#seeing lots of conflicting stories online so I think it mostly depends on the person but I have the worst luck when it comes to my skin so

[miffyghost]

I want a tattoo so badly but I have eczema and sensitive skin and I’m really worried I’ll have a bad reaction </3

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

What's your opinion on parasocial relationships

From: "I don't think we should be able to see fictional characters have sex because they haven't consented"

To: "Blatantly and overtly objectifies -insert celebrity here-"

There seems to be wild swinging from one end to the other 🤔🤔🤔

okay so this is uuuh a Large question and I need to start by saying flat out that "parasocial relationship" is a pretty value neutral term that's only very recently taken on a distinctly negative connotation. the term was invented in the 1950s in response to increasing television viewership in America, to describe the one-sided attachments that viewers formed with fictional characters and media personalities. while Horton and Wolh, who coined the term, did express concerns that some people might be prone to substituting parasocial relationships for real, reciprocal human connections, it wasn't intended to be a condemnation of the practice. parasociality in small amounts is essentially necessary to have any sort of stake in fictional characters or celebrities who can't love us back, and its worth noting that parasocial relationships significantly predate the terminology - humans have felt strongly about rulers who don't know them and characters from myths and stories for centuries. this sort of connection-making is fueled by the same extremely social nature that let us bond with dogs and other domesticated animals.

so the tl;dr there is that my feeling on parasocial relationships is that it largely depends on whether we're talking about, like, people having harmless crushes on attractive and charismatic actors or, like, twitter stans sending each other death threats over musicians who don't know they exist. like most things, it's harmless in moderations and is mostly down to individuals to use their grown-up brains to not make it weird and harmful.

now, onto the example you gave of people objecting to depictions of fictional characters having sex because they can't consent. I don't know that parasociality is the main issue at play here, although as we've noted a degree of it is certainly necessary to care that much about a fictional character in the first place. that particular ideological clusterfuck is a result of several things colliding, I think namely:

a.) an increasingly prevalent and normalized streak of extreme sexual conservatism amongst people who broadly consider themselves progressive. if you've spent much of the last decade online and especially in fandom spaces, you've probably seen this mindset becoming more and more pronounced via a bunch of horse-assed debates about the morality of depicting #problematic things in fiction and fanworks. sincere arguments that sex scenes are bad because made up people who don't exist can't consent to being featured in them is pretty much always where that particular line of thinking was heading.

b.) an absolutely tragic conflation of media consumption with activism and political beliefs. this overlaps heavily with point a (with a lot of assumption that if you're a Good person you must take great pains not only to not consume Bad fiction but also to call it out at every opportunity for being Bad, lest you be accused of having Wrong opinions) and also generates a lot of very stupid takes like treating Captain Marvel as a #girlboss #feminism movie despite being sponsored by the US Air Force and holding creators from historically oppressed identities to impossibly high standards of Good Representation, a thing that doesn't exist and no one agrees on. (read Elaine Castillo's excellent essay collection How to Read Now for way more eloquent thoughts on that.) the point being that people's so-called hot takes about popular media are almost conflated with their politics, whichever way they may lean. this also related to point c, which is"

c.) the internet and its many insufferable algorithms encourage outrage and conflict at every opportunity, so nobody can just say some normal shit like "I don't like seeing sex scenes on tv, it feels uncomfortable :/," because people will start crawling down their throat screaming about how it's actually very sex negative and queerphobic and problematic to dislike watching sex scenes and that the person who posted that is somehow personally oppressing people with sexual trauma who are reclaiming their relationship with their sexuality and were greatly helped by [insert sex scene here]. so you have to pre-empt those replies by acting like you're teeing up a fucking tedtalk and also are ready to throw down in defense of your lukewarm opinion, and that's a lot easier to do if you've figured out how to use language affiliated with social justice to bolster your point.

anyway. that's my opinion on that.

[earthstellar]

INTERVIEW: Transformers lore and characters as discussed with my 74 year old mother

Backstory: I talk about fandom stuff a lot with my mom (she’s one of the original Star Trek fangirls so she knows her fandom shit lmao) and recently I’ve been discussing Transformers with her. 

Me and my mom are very open with each other, and we have some interesting fandom conversations. 

Here are some lines from a recent call with her that I thought might be interesting, regarding Transformers stuff and especially some interesting elderly person perspective on Ratchet. There’s also some talk of the theology in Transformers lore, including Drift and Spectralism, and a bunch of other stuff too.

All conversations transcribed from a recent Skype call, with my mom’s permission.

M is my mom, Me is just me-- So that you can tell who’s talking, lol. When other real people are mentioned, their names are redacted and replaced with an X for privacy. 

Getting Started:

Me: Okay, there are a lot of younger fans for Transformers who might be interested in this kind of discussion, but I don’t see a lot of these conversations saved and shared anywhere, so if you don't mind I want to share some of your reactions to learning about Transformers stuff. 

M: That’s okay, very professional of you to ask! The internet is a job now, I guess. I’m being interviewed, fancy. 

On Ratchet’s Age/Health and older people in media:

Me: Ratchet’s the medic, he’s an old guy. Older than a lot of the other bots. In the comics (MTMTE/LL) he has a chronic illness and he eventually passes away from either that or complications related to it, although we don’t see it happen on the page. It made everyone sad; He’s a fan favourite. 

M: I know how that feels, getting old and dying! I had years of thyroid symptoms before they had to take it out, I had endometriosis and they told me I couldn't have you, it’s an unsure thing. Now I’ve had skin cancers removed, I have too much potassium in my blood, I have fibromyalgia. I never expected to live this long. 

Everyone is really just guessing at health stuff. It’s ironic that the doctor couldn’t diagnose himself, but I think he probably knew what was wrong and couldn't bring himself to accept it. Old people might accept that we can’t do some things any more but we tend to be depressed about it. Nobody really copes with it very well, you know X had a stroke and now she’s aphasic, can’t speak anymore, can’t read anymore, and she used to be a nurse. She’s older than I am, but it’s sad. She’s so smart and clever, and we’re just old. It’s what happens. 

I bet Ratchet was scared. As a doctor, he’d know what can happen when you get old and decrepit. I think he was in denial, a lot of old guys seem to be like that. 

Me: He was the medical lead on their ship, the Lost Light. I think you’re right and he wanted to be functional for as long as possible; He wants to be helpful and his job is his life. It would be hard for him; He struggles with retirement in the comics. 

M: Sounds about right. I’m old as hell and I still work! Although that’s mostly because we all need money to live, and not so much because anybody wants to have a job at this age, but still. If he liked his job, he wouldn’t want to be pushed out. I loved working at the park; When I had to quit, it was devastating, but I didn’t really have a choice. 

By the way, the audiobooks you sent me for X have really made her happy, she can read again, sort of! So thanks for that.

Me: I’m glad the audiobooks I sent you helped!

M: They have, you’re a life saver! 

Me: I’m just glad they’re useful for her! 

I think it’s interesting that his age is a part of his character in terms of personality and story arc; Do you enjoy seeing older characters in media that reflect the realities of age and being old, even when it’s difficult or possibly depressing? 

M: Yes! There aren’t a lot of old characters, and the ones that are out there are mostly just joke characters or you never see them too often. I think the creators must think that old people don’t watch TV or anything, but the reason we don’t tune in is because everything is all about young people, and that can be hard. Watching people run around when you can’t anymore can be painful for those of us who have lost that ability now that we’re elderly, or watching kid-focused stuff can make us miss our families. 

It would be nice to see old characters that are included and are competent. 

Me: Representation is important. 

M: Yes. 

On Religion in Transformers: 

Me: So, you work in a church. Just pointing it out so readers know where we’re coming from on this. 

M: Yep, Episcopalian on the beach here, a small church. Services are mostly online due to COVID so I’ve lost hours on Friday, unfortunately... But I’m not complaining. 

Me: And we both like the more spiritual lore type of content, it’s some good shit. 

M: Always love seeing ancient Gods in space! 

Me: So, there’s another old guy character, Alpha Trion, who’s a kind of sage-like mentor to Optimus Prime. 

M: Optimus! He’s the truck! Everyone knows him, he’s the main guy. 

Me: Yep! So Alpha Trion is an archivist, and when Optimus Prime was younger, depending on what version of the story we look at, he also used to be an archivist. 

M: Librarian truck! 

Me: Yes! 

M: I love it. You worked at a library for a little bit. 

Me: That work placement was the best, loved it. But Alpha Trion, depending on which version of the lore we look at, is hinted to be one of the formative deity-entities on their home planet, Cybertron. 

M: Cybertroooooon. Haha! Good robot planet name. I’m into this so far, very cool.

Me: It is! And Alpha Trion is sort of the living memory of the early days of their planet and civilisation, but nobody knows. Everyone just thinks he’s a kind of cryptic weird old guy. 

M: Relatable. I like this concept.

Me: It’s pretty good. So generally, things vary a lot from version to version of the story, but there are usually a handful of beings, early Transformers, who make up the character of their ancient lore. These are called the Primes, named after Primus, who pretty much always is depicted as their main God. Like Zeus, or Odin. 

M: Very cool. Optimus is a Prime! 

Me: Right! In a few versions of the story, he is the final Prime essentially reincarnated. The Thirteenth Prime. 

M: That’s very cool. 

Me: And in some other stories, Prime is mostly purely a title that has political connotations as well; It gets into a sort of weird Divine Right kind of area to help underscore some of the problems in their planetary political structure that led to the conflict that eventually became their civil war. 

M: That sucks, but unfortunately, also relatable. It’s very real world, especially right now. It’s interesting how Transformers is so incredibly in depth; I never would have guessed from the cartoon ads that were on TV when you were little. 

Me: Yeah, they seem to hide a lot of the lore, which is a shame. The comics are more adult than most of the TV shows, I think you’d like them. 

M: Sounds like it. I love the spiritual robot stuff. 

Me: In the comics, there is a religious practice called Spectralism that you might really like. They see auras by filtering different light wave bandwidths through their optics in order to detect mood, and all the colours have meanings assigned to them. They change their paint colours in accordance with those colour meanings as well, on some occasions. Meditation is part of the practice. One of the transformers, Drift, had at least one vision; It’s hinted there might be more to Spectralism, but we don’t see all that much of it in any further detail, unfortunately. They also believe in Primus as a deity. 

M: It’s a shame they don’t elaborate more on it. It sounds very cool, like the stuff we were doing in the sixties and seventies. I bet Drift has some black light posters in his room, we had tons of them. Loved the velvet ones. 

Me: He does have an altar, I think. Or a least a prayer area, it’s mentioned he meditates fairly frequently, from what I remember. 

M: (Starts singing Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple) That was the best, put some tunes on... Good driving music, too! 

On Femme Transformers and Sexism in Sci-Fi: 

Me: So there are some lady Transformers, too! 

M: Ooh! 

Me: There’s Arcee, who is the pink one you probably remember from the ads or the cartoons, and in the comics she’s officially transgender. 

M: Excellent! Trans-formers. Good. 

Me: Yes! And there’s not just her, there’s Nautica and Velocity in the comics as well, plus Elita-One... (I showed her pictures of each.) 

M: I like Velocity. I love the teal, the Thunderbird on the back is excellent. 

Me: I like Velocity, too. 

M: Elita has the head cones, not sure how I feel about that. She’s also pink, it’s hard to keep track of them all. I like Arcee, she has the Princess Leia hair helmet! 

Me: I figured you’d like that. It’s pretty good. 

M: I like Arcee and Velocity the best so far. 

Me: There’s quite a few female or femme transformers now. There didn't used to be, and there were some mistakes made here and there, but nowadays there’s a much wider cast. 

M: That’s good, I’m surprised, but in a good way. There were never women main characters in sci-fi stuff when I was a kid, it’s why Star Trek was such a big deal, and even then, it wasn’t all that great. There was Uhura, Nurse Chapel, but there were a lot of weird episodes...

Me: I love the Romulan Commander, though. 

M: She was the best! Wished we got to see her more. 

Me: Me too. But in Transformers, they’re doing a good job with the female coded characters, as least as far as I’ve seen.

M: That’s good to know. I’m glad that exists for girls who want to play Transformers, too. It always seemed like such a macho thing, the way they advertised it. 

Me: Yeah, that’s still a problem to some degree, but I remember it being way more aggressively worse in the 80s/90s. 

M: It was worse in the 50s when I was a kid! Cooking sets were the girl toy. They made Star Trek for boys, but when all the girls ended up being the main demographic that watched it, they cancelled it. It was Lucy from I Love Lucy who brought it back, I remember you told me that! 

Me: Yep!

M: I’m glad little girls have Arcee. And little boys. They’re robots, they don’t have gender! 

Me: Exactly! 

--

If this kind of interview/conversation excerpt type thing is interesting to anyone, we’re happy to keep doing it! 

Give me questions or things to ask my mom, she’s happy to give you some “old lady perspective”, lmao. ❤️ 

[thoughtfulfangirling]

January 2021 Books

I tend not to come to dislike or hating things very easily. Generally, the things I try, I can find a lot I like in them and go with the flow. I feel like it doesn’t make me very good about recommending things because I’m not too picky once I get invested in things, but here are my takes on the books I’ve read this month. (I can be super picky about what I pick up in the first place, but once I overcome that and get a foothold in something, the above applies.)

Anyway, belatedly, here’s last months reads and blurbs on my thoughts under the cut (long)

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

I somehow didn’t realize this was YA. It has the plot simplicity I’m used to seeing in YA but it definitely got darker and more sexual than I would have expected for the genre. I actually rather appreciate this series for that reason. It did some things alternatively I didn't expect and was quite delighted by it. Fantasy, romance (f/m), fairies, light political intrigue (setup for book 2), etc.. I have since read book 2 and would have caveats about this depending on who was interested.

2. This is How you Lose a Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

This was amazing! A quick read of poetic language and dark love across sci fi warring factions. Primarily told through a series of letters exchanged back and forth between protagonists and focused on the characters.

3. Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire

What a great ghost story! it's told a lot like a series of short stories that come together into a winding narrative of a ghost's journey through the roads of America. Heavily American mythology vibes. Fascinating world building, intriguing characters, and beautiful message and arc. I'm thinking I might pick up more from this series in October. I got pointed in this book's direction due to how the way the book is structure feeling like a great depiction of trauma and how things get segmented and out of order and intangible, and it was just a really neat book. Would definitely recommend.

4. No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us by Rachel Louise Snyder

I’ve now read a fair amount on the topic of domestic abuse, but they have largely focused on the individuals involved, and while this book does pick particular individuals as an example of extreme DV, this book zoomed out and looked at this problem from a broader perspective, talking about stats and looking at environmental and systemic factors. It’s a dark book that gets heavy and dissects sensitive situations but didn’t feel like it failed to humanize the issue, sometimes more so than a reader may expect. I definitely found it an insightful and interesting read. It’s the first book in quite a long time that was a physical book I held in my hands. I expected I might struggle too much between it not being audio and being nonfiction, but I moved through it quite quickly.

5. Her Royal Highness by Rachel Hawkins

This was a re-read. It’s a cute little wlw class romance. I think I read it in 2018, and it was fun to revisit. It’s a quick read with some enjoyable characters, and for those who do audiobooks, some cute accents. 

6. The Magician’s Assistant by Ann Patchett

This was a beautiful story about grief and the way our connections open us up to new possibilities and changes in our lives if only we’ll reach out grasp them. It’s a slow paced story, functioning mostly in the internal monologue of our protagonist dealing with the loss of the man she’s loved and the things she comes to find out she didn’t know about him. 

7. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

This was another reread, doing a chapter an evening with Empty. It helped so much to listen to this a second time between being able to see the pieces put down and not listening to it at such stressful times and in such a fragmented way. I love how it is somehow a puzzle, a haunting, and a journey of growth in an old relationship that seemed doomed to fail in so many ways. Plus I love big, sarcastic, sentimental butch disaster Gideon so goddamn much. XD 

8. Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova

This was very enjoyable, but I can definitely tell that I’ve outgrown a lot of YA. It’s not that there’s anything wrong these stories-I would have loved to have grown up with this book-it’s just that it lacked a complexity I’m getting used to and that I look for in these stories. I’m so glad though to be seeing more writers of color writing experiences and characters more like them getting attention in the literary world, and I will continue to find reading these stories worth it to get glimpses into that, but I wish I saw more of this sort of hype for these writers around more adult books. It’s out there I’m sure; I just have to find it yet. Working on it! But for a YA reader I think this is a great story. I like the worldbuilding so much and the costs of the magic and the journey. I might still have to check out book two when I need an easier read. 

9. Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist by Franchesca Ramsey

I’ve been holding onto a hard copy borrowed from a friend of this for well over a year now. I got this book around the same time I got my hands on So you Want to Talk About Race and thought they were going to have very similar contents. I was incorrect. Well, That Escalated Quickly is much more about what it means to have a popular online presence. It was a really great read in a time when being online is, right now, for many of us, the only consistent way we can interact with others. I really appreciated her sharing her stories of her mess ups both as someone who needed to be called out and as someone who, for a time, was considered a ‘call out queen’ and her thoughts on community responsibility and bearing responsibility on both ends of those spectrums: it’s not just a person who messes up who bears a responsibility to act with community goals in mind to reduce harm, but also the responsibility of those who call out and when and how those might look for most effectiveness for change, personal wellbeing, and community responsibility. (The term community responsibility I’m using probably comes more from Conflict is not Abuse than this book, but I could very well see this book being a great primer for Conflict is not Abuse and might rec this to someone not yet ready for the later.) 

10. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas

This book was a roller coaster. I started off really excited about some ideas and themes it was exploring that I don’t really see done hardly ever and was really intrigued. About a third of the way through, it did something that I felt very much undermined one of the themes I was enjoying a lot, and up until the very end, I was very close to deciding against reading book three. At pretty much that last minute though, it intrigued me enough to want to see how a thing would be played out and a resolution would be found. I don’t even know if I’d say I super liked the book and thus series by the time I was done reading this one, but I was intrigued. Sometimes I get the feeling the author doesn’t trust her audience and spells certain things out way too much, sometimes to the detriment of the plot, and I’m really not a fan of the ‘so totally outclassed, all odds staked against the heroes’ thing that’s pulled in this book that comes out of nowhere and when this time we actually have powerful characters but here we are. I don’t think I’d actually recommend the series to others unless I knew their tastes aligned well, but I think I will be finishing it. 

[fatehbaz]

where can i read more about the devegetation of north africa? (reliable sources that you prefer)

Hey hi.

So just wanna be very clear that this is not really my “area of expertise.” (More focused on North American environmental history; most reading on North Africa limited to megafauna distribution range.) More like a fun side-interest that I revisit from time to time. And these resources are mostly just about the Sahel, specifically. Including the environmental history of the Holocene (past 10,000 years in the Sahel), and also the dynamic and drastic ecological change that took place between 1895-1960, during colonial and post-independence land management schemes. But some of the resources here also deal with the geography of the Sahara. (There is also an interesting history of the Sahara during the Holocene, when the desert was full of lakes and river courses. Up until the 1970s, there were still isolated populations of hippo and crocodile in remote Sahara lakes and oases.)

I’ll recommend some of the older “classics.” As usual, I’d try to recommend writing from local people who are explicitly willing to share their ecological knowledge. But a lot of my recommendations are unfortunately from academics. And I’m sorry for that.

Assuming you’re referencing this:

When searching online for environmental histories or local environmental knowledge case studies of the Sahel, I see a lot of stuff sponsored by NGOs, the UN, and US academia, which will emphasize “rediscovery” or “utility” of “using” traditional knowledge for “combating climate change,” and many mentions of the “green wall” proposals. I’ll also see “white savior complex” kind of stuff, which talks about “crises” and “civil wars” as if they’re “endemic” to the Sahel. But (just my opinion), I don’t like those resources. They engage in cultural appropriation (”acquiring” local Indigenous knowledge), superficial posturing (Euro-American academics using cute language about “local knowledge” without holistically contextualizing the devegetation), weird culturally-insensitive elitist chauvinism (continuously talking about “religious conflicts” and “civil wars” in North Africa and the “urgency” to use “agriculture” to establish stable economics and therefore “law and order”), and reductionism (talking about importance of halting southward desertification and expansion of the Sahara, without acknowledging role of World Bank, IMF, etc. in continuing to use lending/debt to hold West Africa hostage.) Part of my skepticism of these sources is because I’ve met and/or worked with agricultural specialists from institutions in the Sahel and environmental historians who had worked for many years in the region. (They’ve shared some really cool anecdotal stories about the sophistication of dryland gardening in the Sahel, and how local horticulturalists would laugh at the Euro-American corporate agricultural agents and USDA staff sent in with their special “space-age chemically-coated super-moisture-retaining” seed supplies after independence.)

Fair warning: Most of my recommendations are a little old, from the 1970s and 1980s. Two of the main drawbacks of these “outdated” sources: since their publication, scholars have since greatly expanded lit/research about both imperialism and traditional ecological knowledge. (West Africa had only been “independent” for a short period of time, and the hidden machinations of neocolonial institutions weren’t as clearly visible as they are to us, today, I’d imagine. And some academics, writing about the Sahel in the 1980s, weren’t as willingly to openly call-out major institutions.) But I think they provide a brief background for Sahel’s ecology and agroforestry/horticulture.

So both of these are available free, online, through the New Zealand Digital Library. (Don’t wanna link them here, but you can find them online pretty easily.)

Firstly, from 1983/1984, there is this summary of desertification, traditional environmental knowledge, traditional land use systems, and agroforestry in the Sahel: National Research Council. 1983. Agroforestry in the West African Sahel. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Something that was always exciting for me ...

Despite how dry and hot the Sahel is, fruit trees and gardens are actually very fertile and productive, for many reasons, mostly related to sophistication of local ecological knowledge of nutrient-replenishing relationships between different plants. An excerpt:

“Today, a number of agro-silvicultural systems appear to be practiced in the Sahel. Gardens are found within settlements where water is available, usually with a tree component that provides shade and shelter and, often, edible fruits or leaves. The same holds true for intensively managed, irrigated, and fertilized gardens near urban centers. Both subsistence home gardens and cash-generating market gardens are highly productive. Fruit and pod-bearing trees, shade trees, and hedges or living fences are the "forestry" components, sometimes supplemented by decorative woody plants. Mangoes, citrus trees, guavas, Zizyphus mauritiana (Indian jujube), cashews, palms, Ficus spp., and wild custard-apples are prominent kinds of fruit trees. Shade is often provided by Azadirachta indica or similar species, while fencing is provided by thorny species of Acacia and Prosopis, and by Commiphora africana, Euphorbia balsamifera, flowery shrubs such as Caesalpinia pulcherrima (paradise-flower), and other species.

Close to the settlements is a ring of suburban gardens, often irrigated, in which cassava, yams, maize, millet, sorghum, rice, groundnuts, and various vegetables are grown, for subsistence as well as sale, depending on the ecozone.”

---

Then this sounds more like what you might be looking for? Basically, a history of environmental knowledge and the ecological trends of the past 10,000 years in the Sahel.

National Research Council. 1983. Environmental Change in the West African Sahel. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Though this report from 1983 is now kinda outdated, and has some iffy elitist and vaguely-chauvinist language at times, but it is still accessible, generally easy to read, concise, and  it goes out of its way to say that 1970s drought and current environmental crises in the Sahel cannot be understood without addressing the early Holocene ecology of the Sahara/Sahel.

So the report emphasizes the importance of context, by addressing the drying of river courses and lakes in the Sahara of the Late Pleistocene, the early domestication of crops, the emergence of cattle and goat over-grazing, the importance of gum arabic and acacia trees in maintaining moisture in gardens, early trans-Sahara caravan travel, medievel geographical knowledge of the Sahara, etc.

“Because climatic change and variability are regular features of the Sahel, the native plant and animal communities of the region are generally well adapted to the range of climatic variation existing in the region. [...] Many efforts in "development" or modernization have also contributed to their plight. [...] In order to provide a better understanding of the role of human activity in modifying Sahelian ecosystems, this chapter briefly explores nine agents of anthropogenic change: bush fires, transSaharan trade, site preferences for settlements, gum arabic trade, agricultural expansion, proliferation of cattle, introduction of advanced firearms, development of modern transportation networks, and urbanization. These agents illustrate the breadth and diversity of the human impact on the region.”

----

Then there is this: Jeffrey A. Gritzner. The West African Sahel - Human Agency and Environmental Change. 1989.

And I also recommend the work of Jeffrey A. Gritzner. He’s American, but respectful and knows what he’s talking about. Gritzner works with dryland ecology; human ecology, especially relationships with plants/vegetation; environmental change during the Holocene (past 10 to 12,000 years); and traditional environmental knowledge. And he’s especially knowledgeable about the Sahel, North Africa, and Persia/the Middle East, where he worked with region-specific horticulture in the 1970s in Chad, Senegal, etc. during the peak of the drought, and had personal observations of post-independence neocolonial mismanagement and continued corporate monoculture from World Bank, IMF, etc. His writing contrasts local/traditional gardening/plant knowledge with imported corporate/neocolonial agriculture.

---

Beginning in about the 1990s, it seems to me that Euro-American geography/anthropology departments were much more willing to use words like “empire” and “neocolonialism” and more willing to call-out corporate bodies and institutions, so there are many better articles from after that period.

Keita, J. D. 1981. Plantations in the Sahel. Unasylva 33(134):25-29.

Winterbottom, R. T. 1980. Reforestration in the Sahel: Problems and strategies--An analysis of the problem of deforestation, and a review of the results of forestry projects in Upper Volta. Paper presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, October 15-18, 1980, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Glantz, M. H., ed. 1976. The Politics of Natural Disasters: The Case of the Sahel Drought. Praeger, New York, New York, USA.

National Academy of Sciences. 1979. An Assessment of Agro-Forestry Potential Within the Environmental Framework of Mauritania. Staff Summary Report, Board on Science and Technology for International Development, Washington, D.C., USA.

Huzayyin, S. 1956. Changes in climate, vegetation, and human adjustment in the Saharo-Arabian belt with special reference to Africa. Pp. 304-323 in Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth, William L. Thomas, Jr., ed. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Vermeer, D. E. 1981. Collision of climate, cattle, and culture in Mauritania during the 1970s. Geographical Review 71(3):281-297.

Smith, A. B. 1980. Domesticated cattle in the Sahara and their introduction into West Africa. Pp. 489-501 in The Sahara and the Nile, M. A. J. Williams and H. Faure, eds. A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Again, these resources are mostly just about the Sahel.

Then, since the early 1990s, for better or more specific case studies of local-scale environmental knowledge, I think it might be easier or more fruitful to search based on subregion or specific plants. My perception is that, though much of the woodland and savanna ecology might be similar across the region, the Sahel is still spatially/geographically vast, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. And so, there are so many different diverse communities of people, with long histories situated in place, and there are diverse local variations in approach to horticulture. So, if you’re more interested in traditional ecological knowledge and local food cultivation, it might be easier to pick a specific subregion of the Sahel, or to pick a favorite staple food, and then to search those keywords via a university library website, g00gle scholar, etc.

(About the distribution range and local extinction, in the Sahel, Sahara, and Mediterranean coast, of lion, cheetah, elephant, giraffe, rhino, desert hippos, the “sacred crocodile,” etc. More my cup of tea. I’ve got some maps and articles, I’ll try to put them into a list of resources, too.)

[scripting-life]

FFVII: returning to my first love

 *peeks out of the corner of my lurking spot*

Hello? Anybody out there? It’s only been, oh you know, four-ish years since the last time I’ve posted anything here. I apologize in advance for anybody who’s still following me from my Castle days. If you couldn’t tell from my extended absence, I’ve mostly moved on. Castle and Beckett were fantastic characters that let me to play with some deep-dive analyses, and Castle will always hold a special place in my heart as my comfort show and my first real and extended experience with online fandom. I’ll always be grateful to the community I’ve had the joy of interacting with (or, the community with which I’ve had the joy of interacting, as Castle would correct me my dangling preposition).

I honestly didn’t think I would ever have reason to come back to Tumblr after Castle ended. But the FF7 Remake has returned me to my very first love--when I was young and innocent and before I knew anything about OTPs or ship wars. I’ve been back lurking for several months now and seeing all the fanart/fanfics and fun theories and analyses has reignited my enthusiasm for the FF7 franchise. It’s also fun coming back to this franchise with a more mature understanding of the themes/concepts that completely flew over my head as a young preteen.

(This ended up being super long, so the rest is below the cut to spare everyone the pain of scrolling. Apparently, my rambling tendencies have not changed at all. lol.)

When FF7R was officially announced (five freaking years ago!), I was filled with apprehension. FF7 was my first taste of a “grown-up” game. I was 11 and played my brother’s copy of the OG on PC in 1-2 hours spurts on the weekends when I visited his apartment. It took me months, if not years, to finish the game (I ended up stealing his copy to play on our computer at home...lol), and I was so blown away by it. I remember the exact moment I finished it and how I was literally shaking as I watched the ending FMV.

Later, when I found out my brother had a copy of FF8 (my poor brother was so accommodating to his annoying little sister...haha), I was so excited to play, in large part because I thought it would continue the story of FF7. Young, naive me didn’t understand the numbering conventions of Final Fantasy titles. I was madly theorizing and breaking my brain trying to find connections between the two games’ plots and had literally played through more than half the game before I finally realized the storyline of FF8 had absolutely nothing to do with FF7. I was sorely disappointed, and I think that has somewhat tainted my appreciation of future titles. Not to say I haven’t enjoyed the subsequent FF titles, but I think a little part of me is always comparing them to that first experience of wonder and awe that I had with FF7.

I discovered fanfiction in my teens and starting writing FF7/Cloti fics in college. Aside from interacting with a few fic writers at the time, I was not involved in any online communities, so I kept myself pretty free of any ship war drama and the like. When I did research for my fics, I’d sometimes see shipping sites and theories where I didn’t always understand the logic of how certain conclusions were reached, but frankly, I didn’t much care and didn’t realize that Clerith vs. Cloti was such a touchy subject. I was peripherally aware that some sort great LTD war was waging, of course, but it didn’t really touch me. I stayed in my Cloti shipping/fic-writing lane and was probably a lot happier for it. And, to be honest, based on FFN’s listings for FF7, I felt like I always saw a bunch of Sephiroth/Cloud fics and thought that was just as popular as the more conventional ships.

Graduating college and entering “real life” pretty much ended my FF7 fanfic-writing journey. In the intervening years between college and the release of FF7R, I haven’t gone back to the OG too much. I’ve played almost all the Final Fantasy games since then, and I always enjoy getting my FF7 crew fix when I play the non-canon mobile games or the Kingdom Hearts franchise. But FF7 was a happy part of my teenage years, and I was content to think on it with sweet nostalgia.

Remakes, in recent experience (*cough cough* Disney, why?), have been hit or miss, with a lot of misses. It’s hard to strike a good balance between catering to nostalgia and delivering a fresh product, never mind the change in social mores through the decades. I was so afraid FF7R would screw up my memories, especially since I wasn’t the biggest fan of Advent Children. The graphics were great and the action scenes were fun, but the story felt like a let-down. Cloud, in particular, felt so different (and yes, moody) from where we left him after the OG. I understand now that a lot of his character motivation was better explained in the On The Way to a Smile novels, but back then, I just felt like AC came out of nowhere. 

Btw, because I see this question a lot on other blogs when I’m lurking, I’ve ALWAYS thought that it was very clear in AC--even without reading anything else--that the reason for Cloud’s depression was due to guilt and not because he was pining for Aerith. The only reason I didn’t like his characterization in AC was because it felt like it came out of nowhere since AC is set 2 years after OG and by the end of the OG, he seemed to be in a pretty decent place mentally and emotionally. That being said, I can absolutely understand why some traumas resurface years after the originating incident and how times of peace might actually be worse because he is no longer solely focused on saving the world, but I was just surprised and a little bummed that this was the direction the devs chose to take AC at the time. Now that I’m older, I do better appreciate the complexities of Cloud’s mental state and the fact that they depicted a hero with lingering mental health issues is actually pretty awesome. I’m drawn to characters that have flaws--sometimes serious ones--but try their best anyway. Hence, why why Tifa Lockhart and Kate Beckett are some of my all-time favorites.

Anyhow, that didn’t stop me from pre-ordering FF7R, of course. I avoided reading any reviews as I didn’t want my first impressions to be swayed, and boy, was I happy that I went in mostly blind. That sense of awe really almost felt like playing the OG for the first time again, but somehow more. The combat system is incredibly fun and the world-building is nothing short of incredible. The variety and abundance of NPCs gives the game so much flavor and the locations have been rendered so well. As I’m going through areas like the Sector 7 train station and Wall Market and Aerith’s house, I can almost superimpose the layout from the OG in my head, but now it’s in 3D and so rich and full. It’s obvious that a lot of attention was paid to details, and I love all the head-nods and homages to the OG.

And oh, the characters!

This is the Cloud I’ve been wanting to see in glorious HD and the Cloud I remember from the original game: all awkward, dorky trying to be cool, socially inept, mentally unstable, abrasive-at-times, reluctant to act depending on who’s asking, wannabe hard-ass who’s actually a big softie inside Cloud. I remember reading an article a few years back about how the devs basically redid Cloud for the Remake because they wanted him to go back to his dorky roots--which ends up making him closest to his personality in the OG than his appearances in other franchises--and I was SOOOO incredibly happy to hear that. I was so sick of the way Cloud was constantly depicted as this cool, broody McBrood in his cameos when he was a pretty big dork in the OG. (Anybody remember him doing squats in the Highwind when Tifa says it’ll be lonely with just the two of them and Cloud responds that he’ll make enough noise to make up for it? Like I said: cute, but a dork.)

I WAS surprised by how comfortable and sweet and touchy (so very very touchy) the devs made him with Tifa from the beginning. That initial scene of Cloud being such a smooth operator giving Tifa the flower had my jaw-dropping and every single flirty interaction after that (and there are many) had my Cloti heart overflowing in shock and bliss. Throughout most of my years as a Cloti shipper, even though I believed Cloti was supported by canon and pretty clearly together, I was also under the impression--mistakenly or not--that Cloti was the minority ship. So for Square Enix to make it so blatantly obvious that Cloud is really into Tifa at such an early stage has been an unexpected gift.

Also, they’re just really hot together. (Clotiscrew tunnel--be still my heart!)

As for Tifa...oh, what wonderful character development we’ve already gotten for Tifa. Tifa has always been one of my all-time favorite characters ever since reading her character blurb in the OG game manual. Initially, as a child, it was because I saw so much of myself in her. She was outwardly bright and optimistic, but tended to hide all of her stronger feelings inside. She fought with her fists, and for someone who was a tomboy growing up who liked playing contact sports with the boys, I connected with her in a way that I had never been able to connect with other female protagonists who were primarily back-row specialists. (I also aspired to grow to her listed height of 5′4″, which alas, did not happen...lol).

I love how the Remake delves into more of Tifa’s moral conflict between the destruction that she causes as part of Avalanche and needing to do something to stop Shinra, and yes, even seeking revenge. They touched on this in the OG lightly, but the Remake really hammers it home. She’s perhaps the most conflicted character in terms of motivation in Part 1. That scene with the Shinra manager on the train is actually one of my favorite scenes of her because it highlights that tension. The elevator scene, if you opted for it instead of the stairs (or if you did one, saved, and reloaded to do the other one, like me), is also underrated in terms of how much it reveals about Tifa’s inner struggle.

On this point, I also appreciate that the Remake has the characters reflecting on the damage they’ve both indirectly and directly inflicted--the Avalanche team all do this to a certain degree. In particular, Jessie’s constant inability to figure out what she’d done wrong with the bomb to cause such a massive explosion and her remaining feelings of guilt during her death scene (”they were my victims” ouch!) were heart-breaking.

Aerith’s depiction was another pleasant surprise. I’ll be honest; I didn’t much like her in the OG. She was too pushy and willfully oblivious to the point of being mean at times. In the Remake, much of her sometimes too in-your-face playfulness was kept--perhaps still a little too much--but I appreciate the nuance that they gave her. The train graveyard scene tells the player that she didn’t have friends growing up, and I think that partially contributes to her lack of social tact at times. The other factor that gives her personality more nuance is the hint of special knowledge that affects how she interacts with the rest of the group. It gives her additional hidden motivation and adds to her mystery for new players while simultaneously pulling at the heartstrings for old players who get the impression that Aerith is somehow aware--to a certain, unknown extent--of her own fate. 

I also appreciate that Aerith is more grounded as a real person than as some sort of revered being. I do blame AC for some of that. When you have the power to cure a fatal disease from the afterlife and send the dead back to life, it gets into some godlike territory. Maybe it’s a fair depiction of her powers as a Cetra, but I just get the feeling that Aerith herself wouldn’t really appreciate being made into this goddess-like figure. Remember that her character blurb in the original game manual implied that she was more interested in earthly things (i.e. the love triangle) than in exploring her own powers. I personally think that Aerith used the “love triangle” in the OG as a form of escapism from the weight of her burdens rather than genuine interest, and I just think she’d want to be thought of as a person rather than as a god. One of my favorite scenes for Aerith is when she and Cloud are traversing the rooftops and she slips on the ladder, letting out a simple, “Shit.” It humanizes her in a way that combats some of the ways she’s sort of been deified in the last 23 years. Also, Aerith wielding a folding chair like it’s WWE never fails to make me laugh. Overall, she just comes off as a more reasonably flawed and--as a result, to me--a more likeable character in the Remake, and I do very much like her now.

Barret is pretty much the exact larger than life character I imagined in my head, only somehow even better, and I really love how expressive and emotional his eyes and facial expressions are. His scenes with Marlene are truly the cutest thing ever. Red XIII is a big, furry ball of sass, and I need so much more of him in the coming parts (Cosmo Canyon still wrecks me to this day). The interactions between the Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie are incredible, and they really feel like people who’ve been friends and basically each other’s family for years. The Turks and Rufus are pretty much as cool as I imagined them in the OG.

There’s still so much more I haven’t even started touching on about the Remake, and I think that’s why I’m finally posting this now. I just can’t contain my love for this game any more, and I really really need a place to express myself. I don’t know if anybody is still reading, but I appreciate having the opportunity to finally gush about this game and franchise that I’ve loved so much for pretty much two-thirds of my life.

[salamanders-please]

Author Interview Tag Meme

aaaaahhh tagged by the super cool @ljandersen​!! >///<

Name: I go by multiple names online, but my pen name is salamanders_please

Fandoms: Oh hecc... I haven’t written anything for a hot minute. I’m scattered across fandoms, but the three most populated are Tales of Zestiria, Hibike! Euphonium, and Noragami

Where You Post: AO3 and FFN. But FFN is kinda a shit hole. I still get traffic/reviews from FFnet though, so I’ll probably still post there just for my own ego if I can ever complete anything again.

Most Popular One-Shot:  Two Truths and a Lie . A smutty Noragami Yatone one-shot written for Yatone week some years ago. This got way more attention than I ever expected. Like I honestly was shocked. I know I’m probably a disgusting person for writing that ship, but I am only mildly ashamed. Very, very mildly. So mildly, i wrote 6 other fics for it :o

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story:  Within These Walls . More Noragami. It’s a Yatori porn with plot written for a big bang a few years ago. I’m actually pretty pleased with how most of it turned out. It was not originally supposed to include smut, and I initially estimated it’d be between 6-7k words. But I guess my hand slipped and I accidentally a whole 27k words. In my mind it is a one-shot, but technically it’s two chapters because I had to split it up in order to make the big bang deadline.

Favorite Story You Wrote: Stress Relief . A Mystic Messenger Jaemin fic that’s (also smut lel) that I had fun while actually writing it which is pretty rare. It was a wild ride and I really enjoyed it probably because it’s borderline - if not fully-blown crackfic. However, it’s a two-parter and while most of the second and final chapter is written, I’m really struggling to finish it.

Story You Were Nervous to Post: Uhh. I don’t think I’ve ever been truly nervous posting a fic. Though I’m always a little nervous no one will read it or like, I guess. But I don’t think about it too much.

How You Choose Your Titles:  I generally try to have simple titles that are thematically relevant to the story. For example, Legacy relates to Alisha’s legacy as royalty and Rose taking up the mantle of Shepherd. And Within These Walls is a metaphor for even if Yato doesn’t have a proper shrine, he will always have a home in Hiyori.

If it’s a ship week or drabble-length thing, it becomes harder to title and I usually just pick something literal as that is easiest.

Complete: 27.

Incomplete: 1. Stress Relief. I really do want to finish it one day, even if the fandom is dead and no one reads the last chapter. I’m so close and yet so far. I’m not counting stories I haven’t formally posted as incomplete, as there are a lot of those.

Do You Outline?  Generally, I’d say yes, even if I only do it in my head. It depends on the length and complexity of the story. For Legacy, a novel-length sequel fix-it fic, I absolutely outlined and actually wrote it out. I outlined almost the entire story, and the outline itself went through many revisions. And yet despite outlining, new stuff would just crop up as I was writing and I’d have to go back and revise my outline again to incorporate the new element I introduced to make sure everything was consistent. For most one-shots, I do not outline and just write it as I go because the path to the goal is usually pretty clear. But for example, I did have an outline for Within These Walls because getting to the end wasn’t a straight line and there were certain story/emotional beats I wanted to be sure to hit. For Stress Relief, chapter one did not get an outline because it’s very straightforward, however chapter two gets more complicated and required an outline for me to remember everything I wanted to include.

The other reason I outline is because my memory is bad lol

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: I do want to write more... but it’s just been so hard. I feel like I get burnt out and sitting myself down and getting the words and ideas to flow is so damn difficult. So I can’t promise anything is coming in the future, but the most likely ideas for me to work on are two Dragon Age fics and an original fic idea.

One of the DA fics is for Origins. I don’t really think it’s a complete story on its own, but I want to explore a more realistic approach to some things that happen in the game. I want to explore the cast getting real character development and establishing relationships with each other. I want to watch Morrigan grow more. I want to explore a Dalish warden who never wanted to be a warden, and can’t escape his burden because everywhere he goes people see an elf with vallaslin outside his clan and immediately know him to be the warden. How do people react to that? How does the warden? What if Alistair and Morrigan became friends? What if they fucked? Am I a good enough writer to make it work?

The other DA fic is for DA2. And it’s also a “what if these people had more character development?” fic but with canon divergence and more of a complete story on its own. It’s a fem!Hawke/Fenris fic where Hawke is a mage and somewhere in the middle of Act 2, Hawke gets sent to the Circle. How would the conflicts in the story play out differently with someone on the inside? I dunno.

The final story, my original fic, is probably most succinctly described as a post-apocalyptic sci-fi-fantasy fusion with “magical girl” elements. It’s mostly action/adventure/drama with sprinkles of other genres. Its main themes are heavy criticisms of capitalism and a giant middle finger to bigots.

Do You Accept Prompts? Nope. I can barely start and finish my own ideas, let alone anyone else’s.

Most Excited to Write: My original fic actually. But it’s a rather complicated story with a lot of twists and turns and I don’t have an end in mind which makes it hard to even start writing or outlining for it. I do have a bit outlined already, but not much. It’s mostly just a mess of ideas.

:x i don’t know who to tag who hasn’t already been tagged by LJ, so i’m just gonna tag all the bugs fucking flying around my room right now. and landing on me. vile motherfuckers. i figure they must wanna do it because they keep landing on my monitor as i write this.

[stories-by-rie]

10 20 questions tag

I was tagged both by @thewalkingnerdx and @writingonesdreams to answer their 10 questions, ask ten, and tag ten people. For the sake of laziness, I decided to answer both in one post!

Do you have a writing routine?

Mmm, sorta? I finish one draft/edit, and work on the next wip. Finish that edit/draft, next wip. And that goes on until I hopefully finish one!

Talk about the first story you’ve ever written!

I actually posted my first ever written stories here! (I was eight years or so ^^) But in regards of first serious attempts of novel writing, it would probably The Length of An Eternity, a lousy attempt at a historical/ fantasy romance. A young cruel king falls in love with a beautiful princess and she betrays her family for him, but at the end realizes what a horrible person he is and cheats on him with his best friend, which prompts the king to kill her. It had some really nice fluffy scenes though. From what I remember at least, I was like twelve or thirteen tops xD

Music on or music off?

Music on! I just started creating and posting writing centred playlists! You can find them here!

What is the aesthetic of your current Wip?

The Assassination of Keiko Ito is full of starlit night skies, black clothes, harebells, loneliness and probably blood.

Something you’re particularly proud of? (Could be a character arc, a scene, a plot twist, or all of that)

TAOKI’s magic system ^^ And how far I’ve come at working on it.

What is a genre you’d never touch?

I wouldn’t say never, but probably erotica.

A piece of media that inspired you a lot? (Could be a book, a movie, a TV show, a podcast, literally anything)

It’s animes. And all the childhood books. But mostly it’s been essays I had to write at school.

A writing rule you always follow?

I don’t really follow any rule, consciously… I just write however it feels right.

A writing rule you absolutely despise?

Kill off your darlings.

Finally, imagine you are a published author. You are at a convention, and a fan is praising your work. What are they telling you?

Oh wow. I hope they would say that TAOKI made them think? Like I would love it to eb one of those books you read and you don’t really know what the plot was a year later but the conflict and topic is still on your mind and it stays with you for years. If they said something like that. That would be cool. And if they praised my plot, characters and magic system too that would be heaven ^^

Night owl or morning bird for writing?

Night owl!

Tea/coffee/chocolate?

Tea!

What’s your go to movie, when you feel uninspired or tired, that you can always watch anytime and it always helps?

I don’t really watch movies… But I often rewatch Noragami when I am out of creative brains. Or Fulmetall Alchemist Brotherhood. Then I am always like “I want to create something that great as well!” and am motivated again ^^

After writing, do you feel like “I gotta show this to someone immediately” or “I will hide this until it’s finished and edited to perfection or until I feel ready”?

I would rather never show anything to anyone ever, that’s why I created my writeblr in the first place. So I would lose my perfectionism. It worked! Generally I post my short stories unedited. But with my novels, I could never do that x)

Where do you see yourself in 30 years as a writer?

Hopefully published? Maybe finished the TAOKI series?

What’s the meaning of writing success for you? Publishing, fame, or just for yourself and close ones?

I consider myself to be successful when someone is inspired by something I created. But I would still love to be published ^^

Do you have many people irl that you talk with about your writing/stories? Or do you find more of those online?

No, I would say I talk nearly only about it online.

How many % of your daily life to you spend thinking about wriring/ acutally writing or with other writing related activities?

Depends on the day… 40%?

AUs for your wips - yes or no? Why?

No, as I said yesterday, I am not creative enough for that xD

You find a review to your book from an enchanted fan that understood everything you wanted to convey in your story. What would it look like?

Aah… I feel that would include soooooo many spoilers! Such a cool question though!

My Questions:

Summarize your WIP very badly in 10 words or less!

If your WIP ever got adapted, what would you want it to be? Movie, Series, Comic....?

If there was an audiobook of your WIP, who would you want to voice it?

If you could jump back in time and give your past self writing related advice, what would it be?

Is there a philosophical question you like to work into your WIP(s)?

Why and how did you choose the title for your WIP?

Pantser or planner? Why?

Which of your OCs would you not want to meet at night in a dark alley?

Top 3 motivation factors for you to write?

What is something you like to read besides what your WIP belongs to? So if you wrote a novel, do you rather read fanfiction, poetry, short stories....?

and I tag, only if you want to do this of course: @aziz-writes @writingwithhotchocolate @jess---writes @the-great-teller-of-tales @voidcatharsis @musicofglassandwords @soul-write and whoever wants to! I am so bad at tagging people x.x

[michael-radi-the-glamorous-life]

Words Words Words

Words matter. Word choice matters. And context is everything.

I have often heard the saying that “words are magic,” and it’s difficult to disagree.

We can utilize language to create so many things:

We can create visuals to be imagined.

We can conjure emotions.

We can make peace.

We can force conflict.

We can make art.

We can tell stories.

We can build entire worlds.

Words are extraordinarily powerful, and it’s good to occasionally take stock and think about the way words affect our lives and the world around us.

Plus, it just might help your art as well. 😉

Choice

The English language is a fantastic and strange little mixture, made up of Germanic Anglo-Saxon roots with heavy borrowings of Old Norse, Norman French, Parisienne French, Latin, and oh-so-many more languages throughout time.

Basically, it’s language stew.

But that means that - unlike so many other languages around the globe - English has a built-in flexibility to adopt words, which expand its vocabulary and allow for nuances in its synonyms.

We can say essentially the same thing in multiple ways, but with each way meaning something only slightly different.

In other words (ehn? see?) - Word Choice Matters.

Let’s look at an example.

The following three phrases say, at their core, the same thing:

Killer Kitties

Fatal Felines

Deadly Cats

All three of these phrases are expressing something that means “some form of feline creature with the ability to kill.” However, due to the slight changes in the word choice, they each give off a slightly different intention in their meaning.

To me, “Killer Kitties” sounds either like a YouTube compilation video of extremely not-so-ferocious kittens trying sooo adorably hard to be predators, or like an anime series of a cute, crime-fighting cat squad.

“Fatal Felines” sounds like the title to a bad film noir starring actual cats, or some Natural History Museum exhibit on the world’s various cat predators.

And “Deadly Cats” sounds more factual and almost boring in comparison to the other two, like a half-hour filler program on NatGeo airing at 11am on a weekday.

Three phrases that all contain the same information, yet they create such different results. Words matter.

Context

Context is Queen. She rules all.

As great as word choice can be in conveying a thought the way that you specifically intend, the context in which it is said can alter every intention you had.

And to clarify, by context I mean: Who is saying it, To Whom it is being said, Where it is being said, When it is being said, Why it is being said, and How it is being said.

There are a lot of variables, which is exactly why context can be so tricky and important.

Let’s take a simple, often-said phrase as our example:

I love you.

“Aw, what a lovely choice of words for an example, Michael!”

Or is it? Dun dun dun.

The utterance of this phrase from one human being to another in various contexts has been the driving force behind a mass of storytelling and media throughout humanity’s recorded history. It’s a powerful phrase that can change drastically dependent upon its context.

Who Is Saying It

Let’s begin with Who is saying it:

A small child?

A parent?

A friend?

A significant other?

A lover?

A friend who wants to be more than a friend?

A stranger?

You may have noticed that you felt fine with the options at the beginning of the list, but felt less so by the end. And you see how expanding on the idea of “a friend” into “a friend who wants to be more than a friend” changes the context?

Well, what about if we do the same thing to “a stranger”? I’m assuming you didn’t feel great about that one upon reading it, but let’s expand our word choices to be either:

“A stranger you’ve been on five dates with, been flirting with for a month, and has now completely opened up to you and said ‘I love you for the first time.’”

“A stranger you’ve never seen before in your life trying to follow you home from the bar.”

The meaning of “stranger” is suddenly different based on its own context and who is saying the word. Context is powerful.

To Whom Is It Being Said

This one is fairly intuitive.

We may often say “I love you” to people in our lives, but we mean it differently depending on who we are speaking to.

And this is mostly because the love we feel for various people in our lives is different. Love is a large conglomeration of complex emotions and there are many nuances.

Think about how the meaning of that phrase would change if you were to say “I love you” to:

A colleague

A friend

A parent

A friend’s parent

A grandparent

A teacher

An acquaintance

A date

A boyfriend/girlfriend

A spouse

An ex

A boss

It can just keep going

How deep is the love you’re expressing? Are you just expressing, or do you want something in return? How would you define that specific love?

All of these can change depending on the person you are speaking to.

Where Is It Being Said

Many a sit-com episode and rom-com film have had climactic scenes based on this idea, particularly when “I love you” is being said romantically between two people for the very first time.

And this is again fairly intuitive.

It’s quite different to tell someone for the first time in the middle of a candle-lit dinner date than it is to say it for the first time in the middle of a break-up.

But even with dramatic situations aside, where we say it can still alter the strength and meaning behind what we say.

For instance, let’s assume you are with a friend you love deeply. How does saying “I love you” change in depth and meaning when either:

They’ve just made you laugh raucously with a joke that only the two of you would get.

You’re comforting them at a funeral for their older sibling.

Oof. Context matters.

When Is It Being Said

Let’s use the example I mentioned above of saying it for the first time during a break-up.

Even in the midst of a single conversation, when that phrase is uttered can make all of the difference. For this example, let’s assume the person in the couple saying it for the first time is the person being broken up with.

Here are three thoughts:

If “I love you” is the first thing said in the break up conversation, perhaps it was said with joy and expectation, but it instead becomes the impetus for the conversation and the break-up itself.

If said in the middle of the break-up conversation, perhaps it becomes part of the person’s argument as to why this break-up feels sudden and has taken them off-guard.

If said at the end of the conversation - even as the last word - perhaps it becomes a desperate, last-ditch effort to get the other person to stay.

Small changes to the When can alter the emotional state both people are in, and therefore change the intention behind the words.

Look for this the next time you watch a romantic comedy - it’s kind of fun to analyze!

Why Is It Being Said

Ultimately, the Why is attached to the combination of Who-To Whom-Where-When. Not that it isn’t important to note, but it is often generated by the surrounding circumstances.

We rarely say things just to say them - there’s usually a specific intention behind it.

To continue with this idea of love, we don’t stop loving people just because we aren’t saying it every second of every day. Which means that there must be an environmental reason that we choose to say “I love you” when we do.

Here are a few examples:

A parent tucking their child in for bed after a particularly difficult day for the two of them.

A just-married couple sitting on the bed, taking off their shoes, and exhaling, being alone for the first time since the reception ended five minutes ago.

A friend to their best friend who just delivered the goofiest and most public prom-posal in the middle of the school cafeteria.

With the remaining context, the why becomes apparent. What motivates us is fodder for good stories.

How Is It Being Said

More than anything, the way we say something is a window into our current emotional state.

People often believe that the way they speak tends to be a reflection of their current environment.

How many times have you heard a teenager say that they’re only being defensive with their parents because “they’re just so annoying” or “they keep asking so many questions”?

But the way we say something isn’t based upon the outer environment, it’s a reflection of how we feel internally.

Perhaps that teenager is being defensive when asked about how much homework they have because they’re feeling entirely overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to do, and it’s difficult or them to speak about. Or perhaps it’s because they plan to never do it, and parents can’t know that if they never knew how much there was in the first place.

The other side of How has to do with inflection and intent.

Context matters to determine the meaning behind word choice, but words have different meanings and connotations to each of us individually and culturally. An extreme example of this is how the “c-word” for female genitalia is a highly-charged and taboo word in the US, but a commonly used utterance in the UK.

And this is also where the internet and social media becomes a tremendous issue.

Ever gotten reprimanded on Facebook or into an online argument with someone who cannot understand the context behind your words?

Or have you ever gotten angry at someone because you saw something they wrote and you put your own tone on their words, making it become inflammatory?

The internet is great for communication in so many ways, but it makes context difficult and intended inflection almost impossible.

The more contextual information we have, the better off we are.

So perhaps the “kids” really do have it right by communicating mostly through Facetime, Instagram, and Tik Tok. Who knows?

And So

I love words. They bring me joy and they are the basis of both my art and my career.

But remembering their power and their importance is necessary to good communication and also to building a better world.

Take that extra time to think through your word choice and the context - and not just the context for you, but for the other parties involved as well.

You may just find a better balance in the world you create.

[joeys-piano]

if you were to write and publish a book, what would it be about?

TL;DR - I would write a mafia/organized crime story about a man traveling to St. Petersburg to learn/uncover the truth behind an interesting Bratva that doesn’t kill.

Probably, the extent of publishing I’ll do is posting the story online for others to read. I’m not in the market for this story to be on a shelf or in a physical, bounded form. Nor, would I even qualify the story as a book. However, for the sake of this question, I do have a story in mind that has the potential to fit those qualifications.

If I were to write and publish a book, the story would revolve around mafias or in general, organized crime groups. Having grown up watching a lot of police procedural, detective noir, secret agents and spies, and international hitmen movies, this appeals to a niche-area of mine. I feel that for a first novel, it’s probably a good idea to write about something that interests you and it’s something that you’re comfortable working with.

For me, personally, I love watching international films where the characters are going to other countries and working on covert missions there. As one of the main “pillars” of the story, so to speak, incorporating traveling and cultural diversity is huge for me. I would love to explore language barriers and how characters can overcome, negotiate, or use those barriers to their advantage when they communicate with foreign partners/parties. In addition to that, I would love to explore the differences between how different organized crime groups operate, what is the “pecking order”, what skills – if any – do these groups specialize in, some of the coded terminology they use, and how the surrounding culture influences how the group behaves.

Typically when I watch the movies that I watch, there’s almost none or very little distinction between the crime groups. They all feel like they were cut from the mold with the same shape, and the only discernible differences are what the group looks like and where they’re from. Honestly, I feel that there could be more done than just that. I’d love to see how the political environment, the attitude towards authority and law, how ethics and morals are at play if they are at play, and how cultural and regional differences/variances contribute to the “make-up” of these organized crime groups. It would feel closer to real life, I think. It gives these groups a grounded foundation that they can build upon, and it’s easier to juggle with several groups where they’re all uniquely different from each other. That’s probably one of the most important things to consider, ‘cause it’s not fun reading about carbon clones of the same thing – over and over again.

Another reason why I would write a mafia/organized crime story is that I like the thrill, the action, the suspense, and sometimes the comedy that comes along with the entire package. Show me with a raise of hands of how many of us remember the daring feats, the sheer epicness, and the mesmerizing action sequences that come from stories like this. It plays with the adrenaline part of the body and it’s a very tactile experience. As someone who focuses a lot on introspective works but has a flair for dramatic action sequences, this would be a lot of fun for me and it would expand my knowledge/repertoire for writing these kinds of situations.

But while this is all fun and games in the end, it’s very fast-paced. Balancing these quick successions with slower, agonizingly cruel sequences of rich sensory detail in the form of torture or interrogation scenes would appeal a lot to my introspective-side of writing. I’m already comfortable with introspective writing but here, I’ll be able to apply it to a wider range of situations and explore the five-senses in ways that I’ve never been able to in other types of stories.

And lastly, I would write a mafia/organized crime story just because I want to do things differently. It’s as simple as that. Now, my only experience when it comes to reading topics or themes like this come from fanfic. I don’t know how published books go about this but I often notice that at least in fanfic, there’s a lot of attention focused on relationship-dynamics and violence. Arguably, those two are very intimately tied with stories like this. There’s nothing wrong with stories like this that focus on that, but it often feels like the first thing that people come up with. It’s like outside of violence that will scar you for life – figuratively and literally – and relationships (mostly romantic, from what I’ve read), there’s nothing else you can do in stories like this. This is where I want to change things.

I want to explore the story of people finding their purpose in life through the line of work that they do. I want to explore how they’re able to balance between the civilian and the crime life, how they’re able to overcome internal conflicts and personal issues that arise when those two worlds converge, and I want to explore how different people have found themselves working in a mafia/organized crime group and what events in their life led them to choose this life. I can see why not a lot of people explore those areas because they can be slow, they can even be boring, and they might feel out of place for a genre that seems gung-ho on thriller action and living out an epic fantasy at times. For me, I don’t want to approach the mafia or any organized crime group with an idealistic background on what they should be. Maybe it’s just me, but I want to write this as grounded to reality as I can.

There are real, legitimate reasons that people join these groups and why they reach out to seek aid from them. I want to explore that gray area.

Now, after all of that setup and building to the moment, you’re probably wondering what the plot is going to be about. I got you, fam. The story revolves around a Japanese man named Mr. Fukumori. Despite being a low-ranked mafioso, he receives word from his Bosses that he’ll be leaving the country in a few days. Instead of this being a reconnaissance mission or anything fancier than that, Mr. Fukumori learns that his mission is strictly negotiation-based.

He’s tasked to be a spokesman for the Syndicate, and his assignment is to forge a deal or an alliance with a very strange Bratva (Russian mafia group) in St. Petersburg. On paper, the alliance is to be mutually beneficial. However, what the Syndicate really wants is structural information. For the past three years now, this strange Bratva in St. Petersburg has grown in power and prestige – seemingly, overnight as soon as a new Pakhan stepped forward. From the edge of ruins, somehow the group pulled itself together and became one of the most dominant-figures in Russia’s league of organized crime.

Mr. Fukumori’s true mission, if he chooses to accept, is to uncover exactly how the new Pakhan had done it. And if he receives further orders from his Bosses after he attains the information, Mr. Fukumori is aware that there’s a high possibility that he may have to kill the Pakhan. Naturally, as an older individual and bordering on the end of leading an “exciting life” as a hitman, Mr. Fukumori is curious as to why his Bosses didn’t assign this mission to anyone else. Although he asks the question, Mr. Fukumori already has an idea of what the answer is. Despite currently being a low-ranked mafioso, Mr. Fukumori had quite a track record when he was younger. With 145 confirmed kills, 375 reconnaissances assignments, and numerous soft-skills he had perfected during his years traveling in and out of Japan for these sorts of things under his belt, Mr. Fukumori is the most qualified to take on this mission. More so, he’s the most qualified low-ranking mafioso to take on this mission.

Mr. Fukumori is aware that because of his rank in the Syndicate, he can be disposed of or viewed as an expendable pawn at any time. Though it’s never spoken out loud, it’s heavily implied that this is a suicide mission. The odds of Mr. Fukumori coming back alive from enemy territory is dependent on his own skills and how he’s able to navigate and negotiate through everything that he needs to do. With all of this stacked before him, Mr. Fukumori accepts the mission. In a way, he feels that the other reason why his Bosses reached out to him on this is because this will be the first, foreign assignment he’s received in years and will likely be his last. Ever since he failed his last foreign mission, over 12 years ago, Mr. Fukumori fell from his original rank in the Syndicate and has been confined to domestic affairs since then.

It almost feels like this is the Syndicate’s way of forgiving him for the failure he had done in the past, by giving him a suicidal mission that he’s comfortable with. There’s almost a childish glint of youth in Mr. Fukumori’s eyes, there’s a warmth that’s spreading from his chest because he’s finally coming back to the kind of mission that he loves. Safe to say, Mr. Fukumori loves to travel and he feels like a bird that’s finally free from its cage. He knows that if he dies on the mission, at least he’ll die doing what he loves. However, Mr. Fukumori has hopes that he’ll have more foreign missions if he comes back alive. With that as his motivation, Mr. Fukumori begins formulating his strategy plan before he boards a plane and lands in St. Petersburg.

[charlotteroseessex-blog]

Living Online

Online language deconstructs certain social expectations of formality in our use of ‘grammatically correct’ English. The words and phrases used on social networking platforms, or just on devices in general, embody the casualness of grammar which has been developing over the past century in correlation with the inventions of the technological boom. Nowadays, owning a mobile phone is merely an expectation due to the generational progression of constant communication and the pressures of updating content on applications throughout the day. The normality of posting a story of every meal you get served in a restaurant or every time you head to the gym, engages the assumption of a forward facing generation who expect an applaud for leading a very normal life. In reality, the ever expanding media richness of the internet has lead to many of us wanting to live and document our lives online.

Imagine taking a spontaneous trip to London to have dinner up The Shard, would be lovely wouldn’t it? BUT, did it really happen if you didn’t post a photo to your Instagram story or upload your feed with a photo of the view underneath the tagged location? Every occasion in this generation of serial swipers and double tappers require Snapchats, Instagram and Facebook check-ins in order for the day to have been fully experienced.

Our phones are gradually becoming an extra limb, an attachment to our hands that erupts panic through our bodies if it’s not arms reach away at all times. The cost of this specific human mutation, has caused a nation to suffer through the declination of face to face contact. It is no secret that England is the 8th laziest country in the world, with 63.3% of the nation completely inactive, but our reliance on our phones are slowly progressing much more than the novelty of a phone call or a quick text. We now abuse the inventions of applications to build and maintain the foundations of many of our real life relationships that are otherwise abandoned in face to face situations. With apps abilities ranging from tagging people in funny videos on Facebook to making quick cash by selling clothes on Depop, to now actually sourcing romantic relationships on platforms like Tinder, there really is something for everyone.

As we build our profiles on apps accessible to us by all devices we, as users, are granted the ability to engage with Computer Mediated Communications (CMC). In accessing CMC, the opportunities to interact with long distance family or form relationships with online friends, enhance the attraction towards online interactions over face to face interactions due to its easiness in the little effort it requires. Social networking platforms provide us with the protection of certain situations which, in real life, would cause hesitation or conflict if gone about in the wrong way. Through being on Facebook or Instagram etc, allows us to portray the best version of ourselves by exercising the ability to control and manipulate any personal information and content visual to others and with much little transaction costs. Online profiles only gage the persona we aspire to liken ourselves to, in other words, it’s our most favourite version of ourselves we wish to ascertain - all the time.

Do you look better with a tan? Stick a filter on it.

Always wished your legs looked longer in that bikini pic? Photoshop!

Don’t like that friend anymore but think the selfie captures your best angle? Thank god for crop.

See how easy it is to alter someone else’s perspective of you? And it doesn’t stop there.

Our online language, believe it or not, is one of the most powerful tools of expression in creating our online footprint. Instagram’s and profile picture updates might not gage that much of our personality due to the absence of textuality attached to the post. However, on applications with the main feature being communication, our online language starts to form its own natural quirk. It would be easy to explain that all the emotions and feelings inside our heads, that are often the main reason we feel so desperate to share something to our social media pages, are filtered and controlled by little people in our brains which makes our actions pre-justified and reasonable. But unfortunately, this is not the case.

If you’ve never seen the Walt Disney movie ‘Inside Out’ I would highly recommend it in order to explore a simplified representation of impulse reactions. The film features 5 personifications representing Riley's (an 11 year old girl) basic emotions; Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust. They all function in her headquarters with the emotions influencing her choices and reactions to life events throughout her growing up period. The emotions use a control console which allows them to influence Riley accordingly, depending on the morality of the situation and potential consequences. This concept of human incapability of controlling their own actions is an enlightening approach to the modernised world of online communication. 

The idea of internal characters influencing one persons reactions, can be reflected in the concept of social interaction whereby a lot of us will use social media to gage opinions from others. Generally, if we are faced with challenging online conversations, it is likely that the process of screenshotting and forwarding will occur. It is no secret that nowadays, our camera rolls contain mostly past conversations or arguments sent to friends to seek help or advice in how best to respond to a problematic message. And, even though, generally, it’s always the same two people most active in the group chat who are most likely to give you the synchronous response of feedback and moral support you so desired, the few onlookers - more suitably referable as ‘the overhearers’ that barely speak - gain all the drama without having to put any effort in. You know the ones, sitting on the group chat and watching all the messages roll in whilst also pretending to have lost the ability to reply!!! The fact that people now prefer to not only communicate online, but now also to turn to others to reply to messages meant for only the receiver, prevails online interaction as a manipulation of reality. Because messages, despite being sent to one person, no longer embody instant messaging but are now asynchronous chats due to their drafting, editing and altering by many, many more people. Also, who’s to determine the tone of a message anyway? Due to the inconclusive interpretation of the true intentions of a message, we are left alone to determine how to provide our response.

Replying to messages can be a lengthy process. We determine suitable replies independently in order to maintain relationships with people through instant messaging. But what is suitable? Anything that we choose to reply with can manipulate and change the course of conversation instantaneously if wrongly perceived. The concept of Black Mirrors interactive Netflix movie ‘Bandersnatch’ emphasises the influence a viewer can have on the movie plot through the repercussions of wrong choices. Once the chosen option is made by the viewer, with the consequences of that choice having been played out, they are given another chance to either re-do or continue with the decision previously made. Providing the movie has 3 potential ‘main’ endings, the journey in picking the right options, whether this be between Frosties or Honey Puffs, gives very different outcomes in the films conclusion. In relation to the risky business of messaging, it  could be considered useful to be able to interactively decide and change the outcome of a message once the reply is anticipated and sent. The idea that you could choose between several responses which lead to various different outcomes, but then re-do the responses if the outcome doesn’t suit your desired intentions, would change the whole game of sending a risky text. It would be like a preview of the future. 

Bandersnatch (2018):

Messages and their meanings are reliant on the way they are interpreted by the receiver. Due to textual language lacking socioemotional expressions (thank god for voice notes) it is purely down to the receiver in how they then choose to reply. Whether the message be sympathetic or sarcastic, the outcome can be catastrophic if read incorrectly, hence the importance of face to face conversations. Hyper personal receivers are more likely interpret messages sent to them most suitable to their situations or assumptively depending on how well they know the sender. It is easy for someone to read a text in a manner that is appropriate to the purpose of the conversation at hand. Boyfriend annoying you? Great, reply with a sarcastic remark, it’s the easiest format of achieving that extra attention you wanted in the first place. The power of the receiver outweighs the purpose of the original message. Why? Because you determine the outcome based on how it’s read. 

Online, we are able to create any persona we desire. It is no secret that people online are more boisterous and confident when expressing their feelings whether this be through a Facebook status, YouTube video or even a message to a group chat. Behind a screen, people evoke the persona of a keyboard warrior. It is easier for someone online to voice a derogatory or controversial opinion about someone or something without having to consider the repercussions if that person is upset by it. The dangers of online language entails the toxicity of being able to hide behind a screen and not having to deal with real people at face to face value. You don’t have to deal with emotions or anything else relating the a real humans actual feelings due to the overall absence of personal richness.

Hyper personal communications are more desirable, nowadays, online. Fact. Whether this be due to the decline in social skills and the fact that we have grown up in world where it’s more acceptable to add the new girl in our class on Facebook rather than to introduce ourselves in person, or whether it’s caused by the increase in our online groups to construct choices we should be strong enough to make on our own. The truth is, face to face communication is a dying cause and it’s only a matter of time before we lose the art of conversation due to the time and effort we put into perfecting our online personas rather than our real ones.

[sol1056]

I think all yall choreograph the asks or something. I seem to get the same topic in batches. This time, two non-anon and one anon (not counting DMs even), so I’m just going to wrap it all up together since there was a lot of overlap. 

behind the cut: where I get ideas, beta readers, writing ahead, writing fast, editing fast, dealing with OCs, writing emotional scenes, and how I learned to write. questions about publishing and agents will be in the followup.

where do you get your ideas

the ‘what if’ questions. the source might vary -- a story if it’s fanfic, or history if it’s profic. by what-if, I mean a throwaway comment, implication, plot hole, gap, or missed chance. what if the characters end canon with this other dynamic, what if the protagonist goes left instead of right at a crucial moment, what if Lý Chiêu Hoàng hadn’t been deposed as queen regnant, what if Nobunaga had survived the attack at Honnō-ji, what if Nyi Roro Kidul had founded her own people, etc. 

from there, I stage that moment in my head like a fractal, seeking out the most interesting ways everything could go wrong. what I'm looking for is an image, a bit of dialogue, capturing that moment of sacrifice, betrayal, a twist in some way. this either ends up as the precipitating event, the midpoint, or the finale (basically one of the three pivotal emotional points). then I work backwards from there. for ffic, I need to figure out how characters get from canon to that point; for profic, I figure out what kind of characters would end up there. 

do you have a beta reader

uhm. not really? I’ve asked for help a few times, when I’m not sure of a particular characterization, but other than the first chapter of Bonds (for reasons I’ll explain in the followup), I don’t usually bother. after all, it’d be horribly rude to send off a chapter and then expect anyone to respond inside of a week. let alone a few days. I envy people who have the patience to wait on a beta reader ‘cause I feel like their stories are tighter as a result, but since there are small amazonian frogs with more patience than me, I figure what I write must stand or fall on its own.

however, I do tend to bestow snippets liberally on whomever’s talking to me online while I write, and I pay attention to their reactions. in fanfic, I’ll also sometimes run a scenario past a few people to see if their gut instinct on a characterization matches mine. that might be a kind of narrow-focus beta reading, maybe.

do you write some/all before you post

nope. I totally post-as-I-go (and yes that does mean at some point I was writing about 6K nightly, I’m not proud). if you said I had to write the entire thing, edit carefully, review, even let it sit for awhile before posting, I’d probably hurt something. or I’d just explode from the enforced waiting.

for profic first draft (or fanfic final draft, same thing), I plan 2-3 chapters in advance. then I write until the word count hits 6K or so, call it a chapter, post, and start on the next chapter. I do that until I run out of plan. then I assess again, figure out the next few chapters’ plan, and repeat until the story feels done.

how do you write so fast 

because a) I type fast, and b) you’re reading what’s effectively the first draft. writing that first go-round is always quick. I just sit down and spit out words. it’s polishing it into profic-levels, that editing phase, that can take weeks, even months. I’ve written pivotal scenes from scratch five, six, seven times if that’s what it takes. you’re just benefiting from my laziness with fanfic, basically.

how do you edit so fast

actually, I don’t. I tend to do it in fits and starts. even fanfic, if you compared first version posted with the current version, you’ll find changes here and there. mostly smoothing choppy parts, disambiguating, or just clarifying a muddy description. sometimes readers report a phrase felt wrong, or didn’t make sense, and I’ll tweak the offending line. 

there are tricks to make it easier, though. 

for profic, I write in scrivener, with a font of Open Sans, Lato, or Avenir, depending on my mood. a first pass of editing for the glaring issues, then I shift to full-screen display and change the font to Baskerville Old Face, Perpetua, or Oregon LDO. the radical font-change means sentences don’t end visually where they did before, and the serif element means I have to slow down slightly to read, a lot more will leap out at me. with fanfic, I write in google docs and post in AO3, but otherwise the font-changing process is similar.  

how do you keep OCs from taking over

an OC is just a character who was -- or might’ve been -- in canon but had no lines. they’re third person from the left, in that crowd scene in episode 17. they occupy the same world, and they have a story of their own -- it’s just not this story. they have a goal, but the core question is: does their goal support or conflict with the protagonist? there’s the tension those OCs can provide. 

on a more basic level, just don’t give them POV, and remember they exist to push the protagonist forward, or hold the protagonist back. if the reverse happens -- the protagonist pushes the OC forward, or holds the OC back -- then you’ve made the OC a major character and now the story’s warping to suit their goals. the focus must remain on the protagonist; it’s their story, after all.  

how do you write a character’s emotion so the reader feels it

use restraint. a scene’s strongest emotion lies in the gaps between what the characters are telling and what they’re showing. restraint is how you create those gaps.

avoid the impulse to ever say the character feels anger, feels joy. instead, have the character do something or say something that expresses the emotion. 

also, either we acknowledge an emotion, or we don’t. the first has no conflict, kiss of death for tension. the second, though, that’s basically a fight scene: the conflict is between the character and their own emotions. the key is choosing between word and deed to show the character’s purpose (narration or dialogue vs action). whatever’s left becomes the other half of the conflict. 

use scent, taste, sensation, sight, sound to project the emotion, distance it from the character. like, they can breathe fine but the air is stuffy. their hand isn’t shaking; the paper just won’t hold still. leave it to the reader to draw a line between the narrative’s tone and the character’s mental/emotional state.  

second, keep the sentences relatively short. think of the jump cuts in a filmed fight scene (or sex scene) -- you don’t need to see every move. that gets boring, fast. show only enough for the reader to connect the dots; what they put in the gaps will always be far more powerful for them than anything you'll achieve when spelling it all out. 

here’s the real challenge, and one of the hardest kinds of scenes to write (but so satisfying when you nail it) -- a character who acknowledges one emotion while denying the truth beneath. this is the character who’s furious but refuses to admit the hurt powering that anger. or the character who’s happy on the surface but jealous or broken-hearted beneath.  

my advice: overwrite the scene, take it to eleven... and then go back and cut one line in every four of dialogue, then do the same in the narrative. keep only the strongest lines. do another pass. keep going until the scene is down to a quarter the original length, and see what you’ve got. 

how do you write so well

err, okay, setting aside the discomfort of being asked that -- ‘cause I see flaws all over the place, starting with just plain overwriting, srsly, is that word count really necessary -- whatever skill I do have, I learned in one simple way.  

by critiquing other writers, and getting critiques in turn.

not beta-readers -- my experience with beta readers is that they don’t really tackle the story, though they may comment on characterization. mostly I’ve only ever gotten line edits (spelling, grammar, punctuation) and... that’s not really a critique, that’s a copy editor’s work. it’s valuable, but not what I mean.

a critique analyzes the work. they mark illogical or unrealistic dialogue, note missed opportunities for rising tension, point out potential plot holes or discrepancies. a good critique is sensitive to spikes and lulls in the pacing, and at a line-level it’s often attuned to repetition or ambiguity in word choice, muddy metaphors, even the ‘sound’ of the prose.

for every critique you do, you’re training your inner editor. I don’t catch everything (certainly never on the first pass), but having a stronger inner editor means being able to reflexively identify weaknesses. plus, exposure to other stories teaches you ways to fix those mistakes. to the point I sometimes edit as I write ‘cause I can already see what needs fixing.  

lastly

if you want to write better, read better. critique everything. 

this is not criticism, this is critique. this is why I post meta about whatever I’m reading/watching. by approaching a story through that analytical lens, I can peel apart what works (for me) and what fails (for me) and study my reaction. the goal is to duplicate what works and avoid what doesn’t.

you can’t learn to build a car engine just by looking at the outside of a car, after all. you gotta get in there, get the dirt and grease up to your elbows. take it down to the bolts, understand how it got put together. the same goes for writing. never be afraid to take apart anyone’s stories to see how they work. 

and then, go write.

[spiritroots]

Hello! I’m a southern African-American witch and I’ve recently been draw to hoodoo/root work. But I’m also a Wiccan, am i still about to practice hoodoo in my religion? Some people say yes, others say no. I’d be really be grateful from an answer from someone whose opinions and facts I value. Thank you for your time :)

Hi :D Sorry this has been sitting in my inbox for so long!! Sometimes it just takes a while for me to get to them, and I end up answering diff questions as they come in at diff rates. I have a lot of complex feelings about Wicca, so I think I needed to really have the time to sit down and write this carefully.

I answered a question not long ago that really goes into depth about practicing hoodoo alongside religion(s) and other magic practice(s)! I recommend checking this out for a whole full explanation of those topics.

Below is a longer answer about my thoughts on Wicca specifically and the many challenges you may face trying to practice it alongside hoodoo.

[ Ask me anything ] [ About ] [ Buy me a coffee ] [ Spirit Roots Shop ]

Wicca & Cultural Appropriation

I feel torn very torn on this subject because I have a close friend @luciferianbuddhism who’s an initiated Alexandrian Wiccan, and I admire her so much. She’s extremely mindful of cultural appropriation, and she’s also a Buddhist so she also speaks out against the appropriation of Buddhism. I’ve also seen other Wiccans from time to time online who are also mindful of cultural appropriation and work hard not to cross any boundaries with that.

That being said, Wicca itself in all its forms whether Neo-Wicca or traditional initiatory branches can be extremely culturally appropriative depending on how they are practiced. I don’t wanna get into a debate about whether it’s okay that karma is now a part of Wicca as its own term because I feel conflicted about that, but it’s perfectly reasonable in my opinion to point out that the way in which that term was adopted into Wicca was at least initially an act of cultural appropriation. This is just one example of what seems to be the case with numerous other aspects of Wicca as well.

Then there’s also Gerald Gardner, the founder of Wicca, and his big influences like Crowley. It is well known that Gardner lied about many things including his background, and there are accounts that he was sexually inappropriate with some of his coven members (x). Crowley is infamous for his racism, homophobia, anti-semitism, and more (x). I actually don’t use the term “magick” in part because of him. These two figures had a huge impact on Wicca 

For all these reasons, there’s a lot of potentially problematic aspects to Wicca and definitely problematic aspects to its history and development. I’m not saying it’s bad to be Wiccan or that you can’t be Wiccan and work on issues with cultural appropriation. I hope that there are more Wiccans who understand these issues like my friend Leanne and who hopefully are a helpful influence in the Wiccan community in general! Maybe that can be you too, anon.

Challenges for a Potential Wiccan Rootworker

I’m letting you know my perspective on this because I’ve seen a lot of other black rootworkers, black witches, and POC in general who are uncomfortable with or downright dislike Wicca for all these reasons. I’ve seen many examples of white Wiccans appropriating hoodoo, and this has definitely contributed to the bad impression as well. You may find yourself being unwelcome in some circles of our community for being Wiccan or having a lot of assumptions made about you for it even though you’re black. I know that sounds shitty, but truthfully there are a lot of legitimate reasons people feel this way about it.

I hope that as you study hoodoo, you take time to understand how different it is as an Afrocentric magic tradition than Wicca as a Eurocentric religion and also to remember why a lot of people in the community are uncomfortable with Wicca. That doesn’t mean you need to stop practicing. If the faith is very important to you, I’m sure you will find a way to get people to see that you (hopefully) aren’t appropriating cultures via Wicca and that you have found a respectful way to practice Wicca and hoodoo together. I believe it is possible, just not easy.

Why I Left Wicca

Technically, I’ve been a solitary Neo-Wiccan for most of my life. Ever since I watched Charmed at 13-years-old, I considered myself Wiccan and really loved what I knew of the faith, mostly gleaned from a Silver Ravenwolf Book of Shadows. I told my parents, they freaked out at the time, and I was in the woods about it ever after until college. During the time I was closeted, I didn’t dig much deeper and try to learn more about Wicca in a way that would’ve opened my eyes to the many problems and issues I’ve already mentioned. 

Then in the fall of 2016, my senior year of college, some big life-changing events led me to Buddhism. When I converted to Buddhism, I tried to be both Wiccan and Buddhist for a short while at first because Wicca had taught me so much. Back then, I didn’t know much about cultural appropriation. The more I unlearned from Wicca and began to really follow the path of Buddhism, the more I eventually moved away from the religion of Wicca altogether and began to develop a completely new perspective on it. 

Hoodoo unlike Buddhism is not a religion, so it’s not the same situation for you at all. But personally, for myself, I know that there was a lot I didn’t understand or know about Wicca back when I did identify as a Wiccan that I know now having been exposed to new communities, cultures, and religions. Knowing what I know now, I can never think about Wicca the same way anymore.

I just wanted to share my story with you in case there’s a chance you may have had a similar journey and still have more to learn about Wicca as a whole. If this isn’t the case for you, I encourage you to pursue your own path and do what’s right so long as you can avoid cultural appropriation!

[marriagemyth]

How To Act When A Man Walks Away From You

�� Individual connections are complex as well as when love assumptions come into play it is possible to experience the complication of not recognizing the other's behavior. In particular scenarios, there is a risk of falling into the mental block effect walking around as well as around a problem without locating a clear-cut solution. What to do when a man leaves you? Why does a man leave without stating anything? This is among those circumstances that can produce dissatisfaction if the expectations that you had placed because individual made you believe in a reciprocated passion. 

What to do when a man suddenly leaves

Some individuals wonder what they can do to change his perspective, however, what is really important in this scenario is to keep internal peace and harmony. Real learning of psychological knowledge lies in finding out to live these sorts of situations approving that, sometimes, these points happen. However, if you feed ideas that do not lead you to a concrete reaction, however just lead you to the point of pitying yourself, after that you feed the mental hook. Where did I fail?  Why is he acting to me by doing this? Does a guy in love leave? What can I do to make this adjustment?  Why does a man stay away from a lady he likes?  Why does the very same point always occur to me?  If you understand this kind of assuming or with other comparable ideas, it is convenient that you break with this inertia to generate a brand-new type of different thoughts. As an example, if that man has relocated away from you, check out that situation from a positive point of view. Via his activities, he offers you clear information regarding him in relation to you Do not come under the self-deception of believing that this distance really conceals the shyness of a person crazy. There are several feasible analyses of a situation, nonetheless, in this sort of case, do not obtain carried away by the subjectivity of exactly how you would certainly like points to be. Make a loyal analysis of the facts. That guy has averted from you. This is truth information. What to do when a guy ignores you. If you are experiencing this scenario, you may be questioning: when a guy leaves, what should I do? If a man walks away from you, you can provide on your own some time to keep attempting to get his attention. Right here are 4 tips to follow if you do not understand exactly how to act when a man relocates far from you: 1. Recognizing that this is a time that you are offering yourself the margin to attempt to conquer that individual, make a decision with which you are mosting likely to feel good and calm not just in this present moment, however likewise, when six months have passed. Act in the method you see fit, focusing on the heart and factor. Discover the balance between both planes. 2. Take the initiative. By doing this, based upon the action of the various other person, you can declare a lot more in the idea that he has relocated away or, as a matter of fact, you might observe a various reaction. When doubtful, taking the campaign is a good idea since it helps you clarify yourself with visible data. 3. Dose your messages. If that individual intends to contact you, they will certainly do so by themselves effort. The persistence can create the contrary effect to the wanted one, better distancing the various other person yet, mostly, the insistence is unfavorable since it fuels your very own anxiousness for the response. As well as the psychological discomfort because of the number of unanswered messages rises since the indifference in this instance is a lot more noticeable. 4. If you have any inquiries that you would like to make clear with him, after that deal with the discussion. For instance, if both of you were already more certain, nonetheless, there has actually been an unanticipated spin in the script of this story, a spin that you don't comprehend, then encounter this pending conversation if you assume this will certainly give you satisfaction. The suggestions in what to do if a connection goes cold can likewise aid you.

What not to do when a guy is walking away

It is just as crucial to understand exactly how to act when a guy leaves you, as what not to do. en Sometimes it is challenging to recognize specifically how to act in this kind of scenario. Because instance, you can begin by bearing in mind what you need to stay clear of: 1. Remaining at home watching the hrs go by awaiting the phone to ring. Immobilize your social life, stop your friendship plans and also your dedications due to this mindset that raises your sadness, your feeling of failing and your pain. 2. Believe that you have lost the love of your life. In the world, there are various people and even if you feel by doing this currently, after a while, you will look at the scenario from a various perspective. 3. Live pending your social networks. Knowing information of his present life does not enable you to shut this stage due to the fact that you are continuously in contact with facets of his life, based upon hypotheses that you make about his magazines. This is a great time to break the web link online. 4. Escape yourself. The worst thing you can do when a guy bows out you is to do the same to on your own. That is, boycott your well-being through a lack of confidence. 5. Deceiving yourself right into believing that you can be her buddy as if that is not mosting likely to influence you in an unfavorable means. Discover reasons to communicate. 6. Feed an animosity as well as animosity towards that individual. Perhaps you, too, can keep in mind a moment in your biography in which you distanced yourself from a person you had an interest in initially. The wish for retribution is damaging in this kind of scenario, regardless of how unfair you think about the suffering endured. What to do when a man leaves you? Keep composing one of the most gorgeous romance: your life.

Why does a guy leave?

Why do men leave? There are lots of reasons individuals distance themselves from each various other. A few of the most common causes are: - Lack of interest. - Unresolved anger or conflict. - Transforming top priorities. - Anxiety of commitment. Nevertheless, each person and each partnership is unique and also to understand the true reason a man is away from you, you need to ask him.

Why does a man walk away without saying anything?

Individuals can walk away for lots of factors, however why do not they claim anything? Sometimes men leave without claiming anything. This circumstance can take place for numerous factors: He has doubts: it may be that the man is not clear about what he wants or what he really feels and also does not know exactly how to share his uncertainty to you. Not prepared: the man may not prepare to have a discussion about the relationship, possibly he does not have the experience or the capability to feel safe having individual and psychological discussions, probably it is tough for him to discuss his feelings. He does not know exactly how to handle the circumstance: it may likewise be that the man does not wish to create you emotional damage and does not know how to reveal his thoughts without that occurring. Does not give importance: another factor might be that the man does not give the very same value as you to the relationship. You have not analyzed the circumstance appropriately: ultimately, it ought to be mentioned that there is an opportunity that the man has clarified in his very own way his purpose to escape you and also you have not interpreted the message appropriately.

Does a male in love leave?

The state of infatuation generates the sensation of emotion as well as wellness, prompting a great wish for the business of the person with whom one has actually fallen in love. An individual in love, as a whole, would certainly not bow out the person with whom he is in love. Nonetheless, there may be stronger reasons to leave than the infatuation itself. Everyone is various and also each scenario is distinct.

Why does a male seek you and after that vanish?

When a male seeks your business for certain periods of time and after that leaves, he may not ensure what he desires, he may not look for to preserve the sort of connection that you anticipate.

Why does a male leave after having sex

Each person is different as well as can additionally alter their perspective on partnerships depending on the life period in which they are. There is the possibility of running into individuals that do not pursue the same objective as us.

Why does a male leave after making love? Possibly you have met a male whose rate of interest is to delight in a sex-related encounter without ultimately keeping a psychological connection. If that's additionally your interest, fantastic! If it is not what you are searching for, you ought to examine the connection of the relationship. The important point in these situations is to be clear and also subject the assumptions we have around the partnership to check that they work with those of the other person. You have to be clear as well as explain what you are looking for currently. It can additionally be a man who leaves after making love due to the fact that said sex-related encounter has not been adequate for multiple reasons. It is essential to recognize that it does not need to be your fault or your duty. Also understand that we can not alter the means others act, if they do rule out transforming it. One more important facet to recognize is that an individual is not a bad person for not seeking a loving connection. It is feasible to enjoy sexual encounters as long as they are enjoyed by the people who take part in them, in addition to the reality that genuineness and also regard are the basis of these.

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[ugamyrain]

Rain Rants again with her shitty unpopular opinion. (I might be burnt at the stake) This is long.

This is a piece about SasuSaku and NaruHina. Before I start, I should clarify: I have been a fan of both since the chuunin exams and I became an semi active-lurk member on the NF since Naruto Shippuden was released. This is my point of view about the whole ordeal since the fateful 5th of november of 2014 and how I see both fandoms in general now. If you are easily offended or nitpicky, please keep in mind this is only MY opinion and perspective.

Being in the SasuSaku fandom for a really long time has been bittersweet the same way as being in the NaruHina fandom at the same time, due to all the bickering between them when they have no basis to be mad at each other. Like, both of the fandoms became a competition about who is a better woman. In other words: they fight for the stupidest shit. Back then I would’ve sighed and felt conflicted and unable to voice an opinion because both pairing fandoms took it as a personal offense. Okay I am exagerating but most of the time it felt that way. Nowadays I laugh. And I know that I will get some fans offended by what I am about to say because SasuSaku fans are still very sensitive, and NaruHina fans, well I should say some are insufferable.

Both pairings had a lot to prove back then, I understood being defensive against people who slammed the pairings, mostly the hate directed towards the girls. Calling them names, insulting them with the overused insult of all: “useless”.

I could write a 1,500 character essay about my opinion of how Hinata became the untouchable overpowered goddess of the NaruHina fandom -considering the humble begginings of the couple- and why Sakura’s opinion about her character never changed - even though she was one of the most developed secondary characters.

I will not deny that Kishimoto’s writing of Sakura was never the best. As well as the writing for Hinata - it wasn’t the most gracious. The anime didn’t help either.  But what he could not make up for explicit development he tried to compensate it by writing their personality. And I would write another 2,500 essay explaining how this was good and bad for him.

However I can say this: I will not deny that Kishimoto’s cryptic writing, specially of Sasuke’s character, did not help Sakura’s case at all for people who were just watching without analyzing the scenes and panel by panel. Hinata’s case was more direct that’s why the popularity of Naruhina rose as the hate for the pairing did as well.

I understand Kishimoto’s need to retain all the shippers to keep reading and that’s why the red herrings were placed. And believe me, every time a red herring appeared it was hell for both of the pairings. Once the red herrings dissappeared it was clear that both pairings were meant to be. Period.

For fans it didn’t stop there. Both of the fandoms wanted to prove something, what that something was? Stupidity. Sorry but that’s how I felt that whole thing was.  (Imagine being a shipper for both of the pairings at the time. Not only fighting with the antis but also fighting between the pairings because... well they were fighting to see which girl had the bigger pussy- I couldn’t say dick because duh, but it was pretty much the whole fight).

My first bump with both of the fandoms  was with Naruto the Last. For some reason -well, instigated by the antis from both couples and the greatest shipping war there was at the time. And so a grueling 6 months battle began-, no one was satisfied. Criticism of the movie started to appear, but the shipping war got the best of both fandoms. It became infected by the antis with the valid questions: Why would Naruto wait 2 years? Why isn’t  there any Sasuke in the movie if Sasuke was spammed like junk mail in the trailers? Those questions were fair and we should’ve had a conversation as to why they would do it and move on, however at this point both of the fandoms were intoxicated. I tried to voice my opinions but I was one of the few who was seeing things in a different perspective... even the ones who were rooting for both pairings became toxic.

NaruHina fans had 4 reactions:

a- Inside the fanbase people were mad because 2 years it’s a long time, not realistic at all - and well, the development was really natural in the manga and the movie made the characters seem like they never spoke to each other at all after the war.

b- The image from the outsiders made them feel that Hinata was treated like a damsel in distress and the overall cliched plot- so, basically the fandom agreed and  they started to whine a lot.

c- The movie made Naruhina rejoice about the fan service the movie provided, but this also had negative consequences.- The most recurrent essay from the ones who liked both pairings began: “I love both pairings and I am happy for Hinata but...” forcing many of them to pick sides.

d- It all worsened by the attitude NaruHina fans took: “WE have only the best. WE have the movie. WE have the fanservice. WE are the best. Hinata was the queen all along. Hinata is stronger than... Naruhina is better than... Hinata, oh, Heil Hinata.”

I didn’t like it. I had to unfollow people I have followed since the NF days and I kept people who only liked both pairings... but even then...  there was one thing that I liked less.

Because of all of the glory Naruhina was sharing the SasuSaku fandom didn’t get much fanservice. After all the fight, we deserved something, right? Because Sakura went trhough hell to get the guy, right? After all the bickering with other fandoms, right? SasuSaku deserved have more scenes in the movie because of the trailers and moreover because SasuSaku was the main couple, right? Wrong.  

I understood where people came from when they said SasuSaku is the main couple, because well, they share a lot in part 1, it was the most developed from the 2 - well, 3 couples if we count ShikaTema-, at the time, but the truth is, since both couples did not depend one from the other, a plot involving the two would’ve been too convoluted. I guess one could say that it’s not impossible since other movies do this, but it was not a movie, it was a Naruto movie. A plot with Sasuke and Sakura’s involvement would’ve overshadowed the dynamic between Naruto and Hinata like maaaany times before. Kishimoto was forced time and time again to take Sasuke out of the picture for Naruto develop his bonds outside Team 7 not only with Hinata, but she was the most obvious of this technique.

Yes, I do understand the criticism Kishimoto had for overcomplicating things and that an arc in the manga would’ve been more fitting if he wanted to complicate it but it’s obvious that his plan was to leave it open for interpretation like he did at the end of 699. That was the end he wanted and it shows.

Most of the SasuSaku fans didn’t like it and the few that remained neutral regarding the movie were being infected little by little with each negative post. Because a double date movie was more fitting for Naruto: The Last, considering how much Sasuke there was in the trailers. The attitude of NaruHina fans did not help, it only fueled them. SasuSaku fans became extremely pessimistic. This was my second bump.

4 months passed, things were still tense I distanced myself from the fandom. SasuSaku was fighting with everybody. NaruHina was fighting with everybody. Naruto Gaiden came and for some reason... it got scary.

I loved each chapter of Gaiden because of the whole context that may have pushed Kishimoto to write it the way he did. I loved Sarada, I loved SasuSaku moments and I returned to see what SasuSaku shippers were saying, what I found was my third bump.

Whining. Cursing. Dissapointed fans. Negativism. People hating on Gaiden. Unnecesary drama, some fans pointed out.  And I thought “Wait a minute, every single story is unnecesary drama. WTH are they talking about?” “Sarada is an ungreateful child. Unlikable” they chimed. And still I was thinking: “Team 7 was not likable at the beggining either”. “Sasuke was not there? Inconceivable! I hate Kishimoto because it’s impossible for Sasuke to never have seen Sarada.”

They started to pick apart every single panel, every single interaction. The whole thing was an essay by the author of the precious couple to show the ridiculousness he had to endure for 6 months after he ended his manga. With the Thank you pages flooded with nasty messages from other antis. With the online comunity trying to boicott him, disrespecting him, harrassing him, harrassing his editors through twitter, his helpers and even some calls to Shounen Jump. Gaiden was meant to be read as a mocking piece. I saw through it and I was dissapointed that some fans were not able to see that.

At the end people tried to make peace with Gaiden and Boruto the movie came. And everyone was happy with the little interactions here and there. Just kidding. SasuSaku fans started to complain about how Sakura’s body was drawn. “Too skinny, too flat, face it’s too round. She looks like a little girl.” No, nevermind her badassery and cuteness, her body was her problem. “Kishimoto draws her like a woman. SP I hate you.”

Suddenly the problem became Studio Pierrot. Yes, I understood that they fucked up a lot of things but there was one problem the Naruto anime had as a whole especially in the transition to Naruto Shippuden and Shippuuden itself: Naruto became disjointed. The Anime of Naruto is no masterpiece and part of that was not the fillers by themselves, but the fillers in which the directors didn’t give a fuck about the story and fluidity. Little by little Naruto became less a cohesive story and more a gag anime. By the time Shippuuden had its turn to be animated, many of the boring and enraging tropes they commited in part 1 filler hell, was transitioned to Shippuuden.

If comunication is key, in Naruto anime’s case, that key was lost somewhere in the parking lot. Red herrings were glorified, Sakura’s awful personality was enhanced even though we know that in the manga, Sakura had become very fond of Naruto as a friend and was acting like a real friend to him. Sakura anime was a completely different person from Sakura in the manga.

Either way, SP tried to mend something that was completely broken by that point: Sakura’s sweet girl act did not work anymore and it made her look bad and not sincere. But it’s fine, I know directors were just following orders and animators as well. I got mad but tha’s fine, at least they didn’t change anything crucial. Yes, animation was always shitty when it came to animate SasuSaku scenes, but hey, I already knew their bias. But the fandom did not let it be.

Now, with the whole Boruto generations I have found a fourth bump. Until now, Gaiden has been well animated, things that were critized in the manga are being spelled out letter by letter. We are having more explanation, more exposition, better animation, better character designs and more personality from Sakura, and still SasuSaku shippers are negative and point their finger at SP critizing every single error it has. There are a lot of moments in general in the anime that were not shown properly or at all, but in general, the fandom seemed to accept that fact because... well, it’s SP, it’s an adaptation of a manga and has always been a bad one at that. Why is the SasuSaku fandom still negative and pessimistic? I get that we have to be critical of what we consume but.. why are they so defensive all the freaking time.

Sasuke and Sakura are canon and there is no thing an anti can say or do to change that fact. Insulting Sakura’s character or whatever it’s laughable, because despite what people might say, the manga proves them wrong. Kishimoto proves them wrong. We know that. What's the point?

To me, everytime I see a complaint without a strong case like: "this panel was cut, this scene was changed, this was not in that room. Sakura is not flat.", it shows to me what a big inferiority complex the SasuSaku shippers have. Like what the hell? I get that making fun of SP is fun, but there are shippers who are actually mad at it... like, have you not seen what a mess the Naruto anime is and you are complaining about size of Sakura’s boobs or the make up she wears or lack there of? LOL.

I finally understand: The SasuSaku fans are never going to be pleased.

NaruHina shippers: I love you guys but sometimes... ugh.

Sorry for this massive ranting. If you read it all, congratulations. You win cookies.

Have a great day everybody. I was hoping mom and dad would forgive each other already... Not happening any day soon, it seems.

PS. I still love you too SasuSaku shippers but I think you need a reality check.

[meet-me-at-kingsmeet]

Why I don’t like the OT3 (Damen/Laurent + Erasmus)

This obviously involves shipping in the fandom so please read this post and understand I’m not making this to personally attack anyone.

Conditioning definition:

have a significant influence on or determine (the manner or outcome of something). Synonyms: constrain, control, govern, determine, decide

Bring (something) into the desired state for use. Synonyms: treat, prepare, prime, temper, process, acclimatize, acclimate, season

I’m going to be using this word a lot. It can have types of meaning, depending on how it’s used. There can be innocent, cute ways such as giving your crush a piece of candy every time they see you, so when they see you they think of candy. But we’re not talking about that. We’re discussing slavery and it’s affect on relationships. Human Conditioning is “the characteristics, key events, and situations which compose the essentials of human existence, such as birth, growth, emotionality, aspiration, conflict, and mortality.” Basically, how treatment and situations affects you as a person. It’s often talked about how it can be used sadistically against humans and their nature (i. e. slavery) (It’s quite an interesting psychological study and I recommend anyone who likes psychology learn a bit about it!).

Let me start off by saying in most fandoms I let people ship whatever they want. For the most part I don’t think most of fandom stuff is harmful (some truly can be don’t get me wrong). I’,m an extremely open minded person. Both online and irl. It is one of the things I truly actually respect about myself. Captive Prince is a bit different though. It touches sensitive subjects and already has discourse surrounding it, so I automatically am very particular about what I feel and do in the fandom (of course i sometimes mess up or change my feelings/ideas about something, I’m only human and it’s bound to happen). However I’ve come across this ship for weeks and it’s been bothering the absolute fuckery out of me and i can’t not express myself anymore on why it’s bothering me.

Now Erasmus was the only character I liked book one and half way through book two. I don’t say that lightly. I didn’t like Damen, or Laurent, or Nicaise, or anybody. Erasmus showed up and I was like “oh thank fuck finally, a character who doesn’t annoy the absolute fuckery out of me.” So he’s very special in my heart.

And… boy. BOY.

Erasmus has been trained since he was a child to be a [pleasure] slave. Now I live in an area that has a high percentage rate of human trafficking, so I’m going to talk about something that’s very upsetting and real. There was a girl whose parents sold her into human trafficking as a baby. Her whole life she was a sex slave. Yes, there are disgusting human beings out there who have sex with two year olds. And she was a victim of that. By the time she was 18/19 (around Erasmus’ age) She had been rescued. After lots of therapy and attempts to help her learn and understand how society morally is (not the trafficking society she was raised in), she still had trouble understanding what happened to her was wrong. She didn’t comprehend that being a sex slave as a child was wrong, and didn’t understand that she was rescued. It’s all she knew. There are lots more awful stories like this, too many. But human trafficking is modern sex slavery. That’s it. Period. So here is definitive example of human conditioning in sex slavery.

Akielos had this fetishized ideology that if they didn’t beat their slaves or have sex with them when they were children, that it was perfectly okay! Damen believed this 100% and didn’t even really see slaves as people (because he was raised with the idea that slaves were property). Erasmus was conditioned since a child (at least starting at age 11/12) to be a sex slave. And before that, probably a regular palace slave (it’s most likely he was born/sold into slavery at an extremely young age, especially considering how obedient he is).

That is the same exact shit this poor girl went through. At a young age, sold into [sex] slavery. Now brains work in different ways I understand this. Look at Kallias for example: Kallias was a sex slave, raised just as Erasmus, but he was a bit more rebellious. He outwardly would state/express in some way that he wanted to be with Erasmus and be free. He only remained obedient for reasons I will assume like: Wanting to remain close to Erasmus, not wanting to be punished, not being able to obtain a job and survive (Meaning, perhaps slaves can’t work if they’re disobedient, and he was also a high rank slave being Kastor’s main slave and all. He probably hoped for a bit more freedoms coming with being a High ranking noble’s). But his personality was definitely more rebellious than Erasmus’. Who was straight up obedient to a fault.

Erasmus was training to be Damen’s slave. Lykaios was also Damen’s main slave. How did Damen describe her as she was being murdered? Something along the lines of “soldiers didn’t even need to forcefully kill her. If they asked her to show her neck to cut it, she would obey.” THAT IS THE KIND OF SLAVES DAMEN OWNED. So don’t try and tell me that Erasmus, the sweet little angel who would try to not cry out when he was being tortured with fire, not because he didn’t want to be hurt, but because he wanted to obey, was not trained to the point where if Damen told Erasmus to take a sword to the throat he would (spoiler: he would).

So far: Erasmus has been trained and conditioned since childhood (an early development phase in which affects a person through the rest of their lives) to obey all royalty or higher rankings without question, specifically King Damianos.

I’ll circle back around to this but let’s turn our focus onto Laurent and Damen. The second main reason I don’t like this ot3 is because it’s so out of character. Like above and beyond. I’m gonna break it down through each character:

Laurent:

Even as a child was an introverted bookworm. Did not really have any friends besides his brother, Auguste

First sexual relationship was a nonconsensual relationship between him and his Uncle (whether Laurent was aware of it as wrong/nonconsensual during the time is unknown. Metas have talked about both cases. Personally I believe he didn’t, and was groomed prior to the relationship becoming fully sexual)

Laurent became known as “frigid” in the Kingdom for his active showing dislike of sex (at least having sexual relations himself).

Spent months accepting he loved Damianos

Still suffered from the trauma of his sexual abuse (“Yes, Uncle,” automatically getting on his hands and knees to have sex with Damen in PG, dissociating as if it was common practice when he was almost raped in PG, being shocked when Damen wanted to kiss Laurent even after Damen had finished in his mouth, etc)

Laurent is described by Damen in Summer Palace that he “kissed Damen like he never wanted to kiss anybody else”

Damen:

Owned slaves/ viewed slaves as property

Was known to be a big slut (no slut-shaming LOL this has a point)

Laurent being the only person he has ever had an emotional connection to (“It’s…it’s never like this”).

In book one actively treated/spoke to Erasmus as if Erasmus was lower rank. Attempted to protect him yes, but not to no longer be a slave, but to give him/sell him to better masters.

Laurent is an extremely sensitive and vulnerable character who, due to his prolonged abuse, has extreme difficulty with all kinds of relationships. Damen works well with Laurent because he doesn’t take shit from Laurent, even when he was a slave, and never used his size as a tactic to scare Laurent. They are equal rank, therefore they see each other  mentally as equals. There’s lots of wonderful meta’s on Damen and Laurent’s relationship so i’ll stop there.

Now why is Damen/Laurent okay but not Erasmus? Well, first of all Damen and Laurent are exact equal rank; Prince and Prince, then King and King. “but Damen was a slave too, just like Erasmus!” It’s canon that Damen never once saw himself as a slave, and laurent admitted to knowing that Damen was never truly a slave. If Damen had wanted to, he could have killed Laurent/been free. Every abusive thing laurent did was a tactic of revenge for Damen killing Auguste. If he hadn’t known it was Prince Damianos, Laurent would have let Damen go.  Secondly, Damen was not trained like Erasmus. Damen was brought up as a child that he was the prince. He is higher rank. He is boss and in charge. Damen knew this, thrived off it when he was laurent’s “slave.” Every time laurent asked him to do something he did it, but the back of his mind always said “this is survival. You are not a slave. When you are free (notice it’s ‘when’ and not ‘if’) you will have your own revenge.” This is a strong mind that was built into Damen’s brain. In fact, he had more of a confidence/control rank over Laurent because Laurent was constantly scared and saw himself as second-best (mostly not even best, just second choice).

Circling back to the beginning, Erasmus was raised as a slave. There is no “when you’re free” or “This is survival, you’ll be free soon and you’ll be a king.” No!! Erasmus’ thought process was “Don’t scream no matter how much it hurts because your masters don’t want you to scream.” Damen had to protect Erasmus because Damen knew what protecting was. Erasmus didn’t. Whatever his masters wanted he did. Even if he felt they were being abusive his only true worry was that he didn’t understand what he was doing wrong.

Damen knew the abuse was wrong and was waiting for the opportunity to be free again and take his rightful place as king. Erasmus didn’t understand what he was doing wrong to prompt the abuse. That’s the difference of their minds and how different they’ve been conditioned to think.

Laurent actively hates slavery through every book. There’s lots of great metas about how it’s because he understands what it’s like to be forced into doing things (specifically sexually), and how much of a mindfuck it is to be conditioned to think a certain (abusive)  way.

So far part II: Damen would never see himself as equal rank with Erasmus because he never once saw himself as a slave. Erasmus would always feel beneath Damen and Laurent. One, because he will always see himself as a lower rank, being trained as a slave/to think of himself as property since he was a child, and second because he was specifically trained for several years to bend completely to whatever Damianos desired. Laurent would feel uncomfortable being in a relationship with someone outside of Damen because of his past abuse. Damen would never be able to have an emotional connection with Erasmus because the only person he’s experienced that with is Laurent, who is the same rank as him, and it took three fucking books for them to gain such an intense emotional connection.

He [Erasmus] was specifically trained for several years to bend completely to whatever Damianos desired. There’s obviously a lot to go off of from this, but Erasmus will never be able to be “reconditioned” by royalty, specifically Damen, because no one will ever know if he is able to think like a free man, or if he is still only doing what his “masters” are telling him to do. (Basically, imagine you do a love spell: Do they love you because they truly love you? Or do they love you because of the spell? That’s what Erasmus’ “teaching” would be like.)

Let’s really think about this: There is nothing different between Torveld being in a relationship with Erasmus, and Damen being in a Relationship with Erasmus. It’s not good. It’ll never be equal, and Erasmus will always see himself as a lower rank. Even if he is taught not to see himself as lower.

Even if he is not taught to see himself as lower. Slavery may be gone, but even the most close in rank and best friend of Damen, Nikandros, still spoke to Damen starting his words off with “exalted”. Erasmus would say that and be reminded of his lower rank. Maybe it’s nice to think “aw but Damen would never make him say it” jkdsnfskdjc If Damen has Nik do it you b e t Erasmus would have to do it.

I’m not saying Damen/Laurent can’t be nice to Erasmus. But a relationship? No no.

But  "Erasmus could learn how to not think like a slave by hanging out with the very person who he was trained for"

See: ‘love spell’ example

Reconditioning someone’s brain can take years and constant work at it. Damen and Laurent are Kings. They don’t have time to do that. Especially when they have their own personal issues they’re still dealing with (Laurent’s past, Damen’s time as a Slave, probs other shit too). They need to focus on each other and themselves.

And this is saying that Laurent/Damen is okay with having a third person in their very special relationship:

Erasmus would act like a slave →  Laurent would feel uncomfortable → Damen wouldn’t notice immediately because of how he was raised →  Laurent would probably get upset with damen for not noticing → arguing → Erasmus becoming upset for ‘causing problems’

But LMAO: Damen was jealous/worried about Laurent hanging out alone with women in Adventures of Charls. Even with their relationship so loving and stable, and Laurent being explicitly not interested in women, Damen was still jealous. Not to mention, Laurent doesn’t seem to get jealous, but he does get insecure. Damen treating someone else the same as Laurent would probably make Laurent feel unimportant or second-choice.  

And Torveld too!! NO! That’s literally a relationship that could never be truly equal and healthy! Because he bought Erasmus as a slave. Like yeah thanks Torveld for having basic human decency and not abusing human beings just because they’re slaves but, you’re not really reaching very far! Sksgksjdskbf Like Laurent sent Erasmus to Torveld because it was the best option at the time. Not because he felt Erasmus would be freed/experience freedom. He is still a slave forced to have sex with a master (because as a slave he legally can’t say no).

I’m usually a very open and accepting person when it comes to fandom stuff. But other things just make me uncomfortable. And this is one of those things. I’ll be honest and say I ship Kallias and Erasmus hard af. I love them together. They’ve been through extremely similar experiences (born and raised as slaves). They’re best friends and love each other in every way. They’ve got that agonizing tragic ache of forbidden love which I am a sucker for. They’re the same age and rank. Kallias seems more able to jump into freedom, but he can also gentle help Erasmus understand the world. Kallias has been the only person to help Erasmus admit to wanting to see the world. Kallias could travel the world, any time with Erasmus, and they would both be so mesmerized by traveling, and there wouldn’t be “we have to stay at the palace” etc. it would be their own decisions based off what they, as free men, would want to do. Two people, who have been in love for years, finally being together as free men and traveling the world. How is that not the most romantic (and healthy) thing?!

My argument isn’t diminished because I ship them. Honestly, I’m fine with Erasmus with Kallias, or Isander, or some random guy he could meet while traveling the world, or even just being by himself and enjoying his freedom. I’m fine with any of that because it’s equal ranking and there won’t be any foul play. But being with Torveld or Damen/Laurent? Nah, it’s too ooc and unhealthy. That’s just how I feel.