pop up book from hell

addy | kdrama sideblog | @literatikoo on instagram

[literatikoo]

Jess wearing the "Rory's going to yale!" shirt inspired by this post by @lil-bisexual-disaster.

[franklyopinionated]

People are obsessed with exaggerating Annabeth's flaws while also downplaying her good qualities.

People exaggerate a few snide comments she made to Rachel in botl but no one ever talks about how Rachel would have died a painful death if Annabeth hadn't risked her own life to save Rachel from a crashing helicopter in TLO. Annabeth wasn't even fully sure she could fly the helicopter, yet she jumped into it and risked her own death on the chance that she could save Rachel. Mind you, she didn't even like Rachel at this point but she put her feelings aside to save her. She literally could have stood there and let Rachel die and absolutely no one would be able to blame her for it.

People always bring up the fact that she wanted to save Luke as a negative thing while never mentioning that the thing that stopped Luke in the end was his love (familiar) for Annabeth and the promise he made to protect her. Annabeth would not have leaned on that promise to snap Luke out of being Kronos's meatbag if she had completely given up on him like Thalia. Her love and faith that Luke could be saved literally was the ace in the hole in stopping the war and she never gets credit for it. I've seen people give Percy credit for this and claim he was the one that knew when Luke was ready to be saved (give him the knife) which is absolute nonsense. Percy despised Luke right up until the end. He didn't decide Luke was ready for the knife. Annabeth did. What Percy did was finally trust Annabeth's opinion on Luke, something he hadn't done in the books leading up to this moment. But Percy 100% is not the person who made the call that Luke could be trusted, Annabeth was. Yet all of her credit always goes to Percy. Kind of annoying.

People act like Percy is the only one in their relationship that goes above and beyond while never mentioning that a full year before Percy fell into Tartarus for Annabeth, she actually took a near fatal blade straight to the chest for him and almost died. Mind you, she did this after Percy spent an entire summer hanging out with someone else and considering her history with her loved ones that must have completely felt like one more person in her life who abandoned her for someone less complicated when things got tough just like her father did. But when push came to shove she valued his life above her own because she loved him that much even when it could be argued that based on the state of their relationship at that point it would be understandable if she didn't think his life was worth risking her own life for his. But thats just not who Annabeth is. She loved Percy completely, even when they're not in the best place and he's spent the summer leading up to a war in which Annabeth could die hanging out with another girl. After all of that she still never strays from his side or having his back when it really matters.

People always gloss over the fact that Nico wanted to dislike Annabeth because of his crush yet he could never bring himself to dislike her because Annabeth was one of the few people at camp who was always nice to him. Annabeth has always been canonically nicer to Nico than Percy ever has. Yet people who want to ship Nico with Percy (someone who canonically has zero interest in him) they try to act like Annabeth was a monster. Mind you, Percy is the one who found Nico annoying for the duration of the books and Annabeth is the one who looked for him between TTC and BOTL and who was always so nice to him that Nico couldn't even bring himself to dislike her.

And then you have her family. Despite her being emotionally abused and neglected she still continues to give her family chance after chance to be better throughout the books. And despite fandom trying to rewrite history, that decision has nothing to do with Percy. She canonically has been trying to repair her relationship with her father and stepmother even before she meets Percy in Lightening Thief. She's one of the most loyal and forgiving characters in the series and never gets credit for it. *and yes, Annabeth is one of the most loyal characters in the series. Not sure why people act like characters can't have dominant personality traits outside of their fatal flaw. Annabeth is canonically just as loyal as Percy is and Percy has moment of incredible hubris that never gets called out for being hubris.

Really sick and tired of certain folks in this fandom exaggerating or completely making up Annabeth's flaws while ignoring the same or similar flaws in other characters (like Percy for example). And while Annabeth does have flaws, most of what people hate her for are things they have made up in their heads and have seemed to convince themselves is actually the canon from the books. It's both delusion, hateful and misogynistic. They hate her for flaws and problems they made up or exaggerated while straight up ignoring her accomplishments, character growth and good qualities. It's getting ridiculous. And we know most of you only do it because you want to ship Percy with someone else so you need to turn Annabeth into a villain to justify other ships which is incredibly ridiculous because you can literally ship whatever you want without being hateful and making things up about another character.

So many of your favs would be dead or worse off if Annabeth really was the monster ya'll try to act like she is to justify your hatred, misogyny and racism against her. * a lot of Annabeth hate picked up with the show casting a dark skin black girl and any one who thinks that's a coincidence is an idiot.

[literatikoo]

Rory and Jess tackle finals season- headcanons

Firstly, in MY world, Keg!Max! doesn't exist and Jess doesn't leave until after Rory graduates and yes whatever this may screw with Jess' character arc but that's not my problem, I just want my children to be happy.

Contrary to popular belief, Jess doesn't skip exam days. Exam days mean report cards and absences on exam days mean big fat red marks on report cards which would lead to Luke questioning him so he decides to just suck it up and write his finals.

It's kinda worth it in the end because Rory gives him a colour-coded monthly calendar, highlighting the days he absolutely needs to be at school and making sure he meets the required present days he needs to graduate. She presents this to him with soft, hopeful eyes and launches into this big spiel about how she knows he feels differently about school than she does, but scheduled absences makes her feel like she understands him more, especially if he spends those days working. Jess feels like his chest caved in and he's so emotional he forgets to make fun of her for being a nerd.

Jess still doesn't really take these tests seriously. The thing is, he spent a lot of time quizzing Rory and helping her study and he read and reread his schoolbooks in the weeks that it took Liz to ship the rest of his stuff, so he ends up doing marginally better than he expected. His grades are still in the C's and B's but he's graduating.

Rory on the other hand turns into this crazy frenzied organisational monster who only runs on a diet of coffee and food that can be snacked on while furiously scribbling away. If Jess thought she drank a lot of coffee before he was in for a big surprise. Luke seems used to it though and he buys an extra bag of fancy coffee grounds just for her.

Jess usually picks up Rory at the bus stop with a cup of coffee and a copy of the latest book he's reading (she says she has no time for recreational reading, he shows her anyway, she thinks of the big L word). On exam days, Rory spends at least 3 minutes leaning against his chest or shoulders and recharging her battery for the night of studying she has to face. Jess never vocalizes how much he loves her in these moments, he just gently takes her bag and runs his palm up and down her spine, runs his fingers through her hair, kisses her forehead and soothes her until she's half asleep against him. Then he leads her back to the diner and makes her a burger with an extra large serving of fries.

Rory spends half an hour to 40 minutes at Luke's, and spends most of it either napping with her head on the counter or reorganising her planner. Jess stays close the entire time, reading or playfully teasing her about her crazy anal planner system (it horrifies him for a minute when she explains The System and he understands it perfectly), the diner is always slow at this time so they enjoy those peaceful moments together.

Then Rory is back in her Finals Mode, she leaves Jess with a final kiss (sometimes these get so long that she's started scheduling them in, Jess just shook his head at her and gave her an extra long kiss when he noticed the pencil marks in her planner) and another to go cup of the strongest coffee Luke's Diner has ever seen. Rory goes to cram or finish an essay and Jess goes in for his shift at Walmart.

Rory's second study break is after Jess finishes his shift at Walmart and swings by her house with dinner. Lorelai is pretty miffed about it at first because she's usually at the inn or at Luke's when he's over but one day she comes home to them sprawled out on the sofa, both conked out after a long day of work, with a spread of Al's Indian food in front of them. From then on she realises that Jess' visits actually keep Rory grounded and not crabby, so she lets it go.

Jess comes over to her house with something from Luke's or something different on the days he gets time to scope out the area near the Walmart that he works at. He lets himself in through the door, because this is Stars Hollow and no one has an ounce of self preservation, then sets up the food on the table. Only once that's done does he go find Rory and tries to rise her from her hyperfocus. He usually massages her shoulders or reads her essays over her shoulder, pointing out what he likes and the occasional typo and it always takes her a couple of minutes to smell the food but once she does she jumps up and rambles on about how she's been starving forever. Jess just grins and enjoys the routine of it all.

Usually if it's the night before an exam Jess leaves right after dinner and helps Luke close up the diner. If it isn't he keeps Rory company by reading on her bed and distracting her when she gets too frustrated. Sometimes he even brings his own work over and it makes Rory so happy he feels the need to immediately be an asshole to her about something to undo it. But he swallows down that urge and kisses her thoroughly to shut her up instead.

(Jess quickly realizes that he's not good at everything academics related, especially maths. He takes this so personally that he goes through his entire calculus book twice and ends up getting an A on his final.)

They celebrate the end of finals with a trip to The Book Barn and buy almost 50 books between them. They try not to think about their inevitable separation, instead preferring to get swept up in the planning for prom and graduation.

(Jess ditches his own grad but goes to Rory's. And Rory ditches Chilton prom in favour of Stars Hollow high's prom. It's perfect for both of them.)

[literatikoo]

Lane Kim deserved better

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I would only write Lane Kim meta when I am very very angry because I need to be powered by spite and petty energy to unravel exactly how much of a disservice this show was to Lane and by extension any Asian kid with a similar life. And, well, it's happening now, so buckle up kids, this is going to be a loooong ride because I have a lot to say.

Before we start on the negative aspects, the show got a lot of things about Lane right, which is why I care so much about her character. Yes, ASP obviously didn't know how to write a POC experience and it's seen in the way some very harmful stereotypes were propagated (the tiger mom trope, Mrs Kim's religious beliefs, the depiction of the Kim extended family etc) but at the same time Lane was beautifully written as a character, unlike her plot which left much to be desired. Lane Kim was an Asian girl with rock n roll dreams who had an extremely fraught relationship with her mother and had to fight for even a semblance of independence. And I hate to say it but a lot of daughters of Asian households are forced to hide a part of themselves from their families, so Lane's story was authentic.

Not only was Lane amazing as an individual, she was also a great friend. She was the only one who was really in Rory's corner; she never judged her and supported all of Rory's relationships (my favourite example of this is when she barely tolerated Jess in S2/3 and then did a complete 180 like 5 episodes later, all because Rory decided to finally accept she liked him). Lane never pointed out what Rory was doing wrong not because she was afraid of doing so but because the two of them had been friends for years and Lane believed that Rory would figure it out one day. Lane shows this unconditional kindness not only to Rory but to everyone. She takes in her Korean cousin and teaches her to have fun even when she's afraid that Mrs Kim has replaced her, she lets Gil be in the band because she empathises with him, she takes care of the band and prevents it from breaking up multiple times. And these are only a few examples of Lane being the kindest character on GG.

One of the best things in Gilmore Girls is that the most unproblematic, amazing guy is given to Lane. Dave Rygalski is the best love interest on the show hands down (Sorry to my boy Jess but Dave was LEAGUES ahead of him at 17) and Lane definitely deserved someone like that. Their story was adorable and I would have loved for them to be endgame. However, what grates me is that when I see people talking about Lane "deserving better," it's usually about Dave vs Zach. When Lane actually deserved better as a WHOLE and not only in terms of love interests. I always thought it made more sense for her to end up alone at the end of the og series. Because Lane was a person who craved independence and she was not going to get that while tied to some guy (even if that guy is boyfriend extraordinaire, Dave Rygalski). It's even worse when we see that Lane is the only female character on the show to be treated this way. Rory rejects marriage for her career while Lane ends up with marriage as her storyline. Lorelai and Luke get back together but their relationship is still left open ended, though arguably it would've made more sense if they got married when Lane and Zach did. Paris gets into Harvard Medical school and gets a great relationship, similarly Sookie gets the family she wanted and continues to be amazing at her job. But Lane... god Lane is the only one without an open ending, without any space for speculation of where her life might lead her. Not only did they marry her off, they also gave her a terrible first time and twins, effectively locking her to Stars Hollow. The show even cut down all hope of her being a rock n roll mom as one of her S7 storylines is choosing the kids over going on tour with Zach. She doesn't get to be her own person for more than ONE season; she's stuck with being a daughter and then a wife and then a mother.

Something else that angers me about Lane's storyline is that we never really get to see how badly her relationship with her mom affects her. Don't get me wrong, I adore Mrs Kim's redemption arc and I think it was beautifully juxtaposed to Lorelai and Rory's crumbling relationship, but having a mother like that is hard. Not only did Lane have to hide 90% of her personality from Mrs Kim but she also lived with the fact that one day she might have to choose between her dreams and her mother. In the end, Mrs Kim makes that choice for her and deals with it by kicking Lane out in S4, and yet we never really see how that negatively affects Lane. Hell, Jess acts like a broody teen for two seasons, Rory wastes six months of her life away at the DAR and they both come out of it successfully. Lane gets kicked out, figures out her own living conditions, gets a job, works insanely hard for her band and... ends up having to give her dreams up completely.

Lane and Paris shared a lot of similarities too, even if they both had different friendships with Rory. They both came from terrible families and looked to Lorelai as a mother figure, they both cared deeply for Rory, and they were both incredibly passionate about their careers. Paris made calendars and flashcards and went crazy studying for both pre med and pre law. Lane was a walking, talking music encyclopaedia, she bought CDs obsessively and organised them by genre under her floorboards, she taught herself to play the drums and then found a band to play for. And yet... only Paris becomes successful in the end, whereas Lane takes over Kim's antiques. Lane was still a musician in AYITL and she can be rock n roll even with kids but this is all hypothetical and we never see it on the show.

There is a lot of terrible, lazy writing on the show and a lot of characters get ruined because of it but with Lane, her character stays the same, they just ruin everything else for her. I think she'll be an amazing mom and will probably make her best out of doing music casually. But the writers also took something so special and destroyed it just because Lane stopped being as important to the plot as she was in seasons 1-3. Lane and Rory drifting a little after Rory leaves for Yale makes perfect sense, that's just how relationships are, always changing. And yet as Lane's importance to Rory decreased so did her importance to the writers.

Lane wasn't the kind of character that needed character development or a redeeming character arc- she was never a bad person and nothing about her had to be fixed, unlike Jess or even Paris. All she really needed was for her dreams to come true because for the first 4 seasons her dreams were the biggest fixture of her personality. Like how Jess needed to overcome his trauma and Rory needed to figure out where she fit in and Paris needed to become a girlboss, Lane needed to realise her dreams because that's where her arc was leading her. But it just didn't happen. Instead, Lane becomes 2-dimensional; a large part of her screentime is taken up by Zach problems, her dreams fall flat and she becomes tied to Stars Hollow for the rest of her life. Not to mention we see less of Lane in favour of Logan and the dickhead posse.

This is not me hating on all the other characters I've mentioned in this meta, I'm just pointing out the lack of respect the writers have for Lane in comparison to all these other people who fulfilled the role they were made for. Why would you write Lane to have all these dreams and make her struggle so hard for 4 seasons just to smash them to pieces? And why is it that one of the only POC characters on this show is treated like this?

And you can't tell me the writers didn't know what they were doing, not when this is a direct quote from Lane in S7:

"It was such a small window -- a peephole, really. For years, I was this repressed kid, and then there was the briefest of windows. And then -- slam. All of a sudden, I'm this overburdened mother. I barely got to do it, Zach. I barely got the chance to be a person."

[bammtoris]

WOODSTOCK N SNOOPY X THE BEAR CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

[buddyhollyscurls]

it's not needed but if they ever make another p+p adaption they really need to finally add in the part after darcy's second proposal where they discuss his letter it's so underrated and it's left out of every adaption especially since I think we all need to see that scene where it's like after they talk and clear the air Liz starts feeling like herself again and immediately starts teasing darcy and shes like so :D when did u start liking me huh huh :D what was it and Mr. Cool over here wants to be all smooth and go I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun. and shes like *snorts* LAAAAAAAAMEEEEEE you liked me bc I'm the only girl that wouldn't take ur shit and he's like......... ok yes

[femcelgirlie]

the girlies reading

[cocomonerd]

No because pride and prejudice isn't "I changed myself for you so you would love me back." It's "your blatant rejection and disdain for me made me realize things about myself no one had ever been bold enough to tell me so I sat down and evaluated all my behavior patterns and why they came about and came to the realization myself that I had to work on myself. Also I don't expect you to love me now that I'm a work in progress, so I'm just going to do nice things for you because I don't like seeing you hurt." No wonder P&P fans refuse to settle.

[sseoulful]

Daydreaming about alternative lives to escape my own has become a coping mechanism which I have internalised so much that it happens unconsciously throughout the day. I’ll be always daydreaming in the back of my head no matter what I do

[ripeteeth]

i simply need everyone to understand that i am tired all of the time. literally at all moments. if i ever go somewhere and do something, it is not because i am somehow full of energy, but instead that i have carefully stored up all of my little bits of energy like a dragon collecting jewels, and am now vaporizing them all at once

[mooncrvmbs]

i don't rate books based on character development and plot holes. if it made me bawl my eyes out and search up its fanarts at 3 am it's a 5/5

[greeksblog]

I am a mere breath of air;

A formless thought that thinks of you.

[marrissacooper]

Daxton + not following the usual hot jock / nerd girl trope

requested by @la-petite-fadette

[dingdongyouarewrong]

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again. fanfiction is not an inherently subversive practice that is going to elevate art and save it. fanfiction is also not the scourge of all literature that is going to destroy art and debase it. fanfiction is literally just another lightly popular medium of writing and is capable of being good or bad. it’s not inherently uniquely good and it’s not inherently uniquely bad, it’s just a way you can write a story

[nickismyspiritanimal]

maybe you aren't evolved enough to appreciate female characters who are terrible people but I am. Let women be annoying, self obsessed, entitled, and as much of an asshole as their male counterparts.

[imsoofuckingsad-deactivated2018]

*absolutely nothing happens* 

wow this is giving me a lot of anxiety 

[jqcksons]

the clear cut parallels between rin, nezha, and kitay and the trifecta never fail to make me sob. like speer and mugen, the second poppy war and the third poppy war. riga loving and betraying daji, nezha loving and betraying rin. the friendship between jiang and daji, the friendship between rin and kitay. both groups leaving only one of them to rule. their shared complicated love and loyalty and hurt between each other. jiang and rins final moments of clarity. they followed right into their predecessors footsteps and didn’t even know it. both groups were supposed to be unstoppable forces but ended up being torn apart by each other.