Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2016-09-28 06:32 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2016-09-28 06:32 pm
[ SECRET POST #3556 ]
⌈ Secret Post #3556 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
01.
[Lord of the Rings trilogy]
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02.
[pride and prejudice; unnamed others]
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03.
[Endeavour]
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04.
[Tim Curry / Movies: IT, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Clue, Legend]
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05.
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06.
[Loud House]
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07.
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08.
[MST3K]
Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 19 secrets from Secret Submission Post #508.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!
The excerpt was very edgelord, I agree. So at the start I was a bit "hmm" at it was a bit clunky to start off with. Not overly bad, just the constant presence tense combined with some very short sentences. But either it smoothed out or I got used to it or it drew me in.
At the start I mostly liked Katsa when she was angry and not struggling with her moral dilemmas and confusions. I didn't like Po at all because he seemed to know too much but his Grace explained that. But the prose smoothed out a bit and I was enjoying it except for the obvious Katsa feelings about Po, I was kind of dreading that upcoming romance. It was mostly annoying and I felt it was interrupting the flow of the story the bit. But I did really like it didn't turn into a love triangle and she quickly rejected Gideon. Whom I didn't like much in his brief moments, but he was a pretty shallow character. So that was a relief.
The bits after that...her potential romance with Po quickly squashed into anger at his Grace - I superficially enjoyed those moments as she struggled with her anger, her thoughts, her morals and for some reason unlike the start of the book I preferred her introspections more this time around.
I really enjoyed the travelling bits, both to and from Leck's kingdom. And I was really pleased her Grace turned out to be Survival, not killing! I had thought earlier in the book it was weird that she was basically superpowered and not sleeping etc. I did like the few pages of her pondering the difference between her and average people. I wouldn't mind more of that stuff tbh, the acknowledgement that she is far beyond the others and learning how and why. I think it fed into her taking more care and empathy with Bitterblue versus Bitterblue's grandfather she nearly rescued into exhaustion. Just these two women/girls surviving is really checking a bunch of boxes for me. Especially when it got down to her mental plannings, her creations in ugly lion clothing, then running across a snowfield all day. Okay the last bit was a bit hmm, but no worse than many other overpowered-with-angst main characters so i'll let it slide.
Towards the end I felt it got clunky and stilted again. I'm thinking perhaps the author isn't that great with dialogue, or multiple characters on page, as that is when it seems to happen? Then they arrived at Po's castle and the ending happened, it was done. So the rest of it afterwards was pretty rushed I thought. I'm not sure how I feel about Po's blindness, my first thought on mention of his eyes was the knock to the head had disabled his grace or knocked it funny. Him seeing everything mentally I'm having difficulty swallowing.
I also disliked in the chapter straight after Leck's death the very first line made something like "and by nearly telling the truth Leck was killed" - too spoonfeeding for me.
Oh, I think I like Katsa's "I'll never marry" mantra, mostly because I identify with that desire for freedom and not being locked to one person :P
and while in the middle, her new emotional discoveries with conflict over Po were annoying me, towards the end I was okay with her crying and laughing and frustrations because it felt like all her experiences over the book had collected and helped her break out of the "stone" acting, not just her dramas with Po, but the physical and mental exhaustion of saving Bitterblue, Leck's short lived overpowerment etc etc.
Overall, looking forward to reading the next book that I conveniently have at my house. The store lady warned me Fire is the weakest in the trilogy and the third book, Bitterblue, is the best.
Characterwise, I really liked Katsa and Bitterblue. Po I became amendable to. I'd like to hear more on Po's mum? Especially on her reaction to Po's eyes? She seems a very head screwed on sort.
Questions!
There was a line that confused me, something about how if it was any other time and place the mountian lion would have killed her? That confused me a bit because she was, what, on a mountain in a snow storm basically taken by surprise. How is that a better chance of survival than healthy in an environment she is familiar with?
Also Bitterblue and Po's (Greening)'s name seem so different to others of their culture. I'm wondering if all of them have a colour themed name and are introduced by really short nicknames or if Bitterblue and Po are the exceptions? Because Bitterblue's name really stands out compared to the rest.
Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!
Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!
Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!
Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!
I usually hate reading about one MC being really mad at the other especially when they're current or obviously future LIs. But I didn't really mind it here, because I thought it was honest and it showed that they could go through hell and high water with each other and come out okay. It was well done.
Additionally I'd love to explore those with mind reading Graces (that are public knowledge), their role in the world and how they live their lives. Katsa doesn't trust them (except Po), and I get the sense they're generally not trusted, and even feared by many. It might be even worse than being in Katsa's position. And I almost got a vibe of "I may be a monstrous killer, but at least I'm not a mind reader". Like that was the only thing that would make society hate her more.
Also there are clearly different kinds of mind readers.
Yeah, now I really want more of this lol
Agreed so hard about Katsa and Bitterblue <333
I did feel a little weird about the Ultimate Reveal of her and Po's Graces. I felt the synopsis was rather misleading with both of them having *totally* different Graces from what the reader was originally led to believe. I loved Po's reveal, probably more than Katsa's, but in the end it was like "these guys aren't just strong, they're SUPERPOWERED!". Still, as I said in my comment, it was grounded by the way they struggled with their Graces.
Re: Book club - GRACELING discussion!!!
(Anonymous) 2016-09-29 10:20 pm (UTC)(link)