Last time, animal cruelty and Metaleyes.
He seemed strong. Too thin, but when she commented on it, he said, “Fish aren’t particularly fattening, Katsa, and I’ve eaten little but fish since you left.
…of course fish is fattening. The reason people say fish is healthy is because omega-3 fatty acid is considered good for you, not because it has zero calories. It’s sure better than bread and apples, which is what they give him now.
We blow a page recounting the stuff we saw happen in the book already. Katsa then notices Metaleyes is acting weird and not looking at people, but she can’t tell what’s wrong. Katsa says she’s brought the ring back but she did see his castle and it’s pretty, and Metaleyes looks really upset suddenly, so they leave to go talk.
“I want to know what’s wrong,” she said.
He pursed his lips, and still he didn’t look at her. His voice was carefully matter-of-fact. “I wouldn’t force your feelings from you, if you didn’t want to share them.”
Actually, what you agreed was that since she couldn’t hide her feelings you’d tell her yours. Also, you’re just not saying anything because you’re being dumb for suspense reasons.
He keeps brushing her off and Katsa gets upset. She tries to give the ring back and he doesn’t want it. He finally says he’s planning not to come back.
We spend a while more on Katsa trying to figure out what’s wrong. And more. And more. Then next morning he uses the “excuse” of saying he’ll check on the lame horse to avoid them, because apparently no one bothered to see what was wrong with it yet and apparently no one ever would unless they needed pretend work.
“No,” Bitterblue said. “I mean there’s something different about his eyes.”
Something different about his eyes.
Yes, there was a difference. The difference was that he wouldn’t look at her, or at any of them. Almost as if it pained his heart to raise his eyes and focus on another person. Almost as if- An image flashed into her mind then, out of nowhere. Po falling through the light, a horse’s enormous body falling above him. Po, slamming into the water face-first, the horse crashing in after him. And more images. Po, sick and gray before the fire, the skin of his face bruised black. Po squinting at her and rubbing his eyes.
Katsa choked on her bread.
Huh. Thanks for moving the plot along, Bitterblue!
“Po,” she said. “Look at me.”
He turned then, slowly. He looked into her face. His eyes seemed to focus on hers, for just an instant; and then his eyes dropped. They emptied. She saw it happen; she saw his eyes empty.
She whispered. “Po. Are you blind?”
And he cries and they hug.
So yeah, turns out Metaleyes is blind. In that special way that leaves him completely able to function but is still worthy of sulking and insisting you’ll stay a hermit for the rest of your life.
So, as to the poll. Our current winners are Matched and Pokemon Blue, so those will be next. For our new poll voting for what happens in the distant future after those:
Sexteen/XVI
Elantris
House of Night
Battle Royale
Eon/Eona
Temeraire
The Scorpio Races
Delirium
Witchblade
Unwind
Fever (Wither sequel)
Gemma Doyle sequel
Darkest Powers sequel
Check out the Future Books post for summaries and the openings to each. Find which one seems best. Then read that one on your own while you vote for something else because you’re a jerk who enjoys my suffering. Unwind looks particularly painful.
I read Sexteen. It was beyond bad. The entire book was pretty much dedicated to slut shaming.
Exactly.
Actually when I read the first page I was surprised how not awful it was. It seemed to have worldbuilding and concern about rape, which was far more than I expected.
Oh boy, a teen love triangle reworking of the Giver, then the bestest game in the world! (according to be me twelve years ago). Actually, I hardly remember the game plot as compared to the game. Collect pokemon, fight trainers, beat gyms, beat up Team Rocket, use item duplication trick, beat Elite Four, trade with your nearest friend to get all 150 and discuss Gameshark codes for getting Mew, win at life.
The TR plot was a pretty simple “We steal stuff”/”I stop you” that I remember. But I’m still looking forward to your take on it.
Though it is pretty interesting that the in-real-life fan community of kids at camp or school I would run into were extremely well versed in bugs and cheats in the game that would be extremely difficult to come across by accident, despite most of us not having the internet yet. We just loved gossiping about them in pain-staking detail. The weirdest thing I’ve since seen on the internet about the game is that apparently giving the Ghost a pokedoll is a bug. When I was a kid, we thought that was supposed to be there as a legitimate alternate strategy for that fight.
It was the best game! And part of that is that no one cared about the plot, that was just a way to get money and exp. The actual game part was exploring every nook and cranny.
Though it is pretty interesting that the in-real-life fan community of kids at camp or school I would run into were extremely well versed in bugs and cheats in the game that would be extremely difficult to come across by accident, despite most of us not having the internet yet.
Oh, the real world community was far more knowledgeable than the internet. That was about when the library started having internet, and I remember spending ages looking up fansites and scribbling down fake cheats. The grapevine was a lot more reliable.
It’d be interesting to see how information travels. Any kid who does find something would want to share it, so you’d get local areas where everyone knows, then any time they travel they pass it on to the next group. It was really only possible because such a large number of kids were all playing at the same time, but it was fun while it lasted.
Pokemon Red and Blue was released in the UK in 1999, and I remember most kids passing on the cheats like the cinnabar island one, way before the major gaming magazines started to publish them.