#give the source of a quote in the actual writing BUT i figure since they arent just being quoted--the quotes are being used as a

[brielledoesastrology]

asteroid oppenheimer (67085) in your astrology natal chart

By : Brielledoesastrology (tumblr)

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" - J. Robert Oppenheimer quoting from the Bhagavad Gita

asteroid Oppenheimer code number : 67085

When i was hunting asteroids i actually didn't expect an asteroid to be named after him since he is a very controversial figure of history. Before this post started i just wanted to say that I do not idolize or sorry even respect this person since i am aware of what his creations have done to hundreds of thousands of people. By the way the picture above is cillian murphy not him.

This asteroid is named after J. Robert Oppenheimer. He was an American theoretical physicist. He is often credited till now as the "father of the atomic bomb" since he is the one who is responsible for the research and design of an atomic bomb. the atomic bombs were used on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which to date remains the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Did he regret it?

only 11 days after the bombing of Hiroshima, on August 17, 1945, he expressed in writing to the US government his desire for nuclear weapons to be banned. Two months later he would tell President Harry S. Truman that blood was on his hands.

Oppenheimer became an advocate of nuclear disarmament and spoke out against the use of nuclear weapons during the Cold War. He also had his security clearance revoked and was accused of being a security risk due to his past connections with communist sympathizers. Many historians attribute this in part to his opposition to nuclear weapons and the arms race. 

Overall, it is clear that Oppenheimer had mixed and contradictory feelings about his involvement in the development of the atomic bomb, and certainly had some regrets about the consequences. 

(if there is any incorrect information above please correct me by reblog or commenting, so many sources have different stuff about him even big sources now i am just confused)

(for the regret or not part i am not sure if it is correct or not since a lot of big different sources said different stuff about what he felt, please correct me by reblogging or commenting if i made any mistakes on the sources i posted above)

In astrology the asteroid Oppenheimer (67085) could represent : where u could feel u have blood on your hands, where you could or not feel guilty about ur creations/actions, where ur creations cause massive destruction.

If i even have to be honest i kinda hate that there was an asteroid named after him. 🥲 Like seriously everytime when an asteroid is named after a historical figure i always get nervous.

⚠️ Warning : i consider this asteroid as prominent and brings the most effect if it conjuncts ur personal planets (sun,moon,venus,mercury,mars) and if it conjuncts ur personal points (ac,dc,ic,mc), i use 0 - 2.5 orbs (for conjunctions). For sextile, trine, opposite and square aspects to asteroids i usually use 0 - 2 orbs. Yes tight conjunctions of planet / personal points to asteroids tends to give the most effect, but other aspects (sextile,trine,square,opposite, etc) still exist, even they produce effects. If it doesn't aspect any of your planets or personal points, check the house placement of the asteroid, maybe some stuff/topics relating to this asteroid could affect some topics/stuff relating to the house placement . ⚠️

[study-with-aura]

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

I can tell that it is the nearing the end of the study year for me because there is so much work to be done! I nearly feel like I am not going to get to it all, but somehow I manage. I may have to do certain things while on the way or back from dance, and I eat lunch while studying too. No wonder I am so tired of the evening and feel as if I need more breaks than usual. It is partially my own fault as some of these things are supplement, so I have added them on myself, but at the same time, I enjoy doing them, like watching the historical docuseries genre that I have been into for the WWII unit. Tomorrow, I will start one on the Cold War as I will be starting the Cold War unit very soon in World History. I get so much more detail this way, and they are primary sources since there are interviews from veterans and actual footage that was released.

In other news, I don't think I like combinatorics, and I am certain these permutation and combination problems with probability are easy compared to what higher level combinatorics looks like. The formulas are fine as I can calculate them without issue, but figuring out how to take apart the word problem to input it into the formula is where I keep getting discombobulated.

Tasks Completed:

Geometry - Learned about probability with permutations and combinations + practice + honors work

Lit and Comp II - Reviewed Unit 24 vocabulary + read Act 3 Scenes 2-3 of Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare + read modern translation of same scenes + wrote a diary entry for one of the characters (I went with one of the Watchmen) + worked on my literary analysis for Emma (due Friday)

Spanish 2 - Reviewed vocabulary + watched lecture video on demonstrative adjectives + practice activity

Bible I - Read 1 Samuel 18-19

World History - Read about the Marshall Plan and MacArthur's Plan for Japan + watched "The United Nations: History and Functions" + answered more WWII review questions

Biology with Lab - Read about vaccine basis + read about how to make different types of vaccines with examples

Foundations - Read more on thriftiness + completed next quiz on Read Theory + watched video on writing introductions for a speech + watched a video on introductions for persuasive speeches + watched a video on writing the conclusion to a persuasive speech

Piano - 60-minute piano lesson + practiced for one hour

Khan Academy - None today

CLEP - Completed Module 12 reading “Europe: 1945 to Present" 14.1-14.2

Streaming - Watched Greatest Events of World War II in Color episode 10

Duolingo - Studied for 15 minutes (Spanish, French, Chinese) + completed daily quests

Reading - Read pages 223-259 of Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

Chores - Laundry

Activities of the Day:

Personal Bible Study (2 Timothy 1)

Ballet

Pointe

Journal/Mindfulness

What I’m Grateful for Today:

I am grateful for candy! I certainly do not have it all the time because of all of the sugar (and my parents would not let me do that even if I wanted to), I do let myself enjoy a serving when I want something very sweet!

Quote of the Day:

When you give joy to other people, you get more joy in return. You should give a good thought to the happiness that you can give out.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

🎧Kreisleriana, Op. 16 - 2. Sehr innig und nicht zu rasch - Robert Schumann

[shywritersblog]

Here are 100 random quotes from Asmodeus!

Sourced from the OM! Wiki, chats, devilgram, screenshots I found, etc. I made this list to help with studying to write the characters in character. (Not really proofread, sorry if there are mistakes. Also, there may be spoilers. If so, they're minor spoilers)

✧༺⚜️༻✧

“Oh, my ♡ MC, you little minx! Are you trying to show off my lovely legs to the entire Devildom?”

“But the question is whether you really mean what you say. Maybe if I reach in, pull out your heart, tear it open, and have a look inside I'd know for sure?”

“Then let's stay like this. Mm... Your neck feels soft, MC…”

“I can't believe you would actually imply I was a pervert! I only wanted to give MC something pleasant to look at.”

“Anyway MC, why don't you go ahead and take off your clothes so the two of us can enjoy a nice bath together.”

“Asmo's special cutie-pie kiss! Mwah ♡”

“But now I feel alive again, sitting in here with you drinking nice, warm cocoa.”

“Yoo-hoo, little ghosties ♡ Go on, feast your eyes upon me..!”

“Ugh, it's so dark in here! I can't take it... It's just so EXCITING!”

“You must be curious to know just how wonderful a punishment can be...”

“I'd have to say I'm most afraid of... me!”

“Since you're so adorable, I'll lock you up in my own little love jail so you'll be all mine ♡ So, don't be shy. Come here, Darling.”

“Oh, be careful around my ankles, would you? Too much pressure will ruin my perfect legs.”

“I'm hopeless at this kind of stuff since I've never lifted anything heavier than a facial massager.”

“To be honest, I was hoping to drive you mad with desire! That was my eventual goal, at least...”

“Hehe. Can't move? Aww, look how good you're being! Now, you stay just like that, okay...”

“In other words, I want you to be my plaything from now on, so I'm never bored ♡”

“Ugh, I'm so dizzy..! MC’s the only one who can save frail little Princess Asmo!”

“Oh, while we're at it why not take a video? For your exclusive viewing pleasure, of course ♡”

“I mean, I suppose I could put on a little show for you...but it won't be cheap.”

“..What? Are you stupid? Is your eyesight just that bad? Do those eyes of yours even work, or are they just there for decoration?”

“You want to do whatever you can to make me happy, because I'm worth it.”

“Hehe, now look what I've done. I got so excited that I pushed you down onto your back! Sorry!”

“Help, MC! There's a demon staring at me like he's gonna eat me!”

“And that means something coming from someone as ridiculously beautiful as me. I don't really say it to anyone other than you, you know?”

“I mean, I'm adorable. Doesn't it just tickle your protective instincts?”

“You're so cute. When I look at you, I can tell what's going through your head, even if you don't actually say it. That's right.”

“I'm sorry for being so beautiful that even confinement suits me! Then again, I always knew I was fated to be the captive damsel in distress...”

“Like, first I imagine a beautiful man and a beautiful woman. And then I picture us doing ALL sorts of naughty things to each other!”

“And then they had to do the walk of shame! ♡”

“Oh, you might be right! The runny makeup look can be kind of sexy!”

“I'll go ahead and watch you. Just in case you have any trouble changing clothes.”

“Hmmm? Like what? Mammon, you'd better get your mind out of the gutter ♡”

“I mean, here I am, right next to you, still wet from my bath. You really don't feel anything?”

“I guess that means I'M GOING TO HAVE TO KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU...!”

“Ugh, I'm ready to die of boredom! So, come on! Dance for me. I can't wait to see what you can do!”

“That's our sexy Solomon ♡ See, I knew you could do it if you tried!”

“Really, you're just flowers. Listen to you bragging about how beautiful you are...it's kind of embarrassing.”

“Ooh, are you trying to figure out where WE should go on a romantic getaway?! Aw, muffin! You don't need to beat around the bush for that kind of thing! You can be honest!”

“Huh? You're my little dove from earlier, aren't you? MC, was it?”

“That's probably my pheromones ♡”

“You're the best, MC! Your dazzling smile has the power to woo every demon in the Devildom ♡”

“Whaaat, you're still alive? Well that's boring...”

“But first, I want you to know exactly what it is that threatens to rend a delicate heart such as mine to ribbons. So be sure to pay attention, love. Nothing makes me angrier than being ignored. Truly.”

“All of the eyes are on me, I charmed all of them! Just look at me! It's a sin to be this perfect!”

“Mmmfm… gonna take everyone prisoner… mm...”

“When I first heard that we'd be shooting each other with squirt guns and getting wet, I found the whole thing kind of stupid. But it also involved coming up with plans to drive your opponents into a corner and anticipating their moves... which I found pretty enjoyable.”

“If I were like Lord Diavolo, I could have any demon or human I wanted.”

“Aaaah, this is where I belong. Sitting on a throne!”

“Surely, tempting humans is what demons are all about?”

“And next time, you're welcome to be even bolder. I want your scent all over my clothes.”

“Oh my gosh! Even from behind, I am such a snack!”

“Ooh, I know exactly what you mean! It's like, you can't help but want to lie down together on a bed or a sofa and do all sorts of naughty things-“

“Butlers, you see...their services extend into the night, as well.”

“Aaah, I've never tried rope play before, but I think I like it ♡”

“That's a rather...traditional approach. I would've just seduced him.”

“There's just something nice about being completely overpowered and brought to submission like that, you know?!”

“Right now, I'm totally hooked on this exercise where I blow up balloons to strengthen my facial muscles. Do you wanna give it a try?”

“Filth? You should know that eroticism is a valid form of art.”

“I mean, I wrapped him in chains like you said, but l've got such soft, beautiful, tender hands. They aren't suited for such a rough job. Really, you should've known that…”

“Hehe. Lies are like accessories, hun.”

“But, I'd sure feel better if you came and comforted me. I mean, I'm aaaaall alone in my room right now. If you don't come over, I'll probably start crying on account of how lonely I am.”

“Let's meet in my room when the party is over. We can have our very own Valentine's Day afterparty, just the two of us ♡”

“I'm in desperate need of stimulation to my senses!”

“To think that even Mister Stiff and Serious Angel here is feeling his heart skip a beat...I love it! ♡”

“What the movie lacks is sexiness! Shall we add more revealing scenes, like me in a swimsuit?”

“...Ummm, is this some sort of joke? You look like a chicken in heat.”

“Oh, but with you it's different, MC! I only want to do your nails as an excuse to flirt ♡”

“Oh, how exciting! Better get back snug under the covers and wait for my impending arousal ♡”

“Yes, I do. I love butts!”

“It would be ideal if we were both au naturel, honestly...”

“Ahh, I feel so graceful when i'm shooting ♡”

“I left a dying message with lipstick, so you better catch the culprit!”

“Guess I'll just have to come over and shake things up for you ♪”

“See, I just knew you'd say that! Because we're obviously an extra-compatible super couple!”

“I'd love to. I'll make you look so good, you'll be drooling over yourself.”

“..No one will know if I take a single muffin, right? I'll just grab one while they're not looking. Yoink! ♡”

“Oh yeah, Satan is totally the type to start with the tongue first!”

“Look out, or I'll tear you to bits with my sharp claws!”

“Apologize? Me? I'm sorry, but I'm not quite sure why you'd want me to do that. I mean, true, I suppose an entire country was destroyed in the end, but how could I have known that would happen, hm?”

“Drastic times call for drastic measures. Step aside, boys my sexy dance is about to begin...!”

“Hehe. Trying to butter me up, are you? Tell me, what are you hoping will happen when you succeed?”

“I'm the life of the party. The eye candy, the one who makes everyone else feel better. I need to work hard, too...for the sake of my brothers!”

“Now, now, I may not be as quick to anger as the Lord of Fools, but still. If you don't do what I say, I might have to punish you…”

“By the way, your costume was really cute, MC. Just thinking about it makes my heart go pitter-patter!”

“And now I'm a demon. Which means I could charm any sorcerer, no matter how evil! I'll have him dancing in the palm of my hand!”

“Oh Solomon, THANK YOU! You're so amazing I think I'm going to swoon! I love you..!”

“A scolding? Ooh, I wouldn't mind being scolded by you, sweetie ♡”

“FYI: It's super obvious what's running through your dirty little mind right now, Mammon…”

“Brother dearest ♡ I'm sooooo thirsty! Could you get me some blood, please and thanks? ♡”

“My charm is the greatest weapon of all! I'll steal your hearts right where you stand ♡”

“Ooh, MC, are you on Devilgram and Fab Snap? Because we totally need to friend each other!”

“I mean, I suppose I could put on a little show for you… but it won't be cheap, you know? Also, I charge extra for pictures and touching.”

“Nuh-uh. I'll be the one to win that right! Prepare to be slain in style, everyone ♡”

“I'm actually quite exhausted. So, I was thinking you could hold me in your arms for a little while so I can recharge ♡”

“If you want to experience this exfoliating paradise with me, don't hesitate to join in ♪ You know I always have an open-door policy in effect for you, love ♡”

“If both of us are charging, there's going to be sparks”

“I need you to put some cream on my back for me ♡ Yes, a backrub and nothing more. If you, on the other hand, are looking for a happy ending, I'm more than ready, my dear ♡”

“Oh, is my little MC scared? Come cling to my bosom, darling. I'll make you feel aaaall better ♡”

“I'm actually going out soon, and this fastener is giving me so much trouble. I can't get it up by myself. It could really use a good tug ♪ I should mention that my back is extremely sensitive. The slightest touch, and...well let's just say it will be hard to hold back. So sorry if I get you too excited ♡”

✧༺⚜️༻✧

Number 100 is my favourite, literally makes me blush

I will be doing a part 2 for Asmo, he is just so chaotic and lovely!

𝑀𝒶𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓁𝒾𝓈𝓉

𝒮𝒽𝓎 𝒲𝓇𝒾𝓉𝑒𝓇 ༝༚༝༚

[lunanoc]

so probably against what should have been my better judgment, i went ahead and actually wrote “meta”, except it’s only borderline meta because it ends up veering off into crack theory territory and is also insanely long, but i figure since it’s now too long to be posted as a discord liveblog like it was supposed to be, i might as well just. post it here (in several parts because no one wants a 10k post lbr)

disclaimer: i like to be transparent about where i’m coming from, so just know that i have not finished reading all the books yet. currently i’m practically through everything, books and extras included, up until and including sand sea part III, so anything i talk about relating to that is my own reading experience. i’ll sometimes reference later books i’ve either read snippets of, or talked about with people who have (and verified the information as best as i could), but because i lack full context for those, any mentions of those elements are automatically grain of salt and relegated to crack theory. for everything i have read that i can grab quotes for, i’ll be providing clear references to the specific chapters of the books they’re from

also, blanket spoiler warning for the books

but that being said, let me actually get into this thing:

king shang of lu, the iron-masked gentleman, king mu of zhou, the queen mother of the west, how they’re connected, who they might be, and what that could mean for the larger dmbj narrative

PART I: KING SHANG OF LU AND THE IRON-MASKED GENTLEMAN

writing this shaved years off of me, the rabbit-holing was insane, and there’s still no clear answers in the end but welcome to the ride i guess

starting off here, the problem with these two characters is that we have conflicting information about them from three different sources that all give a different version of the same story, all of which are various degrees of dubious for different reasons. and you could say ok but really, who cares i do apparently about these two because in the larger plot they don’t really amount to much in the end

BUT

given both the things we learn by the end of sand sea (and elements that pop up in later installments) about all the various parties involved in what’s essentially a subplot, and the fact npss goes into so much detail with such a deliberate throwback to something all the way back in the first book, i don’t think the fact that the various versions of the story of king shang of lu sometimes blatantly contradicting themselves is a mistake, but is rather proof of deliberate obfuscation of the truth. npss tends to like revisiting sometimes seemingly anecdotal or trivial things from previous books to connect them with a subsequent revelation, or open the door to a different interpretation of them, so that he’d do it here isn’t all that surprising to me

the three versions of the story of “the emperor” (or the ruler of the state of lu), king shang of lu, and the iron-masked gentleman we get are, in order of appearance:

version 1 from a silkbook found in the purple jade box in “king shang of lu”’s coffin (Book 1, Ch. 26, Purple Jade Box)

version 2 from xiaoge himself who gives an opposing account to the previous one that he supposedly read from a warring states period silkbook he found in a song dynasty tomb (Book 1, Ch. 26-27, Purple Jade Box / Lies)

version 3 from the powerpoint lesson given by the wang family to li cu (Sand Sea Part III, Ch. 132, 133, 134, Lesson / King Mu of Zhou / Deception)

the first two accounts are both from book 1 and immediately follow each other, but neither of them quite fit with the last one, or at least it would seem so. you could argue this is simply because book 1 was when npss was still trying to figure things out both with his plot and characters, so the final account given by the wang family is a retcon, and while that’s always possible, like i mentioned, npss likes to connect things and tends to either incorporate these kinds of seemingly obscure and irrelevant details for a reason, or simply retroactively fleshes them out to revisit them at a later date and shed a new light on the bigger picture. so it’s more the fact we just don’t know which things he implements deliberately from the start and which ones he ties back to retroactively, but in the end seeing as the result is the same it doesn’t matter much. what does matter is that he does it pretty consistently, so it’s safe to assume he’s also doing it with this particular story (side tangent, but i like to think that npss has shown he’s a big fan of something called chekov’s gun and no i won’t elaborate on that or else i’ll be here for hours but google that if you’re interested it’s fun)

so tldr; i basically just want to argue that by intentionally bringing back this story with obvious divergences, it might be a way to shed light on something else that informs king shang of lu’s story while placing it as a puzzle piece in the bigger picture of dmbj lore

but let’s break down those three different accounts of the story of king shang of lu

the first account

i’m going to tldr; most of these for the sake of clarity, but i’ll be referencing the various chapters all these bits are taken from if you want to verify any of it

technically the first real account of king shang of lu’s story we get is what’s written on the stone slab in the hall with all of the coffins in the seven star palace that says that he was “born with a ghost seal and could borrow ghost soldiers from the underworld” (Book 1, Ch. 10, Shadow), but i’m not counting that as a full-blown version of the story because it’s not dwelt on all that much and mostly serves as a preamble for pangzi to later posit to wu xie that it’s a bunch of bs and was probably just an exaggeration meant to mythologize king shang of lu given that the tomb itself is a weird anachronistic mix of western zhou and warring states architecture (which is an important argument but maybe not for the reasons you’d think)

so i consider the first fleshed-out version of king shang of lu’s story we get to be the one wu xie reads off of the silkbook he and wu sanxing pull from “king shang of lu”’s coffin, and is one that very quickly gets debunked within book 1 itself multiple times, so while it may seem easy enough to write off, it’s not so much what it says that’s interesting, but rather why it exists in the first place

this version of the story essentially relates the life and deeds of king shang of lu, recorded on what’s supposed to be a warring states period silkbook pulled from the man’s own coffin. it talks about how he inherited his title from his father and was a lowly grave robber lord who was cruel and greedy, and how one day he gained from a snake demon/spirit in a tomb he excavated “two treasures” in a “purple and gold box” (this will be important later) which are never explicitated, although wu xie speculates one of those treasures to be the ghost seal as its acquisition is directly mentioned in the text. the snake comes to king shang of lu in a dream and promises to make him a high-ranking official and teach him how to use the treasures in the box if he spares its soul (he doesn’t). and so king shang of lu becomes a military officer under the command of the “emperor” of the state of lu. in his later years, however, he starts to get old and sick, and so the “emperor” demotes him back into being a lowly grave robber, and he starts to fear death, so king shang of lu goes to his military advisor, the “iron-masked gentleman” or 铁面先生 tiemian xiansheng, in search of a solution. the iron-masked gentleman then tells him that something called jade burial armor, a treasure from ancient times, exists, and that it can keep someone young forever. so king shang hunts and hunts and scours tomb after tomb until eventually he finds a western zhou dynasty tomb which will later become the seven star palace where he discovers a corpse wearing the famed jade buriam armor. iron mask takes the corpse out of the armor, subdues the blood zombie it turns into, and then helps king shang of lu fake his death in front of the “emperor” so he can be buried in the tomb he built for himself on top of the western zhou tomb he’d found (Book 1, Ch. 26, Purple Jade Box)

however

this version is quickly debunked twice in pretty quick succession, and then a third time a bit later, still in book 1, but before i get to that, a few extra little details i want to point out:

to be fair literally no one (who doesn’t speak chinese and is reading the original text anyway) would be able to guess either from the translation or merebear’s footnotes that “iron-masked scholar/gentleman” or 铁面先生 is not in fact necessarily meant to be taken literally. it’s partly an idiom. 铁面 tiemian is an expression that can mean “someone who is upright in character”, in other words someone with a positive reputation. so this man isn’t necessarily implied to have worn a mask at all (i think he did, but that’s also for later)

the purple and gold box that’s mentioned in this version of the story is the one wu xie finds in the hands of the corpse of the green-eyed fox (who’s also wearing the belt that has the qilin blood clot wu xie accidentally swallows can you believe, which is also another detail for later) that’s accompanied by a key in the corpse of a woman next to it (Book 1, Ch. 22, The Eightfold Treasure Box)

the second account

before we get into the first version of the story more, let’s briefly take a look at the second one. the first version of the story is first debunked by the second version of the story which is told in abridged format by xiaoge pretty much right after wu xie finishes reading the silkbook. he says that the silkbook’s account is incorrect because the person in the jade armor isn’t king shang of lu, but iron mask who faked his own death in order to escape the systematic execution king shang of lu enacted on all the people who knew about and/or helped build his tomb. he then snuck into the seven star palace and disposed of king shang of lu’s body before taking the jade armor for himself

xiaoge explains that he found this story in a song dynasty tomb he’d robbed a few years ago that contained a complete silkbook that turned out to be iron-masked gentleman’s memoirs (Book 1, Ch. 27, Lies). and you’d be inclined to believe this version of the story over the first one because it’s xiaoge telling it, and xiaoge usually isn’t one for intentional deception unless it serves a purpose, even less so if it’s verbal deception (literally the only time i can think of him openly lying rather than lying by omission is when he disguises himself as professor zhang). except even this version is called into question multiple times. the first time is by wu xie himself, who while choosing not to confront xiaoge about it, senses that xiaoge seems uneasy when wu xie presses him on the point that if it’s true that two people were pulled out of the jade armor in that tomb, then why is there no second blood corpse. xiaoge answers that he doesn’t know because iron masks’s memoirs only mention it briefly, and that maybe king shang of lu was pulled out early enough that he didn’t turn into a blood zombie. technically there’s the mummified body they find in the sacrificial ding cauldron next to the coffin with the monster at the entrance to the seven star palace whose head is cut off that could fit that description (Book 1, Ch. 9, Ancient Tomb), but in any case xiaoge according to wu xie looks like he’s lying. the second time this version is refuted is by wu sanxing, but i’ll get to that when i get back to the first account and how it also gets debunked

arguments against the second account 

i already mentioned xiaoge isn’t typically someone who’s into overt deception as a course of action unless it’s strictly necessary (and even then). it’s always possible he was either acting on a compulsion from the heavenly gift or under some order from chen pi ah si (since he was working for him at the time, even if i doubt this to be completely honest) or even something else, so it’s mostly my own assumption that he’s not actively deceiving them by fabricating a story, because xiaoge’s deception usually relies on omission rather than a concentrated effort at producing an elaborate lie. so really, the only fact we can be certain of is that he has an “uneasy look in his eyes” when he talks about the lack of another blood corpse, and that wu xie gets the impression he’s lying, which is a sentiment wu sanxing apparently shares because they look at each other in that moment and silently agree. whether this means xiaoge was *actually* lying, or that wu sanxing was taking advantage of xiaoge’s unease to further his own deception (re: arguments against the first account i’m getting to in a bit) is really up in the air

however

i’d like to think if xiaoge was lying and there was nothing more to it than that, he wouldn’t make it so apparent that that was the case given he only ever really projects visible upset or discomfort at anything when it’s related to his memories or lack thereof, and only much later in the story does that start to extend to allowing himself moments of vulnerability, or just his own brand of open concern for wu xie and pangzi. but this is all happening in book 1 where wu xie, as perceptive as he is about people, doesn’t know xiaoge yet, and so doesn’t know his tells. therefore that he can tell xiaoge is visibly emoting when it’s xiaoge is noteworthy in itself. also, given that book 1 takes place at a time when xiaoge’s memory was still very much lacking and fragmented, and he was likely still working for chen pi ah si partly to search for his memories, i wouldn’t be surprised if his unease was visible because the confrontation of both the first and second versions of the story started triggering his memory in some capacity, or it might have even triggered the heavenly gift senses into letting him know that there was something of importance in these stories since the particular episode of it he’s going through at the time gets a bit fast-forwarded from the seven star palace onward seeing as not too long afterwards xiaoge goes into the gate at the end of book 3

something else that’s worth mentioning is the logic behind these memoirs of iron mask even existing. why it would be in a song dynasty tomb is up for debate and probably irrelevant (although it does to be fair align with king mu’s motives of perpetuating grave robbing for deliberate dissemination of information), but mostly i question how he could have written his memoirs if he faked his death and slipped into the jade armor himself shortly after, unless he waited a significant amount of time before doing so and lived his life in hiding, which is also possible given there’s nothing more we know about him. but more food for thought

arguments against the first account

let’s go back to the first account from the silkbook for a bit and take a look at the other two times besides xiaoge’s second account where this version is debunked:

the second debunking comes from wu sanxing as he and wu xie are waiting around in jinan while panzi is in the hospital, and wu sanxing comes back outraged bc when he tried to have the silkbook they brought back from “king shang of lu”’s coffin, he was apparently told it was a forgery because the gold in it was too pure to have dated back to the warring states period, and so was necessarily more recent, though how recent is never specified (Book 1, Ch. 29, Purple-and-Gold Box). he then suggests to wu xie that he thinks it’s xiaoge who snuck into the tomb ahead of them, and with his skills successfully planted a dupe to trick them. i’ll get back to this eventually, but again, while it’s not impossible, it feels unlikely to me that xiaoge would extend so much effort in deception unless it served a clear purpose he agreed with, which is why i’m not convinced he would have blindly been following orders from someone like chen pi ah ai. and xiaoge would likely not have gone to the trouble of making a fake silkbook either, so the idea would have to have come from chen pi ah si, which then brings into question what motive chen pi ah si would have had to go to such lengths to deceive wu sanxing. again, really the only time we ever see or hear of xiaoge making an effort at deliberate deception is when he disguises himself as professor zhang, and while we never get an explanation for the reasons behind that, that’s more likely to have stemmed from feeling like he had to conceal his identity rather than wanting to deceive if that makes sense. in any case, i don’t know what tangible reason xiaoge would have had to deceive wu sanxing and his team with a fake silkbook even if he’d been acting on chen pi ah si’s orders, because would chen pi ah si have had a reason to go to the effort of creating a fake silkbook to deceive wu sanxing with details so specific that you quite literally have to have been in that tomb before to know them?  

the third debunking of the silkbook version is ironically a reverse uno from xiaoge directed at wu sanxing when he, wu xie, and pangzi are stuck in wang zanghai’s tomb in xisha (Book 1, Ch. 63, Chain). xiaoge’s just recovered a massive amount of his memories related to the first xisha expedition, and very bluntly tells wu xie that not only is the silkbook from the seven star palace a fake, it was wu sanxing who planted it there. to which wu xie obviously responds with “wtf no you did”. to which xiaoge then replies completely deadpan as he does with “no, it was your sanshu, he and da kui dug a hole under the tree to do it, probably why da kui had to be silenced”. which leaves wu xie very torn about what and who to believe. and mind you this is also a little before they find the inscription on the wall from “xie lianhuan” accusing wu sanxing of murdering him. honestly it’s possible xiaoge is telling the truth if you consider that wu sanxing might have planted a fake if he knew ahead of time what the silkbook contained, what the seven star palace was, and basically faked his own way through the entire thing

it wouldn’t necessarily surprise me because he does sound very pretends to be shocked in the delivery of many of his remarks (but again, how much of that can you attribute to this being book 1), and while he did bring wu xie along because he was trying to ease him into the game with the wangs, it’s possible he was prudent enough that he would have made wu xie’s first tomb experience take place in a somewhat controlled environment. which doesn’t mean he’d necessarily been there before, just that as entrenched in the wang shit as he is, i wouldn’t be surprised if he’d known even vaguely what the seven star palace represented and what could be found in there. he did know about the snake cypress and about the stone used to subdue it, and while that doesn’t necessarily mean anything seeing as wu sanxing is a highly experienced tomb robber, it’s worth noting that the only times we’ve ever seen those trees is in the seven star palace and in the snake mine in gutongjing. in other words, always somewhere connected to longevity and The Secret and all the parties involved in that power struggle

but then again, we don’t really know how much wu sanxing knew about the wangs and the zhangs etc, so it’s all very up to interpretation. if he did in fact plant the fake silkbook though, it might have served the purpose of making sure there was something to string wu xie along to push him towards xisha and the conspiracy, but the copper fish ended up serving that purpose in the end. nothing really elaborates on this silkbook again, so we don’t know why xiaoge would speculate that wu sanxing was the perpetrator, unless it was because he’d just recovered his memories of xisha (but even then xiaoge doesn’t accuse people so firmly based on impression alone) or he literally saw wu sanxing do it

regardless of who did it, the bottom line is that it’s safe to say the silkbook was probably fake and was placed there intentionally, both because as wu sanxing points out, it is suspicious that wu xie would conveniently only be able to understand what happened to be key portions of the silkbook relating parts of king shang of lu’s life, and because it mentions the purple and gold box in it, which when opened, wu xie discovers contains the first snake-eyebrowed copper fish

to me this actually pushes suspicion more heavily onto two parties in particular: wu sanxing and the wang family. because to be able to forge a silkbook that would specifically contain passages tailored to wu xie’s knowledge of old chinese and not run the risk of him either knowing more or less than speculated, you would have to have extensive knowledge on wu xie as a person on a personal level. and to be fair, this idea hinges a lot on the silkbook being put into that coffin for wu xie specifically ti find, so i’m working on assumptions again, but if this were the case, then only wu sanxing and the wangs qualify to fill that role, and in some ways the wangs even more so because this kind of covert manipulation is very much the way they do things. xiaoge would not have known wu xie to that extent in book 1, if at all, and while wang zanghai himself is a tempting possibility, he was obviously in the seven star palace long before any of this took place, so it can’t be him. in fact, the only thing that ties wang zanghai to any of this at all is the purple and gold box containing the copper fish, since whether or not the box had originally been there and he simply emptied it of its contents or brought it in from outside, he’s the one who placed the copper fish in it

as to why if it was wu sanxing who planted the fake silkbook he would shift the blame onto xiaoge, my theory on that would be that xiaoge was another convenient means of stringing wu xie along into the xisha expedition mystery by virtue of him being zhang qiling and therefore both highly mysterious and suspicious, as well as personally involved. part of me wonders if part of the reason wu sanxing went to chen pi ah si to hire xiaoge specifically because he was added insurance that he would have the means to trigger wu xie’s curiosity, and provide a first clue to lead him into the It conspiracy. wu sanxing did use the picture of the expedition team to explicitly tie xiaoge into it along with the copper fish story, so there’s that to consider

the third account

which finally brings me to the final version of the king shang of lu story, which is the one given to li cu during the wang family powerpoint lesson. this particular version also overlaps with the story of king mu of zhou and the queen mother of the west, but i’ll get to in another part of this meta. so this version of the story is mostly ironically both the version that most blatantly contradicts the first two, while also being the version most accurate to the tiny introduction we get to king shang of lu at the entrance of the seven star palace that says he was “born with a ghost seal and could borrow ghost soldiers from the underworld”. the only real issue with that this third version has it’s told by the wang family to li cu, so just by virtue of it coming from obvious wang propaganda, it’s immediately suspicious by nature

going back to speculations about who planted the fake silkbook version of king shang of lu’s story in the seven star palace, it then also raises the question of, if the wangs were the ones who did it, what motive they would have had not only to do so, but to tell the story in that particular way, only to then tell a completely different one to someone they consider a candidate to join them. in my opinion, the only thing that makes this third version hold water is that given how it’s explained to li cu, and how wang xiaoyuan (the girl who passes by the window during the lesson) has the same version of it, the wang family believes this version is true, and by virtue of that, it gains a little more credibility, bc suspicious as they are and twisted by their own biases their version of history may be, the wang family is nonetheless well-informed for the most part. not to mention because the narrative has the wang family consistently mirror the zhang family and the way they function so perfectly it’s almost eerie, it stands to reason that the wang family also dabble in historical revisionism when they can, so putting out a fake version of history onto a fabricated silkbook seems up their alley

i’ll get into king mu of zhou separately because that’s a whole other can of worms, but this final version of king shang of lu’s story begins between the “emperor” of the state of lu and his advisor, the owner of a fox mask “with ancient patterns that often appeared on bronze ware” (Sand Sea Part III, Ch. 132, Lesson). the “emperor” asks his advisor “around 1000 BC” (fyi the original says 一千年上下 which amounts to “around 1000 years” but it’s more of an approximation and can technically encompass the warring states period too) as a hypothetical whether or not it’s possible “to prevent people from dying”, to which the advisor answers that he himself doesn’t know how, but he does know where to find something that can “beneath the loess inside the mountains”. he then goes on to tell the tale of king mu of zhou to the “emperor”, and of how he was given an elixir of immortality by the queen mother of the west that he likely hid inside of his tomb centuries ago

it very quickly becomes apparent to the reader that this story is an obvious ploy by the owner of the fox mask, who in sensing that the “emperor”, while tempted, is reluctant to cast all appearance of morality aside to deploy his troops to rob king mu of zhou’s grave, calls a “strange man” to the court who’s “believed to be a descendent of the zhou emperor” (that is to say king mu of zhou) “who was able to communicate with the underworld”. the ruler of the state of lu thus gives this “strange man” a jade seal and seals him in an iron coffin deep in a well for 49 days, saying that if he can come back up from it with the ghost seal in hand after having successfully spoken to king mu of zhou, then it would be proof of king mu granting him permission to rob his tomb and take the immortality elixir from it. and so this “strange man” does, in fact, come back, not only with the ghost seal in hand, but with an imperial edict written by king mu of zhou himself that granted him the title of king shang (殇 shang meaning to die young or at war) as well as all the contents of his tomb

the ruler of the state of lu then uses this to make several leaps in logic to justify being in the right if he deploys his troops to rob king mu of zhou’s tomb, because if this “strange man” can communicate with the underworld and was given a title relating to dead people, then surely that means that this strange “king shang” is likely dead himself, and that king mu of zhou chose him as his heir after he’d died. it’s a very convenient out for the ruler of the state of lu to say that he’s only helping an esteemed deceased elder to recover his birthright if he makes him a general and lends him troops to go find king mu of zhou’s tomb (Sand Sea Part III, Ch. 133, King Mu of Zhou)

it’s also quickly obvious to the reader that the owner of the fox mask and this newly minted king shang of lu are in fact working together, given it was the former who referred the latter to the state of lu’s court in the first place, which is something i’ll come back to in another part of this meta. from here, under the ruler of the state of lu’s orders, king shang and the owner of the fox mask, together with more grave robbers who also wore fox masks (as according to the wang family, foxes would live in graveyards and grave robber’s tunnels at the time, and so grave robbers associated their imagery with the profession), began their search for king mu of zhou’s tomb and the immortality elixir it supposedly contained. while this version of the story of king shang of lu more or less ends here, you could assume the rest of it might follow along the same lines of the first two versions, and maybe it does. you’d then assume that the person king shang and the owner of the fox mask (who’s by then inferred to be iron mask from the previous two versions) find in the western zhou tomb is king mu of zhou, who they then divest of the jade burial armor to take for themselves

however, one very important detail in this version compromises this assumption: king mu of zhou isn’t actually dead, and he thus gave king shang the edict personally (Sand Sea Part III, Ch. 134, Deception). what this means is that the ruler of the state of lu was duped presumably not by two, but three people, all of whom were working together to find the jade burial armor for who appears to be king mu of zhou. in other words, where the other two versions of the story have two key players, this final version suddenly introduces a third one, and that changes things. how much it does is what i’ll be getting into in the next part on king mu of zhou more specifically

(tbc in part II and part III of this madness)

[shinesurge]

I'm sitting around waiting for our car to get serviced so I'm gonna take a minute to write a post I've been chewing on for a little bit lol

I think! A lot of creators talk about 'word of mouth' being the best advertising and it's TRUE they are right but I'm not sure the actual like, function of that is getting across because people still get confused about it when I bring it up, and I keep seeing people frustrated that their efforts aren't working (notably in spaces like the obscure webcomic tournament). Recommending stuff to your friends or writing stuff in to promotional spaces DEFINITELY helps don't stop doing that, but what people ACTUALLY mean by this is getting Visibly Excited about things in spaces where it can break containment.

Fandom content is what gets people into things!! Like, think about everything that "takes off" online; it's not because people post the plot synopsis over and over, or go "please read this it's good," the stuff that actually gets people engaging is seeing some cool fan work or clipped out content and going what the FUCK is that. The Barbie movie probably would have done fine on its own, but the insane phenomenon it's become certainly wouldn't have happened if regular internet users hadn't memed it to hell and back; this stuff works.

I didn't give a SHIT about Persona 5, or The Magnus Archives, or The Adventure Zone or any number of things I got dragged into until I saw fandom content for them. Persona 5 sounds like boring as fuck anime shit on paper, I do NOT care about podcasts, but people kept drawing the COOLEST stuff for them or posting insane fan theories until I HAD to know what was going on. That's what we're talking about with word of mouth! Sincere engagement with the thing is better than any advertising could ever be.

It doesn't have to be creative art or writing either! Make Character Appreciation Posts using the source material! Make an essay-length analysis of the story's themes! Set up a weekly post about how much you love a character or a count of how many days it's been since someone showed up, do Incorrect Quotes or paste tumblr text posts over characters, idk man there's entire blogs dedicated to posting every One Piece panel that has certain characters in it, there are no rules

What I'm saying is if you're wanting to help out smaller creators, please get involved, and PLEASE do it outside insulated places like discord servers. A thriving community that only exists inside a closed server still looks like a ghost town from the outside. "please read this it's got lesbians" helps get something on the radar, making a compilation post of the lesbians and posting it with a link to The Thing gets people's attention.

anyway that's all thanks @ Fans Of All Kinds for caring enough to want to help out independent people to the point i felt like it was worth making a post like this; to be clear, nobody is owed any of this stuff and you're certainly not obligated to put in all this effort to enjoy a thing! but i know a LOT of people are enthusiastic about indie media and want to help out, and sometimes a little extra guidance from the creator perspective helps them figure out how to do that effectively. love you have a good day

[sweettoothedtrickster13]

How to Start a Commonplace Book

Since I have zero desire to start a YouTube channel or a separate website blog, I guess I'll throw this here.

What is a commonplace book?

It's a simple question with a different answer from anyone who keeps one and/or knows what it even is. In very basic terms, a commonplace book is a physical book where you write down quotes you find interesting. That's the extent of what some people do, but I say take it a step further. Add your thoughts on the quote. This helps in a few ways- it helps put the quote in context in your life, and it trains your brain to really think about what you find interesting.

Why a physical book?

There have been tons of studies about handwriting vs typing, but really I can only give you my own experience. I really like the act of writing longhand. It helps cement things in my memory and gives me an actual record of my life. I can look through old notebooks and see what was important to me at that time in my life.

Another reason I think a physical commonplace works better is that it takes time. And that's the point. Re-writing a quote and then your thoughts forces you to slow down and examine yourself to see why you react the way you do. And slowing down in this age of super-fast information is something I think most people would benefit from.

How do I keep one?

Take a notebook- any one will do- and a pen. It doesn't matter if you choose a super fancy $300 notebook and a fountain pen, or a composition book and a ballpoint pen. If you want some cheap options until you find out if you even like the process, I suggest hitting up your local school supply store and getting the cheapest notebook and box of pens you can find. I prefer black ink, but you do you. I like Bic ultra round stick grip pens, but again you do you. The best pen I've come across is the click pen I got for free when I voted. So really any pen will do. You might have to experiment a bit to figure out exactly what you like as you go along. If you want some other advice, I recommend checking out this post. Fair warning, I haven't checked out the brands listed because I have a truly ungodly amount of unfinished notebooks hanging around.

Then you need a source to pull quotes from. You can use books, podcasts, youtube videos, friends, family, countrymen, movies, TV shows. Anything that strikes your fancy and contains quotes that resonate with you in some way. Don't worry about if it isn't 'scholarly' or 'high brow' enough*. I've had quotes from children's cartoons stick with me.

*and 'enough' is really a stupid term because really it only has to matter to you. Fuck everyone else, they shouldn't matter in terms of how you judge yourself. If you like it, that's reason enough.

Why should I keep one?

Expressing any thoughts to yourself and self-examination is a hard process but a worthy one. Only through self-examination will you figure out who you are and what you believe. And figuring that out is crucial, because it's so much easier to just absorb the qualities and thoughts of the people around you instead of standing on your own two feet. Knowing yourself deeply and truly means that you can control your own future better. When you really know yourself, it's really hard for people to try to convince you to do/think something that is antithesis to who you are/who you want to be. Knowing yourself is the first step to knowing who want to be at all. At least in my opinion.

How do I even start?

I recommend your favorite media. As I said before, I don't care if it's a book or a cartoon. Consume it again, and really pay attention to which parts you like. Write them down in your notebook and examine why you like it so much. It will feel weird and awkward and hard at first. You'll automatically want to stop. I say give yourself at least a week of doing this regularly to decide if you want to continue or not.

I also suggest pulling from more than one source of media- if you read a lot of books, try podcasts. If you like TV shows, try movies. Just diversify your intake. You don't have to branch into genres you don't like, but knowing how different media can accomplish different things is a worthwhile endeavor to me.

What if I don't have any thoughts on the quote/can't pin down why I like it?

Leave a blank space after the quote. You might not be able to examine the feelings now, but there will come a time later where you will. The subconscious is a miraculous thing. Often, writing down the quote helps your brain recognize that it's important and worth thinking about. Don't ever feel bad for not figuring it out right away. It will take time.

How do I keep up with the habit?

It doesn't matter if you come across a good quote every day or every week or once every ten years. Just keep your ears and eyes open, and you'll find good ones along the way. And when you find them, write them down.

My commonplace book isn't as pretty/organized as other people's. Why bother?

Fuck others commonplace books. Take inspiration if you want, but your commonplace is just that- yours. You don't have to add drawings or keep an index or have a theme if you don't want to. Just the fact that you are thinking about what you consume puts you ahead of the pack.

Other thoughts

Starting a commonplace book is one of the things that helps me know myself, other than journaling. Both are good in different ways, and I might do a journaling post in the future. Taking a close look at why you react the way you do to certain things is the best way to figure out what the purpose the creator of the media had when they created it. Propaganda isn't just in the news- it's everywhere. Taking the time to examine your reactions to others' words is the best way I've found to recognize it. And if you don't want to go that deep, that's fine too. Consider it a way to keep your favorite quotes close.

So happy commonplace book keeping.

[uptoolateart]

I know it's been forever since I updated my Miraculous tarot deck. I've just been so busy writing fics instead! Then I saw the S5 finale and I decided to replace one of the cards I'd already done. So, this is Reality, which is a replacement for The World. An explanation is below the image. It turns into a bit of an analysis of 'Re-Creation'.

My previous image for The World was Marinette/Ladybug and Adrien/Cat Noir, i.e. their dual images. Then I got stuck because actually, that image would be perfect for the 2 of Yo-Yos...but I want to update it because I can draw better now, so that's on its way.

So, why did I go with Gimmi / Reality for this card?

The World is the end of the Major Arcana, or the archetypal cards at the head of the deck. Therefore, it speaks of fulfilment, completion, harmony, and the end of a certain cycle or phase of life. One journey has ended and a new one begins. From this point, we return to The Fool and start the sequence all over again.

The traditional Rider-Waite-Smith image shows a dancing figure, showing that fulfilment is ever-changing and dynamic. He/she is surrounded by a wreath of success / the achievement of a goal. This circle shows the cyclical nature of life. To quote an old Smashing Pumpkins song, the end is the beginning is the end….

In the corners are four figures who also appear in The Wheel of Fortune, symbolising the elements in harmony.

The central figure has one leg up in the air, reminding me of Lord Shiva in ancient Indian stories. Also referred to as the Lord of Dance (not to be confused with the Lord of the Dance, i.e. Michael Flatley), Shiva is a classic symbol of balance, walking the two paths between spiritual life and material life / desires. I thought of him the instant I saw Gimmi in 'Re-Creation', which I'll discuss that below. (I mean, look at all those arms...but even besides that....)

Ancient Indian traditions have this idea of different yugas, or eras. There are four of them, each one shorter than the last. When all four come to an end, Shiva does a special dance so powerful that it shatters the material universe...clearing a path for the universe to be created anew and the whole cycle to begin again. This process goes on eternally.

(Incidentally, we are currently said to be living through the last yuga in the cycle, the Kali yuga, when people are at their weakest and live shorter lives. But don't worry - there are about 427,000 years left of this yuga.)

Many traditions say Brahma is the creator god, after Shiva cleans the slate. Others, though, give Shiva the role of creator, too - specifically describing him as destroying in order to create again.

Hence in 'Deflagration' Plagg reminds Tikki that 'you and I are one', and in 'Re-Creation', when we see Plagg and Tikki in their ultimate forms, they make similar statements. Gimmi is not one or the other - Gimmi is their unified state. Reality = the constant ebb and flow of life and death, creation and destruction...like when Gabriel makes his wish and reality is collapsed and recreated. His wish is Shiva's dance. Constance is an illusion.

I think it's really interesting how when Gabriel 'dies', we never actually see a body. 'That's just because it's a children's show!' Yeah, maybe...but it's a children's show full of esoteric imagery, too. When Gabriel 'dies' he simply floats up and becomes a bunch of glowing light, returning to the energetic source of everything. Even basic physics tells us that energy never goes away. It simply...transforms. In a weird way...Gabriel's still floating around in some form, in the end. (Now there's a creepy thought.)

By the way, if you've noticed the placement of the Gabriel figure on my card...yeah. I didn't choose that. My reference image was a screenshot from 'Re-Creation'. I'm certain Gabriel's positioning was on purpose, to illustrate that is he but one humble emanation of the Creatrix (a feminine source of life - and with all that pink, I'm sure Gimmi is meant to be something like this, too).

And can I just note that I love the way Gimmi's head is surrounded by the atomic model. You may have gathered from other posts that I was less than satisfied with that S5 finale...but everything about Plagg, Tikki and Gimmi was fantastic.

[geminicollisionworks]

After an offhand line in an old ask of yours, I (with my Althaar-grade understanding of human intimacy) have been trying to work out who in the main cast had the mentioned brief offscreen sexual relationship that will never be acknowledged in-show but regardless affects how these characters are written.

There are easy exclusions, of course, but still many candidates. My current top candidates are Chip and Torianna, because this is something they would, I think, both end up doing, immediately regretting, and mutually swearing never to speak of ever again (though I have to wonder if Fraall, who enjoys flotting with them both, would've mentioned it by now if they had).

Now, I am not asking for an answer (unless my assessment is correct), but how would you feel about humoring me with a clue, namely between which episodes this regrettable encounter has occured?

Hmmmnnn...

Berit & Ian put a few things in Life With Althaar here and there that are... not exactly just to amuse ourselves, but as we've said, as flavor. Though it is also to amuse ourselves. And we've often wondered if any of our listeners will "figure [this background running gag] out."

But we've never actually discussed how to respond if someone does figure out one of our silly things, or comes close enough to want or warrant hints.

Like... the one thing that a certain set of non-recurring characters have in common (which, if you noticed it, would allow you to predict certain things about events involving these characters immediately upon their being introduced).

Or... the [who/what] that is quoted in every episode of Season Three (granted, there are quotes galore in all episodes, we just decided after randomly quoting the same source in 3.01 and 3.02 that we'd keep it up for the season and see if anyone noticed).

But the past "secret" relationship is considerably less random, and while not originally conceived for the show, happened organically in the writing and acting and helped in creating a dynamic between the characters that just felt right.

It is not Chip and Torianna. Though your thoughts on the "why" for them make perfect sense, and it's absolutely in character for them to have had that happen as you laid out (both Chip and Torianna have somewhat long histories and numbers of past brief unsuccessful love affairs). Alt-Universe slash-fic writers, have at it if you like! But in canon Althaariverse, nope, didn't happen. It certainly would fit a number of classic sitcom tropes, but no.

As to Frall's take on it if it had happened, yeah, they might give both parties grief about it, but I like Berit's idea that Frall wouldn't explicitly hassle Chip about the relationship specifically, but if it had happened, that would be the reason behind Frall's constantly flotting with Chip (since Torianna is Frall's closest friend, insofar as an inexplicable, nigh-omnipotent energy being has friends). Frall's actual reasons for needling Chip are, of course, thoroughly Frall-ish and inscrutable.

As to hints to what we have layered in...

It didn't happen between episodes. It happened before the show begins. Years before, in fact.

It was not a one-night-stand, but actual open dating for a short time. It was not "regrettable," but rather nice and sweet, just, in the end, not really right for either in the longer term. It ended very amicably.

Frall, of course, knows, but would never mention it to either, let alone tease. But some others know too, and it has been whispered about, but it never comes up because it would just not be cool.

There are slight verbal felicities between them they don't allow from many others, if any at all, and both have occasionally mentioned personal idiosyncrasies of the other that a friend might know, but an ex would be more likely to.

And that's enough hints. Too many? Is it obvious now?

Personally, as one of us two creators has old flames, preceding our 23 years together, who we remain close to, with no weirdness or tensions, we thought it was a nice, real dynamic that actually happens in our world that isn't so often found in the sitcom form (pace Chloe and James in our beloved Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23), and wanted to explore it, quietly.

Thanks for asking!

[dongzhou3kingdoms]

About Reddit incident: just wanted to point out that by pure number of responses r/ThreeKingdoms has more positive reaction to that specie activity

Sorry, I'm not entirely sure what your trying to say?

My guess is that the threads have done better then those pointing out it is inaccurate? If yes, read on below the line), if not hit me up again and let me know so I can better engage

Since the reddit fuss got mentioned @zgongjin has pointed out the same person (not the person who has spread them on the three kingdoms and dynasties warriors reddits) who wrote the tombs, Cao Wei economy and Lu Xun is worse then Zhuge Liang morally articles also wrote this article

That is true. If only historical accuracy would be key to popularity, so many ugly things would die.

I get the appeal. The person who writes these knows what they are doing. It has sizzle appeal and the writer uses historical quotes, historical architecture then builds the narrative. The little lines he quotes are correct (bar the google translation issue) in the "those are words sound" and so it looks really academic and smart, he uses what seems like statistics. Also will be fascination for western audiences who don't usually see eastern posts

By putting that kernel of truth, the lies can be built around it. Twisting the narrative based on the words, cutting and splicing quotes so they are out of context to be framed in the narrative they want. Your quoting Fu Xuan, a figure of the time and noted scholar, it gives validity even as you take the line out from the original intent to suggest something they didn't actually mean. Who is to know it is incorrect? But via using those archaeological and primary sources, it seems convincing.

Such thing spread around faster then the truth.

[shredsandpatches]

Five Things You Might Find in My Fics

@oldshrewsburyian tagged me in this and I love navel-gazing about my own writing. Of course all of this is in the context of my only really writing stuff for one fandom/set of characters but there are certainly multiple routes one could take with them and I definitely have recurring themes...

Spirituality, sexuality, and their intersections. My main characters, after all, are a polyamorous triad (they don't call themselves that obvs) consisting of two queer men and a woman who are varying levels of devout ranging from "very much and genuinely" to "has a lot of issues but is glad to have his partners in his corner." I've done a lot of work to make their (very healthy and loving) relationship feel grounded and believable in a very religious and also very sex-negative medieval culture without just making everything constant angst, and I think that's also helped me to incorporate the characters' religious beliefs more consistently throughout and to think about the issue in more depth.

Struggles with infertility. This is, again, part and parcel of the subject matter, as I'm dealing with historical figures whose childlessness was a major crisis in their lives and for the realm as a whole, but I've come back to it a lot especially in recent years and I kind of suspect this is a result of hitting my forties and still being single and kind of thinking about how I'll almost certainly never have kids and while this isn't a major source of angst in my life, it's something I do kinda turn over in my head once in a while (my attitude towards it was always "I'll worry about it if I ever meet anyone I'd actually want to start a family with"). The flip side of this is that I write a lot of fluffy or at least ultimately-ending-happily fics where Richard and Anne do manage to have some kids about whom I have lots of elaborate headcanons because I'm a dweeb.

Czech stuff. There's not a ton of fiction that has Anne of Bohemia as a major character but of the stuff that's out there, none of it really deals much with her home culture although it usually mentions that she was coming from the cultural center of Europe to the edge of it. Of course, the imperial court was a major locus for the International Gothic artistic movement but I do like to foreground Anne's Slavic heritage -- her father placed a lot of emphasis on his Bohemian ancestry, and also it's something unique that Anne and her entourage being to the English court. In general I want to emphasize that she comes from a specific cultural context that's generally been overlooked by English speakers, and that involves both giving some sense of her family as people with distinct personalities and also specific references to the literature, language, and culture of her homeland.

Medieval literature. I mean, obviously I also have a lot of direct references to English (and French) literature, music, culture, and so forth, because I'm a manuscript librarian with a Ph.D. in English literature so of course I do. (There are also a lot of manuscript references and I always forget that they would just call them books.) Although there's not as much Chaucer as you would expect, largely because I tend to modernize my quotes (the language is modern to them) and it's hard to do that to Chaucer.

Fluff. I think this is mostly a "since the pandemic" thing. In the present moment it feels like the preference in the teeny histories fandom is more for darker stuff so I do feel like I'm a bit out of touch, but idk, other than the novelthing which is pretty miserable that hasn't been where my heart is lately. Anyway they all die young and in upsetting ways so they should get to have a bit of a nice time first.

It looks like we're supposed to tag five people so I'm tagging @skeleton-richard, @themalhambird, @heartofstanding, @titleleaf, and @maplelantern :)

[skaldish]

Hello, How are you? I hope you are ok!

If you don't mind to answer... How did yu get to know your troll-spirit friend? And uh.. how do you befriend with them... or other spirits..? I'm curious

I'm doing well, thanks! And uuh...it was an accident. He showed up because I was writing a story that used him as a character (which was all inspired by a quote of his, now that I think about it).

Here's what I wrote in another ask:

My toll-spirit friend is actually the result of me wishing to write a story based in Norwegian folklore but not wanting to accidentally summon spirits from it. Because I had no idea Norway's "pop culture" and "folklore" blurred to the degree it does, I figured nothing metaphysical would come of using the troll king Dovregubben from Peer Gynt as a character for the story. Not only was I absurdly wrong, but he orchestrated my tour of Norway just to prove he was nothing to sneeze at...and also to give me the critical information I needed to write the story I was writing. The whole thing frazzles me greatly but here we are.

He first showed up years ago back when I started the story, because he's apparently an autonomous spirit outside of his source material, and decided he liked me enough to stick around. But I wasn't aware of that at the time since my clairsenses weren't as strong. I took a break from the story for a while, eventually picking it up again after moving a few time. But here's the thing: I keep my personal space warded, so I didn't actually feel his presence again until the day I chose to write out in the living room—outside my wards. And he popped in.

It was...kind of a lot to take in. I write and draw the same way we sing loudly to ourselves when we think we're alone; it comes straight from the heart, no filter. So discovering someone was listening and finding me an absolute delight because of it...

Well, I'm still working through that embarrassment.

Anyway, this is how it was with half of my spirit friendships: The spirit/deity caught me bumbling around their sphere of things, chewing on ideas with my emotions uncaged, and decided I was great and wanted to be friends.

I catch onto spirits quickly these days due to stronger clairsenses, but both Loki and Dovregubben got to play "yes-and" with me for a long while before I realized they were more than just characters.

My other spirit/deity friendships are the result of your average "we saw each other one-off a few times and then started actively hanging out and now we're friends." I don't really intentionally form friendships. They just happen when they happen.

[wot-tidbits]

Secrets! A Memory of Light with Brandon Sanderson | 10th Anniversary Livestream MAJOR SPOILERS - 10.01.2023

LINK TO THE SOURCE

Brandon Sanderson & Matt Hatch, The Innkeeper of The Dusty Wheel did A Memory of Light 10th Anniversary livestream on 10.01.2023 where they discussed a final Wheel of Time secret which Brandon has been waiting to share with fans along with untold stories around it.

Please, take notice that most of the conversation was typed manually by hand and also was “edited” to get fluent text. Some mistakes in the transcription are inevitable.

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!

(I am sorry if your "read more" doesn't work)

MATT HATCH: Question about the pipe. If I remember correctly your answer was you don't know.

BRANDON SANDERSON: I don't know. I legitimately don't know. So I got handed this scene at the end where Rand lights his pipe and I asked Harriet. She said, “I don't know. Robert Jordan didn't say.” I've always maintained my thought is that being so close to the Pattern for so long gave Rand the opportunity to influence it. Indeed some of my writings brought him even closer to the Pattern in A Memory of Light. Harriet says, and I've heard her say this multiple times - she just thinks Jim wanted to indicate that the Fourth Age would be as different from the Third Age as the Third Age was from the Second.

MH: So tonight's secret is not going to be about the pipe.

BS: We don't know. You'll have to get an answer from Robert Jordan himself if you want an answer to that question.

MH: So it is also not the another question that comes from the end of these books, which is - who is Nakomi. Do you want to tell us for those of you…? That answer is actually out there. It's in a book. Brandon actually had Michael Livingston included…

BS: Michael Livingston was putting together his history of The Wheel of Time. He's like, “Are there any tidbits you can give me?” It seemed like a good place. He was actually wanting to…  He poked on Nakomi specifically. Like “Is there anything I can say?” And I'm like, “Well, get permission from Harriet and Maria.” He went to them and they're like, “Yeah, sure! It seems like a good place.”

So one of the most important pieces of writing that we got finished by Robert Jordan - and I tried very hard to include as much of quote-unquote the finished writing as I could, it wasn't polished but it was written - was the scene where Rand stumbles out from after everything's done and then he like is blurry-eyed. He's in Moridin's body at that point. I mean she says, “Yes. That's right. Yes. That's the right thing.” I've interpreted that as he's already done it and because he's strong enough to carry the other body out at that point. So I've always interpreted that she's like, “Oh, what did you do? Oh, that's the right thing to have done!” basically. But I tried to include this close to word for word as I could and he can't make out the figure but it's a woman's voice. And you can go read the scene. It's exactly, well it's not exactly because there was a lot of line edits and things like that happened - most of that was under Harriet's direction. But basically I'm like, all right, so we have this mysterious figure. Is this the same voice that spoke at Tarwin's gap that we haven't heard since The Eye of the World? Who is this? What is this? I thought, well, I need a foreshadowing for this. And I devised the scene where Nakomi shows up and talks to Avienda. Ran it past the team. I would like some other hint or foreshadowing at this person and I wrote that scene with Avienda. I needed somebody there. I don't think that scene is actually happening in, I think she's asleep by that point. That's canon. I think as I recall she's asleep. That's canon.

Now we stray into Brandon's interpretation, which is not canon, which is kind of a weird thing for the person who wrote it to say but I very deliberately didn't... Robert Jordan's scene was vague enough by intent that I didn't want the text to give clear answers because I wanted Robert Jordan's text to be able to remain… He wrote it so that Rand didn't know. What I think this is an avatar of the Creator in the same way that Shaidar Haran is an avatar of the Dark One. That is how the perspective I used in writing it but that's not actual canon. That is my best interpretation of what I think was going on but that's subject to discussion and disagreement. I'm an authoritative not definitive voice in this specific instance if that makes sense.

MH: The book is fascinating but including that side of Nakomi… There's a section of it where Brandon talks about this thing that you're mentioning and you left some kind of it was vague in some parts, you said, “I think it's like this but not like this.” So it did seem like there was room to…

BS: There's room to question and disagree. I've seen really good evidence-based disagreements with my theory on this that I say, “You've got good points”. And so I am not the definitive voice for The Wheel of Time right now, in particular. Even when I was writing it, I could be the definitive voice if I wanted to be anything that I wanted to canonize into the books, I could. And I made the choices, I made very deliberately to try to preserve things I thought that Robert Jordan wanted to be left a mystery. Аs I often say, I was Sam carrying the Ring for a while. I gave up the Ring after I finished The Wheel of Time, and I stopped being the definitive voice for The Wheel of Time. So I can only give you kind of my impressions and recollections. I asked a lot about who Shaidar Haran was and what it meant and things like this. I'm like that makes sense within the world building of The Wheel of Time. I would assume that the Creator would do something similar maybe. That was my theorizing on it.

MH: Because I think you had written about this where you said that Harriet was, the all of Team Jordan said, “We have no idea who this person is”.

BS: They did not know this. So pipe - no answer. Half answer on the Nakomi.

MH: So now there's a third one that some of you thought this might be, although others have pointed out this one has sort of been answered also. The question around the body swap itself. How did that happen? What's the theory there? And there was a couple years back someone on Reddit posted their theory and kind of basically tagged you and said, “Hey, does this theory is sound?” Basically the idea that we all recognize the balefire meeting somehow…

BS: I believe the balefire entangling, connecting their souls is canon. So I believe that that is legit the way it happened. I think he teased it and stuff but I consider that canon. I consider that straight up canon, personally. I wrote the books as if that was the canon answer.

MH: This is what you replied to that person about their theory - basically I think you're right about the crossing ability connecting the souls of bodies. But the second part of this, you said, there was something in the notes or Harriet related something from the notes to you that Robert Jordan said “the soul that wanted to live found the body that wanted to live, and the soul that wanted to die didn't go to the effort or something to that effect”.

BS: Yes, that's exactly what… I can't remember if she told it to me or if it's in the notes and that's the answer that she gave me. That's the best answer we have. That phrase that I use there like that comes straight from the source. It might be filtered through a few people but at one point that came from the source and so you can hold to that explanation pretty firmly.

MH: Were you satisfied about the body swap?

BS: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I know that like what Robert Jordan was looking for was for a chance for Rand to just put down the weight and go live a life. I can only assume that he knew once you're Rand al'Thor, you can't do this without being recognized. Even your description is super distinctive. So the idea of putting him in another body seemed like a perfect way for this to happen, and for the idea that the Dragon has died, there's the corpse we can hold a funeral, and things like that, is a fitting end. It's such an Aes Sedai answer to “the Dragon Reborn has died” that it's like a fitting and philosophically to the series as well.

MH:  Those are the secrets that a lot of people thought or maybe asked or wondered if we'd be answering today. I didn't see anyone mention this. In fact I'm going to say this right now to my friends who know me really well is, I was surprised that you haven't… Anyways, well, let's talk about the secret, Brandon. I had the chance, Brandon invited me along with a number of other fans in the community 10 years ago or 12 years ago to help beta read the final books. I got a chance to be part of Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light...

BS: I don't know that we got to beta read on the first one. I think Harriet was too afraid of it leaking. I don't know if there are beta readers, if there were, it was like only Jason

MH: I believe Jason was part of that. Jason Denzel of Dragonmount was part of that one and I believe even at that time they're like printing the book out.

BS: We printed and there was a lot of concern about digital copies of things back then. And I mean it's not without reason like the Twilight book leaked and got out and that was devastating to the author. I've never been as worried about these things. I show off early writing all the time but she was trying very hard to preserve the legacy and memory of Robert Jordan. She didn't want to have a leak happen so we had to jump through even a number of hoops with the digital copies.

MH: I signed an NDA for A Memory of Light and got an individual password and an individual copy of the book so if I had leaked that everyone would have known it was mine.

 BS: Yes, you in particular. If you leaked yours because there was a scene, we've talked about before, that was inserted just to you.

MH: If you don't know, have never heard about this, but if you want to see a legit official, the only official fan fiction that was ever allowed to be written about The Wheel of Time - it is a deleted scene from Towers of Midnight that ended up in my copy of the beta read, and there's a whole story about it, just to troll me. It was amazing. There's a video out there.

[link for the video= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe376W9EM0U ]

So the reason I bring up the beta read is in Towers of Midnight. I remember this happened - we only had about two weeks and you can imagine trying to find all, as a fan you're like I want to help find anything, any issue that might be there. And so you're scouring this before it goes out to the public. I remember at times where I wouldn't make certain comments because I would see something that made sense to me. So I didn't tell, I didn't put in the document “This is why it made sense to me.” I remember Brandon had come to me after Towers of Midnight and he's like, “Why didn't you write why it made sense to you?” And I'm like, well, it made sense to me. This was possible so I didn't need to put in. He's like, “Just write everything you're thinking basically into this beta document.” So when A Memory of Light came around, I tried to do that a little bit more. And there is a scene and we'll talk about that scene here shortly, there was a scene in A Memory of Light, but I will not reveal just what scene, but there's a person in this scene and this person says something that I thought was out of character. I thought it was out of character so strongly that I wrote a lot in the beta document of how this must be what was your plan, Brandon. Because this would never like, this is too obvious. I remember writing there, “This is too obvious. Change this.” and I didn't hear back.

 BS: I don't think I changed it though. I think it was only obvious to you.

MH: You did not change it. This is the issue for those of you watching - it's not like a letter back and forth between Brandon and his tens of beta readers of every comment. There's not enough time for that. So you would make comments and it would either turn into pages or not.

BS: I would get the document and I would…

MH: It would either be changes or wouldn't be changes and actually you would go back and read it afterwards looking for a change if it was made and you did not make a change.

BS: A lot of people who are beta reading, one of the things they don't understand is foreshadowing. When it needs to be obvious and when it doesn't and what is obvious and what isn't. Beta readers tend to be a little off the mark on foreshadowing. Particularly if it's someone like you who's really deeply into the lore, something that seems obvious to do is actually easily missed. I think time has proven that I'm right.

MH: I did not anticipate that this would be the case. So basically I gave him my feedback and months went by, the book was being published and the month before it was published in December. I looked at the text I had sent Brandon. You invited me down on December 13th to take part in a Magic draft and I had brought Taylor [Matt’s son] with and we had come down to play Magic and I had said to you, “Hey, if you have time afterwards, when you had time in your life after a Magic draft, to go grab a bite to eat afterwards.” So this is what happened everyone - the night of December 13th we had Magic draft afterwards. It was real late so there weren't a lot of places open so we went to IHOP. Because that's where you go - you go to IHOP. So we went and sat down and this is how I remember it. So I'll tell you this and you can add texture to how you remember it. Taylor and I sat down there and we started talking about this is the end of the series, it's coming out and and at some point you looked at me and you said, “I'll answer any question you have about The Wheel of Time.”

BS: Yep. And I knew there was a question burning because I had read that document. There are things that Matt is really interested in that only he picks up on. That I knew he wanted to ask me about.

MH: And you can imagine if Brandon asks you, “You can ask any question“, there were a lot going through my head but Brandon clearly knew the one I would ask him. So everyone this is the question I asked Brandon in that moment…

BS: Let me do the reveal. I want to talk through my philosophy on this. So this is the big reveal. I approached A Memory of Light and I sat down and I said, all right, what do all of the characters want? What is their ideal situation? If the books gonna end, what do each of them want is their ideal situation? For most of them it was pretty obvious. With a lot of them I had some big indications from Robert Jordan. What does Rand need and want? He wants to be left alone for a while. That's a good kind of foreshadowing of this. So I asked the question, “what does Lanfear want”? And my answer was, “Lanfear is screwed”, because no solution to this puzzle, that is an obvious solution, ends with her in a good situation. Because if the Dark One wins, she's screwed. She has been playing her own game. Everyone knows it. She's way down on the totem pole right now, everyone hates her. Dark One wins she is just… it's a terrible, terrible situation for her. The good guys win, that's also terrible for her because they're gonna hunt down the remaining Forsaken and they're going to take them out. You don't leave Forsaken around. And if the good guys win, that means they're stronger than the Dark One, there's no hope for [Lanfear].

This is in my opinion the best schemer or at least my favorite schemer. They're all pretty good. But my best schemer of them all. What is her solution? And I realized before I sat down to write the book - what she needs is everyone to think she's dead but the good guys to win. If all the other Forsaken can get taken down and she's the only one, and no one knows she's alive, the world is her oyster. She is suddenly one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful being alive. Nobody knows it, she can go into the shadows and do her thing and so she kicks off. We kicked some of this stuff off in the previous book but because these were all being written together as one I realized what we want, what Lanfear wants, is this. And how would she go about doing that and so the secret is… Why don't you ask your question?

MH: So the comment I made to Brandon in the document, if you all remember the scene at the end of А Memory of Light is - Lanfear is messing with Perrin and they're in a place, in a state, where the following comment by Lanfear makes zero sense, which is - she says basically “I'm going to count to three and at three we're both gonna do something here.”, which didn't require Perrin at all. But Perrin thought he was necessary to this process because he was clearly being Compelled which he believes he breaks.

BS: He believes he cannot be Compelled. He's had evidence presented in these books that he can't be Compelled in this way. Evidence deliberately laid to make him think that.

MH: So I remember reading that and I thought to myself like, “Why would Lanfear ever be so obvious to Perrin in something like this?” It was one of those things where I was like, “This is too obvious.” If this is really happening what I think is happening here, which honestly if you know me I wanted to happen, which was that Lanfear would survive it, should be hidden and more subtle. And so I remember thinking, “I don't know what Brandon's gonna do here.” But you said, “Matt, asked me a question.” and my question was, “Is Lanfear alive?”

BS: And the answer was, “Yes, Lanfear is alive.” Now you've got to understand I thought that was more than just that line that was pretty obvious. I thought her whole story was an intentional… I thought people pick up on like this isn't almost not a caricature but she's doing the expected thing, but she doesn't have the history with Perrin she has with Rand. Why would she be doing this? I thought I'd get called out on that and I really didn't, at least not by the beta readers and things. So the whole plot on her side was she needed to give something plausible that when it got back to Rand if he lived, he would believe that this all happened. And so the whole idea of playing with Perrin and things like this was to give as credible a witness as she possibly could to her demise so that there would be no question in the minds of the heroes if she lived. And then she also got the bonus of supporting Perrin to try to make sure that the good guys won which she's acting, she legit like we cannot have with the Dark One win. That’s the worst outcome for her.

MH: Her goal was always to take out the Dark One. Of all the Forsaken everyone has always asked “Why do you love this Forsaken?” It's because it's the only Forsaken that ever had the plan to take out...

BS: She's hoping. But anyway the whole plot with Perrin was calculated as a way to when the good guys ask the most credible witness, basically that in the books that I could come up with was Perrin. A lot of what's happening to him has been twisted. Some of it's happening in the World of Dreams in ways that he thinks he's really expert in and I take effort to show how expert he is. But he is no expert over Lanfear. He's just confident enough to believe that he's right when he's saying things that just aren't happening and he's being manipulated at every point.

MH: She plays into that confidence that he has. I love that because he has come to believe that he has mastered this place and time and that this person that he could actually take out Forsaken. That they would be in such a position that he could do this and he believes it 100% which is well crafted.

BS: That was my goal with this one and so our end state is that indeed Lanfear is the most dangerous person alive. Next to Rand she's probably the most powerful person alive. And nobody knows it and she is so cool with that. So I'll leave to your imaginations. This is canon. I went to Harriet and team and I pitched this idea to them. They all approved it. They've known about it all of these years. They approved us revealing it here. This is not Brandon. This is straight up the way that I built the books and is straight up canon.

MH: It's funny because Taylor's like, “You gotta remember to enjoy this moment.” And the reason why - I have to share some really funny things that have happened around this. Because this was my theory before December 13th happened. Because when Brandon said “yes”, I split my mind as a fan who has been behind the scenes and in front of the scenes doing the beta read to “My theory is Lanfear is alive.” before I understood that Brandon said “Lanfear was alive.” So for the last 10 years I've actually shared with fans my theory on this because technically you never had to reveal this and it could always remain a theory. But I'm sure there are some of my friends who now realize that maybe I was trolling them a little bit for a decade. But it was honestly I was just so excited that this theory existed and now that we can actually share that.

BS: Yeah, and one of the things I did after, we talked about this, is I said to you, “One of the reasons I'm telling you this is so that in however many years when I finally get to reveal this secret when Harriet says, “It's time”, you can start talking about these things.” I will have somebody there before the book came out who can witness and it's Taylor (laughter). Taylor hadn't read any of the books at all. He's a 13 year old kid who's enjoying his pancakes and he's like, “I don't know you guys talking about.”

MH: I was gonna say like not necessarily I would make a great witness to this particular mystery in the sense that everyone would believe that I would want it to be true.

BS: Everyone would believe it you are the one of the few people I could talk to about this because you picked up on it. But I also do have communications. I actually wrote an email to Harriet that's in my thing and I said, “Just so you know I'm writing this out so that we have email confirmation.” Because once in a while fans will be like “Oh, you're retconning.” This one was submerged enough in the text that I knew that if I didn't do some of these things it might seem like a JK Rowling likes to come back and be like, “Oh, I meant this all along.” and you're like “Sure. Yeah. Okay. We totally believe you.” This is the last secret that I've been been hiding. The last big secret.

MH: By the way Taylor has really funny memories from this because Brandon obviously said “yes” at an IHOP. This IHOP was not empty. There were people sitting around us and as soon as he said “yes”, I remember feeling some level of paranoia. Oh my gosh! Everyone's going to know about this thing and I looked over to Taylor and I was like, “Lanfear who?” and he's like, “I don't know who you're talking about, dad.”

Taylor to MH: You turn over and go, “Do you remember anything we just said?”  And I was like “What?” And you are “Good.”  

MH: Taylor this entire time has been so excited over this last decade. He's like, “Someday this is gonna come out”. And we would go to JordanCon and I sing a parody, Wheel of Time parody at JordanCon every year. It's called “Freak” based on “Creep”. It's about the theory behind Asmodean's demise and how I was wrong about Asmodean and who killed Asmodean. I changed the last stanza of that song a couple of times. And one I changed about five years ago it goes: “Now it's all over but one theory remains. She was too special and never so casual because she was a freak. She was Forsaken. What the hell was she doing there? Lanfear fooling everyone. May she live forever.” Taylor said, “I can't believe you just sang this song.” And I said, “It's just fun. I'm having a little bit of fun throwing this out there.” I didn't know Brandon came to JordanCon like two or three years ago…

BS: And I outed you.

MH: Yes. I think Brandon's mentioned my name like, “Matt is one of the people that knows.” Taylor came running to me at JordanCon. He's like, “Do you know that Brandon just told everyone that you know the answer to this final secret? Maybe you should stop singing this song now to everyone and stop telling everyone about your theory.” So just a funny little pieces of the story of things that were happening.

BS: I liked Lanfear when I came back to the books though Lanfear had been, was kind of at all-time low, shall we say. Not just in what she'd achieved but in how much she felt like herself. One of my goals was, I loved, I still love, the dynamic between Rand, Lanfear and more than Elan, however you want to say Ishamael, where the classic sort of one that... They actually leaned into in the television show which is one of the things I like about the television show is, they're leaning into, particularly with Ishamael, is leaning into this idea that they knew each other. They were friends and the personalities that they expressed, like Ishamael, it's not the first book but as the books progress. I really wanted to lean into that in my three books. It's one of my favorite relationship dynamics and so kind of bringing Lanfear back is more as the Lanfear that she had been and exploring Ishamael more like in his actual persona of himself more. That's really interesting to me and so you can see in my three books those are things that I explore.

(…)

BS:  Оne of the most interesting parts about The Wheel of Time is this idea of my soul lived before and the memories of that past life kind of intruding on my present life. It's just really interesting. So yes, Lanfear is one of my favorites. If you're going to have me rank them - she's near the top. Elan is my favorite. Something about him and the different incarnations of him through is really interested me.

MH: I also wanted to talk about what I call A Memory of Light outline.

BS: That's what the document is named.

MH: So one of the documents in Robert Jordan's notes, in fact you can find this document out there, is call A Memory of Light outline. But you want to explain to everybody what that…

BS: As I remember now, it's been years, as my recollection of it is I'm like, “Oh, you have an outline!” when they first gave this to me. They said to me, “No, Robert Jordan didn't work from outlines. That's not exactly how he did it.” And the document called |A Memory of Light outline was actually constructed by Team Jordan. It was not an outline that Robert Jordan prepared for me. It was instead them going through every bit of notes they could find and pulling anything that seemed the least bit relevant to A Memory of Light putting them into one file and then Alan tried to put them in an order. This is Alan Romanczuk and Maria Simons and Harriet - those are Team Jordan. So this A Memory of Light outline as I understand, again been a long time, but as I understand this was not created by Robert Jordan. This was created by his team after he died for me specifically.

MH: It makes sense because one of the things that it talks about is and for those who are wondering what this is like – it kind of has categories and it's like these people, this thing, that's happening and then it would include kind of a summary of something or…

BS: One of those three written by Alan. The summeries are written by Alan and in places that includes things that they got as transcriptions on. So they were working on this before Robert Jordan died because part of it like they'll go ask him a question and he'll tell them. They'll transcribe it and then they just put the transcription into the outline and so a bunch of Q&A. I assume it's the same one you're reading that there's Q&A stuff in there.

MH: I'm not sure. I think you got a much more. Тhis one feels like more summary items about big things.

BS: Some of those might be written by Robert Jordan.

MH: I'll give you an example of one: “Rand and company have surrounded Shayol Ghul. He takes Callandor and Laman's sword to control the Dark One long enough to seal him up the Bore. Callandor is used to link Rand between the two access keys, one male, one female.” and then parentheses “female one melted when Rand cleansed the male half of the One Power.”

 BS: So the parentheses on that is written by Alan. That is a piece they found from a previous notes file for one of the old books before book nine, I guess, where Robert Jordan like when fans would say, “Do you have the ending written down?” I think he's talking about this. That he went and wrote it into his notes so he has the ending as he imagines it at that point. This is probably written like the book six period or something like that and they're finding these things and slicing them out and putting so in that case. Then they're adding notes and to help me to remind how are they gonna have the access keys if one of them was destroyed in book nine.

MH: So there's stuff like that. So I wanted everyone to understand that the things we're talking about isn't necessarily like the last thing that was like written this is exactly how it has to happen. A lot of these things were compiled of things that Robert Jordan had imagined would happen but details had already he changed that he had written.

BS: And there's sometimes where there's two options or three options. He's like, “I might do this and things like that”. What you've got to understand is part of my job was sifting through all of this and figuring out how to make the story out of it that both queued as closely to his vision as was reasonable but also made a good story and fulfilled on all the arcs that were happening. I remember Harriet sitting me down and saying, “Robert Jordan, when he wrote this, he always took chances and changed big things he was planning in every book he wrote because it was for the good of the story. You need to take big chances. You need to be willing to change things and you need to be willing to make the most fulfilling story possible”. Those were things that she told me when I started working on this project. Because at first I was trying too close. I tried to insert one of the scenes that he'd written as is - when I say written, it was like really just almost bullet points - and she's like, “No, that's not how this goes. I'm not expecting you to try to preserve every word of Robert Jordan. I expect you to preserve the soul of The Wheel of Time the best you can”.

MH: I remember you talking a lot about this because the Aviendha scene from Towers of Midnight where she goes back through and sees basically what seems like the future and that this was something if I remember correctly you…

BS: I pitched them and they were uncertain about that one. I pitched a bunch of things, some of them like for instance the whole thing with Bao - just in the end execution didn't work. There's some that we just killed in the idea stage but some of them they were uncertain about, I tried out and they worked. Aviendha worked. After I wrote that Team Jordan's like, “This a showpiece scene in the book. Nice work”. Some of them they're like, “Ah, no, this probably needs to go.” And you've seen all of those at this point the things that been cut.

MH: I want to ask about one of those. Have we seen the one the bridal wreath scene?

That one I remember I went through an old interview you had done with Dragonmount and talked about it.

BS: I love the bridal wreath scene. It's real short.

MH: Do you think we'll ever see that out there someday?

BS: Yeah, sure. I'm sure we will. But the bridal wreath scene was actually cut for tone reasons. It happened in my mind off screen. It was happening at the beginning of A Memory of Light during the fall of (…) It's Talmanes where he's like almost getting killed and he's fighting… It's happening during that, it's interspersed like we're doing our quick cuts that I like to do near the end, and we're cutting from Talmanes nearly dying to a myrddraal to “Hey, look at what this thing that I'm weaving in the wreath means for me.” I didn't write them that way. I wrote them by viewpoint and then wove them together. And after I wove them together, Harriet’s like, “You're really gonna cut from this to this?” And I’m like, “No, we can't cut from that to that.”

MH: Can you explain the bridal wreath scene very quickly as to what that was?

BS: I mean you need a bridal wreath that you weave. When you are Aiel, weave a wreath. Min, Elayne and Aviendha are like, “We gotta get him a bridal wreath.” That's like tradition and so they all go in. They get different plants that represent them to weave together into a wreath made by the three of them. The fun of it's like, “Here's what my plant is and this is why we're sticking it in lots of them have thorns”.

MH: Just like coming off to Talmanes the scene might have not worked.

BS: It just did not work.

MH: Now the reason I've set this all up. I want to describe this because I want to ask you about one of these pieces from A Memory of Light outline that will maybe be a surprise or this isn't necessarily a secret but it's hasn't been talked about. There's two sections that talk about Egwene in this document. One is, it's kind of over a section like Egwene and Gawyn in a subsection of that says Egwene becomes pregnant. And then there's a section about the Last Battle that says Egwene is nearly killed and is saved by Egeanin. So you got asked a question about Egwene’s death. I want to read the answer you gave to a fan back in the day and then I want to talk about this idea of the choices you made about Egwene. So in answering a question about Egewne’s death you said:

 “It is never my intention to just "kill off" a character for shock value, and I can assume that RJ felt the same way, from what I've read and studied. That said, the answer to your question comes down to believing that almost every character sees themselves as the hero of their own story. Even if you know they are eventually going to die, you usually don't want to write it that way. (The exception is for tragic characters, where the foreshadowing of their impending demise is a natural consequence of their bad choices.) In the case of a protagonist being lost, the proper course (in my eyes) is to build them up in exactly the same way that you would build up everyone else. Maybe even more. You must make them LIVE before they can die. Getting back to what I said at the start, I never "kill off" characters. I allow characters to take the risks they demand, and even sacrifice themselves if they demand, for the good of the goals they want to achieve. Again, I can only assume RJ had a similar philosophy from what I've read. I haven't answered yet who decided that the particularly character you mention should die--because, in the end, it was the character's choice, and not ours. My job is not to coddle them, but to make certain their death is a good one. (And if I failed in that regard, I apologize.)”

So talk to us about Egwene and her character arc and what it was that you felt kind of demanded how that ended.

BS: So there's a couple of pieces in this. One of the big kind of powwows that I had with Team Jordan was sitting down and the group of us saying, “All right. What the casualities are?” Again this isn't to kill off people for shock value or anything but say, is the story gonna have casualties, what are the appropriate ones, what are the character arcs, and things like this. We spent a long time talking and one of the things we were pretty sure on is that there needed to be heroic sacrifices at the Last Battle  and if there weren't that the story just would lack the potency that we want. But we also knew that certain characters we just had to leave at the ending Robert Jordan decided. He had actually written scenes for them and things like that. We talked about a lot of characters, not just what I would call the main four, the main five, and some casualties were decided upon that weren't in the notes. I would say there's a number of them that either the fate was left uncertain or Robert Jordan had said something minor about them. Egwene was one of them.

We decided where is a Egewne's arc really going and we looked at Amyrlins in the past and we looked at the Battle Ajah and we looked at who's going to be like the big fiery fighting force because Rand's not there. Rand’s off dueling realities. And we just decided, number one, Robert Jordan had said that somewhere in there he wanted Gawyn to die and we're like okay, you lose your Warder, it's a big deal. Number two, Battle Ajah, where there's two places we could have taken away. One is Amylrin who rules for 100 years in peace and during a new Age. And that's kind of what I think everyone expected for Egwene. And the other one was key person that without the Last Battle falls apart and we went that direction and decided that Egwene is our big casualty. Egwene is the kick to the stomach that we're gonna do and this was decided by Team Jordan. I won't say who in Team Jordan pitched this specific one.

We all kind of pitched different things that we felt were appropriate. This one I feel very strongly is very appropriate. I feel it's appropriate to her character where she’s going her arc, her place in the story. One of my themes I wanted for A Memory of Light is you can't go through an ensemble book series and then have Rand be the only one that matters. I think one of the points of The Wheel of Time as a series is, yeah, it starts off as a hero's journey about Rand, and by the end it's a story of a world and all the people at the turning point. And if there isn't somebody. If the all the characters aren't really relevant in some way, in particular, there isn't somebody who's almost as relevant as Rand, then we're doing something wrong. So we made this call and this is a call that wasn't Robert Jordan. This was us.

(…)

MH: How does post-A Memory of Light Rand stack up to a shard in terms of power?

BS: I imagine that in Rand's realm he is as powerful or maybe more. That's my interpretation, like if he is, as I imagined the direct manifestation of the Pattern and what he wills happens, this is more powerful than the shard. Because there's no balancing factor to him. I don't know if he is that powerful but in my imagination that's what Rand is. He basically can imagine something and it occurs. Which should be terrifyingly powerful but fortunately he just wants to see the world. As each of his women finish with the jobs that they have for themselves and join him, it'll be the four of them seeing the world. There are duties that the others… Elayne takes the longest in my mind before she joins up.

 MH: Is it in your mind that Rand has a chance to raise children?

BS:  Oh, yeah. I imagine that, and this is not canon, I imagine that what happens is the three books with Mat and Perrin happen and that involves Lanfear in some way and Seanchan and mostly it's about all the problems in the Seanchan Empire and things like that and conflicts between the two continents.

MH: It's an interesting idea that I hadn't actually gone there with Lanfear that she might go back and maybe decide to situate herself with the Seanchan.

BS: I imagine she's involved and I imagine that Rand makes a cameo. But it’s Rand in a shack somewhere that you don't expect and hanging out with his kids. And that's all you get from Rand is maybe some wise words. Maybe it's just intel, maybe it's just World of Dreams you get to have a chat with Rand. Rand takes on kind of almost mythological sort of. You'll get some advice from Rand at some point. But that's what I imagine would happen in those three books if they ever had gotten written.

MH: You've mentioned the Padan Fain aspect of if you could go… would have put a little bit more...

BS: Padan Fain was a tough nut to crack.

MH: Have you thought since then, “Oh, this is maybe where I should have taken it or could have taken it.” Has anything come up with that?

BS: I feel like the way I took it worked. That confrontation between him and Mat is the way to go as the kind of physical manifestation of the darkness that Mat gave up. I think that's a good thematic sort of thing but there maybe needs to be more interaction between Padan Fain and Mat. A little bit more Padan Fain and a little less Shadar Logoth in that interaction. So there's the personal side to Padan Fain...

It's more a matter of fleshing out what's there. I still think that what's there and this is good because I feel like I can say look, add it in your head, flesh it out. The ending, I think is the right ending, but needs a little bit more. That's the thing, this book became three. It could have been four. It could have been five. This is the problem Robert Jordan ran into when telling this.

MH: I don't know if you know my theory about that the evil that has infected him has actually infected the ground. The way that you wrote it is suggestive that while the Blight might be gone that this evil has now infected a new place and it remains in some form or fashion to be stirred up again in the future. That's my take on it.

(…)

MH: You didn't have a spot to really bring in that reunion Rand, Mat and Perrin.

BS: I might have looked harder where is though… The problem is Perrin. Perrin’s been off from them so much like where do we make it happen? I could have maybe made it happen in a dream. I maybe could have squeezed it in somewhere. I don't know.

 MH: Do you have a place, if just take away the facts of the plot itself, where would you have put…?

BS: The same scene where Mat catches a badger. That's the right scene to have Perrin be there with them. It's either that or honestly if there's no structure I think the ending is better as it is, but there is a hypothetical ending where the three of them meet up again in the epilogue. Because it's been so long since they broke apart and then… It takes away the Rand thing and Robert Jordan had written those scenes and so interjecting something. But you could maybe have had some sort of and maybe he would have found a way to do this. You know the ending of the third Nolan Batman film which just like at a cafe in Paris and they look across and they nod right like you could maybe have worked in something like that where…

MH: Do you think they're still connected in as they were or …?

BS: I don't think. I think the ta’veren nature is done. This is not canon. I think it is gone. I think Rand would not be able to have the ending Robert Jordan wants for him if that was still there. Maybe Perrin and Mat. I think it would be cool if you know the sequel series would happen if it's told from their viewpoints but there's somebody else that's ta’veren that they need to deal with now. Because it's not them anymore. Someone else is pulling them into. Maybe Tuon is ta’veren and you just gotta deal with the fact that that's happening. It would be more interesting for Mat and Perrin to have to deal with a ta’veren at this point.

MH: Do you like the idea that what Aviendha sees is the deep deep past into previous turnings or Mirror World kind of turning …?

BS: For me it's a potential future. But it's The Wheel of Time. I don't think that future happens and so whether I think that the warning makes sure that it doesn't, if that makes sense. So I'm totally fine with that being the deep deep past in people's philosophies. A Mirror World. Like the point is the warning to let's make sure this doesn't happen and it doesn't because the warning did happen so that future doesn't exist but the way The Wheel of Time mechanics work that future existed somewhere at some point.

MH:  A fan said they [Rand, Mat and Perrin] see each other at IHOP.

BS: They see each other at IHOP. It's too late. The cafe in Paris isn't open. They nodded each other. Mat's got a badger under his chair that he kicks and they go their separate ways.

MH: As a fan what remaining unanswered Wheel of Time mystery do you wish had an answer?

BS: I don't mind the big ones we've talked about not having answers. I would like to know specifically why in the sequel series Perrin felt like he had to go kill Mat - I assume it's Mat - go kill a friend. It doesn't say Mat but it's a very sort of Perrin thing. He's like, “Man, I gotta go. I've got to go kill a friend”. I'd like to know why and who that is. Like I assume it's Mat. I assume that it has to do with the fact that you know the husband of the emperor of the Seanchan is a big deal. You can't kill the empress so you've been assigned to because they're making, like they're gonna come back and take out Randland and that's bad and there's some sort of indication to Perrin that Mat is kind of behind it or that his luck or whatever is making it so that they can't… There's some conflict there. But maybe he never intended. Maybe he's faking us out. Because the two lines that we have from that sequel series are Perrin sailing to Seanchan thinking about how he's got to go kill a friend and Mat in a gutter somewhere moaning that he's gambled it all away. And that's our future for Perrin and Mat. It would be nice to have had answers on that.

But let's point out – no, I'm not going to write them. I will do this non-physicially. I could joke about it. But no, I am not going to write those books. Just in case people are wondering, I don't think that is enough to go on to create something that I would feel is accurate to Robert Jordan's vision for me. I'm not in charge of this and so if Harriet or her family decides that this is something they want to have written - great. I think that for me that would just be a step too far. And I don't even know that those books are a step too far, just for me it's a step too far. If I were ever going to write something more in The Wheel of Time, it would have been the prequel book about Tam. But even that at the end of the day I'm like no, I don't think… I know how personally Robert Jordan viewed Tam and I just didn't want to touch that. I was given the Ring and I gave it back and so, no. That's not saying it will never happen. I don't get to choose that.

MH: But I hear you have some things you're writing on your own so…

BS: I am writing things on my own. I do miss The Wheel of Time characters. But I like the ending. I think it's a good ending. I like that it has an ending.

MH: I read it again before this and I still get chills reading those final chapters. It just doesn't matter when you pick it up 10 years later. How was the day you finished writing A Memory of Light? I pulled this stance on August 1st 2012. Brandon Sanderson's blog wrote “TODAY I GOT UP, AND I DID NOT HAVE A WHEEL OF TIME BOOK TO WORK ON”. And it said:

“Robert Jordan was a great man, and was the single greatest influence on my development as a writer. What I have done these last five years has been an attempt—a sometimes flawed but always earnest attempt—to show my appreciation. This entire genre owes him an enormous debt. My debt to him, and to Harriet, is greatest of all. Mr. Jordan, may you rest in the Light. Everyone else, take a breath and get ready for the end. May you find his final words as satisfying to read as I did when I first picked them up five years ago. The very last scene is his, touched very little by me, as are significant chunks of the ending at large. I have achieved my goal in writing the books so that they pointed toward this ending he wrote, allowing us to include his words with as little alteration as possible. Once again, thank you. May you always find water and shade.”

BS: There we are. That's my answer.

MH: That is a good answer. Looking back at that what memories of Light do you have about that entire process? What are your most fond memories?

BS: I mean my most fond memory is arriving for the first time at Harriet's house sitting down, at what I didn't know was Robert Jordan's chair, in reading the ending. That's a very fond memory. Every time I visited Charleston. I'm very fond of those. Those stand out as highlights being realizing and achieving realizing that I had a lot of room to do what I felt needed to be done and realizing that Harriet wanted me to do it. That's the most remarkable thing about this is that the advantage that we all got by having Harriet in charge of this.

She is one of the best editors in the business and knows the books inside and out. It very easily could have turned into several disasters if it hadn't been Harriet in charge. One of what which being playing it so safe that the ending is bland. One of it is hiring a ghostwriter who doesn't know the lore really well, who is able to execute on the outline given but gives you something that just feels like an outline in book form. A disaster of too many cooks trying to get in that kitchen. You see this in Hollywood with different adaptations they do all the time. I feel like I saw that in The Rings of Power. Everybody's vision for what they want this to be, comes in and that could have happened with this and it didn't. Harriet said, “You're a writer, Brandon. Do your best and then I'm an editor, I will do my best and together we will make a book or three that really work.” And that was remarkable.

MH: When you tell us the story about that she says “take risks”, that piece of it, because again I know a lot of there were fans at the time that were like, “Oh, I can tell Brandon came up with this.” And then you sometimes you'd be like, “Actually that was Robert Jordan. I did come up with this other thing but that one thing was Robert Jordan that came up with that.”

BS: My favorite one is they're like, “Oh, I can tell Brandon's naming the chapters now.” Do you remember that? Harriet named all the chapters and all the previous ones and she named all the chapters in mine…

MH: But Brandon was doing it.

BS: Yes. Well, maybe not all the chapters. She named the vast majority of the chapters. I think there were some names came up but they do change a little bit when I take over. But the realizing that I got to craft works of art not products, was a really big moment for me. I will always cherish that experience because I have so far never in my life have had to create a product and that probably, I mean that's a big part of why (...) came in and said, “Do you want to write a story?” I said, “Yes, but it has to be my story”. I get to decide and I have to do it for free because I don't want to be creating a product. I want to be creating a story. I love that. I loved being able to do things like Veins of gold, do some of this stuff particularly with Rand and Perrin that I had been wanting to see in the books and that I get to take over and be like, “Wow! I get to do this.” I mean stuff with Androl where I'm like, “Oh, I get to play with Gateways. All right, here's my character to just play with Gateways however I want to.” These are all really cherished experiences.

The way the fandom treated me. My first time at DragonCon in the giant hall full of people where Jen's [Jennifer Liang] like, “All right, here's our guy. He's gonna write our book for us.” And being kind of presented to the community for the first time. All those experiences were wonderful.

MH: There was a certain transparency to the process too and maybe that came from.  Wonder if that was also reflective of the fact that you were creating something product and so the piece of art that you were creating, you cared about it differently and the way you interfaced with the fandom, I think was unique. I think we were all surprised how much you… I mean there's Twitter threads where you're like talking back and forth of fans about rationale of why you see something one way as you were preparing for the book. I think that was unexpected. I think that in the end there is a sincerity that fans believed that you had and so went along with this idea that you were creating something other than a product. So I think that those things matched. I think for fans in a way that… Generally I was there with all the fans. There was obviously fans that didn't like what you produced.

BS: That is totally fine still. There's still going to be people who pick it up and like, “Wow! This does not work for me as my ending.”

MH: But generally speaking when I see fans talk about it, they love the books now and no one really… You just don't see a lot of people like other than they'll bring up Mat or something but generally speaking they're like, “Oh, I love these books.” So yeah, I think you succeeded that way. So congratulations in doing that. […] What's the funniest bit from RJ's notes any book, assuming you had to access all notes, that didn't make the books?

BS: Oh boy! The ones I bring up all the time. I'm sure there are other ones. It's been 12 years. Longer. It's been since 2007 so it's been a while but I always go back to talking to them being like, “Do I really have to spank one of the Forsaken?” And they're like, “Well, it's in here.” I'm like, “Ugh, okay.” I've talked about some of the stuff. The Choedan Kal is another. When I first read that I'm like, “Did I miss something?” I went back to the books. I'm like, “What did I miss?” And they're like, “Oh, no, this is from an earlier thing. It was before he decided to”. I'm like, “Oh, okay”. Alan had his note there so I didn't panic too much about it. […]

MH: Is there something you wish you could go back in retcon out of the three books?

BS: I mean I've said before - Padan Fain. I don't think I would retcon Mat. I think Mat is an artifact of me taking up the books. My argument is Mat is discombobulated from events happening at the end of book 11 and it takes him a while to find him the self. And when he finds himself, he just can't ever quite be the same again. I would take out the spanking. I would honestly do that. I've said it before. You'll find it in the things. I would find a different way. Doesn't match the way that I approach storytelling.

MH: What would you have done differently looking back on Wheel of Time using your current knowledge and experience? Narrative wise preparation process of writing. Is there something that would have been different?

BS: I mean if I'd known it had to be three books - like I mostly knew, it was like 90 sure - that would have helped me solve some things. Particularly timeline issues. I would have put the full weight of my team on it. Having my team who's very good at understanding how I do continuity and timelines. The one of the the biggest kind of structural problems is timeline issues across all the timelines for this because it was written as one book and things like that. It's too late for this. I'm not connected enough just with the material but I still kind of wish that there were a single volume A Memory of Light that could balance because… Veins of gold and Perrin’s climax stuff could happen at the same time like not just chronologically but narratively. I think that would be really powerful. Maybe those are things I do different. I don't know. This is sort of stuff where you're like, “I think it turned out all right”. I don't know that I want to fiddle with it.

I got another one. I would start putting Bao in The Gathering Storm. Because if I can get a few scenes of him in then I can maybe pull off this whole thing with the East and stuff like that. That said, one of the reasons we cut it is - it does feel like a super huge surprise when he just comes out of nowhere. And we get to feel like the characters felt where it's just like, “Oh! Oh, dear! He's here with an enormous army! What do we do?” And there is something to be said for that. [Start building] it might have made them worse rather than better because everyone's like where's Demandred. Well, let me tell you, here it is. It actually works really well so maybe rather than that one - the cleansing of the Ways like if I could get that in as canon. If I were the writer I am now, I think you can read the cleansing of the Ways scenes and they read just much better. I went back and revised those a few years ago before we released them. I went back and I'm like, “Wow! I did not have the skill. I did not understand the Ways.” I was able to revise them in a way that I feel read really well and worked really well and maybe the cleansing of the Ways would have made it into the book.

(…)

MH: Is there anything in A Memory of Light from Robert Jordan's notes that Brandon would have written differently without them? In other words were there things where you're like, “I'm gonna go this way.” And then you were like “Oh, he really wanted it to go x-way?”

BS: Oh, yeah. That's an excellent question. It's a really good question because I'm sure there would have been but at the same time the notes are so… I mean they're just so part of the beginning and beyond that they have a really light hand through most of it. You guys have read this document. You can see that there's not a lot of really strict things to it.

MH: Yeah, he does a lot of, it's not like the entire books are all in the notes. There's things that are never there, that are some of the best parts of the books that he ends up writing.

BS: What are the things that… I would have approached, I bet, a bunch of things differently and I'm glad I had the notes so that I didn't approach them that way. And you can see the places where I felt like something needed to be changed. For instance, I've said before like the siege of the White Tower. I split up a bunch of those scenes and I tweaked so that it became what I felt was a really dynamic arc for that and so Egwene’s punishments there and things like that. I had the power to do whatever I felt was necessary for the ending and there are no parts where I'm like, “Oh, I wish I had done this.” I did everything that I felt was appropriate and Robert Jordan's directions were like just completely integral to how I was viewing that.

MH: That makes sense. I mean I can imagine if you did not have them right at the beginning of the process and you were tasked to start kind of coming up with something you probably would have had more…

BS: But I had the notes in hand when I did my big reread. I was already aware of where I was going…

MH: That's what you said. One of the first things you did when you asked, you said you wanted to read the ending. So you already kind of were pre-biased in your mind of like this is how he wants to…

BS: This is how we're ending. This is where we're going and that's how I approach the whole process.

(…)

MH: You've said you used to insert Hoid into fantasy books you were reading. Is there a character that was your Hoid insert into The Wheel of Time?

BS: Oh, yeah, there was. But I can't remember. It's been so long. Absolutely there was in the first three books before I became my own writer. I can barely remember it like I can remember the character in… The only one I can remember is in Dragon Riders. We're going like way… I was 15, guys. Come on. I am not gonna remember. I'm sorry.

MH: What Ajah would Hoid be?

BS: Hoid would probably have a disguise and persona in each of them.

(…)

MH: Is there someone who died that you wished lived?

BS: Bela. I tried to save Bela and she [Harriet] killed Bela and then she said that Bela is alive. I don't know what to make of it.

MH: Outside of Bela, is there somebody else that where you're like, “This is what's right for the story.” or Robert Jordan said, “This has to happen but I would have preferred them as a fan that they did not die?”

 BS: We talked about earlier. Team Jordan and I added casualties to the count. We didn't take any away. This is the Last Battle.

MH: Is there someone that you are the opposite of that? Someone who lived that you actually believed should have died.

BS: Hmm… who should have died and lived. I had the power over this.

MH: You felt maybe that it was the right story arc but you really wished they would have died anyway.

BS: I mean I know what you're hunting for. I know exactly what you want me to say. And I'm not gonna say it. Because the life that she's been given is worse than death for her.

MH: What was the whole Wheel of Time experience for your wife Emily?

BS: She seemed a little overwhelmed by it at times. She did get to draw a map that ended up in The Wheel of Time after going through the cartographer the official… They're like, “We need the drawing from you guys of.” It might have been Field of Merrilor. It was one of the maps. I can't remember which map. It is where they're like, “We need someone working on it to give us a sketch that we will then turn into a finished map”. And my wife's like, “I can do that.” She's been reading the notes so she drew it up and sent it in. So you really would have to ask her it was probably fun for her because she really liked Harriet and Team Jordan and we got to fly out and see them a bunch. I think she found and finds Wheel of Time fandom a little overwhelming.

MH: Elayne seems set up to make significant land claims. She wants marriage alliance with Aybara and Bashere. The babes have claimed Illian via Rand. Do you imagine Elayne attempting to consolidate that power?

BS: Yes.

MH: Do Mat and Tuon in your mind eventually have children?

BS: Yes. I believe that in my mind they do. Mat deserves that.

MH: It's been 10 years. You wrote three of these. Do you have a favorite Wheel of Time book at this point?

BS: Yeah, still book four. It's still book four. I reread a bunch of The Wheel of Time for working on the Ways sequence. I have to say there are just some beautiful passages in book one, just gorgeous writing. But book four still my favorite. Very fond of book two. Really like book two. Really like four, five and six. Obviously they are, I think, the high points of the narrative. Really like book 11. So that's kind of my hierarchy of where the books that I enjoy. Book three is totally serviceable. I don't have problems with book three but it's not as much a favorite. It kind of falls into the middle section. Really like New Spring. Lan is one of my favorites and I like seeing him in New Spring.

MH: I mean it's interesting because all of two, three, four, five, six - when I read them, they kind of become my favorite in that moment. Because they're such good moments in each of them. I was surprised I went back and read five in the last couple years and I'm surprised how how much I've kind of in my head skipped over it…

BS: It gets lost. (…) And it's sandwiched between Rhuidean and “Kneel or be knelt!”

MH: It's easy to forget. But there's such great moments in that book. I love Jordan's decision to not - I hate it but I love it - to not show us Mat [fighting] Couladin. I love what a great decision. What a terrible decision.

BS: The aftermath in that sequence is one of the standout scenes of the whole Wheel of Time. What that all does to Mat and things like that. It's fantastic writing.

MH: Mat in that book and maybe that's what… There's just some great Mat scenes that I will always love.

(…)

MH: If you could create a sa’angreal to make your life easier what would it be? Sa’angreal that potentially help you but you have to channel.

BS: If there are a ter’angreal [change of the question] that is basically like a Time Turner but has no ill side effects so I can just get more done in the day.

MH: Oh my gosh! You want to write more books?!

BS: I'm so behind.

MH: I'm just saying everyone out there is like, “Wait a second!” What would their lives be like if you have like eight books a year or something? Like no one could…

BS: No, most years I have one or two. This year we have extras because of the year of Sanderson. But I am so behind on all the stories I want to tell. It would be super nice.

MH: All of your fans were like, “Shut up, Matt! Let him write! Let him get ter’angreal!”

BS: Somebody get me a Time Turner. That's the best thing that I could think of for time travel abilities is to write extra books. Maybe there's a little bit more Hermione in me than I've acknowledged in the past.

 MH: What's the sequence that Sanderson felt the most excited to write? Did anything give Brandon chills while writing it?

BS: It is the forging of the hammer probably. It's either that or Veins of gold are my two that like as I built the outline, because these are both scenes that I got to write and I got to device and put together. I was super excited for some other scenes but I was excited for fans to read what Robert Jordan had written for some of those things. But I had a lot of leeway with Rand and Perrin. I feel like I really wanted to make good on the promises with those. I really like that I was able to do like they call him Darth Rand. Zen Rand, [and] Darth Rand. And then just kind of coming back to normal Rand, grown and experienced. I liked taking Rand away from you for a little while and having him be the Zen thing and then coming back and being like, “All right, it feels it was such a wonderful experience.” Because it feels like what happened to book three where we kind of lost Rand for a while but a different kind of losing Rand. Those sorts of things where I can echo something previously in the series and really kind of do it well. Those were some of my favorite things to do.

MH: Perrin, Slayer, Tel'aran'rhiod, the nightmare scenes. Like all those scenes to me were just some… They finally delivered on a promise I think that was in the books. We were always wondering when this was going to happen and how much of that Perrin, Slayer was used…

BS: I've said before. My direction for Perrin was very light. I had not very much. I mean what's in the outline you read. […] There's like two things.

MH: There's like a Mat and Perrin reunite mention. There's a mention of Olver and Perrin’s Asha’man and Rand has Perrin with the Two Rivers bowman and then there's not much more in the way like I said…

BS: There’s nothing really for Perrin's arc in it. It was just I've often said Perrin’s blank slate. Like there's some places he needs to be but there's no “this is who Perrin is in these last books.”, which we knew we needed after even book 11, particularly after book 10, but book 11 is like who is Perrin. Perrin is my favorite character, was my favorite character before I started writing. They're all my favorite now. But being able to be like, “All right, read it”. And be like, “All right, we got some work to do with my buddy Perrin. Let's do this.”

MH: After the journeys of Perrin looking for Faile, I think it was almost a revelation of Perrin and like you said, that culmination of the hammer itself… I think Perrin does shine in a way that a lot of us hoped and that he would so…

BS: I imagine a structure for The Wheel of Time that is just my personal structure which is, I've talked about this before, books one, two and three are kind of quest fantasies hearkening of the old school quest fantasies of the 70s and 80s. The very Tolkien inspired quest fantasies. Obviously by three he's starting to stray from that. But four, five and six are the new world of fantasy. He and George R.R. Martin are doing political intrigue War of the Roses large-scale things. That is what fantasy became when it kind of came into its own in the 90s. Seven through ten are Robert Jordan realizing, “I'm not ready for the end of this yet. There's a whole world to explore. I'm gonna go explore the world. Let's explore all the things I can do in this world.” And though, of course, there are important moments for Rand, Perrin, Mat, Egwene in that, they take a backseat, I think, to exploring the world. That's how I envision that.

MH: That definitely paints them in a light that's different than fans that waited on those books…

BS: And then 11, 12, 13 and 14 are, “All right, we've spent the time building the world out. Now we need to refocus on things that re-bring us back reintroduced Rand, Perrin, Mat, Egwene in their new status - who they are and build a trilogy, four books really, that deliver on kind of the first books”. That's my envision of the breakdown of what the eras of The Wheel of Time so to speak.

MH: Do you have a favorite brand of trolloc and why is it the bird trolloc?

BS: I was gonna go bird trolloc. I like birds. I have to say everyone should be very proud of my reserve. There were so many calls for Narg cameos and things like that. I would always have to say to fans there is a difference between a kind of thematic reference that is part of the series and an in-joke. You have to be really careful about the in-jokes. You can put them in occasionally but you want to be really careful with the in-jokes. That's different from hearkening back to how Rand in book three had gone through a huge transition so we pull back from his viewpoint and then I do that as well in book 13. Having Narg show up would have just been too much. I got lots of calls for Narg cameos. So many calls for Narg cameos.

MH: That's hilarious. Will Rand at some point realize that Lanfear is alive? Did you imagine that there would ever be an awareness?

BS: I think, yes. I think it would happen but Rand would not intervene. […] I think there's got to be a moment - not that it'll be written - but there's got to be a moment where Lanfear realizes. Because she hasn't let go of Rand. She pretends she has. The whole thing about the last books is she potentially it's just let go. Where she sees how happy he is and it all comes crashing down around her.

MH: Do you think that she does…? He's obviously in Moridin's body. So in my head I'm thinking like would she ever see this individually…?

BS: I think she's got to for her character arc realize what's happened and if she's ever going to be fully defeated, there has to be that realization of “Me not being part of his life is the best thing that could have happened to him. How do I feel about that?” I don't know. I haven't been on that journey with her but there's got to be that moment.

MH: There's still the Fourth Age everyone. The Fourth Age continues the Saga of Mierin Eronaile and Lews Therin Telamon.

(…)

MH: I don't know if we'll ever do a 20 years… Is there another secret Brandon?

BS: Kelsier says there's always another secret but I don't know them. Robert Jordan does.

MH: There you go everybody. There will likely not be. I don't want to say it feels weird with a little time it's like there's never an end to secrets or beginning.

BS: Maybe someday we can talk about experiences with the show. We can't really talk about them right now.

MH: You heard it. We'll come back and do a live stream about the show someday and we can talk about it.

[ukiiyo-e]

Strategies to Help Pass Classes

I just finished my first semester as a graduate student with all As and these are some of the strategies that have helped me. I was one of those “naturally gifted” kids growing up and started to face burnout come college. I passed with a nice GPA, but there were many things I could have done to improve that I’ve used for this semester I’d like to share what can help people in similar situations.

See a therapist: 

Easier said than done, I know, but the help they provide is invaluable. I wasn’t diagnosed with some stuff for a while, and once I was and we worked on ways to deal with it in different areas of life. Since then life became more manageable. DO NOT USE BETTERHELP! For people based in the USA Psychology Today is great, you can slim down the searches to your needs and always look up reviews of the person. Some campuses offer therapy as well; you could always try it out.

Annotating: 

I thought I was too good for it in college and I have been uncomfortable with writing in books since I was young, even more so with ones I’m renting. I’ve tried using more sticky notes, underlining text lightly in pencil, and sticky tabs. It’s been such a huge game-changer! Sure you’ll have to remove all of those when it’s time to return the books, but it’s so worth it!

Grammarly or an alternative of your choice:

Yeah, the commercials are annoying, but it does a good job of cleaning up the little mistakes. I make so many spelling mistakes when quickly typing so I always put it through Grammarly. After that, for bigger assignments, I’ll print it out, take out the red pen and give it one more check over. It has saved me on so many projects and papers.

Map out your writing & Restate the question/items in the rubric in the writing:

I first tried this when completing my certification tests and it helped me to always score high on the essay portions. I tried applying it to my grad papers and I’ve experienced the same effect. Mapping out the writing, jotting down quotes/sources you want to use, as well as points you want to make in each paragraph helps to keep you on track. This prevents you from losing points and makes it easier to compare your paper to the rubric.

Write down a your due dates everywhere: 

I mix up dates frequently so writing them down in my notes, on sticky notes, in my planner, and on my phone aids me in not thinking on top of my game and then gets jumpscared by a close due date I had forgotten. You can’t forget what’s constantly in front of your face. 

Organize your files and save everything your professors give you:

In undergrad I didn’t organize anything, I didn’t receive too many handouts or PowerPoints but I still look back on some of the ones I have to this day to help me. Not to mention college is getting more and more expensive so take everything they give you without remorse. My advisor told me for my program to save everything and that was the plan. I try not to use Google Docs too much, I only use it for smaller drafts and then delete them once they’re transferred and completed. I recommend saving them to a hard drive, and organizing your files by Uni, Semester, then class. It makes me happy knowing I have a myriad of pdfs and links (even very recently written academic articles) that I can use and talk to my colleagues about. Being able to share this with coworkers makes me come across as a stronger and more valuable addition to the team which is a wonderful bonus!

Don’t be afraid to talk to your professors:

The name of the game is networking. You don’t have to be a teacher's pet but show some initiative. Actually read their comments! I know so many people who passed and don’t give a shit what notes the professor leaves. When I noticed a lower grade I talked to my professor about it and found out there was a formatting issue due to the program the uni used, it took a while to figure out but going forward I didn’t lose any more points.  In a different course certain pieces of information the professor gave us on the final project didn’t match so I reached out to ask which was correct as well as some others given it was my first time writing this type of paper. They responded so fast and then sent an email to the rest of my peers addressing the inconsistencies.  That saved me a lot of work and stress!

Rewards and relaxation:

There needs to be a balance between work and relaxation. I would get so worked up and be so hard on myself since this was my first semester and look at all my actions through a microscope to make sure I was doing enough. As I got more accustomed to my schedule I made more time for myself. Do things that make you happy when you can. Now rewards on the other hand acted as motivation. I am unfortunately a procrastinator, especially once I learn how long it takes me to do an assignment. I’m proud of myself for not doing papers last minute like in undergrad and that’s because I would break up certain tasks into days and create small rewards for myself. Example: I have assigned readings I have to do (highlight, annotate, and write a summary of main points and important page numbers in my notebook). Depending on how much reading there is I could either A. Get it all done and reward myself or B. Do about half of it, reward myself, then finish the other half. Rewards to me were like new episodes of a tv show or some time to play a video game. This now makes me feel more comfortable about doing more things when it’s time for summer classes.

Color coding: 

To me, this means using a variety of colors when taking my notes.  If I just take them in one color I find I have a harder time focusing when studying as well as recalling the information when I need it. 

Don’t worry about writing a paper in order:

I struggle with introductions on papers so instead I get all of my body done so I don’t waste time and then work on the introduction. Even with topic sentences I make a note like [TOPIC SENTENCE] and highlight it so I know to go back to it once I finish the paragraph. Probably weird and niche but still figured I should include it lol

[orphanheirs]

Intro Post!💀🦇🕸🕯

Hey there! Figured I'd finally make one of these in case anyone who stumbles on this blog wonders what it's all about.

As it says in my blog description, this is an online space where I can compile and organize imagery, info, and anything else that inspires me related to the novel I'm developing. At least that was the original motivation for making this, but I'm definitely wanting to post some original content surrounding the story and the characters in it soon! This imaginary world has been obsessing me for a few years now, and I'm honestly chomping at the bit to share it with others.

What you'll see on here:

Images related to: gothic lit, the regency period in Europe/Britain, the late 16th/early 17th century, some earlier 18th century, ancient and prehistoric cultures, paganism, the occult, witchcraft, fairies, folklore, the countryside/forests, autumn, Halloween, demons/devils, romantic fashion, screenshots and gifs from films, illustrations/other artists' art that inspires me, and any other random pic that speaks to me or that gives me an idea even vaguely related to the story.

Text posts relating to: all the same subjects above, plus quotes from poetry and literature, other stories that inspire me, and writing advice posts/memes.

Hopefully soon: posts introducing my characters and sharing concept art, ideas, research I've done, who knows what else??

***Content warning for some imagery that may be disturbing (as can be expected, I guess, from a horror aesthetic/theme).***

What the novel's about:

It's [going to be] a gothic/dark fantasy/folk horror/historical fiction novel set in regency Britain and centering around the concept of Halloween and its origins/meaning. Think Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell meets Over the Garden Wall. Kinda. Characters include a bratty aspiring sorcerer, a demonic changeling who wants to be human, a witch, a sin eater, and a handsome devil. Over the course of the plot the question of whether the spirit realm(s) and mortal world should be kept separate will be a source of conflict.

I've had some aspects of this story/characters in my head since I was 14, so it's super special to me!

About me:

I'm an artist, writer, and musician. This is my first time trying to write anything as involved as a novel. I'm having loads of fun with it, though. I love music and reading and history, particularly fashion history, and anything related to the supernatural. The title of my blog is a reference to a song by Echo & the Bunnymen (though I think it's actually an inaccurate lyric :P ).

Ficton books I've been reading lately: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles books, Edgar Allan Poe short stories

Nonfiction books I've been reading: The Devil and All His Works by Dennis Wheatley, Celtic Mythology by Philip Freeman, The Making of Victorian Values by Ben Wilson, Occult Features of Anarchism by Erica Lagalisse, Halloween by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne

Some musical artists I'm into recently: Cranes, Kate Bush, The The, The Smiths, Fiona Apple, Alex G, Caroline Polachek, Imogen Heap, Depeche Mode, Fad Gadget, Pinback, Steeleye Span, The Cleaners From Venus, Suzanne Vega, The Garden, Jessica Pratt

Visual Artists I've been thinking about lately: Edward Gorey, Aubrey Beardsley, Nicole Rodrigues, Francisco de Goya, Leonora Carrington, Brian Froud, Wendy Froud, Willam Blake, Edvard Munch, Harry Clarke

Some of my favorite films: The Witch, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, The Wicker Man (original), Meshes of the Afternoon, Days of Heaven, The Thief and the Cobbler, The Masque of the Red Death

Regardless of why you're here, I sincerely hope you enjoy browsing around, and feel free to say hi! :) I would love to link up with other writers on here and make some new pals. Also feel free to like this post and I'll give you a follow!

~I love tag games and ask games! I may be slow to respond though. I'm still working on my WIP intro, but for now more info about my story exists in the tag and ask games I've done so far, which can be found under my #tag game and #ask tags.~

[montyterrible]

The Spirit of the Teens—or, Thoughts on Teen Titans, specifically A Kid’s Game [Preview]

In retrospect, it’s kind of a surprise to me that I didn’t write something substantial about Teen Titans before this. The animated series was my entry point for superhero comics in general. I was a big fan of the Teen Titans throughout my teens, and without the series I wouldn’t have found other comics I enjoyed a lot, like Gail Simone’s Secret Six. It’s not actually an overstatement to say that Teen Titans defined certain areas of my life for years until I finally fell out of love with them/it.

In this Big essay on the blog, I reflect on my Titans fan years. While I talk about Teen Titans in general somewhat, the specific focus is on the first collected volume of the Geoff Johns run, A Kid’s Game, which was how I first got into the then-modern comics after starting with scattered issues from earlier runs. I discuss the collection as a sort of quintessential representation of the spirit of the idea of “Teen Titans” and eventually do a little compare and contrast between it and “The New 52” reboot, which I did not like very much.

Here's the link. Below, past the reproduction of the spoiler/presentation note that starts off the essay proper, is a representative paragraph…

Note that this piece contains pretty heavy spoilers for the A Kid’s Game graphic novel/collection specifically and some for Teen Titans more broadly, though not to a truly “heavy” degree in that latter case, given the sheer amount of material out there.

In terms of the presentation below, when I quote from the comics, I have done my best to preserve much of the original look of the text, down to using both bolding and italics for emphasis to try to match the source material. I have used // to indicate a shift from one word balloon or caption box to another mid-quote, and I have adjusted the capitalization, which is essentially all caps in the original text, to be more conventional here for the sake of readability in this format.

Or consider the first night at the tower headquarters for the Geoff-Johns-written Titans, where Superboy finds Robin up super late and they have this great conversation that’s lent a lot of power by how well the previously mentioned “color” (the art in general, let’s say) captures that feeling of being suffused in shadow at a lonely hour, with just these dim or distant sources of light around. Superboy asks Robin why they came there, and Robin starts to answer but then cuts himself off, reassesses, and then says he’s trying to figure it out too. “We came here because we’re friends, right?” Superboy eventually says: “…You gotta give me a reason to stick around, Robin.” Robin does come back with a snarky retort about Superboy being smarter than he looks, but before that there’s a single panel of silence, with just the two of them standing there in the dark, letting the moment hold. The tone overall is one of something like emotional vulnerability, and it’s a mood that I think persists during this era of the series. After the scrap with the Justice League, the two boys have a similar moment on the roof of the tower that includes Robin saying, really straightforwardly, that Superboy’s Luthor genes will never make him evil: “Because I’m going to be here to make sure. All of the Titans will be. And one of these days, I’m probably going to have to deal with something too. Something I’ll need help with—And I know you’ll be there to help me.” In the years since reading this version of Teen Titans, I have seen some criticism of Geoff Johns and his writing, and I’ll fully admit that I don’t pay attention to this stuff enough as an adult to have what you might call a “fully-informed” opinion on the matter, but even just in isolation, just looking at this one issue (and one collection), I immediately see a lot to like, even as an adult. The writing is character-forward, plenty earnest when it needs to be, and it focuses on the friendships and the feelings, which are the things that make the Teen Titans special—the “teen” parts. The intention is clearly to try to create something that feels emotionally honest and meaningful.

[reticent-fate]

✅ What does the fandom usually get right?

[Ask game]

Heit answering this one, since I’m in front lmao. So, the fun part about being an introject from [redacted] is that... basically no one makes any content for that source, let alone for the character I’m an introject of lmao. So technically there’s not much there for me to say the fandom did or didn’t get wrong.

Doesn’t mean we haven’t had a weird event happen related to headcanons existing in the fandom space, though.

(This got long so I’ll put it under a cut. Brief mention of source death and loose discussion of shipping, but nothing outright negative or explicit.)

Specifically, we had a really funny thing happen a few months ago when we decided to look through what the tumblr side of things has to say about my source. Surprisingly, there are like two people that ship my source with another character. This is not normally a difficult thing for our system in this fandom considering how dead this fandom is most days of the year. So we took like two seconds to glance over what was in the tags and saw shipping of all the damn things njksdnfjksd---

It was content though and we are absolutely the “person shaped thing feeding strange quadruped” meme when it comes to content, so we at least rolled that rock over to see what interesting bugs were hiding under it.

My cohost jokingly said “and watch, we’re going to introject him,” while everyone else in front at the time just kept repeating nonstop “[name], where is that bastard?” (/ref to a game quote).

Fucking.

Two days-ish later.

You know how it is. The beleaguered (/s) pk;m new. The new guy almost exclusively seems to take amusement and joy in holding that shipping headcanon like a dodgeball and throwing it full force into my face. (I kid, actually, he’s not that interested in annoying the hell out of me, but he did essentially show up like a container for that idea and nothing more.)

I live in hell because of the fandom /j

So it’s a little more complicated than something the fandom gets right, but it certainly influenced the shape of our system. It fits right with how I experience my source too, so even if I meme on it I can’t really complain lmao.

Since that incident though, we’ve taken to glancing over what people say about both my source and that other character, and apparently it is way more popular than I thought it would be in certain parts of the fandom to go “and these two totally have some weird chemistry going on.” That makes sense based on what the writing in the game says, though--- my source was up to some stupid villain shit, and [character b] is loyal to the point where the fandom can’t figure out if he’s dead or not after the chaos of everything that happened. That’s not hard to read into, especially when in the English translation, the way [character b] speaks about my source is in such a reverential way. He literally attacks anyone who shows a pint of betrayal towards the cause. That’s shipping bait right there, from what I know about fandom.

Because the fandom is so small though, we also look at the search results for other language groups of it, so actually seeing what people hypothesize about the sparse (and often poorly written) details that the game gives us is just fascinating in and of itself.

The ship, for example, is a lot more popular in English-speaking spheres of the fandom (which is a really large net that I can cast considering one of the Discord servers I’m in for this game has like thousands of folks in it, so I would be a poor observant not to mention that).

I haven’t come across as many people saying that there’s merit to this ship in Korean and Japanese spheres of the fandom (at least on Twitter; my searching is limited by what sites people post on and what sites are public). To my recollection I can think of one person in the Korean-speaking fandom sphere (on Twitter, again) that has at least hinted at the consideration that there is something weird going on in the source’s writing. The Japanese-speaking fandom sphere, meanwhile... Idk I don’t ever find much from that end of things lmao. They’re chilling, ig.

All that said, does this count as the fandom “getting something right?” I’m inclined to say this is one of those “yes and no” kinds of things, because while I’m not going to go into what our brain registers as my exomemories, I will say that there’s the interesting experience of knowing that external headcanons have affected the layout of my system because of my relationship to my source. Nothing distressing, I do want to stress, but really fucking hilarious in one hand imo.

However, it’s kind of led me to explore my exomemories a lot more. I think it’s a common enough fictive experience to write those down, to externalize these things in hopes they stop pestering you quite so badly. A lot of our system’s writing is about this series, and I exist both as my source and as a representative of what my source means to my system: a container, of sorts, of parts of our special interests, while also having a difficult-to-define relationship to that source.

I love this stupid fucking game so much /g

-Heit