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mind blown

Bro… I followed you because you liked my CRK post and I then looked through your blog… /silly

But yeah I loooooove shaking my blorbos around in my rusty can/glass jar :))) my favorite victim is Shadow Milk because he’s similar enough to me that I can live vicariously through him and project on him but juuuuuust different enough that I don’t feel like I’m actually being vulnerable lmao

Silent Salt and Shadow Milk are by far my favorite dynamic to explore. They’re both so right and so horribly wrong and Shadow Milk just wants Silent Salt to be proud of him and SS WANTS HIM DEAD AND—- RUSYydjfksksndjJAUSHDHDHS

Full disclosure: I actually REALLY hate fics where Shadow Milk gets 100% redeemed, like back to Fount/Sage kind of levels. Even stuff where he just becomes really tame and only keeps a smidgen of his previous mischief gets a side eye from me. Because, like. The game literally takes EVERY chance possible to DRIVE INTO YOUR SKULL the fact that SM and PV are OPPOSITES, and that TRUTH CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT EQUAL DECEIT. It acknowledges that Shadow Milk is not a good person but also that he needs PV to balance him, NOT to defect to Truth himself, because that would mess up the balance. Both PV and SM are CONSTANTLY saying that truth and deceit are two sides of one coin. That extra scene with EF and the Soul Jams literally says that the Virtues must embody both parts of them, good and evil. One of PV’s eyes is blue and one of the Fount’s eyes was yellow. In the one universe where Shadow Milk didn’t corrupt, Pure Vanilla did, and they have a balanced relationship of their own. The Yin-Yang symbol, one of the most common symbols of balance (that has been referenced in CRK already), shows that good must have a bit of evil inside, and that evil must have a bit of good inside.

Like with the seven stages id say

Shock- Mystic Flour because shock makes you apathetic it dissociates you.

Denial- Shadow milk.

Anger- Burning Spice

Bargaining- Eternal Sugar

Guilt- Silent salt

The problem is the other two, but i sorta see Elder Faerie as Depression in that case, and White Lily as Acceptance

Or five stages of grief, consider

Denial- still Shadow milk

Anger- still burning spice

Bargaining- still Eternal Sugar

But since theres no shock with the Five stages of grief vs the Seven. Mystic is depression which also equals apathy, depression is another massive source of disassociation, and apathy.

The only problem is im not quite sure that Salt fits Acceptance. And I think the Elder Faerie is very important to the conclusion too, because he was there.

The faerie kingdom is massly isolated and the mercury, both things that could be related to depression. When youre depressed you isolate, when your depressed you do things that seem unreasonable as a comfort harming people around you. Thoughts?

Oooh,interesting takes I like it!

Personally,I think salt is kinda poetic salt is acceptance since acceptance means moving on from the past,but the beasts cant move on.They can never escape the past,and forever stuck it.Salt is no different,he will never let go of his resentment towards the other beasts.(even if lily helped him see there is hope,he still hasnt fully let go the ghosts of the past)

And this was meant to be a BAD thing. A problem. But if you actually believed that a massive population of low-literacy adults were buying books, becoming obsessed with them, and discussing them at length… wouldn’t that be a great thing? That’s how one moves from low literacy to high literacy: by practicing reading

Now the take OP saw is objectively wrong. I don't think romantasy is inherently bad, and its definitely not bad BECAUSE it's catering to bad readers. There are a lot of issues with the publishing industry right now and i think a lot of authors aren't getting the editing they need to make better books. That's a different issue, not restricted to romantasy.

I sincerely hope these low-literacy readers gain literacy this way, but the odd thing ive noticed is they... DON'T seem to be practicing reading. As in, the book they read in their mind is not the book on the pages their eyeballs are seeing. It's bizarre. Like, to the point where theyre making recommendations and discussing aspects of the book.... and then like, my friend checks it out and reads it and is like "I have no idea where they got the idea that this size kink porn book was breaking down feminine stereotypes".

Anyway i just wanted to go off on a tangent. I distinctly remember fucking Twilight being hailed as a gateway book for the first several years it was out - like yeah it wasn't the best novel, but girlies got obsessed with it and it made them seek out more books. Which was undeniably a good thing.

All of the straight romantasy bestsellers SAY they’re female empowerment, their authors truly believe they’re female empowerment (after all, she’s writing her fantasy! As a woman!) but as far as I’m aware none of them are really challenging dominant gender roles or heteronormativity. It takes a more advanced reading skill to realize when someone is actively lying to themselves and to you about the content of a book.

If you were a good reader when you were very young, you’ve probably already made this step. You’ve had time to be in spaces where people actively dissect media they enjoy and criticize it. If someone is JUST NOW getting into reading as a hobby, then they haven’t had that time to build context and analytical skill.

Your friend’s experience describes people who ARE practicing reading. They just haven’t mastered it yet. What you describe as “not actually reading” is first of all what most people do when they’re just reading for fun, and secondly, a stage every high-literacy person also went through at some point in their lives, you just maybe don’t remember being in it because you are a statistical outlier

Art by @Diamiio

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