#Disenchanted rewrite

[sidecharactersdomatter]

I can’t believe I confirmed through my latest answered asks that Tftoml!Morgan is going to be AroAce in my fic and during Ace visibility week.

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Disenchanted Rewrite

The biggest change I would make to Disenchanted? Make Morgan the focal point.

And to avoid using the crutch of teenage angst as a plot point, make her different. She's the kid who never had to grow out of magic, because she knows it's real, she's seen it herself. She's bright and bubbly and likes the whimsical kinds of clothes her mom designs and makes.

But with her parents busy, a new baby sister, and a sudden move to the suburbs she wasn't asked about, her cheeriness starts to crack a little. From the time they arrive it's one bad happening after another, which all seem to center on Morgan.

To top it all off, Edward and Nancy come to visit with their special gift for baby Sophia. A wishing rod, one that can only be used by a true child of Andalasia. Morgan is all but ignored in favor of the baby, and we can tell that while Morgan loves and adores her baby sister, she's feeling very alone.

She goes to her first day school (I'm torn between NOT relying on the "kids are inherently cliquet shitheads" and Morgan's individuality-- which would have been valued in NYC-- making her othered), and ends up meeting another kid.

The popular girl.

The popular girl whose mom is the head of every committee and is generally very commandeering and demanding. The popular girl who would rather do robotics than cheerleading, who loves to read but rarely has time with her extra curriculars. Who adores Morgan from the moment this new girl spots her and immediately-- genuinely and cheerily-- compliments her, instead of being daunted or intimidated by her.

This popular girl-- let's call her... Sarah-- and Morgan immediately hit it off. Morgan invites Sarah over to her new home after school, and Sarah manages to get approval from her mom (we'll call her Vivian) with the caveat that Sarah gather "information" on Monroeville's newest residents.

Even though she has a guest, Morgan is asked to watch baby Sophia while her dad is at work and Giselle is busy negotiating a fabric order or something. So they're in the nursery when the conversation deepens.

Turns out Sarah is ALSO a step-daughter. Except that she remembers her mom and misses her terribly, which only makes her relationship with Vivian even more strained, who Sarah feels is trying to make her into this perfect carbon copy of who Vivian was in her own high school days.

Towards the end, Sarah tries to lighten the conversation by remarking how much she envies Morgan's light-heartedness-- how happy she seems, and how genuine she is. It's like.... she sees the good in everything, like-- everyone gets their own happy ending. Even her house seems like the basis of a fairytale.

To which Morgan shares that her life isn't as happy as it seems. She's lonely, she feels overlooked. She loves Sophia, but sometimes she misses the times when her family was just the three of them. What makes it worse is that she's SEEN fairytales come to life. She knows what a happy ending looks like, but it no longer feels like her own is guaranteed.

If only she were able to live a fairytale of her own.

Cue Sarah spotting the glitter of the wishing rod. She asks Morgan what it is, and Morgan tells her point blank. Sarah's reaction makes it clear that she's not sure she believes it, or simply accepts it as a metaphor, but either way she plucks it up and plops back down next to Morgan and is like-- "Let's do it. Let's wish for a fairytale."

And they do.

Nothing happens immediately. It's not until the next day that Morgan wakes up to find Sarah gone and herself in a magical world where she's the step-daughter and treated like Cinderella. Giselle is distant and cold towards her (a sharp contrast to what we've thus far seen from Giselle, which has been good intentions but distracted, abbreviated execution) yet fawns over Sophia.

When Morgan goes to market, she looks for Sarah. Finally, she spots Sarah walking beside her mother in nice clothes but clearly miserable. Their eyes meet and to Morgan's relief Sarah recognizes her immediately. At the next shop, Sarah makes up a pretense of wanting to peruse a street stall. Vivian sneers, but allows it.

Morgan runs to Sarah and they collide into a fierce embrace. In a jumble of words and confusion, they eventually work out that their wish indeed came true, but it's clearly not the fairytale life they intended. They agree that they need to reverse the wish, and fast.

With the Monroe-fest/ball happening that evening, Morgan has enough knowledge of fairytales to surmise that they have until modnight to reverse the wish before it becomes permanent. They make a plan for Morgan to find the wishing rod and bring it to a pond Sarah knows about, and that Sarah would find a way to slip away from her step-mother and meet her there.

Morgan upholds her end of the plan, but Sarah never shows. Time for plan B. Morgan finds her way to Sarah's family house to discover it's a sprawling mansion. Not only that, as the wish has continued to spread its roots, the years and years of misgivings between Sarah and her step-mom have created a nexus of dark energy, slowly turning the manor into the castle of an evil queen.

Knowing she has no hope of breaking in alone, Morgan calls on the only magical experts left available to her-- Edward and Nancy. After brief rundown to apprise them of events, they readily commit to helping her.

They devise a plan for Edward to provide a distraction at the front gates while Nancy and Morgan scale the perimeter wall and sneak into the castle. The only problem is, Edward posits, is that they don't know where exactly Sarah is.

Nancy and Morgan share a Look.

"The Tower," they declare in unison.

As Morgan and Nancy sneak through corridor after corridor, they talk. Nancy asks why Morgan wished something like this, and Morgan releases all her frustrations in a rush, citing her dark feelings and culminating in her deepest misgiving-- that she's not a daughter of Andalasia.

Nancy stops her right then and there. "Oh, sweetheart," she says, cupping Morgan's face and wiping her tears away. "Being a child of Andalasia isn't about where you were born. It's about what's in your heart."

Morgan is doubtful, and Nancy gives her a warm, kind smile.

"Don't believe me? Look around you, Morgan-- how else would the rod have granted your wish?"

That certainly gives Morgan to think about as they resume their trek towards the Tower. When they reach the locked chamber at the top, Sarah can be heard on the other side, shocked and relieved that Morgan has come for her.

When they descend with Sarah in tow, the sounds of encroaching guards funnel them into the grand hall of the castle where the ball is being held, and where Sarah's step-mother--- now an evil sorceress complete with magic-- is waiting for them.

Vivian delivers a monologue worthy of any villianess, declaring that she knew Morgan was no good the moment she laid eyes on her. She could not allow her daughter to comingle with such peasantry, for her daughter is to one day be the next dark queen, and they will rule the kingdom together in all their evil glory.

"No," Sarah speaks up. She steps forward to stand beside Morgan with her chin high. "I'm not you. I will never be you. Why can't you just let me forge my own path, and be who I want to be?"

"Because you are mine!" Vivian roars. Her glare turns to Morgan. "I will not allow you to fill my daughter's head with such thoughts any further."

"She deserves to be free to make her own choices!" Morgan calls out.

"There is nothing YOU can do to stop me."

Morgan straightens, standing tall and proud. "You're wrong. I am NOT nobody. I am a true daughter of Adalasia, and I will do everything in my power to stop you!"

With a roar, Vivian lashes out with her magic. The inky tendrils of darkness meets a forcefield born of Morgan's magic, which repels the beam in a flash of shimmering light. Vivian presses harder with her magic, nearly breaking through, but Sarah clasps Morgan's hand, and the shield strengthens with their combined might.

Vivian counters by supplementing her magic with the life force of the ball's attendees. Again, the shield nearly fails, but then Nancy grips Morgan's free hand. And then, finally, one more hand reaches up to clasp Morgan's shoulder from behind.

Morgan looks back to find Giselle, her features warm and adoring like Morgan remembers from before Sophia was born. Having been at the ball with Robert before Morgan burst in, she's heard Morgan's speech, which has woken her from her wish-induced role.

"I am so proud of you, Morgan," Giselle tells her, eyes glistening with tears. "I love you so much. I know you can do this. WE can do this."

Bolstered by the support of those around her, Morgan faces the evil queen once more and with a roar of her own sends a pulse of love and light throughout the room, severing Vivian's connection to the attendees and sapping her of power. As Vivian rises once more with hate in her eyes, she begins to craft a final, devastating spell.

"Morgan, now!" Giselle calls.

Pivoting towards Sarah, Morgan pulls out the rod and they clasp it together, their hands piling over each other. Together, they say the magic words.

"I wish."

Just as Vivian's spell blasts towards them, the world around them fades away, and when the girls open their eyes once more, they are back in Sophie's room, seemingly having fallen asleep while the baby napped.

With an almost frantic relief, the pair scramble downstairs to assure themselves that the world truly has regained its true shape. There nothing is out of place, except for Giselle in her office. Through the open door, Morgan can see her step-mother-- her mom-- pause in her pacing. After a moment of quiet, Giselle abruptly tells the caller on the other end that she has to go, and promptly hangs up.

She pulls back the door of her office and meets Morgan's gaze, proving that Giselle remembers everything. When Giselle surges towards her, Morgan opens her arms and hugs her mom tightly.

"I'm so sorry," Giselle tells her. "I never meant to make you feel that way. I promise, I won't let it happen again."

Morgan nods into her shoulder. "I love you, mom."

Eventually, Sarah reluctantly returns home. But to her surprise, Vivian quietly calls her into the living room for a talk.

"Do you enjoy cheerleading?"

The strange question takes Sarah aback, and she scrambles to find an appropriate answer. "I.... don't dislike it."

"If you had a choice, would you have chosen it?"

Sarah almost fibs, but at the last minute pulls on the strength she'd gained with Morgan in the wish world.

"No." She lifts her gaze to meet Vivian's. "No, I wouldn't."

For a long moment, Vivian is quiet. Then, she rises from her prim seat on the couch and approaches Sarah, taking the girl's hands in hers. It's a rare moment of physical contact.

"I'm sorry, Sarah," Vivian says. "I've tried to guide you into the things I enjoyed because it felt like the only way I could connect with you. But I realize now that it only served to drive you further away." Vivian pauses, taking a breath. "I don't want to be just your step-mom, Sarah. I want to be your mom."

It's all Sarah has ever wanted to hear. And Vivian's honesty is audible in her voice, tangible in the way her hands tremble ever so slightly in Sarah's. In a split second, Sarah makes her choice.

She flings her arms around Vivian, and hugs her tight. Surprised, it takes Vivian a moment to recover, but when she does she is quick to reciprocate.

"Let's find a new way forward," she murmurs. "Together."

The film ends with Sarah and Morgan walking into school together, greeting their other friends as they go. Giselle and Vivian are manning the bake sale (for the robotics team) outside, comfortable and supporting their daughters with mutual enthuasium.

And they lived happily.

[nashanuah]

I'm pretending to be so normal about it but actually I'm still vibrating and frothing at the mouth at having won the world cup

[spacebugarts]

It makes me really sad to say this but I just watched the trailers for Hocus Pocus 2 and Disenchanted and I was WAY more excited for Disenchanted

[chaifootsteps]

need the fandom to understand that 'character who is the soft one who cries is not equal to the character who is in the right'

it makes sense for a show that's primed it's audience to think abuse is just limited to obvious cruelty and insults (but only when the show says it counts, HB cared about Blitzo being a jerk to Moxxie for all of one conversation) but it's frustrating to see this show touted as 'sooo deep' when it could have done a lot more to show the different types of manipulation and abuse with the material it already has

like, a character that's soft and weepy and constantly rewrites reality to favor himself? that's A grade PSA material for how abusers don't always look like Stella or Crimson and make their targets feel like they're the ones who are crazy or in the wrong

Oh yeah, and for the contingent who says Stolas would be treated way more sympathetically if he was a woman - I kind of doubt it, personally. I think a character like Stolas if he was genderswapped would be judged far more harshly for what he does in the Stol/tz storyline, not less

like the audience would probably jump to 'he reminds me of my mom/girlfriend/other female friend who also uses crying and looking pathetic to get people to take her side despite treating me like dirt', 'this or that trait is such a narcissistic thing to do'.

the show already expects its audience to treat the female characters with way more scrutiny and suspicion after all, but I feel like people are more inclined to recognize the figure of the 'narcissistic woman who's only emotional reality is her own' or the image of 'mom who neglects kid for new beau' than they are when it's a male character

and that's not a bad thing, to be clear! it's good the fandom can recognize abusive behaviors in women, probably most often their mothers (though it is disturbing how little they can acknowledge the emotional landscape of the female characters - there's any number of reasons for Stella to feel disenchanted with her life and the fandom cares about none of them)

the problem is they can't extend that logic to Stolas. they can't see how Sad Owl Twink is distorting reality around his relationship with Blitzo and refusing to treat him like a person, or how he's a subpar dad to Via. it feels like the bar for male characters is being set way lower as long as there's a convenient excuse. and it seems part of the reason is more than just Stolas being male, since logically Blitzo wouldn't be getting it in the neck from Stolas fans so much

it seems like it's also because they seem him as soft and harmless that on top of the extra credit male characters get for doing nothing, they've decided he can do no harm. men already deserve a medal for being connected to their emotions, so if Stolas appears soft and sensitive it means he can't possible be abusive or neglectful at the same time. which is just not true

sorry if this is rambling, kinda thinking out loud

Thank you for sharing these thoughts aloud. It's absolutely true...Viv and her fandom seem to have it in their heads that abuse looks like screaming and insults, that sexual abuse looks like being held down (also that it doesn't count if you "get away,") and that is so, so unbelievably dangerous it genuinely chills the blood. It's going to get someone hurt.

[vigilskeep]

I don't recall you nina posting before but [chinhands] please tell me everything about her she sounds amazing

nina was Just A Little Guy Doing Her Best. my original cadash i played after playing minerva and keir for the first time. she’s just a nobody lesser cousin of lesser cousins from the carta and she’s trying to crack jokes to pretend she doesn’t desperately want to believe she really is chosen. a very genuinely kind person but because she learned her morals from the wrong people she also just believes murder is basically okay. she’s kind of the lighter/funnier contrast to my blood mage warden and reaver hawke but it only makes the tragedy hit harder, ideally

i kind of got disenchanted with her playthrough for a variety of reasons, like, um, i meant her to be quite young intending her for the sera romance but then i wasn’t having fun with sera/cadash and because of the age i’d decided, all the other romances felt weird. i wonder if i could rewrite her aged up for maybe blackwall or josie

i also need to keep playing with the cadash backstory more so i can tie it into the lore i like best :) i like cadash for the inquisitor role soooo much but the game gives u so little i have to do allll the work

[mltrefry-ficwriter]

hiii, hope you’re well! 💖 honestly i would read any/all of your answers to those fic writer Qs so i’m gonna be a little unhinged and send you a bunch, but feel free to just answer whichever you want!

11, 16, 41, 53, and then 75, 76, and 77 for the Run With You universe! 🥰

Oh, I'm going to answer all of your questions. I'm actually really excited to get asked this many! So thank you! This is super exciting for me.

11 - My three favorite fics right now? Ugh, I have to choose? Really? Alright, this was hard, and I even went through my Ao3 bookmarks to help me pick. In no particular order: -"All's Fair in Love and Serial Killing" by @wyvernquill -"What's in a name" by flawedamythyst -"The Sometimes Wife" by @marveliciousfanace

16 - I'm currently properly nurturing 4, though I have 6 kicking about my head when I feel like it. Because of your later questions, I'm going to admit one of them is in the Run With You verse, a Bill era rewrite with a heavier focus on Rose and Missy's friendship. 41 - Do a reread fics? Sometimes. It really depends for me. A LOT of what I read is a one and done, but there are some that stick in my head and I have to revisit. Maybe it was a scene that was so perfectly written or a plot that hit all the right notes. The three that I picked as my current favorites are actually all ones that have lingered in my head recently. 53 - How do I spend my time with fan fic. This one is really, really hard to be certain, but I'm going to guess it's more a reader. Mostly because while I write a lot, when I have a dry spell (Like now, it's been a minute since I've written) I still read a lot. 75 - What scene took the longest with the Run With You series? I'm going to say it was probably the bit in Until The End when Eleven is telling an unconcious Rose what he and Amy have been up to. I originally was going to rewrite the episodes, but so little changed it felt a bit redundent, so I had to come up with a way to make the changes work withing the verse without just repeating the actual episodes. 76 - Was there a scene that didn't make the cut in the series? YES! Because, waaaaay back when I was tempted to rewrite ALL of Twelve. There was something about reworking Moffat that left me disenchanted for a long time, and when I got back to the series five years later, I just focused on a few key bits from his time with Clara. That said, I have the start of Deep Breathe in a folder that has never seen the light of day. In fact, I even forgot it existed until I went searching to answer this question (I'm a word pack rat, I keep everything). 77 - Two favorite scenes off the top of my head: Rose and the Doctor's Wedding, and the dinner scene in the alternate reality where Rose, Donna, and Tim meet the Eighth Doctor.

[veliseraptor]

Heya! I came across your reply about your unfinished marvel works and what your future plans might be for them as you've left the marvel fandom (which I assume that's the case). It got me thinking - what about certain fandoms or fandoms in general has cemented your decision to leave/exit/stop writing for it? For me (personally) it's Harry Potter. I simply cannot read a fic that so heavily takes and is inspired by the original canon books without this dread in my gut I feel.

I actually don't typically leave fandoms in a very dramatic or final way, generally speaking, and this is one of the reasons why I don't say "I will never come back to this fandom" or "I will never finish this project." I can say it's very unlikely, but the ending of my relationships with fandoms tend to function less like dramatic breakups and more like a drifting apart. I wouldn't say I quit the Supernatural fandom, for instance, so much as I just floated out of it into other things; same goes for the MCU, where I didn't go from "my main fandom" to "I'm never writing for this again" so much as just "there are other things now I'm more excited about."

I guess if I had to pin down the typical triggers for what causes that kind of disengagement...some of it's just a function of interest and time and proximity, some of it's about how much of a community there is for me to be actively in fandom with. (it's a little hard to maintain, for instance, the same kind of level of engagement with Doctrine of Labyrinths as for some of my other fandoms when there's just not quite as much activity there in general.)

but I think the bigger factors for me are either (1) intense alienation from fandom writ large, such that continuing to engage with the material is causing me less joy than it is stress (c.f. me and being really engaged with Silmarillion fandom; I'd still consider myself a fan but I don't really consider myself in fandom anymore) or (2) canon takes a direction that diminishes my interest/excitement about the source material (c.f. the MCU, but also Supernatural). I know some people can or even seem to enjoy doing fandom for a canon that they may actively hate, but for me there's a point at which my dislike for canon is going to outweigh the fun of engaging with it, even to rewrite or interrogate things I disagree with or dislike.

this has all been a very wordy way of saying "I don't so much leave fandoms as grow away from them, usually as a function of becoming disenchanted with either the community or the source material," which is really a very anodyne answer that's probably true of most people.

[sakebytheriver]

I am literally this close 👌 to rewriting the entire Disenchanted movie with my 2D animated idea in fic form, but like I do not have the technical ability fo write any music for it (granted how shitty the music in this film was I might not do such a bad job, like seriously this movie has some of the worst most forgetable songs disney has ever written, such a disappointment from the original fr, the music might be Disnechanted's biggest crime)

[world-of-fire-and-flight]

It’s been a long road to bringing Fire & Flight, the first book in my epic fantasy trilogy, the Heirs of Tenebris, to this point. While I’m super excited about Fire & Flight’s release day on July 19th, I’ve not only been humbled by this process but also overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from my friends and family. As we’re only a couple weeks away from the big day, I wanted to take a look back on the process I went through to write Fire and Flight. I hope that my experience—and the time it took—can encourage others in their writing, no matter how long it may take for your writing to come to life! Without further ado, this what my road to Fire & Flight looked like:

My young adult fantasy novel was born on the spot. I mean that literally, because my Creative Expressions teacher had me write a paragraph à la “stream of conscious,” and the first thing that came to my fingers as I typed, was the haphazard awakening of the girl who would become my protagonist, Nyla. I didn’t have a name yet either. There was only a girl with silver hair and lilac-colored eyes, and a forest.

Rolling with this first paragraph and developing the kingdom that would be called Tenebris, Fire and Flight slowly grew into the novel it is today. It would take years and many revisions to get here, but as the narrative of the Heirs of Tenebris grew, so did my dreams.

During the summer of 2017, I pushed hard to finish my first draft before the next school year. My Creative Expressions teacher showed a great interest in helping me through the editing process, and I can almost guarantee that some of my best pieces of writing advice were stolen from him. I not only finished draft one in August of 2017, but also my first complete read-through. That’s a feeling I’ll never forget, but it was also overwhelming! By the time I was done, all 49,359 words were bleeding in pink corrections (red pens are pretty scarce on my desk!), and my head was spinning.

What happened next? How was I supposed to edit this, especially when there were parts I knew were rushed or needed to be ironed out?

I decided to wait out the summer and shelved Fire & Flight until the school year had started again.In September 2017, my teacher and I were getting ready for the long haul. With both of us working on our respective novels, I learned what’s probably the hardest but most helpful editing tip of all time: rewrite or retype your entire first draft. As you create draft two, you revise and expand what’s already written in draft two, making it better than it was before. Drafts are meant to be an evolution, and so I found myself using draft one more as the outline for what draft two could be because I never did outline Fire & Flight. In doing so, my second draft became everything that draft one wasn’t. My story started to blossom, and I couldn’t wait to see it bloom.

2018 was a hard year to map for me, as it’s drowned in revisions and obsessive periodic read-throughs to make sure I was on track with the goals I’d set. Through this revision process, I realized not only had my style of writing changed throughout draft one as I grew as a writer and learned more techniques, but the perspective had changed too! Frustrated and disenchanted, I pretty much abandoned the progress I’d made and began what I’m going to call draft two-and-a-half.

By June 2019, I’d completed a major overhaul as well as my last check-point read-through of draft two-and-a-half so I could finish it by the end of the summer (spoiler: I didn’t finish by the end of that summer), and move onto the next stage.

When November of 2019 rolled around, I finally had my draft three, and my novel was nearly perfect. I still had some details I wanted to iron out and things that could be tweaked just a little more, but I couldn’t be prouder of how far Fire & Flight had come. From its measly 50,000 words to 127,625 words, all I had left to do was one “final” read-through to fix any remaining issues in early March of 2020.

I deemed Fire & Flight as “officially” finished on March 27th at 128,307 words.

It was around this time that I began looking at the different publishing options and the industry as a whole. While I’d researched literary agents and sent a few queries out, my heart wasn’t entirely in the process. The more I learned and the more I researched, the less compelled I was to pursue traditional publishing. Taking a bit of a break from Fire & Flight and the whole process, I opted to regroup and come up with a plan. It was then that I decided to self-publish Fire & Flight.

There were many reasons I decided to take Fire & Flight’s fate in my own hands, but I won’t get into that here, but know that I couldn’t be happier with this decision and am proud of the lengths I’ve traveled to bring my novel to this point!

From its short-circuited beginnings, Fire & Flight has grown so much from the novel I was writing between classes and in my free time, but I’ve also grown too. It’s been a long road for both of us—novel and author alike—and I can’t thank everyone enough for their overwhelming support throughout this journey. I can’t wait to share Fire and Flight with everyone this summer, or that this is the year I got to hold my book in my hands. And for all my fellow writers out there, I truly hope my experience reminds you that no matter how long it takes to tell your stories, it is never too long! Whatever your process and the time it may take, it’s just the perfect amount of time for it to come to life😉

[sidecharactersdomatter]

I know you already have your own designs for the Philip sisters in Tftoml but I had these designs for them saved and wanted to finally share them with you.

Ok first off, These look Amazing, and might be better than my character design!   I love how Morgan also resembles Rachel Covey really well and Kid! Sofie looks slightly like Giselle and has Robert’s nose!  Thank you so so much for designing them, I hope you’re enjoying Tftoml and I’m almost done writing Chapter 2 on paper.  I’ll post when I’ve updated my fic!

[st-just]

what were the parts of terra ignota that you really disagreed with? you mentioned something about how the characters didnt seem to be human, im curious about that

(spoilers for the whole series, for the record)

So again it's mostly stuff where I'm genuinely unsure how much of it was just Mycroft being Mycroft and how much is actually supposed to be taken seriously but, like-

-There's a bunch of characters (Ganymede most prominently) who are supposed to have, like, superhuman levels of charisma that verge on mind control and the book just, doesn't sell it at all? Like, Mycroft waxes poetic about how hot they are at length, but unless it's supposed to be some superlative, alien level of sexiness so immense it enthralls you like the fair folk, it's really not enough to justify the amount of weight given it.

-Madame's whole, like, conspiracy generally is, okay, I accept that it's just kind of a given for the setting, but 'and with the nefarious dark arts of showing a little leg and indulging the debilitating 18th-century-historical-renactment kink apparently shared by enough people to recruit an entire global Illuminati out them, this one seminary drop-out started a brothel and used it to take over the world!" (Though admittedly some degree of applied-psycology-is-literally-mind-control is kind of built in, given that we're apparently supposed to think the Brillist's aren't totally full of shit).

-Generally the entire global ruling elite veers back and forth a bit from acting like embodied ideologies from a philosophical dialogue and characters from a trashy soap opera.

-I admit that this might just be, but I really do struggle to understand how the Mason's whole deal could possibly be appealing enough to attract a plurality of the global population.

-9A was just incredibly boring as a POV, and an absolute waste of an opportunity to show the viewpoint of someone who actually disagrees with Mycroft on almost literally anything meaningful.

-While I did not actually particularly care about the whole Trunk War thing before starting Perhaps The Stars, I really just cannot emphasize enough how much I dislike it when a story spends two hundred pages setting up a meaningful and profound conflict between two different conceptions of the Good, and then at the end throws up its hands and says 'don't worry, you can actually have both!'

-I think I might just lack Palmer's romantic attachment to space exploration (which is kind of funny to say, because I'm pretty sure I'm significantly above average in terms of how pro-space exploration I am), but the Utopians as a hive were just so incredibly weighted down with every possible signifier to make them seem cool and farsighted and virtuous, and so carefully kept out of all the grubby and disenchanting politiking that dragged everyone else through the mud, that I started to kind of dislike them on principle. (Like, 'anti-Utopian' was right up there with 'nurturist' in terms of ways the books told you not to like someone.)

-While obviously I am #Hiveguard, the sheer..lack of ambition of the reforms instituted when JEDD actually one was just incredibly boring. Letting the strange cloistered prince who earnestly believes he's the God of an alien universe rewrite the laws of the entire world should not make your setting less weird! Like, the world after Perhaps the Stars was more comprehensible and less alienating to conventional 21st century norms that it was before Too Like The Lightning began, and that is just incredibly disappointing.

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

I read your Disenchanted rewrite and I wish that had been the movie!

Thanks! You and me both.

Oh and I don't know if I mentioned it, but the songs would have been better too.

[gwyns]

Going through your archive I saw a post you made a while back about the book disenchanted by brianna sugalski and I just really want to know if you've read the rewritten version of book 1 and if so, what did you think of it?? I read her debut arc when it first came out but I saw some negative reviews of the rewrites she did and was wondering what your take on it was. I loved the first book, it was super fun. Should I bother to keep reading the series?

Note: Sorry for spaming your notifications btw 💞🫂

XOXO

hiii !!! no need to apologize at all <3

ok so i'm kinda the resident disenchanted stan around here so i'm very biased when it comes to this book and series lol. i personally love both versions for different reasons. the ya edition is pretty nostalgic for me at this point since i read it around the time it first came out in 2020 and it's my most read book to date. the rewrite, however, follows many of the same beats as the original version but i felt it fleshed things out just a biiiit more, character and lore wise and if anyone knows me they know i loooove lore. the world feels richer to me like it has more depth. i wish i could ramble on more but if i'm being honest, it's been a hot second since i've read this book and i'd need a refresher to try and attempt something that could be considered a review

something important to note is that, if i remember correctly, disenchanted started as a series of poems that was then turned into a book, then it was turned into a series, hence why we had that scene with garin and the duchess at the end of it. brianna said she wanted to make it clear there was more to the story that was originally a standalone. she started writing the sequel i think a little after her debut's release and struggled with it for a long time, trying to make things work before she made the decision to rewrite the first book. so i understand people can have some frustrations with a rewrite but brianna said it was important for the series going forward and i fully believe it was for the best

overall, in my completely biased opinion, i'd say it's definitely worth it to continue the series. i'd also recommend reading the rewrite if you haven't, it's kinda like visiting an old friend you haven't seen in awhile. like you know them but they've also grown a bit, they're more sure of themselves and it's a refreshing change

[tarnishedxknight]

Ghosts of Ivalice Past || open to mutuals

{ This is for an MCU verse for all my muses on this blog. I haven't written up Drace's verses yet, but basically she'd be found some time after Basch, Noah, and/or Ashelia, and is obviously alive, even if Noah has already claimed to have killed her. Working off the multiversal/time theory that people may not have been taken from Ivalice at exactly the same point in the timeline, this version of Drace is from before Noah was ordered to kill her. Your muse could be an Avenger who is part of welcoming the new person, someone who lives/works at the compound, someone who knows Drace from her own time, etc. I tried to leave it as open and ambiguous as possible so that you could insert your muse at any point. Feel free to interject or rewrite parts to involve your muse, just have fun with it! }

"I need not do anything you say," Noah said firmly, remaining in the doorway to his room, his arms folded defensively as he leaned against the doorframe.

"You will regret it if you do not," Basch returned rather seriously.

"Is that a threat?" Noah asked, one eyebrow rising.

"Nay, you mistake me. I mean that you will regret not seeing the reason for the meeting, because it is something of import to you," Basch explained.

"You have no idea what is important to me," Noah said bitterly.

"I know this is," Basch said. He'd heard that his brother had been ordered to kill a comrade of his, one he'd been very close to. Given his estranged relationship with his brother and the bad terms he'd last ended things with... this particular person, he knew he ought to tread carefully. Even so, he felt Noah should be alerted immediately, and indeed, he was being looked for. "Please... come."

Noah sighed, relenting. "Fine. If this be some sort of trick, however... you will regret it," Noah insisted, but he reluctantly followed Basch to the conference room.

"Oh, 'tis a trick, certainly, but that of time and space, not of my own creation," Basch said as they walked.

Noah had no idea what he meant by that, until he reached the entrance to the conference room, seeing various people there, including the Princess of Dalmasca and-

His heart stopped. Fear and shock gripped him. How s this possible?! Had the nethicite finally addled his mind so much that he was now seeing the ghosts of the dead? It was clear, though, that all present saw her too. She looked so disenchanted, sitting at the table in modern clothing and without her armor, but there was no mistaking her. It was Drace.

Noah was having a bit of difficulty in breathing. Grief, shock, confusion, and alarm gripped him swiftly and potently, causing him to stagger a bit. He felt Basch hold his arm to steady him, and he nearly growled as he wrenched his arm away.

Drace's expression changed when she saw Noah. An actual smiled was there where a scowl had been just a second ago. "Gabranth," she said respectfully, nodding to him.

"No..." he said, struggling to process this and blinking as though he feared his actual vision might be somehow tainted. "You... You are dead." Noah broke out into a cold sweat.

Drace chuckled, and the sound of it revealed to those who knew her just how exhausted this ordeal had left her. "Thank you for your enduring faith in me, but as you can see, I am clearly not." The way he was reacting to her, though... was disturbing. He was legitimately upset. Panicking, even. At the mere sight of her. Why? She rose from her chair and slowly made her way to him. "What's wrong?" she asked directly. "Save for, of course, the obvious," she then added, gesturing around the room. Nothing would be right ever again now that they were here in this time, but that could be discussed later. Right now, he was in distress and that needed to be rectified.

Noah couldn't find his words. Swallowing hard, he stared at her, a look of sorrow and guilt on his face. Should he tell her? What would she think of him if she knew he'd killed her on Vayne order? But if he withheld it from her, that would be tantamount to lying to her, and that was something he never did. How was she even here?! Was it really her, or some trick of the mind? Oh, the gods were laughing at him now...

Seeing that his brother was having trouble speaking, Basch tried to help. "There are things you do not know, Your Honor," he tried to say respectfully, but the two Judge Magisters jumped on him the moment the words had left his mouth.

"Silence!" Noah snapped at him suddenly.

"I did not ask for your opinion, disgraced Knight of Dalmasca," Drace said firmly. "Do not think that I have forgotten my promise to you."

Basch fell silent and backed away, not out of fear or because he was intimidated, but because he didn't want to make this situation any worse or risk any escalation that might result in someone getting hurt. His heart dropped to hear that, although Drace had come from a time before Noah had executed her, she apparently remembered the Battle of Nalbina Fortress, and her promise to repay him for the injury dealt to her arm during their duel there.

Ashelia, for her part, stood in a far corner of the room, arms folded, just listening and observing. Finding Judge Magister Drace had left her feeling very conflicted. On the one hand, it was a comfort to have more people of her time here, those who would understand what she was going through. But on the other hand... another Judge Magister? That wasn't helpful at all. She didn't want more Archadians, she wanted people she could befriend and trust. Or... those she already had befriended and trusted, but whom she'd lost. Why does Drace deserve to have her life back, but my father, brothers, and husband do not? she thought resentfully.

[mavveth]

when i rewrite the mama chapter of the black parade, i want to have a lot of lgbt overtones in it. specifically, there's an image of my head of the patient in fatigues, holding a gun, shouting at mother war--who is actually his mother, but a fucked up, afterlife-y, body horror-y version of her, "you should've raised a baby girl!" and her responding, "you should've been a better son!" teenagers or disenchanted mentioning that he used to wear skirts to school. the sharpest lives having both a man and woman humanoid representing vices to tempt him in to hell. fear and regret might become androgynous. being older now, being out, being able to re-visit this story after 15 years... i see so many more things that i missed as a kid.