Cale: I Don’t Think We Can Mansplain, Manipulate, Malewife Ourselves Out Of This One

An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson My rating: 5 of 5 stars Rating: 4.5 Since I see a lot of recommendations to people who love ACOTAR, I’ll just say that as someone who never enjoyed ACOTAR I’d still recommend this book. With it being a standalone there wasn’t as much time as a series would have to wrap up all the loose ends or expand on certain things, but what is offered in this single book is plenty to satisfy the reader. In this story, humans can use “craft”, which is a reference to things like cooking, building, art, etc. Fae on the other hand have magic and lack human feelings. While humans cannot use magic or be immortal, fae cannot use craft lest they lose their immortality and die. This leads fae to seek out humans to provide them with craft, and humans likewise desire their immortality and magic. Except for our heroine, Isobel. She is a very talented painter who has many patrons among the fair folk. Yet she has never desired to drink from the “Green Well”, a well that transforms any human who drinks from it into an immortal fae. The reason becomes clear as the story progresses, but I’ll leave that a mystery for those who have yet to read. The romance element comes into play when the autumn prince comes seeking her craft. Little does she know that this is part of a whole string of events that have already been set in motion. And before she realizes it, she winds up on a journey through the various seasonal courts, surrounded by mysteries and court intrigue. Plans ever changing as new information comes to light. ********** There is so much to love about this book, and only a little that made me feel it was more appropriate to give it 4.5 stars instead of 5. Personally I wasn’t a fan of the idea that fair folk couldn’t craft. It seemed a bit absurd, but ultimately I think it helped create a more balanced approach to the dynamics between fae and humans. And I think that was one of the main points, so I can’t be too hard on it. On the contrary, seeing a sort of symbiotic relationship between the two species despite the underlying dangers to both sides was refreshing. There is also a little part of me that wonders why people ever try to write romances where one side of the relationship supposedly cannot feel human feelings. Inevitably I always find the author putting bits of humanity into non-human characters, or there’d be little chance of any real romance. This isn’t the first book to do this and it won’t be the last. Just a little nitpick I have. But not enough to make me feel that it ruined anything. There weren’t any characters I disliked in this story, but my absolute favorite was Gadfly. An apt name for the type of role he plays lol. Indeed Rook, the autumn prince, was the best partner for Isobel. But Gadfly is that elegant character who’s always smiling while secretly causing all the trouble. Sometimes it’s unclear where his loyalties lie or what his intentions are, but he is very present in every fiber of this story even when he isn’t there. He’s even got his hands in the budding romance at times XD. Part way through I’d already guessed what he was aiming for, and I was right. Though that just made it all the more enjoyable to watch him work. I think if someone enjoys the portrayal of fae in Holly Black’s FOTA series, then they’d probably enjoy Margaret Rogerson too. There’s a similar vibe. However I’d say that the type of stories they are telling are different. This book is more of a journey story than one of court politics and action, though it also has some of the latter. It’s also a bit more on the whimsical side. It actually surprises me that this book isn’t rated higher, so if it sounds up your alley, go read it!

Upcoming Magical Girl Projects

Magical girl fans are finally eating good after years of starvation. So good, in fact, that I decided to make a list of magical girl projects in development.

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies - The most imminent of these projects, since it's premiering only in a few days. It's the story of the forbidden romance between the magical girl Byakuya Mimori and Mira, a high-ranking official of an army trying to take over the world.

Mermaid Magic - In a new western magical girl show from the same studio as Winx Club, Princess Merlinda, with her friends Sasha and Nerissa in tow, ventures to the human world in order to find a way to save her homeland of Mertropia from the ghost pirate Barbarossa and his monster horde. Dropping on Netflix next month.

Acro Trip - One of several new magical girl series coming out in the Fall 2024 anime season, Acro Trip follows Chizuko Date as her efforts to increase appreciation for her idol, local magical girl Berry Blossom, takes her down a "dark path filled with strange folks."

Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. - Kana Sakuragi is having a hard time finding work, botching over 15 different job interviews. However, her luck changes when a series of events lands her a job at the magical girl company Magilumiere.

The Story of the Girl Who Couldn't Become a Wizard - The third of the magical girl anime coming out in October, MahoNare for short tells the story of Kurumi Mirai as she tries to become a wizard anyways after failing to get into her school's magic division.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie - Walpurgisnacht Rising - The fourth PMMM movie, which will pick up where Rebellion's massive cliffhanger left off. It's currently set to come out sometime later this year.

Cute High Earth Defense Club Eternal Love! - The magical boy series is getting a new movie in winter 2025 as part of the celebrations for its 10th anniversary. While the movie will "consist entirely of new scenes that will be newly drawn," exact plot details are unknown. (Added August 7, 2024)

Mahou Tsukai Precure: Mirai Days - A new installment in the Precure franchise, Mirai Days will serve as a sequel to Mahou Tsukai, the thirteenth season. Even though it's premiering early next year, specific plot details are currently unknown.

Princess Session Orchestra - A TV original coming next year, Princess Session Orchestra is based on a concept by Akifumi Kaneko, one of Symphogear's co-creators. The land of Alicepia's peace is destroyed when monsters called Jammerwocks attack, prompting a trio of young girls to step up the plate to protect the realm.

Winx Club - The western magical girl classic is getting a CGI reboot. While comments by Iginio Straffi imply that certain characters who were introduced later in the original series (such as Roxy and Nabu) will appear earlier, no specific plot details have been revealed so far. The series is coming to Netflix late next year.

New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt - Panty & Stocking is getting a second season after over a decade that's coming out sometime next year with no specific plot details revealed yet. (Added August 7, 2024)

Project Symphogear Next - A new Symphogear movie was announced late last year. However, no further details have been revealed.

Hua Xianzi: Zhi Mofa Xiang Dui Lun - A co-production between Tencent Video and Toei Animation's Shanghai branch, this anime is being billed as a "remake" of Lunlun the Flower Fairy. That being said, promises of "a fresh story and characters" make it sound more like a reboot.

Studio Pierrot's new anime - Studio Pierrot, which has made a variety of magical girl anime from Creamy Mami to Tokyo Mew Mew, has announced that they're creating a new TV original magical girl anime. No specific details have been disclosed, but the caption for the teaser image ("I want you to sing once more...") implies that it'll be a magical idol anime.

Lolirock season three - After Lolirock's second season ended with a cliffhanger all the way back in 2017, it seemed like the story would never get a proper conclusion. However, the series's creator and director, Jean-Louis Vandestoc, announced on his Instagram in 2023 that creative meetings for a third season have begun.

Magic Knight Rayearth revival - TMS Entertainment is making a new Magic Knight Rayearth anime in honor of the franchise's 30th anniversary. Unfortunately, it's currently unknown what the format will be.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card season two - The sequel to the magical girl classic is getting a second season that will adapt the rest of the manga.

Magical Girl holoWitches - A multimedia project starring six VTubers as fictionalized versions of themselves who work as both streamers and magical girls who save people when they get trapped in the magical Holocas World. There was a four minute extended trailer in May, but the anime's proper premiere date is unknown.

Ojamajo Doremi 16-20's - An adaptation of Ojamajo Doremi's light novel sequel series, which follows the girls as they grow from being in their mid-teens to early 20s. Interestingly, the format for the adaptation (TV show, movie, or streaming series) will be based on the reception of a music video featuring the girls as adults.

An enchantment of ravens and a court of thorns

I’d seen An Enchantment of Ravens held up as an alternative “fae book” to A Court of Th0rns and R0ses (AC0TAR) since before the book even came out, since there are several conspicuous parallels between them. However, I wasn’t expecting An Enchantment of Ravens (EoR) to read so much like an actual response to AC0TAR.

While I won’t presume to say that Margaret Rogerson wrote her book with AC0TAR in mind, it’s fun to talk about the parallels (or lack of parallels in some cases) anyway, because the difference between the books is a good way of explaining what I dislike about AC0TAR’s romance. It’s easier to explain why one thing in AC0TAR ticked me off when I can point to the way EoR did (or didn’t) do the thing differently and kept me on board with the romance.

some disclaimers:

the following “essay” is not complimentary to the book A Court of Th0rns and R0ses, so if you are a big fan of that book, just don’t read this! i promise you’re (probably) not missing anything you don’t already know

essay also includes spoilers for both books being compared: AC0TAR and An Enchantment of Ravens

the purpose of this essay is not to chronicle all the flaws of AC0TAR, because that would be an entirely different thing. the focus is on how the two books address romance between a fae character and a mortal character in contrasting ways and why i personally like EoR’s take so much better

Keep reading

Madeline Miller has every right to write books like "Circe" and draw inspiration from Greek mythology but sometimes I want what she smokes... Like, I can't believe that with her studies and experience she looked at one of the most beloved heroes of the Greeks for millennia and she went "the gods are 'sociopathic narcissists' in our modern standards, Odysseus is full of himself and probably shittier than he presents himself to be because patriarchy".

I am mostly paraphrasing, and the quotes are below. Yes, Greek societies have been patriarchal for a long time, yes Odysseus is the main narrator so of course, we see the story from his point of view, yes he is a trickster character and not perfect, no that doesn't automatically make him a bad person who overshadows other characters so he can elevate himself. If he had lied or hid something when he narrated his story, it would be there in the text, as in every other occasion Odysseus tricked someone.

I find it very hard to accept that with her Classics background she characterized the Greek gods in such a simple way, letting out all their magnificence, generosity, and kindness.

I understand what she wants to say here but the phrasing is weird. What do you mean by "push back" against the mythology? This makes it seem like her works are equal to the mythology texts and she is able to "push back". (She says in the article that her works are not equal to the Homeric pieces, but phrases like this makes it seem so)

These statements of the interviewer don't help much either... In a formal article, please don't characterize gods of other cultures and religions as "stupid" and similar things. You wouldn't call a person that in such a context, and you call the Greek gods stupid? Also... we are so sorry for our hero who tells his own story, I guess?? And sorry that our important ancient texts made you sad as a kid???

This statement alone might not seem like much but in the general spirit of the article, it adds up to the notion of Odysseus isn't that deserving after all and we should stop giving him that much attention in the name of social justice. For example, later in the article, we meet this statement from Miller. (I understand she doesn't outright call Odysseus a narcissist and what she says is that there is some material on the text she can use to play with this theme.)

The whole piece might leave the impression to a portion of readers that Odysseus wasn't actually that great and was praised in the context of a patriarchal society because he was a male hero. I can't help but feel this removes some agency from the Greek people who have kept Odysseus in their hearts and tradition for thousands of years, up to this day.

I analyze her and the writers of multiple articles stance exactly as deep and with the same stretches as the article writers praise Miller's work. She made the powerful witch Circe a rape victim and Odysseus a liar from a few hints (not even) in the original text. And I cannot meta-analyze her work from a cultural, intersectional scope? Yes, "it's not that deep" but since the articles are making a fuss out of a singular recent book and analyze it to death, I believe I am allowed to go a bit deeper in my commentary.

So, their stances remind me of the old theme of the "enlightened, educated foreigner" who "knows better" the native heroes than the natives of a land and sees how "problematic" the culture and the heroes themselves are, and the culture wasn't "feminist enough" to give the female heroes voices.

It all ties to the sense of ownership the West has with the Greek myths and characters. This is a formal interview/article and yet they talk about the heroes like they are their cousins or like they discuss in a bar about heroes of their own culture. One says that the Greek gods are essentially pricks and the other moans because we mostly follow Odysseus in... "Odyssey", as if the text came out yesterday in their local newspaper.

Like, I thought we would get a respectful and serious approach from people who know what they are talking about, but apparently, I was too optimistic.

The funny thing is, while misogyny was/is a thing, it's not because of the lack of feminism that Circe wasn't so important. She was merely the "bad witch" of the story. As it often happens in folk adventure stories, side characters - bad witches included - don't have a deep background story. To claim that the misogyny of Greeks was the reason Circe didn't get much "screentime" in another hero's story (!!!) is a stretch. There are multiple male characters in Odyssey who don't get that much time because they are side characters.

I can't believe I am saying this but... Miller and the writers of the articles give me so many "white feminism" vibes. Greece societies had/has issues with women's representation and yet they chose one side female character who matters as much as the male side characters in the text and go "now THIS is a problem we need to talk about for the next five years! We will do the subversion of the century and we will open people's eyes to neglected women by making a beloved hero a prick!! Oh, also Circe is now a rape victim to show how cruel the men were back then!"

Here is the full article. Most of it is pleasant and insightful and then there are... these statements that made red flags arise in my mind. I am not saying that Madeline Miller is trash, or that she doesn't know anything, or that she deserves any type of harassment. I just think some commentary is needed when such proclamations of hers are published and end up adopted by many who don't have the time to cross-reference.

Magical girls are literally the most powerful of anime characters

People always be arguing abt Goku vs JoJo number 52 most epic anime battles or whatev. A Precure could vaporize both of them by sneezing

Can’t believe Nüwa is a Shadowpeach fan (Shadowpeach Bio Parent AU / NEXT )

(Yes I know she doesn’t need other beings to create life but let me dream of those two idiots being biological dads of the chaos baby)

P.1: First Arc

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9

Extras: A Future Scenario - PIF finds out - Part 1+2 Dub! - Part 3+4 Dub! - Part 5-6 Dub!

P.2: Week 1 and 2

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9

Extras: fanart by @terezsa07 - fanart by @downerdays - Animatic by @racoonponiee - fanart by @asthmaticplushiedragon

P.3: Training montage

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6

Extras: Family dinner

P:4: Un-divorce arc

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10

Extras: Spicynoodle bit

P.5: More than a successor

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6

☆*: .｡. IVANTILL WEEK .｡.:*☆ 🖤 Day 3: Style Swap/Actors AU 💚

Till sunbae my beloved

Day 2 ◀ ▶ Day 4

Neuvillette x Evermore from Beauty and the Beast focallette au. That’s it. That’s all I can think about.

The voice inside my head

At an important meeting at the palace Alberu: I am not sure about this plan, I have a bad feeling. Cale: What do you mean? Alberu: don't you ever get that little voice inside your head that tells you if something is going to get you in trouble? Cale: ...no? Rosalyn: that explains a lot. Cale: I actually have 7 and half of them scream arson and looting while the other half scream chaos and destruction so I just ignore them all. Choi Han and Bud: *visibly concerned* Eruhaben: *feeling way too old to deal whit this problematic child* tsk tsk Unlucky Bastard.

Okay Undertale community:

Since Undertale Yellow, I have been thinking.

UTY placed itself so firmly in the timeline, with so much to say, so much added to the worldbuilding (in a good way), so many wonderful characters, new locations, ect. that I believe we can make a prequel for each of the SOULs.

The hardest to do will probably be Integrity since their story intertwines so well with Clover's, and we hear about their actions at least twice if not more.

The only thing we gotta be aware of is that Flowey absolutely wouldn't exist before this point. He wouldn't have seen any other humans fall down, since Flowey is a more recent experiment. The Amalgamates, too, are relatively new in the Underground's history. So they might not exist.

If we were to create a prequel for Integrity, it should do something similar to UTY and create new characters, new locations, visit the old locations sparingly, and of course, end somewhere before New Home, since each soul made it a bit further and further than the last one.

The difficulty comes, again, with the fact that we know Integrity killed at least one monster- a child, no less- so doing different routes may be a bit weird. But it shouldn't be too bad; only one route is canon, right?

Maybe.

I'd like to propose a question that I don't have an answer to: Who had the ability to save/load/reset before Flowey did? He was the most determined being in the Underground, so it makes sense he got it, and then it was passed on to Frisk when they showed up, but what about before that? Imagine going up against a monster who isn't as determined as Flowey, but comes close.

The question then remains why that monster didn't stop Integrity from killing. Did that monster know they held that power at all?

I'm not here to propose ideas- that's for the fan game creators to handle. But I am absolutely LIVING for the idea that we could LITERALLY build our own canon.

Imagine a fan game for each of the souls, going in reverse order. We start with Yellow (Clover), then go to Integrity, so on and so forth until we get to Patience. Hell, we might even be able to do a Chara's Origins game after that!

If I knew how to program games, you KNOW I'd be jumping at the chance to do something like this. Since I can't, I'll just cheer y'all on from the sidelines should anyone decide to do this.

I might make an askblog or fan comic based on this, idk. Could be fun fgsdh