Months in Review: October, November, December

[elenothar]

I have once again failed to post at all regularly and am stuck with a long catch-up post - I blame getting infernally busy in late September, which has only just levelled off. I'll try to do a couple of year-end posts too, those are always fun.

TV and movies

I keep thinking I should write these down while I'm doing them so I don't have to wrack my brain every time I do this post, but alas...

As far as I can remember, the films I've watched were: Knives Out (New Year's Eve watch, very enjoyable and clever), Lost Tomb Reboot: Mystery of the Abyss aka the Heihua movie (the best kind of DMBJ nonsense, with two very convincing and delightful takes on Xiao Hua and Hei Xiazi imo), the annual Muppets Christmas Carol rewatch (always a delight), the annual Love Actually rewatch (it's a tradition, ok), and It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (not my favourite Muppet movie, lets just say)

On the TV front:

- very excitingly, I've finally watched the last 15 episode of The Rebel (I have feelings)
- Ultimate Note watch still ongoing; other things I'm watching with people include Who Rules the World (rewatch for me, still enjoyable), Love and Redemption (much whumpy goodness), and Fairyland Lovers (which I'm surprisingly enjoying quite a lot); I dropped Ancient Detective, partly because the time slot is a bit awkward and partly because the show just didn't grab me for reasons I haven't yet teased out; it feels quite low-stakes atm)
- on my own I watched S.C.I. Mystery (only several years late; it's a trashfire of a show, but sometimes a trasfhire is just what you need and the main pairing convinced me), attempted Love Between Fairy and Devil but got stuck somewhere around ep 6, and watched one ep of Are You Safe (may take that up again).



Books

As soon as my time freed up, I started borrowing from the library like crazy, so a bit of a list

- A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine; enjoyed it quite a lot, very nice prose and many thoughts on language; just finished the sequel A Desolation Called Peace as well, which didn't disappoint.
- Who Fears Death, by Nnedi Okorafor; a harrowing read, but worth it
- The Last Herald Mage Trilogy, by Mercedes Lackey; a nostalgic read; this is the kind of fantasy I grew up on
- Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire; a novella with interesting worldbuilding, I mostly read this for the ace rep, but it did run into my usual problem of not being into child/teen protagonists
- The Cabinet, by Ŏn-su Kim; didn't finish this one, too much graphic weirdness/violence squick
- The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon; didn't finish this one either, much to my disappointment. On paper this is everything I could want in a book, but it just made me too anxious while reading
- Battle of the Linguist Mages, by Scotto Moore; borrowed this one purely on the strength of the title and regrettably noped out of it after a couple of chapters; 1st person POV is always a hard sell for me and I did not get along with the style/prose

The to read list is as long as ever...

Fandom

I took part in Yuletide for the first time and it was a lot of fun. Aside from that I mostly let things pass me by on account of business. I'm trying to catch up on my reading now.

Relatedly (DMBJ, Wu Xie & Wu Erbai, 2k, Yuletide gift for plingo kat)

a series of variably pointed conversations (DMBJ, Hei Xiaxi/Xiao Hua, 2k, movie coda)

Tethered in Gold (Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, 35k, accidental marriage AU)

with this braid I thee (Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, 1k, hair language)

Old Songs (Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, 13k, a canon divergence with a music focus)

telling (SCI Mystery, Bai Yutong/Zhan Yao, 2k, somce HC codas for episodes)

Life Flow (Guardian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, dark energy, a tree...)

I've actually got a couple of finished drafts that I wrote in December but haven't finished editing yet, and the usual high number of WIPs, so hopefully those will all be posted eventually.

Comments

[yantantether]

I am here for all your Rebel feelings!! And I also enjoyed SCI a LOT and am intrigued to see if they do ever make the long-promised sequel...

[elenothar]

My Rebel feelings are part of the reason it took me so long to watch the entire thing. If not for doing it together with nnozomi, I'd probably be stopping dead every other episodes because everything was Happening So Much. Aside from that very confusing last episode, it's just such a tightly-written show, with a whole host of really well-realised characters.

An SCI sequel would be lovely - 24 episodes felt a little short, and their relationship had just got to that comfortable point I like. But given how long it's been on ice, I don't have high hopes. I just wish there were more fic (sad face).

[yantantether]

Lol I also kind of wanted to binge the rebel, but kept having to pause between episodes to catch my breath and have a lot of feelings.

[elenothar]

Oh, I meant more that it was stressing me out too much so I kept stalling out 😅 Didn't stop me from having a lot of feelings about it though

[profiterole_reads]

The Heihua movie was such a delight! <3 I loved your coda too.

The Priory of the Orange Tree was good, but I did not enjoy it as much as other people.

[elenothar]

Thank you <3

I quite liked the writing and world of Priory, but it just stressed me out too much, and given how much of a brick it is, I didn't persevere. Maybe I'll go back to it one day.

[trobadora]

Old Songs is such a fantastic fic. I keep meaning to go back and reread it properly so I can comment, but I'm terribly behind on everything, so it'll take a while. I really loved it, though!

[elenothar]

Thank you so much! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed in, in whatever form. Take your time <3

[tinny]

1st person POV is always a hard sell for me

Oooops? :D

didn't finish this one either, much to my disappointment. On paper this is everything I could want in a book, but it just made me too anxious while reading

Oh nooooes, those are the worst ones. When they could have been *so good*. <3

attempted Love Between Fairy and Devil but got stuck somewhere around ep 6

I kinda maybe wanted to watch that, too, at some point. Just to see what it's about. But the chances are higher that I'll finally watch one of the thousand BLs on my list.

[elenothar]

Oooops? :D

It's not always a problem - there're good books and fics in 1st person POV. I think I just developed a distrust because of the many bad YA novels that have it, and it's easier for a 1st person POV to make me feel either patronised or pushed to boldly into one emotional direction (which then causes the opposite reaction in me because I'm contrary like that) - so, in the end, like everything it comes down to how well something is written.

When they could have been *so good*

And even *are* good, just not good for me (sigh)

Love Between Fairy and Devil sounds like something you might enjoy, yeah, if you can manage the robes and setting. I just had trouble with the main female character (who's getting more interesting! But it's taking time to develop...) and secondhand embarrassment (and the main thing people said to keep waiting for in ep10 ish is something that'd likely trigger embarrassment for me too, so in the end I gave up).

[tinny]

I think I just developed a distrust because of the many bad YA novels that have it

Oh, good point! Those are so far into my past (lol) that I forgot about that.

which then causes the opposite reaction in me because I'm contrary like that

Ha! :D I don't need to tell you how contrary I am. :DD

Love Between Fairy and Devil sounds like something you might enjoy, yeah, if you can manage the robes and setting.

Big If. :DD But yeah, I thought so too, from the reviews I've read.

[elenothar]

Definitely keep those in the past *shudder*

Let me know if you ever try LBFAD, I'm curious what you'd think...