#if you're reading this ahead...

[mutant-okuri-inu]

Remembrance

Sigma squeezes Soap's hand, looking into his eyes with sadness, anxiety, and sorrow. While looking into it. they're emotionless. He told her he doesn't remember her; he only remembers TF141 and others: Farah, Alex... But why not her? Tears start to fill her eyes, and she tries to hold them back while still looking at him. 

Their blue eyes are still looking at each other; her voice starts to tremble, and her heart starts to pound in her chest. Then it hit her: amnesia.

She can't speak, no words came out of her mouth. But she only can say:

"Johnny..."

Instead of saying his callsign, a tear falls down her left cheek. Sigma's left hand puts it on her carrier plate, where her heart is.

Clentching her fist, she squeezes his hand tighter. Johnny couldn't say anything; he just stared. Just to stare at her, tilting his head, not saying a word... He waits for her to say something again. Sigma grits her teeth, a million thoughts rushing through her head. Seeing a young, kind, sunshine Scottsman in front of her was completely different.

Without a word, she rushed to him and hugged him, wrapping her arms around his waist. To Soap's surprise, he almost stumbles back, shocked. What would he do? Hug her back? Push her away? Stand there and do nothing? Or stroke her hair? 

Sigma's tears fall down her cheeks, crying silently.

"Remember, try to remember me..."

Soap is speechless, he doesn't know what's happening. Then, he feels something... Something extraordinary. Could a hug bring his memories back of her?

"Please..." She whispers one more time.

That's why she's called by the name Halia, a remembrance of a loved one...

PLEASE...

---

A thought of "What if Soap forgets Sigma?"

I've been seeing arts of Soap's season 4 gear. Ngl, he looks different 😭 Somewhere I read, "What if Soap has amnesia?" And I thought, hmmm... WELL *cracks my knuckles* TIME FOR THE ANGST!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Danse Macabre

[Commission]

[owl-bones]

if i had more time/energy/motivation i would write a fic that's UT Sans/Reader and seemingly very normal and slice of life

but you notice tiny little quirks and oddities around Sans and it's slowly revealed that it's actually Dust and he's taken this Sans' place to get close to you

[mylovesstuffs]

Anon.

Are you fucking serious right now?

I saw your message and I had to take a full-ass walk around my block because I was genuinely afraid I’d punch my goddamn wall.

Let me break this down for you very clearly, so even your AI-smooth-brained moral compass can process it:

You are not entitled to shit.

Not my writing. Not the ending. Not a single fucking word I typed out with my own fucking bleeding fingers.

You think you “need” closure?

Cool. I “need” eight hours of sleep, a functioning spine, and respect from strangers online. Guess what?

None of us are getting what we want today.

Fanfiction is a gift.

Not a product, not a service, not a series finale you paid for on HBO Max.

A gift.

You don’t throw a tantrum because the gift didn’t come with a bonus epilogue and a director’s cut.

Your entire ask is a monument to entitlement. You say “if you're not going to write it, I think it's fine to use Al?”

I did NOT write it for AI. I wrote it for human readers. For emotion. For narrative voice. For soul.

AI doesn’t have that. You want a soulless machine to mock my style and feed you a bootleg version of my work?? Which is, not to say but, the equivalent of a a knock-off Louis Vuitton sold from the back of a van?

Then don’t ask me. Just go to your shameful little corner and live with the fact that you’re the kind of person who disrespects art to feed your own dopamine addiction.

You wanted permission, so now you get the wrath.

I see in your other little asks, “AI is there to make things easier.”

At whose fucking expense? The thousands of fanfic writers whose fics are being scraped, harvested, mimicked and tossed into machine-learning hell so you don’t have to wait for an update?

Do you have any idea how many of us have had our fics [both in our caratblr and other fandom spaces] show up on AI mirror sites or been plagiarized by bots? Do you know how many real authors are losing book deals, commissions, or livelihoods because of this exact entitled logic?

Let me give you a basic fucking rundown since you clearly didn’t do the homework:

AI is not ethical – Generative AI is trained off data sets that include unauthorized, uncredited, scraped work from unpaid artists, writers, poets, journalists, bloggers, fanfic writers—fuck, even therapy forums.

Authors are suing OpenAI for ingesting copyrighted novels without permission.

Fanfic is already vulnerable – We exist in a legal gray area protected only by community ethics and mutual respect. You're breaking both.

You say “I won't post it anywhere, it's just for me.”

Oh, wow, thanks. So you only want to steal quietly. Like that makes it better.

You think the damage only happens when it’s public? WRONG.

Every time you plug an artist’s work into a machine, it gets processed, stored, used for training, forever.

You have no control over where it goes or how it’s repurposed later. You are feeding the beast and killing the creators in the process.

Don’t give me “I respect you but—”

If you respected me, this message wouldn’t exist.

You get your AI-stitched ending, it doesn’t scratch the itch, and you feed it another one.

And another.

And another.

Until the entire fucking archive is turned into a graveyard of replicas and you’re the ghoulish little shit dancing on the corpses of every writer you leeched dry.

And you say “I think I’m just entitled to a bit of closure”?

Entitled. You actually used the word.

Thank you for confirming what we already knew:

That you don’t see us as people.

You see us as content machines that owe you something because you liked our work. You don’t want closure, you want control, and you will NOT get it from me.

You’re entitled to a bath, a glass of water, and the air you breathe—not my writing, not my thoughts, and definitely not a fucking auto-generated Frankenstein mockery of my style you can jerk off your emotions to.

So here's your closure:

No, you may not touch my fic.

No, you may not feed it to a bot.

No, you may not engage with my writing, my blog, my friend's blog, or my community ever again.

Block me. Report me. Cry about it.

But know this:

Every time you open an AI generator to finish a story you didn’t write, you are choosing to destroy the very creators you claim to admire.

You should be ashamed, but you won’t be. Because parasites don’t feel guilt, they just suck and suck and suck until there’s nothing left.

I'll never forget this time and date.

I hope it was worth it.

Let this be your final fucking warning.

— Celeste.

[basket-of-radiants]

Why were you so disappointed by Rhythm of War?

This has been sitting in my askbox for years. I've taken several cracks at answering, only to get frustrated with the subject matter and burn myself out every time. I didn't like Rhythm of War. More than that, I didn't like it in a way that tainted my enjoyment of the entire series. And despite what it may seem, I don't actually enjoy discussing things which I don't like. I always want to talk from a place of good faith. Which is why now that my feelings towards the series are a little more positive, I think I can finally answer this.

I'm going to try to stay away from specific plotpoints and story beats for this post, because my goal isn't to nitpick (if for no other reason than it would take a week to write this post), I'm just looking to talk about my overall impressions. I think that might mean the only spoilers here will be structural? idk, if you haven't read Rhythm of War yourself then you should probably do that before looking for other people's opinions anyway. 

I liked Way of Kings when I first read it. I didn't love it at the time, but I liked it. Certainly enough to keep reading once I'd finished. One thing that made me a bit uncomfy, however, was the war against the Parshendi. They were this unknowable enemy which the book was not interested in knowing. An inhuman army. Their main purpose was to kill Kaladin's friends, or else be killed by Dalinar's armies. And yet the Parshendi, and the parshmen in the form of Shen, did show hints of personhood. And so it bothered me how Dalinar spoke so casually about how the Alethi had decimated their numbers, how the others used the war as a means to amass wealth and power. (It didn't bother me in a "this is a bad book" way but in a "these characters are bad people" way.)

One of my foibles as a reader is that when a book is very clearly treating one side of a conflict with more humanity, I tend to be a bit predisposed towards the other to account for that. And with the Alethi clearly being the invading party and superior military force, there was also some underdog favoritism. I didn't really like how the book treated the Parshendi. This is to say that going forward, the singers would be more important to me than any other through line.

So imagine my delight at reading Words of Radiance and meeting Eshonai, one of the Parshendi, who even gets her own point of view sections! They were no longer being treated as a faceless mass, we were getting to see things from their perspective as well. And it became plain to see the damage the Alethi had done to them. I couldn't really bring myself to root for Dalinar or really any of the humans against the listeners. I couldn't even bring myself to like most of these characters. I still enjoyed the book but once it became clear there wouldn't be a peaceful conclusion, let's just say that I wouldn't have wept for Dalinar and Adolin if Szeth had managed to off them. Like everyone in the book, I assumed that going forward all the parshmen would be turned into evil voidbringers in the everstorm and that the listeners were mostly dead. Except for Rlain, and Eshonai because I'd read or been told that book 4 would be Eshonai's book and thus had assumed she was fine. (Oathbringer spoilers, she was not fine.) So ultimately it was still a bit of a downer way to end the book. 

So imagine my delight at reading Oathbringer, where for the first time singers were being treated as people, full and real people, and where the human characters could no longer ignore or dismiss them. We met Khen and the others, common singers who were sympathetic and just wanted freedom from bondage. We see Venli grapple with the loss of her home. We see Leshwi and Moash connecting with and understanding one another. We learn of a history where singers were the original inhabitants of the planet. Parallel to this, Dalinar is having a truly excellent character arc about confronting one's past actions and acknowledging them to move forward and do better. I loved Oathbringer, for some years it was my favorite book, and I was excited as hell to see what came next. At the time, it seemed to me that there is a clear direction the story is going. Two books about needless war, and then a third where the main cast is forced to acknowledge the personhood of their enemies. This was so cool, all of my feelings from the previous installments were being validated, the characters were going to have to face what they've done in the past and outgrow their militaristic mindsets, I was so sure of that.

Imagine my disappointment when that does not even remotely resemble the direction the story went in Rhythm of War. RoW presented a clear, straightforward “us vs. them" narrative, where every character was totally fine with killing singers. Characters aligned with the singers were either flattened into wholly evil versions of themselves (Moash) or were expected to turn on their side in favor of the humans (Venli.) Because clearly there was no reason good people would be on the side that's all former slaves trying to stay free. Maybe there's some sort of accord or understanding between Navani and Raboniel that I might have found meaningful if the seeds of mutual understanding weren't already there in Oathbringer and then apparently ignored for a year by all the characters.

I have a lot of issues with how the listeners are handled in these books. (Here's some elaboration.) Following OB, I had thought that all my concerns were going to be addressed. Following RoW, I knew they never would be. 

Which is my main complaint, because that's the thread that matters most to me in this series.

I have a lot of other Things as well. Gonna just talk about a few big ones. 

One outsized source of disappointment that may seem a little petty, and which probably is, is that I felt mislead by the premise of the book. It had been announced that this book would center Venli and Eshonai, and I was unbelievably hyped for that. That did not really turn out to be the case. The purpose for their backstory chapters felt less about exploring them as people and contextualizing their arcs, and more about filling in gaps of world history. In the main plot, Venli was a POV character and she certainly played a role, but honestly not a very important one overall. To me she felt like a side character in her own book. I don't think it's controversial to say that the main character of RoW was Navani. A lot of people really like Navani and are happy about that. Unfortunately I'm not one of those people, and I found it all the more difficult to enjoy her when it felt like it was coming at the expense of some of my favorite characters. 

This particular gripe somewhat comes down to preference, obviously everyone prefers to read about characters they like more than those they don't, and it can go both ways. (For instance, on a craft/technical level RoW is probably the superior book to W&T, but I liked the latter a lot more because of my stupidly outsized attachment to Szeth and Nale.) But I do think there's something of a real criticism in how the book would rather focus on the feelings of a queen rather than those of a genocide survivor, and how the former's are given significantly more weight and import. It ties in with my main criticism, I think. 

And then there's how human/human racism had also been wholly cast aside as a plot point. Jasnah fixed slavery so that's resolved, and the only person who still cares about structural racism is the evil bad bad evil villain Moash/Vyre, who is now wholly irredeemable and who you're allowed to totally write off because he's sold his soul to Odium. I've already talked a lot about this. Other people have already talked about this, probably better than me. The writing was actually on the wall for me in OB, but again, RoW was when I fully accepted that this was never going to be addressed. 

There's something else that probably deserves its own discussion rather than being quickly tacked on at the end here, but here we are. This book changed how the series approaches war. 

In WoK, war was very clearly portrayed as a bad and inglorious thing. It was brutal, it was painful, those at the bottom died cruelly and unceremoniously and pointlessly while those at the top turned a profit. Every day was a new horror. The enemy were never evil, they were always just more people forced to go through the same thing. Through the next couple books, it felt to me that even if the characters had accepted war as necessary, there was still a tragedy to it. Conversely, in RoW (and W&T) war is basically a series of boss battles, in between which our protagonists can kill dozens of footsoldiers with barely a thought in the same way WoK had criticized.

Final note on all this, it sucks how we have no perspectives from the former-slaves-singers demographic. Those guys are really thrown under the bus, and seemingly get no self-determination now or ever. It was a glaring problem to me in RoW. Conscripted and enslaved humans and singers probably have just as much ground to form mutual understanding as a fused and a queen. (In fact they already had. In Oathbringer.)

In essence, RoW disappointed me because it left me with the distinct impression that none of the series's most important through lines (well, most important to me) were going to be resolved well. I liked W&T, but I haven't revised my opinion very much about the overall handling of these topics across the series. Maybe one of the reasons I was able to enjoy W&T so much more was because I no longer had such high expectations.

[jesncin]

Purely sharing just cuz I think it's funny so don't go looking for anyone over this: I think I got subtweeted on here once from a Hellblazer fan who didn't like how I interpreted the canon Golden Boy storyline (because who else talks about Goldie as much as I do) and someone replied saying "comic fans read comics challenge" and I just have to laugh. Like that's so deeply funny.

Ah yes do point to me the many cartoons, tv shows, movies, and video games that feature iconic recurring Vertebrae Hellblazer rogue The Golden Boy. Do tell me what beautiful Lestat-esque actor they got to play as my guy in the Keanu movie or Legends of Tomorrow or the NBC show. Because I clearly don't read the comics right. I'm a pleb who only interacts with the sanitized shallow adaptations of this character. I should read the original source material! And stop basing ideas of this popular character on fanon, how foolish of me.

Anyway I take all this in good faith, I know there's a lot of teens on here who just kind of lash out and act gatekeepy over their white man blorbo- they don't need a 30 year old author on them. Just chill out, we're all here to have fun. But I can find humor in these things haha.

[lemonyinks]

In case you were wondering, Jiang Cheng has never once raised a hand to his nephew, nor has he ever thought about it.

chap 10

chap 81

chap 99

chap 102

And I'm positive Jin Ling knows with absolute certainty that his uncle would never hurt him; he has never been scared of his uncle, not even once.

chap 35

chap 47

chap 110

Don't let anyone tell you Jiang Cheng is abusive when it's just not something supported by canon at all in any way shape or form. He is literally the best uncle in the whole world. I cannot for the life of me see why other people seem to think otherwise...

[liriostigre]

💌

[aliusfrater]

there are certain supernatural dean-skewed typical interpretations that just immediately tip me off about how little someone's actually paying attention to sam's character. like i got this post on my dash

then when i went to clarify that this was about who i think it's about and then block them, this was the post at the top of their blog

there are like. textbook, default, poorly thought out and very shallow/archetyped, trying to fit each character into categorised tropes-type interpretations that you kind of just encounter so much it becomes a very boring pattern

[snekdood]

anyways ppl with vaginas are amazing and not inherently less than anyone with a penis and if you disagree you can jump off a bridge <3

[lesbiancolumbo]

and before anyone comes to me asking for cooking tips and tricks, my blanket recommendation is always to check out salt fat acid heat by samin nosrat and to learn the science of cooking. when you understand the cause and effect of techniques, the why versus the how-to, you instinctively become better at cooking. i will also say that start here by sohla el-waylly is a great cookbook as well, very beginner's basic technique driven and conveniently the introduction was written by samin :)

[margindoodles2407]

begging high school history teachers to teach their students the truth about the janissaries

[vaguely-concerned]

For you. And Harding. And everyone we've lost.

*sob sob sob sob sob* it's fine I'm fine I just have to I just need a moment and then I'll be -- *sob sob sob sob sob sob sob sob*

rye 'I want varric back you son of a bitch' ingellvar showing up to the narrative stricken to the core with grief and digging two graves. one for the dread wolf. and another one also for the dread wolf because by the time rye is done with him that fucker is hopefully going to be in several pieces. lucanis hold my shovel for a moment would you I need to commit some acts of grim violence and deep poetic irony (*supportive lucanis voice as rook grabs the fake dagger* go get him rook I've got your shovel). solas I'm sorry I love you but if you were going to pull that shit you probably should have done it to someone a little less like, well. you

[talentforlying]

interesting to think about how constantine isn't commonly read as being the most morally upright of characters, and that's generally a fair assessment. but at the same time he can still be a surprisingly ethical character, particularly in terms of the values he holds synonymous with being a good community member.

a couple examples of (what i think are) his most consistently held values throughout the hellblazer series:

constantine feels very strongly about things like defending people's bodily autonomy and showing kindness & compassion towards society's more vulnerable demographics, especially kids & unhoused people.

he frequently & sincerely upholds the basic principles of xenia (showing hospitality towards foreigners, guests, and anyone whose fate is in your hands), and possesses a deep, innate sense of justice that he is unafraid to uphold when he feels it necessary to do so.

he personally values survival above honor but still has a healthy appreciation for people that are committed to a code,

he respects integrity more than he'd respect a good liar (even if he fucking hates you, at least you're being true to yourself; can't help it if yourself is just a prick),

and he is CONSTANTLY PLAGUED by a deeply personal sense of social responsibility to try and nip potential threats to the world, to his city, or to his friends in the bud if he thinks it might be within his capabilities to do so.

of course, it's key to note that constantine's code of ethics was also founded primarily in accordance with the principles of '70s-'80s counterculture + still largely abides by the social beliefs of the same-era punk community, and thus also includes more subjectively-judged tenets such as challenging the establishment, defying the government, protecting individual liberties, taking direct action in support of your community, putting people above possessions at every turn, and actively addressing social issues wherever / whenever you encounter them. so he's not always viewed by other characters (particularly upper-class bootlicking ones) as being particularly ethical. doesn't change the fact that constantine still adamantly maintains certain major ethical principles in accordance with the social systems he inhabits and was raised in.

[isfjmel-phleg]

🌋

[basket-of-radiants]

Hi, I'm back. All finished!

I really liked that, I had a lot of fun. I have a lot to say about it, and I'll probably get into it soon enough, but overall that was a good time.

Favorite parts were literally all the Shinovar stuff. That was good. Also liked the Jasnah sections.

Least favorite was probably the Adolin sections, sorry, that whole plotline bounced off of me hard. Adolin himself had some individual moments that were very compelling to me, but typically battles and troops-rousing aren't all that interesting to me. Also was not especially compelled by Shallan's story in this one, it felt like it was moving in circles for most of its time.

By and large there were some characters I'd hoped to see more of, and some characters I would have been happy to see less of. As is always the case in these books. But considering how much of this book was just spoonfeeding cute skybreaker content into me, I'm not sure I have much grounds to complain.

Writing was a bit odd. There were a lot of breakneck scene transitions, and a lot of little scenes inserted all over the place that seemed to mostly serve the purpose of being quippy. Not sure what's up with that. Definitely a thing.

Thematically it was interesting! Definitely more compelling themes than I found from RoW. Clearly some big statements being made in the end sequence, most of which are pretty cool actually, but I also want to draw attention to Wit's monologue about passions at the beginning, as well as Adolin's conversation about oaths as bits I liked. I do not endorse all of the perspectives expressed, particularly when it comes to utilitarianism. I have some criticisms, as always, but I like the overall direction.

I dunno, it's late, I'll probably talk more about more specific points in the coming days. And maybe should discuss some of the characters as well. I'd like to talk about Szeth at some point, I'd like to talk about Jasnah and Taravangian, probably Dalinar, I'll see if I can find some excuse to bring up Moash, and of course best boy Gavilar Kholin...

This has been fun, I'm enjoying posting about this stuff again.

So did all of you like the book? Anything you all want to discuss? What did you guys think of it?