It is no secret that I despise the way people romanticize the relationship between Erik amd Christine to the point where nowdays it is widely accepted that Christine loved both Raoul and Erik, despite the fact that the latter one was a murderous, possessive, jealous incel who commited numerous crimes, and the only strong emotion Christine has for him at the end is pity.

However, there's one thing which completely pisses me of and that is drawing Erik as some sort of dominat top possessive daddy, despite the fact that dude is supposed to look completely hideous, being described in the book as having a corpse-like face, yellowed and tightly skin stretched across his bones, no nose, a deformed mouth, and only a few wisps of hair behind his ears and on his forehead.

Which is funny, because the people who pity him purely because of his dark and troubled past and are willing to turn him into this cute and innocent meow meow who did nothing wrong usually turn out to be the exact same guys who depict him as conventionally attractive.

Allow me to be controversial and say that by yassifying him you're being both hypocritical and ableist, and that the ultimate mesage you're creating is that ugly people are not worthy of understanding and empathy, and that you're ultimately in love only with the cosmeticized version of this character. Sorry not sorry.

Every time somebody draws Erik like that an angel loses its wings.

Every time somebody dares to make Cadmus and Harmonia dirty remain calm and remember that this quick drawing of them two exists.

I'm slowly starting to turn the Percy Jackson Fandom into one of my Pet Peeves when it comes to Greek Mythology.

A while ago I found a post where someone was asking what happened with Chariclo, Chiron's wife since she doesn’t appear or is even mentioned in the PJO Series, and everybody started to theorize that they two eventually divorced due to their problematic relationship. Not sure what is "problematic", given the fact that they barely appear together in any myth to begin with so we don't get any glimpse on how's their relationship like, but whatever.

And now I discovered that there are almost thirty Chiron/Dionysus fanfictions on AO3, and 0 for Chiron and Chariclo. Despite the fact that the myth where Chiron is said to love Dionysus is from a very obscure, later source.

If you want to know how do yassification and romanticization work exactly then here's the same character in the 1925 silent film VS. in the 2004 movie.

"Go to hell!" is basic. "I'm going to pretend that the female character from this gothic franchise is in love with the monster who clearly abuses her and either demonize or sideline the man she actually has feelings for." is diabolical. And it happened to me more than once.

Finally found a vase painting depicting Melanippe. Love how she has so much personality lol.

Athena is a virgin goddess, she doesn’t give a fuck.

Help, I had a vision where Hera was pointing out that Ares and Hephaestus are distant to each other and Momus said something between the lines: "Both of them are living and reuniting themselves through Aphrodite." 💀

Honestly at this point Robert Eggers should've just made a Dracula adaptation instead of a Nosferatu ecranisation. We would've finally had an accurate one that actually sticks to the core themes of the original novel.

That moment when you're talking to someone about Serial Experiments: Lain, but they don't seem to understand...

Rereading the Grisha Trilogy so you don't have to

Book 1: Shadow and Bones

Okay, so apparently the action takes place in this fictionial country named Ravka, which is basically the fantasy equivalent of the Tsarist Russia. And just like any other carbon copy of Russia that respects itself, the kingdom of fricking coursly had to be at war with its neighborhoods. Furthermore, the country itself was split into two lands by the Shadow Fold, the long-ago creation of an evil wizard, populated by ugly rabbit predators which feed on those who had the bad inspiration to cross the Fold.

Those who usually end up as their menu are the members of the armed forces, separated into two groups. The First Army is made out of regular people, whereas the Second Army is made out of magical people ruled by a guy called... *suspense drum music* the Darkling *badum tss*. No, this isn't a joke. This is his actual title. At this point you could just call him Black Fantasy.

Additional Note: The way the author tried to insert russian/slavic elements in the universe is hilariously annoying. There are magical people here called "Grisha", despite the fact that "Grisha" is short for Gregori. They could as well just be named Greg. They're also alcoholics apparently, which I won't criticize since it's kinda accurate, but the thing is: these guys are drinking kvas. And kvas not only that is an actual, existing drink, but it's not even am alcoholic one to begin with. Even the russian-like names are wrongly gendered, since women's last names usually get feminized and end in "-a". Therefore it should've been "Starkova" instead of "Starkov", and "Morozov" instead of "Morozova".

Anyway, back to the review:

The main characters are Alina, the average YA teenage girl with low self-esteem issues, and her friend... Mal? Malyen?! I mean... do I even have to point out the fact that this isn't even a real name at all? Also, does the author know that russians (and slavic people in general) do not use american nicknames, right? She clearly knows, given the fact that she decided to name the russian-coded wizards Grisha and called it a day. *sighs* I'll just call him Misha.

Alina and Misha are chosen among the soldiers who will cross the Fold this time. Their ship ends up being attacked by sea monsters by default and Alina suddenly becomes a Disco Ball while her and Misha are about to get killed by one. Later she is brought to Black Fantasy, who reveals her to be The Chosen One, the one who can destroy the Fold after so many centuries and thus she must go with him to the Russian Hogwarts. Girly is now an aristocrat and is introduced to Genya, a magical make-up artist and beauty guru, the boring characters who will die throughout this series and the even more boring king and queen who won't die because apparently killing any filler characters besides those the reader actually wants to see dead isn't professional.

Oh, and apparently one of her teachers is Baba Yaga, who lives in a hut just like the original slavic figure. Except that the hut in question doesn’t have skull lanterns nor chicken legs. Booooooo! On a more sarcastic note though I'll forgive the author for that, because Baba Yaga is constantly beating Alina with her cane, yells at her to close the door so that the air current won't come in and swears. I'll be honest, I didn't expect someone to have such complex knowledge on how do eastern european grannies behave. Alina still cannot control her powers and is thinking about Misha and all the things she didn't tell him, because she was too busy fantasizing about him rather than actually talking to him about her feelings. Black Fantasy finally decides to talk to Alina again after remaining edgy for a while and tells her she needs an amplifier (basically something that can amplify one's powers) and because she's The Chosen One she must deserve the most powerful one just like any other spoiled brat: White Bambi.

Additional Note: Man, I cannot take a guy who literally calls himself the Darkling seriously. If you're really going to embarass yourself like that then at least don't stop here! The Darkling takes a bath: the Sparkling. The Darkling finds a parking place: the Parkling. The Darkling feeds the ducks: the Duckling...

Currently on Chapter 13: The Darkling kisses Alina. Alarming. Also I forgot to mention that earlier but dude is like hundreds of years old. But don't worry, because kissing teenage girls it's okay and completely not pedophilic as long as you're looking like one as well. 👍

Now on Chapter 14: When the hell did this become a Whore House?! Anyway, Alina reunites with Misha, but because he thought she was being tortured all this time and he tried to be the one who found White Bambi so that he could be brought to the palace and eventually reunite with her only to find her making magic tricks at parties and exchanging saliva with the depraved fossil their reunion doesn’t go very well.

We found out from Baba Yaga that Black Fantasy was... *suspense drum sounds* the villain all this time *gasps in shock*.

The entire scene basically went like this:

Oh, and Baba Yaga is also Black Fantasy's mother. I quess everyone has relatives they don't like...

Alina leaves the palace at night and reunites with Misha, who wants to help her kill White Bambi before Black Fantasy because otherwise Black Fantasy will have full control over her, he'll use her powers to do bad thing and stuff blah, blah, blah. After a while they find White Bambi, but right when Alina is supposed to kill him she starts philosophing about morality and why killing an innocent creature is wrong and why they must find another way to- Nevermind, Black Fantasy killed White Bambi already and turned Alina into his slave.

Black Fantasy uses her powers to expand the Fold and kills hundreds of innocent people in the process. But worry not, because our female lead manages to regain control over her magical abilities with the power of compassion, and her and Misha leave the ship while leaving Black Fantasy & Co. in the hope that they will ultimately get devoured by the sea rabbit predators.

Impressions

I don't necessarily find too many good things to point out besides three aspects. First of all, I appreciate the fact that the author didn't intend to insert a love triangle only after a few pages of writing, and instead has her protagonist be with two different men at different times and situations. Secondly, the Darkling is acknowledged as an abusive and manipulative figure, and their relationship isn't romanticized. Last but not least, I like how Mal and Alina are acting like ordinary, realistic teenagers instead of some 2D caricatures.

I personally find the world-building and magic system to be undeveloped and crusty, yet I would lie if I'd say this book is terrible compared to the average BookTok novel.

The Darkling is a very cliché villain. He wears black all the time (given the way he calls himself I would be surprised if he would wear anything else), is extremely dubious yet for some reason everyone around believes him to be a good person, has darkness powers (What a surprise!) and all the magic hot chicks have a crush on him.

Let me know if you want me to talk about the other books as well!