#and I don't think the writers realize it's coercion but it really is and I think Schwarzenegger does realize that and plays it that way

[necromancy-savant]

More people should watch Conan the Barbarian so I can share my thoughts on it

[bigfan-fanfic]

How do you feel about Damien’s Mom Talia Al Ghul? Because some people said she’s a victim of bad racist writing and she’s had a bad portrayal in the animated movies. Is Talia really just victim of bad writing or she’s actually a horrible mother/person? I’m just confused because when I read the comics about Talia and the bad things she did and I just assumed that’s was part of her character because she’s a morally questionable villain of course she’s not a “good civilian person.” I knew DC is a dark adult comic book series and I already expected going in that the villain characters like Talia would committed terrible/horrible actions against the heroes. Like for example when she drugged Bruce and took advantage of him, I was slightly shocked but wasn’t surprised. Cuz to me this was the dark stuff DC was known for doing.

Alrighty, so the answer is a little bit of both!

TW for sexual assault mentions, miscarriage, parental abuse, etc.

There's a TL;DR ("too long, didn't read" summary) under the cut if you don't wanna read my report which is pretty awesome and was fun to write.

So, nobody seems to be able to agree on who Talia is at her core, and that's generally par for the course for a comic book character with multiple writers. She's been around since 1971, so that's already 52 years! And like Greek myth, there's just a lot of different interpretations of the character.

Let's get to the nitty gritty before we talk history. In 2006, writer Grant Morrison established that Talia drugged and raped Bruce, conceiving their son Damian (and also for some reason adding a whole unnecessary "artificial womb" thing? I don't get it either). However, this is based off the fact, which Morrison later admitted, that they misremembered the story they based the Batman and Son arc off of, and later comic arcs (in 2012 and 2014) would retcon the incident as consensual. Put a pin in this.

Talia was originally more of a damsel in distress slash prize for Bruce. Remember, this was the 70s. Her main deal is being the daughter of Ra's al Ghul and thus if Batman marries her, he becomes the heir, which Ra's wants. Despite not wanting to succeed Ra's, Bruce and Talia do share romantic attraction and Ra's considers them married. Then, later on, they do actually marry and she gets pregnant, and then Talia realizes that Bruce will always be in danger having to protect her and their child, so she fakes a miscarriage and they dissolve their marriage. She gives the child to an orphanage, and he is given the name Ibn al Xu'ffasch, or "son of the bat". This is the story arc Morrison adapted later.

Talia was kinda badass in the period before 2006, where she was sort of an anti-villain. She breaks out and starts having her own self after Ra's engages her to Bane whom she despises. She, under the name Talia Head, runs LexCorp as CEO while Lex Luthor is President of the United States, and basically not only tips Superman off about all his plans, but sells LexCorp's shares to Wayne Enterprises leaving Lex functionally penniless. Then she gets brainwashed and basically evil-fied by her half-sister Nyssa Raatko who literally kills her over and over, resurrecting her each time in the Lazarus Pit as an extreme form of torture and reprogramming. She usually does more evil shit after this like joining leagues of supervillains and such. However, her motives of helping Jason Todd recover and train are usually ascribed to her love for Bruce and not wanting Jason to kill him.

Then after 2006 she goes full tilt crazy ex girlfriend and murders people, trained Selina Kyle to resist any and all psychological coercion to reveal Bruce's identity, and PLANTS A DEVICE IN DAMIAN'S SPINE THAT LETS HER CONTROL HIS BODY, and reveals that she's started cloning him because she thinks he's too weak and disowns him.

Then comes the New 52 (the part where DC did a reboot to make everybody darker and "more realistic" that absolutely nobody liked, so it started in 2011 and then DC did another reboot in 2016 to make it better) and Talia is just off the wall completely evil. Genocide, cloning Damian, killing Damian, being resurrected, then fighting an ancient alien cult and claiming she's redeemed, then literally rejoining the League of Assassins moments later.

Incidentally, apparently Grant Morrison wrote Bruce, Talia, and Damian from their own experiences as a child of divorce, which is just... wow. Like... that's just a lot to unpack there, but we're just gonna step past it.

As of the DC Rebirth reboot, Talia is more or less sort of back to being anti-villain, still yes a killer, but also more emotionally open and supportive of her son and back to trying for true redemption.

Let's take, as I usually try to do, the sum total of these experiences and from other sources and try to average it out.

Unfortunately, despite the retconning, a lot of people now still see Talia's rape of Bruce as canon. I did too for the longest time, and honestly, although it makes Talia despicable and completely irredeemable in a very visceral way, it also does allow for interesting dynamics for Bruce and Damian, the batfam and Talia, Bruce in general, and allows there to be discussion for the tragically underconsidered circumstance for female-on-male sexual assault, and by having Batman, who is often used by hypermasculine dudebros for their weird ideals of stoic toxic masculinity be a victim, and be vulnerable, and go through this could be a deeply powerful arc that nobody in comics really wants to touch. It does however, deprive us of an interesting and nuanced Talia and instead catapults her right into mustache-twirling evil.

Ultimately, Talia is the daughter and heir of Ra's al Ghul. She sees no problem murdering people, and in fact she usually shares her father's genocidal ambitions of culling much of the human race to help preserve the planet. Ra's boils down to an ecoterrorist and genocidal maniac, and Talia his henchman, though when she does strike out on her own, I can't quite get a handle on her motivations. She does tout a desire for "equality and peace" but there's really no standard she gives for what this means, so I can't really see if she's just crazy or if she has good intentions.

I think, even at her best, Talia is a perfectionist and is very strict, intent on Damian being who she wants him to be. I think she has very little empathy or compassion for others, although parts of her, at her best, regret this and she tries to grow. At her worst, she is irredeemably evil, and at her best she is... morally shady to the point of never really being able to be thought of as a good guy.

I can't speak to whether or not racism plays a part in her portrayal either as mustache twirling villain or whatever. I don't know that it's necessarily bad writing because I don't know if Talia was ever intended to not be a horrible person or morally ambiguous, apart from the early days when she was mainly a figure to be pursued by Batman. When it comes down to it, adding sexual assault to her list of crimes is not going to change much because she's a mass murderer, an ecoterrorist, an abusive mother any way you slice it because she's training her child as an assassin, and generally just not great. A fascinating character, yes, but a terrible person.

TL;DR: Talia al Ghul is a terrible person in general, but the Big Incident you refer to has been retconned and is based off a poorly-remembered story. However, considering she's a mass murderer, assassin, eco-terrorist, and also let's face it classist villain, she's still not great even if you remove that from her rap sheet. She's done some cool stuff like putting Lex Luthor in his place and that one Elseworlds story where she left Bruce and gave her son to an orphanage to protect him, but otherwise, once she was made her own character and not just a love-interest-of-the-week, Talia has been morally ambiguous at best and irredeemable at worst. I can't say if it's racist or not because I don't know the motivations in her writing, but I don't know that it's necessarily bad writing to make her unsympathetically evil.

[batbeato]

I just realized that Tohya kind-of parallels Kuwadorian Beatrice. Not entirely, as he has some semblance of knowing how the world works, he isn’t as sheltered as Kuwadorian Beatrice is - but he’s still caged by someone who arguably is doing this ‘for their own good’ or to ‘help’ them. They are both technically people that don’t exist (I don’t think Beatrice Castiglioni had any paperwork considering she arrived in Japan via submarine and didn’t speak Japanese, and Kuwadorian Beatrice never even left Rokkenjima….)

Said person caring for them then takes advantage of them.

I have to ask - Does Ikuko actually care for Tohya? Or thinks she does? I can never actually tell with her. It’s driving me insane, because I don’t think that she’s just…trolling with him, essentially, but the romantic side of things isn’t exactly there, either.

Alternatively, she finds him useful because of his insights into the Rokkenjima Incident/Massacre. Or both? Maybe both?

Also, the fact that she possibly/most likely coerced Tohya into having sex with her is horrifying, also taking into context that she was also giving him illegally imported drugs, and he was eighteen when she found him / possibly hit him with her car.

Is it actually ever confirmed that it was Ikuko that hit him, or is that just a theory? Because that’s dark. Par for the course throughout umineko, but still - the thought of Ikuko hitting Tohya with her car, and that as well as the trauma he experienced leading to his amnesia, and then her taking him in (illegally)…

Damn.

Yeah when I realized the Tohya-Kuwadorian parallels I think I perished. It's... a lot. Two people who aren't equipped for the outside world and are kept from it by others and by fear, who are fed narratives about their life and given identities by their captors... Who want to return to who they were before (Bice, Battler) but can't and are harmed in the process (Kinzo's abuse, Tohya's 'fit' that resulted in wheelchair usage).

For me I think Ikuko does care about Tohya. He affirms her ability as a writer, and it gives her someone (something, really) to take care of. She seems to genuinely enjoy his company. I just... don't think she sees him as an equal partner, even if she does care about him or even loves him. She sort of nudges/pushes him into what she thinks is best or withholds information from him. It's entirely possible she was aware of him being Battler from the start and kept that from him, given that he's an 18 year old man who was found shortly after the Rokkenjima Incident. He has amnesia, but it doesn't seem like his facial structure was affected, so it should have been easy to at least compare photos. But she never brings even the possibility up to him...? Yeaaaah. Whether she wanted to use him as a curiosity/mystery for that or not.

Every day I think about the fact that they were almost canonically married. And about the age gap. And the power imbalance. And the potential coercion. Remember when Tohya woke up in Ikuko's house and not a hospital? When usually for brain injuries you need hospital observation for a while??? It. Says a lot. (And if she wanted to keep him a secret, and that's why he isn't in a hospital, then she likely knew about his true name and kept it from him, even going so far as to rename him herself, like a pet she was keeping. Kidnapping.)

It's not confirmed that she hit him with her car, but the possibility is mentioned twice - both in the Tohya introduction chapter and during the Yukari meeting. Tohya says that he stopped suspecting her after he saw her car and the undamaged bumper, which... isn't really good evidence given that she's rich enough to just replace the car.

Every day I wonder about if Ryukishi was thinking about whatever the fuck is going on here in terms of human rights violations or not.

[chthonic-cassandra]

Congratulations on finishing your series!! That must be such a dizzying milestone after being with it for so long! A couple celebratory questions: what are you most proud of about the stories? Were you always planning to make it thirteen parts specifically? How long have you known what you wanted the ending to be? Also do you have any plans for what to work on next?

Thank you so much! It is indeed dizzying; I'm still going through waves of feeling about it.

I appreciate the questions! I'll try to keep this free from spoilers since I don't think you've read the whole series yet.

What are you most proud of about the stories?

Probably the continuity of the series, and its broader arc. I haven't finished many longer-form writing projects, and even though this one isn't that long (58k words, I think), the slow and halting pace at which I wrote it means that maintaining the continuity - of narrative, theme, character - across that time feels like a big accomplishment.

I loved getting to plant thematic seeds that only came to fruition much later. Especially over the process of writing the second half of the series since my crazily long hiatus 2016-21 I was constantly going back over the whole work to make sure I was holding all the threads of the story and bringing images and symbols and phrases back to echo, and I'd never really done that as a writer before across a long time frame.

Were you always planning to make it thirteen parts specifically? How long have you known what you wanted the ending to be?

Answering these two together!

I initially wrote the first part as a one shot. It was during a time in my life (2008-09) when I was writing a lot of these Dracula AU one shots that were all different variations on related themes about coercion and captivity and situations with no good choices, just sort of putting these pieces together in different configurations and playing with them. But something about Compromise always felt more vivid to me than the others and it lingered with me.

Several years later, in 2013, there was another story about vampire transformation that I wanted to tell, and when I thought about it I realized that it was the sequel to Compromise. From there I started spinning the narrative out and gradually the larger shape of what it had to be became clear. I had a rough sense of what the full story was by the time I wrote Adjust (part 5), but for various reasons stepped away from it (and all my vampire writing) entirely for several years.

When I came back to it and wrote Acculturation I was subsequently much more intentional about planning out the rest of the series, and I knew at that point that I was roughly midway through the story that I needed to tell, though I didn't know exactly how long it would take to get there. I thought that I was going to finish it in 12 parts until this past spring, when I realized that the events of Intransigence and Concession needed to each be their own story, and that there was structural and point of view stuff there that had to be split.

Also do you have any plans for what to work on next?

Next up is my Yuletide assignment.

After that I am not totally sure, because I have a lot of potential projects. I am working on this collection of thematically linked one shots about concubine themes in Xena (find a more me sentence than that one; I'll wait), so that might end up taking my focus. On a very different tonal note, I have all these half-finished projects about the women from various Sade novels, which are incredibly unpleasant to work on but which I also have a lot of I want to say with.

I also have several different Penny Dreadful story ideas that I have been circling around in my head, because I think there are stories I can tell with them that I really want to work on telling, but it's taking some time to feel out where I am as a writer in that canon.

Other possibilities: unfinished Dracula one shots from years and years ago that maybe ought to get cleaned up and put into the world; experimenting with another vampire canon; any of the million wildcard fic ideas in my head. The disparity between the things I want to write and the time and energy I have to do it remains very large, but whatever I do write next it's definitely going to be on these same thematic preoccupations of mine.

(The crazy Dracula fic series I just finished is here, I'm still taking questions about it if you want to give me more opportunities to ramble.)

[forcebookish]

ok so just to put some positivity in here but my #1 dream is that mew eventually forgives & understands top and then they both destroy boston together 🙏 and i want mew to like absolutely completely lose his shit when he realizes the extent of what boston did i think it would be very beautiful <3

i've been hoping for this too!! i've chatted with @topapologist about it: we really want the pool-kick to be specifically about boston assaulting/coercing top and mew defending his honor🥺 mew is quite reserved so it's a pretty shocking reaction to not only kick boston in the pool but JUMP IN AFTER HIM TO KEEP FIGHTING APPARENTLY.

i'd also love it if cheum's line,

includes top🥺 cheum really likes top, i hope she'll be on his side🥺

it's still early days but the way that the writers/actors have handled this subplot so far makes me think that at least one person has to see it from top's perspective. even if nick or sand don't--

WAIT WAIT WAIT

I JUST REMEMBERED. THERE'S A FUCKING BUG. NICK RECORDED THE WHOLE CONVERSATION. THAT MUST BE HOW MEW FINDS OUT. THAT COULD BE IN PART HOW NICK AND MEW HELP EACH OTHER. omg why didn't i see it before fdlsjgjlslf

oh this changes everything. maybe mew gets a hold of part of the recording and that's how he finds out at first, prompting the fight with top, and hears the whole thing later on... or he finds out by some other means and later on hears the full recording🤔 i really hope that mew sees it for what it is when he hears it.

i still don't think that mew's going to know about the coercion or top's going to tell him in their Big fight, but that recording has gotta be how it comes up, at least at some point and in some way. and god, i hope boston doesn't get ahold of it and try to blackmail top into sleeping with him again >:(

despite everyone's "they're probably not going to get together" rhetoric, i really want them to make it through this - especially since it truly feels like they'd just be a normal couple who fall in love if it weren't for mew's shitty friends (sorry to lump you in, ray, you're not that bad, but you're also praying for their downfall). i'm rooting for them 😭😭😭😭😭

thank you for the positivity, anon! you've inadvertently opened my eyes :O <3

[lowkeyed1]

11, 15, 22, 28

Velvet Fist, Iron Glove

or the full Q&A if you want 😉

ooh... thanks for the ask <3 Velvet Fist, Iron Glove is my take on a Willow 2022 AU where the Gales never came the night before the wedding and Kit and Graydon had to go through with it... but the secret Graydon is harboring is a little different, too: he's a trans man. It evolved from exploring Kit and Graydon finding they had more in common than they thought and developing a relationship to involving Jade... and Boorman... and Airk now as well. It's a WIP, so I'm not done growing the Greater Tir Asleen Polycule yet! Not to mention it's developed something of a plot involving Zivian's evil doings and machinations, a kidnapping, the Elora Danan reveal, all kinds of fun stuff... 11. What was the most challenging aspect of writing it? I think the biggest challenge is similar to polyamory in real life! It's hard to have so many relationships going on and give them all the time and depth they deserve. Plus since I'm jumping POV a lot I really have to delve into the feelings of each person about everything that's going on and make sure it all feels grounded and true to them and the situations. 15. Talk about the characters’ struggles & how you decided on those. Hm. Well, for Kit I felt like her struggle to be seen and heard for herself was similar to Graydon's. It seemed to me that if they had a chance to get to know each other, they would realize that and be mutually supportive, and grow together. Onward from that, it seemed to me that Kit's desire to be in control and be seen as valuable would lead to her discovering a predilection for domming; meanwhile given Graydon's more constrained mien in his family he would find some relief in letting go of control. Of course, things evolve... as Kit begins to feel safer and more secure she finds she can give up a little control, and as Graydon sees that need in her he can take control at times because he sees how much she needs a break. Kit still tends to struggle in areas where she can't control things and that manifests in moods and outbursts. Graydon struggles with his father's machinations and his own ever-present horniness, lol. I can't say I really consciously decided on most of that, it just felt like it came organically as a result of studying their canonical characterization. I'm operating on vibes here, baby! 22. What is something you learned about yourself as a writer from the experience? Hoo boy. You would ask that one, lol. What have I learned from writing a vast pornographic romp about domination, submission, coercion, humiliation, and edging? ....Things. We shall say I have learned things about myself for sure, lol. I also learned that even if I don't really know where the plot is going, if I start writing something will happen anyway and it's usually fine. It's given me more confidence to just pick a direction and go -- usually what hangs me up is having too many choices and possibilities and knowing when I pick one that limits or cuts off the rest. But I can always write another story with the path not taken :) 28. Write a new summary for the fic, but badly. "Graydon Does Tir Asleen: You Won't Believe The Things That Make This Boy Horny" I really need to get back to writing this one... Now that I've talked about it I miss it T_T I don't think I'm gonna do the whole QnA but bonus: 19. While editing, did you kill any darlings? What were they? My first take on the scene where Graydon admits he's attracted to Boorman really cracked me up, but it didn't fit with how I eventually decided it should go. I've always been a little sad it had to be cut so I'm delighted to share it now: -----

"Kit. I'm in trouble. I think I have a crush on Thraxus." "....Your squire?" she looked at him, her eyebrows raised. He stopped, completely thrown off his next sentence. "Yes, my squire. Are there a lot of guys named Thraxus in Tir Asleen? Because I had the impression it was an uncommon name." "No, no... he's the only one. It's just..." "What?" "Well, when you said you liked boys I thought you meant, you know. Boys like you." "...I don't think there are a lot of boys like me in Tir Asleen, either." "No, idiot. I mean, like... softer boys."

[theasexualscorpio]

Whoops I meant to send this with the other ask but somehow it sent while I was typing and didn't even notice. Anyways now that the who Jon sequel news has calmed down, what are your thoughts on it? And theories? Things/ships you do or don't want to see? Will you be watching gonna wait for other people's reaction first?

To tell you the truth...I honestly don't give a fuck? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I was pretty disappointed by the last season of Game of Thrones, so it's pretty hard to get excited about any new GoT content from HBO tbh. I do appreciate that it was Kit's idea and he brought in his own writing team that GRRM seems to be happy with.

It turns out I do actually give some fucks, so here's a 'read more' cut.

I would like to see Jon actually working through and coming to terms with the fact that he's not Ned's son and that he's not a bastard. Both of those things are central to his identity and finding out neither of them are true would realistically fuck him up for a while. I would also like for him to deal with some guilt in relation to Da3nerys (why did he keep making excuses for her, why did it take so long for him to stop her?) I don't have enough faith in D&D as writers to believe they intended him to be anything but ✨blinded by love✨ but Jon coming to terms with being a male victim of abuse/coercion would be interesting. Maybe some flashbacks fleshing out that relationship and giving them some actual chemistry and then have Jon slowly realize that he is in way over his head and in a dangerous situation that he can't fight his way out of without endangering everyone he knows and loves.

I have read that Gwendoline Christie is open to reprising her role, so I would be happy to see Brienne of Tarth again. I want Tormund back too. I didn't actually ship Brienne and Tormund during the show's run, but I'd be interested to see what they do with that ship now that Jaime is dead. I'd love for Tormund to realize he was being creepy and set up Brienne and Tormund to be friends first. But I'm probably too far in the weeds since Brienne is part of the Kingsguard and unlikely to return North soon.

I kind of fucking hated Arya running off to be an explorer since her inability to shed her Stark identity and ties to the North was such a big part of her character, and I'd love for her to (gracefully) get over that and COME HOME. Nymeria too. FUCK IT. SPEND THE ENTIRE BUDGET ON DIREWOLF CGI, WE DESERVE IT. Also, if Arya somehow gets back with Gendry, that would be pretty neat. I like the idea of them actually getting to know each other again before immediately jumping into bed.

I would also, of course, love to see Jonsa be a thing, but I'm not sure how they would make it happen. It would have to be period drama Yearning™ with a capital Y. There needs to be long looks and a new Hand Flex to make gifs of alongside Mr. Darcy's hand flex and Kate and Anthony from Bridgerton reaching for each other.

As for stuff I don't want to see...I don't give a fuck about Tyrion Lannister or Bronn or really anyone south of the Neck except Brienne, and if I see them, I will roll my eyes so hard that they pop out of my sockets.

I think I'll watch it if I can make my sister watch it with me. If not, then I might just piece together the story through gifs on tumblr.

[addictedtostorytelling]

In 8x02 Ecklie says if Grissom and Sara had talked to him they could have figured something out with Catherine supervising Sara. Leaving aside that they clearly didn't want to have that discussion with him, would an arrangement like that have worked within the graveyard team dynamic circa s7?

hi, anon!

not gonna lie: imagining an au story path where catherine becomes sara's supervisor and sara stays on team graveyard is one of my favorite things to do—in a world where i was a faster writer, i'd write a huge, long fic all about it—so my answer to this question is emphatically "yes."

i love the idea for a number of reasons: because i think that had it happened, sara could have stayed on team graveyard and not moved to swing shift and therefore might never have left vegas in s8; because i think it ultimately would have removed some pressure from her and grissom's relationship that they didn't even realize was there; because it would have allowed for catherine and sara to bond more (and i'm a sucker for their dynamic and wish we could have seen more of it on the show); because i think it ultimately would have shaken up the team in a good way and possibly even made grissom happier in the long run; etc., etc., etc.

to my mind, it'd be a good move just all around.

that said, i also think that there'd have to be more than a few changes to the overall team structure to really make this new arrangement work as intended.

more discussion after the "keep reading," if you're interested.

__

so, like i said above, i think that putting catherine in charge of sara would be a good call all around; however, in order to make that arrangement a viable one, the fundamental structure of team graveyard would have to undergo some drastic changes.

here's how i figure:

it comes down to the whole reason why supervisor/subordinate relationships are forbidden at the lab to begin with.

that policy exists so that no employee is ever in a position to either have to do as their boss tells them to in the bedroom or within the boundaries of their romantic relationship or else risk experiencing professional repercussions if they don't.

it's all about the inherent power imbalance that such a dynamic involves.

for as long as he's in control of the assignments she receives, how she scores on her evaluations, whether or not she is considered for professional advancement, whether or not she keeps her job, etc., then it's in sara's best interest to please grissom and to do whatever he tells her to.

—and that's a big problem, not only because it could potentially lead to situations of sexual and relational coercion, but it could also lead to situations of professional coercion, as well.

all of that so, i think that in order to make it allowable for grissom and sara to remain on the same team, it wouldn't be enough to simply place catherine in charge of sara's performance reviews (as per ecklie's original suggestion).

instead, she'd have to become sara's supervisor in every sense of the word—i.e., be in charge of sara's case assignments, professional development, disciplinary actions (when needed), career advancement opportunities, etc.

her signature would have to be the one on sara's case reports.

her orders would have to be the ones that sara was acting on in the field.

she'd have to be the one who granted sara vacation time and decided on if she got raises and bonuses.

when a member of the public asked to “speak with sara's manager,” she'd have to be the one they got sent to.

everything grissom used to do to supervise sara would have to move over to her, from the big stuff (like renewing sara’s employment every year) to the small stuff (like telling sara which call-out was hers for the night).

now.

while it's possible that catherine would agree to take on all of these responsibilities for sara as a courtesy to her and to grissom—because she's their friend and she wants to help them out and also because she doesn't want the team to be broken up—i think that grissom probably wouldn't feel 100% right about asking catherine to do extra work that she wasn't being compensated for.

catherine has specific job responsibilities as the assistant shift supervisor, and though they do to some extent involve her managing personnel on the team, they're not the same as grissom's supervisory responsibilities.

all of the stuff we just described would most definitely be above and beyond the call of duty for her and would require her to spend additional time and expend additional effort at work past what she might normally do.

—and the thing is, while catherine has already been doing parts of grissom's job for years, compensating for his deficiencies as an administrator by picking up the slack with his paperwork and covering for him politically, these additional responsibilities would surpass anything she'd done so far.

she'd be doing the work of a full supervisor—albeit for just one subordinate—but not being paid like or professionally recognized as one.

and i don't think grissom would feel okay with that arrangement, even if catherine said she was fine with it.

he's too fair-minded.

so if catherine agreed to supervise sara, then i imagine that grissom would either lobby for her to be recognized as co-supervisor of the night shift (and himself would likely take a pay cut to make it possible for her to be compensated as one) or would just flat exchange jobs with her.

the former option would probably be more ideal, as i think that for as much as grissom does hate the bureaucratic side of his job, he does very much enjoy being the leader of his team and having purview over their investigations and the ability to make personnel decisions as needed—and, frankly, catherine supports him doing so.

as is said many times in the early seasons of the show, catherine is 100% qualified to be a shift supervisor herself, and the only reason she isn't one is because of her intense loyalty to grissom; nowhere is this loyalty more apparent than in s6, when after having temporarily been made swing shift supervisor in s5, she of her own volition returns to team graveyard to work under him, presumably taking a salary reduction (and definitely taking a positional demotion) in order to do so.

of course, for as much as grissom, catherine, and the rest of their team might favor a "co-supervisors" kind of situation, i don't actually know that the lab director and/or undersheriff and/or sheriff would go for the idea, as a) it'd be unorthodox, and, b) they might balk at the idea that it'd take two people to do the job of one.

—hence why grissom might have to offer to give some of his salary up in order to make such an arrangement financially feasible.

i.e., "we have two supervisors, but we're still only really paying the salary of one."

of course, even then, the arrangement still might not be granted approval, as having two team leaders of equal rank could create chain-of-command issues.

that so, they might have to ultimately do the full role reversal, with catherine becoming shift supervisor and grissom becoming assistant supervisor (a position he already occupied when brass was in charge of the shift).

now.

in the past, we know that catherine didn't want to be given a supervisory position only because grissom had flamed out (see episode 01x23 "strip strangler"), so it's possible she might oppose this kind of switch-up even if grissom were to favor it.

however, i think that if this were happening in s6 or s7, after she'd already been swing shift supervisor in s5 and then given the position up of her own volition, she might be less averse to such an arrangement, just because by that point she'd already know for certain—and grissom could convincingly argue as much—that if not for her loyalty to him, she would already be running a shift anyway.

it wouldn't be a case of her being handed something she hadn't earned on merit at all.

so if the administration okayed it? i think she could be down.

of course, whether it were a case of co-supervising or catherine and grissom switching positions, the team composition would be irrevocably changed by this shuffling of the leadership hierarchy, one way or the other.

in the first case, i can see it being the kind of situation where they split the duties of supervisor fairly evenly between them, with each one taking responsibility for the things that are their strengths. catherine would officially take over all of the paperwork and administrivia that she'd already been unofficially handling anyway, plus be specifically in charge of one csi level iii sara sidle, full stop. meanwhile, grissom could still largely run the investigative arm of the shift and deal with all personnel issues non-sara.

while there would inevitably be some growing pains—questions of who's in charge of certain operations, cases where they accidentally undermined each other's authorities, instances where when one of the subordinates disliked something one of them said they'd then go running to the other looking for a different answer, etc.—i think that in time they would find things actually worked really, really well this way, and particularly in regards to the sara of it all.

though grissom never actually exercises undue influence over sara in canon in terms of sexually, relationally, or professionally coercing her into anything (i.e., he never issues ultimatums, like "if you don't do _________, then i'll make you pay in _________ way professionally"), there is nevertheless still a lot of messiness between them relating to the fact that he's her supervisor and she's his subordinate (e.g., during s4, when thwarts her chances at the key position promotion because of his ~weirdness~ surrounding their relationship; or the myriad occasions in the early seasons of the show when he ends up "throwing his professional weight around" with her in order to try to convince them both that their relationship is strictly professional, even though it very much isn't).

even though by s6/s7, he and sara have learned to work together in harmony and no longer have the same kind of power struggles they did before they started dating, i honestly think it'd nevertheless remove a big weight from them—one that they may not have even realized was there—to no longer have to relate to each other that way.

grissom would no longer have to fight with himself not to show sara blatant favoritism in giving her certain assignments or reviewing her work; he wouldn't have to question if he was making management decisions dealing with her with his head or his heart.

meanwhile, sara could get real, unchecked feedback on her work in a way she probably hadn't gotten it for a long time; she could perhaps take on more responsibility on the team, be more proactive in her career advancement, etc.

neither one of them would have to pretend as much, which would be good for them both at work and at home.

as for the second case (i.e., grissom and catherine switching jobs), the road might be a bit rockier to start out with, just because it'd be weird for everyone to accept that grissom was no longer the "head honcho," even though he was still present on the team.

i can see situations where, in circumstances of crisis, the subordinates—and especially the nicks and gregs and lab techs of the world—might still default to looking to grissom for their marching orders, and he might even default to giving them (just by force of habit), which would result in catherine having to assert herself, leading to awkwardness or even conflict.

i can also see situations where catherine might make changes from the way grissom used to do things—for as much as they're friends and work well together, they are very different in terms of their administrative approaches—that not only might go over poorly with the subordinates but with grissom himself.

i mean, we kind of see similar things happen in canon in s5 when after the team split nick is pissy with catherine and expresses his preference for grissom's leadership (see episode 05x16 "big middle") and in s10 when greg pushes back against catherine's management style (see episode 10x01 "family affair").

for at least a while, i think everyone's tendency would still be to default to grissom as the leader, and though he'd himself undoubtedly encourage the team to recognize catherine's authority, the very fact that he had to do so might create tension, particularly if catherine thought he was patronizing her.

that all said, i do think that eventually things would even out. the team would find a new normal. people would get used to catherine being in charge. they might even grow to like catherine's administrative style over grissom's.

there's a lot to be said for everyone's conference and vacation requests being okayed in a timely manner, memos being read and responded to as opposed to ignored and forgotten about, there being systems in place for administrative issues as opposed to everything being played by ear, etc.

again, in terms of the grissom and sara of it all, i think the setup would ultimately prove beneficial, not only for many of the same reasons detailed above but also because grissom might ultimately find he preferred the assistant supervisor role over the supervisor one anyway, as, for as much as he relishes "leading his troops," he never actually liked the administrative part of his job anyhow, and especially not when it kept him from focusing on his cases as an investigator; for as much as it would undoubtedly take him a while to get used to "not being king anymore," it's possible that in the long run he'd be happier with the "weight of the crown lifted."

once these changes were made (either with grissom and catherine becoming co-supervisors or switching roles), then i think a lot of things would fall into place, including catherine and sara's working relationship.

while in early seasons of the show, they frequently butt heads, by s6 and s7, catherine and sara are generally pretty cool with each other.

that said, they still don't fully understand each other's m.o.s all that deeply.

in a situation where catherine were sara's personal supervisor, they'd likely end up working together and acting as partners fairly frequently (especially as, if grissom and catherine were co-supervising, sara probably wouldn't be allowed to work cases grissom was overseeing directly and so would always have to go along with catherine in instances where the team was split).

just spending more time together, and particularly with catherine now knowing that sara is grissom's romantic partner, i think they'd develop a better understanding of each other as people and as criminalists.

personally, i always liked the cases they worked together in the original series (e.g., episodes 01x21 "justice is served," 02x07 "caged," 04x02 "all for our country," etc.), so i'd love to see how their dynamic evolved with them being in closer working proximity together, and specifically with catherine being in a leadership position over sara.

while i don't doubt that there would still be occasions when they'd come to loggerheads—just because their worldviews and professional approaches are so incredibly, incredibly different—i believe they could come to be a very powerful duo together and also good friends.

looking at the dynamic sara is developing with max in the reboot, i can envision something similar between her and catherine in the original series. two strong ladies, building each other up.

anyway, like i said, i think that had catherine become sara's supervisor in s6/s7 or even in s8 after the truth about gsr had come out, we might have seen a very different storyline play out for sara over the course of s8 and s9.

while she would undoubtedly still struggled in the wake of her abduction by the miniature killer (if that were something that still happened in this timeline, as it did in canon), her being able to remain on team graveyard, surrounded by her found family, might have been enough to keep her in vegas—and if so, then who knows how different her and grissom's relationship trajectory might've been?

again, if i had the time and wherewithal, i'd write the hell out of that au.

to me, i think such an arrangement could have ultimately been very viable—good for grissom and sara as a couple, good for them individually, good for the team, good for the lab.

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

[daydadahlias]

10 for take notes from the ask thing

(not that i’m complaining i love cake)

from writer asks thanks for asking Sarah!

10. Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

I actually answered this question here but (since this is sort of in the same vein) I'd love to expand on that in terms of this specific dynamic I chose (having Calum be the virgin).

Naturally, this fic is all about how to make an innocence kink safe. Because listen, I love an innocence kink as much as the next person but I find that the trope oftentimes strays too far into predatory behaviors for my liking.

As in, there's this constant narrative of wanting to "ruin" someone's innocence which I've never cared for considering that innocence is never something that should be ruined or taken from someone. (The idea of,,, wanting to be rough with someone during their first time is very concerning and is very often where these fics tend to lead). Innocence can be lifted, and it can be slowly removed but I don't like the idea of virginity loss being about the experienced character stripping the other character of their naivety/youth.

Also, I think that a lot of virginity loss fics that have consent don't deal with it appropriately because that consent is often misinformed or not informed at all. Which is why I wanted to write this fic, to have really explicit and well communicated sexual education between characters - one of which is experienced and one of which is not.

The automatic go-to with this pairing (which I largely picked bc I'm friends with Molly/Adri and wanted to write some cake for them lol) was to have Luke be the innocent character. That comes from the feminity we automatically associate with Luke as readers. He'd be the obvious choice for a sweet, innocent character who wants to learn about sex (bc of how kind and apparently shy at times he is). And Calum, meanwhile, is often portrayed in fic as hypersexual and commanding (I mean, Hell, I've written him that way constantly). But I realized that by having them in that dynamic, I'd be playing into the values I'm actively trying to go against.

There's a lot of reasons I chose to have Calum be the virgin in this story.

1) Calum is so hypersexualized in fandom to an extreme extent and I wanted to finally take the time to romanticize this guy (which is why the story is from Luke's POV even if Cal is the creative writing major). I wanted to talk about his smile and how fucking sweet and funny he can be. The guy deserved a fluffy smutty fic from me. Not another PWP.

2) Usually, innocence kink circles around the innocent character being bashful and embarrassed and the experienced character exerting force over them and physically/emotionally taking their virginity from them. So I thought by having a brash, confident virgin and a more shy, reserved experienced character, I wouldn't play so much into the predatory behavior

3) Having Luke as the cautious experienced character gives a lot of room for me to talk about how important informed consent is! Because he is so hyper-aware of his position and Calum's in comparison. And while Calum is physically stronger than him (which also made it better to have Calum be the virgin, I think, so that way it didn't feel like the innocent character was being physically overpowered in any way or couldn't escape if they wanted to), Luke is well aware that peer pressure is very much a thing and that he could overpower Calum via coercion, which makes him so careful. He's well informed, and he really cares about Calum, and he stresses about the whole thing.

I thought this dynamic was super important for this fic so I could have the safest portrayal of innocent kink I could. I mean, after all, this whole fic is just sex ed lol.

[onlycosmere]

Brandon Sanderson on Misogyny in Fantasy Novels

Anushia Kandasivam: We have a lot of different characters in your books. There are, of course, misogynistic characters in your books, and there are storylines that feature violence against women. But generally, the male/female relationships between the main characters are quite equitable. The heroes are respectful of women in their plots and decisions. But oftentimes, the line between consent and coercion in fantasy isn't always clear. Whether it's epic fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal romance. Do you think this is an issue that writers in the genre have started tackling successfully in recent years?

Brandon Sanderson: Yes. I do think...this is an issue, at least in my culture, American media culture, that stretches back pretty far. We showed my kids the original Star Wars movies, which I still love. But Empire Strikes Back, you talk about a line between consent and non-consent, and there's a scene where Han Solo backs Leia into a corner and tells her that she wants him, when she says she doesn't. And it's really uncomfortable to watch in the current climate and realization that our entire society has emphasized a certain sense of masculinity through our media for many, many years. And it's not something that I would have ever noticed if people hadn't started pointing out, "Hey, there's a problem here."

And I do think people are doing a better job with it. I think we, as a culture, though, bear quite a burden for the way that we have glorified this kind of behavior, even in some of our best and most beloved media properties. And this goes back to my philosophy, though, that we try to do better. We don't... Pointing backward and vilifying the creators of Empire Strikes Back because they were part of it is not my goal. My goal is for us to say, "Hey, we can do better than this. We should do better than this.

And I guess one of my pet peeves, as a side topic to this, is that showing good relationships between people in committed relationships is just not a thing that media is good at, because media wants to have conflict. And conflict is story. But because of that, what we end up with is a whole lot of really dysfunctional relationships being held, and it's hard. Like, when I sat down to write Stormlight Archive, I wanted to write a misogynistic and racist culture that you didn't hate, but that at the same time, you're like, "Yeah, you know... it is." And how do you do that without setting it as a standard? You want to approach it and say, "Look, this is... through a lot of history and a lot of cultures, cultures that human beings have created have been pretty misogynistic."

So, how do you write a fantasy book that doesn't glorify this, but still says, "This is how cultures often are"? And there's a really fine line to walk there. And one of the things I think we, as a culture, need to do is, we need to get better about distinguishing between, "Hey, this is how this character is, and this is how people should be." And I'm not sure if I have the answers on that, at all. But one of the things I do like to do is to show, people can be in relationships that have some conflict, but still who genuinely love each other, and genuinely do work their problems out like rational human beings do in the real world. And you can still have conflict and a great fantasy story with people whose relationships are functional.

[radicalandmathematical]

Honestly I love fanfiction and fandom. I've been into it since I was a pre-teen. But as I get older I realize just how fucked up it is.

There's the old adage, "don't like, don't read," and to an extent I agree. If you don't like a ship, don't read a fic tagged with it. If you don't like enemies to lovers, ditto.

But. Like. So much of it goes beyond that. So much of it is promoting and normalizing dangerous things.

Like you see stripper AUs, and prostitute AUs, and porn star AUs, and stuff. And the portrayals... they're not at all reflective of reality. They're reflective of the woke, pro-"sex work" line. They make it seem like it's just a job people (because in fics there are plenty of men who are strippers/prostitutes/etc., which again, is not reflective of reality where the vast majority are women and girls) choose to do. That there's no coercion. People just decide it's a good way to make money and love their job and then fall in love with a John who is kind and understanding enough not to make them give up their job once they get together.

And I don't read those anymore, but I used to when I was a teenager and young adult. Because I didn't know better. And yeah, like. It's obviously all a story and not real. We all know prostitutes and Johns don't end up falling in love. But it's less obvious that people don't just decide to enter the industry because it's a fun job. It's less obvious that real women who end up in these sorts of jobs, "voluntarily" or not, end up traumatized. No, in these works the people involved are otherwise happy and healthy, and the wose they have to deal with the awful stigma of being a sex worker from outsiders.

It's just... so insidious. Because this lines up with what traffickers and pornographers want us to believe. They've got fanfiction authors spreading their propaganda without even realizing it. Because these writers fell for that propaganda themselves.

I see glorifications of adult/teen relationships. All those fanfics really normalized it. And the thing is, in fanfiction, or fiction in general really, you can gloss over the issues that come up IRL.

IRL a 16 year old is a lot less mature and experienced than a 25 year old. There is a power dynamic issue. But in fiction they can be written as an equal to a 25 year old. They can be written as if they were 25, while remaining 16 for the ~°○drama○°~.

But a 16 year old reading that doesn't get that. A 16 year old doesn't understand she's not as mature as the 16 year old in the fic. She thinks she's all grown up too.

It's not just adult/teen either. Even adult/adult with a large age gap, say 35/22 has all sort of power dynamic issues. And I, as an adult, can understand this fictional relationship is in no way reflective of an actual relationship in those circumstances. I can read about two adult characters in this sort of situation and enjoy it without thinking it's acceptable IRL or something to aspire to. But teens and younger adults often can't. Hell, at 20 I didn't.

I really liked this trope actually. The age gap one. I read it a lot during my years in fandom, and even now have trouble letting it go even after I came to understand the issues with it.

That's just how deep of a hook it gets into you.

I don't think the answer is censorship. I think a lot of writers are young, and a lot of writers have learned to believe the things they write about are acceptable because of propaganda and grooming.

I think education is the issue. I thing writers need to actually understand what it is they are writing about, and I think readers do too.

I don't think these topics need to be 100% never written about at all. Like. We all know murder is wrong, but I love a good murder couple AU. But in general, everyone has the context to know that murdering people with your spouse is bad and fucked up, no matter how good the fic is.

But the same understanding is not in place for these other issues. People genuinely don't understand how fucked up and harmful porn/stripping/prostitution is. They don't get how unhealthy age gaps are IRL.

I think a simple disclaimer could go a long way. Saying that which is depicted in the fic is not reflective of reality, making it clear that IRL these things are harmful, and if you end up in a similar situation IRL you need to get out.

Like. Idk. Unpopular opinion on radblr maybe. I know a lot of radfems think that it's harmful to write/read fiction about these topics in a non-negative light at all. But I personally think that there is some merit in separating fiction from reality. It's just that a lot of people, both readers and writers, can't. Or some writers can, but their readers can't and they don't care.

That said, when it comes to erotica that depicts harmful sexual behaviours and acts that's different. People read that to get off, and even knowing something is bad/wrong doesn't stop it from escalating and becoming harmful to someone's sexuality.