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oivsyo · 2 years

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Do you like NejiHina more than NejiTen and NaruHina? NGL I hate those two ships sooooooo much I literally throw my computer across the room whenever the fan art pops up.

Good day!

First of all I need to apologize for it took me so long to reply.

Anyway I‘ve been waiting for a question like this, ahaha.

The short answer is yes, i do like NejiHina more than both NejiTen and NaruHina.

No, it doesn’t mean that I hate NaruHina and NejiTen. Hatred is too strong an emotion, and there are not many things in my life that I really hate and fictional ships are definitely not on the list. Various ships exist and it doesn't trigger or offend me as far as I prefer to concentrate on things/ships that I like.

However I do not “like” them either, because I’m not a multishipper and these ships don't give me the emotions, inspiration I want to receive from the shipping experience. (Compared with NejiHina that gives me everything I need).

I prefer to think I’m neutral about NejiTen and NaruHina.

The ships themselves are not bad and don't deserve to be hated. I see many talented artists who create for these ships and I think it is great that the ships inspire other ppl as much as NejiHina inspires me. It’s a good thing that there is a diversity of content for everyone.

If you want to know my more extended opinion about these ships - keep reading.

But ofc I need to warn you that I wrote my honest opinion about the ships and you may not like it if you are a NaruHina or NejiTen shipper. I’m not interested in ship wars as well, so stop reading here if you are not sure you can control yourself.

Dislaimer: when I write that I ”don’t like” something about a ship, it means that either I like these moments more in NejiHina or that I just don’t like some exact things. Don’t like =/= Hate.

There is something about NaruHina and NejiTen that irritates me and makes me uncomfortable. The fans.

It surprised me that NaruHina fans, who have tons of official content, manga, anime, movies, novels, Boruto above everything, are so hostile towards fanships. Like, chill, dudes, your couple IS canon. This fact doesn't make everyone like it and it is natural, but everyone knows it is canon, there is no need to prove it to anyone everywhere. What is even more strange to me is that it seems there are many NaruHina fans who feel threatened? offended? by any other fanships with these characters (other ships with Hinata mostly). Such fans write offensive comments to fanships content creators and 'prohibit' creating it. This attitude is beyond my understanding.

The situation with NejiTen fans is quite the contrary but the result is the same. NejiTen is not canon, characters don't even have any canonical base for shipping except being members of the same team. But the fans keep insisting it is canon, mentioning it as a common knowledge under every post with Neji (I'm exaggerating, but I see such comments quite often).

Maybe I don't understand something in this life, but fans act like the 'canon' tag automatically makes the ship better. I thought that the ship is good enough if it makes you happy, if it inspires you to create, gives you the emotional experience that you need.

Being canon doesn't make everyone like the ship. Not being a canon doesn't make the ship bad. Isn't it like this? Can everyone just chill and enjoy things that make them happy and share this happiness with those who have the same preferences?

I'm creating for NejiHina that is part of the Naruto fandom long enough to make my own opinion. If I get the hate/anti comment for my NejiHina arts telling how gross this ship is in 98% the one who wrote it is a NaruHina or a NejiTen shipper :) or they ship Neji in Male x Male ships. Or they hate Hinata. Yes, I'm curious enough to take a look at accs that write such comments and it is not difficult to figure out which ship they like. In most cases righteous hate is only ship war mimicking the high morality :)

There are two points that NaruHina and NejiTen have in common that make both ships not appealing for me.

First is how both ships deal with the Hyūga clan. There are two variants. In the first one the problem of the Hyūga clan wouldn't be solved bc both characters that are supposed to deal with it, who have authority to change their clan for better, just flee the clan shifting the responsibility to Hanabi alone. But then what was the point of Neji's high-flown speeches during the chunin exams? Why did Hinata express her sympathy and understanding for him if in the end they both just give up on it?

Besides, I highly doubt that Hanabi can deal with it alone. I don’t believe that the clan’s problem can be solved that easily and that Hanabi will be enough for it. I mean, if the conflict can be solved with Hanabi saying ‘hmmm, let’s just ban the seal and the clan will live happily!” and the clan’s council will be like “oh, ok, thanks for suggesting this idea!” then it is a shitty conflict that is based on that the clan’s leaders as well as Konoha leaders are stupid or purposevly evil. I like to think that things are more complicated and that there is no easy way to solve it. That’s why all statements that it was 12 year old Naruto and his passionate speeches that changed the clan and made them solve their many centuries conflict overnight just make me smile sympathetically.

The other variant of this plot implies the end of the Hyūga clan. I know that there are many ppl in the fandom who hate the Hyūga clan, but I'm not one of those ppl and I see a huge potential for a story with Hyūgas. So I find it quite sad and pointless, because Hyūgas together with Uchihas contributed to making Konoha and the country of Fire the most powerful country. Not to mention that the clan wasn't developed enough. Their obvious setup as imba medic nins was completely ignored. Their combat abilities were downgraded as well for plot’s purposes. Is it a sly plan to get rid of ancient clans? Only that the Uchiha clan was massacred and the Hyūga clan will just go extinct , losing their doujutsu. This is actually a cool plot twist that may result in the political conflict between the clan and Konoha, tho in this plot I prefer Hyūgas standing as one and living on as a powerful clan we were told they are.

I started to simp for the Hyūga clan only more than a year ago, when I deepened into all canon and filler moments with them, after I filled the plot holes with headcanons and background story and invented Hyūga original characters to make the clan more 'alive'. However I always wanted to see Hinata together with Neji (or with Hanabi if Neji is dead) changing and reforming the clan for better. I was rooting for the full-scale arc about it. And I never got it in the canon, so for me the Hyūga clan conflict was not solved. I also want to see Hinata as a Hyūga head and matriarch. This would be a great final point for her.

The second weak spot of both ships for me is that both Neji and Hinata are of noble origin and they have a family - a clan that implies traditions, heritage and many other things that both Naruto and TenTen, orphans and low-borns, are not familiar with. And I see here some differences in life values and views that are difficult to overcome.

Oh, I above everything don’t find these ships aesthetically appealing either. NaruHina is too colorful, I prefer calmer and more exquisite color combinations. While NejiTen is the opposite, they are both too ordinary and neutral and their couple is visually nondescript.

NaruHina

I respect NaruHina being canon, I do not reject the fact Kishimoto made them a couple. I even think that with a proper development they would be a nice and attractive canon couple.

Personally for me the way the ship was built up is forced and clamsy. Like, seriously, there were 500+chapters of manga, Hinata nearly committing scide 2 times, one ignored confession, Neji dead, a movie where Hanabi was kidnapped, her eyes torn out, the whole world on the brink of destruction, a bunch of “out-of-nowhere” flashbacks and a genjutsu to make Naruto realize that Hinata likes him and he likes her. It doesn't sound like a well-written and reasonable lovestory for me, I can’t believe in it.

I do not like how the ship develops Hinata as a character and where the ship leads her (I won’t mention the Hyūga clan that was wasted one more time). I see a greater potential in her than being a MC girlfriend whose only function in the plot is to remind how important MC is. Their relationship is based on Hinata blindly fangirling Naruto, not seeing other ppl around her who support her (like Shino, Kiba, Neji, Hanabi, Kurenai) and only waiting for him to notice her. And she is ready to waste her life for it, literally. This is not what I consider an equal romantic partnership and I don't like the whole idea.

One more thing that I don't like in NaruHina is that I don't feel that Hinata is a special person for Naruto. Naruto is a man who cares about everyone, it is his basic character trait. And Hinata will never be the number one for Naruto. It will always be Sasuke, Sakura, Konoha, maybe his children (I’m not sure bc I haven’t watched Boruto), Gaara, Kakashi, Iruka, Konohamaru… whoever but never Hinata. It seems to me that Hinata differs from, for example, Shikamaru only with the fact they are married and she gave birth to his children.

Hinata was deprived of a loving full family, her mother died, her father was not the best warm-hearted and sympathetic father and he put the clan’s matters above his daughters, she was forced to rival Hanabi. And as an adult, as a wife Hinata gets the same. She can find her happiness in children, but is it enough? It's a difficult topic to discuss, and I see that there may be different opinions as usual. I’m just saying that I personally don’t like what NaruHina gives to Hinata.

Probably Naruto and Hinata had some chances if they were developed as a couple and had moments with each other like in s1, but it never happened. In my opinion the chūnin arc did more for NaruHina development than the rest of the story up till today. In Shippuden and later Hinata was stopped in her development and I don’t see her as a person, but only as a functional element that says and does what is needed for the plot. I don’t blame Hinata for this (she is a fictional character after all), it's bad writing to blame. And I don't even blame Kishi only for this, it seems to me he was forced to change the tone of narration starting from Shippuden.

NejiTen

This one is a more interesting case, bc ..... it was actually my first ship =)

This moment is the only one in the canon and in the fillers that shows interaction between Neji and TenTen that can be interpreted as slightly romantic and exactly this moment was the reason why I started to ship them (But then I grew old, rewatched Naruto and movies and realised that Neji is just a gentleman with all female characters. Except Ino, lol.)

Anyway, first things first.

I was 13-14 years old, I watched Naruto s1 and the beginning of Shippuden (Gaara rescue arc, the moment on the screnshot above) and I got access to the Internet. There I learned about 'shipping' and discovered 'fanfiction'. Guess what happened next. Neji was my fav character in Naruto so I was full of intention to find the best couple for him. I didn't like Male x Male ships back then, and even today such ships for Neji are not my cup of tea, so I needed a girl for him. There were two girls around him in the canon - TenTen and Hinata. I did not think much and chose TenTen first because of the moment above. She seemed to be such an obvious variant. They are teammates and there should be a couple in every team, right? So I started googling and reading fanfiction. But it didn't last long. I got bored with excessive OOC and standard romantic plots that could be written about any ship. There was nothing personal and unique about these stories.

And I came across a NejiTen fic where NejiHina was the secondary ship and I loved this secondary ship more than the main. It was so much more reasonable, sensual and tender. I tried more NejiHina fics and it was absolutely different level of storytelling. It is not that I had any prejudices towards NejiHina before, but it were amazing arts and fanfiction that made me take a closer look at them and showed the full potential of this ship. So, from that moment on, NejiHina turned out to be the love of life and here we are :)

Fun fact, but when I returned to Naruto 1,5 year ago and rewatched it, I saw more chemistry between TenTen and Lee. Rock Lee SD is full of cute moments with them, showing how they care about each other. I don’t ship LeeTen, I think there are better candidates for both of them, but I can’t deny that they make a better romantic couple then Neji and TenTen. Well I got carried away again.

There are several moments that make NejiTen not appealing for me.

First one is excessive OOC and canon divergence needed for this ship to happen, bc in canon they don't give a romantic fck about each other, they are just teammates. They don't have any personal moments with one another, there are no conflicts between them or a background story.

Personally I don't consider them to be even close friends, tbh, I think they are colleagues, but this actually doesn't matter.

There are two versions of NejiTen - either Neji is in love with TenTen, but I personally can't imagine it without making him OOC bc there were not even hints that he has any feelings or at least shows some interest for TenTen (and this is totally fine if you, the one who reads this, can imagine it. This is how the shipping works).

The second version is TenTen in love with Neji. But I don't see it being in her character as well. Moreover it makes her just like Sakura and Hinata and I don't like this. TenTen is awesome and unique right because she doesn't have any crushes. She is stubborn and she works hard to become strong just because she enjoys it and not to be noticed by her crush. I like that she is free from all this romantic bullshit about boys. A crush on Neji ruins her badassness and uniqueness for me :(

I like TenTen actually, she is kind, supportive, easy-going and cheerfull person. She also has a good sense of humor. And I like that she is independent and self-confident enough even tho she lacks abilities to be more than avarage-tier shinobi.

I can guess why this ship has so many fans.

First of all, Neji has only two het ship options that are reasonable, they are NejiTen and NejiHina, and NejiTen is not branded as problematic here and there. That’s it.

Above this, TenTen doesn't have an army of haters, unlike Hinata.

Second, it is so easy to assosiate yourself with TenTen because she is just an ordinary girl without any superpowers, any background story. She is perfect to kin yourself with. And I must admit that I myself have a lot in common with TenTen in comparison with other female characters in Naruto. I can understand that most girls will prefer Neji over Lee, because, well, you know, it’s Neji. He is handsome, noble, talented and has many other attractive traits. While Lee is not attractive, some may think he is ugly, he is too emotional that some ppl think is not manly, he doesn't have any superpowers and even tho he is hardworking, he will never be on level of chakra users. He is kind and caring, but just an ordinary boy. The one who is usually friendzoned speaking irl terms. Such boys are usually remembered closer to the age of 30, when there are already several unsuccessful relationships behind, maybe a divorce and children, and at that moment comes the realization that maybe it was worth giving this caring but not attractive boy a chance? He would carry you in his arms and would put the whole world at your feet. But you chose a cold handsome and now it’s too late.

One more point why I don't like NejiTen is that this relationship gives nothing to both characters. I don't see how they can complement each other. They are too different in things that could have connected them, and are too similar in things the couple is supposed to complement each other. The saying “opposites attract” doesn't work for them.

It seems to me that TenTen may wither with Neji, because he is Hyūga, by nature he is a much more closed and reserved person, and he, in turn, may get tired of her excessive emotionality, playfullness, her too emotional reactions, which are a part of her personality. It will be difficult for TenTen to understand why he cannot cut ties with the clan (and Neji the way I see him will never cut ties with the clan by his own will, only if he is exiled from it for some reason), while there will be no place for her in the clan and Neji would have to choose. And I don't feel that TenTen could be a special person for Neji (as much as Hinata for Naruto), someone for whom he could abbandon the clan, his legacy, one for whom he could sacrifice his life. Both are self-sufficient and independent, and if these traits make them efficient team, that can understand eachother with half words, the same traits make them an incompatible couple.

So, I can't imagine Neji and TenTen in a romantic relationship, being insanely in love with each other, dating, getting married and having children. BUT. I can imagine them as the first sexual partners. I think they would be the best candidates for each other and I support this idea with both my hands. I can see them starting this sort of relationship out of curiosity when they were teenagers to get some experience. They could probably try to date with each other in a romantic way but they didn't succeed so they decided to stay as friends with benefits for some prolonged period of time. Both of them are mentally mature and independent enough for this. And when they meet the one they fell in love with they would just stop it without any drama and remain good teammates as they were before.

Not all relationships, especially the first relationships, should end with love till the grave, with a marriage and children. NejiTen is a perfect ship to show that ppl can remain in good terms after having a sexual relationship. Some ppl are just better as friends and colleagues than a romantic couple.

NejiTen actually takes place in my headcanon and I'm ok with it.

☯️☯️☯️☯️☯️☯️☯️

To sum up, I’d love to say that we all perceive characters and stories through the lens of personal experience, emotional response, background knowledge and imagination. It is natural that there are different ships and interpretations. But “different” doesn't mean “bad” or “wrong”.

I’m not trying to convince anyone that ship A is bad and ship B is good, I just share my own story and opinion about the ships. So, pls, keep in mind that my opinion doesn't threaten what you like. You are free to ship whatever you want as long it makes your shipper heart bit faster 💜

I would love to see more ppl talking about things they like, sharing ideas, creating content and supporting those who create it and not spreading hate. This will help a lot to make our fandom a better place than it is right now. And we can do it together ✌️

#ask #about naruhina #about nejiten #nejihina

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deathcoach · 1 year

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What was the process of getting yourself published? Did you get an agent or did you shop it yourself? Who edited it your or someone else? How long did it take from beginning to end? Was your story originally a fan fic? Who is your publisher / what printing house / company took you on? Thanks!

Thank you so much for these questions @twinsoulvisionary! There is a lot here so I will try to keep it brief and helpful!

I’ll go a little out of order so it makes more sense! Follow me below the cut!

Death Coach was written because I have two people in my life, one a published romance novelist and the other a family member, who had read lots of my fanfic and said I should write something original. So I took a few days to come up with an idea for something I thought I would care about enough to write an original novel about it.

The idea was simple “Detective gets involved with serial killer he’s hunting.” That was it. 😈

As to the question of if it was originally a fanfic, it was written explicitly to NOT be a fanfic, explicity to be something I could sell. However it’s no secret to anyone who knows me that Detective Walker is a thinly-veiled Luke Skywalker avatar, and Terana is at least physically very much like Mara Jade. There are tons of Easter Eggs in my novel for Star Wars fans, and I don’t want to drop them all here, but absolutely you will find other Star Wars-inspired characters in the book.

About the timeline:

Death Coach was finished in Dec 2018 and published in Dec 2022, so four years later. How about that? I’m just so happy it’s done! *checks box*

How long did it take to write?

Everyone writes at a different pace, but when I’m writing and have time to do it, I am super fast. I think Death Coach was written (first draft complete of 80k) in about 3 weeks. The first two days after I started it, I was already 20k into the book. I edit as I go—one of my habits with this book, so I didn’t lose any threads, was to reread what I’d written at least every other day. I could fix things, tweak, and proofread as I read. I think especially if you are writing a story where there are aspects of mystery or clues needing to be dropped, it’s a good habit to reread your draft often before you continue.

So I was on fire and the story wrote itself (as my stories often do).

I edited it myself (I consider myself an excellent editor, no false modesty here) but my sister, who is also a great proofreader, double-checked (and did find things I’d missed).

For getting published, it was a long and rocky road. I sent the book to many agents and publishers at the same time. I made a packet, query letter, checked all the boxes.

I did get a few offers fairly quickly, but they always seemed unappealing. For example, one publisher came back and said they loved the story but since their readership was primarily into dominant males, they suggested flipping the characters or making Terana more sub and Walker more domineering. That (if you’ve read the book you’ll understand) is a completely different novel, and not a story that interested me. One asked for more queer sexual content. One wanted more explicit childhood trauma for the serial killer. Another wrote back and offered me $1000 advance with a cap on royalties of $1,000. Since I am doing this as a hobby, it wasn’t so much about the money, but that seemed low to me and why would I want to cap royalties?

The most encouraging responses were actually from agents or publishers who were like “we can’t sell this right now but we like your style, send us something else/send us a different book.” Well, this was THE book I wrote and I wasn’t going to write another one until I’d published this one…but that was still nice to hear. Lots of positivity but no takers.

One of the funniest responses I got was from an agent who was super excited about the premise and emailed me about how much he was looking forward to reading it and then emailed me a couple days later and was like “Uh…this is X rated. I thought it would be a nice book.” I was laughing like uh…ok so a NICE book about a serial killer? Did he even read the synopsis? Anyway, clearly too prudish to enjoy the smutastic Death Coach.

About a year after I wrote it, one of my friends who had been published under contract with Harlequin for years switched to self-publishing, and made about twice as much as she had under contract (she was making about $14k a book). She suggested I do it, but I didn’t have the time or energy (as I mentioned, writing is a hobby for me and not a life goal or anything). She also had the benefit of a following, a known name in the romance business, something I do not.

I am under no illusions about the limited demographic for Death Coach—it’s gritty and graphic in both violent death and sex. People who are reading Mills & Boon don’t want to read about cunts and sex in the dirt, and people who are reading hard crime aren’t expecting lots of explicit fucking breaking up their action. But I thought maybe I would go after self-publishing when I had time and see if the book found an audience.

So fast-forward several years (!) and this past August I had some time to explore options. My friend who has self-published used Ingram Spark, who have global distribution and don’t try to keep any rights over your product. I worked with her to setup the title on her account, so I didn’t have to start from scratch (but I think it’s pretty easy if you want to set up your own—although if you are getting the impression I am lazy about it, you are right).

One benefit of Ingram is the option to refuse returns, because sometimes authors actually OWE money when royalties go into the negative due to returns. So I used SpiroBooks.com for my layout, got the ISBNs myself, had the super-talented @jadedjo do my cover art, and voila, here we are.

I think it’s important to stress again that I do this as a HOBBY. If I was interested in being a professional author who does it as a career, there were a lot of things I would do differently, including joining professional associations, spending more time and effort on finding an agent, and writing books that are commercial and similar to what is selling (or what the publishers told me they were looking for). Along the path, I had several opportunities to compromise and sell the book to other entities, but what was important to me was the fact this was written, I liked it as it was, and I had no real reason or motivation to change the story or rewrite, etc.

My goal in publishing this was to see if people liked it, and maybe make a series out of it if it was profitable. I do love Detective Walker and wouldn’t mind seeing what erotic adventures he has in the future, but I also am happy writing fanfic and working the dayjob. So we’ll see how it shakes out and if I should continue 🥰

I should mention that I’m overwhelmed and touched by the immense support the book has here on tumblr and in fandom spaces with my friends. I love everyone who bought it (I think I don’t get sales stats until next month) and thank each of you for giving such a hard-to-categorize novel an audience.

I hope that answered all your questions @twinsoulvisionary! Thank you so much for the ask and interest, and I wish you luck in your own writing and publishing endeavors!!! 😘 Feel free to ask other stuff, you or anyone else with a question!

#authors on tumblr #books #publishing #self publishing #getting published #death coach #ask the author #novel

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thetaekookcloset · 2 years

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Reply: Song Analysis (Winter Bear)

dulimano It has been clarified that Winter Bear is Tae's grandma, no?

Has it? I’m genuinely asking. I’ve looked for where this information comes from, and I haven’t been able to find it anywhere. If it’s true, it’s true, and I’ll happily adjust my understanding of the song accordingly, but yeah, if anyone knows where the idea that “Winter Bear” is about Taehyung’s grandma actually comes from, please reach out to let me know because I’ve never found a source for that.

It’s always seemed to me to be a popular fan theory, and one that doesn’t make very much sense if I’m honest. If anything, I think maybe the blue parrot at the beginning of the song might symbolize Tae’s grandmother, but I don’t believe the blue parrot and the winter bear are meant to signify the same person.

The song opens with the lyrics, “She looks like a blue parrot / Wish you could fly to me / I need some good day.” The pronoun used is “she” before switching to “you,” both referring to the blue parrot, who is far away. Tae wishes that she could fly to be close because her being there would make him feel better.

Then the lyrics switch to be about the winter bear: “Looks like a winter bear / You sleep so happily / I wish you good night.” The first notable thing is that where the first line began with a pronoun, this one doesn’t. That could just be a quirk of the language and translation, but bears are not very commonly associated with feminine characters, so the sudden shift to skipping the pronoun stands out to me even more than it already would.

On top of the missing pronoun, the fact that the blue parrot is clearly noted as “she” and the winter bear is left genderless in the song despite having more male associations in general, and the fact that a bird and a bear are two animals that basically couldn’t be more different from each other, there’s another clear reason that they seem to refer to different people: they’re in different places.

Tae says that he wishes the blue parrot could fly to him -- she’s far away, and if she were nearby, he would have better days. The winter bear, on the other hand, is right here. “Looks like a winter bear” implies that Tae/the singer can see this winter bear right now. “You sleep so happily” -- again, the implication is that the singer can see this person sleeping.

I didn’t mention this in my song analysis post, but there’s also the matter of Jungkook’s prodding questions and reactions in regards to Taehyung’s inspiration for the song when the two of them are watching the video together. He tries to get Tae to explain the inspiration for the song, and Taehyung talks about the movie he was watching in London when he had the idea. Jungkook teases (?) him about being inspired to write about bears as a result of this movie. Then when Tae doubles down on that explanation, Jungkook literally rolls his eyes lmao. I’ve never seen anyone else mention that, but I’ve watched the clip to death trying to see it any other way, but while it’s possible he suddenly rolls his eyes for some other reason, he definitely does do it.

There’s also just Jungkook’s general association with the song -- the fact that he was the one there watching the video with Taehyung in the first place, for example. Also the fact that he sings it in little snippets often, including during BTS Karaoke with Jimin. The official subs have him saying something like, “I’m going to sing this one!” when he sees it on the screen, but I’ve also seen it translated as, “My song!” You can take that with a grain of salt, but it’s interesting that he likes the song so much and keeps up an association with it.

Anyway, it’s possible that the next line -- “Imagine your face, say hello to me / Then all the bad days mean nothing to me” -- could be about both characters, as in both the blue parrot and the winter bear have this effect on him, but I think there’s much more evidence in the text of the song itself to suggest that the two animals symbolize different people.

Like I said though, if anyone knows of a place where Taehyung has actually talked about the song’s connection to his grandma, I’d love to see it!

#taekook #kookv #reply #taekook song analysis

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thecraftyfoxthewriterscorner · 2 years

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Looking at Character Archetype: The Strongest Character

Hey Story Crafters,

Right now, I’m working on character sketches for a story I’m writing. Part of my process for character sketching is looking at interesting characters from across different media, ideally focusing on the types of characters I plan to write about. As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’m a big fan of anime and manga, and I often check out a new series (of anime, not manga) when I’m in a drafting phase.

I started a new anime series (not “new” as in “recently released,” but new to me), Enen no Shouboutai | Fire Force (EnS/FF), and a phrase that caught my attention was “the strongest fire soldier.” Which then got me thinking about the role of powerful characters in stories.

I’ll go over a few examples I thought of below, from anime/manga, television shows, and books. I’ll start with anime/manga examples, since that’s the medium that drew my attention to this character archetype of “the strongest.” Feel free to skip to the sections that interest you.

I believe it’s beneficial to explore storytelling elements in different media, like reading outside of your genre, for inspiration, and to see different ways stories can be told. Just keep in mind that certain techniques may only be effective to a specific type of medium.

General Overview: Ways to Handle Powerful Characters

The archetype of the strongest character (a.k.a., a powerful character) is generally found in stories that have a lot of action and/or adventure. Characters in this story type tend to make discoveries and solve problems by having mini-battles or competitions against an antagonistic force, all of which build up to a final confrontation with the antagonist. For example, the trope of good versus evil; though this type of conflict is never as clear cut as it first seems.

The protagonist of the story isn’t the strongest or most powerful character in their story world. Readers generally don’t find a character who already has the power to achieve their external goal—the main reason the story is being told—interesting to follow. The protagonist usually has the potential to become a powerful character, and by the end of the story, does become the strongest; or, in the case of a series, takes a step towards becoming the strongest character.

Characters like this exist in fantasy and science fiction novels too—though these characters aren’t given obvious titles like “the strongest such-and-such.” Readers get a sense of how powerful a character is based on their actions, behavior, or how other characters think of them. Usually, these powerful characters are antagonists—think Voldemort from Harry Potter. But the opposite exists as well, when the powerful character is an ally of the protagonist—like Dumbledore. These types of allies often become a mentor-figure to the protagonist.

A difficulty that arises with having powerful characters is providing readers with a valid reason for these characters not to take action at any point of the story outside of scenes where their presence is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, the story risks getting taken over from the protagonist. This reason has to be true to the character, and the circumstances of the story world.

Basically, these powerful characters are inactive due to external forces (e.g., antagonistic forces) or self-imposed reasons (e.g., disinterest, or unwilling to risk the consequences of taking action), to keep them in a supporting role in the protagonist’s story.

Let’s look at some examples.

In Anime/Manga

Note: I’m not an expert in anime/manga, so I can’t speak to any Eastern storytelling elements or influences that are present in this medium. I do believe overlap exists in elements like character development and plot development, which is what I’ll touch on below.

The phrase, “the strongest [insert title here]” when referring to the strongest or most influential character in a story is one I’ve seen used the most in shonen manga—manga that has a young male target audience. Manga in this genre is usually action-packed.

There are many examples of this character type, but three that come to mind are All Might from Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (BnHA/MHA), Gojo Satoru from Jujutsu Kaisen (JJK), and Shinmon Benimaru from EnS. In addition to their titles (All Might performs incredible feats that earn him his title, Gojo’s title is implied to be self-proclaimed before it becomes simple fact, a law of the world, and Benimaru’s title is given to him by the people around him), these characters prove their strength in various fight scenes.

**Warning: Possible spoilers for BnHA Season 3, JJK Volume 14, and EnS Season 1, for anyone who hasn’t seen those episodes or read those chapters yet and plans to.

Caption: From top to bottom: All Might, Gojo Satoru, and Shinmon Benimaru.

All Might (BnHA)

Reputation: All Might is known as the strongest Pro Hero, ranked Number One. He’s also called the Symbol of Peace. He has a reputation of saving people with a smile, and defeating any opponent he faces.

Reason for inaction against antagonist: It’s revealed early on that All Might suffered a serious injury facing the antagonist before the story starts. The effects of that injury gradually prevents him from using his powers for long lengths of time. He also believes, up until Season 3 of the anime, that the antagonist died during that pre-canon fight. All Might loses all of his powers during a rematch with the antagonist.

Clip of All Might fighting the antagonist and losing his powers:

youtube

Antagonist’s reason for inaction: The antagonist recovers from the serious injuries he got from the pre-canon fight with All Might, and prepares for the best moment to start the upheaval of the hero-based society of the world.

Gojo Satoru (JJK)

Reputation: Gojo is the self-proclaimed “strongest sorcerer” in the world, though his abilities and everyone around him support this claim, too. Basically, he’s an overpowered, god-like character. He ends two dangerous fights the protagonist is involved in, early in the story, with very little effort.

Clip of Gojo vs. the cursed spirit Ryomen Sukuna:

youtube

Reason for inaction against antagonist: Gojo gets sealed away by the antagonist to prevent him from interfering with their plans.

Antagonist’s reason for inaction: The antagonist can’t take action as long as Gojo is free to ruin his plans. After Gojo is sealed away, he starts to make his move.

Shinmon Benimaru (EnS)

Reputation: Benimaru is a skilled fighter and a powerful pyrokinetic. He can easily control fire and defeat multiple opponents.

Reason for inaction against antagonistic forces: Benimaru isn’t interested in fighting when the fight in question doesn’t affect the people he cares about, or his hometown (the territory he’s dedicated to protecting).

At first, he doesn’t believe the antagonistic forces exist, which leads to a misunderstanding between him and the protagonist. He eventually agrees to work with the protagonist, but doesn’t take an active role (in the anime so far) beyond being a mentor-figure.

Click for link to video of Benimaru vs. Special Fire Force Company 8.

youtube

Antagonist’s reason for inaction: The antagonist is trapped in a different dimension. Supporters of the antagonist are the primary antagonistic force in Season 1, and are slowly mobilizing as their preparations to free the antagonist are complete.

In Television

**Warning: Possible spoilers for Avatar: The Last Airbender and Stranger Things Seasons 3 and 4 Part 1 (ONLY).

Caption: From top to bottom: Toph teaching Aang earthbending (Image Credit); Jane | Eleven failing to use her powers (Image Credit).

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avatar is a little different from the other examples, because Aang is meant to be the most powerful bender by mastering the four bending elements, but he doesn’t actually achieve this goal until the end of the series.

Aang

Reputation: As the Avatar, Aang is meant to be the master all four bending elements, act as a bridge between the Spirit World and the human one, and keep the balance between the four nations.

Reason for inaction against antagonist: He’s twelve years old at the start of the series, and was frozen in ice for a century. Although he has mastered airbending, he still needs to master three other elements, and become a fully realized Avatar. He and his friends do fight against the antagonist’s forces, but Aang doesn’t face the antagonist directly until the end of the series.

Toph Beifong

Reputation: Toph is known as “the greatest earthbender.” This is a self-proclaimed title, though she quickly proves her abilities; especially when she figures out how to bend metal.

Clip of Toph figuring out metalbending:

youtube

Reason for inaction against antagonistic forces: Toph is initially kept protected in her family’s home; they believe she’s helpless because she is blind. It’s not until Aang and his group invite her along that she’s able to leave home.

Antagonist’s reason for inaction: The antagonist for this series, Fire Lord Ozai, can’t take action until a comet that comes every century appears to power up himself and his forces. The arrival of this comet is Aang’s deadline for becoming a fully realized Avatar.

Jane Hopper | Eleven (Stranger Things Seasons 3 and 4, Part 1 (ONLY))

Reputation: A powerful telekinetic and psychic who can open and close breaches to the Upside Down. She has defeated several monsters that have slipped between the two dimensions.

Reason for inaction against antagonist: At the end of Season 3, Jane loses her powers fighting the Mind Flayer. She still hasn’t regained them by the start of Season 4. At first, she’s unaware of the threat Vecna poses to her friends back in Hawkins, since she’s in California. When she learns about the attacks in Hawkins, she turns to suspicious people who have hurt her in the past to help her reawaken her powers.

Antagonist’s reason for inaction: Vecna is trapped in the Upside Down, though he’s trying to find a way out. His abilities are set up to be equal to Jane’s, though his personality is opposite hers.

In Books

**Warning: Possible spoilers for For the Wolf and The Ghost Tree.

Caption: Left to right: For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten (Image Credit), The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry (Image Credit).

Harry Potter series

Like Avatar, the Harry Potter series is interesting in how the role of the strongest character plays out. Harry isn’t like Aang; he isn’t inheriting an enormous legacy with all the responsibilities and expectations that come with it. He’s an ordinary kid who finds out he’s a wizard.

There are actually two strongest characters in this series: Dumbledore, who is constantly referred to as “the greatest wizard,” and Voldemort, who is described as being great, but also of doing terrible (dark) things. Harry is caught between their power struggle.

Albus Dumbledore

Reputation: He’s constantly referred to as “the greatest wizard” (or something along those lines). He’s very respected in the Wizarding World, and is headmaster of Hogwarts.

Reason for inaction against antagonist: Dumbledore has faced two Dark wizards in his time—Grindelwald and Voldemort. I’ll mention both, since I haven’t yet come across another powerful character who has faced multiple powerful antagonists, but was unable to take action against them.

Dumbledore can’t take action against Grindelwald because of a blood oath they share. For a majority of the first wizarding war, Dumbledore is unable confront Grindelwald directly. (I imagine this changes somehow because of the Elder Wand, but I haven’t watched the third Fantastic Beasts movie yet.)

Dumbledore doesn’t—and then can’t—take action against Voldemort because of Trelawney’s prophecy. Instead, he prepares Harry (the other subject of the prophecy) to fight Voldemort.

Antagonist’s reason for inaction: At first, Voldemort can’t take action against the protagonist (Harry) or Dumbledore because he doesn’t have a body, and he’s believed to be dead. When he regains a body, he starts mobilizing his forces and taking action.

Eammon, For the Wolf

Reputation: Eammon is the guardian of the Wilderwood, and the protagonist’s love interest. He tries to keep the forest strong, and prevents the antagonist forces from the Shadowlands (the dimension opposite of the Wilderwood) from leeching through. He’s skilled at using the Wilderwood’s magic.

Reason for inaction against antagonist: Technically, “inaction” isn’t accurate in this case. Eammon is constantly fighting to keep the Shadowlands from taking over the Wilderwood. The problem is that he risks the Wilderwood overtaking his sense of self, the more he uses magic. This risk is one he has to consider while facing the antagonist (one of the Five Kings) of this first book.

Antagonist’s reason for inaction: The main antagonists, the Five Kings, are sealed in the Shadowlands. They’re trying to break free.

David, The Ghost Tree

Reputation: David is the protagonist’s younger brother, who experiences stronger, more frequent visions than the protagonist. Because of his visions, he knows more about the horrible things happening in town than he should.

Reason for inaction against antagonist: David is a toddler; he’s usually with the protagonist, or their mother. Though he has visions and often shares what he sees, the people around him don’t take him too seriously. At least, not at first.

Antagonist’s reason for inaction: The antagonist terrorizing the protagonist’s town is sealed in a tree, and “fed” with an annual sacrifice. Due to an error with a sacrifice, the antagonist slowly breaks free of its seal.

Powerful Objects

The idea of “the strongest character” archetype isn’t limited to powerful characters, either. In a lot of fantasy and science fiction novels, there exist powerful objects, tools, or a secret method to access a powerful ability that can help or have the potential to solve all of the protagonist’s problems.

The Deathly Hollows -> lost and hidden over the years. They’re believed to be a myth, and that myth is told as a children’s story.

Takeaways for handling “the strongest character.”

Genre expectations are important to consider when deciding whether the strongest character archetype is needed, or is suited, for your story. For example, if the story you’re writing is romance-focused with a science fiction setting, it’s unlikely you’ll need a powerful character to show up and help the romantic leads with their relationship. (Of course, anything is possible. For the Wolf is an example of this archetype working out in a more romance-focused story told in a fantasy setting.)

Powerful characters can be antagonists the protagonist needs to prepare to fight and defeat.

Powerful characters can also be allies to the protagonist, usually taking on the mentor role.

There needs to be a logical reason (supported by the character and story world) for this powerful character not to take any action that interferes with the protagonist’s storyline.

The antagonist can reflect the power level of the strongest character. In other words, while the antagonist will likely be the protagonist’s opposite in terms of personality, morality, etc., the antagonist probably won’t reflect the protagonist’s power-level or skill-level (e.g., Harry and Voldemort). Part of the protagonist’s story is to learn and grow to be able to fight the antagonist.

These are just some examples of “the strongest character” archetype I could think of. Feel free to add some of your own in the comments!

Until next time!

Best,

Leah

Substack Post: https://thecraftyfoxwriterscorner.substack.com/p/looking-at-character-archetype-the

Interested in learning more about me, and the kind of energy I’ll bring to a writer-editor relationship? Subscribe to my Substack newsletter (it’s free!), or check out the archives.

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Send me an email!

#Writers #Writing #Writing Advice #Characters #Character Archetypes #The Strongest Character #Writing Tips

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orlafilmblog · 8 months

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Film Project Research – Writer’s Meeting 06.10

Katie and I are meeting once a week to talk about how the script is going, troubleshoot, problem solve, analyse characters, rant about politics, shout about feminism, share film suggestions, and most importantly drink tea and have girly chats.

(very serious business hapening)

Our first meeting (29/09) was really fun, but not super productive in regard to the script. It was productive in other ways however, as we talked a lot about our own opinions and values which I found incredibly reassuring. We seem to be on the same page about everything!

This week our meeting was very productive (and we also still did some intense opinion sharing). I wrote up a plan for the meeting that included a general check in, a discussion of feedback from her writing tutorial, and then a character questionnaire (below). I had originally planned to go over all the characters, however we ended up discussing Phoebe (protagonist) and Harry (antagonist) in so much depth that we decided to leave the others till next week. My written answers are brief, but our discussions were extensive and very insightful.

PHOEBE ANDERSON

Age: 19 (almost 20)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Ace? (possibly bisexual, undecided on this one)

Studies: Philosophy

Favourite Film: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Favourite Food: Veggie Sausage Casserole (she found it in a old magazine recipe)

Likes to Wear: Corduroy trousers, warm jumpers, knitwear, cosy vibes, orange, dark green, autumnal yellow

What does she love most?: Her family

What makes her angry?:

when she is being judged/is under scrutiny, performative activism, her dad getting remarried

What does she value?:

people being gentle (honesty put nicely), money (she really values her own possessions), independence, loyalty

What motivates her?:

kindness, inspirational friends, social validation

Three Words to describe her: intelligent, insecure, ‘sarcastic’ funny

What does she want to achieve at the start of the script:

She wants to become closer with her friends and relax before exam season

What does she want to achieve by the end of the script?:

She wants to continue her life as normally as she can after what has happened (pick herself up and carry on)

What character is she closest with?

Sara at the start, Jo at the end

What character is she most distant with?

Jo at the start

What makes the way she speaks distinct?

She often doesn’t finish her sentences/thoughts

HARRY WAKEFIELD

Age: 20

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Says he’s bisexual but he knows he would never really be with a man

Studies: Actuarial Science/Accounting

Favourite Film: Pulp Fiction UNTIL he watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Favourite Food: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Likes to Wear: he dresses well with nice trousers and often a shirt, wears jewellery and black nail polish, also likes graphic t-shirts (he 100% has a Pulp Fiction t-shirt)

What does he love the most?

His family, his appearance, travelling/exploring

What makes him angry?

His older brother (jealousy), when people don’t commit to plans, theatre (he thinks it is long and boring)

What does he value most?

Money (status), independence, honesty (but not actually, he says he values honesty but if someone is really honest with him he gets angry)

What motivates him?

Social validation/getting ahead, jealousy of brother, male role models

Three Words to describe him: insecure, arrogant, charismatic

What does he want to achieve at the start of the script?

Fun times 😉

What does he want to achieve at the end of the script?

Rebuilding security

What character is he closest with?

Himself and Sara

What makes the way he speaks distinct?

Posh and English, says a lot of “ohhh” and “aw”

Some Interesting Thoughts...

After completing these we have been left with a lot of ideas and things to think about:

Harry and Phoebe have almost identical values, however they see these values to mean different things. For example, both value money, Harry is from a very privileged background, so he values it as it as an indicator of status and power. Phoebe is from a poorer background in a single parent household, so she values money because she really cares for and appreciates her possessions.

This discussion led to Katie and I coming up with a great scene idea for the start of the film. Harry can jokingly throw something of Phoebe's into the loch (a scarf or something small). This would be a great bit of foreshadowing and storytelling. It shows that Harry does not respect Phoebe's boundaries and that he is willing to hurt something that she feels is personal.

I feel Harry's character is more well-rounded and clear right now. I am still trying to figure out completely who Phoebe is.

Phoebe's dad leaving when she was young and remarrying into another family means she has been betrayed by a man close to her before

One of Phoebe's values is loyalty. Another is independence. This creates an inner conflict when her friends take Harry's side. On one had, their loyalty is broken, which deeply hurts her. On the other, she values independence and figuring things out on her own, but this situation is different, creating uncertainty within herself.

Phoebe becomes angry when she is under scrutiny. Her defensiveness when questioned about what 'really' happened with Harry may be interpreted badly by other characters.

Harry is a fake feminist. He uses the cloak of being a feminist to embrace his own femininity and to his own advantage but he does not stand up for women when it counts.

There were so many other things but these are main ones that are coming to mind! Overall, a really insightful meeting, thanks Katie!

#film project

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raynerwilde-kjrp · 1 year

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Character Info

Name: Rowan William Palmer

Alias: Rayner Wilde

Affiliation: Killjoys Better Living Industries

Age: 23

Gender: male

Pronouns: He/him

Looks: 5′7″ tall, curly dark brown hair, brown eyes, often seen wearing dark clothes and goggles, sinewy frame, often slouches.

Language: Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, Modern English, Spanish

Interests: Reading, writing, chemistry, badminton

Backstory: Coming from a family of wealth and entrepreneurship, Rowan achieved his double-major BA wit First-Class honours in English and Chemistry, with a Master's in English literature. His English thesis, focusing on the close connection of sound and literary form, was well received by the city’s university. Now in his first year of his PhD for Romanticist and Gothic literature, Rowan continues to excel in academia in literary studies.

Update: Palmer has abandoned academia for the zones, see file RWP-3473 for reward for his capture and re-education negotiated by family in [ERROR]

Note: Watch for signs of burnout and fatigue as his advisor has noted these changes in previous semesters.

Mod:

Name's K but I mainly go by Crylock! She/her or they/them I'm not picky :) Please note that I am over 21 so only interact if you are 16+. My writing tends to focus on speculative fiction and posthumanist fiction since that's what I focused on in my graduate years, but I am open to writing any genre or format other than smut.

Book and history nerd extraordinare. I also do @cybershadow @phant0mspades and @bli-jason-melwas

You can literally message me anytime about just about anything.

Rules:

- I’m not comfortable doing smut. Do not ask.

- If you want to make a plot or send an ask that involves my characters, ask or let me know first. Do not rewrite my arcs or characters or copy my arcs or characters. I will block you if you do.

- I can write starters either as a post or as an ask. Just let me know if you want me to and if you have a preference.

- I can’t believe I have to write this one. Don’t talk behind my back or backstab me or any of that. I’m here to have fun and improve my writing, not deal with drama and bullshit. That’s an automatic block if I catch you.

- Be patient, please. I have severe anxiety and suffer from health issues that are currently being monitored with a heavy dose of medication. If I ask/say/clarify something that seems redundant, please work with me because I’m probably having an off day.

Please Note: Rowan is tired and worn-down. He faces extreme familial pressure to seek a high education and has really been forced into doing things and going higher as an academic. Does he want to? He hasn’t figured that out. He will get irritable at times and sometimes will ramble about literary theory and oddly specific topics that he studies (sound as literature, posthumanism, and Romanticism). This blog will highlight the positives and negatives of academia, and how it is both a pathway to further learning but also exploitive of new ideas and young graduate students. Everything here is inspired by my own experiences in grad school, and it should be considered only one experience among many. Do not take this blog as discouragement from pursuing academia if that is what you want to do; Rowan’s experiences, along with mine, are not the truth for everyone.

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elrielbliss · 2 years

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The Inspiration for Elain

This is just a theory - I did my best to connect the dots, so please be respectful!

During the last year, people found SJM's pinterest. From March 2021-August 2021 before she shut down her pinterest, it seemed she reposted a bunch of pictures relating to elain x azriel. One picture stood out in particular - inspiring me to write this.

(credit to the person who tweeted this - so sorry but i lost your username)

Now let’s look into who Blodeuwedd is. But first, let me be clear, I think certain aspects inspired Elain’s story, not all.

Blodeuwedd is known as the Goddess of flowers, emotions, the wisdom of innocence and initiation ceremonies. Elain is constantly described as innocence and her love for gardening flowers.

It gets more interesting…

So why was Blodeuwedd created? In the Welsh Tale, a male named Lleu was put under a curse by his mother. The mother, a goddess, felt ashamed of Lleu and put three fates of him: he would never have a name, weapons, or (human?) wife. Because of this he could not become king.

The story goes on to say Lleu’s mother, the goddess, was tricked by the uncle, Gywidon, with his magic to break the curses. He gave Llew a name, weapons, and created a wife for him from the flowers of oak, broom, and meadowsweet.

So let’s take a pause there to connect some things. First of all we can associate Lleu with Lucien. Both of their names mean light. Another similarity is that Lleu and Lucien are both have shame brought upon them in the eyes of their parents.

Blodeuwedd was created for marriage to this guy. You could say when Elain when in the cauldron - she was recreated and was born again into fae. When she came out of the cauldron, it seems like the bond was almost instantly created, marking Lucien her mate.

Lleu fell for Blodeuwedd immediately as she was beautiful. She put up with being the perfect wife for a while, until she became unsatisfied with her fate. Almost like how Elain is not happy with this fate of Lucien being her mate. Elain does not feel the same for Lucien, as he does for her.

It’s said that Lleu would go away on trips often. When he was away, Blodeuwedd met Gronw. This man was in need of shelter, so Blodeuwedd invited him inside. She even invites him for a meal. The two fall in love at first sight. Then the story gets a little crazy because they conspire to kill Llew to be with each other. Here are some quotes of the story I pulled:

So let's connect some things again, lol.

If you haven’t realized already Gronw = Azriel.

Blodeuwedd was created for Lleu just like how Elain is meant for Lucien because of the mating bond, but falls in love with another man. It’s also interesting that Gronw’s and Blodeuwedd first interaction is the same as Elain and Azriel. Azriel (and Rhys, Cas, and Feyre) were seeking shelter at the Archeron’s home. Elain and Azriel's first interaction was over a meal, just like this tale.

Blodeuwedd and Gronw would meet and spend time together in secret - which relates to the forbidden love trope that it seems SJM is setting up when Rhys tells Azriel he is to stay away from Elain because of her mate + the alliances that come with Lucien.

Could this be setting up for Elain’s book? Elain and Azriel having to meet up in secret?

Also, do I think Azriel + Elain will kill Lucien like the tale? No. SJM seems pretty clear when she says she likes to write more uplifting stories and not killing off characters. It’s also pretty evident that SJM has never killed a main character off before. So I think Lucien is safe, lol. Gronw also dies in the tale, but I don’t think she would kill of Azriel either, haha. I'll quote what happens at the end, and if you give have any theories on what it would relate to - I'd love to hear it!

To further connect Bloduwedd, Gronw and Lleu to Elain, Azriel, and Lucien, I saw these passages:

I mean can it get any more obvious. Lleu being associated with light, like Lucien. Gronw being associated with darkness, like Azriel. In Celtic mythology, Gronw Pebyr is a god of darkness. Blodewedd is associated with flowers and her land, and innocence. Elain’s name also means light. Which also goes back to SJM constantly comparing Azriel and Elain with light and darkness.

Blodeuwedd stopped trying to make her relationship with Lleu work, the man she was created for. In her relationship with Gronw - she feels free and grasps the truth of her sovereign self. This could mean Elain will go against fate and be with the man she loves, which is Azriel.

I think it's clear in both the tale, and the ACOTAR series that Elain wants Azriel. For her to go against the mating bond would be huge! (I also believe in the two mates/ true mates theory)

Anyways - the ending of the tale is that Blodeuwedd and Gronw plot up to kill Lleu. Gronw throws a spear at Lleu. As he is dying, Lleu's uncle Gwyidon revives Lleu and turns him into an eagle. Blodeuwedd and Gronw then leave to go back to ruling a court (maybe ties into Az + Elain ruling dusk court, but maybe a reach!) Gwydion finds Lleu as an eagle, and returns him back to normal form. Lleu returns to court, and demands that he should enact the same deed that was done to him, upon Gronw. Gronw has no choice but to accept to keep his honor, but he requests that a stone be placed between him and Lleu. Lleu then fights and kills Gronw. Now what is interesting is that this kinda sounds like a duel? Could it relate to the blood duel that Az and Lucien could fight in, maybe! However, I really do not believe SJM will kill either character. Also, Blodeuwedd gets punished and turn into an eagle, lol.

---

Also, just some things I wanted to point out. It says in the tale that Gwyidon created Blodeuwedd. And what's really interesting is that the word/name, Gwyidon, exists in the Acotar/CC world. This cannot be a coincidence that the same name in this tale is used here.

"It is described to be as dark and beautiful as the night itself. Gwydion's power is described as holy, savior's light." It's the twin to the Truth Teller. This goes back with the whole dark/light theory with Elain and Azriel. I think it's a huge possibility that this Gwydion sword will belong to Elain eventually.

And another one is having to do with Blodeuwedd's power. She has the ability to heal / renew Lleu.

Could this go back to that quote, "Life, Death, and Rebirth" with rebirth having to relate to Elain? Maybe besides being a seer, she might be able to bring back life again and heal things.

I'd love to hear any of your thoughts!! I hope you guys enjoyed the read as much as I enjoyed putting this together <3

#elain archeron #pro elriel #elriel #acotar #azriel shadowsinger #elain x azriel #azriel x elain #elrielmonth2022 #elrielmonth

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heartofstanding · 3 years

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Rape Culture in Historical Fiction

A few months ago, there was a little conversation about rape culture in historical fiction. As someone who reads a lot of historical fiction, naturally I had A Lot Of Thoughts. I started writing them and because they got very long and had little to do with the original post, I figured it was best to give them their own post.

Before I get into them, I want to start off with some disclaimers:

1) Obviously, there is going to be a lot – A LOT – of discussion about rape. There will also be a fair amount of discussion about preteen and teenage marriages, sex and pregnancies, child grooming. Most of this will be in relation to things that actually happened and/or how that’s been depicted in fiction. Obviously, if this is going to upset or trigger you, please don’t read any further.

2) I can only talk about historical fiction that I, personally, have read or heard about, most of which will be focused on late medieval England. My memory may be faulty, I may have been misinformed. If I get it wrong, I’m sorry but this isn’t a research paper, it’s a tumblr post and I’m not spending months rereading novels when the larger point I’m making is more important. On a similar note: I’m sorry for any typos but again, tumblr post.

3) I’m not going to be talking about bodice rippers, historical romances with a loose relationship to history in the first place or ‘smutty’ novels. I don’t read a lot of them and in those novels, the point is the depiction of sexual fantasies.

1. Rape as a shortcut to character.

Rape is often used to prove something about character. The antagonist rapes someone because he’s a bad person. The heroine is raped because she’s beautiful and must be a victim. The male hero rescues someone from rape because he’s a stand-up guy. Rape fills the world of the novel because that’s just how it was in those times, the world was dangerous. The heroine is threatened with rape and resists it to show how she’s a badass and admirable. Most of the time, though, rape or the threat of rape is used to underline that the heroine is desirable.

Maybe it’s unfair to start by referencing a book published in the 1950s but Anya Seton’s Katherine remains a beloved and influential classic of historical fiction, particularly women-centric historical fiction, and has influenced and inspired some of the biggest names in the genre today as well as the general public’s image of the real life historical figures it depicts. And there’s a lot of threatened rape in the book. I remember being startled when, within the first pages, a random male character thinks about raping Katherine Swynford because she’s beautiful. He doesn’t actually do it but he thinks about it. Then nearly every male character we meet wants to rape Katherine. She’s just that beautiful. There is no narrative purpose for this. Maybe it shows us how dangerous and fraught her world is but the real intent behind these scenes seems to be that she’s so utterly beautiful and desirable that no man can resist her.

It’s not that the trope has entirely disappeared either; it’s become mixed up with others. Resisting rape, whether it’s by wit or general badassery, is often used to prove how clever and strong the heroine is. Or rape may be used in order to “prove” that the heroine is a victim, compelling the reader to feel sorry for them and eagerly cheer them on when they triumph, whether it’s by finding true love or ending up in a powerful position. This particular trope isn’t interested so much in the trauma of rape but in insisting on how tragic the heroine is and how much she “earns” or “deserves” her triumph.

In The Agincourt Bride, Joanna Hickson has Catherine de Valois repeatedly raped by John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. Burgundy was a dickhead but rape isn’t one of the things he was accused of, much less the rape of the daughter of the King of France. There’s no misogynistic narrative about Catherine not being a virgin on her wedding night that Hickson is subverting either – unless you count one bad novel written in the 1980s. More importantly, the rape has no impact on Catherine’s character beyond to add more light to her halo of goodness and beauty as she suffers tragically. The largest impact the rape has on the story is a bizarrely comical scene when Catherine must fake losing her virginity, featuring vials of chicken blood and a passed-out-drunk Henry V. What purpose does Catherine’s rape have? It tells us she’s a victim, that she's tragic, that she’s a breathtaking beauty that men can’t help but want and, above all else, that we should feel sorry for her and root for her to find happiness and power. How can we not when she’s been raped so often?

(n.b. I’m not saying that rape victims shouldn’t have sympathy – they absolutely should. I’m saying that it’s a cheap and lazy tactic for writers to make a character a rape victim for the sole purpose of gaining readers’ sympathy.)

This particular trope can have an added bonus: it can show just how evil the antagonist is, how the reader should never, ever sympathise with him, and to establish the victim/villain roles in ultra high definition. Sometimes, the heroine doesn’t get raped but some poor side character who exists only to be raped by the antagonist is added to the narrative. There is rarely any historical basis for this – the antagonist might (might!) have been be a dickhead or a womaniser in real life but rarely is there historical evidence accusing of him of rape. Instead, historical fiction uses rape to show that the antagonist is despicable and irredeemable, that the reader should have no sympathy for them and be happy when they’re defeated. Sandra Worth, for example, presents Richard III’s execution of Hastings (something that happened in reality for pretty flimsy reasons) as being justified by Richard having witnessed Hasting rape a girl when he was a child (a complete invention on Worth’s part). The antagonist’s henchmen are generally depicted as extension of his evilness and are just as rape-happy – Burgundy’s henchmen gangape Catherine’s nurse in Hickson’s novel and it’s given even less narrative weight than Catherine’s own rape despite the fact that Catherine’s nurse is the book’s narrator.

Sometimes the rape comes out of nowhere, as if the author isn’t sure you haven’t realised the antagonist is evil or because they’ve otherwise been characterised quite decently and now we need an eleventh hour turn-face to real drive in how wrong they were for the heroine. In her novel about Joan of Kent, Emma Campion depicts Joan’s would-be second husband quite sympathetically until he suddenly violently rapes Joan – I assume because if he didn’t, the reader wouldn’t feel like Joan marrying him wouldn’t be a big deal. Hickson, in her sequel to The Agincourt Bride, has the new antagonist suddenly drop in a threat to rape Catherine when Hickson had already well-established how evil he is without raising the spectre of rape.

Sometimes, resisting or escaping rape is used to show how wily or badass or otherwise awesome the heroine is. The threat is raised but the heroine is able to prevent it by at least one of number of methods: telling the rapist no, slapping them, threatening suicide, getting him black-out drunk, faking illness, faking sex... Sometimes – but not always – the resistance of rape segues into the heroine having a full blown love affair with her would-be rapist.

In For The Most Beautiful, Emily Hauser’s novel about Briseis and Chryseis, Briseis slaps Achilles when he goes to touch her and Achilles is so taken by the gesture that he “claims” her as his slave with the promise that he won’t rape her. Almost immediately after, they fall headlong into a romance. Or there’s The White Queen by Philippa Gregory where Elizabeth Woodville threatens to kill herself to stop Edward IV raping her. He doesn’t, they get married and have a relatively happy and loving marriage. The fact that Edward would have raped her is never thought of again and doesn’t impact the development of their relationship.

Gregory is repeating a story found in two historical accounts so we can say the scene has some basis in historical record though the story itself is probably untrue. But other accounts of Edward and Elizabeth’s first meeting also exist and these don’t make any reference to rape. Which means that Gregory made the choice to include the threat of rape. She then made the choice not to have it have any lasting impact on the characters or her narrative.

I want to emphasise this. Gregory made the indepedent and active choice to follow a historical account with rape in it when there were alternatives to it.

Most of the other examples I’ve given have no historical basis for their rape scene(s). So historical fiction authors make the independent and active choice to include rape in their novels and they make independent and active choices in how they depict it. There is no historical record they are doggedly following to a T by including the rape of their heroine.

Now, I’m not saying that historical fiction should never include rape or the threat of rape. Rape was and is a reality for many people. There are important stories to be told about rape, both inside and outside of historical fiction and ways in which stories might be reclaimed by women and used to empower women. There are stories where we might find powerful modern resonances in or ways in which we might “read consent” into a preexisting story or historical narrative, especially when the perspectives and experiences of women or other marginalised figures have often been elided from those stories. Or there may be a dominant narrative that the author wishes to challenge and explore in a different light.

Nor am I saying that a historical fiction author should never have their antagonist be a rapist or that the heroine should never suffer rape unless it’s historically evidenced they did. There are undoubtedly countless unrecorded cases where someone – regardless of gender or sexuality – was raped, sexually assaulted or harassed. I’ve pointed out there’s no historical basis to emphasise the point I made above: the authors are choosing to add rape to their stories,, they aren’t blindly led by historical accuracy.

What I am arguing that by using rape as a shortcut to “show” or “prove” something about their protagonists and antagonists, an author risks normalising or excusing rape, or perpetuating harmful narratives. That rape should be seen as proof a character is desirable or beautiful or sympathetic or will be deserving of a final happiness is dangerous. It risks making rape into something that only happens to attractive, able-bodied and primarily young women. It risks making rape into a compliment, a value judgement or something that must be suffered in order for a person to deserve or gain their happiness. Rape can happen to any person for any reason. It doesn’t happen to good people only, it doesn’t make a person any better or worse than another person, it isn’t something to be suffered to attain true love or power.

These kinds of tropes and narratives also risk creating a narrative where the rapist isn’t fully culpable. Their victim was just that beautiful that they couldn’t help themselves. Fuck off.

And while having a protagonist escape rape through their physical prowess or wits or a combination of both is a fun power fantasy to have, it also can create a narrative in which rape can be avoided if you’re smart or strong enough, that those who are raped were too weak, unintelligent or powerless to escape their fate. In For The Most Beautiful, Emily Hauser does mitigate this by having her other protagonist, Chryseis (based on Criseyde/Cressida) being unable to prevent her own rape and subjugation. But plenty of other narratives don’t.

2. The Broodmares, The Child Brides and the Exceptional Few

Is anyone else sick of the idea that there can only be a handful of women – if there is more than one – who are able to break free of her society and make a true love match, while the other women are trapped, unable to be anything but a helpless pawn turned broodmare? Unless they’re faceless and voiceless peasants who marry for love and have so much more freedom than elite women (excuse while I’m sick on my own scorn). This trope tends to go hard on the idea that era (whatever the era the novel is set in) was terrible for women who are all tragic voids or evil witches and bitches, except the heroine and her support crew. But mainly just the heroine.

Of course, the relationship between women isn’t the subject of this post but what this trope sets up is a reality in which all but a handful of women are seen and dismissed as victims of society, unable to even see the pawn-broodmare-dead cycle, much less break free of it. To say that only a few women were able to “escape” this cycle is to deny that many historical women had rich and vibrant lives and exercised their own agency in favour of seeing them as perpetual victims who were incapable of saving themselves or being loved or recognising their own oppression. Fictional treatments of the more obscure and short-lived women, such as Jean Plaidy’s depictions of Blanche of Lancaster and Mary de Bohun, tend to present them in an ultimately dehumanised way. They are helpless in the face of their own victimhood, incapable of saving themselves, and ultimately maritally raped to death by husbands who don’t care about them (but, in Blanche’s case, goes on to have an epic love affair with someone else – the problem, therefore, isn’t a bad husband or an oppressive society, but women’s acceptance of it). Often these narratives overlook the way in which these women could and did have agency, did more than passively accept their victimhood and mattered to the people who knew them.

This narrative of the “exceptional few” also normalises most marriages as abusive in which maritial rape occurs, part of a grimdark view of the past as a backwards and barbaric time in which women universally suffered. It also features alongside narratives in which rape is used to victimise the character. Anne O’Brien’s The Forbidden Queen presents Catherine de Valois’s marriage to Henry V as one of marital rape before Owen Tudor, her true love, appears to marry her. In The White Queen TV series, we see the consummation of four marriages. Two are depicted as painful marital rapes, two as passionate and loving sex. Unsurprisingly, the rapes occur in arranged marriages and the loving sex occurs in relationships both partner enter into of their own choice.

Now, I want to make it clear: arranged marriages were not inherently good or unproblematic. Alice de Lacy’s marriage to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster was unhappy. Alice of Norfolk was beaten to death by her husband, Edward Montagu, 1st Baron Montagu. Katherine Paynel was imprisoned by her husband, Nicholas Cantilupe, in effort to stop her having their marriage annulled. But arranged marriages weren’t inherently bad either. A number of arranged marriages resulted in genuinely loving marriages: Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, Anne of Bohemia and Richard II, Eleanor of Castile and Edward I are just a handful of examples of arranged marriages that are celebrated today as deeply loving. We also have marriages like John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster where the marriage was arranged but – in addition to the political/financial/dynastic reasons – seem to have been based on pre-existing affection. The point is, historically speaking, there is a great spectrum of arranged marriages. It wasn’t inherently bad or good, it wasn’t inherently abusive or abuse-free. But when we insist on the assumption that they were all inherently bad – as is the stereotype in historical fiction – then we dismiss the experiences and lives of real women in order to present them as brainless victims who simply can’t save themselves.

It also promotes the idea that unusual/status-defying matches or matches where a woman chose her husband were infinitely more respectful, loving and – dangerously – that they were free of abuse or marital rape. Unfortunately, it just isn’t true. Abuse and marital/partner rape can and does occur in relationships both parties freely enter into or appear motivated by love just as as they can and do occur in arranged marriages.

No doubt that a lot of historical marriages that were unusual, status-defying or made by choice were love matches. But we mustn’t fall into the trap of declaring all unusual matches good and harmless because they were based around choice and therefore love. Sometimes, too, we need to examine the narratives around the marriage rather than taking things at face value.

Joan of Kent, the granddaughter of Edward I, has always been imagined as a romantic heroine (or, alternatively, a slut) because she rejected the marriage her family wanted for her to claim she had previously married Thomas Holland, a second son of a knight, and had immediately consummated the marriage. She faced the disapproval of the royal court and scandal to become Holland’s wife. Despite making a later, much more prestigious match after Holland’s death and becoming the mother of the next king (Richard II), Joan also chose to be buried beside Holland. It seems fair to say that she loved Holland and this was a romantic match for the ages. Right?

When we look beyond this narrative, we find that Joan’s marriage to Holland was made in secret, without her family’s knowledge or approval, meaning that Joan lacked the protections often extended to other young noble brides. We know that Joan was between 11 and 13 years old and Holland was around 25 years old. It is not romantic for a man twice Joan’s age to marry and bed her when she was, at most, 13. This is not a love story; it’s a story of child grooming and abuse.

And yet – every single novel written about Joan treats her marriage to Holland as a romance, depicts Holland as her one true love, as it being more evil for her family to keep them apart than it is for a 25-year-old man to marry and have sex with a 13-year-old girl (who may have actually been as young as 11!).

Sometimes the authors are aware that the marriage isn’t that romantic so their solution is to inject explicit rape into the story so that Holland “rescues” her from a worse fate. Her rejected husband – who was around her age – is made to rape and abuse her, another man sexually menances her until she feels like she simply has to marry Holland to protect herself from him. It seems pretty damn like rape culture that Joan has to be sexually harassed in order that a secret marriage at 11-13 years old to a full grown man is presented as the safest, most loving option.

In contrast to Joan’s situation, we have Isabella of France who married Edward II when she was 12 years old and he was 23/24. It appears the marriage wasn’t consummated until she was around 16 or 17. Yet so many historical novelists present Edward’s refusal to consummate the marriage as an insult to Isabella, who is presented as staggeringly beautiful (a “woman in a girl’s body” in Colin Falconer’s Isabella, Braveheart of France) and thus personally offended that her older, adult husband isn’t interested in her and usually, foreshadowing of just what a nasty, neglectful and uncaring husband he will be. All because he doesn’t want to sleep with a 12 year old!

Now, to be fair, this trope is entirely motivated by homophobia: Edward II has been popularly believed to have been gay. The trope has usually played along like this:

Edward: I’m gay, I’m not attracted to women, I don’t want to sleep with you. Isabella: And I took that personally.

Usually, this is a trope that presents Isabella as so breathtakingly beautiful and desirable that every red-blooded male should want to sleep with her and those that don’t, like Edward II, are deeply unmasculine and abnormal and out to victimise Isabella. Edward is seen as inhuman, his own desires secondary to his wife’s. His sexuality doesn’t matter. His consent doesn’t matter. Nor, apparently, does Isabella’s young age.

More recent novels have swung away from the inherent assumption that Edward should want to have sex with a 12 year old and it’s bizarre and wrong that he doesn’t. But these novels can’t seem to let go of the expectation that it’s something Isabella should want and that she’s personally insulted it doesn’t happen.

So this trope hasn’t been corrected so that consummating the marriage isn’t expected and normalised and advocated for by the victim but that Edward II is just a good guy who doesn’t want to commit statutory rape. Meanwhile, Isabella is advocating for her own statutory rape because it hurts her feelings that a man twice her age doesn’t want to have sex with her. We’re never told why she feels that way beyond the idea that she’s insulted that Edward isn’t swayed by her great beauty. These kinds of novels tend to also cast Isabella in the villainous or bitchy ‘she-wolf’ role who destroys her husband. For example, Susan Higginbotham’s The Traitor’s Wife has Isabella throwing tantrums about the marriage not being consummated while the (English) adults around her smilingly tell her that it’s for her own good. Higginbotham’s Isabella ends up growing up as a shallowly characterised bitch who hates her husband and glories in his ruin.

Margaret Beaufort’s marriage to Edmund Tudor and its consummation when she was still 12 has been presented in a number of different ways. In some novels, such as Joanna Hickson’s First of the Tudors, the marriage is presented as romantic. In others, it’s more complicated – in Livi Michael’s Succession, Margaret is depicted as having a crush on Tudor but the sex and pregnancy is presented as traumatic. In other novels still, the marriage as a traumatic event, an outright case of rape and abuse.

In The Red Queen, Philippa Gregory’s other novels about the Wars of the Roses and their TV adaptations, Margaret’s relationship does fall into the last category – it is a brutal scene that still lingers in my head, years after I read it for the first time. Upsettingly, Margaret goes on see her rape and traumatic childbirth as “God’s will”. Responses to trauma are often complex and rarely fit into a nice, neat vision of trauma and it’s entirely believable that Margaret might use this belief in “God’s will” as a coping mechanism, especially since Tudor died before her son was born and was seemingly well-regarded by their contemporaries. But Gregory doesn’t frame this sympathetically as a coping mechanism – instead, it’s another sign of Margaret being a deluded religious fanatic who the reader is supposed to hate. Weirdly, I’ve seen Margaret’s own rape as being presented as one of the reasons why she was a “conniving” or “treasonous bitch” and a “nasty piece of work”. If the logic behind this is that she should have decried her husband but didn’t or was made into a monster because of her rape, wow. I don’t have the words for how gross that is.

Now, you might be saying, “it was the Middle Ages, preteen and teenage girls were often married to much older men”. That’s true! It was a behaviour typical of the nobility, less so in other classes, because marriages in the nobility were made for diplomatic, dynastic or financial reasons. It was also typical for these marriages not to be consummated until individuals were older and childbirth was considered less of a risk. It was notable when they weren’t. It was also normal for boys to marry as children and teenagers too – it wasn’t a practice solely aimed at one gender. It was also expected that the families or guardians of both spouses would choose a good match and protect their child. Joan of Kent didn’t have those protections because her marriage to Holland was a secret and it was lucky that she didn’t become pregnant at the time of her marriage. We don’t know why Edmund Tudor consummated his marriage when Margaret Beaufort was so young – possibly to prevent it being annulled? – but she clearly lacked the protections that other girls did and paid the cost. Isabella of France did have those protections and the lack of consummation was not insulting or unusual but the norm.

The view that young noble girls and women were just expected to be raped and abused owes more to the stereotype of the past as a grim dark, inherently backwards, violent and evil time and place. It writes women off as brainless victims and treats the cases where it did happen carelessly, as if it was just the norm when it wasn’t.

3. When the romantic hero is a rapist

I’ve talked a bit about this in relation to the “heroine resists and escapes rape” trope but I want to unpack it some more because it raises the question: what does it mean when the romantic hero is a rapist?

In the examples I gave above, Emily Hauser’s Achilles and Philippa Gregory’s Edward IV act with entitlement towards the women only to back off when confronted by a woman who stands up to them. If Hauser’s Achilles is honest, he believes that “no one should make love because they have to”. But how many women has he seen pressed into sexual slavery? How many times has he captured women that have put them in that position? How many times did he look the other way because these other women didn’t capture his attention the same way Briseis did? How many times has his actions enabled the enslavement and rape of women? How much rape has he been complicit in, even if he never raped a woman himself?

Gregory’s Edward IV, however, is more questionable. He would have raped Elizabeth Woodville had she not threatened to kill herself. Were there other women before Elizabeth? Women he desired and whose consent he might have run roughshod over? Women who were too frightened to resist or who didn’t resist in a way that “earned” his respect? How many women might he have knowingly or unknowingly raped?

These aren’t questions or possibilities that are part of these characters’ stories. In each case, we’re meant to take it as face value, to give it the same weight that the author did. Achilles doesn’t believe in rape, he’s a good guy. Edward may be a womaniser but we never see him rape anyone so his intention to have sex with Elizabeth regardless of whether she consents or not can be forgotten. But when you start to think about what these scenes mean for the characters and their pasts, what Hauser wants to signify with Achilles falls apart and Edward’s status as a romantic hero is seriously degraded. I don’t say this to argue that the author should have avoided doing this entirely, but that they could have thought about these scenes and what they meant more deeply. Perhaps the characterisation of these romantic heroes can be developed from this position, the beginning of realisation and personal growth. It could be the beginning of a man examining his past and trying to make amends, if he can make amends. It could begin a redemption arc, though at least some readers will see rape as something a hero can’t come back from. Of course, neither For The Most Beautiful and The White Queen aren’t really ‘about’ Achilles and Edward IV and this does risk depicting men as only being able to understand women’s pain when it is a woman close to them that suffers, and making them responsible for his growth and redemption.

Looking beyond the trope of the would-be rapist turned romantic hero, rape performed by the male hero isn’t necessarily rare. I read a historical mystery replete with sexualised violence against women, including a scene where the otherwise sympathetic, romantically-minded protagonist also enacts sexual violence on a lover. Or there’s novels where the male hero/love interest rapes the heroine because they’ve been driven to anger, usually by something related to the heroine or by something that threatens their masculinity, and just aren’t able to control themselves.

Rosemary Hawley Jarman has Owen Tudor violently rape Catherine de Valois in Crown in Candlelight after being angered and ashamed by hearing himself referred to as her “tame stallion”. In Jarman’s own words, “he threw her on the floor and raped her. Not in play or in pretence, but hurting her”. Catherine’s reactions go unrecorded – the scene is depicted in precis, from Owen’s point of view and he makes no mention of her reactions – but from what we do see of her around the scene, it is as though it never happened to her. As if she understood and forgave it immediately. Later, she faces a rape threat from the book’s antagonist and slaps him so hard that her ring cuts open his face and leaves a scar. Are we supposed to excuse Owen’s rape because he loves her and she understands his anger? To me, that somehow makes it so much worse.

Susan Higginbotham’s novel, The Stolen Crown, presents the marriage of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham and Katherine Woodville as mutually loving – up until the point where Richard III claims the throne and Buckingham’s support of him and Katherine’s anger over the treatment of her sister and nephews creating a divide between them. In the middle of an argument over this, Buckingham snaps and rapes Katherine. Later, it’s forgiven almost instantaneously with Katherine saying that she “goaded him” to it. Um, no. They were arguing about court politics and even if she did, it is still not an excuse. Buckingham even admits the same, saying his actions were inexcusable as Katherine seeks to excuse them. Their physical reconcilement then proceeds in the space of a page and they’re back to being loving spouses.

I don’t think it needs saying but the narratives behind these scenarios are toxic. The idea that a male protagonist can rape the woman the novel insists is his “beloved” and it be brushed off and forgiven with so little effort and narrative weight is toxic. I don’t want to read romances where one half rapes the other who instantly (if not in reality, then in page time) forgives them for it. The idea that rape is understandable and forgivable because they’re too angry at some (possibly only perceived) insult to their masculinity is toxic. It’s a choice to rape someone, not an ungovernable impulse.

Is it possible for a protagonist to come back from raping someone? I don’t know. I certainly think it’s only remotely possible if the author spent enough time on their growth and arc. But I’ve never seen this happen. Or, when it does, it happens too quickly to feel real or earned. And, even if the author does put the time and effort in, it then depends on the reader and whether they think rape – especially rape of a loved one – is something that a protagonist can come back from. Having the victim forgive the rapist, especially if it’s never worked for or combined with the victim’s own apologies, doesn’t really help.

4. Men as victims

So far, I’ve been talking about rape in historical fiction as if men are always the rapist and women are always the rape victim. It’s the most common scenario for historical fiction and nearly all types of fiction. Historical fiction tends to be fairly tropey and with its tendency towards both gender essentialism and heteronormativity, the tropes about rape don’t map easily onto a typical male character.

It doesn’t mean there aren’t novels where male characters are raped, whether the author is knowingly write it as a rape scene, and it doesn’t mean that those cases are free from rape culture either. I talked a little about the attitudes around Edward II in fiction centred on Isabella of France, wherein Isabella’s beauty and her sexual desires possess such power and importance that they should override Edward’s own sexuality and his own desires or consent, while the fact they don’t is deemed insulting. It’s also not rare to find the attitude – though the only example I can remember off hand is Alison Weir’s biography Isabella: She-Wolf of France, Queen of England – where if Edward had sexually satisfied Isabella, she wouldn’t have had to depose him (and possibly had him killed, depending if the author believes in the theory Edward’s death was faked or not). In addition to simplifying their story too much, this reeks of both rape culture (one partner deserves sex so the other partner must oblige regardless) and victim blaming (if he didn’t want to be deposed and murdered, he should have devoted himself to sexually pleasing her).

The same scenario is often repeated in most fiction dealing with Margaret of Anjou and Henry VI, though unlike Isabella, Margaret doesn’t nobly suffer for lack of sex. Before or during the inevitable adultery, she usually forces or attempts to force Henry to have sex with her. In Conn Iggulden’s Stormbird, Margaret has sex with Henry when he is mentally incapicated, in Joanna Hickson’s The First of the Tudors, Henry is plied with alcohol. Usually, Henry’s lack of virility and masculinity is constantly emphasised and, in most cases, mocked. It isn’t that Margaret particularly wants to have sex with Henry but that he should want her and they have to produce an heir (though their son may not be his). Clearly, there’s a fuckton of fucked up attitudes in here. An enormous amount of ableism is directed towards Henry VI, who was mentally ill and recognised as such by his contemporaries. Also at play is a kind of gender essentialism, the idea that a man should perfectly embody masculine traits and if they don’t, they are pathetic, pitiful and inherently mockable.

In James Meek’s To Calais, In Ordinary Time, the handsome but lowborn ploughman-turned-archer Will encounters Isabella of France (one of the very few characters in the novel that are based on a real-life counterpart), who forces him to enact a non-consensual BDSM scene before making him perform oral sex on her. The entire scene is treated as titalling and ends with Will sexually dominating Isabella (literally, fucking her up the arse). The fact that she forced him into this position is never gone into, Meek doesn’t depict him as suffering trauma – the only lasting effect his rape has on the novel is to provide him with money and an sexual education that allow him to later consummate his relationship with his genderfluid love interest. To put it bluntly, it’s rape thrown in for the sake of sexual titallation.

(There is a broader theme around rape in To Calais, In Ordinary Time. The cohort of archers Will has joined have a French woman they pressed into sexual slavery. Her past gangrape is a huge part of the novel but she herself is barely a character. She does not have a point-of-view in the novel, she barely has any characterisation. Instead, she is an object that shows how awful and barbaric war is. Nor are parallels drawn between her situation and Will’s with Isabella.)

Outside of scenes that read as sexual fantasies, it is rare to find men or boys depicted as the victims of rape. In The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller presents Achilles and Patroclus as both being forced to have sex with Deidamia but the trauma is glossed over, despite Patroclus’s night with her being the most explicit sex scene in the novel. In The Traitor’s Wife, Susan Higginbotham has Edward II consider raping Hugh Despenser only to burst into tears when he realises he can’t bring himself to do it so we have a brush with two homophobic stereotypes: the predatory gay and the overly emotional gay man.

A couple of novels set in the reign of the Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, Akhenaten, namely The Twelfth Transforming by Pauline Gedge and Out of the Black Land by Kerry Greenwood, depict the shadowy and little-known Smenkhkare as Akhenaten’s younger brother and reluctant lover. Smenkhkare is a minor character in Greendwood’s novel and although his trauma at his rape is clearly communicated, it is communicated in a way where it is meant to looked at as if he’s an exhibit at a freakshow, not to be sympathised with. In Gedge’s novel, we do see more of Smenkhkare’s character but he is one of the more minor and unsympathetic figures in the novel and his relationship with Akhenaten is implied to have a distorting, grotesque affect on his personality.

It is such a rare occurrence to find men as rape victims in any novel, let alone historical fiction novels, that it’s hard to come to any firm conclusions or make any generalisations. However, my instinct would be that these are the common tropes:

it’s not rape if a woman forces a man to have sex with her. It’s an understandable action on her part and if he doesn’t enjoy it or want sex, there’s something wrong with him. If he does enjoy it, he later gets to sexually dominate his partner. At no point should we consider the possibility that he may be traumatised by the experience.

men who are raped by another man are usually minor characters and they might be pitied but not sympathised with.

The idea that a man can’t be raped if the rape is performed by a woman is untrue. Legal definitions aside, what makes a rape a rape is that one or more persons have sex with someone who doesn’t or can’t consent. It doesn’t matter what gender or sexuality the perpetrator(s) or the victim(s) are.

5. Conclusions

This is around 6000 words already. The sad thing is, I could go on.

I could talk about novels where the male protagonist might rescues a woman from rape only for her to end up his love interest or immediately wanting to sleep with him. Because he’s awesome! He’s hot and decent, he saved her from rape! What more do you want? Or I could talk about novels where rape is treated almost as a window dressing – it happens because it happens but we won’t dwell on what it means. Or novels where rape is fuel for a male character’s development but the rape victim is barely dwelt on. Or novels where the rape victim’s responses to her rape are almost entirely about how it will affect one of her male relatives. Or stories where there’s rape threat after rape threat until it becomes meaningless. Or novels where a woman is raped but ends up enjoying it. Or the deployment of the “no, no, YES” trope. Or novels that contain rape scenes are essentially torture porn or intended to titillate the reader as much as horrify them.

Once again, I’m not saying that rape should never be depicted in historical fiction or it should only be depicted if we can prove it definitely happened or there’s at least some historical basis. As I said, there are no doubt countless times in history where people were raped and it went unrecorded. Insisting that stories about rape can only be told if we know the rape actually happened or that it was the most likely scenario because otherwise we “defame” the dead risks creating a silence or an erasure around rape.

Rape happened whether we have evidence of it or not.

There also important stories to be told about rape or sexual abuse. Novels like Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls or Melanie McDonald’s Eromenos might make for uncomfortable reading but they also force us to examine familiar and beloved stories through a more critical eye. They might allow us to recognise that our narratives of history often include silenced or unprivileged voices and ask what happens if we allow ourselves to imagine them speaking. We know the story of Hadrian’s grief over Antinous’s death but McDonald’s novel instead gives Antinous a voice and tells us what it’s like to be the “beloved” in a pederastic system where you have very little power. We know the story of Achilles’s rage, Barker lets us confront the ugly reality of Briseis’s story as his victim. As Rachel Herzog says in her article “Reading Consent Into The Iliad”, Briseis’s story and others like hers, can “represent the whole world of survival that can exist within captivity, and the potential for someone to have opinions and feelings, to make choices even while being victimized.”

What I’ve been trying to argue is how poorly historical fiction, as a genre, handles rape. Yes, it’s a generalisation – not all historical fiction is bad at depicting rape and I’m not going to tell you that your fave book or author is problematic and must be disowned. Even if I’ve been scathing about them in this post. Some of the books I've referenced were books I genuinely enjoyed myself. But there is so much rape in historical fiction and the vast majority exists as a plot device that’s just chucked in to make us feel something about at least one character, whether it’s pity, loathing or admiration. Or there are narratives that present a story where rape was the norm and all women were mindless victims and all men mindless villains except for the heroine who alone can break free of the pawn-broodmore-dead cycle with the one good man around.

And I think historical fiction authors should carefully and critically assess how they use rape in their stories. What narratives and ideas about rape their story contains and might promote. Whether it might trigger and genuinely hurt readers. Whether it might be dismissive of rape and the experiences of survivors. If it exists purely for sexual fantasy or titillation. If it’s necessary to the story they’re telling. If they should spend more time on making it part of the story they’re telling rather than glossing over it.

Sexual violence in historical fiction is often excused by “it’s just historically accurate” as if authors are mindless creatures who are mere mediums to the historical record. Well, I’ve pointed out above that most cases insert rape with no historical basis for it and it’s very rare that the author shows the same investment in historical accuracy elsewhere in their novel. Sometimes the author is relying on popular conceptions and myths of what the time period was like or what happened to the historical figure they’ve made into their heroine. At the end of the day, an author is not blindly led or controlled by history; they make active choices in the story they tell and the actions of their characters. They make the active choice to include rape or not and the active choice to depict rape the way they do..

I don’t have the answers to write something like The Definitive Guide Of Including Rape In Your Historical FIction Novel In A Respectful Manner. I don’t think it's a particularly useful thing to reduce creative writing to a rigid guide or to reduce literature criticism to a checklist of good tropes and bad tropes and if you get too many on the bad side of things, you fail.. Fiction is inherently subjective and not everyone will agree on whether something is ‘bad’ or ‘good’ – I know people will disagree on my interpretations on the examples I gave, maybe because I misremembered, maybe because they genuinely read it in a different way to me or maybe they weren’t troubled by the implications. That’s fine, that’s what happens when you engage with media: people have different interpretations. Some people don’t want rape in fiction at all, some people are okay with rape in fiction so long as it’s given its proper weight, others are completely fine with rape in fiction however it’s depicted. And that’s fine. We all have things we’re okay with reading and things we’re not okay with reading.

But the sheer quantity of rape scenes in historical fiction, depicted with very little depth, thrown in as a cheap plot device or because it’s supposedly “accurate”, is an issue with the genre.

#tw rape #tw rape culture #text posts #historical fiction venting

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kpopxx · 3 years

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Spy Games [Chapter 1] : More Than It Seems

Characters: Twice Momo, Male Reader

4579 words

Authors Note: This is literally the first fiction writing I have done since I was a little kid writing stories about a town full of hamburgers. I was inspired to try my hand at writing by the plethora of amazing kpop smut writers out there right now, but by @lockefanfic, @nsfwtwicecatcher, @nsfwflint, and @ggidolsmuts in particular. If there are any similarities between my writing and theirs, please forgive me as I’ve spent more hours than I’d care to admit “researching” their work.

One thing that amazes me is how the hell everyone cranks out thousands of words with such frequency, as this post isn’t even 5k and it took forever to write. I can’t begin to explain how much respect I have for all the authors out there who can write so much and maintain such high levels of quality.

As a new writer, I welcome any and all feedback! Feel free to drop me a line if you have any critiques, or if you just want to chat!

***

“Coming up on the target now.”

“Roger that, remember the office is on the top floor. Let us know when you’re inside. And remember, no elevators...” teases your handler, Choa.

“Thanks for the reminder,” you reply sarcastically.

You survey the skyscraper against the night sky--it would be impressive if it weren’t one of a hundred just like it downtown Seoul--and wonder what you had done to deserve getting the short end of the stick. Of course, you knew there was a reason to avoid the elevators: they sat directly in front of the building’s concierge and the cameras in the lobby, while the stairwell lay in a remote part of the first floor. The logic behind your impending hike didn’t make the reality any less abhorrent.

“Meanwhile, Seolhyun gets to infiltrate an organization in the Caymans. Just my fucking luck.” you grumble to yourself.

“Oh, stop whining, you big baby,” says Choa, reminding you to keep your thoughts to yourself.

You sneak past the lobby and towards the back of the floor you find the entrance to the stairwell in a poorly lit area.

“Beginning my climb.” you report, shaking out your legs as you prepare to go up.

“Sir, I-I’m getting some interference over comms,” chimes in the timid voice of the girl you knew to be your newest team member, Yoo Jeongyeon. “It could just be local chatter, but I want to make sure it’s not someone trying to listen in.”

“Probably nothing to worry about, but we’ll let you know if there’s anything you need to worry about.” Choa assures you.

As you climb up the stairs, you wonder why anyone would want to listen in on this particular mission. This was a run-of-the-mill operation to investigate money laundering at an accounting firm. You’d infiltrated foreign governments, broken into and bugged the offices of billionaire CEOs, and tailed enemy agents. You could understand people wanting to hear those comms, but this? Either someone wanted something to listen to as a sleep aid, or this mission was more interesting than it looked.

A tip had come in through one of the new girls at the Intel Desk reporting that there was some fishy activity related to organized crime going on at the accounting firm. This was routine and you’d gone on dozens of similar recon missions before: break in, find suspicious intel, get out. But if someone wanted so badly to hear what was going on, the new girl may have stumbled onto something worthy of a promotion. Hayoung, you think her name was. Her chestnut, shoulder-length hair along with her well-endowed physique reminded you of a young mother, but her mature beauty belied her young age. You had caught yourself more than a few times fantasizing about her in your off hours…

You stop mid-way in the stairwell, scolding yourself for losing focus. Too often over the course of the last year you found yourself fantasizing about the women in your life. Sure, before the incident with Eunha you had sexual thoughts about your coworkers--you were surrounded by beautiful women, after all. But recently you noticed that your life was increasingly preoccupied with sex: both in your thoughts and the real-life exploits you carried out.

Much longer than a few minutes later, you reach the 63rd floor out of breath and sweating, wishing more than ever that it was you and not Seolhyun lounging on the beach. You take a moment to compose yourself before peeking out into the office floor to see if the coast is clear.

“We may have a problem, boss. Jeongyeon looked into the comms disturbance and someone much more sophisticated than the average joe is definitely trying to tap in,” Choa says. “Jeongyeon’s kicking their ass right now blocking their access, but there’s only so much she can do alone. Eventually we’re going to lose control of this channel.”

“Dammit. I knew something was off with this op,” you grumble. “If they want to listen in to whatever I find, it must be important. We’ll go dark. Recon says this should be a quick in and out anyways. I’ll tag you once I’m out.”

“Be careful. Signal us if anything goes wrong. Just don’t do anything stupid.” replies Choa.

“What do you think they pay me all this money for?” you tease, wanting to put her nerves at ease. “See you on the other side. Over and out.”

You could hear the concern in her voice. Even though keeping you safe was part of her job, you knew she cared about you. You also knew as well as she did that anything could go wrong even in the five minutes it would take you to break in, especially when it appeared that someone knew exactly what you were doing.

You switch off your comms link and head out the door and into the office.

It looked exactly as you expected--rows and rows of non-descript cubicles, with a princely office lined with glass walls occupying the far corner. Jeongyeon had retrieved the floor plan by hacking into the building’s security database earlier in the week, and you knew after her effort tonight in detecting and fending off the comms interference that Choa would want you to acknowledge the work the new girl had been putting in. She certainly was more skilled than the five previous team members you’d fired after Eunha, but you found it difficult to bring yourself to praise her. The Ops Officer position she occupied was a sore point for you, after all.

You deftly pick the lock on the corner office door and immediately sit down in front of the terminal on the desk, logging in with the security bypass Jeongyeon drew up.

Again your thoughts drift to Eunha. Eunha was your longtime Ops Officer--highly skilled, you trusted her more than anyone. It also helped that she was your fiance. It made you sad to think about her; about what could have been, what should have been. Over the past year, you were constantly reminded of her absence by the utter incompetence of her replacements. You suppose it was nice that at the very least, Jeongyeon didn’t give you many opportunities to bemoan her performance in the same way--to remind you of Eunha.

You shake your head, compelling yourself to rise out of your funk and get on with the mission.

As you scroll through files, you stop on one with a familiar signature. Reading its contents, your eyes open wider--suddenly you understand why someone would be interested to listen in to your communications. You quickly save the file to your flash drive and stand up to leave, only to be startled by a figure in the doorway.

“Care to tell me what’s on that?” comes a familiar voice from the darkness that you knew to be Hirai Momo’s. Momo was an agent for a foreign espionage agency--you had as friendly a rivalry as you could have when working for different governments.

“What was the point of trying to hack our comms if you were just going to show up and ask me that?”

“I had no intention of coming until you decided to ghost your girlfriends,” teases Momo. “Besides, I like showing you how much better I am at sneaking around.”

Momo flicks on the light and she comes into focus. The Japanese government made a good decision when they hired her, you think. She was built for the job of a seductive spy. Her perfectly toned legs had a lovely sheen all the way up to her short skirt, while her cleavage suggested that her tits were ready to burst out of her tight, patterned blouse. Where most of your attention was drawn, however, was her lustrous blue hair, which fell to her shoulders.

“I may actually need your help with this, once you see what’s on it,” you say, nodding your head at the flash drive.

“Oh, so you’re willing to give it to me? I thought I was going to have to fuck you for it,” she says sarcastically. You knew behind the humor was more than a nugget of truth, though. Sex had been the primary vehicle for information trading with Momo over the years. You decide to test your reading of the situation.

“Just because I need your help doesn’t mean I’m giving it for free…”

Momo brings her thumb to her mouth and bites gently as she ponders your not-so-subtle proposition. She takes her turn to look you up and down, making you feel more than a little self conscious in her gaze of judgment. After so many years in the dangerous world of espionage, there were only a handful women who could make you feel so small. Then again, Momo was no regular girl.

Once she’s satisfied she has properly appraised your worth, Momo lets go of her thumb and straightens her blouse.

“Fine,” she says matter-of-factly, “let’s get to it,” unbuttoning her blouse as she walks towards you.

You are surprised by the lack of fight she put up, but you thought it best to keep that to yourself. Her tone reminds you of a business meeting--that is, if you hadn’t seen her pull her top off as she approached you. She sits in your lap on the chair, wrapping her arms around your neck as you meet her lips for a kiss. Momo’s mouth was familiar to you, introduced to you many times throughout your career. It seemed like every time you ran across her you had sex. One thing you adored about your relationship with her was that it was absolutely without strings attached. You fucked for work, but just because it was part of the job didn’t mean you both didn’t enjoy it.

Momo, however, was loath to admit the pleasure she got out of her liaisons with you. Call it pride, call it being professional, whatever--Momo refused to act like sex with you was anything other than work, no different than working in a spreadsheet.

You feel her reach down to your pants, quickly unbuttoning them as she sinks to her knees in front of you. You smirk--her eagerness to please you betrayed her air of ambivalence.

Momo wastes no time getting down to business. You are certain the Japanese trained her very well in tender foreplay, but it seems she doesn’t care much for subtlety at the moment. Instead, she utilizes a more direct method to extract your pleasure--one that must have required its own fair share of training--as she spits on your cock before immediately forcing it as deeply in her mouth as she can take it. One, two, three bobs is all it takes for her to reach the base of your cock, her nose buried in your pelvis.

“Fuuuck me, that’s good,” you groan as you hold her head in place for several seconds, and Momo replies in turn with a cough that spits a healthy serving of saliva on to your cock. You release your grip on the back of her head to give her a chance to breathe, but she surprises you when she simply continues to work her mouth on your increasingly saliva-drenched cock, swirling her tongue around your base. Most of the other women you had slept with in recent months would be gasping for air by now, but Momo’s demeanor was cool, calm, and collected. Almost as if she was reading your mind, Momo paused her slurping and pulled her mouth off your shaft--but not forgetting to continue stroking it with achingly deft corkscrew motions.

“What’s the matter? Girls in your department not able to take care of your cock like a real woman?” Momo clicks her tongue and grins. “I’ve told you for years, you’d never be treated so poorly if you came to work for a professional outfit like ours.”

“Shut up and suck my cock.”

Momo shrugs, and gets back to the task at hand. Slobbering even more as she takes you into your mouth again, you pause to thank your lucky stars that you had a job that paid you in part to fuck women like Momo. You gaze upon her face, which has become just as messy as your cock. Momo’s sloppy blowjob has not only left liberal amounts of spit on your cock, but on her face as well--with strands of her blue hair plastered to her cheeks. Even though you thought it impossible, you feel your cock get harder at the sight of Momo’s messy face.

For several minutes, Momo continues inhaling your cock as you find yourself nearing the point of no return, you yank Momo’s head off your throbbing cock in order to prolong your session. A bit too forcefully, it seems, as Momo falls over onto her side.

“What the fuck!” yelps Momo as she picks herself back up, glaring at you. “I suck your cock and you thank me by throwing me on the ground?

“I didn’t mean to, I’m just not ready to cum yet. We both know you would’ve ignored me if I had asked you to stop.”

“I guess you’re right about that,” Momo replies sheepishly. You knew from previous run-ins with her that she loved nothing more than swallowing cum. Even though you had just denied her that favor, you were already thinking about how to make it up to her in a few minutes.

“How about I repay your kindness? Get up on the table and let me eat you.”

“Let’s skip the pleasantries. I’ll get up on the table, but you’re going to fuck me.”

“Someone’s eager to see what’s in this thumb drive,” you tease, inadvertently reminding yourself that this was a transactional liaison. You suspected that Momo’s interest in you extended beyond her desire for the information at hand, and part of you yearned to take her outside of the confines of work. You’re skeptical such a day would ever come, however, given how ambitious Momo was.

You knew her story--she applied for a job in the Japanese spy agency several years ago, making it all the way through the process before being cut at the very end. She ended up receiving an offer shortly after one of the other finalists died in a ‘training accident’, but Momo lived with a chip on her shoulder ever since. She lived and worked with a pathological drive to prove the agency wrong in their original decision to cut her. Already the youngest lead operative in her country’s history, she had an eye on the directorship and seemed destined for it. So, you supposed, it was nice to be able to fuck her before she became famous.

Momo hops on up on the desk, hiking up her skirt to reveal a delicious-looking blue thong that matches her hair. She looks behind towards you with lust heavy in her eyes as she pulls her thong to the side, revealing her glistening pussy--already dripping, you noted.

“I don’t have all night.”

More than happy to oblige, you line your painfully throbbing cock up with her pussy and you can feel the warmth radiating from it. You take a second to appreciate Momo’s incredible physique as your hands graze downward from her upper back, to her hips, and finally to her ass. As you rub it, you cannot help but appreciate how sublimely taut it is.

“Jeeze, you act like this is the first time you’ve seen a woman naked,” Momo jabs, interrupting your reverie.

You are starting to get annoyed with Momo’s demeanor. It was nothing new, really--she always carried an air of superiority--but it nonetheless grates on your nerves to see her be so dismissive. You are mature enough to understand that at least a part of this aggravation had to do with the fact that you knew Momo slept with plenty of men for work. Not so mature, however, to be able to stifle the primal urge deep inside of you that wanted Momo to see you as the best of all her lovers. More than ever, it seemed that sexual vanity mattered a great deal to your self-confidence.

With a renewed sense of purpose and your cock in hand, you enter Momo slowly with a long stroke until you fill her to the hilt. In unison with your initial insertion, Momo lets out a whine that crescendos as you bottom out.

As you begin to thrust in and out Momo settles in and widens her stance ever so little, which has the added benefit of allowing you to go even deeper into her warm, wet pussy. Momo was not a girl of surprises. Her face was gorgeous, capable of angelic beauty and fiery lust. Her body reflected the many hours she spent in the gym with ample breasts, insanely tight abs, and a toned ass to match. Her pussy feels exactly as sublime as her beautiful face and incredible body suggested. The perfect combination for a woman who used her body to seduce and take advantage of brainless men. You decide to push out your mind the realization that at this very moment, you are in fact one of those men.

You wanted to make sure Momo felt each and every drive into her hot flesh. Momo continued to moan quietly, each breath punctuated with a new thrust and the sound of your skin meeting hers.

“Looks like someone’s gotten real quiet all of a sudden,” you say, noticing her haughty attitude had subsided as pleasure took you both over.

“Oh, get over yourself,” Momo says, looking back at you with rekindled determination in her eyes, “you’re no better than half the guys I’ve been with. I’m here for the file, not for whatever you call this.” She cooly turns her head to face front again, leaving you seething.

Your twinge of annoyance was now a bubbling boil.

You slow down before withdrawing your cock from her warmth--Momo lets out the faintest whine of disappointment, betraying her dissatisfied front.

Just as Momo turns her head again to complain, you quickly slam your cock deep inside her. Momo yelps, and you notice her eyes bulge as you move your hips in a circular motion with your cock filled to the hilt, scraping deep inside her pussy. After several seconds of this you grab a makeshift ponytail out of her hair and yank backwards, causing her to gasp and arch her back instinctively. As much as she bothered you with her air of indifference, you had to admit that the image in front of you was the stuff of dreams.

Taking advantage of the highly erotic sight before you and the increased leverage offered by your grasp of her hair, you began to truly fuck her with quick and powerful strokes.

“Take it, Momo,” you grunted, beads of sweat beginning to form on your forehead.

Momo said nothing, emitting only breathless gasps from her open mouth. You noticed that their intensity was gradually increasing, so you increased the speed of your shaft penetrating her young, sinful body. You knew she was enjoying this, but you wouldn’t be satisfied until you broke her facade. You wanted her to lose herself to you.

You speed up even more, and the volume of your skin slapping together increases as her pussy drips wetter and wetter, mixing with your leaking precum. You are slamming your cock into her now, and Momo has to grab on to the table to steady herself. Slowly but surely her pretense was crumbling.

“You want it, don’t you Momo? You want more?”

“Fuck yeah,” Momo gasps hoarsely, struggling to speak with her hair being pulled, “Give it to me...o-oh...fuck, give it to me!”

Satisfied that she had succumbed to her pleasure, you relax your grip on her hair slightly and lean over to growl in her ear.

“I’ll give it to you. I’m gonna make sure you remember this, make sure every time you’re with another man you wish it was me.”

Momo acknowledges your promise with a deep groan, giving you great pleasure as you resumed fucking her gorgeous body.

Your eyes drift downward to her glorious ass, now shining with sweat and jiggling violently with each crash of your cock inside her. Inspired by the sight, you release her hair and put one hand on her hip and begin striking her ass with your other. Momo shrieks in surprise, but quickly looks back at you with lidded eyes while biting her lip to tell you she wanted more.

Again you oblige, and it was quickly becoming clear that lust and pleasure were staging a coup of Momo’s senses. She’s making lots of noise, but nothing intelligible. Nothing but guttural moans interspersed with high-pitched squeals. You continue spanking her ass, alternating cheeks--noticing a deep pink beginning to form on both. She’d most likely be dealing with soreness for several days after this, you think.

“You wanna cum, Momo? Cum for me, I know you want to.”

“Mmmmm...Ah, ah, AH! Unggghh,” comes Momo’s response.

“Come on Momo, fucking cum baby...cum all over this cock,” you shout, sincerely hoping there was no one working in an adjacent floor to hear.

“FUUUUCK!” Momo screams eloquently, suddenly dropping her head as her body begins convulsing. You knew what to expect having slept with her before, but you are nonetheless surprised to see how completely overtaken her body was by pleasure. Her upper body jerks spastically as her legs tremble with your cock plunged deep inside her pussy, all the while letting out a high-pitched whine that turns into a soft whimper. Just a few minutes before she was defiant and happy to throw insults at you...now she was a mewling, writhing mess incapable of speaking. The dark, primal part of you is satisfied by her tacit recognition of your talent.

After a short while, Momo begins to compose herself and lifts her upper body from the table. You take it as a sign to slowly resume taking your cock in and out of her. You decide to give her now glowing pink ass a rest and caress her back, tracing long lines with your nails.

“Mmmmm, that feels good,” Momo says, her eyes still closed, “you fuck me so good.”

You slowly begin ramping up the pace, rolling your hips with each stroke. You want to make sure your cock pleases every inch of Momo’s pussy, and make sure it craves you when she’s alone at night.

After several minutes of this tender, softer version of lovemaking, Momo comes back to her senses. She arches her back again and turns her head to gaze in your eyes as you continue to take her. She begins to move her ass back and forth on your cock in unison with your own strokes.

“Oh my god, you feel so good in my fucking pussy! Every...fucking...stroke!” Momo gasps, the final words punctuated by the force of her majestic ass crashing against your cock.

“You’re a bad girl, Momo,” you tease, “you like being taken and shown who’s boss, don’t you? You like me grabbing your hair and slapping your ass?”

“Yes!” she gasps, “Yes I love it! Mmmmm...I want you to fuck me until you cum. Fuck me until you cum!”

There was no command in the world easier to follow.

Satisfied that you had fulfilled your vain, immature desire to see her acknowledge your skill as a lover, you now focus yourself on extracting pleasure from the young woman beneath you. You settle into a pace with rough strokes, fiercely pounding her over and over. Your pleasure rises with each thrust, aided not only by the mindblowing caress of her pussy, but by the incredible sight of Momo on all fours before you moaning with each strike of your cock inside her.

“Fuck Momo...I don’t think I have much longer, I’m gonna fucking cum so hard!”

“Yes,” comes the response from Momo, “Yes, yes! Fucking cum baby, I want your cum so bad!”

A few more thrusts and you can feel the point of no return coming. For a brief moment you contemplate cumming inside Momo, to truly claim her. You quickly reconsider, wanting to give her what she truly wanted--to swallow your load.

And so, you quickly withdraw your cock from Momo’s now sopping wet pussy and she instinctively turns around and drops to her knees on the floor. Stroking your cock with great fervor, her mouth wide open begging for what was to come.

“Please give me your cum, please, please! I want it...I need it! Cum for me!”

Your head tilts backward as a long groan escapes your lips. Your cum explodes from your shaft, shooting long, thick ropes of semen into her mouth and onto her cheeks and nose. Over and over, your cum splashes on her beautiful face until you finally reach the end of your orgasm, panting and exhausted. Momo’s face is a pornographic picture of lust, her eyes rolled back in pleasure as she swallows the mass of cum you deposited in her mouth.

“I fucking love your cum,” Momo says as she wipes the remaining cum off her face with her finger and promptly brings it to her tongue before swallowing it down as well.

“I’m glad we were both able to get what we wanted,” you say, struggling to catch your breath.

“Speaking of getting what I wanted…” Momo says, nodding her head to the part of the floor where the USB drive now sits, evidently thrown from the table during the session that had just taken place.

“Right,” you say, suddenly remembering you’re here for work, “make a copy and let’s get out of here.”

“Great,” says Momo, still on the floor with a satisfied smile of content on her face, “Hey, I meant what I said about having you join our team. As much shit as I give you, we could really use someone with your talent.”

“Thanks, but I think I’m better off staying put. Don’t think the Korean government would let me live if I tried defecting.”

“Probably true,” says Momo as she begins picking up her clothes, “Never hurts to ask, though.”

***

A few minutes later, you and Momo had both gotten dressed and copied the file onto a drive for her. Momo disappeared into an adjoining hallway and you set off to traverse the stairwell again. As you prepare yourself for the descent, you also steel yourself for the repercussions of giving the intel to a foreign spy agency. With the information you saw in the file, you knew the Japanese would have to be looped in sooner or later. If it was going to happen eventually, you thought it made the most sense to entrust that intel to the agent on the other side you knew would make sure things got done correctly. As logical as it seemed to you, however, you knew it wouldn’t be taken well back at the office.

You click on your comms link, now knowing there’s nothing to fear.

“Hey Choa, I’m on my way back to the rendezvous.”

“Oh thank god! That took forever, I was about to call for a tac team!” Choa sighs with audible relief, “I take it you got everything you needed?”

“Got more than I needed, actually,” you say, nervous about Choa’s reaction to what you say next, “Listen, there’s one small thing you should know...”

“You did WHAT?!”

#momo #twice smut #momo smut #male reader #b/g #kpop smut #kpop fanfic #kpop fanfiction

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hamliet · 3 years

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Chemical Weddings in RWBY

So once upon a time Hamliet said she’d write a meta about ships in RWBY, and then arrived months later without Starbucks.

The central tenet of alchemy is solve et coagula: dissolve, and then coagulate. The process (RWBY appears to be following Ripley’s 12 Gates) repeats, rinses, and repeats again and again throughout the steps, “each time at a more refined level.” The point of a chemical wedding is to reconcile opposites, which is something I touched on in my pseudo-quick meta here. Lyndy Abraham, the author of A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, describes the chemical wedding as:

a crucial operation in the creation of the philosopher’s stone. The alchemists were ultimately concerned with the union of substances, the reconciliation of opposites.

Basically, it unites opposites (fire and water, air and earth, sun and moon, passive and active, etc., etc., etc.) and then the opposites start to take on each other’s qualities, creating the “Rebis,” or a person both male and female.

The first chemical wedding is usually somewhat violent, primitive even, whereas the second one signifies the creation of the stone. However, characters can have more than two weddings, and chemical weddings do not inherently have to be romantic--Sam and Frodo aren’t, for example--but most often are, because it’s the most obvious way to show a union between separate people (the old adage “two become one” in marriage, for example).

If we look at George Ripley’s 12 Gates, chemical weddings tend to be focused on in the fourth stage of conjunction (which I wrote about here) and in the ninth, fermentation (which is probably going to be in volume 10--maybe a little in volume 9, but traveling between worlds seems to be a hallmark of sublimation in fiction so I’m guessing we’re stuck there for the time being). But in a lengthy series spanning eight years and counting, there is going to be overlap.

So let’s talk about chemical wedding imagery historically. It tends to involve dissolution (via water or fire--keep in mind metal was associated with fire in olden days, so stabbing with metal was considered liquid fire, or so it was believed to be by alchemists) and then coagulation (healing/coming together).

Four of the five ships--two of whom are definitely happening, one of which I think is happening and one of which I think has a good chance--reference historical alchemical artwork and symbolism in key moments. (RWBY does reference alchemical artwork; see here and here.) So let’s dive in and examine potential chemical wedding allusions in RWBY:

Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie (Renora)

Let’s start with the most obvious couple: Ren and Nora. Their first chemical wedding occurs when they are children. In alchemical art, birds are often used to show the volatility/primitiveness of a first chemical wedding:

The raven is replicated in the Nevermore which forms a similarly threatening pose over Ren and Nora when he unlocks his semblance to protect her, thus honoring his father and mother’s legacies.

You can even see earth (trees), water (river), fire, and air (the bird flying) in the scene as it pans out. After this, Ren and Nora become “Ren and Nora,” as Nora herself says in Volume 8. They’re inseparable, because they’re on their way to becoming one. However, unification doesn’t mean that they’re literally the same person; in stories like these, it’s more like they become better versions of themselves through growing towards each other and adopting each other’s traits (like Nora’s courage for Ren, and Ren’s caution for Nora).

Their second, elevated chemical wedding is in the same place as their first, when in Volume 4 they return to the village and defeat the monster they were too young to defeat last time. This time, Nora is the one who protects Ren by telling him he could not sacrifice his life by pulling Ren back, in a reversal of his running to her in their first moment years ago.

Like the first, there’s water involved--Ren and Nora hide next to a river, watching as the Knuckelvee advances on them. I talked previously how I thought this looked like a possible allusion to this alchemical image (look at the moon symbol on the head of the aggressor):

The moon symbol actually shows up quite a bit in this scene, first when Nora and Ren discover the Nuckelvee is still alive in the cave:

And then in the moment when they defeat it:

While I am certain this is a chemical wedding, I’m not certain why the moon symbol is so prominent in this, though I do think it is possibly in reference to this image and how Nora and Ren are united now:

Yang Xiao Long/Blake Belladonna (Bumbleby)

Firstly, the alchemy image is somewhat of a creepy image, right? In this, Mercurius has united the two principles by beheading them (amputation is a Thing in alchemy), leaving them to putrefy and then coagulate.

Like the Nuckelvee for Nora and Ren, Blake and Yang have a somewhat antagonistic Mercurius who unites them: Adam Taurus. He doesn’t cut off their heads, but he does seriously injure Blake and cuts off Yang’s arm in a scene that is romantically charged (you have Blake’s possessive ex telling her he’ll target someone she loves and specifically chooses Yang).

While I have my issues with how Bumbleby is written, it’s hard to interpret that as anything other than him seeing Yang as a rival for Blake’s affection.

Their second chemical wedding also involves Adam. There’s no one direct image that seems to have inspired it, but it does take place in a place full of waterfalls (fountains and flowing water in general, like the ones in Nora and Ren’s village, are common elements of chemical weddings’ settings) and by the ocean (the “mercurial sea” is where the elements dissolve to make the Philosopher’s Stone, so it’s also a common hallmark for chemical weddings).

(To briefly address this: this is where my complaints about the writing pile in, because you can also make a damn strong case that Blake and Sun fighting on the ship to Menagerie is a chemical wedding, which it is, but I think it’s clear at this point that Bumbleby is endgame. Either both were written for a reason, like if they weren’t sure if they could do Bumbleby, or a narrative reason, in which case Black Sun should have been dealt with rather than hand-waved away, or they were just teasing, but baiting fans is never, ever good writing; it’s cheap. All that to say that while I think there’s a compelling case they were interested in pursuing Bumbleby from the start, Black Sun shippers have a right to feel tricked and not all criticism thereof is based in homophobia or a lack of narrative understanding, or even in a dislike of the ship.)

At the beginning of this scene, Adam makes it clear that this is a redo of their previous chemical wedding by reminding them of it:

Blake stabs Adam with a silver weapon; Yang with red. We have earth, air (clouds), water, and weapons as a stand-in for fire.

It’s still somewhat of a violent wedding, which makes me wonder if Bumbleby will have a third (and Renora as well). But it also parallels Renora in this: returning to a pivotal scene where they were traumatized, but this time being able to overcome it because they’ve become more like each other. Blake is in many ways Yang’s trauma stretching far beyond Beacon (Blake runs away, as does Raven, Yang’s mother who abandoned her), and likewise Yang for Blake (she’s hotheaded and holds grudges, like Adam). But Blake and Yang have been working on becoming better versions of themselves.

At the end of this scene, they even exchange quasi-wedding vows (since Blake’s promise is to not abandon Yang):

And the artists drive home the point by drawing Blake’s hair far bushier than normal (more like Yang’s), and Yang’s far tamer than normal (like Blake’s).

Jaune Arc/Weiss Schnee (White Knight)

Weiss and Jaune have had one chemical wedding thus far (possibly two but not sure) and I didn’t ship them at all until I saw this scene. Like Bumbleby and Renora, they have an antagonistic Mercurius: Cinder.

(This one I’ll be arguing a little bit about why I think it’s set up for romance as well.)

In this scene, Cinder directly compares Weiss to Pyrrha in regards to how Jaune feels about them (and we know Jaune and Pyrrha were romantic--you can also argue Cinder was an antagonistic Mercurius uniting Pyrrha and Jaune).

When Weiss screams, Cinder gets an idea and slides her gaze from Weiss to Jaune.

And then reenacts this:

As I also mentioned previously, Jaune then plays the role of the Prince to Weiss’s Snow White (which is an alchemical fairy tale). Like when Ren unlocks his aura to protect Nora, Jaune unlocks his to save Weiss. Weiss looks as if she is in a glass coffin that gets more and more golden, symbolic of refinement.

It’s also probably an allusion to this image of a chemical wedding presided over by Saturn (Mercury in this scene, since he’s there) and Death (Ruby and Qrow, who are also present in the scene with Jaune and Weiss). (For more on this image, see here.)

Weiss and Jaune also have some oppositional imagery and arcs: Weiss starts Beacon with a deep family legacy and an inherited semblance, she chooses to go to Beacon on her own and is the favored child (at first). Jaune too has a family legacy of warriors, but instead of feeling empowered because of this, he is insecure and literally cheats his way into the school. He doesn’t have a semblance until season 5. After this incident, Weiss and Jaune spend some time recreationally together (seeing a movie in vol 7); Jaune becomes more confident as a leader, and Weiss continues her arc in becoming more sympathetic to those from less privileged backgrounds.

Arguably, what happened at the end of volume 8 could be seen as having some symbolism of a chemical wedding for Weiss and Jaune too, but I don’t think it actually is one since they weren’t focused on as characters enough (if this was intended to be the start of one, we’ll get something next season, I’d imagine). The only reason I’m mentioning it is because it does function as an inverse of the previous one, which is the case for Renora and Bumbleby’s first and second weddings too. Cinder again almost kills Weiss (she falls in the exact same position as in vol 5), but Jaune saves Weiss when he screams after killing Penny. Instead of saving Weiss by healing, he kills. There’s also some distinctive red and white imagery.

And then Winter arrives with a six-pointed star and birds before telling them to run together:

But again, I wouldn’t really call this one; it just has some imagery of one and fits a pattern, so I’m including it as a potential lead-in to an actual one in the void or later.

Ruby Rose/Oscar Pine (Rosegarden)

Like with Weiss/Jaune, I’ll be arguing a little bit about why I think this one is likely to end up romantic, too (for example, Cinder most recently in volume 8 used Oscar to taunt Ruby in a callback to using Pyrrha and Weiss to taunt Jaune).

Also: oh look, finally a wedding that isn’t violent. They just... meet. Which is also normal for a chemical wedding but less dramatic.

Behold, the bird uniting the solar king and lunar queen:

(Fun fact: unless CRWBY came up with ship names which I highly, highly doubt, this is pure coincidence, but it’s a funny one: the art series this image is taken from is called Rosarium Philosophorum--which literally means “rose garden philosophy.”)

Let’s look at the scene where Ruby and Oscar meet for the first time. What makes this a chemical wedding is in part how obvious their markings are and the overall imagery is in the scene.

They are united by Qrow (who in addition to being named after a bird can literally transform into a bird):

Oscar asks about Ruby specifically (yes, I know because Qrow’s her uncle, but the writing is telling us to focus on his relationship with her):

And immediately notes/is in awe that she has silver eyes (i.e. the moon):

Qrow seems to realize he’s done something momentous in a way that almost doesn’t entirely work within the frame of the narrative (but he is drunk, so).

The scenery of this room is also telling. The table is literally an Emerald Table, the legendary foundation of alchemy itself.

Once they sit and talk, behind Oscar are the elements of earth and water, which he represents, and also the moon, which while traditionally associated with earth and water, he does not (at least not as strongly as he’s associated with the sun/gold):

Similarly, behind Ruby we have the elements of fire and air (like, if you zoom in, they actually drew air), which she is marked as, and the sun, which again, she’s not as strongly associated with as she is with the moon:

In Splendor Solis, which CRWBY has referenced before, the Solar King does eventually end up grounded in the moon, and likewise the Lunar Queen in the sun:

Oscar and Ruby also do have oppositional arcs and roles: Ruby starts the series in the very first episode by being invited to Beacon two years early because of her leaping into action to stop Torchwick. She’s scolded for her recklessness, but immediately picked out as special because of her silver eyes. In contrast, Oscar is reluctant to leave his farm once Ozpin inhabits him; he refuses at first, and then once he does leave, is nervous and timid.

Anyways I wouldn’t be surprised if Qrow arrives in Vacuo with RWBYJ in tow and this time reunites Ruby with Oscar in an inverse. We’ll see.

I do want to say that I also see potential for Emerald Sustrai/Mercury Black, in that they often act as one and share a theme song, but I haven’t seen any actual visual references to a chemical wedding for them... yet.

#rwby meta #rwby theory #rwby volume eight #rwby vol 8 #rwby volume 8 #rwby volume 9 #weiss schnee #jaune arc #ruby rose #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #lie ren #nora valkyrie #oscar pine #alchemy #rosegarden #bumbleby #renora #white knight

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xiaq · 3 years

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Chapter 5 is up!

A man who sits in the front row and to Nile’s great amusement is actually named Chad, says something about the romance of the song, and that he imagines it was written for Chopin’s lover Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin.

Joe scoffs just loudly enough that Chad notices.

“What?” Chad says, half-turning in his seat so he can see them a few rows back. “You disagree?”

“Only with the notion that Frédéric would write anything romantic for a woman,” Joe answers.

“He was engaged to a woman at one point.”

“Ah yes. Compelling evidence of heterosexuality.”

“Well,” Chad argues, “there are all kinds of books that have been written about him that don’t say anything about him being gay.”

“Mmm. I cannot imagine why that history might be lacking,” Joe says. “When to this day Frédéric’s country of birth holds the dubious honor of being titled the worst country for LGBTQ rights by ILGA Europe. I can’t imagine why Polish authors might partake in a bit of revisionist history––a revisionist history that has, indeed, been noted by well-known scholars. I can provide sources for you, if you wish.”

Chad crosses his arms. “Regardless, I’m not sure what your point is. He’s dead so you can’t prove it either way. Why damage his reputation now?”

“Ah,” Nicky says and Nile gets goosebumps. “I’m sorry, I must have misunderstood. Are you saying that being gay is damaging to a person’s character?”

Nicky opens his laptop and the movement seems dangerous.

“No,“ Chad says, “That’s not what I meant. I’m just saying you can’t prove it.”

Nicky’s fingers are staccato and loud on the laptop keys.

“Did you know,” Joe says conversationally. “That there is an extensive archive online of Frédéric’s personal letters?”

“So?” Chad says.

“So, in not one of those letters does Frédéric express romantic interest in a woman. He even states in one letter that he—”

“Here, my love,” Nicky murmurs, passing Joe the laptop.

“Thank you, habibi,” he says, accepting it. “Ah yes, here we are, he even says in one letter that he ‘used rumors of his affairs with women’ as a ‘cloak’ for his ‘hidden feelings.’” Joe raises an eyebrow at Chad. “Conversely, he often wrote passionately, romantically, even explicitly to and about male companions.” Joe slides his fingers over the trackpad. “For example, he opens nearly every letter to his lifelong friend Tytus Woyciechowski—of which there are dozens— calling Tytus ‘My Dearest Life,’ and closing the same letters with ‘Give me a kiss, dearest lover.’ Joe scrolls, “In this one he says to Tytus ‘You don’t like being kissed. Please allow me to do so today. You have to pay for the dirty dream I had about you last night.’ There are others that, I assure you, are much more risqué.”

Nile loves taking classes with Nicky and Joe. She should take all of her classes with Nicky and Joe.

“Ok, fine,” Chad says. “Whatever. But even if he was gay, it’s not even relevant. We should be talking about his music, not his personal life.”

“You seemed to think his imagined love for a woman was relevant,” Nicky says, examining his fingernails. “I’m curious why you no longer believe his affairs are relevant if they involve men.”

“Homophobia aside, of course his sexuality is relevant,” Joe says. “Hiding an intrinsic piece of yourself incontrovertibly impacts your creative work. Frédéric’s efforts to keep his proclivities from the public influenced both his mental health and his work.”

Joe sketches out a stanza in the air with one hand.

“You can hear the joy tempered by uncertainty and fear in his music: the happiness and the despair. There are these holes—these terrible absences—in his compositions. Like in the Scherzo in E major, where the surrounding of the A part is so sunny and uplifting, and in the middle, there's one of the most depressing, melancholic passages.”

He recalls his hand, dipped low from where it started, and runs his fingers through his hair.

“Imagine you could only spend stolen moments with the person you loved and then you had to return to a public facade that did not represent your true feelings or self. Then look at the music he created and tell me it’s not, potentially, representative of his lived experience.”

“He said to Tytus one day,” Nicky murmurs, reading from his laptop, “‘I confide in the piano the things that I sometimes want to say to you.’ I think, if anything, that demonstrates the influence of his personal life upon his work.”

Chad takes a breath to respond but the professor, who has been leaning against the podium, chin resting on her folded hands, interrupts. “They’re not wrong, Chad. I think it’s also worth noting that Chopin explicitly attributed the adagio in one concerto to Woyciechowski. Chopin called him an inspiration who he ‘faithfully served’ with his musical talents. It’s undeniable that his relationship with Woyciechowski, at least, impacted Chopin’s work, whatever their relationship was.”

Chad hunches down in his chair a bit as the professor clicks on to her next slide.

“Alright,” she says, “moving on.”

“So,” Nile says lowly, as they’re packing up at the end of class. “I take it you knew Chopin?”

Nicky’s ears go pink.

“He was a dear friend of Andy’s,” Joe answers. “But yes. We knew him. And Tytus.”

“Yusuf.” Nicky mutters. “Nile is making assumptions.”

Nile is definitely making assumptions.

#the old guard #the old guard fic #tog #tog fic #immortal husbands #book of nile #nicky/joe #nile/booker #andy/quynh #chopin #a personal historical soap box for your reading pleasure

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wolfstar-in-color · 3 years

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June Creator Spotlight: BigBlackDog

Hello, colorful cuties, and welcome to our first creator spotlight!!

Each month, we will highlight a different creator in our lovely fandom who features diverse characterizations. We will invite you to get to know them better through questions and answers, Fandom Discourse(tm), and a featured prompt created by our guest!!!

For our first spotlight, we are more than pleased to highlight the incredible work of bigblackdog!!! See a little snippet of this wonderful interview below, along with bigblackdog’s prompt! Look below the cut for our complete interview. Don’t forget to share and interact with this post, and if you have anyone you’d like to recommend for a spotlight, shoot us an ask! You can find our first guest’s Tumblr here.

“I've experienced ups and downs in the wolfstar fandom. It often feels like the wolfstar fandom is willing to engage in discussion about every political issue but race. And the few people who are trying to talk about race consistently encounter this silence.”

bigblackdog’s prompt: I want to see more latino characters who are not impoverished or criminalized. Give me a joyful latino/e remus!

Hello, I'm bigblackdog! I'm almost 30, and I've been active in fandom on various platforms for about seven years now. I'm latina/e and live in the u.s. with a small white dog.

Q: How did you start creating in the fandom? What did you wish to bring into the fandom?

A: Like a lot of fans I started with self insert fic as a middle schooler. Sometimes the practice of self-insert gets ragged on in fandom, as if you're not doing real character work, but I think it's really cool. And if you're an under represented identity in the traditional western canon of literature, self insert is a radical practice. Making space for yourself in a story that refuses or ignores your identities is a radical act. And that's what i want to bring to fandom-- disruption and self care.

Q: What things about s/r as characters or in their relationship inspire you to create around them?

A: Wolfstar was the first queer ship I was introduced to. I wasn't someone who arrived in fandom with my own robust queer reading skills, I needed other queers to hold my hand and introduce me to queer ships and how to find them and build them. My interest in r/s was simply a clinging to queerness I wasn't finding in other places. I really think it could have been any characters, as long as they were queer.

Q: What things would you like to highlight about the Wolfstar fandom and your experience in it?

A: I've experienced ups and downs in the wolfstar fandom. It often feels like the wolfstar fandom is willing to engage in discussion about every political issue but race. And the few people who are trying to talk about race consistently encounter this silence. It's hard not to feel bitter. But i've also met some amazing people and overall feel that fans really are trying their best to be welcoming and inclusive.

Q: What type of content do you wish you saw more in the fandom?

A: I want to see more discourse that aims at amplifying underrepresented voices like wolfstar-in-color. I want to see more fans of color joyfully and irreverently writing themselves into the magical world!

Q: What is your favourite wolfstar fancontent (fic/fanart/gifset/etc) and how does it inspire you?

A: I love dontthinkonithermione's rp. Not only does she do an amazing nerdy know it all Hermione, she envisions Black characters in every corner of the hp world. Have you seen her Hogwarts p.e. professor rps? i love the space she creates for herself, and the joy she does it with.

Q: Which of your own identities inform your creative processes? How has that process been for you?

A: I started out in fandom really trying to feel out the nooks and crannies of being queer. As i've spent more time in fandom and become more confident in my queerness I've started looking closer at some of my other identities-- Latina, mixed, adhd-- and how i can squeeze them into the hp world. For a long time it was hard, especially with being Latine and mixed, to envision how that identity could belong in a 90s British boarding school in the Scottish wilderness. I also really struggled with the feeling that i would get "diversity" wrong. I’ve also struggled with feeling like I have to write diversity because i'm an underrepresented voice. Brown people are often pressured to do the work of educating white people about racism and in fandom spaces that often means pressure to write the reality of racism instead of the fantasy that white writers get to play with. And sometimes i just want to write a pwp without worrying about the revolution, you know? But i really love fandom for its refusal to play by the rules of capitalism and canon, eventually i started to feel like putting more of myself into my writing was another rule i could break.

Q: What advice do you have for other content creators with diverse backgrounds in the fandom? What would you say to people that might feel they don’t have the “right” history/experience/characteristics to participate in the creation of content related to Wolfstar?

First, there's a lot of content on tumblr that aims to silence your voice, learn how to recognize the difference between cancel culture and encouragement. Sometimes content that seems well meaning still presents writing diversity as a list of black and white rules (and virtue signaling) instead of encouragement for underrepresented voices to share their own messy experience. Set those rules gently aside. Second, fandom is built on the idea that the author isn't the only person who gets to play. we all get to play. It doesn't always feel like we were invited, but the great thing about fandom is there is no barrier to entry, no prior experience or publishing hoops to jump through. This is our playground too. If canon is dead then why can't our stories be brown and queer and neurodivergent? Third, find your people. i've found that having just one other person to talk about race with has made the whole space feel more welcoming.

Q: How could we build a more diverse fandom?

A: We have to stop prioritizing white and cis male voices. We recognize that policing irl is a problem inextricable from whiteness and maleness, but we don't see that fandom policing online is also a problem deeply embedded in whiteness and maleness. White and cis male people frequently use their discomfort with difficult topics to change the subject from a critical discussion to one that prioritizes their white and/or male feelings. The same thing happens online when personal discomfort is used to cancel or undermine content that's challenging to a white or male voice. White and cis male voices are used to having their needs met above others. And we still cater to that in fandom spaces when we privilege 'fetishization' discourse over racial discourse. When we lift up bipoc and women/trans/nb voices and the issues they're concerned with we'll make fandom a more welcoming place for underrepresented voices.

Q: What’s your favourite thing to modify in Sirius’s or Remus’s characterizations to bring new perspectives to them?

A: It really depends on the story i'm writing and what issue i'm trying to figure out. Sometimes i need Sirius to be Adhd to come to terms with my brain, sometimes i need two brown boys to fall in love and be happy against all odds.

Q: What does diversity mean to you? What does that encompass in fannish spaces?

A: This is a hard question! I tend to think of diversity as those voices that are disenfranchised or pushed to the margins. And fannish spaces have all the same hierarchies and blind spots as other spaces. In fannish spaces there's the idea that you can curate your experience to some extent, but for marginalized voices, at least in my experience, no matter how much you curate the marginalization is still there.

Q: What are your ideas about the notions of culture and ethnicity? How do you relate to those notions?

A: There was a time in my life where relating to my ethnicity was largely a process of recognizing larger systems of oppression and how they worked against my various identities. And for a while it was a really helpful way to frame my experiences. Now I feel a little less attached to ethnicity as like, a monolithic concept threaded through my whole life and more attached to the small things that I enjoy about my ethnicity and culture-- making a really good pot of beans, for example.

Q: Leave us with a quote or work of art that always inspires you.

A: "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." Audre Lorde

#creator spotlight #bigblackdog #bigblackdogfic #wolfstar #fandom #diversity

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jonsa101 · 3 years

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Max Goodwin and Randall Pearson: The Well-Meaning, Incredibly Self-Centered Leading Men We’ve Grown to Love.

Hey fam! Like I said, I’ve been writing a ton of meta lately and this is another one that’s just been sitting in my drafts. It’s basically a This Is Us and a New Amsterdam meta which is something I haven’t done before but something I want do more of. In my Game of Thrones days I used to write a lot of meta about shows and characters that had similarities so this is fun for me. I hope y’all enjoy this. ALSO THIS HAS SPOILERS FOR BOTH SHOWS!!!!!!!

Without a doubt the two most popular shows on NBC is This is Us and New Amsterdam. And what’s not to love? They’re both emotionally driven, heartfelt, shows that focus on incredibly deep and complex topics. Though one show focuses on family dynamics and the other focuses on the healthcare system, these shows are very similar in more ways than one. Case in point, Max Goodwin and Randall Pearson. The more I watch these two shows, the more I realize how these two characters are so alike!!! These two men are kind-hearted, well intentioned, individuals who genuinely want to make some sort of positive difference. They are incredibly ambitious and always have “bright ideas” and “goals” they want to accomplish and somehow they’re able to meet those goals without ever having to sacrifice their wants and needs. By every definition these men are the “main characters” or the ultimate “protagonists.” These are the folks that we are supposed to root for. At the same time, though these men have many traits to be admired, when you truly look at it both of them can be incredibly self centered and selfish especially when it pertains to their romantic partners and love interests. No matter how appealing you make these characters out to be these men clearly fall under the Behind Every Great Man trope.

The Behind Every Great Man trope has been used countless of times throughout Cinema and TV History that I’m sure that I don’t even have to explain it to you but for the sake of this meta this is how it’s defined.

“Behind Every Great Man...stands an even greater woman! Or in about a hundred variations is a Stock Phrase referring to how people rarely achieve greatness without support structures that go generally unappreciated, and said support structure is a traditionally female role via being the wife, mother, or sometimes another relation. This trope is specifically about a man who is credited with something important, but owes much of his success to the woman in his life.”

This trope usually has a negative connotation (and rightfully so) because the man who often benefits from this is an asshole and unworthy of this type of support!

For example:

Oliva and Fitz

Cristina Yang and Burke

Cookie and Lucious

Ghost and Tasha

There are countless others but these are a few of the couples that come to mind for me. Randall and Max aren’t comparable to any of these men that are listed above but they are still operating under the same trope. It just looks nicer because Max and Randall are inherently good and inspirational. They are the heroes of the story. I would even argue and say that both men fall under the Chronic Hero Syndrome trope which is defined as

“Chronic Hero Syndrome is an "affliction" of cleaner heroes where for them, every wrong within earshot must be righted, and everyone in need must be helped, preferably by Our Hero themself. While certainly admirable, this may have a few negative side-effects on the hero and those around them. Such heroes could wear themselves out in their attempts to help everyone or become distraught and blame themselves for the one time that they're unable to save the day. Spending so much time and effort saving everyone else can also put a strain on the hero's personal or dating life.”

Just because Max and Randall have these incredibly inspiring aspirations, is it fair that their wives and love interests are always expected to rise to the occasion and support them. Is it ok for their partners to continuously sacrifice their wants and needs because they love these men?

Let’s dive into it.

Truth be told, Beth Pearson, Helen Sharpe and Georgia Goodwin had to endure a GREAT DEAL to emotionally support the dreams and aspirations of these men while sacrificing so much of themselves in the process. In media we often see women sacrificing so much of their wants and needs out of love for these male leads and rarely do men do the same thing for their romantic partners and love interests. All three of these women clearly fall under the Act of True Love trope defined as

“The Act of True Love proves beyond doubt that you are ready to put your loved one's interests before your own, that you are truly loyal and devoted to them. Usually this involves a sacrifice on your part, at the very least a considerable effort and/or a great risk. The action must be motivated, not by morals or principle or expectation of future reward, but by sheer personal affection.When your beloved is in dire need of your help, or in great danger, and you do something, at great expense to yourself, for the sake of their safety, their welfare, or their happiness, thus proving beyond any doubt that you put their interest ahead of yours.”

Over the past few seasons we have seen all three of these women truly live up to this trope without any true consequences or accountability from the men they’re making all these sacrifices for. For example, in Beth and Randall’s marriage, how many times did Randall spring an idea on Beth without truly talking to her or considering her wants first? Everyone thinks these two are an ideal couple but she has endured A LOT for Randall.

Randall has spontaneously quit his job, moved his dying biological dad into their home, bought his biological dad’s old apartment building, fostered and adopted a child and also ran for city councilman outside of his district. In all of these decisions, Randall “consulted” Beth about it but at the same time didn’t really consult her. In a way there has always been this expectation of Beth to just go along for the ride with what Randall wants. Is anyone else exhausted from reading that list?! That’s a lot for partner to endure and lovingly support. But Beth has endured and has been Randall’s rock through it all!!! What worries me is that the one time Beth spoke out about her wants and needs of pursuing dance again, he couldn’t match the same energy she was giving him and eventually it led to world war three between them. Though things are looking up in their relationship and he’s starting to support her more, has Randall nearly given to Beth as much as she’s given to him? Absolutely not!

Similar to Randall, Max also had a wife who was a dancer. in fact, she was a prima ballerina. Unlike Randall and Beth, Max relationship with Georgia was rocky from the start. When we were first introduced to them Max and Georgia were separated and rightfully so. Georgia was never Max’s first priority. The hospital always came first in their relationship. He couldn’t even dedicate a full night to her for their proposal. In order to “save” their marriage they decide to have a baby and they both committed to taking a step back in their careers in order to do so. The problem was Max didn’t keep his side of their commitment and took a job to become the medical director at the biggest public hospital in the U.S. She gave up her career to start a family and he totally and completely betrayed her trust. So throughout season one we see them trying to rebuild their marriage but even in the midst of trying to rebuild a marriage based on trust and mutual respect Max still keeps things from Georgia. For several episodes he didn’t tell her that he had advance stages of throat cancer. He only told her when Georgia asked him to move back home. That’s fucked up! Then throughout their pregnancy he was never fully there for Georgia because he was either to preoccupied with the hospital or himself. At the end of it all, Georgia died tragically at the beginning of season two and really had nothing to show for it in her relationship with Max other than her daughter Luna.

Now let’s bring Helen Sharpe into the fold. While all of this stuff was going on with Max and his wife in season one, Max was developing a deep friendship, borderline emotional affair with Helen. Their relationship started out with Helen being his oncologist. As the new Medical Director of New Amsterdam, he swore Helen to secrecy about his diagnosis so that he could still run the hospital. Through that secrecy they eventually formed a deep bond but as his cancer got worse his secret was let out of the bag. He realistically needed someone to step up and run the hospital when he was going through chemo and though Helen already had commitments she stepped up and became his deputy medical director. Somewhere along the lines Max and Helen started developing feelings for each other. As Helen becomes aware of those feelings, she made a choice and decides to remove herself as Max’s doctor. He BITCHES about it but eventually accepts the boundary she’s clearly trying to set. Mind you, as this is unfolding, like Max, Helen is also in a new relationship with her boyfriend Panthaki. As Max’s cancer seems to be getting worse with his new doctor, she goes back on her boundary and decides to be his doctor again. This pisses her boyfriend off because he could already peep the vibe between them and he breaks up with her. When we get into season two, Max’s wife died and Helen set him up in a clinical trail (with a doctor she previously fired) that’s helping his cancer. Unbeknownst to Max, this doctor ends up holding his life saving treatment plan over Helen’s head and in order for his treatment to continue she gives this doctor half of her department!

Helen has sacrificed a lot for Max and now in season three she’s finally prioritizing her current wants and needs first! Like Randall, Max is starting to turn a page and is starting to support Helen and truly listen to the wants and needs that she has. All of this is good but my question is did any of these women have to sacrifice so much for the men in their lives to get a clue?

Why is it that this is a trope we see in media time and time and time again? Even if these men are good, why don’t we still keep these male characters accountable when they put their significant others in these situations that are clearly not fair? I’ve watched countless tv shows and I’ve seen a lot of tv couples but I think I have only come across one couple where the male counterpart has selflessly loved his significant other and has always put her needs above his own.

That character my friend is none other than PACEY WITTER

I might be mistaken but I think Joey and Pacey are the most popular ship in tv history and honestly, rightfully so! This is only example I can think of where the male in the relationship so willingly puts the wants and needs of his partner first. It is a completely selfless and sacrificial love. He never wants to hold her back and he never asks her to compromise her wants or needs for him. That’s why I think so many women love Pacey because in a sea of TV relationships, Pacey Witter is a fucking unicorn.

So to wrap this up does this mean that I hate Randall Pearson or Max Goodwin? No! I adore them. I love both of their characters so much. I just think that when we see the media continuously play out the sacrificial wife/love interest for the sake of their male counterparts, it should be called out. I’m all about sacrificial and selfless love but it should come from both sides.❤️❤️❤️

Anyway I hope y’all enjoy this! As always my DMs are opening here or on Twitter @oyindaodewale

#new amsterdam #sharpwin #This Is US #max goodwin #helen sharpe #randall pearson #beth pearson #georgia goodwin #pacey witter #joey x pacey #new amsterdam meta

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multimetaverse · 3 years

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HSMTMTS 2x08 Review

Most Likely To was the best ep of S2 so far and ended one ship while launching another. Let’s dig in!

Gaston was super fun, a very nice showcase for both Larry and Matt. This is the kind of energy that early S2 was lacking. Also feels like the first ep where East High might actually have a shot at beating North High. Covid restrictions played a role but we really needed to see more rehearsal scenes and scenes of the wildcats just being theatre kids. This also may be one of the last times we see EJ perform as a student in the musical so I’m glad we got this.

EJ has been criminally underused for most of S2, he’s marketed as part of the big 4 along with Nini, Ricky, and Gina and Matt Cornett’s name is listed 3rd in the credits but in the early eps of S2 you’d think he was guest star. Lately he’s started to become more important and tonight was an excellent showcase of why he’s such an interesting character. I’m not gonna check but this feels like it’s the most EJ screen time in a single ep that we’ve gotten all season long.

Of course, the main reason for EJ’s increased screen time is because of Portwell. I’ve been neutral on them but tonight they really won me over’ their scenes were so sweet that they warmed even my cold black heart. Matt and Sofia are good friends irl and that shines through in their easy rapport and great chemistry. Gina snorting at EJ’s joke was cute and I loved the shot of Gina accidentally walking into the shot for EJ’s confessional. As an aside, they’ve been doing some fun stuff with the confessionals lately which helps add a bit of the metaness that helped make S1 so great.

The real big Portwell scene tonight was EJ and Gina talking on the couch at Ashlyn’s. Lot’s to love there. Gina’s speech to EJ about what she sees when she thinks of him was sweet and her saying that EJ tried to do the right thing and often failed but kept trying echoes what she said of herself during her confession to Ricky. Also when EJ asked Gina if she understood the feeling of having her life mapped out she replied, ‘’not really’’ which is almost certainly the inspiration for Gina asking a question to EJ and him responding ‘’not really’’ in their pre S2 face time call on the hsmtmts instagram.

EJ is still wracked with guilt for the guy he used to be but Gina reminds him that he’s grown and is a good guy which leads to her slip up about her seeing him that way vs the rest of the gang hinting that she’s beginning to catch feelings for EJ. Which leads to EJ complimenting her and them having a moment that could well have led to a kiss if Ashlyn hadn’t come home. And they cap it off with Gina falling asleep and EJ covering her with his Duke sweater.

It’s been nice not seeing Gina upset over Ricky these past two eps and it’s a damning indictment of the poor writing and pacing of S2 that her story in the first 6 eps can be summed up as Gina being upset over something Ricky said or did. Not only has Portwell allowed EJ to rise in prominence but also it’s allowed Gina to escape the rut her character was stuck in pining for Ricky.

I hope after S2 is over that we get an interview where Tim explains how the Portwell plot came to be. The S1 finale set up some possible interest between them as did the pre S2 face time call but nothing came of it during the first 4 eps, they stood next to each other a lot but barely interacted otherwise. Notably in 2x01, which Tim himself wrote, EJ tries to grow a beard and tells Ashlyn that he says her as so young which is extremely jarring now that we know that EJ is crushing on Gina who is Ashlyn’s age.

Was Tim not set on doing Portwell until he realized he needed to give Gina something else to do other than hopelessly pine for Ricky? Narratively, it made sense after Rini got together in S1 to put the other two Big 4 characters together in S2 but did Tim not want it to seem so obvious to the audience so he deliberately kept Portwell apart until 2x05 where EJ’s feelings make for a nice plot twist? Was he just reluctant to plug EJ back into the love square due to how much more complicated it would make things but later felt he had no other options? Or was it just plain old bad pacing and writing?

Of course, I wish that there wasn’t such a large age gap between Sofia and Matt but there are no Gina ships that avoid that problem, there’s also an age gap between Sofia and Joshua, just as there was between Olivia and Joshua and Matt in S1. Depending on when they film S3 there’s a good chance that most of it will be finished before Sofia even turns 18 which is deeply unfortunate. There’s a broader issue of teen girls being cast in mostly age appropriate roles while their male love interests are older adults and in particular it often affects female characters of colour. Netflix has a really bad track record with those kind of age gaps but Disney has problems too as we’ve seen on HSMTMTS and on GMW where by the end of S3 they had 18 year old Peyton Meyer as the boyfriend of 14 year old Rowan Blanchard’s character (not to mention canon Joshaya which didn’t have such a bad age gap between the actors but was problematic regarding the ages of the characters themselves).

A knock I’ve seen on Portwell is that EJ is just gonna leave for university next year but that was never gonna happen, Matt’s under the same 4 season contract as all the other mains and he’ll be sticking around in some capacity much like Sharpay ended up doing in the movies. It is true that EJ will probably have to move on at the end of S4 while Gina still has her senior year left but that will also happen with her and Ricky since he’ll be graduating at the end of S4. It was a big mistake to make EJ a senior but it also may end up being a big mistake to make Gina a sophomore. It would have been too messy to retcon EJ to be a junior but Tim probably should have taken the chance to retcon Gina into being a junior in S2.

That Rini breakup was so sad (missed opportunity for gotta go my own way). They managed to get in a Troyella reference with the treehouse. This was inevitable they just have not been communicating well though now that we know that Ricky thought Nini left YAC for him some of his desperation to spend as much time together as possible makes more sense. I think Rini is endgame if the series has 4 seasons but it wouldn't shock me if we never seem them dating again and they only get back together in the series finale. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Nini never dates anyone else for the remainder of the series or at least not seriously.

We’re not even halfway through the series so it’s way too early to permanently slam the door on Rini though this time apart will probably help Joshua and Olivia move on from their own bitter break up before it bleeds too much into their performances. I do wonder if Tim really has a clue what he's gonna do with them for the remaining 24-28 eps of the series, assuming S3 and S4 have 10-12 eps each.

Roman Banks killed If I Can’t Love Her and the montage of all the couples or ex couples was great.

It was nice to finally meets some parents other than the Bowen’s and Salazar-Roberts’. Kourtney’s mom was played by Dara’s actual mother and their dynamic was great as expected. It seems from their conversation that Kourtney's father is dead which I don’t believe has been mentioned before. Cash Caswell.... well it gets what the character is about across. He really looks and sounds like a rich Utah republican, I bet he knows Mitt Romney personally. I liked EJ going to tell his father that he’s not going to Duke and recognizing that he wants to build his own life on his own merits.

We saw a bit of that S1 Miss Jenn energy tonight which was fun though I didn't like how curt she was with Seb nor did I like how rude Carlos was to Seb although we know that blows up in 2x10.

Jazzara rising! I really liked how Jazzara and Portwell are sort of mirroring each other and since Mazzara knows about EJ’s feelings for Gina it wouldn’t shock me if helping EJ out is part of him showing a softer side in 2x12.

Of course Ashlyn is VP of the Nostradamus society. It's clear her family has some kooky new age beliefs (her parents are probably members of some naturopathic medicine group on Facebook that doubles as a gateway into Qanon)

It was nice to see Big Red being such a good friend to Ricky and the return of Ricky’s infamous pillow hugs. Lmao at Ashlyn just chilling while Big Red is comforting Ricky

Also Miss Jenn saying sexy and Big Red referring to pillow talk, the writers are adding a bit of spice when cooking up these scripts.

Looking Ahead:

Looks like Gina may be wearing EJ's duke sweater next ep according to some posts I saw. Jack presumably is there to somehow help Gina decide what she wants with Ricky and EJ though him having wanderlust might also feed into Gina’s thoughts on settling down in SLC or moving with her mom around the country.

Let's see what mom of the year, Lynne Bowen, has up her sleeves. Ricky’s bedroom at her place in Chicago looks much nicer than the apartment Mike Bowen has so perhaps she makes a lot more money than he does.

Not looking forward to the Zoom portions of the ep but I guess it was inevitable.

There’s only two paths for Gina’s story to go in the remainder of this season; either she decides to move on from Ricky and give EJ a chance or she decides that Ricky is worth trying again and squelches her budding feelings for EJ. The former looks much more likely after tonight’s ep but either way it needs to be handled with care. Inevitably Gina and Ricky need to talk about what happened between them but if Tim really wants Ricky to continue being a viable love interest or even a good friend to Gina then he needs to really have Ricky apologize and show a thoughtful, kinder side of him that’s largely been missing this season.

What I think Tim is doing is setting up Portwell getting together in 2x12 but Ricky pining over Gina until Portwell break up late S3 and Rina get together in the S3 finale before they break up later in S4 and Ricky gets back with Nini near the end of the series. If I had Tim’s ear I would tell him that he should pick which ship he wants to do, Rina or Portwell, but don’t do both. He wants canon Rina? Great then end Portwell before it starts and have Rina happen in S3 and introduce other obstacles to them getting together rather than having to damage EJ’s character and make him lose another girl he likes to Ricky. He wants canon Portwell? Great then have Gina and Ricky’s conversation be closure for the both of them and have Gina and EJ get together and break them up without Ricky being a cause of it or waiting in the wings to get with Gina soon afterwards. Doing both will be a disaster and I truly hope that Tim Federle carefully thinks over his mistakes in S2 and really plans out the remaining 2 seasons of the series while there’s still time to prevent things from going really off the rails like GMW and AM did thanks to the bad decisions of Michael Jacobs and Terri Minsky.

Until next week wildcats.

#HSMTMTS #Portwell #Rini #Gina Porter #EJ Caswell #Ricky Bowen #Nini Salazar-Roberts #Kourtney Greene #HSMTMTS Reviews

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