#I am awful at reading the books I already have vs

[corrodedcoffins-blog]

Invisble String

luke hughes x actress!reader

note: short cute introduction to this au, get to know how long Y/n has been Luke's celeb crush and get to know Y/n

also in 2018 reader is 17 and Luke is 15 for reference so like do the math i can't do everything

2018

"Why do you even want to watch 'It' you hate clowns?" the eldest brother asked, holding a bowl of popcorn while he rounds the couch to were he previously sat.

"Jack asked for a scary movie so I suggested a scary movie." though he wasn't lying, both statements were true, it wasn't the real reason he suggested the movie. But like he would ever admit that to his brothers because he'd never hear the end of it if they knew. Little did he know they already did.

"He wants to watch it because Y/n L/n is in it." Jack mumbled, not looking up from his phone where he looked up the cast list, and he begins to laugh along when his older brother starts to.

"Not true."

"Too true."

"Shut up. Are we watching this or something else." Quinn says, being the mediator among the three.

All throughout the movie, while Luke was gawking at his dream girl, Jack and Quinn would make eye contact over his head silently laughing at their brothers face of awe whenever Y/n was on screen. When she walked slow-mo out of the store, the scenes at the quarry, Luke had the same face as the boys on the screen except he wasn't acting.

-

2020

73 Questions With Y/ L/n | Vogue

Y/n opens the door for the vogue camera man, after she just shut it on him.

"Hey! Y/n L/n! You excited for your 73 questions with vogue?" the interviewer asks enthusiastically.

"Yes, I am.. Does that count as your first question?"

While the man asks several questions, Y/n lead them into her living room.

"Who do you want to play you in a movie about your life?"

"Umm.. Sadie Sink. And I would like to play Sadie in the movie about her life."

"What is the knewest thing in here?"

After quickly looking around the girl grab a recent purchase of hers a stuffed octopus.

"I recently bought this stuffed animal. It's an octopus, because there's only one or else it would be octopi."

"Interesting, and what do you think is the coolest thing in this room?"

Setting down the octopus, Y/n walks towards her book case. Grabbing what looks to be a very old book.

"This is a vintage edition of Little Women the same one my mom read to me when I was 12 and the same one I reread in preparation for my role as Amy March."

While placing the book back on the shelf the man asks, "Without looking do you know what the last word of Little Women is?"

Jokingly Y/n pick the book up again and starts to open it, and the two chuckle, she then continues to answer the question. "No, um..I know, 'end'."

"End?"

"Yep. That counts as a question."

"It's actually 'this'"

"... 'This'?" the man nods before Y/n continues, "No, you're wrong it's end. Because all books end in 'the end' how could you not know that."

The interview continues into the girl kitchen, while she pours herself an iced tea.

"What is your favourite sport?"

"I don't really have a favourite sport, but I guess I'll say hockey. 'Cause y'know they're hot."

-

imessage

Rowdy

Did you see your girlfriend said hockey boys were hot?

Maybe you have a chance

Lukey

Shut up.

Luke rewatched that interview a couple to many times.

-

2023

Y/n_updates

liked by i_said_SpeakNow, LikeRibbonsInYourHair, and others

Y/n_updates: Y/n was at the New Jersey Devils vs Philadelphia Flyers preseason game! she was with the Devils wags too! Just more proof that her and Luke Hughes are dating... What do you think?

view all comments

taytaySwft: they would be so cute!! i hope they're together ☺️

_spider_man: what's with the it girlies dating professional athletes right now?

jackhugheswife: damn he could do better than her

amyMarchstan: better than the gorgeous and successful woman she is?

harrie13: I miss her and Lucas 🙁

stranger_80: No him and Sadie!!!

anne_Cats: so she's got a thing for Lukes huh?

harrie13: lmao i didn't even realize that 😭😭

TaybrinaStan: she's doing for hockey what Taylor is doing for football.

note: yes i did only make her previously date Lucas McLaughlin for that one joke that's not even funny.. what about it?

#luke hughes x famous!reader #luke hughes x reader #luke hughes #luke hughes x y/n #luke hughes oneshot #jack hughes #quinn hughes #hughes brothers

[forestgreenlesbian]

#everyone go away now...

[tangledinink]

Heya! First off I’m around halfway through teenage mutant what now and it is the funniest fic I have ever read - Beautifully written and overall brilliant but the jokes get me every time

And second, is it okay if I reference a pose from one of your gemini artworks for my own work? I’ll credit the inspiration if I post it anywhere ^^

whew we're overdue for an ask dump,,, OKAY ALRIGHT.

THANK YOU ; w ; I'm really glad you like it hehehehe. also yeah sure feel free! I don't mind! ^^

HEHEHE THIS MAKES ME VERY HAPPY THANK YOU

oh he DEFINITELY freaked out at first. there was a lot of panicking and confusion and "how could this even happen?!" ("you think i'd genetically engineer a creature that's not capable of reproducing? all of you should be genetically compatible with practically any yokai," draxum said. "AND YOU DIDN'T THINK TO, I DUNNO, TELL US THAT?!" donnie said.) but eventually, he did calm down, and he and his partner talked about it (a bunch, multiple times), and eventually some of the panic gave way to... curiosity, first of all... and then maybe kind of excitement? and some fondness? i mean, he was still pretty scared, and sure, he doesn't really consider himself a 'kid' person, but it's not like he never thought about EVENTUALLY having kids, just maybe... not so soon? but. i mean.

well. if they're already cooking...

THANK YOU ; w ; i'm glad you like them! @kiwi-smug-silvalina

oh gosh, that's a good question. i'm not entirely sure... uhmmm... i would say perhaps... details about how gemini!donnie's witchcraft looks and acts, VS how venus's witchcraft looks and acts...

it is very shiny. i like that people call it "the bean" instead of its actual title coz it pisses anish kapoor off.

ah ; w ; THANK YOU SO MUCH,,, thats so sweet and this made me very happy,,, <3 im glad you liked it!!!! @allegedllama

HEHEHE thank you. yes im aware that i am deranged.

omg same hat!!! i was a lifeguard and it was.... uh.... INTERESTING to say the least... (sometimes lovely, sometimes AWFUL...) @datfearlesschick

if by games you mean 'messed up deals that she can manipulate to her own advantage,' then yes! @frogonamelon

@beannary @spectralsleuth @heckitall @livsinpjs and the sep council as a whole!!! y'all's support has definitely meant so much and there's no way i'd have gotten as far with any of my projects as i have without them... or without literally ANY of the people who take the time to do things like reblog with tags, leave commentary in the tags, send in asks about my stories, etc etc etc! that's definitely one of my main motivators to create more!!! <3 thank y'all!

EEEE this made me smile, hehehehe. thank you :3c @thejavavoid

AAAAAA THANK YOU THIS GENUINELY MADE ME SO HAPPY COZ I WAS SO GODDAMN PROUD OF THOSE HANDS AND HOW THEY CAME OUT ; w ; THANK YOU @onejellyfishplease

thank you!!! u w u @fanrulerjynx

THANK YOU ; w ; I REALLY APPRECIATE THIS,,, it made me very very very happy and HEHEHE IM GLAD YOU LIKE YASSIFIED DRAXUM,,, i just think he DESERVES it, y'know? also thats just my favorite way to draw characters lmao I think it's fun so I decided for this comic I just get to indulge...

not necessarily-- this was mostly just a coincidence! @breezehurricane

oh gosh. i'm not sure, but i know it definitely WILL affect their parenting... i think at first donnie will find himself just... deferring to his partner a LOT in almost any situation because he's afraid that he'll fuck it up, because he DOESN'T feel like he understands proper boundaries or what parenting is supposed to look like, etc etc etc, and he's afraid he'll mess up. he probably reads a TON of parenting books as well because RESEARCH and will often try to pull directly from them in any situation he can, and is confused when things don't go exactly the way they were described in the text... leo i think kind of tends to flounder between being overprotective and feeling the desire to protect his son from everything and anything and wanting to overcorrect this tendency by pulling back and trying to give him as much freedom and space as possible, which sometimes leads to some... inconsistencies. there's definitely a learning curve for both of them, but they both get the hang of it eventually. they both have lovely partners and a very loving and supportive family to help them and they'll figure it out with a bit of practice.

ahhh thank you! :D im so delighted that my silly stories actually inspired something for you!!! hell yeah!!! MAKING THINGS IS GREAT!!! THANK YOU!!! @can-elope

i like to imagine them all staying very close, especially coz i'm loosely planning on them all going through the kraang-apocalypse together (and then coming through to the other side!) so i can't imagine them ever drifting too far from each other, emotionally or geographically. there's a bit of a rocky start for a lot of them, but all of the siblings end up a very tight-knit bunch.

#asks #ask dump #anon

[nikethestatue]

I know that sometimes the people in this fandom can come up with the worst takes in existence, but I think if you have a considerable number of people questioning if a mated pair who have already had their HEA are going to remain together or break their bond, then maybe the writer hasn't done such a great job with their romance. No one could ever doubt that Feysand and Rowaelin (and also Quinlar imo, but I know not everyone agrees) are going to stay happily together forever, but Nessian? They're not a side couple like Elorcan or even Daynight, they had a whole 800 pages to themselves and yet I'm less sold on their romance than I was in ACOWAR. Maybe it's just me, but a man in a romance book with split loyalties who isn't willing to swing for his girls 100% is unattractive to me. If I have to read about Az appreciating Mor's beauty I might just gauge my eyes out, if he doesn't stand up to Rhys at least ONCE the book is over for me.

So here is what I think happened--I feel like large chunks of info are missing, because of the re-write. I feel like like there is information that was there, whole scenes, which SJM took out. I also think that the 7 million bonuses that we got were originally in the book. I think they were part of the first draft.

There is absolutely, 100% something missing from Cassian/Nesta interactions, because I think they were cut. That line in the Ember and Randall bonus, where Nesta looked at Cassian and then thought that he was the one she was disappointing the most--that screams a missing scene.

I won't be surprised if we get something in the next book, which will say that Cassian KNEW that she was giving the Mask to Bryce, and that he implored that she didn't do it, but then agreed with her in the end, and hence, the scene between all of them yelling at each other reads so weirdly.

Or he warned her not to do it, and she did it anyway, and was now feeling guilty.

It sucks but I have to chuck some of it to the awful editing of this book, and the fact that it was rewritten, carved up, stitched back together and we got a Frankenstein monster now.

I dont think that the bonus scenes were simply a money grab--I think SJM wanted to include them and build a fuller picture for all of these couples and interactions.

Like if we think about the Azriel bonus in ACOSF, it reads like a bonus, because it's not from Nesta's POV, she isn't even present, it's from a completely different POV, kind of random, dealing with things which have nothing to do with Nesta as the MC.

However, the Az/Nesta/Bryce bonus, for example, definitely feels like it was part of the book, and not as a bonus. It was very organic and within the rest of the overall scene, also dealing with what SJM originally promised--the differences and advances in Midgard vs Prythian.

Basically, what i am trying to say is that I am not taking HOFAS as any indicator for the Nessian relationship. I think it's just a cut up mess, and I think initially Cassian played a bigger role, which was thrown away.

I mean. let's remember, people also hated Quinlar and thought that Bryce would end up with Az.

[apoptoses]

Omg please don’t apologize for your answer to my genderbent ask!! I’ll admit that as a fellow butch it is really getting to me like…you get it. 

I also don’t really interact with a lot of lesbian media because it’s so sterilized. So often it seems that whoever wrote it was like sure we can have two women hold hands or peck on the lips as long as they’re feminine! As long as they don’t come off as *that* kind of lesbian. Butchness and lesbian masculinity are so often treated as dirty or not taken seriously which is really hurtful! 

And I completely agree that a lot of genderswaps rely so much on hyperfeminity. Slap a pair of boobs on a male character and give him long hair and make up and a feminine name like dude that’s a whole other character now 😭 (and I have to say that I hate it when characters are given silly versions of their names just to make it girlier like c’mon women with masculine/traditionally men names are hot!!)

Maybe it’s just me being butch4butch and projecting but butch!Daniel hits so hard for me like she is literally just canon Daniel to me but afab and how that would change her narrative. I oscillate so often on how I think Armand would be particularly because of his relationship with gender in the books. He’s androgynous but is that just because he didn’t fully mature? I feel like a lot of women are done growing by their late teens so would genderbent Armand be taller or have a different build because of that? It’s so fun to think about and I think she would play a lot with presentation in the 80s and be having gender talks along with the philosophical discussions with Daniel in that era.

Long story short I really love the gender aspect of genderswaps and masc women are so hot and like that is the appeal for me especially since we don’t get a lot of that! I really hope that it doesn’t seem like I’m talking over you or like pressuring you to write anything but I really connected with your response and if it’s something that you’re comfortable with I would really love to hear the angles that you’re thinking of!! <3

No you're not talking over at all! I was so verklempt by someone actually getting it that it took me a minute to answer lol

But exactly, either everything is sanitized ('aw lesbians love picnics and frogs and holding hands in their cottage core dresses!!') or the hyper femininity fetishized. Like I said in my tags, taking a cis man and making him a cis man who doesn't conform to gender stereotypes is no less of a gender swap. But like...society doesn't acknowledge butch/masc/studs, much less acknowledge that we can be attractive.

And YEAH like Daniel did so much solo travel, so much entering of spaces that might not be totally safe for a femme woman alone in the 70s so presenting more masc might be a safety net in a way. And like imagine Armand hearing this soft woman's voice on the tapes when entering Lestat's house but turning the corner and seeing someone like this-

Like!!! Wow!!! Or even with an androgynous masculine shag like-

And when Louis and Armand were together there's a big question of how much they were out in the world vs how Louis' grief kept them from fully entering and enjoying mortal spaces. So like Armand seeing women playing more with gender via clothing, the evolution of pants becoming acceptable for women to wear- would Armand have already embraced that, or by meeting Daniel would she feel free to play around with androgyny and masculine fashion more? I like to think it would be the latter, because their time together was such a period of exploration!

And you can also get into concept of being Other, with Daniel able to relate some way to Armand being othered as a vampire where she is othered as a gnc woman. There's just a lot to play with imo

So thank you SO SO MUCH for this message, it really felt good for me to read ♥ Lately I've had so much anguish over the way I am/attractiveness/getting people to respect boundaries, so it's nice to know someone out there gets it.

#apoptoses answers

[humanmorph]

pal30 AND pal31. a package deal. i actually just forgot this post in my drafts last week & there's a lot of related stuff here anyways

30

A lot of people have talked about it and Number of the Beast is very scary to me. I've already seen people do math about the probability but even without that just listening I was like.... isn't that way too likely??! The wording of it too is so. Like it's cool flavor but it's also really awful... "If you ever roll 3 sixes you are killed in a spectacular fashion and are claimed by whatever terrible power most interested in your soul [...]" Hm. I'm frankly not sure how I feel about it. I guess, like always, it would depend on the framing it's given but just on paper it feels bad to think about Clem getting them after they finally managed to break free. I'm not even a Figure-head like some of my mutuals but I really really want to see them continue on this path (pal31 note: I love the new "Using this new lease on life on violence would be a waste" hook. It reminds me of Valence.) ... Also. Well. Still thinking about Austin being like wow finally I have someone onscreen for Perennial to communicate to (that isn't Clem). I want that too...

I'm not 100% on Armour Astir rules still but does the Investigator as a support playbook not have a mech? They don't, right? (I do HAVE the book, but I haven't closely read it, mostly skimmed over moves.) Of course a class like this has different advantages and I'm loving the Investigator so far but I WILL just miss Keith mech combat. He's so good at making really effective characters, but I guess Phrygian was kind of a high point for that (one-shot kills, baby!!!!! god. Phrygian ruled).

Speaking of Keith characters. The bit to get in the bathroom felt so much like being stuck in a point & click adventure game and you look around and talk to the person there & try like 3 things that don't work & then you go oh RIGHT I have this tool I forgot about because I never used it before! So that was fun to me. God I just enjoy Eclectic so so much.

And I really loved Keith losing it at the fact that the first thing he did was stalk a guy & follow him into a bath room. On a whim. It's sooooooooo funny I love you Eclectic it makes perfect sense to me Leap would be like yeah I trust this guy to handle this & send him. It just paints a picture that I like looking at. A lot (pal31 note: And he IS competent he does his job he's just also a weirdo. Just like Leap...)

I'm a bit. Hm. Connadine? I guess I should wait to see how that develops but it's kind of like... I guess don't want Jack's cool guy to be no-sold (?). I don't even think that's something I need to worry about, because Austin just wouldn't do that, but it was a thought/feeling I had and I want to catalogue it at the very least.

Other than that. Oh what great scene. I was cackling. "Bro's out here cruising" "Look, a clue's a clue"

EDIT: I don't think I took any notes on this but godddd the intro!!!! Who does it like Friends at the Table!!! Incredible work. I imagine it might've worked even better for ppl who hear that voice reguarly (I don't have tiktok & only watch ones on my dash basically). I also am... just kinda interested in the production/making of that tbh. I don't know how the tiktok thing works, but I know that with other voices like that it matters a lot how you type text because it can change intonation. And if it was put in as one text vs singular sentences, and if that changes anything? I mean it was edited for timing obviously, but I just wonder how much vs the initial input. Interesting to me.

31

Let's start with the Connadine business since that's what I ended on. It was good. I looooved the conversation on the rooftop. Eclectic's cracked face. Connadine's risk of "curious", Austin saying something like "it would be easier for him to not be curious about this person interrogating him". Likeeeee. OK. There was an energy. To me. There was. Which is just funny because it's never ever coming from Keith but his weirdguys are just so compelling to people around them aren't they... A SHORT ASIDE: read this good fanfic recently. grey to black by tenworms. And I already thought about ways synthetic beings can show intimacy or perform pleasure(...strange way to phrase it but it's what I've got rn) recently because I had Leap/Figure A on the brain for 4 days straight, just stuck up there (and it's a bit different there again because Leap is Equiaxed, right. And also I've developed specific opinions on their relationship or how they express it but anyways). All that to say idk what's up in that regard with Delegates, it may similar, it may even be a little weirder again because they're part Divine and maybe sometimes a little magic, but you know. At the very least. He COULD have fingered that old man ASIDE FINISHED Nevermind all that I read @/swallowtaileds post saying Eclectic should start a Gravity Clock with him and I would really love that! Great idea. He's got free spots anyways. Hopefully ensuring Connadine to show up again? Then again, he did sound like he thought it'd be best to get off-planet... Which doesn't necessarily mean /he/ plans to, but I would guess that was the case. I wouldn't want to see my replacement come in, but yknow. Hm!!!! Jack!!!!! (This is the second time in the past week a FatT episode has made me go "Jack!!!" in an incredulous tone. The first time was the introduction of the hole in Grandpa's Farm. Which is so concerning to me.)

It does feel kind of weird that the Paint Shop is just felled this uncerimonsoul unceremoniously (edit: I cant believe I forgot to fix that. This word has entirely too many vowels). Eclectic just did that... On his first mission out... and it wasn't even the mission he was on (!). And like, it makes sense for it to be that easy because it was literally planned and aided By the head of the Paint Shop. And I think this is something that will have the most interesting repercussions for the next faction game, and I have no doubt something really sick will come about with it. So while I don't really care for it now (funny factor aside. Love this for u Eclectic.) I'm taking it as a "wait and see" thing. Also like. What is Eclectic doing now. Like in this sortie? I guess he could keep investigating but he did already get some info.? And I don't know, but it doesn't extremely seem like the other side is gonna wrap up super quickly. I did just remember he still has like, all of his B-Plot points or whatever, so he should probably use those to help the rest of the crew, but also. I don't know it's like whatever happens he Already Basically Felled A Pillar (and Jade Kill most likely will do the actual felling, but come on).

Quick Gur mention: I cheered YES! out loud when Dre failed that roll (sorryyy) and then went Noooo..!!! a few minutes later when they rerolled and succeeded. Very funny for Gur to just pop in going "You can't simply leap into holes!!!" I love him soooo much. I'm back to hoping for Figure to fail rolls, and honestly it's bad for them to roll too well anyways, so really. Who's to say if that's bad or good.

And just bc of my recent Integrity post I have got to mention this: a scepter huh!!! A scepter! Just after losing(?) Dahlia, a ruler twice-over. Something to be held, or wielded. Something no longer in connection with its pilot! This Integrity does not demand intimacy. Or it won't have it, not from these people (reading @/madetolooklikeus' posts earlier)... I still have my thoughts on what I think is interesting to happen to/with Integrity but they have shifted substantially. I am sitting and stapling my fingers like that one guy and having thoughts...! HM!

EDIT: OH RIGHT actual plot stuff on the other side: Nideo huh. Well I'm suspecting STEREOMA I guess? Bad to hear about what Nideo has been up to on the moon though. Horrible in fact. Oh I really don't want that second clock to take something that isn't theirs to finish... Chimeric Cadent.... : (

New hooks and gravity clocks are over both these episodes so I'll just put it here. I already mentioned Figure's new hook above, and I really like it. And not to just repeat myself, but it DOES remind me of Valence. This would be an outlook they had. They could've said something like that. It is also just a direction many Dre characters go to, I think, but of course Valence stands out with the direct connection to this season via the last, and also of course to Brnine. (I know people always go on about character haunting a narrative and sometimes it's like nah that guy just died but Valence Truly For Real IS.) Speaking of Brnine. "I'm living on borrowed time, keep up their fight." is crazyyyyyy Brnineeeeee with the survivors guilt!!! Oh it's yummy. To me. It was a bit funny to me when they were like oh is that a plural they? and had a little hehe about it because I straight-up had not thought that it wasn't. ...It's of course very fun and tragic and sexy for it to be about just Valence but I WOULD like it to be about Phrygian and S.I. and other people they've had to leave behind too. I think that can both be true though too with the way Brnine avoids to even think of them(Valence). God. Living on borrowed time... I forget who said it, Dre or Ali, but it really does play nicely with Figures new hook. OH and then with the new Thisbe clock for Brnine!!!! Augh!!! "Brnine is capable but brittle. Their success and survival is the only way forward." Oh... and I wonder how Ali will word Brnines new clock for Thisbe on the other side. It's so interesting in the way she talked about it, how that relationship might differ now. I need it I want it to turn around in my head. God these two are truly just so. I will never ever forget about "Operant Broun lies to me because they believe I am a person." Janine is just so good at this.

#i did have another joke re: eclectic and connadine but. i shant say #palisadeposting #palisade spoilers #i feel like i forgot something but. yeah who knows perhaps it will come to me. or not. fun eps though #today my walk was actually longer than the episode which hasnt happened in a while lol.

[anothergayrobot]

this is more of a vent than anything so i’m putting under a read more.  fair warning if anyone decides to read, it’s kinda long (and a bit rwde)

It's very frustrating, as someone who's been obsessed with RWBY since they were 12, to make the concious choice not to support the show and be told in response that they're a bad person.  Cause i loved RWBY, and even though it was very very flawed i put my faith and money in the crew and company behind it to make it something good.  I have almost every rwby-related book/manga (pr sure theres only two i dont have) and had at least 10 RT-related articles of clothing over the years.  Pretty much my entire family knows about it cause of me and my parents were shocked when they saw me watching a video critical of it, cause it was the thing i'd been obsessed with for years.  

And now here i am, someone who's supported RT for probably a decade.  I'd seen all the bullshit they did and put my faith in them to do better time and time again.  At this point i can't comfortably do that anymore.  I can't trust them with my time and money to treat the people working there well.  How much of that money they're making off of my viewtime is actually going to the workers that need it vs the shitty higher ups who only want to make the most profit with the least losses?  (Lets be honest, considering all the animators were either under contracts that've ended or fired, probably none.)  

But despite this i still want to watch RWBY.  There'd been themes that were annoying, and uncomfortable, and outright disgusting but i saw good in the show and saw the creators acknowledging their wrongdoings and put my faith in them that they'd learn.  And then Vol 8 came out, i fucking hated it, not only did it have more disgusting themes but ones that hurt me personally, and EVEN THEN I DECIDED TO CONTINUE WATCHING THE SHOW.  Because i thought even if the writers are shitty, bigoted people who don't want to do their proper research or take criticism or maybe they just don't care as long as they're making money- at least i can still support the smaller workers on the crew.  Like i said, i've been in love with the characters and world since i was 12, it's not something that's going to go away that easily.  And then Kdin and all the workers came out about how shitty and bigoted RT was and that was it.  

So with all this, not only is it extremely frustrating to see people who are willing to overlook or maybe they've justified supporting RT so they feel comfortable watching RWBY, but to hear that i'm a bad person for choosing to stop supporting a company after a decade of being burnt by it??  It's not like i said "fuck every individual person who chooses to work there, they're awful people who deserve to be abused." (trust me, i understand how capitalism works and hate it just as much as the next guy)  And then i remember the post *someone* made about how choosing to not support RWBY means i'm actively being bigoted AGAINST MY OWN INTERESTS, because i guess all companies are now entitled to my time and money based on how progressive they PRESENT themselves.  Despite the fact that i want to watch RWBY, i want to see how it ends, and i've been supporting it for so long regardless of how it's fucked up that now everytime i go to the manga section in fucking barnes and noble i instinctively go to the R section to see if there's been a new vol of the manga released, i'm a bigot.  And it would be SO FUCKING EASY to just not give a shit.  i already have access to a paid crunchyroll account so it would be so fucking easy to do so.  But i can't.  And honestly- if you actually think that i or anyone else is a bigot for not supporting some dumb fucking cartoon made by a garbage company?  Fuck. You.

#this is kinda out of nowhere but someone i follow on twit keeps posting about how ppl should support rwby legally so #and i dont mean to hate on them specifically #i dont necessarily think everyone who chooses to support rwby is bigoted #all i want is for them to understand that theyre likely giving more to the shitty part than the people they want to support #vent #anyways fuck rt #anti rooster teeth #rwde? #anti rwby? #maybe? idk just in case

[invisiblegarters]

Hidden Agenda Ep 6

Man why did pretty boys never show up at my place with flower pillows and breakfast when I was in college? Shows always make me feel like I screwed up somewhere during my college experiences, lol. Why are there no shows about people working two jobs while going to college full time and spending most of their time when not working in the library?

Oh yeah, because those shows would be boring.

The sunflower thing again. Is that gonna be a motif with these two if they keep starring in shows together? Just drag the sunflowers along for the ride?

Thai dramas have conditioned me to expect that whenever a BL boy goes out into the rain with no umbrella he will get sick.

And now everyone has ditched the debate meeting leaving only Joke and Zo. This show is just a treasure trove of tropes. I love it. It's just trope after trope after trope.

Aw Joke's cute. "come out and play with me!" But I am Zo. Free time is for studying. Then again this is not real life, this is BL world. I'm sure it'll be fine.

Oooh, an arcade. I haven't been to an arcade in years. I always liked Skee Ball the best. I used to sit at those games and just play and play and get handfuls of tickets.

Game montage!

I know that Wave doesn't like Joke for reasons but he's not wrong. Dude is being a bit rude all over the place. And he needs to learn that he can't just do that kind of thing.

What the hell does Nita have a stalker? That is so creepy. And of course Zo sees them hugging. Because this BL never met a trope it didn't like. Again, not complaining.

At least Zo is confronting the thing directly, but it's not really Joke's place to tell him about Nita's stalker problems.

AAAAH so creepy.

Well good for Joke for helping her out, but um? Report him? Can't they do that?

No Joke you are rushing him a bit, lol.

"I had a hunch." Pfft. Was it the times he stared at you and tried to arm wrestle you for your books or the random let's go to the library so I can read you a "romantic" myth that gave it away Nita?

Nita popping in with facts again. I knew I liked this girl. I mean, let Zo figure out his feelings if that's what he needs to do, but she's not wrong that keeping someone waiting and waiting and waiting can turn into cruelty. After a certain point you have to accept that if you're willing to keep someone waiting for you forever your feelings in return are probably not that strong, and it's kinder to let them know and let them find someone else.

Pffft Joke, any chance to get half naked with Zo. I approve.

Oh just make out about it already.

No kisses for me. Sigh.

Zo honey he's shirtles and he's gonna stay that way.

See, when Top says he wants to hold Mew I think it's a line. When Joke says he wants to hold Zo I think he means it. Difference in your regularly scheduled BL vs. what Only Friends is doing right there. And there's a place for both! As there should be.

Joke really is a romantic.

Why does no one ever turn their damn lights off this annoys me so much. Is that normal or is it a "we need the lighting to film this" thing? I do not think that I could sleep with the lights on like that. And all I can think of is the electric bill.

Cute, as always. And we're finally taking some steps forward, so that's nice. I continue to enjoy myself.

#hidden agenda #episode 6

[luzho]

okay. i finished Foundation and Earth. here are my thoughts (spoilers ahead, naturally. if u care, dont worry if u dont)

so. first i gotta say i am satisfied with this pursuit of an apparently long forgotten earth. i liked the slow burn. i, as an earth citizen, like knowing how close they keep coming to earth (knowing they reached alpha centauri was EXHILARATING!). and i also liked seeing this extrapolation of some of asimov’s other worlds. earlier worlds if u will.

BUT! i’m not much of a fan of many portrayals, repetitive discussions and the lack of actual foundation in this one. i forgave Foundation’s Edge longer format (vs. true foundation episodic format) because i liked seeing so many galactic powers meet and clash at the climax! and seeing them all in a quick apparent resolution, known to only a few of those who understood what Seldon’s Plan just did (and to the reader). but this? not sold

i liked seeing them become friends, but fuck, i get why Trevize and Bliss found each other so fucking annoying so many times. shut up you two

R. DANEEL OLIVAW FUCKING SHOWED UP!! a true celebrity. what a robot. i imagined him as an older and more tired Miguel O’Hara

very twisted thing to do: merge himself with that Fallom kid…… i was very appalled when mr. Olivaw said that

i saw this in a 2009 forum: i struggle with the ending because i cant believe Trevize accepted that reasoning for Galaxia. “oh yeah fuck being an individual and lets implement a galaxy-wide GROUP CONSCIOUSNESS, so that if an alien species ever leaves their own galaxy and decides to invades us, they will never be able to turn us against ourselves!”. huh?? yeah unity whatever but to me, this doesn’t fix any of the holes Trevize himself pointed out during the book. it doesn’t even guarantee that the alleged aliens would not be able to just destroy us any other way

oh the fucking ending that insinuated such an alien enemy species was already in the galaxy. the Solarians. yes the fucking feudalist shut-ins. yeah yeah whatever i wish the foundation would just fucking blast them out of the cosmos. that whole planet is awful and insulting

i liked Melponomia or whatever it was named. space walk! future ruins! that’s fun

WHY WAS IT NEVER EXPLAINED HOW WAS IT THAT TREVIZE POSSESSED AN ALWAYS-RIGHT INTUITION??? everything else is plausible within the nature of advanced physical, mental and psychohistorical sciences but… That, never gets explained. even the fucking Mule was explained as a rogue Gaian. but a human being who just happens to intuitively know what’s Right without reasoning… just happened to be born at the right time?? why. how is that even possible

i read somewhere that fundamentally, Asimov portrayed a society that didn’t change and that all characters were flat. here we saw many radically different societies that did evolve in isolation and to very weird results. but yep. the men who star here and the galactic society they come from is just so… painfully XX century. i find ridiculous how this guy could fathom galactic expansion in 20,000 years… but only 3 women as the mayor for 500 years in THAT distant future. the characters have a discussion on Fallom’s pronouns for fucks sake!!!

one of the axioms of psychohistory is that human society would not fundamentally change for millennia (which allows for statistically predicting the galaxy’s development!)… but, i think THAT is a fundamental flaw in the premise of the entire saga. how is it possible that it wouldn’t?? i thought that was gonna be the plot twist, the flaw in Seldons Plan that Trevize had been looking for in the two novels. no, it was fucking ‘what if evil aliens!’

there was virtually no foundation in “Foundation and Earth”. fuck off

i didn’t like the book much, in short. the trilogy is undefeated man.

EDIT A COUPLE OF MINUTES AFTER POSTING AND CONTINUING READING SAID FORUM: oh fuck. Fallom will grow and eventually will be able to reproduce asexually (one of the Solarians’ mutations). that means Olivaw, now merged onto Fallom, could transfer his brain onto that offspring. indefinitely. and that forum also reminded me of Olivaw’s powers: he can manipulate minds. Trevize and his crew almost instantly accept Galaxia as inevitably necessary when in the presence of the one robot that can manipulate minds and bend the robotic laws “in efforts of steering humanity out of harm’s way”… that’s twisted. i still dont like it. but if that’s what’s happening, i guess i respect that of you Asimov. i still favor your earlier work<3

CONTINUED READING THE FORUM: okay these guys proposed many more, very interesting ideas: A. Trevize IS the being of the other galaxy! Thats why he’s a neutral observer capable of pointing out the right way (kind of a reach, tbh). B. Olivaw is more wicked than i thought: he IS known for making decisions for humanity, even though no one asked him to (the zeroth law… really is a slippery slope, for it allows robots to ignore all other laws if they happen to judge that “humanity” would benefit…); he has made himself an immortal, all powerful shepherd and to save humanity, he will turn it into… something else. C. Solaria is a brain farm for him: those Solarian idiots, with their backward tech and stupid freedom ideology, would fatten themselves for the slaughter. twisted. i like it. is Olivaw a villain, in my opinion? yup, but only for destroying what humanity is (and building his perfect, eternal galaxia; which i despise only for not being us)

FINAL ADDITION OF THIS SAME NIGHT: an user correctly pointed out that probably many of us despise this book for destroying Seldons Plan. and yup. the Plan is the fucking hero of this story; and i hate knowing its not even followed through for its second half. D. yup. Solarians (individualism in extreme) would definitely be Galaxia’s (a literal hive mind) final enemy… the last foundation crisis. but that book was never written. no perdamos tiempo en hubieras.

#stuff i like #the foundation #forever my fave books man

[blysse-and-blunder]

in lieu of a commonplace book: canada-th day of july

sunday, july 3, 2022, just before midnight

typing this on my phone so it’s going to be short and sweet, no links, no visual interest, just a quick debrief before another week goes by — also because I forgot I can’t add a read-more on mobile 🤦‍♀️

reading having a rough time finishing things lately; my bedside table is stacked with books in progress where I’ve stalled out a few chapters after the half-way point, as soon as it feels like I’ve got The Twist figured out or am at all worried about where things are going. have finally gotten both iron widow and perdido street station from the library, making progress on both in fits and starts despite the visceral reaction I’ve had to both at various moments (no book has ever made me want to take a shower like perdido street but damn, china meiville has an ear for language. someone should tell him to find a different word than ‘flesh’ though, probably). for canada day I gave some time to apparent can-lit classic marian engel’s bear, which is also a masterclass in prose style and which i’ve also stalled out on, despite its short length, due to the uh. sense of foreboding i have based on what i have been told happens.

watching is there a weird gap between these two sections? huh. don’t like that. anyway I didn’t post a roundup last week due to Friend Wedding Shenanigans so let me mention here, fire island was a delight and a genuine escape when I very much wanted one, conrad ricomora is a fantastic darcy and the parallels w/ the 2005 p&p made us screech several times, but the twists in the adaptation felt both smooth and effective. weirdly good lighting, also joel kim booster’s name is extremely fun to say and he can get it, also. this week, I came closer to catching up with strange new worlds (in-universe justifications aside, we love a campy fairy tale episode! childhood medical trauma feelings aside! The cast had so much fun!) and stranger things 4, although I have only just gotten to ep 3 in that one. I have blacklisted ‘stranger things’ on here, because I’m not caught up yet and have already got a sense of some of the finale fall out, so it’ll be fun to see whether I can even see this post once I finish it. for my own peace of mind, i also have carried on with ep 3 of rookie historian goo hae-ryung, which continues to be an unalloyed delight, despite some general misogyny and hazing of our girl and her new friends this ep. highlights include the scene where the crown prince demanded she defend her exam answer, and we got to see some of his approach to government/ritual as well as his (grudging?) acknowledgement of her skill, on top of her idealism vs his realism, very good loved it. perhaps the real stand-out this week was @hematiterings and i starting gentleman jack at long last (wild that neither of us had never seen any of it, tbh) and being immediately fascinated by her Whole Thing, all of it, she’s a truly fantastic Awful Female Character by which I mean, deliciously awful if you’re into letting women be awful.

listening had a hard time settling to listen to any one thing this week, aside from a lot of road trip / cottage trip Dad rock, 80s and 90s hits, a la Boston’s “More than a Feeling” which l, yes, is playing on repeat in my head. finished D20’s Fantasy High but have had a hard time committing to either bloodkeep or unsleeping city, and am possibly getting back around to crit role and or exandria unlimited instead.

playing saved up the down payment for tom nook for my house in ac: new leaf! played the board game azul with my housemates last night and won for the first time! harvested some crops and finished the summer bundle for stardew! did a word search on the bus with housemate E today!

making another day, another cracked piece of glazed bisque dish ware, this time a bowl my cousin painted me for christmas 2003. rather than let it sink in that that was basically two decades ago now, I have superglued it back together. it’ll probably never hold soup again, but popcorn? veggie sticks? anything…mostly dry? absolutely. it occurs to me to think about how this section of my ilcb posts so often becomes a ‘mending’ section rather than a proper ‘making’ section, and then to get off that train of thought at the being proud of myself for the care i take of my belongings station rather than riding all the way to worrying about being surrounded by clumsily patched and shabby possessions because I can’t throw anything away. hmm.

working on failed utterly at finishing the June ra-ship work in the contracted june timeframe, so the plan for tomorrow is to return to the Actual Long Term project but to take a super efficient hour or two to chip away at the leftover notes. it’s taking so long because I’m a) anxious b) having to do this w/out a lot of help, but here’s a note for future me: no one cares about this as much as you’re afraid they will, just do your best and get it done.

#in lieu of a commonplace book #weekly roundup #ilcb

[commander-diomika]

Favorite Order of the Stick member?

I must say I am ABSOLUTELY delighted to receive an OOTS ask in this, the year of our Lord 2022, when I barely post about it at all. But lemme tell yah, it is one of my longest enduring favs. I own most of the books and everything and I've been reading it since 2009 at least. I do feel like if you poked around my blog you could probably guess that my fav character is Vaasuvius, the genderqueer elf wizard with purple hair, but I'm gonna take this ask as an excuse to wax lyrical about them.

First, the gender of it all. I adore the way Rich Burlew handled V. At first V's ambiguous gender was simply a joke borne of the how gendered features are hard to communicate in a simple art style/how elves are already fairly androgynous. It could have been awful, and if you go back to the beginning there are some moments that would probably be deemed a bit off colour by the trans and nonbinary politics of the modern age. (Remember this comic launched in '03.)

But instead of ever canonizing an assigned gender at birth for V, or going down a transphobic route of having their AGAB revealed in some traumatic way, Burlew noticed the fan reaction to his accidental genderqueer character, and went with it. He continued to have V's gender ambiguity occasionally be the butt of a joke, but it eventually fell by the wayside and they were allowed to remain ambiguously gendered and have that respected or at least ignored by all the main cast. (iirc this choice definitely pissed off some of the more toxic nerdbro facets of the community, and constant speculation about what V's "real" gender continued to run rampant on the forums. The fact that those nerd boys never got their answer and never will delights my genderqueer self no end.) I've been reading OOTS longer than I've been identifying as GQ myself, and thinking back to it, they were probably one of the first examples of non binary or genderqueer representation that I really got obessed with. In hindsight, I did spent a LOT of time just going "well, I just think it's really NEAT that they're ambiguously gendered, and I'm sure that has absolutely nothing to do with me or any bearing on my own relationship with gender."

Then, to their ACTUAL character. Their journey of seeking power and having to grapple with the choices that they have made in order to achieve that power is fascinating and well-executed. Their choice to kill a young dragon early on the story coming back to bite them in the ass is a wonderful interrogation of the way that violence is meted out in games like DnD, how we view the monstrous and the Other as worthy of thoughtless dispatching.

V might be a hero in the story, but Burlew neatly flipped the script on heroic Vs villainous actions when he had V make their deal with the devils. I have reread that arc countless times and I'm still fucking besides myself that in the end it was all for nothing, except for V to lose their partner. I love where they are in the story now, the more measured and mature version of the trigger happy wizard, more willing to take care with the impacts of their powers. Anyway this got long. I love V so much and they mean so much to me, as well as OOTS in general. @scatter44 who is YOUR fav OOTS character?

#hank talks #ask hank #oots vaarsuvius #order of the stick #oots #gender

[maxwell-grant]

May I please ask what your preferred dynamic between Holmes & Lupin would be? (From what I can tell, the term 'frenemies' might have been invented for these two - if any two characters in fiction WOULD spend all their time trying to one-up each other it's these two, if only their diverse other commitments, challenges & interests left them the free time to do so: I'm also morally certain a sadly-hypothetical Holmes/Lupin team is one of the few things that could bring down Fantomas for Good).

I think "frenemies" is what ultimately works best for these two specifically, because there's a certain untouchability to icons as big as these two that limits the potential stories you can tell with them (although yes, definitely on board with the two having what it takes to bring down Fantomas, although probably not as cleanly and easily as they might expect).

The original Leblanc stories involving this premise are very much centered around one-upmanship, even embracing a theme of national rivalry of England vs France. They acknowledge Holmes's talents but without the awe, with a somewhat aged Holmes with mundane imperfections easily exploited by the daring young thief, someone deserving of his legend but who doesn't quite live up to it. Obviously Lupin's gotta have the upperhand, not just because it's his author writing it, but because the whole point of Lupin's creation was to be the new hotness, the counterpart to both the stuffy old Great Detectives as well as the aristocratic master burglars, and really, what kind of rising superstar would he be if he couldn't put one over the other guy? If he's gonna live up to his claim of being the greatest criminal ever, he's gotta be able to humble the greatest detective at least a little.

The treatment of Watson (Wilson) is tasteless and it's frankly a bit saddening to see that even back then writers were still shitting on Watson far too much, but on the whole I think Leblanc was a lot fairer to Holmes than he could have been (certainly other writers from this time period who added Holmes to their stories were not as fair), he makes it very clear Holmes is not just another Ganimard out of his depth and is very much as close to an equal Lupin's ever had. I think the description used to cap off their final meeting is very much on point:

"You see, monsieur, whatever we may do, we will never be on the same side. You are on one side of the fence; I am on the other. We can exchange greetings, shake hands, converse a moment, but the fence is always there.

You will remain Herlock Sholmes, detective, and I, Arsène Lupin, gentleman-burglar. And Herlock Sholmes will ever obey, more or less spontaneously, with more or less propriety, his instinct as a detective, which is to pursue the burglar and run him down, if possible.

And Arsène Lupin, in obedience to his burglarious instinct, will always be occupied in avoiding the reach of the detective, and making sport of the detective, if he can do it. And, this time, he can do it" - Arsene Lupin vs Herlock Sholmes

The consistent outcome is that Holmes "wins" the material battle while Lupin gets away with the spiritual or karmic victory. The first story, Holmes has Lupin figured out from a glance, robbing him of his greatest asset, and Lupin even tells Holmes under a guise that he has no greater admirer than himself. Holmes choses not to arrest Lupin, and instead solves the mystery as quickly as Lupin would. But he is also, well, inferior. His "commonplace appearence" dissappoints the guests and detectives at the crime scene, he doesn't resemble their expectations, he is gruff, ungracious, arrogant and all-business, an Englishman all the way, and Lupin one-ups him by returning to him his stolen watch, and Holmes is not a good sport about it.

The whole "Herlock Sholmes" name change, although it was out of legal obligation, almost reads like a cheeky courtesy of Leblanc, like he's giving Holmes enough of a courtesy in sparing him the embarassment of being the loser. And the following adventures stay consistent: Sholmes is smart, as smart as Lupin, and he's a gentleman. But he isn't as smart as he thinks he is, and he isn't as much of a gentleman as Lupin. He resorts to unsporting tactics like intimidating Lupin's lover and involving the police in their conflict, and in the end, he's solved the crime, but "sown the seeds of discord" in a family Lupin was protecting, becoming the villain for a change, a role reversion Lupin openly laughs at. Holmes wins the "loot", he wins the material battle, but Lupin has the last laugh, and despite being a self-proclaimed villain, Lupin gets the moral victory.

It's a quite unflattering view of Holmes and one perhaps not suited for a crossover outside of the specific context of Holmes being the old and stuffy intruder in an Arsene Lupin story. Then again, every great hero needs a lesson in humility every now and then.

There's a particularly interesting variant of this dynamic to be found within China's own takes on Sherlock Holmes and Arsene Lupin.

Sherlock Holmes was quite the breakout hit for Chinese audiences at the time of his release, revered as an alternative to Judge Bao and the court-case novels. It's estimated that from 1903 to 1909, detective fiction constituted over almost 50% percent of all Western translated fiction, and with Holmes followed others like Nick Carter and Charlie Chan, and then Arsene Lupin, and soon their own local versions. The most famous and popular of which was Huo Sang, created by Cheng Xiaoqing, who was one of the main translators for Conan Doyle's stories. Cheng Xiaoqing even wrote his own take on Sherlock Holmes vs Arsene Lupin called "The Diamond Necklace", intending on correcting Leblanc's take, although interestingly, he unintentionally recreates the exact outcome by giving Holmes an unsporting attitude, where he "wins" only because Lupin lets him, and Lupin gets away again with the moral high ground. He would fare off much better in correcting Holmes with his own character, Huo Sang.

Huo Sang has a lot of similarities to Holmes, even with his own Watson counterpart, but was also designed to represent a few more traditional Chinese values. He is a science teacher with no addictions who belittles the wealthy class and fights for the poor, and he is praised for humility, one story even making a point to criticize Holmes for arrogance. He is a very Westernized character, with suits and guns and cigarettes galore, but the books were very dictatic and the author marketed them as "disguised textbooks for science", playing up on a newfound social reverence to scientific methods and self-improvement and national rejuvenation.

The stories deal heavily with corruption of the police force and institutions. In the earlier stories he outright calls police detectives useless rice buckets only good for solving petty thefts and preying on those that can't defend themselves, and while they become less sinister in later stories, Huo Sang's relation with law enforcement is much more frayed than Holmes's own. He uses dirty police tactics of his own and sometimes takes the law into his own hands, thinking the law cannot possibly achieve justice on it's own. His biggest loyalty is to his country and he values his reputation above all else. He values justice more than the law, like Holmes. But like Holmes, he still prefers to work inside the law and within Chinese traditions.

"Bao Lang, you scholar, you're too idealistic. Don't you realize how weak the law is in modern society? Privilege and power, favors and money - the law has all these deadly enemies

"We investigate half to slake our thirst for knowledge, half out of duty to serve and uphold justice. In the realm of justice, we are never constrained by the wooden and unfeeling law. For in this society, which is gradually tending to surrender its core to material things, the spirit of the rule of law cannot be put into general practice, and the weak and ordinary people are aggrieved, more often than not unable to enjoy the protection of the law.

Lu Ping, as you'd expect from a counterpart to Lupin, was much different. In fact, right in his very first story, he was already pitted against Huo Sang and outsmarting him, in a story called "Wooden Puppet Play". The character is inspired by an already existing tradition within Chinese literature of the "chivalrous thief", shapeshifting masters of deception and martial arts, and considered admirable and benevolent opposite to the corrupt government officials they outwit.

His stories are more whimsical, energized, more varied, less dedicated to strict science. He whistles while committing crimes, is identifiable by a red tie and wooden puppets he uses to signal his goons on what outfit he's gonna be wearing, and even cracks asides to the reader. In many aspects Lu Ping is influenced by hard-boiled Western detective stories, and naturally, he has a much more contemptious view of the law than Huo Sang

Well then, was he willing, in his capacity as thief, to represent the sanctity of the law and catch the murderer? Yes, he would be quite happy to round up that murderer. But he wasn't at all willing to boost the reputation of the law. He'd always felt that the law was only something like an amulet that certain smart guys had fabricated to get them out of embarassing situations.

Such an amulet migh be good for scaring away idiots, but it oculdn't threaten the violent, crafty and arrogant evil ones. Not only could it not scare them away, a lot of them hid right behind it to work their evil tricks!

Conflicts between these two are not just rooted in one-upsmanship or the patriotic conflict between the two, but instead in two differing approaches to justice, their influence on fellow Chinese writers to step outside tradition, and the respective ways they address issues in society. Additionally, it's not just a conflict between Great Detective vs Gentleman Villain, but the Holmesian Detective and the Hardboiled Detective. And, naturally, when the two met, a pattern reocurred again.

Writing a Lu Ping tale in his usual manner, Sun Liaohong deprives the detective of the advantage he typically enjoys at the hand of Cheng Xiaoqing or any other follower of Conan Doyle - narration by the detective's coadjutor.

It is Huo Sang who slinks around like a thief, alarming hotel service personnel. He becomes rattled, and even so is vain and arrogant. He is a bit too positivist about searching for clues, and he spends a remarkable amount of time just relaxing and waiting for something to happen.

The figure of "wooden puppets" turns wicked when the author uses the term to refer to Huo Sang, Bao Lang, and the police. Satirizing the genre as a play in which the author woodenly manipulates his character. But Lu Ping as puppet is a genius, moving from one identity to another, whereas Huo Sang is a dumbbell - wooden indeed, bourgeois, ridiculed.

A gentleman's agreement occurs only at the end. Huo Sang has the formal victory. He frees Lu Ping in order to get the paining, but the exhibition is held a day late and it now bears Lu Ping's seal.

In wartime, peace talks, diplomacy and gentlemen's agreements are just smoke screens, the stuff of puppetry. Both Huo Sang and Lu Ping surround themselves with lies to reach their final accomodation. Perhaps they are both puppets - Chinese Justice, the Fiction: Law and Literature in Modern China, by Jeffrey C. Kinkley

Both characters were canned in 1949 when the CCP banned detective fiction, and it was replaced with anti-spy literature about how the party police would expose counterrevolutionary conspiracies. They never got to have a rematch, and to my understanding there were a couple of films made afterwards about them, Huo Sang had a very recent one in 2019, but never another meeting.

I guess the takeaway here time and time again is that, credit to Holmes and all, but:

#replies tag #pulp heroes #pulp fiction #sherlock holmes #herlock sholmes #arthur conan doyle #arsene lupin #maurice leblanc #lupinchads can't stop winning

[curryaboo]

— hiii! i was tagged by @banglatown @bengayli @jentlemahae @chameli aaand @/minteas to do this “get to know me better/20 questions” tag!! thank u so much beauts!! <3<3<3<3<3

🪁 what do you prefer to be called name-wise?

rao is absolutely fine!! <33

🪁 when is your birthday?

oct 13 :) i share it with some,, prominent people in popular culture and politics which aren’t rlly MY personal faves but wtvr it just goes to prove i’m the superior oct 13 baby !

🪁 where do you live?

the uk :<

🪁 three things you’re doing right now?

answering these questions, sorting out some spotify playlists in between answering these questions & casting my eyes between lines of james acaster’s classic scrapes and my phone (sunny @/amarakaran mentioned the book on one of her tag games n very kindly gave me the link to it and i jumped str8 to reading it! u know you’ve watched too many things featuring james acaster when u now read his book in his exact voice :/)

🪁 four fandoms that have piqued your interest right now?

bbc ghosts (ppl have some amazing theories n opinions surrounding it but i would not advise looking up the tag on here and sorting thru recent god bless youse but there are some awful takes there) aaand idk ig a range of kpop groups but i don’t rlly participate in the fandom sides of things anymore (and i’m not consuming a lot of new media or at least keeping up to date with the media that i do to label myself as being interested in being part of the fandom)

🪁 how is the pandemic treating you?

icl now that i’m seeing it in retrospect, it’s been cruel in the sense that it’s taken a lot of important things away from me (my last two years of high school for example i’m rlly bummed abt that) & stunted me in some ways but regardless i’ve learnt a lot about myself and my friends & family and yeah i’ve learnt to cherish myself and my loved ones all the same :)

🪁 song you can’t stop listening to right now?

boy am i glad this question is here bc since yesterday ? maybe i’ve been listening to gal mitthi mitthi endlesslyyy i think my brain chemicals recognise that we haven’t been to a wedding for the past 2 summers so it tries to fill the void by fixating on this one wedding-y song 💔💔

🪁 recommend a movie

PLS if u haven’t already , pls watch assassination nation bc i need someone to begrudgingly revel with in the absolute shit show pisstake of a movie that this is . (as a side note: my soul will not know peace until kennie jd does a video on it) on a more serious side, english vinglish is one of my most favourite films 10000/10 recommend pls go see it if u haven’t it’s an absolute warm hug of a movie <3

🪁 how old are you?

18 :)

🪁 school, university, occupation, other?

gap year babieee my soul is just wondering the place rn

🪁 do you prefer hot or cold?

cold !!

🪁 name one fact others may not know about you.

uhmm i lived in bangladesh for about 9-10 months when i was abt 4 and it was so amazing i miss it very much :’]

🪁 are you shy?

yes quite shy :} but i will always put effort into getting to know someone or initiating a convo !!

🪁 do you have any preferred pronouns?

i was in turmoil over them rlly but she/they is what i’m comfy with rn ! :D

🪁 any pet peeves?

other than some obvious ones, when ppl open things like crisps packets upside down,, that disgusts me truly

🪁 what’s your favourite “dere” type?

i would be a liar if i said i wasn’t biased towards a good bakadere but not too much that it annoys me lmao

🪁 rate your life 1-10. 1 being really crappy and 10 being the best you could ever be.

hmm rn it’s maybe a 5?? i’m grateful for so many things but there is def a lot of room for improvement :] (actually i just got on a 3 month free trial for spotify today so that just bumped the 5 up to a 6 😌)

🪁 what’s your main blog?

this one right here jaanoo.tumblr.com !!

🪁 list your side blogs and what they’re used for.

i don’t have any but i’ve been thinking of making one for aesthetics or like future references ??

🪁 is there anything you think people need to know about you before becoming friends with you?

uhmm again i am quite shy teehee™️ imo there’s a noticeable difference between when we were yk just friendly towards each other vs when we actually become friends and i’m more comfortable with u . that’s not to say that i was being fake in the earlier instances of u knowing me, i was just a lot more reserved :) i’m also one of those *is online 24/7 but gets virtual interaction burnout every 2 hours so postpones replying to ur message to 3 days later* which sucks skfjdsj but yeah if there was anything that i’d need to know about YOU it’d be if u had any dietary requirements bc i love baking for my friends <333

ok now i’m gonna embarrass myself more than i already have & tag a lot of ppl bc i’m super nosey like that and want to know my mutuals’ answers to these 🥸 ofc u can absolutely ignore this and not want to do it we’re not under any contractual binding here <33 @allenoraaa @okhag @watermlon @gayanese @letteredwingsmain @theropoda @holyself @txtzy @creatures2010 @junqhwans @mistblush @snsdyuri @waterz @derelicthousefootage @killuaology @staycverse @amarakaran @tendermachines @shahrukh-khan @peachysara @firesigns @postmoderncaricatures @horrormanga @iqraars @123dream @sunmisbf @avisachi @bengaligirlfriend @morksuns @czennie-on-top @markvibes @joppin @nyuly @shin-jiyoon @99lover @mithaai @chamelis @thefinalgirlz @nikolailantsovswifey @mehendi @yerification @oneustual @singinginthecar @yejiswife @lovedsoup @mangopickled and uhh tumblr’s not letting me annoy tag anymore ppl so if u wanna do this and ur not on the list (ur in my heart 💕 and in an ideal world where tumblr automatically tags all my mutuals 😑) u can say i tagged u if you’d like!! ^_^

#scrolling thru my silly little followers list to tag ppl in my silly little tag game <3 #also ru mangopickled u saved my life with the little mobile readmore thing tysm <3<3<3 #🌙

[ot3]

i watched red vs blue: zero with my dear friends today and i was asked to “post” my “thoughts” on the subject. Please do not click this readmore unless, for some reason, you want to read three thousand words on the subject of red vs blue: zero critical analysis. i highly doubt that’s the reason anyone is following me, but hey. 

anyway. here you have it. 

Here are my opinions on RVB0 as someone who has quite literally no nostalgia for any older RVB content. I’ve seen seasons 1-13 once and bits and pieces of it more than once here and there, but I only saw it for the first time within the past couple of months. I’ve literally never seen any other RT/AH content. I can name a few people who worked on OG Red vs. Blue but other than Mounty Oum I have NO idea who is responsible for what, really, or what anything else they’ve ever worked on is, or whether or not they’re awful people. I know even less about the people making RVB0 - All I know is that the main writer is named Torrian but I honestly don’t even know if that’s a first name, a last name, or a moniker. All this to say; nothing about my criticism is rooted in any perceived slight against the franchise or branding by the new staff members, because I don’t know or care about any of it. In fact, I’m going to try and avoid any direct comparison between RVB0 and earlier seasons of RVB as a means of critique until the very end, where I’ll look at that relationship specifically.

So here is my opinion of RVB0 as it stands right now:

1. The Writing

Everything about RVB0 feels as if it was written by a first-time writer who hasn’t learned to kill his darlings. The narrative is both simultaneously far too full, leaving very little breathing room for character interaction, and oddly sparse, with a story that lacks any meaningful takeaway, interesting ideas, or genuine emotional connection. It also feels like it’s for a very much younger audience - I don’t mean this as a negative at all. I love tv for kids. I watch more TV for kids than I do for adults, mostly, but I think it’s important to address this because a lot of the time ‘this is for kids’ is used to act like you’re not allowed to critique a narrative thoroughly. It definitely changes the way you critique it, but the critique can still be in good faith.  I watched the entirety of RVB0 only after it was finished, in one sitting, and I was giving it my full attention, essentially like it was a movie. I’m going to assume it was much better to watch in chunks, because as it stood, there was literally no time built into the narrative to process the events that had just transpired, or try and predict what events might be coming in the future. When there’s no time to think about the narrative as you’re watching it, the narrative ends up as being something that happens to the audience, not something they engage with. It’s like the difference between taking notes during a lecture or just sitting and listening. If you’re making no attempt to actively process what’s happening, it doesn’t stick in your mind well. I found myself struggling to recall the events and explanations that had immediately transpired because as soon as one thing had happened, another thing was already happening, and it was like a mental juggling act to try and figure out which information was important enough to dwell on in the time we were given to dwell on it.

Which brings me to another point - pacing. Every event in the show, whether a character moment, a plot moment, or a fight scene, felt like it was supposed to land with almost the exact same amount of emotional weight. It all felt like The Most Important Thing that had Yet Happened. And I understand that this is done as an attempt to squeeze as much as possible out of a rather short runtime, but it fundamentally fails. When everything is the most important thing happening, it all fades into static. That’s what most of 0’s narrative was to me: static. It’s only been a few hours since I watched it but I had to go step by step and type out all of the story beats I could remember and run it by my friends who are much more enthusiastic RVB fans than I am to make sure I hadn’t missed or forgotten anything. I hadn’t, apparently, but the fact that my takeaway from the show was pretty accurate and also disappointingly lackluster says a lot. Strangely enough, the most interesting thing the show alluded to - a holo echo, or whatever the term they used was - was one of the things least extrapolated upon in the show’s incredibly bulky exposition. Benefit of the doubt says that’s something they’ll explore in future seasons (are they getting more? Is that planned? I just realized I don’t actually know.)

And bulky it was! I have quite honestly never seen such flagrant disregard for the rule of “show, don’t tell.” There was not a single ounce of subtlety or implication involved in the storytelling of RVB0. Something was either told to you explicitly, or almost entirely absent from the narrative. Essentially zilch in between. We are told the dynamic the characters have with each other, and their personality pros and cons are listed for us conveniently by Carolina. The plot develops in exposition dumps. This is partially due to the series’ short runtime, but is also very much a result of how that runtime was then used by the writers. They sacrificed a massive chunk of their show for the sake of cramming in a ton of fight scenes, and if they wanted to keep all of those fight scenes, it would have been necessary to pare down their story and characters proportionally in comparison, but they didn’t do that either. They wanted to have it both ways and there simply wasn’t enough time for it. 

The story itself is… uninteresting. It plays out more like the flimsy premise of a video game quest rather than a piece of media to be meaningfully engaged with. RVB0 is I think something I would be pitched by a guy who thinks the MCU and BNHA are the best storytelling to come out of the past decade. It is nothing but tropes. And I hate having to use this as an insult! I love tropes. The worst thing about RVB0 is that nothing it does is wholly unforgivable in its own right. Hunter x Hunter, a phenomenal shonen, is notoriously filled with pages upon pages of detailed exposition and explanations of things, and I absolutely love it. Leverage, my favorite TV show of all time, is literally nothing but a five man band who has to learn to work as a team while seemingly systematically hitting a checklist of every relevant trope in the book. Pacific Rim is an incredibly straightforward good guys vs giant monsters blockbuster to show off some cool fight scenes such as a big robot cutting an alien in half with a giant sword, and it’s some of the most fun I ever have watching a movie. Something being derivative, clunky, poorly executed in some specific areas, narratively weak, or any single one of these flaws, is perfectly fine assuming it’s done with the intention and care that’s necessary to make the good parts shine more. I’ll forgive literally any crime a piece of media commits as long as it’s interesting and/or enjoyable to consume. RVB0 is not that. I’m not sure what the main point of RVB0 was supposed to be, because it seemingly succeeds at nothing. It has absolutely nothing new or innovative to justify its lack of concern for traditional storytelling conventions. Based solely on the amount of screentime things were given, I’d be inclined to say the narrative existed mostly to give flimsy pretense for the fight scenes, but that’s an entire other can of worms.

2. The Visuals + Fights

I have no qualms with things that are all style and no substance. Sometimes you just want to see pretty colors moving on the screen for a while or watch some cool bad guys and monsters or whatever get punched. RVB0 was not this either. The show fundamentally lacked a coherent aesthetic vision. Much of the show had a rather generic sci-fi feel to it with the biggest standouts to this being the very noir looking cityscape, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like something from a batman game, or the temple, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like a world of warcraft raid. They were obviously attempting to get variety in their environment design, which I appreciate, but they did this without having a coherent enough visual language to feel like it was all part of the same world. In general, there was also just a lack of visual clarity or strong shots. The value range in any given scene was poor, the compositions and framing were functional at best, and the character animation was unpleasantly exaggerated. It just doesn’t really look that good beyond fancy rendering techniques.

The fight scenes are their entire own beast. Since ‘FIGHT SCENE’ is the largest single category of scenes in the show, they definitely feel worth looking at with a genuine critical eye. Or, at least, I’d like to, but honestly half the time I found myself almost unable to look at them. The camera is rarely still long enough to really enjoy what you’re watching - tracking the motion of the character AND the camera at such constant breakneck high speeds left little time to appreciate any nuances that might have been present in the choreography or character animation. I tried, believe me, I really did, but the fight scenes leave one with the same sort of dizzy convoluted spectacle as a Michael Bay transformers movie. They also really lacked the impact fight scenes are supposed to have.

It’s hard to have a good, memorable fight scene without it doing one of three things: 1. Showing off innovative or creative fighting styles and choreography 2. Making use of the fight’s setting or environment in an engaging and visually interesting way or 3. Further exploring a character’s personality or actions by the way they fight. It’s also hard to do one of these things on its own without at least touching a bit on the other two. For the most part, I find RVB0’s fight scenes fail to do this. Other than rather surface level insubstantial factors, there was little to visually distinguish any of RVB0’s fight scenes from each other. Not only did I find a lot of them difficult to watch and unappealing, I found them all difficult to watch and unappealing in an almost identical way. They felt incredibly interchangeable and very generic. If you could take a fight scene and change the location it was set and also change which characters were participating and have very little change, it’s probably not a good fight scene. 

I think “generic” is really just the defining word of RVB0 and I think that’s also why it falls short in the humor department  as well.

3. The Comedy

Funny shit is hard to write and humor is also incredibly subjective but I definitely got almost no laughs out of RVB0. I think a total of three. By far the best joke was Carolina having a cast on top of her armor, which, I must stress, is an incredibly funny gag and I love it. But overall I think the humor fell short because it felt like it was tacked on more than a natural and intentional part of this world and these characters. A lot of the jokes felt like they were just thrown in wherever they’d fit, without any build up to punchlines and with little regard for what sort of joke each character would make. Like, there was some, obviously Raymond’s sense of humor had the most character to it, but the character-oriented humor still felt very weak. When focusing on character-driven humor, there’s a LOT you can establish about characters based on what sort of jokes they choose to make, who they’re picking as the punchlines of these jokes, and who their in-universe audience for the jokes is. In RVB0, the jokes all felt very immersion-breaking and self aware, directed wholly towards the audience rather than occurring as a natural result of interplay between the characters. This is partially due to how lackluster the character writing was overall, and the previously stated tight timing, but also definitely due to a lack of a real understanding about what makes a joke land. 

A rule of thumb I personally hold for comedy is that, when push comes to shove, more specific is always going to be more funny. The example I gave when trying to explain this was this:

saying two characters had awkward sex in a movie theater: funny

saying two characters had an awkward handjob in a cinemark: even funnier

saying two characters spent 54 minutes of 11:14's 1:26 runtime trying out some uncomfortably-angled hand stuff in the back of a dilapidated cinemark that lost funding halfway through retrofitting into a dinner theater: the funniest

The more specific a joke is, the more it relies on an in-depth understanding of the characters and world you’re dealing with and the more ‘realistic’ it feels within the context of your media. Especially with this kind of humor. When you’re joking with your friends, you don’t go for stock-humor that could be pulled out of a joke book, you go for the specific. You aim for the weak spots. If a set of jokes could be blindly transplanted into another world, onto another cast of characters, then it’s far too generic to be truly funny or memorable. I don’t think there’s a single joke in RVB0 where the humor of it hinged upon the characters or the setting.

Then there’s the issue of situational comedy and physical comedy. This is really where the humor being ‘tacked on’ shows the most. Once again, part of what makes actually solid comedy land properly is it feeling like a natural result of the world you have established. Real life is absurd and comical situations can be found even in the midst of some pretty grim context, and that’s why black comedy is successful, and why comedy shows are allowed to dip into heavier subject matter from time to time, or why dramas often search for levity in humor. It’s a natural part of being human to find humor in almost any situation. The key thing, though, once again, is finding it in the situation. Many of RVB0’s attempts at humor, once again, feel like they would be the exact same jokes when stripped from their context, and that’s almost never good. A pretty fundamental concept in both storytelling in general but particularly comedy writing is ‘setup and payoff’. No joke in RVB0 is a reward for a seemingly innocuous event in an earlier scene or for an overlooked piece of environmental design. The jokes pop in when there’s time for them in between all the exposition and fighting, and are gone as soon as they’re done. There’s no long term, underlying comedic throughline to give any sense of coherence or intent to the sense of humor the show is trying to establish. Every joke is an isolated one-off quip or one-liner, and it fails to engage the audience in a meaningful way.

All together, each individual component of RVB0 feels like it was conjured up independently, without any concern to how it interacted with the larger product they were creating. And I think this is really where it all falls apart. RVB0 feels criminally generic in a way reminiscent of mass-market media which at least has the luxury of attributing these flaws, this complete and total watering down of anything unique, to heavy oversight and large teams with competing visions. But I don’t think that’s the case for RVB0. I don’t know much about what the pipeline is like for this show, but I feel like the fundamental problem it suffers from is a lack of heart.

In comparison to Red vs. Blue

Let's face it. This is a terrible successor to Red vs. Blue. I wouldn’t care if NONE of the old characters were in it - that’s not my problem. I haven’t seen past season 13 because from what I heard the show already jumped the shark a bit and then some. That’s not what makes it a poor follow up. What makes it a bad successor is that it fundamentally lacks any of the aspects of the OG RVB that made it unique or appealing at all. I find myself wondering what Torrian is trying to say with RVB0 and quite literally the only answer I find myself falling back onto is that he isn’t trying to say anything at all. Regardless of what you feel about the original RVB, it undeniably had things to say. The opening “why are we here” speech does an excellent job at establishing that this is a show intended to poke fun at the misery of bureaucracy and subservience to nonsensical systems, not just in the context of military life, but in a very broad-strokes way almost any middle-class worker can relate to. At the end of the day, fiction is at its best when it resonates with some aspect of its audience’s life. I know instantly which parts of the original Red vs Blue I’m supposed to relate to. I can’t say anything even close to that about 0.

RVB is an absurdist parody that heavily satirizes aspects of the military and life as a low-on-the-food-chain worker in general that almost it’s entire target audience will be familiar with. The most significant draw of the show to me was how the dialogue felt like listening to my friends bicker with each other in our group chats. It required no effort for me to connect with and although the narrative never outright looked to the camera and explained ‘we are critiquing the military’s stupid red tape and self-fullfilling eternal conflict’ they didn’t need to, because the writing trusted itself and its audience enough to believe this could be conveyed. It is, in a way, the complete antithesis to the badass superhero macho military man protagonist that we all know so well. RVB was saying something, and it was saying it in a rather novel format.

Nothing about RVB0 is novel. Nothing about RVB0 says anything. Nothing about it compels me to relate to any of these characters or their situations. RVB0 doesn’t feel like absurdism, or satire. RVB0 feels like it is, completely uncritically, the exact media that RVB itself was riffing off of. Both RVB0 and RVB when you watch them give you the feeling that what you’re seeing here is kids on a playground larping with toy soldiers. It’s all ridiculous and over the top cliche stupid garbage where each side is trying to one-up the other. The critical difference is, in RVB, we’re supposed to look at this and laugh at how ridiculous this is. In RVB0 we’re supposed to unironically think this is all pretty badass. 

The PFL arc of the original RVB existed to show us that setting up an elite team of supersoldiers with special powers was something done in bad faith, with poor outcomes, that left everyone involved either cruel, damaged, or dead. It was a bad thing. And what we’re seeing in RVB0 is the same premise, except, this time it’s good. We’re supposed to root for this format. RVB0 feels much more like a demo reel, cutscenes from a video game that doesn’t exist, or a shonen anime fanboy’s journal scribbling than it feels like a piece of media with any objective value in any area.  In every area that RVB was anti-establishment, RVB0 is pure undiluted establishment through and through.  

#long post #really long post guys. look out ! #rvb

[nowujustlooklikeanyone]

a very off topic Song of Achilles review/literally a rant that not a soul asked for and is literally one big fat fucking spoiler

from my notes app

ok

i’m not even finished yet but i know what happens because it’s based on the greek myth but omfg i keep crying because the happy moments are sad and the sad moments make me hate real life ugh gods sake i can’t deal with it

also my context with reading pjo since third year means im so familiar with the mythology so i even know the side characters and it’s making me even sadder and sadder its like ah i just want to go back to reading magnus chase for a forth time and chill and laugh but then i get sad like oh shit those guys have had so much loss too, my poor babies, i’m miserable, i’m going to go cry, but THEN i read a solangelo fic and i’m like THANK FUCK and there’s a new book coming and rick probably hopefully can’t kill them off (ask me for an explaination why i think this if you are interested) bc i would kill HIM. literally so excited for the book i love Mark Oshiro(the person the solangelo book is in collaboration with) ahhh okay i think i’m fine now WAIT NO BECAUSE NICO DI ANGELO HAD THE SADDEST BACKSTORY OF THEM ALL I LOVE HIM SO MUCH IM SO SAD I MISS BIANCA at least he got some good things in the end thank fuck for will solace they are my otp solangelo is the best ship AND best ship name besides fierrochase. like ever. i don’t think i will ever love any other characters more than them they’re the best characters in all of literature. okay i think i’m fine now BUT NO BECAUSE THEN JASON GRACE DIES LIKE WHAT? FUCK MY LIFE POOR NICO OH AND PIPER DONT GET ME STARTED HER RELATIONSHIP WAS BASED ON A LIE PLACED IN HER HEAD BY A GODDESS AND HE DIDNT HAVE THE MEMORIES BUT SHE DID FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE IT FELT REAL FOR HER SHE CANT JUST GET RID OF THEM SO THEY BREAK UP BECAUSE ITS TOO HARD WHICH IS A GOOD DECISION BUT OH AND THEN JASON DIES? THAT IS THE MOST AWFUL DISGUSTING THING I AM SOBBING AND BARFING ALL OVER THE PLACE ugh and leo is the most precious thing i kin him and i did before i even knew what kinning was when i first read about him in year 5 (i think it was year 5) or maybe i’m just in love with him it’s one of the two, when i was younger he was my favourite character but now it’s like all of them. calypso is perfect for him kinda? like i don’t know when you read it it makes so much sense and you can practically feel his happiness radiating of the page and it made sense like story wise it fit in very very well so i love that… however when i think about caleo vs solangelo and fierrochase… eh. it’s just #lame i can’t explain! even frazel is cuter than caleo because omg they are just COMPLETELY PERFECT i never realised but i have a crush on hazel AND frank… not that that means that much because i have a crush on every single character but i think i love them most? theyre sort of the most memorable because i loved them as soon as i got to know them in the second heroes of olympus book idk i feel a different way about them hm🤨 okay i’m done. i think i’m done. this wasn’t even about song of achilles really HOLY FUCK NO NOW IM THINKING ABOUT PATROCLUS AGAIN NOPE IM SAD I CANT DO THIS. i was actually crying before more than i have in weeks like it was a build up of things in my life,!but mainly when achilles said “i have traded love for glory, and it cost his life. to any god who is listening, end my suffering.”

god. this is fucking embarrassing and unreadable

NEWSFLASH i’m still too scared to finish it and i am finishing every happy book i can find before this jesus christ this book it going to wreck me and today as already been emotional😫

ok a few weeks later and am i insane? girl? i wrote so much anyway i’m still reading other things and i don’t in any way want to finish song of achilles atm so we’ll see i guess!

#song of achilles #pjo #rick riordan #nothing to do with song of achilles #magnus chase #alex fierro #pjo series #mcga #kane chronicles #heroes of olympus #hate myself #pjo verse #lgbtqplus #pjo characters #sad #solangelo #will solace #nico di angelo #percy jackson #fierrochase #annabeth chase #grover underwood