#Can't help but compare the two as I reread the books

[kyliafanfiction]

Blackthorne in the book definitely develops more facility with Japanese than in the show. Partly because the FX show sort of cut out the months long period on Anjiro, at least kinda.

[yuurei20]

hi hi! i wanna start off this ask with thanking you for all your translations and comparisons! they're all so interesting to read and really help with putting the characters' personalities into perspective. i was rereading the heartslabyul manga and noticed that ace seemed to think the title of magic-less prefect was cool while in the game he was more neutral and simply stated they must be the first at nrc? is the direct translation perhaps more positive? thank you in advance!

Hello hello!! You are too kind, thank you very much m(_ _)m

And thank you so much for this question, it was fascinating to look into!

I went through the game, manga and novel for the scene you refer to, and compared what we see:

Ace's original dialogue and the EN translation are almost identical here (just with the removal of a プッ sound at the beginning, insinuating that he is holding back laughter), where he comments on the player character being maybe NRC's first-ever magicless prefect.

His follow-up line is where things begin to deviate:

Original Game: Nice, that's cool. A prefect who can't use magic! Original Manga: Nice, a prefect who can't use magic! That's cool! English Manga: A prefect who can't use magic. I like it! It's so cool.

English Game: But sure, why not? Whatever works!

While Ace's positive approval from original game and manga was kept in the English-manga adaptation, for some reason it was toned down to "whatever works" in the English game (this line does not exist in the novel). Nice catch!

I also compared Ace's earlier interaction with the prefect across the two translations (plus the manga and novel) to see what deviations there might be, and in that case the English-language adaptation of the game is perfectly accurate to the original:

The original- and English-language manga have slightly different phrasing in this scene (and Deuce is there, whereas he isn't in the game or novel), but the overall feeling is the same:

- "Only the chosen ones are allowed to enroll in this academy. You didn’t have what it takes." - "Are you lecturing me? I kinda think that’s super annoying." - "I’m out of here. I have class."

The biggest change in this scene is in the original novel, where Ace is even meaner:

- "Getting the attention of everyone in school, and then the perfect punchline: you’re a magicless, disappointing, nobody." - "What is with you? Don’t you have any pride?" - "Tried talking to you just to tease you a bit, but this is boring. Do your best with that monster, for the rest of us—and with your cleaning."

And this is possibly because we get a more detailed look into Ace's underlying issue with the prefect in the novel:

"‘I’m saying, I was wrong. I might have said some horrible things to you because I didn’t know your situation. All I heard was there was someone in the school who doesn’t even have any magic, so I thought you’d forced your way in or something, while the rest of us all had to get in on our own merit. I thought it wasn’t fair, so I got a little pissed off.’

The words leave Ace in a rush, fast and awkward, and then he hangs his head. ‘I’m sorry.’

Then Ace lifts his head again just slightly, giving Yuuya a glance.

‘…if you apologize then you get forgiven, right?’"

(The "Meeting Ace" scene has now been added to the overall compilation of translations from the first novel!)

[ofliterarynature]

JUNE 2023 WRAP UP

loved liked okay no thanks (reread) bookclub*

An Unsuitable Heir | The Winter of the Witch | An Unnatural Vice | Bloom* | An Unseen Attraction | Masters in this Hall | (The Mislaid Magician) | Gilded Cage | The Age of Innocence | (The Grand Tour) | Any Old Diamonds | The Rat-Catcher’s Daughter | (Sorcery & Cecelia) | (The Goblin Emperor) | A Gentleman’s Position | The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street | Dust and Shadow | A Seditious Affair | A Fashionable Indulgence | Subtle Blood | Proper English | Range

Let’s just say I was feeling a bit unhinged this month…

I don't know what was up with my brain this month (it was stress, probably. ugh.), but it was comfort-reads-only central. Which spun out of control a little with the KJ Charles, but we'll get to that.

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World started things off with a great non-fic pick. It spoke so deeply to me that it made me very angry at the world while also being very comforting. Would highly recommend.

Dust and Shadow is Sherlock Holmes solves Jack the Ripper, but hewing much closer to canon than say, that other one I fell in love with last year (The Angel of the Crows). I couldn't help comparing the two, and while it was interesting seeing each author's interpretations of the Ripper case, this one did not come out on top for me.

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is a sort-of sequel memoir to the author's collection of letters published as 84 Charing Cross Road that I read last month and loved. A little different but still a delight, and I've got another one of her related memoirs waiting for me on my desk right now.

The Goblin Emperor... what can I say, my brain needed comfort, I caught up on the AO3 tag, and thought why not. It was amazing to go back and see all the little bits of Maia I'd forgotten.

Sorcery & Cecelia I picked up partially as a consequence of my KJ Charles/historical romance rampage that fully put me off of the other audiobooks I already had checked out. I've been meaning to reread them for a while (it's probably been a decade) because I wanted to explore my mixed memories of the two sequels. And I don't blame younger me! The original book is a delight sort of in the vein of Diana Wynne Jones and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, with adventures and almost a comedy of manners element to it. The much later sequels lose a lot of the whimsy and brightness, are much more serious and adult, and are much more explicitly mystery novels. Now I love a mystery novel, and I think if you distance them from the original book they're not too bad! The Grand Tour is the worst, I think, both because of the unexpected shift in style and because I don't think the epistolary format they chose works well (I really would have loved to see some letters they wrote to other people, imo, rather than diary entries). The Mislaid Magician brings things back around much closer to the original novel's format both literally and narratively, if not in style, and I liked it a great deal.

This next one goes out to Lauren, who will probably never read this but - I finally read The Age of Innocence! Not the copy you gave me, but I did it. It wasn't quite to my taste, but it absolutely fits with what I know of your other favorite things. Sorry this was like 8 years too late.

Bloom I've had on my shelf for years and it's totally my doing that we read it for book club - it was a nice read, I love the art style, but ultimately it was a bit forgettable. Maybe if it'd focused on resolving the non-romantic conflicts as well, idk.

It took me MUCH longer to get to Winter of the Witch than I had planned, but I did! It felt a little clunky trying to get all the ends tied up, but overall I liked it, I was very glad to get away from the politics of the second book. This was such a well written series, I definitely recommend it, but it also made me feel angry and anxious enough while reading it that I can't see myself ever revisting it. (I'll definitely keep an eye out for more of the author's work though).

AND NOW FOR THE KJ CHARLES!!!

I started off the month finishing up the Will Darling/English books, which, do not follow my example, you should absolutely read in chronological order (and pay attention to character names!). These were not books I fell immediately in love with, but exposure and persistence, not to mention some great side characters, won me over. I also cannot BELIEVE that KJ waited until the very very end to introduce the "proteges" concept, and it's the best thing I've ever heard I am emotionally devastated (and cackling, lmao).

I've mentioned elsewhere my accidental discovery (too late) that the next 3 series were related, but I did manage at least to start with the correct one. Society of Gentlemen was...okay. The first one might actually be the worst KJ Charles I've read so far, but the other two were definitely better, if not exactly to my taste. I like the mystery/action/adventure plots more, I suppose, rather than...politics? I think? and respectability is boring anyways.

I managed to accidentally skip over Sins of the Cities directly into the Lilywhite Boys, which is a pity, because they're much more closely related to each other than Society (which honestly you don't need to read beforehand). Even without the more detailed background from Sins, I LOVED the Lilywhite novels and novellas. Thieves and shady characters who are extremely competent, excellent lovers, a little violent, and with their own moral codes are catnip for me, I could not have resisted.

I then went back to Sins of the Cities, which were also good! The leads in the first book were sweet but a little bland, the love/hate thing going on the second book was fantastic, and I loved that the third book had a genderqueer/nb lead. I appreciated getting all the background to events hinted at in the Lilywhite books, but I also admit I spent less time focused on the murders and more on "ok but HOW does X become the Earl???????" I had so many theories lol, none of them right. I just wonder if these would have hit a little harder if I'd read them first.

As I write this in July, I'm still working my way through the rest of KJ's catalogue but I think the worst of my brain fever is over, and I'm hoping to soon have the mental capacity to read the new Victoria Goddard I've been ignoring for a couple of months. Wish me luck, and happy reading!

[iviarellereads]

My reasons for reading the Wheel of Time

Are you unsure about reading the Wheel of Time? Whether or not you read along with my blog project (explainer here and WOT link index here), this post may be for you!

If you don't want any spoilers before experiencing it yourself, I will just say: watch the first two seasons of the TV show, first. The adaptation changes a lot of the details, but the show is taking elements Robert Jordan wrote 30 years ago, more than a generation removed from today's sensibilities, and he changed his mind on a lot of things as he went on. Rafe Judkins is doing an incredible job of adapting to accommodate changing sensibilities/expectations, a change in medium, and the things RJ didn't decide to make part of his world until later books.

If you don't mind some light expectation-setting spoilers, I'm going to lay out why I love the Wheel of Time, some reasons to pick back up and/or keep going with the series if you ever started and fell off, as well as content notes by way of the downsides so you know what you're getting into.

I can't say whether any of my cons will be dealbreakers for you, or if the pros will make it worth the cons for any individual reader. All I can say is, knowing the bad, I still reread this series because it was worth it for me, and a lot of folks like me agree. If you don't think you can do it, full respect, hopefully I'll see you when I take breaks from this series. 🫡

My rationale

This is probably one of the dearest stories to my heart, and the one that I started refining this format with. I've been in this fandom for almost 15 years, and I wouldn't trade… well, maybe a second of it, but not much.

One of the most chunky fantasy series that exists, the Wheel of Time was begun in the late 1980s by Robert Jordan. When he passed in 2007, his wife and editor chose Brandon Sanderson to complete what they thought would be the final book (but ended up being three books) series with the help of extensive notes he left behind about his intentions for the story.

Even though it's over 30 years old, and there have been active discussion communities on just about all the social interactive platforms you can think of in that time, the Wheel of Time lacks a lot of spoiler-free resources. There are a couple of attempts to make spoiler-free wikis, but they just can't ever quite compare to the full-spoiler ones. There are Discord servers with first-time-reader channels, but not a lot of options for double checking what's safe to say at any given point for full-readers, OR ways for first-time readers to double check information, like if they think they misheard something, without asking and potentially getting spoiled by someone who misinterprets.

So, besides having keyword searchable notes for myself, my ultimate purpose in creating my notes in the first place is to help folks who haven't read the books, to have access to that sort of summary without having to search and get major later-plot spoilers. And since that led to everything else that led to this blog, I think it's only appropriate that I do, eventually, revise my notes and post them here.

I will probably be taking breaks between books. Most of the books in this series have 40, even 50+ chapters. I've already gone and entered it in my Google calendar for tracking (are you really surprised I do that?) and the first book will take me two and a half months to cover, all by itself, though the chapters only average out to ~15 pages each. We're going to be here at least 3 years, and with breaks between more like 4 or 5. Even so, I think it's right for me to do this one more time.

The Pros:

WIDE cast of characters, including women who get their own deep personalities, motivations, and arcs. Women are often in compare-and-contrast mirrors to men's similar experiences happening in parallel, and only rarely rewards or prizes to be won. (Caveat: even some people who have read the series may scoff at this one, but part of my efforts will be to help make the subtextual things a little more noticeable, because a LOT of character is in the subtext in these books because of the close-third unreliable narrator effect. It's fair to interpret them more shallowly, hell I used to, but then I started looking deeper and found so much more than I expected.)

Setup, foreshadowing, and payoff. Many plot seeds are planted, nurtured, and harvested at perfect ripeness. RJ was a conoisseur of foreshadowing in the subtext, text, and supertext of the story, and when each was most appropriate. Many of the old web rings, forums, and fan sites are long, long dead, but I can attest that this series does some absolutely incredible work with giving readers plenty of information to theorycraft widely and wildly. One particularly (in)famous mystery lasted 8 books across 17 years, and that's not even the longest one, just the easiest for us to point at.

Rarely introducing a new character where an old one will do. While there are over 2700 named characters, a lot of comparable stories would have near doubled that to tell this much story. It's really fun to see names pop back up in unexpected places, and track people who don't get POVs across the world as they say hello from different places and nudge the background plot along.

Evil is no simple thing. It's kind of a spoiler, yes, but I think it's fair when you look at the landscape in which it was written, and if we have a different standard today, it's due in no small part to the Wheel of Time's influence. The 80s and 90s in the fantasy corner of the publishing industry were not bastions of moral complexity. The Wheel of Time has the big literal supernatural capital-e Evil, and the humans who sign on to support it for their myriad reasons, but there are also multiple acknowledged human evils in opposition to it. The heroes and villains get a similar treatment of depth. Some people are nearer to the unquestioned poles of Good or Evil, but your fave is probably a war criminal at some point either way. This story goes on for 14 books plus a prequel, and that sort of simplicity doesn't inspire the sort of deep fandom these have. Nobody is as shallow as they seem at first glance, and most long-time fans have faves in the Light, the Dark, and everywhere in between.

Unreliable narration means there's a LOT more to this series than a surface reading indicates. There's a lot to the surface reading, and there's nothing wrong with it, unless you count "you don't really, fully understand a lot of the characters until you understand the discrepancies between their thoughts and their actions". My first reading was completely superficial and I still had a blast. But my second, and third? Especially after interacting with more of the fandom and honing my skills at media analysis, there's SO much more there to discover. Hopefully this read will help surface-readers get a bit more of the deep understanding, and if your surface reading previously felt unsatisfying or left you hating a lot of the characters, maybe this will help you better appreciate what's going on.

The Cons:

The sexism and gender binary. Gonna level with you, there's a lot of very heteronormative and gender essentialist vibes in here. It's cis binary genders only (with a singular terrible exception we'll deal with when we get to, but know that it's coming and it's handled pretty dreadfully even though you could give it a more charitable reading if you wanted to) and no matter the country or culture they're from, women and men each have very strange ideas about what the other gender is about. Robert Jordan was a US Southern cishet baby boomer Vietnam veteran, he almost certainly had some really unhinged ideas about gender relations. (Why it's not as much a con: two reasons. First, see unreliable narration above. Second, I think that one of the themes that really gets missed by a lot, a LOT of readers is that imposing binaries divides and weakens us. I will be exploring this whenever I remember that it's relevant to talk about and you may get real sick of it by the end. But, I think a lot of RJ's writing in this direction was intentionally drawing attention to how destructive it is. It's just never really stated out loud, it's once again in the subtext, and it doesn't always land the way I think he hoped. I promise, I will have the citations to back up my assertion by the end.)

Queerness: none good. There's one sweet sapphic relationship which is relegated to "gay until graduation" status at what amounts to a girls only boarding school, and never spoken of again except as friendship. In the encyclopedias, the characters in it are explicitly defined as straight. There are several lifelong lesbians who are explicitly one or the other of the kinds of evil. There's the one singular bad trans rep character. After the Sanderson portions start, there's one man who's said to be gay. RJ maintained in interviews that of course gay people existed, the story just wasn't any of theirs, which still burns me. (The show is making this MUCH better. I genuinely had faith in Rafe Judkins's adaptation after something he does in season 1 in this vein, and I have zero problem adding a little queer goggle view to all the interactions.)

We go six books where sexual assault is barely a concern, then get a handful of them all back to back in one book, with a few more sprinkled through afterward. There's a particularly troubling one against a male main character that a lot of the fandom doesn't even acknowledge as having happened. I'm not even gonna try to defend this, it's inexcusable, and if I'd known, I might not have read it, even if it's one of my favourite stories today. (Hashtag Please Fix It In The Show Rafe Judkins.)

The start is rough. The first book is very much a Lord of the Rings homage, where RJ hopes you'll see the places he diverges and stay along for the ride as he defies the standard fantasy outline of his day. The "come play with me in this space" of it means there are a number of potentially really interesting things that are just abandoned and never mentioned again, in alongside the things that were refined along the way. I won't always point these out because spoilers, but it's good to be prepared for some level of disappointment that the thing you want to see explored, isn't. (And hey, you can always explore it in fanfiction!)

And the series remained a work in progress to the end. RJ always thought he was just two or three books from done, ever since book 3. He wrote book 11 believing there would be just one more after it, but after his passing, his wife/editor Harriet McDougal, Brandon Sanderson, and the rest of what we call "Team Jordan" decided there was no way to fit what was in his notes into a single book, so they split it into the final three (books 12-14). So, sometimes things will feel like they're hurtling toward a destination that you know, from the rest of the stack, has to be several books off for a satisfying arc of it. Alls I can say is, at least we know the series has an end that it seems most people who reached it found fairly satisfying.

Adjacent to this, The Slog. There's a plot slowdown in the middle, not unlike the "middle of a trilogy" problem but it goes on for, at least for some readers and by some reckoning, 6 of the 14 books. Readers who like a fairly dry focus on politics and subtle character interaction more than plot will find this less painful. Readers like myself who need a plot to keep us hooked and moving forward will feel like the series drags its wheels in the mud for a couple thousand pages. This is anecdotally where a lot of readers quit the series, and they often cite this as a main reason. I can promise you the ending is worth the Slog to get there, if you're like me. But, my notes go from over 100 pages in Google Docs for book 4, to 57 for book 5, and just 12 pages for book 10, if you want a comparison of how thin the plot gets. (A lot of long-time readers will try to gaslight me about this, because they come out of the woodwork every time it comes up, and I'm telling you now: that's a great way to get blocked, because I have the receipts. I'm not saying the slog exists as a moral judgement against it or anyone who likes it. I'm literally just stating provable fact that the plot slows down and at least this reader feels it really hard.)

[adventures-in-asexuality]

End-of-year ramblings

Video games

Yeah, okay, let's start here. Obviously I played a truly inexplicable very explicable amount of FFXIV this year, and will continue to do so (can't believe Dawntrail will be dropping next year; we've stuck at it through all the waits between patches).

Baldur's Gate 3 was fun; I didn't expect to play it, but so many people I know loved it that I had to try, and I'm glad I did.

The same really goes for Cyberpunk 2077; honestly most of what I like about the game is the experience of it, rather than the stories. Whoosh! Zoom! Neon and doublejumping!

The other major new game this year for me was Mask of the Rose; I really loved it! I think the post-release patches helped it a lot as a game, but honestly I was hooked right from the beginning. (This was probably the start of the series of events that got a friend playing Sunless Skies/me replaying Sunless Skies/me returning to Fallen London and accidentally convincing some friends to also do so. No regrets.)

Music

Big album this year has to be Bury the Lede by Dessa. I was going to listen and enjoy it no matter what, but I really do like the way a lot of the songs resonate with growing older, still having all the same big feelings, but being way too tired to deal with them in any kind of high-octane way. What if I'm Not Ready in particular really tugs at something in me.

I'm not sure I have more new music this year; I've been a bit disconnected from everything, mostly listening to music when someone hurls links my way. Maybe next year!

Books

I read a lot of books this year, as ever, but the vast majority have been rereads; I've been quite low on book recs again. Here's a few of the new ones - I won't cover all of them because I don't have that kind of patience. (Counted - 33 new ones - which, compared to the sheer number of rereads, is low.)

She Who Became the Sun/He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan were a fun pair of books, about a girl who steals her brother's name and destiny when he dies so that she can shape the world/become the emperor. I liked some of the gender vibes you get in this - Zhu Yuanzheng's gender is never really defined, but also never at all fits in a binary mould. A lot of the second book, however, felt a bit extraneous and a bit gratuitous in various directions. Overall, I think this is a rec for reading the first one and skipping the second.

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle - everyone reading this probably already knows, but yeah, this is good. There's always something special to me about stories about queer kids in fundamentalist Christian churches - sure, it's usually American churches, but it's still a commonality that resonates powerfully with me. Read it.

Somewhere in summer I read all of Tana French's murder mysteries. I quite liked the Dublin Murder Squad books - nothing special but fun - but I honestly really disliked her two later standalones. The politics in them just set my teeth on edge a bit - The Wych Elm's protagonist is so dismissive about disability that, while I know it's part of his characterisation, it still left a bad taste in my mouth; The Searcher's protagonist has some views on politeness and morality that just make me sigh. (Rec for the murder squad books if you, like me, just really like murder mysteries.)

The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson: every year I'll read one more of her books, I guess. They're always good. They always haunt me.

Translation State by Ann Leckie was good; of course it was. I think it comes with my biggest overall caveat for an Ann Leckie book (I really wish Qven and Reet's subplot had ended differently; I know it was written as a metaphor for something else, but I read and resonated with it as a metaphor for aceness, which the ending doesn't leave space for) but it was still great. And we saw Sphene again!!

TV/film

Not much this year; my brain hasn't been in the right space for it.

Watched the Evangelion rebuild - I still haven't seen the original series so this was an interesting experience. I'm not really sure what my takeaway from it was, or what exactly I watched (apart from giant photorealistic Rei - we watched the fourth film in the cinema, so it was truly giant) but hey, I get more references now.

That same group of miscreants has been watching Lexx - seriously, do not watch this. It's rancid. It's so bad we have lost the ability to evaluate media, because everything else is good compared to it. Awful. Terrible. 15 more hours to go until we're free. I'm not going to describe it because the descriptions sound interesting and it is a terrible show. Never watch it. Strangle anyone who tries to make you.

Almost forgot, but I think this was the year I watched Yellowjackets - phenomenal even when your point of comparison isn't Lexx. I'm waiting for the third season with bated breath. It's so good. It's so awful. It's breaking my heart. Please watch this immediately and then come scream with me.

I'm also making my way through Young Pope, which - I don't know if I'd say that I'm enjoying it, but it is certainly doing things to my brain. It resonates with me in a similar way to Camp Damascus; even though they're on very different areas of the right-wing Christian spectrum, the fundamental beliefs and desires and angers and fears and reactions are the same.

Heaven's Official Blessing Season 2 finally happened!!! I'm still working my way through it - the friend I watch with has had no time this year, so we're using the holidays for it - but, oh, I love this book and these characters so much.

More personal stuff

Work has actually been quite bad this year; I've largely been on a project that's gotten worse and worse as the year goes on, in a way I fundamentally cannot fix but have to try to anyway. I've been circling between 'I hate this, I should job search' and 'I'm so bad at everything, only this job would put up with me' and 'at least wfh doesn't mean I'm in danger of losing it'. By Easter or so, I should be free from it at last, so I'll keep an eye out and hopefully things will even out again.

Home has, however, been a lot better. I moved towns at the end of last year to somewhere that has more friends and a more walkable town centre (and much cheaper rent) and it's been an excellent choice. Only having to walk five minutes or so to get to a shop or see a friend has meant that I've been able to practise walking five minutes or so (whereas in my last place, it was a walk then a twenty-minute bus ride just to the town centre) - and that in turn has meant that I've been able to build that up bit by bit, and occasionally run headlong into my limits in the process.

It's been a bit of a weird holiday season in particular for me this year, laced with grief and memories. Hosting a Christmas dinner and cooking with several other people felt right in a way it's hard to really put words to, and also reminded me very strongly of my grandmother. Her house was always a gathering place for all the family, as well as a refuge; it's eight or nine years since I last set foot inside it and yet I could still tell you the layout of her kitchen, the mnemonic for the bank of eight light switches in the hallway, the warmest place in winter and the coolest place in summer. Nowhere I've lived before has been nice enough for people to visit often, let alone to cook in or to know their way around; cooking and organising with people, seeing them remember locations and extend tables and understand the hob, soothes something it is difficult to explain.

Next year, then:

I hope to have somewhat more brain and less exhaustion (I've been so tired all year, which is tedious as fuck).

I hope for many of my friends to have considerably better years, and that the rest will continue to have good years. (I am threatening the years with a knife until they are kind to all of you.)

I hope to continue to shape this flat into somewhere pleasant to be, and persuade people to be there from time to time.

I hope to get a better idea of my work situation when I'm not on a horrible project.

I hope that the GIC might at least tell me that I'm on a waiting list!

I intend to find a tangible creative hobby one way or the other (taking suggestions as long as you can present a use case for the hobby; Queenie keeps suggesting knitting in the abstract).

And, as always, I hope to love more freely, be kinder and more helpful, and to try to build a future that has space for me.

[khaleesiofalicante]

Hi do you think cassie will ever remember she has a ongoing series called eldest curses? its been two years and i ( i assume i can say we too) have been deprived of canon malec content .. i miss them a lot ... though your stories help a lot .. i think your characterizations are soo beautiful and complicated and intense ... i know there was a discourse going on abt alec's toxicity in TLND ... and i cld see his toxicity from miles away ... and how mavid both are a bit intense which might result into unhealthy relationship choices ... but i love how not simple they are . even alec was a bit toxic in very early books ... early tmi i mean .. but he has grown to be much better ... i think the one diff i saw between tlnd alec and canon alec is that teh latter is much more clam and rational and peace loving in his approaches .. ( like dealing with exiled clave and zara in teh few snippets we have had) which i like teh transition that he has had in a more rational logical and calm person that he has become .. he doesnt have big explosions of emotions but he like take sit in process it and respondes accordingly .. very rarely does he lose control ( aka when his family is in danger like rafael the adoption story of his, or magnus in tlbow) sry this got a bit long but i just reread tlbotw and tlnd and i am feels rn

About TEC - if I remember correctly, the second TEC book is set between the first and second TWP book (or something like that). So, we won't get any content until TWP is out. CC kind of fucked up with the release dates, me thinks. She released TEC too early and now the wait for the final book is too far away sigh.

Thank you for your kind words about my writing. I like writing relationships that are complicated - and perhaps even a little fucked up. I've written fics where it's all butterflies and roses (like LMLT). But as a writer, it's so rewarding to explore different aspects of characters in different universities. I think TLND Alec was the most 'toxic' in my fics because of the universe and circumstances he was in. I can't compare Consul Alec to Governor Alec because we know TLND Alec's life was very different. Everything is shit in the mundane world. I feel despite the demons and the cohort and all else, canon alec has the luxury of being calm, whereas in the mundane world it's just more stress and pressure and chaos (i mean look at our own leaders...)

I personally always found LBAF Alec to be the calmest and most responsible one in my fics, because again, there is something about that universe that gives him more control, I think. But it's not the same for all the characters. For eg, Max to me, is most unhinged in LBAF universe.

But yeah, like i said, it's fun to play around with all of this :)

[volann]

Everyone in tgcf is a foil character (if you squint)

Here's pt 2

I will be writing this as I reread the book, so this is the first part where I'll write about Xuan Ji and Xiao-Ying. I may not remember some details about Xie Lian and Hua Cheng bc I haven't reread those parts yet but hopefully it won't affect anything important. And neither do I have the revised version nor do I know Chinese, so everything is based on the og version. (also English isn't my first language, I asked my friend to check everything but there may still be some mistakes)

I'll start with Xuan Ji, Pei Ming’s ex that burned down temples and killed 17 brides to attract his attention. So the thing that keeps her as a ghost is her obsession with the man that prevented her suicide attempt. Also she wears red. Yes, I will be comparing her to Hua Cheng here. And this might be a stretch, but the plot may be indicating that she's his foil because Xie Lian first thinks that Hua Cheng is the ghost groom. Anyway, it's more important how those two are different. Xuan Ji's final goal is Pei Ming's love and attention. She doesn't take into consideration his needs and feelings, her own feelings come first. This is their main difference. Xuan Ji broke her legs to trap Pei Ming into staying, died to make him grieve — Hua Cheng died several times to save Xie Lian and didn't care about himself. She cries about how much she sacrificed, like Pei Ming owes her because of it — Hua Cheng gives his ashes to Xie Lian and doesn't care what will happen to them. He only wants Xie Lian to be happy. Xuan Ji wants Pei Ming to come to her, while Hua Cheng has been looking for Xie Lian for hundreds of years. Xuan Ji blames Pei Ming for everything that's wrong with her and her life — Hua Cheng would never. Xuan Ji shows how dangerous an obsession can be. Her love leads first to self-destruction, obvious in her broken legs and her last suicide attempt, and then to burned temples and people's deaths (although she was a general, her actions likely affected others even then). Hua Cheng did burn down temples too, but only to avenge his love, who didn't know about it for hundreds of years. Hua Cheng builds new temples for him. And, in the end, Xuan Ji is as powerful as she is only with Qi Rong's help while Hua Cheng became supreme on his own– his feelings are much stronger.

It is possible to find some similarities with Xie Lian too: besides being a fierce general, she is incredibly beautiful (and Xie Lian is Flower-Crowned Martial God), and while she had a high position during her life, now she's just a ghost. Xuan Ji feels as if noone is on her side, the one closest to her — betrayed her (add two suicide attempts there, although the reasoning is quite different). This reminds me the most of Xie Lian from book four, but fortunately he did see good in people, and in the end the only one suffering because of his actions was Wu Ming. Are these similarities the reason why he doesn't want to judge her without knowing the whole story?* The fact that he sees himself from the past in Xuan Ji and understands the desire to have someone who will stay by your side no matter what? Well, he never judges anyone too quickly and I can't claim anything. So. When compared to Xuan Ji, everyone showes their good sides, wow, what a revelation, I know.

*It doesn't really fit in this theme but those words might be directed at the reader since there are many lies in the book. The first that comes to my mind is the fact that Xie Lian knew about Nan Feng and Fu Yao's true identities already in the first book, but nothing in the text indicates that. But we're not speaking about them (yet?). In case of the ghost groom we first know the legend, then Xuan Ji's retelling and, finally, Pei Su's words, which we perceive as the truth. Every time characters' motivations are changed completely. This happens with many stories, from Xie Lian's past to less important parts like this one.

Now let's speak about the character whom I didn't plan to speak about at first: Xiao Yin. It is possible to compare her to Hua Cheng, or, to be more specific, Hong Hong-er: everyone thinks she's ugly and bullies her. Of course, we only see this behavior from Xiao-Pengtou (I don't remember the "tou" part in his name but wiki says it so it must be true), and the only other person with at least some significance from her village is the teahouse owner who is more of a narrator. But both she and Lang Ying avoid the light and don't look in people's eyes, and in the end she says she hasn't had any good days in her life, which probably means people in general didn't treat her well. Another similarity is the fact that Xiao Yin says that maybe she was born unlucky in the last moments of her life, while Hong-er was literally born under the Star of Solitude. But, unlike him, Xiao Yin isn't angry at the world. Before meeting Xie Lian Hong Hong-er wanted to ruin the festival for everyone with his own death, and now Hua Cheng mostly cares only about the crown prince. But Xiao Yin drags Xiao-Pengtou inside the circle made by Ryoe to save him. I can't think of a better example but from some angles it can be similar to Xie Lian saving Mu Qing, but he had eight hundred years, and he doesn't really care about the past anymore, and the whole situation is different… anyway, Xiao Ying only wants to help people, especially Lan Ying, helps Xie Lian as soon as she sees he needs it, but in the end most of it is in vain (Xiao-Pengtou did die), even her death didn't change anything, and the only one who grieves for her is the bandaged boy. Remember Xie Lian and his attempts to save Xianle? There even was a bandaged boy too. Xie Lian might have lied to Xiao Ying because of it, but he does lie out of kindness quite often, so this may not be true. Back to Xiao Ying. No matter how hard she tries, people always misinterpret her intentions and look for a catch (you want to help this boy? no, surely you're helping the ghost bridegroom). This is a common theme in all of mxtx's novels, Xie Lian isn't an exception. Even Xie Lian compares himself and Xiao Ying and says that she's stronger. That's probably because in her last words, she wanted to overcome her misfortune. No matter what she wanted to help everyone, including those who mistreated her, and didn't even think of sending an awful plague onto them.

I don't think Xiao-Pengtou is important enough to write something about him, although it is quite interesting how he could affect everyone's actions by just being there — after his death everyone was sorry. He probably would fit into an essay about ruling figures in tgcf. There isn't much said about Lan Ying yet, and later we learn way more about Nan Feng and Fu Yao, so there are some things I want to say that are not about characters. The themes important for the whole book and many characters — desire for closeness with other people, striving to find someone who will understand you and will never leave, inevitability of tragic events, discrepancy between what you are and what people see you as, distortion of history — are introduced in the first chapters. All of them will be important in the future arcs and probably this is why it's so easy to find foils: we see how the same themes are explored in different characters. I wonder how many words will be used for more important characters if I wrote so much on Xiao Ying…

[ragnar0c]

Finished book one of the Good Witch of the West today...! I had about 3 chapters left and I just read it all in one sitting... Go me! 30 pages! Grew on to me, more than the anime actually.

Lengthier in pacing compared to it all which I thought was a flaw. I usually like more episodic works and hate when the plot stays at one point for too long... BUT this makes it work. Such detailed descriptions, even if the characters remain in one spot and the plot drags they make sure the setting reflects the characters, and the kingdom is beautiful. I long to write as descriptively as this.

At times, I was ripped from descriptions to a telling of a character's emotions. Something I do sometimes. This book was reassuring bc I'd tell myself "Well I can't just say that. I have to show it." which is true sometimes, but this book taught me that it is okay to just say things instead of slaving over symbolism just to express something. I really liked the more in depth characters here, it never stayed on one's thoughts. Switched POVS which helped me understand side characters thoughts as well as the mains. How their thoughts contrasted and built up dramatic irony or even more a bond with some.

I loved the art work too... a given.

I have the second book as well. Need to get thru it. I reread the first chapter, then read the second. Currently on chapter 3. The sequel has my favorite arc in the show in it, so very excited... I will try to get thru it faster.

I'm a little proud to say I am reading more and faster. Getting thru 30 pages in a day used to be a chore for me. But I did that today and more. In total I read 64 pages. Partially thanks to the short chapter lengths... If this keeps up I can finally read some longer chaptered fics maybe?

After Good Witch of the West I think I'll try to read the rest of Sabikui Bisco... Then I bought Gideon the 9th... ough... Not sure I'm ready for that... So I'll either try that orrrrrrr try out reading Katanagatari as I really like the artwork for that LN... and Like GWotW, Kukui sings a song for it and I am heavily biased to media Haruka Shimotsuki does music for. Love her <3

Or. Maybe I should finish the HOBBIT OUGHHHHH IDK very much to read. I could read two books in the same time period now tho.

I started Sabikui while reading Good Witch and hadn't felt overwhelmed like before when I read multiple books at the same time ...

Anyway, it's been really long since I posted one of these, but, been reading more I think at least! If you got this far then... Thank you!

[eviefrie]

Okay so I see your TLT to Archive Undying prop, I see you know/read at least some of Baru - how would you sell me (a diehard Baru girlie ride or die, that's my autism rizz failgirlboss, my beloved) on Archive?

*if you have the time/interest/spoons*

oooh this was. a tricky one. bc. can i tell you a secret:

i didn't finish the traitor baru cormorant! i didn't like it enough! i can see how ppl would like it but the combo of the slow pacing + that particular brand of dark content just wasn't for me. & that's ok! but it does mean that i didn't feel fully equipped to answer this question on my own.

so after consulting w my local baru expert @urban-sith, i have come to present you with these conclusions:

both books rely a lot on the reader's ability to keep up with the worldbuilding. if you like picking up pieces of facts about a world and adding them to your little mental file, the archive undying is a book you will enjoy.

making an educated guess on this one, bc ire isn't texting me back fast enough: rereading is a value add for both books. like you will fully get Mileage out of archive, as i am guessing one does out of baru.

sunai, the protag and primary pov character of archive, is not so much baru cormorant as he is tain hu. self-sacrificing. kind of silly. disaster gay. spoiler: he does have a happier ending than tain hu does. low bar, that.

some differences that may or may not be selling points!:

archive takes a very locked tomb approach to gender & sexuality. there's a couple non-binary characters in the book and it's treated VERY normally. one of them has a gun.

time passing is much less obvious in archive? like weeks at a time are skipped over during traveling, but in such a way that it's easy to miss. it's mostly revealed in the sunai & veyadi talk to each other—the dialogue between them really landed for me as "two people who know each other well having a conversation".

related to that: so many things happen in archive. the pacing is INSANE. i find it fun, but if you liked baru's pacing you may think it feels rushed.

something to note is. well. seth is a white man. and not saying that white men can't write well about empires and imperialism/colonialism, but it's not like he's experienced colonization himself. emma mieko candon, on the other hand, is 4th generation japanese in hawaii. imperialism is a background theme in archive compared to baru cormorant, but i felt that its understanding of how empires and imperial states can layer on top of each other was much more nuanced.

no one in baru cormorant buys a chicken to use as an alarm system.

i hope this helps!!! even if i didn't sell you fully i hope u feel enabled to make an informed choice 🥰

[apoptoses]

how did you stop comparing your writing to other people's? if you can please share some of what helped for you ❤️

So. First things first. Step away from the fic.

Seriously. We have to develop the skill of being objective about writing before we can stop comparing.

Fic typically has a certain kind of writing style so you've gotta diversify your portfolio of inspo. Take a week long AO3 cleanse. Pick up a few books at the library, watch that movie you've been meaning to watch. Read some books about writing technique and only once you mentally feel refreshed can you come back with a clear mind.

And if you stop reading about your blorbo and start reading about some character in book you don't care a ton about you can disconnect. We project onto our faves, it's just a fact. So when you're reading a shitload of fic about your fave you're thinking 'yes, this is how i see them, no this isn't how i see them' and then you get into the spiral of 'but this is how i wish i could write about them' and you're on a one way train to Sadness.

But! Picking up, say, Call Me By Your Name- Elio and Oliver are fun, but they're not My Guys. So I can look at their experiences in the book more objectively and then actually look at the writing style itself. It's like taking two steps back from a painting and suddenly seeing the whole image at once. If you're too close (physically and emotionally) you're cut off from the big picture.

Then when you pick up a writing technique book, you can start seeing the stylistic choices used in Thing You Just Read But Are Not Too Close To. Get back into your literary analysis mindset. Get objective.

Now that you've done your cleanse, come back to a favorite fic. Print it out or download it to your phone. Treat it like an academic exercise. Highlight what you like about it. Figure out what skills that writer had to work on- was it description of places? Was it word choice?

Put those skills into a list of things YOU, the writer, want to work on. And then research how to get better at them! Remind yourself that you're learning and then you'll find yourself comparing in a objective way and not a self-esteem based way.

Now on the psychological side-

Comparing yourself comes from being insecure in some way (I know this, I have been there, I have suffered a lot from it). You gotta work on your self talk.

I've said this before, but work on changing the way you think about your work.

this work sucks -> this story needs edited

X writes blorbo better than me -> I need to reread the source material and write some meta about this aspect of blorbo

X's fic is so much better than mine, I'll never be that good -> X has spent a LOT of time working on their fic and if I work hard my fic will be good too

It sounds silly but god, it works! If I catch myself saying a negative thing then I stop myself, figure out how to reword it, and say that thought to myself in the new, not harsh way. Your brain works like a muscle, you've gotta train it until it remembers these things and you catch yourself before you spiral.

Also, if the person you're comparing yourself to is your friend- ask them about how they do the thing in their fic you like so much!

Remember that they're human too and are likely hitting the stages of grief as they write, and they're here to support you. My most feared writers are now my friends and I go to them for support when I'm in the weeds of self esteem.

Finally, if comparison is stopping you from sitting down and writing at all, you gotta just push through that pain. Write something. No pressure, it can suck, just put a 100 words down. And then the next day do something different. And the next. Just a 100 words! Until something sticks and you feel like you can keep going with it. And then apply previous steps so you don't give up before you're done.

And then? Post it. Fuck it. Your brain might be telling you it's not as good as X's fic but someone is gonna come into your comments and gush about loving it. If you can't post it because you're proud, then post it for the validation. Just share the thing so it becomes habit.

Lastly.

It's fic. We're not competing. We're not getting paid. We're doing this for love of our characters and if you're comparing and struggling with negative self talk then you're not having fun. Figure out what it'll take for you to find the joy in fandom and then try again.

I hope some of this helps! It's so hard but being objective about it is the most important thing you can learn to do ♥ And I promise, your work is better than you tell yourself it is.

[vivataurus]

Welp.. it's been a whole year since I've written these personal tidbits on the Vampire Hunter D series, and I've finally gotten around to rereading/ finishing the fourth book: Tale of the Dead Town. Here it goes..

So the beginning of the story plays out very movie-like. Lots of action and confusion... mysterious characters that you know are important, but you just can't put your finger on what roles they play in the plot.

What stood out the most to me in this book (compared to only the 3 other books I've read) is how much detail the technology is described and explained. I mean, a whole ass hovering town robotically moving through the frontier was wicked cool to imagine. Like a souped-up version of Howl's moving castle lol. The way the town ran, their maintenance, control, defenses, and construction played such a big part in this plot and I actually loved every bit of it.

Of course there's always some vampire afoot terrorizing townsfolk in the D series.. but the actual construction of the town itself playing a role in the plot as well as the expanded world building made the book so much more enticing to read. You got to see the level of medicine humanity has come by to unimaginably heal things like radiation poisoning and inbreeding. You also got to see the level of hatred and fear of dhampirs coming from the sheltered townsfolk. With that being said, it blends the same old shit/social constructs a small town comes with and 10000 years of technological evolution.

It was absolutely terrifying comparing the rising number of vampires terrorizing this secluded moving town from the beginning of the book to the end. But damn ... for the whole town to turn into mindless vampires in the end was alarming! The Mayor fucked up big time with his little experiments. I should've probably known given the title is called "tale of the dead town" lol

The characters were absolutely wonky, and maybe I might just be dumb. I knew Pluto VIII was iffy especially with how much the author described his oscillating character and almost night and day mood swings. But the whole time I was so suspicious of Dr. Tsurugi! My brain just couldn't trust him, and maybe it was the fact he was so competitive with D and how skilled/strong he was with karate? Idk. But never did I imagine Pluto VIII having to do with Lori's family's murder or even more so that he would team up with the madman mayor to find the plans on how to make humans into nobles without losing their humanity. All just for some coin. To top it off, even after all his secret misdeeds he took such care of Lori throughout the whole book; even when he took over her body! I really think the author just wanted us to think of him as strange guy and neither love or hate him.

It gave me such a relief to figure out what Tsurugi's deal was with D; and even more so finding out that it had to do with Doris and her brother. The two were well and thriving, and that Doris wouldn't pay the doctor's advances mind because her heart still longed for D. I fricking love Doris and her bro. It was also nice that the doctor kinda got paired with another strong girl like Lori, (the female lead of this book) who not only became deaf and mute through radiation in the beginning of the story, but found more of her purpose to help people while struggling with her new disabilities.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, although it took me forever to get back into. The end of the book is where the plot moves fast, and has you at the edge of your seat!

VHD 4 Rating: 7.5/10

[queers-gambit]

I've just read the other two stories, similar to cherry blossoms and OMG. I know I've already complimented you on that one, but boy did I read them in the wrong order because I can't stop crying. I'm gonna shower you in praises because you wrote three ABSOLUTELY STUNNING pieces. The thought that you put behind every single one, every word and action made me feel as if I'm reading a novel written by one of the Brontë sisters. I'm only comparing you to them, by holding you in very high regards, because Wuthering Heights is the only book that made me feel actually heartbroken -something that I've experienced again with your stories.

As a reader I can't help but feel as if I've lived those tales in another lifetime, your beautiful words shaping the stories in my mind as mere memories, making me feel a desperate longing for someone, something, somewhere that never actually happened.

I'm so shocked and stunned and sad but also happy that I find it hard to put into words just how much I've loved them. I hope you know how ridiculously gifted and talented you are, how you create and destroy worlds so effortlessly. All I can do is say thank you for sharing your work, your talent with us on this app. Thank you!!❤️❤️

I know how awful this is but I'm still crying and it's 1 am, so sorry for dumping this load of emotion on you. Didn't know where else to show my gratitude and appreciation❤️

Also, I'm gonna hug you now.🫂

i saved this one for last because i'm in awe. and i have genuine tears in my eyes, because wow. don't think i'm a pussy, but i'm honestly just a little shocked that you're complimenting me like this.

so, thank you. i'm honestly just tongue tied right now and it's a wee bit hard to see what i'm typing because i'm emotional. you comparing me to actual, legendary authors is just - wow. like, really, wow.

i don't think i deserve it but after reading ALL of these supportive messages, i don't know, maybe i'll have to find a little more confidence in myself. but this message? this message right here? i might have to, like, print out and hang on a bulletin board somewhere so i can look back on it because i'm THAT moved and touched by this. i want to feel what i felt reading this everyday.

i don't think you really realize how MUCH this means to me.

so, just - just wow. thank YOU so fucking much for sending this, i'm still just shocked and in total awe. all i can really say is thank you, again, because it's messages like these that genuinely keep me going. not just on Tumblr, but elsewhere.

no, no, no, poppet, you're not dumping anything on me - i love reading your messages. your responses. seeing the emotion i've evoked with a few silly little strokes of my keyboard. like i'm actually crying a little harder now because i'm still so fucking grateful and keep rereading your message. i just love talking to you lot honestly! and please, showing the author your appreciation and gratitude is the EXACT place to "dump" your feelings.

because i live for it, okay?

just wow.

i really hope i can continue to wow you. and i hope i can continue to do justice to this art form we call penmanship.

every single ounce of love, appreciation, and gratitude i have is yours, my dove. and please, i don't know what else to say but thank you so much. i'm still emotional but this is so validating. so, thank you. thank you so very much. i love you 🖤

[iviarellereads]

Full TLT series to date thoughts on rereading Gideon the Ninth, chapters 1-5

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space.

"I fealt the Emperor with every bone in my body. I fealt hard." Oh Gideon if you only knew… Then you start thinking about how Gideon would absolutely use "daddy" thinking she was doing it ironically. Cursed thoughts, Locked Tomb edition.

"I'm not helping Nonagesimus become a Lyctor. She'll make me into boots." Oh, god undying, I can't help but wonder how this one line slots into Harrow's justification for the splicing out of Gideon from her brain. One of the most honest moments Gideon has with Harrow in the room, when she tells Aiglamene she will not be killed and made an object for the Ninth to consume. And then Harrow goes curiously soft as Aiglamene takes Gideon's side in this! As if she's thought about what Gideon's presence means to her, and what Gideon really thinks of her, and she feels big complicated things about it all.

"Things are changing. I used to think we were waiting for something … and now I think we're just waiting to die." Did Aiglamene sense something coming, somehow? Given what we find out at the end of Nona, what we see there... Hmm. Definitely theory fodder.

Gideon biting Harrow's hand definitely has a certain sort of erotic tension. Harrow, leaning in to apply the paint, a very intimate act. Gideon's response, to bite her, carrying its own implications. The fact that Gideon, despite her narration, gives in so easily that we can tell she's not actually against Harrow's closeness here, she's not entirely fighting the intimacy, it's just all so unfamiliar. The text compares her to an animal not wanting to take medicine, but I think perhaps this is an animal that's been hurt before and is being asked to trust, her own better nature overwhelming her despite her fear of being vulnerable with Harrow again.

And then, of course, seeding the bone meal in soup for book two. Perfect, no notes.

[tolerateit]

Okay thanks for the opinion. I want to add that i meant reading two similar books a month to see which one I like more. Reading two similar books at the same time helps me to compare them to see which one I like more..and motivates me to read it. I'm curious why the vibes are so different to you. I think they both have characters a similar age, in the 90s, and also third person. I can't remember the last time I read something in 3rd person so I might struggle with that. I saw the movie One Day years ago but can barely remember it. I honestly didn't know too much about Tomorrow other than it's been recommended by a few people I follow. I didn't reread the synopsis and wanted to go in kinda blind I guess..but so far I couldn't tell what it was. I'm not sure if it's romantic between them or not. or I thought its similar to Normal People in a way..cuz I love those kind of stories..and one day also kinda fit that? Also flipping thru the book for Tomorrow,, I accidentally saw a spoiler for it..and idk if it was a big deal or not lol so I wonder if that will affect my reading. I've only read two chapters so far. I'm loving the Night Circus though and read most of the backstory when they were children and same for Tomorrow. I can keep you updated if you want..but I might not read it for a few months at this point.

I think because one day begins with the characters stepping into their twenties (if im not wrong they meet at college?) their connection comes off quite differently than those in tomorrow x3. I'd also consider tomorrow x3 a more platonic (or at least less romantic) story. Aksksks not the spoiler though 😭 if it is one Those spoilers you may have changed your reading experience a bit, but im sure it'll still catch you unguarded! The book definitely picks up pace after like the first 4-5 chapters so im hopeful that you'll love it much more by then and if you have the time you should definitely keep me updated!! Very happy to see you're enjoying the night circus!!!

[prismatic-bell]

as youre very both old school fandom and also someone who works to preserve old fandom content, what do you think is the best way to print off and preserve fanfics? I've been wanting to start to move my many many many archived pdfs into actual physical copies but ive been way too intimidated to really look deep into it so I was wondering if you had a preference

Okay, so.

My preference is "yes." Yes, I want you to archive them. Yes, I want you to save them. I've worked to preserve 1960s teen pulp mags, for fuck's sake, it can't get much worse than that, and I'm grateful to have them.

With that said, pick any or all of the following options to make your physical printouts last longer: --select acid-free paper --bind by sewing, not stapling --store in archival sleeves, like the ones you use for old comic books And now, pick any or all of the following options to make my life easier as a historian (or, you know, the lives of the historians who come after me): --include the title --include the author's name --include the fandom name --include which version of the canon, if relevant (e.g. the OG Transformers show vs the Michael Bay movies) --include the date, or at least year, of publication --include the summary --include the site of origin, including the URL All of these things are called provenance and help not only to identify a specific work, but to place it within its cultural context. As an amusing example: I recently got into James Bond, and decided to go through every fic in the main pairing tag, in chronological order. There came a point where suddenly, out of nowhere, there were like two solid pages of nothing but A/B/O, which I previously had not seen at all. I had a suspicion, so I looked it up, and sure enough--those two pages appeared within just a couple of weeks of the corresponding Supernatural episode. Having publication dates let me determine that. If I were a historian trying to piece together a long-ago puzzle instead of going "lol I live on the hellsite, I bet I know exactly where this came from," that would be a huge datapoint. I could probably find a similar sudden explosion in other fandoms, as well--and if we're going far enough in the future, if Supernatural were to just vanish off the face of the planet along with its entire fandom, historians could still trace that it existed and even determine some of its events based on when certain tropes begin to appear in other fandoms. And further, the fact that its tropes and major events appear in so many other fandoms would allow those historians to say "this must have been a very, very popular story." (This isn't just me making shit up to sound important, by the way. This is literally how we have records of a lot of things throughout antiquity and even into the Renaissance. The more copies there are of something, or the more references that are made to a thing in other things, the more likely it is for at least part of it to survive. This is literally how we know about Shakespeare's two lost plays--he was a popular enough playwright that quartos of his plays were advertised for sale.) Whew! Now let's get into stuff you could do that would make me, as a historian, scream with delight if I were to open your folder full of labeled, acid-free fanfiction fifty years from now: --write a little something about why you picked this particular fic to preserve in hard copy when doing so is bulky and time-consuming compared to the easy instant storage of the internet, yes, even if your reason is "I'm trying not to use my phone in bed because the screen keeps me awake but this story is soothing to reread" --write a little something about who you are, even if it's just "my name is X, my age is Y, I live in Z, I printed this out in 2022" And last but not least: Marginalia. Marginalia. Marginalia, my beloved. That's when you write your thoughts in the columns on the sides, underline stuff, circle it, and so on. Having marginalia means I actually get a window into your thoughts as you read--your perspective, stuff that stuck out to you, places the story made you feel some kind of serious emotion. And yes, this goes for everything. Villain A kills Hero B and you write "YOU MOTHERFUCKER" in the margin, that tells Future Historian Me that you really loved Hero B, you were invested in seeing her succeed, and that this scene really resonated with you. One of my most treasured possessions in the fandom museum is a copy of the novelization of the Help! movie the Beatles did. This particular copy is very worn--unsurprising, it was a cheap paperback even when it was printed--but also, its original owner apparently took it to the movie theatre and

wrote notes in the margins indicating all the things happening onscreen that weren't in the book. What does this tell me? WELL. Let's go ahead and take a look: 1) the written ink doesn't look any newer than the book, so I'm guessing a little when I say this was the original owner and in the theatre, but I have an actual datapoint I'm basing that on 2) based on handwriting and the main demographic of the Beatles audience at the time, this was a young woman, probably a teenager. 3) she went to see the movie more than once (some notes are in pencil, some in ink, but the handwriting is all the same) 4) she was dedicated to making sure every moment of the movie was preserved. This was an era before home video players, so once the movie left theatres, she had no guarantee of seeing it again. 5) while the book is worn, it's not beaten all to shit. It was read a lot, but there's no evidence it was mistreated, so it was probably a prized or at least respected possession.

What can I extrapolate from this, with the understanding that I mean "what theories can I reasonably form but not prove"? Well. She was probably a pretty big fan, since she went to see the movie at least twice and also bought the book. Maybe she wanted to keep the story after the movie was gone. Maybe she was looking for answers for some teen mag contest like "find these things in the Help! movie and win a chance to meet the Beatles." Maybe she had a friend who wasn't allowed to go to the movie. You know what the most tantalizing possibility is to me, although I'll never be able to prove it and actual ethics as a historian mean I can only present it as one among many possibilities? Maybe she did it as a source reference for writing fanfiction. We don't know. We can't know, because I have no idea who the original owner was or if she's even still alive and no way to trace her. But that? In terms of fandom history, that is a fucking gold mine. Pure 24-karat all through. From a strictly historical view, that's worth more than the animation cel I've got in there, and I paid over a hundred bucks for that thing.

So yeah! That was a lot of words to say "just do it." But there's your answer!

[iguessigotta]

ahaa omg hi im shy to send this in but i HAVE TO bc ur drabbles give me so much life thank u ajsdkfnmgnf !!! may i request more of puppy/dog dark? (if not, damien himself ahsdnfdm) feel free to ignore and all, i just wanted to say that ur drabbles have my brain in a vice grip AHAA

anon you have no idea how happy i am to hear that you like my stuff!!! i've been opening tumblr all day just to reread this ask with a dumb smile on my face <3 wait omg puppy Damien dkafjioe;aj i'll do more dog Dark at some point in the future, i just had to get this out RIGHT AWAY

in my original dog Dark post, I compared Dark to a Rottweiler (or any big scary-looking but sweet-with-his-person type of dog, really) but Damien......tbh he's basically a golden retriever

like, if you need anything, he is on it. need a snack? whatever you'd like, he'll go get it. wore the wrong shoes while the two of you were out and now your feet are killing you? wait right there, he'll be back asap with a different pair, or just straight up offer his if y'all wear the same size. sore back? he'll happily give you a massage. his hands are a little clumsy, but he's trying, and you and your aching back are grateful

mild separation anxiety. neither of you are sure when it started, but at this point, this poor sweet man is glued to you whenever he can be. relaxing on the couch, sitting on the porch watching a storm, curled up with a book, running errands, etc. he just gets nervous sometimes when he can't see or hear you

in a similar vein, unless he's busy Damien's likely to be following you around, offering help with anything and everything you're doing. he doesn't even realize he's doing it most of the time. he just wants to help you and be close to you. which he does. he follows real close to you. poor guy's been knocked over the head so many times because you just didn't know he was there

some part of him is almost always touching you. be it his thigh against yours, his hand on your lower back, his arm looped through yours. even if it's as small as him simply holding onto the corner of your shirt while you're out walking around, he's doing it.

v e r y cuddly. he likes to be in contact with you, so if y'all are on the couch or in bed or curled up in front of the fireplace on a pile of blankets on the floor, you're getting cuddled. he'll lean his head on your shoulder at first, but after a while you notice.....this man is practically in your lap. time to just lay his head down on your thighs and play with his hair

Damien is more than happy to pull you into his lap as well. he'll drag you as close as he can before wrapping his arms around you and nuzzling into your neck. if he had a tail it'd be going crazy right now. are you too comfy to move, but you're taking up the whole couch? he'll just squeeze right on in there, pulling your feet into his lap so he can idly run his fingers up and down your legs while he reads or talks to you. he feels like he's at his happiest in moments like these, when the world is quiet and it feels like you two are the only people on the planet