any-corrie
your friendly neighbourhood hobbit, she/her
52 posts
Latest Posts by any-corrie
FINISHED BUNNY!!!
Ok so honestly i didn't cry, and I'm happy she didn't kill them but killed max instead. She took away what they desired the most, what they were destroying themselves for. And she freed herself contemporary. Also it might be me projecting but at some point this book was so trans coded when she drew all the parallels between herself and Max. ||
It's all in the simbolysm i think, this book is not about revenge, actually Sam is angry at the world for most of the book, by killing him. She killed a part of her that she needed to let go off. Or maybe to make peace with. Wich was also what made the Bunnies seek her out and hate her because they couldn't make her like them.
Like we never get an actual description of Samantha, but then she says that she sees her face in Max and to me then she just looks like max, maybe with her hair longer. Max is a mix of all her ex lovers yet it feels a purely aesthetic thing, a very "I don't know if i want to kiss him or be him."
|| I think that her blockage with writing is like a symptom that something is wrong. Because she is not focused on actually writing, she is writing Ava, she is creating her as she goes and therefore she can't write anything else. When her and Ava get back together she is immediately able to write again because Ava is a complete character now that can make her own decisions (like thell max to leave) and so she can actually go back to writing.
||There is also the fact that she doesn't have her narrative language. Every other girl has a narrative language, that they exhaust and re use to the nausea, because they are too scared of being anything else (another commentary on genred and their use extreme of femininity) while Sam doesn't have a language like that, she doesn't have a comfort subject that she can keep using to hide the fact that she doesn't know what to write, because she has no identity, no home, no face. She is a blank page and that's why the other girls immediately want to grab her. Because that way they can write her as they want, eliminating an adversary and erasing any changes of self descrivery on her part.
Bunny by Mona Awad (Spoilers!!!)
okay so bunny by mona awad succeeded in areas I think my year of rest and relaxation by otessa moshfegh failed in which she created a satire that actually had something to say. the way awad deals with the concepts of loneliness (both incidental and self inflicted), female friendships, class and the pretentiousness of New England college culture actually feels purposeful. and the reason I compare it to moshfegh is because both books are satires with unlikeable protags but while moshfegh is too busy kissing her own ass and hiding behind “oh all art is apolitical” bc shes to scared to admit that she actually cares about the topics shes talking about, awad cares very deeply about what she’s writing which made it unsurprising to see she based it on her own experiences at brown university.
Samantha is not the most likable character and you’re either gonna cone away from the book hating her and her pity parties or deeply understanding why she throws them (especially if you read her as a woman of color like I did). there’s a constant theme of her being obsessed with her own otherness and its true especially when you consider (Spoiler) She created her best friend Ava from a swan in the pond . Ava is Samanthas ideal friend but also the ideal form of herself: cool, self assured and beautiful. If Ava is the good part of herself, then Max is the bad. Her dark thoughts, negative impulses and hatefulness. But he is also how she sees herself as well, or at least what she thinks Ava would find attractive, he’s smooth, attractive in a dangerous way, poetic without being pretentious (he’s a literal vessel for her to say what she feels about Ava all of which is written in her diary) and what I think is very very important he can fuck Ava. Something the bunny-boys couldn’t do.
there’s also the sense of how we lose ourselves in our friends, as female friendships tend to be all consuming to the point we really do melt into a hive mind and I think even the friendship with Ava is tinged with co-dependency. Samantha dehumanizes the Bunnies calling them by nicknames she gave them, robbing them of agency because of their perceived perfectness but once she is invited to the Smut Salon she begins to call them by their real names until finally in honestly the most disorienting section of the book they all become Bunny, to the point its hard to tell who is talking and I loved that I wish we got more of Sam as a Bunny.
the atmosphere and aesthetics of the novel were so fun a candy colored dark academia where we even see that the bunnies also put on airs around each other like how Kira’s voice deepens when she thinks shes alone, no longer concerned with sounding like. bunny. I like how each of the women have a genre assigned to their writing and personal style showing how even though they are indistinguishable from each other, they were their own people beforehand but they allowed themselves to get sucked into a vacuous pretentious bubble.
the commentary on class was great, especially with how sam is said to be too obsessed with being poor to have been poor her whole life and I think thats a very accurate representation of someone who’s financial status has been precarious for much of her formative years and why despite herself shes so intrigued by the bunnies and feels out of place in her writers cohort. rich people love to blow smoke up each others asses, which allows the bunnies to write horrible work because at the end of the day they’re rich it doesn’t matter they’re never gonna have to improve themselves. its also why sam feels reluctant to speak her true feelings on their work because she doesn’t have anyone to rely on lest she gets ousted
the usage of the all female writing cohort with the singular teacher was a great nod to the secret history honestly the whole book was
I loved how it was a creation horror story as well as coming of age the horrific parts were truly gross and the way the cannibalize themselves (metaphorically) towards the end was satisfying as fuck
and a lot of ppl hate the ending but sam choosing Jonah was honestly cathartic, she isn’t healed things aren’t sweet and nice but she makes a connection with someone who has been reaching out to her instead of being obsessed with her own otherness
this is a super funny comparison but i actually really liked bunny for a similar reason. like the bunnies are, on paper, trying to make samantha happier, friendlier, more free in her creativity, its just that happiness in their world means a certain sort of thing which someone like samantha cant achieve without being hollowed out and brainwashed first. the bunnies are all about enabling their most surface level self-indulgent desires, and thats not all bad. its in fact kind of a good impulse that comes from wanting to free themselves and each other from shame. samantha craves validation and companionship and thats not a bad thing either, but it turns her into someone who goes along with acts that fundamentally disgust her for the sake of feeling valued.
its not a one-to-one comparison to what i was talking abt earlier with reanimator but i do kind of love horror dynamics that are all about like a well meaning protag with normal human desires and follies that gets drawn in by a villain(s) who like enables those desires until the protag cant tell the difference between what they want and what theyre simply willing to endure in order to get that superficial validation.
TSH hot takes 🔥
-Julian was actually a dick. He isolated and groomed vulnerable students (do you think it's a coincidence that every single member of the greek class had a difficult home life?) into thinking that these very outdated concepts of love and power were good for them. He compared their dangerous behaviour to that of ancient gods. Then, rather than face the consequence of his actions and take accountability, he left when it mattered.
-Charles was an asshole, but he's not a scapegoat. You cannot blame all the problems on Charles, he was an addict as a result of his trauma. He needed help. This doesn't excuse him from his actions, but it explains them. At the beginning of the book he physically could not bring himself to hurt Camilla. He's not a "bad" person. He's a sick person.
-Bunny didn't deserve to die, but he was also probably going to condemn the group at some point. He didn't just die for no reason. (Believing that Bunny's death was truly pointless also means believing that Henry was an actual psychopath who killed his friend for shits and giggles.)
-Judy, Cloke and Sophie ended up the happiest. That is literally the moral of the book. Judy wasn't all tortured when Richard didn't want to hang out with her, she shook it off and kept living her life. That's literally the point.
-Richard was never in love with Camilla. He loved the idea of her, but didn't see her as a person. Because of this specific dynamic and the fact the Richard is narrating, we know nothing about her actual personality. Anything he says can be disputed, and a lot of it contradicts itself.
-Francis is not blameless or unproblematic, but of the group he probably had the best intentions. Most of his behaviour that can be interpreted as creepy can be chalked up to Richard's internalized homophobia (remember, everything is told from his point of view, and Francis was a gay man in the 80's) When you look objectively at what Francis did, you see that he made a pass, got rejected, then dropped it and moved on. There is (i think) one more attempt made later on in the book, and that is furthered by Richard and only interrupted when Charles shows up.
-Henry may be the metaphorical representative of death when talking about the book, but in the narrative it's important to remember he's also just a person. Otherwise everything he does seems beyond question, and he's assigned this label as just "evil." He was 21!! Literally still a kid
-There were not good or bad characters. The reason they hit so hard is because each of them are so layered. They all have good traits and bad traits, but calling one "evil" takes away their humanity and dismisses their complexity that makes them so great.
THIS IS NOT OVER YET‼️
'Lucifer', 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine', 'Arrested Development', 'Family Guy', 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', 'Community', 'Star Trek' and 'Veronica Mars' are among the shows theat got cancelled but fans fought SO HARD that they saved them.
'Shadow and Bone' can be on that list too! Here’s a bunch of things you can do to help:
Sign the petition: http://chng.it/fqqThcFq
Share the petition and make EVERYONE you know sign it!!! (It takes two seconds and you can sign more than once using different email addresses)
FLOOD Netflix’s social media (Instagram, TikTok and Twitter) with comments, DM’s, story replies, threads, retweets and video stitches about 'Shadow and Bone' and 'Six of Crows'
FLOOD Netflix’s decision making staff’s social media with SaB and SoC renewal requests: @wade_davis28 (instagram and twitter), @reedhastings (twitter), @tedsarandos (instagram), @larrytanz (twitter)
FLOOD other Streaming Services Social Media with 'Shadow and Bone', asking them to pick it up!! (Prime Video I believe is by far the best choice)
WATCH THE SHOW!!! Many shows after cancellation loose viewership completely. Let’s not allow that to happen!!
Share this information in EVERY WAY you can. I have quite a following in other social media, so I’ll do that, and you should too!!
REBLOG!!!
No mourners.
man it would really suck if the link to request tv shows and movies got spammed with requests for shadow and bone and six of crows....
that would just be so unfortunate for netflix. such an inconvenience.
it would just be really terrible if this link got spread so people could spam it with requests for shadow and bone and six of crows.
If we actually get a SOC spinoff, it better open up with Joost. You don’t understand how much I need it.
when i’m going about my day but then classical music starts playing and suddenly i am nothing in my soul if not obsessive
In which, at some point between his brother’s death and the first book, kaz actually had somehow become a demon or something not-quite-human
Richard's unhinged energy is the most entertaining part for me beside the murders. Like the guy is an inspiration for chaotic people. He lies about his family life, pretends his rich father has business in oil (who irl has a petrol pump), lies to his part time employer to get money, goes on a 90s teen movie shopping spree, takes any free item from Judy, lies about going to a prep school, lives on a diet of wine and more wine, takes any pill anyone gives him, joins a cultish greek gang, lets Bunny die an aesthetically pleasing death and not to forget.....does cocaine in the parking lot of Burger King.
You know I think an underrated theme in SOC is that, the adults have ruined the future of the next generation. They have created an inhumane environment that serves only them. They've crushed and wrung out the lives of the weaker and the new, keeping them desperate, subjugated, exploited, and dead. Pekka Rollins, Tante Heleen, Jan Van Eck, Jarl Brum, these are our villains.
But Six of Crows also says that these circumstances have manufactured a much darker and tougher individual than these people can imagine. While the older generation are content to rest on their laurels and their ill gotten easy lives, their juniors are sharpening their pain into cruel and effective tools, with a drive that someone on top simply cannot understand.
Idk, I think it's an interesting and empowering (if not subversively harsh) message for its core audience as a YA novel.
Imagine Ketterdam centuries in the future, where all six crows have become saints, and their shenanigans have too many references sin history books to be written off as fairytales.
Kaz Brekker, the Saint of thieves who takes pity on the lost souls and evokes power into the hearts of crooks.
Inej Ghafa the Saint of the abused, holding a protective hand over those who share her story and causing slavers great misfortune.
Jesper Fahey, the Saint of treasure whose name those whisper at gambling tables for good luck and is said to guard all zowa.
Wylan Hendriks, a Saint of runaways who watches over the shaken souls and bruised children who slip out of their bedroom windows to start new lives.
Nina Zenik, the Saint of lovers who couples leave offerings to in hopes that their love will be eternal, no matter what.
Matthias Helvar, the Saint of soldiers who younglings going to war pray to for mercy, and known to protect Grisha when called upon.
normalize reading a book without caring if the spine breaks, folded cover, misspelled annotations and just ruining the book completely as a form of art
i'd like to thank freddy carter's big blue eyes and acrobatic eyebrows for their contribution to the "stay in ketterdam" scene in the show. you can practically hear kaz thinking you inej, you through them (and honorable mention to his jawline that could cut glass)
a the amazing devil song each for the shadow and bone characters *this is based off of the netflix series versions of the characters
Kaz Brekker - The Old Witch Sleep and the Good Man Grace 'Cause when I stand, oh all those folks will run And tell the tales of what I've become They'll speak of me in whispered tones And say my name like it shakes their bones
Inej Ghafa - The Calling And I promise you I'll write I love you With my fingers on your sleeping hand And when that fox howls I'll howl with it, in its cries I'll find an end And when I think I'm fine you'll visit And then you happen to me, you happen to me all over again
Nina Zenik - Ruin I will bring you ruin in everything I do It's never my intention but it happens all the same It starts with love and comfort Becomes a strength of will But all that strength made rubble of those towers we built
Matthias Helvar - Blossoms And my saint she is dancing As every step I choose to take begins to set the world aflame And the soldiers march behind me I can hear them beat their spears And for the first time in all my life I know I'm more than what I fear
Alina Starkov - Inkpot Gods Oh what these? These aren't tears It's just the rain that wasn't brave enough to fall And what they hear isn't laughter after all It's just your voice learning for once to stand up tall
Aleksander Morozova - The Horror and The Wild Think of all the horrors that I promised you I'd bring I promise you, they'll sing of every Time you passed your fingers through my hair and called me child Witness me old man, I am the Wild
Malyen Oretsev - Farewell Wanderlust Because farewell wanderlust, you've ever ever so kind You brought me through this darkness but you left me here behind And so long to the person you begged me to be He's down, he's dead Now take a good long look at what you've done to me
Nikolai Lantsov - That Unwanted Animal And you rip my ribcage open And devour what's truly yours And our screaming joins in unison I cry out to the lord 'Cause if we join our hands in prayer enough to God I imagine it all starts to sound like applause
Genya Saffin - Fair "'Cause outwardly," he says, "I try so hard to make you laugh at me" And she, she does, she laughs as though she's not heard the joke ten thousand times before And he adores her, he watches her get dressed as though she's hurtling through time "Oh darling, please be mine"
Jesper Fahey - Welly Boots And when you scream that it's not fair It's like I've gone off to the coast Left you behind just standing there Pretending not to see your ghost
Wylan Van Eck - Secret Worlds 'Cause I will suffer silence for the strings you tune And I'll withstand what's written for the writer in you Write me well my love, write me weird Write me willing, write me well
Everything is fine. Im completely fine. Its not the fact that one day, its just going to be nina, alone. At everyones funerals. No more crows. No more heists. No more chaos. Its no more. Just nina.
Kaz Brekker: A Character Study
Eyes bright, hair wild, Lips curved in a little smile. Scraped knuckles, bruised knees, Tousled gently by the country breeze. "Jordie, look, I made a friend!" Did all good things have to end?
Eyes wide, hair bristling, Lips parted in a whispered "No." Trembling fingers, racing heart, Blood like blossoms on a sunlit floor. "Jordie, quick, I think he's hurt!" Could things ever get any worse?
Eyes hopeful, hair combed neatly, Lips spread in a tremulous smile. Mittens folded over steaming chocolate, Gazing at the promise of a new sunrise. "Jordie, I think we might make it." Who knew the best way to be happy was to fake it?
Eyes waxy, hair limp, Lips closed over chattering teeth. Aching ribs, aching heart— It had never been so hard to breathe. "Jordie, please, please, wake up." They'd come too far to give up.
Eyes unseeing, hair unseen, Lips blue, dying, dying. In a pile of festering bodies, The only one who was still alive. "Jordie, wake up, please, I'm sorry." It was the only way to survive.
Eyes dull, hair pushed back, Lips pressed into a flat line. They would pay for what they did, Languish in suffering of his design. "Jordie, I promise I'll avenge you." Why wasn't he sure if that was true?
Eyes wild, hair on end, Lips trembling over trembling breaths. Crouched against a locked bathroom door, Drowning till he'd died a thousand deaths. "Jordie, please, go away." He could feel the bodies, smell the decay.
Eyes hard, hair neat, Lips in a mocking smirk. Death was dealt out far too easily, Condemningly common in his line of work. "Jordie, now I'm a monster too— What, now, would I think of you?"
Eyes caught, hair tousled, Lips frozen mid-sentence. Gazing at her, silhouetted by the sun, He could almost believe in magic again. "Jordie, I'm scared my walls are falling down." For once, he was defenseless, and he wasn't going to drown.
Eyes shy, hair straight, Lips forming words he didn't want to take back. Broken boy and broken girl— His defenses were about to crack. "Jordie, not all good things have to die." He wondered if he should straighten his tie.
“he’s so kaz-coded.” no, he’s just an intj. we are brooding and hot and here to win. you love us.
but like imagine this, if there were deaths in a third soc book:
wylan would die first (from an explosion, oit of irony) because we can all agree he's like a son to kaz, and it would be devastating. so then kaz has all this pent-up emotion. and jesper's unhinged gambling addiction gets worse, which gets kaz even more worried. because he's like a brother to kaz. and he does something reckless on this job, which therefore gets him severely injured, and he dies in inej's arms. and that leads to inej trying to help jesper cope while also suffering internally herself.
when news reaches nina in ravka, she thinks that kaz forged inej's signature at the end of the letter as a cruel joke. she went along with it anyway since she missed when the crows were all together. nina brought a few traditional ravkan treats that she knew kaz liked no matter how much he denied it. when she arrived at the slat, it was empty. nina went to the crow club and found inej with a far away look. she gave up on trying to help jesper with his addiction. im too lazy to be in writing mode, so im gonna half-ass the rest. anyway, nina had to snap inej out of her daze and ask her where kaz was. that's when inej finally broke down, and any word she muttered was incoherent. after what felt like ages, jesper went over to the two girls and told nina what happened. "the ol' dirtyhands finally kicked the bucket. thought he was immortal for a while. wylan went just before him."
there was nothing else but sobs that day and screaming out to the sky why everything that happened happened. bit over a week later, there was a joint service. inej engraved two slabs for the two out of wood with the first knife kaz gifted to her. she renamed it. sankt rietveld. and that's how she got assigned a new job. revenge. with a gloved hand holding her knife. (shitty ending, not enough detail, but here you go)
before, there were six of crows. then five. now only three.
i originally shared this with a server im in and, therefore, was banished to hellgate by my friends for making them all cry. oops. anyway, fuck you guys [affectionately but not really].
still not over how they use lighting and/or framing to make Kaz look monstrous. look at this!
he looks barely human! where is that light even coming from!
behold a goblin man! do you see that sharp contrast between light and shadow? that’s because they intentionally didn’t use a fill light to soften the shadows! all the other characters get fill lights!
a literal fucking demon. his eye is glowing!
fucking Dracula-style underlighting to signal evil! why is there light coming from below? this is not a diegetic (i.e. internal to the story world) light! it is a light placed specifically to make him look like this!
the warm yellow light on the left, the cool blue light on the right, the red shadow in the middle! the bloody makeup! (also the acting, but that’s a separate story)
and like, freddy carter is a fairly good looking dude! he can look regular and soft with standard lighting! even when he’s being all intense stare-y and bruised!
i just really love how much visual storytelling there is in the crows story line. so much of it is not conveyed through explicit dialogue or plot but through the art of cinema! ahhh!
I don't care if the Crows spin-off is just the six of them acting it out in Freddy's living room while Freddy's wife films it on a phone, I'm willing to pay real money for the footage.
I want everybody who’s calling Ken a Trophy Husband to know that he’s actually a Trophy Boyfriend, because when Ruth Handler invented Ken in the 1960s, she was adamant that he would never marry her and instead be her “handsome steady”, so that Barbie remained a figure of independence for the little girls and was never put in the position of housewife.
Her house is hers. She bought it and furnished it with money she made in her own job. In STEM, in politics, in healthcare, in fashion, in academy, in customer service. Her credit card is in her name (women in the US couldn’t have their own regardless of marital status until 1974). And it’s all pink and fashionable because femininity and badassness aren’t mutually exclusive. No matter who you are, you can be anything.
That’s why Barbie’s slogan is “you can be anything”. Teaching these ideals to little girls is why Barbie was created. Empowering women and empowering femininity is the original meaning of the Barbie doll. It’s not that you have to be all this to be a woman, but if you are all or some of this, you too are awesome.
And somehow pop culture deliberately changed that narrative. Sexualised, bimbofied, and villainised her, when she actually isn’t responsible for the impossible beauty standards — people are, she’s just a stylised, not-to-scale toy like most others.
Men are frothing because he’s just Ken and I guess they were expecting her to be just Barbie, but that’s exactly what Ken is. Canonically. A badass woman’s himbo boyfriend.
This movie has the potential to change the way we collectively see Barbie radically into what Ruth Handler’s intended, I’m so very excited
not to be dramatic but we desperately need a punk movement to come in and wash away this Instagram model airbrushed picture perfect trend. it’s so damaging……teens, young adults, kids, the Grown….all of us need to just. we need to be sweaty again. we deserve it smeared eyeliner…..idk just. it’s okay if ur hair is greasy please just relax & then get mad about stuff that’s important to you.
Happy Neil banging out the tunes day
Why is it always “ILY” and never:
SL.AIHCHBTSAGDOIENHWH.ITH
my standards are too high for fictional men
nina touching kaz when he starts having a flashback, trying to do her calming heartrender thing, but the power of his ptsd either cancels it out or just makes it impossible because she needs physical contact for it to work and that's obviously a no-go
kaz and inej's individual relationships with touch are honestly so compelling. inej hates the lack of control but when she sees it coming she'll let jesper and nina hug her because they're safe and she trusts them, and she wants to try with kaz despite everything, and she'll sit on the bathroom counter and let him stand between her legs to patch her up knowing it's difficult for both of them because maybe opening up about her own struggles will help him realise he's not all alone in the world
and kaz does try for her and he'll bodily throw himself at jesper to save his life and hold onto him when he gets knocked out in a very dangerous place in the process because like hell is he getting himself another dead brother, but at the end of the day it's still all about the trauma and the autonomy and the stolen innocence and the limitations and the boundaries and the trust placed in their chosen people not to cross them and-
i'm really going to miss you
one thing the show missed how deadpan and hilarious kaz is like he had such a slick mouth like in the books one of the reason why he was such a fun character was because how ruthless he was but also he was so outta pocket all the time like he had so much witty one liners
If every single one of you who watched s2 (or not yet) but would like to see a continuation to their story would tune in this weekend and give one full watch (again or for the first time) of the whole eight episodes, it'd do wonders for the numbers. So if you have a netflix account, please do so NOW! It'll be four weeks on the coming Thursday and then their fate is pretty much sealed.
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