Month: April 2024

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Life: Pajama Weekend

So, it turns out four months is too long to go without a vacation. Who knew?

What? [conversational sounds] Oh. Oh, really? Everyone knew? [conversational sounds] I see. [takes notes, breaks pencil lead from pressing into notebook too hard, tosses notebook across desk.]

I used this weekend to rest. Read, eat, and rest. I am still wearing the very soft clothes I slept in, and I am not ashamed.

I’m reading more [written things] than I write about here. Also, I’m intentionally not writing about much of what I read, because I write to share / endorse / celebrate / promote things I enjoy, and if I’m not that enthused, I don’t want to waste my energy.

I’m not writing about webcomics that spend too much time discussing agriculture. It sounds like a weird bias, but if someone was tortured in a dungeon by their family and uses magic to time travel to avenge themselves, only to spend their days giving expositions about strategic crops, I feel like they are avenging themselves on me, somehow. Another webcomic with a hotly drawn villain somehow led to the lovely heroine making dramatic statements about the berry industry, and I nearly threw my phone. (I’m enjoying one now that involves a secret mission to secure a port, but it is just a side thing, not something I have to pay attention to! The world and characters are well established, and the story doesn’t require this – it’s just a footnote. World-building such details by footnote is FINE!)

I’m not writing about webcomics centered on rivalries between two female-led religious institutions. One of the women is a fraud whose powers are being faked by manipulative men (yes, in more than one comic), and it is getting predictable.

I’m not writing about religious instructional texts I’m dipping into, because those are only interesting if you are in the same sect, and any subjective criticism of such texts is unlikely to be welcome.

I’m not writing about the audiobooks I can’t hear properly in the train or the eBooks on my phone that are in progress.

I’m not writing about current event news, because such news is uniformly awful at the moment, and might encourage you to live under a rock. You might upset a sweet octopus or eel living under that rock, so just leave them and their hidden home alone, deal with humans as much as the rest of us must, and whip a few humans into shape, please.

I do love the magic of scheduling posts in advance, and will try to use this magic more often to spread my infrequent-yet-enthusiastic output more evenly.

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Book (Manhwa): The Knight and Her Emperor by G.M, Team IYAK (winter, heyum)

Tappytoon banner for The Knight and Her Emperor by GM and Team IYAK (winter, heyum).
Tappytoon banner for The Knight and Her Emperor by GM and Team IYAK (winter, heyum).

The Knight and Her Emperor
by. G.M, Team IYAK (winter, heyum)
published by Tappytoon (197 chapters over 4 seasons, complete)
2023

Pollyanna’s neglectful family needed to contribute a family member to the war effort. Her parents favored her younger sister, so they just… handed Pollyana over to be trained as a solider, and didn’t look back. Her mentor trained her as well as he could, advising her on how to compensate for her weaknesses, while grimly warning that both the enemy and her own side were likely to rape her. Her fellow soldiers were cold and abusive, and she had little personal safety and no sympathy. She gave up all femininity to be one of the guys, pulled together a loyal team during military campaigns, and tried to die an honorable soldier’s death while saving them.

As her captors struggled to execute her less-than-honorably, she made an impression on the enemy’s emperor.

Such a big impression, that he offered her a job.

And, given her first real opportunity, the foreign (!) woman (!) solider (!) took that job offer and ROLLED WITH IT. Pollyanna swore an oath to the emperor, became the knight Sir Pol, and served his majesty faithfully throughout his military campaign to conquer the incessantly warring continent.

This webtoon spans MORE THAN A DECADE! (I’ll change to present tense!) In a country where people express sympathy for the misfortune of giving birth to a daughter, Pol’s life requires near-daily struggle, struggle softened by the loyalty and friendship of her knights plus rewards from her appreciative emperor. Along the way she makes friends and enemies, kicks men where it hurts, becomes a war hero, conceals weapons in formalwear, inspires fierce loyalty in comrades at arms, becomes lonely, tries to do too much herself, develops close female friendships, becomes a role model, and… punches trees.

This multi-season graphic novel (based on a book) took the artists six years to complete, and it’s epic! I hadn’t realized when I started how many chapters were available, so each chapter was a cliffhanger – I wasn’t sure anyone would survive, and was pleasantly surprised to hit the button providing the next chapter, even when the (relatable) pain of Pol’s struggles to be taken seriously stung me in familiar ways. In that spirit of suspense, I’ll only note that Season 1 centers on the decade-long war across the continent; Season 2 is focuses on establishing a lasting peace and living in a society that has no clear space for senior female officers; and Season 3 is about being true to oneself and pursuing happiness against all odds after ALL OF THAT.

I felt weary on Pol’s behalf at the at the end of the war, worried that Pol’s spirit would be broken during peacetime by hateful old men, charmed by the emperor’s adoration-plus-respect for her [swoon], and misty that she could be herself AND (to her own surprise) have people who truly care about her and like her just as she is.

This webtoon has many lighthearted moments, funny jokes told by characters that other characters refuse to laugh at, adorable chibi-style illustrations, hard life lessons, babies drooling, a man with blinding physical beauty, and moments of yelling at the characters to JUST TELL EACH OTHER WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH that must go unheeded for the sake of the plot for a while, but not forever.

This webtoon delights me, and I’m so glad I read it. I developed care and affection for the characters, and was emotionally moved at the end. I strongly recommend The Knight and Her Emperor.

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Life: Declining Social Events Politely

I’ve invited some long-time friends to dine with me, but don’t want to pressure them to attend. Long time friends can always decline – we’ve known each other forever, after all – and I’ve invited them to say they aren’t in the mood if that is true. Historically, some of them won’t decline, but then bounce during the event, or agree to attend, but cancel at the last moment, which is less fun.

To prevent bouncing and bailing, I’ve invented a list of excuses they may use at any time with me, which I will accept without challenge. This list includes:

  • attending an appointment for plastic surgery (giving or receiving)
  • having tires rotated (must pretend to own car)
  • entertaining out of town guests
  • filming porn
  • engaging in crimes on behalf of the Republican National Committee
  • washing hair (must not be bald)
  • having hair cut (same)
  • cutting hair for others
  • attending pet therapy.

I hope to update this list seasonally, so none of the excuses become worn out.

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Life: Working too much, reading too little

So, the usual.

I’ve been entertaining myself during times when I can stay awake. I took a ferry ride, and observed that the usual boat was in the shop, so one of the giant commuter boats took its place. I texted a friend about this, with the note, “I like big boats and I cannot lie,” and he found it hilarious. (This is a Sir Mix-a-lot reference, for you young people.)

I am enjoying pleasant cross-employer camaraderie during my commute, and enjoy speaking with my solution-oriented allies at the office.

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I’m reading multiple new manga which are published serially and are incomplete, so it is difficult to know WHEN to write about them. I may invent a rule about reviewing them at the end of each season, or perhaps 100 chapters? (I’ll need a similar rule if and when I ever write about The Second Sex, which is complete but very, very long. And filled with book flags/darts that I’ve left there for points I want to dwell on.)

I continue to avoid comics which are creepy about female characters’ bodies (groin close-ups on underdressed female characters during battle scenes? No, thank you!), while the men are covered to such an extreme that you can’t see their hands without gloves. That is just weird. If men are that uncomfortable with men showing skin, they should really work on their issues.

The drama and fantasy stories often have women softening/improving violent male characters, even to the point of turning depots and recluses into engaged authority figures who actively attend to the needs of their subjects, and I don’t think that is a very safe theme to promote. The hashtag for those is #charactergrowth, and I find that funny.

I’m still mystified by the many story tangents relating to agriculture. There is a drama, someone is trying to prevent their own execution, and then there are many pages devoted to growing a crop. I… I… What?

There is a running manga in-joke that still surprises me, sometimes 100 or more chapters into a story:
–a main character enters a room covered in blood
–others characters express concern
–the bloody character then says ‘it’s not my blood’ (the actual wording varies), suggesting that they just won a battle of some type that is not being illustrated here.
It is… very funny, in these stories – unexpected, as there hasn’t been a lot of violence until that point, or there was but it was distant. The fact that I find this funny means it is well done, but also that I am living in a culture that has normalized violence. (Oh-oh. True. Yes.)

Please be sure to work on your own #charactergrowth without waiting for a new romantic partner, and avoid being covered in ANYONE’S blood.

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