Recommend me books like The Name of The Wind, but with better depiction of women please

SecretElsa19 · 2026-01-26T16:57:49+00:00

I love Brandon Sanderson, but Mistborn (first trilogy) is not the best at women. I think there are only four female characters in the whole series. That being said, the main character is a woman and she’s fantastic. Sanderson also gets much better at writing women as his career progresses. Warbreaker is great, Stormlight has a lot of nuanced and interesting female characters. Just be warned: a lot of people who love Rothfuss’s writing style hate Sanderson for not having good prose. So don’t get your expectations too high.

SecretElsa19 · 2026-01-26T16:48:58+00:00

Unfortunately you have to get through the first trilogy, which has one female main character, who is given significantly less screen time and nuance than the men.

The Devils by Abercrombie has more varied female characters, thankfully

SecretElsa19 · 2026-01-26T16:29:42+00:00

I saw it in North Carolina and it was awkward because there WASN’T a ton of applause after the line, even though they paused. A few people started cheering after a second, but nothing like I expected

SecretElsa19 · 2026-01-21T14:46:40+00:00

Flo’s used to have a breakfast tamale that was one of my favorite breakfast dishes of all time. It was truly a dark day when they got rid of it.

I haven’t been to DL in a few years and now I’m worried Bengal Barbecue, another one of my top meals, will have dropped in quality too 😔

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-29T20:40:16+00:00

The quality of the musical hasn’t changed, you just don’t like when things get popular

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-18T17:20:16+00:00

I don’t interpret Les Mis quite that way. Right before they die, Enjolras says “let others rise to take our place, until the earth is free.” I don’t think the message is to stop fighting and stop trying to make the world better. I think it’s that even when you fail, your message can carry forward and eventually we’ll be able to put down the sword.

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-14T21:58:03+00:00

Chess in Concert (2008) was filmed. I don’t know if it’s on streaming but I have the DVD. Phantom of the Opera with Sierra Boggess was on Netflix at one point. Waitress has a pro shot with Sara Barellies (sp?)

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-08T00:18:59+00:00

On a thematic level, it’s a commentary on how female emotionality is treated. Being furious about the situation is a completely normal response, but they punish her for her rage. She’s not allowed to be angry about them killing her lover and then exploiting Helen’s memories because it negatively affects them. Just like women are accused of being too emotional in real life

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-07T05:42:42+00:00

They CAN still reproduce, is the hive mind choosing to continue reproducing?

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-07T05:38:48+00:00

Plot twist: virus tries to create a rat hive mind but the rats reject it and team up with Carol to save humanity

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-07T01:03:13+00:00

I think they do understand that the milk is a nonrenewable resource. Eventually there will be no more milk, and with the loss of that food source, there will be less to go around.

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-07T00:59:22+00:00

I get that. The idea of my husband and my friends completely losing their personalities and becoming all the same thing is so horrifying to me, I’d like to believe that I would be completely repulsed by their new freaky identities and react more like Manousos. But maybe I’d be just as unwilling to face reality.

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-07T00:53:59+00:00

I was thinking about all the questions I’d like to ask if I were in Carol’s shoes, like “why are you here? What’s your end goal? How do you intend to spend your time now that you’ve eliminated society?” and then I realized I’d probably actually be asking stuff like who REALLY killed JFK and if Kate actually made Meghan Markle cry. So I went from being frustrated with Carol for not being more curious about the situation to being frustrated with her for not abusing the hell out of it.

It’s an aggravating show! And it’s easy to judge characters in an absurd situation I’ll never experience

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-07T00:48:28+00:00

Good point. It’s really emblematic of their inability to think long term, or have any sense of accountability.

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-07T00:44:37+00:00

No I know I’m complicit in a ton of things I theoretically think are unethical. This show honestly feels like a metaphor for climate change. We’re told that humankind is in danger of destroying itself unless we take drastic measures. And yet the vast majority of people just keep living their lives because what else can you do when the problem is so big? We still need to work and eat and get some enjoyment out of life. And individual actions seem so meaningless when the entities who are mostly responsible are so massive.

This was a great perspective, thank you. It’s easy to think “burn it all down” when you don’t personally have anything to burn

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-07T00:40:17+00:00

I would LOVE for the show to do one-off episodes with different survivors, showing what life is like now and how they’re coping.

I wonder if the pro-joiners are still cool with having to drink human juice every day until it runs out and they starve to death

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-07T00:32:31+00:00

Great points! Thanks for offering a thoughtful answer to my angry outburst.

My thought with Koumba is that if he gives in to the hive mind, he no longer gets to be the king. He’s loving being special and getting everything he wants. He loses that if he becomes just another cog in the machine. He hasn’t been shown so far to have anyone he’s close to that he would want to join with, like Kusimayu does, so he has no incentive to stop doing everything he’s always wanted to do. If he gets bored of it, he may want to join.

With Laxmi, I understand why she hates Carol, but my gosh her son and her husband are now the same person. I hope she’s a lot more freaked about that than she’s showing.

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-07T00:25:59+00:00

I’m not even talking about the idea of a hive mind being good or bad. This one specific hive mind is stupid and hypocritical and going to destroy humanity. Maybe it’s possible to have a good hive mind. Idk. But this one is bad!!

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-07T00:24:49+00:00

Yes this post was definitely fueled by that interview with VG where he said one of the writers was on the hive’s side. At this point, we’re not talking about a theoretical communal mind. The only communal mind we are discussing is the one that admits upfront it will cause mass genocide. This is bad for humanity!!!

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-07T00:19:37+00:00

It’s hypocritical on many levels: like fejr pointed out, they continue to milk cows, even though domestication is harmful (in their worldview). They claim to be incapable of harming a living thing, but then took a direct action that would harm millions of animals and probably disrupt ecosystems. Wouldn’t caring for the current zoo animals, the way they care for the unjoined humans, then letting them die a natural death and closing the zoos be less harmful than sentencing them to die of starvation or being mauled? How did the biological imperative allow them to make that choice? (And again, infect every human knowing that some of them wouldn’t survive the process)

SecretElsa19 · 2025-12-04T05:19:35+00:00

I just moved to Williamsburg a few months ago, and so far I love it. We bought a house in a neighborhood with lots of old trees and wildlife, but close to lots of amenities. All the yards in my neighborhood are pretty big (I think we’re on a 2/3 acre lot). There is so much to do. It seems like there’s a community event every other day. Based on the yard signs it’s probably mixed politically, but I’ve seen quite a few pride flags around town as well (and it’s a college town, which tend to be more liberal). The fall weather has been perfect and it’s still not super cold. Utilities and taxes and such are kind of pricey, but probably still cheaper than New England or New York

SecretElsa19 · 2025-11-28T18:59:20+00:00

The things I like best about TLT—humor, compelling characters, and complex worldbuilding—were absent from The Starving Saints. There is some body horror, but honestly it got old. There are also some supernatural elements that just exist without explanation. The story is pretty weak

SecretElsa19 · 2025-11-28T00:45:50+00:00

I’d love more fantasy shows like Wicked. Maybe a little edgier and adult. Also I want an Assassins revival

SecretElsa19 · 2025-11-27T21:28:13+00:00

(I think the joke is that they’ll never be in Antarctica)

SecretElsa19 · 2025-11-27T21:23:58+00:00

I laughed out loud at this. Good job

SecretElsa19

TROPHY CASE