I HATE-

Nina here gives me posh French lady undercover spy vibes-

I was fine but then Evelyn Hugo decided to say "Please never forget that the sun rises and sets with your smile. At least to me it does. You’re the only thing on this planet worth worshipping." And now I'm very much not fine :)

John- But it's Christmas!

Sherlock- I FEEL THE SAME UwU

(pauses)

Sherlock- oh you mean it's ACTUALLY CHRISTMAS.

Part 1 of my Valentine's post✨

Valentine's Day is just a capitalist scam that monetizes people's need to show love🙄 BUT HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO THEM<3

Valentine's Day is just a capitalist scam that monetizes people's need to show love🙄 BUT HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO THEM<3

Valentine's Day is just a capitalist scam that monetizes people's need to show love🙄 BUT HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO THEM<3

Valentine's Day is just a capitalist scam that monetizes people's need to show love🙄 BUT HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO THEM<3

Valentine's Day is just a capitalist scam that monetizes people's need to show love🙄 BUT HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO THEM<3

Valentine's Day is just a capitalist scam that monetizes people's need to show love🙄 BUT HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO THEM<3

Valentine's Day is just a capitalist scam that monetizes people's need to show love🙄 BUT HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO THEM<3

Valentine's Day is just a capitalist scam that monetizes people's need to show love🙄 BUT HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO THEM<3

Valentine's Day is just a capitalist scam that monetizes people's need to show love🙄 BUT HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO THEM<3

Valentine's Day is just a capitalist scam that monetizes people's need to show love🙄 BUT HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO THEM<3

“Everyone finds different lessons in stories, I suppose, but here’s one: Having a heart is terrible, but you need one anyway. It doesn’t matter if the boy with the heart of stone was the villain. It doesn’t matter if he got what he deserved. No one’s heart has to remain stone.”

~Holly Black, Hthkoelths

When I was reading the part where Alina does that vision-mind travel-connection thing with the Darkling for the first time I was like ugh this is gonna be the same old him making her feel stupid but DAMN

The "You might make me a better man." "And you might make me a monster." !!!! The "We would be equals till the day I dared to disagree with you." !!!! The "You are stronger, wiser, infinite in experience...But I am an apt pupil." !!!!!

Imagining that conversion happening in the show.

Brb screaming into the void.

Hey you guys, this isn't like my usual posts,bear with me:)

I kinda want to talk about redemption arcs and bad boys/characters. More specifically- what makes us like dark romantic interests, and what makes us hate certain other dark, mean, manipulative characters? I promise this isn't cringy (for the most part)

Pretty much every fandom has conflicting opinions on it's bad boy characters- be it Edward Cullen, The Darkling, Rhysand, Cardan Greenbriar, Rowan or Jace Herondale- people either say "this ship's so toxic I love it" or "yikes y'all stop simping over abusers" or "respect their trauma". The line between a dark character that makes everyone's heart melt, and just dark character is usually a redemption arc. The problem here? Most of them don't have one. The actions we think of as 'redemption arcs' are 90% of the time them being warm and cuddly and possessive towards the protagonist. This is tricky because when we read a book from the protagonist's perspective, we feel everything they feel. So if the bad boy is rude and cold to them, we feel the same bitterness that they do. And when the character shows them the slightest bit of affection after all that mean-ness, we go "oh well I knew they were gonna be love interests so this is amazing awwww". For example "your hair is clean" Is creepy and NOT a cute compliment. But when Tamlin said it, we thought of it as romantic because We Knew that Feyre would at some point be with him. Most of us ignored him being abusive towards Feyre till Rhys came around and went "he locked you up" and THEN WE REALISED omg Tamlin you manipulative freak😤 and then we were the "I can't see" meme when Rhysand repeatedly abused Feyre under the mountain, with the bright side being "the tattoos are for me to make sure no one touched you!! I never touched you below your waist!!"

See the pattern?!!?! We see what we want to through the protagonist's eyes (and usually this is a CONTRAST between a DEVILISH guy and a bad guy); and ignore the horrible actions of the bad boy love interests as long as they flirt with the mc.

Similarly with the Darkling, most of us ship Darklina and wanted Alina to become bad and for them to be on the same side. As long as he was good to Alina, we were fine with him killing everyone else. That's cute. But then he hurt Genya and killed Ana Kuya and ALINA WAS HEARTBROKEN. and then some of us went😐. Because as long as the protagonist is okay, we're okay with anything the bad boy does.

Another interesting thing is how when an author wants us to like one love interest, they immediately start making the other one do shitty stuff,, so remember the Darklina after-ball scene??? Remember how before that we were told that Mal wasn't writing to Alina??? And so our minds went "Damn girl dump him!! The Darkling is way hotter anyways🙄" but then but then... In the end, when it was obvious that Mal was gonna be the UlTiMaTe lover, all of a sudden the Darkling kills everyone Alina ever loved???

Kaz Brekker, however, is an amazingly written bad boy- because he's got the tragic past, the cold hearted murderer, the sly thief, the guy who seems too have no connections- but he actually cares about Inej, Jesper and the other crows. He's not an abuser, not manipulative, not possessive-

"Our hopes rest with you, Mister Brekker. If you fail, all the world will suffer for it." "Oh, it's worse than that, Van Eck. If I fail, I don't get paid." But also- "She belongs to know one". That's the perfect contrast that we all love.

Cardan however, is a different character.. Because he quite literally is the 'cruel' prince that turns out to be an emo kid with a crush. My point is redemption arcs don't usually work with COMPETELY bad characters who turn COMPLETELY perfect. There has to be some back story, some good parts that are revealed later for us to sympathise with them. Like how we learnt how Cardan was basically hated by his entire family, and then he turned cruel because that's the only way that he felt anything like a prince at all, and how Nicasia betrayed him and how he saved mortal servants from Balekin. It's easy to sympathise with characters who're struggling with their morality, who've been through shit. That's a good redemption arc. Again, it depends on how forgiving the reader is, but certain abusive and manipulative actions of characters cannot be overlooked.

Sooo, let's not be those annoying&stubborn fans. Accept the problems that these books( and many many others) have- be it lack of representation or presenting abuse an an okay thing. It's okay to like these books and comfort characters. These are after all, fantasies. But let's not let these problems become 'normal' in our minds, coz that's when we start extending the same mentality towards society and REAL issues.

Hiiii everyone, here are some of my thoughts on the Shadow and Bone show<3 Spoilers!

IT WAS SO GOOD I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT OMG

As a book fan, somewhere inside me, I'd been afraid that the show would mess things up. This was especially because it's a blend of two different series, which take place in different timelines. BUT HONESTLY, I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG. The way they've incorporated the Six of Crows characters into the plot of Shadow and Bone is perfect. Everything fits in together and makes total sense. So if you're a book fan who's skeptical about the show, I 100% recommend it.

The characters are EXACTLY how I'd imagined them while reading. Not just their appearance, but their voices, their mannerisms, their relationships with other characters, their expressions, IT'S ALL THERE. The attention to detail is truly astonishing.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED HOW THEY STUCK to some of the amazing dialogues from the books. The "There are no others like us, and there never will be"?!?!? and the "Fine, make me your villain"!?!? and the "I'm sorry it took me so long to see you, but I see you now." ??!?!? and the "I'm beguiling you!" and THE "No Mourners, No Funerals" (I may or may not have cried) AND MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE "You and I are going to change the world."

I live for the representation in this show. Alina being half Shu, Inej and Zoya being Suli, Jesper being Zemini and bi, Nina being plus sized, Kaz having a disability etc all shows how well thought out the casting was. Seeing someone who looks like you play the lead of a show can be so empowering. They also did the whole facing racism thing so well. The scenes where Alina was bullied or told to stand at the back of the line or called names for what SHE LOOKED LIKE were such raw examples of racism.

The friendships and relationships were my favorite part. Jesper being goofy, adhd mess, him and Inej being THE MOST ADORABLE BESTIES!!!, the "Jes? IT'S SULI FOR FRIENDSHIP.", him calling Kaz 'boss', Kaz's brooding and pretending to not care about the Wraith, Inej's worshipping Alina, Alina and Genya's friendship, AND DARKLINA?!?!?!?

All the darklina scenes were perfection :') there horseriding and Aleksander saying YOU ARE GRISHA, YOU'RE NOT ALONE to Alina because she was always made to feel like an outsider. The wishing well scene was so sweet uggghhh. Also the War room scene uhm uhm ;)

ABSOLUTELY LOVE ZOYA NAZYALENSKY, SO ZOYA CRUMBS WERE WHAT I LIVED FOR. I love how she says "She's Suli" when someone makes a racist assumption about Inej. This really reminded me of the Row scene where the Suli woman says "I see you" to her. Also the "your tracker friend also liked it when I put him on his back" was SUCH A Zoya thing to say lmaoo....also watching the destruction of Kribirsk after reading about how much Liliana meant to her was heartbreaking.

THE GENYAxDAVID interaction was everything. They're both such adorable, awkward messes. DAVID HITTING JES WITH A BOOK!?!?!

TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE BEST SHIP OF ALL TIME, HELNIK. Dan and Callahan did an amazing job, their chemistry>>>

My fav scene was probably the ice scene where Nina falls and YOU CAN SEE THE CONFLICT in Matthias' eyes, because he's been trained to killed Grisha all his life, and now he has the chance, BUT HE REALIZES that Nina is human and worth saving!!! brb sobbing

Also they eat waffles together I MEAN

"You're better than waffles Matthias Helvar." "Let's not say things we don't mean , my love." WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE GET THIS SCENE ON SCREEN?!?!

Milo the goat deserves a whole new fan base.

The special effects, the sets, the costumes and makeup were all spot on. The power those Keftas hold>>>>

The voiceovers of Mal and Alina's letters were adorableeee. "When I told you about true north, I was talking about you." and the "It's always just you and me, Alina." :')Show Malina> books Malina for me.

Kaz's scheming and the crows' heists were so badass. Jesper's gun trick thing!!!! Him never missing!!!! Kaz literally tricking the Darkling!!! Inej's knives!!! THE PART WHERE INEJ KILLED THAT GRISHA TO SAVE KAZ WHEN SHE WAS AGAINST KILLING. "We need you Inej, I need you." KANEJ NATION RISE.

They were all such a serve aaaa I'm a simp for the S&B cast. LOVED IT. GO WATCH IT NOWWWW

byeee

“Senior year. And then life. Maybe that's the way it worked. High school was just a prologue to the real novel. Everybody got to write you -- but when you graduated, you got to write yourself. At graduation you got to collect your teacher's pens and your parents' pens and you got your own pen. And you could do all the writing. Yeah. Wouldn't that be sweet?”

― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Why is everyone talking about soc3 my anxiety CANNOT- "what if leigh pulls a no mourners, too many funerals and kaz is the only one left" or "what if kaz sacrifices himself for the others" or "what if wesper get separated" or "what if nina turns bad" or- Y'ALL NEED TO STOP MANIFESTING THIS SHIT😭😭😭