#The Exiles Ever After

[exileseverafter]

The Author of Exiles Rereads All Of Exiles Published So Far

That's right, I did it. In preparation for Book 4, I started rereading something I started writing...like...ten years ago or something. And you know what? It's pretty good! Turns out I like my stuff!

Behind the cut are a lot of rambling thoughts on each book, along with anything I might have done differently. Mild spoilers, but mostly just authorial navel-gazing.

Book One thoughts: Hey, did you know that if you're making any kind of longform work you should consider taking notes on things like character hair/eye color and background details? And also, it's good to have a beta reader? Because I don't know if I had either at the time of book one! And there are sooo many little continuity errors I noticed! They aren't things you're likely to catch unless you're looking for them, but it makes me think I want to go back at some point and not rewrite book one entirely, but just edit it a little. Fix some errors. It's still solid, and I'm pretty sure me being the author is the only reason it kind of felt like that "Spot the Errors" episode of Garfield and Friends. (Side note: If you can find it on the web, please watch the Garfield and Friends episode "Mistakes Will Happen." It's one of the funniest things ever, with far too many jokes to catch in one viewing for something that predates the internet.)

Also, it turns out that if you try to read something by downloading it in PDF form off of AO3 and putting it on your phone via Kindle, it does unholy things to the formatting. So I do not recommend reading Exiles (or anything else) like that.

Errors aside, god, this was nostalgic. One reason I started this reread was to get back into the heads of the characters, and it all started coming back to me right away. I can go oh, there's where I figured out how this would end. That's when this first comes up. Neat! Also there are some genuine accidental foreshadowing bits that lead into book three, of all things.

Book Two thoughts: Wow, this is long. It's easily the longest of the three, and I'm not sure how well the pacing holds up in retrospect. I was very much writing as a "weekly serial" rather than a novel at this point, and it shows for better or worse. There are chapters where I can tell I was just trying to get something up. Did you know if you write something with regular updates, it's a good idea to have a backlog instead of just writing week to week?

That said, this is where I started to shake off the constraints of "everything must be rooted in some preexisting fairy tale" and I think that's for the best. I started pulling inspiration from 50s pulp sci fi, Little Shop of Horrors, what people in the 90s thought VR was going to be like, and buddy cop flicks. I was figuring out my gender at the time I introduced Rem Tera, and wanted a nonbinary character whose issues were not centered around what were Nonbinary Character Tropes at the time, i.e. 'figuring out nonbinary was a thing, explaining it to others, which bathroom to use, etc.'

I also like playing with scale in unusual ways, and one thing I wanted to lean into was how to create a threatening antagonist who was a few inches tall in a world where people came in giant size. It turns out the answer is 'give him some big monsters to command and scary levels of manipulative charisma.' Lord Germain, you are the worst but I am so proud of you.

Note: I think there may be a chapter missing from the original Jukepop posting. I'll try to go through and fix it soon.

Still also very happy with the final arc, even if the story does a bit of narrative water treading to get there. This book has the most 'quiet time' with the characters, and I think in the long run it helped me flesh out the relationships established in book one and the new ones forming in book two. Especially since book three is pretty story-heavy. Speaking of! Book Three thoughts: Wow, this is like post-timeskip One Piece where one thing just leads right into another. It's unsurprising, since a lot of the plot threads laid in books one and two really activate here. Libra and Valerian have a been a presence from the beginning and Blue was hinted at as far as the Moonflower Market. So yes, I was sitting on those for a while and happy to set them off here.

No Reflection is probably the most difficult original fic work I've written so far. To give you an example, I started it too soon after finishing Of Rot and Bloom and was stalled out for years afterwards. The good news is that like any creative project that isn't made of expiring materials, you can pick a story up at any time. One day I finally decided to ditch the chapter I was stuck on, write something else and start the ball rolling again.

And it worked! I finished it. More or less. There's something of a Nona the Ninth/Alecto the Ninth "book 3 and 4 are part of a piece" feeling to the end of Book Three, but I do try to end on at least a climactic element. There are just a lot more cliffhangers this time around.

Man, I'm mean to Basil in this book and this isn't even his book! Poor guy is gonna have it rough in Book Four.

ALSO, there are at least two missing chapters, and they're important ones that reveal major plot elements. In fact, one is right in the climax. I need to fix that ASAP. Presumably AO3 lets you insert chapters? I'll figure out how.

So, what does this mean for Book Four? It means it's definitely happening, though I don't want to say it's happening immediately. Maybe after the New Year. I have some chapters prewritten for Book Four I want to revise, and this time I'm making sure I have a healthy backlog and a plot outline worked out.

For everyone who's read any part of Exiles, thanks so much for supporting me thus far! I really appreciate it. Wouldn't be able to keep up this much enthusiasm without you. And if you're thinking of writing (or drawing, or animating) your own original thing, my advice is just to do it! Just jump in. Yeah, it won't be perfect, but you'll learn by doing, and an imperfect story that exists is always better than the idealized one trapped in your head.

[ainosgarden]

was it real? was any of it real?

[artaintfartwarriors]

Yellow mama!

[attonposting]

Okay, so canonically the Jedi Exile fucks off to the Unknown Regions to go find Revan and leaves their half-dozen adult padawans to spend the rest of their lives wondering when Master's gonna come home with the milk. And in the cut content, Atton squeezes himself along for the Exile's next misadventure, and they go off to have KotOR III instead of some novel we don't talk about.

But in my headcanon, he turns that ship around to Alderaan and forces the Exile to take a vacation for one kriffing moment in the overstuffed responsibility conga line that is their life, and it's peaceful and awkward and maybe a little disastrous at times and romantic if that's your flavor because it's definitely mine, and Drew Karpyshyn can pry that from the rigor mortis of my death-grip fangirl fingers.

Sure, Revan's still on the todo list, but the galaxy's greatest problem causer can wait until the Exile's had their horribly overdue mental health month.

[gendrie]

i still think its insane that im expected to believe that grrm gives arya this arc that consistently features her fearing she has no place within her family or society bc of her nonconformity and bc of what she has done to survive only for her story to end with................her deciding she has no place within her family or society bc of her nonconformity and bc of what she has done to survive......so after an entire storyline of running she ends up in a perpetual runaway state, leaving forever 

and if i do not embrace that as a satisfactory conclusion for arya’s story then im the “bad fan” lol

[fauvester]

Lim wondering if this is how yadek felt in the obsidian order when disposing of the regnars before refusing to draw any parallels between himself and garak for another decade

WAKHDJKDHFKJH years later lim confessing to julian about his crime and resulting dIsplay of adolescent psychopathology and julians like. That's so funny, that's EXACTLY what garak said about all the assassinations. And lim Realizes

[supernovaa-remnant]

Cmadduo early lmanburg era, secret meetup for politic reasons (cuddling)

at first they decide to meet every week for political reasons in private because otherwise everyone else would turn the meeting into chaos (usually tommy and sapnap would start the arguing then everything would go down hill). but during one of those meetings both of them realize they haven't had lunch so they make pizza together. at first they're sharing banter and making half joking half genuine jabs at each other. then they get in a fight with the flour. then they start laughing.

after that they begin to actually do things together whilst doing these meetings so that they'd have something to do whilst discussing whether or not L'manburg is an independent country or not.

but one day, after wilbur had to clean up a potion mishap that tommy and tubbo caused, and after dream had to grind for more weapons after a fight between sapnap & george led to said weapons being thrown into the bottom of a lava lake, both dream & wilbur show up to their scheduled meeting exhausted.

they agree to just sit and talk, but at some point they move to a bed that wilbur hastily crafts because it's more comfortable. it ends with them just laying next to each other barely even talking about politics anymore and instead discussing their days. they find that they like cuddling, so they start to cuddle during their political meetings.

it's relaxing. it's cozy. they like playing with each other's hair and listening to each other's heartbeats after a stressful day (but, of course, it's still for political reasons). they still have their private meetings every week, but sometimes they sneak off to have a secret meeting which is definitely for top secret peace discussions and not because they want cuddles.

(and if wilbur makes changes to their declaration of independence, and if dream puts the declaration of war on the back burner, and if it ends with peace and unity on the server, then, well, that was definitely their plan all along. not just a side affect of them wanting cuddles. definitely not).

[thedeadthree]

𝖞𝖔𝖚 𝖆𝖗𝖊 𝖑𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖑𝖞 𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖒𝖆𝖉𝖓𝖊𝖘𝖘 — THE ANGUISH OF ATALANTEA AND THE SACRIFICE OF SAERA. THE CAUTIONARY TALES OF HOUSE ANDORAL. [ TEMPLATE BY @unholymilf ♡]

[daughter-of-winterfell]

Alicent and ‘The White Princess’

I really feel that people who are so aggressively against Alicent Hightower’s actions in House of the Dragon should watch The White Princess, as it demonstrates exactly what her sons’ fates would be if Rhaenyra inherited the throne.

The White Princess begins with the marriage of Elizabeth of York to Henry Tudor, and covers the early years of his reign after winning the War of the Roses. Much of the show is about the many Yorkist rebellions Henry faced, as the remaining York loyalists sought to place a York once again on the throne.

One subplot in The White Princess is about Edward Plantagenet, the Earl of Warwick, who had a claim to the throne and was potentially seen at one point as a successor to Richard III. Very soon after Henry takes the throne, Edward - referred to as Teddy - is imprisoned in the Tower. Despite his sister’s constant pleas for his freedom, he remains there for over a decade until he is implicated in a plot to escape and is exceuted.

The main conflict is about Perkin Warbeck, who claims to be Prince Richard, one of the Princes murdered in the tower. In the show, he is confirmed to be Prince Richard - making him a legitimate York heir as the son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville - and he gains the support of much of Europe, raises an army, and invades England. The plot of The White Princess goes on, and ultimately he is imprisoned alongside Teddy and excecuted as well.

Both Teddy and Perkin Warbeck were seen as threats to Henry Tudor’s reign because they were York heirs with strong claims to the throne. Factions were constantly mobilising in support of their respective claims and fighting the Tudors in their name. And so they were eliminated to secure Henry’s reign.

The politics of Westeros does not directly correlate with the politics of Tudor England, but still, if Rhaenrya inherited the throne, Alicent’s sons would face the same fates as these York heirs - either longterm imprisonment or exceution.

As Aegon and Aemond are both the trueborn sons of the last king, it seems even more likely that they would share the dire fates of Teddy and Perkin.

In the final episode, Elizabeth of York encourages Henry Tudor to pretend to kill Perkin Warbeck to remove him as a threat to their rule (although, for plot reasons, the real Perkin does also get excecuted). And she says to Henry:

If you applied this to Rhaenyra it would be: The only way I can protect my sons [and my crown] is by telling the world I killed [Aegon and Aemond].*

This is what Alicent is protecting her sons against. This is one of the reasons her anger and fear is completely justified.

*Helaena may be safe, as Viserys didn’t alter the rules of succession for Westeros, so she wouldn’t really pose a threat to Rhaenyra or her children inheriting the throne. Though any sons she had would be in danger... 

This is all explained far better by @hellsbellschime​ in their post How Alicent Hightower Was Forced Into War; this just illustrates how it likely would play out just as it did for the York claimants in The White Princess.

+ Also, I sympathise with Alicent’s actions because of what Elizabeth of York says in the same scene, about the right to rule:

(And by ‘given’, she means the right to rule being given by God)

Why shouldn’t Alicent work to take the right to rule for her children, when their lives are at stake?

[exileseverafter]

Hi!! this is completely random but a while ago when I finished exiles book 1 I made these memes, and I thought you might appreciate them (there's also one about the beginning of book 2)

[blimbo-buddy]

Aromantic GoldenFlower who didn't really give a fuck about TigerClaw especially after he was exiled he was nothing but a donor to her

[banqanas]

exile games I’ve played in the past and has shut down but i never uninstalled them bc i am in denial (tm)

not pictured: high&low the game bc i ran out of memory to keep it but i still have a screenshot from my homescreen 🥺🥺🥺 todowoki…..

[rosykims]

i feel so so so bad for elspeth coming back to ferelden and finding out half her fucking people went and got themselves blood sacrificed for a fucking darkspawn magister :/

[wonder-worker]

Elizabeth Woodville and her daughters being harassed by “repeated intercessions and dire threats” to leave sanctuary and submit to Richard III should be talked about a lot more than it is, tbh.

[maverickmongrel]

the erins did longtail so dirty 😮‍💨

[livlepretre]

You know what’s absolutely hilarious to me when I think about the ships in Fairytale Ending? I always think of that saying about how communication is essential in relationships (along with trust), and like, clearly the Mikaelsons have not heard of this saying

Communication and trust are only essential in real life; in fact, I would actually argue that lack of communication and active, seething distrust are sooo much better for fictional relationships.