#probably need to reread the entire series tbh

[joleneghoul]

This is going to be less of an essay and more of a disorganized infodump where I just ramble about my favorite character Rip has a relationship with and that's Jeff Smith.

I actually find Jeff to be more important to Rip's entire story and character background than Booster. There will also be some mentions of Bonnie because the Rip, Jeff & Bonnie dynamic is pretty important.

Though partially that is because the erasure of Jeff is what has made Rip such a boring character to read within post 90s Booster Gold stuff.

Jeff Smith is probably one of my favorite characters nobody really knows about and comics forgot about (until recently, but I'll get to that).

To sum it up quickly, Jeff is Rip Hunter's partner in the broad sense of the term. He was Rip's mechanic, his best friend, his scientific other half, and even once a cowboy (howdy).

More under the cut because this info-dump got long!

Jeff was Rip's partner from Rip's first ever appearance in showcase #20 and stuck with him onward to the 90s. While the stories had Rip's name on them, Rip and Jeff were postured as more of a duo than otherwise.

Bonnie and her brother Corky were along for the story but not as front and center as Jeff and Rip, hell even the story starts with Rip telling them to stay home while him and Jeff test their time machine by going on a jaunt to the prehistoric together.

The time sphere was first and foremost a creation of Jeff and Rip's scientific and mechanical prowess put together. I find it more interesting this way than if Rip were some sort of solo genius.

Later within the Rip Hunter series from the 60s-70s Jeff Still plays the role of Rip's partner, even saving Rip's life multiple times over. A characteristic that is strengthened as time goes on with Jeff is that he is the more calculated and thoughtful one of the pair. This remains the case in the Time Masters 1991 series.

Jeff, much like everyone gets a redesign for this series and a bit more heft to his character motives/personality. This is a series (while not good) that follows a linear story line instead of a collection of adventures so it was needed. I honestly only reread issues of this series for Jeff because I like the way him and Rip's relationship is handled here, as it strengthens the fact that pushing others away can only hurt everyone involved and being alone can be worse than your fears.

He is introduced not only as Rip's partner but his best friend. According to Rip, Jeff is one of his only close friends on account of his obsessive personality. A lot of Rip's own characterization in my opinion mirrors someone who has OCD. His obsession becoming stopping what he saw the future became while in Booster Gold vol 1. Hell...Will Magnus tells him he's paranoid.

Specifically I think the relationship Rip has to his paranoia and fears vs the relationships he has with others is really interesting. This, while comes up with Rip's relationship to Bonnie, is shown mostly with his connection to Jeff.

Jeff throughout the series is the one to break through to Rip even as he pushes others away at everyone's expense. This is shown in the start when Jeff breaks Rip out of spiraling overthinking, bringing him back with his logical thinking. Then all the way to the end when Jeff comes up with the idea of how to fix the time sphere, while Rip was caught up in his own paranoia and had at that point pushed everyone else away or caused them to leave him.

ALSO Jeff has to tell Rip to trust BOOSTER, who in retrospect is Rip's father. I just find that interesting.

Now, I'm going to be talking about subtext which is just how I interpreted things not saying they were intentional but it's just what I picked up on. Also I have a lot to say about how Bonnie is treated I really hate it because she's so disrespected when shes supposed to be equals to Rip but- a rant for another time ig.

The relationship between Jeff, Bonnie, and Rip (and Cave but not really tbh) are at the forefront of the interpersonal drama. It's worth mentioning that every scene Bonnie has romantically with a man (like Jeff or Cave) is mirrored immediately with Jeff and Rip. Specifically usually when Bonnie struggling with her own relationships vs when Jeff and Rip are coming together.

There is when Jeff shows up to Rip's office in a green trench coat (not pictured in this panel bc he took it off) and sits on Rip's desk to tell him he'll be his partner. Then within the same issue Bonnie in her green trench coat trying to seduce Cave (who is HER scientific partner) by getting on his desk- but then getting rejected.

Then again when Jeff chooses to leave Bonnie (in bed) to go be with Rip VS the end of that issue when Rip solemnly makes the choice to leave Jeff (in bed) to go chase his own hubris. (later we see Bonnie make the choice to steal the time sphere and go live in the future and make her own life teaching people post nuclear war, thank god she didn't end up with any of these men after all that)

Also side note- When Jeff and Rip go to ancient Atlantis together that's practically the first time in issues we see either of them really happy since like, issue 2. The only thing that tips Rip off is once again when someone brings up his paranoia. Also they get these gay earrings.

Anyways at the end because Rip ends up alone, without Jeff who was his only close friend, Rip realizes that time changes everything and to not be so worried about the literal end of the world- and that hopefully in time even he can change and be a better person to others.

....WHICH I feel is totally ignored and thrown away later on when Rip returns as Boosters son and Jeff was erased from the picture entirely (Bonnie still managed some appearances in other media but Jeff did not- not even in lot so I've heard..which is odd because that was inspired BY time masters). Rip became characterized as the lone mysterious savant who always has a plan (or can easily figure one out).

Despite the reader knowing his secret that he is Booster's son, we do not tend to get to see much of their family relationship since Rip is more shown as a mentor than anything else. Otherwise Rip is used as a narrative device for stories to bring in a little time travel spice if Booster or that one treadmill isn't available.

I actually find the more interesting Booster and Rip interactions being the ones where Rip is shown to be overwhelmed, in the wrong, or confused instead of the "guy who knows everything". Sadly we don't get to see this often.

Jeff after over 30 years has come back to comics but not in a way I really like, he just doesn't feel like himself at all but neither does any of the time masters. We haven't seen him much yet but I'm just not excited because the reason we have this "loner" characterization of Rip still is because of the same writer who's bringing them back- and yet again its a case of "Rip is running around alone" "ah that's just Rip". Like I thought we went over why that's bad for him LOL.

Anyways I guess the moral of this infodump/rant is this:

FUN FACT TIME:

Jeff and Rip met at MIT where they were both top of their classes!

He is as smart as Rip who is classified officially as a super-genius.

Jeff according to the DC ttrpg books is as wealthy as Ted Kord was when he was still apart of Kord industries.

He also apparently has connections to the Metal Men and Magnus still while Rip does not.

#rip hunter #jeff smith #srry this is a mess im laying down w.o glasses and out of my mind #rip: hi me: WHERES THE REST OF YOU

[kierancaz]

Ok so I just watched episode 5 of the pjo show and honestly I might get dragged for this but I have some very real criticisms of it that I want to share. And if you enjoy the show that’s fine, I’m enjoying it to but at the same time I have a lot of issues with it and want to talk about it because I think being able to be real and critical of stuff that you like is important.

I think I’ll start with the pacing because that’s my biggest issue with it rn. It is moving so fast it feels like it’s just doing the spark notes version of the book. And ik we are all on the train of adaptations not having to be exactly like the book anymore, (which is literally just a thing that came about bc of this show and if it was any other show to book movie I think ppl would have a different tune but that is an entirely different conversation that maybe I’ll talk about later because I find it very interesting tbh), but the show is cutting out a lot of stuff that I feel was very important to the characters and in the books. I don’t know if this us because of the episode count or the episode length of if it’s the right, maybe it’s all three, but I feel like because the pacing is so fast the story is just breezing past a lot of emotional beats.

Which brings me to my next point. I have not felt a single thing watching any of these episodes. In fact I felt more about this show when I watching a single clip from episode 5 on TikTok than I did while watching the actual episode even at that clip. The show is so bad at building tension for literally anything. And I know everyone hates the movies and all that but the movies scene with Mrs Dodds had more tension and life than the scene did in the show. And I’ve heard people dispute “oh Percy has been seeing stuff all his life he probably thought that this was just that and didn’t realize it was real” but that has nothing to do with this. Why didn’t Mrs Dodds lead him away from all the other students? Why would she attack him in broad daylight when she’d aware that Chiron and a satyr are there? Or even if she didn’t know Chiron was there if she knew there was a demigod there she should’ve at least suspected the presence of a satyr.

The chimera fight was also very disappointing. Now I don’t remember exactly how this fight went in the books or in the movies but I don’t need to remember to know that this fight as equally tensionless and emotionless as the Mrs Dodds fight. And yah, they’re kids, it doesn’t need to be some epic battle or anything, but there should be tension. We should feel a least a little nervous even if we know what’s going to happen. Ngl. I don’t even know what to say about the Medusa fight bc I don’t even remember what happened. I don’t remember what happened in the books when it came to Medusa besides Percy cutting off her head and sending it to the gods. I’d definitely have to reread the books again before I comment on the change of theme surrounding Medusa and like half of the main theme of the series because Rick did some serious reconning with this stuff but unfortunately my books are lost somewhere in my basement.

I do think the Minotaur fight was fine really good though. The bond between Percy and his mom was built up really well and it was pretty devastating with that last scene between them. You could really feel the impact that Sally’s “death” had on him. However, it was so fucking dark it was hard to see half of what was happening and I’m gonna talk about that more later.

The next thing I want to talk about is the acting/casting. And before anyone says anything this has nothing to do with Annabeth being black or Percy not having black hair. Their characters feel flat and honestly I think that if it’s anyone’s fault it’s the directors and the script. I’ll use Walker as a reference because he’s the only one I’ve seen in anything else, in The Adam Project he was brilliant. Like there were multiple times where his performance alone had me in tears. That movie had me ugly sobbing at least three times and Walker was definitely part of the reason why.

In the pjo show he just feels… dull. And a tad bit lifeless which is baffling. How do you even make a character like Percy Jackson that, I’m sorry to say but, boring. Even the movies managed to give him more personality than the show, and I genuinely hate to say that but if I had to rank all the Percy’s show Percy is at the bottom which is so hard to say because Walker is perfect for this role but still he has more Percy Personality in that Kraft Mac and Cheese ad that he did with Ryan Reynolds. I do realize that part of this could be because we don’t have Percy’s inner monologue, sorta like what happened with Harry in Harry Potter, but there are ways to combat that like having a character be more expressive and stuff and that is also just not happening.

*(Also if anyone of curious my Percy Ranking goes 1: book Percy, 2: musical Percy, 3: movie Percy, 4: show Percy).

Speaking of expressiveness, Leah as Annabeth is also very disappointing because in her interviews she seems so Annabeth and I can see why Rick choose her but in the show all of her lines are delivered the exact same and the most emotion we get from her is a pinch of her eyebrows. And it’s a similar issue with Walker because he doesn’t emote that much either and neither does Aryan so I’m definitely thinking that it’s an issue with the directing instead of the actors. I don’t have much to say about Aryan. He’s ok, he has the same issues as the others of just not having a lot of emotion or very good dialogue/line delivery but again I don’t think that’s his fault and instead the direction of the show.

Listen I think they’re all incredible and the chemistry that they have in interviews is amazing. But the fact that I can see more of their characters in interviews than the actual show is insane, especially because it’s so obvious they all care about their characters and the world of Percy Jackson so much that I think if they were left on their own they could do this show perfectly but someone behind the scenes is stamping down their performances for the sake of the show taking itself too seriously.

Charlie and Dior were both great for the screen time they had. I mean not much to say about them tbh bc they didn’t have that much screen time but Dior’s scream after her spear was broken was literal gold. Adam Copeland as Ares was amazing and Lin Manuel Miranda as Hermes is quite possibly the worst thing that they could’ve ever done.

I know a lot of people were praising the change they made with Annabeth and Percy’s relationship and how that instead of disliking each other because of their parents they disliked each other because of bad personal impressions. But honestly I have to disagree. If I remember correctly Annabeth disliked him because he was son of Poseidon, and Percy disliked Annabeth because she was rude to him. And to me that made perfect sense because Annabeth was literally being indoctrinated by the gods/what they teach at camp for years/half her childhood why wouldn’t she hate Percy based solely on the fact her mom hates his dad? And I think that was actually kind of important as a character trait and I’m pretty bummed it was changed. (Ngl tho like I said earlier I haven’t read the books in a long time so I could be wrong about this, I’m just basing this off what other people have said about the beginning of their relationship in reference to the show and the books).

Also going back to what I said about the lighting ‼️SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 5 ‼️this really pissed me off because so many shows do this and it only started becoming a real problem in recent years. In episode 5 when Percy and Annabeth are entering the amusement park it is so goddamn dark I could not see what was happening. I have no idea what that machine over Percy’s head at the entrance was or looked like. I don’t know why it made him so scared because I could not see it. I could not see their faces as they were talking. I could literally barely see where they were when they panned out to show them walking through the amusement part and this makes no sense to me. You have this huge elaborate set that I would really like to see but it is so dark the only things I can make out is a ferris wheel and maybe a bumper car? I could not see shit, it was so annoying and so many new shows do this where the scenes at night are just so dark you cannot see anything. And I get that sometimes it’s intentional, you’re not supposed to see what’s going on, but this is not one of those scenes so why am I having such a hard time finding our main characters?

I really need to reread the books again and when I do I will add more to this probably or just remake the post. But so far I think the show is really mediocre and pretty disappointing, and I think it’s important to point this stuff out and not just heap piles of praise onto the show just because it’s written by the og writer of the book. We’re definitely going to get more seasons and I would like those seasons to be better than this one and actually let the actors shine and for the show to reflect what was so amazing about the books. Also, I just want to say that there are moments/stuff that I like about the show and as critical as I am of it it’s because I like the series, not because I’m just trying to be a hater. But seriously, I used to hate the movies with every fiber of my being but because of the show I have a new found appreciation for them, which I think that in and of itself says a lot about how the show has been so far.

#pjo series #pjo tv show #pjo #pjo fandom #pjo spoilers #percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson tv show #percy jackson show #the lightning thief #percy pjo #pjo disney+ #pjoverse #pjo tv adaptation #pjo tv series #pjo tv spoilers #pjo tlt #percy jackson and the lightning thief #annabeth chase #grover underwood #luke castellan #annabeth pjo #grover pjo #walker scobell #leah sava jeffries #rick riordan #aryan simhadri #riodanverse #percy jackson disney+ #pjo movies

[longsightmyth]

what's a book or series that you genuinely love? I'm always seeing your commentary on "not so great" (bad) books (no hate, love ur commentary) but I'd love to know the ones you like best.

Ah tumblr search function you fail us yet again (inexplicable fondness).

"The ones I like best" is a very broad category that I will try to narrow down I guess?

My favorite book of all time remains The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemisin. The other books in the trilogy are still excellent (I have yet to read anything by NK Jemisin that is not excellent) but specifically the first book of the inheritance trilogy remains my favorite. Other standouts of hers include the short story The Effluent Engine and the second book of the Dreamblood series, The Shadowed Sun (though, again! I cannot stress enough that I'm not even sure NK Jemisin could write a bad book/story if she wanted to!)

I routinely recommend all of Alyssa Cole's romances: not only are they incredibly inclusive, the characters navigate believable conflicts based around their characterization and not simply Because Of The Plot. Her contemporary romances are some of the few contemporary romances I enjoy: it's not usually my genre, but anything Alyssa Cole writes I will read. Shoutout to her expansion into horror, she's also one of the few authors who will get me to read THAT genre. Standouts include Can't Escape Love (novella), A Duke by Default, and Let It Shine (also a novella). Another author who I cannot stress enough: just go read her entire backlog okay. She's got historical romances in a range of time periods. She's got contemporary romances. She's got horror, god help me.

The other author who can convince me to read horror is T Kingfisher, aka Ursula Vernon. Her fairytale retellings are A+ and always contain horror elements, and she is another author who has yet to write a dud for me. Standouts include Nettle & Bone (NETTLE AND BOOOOOOOOONE), The Raven and the Reindeer, and The Seventh Bride.

Tamora Pierce is sort of a no-brainer here for me. Her books are not always perfect by any means, but they are always progressive for the time they are written and she continues to improve and take feedback into account. Plus you probably owe the existence of your favorite stabby ya lady to her. Tortall owns my heart because I read it first but she has a lovely magic school series in a different world where friendship is literally magic and social commentary the norm.

The Dragonriders of Pern is not for everyone. Much of the sexual politics in the early novels are, as I have discussed elsewhere, outdated, but the books evolved as Anne McCaffrey's understanding did, and there are soulmate dragons and impeccably rendered closed time loops (multiples! Happening at the same time!) and a constant discussion and tension of evolving social norms and the needs of society: at what point does technology become Too Much? Does it at all? What happens when the people in charge stop giving a shit about their responsibilities? Seriously the impeachment plot in Dragonseye/red star rising is nearly prescient. Most of these conflicts originate early on but don't truly come to fruition until later, and please take my word for it and simply don't read the books written by her son. They are bad.

The Witchlands series by Susan Dennard! Tbh I think this series deserves more love than it gets. It's not perfect, it can improve, but that's the thing: it routinely does. Dennard puts time and care into her work from all sides and discusses openly her early and middle mistakes, from a technical level to a 'needing a sensitivity reader' level.

Sarah Rees Brennan! Y'all know I love Sarah Rees Brennan, right? You should. She likes to explore tropes and genre convention and snappy, snappy dialogue. I haven't reread The Lynburn Legacy yet this year, but that's an anomaly. In Other Lands is pretty widely acknowledged as superior portal fantasy, I think. Tell The Wind and Fire was constrained by the book it was retelling and I think suffered for it, but that just means it wasn't as good as I personally think it could have been, not that it wasn't good at all. The Demon's Lexicon trilogy is her first series and yes, okay, it shows a little, but have you ever thought to yourself, hey. What if Supernatural was actually, like. Good. And wanted to actually explore in a thoughtful manner morality and what it means to be a person and nature vs nurture and how complicated your relationships with parents can be. Because if so, go give The Demon's Lexicon a shot.

The Rivers of London! We will excuse magic cops this once because they are specifically *magic* cops and because Nightingale literally fought nazis and Peter is pretty critical of the met in general. These books almost make me like London, and as a bonus Peter is fully aware that King Arthur was Welsh (look this is important to me okay)

Lockwood & Co! I am on the final book now and really enjoying my feral child soldier ghosthunters. I want to give them all soup. I want to wrap them all in blankets. My inexplicable attraction to the actor playing Kipps in the show is irrelevant to book enjoyment but I am still flabbergasted, by all accounts it doesn't make sense.

The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold is space opera. I love it. I admittedly love the Cordelia and Ekaterin novels most, but that is a matter of my eternal love for ladies who are generally nice but willing to fuck shit up, they're all good.

Artemis Fowl! Criminal mastermind child WHO JUST NEEDS FRIENDS OH MY GOD. I cried at the end of the third book. It's fine! We're all fine! Colfer does an excellent job of portraying the fairies as having a culture different from ours with real reasons that they haven't taken over the world, and if you don't love Holly you're wrong.

I have more but I'll stop here for now I guess. Whoops.

[flfverse]

Oh gosh, ok first things first, the obligatory (but still very genuine) please take care of yourself— no fanfiction is worth killing yourself over (no matter how much you or we love it.) At the same time, wildly excited that you’re still working on Free Falling regardless of everything happening in your life — I love it so much. Tbh, I’ll take any part of FLFverse in any form.

Since you said you were looking for asks, I have a couple of questions stacked up as I’ve been reading and rereading all your fics — no pressure to answer ofc, and idk if some of these answers contain spoilers or things you want to keep secret at the moment, but here we go.

Ok so history of subs in the hero world: in one of your BakuDeku fics, they watch this All Might series and you mention this female sub who was the first hero sub, but that there was just generally stupidity by society and the hero world that relegated her to sidekick hood (and then I think she left actually doing the heroics to manage her own agency? Forgive my memory. It’s been a minute since I’ve read it and I too am drowning in college.)

At the same time, however, from both Hawks and Deku’s POVs, there seems to be not any subs at all in the hero world when they’re heroes/training to be heroes. And forgive me if I’m wrong, but I sense from some of the BKDK fics, Deku is kinda seen as one of the first out sub heroes? Obviously there’s a huge gap in the middle between where Free Falling is right now and where the BKDK fics pick up that you probably can’t answer, but is it just like, an open secret in the hero world that Hawks is a sub? Is he one of several that can get by as long as they don’t openly admit it? Have there been hero subs before Hawks, or is her the first high profile heros who’s a sub, regardless of who knows? Have there been other high profile sub heros before Hawks and Deku? I don’t even know how much of that you can answer, but I’m just too obsessed with your world building and fictional history to not ask.

Ok so the next thing I have to ask, and I’m also guessing it’s a thing you can’t answer bc as an obsessive writer/reader of fiction, this is what I would center a plot point on (which, no judgement if you aren’t going to, I’m just obsessively theorizing in my free time): what are the legal ramifications of contracts? Hawk’s specifically. I remember that you posted a lot about contract’s legality, and a lot of Hawk’s seems to be in the illegal zone, ie, he signed it when he was underaged. Again, my memory is failing me, so I can’t remember if things like, there’s no dom specified or that there’s no end date specified could nullify the contract either. But then there’s the thing about permanent contracts. Is this like catholic marriage? Like, you can’t get it dissolved ever, unless under incredibly specific circumstances? Or do illegalities trump permanence? Is permanence itself even legal? But if it isn’t, why is everyone so afraid of that? (Personally, Im sensing Legal and Court Drama in the future, and if that’s the case, please know that I will literally lose my mind in anticipation.)

Anyways, those are things I’ve been stewing over. They might be too plot heavy for you to answer, idk, I’ve never done one of these before. But despite my absolute love of this entire world (but especially Free Falling), or rather, because of it, please take your time and prioritize your mental health! I think everyone who reads this series and loves it a lot would prefer it be a thing that’s made the way you want it to be in a way that’s supportive to you, no matter how long it takes or when the updates come :)

🥺 you’re so sweet 💖 and thank you for the ask!

SO, history of submissive heroes. basically that first hero sub (Morioka!) (she still needs a first name and a hero name shh) was doing it illegally/undercover, then once her secret got out she fought and won the right to keep being a hero so woo submissives can be heroes now.

[side note: i imagine that even she technically wasn’t The First, like when quirks were still new and heroes weren’t regulated, who was going to stop them? but it was still very rare bc of the general attitude around subs and it’s all very hush hush no one talks about that bit. it’s not like they were real heroes, after all 🙄]

so anyway, all that went down just ahead of aizawa’s generation, actually. his first year at UA was the first year the school started allowing submissives (not every hero school did right away, those requirements took a few years). as we know, aizawa and yamada are switches. you know who isn’t? oboro :3

i would like to write about that sometime. just. rahhh. that’s part of why aizawa is very pro-sub (the rest is, you know, basic human decency).

oh—i forgot about the fate of morioka up there. she was actually dropped by her agency for the scandal and did her best working with other heroes/on her own for a little while, but ultimately it got to be too much and she retired early to find a different career. unfortunately not the most feel-good story.

as for how many submissive heroes there are now, during Free Falling, i’d say there’s a handful. but like morioka, quite a few burn out or never really climb the ranks that much and fade into obscurity. on the face of it discrimination is Bad and Not Allowed, but toxic workplaces, y’know? i don’t think i’ve said it outright, but i’ve definitely alluded to ryukuu being a sub. she’s the highest ranking one known to the public and gets a ton of shit for it, but from what we see in canon she doesn’t seem to be too big on the spotlight anyway? i don’t see her as being very activism-minded, she’s just trying to do her job, not be the face of a movement, and probably avoids discussing it publicly just for the sake of her own sanity. valid.

hawks is technically going stealth as a switch. he just dodges the question if it’s brought up or says something vague. the fan conspiracy theories are probably wild (oh no, now i’m thinking about FLFverse rpf xreader fic), but among heroes it’s kind of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” thing—at least the ones that aren’t dicks.

hawks’s image is very carefully crafted by the commission and they do not want that part of him to become undeniable fact because it would damage his reputation. especially after everything he’s accomplished. the first hero to make top ten before he’s twenty is a submissive? uh, yeah, right. that would go over well.

beyond that, i think it’s pretty much just deku who’s high-profile. and kaminari and jirou to a lesser extent (and whoever else i’ve decided subs, there’s 20 of them leave me alone). their whole class is really famous for obvious reasons, so it’s kind of a given. i’d like to say that deku being, you know, who he is starts to change some minds, and he probably does, but not so much that it takes all the fun out of playing with the social hierarchy, right? ;D change can’t be that easy.

hm, gotta think about the second question. if there is to be Legal And Courtroom Drama, it would be in part 4, which is a huge amorphous blob in my brain right now. i know some legal stuff has to happen/change, but i’m not sure if i’ll focus on it or not yet. tucking that in my back pocket!

anyway. what i can say about that right now is that hawks’s contract is very illegal, but pretty much solely bc of the underage signing, especially given that it’s permanent. permanent contracts are like marriage licenses. they’re the only ones that have to be registered with the government in order to “count” and they are harder to get out of, but not quite catholic-marriage-level. and yes, illegalities would trump permanence.

the question is….do you trust the hero commission to be honest with either the government or hawks?

there’s also the whole deal that separate from the D/s contract, hawks still has his canon contract where the commission bought him from his mom. what’s up with that? time will tell.

there’s also other legal/ethical/etc issues going on which, of course, you all won’t know about until the end of part two. :) i can do ~intrigue~, i promise

#flfverse #free falling #d/s au #asked and answered #aossimusings #thank you again for the ask! i wrote the whole thing like the day you sent it but i had to look up morioka’s name lol and i was too lazy #and then i tweaked some things #but yeah yep yes #i’m glad you like the fics <3 #i actually tentatively had a breakthrough on my first-priority fic project #so if that keeps up and my motivation hangs around after so i can write free falling….. #fingers crossed and all that

[sparkysparklightning]

Okay listen

Yes this is the “longass post” I mentioned in my previous Tratie HoO post hgjkfsh I decided to publish it and see what y’alls think!

Anyway, I saw this post, like...a week ago?? And all of a sudden, everything related to the HoO series that I’ve held back just came charging full-force. So I’m here to grace y’alls with my ideas and thoughts about HoO.

Honestly, if I talked abt everything that went off-kilter in that series, we’d be here all day, so I’ll just stick to the mere basic point that was also the basis of my HoO conceptual rewrite idea, and that point is...

Percabeth shouldn’t have been a part of the Seven.

Yeah yeah, half of you guys must be throwing stones at me, the other half is probably nodding in agreement. But seriously, Percabeth already had their time to shine--they had an entire five hecking books, they ( and their characterizations ) definitely do not need another five more, yeesh! I love Percy and all, but pls, five more books in which his and Annabeth’s and their relationship’s character were diminished? Yeah, no thanks. 

I love Percabeth, but in HoO, they became so...bland??? Idk how to properly explain it, but I didn’t like what happened to their character arcs at all lmaoo

But then, I got an idea: what if, instead of Percabeth, it was TRATIE who was a part of the Seven, instead? 

Now this idea was inspired both from the post mentioned above plus another post that talked abt Tratie as a part of the Seven in a bit more detail, which I cannot find no matter how many times I scoured the rr-crit tag ( smh, if anyone else knows of this post, pls lmk and link it, I’m sorry 😭 )

And yeah, I know a lot of ppl have been hopping on the ‘Nico & Reyna as part of the Seven’ train when it comes to making HoO rewrites, but see, hear me out, just think about the potential of Travis Stoll and Katie Gardner--two children of minor gods--getting their spotlight in a series of their own ( plus more indirect spotlight on the minor gods in question ) plus a slowburn ( kinda ) relationship?? Heck, I already have some ideas for this, that I’ll jot down below the cut along with some conceptual ideas about the rewrite. If any of y’alls end up reading this whole post, can you...just, idk, lmk whether it’s a solid plan and if I should actually take it forward and plan on writing it? Bc I’m being rlly indecisive rn ahaha 😅

So. Tratie instead of Percabeth. Let’s take a closer look at the potential:

Honestly, I hate to admit it, but Percabeth didn’t do much to the plot as a whole, so it wouldn’t make much of a difference if they’re taken out. Though there are some things they did to move the plot forward, although little, and that’s what I’ll touch on before I discuss Tratie in general:

( oh yeah, disclaimer: I read the HoO series about five years ago?? I’m trying ( key word: trying lmao ) to reread the series currently, but it’s just not sticking lmfao. Probably the main reason why I wanna rewrite it so badly, other than the two posts that boosted my inspo )

--> THE ATHENA PARTHENOS: Annabeth went on a solo quest in MoA to track down the Athena Parthenos bc it was crucial to sealing the rift between Greek and Roman. BUT, any other demigod could go on that same quest instead of her. Like Piper, whose mother had told her that she was essential to sealing the rift but never ended up doing anything for it bc RR just...flopped idk; or someone like Leo who has similar abilities as Annabeth and would be able to outsmart Arachne in a similar fashion as well; or even Reyna could come earlier than she did in the series and work with the Seven or some of them to track down the statue? Idk, there are lots of options, tbh, there’s honestly not that much relevance to Annabeth being the daughter of Athena so she has to track down the Athena Parthenos. I mean, sure there was the Arachne ordeal, but other than that, nothing major rlly happens

Percy, himself, didn’t rlly...do much for the entire series, other than fight. I mean, there were some minor aspects of HoO where his powers or relations to other characters vibed well, so we’ll check those out:

--> KANSAS: In MoA, Jason and Percy fought each other bc they were forced to. That could easily happen even without Percy. Instead, of Percy, it could be Hazel and Jason fighting each other due to their connections as the Big Three children being taken advantage of. It could be sort of like a mirage of Thalia and Percy’s fight back in TTC. Plus, again, it gives way for more bonding and discussion after between two other characters that never got much interaction time together in canon

--> KYM AND POLYBOTES: okay this is the scene that takes place in BoO where Percy and Jason face off against Kym and Polybotes. But, Percy...does literally nothing here other than get poisoned lmao. It was Jason who did the heavy-lifting bc Percy got a t a d bit arrogant, thinking he was invincible underwater. So honestly, you could take out Percy and replace him with another member of the Seven (who would seem reasonable, in the context, so no Piper or Annabeth or Leo, etc bc none of them can survive even a minute under the water and doesn’t have a way like Jason to breathe). Tbvh, I can see Frank and Jason go together to face Kym and Polybotes. Frank can shapeshift into a sea-creature while Jason can use his ventus vacuum thingie, so it all works out, and nothing too drastic is changed! 

There’s probably a couple more of little scenes where Percabeth was mostly significant in some way to the series, but let’s be very honest...there weren’t a lot of them. So long story short: if you want to, you can easily take out Percy and Annabeth from the series and replace them with another pair and it wouldn’t be the end of the world, lmao.

Now onto Tratie ideas in relation to if they were a part of the Seven instead. Here are some bullet-points of some ideas that I thought of:

It could be a lovely parallel, where when Jason woke up, all he could remember was Thalia, so when Travis wakes up, all he remembers is Connor, his younger brother. I think it would be nice bc it shows that not everything has to be romantically coded like how Percy only remembered Annabeth in canon. It would emphasize Travis and Connor’s sibling bond more so, and I can just imagine Connor giving Travis reuniting noogies and trying not to burst into tears in MoA, and Travis whispers something like “you’re here” and the floodgates open, and it’s just crying and hugging and the like 😭😭

Katie is a daughter of Demeter, so she would have a somewhat connection with the Earth aka Gaea, hence there is now a plausible reason why Gaea would want to spill her blood to rise. Also, when the time comes to defeat her, instead of charm-speaking her to sleep or whatnot, Katie could be a significant crux to the primordial’s defeat bc her powers tie in with the land/earth, so she could use her powers to forcibly push Gaea back into the earth.

 Instead of them going to Tartarus, they end up going to Cupid (so some other pair will fall into Tartarus instead), and instead of a stupid forced outing, Cupid takes one look at them, senses their underlying emotional tension and goes “oh boy, yeah, you two have a lot to talk about” and actually (tries to) help guide the two into confessing the feelings they’d hidden, instead of being a little shit like in canon. Plus I just adore the idea of Travis calling Katie “flower” after they get together, and Katie calling him “key” not just bc he steals stuff but also bc he’s like the key to her heart and all that sappy bs, I literally love them sm 🥺 literally such wonderful nickname opportunities that have a deeper meaning

Travis and Jason might have a subtle rivalry, but unlike Percy and Jason’s weird ‘I’m stronger than you’ thing, it could be bc Jason felt a bit jealous of how everyone was looking for Travis, including his sister, while no one pulled much of an effort to look for him? It’d give an opportunity for them to talk things out and end up growing closer after talking

Juno/Hera saw Travis’s need, his desire, to redeem the Hermes name and as a result, used that fire to kickstart her plan by plopping him in Camp Jupiter while Jason got switched to CHB. Hence there is now a reasonable concept as to why the switch happened, because honestly, the whole Percy-Jason switch didn’t make all that sense bc Jason, yes I can sort of understand why he got switched, but Percy?? There was literally no solid reason that was explained as to why he was chosen to be switched lmao. But with Travis, Juno/Hera takes pity on him and uses this as an opportunity for him to bring glory to the Hermes name after the Titan War

I have a ton more ideas for the rewrite as a whole tbvh. Stuff relating to ways Gaea could actually be defeated, more on Octavian’s backstory and why he hates the Greeks so much, and other tiny scenes between the demigods that could bring about more characterization and details to their arcs.

The only problem is...with the way this is going in my head, I think things might end up diverging more or less from canon as the series progresses? Like there will obv be the canon scenes, but there might also be non-canon scenes that might change the series plot a little bit?? And idk how many of y’alls will appreciate that lmao ghjksfgh but I have started writing it. It’s a super long process lmfao, so idk when I’ll publish it (probably on Ao3, if I do), but I just wanted to let y’alls know bc a lot of you guys liked my first post abt this and I saw your lovely tags and it made me super happy and honestly, those tags are the reason why I even started writing this in the first place! So thank you guys so so much for the positive feedback!

#also I need to figure out how Katie's powers will relate to Gaea's defeat bc I totally want that to happen #anyways #lots of stuff to think abt #lmaooo #rr crit #anti rr #tratie #travis stoll #katie gardner #jason grace #piper mclean #heroes of olympus #hoo #anti percabeth #again sorta but not really lmao #kit speaks #sparkysparklightning #frank zhang #hazel levesque #kit writes #Kit stuff #the demidudes #hoo rewrite #wow this post did turn out to be as long as I intended #w o w #anyways if y'alls are interested I can try to make like a post abt various things that might be canon divergent in the rewrite??? #but only if y'alls want ahaha #or maybe I might just do it just bc #idk lmfaoo we'll see

[withacapitalp]

i’m gonna be real here, and i mean this in the kindest way - i loved your wayne & steve series so much when i first read it, and i just stumbled on it again and saw it was still updating and thought ‘now why didn’t i subscribe???’ and then went back to reread and catch up, and then i got to the end of the fifth fic and remembered why - it seemed like you were turning it into one of those fics where billy is a rapist, who abused & assaulted steve, & you didn’t tag that you would be using him as a villain, and in your end notes you said that arc would feature heavily in your next fic, but then i go to that fic and i don’t see any relevant tags or warnings and i didn’t want to read and get even more attached and then be caught off guard, again, by such a harsh depiction of one of the characters without any warning.

idk. i get that a lot of people don’t like billy, and that’s fair and it’s up to everybody which characters they do and don’t jive with. it’s not even like i haven’t read and enjoyed fics where billy is set firmly as a villain or presented in a really 2 dimensional way, because i have. but it’s different when you go into a fic, wanting to read about a certain dynamic and certain characters, and are blind-sided with hate towards another character that you like - especially when the author has decided to depict that character sexually assaulting somebody and implies that the character is a repeat sexual predator. that’s really heavy to be sort of thrown into on a fic where you’re not expecting to see that character at all, you know?

like i said, i really enjoy most of your fics and i think you’re a great writer. i guess i’m just disappointed that i’ve now TWICE had the experience of happily reading your fic and then being blindsided by such a dark depiction of a character who wasn’t even tagged. it’s really disconcerting and upsetting. ao3 has a great tagging system and i wish you’d chosen to use it a bit more effectively, i guess.

looking at your sixth fic in that series, it’s not tagged for domestic violence, sexual assault, anything like that, and it also has no tags for billy, a past steve/billy relationship, or even just a general ‘this fic is not billy friendly’ tag. looking at it i’d never think you’d have any of that sort of content in it, especially because you DID tag for /other/ potentially triggering content, but then in the end notes of the fifth fic you said that the sixth fic would deal very much so with that introduced plot line. it just sucks because i’d probably read it if i didn’t feel so much like i was clicking on a youtube jump scare video.

Long ask and long reply so I'm going to put my thoughts under a read more but TL:DR This is the kind of constructive criticism that is incredibly valid, and I appreciate your courage and energy that you put into writing all this. Also I'm going to get slightly personal here so if you don't want to read that just continue on

This is like, strangely, the fourth or fifth ask I've gotten about A New Perspective today, which has forced me to look at it again and admit to myself why I stepped away from it.

I use my fics to work through a lot of my own personal things. This fic series and the relationship that Billy and Steve have in it is based entirely on a real life relationship I had with an ex. They have an incredibly complicated sexual relationship that is inherently unhealthy for both of them. Not just Steve. Not just Billy. Steve does not think of himself as a victim, he sees himself as the problem. In reality it's both of them. I think Billy Hargrove is a really interesting character, I don't talk about him a lot here because he's really divisive in the fandom, and I don't need to get involved in Billy drama tbh.

For this fic he isn't the villain to Steve, even if he might seem like a monster, and I hope that gets across when I eventually come back to this series. I took a break from it for a lot of reasons, but part of it is needing to reevaluate what I'm getting out of writing it, and if it's healthy for me. I don't know if this is an exceptionally harsh depiction of Billy, it's not necessarily positive, but it does have a lot of different layers. Finding a nuanced way to portray that relationship (and a way to work through my own thoughts and feelings about mine) isn't easy, but I don't really think I write it in a two-dimensional way. I'm not sure if you were saying I did, but if you were, I'll just have to respectfully disagree and leave it at that.

As for tags, well this one I just have to own up and say I'm sorry. I didn't really know how to tag it, because I still didn't know what to consider for them. I don't really know how to consider my own relationship, which is what this is based on. So tagging it with things like sexual abuse or with things like SA...I don't know I just haven't worked through if it would even be considered that?

Regardless of my personal journey with my writing though, there's outside readers who have their own journeys. It's something that you explained in a really clear way, so I appreciate that you took the time to make me see where I was leaving a gap. I don't want people to think it was intentional? I don't think of my fics as a 'YouTube jumpscares' but more as a complicated web of a lot of things I work through in my own mind.

I put the note on my fifth fic to let people know that there would be a lot of complicated stuff going on, and so they could choose to opt out or not, but I understand that wasn't enough. If anyone got triggered or upset by what I wrote, then I do sincerely apologize for that. We talk a lot about curating your own online experience, but to do that you also have to be properly prepared for the experiences you go into. Where I didn't help contribute to that is on me.

As for people who might be worried about the series mentioning this a lot after this? It won't. I work through things in my own way, and I knew I wanted to make this part of Steve's journey, but it's not his entire journey. After this there's just a lot of fluffy parts like the first few one shots again. This was just something I needed for myself.

It's funny, I owe that series a lot, but I honestly just kind of hate it right now.

I don't really know if 'being blinded by hate' is really fair to say about the relationship I'm trying to portray, because I don't hate Billy and neither does Steve. There's love there, and a wish for something better that they'll never get to have, and I hope that you can stick with it to see how it all plays out. I like to think I'm writing for more than just bashing on a character. As for just dropping it in, well I've known what I want to do this entire time, but I can understand where people would come from thinking it was just dropped in.

I'm sorry if you're disappointed, but don't forget, writers are just humans too. We do things and we make mistakes, and this was just one of mine. I think I have everything properly tagged on the series now? If you feel differently though, you're welcome to DM me. I don't bite. I struggle with ao3 tagging in general, so I'm always grateful when anyone suggests tags I should be adding. Someone told me today I should add a genderfluid Steve tag to my latest fic, and I didn't even realize I forgot to.

Anyways. Long and probably too personal, but I figured I wanted to explain best I could. If you don't care about any of that, well, the tags got added.

#personal #Like really fucking personal #I don't really wanna debate about billy #so please no one try to come talk to me about him #tw: sa mention #tw: abuse #tw: unhealthy relationship #tw: domestic violence #but anon thank you for taking the time to write all that #I am....a little overwhelmed currently #Liam speaks up

[smalltownfae]

For the book bait ask game: 22-24, 27-32📚📖

I don't know if the dash means you want me to answer all the questions in between but I am gonna suppose you don't (?) haha but then why the comma... well, I will answer them all then.

22. would you want your favorite book to be a movie?

My favourite book is unfortunately a movie. More than one even. I am talking about The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Do I want a better and more accurate adaptation of that? Yes, yes I do. It isn't even that hard, come on. You need to go all out on the visuals for that work about art. You need exuberance in every setting and every piece of clothing. It needs to look glorious and you need at least 3 amazing actors for the main roles.

If I consider the entire Realm of the Elderlings series I would like to see a tv show of the Liveship Traders and the Rain Wild Chronicles. The stories are too long for a movie series, but I think those would look amazing as a show. The Fitz books would be harder to adapt and I fear the white washing even though it seems we are getting better about that in casting nowadays.

23. I answered this one here.

24. what book to movie adaptation to you dislike?

I don't remember watching many adaptations of the books I read tbh and I am less picky with movies. I need to go check the movies I watched haha. I don't like Eragon, but I didn't like the book either so... that is the popular answer people give to this question and I can't even use it. I think the first Narnia movie was an improvement on the book, but I don't really like the Chronicles of Narnia either way. I didn't mind the His Dark Materials movie or the Percy Jackson movie.... I'll say The Cat in the Hat! Omg that movie is terrifying and my sister loved it as a kid. Do you know tha trauma of having to see the face of that human cat hybrid almost everyday on your tv??? And hear that voice??? Burn it! Kick it to hell where it belongs. The kids' book is ok.

27. I also answered it here.

28. is there a book that made you cry?

You know there is. I cried in almost every book in the Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb. I think only City of Dragons didn't make me cry on my first read through. Now I don't cry as much, but I still do (especially in the Fitz books). I remember crying reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid too and at the end of As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCan. I know there are way more books that made me cry because I used to cry a lot with books and movies. I don't cry as much anymore though. Unfortunately, because I like when books cause a big emotional impact on me.

29. is there a book that made you laugh out loud?

Yes, the Realm of the Elderlings series again. People keep talking about how sad these books are and ignore how funny Hobb can be. Maybe that kind of humour only works for me, but I laughed out loud with many of the character interactions in these books.

Oscar Wilde makes me laugh a lot too. Recently I reread The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest and both those works made me laugh. Most Discworld books by Terry Pratchett also make me laugh a lot and so does Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I believe I also laughed out loud reading some of the First Law books by Joe Abercrombie. If an author is from the UK I will probably laugh haha there is a specific kind of humour there that really works for me. It's the irony and silliness that they do so well. I also laughed out loud reading Heartbreak Boys by Simon James Green and Glitterland by Alexis Hall, UK authors again. Maybe there is something in the water of that place that makes people really funny.

Every Heart a Doorway also made me laugh, but I don't think I was supposed to. I was laughing at how ridiculous it was in a laughing at it instead of with it kind of way and I don't think that was the purpose of certain scenes.

30. is there a book that changed your life?

Realm of the Elderlings, maybe. It did help me a lot to get through a very depressing time in my life (ironically enough). Maybe I did look at Fitz and think "you know what? I am not doing so bad after all. At least I am not this guy". I don't know. I know it helped me forget my problems by immersing myself in a fictional world in a way I never experienced before. One of my friends made me talk about the series at my father's funeral and it helped for a bit so that is the kind of thing. Knowing that someone came up with the character of the Fool also made me feel less alone because it showed that somewhere existed someone with values similar to my own. Solanin by Asano Inio was also a big comfort in a time of my life when I needed it and pretty motivational.

31. how many books are on your current tbr?

Physical? I have no idea but probably less than 200. In my tbr on storygraph is 478 and that only includes the first volumes of mangas. So, a lot that I will probably not read in my lifetime tbh.

32. what is the first book you remember reading?

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. I think I gave it to one of my small cousins so I don't own it anymore nor can I find a picture of my exact copy... it was one of those kids' books with hard pages and full illustrations. Others were random fairy tales that were in a box set, including Snow White and the Ugly Duckling among others.

Thank you for the ask :)

#andy answers #book asks

[tinx-methinks]

43, 44, 45, and 49! 💕

Thank you lovely~! I was hoping I'd get more than one of these. <3 Hope you're ready for this answer lol

43. Title of a book you own that’s in the worst physical condition you have. Explain what happened to it. Post a picture if you want.

I waited till now to answer this cause I wanted to include a picture of my shame and these books were tucked safely away in the back of my bedroom bookshelf where my partner was sleeping so I couldn’t get them. Confession time: I love reading in the bath. And in the days before my waterproof ereader I have destroyed a book or two simply by rereading it and exposing it to my wet and wild habit over and over. Please don’t judge me for the severity of these pictures, it was a different time.

All trigger warnings for severely abused books apply.

That is my copy of The Good the Bad and The Undead by Kim Harrison which is the second book in her The Hollows/Rachel Morgan series and the first one I read after finding it in my dad’s rejected books pile. It’s probably the book I’ve reread the most besides Reaper Man by Terry Prachett as I recall finishing it on occasions and immediately restarting it. I loved it. I actually own three copies of this book. This one. A digital copy in a full series omnibus. And another copy of the paperback bought recently as I’d love to own the entire series so I’m trying to pick the ones I’m lacking. 

The second is my copy of Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning this is the first book in her Fever series which I to this day haven’t finished but at the time it was a favored because of its interesting world building, angst ridden characters, and of course the sexy potential of its (poorly aged!) love to hate ‘em alpha-male romantic interests. Still I used to wait for each new book of the series to be available at the library and while I waited I used to reread my copy of this one to keep the characters fresh in my mind. Funfact: I also bought a digital bundle of this series which I was reading as my “work book” (the book I only read at work) for a while. And I made it all the way to where I originally stopped. The last book in the original series, book five: Shadowfever. I made it halfway through it when the lockdowns hit and at that point I didn’t want to start reading my work book at home so I still haven’t finished it. That’s probably ok though, while I enjoy the nostalgia of the characters and world it’s not so great in 2023! 

So yeah I think they’re both pretty banged up but I think Darkfever might be a little worse? It certainly feels worse to the touch! Pages clumped and stuck together and edges destroyed. Its more waterdamaged at least, but the other one is split down the middle so I guess that’s also pretty bad! I'm posting both tho because the other one def looks worse.

44. The book(s) whose stories have become part of your very makeup.

Reaper Man. Dragonlance: Chronicles, Legends, Tales, the Lost Chronicles, and the Raistlin Duology in particular. The Count of Monte Cristo. Cyrano De Bergerac, The Art of Asking. American Gods. Countless short stories, fairy tales, myths and legends. The first six books of The Hollows series by Kim Harrison also need to be mentioned. Particularly the one above. You can’t imagine how mortified I was when I got my partner to read them and he commented “Hey, you, like, took some of your personality from these didn’t you?” Yeah. Probably bruh. But you don’t have to call me out like that.  Books five, seven, and eight of the Women of the Otherworld Series probably deserve an honorable mention for the same reason tbh. More recently I think the series of Bring Me Their Hearts, and The Library of the Unwritten definitely rewrote something in my brain. 

45. What book(s) would you sell your soul to get a TV or movie adaptation of?

Listen the other day I was imagining a Monty Python style variety show adaption of Daniel M Lavery’s book Something that May Shock and Discredit You which a WILD PULL but the only answer I have for you right now. I think it would have animated parts like Python did but they’d be stylized like The Simpson’s animation. I don’t fantasize about adaptations but I think they really work best for children’s books so if you made me answer seriously I guess I’d go with The Tales of the Frog Princess by E.D. Baker and maybe that should’ve been in the question above too lol. 

49. Do you prefer hopeful, humorous, very emotional or darker books?

I think I tend to err toward darker and angstier books. I get a lot of catharsis from them but I think most of the time books like The Bone Orchard or Leech or Iron Widow or whatever I’m reading that deals with dark topics usually benefit from that undercurrent of hope. I don’t think dark and emotional needs to lack hope and I tend to most enjoy ones that allow space for both. 

That being said I read a lot and I think what I like most is having options and variety.

Asks for Bookworms here

#personal #me #asks #mxmoons #<3

[lluvia-otsana]

2,13,20 (book ask)

I got an ask, time to overshare -w-

If you make it to the end, you get a cookie (or you can cheat and scroll to the end!)

2. Top 5 books of all time:

Harrow is def no.1 by far for me, as much as I loved and devoured GtN in one sitting. Both of those books I've reread a million times and hold such a grip on me I can recite so many lines word for word, I can repeatedly open the books just to revisit scenes, I'm so invested in what will happen next in the series, and somehow they're even better on reread. There is always a portion of my mind now possessed by this series lol.

Ugh I'm bad at top 5 tho. I love the Murderbot series too but there's so many novellas in that series that if I include them TLT and Murderbot could take all the top 5 slots. It's sci fi action packed but also the narration is just such fun snark a bit like GtN.

In the same vein of the above books with their dark humor and banter I really enjoyed Nevernight. Probably also cuz the sidekick was a magical sarcastic cat made of shadows. And horny bi girl rep.

Also love When Women Were Warriors - it's my cheesy wholesome romance go to series. It's enemies to friends to lovers ish but soft.. except the swords.

Since the question says of all time, I will include that when I was a little weird kid I was obsessed with the Silverwing series and reread those a million times. Including and *especially* the very strange Firewing book that took place in bat hell lol. One of the main characters gets burned to death in the beginning! Great books for kids.

13. Do you have a goodreads?

Yeah, I've mostly been using that one lately. Trying to combine books/manga/webcomics in one site even tho goodreads isn't always great for shelving manga/webcomics.

If you wanna snoop and spend a second harshly scrutinizing me I think the link is:

goodreads.com/lluvia_otsana

Haven't been using it to keep track of books read per year as much until recently cuz I usually read physical books* and wasn't updating times before.

(*I live close to a gigantic indie bookstore I love to support. A dangerous place to live.)

20. What are things you look for in a book?

I like authors with a crazy imaginative mind. I wanna be thrown into a really different universe and experience the passion they put into the details of their beloved story. Bonus points for funny world building footnotes and appendices - I don't care that it detracts from the plot. I don't care if I don't know wtf is going on and I need to think and squint for foreshadowing and to understand the truth of what the characters are feeling - I like biting thru the layers of thick plot and characterization tbh. I love humor interwoven into the series and want to care about a diverse cast of characters. Not cuz it's forced in there but especially if it's SFF if you're gonna write an entirely different world why not put that care into writing different perspectives rather than the default usually cishet and male ones. I care more about the characters' motives and feelings and actions feeling real than them being morally correct. I don't need romance in it I can read diverse relationships, platonic or hateful or whatever (more fun if it's still intense in some way) But truthfully I am a sucker for deep monog romance if it fits somewhere in there.

Here 🍪 („• ᴗ •„)

(And thx for the excuse to ramble at myself @ghostlament)

[spyroforlife]

11 & 14 for the ask game?

11. Are you more of a planner or an improviser?

Ahaha DEFINITELY an improviser. I have very rarely outlined stories and when I have, I usually find myself getting bored with the outline, and then when it comes to actually writing it, I'll very often find that certain events just work better in a different order, or I'll come up with a better idea and have to completely rework things, and it's just like. I might as well just wing this anyway and MAYBE use some things from the outline if I still like it but otherwise, eh

The vast majority of everything I've written just started at the first sentence you see and I wrote based on a vague idea of where I want the plot to go, maybe there's certain dialogue or whatever I envisioned from the start, but otherwise. I very much just wing it. This probably is not ideal. But it works for me and trying to do differently would just stress me out, so that's what I do :D

Of course I always reread and fix things as needed, and I've definitely added or taken out entire scenes and so on from longfics, so it's not like I'm just posting unedited first drafts, but yeah. I don't plan much. I just have a plot idea and see where it takes me.

Though I do have some stories like Heart Thief where I've talked about the storyline extensively in private with a friend so there's more of what I'd call a 'plan' but even so, there's things that end up getting changed at the last second because I'm like "hey you know what would be cool-"

Is what it is I guess lmao

14.Most fun and/or engaging character voice to write in?

I really like writing Scar, he's so charismatic and friendly, and I love his jokes, but he also has this capacity for serious mean or cruel streaks when he feels it's deserved. I don't think he fakes his kindness. When he's kind, he's so genuinely kind and I love that about him, and I like writing him when he's adoring his friends or partners, he's goofy and sweet and that's an enjoyable personality to write. I just ALSO like how when he decides he doesn't like someone, he can just focus so much pure malice at them and you get this feel of "oh my god he would kill them with a rusty spoon and not even regret it"

It's especially notable in the Life series tbh. I'll never forget Scar in Third Life when Etho and friends revealed they had gotten dark oak saplings, they all run off and Scar turns to Grian and his voice gets that hard edge as he says "I will murder them."

Just something about characters who FEEL so strongly, who commit totally to their feelings, if they love you they love you to pieces but if they hate you they WILL burn you alive at the first opportunity. It's delightful to write

He's just a charming guy and I love getting into his head, because as awkward as he might seem on the outside, he's just so confident and passionate about who he is and what he cares about. I am not immune to the goodtimes

#redstoneglitch #mcyt #goodtimeswithscar #ask games #writing #my writing

[bqstqnbruin]

what were your favorite and least favorite books you read each month and why??

SOMETHING TO DO YAY I read 64 books so far (and that's probably the ending number so) here ya go

None of these books are part of the SMP boycott as far as I am aware.

January:

Favorite: The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

When I tell you this was totally unexpected holy shit. It's YA Horror and follows Mars after they wake up to their twin sister, Caroline standing over them with a knife trying to kill them in their sleep. They go to the camp where Caroline last was to try to figure out what happened leading up to her breakdown and ultimate death, where they encounter a clique Caroline was part of called 'the Honeys.' This book, I was very happy I was reading it when my roommate wasn't home/asleep because I was up at 3 am screaming while I was reading I stg

Least Favorite: Good Girl, Bad Blood (A Good Girls Buide to Murder #2) by Holly Jackson

I couldn't even tell you what happened in this book. All I know is that wanted Pip to stop with the god damn antics and just go to bed I stg

February: I actually only read two books in February so uh

Favorite: On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Ngl, I do not remember what happened in this one. It was just ok

Least Favorite: American Royalty by Tracey Livesay

This is supposed to be a take on the Prince Harry/Meghan Markle romance but god this was just so boring to me. The royal family in this was based off real life though with how insufferable they are

March: I only read one book this month whoops

Favorite: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

I will recommend this book until I die I swear this is my roman empire. This book took me all month to read but is so good and made me cry and I need to read the second book ASAP but it's so long that I keep putting it off

April:

Favorite: Takes from the Cafe (Before the Coffee Gets Cold #2) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This series is so beautifully heartbreaking and deals with time travel to see the ones you love knowing that no matter what happens you can't change anything

Least Favorite: A Tale of Two Princes by Eric Geron

I know that the book is YA and that the boys are teenagers in this but all their antics were so overly juvenile and petty that I couldn't deal with it. Like I know that they are kids, but this was so bad. I was hoping someone would just like ground them or something just so they would stop

May: I apparently only read two books again in May

Favorite: Loveless by Alice Oseman

Alice Oseman never misses tbh

Least Favorite: Paper Towns by John Green

I remember loving this in like middle school/early high school and decided to reread it and that was a mistake

June:

Favorite: Caraval by Stephanie Garber

I only picked this one up because it's the first of a trilogy that is connected to another trilogy that I wanted to read but god I love the sisters in this book

Least Favorite: The Golden Spoon by Jess Maxwell

This was just ok. It's like Great British Bake Off mixed with murder

July:

Favorite: Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee

This book was so sickeningly sweet I stg I think about Dylan and Theo all the time I need to reread this one

Least Favorite: Belladonna by Adalyn Grace

I might come back to this one next year but like I couldn't get past the "I want to fuck death" aspect of this book

August:

Favorite: She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick

Another one that was just so sweet I was rooting for these girls the entire time

Least favorite: A Taste of Sage by Yaffa S. Santos

This is another one where I couldn't tell you what happened except that she can get sick if people make food when they're mad and they fuck on the prep table in the restaurant

September: I only read two books this month and I loved both of them

Favorite: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

What happens when a white woman talks over the experiences of POC in the publishing world? I wanted to punch June the entire time

October: I also read only two books and really liked them

Favorite: These Hallowed Halls: A Dark Academia Anthology

I'm not normally one for dark academia but I read this book the day I bought it and didn't want to put it down

November:

Favorite: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I had to reread it thanks to tik tok and it holds up unlike other books I read when I was younger this year

Least Favorite: The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag

This book wasn't bad. It was just ok. I read it and kinda just went 'meh'

December:

Favorite: Stars in Your Eyes by Kacen Callender

Check you TW before reading this because it is HEAVY but god this book had my sobbing at 3 am this was the book where I kept asking if I read the library book or do I read the one I really wanted to and I read it in one sitting it broke my heart and put it together in all the right ways

Least favorite: Just Haven't Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens

I love Sophie Cousens but the first love interest in this felt so cartoony it ruined the book for me

[blue-dream-rhapsody]

Even if there's still a lot of things that would need some ironing to make it super solid, thank you for sharing your theory! It was super interesting to read and tbh it's always nice to see such a fresh take

(also while the "in what sense" is entirely unclear, at latest with the Bonten arc we know we're def gonna be going for a sort of "there's two Mikeys" thing... It's honestly one thing I'm most curious to see resolved esp bc i just don't know if it should be taken in a more literal sense like in your theory or whether it's more metaphoric bc at this point both seem reasonable enough for me... But that's just some Late Night Thoughts haha)

Oh man thank you, I’m so glad you enjoyed! I just began a reread of the manga from the beginning on the day before I wrote it, so as I keep going along I’ll probably be on the lookout for other suspicious things. Though, seeing as we’re getting fairly close to the end of the series and will likely find out one way or the other, I’m not too worried about making it airtight, rather just give us all something to chew on while we wait!

There’s definitely a part of me that appreciates how little “supernatural” stuff has existed in the series to this point, keeping it centered on Takemichi’s ability only. If the two Mikeys idea did turn out to be more metaphorical (or at least it stuck to a more grounded concept of mental illness), I’d like that in its own right too. I am just always prepared for Wakui to punch me right in the face with something I wasn’t prepared for!

[evil-dad-evil]

I usually prefer myths over media based on myths (though I do adore the media) but I would absolutely go FERAL for Utgard-Loki in Magnus Chase.

Imagine how protective he’d be over his human. When he doesn’t have the alley shrunk down human-size he’s keep you in a shirt pocket or something. Building a “doll”house for you to hang out in while the place is giant-sized (complete with running water, he may be a giant but he isn’t a monster).

When everyone’s gone home for the day he shrinks the alley down and goes to your guys’ bedroom where you get the Best Cuddles Ever while he feeds you grapes or something romantic like that.

(If I had a read more on mobile y’all KNOW what else I’d be talking about)

#magnus chase #magnus chase and the gods of asgard #utgard loki #i’ve been thinking about this ever since i read the first two books a few years ago #i really need to read the third one #probably need to reread the entire series tbh

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 308: VIBE: CHECKED

Previously on BnHA: Lots and lots of Shindou idk what else to tell you.

Today on BnHA: Tired Nomad Deku rescues Shindou from Muscular, and us from Shindou. Muscular is all “OH BOY I SURE CAN’T WAIT TO FIGHT DEKU AGAIN AFTER HE TOTALLY KICKED MY ASS THE LAST TIME!! I’M SURE THIS TIME WILL GO DIFFERENTLY SEEING AS HE’S HAD ALMOST AN ENTIRE YEAR’S WORTH OF ADDITIONAL TRAINING, AND ALSO HAS SIX FOURQUIRKS NOW, IN ADDITION TO THE CONFIDENCE THAT COMES WITH HAVING EIGHT OTHER PEOPLE’S SOULS CHILLING OUT INSIDE HIM OFFERING MORAL SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT.” Deku is all, “[kicks Muscular’s ass effortlessly].” Muscular is all, “[gets his ass totally kicked].” I for one am very satisfied with this, and with respect to all, I would like to hereby declare this post a discourse-free zone. I’m just happy to see my son out here making good use of his FOURQUIRKS, and more importantly beating Muscular in less than seventeen pages so we can all go on with our lives lol.

damn Deku since when were you allowed to look this cool

from this perspective and with the smoke, cape, backpack, and mask more or less obscuring his actual profile, he looks less like a sixteen-year-old boy and more like a grownass man

OH SNAP

we got a glimpse of this in the cleaned-up scan of 307, but seeing both of his eyes looking so distinctively All Might-esque here is... whoa. I mean we know that his face still looks pretty normal underneath the mask and he doesn’t actually have the black sclera, but still, this is an awesome look. mini-Might

lol Muscular

you and me both. I mean no offense, but yeah

so Deku is just standing there silently

typical Deku. tight-lipped and expressionless. mum’s the word. quiet as a mouse. silent as a grave

okay no but seriously this is so weird and creepy though you guys. Deku please say something or else I’m just gonna mindlessly say whatever stupid things come into my head in an effort to make things less awkward

so Muscular is all “I should probably make a cool speech about revenge but Horikoshi couldn’t think of anything good so I’m just going to stand here clenching my fist real slowly”

“I’m not here to go on a monologue” he says, as he monologues about not monologuing

okay you guys I confess I have only read through/watched the Deku VS Muscular fight once because the arm-breaking is just way too uncomfortable for me to revisit. and so as a result, I have completely forgotten Whatever The Deal Is with Muscular’s eye lmao so let me go look it up real quick

okay so it’s a prosthetic, obviously, and he changes it out according to his mood. that part does sound familiar. I just can’t remember which eye is supposed to indicate which mood. don’t tell me I actually have to go back and reread this shit

lol I’m skimming through chapter 75 now and remembering/realizing that I hardly paid any attention to this the first time around because as soon as I found out the villains were after Kacchan my brain was like “TIME TO FOCUS ON THIS AND ONLY THIS NOW AND FOREVER” and yeah. ah memories

anyway so he started out with the flower-looking eye, and then later on he was all

which begs the question, how on earth could I have ever forgotten the most ridiculous panel I’ve ever read lmao

anyway, but so after all of that, I'm only just now realizing that this isn't one of his previous eye prosthetics in the current chapter; this is an ACTUAL FUCKING ROCK that he's just randomly shoved into his eye socket fkdsjlk

so basically (1) I did all of that painstaking research for nothing, five whole minutes of my life wasted THANKS A LOT, and (2) what, and I have never meant this more emphatically, THE FUCK

anyway so now he's leaping at the building that Deku is standing on top of. but he’s not aiming anywhere near Deku though, wtf

(ETA: HAHA YOU BROKE ALL YOUR MUSCLES YOU LOSER.)

...huh

lmao okay then. I hope those annoying citizens in the building next door are watching this go down and rethinking their life choices

dlkdkljk

just keep standing there pressed right up against the window, why don’t you. “WHAT’S GOING ON THIS SUPER CLOSE COLLAPSING BUILDING IS BLOCKING OUR VIEW.” well, folks, we’ve long since known there’s a critical shortage of hero and villain brain cells, but what we’re learning now is that civilian brain cells are also in short supply

OH THANK GOD DEKU IS FINALLY TALKING THAT WAS ACTUALLY UNSETTLING AS FUCK

SO HE’S STILL OUR GOOD, POLITE, WORRIED, CONSIDERATE DEKU UNDERNEATH THAT COOL AND MYSTERIOUS VENEER. for real, thank fuck, because I swear to god if he suddenly started acting like the Dekus in all of the vigilante AUs my interest in this series would have dropped something like 50% lol. just because he dropped out of school and ran away from home and is currently dressed like the physical manifestation of a Linkin Park playlist doesn’t mean he’s not still the WORLD’S BIGGEST DORK okay

I MEAN, THIS RIGHT HERE. THIS IS WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT. HE’S APOLOGIZING FOR THE DELAY

PLEASE FIND THE ATTACHED SHINDOU YOU REQUESTED. BEST REGARDS!!!

OH MY GOD WHY IS HE SUCH A BADASS

something about making bold, confident statements while obscured in smoke?? idk but damn it fucking works

ffjkkl

more importantly, should you tell him you actually need your copy of Shindou in excel format and not pdf?? on the one hand you don’t want to sound ungrateful, but on the other hand what are you even supposed to do with this

this chapter so far consists of like 50% smoke, but on the other hand Deku VS Kacchan 2 had a lot of cinematic smoke too so who am I to complain

OMG IS IT HIS ARMS

IDK DID YOU?! TELL ME YOUR SECRETS. PLEASE, AT SOME POINT THIS FIGHT HAS GOT TO ACTUALLY ADVANCE THE PLOT

OHHHHHHH

IT’S EN’S QUIRK!! OH MY GOD OKAY THAT’S ACTUALLY AWESOME

I CAN HEAR THE SOUND OF DISCOURSE RUMBLING IN THE BACKGROUND BUT I DON’T CARE LOL. WON’T CATCH ME EVER SAYING NO TO ANOTHER SIXQUIRK. GO AHEAD, BRING THEM ON, I WANT TO SEE THEM ALL but take it easy though Deku. don’t want to give yourself lung cancer or anything

also it’s good to see that in a very real sense he’s not fighting alone. the Vestiges really did mean it when they said they could appear more easily now. this is on a whole other level

so is this whole next page still En talking, or someone else? because whoever it is sure is chatty

okay, several things

pretty sure it is En, because he keeps saying “I suppose.” for someone who never said two words until one page ago, this guy sure never shuts up. we can’t all follow Muscular’s lead I suppose. oh my god now I’m doing it too

really like the suggestion of Deku using the SIXQUIRKS like tools in an arsenal, because that’s what he’s good at! it’s almost like he’s been training for this his entire life. “you value quirks too much” LOOK HE JUST THINKS THEY’RE COOL OKAY IS THAT A CRIME

where the fuck did all this rope come from

not gonna ask what the fuck that thing is sticking out from the back of his utility belt. Horikoshi will surely explain this

is that a fucking jetpack. I’m sorry Deku were six fucking quirks not enough for you. you can fucking float??? but JUST TO BE SAFE, LET’S STRAP A PAIR OF ROCKETS TO OUR SHOULDERS IDK

-- or wait, is this all supposed to be like a visual representation of En’s metaphor?? OH MY GOD AM I JUST STUPID LOL, DON’T ANSWER THAT. NEVER MIND. NEW LIST!!

rope = blackwhip

jetpack = float

radio = danger sense

and so I’m guessing that this ridiculously phallic thing is supposed to be a flare or something?? and that = the new quirk, smokescreen. well that was a fucking ride lmao we now return you to our regularly scheduled chapter

so now Deku is floating to his heart’s content and thinking that he’ll just sneak up on Muscular and vibe check his ass or whatever

WOOOOOOOO DANGER SENSE YESSSS I LOVE THIS FOR HIM

okay guys, I'm gonna press pause here for a sec to make a serious note, because I am loving the shit out of this, but tbh I'm having trouble enjoying it as much as I want to because I keep getting anxious thinking about the discourse. I know that a lot of the fandom has very strong opinions on Deku's character development one way or the other, and I want to respect that. but I also really have no spoons to debate this topic at all beyond what I’ve already weighed in on. so if it’s all the same to everyone, I plan on staying out of this discussion, at least this week

anyway! that said, YEAH BOI GET HIS ASS

VIBE: CHECKED. CURB: STOMPED. HOTEL: TRIVAGO

-- OF COURSE HE’S STILL FUCKING FINE LOL HE CRASHES INTO BUILDINGS FOR FUN IDK WHAT I WAS EXPECTING

dammit Muscular. how many fucking quirks does it take to beat you?! the annoying thing is that even with all of his cool new powers, Deku is still something of a mismatch against him. anyway r.i.p. to all these poor buildings

OOOOOHHHHH

you guys have no idea how intrigued I am at the prospect of watching Deku try to play both good cop and bad cop here lmao

anyway so Muscular says he doesn’t know, go figure

“I’m not here to make small talk or anything” he says as he small talks about not small talking

OH MY GOD DEKU

are you really gonna talk no jutsu all of these villains from now on?? that last battle really did have a profound impact on you, huh! interesting

you guys he’s really doing it omg

Deku this guy tried to murder a five-year-old literally just for fun. I mean more power to you, but holy shit you’re really gonna try to defeat Muscular with anger management therapy huh

I MEAN

WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THAT RESPONSE COMING dlkjslkjk

FUCK’S SAKE DEKU, I KNOW YOU MEAN WELL BUT THEY CAN’T ALL HAVE TRAGIC PASTS KIDDO

but. I have to admit, I do still like that he tried. probably knew just as well as we did what the end result was going to be, but still. he made the effort in good faith and I respect that

uh oh

why do I get the feeling Muscular just got a whole lot deader

oh my god oh my god he’s doing the “powering up” stance ffff don’t fucking tell me you can still use your fucking arms here, Deku

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY WHAT’S THIS??

okay so basically he’s saying that whatever it was he sensed in Tomura, he doesn’t sense from Muscular. which, yeah, that sounds exactly right. good judge of character here lol

AHHHHAHAHA YESS

WHOOPS, GET FUCKED I GUESS

WOOOOHOOOOOOOO

lmao so apparently this is the belated result of Shindou’s attack from chapter 307?? I’ll be damned. good for you Shindou!! I always liked you buddy. please just take my word on that and don’t fact check that statement

okay lol the one tiny bit of discourse I will allow is that it’s bullshit that he just did that with his right arm. like, I’ll fully acknowledge that. that makes no fucking sense, and I demand an explanation from the Great Plot Hole Filler himself. he’s never let us down before when it comes to continuity so I’m trusting him not to suddenly start now

that said, we love to see a rematch against a boring guy settled quickly and decisively within the span of a single chapter. THANK YOU

I like that Deku implies that his power is being a smart nerd who battles villains using the power of ANALYTICS. he basically didn’t do anything except restrain Muscular and wait for Shindou’s attack to take effect while halfheartedly checking to see if he regretted any of that murder and stuff

(ETA: and almost forgot to mention, he made excellent use of all four of his active SIXQUIRKS. it’s like the chapter title said; this is basically him fighting all-out, and it’s a sight to see.)

also, as cool as the mask was, this just feels right. like, we had our fun, now let us see his face, yes good

anyway, I think this was a good start towards establishing What’s Up With Deku Right Now! so if it’s all the same to Horikoshi, I would next like to take some time to explore Why’s Up With Deku. that, and What’s Up With Everyone Else, Especially Kacchan. por favor

#bnha 308 #midoriya izuku #muscular (bnha) #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

[olderthannetfic]

I like plotty gen!fic so 100K isn't all that out there for me, but I like my shorter fics as well. I still prefer having an actual plot so usually short oneshots aren't up my alley, but I still enjoy them when I'm in the mood (especially more comedy-based ones). And there's plenty of novel and novelette and novella length fics I love as well. Sometimes you want to read the entire Lord of the Rings series + the Silmarillion. Sometimes you want a self-contained novel. Sometimes you want a short story. Sometimes you want a series of interconnected flash fiction. But tbh oneshot writers are still the meat of the fandom and without them I'd probably not participate in fandom beyond occasionally checking in for updates from the five long fics I follow. You guys keep it alive.

I think one fic I'm reading is currently at a word count of 2 million? It's big and sometimes I try to reread it but mostly I just wait for updates. But that doesn't mean I don't treasure that 1000 word oneshot that made me laugh so hard I woke up my roommate, or the themed events where everyone submits a short story, or my OTP confessing their undying love in an utterly contextless 750 words, or a really heartbreaking 2000 word romantic tragedy.

--

You don't need to give asspats for people going "Wah, some other fic is more popular than mine! Reassure me!"

The majority of fic will always be short. Lots of people will always talk about liking the outliers but still read whatever's available.

[bookofmirth]

after rereading the series and finally finishing silver flames ( which i truly enjoyed, even when there were points which felt disappointing and a little incoherent ) i feel like i can finally pinpoint what is so jarring to me regarding this series. It just seems so disjointed, which becomes especially apparent after reading MaF and the immediately reading WaR.

We move from the first two novels of the series, which are coherent and clean, to WaR - which is hoenstly just a mess, something which was so blatant to me on the reread. during this time, it’s clear that sjm made several massive changes to link this book to the future spin offs, and also obviously changes her original plan to pair mor and azriel - which monumentally changes the way that the previous book is read, and the perception of their characters.

Even with FaS - setting up for cassian and nestas story, sjm completely changes direction between this release and silver flames. And all of that lead up with the Illyrian rebellions and cassians not being respected as a bastard, and his mission fighting for Illyrian female rights - amounts to absolutely nothing.

Don’t get me wrong, I really really enjoyed silver flames, and perhaps some of these ideas will crop up in azriels book and therefore won’t be wasted. But it just makes the series feel disjointed and leaves me at least, feeling unfulfilled.

Sjm is such a good author, in ToG the plot was expertly executed and when you reread the series, you can see hints and foreshadowing even back to book one. She knew exactly where she was going almost from the beginning, and each decision and plot point was used to create impact and build up to the ending. I don’t get that with acotar.

There is so so so much build, and almost no pay off - and I really got that sense in acosf, I loved it as a stand alone - but when we look at it through the perspective of the entire series, there were things which grated and a lot of things which I felt were built up to and nothing happened... Tomas, Cassians mother ( was so sure we would learn where she was buried at least ) the Illyrian rebellions and the Illyrians hatred and disrespect towards Cassian, Mor and Nestas relationship, CASSIAN AND MORS RELATIONSHIP ( I understand that the mor situation will be something which is focused upon primarily in azriels book, or hopefully her own, however their relationship involves Cassian as much as them both and I really wish Cassian had actually confronted the part he played in that whole situation - a part he played for 500 (!!!!) years. It’s a role which he was unable to relinquish in ACOWAR, and actively rejects Nesta to act as a buffer multiple times, seeing it as an obligation almost - and then in SF, pays it no attention at all. Feyre and Nestas relationship also isn’t really touched upon, as if that final act healed everything - what about that interrupted conversation in the library, when Nesta was cut off ? Why Nesta always favoured Elain, even Amren and Nesta - we still don’t really know what happened there... argh there’s just so much potential and so much set up, and it just seems forgotten about ? It makes the book seem disjointed and a bit of a let down.

Yesss I totally get what you mean here. ToG is honestly the superior series, and it’s because it has the cohesion that acotar doesn’t. Everything feels like it’s meant to be there, each character, each worldbuilding detail, their histories, everything just comes together in a wonderful way that just wrecked me when EoS came out and then was resolved perfectly in KoA.

Compared to that, acotar feels like sjm is figuring things out along the way and it is seriously driving me nuts. I’ve had multiple conversations with other people in Discords and they’ve said similar things. acotar at this point feels like sjm is just coming up with random ass ideas and throwing them in. No book in the series feels more like that than acowar. And it was that point where we knew that there would be more books, right? So combined with the fact that she pounded that book out and it got rather half-assed editing, you’re probably right that a lot of things were changed in order to set up the other books, even though it didn’t make sense with what she’d written before. 

I agree with you re: Mor and Az, and I feel like I’ve been seeing more people say that lately? That there is a feeling that they actually were supposed to be together and she changed her mind? I wrote a bunch of fics for them back in the day and they’ve gotten a bit more attention lately. But once acowar came out I was like, I’m gonna reread, and I’m gonna find all the clues, I’m gonna see where all this build-up was, and.... considering how often people say that sjm is so “good” at foreshadowing, I’m sorry, but not in this series. In ToG, yes, because she had a clear goal at the end! She knew where she was going and she stayed on that path. In acotar, idfk. Anyway my point is that I’ve reread the series a couple of times through since acowar came out and I’m still over here shrugging because up until that point, Mor and Az could be read in completely opposite ways. (Maybe it’s an Azriel thing, given the current discourse, idk.)

I will say, however, that we had clues that there was tension between them and I had noted that Az is quiet troubled and even pre-acomaf, I would not have been surprised by his extra in acosf. But all of that could have been addressed with Mor and Az still being together? We all had plenty of explanations at the time for the tension, and Mor being queer was like 1 of 100 of those explanations. 

If we look at Mor’s character through the books we have so far, I still see almost zero signs that she’s queer except for her literally saying “I like women and Rita’s has a lot of women and here’s my gay story”. Other than that, there is like..... nothing that feels organically queer about her!!! And I love her and I want her to be gay af!!!! But I wonder if my forgiveness of how acowar went down was more about my personal reaction than how well the story was actually done.

And the fact that, like you said, there is still no resolution to the fact that Cassian is supposedly a buffer between Mor and Azriel? Like???? We were all sitting here after acowar thinking “okay, well if she’s gay then someone knows. Someone has to know. She can’t just be gay and NO ONE WHO LOVES HER KNOWS.” 

Then in comes acosf with a big “fuck you, y’all thought” which just.... to me, it signals that her queerness was an afterthought. It’s still an afterthought because her queerness is limited to Mor and women blushing at her and Mor has her corner of the world in which she can be gay, but that gay never spills out into any other aspect of her life. It’s just conveniently isolated so that it doesn’t touch or affect other characters. 

In terms of continuity, acowar was such a huge shifting point in the series that people left in droves. It was a huge mess in the fandom. And then acofas was just fluff with no real point in pushing the story forward - even the Nesta stuff was a sneak peek, it had nothing to do with acofas itself. And now acosf comes in ignoring things she had set up previously, with almost zero nuanced discussion of the Cassian/Azriel/Mor thing, which means she still (?) doesn’t know what’s going on there. And I think that we did get some answers with Nesta’s reflection on her relationship with her mother, but the deal with the Illyrian rebellion was just in the way so let’s nix that, and then let’s focus on Eris (🤮) just because she feels like it even though she’s set up all these other characters whose stories need more. (Much like acowar, this paragraph is a MESS LOL)

And yes I KNOW that the series isn’t over, clearly, but she keeps setting things up and then letting them go nowhere, or making them seem important and then resolving them off-page, or changing character relationships (Mor and Az) but then having the characters involved act exactly the same, as if nothing had changed (by having the “buffer” situation still exist as a real thing).

I did enjoy the book, a lot, it was a fun read. But tbh we have so many arguments and disagreements within the fandom rn because things have been so left open to interpretation that we it’s not even a matter of “oh I saw this slightly differently”, it’s “WHAT book did these people even read???” That’s kinda weird, to me. There is reader response, and then there is what we have now, which is people having absolute opposite reactions to what they think happened in acosf. 

#acosf #acosf spoilers #spoilers #sjm critical #ask #acotar #wow you got me started lol #anon