therobishow - The Robi Show

therobishow

The Robi Show

Messy bi who dresses like a four-year-old despite being in my 30s

260 posts

Latest Posts by therobishow

therobishow
9 months ago

Let me just remind you guys that...

AI fanfiction is not fanfiction


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therobishow
10 months ago

I decided to rewatch Once Upon a Time....well, I guess it's not really a rewatch....I watched the first two seasons while it was airing, but dropped off after that.

Anyway.

I got reminded of how people reacted to the reveal of why Regina hated Snow White so much. People kept complaining about how it wasn't really Snow's fault, it wasn't bad enough to make Regina hate her that much, it was really Cora's fault, blah blah blah

But that was always the point.

Regina's hatred of Snow wasn't intended to be justified. Snow was never supposed to have deserved it.

Regina dealt with her grief and unhappiness by finding someone to blame for it. Her mom? She's terrified of her mom. Her mom isn't safe to hate.

Snow is safe to hate. She's innocent, naive, defenseless, and she's always there. Snow is always there. Regina can't escape the person who she has made into a symbol for all of her trauma and misery.

So of course the reason for Regina's hatred isn't enough to actually justify that hatred. It was never supposed to


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therobishow
10 months ago

And then while I'm stuttering and panicking, Astarion just waltzes up, stands next to them with his arms also crossed, and with the biggest smarmiest grin says "Yes, darling, tell us. Who is Astarion?"

All I can think about is Fenris and Solas glaring at me, arms crossed, demanding that I explain exactly who this "Astarion" is that they've heard so much about


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therobishow
10 months ago

In other news, I have been reading through the 3 hour (!!!) gaylor powerpoint, and it is beautifully unhinged and ridiculous. It's perfect. No notes. Delusional masterpiece


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therobishow
10 months ago

All I can think about is Fenris and Solas glaring at me, arms crossed, demanding that I explain exactly who this "Astarion" is that they've heard so much about


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therobishow
10 months ago

I fucking hate true crime so fucking much

I Fucking Hate True Crime So Fucking Much

Scrolling reddit and this bullshit showed up in my feed.

If I had a penny for every time I saw a true crime fan act like these real events, real actual tragedies, are just some fun little story....I'd be one of the richest fuckers in the world.

I don't know if there's an actual term for this. An actual term for when people become incapable of processing reality as anything other than media to be consumed. The only thing I can think to call it is media poisoning.

JonBenet Ramsey isn't a real person anymore, her family aren't real people, the victims of Oakland County aren't real people and neither are their families. They're just characters. What happened to them isn't real, the tragedy, the pain, the death, the soul-shattering grief....it's not real, it's just a story.

If they were real, you couldn't make posts like that. You couldn't have a podcast called My Favorite Murder. You couldn't have people dressing themselves or their kids up as serial killers for Halloween. You couldn't have a wildly successful youtube series casually discussing murders while putting on makeup or doing mukbangs.

So they can't be real. They have to be media that you consume. And that's all they get to be. A product.


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therobishow
11 months ago

Astarion's ascension is extremely popular, despite it clearly being the designed bad ending for him.

So many fans of this version want to argue that it's a "valid" path to choose if you enjoy his character, or that it's equally good as his Spawn ending. The "it's what he wants" argument is the hegemonic justification in question.

But is wanting something better than needing another thing? Yes, he talks about ascension ever since he finds out about the ritual.

Yes, when push comes to shove he's still committed to ascend. But is this enough? Should we support his choice, even when everything but his words tell us not to? Should we trust the judgment of a deeply traumatized man about the best way for him to feel better?

This may sound harsh, but the answer is no.

Because in many circumstances, we see Astarion behaving unhealthily as a result of his trauma: he's hypersexual at the beginning of the game, using sex as a survival mechanism. He's yet to learn what his boundaries should be, what it means not to be an object, to see himself as a person that deserves respect and has so much more to offer than just his body. His trauma is still fresh. And he's so scared of losing his freedom, being trapped under slavery again.

We can't blame him being so desperate to feel safe that he will trade everything he is for it.

Because that's what the ritual means, Cazador says so himself: despite gaining the ritual's power, Astarion is still part of the bargain for said power. He still loses his soul in the process, and that is clear once we see how he acts post-ascension.

Of course, someone that is still suffering from the consequences of 200 years of abuse wouldn't care if he became less of himself, in the process of becoming untouchable ever again. Astarion's behaviour towards himself highlights that he doesn't care for the person he is because that person is, sadly, the product of those centuries of abuse.

He doesn't want to be that person anymore: even better, he doesn't want to be a person anymore: people suffer, people get taken advantage of, people are submitted by more powerful beings. He is willing to give this up not despite losing everything he is, but because of it. And that's what happens after his ascension: he retains his body, which becomes an empty shell of who he once was, with someone else inside of it to fill the void left by his soul.

This situation is a perfect, brutal metaphor of an abused person that later in life becomes the abuser himself, a thing that often happens to male victims of SA.

This is what is fundamentally wrong with Astarion's ascension: he's choosing power, his abuser's tool, over healing. Instead of learning to feel like a person again, to deal with his trauma to life after having endured it, he chooses to not feel anymore, while letting thousands of spawns (like he was) be consumed to get what he wants.

This terribly selfish act is the first instance of Astarion behaving like Cazador, considering the spawns as lesser beings, as nothing but his tools, like all vampire lords do. In this process he also sees himself, the person he gives up being, as a tool. He isn't healing. He's losing all of himself entirely.

Why would someone see this sacrifice as not only necessary to leave his trauma behind, but also preferable to healing from it?

The fan-favourite characteristic of Ascended Astarion is his behaviour towards Tav: in this version of "himself", he clearly is even more sexual than he was in his first days with the tadpole. And this expression of his sexuality is drastically different from the one we got to know prior to this point.

He is dominant, prevaricating, demanding in his avances: he enjoys being in a position of power even in his relationship.

This isn't the Astarion that slowly learns to trust his partner, to build a real loving relationship with someone who sees him as equal and truly cares for him.

Everything that he learns during his romance and his plot gets nullified by his ascension; and yet, this gets overlooked in favour of this more sexually appealing version of him. For people that claim to love his character because of his complexity, Ascended Astarion fans seem to only truly love him when he's less of himself than ever.

When all that's left of him is his body, and he behaves more like the toxic love interest from a young adult romance book, a great number of his fans get wild. Is this all that they want from him? The husk of the funny, sarcastic, dramatic and complex character, filled with this more traditionally masculine attitude, replacing what he used to be? An Astarion that never heals from his trauma, choosing to leave behind everything he was instead? Who resembles his abuser more than ever?

Do his fans who like his ascended version so much to genuinely think this is the best outcome for him, or do they just enjoy being able to project this "macho" fantasy on a physically attractive male character, that otherwise isn't anything like this prototype of man?

We can't help but think that appreciating Ascended Astarion is the same as believing in, if not loving, his hypersexual facade: it's overlooking his humanity in favour of sexualising him.

Which is the biggest disservice one could ever do to his character.


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therobishow
11 months ago

All of the above.

I also want to add that it is extremely unnecessary to tag your main character as being in a relationship with every other character if it's not a massive poly situation.

For example: if your fic is Tav/Astarion, you don't need to also tag it as Tav/Shadowheart Tav/Gale Tav/Wyll Tav/Karlach etc etc. If you want to indicate that those characters will be in the fic, you can tag with just their names or with Tav & [character].

There is an issue in this community with misstagged fics on AO3, specifically in the FxF tags. I don't know if it's going to reach the actual people or not but I'm still going to put this here:

A lot of MxM and FxM are tagging FxF ships in the main relationship category despite the ship itself only being written in the background.

Which is a problem because when you go into your ship tag to find fics of your ship, a ridiculous amount of them are off topic. And while yes you can lower that amount significantly by filtering and tag exclusion, AO3 has a built in feature that is made to avoid this.

I am going to use the Shadowzel tag for that because it's the most popular FxF ship on there and it's also one of the most misstagged rn. As of right now, there is 607 fics in the Shadowzel tag without filter. If you restrict the search to only include FxF, you are down to 397 fics. That is more than a third gone!

And it gets rid of some shadowzel content as well, so it's either you filter that out or you have to scroll through a tag where 1 out of 3 fics are about Astarion, Gale, Halsin, etc instead of the ship you looked up.

If your fic, let's take for example a Tav x Astarion, has either consistent mention of Shadowheart x Lae'zel, the most popular wlw ship, or has them in the background as support characters, or even just mentions them as a funny little wink and you want to make sure your readers know they are in here, you do not use the relationship tag! You go down to the additional tags and add "Minor Lae'zel/Shadowheart (Baldur's Gate)".

Unless the pairing you are tagging is the main focus or have a significant role and spotlight on them, you should not use the relationship tag! It clogs the feed for no reason, AO3 is not a website where you have to advertise your posts to the most tags possible.

Adding a visual for clarity:

a screenshot of the AO3 tagging system with Minor Lae'zel/Shadowheart (Baldur's Gate) added in the additional tag category

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therobishow
1 year ago

Baldur's Gate 3 has me in its unrelenting grip. I am obsessed.

Especially with the problematic king himself, Enver Gortash.

I love him. I want him as a romance option for both Durge and Tav. I want my Durge to reunite with the lover she can't remember. I want Tav to drag that man kicking and screaming through his redemption arc.

Tavtash is definitely my preference out of the two. Because god forbid I just have a normal ship with an abundance of fic. No, of course not. My dumbass has to go running for a rare pair.

And on that note, I really need fic writers to remember that Durge is not Tav!! They are not the same. Durge can be evil or good. Tav can also be evil or good. But they are fundamentally different characters regardless of how you play or write them.

So, please, please please please stop using Tavtash tags for Durgetash. I keep getting so excited that there's finally another piece of Tavtash content, only to find that it's actually Durge.

I like Durge, and I like Durgetash, and I will still enjoy Durgetash content. But y'all are getting my hopes up and then crushing them. So please stop using Tavtash tags for Durgetash content.


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therobishow
1 year ago
250 Posts!

250 posts!

Did it really take me this long?? Your girl has been caught slacking


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therobishow
1 year ago

For the book rant- Fahrenheit 451

ITS SO UNDERRATED and listen I don't know if there's controversy about the book or the author, probably, but HOLY CRAP THAT ENDING BLEW ME AWAY

I literally had to put the book down and cry because I was just so taken aback by how devastating and totally world ending that is for the characters. I mean come on, the whole city? A WHOLE CITY? The way it's described is beautiful and I read it over a year ago, that scene is permanently engrained in my brain. It's just so...real. I just felt so bad for them. I can't help how frustrated I get over the lack of love for it.

Its appreciated as a work of "classic" fiction but not for how emotional it is

Well this was entirely unexpected.

Let's all take a moment to bask in some positivity

For The Book Rant- Fahrenheit 451

Also, have you watched the movie? The one from the 60s, not the newer one. It's very good, and has a much nicer ending


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therobishow
1 year ago

I have no idea how old your book rant post is, but here I am, about to be your problem

I HATED THE SUNBEARER TRIALS

Yeah, okay cool, it’s a book with a trans author and trans main character. EVERYTHING ELSE WAS TRASH

It starts off great, with the MC graffitiing (spelling???) a wall with two birds and then he never does anything interesting again in favor of pining over/think about/hate a guy from his childhood that was mean to him once ten years ago. Before you go thinking the MC’s hatred of him is justified, just know all that is because the guy pulled a mean girls and said YOU CANT SIT WITH US a literal decade ago.

His best friend is a part of a group he hates, but it’s okay because she’s one of the good ones

And now: The cardinal sin

THIS BOOK IS MARKETED AS PERCY JACKSON MEETS THE HUNGER GAMES YET HAS NO CHARACTER DEATHS AT ALL AND SAYS **** IN THE FIRST LINE

WHO IS THIS FOR????????

I adore Hunger Games, but I mean it when I say that if I could travel back in time to stop those books from ever being published, I would do it in a heartbeat just so I would never have to see a book marketed as "X meets Hunger Games" ever again.

If you put even the slightest hint of competition in a YA or YA-adjacent book, it gets called Hunger Games. I could write a full rip-off of Bring It On, but the competition element would guarantee that it would be marketed as an HG style book.

The same thing happens with Mean Girls. Does your book have teenage or early 20s girls being in proximity to each other? Well it's Mean Girls now.

And it's really not doing these books any favors. Cause people pick them up expecting something in line with the brutality and messaging of HG, and end up disappointed as hell when that's not what they get.

I think publishing houses might actually be my mortal enemy

I Have No Idea How Old Your Book Rant Post Is, But Here I Am, About To Be Your Problem

⬆️ Me fighting publishers for all the bs they pull (especially Red Tower - hate them)


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therobishow
1 year ago

I read “Before I Fall” because for a high school class, and let me tell you- I have NEVER in all my life hated a narrator more. The book itself was fine, but the main character did not under any and all circumstances deserve any grace nor any moment with Kent (the potential guy in the story). She bothered me soooooooo much. Like there’s no way a girl who actively hates everything about her boyfriend would be willing to lose her virginity to him, especially if it’s something she’s guarded like Fort Knox. And when I say she hated everything about the boyfriend, there where pages (PLURAL) about how much she hated his clothing and his hair and the way he kissed her and how his lips were gross and yadayadayada. It was the literal worst!! Also, she’s like if a Walmart version of Regina (Means Girls reference for you youngins) had one single brain cell of a conscience. Oooooooh I was bothered. Kent was great. An absolute adorable specimen of human. Top tier book boyfriend material. But the main girl… we would’ve thrown hands in my high school.

Everything I have heard about this book has been negative. Like, how is dying in front of all your friends supposed to end bullying?? When I say I don't get it, I really mean that I do not fucking get it

Girl is signing up everyone in her life for a lifetime of intensive therapy and acting like that makes her a saint


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therobishow
1 year ago

hello there, just wanted to say I just followed you FOR THE JUICY DELICIOUS BOOK RANTS hae a good day, evening, or whatever time it is when you read it <3

Thank you!!

The book rants are delicious. I love them.

Also, sorry to everyone that I have been neglecting them lately. I accidentally let them build up a bit and got a little intimidated by how many there are. I'm going through them, though, and should have them responded to within the next few days


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therobishow
1 year ago

There's this book I read as a kid. I don't remember what it was called and I don't remember the author.

It was about this princess who had long, curly red hair. I don't remember her name. She had three older sisters, two of which were twins. She was being tutored by the eldest's love interest. I don't remember why, but her family got put under a curse, and her eldest sister turned into a weeping willow tree and the twins into swans. So she had to run away, and she cut her hair to pretend to be a boy. And there was a girl named Megan or Meghan with her (the only character whose name I remember), and Meg(h)an had blonde hair that was slowly turning black because she was infected with evil raven magic. I don't remember how it ends.

Anyway, it's not so much that I want to read it again but more that it bothers me immensely that I can't remember what book it was.

I tried to look up what book this could be. There are endless books about older brothers being turned into swans, but I couldn't find anything where it happens to older sisters. The tree one got me a lot of recommendations for parks and botanical gardens. And the hair search returned a bunch of articles about Megan Thee Stallion.

So I have no idea what book this could be.

But I did find a website that might be able to help you out


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therobishow
1 year ago

Here’s my book rant for you. Boneyard by Seanan McGuire.

It’s set in the Deadlands setting, so basically Wild West but with monsters and some magic.

The book is about a traveling circus and the woman who has to tend to the monster exhibits while raising her mute daughter and running from her crazy narcissistic and abusive husband.

Overall, I’d say the book is really good, but there one thing that really sticks a thorn in my side.

So the circus has a collection of various monsters. There’s these red pirhanna things with teeth so sharp they bite themselves constantly, sending them into a feeding frenzy. They’ve got crazy poisonous spiders with skull patterns on their backs, they’ve got wasps the size of your forearm, an ENORMOUS catfish, a corn stalker which is this this pumpkin headed plant person.

Then, there’s the bloodwire.

What is a bloodwire you might ask?

I can’t tell you because apparently the author can’t either.

Throughout the ENTIRE BOOK they are constantly alluding to the bloodwire as a creature they have, but never once is it described or shown in action.

At one point the book even goes “and she told the little girl about the bloodwire” but NEVER ONCE DO WE AS THE READERS GET TO KNOW WHAT IT IS.

It seemed like for the entire book, the author was building up mystery around the bloodwire, deliberately concealing it so she could reveal it at the end as the circus’ most dangerous monster, maybe it would come in handy in the book’s final confrontation.

Literally all of the other circus monsters are used, except the bloodwire. I’m half convinced the author forgot about it halfway through.

That’s my book rant

I feel like a curse has been passed onto me because now I desperately want to know wtf a bloodwire is but I know that there is no answer. It is a curiosity that cannot be satisfied


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therobishow
1 year ago

Once there Were Wolves is NOT! ABOUT! WOLVES! OR THE ENVIRONMENT!

It’s extremely graphic and very sad! My fault for not reading the trigger warnings but still! The YouTubers and influencers lied to me and said it was a wholesome love story about rewilding scottland with wolves

‘TIS NOT! ‘TWAS BAD FOR MY MENTAL HEALTH I HAD TO STOP READING!

ALSO THE “LOVE STORY” is like oops i got her pregnant after a one night stand I guess I love you now?! So quick and not deep at all?

What??!! I've seen some people say that the title/synopsis was misleading, but they would never give specifics. I had no idea it was this bad.

I fucking hate when publishers try to trick people into reading a book! I don't get it. Like yeah, you'll get some sales you might not have otherwise. But those sales are probably from the wrong people. If they wouldn't buy the book if the synopsis/marketing were honest, what would make you think that they would actually enjoy the book once they figured out the truth??

I'm sorry this book affected your health, and I'm glad you were able to recognize it and stop reading before it got worse.

Thank you for letting me know. I was considering getting this, but now I won't.


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therobishow
1 year ago

i think it's called the unwinding? it's a dystopia where the premise is that there was a civil war between pro-choice and pro-life groups in america(?) and they made the compromise that all pregnancies must be carried to term and kids must be raised for a certain amt of years, but then at a certain age, 13 i think it was, if the parents dont like the kid they can have them "unwound," which is that they will be meticulously surgically taken apart but all of their organs and skin and everything will still be alive? somehow? and ig they'll still have some level of consciousness? and like, anyone who needs an organ transplant or skin grafts or like, amputees who want a new arm or whatever get that body part from an unwound kid. and the book follows a runaway who was gonna be unwound and then also a kid who was tithed, so like his parents had him w the express purpose of donating him to the church for unwinding?? the premise is absolutely bonkers and the narrative of the book shifts constantly, it touches on a whole bunch of real-world politics without ever actually committing to any stance, and the whole thing reads like a wattpad original work in a really bad way. but somehow there's like a whole series and it's legit popular!! i dont get it at all

This sounds like some fundie subterfuge nonsense.

They love to do this. The YA dystopia boom brought us so many books like this. Gentle Tyranny is another one, it's all about how feminism is evil.

They think that they can put a secular mask on and convert people without them realizing it. But they're really really bad at it. Like, who else other than fundies would even come up with this idea??

Was the writer a blonde white woman? I don't want this book in my search history, but I'm willing to bet I'm right


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therobishow
1 year ago

I hated Percy Jackson so so much. It was boring, the story telling was mid at best, all the characters had no personality or were really annoying and the author has literally never made a good book. All of my friends say that it was so much better than Harry Potter and this and that, maybe I’m biased cause I used to like Harry Potter but I can not stand Percy Jackson. IMO. lol

This one is testing me, not gonna lie, but I hold true to my word and accept your offering


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therobishow
1 year ago

Tiktok is obsessed with trying to create their own Goncharov. I've seen several attempts at it, and they all fall flat. It's one of those things where it's so pathetic it's funny.

Also, the inherent failure comes from the fact that it's always someone trying to make money off it.

Meanwhile, a bunch of people are making videos about fake discourse as though they're in the omegaverse, and that's amazing. I love that.


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therobishow
1 year ago

I am going through all of the wonderful book rants that I received. I love all of them and everyone who sent them.

Even the person who trashed one of my favorite books - but don't worry, as I promised, I am not judging or arguing. I accept your rage as my own all the same.

I haven't been able to answer all of them yet, but I will.

And feel free to send in more if you want to. I am always open to them


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therobishow
1 year ago

If I ever have to read The Catcher In The Rye again I will set it and myself on fire, it is the second worst thing I've ever read, right next to the first ten pages of Fahrenheit 451. There was absolutely nothing to that book, so substance, no stakes, not even an interesting slice-of-life story, just a meandering nothing that had no incentive to finish it besides "we're reading it out loud in class and your grade counts on suffering through it."

Holden Caulfield is the worst protagonist I've ever had to sit through, he's not even tolerable levels of teen brooding or the type that just needs some guidance and he'll be okay, he's just a judgemental pathetic asshole determined to keep his pity party going way past its due date because the world is so DARK and CRUEL and kids are so INNOCENT MOM you just don't understand how INNOCENT they are GOD (I will fight anyone who says "oh but depression" because he is NOT an accurate representation of depression- he may show signed of being depressed but he's an asshole and they are not synonymous)

I just couldn't root for this guy! I genuinely did not care what happened to him! I've had to read a nice few books I didn't particularly enjoy, but I could always find *someone* to root for, *something* to keep me going, but Catcher In The Rye? Nothing. The book could have ended with Holden choosing to live under the bridge like a troll and I wouldn't have cared.

And no I don't care if "the point is that it has no point" it's dumb and I hate it.

Anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk

I got Catcher in the Rye the last time too. You went much more into detail, though, which I always love to see. Your anger is mine now


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therobishow
1 year ago

The second I saw your post requesting people to rant about shitty books one came to my mind first. The last dragon slayer. Now, when I had to read this in high school I was actually excited because for once I got to read a book with an interesting premise. Oh how wrong I was. The pacing in this book was so god awful that it was genuinely hard to keep track of what was going on. As cool was the world was, any information about it or magic was delivered in a way that’s reminiscent of dry textbooks. Never has a book disappointed me quite like that one did (and there’s even 3 more after it). Thank you for allowing me to rant about that hot garbage, I hope you have a great day :)

Your description of this book is similar to how I'm currently feeling as I slog my way through Fourth Wing. Especially with how the worldbuilding is delivered. Just dumps it onto you with large blocks of text unrelated to the current scene.

Dragons are too cool to have such bad books written about them.


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therobishow
1 year ago

This isn't so much beef but when I was back in school we read the book Unwind and we got to the part in the book where one of the characters was being unwound and how it happened and it scarred me a little bit. I also remember hating most of the characters. I haven't read this book since then, though.

I don't know anything about this book, but thank you for sharing with me


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therobishow
1 year ago

The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, was recommended to me by one of my English teachers, who was also at one point my theater teacher. She said it was a feminist retelling of the myths involving Moran and King Arthur. So, I am so sorry to say that it is just…rubbish.

Okay, some of the cultural and fantasy elements are interesting. There is genuinely cool world building done tying everything together, whether that be Avalon itself or Camelot.

But...the characters.

Morgan, or Morgaine, at first acts as a blank slate of sorts. She's interested in the culture that surrounds her, and it's through her eyes that we get to learn about the world. That said, she takes a face-heel turn which is just...bizzare. It's like the plot is going "oh wait, we forgot to make Morgan EVIL so she does things people would consider EVIL" even though the plot doesn't necessarily demand it??? There's this one point where she basically goes "actually you know what doing incest with my brother is fine actually. I should have acted like a girlfriend to him after that and manipulated him to do my bidding" and. girl????? And it feels like the whole way the book is trying to justify it? Like, yeah in the original myth there's a sense of betrayal. But not like this?

And Gwen. Gwenhwyfar. Ohhhh my god. Her introduction is kinda neat, since it gives some perspective on how mentally ill women would have been treated back then. It quickly becomes annoying though. She's a religious fanatic. A Christian religious fanatic. Also she threatens to cheat on Arthur in order to bear a child. Also she's having an affair with Galahad. Gwen just...always has something to complain about. And it's not a good experience to read.

Arthur. Hmmm. He's portrayed as somewhat wishy-washy, constantly being pulled back and forth between the opinions of Gwen and Morgaine. Like...this is such a bad thing for a king to be. But he's honestly somewhat chill?

Plus there are just...so. many. unnecessary. sex. scenes. I would have given the author a bag of caramels for half of them to be fade to black moments.

The author is very clearly pro-pagan and anti-christian. I fall somewhat in line with that, not anti-christian but I can understand why someone would be. That said. The author kind of rubs the faults of christianity in the reader's face. Repeatedly. It's not subtle.

Overall, I have read a lot of retellings of different myths. This might just be my least favourite retelling of a myth ever.

Oh god The Mists of Avalon.....

I read this in middle school. It was a mistake. This book is so far up its own ass. I've read a lot of pretentious books, but this one nearly gets the top spot (nothing could beat out The Dream of Perpetual Motion or literally anything by Donna Tartt).

Morgaine becoming evil definitely felt like Bradley suddenly remembered that she was a villain in the legend and hastily shoved it in. She could have easily not made her evil, and just gone with the idea that history twisted the facts. That would have suited the character better, as well as playing into the "feminist" themes since history does often villianize women who don't deserve it.

And I put "feminist" in quotes because this book is like the definition of White Feminism.

Also, Marion Zimmer Bradley was a horrific person. Not joking or exaggerating here, she was pure evil. Epstein levels of evil. Humbert Humbert evil. Look it up if you want to, but be warned that it is genuinely awful and reading about it is pretty harrowing. There's a reason I chose those specific comparisons.


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therobishow
1 year ago

Ohhhhhhhhh i have some RAGE against Normal People by Sally Rooney. Can I understand, intellectually, that there are legitimate reasons to like this book? Yes. Do I emotionally agree with any of them? ABSOLUTELY NOT. First off this book was impossible to read easily because of the lack of punctuation, what was up with that!! Beyond that the relationship between the two main characters was just bad and really imbalanced, and also I was not interested at all. Also the weak ass Marxist commentary??? Girl didn't even commit 🤣 And to top it all off, I read this for a bookclub for a college that I did all the precollege stuff for, and they DIDN'T EVEN LET ME IN!!!!!! Anyways fuck this book so much, enjoy my rant :)

I accept and appreciate your offering.

It's bullshit that they didn't let you in. Book clubs are supposed to bring people together, but some of them get so snobby.


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therobishow
1 year ago

I am once again calling for book rants. It was so much fun the last time, and I crave more.

Do you have a long standing grudge against a book you read in middle school? Have you gotten swept up by hype only to find that everyone lied to you and the book is trash? Do you burn with rage over the way an author portrayed your favorite mythology or folklore? Is there a book or series that you once loved, but now makes you cringe every time you think about it?

Do you want to vent all of it out to someone who won't judge you, or argue with you, but will simply accept all your feelings as their own?

Hi, that person is me. Send me an ask, anonymous or not, and tell me everything you've wanted to say. Offer me your anger, your frustration, your hatred. I will hold it for you. I will take it into my heart and make it my own.

It can be any genre you want, any demographic. I will accept it all. Even if James Patterson gets involved again. (I'm not scared of you, James!!)


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therobishow
1 year ago

I love it too and I want more of it. Might Blaze that post again to get some more

I got this book, "The Girl Who Drank The Moon" by Kelly Smith. It made me SO mad. It's super well written, the plot makes sense. It has poetry and the poetry is nice too. You root for the characters. But it randomly switches perspectives between the two storylines endlessly and discombobulates you so bad you lose all momentum. Now all of sudden you can't read. In the end I had to just skim the fight sequences cause my brain stopped brain-ing thanks to the sheer amount of perspective shifts suddenly colliding into one.

10/10 would recommend.

It's always disappointing when there are multiple perspectives, but only one of them is actually interesting. Especially when they're very disconnected from each other

therobishow
1 year ago

I--

I--

Hate the Maximum Ride series I hate it. It had so much potential but James Patterson wouldn’t know consistency if it hit him in the face. Like the part where the gang went to Antartica? It felt like I had missed a book with how much had happened. And Izzy’s mom going from dead to actually being married and thinking he was dead? Whack. Within a couple of chapters too like. I could be remembering wrong but what kind of inconsistency was that?

I've never read this series, but because my brain is utterly broken, I have watched multiple hours long videos about it. And even then, with all that knowledge, having it all condensed down to it's most straightforward and coherent, I could in no way give you a cohesive plot summary. Like, I think they stop the apocalypse, stop the climate crisis, and then it doesn't matter because the apocalypse happens anyway? Maybe? I don't know.

I don't think even James Patterson knows.

I'm starting to think he's not even a real person. Just every now and then, a book appears in the world with that name on it. It never goes to an editor, no publishing house actually handles it, it's never even been to a printer. It just appears in bookstores and we as a society just don't question it

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