#that would both insult THE actual culture that the story is mainly about AND show anti-governamental sentiments at once

[piduai]

honestly my only complaints about the gk ending are and will always be tsurumi and tsukishima surviving, first one was unnecessary second one was plain weird and character assassination. but like whatever nothing is perfect, everything else was too good to focus that much on what wasn't. i'm still baffled with how vocal and negative people seemed to be about the ending otherwise though, particularly with the main characters & the ainu question, because not only i can't imagine more fitting endings for any of them, all of that has been... extensively foreshadowed during the whole course of the manga.

sugimoto's survival was a make it or break it situation, while i *personally* would have preferred him to die because i'm a sucker for classic sad endings and stories culminating in tragedy, golden kamuy was obviously trying to ultimately be an uplifting, optimistic story, so the main character making it through is only natural. like it's about preference, from a technical and creative pov there's no reproach here, acting like keeping sugimoto alive was "bad writing" or "unrealistic" or what have you is simply ludicrous. shiraishi's ending was also perfectly fitting, his whole deal is that he's never been sedentary and kept chasing a hilarious dream his whole life, jumping from prison to prison; of course he wouldn't settle with his two friends after all is said and done like in your stupid infantile found family fanfiction or whatever. like why would he. why would he. that guy is a fucking gambler, although a bad one when it comes to racing horses.

asirpa is the most severe case with how much cretinism she ended up stirring. like you really have to lack a sense of foresight entirely to not figure that that's where her character has been going from the very beginning. she meets sugimoto and she says that she doesn't want to see people die, much less see them die for her goals. asirpa's story arc is accepting her father's legacy, respecting it, accepting her father's at times questionable actions because she loved him, but doing things her own way because she's not her father. she meets people she grows to love and she loses them in pursue of her father's dream - which he ultimately also chased because he wanted asirpa to be strong and happy and for her people to prosper. she prioritizes her own values because she's her own person. it's the pursuit of the golden ratio, of the middle ground, which is how most things in life are reasonably resolved. this "all or nothing" mentality that people seemed to force on her is just so very childish, especially for *asirpa* who has always been defined by rationality, frugality, and diplomacy.

but no because the story didn't go the alternative history approach with a full-blown revolutionary movement it's suddenly bad for western liberals. and asirpa is a shit character for having her own values and priorities and seeking to resolve conflict in a way pertinent to her consistent characterization. like you guys always are the first ones to raise the question of cultural sensitivity, but it somehow went out of the window immediately in the end. because clearly the historical revisionism and bizarre revenge fantasy fulfillment would have been so much better than respecting a culture's actual history lol

[sokkastyles]

What’s your take on this fandom and throwing around the words “colonizer” and “war criminal”. Is Zuko considered a colonizer/war criminal? Is Azula considered a colonizer/war criminal? Is Iroh? I just keep seeing all these takes and I don’t know what to think. I’m tired of people using that as an argument for anti-zutara.

First of all, people need to stop using "war crimes" in the context of a fantasy cartoon show meant for children. Period. War crimes are serious human rights violations. They don't apply to a show where super-powered kids save the world.

Which doesn't mean ATLA doesn't cover some serious topics, but there are certain things that it just can't address realistically, by nature of the genre. Things that would be war crimes in the real world can be solved quickly and painlessly because it's fantasy. Calling anyone in this show a war criminal is not lending that word the seriousness that it deserves.

As for colonizer, like...sigh. That word just doesn't make sense in the context of a ship or used to describe an individual. A single person cannot be a "colonizer," and Zuko cannot be a colonizer in zutara because Katara is not a country and Zuko cannot "colonize" her.

Here's some definitions that might help, though, for the sake of argument:

col·o·niz·er /ˈkäləˌnīzər/

noun noun: colonizer; plural noun: colonizers; noun: coloniser; plural noun: colonisers 1. a country that sends settlers to a place and establishes political control over it. "Portugal was a major colonizer in both Brazil and parts of Africa" a person who settles among and establishes political control over the indigenous people of an area. "they are among the few indigenous groups who were never converted to Catholicism by Spanish colonizers" 2. a plant or animal that establishes itself in an area. "oysters and barnacles tend to be among the first colonizers of new spaces in the marine world"

We can safely say that Zuko is not a country or a plant or an animal, so the only one that could apply to him is the middle definition. Zuko did settle in the Earth Kingdom for a while, but it wasn't for the purpose of establishing political control over them, it was for the purpose of hiding from Azula and not being imprisoned or killed. You could interpret trying to capture the Avatar as trying to establish political control, but he wasn't trying to settle anywhere to establish political control over a particular place. He wanted to capture Aang so he could go back home, not settle in any of the other four nations. The most you could say is that when he was a villain he was supporting the Fire Nation's colonization of the Earth Kingdom, which still isn't a good thing, but throwing around the word colonizer is extremely silly and nonsensical. Even when he was acting as the Fire Nation prince he was banished from his own nation and had no real political control to establish, and didn't and couldn't colonize anything in the name of the Fire Nation.

As I said above, it's especially silly in relation to zutara, because first of all, most zutara content, even zutara content where Zuko is still a villain or an antivillain, is not about Zuko establishing control of a place. What is Zuko "colonizing" in these stories and headcanons?

What people actually mean when they use this word is the slang term, which urban dictionary defines thusly:

An insult/derogatory term mainly used against white people, racists, or white racists. Can be used in response to anyone attempting to marginalize or insult poc.

And the first and most obvious flaw is that it's a term that is almost universally used to describe white people, and Zuko is not white. We could get into discussions of Japanese colonization, but then you have to acknowledge that the Fire Nation was inspired by Chinese, Korean, and other cultures as well, and that the Japanese did not colonize the Inuit, who are the main inspiration for Katara's culture.

Even if you could make a 1:1 parallel to an actual situation of colonization, that doesn't mean you should. Is every white guy dating an indigenous woman John Smith? The answer is no, in case you weren't sure, and calling indigenous women Pocahontas on the insistence that you are "protecting" them from who they choose to date is really, really ugly. And since zutara is a fanon ship, you can't argue that anyone who ships them is somehow forcing Zuko on Katara, because Katara is fictional and people are free to headcanon her choosing to be with whoever she wants.

Mostly, when people say this they are responding to the fear that Katara would be marginalized somehow, and a couple of things on that:

It's valid in the sense that you, personally, as an individual, are free to not like zutara. It is NOT valid for you to go around calling people racist for shipping it or saying that they can only do so in ways that you, personally, approve of.

And those fears of Katara being marginalized still exist in Katara's relationship with Aang, who is also an extremely powerful political figure with light skin who comes in to take the native girl away from her people and never seems to engage in her culture in any meaningful way and then leaves her to take care of his children until he gets one that is the most like him, then takes that child away from her so that he has no way of interacting with his mother's culture, and neither do her grandchildren. And if you think that's an unfair statement about Aang, then maybe shut up about zutara.

[justmenoworries]

Fate: The Winx Saga - How Not To Reboot A Beloved Franchise

Okay, I think I speak for everyone here when I say: We saw this coming.

We saw this coming as soon as that godawful trailer dropped on youtube. But because I hate myself and because I wanted to give this pile of shit a chance, I watched it.

All of it.

It sucked and I won’t do it again.

The End.

....

Nah, I’m kidding.

Here’s why Fate: The Winx Saga sucked ass.

(Spoilers under the cut! Pfft, like anyone cares.)

The Story:

I suppose now you’ll expect me to tell you that F:TWS was a generic, boring slog-fest.

That it offered the most clichéd take on a Chosen One-story since Eragon and that it’s half-assed attempts to be scary through bringing in a zombie apocalypse made it even more painfully obvious just how hard the story was trying to be edgy and ‘’’’’’mature’’’’’’’’.

And, yeah, that’s pretty much how it went.

...Oh, I’m sorry, did you expect something fresh and surprising?

So did I when I watched this garbage.

The title says Winx, but honestly the story is more about Bloom than anyone else. At least they were faithful to the source material in one aspect, am I right fellow Winx-fans?

I hope you like Alfea, because you won’t be spending time anywhere else! Gone are the dozen colorful, unique worlds with their own eco-systems and culture.

Now we have The Otherworld, which is just earth, but with magic.

Oh yeah, and remember how each magic and non-magic users had their own, specialized schools to got to?

Cloud Tower, Alfea, Red Fountain?

Yeah, that’s all Alfea now.

Remember how Winx Club juggled great, charismatic villains and everyday teenage-drama in a way that made both seem interesting and neither obnoxious?

Fate fails miserably at that.

The subplot about the zombies- Oh, sorry, The Burned Ones ™  slowly invading Alfea couldn’t be more dry and uninteresting if it tried. You have hints of political intrigue in the background with the Solarians scheming and taking over in the end, but trust me when I say: You won’t care.

And since the character are either miserable, unlikable or both, you also won’t care about the teenage drama.

Because it’s every single teenage drama plot-line you’ve already seen in edgy reboots like Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, etc.

To add insult to injury, season 1 ends with the villains and antagonists taking over Alfea with Solaria’s help, as if anyone would be baited into a season 2 after you just dragged us through a worse version of The Walking Dead.

I would say this is what you watch to lull you to sleep, but all the incessant whining and belly-aching wouldn’t let you.

And because this is the ‘‘‘‘‘‘mature’‘‘‘‘‘ reboot, there will be no transformations and no bright colors. Just some nice effects for magic and that’s it.

Because, you know.

No one watched Winx Club for those, am I right? /s

And because in modern, edgy reboots women can never just be friends, the Winx Club start out hating each other, until suddenly they’re the best of friends in episode 4, Stella included.

Cool, huh?

The Characters:

I’ll get straight to the point: The main cast is horrible.

Not acting-wise, the actors are doing the best they can with the script, but the way they’re written...

God, the way they’re written.

For starters, Stella is a Karen now. In the very first episode she attempts to get Bloom killed, then runs away to cry into Sky’s shoulder rather than apologize.

Flora was replaced by a white character named Terra, who the writers probably thought would be received well solely because she’s awkward and makes a lot of Strawman-Feminist statements.

Techna got straight-up written out.

Musa was white-washed and is a Mind Fairy instead of a Music Fairy now, because her being the Fairy of Music wasn’t ‘‘‘‘mature’‘‘‘ enough for this reboot.

Bloom is a whiny, spoiled brat who is willing to endanger absolutely everyone around her to get what she wants. And in the end, the plot rewards her for it.

Aisha is the only Winx Club-member who remains likeable, but she’s firmly planted in the supporting character-role.

Most of the Specialists got written out too. No Timmy, no Helia, no Nabu, no Brandon.

Sky is still there, but he serves mainly as a boy toy for Stella and Bloom to fight over, because that needed to be a thing, I guess.

Riven was changed from Jerk with a Heart of Gold who learns to be better to just a one-note jerk who never changes and never learns. He’s also not with Musa in this story. Even though their romance was by far the most engaging one in the original series, aside from maybe Aisha and Nabu.

We get a new character named Dane, but he’s just there to be either a bully-victim or a side-character for others to take advantage of. Did I mention he’s the only black guy in the main cast? Yeah. There’s also this really asinine running gag that he might be gay, to tease a possible relationship with Riven, but nothing ever comes off it.

The teacher-characters are all pretty much the same: Duty-driven, want to protect the ones under their care, but end up alienating them by not being entirely honest with them because they think their students aren’t ready for The Truth, blah blah blah, moving on.

The villains don’t fare much better.

The Trix got fused into one single character named Beatrix (haha, get it?) and she’s just... The Worst. And not in a  good way. She’s obviously supposed to be the Charming Bad Girl-type but you’re more likely to laugh your ass off every time she opens her mouth than be intrigued. Whoever wrote her dialogue clearly has no idea how teenagers talk. She hooks up with Riven and Dane for no reason in particular and it’s heavily implied these three are going to be the new Trix. Which is...no. Just no.

The headmistress’ secretary gets killed off in the third episode and doesn’t do much in the first two, so I have nothing to say about him.

Rosalind is a worse, female Darth Sidious who is trying so hard to get Bloom to join the Dark Side and I guarantee you, you will not care. The story also tries to present her as something of a well-intentioned extremist, but forgets to actually let her have a point in her murders and genocides.

Hey, remember when Winx Club characters were different and unique?

The writers of this reboot clearly don’t.

The Aesthetic:

Hey kids!

You know what’s better than bright colors and nice, comforting palettes?

Slapping a dull grey filter on everything and calling it a day!

If I had to list all the reasons why Fate’s lack of style is so heartbreaking and disappointing, we’d be here all day.

So I’m just gonna show you a few screenshots from both the original series and the reboot and let that speak for itself.

The Original:

The Reboot:

Honestly, what do I even need to say?

The reboot sucked out everything that made Winx Club Winx Club and replaced it with “YA-novel palette #17247845453″.

Thanks, I hate it.

In Conclusion:

Fate: The Winx Saga could have been a new take on Winx Club’s story.

Maybe even introduced new concepts and characters tat could have been just as iconic as the original ones.

It chose to be every reboot ever instead, made everything grimdark and fundamentally misunderstood the meaning of “Gray Morality”.

Do yourself a favor and re-watch the original instead.

It’ll be a much better use of your time.

[ijustreallylikespock]

I’ve been wondering lately about how Klingons regard Michael Burnham in history? (Like what would Worf think?) Like I feel like humans/the federation would assume Klingons would hate her, but following the actual events in relation to Klingon culture and Klingon motivations in the war makes me think otherwise.

This is going to be a long post lol sorry if you have to scroll a bit to skip over it.

(Now this is not an argument about if she was right or wrong/good or bad, just about how I think Klingons would view her and her role in the war.)

First - The Klingons story in Discovery begins with T’Kuvma. He recognizes that his people need to be unified and decides the way to do that is to pick a common foe. He picks the federation because their pacifist culture is easy to contrast against his own. He calls the federation the threat “that comes in peace.” To get the Klingons to bind together to fight the federation he needs to convince them that this opposing culture is a threat to their own. Given this fact, Sarek’s advice to Michael, whether or not it was the “right” thing to do, likely would have prevented, or at least postponed, war with the Klingons. The federation raising weapons would’ve shown the Klingons that the federation respected Klingon culture enough that they were willing to interact with them on their terms. Taking weapons down would’ve been seen as an insult, either showing that the federation didn’t see them as formidable enough of warriors to be a threat, or that the federation insists that they do not act as warriors, or both. Even if Michael was a little too successful in her mutiny and caused an actual space fight, it likely would not have led to war as T’Kuvma would not have been able to convince any Klingons that the federation was a threat to their culture or trying to push pacifism in any way.

Second, not only would the Klingons see Michael’s attempted mutiny as someone actually understanding their culture, they also are a lot more accepting of mutiny in general. Klingon first officers are expected to assume command when they feel their captain is unable to make the right decisions. From the human perspective, it seems like Michael was so bitter from her parents death that it drove her to violence against the Klingons, and that that anger was strong enough to turn her against the chain of command – and that may be a true assessment of Michael’s real motivations, but presented with only the facts, that is not how a Klingon would interpret the events. Instead they’d see one person understanding them and going through proper channels to show them respect, only for the federation to ignore her because they care so much about pushing for peace and nonviolence (and as T’Kuvma says, that is pushing against Klingon culture.)

Third, the federation actually accused Michael of “causing the war” not just because of the mutiny, but mainly because she killed T’Kuvma. This again shows a misunderstanding of Klingon culture. Michael killed T’Kuvma in revenge for her captains death. Yes Klingons probably felt a great loss, and even were likely mad, but Klingons respect the “Right of Vengeance” so Michael is arguably still following Klingon culture. Also, she gave T’Kuvma a warrior’s death – his death was not an insult to Klingons. His death, if anything, is proof against what he was preaching, that is until...

...Michael is punished for her crimes. Now what the Klingons would see is, not only that the federation won’t interact in a culturally considerate way even when someone explains to them what the Klingons would consider “respectful to their culture.” (Meaning, Michael let them know, so the incident could not have been simple cultural ignorance.) But also that the federation would punish their people for not trying to push their nonviolent culture onto the Klingons. This validates T’Kuvma’s claim that the federation wants to push pacifism onto the Klingons and therefore starts the war T’Kuvma set out to start.

In the end I believe the Klingons would see Michael as an enemy in the war, yes, but also as an honorable warrior (the two are not mutually exclusive to Klingons.) Klingon history would not regard her as the instigator of the war, but rather that the federation started it by ignoring her.

[obeymematches]

gumdopfairy matchup request~

Hello! May I request a matchup? Sorry if it is too long. ><

Synopsis: I come off as distant and awkward. I don’t talk much and if I do, I am agreeable and soft-spoken. I would say I am sensitive, transparent, emotional, understanding, curious, carefree, and clumsy. I am expressive and am not afraid to show my feelings, people would say I am an open book. I always cry at sad movies or scenes where you’re supposed to cry. I have 4 siblings and it’s fun but tiring at the same time, I’m the butt of every joke and am treated like the youngest. I also like to tease those I am very close with. I am expressive and (sometimes childish) with those I am very close to and agreeable with the general public. In a group work setting, I am diligent and reasonable when doing my job.

Habits/Interests/Dreams: I say ‘what the heck’ a lot, it’s a habit tbh. I rant when I am passionate. A dream of mine is to enjoy life with people I love, to travel, capture beautiful scenery and eat lots of sweets! I like learning about international cultures, languages and funky things like did you know smelling your own fart prevents  Alzhimer’s disease because of hydrogen sulfide and egg-smells? LOL.

Travel, psychology, and society-related documentaries interests me. I am currently a (elementary) A2 level Korean, I want to study more of the language because I like Korean music and culture. The concept of time travel, multitudes of reality and isekai worlds intrigue and fascinate me, I like reading fictional stuff about it. I have good knowledge of geography. My siblings always tease me when the number 13 shows because…..I want to always avoid the number and really hate that number. I used to do judo in high school and I have a fascination with martial arts. :D

Likes/Dislikes: I like pastels, sunsets, flowers, photography, sweets, fried foods, skincare, sparkly stuff, lip gloss, memes, dad jokes and games.

I dislike it when people assume things about me like they know me (when they really don’t), condescending people, ignorance, waking up early and seafood. I like my freedom and want to be independent, and dislike it immensely being forced to do something I don’t want to do. I really don’t like listening to lectures (doesn’t everyone though?). I’m not academically inclined but I have decent grades. I really don’t like math and chemistry T_T

In depth: I am pretty sensitive when people criticize or judge me only if it’s constructive but if it is outright just to insult me than I will say something bc that upsets the heck outta me. Because I have such a big immediate family (there’s 7 of us) I am family-oriented so playing Obey Me really reminds me a lot of my family(esp siblings I have 4). In fact, I do get irritated easily and I am working on my short-temper. I am understanding and always try my best to not look at things just in my perspective but others as well. I am pessimistic in nature but I do genuinely want to see the good in people and in life. When thinking about my feelings and knowing the why I feel the way I do and how it affects others, you could say there is emotional intelligence. :)

My insecurity without a doubt is caring too much on what people think of me and how content I am with myself. I think this is because of me, my past “friends” who judged me so critically which had a negative effect on how I see myself. Because of that, I have very few friends. In fact, I don’t really have any. I kind of just lost my self of self and trust for people. And my insecurity with of how unrefined, incompetent or unlikable I am, I’ve been told a lot to “grow up” and “stop asking dumb questions.”

I want to be loved and not to be judged so harshly. Since I am slowly becoming an adult I have to discard my awkward, playful tendencies in front of others. Even though I have low self-esteem it bothers me when being told that I did something or said something, it discredits my character and what gives one the right to tell me what I did or said when I know myself more than them?

Relationships: I honestly never had a boyfriend or any real close, close friends but I have a very close sibling who I grew up since I was an infant and it’s my younger sister (only by 16 months). She is truly my best friend and sister. I tend to like who are confident but also cool, they’re not domineering. I also find myself liking those who are opposite from me. The airheadness in me juxtaposed with my partner’s grounded nature. I’m pretty reckless and clumsy myself so it’d make sense if someone is reasonable and well-coordinated which would balance us out. My pessimism balanced with his optimism and/or realism.

I can offer my close companionship, humor, someone to listen to your troubles/ranting, and someone you can have ramen with and have conversations about anything without having restraint. Someone who I can be free with. Someone who can accept my flaws and who can help me improve myself and I would do the same for them.

We can laugh together, spend time with each other, make each other cry, fight and be there for each other when we are feeling low. A best friend and a partner for life, someone who would not harshly constrain, judge or tear me down as an individual. Wow, I am crying writing this. I am so idealistic about what I want in my relationships mainly because I never had one but deep down, I don’t think it’s like that in real life.

Hobbies: otome games, learning Korean, pilates/ workout videos, eating, and bothering my siblings

My Fangirl self: I am a big fan of Avatar:The Last Airbender and One Punch Man (Genos is husbando material lol). I also really like Free and Haikyuu. Hot 2D men, babies, and puppies are my weaknesses. I read a lot of romance, isekai, and action webtoons/mangas and like watching it too. 

Appearance wise, I’m 163 cm, and Asian so I have medium standard straight dark hair and I’m slim.

---------

Hey! Thank you for your request! Sorry for the wait!

It was pretty hard to decide who would be the best partner for you. I thought about Beelzebub or Leviathan. Because Levi is into animes, mangas and Asian culture, but Beel loves food and his siblings especially Belphie. Hope you like my decision, because I decided to choose Beelzebub!

Here is why:

I think it’s ideal for Beel to have a quite clumsy girl with him. I can imagine when you, for example, fall down on the stairs and he catch you! He would protect and take care of you. He would be right there for you when you can’t reach something! 

He may look serious and mean, but actually he isn’t!

When you watch a sad movie or when someone judges you, he would try his best to make you feel happy again. Make you some food or maybe cuddle with you! 

You mentioned that you are an open book which would make Beel understand you even more. Being transparent is very important if you want a healthy relationship!

He is very close to his brothers. He would do anything for them. His best friend is Belphegor, and I think it’s good because your best friend is your sibling too. Imagine all of you hanging out like a super big family!! I think Beel can get along with pretty much anyone. 

Beel is very positive and rewarding so it would be ideal for you as there would be a balance. 

Both of you loves to eat, it would be a great date to go eat something, or make food together. I’m sure he will share his food with you! (Especially if you share your food with him too) Trust me he knows the best places to get food from! Also when you travel, he is going to encourage you to try food you maybe wouldn’t otherwise!

He would think your “what the heck” habit is cute though. Imagine him smiling so cutely to hmself every time you say it! If you two hang out a lot he might start saying it a lot too!

Beel would love to hear your voice so talk to him about everything! You can trust him! He is not too talkative himself, so your tendencies to rant gives a good balance!

Moreover he would support you in everything! He is one of the most supporting brothers!

Also don’t worry. He has 6 siblings, it’s much worse than 4, he knows what you mean when you say you are tired!

Beelzebub would join you to watch differents shows  or animes, but make sure there’s food!

I’m sure you would enjoy the time that you spend together! He can be very adorable and careful. Maybe he would invite you to the gym or hiking (or maybe to do judo), but reward you with a kiss for example.

He would make your day better for example with a romantic dinner or to just go out and watch the sunset with a picnic even if it’s the day you don’t like, so he tries to get your mind off it. 

Leviathan would join you if you want to play games or listen to kpop. Of course while this make sure you give food to Beel to make him less jealous. But he is not the most jealous type, so really there’s not much to worry about. 

Furthermore, if you don’t want to wake up early, he would stay in bed with you and cuddle. But sometimes Belphegor would be a better partner for this and he would treat you as his sister.

He would hold your hand until he falls asleep. Think about that!

Chemistry and Math is definitely not Beel’s favourite ones as well. You better get help from Lucifer or Satan! But Beel won’t judge you based on your grades!

He would laugh at your jokes, and try to make you laugh too!

He wouldn’t judge you and say mean things to you because he would really value you and you would mean the world for him beside food.

He needs emotional support though.(SPOILER depending on where you are in the story) Sometimes he blame himself for some mistakes. Thats why it’s nice that you are emotionally mature, he definitely needs someone he can rely on emotionally as well. 

Also he will make sure that you don’t think about what others think of you! He loves you the way you are! 

He is the youngest, so you can be childish together!

He is pretty flexible and confident, so no turn-offs so far!

He is the tallest one so I think you would look super cute next to him (he is like 205 cm lmao)

I think he is really patient and actually encouraging so hanging out with him will definitely boost your confidence!

I think in canon he never really had any relationship before either, so it would be amazing to learn about relationships together! 

I think theres no thing like “thats not how it is in real life”, you just have to keep looking. Fortunately Beel has similar values as you, as he can be shy and that makes opening up to someone hard - meaning the friendship can last some time before you establish a relationship. A healthy relationship is based on being best friends with your partner, so I think you are on the same page. 

Maybe sometimes you and Belphie would team up to prank him, what do you think?

He definitely adores that you care for yourself and that you are stylish! Asmo probably knows more about these than Beel, but thanks to Asmo’s influence Beel will suprise you with how much cosmetics he can name!

So in conclusion he is a very supportive boyfriend, and you are also supporting him through the journey of healing from the past. A very cute relationship and you two can do anything together. He can get you do some sports and you can get him to watch some shows on rainy days. However food is something you both enjoy a lot, so restaurant or cooking dates are common! Even if you travel. Knowing that you can trust the other no matter what will boost the confidence of the both of you! He can be less talkative but that’s fine because you can talk! He is also rather optimistic, so there is a balance in that as well. Sometimes he might get jealous of Levi or Belphie if you hang out with them too much, but thats just something to have a conversation about. He is cool and rather chill, definitely gets along well with your family too, which is very important because both of you are family-oriented! 

[gmiles21ahsgov]

Blog Post #2: Media Assessment of Racial Injustice

1. Liberal: Mother Jones https://www.motherjones.com/author/jessica-washington/

     The main point this article is aiming to convey is to show what Syracuse University did to take steps to be anti-racist. The article references a number of racist incidents involving graffiti and threats, causing students and a number of staff members to feel unsafe. The author wants to convey how prevalent racism is in today’s society, but there are steps that education boards can take to be anti-racist and teach students anti-racism.

     Jessica Washington authored this post; she graduated from University of Pennsylvania, studying in Political Science and Government. She is a woman of color, so my first assumption would be to believe she would have a left biased opinion.

     This source was produced on November 21, 2019 on Mother Jones. This was almost a year ago, but it shows education boards were beginning to reform and will continue to in the present and future.

     Mother Jones published this source. Mother Jones is a left leaning media outlet, so the intended audience would mostly be liberals, or people with liberal views. The information may be a little skewed right, and the author may have chosen certain quotes from interviews and statements in order to appeal more to liberal readers.

     The article reads as mostly objective, however, with the knowledge that Mother Jones is more of a left biased news cite, I would want to do more research. I would want to go to a more conservative news cite and find the same story, and see if it is told differently. But, there is nothing in this article that makes it feel subjective. The only thing that is arguable subjective is the fact that Syracuse University is becoming more aware and acknowledging they need to educate professors more on how to teach as well as be anti-racist. This is something I very strongly agree with, and I find it hard to understand how someone could openly believe we should not try to dismantle racism whenever possible.

     This author had a couple different quotes from some relatively important people, one of which was Syracuse Chancellor, Kent Syverud. There was also a quote taken from CNN. In addition, there were quotes from students who attended Syracuse University, speaking on behalf of their experiences with racism and racist actions towards them.

2. Objective: CBS News https://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-at-instagram-students-private-school-racism-social-media/

     The main point this article is aiming to convey is the exposure of racism and traumatic experiences with racism on college campuses. Black Alumni as well as current students are trying to bring light to everyday racist actions from microaggressions to physical assault. The article addresses the discussion of racism in private schools on social media and using social media platforms as a form of group therapy. It has been made a safe place for students to speak out about their traumas and support one another.

     Caitlin O’Kane authored this source, she is a digital content producer at CBS Interactive. She went to Fordham University and received a Bachelor’s degree. She majored in Communications and Media Studies, with a minor in Political Science.

     This source was published September 14, 2020 on CBS News, so it is very recent, making it very reliable.

     CBS News published the source; CBS News is a relatively objective news outlet, so I am inclined to believe that it is intended for all audiences, written with as little bias as possible. Not entirely without any bias at all, but written with an absolute minimum.

     This text is objective; CBS News is a very reliable and an objective media outlet. There are a lot of quotes from students and professors at private schools. The author of the article (O’Kane) addresses different ways students are about to reach out through social media and the changes that are beginning to take place in schools. On another note, however, a filmmaker Michèle Stephenson said it’s a difficult path due to the resources it requires (time, money, access being heard, diving into deeper levels of structural racism). I agree with the side that says we need to make every effort to crack open racism and make it widely seen so that we can begin to heal from it and learn to be anti-racist. We need to be as extensive in teaching about racism as possible, regardless of resources.     

     The evidence used to support O’Kane’s claim is quotes from students and professors as well as statements from the Head of School from Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, Dr. Bill Donohue.

3. Conservative: Washington Times https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jul/4/students-alums-see-racist-culture-at-chicago-priva/ 

     The main point this article is aiming to convey is the miraculous amounts of racism that show up in colleges, specifically private schools, all over the county. After describing a black student’s experience at Latin School of Chicago, the source continues on about changes the schools are making, and efforts that are being put in place to dismantle racism and white supremacy. The most prominent focus of this article is to express how schools can be more educational about exemplifying anti-racism.

     Adeshina Emmanuel authored this source. I can’t find any information on him other than he has written a number of articles for Washington Times. Most of the articles he has written pertain to social and racial justice.

     This source was published on July 4, 2020, which was only a few months ago. This means it is recent enough to show racism is still very prevalent in schools (especially private colleges). It also shows that if they have begun to work on being anti-racist and teaching anti-racism on campus, that likely there has been at least some progress made towards total inclusion and equality for all.

     This source was published by Washington Times which is primarily a right-leaning media outlet and so I would expect the article to have conservative undertones. This may affect the reliability of the source because in my experience people who identify as conservative tend to downplay racist incidents and occurrences.

     To the naked eye, this text reads as objective despite it coming from a primarily right-leaning media outlet. It makes the point that schools need to start teaching anti-racism in the classrooms and acknowledging the existence of it. Something that caught my eye was a comment at the bottom of the article by a man claiming that the stories written in the article were false. This is possible, Washington Times is a fairly reliable news source, and my guess is that this man is a conservative who wants to downplay racist acts or believes that racism is not as prevalent as it actually is (as I actually mentioned in the section above).

     The primary evidence used to support the authors claim is first-hand stories from an African American student that attended the Latin School of Chicago. In addition, there are quotes from other students who attended private schools all over the country. These students experienced racism firsthand.

a) A main similarity between these three articles were the uses of personal stories and statements from both students as well as professors. Whether it was through experience or through witnessing  racist acts, all three articles featured direct quotes regarding prominent racism on campus. I also noticed that for the most part the three articles read mainly as objective, which I found interesting because one of the sources came from a conservative news site and another one came from a more liberal viewing news site. A difference that I noticed was only the article from Washington Times (the conservative outlet) contained a comment with the accusation that the stories of racism were inaccurate. The other two articles didn't have anything along those lines in the comment section.

b) I identified the most with the liberal article which was Mother Jones. I believe it is incredibly important for schools to take steps to become anti-racist and specifically to acknowledge things such as graffiti. Some people may believe that racist graffiti is not as much of an issue assault, verbal insult or microaggressions, or anything along those lines;However I think that it's really important that Syracuse University took such drastic steps to correct the behavior and to make a change happen. 

[atopearth]

The Men of Yoshiwara: Ohgiya Part 1 - Takigawa Route

Now for the supposedly better sequel! I think it’s nice that the heroine Kiyoha is actually in Yoshiwara because she’s of age now, and this is kinda the thing women do to experience love and men. It’s kinda funny that the heroine this time around is really rich and even has a bodyguard (Musashi) with her! Hmm Ageha seems like a soft and nice guy that is actually really cheeky. He looks quite westernised though. Takigawa looks pretty cool, I think he might be my favourite looks wise, but he seems like the stern and strict type haha. Gakuto looks like a pirate with that eye patch haha! Utsusemi looks like a flirt maybe? Asagiri is definitely my least favourite, he looks like the haughty kind of guy that would bully the girl lol. Honestly though, I quite enjoy how Musashi helps Kiyoha on the side by explaining to her the manners and protocol of being in places like Ohgiya. Which is something I wish Kikuya explored, but I guess to be fair, Kikuya was more casual, whereas Ohgiya is the finest establishment in Yoshiwara, so the geisha must be pretty high class and they probably expect their customers to be high class too. I feel like Takigawa is quite similar to Takao though haha! Noooo! You can’t choose Musashi??? Why make him look so nice and cool too then?! I’m kinda sad now LOL. Anyway~ going in order (on the Nintendo Switch), so Takigawa it is.

Ooh if you look at the character introductions, Takigawa’s popularity is apparently equal to Takao! That’s interesting! I should have known that if Takigawa is the most popular geisha, then he’s definitely very prideful and confident that he can make Kiyoha fall for him and make her look at him and not anyone else. But it seems like Takigawa knows how Kiyoha feels though. It seems like he can tell that Kiyoha is only here to fulfill her duties as a woman, and does not intend to give her heart to him because she thinks everything about this is “fake”. Musashi is a great attendant/bodyguard! Not only does he protect her but he’s also her confidant! She shares her problems and worries with him and he advises her as well as encourages her to follow what she thinks is right to do. I really like him🥺🥺 I liked his advice that instead of letting Takigawa do what he wants, she should be the one to make Takigawa fall for her instead. I think that would be much more fun and interesting than just being on guard against him for thinking that winning over the pretty rich girls is just like a fun game.

It’s actually pretty refreshing to see that Kiyoha is physically attracted to Takigawa, but she refuses to give her heart to him even after they’ve had sex. It was so anticlimactic in a sense, because she easily fulfilled her family’s wishes of her, but at the same time, she really didn’t. All she did was physically do it as if she finished a chore lol. On the other hand, seeing other women insult Takigawa belittling him as just a geisha blah blah was quite saddening. It just goes to show that even though Takigawa is a top geisha, is super popular and loved, but in the end, he’ll still be treated as trash by customers because they just think of geisha as lowly people there to entertain them. When Takao said Takigawa was a boring person who has never fallen in love before, it kinda made sense why it felt like Kiyoha and Takigawa’s interactions always felt so “empty”. They’re both literally just carrying out their duties as men and women on this island and they both refuse to give their hearts to the fake marriages and love relationships in Yoshiwara. Takigawa’s words of “love” when they shared their night together rang hollow as just “words”, whereas the thing with Takao is that even though his words are always flirty and it doesn’t seem like he’s serious, he’s actually very sincere with his flirting, and I think that’s the difference between a guy who can shake your heart and one that can’t. Takao’s few lines really made me remember why I was honestly ensnared by him in Kikuya haha.

Lmao at Takigawa insulting but complimenting Kiyoha at the same time haha. Kinda exciting for Kiyoha to be in the charge of the outfits for his procession for her though, it’s kinda nice that she’s actually motivated about something lol. Wow, to think that Takigawa actually knew about Kiyoha from long ago because she was like a girl with a magical pouch who gave him candy and an origami crane when he was a kid. It’s kinda cute how he remembers that. It’s nice that they describe the procession as like a marriage ceremony, since they literally do something like a parade and then the geisha comes together with the woman as if they’re now officially tied together as partners forever. It’s kinda sweet when you think about it. Although I felt that Takigawa was cold and hollow with his words before, when he said that he wants Kiyoha to believe in his love for her and how he wants her to think that choosing him brought her happiness, I was  rather touched. Despite what things he may be hiding and how “loveless” their relationship felt before, right now it really feels like they have become much more honest with each other. It was obvious that the procession was going to end badly with how much they wanted the procession to succeed lol. But to think that they would split open Takigawa’s kimono and show the world his tattoo that his mum branded on him before he was sent to Yoshiwara... It’s saddening to think that Takigawa was treated horribly by his mother too, just like that little boy Kiyoha encountered before. I guess it’s stressful to be a mother to boys though, since they basically get stolen from you no matter what, you’re basically raising them to be sent to Yoshiwara eventually… It was very sweet but saddening of Takigawa to apologise to Kiyoha about the possible impact of this on her family business and how it ruined all the effort she put into the procession, I mean I’m sure he’s embarrassed and hurt by having his tattoo shown to the world too but he’s thinking about her first. It hurt to see Takigawa so down about his tattoo surfacing as a kind of nightmare of the past for him. Well, as expected, Takigawa is the big brother of that little boy~

Wow, I can’t believe that in order to attract customers at the window interested in his tattoo, they used to lash his back (to keep the tattoo visible and prominent since his skin needs to be flushed to see it) constantly! I can see why Takigawa would want to hide all that and just want to keep his perfect image as the top geisha.. he really suffered blood and tears to get to this position. I think it’s really sweet that Kiyoha finally remembered him, and it’s not like she completely forgot about him, she just thought he was a girl when they were young haha. I can see why a first love would be so important to geisha though, because in the end, everything here in Yoshiwara is fake, yet it takes up most of their lives, so it’s unlikely for them to find any kind of true love during their teenage to adult years. It seems like the story wants to redeem the mother’s “tattoo” as a form of love to remember her children, and I don’t deny that she probably had a bit of those intentions with the wings and everything, but it doesn’t change the fact that she abused Takigawa enough as a child that he himself chose to go to Yoshiwara before he was even forced to, and it doesn’t change that to this day she is still abusing her next kid. Sure, it’s definitely a terrible thing to give birth to boys, let alone having two, the amount of stress and sadness etc must be unbearable, but that doesn’t mean she can be excused for her actions of traumatising children imo.

Honestly, I don’t know why but I never really thought about the repercussions of buying out a popular geisha to the point that it could affect business. But I guess that’s true, if Kiyoha bought Takigawa, she would be depriving all the other women of him, and since the whole island is mainly women, their business could take a hit because of her selfishness of wanting to monopolise him. It doesn’t help that he’s recently become even more popular due to what happened at the procession. But I assume that with Kiyoha’s family’s wealth and influence, it should be fine imo. Um, that was easy. I feel like the law on this island is really….whatever. So, on one hand, they arrest Takigawa’s mother ready to execute her, but then after Takigawa and his brother say it was all a prank and that she didn’t abuse them, they just let her go??? Did they not check for bruises and marks from long term abuse? Honestly, I’m baffled at how loose the law is, it’s so ready to kill people but at the same time so ready to let people go, it’s pretty ridiculous. So glad Takigawa didn’t forgive her and took his brother away from her. It’s nice that he’s giving her the chance to change because he doesn’t want to regret leaving her to die even though he hates her I guess. It was really quite touching to see Takigawa arrive at the Somei family house and be welcomed so nicely by Kiyoha’s mother, they bought/took in both him and his brother and that’s so sweet. I love how Takigawa’s contribution to the family business is by showcasing their clothes to courtesans, modelling is a great job for him since he’s so beautiful! I like the other ending as well though! Seeing Takigawa make sales on clothes at Yoshiwara utilising his information network was pretty cool. I also really enjoyed their little trip to the mainland, it’s always cute to see their fascination and interest in different cultures and products.

Overall, Takigawa was all right. I thought I’d like him just as much as Takao in Kikuya, but honestly, even though it was pretty nice to see the usual transition of cold guy to wholesome guy kinda story, I think the transition was lacking. In the beginning, I could really feel how both Kiyoha and Takigawa were interested in each other but didn’t want to involve their hearts in this relationship because it’s “fake”. However, I couldn’t feel it when they both “loved each other” and wanted to spend the rest of their lives with the other. I don’t really feel their romance. But I did feel for Takigawa’s childhood, it was pretty terrible, and I’m glad Kiyoha supported him and everything, but yeah honestly, I expected more charisma from Takigawa? He’s supposedly the top geisha so I honestly expected to be really drawn to him etc, but I think he was pretty normal lol, the best thing about him was his looks, and even then, Asagiri is pretty beautiful, so yeah, beauty can’t carry you that high! Haha, oh well. He’s not bad, just not great🙃

[cooltrainererika]

Alt-talia: It’s Starting to Feel Like Christmas

Hello, hello everyone! Joy to the world!

For some reason I thought this event began today, not yesterday, until pretty recently… but fortunately, while it’s a day late, I got to write this! I did plan on others, but I’m releasing this now so I can get it out just in case, especially since the two others could also fit on another day. This is mainly for 12/16: Presents, but it can also fit under Decorations and Traditions, so three in a row! Woot!

This time, I want to write more about characters I may have missed during Hetaween, since my character pool ended up narrower than intended. ...And saying that, I’m writing about two characters I’ve written twice in that event! Yay!

I debated whether to write about this topic in general or about it specific this year, but chose the latter. I hope I’ll get to release a more in-depth fic about it in general some other time. So yeah, I’m using some really fresh material again this time.

Oh yeah, BTW, most of my fics take place in my “Alt-talia” semi-AU where I aim to capture history and culture more faithfully and most importantly overhaul the many characters who make no sense drastically. This will especially be noticeable for England. So yeah, you have been warned. Though maybe he’s a bit OOC here compared to how I usually write him? Also, it should be noted that I use country names when talking about the characters as countries, and with human names when referring to them as individuals; while in Alt-talia the difference can be more hazy than canon, I mean more talking purely about their personal interactions and the like. 

Also, this is not intended to be shipping! 

This was supposed to be like a few lines with no real arc, but whelp. At least I still kept it short. Also there’s a deleted scene I didn’t know how to end as a bonus at the end. 

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(Oh, and those who read my fics; please comment or reblog? I work hard on these, and they would be highly appreciated.)

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It’s Christmastime Again, Lukas Haraldsen

Every year since 1947, Norway had a tradition of sending special Jul presents to a certain nation very dear to him. 

His Norwegian Spruce trees were prized by all; he regularly got bidders from all over Europe, and had witnessed many a fight over them get ugly. But the best of the best were only reserved for a certain United Kingdom; and the best among these, the Queen of the Forest, nurtured by the songs, voices, and arms of some of the world’s best, most loving foresters, for England. Specifically his capital, London.

After all, nothing could make up for the debt he had for him. In the dark days of Nazi occupation, London for him was hope; it was where England protected his royal family as they awaited the Nazis’ demise, from where the radio blared and urged him to fight on, where the skies have become a proving ground to show that the Nazis could be vanquished. 

He knew this year had been a mess for his friend, and his recent election, the second one that year, had done nothing to mitigate it; and while even Norway knew only he himself and his uncharacteristically impulsive decision really was to blame for his current situation, hopefully, this would improve his mood for the uncertain road ahead. 

Norway was a quiet, unassuming man, but he took his presents seriously. And he also took Jul seriously. 

And this year was no different. While he sent many trees every year to different cities in the kingdom, including to some of Scotland’s, the most important was of course the one sent to the City of Hope itself. 

And now, in the heart of Trafalgar Square, wearing a traditional sweater which may as well have been a T-shirt compared to the attire of the Londoners passing by as they started their day, whistling En stjerne skinner i natt and Vårres Jul to himself. 

“Mmm… Ah, Arthur!”

He waved and smiled gently as the man in question, dressed very much warmly in a thick duffel coat and wool knit scarf, came into view. 

“Ahem. I’m here too.”

Today beside him was one Peter Bates, or Sealand as he preferred to be called, adorably bundled up in a woolen coat, mittens, knit hat, and light blue scarf, now crossing his arms. 

“Right, right. Sorry.”

“Ello, Norway. Don’t mind him, he said he wanted to see the tree again and ‘His Highness’ Prince Bates told me to take him with me. Bloody cold here today, isn’t it?”

He was shivering a bit, his nose a noticeable red and his breath a white mist. 

“Nothing I’m not used to. I’ve been waiting for you here. I chose one which is much older and taller than usual. See for yourself.”

Norway moved aside so that his gift would be in full view of his friend. It was a product of the forests on the banks of Trollvann lake, raised with love as any tree worthy of Trafalgar Square would be, almost twice as tall and two or three decades older than the first tree to have had the honor to have the honor of being offered on this annual occasion. 

England stared at the tree. 

Silence. 

“Wow, it’s huge!”

Peter was the first one to speak, his eyes sparkling. 

“England? ...England?”

Norway asked, watching his blank expression. 

“Well… I know that I am causing quite a bit of annoyance, but if I remember correctly, you weren’t in the EU, right?”

Norway was now perplexed. 

England looked to him with a with an expression that could only be said to be both a gentle smile and disappointment at the same time. 

“It seems like it needs a drink, does it not? It looks a bit dry and quite thin.”

Norway thought he felt his heart sunk a little. 

Peter sharply elbowed England in the side, making him gag. 

“Sealand, please don’t.”

“It’s a present, you jerk! ...Don’t listen to Scrooge over here, she’s beautiful.”

“Well you do live on a metal platform in the ocean…”

He jabbed him again.

Norway’s face went a bit red. 

“She’s much older and taller than the usual ones. It won’t look just like a smaller one you would have in your living room.”

“Sorry. I’m just saying it looks a bit sparse, is all.”

Norway lifted up one of many boxes of lights. 

“Mmm… Well, will you be too busy to help?”

“Yes, am afraid. More negotiations and all. So I am presuming it will be lit in the cucumber style as per usua- ach!”

Peter this time kicked him in the knee, making the older nation’s legs buckle a bit. 

“I’ll help, Mister.”

The boy said. 

“No, no, you don’t have to.”

————

Norway had to admit; maybe he had gone too much for size this time around. But Peter insisted that it not looking completely picture perfect was what made it look real instead of “Plastic tat”. 

And, as usual, put up the lights his own way, pure white streaks from top to bottom, “cucumber style” as England called it. 

And despite his complaints, on the night of lighting two days later, as the streams of light lit up in the heart of London in the crisp air and Norway listened to Peter cheer loudly with the crowd, the mayor of Oslo give her speech, and children caroling, amongst a sea of Londoners peppered with tourists, England stood beside him. 

“Well, it indeed finally feels like Christmas now.”

Norway looked to his friend, whose eyes were on the star, towering almost 25 meters above. 

“Well… maybe it is not quite up to your usual quality. But stability has been hard to come by nowadays; this tree being here every year, that I can rely on.”

Norway merely gave a quiet “Mmmm.” in response. 

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So that’s that. If anyone desires an explanation, I’ll provide it in a reblog or something, but I’d rather my stories inspire further research.

Also, “Lukas Haraldsen” is the name I’m using for Norway now, since a lot of Norwegians don’t seem to like “Bondivik”. “Haraldsen” because the founding king of the country is said to be King Harald Fairhair, and as Alt-talia nations can choose their surnames I thought it would be fitting if the surname Norway chose was “Son of Harald”. This name isn’t final though. Especially “Lukas”; does baptism change names again? Also Sealand has been renamed to “Peter Bates” instead of Kirkland; I don’t know why Hima chose that surname, since Sealand’s whole shtick is that he wants to be seen as an independent country. Why would he have the same surname? “Bates” is the surname of his owners, BTW, if that wasn’t clear. 

Again, this wasn’t really supposed to be a complete story with a neat conclusion, and not as heartwarming as intended. Kind of a similar case to Keep Calm actually, which also just happened to involve England. It was an opportunity to show England being a d*ck because, believe me, Alt-England can be an absolute d*ck when he wants to be. But despite the fact that he’s one of the characters whose d*ckery I actually kind of enjoy writing in a Love to Hate way, I haven’t had the chance to do that so far in these events... and I guess I got halfway there? I guess just ending it on England passive-aggressively insulting the tree was just a bit too meanspirited for me. 

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Deleted scene

<F%CKYE4H: Wow, it’s like ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ in real life! What, are you gonna break out the aluminum trees now?>

<StillInInferno: Mate, at least you have a real tree, because down here it’s not only hot as hell but if I had any Christmas trees to begin with, they’ve already fucking burned to shit.>

<MooseOfMaple: Dad… With the hassle you’ve been causing everyone you might not have the right to complain about someone showing kindness and holiday spirit to you.>

Arthur huffed as his children ribbed him in the family chat that night. 

<RuleBritannia: Don’t preach to your father, we went over this.>

<F%CKYE4H: Still, giving, not receiving, y’know.>

<MooseOfMaple: Dad, please… As someone who knows spruce trees very well, I do question Norway’s decision, but still. The world doesn’t revolve around you anymore.>

<RuleBritannia: I do not think that. Please stop accusing me of it.>

<BlacKoru: Yeah. It revolves around America. Make of that what you will.>

<F%CKYE4H: Kiwi! I can see that!>

[princess-in-a-tower]

You know, I have seen people just equate Aegon the Conqueror with William the Conqueror and leave it at that.  But really besides “the Conqueror” there’s nothing that much in common with them.  The Targs changed some things, but culture wise not really (nobody was embracing incest as a proper practice…), but the Normans did.  Of course there’s similarities, but nothing personal.  Like looks, animal motifs, and values etc.  William the Conqueror actually has more in common with Jon Snow (whose real name is Aegon in the show).  There’s might be something about this on here, but I haven’t seen it.  So sorry if it’s been said before.  Also this isn’t directed at you.  I just like reading your blog and wanted to share my musings with you.  XD  I really couldn’t get it out of my head…

William was the Duke of Normandy.  Normandy meaning Northman Land.  Because it was created (as a gift from the French king) by Rollo and his group of Vikings who were also known as Northmen.  They married French women and with their children created the Normans.

Jon is of the Northmen only because of his mother and his uncle raising him.  There is no Northern association of any kind for the Targs.  The Targs don’t even look like what little has been recorded about the Normans.  William’s son Henry I was said to have had black hair.  The only thing I can really think of that is similar is the Normans were clean shaven and didn’t have beards.  But Vikings are famous for them and Normans were descended for them.

William the Conqueror was also called William the Bastard.  And it bothered him.  He could act rather impulsive when that got flung at him.

Jon was also bothered by his bastard status.  We all know about that.

Much is talked about how William the Conqueror conquered England, but he also had to fight for his own home, Normandy.  He became the duke at a young age due to his father (who ruled after his elder brother’s death) having died abroad.  Needless to say there were other people whose eyes were on Normandy.  3 of William’s guardians were killed and there is stories of how William had to be hidden.  A rebellion broke out and William had to flee and he took refuge with the French king, Henry I, his future uncle-in-law.  The French king then helped William reclaim his home.

Jon, of course, along with Sansa, had to fight for Winterfell.  They had help from the Wildlings and the Mormonts, but they would have lost without the Knights of the Vale.  And yeah, Danii is trying to reclaim the Iron Throne, but it’s not the same.  Unlike Danii, William was raised in Normandy and was made the duke.  The Norman nobles acknowledged the ducal authority and he was always supported and despite wars he was not overthrown with another replacing him as the Duke of Normandy (never officially).  Yeah, the Boltons did replace the Starks for a time, but they were never truly accepted by the Northmen.

William was described as being a fighter and a horseman without equal.  He was strong enough to draw bows that others were unable to and he had great stamina.

Well, everyone knows Jon’s ability as a fighter.  And of course being a great horseman makes one think of his mother, Lyanna.

And now I come to one of the reasons William the Conqueror is one of my fave historical figures.  He LOVED his wife Maud(or Matilda) of Flanders and she loved him (they were also cousins).  They had a successful and affectionate marriage with 9 or 10 children.  William was faithful to her and didn’t have any bastards.  There’s a legend (probably not true) that when William proposed marriage to her via a messenger (naturally it started as a political alliance) Maud was said to have refused by saying she was too highborn to marry a bastard.  Insulted, William rode over (the destination depends on the version and one is her own home) and threw her to the ground by her braids and then rode off.  Maud’s father, was of course outraged and for the insult he was going to war against William.  But before swords could be drawn Maud stopped it by refusing to marry anyone, but William.

Of course us Jonsas believe that Jon and Sansa will have a loving marriage that is also a political alliance.  A lot of us believe that when the North finds out Jon is a Targ they won’t be happy and will probably want Jon’s head.  And we believe the matter will be settled by Jon and Sansa’s marriage.  How that will go down is what we’re guessing at.  So bloodshed (mainly Jon’s) could be avoided by Sansa marrying Jon.

Henry I of France was not happy with William marrying his niece, his sister’s daughter. Maud was the daughter of the Count of Flanders one of the most powerful noblemen in France.  She was also descended from Charlemagne and Wessex royalty (that helped William in England).  Henry viewed that as a threat and then supported the barons against William, his nephew-in-law.  He invaded Normandy twice which failed both times.  It only ended with Henry I’s death.

A lot of us Jonsas believe Danii will not be happy with Jon’s true parentage.  She will see him as a threat and then move to eliminate him.  So the once allies, will then be enemies.  And it’ll probably end with Danii’s death.

Rollo, the one who founded Normandy, ruled with strict laws and hanged murderers and thieves making Normandy one of the safest places in Europe.  Also he was a Viking and they valued courage, truth, honor, fidelity, discipline, hospitality, industriousness, self-reliance, and perseverance and family was important to them.  And there’s all kinds of legends that are not true about them (i.e. the horned helmets).

It reminds me of the North and their code of justice and honor and their values.  The Stark children were sheltered and didn’t face all the danger and intrigue that happened constantly in the south.  Of course that changed thanks to Theon’s betrayal with the Ironborn and the Boltons, but they are unpopular.  Also the North, which was really seen with Robb, got all kinds of exaggerated legends about them like the Vikings did.

And mentioning Rollo…  His Scandinavian name was Hrolfr which literally means “fame and glory for the wolf”.  And William means “determined protector”.

The only Targ that has any connection to wolves is of course, Jon Snow.  And Jon is of course determined to protect the realm of men.  It was all in the Night Watch’s oath.  Also the Normans introduced chivalry (so I assume making oaths as well) to England.

That got longer than I thought. XD  Well, of course William the Conqueror and Jon Snow aren’t exactly alike (as no character in GoT is exactly like any one historical figure), but there are a lot of similarities, I believe.

Submitted by Rose

[frickengreenfrickyeah]

An Irreverent Intro to the Iliad

A/N:I’ve taken the introduction to the Lombardo translation and condensed it. Any time I says something to the effect of “don’t quote me on this” that means I’ve added my own analysis or thoughts that I cannot back up in any way, so don’t, like, put it in an essay if you don’t plan on doing your own research.

Anyway, you don’t care about that stuff, you came here to read about the Iliad.

It’s really fricken long, so, for the sake of mobile users, everything’s under the cut except for this:

“Rage. Bitch, lemme tell you about the time that Achilles fucked over the entire Greek army by Rage-quitting.”

Timeline for the Noobs 

Ten years ago:

Aphrodite bribes Paris so she can win a beauty contest between herself, Athena, and Hera. Paris’ reward for his ‘heroics’ is Helen

(There’s probably an essay’s worth of symbolism you could dig into here, what with the goddesses all representing different priorities: erotic love, wisdom/justice, and familial duty. I wonder what Paris’ choice reveals about his character?)

There’s some disagreement about whether or not Helen when with Paris willingly

Seeing as literally no other woman in the Iliad (and maybe the entire Cycle? Don’t quote me on that) willingly went with her kidnapper, I’m calling bull on that. Do with that what you will.

Menelaus gets really mad that Paris stole his wife, so he rounds up the Greek army, and they go to war. (It’s worth noting that Athena and Hera are both on his side here.)

Present day:

Agamemnon(Boo), Menelaus’ brother kidnaps a girl. Then he has the balls to get upset that the girl’s father called Apollo’s plague down upon the Greeks until she’s returned

Achilles points out that Agamemnon’s being a dick and people are literally dying because he won’t let go of one girl. Agamemnon says, “Fine. If I have to give up my lady-war-prize, I’m taking yours as recompense.”

Achilles allows Agamemnon to take his girl, then Rage-quits. As consequence, people die.

Hypocrites. Hypocrites everywhere. If you wanna analyze that for an essay, I think there’s plenty to talk about. 

The Theme Worth Giving a Shit About (Because it Drives the Narrative)

Heroes risk their lives on the battlefield in exchange for Prizes

Ie. riches, bitches, and clout

Honor <--> Shame is how they judge the value of others and themselves. Honor wins Prizes, Shame loses Prizes

3 Characters Worth Giving a Shit About (Because They Explore the Aforementioned Theme)

Achilles: Main character. Rage is his thing. Also, pouting. 

His honor is insulted by Agamemnon(Boo) taking away Briseis, his lady war prize. Since war prizes are how their society rewards heroes for risking their lives, Agamemnon is basically saying he doesn’t care of Achilles dies or not.

And that hurts Achilles’ feelings because he knows he’s gonna die. There’s a prophecy about it. 

The only reason he’s fighting is because society conditioned him to believe that Prizes and eternal glory were worth dying for.

Now that he doubts everything he knows, he refuses to fight for the Greeks.

The entire poem is the consequences of his Rage-quit

Agamemnon: fuck this guy

He loses his lady war prize, so he takes Achilles’. Because short-sighted spite is the best motivator.

He and Achilles start the poem in the same place, believing that material goods should equally compensate a loss. Achilles is the one who learns that that’s not how that works.

Agamemnon starts as a dick and ends as a dick. Google Iphigenia if you want to learn more. And that shit he pulls with Cassandra? Major dickbag. Fuck this guy. 

Hector: The Trojan hero, and honestly the only likable guy here. 

He is Achilles’ foil. 

Just like Achilles, he’s separated from society - but, unlike Achilles, it’s not because he rejects their values. It’s because he never questions them.

He’s basically the perfect hero, and he suffers for it:

His son is scared of his war helmet

He can’t stay closer to home to fight defensively because that’s ‘shameful’

And he can’t even stay in the city that long on his breaks because wine and women are too tempting. 

Side Characters to Maybe Give a Fuck About

Patroclus: The most important of the supporting cast, and he’s only in it for, like, maybe a book

Achilles’ BFF and probably more

(Read: Definitely more. If you listen carefully, you can hear me chanting OTP OTP OTP every time you open your book.)

He is Achilles’ double

He never doubts society but supports his bestie’s midlife crisis anyway

His death at the hands of Hector symbolizes Achilles’ death because he was wearing Achilles’ armor at the time

Achilles causes Patroclus’ death btw

When he Rage-quits, he asks Zeus to help the Trojans (because short-sighted spite is the best motivator). Patroclus goes to help the Greeks wearing Achilles’ very recognizable armor, causing Hector to target and kill him

His death redirects Achilles’ Rage at the Trojans instead of the Greeks

Diomedes: a badass fighter

Greater Ajax: a badass fighter

and (I think) the guy who talks sense into Achilles at some point

Ajax the Lesser: a badass fighter (are you sensing a theme in these characters?)

Odysseus: the only smart guy here

The Odyssey is about him btw

The Trojan horse was his idea, according to the Aeneid (and maybe other places? But definitely the Aeneid.)

WTF is an Epic Poem Anyway?

Epic Poem: recounts events with far-reaching historical consequences, sums up the values and achievements of an entire culture, and documents the full variety of the war

Basically, if “’Murica, Fuck Yeah” sums up America, then the Iliad sums up Ancient Greece

(Actually, Hamilton is a better comparison, but I needed to make a joke. Fite me.)

That “full variety” thing is why Book 2 and a couple other places just list off a bunch of ships or leaders and their dads. That shit is boring. Skip it. 

But also, that ‘full variety’ thing is what makes other parts of the story so interesting. Homer will sum up a dude’s life story right before he kills them or some shit. It magnifies the scale of the narrative by showing how insignificant one person’s experience is - no one person can stop the war.

That’s what makes Achilles’ story even more powerful --> because his impact on the war is significant. His Rage controls the ebb and flow of it. 

He can’t stop the war though. No one can. 

The Gods are Petty as Fuck

Homeric gods look/act like humans, but they’re different mainly because of two things:

1. They can’t die.

That means they treat the events of the war less seriously than the mortals do.

2. The gods know about fate

To the modern reader, it seems like the humans have no agency, but that’s not really the case

Knowing fate is a bit like knowing the plot of a movie. It gives insight into a character’s actions that would otherwise seem random.

By reading this poem, you’re basically a god. Don’t let it go to your head. (But, hey, there’s a reason I’m majoring in this shit)

Bards like Homer would more directly be gods because they changed and adapted the story as they told it, just like the gods influence human actions in the story.

Don't quote me on that tho

Character choices are usually doubly motivated - by the human, and by the gods

Ex: Achilles chooses not to kill Agamemnon because Athena tells him not to.

This is personifying the literal thought process he had so that the reader understands what’s going through his head.

Fate doesn’t force anyone to act out of character --> fate is the consequence of their life choices

The gods not caring about death and his own lack of foresight is what Achilles messes up on

He asks Zeus to help him get revenge on the Greeks because he assumes Zeus cares about that sort of thing, but Zeus is bigger than that.

That leads Patroclus’ death, btw.

The “Enduring Heart” Shit

Achilles is really butthurt that Agamemnon wronged him

The lesson he has to learn is that even if material goods can’t make up for losses, there’s no other option --> you can’t bring people back from the dead, so you have to move on

That’s the Enduring Heart shit

also, if you abstract that concept it sounds kinda like entropy to me (Don’t quote me on that tho)

He learns that lesson by feeling pity for Priam (Hector’s dad) instead of perpetuating the Rage Train

And, hey, that Enduring Heart shit is a lesson that all of us could take to heart. None of us want to die, but it’s gonna happen. Maybe that’s not fair, but throwing a temper tantrum isn’t going to change anything. Really, the only way to avoid being miserable is to embrace our mortality so we can appreciate life while we have it

don’t quote me on that tho

In a nutshell, Achilles has to accept his mortal-ness. Otherwise there’s a lot of unnecessary suffering. 

That’s why we don’t need to see him die in the Iliad even though everyone makes such a big deal about the prophecy about his death. His journey was completed as soon as he found pity in himself instead of Rage - essentially rejecting the godly side of himself (oh yeah, I forgot to mention. His mom is a goddess) and embracing his mortality. 

because gods don’t have to deal with death, they can Rage all they want, remember?

Also, if he never dies, he can’t be reunited with Patroclus. 

OTP OTP OTP

You could probably write an essay about how Achilles died as soon as Patroclus did.

Honestly Boring Historical Context (That might be interesting if you’re a nerd like me?

The poem was basically historical fantasy even when it was first written. There are gods and super strength and shit

Greek History Over-Simplified: The Mycanaean Period was prosperous but ended suddenly. The Dark Ages of Greece followed, and we don’t know much about what happened during that because they forgot the written word was a thin. 

The events of the poem probably take place during the Mycanaean Period because they use bronze weapons. 

But warfare is described from more of a Dark Ages perspective. Like, they don’t use chariots the right way

Which suggests that chariots were part of the source material, then the Dark Ages made people forget how they were supposed to be sued, so the bards just kinda made shit up to explain their presence. (Don’t quote me on that tho)

The Oral Tradition of the poem means that this story was told thousands of times over hundreds (thousands?) of years. So the narrative is hones at shit.

it has the sculpted body of an Olympic athlete. Each muscle toned to do a specific job and everything works perfectly together to accomplish the sporty feat of interest. Every verse is packed with character, setting, plot, and cultural significance

Except for that Catologue of Ships shit. Boooo boring ships.

There were probably lots of other versions of the poem, but Homer told it best. His version was written down as soon as the written word was (re)invented

Side Note that wasn’t in Lombardo’s Intro

The Iliad and Odyssey are both parts of a larger body of work known as the Epic Cycle 

(The Aeneid is basically Caesar Augustus-insert fanfiction at that, btw. Virgil was a satirical fanboy and I’m living for it.)

Characters and events are introduced with the assumptions that the reader already knows their importance

But we only have fragments of the rest of the Cycle today because it was either never written down or the manuscripts were lost

I’m looking at you, Burned Library of Alexandria

*sad fiddle music plays in the background

Videos That I Learned Shit From (Only, like, the first two links are relevant to the topic at hand, btw)

Basic Plot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faSrRHw6eZ8

More about the Epic Cycle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3bn0eKt4Rw 

Iphigenia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifFsKCrH3GM 

Oresteia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kpGhivh05k             

The Odyssey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-3rHQ70Pag&index=4&list=PLDb22nlVXGgfwG1qbOtNgu897E_ky_8To (Also, this story is my favorite of the Epic Cycle)

The Aeneid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRruBVFXjnY&list=PLDb22nlVXGgfwG1qbOtNgu897E_ky_8To&index=5  

Ancient Greek History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzGVpkYiJ9w&index=2&list=PLDb22nlVXGgexsbafIwirG6Tk9uww9dSW    

And, yeah, these videos are all from the same channel. I’m a basic bitch and a ho for not leaving my comfort zone. Fite me. 

Honestly, if anyone has other sources, let me know. Youtube history/video essays are my shit.

I hope this was helpful.

[mohartproductions]

Approaching Diversity

This is something I've been wanting to express for sometime now. I don't know the best way to put this into words, and generally for everyone to understand, but I feel this recurring trend of bashing a certain product for pushing for representation of minorities has gotten way out of hand. Now in some cases it's not always the audience's fault; sometimes it's on the creative team's part or even the marketing since either or could potentially slip up, especially if they either don't do a good job representing minority characters or send vague or even pretentious messages prior to the release of that project that exposits how diverse it is. (sometimes they would even go far to call someone out as sexist... something which I'll talk about in a bit) But more often as of late a lot of negative backlash towards a product showcasing diversity or representation does tend to be rather callous and even bigoted. Ever since promotional art for the upcoming She-Ra reboot was released it was meat with crass remarks like "Those SJWs are just shoving diversity down our throats again!" or "Oh look, a female character who looks like a queer just like the creator, clearly this is a gay agenda!" or crap like that. Those might not be the exact words but from what I remember they definitely come off as insensitive and even downright bigoted. And with this recent surge of conservatism and right-wing politics taking hold of social media it's definitely worrying. Look I can understand criticizing a project for being preachy, especially if that's how the marketing approaches this tactic, but then there's the matter of bigoted remarks that follow, and what's even worse is the direct attacks at certain individuals for their personal identity when they are merely performers who are just doing their jobs! We've been seeing this happen again and again with Star Wars, and recently with The Titans trailer and the initial casting of Batwoman, and it's NOT okay! (also the news of a new MLP series with Applejack being voiced by a Black voice actress, the reception to that is pretty racist if I must say so myself) The problem with how a product or creative team push for diversity is NOT the idea itself but rather the marketing and the execution of the final product, and that's no more apparent than with the 2016 Ghostbusters film. A movie about a new team of Ghostbusters that's primarily female is actually a good idea, in fact from a meta perspective the premise of that film actually had a lot of good ideas it's just that they weren't used very well, from the characterization right down to the overall narrative of the film's story; then of course there was the marketing campaign and the campaign outright insulting it's potential audience that "They're sexist if they don't like it" just before the film's release... and inevitable flop! Now bare in mind, that movie flopped not because of "diversity," and even if "diversity" was to blame it's only to an extent, the real reason why it failed was because of how the marketing exposited on how it was "diverse" as well as the over all film just not being that good at all. But like I said the film did still have a lot of good ideas going for it, including a female Ghostbusters team, it's just that they weren't used very well. That said, on the tv side of things there are shows that push for diversity and are actually successful, shows like Avatar, Steven Universe, My Little Pony, and Star vs the Forces of Evil are some very obvious examples; pushing for diversity IS a good thing, the only reason why some (if not most) people think it isn't is because of poor campaigning prior to a product's launch, particularly based on vague or pretentious hind sight that either doesn't offer much detail on said product or how it will approach said diversity, as is the case with the recent trailer of "High Guardian Spice," which isn't really a trailer so much as a production sneak peek so already it's been sending vague messages, and it doesn't really "force" diversity so much as just exposit on it's supposed diversity. So yeah I can understand certain criticisms in those regards... BUT then we have problems from the opposite extreme, as I already said before. As of late there has been a lot of toxic reception towards minority characters or even minority actors portraying said characters, and yes they do come off as sexist, racist, and even queerphobic, and simply using phrases like "SJW," Snowflake," Leftists," white genocide" or "cuck" that I dare would not use for standards of decency do not in anyway help their cases; in face phrases like those can practically be taken directly from the Alt-Right dictionary, as I have been docking down from various right-wing themed videos from across youtube by people like Black Pigeon Speaks, Andy Warski, and Aydin Paladin, right next to using "Autistic" as another phrase for "retarded."(which is a word I dare not want to use btw, but I had to so you know which word exactly) In fact of all the phrases, let's talk about the phrase, "Forced Diversity" shall we?! Just like with SJW or Snowflake or Tumblrina, using the term "forced diversity" as a means of bashing a product is also just another Far-Right dog whistling, however unlike the other aforementioned dog whistles that method of pejorative slang is a lot harder to come to grips with because based on mismanaged campaigning in some products it actually sounds much more reasonable, but like all those other dog whistles though it only sounds reasonable until you look more into it yourself and start rethinking about it. In fact here's something profound, maybe forcing diversity can actually be a good thing; now bare with me I did not say that forcing diversity IS a good thing... but it can be, and here's why-- Pushing for more diversity, particularly if you are a creator of a certain product, because it can actually force you to be more creative about how you want to approach a character based on a certain identity; and it can also be a positive for other people who really don't know too much about minorities; more often than not they'll see "we get it" but the surface is only skin deep, there is more to a minority character than just their ethnicity, orientation, gender, religion, or any other cultural background on the surface, while you probably shouldn't be too preachy about that person's personal identity, that identity on the other hand can be beneficial to building that character as well as coming to grips with what it's like for that individual to grow up and live based on that inherent background. Of course you could just leave it as just a trait, but it can go hand in hand with other characteristics to help make that character connect more with the audience be they of that same background or not; so like writing a story with a beginning, middle and end, pushing for diversity in your character roster is also a creator's equivalent to going to the gym, because it helps them to learn more about other people and be more creative in writing your story and fleshing out your character. But if this pattern of vague and pretentious campaigning and following failures for a product do continue then both general public (particularly if most of them aren't a minority) and the higher ups of the entertainment industry will start to think that pushing for diversity is marketing poisoning; and eventually they'll give up diversity altogether... and I for one do NOT want that to happen. I do want diversity, I want more representation of minority figures in entertainment media, especially as a means of educating the non-minority majority (an oxymoron I know) and pushing back bigotry or insensitive bias' altogether. Again I understand criticizing a product for being preachy, or how the campaign for that product is being preachy, but if you simply think a minority character, or a character who is portrayed by a minority performer/creator is a problem, or if the idea of diversity in itself is too political, particularly if you use "diversity" or "sjw" as dirty words, then I'm sorry but you're the one doing the shoehorning a vindictive political agenda, an agenda that practically says "the portrayal of minority characters or involvement of minority performers and creators is what upsets me!"

I know that's not how every non-minority individual who criticizes something thinks, particularly if a character in that product based on their non-majority background is poorly written, although it does seem contradictory to how a poorly written minority character is often associated with "forced diversity" and as "proof" as to why it's bad by those in the majority, while a poorly written majority character doesn't receive similar scorn by either minorities or majority groups. :/ 

Like I said, I know not everyone in the majority who criticizes something is racist, sexist, queerphobic, or religiously or culturally intolerant, but looking back on Youtube conservatives are mainly invested in minority characters and performing individuals getting as little representation or general screen time as possible, be it in movies, television, video games, and especially in comic books; that's why some "critics" of Steven Universe, the recent Star Wars movies, or the upcoming She-Ra series, (when it's not even out yet mind you) as well as a number of superhero comics be they from DC, Marvel or otherwise would pretend that anything like those is trying to push some "Anti-StraightWhiteMale agenda" or start hand-wringing about a matriarchy, especially if this kind of motivational stigma is revealed through the fact they almost always sugarcoat their bias with neo-reactionary right-wing buzzwords like again "Forced Diversity" or of course "SJW;" a term that of course initially was used as an ironic insult, but has over time become so synonymous with actual bigots that it's practically unironic and is basically a billboard that says "I'm an idiot and I don't know what I'm actually talking about!"

If you have the time btw, I encourage you to watch this video by ContraPoints titled "Decrypting the Alt-Right", as she nearly perfectly illustrates alt-right dog whistling and how you can determine who is a bigot based on them.

Now does that excuse campaigns or even creative teams directly for how they handle showcasing diversity?! No, of course not, especially if they don't do it very well... which is the real friggin problem!! (as well as feeble minded dog whistling of course)

All the same, I'm always looking for more diversity and representation as long as it's good, especially if it represents those characters in more complex ways a number of people still don't know about. So don't be afraid push for diversity, expand your horizons, learn more about other people, and even if anyone calls you out as an "SJW"... eh, don't worry about it, heck if anything you can just take "social justice warrior" as a compliment since they're basically saying you're a "warrior of justice." Or you know, you can just shrug off and ignore them. Either way at least you know you're doing something right. ;)

[libretayatra]

Blog Post: On Fan Fiction and Other Storytelling Traditions

When I was twelve or thirteen years old, and even our family finally had DSL internet, I discovered the joys of fan fiction. In case you haven’t been living under the same rock as I have, allow me to explain. “Fan fiction” refers to stories written by enthusiasts of a particular book, TV show, or other creative work. While most “fics” – as my friends and I would call them – take place within the particular universe of the original story, others take known characters and put them in an entirely new setting. (That’s how 50 Shades of Grey was born.) There’s also fan fiction that doesn’t deliberately draw on any work but revolves around real, famous people in imagined situations. (See Graham Norton and Daniel Radcliffe discuss this type on the former’s show.)

The stories that interested me ranged from shorter “one shots” to multi-chapter epics, but most were placed in the Harry Potter universe and nearly all were tales of romance – if you could call it that.

The pairings I read about (and often ‘shipped’ – a verb that comes from the ‘ship’ in ‘relationship’ and means “hoped would bang”) – whether true to canon (i.e. the original books), such as Lily and James Potter, or wildly inventive, such as Hermione and a Tom Riddle to whom she has traveled back in time – usually engaged in the kind of love/hate banter that sends real couples to therapy. The pair would glare at and insult each other (often employing strangely American turns of phrase for a pair of ostensible Brits), their apparent mutual disgust hiding a deeper attraction. For my friends and I, it was riveting stuff.

While I was mainly a Lily/James shipper myself, you can’t talk about Harry Potter fan fiction and not mention Dramione. The fan-invented romance between Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger was a tale of forbidden passion, a defiance of Hogwarts housing norms and the mandates of Potter canon itself. Draco did need to be less of a whiny loser to be a deserving match for Hermione, but this could be arranged without too much trouble. In the fan fiction world, Draco was dark and brooding, and he didn’t bring his dad up in conversation quite as often as in the books. Hermione was clever and empathetic, and although she was rarely depicted with less than Yule Ball-level beauty, her looks were not her main characteristic.

Sometimes fan fiction Draco and Hermione fell for each other while at Hogwarts. In other fics, they met again under changed circumstances years after the fall of Voldemort. Then there were the AU fics in which a brilliant young paralegal named Hermione Granger begins work at the firm where successful lawyer Draco Malfoy practices. You get the idea.

Photoshop creations starring Tom Felton and Emma Watson (no credit belongs to me). The purple one in particular has stayed in my memory for years, and brings on a familiar feeling of excitement at all the great content to peruse in the world. It was the banner for a website that allowed fans to nominate and vote for their favorite Dramione fics.

A particularly sexy iteration of the Draco/Hermione story was called Water by kissherdraco. In it, Draco and Hermione are Head Boy and Girl at Hogwarts. Of course, this means that they must live sequestered in their own dormitory, with its own entrance, common room and adjoining bathroom that ensure they see each other in a state of partial undress when the story demands it.

Water was held by many to be the pinnacle of the genre. It had lust and angst in equal measure, executed with a liberal dose of swear words and aggression. Moreover, Water took the common flaws of the Dramione world’s characters and actually explored them, allowing character to drive plot. In the story, Draco is brooding and cruel as ever, but these traits are linked to vicious abuse at the hands of Lucius. This backstory is not seen as an excuse for Draco’s behavior and he is forced to grow and change as the story progresses (although not quite enough, tbh).

I never finished the story, perhaps because my young brain was alarmed by all the hate-sex, but I revisited it with curiosity for this piece. Here is a relatively benign excerpt from the text, although please skip if you’d rather avoid themes of physical dominance:

“You’re crying,” growled Draco, leaning in and flicking his tongue onto her cheek. He tasted salt.

She struggled then, and he brought his hands to her shoulders to hold her still. “Don’t, Granger,” he warned. “I fucking need this. I can’t fucking…” He trailed off.

He never would have noticed before. Not like he did now, at least. Her lips were wet. They were red and moist and magnificently ripened for him. So full of blood. Hot, heated, sullied blood. He couldn’t take his eyes off them.

Other fics situated romance within a larger plot about the politics of the wizarding world. Prelude to Destiny by AnotherDreamer took place in the Marauder era (i.e. the time of Harry’s parents) and focused on the coming-of-age of Lily Evans and her role in the battle against evil. It begins, “Two cultures and a thousand miles from you, there is a castle on a hill…”

Another fave began life under the title Ancient and Most Noble and is now called Druella Black’s Guide to Womanhood. It is about the diverging lives of the three Black sisters — Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa — in the early years of Voldemort’s power. The sisters confront the crumbling of the their easy closeness as they make different choices in a changing world.

”It’ll be a laugh, you’ll see,” Bellatrix whispered into her ear, her breath sweet and thick from wine. They were curled in the cool grass, tangled in the layers upon layers of lace and satin that were their dress robes; it had taken them an hour to get them on right and just ten minutes to unsettle them. Andromeda’s head was spinning: from the liquor, from the heat, from far too much dancing. “It’ll all be just like this,” Bella was murmuring, her lips brushing against her ear. Stars whirled by overhead, maybe close enough to touch. Close enough to try.

“Always just like this.”

—

Andromeda swore as she stepped off the train. From inside the nicely cool travel car, summer had looked so charming, green and bright and gloriously school-free…

I was most interested in these fics, the ones that revolved around the generations before Harry’s. There was something compelling about the knowledge of forthcoming tragedy for many of the characters…Plucked away from the happy ending of the books, these fics became an exploration of why life is meaningful even in its flawed and finite scope.

I look back on my fan fiction experiences as belonging to a beautiful time when the internet was less like Janet from The Good Place* (if Janet were selling everything she knew about us to profit-hungry corporations and belligerent, militarized governments), and more like a library you went to when you felt like checking out a book. Nobody knew what I ate and where I went every minute of the day, because I didn’t put that stuff online, nor did I (to my knowledge) carry a tracking device with me when I went downstairs to play with my friends. At 5 pm, our moms would have to call each friend’s landline to reach us and remind us to stop home for our daily glass of milk or what-have-you.

*Janet is a humanoid presence in the afterlife who holds all knowledge in the universe and can create objects out of the void.

Fan fiction was a commerce-free creative space – devoid of ad revenue and the quick accumulation of likes. Since there was neither money nor social capital to be gained, everyone who participated did so out of pure interest. One did have the hope of raking in reviews from other community members, but these were about more than validation; reviews allowed people to have conversations about a shared passion and often included constructive criticism along with praise. There was little need for bitterness – if a fic was well-written, everybody won, since it meant they got to read it.

Below are some examples from the reviews section of Prelude to Destiny. It’s certainly no Twitter.

Written by rach on chapter #13. (March 28th 2009, 5am) Hey,

So I’ve read your whole story before, and now I’m reading it again, because I saw it spotlighted on the site. And this chapter is amazing. I love the end…I’ve never (well, before I read this the first time) compared Lily to Mrs Crouch. But it’s so true. They both gave their lives for their sons and…this chapter is phenomenal. Just thought I’d let you know

Rach

Written by Smith on chapter #26. (April 29th 2008, 11am)

…If I am to find any fault in the story, then I should say that Remus was rather dull. Not that it was completely out of character, but I imagine him being funnier and also good Lily’s friend. Their friendship is mentioned by Lupin in the third film and, I should think, in the book as well, though I don’t have a copy right now and thus can’t provide a quote. Pity, that. [Given my extensive knowledge of canon, I can tell you that the reviewer is mistaken on this last point.]

Thank you very much for writing this story. Reading it was an enjoyable experience that I might repeat in the future. You’re brilliant, to put it short.

Author Response: Thanks for the review!Yeah, Remus was a bit dull. Actually, I didn’t intend for Lily to be friends with any of the marauders besides James. I just wanted them out of the way. But I know what you mean. After Sirius entered the story, Remus was even duller in comparison. Plus, I wanted to make Peter seem like he fit in, and Remus just fell by the wayside, you know?I’m enjoying writing Gertrude again after taking over a story from my friend who used my characters. Anyway, thanks again!Miranda

For me, too, fandom was a more than a casual hobby. Since I was only allowed an hour of internet use a day, I would spend the time copying and pasting chapter after chapter of fan fiction onto Microsoft Word, allowing me to read all I wanted later. (As you might imagine, Water was not stored on the family computer.) I remember scouring for new fics on fanfiction.net and clicking through page after page of fan art on deviantart.com (both of which retain their early-2000s layouts, unlike Mugglenet or JK Rowling’s official site), very differently from how I scroll through Instagram today. I admired works of fandom the way one appreciates springtime’s first flower, or the décor of a friend’s bedroom – I admired the stamp of individuality they bore and that inspired me to create something myself, to express my joys and sorrows, to be a part of the world.

RIP old websites

When I did put Harry Potter-inspired art out there, somewhere around age fourteen, it was of course in the form of fan fiction, writing being my weapon of choice. I wrote two one-shot pieces, one funny and the other sad — or such were my intentions, though perhaps the results were inverted. While some friends wrote longer stories, I never felt talented or inspired enough to commit, which is a typical self-doubting move of the kind I am trying to leave behind. (I now plan to write no matter how untalented and uninspired I may be.)

One piece was about a character of my own invention, a Slytherin guy with the requisite pure-blood, Dark magic-loving family, and a perky, ponytailed Huffelpuff girl on whom he develops an obsessive crush. It was intended to be a BBC-inspired mockery of the character, taking all the gloomy sexiness of the Dramione universe and making it ridiculous. It was also a thorough exploration of really wanting to make out with somebody sitting in the same classroom as you, not that I’d know anything about that myself.

The other short story was a sincere ode to the books and an exploration of some of their core questions on death and loss. It followed Harry in an imagined scene that takes place (SPOILER ALERT lol) after Dumbledore’s death in the Half-Blood Prince. Harry is climbing the steps to the Owlery with a package in his hand, thinking over his relationship with Dumbledore. As I wrote, I found that I absolutely had to include excerpts from a fairly unexpected source, a chapter in the first and most overlooked of the Harry Potter books. The chapter is “The Mirror of Erised,” whose titular object reveals to the onlooker their deepest desire.

“Professor Dumbledore. Can I ask you something?”

“Obviously, you’ve just done so,” Dumbledore smiled. “You may ask me one more thing, however.”

“What do you see when you look in the mirror?”

“I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks.” Harry stared. “One can never have enough socks,” said Dumbledore. “Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.”

It was only when he was back in bed that it struck Harry that Dumbledore might not have been quite truthful.

In my story, Harry gazes out at the Forbidden Forest for a little while, wondering who Dumbledore had been behind the mask of calm wisdom and pondering the burden of those left alive and grieving. Harry then ties the package he’s been holding to Hedwig’s arm and sends her off, chuckling a little through tears. In the last line it is revealed that – OMG – he has just sent off a pair of thick, woolen SOCKS. To DUMBLEDORE. Even though Dumbledore is DEAD. Isn’t that profound?

Two years later, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released, and to my complete surprise, it delved deep into some of the questions about Dumbledore that had tumbled out of me, stream-of-consciousness-like, in the story I wrote. The text even includes part of the above excerpt from “The Mirror of Erised”. At the outset of Deathly Hallows, Harry learns that Dumbledore’s childhood was a difficult one, the true details of which remain murky and contested by his admirers and critics. Harry regrets never having asked Dumbledore about his past, but recalls that, after all, the one personal question he had asked Dumbledore was not answered honestly…

While writing my story, I had imagined Harry’s pain and longing to know Dumbledore better. Because fan fiction allowed me to externalize my interpretation of the text, the questions in my mind took on concrete form. Their answers, when the next book presented them, became all the more striking and emotionally impactful. It was as though I had written a letter to the series of books that had shaped me and received, in a way, a gentle but meaningful response.

In 2004, JK Rowling released a statement about the phenomenon of fan fiction. She was flattered by fans’ desire to write about her characters, and her only caveats were that fan fiction should remain suitable for children (unfortunately that ship had already sailed, and Water was truly the least of it), as well as a non-commercial activity so that fans’ creative pursuits would remain unexploited. Other authors have not been as accepting, and have asked for fan fiction based on their work to be removed from popular websites. After all, in our current world, a story is classified as property. A sentence, a verse, a character’s name, can belong to someone the same way as the furniture in their house and the dollar figure in their bank account.

In the long history of storytelling, however, ownership is a relatively recent idea. Bear with me while I make an analogy – in pre-industrial Britain, every town had a commons, an area of land where anyone could gather firewood, take their cattle to graze, or hunt and fish to supplement a year of poor harvest. Storytelling has historically functioned as a kind of commons of ideas, one that anyone could pull from when the time came to tell a tale. Want to warn your kid against going near a well? Tell them about the hungry demon that lives in it. Were you hired to entertain a crowd at a wedding? Maybe you dust off an old poem about a prince and princess who meet one evening in the forest but spend years apart, not knowing each others’ true identity until it turns out they were betrothed all along.

Nobody invented well-dwelling monsters or estranged lovers for the first time – they simply existed in a shared cultural space, available when needed (or when it was particularly enjoyable to use them), ready to be shaped into something new and old at the same time. Even today, no one questions the use of familiar tropes in books and movies; we know that all storytelling involves a certain amount of borrowing and repetition, and we deem this acceptable as long as the storyteller has put an adequately original spin on the themes they utilize. The legal line is drawn once you get to the particulars – character names, or sentences and dialogue. These must be brand spanking new if you want to avoid a lawsuit and getting dropped by your publishers. (Does anyone else remember How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life?)

But for thousands of years, people told and re-told stories of beloved and familiar characters, not just unnamed archetypes – characters like Odysseus and Arjuna, Gilgamesh and King Arthur. The Sanskrit Mahabharata (Maha-BHA-rata) an epicly long, genre-defying story from South Asia, especially challenges the idea of a single, canonical text (much like other ancient story traditions from the subcontinent). It was told so many times by so many people that modern-day folks are not always able to agree on what the Mahabharata even is. The story is like a vast ocean — recognizable to all, but appears different depending on where you happen to be standing.

In the 20th century, some scholars collected Mahabharata manuscripts from all over the subcontinent, extracted the most commonly occurring parts to form a text, and detailed the many variations of each verse in footnotes that turned out longer than the text itself. No one can quite agree whether to treat this resulting (multi-volume) “Critical Edition” as the essential Sanskrit Mahabharata tradition, or as some kind of strange, post-colonial Mahabharata scrapbook. All this so that whenever somebody wrote an essay about the story, there was a single text, pieced together as it was, to use as a point of reference. (My Bachelor’s thesis was one of the lesser works of this scholarly genre.)

The plot of the Mahabharata goes like this: The five Pandava brothers, namely the prone-to-gambling leader Yudhishthira, morally-conflicted archer Arjuna, lovable beefcake Bhima, and something-to-do-with-horses twins Nakula and Sachdeva, along with their badass wife Draupadi, are exiled from their kingdom and forced into a year of disguise after a rigged dice game that Yudhishthira loses, and in which Draupadi is stripped and humiliated before a hall full of men. Eventually the Pandavas regain what they lost through a bloody war that leaves both sides devastated and questioning the point of all this conflict. The End.

Does my summary reflect my biases a little bit? For somebody else, the Pandavas might be perfect heroes, Draupadi a whiny ungrateful shrew who won’t stop yelling at them. To me, she is the moral backbone of the Pandavas, unafraid to call for what she feels is right even as everyone around her takes the coward’s way out of trouble.

Interpretations of Draupadi from various traditions

But it’s not just me who has a take on the story: the Mahabharata itself reflects a range of interacting and conflicting views, which might indicate that people from various backgrounds heard it and were able, in some way, to influence it. For example, although the text generally upholds hierarchies of caste and gender, it also pulls at the listener’s heartstrings with stories of characters who must confront these oppressive norms.

There’s Amba, who is stolen from her future-husband at her wedding and rejected by him when she manages to return; she later chooses to be re-born as a man in order to kill her kidnapper in battle. There’s Ekalavya, the talented archer from a forest tribe who trains with the Pandavas in youth and asks to prove his devotion to his archery guru any way he can; the guru, who favors the upper-caste prince Arjuna, asks Ekalavya to cut off his right thumb. There’s Kunti, who finds herself pregnant after an illicit affair with a god and places her baby, Karna, in a river; Karna is adopted by a lower-caste charioteer couple and goes on to fight against Kunti’s legitimate sons in the great battle that destroys the universe. And there’s Satyavati, whose husband/baby daddy pretends not to recognize her in front of his kingly court but gets completely schooled on how not to be an asshole.

“You know very well [who I am], your majesty; why do you say that you don’t, lying like a common man? Your heart knows the truth, and knows your lie. A man who does something wrong thinks, ‘No one knows me,’ but the gods know. If you do not do what I ask, your head will burst into a hundred pieces.” She discoursed at length on the reasons why a man should honor his wife, quoting the dharma texts.

(from The Ring of Truth: And Other Myths of Sex and Jewelry by Wendy Doniger)

Perhaps, among the traveling bards and indulgent grandmas who told the Mahabharata over centuries, there were some who identified or empathized with the pain of oppression and through whom otherwise-marginalized voices could ring out into the millennia.

The many Mahabharatas, along with the many conversations inside the Mahabharata, illustrate how the human imagination is prolific and messy, not content with merely absorbing information but impelled to remake, to take inspiration, to create, create, create. Isn’t that what happens when we read? We see the world we are reading about in our own way. We make up something in our own head as we go along, and that’s where the entertainment lies. The book itself is but a wonderful tool.

Perhaps if I had a right-wing patron who paid me to tell stories, I would tell the Mahabharata a little differently from how I do here, focusing on how the Pandavas were self-made men or how the ethnic minorities they killed were thieving encroachers. Or if I were telling the story to children, I might leave out anything particularly frightening. In the telling of a story, the will and whims of the teller have influence, as do those of the listener (or reader) and the financial benefactor (or publishing house).

What remains inevitable, however, is that rarely is a story told the same way twice. Even in our post-printing press, post-internet world, where stories are replicated identically again and again, we continue to dissect, analyze, and change them, whether it be through everyday conversations, online forums, or the prestige lens of a critic’s review. (A perfect example is the adaptation of works from one medium into another, be it from literature to film or from film to theater.) Sometimes the authors themselves continue to tweak and interpret their work – Virginia Wolf was known to make changes to her books prior to reprinting, and we all know that JK Rowling can’t leave the Potter universe well enough alone (love you Jo!).

For me, fan fiction is a grand storytelling and textual tradition not entirely unlike the Mahabharata. Fan fiction not only illustrates the malleable, generative nature of stories, it also provides a rare space, in our capitalist global economy, for storytelling to be that malleable, generative thing it has always been. It allows for democratic engagement in the storytelling traditions of our time, free from the boxes of profit and ownership. It lets us expand the possibilities of our collective imagination. Importantly, it allows voices from the margins into the story, where our canonical texts routinely fail us.

I’m also thankful to fan fiction for being a rare space, outside overpriced college English classes, where literary discussion can thrive. When I say discussion, I don’t mean mere binary criticism – like book reviews, or the Goodreads star rating-aggregates that help determine book sales. I mean questions about how a text makes you feel, what it reflects or critiques about our world, the things that literary characters, beloved and abhorred, may teach us about our shared humanity and flawed choices. And yes, some of these conversations involve Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy as co-Heads of Hogwarts, using the same bathroom.

Are you a reader or writer of fan fiction? Have you you dabbled in fan art? Or do you engage in a non-online form of fandom, like a book club? Please share!

Thanks for reading.

[lavalampelfchild]

Oghren and Banter

I swear, if I get one more portrayal of dwarves as nothing more than a punchline, I’m going to have a gasket or blow a cow. 

Listening to the banter conversations between the companions and Oghren is like all the most annoying stereotypes of dwarves coming to the surface.  I love Zevran and Oghren’s dynamic, because they reach each other on a level that is equal, and neither gives the impression that they’re only tolerating or condescending the other, even though they mainly bond through all those dirty jokes.  But Alistair’s entire conversation set with Oghren consists of Oghren spouting dirty jokes over and over, and Alistair responding in a completely uninterested, very dry tone. 

Morrigan’s are not better; she just seems to be trying to find the best ways to say something that’ll sting or drive Oghren away so that she doesn’t have to deal with him, meanwhile his obliviousness to it all seems to be played off as stupid, and he just keeps going, asking her things about sex and whatnot.  Because Oghren’s a drunk, he’s obsessed with sex!

But lo and behold, Leliana tries to get to know him, and talks to him seriously about Branka, and while he quickly deflects the discussion with a CRAZY STNKY FART, HA HA DWARVES ARE GROSS, he does respond to it with what seems to be genuine bitterness, revealing a different side of himself that does seem to be more genuine than the one that goes with the fart jokes. 

Leliana is also the only one whom Oghren actually asks a serious question; he asks her how the heck she stands it with all this open air, with this great open sky, which canonically makes him uncomfortable.  And Leliana doesn’t make fun of him for it, doesn’t give him shit; she gives him an honest answer.  I just think it’s interesting that because Leliana actually treats him with kindness and some respect, he’s more comfortable with straying from that “drunk, perverted, dirty joker” act to ask her serious questions.

And he listens to her story about how the sky came to be!  He listens and he responds seriously, without making fun of it or deflecting to a different topic with a fart joke or a sex pun! 

Here’s the unfortunate part, though: Oghren has four banter convos with Leliana.  Four!  And one of them is his typical use of innuendo and pervy remarks, though it is during the first conversation he has with her, before he gets to know her; meanwhile another one is entirely dependent on giving Leliana an optional gift (Schmooples the nug), and won’t occur if you don’t get her that gift.  Nice, BioWare.

All of the interesting interactions Oghren could have had – Sten on the different cultures of their people, Leliana on the stories of both of their worlds and the respect they can come to develop for one another, Shale about the dwarven culture surrounding golems – were trimmed down to just two or three banter convos, and it sucks.  Meanwhile, I have to listen to five banter convos rehash a version of what Zevran does with Wynne, except with Oghren (pervy flirting as Wynne gets annoyed and repeatedly puts her foot down about how, no, that’s not going to happen), and more of the exact same innuendos and puns with Oghren’s chats with Alistair and Morrigan.  The only other really solid convos Oghren gets are with Zevran, who very often partakes in the terrible jokes with him, establishing a rapport, and not just an “I’m tolerating you because the Warden wants you here, but I will make very obvious my dislike of talking with you” vibe, like literally everyone else, except Leliana.  

Hell, even Shale – who has some very interesting convos with Oghren – very easily falls into the same habit Alistair and Morrigan and Sten and Wynne when talking to Oghren: i.e. a lot of sighing and making disdainful references to how much he drinks and stop making inappropriate sexual references, you perverted dwarf, and oh, Oghren will be stinking up the joint now, better get some nose plugs!  Yes, that one is actually used in a banter convo.

(Though while Shale doesn’t hold back on the insults about Oghren, Oghren does get some zingers in himself; for example, when Shale compares Oghren to a human in its old village who wandered into a snowstorm and died, Oghren says, “I think I had a wife like you once.”  You know you’re doing friendly banter conversation wrong when I’m actively rooting for one of the two participants to get their asses handed to them, and hey, BioWare does that with five characters who chat with Oghren!)

And Shale and Oghren do have some beautiful convos that delve into whether or not the dwarves would use the Anvil of the Void to create more golems had they the opportunity.  And in those convos, Oghren shows an intriguing and impressive level of insight into the minds of his own people, being certain that they would line up to become golems were someone to learn the magic of the Anvil, and knowing that they’d be willing to subject themselves to that pain because of the decline of the dwarven population. 

And when Shale asks Oghren if Oghren believes the Warden to have been wrong to destroy the Anvil (in the event it was destroyed), Oghren says this:

“(Sigh) No.  Sometime people need to be kept from doing stupid things, even for good reasons.”

And then Shale asks if Oghren is referring to Branka with that statement, and Oghren gets defensive and closes up for the first time in all his banter convos.  Because it hurts to think about Branka in this worldstate, the one in which she died, and refused to listen, and called him worthless before showing how willing she was to watch him die after he spent two years throwing away his reputation amongst his fellow dwarves just to find her.  And we get a different side of him in this!  We see hints of the pain he feels when he thinks of his declining race, when he thinks of what happened to his wife; we see his views on golems and why he thinks they’re worse for the dwarven race than better for them.

But of course, Shale and Oghren’s convos fall right back into the same trend that Oghren’s convos with many other companions do because of course fart jokes and sex puns are all Oghren is good for, right?  And it ruins all that beautiful potential.  There is one more moment which looks like some positive development may be had – Shale admits that Oghren is a decent fighter and that there are worse things than fighting at his side – but that never goes anywhere!  The next convo they have is right back to Oghren deflecting with his usual brand of sex jokes, innuendos, and fart jokes, while Shale sighs and jabs about Oghren’s poor hygiene.  Yay. 

And of course, the dog.  Oghren is at first not a big fan of the dog companion, but he seems to change his tune a little more, and isn’t it goddamn interesting how he has more development in two conversations, and with the dog, than he does in five conversations with other fellow people.  Isn’t it interesting how the dog is the one with whom Oghren shares his dreams of achieving glory for his house (in however amusing a vision), of earning a good reputation among his people after having been shunned and tossed aside by them?  Isn’t it interesting how Oghren shares his abject disagreement with the use and creation of golems with the dog, even though the dog joins the ranks of the companions who don’t like Oghren and have no tolerance for him?  How fucking interesting.  Thank you, BioWare, for that.  Thank you for lowering all of your characters – with the exception of Leliana and Zevran, mind you – to a one-note punchline, or to being the idiots who actually believe this dwarf is only a one-note punchline.

Leliana, Zevran, this is why I love you.  Alistair, Morrigan, Wynne, Shale, Sten, hell, even Dog, y’all can go sit someplace where I don’t have to look at you, and stay there until you think about what you’ve done.  I love you all, but you never learn anything in your damn banter.  If a dynamic starts out bad or hostile, it stays bad or hostile (maybe with one or two red herrings of incomplete development); if it starts good and wholesome, it stays good and wholesome.  It’s only ever an unmoving line, a constant adherence to whatever status quo the first conversation establishes.  No one ever learns, tries to understand, or develops in any way with these other characters they chat with, and I’m tired of it.  And for the writers who thought that it was a good idea to give us a myriad of the exact same jokes over and over instead of developing the one dwarf companion you gave us, I bite my thumb at you.

[eenefangirlanalysis]

Instead the Eds are met with a completely different turn of events!

Eddy is thrown up into the air.

They’re cheering for him??

The Eds faces and reactions are priceless! Especially Ed and Edd.

Ed has always gone along with the crowd. Has he ever understood why the cul-de-sac kids dislike he and his friends? The same question goes along with the scams. Ed liked doing the scams so he could hang out with his friends. Through the scams they developed a close bond. The scams have also helped Ed to think more strategically.

Theory: Maybe, this is a reason why he acts dumber in season 5 because they’re not doing enough scams. That may not be the case, but Ed’s mind still grows because he is able to explore himself more like we see in the two season 6 episodes.

The constant debate from this movie is if the kids actually forgive the Eds or not. 

Firstly, they’re giving all the attention and credit to Eddy. Edd faced Eddy’s brother and Ed was the one to defeat him.

To be fair, Eddy was abused in front of everyone and confessed something very personal.

I’ve always felt that the kids take things too fast. They don’t give the Eds a second to breathe before congratulating them and immediately accepting them as friends.

I’ve always felt that the kids were jealous of the Eds friendship. The kids never shared a close bond like the Eds. It took the kids YEARS to realize that all the Eds ever wanted was their friendship. They think the Eds will forget every awful thing they have done to torment, degrade and jeopardize their friendship with one another?. They’re still being inconsiderate.

Clearly, they don’t know the Eds like the audience knows them.

My most favorite moment in this scene is Sarah running over to Ed and hugging him. Precious!

Ed jumps in surprise when he sees his sister coming towards him. Why would he jump? He’s used to her abuse. Unless that’s all a mask. Ed constantly masks his fears and worries. Nobody knows what he’s going through besides Edd and Eddy... and Sarah.

Seeing Bro has redeemed Sarah. She saw what she may have become if she kept being the exact mirror image of her mom. Sarah, instead will take her own path because Ed has never done anything to hurt her. He has always been her caring older brother and she never respected him.

Sarah went through her own journey of growth throughout the movie. I really wish we could have gotten to see it because I love when we see moments of Sarah’s true colors. She really does love her brother and fears her mom. This is evident when she acts unsure of herself.

Sarah starts her new journey by giving Ed the hug he always wanted.

I feel like I didn’t screenshot enough smears.

Again, the kids are being rather rough with Eddy. He just came out from this abuseful beating. The kids have never thought about the Eds needs.

As Rolf pulls Eddy over, for some reason, Jimmy is running in the opposite direction he was looking in the previous screenshot. I thought he was going to run over to join Ed and Sarah, but he runs off to the other side for no apparent reason.

“Let Rolf rub the pit of victory, Ed boy!”

Eddy is so unsure.

Remember this callback?

This goes all the way back to a season 2 episode where Rolf congratulates Kevin in the exact same fashion.

Eddy cautiously starts to come around to the sudden kindness. I would have trust issues too after growing up in neighborhood where kids don’t keep promises and tell others what you’re middle name is.

Eddy has never understood kindness. When he was dressed up as Carl he was about to have an anxiety attack because of how nice everyone was being nice.

Barely anyone has ever been nice to Eddy. He has learned from Bro that being nice never mattered. Eddy knew that wasn’t true, but he stuck with the advice anyway. He never had the best understanding for social norms. He did, however, in season 1 as he was the one telling Ed and Edd how to act. Once Bro took over his life Eddy forgets about himself.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, dude!”

Aw, this a precious Nazz and Rolf moment?

Hey, has anyone ever shipped them together?

Rolf is the only guy who has payed no attention to Nazz. He hasn’t payed much attention to any of the girls on the show. Fans have speculated that Rolf might be gay, but I believe it is due to his culture. He has different customs and is always busy at work.

Aside from that Rolf and Nazz are close friends. She, Rolf and Kevin all are. They’re not like the Eds though. They don’t have a complete understanding for one another. This is what the cul-de-sac wants to learn from the Eds.

“You’re awesome!”

As you all know I am a HUGE EddEddy shipper. I do ship EddyNazz though. They make a cute pairing. I can see them going out in the future.

I remember being ‘aww, Nazz kissed Eddy!’ when I first watched this scene.

I guess Nazz has broken up with Kevin and immediately moved on.

She still hasn’t taken her own pathway yet. Nazz is still going along with the kids. Knowing what Eddy has just gone through she wastes no time flinging herself into Eddy’s arms, rather roughly, and kissing him.

Everyone remembers when Nazz laughed in Eddy’s face when he thought they were dating, right? Nazz has very poor judgement. She is testing out different personalities through the series. Nazz is nice, but what else? We know that she suppresses anger. Is she mean at all? Did she really mean to make fun of or laugh in the Eds faces?

Eddy is quite taken aback by Nazz kissing him. I don’t blame him, everything is going so fast. He is still pretty beat up.

Thumbs up to AKA for keeping continuity going. This is a very life like situation where bruises can’t disappear in the blink of an eye whether you want them to or not. Especially in the cartoon world. Eddy has just faced reality. 

Eddy had a crush on Nazz in the beginning of the series but then loses interest for Nazz halfway through season 4. He pays more attention to Edd. 

I remember how Old Man Eddy, from Take This Ed and Shove It, didn’t show any interest in Old Nazz in his dream. He has no idea what Jonny refers to when he says that Nazz still has it.

“I am?” Eddy asks in response to Nazz’s compliment.

It’s sad how Eddy doesn’t think highly of himself. He doesn’t know whether to believe other characters when they compliment him. This is mainly his troubles from Bro who terrorized his mind.

It’s going to take a while for Eddy to be able to think straight again.

“I gotta admit, pal. That was so choice.”

This has to my favorite Eddy and Kevin interaction of all time.

I honestly feel that Kevin is speaking the truth.

Eddy and Kevin relate to each other in many ways. They hide themselves behind ‘cool masks’ and want to impress everyone. They’re both unsure of themselves. Both tend to come off as antagonist. The reason Eddy and Kevin tease or get revenge off one another is because they both fear that someone will find out their true selves. This has given them anxiety and paranoia.

Eddy opened the door for Kevin to be more of himself.

So, will they be friends?

Not close, but, I like to see a friendship coming out.

When Eddy was dressed as Carl, Kevin acted really nice to him letting his true self come out. Kevin was a different person around Carl. He was nice and accepting. 

Kevin showed a different persona around Carl. He’s not the tough kid who the audience sees. Kevin is just a kid trying to understand life. Kevin wants to show his true self to someone and when Carl showed up, he felt as if he had a real friend.

Whether or not Kevin figured out that Carl was really Eddy, Kevin may befriend Eddy so they can become better acquainted.

“IT WAS?!”

Can this boy get any cuter?

He is genuinely happy that his confession turned things around. He has learned!

For the first time, Eddy is happy with himself.

The real Eddy is a shy,timid and goofy kid. He wants to have fun.

There are so many interesting background moments happening when the Kankers come to inspect Bro.

Sarah and Jimmy hug Ed. They’re both grateful to him.

Rolf is picking up Edd. He must be very proud of him for being the first to step up against Eddy’s Brother. I feel like he’s wanted to see Edd finally stick up for himself for a long time.

Nazz is hugging Eddy while he and Kevin are shaking hands. They’re reconciling about what has been done over the years.

What’s interesting is that if you look very closely in the second image, Eddy turns and looks at Nazz. He is smiling at her. He’s happy that Nazz finally accepts him.

The Kankers don’t want any part in the kids story. They have always stayed out from their lives. They only took part in their stories when they wanted to terrorize them.

Lee remarks, “What a deadbeat this guy turned out to be.”

And then Marie states; “He don’t look so tough.”

Again, May does not have any lines. Don’t you find that strange?

They’re insulting Bro at how he could fall pray to a door. Eddy has gone through a lot more slapstick injury then Bro.

Despite their actions, the Kankers seem more level headed in the movie. They want to help the Eds and they do. We see how the Kankers are people with human emotions. A big difference from Bro. Though they had their share of being the unlikeable antagonists, the audience saw more into what they go through in their lives to make them who they are.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT BROWSER

Why not start a startup how long it will take to become profitable. One thing I can say more precisely. But they're not dangerous.1 Boston is a tech center to the same cause: Gates and Allen wanted to move back to Palo Alto, though there is nothing to see outside. But it's not just nice. But if we can decide in 20 minutes, should it take anyone longer than a couple days ago: The mercurial Spaniard himself declared: After Altamira, all is decadence. In addition to being the right sort of experience, one way or another it will be either a compliment or an insult.2

As long as you're not accepted to grad school at Harvard to cure you of any illusions you might have about the average Harvard undergrad. We're impatient. But in this case it seems more to the point that their culture prizes design and craftsmanship.3 The space of possible choices is smaller; you tend to want every line of code to go toward that final goal of showing you did a lot of startups grow out of schools for this reason be the most dangerous company now by far, in both the good and bad senses of the word. And people walking around instead of in an office park, because then the people who work there want to stay there, instead of only in the most hospitable environments. It's also more dangerous. Our prices were daringly low for the time. The problem is, the very word taste sounds slightly ridiculous to American ears. That idea is not exactly novel.

And then I thought: how much does it mean even now? At YC we spend a lot of regulations. Instead of doing a small number of large deals like a traditional venture capital fund, we do a large number of small ones. Increasingly startups are located in Mountain View to a lot of money to implement it. Governments may decide they want to get a job. But show them a lock and their first thought is how to pick winners. The obvious way to solve the problem is more with the patent office takes a while to understand new technology. And yet when you pick up a new Apple laptop, well, it doesn't seem American.

If you could measure actual performance, you wouldn't need them.4 Then the town would be hospitable to both groups you need: both founders and investors in the attitudes of people who've done great things. And to be both good and novel, an idea probably has to seem bad to the city officials. Ok, he replied. Maybe 37signals is the pattern for the future. The core users of News. Be independent.5

Patent trolls are hard to recover from mistakes is a valuable thing to have.6 In the best case, the company keeps moving forward at about half speed. Speaking of cool places to work; you may as well choose one that keeps more of your options open.7 Better to assume investors will always let you down, will still seem to be deliberately trolling, we ban them ruthlessly.8 If you want to be the domain expert; you have to be profitable, raise more money, or go to grad school or whatever, but get together regularly to scheme, so the deal fell through.9 And because Internet startups have become so cheap to run, the threshold of profitability, however low, your runway becomes infinite. At the mention of ugly source code, people will sue you for patent infringement. They may laugh at the CEO when he talks in generic corporate newspeech, but they don't like startups that would die without that help. Their victory is so complete that I'm now surprised when I come across a computer running Windows.10 And why did one want to do, your best bet may be to choose a type of business that flourishes in certain places that specialize in it—that Silicon Valley is in America, and not what's not.

It's hard to imagine the authorities having a sense of humor about such things over in Germany at that time. People who've spent most of their lives in schools or big companies may not have been exposed to that. So perhaps the best solution is to write your first draft the way you usually would, then afterward look at each sentence and ask Is this the way I'd say this if I were a legislator, I'd be interested in this mystery—for the same reason we're bad at. Indeed, the great advantage of not caring where people went to college. The other critical component of Ajax is Javascript, the programming language that runs in the browser.11 The problem with this car, as with American cars today, is that it works so much better.12 Have low expectations. Terribly addictive things are just a click away. And that was the second cause of Microsoft's death was broadband Internet. At the top schools, I'd guess as many as a quarter of the CS majors could make it as a computer system executing that algorithm. I'm not saying spoken language always works best.

To attack a rival they could have ignored, Amazon put a lasting black mark on their own reputation.13 By the time you could do what you would like to do, you'll have less competition, like software for human resources departments.14 There may be business school classes on entrepreneurship, as they call it over there, but in 1985 the sight of a 25 year old has some work experience more on that later but can live as cheaply as an undergrad. Hacking is something you do with a gleeful laugh. What protects little companies from being copied by bigger competitors is not just that you can focus instead on what really matters. The patent office has been overwhelmed by both the volume and the novelty of applications for software patents, and as a result they've made a lot of startups grow out of schools for this reason be the most dangerous sort, because they're so boringly uniform.15 And yet all the adults claim to like what you do.16 I see a more exaggerated version of the change I'm seeing. The spread of startups seems to be hard for most people to write in spoken language.

And you know why? But after the habit of so many cities. The most dangerous liars can be the kids' own parents. At least, that's the polite way of putting it; the colloquial version involves speech coming out of organs not designed for that purpose. My three partners and I run a seed stage investment firm called Y Combinator. Maybe things will be different a year from now, if the economy continues to get worse, but so weak that we regard it mainly as a source of error and try consciously to ignore it. Worse still, anything you work on changes you.17 The problem with American cars is bad design. Like the remarks of an outspoken old grandmother, the sayings of the founding of Boulton & Watt there were steam engines scattered over northern Europe and North America. But if we can decide in 20 minutes, should it take anyone longer than a couple days?18

Notes

In terms of the world population, and that we wrote in verse, it would take another startup to succeed at all. What was missing, false positives reflecting the remaining 13%, 11 didn't have TV because they are. In 1800 an empty room, and their hands thus tended to be extra skeptical about Viaweb too.

This is everyday life in Palo Alto to have the determination myself. Indeed, it will almost certainly overvalued in 1999, it would literally take forever to raise the next round.

This would add a further level of protection against abuse and accidents. How many times that conversation was repeated.

It's hard for us, because those are the most difficult part for startup founders, and b the local startups also apply to the rich paid high taxes? I think that's because delicious/popular. They found it novel that if you're not consciously aware of it. Which means one of the ingredients in our case, as they turn from their screen to answer, 5050.

In grad school you always see when restrictive laws are removed. Frankfurt, Harry, On Bullshit, Princeton University Press, 1973, p.

Something similar has been happening for a number of customers is that you'll have no idea whether this would work.

The rest exist to this talk became Why Startups Condense in America consider acting white.

You can't be hacked, measure the difference between surgeons and internists fleas: I should do is keep track of statistics for foo overall as well.

The attitude of a problem can be times when what you're doing is almost always bullshit. Users dislike their new operating system. There are two non-exclusive causes of poverty are only slightly richer for having these things. Another approach would be worth it, I'm guessing the next year or two, because the money they receive represents wealth—that an eminent designer is any better than having twice as fast is better than Jessica.

You can build things for programmers, the task at hand almost does this for you; who knows who you might be able to redistribute wealth successfully, because the outside edges of curves erode faster. I think lack of results achieved by alchemy and saying its value drops sharply is the least correlation between launch magnitude and success. It's hard to ignore competitors.

Surely it's better if everything just works. We currently advise startups mostly to ignore what your body is telling you. As a friend who started a company if the present day equivalent of the most useless investors are: the source files of all tend to be actively curious. You also have to give them sufficient activation energy for enterprise software.

4%? Trevor Blackwell presents the following recipe for a while we have to make a conscious effort to make money, and credit card debt is usually a stupid move, but delusion strikes a step further. But be careful about security.

So instead of just Japanese.

Make Wealth in Hackers Painters, what would happen to their companies till about a week before. Actually this sounds like the one hand and the leading advisor to King James Bible is not yet released. The point of view anyway. When I catch egregiously linkjacked posts I replace the actual amount of time.

Stiglitz, Joseph. Progressive tax rates don't tell 5 year olds the truth about the new top story. There is one resource patent trolls need: lawyers. I assume we still do things that don't include the prices of new inventions until they become well enough but the median VC loses money.

An influx of inexpensive but mediocre investors almost all do, and so on? Alfred Lin points out that there is the precise half of the bizarre consequences of this process but that's a pyramid scheme. A deal flow, then over the details.

Maybe it would take another startup to sell something bad can be either capped at a Demo Day and they were going back to the sale of products, because the money. Lester Thurow, writing in 1975, said the things Julian gave us. If you're expected to, in the absence of objective tests.

Life of Isaac Newton, p. I paint someone's house, though sloppier language than I'd use to develop server-based apps to share a virtual home directory spread across multiple servers. On the other writing of literary theorists. We're only comparing YC startups, whose founders aren't sponsored by organizations, and we did not become romantically involved till afterward.

[starberry-cupcake]

This is my entry for @whopooh‘s questions for fic writers! Thank you for developing this amazing questionnaire, it was very insightful and interesting to answer.  

I debated whether to answer these, but 2 out of 5 of my answers are Miss Fisher related and I have posted 1 Miss Fisher fic so far, so technically I’m good to answer these, according to the guidelines. Even if I do feel like I’m totally butting in, because I haven’t written for this fandom for as long as others and also I don’t tend to talk about my writing on tumblr much. Still, the questions were really good and I wanted to add my little contribution, so I hope that’s ok. It’s under “read more” because of length. Even if I probably don’t share all the fandoms included here with all of my followers, maybe some things are of interest and some of you, who also write (not only fanfiction, but anything at all) can relate to some of this. Sharing writing experiences is always interesting.   

1. Pick one fic that you’ve written and talk about what makes it important to you.

My Les Mis mutant AU The Downfall of the Juillet Institute is probably the most important I’ve written personally, even if it’s not my favorite. It was well received by readers, though, which is good for a fic that’s so personal. 

The main reason why it’s important to me is because it was there for me during some pretty heavy times, when a lot of things were happening and my life changed dramatically. In the middle of chaos, that fic was there. And I, the person who never writes chaptered fics because she thinks she’ll never finish them, had all the excuses to leave it unfinished. But I didn’t. I had a lot of encouragement and also very patient readers, and ultimately something very interesting happened. 

I started it with the intention of pushing myself to do in fic writing what I tend to do in personal writing. I don’t tend to use fic in the same way, I normally write fic to fulfill or add something I would have wanted to see in canon, but rarely I go as deep into it as I do in my personal writing, but not because I think it’s not worthy (it absolutely is! fanfiction is very important!). I had this idea that my fic writing and my personal writing were two completely separate things, with different reasons, motives and even languages (my original writing is in Spanish, my native language, and my fics tend to be in English, and I swear I feel my writing style is extremely different in both). I felt for a very long time that it had to be this way, because some things I had to “save” for one form of writing or the other, but in the end both are much more related than I thought and a lot of things I ended up including in my personal writing (I don’t want to call it “original” writing because there’s originality in fics as well) ended up being there because I integrated them first in my fics and worked through them there. 

With my mutant AU, though, I blurred the lines. I made an oath to push my fic writing to be more like my personal and create a story from the ground up with my own world-building in a complex setting (in sci fi, no less, which isn’t normally what I write), to include strong heavy emotional elements I don’t tend to include, and, to top it all off, to start posting it without having completely finished it. It was a gamble of massive proportions. 

I ended up learning more about my own writing process from this fic than I had with some of the creative writing workshops I’ve done. When all the issues started happening in my life, I found myself having to face this monster and some of the stuff I had set myself to include became triggering for me. So I had to find a way in which I could write it all and see it through. The fic helped me work through some heavy stuff and it ended up being an ideal place to project some of my issues and transform them into something new. 

I’m very grateful to that fic and very proud still today of having finished it. And even if some days I’m embarrassed of some of the ways in which I handled some stuff or some of the choices I made, I will always regard it with respect. 

2. Pick one of your older fics and say what about it you like most, and what you would do differently now.

I deleted every fic in my old fanfiction.net account and all traces of my young self in there, so I’m not linking it, but I had written once a ficlet in which I explored the different perspectives of the Black sisters from Harry Potter, Narcissa, Andromeda and Bellatrix. It was a bit lackluster, my English wasn’t the best (I hope it’s better now, who knows, not me), but the concept was rare for me at the time and I think it was a baby step towards my fascination with character archetypes and female representation in media. I had written plenty of HP fics before, but that one was a rarity and something that caught my attention at the time, how little we really knew of them individually and in comparison with each other. 

I think what I’d do differently now is a) fix the English grammar and b) go a bit deeper into each of them while also re-thinking my stance on some of my perceptions of them as women. I grew up and I see some things under a different light now, but I still feel strongly that it’s a worthy character analysis to do. I feel I was too tentative with it back then because I knew that it wasn’t really going to be meaningful for people, since it wasn’t a ship fic or had popular characters in it, but I think it was interesting and a bit of a prelude to something that’d be important for me in the future. 

3. Pick a fic and say something about why you wrote it – if there was a specific inspiration, perhaps from RL, fandom life, or a theme or a trope you felt needed to be written in a new way. 

I am not actively in the Yuri On ice fandom, in fact I wholeheartedly avoid it for different reasons. Still, last year I embarked on the task of writing a fic for it (A Revolutionary Act is its name) for one reason only: I wasn’t at all happy with how the fandom (and the show, for that matter) treated body image and Yuri’s body specifically. 

For those who don’t know me, I’m a plus size gal and have been my entire life.  Learning to accept and love my body is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done (I’m still not all the way there), and body positivity conversations are very important to me. 

For the longest time, I avoided writing fat female characters in the stuff I wrote, in my personal stuff and in fic, because I was scared that people would think I was self-inserting. I felt, for the longest time, that people saying “is that supposed to be you?” was an insult to my creativity. So I avoided it. And then, after years and years of not seeing myself represented in books often (let’s not even talk about the Latina aspect, that’s adds another layer to it all), I asked myself “why are there so many plus size ladies writing books with female protagonists but none of them are plus size?”. And then it hit me, maybe it was for the same reason I was avoiding it. I couldn’t blame others for the lack of representation if I myself wasn’t willing to do it. You know that quote from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie? “the unintended consequence was that I did not know that people like me could exist in literature”? something along those lines. 

So I used fic to try that out and warm myself into writing characters more like me. I headcanoned my Cosette from Les Mis as a plus size Latina and projected that into her and left it for the world to judge. Surprisingly, people responded amazingly well to that. I wrote a fic for a friend in which I explored Cosette’s and Éponine’s relationships with their bodies using myself and my friend as inspiration for both points of view, no matter how shameless a projection that was (My Body Is Home was its name, because the Mary Lambert quotes are a thing with me). And some people thanked me for talking about it, some people needed to hear those things as much as I did, to see themselves in their favorite characters. 

Years passed and I came across the YOI situation. YOI is one of those kinds of “idol animes” in which the guys are represented as aesthetically pleasing for social standards of Japanese culture (mainly for women’s perception of male aesthetic archetypes in anime characters, that’s a whole analysis for some other time), and the fandom responded in the very same way. Yuri’s weight was a matter of mockery, of denigration and treated as an issue. Yuri’s “best” was when he was thin, Yuri’s “worst” was when he was fat. His fatness was associated with his lack of passion, his self-loathing, his loneliness. His thinness was associated with his triumph, his activity, his sex appeal. Both in the show and in most of fandom conversation/artwork/fanfiction. 

So, before embarking on a redeeming fic for that situation, I investigated about plus size figure skaters. I wanted to know how much of a “problem” weight was for competitive figure skaters and if there were plus size figure skaters anywhere at all. I found a lot of them, actually, and some of them competing professionally. And I also found the amount of awful comments they got, the bullying, people actively telling them in the comments of a video where they were pulling off amazing stuff, that they weren’t supposed to pull off that amazing stuff, because of their weight. 

I went ahead and wrote the fic. I had a lot of help for the Russian and Japanese cultural aspects, thanks to my amazing friends Anita and Aya, and I wrote what I knew would be my first and last YOI fic. My sole purpose was to put my grain of salt to fix a problem I felt the fandom was having, as someone who liked the show. It was the least I could do, if I felt something was wrong, to try to change it from the inside. 

The result was actually very good. My fic isn’t by any means as popular as most fics on that fandom, it may not be an epitome of modern storytelling by any means whatsoever, but I received comments from people who had no idea a perspective like that could exist in this narrative. At first I found it strange, because I surround myself with body positive people and vibes and inspirations, but I understood how it could feel for someone who doesn’t have the same influences, who was born in fandoms where aesthetically accepted social standards are conceptualized to sell and market character archetypes that propel fantasies that don’t necessarily associate with reality. 

All in all, it was somewhat out of character for me to write a YOI fic in the first place, because it isn’t the kind of fandom I tend to get involved with, but the results were positive for me and others and I feel I addressed a problem that I personally felt that had to be addressed. I did what I wish authors had done more of when I was a teenager reading fics, and I feel that’s a good use of my writing and time. 

4. Is there something you wrote in a fic that was read differently than you intended, and that made you see your own fic in another light?

Alright so here comes my first (and hopefully not last) Miss Fisher fic, In the Land of Lethe. This fic was a bit of an impulsive thing, which is a lot to say for me because I don’t do anything impulsive ever. I had seen and loved the show, I was (am) obsessed with it and I wanted to write something. I think I wrote it in like 3 days or so, I hadn’t been that inspired with a fic in so long. 

The truth is that I had been writing fic for fandoms where I either knew I didn’t belong, where I am not active but I create things for because I like the thing or where I didn’t form any strong bonds with people. 

So in I go to write a fic for a thing I just finish devouring, in a bit of an impulse, and it just came out so naturally and fast I was surprised. I had been writing a lot of original stuff but my fic work had been dwindling in the past years. I had no idea what to expect upon posting it, especially since I took a leeway with some things, (like focusing on Mac and Phryne’s friendship more than it was maybe originally intended, or being presumptuous enough to attempt to delve into Phryne’s thoughts and ideas of her own identity, when I’m totally new in the fandom). I decided to not question myself as I often do and post it anyway, and be it what it may. 

I am still shocked of how good people was to me. I got the nicest comments and the very things I was most worried about where the things people enjoyed the most. I realized that I had spent too much time writing fics for fandoms that were very critical and specific with the stuff included and that I was constantly trying to please, in a way, rather than please myself. And this impulsive fic I had done in a couple of days, with all the love for the show in my heart, was immediately welcomed among people who write amazing things. 

5. Is there a fic by another writer that has inspired you? 

In the Miss Fisher fandom once again, I have an interesting story with @firesign23‘s Snips and Snails and Squirrelly Tales, mostly with Fear Not The Bugle. 

I actually came across the last installment of the series first (Fear Not The Beagle) and, for some reason, didn’t see it was a last installment of a longer thing. So in I get into this narrative with absolutely no context whatsoever and I read that Phryne and Jack are married and have a kid. Cue my utmost confusion. I was not sold on the idea initially, to say the least, and when I discovered it was a series, I thought I’d do the right thing and start from the beginning (revolutionary idea, I know). 

And, holy crap, it was amazing. It was unexpected and absolutely in character and it introduced those unlikely things, that most people would normally feel at least a bit uneasy about, in a way that was so organic and true to their characters that you had no option but to give in and get this perspective. 

And I loved getting into that series/fic that way, from the back door kind of, because I got to appreciate the amount of work it was to develop these characters in a situation that left you no choice but to accept this reality and actually feel delighted by it. You need to know your characters, know your audience and know the absolute heck out of your social/historical context to pull a stunt like that fic. 

I don’t know this author personally, only through fic, but all my respect and admiration to the amount of work that was. A favorite, absolutely.