Ok, I have this 3-book manga called Steel Fist Riku, which is exactly the kind of shounen bullshit I unironically love, AND it has a female protagonist. Cute friendships. And no romance. It would be perfect except a major plot point (Riku being able to turn her arm into metal by breathing a certain way, hence the title) revolves around the idea that when she hit puberty her chest got huge and since then she can't use her breathing technique without basically ripping her shirt open. Because she usually keeps her chest bound. Because her adoptive father is the Pervy Old Man archetype and she's annoyed by the idea that he'll harrass her. ...yeah. it's played for laughs.
I can't remember the name right now, but there was this book series I read in middle school. It was something about the bible and dragons??? (It was during this phase I was Really Concerned my mom wouldn't buy me books or music if was too un-Christian) Anyway, the two main characters were these half dragon kids, a boy who could breathe fire and a girl with wings she somehow kept hidden all her life. I got through a bunch of these books. (I read one 1,000 pager in like a week) I loved it until there was some bullshit about how all the dragons had to give up their dragonhood to accept Jesus and be saved, and it was just like '?????? I signed up for DRAGONS and adventure not this shit.'
I second basically everything about HP and especially HDM. And Angela Carter's books are the best, but seriously, what is it with all the incest? But my greatest pet peeve so far is London Spy. It's the most infuriating mini-series ever: it's a subtle, thoughtful, brilliant story about love and grief and family, saddled with the most offensively stupid spy plot ever. That show gives us a wonderfully well-written gay couple and a wonderfully well-written working-class gay protagonist, played by Ben Wishaw, and then shits on the entire thing with a conspiracy theory so outrageously dumb it makes me want to break a bunch of things.
that was a series?? I read the first one, though my memory is so dim that I can't remember the title either, but what does Jesus have against dragons eta: unless I'm remembering an entirely different dragon-kids book, but I doubt there's a ton of those out there
I just looked it up (aka googled "christian dragon series" and got it on the first hit) and the first series is called Dragons In Our Midst but I think the part I'm remembering came from one of the sequels in the Oracles of Fire series? IIRC, it's because Jesus died as a human dude so to accept his sacrifice they had to be human or whatever.
Yeah well dragons didn't eat the fruit in the Garden of Eden, so they don't have original sin that Jesus needed to die to forgive. Q. E. D.
That looks like the right one-- the only detail I really remember is the girl hiding her wings with a backpack, and the cover seems to match that. Y'know, just lop off an entire body part to better follow your religion, that makes sense, I'm sure there's no medical consequences from removing someone's wings.
...I feel like this was maybe the explanation for it. Sounds legit to me at least. Yeah, that's the one! And I don't think she had to lop them off? Idk, it's been like several years.
I meant it to be why dragons shouldn't NEED Jesus and becoming human so you can accept him is an entirely extraneous runaround. :::PPP
oh my god do i feel you on the valdemar books. Those were what got me into fantasy and shiz, but looking back on them is so yikesy, especially the earlier ones. SO MANY DEAD QUEERS! SO MANY. and the early writing wasn't that great, too much clothing description and adjectives. But I can't help but love them to death, aaaaaaaaaaaaaah! They make me so angry and yet so happy.
(TRIES TO BUST IN THROUGH THE DOOR) (THE DOOR IS ALREADY GONE) (BURSTS THROUGH THE WALL INSTEAD) I agree
I will grant that he had some good ideas and did well as a guest writer but the second they put him in charge, the whole thing dropped into the shitter.
Basically. I also feel like he burned all of his best ideas in those guest episodes. He seems to do best when he's telling short stories that need wrapped up neatly and quickly, and the longer he has to spin them out the more they grow like kudzu and stop being fun and start just being a drag. Even Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead was messier in its plotting than his other guest episodes.
That one pissed me off spectacularly too because it's so clearly him not giving a crap about continuity or coherence. If he was contradicting someone else's episode, I could understand it as a retcon because he didn't like the thing, but he wrote the thing he then totally ignored. So the only explanation is that he just flat-out did not care.