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256 | it's scum villain time again
Sunday, 17 December 2023 11:41 amMy desire to live surrounded by a bamboo forest of my very own versus the knowledge that bamboo is an invasive species…. /a moot point since I live in an apartment anyway
Somewhat related, but over the past week, I’ve fallen back down into the Scum Villain rabbit hole, and it feels, quite frankly, amazing. I’ve never loved a canon, fandom, or ship as much as I loved Scum Villain / Bingqiu back in 2019-2020, and it’s so so good to experience those feelings again <3
Of course, this meant that I needed to go revisit the canon, and so I’ve been rereading it—though quite slowly, as I’m reading the official translation (for the first time!), which I only own in physical form. Since most of my reading is done via my phone or ereader during commutes and lunch breaks, this means that rereading requires me carving out extra reading time while at home, which has been slowing me down quite a bit. As is the fact that I’m reading it at like, half my usual reading speed—I keep needing to take a moment to breathe or flail before continuing due to the overwhelming feelings this book inspires in me.
So I’m only about halfway through the second volume now, but I’m really deeply enjoying it. And I’m loving the translation! I was a bit worried—while I remembered appreciating faelicy’s retranslation (and also found their meta quite thought-provoking), there was a stiffness to it at times that I didn't enjoy. But—and maybe this is because there were two translators on this project—I didn’t notice that quality at all in this version. It’s smooth all the way down, and I am loving every second of reading it. Scum Villain, my beloved <3
This does mean that I had a problem with my commute/lunch break reading schedule last week—couldn’t read Scum Villain, but did not have the headspace to read anything not Scum Villain—which I resolved by using that time to reread Feynite’s classic I Wish You Were My Husband, which imo still holds up. Plus some other old faves, though IWYWMH took up most of my reading time.
Ridiculously, Scum Villain was filling up my “listening to something while doing chores” time last week as well… last Sunday, I was rereading some of my own fic for the fandom, and noticed that at some point, I’d approved an inspiration link for a podfic of We Never Dreamed These Walls. On a whim, I wandered over to read the comments left on that podfic, and a lot of them were praising the podficcer’s SQQ’s voice, particularly during the moments when he starts flailing in his internal narrative, and despite the fact that I usually never listen to podfics (or audiobooks—I’ve disliked the experience of people reading to me every since I was a child old enough to read on my own), I got curious.
And. Oh my god. This podficcer did such a good job?? The person in question is![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
So2Voice, and here’s the link to the podfic. Just, oh my god. I am obsessed. I would call this narcissistic of me, lol, except for the fact that listening to my own fic read aloud made me very aware of all the flaws in the writing, flaws which I usually don’t notice when reading it—the obsession comes almost purely from how much I enjoyed this person’s reading of it.
Their voice for SQQ’s internal dialogue truly is so deeply truly perfect?? Admittedly, their voices for LBH & SQQ during the actual dialogue don’t match up at all for how I hear them in my head, but that was a minor thing compared to how much I loved everything else, and I did get used to it by the end. And the (usually cat-related) bloopers were also just so so delightful. And how they did the System’s voice!! I was literally standing there thinking, “god I wish I’d included more interjections from the System in this fic” solely because I enjoyed hearing how they did that aspect.
I loved this so much that I went to their works page in the hopes that they’d also done podfics for any of my favorite fics from this fandom, but unfortunately, all of their other podfics were either for fics I’d disliked, my NOTP, or fics I’m unfamiliar with. But still, absolutely subscribed to them now (who knows what the future will bring, after all!), and absolutely obsessed. (Which remains wild to me, considering the aforementioned nearly life-long dislike for listening to people read aloud, but here we are, apparently??)
In any case, I’m having a great time revisiting this canon, rereading old favorite fics, slowly discovering new fics, and casting thoughtful looks at the mountain of WIPs I’d left unfinished. Who knows how long this revival of feelings is going to last, but I’m going to enjoy every second of it as long as I can <3 <3 <3
Somewhat related, but over the past week, I’ve fallen back down into the Scum Villain rabbit hole, and it feels, quite frankly, amazing. I’ve never loved a canon, fandom, or ship as much as I loved Scum Villain / Bingqiu back in 2019-2020, and it’s so so good to experience those feelings again <3
Of course, this meant that I needed to go revisit the canon, and so I’ve been rereading it—though quite slowly, as I’m reading the official translation (for the first time!), which I only own in physical form. Since most of my reading is done via my phone or ereader during commutes and lunch breaks, this means that rereading requires me carving out extra reading time while at home, which has been slowing me down quite a bit. As is the fact that I’m reading it at like, half my usual reading speed—I keep needing to take a moment to breathe or flail before continuing due to the overwhelming feelings this book inspires in me.
So I’m only about halfway through the second volume now, but I’m really deeply enjoying it. And I’m loving the translation! I was a bit worried—while I remembered appreciating faelicy’s retranslation (and also found their meta quite thought-provoking), there was a stiffness to it at times that I didn't enjoy. But—and maybe this is because there were two translators on this project—I didn’t notice that quality at all in this version. It’s smooth all the way down, and I am loving every second of reading it. Scum Villain, my beloved <3
This does mean that I had a problem with my commute/lunch break reading schedule last week—couldn’t read Scum Villain, but did not have the headspace to read anything not Scum Villain—which I resolved by using that time to reread Feynite’s classic I Wish You Were My Husband, which imo still holds up. Plus some other old faves, though IWYWMH took up most of my reading time.
Ridiculously, Scum Villain was filling up my “listening to something while doing chores” time last week as well… last Sunday, I was rereading some of my own fic for the fandom, and noticed that at some point, I’d approved an inspiration link for a podfic of We Never Dreamed These Walls. On a whim, I wandered over to read the comments left on that podfic, and a lot of them were praising the podficcer’s SQQ’s voice, particularly during the moments when he starts flailing in his internal narrative, and despite the fact that I usually never listen to podfics (or audiobooks—I’ve disliked the experience of people reading to me every since I was a child old enough to read on my own), I got curious.
And. Oh my god. This podficcer did such a good job?? The person in question is
Their voice for SQQ’s internal dialogue truly is so deeply truly perfect?? Admittedly, their voices for LBH & SQQ during the actual dialogue don’t match up at all for how I hear them in my head, but that was a minor thing compared to how much I loved everything else, and I did get used to it by the end. And the (usually cat-related) bloopers were also just so so delightful. And how they did the System’s voice!! I was literally standing there thinking, “god I wish I’d included more interjections from the System in this fic” solely because I enjoyed hearing how they did that aspect.
I loved this so much that I went to their works page in the hopes that they’d also done podfics for any of my favorite fics from this fandom, but unfortunately, all of their other podfics were either for fics I’d disliked, my NOTP, or fics I’m unfamiliar with. But still, absolutely subscribed to them now (who knows what the future will bring, after all!), and absolutely obsessed. (Which remains wild to me, considering the aforementioned nearly life-long dislike for listening to people read aloud, but here we are, apparently??)
In any case, I’m having a great time revisiting this canon, rereading old favorite fics, slowly discovering new fics, and casting thoughtful looks at the mountain of WIPs I’d left unfinished. Who knows how long this revival of feelings is going to last, but I’m going to enjoy every second of it as long as I can <3 <3 <3
