ted

hello! thank you for the question, haha, i was just thinking about some of my favourites the other day. it's nice to get them down in writing. in no particular order:

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jonathan strange & mr norrell - susanna clarke
mister god, this is anna - sydney hopkins ***
luna - julie ann peters *
the god of small things - arundhati roy **
rant - chuck palahniuk
the weeping and the laughter - noel barber
his dark materials (trilogy) - philip pullman *
a song of ice and fire (saga) - george r. r. martin *
accordion crimes - annie proulx *

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i'm more of a history person, actually, so i don't read much fiction (most of the ones above are world-building and history related anyway, hahaha, so they're basically history books too). but the ones marked with *s are the ones i've really enjoyed the most over the years, and are those kind of books that just get you, you know? they just do.

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wow, this is an old question. i'm sorry for not answering this earlier!

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the thailand scandal was, well, to put it succinctly: bad. hellish. you wouldn't believe the amount of hate block b and their fans received from other fandoms, as well as fans of the group themselves. you think exo is hated? double that, and you've got the thailand scandal, even if it was just for a little white. it was pretty bad. bbc internationally were hurt and confused, and korean bbc were also in a similar position, and bbc from thailand felt betrayed. angry. definitely confused too.

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the thing is, most of the trouble was caused by some very simple issues: 1) mistranslation. their words were mistranslated horribly during an interview, and a lot of people took the translation to be literal and true, right down to the last period, and everyone knows these days how easily things can be mistranslated. 2) nichkhun's tweets. stirred up more trouble and you know how easily fandoms can be swayed. 3) we're a small fandom. still are. nobody listens to small fandoms. whenever a bbc tried to explain something, they were shot down by ten other people, basically.

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personally, when i heard about the incident, i honestly just didn't want to say anything about it, and instead just sat on the sidelines watching the fighting and infighting go on, and it was heartbreaking. honestly. see your group suffer through something like that. dragged through the mud. sent to the hospital for stress and anxiety and panic. apologies spat on by the unforgiving public. watch a group, that's gone from a 1 minute stage to 3 minutes after more than a year and a few comebacks, back to cut stages and sheer, shocking silence from crowds that aren't their fans. just watch your group suffer and be hated, and tell me it isn't hard. hell, i'm a dbsk fan. an mcr fan. i'm a fan of eh and patd. i know all about bandom pain. haha. it's never easy, whether it be a break-up, or a member loss, or a witch-hunt.

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bbc survived by realising that the only important thing here is to stand by, be calm, be rational, and listen for the truth, and for a proper explanation, and for things to smooth out. infighting hurt the fandom a lot. many left. but those who stayed are some of the truest fans i've known, and they're mostly cool, collected, older and more rational fans. it really says something about fandoms, honestly.

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other people might have other opinions on this matter, or might have experienced the whole situation differently. i don't really care. block b is doing well for themselves right now, despite some cracks here and there (and jiho being an idiot, but what's new?). i still support them. love them. they're one of the only groups i've followed since debut, and that sticks for me still. they might slip up from time to time, but they learn. they'll evolve. they'll grow. that's what matters, for me.

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I foresaw this being an intensely long ask when I got this in my inbox, haha. I'm sorry, I'll try to summarise as much as possible! I'll assume that you mean both the show and the books, but I'll just start with the books to get things kicking:

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In a nutshell, Game of Thrones, or A Song of Ice And Fire, as the series is named, is a gigantic fantasy saga that has been in the works for nearly twenty years (we're currently waiting on the sixth book right now)! What sets it apart from other fantasy series is the fact that it focuses less on the magic portions of fantasy, and more on political intrigues, human relationships and social commentary. Sound heavy? We've just gotten to the beginning.

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ASOIAF has a league of different characters and POVs and all of them are different voices lending something to the story. There are a few main groups of people though, or houses, that the series focuses on, specifically: Houses Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, and Targaryen for starters, as well as Martell, Tyrell, Tully, and a few other players in the game. The thing about ASOIAF is that for one, you're gonna be drawn into a story where you'll fall in love with a million characters, and every single one of those characters that you love will die. I wish I was kidding. No spoilers on who dies first, though! :))))

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Anyway, you might wonder what's so good about it. Besides the complexities of the decisions each character makes in times of war, there are also dragons, mythical zombies, badass fights and a hint of romance here and there, and honestly, the main reason I like it so much is because of the rich world building. There's this element of story-telling you can't get with many other books, and it's beautiful. It's spectacularly executed. It's amazing, the way you can spend hours imagining how wide the North of Westeros (the land where the main story takes place) stretches, or how exotic the markets in the Free Cities are.

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The characters, oh god, they are so well developed (and developing!), and honestly, people say that fantasy series are always super sexist, but ASOIAF is probably one of the most feminist book series I have ever read, despite the constant presence of rape and medieval treatment of women, in some portions. Empowering female characters in a setting designed completely against them, characters who are a minority rising up against all the odds, the humanisation and the salvation and the damnation and the redemption.

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Honestly, I could go on, but all I can say is that you're in for an intensely long ride, and it's going to be one of the best rides of your life. You'll see the world in a whole different light after reading, trust me. And the show deviates a lot from the books, but it's also an alright show (a lot of critique on GoT as a show, that's for another day).

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ASOIAF is definitely, for me, one of the best book series I have ever been pulled into. No regrets in the slightest. Hope you enjoy it, anon! :D All the best, haha.

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