maethologies

[maethologies]

Sverd i fjell, Norway

[maethologies]

[maethologies]

It takes all of ten minutes with him for Violet to know she’s in trouble. To her absolute dismay, she finds out that Xaden Riorson is…smart.

Smart and—infuriating or not, there is no way for Violet to deny this—gorgeous. She lifts her head to observe him; the strong jaw, the curve connecting his neck to his shoulder, a tattoo creeping up from under his sweatshirt; Violet wants to tug at the fabric and reveal more of the ink. She lowers her head to stare at his hands, the width of them, the ring around his finger, the scarring over his knuckles.

Oh, Violet thinks, with a sinking feeling in her stomach. She is in so much trouble.

[maethologies]

been low-key suffering with my romance/romantasy reads recently. nothing above 3 stars during THE season for romance books 😔

[maethologies]

I ain't a wimp when I get writers block I STRESS ABOUT IT FOR A WEEK STRAIGHT, and not to ChatGPT like a coward. I face writers block like a man, laying in bed hours crying.

[maethologies]

She slipped a hand between their bodies and beneath his t-shirt, flattening her palm against the ridges of his abs. His stomach rose and fell beneath her touch as he breathed. His teeth scraped her lip again, harder this time. "Go easy on me, Violence." There was a rough edge to his voice, sharpening his next inhale, right against her lips.

She laughed breathlessly. "I haven't even done anything." Though there was plenty she wanted to do.

He dragged his mouth from hers with exaggerated effort. "You have no idea, do you?" he murmured.

She peeled her eyes open to meet his dark gaze. As he trailed his lips across her cheek, her jaw, he shifted her just a little, and the movement caused one of her knees to slide between Xaden's own, and he was hard against her thigh.

[maethologies]

happy father’s day to xaden riorson. love u xaddy <3

[maethologies]

Inspired by “Tutor Me (Use Me)- Caelge”on ao3

I draw every six months (probably) and it usually stays a wip. So I will say that I am very happy to have made much more progress than before!

I am still learning quite a bit, and I know in the Empyrean fandom there isn’t too much “anime” style fan art. I plan on practicing/studying a bit more to give my style a more mature look. As of right now I am content with this! I hope I get to make progress and do our fav couple justice.

The author and her friends reactions were such a delight! What started as an itch in my brain, made others happy, and honestly nothing could beat that feeling. TMUM brought down the art block I’ve had for awhile, so many thanks to Caelge for writing such an amazing modern take of Xaden and Violet.

[maethologies]

read shield of sparrows and i think i'm starting to develop personal beef with liz pelletier

[maethologies]

hii bestie !! for the wip ask game fight club / mano a mano like the movie ??? im so intrigued about this one !!

not exactly! it's an au set during fw where basgiath has smth similar to the fighting ring that they have in samara (that we saw in IF)... violet stumbles upon it and decides to participate. xaden, of course, has Been doing this for a while.

if ever i figure out how to write fight scenes i might continue it!!

[maethologies]

i would like a snippet from every wip, actually! jk i will be normal and request the duke and i, and my baby bend the knee who i miss so very much ❤️❤️❤️

🥰🥰

the duke and i (or: violet teasing xaden about being a duke but it Gets to him. i have absolutely NOTHING written for this unfortunately except for small scraps...)

“Of course,” she chirps, sarcastic. “Anything to please you, your lordship.”  Xaden stills. “Your Grace,” he corrects, his voice low, rough. “That’s the correct—well, it doesn’t fucking matter, but that’s the right form of address.”  Violet perks up. “Oh?” she says, trying to hide a smile as she eyes him. His fingers are pressed into his forearms; his whole body is tense. “I feel like how I address you might matter very much to you.”

bend the knee (or: riorgail fwb / exploration of power dynamics. she's probably never seeing the light of day unfortunately! rip)

Xaden tilts his head, considering her. “I think I could get you to kneel,” he says, confident. “Absolutely not,” Violet says.  The smirk that crosses his lips is downright infuriating as he hums and replies, “We’ll see about that.”

[maethologies]

your wip titles look so intriguing! can’t wait to read what you post next. what is xv free about?

that's so kind of you!! i've been pretty busy in the past few weeks, so i'm unsure *when* i'll post next, but hopefully soon!

xv free(eeeee) was one of the many kinktober fics i started last year and never finished 😔 but the prompt was free use! which is where the name comes in lol

i never actually got around to writing much of the free use part though, so i guess i could use what i do have for smth else. we'll see!

[maethologies]

wip ask game

tagged by the lovely @widebrimmedhatsblog

rules: Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

xv XADEN POV / HEIR APPARENT (2 docs same WIP)

slain touch

chapter 54 (xaden's version)

xv simon says

xv olympics

guard dog

xv spiderman au / beholder / like a streak of light (3 docs same WIP)

xv freeeee

XV HEALER VI RIDER X

fixation

brennaolin????

XV HOCKEYYYY

fight club / mano a mano

xv dkdk

follow your lead

valentine's 5+1

BEND THE KNEE

xv kinda sorta not really bride au

the duke and i

xv mr and mrs smith

no comment

and the scale of my ambition

xv semi-au post fw idk

i am NOT tagging 23 people i'm so sorry but if you want to participate in this game! do say i tagged you! (and then tag me in the post :D)

[maethologies]

Art by: Meiflowersketches

[maethologies]

mmmmm let’s not post blatantly ai generated pictures of people from fw

too many good fanartists to be doing that

[maethologies]

Silver Elite 🛸🛸

Before I started Silver Elite, I knew I wanted to post a review on here for my fellow Fourth Wing enjoyers, since it’s been so heavily marketed to us. I knew I could provide a more nuanced perspective on if it was the right read for us or not. I finished it a few days ago, but I really needed to let my thoughts marinate.

A spoiler-free TL;DR:

1. Silver Elite plagiarizes most of Fourth Wing. The similarities start with the contents of Cross and Wren’s first meeting, but only worsen as the plot progresses.

2. There are other smaller instances of plagiarism from other properties, but most wouldn’t upset me on their own. In concert with the level of theft present throughout the book, however, it’s concerning.

3. The politics of the book are suspect at best, and offensive at worst. The most damning issues are subtle, but I feel the subliminal endorsement of the conservative party standpoint is more dangerous than a blatant endorsement of the party’s values.

Below the cut, I elaborate on all those points (without plot spoilers for more than the first 25% or so). In terms of rating, I couldn’t pick a number. Up to the last 75% of the novel, I was enjoying myself, plagiarism be damned, enough for a high 3 star, even a 4 if I was feeling feisty. Then, the narrative did a series of things I dislike all at once, the pacing got weird, and the characterization got worse. The longer I sat with the story, the more the politics and the blatant theft bothered me. So, since I generally would rate a story of this quality off of enjoyment, I just can’t pick a number. If you’re asking yourself if you should read it, it really depends on the type of person you want to give your money to, and the type of book you want to see more of in stores.

To elaborate further on point one, Wren and Cross meet while sparring. Obviously, there are no parapets being crossed, but the content of the sparring session in terms of prose is alarmingly similar to Rebecca’s style. Then, you quickly learn that the MMC’s father is responsible for the execution of the FMC’s father-figure, and that the only way the FMC can redeem herself for her father-figures crimes is to enlist in the most elite subset of their military. At this point, I was committed to calling Wren “she-Xaden” for the rest of the read, but the gender bending ends there. I took notes on this for the buddy read with @maethologies and @softodettes and I pretty much say “okay Rebecca can sue” once every 5 chapters. As the plot progresses, you have direct copies of gauntlet practice, threshing, Jack Barlowe dying, Xaden and Garrick sparring, and the reunification day party, to name a few. This doesn’t even account for the lines lifted from Rebecca, or the copying of her more unique stylistic choices. Cross speaks like Xaden, generally, while occupying a position similar to Xaden’s and looking like Xaden. It’s a little too similar for me.

The things Francis steals from other franchises are much more innocuous. There are copies of the Hunger Games mutts, and a character with the last name Granger who says almost a perfect copy of one of Draco Malfoy’s better known lines (“I’m going to tell my father about this!”). If these were the only similarities with other texts in this novel, I wouldn’t care. But, in concert with the abundance of similarities to Rebecca’s work, it feels alarming.

A common critique I saw a of the text before reading was that Silver Elite was a book meant for liberal girls with republican boyfriends. Sadly, I saw this after I had placed my (non-refundable) order, or I may have changed my mind. I will say, that specific comment paints a much less nuanced picture than I think is truly the case with Silver Elite. The conclusion my friends and I came to as a team is that Dani Francis (whoever she is) has the republican boyfriend, not Wren. Cross defies the constructs set by his father (allegorical Lilith) (though not right away, and not until he has already said something pretty disgusting about the death penalty, which Wren just lets slide), but he does so in such a way that it’s clear Francis is a centrist at the very least, if not farther right. Specifically, she seems to be anti-ACAB, and that seems to be the crux of Cross’s story. Further, she’s entirely unwilling to acknowledge that any problems are systemic in origin. Most of this shows up in what Wren chooses to think about, and what she doesn’t. The way the text chooses to treat women is also interesting. Cross calls Wren a whore and a bitch on page, and nothing is ever said about it by Wren.

Further, the text had a complete inability to interrogate the state it created. Wren’s world (a country I’m not sure is ever named? On a continent that also goes unnamed?) seems to be based loosely on communist China. The state owns 51% of every business, jobs are assigned by the government, and a small, elite capitalist class is allowed to accumulate wealth (and, consequently, signs of wealth like make up and hair products) by virtue of their closeness to the general, while accumulating wealth is frowned upon for everyone else. When I first saw critiques that, for example, this book was written by Trump, for Trump, I assumed the communism presented would be critiqued. But, it’s never even addressed. The only travesty of the state acknowledged is that they suppress magic use, but the only alternative rule presented is the Uprising (capitalization required) which is demonstrably just as bad. The refusal to interrogate the system of governance as a problem at all is super concerning in this day and age. Further, while there’s merit to stories that present the flaws of revolutionary factions (Mockingjay, for example) something about the way Dani Francis does it feels sus. @maethologies and I referred to it as a conservative dog whistle. I saw reviews before reading that said this book was like if Katniss dated a peacekeeper, but that’s not explicitly true. It’s like if Katniss dated a peacekeeper who “wasn’t that bad”. I think that caveat is the key problem that says the most about the novel’s message.

This segues nicely to my critique that didn’t make the TL;DR.

1. Wren is really stupid. There’s a phenomenon in romantasy (generally perpetrated by authors struggling to find their sea legs) wherein the heroine is what I like to call stupid for the plot. The FMC will do things that seem stupid, and it’s clear that the author made her do them so that a load-baring scene could happen. Wren does do things that are this particular type of stupid, but she does it in a way that is so much worse than anything I have read before, I genuinely don’t know how to articulate it. For context, I almost never lament FMCs being stupid in the books I read. I have a pretty high tolerance for plot convenience, especially in this type of book. But Wren takes it one step further in this book by pretending to be stupid in her classes, and then whinging about no one taking her seriously. This felt like such a bad call in a genre where your readers are predominantly women who consider themselves to be intelligent.

Now, the real issue with all of the above is that, despite it all, there were still moments I had fun. Before the last quarter of the book, Cross has some capital M Moments that got me going. He read to me like if Xaden was meaner. A lot of people have said the world building doesn’t feel plausible. This isn’t really a gripe I had, although I thought her choice of names was really odd, and that often took me out of the story. The real issue is that Francis is either ignorant or a conservative. The topics presented within Silver Elite all have merit, and in the hands of a better author could be much more impactful. Unfortunately, they were mishandled here.

I feel like I have more to say, but after this yap-athon, I can’t fully remember! If any of you have read Silver Elite, I’d love to discuss what you thought! And if you have any questions, feel free to ask :)

[maethologies]

can't today. busy.