Waitin for more books

Love for Ilona Andrews, Robin McKinley and Martha Wells. They/them. [Icon ID: A green skinned person with orange hair and fox ears wearing glasses and holding a black scythe] [Background ID: a stylized brick wall].

[dragongirlteeth]

Some core principles I've been thinking about lately:

There are no ontologically evil people

People generally want to believe they are doing good

Under enough stress, anyone will act irrationally

When someone does something terrible, first try to look back and see "how did we get here"

[eeshlyye]

i love Maggie. heroine of all time. instacart driver who gets transported into her favorite fantasy novel and goes, i’m gonna save all of you. appreciates toilet paper. loves pastries. refuses to kiss her favorite character bc she knows too much about him and doesn’t want to take advantage. so fucking smart. doesn’t let anybody run roughshod over her. bludgeons bad guys’ (PLURAL) heads in. doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice herself for what she believes in. still takes a second to notice the hotness of dudes while in an unbelievably traumatic amount of stress. so compassionate. always tries to do the right thing. will yell at the scariest motherfucker in the entire world for messing up her plans. just cares so much. i love her i love her i love her

[littlerebelsoul]

In the following, I want to talk about Maggie's love interests and the possible endgame for them. If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read it.

The candidates in the beginning are. The guy from the Garden, Reynald, Solentine and Lord Ballon (I only heard the audiobook and therefore sadly do not know how his name is written). And after their reveal, there are Everard and Arvel, respectively.

I expected the guy from the Garden to be someone, maybe the author, but I was pretty sure that he was no love interest, especially as the book went on. Therefore, I will cut him from this roster.

Reynald is dead. Everard, as Reynald, was clearly written to be read as a love interest, but still, Reynald is obviously dead and is therefore cut from the roster.

I felt like Solentine was alluded to be a love interest in the beginning, especially as a rival to Everard. But after the adoption, he is also cut from the roster.

Lord Ballon felt to me like a fun little guy Maggie can spend time with and develop a little bit of feelings for, but not really, just enough to realise that there are nice people who are nice and charming. But he does not exist, at least not really and is therefore cut from the roster.

That leaves us with Everard and Arvel, but I don't think this is a legitimate question of who it will be. The promo material features Maggie and Everard (which was initially why I was really confused about Reynald acting as a love interest). Writing-wise, it is also very obvious that Maggie likes Reynald, and he kisses the ground she stands on. Therefore, I will just pivot my thoughts from Lord Ballon to Arvel. He is kind of nice (would have been nicer if he hadn't lied) and is very charming on a clean, polished, not Shadow™ kind of way. (Everard is not. He is only charming in the Shadow™ kind of way)

But still, neither Lord Ballon nor Arvel feel like a real love interest. Not in the way it was obvious that Jacob would not end up with Bella in Twilight, but in the way that everyone - including authors and readers - knows that Arvel will not be the endgame. The only people who do not know it yet are Arvel himself (living in his little delulu-world) and Everard.

And motivating and stressing Everard out is Arvel's only role regarding the romance subplot of the series. Because those two doofuses are blind.

I imagine he could and maybe will be an actual problem if he can't get what he wants (aka Maggie), but he is, in my opinion, not even a real option.

Great to get this off my chest, because I read a review somewhere where the reviewing person mentioned that Arvel is a love interest, and I wanted to tell the internet my opinion without leaving a comment on that review that could be read as me being mean. 😇☺️ Spoiler thoughts are very welcome in the comments. Please tell me what you think, and if you think Arvel has a real chance.

[distracteddaintydemon]

Based on the literally every single one text by this authorial team, there is only one possible endgame:

The man who will not only respect, but also actively protect heroine's will and independence even against his own interest. Particularly against his own interest.

This makes the question of endgame deliciously easy.

Solentine was obviously posed as a potential love interest. Then he flipped the script by bringing his whole family into it and making it non-romantic. He passed The Test – actively protected her ability to act as she wills by granting her irrevokable social status basically equal to his own... he just did it by becoming her cousin.

I'm pretty sure Damarrs are going to love Marigold truly and genuinely: they've already decided to support her, protect and trust with no strings attached. The only factor they lack is time together to actually get to know her, and she's very easy to love. And it will be mutual: Maggie very much needs someone who she can allow herself to be accepted and loved by. She won't be able to resist loving them in return.

Personally, I'd grant Solentine the title of honorary non-romantic love interest; familial love isn't any less real than romantic one.

.

Then, we have Arvel. I don't see how he could pass The Test at all. He knows he's hot, he knows he's powerful, he knows he's the dream of basically every woman in the realm, and never stops to ask himself "what this lady would want for herself" or "what are her goals" or "what does she value". I'm not even sure he asks himself "how to make her want what he wants". He seems to just... assume that he's too objectively attractive to be resisted. Like... if he just shows his interest in her persistently enough, it'll just work because it always does.

He's interested in her because she made him feel seen and understood, but he's not interested in understanding her as a person in the slightest.

Which means he's actually hot garbage and not a valid love interest. He could be in any other isekai, but not this one. And, as OP correctly noticed, it is blindingly obvious to anyone but Arvel and Everard.

.

And then we have Everard. Guy who's for now trampling her independence every other day, and yet working his ass off to understand her and entice her into wanting herself to do what he needs her to do. He respects her. He protects her. The sheer amount of work he puts in to manipulate Maggie by using her own values, wants and goals is already proof of more respect to her individuality than Arvel could possibly muster if he tried.

He might potentially pass The Test. He's ruthless, but, crucially, he's also ruthless to himself. If he'll decide the only way to conquer her is to ensure her freedom forever, he just might snap his own soul in half, shred his dignity into confetti and remake himself into someone else.

My bet is that he will. It'll take him lots of time and effort to even acknowledge that she won't surrender. But he'll get there.... eventually.

[tinbells]

I think there is also a bit of how we see characters interact with her plans and respect in the book.

Solentine's familial love is 1,000% there and going to exist in such a satisfying and kind way. And I really appreciate that they added more layers of love than just romantic in their stories. Because Ilona Andrews really hit that familial / platonic love in such a satisfying way. As for Romantic Love: We have Everard, who is willing to trust her reasoning and try. Even from the beginning when he was suspicious of her. But, we also have multiple instances where he expresses interest (standing closely, expressing interest in kissing her, etc), where he does not pressure Maggie when she changes her mind. Once she indicates she is not available in that way, he smoothly moves on so she isn't embarrassed or has to worry about conflict in their relationship. Even if she views it as manipulation since 'he can't have feelings' or some bullshit. (The only instance I can think otherwise of this pattern is when Everard tries to pressure her into joining Solentine's family. Which stood out to me as odd given the rest of the ways he supports and navigates his relationship with Maggie. I think it was fear based). And we have Averl. Who says all the right things, and does all the chivalry right, but completely misses who Maggie is as a person and as a power in the city. I agree with @distracteddaintydemon that he has fallen for the thought of being seen, rather than for the person who sees him. Also every one on one interaction he pressures Maggie in ways that make her life actively harder. Showing up unannounced when she was using this as a way to get information, giving her 0minous invites to dances, and assuming her honor needed defending from Solentine without bothering to figure out more about this person he has 'fallen for'. But he expects to be the knight on the white horse to save the day, and doesn't think about the ways that he needs to be part of a partnership rather than a bulldozer.

Super odd to read people liking him as a romantic interest when most of his screen time with Maggie made my skin crawl. He just subtly pushed at her boundaries over and over again with out thinking of how she might need aid or other supports.

[elierlick]

Yet another new study debunked the basis for the anti-trans sports bans. It was never about sports but for creating legal avenues for exclusion and abjection. This is one of the largest analyses ever conducted, involving 52 studies and 6,485 trans people. Read the study here.

[lucieslucidity]

post so nice had to reblog it twice and force it down everyone's throats

[fleshengine]

At minimum about 4.5 thousand people liked this without reblogging it.

We gotta fix that.

[dancinbutterfly]

Progress.

Onwards!

[onthedriftinthetardis]

I can't access the full paper, but their conclusion is right there in the abstract:

While transgender women exhibited higher lean mass than cisgender women, their physical fitness was comparable. Current evidence is mostly low certainty and has heterogenous quality but does not support theories of inherent athletic advantages for transgender women over cisgender.

[artbylittlebug]

[lgbtqiatext]

Requested by thecoolestbotfan

[tinbells]

[ID: Free from the Binary text in yellow, white, purple and black slowly spinning in opposite directions.]

[biglawbear]

I finished reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time in my life. With all of *vague gesture at everything* this going on.

I Am Not Okay

[biglawbear]

You have to understand. I watched the movies maybe once as a kid when they came out twenty years ago. I've somehow avoided learning like anything about these books my entire life. Literally everything about these books was a complete unknown and surprise to me. Totally blank slate going on. I barely even knew how it ended.

Holy shit.

[biglawbear]

Frodo didn't complete his task. Sam literally carried him up Mount Doom. And when he got to the end, he couldn't throw the Ring away.

But for Gollum biting it off with his finger, it wouldn't have been destroyed.

So Frodo's journey saved the world nonetheless.

And it broke him.

It was too much for him to bear. He could no longer live in the Shire or live in Middle-Earth. He wasn't of the world anymore. He had to go to the Undying Lands.

He took on the task that no one else would. He saved the world. Everyone got a happy ending. Aragorn became King, Sam rebuilt the Shire, Merry and Pippin became heroes. They all lived in renown.

But Frodo had the hardest task of all. No one else would do it. A simple hobbit who came by the Ring by chance. Not a King, not an immortal. Not a wizard. No power save his will and his friends. And he did it and saved everyone.

And he never got to rest. He never got to remain in peace. The task destroyed him. It was too much.

But there was no other way. Nobody but a simple hobbit could bear the ring all the way to Mount Doom and resist its power so long. Not a man, not an elf, not a wizard; they would have succumbed. Gandalf knew this, which was why he chose the hobbits in all his designs.

It's amazing that one of the precedent setting works in the fantasy genre holds up so well because it subverts what ultimately became the genre's core tropes. The hero was not the King, or a chosen one. In fact, the hero not being the King was a key point that allowed Aragorn to distract Sauron and allow the task in the first place. The hero was someone unassuming but courageous, who did the thing because no one else would, even though it was just by chance he came upon it.

But Frodo couldn't resist the Ring completely. He wasn't superior to anyone else in that way. And in the end it left him broken. The burden crushed him. No one else could do it, and in the end, he couldn't either. He wasn't so special that he was invulnerable.

I'm not okay. Holy fuck you guys.

[biglawbear]

It's been a week and I'm still not over this, I'll never get over this.

Something that I've been thinking about, as I struggle with depression and anxiety and *another vague gesture at everything* is that LOTR does not criticize Frodo for being broken. It does not shame him or deny him what he needs.

The task was too much and it broke him and that's okay. His friends nonetheless take care of him and let him go with understanding. The book doesn't treat it as a bad thing.

This seems to be a theme throughout the books. The characters rest and heal. They spend time recovering in Rivendell, Fangorn, Lorien, Ithilien. It's treated as good and necessary. They don't heroically endure endless torment from the second they set out until they're done.

And in Gondor's march from Minas Tirith to Mordor, Aragorn recognizes that some of the very few men he's taking with him don't have the heart to go to battle against the Enemy. And he says that's okay. He gives them other tasks the they can do. They hold other strategic points. They aren't shamed for not going all the way, or kicked out, or told that they aren't manly or whatever. Their limitations are recognized and respected. The task was too big and it was okay that they couldn't do it.

I don't know man. I've held on through some absolutely crazy shit. White knuckled through mental health crises when my doctors were begging me to take a break, to go to the hospital before I hurt myself. My therapist has tried to slow me down and tell me that I've been going through it and it's understandable that I am feeling some kind of way. Even one of my colleagues remarked that I've had an absolutely fucking wild career and that I've seen more as a lawyer of seven years than she has as a lawyer of forty. But I've gotten it into my head that I have to be strong, I have to be independent.

Fuck me, man, I'm currently white knuckling through life and hanging on by a fucking thread. A few weeks ago I was about an hour away from checking myself in to a mental health facility until my best friends swooped in to help me. And then I went right back to work.

And then I read this book. This fucking brilliant and beautiful book written by a man who had seen the horrors of war and spilled it all over the page. And I read it for the first time as an adult with full understanding and experience of what it all means. And it hits me like a fucking truck.

And it says that you can't endure everything. That at some point you need to rest and heal. That if you take on too much you will break. And that all of that is okay.

How am I supposed to move on with my life after reading this?

[three--rings]

Certainly there are many messages within Lord of the Rings, but you have to think that Tolkien would have been happy that this message in particular was still being conveyed all these years later.

[madamejadex]

Please remember that Pride is important because someone tonight still believes they’re better off dead than being themselves.

[tinyyellowflowers-blog]

I have been thinking a lot about what a cancer diagnosis used to mean. How in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when someone was diagnosed, my parents would gently prepare me for their death. That chemo and radiation and surgery just bought time, and over the age of fifty people would sometimes just. Skip it. For cost reasons, and for quality of life reasons. My grandmother was diagnosed in her early seventies and went directly into hospice for just under a year — palliative care only. And often, after diagnosis people and their families would go away — they’d cash out retirement or sell the house and go live on a beach for six months. Or they’d pay a charlatan all their savings to buy hope. People would get diagnosed, get very sick, leave, and then we’d hear that they died.

And then, at some point, the people who left started coming back.

It was the children first. The March of Dimes and Saint Jude set up programs and my town would do spaghetti fundraisers and raffles and meal trains to support the family and send the child and one parent to a hospital in the city — and the children came home. Their hair grew back. They went back to school. We were all trained to think of them as the angelic lost and they were turning into asshole teens right in front of our eyes. What a miracle, what a gift, how lucky we are that the odds for several children are in our favor!

Adults started leaving for a specific program to treat their specific cancer at a specific hospital or a specific research group. They’d stay in that city for 6-12 months and then they’d come home. We fully expected that they were still dying — or they’d gotten one of the good cancers. What a gift this year is for them, we’d think. How lucky they are to be strong enough to ski and swim and run. And then they didn’t stop — two decades later they haven’t stopped. Not all of them, but most of them.

We bought those extra hours and months and years. We paid for time with our taxes. Scientists found ways for treatment to be less terrible, less poisonous, and a thousand times more effective.

And now, when a friend was diagnosed, the five year survival odds were 95%. My friend is alive, nearly five years later. Those kids who miraculously survived are alive. The adults who beat the odds are still alive. I grew up in a place small enough that you can see the losses. And now, the hospital in my tiny hometown can effectively treat many cancers. Most people don’t have to go away for treatment. They said we could never cure cancer, as it were, but we can cure a lot of cancers. We can diagnose a lot of cancers early enough to treat them with minor interventions. We can prevent a lot of cancers.

We could keep doing that. We could continue to fund research into other heartbreaks — into Long Covid and MCAS and psych meds with fewer side effects and dementia treatments. We could buy months and years, alleviate the suffering of our neighbors. That is what funding health research buys: time and ease.

Anyway, I’m preaching to the choir here. But it is a quiet miracle what’s happened in my lifetime.

[loki-zen]

Cystic fibrosis used to be a "disease of childhood" because people who had it rarely lived to be adults. Now it's considered a chronic illness.

[catboybiologist]

I know I'm saying this as someone who's career largely depends on this, but: please, this is why we need basic science research. If you ever see a headline or snippet about something "ridiculous" that scientists are doing, you are being propagandized. You are being lied to. And it's in a way that aims to stop this progress.

[tiktoks-i-enjoyed]

Clip of Lucy Dacus on the Las Culturistas podcast.

[maxmorkson]

Happy Pride, bite a transphobe today 💙

[tinbells]

[ID: Stylized werewolf half transformed with its wolf head in a snarl and its claws out. Top surgery scar clear on its human chest. You were born with teeth Use Them.]

[ororium-z]

Happy Pride!

[rootbeergoddess]

Every pride, you must reblog this. No exceptions

[thesaltofcarthage]

I love that four different people on my feed scheduled this joyous person to reblog by 8am on June 1. I look forward to seeing this a dozen more times today.

[womanguy]

you should get a second evening for reading fan fiction. And you should get an extra day in the week to do arts and crafts.

[tinbells]

Hope yall aren’t sick of this video yet #equestrian #lgbtq #fyp

[lgbt-tiktoks]

Description: [A video of a woman riding a galloping horse bareback while holding a large rainbow flag.]

[nattousan]

i felt like these tags really added to the experience, thanks @cynderxdustypaws for your knowledge

[1968bullittmustang]

Happy Pride! 💖🧡💛💚💙💜

[1968bullittmustang]

Happy Pride! 💖🧡💛💚💙💜

[ororium-z]

Happy Pride!

[rootbeergoddess]

Every pride, you must reblog this. No exceptions

[thesaltofcarthage]

I love that four different people on my feed scheduled this joyous person to reblog by 8am on June 1. I look forward to seeing this a dozen more times today.

[weaselle]

listen. There's a whole mentality shift that needs to happen culture wide here, from the schools to the public infrastructure to pet ownership to the justice system

The proper response to your dog doing a natural behavior you dislike (digging/barking/protecting etc) it to give them an appropriate time and place to engage in that behavior

The proper response to skateboarders damaging infrastructure is to build more and better skate parks, or build skate elements into the public infrastructure on purpose.

The proper response to homeless people sleeping on park benches is to build them houses.

you see how there's like, a commonality at play here?

The proper response to a disruption is to address the root of the disruption directly, not somehow attack the disruption itself -

you don't invent a muffler by swinging a bat at the engine noise, you don't relieve your hunger by punching yourself in the stomach, you don't resolve public unrest by sending armed men to control them and you don't prevent homeless people using bus shelters as a roof by removing the bus shelters.

a whole ass shift in a basic mindset, i'm tellin' you. We need it.