#and one of the writers said that they book fans don’t want a page by page recreation on screen

[personinthepalace]

The 80s got adaptations right

I am specifically thinking about Granada Holmes and Sullivan Anne of Green Gables but I’m sure there’s other examples

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Off the Page 2

Warnings: non/dubcon and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.

Characters: skinny!Steve

Part of the Bookstore AU

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging.

You take a page out of Maria’s book and sleep on the train. The night at the hotel wasn’t long enough. By the time you ate, you were too tired to enjoy the fancy tub and your alarm woke you well before you were ready. As your stop comes, you’re still groggy and barely ready for your evening meet and greet. 

Isn’t this the dream? Running yourself ragged as a bestselling author? Seeing all the fans who love the words that you wrote? Who see themselves in the characters you created? So much a dream that you feel as if you’re falling asleep again. 

Wake up! You splash water over your face in the bookstore bathroom. It’s not glamourous. You have the small space to refresh before you face the masses. You hoped for a smaller crowd given the time of day and the lesser known location. How wrong you are; you can hear the buzz of fans through the walls. 

“Hey,” Maria enters without knocking. She’s like that. You and your agent have gotten rather cozy in those last weeks. A bit too much at times. “Almost ready?” 

“Yeah, sorry, I... is this blouse okay?” You ask as you touch the satin, patterned with violets, “I don’t even know why I bought this?” 

“It looks fine,” she assures, “you’re not a writer if you’re not at least a little eccentric, right?” 

“Oh, and what about book agents?” You challenge, “are they all so stylish?’ 

“Of course. We’re the face that sells the tour. All you have to do is smile and sacrifice your hand to carpal tunnel syndrome,” she teases, “just you wait until the interview. That's the heavy lifting.” 

“Interview?” You check yourself one last time in the mirror. 

“Didn’t I mention? The local station wants a sit down before we’re off tomorrow,” she explains, “I said yes. It’s a decent check and good business. Any publicity is good publicity. Publisher signed off on it too so... can’t back out.” 

“Oh, and you were going to tell me when?” 

“Right now,” she shrugs, “come on, your adoring fans are waiting for their elf queen.” 

“Oof, don’t,” you cringe, “you make it sound so lame.” 

“If it was lame, you wouldn’t be here,” she asserts. 

“Suppose you’re right,” you pack your things up into your bag and shove it in the corner. “Alright, I’m ready.” 

You follow her into the hall and through to the main area of the bookstore. It’s been closed early for the event, a meet and greet exclusive to those who claimed the limited one hundred tickets for sale. Each ticket includes the cost of a free signed edition and bookmark. Funny to think you’d once been on the other side of one of these things. The eager beaver reader aspiring to be the star author. 

As you come into sigh of the audience, they cheer. You’re still not used to that either. You wave and smile out at them. The moderator, an employee of the bookshop chain, calls for their attention over the microphone and introduces you. There’s another softer round of applause. 

You take your seat on the stool and let out a breath. You start with the reading. You try not to do the same chapter, instead cycling through your favourites. Some you even know by rote now. 

Then comes the Q and A session. You know all the answers. You find it’s always the same questions. Besides, you created this world, these characters, if there isn’t anything written, then you get to decide. 

A group a giggly women finish asking their questions about the ‘rumoured’ sequel to which you give your PR friendly deflection. After them, you wait for the next person to appear. There’s some scuffling at the microphone as they lower it. You wait patiently and smile at the slender blond man. He’s vaguely familiar. 

“Hi, um, my question is, whether Emeris is truly the promised knight or if he was just in the right place at the right time?” 

You nod as you listen, your thoughts whirring. It’s not an entirely out-there question. It isn’t what he’s asking that gives you pause. You swear you’ve seen him before. 

“Well, we can’t know for sure. I like to think of the promised knight as not a specific person fated from birth but rather a possibility for all. The promised knight is the one who can step up in that time of need and do what it is needed,” you explain. “I hope that makes sense.” 

The man doesn’t speak right away, himself stalling before he can respond, “yes, I guess it does. Thank you.” 

He lingers at the microphone for a moment as he watches you. He clutches a worn copy to his chest tightly. That’s familiar too. 

Strange. You're sure there’s lots of people who double dip. You have to admit you did it once yourself. Sometimes you just need that thrill.  

The blond man steps back and lets the next person ahead of him but he doesn’t go far. He stays close to the queue of people and you feel him staring you down. Everyone is watching you but his gaze just feels so much more intense. You do your best to focus on the person at the microphone. 

Several others ask their questions or just give their praise. The man remains. You can’t shake the sense of him. He’s like a shadow. You don’t know why you’re so aware of him. 

Finally, you finish up and it’s time to announce the special prize. It’s a raffle set up by ticket number. The package isn’t anything special; a collector’s edition, a mug, and some pens that look like quills. The moderator brings up a box filled with slips and you reach inside. You read out the number and the crowd mutters. 

“Me,” a deep voice rings out, a hand popping up from lower down. The blond man steps forward and waves his ticket, “it’s mine.” 

Strange coincidence. You keep your smile plastered on. You don’t need another Maria lecture about your tired moping. You’re handed the prize basket and you carry it down to meet the man. 

“Congratulations,” you say as he meets you at the lip of the low platform. 

“Thank you,” he beams up brightly, “it’s nice to see you again.” 

You try not to show your surprise, “yeah, uh... you too.” You don’t know what else to say. You don’t remember exactly where you saw him and definitely not a name; you hear too many of those to keep track. 

“Really?” He breathes. 

“Er, enjoy your prize. Thank you so much for coming.” 

“Of course. Always. Anytime,” he avows shakily. “’To you, my queen, I bid my blood and breath.’” 

You hesitate. That’s from the book. Emeris proclaims it to the elvish protagonist on her quest to reclaim her stolen homeland. It’s flattering yet slightly unsettling to have it recited to you. 

“Have a good night,” you say gently and turn to walk back across the platform. You’re tired, you need to get out of here. 

[red-might-be-dead]

hello hi here to force strange thoughts into your brain once again, this time about jrwi (wow who could’ve guessed)

been thinking about this for a little but it’s basically what i think some campaigns would be if not podcasts, i haven’t listened to some of the older ones so i’m sorry they’re not on here :(( if you have any ideas feel free to add them btw :DD

RIPTIDE!!!!! - really long animated series

not an anime though, no matter how much grizzly wants it, it would be an animation style where the characters could have very clearly different nose, face and body shapes, really pushing my riptide nose agenda here sorry, each episode would be like 20-40 minutes long and instead of coming out in seasons there would be massive gaps in between episodes, from 2-6 months long, to leave time for writers and animators to get stuff done (massive team of animators btw, i feel like it would be pretty successful)

PRIME DEFENDERS!! - comics

literally nothing else they could be, just really well made, well performing comics (i’ve already talked about this before you can stalk my talk tag if you really want to find it lmao), the comic company making them would be keeping well away from movies n shit btw

APOTHEOSIS!!! - i wasn’t really sure about this one to be honest

i had to ask my friend and she said anime which i don’t agree with but i can see it, i think maybe a short book series where each book is 150 - 300 pages and is about a different god they have to kill/a different episode, i think that works but if anyone has any better ideas please tell me :D!!

BLOOD IN THE BAYOU!!! - i hate to say it, i really do…

bitb would be a really long really good 80s horror book with strong homoerotic undertones, a satisfied fanbase and lots of active members in the community making fan comics, films, writing, theories and art ect… until well after the book came out……….. and then it would be made into the most egregious and awful live action movie you have ever seen, the most awful casting (like chris pratt as officer dudes….. throws up) and even worse sfx, oh yeah and the characters would be ruined and the story would become so butchered it wouldn’t make sense, they would do some shit like cut out becky so kian just kisses some random lady (removing both a really good and well written character and a layer of kian’s character that i think is super important) and make rolan really be an evil bug spy the whole time so rand has to kill him to save the town also add in a whole new sub plot that never existed like the rand family is secretly a long line of bug alien hunters or something fucking stupid like that and the entire fanbase would murder whoever thought re-writing the story was a good idea (ahaha can you tell ive been through something like this before ahahaha, character morals and motives being removed and whatnot ahahahhahahaha.)

anyways………

THE SUCKENING!!! - live action series

it would be well made though, unlike the bitb movie it would be its own original thing, have great makeup and effects also be well casted and well shot, well written, ect ect, it would bloody and gory and not suitable for people who can’t handle showing bones and organs all over everywhere, lots of shitty rip off merch would be made though and the fandom would be 99% gay little freaks (normal suckening enjoyers) and 1% homophobic straight white men who get mad whenever they see soda and emizel having gay sex on screen or whatever fag shit that biting thing was

again feel free to add your thoughts and ideas and shit in the reblogs it would be nice to read them :DD!!

[physalian]

“Endings are the hardest!” / “No, beginnings are the worst!”

I’ve never had a problem figuring out the way I want my stories to end but starting them? Yeash, that’s so much pressure. Both carry the same weight for different reasons while you have writers in both camps with legitimate arguments. One may be harder than the other on a writer-by-writer basis, but they are equally daunting.

—

So. Beginnings:

You have sometimes as little as three sentences to hook readers, at most the first chapter. I don’t even give fanfic more than the opening line sometimes (mostly because fanfic takes opening en media res to wild new heights). I’ve been working on a system of “I have one sentence to give you the setting, the protagonist, and the hook that makes this book different, go” and while it might not be perfect, it’s a starting point.

For example! The opening sentence to ENNS is:

Beneath the snowdrift of the longest blizzard Elias has ever endured, the last vampire in the dungeons has finally succeeded in taking their own life.

As someone who struggles with beginnings, I have given you five pieces of information in 25 words:

The setting, that concerns long and repeat blizzards and snow

Protagonist’s name

Establishing the existence of vampires

Establishing that those vampires are kept in dungeons

Establishing that those presumed prisoners are in such bad conditions, that they’re restoring to suicide, something vampires don’t tend to do

I think I did a pretty good job.

So much of the burden of your book is given to so few words. You can’t make it cliché, but try too hard to be unique and you risk looking pretentious. You have to establish the setting, the narrator, the initial setup and inciting incident and convince readers to pick your book out of hundreds of thousands of other options. I hate beginnings.

Best advice among an avalanche of others? Write a placeholder and come back later if it’s too daunting and frustrating because there is no writing advice that is one size fits all.

It’s entirely dependent on your genre, your demographic, the age of your protagonist and how self-aware they are, the tone of your story, your own personal writing style.

“First sentences should include THIS!”

Yeah, okay, but what if I have a better idea? Beyond that your sentence should have a hook that sets your book up as something apart from its genre neighbors, just go look at the most famous opening lines. They’re all different.

There is nothing in common between

Call me Ishmael.

and

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

And that’s the point.

—

Endings though?

Endings bear the burden of providing catharsis, or robbing you of it. Endings have to answer ‘but what does it all mean?’ and stick the landing, or they don’t. Endings can turn a TV show that took the world by storm for four magnificent seasons and drag it limping across the finish line in a finale that sucks the life out of the fandom forever.

Endings either leave you in an existential lurch staring at the ceiling, or in tears of joy or anguish, or frothing at the mouth at yet another cliffhanger. If you can’t answer ‘what does it all mean’ you have bigger problems than just your final lines.

People don’t have fan theories about your first page, they have fan theories about what comes after your last page. There are no rules to writing an ending and sometimes by its nature of being unfulfilling you become infamous.

Example: The ending of Mark of Athena, that prompted this dedication in its sequel House of Hades.

“We’re staying together,” he promised. “You’re not getting away from me. Never again.” Only then did she understand what would happen. A one-way trip. A very hard fall. “As long as we’re together,” she said. She heard Nico and Hazel still screaming for help. She saw the sunlight far, far above—maybe the last sunlight she would ever see. Then Percy let go of his tiny ledge, and together, holding hands, he and Annabeth fell into the endless darkness.

(one short Leo POV later)

Nemesis wanted him to wreak vengeance on Gaea? Leo would be happy to oblige. He was going to make Gaea sorry she had ever messed with Leo Valdez. “Yeah.” He took one last look at the cityscape of Rome, turning bloodred in the sunset. “Festus, raise the sails. We’ve got some friends to save.”

If you weren’t in this fandom when this book came out and ended with the protagonist falling into Greek Super Hell, to wait a whole year to find out what happens next—We lost our collective minds.

And then the next book opened like this:

Gettin’ a bit big for your britches there, ey, Riordan?

How you write your ending should reflect the kind of feeling you want to leave your reader with. In this case, it was anguish and despair and the pinnacle of “always leave them wanting more”. Maybe you’ve written a character who’s suffered constant setbacks to reaching their goal, and the final line is them at peace with, or without achieving it. Or it’s the final plot twist/reveal no one saw coming. Or it’s ambiguous, leaving it up to reader interpretation.

My favorite classical book ending comes from The Great Gatsby and while I had to crack open my copies of the PJO books, I know this line by heart:

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

There’s just something so melancholy and tragic about it, as it should be: Gatsby is not a happy story. That line is the answer to the thesis, that trying to live in the past and not embrace the future, not allowing yourself to move on, can only end in tragedy, and yet, so many of us do exactly that.

The image of a dinky little rowboat is always what I’ve pictured, as opposed to a ship or something more formidable. A rowboat bobbing around the thrashing waves, pitted against a force of nature it can’t ever hope to overcome, yet it endures.

The book opens on an equally melancholy note, “In my younger years…” as the protagonist reflects back on their life gone by. It’s an American classic for a reason.

Even if your final line is unspectacular, the line isn’t as important as how the narrator feels about the book being over. Quotable hashtags are great, but if the ending doesn’t feel like a proper fit, you’re going to leave readers disappointed.

—

Endings are so fricken fun though, no matter what’s at stake. It’s as cathartic for me to finish as I hope it is for the reader to read. There’s plenty of advice out there on the perfect opener or the perfect closer, the endless arguments over which is harder, and it’s all up to you in the end. They just come easy to me, I have no advice. I can picture them well before I get to the final pages and they just click into place. Beginnings, though? Ugh.

—

Thank you for 300 Followers!!!

[horizon-verizon]

I think people don’t realise what a nightmare Fire & Blood is to adapt compared to ASOIAF. Often, characters are named and placed in situations in order to flesh out the family trees and marriage alliances, and then many of them are left waiting around during all of the actual interesting stuff. This can’t happen in a TV show, and frankly this is (unfortunately perhaps?) the most logical thing to do with Rhaena.

Fans understandably want everything in the source material to be faithfully adapted but visual mediums are not the same as literary works. Storylines have to be consolidated and streamlined to save costs for ensemble casts and to provide faster-paced storylines that don’t bore audiences, unlike books which can take their time with a story and gradually develop their characters over hundreds of pages.

Characters like Nettles and Rhaena simply don’t work in visual medium, because both characters would just not have enough to do that would warrant investment by the audience. Combining elements of both into one character, if done right, can strengthen the overall character and subsequent story.

Besides, the jealous lover trope for Rhaenyra in the book being the source of her and Daemon’s fallout is uninspiring. Daemon being forced to choose between Rhaena and Rhaenyra is a far more compelling angle, and would provide a stronger perspective on Daemon as a whole, especially with how lacking of a father he was in S1.

Anon responds to several recent posts about the likely merging of Nettles and Rhaena of Pentos's storylines that starts HERE or HERE.

I understand that HotD might be very entertaining to some people...but implying that the writers couldn't have done better bc F&B is supposedly incoherent (when it's far from so) AND thus it is as good as any adaptation could get--thereby seemingly to admit that it's not great and then seemingly simultaneously saying that it is actually pretty good...

is not the vibe.

In all, a lot of the issues you bring up are ordinary issues with adaptations (and seem to make as excuse for these writers who point blank already said/showed they were intent on creating a totally different story with Rhaenicent replacing the original storyline) but the mess of storylines we get in HotD can't be excused by this idea of how "difficult" it is to adapt what does have pretty clear characters, events, etc. Also, good planning and foresight and integrity couldn't hurt.

A)

unlike books which can take their time with a story and gradually develop their characters over hundreds of pages.

vs

I think people don’t realise what a nightmare Fire & Blood is to adapt compared to ASOIAF. Often, characters are named and placed in situations in order to flesh out the family trees and marriage alliances, and then many of them are left waiting around during all of the actual interesting stuff.

A contradiction. So F&B is very detailed and a rich text with solid characterizations and definite events now?

B)

Characters like Nettles and Rhaena simply don’t work in visual medium, because both characters would just not have enough to do that would warrant investment by the audience. Combining elements of both into one character, if done right, can strengthen the overall character and subsequent story.

...So Gwayne Hightower, who was given a lot more material than he ever actually had...that made sense to you? Hugh the Hammer becoming a family man when he already had the Caltrops deal with Ulf the White? You can't show an increasing amount of frustration from Ulf and Hugh without trying to make us sympathize with either of them and make either underdogs? We can't follow Nettles as a young street "urchin"? We can't do the same for two separate girls, make up stories and backgrounds?! HUH?! We can't have flashbacks to Marilda of Hull and the Hull boys? No?

We did it for those irrelevant nutjobs, but not for Rhaena or Nettles? Anon, please. Address the misgynoir or at least this major discrepancy.

Besides, the jealous lover trope for Rhaenyra in the book being the source of her and Daemon’s fallout is uninspiring. Daemon being forced to choose between Rhaena and Rhaenyra is a far more compelling angle, and would provide a stronger perspective on Daemon as a whole, especially with how lacking of a father he was in S1.

You assumed two things: that Rhaenyra believed Daemon x Nettles was real AND that I believe they happened romantically. The first one, that's more than understandable since that is the prevailing impression the fandom has had for years and a lot of people don't really like F&B for how differently it's written from ASoIaF (I think it would have been improved just with some female voices put to paper, like Daemon and Otto in Rogue Prince and some of F&B...esp Rhaenyra or her ladies and a few history-loving septas).

I even am rethinking the whole "Rhaenyra thought Nettles seduced Daemon with magic and stole him from her" bc....SEPTON EUSTACE SAYS THIS HAPPENED THIS WAY, after he already describes Mysaria a "witch" who manipulates Rhaenyra as if casting a spell. The guy who speculated that she and Daemon were sleeping together as Rhaenyra gorged herself while a war was going on. Like the true religious sexist that he is.

Aside from that, I still think that Nettles being revealed as being Daemon's bio daughter is FAR more compelling AND sensical than Rhaenyra willing to kill her husband's daughter who she partially raised...or was supposed to and not treat as if she serves her like some servant....which, again, is very misogynoirist. For some reason, people keep ignoring this particular point I'm making...

Anyway, once again, like I said HERE about Rhaena at the Vale, you could have her flourish in diplomacy and meeting certain characters who will be important later in the overall storyline...plus imagine what we could have had as how Rhaena manages to finally hatch Morning?! The process and tension--from the suggestion of those different "experiments" she tries that are all different from what she did when she was just a child--that's built up to that by some specific egg-interaction scenes...some epiphany she could have had...something to tie her into actual magic! And this is just one way you could have written Rhaena at the Vale!

I don't think you guys understand what you've lost.

C)

A lot of the weird shit that happens on the show!blacks' side in terms of why Daemon kills at Harrenhal when he canonically doesn't and why it's made out to be as if he's paid for a bad prize in winning the castle is because they have Rhaenyra acting like there isn't a war already happening whether she likes it or not (their argument back in e2). If they hadn't made the woman who was canonically "tempermental" and just as willing to assert her rights as some people Robb Stark or Stannis Baratheon were more a reality-denying doormat as she was who only fights bc he dad said stuff abt the ASoIaF prophecy instead of having any ambition for herself (in the attempt to make her more "moral" or whatever)...we wouldn't have had the mess of a storyline we got now.

Daemon's magic plotline, I'm not that angry about. More how he got there and the taking reframed as him trying to prove a point to his wife after a nonsensical argument and not being very successful in getting allies for her. And him doing so without thinking of how his leaving the way he does could impact Rhaenyra's hold even further, and for real this time (no, B&C would and canonically does nothing to dissuade anyone from supporting Rhaenyra). Rather than him "requesting" or being sent to Harrenhal, an argument there or not but likely after an actually sensical argument.

A point that he instantly invalidates by again going off without first establishing plans they are both aware of. This is war, not sitcom TV suburbia where the father leaves the house for a bit and there's low stakes for that to make sense. A much different sort of war from the Stepstones as well. All their lives are on the line, not just soldiers...which they didn't have (or as much) at the moment. And Dameon (book-wise) was not that petty as to cross into dum-dum territory.

D) Other Stuff

"compared"....not "impossible", and the way they have for several characters were very unnecessary, so...I can't agree with this sentiment that these characters are so, so difficult to have adapted as they are, esp since if you read well, you find a lot of evidence that shows who some important characters are and a few of their critical motivations. Now if you didn't don't want to do that, all the power to you. Doesn't mean that it was impossible or valueless to do so in the first place, since that is what we were supposed to do with this FICTIONAL historical document.

Often, characters are named and placed in situations in order to flesh out the family trees and marriage alliances, and then many of them are left waiting around during all of the actual interesting stuff. This can’t happen in a TV show, and frankly this is (unfortunately perhaps?) the most logical thing to do with Rhaena.

...funny you say that, since there was a lot that could have been done for Jacaerys' diplomacy arc to the Vale, then to the Manderlys, then to Cregan Stark where he stays and becomes great friends. I don't think you realize how much we lost here. Jeyne Arryn's words to Jace abt women sticking close and the reveal of her female lover; Wyman Manderly and the court that they didn't show in GoT, here is where they could have showcased the Merman's court; flashbacks to Cregan's times of getting his regent greedy uncle out so he can reclaim his own seat as his father intended as well as showing us their Jacegan(?) bromance's development. Like, this is at least 3 episodes alone!

You act like specific words, events, and actions are not told or narrated and done so with good enough detail (and reliably) in F&B for us to understand the and glean truth from fiction. As if the entire project is a haphazard collection of just names...when those marriage alliances (one of Joffrey to Desmond Manderly's youngest daughter) was made fully within the larger, variously-detailed and overlapping-storied context of the current Dance/war.

Jacaerys was not "waiting around". He went to the North to get alliances for his mother and in one of them, he meets with a Manderly and that is how he gets Manderly's promise--Joffrey's betrothal to his daughter. This is not even the most well known accomplishment Jace had in his particular mission, he'd go on to meet with two other, more famed, leaders with pretty badass moments DETAILED in the book that even could have been depicted/expanded more live.

These writers simply didn't think his diplomacy arc was important enough to expound and show in their time crunch...meanwhile, we got one-liner Gwayne Hightower speaking nonsense to Criston Cole, Alicole sex scenes, Alicent bathing as if she wants to ice her entire head to block out the world up the wazoo. And NONE of the Daemyra-Dragonstone family scenes that the time jump of last season's epi 8 came from. We're told, canonically, more about this unit than we are about Gwayne, yet here we are.

Perhaps I'm just assuming, but like I said in this post, it appears that people think the Dance portion of F&B was just the Dance...no, it started with "Heirs of the Dragon, who were Jaehaerys' children/grandkids towards the GC of 101. Which means that with as much context and history F&B actually gets into a lot of detail for a historical document, these writers had a lot of material for bringing Princess Rhaenys properly to life, for example. Even if you don't include how she wanted to go fight the Myrmen with her father Aemon while pregnant, this fact from the book should be enough to let you know what sort of person she was. Which is supplemented by her plans for how to defeat the greens in the first black council. Also, how we hear her response to Jaehaerys choosing Baelon and the lords choosing Viserys over her and her kids. And we have her protest angrily and freely how Jaehaerys was taking away her and her kid's birthrights...That's at least 3 incidents showing the true, real and solid "Rhaenys" of the orig story. It is consistent.

There was so much from Jace, Daemon, Rhaenyra-Mysaria they could have done (note how I keep talking about the blacks...bc the green characters actually have some notable plot action going on from their characterizations aside from the Alicole nonsense...not Helaena, though, but she was always meant to further Alicent and be an accessory, not her own person to these writers, so....)

Apart from that, F&B has Gyldayn castigate Rhaenyra from going to war herself...while Aegon was burnt into useless pork at Rook's Rest. You can have Rhaneyra do shit without going to war at Dragonstone with Daemon and Mysaria planning shit out as a sort of "good" change from the canon. You could even try to argue that since...

Gyldayn was looking to rebuke Rhaenyra for being a woman and going to war at all for nay inheritance like a man and thus paoint her as incompetent, that she didn't actually fall into a graceless heap and have the men around her do everything in her mental absence...

that she/Emma was simply sequestered to collect herself and work behind smaller spaces while calling this and that person to her to make plans, etc. Instead, we have her impersonate a septa and go on endangering herself thinking Alicent of all people not only would but could do anything with or without her to prevent a war that's already happening...This is called working with the original to make something "new".

...............................................................................

I've seen too many logical inconsistencies or places where they could have improved some's scenes if they had just....though ahead or read F&B more than twice in total good faith.

Deliberate giving black-specific stuff to the greens as well, which they also didn't have to do but did...willingly and BEFORE S2.

The writers, I mean. This book may have been created like a historical book...doesn't mean that we nor actual historians manage to find truths in said documents...otherwise we wouldn't know anything of certain events and wittle some more ambiguous events down to a few LIKELIEST possibilities. And we still have made pretty great movies from ambiguously told historical-legendary events (Vikings, hello?!)

I don't see this as a proper excuse.

[nalyra-dreaming]

I can see it both ways when it comes to Devil’s Minion. On one hand, I completely understand if fans are disappointed by the changes to their relationship in the show, specially after having waited so long for a proper adaptation. Not everyone is going to be like “well, I like not knowing what’s going to happen and I’m open to changes” when this is their main ship and they read the books first and they’re already attached to that very specific dynamic. Like, imagine if they had done that to Loustat…. all hell would’ve broken loose (and rightfully so IMO). OTOH, I guess the writers feel like they can take more creative liberties with DM because at the end of the day their chapter together is like 50 pages long + the little we know of their reunion/them getting back together in the last trilogy, and their relationship doesn’t have actual consequences wtr to major plot points in the books other than… Armand’s character development, who is and will always be secondary to Lestat and Louis. So I get that and I’m open to something entirely new and I WANT to love it and be into it, but I also cherish the fact that we will always have the books to fall back on in case I don’t like what I see.

Yes. We will always have the books.

That said.... especially the later books opened up a LOT of possibilities for the show and DM to... errrr.... adapt, if you know what I mean. I mean the canon possibilities are almost endless. It is no wonder that Rolin Jones included the last trilogy in the setup, imho (though I do think they'll skip the aliens and probably the literal devil and god in the show... we'll see).

And I think that is something to be kept in mind.:)))

[lokiondisneyplus]

SPOILER ALERT! This Q&A contains spoilers for Season 2 of Loki.

Season 2 of Marvel Studios’ Loki expands upon the inner workings of the Time Variance Authority, where the God of Mischief has been working tirelessly to save, well, all of time.

That includes introducing new characters, like Ke Huy Quan‘s Ouroboros. As the TVA’s dedicated handyman, everything inside the institution was either created by him or is currently maintained by him. When Loki and Mobius enter his workshop, they become his first visitors in 400 years.

Little do they know, Ouroboros is an integral part of their quest to prevent the branches of time from overloading the Temporal Loom.

Following the end of the actors strike and on the heels of the Loki Season 2 finale, Quan spoke with Deadline about joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his character Ouroboros, and his own full circle career moment.

DEADLINE: It’s so great to get to talk with you about Loki. You haven’t really been able to talk about your role, due to the actors strike. What have you been waiting to say?

KE HUY QUAN: When I decided to become an actor again, [being part of the MCU] was at the top of my wishlist…They all welcomed me with wide open arms, and I was so happy. I was patiently waiting for the show to come out so we can go and celebrate it and tell the fans. Then, of course, the strike happened. I just want to tell everybody how proud of the show I am. How happy I am with it. And working with Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, the entire Loki family has just been incredible. We made this last year in London. I was there for four months, my wife and I were there. It was one of the best four months of my life. I’ve done a few shows before, and this was the first time where I didn’t want it to end. I was so happy. In fact, I’ll tell you this. We were scheduled for reshoots this February, and I was waiting. My wife and I were looking forward to spending more time in London and with our Loki family. And all of a sudden we were told, ‘Oh, we don’t need any reshoots. It’s all good.’ I was kind of disappointed. I was actually disappointed that we didn’t get to go back because of how much fun we had… So we made history. We make history two times. One is the first series of Marvel getting a second season and the second is the first time a Marvel show didn’t have any reshoots. I’m so proud of that.

DEADLINE: It is quite a feat to not have any reshoots. So that was probably one of the few times you were excited for reshoots.

QUAN: A lot of times actors dread doing reshoots, because you have to go back. You have to get back into character. But for this, I was really happy. I was looking forward to it. It’s so ironic, because the more I wanted to do, it’s like, ‘Oh, we don’t need it.’ But this is a testament to how great the show is and to how great a Leader Tom Hiddleston is. Working with him has been incredible. It was such a masterclass on how to be a great actor, a great leader, and most importantly, a great human being. He is so kind and humble.

DEADLINE: When you first read the script, what did you think of your character, Ouroboros? What were you hoping you could bring to him?

QUAN: Well, first of all, when I read the script, I instantly fell in love with Ouroboros. It was so well defined on the pages, and I can see him right away. This character was not based on comic books, so it was created by our showrunner Kevin Wright and our head writer Eric Martin… I instantly wanted to play him. And I remember this was at a time when Everything, Everywhere All At Once had just came out. It was paying only in New York and in Los Angeles. My agent said, ‘You’re gonna get a call from Kevin Feige tomorrow.’ Now you have to understand, when I became an actor again, joining the MCU was at the top of my wishlist. I was so excited and I said, ‘Could this be it?’ I was driving. I picked up the phone. And on the other end I hear, ‘Hi Ke. This is Kevin Feige.’ He went on to talk about how much he loved our movie and how much he loved my performance. Then finally he says, ‘Ke we would love for you to join the MCU family.’ I was driving at that time. I start tearing up, and I couldn’t see the road anymore. I said, ‘Kevin, can you give me two seconds?’ I pulled the car over, put it in park and I said, ‘Please continue.’ He says, ‘We have this great character for you, Ouroboros. I really love him, and I think you will be perfect to play him.’ He told me about Loki. He told me about the MCU. He spoke [with] so much passion and enthusiasm in his voice. It brought me back to the day when I met him for the very first time on the X-Men set when he was just an associate producer, and I was an assistant action choreographer…He loves this universe so much. He has such a vast knowledge of this universe. And little did I know only 23 years later, I get to work with him. I get to play a wonderful character.

DEADLINE: I’m glad you mentioned that. It is quite the full circle moment.

QUAN: You know, that’s why I love the name Ouroboros. It’s s a snake eating its own tail. I had a wonderful time working with Kevin on set. It was at a time where I didn’t think I would ever step in front of the camera again. It was also the time where I questioned whether I would have a career working behind the camera. It was when I just graduated from USC film school. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I knew I didn’t want to leave this industry. I love it so much. So to be able to do that and to come back again in front of the camera… I’m very fortunate.

DEADLINE: Your comedic timing is so spot on in Loki. I’m thinking of the scene where Ouroboros manages to recreate the Tempad after 19 months and losing his wife. What’s the secret to nailing a scene like that?

QUAN: I don’t think much about it. I gotta credit Kevin Wright and Eric Martin. They really beautifully created this character Ouroboros. The dialogue, when I was reading for the first time, I laughed out loud, because he’s so quirky. He’s so weird and funny. Yet, if you think about it, who is this guy that’s working in the basement of the TVA for more than 400 years with no friends? No interaction with anybody. His only encounter was with Mobius when he got lost. Yet he still takes his job so seriously and so passionately. It has a lot to do with the beautiful dialogue that they came up with.

DEADLINE: Do you think O.B. stays in the basement for another 400 years or will be venturing out more often?

QUAN: When you get a taste of what friendships feel like… Loki is addicted to that. So I’m sure O.B. will be as well. When you don’t have it, you don’t know what you’re missing. But once you have it, you keep going after it. So I would assume that O.B. would periodically, when he’s not too busy, he would go up the elevator and go say hi to Casey and B-15 And just to mingle with Mobius, because he loves Mobius.

DEADLINE: What scene are you most proud of?

QUAN: I love Episode One, that scene when he’s talking to Mobius in the present and Loki in the past. That is so creative… It’s so is so well written. It’s so funny.

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DEADLINE: How did you feel when you read the script for the finale?

QUAN: I was blown away, because I didn’t see that coming. It’s so beautiful and so poetic. When you have a character who wants to be on the throne all his life, and he finally gets to be on it. But he can never leave. He made the ultimate sacrifice…To me, Loki is the ultimate hero because he made the sacrifice without recognition. Nobody knows he did this, except the team. No one in the Sacred Timeline is going to ever know that. If we’re lucky in life, we would have people like that with us. The unsung heroes.

Loki is streaming on Disney+.

[sherylhooper]

BSD rant? (MANGA SPOILERS!!)

When will BSD fans stop babying Dazai? When will they finally understand that they are projecting themselves on him and don't really "kin" him? (Cuz if you kin Dazai, then ya'll should be in mental hospital).

When will they understand that Dazai is a nihilist person who doesn't care about life or death, good or evil? When will they realize that Mori didn't abuse him or experimented on him (where did that idea ever came from?)?

When will they learn that in BSD no one is good or evil? It's a place for morally grey characters!!

Kunikida and Ranpo were ready to let Atsushi die when he was kidnapped by Akutagawa. Tanizaki was very murder happy with killing Mori. Even Fukuzawa used to be an assassin!!

ADA Dazai is still PM Dazai cuz he doesn't care about anything else besides Oda's wish for him to be on the side that saves people (see how he doesn't say "be on the "good" side"?)

Oda himself said that for Dazai good or bad has same meaning, so why do these so-called fans and "kinnies" pretend that they know him better than Oda? As if Dazai won't kill someone in cold blood? He tried to drown Dostoyevskiy to win against him in latest chapters!

He doesn't hate the mafia, he hates Mori because Mori killed his friend!! That is a reason why he hates Mori.

"He left toxic and abused place" — Dazai is toxic and abusive himself. That toxic relationship between Dazai and Akutagawa and Akutagawa and Kyoka began with DAZAI, NOT MORI! (Unless Asagiri tells us it was Mori.) He didn't care about Akutagawa. No one went and forced Dazai to shoot or beat the shit out him. He did it on his own!

When will they stop babying him? As if Dazai would let anyone abuse or manipulate him, let alone his boss. He did what he did on his own.

It gets so annoying reading BSD fanfics cuz most of writers have him written "sad uwu boy who didn't want to be in Mafia but because he was abused, experimented (simetimes even SA'd) by Mori, he finally left the toxic space, hates Mafia and really wants to be a good person" 🙄

Do they even understand that all these are just "headcannons"? To them if you even say that you like Mori, you are a p*do excuser and abuser lover? Like, do these people even know how to think???

None of whatever they have deluded themselves with is Canon! Dazai is in ADA because of Odasaku. Mori isn't a p*do cuz Asagiri hasn't confirmed anything. Chuuya isn't a feminine uwu boy who can't function without Dazai and Mafia is actually very important to Yokohama.

"Mori doesn't deserve Elise" — Elise is Mori!! She is like Demon Snow and Golden Demon. She doesn't even have a personality unless Mori gives her one. She doesn't have feelings on her own. She isn't a human being.

"Mori said she was his wife" — well she is a part of Mori, so he can call her whatever he wants. Mori probably had her since he was a child. I wouldn't be surprised if he were to love her 🤷‍♀️

"The name of his ability is sus" — well, if they had read real life Mori's book "Vita Sexualis" they would have realized that the book is about a man who has very low s*x drive, probably an asexual — there, a simple answer. So, no we don't know anything about how his ability works and wiki page that says Vita Sexualis is projecting his own sexual wants on Elise isn't canon!

"He said he like his women below 12" — yeah, as a joke, both with Kouyou and Fukuzawa. Elise calling him a "lolicon" is Mori calling himself a "lolicon". Elise hating Mori is also self hatred 🤷‍♀️ Because, once again, Elise doesn't have a personality on her own, do we even know if she can think on her own? BEAST and Yosano’s past kinda raise this question.

They can hate him for what he did to Yosano but if my country was in a war, I, probably, would do the same if someone had that ability. It's one person versus a whole country. It's called necesasry evil.

BSD fans have to realize that what they want to sell as canon is just a headcanon, not everyone has same headcanons and that they are reading a Seinen not Shounen.

[pillow-anime-talk]

sore hands.

request ; @shakethatsassyass​: hi! i’ve been loving your work. and i really like how you write knb characters, you really capture their personalities perfectly. would it be alright to ask for a story or headcanons of akashi with his wife who writes for a living and is experiencing joint pain in her hands? my fingers are in constant pain and i’m unable to work but thinking about akashi makes me feel better 💕 thank you so so much! 💖

# tags: scenario; current marriage relationship; writer!reader; worried!akashi; soft romance; a bit of drama; but also fluff; kisses; mention of pain and crying; pet names; sfw

includes: female reader ft. seijuurou akashi {knb}

author’s note: so sorry that you waited so long, but here’s the scenario for you!

You loved your job; just thinking about the plot, developing it thoroughly, creating the world and characters was as exciting for you each time as when you were writing your first book (then on a website for a small audience). You loved the stage of thinking about the cover, the description and the title, you loved the moment of choosing the right paper and font, and you also liked to think about page numbering and additional visual elements. However, the writing itself was often painful for you, and you were considered by your readers and the media to be a ‘cyclical author’.

Because writing one book very often took more than ten months – not because you didn’t have time or idea (quite the opposite), but ‘cause of your long-term illness.

Since childhood, your hands and wrists have been prone to sprains and fractures, so the doctor advised you not to strain the joints in your hands and visit your physiotherapist frequently. That’s why you wrote very rarely and very slowly. You always tried to do your best to publish at least one book a year, but it was difficult – physically and mentally. You didn’t want to disappoint your fans, you wanted to give them the best new story you’ve ever written.

You were just in the middle of writing the third chapter and it was hard for you to concentrate because of the pain in your right hand; despite daily therapy with a massage ball, despite taking pills, as well as warming your fingers with a hot water bottle ... you didn’t feel better. Calm music, thick socks and a blanket thrown over your shoulders, although pleasant, did not pass their test. You needed a break, preferably a week.

“... Dearest, everything’s okay? You’ve been working since morning, and it’s already four in the afternoon.” A calm, low voice snapped you out of your thoughts. You turned your head slightly and looked at your husband in daily clothes, smiling shyly.

“I’m almost done with this chapter.” You whispered loosening your wrists, catching the ball full of studs again.

“I’m so proud of you, love, but rest a bit. I made you your favorite tea.” The lovely smell of the hot drink in your favorite mug made your cheeks blush. Seijuurou was truly a wonderful man, very patient, tender and always worried about you.

“Thank you.” You said with a slightly bigger smile and your beloved sat on the edge of the couch that was right next to your station.

When the red-eyed man put the white mug on the bamboo stand, he immediately took your hands and placed a tender, sweet kiss on them. He always did it when you were writing or when you were having a bad time.

“I made dinner. Would you like some pasta with vegetables?” He asked and touched your cheek with one hand. You snuggled into his warm hand for a moment, then nodded. “We’ll eat and rest for a while, then you can go back to work. Don’t overwork yourself, honey. You know your fans are mature and will understand your feelings and your problem.”

“Yes, that’s true. Thank you, Sei. I needed to hear it.” You giggled and took his hand in a light squeeze. “Why don’t you help me with the cover concept tomorrow?”

“With the greatest pleasure, dear.”

[jessequinones]

Writing Advice: Lore Chapters

I’m sure we've all read them before, an entire chapter dedicated to just lore, they aren’t normally fun to get through and you might even skip them (don’t worry, I won’t tell). However, despite the hatred for these chapters, why are they common? I think these chapters are common because we writers tend to get stuck in our lore and we forget what's important, and what's made just for us.

You see when creating a new story, there’s gonna be a lot of lore. However, much of the lore which gets created isn’t needed for the reader and trying to figure that out is a bit challenging. This all depends on how much of a world-builder you are. If world-building comes naturally, then you could create everything from the flora to the weather system which will help determine what your islands look like.

If world-building isn’t something you enjoy, then the lore you create might just be enough for your story but that’s it, however, there’s still gonna be lore that’s not necessary even if world-building isn’t your forte.

You’ll need beta reader's help to determine which part of the lore feels necessary and which feels filler but let’s continue.

Lore chapters are most of the time created as an afterthought. When a writer forgets to add in some lore, and they go back to a spot where it’ll be prevalent, stick it in the book and move on. You can figure out when this happened because if you skip these chapters, you won’t miss much. If you, the writer forgot to mention some lore, and none of your beta readers are confused, you probably don’t need to add in the lore if no one else asked for it.

Lore chapters also aren’t what people tend to care about when reading your story. In fact, from my point of view, people only start to care about the lore at certain points. One, if there are blatant lore mistakes. While reading a story for the first time, the reader will get a basic understanding of the lore. Just enough to follow the story, but not so much where they’re an expert. If there’s an obvious plot hole within the lore, they’ll notice and care about the lore a bit more as even from their basic understanding, some parts of it aren’t making sense.

Two, when they’re invested in your story. If you have dedicated fans, who read each of your books, talk about your books, make fan-fiction, art, etc. Those fans will start paying more attention to your story's lore. These fans are great, but sadly, don't make up the majority of your reader's base. These fans might not mind the lore dump chapters as they’re already invested so if you want to write for them, go all for it. If you still want to keep your average reader engaged you might want to change a few things and I got a few things you could try.

Spreading out your lore: This will take practice because it’s also easy to figure out when the author adds a paragraph of lore that can be easily skipped through. However, having lore sprinkled throughout your story will do a better job of keeping your readers engaged with your world, instead of having it all in one chapter.

Try to avoid big paragraphs of text: If you have a paragraph that takes nearly half of the page if not more, a lot of readers, myself included will probably skip over it. I’m not dyslexic, but I need separations in my paragraphs. Reading a wall of text does tend to make me start to blend words together and I won’t absorb anything. While there’s no rule on how big a paragraph should be, I’d try not to make mine no more than four sentences long, keep in mind a sentence can be as short as three words, or twenty.

(Now for a wall of text after I said I try to avoid them).

Try and explain the lore over multiple chapters: If it’s important to know the history of your story, and world, don’t put all of that history in one chapter, spread it out, and even retell it a few times to make sure there’s a better chance your readers will know what’s going on. While it’s the reader's fault, if they skip over sections of your story and get confused. They won’t blame themselves for what they did as they’ll believe they were justified in skipping parts of your story. I’m not saying you need to change how you write to appease these readers, but try having the lore be told in a few chapters might help. The best thing about this method is even for readers who don’t skip over lore chapters and would've read the same lore a few times now. They can skip over a section they already know and won’t have to worry about missing anything important because they already know it. This kind of writing is a bit more advanced as you have to juggle between people who skip lore chapters and people who don’t. Beta readers are great at figuring out where to cut or add your lore.

Make those chapters interesting: This might seem a bit harsh, but lore is history, and not everyone likes history. When they read lore, they're reading history and not what’s going on in the story. It doesn’t matter what kind of lore you have, or how important it is, if it feels dry compared to every other aspect of your story, people will skip it. Not to mention if it feels like the plot of your story gets halted in these chapters, people will skip them because they want to continue with the story. Beta readers are a great way to figure out where the lull is coming from and tell you what they found exciting leading up to the lore dump. You can figure out where to go from there. What I normally do is have character growth in between those lore chapters. Have the characters discover something about themselves, have a relationship grow, or even have it break during these sections. Just add something in the background to keep the reader engaged, but make it where they can’t skip over the lore because if they do that, they might skip something else.

Try not to have lore chapters near the end of your story: If your story is building up to fighting the big evil, and there’s a lore chapter just slapped in the middle...yeah, that's not great. Even if it’s really important. If the readers are gearing up for a fight, or whatever the ending is and it gets paused...readers won't be happy with it. These lore chapters are normally important because it’s where the main character will discover something that’ll change the outcome of the climax of the story...but if it’s halting the buildup, it doesn’t matter how important it is, people will skip. Think of it like riding a roller coaster, if the coaster is slowly reaching its highest point, you don’t want it to stop just before it gets there and have it explain to you the history of said coaster.

Overall, there are multiple ways of dealing with lore-heavy chapters, and again, beta readers are your friends. If you’re unsure if the lore chapter you have is needed or not, send out different versions of your text, one without the lore-heavy chapter and one without and see what the reaction you get. If the people who didn’t have the lore-heavy chapter were able to follow along just fine, but those who did have the lore chapter said they skipped over it and were still able to follow along, unless you really want to keep the lore, you probably don’t need it.

[moonlightreal]

The Jewel Riders graphic novel

so, how was it?

What I loved:

-The art. Gorgeous! Flowed well, the colors were good. Love it!

-That they made Merlin creepy. In the cartoon Merlin is clearly supposed to be a gentle, all-wise mentor but something about him always came off as a tiny bit creepy in a way the creators of the show did not intend. The creators of the comic picked up this creepiness and ran with it and I am well chuffed that something that was a fanfic idea I had was also going through these creators minds and they went with it and I love it.

-The creators’ love for the world of the Jewel Riders. They brought back the sheep! They remembered Kale’s evil-baby-deer form! They love Tamara and got her spot on! (true Jewel Riders fans love Tamara, we all just do) they had a scene where Fallon is upset and sits with Moondance mirroring one of the more powerful moments in the show. The writers of this comic must have really loved the cartoon, the silliness and the darker tone both together. This is completely a Jewel Riders graphic novel. It’s got the right vibe, the right worldbuilding, it is so perfect at being what it is!

-The plot driver being Queen Anya/Adrianna’s love for her banished sister, with flashbacks to them as teenagers in training to be Jewel Riders. Setting up Merlin as being responsible for Kale getting denied her magic jewel and turning evil and opening up redemption possibilities. Flashback images of young Kale and Adrianna. This is the perfect plot decision, I love it, 10/10 no notes.

What I did not love:

-The story was presented… not badly, but there were a lot of moments that made me go “I think this is what they’re trying to say, but I’m not sure.” For example, Gwen is getting ready to marry Drake and become queen, and she doesn’t want to. I think the intended plot is…

Land Beyond Dreams, that’s what I think the intended plot is. In the cut-from-the-final-version words of Princess Rosella, “But I’m not prepared to put my freedom on the shelf. How can I share with someone else what I don’t understand myself?” Gwen likes Drake but isn’t sure she wants to marry him and she knows she doesn’t want to marry him right NOW, and she knows she’ll be queen someday but she isn’t ready to stop adventuring YET… is what I think the graphic novel is saying, but it isn’t saying why Gwen can’t just say all that and spend more years as a Jewel Rider.

And it seems like Drake got fired from being a wolf riding boy Jewel Rider to… be Gwen’s full time bodyguard and fiance? But why would that mean giving up his own adventuring? And why does everybody seem to be cutting him out of all the action? There’s no logical reason he isn’t still a Jewel Rider. He even has his Forest Stone in a few panels.

While I utterly love how Queen Adrianna missing her sister summoned said sister back from evil banishment but it happened kind of confusingly. Adrianna summoned her sister, started seeing visions of Kale? Gwen didn’t see them. And then suddenly the land is all thorny and apocalyptic with no “Since Merlin said that Kale had returned, evil thorn plants have been growing out of control!” from anybody.

...is anyone else getting the same vibe that I’m trying to describe here? Like there’s a good plot, but like I’m having to do some long stretches to connect the pieces and the writing could have been changed just slightly to pull everything together in a way that requires less “it seems like” from the reader.

-And here comes the rant.

The thing I really did not love. The thing that made me downright furious with the creators of this graphic novel.

The book had nothing to help new readers who hadn’t seen the cartoon understand what was going on. No little explanatory text, no introductions to the characters and world. There needed to be at least a simple character page like manga have in the beginning… hang on, I can photoshop. The graphic novel needed this:

Ok I made that in like 5 minutes and it’s garbage, but you see my point! This would have added so much for people who just thought the cover was cool and picked up the graphic novel with no prior knowledge of the world. Without it, I’m afraid that the book will only sell to fans of the show, and I can’t imagine that there are enough of us to keep a graphic novel series going. So I think the creators’ decision to write something that’s ONLY for old fans and NOT AT ALL for new fans will result in the series being a flop instead of delivering more Jewel Riders fun for all of us for years to come, and for that I am so angry I could spit nails, so angry I could yell at the people who made a graphic novel that I have so much good to say about!

I hope so much that I’m wrong, and there will be more volumes published because I am just going wild to find out what happens next. What’s up with Kale now that she’s back? What’s up with Merlin now that he’s getting more and more questionable?

And as a longtime fan, what else are the creators going to bring back? Kit the prismfox? That critter made an impression on a lot of us! Ian, the beast of the forest who Gwen kinda had a thing with? The gliders? Will Morgana be back? Will we see any of the other girls’ parents? Will there be anything about Moondance and Cleo being princesses of the unicorns? Might they introduce another zebracorn friend for Shadow, or explore his origins? Could they go mining in the show bible and pull out the biggest unused gemstone: Gwen’s younger sister Tara? They’d have to figure out a way to explain how Tara was never mentioned once in all the show, but maybe she was hidden away for her protection, or kidnapped and the queen was so distraught she swore never to speak of it or something, silly lampshades but why not?

The world of Avalon has so many directions for a writer to explore and I want to see all of them!

[ihadtomakethisaccount]

this might be controversial but i feel like there’s nowhere near enough nuance in the discussion about the good omens “leak.” it seems to be either “this is so heartbreaking and awful and any fan who reblogs the leak is terrible” or “neil should have seen this coming and he has no reason to complain.”

like on one hand, it’s technically not a leak. like the official amazon page revealed it, it’s technically promo more than a leak or a spoiler. fans reblogging the picture aren’t doing anything wrong cause it’s technically official information and they’re not doing it to spite neil like some people are insinuating. they’re just happily involved in the fandom and had no idea how unhappy neil was about it. he himself has even said he doesn’t blame the fans who are excited and reposting. guilt tripping fans who are spreading the picture is just shitty behaviour

on the other hand, i do think neil should have been consulted as someone so involved in the show and adaptation. this book clearly means a lot to him considering he made it with his late friend and has made the show essentially as a gift for him. while he’s not that involved in promo in general, i do think amazon took advantage of him being on strike and not really being allowed to do anything involved with shows unless he wants to break his strike, which he clearly doesn’t. this is also the type of thing that i think amazon is releasing so they can pull more viewers in and i’m not sure how much they actually care about how the writers wanted the story told. and my personal opinion is that i would rather have experienced this moment as it happened in the show, not as something to anticipate. for me personally it would feel better done and maybe more special to see it happening in the moment. now i’ll just be sitting around bracing for it to happen. i think people have every right to be annoyed this was revealed so ahead of time

i understand both perspectives so i have no idea where to settle my opinion so this is me trying to explain how i feel in regards to both arguments. if i’m wrong on any information please let me know just be polite i’m not trying to say any opinion is wrong cause i don’t think any opinions actually are

[bubblemoon66]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my poll. Enough people said they were interested for the fix exchange, which means...

Sign-ups for this year’s Skulduggery Pleasant Fic Exchange are now open! 

If you've participated before, feel free to head straight to the sign up page. Sign-ups close at the end of August, so make sure you fill in the sign-up form before then! Please let me know if you’re interested in signing up for a pinch-hit too.

If you're new to the fic exchange or just want a refresher, read on:

What is it?

A fic exchange is an event where you write a fanfiction for someone else and in return you’ll get a fanfiction written just for you. It’s basically a fandom Secret Santa.

For this particular exchange, you get to request 3-5 fanfics. A writer assigned to you will then pick one of these requests to fill. In return, you’ll be expected to write a fic that is at least 1000 words long based on someone else’s requests. As this is a Skulduggery Pleasant fic exchange all requests and fills must be related to the books in some way.

More information is available on the Rules and FAQ pages.

How exactly does it work?

Fill in this sign-up form before August 31st. This is where you list your requests and state what you will and won’t write.

You’ll then be matched with your recipient. You’ll receive 3-5 requests detailing what they’d like you to write. You get to choose which of these requests you fill.

Then it’s time to write! You get three months to finish your fic. Completed fics should be at least 1000 words in length, but can be longer if you wish. It should be based on your recipient’s requests.

Once you’ve written your fic, you need to submit it to the group. More info on how to do this will be given at a later date. All fics must be submitted by December 1st

On December 31st all the fanfics will be revealed. You’ll receive your gifted fic and your recipient will receive the fic you wrote them. 

How do I sign up?

You’ll need an AO3 account to sign up. If you don’t already an account you can request one via this link. You can also message @bubblemoon66​ for an invite code if you don’t want to wait for AO3 to send one out.  

Once you’ve logged into AO3, fill in this form. There are two sections:

The first part is the request section. Requests are the fics you’d like someone else to write for you. You will have to make between 3 and 5 requests. At least one of these must be ship-free. Writers are allowed to choose which of your requests they’ll write.

The second part of the form is the offer section. This is where you say what you are and aren’t willing to write. I encourage participants to include as much information as possible in this section. E.G. It’s worth making a note of whether you’re underage, up to date with the latest books or uncomfortable writing other people’s fan characters.

Further instructions can be found on the form itself but if you need any help filling it in please message @bubblemoon66​.

Is there anything I can do to help?

If you’d like to help, you can sign up to be a “pinch-hitter”. Pitch-hitters are people who agree to fill in for someone who drops out the last moment. It means writing two (or more) fics in exchange for just one. Pinch-hitters will have different deadlines and word limits to everyone else. If you’re interested in becoming one or want to know more please contact @bubblemoon66​.

You can also help be reblogging this post and telling your fandom friends to sign-up for the exchange.

[sapphyreopal5]

"Dark Knights" interview with Nicholas Knight, Jared Padalecki, and Jensen Ackles (Oct/Nov 2008)

The following tidbits of text are from the Supernatural Magazine Issue 6 (Oct/Nov 2008) interview "Dark Knights" with Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki and writer Nicholas Knight (pages 10 to ).

"Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki will readily tell you that working on Supernatural has made them much less likely to get scared by the strange things that creep along just out of sight and lurk in the darkness. So what does it take to scare them nowadays? A writers’ strike.

“The obvious news of [season three] was the writers’ strike,” Padalecki emphasizes. “It scared a lot of us over here. Everything was up in the air. TV itself was up in the air. People wondered: ‘Is TV going to go to reality? Is TV going to go to news only? Is [all this] stuff gonna go to the Internet?’ Magazines like this one and the companion books really helped to ensure that our show would come back, and it did come back. So on behalf of everyone here, a big 'Thanks!' to everybody; we’re all very grateful to the fans and to the people who just enjoy the show, because we enjoy the show as well, and we enjoy making it.

“As soon as that strike hit, we were all saying ‘See you later,’ but a lot of us were scared it was going to be farewell. It was good to come back!” However, that doesn’t mean it was easy coming back. Ackles admits that it was hard for him to jump back into character. “In fact,” he says, “I sat down and watched three episodes just to get my head back into the whole show and the character, and find that [brotherly] relationship [again]. “I didn’t even see Jared the whole time the writers’ strike was going on, because he was traveling off in Europe and I was home in Texas. We just [all] kind of tried to utilize that time off as much as possible. Not to mention that we see enough of each other when we’re working together…” Ackles laughs, but it’s an unnecessary cue because it’s been well documented how well the two actors get along both on and off screen.

Although happy to be back, Padalecki also admits, “It was weird. Since the Pilot it’s the longest I’ve gone without playing Sam Winchester. Between seasons one and two and seasons two and three, the breaks were two months, and this time it was over three months.'"

Is Sam going to turn evil? “That’s a great question,” Padalecki says.

“I hear it all the time and I always wish I knew the answer. As of right now, I think the audience would be very against it, so I don’t think [Eric] and the other writers are going to let that happen. But it’s somewhere I’m curious to go; I’d love to see what happens if Sam goes that way. As far as the scripts and outlines I’ve read, it seems like the only way [for Sam] to save his brother is going to be by embracing his evil side for even a moment, so I’m curious to see what happens if Sam goes ‘dark side.’ The audience probably doesn’t want it, and of course my parents and family don’t want it either, but I think it’d be interesting to see Sam maybe get weak a little bit and give in to that [impulse]."

"Maybe I was powerful initially, and now that I’ve died and come back it’s almost like when Obi-Wan [Kenobi, from Star Wars] said, ‘If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could [possibly] imagine."

"No Rest For The Wicked left us wondering if Sam not only is a fully fledged demon, but if he’s more powerful than Lilith. But do we actually know how powerful Lilith is? “She’s pretty powerful, obviously," states Padalecki. “I know that Kripke and the writers love playing with the color of the demons' eyes. Black-eyed demons are run-of-the-mill demons, but the Yellow-Eyed Demon, he’s even worse, and the red-eyed demon is the Crossroads Demon. And here we see Lilith with her white eyes and we know that she is gun-running to be essentially the leader of Hell, opposite Satan. We don’t know where Satan fits in, but Lilith is the big badass in Hell, so we know that we’re going to have to answer to her. From what we know, she's essentially all powerful. We don’t know a way to stop her. Even Ruby, who is a demon (doesn’t know how to stop her]. She's obviously been trying to weasel Sam into embracing his demonic abilities a tittle bit more, but Sam's been so against it and doesn’t want ' to go [down] that route… but he wants to save his brother…"

"Something that's harder to balance with all the dark and dreary are healthy relationships. Dean and Bela aren’t likely to hook up in Hell - although stranger things have happened - and Sam and Ruby are now unlikely to get friendlier.

“I don't know," Padalecki chuckles. "I don't think so. I think she has a clear and obvious purpose in the show, and a great purpose that she serves well, but I think that our die-hard fan base just wouldn’t be interested in watching that love story. Jensens done a love scene, and I've done a love scene, and they're interesting and serve their purpose, but I don't think the boys would work in a relationship [with anyone]. I think it'd Just be a weird dynamic. I mean, what, would Ruby ride in the back of the Impala? It’d be kind of odd [to] wheel out. I don't think it'd ever pan out. But if it did, I’m sure the writers will work it in seamlessly. Besides, it'd kind of spoil the mood if during love scenes her eyes turned black. “Exactly. 'Uh. am I supposed to kill you now?' It was hard enough for poor Sammy waking up und fighting a werewolf. So it'd be even worse if he opens his eyes and there are some big black eyes staring down at him!"

Hmmm, were The Seers [what deities and The Khala collectively call themselves] possibly hinting to Jared in his divine hearing about Ruby and Sam in fact hooking up in Season 4? Very interesting that even Jared didn't think that this would be a suitable story to add to the show...

"I definitely don’t want to go on if Eric’s not willing to." Ackles proclaims. “If you lose the mastermind of all this brilliant story creativity, then you Just turn into a puppet. I’m passionate about the stories that Eric writes, and if he stops writing them I would be scared that the passion I have for the show would start to (diminish]. I don't want to be a part of a show that lasts past its expiration date. It's been a motto in Hollywood for many years that you always want to leave the audience wanting more. I think it still makes sense, even for television shows. Once those stories reach that pinnacle, or that plateau, get out before it starts declining. Go out on top! So if Chat's his decision, then I support it."

Unlike Ackles, we’re willing to make a prediction: Regardless of whether Supernatural runs for five, seven, or 15 seasons, fans’ support will never expire!"

Odd, it's just like the writer here was hearing The Seers speak of Supernatural ending after either 5, 7 or 15 seasons (alas the show end up lasting for 15 seasons).

[synchodai]

I agree with you completely. I also think the team helming this thing aren’t very mature and they put their tantrums into whatever part they write, ignoring everything else. Like you can always tell when Hess is running things, Daemon all of sudden does things to paint him negative that he never did, or couldn’t have done in the books. And when Ryan is in charge all we get is Allicent propaganda throwing in Rhaenyra wherever he can to push that ridiculous fixation on them he has.

But both of them got so angry how much everyone loved Daemon. And they didn’t want us to or think we should. There’s interviews you can almost hear them pouting 😆 These people are supposed to be professionals and they are making their job personal when it definitely should not be.

The result is a mess and a whole season that Ryan says is Daemon atoning for the sins of his past. It’s all ridiculous. And I don’t even know what they are doing with Rhaenyra. Omg Blood and Cheese, their ineptitude is broadcast so loud in the decisions made for that.

It truly is a shame HOTD was not written by true professionals that are good at their job, and understand the responsibilities of it. The amazing writers we could have, and should have had.

Firstly, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me, anon! Thank you.

Secondly, this is nothing on you, anon, but I'm not really onboard with the fans' tendency to assume things of individual writers or paint them as dumb hacks who are outright disrespecting the source material. Fire and Blood isn't a sacred text and poor adaptations aren't a crime, so I try not to speak poorly of them as individuals and focus my criticism on the work itself. (And while I think HotD could have been better adapted, I still think it's good overall, especially in the realm of 90s fantasy lit adaptations *cough*Wheel of Time*cough*)

I've received a couple of messages like this one that have been even more accusatory (for a lack of a better word) towards HotD writers like Condal and Hess, and I've left those unpublished because I didn't want to give space to that kind of vitriol. I published this ask because anon here is tame in comparison and still had criticism grounded in the actual show. I know a lot of ire directed at the showrunners comes from things they said in supplementary interviews or their social media — stuff that I don't really read or seek out, so I don't really engage with discussions on the show's paratext. (Although I do see some of that in passing on my dash sometimes, it's mostly contextless snippets that are hard to comment on.)

Condal, Hess, Patel and whoever else are just one person in a massive crew. Cinematography, acting, directing, and even marketing all play a huge role in the final product. Yes, Condal is the showrunner who is ostensibly in charge of keeping everyone executing the same vision and for that, he deserves to be criticized if not everyone is on the same page. But I also don't know what external forces he's beholden to. Season 2 of HotD was filmed during the 2023 WGA Writers Strike, so that could very well have contributed to the lack of continuity and character cohesion that could have been ironed out by on-set writers.

I understand the fans' frustrations because I am MEGA frustrated a lot and the whingiest of whingers when it comes to HotD. But whether we think their work is good or not, the writers who worked on this are still true professionals in that this is their living. And prior the Writers Strike, they weren't even making a very good living out of it and had to fight to be involved during production. Before that, most shows would just have writers churn scripts pre-production and never involve them again.

Please, do criticize the show! Analyze the writing and pull it apart to your heart's content! Criticize Condal's adaptation choices and ability to run a show (without making assumptions about their person ofc because we don't know them). But also keep in mind that HotD is a huge collabarative work and writers make for easy scapegoats.

[firstkanaphans]

hii! i'm a big fan of your fanfics, and as an aspiring writer myself, sometimes I feel sad 'cause I know and feel like I won't ever be as good as you are ☹️ I know I shouldn't compare myself, and I'm trying to get better at it, so I would genuinely like to ask, are there any tips you'd give to authors out there trying to improve? either their writing skills, plot ideas, planning and stuff. thank you, either way, love you! can't wait for your next work ❣️

So, the first thing I want to say is that I have been writing for a long time. I published my first fanfic when I was 12 years old and I’m 31 now, so I’ve been actively writing for the past 19 years (!!!) with almost no break. The way someone explained it to me once was to look at your years writing like levels in a video game. I’m currently at level 19. If you’ve been writing for ten years, you’re at level 10 and it’s certainly not fair to compare yourself to me because the only thing that’s truly going to make you a better writer is to write.

I’m assuming since you called yourself an “aspiring writer” that your eventual goal is publication, so I’ll gear my recommendations towards that. Fanfiction is a completely different animal, but a lot of these tips are applicable to both. The biggest difference is that there’s a lot more freedom in fanfiction. You can write what you want without worrying about three-act structures and you don’t have to invest any work in making people care about the characters because they already do. It is worth noting, however, that if you write, you’re already a writer. 

First, I highly recommend that you read “Save the Cat” by Blake Snyder. It changed my life and I’m not even kidding. It’s an absolutely fantastic book on writing and although it’s geared towards screenwriting instead of novels, everything is still applicable. (There’s actually a newer version called Save the Cat Writes a Novel, but I’ve never actually read that one so I don’t know if it’s as good.) He goes over how to plot a story and also how to write likable characters, which is surprisingly one of the hardest parts of writing original fiction.

The second biggest tip I can give you is to let yourself write badly. Editing is easier than writing. The most important thing is to get words down on the page. You would not believe how bad my first drafts are—and that’s not just me being coy. Honestly, the next time I sit down to write a fanfic, I might save my first draft for anyone who’s interested to read because my first drafts are always bad. Like legitimately. There’s a lot of freedom in letting yourself fail and your writing will turn out better for it.

I would also recommend getting a professional critique if you are able to because you’re never truly going to know what it is you need to improve upon unless someone tells you. Signing up for a writing retreat is a great way to do this or you can look for online critiquing services. I’ve gotten several chapter critiques from Scribbler in the past and I found them very helpful.

But truly, the most important thing is to just have fun. I heard Lin-Manuel Miranda talking about writing Hamilton once and he said that what he constantly kept asking himself was, “If no one else ever sees this, will writing it still have been worth it?” And for him, it was. That’s the kind of energy I try to write with. I write what I want when I want and if I find myself struggling to write a scene because it’s boring, I do something to make it not boring instead. Change things up! Have fun! Because otherwise, what’s the point?

About six years ago, a friend of mine said virtually the same thing you did in this ask: “I’ll never be as good as you.” She had been writing for less than a year at the time. We lost touch when I left fandom to pursue original fiction, but when I came back last year, I looked her up again. She has a Tumblr ficlet pinned at the top of her page with 10K+ notes. I could never.

So don’t count yourself out yet. Just keep writing.