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Oct. 9th, 2025 05:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkatI’ve been rereading Stephen King for comfort reasons, and I have a couple of observations. First, The Dead Zone—which posits political assassination as an actual solution to a potential presidential madman—hits a bit different these days. Second (and not unrelatedly), while I am happy enough to get the expanded version of The Stand, it was a huge mistake for King to try to change the setting from 1980 to 1990; random updated pop culture references can’t disguise the fact that America changed substantially in that decade, such that characters and settings that made sense in 1980 were no longer plausible in 1990. The teenaged, white Nick Andros would almost certainly not have used the word “Negro” to describe an old woman in 1990. The singer Larry Underwood would have different beliefs about music from the 70s, when he was a young child rather than a teen/early adult. From attitudes towards single mothers to how racism was expressed to the dumping practices of fabric mills, the revised version still reads like 1980, but with a mention of rap on the radio, and it’s not good.
media update
Oct. 8th, 2025 01:17 pmomensOkay, it's been... a long time.. since I've done a media update. Oops! Haven't had much to talk about but I guess it's all added up enough to be enough by now.
Some books:
The Lower Decks book, Warp Your Own Way by Ryan North (comics novel) - read this twice, need to read a few more times :D (It's a choose your adventure book)
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein (non-fiction) - didn't get through this before the library yoinked it back (I had it largely thru my couple discord listening challenge weeks, whoops), put myself back on the list. Pretty interesting, kinda awful.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea, TJ Klune (fiction, sequel) - reading this in bits. As much as these are "cozy fantasy," only the relationships are. The plot and background ambiance is upsetting, in general, lol.
Couple Kdramas:
Doctor Cha - do not waste your time on this one! We made it through but it fought us almost the entire time. LOL I appreciatepikron so much in these times XD oooof tease an imminent divorce in the first couple eps, spend the entire series making the husband irredeemable and then only have the divorce in the LAST EPISODE?? Ughhh we were suffering. Props to minor character Jeon Sora for being a tiny bright light. And the actor Kim Mi-kyung (who played the main character's mother), who is ALWAYS excellent.
Business Proposal - CHARMING. Do recommend! Very silly! We are only four or five episodes in, so this might change, but we are enjoying it a lot. It does a lot of stupid special effects stuff & musical things that should be obnoxious but are somehow only charming. These dorks are mfeo. It's so enjoyable we have much less to talk about than in Doctor Cha, though LOL.
Some games:
Sims4 (computer) I spent a week and a half or so playing this. It got too much time out of me. I think it actually isn't very fun? But it is incredibly absorbing. I will probably get sucked in again at some point.
Meow Tower (mobile) - they added more puzzles and a new music box thing.
Word Trails (mobile, thru Netflix) - still doing this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3ds) - I restarted on a whim and am enjoying it. I like how the villagers are more unpredictable but I do not like when they shame me for playing too long :P
Writing & other creative things:
I have been writing, here and there! and a couple new ideas, which is fun. And crocheting! I've been working on a blanket for Kelly and speeding along with these granny squares until I got to the biggest colour chunk and now I'm like ehhhhhhhhhhhhh. Gotta do it!
That's it for me, aside from language learning stuff!
Some books:
The Lower Decks book, Warp Your Own Way by Ryan North (comics novel) - read this twice, need to read a few more times :D (It's a choose your adventure book)
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein (non-fiction) - didn't get through this before the library yoinked it back (I had it largely thru my couple discord listening challenge weeks, whoops), put myself back on the list. Pretty interesting, kinda awful.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea, TJ Klune (fiction, sequel) - reading this in bits. As much as these are "cozy fantasy," only the relationships are. The plot and background ambiance is upsetting, in general, lol.
Couple Kdramas:
Doctor Cha - do not waste your time on this one! We made it through but it fought us almost the entire time. LOL I appreciate
pikron so much in these times XD oooof tease an imminent divorce in the first couple eps, spend the entire series making the husband irredeemable and then only have the divorce in the LAST EPISODE?? Ughhh we were suffering. Props to minor character Jeon Sora for being a tiny bright light. And the actor Kim Mi-kyung (who played the main character's mother), who is ALWAYS excellent. Business Proposal - CHARMING. Do recommend! Very silly! We are only four or five episodes in, so this might change, but we are enjoying it a lot. It does a lot of stupid special effects stuff & musical things that should be obnoxious but are somehow only charming. These dorks are mfeo. It's so enjoyable we have much less to talk about than in Doctor Cha, though LOL.
Some games:
Sims4 (computer) I spent a week and a half or so playing this. It got too much time out of me. I think it actually isn't very fun? But it is incredibly absorbing. I will probably get sucked in again at some point.
Meow Tower (mobile) - they added more puzzles and a new music box thing.
Word Trails (mobile, thru Netflix) - still doing this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3ds) - I restarted on a whim and am enjoying it. I like how the villagers are more unpredictable but I do not like when they shame me for playing too long :P
Writing & other creative things:
I have been writing, here and there! and a couple new ideas, which is fun. And crocheting! I've been working on a blanket for Kelly and speeding along with these granny squares until I got to the biggest colour chunk and now I'm like ehhhhhhhhhhhhh. Gotta do it!
That's it for me, aside from language learning stuff!
Void Trilogy, by Peter F. Hamilton
Oct. 8th, 2025 09:28 amrunpunkrunThe Void Trilogy is three books that are really just one long, enormous book: The Dreaming Void, The Temporal Void, and The Evolutionary Void. They don't stand on their own even as installments in a series and must be read one after another, no dawdling.
I didn't enjoy this as much as the Commonwealth Saga, its predecessor, which I remember as being dense but interesting science fiction. It had a lot of characters, in a lot of locations, but all were distinct and memorable and their stories slowly converged in a satisfying way. This book (all three of it) is written to the same formula, but bloated to the point where so much was happening, and for so little reason, that the people, locations, and factions all ran together despite them being on many different planets, which also ran together. The only memorable parts of the book were Edeard and Araminta, and in the beginning I mostly kept reading for Edeard, though I became less interested in him as time went on and he became so powerful that all that was left to do was wait for the corruption to set in. Luckily Araminta started to get more attention around that same time.
I think perhaps Hamilton is best held to two volume books because this story seriously got away from him in three. There was stuff in here that just did not need to be in here, and then once it became relevant again (if it ever did) Hamilton did not give a flying fuck whether you remembered it or not and refused to give you a hint even if it was referencing something from the last book or two thousand pages ago.
It's so long that by the time you get to the actual climax of the series it's like, they ask a guy not to do the thing that'll end the universe, and he's like, idk, and then they ask him once more with feeling and he's like, well, okay. There's plenty of excitement on the way, but talk about anti-climatic. And then everyone goes home to a happy ending because no one (with insurance) ever dies in this universe. They just get downloaded to new bodies. Though you do kind of forget about that while you're reading because the characters are in so much peril.
Also, and I don't know how else to put this, but every reference to sex read like it was written by a man, like the beautiful identical twins who married the same man, and the one guy in multiple bodies who told his singular-bodied girlfriend that he had to fuck other women with his other bodies while he was with her because she (the girlfriend) just made him so hot, baby.
The eye rolls I rolled.
Still, obviously I found something compelling about this in order to spend, according to Libby, something like 72 hours reading it. But if you're looking to get into granular space operas, I don't think this is the place to start with Hamilton.
( Status Updates from Goodreads )
Contains: Descriptions of sexual violence; graphic physical violence; animal harm/death; references to forced impregnation and forced abortion; "Oriental" used to describe people; lingers on fatness in a way that isn't positive; mind control; cops; and for the ebooks: so many OCR errors I was instantly transported back in time to 2009.
I didn't enjoy this as much as the Commonwealth Saga, its predecessor, which I remember as being dense but interesting science fiction. It had a lot of characters, in a lot of locations, but all were distinct and memorable and their stories slowly converged in a satisfying way. This book (all three of it) is written to the same formula, but bloated to the point where so much was happening, and for so little reason, that the people, locations, and factions all ran together despite them being on many different planets, which also ran together. The only memorable parts of the book were Edeard and Araminta, and in the beginning I mostly kept reading for Edeard, though I became less interested in him as time went on and he became so powerful that all that was left to do was wait for the corruption to set in. Luckily Araminta started to get more attention around that same time.
I think perhaps Hamilton is best held to two volume books because this story seriously got away from him in three. There was stuff in here that just did not need to be in here, and then once it became relevant again (if it ever did) Hamilton did not give a flying fuck whether you remembered it or not and refused to give you a hint even if it was referencing something from the last book or two thousand pages ago.
It's so long that by the time you get to the actual climax of the series it's like, they ask a guy not to do the thing that'll end the universe, and he's like, idk, and then they ask him once more with feeling and he's like, well, okay. There's plenty of excitement on the way, but talk about anti-climatic. And then everyone goes home to a happy ending because no one (with insurance) ever dies in this universe. They just get downloaded to new bodies. Though you do kind of forget about that while you're reading because the characters are in so much peril.
Also, and I don't know how else to put this, but every reference to sex read like it was written by a man, like the beautiful identical twins who married the same man, and the one guy in multiple bodies who told his singular-bodied girlfriend that he had to fuck other women with his other bodies while he was with her because she (the girlfriend) just made him so hot, baby.
The eye rolls I rolled.
Still, obviously I found something compelling about this in order to spend, according to Libby, something like 72 hours reading it. But if you're looking to get into granular space operas, I don't think this is the place to start with Hamilton.
( Status Updates from Goodreads )
Contains: Descriptions of sexual violence; graphic physical violence; animal harm/death; references to forced impregnation and forced abortion; "Oriental" used to describe people; lingers on fatness in a way that isn't positive; mind control; cops; and for the ebooks: so many OCR errors I was instantly transported back in time to 2009.
The shirt project continues!
Oct. 8th, 2025 10:23 amgarryowenYes, Season 2 of Brilliant Minds has begun, so the shirt project is underway again! Here are the shirts from the first three eps.
The palette is a little darker this season, I think. The costume designers are super intentional with the color choices, and the palette suits the mood of the episodes so far.
( Shirts from 2.01, 2.02, and 2.03 )
The palette is a little darker this season, I think. The costume designers are super intentional with the color choices, and the palette suits the mood of the episodes so far.
( Shirts from 2.01, 2.02, and 2.03 )
Book Log: The Epic of Bidasari
Oct. 8th, 2025 03:54 pmscaramoucheI picked up The Epic of Bidasari (and other tales) during a book fair ages ago in trying to support a local publisher, Silverfish Books, though sadly since then said publisher has gone under, apparently due to business troubles during lockdown. The book is a 2012 republishing of a 1901 publication by The Colonial Press (actual name!) which was a translation work from Malay to English of the older text, though it's unclear if they also did the Malay transcription from the oral form.
I adore the 1964 black-and-white film Bidasari starring Sarimah and Jins Shamsudin. (Shockingly, I can't find an upload of the full film on youtube to share here!) It's because of that I picked up this book, and I really enjoyed reading the full English-translated poem, which makes up the meat of this book, though I do wish I had a Malay original as well because you can just SEE glimpses between the words of what the original was, plus as with all translations the vibes would just be different. Also, the dialogue of the Bidasari film is almost entirely in verse, and I would've loved to see if they'd ported anything over from the poem.
Bidasari is a folktale/fairytale about a princess, Bidasari, who is abandoned as a baby by her royal parents when they (the parents) are chased by a garuda and have to flee into the desert. Bidasari is rescued by a merchant of another kingdom, who prospers as he raises her. Bidasari grows up beautiful and kind and flawless (etc etc) which puts her in the radar of the queen, who is beautiful but not that beautiful, and fears that her husband the king will take Bidasari as his second wife if he sees her. So the queen has Bidasari brought to her and locks her up to abuse in the hopes of ruining her beauty, eventually seemingly killing her, but due to certain magical shenanigans Bidasari isn't dead dead, but only partly dead. Bidasari's body is returned to her merchant father, who puts her in a secret house-tomb in the woods that the king eventually stumbles upon while hunting.
Obviously there's some similarity to Snow White, and the filmmakers of the movie saw that, too, and made the queen a witch of sorts who has a magic mirror that she uses pretty much the same way as the Snow White queen does. But the biggest change, which surprised me, too, is that instead of Bidasari being the queen's stepdaughter, she's the queen's rival for the king's love, and that just makes so much sense! Of course that only works in a folktale setting where polygyny is a thing, and vanity is a good enough sin for these kinds of stories regardless, but the queen's intense, preemptive jealousy just feels more organic this way, which I thought was neat. Like, the queen created her own problems by targeting Bidasari, more or less. (The Bidasari movie has the love interest prince be the evil queen's stepson instead.)
( Cut the rest for length. )
I adore the 1964 black-and-white film Bidasari starring Sarimah and Jins Shamsudin. (Shockingly, I can't find an upload of the full film on youtube to share here!) It's because of that I picked up this book, and I really enjoyed reading the full English-translated poem, which makes up the meat of this book, though I do wish I had a Malay original as well because you can just SEE glimpses between the words of what the original was, plus as with all translations the vibes would just be different. Also, the dialogue of the Bidasari film is almost entirely in verse, and I would've loved to see if they'd ported anything over from the poem.
Bidasari is a folktale/fairytale about a princess, Bidasari, who is abandoned as a baby by her royal parents when they (the parents) are chased by a garuda and have to flee into the desert. Bidasari is rescued by a merchant of another kingdom, who prospers as he raises her. Bidasari grows up beautiful and kind and flawless (etc etc) which puts her in the radar of the queen, who is beautiful but not that beautiful, and fears that her husband the king will take Bidasari as his second wife if he sees her. So the queen has Bidasari brought to her and locks her up to abuse in the hopes of ruining her beauty, eventually seemingly killing her, but due to certain magical shenanigans Bidasari isn't dead dead, but only partly dead. Bidasari's body is returned to her merchant father, who puts her in a secret house-tomb in the woods that the king eventually stumbles upon while hunting.
Obviously there's some similarity to Snow White, and the filmmakers of the movie saw that, too, and made the queen a witch of sorts who has a magic mirror that she uses pretty much the same way as the Snow White queen does. But the biggest change, which surprised me, too, is that instead of Bidasari being the queen's stepdaughter, she's the queen's rival for the king's love, and that just makes so much sense! Of course that only works in a folktale setting where polygyny is a thing, and vanity is a good enough sin for these kinds of stories regardless, but the queen's intense, preemptive jealousy just feels more organic this way, which I thought was neat. Like, the queen created her own problems by targeting Bidasari, more or less. (The Bidasari movie has the love interest prince be the evil queen's stepson instead.)
( Cut the rest for length. )
The Pitt Fic: A Long Walk (Abbot/Robby, NC-17)
Oct. 4th, 2025 11:13 pmalethiaA Long Walk (5155 words) by Alethia
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Abbot/Michael "Robby" Robinavitch
Characters: Jack Abbot (The Pitt), Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, Parker Ellis, Dana Evans
Additional Tags: Post-Season/Series 01, Established Relationship, Developing Relationship, Insecurity, Jealousy, Porn, robby's got some new tattoos, let us explore
Summary:
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Abbot/Michael "Robby" Robinavitch
Characters: Jack Abbot (The Pitt), Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, Parker Ellis, Dana Evans
Additional Tags: Post-Season/Series 01, Established Relationship, Developing Relationship, Insecurity, Jealousy, Porn, robby's got some new tattoos, let us explore
Summary:
Robby finally piped up: "Kind of a shame, though. Guy seemed like your type."
Jack felt himself wanting to bristle, quickly controlling it. Because what the fuck. They'd been entirely wrapped up in each other in the year since Pittfest, Robby finally going to therapy, letting them get more serious than the fuckbuddy deal they'd had going before that. Jack had thought things were going well. "I have a type?" he challenged, raising his eyebrows.
Crime Scene Zero
Oct. 5th, 2025 12:11 pmscaramoucheI'm watching the fourth case of Crime Scene Zero, and is it just me, or is someone in the crew/costuming department a fan of Sweeney Todd? Park Ji-yoon's look is a riff on Mrs. Lovett, right? I would've been more sure but the case has absolutely nothing to do with pies or any other foodstuff of dubious origin.
Fancake's Theme for October: Uncommon Settings
Oct. 4th, 2025 09:30 amrunpunkrun
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fancake's theme for October is Uncommon Settings! These are places you don't often see represented in fanworks, either in a specific fandom or fandom in general. They could be concrete locations like the moon or your hometown, or more nebulous areas like Slack or the underworld.If you're a font nerd like I am, you might be interested to know this font is called Cubao and is inspired by the signboards hung on jeepneys, SUVs, buses, and other transport vehicles within and outside the Metro Manila in the Philippines. I picked it because it looked awesome, only afterward learning that it also represents an uncommon fannish setting.
Also, also, I don't know if this'll work for you, but I accidentally discovered if I stare at this image and kind of Magic Eye it (stare through it) the moon appears to jiggle around inside its circle of text, like a hologram. Spooky.
If you have any questions about this theme, or the comm, or fonts, come talk to me!
Book Log: Genghis Khan
Oct. 4th, 2025 07:22 pmscaramoucheI picked up John Man's Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Resurrection so long ago that the bookstore chain I got it from is no longer doing business in this country. So, years ago! And I got it for reasons I no longer remember either, because I think I've been subconsciously avoiding John Man's works the same way I've been avoiding Tom Holland (the historian, not the actor!)'s because they're so everywhere and easy to find.
As a biography it's fine? I'm not familiar with Mongolian history beyond where it briefly touches other areas that are familiar to me, so this was nice as a primer, and Man's prose is solid and has a lot of passion for the topic. That said, there's an undertone that didn't work for me, I hesitate to call it paternalistic but maybe it is, in the way that Man describes certain beliefs and people. Man is very thoughtful and sympathetic to the struggles of modern Mongolia, and of the ways that the memory of Genghis is complicated by Mongolia-China's history as interpreted by modern day, but at the same time... To use specific examples, he describes some Buddhist-influenced ceremonies that honour Genghis as "strange", and he calls certain enemies of Genghis as "arrogant" and despicable without really giving further detail or giving said figures the same grace he gives Genghis, whom he fully acknowledges caused tremendous amounts of death and destruction in his conquests yet also speaks admiringly of. There's a line, I guess, in acknowledging the man's tremendous wartime skill and strategy and adaptability, without being breathlessly excited about the carnage he exacted.
Also, for a book that goes on a lot at times about the tactical moves Genghis made, I don't feel like I got a good grasp of how Genghis was so effective for so long and over such a large area. Yes, horses; yes, ruthlessness; yes, trusted generals -- but the logistics elude me somewhat, especially as for a great deal of it, the main moves made by Genghis's armies were to strike, grab, and then leave, with only some portions of the China side including any sort of effort to hold land and implement taxes, for a culture that valued the nomadic wilderness over the uselessness of farming. I think I need more comparisons of scale to better understand.
Anyway, the book is not just a history of Genghis Khan, but it's also about the cultural impact Genghis had as a figure of influence, memory and national identity. Those parts are absolutely fascinating but they by necessity come hand in hand with the partial memoir sections of Man's exploration of Mongolia in trying to follow Genghis' footsteps, to the place of his supposed birth to the place(s) of his supposed death and/or memorialization, with all of Man's misadventures of hiking in the wilderness, getting lost while climbing a mountain, stumbling upon helpful people in unexpected places, and so on. Makes for good stories, and it does bring the modern Mongolia of 2002 and 2009 to vivid detail, but it's there particularly that Man's idiosyncrasies come out in the telling, and my eyes glaze over.
As a biography it's fine? I'm not familiar with Mongolian history beyond where it briefly touches other areas that are familiar to me, so this was nice as a primer, and Man's prose is solid and has a lot of passion for the topic. That said, there's an undertone that didn't work for me, I hesitate to call it paternalistic but maybe it is, in the way that Man describes certain beliefs and people. Man is very thoughtful and sympathetic to the struggles of modern Mongolia, and of the ways that the memory of Genghis is complicated by Mongolia-China's history as interpreted by modern day, but at the same time... To use specific examples, he describes some Buddhist-influenced ceremonies that honour Genghis as "strange", and he calls certain enemies of Genghis as "arrogant" and despicable without really giving further detail or giving said figures the same grace he gives Genghis, whom he fully acknowledges caused tremendous amounts of death and destruction in his conquests yet also speaks admiringly of. There's a line, I guess, in acknowledging the man's tremendous wartime skill and strategy and adaptability, without being breathlessly excited about the carnage he exacted.
Also, for a book that goes on a lot at times about the tactical moves Genghis made, I don't feel like I got a good grasp of how Genghis was so effective for so long and over such a large area. Yes, horses; yes, ruthlessness; yes, trusted generals -- but the logistics elude me somewhat, especially as for a great deal of it, the main moves made by Genghis's armies were to strike, grab, and then leave, with only some portions of the China side including any sort of effort to hold land and implement taxes, for a culture that valued the nomadic wilderness over the uselessness of farming. I think I need more comparisons of scale to better understand.
Anyway, the book is not just a history of Genghis Khan, but it's also about the cultural impact Genghis had as a figure of influence, memory and national identity. Those parts are absolutely fascinating but they by necessity come hand in hand with the partial memoir sections of Man's exploration of Mongolia in trying to follow Genghis' footsteps, to the place of his supposed birth to the place(s) of his supposed death and/or memorialization, with all of Man's misadventures of hiking in the wilderness, getting lost while climbing a mountain, stumbling upon helpful people in unexpected places, and so on. Makes for good stories, and it does bring the modern Mongolia of 2002 and 2009 to vivid detail, but it's there particularly that Man's idiosyncrasies come out in the telling, and my eyes glaze over.
Dear Festividder 2025-6
Oct. 2nd, 2025 05:11 pmbironicDear Festividder and anyone who might like to make a treat! Info at festivids.
( Wildlike (2014 movie) )
( Nosferatu (2024) )
ANIMAL SHOWS UMBRELLA REQUEST:
So I would love a vid that uses any or all of the animal shows below to wallow in the good feelings that come from loving and bonding with and caring for pets. If you want to expand to include a favorite show of your own, that’d be cool. I also have enjoyed Festivids-eligible things like Animal Cribs (TV/Disney+), Dog: Impossible (TV/Disney+), Dogs (TV/Netflix), Dr. K's Exotic Animal ER (TV/Hulu), Fur Babies (TV/NatGeo/Disney+), and Cat Daddies (movie/Kanopy) if you want to mix in any. Animal feelinnngggs.
( The Dog House UK )
( The Wizard of Paws )
( Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog )
( Critter Fixers: Country Vets )
LOL. "Cute, cute, cute, sweet, cute, VAMPIRE TRAUMA."
Music-wise, my favorite genres are folk from pretty much any country, rock, classical, instrumental, bluegrass, movie scores, Celtic, choral, country where it intersects with folk and rock, some pop, some dance, some hip hop, indie... If you mix dialogue with music, please make the dialogue very clear/easily audible.
Thank you!!
festivids.( Wildlike (2014 movie) )
( Nosferatu (2024) )
ANIMAL SHOWS UMBRELLA REQUEST:
So I would love a vid that uses any or all of the animal shows below to wallow in the good feelings that come from loving and bonding with and caring for pets. If you want to expand to include a favorite show of your own, that’d be cool. I also have enjoyed Festivids-eligible things like Animal Cribs (TV/Disney+), Dog: Impossible (TV/Disney+), Dogs (TV/Netflix), Dr. K's Exotic Animal ER (TV/Hulu), Fur Babies (TV/NatGeo/Disney+), and Cat Daddies (movie/Kanopy) if you want to mix in any. Animal feelinnngggs.
( The Dog House UK )
( The Wizard of Paws )
( Cesar Millan: Better Human Better Dog )
( Critter Fixers: Country Vets )
LOL. "Cute, cute, cute, sweet, cute, VAMPIRE TRAUMA."
Music-wise, my favorite genres are folk from pretty much any country, rock, classical, instrumental, bluegrass, movie scores, Celtic, choral, country where it intersects with folk and rock, some pop, some dance, some hip hop, indie... If you mix dialogue with music, please make the dialogue very clear/easily audible.
Thank you!!
Alice in Borderland (s3)
Oct. 2nd, 2025 10:48 amscaramoucheI carved out some time to watch Alice in Borderland's season 3, which I've then described to various people as an OVA to the first two seasons, i.e. a shorter (6 episodes, in this case) side story that isn't as necessary to the main story, which is already complete. I didn't enjoy it as much for a couple of reasons, the main one being is that the emotional throughline just isn't strong.
Season 3 uses some of the unused games of the original manga that weren't in s1-2, doesn't use anything from Border Road, but I THINK does use some elements of the short Borderland sequel, which I haven't read but I have osmosed does include Arisu reentering the games while Usagi is pregnant. I might be wrong, but my impression is in the manga sequel, Usagi doesn't reenter the games, and if so, the show's season 3 had to invent their own reasoning to get Usagi into the games, because it's just better that way, plus it changes Arisu's motivation from "survive the games so he can return to Usagi" to IMO the more compelling "find Usagi and get her out".
( Spoilers and so on. )
Season 3 uses some of the unused games of the original manga that weren't in s1-2, doesn't use anything from Border Road, but I THINK does use some elements of the short Borderland sequel, which I haven't read but I have osmosed does include Arisu reentering the games while Usagi is pregnant. I might be wrong, but my impression is in the manga sequel, Usagi doesn't reenter the games, and if so, the show's season 3 had to invent their own reasoning to get Usagi into the games, because it's just better that way, plus it changes Arisu's motivation from "survive the games so he can return to Usagi" to IMO the more compelling "find Usagi and get her out".
( Spoilers and so on. )
Drawtober! (Day 1)
Oct. 1st, 2025 09:53 pmgossIt's the 1st of October, and the start of our annual Drawtober challenge over at drawesome! :D
I don't think I was able to manage participating at all last year, but I'm determined to do it this time around. Sometimes it helps to keep a theme in mind or a particular direction to go in, so I'm thinking about focusing on figure drawing - gestures, line of action, musculature, that sort of thing.
Day 1's prompt was THROUGH A WINDOW. I sketched the figure from a reference photo and filled with marker:
Feels like I haven't done any art in forever, so this is a good start I think! :)
One of my art goals is learning to convey movement using fewer strokes, to develop a more loose and natural figure drawing style, which I know will only come with practice. Not sure how many sketches I'll be able to do this month, but I'm hoping for around 10.
Here's the list of daily art prompts, for my own reference: ( Drawtober 2025 Prompts )
drawesome! :DI don't think I was able to manage participating at all last year, but I'm determined to do it this time around. Sometimes it helps to keep a theme in mind or a particular direction to go in, so I'm thinking about focusing on figure drawing - gestures, line of action, musculature, that sort of thing.
Day 1's prompt was THROUGH A WINDOW. I sketched the figure from a reference photo and filled with marker:
Feels like I haven't done any art in forever, so this is a good start I think! :)
One of my art goals is learning to convey movement using fewer strokes, to develop a more loose and natural figure drawing style, which I know will only come with practice. Not sure how many sketches I'll be able to do this month, but I'm hoping for around 10.
Here's the list of daily art prompts, for my own reference: ( Drawtober 2025 Prompts )
