The Most Precious Place✨️

Iam obsessed😩

Rings by Sofia Zakia.

This is why it is one of the best movies😭💫

i love that charles dickens got paid by the word. like i cant even be mad when he’s boring and long-winded bc i would do xactly the same??? i wouldnt use contractions or colours at all. want to say the word red? too bad. we r now only using “the colour of freshly-spilled blood on snow; the hue of the horizon when the sun sets over the deserts of sub-saharan Africa” BOOM guess who can afford 2 eat now: me and my boi dickens 

Been thinking about this since forever!!

things i do not understand about fics involving or by allosexual/alloromantic people (an incomplete list by an aroace looking for validation):

sexual attraction, obviously. like I know logically that it's a thing but I'm still half-convinced it's made up. I get aesthetic attraction, I can think of people as beautiful, but the urge to have sex is — obviously — not there.

specifically, attraction to sweat? like characters in fics will get sweaty and then people find that attractive? how??? I can logic out wanting to have sex in most cases, but this one makes no sense to me

hating someone & being attracted to them at the same time. It's why I don't like a lot of enemies-to-lovers — if you hate each other, what is the appeal of sex???

reader x character fics. I'm fine reading about romance happening to other people, but why would you want to read about romance happening to YOURSELF? isn't it weird? or is that just the aromanticism in me—

in some contexts I can conceptually understand wanting to have sex, in other ones I can't. Like... sometimes it just seems more realistic to cuddle?

finding anger attractive... ig this is related to the enemies-to-lovers stuff, but even in fics that AREN'T enemies to lovers, arguments turn into sex. why? what is appealing about being angry?

possibly tbc if I encouter anything more, feel free to add on

#geometric designs✨️

Beautiful Mosque Ceilings spotted in Teheran. 

brought a poem to the gun fight

THISS

Let's Talk: TFOTA vs ACOTAR

Why compare them, you may ask? Well, mostly because I love analysing works of fiction, especially fantasy. But also because I love expressing my adoration for The Folk of the Air trilogy; and I wanna call out SJM on her writing, and I thought comparing these two series might be a great way to do so!

Let’s look at the similarities first, shall we? They are both about human girls being forcefully taken away from their worlds into faerie worlds. They are both marketed as YA Fantasy (yes, I know ACOSF is NA, but I will only be talking about the original trilogy). I’m gonna be completely honest here- I love the writing style of both the authors. SJM has flaws in her grammar, yes, but I would be lying if I said I did not like the way she expressed her writings through the figures of speech.

Plot:

Look, I know that TFOTA is more plot-oriented, whereas ACOTAR is character-oriented. But as far as fantasy is concerned, plot is a very crucial element. Holly Black manages to give proper arcs to her main characters without spoiling or disrupting the plots/plot-holes. SJM, on the other hand, has a very messy plot to begin with. It begins as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and then takes a turn to heaven knows where. And her characters aren’t well developed either. Why were Nesta and Elain so bitchy? What is Mor’s power? How did Feyre get those powers, and why didn’t Rhys get them, too, when he was resurrected? SO many unanswered questions.

Characters:

TFOTA does not have many moments where we get to see the characters have bonding moments with each other, and yet, we root for them. This is not to say that we don’t root for the ACOTAR characters at any given point. But some of the moments really do seem too unnecessary (*cough* Mor coming out for six pages *cough*). The backstories of each of the IC members were told, whereas Holly Black mostly showed the backstories of her important characters (in flashback).

Both Feyre and Jude have two sisters. We see Taryn go from the sweet twin, to a complete bitch. Our feelings for her develop throughout the first book (and continue in the rest). Vivi is the type of character who isn’t exactly portrayed to be likeable or unlikeable. She is a morally good character, but she messes up, then she feels guilty and tries to rectify her mistakes - it’s the choice of the reader whether they like her or not. When it comes to Elain and Nesta, however, we are told that we are supposed to hate them within the first few chapters. It isn’t shown how exactly they whine a lot, instead, we read about it in Feyre’s internal thoughts.

Love interests:

Wow I can’t believe I’m gonna compare Cardan Greenbriar with this Rhystrash, but here we are Both Cardan and Rhys were supposedly villains in the first book, and then became the love interest.

Now, the difference between them is that Cardan is held accountable for being shitty; his deeds are acknowledged; he feels terrible for doing them, and never justifies his actions. Unlike Rhys, who never apologises, never even admits to have done something wrong, and claims that he did all that to 'protect' Feyre. And SJM pulls the "I was good all along, even when I did bad stuff" trope, which doesn't make any sense. Especially because Rhys himself admits to have not done anything wrong. I'm just gonna add a little bit of Aaron Warner here, and say that even if he had good intentions all along, Warner never hesitated on admitting that what he did was wrong.

Also, one more thing that I noticed was that the things Balekin did to Jude when she was being held in the underwater kingdom (I forgot the name), is kind of similar to the things Rhys did to Feyre UTM. And while Jude kills Balekin, Feyre...well....you know.

Protagonists:

Buckle up bitches, 'cause this is gonna be a long ass rant. Jude vs Feyre - I have seen other comparisons between them, and I wholeheartedly agree.

To begin with: motive. In the first few chapters of TCP, we see Jude struggle in the face world. She gets bullied, insulted, and there is a whole chapter dedicated to some of her bad memories in Elfhame while growing up. Feyre, on the other hand, didn't have anything against fae when she kills one "in cold blood" (or wtv the phrase was idk). She also doesn't have a motive in wanting to be High Lady, considering she'd been treated pretty well in both the courts (not UTM).

Also, SJM chose the lamest protagonist she could choose. Feyre is mostly put into situations by other people, and she also gets out purely by luck-- or Rhysand does something. Whereas Jude makes her own decisions, chooses what she's gonna do, and creates her own schemes. Which one is an example of a good protagonist?

Honestly, I feel like Nesta would've been a better protagonist, considering she's way more like Aelin as a character (who was a very good protagonist, and I know this even though I haven't read ToG).

Feyre uses the same old "seduction" technique, which is probably the worst thing a main character should do. And since ACOMAF, she was lowered into being a narrative for Rhys. It is evident that SJM tried making Feyre a "girlboss" in which she failed miserably.

Conclusion:

People who hate on TFOTA saying there was not enough romance, and idolise ACOTAR never fail to confuse me. Like, it's literally fantasy. If you don't have strong characters (in terms of writing) and good worldbuilding, then there is literally no point of a good romance. And in my opinion, the romance in TFOTA was just fine.

TFOTA is everything ACOTAR couldn't be, and I stand by that.

❤✨️✨️

There’s this fic on AO3 that, according to my history page, I have visited 176 times.  Which means I alone am responsible for 176 hits on that fic.  I commented on some of the chapters, but only a few, because I feel like a stalker when I comment every week.  I gave it kudos, but I can only give it one, even though it’s one of my favorites.

So just remember, when you’re looking at that hit count and wondering why you don’t have that same number of kudos (divided by the number of chapters, because each one of those also counts as a hit), it might be because some people out there love your fic.  They read it when they’re feeling down.  They open it in the waiting room at the doctors office, or in the lonesome dark of night.  They turn to it in celebration when they did something right.  They open it over and over so they can send the link to their friends, or just to revisit the characters that they love.  They checked it ten times in one day, hoping that you had updated.

A disparity between hits and kudos does not mean that your readers didn’t like your fic, or that they were too lazy to hit the kudos button.  It means that some of them came back, and there’s nothing that makes me happier about my writing than that.

I think one of the reasons the Harry Potter Epilogue was so poorly received was because the audience was primarily made up of the Millennial generation.

We’ve walked with Harry, Ron and Hermione, through a world that we thought was great but slowly revealed itself to be the opposite. We unpeeled the layers of corruption within the government, we saw cruelty against minorities grow in the past decades, and had media attack us and had teachers tell us that we ‘must not tell lies’. We got angry and frustrated and, like Harry, Ron and Hermione, had to think of a way to fight back. And them winning? That would have been enough to give us hope and leave us satisfied.

But instead. There was skip scene. And suddenly they were all over 30 and happy with their 2.5 children.

And the Millennials were left flailing in the dust.

Because while we recognised and empathised with everything up to that point. But seeing the Golden Trio financially stable and content and married? That was not something our generation could recognise. Because we have no idea if we’re ever going to be able to reach that stage. Not with the world we’re living in right now.

Having Harry, Ron and Hermione stare off into the distance after the battle and wonder about what the future might be would have stuck with us. Hell, have them move into a shitty flat together and try and sort out their lives would have. Have them with screaming nightmares and failed relationships and trying to get jobs in a society that’s falling apart would have. Have them still trying to fix things in that society would have. Because we known Voldemort was just a symptom of the disease of prejudice the Wizarding World.

But don’t push us off with an ‘all was well’. In a world about magic, JK Rowling finally broke our suspension of disbelief by having them all hit middle-class and middle-age contentment and expecting a fanbase of teenagers to accept it.

Also. Since when was ‘don’t worry kids, you’re going to turn out just like your parents’ ever a happy ending? Does our generation even recognise marriage and money and jobs as the fulfillment of life anymore? Does our generation even recognise the Epilogue’s Golden Trio anymore?

Dropping the Mask

Wang So’s final moment in the story with him REVEALING HIS SCAR really does complete his journey in many, poignant ways - from covering his scar to revealing it, from self-loathing to acceptance. The last moment when the audience sees Wang So’s scar for the one last time is a direct parallel to the time when we and Hae Soo saw it for the first time - back then he was ashamed of it, back then he tried to cover it and to hide it - it made him immensely self-conscious and vulnerable. Back then, he was looking at Hae Soo and this time his piercing gaze once again belongs to HS even if she isn’t there. It’s as if So was able to look through the space and time separating them and find her in the future, just like he is promising her that he will one day.

This time we get the same extreme close-up of his face - but he isn’t self-conscious nor vulnerable anymore. I’ve read some comments that Wang So couldn’t love himself the way he was until the very end, but that’s not true - HE IS ABLE TO ACCEPT HIMSELF JUST THE WAY HE IS, BE IT HIS SCAR, HIS FEELINGS, HIS FAILURES, HIS ACTIONS. And even without HS by his side he’s able to become of one the greatest kings in the Korean history, even with all the terrible things that happened to him, even with all his scars.