#both are explicitly transformative of the source material

[fantastic-nonsense]

Charting out Shiva's "backstories" (or rather, vaguely implied backstories) throughout the years and how Tate Brombal's new History of Shiva in Batgirl 2024 impacts Shiva, Cass, and their relationship moving forward:

After Batgirl #8's publication today, I thought I'd take a look at what pieces of Shiva's history were previously depicted before now and how Tate Brombal has changed things (or kept them the same)...just to see what he did and didn't do in context of Shiva and Cassandra's history. I have a lot of thoughts on how he's approached this given what little we actually knew about Shiva going in and how messed up Cassandra's own history still is, so let's dive right in!

1975: Denny O'Neil writes Shiva in Richard Dragon as someone who has no backstory. She's here to kick ass, take names, and avenge her sister; her backstory, where and how long she trained for, etc. is irrelevant. Sandra's sister Carolyn is killed by the Swiss in a getaway chase between Richard Dragon and the Swiss, and Shiva comes after Richard because the guy who hired the Swiss convinced her Richard was responsible for it.

The two shreds of Woosan Sisters backstory we do get: 1) Carolyn has an uncle named 'Shiruto', a weapons developer who kills himself rather than reveal his secrets to the Swiss within two pages of his first appearance, and 2) Carolyn goes to school in New York City and is O-Sensei's goddaughter:

"I am Carolyn Woosan...the O-Sensei is my godfather!" -Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter (1975) #2

This is never elaborated on at any point after this comment and Shiva seemingly does not know who O-Sensei is when she and Richard track him down later in the series. Shiva has several adventures with Richard and Ben Turner within this book but is not mentioned again in the pre-Crisis universe after it ends. Within the actual source material, this is all we get of Shiva.

Then we start getting into the additional information and various changes that occurred post-Crisis:

1987: In the Who's Who in the DC Universe 1987 Update, after Denny O'Neil reintroduced Shiva in The Question, we get a Shiva write-up seemingly indicating that the entirety of Richard Dragon is still canon while also providing a few new shreds of Shiva backstory:

"After being convinced by criminal industrialist Guano Cravat that her sister Carolyn had been slain by Richard Dragon, Sandra Woosan swore to slay her sister's killer. She studied and prepared, taking the name Lady Shiva." ".....before transforming herself into Lady Shiva, Sandra had a basic knowledge of the martial arts. These skills were then honed to near perfection and she is now one of the deadliest fighters in the world." -Who's Who: Update '87

1991: the next Who's Who write-up of Shiva further implies that Richard Dragon is still canon and somewhat explicitly says that Shiva did not start studying martial arts until Carolyn was killed:

"Life presents many different paths and opportunities to a person. Sandra Woosan's life took a destructive path when Guano Cravat, a criminal industrialist, convinced her that martial artist/spy Richard Dragon killed her sister Carolyn. Motivated by revenge, Sandra dedicated her life to mastering the martial arts, hoping one day she could beat Dragon at his own game. Sandra became a master of many forms of combat and confronted Dragon." -Who's Who in the DC Universe (1990) #10

Both the 1987 and 1991 write-ups are extra-canonical material that are not, to my knowledge, mentioned anywhere in-text, and neither were written or directed to be written by Denny O'Neil. But like. They're there and ambiguously canon.

2004: Chuck Dixon writes Richard Dragon, a maxiseries that de-canonizes all previous information in favor of saying that Shiva met Richard at a fighting tournament in Japan while scouting for students. Richard, Ben, and Shiva's histories are all massively fucked up as a result of this maxi. While nothing is explicitly stated about Shiva's history, she mentions offhand near the beginning of the book that she has "unfinished business in Detroit," which leads us to...

2006: Andersen Gabrych writes Shiva in Batgirl as a girl who grew up with her sister Carolyn in Detroit. This is first mentioned in Batgirl #65 and then slightly elaborated on in Batgirl #73, in the process of retconning Shiva to be Cassandra's mother:

"We all knew each other. But there was one time...[Cain and Shiva walk away from a fight. He seems to be telling or asking her something. She shoves him and walks off]...never asked her about it. Me and Sandy weren't tight like that." "Wait. Sandy?" "Oh. Haha! Well, before she annointed herself Lady Shiva, she was just plain old Sandra Wu-San from Detroit." -Batgirl (2000) #65

Sandra and Carolyn are now both martial arts prodigies who trained constantly, fought together, and either a) trounced people on the competition circuit or b) put on fighting exhibitions that everyone came to see, depending on how you read and extrapolate from the two pages of story we get, which is how Cain found her:

"Long ago and far away...in the land of Detroit, lived two sisters. Though as different as night and day, they loved each other deeply. And more than that—they loved to dance. Every moment of the day was spent in lessons. They danced all through the night. They danced so much it became the secret language of sisters. The world had never seen anything like it. People would come from near and far to watch the sisters perform. People like the lonely hunter, Cain." -Batgirl (2000) #73

Cain kills Carolyn to "unleash Sandra's potential." Sandra goes after him in revenge and fails to kill him. Explicit sexual coercion happens (Cain gave her a 'give me a child or die' proposition with a gun to her head), Sandra trains with Cain until she has Cass, and then she goes off to "be reborn" as Shiva.

Batgirl is the first time we get any actual substantive Shiva background in-text post-Crisis. Her time working with Richard and Ben as part of the Kung-Fu Fighter Crew is now extra definitively non-canon, as even beyond Dixon's book there is no way to reconcile Cain killing Carolyn in Detroit with the events of KFF. O-Sensei is similarly not mentioned in any capacity. Carolyn has been slightly revamped from helpless damsel to someone who was theoretically capable but "got in the way." We still see none of it beyond a 7 page fairy tale-esque sequence that does a lot of victim-blaming of Sandra for taking Cain's deal to save her life. Moving on.

2007: Gail Simone writes Shiva in Birds of Prey as someone who may or may not have grown up in an unidentified, purposefully hidden "Southeast Asian village." Regardless of whether she grew up there, that's certainly where she "became Shiva," training under the brutal woman known only as "Mother." Carolyn is not mentioned. Simone implies that the Detroit backstory established in Batgirl is also somewhat true:

"This is the agreement we made. To trade life experiences." ... "Why here, Shiva? I'd heard you grew up in Detroit." "That is only part of the story." -Birds of Prey (1999) #93

However, Simone's new backstory (if taken as true, which is not necessarily the case, because nothing is definitively stated at any point) completely contradicts Gabrych's backstory, as Mother implies that Shiva was raised in the village on multiple occasions:

"Just so you are aware, Tag...at four years of age, she cried out less than you did just now." -Birds of Prey #92

There is also an implied "there must always be a Shiva" element to this backstory, as Sin Lance was being groomed to become Shiva's successor before Dinah dropped in.

Generally, I think a reasonable explanation, given the sequence of canon events, is that you can fit this village into Shiva's post-Crisis backstory if you assume it's where Sandra at least partially trained to become Shiva after leaving Cain and Baby!Cass. So Mother credits herself as Shiva's "mother" because it is where Sandra died and Shiva was born. But that's an assumption and not anything definitively backed up by canon.

Fast forward to...

2015-2018: Cassandra is reintroduced into post-Flashpoint continuity during the events of Batman and Robin Eternal. Shiva is not mentioned. When Shiva does finally appear in Tynion's Detective Comics Rebirth run, her backstory and relationship with Cain is not elaborated on beyond the fact that she "had no idea what David Cain did with her daughter" and wanted to see if Cass was "worth her time." We get one tiny tidbit from Ra's taunting Shiva that hints that the Batgirl-era Detroit backstory is possibly canon, but that's it:

"Sandra Wu-San. Searching so hard to find what she lost back in Detroit. But instead losing more and more of herself until there was nothing left. Nothing but Shiva." -Detective Comics (2016) #956

2019: Bryan Hill writes Shiva in Batman and the Outsiders as someone who now vaguely grew up in a village in China. Apparently this village used to be full of assassins but is now a village of farmers:

"As I recall, you were born in a small Chinese village. Once a place of assassins. Now a land of farmers." -Batman and the Outsiders (2019) #12

There is no elaboration on whether it was still an assassin training ground when Shiva lived there or if it was already a farming village by the time she was born. This is a brand new backstory that completely contradicts Gabrych's Detroit backstory (which had been previously hinted at in Tynion's Tec run) and largely contradicts Simone's possible village backstory...and only Detroit is even remotely reconcilable with Cassandra's New 52 backstory. Shiva also does a complete about-face from Tynion's portrayal of her; she now thinks of Bruce as someone who "took" Cassandra from her and seemingly desperately wants to be a mother to her. This portrayal continues into Batgirls and more recent books.

2022-2023: Che Grayson explicitly names this Chinese village as 'Duoyishu Village' in Batman: Urban Legends #3:

[Location stamp stating 'Duoyishu Village, China'] -Batman: Urban Legends (2021) #3

We have no idea how long the girls lived there with their parents, what their life in the village was like, and no clue what happened in between then and now other than the tidbit that Shiva has very few memories of her childhood and loved her mother's pork belly:

"Memories...you know, I don't remember much from when I was a child." -Urban Legends #3

Grayson also continues the throughline established by Hill in Outsiders and Cloonan/Conrad in Batgirls of Shiva seeing Bruce as someone who "took Cassandra from her" in both this story and the "Memory Lane" Birds of Prey story in Urban Legends #14-16.

Then Kelly Thompson reintroduced Sin Lance in Birds of Prey (2023), largely wholesale; this means that Dinah and Shiva's "life experience swap" arc from Simone's BOP run is canon again...and implicitly, Simone's potential Shiva backstory. We also have Alyssa Wong, who wrote Spirit World (2023) and effectively re-canonized the entirety of Batgirl (2000) in the process. So both Detroit and "Asia" are both actively on the Shiva multiple choice backstory menu; any pre-2004 conceptulization of Sandra as a "normal girl" who never really knew martial arts before Carolyn died? Seemingly off the table.

By this point, the events of Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter have not been canon since (generously) at least 2004. Shiva now has four largely contradictory origin story hints, three of which are ambiguously canon and none of which have been expanded upon enough to actually say anything useful about Sandra, Carolyn, Cassandra, their relationships with each other, or their collective past. Cass's own backstory is also still a royal mess with all of the nonsense that happened with her between 2006 and 2023.

Cue Batgirl 2024 and Tate Brombal, who for the first time sat down and told Shiva's story in her own words. In this new interpretation, we get a solid mixture of old and new that's been put into a blender:

Ming-Yue and Mei-Xing's parents were a forbidden romance from rival sects, the Blood and the Unburied. They lived as nomads in China, including in Duoyishu Village, until they were killed by Wu Feng (leader of The Blood and the father's brother) in the Tibetan Himalayas. They were then raised and trained by Akhu and a group of monks, hidden away in "a small village in the Himalayas" until the Blood attacked.

After leaving the village post-Blood attack, Mei and Yue traveled the world for a few years, mastering various combat forms and martial arts, and finally landed in in Detroit, where they took the American names Carolyn and Sandra and started putting on exhibition fights. We then get the Batgirl-era backstory of them continuing to dance, fight, and perform for crowds as a travelling act and being seen by Cain.

Brombal then does some timeline shenanigans, making Sandra and Carolyn crimefighters once they meet Richard Dragon and Ben Turner, adding Carolyn to the Kung-Fu fighter team and fully re-canonizing everything from the 1975 Richard Dragon series post-Shiva's introduction (for the first time in 20 years+) so they can all work and chill together before everything goes to shit.

Cain, who has been stalking Sandra for some time, makes a creepy af proposition to her in a dark alley. She refuses. He states that he knew she would, which is why he's already removed Carolyn from the equation. She rushes home, and together with Richard and Ben finds Carolyn dead and left for her to find. And this is where we've left off, with the final part of the story (Shiva and Cain) seemingly left for the final part of this three-part arc.

So. Where does this leave us with Shiva? Well, let's start with a look at what Brombal seemingly took from Shiva's various other canon lore drops:

Shiva was born and at least partially raised in a Chinese village as a young girl before their parents' deaths (Batman and the Outsiders, Urban Legends),

Sandra and Carolyn were raised and taught by Akhu, implied to be the O-Sensei (the man who trained Richard and Ben in Kyoto, Japan), in an unidentified southeast Asian village located somewhere in the Himalayas (possibly calling back to Simone's potential backstory in Birds of Prey). They call him "practically a godfather," calling back to Carolyn's lore drop in RDKFF #2

Sandra and Carolyn lived in Detroit for some time (re: Batgirl #73),

Sandra and Carolyn danced and fought together for years, to the point of being able to work together seamlessly (Batgirl #73)

Cain finding Shiva through Sandra and Carolyn's exhibition matches in Detroit, seeing potential in Sandra and thinking Carolyn holds her back, and killing Carolyn and leaving her body for Sandra to find (Batgirl #73)

The entirety of the events of Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter (1975) post-Shiva's introduction, excepting the specifics of Carolyn's death (which he takes largely wholesale from Batgirl #73 while changing the timeline so it occurs during the time Sandra was working with Richard and Ben rather than before),

Richard Dragon's name, look, and general pre-O-Sensei backstory from Dixon's Richard Dragon run, with the caveat that all of the nonsense about Ben training Richard got thrown out the window in favor of the OG Richard Dragon interpretation of both Richard and Ben being trained by O-Sensei

……also the Richard/Shiva implications from both the 1975 Richard Dragon run (where it was mostly a couple of jokes Ben makes at Richard's expense) and Dixon's 2004 Richard Dragon maxi (which makes Richard kind of obsessed with her)

And now a look at what's new: Sandra and Carolyn Wu-San not being the girls' birth names, the family history with the Unburied and the Blood, the defined adolesence in the Himalayas, the nomadic life post-China and pre-Detroit, Carolyn being part of the Kung-Fu Fighter crew (+her relationship with Ben), and the timeline shenanigans to re-canonize RDKFF while also keeping Shiva's Batgirl-era backstory intact. Also new: Carolyn having a personality, Sandra and Carolyn's rather complex familial relationship, and Sandra's hunger for vengeance pre-dating Carolyn's murder.

So. What are my thoughts on all of this?

First off, I really love the reinvention of the Kung Fu Fighter crew. It solves a lot of timeline issues, leaves the door open for someone to truly update those stories for the modern day, and fixes 3.5 characters in one go (giving Richard and Ben their proper histories and personalities back, giving Carolyn something to do outside of die in Richard's arms, and giving Shiva her crimefighting era back, inserting the moral ambiguity back into her history rather than making her a flat villain like she has been so often for the past 25 years), so I'm not mad about it at all.

I'm happy Brombal is giving Shiva a life, voice, and perspective outside of 'Shiva The Mother' and 'Shiva the Villain.' Shiva the daughter and Shiva the sister are not things that have ever been explored before! I also genuinely love the work being put in to make Carolyn an actual character, especially the page-time dedicated to showcasing Sandra and Carolyn as two women who have a complex relationship and long history outside of Carolyn's fridging and Sandra becoming Shiva in response. It gives us a real look into why Carolyn's murder was the catalyst for Sandra becoming Shiva, and I think it's a very effective one.

Mei has opinions that put her in conflict with Yue; she's more peace-loving and disciplined in general than Yue, but less willing to keep her head down and look the other way when injustice is happening. She doesn't like combat as much as Yue even though she's better at it. She clearly feels parentified by her mother's last charge to look after her younger sister. She likes boys more and wants to proactively help people and move on from her past in a way that Yue is simply incapable of thinking about. It's a really fascinating glimpse into Carolyn as a person and her relationship with Sandra.

I'm also a huge fan of Brombal seemingly doubling down on unpacking the implications of Cain's "proposition" to Sandra in Batgirl #73 when she tracks him down for revenge and fails to kill him:

"I want what you want. Perfection. To help you meet your target. The power and ability to put the world in its place...vengeance against the man who killed your parents. All I ask for is one thing. For years, I have been developing the perfect weapon, the perfect...killer. But failure after failure has only proven [he touches Sandra's stomach] the importance of good stock." -Batgirl (2024) #8)

He previously implied that Shiva hated Cain and the entire situation surrounding Cass's birth, but that one was a lot more ambiguous:

"I know what I am, and I know you hate it. But that old woman, Ba Bao, she said that there is soft and there is hard. Well, somewhere along the way, I lost my soft, and I now realize it was when I had you. You took all my soft, daughter. I held you in my arms, and I saw it. I saw my sister, too. And perhaps I hated you for it. Perhaps I wanted to hate you for it. To make it easier to leave you with that—that man." -Batgirl (2024) #4

Personally, this is a fantastic and very welcome change in my book. The only time we've ever gotten the story of Shiva and Cain was a victim-blamey 7 page sequence in the last issue of Batgirl (2000), where Shiva implies that she appreciated him "unlocking her potential" as a fighter and "setting her free" from Carolyn despite also explicitly stating that she still missed Carolyn every day. While I don't AGREE with the interpretation that Shiva actually genuinely loved Cain at all and think it's an incredible simplification of what Shiva actually told Cass, it's very easy to walk away with that vibe if you don't dig into it much, so I'm super happy to see a writer willing to actually unpack all that.

We've also never gotten any attempt to deal with the implications of Cass knowing that history, as Cass spent most of that issue fighting Shiva and leaving her for dead dangling over the Lazarus Pit and then the Evil Cass arc happened...so absolutely nothing in that last arc about Cass finding out Shiva was her mom and the origins of how she came to be got unpacked or dealt with. And then her backstory was fucked over during the New 52 (something that still hasn't actually been fixed and dealt with), so she didn't know about it all over again!

Overall I'm mixed on the various childhood stuff, specifically the inclusions of the Unburied and the Blood. It's always fun to see new cool secret warrior groups, especially ones unconnected to the League of Assassins (which modern DC loves to use as an umbrella assassin group instead of 'one among many'), and their inclusion in Shiva's backstory is very obviously a set-up for one of the things that Brombal wants to have Cass deal with moving forward. This is his way of expanding Cass's world beyond Gotham and beyond Nyssa's League of Assassins sect. I think I'm withholding full judgement until I see where he goes with it, and whether my theories that a) the groups will be used to explain Shiva's odd capacity for healing and b) Wu Lin (the Bloodmaster introduced in Batgirl #4) will be revealed to be Shiva's cousin—and Cass's second cousin—actually pan out.

What I'm not a fan of: Sandra having a hunger for vengeance prior to Carolyn's murder, having dream premonitions of Carolyn's death and becoming Shiva, and brazenly dictating all of this history to Cass via a post-mortem diary and saying she trusts her with her life and her vengeance. I do think it defeats the purpose of "Shiva" for it to be an inevitable conclusion for Sandra instead of an avoidable tragedy, and I dislike the concept of Shiva being anything other than in love with danger and in love with living life on the edge during the Kung-Fu Fighter era. While the rest of it certainly has its place in Shiva's life, the jaded perspective and Batgirl-era death wish should have come later, after Cain. I also think she trusts Cass far too much considering their history up to that point, but I'm willing to give some grace on that front since it's a plot device.

Generally speaking, I find that Brombal's Lady Shiva is a Sandra that generally follows from what we've seen of her since 2006, a Lady Shiva that's clearly couched in an attempt to deal with 50 years and three universes worth of history, and a Shiva-and-Cass relationship that encompasses basically the totality of everything that's been done with them since they first met in Batgirl (2000) #7, including the work done since the 2019 Outsiders run.

While that's not necessarily my preferred interpretation of Shiva or her relationship with Cass, it's also not one that Brombal is inventing out of thin air for the sake of a story. He's obviously very well-read on both Shiva and Cass and is trying to reconcile all of the various contradictory aspects of what's been handed to us in canon regarding Shiva's history and her behavior towards Cassandra. This is very difficult considering that 50 years and three continuities have happened since Richard Dragon #5 and Brombal clearly has his own story that he wants to tell with both Shiva and Cass.

I think just like all other previous attempts to tell both Shiva's story and Cass's story....some of it worked, some of it didn't. But overall I generally loved the issue and think it was pretty well done considering what Brombal had to work with. I'm super interested to see how he tackles Cass's reactions to all of this and what impact it has on her perspective of her mother moving forward. The whole 'Mother' arc, after all, was ultimately about Cass trying to reconcile who she thought Shiva was with who Shiva actually is in the context of her own life and history with her, and then setting up a new emotional status quo for both women. And we're finally past the set-up, so I'm really looking forward to the payoff.

[amigac0debasic13]

Im turning my previous post into a public service announcement for all transformers artists who still do this. Unsure if these people are just not gay themselves or have some kind of. internalized homophobia?

But please, for the love of the gods that aren't there please, please stop fetishizing characters you've head cannoned as gay. If you intend to draw or talk about a gay relationship I just want to make it public knowledge that it feels like. really shitty and gross when you purposefully take an otherwise masculine character and feminize them purely to fit the ideals of masculine people dating feminine people (generally heterosexual).

If you intend to break these boundaries by making the masculine partner a woman and the feminine partner a man I generally have no qualms with that since you are explicitly trying to break away or critique a harmful and expected normality. BUT. Many, many transformers fans I've seen (who typically aren't gay themselves) do this so their gay ships can be cute and have the small feminine robot man and the big hunky masculine robot man. I'm a gay man myself and this is incredibly insulting. just so you know. This is really common from what i can tell so im not going after anyone in particular but just. generally.

I believe in your ability to draw masc x masc relationships or fem x fem relationships and to NOT alter the original source material to fit a sexist ideal. okay? Here is my primary example: Megop. Okay I do not hate megop shippers, it isnt for me and thats fine, I think immediately addressing all parts of a shipping group as feminizing one half of their ship is a really shallow way to look at everything since I do know and actively see megop shippers who do not do this. its also okay that megop is like, the most popular ship even though I dont personally fw it.

The problem is when a majority of every megop post I see has people making optimus small and feminine so it feels more straight, or when someone purposefully genderbends only one party to make it straight. Okay, look me in my eyes. If you are going to feminize one character, you will feminize them BOTH. if you are going to genderswap one character, you will genderswap them BOTH. dont be a coward, make optimus and megatron strong powerful butches. Additionally many people also seem to associate a height difference with being feminine or masculine which inevitably feeds back into the idea that women are always shorter than men, ergo "weaker" by sexist ideals.

And let me go into something else: your alien women robots dont have to be skinny and small in all cases. Heres a way to make this fun, these are an entirely different species! maybe their concepts of femininity and masculinity are different than ours? maybe they dont even have that concept at all. this is a critique of the general transformers franchise too because most female cybertronians are small and have no wrinkles and cant be flawed in appearance which is dumb because wrinkly old war-torn women are the best. Heres your ms paint tutorial that i drew in 5 seconds with my mouse of a random woman with no backstory yet. high quality, right?

Youre allowed to make your female characters look like theyre affected by gravity. go on. I believe in you. you can have feminine characters without going all out on sexist beauty standards too, you just gotta believe in yourself. Especially if your girl character fights in a stressful war, you dont need to make em look perfect. Id also like to finish this by saying its okay to have fem x masc gay relationships, and its okay to have really perfect looking characters with no flaws. if theres a reason for it. If youre just feminizing your characters because you cant fathom two masculine men kissing or every single design of a woman on my dash is flawless and skinny and appeals to our standards then I think we can do better, ok? not trying to attack anyone, this is purely something ive been irritated with for a lot of time.

[tavyliasin]

Fanfiction and Profit

Hello loves~ I’ve seen this pop up now and then, about fanfiction and commissions, profit and whether we can pay someone to write the fic we want to read. Unfortunately, I have to be the bearer of bad news:

You absolutely, unequivocally, cannot and should not pay or be paid for fanfiction.

Why not? Well, let’s go over this topic with a look at what fan works are, how we can use them, and where these rules came from.

Why can’t we profit from our hard work? Is this fair?

There are a lot of reasons, and I want to start off with saying this is not about whether it is fair or right, it is a simple statement of the rules by which our hobby, our passion, is permitted to live and thrive. The law does not consider fanfiction to be transformative enough to be legal to profit from, and you will find that AO3 itself explicitly does not allow payment, commissions, or any direct payment sites to be linked on the platform.

I’ll say that one again - it is fully against AO3’s Terms and Conditions to advertise any paid work on the website. You will be warned by moderators if you’re found doing this, and may risk entirely losing your account.

It’s essentially legally complex. The only reason we are allowed to write and share fanfiction at all is because it is non profit. We can’t be sued for making money from someone else’s intellectual properties if we’re not making any money from it.

Why are fan art, songs, and other mediums allowed to profit when we can’t?

This is another piece of nuance for you, which not everyone will agree with. Art is considered to be more transformative, and is generally viewed differently as a medium.

But I will also say here we can look at it purely from a business angle, the legal side that the IP rights holder will be viewing it from too: Fan art can often attract people in to a fandom, to find out who this interesting character is or what the source of the art was. It adds profit to the original creator by bringing new fans to the table.

Fanfiction, on the other hand, is almost exclusively read by people who have already consumed the original media and are looking for new stories. I would argue it is exceptionally rare for someone to read fic before they’ve engaged with the source material. Fic often relies on the reader knowing the characters and stories already, so we can shorthand the exposition and everyone understands what’s going on and why.

When did this become the rule?

The “Elders” of fanfiction will give you a thousand yard stare with this one, because it largely comes back to JRR Tolkien’s estate and Anne Rice. Both were very unhappy with fanfiction existing at all, and are the reason why you might well still see disclaimers at the top of some fics mentioning that all characters, worlds, etc belong to the original rights holders and the work is one of fanfiction that the author does not profit from in any way. Tolkien’s estate and Anne Rice both set legal challenges against fanfic writers, threatening the entire hobby and setting legal precedents at the end of it for what we can and cannot do. What we can do? Write transformative works, based on existing IPs, and share them for free with no profit or money exchanged at any point.

But what about exchanges?

You can offer to exchange fic for fic, or swap art and fanfic. This isn’t getting paid because you aren’t profiting from it, but if you want to encourage someone and be encouraged in return, that is a potential way to do it. So an artist might draw a scene, character or pairing that you love, whilst you write a fic for them. It’s swapping a gift for a gift in that way, and although you could assign monetary value to commissioned art, you aren’t actually exchanging money. It might seem like a bit of a loophole, but it is one that rights holders shouldn’t be able to be upset by really. I can’t see myself how a legal challenge could be raised for damages on that basis, so it should be safe. If you’re not an artist yourself but do want to see something specific from a writer, you could offer to commission art on their behalf in exchange for the fic. It’s imperfect, but in the end you’re supporting both an artist and a writer in that exchange, even if the writer is only gaining a product instead of money, as long as they're not selling it on again.

What if I want to commission someone to write something I want to read?

Well, unfortunately, if you want them to write fanfiction, that’s not possible. You may find some writers are willing to take on prompts, though! Tumblr can be a good one for that, as writers sometimes specify that their ask boxes are open for fic prompts that they might consider writing. You can also try approaching a writer who has written in a style you like and as if they would be willing to write a piece based on your idea or pairing, though you should double check what pairings and topics they’re comfortable writing first.

Isn’t there anything I can do with my writing skills?

Plenty of things! You can use fanfiction as a way to warm up into writing skills in general. Get some practice, feedback, and validation to know you’re on the right track. It’s a wonderful low pressure way to get a feel for fiction writing in general and work out what kinds of stories you’d like to tell.

In some cases, you might be able to take a fanfic you have written and rewrite it to become something original - this might need a lot of work in changing enough names and details for it to become removed from the IP that it was initially based on, but this is certainly something people have done in the past. Most famously, 50 Shades of Grey (my opinions of which are astronomically low for so many reasons, but this is not the place for those) began life as a Twilight fanfiction. 

Writing original fiction will always have its own unique challenges, and is a different experience to fic. For one thing, you need to establish your setting and characters because your readers don’t know them yet. Another that many find tough is going through the writing process without any feedback from beta readers or getting kudos from published chapters. Then, of course, publishing is its own beast… But if you want to profit from writing, then you need to either have a paid role as a writer on a specific IP project, or you need to write your own works and look at getting them published (the main 3 options would be self pub, indie publishers, or trad pub - they all have their pros and cons for different things, so it’s something to do proper research on before committing to any one path).

I found someone offering paid fic, what should I do?

I recommend gently warning them. Not everyone is aware of the risks, so giving them a kind heads up is probably the best bet. You can even direct them to this post if you like, to save re-explaining it all. If they don’t listen, then unfortunately you may need to report their account to AO3 so the moderators there can give them a more formal warning that might be taken more seriously. I have no doubt that the AO3 mods will be able to explain it more clearly and concisely than I can, too.

I have taken payment for fic in the past, what should I do?

First, I'm not here to blame you. Not everyone knows the rules or history - that's why I'm here to share the explanation for anyone who didn't know~ But what you need to do now is immediately stop any offers to take commissions for fanfiction. Scrub your AO3 of any links to payment sites, and remove any reference to "commission" or "paid work" in your writing wherever it is shared. Clean everything up so you are safe from any legal repercussions, and you may need to refund any incomplete commissions. Take a look at the other ways you might be able to earn from your writing, or options for exchanges you might be happy with for writing something bespoke for someone else. We can't change what has already been done, but we can move forward when we know better so we can do better.

Conclusion? Where are we with fic and profit?

The bottom line is the same as the top - for the safety of our fandom communities, we must never accept or offer payment for fanfiction. Doing so not only risks the individual author, but the entire community as a whole. We might not agree with it, and that’s not the conversation I’m here to have, but this is the way things are. It’s not something that can be changed, so we should respect the playground we are in and take care not to end up having the whole place torn down. Fanfic writing is a hobby, and one that brings us a whole lot of community, joy, creativity, and a way to extend the love of a franchise far beyond the ending of the canon content. We get to create and play with all kinds of toys in the toybox in whatever ways we like - that’s special, and I feel we should respect and protect that.

So, we’ll end it here - go, have fun writing, build your skills and style, find and delight your readers, just keep in mind everything that got us here and everything in the future that we want to preserve~

[deliciousangelfestival]

Frosty Affection request - The first time Bucky had to ask Y/N for help.

Please, thank you and feel free to take your time on this!

-Zombie

Thank you for the idea @thezombieprostitute 😘🩷🩷🩷 Here it goes. I hope you like it.

Frosty Affection || Drabble 2

Frosty Affection Masterlist

Thank you to anyone who gave a like, reblog, and left a comment. It motivated me to write more. 

Main Masterlist || support: Ko-fi

The first time Bucky asked Y/N for help: Because of the education he got since childhood, Bucky is an ace in academics and sports. With his good looks and his brain, he's a perfect guy. 

But God is fair; He didn't make Bucky perfect in everything. 

Bucky is clueless about art. 

Whenever there's an assignment to make a slide presentation, he always gets harsh comments from the Professor. The professor said, "Your material is good, Bucky, but the design looks dead." 

As a perfectionist, it doesn't sit well with Bucky. 

 The frustration grew until he decided to seek help from an unexpected source—his girlfriend, Y/N. She's creative and also part of the photography club at the university. (Before she got together with Bucky, she took a picture of him in secret. 😉) 

One evening, Bucky approached Y/N with his laptop, his expression a mix of determination and vulnerability. "Y/N, I need your help with this presentation. I can't seem to get the design right, and it's driving me crazy."

Y/N, who was always supportive, chuckled at his admission. "Don't worry, Bucky. Art is my domain. Let me take a look."

As they sat, Bucky explained his ideas while Y/N navigated the design world with finesse. Their conversation flowed seamlessly, a dance of creativity and logic. Bucky found himself fascinated by the transformation on the screen and how Y/N's eyes lit up when discussing artistic elements.

"You see, Bucky," Y/N explained, "it's not just about the information; it's about how you present it. Let the design complement your brilliant ideas."

In the next class, a rare smile broke across the professor's face as the professor reviewed Bucky's improved presentation. "Barnes, this is a significant improvement. Well done."

With a newfound appreciation for the artistry Y/N brought into his life, Bucky shot a grateful glance her way. It wasn't just about the perfect score; it was about sharing a part of his vulnerability with someone he trusted.

The second time he asked for help from Y/N: Bucky grew up in a household where affection wasn't explicitly expressed among siblings, yet he deeply cared for each of them, especially his younger brother Nicholas.

This time, faced with selecting a birthday present for Nicholas, Bucky sought Y/N's assistance.

"I want to get him something he'd really like, but I have no clue where to start."

Y/N, with a warm smile, reassured him, "Don't worry, Bucky. We'll figure it out together. What does Nicholas enjoy? Any hobbies or favorite things?"

Their conversation unfolded into a delightful exploration of Nicholas's preferences. Y/N suggested a few thoughtful gift ideas, and together, they settled on something that combined fun and practicality.

With Y/N's guidance, Bucky confidently selected the birthday present, and as they wrapped it together, he couldn't help but feel grateful for Y/N's knack for thoughtful gestures.

On the day of Nicholas's birthday, both Bucky and Y/N attended the celebration. Nicholas, beaming with joy, couldn't contain his excitement when he saw his sister Y/N, who participated in the party and brought a special gift just for him.

Bucky, with his present in hand, approached Nicholas.

The nervous anticipation lingered until Nicholas, in a surprisingly mature gesture, pulled Bucky closer and whispered, "I knew sister Y/N helped you. Nonetheless, thank you, brother."

With those words, Nicholas embraced Bucky, creating a touching moment between the two brothers.

Seeing Nicholas' joy made Bucky realize how the gift, with Y/N's help, had strengthened their bond.

Join The Taglist ? 🩷🩷🩷

@scott-loki-barnes

@almosttoopizza

@sapphirebarnes

@thezombieprostitute

@immortalfangirl

Author Note: Hey everyone! 🌟 Your input means the world to me.

If you've got any cool ideas or prompts, whether for this fluff series or any other series, feel free to share them with me!

Just drop them in my ASK/SEND REQUEST box.

Can't wait to hear your awesome suggestions! 🚀💬

[shinxeysartgallery]

The Murder Drones brain worms got me in a chokehold rn

Anyway, I got thinking about the Solver again. Ever since Episode 2, it's been established that the Solver is capable of creating flesh out of seemingly nothing. And we also know since Episode 1 that Disassembly Drones (as well as Workers with the Solver) can regenerate any wounds inflicted on them as long as there's sufficient material for it to use.

The latter seems to imply that it's still abiding by the Laws of the Conservation of Matter - matter cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. Makes sense; it took the materials in the area and transformed them into new body parts to repair damage. Nothing was created or destroyed in that regard. But then what about the flesh?

Episode 7 gave some interesting implications regarding that. We got to see a flashback where the Disassembly Drones were deployed to hunt down and devour humanity, even getting a little scene of V ripping off and swallowing some poor sap's arm and N drinking the blood out of some dude's neck. But here's the thing about that: those two particular humans that were explicitly shown being eaten obviously weren't the only ones that were killed and eaten by them. Much like with all living things, there's only so much room for food inside the body, which also applies to the Drones. Since they're robots, they obviously can't digest it or go shit it out later when they get full like a human or animal can, so where did all the blood and flesh they ate go?

In Episode 2, we see J's core teleport away in a black hole after N stabs it several times with his tail. We've also seen other instances of the Solver being able to teleport or open black holes/wormholes. We also know that all Disassembly Drones have a core like that inside of their bodies. Both Episode 2 and Episode 7 confirmed that the cores can act independently from its host body and still possess Solver abilities. So my theory is that their cores were teleporting the flesh and blood somewhere as it entered the Drones' bodies. Where exactly? It's hard to say, but likely to wherever the source of the Solver is. No, not Cyn, but whatever it was that originally possessed her. She was Patient Zero, but the Solver clearly existed before she woke up in the dumpster. Whatever its source is, that's likely where everything went. If it's still abiding by that scientific law mentioned before, then it explains how it's seemingly able to create it out of nothing - it's not; it's basically moving it from one place to another through use of wormhole magic when its powers are invoked. This also explains how the Disassembly Drones were able to consume what seemed to be an infinite amount of humans without them ever getting full.

(We know its very existence and its other behaviors still break several scientific laws, so this might be a moot point, but it's still interesting to think about!)

It also gives some more interesting implications to Cyn's comment about being hungry before jumping into the giant flesh pit to the center of the planet. Maybe the stuff was being teleported directly to the entity's stomach? And if that's the case, then that's maybe why the portals it makes are so fleshy? It's basically ripping a hole into the entity's stomach that's already full of flesh and blood from its previous kills.

Also as a side note, Episode 1 established that Disassembly Drones require them to drink oil every so often to keep from overheating - a symptom that also exists in Worker Drones with the Solver. We saw in Episode 4 that when Uzi used her Solver powers too much, she began to overheat and go a bit crazy until she was able to consume some oil. What if the Solver entity itself has something similar going on? We don't know what it's doing behind the scenes, after all. What if it's like those Drones, where it needs to consume blood and flesh to keep up its energy, much like how they need oil? If that's the case, Cyn's remark likely implies that it's used up a shit-ton of energy on something, which does not bode well for the future of Copper-9 or its inhabitants... (Or any other planets/exo-planets in that universe, for that matter.)

I'm probably over-analyzing stuff again, but still think it's interesting. lmao

[mrnnki]

https://www.tumblr.com/mrnnki/780552369153966080?source=share

AYO. MR WHAT'D YA MEAN BY THAT.

WHAT ABOUT YOUR FIC--

WHAT

ME EXCITED NOW.👀👀👀

It's not very interesting, I promise! Screamer foreshadowed it a tiny bit in chapter 7, unintentionally. It's mostly glossed over to focus on character moments. Here's a snippet from chapter 17:

But the real issue with Cybertron being "dead" is that Cybertronians/Transformers are basically the koalas or pandas of their planet in this AU. Their definition of habitability is super narrow cause despite being giant battle robots, their internal systems are stupidly delicate.

I'm gonna give in to temptation and paste my notes on the Cybertronian fuel processing system in here. You can probably pinpoint Starscream's fuel issues by reading through them. XD

——

FUEL PROCESSING

All Cybertronians have at least one fuel tank. Larger Cybertronians, such as titans or shuttles, may have a secondary fuel tank used to store extra fuel for long distance travel. When a Cybertronian with multiple fuel tanks intakes fuel, any overflow will go into their secondary tank. Those with a single tank will naturally stop before they reach that point unless their fuel level sensors are malfunctioning.

Proper fuel level sensor function is important, as fuel tanks are inflexible and have a fixed capacity. Cybertronians cannot vomit, and therefore cannot rid themselves of excess fuel, so intake beyond capacity can cause great harm to their systems.

From the fuel tank, fuel passes through a sediment filter, which picks up any debris in the fuel. Afterward, it passes through a fine filter, which removes unwanted molecules. Both filters send waste to the sublimation system, where it is turned to a gaseous form and released into the ventilation system. This gaseous release of waste is why many species must be wary of staying in a poorly ventilated space with a Cybertronian for extended periods of time, and why Cybertronian spaces are often so well ventilated in the first place.

Any waste that cannot be released in gaseous form is circulated back into the fuel lines, which is why it's important for Cybertronians to only intake proper fuels. Unlike their mechanimal relatives, Cybertronians cannot excrete solid or liquid waste. Accumulated waste from improper fuel requires medical intervention.

Defects of the filters may result in:

Buildup of sediment in filters, or, conversely, a buildup of sediment in fuel lines due to inability to filter

Delayed fuel tank emptying (due to obstruction/reduced flow)

Decreased fuel line pressure (typically due to the above)

Lethargy

Inappetance

Defects of the sublimation system may result in:

Straining of the fan system, and in severe cases, fogging or smoke

Abnormal core temperature (the sublimation system contributes greatly to internal heating)

Crystals in the fuel lines (from partially sublimated material)

Nutritional imbalances (due to loss of minerals or an inability to release excess minerals)

Lethargy

——

I really wanna share all of my notes at some point, but I'm afraid to cause I'm not the most knowledgeable guy in the world and I feel like an expert could poke giant holes in all of it. I developed these notes as I went, so stuff that isn't explicitly described in the fic is also subject to change.

I'm using this as an excuse to apply and abstract-ify stuff I'm learning in class, so it's mostly me going "Hey how can I make biology be robots" rather than "how can I make robots be biology."

Buuut... back to the point! See what I mean? These guys are super delicate and hyperspecialized to only consume energeon. When that runs out, they don't have any other options.

No energeon? Uninhabitable planet.

It was inspired by how it seems like they only consume energeon in TFOne, despite the deer appearing to graze. Not 100% sure if that's accurate, but the idea stuck in my brain and I wanted to play with it.

[blazehedgehog]

For your BTAS-inspired Sonic cartoon, would you want the freedom fighters or other non-game characters to be included (even if it was only for a one-off appearance)? If so, do you have any ideas on how you’d incorporate the freedom fighters?

As much as I like the Freedom Fighters and wish there was a way they could return to comics, I don't think they would fit the theme of "Batman: The Animated Series, but for Sonic." They are fun in a spinoff where they get to live in that spinoff, but so much of the point of those comics were that they explicitly separate from every other universe.

They were from a time where all video game cartoons, all video game movies, etc. had no source material to work off of because the source material was either on the other side of the planet in Japan or just did not exist. Or both! Sega of America explicitly threw out whatever Sega of Japan was crafting for Sonic's backstory and made up something totally new.

They were hardly alone. While capturing video for the Sonic Frontiers video, I watched this video on the Pac-Man and Donkey Kong vinyl records from the 1980's. They are FULL of characters, and concepts, and ideas that have nothing to do with what we would come to be enforced as the "canonical representations" of these characters.

That's just how it was.

But whereas those representations only existed briefly, for a couple years or so, the Freedom Fighters stuck around for over twenty years. That little spinoff burrowed into its own little niche in the franchise, built a nest, and roosted there. As Sega of Japan re-established themselves and took control back of Sonic from Sega of America, the Freedom Fighters hung on for dear life and just kept going on pure momentum. After a certain point, it almost felt defiant.

The whole point is that they weren't part of the Sega games. It would feel weird if they were. Even after Ian Flynn tried to incorporate more elements from the games, it still felt noticeably incompatible with Sega's narrative style. The fact they weren't part of the games felt almost like a point of pride, to me. It meant they were uncorruptible from the stupid garbage that gave us something like Sonic Lost World.

The problem there is if you're making a TV show, there's not much of a rogues gallery to work with. It's pretty much just Eggman. This was the problem we faced in Sonic Lost World, right, where they made a big deal about bringing back Sonic's rogues gallery.

By which it meant they brought back basically the only villains that weren't Eggman: Shadow, Chaos 0, and Zavok.

Like, at least if you do a Mega Man cartoon, you get all of the robot masters. If you do a Mario cartoon, you get all of the Koopa Kids and a ton of second-stringers like Kamek and Boom Boom. But with Sonic... it's pretty much just Eggman. You get badniks, sure; and early Archie Sonic tried to make Crabmeat (and to a lesser extent, Coconuts) into lackeys for Robotnik, for instance.

But for the most part, badniks are tools. They are less intelligent than Metal Sonic, less capable. They are cannon fodder. Meant to be easily controlled.

So, really, your only villain is Eggman. And maybe you could expand that to include the Mecha Sonics and of course Metal Sonic if you stretch.

Now, there are other ways to generate conflict. We could downgrade Knuckles as a friend back to a "friendly rival," for one. Somebody who maybe isn't always happy to see Sonic. And, of course, there's what we do with Shadow. Because, like, we can't not do Shadow.

Shadow is a weird one for me, because if we still have Classic Eggman as I suggest, putting Shadow in the mix there feels strange. Even though I kept saying "no origin stories," it's important to note that Batman TAS did actually do a few real origins, and even some original characters. It debuted Harley Quinn, for instance, and season one dedicated an entire two-part episode to showing Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face.

Batman TAS also evolved over time. It introduced its version of Batgirl, Dick Grayson graduated from being Robin to becoming Nightwing, Tim Drake came on as the newer, younger Robin, and so on. There is wiggle room here.

I imagine you could do at least a whole season (10-20 episodes) of exploring Sonic and Tails versus Eggman and robots, and then maybe we hit our evolutionary point where we could do a, like, Sonic Adventure adaptation, or Sonic Adventure 2. Give us leeway to change up Robotnik's appearance, maybe mellow Knuckles out, bring in Rouge and Shadow.

Like, imagine an episode where Knuckles confronts a post-SA2 Shadow like "dude, I used to be mad at Sonic all the time too, but he's not so bad once you get used to the way he does things." and Shadow's just like, "I'm not mad at Sonic. I'm mad at myself."

We could also pull an Ian Flynn and maybe start bringing in guys like Bean, Bark, Fang, and since he loves her so much, even Wendy Witchcart.

My point here before I trailed off on this tangent is that if we did dip into the Freedom Fighters, that would give us a larger pool of villains to pull from. We could bring in Snively, Ixis Naugus, and um. Uhhhh. Lazaar? Remember Lazaar?

Listen, it's fine if we don't include the Freedom Fighters. We're not trying to make "SatAM 2: This Time It's Late Archie Sonic." I wouldn't mind that, but that's not the prompt being given here.

[dracomort]

You are so right Tom Ripley is what you would get if you put Draco Malfoy and Tom Riddle in a blender lmao a well seasoned taco if you will 🌮

Sorry to bring the 1999 film to you awareness…I’ve almost finished the series and am debating checking out the film but the vibes seem a little off. Is it at all worth watching? It seems weirdly sappy and generally off brand for the source material

Tl;dr a bad adaptation but a... good film? According to people that aren't massive haters (ie. NOT me).

TALENTED MR RIPLEY SPOILERS FORTHCOMING

It's... the kind of film that is good if you're watching it without having read (and liked) the source material. Sort of like Kubric's The Shining. A lot of people enjoyed it, including people who have read the book, so bear that in mind. I tend to have extremely strong opinions on most things so you may still enjoy it but I loathed it lol. Brevity is not my strength so this is going to be long, sry.

You can read the following quote from the director and see if you want to see an adaptation of Ripley by someone with this opinion:

A legitimate gripe that fans of the novel might voice is that I entirely missed the point of the book, because the book celebrates an amoral central character who gets away with murder and doesn't seem to suffer for it. And part of the fun of the novel is that he doesn't seem to care. [...] You know that he'll have no remorse about killing other people to get what he wants. And there's a kind of glee in seeing him do it. But it's not a glee that I wanted to transform into the film, partly because of the nature of the way you experience film. But, if that's my technical position, it's also my moral position. I don't want to tell a story about a man who gets away with murder and doesn't care. It doesn't interest me.

Minghella

Sorry, but WHY did you adapt RIPLEY if that was how you felt about the source material. Tom is a deeply sensitive, emotional person, but also a stone-cold psychopath who not only doesn't feel remorse—bar brief moments of clarity—but also believes he's entirely morally justified in his crimes.

Minghella's adaptation manages to be both less progressive and less nuanced than the 1955 book, despite being made almost half a century later. It is also less true to the essence of the book than the French 1960 adaptation, Plein Soleil, despite that film being beholden to the standards and censorship of the mid-20th century. Minghella's film is, I think, a great demonstration of why the American audience on the whole never 'got' Highsmith. She was always far more popular in Europe and I do believe that is because your standard American audience couldn't handle the moral ambiguity of her books.

There's a lot you can read into with TTMR but, to me, the book has always primarily been about class, not sexuality. It has more in common with a film like Parasite than Brokeback Mountain or Maurice. Tom is the American Dream taken to its perverse extreme—a ruthless, ambitious, dishonest character who will do anything to get ahead in a world stacked against him. The class element is near completely erased from the Minghella film, with the focus instead on Dickie as some sort of manic pixie dream girl who Tom stumbles into the thrall of and becomes infatuated and obsessed with to the point of snapping and killing him when he rejects Tom's feelings. Yes, Minghella managed to play into every homophobic stereotype out there by depicting Tom as an explicitly homosexual character and... a violent incel who can't take a hint.

In contrast, book Dickie is stunningly mediocre to the point of being an embarrassment to Tom, far from Jude Law's character. If anything, Tom is the one who brings excitement into Dickie's life . Minghella's Ripley is a shy, ungainly nerd; Highsmith's Ripley has his clumsy moments—certainly never managed to win Marge over lol—but is a capable, charismatic and driven person in his own right.

E Shannon's paper 'Where was the sex?' does a better job of discussing the altered interpretation of Ripley than I can. I've linked SciHub as it's locked behind institution login on JSTOR.

Highsmith certainly explores sexuality with great sophistication, but ultimately sexuality remains subtext in the novel, while it dominates the film. To pursue its concerns, Minghella's film revises the novel's characters and invents others, all with the aim of redefining Tom Ripley for a Hollywood audience. Minghella's Tom is first and foremost a gay man besieged by a hostile, straight world and only secondarily an American social climber on the hunt in Europe. Ironically, Minghella's focus on Tom's "taboo" homosexuality leads to a story that is less-not more-subversive than Highsmith's, whose critique of American ideas of class is lost to the film's paradoxically conventional sexual conflicts. In fact, in one sense, the film altogether inverts the sexual context of the novel. Where the novel uses Tom's sexuality to critique contemporary ideas of class, the film uses Tom's class to critique contemporary ideas of sexuality. Highsmith's Tom Ripley is a diabolical "culmination of the American success ethic" (Cochran 162), while Minghella's Tom Ripley is a misunderstood casualty of sexual bigotry and provincialism and a victim of his own frustrated sexual desire.

And also:

Minghella's audience is encouraged to criticize the monolithic presence of the "straight culture" and sympathize with Tom's dilemma, while Highsmith's readers are asked to consider aspects of culture beyond gay or straight sexual identity. For Minghella, Tom is either gay or straight. Either Dickie loves Tom or he loves Marge. The complex, sometimes asexual relationships of the 1950s novel are replaced with the simpler, blunter sexual truths of 1990s Hollywood, where "homosexual" is becoming almost as normalized as "heterosexual."

They also make a good point about Dickie being arguably closer implied to being a closeted gay man than Tom, which is actually quite a depressing thought. You can understand why he chooses estrangement from his family with that interpretation. Also, his assertion that Tom is in love with Dickie's material possessions, rather than him as a person is something I agree with. Tom doesn't miss Dickie after he dies, because he views Dickie as the sum of his parts—those being his signet ring, his fancy watches, his shiny cufflinks and his nice shoes. Again, deranged <3

Ultimately, I don't believe that even the shadow of a character like Ripley can be adapted to the screen. Dostoevsky being a major influence of Highsmith's is no surprise. Tom reads a lot like one of his rambling, neurotic characters, his inner dialogue being his most critical, defining feature, and not one that can be brought to the screen. Still, Minghella doesn't even try lol. I hate it.

[nifglobal]

Interior Design Courses in Ghatkopar: Skills You'll Master

The field of interior design is exciting, combining technology, creativity and problem-solving abilities. It doesn't matter if you're trying to create beautiful homes or elegant commercial spaces as well as practical offices; having these abilities is crucial. If you're looking for interior design courses in Ghatkopar, It will be a pleasure to find out that Ghatkopar offers several of the best institutions that provide complete training.

Transform Spaces with Expert Interior Design Courses in Ghatkopar

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Interior design extends beyond the basic decoration of a space. It is about preparation, execution, and ensuring aesthetics work in harmony with the purpose. A skilled interior designer understands the concept of colour and spatial arrangement, as well as the layout of furniture and current fashions in the market. Take part in a recognized course explicitly designed for professionals. You will get hands-on experience and gain abilities that set you apart from other people in the crowd.

Skills You'll Master in an Interior Design Course

If you decide to enroll in a reputable institution such as Ghatkopar, it is Ghatkopar's most prestigious interior design institute. It will provide a solid base in both the artistic and technical aspects of designing for interiors. Here's a review of the top methods you'll be taught during your studies:

1. Space Planning and Layout Designing

The most crucial ability that interior designers should possess is the capacity to maximize the area. It is feasible to design designs that enhance the functionality and flow of space regardless of whether they're a workplace or a home-based retail store. Thought-out space planning ensures that each square inch of space is effectively used while preserving its beauty.

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The function of colours is crucial to setting the tone and atmosphere of any room. Learn how to decide on the right colour combination based on mental influences like lighting, conditions of light, and the consumer's preference. Understanding how colour affects different materials and light sources can aid in designing visually appealing and well-balanced spaces.

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Furniture is an essential aspect of any interior or design plan. A course will instruct you on how to select and arrange furniture that will enhance the space and your overall comfort. Certain courses offer tips on customizing furniture styles to assist you in creating unique pieces that satisfy your client's needs.

5. Lighting Design

Lighting can completely alter an area, making it a more expansive and welcoming space. If you're a designer, you should investigate the different types of lighting available: ambient, task, and accent lighting. Learn to blend natural and artificial light sources to achieve the perfect ambience.

6. 3D Visualization and CAD Software

Interior designers today rely on technology to help them bring their designs to life. The training will take place in industry-leading software such as AutoCAD, SketchUp, and 3D Max to create realistic 3D models of your concepts. It helps you present ideas to clients and make the changes that are required prior to taking action.

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Interior designers often work with multiple stakeholders, including contractors, architects, and customers. Understanding how to oversee projects, handle budgets, and coordinate the efforts of various groups is a vital aspect of education. The institutes that offer interior design classes in Ghatkopar give students the necessary knowledge to manage project timeframes and ensure their success.

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Alongside their technical expertise, interior designers need to master negotiations and communications. Recognizing a client's requirements, clearly presenting concepts, and directing constructive feedback are crucial elements of the job. Numerous courses offer training in soft skills to aid students in becoming proficient professionals.

10. Understanding Building Codes and Regulations

An interior designer who is trained must be aware of the code of construction safety and safety standards as well as the legal standards. Schools ensure students are informed regarding these aspects to prevent worries about compliance with the designs they plan to create.

Choosing The Right Institute for Interior Design Courses in Ghatkopar

Choosing an appropriate school is the initial step if you're planning to take on an interior design profession. The best interior design institute in Ghatkopar has a school with a structured course, skilled instructors, and practical training options. Before making a decision, you should consider the following aspects:

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Proficiency of the faculty, as well as relationships with industry

Instruction in practical and in the internships

Success stories of alums and support with placing testimonials

Conclusion

Interior design can be rewarding as well as lucrative financially. If you've got the proper training, you can make stunning interiors that will leave a lasting impact. If you're planning to build a successful career within the field, enrolling in one of the interior design courses located in Ghatkopar is a fantastic starting place. Now, you are ready to let your creative ideas take over and transform areas more attractive by utilizing your innovative design concepts!

[cleverthylacine]

Are we doing literary/media analysis here or are we writing fanfiction here?

I'm not saying that literary and media analysis are worthless, although I'm not the least bit interested in them when I write fanfiction unless they're theories I agree with and would like to play with.

If we're having a talk about the source material in the context of the real world, then yes, those things are valuable.

But I never hear the issues of "coding" or "authorial intent" come up in critical discussions of fanfiction unless someone is trying to say that writing a character against coding/authorial intent or shipping a character against coding/authorial intent is somehow morally or politically problematic and doing it makes you a bigot or an abuse apologist.

Beneath the cut, for your amusement: the quiet parts I'm not saying out loud where anyone who doesn't want to read them can't avoid it, aka, some recent fandom wankery by people who want to canonise coding and authorial intent not actually present in the text in order to make people stop writing stuff they enjoy.

(It is no longer about Gravity Falls and how everyone who says writing Ford in a relationship is ace erasure can bite my entire ass--if he's ace-coded, why is he always talking about how sad he is that he fails with women so much? Now it is about Transformers, but probably not the TF characters you were thinking of. Anyhow, I thought Roxy was the Lalonde who was transmasc, and that wasn't coding; you can say it was an AU if you want because Homestuck is full of them, but in at least one universe in the Homestuck multiverse, Roxy was explicitly an FTM egg that hatched.)

I don't want to hear some anti bawling about how John Barber's remark that "if either one of them was the parent, it was Ravage, not Soundwave" means my Ravage/Soundwave fic is incest fic, because I'm not writing the characters as parent and child.

(Especially not if they're too chicken to admit they are squicked by the fact that Ravage's frame is cat shaped, because they know I'll throw the Harkness test at them, as in "Ravage is smart enough to have arguments with Megatron that Megatron actually feels the need to respond to respectfully, and Ravage's entire fucking story arc is about how looking like an animal doesn't make you one.")

The parental relationship is not in the canon. I wasn't there when he made the quip and I don't know how seriously he meant it, and he wasn't the only writer on that series of comics, and both of those characters were living on their own when they met.

Soundwave wasn't doing very well, but it was because he had a disability that he wasn't handling well. He turned out to be a perfectly capable adult after Ravage, who had a similar disability, taught him some coping methods.

I personally have issues with the infantilisation and desexualisation of disabled people, so I have a really hard time not telling these antis exactly how and with what they should fuck themselves.

The way people talk about their blorbos is so funny "can't explain it but [character they relate to heavily] definitely [trait they share]" like yeah sometimes it's coding and sometimes you've discovered headcanons. Congrats.

[luxheroica]

Which two of your favorite fanfictions are twilight if i may ask?

The one that I wholeheartedly recommend and that is objectively really great is Cowboys & Indians by Minisinoo. It’s all about Leah Clearwater and Jasper becoming friends and going on a roadtrip, and is really textual about the metaphor of vampires vs werewolves not being about that. (Hint: it’s about race.) I seem to remember the author self-identifying as Native but a quick google isn’t turning anything up and I don’t want to speak to that effect? Anyways this is my go-to example of fanfiction as transformative fiction.  It also has a brief one-shot sequel called The Star Quilt which is equally as nice.

The other one is Luminosity by Alicorn, which is a rewrite of Twilight in the style of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, which was extremely big for a time. I don’t actually enjoy MoR (I feel like it’s too condescending towards its audience???), but I enjoy this. Theoretically it presents a Bella-As-Rational character, but I’ve always felt like it presented more of a Bella-As-Agent character. She’s not fundamentally different character-wise, but she is always consistently making decisions that impact her fate. Sometimes in ways that have consequences! (Really, really horrific consequences!) There is a twist at the end that knocked my socks off that the author would go there. 

[riallasheng]

Pardon the intrusion!! I might be giving away my age here 😭 but what is anticanon, wishcanon, crackcanon, cherrycanon and probacanon? :0 Very curious

*laughs* No worries at all!! ^^

========

Canon – Things explicitly shown/stated in the source material. (Sam Winchester knows a lot about plants and can shoot a gun. Joe Morelli’s car blew up and nearly took Janet with it)

Apocrypha Canon/Authorial Intent – Things explicitly stated by the creators of the source material to be canon, but did NOT show up, or was not made clear, in the canon material. (Dumbledore being homosexual, the identity and location of several of the clans in Gargoyles, etc).

Cherrycanon – cherry picking parts from canon that you enjoy. Usually applied to the older fandoms that have multiple timelines/canons (such as Transformers, where you have the 80s toon, 80s comic, IDW etc. Having Nooroo be female as she is in the Korean dub, rather than how he is male in most of the other dubs) but can apply to any source material. Often seen in conjunction with Anticanon.

Anticanon – A fan idea/canon that is contradicted by canon or outright breaks/ignores canon. Breaking or ignoring either a single or small number of canon events or elements but otherwise holding true to canon. A minor character death is ignored. That really, REALLY, stupid line that you feel was totally OOC wasn’t said, that canon fact that contradicts common sense or other canon totally is dropped. (‘Oh everyone Goliath and company ran into was totally speaking English on the World Tour’ and ‘they totally spoke modern English in 900s SCOTLAND’. NOPE. Nope nope nopiety nopenopenope)

Probacanon – Things that are IMPLIED by the source material’s creators but not stated outright, apparently comes from the creators but is not from a fully trusted/verifiable source, and/or that have so much evidence supporting them and nothing at all that contradicts them that they very well may BE canon, but it is not outright stated or shown to be canon in the source material or by the creators. Note that if this is contradicted or debunked by ANY of the creative team such as producers, actors, artists, writers, etc… IT IS NOT PROBACANON. It doesn’t matter how popular the theory is or how much you want it to be canon, if it is negated in any way it is headcanon/fanon/AU. (Prowl and Smokescreen being Praxians due to mold-sharing with Bluestreak. Nino’s family being from Reunion, from Astruc’s twitter page. Also the Nino’s family being from Morocco, which only has a screenshot of a privately answered tumblr-mail, which some fans consider non-verifiable. Conversly, Destiel, which has had members of the creative team debunk it over the years, is NOT probacanon and instead is headcanon/fanon/crackcanon/AU depending on who you ask… and please note I SHIP Destiel and really love said ship.)

FanworkCanon – Things explicitly shown/stated in a fanwork series, making it canon THERE. (Alya’s father was a Nurse, Juleka likes music and is good with computers/coding, Rose wants to paint everything in Paris pink, etc. are examples of FanworkCanon in my series) Many things that are my headcanons/etc for the series are FanworkCanon for obvious reasons.

Headcanon – a fan created theory that is both NOT contradicted in anyway by canon and is at least partially supported by canon/apocrypha. (The Thunderbirds being numbered in order of construction)

Wishcanon – a fan created theory that is NOT contradicted by canon, but is not necessarily supported by canon/apocrypha… and the rules for ‘not contradicted’ are a wee bit more lax. Things you wish were in the show/canon but are not moored in anyway to canon. ie: not supported. Although if it is CONTRADICTED by canon it become an anticanon(Marinette, while excelling at combat games, is actually average-at-best at other game types, such as RPG)

Fanon – a fan created theory/headcanon/wishcanon/anticanon that is so popular/well known that it is often mistaken for, or treated like, canon.

Crackcanon – I know it’s not gonna happen, YOU know it’s not gonna happen and it’s completely left field… but good lord is it FUNNY and silly and soooooo much fun.

[maulish]

Immortality of Orcs

This is a topic that comes up time and again because the material that deals with the subjects in question is extremely fragmented and has thus remained somewhat unclear. It’s something that has always been of interest to me so I’ve tried to get as close as I can to some kind of clarity on the matter and this here is my attempt to lay out everything that is known from published materials. I will also offer my view of how it all fits together and what the implications are for questions that aren’t directly answered in the texts. 

Before I go into the topic, I have to first explain one of the main sources that I’m drawing from in this post, because it’s likely the least known to a lot of people. It’s the series of books that are collectively known as The History of Middle-Earth, and contain the writings by Tolkien relating to his legendarium, which have then been collected and organized by his son Christopher Tolkien. These texts include Tolkien’s own commentary, notes and at times elaborations which were not included in the published versions of his works. But most crucially for the subjects at hand — various versions of published texts and revisions with added commentary in which Tolkien often explains his intent and reasoning for one or another thing. 

There is one specific text titled Orcs in Morgoth’s Ring, which is central here. There are three alternate versions of it that have significant differences between them. The conclusion I come to, specifically with regard to the matter of the possiblity for the immortality of Orcs, rests on the final version of this text and the implications of Tolkien’s commentary on it. 

I will come back to the contents of it later on, but I wanted to first give you a contextual understanding of the legitimacy of the source material that I will be referencing here. In the process I will probably also bring up other topics which deserve to be looked at separately, but the focus of this post remains on the question of immortality.

In short, I find that there is enough to support the understanding that Orcs are or at least can be immortal. Okay, it’s a bit more complicated than that, because we also have to make several distinctions in this regard. Anyway, let’s start from the beginning.

A key aspect in all this is the origin of the Orcs. After toying around with a couple of different ideas Tolkien settled on the version of their origin story in which Orcs come into being as corrupted Elves. So this is kind of what they inherited ‘genetically’ speaking. 

This is the first place the aforementioned text Orcs (Text X, Morgoth’s Ring, pg. 415-423) comes in. If anyone suggests with any sort of confidence that Orcs are not immortal, it is because they are relying on the second version of the three renditions of the same text, which is the longest and most detailed, but also the only place Tolkien ever explicitly suggests that Orcs are not immortal. There is a very simple reason for this - that is the only version of the text in which Tolkien suggests that Orcs are not Elvish in origin, but that they were originally Men instead. This is a view he ultimately discards, and insists that they are Elvish in their origin. Which is why this is also the version that has been burned into our consciousness by the scene in The Fellowship of the Ring where Saruman tells Lurtz about the orgins of the first Orcs. 

But for the sake of both comparison and the argument I’m trying to make I will add below the quote from the second version of Text X:

“They could be slain, and they were subject to disease; but apart from these ills they died and were not immortal, even according to the manner of the Quendi.” (Orcs, Myths Transformed, Morgoth’s Ring, pg.418)

This is important for at least two reasons. First of all I think you can agree that it sounds a little strange, because the use of ‘apart from’ generally implies some exclusion that is being made. But here in this example it reads as a repetition of the same thing. Secondly, this is the only mention of their mortality, which is important because elsewhere, where the fact of their Elvish origin is acknowledged within the text, the part about their mortality is simply omitted, even if the possiblity of Orcs being killed is mentioned:

“they could be slain or destroyed by the valiant with weapons of war” (The Annals of Aman, Morgoth’s Ring pg.109)

And in this text, after the quote above, Tolkien goes on to suggest that they are of Elvish origin. To summarize, the mention of the mortality of Orcs exists in the context of suggesting that they descend from the race of Men. There is no mention of their mortality in any source that establishes that Orcs are descended from Elves. And to my awareness, there is only one other mention Tolkien made of Orcs not being Elvish, and it’s a scribbled comment on an incomplete and abandoned version of The Annals of Aman (The Annals of Aman, notes beginning on pg.79).

From this I conclude that there is sufficient contextual evidence to believe that the omission of the mention of Orcs’ mortality in all sources but the one that he discarded, meant he saw it likely that Orcs may possess some degree of immortality. Even if he did not say so explicitly. Which could have been for the simple reason of avoiding any further complications this would bring along. In short, I think he believed them to be immortal with certain limitations (some of which I will bring up below), but didn’t want to deal with the baggage of stating so.

This brings us to Elven immortality, which is bound to the concepts of fëa (soul) and hröa (earthboud vessel aka body). This conceptual nature is not unique to Elves, but means different things for them from other races. The Elven fëa does not automatically leave the world after death, and their fate is to live as long as Arda exists. Unlike Men, Elves do not die of disease or of old age. Their fëar are in much greater control of their bodies. This means that they can heal from wounds that would be fatal to mortals.

“Since fëar are indestructible within the world, while hröar can be broken by the disorders of Arda Marred, "death", which is their separation, is an ever present risk of existence in Middle-earth, even for the Elves. They may be slain or lose the will to live, for instance because of grief. When an Elf dies, the fëa leaves the hröa, which then "dies" and is reabsorbed into Arda. The fëa is called to the Halls of Mandos, where it is judged. After a time of Waiting, the fëa may be reincarnated into a new-born body that is identical to the previous hröa if allowed by Mandos. It is only by coming to Mandos that an Elvish fëa can hope to be reincarnated, as the Elves do not possess this ability in themselves. Alternatively, a fëa might decide to stay in Mandos until the end of Arda, or it may be denied reincarnation, if it had done much evil in life.” [ source ]

Those Elves that became the first Orcs evidently endured the transformation. But it was not simply a transformation of their body, but of that enduring soul. And this change transcended any one individual and became permanent in all who descended from them. But again, their essential being is still tied to that origin, so therefore because of this corruption of their original being they have lost their connection to the divine, but still benefit from what makes Elves different from humans in their spiritual and physical endurance. 

Apparently that original corruption also transforms them into a kind of being that is different from all other beings. They retain certain attributes, and to some degree even the characteristics of Elves. They may be immortal, but it is somewhat unclear what happens to them after they die as they have no connection or access to anything that is available to the Elves. 

I think there are two main things Tolkien himself said that are of particular relevance here:

1. Orcs are not like demons, even if they can look as fearsome. Implying that they do, very much, have souls. (The Annals of Aman, Morgoth’s Ring, pg.109)

2. That Orcs are not irredeemably evil. 

This opens up a number of possibilities and Tolkien does have sympathy for them, but he still needed an avatar for all the dark things that happened to Arda and so for the sake of what he’s trying to say with his whole story he can’t spend half of it making them so sympathetic that most people will automatically see an issue with how they’re being used by the story. That would defeat the point.

(In a way I appreciate the chance to speculate on what happens to them. I myself would like to think that there will come a Time of Healing in which a new path will be forged, for all who would take it. But that’s not what we’re discussing right now.)

It wouldn’t be difficult to explain why we see so few Orcs who reach an age comparable to the lifespans of the Elves, given how violent it is. Aside from the lack of known independent record-keeping. This also brings me to what could be viewed as the evolution, change or diversification of Orcs. The matter needs its own independent post, but I think some distinction needs to be made for the sake of discussing their immortality. The following is obviously my conjecture, but I hope to have been clear on what basis I have reached this understanding.

The way Tolkien describes the lessening of all the races living in Middle-Earth logically also has to appliy to Orcs in some way. Plus in their case, there is also the ‘corruption factor’. So the way I imagine it, the further away Orcs move from their original Elven stock, they too lessen in their strength and size, even if retaining abilities that are beyond those of Men.

Azog really struck me in this regard. The Azog we see doesn’t actually depart from the description that Tolkien gave us, aside from lack of helmet or an “iron-clad head”. He is 'great’, agile and strong. And he isn’t the only one of his kind. 

Although canonically he was never elaborated to such a degree, in my opinion the intent in Azog’s character design makes him perfect for illustrating the distinction between different kinds of Orcs and how they have evloved. The way I see it, Azog is not an anomaly but the embodiment of his origin:

“for in days of old they were strong and fell as demons” (The Annals of Aman, Morgoth’s Ring, pg.109)

His appearance serves as a reference not so much to any particular clan of Orc, but to his age and lineage. He is un-Elven, but not so much that you can’t see the references. It could be then possible that Orcs, like both the races of Men and Elves, has lessened since the time the first of them came into being. In any case, all signs seem to point to the fact that Orcs such as Azog still reflect that origin. But there are several ways in which things have changed since.

I think there’s a good chance Azog would be immortal in a similar manner to Elves. The same would apply to some of the Orcs of Gundabad and Uruks of Mordor who bear a close semblance. I feel like there is reason for all the implications of them being like “in ye olden days”.

One other thing that I’ve seen mentioned in support of the immortality of Orcs is an interesting piece of dialogue between Shagrat and Gorbag in the last chapter of The Two Towers, The Choices of Master Samwise:

Gorbag: “What d’you say? - if we get  chance, you and me’ll slip off and set up somewhere on out on our own with a few trusty lads, somewhere where there’s good loot nice and handy, and no big bosses.” Shagrat: “Ah! Like old times.” (The Lord of the Rings, pg.738)

I very much appreciate the information the whole conversation between them gives us, but personally I don’t think that’s enough to draw any conclusions from. The conversation takes place in TA 3019. Chronologically this is 68 years after Sauron declared himself openly and 77 years after Sauron returned to Mordor. It’s very hard to place these “old times” because they could have been talking about the time before Sauron returned. But it’s not possible to claim immortality based on a span of 60-80 years, because the average lifespan of Men was still longer than a hundred years. But they could easily be referencing also times in the previous ages. We just can’t say for sure.

Shagrat in turn brings me back the the Uruks. The Uruks definitely deserve their own posts, but I think there are things that also have to be mentioned here. First the considerable difference difference between Uruks of Mordor (Black Uruks) and Uruk-hai of Isengard. Because the former are one of those patricular early groups that are implied to be different from regular Orcs. The elite troops of Sauron’s vasty army. Somehow different from the rest, but still fully Orcs.

The Uruk-hai or Isengard are in no uncertain terms a result of both Orcish and Mannish ancestry. If the implication is left a bit vague in The Lord of the Rings, The History of Middle-Earth reiterates this intention more explicitly. And while Tolkien describes them being imposing and clever then what they’ve lost as a result of their Mannish ancestry is any chance of immortality. It’s safe to say that if Orc blood becomes mixed with that of Men, any immortality or long-livedness beyond that of Men is lost. 

It makes sense for this to correspond the same way it works in the case of Half-Elves. In the case of Half-Elves, those who have one immortal and one mortal parent, and are in connection with the Valar may be given a choice whether they want to live an immortal or mortal life. We see that in the case of the descendants of Tuor (literally named Half-Elven), who were given a choice between mortality and immortality. But all Orcs have lost that divine connection and so there is no choice here. Following the same logic present in how immortality is (not) inherited by Elves without a connection to the Valar, any such offspring are invariably mortal.

In conclusion, I hope to have shown that while we don’t have an explicit “yes, they’re immortal” what we have is significant enough implications for it. But this is also a reminder that we must put that in context, as Orcs are not a monolith.

[paenling]

no ones saying you cant enjoy daniil? people like him as a character but mostly Because he’s an asshole and he’s interesting. the racism and themes of colonization in patho are so blatant

nobody said “by order of Law you are forbidden from enjoying daniil dankovsky in any capacity”, but they did say “if you like daniil dankovsky you are abnormal, problematic, and you should be ashamed of yourself”, so i’d call that an implicit discouragement at the least. not very kind.

regardless, he is a very interesting asshole and we love to make fun of him! but i do not plan to stop seeing his character in an empathetic light when appropriate to do so. we’re all terribly human.

regarding “the racism and themes of colonization in patho”, we’ve gotta have a sit-down for this one because it’s long and difficult. tl;dr here.

i’ve written myself all back and forth and in every direction trying to properly pin down the way i feel about this in a way that is both logically coherent and emotionally honest, but it’s not really working. i debated even responding at all, but i do feel like there are some things worth saying so i’m just going to write a bunch of words, pick a god, and pray it makes some modicum of sense.

the short version: pathologic 2 is a flawed masterwork which i love deeply, but its attempts to be esoteric and challenging have in some ways backfired when it comes to topical discussions such as those surrounding race, which the first game didn’t give its due diligence, and the second game attempted with incomplete success despite its best efforts.

the issue is that when you have a game that is so niche and has these “elevated themes” and draws from all this kind of academic highbrow source material -- the fandom is small, but the fandom consists of people who want to analyze, pathologize, and dissect things as much as possible. so let’s do that.

first: what exactly is racist or colonialist in pathologic? i’m legitimately asking. people at home: by what mechanism does pathologic-the-game inflict racist harm on real people? the fact that the Kin are aesthetically and linguistically inspired by the real-world Buryat people (& adjacent groups) is a potential red flag, but as far as i can tell there’s never any value judgement made about either the fictionalized Kin or the real-world Buryat. the fictional culture is esoteric to the player -- intended to be that way, in fact -- but that’s not an inherently bad thing. it’s a closed practice and they’re minding their business.

does it run the risk of being insensitive with sufficiently aggressive readings? absolutely, but i don’t think that’s racist by itself. they’re just portrayed as a society of human beings (and some magical ones, if you like) that has flaws and incongruences just as the Town does. it’s not idealizing or infantilizing these people, but by no means does it go out of its way to villainize them either. there is no malice in this depiction of the Kin. 

is it the fact that characters within both pathologic 1 & 2 are racist? that the player can choose to say racist things when inhabiting those characters? no, because pathologic-the-game doesn’t endorse those things. they’re throwaway characterization lines for assholes. acknowledging that racism exists does not make a media racist. see more here.

however, i find it’s very important to take a moment and divorce the racial discussions in a game like pathologic 2 from the very specific experiences of irl western (particularly american) racism. it’s understandable for such a large chunk of the english-speaking audience to read it that way; it makes sense, but that doesn’t mean it’s correct. although it acknowledges the relevant history to some extent, on account of being set in 1915, pathologic 2 is not intended to be a commentary about race, and especially not current events, and especially especially not current events in america. it’s therefore unfair, in my opinion, to attempt to diagnose it with any concrete ideology or apply its messages to an american racial paradigm.

it definitely still deals with race, but it always, to me, seemed to come back around the exploitation of race as an ultimately arbitrary division of human beings, and the story always strove to be about human beings far more than it was ever about race. does it approach this topic perfectly? no, but it’s clearly making an effort. should we be aware of where it fails to do right by the topic? yes, definitely, but we should also be charitable in our interpretations of what the writers were actually aiming for, rather than reactionarily deeming them unacceptable and leaving it at that. do we really think the writers for pathologic 2 sat down and said “we’re going to go out of our way to be horrible racists today”? i don’t.

IPL’s writing team is a talented lot, and dybowski as lead writer has the kinds of big ideas that elevate a game to a work of art, particularly because he’s not afraid to get personal. on that front, some discussion is inescapable as pathologic 2 deals in a lot of racial and cultural strife, because it’s clearly something near to the his heart, but as i understand it was never really meant to be a narrative “about” race, at least not exclusively so, and especially not in the same sense as the issue is understood by the average American gamer. society isn't a monolith and the contexts are gonna change massively between different cultures who have had, historically, much different relationships with these concepts.

these themes are “so blatant” in pathologic 2 because clearly, on some level, IPL wanted to start a discussion. I think it’s obvious that they wanted to make the audience uncomfortable with the choices they were faced with and the characters they had to inhabit -- invoke a little ostranenie, as it were, and force an emotional breaking point. in the end the game started a conversation and i think that’s something that was done in earnest, despite its moments of obvious clumsiness. 

regarding colonialism, this is another thing that the game is just Not About. we see the effects and consequences of colonialism demonstrated in the world of pathologic, and it’s something we’re certainly asked to think about from time to time, but the actual plot/narrative of the game is not about overcoming or confronting explicitly colonialist constructs, etc. i personally regard this as a bit of a missed opportunity, but it’s just not what IPL was going for.

instead they have a huge focus, as discussed somewhat in response to this ask, on the broader idea of powerful people trying to create a “utopia” at the mortal cost of those they disempower, which is almost always topical as far as i’m concerned, and also very Russian.

i think there was some interview where it was said that the second game was much more about “a mechanism that transforms human nature” than the costs of utopia, but it’s still a persistent enough theme to be worth talking about both as an abstraction of colonialism as well as in its more-likely intended context through the lens of wealth inequality, environmental destruction & government corruption as universal human issues faced by the marginalized classes. i think both are important and intelligent readings of the text, and both are worth discussion.

both endings of pathologic 2 involve sacrifice in the name of an “ideal world” where it’s impossible to ever be fully satisfied. in the Diurnal Ending, Artemy is tormented over the fate of the Kin and the euthanasia of his dying god and all her miracles, but he needs to have faith that the children he’s protected will grow up better than their parents and create a world where he and his culture will be immortalized in love. in the Nocturnal Ending, he’s horrified because in preserving the miracle-bound legacy of his people as a collective, he’s un-personed himself to the individuals he loves, but he needs to have faith that the uniqueness and magic of the resurrected Earth was precious enough to be worth that sacrifice. neither ending is fair. it’s not fair that he can’t have both, but that’s the idea. because that “utopia” everyone’s been chasing is an idol that distracts from the important work of being a human being and doing your best in a flawed world. 

because pathologic’s themes as a series are so very “Russian turn-of-the-century” and draw a ton of stylistic and topical inspiration from the theatre and literature of that era, i don’t doubt that it’s also inherited some of its inspirational literature’s missteps. however, because the game’s intertextuality is so incredibly dense it’s difficult to construct a super cohesive picture of its actual messaging. a lot of its references and themes will absolutely go over your head if you enter unprepared -- this was true for me, and it ended up taking several passes and a bunch of research to even begin appreciating the breadth of its influences.

(i’d argue this is ultimately a good thing; i would never have gone and picked up Camus or Strugatsky, or even known who Antonin Artaud was at all if i hadn’t gone in with pathologic! my understanding is still woefully incomplete and it’s probably going to take me a lot more effort to get properly fluent in the ideology of the story, but that’s the joy of it, i think. :) i’m very lucky to be able to pursue it in this way.)

anyway yes, pathologic 2 is definitely very flawed in a lot of places, particularly when it tries to tackle race, but i’m happy to see it for better and for worse. the game attempts to discuss several adjacent issues and stumbles as it does so, but insinuating it to be in some way “pro-racist” or “pro-colonialist” or whatever else feels kind of disingenuous to me. they’re clearly trying, however imperfectly, to do something intriguing and meaningful and empathetic with their story.

even all this will probably amount to a very disjointed and incomplete explanation of how pathologic & its messaging makes me feel, but what i want -- as a broader approach, not just for pathologic -- is for people to be willing to interpret things charitably. 

sometimes things are made just to be cruel, and those things should be condemned, but not everything is like that. it’s not only possible but necessary to be able to acknowledge flaws or mistakes and still be kind. persecuting something straight away removes any opportunity to examine it and learn from it, and pathologic happens to be ripe with learning experiences. 

it’s all about being okay with ugliness, working through difficult nuances with grace, and the strength of the human spirit, and it’s a story about love first and foremost, and i guess we sort of need that right now. it gave me some of its love, so i’m giving it some of my patience.

[bettsfic]

This is kinda random but I just felt compelled to ask since I saw this idea floating about. Someone said that not all transformative works are fanfiction (a distinction I can get behind) but then explicitly went on to say characters railing each other is like the distinctive factor which I mean.... Come on. But marinating on the idea I couldn't really pinpoint a distinct qualifier to separate it (medium aside).

So I guess my question is, are all narrative transformative works fanfiction and if not, what is the line between them? And what would you call the "others".

apologies for sitting on this so long. it took me a long time to think about. it’s something i’ve been dwelling on since i first started writing fic, and i think i only now can answer it.

this really comes down to being an issue of genre, and the purpose and function of genre as a craft concept rather than a marketing tool. very often a work’s paratext primes us for what we’re about to engage with. paratext is all the information around a given work. for example, the cover of a book gives you an impression of what’s inside the book. finding a book in the general fiction section of a book store gives you a different impression of a text than what you would find in the cookbook aisle. all of these paratextual details set your expectations for what you’re about to read.

so what happens when you have no paratext? how would you know what genre to place something into? you’d have to use the text itself. but sometimes, the text is not so clear.

for example, one of the first pieces i teach every semester is Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl.” and the first discussion question i ask is, “what genre is this?” (it’s a short piece, and i recommend taking a look at it if you haven’t read it before.)

a lot of writers don’t like the idea of genre because they find it confining, and obviously i agree. art isn’t meant to be boxed in, and if a piece can securely fit anywhere, it probably isn’t very good or interesting.

however, if we consider genre as a lens instead of a box, we get a far more useful tool for inspecting work.

would you read “Girl” differently if i had told you before you read it that it was a poem? perhaps you would have entered into it with all your existing understanding of poetry. perhaps you would have paid more attention to the way it’s been laid out on the page, and the punctuation, and the order of the words. maybe you would have noticed it doesn’t look like the common understanding of a poem, so maybe you would have wondered, is it really a poem?

and if i told you it was a fictional story? maybe you would have entered into it with your understanding of a story. you would have paid attention to the characters and conflict. but, like a poem, it doesn’t exactly fit our common understanding of a story, either. there’s no inciting incident or rising action or climax. we’re not in a concrete time or space. and maybe you would have wondered, is it really a story?

“Girl” is actually a lyric essay. how would you have read it if you knew that? if you had never read a lyric essay, or didn’t know what a lyric essay was, this piece would then define that genre for you, and you would read future lyric essays thinking back to “Girl” and framing your impression from there.

this, of course, begs the question: what happens to our reading experience when we enter into works with an existing impression of what they are, and therefore what they should be?

we all engage with art bringing with us all our existing perspectives and preferences, and those shape our perspective of quality. some people believe that all melodrama is bad. by “melodrama” i mean, conflicts and emotional reactions that are over the top. however there are many genres that employ melodrama as a function of that genre. if you watched a soap opera without melodrama, for example, you’d think it was a pretty shitty soap opera. 

this brings me to the idea of genre not as a categorizing device, but a means of affordance and constraint. melodrama is an affordance of a soap opera. soap operas are allowed to be melodramatic. length, by contrast, is a constraint of a soap opera. a soap opera is not allowed to be over X minutes long.

when we bring affordance/constraints to fanfiction, i think we can all agree that explicit sexual content is an affordance. it’s not the definition of fanfic, but it is something that is both common and in some cases expected. when we talk about fanfiction as a genre of idealizing and indulgence, we’re talking about the affordances of fanfic. yes, many fics concern themselves with emotional catharsis, but not all of them. many fics contain shipping, but not all of them. many fics employ tropes, but not all of them. many fics are written by hobbyist writers working in fan communities, but not all of them. and yet all of these things are so common that when we enter into a fic, they’re expected. they’re allowed. but they are not necessary in order for a piece of writing to exist in the genre of fic.

conversely, fanfic has very few constraints. in fact this is the question that took me so long to answer this ask. and i realized, the single constraint i could think of is that fanfiction always knows and acknowledges (in the paratext) that it is fanfiction.

if you file off the serial numbers? not fanfiction. if you write a creative response to an existing canon but then publish it without acknowledgement of that canon? also not fanfiction. if you get inspiration from another work and acknowledge or cite that work somewhere in the text, but are not actively transforming the canon text or naming it as fanfiction? not fanfiction. 

these types of works may have the community spirit of fanfiction, and the work they do may overlap with fanfiction, and they may begin as fanfiction, but they are not and cannot be fanfiction.

when you write fanfiction, you always know it is fanfiction, because fanfiction is something that happens with intention. you might start writing a story that you intend to be fantasy but after 40k you go “oh damn this is actually horror.” but you can never get 40k into a story and go “oh fuck this is accidentally fanfic.” (although you may think, “this shares many affordances of fanfiction” which, go you.) 

so finally, after actual years of thinking about this, i have a definition of the genre of fanfiction:

to write fanfiction is to openly and intentionally respond to an existing text, and to acknowledge the original source material in the paratext of the work.