This is just where I'm going to blabber about shit I've watched/read lol. Thank you to Dogmeat for coding the template for the notebook!

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19/12/23 - Movies tab was updated!

23/11/23 - Anime tab was updated!

16/10/23 - Webtoons tab was updated!

10/10/23 - Webtoons tab was updated!

05/10/23 - Books tab was updated!

Dokuro-Chan

I tried watching Dokuro Chan because I saw/listened to the second OP and it was pretty good... I couldn't make it past the 20 minute mark guys I'm sorry. I felt gross watching it. There's sooooooo many upskirt shots and the 15-16 year old female main character got walked in on naked not five minutes into the first episode... The entire series in covered in this ooze that I can't look past, no matter how many comments that claim "It's a parody" which, if it is, it's doing a really shitty job distinguishing itself as. I've also seen people call this show an ecchi anime, which, considering it's officially labled as a "dark comedy", it's pretty telling that people can think that it is a porno in the first place. I dunno man, I'm just frustrated with this anime. It just reminds me of how/why I got to be so selective about what I watch as an anime fan, because people don't warn you about how fucking horny so many of these "genius shows" are towards their underage female charcters. I also find it "funny" how they make a joke within the first 10 minutes where a bunch of the main male character's classmates call him a pedophile for...just standing near Dokuro chan I guess? When the people who created this show/manga were perving super hard on a 15 year old. Like I'm sorry, but am supposed to just ignore how you animated a scene where Dokuro chan lifts her dress up to where you can see the underside of her bare chest/underwear? And you're making a joke about how a character who's roughly the same age as her is a pedophile... It rubs me the wrong way. I'm just really disappointed with this anime, I was looking forward to checking it out...

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders(1970)

Just watched Valarie and Her Week of Wonders which, let me tell you, was a trip to find. The first version I found was on youtube, but the original audio was replaced with something different, and there was no subtitles at all. The second version I dound had the subtitles in Italian, and the third version had what I was looking for, but it was on some pirating website that I'd never hear/seen of in my life and I'm pretty sure the autoplay on it was leading me to a porn video. Nevertheless, I continued on with my ad/tracking blockers and everything seems to be ok.

The movie itself was kind of confusing, but from what I gathered it was some big metaphor for growing up/puberty for women. Like by the end the movie I was just like "yeah being 13 is just like that." The director, Jaromil Jires, did a great job of conveying a surreal feeling, as it gives off the same vibes as one of those movies that you see once when your 13 and wake up to see the tv playing at 3 AM that you can't tear your eyes away from and you never see again. Oddly specific, I know.

Also for whatever reason the film seems to be really popular with "Coquette Bloggers"? Idk man, but then again this movie reminds me of "Midsommer" and that film's also popular in the same circles soooooo... Overall it's a fun film that's absolutely gorgeous and leaves a lot more questions than answers. Could I have chosen a more understandable film for my first forray into the world of Czech film making? Sure, but it wouldn't have been me if I had.

Lore Olympus is the Ctl + Alt + DEL of Webtoon

I was watching watching Hbomberguy's video on CTRL+ALT+DEL and he was talking about how the comic(which I'll be referring to CAD for now on as to save my sanity) reflected gaming culture as a whole, even if many people didn't like it, and how even the popular comics in the subgenre of "gaming webcomics" like Penny Arcade had much more in common with CAD than fans of Penny Arcade would like to admit.

This got me thinking about how Lore Olympus, in it's own sense, is the CAD of Webtoon. Both represent the worst of their respective comic mediums, as Lore Olympus showcases Webtoon at its symbolic worst. There's constant cliff hangers to get you to spend an increasing amount of coins on chapters that just get worse and worse. The art is rushed and in poor quality in order to meet the weekly deadline, and the writing has taken a nosedive off a cliff. Heck, Lore Olympus even shares some problems with CAD, as both stories have a tonal whiplash problem, oscillating wildly between silly and serious moments, and both having poorly written characters. Yet despite all that, the comic(s) has fans that refuse to look deeper into the comic and look at the story with a critical eye, some attacking those who do so.

Now obviously I'm sure there are worse webtoons on the platform, however they don't have the same popularity and reach as Lore Olympus. They most likely do not have published copies flying off shelves, a tv series in the works(supposedly), and official merchandise you can buy. In the same vein, CAD at one point had its own convention, animated series, and merchandise that you could buy with your hard earned money. To me, Lore Olympus as a whole symbolizes and reflects webtoon at its worst due not only to the reasons listed above, but also due to how the author herself reflects webtoon at its worst. Rachel Smythe actively deletes comments criticizing her work, pushes out poorly made products, and at this point avoids doing her own damn comic in order to do side projects like podcasts and new stories. At this point, Webtoon doesn't care about it's creators. It underpays and under markets the originals that they have that aren't Lore Olympus, and screwed over their canvas creators by replacing paying them(which already wasn't a lot for a huge amount of work) with with a tipping system that, based off how few readers will simply like and/or comment under a chapter they like, will likely amount to jack shit. Maybe Lore Olympus never made Webtoon look bad, maybe the platform was always shit, I don't fucking know.

Webtoon's quality has gone down the gutter, and as both a fan and writer of comics, it makes me upset! Webtoon allows creators to upload their story for free which, as someone who plans a long running story but doesn't have the money to keep a website running, is great! I love reading other people's stories! I love sharing my own stories! I just wish Webtoon would step up their game so that it wasn't such an embarrassment of a website. With the way things are going right now, I don't know how long Webtoon will last, and that's honestly a shame. If this seems familiar it's because I posted this on the r/unpopularloreolympus subreddit and I felt like also posting it on here lol

The Princess's Jewels by JYUN and Hong Cha

The Princess's Jewels by JYUN and Hong Cha is a webtoon that has garnered plenty of criticism over the past two years, and while I agree that it should be criticized, I don't agree with most of the current criticisms aimed towards it; namely the main character, Ariana. But before we get into the meat of the discussion you may be wondering what the hell the webcomic's even about. The Princess's Jewels follows Princess Ariana as she tries to become the ruler of her kingdom, partly because she doesn't want her aunt to rule it due to her belief that she killed her brother/because she doesn't like how she treats her mother, and partly because she wants to marry multiple men who she calls her "Jewels" who she also uses to help her gain more political power(she also thinks they're super hot). It's basically a reverse harem mixed in with a political drama. The main criticisms I see most often lodged at the comic are as follows:

1. Ariana's a Mary Sue
2. Ariana is manipulative/a creep/pervert/slut
3. Ariana's boobs are too big(yes I'm serious)
4. The "Jewels" are Ariana's sex slaves

Now I feel as though these critiques are mainly rooted in misogyny(with the exception of 4, but we'll get to that in a minute) Yes, Ariana is horny, but I really don't see a problem with that? Like yeah, a woman is horny, but these people are acting like she's a sex pest for it. Hold the fucking presses and blow up the planet. This leads us into the next criticism, that Ariana's a Mary Sue. Now yes, I'll admit, Ariana, by most people's definition, falls into the category of "Mary Sue": She strong, she's beautiful, everyone loves her and those who don't are the villains. Again, to that I say "okay, and?" Now this just may be my tolerance for kind of bad writing I've built up over the years speaking here, but in my opinion there are much bigger criticisms(which we'll get into later) and this is the one you're talking the most about? Who cares if she has big tits and everyone loves her. Good for her, I hope she happily breasts boobily throughout the story. We've got bigger fish to fry.

Moving onto the "Jewels are slaves" thing, that's just straight up a lie. Now assuming that they're using this first definition; "The condition in which one person is owned as property by another and is under the owner's control, especially in involuntary servitude" I genuinely don't know that the fuck these people are talking about. You can maybe argue it for 2/5 Jewels, Huan Baek and Jade Melda(side note why the fuck is the blue character named after a green stone this will never not being annoying to me) as while the other three Jewels agree right away to be Ariana's "Jewel"(essentially her consort) in exchange for political power/protection, these two don't. Huan Baek out of a sense of loyality to the kingdom/its rulers who raised him, and Jade because he just straight up doesn't like Ariana at first. People use this as an example of them being slaves/Ariana seeing them as property but I don't see it. Is it because of the chokers? Is it because she calls them her "Jewels"? The chokers, to me, just feels like her giving her boyfriend a bracelet and telling him to wear it for her, and the Jewels thing is just an affectionate pet name. Again, would we seriously be having this conversation if a male character was calling a female character his Jewel?

As I mentioned before, there are plenty of other(more weighty in my opinion) criticisms to be had about this webcomic that I didn't really see being brought up as much. The darker skinned characters(namely Nell Phantom and Efrit Karsia) can both turn into/shapeshift into animals while the lighter skinned characters can't, which kind of comes across as a bit sus to me, especially when it seems to be a trait that only the darker POC characters have. I can't explain why, it's just ticking something off in my brain. There's also really gross fatphobia which I have yet to see a single person talk about. Ariana's fiance, who is fat when we first meet/see him, is constaintly refered to as a "piggy", him being the laughing stock of the party and everyone laughing at "Poor Ariana" for being stuck with such an "ugly man", going so far as to compare him to a beast from their world called a "Magnus", which is basically a Boar on a caterpillar's body with 20 legs. It's really gross to read. And(most importantly I'd argue) the artist HONGCHA is a pedophile.(Since the original google doc with the evidence from the og reddit post doesn't seem to be working, you can also watch it here, starting at the 15:10 mark.)

I'm not trying to say that the Princess's Jewels is this perfect webtoon, but I'd at least like to bring attention to the rampant misogyny I feel as though is dominating the criticism of this webcomic. It's honestly a shame the webtoon turned out to be such a shit show, as I feel like the authors accidentally made really good Aromantic rep with Ariana. While it's undeniable that she's physically attracted to her Jewels and cares for them, it's not so clear if that attraction veers into romantic territory as well. She cares for them all deeply, but so far I haven't seen any hints that she might favor one of them more than the other, or be romantically attracted to any of them. As an aromantic person, I find this really refreshing, as so often aromantic people are demonized/othered for not feeling romantic attraction. To many people, to not feel romance with someone and sometimes only lust is seen as a purely negative trait, a sign that you're "evil" or "heartless". This blatently ignores that aromantic people can and do often care deeply for their friends or any Queer Platonic Partners, so to see something similar depicted in "The Princess's Jewels" really hooked me. I can easily sum up my disappointment surrounding the misogyny surrounding the discussions surrounding the webtoon with "Disappointed but not surpised", and I honestly wish it didn't have to be this way.

Courtship and Curses by Marissa Doyle

Recently I finished reading "Courtship and Curses" by Marissa Doyle, and I can honestly say I loved reading it. I'm a huge nerd for stories about witches, and this book scratched that itch wonderfully. The story's set in England during the Napoleonic Wars, and it follows the main character, Sophie, as she tries to find out who keeps trying to kill members of the war council, of which her father is a part of. One thing I have to mention is that the main character is disabled, one of her legs being shortened by a bout of Polio she survied, and she stays that way by the end of the book! It was really nice that she didn't end up "cured", especially because her magic, which doesn't work at the beginning of the story,does end up working by the end. As Sophie's magic returned to her, I feared that it would be used to get rid of her diability, but nope! She stays disabled. It was honestly really hearwarming to see her friend Parthenope(who I love), and her Aunt Amelia get together to make her a bunch of canes that could go along with her dresses for the season(Amelia also got her maid to enchant each of them with a protection spell which is really cute).

As for the other characters, they where all pretty fun. I love Sophie's Aunt Molly and her love of plants, and how she was worried about people bumping into the potted ones during the balls. Parthenope was always a joy when she was on the page, I love how she kept the parrot from a guy she wasn't interested in lmao imagine getting someone a parrot in an attempt to woo them but it doesn't work so now you just spent all that money on a parrot for nothing. Percy, Parthenope's cousin/Sophie's love interest, was a little bland in my opinion. He ends up falling on top of Sophie after she falls during an attempt to get her magic to work to stop a statue from falling on her father while he managed to push her dad out of the way. There was a bit of tension in the beginning, as Percy assumes that Sophie's weak due to her leg(casual abelism and all that), but after they sort it out a day later they fall in love with each other and it kind of gets boring to me. It feels like their interactions can just be boiled down into:

Sophie:"Oh he's so handsome and such a gentileman"

Parthenope:"Then talk to him! My cousin's such a dork, I can set the two of you up you know ;)"

Sophie:"Noooooo"

And then Percy comes over and they shyly flirt or something and then Parthenope schemes and sets the two of them up. I'll admit, romance arcs doesn't tend to be my thing, so it may have just been me, so whatever. Eventually they have this argument after they get together where Percy joins the War Council to get inside info to try and help figure out who's trying to kill everyone, and he ends up suspecting Sophie's aunt Ameila because she's French, but Sophie's like "She can't be the attempted killer" because the killer uses magic, and as a witch Sophie can sense magic, and she never sensed magic from her aunt, but she can't tell Percy that because he doesn't know about magic or witches and she already feels insecure about her leg, and there's this big moment where Percy was like "Well I was going to ask your dad if I could begin to court you, but I guess I can't if you can't tell me what's wrong/are keeping secrets from me" and the story treats it like they broke off their engagement and it's a big deal, but the thing is, at this point they'd only known each other for like, two months. The story points this out too, because Sophie's like "Oh I can't belive it's been two months since I met you" and it's like I'm sorry but you where going to marry someone you've known for two months, and dated for even less-

But I digress. I was honestly a bit disappointed that the only poc rep(Nalini) was a maid, and I guess you could make the argument that it wouldn't be historically accurate to inclue more poc as most of the characters are upper class, but come on man there's magic. I also realized the twist villian roughly mid way through the book, so when he revealed himself I wasn't too surprised. In the end though I really liked reading the book, even if my copy somehow came out of the factory both upside-down and backwards. Highly reccommend reading this 7/10