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1. Oh Apple no.
2. Oh Faybelle no. (Oh Faybelle yes.)
3. Oh very much Darling yes.
3. ADORABLE GILDED DRAGONS.
4. They thought a roughly 80% female cast was too conservative, so crammed in as many new girls as they could fit in.*
5. Not-exactly-practical but cute gilded and blingy sports costumes. (Gotta sell more dolls.)
6. Lesbian subtext ramped up all over the place, particularly for a kids' show.
7. Daring is about to pass out from an anxiety attack. Someone do something.
Apparently there is a new book, and my library has it, so that's good.
*Mildly spoilery: All appear to be from the Dark Forest, so maybe they're moving things there for the next arc?
2. Oh Faybelle no. (Oh Faybelle yes.)
3. Oh very much Darling yes.
3. ADORABLE GILDED DRAGONS.
4. They thought a roughly 80% female cast was too conservative, so crammed in as many new girls as they could fit in.*
5. Not-exactly-practical but cute gilded and blingy sports costumes. (Gotta sell more dolls.)
6. Lesbian subtext ramped up all over the place, particularly for a kids' show.
7. Daring is about to pass out from an anxiety attack. Someone do something.
Apparently there is a new book, and my library has it, so that's good.
*Mildly spoilery: All appear to be from the Dark Forest, so maybe they're moving things there for the next arc?
Ever After High books by Suzanne Selfors
Oct. 14th, 2015 10:36 pmFor anyone reading this who is not familiar with Ever After High, it's a toy line from Mattel with dolls for the sons and daughters of Fairy Tale characters, and there's a webseries and book series based on the characters. I don't have (or have much interest in) the dolls, but love the books and show.
Anyway, I read Suzanne Selfor's Ever After High books. (Trilogy? Not sure if she's doing more.) which are smaller both in scope and in page length than Shannon Hale's books, focusing on some of the more minor characters in the series. Next Top Villain is about Duchess Swan (the future Swan Princess) and Lizzie Hearts (Wonderland's future Queen of Hearts) who are assigned to a villainy course, despite being princesses. Lizzie because she's a future chaotic queen, Duchess because her competitive nature and dissatisfaction with being destined to be a swan forever make her a potential Evil Queen, and Headmaster Grimm thinks a backup is a good idea. I liked this one best of the three I read, largely because in the show, Duchess is mostly a one-note (if sympathetic) antagonist, and I liked seeing her get developed beyond that. I also have a lot of fondness for Lizzie, and get a lot of entertainment out of Daring's crush on her.
Kiss and Spell is about Ginger Breadhouse, the daughter of the witch from Hansel and Gretel, who has no interest in eating or poisoning anyone, and instead is devoted to making as many delicious pastries as she possibly can, even if everyone asks if her if they're poisoned before eating one. She has a cooking show with 5 viewers (everyone else is watching Daring Charming brush his teeth) and has to find a way to get more viewers or her show will be cancelled. This one was cute, but I didn't like it as much as the other two.
A Semi-Charming Kind of Life is about Darling Charming, the younger sister od daring and Dexter Charming. The Charmings are different from other EA residents in that they don't have have specific destinies they're born with. Instead they're a very, very large family whose members are assigned roles in other people's fairy tales. The princes are the knights and princes in stories that need them, and the princesses are the damsels in distress and princesses in stories that need them. Darling, as the only daughter of King Charming, is naturally the most beautiful and delicate of all the Charming princesses (when she flips her hair over her shoulder, time literally stops because every living thing is so dazzled). She has also spent her life reading her brothers' adventure books and using stacks of books as weights, and doing pullups on her tower's rafters, and is very dissatisfied with her expected destiny. When Dexter gets sick, she starts helping him with his tournament training, with unexpected results. It's probably the most Girl Power Feminism 101 thing in the franchise, but it's warm and positive and fun to read (or watch) as an adult, and no doubt inspires lots of "whees!" from the pre-adolescent girls the series is targeted towards.
The only real issue I have is that Selfors seems to have a clear Raven v Apple bias. And while I, too, am biased in Raven's favor, I also like Apple, and think Selfors sometimes wrote her as more shallow than I think she is, and more focused on "Daring is my perfect prince and will rescue me" than she previously was. In earlier works, I never got the impression that Apple was interested in Daring at all, just idea of them as the perfect fairy tale couple, and her conviction that it's best for everyone to stick to their assigned roles is based on the idea that doing so ensures the most happiness for the most people, not getting swept away and rescued by Daring. (I mean, I think she's wrong about people being happiest if they obey their assigned roles, but that is her motivation and reasoning.)
Anyway, I read Suzanne Selfor's Ever After High books. (Trilogy? Not sure if she's doing more.) which are smaller both in scope and in page length than Shannon Hale's books, focusing on some of the more minor characters in the series. Next Top Villain is about Duchess Swan (the future Swan Princess) and Lizzie Hearts (Wonderland's future Queen of Hearts) who are assigned to a villainy course, despite being princesses. Lizzie because she's a future chaotic queen, Duchess because her competitive nature and dissatisfaction with being destined to be a swan forever make her a potential Evil Queen, and Headmaster Grimm thinks a backup is a good idea. I liked this one best of the three I read, largely because in the show, Duchess is mostly a one-note (if sympathetic) antagonist, and I liked seeing her get developed beyond that. I also have a lot of fondness for Lizzie, and get a lot of entertainment out of Daring's crush on her.
Kiss and Spell is about Ginger Breadhouse, the daughter of the witch from Hansel and Gretel, who has no interest in eating or poisoning anyone, and instead is devoted to making as many delicious pastries as she possibly can, even if everyone asks if her if they're poisoned before eating one. She has a cooking show with 5 viewers (everyone else is watching Daring Charming brush his teeth) and has to find a way to get more viewers or her show will be cancelled. This one was cute, but I didn't like it as much as the other two.
A Semi-Charming Kind of Life is about Darling Charming, the younger sister od daring and Dexter Charming. The Charmings are different from other EA residents in that they don't have have specific destinies they're born with. Instead they're a very, very large family whose members are assigned roles in other people's fairy tales. The princes are the knights and princes in stories that need them, and the princesses are the damsels in distress and princesses in stories that need them. Darling, as the only daughter of King Charming, is naturally the most beautiful and delicate of all the Charming princesses (when she flips her hair over her shoulder, time literally stops because every living thing is so dazzled). She has also spent her life reading her brothers' adventure books and using stacks of books as weights, and doing pullups on her tower's rafters, and is very dissatisfied with her expected destiny. When Dexter gets sick, she starts helping him with his tournament training, with unexpected results. It's probably the most Girl Power Feminism 101 thing in the franchise, but it's warm and positive and fun to read (or watch) as an adult, and no doubt inspires lots of "whees!" from the pre-adolescent girls the series is targeted towards.
The only real issue I have is that Selfors seems to have a clear Raven v Apple bias. And while I, too, am biased in Raven's favor, I also like Apple, and think Selfors sometimes wrote her as more shallow than I think she is, and more focused on "Daring is my perfect prince and will rescue me" than she previously was. In earlier works, I never got the impression that Apple was interested in Daring at all, just idea of them as the perfect fairy tale couple, and her conviction that it's best for everyone to stick to their assigned roles is based on the idea that doing so ensures the most happiness for the most people, not getting swept away and rescued by Daring. (I mean, I think she's wrong about people being happiest if they obey their assigned roles, but that is her motivation and reasoning.)
fandom tropes meme
Aug. 16th, 2015 01:47 pmUltimate fandom tropes meme going around:
Source
I'm not overly big on the algorithm. You have 2 options and you can choose one, say both, or say no opinion. "both" or "no opinion" means you keep getting asked over and over again. "Both is ok because, in theory, it'll eventually come to what trope you like more of 2 tropes you like. I wish, though, that there was a "dislike" option so that once you clicked on it, it got shunted to the bottom and you didn't have to deal with it again. Becauseo f how it works, the first time I did it, I went "HAHAHA NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS." The second time, once I knew how it worked, was fairly accurate in what should be in the top 10 of the available options, but rather iffy after that.
But it is fun.
In other news, Netflix has new episodes of Ever After High up, though I'm not sure anyone but me cares. They were fun, though, and took place in Wonderland. (And unlike most depictions of Wonderland, this Wonderland was uttely nonsensical, as it should be.)
| Rank | Name |
| 1 | Royalty/Arranged Marriage |
| 1 | Enemies to Friends to Lovers |
| 1 | Fake Dating/Fake Marriage Accidentally Turns Into Feelings |
| 1 | Seemingly Unrequited Pining |
| 1 | Actually Unrequited Pining |
| 1 | Found Families |
| 1 | Rivalmancy |
| 1 | Friends to Lovers |
| 1 | Loyalty Kink |
| 1 | Age Difference (possibly due to time travel) |
| 11 | Magical Connection (telepathy, etc) |
| 12 | Fake Out Make Out |
| 13 | Soulmate Identifying Marks: Tattoo, Red Thread of Fate, etc |
| 14 | Trapped in an Elevator/Snowed-In Cabin/etc |
| 15 | Amnesia |
| 16 | Espionage AU |
| 16 | Reincarnation/'25 Lives' AU |
| 16 | A/B/O |
| 16 | Selfcest (possibly due to time travel) |
| 16 | Vampires/Werewolves AU |
| 21 | Adopting/Raising a Baby |
| 21 | Coffee House AU/Food Service AU |
| 21 | High School/Uni AU |
| 21 | Hurt/Comfort |
| 21 | 'Groundhog Day'/Karmic Time Warp |
| 21 | Incest |
| 27 | Role Reversal AU |
| 28 | Sex Pollen |
I'm not overly big on the algorithm. You have 2 options and you can choose one, say both, or say no opinion. "both" or "no opinion" means you keep getting asked over and over again. "Both is ok because, in theory, it'll eventually come to what trope you like more of 2 tropes you like. I wish, though, that there was a "dislike" option so that once you clicked on it, it got shunted to the bottom and you didn't have to deal with it again. Becauseo f how it works, the first time I did it, I went "HAHAHA NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS." The second time, once I knew how it worked, was fairly accurate in what should be in the top 10 of the available options, but rather iffy after that.
But it is fun.
In other news, Netflix has new episodes of Ever After High up, though I'm not sure anyone but me cares. They were fun, though, and took place in Wonderland. (And unlike most depictions of Wonderland, this Wonderland was uttely nonsensical, as it should be.)
Wednesday Reading Meme on Tuesday
May. 20th, 2014 03:48 pmLast post before WisCon, no idea how much/if I'll be posting while there.
What are you currently reading
In between.
What did you recently finish reading?
Two Ever After High books, The Storybook of Legends and Unfairest of them All by Shannon Hale. Like the webseries it follows the daily lives oof the children of fairy tale characters who are destined to repeat their parent's stories, regardless of how sucky those destinies may be. The protagonists of most stories, naturally, are delighted by this, and the villains and side characters are less so. Like the webseries, the plot revolves around Raven, the daughter of Snow White's Evil Queen, deciding that she isn't having any of that, and the fallout from her decision. The webseries focuses mostly on Raven and Apple, Snow White's daughter, but also spends a lot of time on the daily lives of other characters. The books are almost exclusively focused on Raven and Apple and there's a lot less of the other characters and their issues (I understand there are standalone books for younger readers that focus on the other characters, but my library didn't have them), but there's also a lot of emphasis on Raven and Apple's friendship and the rejection of "destiny." There's also Raven's mother, who went "off script" and tried to take over all the fairy tale kingdoms, and the mystery of two sisters who also rejected their story (one was supposed to kill the other and then die horribly herself, and they weren't having any of that at all) and what happened to them.
Zita the Spacegirl and Legends of Zita the Spacegirl. Graphic novel series about a girl who gets sucked into deep space trying to rescue her friend from alien abduction, and ends up saving the universe a lot while trying to get home. Her sidekicks include a giant mouse, a couple of robot, a giant...claylike dude, a sentient infant spaceship, and the Pied Piper. Piper is a sometimes unscrupulous scientist/inventor who just happens to have a magic flute, and toothpaste that creates doors. Rumpelstiltskin also makes a brief appearance, so I guess a galaxy far, far away is where the child stealers of fairy tales go. There's also Piper's ex, Madrigal, a mysterious space gypsy who holds a grudge. These are FUN. I look forward to future installments.
One Piece volume 1 by Eiichiro Oda. Entertaining, needs more girls. My library has the first few dozen volumes, so hopefully I won't burn out before I read all of them.
And Shion no Ou, which I posted on separately.
What do you think you'll read next?.
I have a Georgette Heyer book to read on the plane to WisCon, and then my nexus is stuffed full of manga, lightnovels, and a few other things.
What are you currently reading
In between.
What did you recently finish reading?
Two Ever After High books, The Storybook of Legends and Unfairest of them All by Shannon Hale. Like the webseries it follows the daily lives oof the children of fairy tale characters who are destined to repeat their parent's stories, regardless of how sucky those destinies may be. The protagonists of most stories, naturally, are delighted by this, and the villains and side characters are less so. Like the webseries, the plot revolves around Raven, the daughter of Snow White's Evil Queen, deciding that she isn't having any of that, and the fallout from her decision. The webseries focuses mostly on Raven and Apple, Snow White's daughter, but also spends a lot of time on the daily lives of other characters. The books are almost exclusively focused on Raven and Apple and there's a lot less of the other characters and their issues (I understand there are standalone books for younger readers that focus on the other characters, but my library didn't have them), but there's also a lot of emphasis on Raven and Apple's friendship and the rejection of "destiny." There's also Raven's mother, who went "off script" and tried to take over all the fairy tale kingdoms, and the mystery of two sisters who also rejected their story (one was supposed to kill the other and then die horribly herself, and they weren't having any of that at all) and what happened to them.
Zita the Spacegirl and Legends of Zita the Spacegirl. Graphic novel series about a girl who gets sucked into deep space trying to rescue her friend from alien abduction, and ends up saving the universe a lot while trying to get home. Her sidekicks include a giant mouse, a couple of robot, a giant...claylike dude, a sentient infant spaceship, and the Pied Piper. Piper is a sometimes unscrupulous scientist/inventor who just happens to have a magic flute, and toothpaste that creates doors. Rumpelstiltskin also makes a brief appearance, so I guess a galaxy far, far away is where the child stealers of fairy tales go. There's also Piper's ex, Madrigal, a mysterious space gypsy who holds a grudge. These are FUN. I look forward to future installments.
One Piece volume 1 by Eiichiro Oda. Entertaining, needs more girls. My library has the first few dozen volumes, so hopefully I won't burn out before I read all of them.
And Shion no Ou, which I posted on separately.
What do you think you'll read next?.
I have a Georgette Heyer book to read on the plane to WisCon, and then my nexus is stuffed full of manga, lightnovels, and a few other things.
5 things is limiting
Mar. 30th, 2014 09:56 pm1. Accidentally stumbling across spoilers for a recent-ish episode of Wizard Barristers made me lose interest in it, and then deliberately spoiling myself for the end made me glad I did. Lotsa of wasted potential there. I also dropped Magical Warfare, as I apparently quit caring about anything else once the sibling plot I cared about was resolved and replaced by one I anti-cared about.
2. Related, except for Tonari no Seki-kun and Nisekoi, all the anime I was watching are finished (ok, The Pliot's Love Song finishes tomorrow, but close enough). Sadly, the Spring season doesn't look to have that many that interest me? There's Mushishi, of course, and I'll probably check out JoJo's Bizarre Adventures (I liked the bit of the manga i read ages ago, but was intimidated by the length, and this was before I could read scans on my kindle) but other than that, the only things to grab my eye are a couple of shorts and the one about the lesbian romance in an all-girls boarding school where all the girls are assassins. Maybe others will sound more interesting once they've started airing.
3. Also related, there seem to be fewer and fewer shoujo series lately? This saddens me. I know more shounen series are realizing that girls like this stuff too and shaking up the series some to accommodate for that, but it isn't exactly the same thing.
4. To move on from anime, I haven't watched Once Upon A Time since that one character died about 3/4 through season 2. I didn't consciously drop it and will likely catch up eventually, but I came across this Regina spoiler...
( I kinda blurted this out on twitter but I'll behave better here... )
5. Last week I stumbled across a book called Ever After High at the library which led too me watching the webseries which in turn led to my mainlining all the Monster High webisodes, specials and movies in about a week. Both series are based on toylines. Monster High came first and is about the sons and daughters of the Universal Studios monster characters attending high school together, while Ever After High is about the sons and daughters of fairy tale characters, though both series also borrow from similar stories not actually in the "canon" that spawned them. As both series are designed to make nine-year-old girls beg their parents to buy them dolls, they focus mostly on the female students. Monster High is extremely entertaining and is pretty straight forward "typical high school stuff and Drama, if all the students were vampires and mummies and gorgons and werewolves and ghosts and such" and can be a bit fashion obsessed. Ever After High, OTOH, is consciously critiquing and deconstructing its source canon (on a very basic level, because, like I said, meant for kids) and has the students being molded to repeat their parent's stories, something that the children of the villains, sidekicks and rogues really aren't very keen on. Of the two I prefer Ever After High even though there's a lot less of it, but they're both a fun way to pass time.
6. So, about 60% of my eagerness to get WisCon panel assignments is to find out what media I'll spend 6 or so weeks binging on. Please tell me I'm not alone in this.
2. Related, except for Tonari no Seki-kun and Nisekoi, all the anime I was watching are finished (ok, The Pliot's Love Song finishes tomorrow, but close enough). Sadly, the Spring season doesn't look to have that many that interest me? There's Mushishi, of course, and I'll probably check out JoJo's Bizarre Adventures (I liked the bit of the manga i read ages ago, but was intimidated by the length, and this was before I could read scans on my kindle) but other than that, the only things to grab my eye are a couple of shorts and the one about the lesbian romance in an all-girls boarding school where all the girls are assassins. Maybe others will sound more interesting once they've started airing.
3. Also related, there seem to be fewer and fewer shoujo series lately? This saddens me. I know more shounen series are realizing that girls like this stuff too and shaking up the series some to accommodate for that, but it isn't exactly the same thing.
4. To move on from anime, I haven't watched Once Upon A Time since that one character died about 3/4 through season 2. I didn't consciously drop it and will likely catch up eventually, but I came across this Regina spoiler...
( I kinda blurted this out on twitter but I'll behave better here... )
5. Last week I stumbled across a book called Ever After High at the library which led too me watching the webseries which in turn led to my mainlining all the Monster High webisodes, specials and movies in about a week. Both series are based on toylines. Monster High came first and is about the sons and daughters of the Universal Studios monster characters attending high school together, while Ever After High is about the sons and daughters of fairy tale characters, though both series also borrow from similar stories not actually in the "canon" that spawned them. As both series are designed to make nine-year-old girls beg their parents to buy them dolls, they focus mostly on the female students. Monster High is extremely entertaining and is pretty straight forward "typical high school stuff and Drama, if all the students were vampires and mummies and gorgons and werewolves and ghosts and such" and can be a bit fashion obsessed. Ever After High, OTOH, is consciously critiquing and deconstructing its source canon (on a very basic level, because, like I said, meant for kids) and has the students being molded to repeat their parent's stories, something that the children of the villains, sidekicks and rogues really aren't very keen on. Of the two I prefer Ever After High even though there's a lot less of it, but they're both a fun way to pass time.
6. So, about 60% of my eagerness to get WisCon panel assignments is to find out what media I'll spend 6 or so weeks binging on. Please tell me I'm not alone in this.
