops - if anyone has seen it, let me know!)
In this instalment, there are fics from @kingsofeverything @soldouthaz @rbbsbb @phd-mama @becomeawendybird @ham-palpert @sadaveniren and @tommosgun.
Thank you to all the writers for sharing their wonderful talent with us. Please donât forget to leave kudos and a comment if you enjoy their work. đ
New Reads
đ The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea | @kingsofeverything | E | 110k | Dec 2020 | older harry/louis, surfers, sexuality crisis, married louis, louis cheats (not on harry), lifeguards, surfing, first times, happy ending, smut | HOLY SHIT! This fic... goddamnit. I watched as each new chapter of this WIP was posted with sweaty palms because I know myself well enough to understand that I needed to wait until it was complete. When it was finally done, I set aside a whole day, and then very nearly inhaled this absolutely phenomenal work of art. I just wanted to crawl inside this fic and could have easily read another 100k, although itâs beyond perfect just as it is. The fic is so well written and the emotions and struggles these characters face are so raw and so real that it really resonated with me. I truly canât recommend this story highly enough. Â
đ Smoke Between Your Teeth | @soldouthaz | E | 37k | Dec 2020 | uni au, roommates, best friends to lovers, smoking, minor allusions to addiction, lots of oral sex, smut | I absolutely adored this fic. Funny and heartwarming and sweet and all the good things that always come with everything this author puts out there. There are some phenomenal lines in this fic; âFilling in each otherâs blanksâ was one that really hit home, but there are far too many to mention here. The story is inventive and unexpected and brilliantly written as is par for the course with this amazing writer.
đ Just Fuck | @rbbsbb | E | 6k | Oct 2019 | a/b/o, alpha harry, omega louis, drunk sex, friends with benefits, scenting, knotting, pwp, smut | I mean... the title kind of says it all really. Super hot, really well written.
đ What A Difference A Day Makes | @phd-mama | M | 4k | Dec 2020 | collage au, frat boy harry, enemies to lovers, smut | Fantastic banter, super hot, brilliant turns of phrase. Loved every word of this delectable delight.
đ Leave Me Out | @becomeawendybird | E | 4k | Dec 2020 | pwp, established relationship, post-canon, exhibitionism, light dom/sub, service kink, FIFA, smut (check tags) | Scorching hot, great writing style. Loved the way the other boys were involved in the whole process - really unique.Â
Re-Reads
đ Where You Lay | @ham-palpert | E | 86k | Feb 2018 | a/b/o, alpha harry, omega louis, friends with benefits, scenting, knotting, heat, pining, jealousy, miscommunication, smut | I hadnât read this fic for a while and honestly, what the hell was I doing? Itâs so fucking good. The writing is exemplary, every word on the page furthers the story and adds to the complex tapestry this writer weaves. The smut is some of the hottest a/b/o Iâve read and let me tell you, Iâve read a LOT of a/b/o fics. I definitely wonât waiting as long between reads again.
đ Tastes Like Strawberries | @sadavenirenâ | E | 5k | June 2020 | a/b/o, alpha harry, omega louis, nesting, heat, sharing a bed, smut | I was scrolling through a fic list and saw this fic. Remembering how much Iâd liked it, I cracked it open for another read and I was not disappointed, although I never am with this amazing author! Great premise, perfectly executed. Funny, hot, sweet, hot, cute. Did I mention hot?Â
đ Soul Wiped Clean | @tommosgun | M | 91k | Aug 2015 | friends to lovers, ex-con louis, journalist harry, fears, anxieties, first time, jealousy, smut | Yes. Again. Because Iâm a fucking fool for this fic, okay? There are just some moods I get in where I want comfort and this fic does it for me every, single, time. I love the way the story unfolds, the characters, the setting, the love and fluff and humour and vulnerability and strength, just all of it. Sighs.  Â
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Again, been reading a lot recently, and here's some recent reads and my thoughts. (All very spoiler-free)
Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard
I'd heard about this series for a while, but had always kept putting off reading it, and finally I was in the mood for some comedic (yet dark) shenanigans--and a villain protagonist as charming as Johannes Cabal really hit me just right. I really enjoyed the first of this series and the introduction to this 1920's-ish universe similar-yet-different to our own that Howard's created. His writing is crisp and clever--and Johannes is a villain protagonist worth cheering for. He's duplicitous, arrogant, and cold, yet sharp-witted and competent enough to be engaging, and even though he's amoral (driven predominately with an "ends do justify the means" mentality) there are glimmers of a conscious buried in there.
The basic gist of the first book is that Johannes Cabal is a necromancer dead-set (ba-dum-sh) on thwarting the biggest plague affecting mankind: Death. As such, he's willing to go to extreme lengths to hone and perfect his necromantic abilities. In the pursuit of this knowledge, Cabal sold his soul to Satan, but he comes to realize he actually needs his soul for his necromancy to work more properly (apparently without a soul it gets very unpredictable). In order to win his soul back, he strikes a wager with Satan: he will accumulate 100 souls for Satan in return for his own. Satan, ever the fair player (not), gifts Cabal with an infernal carnival to help Cabal reach his goal within the year. Shenanigans ensue.
While I read some books in-between this one and the next in the series, I'll write about the other here--
Johannes Cabal: The Detective by Jonathan L. Howard
So clearly I enjoyed the first installment enough to keep going, and I am glad, because I enjoyed the second one even more than the first. It feels like Howard got more comfortable with the characters and world than before, and in this one he expands his universe with some made-up countries that are similar-to-yet-different than countries on our Earth. In this one, Cabal does less fantastic tricks, as he dons the role of investigator (there's been a murder--on an airship!), but the plot was very fun. I will say this is one of the first books in a long while to genuinely make my world-weary ass laugh out loud in public. Howard truly does know how to turn a phrase and comes off with some great witticisms.
Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Tchaikovsky has been on my radar for a while because I have had Children of Time on my reading list for what feels like an age (and I still haven't gotten around to reading it, but I will soon). To prime myself, I looked up other works by Tchaikovsky. This was around the time I was look for good "stand-alone" Adult Fantasy novels as well, so the two linked up and I had this on my TBR for a while and got around to finally cracking it open.
I really loved this book. If I could describe it in any way, it would be sort of like Pride & Prejudice if Elizabeth Bennet got drafted into a war. Seriously. That's how it reads--and Tchaikovsky made the allusions to Austen's work very clear. The setting is very English-inspired, and the time period mimics Napoleonic times. Definitely the first "Flintlock Fantasy" I've had the pleasure of reading.
The themes of the book are about the caustic nature of nationalism, the blurring of truth during war, and what is true patriotism in the face of falsehood and horror. Definitely my kind of questions--and I love watching characters thrown into completely unfamiliar environments. A genteel woman (Emily Marshwic) being tossed headfirst into grisly, mosquito-infested swamps armed with a musket? It's a fascinating journey she undergoes.
Plus the novel featured a romantic subplot that hits my enemies-to-lovers buttons hard. (It's not at all like one of those tired YA enemies-to-lovers stories, but something more grown-up and messy, which I approve of, because I love drama.) But this is more of a personal note. It's definitely not going to be for everyone.
Retribution Falls (Tales of the Ketty Jay #1) by Chris Wooding
After Johannes Cabal, I got into the mood for some steampunk, and I hadn't actually read much in the way of steampunk, so I looked up some recs and the Tales of the Ketty Jay series seemed to appear on a lot of lists for this kinda thing. The basic gist of this one is... imagine steampunk Firefly. That kinda gives you the whole vibe and feel. It's about a crew of disparate and colorful characters all running from something who meet on the ship the Ketty Jay and have to learn to work together to survive.
Overall, it was a fast-paced read (I read this 400 page sucker in a single day--while doing other stuff) and Wooding knows how to write action and interesting character interactions. The world had some glimmers of brilliance (the wizard analogs in their world--daemonist--were the most intriguing part), but otherwise it was very typical steampunk. I had no real quibbles with any of that (aside from the fact some of it read as very cliche and Wooding's inspirations seemed a little obvious--Fullmetal Alchemist and Firefly being the two big ones that kept hammering me over the head), but my main complaint was with the writing and treatment of female characters. First, there is only one main female character in the Ketty Jay's crew--Jez. I had no real issues with Jez's character or writing (in fact she's refreshing in some ways), but she's completely isolated from any other female characters (and is also the only crew member who isn't really allowed to be a complete screw up--she's somewhat sanitized, which, I guess the heroic women characters aren't allowed to be fuck ups like the men?). Second, the other predominate female characters, of whom there are only three, are mute/dehumanized (Bess), characterized as stupid and unhinged (Amalicia), and have rape-as-a-backstory-written-TERRIBLY (Trinica). All that said, as much as it was cringe, this was written in 2009, and I am sure Wooding has had some growth as a writer since then.
I liked this one enough to decide to check out the next in the series (even knowing the writing for the female characters leaves much to be desired).
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
A Fantasy taking place in an Americas-inspired world? Absolutely refreshing (and more please). The main gist of this one is that a cult sets out to resurrect a dead god (seriously that's the main plot crux) while political machinations are going on in the central city of this country where the resurrection is going to take place. As the novel progresses, it's like a countdown clock to game time. There's four POV characters we follow: Xiala (a Teek sea captain who is kind of an outcast from her native people and has a love for beautiful people), Serapio (the man who has been groomed since birth to be the vessel for the resurrected god, part of this process has included blinding him), Naranpa (the Sun Priest of the capital city who is trying to garner back control the priesthood has lost), and Okoa (who really doesn't even appear until way later into the book; he's been separated from his family to train to be a warrior). For the most part, I was primarily engaged (re: 90% engaged) with Xiala and Serapio's story. They were the most interesting characters, and the journey of them on the sea trying to get to the city before the ceremony was exciting and emotional. The political dealings in Naranpa's segments kind of bogged down the action--and I didn't feel anything for that. Overall though, definitely a thrilling read with a beautifully constructed world. If I had one big criticism, it's that it ended incredibly abruptly without any resolution. I knew going in this was a part of a greater whole, but I still felt the ends could've been knotted a little tighter. I'm left dangling! But I'll be sure to pick up the next one (if anything just to find out what happens to Xiala and Serapio).
Vicious by V.E. Schwab
As an unapologetic villainfucker, I had to read this one, right? It's about not just one, but two villains! How could I lose? And they're in an intense rivalry? Revenge? Betrayal? Superpowers? Gah! Be still my heart!
I'll say I enjoyed this book (fun characters, solid writing), but I didn't love it as much as I thought I would (I wish I could love yooouuuu!). Definitely worth a recommendation to anyone who loves villains and fast-paced narratives, but... there were a few things that tarnished what could've been sparkling. The biggest for me was the jumping around in the first half. For a length of time, the novel leaps between three different points of time, sometimes 2-3 pages at a time, and it was jarring (not confusing, mind you, but it was a jolt each time). I get it was done to create an air of mystique and intrigue, but it felt like I was getting dragged around by the ear. Along with this, the plot just seemed... very convenient? As various moments kept happening, it all felt too tidy and paint-by-numbers. The characters were certainly messy and fun (and I love messy and fun), but the action itself seemed to glide on well-oiled rails with no hiccups. This did lead to the magnetic pacing of the book (which I also read in a day), but it didn't do the drama any favors. Never once did it feel like the characters were caught with their pants down--and I think that's part of the point, but it kind of dampened the tension.
I liked it enough I am definitely going to check out the sequel Vengeful though. If anything I am reading for Sydney, Mitch, and Victor. I gotta know what happens to them!
--
Right now I am reading some fluffy fluff to cleanse my palette because I've been reading so much moodiness. I'm mid-way through the light and breezy Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater (and it's super cute so far) and then I am finally going to crack open Andy Weir's The Martian (because I have put off reading it for far too long).
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Luca Marinelli: "Without growing you get lost"
When director Pietro Marcello asked him to play Martin Eden in his film in competition at Venice, Luca Marinelli was moved. "Many things have changed in recent years, maybe me as well"
From written words to moving images: «When you make a film based on a book, the book, at a certain point, tends to overlap. You no longer know what the novel is and what the screenplay is. Today I remember the end of Jack London's Martin Eden: that poignant conclusion, with him in the cabin reading that poem and deciding about his life».
Luca Marinelli, star of Pietro Marcello's Martin Eden, in competition at the next Venice International Film Festival and in theatre from September 4th with 01 Distribution, brings together memories and emotions, and gives them a precise order: everything starts from there, from the novel by the American writer.
"What was the soul of the book, which in my opinion is above any kind of discourse, political, social and idealistic; that soul, I said, was respected. Because itâs embodied in the character of Martin Eden. And then when you translate a book into a film it happens that some things take another form: it's normal in an adaptation." In the case of this film, says Marinelli, it all started from Marcello's point of view, from his vision: "Which perhaps is not like what someone else can have or like mine, because itâs a vision that belongs to the director: itâs the vision of the artist Pietro Marcello. The first scripts were certainly different, they were longer, denser, full of references to the book. The very first, if I'm not mistaken, was nearly 300 pages long. And this is because we were dealing with a masterpiece, and we didn't want to leave out anything».
Could this film be different?
âNo, this film is how it was supposed to be. But with a book like this you can do anything: a 12-hours play, a film, a short film. Martin Eden is one of the best books ever written. Cinema imposes different times and measures from written narration; the balance that Pietro and Maurizio Braucci, co-screenwriter, found and the work they did were excellent, in my opinion".
Let's start with when they proposed you the role of Martin Eden.
âI remember my tears as I was watching âBella e perdutaâ; I remember my emotion, and I also remember that immediately after I finished watching it I told myself that it would be nice to work with this director. It was 2015. Three years later they call me, and they tell me that Pietro Marcello wanted to meet me. Imagine my happiness. Knowing, then, that this film would be born from Jack London's book moved me even more».
What convinced you to accept?
«Martin Eden is a human being of great sensitivity, great curiosity and great empathy; he has an enormous desire to discover, to see, to touch with his hand. However, he suffers countless disappointments. He climbs a mountain only to learn, once he reaches the top, that a sad camp resides there, and that the best thing was never to get there, to the goal, but perhaps the very start. The journey".
And was it difficult to make this journey?
âIt's a question that I have asked myself too, and the answer I have given myself is both yes and no. No, because being next to Pietro, Maurizio, colleagues and all the people who collaborated on the film, I found the right push and the right support to get into the character. But the difficulties, of course, are always there. What I really wanted to understand was Martin Eden. I abandoned myself to the first sensation I had while reading the book and the screenplay».
What was that feeling?
"A gigantic emotion. This character speaks directly to each of us because everyone shares something with him. Each of us wants to do, to exist. To reach a goal. Only then we come up against obstacles that make us lose hope - in part or in whole».
But when did the spark go off?
âI've always been passionate about writers like London or Stevenson. Adventurers, capable of creating worlds, of giving life to characters with their eyes open to the society around them. Entering a life like that, a life where the sea is so present, a life made of traveling, of seeing, made of pure passion, intrigued me a lot. And then there was Naples".
Compared to Jack London's book, Pietro Marcello's film is a rewrite set in the Neapolitan capital.
âI had never lived all this time in Naples; and I had never known it so much. I have not yet been able to fully understand it; not completely. Naples is a place apart. I have come to love it. Naples is a whole people. Something fantastic. Itâs a place with a huge identity. A very strong identity. Think of the language: itâs not a dialect, itâs a language. And then you meet people who make you realize how beautiful it is to be Neapolitan: how welcoming it is, how fascinating it is, how deep it is. Naples, for me, was a great discovery».
Is sensitivity a condemnation?
"I donât know. On one hand, yes, it can make you suffer more. But I wouldn't see it as a sentence. Sensitivity allows you to see the world; it leads you to respect what is around you».
But it also brings loneliness with it.
«Martin Eden distances himself from everything and from himself: he can no longer be in contact with anything or anyone, he is disappointed».
In this film, the clash between the class of intellectuals and the so-called people also finds space.
"I think that the true intellectual, like Pasolini was, manages to put himself on the same level as the society, to look at it in the eye, to speak to the common man without being opinionated, just showing what is there: what is happening".
At one point, you find yourself sharing the scene with Carlo Cecchi, who plays Russ Brissenden.
«I was very excited because I found my teacher. And it was great to be with him there, on the set, more than six years after we had last acted together."
You said you got excited
âBecause in the film he plays Martin Eden's mentor, and Carlo was a mentor to me too. It was a real giftâ.
How many things have changed over the years?
"Many."
And you? Have you changed as an actor?
âI don't know, I swear. But maybe I was better before (laughs)».
What do you mean?
"I started with the theater, where there is no safety net, there is no" stop, let's do it again!" and there is no possibility to stop, start over, rethink. I miss that courage».
Is theater a torment or an obsession?
"Itâs never a torment or an obsession. Sometimes at night, however, I dream of going on stage and not remembering anything anymore».
Perhaps itâs today's cinema that tends to be not very brave.
«In my opinion itâs experiencing a new period. And itâs not a coincidence that Marcello's Martin Eden arrives right now, in this moment. Surely we could give a voice to many more people. Even that, if you like, is a question of courage».
Martin Eden also speaks of talent and perseverance. What is more important, in your opinion?
âThey go hand in hand. Talent is the first thing you see. Itâs the primordial spark. But you can't just rely on that. You have to be curious, eat life, live it to the fullest, intensely and consciously. But to live it, one must also commit oneself: and one must be prepared».
You need to read.
«For me a book is always a victory. Because you have been elsewhere and have lived a story that is different from yours."
What kind of reader are you?
âI wouldn't call myself an avid reader: but the more I grow, the older I get, the older I get and the more I read. Because I am more and more aware of how beautiful it is».
Reading isnât just a hobby.
"Thoreau says: "As if you could kill time without injuring eternity". Itâs important not to waste time; but itâs important to do it without causing anguish or fear. You have to be there, stay there, live in the moment. But without exaggerating».
When you were younger - when you were a child - what were you like?
âI've always been surrounded by curious people. Even my friends, the ones I had as a child and the ones I still have now, are curious. We liked to move, to go around, to be together; we lived the street. We also enjoyed listening to music, reading comics and books, and watching movies."
And curiosity soon turned into fascination.
âActing has always fascinated me. And only at a certain point did I manage to find the right courage to try. And I don't know why: I really don't know. In the Academy this phrase was always repeated: âplay seriouslyâ. And maybe was this that interested me; or not".
We talked about teachers. Who were they to you?
«People like Carlo Cecchi or Anna Marchesini. They were moments, very important meetings».
How did you come in contact with Marchesini?
"We studied with her for three months at the Academy, and it was wonderful because for the first time I wrote something of my own. Each of us, each of the students, had to write something about himself, starting from his identity card - this was the initial task. And it was, believe me, very difficult».
What impressed you about her?
"The energy, the dedication, the beauty. I remember the moments with her, the wonderful phrases she said. What has always fascinated me to see was the passion she put into it».
Other teachers?
"My grandfather. I always liked the job he did: he was a carpenter. In the academy they told us many times: "you have to be a craftsmen". And I was always thinking of him».
What, in the end, do you have left of Martin Eden?
«The sense of collectivity. Passion. The importance of looking around. To always look at others and at themselves. The adventure of life, and the wonder it represents. What deeply tears Martin Eden apart is betraying himself and being disappointed in his own dreams. We can fight against this only if we are faithful to ourselves, to our beliefs, to our places of origin. And then, you know, all the rest remains: remains all that world».
VANITY FAIR
Just wanted to translate this old interview for the non-italianâs fans ^^ (sorry for my English)
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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Review (No Spoilers)
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue follows the winding tale of Addie LaRue a girl made immortal through a Faustian deal, but is also cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Three hundred years later, she finds someone who can remember her.
Style.
The most remarkable trait of this book is the style, a style I will call neither good nor bad, but characteristically Schwabâs. This bookâs writing is what happens when Schwab is no longer tethered, freed, if you have read her other works, her Villains or Shades of Magic series, you will be intimately familiar with it. Rife with wistful metaphors and long, winding monologues like circling hallways. You will notice however, theyâre usually cut short in her past works, you might not have noticed it then, but youâll notice it after reading this book. Because they never stop in this book, they stretch on and on, and as she returns to her favourite turns of phrase again and again until theyâve stuck so far in your head you wonder how she thought of so may metaphors for the colour green. Thatâs the thing about this book that still wins my heart, this is Schwab condensed. This is Schwabâs meandering, wistful, nostalgic style first and characters and plot second. This is a book of atmosphere.
I was thinking of splitting this book into a list of pros and cons, but there are no objective elements in this. Itâs biggest pro for one reader, a reader who wants to escape to ancient French villages and fantastical New York art exhibitions and Chicago speakeasies will also be the biggest con for a different type of reader, a reader who needs a villain to best, a conflict around every corner, a suspense to hang in the air. And suspenses are hung, but then youâre whisked away to a new land as you watch your heroine journey throughout history.
My best recommendation for you is to go to a bookshop and read the first page. If you like it, read it, if you donât, donât. You wonât have met the characters, not really, and you wonât have grasped the world, but, itâs most pervasive element, itâs style, is bared for the world to see from itâs very first pages. I mean this with no malice behind it, but I donât think this is a book that could âwin someone overâ halfway through, if you love the first page, youâll love it through and through, if you think itâs a tad boring, well that might stick too. When I see criticism of Schwabâs style, sometimes I agree with it and sometimes I merely understand it. They say she procrastinates plot progression, circles around the story more than she tells it, words flowing out of pages like a waterfall with no drains. For a few of her books-namely Vengeful and A Gathering of Shadows- I did feel pinpricks of annoyance. I felt Iâd been promised an action packed plot and was stuck with a several page monologue about abstract concepts of freedom and power and yes, it was beautifully written, but isnât this in the middle of an action scene? For this book I felt no such annoyance, because this book doesnât have that promise of fast paced scenes and villains to defeat, and when that wistful, meandering style is the entire book, you can go along for the ride without wondering when the heroes will make their way out of their newest predicaments.
There are some downsides to this, in my entirely subjective opinion. Obviously for people who simply donât like this type of style, perhaps people who adore the tight framework and near perfect pacing of Vicious may find Addie not as well suited to them. Despite my fondness, a downside is the several times I found I had turned two pages at once and not noticed, either finding myself in the exact same scene or assuming it had ended a page earlier. There are very few pages you could skip over and realise you had missed it by it being mentioned in future prose, while in some of her other works, the status quo changes constantly. In Vicious I was hungry, there was an overwhelming need sowed by Schwab to hear Victor and Eliâs past. In Addie, reading is less like running for my life and more like a lovely ambling stroll down a garden path.
Characters.
This section will be much shorter, congratulations if youâve made it this far.
What is there to say of Addie LaRue? If youâve read the Shades of Magic I would say two words, Likable Lila. Lila Bard and I have a complicated relationship, I love reading of her, I love her wit, but if we met in real life Iâd keep a wide berth. Many readers have even less favourable ideas, her actions are often played as recklessness, but cross the thin line of âstubbornâ to âstupid.â Addie captures that stubborness, that wit, but I was never annoyed with her, never thought I couldnât have been pushed to do what she had. The slight internalised misogyny inside of Lila has also vanished in Addie, which is a great relief. To someone who hasnât read Shades of Magic? Addie is someone so desperate for freedom sheâll ask it from anyone, from people she knows she shouldnât. Reckless, yes, but you grow a respect as you see all she endures.
Luc. Awful. Amazing. Beautiful. Hideous. A real and true dark grey and youâre still not sure if itâs really grey, youâll never be sure. Heâs pitch black at first and Addie splashes like a drop of white, but did it truly lighten him? Or was it a trick of the light? Flowery prose aside, do I want to fuck him or kill him? It changes from moment to moment.
Henry. One of the rawest characters, and despite the pages and pages of Addie, his moments, his glimpses, make me empathise with him most. Best description I can think of is just, heartwrenching.
Bea. Please date me.
Sam. Please date me.
Robbie. I know he isnât Robbie Valentino from Gravity Falls, but... Isnât he though? I was honestly too distracted as I read every line of his dialogue in TJ Millerâs voice. It was a problem.
Overview.
I know I may have sounded a tad harsh in this review, but I felt I needed to bring it to attention to warn readers who know themselves well enough to know this wonât be their cup of tea. But I truly would recommend this to any reader who feels they can enjoy stories without high stakes, stories with beautiful prose transporting you to awe inspiring locations, stories about the journey and not the destination. And isnât that how a book about an immortal should be? Never about an unreachable destination, but an infinite journey?
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Fence: Striking Distance by Sarah Rees Brennan
Read time: 3 Days
Rating: 4/5 (but itâs complicated)
The quote:Â Hooking up made Aiden think of fencing, sometimes. The sheer physicality of it, the smooth skilled movements flowing and arching to a victorious end. Knowing your opponents moves, weaknesses, what would get to them. Scoring all the points you could. And, in the end, turning away. â Aiden Kane
2nd quote:Â ArrĂȘt â Aiden Kane
Let me explain it means stop, it's used in fencing. It's one word and in that one word my heart broke for Aiden look what can I say he owns me right now.
Because of what Fence: Striking Distance is, the extension of a world created in another medium and with a pre-existing fanbase, rating and reviewing it is quite difficult. I am aware of and really like C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad's Fence series and this does well to extend that. Developing backstories and voices for characters other than Nicholas and building on his. It is worth noting that Johanna the Mad did the cover art and the art on the end pages, C.S. Pacat was heavily consulted in the writing. It could also easily be read as a standalone, knowing the comics is not a pre-requisite it just means you know who is who and a bit about their environment, but all that is contextually explained anyway (like the shower curtain). There is no straight introduction to any character, the closest is a single paragraph by Coach. Â All that said the primary Fence series focuses its time on Nicholas, he is our eyes, this gives us much more on the others in the fencing team with not only Nicholas but Seiji, Aiden and Harvard all as point of view characters. The plot is simple enough, Coach Williams wants the boys to do team-building work, except Harvard who she wants to enjoy himself away from the team. Chaos ensues. Think the height of fake dating au's for Harvard and Aiden, Seiji trying to defend his roommate despite not having all the information, Nicholas being his clueless self (with daddy issues) and Eugene well Eugene is a pwn in the game but who knew he was such a gossip and a social butterfly. Harvard and Aiden's chemistry is written so well it is off the charts, as is only right.
I'm not entirely sure where this is going to fit in along the main continuity. It was released at about the same time as Volume 4 but is definitely set after, the results of the MLC bouts are noted by Coach early on. It appears to be after the conversation between Aiden and Harvard at the end of Volume 4 where it was made clear to anyone that there is more than friendship there. Aiden's gift is picking a fencers weakness, Aiden and Harvard are each others at the end of the day. What I'm unsure of at this point is where Striking Distance will fit in relation to Volume 5 (which is a long time of release as I write this).
The thing that Sarah Rees Brennan does best in this is the development of the characters outside how Nicholas (and to a degree Bobby) sees them. I do wish we'd seen more of Bobby, I want to know more of his story. Aiden Kane gets all three of my quotes for this review, I think the book is heavily about Aiden and how he is not what he appears. He learnt all his flirtatious, always leave before they do attitudes from his string of stepmothers. His use of names when he forgets someones (willfully or not) says a lot, it's just another way Aiden is shown not to be a simple as he appears. At a time when his dates name is Bruce, he playfully starts calling him the name of every male Avenger character because it annoys someone else. Honestly Aiden most of this book breaking my heart, not something I would have expected from the character we have seen to date in the comics. There is only one person in the world he cannot say no to or hurt in any way, Harvard. Harvard is innately good. His friendship with Aiden is a testament to his loyalty. Family is everything but he is blind to his emotions to a degree. Coach is right he spends all his time taking care of other people and not enough taking care of himself. Seiji is codded oddly for me. Before the endgame, I would have put it down to a minor racial stereotype, but after that, I went back to another reading. His coding is almost minorly autistic rather than simply unsocialised among young people. He can't read emotion and is a pure fact all the time, even showing emotion isn't easy for him. He's an interesting contrast to the others, he's quite intimidating. Nicholas also as no social awareness but it turns out he raised himself more or less. This book and the characterisation decisions made show them as essentially two sides of a coin, as Pacat has been alluding to through Coach in the comics. Nicholas hides a tremendous amount of insecurity under a perfect armour, Jesse is one of the few who can get through it.
Some details that I need to mention.
Harvard Paw, Aiden's bear, is quite possibly the cutest thing I've read in a book in years. The origins behind it and what it means to both Aiden and Harvard almost broke me.
Jesse's tone and arrogance were on point. The phrase "bright as ice" used to describe his tone is fantastic.
That watch... just what kind of monstrosity?
One of Aiden and Harvard's favourite films to watch together is The Princess Bride. Of course, it is. Just yes.
Rosina is possibly one of the books biggest yet most insignificant at the same time surprises. We do love a resilient woman.
Essentially this book isn't just a book for the fans. Anyone with an interest in the blurb could pick it up and read it with enjoy it. Will fans enjoy it more? Quite likely, we know the world, have an attachment to the characters already. And the characters, world and situation have transferred quite nicely. But the plot is not dependant on your knowledge of any of the Fence comics, everything you need to know from the importance of the Coste's to basic fencing terms are included. I would say it's a 3.5 for non-fans, 4.5 for fans. But Sarah Rees Brenann needs to be praised for creating a book that could be read by both. On the back cover of the edition I'm reviewing it's introduced as the first book in a new series, I hope that series comes to fruition there is certainly plenty in that conclusion for it. (while not being a cliff hanger if it is the only book)
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Studying âA Study in Emeraldâ
At my grandmotherâs house, stacked together with other books underneath a side table in her office, was a thick leatherbound volume with golden engraved lettering. SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, it said, in large letters on the cover. And in smaller print: The Celebrated Cases of Sherlock Holmes.
I was eight or nine years old, and as soon as I opened the volume I was hooked. I brought it along as I rode with my grandmother doing errands. I asked her if I could have the book, and with her permission took it home with me. I hadnât finished it by the time summer camp rolled around, so I tucked it into a suitcase and read bits of it at the end of activity-filled days before going to bed. I hardly even glanced at any other books until I had turned the last page.
Since I have re-read the stories so many times over the years, the solutions to the mysteries are no longer a surprise to me. I had read them for the mysteries, the first time. But now I read them for other reasonsâthe relationship between Holmes and Watson, the atmosphere of horror and dread that ACD does so well, the breadcrumbs of character arcs in the main and recurring characters, and the way the characters seem both dated and modern, sometimes in the same sentence.
All that is to say, I love Sherlock Holmes. And several months ago I found that Neil Gaiman had written a Sherlock Holmes story. Iâve read a few Gaiman works and was curious to see how he treated some of my favorite fictional characters, so I downloaded it. And read it. And loved it. And in this analysis, I will convey my enthusiasm by explaining just how amazing this story is.
NOTE: this will be a multi-part analysis, with one post for each part of âA Study in Emerald.â (Parts 2 and 3 will be covered in one post.) There will also be some follow-up posts with additional thoughts at the end.
You should 100% read the story before continuing because A) itâs awesome and B) there is a twist that I will be getting into pretty quickly that is much better if you experience it for yourself first.
Part 1: The New Friend
The beauty of this story is that knowing the Sherlock Holmes canon works both for and against the reader. If youâve read the canon, you will recognize the references to certain characters or details or plot pointsâbut at the same time, those moments of recognition can lead you to draw conclusions that Gaiman fully expects you to make but are in fact inaccurate.
Right off the bat, the title of âA Study in Emeraldâ is just one word away from the title of the very first Sherlock Holmes story. This, along with the first page or so of the narrative, primes us to approach the tale as a straightforward Sherlock Holmes pastiche, like the countless others that have been written: âSherlock Holmes in space!â âSherlock Holmes as a kid!â âSherlock Holmes in the far future!â, where everything is basically the same, just with a natural transformation of entities to match the âhookâ of the pasticheâso instead of smoking, kid Holmes sucks on lollipops or the like. The âhookâ of this particular pastiche first manifests with the narratorâs war wounds being the result, not of bullets and fevers as in the canon, but of underwater creatures that suck the vitality out of oneâs limbs.
âOkay,â we as readers familiar with Sherlock Holmes say to ourselves. âSo Holmes and Watson, but in a world of the supernatural. Got it. Nice twist, Gaiman. Iâm ready to see what you do with this.â
As I said, Gaiman uses your Sherlock Holmes knowledge against you in constructing this tale. The narrator has a shoulder wound as a result of his wartime experiences, just as Watson does in A Study in Scarletâthe circumstances of his injury are changed to be more fantastical, of course, but we accept that because we have acclimated ourselves to what we think is the whole of this seemingly straightforward premise (Sherlock Holmes, but with Lovecraftian elements). After all, we have the two men meeting in the university laboratory, both interested in sharing rooms, and we get the iconic line, âYou have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.â We get the familiar prospective-roommates-share-vices exchange. Itâs not the same as the original, but we donât read Holmes pastiches for the exact same lines we could get by rereading the original stories. Besides, the exchange hits enough check marks for what we already know about Holmes (since weâre familiar with canon) that instead of the change setting off alarm bells, weâre busy patting ourselves on the back for recognizing references and approvingly nodding in response to Gaimanâs demonstrated knowledge of the stories. After all, Holmes did shoot bullets into the wall once. And he is private and easily bored, and selfish as well at times. These are revelations about Holmesâs character that are shared in later stories, after A Study in Scarlet, but they match the whole of his character that we know since we have the entirety of the canon under our belts, so itâs quite clear to us that this man the narrator meets is indeed Sherlock Holmes.
By condensing the characteristics of Holmes that were originally revealed over the course of several publications into one dialogue exchange, the plot is able to move speedily along while reinforcing our initial understanding of this manâs identity. However, presenting these characteristics in this manner also leads to some contradictions with canon, which means that things are just a little bit off. Holmes is established in later stories as having irregular habits, but in A Study in Scarlet, the specific story that this dialogue exchange is echoing, itâs Watson who âget[s] up at all sorts of ungodly hours.â Here the one who admits to âkeep[ing] irregular hoursâ is the non-soldier, when in A Study in Scarlet Holmes is actually quite regular in his schedule (he doesnât really maintain that behavior beyond that first story, but still). On a more complex levelâand I might be reading too much into this particular point but it is striking to me as someone who has spent several years with roommatesâthere is the detail that the detective in âEmeraldâ informs the narrator right off the bat that he will need to use the sitting room to see clients. In A Study in Scarlet, Holmes does not inform Watson of this fact in the initial cross-examination. Itâs only after they move in together and Watson starts getting (politely) kicked out of the sitting room on a semi-regular basis that Watson even learns Holmes is a person who has a visiting clientele. This is a rather major thing for a prospective roommate to know. Failing to mention this to Watson while still detailing his smoking habits and propensity for chemical experiments is a rather egregious omission on Holmesâs part, as anyone who has had to get used to a new roommate will tell you. So we have two instances where the information about the detective matches our overall conception of Holmes, but it is presented in a way that goes directly in opposition to how it was originally presented in canonâwhere what we are reading is both right and wrong at the same time.
Letâs continue on in the story. Our âheroesâ move into the same old apartment on Baker Street, which further solidifies the straightforward Holmes in a Lovecraftian world explanation we as readers have formulated for the story. We go through the same ânarrator wonders what his mysterious roommate does for a livingâ steps that we remember from A Study in Scarlet, albeit, again, condensed. And the mystery plot begins as the two roommates eat breakfast, just as in that very first story.
Keen readers might take note of the fact that it is Inspector Gregson, not Inspector Lestrade, who brings the mystery in A Study in Scarlet to Holmesâs attention. Considering that Lestrade made more appearances in the canon and became Holmesâs default police contact, Lestradeâs presence here can simply be chalked up to Gaiman paying homage to the whole of the canon, not just the first story. Alternatively, this is yet another instance of things being ever so slightly wrong when compared to the events we are all familiar with.
Youâll notice that, having successfully (because on first read you are likely not reading as critically as I am now with this analysis) lulled us into a false sense of security regarding the premise of this story and the identities of its characters, Gaiman starts to drop more references to other specific stories besides A Study in Scarlet, as well as more direct hints (which require much less complex analyzing than I have done in previous paragraphs) as to who our narrator and his detective friend truly are.
The first* direct hint is so subtle that I donât think I even picked up on it the first time I read the story. Itâs when Lestrade suggests he talk to the detective privately. The content of the exchange is, once again, familiar to a Sherlock Holmes readerâhow many times have we seen Holmes assure a client that Watson can be confided in just as well as himself (see: âA Case of Identityâ), or refuse to let Watson excuse himself as a case begins to unfold (see: âA Scandal in Bohemiaâ)? The hint lies in the description of the narratorâs friend when he dismisses Lestradeâs suggestion: âhis head moved on his shoulders as it did when he was enjoying a private joke.â Â Gaiman canât show his hand too early, so this hint is extremely oblique. The key is the phrasing: âhis head moved on his shouldersâ is a rather odd and roundabout description, which could much more easily be rendered as âhe shook his headâ or something to that effect. But in using this wording, Gaiman ever-so-lightly echoes the description of a certain someone a couple pages into âThe Final Problemâ:
His shoulders are rounded from much study, and his face protrudes forward, and is for ever slowly oscillating from side to side in a curiously reptilian fashion.
We have some more general Easter egg references to the canonâthe detectiveâs slight dissatisfaction when someone (Lestrade in this case) remarks on the simplicity of his reasoning after it is explained, and the Study in Scarlet-specific âonly one in the worldâ consulting detective explanation. And then we have this terrific bit. Our narrator asks the detective if he really wants him to come along. The detectiveâs response is as follows:
âI have a feeling that we were meant to be together. That we have fought the good fight, side by side, in the past or in the future...from the moment I clapped eyes on you, I knew I trusted you as well as I do myself.â
Itâs terrific because itâs a summation of how Holmes and Watson are viewed by their fans. They belong together. Victorian London, World War II, 21st century New York, 22nd century London, as mice, as dogs, weâve seen them in countless adaptations, and despite the change in locale or era or gender or species or countless other circumstances, they are always inseparable, always a force unto themselves, incomplete without the other. Of course this is Holmes and Watson. How could these words apply to anyone else?
The detectiveâs speech here appeals to our Holmes devotee sensibilities much more than canon Holmesâs response to Watson asking much the same question in A Study in Scarlet:
âYou wish me to come?â
âYes, if you have nothing better to do.â
Which is a rather unexceptional start to a partnership for the ages. The way âEmeraldâ tugs at the heartstrings, however, is dangerousâit pulls us further down into acceptance of the twisted world and characters that surround us.
*I will come back to this in a later post!
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i love the way you write more than i do any other writer, of fic or otherwise. do you have any particular writing inspo thatâs shaped the way you write? like any books, shows, etc? thanks!
Thank you so much! This is such an amazing thing to say. Iâm so glad you feel this way and thought to tell me so.
I wrote about my influences, but it got long, so here is a cut:
Here are some early influences:
-Christy, by Catherine Marshall. This was the first book I ever wrote fanfic for. I was in 4th grade. I was upset with the ending. I wanted so desperately for the book to continue that I studied the writing a lot so that what I wrote would feel like the book. I donât actually know that itâs particularly well written, but I learned SPAG, show-donât-tell, and dialogue tags from it.
-Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Weâve learned some bad stuff about MZB over the years, but when I was in 7th grade, I was obsessed with this book. I thought a lot about how she constructed her characters by putting the plot together and I studied the writing style. I canât say that this book is particularly well written either, but I learned about POV and character voices from it.
-Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. I was absolutely obsessed with this book for years. I cannot even calculate the way in which this book influence both me as a person and my writing. As far as writing, I was particularly influenced by the themes and the syntax.
-Robin McKinley. I used to love this author devoutly. I didnât âstudyâ her books as much as the other ones, but I always wanted to sound like her. I think I was very influenced by her subject matter and tone.
When I got older, I started to look back on books Iâd read and use them as ways to create certain voices. Here are a few I turn to:
-Jane Austen. I would go to her for syntax, word choice, simplicity and clarity of phrasing, and humor. I think unconsciously, she influenced a lot of what I do in terms of the reader and the author sharing things that the main character doesnât exactly see themselves.
-Toni Morrison. I learned a lot about lyricism from her, but one of my favorite techniques of hers is switching between highly literary and super colloquial language, sometimes in the same sentence. Morrison also consistently reminds me that there is not a General Audience. Instead, there is you. Just you, reading these words, wherever you are, and Iâm writing for you, and not for anyone else. I think about that all the time.
-Borges. I think about him a lot when I need very striking word choice. Heâs a lot like Jane Austen in that he can describe something quite precisely in a way that feels quite light and amusing, but unlike Jane Austen it feels staggeringly literary and elevated. I think about that a lot--how to be pretentious but still be comprehended.
-Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey. Whenever I get too pretentious and stop writing things I like, I read this book. It is not well written. It is the tween fantasy of so many of us who loved horses and wanted to be magic. I use it to remind myself that you donât have to sound smart or write what other people want. If your id wants it, youâre still okay if you give it exactly what it wants.
In later years, I started to watch more TV. You canât get things like style and voice for prose from TV, but they can be great for dialogue and very instructional on how to put plots together. Here are some shows I think about all the time:
-Avatar the Last Airbender: This show has a lot of archetypal characters that manage to not feel cliche even though theyâre archetypal. It also has fairly tight plots, many of which are episodic but fit extremely neatly into larger arcs. This is hard to do and can be great for taking apart the pieces and looking at how they work.
-Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I mentioned this in another post, but I took notes on this show to see how jokes were constructed. Itâs also quite useful for sharp, fast-paced dialogue.
Gilmore Girls: Iâve only ever used this exclusively for sharp, fast-paced dialogue.
Lastly, I could not conclude this post without mentioning that Iâve been very influenced by fanfic over the years and things Iâve read online. Some of these have been more influential to me than anything else:
mistful. This writer no longer has fic online, but this is where I learn how a tight 3rd POV can reveal things to the reader that the viewpoint character does not see. The lightness of her writing also helped me to finally say goodbye to my overly chunky prose, which did no service to the character-driven stories I tend to prefer. I also learned to write attraction from her.
kita. I started reading kitaâs fic when I was in a post-modernist literature class. While I was reading kita, I was reading Gravityâs Rainbow. Kitaâs writing is the opposite of mine, usually dense and heavy without much dialogue. She did a lot of experimental stuff, some of which worked for me and some of which did it, but it gave me the bravery to try a lot of things I otherwise never would have done.
lynnenne. Lynnenne has a deft, clean style that you donât notice at first but can really pack a punch when it needs to. She has a great sense of rhythm. The biggest influence she had on me is she betaâed a fic once and just started chopping out sentences. It was strange to have things I thought were good deleted, and see that through the deletion, the rest became more powerful. I became a huge fan of hardcore editing after that.
Luckily I have @icmezzo, who deserves mention as a fantastic beta who literally made me kill darlings. Literally. She made me cut the word darling.
refur. Refurâs SPN fic is still one of the most shockingly good things Iâve ever read. I think of them as someone who taught me some things about parentheses.
Captive Prince. This is not a fanfic! This is an original novel, by C.S. Pacat, but I first began reading online. Their sharp, clean style is something I really admire. The most important thing I learned from them was the value of the word âsaid.â
Iâve read and seen a lot of other things that have influenced me over the years, but these are the things that always come to mind when I think about what shaped my writing.
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Hey!!! Iâm kinda new, and Iâd like to know if you can recommend me some good GO fics? My only request itâs that they should mostly be Teen Up or Gen s fics... and maybe some good AUs (Iâm in love with those)
Okay, here we go!! I went a little all out on this post because itâs more about personal preference, but I still stand by it :D
An Angel who did not so much Fall In Love as Settle Into It Gradually by TheLadyZephyr - 7.5k - Rated T
Crowley was standing in the middle of the room, hands in his pockets, looking a little lost. Aziraphale eyed the distance between them. Five steps. Five steps, and six thousand years, and a battlefield spanning an eternity.
The story of the little moments over the millennia that shape an angelâs regard for a demon, and the way he slowly, with great reluctance but inevitable surety, falls in love.
I simply adore this fic. Itâs one of those fics that follows them through the ages and its just done so well. I donât even know what else to say, just that you should go read it, and the fanart is also gorgeous!
Something So Magic by apliddell - 3.9k - Rated G
Crowley gets stuck in his serpent form, and Aziraphale tries his best to help.
This fic is simple, yet adorable, and I cannot get enough of it.Â
How Much To Give, How Much To Take by thechemicalgirl - 3k - Rated G
âItâs likeâŠâ he paused, trying to calm down. âItâs like after I came back from Heaven and we switched our bodies back, something has happened. I canât use my power anymore, not even to start the Bentley.â
Crowley loses his demonic abilities and Aziraphale tries to help him cope with it, but things get much more complicated than that.
Angsty, but also soft, and just a great execution of a favourite premise.
In Peace I Will Both Lie Down and Sleep by fizzybiscuits - 5.6k - Rated G
Aziraphale starts having nightmares. For some reason, he doesnât talk to Crowley about this right away.
Title is from Psalms 4:8. âIn peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.â
This fic just has everything. Itâs a stellar example of an established relationship fic and is cavity-inducingly fluffy.
Be All My Sins Remembered by CloversDreams - 43.4k - Rated T
âThe trial,â Beelzebub continued loudly, âwill consist of seven tests.â
âSevenâŠâ Aziraphale muttered under his breath. He had a bad feeling about this and it showed. He twiddled his thumbs nervously as he waited for more details.
Crowley scrunched his face and shook his head. âOh you donât meanââ
âCorrect. The Sins have been charged with the task,â Beelzebub interjected.
âCrap.â Crowley groaned. He slapped his hands onto his face and dragged them downward slowly. This was just what they didnât need.
Gabriel nodded. He had a rather unpleasant grin on his face as he said, âDonât know much about them, myself, but they can be a pretty gnarly group of high-class demons from what Iâve heard. On par with the archangels back home. Wouldnât want to⊠whatâs that delightful human phrase? Oh, right. Wouldnât want to cock this up.â
Listen, in my opinion, this fic is massively underrated. I unintentionally binged it all in one go because it was so gripping. The angst in some chapters had me practically screaming, and the whole idea is a brilliant take on the seven deadly sins. The pining is magnificent, and I live for the Husbands drama.Â
Let Sleeping Snakes Lie by Blue_Sparkle - 2.6k - Rated G
Aziraphale confesses his love for Crowley when he can contain it no longer. Oh, not to the demon himself of course. To a sleeping snake.
Another fic featuring Snake!Crowley, this one is magnificently soft, and I adore the scene in Stardust itâs inspired by. Just canât stop coming back to read, 10/10 recommend!
Serpent of Eden, Original Tempter by noodlefrog - 33.4k - Rated T
During Crowleyâs trial, the agents of Hell present evidence that the demon has been fraternizing with the enemy. Careful to protect Crowleyâs pride (and his own concealed feelings), Aziraphale turns on the saunter and leans into his friendâs reputation as a tempter to spin their relationship into something that looks more demonic than lunch dates and feeding the ducks.
This fic combines Pining, Misunderstandings, and a fantastic âwhat if?â for the execution scenes, and I am here for it. The Original Characters are written fantastically well, and I loved the bonus chapter!
What They Say About Assumptions by DragonGirl - 7.9k - Rated T
While itâs true that God bestowed upon the angels the divine power to sense love of all kinds, that does not mean they were given the ability to sense exactly who or what that love is directed at. A minor design flaw that hasnât been much of an issue. Until now.
Or:
Aziraphale has known that Crowley loved someone since the beginning. Heâs also spent most of that time believing that someone was a demon.
Aziraphaleâs obliviousness in this fic was so ridiculous it felt plausible. It was hilarious but also heartwarming, and has one of my fave love confessions. It was angsty as hell in the best way, and I just implore that you read it!
Futile Devices by ticketybye - 3.2k - Rated G
Crowley pretends to sleep. Aziraphale talks.
Just adorable. Cavity inducing fluff and love confessions are my favourite things and god does this deliver on that.
Foolish Principality by seashadows and WikdSushi - 6.6k - Rated M
Upon moving into a South Downs cottage, Crowley gets left alone while Aziraphale rushes to help the new proprietors of his bookshop. Thanks to a miracle gone wrong, Crowley discovers Aziraphale's greatest material secret, and a few things neither of them could ever fully face.
Is rated M but in my opinion thereâs nothing too bad in here, though you should judge for yourself. The poetry is beautiful, horrifying masterpieces, and it is honestly fantastically funny and sweet.
ââ
Yâall know by now that I adore anything by Arinia, but this fic is one of my faves:
Just This Once by Arinia - 2.7k - Rated T
An idea came, slowly at first, before filling up his heart, setting every nerve alight. It might be another decade, another century even, before he saw Crowley again. No one had come to rescue him from Above. No one had chastised Crowley for wasting a miracle from Below. Perhaps, just this onceâŠ
The streets of Paris are soaked with blood, and Aziraphale realizes just how much he owes Crowley for saving his life.
Itâs freaking adorable, the kissing is fantastic, and I have a secret love of the French Revolution that made me love the fic all the more. Read it, I beg you.
ââ
As for AUs, I donât read loads, but I do have some faves!
Neighborly Affection by Thestarlitrose - 4.6k - Rated T - Human AU
Anthony J Crowley was four years old the first time he met the tiny Ezra A Fell; he wasnât impressed.
He was forty-six when he found him again in a bookshop in Soho.
The Childhood Friends, Flower Shop, Christmas, Friends to Lovers fic nobody asked for in the middle of October.
This fic is a complete tangle of tropes, and itâs also incredibly sweet. Perfect for the fast approaching holiday season!
a book elegantly bound by AwkwardPotatoChild - 6.5k - Rated G - Library AU
Two idiots. One book series.
or alternatively, Aziraphale and Crowley are united over their common love of books and the scheming of one Miss Anathema Device
This fic manages to be both very funny and incredibly endearing at the same time. The book names were hilarious, and I adored Anathemaâs matchmaking.
A Jaunt Or Two by sonicsora - 3.1k - Rated T - Human AU
They meet by happenstance twice over, only to end up quite woven into one anothers lives. Itâs all quite accidental, but sticks.
Crowley realizes a bit belated heâs quite attached to this man who freely uses the word jaunt and wears cream-colored suits.
This fic is just adorable. Itâs sweet, fluffy, and exactly my kind of thing. Also Gabrielâs a dick in the comedic way, which is fun to see.
Restoration by arealshitwizard (gaiusgallus)Â - 2.6k - Rated G - Human AU
Ok I had this idea in my head and it wouldnât go away so here is Aziraphale as a painting restorer and Crowley as a flash stock broker⊠Thereâs just one chapter sorry for my sins
This is a really unique fic (I know I keep saying that, but itâs true!), and featured such fun interpretations of their characters!
ââ-
Iâm aware that 90% of this list is very specific to my preferences, and that it got a little out of hand, but I hope yâall enjoy the recs anyway! XD
Does the blog have any favourites theyâd like to share?
~ Mod B
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Please rant/rave (well, we already know which one it will be here) about Harry Potter!
GEE I HOPE THIS WAS WORTH WAITING FOR
OH MY GOD. The level of hatred I have for Harry Fucking Goddamn Potter, the culture around Harry Fucking Potter, extending its poisonous tentacles even to the concept of young adult fiction, fantasy, and the United Kingdom as a country and people.Â
When you being on this, you may think, âOh, Doc will explain that Harry Potter sucks because JKR hates trans womenâ and I will say, oh no, dear reader, that is a fantastic reason to hate the author, and I really suggest we all continue to hate her, and perhaps not purchase the QUEENâS TONNES of officially licensed merchandise and movies and theme parks that give her stupid little fucking hands all that cash, but no, that is not why I hate the work. There are a number of great works done by terrible people, and the further out the lens of history gets the truer this is.Â
I hate Harry Potter because it fucking sucks, and mentally stifled an entire fucking generation.Â
âWell, Doc, Harry Potter was really there for me when--â Oh my god I could not fucking care LESS about your personal emotion connection to âorphan wizard boy turns out to be a rich aristocrat yet somehow less woke than Cinderella thoughâ I have personally emotional connections to hot fucking garbage pails of media properties, and if someone came barreling through talking about the myriad ways in which they were horrible, I would be like, âOh, you arenât fucking wrong, palâÂ
Harry Potter gained wild ass popularity in part due to its magnificent sorting system of Smart, Brave, Evil, and Other, because thereâs nothing liberals like more than being able to put everyoneâs personality into an easily labeled box, which is why astrology is so popular, or for the intellectuals, Myers-Briggs, which is just as fake but with the veneer of science. This allowed people to give into the tribalism they so desperately liked to pretend they did not possess, and also allow them to write thinkpieces about âThe misunderstood Hufflepuffâ or âSlytherins arenât all bad!â or really anything that allows them to write a very real piece about their very imagined oppression for being a part of a totally fake house in a childrenâs book. Excellent use of your sociology degree, Kai, I thought the addition of phrases like, âContent of socializationâ and âaxes of oppressionâ really spoke to the struggles you face when wearing a green and silver scarf.Â
The other reason it became popular is that itâs essentially wallpaper paste formed into characters. I have read all of the books, and I could not tell you even remotely what Harryâs defining personality traits are other than âprotagonistâ. In American, at least, a large part of it was the fascination with all things British, with the idea of boarding school and prefects and uniforms that arenât inexplicably chinos and polo shirts for nine year olds. It allowed children to project onto something so bland that it could be anything. And for children, THATâS FINE. There is a great deal of bland media made for children, but what Iâm speaking to is the fandom, which is largely well over the age of 18.Â
Because if we look at the books, are they...actually good? Was it good, or did I experience it as a child? I mean, honestly, on a literary level, are they, or was it just like we all watched Friends, we did it because everyone else was doing it, because I have a distinct memory of a series that involves such greats as âmagical geegaws with poorly defined rules that are quickly forgotten despite being able to solve later problems quicklyâ or âEveryone loves Harry or is a bad guy, or secretly loved Harry all alongâÂ
Oh, speaking of, man, if this was an actual well-written book, wouldnât it have been wild to have Snapeâs whole thing be to teach us that sometimes people do good things for the wrong reasons? Instead of naming your fucking child after the guy who âprotected youâ because he still wanted to bone your mom? âAfter all this timeâ âAlways.âÂ
While all this could have been explained, we have Quidditch added into the mix instead because 20 pages of the goddamn Puppy Bowl is exactly what I was looking for while I was waiting for JK to move the goddamn ball on literally any of these actual magical concepts.Â
Harry Potter is a fucking trust fund baby, star quarterback, who grows up to be a cop and marries his high school sweetheart. (Speaking of, why were we shocked that JKR turned out to be a piece of shit when this was and always has been the conclusion of Harry Potter? Why are liberals so fucking into this series that upholds structures like it ainât no oneâs business? Itâs a series that opines that those beneath us âMugglesâ should be kept in the dark from us) Literally, he finds out he is a wizard and has a dragon-guarded fucking VAULT OF CASH. At 11. Itâs such a series for little tyrants, you are special from birth and need do nothing to prove it, here is a letter certifying as such. Oh, not only are you rich and the greatest seeker and have excellent quips, but also your parents were not only rebels, but the best of rebels, and so deeply involved that your parents were killed by the big bad personally, again, because you are so special. His motherâs love literally saves his ass over and over again, because he was SO SPECIAL. He fought Voldemort FROM THE BEGINNING, and WON. Itâs literally the most privilege baby fantasy in the world.Â
âBut Doooooooooooc, itâs for chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiildrenâÂ
A) Yeah, and youâre 32, youâre making my fucking point about Harry Potter setting an entire generation up for intellectual failure to launch.Â
B) Okay, and? I can think of a bunch of kidsâ books off the top of my head that in no way require specialness to be given by birth so as to roll out the red carpet for master protagonist. The Hunger Games. Watership Down. A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Chronicles of FUCKING NARNIA, about which I have only a small handful of particularly kind things to say. Iâve never read Percy Jackson, but itâs my understanding that despite his being a literal demigod, the attitudes of the supporting cast are allowed to fall between the extremes of âAppreciates Percyâ and ânaughty or will learnâ Harry does nothing to improve himself even after knowing that he is HUNTED BY THE BIG BAD! âI wonât do this because I donât like Snapeâ. So Thereâ which, again, if this series were written with the slightest bit of care or know-how, could be a humbling fucking plot point! BUT NO THAT WOULD BE NAUGHTY.Â
But the real reason I hate Harry Potter so much has everything to do with the fandom surrounding it, and how it intellectually stunted a generation of adults. The promise of Harry Potter was that it was supposed to make a new generation of readers, and so the popularity of them was pushed, and so there was discussion of teaching them in schools, but I tell you fucking what, I know a whole lot more folks who grew up reading Harry Potter that never advanced beyond reading YA, or even just rereading the entire series every year and thatâs pretty much them done and dusted.Â
In the attempt to recapture whatever it was about Harry Potter that attracted children (A lot of it was your peers doing it. I read them all as they came out, and it was literally the equivalent of watching the game so you could talk at the water cooler. That was never going to be recaptured) people, who by this time were likely in their teens, kept getting recommended stuff at the same and same level. No one ever felt pushed to read things that are challenging, to read things that have some of the concepts or themes of Harry Potter but maybe complicate. I know FAR more adults who read adult books that arenât into Harry Potter, even if they were as children, than the reverse.Â
But Doc, why is reading only books meant for 14 year olds a problem??? I mean I suppose I canât convince you that comfort is not the job of literature or of life, it is the job of an easy chair, because Americans especially are decadent as fuck about being comfy cozy all the time and if anything causes them distress or pain it should be immediately avoided. But Maybe I can convince you that youâre fucking up these books for actual ass children who deserve to have their own writing section without adults bringing their fucking asses into it. They deserve their own spaces. Thereâs a number of YA editors who have talked about the difficult space YA now occupies because since Potterâs blowup, itâs no longer a niche category, but basically âadult easy readsâ and so they have been buying books that are more about the tastes of adult buyers than of literal 14 year olds.Â
Is that not...sad? To anyone else? Honestly, and this is not part of the essay because itâs a broader reaching problem, but CHILDRENâS MEDIA IS NOT FOR US. CHILDRENâS MEDIA IS NOT FOR US. CHILDRENâS MEDIA IS FOR FUCKING CHILDREN. The fucking 40-23 set really needs to get their shit together and grow up a little bit and engage in some fucking adult media, and maybe, if we support what weâre actually looking for FOR ADULTS, it will come to us. No one is saying you canât read Harry Potter or watch some Cartoon Network show, but like, search your heart and come the fuck on. Engage in something more complex. If not for yourselves, for the kids getting shoved into simplified adult stories. It should not be about us.Â
ANYWAY, my larger point is that it was Harry Potter, a badly written series about a magical boy who was chosen and magic and also rich and also a favorite of the headmaster and also more clever than most adults and also spoke the same magical snake language as the big bad and was also star quarterback, but at least there was a system in which you could buy a scarf in block colors and feel like you belonged to a team.Â
(But not a sports team! lol handegg! Iâm cool I donât get into sports! Except Quidditch.)Â
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