Books: Is ‘Fangirl’ Anti-Fangirl? BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT

Photo of the second edition of the manga of ‘Fangirl’ by Rainbow Rowell. Copyright goes to VIZ and Rainbow Rowell.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Firstly, I want to address the blog announcement piece of the title so here goes:

BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT: You probably noticed that I posted this a day late. That’s because we’re going to a twice a week schedule in order to organize a little and give us each one day a week just for us! From now on you’ll see Annie posts every Tuesday and Hallie posts every Friday. As you most likely noticed, this schedule starts today! And now for the post!

‘Fangirl’ by Rainbow Rowell has become a classic in YA fiction; it is also increasingly controversial with every year that passes. To begin with, Rainbow Rowell as an author has become pretty controversial anyways. If you aren’t familiar with this author, she’s most known for this book and also for her book ‘Eleanor and Park’. ‘Eleanor and Park’ has now been called out on multiple occasions by many readers for being a racist book. While at the time of its release it was praised for having an Asian male lead, people are now widely starting to discuss the fact that this does not negate the clear racism seen in this novel. Not only did Rowell not do much research about Asian culture, resulting in the first name of her main male character being a common surname, but she also had her main character say that she found Park cute “for an Asian guy” in the book and fetishizes him on multiple occasions. The main character also congratulates herself multiple times throughout the book for noticing the potential in Park that most people don’t notice because of his race. These aren’t the only racist statements made in the book and have caused many people to understandably stop reading any books by Rowell. In fact, I wish I had known this before I bought my copy of ‘Fangirl’, because I would not have bought it had I known. But since I did buy this I figure I should at least join the discourse about this specific book. Because this book became popular because its main character is a fangirl in a fandom who writes fan fiction; which is something that is relatable to a lot of us. Unfortunately, many fangirls have come out to say that this book actually isn’t very kind to fangirls or to many other groups for that matter. Though there are certain things that I liked seeing depicted, I also feel that a lot of these fangirls are absolutely correct in their criticisms. So I’m going to go through some of the arguments for and against this fairly controversial book by an extremely controversial author and give my personal opinions. These are only my personal opinions! MAJOR SPOILERS for ‘Fangirl’ coming up! Though I honestly wouldn’t recommend buying anything written by Rowell.

“Rowell thinks she’s more progressive than she is.”:

This is a common argument made about Rowell and about this book in particular. And considering that she wrote ‘Eleanor and Park’ to be more progressive and got rightly accused of being racist instead, I think this seems to ring pretty true for this author. The book depicts the main character, Cath, writing fan fiction about Simon Snow and Baz. They’re essentially this book’s equivalent of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. And while this isn’t problematic by itself, there’s a lot tacked onto this to make this problematic. For example, when Cath is nervous around Levi, specifically with him touching her, he has her read her fan fiction to him in order to calm her down. And while this wasn’t used in a sexual manner, it was still really problematic to have a straight couple read queer fan fiction in order to progress their relationship. I mean, I’m pretty done with media using bare minimum representation to further the personal journeys of people who aren’t in those minority groups. And this was exactly what was going on here. In a really odd scene, Cath asks if it’s weird to be reading her fan fiction in the same dorm as Levi’s gay roommate, which is such an insanely wrong thing to write in. It automatically makes your “representation” veer completely towards fetishization. On top of this, after she asks this Levi responds by saying that it’s ok because his roommate watches ‘Titanic’ in front of him all the time. WHAT? I can’t even begin to say how completely and obliviously stupid that comment was. Rowell seems to think that she’s being supportive of the LGBTQ+ community in this book and she is entirely wrong in that assumption.

“Rowell gets some representation right!”:

This is a comment that I would also agree with, but for different groups. As a twin, she writes a pretty important scene for twins in which she completely condemns the fetishization that faces particularly female twins. When Cath is at a bar with her sister Wren, a couple of drunk frat boys begin referring to the two of them as “the fantasy” that every guy has. Levi immediately steps in by telling the first guy that he wouldn’t be so interested in literal incest if comments like this were aimed at him and his sister. The scene ends with the frat guy getting punched in the face. It was a truly cathartic scene for me to read, especially after some of the situations my sister and I have been through while facing these comments. Rowell also writes some pretty realistic explanations of anxiety that I could personally relate to; such as Cath not worrying so much about the bigger things like going to college classes but instead getting really anxious about the smaller things like having to figure out the dining hall. My anxiety isn’t nearly to the point of Cath’s (I’ll get back to that), but some of the explanations were perfect. I also loved the portrayal of Cath’s Dad who also suffered from mental health problems and Cath’s want to take care of him, which is something that I also found relatable. She made his role in the story functional while still making her point clear. But the representation that she gets right in no way negates the representation that she gets horrendously wrong.

“Fangirls aren’t actually like this and it promotes stereotyping.”:

Also agreed! The way Cath is portrayed as a fangirl is both not enough and also not supported by the narrative. Cath only writes fan fiction and hangs up posters, she barely does anything else within the fandom and is seen as crazy for doing both of the things that she actually does. The stereotype about fans in general forever has been that fans are all anti-social hermits who are viewed as strange by everyone around them. While some of Cath’s anxiety is relatable; her inability to do anything for herself especially in social situations is not. I liked that Cath was able to develop relationships with multiple people throughout this book, but she didn’t ever stand up for herself much or truly find a way to deal with her anxiety. She just remained on edge with every person and in every single situation throughout the book. People with anxiety usually have specific triggers and specific things that make them anxious. The entire world and every single person and situation can’t all be a trigger. Not only that, but most people in the book view Cath as someone to be pitied and protected rather than actually helping her. Reagan is the worst example of this. She’s supposed to be funny, but she tells Cath throughout the book that she’s pitiable because of her anxiety and weird for writing fan fiction. In fact, Cath is told that she’s wrong by several people throughout the book for being the way she is. And that is not something that’s ever resolved at all. Fangirls are not weird. Escapism is a popular way to let yourself fantasize and enjoy life! Anxiety is not pitiable. Plenty of people have it and are functional human beings who learn how to accept and navigate it. This book was horrible for this demonstration of “representation”. And not all fans are socially inept, in fact fans wanting to be social is one of the reasons we have things like conventions. This book is awful when it comes to demonstrating both of these points.

“Well, most people only write fan fiction in High School. What’s wrong?”:

That’s completely wrong. Fan fiction is actually the most accessible form of literature that we currently have. It is widely accessible on the internet and doesn’t cost anything. Fan fiction is a completely viable way to interact with a work. If a work inspires you, it’s natural to want to create art inspired by it. People of all ages engage in this behavior. The book acting like, and frequently telling the audience, that most people leave behind this kind of fan engagement in High School is absolute crap. And what’s odd is that Rowell writes in the back of her book that she still reads fan fiction and thanks fans who continue to write it. But she never corrects any of her characters when they put Cath down in this way. Not only that, but fan fiction writers aren’t stupid. You aren’t going to find a college level writer submitting fan fiction as an assignment because they’re that “obsessed”. That was just plain offensive to fans everywhere. I don’t understand how Rowell can claim that she supports something and then write a book where so many pieces of it scream the opposite of those views she claims to have.

“At least it promotes healthy relationships.”:

Now this I would also agree with. Levi is such a good example of writing consent into a story and having a love interest who is patient with someone who has anxiety linked to intimacy issues. Levi continuously asks Cath to communicate with him about what makes her comfortable and what doesn’t. Reading this absolutely eliminates the arguments of authors who say that it doesn’t feel natural to write consent into their stories. Rowell has it every step of the way and makes it feel romantic. I also liked how she was able to use the typical misunderstanding in the book as a lesson to be more communicative with your partner. This relationship was sweet and extremely caring on both sides. And once again, because I can’t stress this enough, there is SO MUCH consent! I want to see more books portraying relationships like this.

“This book is so good/bad.”:

If this book proves anything to me, it’s that a book can have a whole lot of good and a whole lot of bad in it simultaneously. Because of this author specifically, I am still saying that I wouldn’t recommend you read this book. If you wanted to read some scenes from it, especially some of the romance scenes, I’m sure a ton of people have posted excerpts of it somewhere. But I wouldn’t recommend giving this author your money. While this book isn’t bad to the levels of ‘Eleanor and Park’, that’s probably only because this book has a lot more white people and a lot less representation of any minority groups. And it’s still really bad every time it mentions minority groups. There are times where it feels painful for me to admit that there’s something that this book does that’s good. But I can tell you that it isn’t a good enough read to consider reading it to begin with. I’m probably going to get rid of my copy. But I do think discussing representation in books like this is still important, whether bad or good.

Once again, I encourage you not to pick up anything by Rainbow Rowell. I hope that if this article does anything, it’ll prevent some other person like me from picking up one of her books without researching her first. But I will say that there are things I genuinely did like about this book. Just like there are things that I genuinely like about ‘Harry Potter’. Will I continue to support the author? Absolutely not. And there are still too many people who don’t know about the controversy surrounding Rainbow Rowell. This book is not good enough to get all of the popularity that it does, especially now that more authors are talking about things like anxiety and being writers or being a fangirl. Just look at some of my past book reviews! This book doesn’t have to be the only one anymore and it really shouldn’t be.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Books: ‘Half a Soul’ by Olivia Atwater Review

Cover for ‘Half a Soul’ by Olivia Atwater. Published by Orbit.

Hey! Hallie here!

I’m not usually the sister on this blog who does book reviews, but I am the big ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ fan so I had to check this one out when everyone started comparing this book to one of my favorite movies/books of all time. Because of other comparisons to regency media like ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Bridgerton’, I figured this would be a classic historical romance with some magic thrown in. And it is. But it also manages to be extremely unique with characters that stand completely separate from any of the regency media it’s compared to. Plus, I definitely think ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ fans can find enough similarities with this intelligent lead and swoon-worthy sorcerer to satisfy their love of Howl and Sophie. This review will be spoiler free so don’t feel like you have to avoid this if you’re just looking for a book recommendation! Let’s get into this!

Plot:

Theadora Ettings, or Dora for short, is a nineteen year old girl in Regency England who was nearly abducted by a fae as a child. Though her cousin, the lovely Vanessa, managed to fend off the fae with a pair of scissors, the fae escaped with half of Dora’s soul. Now that both Dora and Vanessa are of marrying age, the two find themselves on a trip to London where Vanessa’s mother hopes to find the perfect match for Vanessa. But there seems to be very little hope for Dora, who finds difficulty expressing her emotions and can’t pick up on social cues well due to her lack of half her soul. But then she meets Elias Wilder, England’s Lord Sorcier, who takes an interest in her condition as well as her amused acceptance of both his sarcasm and poor manners. While Elias attempts to figure out a cure for her condition, Dora begins to wonder whether the other half of her soul is actually needed for her to fall in love.

What I Liked:

Dora: Dora is an amazing protagonist. First and foremost, I want to go into the way Dora only having half a soul is presented. Dora’s condition is an analogy for neurodivergence, with the author taking her own tendencies as well as those from some of her friends as inspiration for the way Dora reacts in many scenes. Dora is excellent neurodivergent representation. The way that she looks to her peers to try to figure out how she should be reacting is extremely relatable as a nerodivergent person who also struggles to express myself. I also really loved the explanation of how she struggles to feel short term emotions, but emotions that build up over time do stick with her. Considering that neurodivergent children were once said to be the result of fae meddling with or replacing them, I really enjoyed the way this was seemingly reclaimed in the book. Especially because, though some characters do try to find a cure for her condition, the book goes out of its way to show that Dora is a completely valid person as she is without half her soul. Even Elias, who is tasked with finding a cure, takes it upon himself to remind Dora that she isn’t less of a person for being the way she is. But looking past all of that, Dora’s fun to follow because she’s such an intelligent character. She can read other people very well, to the point that she’s able to use societal expectations to her advantage. She’s able to read Elias so well that she even helps him process his own emotions at points. Her intelligence also makes her interactions with Elias addictive. His attempts to be rude to her don’t end in offense, but with a witty retort that catches him off guard. The way she calculates each scheme in the book is so fun to read and I always love seeing a protagonist who outsmarts everyone around her.

Elias: A lot of the time love interests who are meant to come across as jerks don’t really work for me. A lot of books or movies don’t really address their bad behavior or acknowledge that it harms other people. Luckily, this book holds Elias accountable. Though it’s cathartic to see Dora shut down his attempts to scare her off at first, the book acknowledges his need to change and details the process. First it explains why he’s so hostile towards the upper class, that being because he’s well acquainted with the lower class and how they’re treated. But that doesn’t justify purposefully tearing down everyone he meets. While the book makes several good points about how Elias is right to be bitter in the way that he is, it also shows that Elias internalizing his bitterness and lashing out at everyone as a result isn’t great for not just everyone else, but also for his own mental health. I liked that the author was able to strike a balance between Elias being correct and Elias needing to find a different way to express his anger. Then there’s the way Elias treats Dora. Because although Elias is initially insulting, he’s still respectful and he takes her thoughts and opinions seriously. After he moves past his attempt to brush her off, he’s even more attentive. He listens to her concerns, values her conversation, and is charmed by the different ways she navigates society. I also love that, as he falls in love with Dora, he emphasizes more and more how unnecessary it is for her to change who she is. He fell in love with her while she didn’t possess her full soul and he doesn’t see a problem with that, but more than that, he doesn’t stand for when she tears herself down because of it. We love a supportive love interest.

Side Characters: The side characters aren’t all likable, but they all have a surprising amount of depth. My favorite is Albert, the son of Lady Carrroway whose social position makes her sons the most desirable bachelors of the season. Except for Albert, who has facial scars and an artificial hand because of injuries he sustained fighting for his country. Despite the honor he brung to his family, most of the people around him treat him with pitying politeness and not much else. Despite that, he’s one of the kindest characters in the entire book. He’s a doctor who spends all his free time going between work houses to cure illnesses and treat wounds, and he’s the first person in London who treats Dora with genuine kindness. Dora becomes close friends with him far faster than she develops any sort of relationship with Elias, and part of the reason why she ends up with Elias is because Arthur tries to set them up. Dora and Arthur’s friendship is so genuine and so wonderful. I also love Vanessa, who has a general love for life that’s enviable. But the book also addresses her flaws, namely her vanity, and makes her confront her self absorbed tendencies. It even gives a good amount of time to Dora’s chaperone Henrietta, who winds up being a bigger badass than I expected when I was first introduced to her. There are so many lovely characters in this book and none feel like they aren’t given enough time.

Class Divide: A huge part of this book covers the way the lower class were treated in Regency England. As I said above, Elias’ attitude towards others is because of the unfairness he sees in the upper class enjoying expensive parties and finery while the lower class suffers. All the main characters visit the work houses to volunteer during the events of the book, and the author doesn’t pull punches when describing the horrible conditions there. Those conditions become a driving force for the main characters to strive for a better society as the book goes on, and there are even several really good conversations about using your anger to fight for societal change. But despite it being a huge part of the book, the book doesn’t come across as preachy. It integrates itself perfectly into the main conflict in the narrative. I don’t see enough regency fiction bringing up the problems faced by the lower class, and I respect this book so much for tackling that issue.

What I Disliked:

Analogy Confusion: My biggest gripe with this book is the way the neurodivergent analogy seemed to fall apart at parts of the story. Though I do understand that Dora having half a soul is tied completely to the idea of children who were neurodivergent being said to have connections to the fae, I still think it’s odd that her neurodivergent qualities are a result of her actually losing part of her soul. It’s not that everyone thinks that there’s something wrong with her when in reality there’s no issue. She genuinely has lost half her soul and, even worse, there’s a possibility that her condition could be fixed. The biggest example of this is a spoiler so don’t read ahead if you don’t want those! SPOILER: At the end of the book it says that later in life Dora decided to actually reclaim the other half of her soul. This is supposed to be an analogy for her death, but it really isn’t clear. Even if it was though, it still makes me uncomfortable after an entire book about how she doesn’t need to change and how it’s important for her to accept herself the way she is.

Auntie Frances Redemption: Auntie Frances is Vanessa’s mother and the main caretaker of Dora, who is orphaned. She’s also literally the worst. She’s the character who makes Dora feel inadequate, to the point that when Dora tears herself down for her condition, she’s almost always repeating something her aunt said to her. She only ever treats Dora with cruelty and she often doesn’t have patience for Vanessa either. She’s shown to only care about marrying off her daughter and she doesn’t care who she steps on in order to do it. There’s really nothing likable about her. But after doing a horrible thing towards the end of the book, the book attempts to garner sympathy for her by having Vanessa mention that she feels bad about it. That’s really not enough to make me sympathize with the character, especially because she doesn’t actually show up to show how sorry she is. It’s a tiny problem, but I honestly don’t think it was necessary to throw in a line towards the end to try to make her seem like she could be a good person. We already have enough evidence throughout the rest of the book to prove she isn’t one.

If you’re a fan of regency romance, especially regency romance with some good banter between the love interests, you’ll love this book. If you’re a fan of pretty wizard boys who can walk the line between flirty and grumpy, I think you’ll love this book. If you’re a fan of intelligent leads who have relatable problems with seeing their own worth, I think you’ll love this book. In other words, I’m recommending this book to people who love ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ as much as I do, but don’t want a direct retelling of either of those stories. It also doesn’t move too fast, which might frustrate some but honestly fits this romance, and the cozy vibe of the book, so well. It’s now one of my favorite comfort reads ever and I hope it’ll bring you the same amount of comfort!

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Books: ‘This Time It’s Real’ by Ann Liang

Image of ‘This Time It’s Real’ by Ann Liang. Copyright goes to Penguin Books and Ann Liang.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I’m really into the romance genre of books right now and to be honest, as long as the book is cute and wholesome I usually like it. But this book completely blew me out of the water! I don’t think I’ve absolutely loved a book this much since I started mass reading this genre with ‘XOXO’ by Axie Oh. And while I still think that the plot in that book might have been a little more my speed with the travel escapism; I also think that I didn’t relate to that book as much as I related to this book. When looking at the reviews for this book I saw a lot of people talking about how specifically relatable the main character was, and I don’t think I understood quite what they were talking about until I read the book for myself. The romance was also adorable and completely swoon worthy! It’s really not hard at all to fall for the main male character yourself. With that aside, I’m just going to get into it. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! If you want to read the book ahead of time, go for it! I’ll just warn you that there’s a current massive misprint for this book where it’s missing thirty pages in the middle but prints the next thirty pages twice. I’m going to have to return my copy because of this in the hopes of finding a copy without the misprint. If you’re going to read this as an e-book, you’ll absolutely be fine though! I bought a digital copy to fill in the thirty pages it was missing because I was so engrossed in the book that I couldn’t wait!

Summary: After Eliza is required to write a blog post at her new school that details something personal that happened to her, she makes the decision to instead write a fake romance that she feels more passionate about writing. Unfortunately, the post goes viral, causing everyone from classmates to journals she’s loved for years hoping she’ll write more and asking her about a boyfriend she knows doesn’t exist. Her handsome model/actor classmate, Caz, feels just as out of place at school as she does; and after a chance encounter she asks him to pretend to be her boyfriend in order to help her career and support his new drama. But what if she wants it to be real?

The Real:

Eliza- As someone who has been diagnosed with anxiety, it always feels important to me to find protagonists in media that also struggle with that. Eliza is a writer with anxiety who has abandonment issues. Hello? Is this me? But this is depicted all very realistically and without viewing her as weaker for it. I’ve read a few books, some very recently, where the book depicted their main female character with something relatable that instead was presented as a glaring flaw. Sometimes the main character will even constantly complain about this side of herself throughout the book. This was not the case here. Eliza didn’t have to be fixed, she just had to work through some things. Her anxiety was not depicted as a flaw but rather something she had to navigate. I can’t even describe how important that is! Not only that but Eliza was not waiting on anybody to solve her problems for her. She took her life in her own hands, even if it meant changing the way she thought about things before. I loved her so much and reading her story felt like something personal. It was like reading all of my thoughts and doubts laid bare for everyone to see, but in such a comforting and cathartic way. I loved every moment of it!

Caz- How can you not find Caz swoon worthy? He’s the star of several C-Dramas, a few of them being historical fantasy. I was so on board when Eliza went to visit him on the set of his drama and saw him in the historical robes and long wig. (Unfortunately this was part of the thirty pages that was missing, so I had to read this part on the e-book.) I did see a lot of connections between the character of Caz and one of the stars of ‘The Untamed’; Wang Yibo. From the initial stand-offishness, to the not being able to handle spicy food, to the motorcycle, all the way to the mentions of ‘The Untamed’ sprinkled throughout the book. I actually recently read a book where the male lead was obviously modeled after Simu Liu. I am absolutely not complaining! A lot of the inspiration in my own writing comes from the K-Pop biases that I have, so I actually absolutely love when I can kind of see where an author’s inspiration might have come from. It’s yet another thing that I found really relatable about this book! And what’s not to like about Caz? He’s hilariously sarcastic, extremely sweet to Eliza’s little sister, and such a caring boyfriend. Real or not. My heart broke for him when he was obviously trying to see how Eliza felt about him and she kept shutting him down. I loved him so much!

The Romance- Oh my gosh, this has to be one of my new comfort romances. I touched on it a little before, but one of the things I felt was relatable about Eliza was her abandonment issues when it came to anyone other than her family. Because I absolutely have these too! She doesn’t trust people to stay with her and expects them to leave without really knowing what she did to make them leave. And Caz has trust issues that cause him not asking for help from anyone because he doesn’t trust other people to see him beyond the celebrity image. All of this culminates in a scene where she takes care of him while he has an awful fever and while he’s miserable he asks her not to leave and she tells him not to worry and that she won’t go anywhere, and as she does this she thinks about how she had always wanted someone to say that to her. I started crying so much after this scene because I related to it so much. The twist is that I was on a break at work and had to pull myself together afterwards. I cried multiple times over the course of this book, mostly because of how much I related to it and how observant Caz was when it came to Eliza’s anxiety. This is seriously what I hope to have in a relationship one day. They just cared so much about each other and the book has this excellent message about how you shouldn’t be afraid to inconvenience people you love, because if they love you they’ll be just as happy to be inconvenienced by you as you are when it comes to them. This romance automatically shot this up to comfort read material. I guarantee you, I will be re-reading this book over and over and over and over….

Friends- When Eliza starts feeling like she’s being abandoned by her friend after she moves away, she at first just accepts the reality that she values the relationship more than her friend. But that’s not the reality. That’s the reality she made up in her head. Which is something I’ve caught myself doing multiple times. Caz calls out Eliza for making decisions for people in her brain, which is something I do so often and was a moment I felt like I needed to read. Eliza decides to actually communicate and realizes that she’s not losing her friend and all of this was amazing! I know there are plenty of us out there with this insecurity and it’s nice to have that reminder and to also have the reminder that sometimes being brave enough to communicate what we’re feeling is all we really need. Having the conversation is better than blowing it up in your head.

Family- The relationship between Eliza and her family is so wholesome. I feel like when you have friendship abandonment issues, a lot of people will assume it’s because of your home life. This is definitely not true for me and it was refreshing to see that it wasn’t true for Eliza either. Portraying that she felt safe and secure in her home life and that she felt that it was one of the only constants in her life was a dynamic I relate to and don’t often see. I also loved her protective relationship with her little sister and how it went both ways. The family dynamic here was so wholesome and I loved having that in the background and as the backbone of the story. All of the family moments were so adorable! I loved that they all sat around to watch Caz’s drama.

The Writing- I know that this probably isn’t too difficult to portray coming from an author, but I feel like you don’t often see protagonists that love to write this much. The descriptions she randomly came up with for random things or the way she described writing seemed to put words to a feeling I don’t often try to describe. It actually inspired me to write more and look into the things that I have written! And don’t get me started on the fact that one of the reasons Caz falls for her is because he falls for her writing. That was just…(sigh)…rip my heart out why don’t you?

The Fake:

Loose Threads- There were still so many unanswered questions at the end of the book! This could just be because I loved this book so much and I really didn’t want it to end, but seriously! I wanted to know if there would be backlash from her releasing the true events! I wanted to get more of the relationship between Caz’s co-stars! I just wanted more of every plot and every character!

Misprint- I know I already warned about this in the beginning of the post. I want to say right now that this is NOT the author’s fault! I’ll have to see if the bookstore closest to my house has a bunch of misprints or if I can replace it with a proper copy of the book. I have purchased the e-book version too so that the author will still get my money even if my local bookstore doesn’t have a physical copy that I can replace it with. I really hope it does because the art on the outside of this book is adorable and the book is entirely pastel pink and blue which are my favorite colors! But just make sure that if you go out to buy this book that you throughly flip through it while looking at the page numbers. The best way to see if the copy you just picked up is a misprint is to look for a huge gap in page numbers or if you see page numbers twice. Just beware of this and check your books more thoroughly than I did!

I really hope you pick up this book in some form or find a non-misprint version of this book. This is such an amazing book and I feel like I’ll go back to it several times for quotes and romantic moments or just to read the entire book again! Seriously, read this! It’s both wholesome and completely life changing. Just be prepared to cry if anything that I mentioned before sounds relatable to you!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Video Games: ‘The Last of Us’ Episode 6 Review

Screenshot of Gabriel Luna as Tommy and Pedro Pascal as Joel in episode 6 of HBO Max’s ‘The Last of Us’. Copyright goes to Naughty Dog, Playstation Productions, and Sony Pictures Productions.

Hey! Hallie here!

Every time I think I might put off a review for this series, it winds up giving me an amazing episode that I want to talk about as soon as possible. This episode was no exception. While it isn’t exactly action heavy, it has some of the moments I was most anticipating from the game. Beyond that, it also has some of the best character work I’ve seen from this series so far. It cuts almost seamlessly between scenes exactly from the game and entirely new segments that add much needed depth to the characters. This was one of those episodes where the story, while staying true to the game, deviated from it in a lot of major ways. And as usual, the changes not only fit the narrative, but improved it. This was an excellent episode and I can’t wait to talk about it, so SPOILERS AHEAD! Let’s get to the review!

The Immune:

Joel: The main thing that hooked me in this episode was the changes made to Joel. At this point in the story Joel is much different in the video game than he is in the series. In the game he refuses to talk about Henry and Sam even when Ellie asks to talk through the trauma. In the series he acknowledges that what they both witnessed is much more likely to have a negative impact on a young girl. That selflessness, and his softness towards Ellie as a result, really helps sell Joel as a father and as a sympathetic character. We also have a major change to Joel’s motivations when he runs into Tommy. In the game he’s eager to shove Ellie off on Tommy. He almost immediately reveals to him that Ellie’s immune, and is somewhat manipulative in his attempts to get Tommy to take Ellie to the Fireflies. This is because, after so much tragedy, in the game Joel turns back to apathy. He tries to emotionally disconnect from everything and put it behind him. The series does so much more to make us actually understand where Joel is coming from, and part of that is changing that entire motivation. In the series his closeness to Ellie has brought up memories of his daughter Sarah. He has nightmares of failing to keep Ellie safe, believes he sees Sarah everywhere he looks, and is now suffering from panic attacks. When he first comes across Tommy and his group he’s terrified for Ellie. When they bring out a dog to sniff out whether the two are infected, Joel is visibly frightened, more so than we’ve ever seen him before. Joel only reveals the truth of Ellie’s condition to Tommy after his panic attacks worsen, at which point he breaks down in tears over his fear that he won’t be able to protect Ellie. I felt so much for Joel that I cried with him. These changes made a huge difference for me. I honestly don’t think Joel has ever been more sympathetic of a character thanks to both the writing and Pedro Pascal’s heart-wrenching acting.

Ellie: It’s easy to get used to Ellie being the source of sunshine and happiness in the game. You kind of need it with the general grumpiness of Joel. But because of that, Ellie doesn’t really get to experience many of her own personal lows until later on in the story. I was happy to see that the show decided to give her more emotional exploration. Not only is her trauma related to Henry and Sam more fully explored, but we now have an extra element of Ellie’s character that promises to be interesting. Because the show had Ellie learn of Sam’s infection and attempt to cure him with her blood before he turned, Ellie’s now having doubts. She didn’t succeed at curing one person with her blood and now she’s skeptical that anyone would be able to use her blood to create a cure. All of this is a great way of showing that Ellie has her own problems and concerns. Which transitions seamlessly into the infamous argument between Ellie and Joel. Ellie wants to keep going but she’s tired of losing people. Joel’s so tired of losing people that he doesn’t trust himself to keep going. Ellie accuses Joel of wanting to get rid of her the minute he took the job and reminds him that she’s also suffered with loss. Joel becomes angered when Ellie brings up Sarah and stands firm on his belief that Tommy would be able to better protect Ellie. The argument is even more excellently crafted in the series than it was in the game though the scene is exactly the same. The pure genius in adding more depth to these characters to add even more gravity to these moments is unparalleled in any adaptation I’ve ever seen.

Tommy and Maria: I wouldn’t say either of these characters took any particular spotlight in this episode, but I do think the series did them justice. I think it’s an interesting choice to have Tommy not leave Joel after a blow-up argument, but instead stumble on a place to settle down and decide that he would rather stick around than go back to Joel. On the one hand it’s a bit messed up. While he explains that the town he and Maria are part of avoid the use of radios to keep their location secretive, it’s still hard to fully agree with him leaving Joel to wonder if he was even still alive. On the other hand, they do add on an extra attachment for Tommy. Maria’s pregnant. In the game the fact that Tommy’s married to Maria is the only big reveal. This time Tommy’s grappling with what it means to be a father-to-be, which is something that sets off Joel’s trauma even more as he continues to struggle with Sarah’s death. Other than this, they don’t give us a whole lot of new information on Tommy and Maria. Instead of running this safe haven they seem a bit more like they’re part of a community, which makes the town feel somehow safer than it did in the game. We also learn of Maria’s child, who she lost at the beginning of the outbreak. But these small details only serve as background to the dramatic moments we get between Ellie and Joel, as enjoyable as they are.

The Native Couple: We only got these two for a scene towards the beginning, where Joel and Ellie hold them at gunpoint in order to get some supplies and directions. But damn did they make an impression. This scene was probably the most hilarious scene in the entire series. This old couple were complete badasses who barely even blinked at the guns and had no problem making sure Joel and Ellie could continue their trip. I couldn’t help but laugh at the old woman’s amusement over Joel and Ellie’s attempts to appear intimidating. I don’t know who these characters are, but I love them.

The Infected:

Joel and Ellie’s Relationship: I love how their relationship is developing. That said, we’re already most of the way through this series and I feel like Joel and Ellie are still getting used to each other. In the game it’s an easy fix. Throughout all the hours and hours of gameplay there’s constant Joel and Ellie banter, and even if there wasn’t, you as Joel feel closer to Ellie because she’s your only companion through the scary and more difficult parts of the game. That connection isn’t something you can easily recreate in a series and it has to be done in a completely different way. I don’t think what they’ve done so far has completely failed at recreating that connection, but it certainly isn’t as strong as it was in the game. At least not yet. The argument between Joel and Ellie in this episode for example, while excellent, lacked a little bit of its bite. Specifically at the moment where Joel coldly tells Ellie he isn’t her dad. In the game that feels harsher, because at that point you feel like he already is her dad. In the show, he doesn’t feel like that yet. He’s getting there. But he’s not there yet. It’s a small gripe, but I hope that by the end of the series I feel like their relationship is as close as it was in the game.

And that’s it for now! Next episode is Ellie on her own. We’re going to get her backstory with Riley next, which makes sense given the fact that the DLC that revealed that storyline took place while Ellie was attempting to care for an injured and unconscious Joel. But that means we’re also probably getting David next episode. The David storyline really solidifies how much Joel cares for Ellie, and is unfortunately the most traumatic moment for Ellie in the entire story. I’m both excited and terrified to see how it all plays out. But for now, this episode was amazing and I’m sad we’re most of the way through the series now!

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

ATEEZ: Europe and News

Promotional photo of (from left) Jung Wooyoung, Jeong Yunho, Choi Jongho, Choi San, Park Seonghwa, Song Mingi, Kim Hongjoong, and Kang Yeosang. Copyright goes to ATEEZ and KQ Entertainment.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I often feel that it has been way too long since I’ve talked about my ult group. But this is not really the way I was hoping to come back to them on the blog. Of course, I’m going to be talking about general ATEEZ news, so there will be some really positive stuff here! I’ll throw in some stuff that I just really liked recently! But unfortunately, most of this will probably be me talking about all of the issues that ATEEZ has been having with specifically European fans. I have no idea why the European fans are acting out so much on this most recent tour. It probably has something to do with the mass success of ‘HALAZIA’. But it really shocks me that the fan behavior in Europe is so bad when usually the US is known for poor fan behavior. And I say that as someone who lives in the US. I mean, look at the fiasco that was everyone throwing things at BTS during the Las Vegas PTD concerts. ATEEZ has been having so much trouble lately that even KQ had to put out a statement. So with that said, I’m just going to get into it!

ATEEZ in Europe:

We all have known for a while that ATEEZ would leave for their European leg of the tour; but it did surprise some people when they announced that the European leg of the tour would be pretty disconnected from the dates of their American, Korean, and Japanese dates. We eventually realized that this was a break that they took mostly for their release of ‘HALAZIA’, which blew up even more than probably even they expected. This being a smash hit made them even busier, but recently they did eventually have to leave for their tour. We all know that they’ve always been super busy, but their recent schedules have seemed to be particularly hectic for them. This portion of the tour saw an increased level of excitement from European Atiny, and some fans who seemed to think that the concert would now include new releases like ‘Paradigm’ and ‘HALAZIA’ despite the fact that this is the same concert that they had been touring with before. There was a baffling amount of collective disappointment when these songs did not pop up on the set list. I’m confused as to why some of these fans are acting this way. The boys put so much time and effort into the current set list. This is a set list that they practiced and perfected for months and had to continue to practice in order to account for the breaks between concert dates. It feels pretty ungrateful to be acting this way because these songs aren’t on the set list; especially when no other location got these songs. Even worse, some “fans” have been following ATEEZ around both inside and outside their schedules and yelling at them to perform these songs. Since when did anyone think that demanding songs was supportive or respectful fan behavior?

The worst part of that behavior though, is definitely the following ATEEZ around. Them being on tour does not mean you are free to follow them, ask for pictures, or yell things at them. Has the issues faced and brought up by BTS taught people nothing? Idols are human beings and they deserve to be treated that way. Would you like to be followed around in your regular life? No. So don’t do it to other people. How much you like them should have absolutely no bearing on the matter. Don’t be selfish! On top of this they’ve also been having issues with sasaengs attempting to board their flights or ambushing them at airports. Because if you do any of those things you are not an Atiny or even a “fan”. You are straight up a sasaeng. KQ entertainment recently had to put out a statement that detailed unacceptable fan behavior because of the way that ATEEZ is currently being treated by people in Europe. This list has also stated that if caught doing any of this behavior, you could be banned from all future ATEEZ events. Of course, most of this told fans never to follow ATEEZ or wait for them at airports or attempt to meet them at places during their schedules. All of this should be common sense. The statement also said that ATEEZ has recently been having issues with sasaengs calling their families. That is boundary breaking and extremely horrifying! It shouldn’t have to be said that you should absolutely be ashamed of yourself if you are even trying to seek out the numbers of family members of ATEEZ, never mind making the decision to then call them. Our boys deserve so much better than this poor fan behavior.

UPDATE: I honestly don’t know what to say. I didn’t think that anything so bad that I would have to update this would happen, but apparently “fans” are all here to prove me wrong. Mingi fell and got hurt at a concert in Europe and then asked fans filming to not share the video. And “fans” decided not to listen to his wishes. (DO NOT watch or engage with these videos if you see them posted!) Not only that but many people laughed at Mingi when it happened. This on top of people continuing to demand that ATEEZ perform ‘HALAZIA’ even after Hongjoong politely requested that fans stop asking that and even apologized when he shouldn’t have had to. What is going on in Europe? Idols are people, not content! How can these people call themselves Atiny?

Japanese Comeback:

We’re getting a Japanese comeback! And so soon after the ‘HALAZIA’ single too! They really must be working so hard right now! I don’t want to assume anything, so I’ll just say that I hope that they’re all doing well and are healthy right now! We don’t know much about this comeback yet, but I know that some of their Japanese projects have been some of my favorite of their work. ‘Dreamers’ is one of my ultimate cheer-up songs, so I am absolutely psyched for this! And we’ve started getting some concept photos as well! As of writing this not all of the photos have been released; we pretty much just have the photos for the hyung line so far. All of the photos have focused on a fencing concept, with all of them holding pure black fencing blades and some of them holding white fencing masks with the ATEEZ logo on it. The fencing masks remind me a little of the men in white in a lot of the ATEEZ MVs so part of me wonders if there’s any connection. But not all of ATEEZ’s projects have had connections to the main storyline, but absolutely all of them are amazing! So whether or not this is connected to the main storyline, I know it’ll be great! And this concept is already selling me.

Idol Radio:

Just before they left for the European leg of their tour, Hongjoong and Yunho interviewed each other for an episode of ‘Idol Radio’. Having these two interview each other made for a really wholesome episode of ‘Idol Radio’ and also made it feel so much more personal. It almost felt more like a personal podcast than a full scale show, which just drew me in even more. In this we got some really fun moments where Hongjoong ranked every hairstyle that he’s ever had. I know that this is a common pastime for Atiny, so it was hilariously awesome to see Hongjoong make his own list. My favorite parts of this interview were when they started talking about how close the two of them have become. It’s been interesting to see Yunho and Hongjoong do more and more together publicly. Yunho is is the main member of ATEEZ to join Hongjoong in painting one of his nails black for the Painted Man campaign that helps raise awareness to support women and children who have endured acts of violence in the hopes that it will stop. It was even featured in their most recent vlog. (We stan progressive men!) We’ve also seen them go to museums on tour and just hang out a lot. We all know that they’ve always shared a room while on tour, but in this interview they talked about how they are practically attached at the hip while on tour now. It was an adorable interview and, again, I loved how personal it felt!

Obviously I wanted to put in some positive stuff, because there’s always positive ATEEZ news! But I am extremely angry over the treatment of ATEEZ in Europe. I know that ‘HALAZIA’ gained them some more attention and that should have been purely a happy and celebratory occasion. Instead, some of this attention has gotten them all of the worst parts of fame that BTS have been speaking out against and trying to protect other groups from by talking about it so openly. Apparently, we’ve learned nothing. If you are one of the Atiny who has been defending this fan behavior or participating in this fan behavior, I hope this is your last time going to an ATEEZ concert. Because this is not the way you should be treating the boys, or really any human being. Their safety should be our top priority, just as they’ve demonstrated that our safety is theirs. This is a pretty poor way to show them our gratitude. Let’s keep our boys safe!

See you cross the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Sci-Fi: ‘Star Trek: Picard’ Season 3 Episode 1 Review

Screenshot of Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, Sir Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard, and Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker in season 3 of ‘Star Trek: Picard’ on Paramount+. Copyright goes to CBS Television Studios, Roddenberry Entertainment, and Secret Hideout.

Hey! Hallie here!

We finally have episode one of the highly anticipated third season of ‘Star Trek: Picard’! I’ve seen a lot of mixed feelings about this start of the season. It seems you either love this episode or hate it, and I haven’t seen much in between. But I’m pretty solidly in the middle on this one. The episode made several really good moves, but also suffered from some extremely irritating drawbacks, some of which we’ve seen in ‘Picard’s writing before. I’m starting out the reviews for this season with just this one episode, but I do want to warn readers that I might double up on some episodes in the future depending on the schedule of the blog. That said, this first episode has plenty to talk about all on its own. So here’s your SPOILER WARNING and let’s get to the review!

What I Liked:

The Return of ‘The Next Generation’: We haven’t reunited with all of our old favorites yet, but the re-introduction to Picard, as well as the way the plot is currently pulling in Beverly and Riker, are extremely well executed. I liked opening up on Picard and Laris as a nice reminder of Picard’s arc from last season. Q put together a whole series of dramatic scenarios, (Unsurprising considering we’re talking about Q,) all to help Picard realize he was putting too much distance between himself and the people who loved him. Through Q’s own loneliness he was able to convince Picard to let people into his life, and that started with him asking Laris for a second chance at a romantic relationship. Though they don’t get a ton of time in the first episode, they’re adorable and it makes me happy to see just how much joy Picard has now that he’s able to share his life with someone he cares for so much. However, we can’t spend all our time with Picard’s new domestic life because Beverly’s apparently in danger. The season starts out with Picard receiving a message from Beverly which Laris warns him bodes badly, and that’s coming from a former member of the Tal Shiar.

Though Beverly’s starting out the season as a bit of a damsel in distress that needs saving, the show does a good job of quickly establishing that she isn’t helpless. The first time we see her she’s in an epic firefight where she clearly has the upper-hand even though she’s outnumbered. She’s also protecting someone else which is noted as the entire reason she reaches out for help. Though I don’t know how I feel about her non-Wesley, very British son, I like how badass she is in her efforts to protect him. Despite that, her distressed state still means she isn’t in a large amount of the episode. To make up for that we then get to see Riker introduced into the story. I was surprised to see how bitter of a man Riker is so far. He seemed so laid-back and carefree when we saw him back in season one, but when Picard catches up to him he isn’t doing well. He’s a bit testy about the upcoming Star Fleet celebration, he notes that his wife and child probably want a break from him very seriously without elaborating on that, and even becomes angry at a ship Captain when he can’t pull rank on him later in the episode. He’s not irritating though. He’s still kind to everyone and quicker to make a joke than to snap at someone. And his back-and-forth with Picard is so much fun to see again. I love these two on screen together and I can’t wait for an entire season of it.

Seven of Nine: We don’t have many reoccurring ‘Picard’ characters to speak of here, but I’m already loving Seven in this season. We all thought she was going to shoot straight to a Captain position, but instead she’s been forced to serve as First Officer to a Captain who’s such an ass that he makes her identify as Annika Hansen, even though that isn’t something she’s comfortable with. She proves to still be an amazing leader though, which is shown off in an epic scene where Picard lets her take the reins on taking the USS Titan, her new ship, out of docking. My favorite thing about Seven in this episode wasn’t the way she disobeyed orders, though it was very satisfying to see her turn against her ship Captain. My favorite thing about her this episode was how quickly she saw through Picard and Riker’s bullshit. The two at first attempt to keep her in the dark when it comes to their planned rescue mission for Beverly, but after she has to cover for them multiple times, she becomes angry at Picard for not telling her. I really liked the scene where she yells down Picard. It shows some of her interesting character motivations, surrounding her uncertainty with Star Fleet because of how long she wanted to rejoin only to be placed under a Captain who has no respect for her. It also shows Picard’s respect for her. Riker instantly becomes angry at the tone of voice she uses to scold Picard, but Picard waves him off and accepts her anger, appreciating that it’s coming from a friend whose concerns deserve his attention. I like the strong friendship between Picard and Seven, and I’m interested to see what role it’ll play once the entire ‘Next Generation’ cast is back together.

What I Disliked:

Off-Screen Changes: We saw a lot of these at the beginning of season two and now we’re seeing them again at the beginning of this season. Instead of ‘Picard’ developing some of the things they set up in the last few seasons, they’ve decided to ignore a bunch of it entirely by “resolving” them off-screen and briefly acknowledging them in throw away lines. That means Seven and Raffi finally getting together last season was undone off-screen when Raffi revealed that they broke up for an unknown reason. (Jurati and Rios anyone?) That means Seven’s triumphant return to Star Fleet happened off-screen so we could just skip to her having problems with Star Fleet again. That means Riker’s relationship with his family is suddenly shaky because the way it was in season one evidently didn’t fit the plot. They’re all last minute changes that feel completely sloppy. There were so many ways the show could have built up to any or all of these plot points, but instead they made no effort to integrate them well into the story. I don’t even hate all of these developments. I just want the ‘Picard’ writers to stop doing rewrites in between seasons that practically make the previous seasons inconsequential. It’s extremely irritating as a fan who’s looking for a cohesive story.

Raffi: Everyone knows Raffi was the worst part of this episode. Her storyline already started off on the wrong foot with the reveal that Raffi and Seven aren’t together anymore for no reason. But then the rest of the episode sets out to make Raffi pitiful. Granted, her whole addict persona turns out to be a ruse she’s putting on to get information for her mysterious handler. But the rest of the episode is her alone in her ship, yelling at her handler for not giving her any straight answers and drowning in her own self loathing. And the worst part is, you don’t even really feel sorry for Raffi. The dialogue between herself and her handler makes her seem petulant and there’s moments of almost bewildering overacting. I love Michelle Hurd, but her constant whimpering and heavy breathing most definitely didn’t fit every scene she was in. I didn’t even find her reaction to her first-hand view of a horrible tragedy very genuine. This has to be directing because I have never had such a large problem with her acting before. But all that aside, let’s be honest here. They gave us no reason to care about this storyline, and everything we saw from it didn’t do much more than break up the action or take us away from a more interesting storyline. I hope Raffi’s story gets better really fast, because there was nothing I liked about it in this episode.

And that’s it! I really want to like this season. There’s definitely things I can see in the setup here that I feel could lead to an amazing final season of ‘Picard’. But I’m also seeing some classic ‘Picard’ writing that feels way too messy. I liked the nostalgia in this episode. I liked seeing characters I fell in love with from other seasons coming together again after many, many, years with a few scenes that obviously called back to ‘Star Trek: Generations’ and the way the Original Series characters returned to the ‘Star Trek’ universe. But it felt like that nostalgia was the best thing the episode had going for it while the big ugly monster that is ‘Picard’s strange writing loomed in the background. Hopefully the writers can prove that monster isn’t as big of a problem this time around, but I won’t believe it until I see it.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Books: The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo

Photo of the front cover of ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’ by Maurene Goo. Copyright goes to Maurene Goo and Ferrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Happy Valentine’s Day, even though it’s late! Technically today is actually SAD (Singles Awareness Day), but I’m going to make myself sad and review a great romance-y novel that I loved reading recently. Reading and watching romantic content always makes me feel incredibly single, but despite the fact that I think the romance in this book is cute, it is by no means the most important part of the book. This book was amazing to read as a California native who lives by the LA area as well as great to read for the backstory that it gives the characters and the immense amount of personality that it gives it’s amazingly diverse cast. This book felt simultaneously important and like the absolute perfect read for Valentine’s Day because it celebrates all kinds of love. There’s also a character for pretty much anybody to relate to. Whether or not you relate to the main character, there’s something for everyone to connect to! MAJOR SPOILERS for this book coming up! It is definitely worth the read!

Summary: Clara is well known for being a troublemaker in school and doesn’t feel the need to focus on anything but her friends and the pranks she pulls. When she gets in over her head with a prank and is forced to work at her father’s food truck with her school rival to make up for it, she prepares herself for an absolutely awful summer. But she may learn more about herself than she thinks and make friends that she never expected, including a puppy like boy unfortunately named Hamlet.

The Good:

Clara- I thought I was going to absolutely hate Clara at the beginning of this book. It really doesn’t help that she is the type of kid that I hated in High School. She thinks she’s above everyone else in an effort to protect herself and shows this off by consistently making trouble for everyone else. She doesn’t seem to care about the consequences of her actions and she feels that she and her friends, and only she and her friends, are cool because they fight the system. In this she doesn’t see her own hypocrisy in looking down on other students. At the beginning of this book I did hate Clara, but I don’t think you’re really supposed to like her. The author has said that Clara is like the opposite of her in school and she wanted to make a story that examined the psyche of these types of students who she also didn’t understand while in High School. As the book goes on you fully understand how Clara is simply insecure and doesn’t exactly know how to deal with it. She’s not super close with her friends even though she would like to think that she is and she still deals with some trauma surrounding the divorce of her parents. Throughout the book she becomes more bearable to everyone including herself, learns more of what it is to be a decent human being, and changes her priorities. By the end of the book she’s gone on a huge journey of self love and self exploration that the reader has gone on with her. She makes mistakes along the way, but that only succeeds in making her humanly flawed. Reading her journey feels so rewarding by the end!

Rose- Rose is the school rival of Clara. She’s incredibly devoted to her grades and school events and stresses about what college she’ll go to. In fact, she’s been diagnosed with anxiety, which made her extremely relatable to me. Rose starts out a little whiny, but just like Clara’s Dad tells her when they’re first trying to work together, Rose is a really cool person. She’s the exact type of grounding force that Clara needs in her life while Clara is able to calm down Rose and be the protector that she needs. Watching them go from enemies to best friends is one of the most important parts of this novel. And I absolutely loved how blunt Rose was around Clara once she felt comfortable. While I never was interested in school events; I did relate to the importance on grades and anxiety so much. As well as the fact that Rose doesn’t feel like she’s had real friendships before she finds her small group here. I also loved that she completely backed off of Hamlet as soon as she realized that he wasn’t interested in her and that Clara also liked him. You see it way too often with rivalries in books with girls that they end up fighting over the guy. It was great that it didn’t happen here!

Hamlet- The adorable puppy of a guy who works at a coffee shop across from where they usually park the food truck. He has an immense amount of energy and always seems to be friendly to absolutely everyone. I think one of my favorite moments with him was how his reaction to Clara’s school friends messing around at the water park eventually also changed Clara’s response to what they were doing. He is absolutely concerned about the safety of everyone and his compassion always inspires other people to be just as compassionate. At the same time he stands up for what he believes in and is unafraid of calling out Clara when she needs it. He’s absolutely adorable and such a wholesome boyfriend character. I just wanted more of him in every chapter! And don’t get me started on how nervous he was to kiss her and how sweet he is to his grandparents. Also, his grandparents were hilarious and a highlight of the book!

The Food Truck- I just really liked the aesthetic that the food truck provided. Firstly, this book takes place in K-Town in Los Angeles. As someone who has done a fair amount of exploring K-Town in LA, I absolutely loved this inside depiction of it. The descriptions of the food and the different kinds of food trucks made my mouth water. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it right now! And I loved the small feeling of it because it felt like it drew the characters even closer together. There’s nothing like characters interacting often in a space where they’re always right over each other’s shoulders. This is not a common setting for a story, but I found it to be an extremely effective one! I genuinely want to see more books, shows, or movies, take place in food trucks!

Father and Daughter- One of the highlights of the book was the way we see how close these two are, and the way Clara realizes how important her Dad is to her as the book goes on. Her Dad has done so much more for her that she doesn’t see or fully appreciate and I loved seeing how her new knowledge made their relationship stronger. Also, I loved her Dad! He had to be one of my favorite characters, if not my favorite. He was hilarious and such a supportive character! Everyone needs someone like this in their life.

LA- Some of the details felt so familiar to me in such a great way. I never expected a book to bring up the California restaurant chain ‘Island’s’, or explain LA traffic in such a real way, or even talk so casually about the local attitude versus the tourist attitude. Such as how LA and California natives don’t at all care about the Hollywood sign but we’re all suckers for the view at night at Griffith Observatory. Little details like that really made this book for me. It felt like a love letter to LA while also being blunt about how much immigrants and their families for generations have done more for the culture of LA than truly any other group of people living there. This book made LA feel immersive too, which makes it a great book to slip into if you want to travel without going anywhere for a little while.

Friendships- I also have to talk about how healthy these takes on friendship were. How the friendships that last and were healthy for the main character were the ones where she didn’t feel that she had to perform. She just felt comfortable and was completely herself. We also got depictions of the friendships that don’t last. Clara’s friends from school expect her to be a certain way even as she starts changing rather than accepting the change. And when they accuse Clara of growing distant, she fully realizes both that she is and that it is the most healthy thing for her at the time. I know I’ve had realizations that I was better off without certain friends as I started to mature and I liked seeing that depiction here. It made me feel like it wasn’t just me!

The Bad:

Romance Development- I loved the romance in this story, don’t get me wrong. But I didn’t really feel like this romance developed in a way that made sense. Clara and Hamlet met maybe twice, barely spoke, and then suddenly they were an item. Clara didn’t even really seem to like him back for a good portion of this book and they only really felt like a couple toward the very end of the story. I honestly thought there was more chemistry between Rose and Clara or even Rose and Hamlet than there was between Hamlet and Clara. I understood why their relationship was beneficial for both of their character development, but I felt like we didn’t really get to see it happen. We didn’t really see them fall in love. The romance felt like a background thing in this novel compared to everything else because of it. I don’t think the plot would have happened much differently without the romance.

Clara- Though I liked her in the end, it was really difficult to like Clara. And I still don’t think I was completely sold on her by the end of the book. She was often cruel to other people and I don’t think she fully recovered from how absolutely mean she could be at the beginning of this book. I would have liked to see her repent for her actions a lot more, and I feel like we barely got to see her do that or even admit that she was extremely wrong for some of what she had done before. She does a really awful thing to her Dad towards the end of the book and though she kind of atones for it, I didn’t feel it fully made up for what she did.

Vegan- There’s a part in this book that a lot of people hated partly for good reason. Clara is cooking a vegan version of a meal and cooks it in the same pan that she cooks the meat in. When Rose scolds her for this, she claims that she doesn’t care and that cooking vegan is too hard. I don’t quite understand why people attacked this in the way that they did. Clara is supposed to be awful at this point of the book and she is absolutely supposed to be wrong. But I do think that the author may have underestimated just how much of an evil action that this was. I don’t think that this was completely forgivable at any point in the book. But I will at least say that this action was supposed to be cruel and the audience is supposed to dislike the main character for doing this.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book! I loved its depiction of LA and the aesthetic around it. While the main character wasn’t my favorite ever or personally relatable to me, I still loved a lot of the messages in this book that were told through the main character. And there were plenty of other things to relate to here as well! I highly recommend this book! If you want a wholesome read that makes you feel like you’re traveling to an awesome place, this is an exhilarating book to pick up!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Video Games: ‘The Last of Us’ Episode 4 and 5 Review

Screenshot of Keivonn Woodard as Sam in episode 5 of ‘The Last of Us’ on HBO Max. Copyright goes to Naughty Dog, Playstation Productions, and Sony Pictures Productions.

Hey! Hallie here!

I’m a little bit behind on my reviews for ‘The Last of Us’, mostly because of general busyness, but I’m definitely keeping up with this show and I’ve been loving it so far! The last few episodes have been a mostly connected story, so I’m going to review them both together. Regardless of the fact that we’ve been focusing on the same storyline for both episodes, each episode had a very different feel. One episode was surprisingly wholesome as it continued to develop the relationship between Joel and Ellie, while the most recent episode was heartbreaking and horrifying. There’s plenty to get into with both, including the ways each differ from the game. So let’s get into the review! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Episode 4:

The Immune:

Joel and Ellie: This episode is the first episode where we see the two really develop their relationship. It sticks pretty closely to the events of the game, but it even decides to differ the ways in which Joel and Ellie bond to help give their interactions a refreshing and more natural feel. I did love the throwbacks to the game here as well, though. I wasn’t expecting them to do the comedic scene where Ellie rifles through some of Bill’s things that she took, partly because I thought they were going to leave Bill and Frank completely behind in episode three. They matched it word for word in the show, and Bella Ramsey gave it completely new life. They also incorporated Ellie’s joke book into the show, which I was scared we weren’t going to get. Ellie’s completely confident way of delivering such bad jokes never fails to be hilarious. And it was brilliantly made into an even bigger part of Joel and Ellie’s developing relationship. The most heartwarming part of this entire episode was the scene where one of her bad jokes sends Joel into a giggling fit, prompting Ellie to laugh hysterically, partly out of surprise. The two traveling throughout the episode was given slightly more time here, which was nice. They were given a handful of extra moments where they could have deep, interesting conversations that highlighted the difference between the characters before everything went to shit.

Which, of course, happens when Joel and Ellie get run off the road by hunters. The shootout that happens afterwards took me right back to the gameplay in the video game, but I liked the added moment where Ellie was forced to rescue Joel. If I had to guess, I’d say this scene was placed here so that later on they don’t have to do the scene where Ellie saves Joel from being drowned by a hunter. That scene happens in the hotel, and considering they decided to already cover the hotel by putting it earlier in the story, I don’t think we’ll see it again later. Wherever it is, I always love the way Joel responds to Ellie saving him. He’s almost ashamed of himself for putting Ellie in a situation where she had to use her gun in any way. Although, I preferred that he immediately turned to comfort Ellie in the show over Joel yelling at Ellie because he can’t face his guilt in the game. And I much preferred Ellie’s reaction to it in the show, where she does seem a bit traumatized by it as opposed to not caring at all. Although, she did say she’s used a gun to harm before, and I can’t think of an instance from the video game that she could be referring to. In other words, I think this means more new content and I’ll be interested to see what she means in a later episode. Overall, Joel and Ellie were the entire point of the episode and they were the reason it worked. There were no side characters to steal the show here. It was all Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, and the excellent understanding they have of their characters.

The Infected:

Kathleen and Perry: Don’t get me wrong. I love Melanie Lynskey and I was ecstatic to see Jeffrey Pierce even though he isn’t playing Tommy this time around. But these villains didn’t make me sympathetic towards them at all. Perry is barely given any personality aside from his apparent love of tactical gear, and Kathleen comes across immediately as cruel and manipulative. Though she shows some concern for the hunters that work under her, it’s completely eclipsed by her hypocritical love of control whilst being part of a group that was initially resistance against a government organization. Considering that Joel was once a hunter, I really wanted to see some humanity in these hunters and a reason for why they act the way they do. But instead we got some regular, obviously evil, villains. The only ambiguousness came from the young hunter that Joel killed earlier in the episode, and he barely got any screen time. I really wanted more from these characters and the hunters as a whole.

Episode 5:

The Immune:

Henry and Sam: Anyone who’s played the game knew this wasn’t going to end well. But damn was it so much more brutal this time around. Henry and Sam aren’t separated from a larger group like they were in the game. They used to belong to Kathleen’s group, but now the two are very much on their own and in hiding from Kathleen. What makes this even harder on them is that Henry was responsible for the death of Kathleen’s brother, and neither of them have any experience with violence of any kind. Henry handed Kathleen’s brother over to FEDRA, essentially sentencing him to death, so he could save his brother. No guns or physical violence necessary. But that makes these two even more tragic of figures, because the fact that it’s essentially them against the world with very little means of protecting each other, makes them feel even closer than they were in the video game. I did love that they put in some disability representation here by hiring an actually deaf actor to play Sam, who is now a deaf character. It was so cool to see Henry and Sam signing, as well as the ways Ellie learned to interact with Sam despite not knowing ASL. I also liked seeing these two develop their relationship with Ellie and Joel. Ellie geeking out over her favorite comic book with Sam is still present here like it was in the game, and Sam even teaches her how to sign “endure and survive”, a quote often used in the comic. Meanwhile, Henry and Joel don’t start out trusting each other, but they develop a deep understanding of one another. While at first Joel calls Henry a “rat” for giving up Kathleen’s brother, he changes his tune when he learns it was for Sam, and the two bond over their protective nature. Henry even remarks that he knows Joel was a dad at one point based on the way he acts around Ellie.

My favorite result of these friendships has to be the impact Henry’s general pacifism has on Joel. For the first time, we see Joel plead with someone to put his gun down so he doesn’t have to kill him. Joel ends up needing to kill him anyways, but it was nice to see Joel finally decide that he’s tired of a life full of so much violence. But, as Henry and Sam fans know, these friendships don’t last long. Sam gets bitten in a huge fight with some Infected. Him telling Ellie that he’s infected was a nice change, though. The scene afterwards, where Sam turns, was made even more heartbreaking after seeing Ellie attempt to cure his bite with some of her blood in the hopes of passing on her immunity. And Henry’s pacifism made the scene where he has to shoot his brother and then turns the gun on himself, even more terrible than it was in the game. Ellie was understandably completely traumatized by these events in the show, much more than she was in the game, and the fact that Joel seems to find it easier to acknowledge their deaths than Ellie marks a major change that might make future episodes very interesting.

The Infected:

Kathleen and Perry: The problems I had with the previous episode didn’t go away. In fact, they were even worse. In this episode Perry does virtually nothing, meanwhile Kathleen orders an entire room full of innocent people to be killed because she sucks I guess. We hear a little bit more about her relationship with her brother, but it doesn’t matter. Because when you have a character who remorselessly kills innocent people left and right, puts her own people in danger for revenge, and out of nowhere decides she’s okay with killing kids, it’s hard to make that character sympathetic. And I don’t think they even put in that much effort to do so. In fact, the villains in this episode felt like they were only here to add to the carnage of the huge Infected attack late in the episode. The attack was frightening and probably gave horror fans everything they ever wanted from this type of series. I have nothing bad to say about this attack, partly because I was deliberately looking away for large portions of the scene (I’m a scaredy cat). But the scene seemed to be the only situation where the villains added anything interesting to the story. And it was because all of them were getting brutally killed. I’m glad we’re done with these villains and I hope that any other villains we see in the series will fare better.

And that’s it! Both episodes were really good, although the more I think about them, the more I deeply dislike the villains we got for this arc. It’s a shame, because I was so excited to see what Melanie Lynskey would be doing in this series. But the positives far outweighed the negatives. I think we’re in a really good place with Ellie and Joel’s relationship and I’m excited to see it progress. And I also think Henry and Sam’s story was done justice even though their episode is one I will likely not watch again any time soon for my own mental health. This series is doing some excellent work, and they still have several of my favorite segments of the game to cover. I’m excited to see what they’ll do with the future episodes and I’m completely ready to be devastated by them. That is what ‘The Last of Us’ does best, after all.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

K-Pop: ONEUS DO IT

Screenshot of (from left) Kim Geonhak (Leedo), Lee Seoho, and Lee Keonhee. Copyright goes to RBW and ONEUS.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Some of my current favorite comfort watches are variety shows that are made for idols by the companies that those groups are with. I’ve talked before about how shows like this only become more common with the passing years and are beginning to completely surpass general variety shows. From ‘ATEEZ: FEVER Road’ to ‘Run BTS’ to ‘Monsta X Ray’, I’ve talked about a good amount of these types of variety shows. And, because I have neglected to before, I want to talk about my absolute favorite episodes of ONEUS’s ‘ONEUS DO IT’. As usual, my post concert depression caused me to want to watch as much ONEUS content as I possibly could in order to feel close to the experience, so I have now actually watched every episode of this show. And as usual, I wanted to put together a list of the must-watch episodes in chronological order. MAJOR SPOILERS for ‘ONEUS DO IT’ coming up!

MSC Freedom Pt 1 and 2:

This is a two part episode that features only Geonhak, Seoho, and Keonhee and is possibly one of the most wholesome of the episodes. This episode involves the three dressing in traditional hanbok and just exploring a cultural festival together. Unfortunately, it is pretty difficult to find these episodes with English subtitles. (Some of the episodes of this variety show come equipped with subtitles while some of them, particularly older ones, do not.) But I don’t think you need subtitles for all of the episodes of this show to still have fun with it. Through these episodes you see them explore the festival that takes place at a traditional Korean village. There was a small element of it that reminded me of Renaissance Faires that we have in the states. They ate plenty of food, explored shops specialized in hand-made trinkets, and even painted their own masks. The festival looked giant, at points they were crossing large bridges over water. The main draw here is just watching them have fun and laugh together while exploring this festival! They really seemed to have a lot of fun with it.

Grocery Shopping:

This episode is just Seoho and Keonhee and depicts them going grocery shopping for the rest of the members. That’s literally all it is, but I really enjoyed seeing something that felt so domestic. At the beginning of the episode they show a grocery list that Dongju had written for them and you follow them being hilarious as they go in to a grocery store to get everything on the list, like cases of water and paper towels. One of the best parts of this is watching them act crazy in an attempt to embarrass the other, but neither of them ever really get embarrassed so the other one usually just goes with it.

2 Slices of Pizza Please:

This is one of the most iconic episodes of ONEUS do it, so if you haven’t watched it I highly recommend that you do. The events of this episode are still brought up constantly by the members of ONEUS. This episode features Geonhak and Keonhee. The two have some free time during a stop in Milan in Italy where they have been filming. Both hungry, they wander the streets in search of some food with Keonhee on the hunt for pizzas because he really wants to try pizza in Italy. After seeing nothing they can really recognize, and Geonhak not wanting to wander for much longer, they decide to eat at McDonalds until Keonhee finally sees a potential pizza place with a menu that he can understand well. Geonhak relents and they go in in an attempt to order two slices of pizza and accidentally end up ordering two entire pizzas for just the two of them. They end up having a good laugh about it with their staff and eating a lot of pizza, and it’s just a short wholesome watch. It’s nice to watch them wander down streets together and have a good laugh at the pizza.

Xion Vlog in Chicago:

As usual, this only features a couple of the members; this time it is Dongju (it is his vlog after all) and Hwanwoong. One of the most common types of episodes for ‘ONEUS DO IT’ are actually Dongju’s vlogs. He is the most likely member to vlog what he does in a day, so it’s only right to give him a whole section of the variety show to himself. Like a lot of the other episodes that I like, this just features the two of them walking around Chicago for the most part. We see Dongju eating at a restaurant, which is a common sight in his vlogs, and then we just see the camaraderie between Dongju and Hwanwoong as they walk to a giant Disney Store. They look like they’re having a blast and you feel like you’re right there with them.

Xion Vlog- Come Back Home:

This is another casual vlog, but this time it’s a behind the scenes at one of their shoots! He has a few of these throughout, including one that features ONEWE, but this one might be my favorite. We see him eating at the beginning of the day with Geonhak and the adorable teasing. After that we get to see him in hair and makeup and then a lot of actual shots of the forest where they shot the video. My favorite is probably when Dongju goes through the set at night and shows all of the props that they’re using and does a small tour of their location. Overall, partly because they’re shooting in a forest, this is such a gorgeous vlog!

Chuseok Kitchen Battle:

This actually has all of the members of ONEUS in it, separated into two teams and cooking for Chuseok in order to win maknae Dongju’s favor. I think we all often forget that ONEUS is one of the groups where nearly every member is really good at cooking. The only member who doesn’t cook as much is Dongju, which is why he is the host and judge of this episode rather than on one of the teams. I won’t reveal who won, because that’s one of the reasons to watch it! I will say though that it’s absolutely hilarious to watch host Dongju terrorize the other teams while they’re attempting to cook. Also, the end products look delicious and now I’m hungry. I want them to cook for me, just once, please.

Halloween Mafia:

This is the version of the game where they play a drawing game and a mafia game at the same time. The costumes here are on point. I mean, Geonhak dressed as a vampire with his hair in a ponytail is just incredibly not fair. But what’s really not fair is that for the umpteenth time, Geonhak gets accused of being the mafia while a member dressed far more adorably (I won’t spoil who) is the real mafia. Don’t judge someone based on appearance, kids! The loser of the game has to give out candy to the producers while doing a sexy dance which, as you’ve probably guessed, ends up way more hilarious and chaotic than it does sexy. All in all, just some hilarious and wholesome Halloween fun.

Xion Vlog-Brothers:

For a ONEWE performance, the members of ONEUS stepped in and this meant an adorable collaboration performance that featured partly just Dongju and his fraternal twin brother Dongmyeong. Yay, fraternal twins! Hallie and I are also fraternal twins so it’s amazing to see them in the K-Pop industry! This vlog depicts the two practicing their choreography before the performance and also just sitting down laughing and talking. You really get to see the bond between the two of them and also how amazingly well they work together. In the end you get to see them actually film the project, and the end product is so good. I’ve watched this video several times because their collaboration work is just so damn good!

BBUSYEO:

This is an episode that features all of the members of ONEUS as they equip themselves with boxing gloves and challenge each other by remaining calm while the other says something that bugs them about that person. It’s all really hilarious and about mostly small stuff. After all, the stuff that most people argue about is the small stuff that honestly doesn’t really matter. But it’s hilarious to watch them do it. This features the Tom and Jerry duo, Geonhak and Seoho, challenging each other while the others watch in half laughter and half terror. They probably go the longest of everyone along with Dongju and Hwanwoong who are really nice about roasting each other. They all end on good terms though, so that’s what counts! But it’s funny to see the terror on the faces of those in the back who are unsure how this is going to go.

Bomb:

You know that if a video starts out with a warning about how chaotic it will be; it’s absolutely going to be good. This episode has all of the members passing around a balloon “bomb” that could go off at any point. They must pass it to each other and ask a question that must be answered before it is passed again. Those who are out have to put on angel halos and can help the others by grabbing a person and holding him in place in the hopes that the “bomb” will go off on him. The funniest parts of this for me were probably that everyone wanted to get Seoho out and couldn’t succeed even when they held him in place and that several people were too afraid to go after Geonhak, which made him feel left out though he was still laughing hysterically. It’s an adorable and chaotic episode and they looked like they were having so much fun.

Puppy:

This episode has only Geonhak, Dongju, and Hwanwoong and is the most adorable of all of the episodes of this variety show. They bring in this adorable tiny puppy and have the three boys take care of it and play with it for a good amount of time. At the end they have the puppy run towards them while they are all calling it, so that the puppy can choose who it likes best. Dongju is basically a human puppy, but gets really tired out with the puppy’s energy very quickly. The puppy also knocks Geonhak over, who is laughing, to try and lick his face. And jumps all over Hwanwoong who seems to have the same amount of energy as the puppy. When the puppy eventually chooses Hwanwoong in the end, Dongju jumps into Geonhak’s arms as his puppy instead. So really everyone is a winner!

Individuals:

Last year they had each of them do an individual episode all by themselves to release in rapid succession based off of their individual interests. Geonhak was the first to release his which was an instructional cooking video, Seoho came next with a video of him playing VR video games, then Keonhee doing an ASMR mukbang, then Hwanwoong working on some marker art, and finally Dongju building a gingerbread house. Each of these is adorable and lets you know a little more about the members considering these are all activities they chose to do themselves!

Chuseok Game:

All of them play a game for Chuseok. I’ve seen a lot of idols play this game, but this is the first time that I watched it where I felt like I could understand it! This game involves moving board pieces while also throwing these long plush sticks on the ground to see what word you’re given that will determine how you can move. But this time there are also forbidden words involved that can send you back to the beginning if you say them. Here, the parts that make it are the fact that the team that has Geonhak, Dongju, and Hwanwoong decide that one of the words for the other team will be a word that’s part of the game. The other team keeps rolling this word which always sends them back to the beginning, causing everyone to practically die laughing. At one point Keonhee tells Seoho to use a wish that he got as a reward in previous game to make them reveal the forbidden word. Seoho doesn’t understand so instead uses the wish to make them kneel to him, which causes the other team to practically die laughing while kneeling. I laughed so hard watching this episode that my stomach hurt by the end.

Sleepover:

All of the members dress in their pajamas and one person answers “most likely to” questions without the others knowing the question. So by knowing the member that is given as the answer, they have to guess what the question could have been. Chaos ensues. A lot of their opinions of each other are revealed through these questions and they end up having a few deep conversations as a result of things that come up because of them as well. So so many accidental compliments and insults! We also learn all about their sleeping habits here and see them hug plushies and toss them at each other. Watching Dongju step on all of them in order to turn off the lights at the end and the rest being so used to it that they don’t say anything is priceless. It just makes you want to get in your jammies and feel cozy watching it before bed.

Haunted House:

In this one they all go to a small amusement park in costume for Halloween and are just told that they will have to do a task. When they arrive they finally realize that this task is actually making it through a haunted house. Inside they will have to collect candy and whoever has the least amount of candy at the end has to ride one of the scarier rides at the park. Dongju and Seoho both seem completely unfazed by everything and nothing seems to scare them. Hwanwoong and Geonhak are both a little scared, but not so much that they can’t make it through. Keonhee however is a huge scaredy cat and gets scared by literally everything. It’s so much of a well known fact, that Seoho and a bunch of the staff also worked together to try and scare him. But he was inside for so long being scared that he collects the most amount of candy and wins. The losers don’t really feel like going on the ride so instead Keonhee, Geonhak, and Seoho go on and have an amazing time while Geonhak films. They laugh the entire time, it’s just so adorable!

Universal Japan:

This is the episode that I probably watch the most of all of them. In this one you see all of them visit Universal Studios in Tokyo on a particularly hot day. Keonhee, who must be crazy, is wearing a green sweater and thus declares himself to be Luigi in honor of Super Nintendo World. Hwanwoong, Keonhee, Dongju, and Seoho all absolutely geek out at Super Nintendo World. Which is great because for some reason Seoho isn’t in a lot of this episode. Dongju and Hwanwoong look like they’re having the time of their lives despite the heat. Geonhak, on the other hand, has couple dressed with Dongju and keeps saying that he wants to go home because of how hot he is. Throughout the video he blames Dongju for making them all go to Universal in several hilarious bits. The end of the video even gives us a sunset shot courtesy of Keonhee. It makes you feel like you’re at the theme park with them, which is one of the reasons why it’s a comfort watch for me.

Christmas:

This is one of their most recent ones and I have to say it’s probably the most hilarious of all of the episodes they’ve released. In this they do singing and dancing challenges as well as celebrity challenges while they are all dressed like either Santa or a reindeer. Cue a lot of Geonhak squinting while looking at pictures. I think my favorite part of this episode though is either Keonhee bending so far backwards it looks like he’s snapping in half or Seoho dancing to ‘Nude’ by (G)-IDLE because he’s dressed as a reindeer and reindeers are, well, nude. This has to be the funniest episode because of how genuine and hard their laughter is. They laugh so hard that all of them nearly cry at multiple points. I almost cried laughing watching this because of it. Almost no one is fully sitting up by the end of it.

These are all just a few examples of the variety that is actually in this variety show! And I absolutely love and recommend every single episode. But if you wanted a master list, this is probably what I would go with as my absolute favorites. I just love watching variety shows like this. It makes you feel like you’re with them in a way, because you’re often laughing with them or just as invested in what they’re doing as they are. Any of these episodes could be the absolute perfect comfort watch at the end of a bad day. These have been my most recent comfort watches! If you haven’t checked out this show yet, go do it! They’re all on Youtube and they are all so different. It never gets boring because they always switch it up between daily vlogs, theme parks, games, and exploration vlogs. You really see them do a bit of everything here!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Sci-Fi/Superheroes: Expectations for Season 3 of ‘Picard’

Screenshot of Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker and Sir Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in promotional footage for season 3 of ‘Picard’. Copyright goes to CBS Television Studios, Roddenberry Entertainment, and Secret Hideout.

Hey! Hallie here!

I haven’t written about ‘Star Trek’ here in a while despite the fact that it’s one of my favorite franchises at the moment. That definitely doesn’t have anything to do with my love of ‘Star Trek’, but more because I haven’t really found much to talk about with the slowing down of ‘Star Trek’ content actively being released. But now the highly anticipated season 3 of ‘Picard’ is just a week away and there’s a lot to talk about. Between my theories for the season, my hopes for the story, and my interpretation of certain interviews given recently, I have a lot of opinions to give. To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about this season going into it. We’re being promised a lot, especially with the reuniting of ‘The Next Generation’ cast, but ‘Picard’ has promised a lot before and failed to deliver. There’s also some statements the creators have made that I feel are very misleading. But, just like every other fan of Trek, I want this season to be good. Very badly. So let’s get into the information we have and what I want to see.

Bringing in ‘The Next Generation’ Cast:

The main thing we know about this season is that the story will surround Picard reuniting with his crew. Given the darker and more dire feel of the trailers, we’re lead to believe that the crew of the Enterprise has become significantly edgier since they’ve parted ways. Will and Deanna aren’t as much of a concern where the edginess is involved, which I appreciate. The two have already been introduced in ‘Picard’ as pretty wholesome parents way back in the first season. I don’t doubt the two will be effected by the darker tone being struck here, but probably less so than their peers. Will is still taking on the role of a reasonable friend who can be counted on to break the tension, and Deanna is always the empathetic shoulder to cry on who often ends up being the voice of reason. Neither appear to be withholding some sort of dark side to go with those roles. On the other hand, Geordi appears to be an almost reluctant addition to the team. Given that he’s already been described as a family man, I think it’s clear that Geordi is going to resist rejoining Picard for the sake of his family. He might even resent that Picard needs him, which will be an interesting way to create tension. As for Worf, his appearance in every trailer usually comes with some sort of wisdom it sounds as though he’s sharing with Picard. It makes me think that Worf will be looking back on his life quite a bit in this season and learning from it, which really can’t hurt.

Then we have Beverly, who’s the most interesting character in all of the trailers so far. Not only is she the one cryptically warning Picard not to trust anyone, she’s also shown getting into crazy phaser battles and even getting cryogenically frozen. I think that we’re going to spend some time in this series searching for Beverly, who we know Picard will be trying to track down after being tipped off that she’s gotten herself into a dangerous situation. But I don’t think we’ll spend too much time without her. Gates McFadden has already been slighted enough when it comes to screen time and I can’t imagine them doing that to her again. I’m really not sure about Lore at this point. It’s hard to tell what role he’ll play, and I don’t trust them to make him as relevant as he deserves. Especially with the interesting addition of Moriarty who takes up much more trailer time, and the admittedly uninteresting villains that are set to be our main source of conflict for the season. Brent Spiner has often gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to writing in ‘Picard’, and with the sheer amount of villains I don’t see this season being any different. Overall I’m not so sure about the darker feel of this season, which is definitely meant to convince us that one or all of the characters might die. It is the final season after all and I do think we can expect a major character death. But I think it’s further cementing the hopeless, morally questionable universe and characters that fans have criticized in ‘Picard’ since day one. So far, I can’t see this season winning over die-hard fans of ‘The Next Generation’ that they’ve since alienated with ‘Picard’. People who like ‘Picard’ will probably enjoy it, though.

Bringing in the ‘Picard’ Regulars:

Seven of Nine and Raffi are our only returning characters of the regular ‘Picard’ cast aside from Jean-Luc himself. The trailers spend very little time on either of these characters, but I wouldn’t look too much into that yet. After all, season 2 of ‘Picard’ advertised mostly Q in their promotional materials and ended up putting him completely on the back burner for the sake of the series regulars. (No I’m totally not still bitter about that.) Seven of Nine is now taking up a command position, so I imagine we’ll get to see her learning how to be a leader. What makes that lesson even more interesting is the ultimately selfish way she’s been living recently. Everything has come down to finding her own revenge or rediscovering her own sense of right and wrong. There’s nothing completely wrong with that, but seeing her step out of that will be refreshing. Raffi, on the other hand, looks as though she’ll be taking a lot of personal instruction from Worf. The trailers paint her as a warrior who’s never gotten over the hurt and pain from her past. Remember when I said it looks like Worf will be doing some self reflection and healing? I think he’s probably going to relate a lot to Raffi and use that to lead her into healing as well. And though the trailers haven’t shown much, if any, of this, I really hope they further explore and develop the romantic relationship between Seven and Raffi. I love them as a couple and they deserve all the screen time for their adorable relationship.

Bringing in ‘Deep Space Nine’ or ‘Voyager’:

Recently one of the showrunners gave an interview claiming that this season of ‘Picard’ also carries on the stories of ‘Deep Space Nine’ and ‘Voyager’ in an effort to make fans of both those franchises feel heard. After the interview various Trek fans began freaking out over this huge news. But I don’t think this news is as big as everyone hopes. I love ‘Deep Space Nine’. I’ve been dying for a continuation of the story, so much so that I nearly cried when I saw Kira Nerys return in ‘Lower Decks’. But I think the showrunner is throwing out these titles just to get fans of all Trek series excited for the new ‘Picard’ season. I think the amount ‘Deep Space Nine’ will play a role in the story will begin and end with Worf’s past. He was a major character in ‘Deep Space Nine’ after all. It was in that very show that he lost his wife. Fans hoping for anything else are, in my opinion, likely to be disappointed. The same goes for ‘Voyager’. The inclusion of ‘Voyager’ will probably just be past instances Seven has to grapple with and nothing more. I really don’t want to say that fans emotions are being manipulated here, but once again, it wouldn’t be a first for ‘Picard’. I really do want to believe that they’ll bring in more characters from other franchises. I even want to believe that after ‘Picard’ is over they’ll move on to other characters whose stories may not be completely finished. But I don’t have high hopes.

I realize that a lot of this post is full of my hesitancy when it comes to the new season. I don’t even hate ‘Picard’! I thought the first season was better than many Trek fans gave it credit for, and the second season, while a complete mess, still gave us some of my favorite character interactions in all of ‘Star Trek’. I just feel that ‘Picard’ has let myself and other fans down many times when it comes to the lofty promises they’ve made, and we’ve gotten to the point where I don’t trust the showrunners anymore. Not completely, anyway. I really hope this season is good. I’ll be reviewing it here as it comes out and I’m excited to start watching it next week! But I think at this point, it’s smartest to go into ‘Picard’ with an open mind but low expectations.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie