skygiants

This continues to be a year in which I binge webcomics, and today I arrive to tell you about the only thing I've been reading for the past week, the entire back archive of The Hazards of Love.

The Hazards of Love begins with charming delinquent teen Amparo Uribe pulling the fire alarm at school, asking their charmed but dubious straight-A-student crush Iolanthe out on a first date, getting chewed out by their grandmother, and making a very bad deal with a talking cat. This results in the cat claiming Amparo's name and human life, while Amparo is exiled to Bright World, a (heavily Mexican-folklore-influenced) magical land filled with magical creatures who think that human flesh is a delicacy perhaps only surpassed by the savor of human memories.

In the A-plot, [Amparo-that-was] struggles their way at GREAT personal cost into a temporary name and position as the servant of a cruel and malicious shadow in the shape of a deer. They are not the first to have this name or position and their predecessors didn't end well, but [no-longer-Amparo] is pugnaciously determined to hold onto their humanity, forge alliances with the few other humans who've managed to survive in Bright World, and find their way home no matter what!

In the B-plot, charming delinquent teen Amparo Uribe turns their life around and really begins to appreciate the people around them, to everyone's surprise and especially Iolanthe's ....

I love [no-longer-Amparo] enormously, which is not a surprise; I was walking to work on Friday and I stopped in the middle of the street and said out loud, "Jamie Hamilton from Homeward Bounders again?!" Yes, it's another mouthy little shit with jokes and a chip on their shoulder who through carelessness and minor bad luck lost everything they ever loved and are powering themselves exclusively on the objectively baseless conviction that they're going to be the first one in history who manages to get it all back. Jamie Hamilton from Homeward Bounders AGAIN. ( Have a couple of favorite [might-someday-again-be-Amparo]s: )


However I ALSO love the B-plot, which engages with one of my favorite too-rare fictional scenarios, ( spoilers through the first third of the webcomic )

Strong recommend! Sad to be caught up on my binge because now I'm back on agonizingly slow webcomic update schedule but glad to be caught up so I can have any attention to read other things! Am I prioritizing this write-up right now because I nominated it for Yuletide and I want to try to pitch it on people before sign-ups? MAYBE. (Happy to provide warnings if desired; this story does not pull its punches and abuse and trauma are big ongoing themes.)

Aside from OTPs, lacewood also asked me for my Top 5 Platonic BFF Pairings, which is an awesome question but tricky because I am going to try not to overlap with any of the BFF pairings I talked about when I did my top five BFF moments. To make narrowing it down easier, I am also very strictly ruling out anyone I think might be even a little bit not entirely platonic. (SORRY KYOKO AND KANAE, but that nosebleed disqualifies you from the running.)

( For over-long babbling about FRIENDSHIPS, click the cut! )

As always, you are cordially invited to tell me about your own favorite platonic fictional BFFs!