#although in general i will reiterate that i find the focus on shipping to be very unhelpful and limiting and y'all need history lessons

[variousqueerthings]

some thoughts on queerness in narrative (using cobra kai as a main point)

1. intro

It’s interesting getting to engage with pop culture right now versus even five years ago, where there was something kinda sordid and undercover about queer reads of text and even just talking about being into stuff very passionately while being queer in spaces that included creators was considered somehow icky (supernatural is always a good example, but definitely was just the most visible of these types of interactions between fans and cast/creators). Obviously that’s where a lot of modern definitions about queerbaiting and bury your gays comes from.

A lot of this kind of drama centred on queer ships rather than queer characters in their own right (dean/castiel, merlin/arthur, derek/styles and maaaan just a lot of white brunette/blond pairings, which is another post and I acknowledge that Lawrusso is also literally that... the irony)

But also this isn’t so much about “shipping.”

2.

There’s a danger of flattening out the ways in which we create a dialogue with text when it becomes just about whether or not our ships become canon (in general the way fandom discourse revolves around ships can be incredibly unhelpful for engaging critically with text) – for context I am queer and I’m queer through my transness and aromanticness and asexuality, and I also write a fair bit of shippy fanfiction and analysis, but personally am not (always) thaaat bothered about how the connections with queer-coded people are realised in text, as long as those connections are acknowledged in a queer way. How that works varies from text to text.  There is no one-size fits all proper queer representation.

An example: SE Hinton (because I just read The Outsiders/watched the movie) being really dismissive of people reading her characters as gay on twitter (why do we ever try to do this sort of deep textual analysis on twitter, why do creators – like Hinton – think that they ought to espouse opinions on twitter, why twitter folx?)

I wrote – kinda for the void, because I write a lot and I like posting some of that on tumblr, but I don’t expect people to engage necessarily – about how The Outsiders is absolutely a queer text, whether or not the creator intended for it to be. Long story short, queerness has been – and often still is – illegal and/or frowned upon in canon text, so a semiotics was created to make something queer if you knew how to read it. The fact that cis-straight creators play with and use those semiotics without knowing doesn’t negate the fact that that language is there and was deliberately created for that purpose.

That also doesn’t make it queerbaiting. Maybe cis-straight dumbassery, idk (wouldn’t be if you just went “huh, didn’t think about that, cool read”)

Intentionally playing with and acknowledging those semiotics also isn’t necessarily queerbaiting.

Definitely queercoding though.

3.

Anyway this is all a bit murky territory, so let’s talk about Cobra Kai, my current little obsession, and about Star Trek, my always-obsession. Time-was you could get sued for your Star Trek fanfiction. Nowadays that fanfiction can get turned into a for-fun zoom play and read out loud by the two actors who played the original characters (Alexander Siddig and Andy Robinson). This is very fun, new territory for a lot of us.

Meanwhile Hayden Schlossberg and the other writers of Cobra Kai are openly aware of the fact that lots of people read their lead characters – Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence - as probably bisexual (and probably as in love) and are on good terms with several active members of fandom and fic-writing. This is… so fucking fun. And it doesn’t have that weird overtone of shit like Teen Wolf (“We’re on a ship” winky-face, followed by that about heel-turn “just think it’s weird and strange” or however tf it was described later on - that shit: definitely queerbaiting).

In Star Trek there’s a slim-to-none chance that these characters will ever become canonically queer in the main text, but the acknowledgement and the light-hearted open engagement with it makes such a massive difference (not that Siddig and Robinson weren’t talking openly about it as far back as the 90s).

In Cobra Kai there is no obligation to make Johnny or Daniel canonically bi because there’s been no promise to do so – there is, in my opinion, an obligation to create a world in which queerness exists and not just on the sidelines. In the same way as there’s an obligation to generally create a world that accurately depicts what LA looks like in multiple other ways (cough, not mainly white, cough). If a part of that were through exploring how 80s era toxic heteronormative masculinity could throw people deep into the closet for most of their lives, hey, that’d be a neat storyline (such a neat fucking storyline), but it’s not the only way to do it.

While I do like canonically queer couples in stories, I also think it’d really limit what queerness can do for a text if that were the only way it was represented - sure I ship Lawrusso, but I find the above-mentioned analysis of toxic masculinity’s effects on the characters-as-queer-coded to go much deeper than whether or not they get together. 

I also would love trans and/or other-gender characters - we all know Johnny needs his “gender-what?” ignorance challenged and the potential for characters like that to fit into a narrative around trauma, loneliness, and misfit-families is kinda perfect (and when I say characters, I mean that plural, we’re not a one-size fits all).

Lastly I think there is also an obligation to do exactly what the showrunners are doing - what didn’t happen with Hinton or SPN or Teen Wolf or Star Trek of yore or so much other popular fiction: say, oh yeah, that language is absolutely there, we recognise it, we can read it and it’s not weird or sordid or something to be judged. So that’s already a massive thumbs up/promising start.

4. some final thoughts:

Idk where all this’ll go. I’m still missing a lot of canonically queer representation - and when I say representation I mean more than just shoving in a queer character into a scene and not thinking about how that affects the world that’s been established. But I’m feeling a lot better about queerness and story than I used to.

I’m hoping that whatever comes moving forwards in culture in general it’ll have some thought put into it. I’m hoping that queerness and queer allegory and coding will be recognised more and more as important reads of text and will go into informing how something is made (Hannibal, Black Sails, Sense8, Pose). I’m just hoping this’ll mean some interesting, intelligent, wildly varied narratives.

Just very excited.

[banditthewriter]

Trust Is Earned - Charles Vane - 1

For someone who is taking a break from writing, I sure wrote a lot in a short time frame.

This is a 34.4k word fic broken into 10 parts. It is what I consider to be a “fuck canon” kinda fic so there’s that to enjoy. 

Warning: Slow burn. I’m sorry.

*gif not mine*

Enjoy!

*****

One of the largest draws of Nassau was the freedom. There was still poverty and strife, people who fought every day to survive, but the freedom was something that couldn’t be ignored. Women free of societal views that required them to be the property of either their father or their husband. Men free of the shackles of polite society, free to sail the seas and create chaos. 

Freedom did come with a price though. The pirates ruled the seas and demanded respect with a fist of violence, but that was nothing compared to the rule of the Guthries. They ruled the island with their commerce, able to make and break not only the pirate crews but also the merchants on the island. 

For you, freedom was many things. Your store, though small and off the beaten track, was lucrative and gave to you a life of comfort if not leisure. Your parents were gone but their love still resided in you. They had left behind a gaggle of friends that loved and protected you as you asserted your independence. 

Freedom was also the choice of who you took to bed. There had been a few men over the years, but none you considered special. The closest to a meaningful relationship you got was the continued dalliance with one of the pirates from The Walrus, the boatswain Billy Bones. 

The sex was more than enough to please you, but the man was simply easy to spend time with. The two of you laughed and talked about a myriad of things. He was a learned man and the two of you had plenty in common.

It wasn’t love though. That was one thing you weren’t sure you would find in Nassau, but that didn’t stop you from hoping. 

You wanted connection, intimacy, passion. You wanted a commitment, a love that consumed and freed you. As much as you enjoyed Billy’s presence, he wasn’t that for you.

If you never had a love like your parents had, at least you had your store. Affectionately called the General, it was a place where most of the people on the island started their search for things. If you didn’t carry it, you had the means to find it for them. For a price, of course.

Plus you made the best candles on the island. You were sure that not one ship left the bay without candles from the General.

The life you had in Nassau was a good one, a comfortable one. If only you’d known that that was all about to change.

------

There was a man and women in the store, both of them speaking low as they looked over the shelves against the far wall. Normally you wouldn’t have paid them any mind, but you had seen the look on their faces when they first walked in.

Good things rarely followed Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny when they looked like that.

You focused on the pages in hand, orders from various people on the island. You needed to find more mouse traps for the madam of the brothel, Mrs. Mapleton. One of the cooks from one of the ships needed better utensils. The butcher needed—

“Y/N. We have our order ready.”

You put the papers down and held a hand out to accept the piece of paper that was in Rackham’s hand. He held onto it for a long beat while staring at you before he released it. He turned his body towards Anne who was purposefully cleaning her nails with a long knife from her boot.

“Let’s see what I can do for you,” you said as you looked over the order. “Most of this is here in the store, but there are a few items I’ll need to get for you.”

As you gathered the items that you had on hand, you tried to ignore the two of them. Candles of various sizes, an inkwell with an extra pot of ink, a few quills, a thing of chalk, charcoal, paper… 

Every item you grabbed from your shelves or cabinets and placed into the canvas bag for the two of them, some wrapped to keep from being damaged. Some butcher paper was packed into the bag for extra security.

As you went about marking the items you still needed to get for them, you noticed that they had approached you once more.

“Is there something else I can help you with Mr. Rackham?” you asked in a polite voice as you scribbled a few notes regarding price, adding up how much you’d need to charge The Ranger crew.

“Oh, nothing in particular. Although now that you mention it,” he said as he tapped his fingers on the counter that separated the two of you, “I believe I heard through the grapevine that you were together with the boatswain of The Walrus.”

“Is that what you’ve heard? How intriguing.” You tore off the half of the page with the amount due and handed it over. “Here’s what’s owed. As always you just pay for what’s being taken today..”

He narrowed his eyes at you before he accepted the paper. You watched as he handed it to Anne Bonny who tugged out a pouch with some coin in it.

“Should I take you avoiding the question as an affirmative?” 

You glanced away from Anne and back over to Jack at that. As you were one of the best stores in Nassau and The Ranger was one of the biggest crews, definitely one of the best crews, you had dealt with the quartermaster and his quiet companion often enough. In your time dealing with them, however, you’d never been interrogated before. Your conversations were usually limited to the sale and maybe some idle chit chat.

This was a change you weren’t sure you appreciated.

“There wasn’t a question posed to me. You simply reiterated something that had been observed. However if it had been a question,” you amended because you didn’t want to piss these two off, “I would tell you that no, we’re not together. We simply enjoy each other’s company.”

“Is that right?” He cast a glance at Anne and gave an almost imperceptible nod. 

The woman handed over the correct amount of coin as well as a tip which wasn’t required but definitely helped. You thanked them both as you pushed the bag towards them.

With the bundle in his arms, the two left your store without another word. You weighed the coin in hand before you put it in the hidden compartment where you stored the rest. 

It was a strange interaction with the pirate pair, but you shook it off. There were more important things to focus on. Like a stack of orders you needed to work on.

------

With the door to the store locked, you headed to the hidden door that led to your rooms. It was made to look like part of the wall so no one knew where it was. You had just touched the handle when what sounded like an entire army began banging on the door to the shop.

At this hour it probably wasn’t an irate shopper or townsfolk. This had to be an emergency. That in mind, you made your way over to the door and pressed your ear to it.

“Y/N? Open the door. It’s me, Billy.”

This was highly unusual, but it was Billy. You trusted him.

You undid the locks and lifted the wooden slat that barred the door. Then you quickly opened it. Billy rushed in with someone behind him, a shorter man with curly black hair. He gave a charming smile that seemed at odds with the look of concern on Billy’s face.

The two of them shut and locked the door and then went about herding you towards the back room. Billy then opened the hidden door that led to your rooms, earning an interesting look from the other man.

“Do I want to know what’s going on? Or who this is?”

The man turned to offer you his hand, that charming smile back on his lips.

“I’m John Silver, a newly acquired… cook on The Walrus.”

You looked between John Silver and Billy who kept shooting glances at the door that led to the shop as if it was going to blow open at any second.

“I don’t have any cookbooks on hand if that’s your reason for coming by after I’ve already closed up shop, but I can find some. Other than that, I think I better demand an explanation.”

Billy came forward, his hands raised as if he was trying to calm down an enraged wild animal.

“It’s not as bad as it seems,” he began, flinching when you crossed your arms over your chest. “The Ranger crew was getting ready to set sail and uh, it seems they aren’t able to at the moment. Things got a little heated on the beach and we thought it’d be a good idea to find somewhere to lie low until the heat died down.”

You let that sit for a moment as you looked between the two of them. Besides the fact that John Silver didn’t look like he’d spent a second cooking in his life, Billy looked much like he had the first time you’d caught him with one of the whores in the brothel.

You explained that you didn’t mind, preferred it really. While you cared for Billy, you knew that you’d never fall in love with him. You didn’t particularly want to fall in love with a pirate. Since then both of you were comfortable enough to find companionship where it came without guilt.

It worked for the two of you. But that first time he’d looked so guilty.

Just as he did now.

“Bullshit. Now I’ll say this again just in case you didn’t hear me the first time. I demand a fucking explanation.”

Billy winced again.

“Y/N–” but you didn’t let him get out whatever pitiful excuse he had prepared.

“You’re a pirate, Billy Bones, and I’ve never known you to run from a fight. If things were heated on the beach, you wouldn’t be up here hiding. You’d be down there with a sword in hand and your brothers at your back. So whatever is going on, I want to know right now, or you and your cook can go fuck yourselves and leave.”

You watched as Silver opened his mouth, obviously about to tell Billy that they should leave, but you knew that that wouldn’t be happening. Billy had brought the two of them to you for a reason. He might be stubborn—he was a pirate after all—but he was far from stupid.

And he knew that you were right.

“It’s a map,” he said over Silver’s objections, “a map that they had that leads to some potentially big prizes. Silver stole it.”

You pinched the bridge of your nose before you looked at the other man.

“You stole… a treasure map… from a pirate? Not just any pirate, but Captain Vane?” You let out a little laugh and then looked over at Billy. “Where did you find this one? The bottom of the ocean?”

“I think you’re missing the point,” Silver tried to explain as a way to divert attention from his folly. “I am currently in possession of something that The Ranger crew desperately want to get back. My plan is to… give it to Captain Flint but he’s not here. Therefore we’re not as protected as I originally thought we’d be.”

The way he said that he was going to give the map to Flint made you think that had originally not been his plan. If the map was for some large prizes, it was likely he had originally meant to sell it to the highest bidder. 

Maybe he was a pirate after all.

“And so you thought to bring him to me. Did you think I could hide him under the pit where I make the candles?” 

“We just need to keep our heads down until Flint is back from the interior. It should be tomorrow sometime.”

As you started to say that they could stay there, you remembered something from earlier that morning. At the time Jack Rackham’s questions had seemed harmless if a little strange. Now you had to wonder if there had been a reason to them after all.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. This morning I had some of The Ranger crew in here for an order. An order that came with the extra benefit of questions regarding my relationship with the boatswain of The Walrus.”

While Billy usually tried to be civil and polite around you, he didn’t seem to have that issue just then. 

“Fuck. Fucking… fuck.”

“Eloquent,” Silver remarked and then nodded when Billy gave him a glare. “I know that this is my fault, but I think you’re forgetting how important this map could be. And that Captain Vane and the rest of The Ranger crew would gladly cut off our heads to get it back.”

You rubbed your temples, urging back the headache that started to grow there. The day had started with such promise and had only gone downhill. 

“There’s a door in the back that leads to the woods. If you walk about ten minutes you’ll come to a split where you can either go back to town or to the interior. You’ll need to find a different place to hide.”

Silver shook his head.

“The door to this part of the building was hidden. We could stay here.”

You fixed Silver with a glare that made him step back.

“This store is my livelihood. If the pirates even suspect that you might be here, they’ll tear this building down to the very last nail. I won’t have that happen over your stupid decision, do you understand me? If you are in this building when The Ranger crew gets here, I’ll happily direct them to the very crevice you’ve hidden yourself in.”

You turned to Billy, still fuming over the turn of events.

“I’m sorry Billy. You know in other circumstances I’d do anything to help you, but this isn’t something I’m willing to risk. Not for you, not for some man I’ve never met. I can’t be part of that.”

Billy nodded that he understood. He stepped forward and placed a hand on your shoulder to calm you down. 

“I wouldn’t ask you to do that. We’ll take the passage out and head back to the beach. If the crew comes, just tell them we were headed to the interior to look for a Mr. Blackwell. That’ll get them off your case.”

You peered up at him cautiously.

“Is there a Mr. Blackwell in the interior?” You didn’t want to send a bunch of angry pirates after an innocent man.

“Not that I’m aware of,” he admitted with a grin. 

He leaned in to kiss your forehead. When he pulled back, he grabbed Silver’s shoulder and yanked him in the direction of the back door you had told him about.

Once the door was shut and you were left alone once more, you took a deep breath. If the questioning was due to the map, you wanted to be prepared. If Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny came back to your store, you were going to be prepared for them.

After this, Billy would have a lot to make up for.

------

The sun had barely started to rise in the sky when the pounding began. You looked up from where you had been preparing tea. It sounded like the door of the shop was going to cave in any moment and you wouldn’t stand for that. You slipped into the shop and shut the hidden door quietly. You made sure everything was in position before you went to the door to let in whoever was out there.

It turned out to be Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny, as you had assumed, but they weren’t alone. In front of them was a man you’d never formally been introduced to, but everyone in Nassau knew who Captain Charles Vane was.

And as he stormed past you and into the shop, you were impressed that for once the stories seemed to be true. He was silent as he directed the other two to start to search your shop, a passiveness on his face that you were sure was faked.

As the other two pirates made their way around the shop, you simply folded your arms over your chest.

“Are you going to tell me what this is about or am I to guess?”

The captain didn’t even glance in your direction but Rackham did.

“Surely you don’t think playing dumb will help you. You admitted to me that you were close to Billy Bones, he stole something from our crew, ergo…” With that he ducked into the backroom to search for Billy, a sword drawn.

“Billy Bones is twelve feet tall, where do you think I’ve hidden him? He wouldn’t exactly fit in the cabinet.”

This time it was Bonny that spoke. 

“You live here, don’t ya? Maybe you have him stashed in your bed.”

You rolled your eyes.

“I won’t qualify that with a response.” You looked past the redhead and over at the captain who was still ignoring your presence. Or pretending to at least. “If Billy had come by here, what makes you think I would’ve let him stay?”

“You’d turn away someone you’re bedding in their time of need?” That was called to you from your own backroom. Jack’s voice was muffled, but still clear enough to be heard.

“If I sheltered every man that I’ve fucked when he’s pissed off some pirate crew or other, I’d be running a halfway house. This is my place of business and as I am supposed to be a neutral entity, yes, I would’ve turned him away.”

That drew the captain’s attention. He stared at you for a long moment before he spoke.

“Jack.” It was just one word but the tone made you stand up a little straighter. 

That wasn’t him calling Jack back into the room. That was him letting Jack off the leash.

Suddenly a loud crash came from the backroom. It was followed by more. It took only seconds to realize what was happening. 

He was destroying your merchandise.

“You fucking bastard,” you yelled as you tried to launch yourself in that direction but an arm around your middle stilled you. 

Out of the corner of your eye you could see the brown hair that hung nearby telling you that the culprit was the captain rather than Bonny. You had half a mind to try to land a fist in his face but you figured they wouldn’t be inclined to let you go if you did that.

“Billy, the cook, and my map. Tell us where they are and this stops.”

Now it was Bonny’s turn to start wrecking your shop. While Rackham wreaked havoc on your backroom, Bonny tore reams of paper and broke quills.

“Make them stop and I’ll tell you, but damaging my store won’t exactly make me inclined to tell you the truth otherwise.”

The arm around your middle squeezed as if in warning before he barked out an order for the two of them to stop. You waited for Rackham to join the rest of you before you tried to pull away from the captain. He didn’t seem inclined to let you go just yet so you stopped fighting it and just slumped a bit.

“There’s a path around the back of the shop. Ten minute walk and you’ll see a sign that points towards the interior. They said they were going to a Mr. Blackwell for help.” You said the name as if you were remembering it rather than just relaying it in hopes that it would help your act. “They left just after dark last night so you might want to hurry.”

A knife was swung out and pointed at your throat, courtesy of Anne Bonny. She pressed it tight enough that it probably drew blood.

“Why should we trust you? You could be lying to us.”

Of course you were but you weren’t about to tell her that.

“What part of neutral entity do you not understand? I sell to everyone on this island so having favorites wouldn’t get me anywhere, would it?”

You finally were able to pull out of the captain’s grasp. You marched towards the backroom and scowled at the mess. Then you went around to your counter where you pretended to look over the damage that Bonny had caused.

“If you are lying to us, we’ll be back,” the captain promised in a deep voice that told you this would just be the beginning.

You shrugged a shoulder as you grabbed the pistol you’d left under the counter. You raised it level at the three of them. You might only have one shot, but you’d make it count. Rackham reached for his sword but Vane shook his head and stopped him.

“I’ve given you the information you need, now get the fuck out of my shop so that I can try to repair the damage that’s been done.”

Vane jerked his head towards the front door that they had stormed through. As the three of them slipped out into the morning air, aimed for the back of the store so that they could try to hunt down Billy and Silver, you watched as Vane looked over his shoulder at you for a long moment before he shut the door behind him.

Once you were sure that the three of them had gone, you slumped against the wall and put the pistol on a shelf. 

“Really hope that map is worth it Billy,” you mumbled to yourself.

Then you went about fixing your shop.

X

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[reconditarmonia]

Dear Chocolate Box Author

Hi! Thank you for writing for me! I’m reconditarmonia here and on AO3. I have anon messaging off, but mods should be able to contact me if you have any questions.

Dishonored | Fullmetal Alchemist | Machineries of Empire | The Penumbra Podcast | Simoun

General likes:

– Relationships that aren’t built on romance or attraction. They can be romantic or sexual as well, but my favorite ships are all ones where it would still be interesting or compelling if the romantic component never materialized.

– Loyalty kink! Trust, affectionate or loving use of titles, gestures of loyalty, replacing one’s situational or ethical judgment with someone else’s, risking oneself (physically or otherwise) for someone else, not doing so on their orders. Can be commander-subordinate or comrades-in-arms.

– Heists, or other stories where there’s a lot of planning and then we see how the plan goes.

– Femslash, complicated or intense relationships between women, and female-centric gen. Women doing “male” stuff (possibly while crossdressing).

– Stories whose emotional climax or resolution isn’t the sex scene, if there is one.

– Uniforms/costumes/clothing.

– Stories, history, and performance. What gets told and how, what doesn’t get told or written down, behavior in a society where everyone’s consuming media and aware of its tropes, how people create their personas and script their own lines.

Smut Likes: clothing, uniforms, sexual tension, breasts, manual sex, cunnilingus, grinding, informal d/s elements, intensity; stories whose resolution isn’t the sex scene.

A note: if we matched on an / ship, I generally don't require you to include a kiss, sex, or overt romantic language if you feel that you'd have to shoehorn it in. I'll trust that you wrote it with shippy intent.

General DNW: rape/dubcon, torture, other creative gore; unrequested AUs, including “same setting, different rules” AUs such as soulmates/soulbonds; PWP; food sex; embarrassment; focus on pregnancy; Christmas/Christian themes; focus on unrequested canon or non-canon ships.

—

Fandom: Dishonored

Ship(s): Delilah Copperspoon/Billie Lurk; Breanna Ashworth & Kirin Jindosh; Emily Kaldwin & Delilah Copperspoon

I find Delilah such a fantastic and fascinating villain, and I'd love to read more about her relationships with Billie or Emily. I’d love to know more about Billie’s time in Delilah’s gang - what does she see in Delilah, or Delilah in her, beyond using each other to get ahead, what do they want from each other? I imagine it might fascinate and please Delilah to have Billie’s submission and maybe even some level of trust - to do what? It'd be neat to read an AU of the end of KoD where Billie stays in Dunwall, whether she's won or lost against Daud - or even of the end of Brigmore Witches, if you want to AU Delilah's plot into something that doesn't put her into a child's body. Something addressing clothing (given the iconic costumes of both the Witches and the Whalers) and/or nudity? Something in the timeskip or DH2 timeframe? With regard to Emily, I'm specifically interested in adult Emily here - what happens if Emily doesn't escape at the beginning of DH2? (Or is captured at some point, I guess.) Delilah seems happy enough to keep her alive - does she make her a witch, want her in court as her niece? How does Emily feel about any of this as she learns about Delilah's past? Or, does Emily maintain a relationship with her aunt after the end of DH2, whether because there's a way to visit or communicate with her or in an AU where she's defeated differently and sticks around? How might Delilah's art fit into any of these scenarios? The differences in how they fight?

I would also love fic about Breanna and Jindosh's terrible friendship/working relationship. Is their distaste for everyone else enough to overcome their distaste for each other? Put them at a fancy party (Luca's or otherwise) kvetching about other people. Tell me more about the lead-up to the seance, or mutual projects where Breanna contributed more of the magic and Jindosh more of the science - or vice versa! Breanna's got a very scientific mind and career herself and Jindosh isn't above dabbling in Void shit. Get them drunk together one night. If you can futz with the numbers enough for it to make sense, write me an AU where they're in an arranged marriage and end up as a (secretly? idk) platonic power couple. (If you go with this version I'd prefer that you write Jindosh as gay or asexual.)

Fandom-Specific DNW/Exception: Please do not touch on Jindosh's nonlethal option in any way whatsoever. With regard to Delilah/Billie, I have dubcon in my general DNWs but with Delilah’s...everything it seems potentially unreasonable to categorically DNW it here. Billie going along with things because she feels like she should or must is fine (although I’d also be very game for fic about her desiring and wanting Delilah/this), but I still don’t want to read anything involving altered or removed ability to consent such as mind-altering magic, sex pollen, drugs, etc. Additionally, Delilah/Breanna is an exception to my unrequested ships DNW - feel free to include it in any of these requests.

—

Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist

Ship(s): Scar & Original Ishvalan Character(s); Scar & Miles; Olivier Mira Armstrong & Miles & Briggs Soldiers

One of the things that really hit close to home about canon was the Ishval plot; I like that it’s important and not just backstory or setup for other stuff, and that there are multiple characters who are Ishvalan or of Ishvalan descent, rather than a genocide plot being a convenient reason to have one or no Ishvalan perspectives in the story. I’d really be interested in reading anything about, well, what do you do during or in the wake of a genocide: Miles’s seemingly increasing identification with his Ishvalan background; one or both of them in the post-canon rebuilding; what is is to be Amestrian *and* Ishvalan; what Scar (or OCs) are able to keep from their culture and community and what was lost (and what evolves), whether that’s in “Amestrian” cities and towns during or after canon, or in post-canon Ishval; saving the testimonies or the culture. Doesn’t need to be angsty if that’s not what you’re into; indeed, surviving/building a new life/finding joy/celebrating one’s culture and heritage after that kind of thing are meaningful too.

Or, Briggs and its mixture of heartwarming and id-satisfying loyalty kink. (The watch! Buccaneer handing Olivier a clean pair of gloves after she kills Raven! Constant and deeply sincere saluting! And Olivier's lack of patience for anyone's shit.) Either ordinary or extraordinary circumstances - daily life in the fort, a battle with Drachma where they work together seamlessly, surviving a storm or the typical winter cold - would make me happy, but I especially love those shows of loyalty. Entire Briggs Is Gay would also non-ironically be neat, as would other ways of exploring the idea of Briggs being a united wall made up of people with a lot of secrets and/or racial and gender differences.

Fandom-Specific DNW: Please don’t give Scar a name; I personally am fine eliding any narration issues with “how would he refer to himself in his own POV?” in my brain. I would also prefer that Ishvalan culture be worldbuilt rather than borrowed wholesale from a real-life culture.

—

Fandom: Machineries of Empire

Ship(s): Ajewen Cheris & Garach Jedao Shkan; Ajewen Cheris & Original Mwennin Characters; Ajewen Cheris/Neshte Khiruev; Moroish Nija/Shuos Feiyed; Vauhan Mikodez & Zehun

I've just recently gotten into this fandom, and I love the loyalty kink and the worldbuilding so much - I just want more! I'm partway through Revenant Gun now, so my prompts are somewhat unspecific, but I expect to be done with Glass Cannon by the time of reveals, so don't worry about spoilers.

Anyway, as I said, I love loyalty kink, including platonic loyalty kink - trust, gestures of loyalty, the times that trust or willingness to follow/lead is put under severe situational strain and holds, or the places where these things get thorny instead of straightforward because one character has to betray or hurt the other for the larger goal that they both believe in and work towards, or to keep the other safe. Some of the things I like in canon along these lines are Mikodez's showing Zehun the contingency plans in Raven Stratagem, and everything with "I'm your gun" (which I'm vaguely aware that I'm going to love even more by the time I'm caught up). Any story for Cheris & Jedao, Cheris/Khiruev, or Mikodez & Zehun that involved these tropes would be wonderful.

I'm also interested in the Mwennin subplot. I would love to know more about Cheris, Mwennin culture, and other Mwennin at any point before, during, or after canon. I also like the idea of Nija and Feiyed staying in touch after Feiyed rescues/recruits Nija, and Feiyed gradually learning about Mwennin culture as they start/continue a relationship - we know it can be adoptive, so does she even at any point start to consider herself part of it? (Or have them work together on a covert mission, no reason we shouldn't get loyalty kink in here too.)

Fandom-Specific DNW: I have dubcon in my general DNWs and would like to reiterate that I don't want to read formation instinct playing a part in a Cheris/Khiruev relationship.

—

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Ship(s): Miasma/The Proctor

What can I say? Criminal older female academics would be a GREAT ship. I'd love to see their first meeting at some conference or academic event (or criminal thing), or their first date, or the two of them working together on some scheme - does Miasma "consult" the Proctor, or does the Proctor want to create an exam based on Miasma's field of expertise, or are they both going for the same goal? What do they like about each other, or find frustrating about each other? (If you need to fudge the timelines to make it work, that's fine, but I'm definitely interested in the characters as middle-aged or older. Also fine by me if you want to somehow AU their fates to get them together in the "present" timeline.)

—

Fandom: Simoun

Ship(s): Any (Aaeru & Neviril & Paraietta & Rodoreamon & Floef & Vyuraf; Aaeru/Neviril; Mamiina & Neviril; Mamiina/Neviril; Neviril/Aaeru & Neviril/Paraietta; Paraietta & Neviril; Paraietta/Rodoreamon)

This is a perennial request for me and anything (other than, I guess, the slice-of-lifeiest slice-of-life) would make me very happy, but I'm particularly interested in the military side of the canon - how the war changes all the characters and their relationships with one another, how Everything is Beautiful and Then Shit Gets Real but amidst the war-is-hell there’s still the creation of bonds of trust and loyalty and chances to do what’s right (the bits with the Plumbish priestesses, for instance). Every character gets a chance to develop and make choices that are all brave in different ways. I'd love loyalty kink here, but I'm also up for Magic, for an exploration of the characters' adult lives on the other end of the series's coming-of-age, or nearly anything.

Some ideas - what happens post-canon if Neviril and Aeru make it back to the main world when war is brewing again, but Neviril has no one from the old cohort to lead because they can’t fly anymore? What does she do, or see her role as being - a leader for peace, for war? How do she and Aaeru interact with Paraietta, Rodoreamon, Floef, and Vyuraf?

What happens if due to magic or time weirdness, Mamiina is brought back? What happens between her and Neviril late in canon or post-canon? How do they see or value each other as fighters and leaders?

What's Paraietta and Rodoreamon's post-canon relationship like? They're building a life together and finding purpose in helping the war orphans, but they're also both veterans and neither of them is the other's lost love. Or I'd also love to see a during- or post-canon look at a situation where Neviril has relationships with both Paraietta and Aaeru, how she maybe needs different things from them, and how they also work together differently on the battlefield - or just a story about the relationship of Neviril and her long-loyal second-in-command Paraietta.

[blueplanettrash]

For the whump bingo, lance dozing off when he shouldn't then startled awake?

Hope you enjoy! 💙

Lance wasn’t one to get sick. He was generally in great health, always tried to take care of himself and his body. He was a miracle baby in his family and he deemed it a sign for him to take the utmost care of what he was given.

Actually, let’s reiterate. Lance wasn’t one to get sick now. As a child, however, he was sick all of the time. Whenever a flu went around the school he always got it and he always got it bad. 

He thought that maybe when they got in space, he wouldn’t get sick since they always decontaminated when they came back from a planet so they wouldn’t get any of the planet-side viruses onboard. 

So when he woke up one day, his head heavy from exhaustion and his sinuses clogged he was quite devastated. The bridge of his nose felt itchy and swollen  and it felt like there was fluid pressing against the back of his eyes. He struggled to sit up and let out a hacking cough that resulted in a wad of mucus ending up in the palm of his hand. He gags and stumbles out of bed to his bathroom to wash his hands and he glanced up to look in the mirror.

He was pale and clammy, his cheeks highlighted a bright red that stuck out on his skin.

Blearily he got into his armour, knowing that they had a meeting with Kolivan today and they were all required to be there. By the time he got everything on, he was panting and leaning against the wall. He let out a wheeze and straightened up, knowing now that he definitely was going to have to tell Shiro and Allura that he needed to go back to bed. Sure, the defenders of the universe never took a day off, but he wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway if something were to happen.

It only took him a few minutes to find the two of them, knowing that they would be going over everything for the meeting, Allura still not taking a shining to Kolivan being on board. It still kind of annoyed him, they were helping them. Was that just not enough anymore?

He pushed it aside for now though and approached the two of them, waiting patiently for a break in their conversation.

“Hello Lance,” Allura said after a few minutes. He tried to smile and walked forward, clearing his throat in the process.

“Um, I was wondering if I’d be able to take the day off? I’m really not feeling too hot,” he said, his voice weak. 

Shiro and Allura just blinked at him for a few moments and he looked between them perplexed at their silence. Then Shiro sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose.

“Really Lance? We’re already so swamped with the meeting and you want to slack off?” He groaned. Lance stepped back, startled before actually looking at his face. His eyes were ringed with darkness, and his face was absolutely ringed with exhaustion. He gulped at the guilt that suddenly erupted in his stomach. While he was sleeping and doing only the mandatory work expected of him, Shiro and Allura had been getting less and less sleep and working themselves to the bone to make sure that everything went smoothly today.

“R-right,” he stuttered, looking down at the ground. He clenched his fist, attempting to quell the shaking in his hands, if only for a minute. “Um, sorry,” he said quietly before turning and quickly walking out of the room.

If he thought he felt terrible before, it was nothing compared to the present. He sat patiently in his seat, barely listening to everything that was being said around him. 

They had greeted Kolivan together, meeting him at his ship after it docked and lead him back to the dining room where they set up to have the meeting. Surprisingly, he had sat down beside Lance and shot him concerned glances every now and then, not that anyone else seemed to notice besides Lance. 

Really, he was relieved. Even if none of his teammates had noticed how sick we had been and was getting; Kolivan had and was trying to keep an eye out for him. At least he thought he was. 

Only a few minutes into their meeting, he started feeling his eyes start to close on him. Just minute little twitches woke him even when he didn’t remember falling asleep in the first place. After about five times of jolting awake, he pulled his datapad closer and started mindlessly fiddling with the programs, typing and drawing squiggles, anything to keep his mind awake and aware.

He let out a startled squeak when the hologram disappeared from underneath his finger and his head whipped up to look at a very unimpressed Allura and Shiro. 

“Sorry,” he said quietly, averting his eyes. They didn’t even look at him again as they started speaking with Kolivan again, although his eyes were on Lance for a long minute after that. Lance on the other hand was trying to figure out another way to keep himself awake until they were finished, but there wasn’t anything he could think of. Not that he could really think of anything anyway, his head was full of cotton that pressed against his sinuses. All he wanted to do was lay down and sleep away the pain. 

He didn’t even realize that he fell back asleep until he heard his name being screamed angrily.

He jolted awake, tipping him off of his chair. He braced himself for some sort of impact but instead met firm arms that curled carefully around him and hauled him back up. He looked fearfully up to meet Allura’s gaze and flinched at the glare she pointed towards him.

“Are you bored Lance?” She asked calmly. He blinked in confusion.

“What?”

“I asked are you bored, because that’s the only possible reason I see for you to be falling asleep during an important meeting like this,” she stated quietly and calmly, somehow making Lance much more apprehensive than if she had been screaming mad at him.

“You get at the very least six to seven hours of sleep, you do the minimum amount of training required of you before you go and relax, you don’t contribute outside of what we ask of you unlike the rest of the paladin, so I ask you again, are you bored Lance?”

With every point listed off, Lance could feel the guilt in his stomach rising. She was absolutely right, he really wasn’t doing as much as everyone else was doing. They had been working their asses off to get this meeting put together and he couldn’t sit awake long enough to get through it all? But he was trying, he was trying so hard to be alert but he felt so bad.

He just wanted to know why they hadn’t noticed how terrible he was feeling. He wasn’t being anything like himself, he basically hadn’t talked at all, all morning, he wasn’t trying to crack jokes throughout the meeting to lighten the mood, he hadn’t even tried to sweet talk Kolivan and he had just caught him in his arms! Did they really not notice how pale he was, how much he was sweating, how every word out of his mouth was raspy and dry like he hadn’t had water for days? 

“You’re right, princess, I’m sorry,” he decided on, clenching his fists on top of his knees.

“Good, perhaps now you’ll pay attention,” she huffed, getting back to her work. He gave Kolivan a polite smile and settled back in his chair.

He looked up at Allura and put all of his focus on staring at the presentation, trying his hardest to not look away, even for a second. 

But every passing point went in one ear and out the other. He didn’t know what was happening or what everyone’s opinion was, all he was hearing was white noise. All he was seeing was a blank page with no words. His eyes darted across lines of data, trying so hard to understand what it said but nothing processed. He ground his teeth together in frustration, even his best wasn’t enough.

Frustratingly, he felt tears well up in his eyes. So badly, he wanted to contribute and help his team defeat Zarkon, he wanted to go home, he wanted to see his mamá. She always took the best care of them when they got sick, she would have noticed a day before he got sick.

She would have ushered him back to bed, brought him some sort of homemade recipe that would cleanse his entire system and have him back in shape before he even knew it. His siblings would bring him back his homework from school, his younger ones would bring him drawings they made at school to try and make him feel better, his grandma would sit with him until he felt better.

He missed them.

“LANCE!” 

He startled so badly, his hand slapped against his chest. He panted wildly, eyes darting around the room until they landed on Allura again, this time she was fuming.

“There is no excuse for this kind of behaviour Lance,” she started. He opened his mouth to defend himself but quickly shut it at Shiro’s dangerous look. 

“I don’t want to hear it Lance,” he said and made a zipping motion with his hand. He blinked helplessly and looked back at Allura.

“Thank you Shiro,” she said graciously. “As I said before, there is no excuse for th-”

“This cub is sick,” Kolivan cut her off, standing up to move behind Lance in support. Allura paused looking at him incredulously. 

“Excuse me?”

“This cub is sick, I smelled it on him since the beginning but frankly anyone who is more intelligent than a rock should have as well,” he added unimpressed.

“I beg your pardon?” She gasped affronted.

“Pale skin, sweaty, exhausted for no reason, weak spoken, all signs of sickness but ignored and berated for attempting to see through to the end of a mission,” Kolivan listed off, more aggressive with each word. The paladin’s eyes darted away at the words leaving the two leaders to deal with the words.

“We thought he might have been faking,” Shiro tried the explain but Kolivan gave a snarl in response.

“You thought? Had it been one of the others would they have been pushed aside as well?” He asked, the long silence that stretched was all the answer he needed. “Enough, I’m taking him to the infirmary, finish this meeting amongst yourselves, I’m sure Lance will give me a much better summary when he’s feeling better,” he hissed, picking Lance up and walking out of the room, ignoring the calls that reached his back.

“I apologize, cub but I don’t know the way,” he said once they were in the silence of the Castle halls. “I’m sorry that I didn’t try to intervene earlier, I wasn’t sure of what I was smelling and I’m saddened to know that I was right,”

“It’s okay, I’m just glad that someone did end up noticing,” he replied with a small smile. “And thank you for getting me out of there, I just want to sleep,” he admitted.

“Then sleep cub, I promise that I will keep you from harm,”

And he did.

My Bingo Card

[eisforeidolon]

I know Dean is straight, but 2 things on the show stump me. 1: Crowley saying, "We've done extraordinary things to triplets." 2: Dean saying, "Live Skinemax?" in 12x11(did he mean simply watching?)" . I know an orgy doesn't change one's identification. But why do you think tptb presents such interpretive scenarios? Despite the rest of canon & Kripke's & Jensen's remarks–which I value–all the biDean posts have left me unmoored & I'd truly appreciate your 2 cents.

In terms of general “interpretivescenarios” as you call them, I think it's just old school shipteases.  By which I mean the showrunners basically doing theequivalent of turning to the fandom and saying, nudge nudge winkwink we know you're out there.  I think it’s foolhardy to try and imbue that with meaning since they’ve thrown them around like candy from the beginning.

Like all the times Sam and Dean havebeen mistaken for or paralleled with romantic couples.  Like all the jokes Balthazar made aboutCas being both Sam and Dean'sboyfriend.  Likeall Crowley's marriage/mistress jokes about him and Bobby and him andCas and him and Dean.  I could go on.

Slashfans used to know that was the best they were going to get, and theywere often grateful for little suggestive teases they could use asship fodder.  These days, when it's actually realistic to expect morediverse hookups on shows of all kinds, a lot of fans have turned acomplete 180 and now get angry at any tease that doesn't get followthrough.  To be fair, I think both fans and creators are strugglingto redefine how to maneuver the new territory where what used to be seen as a playful joke can now be taken (maybe even rightfully) as spiteful.  With this show inparticular having been on so long with older creators, I thinkthey're probably even slower to change to audience expectations thannormal.  For example, see what they thought would be a funny jokewith Cas' heaven that was scrapped when Jared pointed out peoplewould take it seriously.  

To getback to your specific examples, I don't claim to be an expert on dudeinteractions, but the impression I've gotten generally from moreguy-targeted media and various male friends is pretty much the pointyou already made about orgies.  I.e. at least some dudes seem toconsider it perfectly hetero so long as the dicks don't touch.  Withtriplets that would be easy enough, and I find this similarlyuncompelling as the example from the old!Dean episode where he checksfor the guy's birthmark under the blanket – not being bothered bythe nudity of others does not make you interested (nor are a walletyou could have stolen or a standard military tattoo quite asunarguable as a birthmark).  Likewise yeah, with Sam and Rowena, Isaw it as Dean talking about watching, since skinemax is a thing youwatch, so live skinemax = watching a live performance.  If watchingporn with dudes in makes you bisexual, well...  In short, I think TBTB throw this stuff in for fan titillation because they know they have a big fanbase which contains slash fans and it used to be it would cost them nothing to put in something the general audience would just dismiss as a joke.

Still,those are my interpretations - and that's exactlymy problem with bi!Dean meta.  Well, putting aside all the stuffwhere it gets weird about stereotypes and masculinity and gender,anyway.  Every single bit of it takes a throwaway joke, titillation,or utterly random moment and heavily interprets it with laser focusin one direction to a predetermined conclusion - and then treats thatinterpretation as canon fact.

It does so by ignoringother obvious interpretations of those moments.  It does so by ignoring all thetimes Dean has reiterated his sexuality in plain words – he doesn'tswing that way, he's looking for women, he doesn't play for yourteam.  It does so by ignoring Dean's on-screen explicitly sexual actions on theshow that have involved women and only women every single time for twelveyears.  Twelve years during which he's been normal, depressed,possessed, supernaturally influenced, condemned to death within ayear, a demon – and never once been overtly sexual with men. Ignoring that Dean is at this point nearing forty years old and very,very few people redefine their sexuality that late in life.  It does so by ignoringwhat Kripke and Jensen have said about the way the character has been conceived, written, and played all along.  

Idon't care if people have dumb headcanons.  I do care when they tryto insist said headcanons are actually canon, or they are entitled tothe writers changing the show to make them canon because the very existence of theirinterpretation makes it true in Entitlementlandia.  Especially when some of them are suchassholes about it.  

If youhad said to me before I came to tumblr, “I headcanon Dean as bi.”? I'd have shrugged and said sure, why not?  Then I read the meta andwatched the show again, and having actually examined it as a premise,I find it on the level of headcanoning that Sam wears purpleunderwear with dogs on every Thursday.  Sure, it's not completely 100% impossible,but there's really nothing in canon that substantiates it.  Althoughat least headcanons about Sam's underwear aren't contradicted by thebulk of the text and clear statements about intent from thewriters and the actor that plays him - which is not something you cansay for bi!Dean.

[thecreaminhiscoffee]

-slides in my own URL-

[ ♛ ] send me a url (selectively accepting) and i’ll tell you the following;

my opinion on;

character in general: Well - River writes twenty-two different muses.  I’m not going to go through all of them in this meme because, to be quite honest, that’s going to take far longer than I think is fair to the other people waiting on theirs.  Also, for the purpose of con/crit, it is going to be easier to focus on the characters that have been around the longest (depending on your definition of longest) and then compare that with some of the newer ones and what looks like is happening and how best to expand on all of the above.  Varying stages of muses on a spectrum.

I’m picking five - Bedelia is the origin of the blog (and the longest running) and so therefore has the most character development over time (and in multiple partnerships), Scully is the character I personally have had the most experience with (consecutively speaking), Rey was a long runner during the Bedelia hiatus (and also has significant character development over time with a partner with who has that with another character so that leads to good comparison), Freddie is a frequent character (but not always a long-lasting one pre-multi and not one with a lot of consecutive threads so as to follow character development across them), and Hermione (who has less threads overall but still gives some idea of development).…my general opinion on Bedelia as a character is full of probably too much salt and not worth reiterating here.  I think the idea of her was solid, and I think Gillian did a phenomenal job portraying her.  She is also the only reason I made it past the first three episodes of the series - because I was watching it for her, and she didn’t show up until episode six.  End comment.

Dana Scully deserves the world and got hell instead.

I’m still undecided on Rey.  I think she has potential as a character and enjoyed her in Ep. VII (she’s not Finn, but she’s cool), but I reserve the right to make a decision as to my full opinion on her character until the end of this trilogy.

Freddie is the only character where I think Fuller considerably improved on canon material.  In the first two seasons.  We didn’t see her enough in s3 for me to make that claim.  But overall?  Yeah.

I remember identifying with Hermione very strongly when I read the series the first time through (at least initially, although I think I may have grown out of that by the time the last…two? came out - definitely by the last one).  I don’t think she was ever my favorite (I may be wrong on that), but I typically had positive feelings towards her.

how they play them: As a general rule, the answer to this question is well.  River is a fairly strong writer and has been for as long as I’ve known her.  This carries over to any character she writes, regardless of how long she may have been writing them.  Therefore, since the general answer to this question is a positive one, further consideration must be taken into individual characters, writing development, and general commentary.

Thus, a con/crit section.I do have a set criteria for what I’m looking into as a whole.  I’ll talk about the character and writing development aspects last.  First, I want to talk general writing commentary - headcanon, length of posts, grammar/spelling, etc. - because that’s the foundation for the more detailed aspects of writing seen in voice, theme, consistency, character as a whole.So, let’s get started. River has few issues with grammar.  In fact, the only one I want to point out (because it was a consistent bother to me), is this: when you start a new paragraph and the character is still speaking, it is not necessary to close out the previous paragraph with quotation marks.  Leave it open; the character is still speaking.  Only close when the character is done, or when you are going to have them do something else before continuing.  Outside of that, you’re golden.

(As an aside, you are not the only person I have seen do this, and it actually appears to be something you’ve picked up later, because you weren’t doing it in your earlier threads.  This may be a stylistic choice, but it is not a good one.)

River has no issues with spelling.  Occasionally there is a misstep in wording, but that can be solved with a brief read-through before posting.  Pretty much everyone has a tendency to do this - I do, anyway - so it’s not a big deal.  However, I’ve found it is more apparent when you’re in a hurry.  But, again, it isn’t necessary to fix, because this is RP.  Just a comment.River is good with any length of post (one-liner, para, multi-para), but she hits her stride particularly with paras or longer.  A vast majority of her characters are introverted or put a lot of thought into their actions, their manners of speaking, so although you do one-liners well (which is a praise in itself, considering the internal dialogue just mentioned), your strength is in longer stuff.  You know this.  From a reading perspective, all of your writing captures the character well, you just have more room to breathe there, which works best for your muses.  Again, you know this.You are also extremely versatile when it comes to thread genres (fluff, angst, tragedy, violence, romance, slice of life, and crack).  Most of your threads tend to focus on either romance (with a potential mix of angst, depending) or slice of life (albeit, plotted, but you know what I mean), and these are only your strong suits due to their more frequent use.  You do them all well, even violence, so I have no comment here.  Kudos.  (Although I will say, I personally have a strong preference for your fluff threads because they typically also include character development as well - but that’s just me.)Headcanon, however, I have a little more commentary on.  When you post them, your headcanon is more than on point and does a good job of elucidating your character.  However, a lot of them are found in threads, which runs the risk of not having adequate enough information on a character to lead to good plotting.  For instance, below, when it talks about shipping, half of these I only know would be cool ships because I’ve read your threads and understand your character better.  I can tailor fit a thread to your interpretation.  Without headcanon posted separately from threads, this becomes significantly harder, and most people (I would guess) are not going to read threads to get that information.  Also, it is hard to find your headcanon separate from your characters’ threads, so that they have a tendency to get lost within everything else.  There’s no easy route of access.  I’d suggest at least having a catchall headcanon tag, so that someone who is looking at your characters, who is thinking about potential plots, has a way of getting to them.As a general rule, you are extremely good at capturing a character’s voice, whether in dialogue or in narrative.  You know this.  It is particularly apparent in your Amelia blog (there was a link in one of your Freddie blogs, and I’m a completionist in most things writing-related where these are concerned) and in Freddie.  Amelia shows that this has always been one of your strengths, but I think Freddie is where you show your growth as a writer best - because you can physically read how your writing grows just from looking at her voice in your first blog for her (where it wasn’t bad) to where it is now (where you channel Freddie like nobody’s business) - and that’s with months or longer between actually actively writing her, so that means it’s just you getting better.  And that’s cool to watch.All of that said, we can begin to look into more specifics as far as individual characters.  I’m going to do this within aspect, so - consistency and themes first, then finish with potential for future development.Within threads with partners, all of your characters are consistent, and in that same way, they are consistent across different threads with multiple partners.  However, of these five, four deal with the theme of surviving vs. thriving (this is explicitly mentioned in the text for three of the four (Scully [x], Rey [x], and Bedelia [x]) and is a basis for Freddie, even if not explicitly mentioned), and all five deal not so much with strength as not appearing vulnerable or weak, albeit in different ways.  Scully deals with this through closing herself off, through appearing like her male peers; Bedelia does this by controlling everything and being intimidating (because surely someone like her has no apparent vulnerabilities - she is ice and cold and impenetrable because she is so high above the lesser mortals); Rey’s is more a need based on not being taken advantage of within the context of the other street rats (she would like to be but cannot be); Freddie’s is simply due to the nature of her job (”She wasn’t supposed to be this weak./She was a journalist.” [x]), and Hermione’s actually is a basis in strength, which is a welcome development.  It actually becomes an interesting dialogue among the characters (particularly across some of Bedelia’s threads - you have Alana specifically stating that she “never found vulnerability to be a weakness” and Bedelia’s remark against it [x] and in further development with Stella, you have Bedelia specifically noting that “Vulnerability need not always be a weakness” [x] - it has even shown up as commentary in the Scully/Jess threads, “she felt less of a need to/wear a mask, less of a desire to feign the/strength she lacked.  She wasn’t expected/to be invincible.  It was freeing, but she/could only embrace that so far” [x] and in the meme where you attempted to write Alana, “If she can weap-/onize her own pain, perhaps it will no longer be a weakness” [x]) - which gives you a consistency across characters, which is admirable.You have mentioned that you like survivors.  You write them well.  You also expand and expound and dive into what surviving looks like across various muses (in fact, a majority of your other muses could also be labeled as survivors) as well as the battle that the feminine must have with the ideas of vulnerability, weakness, and how that interacts with gender (of the five, this is most explicitly brought up with in Scully’s threads, as far as gender is concerned, but that battle of vulnerability/weakness is constantly present).  And, despite doing this so frequently, it never seems old, it never seems tired, it never seems out of character because it is so much in character for the muses you are writing.  And that is to be commended.

Now, as far as future development, I want to broach this in two different ways: personal development as a writer (which is really about character types worth exploring in the future) vs. character development (which is more tied into places to explore with your existing characters, ways of individually developing them further, which still leads to writing development, but on a much more minor scale).  I’ll start with the latter and work my way to the former, just because that seems easiest to me.With Scully, I would like to see her within the context of some sort of relationship (friendship works well for this, actually, because peer pressure and support is a thing) reach a point where she is comfortable embracing her more feminine aspects and vulnerability.  In one of your OOC posts, you said that what you wanted was for Scully to wear a dress.  That’s…pretty much what I mean.  Because so much commentary within Scully’s threads is focused on not being vulnerable and on needing to appear more masculine so as not to be judged wanting by her male counterparts in the Bureau, the best development for her is to reach a place where she does not have to be preoccupied by either of those things, even if it is never in her work sphere, even if this is something she is only comfortable with around certain people.  And, whereas with other characters their greatest development is in a low point, we see enough Scully abuse in the show.  Her best growth arc is in the opposite.

With Bedelia, I want two things: one, I want to see her somewhere where she embraces her darkness, instead of trying to force it out, and two, I want to see her somewhere with a complete lack of control, not by her own choice.  I’m more concerned about the former than the latter (as the latter will be hard to pull off well without an adequate partner, to pull off without further debasement of her character, and that’s not what I mean by this.  Only that in every situation where she has lost control, it is by choice and she still retains some aspect of control.  It has not been a full out loss.  It’s worth exploring, but harder to do well - not that I think you can’t, as I have great admiration of your writing and have no doubt you can, but that finding a partner up to the challenge without it turning into torture porn will be complicated).  Of course, Bedelia can embrace that darkness in a multitude of ways - violence is the easiest route, but I hesitate to say I want to see Bedelia violent, as that is certainly not the case.  It simply seems to me that in the most developed ship you have for her, Bedelia is embracing the aspects of her that are more light - you have done phenomenally in this, so I would like to see the opposite explored.I have little commentary on Rey in this regard.  I like how she is developing and would like to see more of that in the future.  Any Luke/Jedi development seems like it would fall under similar development as the Stella/Rey development (only less intriguing), and I’m of the sort that likes waiting for canon before developing in that regard anyway.  I do want to see Rey within the context of a romantic ship - that would be a good next step because it builds on what you are currently doing - but I would also like to see Rey with a compatriot, a peer, within the context of her lack of identity.  Rey isn’t homeless, but I’d like to see her struggling with someone to make ends meet, someone equally at or even financially beneath her level.  (I’m not particularly interested in seeing Rey embracing the dark because that is not her struggle.  People is her struggle.  Relationships are priority.)With Freddie, I do want to see her in a low point.  From what I can intuit of your Freddie, her financial priorities are less on where she lives and more on fueling back into her job - fixing her camera, having a camera, gas money, etc. are all of much higher priority than her location, which waits until she gets big enough to afford somewhere better.  So, I want to see Freddie lose her apartment.  I want to see her choices in this regard in a financially bad situation lead her to not having a place to live because she cannot afford it.  There is not much point in Freddie succeeding - there’s no growth there because she’ll keep doing what she’s doing.  There’s no change.  This puts her in a situation where she has to make decisions and go from there.  Also, this leads to interesting interactions within the context of relationships and threads you’re already building within the Hannibal RP community.  I mean, putting Freddie in a place where she lives with one of those characters (not because she went to them, because that’s not her style (Alana, maybe), but because they notice and forcibly don’t leave her because of their priorities (Alana, Zeller, Will (mine, because show!Will doesn’t care), heck Frances would be great for this) can lead to the interesting conflict of, well, job is priority and this actually puts her in a closer proximity to people she can feed off of - take advantage of their kindness.  Or not.  Depending on how characterization goes.I do not have any particular direction for Hermione’s character development at this point.  Most of suggestions above deal with explorations separate from what you’ve already done or that can be founded entirely in the character’s set personality and systems.  As of right now, there is not enough information in your threads or significant enough relationships for me to get a good idea of what you will naturally explore with her, and so I have no specifics.  Any and every direction seems good at this point.  In the future, I may be able to be more specific.  My apologies.Now, as far as your general growth as a writer, I think there are two potential next steps.  As we’ve discussed, I do think having a comedic muse would be a good expansion simply because comedy is something you could stand to work on (in that same breath, you do have at last one comic muse, so this is of less importance).  What I would really prefer to see you doing next, in order to further your growth, is to pick up a villain, someone dark, dangerous, irredeemable.  Bedelia is the closest you have to this at the moment, and a dark elaboration on her would be closer, but even then, it still isn’t the same.  She is very much greyscale.  I would like to see you write someone who is evil, who enjoys being evil, who desires and acts upon an intent to harm simply because they want to do so.  Even with a villain, you can play into the themes that you tend towards because those are easily good motivations for a villain, so although it would be a step outside of your comfort zone, you needn’t go too far outside of it.  I just see this as an area you haven’t touched on and would like to see that potential growth.the mun: River is one of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting - not just on this site, but as a general rule.  It is even more to her credit that we met on here, given the tumultuous landscape of tumblr in general.  We’ve known each other for almost three years now (!!), and although we disagree on some things (and I’ve caused drama), River’s consistently been someone who works to find a solution rather than being bogged down or drawn into the overemotional side of things - and that’s true not just from the standpoint of our relationship, but also from the standpoint of problems within fandom as a whole (or things she picks up on from her blog).  River is always very careful about what she posts and what she says - diplomatic is perhaps the best way to put that - and it’s a skill that I find very admirable, given the overwhelming amount of salt that is seen pretty much daily on the site (not that salt is bad, but there’s a way to be salty without alienating people, which is what I mean here).  Which is not to say she has no faults, because everyone does, but I have no intention of going into any of those.  River is worth far more than any of that, and I think it does her a disservice to suggest otherwise.

do i;

follow them: Yes.  Fairly consistently, I think.  Except for a few months on Rey, but that was only because I hadn’t seen the movie yet.  As soon as I did, I was.  …oh, and Jack.  I didn’t follow her Jack blog.rp with them: Yes.  Not as consistently as we used to?  But I think that has more to do with me jumping around from muse to muse than anything on her end.  (Then again, we’ve got…eleven?? twelve active threads, so.  There’s that.)want to rp with them: Always.ship their character with mine:  …depends on the character(s).   I like our styles together; they have a tendency to compliment each other more often than not.  Outside of that, I feel like it’s really up to how the characters’ relationship(s) develop?  So, yes, basically.

But if you want to know for each of the characters mentioned above in relation to Rabbit!Jess (and other muses in parenthesis because I spent far too much time thinking about this and some of these seem like they would be easier for potential shipping than others):

1) Jess/Scully comes first because to this day it is probably my favorite ship to have written (am  I allowed to say that?), and that is partly because Jess does not shut up about it.  And if I’m honest, with purely chemistry in mind, it’s proven itself to work.  Jess will never stop loving Scully, and even when I was writing timeline canon as a thing, she constantly referred to her in other threads because she never stopped loving her.  I said it two years ago, and I’ll say it again, this is the healthiest ship Jessica Rabbit has ever been in.  So.  The short answer is yes.  The long answer is best summed up as: the greatest regret Jessica has is that she met Dana while Roger was still around and she desperately wishes that they had met in other circumstances. (As far as other muses, there are a handful with potential, but I think they all work best as friends. Reyes will probably be the best other muse option here whenever it is I add her. But can’t be sure until get to that point.)2) Jess/Bedelia is next.  I think a ship with River’s Bedelia only works if there is something about the other character that catches Bedelia’s interest on an intellectual level - a human puzzle for her to figure out.  Even if it doesn’t stay in that realm, it has to start there.  I do not believe that Jessica would be the puzzle she would need to be for Bedelia to have an invested interest, unless we go into Toons as an idea, but since that would so clearly be conceived of as a delusion, I doubt she would find that interesting.However, if we go with Jessica’s earliest time period and the idea that violence against a Toon still counts as violence but doesn’t ruin a reputation and if Toon abuse was considered as a viable alternative to Bedelia’s other attempts to not be violent, then that, I think, is a possible scenario where enough interactions could lead to potential shipping.  Just from the continued use to take care of that need. Although there could be the added complication of Jess as a loose string where Bedelia would want control over any possible discussion of the act, at which point you can add in ownership discussions (honestly, outright buying her would be the best solution in this situation), and then there might be further extended contact outside of the potential violence, which works even better. The question then becomes whether Bedelia would consider it a loss of control at all. Or, since Jess would then be considered as property, whether that perspective could be shifted (doubtful). Which is all to say tentatively yes but the scenarios aren’t likely. (Amy, on my multi, would probably be the best option for a Bedelia ship.)

3) Jess/Freddie is third and, uh, yeah.  Definitely.  Because with all of the Toon upheaval throughout Jessica’s entire life and the fact that Freddie is a tabloid journalist, there are a ton of different ways to throw them together and since Freddie has used sex as a way of getting information (looking at you, Zeller) and Jessica, if she knew that, would definitely see that as the best use of her time as far as giving information, then yeah.  Not that sex = relationship, because it doesn’t, but like.  Extrapolate from there. It’d be great. (Then again, this scenario might work better for OC!Jess because band or model!Bedelia because model - although my Bedeals is ace, so some slight differences in that aspect of the potential plot. Also, honestly, baby!Bedelia and foster!Freddie. Because reasons. Or Camille/Freddie because rivalry because journalists being journalists. Heck, I could even rock a Will/Freddie but only because my Will doesn’t suck. I OBVIOUSLY HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS HERE.)

4) Jess/Rey is fourth and no.  No, I don’t.  Even if Rey is old enough for it to be a thing, she feels young in relation to Jess and she would feel too young to Jess and so it wouldn’t happen on her end.  So very firm no here. (OC!Jess is the better option here. Or Finn, if I brought him back.)

5) Jess/Hermione is possible, but I think the easiest point of interaction for them would be if Toons were considered magical non-humans and we play into the whole Toon Rights idea (because Hermione is very active for the rights of non-humans - and, honestly, we can make a comparison between house elves and Toons, really we can).  If Jess were still within the young period of life where she would actively care and think things could be changed, then I can see a partnership forming and a potential ship from there based on the interactions and how the two characters play off of each other.  Outside of that, Jess…probably wouldn’t get involved and would be super reluctant as a whole.  Or involved with Roger.  Or after his death and not wanting to deal with a witch because she would think Hermione could have fixed it, and please let’s not go that route. (Bedelia is far and away the better option here, because her Hogwarts verse is much more useful for this (please let them bond over house elves, please). Heck, even her Coven verse is better for this - it’s set up well enough that you don’t need to have seen the series, it’s got magic worth researching, and you get conflict with some of the morals. Probably good for mutual character development, depending on age.)

what is my;

overall opinion: To sum up, River is far and away one of the best writers I have had the fortune of seeing on this site, and that’s a position based on her dedication to her characters and the insight she has into them, combined with an impeccable writing ability which only grows stronger.  Outside of that, as an individual, River is in most cases a good example of someone to look up to within the community - because, regardless of any differences of opinion, she is extremely diplomatic and speaks (and writes) in a way so as not to alienate the other person involved and never sees that as a reason to rant or rave or hate anyone.  Above all else, River is kind, and that shines through in all of her interactions both in and out of character.

In short, I love her (and her writing).  What else is there to say?

**Note: Mun’s answer are all to be completely honest. Don’t send url if you don’t want brutal honesty.

[lotrewrite]

As a comment on the general theme of the moral greyness/quandary of time travel and changing time I think at this stage since we have all the episodes now and can see what has progressed in terms of conversations/themes, we need to be careful about repetition (I mean this for all of us writers, and the people who volunteered to beta). I’ve seen in crop up in a few episodes, so I’ll think we’ll all have to be careful about over-discussion of this and other topics.

Also, a note to all writers, at some point are we dealing with/acknowledging the fallout from Rip’s actions in shooting everybody across time at the start of the season/trauma from being hunted/brainwashed/his actions whilst brainwashed? Not to mention we may need to insert Queen B in a few extra places, since she seems to disappear for multiple episodes at time, and pin down when exactly O!Len joins up with L!Len.

We also need to better balance the character attention since some episodes focus a lot on certain characters and then others get left behind overall (I think pretty much all of us have an unabashed Mick and/or Len bias lol). But these are all things that’ll get sorted out by the next draft. :-)

LOTREWRITE: Agreed on many points! We definitely have some repetition issues and need to hammer out how the character plotlines will develop. I think the only thing that I feel strongly about is that O!Len leaves to join L!Len in episode 16 (the maze) and returns in episode 18 (the republic) because the main purpose of him "leaving" is so that he can learn his lesson about how he's not actually as evil as the rest. (We definitely need more Queen B involvement - I think people ended up dropping her out because they weren't sure if we were using her or Merlyn or what.) Anyway - thank you for the comments! As always, very helpful and insightful!

Anywho:

Episode 13

-          There’s a good contrast between Episode 11 and this episode, in that 11 was a quandary about changing something that would have a big effect, and 13 is changing something that would end up having no effect at all. It ties in well with the melancholic ending you’ve set up here – the Legends will be finding that there’s no perfect answer, no certainty, and this is the life they’ve chosen.

-          Just a suggestion, maybe finish on a slightly more decisive note than just leaving the team kind of wallowing in their own uncertainty. Like Mick or someone says something like: “Well, maybe that’s why ‘Legends’ have always sounded more right than ‘heroes’.” It also ties in with Sara’s lessons in what it takes to be a captain, Ray’s lesson about what it means to be a true hero and all the messiness that comes with, etc…

-          I like the premise overall, and that it’s a new setting entirely instead of the well-known ones that are usually represented (however badly – I’m looking at you, LOT S1 Ancient Egypt…)

-          Good point on Ray not being automatically good at researching, that shit takes work

-          I like this dark side of Rip (even though torture is bad ofc!!)

-          Doesn’t Rip already know that Firestorm can transfuse things, so he wouldn’t be surprised?

-          Although I do like seeing Firestorm use this ability, it’s seriously underutilised!

-          Love Queen B and Amaya interacting, it’s gonna be so tense :-)

-          Do we see Legion!Len’s reaction to Mick at any stage? :3

-          I like the idea of Mick having to use his experience as Chronos to treat Rip (I like it on two fronts: firstly, in that it causes my favourite character angst, and two, it gives him a chance to face up to what happened to him and turn it into something useful/positive), although since it was Queen B who did the brainwashing we may need a bit of a handwave on Time Master technology vs magic technique (maybe Mick and Amaya work together on this?)

-          I also like that people check in with him afterwards

-          Could show a little bit of tension between Rip and the others – Rip because being un-brainwashed is unpleasant, and the others because although they’re glad to have him back, he did a lot of damage when he was under the influence of brainwashing – it also mirrors Mick in season 1 (and it parallels Len’s amputation/Sara’s shooting; both serious injuries)

-          On that note I like your point about Rip ‘rejecting family-ish/team dynamic’ contrasting with Mick becoming more accepted/accepting

-          Really melancholic ending, A+

-          I like the way the Legends get Rip back, I like seeing the Legion concede the planning to Len, Queen B and Amaya potential drama, and the team’s interactions with Mick

-          Nice work, thank you!

Episode 14

-          Oh god I love this era. Can’t wait for this episode.

-          Yep, I like that there’s a conflict in Rip without him realising it yet; he’s verbally relinquished control but still has the knee jerk reaction of needing to be the one who gives the orders. As a suggestion, if episode 13 progresses generally as was set out, you could have Sara still feeling the aftershocks of the uncertainty of the mission and the morals from that episode, and is looking for clean answers, which Rip professes to be able to provide, as someone with more experience. So he says he’s got a plan, and Sara agrees to follow it. He’s offering under the guise of friendship and altruism, but subconsciously he just wants to find his footing again after the Legion awfulness and the role of captain/leader is all he knows.

-          I cannot wait for everybody dressed up in Tudor gear. This is gonna be awesome. I can only hope there will be fanart.

-          What’s their cover story/way of getting into court? They might be able to sneak in, but going unnoticed might be more difficult given the fact that all those nobles are all basically interrelated lol.

-          Maybe at first they could sneak in during a masque! Henry threw those all time, especially when he was trying to impress Anne. And that gives us awesome costumes. Or they can claim to be French relatives of some noble or something, since France was all in fashion then.

-          Speaking of, as a suggestion, instead of placing it at a time when Henry and Anne are about to get married perhaps place it at the start of their courtship, making the prospect that Henry will lose interest more easily if Anne and he quarrel since he’ll still have wandering eye syndrome and won’t have been sucked into his creepy version of courting just yet. This makes his attentions to Sara much more pressing, since they can see time already changing the longer the courtship remains uninitiated.

-          On that note, whoo boy, Sara is gonna have a helluva time getting him to stop sniffing around her once he’s got the scent.

-          Personally I think there’s a line to tread between reminding Rip of the good he’s done and accidentally just enabling his behaviour. There were so many moments in S1 I felt could’ve been improved by Rip just clearly saying ‘I’m sorry, I screwed up, and I’ve learned something from this’ – but instead he reiterates his mission or his lost loved ones and goes doe-eyed and teary and says something like ‘So you see, this is why it’s so important blah blah blah’…he never really says sorry, or at least without adding something on to lessen the blame against him. So I’d like Rip to have an epiphany, and Stein and Ray there to not so much remind him of the good he’s done, but the good he’s capable of doing, if he works with them and understands what it means to truly be part of a team, because that’s what they’ve had to learn too.

-          That bit with Legion!Len, Mick, and Oculus!Len is really really really good, I like that a lot

-          I can see Mick shaking his head and just being a bit sick of it all at that point, constantly seeing Len everywhere – yeah, he’d wanna burn something

-          Frikking love that ending.

-          I really like this episode and I’m looking forward to it!

Episode 15

-          Oh man I love Hex, I like the idea of opening with him

-          I like the suggestion that L!Rip visited him earlier so Hex reacts badly – I think this does several things: 1) it shows that L!Rip wasn’t just hanging out with the Legion, he was an active member while brainwashed and he might not necessarily remember everything he’d done whilst under the  influence 2) It gives Hex a good reason to give his friend (whoever it was) the spear piece, once he clicked that L!Rip was evil and looking for it, which leads into 3) it wasn’t just the Legends being unlucky with their timing, there’s a reason they visited Hex and now there’s a lead on reason for why they’re going to NYC

-          Good link up with Stein and Lily and his motivation for taking the spear piece for himself

-          I cannot wait to see the individual reactions of the team when they’re searching a brothel

-          I like the idea of seeing Lily again, she was a pretty cool character and we could always use more women. Also the next episode uses Lily throughout, I’d consider working her into the episode somehow? She could always stay on the ship while the actual riots are ongoing and help coordinate efforts

-          I adore the idea of Carter showing up in a past life (but just mind the Irish brogue part…Hollywood has corrupted our accents, as they’ve done with so much. If you want help with the Irish accent/slang part – since dialects differ from suburb to suburb, never mind county – just hit me up, I’m Irish).

-          I really like scene 4, very heartache-y.

-          Good build up to the riot

-          Great interaction between Legion members (nice throwaway line about Merlyn!!)

-          I like how Carter seems like less of a dick in this (I confess, I never really liked his character)

-          Great escalation to the riot, and showing how easy it is to start and how difficult it is to finish

-          Love the show of strength from the neighbourhood, being directed by Mick and Carter

-          I like the moments with Ray in this episode – seeing all kinds of heroism, and getting through his residual feelings for Kendra

-          I like the ideas for conversations between the crew you’ve had in scene 13

-          Overall this episode builds up really well, though from the outline it wasn’t clear what the actual ending of the episode was (I’m sure we’ll see that next round!)

-          Thanks!

Episode 16

-          I love the idea of this episode

-          With Lily, we may need to look at the previous episode to work in a conversation about how she’s an aberration and Stein makes a mess of the explanation, so that she’s still annoyed and upset with him in this episode – Stein’s learned a few lessons along the way, so ‘she’ll get over it’ will probably be said in a pessimistic tone of voice, instead of a dismissive tone

-          Some of the characters’ reactions don’t mesh well with what we know now having seen all the episodes together – Ray has already seen lots of kinds of heroism and Rip is learning how to gracefully let Sara take the lead. So instead of being sulky, perhaps they’re willingly staying on the ship? Ray is still trying to figure out how best to be his kind of hero and Rip will be reacting against his instinct to take the reins and will want to give Sara room to work.

LOTREWRITE: This is definitely something we should discuss - depending on where they are in their story arcs, they could be in the middle of the learning process or they could be rejecting the learning process (i.e. depressed at not getting to the end result they want fast enough) But hey, that's why we did draft outlines!

-          Love the idea of the hosts obnoxiously reciting the titles!

-          I think there’ll be a line to tread between Stein’s development earlier on in the series and this one where he seems to fall back into his privilege/arrogance – maybe play up the Lily+Stein relationship here as his reason? (i.e. he knows the team can take care of themselves, but now his daughter’s safety is on the line and he won’t trust anyone but himself to lead them to victory – which leads to him saying some hurtful/obnoxious things)

-          Monty Python reference, love it!!!

-          The way Sara, Lily, and Queen B escape is actually so hilarious to me

-          I love the idea of a grudging truce between Queen B and the others

-          I love trial 4 interactions in particular (small typo lists two trial 4s, I mean the first one)

-          Flash museum reference, thank you

-          I love the idea of meeting future incarnations of the personas (CC, Heatstroke, MM), but did you mean that they’re actually the police? Is this a comics thing? I’m not sure about the way they’re introduced, it’s a little confusing

LOTREWRITE: I think in the comics they are actually some sort of organized police-ish force? It can definitely be made more clear.

-          Good move with Stein and his humble pie, and the Legion abandoning Len

-          “What is Batman’s real name?” nice

-          (And in my head I immediately heard Mick say: “Who the hell is Batman?”, since I don’t think we have a canonical Batman yet, aside from S1 Rip saying vaguely “I’ve seen dark knights fall and men of steel something something…”? lol)

-          I can very much imagine O!Len being disgusted by a cop CC

-          I sense that this episode has the potential to be very confusing and could stretch out as quite long, so we’ll have to keep our eye on the pace and editing of it (but that’s what betas and proof readers are for!) - I’d suggest a magic number of three trials before the big finale, just to mind the pace a bit.

-          Overall it’s a mega fun, filled with potential episode and I’m really looking forward to it

-          Thanks!

Episode 17

-          I can’t express how delightful the image of the team taking Jax out for his birthday is to me, especially a team member accidentally flirting with his mother omg

-          I have no ideas for potential girl character Jax gets talking to, but I definitely think it should be an Easter egg or something

-          I know the Legion are the bad guys, but in honesty the torture scene is just a bit jarring to me, unless we specify who it is – maybe a former Time Master turned Time Pirate that the Legion are interrogating for intel on potential spear pieces? Merlyn always struck me as the resident sadist, I never really thought that Dahrk could be bothered what with his magic, and Queen B can just brainwash people into telling her what she needs.

LOTREWRITE: This is a good point, though I think it might work best if we seeded more references to their cruelty and sadism earlier it would work better than watering the scene down now - Darhk certainly likes killing people just because (in canon it was actually Merlyn who kept trying to make him choose NON-murder alternatives, such as in their bank heist scene), Queen B we can characterize at will, and we know Eobard's a cold-hearted psychopath, so if we play up some of those traits, we can definitely set it up well.

-          I can see the Legion turning on Len at the drop of a hat though, yeah, and I like the image of Len running for his life from his former allies

-          Oh my gosh they made Jax a cake

-          Dibs on Mick making it since he likes sweets so much (“Dude! You made this?” “It was from a box. Don’t get emotional about it.”)

-          I love how the Legends are actually having quite a peaceful, happy time of it – meanwhile, the Legion are undergoing civil war lol

-          DUN DUN DUN ending indeed!!!

  This is getting kind of long again so I’ll cap it and continue onto the next and final part of my commentary, which I’ll get done today or tomorrow. Hope this was okay and I’m not stepping on anybody’s toes or anything. Thanks for all your hard work!!

[once-upon-a-time-psychblog-blog]

I’m finding all the CS wedding hype rather amusing… I said I was done with this show a while back but split Queen lured me back in. I bailed again because the show hasn’t redeemed itself and I don’t believe this wedding is an indication of a happy ending. I’m not going to talk about that today. Today is for the upcoming musical episode, where the fan focus hasn’t really been about the musical element at all, it’s been the Captain Swan wedding. Captain Swan are getting married! They are endgame and SwanQueeners will just have to deal with it and accept that Captain Swan is the most beautiful love story ever told, and oh my god Jen chose a wedding dress Grace Kelly wore in a movie called “The Swan” and Grace Kelly was such a style icon that this wedding is so iconic because Captain Swan is the purest of true loves and that must be why Jen chose the dress and they are gonna live happily ever after and they’ll finally have sex on their honeymoon and have CS babies and won’t that be just so wonderfully fantastic! 🙄 I wonder if my fake fangirling and heavily sarcastic tone was detectable in that speech… My response to the first part, about the wedding actually happening is… it may happen, and it may not. Even when couples say “I do” and wear rings after tying the knot, it does not necessarily mean that it is true love and they will live happily ever after. Princess Diana wasn’t happy in her marriage to Prince Charles and look how that ended, which was also dubbed as a fairytale once upon a time by those who knew nothing of Diana’s life or her marriage. 👸🏼 Aside from the fact that all true love’s kisses on OUAT happen during a curse, and it’s always been the first kiss shared that breaks a curse, Captain Swan have had their first kiss outside of a relationship and outside a curse in Neverland so I wouldn’t expect a rainbow blast then. Snowing only get those happen when they are in a curse. In Ruby Slippers, Red kissed Dorothy to break her out of a sleeping curse - first kiss rainbow blast. Hades and Zelena’s first kiss broke the curse Hades brother placed upon him so they got their rainbow blast. Aurora was woken by Phillip and it was the first kiss we saw between them… the only time where a curse has been broken without a kiss was during the frozen arc with but it wasn’t a curse as such, it was a spell. The spell of shattered sight. Spells are different to curses. ✨ So Captain Swan had their first kiss and subsequently been in curses & true love’s kiss has never actually worked for them. You can argue all the other red herrings of Captain Swan being true love but the fact is a true love’s kiss is what is meant to break any curse, true love being the strongest magic of all and that still has not happened. Why is that??? Maybe they are saving it for the wedding day CSers cry. Maybe they are, it is a possibility. But in my opinion it’s highly unlikely. You should know Adam and Eddy’s way of writing by now. What they show you in canon text is NEVER what is intended. Unless of course you refer to the Snowing ship. This is why SUBTEXT is so important. I’m not talking about SwanQueen subtext. I’m not even going to go into a SwanQueen is endgame argument, which may shock you. No, I’m going to just use the OUAT storytelling as it has always been to make my point without bringing SwanQueen into it. 😧 Firstly, this is Adam and Eddy we are talking about. The same guys who gave us the mysterious Lost series, where we were trying to figure out what the hell was going on with this strange island that attracted planes to crash into it that people miraculously survived from. The people were stranded and trying to find a way off the island. The island at first seemed like some sort of conspiracy. There was a Dhama project and the word Dhama in Buddhism means TRUTH. So there was this element of trying to figure out what the truth was. This place didn’t make any sense and was totally confusing. Turns out that it wasn’t a reality as such. Seeing as many years have passed since then I think I am safe to say it… the island was some form of purgatory. They were held there and when some vanished in whatever fate was bestowed upon them, that was their soul moving from purgatory. At least that’s how it was interpreted. The ending actually infuriated a lot of viewers. 😤 So if you aren’t familiar with Adam and Eddy’s work, I suggest that you get to know it and understand that nothing is as straightforward as it seems where those two are involved in the writing. If they are happy with a wedding spoiler to be released (the guys who are strictly “no comment no spoilers”) then it’s safe to say that this wedding isn’t actually going to be as it seems. 💍🙊 Do you remember when Rumple’s dad played “Follow the Lady” before he became Peter Pan? It’s the three card trick where the player must keep their eyes on the marked card (the Queen) whilst it is shuffled around with two joker cards though some use aces. This is also called three card monte. When the swindler has finished moving them around, the player must choose the marked card (the Queen). The players watch carefully trying to keep an eye on that marked card focusing so hard on what they are told to focus on. Only when they turn the card over they believe is the marked card, it turns out they have been focused on one of the two jokers. This is Adam and Eddy’s game when they tell a story. They are telling you to focus so hard on the wedding. It’s the marked card. But when the wedding scene actually happens, you can bet your bottom dollar that when that card gets turned over, you’ll end up with a joker, and the wedding isn’t what it seems. ♠️♥️♣️♦️🃏 This is why SUBTEXT is actually more important than CANON TEXT! Things that are canon because they are written and verbally stated by characters, are generally what they WANT you to focus on, so when they flip that card (the plot) you feel like a fool staring down at a joker. So when it comes to that episode I think I’m gonna sit back, sip my tea, and have a giggle at all these CSers flipping their shit because they truly believed they are actually going to get what they want. 🐸☕️ Naturally they won’t direct their frustration with Adam on twitter, oh no, the’ll misdirect that anger at Swen because they’ll convince themselves that Adam and Eddy listened to us and gave in. But if it goes the way Adam and Eddy like to play, Swen won’t get what they want out of this episode which would be for Emma to realise she is making a mistake at the very least, and as a bonus run off with Regina. Yeah that’s not going to happen either, although it is nice to dream it at this point. What happens in the future who knows? The thing with Adam and Eddy is they aren’t afraid to give nobody what they want or hope for. OutlawQueen didn’t have a true love’s kiss, they didn’t even utter the words “I love you” - funny how that without saying I love you that their relationship can be seen as canon love because of the obvious subtext, whereas something like SwanQueen can’t because they aren’t dating. 🙃 But not going there. 😋 Realistically, it’s been 6 years, and in that time nobody ever gets what they want, and only side characters have ever had true love’s kiss because other wise the story would be over and done with quick if all the mains got their happy endings. I mean, y'all should have learned the routine by now CSers. Oh but what am I thinking, of course you haven’t learned the routine because only canon written things are important to you. Silly me! 🐸☕️ As for the Grace Kelly wedding dress, and the movie The Swan in which Grace Kelly appeared in… let me clear up a few things, seeing as I tend to watch a lot of vintage movies. I love to watch Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Doris Day… not only to see such a difference with acting back then to how it is today, but because these women were fashion icons of their time and are still icons in history. I have a particular interest in styles of those eras and how very different they were compared to the styles around today. But the movies… the actresses were great, but the messages of them weren’t always. Some were quite degrading to women in my opinion; The Swan being one of them. 🐥 The premise of the Swan… Prince Albert, visits a banished family of nobles. Their matriarch ( to spell it out for you this means the head of the family) Princess Beatrix (who seemed to act like more of a domineering queen), wants her daughter Alexandra, to marry her own cousin Albert so that the family will be welcomed back into the kingdom. So Alexandra’s mother encourages her to flirt with Albert to gain his affections to regain regal status as she believes he will fall in love with her, marry her, and they can finally rule a kingdom again. (Reiterating this point to CSers because generally they only focus of context rather than any subtext… this is not love, because love is not a choice and love isn’t manipulation in order to gain status or material possessions). 🙄 Princess Beatrix: Oh my dear child, this is the one thing, the one opportunity that all your life I’ve been praying for - for you to become a queen. - Doesn’t she sound like Cora! Not at all like Snow. The one opportunity in all YOUR life that I’VE been praying for. Never mind whether Alexandra has any feelings of her own. I’ll just dream your life for you and you do as I say to fulfil my own dreams for your life. This is such a common thing. When you think in terms of sexuality, though this has nothing to do with sexuality, a lot of homophobic parents like to do, control and force their child to be in straight relationships they don’t want to be in. Controlling and forcing relationships is something a parent should never do, regardless of whether or not their child is heterosexual or otherwise. Control and manipulation is not an act of unconditional love. Anyway, I digress. So back to the story… 😑 Much to her Beatrix’s dismay, Albert doesn’t show much of an interest in Alexandra. So Beatrix encourages Alexandra to flirt with her tutor, Nicholas in order to rouse Albert’s attention. 😧 Princess Beatrix: My dear child, how do you suppose I came to marry your father? You can’t think a man just gets an idea into his head and asks a woman to marry him? Of course not! All your father ever cared for was horses. He wouldn’t even look at me. So I looked once or twice at the riding master. Your father proposed the very next afternoon - on horseback. 🤔 Don’t you just love pushy manipulative people who become parents who then try to manipulate force their children into a relationship where there is no feeling not to mention the fact that Albert was Alexandra’s cousin? I know you CSers are so quick to jump on an incest wagon when you compare Regina who was no blood relation to Snow, was forced into a marriage with Snow’s father, man she didn’t love and therefore was forced to be a stepmother very temporarily to Snow, whom she didn’t want to be a step parent to, rather than also accept the fact that Hook actually had a relationship with Henry’s biological grandmother by choice, and was Baelfire’s/Neal’s step father by your own logic, was even trying to act as such whilst Baelfire was aboard the Jolly Roger, and therefore acted unbeknown to him as Emma’s step father-in-law… so this marrying of a cousin thing should really be a pleasant thing for you guys to hear. Anyway…. 🙃 Dropping the prince and princess titles as writing that is becoming rather monotonous, Alexandra does as her mother wishes and flirts with her attractive tutor Nicholas. However, later the plan backfires when she develops genuine feelings for Nicholas. Nicholas is already quite taken with Alexandra, so when she invites him to the farewell ball for Albert (her last chance for the plan to work) he eagerly accepts. Later when they are dancing at the ball it appears that Albert is getting jealous, (how very possessive considering his apparent lack of interest) but instead of saying something, he appears to show more interest in playing the bass viol in the orchestra. 🎶🎵🎶 Despite the original intention of using Nicholas, Alexandra realises she is quite taken with Nicholas. Here you can see her conflict where she expresses feelings for him but you can see that she is bound by her ploy in order to gain the Kingdom for her family… 💔 Dr. Nicholas Agi: You’re so sweet and so beautiful… Princess Alexandra: Don’t come any closer Nicholas… I’ve never seen a man in love and… he happens to be in love with me. Dr. Nicholas Agi: Are you so afraid of me? Princess Alexandra: Oh, if I am I want always to be afraid. I want to be so good to you. I want a hundred things. I want to tell you everything that’s in my heart… I want to look after you and spoil you and… oh, eat something. The wanting to always be afraid is a hint of saying I want to always be afraid that I will lose you because that’s how I know, in this confusing time where I feel things for you but I’m trying to gain my cousin’s affections, that my feelings for you are genuine. But obviously she cannot be so transparent and say this aloud because of her mission set by her mother. 😔 Eventually, she tells Nicholas that it was all a ploy to get Albert to propose to her and she suspected he felt this way. She realizes that she has some feelings for him but he feels used and that Alexandra has been disingenuous, so refuses her affection. Albert comes to find out about this situation and is a little taken aback. Albert and Nicholas trade insults, and Nicholas then storms out and tries to leave the next morning. 😭 Alexandra, distraught over what happened, tries to leave with him, but he refuses her again. YES… SHE WANTED NICHOLAS NOT ALBERT! Albert’s mother shows up and gets the entire story and is aghast. Albert actually GIVES HIS BLESSING to the pair and says that when he is king he will allow them back into the country. However, Nicholas is still hurt ends up leaving the mansion without Alexandra. 😭💔 So… there you have it. She didn’t actually want to marry Albert, because she actually loved Nicholas. But royalty being what it is, marrying for love is rare. She did end up marrying Albert but it wasn’t for love. These are the last lines where Albert tries to console Alexandra… 😭 Prince Albert: Your father used to call you his swan, so I am told. I think that’s a good thing to remember. Think what it means to be a swan: to glide like a dream on the smooth surface of the lake, and never go to the shore. On dry land, where ordinary people walk, the swan is awkward, even ridiculous. When she waddles up the bank she painfully resembles a different kind of bird, n'est-ce-pas? Princess Alexandra: A goose. Prince Albert: I’m afraid so. And there she must stay, out on the lake: silent, white, majestic. Be a bird, but never fly. Know one song, but never sing it until the moment of death. And so it must be for you, Alexandra: cool indifference to the staring crowds along the bank. And the song? Never. 😭😭😭💔💔💔 Now… first off, Albert insulted Alexandra. She is graceful but only where she belongs… he doesn’t see her gracefulness in any other circumstance. Out of her natural habitat (i.e. with Nicholas whom she actually had romantic feelings for) she would be awkward and ridiculous. Instead of being the regal beauty that she is, she would be more like a goose. It’s all metaphoric to suggest that she is far too good for a man who was actually a nice guy, but not royal and therefore not worthy, despite the fact that she genuinely loves Nicholas. It was suggesting that her life was to be unfulfilled, and that her cousin who wasn’t interested in her to begin with, and who only did become interested when another man was on the scene, who will give her a life where she can be regal and graceful, but she as a Swan cannot sing her (Swan) song and must be silent and subservient to preserve the perfection illusion for the Kingdom. This is the life she was born into and she should just accept it. 😤 What kind of message is that really to women? To settle for a guy you’re actually related to, in a loveless marriage, living a life where the surface everything looks perfectly regal and wonderful, but she can’t even express herself… sounds like such a wonderful happily ever after, doesn’t it? [Oh sorry, insert sarcastic tone here again!] 🙃 And wouldn’t you know it, beautiful blonde woman with a Swan wearing a crown was the poster for that 1950’s movie. Seems to depict the oppressive nature of how royal romances are more of a transaction than of genuine love. Not saying that some aren’t for love, it’s just not often that a royal will marry someone for love. Though I do believe that Kate and William in the UK did marry for love. I guess time will tell. 🙃 Ironically, Grace Kelly was courting her own prince while making The Swan. She met Prince Rainier during April 1955 Cannes Film Festival. By December that year, he proposed to her. Royals do work fast and this is usually down to external pressures in retaining their kingdoms. It was speculated that he was seeking a wife, as a treaty with France in 1918 stated that if he did not produce an heir to the throne, Monaco would revert to France. However this was neither confirmed nor denied. It was also rumoured he had an affair with three different women and the first was during Grace’s first pregnancy, but that was also neither confirmed or denied so we cannot say for sure whether it was a faithful marriage. 😕 Also ironically, that movie featured several eerie similarities to Kelly’s future. Her white lace costumes are quite similar to her wedding dress, and Alec Guinness who plays Prince Albert in The Swan, actually looks a great deal like Grace Kelly’s husband, Prince Rainier in this movie. 🤔 Interestingly enough, Grace Kelly actually did some work for ABC! Yes, she narrated ABC’s made-for-television film The Poppy is Also a Flower (1966). She and Rainier worked together in a 33-minute independent film called Rearranged in 1979, which received interest from ABC TV executives in 1982 after premiering in Monaco, on the condition that it be extended to an hour. Before more scenes could be shot, Kelly died and the film was never released or shown publicly again. Grace Kelly died in a car accident. The beautiful blonde princess lost control of her car after suffering a minor stroke that caused her to lose control of the vehicle. Her daughter, Stephanie, one of her three children, was in the car with her and she tried to regain control by taking the wheel after her mother lost consciousness, but failed to do so. Grace was alive but unconscious, with injuries to her brain, thorax and a femur fracture, she was in a coma on life support until the following day when Rainer decided to terminate the life support as doctors determined that she would not recover. Stephanie suffered bruising, concussion and a fracture to her spine. She didn’t attend her mother’s funeral due to these injuries. 😢😢😢😢😢😢😢 A tragic way for a princess to die, a tragic way for anyone to die really. Her life was cut short, so the happily ever after bit didn’t really happen for them. 😔😔😔😔😔😔 During her marriage to Rainer, Grace was not permitted to act anymore, a decision that Rainer himself imposed after an outcry in Monaco when Hitchcock offered Grace a part which would depict her fictional character as a kleptomaniac. So Grace had no choice but to decline Hitchcock’s offer. Despite acting being her dream and pleasure in life, the only way she could do it would be to divorce Rainer, which would mean leaving her three children in Monaco, and she would never do that. So she threw herself into her role as a princess and engaged in charitable work. Grace Kelly’s dream was to act and it had been her dream from being a very young child, much to her parents initial displeasure. However, her life changed, and she had to put not only her children and husband first, but the reputation of Monaco before herself too. She was no longer in a position to pursue her dreams. After her death, Rainer lived out his life, but never remarried and he is buried alongside her. ☹️ Most see Grace Kelly as this gorgeous blonde woman, who got lucky and married her own Prince Charming in a fairytale come true. But what I see is this whirlwind romance where a proposal was made after 8 months of not actually spending a lot of time together what with their individual commitments (particularly Grace’s as she was filming at the time). She accepted it meant that she had to give up her dreams, sadly her tragic death meant the apparent on the surface perfect fairytale (which it really wasn’t) ended prematurely to what a happily ever after is meant to be. Fairytales don’t end in tragedy. So I really find it somewhat interesting that Jennifer Morrison chose a Grace Kelly wedding dress of all the dresses she could have chosen. It will be interesting to see just how this pans out. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 Follow the lady does not mean follow Emma into the canon plot spoiler that they don’t mind you seeing with blind faith that it will happen. The truth and the clues as to what will happen have already been shown to us, but you guys are too busy focusing on what they tell you to look at. It’s not the big obvious canon things where the truth is found, it’s in the details and the subtext, in the small things. Even in the things you believe are not canon because they haven’t been said. But what do I matter huh? I’m just a fan who ships SwanQueen and as YNB said once only canon ships are worth talking about 🙃 I wonder if that statement will still hold up after all of this is over, or whether Adam and Eddy’s storytelling will teach the lesson that just because something is canon, doesn’t mean it’s set in stone and that it always will be.

[tvserieshub]

In general, I have very few complaints about the adaptation of the novels to the TV show. There is one scene from the prior episode I would have wished was closer to the book, and that was when Gunny sees the Protomolecule on Ganymede. In the book, Protomolecule Man picks Gunny up and in the process of this interaction, it hurls her a large distance, which simultaneously seriously injures her, but actually saves her, too. It reinforces her memory of Protomolecule Man, as well. In the show, in the small snippet of the battle, Gunny sees the UN team FIRING BACKWARDS, but she is prevented from elaborating on this during her questioning by Martens or her testimony to the Earth and Martian diplomats. This might mean that many viewers didn’t completely catch that either. However, I fully trust that the writing and production team will integrate this information into the ongoing story.

The reviewcap begins here:

It doesn’t take long to find out the basis of the name of the episode. It’s the name of one of the Ganymede relief ships. The ship is crewed by two people, Santichai Suputayaporn (Peter Williams) and Melissa Saputayaporn (Valerie Buhagiar), and they are complaining about Mars’ heavy-handed interference with them delivering their relief shipment. The ship is boarded, and the boarders identify the crew and check the ship. The voices sound familiar…and that is because the boarders who want to impound the ship are Holden (Steven Strait) and Amos (Wes Chatham).  They are unmasked in a struggle. “Well, this is off to a good start.” Amos gets all the great dry lines.

Gunny Bobby Draper (Frankie Adams) receives medications and is caught leaving her Purple Heart behind. She says she left it on accident, but clearly she doesn’t feel she deserves it. A common reaction from battle survivors. The medications are to help her, as a Martian, to survive her time with the much more significant gravity on Earth (although not ALL of them were fully explained). Gunny asks Martens (Peter Outerbridge) what Earth is like, and interestingly, he mentions that the ocean (and Earth) is dirty and has a stench. This would definitely be the impression of people who live in a far cleaner and sterile surroundings. The earth is a messy place. Martens says that it’s one more thing Earth takes for granted. When they land, even Martens is breathless. They exit the ship and stagger the short distance into the Martian compound. Gunny sees a seagull (and she has deliberately left her sunglasses behind).

Avasarala (Shohreh Agdashloo) checks on the status of the Arbogast, sent to check on Venus. Not sure that is such a clever idea. Playing with Venus is playing with fire. She discusses this with Errinwright (Shawn Doyle), and Cotyar (Nick Tarabay) is in the room. Errinwright confirms that he has been receiving information, which he has kept from Avasarala. She suggests she’d like to hear this, as well, but Errinwright says she needs to focus on diplomacy with Mars. After Errinwright leaves, Cotyar asks if Avasarala really believes that Errinwright hasn’t had any contact with JP Mao, and she reminds him that it’s HIS job. He says they are being very quiet and also, that it would be helpful to have information on the Arbogast. She says that’s why she has an inside man. (Side note….Avasarala’s jewelry is so on point and gorgeous…).

On the Arbogast, Col. Janus (Conrad Pla) is clearly annoyed with the “insider” that Avasarala has placed on the ship, Dr. Iturbi (Ted Whittall). They wrangle a bit before an officer detects a Martian ship, which was cloaked. Janus tells Iturbi that when he was young, he thought stars were magic, but then he grew up and learned science.

Holden checks in with Alex (Cas Anvar) and reminds Alex to keep an eye out, which of course Alex was going to do. On the Weeping Somnambulist, Melissa still thinks that the Roci crew people are there to steal the supplies. Naomi (Dominique Tipper) tries to reassure her the supplies will get where they are supposed to but Melissa doesn’t believe her and calls her a Welwalla. It looks like Melissa is wearing some aged uniform (UN?).

Praxidike (Terry Chen) records a message for Doris’ cousin to let them know that she died, but the message wouldn’t send. Prax calls Amos. When Amos finally arrives, Prax says he wants to send the message, but Amos says he can’t. Prax asks if he is a prisoner, and Amos says no. Prax says that he has a right to know why he can’t send the message and he isn’t going anywhere unless he’s told why.

On Earth, negotiations begin, and especially given our current political turmoil, the jockeying for position is literally nauseating, but effective. Earth makes it clear they had the upper hand in locating where they would conduct negotiations. Mars says it doesn’t matter because they are tougher than shit. Avasarala says they should take a moment to remember the loss of lives and they both poke at each other. Errinwright shocks Avasarala by interrupting this solemn moment WAY too early. He wants to get down to brass tacks. One thing Errinwright is not, is subtle.

On the Arbogast, Dr. Iturbi and Janus discuss their concern over what the Martians are doing there. Dr. Iturbi can’t imagine that the Mars ship would do anything to them. Janus disagrees, showing  how mad they are that Mars destroyed several ships and killed over 500 people. The crew looks angry too.

Holden explains to Prax that his daughter was taken by Dr. Strickland prior to the mirror coming down, and they think if they can find him, they will find her. Prax doesn’t believe that they care about his daughter (but Amos clearly does). Amos has told Prax about the Protomolecule (the rest of the crew is shocked, but Amos said that since Prax was helping them, they owed it to him to be straight about what was happening.) Prax explained that Dr. Strickland helped keep his daughter alive and that she has a rare genetic disorder. The crew doesn’t think this is a coincidence. Prax asks how they will find anyone because Ganymede is in such disarray. They are going to wing it. They discuss that since they are going in on a ship that isn’t theirs, they will try to hitch a ride out, but if that doesn’t work, Alex will be lurking, will scoop them up and then max burn away, with a shitton of missiles being launched at them. Sounds like a plan.

On Earth, Bobbie takes her medication and prepares to make a presentation to the peace negotiators. There are some cool effects with the windows, which can be opaque, clear or mirror. Draper looks disoriented when the windows are clear. Bobbie is introduced to the diplomatic group, and tells her story. (And, Errinwright, as usual, is a pain in the ass). Earth disbelieves that Earth fired first. Bobbie’s reiteration is faithful UNTIL she gets to the line where she states that her team mistook a training exercise and that they fired without provocation or permission (because communications were down for everyone). Avasarala is observing this entire dialog like the highly trained hawk that she is, and she detects when Bobbie’s story strays from truth. Bobbie is a very loyal Martian, and is doing what she was commanded to do. Unfortunately, everyone has decided that Private Travis (Mpho Koaho) will be the fall guy for this disaster. But, Avasarala does not believe this is what really happened. Back in her room, Gunny goes wild at Martens, because she hadn’t realized they were going to pin this mess on the utterly innocent Travis. He says that they needed to do this. Errinwright discusses the information with Secretary General Sorrento-Gillis (Ted Atherton), who is thrilled and tells Errinwright to squeeze Mars for all they can get out of it. Avasarala notes that Travis was a perfect scapegoat. Errinwright recaps how this works out for everyone (but it makes the viewers ill and mad, rightfully so).

On the Weeping Somnabulist, Santichai and Melissa hold hands before they go to Ganymede. On the Roci, Alex has whipped up a batch of lasagna for the crew, and you can see the closeness between him and Amos. The team arms itself. They separate and the Weeping Somnambulist heads off to its mission, and the Roci parts ways.

The negotiations continue, with Earth pressing Mars for all its worth. Already paying for a lot, Mars agrees to pay for everything if it can get full authority over Ganymede. Errinwright presses for a statement accepting responsibility, but Mars balks at that. Just as they are about to conclude the session, Avasarala insists upon speaking to Draper again. Avasarala points out that service on Mars is compulsory and asks Draper if she would still serve if it wasn’t so. Draper says she would to achieve the vision of another Earth on Mars. Avasarala notes that a huge amount of Earthers get basic assistance and clarifies that they aren’t lazy, there just aren’t enough opportunities for them to be productive. She notes that Travis’ parents gave up everything. Bobbie acknowledges that Travis was one of her best soldiers. Avasarala asks if Bobbie really believes that Travis would panic or give up everything that was sacrificed for petty revenge. Bobbie becomes very uncomfortable and confused. Bobbie starts to explain about Blue Goo Man, but she’s interrupted by Martens. Avasarala presses, and the lead Martian negotiator, Korshunov (Jeff Seymour) VERY CLEVERLY tells Bobbie “Do as you’ve been instructed,” which of course has TWO meanings. Respond to Avasarala, but make sure it’s the story you were told to tell. Bobbie chokes it down and blames Travis, because she is a loyal Martian marine.

The irony is that Mars wanted control of Ganymede and, by paying for everything, thought it would get it. They went into this negotiation with that express objective. Avasarala sees this, but Errinwright and Sorrento-Gillis don’t have a clue that while they think they’ve won in this negotiation, they’ve actually LOST.

Earth has actually lost, they just don’t know it yet

The Arbogast notes that the Martians are matching every move they make. Dr. Iturbi shows the Drake equation trying to make a point of what communication or lack of communication with other sentient beings could involve. He’s suggesting that maybe they are deliberately not communicating. Janus doesn’t even really seem to believe there are aliens, and accuses Iturbi of more magical thinking. But, the Drake equation math is on Iturbi’s side. The ship finally reaches orbit and a location where they can scan the Eros impact, and the information is stunning. Iturbi transmits this to Avasarala and notes that what is being accomplished should be impossible. Avasarala notes that just like with an entity on Ganymede without a space suit, this changes everything.

On the Roci, Alex talks to both the moon Ganymede and the Roci. Ganymede is now under Martian control. Santichai tells the crew that the shakedown when they land is perfectly normal. It bugs Holden, but Melissa says she doesn’t want them doing ANYTHING. Leaving the Weeping Somnambulist, Amos and Holden observe armed thugs entering the ship. There’s no way they are going to let the thugs get away with the shakedown. The thugs are so greedy they want the whole shipment and also want the ship, too. Holden and Amos come in to rescue the crew. It doesn’t go well. Although they take out the thugs, unfortunately, Santichai is killed and Melissa goes wild. Although it’s clear that it was NOT the Roci Crew’s fault, Holden always internalizes responsibility for bad shit. It’s sort of part of his DNA.

Grade: A-

As usual, a rewatch is invaluable. Watching once gives the broad strokes, but this show is full of subtlety, easily missed, particularly if viewers live tweet. My recommendation is to watch twice. At a minimum, make sure you watch this show carefully at least once. This episode was all about people being short-sighted. Errinwright and Sorrento-Gillis don’t fully grasp what is going on, and Janus doesn’t understand what is happening on Venus. People’s limited views have really significant impact and this is setting up the continuing storyline. In the meantime, large swaths of people are impacted by events which have been set in motion. I’m looking forward to seeing what action Avasarala will take in reaction to her clear disbelief in Bobbie’s story AND her concern over what is being observed on Venus. Also, what will the crew find out on Ganymede?

Next episode: “Cascade” airs on Wednesday, March 29 at 10 pm on Syfy.

The Expanse (S02E09) “The Weeping Somnambulist” In general, I have very few complaints about the adaptation of the novels to the TV show.

[escarlatafox]

@caked-in-cake a response to this; hope that’s alright

(disclaimer: I haven’t read Killing Stalking)

I take your point that shipping in this instance is sometimes referring to people exploring the dynamic between them, but I’m not sure that it should be called “shipping” in that case, given the connotations and rather different meaning that shipping tends to have.

Yes, the way people use the term “shipping” in this instance when referring to unhealthy ships is certainly different than when they use it for healthy ships. But unfortunately, that’s just how the term(s) are getting used these days, it seems, and it is confusing but right now there isn’t a way to say “I’m extremely interested in studying how the dynamic between these two characters work but I don’t feel about these two people the same way I feel about a healthy ship”. “Shipping” is the only real shorthand people have. For works where the unhealthy “ship” is not the centre of attention, what are people going to do when they want to look up and read meta about how the (unhealthy) dynamics between two characters work, see discussions about the dynamic, read fics exploring that dynamic? They’re going to look up the ship name, because how else are they going to easily access such content? What alternative is there?

Also, it’s not that the term “shipping” has a concrete, fixed definition. I think it operates under more than one definition, as people coming to the fore talking about exploring unhealthy character dynamics as opposed to simply wanting the characters to be together demonstrate. “Shipping” and “ships” can mean different things for different people, and I think as a general rule, healthy ships = “omg they are so cute I want them to be together just kiss already!!” meanwhile shipping unhealthy ships = the definition provided above regarding the exploration of unhealthy character dynamics. Here, it’s not an expression of “I want these characters to live happily ever after”, it’s “I know these characters can’t live happily ever after and I’m interested in why, and I’m interested in the tragedy and angst that surrounds all of their interactions, I am interested in how these characters, individually, are affected by all of this”. It’s easy to see why you would be concerned if you apply the first definition to the second usage of the term, but it fails to recognise why people are usually interested in those sorts of “ships” in the first place and what they do with them.

The word “shipping” when applied here seems to give off fujioshi vibes, simply wanting to see the characters together somewhat inexplicably - because they look good together??

Now let’s be clear about one thing - there are people who romanticise abusive relationships, and there are people using the term for unhealthy ships exactly the way you think they are, I’m sure, and I think it’s important that this should be brought to attention, examined and critiqued. But as I’ve pointed out, this is not always the case and there are plenty of people who mean “exploring character dynamics” when they see “shipping”. I think, as opposed to slamming the entire “ship” and everyone who “ships” it, people should instead be focusing on the specific instances where abuse is being romanticised, because you’re not doing any good by attacking all the people who are fully aware of how awful the character dynamics are and fully acknowledge it - you’re telling them something they already know, and take into account. It’s like:

A: “The dynamics between these two characters are messed up”

B: “Yeah I know, very messed up, I’m interested in exploring the dynamics of it and how it functions exactly and affects the characters involved” And exploring the power dynamics and stuff =/= romanticising abuse or supporting the characters’ actions.

I feel like you should give the “shippers” more benefit of the doubt with regards to the extent of their own self-awareness and awareness of how messed-up the ship is, and not simply assume that they are lulled into wanting the characters to be together through the story structure. I’m undoubtedly sure this is actually the case for some fans, but I can assure you that many are fully aware of the techniques the author is using; they’re still invested in the dynamics and how the characters are affected though, however, hence they “ship” it (because that is the term they use, being practically the only word available to them to express succinctly what they mean to others who feel the same).

As to an exploration of their dynamic and the twisted nature of their relationship, I’m down for that. I wouldn’t call that “shipping”, though. It’s more of a study of them.

Sure, but as I said above, “shipping” is one of the only readily accessible words available to describe this, and looking in the ship tag is the easiest way to access the content that studies the characters and their dynamic. I think there should be a different, better word to describe it, but I can’t deny the meaning the word(s) take on in situations like this; they are clearly distinct. I’ve often been confused in the past over this very phenomenon, and I’ve been very conflicted. “But I don’t ship these two characters, I’m just interested in their interactions and dynamics!!!” and yet, I found myself looking at actual “ship” content from “shippers” who had the exact same views as I did, yet called themselves “shippers”. “These characters are so messed up and awful, their dynamic is toxic, they will never be happy together!” they would exclaim, and then dive into an analysis of their dynamic/interactions. “Then why do you ship it?” I would wonder in confusion. Slowly over time it dawned on me how they were using the term “ship/shipping”, although I still wouldn’t readily use the term myself for situations like that.

Something I’ve also seen pointed out elsewhere is, when you have built up a little community of people who have the same “ship”, and are just interested in discussing character dynamics and stuff, it can be both exhausting and very excessive/unnecessary to constantly reiterate “I don’t support these characters’ actions/I don’t think their relationship is healthy” because practically everyone feels the same and is already aware of this. There will probably be a few odd ones out who aren’t clued-in like everyone else and actually would need those disclaimers, but they are in the minority.

btw I don’t support shipping children with adults or anything like that and I don’t think the term “ship/shipping” is appropriate to use in situations like that, because it involves romance and that shouldn’t be on anyone’s minds when looking at an adult and child. (Like, a child can have a one-sided crush on an adult, someone can headcanon that, but that’s it). I’m saying that “messed-up” ships where the characters involved don’t break the law purely by virtue of who they are (child and adult is not okay because against the law, siblings would not be okay because - against the law!) are what I am talking about here. As in, if the messed-up ship in question is two unrelated adults who are both invested in the interactions between them, that’s where the other definition of “shipping” can come in for me.

I honestly think that people exploring the grotesqueness of the torture…etc and the effect it has on their relationship dynamic need to seperate themselves from the frankly disgusting fujioshis

I agree! It’s just a matter of how. But I think the kinds of stuff people talk about and focus on with regards to the ship should be able to clue you in to which type they are, although it is unfortunate and confusing that both kinds would use the same names and words for what they are doing.

I disagree, however, with the enjoyment of it. It is intriguing and very very compelling as a relationship

It being compelling is where the “enjoyment” is derived from here, though. Like, you enjoy how compelling it is, enjoyment of dissecting it, etc.

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(Btw these are just my personal views and feelings on the matter based on my observations. I know there are some things here that people would disagree with me about, as in, I know there are survivors who use ships to cope, and all I can say is that, I simply don’t know enough about how that works and haven’t read enough of the arguments from both sides to have much an opinion on that.)

Thanks for reading!

PS: I think I’m gonna delete my other response to you because I accidentally liked it and want to remove it from my likes and it doesn’t seem to want to let me otherwise. I’ll include said response below for the sake of it:

From my experience, sometimes when people say or talk about “shipping” something which is clearly an unhealthy/terrible/toxic dynamic, what they are saying is “I find the dynamic that exists between these two characters intriguing and, narratively speaking, I want to explore it and how it works and the feelings of the characters involved, as well as how their personalities mesh.” It is very different from shipping a healthy ship, and often these people are fully aware of how terrible the situation for the characters is. They know the ship is toxic and they don’t sugarcoat it or romanticise it at all when they “ship” it. See this post here.