#robert norton

[volcanicpeach]

OOF. Just noticed how taller Isaac actually was than Norton... I HATE Robert. He is pissing me off ngl

Look at this height difference wth!!

[duccdoesthedootdoot]

THE DEAD SPACE COMICS AND BOOKS ARE GETTING REPRINTED AND I FOUND THE ONE WITH CARVER AT A VINTAGE STORE LETS GOOOOOO

This is the best day of my life.

[nb2ofdiamonds]

[thisbluespirit]

"Goodbye, Sir Robert. I doubt that we shall meet again."

[but-a-humble-goon]

Is the implication supposed to be that Norton was suffering from Marker Dementia or was he just a really terribly written one dimensional heel? If it was Marker Dementia they did a bad job of showing it. He literally sees Ellie be happy that Isaac wasn't dead one time and immediately turns into an incoherently douchey scumbag so cartoonishly dickish that nobody could argue Isaac is completely morally justified in popping him in the head and stealing his girl, even though Isaac's also been acting like kind of a jealous wiener this whole time. Someone replied to me earlier saying this whole love triangle arc feels like it was written by a recent divorcee who was handling it very badly and now that I've played through it that is SO accurate.

[hella-handsome]

Norton's Betrayal

[jasper-book-stash]

June-August 2024 Reading Wrap-Up

Hey, sorry for disappearing off of the face of Tumblr for uhhhh three months, but I read twelve books in that time and I'm here to complain.

Religious Text

None applicable.

1/10 - Why Did They Publish This?

Moonbeams and Ashes: Tales of Mystery, Love, and the Paranormal | Margarite Stever

I picked this up from some bookstore here in Missouri under the local authors shelf. I wish I hadn't. These stories were all poorly written, and a good chunk had nothing to do with mystery, love, OR the paranormal. They weren't even bad in the fun way.

2/10 - Trash

None applicable.

3/10 - Meh

My Mother Road | Phyllis York

I picked this up from some OTHER bookstore here in Missouri under the local authors shelf. I wished this book had ended 480 pages sooner. The only highlight was at the end when the grandpa physically kicked a guy off of the porch.

Athena's Child | Hannah Lynn

A Greek myth "retelling" centering around Medusa and intercut with Perseus. It...was just mediocre. There wasn't anything interesting about what it did or changed or told, there was no taking the myth and running in a new direction with it, and worse of all we opted for the Ovid's Metamorphoses route but still used the Greek names for the gods.

4 to 6/10 - Mid-Tier

Crossword Poems, volumes 1 and 2 | Robert Norton

Two itty-bitty volumes covering what were apparently once commonly-known poems that you'd be able to remember based on half of the hint. Decent enough stuff, just kinda boring without that historical note.

Shelling Peanuts and Other Odd Odes | Howard Nelson

Another collection of poems that were ultimately mediocre with a few funny or insightful ones. Not bad, just not especially good either.

Songs of Honour | Noble House Publishers

These were, on the whole, better than the other two, but I knocked it down to 6/10 based on the fact that it took me the entire month of July and a third of August to finish. The formatting was lovely and each poem only took a page, but it was ultimately just "good-to-mediocre" on the whole.

7 to 8/10 - Good With Caveats

Outlaw: Champions of Kamigawa | Scott McGough Heretic: Betrayers of Kamigawa | Scott McGough Guardian: Saviors of Kamigawa | Scott McGough

While I personally listed Guardian as a 9/10, I figured I should keep the entire Kamigawa Cycle together. This is the story of Toshiro Umezawa, everyone's favorite fuckup self-centered protagonist dealing with the consequences of his and everyone else's actions. There were a couple times when something was referenced that didn't make sense in the setting (such as angels, Hell, or pixies), and you can definitely feel the "early 2000s white man writing a Japanese setting based on vibes alone" emanating from most of the pages, but I had a good time calling Toshi a dumbfuck over and over again.

9/10 - Very Very Good

None applicable (besides aforementioned Guardian).

10/10 - Unironically Recommend To Everyone

The Tale of Despereaux | Kate DiCamillo

In my book club, we randomly pulled this one as the one for all of us to read at the same time, and let me tell you, this book hits different when you're a queer young adult in your early twenties than it clearly hit the grown women in their 50+'s. Great book, absolutely adorable, and I love the fact that we accidentally timed it to coincide with the release of Bloomburrow.

Scaredy Squirrel: In a Nutshell | Melanie Watt

Yes, this is an Easy-level book. But somehow, this squirrel with anxiety and possibly OCD (yes, I'm projecting slightly, I kept going "he's just like me for real" aloud when I read it) is now one of my favorite fictional guys. And when he was having a meltdown, the other characters actually gave him space and respected his boundaries. Do you know how impossible that is to find in fiction? One of my favorite books now, hands down.

[rjshepofftheshits]

Ok so Norton. He was a bit of an asshole what with essential kidnapping Isaac and all. Yes he did save his life from the unitologists but I still like Isaacs odds in a straight fight with them. They are not smart people.

Also there's a good chance they wouldn't have found Isaac if Norton hadn't brought the cavelry to come get him. Isaac would have been evicted from his appartment and then been even harder to find. Anyways what I wanted to talk about was Norton's potential. It's pretty obvious to us Norton was suffering from marker sickness, why the other characters didn't notice is probably just bad writing or a cut on ea's part. Still, It felt like weird that this captain of earth Gov would crack so soon under pressure and the thing he would fixate on was Ellie and Isaac being the 'problem' he needed to fix. I think there was wasted potential in having a romance between him and Ellie and then making him a secondary antagonist. What they should have done was make Norton Ellie's friend, confidant or something and make him a genuinely good guy. Then have him infected and slowly turn into a necromorph finally culminating in him asking Isaac to kill him before he turns. You can still put bits of marker madness in there but I'd like to see Norton fight back against it, struggling to still be good even though he's a dead man walking. It's a much better character arch for him.

Second thought is he could be captured, presumed dead like Ellie was, and tortured for information by secret unitologists on his team who then pass the info onto danik allowing him to reach tau volantis, rather than Norton outright calling and telling danik how to find them. Isaac and carver eventually find him but it's too late, he's too far gone. Norton's last words could ba apologies to Isaac for bringing him into this mess (because no one has ever apologized to Isaac for what he's been through and I think even one sorry would go a long way for him) and a plead for Isaac to look after Ellie, not because she's nortons girlfriend, but because she's his best friend and he loves her like family. Isaac is surrounded by assholes and even 'good' characters are morally grey at best. it would be nice to see one unambiguously good character in the story only for us to lose them to horrific circumstances and as much as I dislike Norton I still think he got the short end of the character development and story stick.