#ultimately it's a movie about understanding getting past prejudices and letting people be who they are

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

One of the best analyses of this movie, and specially Ariel as a character and what she represents, I've listened to so far.

[em-dash-press]

Types of Conflict in Stories

Sometimes stories get stuck while you're writing them. It doesn't matter if you sketched out your plot, drew character diagrams or felt more inspired by the idea than ever before.

The plot progression can slow to a halt, so what can you do to fix it? Although there could be many causes for your creative struggles (writer's block included!), it could be a sign that you need to define your conflict.

Conflict drives your plot, especially if you know how to define it.

These are the seven most common types of conflict you can start considering as you analyze your existing story or think of a new one.

1. Character vs. Society

Facing off against some representation of society is a popular theme in fiction. It could be a middle schooler clashing with their teachers or a heroic underdog breaking the law for a noble reason and hiding from the government.

Think Katniss vs. the Hunger Games. The games dictate everything from who stays in power to who rises or falls from economic classes.

2. Character vs. Character

People will always disagree with each other or actively work against each other to achieve their desired goals. This is Character vs. Character conflict. It's all over literature, movies, television and other types of media because everyone can understand and relate to it.

You've seen this conflict play out in things like Romeo and Juliet. Romeo has to fight Paris after Mercutio dies. It's Nick and Amy Dunne trying to stay one step ahead of each other in Gone Girl. It's Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr's rivalry in Hamilton.

3. Character vs. Technology

The Character vs. Technology conflict genre can be big or small. You could write about your protagonist traveling forward in time, which forces them to learn how to use the future's technology while the plot pushes forward.

You could also make your character face conflict created by technology. Mary Shelley did that when she wrote Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein uses the technology at his disposal to create his monster, but his creation goes on to create problems that he didn't foresee.

Today's world is more reliant on tech than ever before, but that only makes people more aware of how technology can go wrong or complicate people's lives. It's another evergreen conflict that will remain important to readers (and publishers!) because we will never go back to life without computers, electricity, and technological inventions.

4. Character vs. Self

Battling yourself is another relatable theme in literature. It usually takes some kind of form similar to an angel and devil sitting on a protagonist's metaphorical shoulders.

Characters in coming-of-age novels often face themselves and either grow from the conflict by learning from mistakes or succeeding through good choices.

There can also be an inner debate happening within your protagonist that keeps this conflict moving through your resolution. Mr. Darcy grapples with his inner self in Pride and Prejudice. He's used to getting whatever he wants based on his status and wealth, so he has to dismantle that part of his nature when Elizabeth rejects his proposal. He insulted her in numerous ways during the proposal and has to learn to let go of that part of himself if he's going to admit his real feelings and get married to the love of his life.

You can also see this conflict happening in A Court of Silver Flames. Much of the primary conflict in that novel is Nesta healing from the many types of trauma that turned her into an angry, defensive version of herself. She makes good and bad choices that shift her inner growth into different perspectives, ultimately showing her that she's more than her mistakes and her past.

5. Character vs. Nature

Ah, the Moby Dick of it all. Characters battle natures to better understand themselves and the world. It can also result in them saving their loved ones or society as a whole—or not.

This conflict can put characters in a literal fight against nature. You could write something similar to The Day After Tomorrow, where people have to survive catastrophic natural events caused by human destruction.

You might write about plagues or apocalypses that change the natural world as your characters know it. They may have to battle zombies for the rest of their lives or rebuild their society after a virus sweeps through humanity.

Character vs. Nature conflict can also include illnesses. Cancer is part of the natural world, which humans have little control over starting or preventing in themselves or others. The Fault in Our Stars utilizes this conflict because the protagonists both fight cancer throughout the plot. Similar health conditions could also include dementia or Parkinson's.

6. Character vs. Supernatural

Supernatural stories are very popular with readers. It covers an extensive list of potential characters within this conflict genre, such as:

Ghosts

Gods

Demons

Aliens

Religious characters

Myths come to life

Supernatural characters always represent something beyond their physical or non-physical forms. Gods might make protagonists grapple with universal truths, like good vs. evil. Aliens challenge characters in their understanding of the galaxy and what it means to be human.

Character vs. Supernatural battles can be fun to read while covering dense topics. Picture the Odyssey, It, and even Stranger Things to see how this conflict plays out across media forms.

7. Character vs. Fate

Fate could fit within supernatural conflicts, but it can also stand on its own. Supernatural elements may help the protagonist avoid, learn from or accept their inevitable fate. It could also help them change it.

Frodo faces this conflict in The Lord of the Rings. His fate is to destroy the ring in Mordor, but he goes back and forth with accepting that fate based on how the plot makes it more difficult.

Sometimes characters don't even know they're battling their fate—but the reader does. While you're reading Wicked, you'll follow Elphaba as she chases her dream to defy prejudices and become the Wizard's partner. Meanwhile, the reader knows she has to become the Wicked Witch of the West.

Play With Your Story's Conflict

You might feel stuck in your story because the characters solve their conflict too early in your plot. The conflict may also prove to be too small for a long-form story, so you may have to introduce a second type of conflict that spins out from however the first type of conflict gets solved.

You can absolutely have multiple types of conflict in a story if you want to. Just be sure to follow each type through to their resolutions. Otherwise you risk finishing your work with loose ends and leaving readers unsatisfied.

[renegadewangs]

Van Zieks - the Examination, Part 1

Warnings: SPOILERS for The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles. Additional warning for racist sentiments uttered by fictional characters (and screencaps to show these sentiments).

Disclaimer: These posts are not meant to be taken as fact. Everything I'm outlining stems from my own views and experiences. I am a 30-something European woman, and therefore may not view the matter from certain angles. That said, I'm always open to more input from others. If you believe that I've missed or misinterpreted something, please let me know so I can edit the post accordingly. If we can make this a team effort, I would love that.

The purpose of these posts is an analysis, nothing more. Please do not come into these posts expecting me to either defend Barok van Zieks from haters, nor expecting me to encourage the hatred. I am of the firm belief that characters are no more than a tool created to serve a narrative purpose, therefore the question I'm posing is whether or not Barok van Zieks serves this purpose. That's all I'm doing here.

I'm using the Western release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for these posts, but may refer to the original Japanese dialogue of Dai Gyakuten Saiban if needed to compare what's said. This also means I’m using the localized names and localized romanization of the names to stay consistent.

It doesn't matter one bit to me whether you like Barok van Zieks or dislike him. He's not real anyway, so he can't suffer from it. However, I will ask that everyone who comments refrains from attacking real, actual people. If you know you're morally in the right, there should be no need for insults to begin with. Let's keep this conversation civil and constructive! As the first post in a series, let’s first start by examining the expectations we would have for a character like this. The purpose he was meant to serve.

1: Expectations

As I said in a different Barok-related essay, the main prosecutor of any Ace Attorney game has been, and always will be, an antagonistic force. Not a villain, not even necessarily someone who exhibits immoral traits. (Hi Klavier!) Just someone who impedes the protag’s goal of getting a not-guilty verdict. In order to have an effective antagonist, they need to mirror the protag's weaknesses back at them. Ace Attorney does this quite well, as the prosecutors represent the obstacle/turmoil that the defense needs to overcome. Often times, the prosecutor is also tied to a pivotal moment in the attorney's past, making sure the strife is quite personal.

Considering the game's plot and settings, it would've been difficult for Barok to be tied to Ryunosuke's past. (He is tied to Asogi's past, funnily enough, but that's a matter I also addressed in that other Barok essay.) So instead, Barok represents Ryunosuke's struggle in more of a figurehead capacity. I've seen people dub him the 'CEO of Racism', and I'm not gonna lie, in a way that's correct. Barok was designed to be the mouthpiece of the harmful sentiments Japanese exchange students would have encountered in the 1900s. By extension, since Ryunosuke is an exchange student unfamiliar with the British courts (or even courts in general), the prosecutor would target the fact that Ryunosuke 'does not understand how things are done here'. Which he does- a lot. This makes it all the more satisfying when Ryunosuke proves him wrong by outsmarting him and using Britain's own laws (such as the closing argument) against him. So yes, you may hate Barok for uttering racist sentiments and dismissing Ryunosuke's abilities, but the ultimate goal here is that Barok's defeat is made sweeter as a result. The narrative end-game is Ryunosuke's triumph and validation in the courtroom.

Was there a different personal struggle Barok could have represented? Yes, but also no. Sure, his vendetta could have been strictly with the Asogi family and Ryunosuke could have admitted to carrying Asogi's resolve, not knowing what it meant. Though that would’ve implied very early that Asogi had a history of sorts in Britain and would’ve destroyed some of the surprise we experience in game 2. Alternatively, there was also the 'parallel' antagonist angle. The sort of villain who says the line “we're not so different, you and I.” The antagonist who shows what happens when someone with the same skills or motivations follows the wrong path, which emphasizes the right path for the protagonist. However, I can't see that working in the plot of this game.

A purposeful decision was made by the writers to have prejudice be a central theme of the plot. This is the matter that hits the hardest in an emotional sense. Therefore, having Barok be the centerpiece of this prejudice ensures he leaves the biggest narrative impact.

---

However, another long-running aspect of the AA prosecutor is the redemption arc, so let's turn our attention to that!

I'm not going to put too much effort into explaining this, I just want to talk about the requirements of a redemption arc. We all know these types of arcs, a lot of Ace Attorney prosecutors have them. We see them in fiction all over. Noteworthy examples of redemption arcs done well include Zuko from The Last Airbender, Michael from The Good Place... For argument's sake, let's toss Edgeworth in there too. I'm not saying Edgeworth's arc is done well, but at the very least it is accepted by most as something that served its intended purpose. I've never seen anyone question Edgeworth's transformation.

See, what we have here is a bit of a misnomer when it comes to what people expect to get out of these types of arcs. Redemption in itself is only 'deliverance from sin' or 'being saved from evil'. It's the thought that a horrible person can still see the error of their ways before it's 'too late'. However, when it comes to absorbing media, often a character gaining knowledge that they were in the wrong isn't enough to satisfy the audience. Would Edgeworth have had a satisfying redemption arc if he'd acknowledged his arrogance and dirty tactics, only to retire as a prosecutor? No way. We needed him to return in the following games to give us an update on his status. Standing in court as a defense attorney, at the risk of damaging his reputation, was the moment we knew he'd grown for the better.

What we require for the arc to come to a good conclusion is atonement. The character in question must not only apologize for their actions, but repent in a more active manner to show that they've changed their ways. Following that, the atonement must be acknowledged by others. So for example, Zuko joins the ATLA gang to help them in any way that he can until even the most skeptical of the group, Katara, acknowledges his transformation into a better person. Now add to this the notion that the character's atonement must be virtuous and sincere. The Good Place is a fascinating look into the debate of 'is it ever too late for a person to change?' and the moral complications of changing in the first place. If you're only doing good things because you want to be saved from damnation, are you being a good person or are you being selfish? There's such a thing as corrupt motivation; only doing good because it is expected. For example, does sponsoring a library make Magnus McGilded a good person? It does not, since he's only doing it to boost his own reputation and have people believe he's selfless.

As a final note, I want to ask: Does a redemption arc require a backstory to justify the character's immoral ways? Personally, I don't think that it does. It's good to have, since it allows an audience to empathize with the character and give them more of a reason to root for them. It turns the redemption arc into a tale about overcoming past trauma. However, it can backfire when done badly and lead to frustration. (I'm looking at you, live action Disney movies!) Some characters are evil just for the sake of being evil and even then, they can turn over a new leaf because they realize it is just so much more rewarding to be good. Just look at Michael from The Good Place.

What's more effective than a backstory, in my opinion, is smaller details to humanize a character. Humanization can also lead to empathy, perhaps even relatability, and helps us believe that they're capable of change. We need to be told that a character has their own fears, their own flaws, their own odd little habits which deviate from the norm... Again, I'll point to Michael from The Good Place for this. Another humanization tactic, which we see employed often in Ace Attorney, is to display a prosecutor's likes and hobbies outside the courtroom. Edgeworth's fanboying over the Steel Samurai, Blackquill's love for birds, Nahyuta's willingness to stand in line for hours to get his hands on a delicious burger... I've feel ya, Nahyuta. This tactic is more readily employed in Ace Attorney because it's difficult to place a prosecutor in a position of weakness before the final showdown. You can show them tending to hobbies during Investigation segments, but you can't show them waking up from a nightmare or wondering whether their father loves them. Well, not until case 5 of that game, anyway. By then, it's too late to serve as the sole humanization factor. Did Van Zieks need to be redeemed at all? The way I see it, the only correct answer is yes. What do we want to see in our world? Do we want people who hold racist prejudice to acknowledge their faults and become better, or do we want them to die clinging to their shitty moral compass? Do we want a world where everyone learns to get along, or do we want a world where people continue to be in the wrong and act like assholes until they inevitably get punished by law for something or another? Van Zieks needed to be redeemed in order to teach that valuable lesson that it’s never too late to be a good person and that it pays to be a good person.

So to summarize, what we needed from Barok van Zieks was the following:

1) Present an antagonistic (possibly immoral) force who personifies Ryunosuke's biggest personal obstacle/weakness, in this case racial prejudice. 2) Humanizing traits begin to show. OPTIONAL: A backstory to justify any immorality he has. 3) Over time, Barok has his realization and sees the error of his ways. 4) Barok atones for his immorality, not simply through apology but by taking decisive steps. 5) The cast around him acknowledges his efforts and forgives him.

This leaves us with the question: Does the game deliver on these points? Well, let's boot it up and find out! Stay tuned for The Adventure of the Runaway Room! (as a warning, it’s gonna be LONG)

[ouyangzizhensdad]

Please please do write the post about wwx not being dumb/oblivious. Those posts were just funny at first but somehow it's now become accepted fact. Meanwhile whether cql or mdzs wwx is a very competent, savvy protagonist who's actually pretty observant! It's getting pretty tiring to see him reduced to genki oblivous magical girl (not that I don't like those, it's just wwx is not one).

Hey anon! 

I do plan on writing a more elaborate meta post exploring what arguments there are in the novel to support my wwx is not dumb/oblivious agenda.

But for now I just want to address one factor I think plays a big part in shaping the fandom’s perception of wwx as oblivious/dumb, regardless of how wwx was actually written in the novel. That is, the creative liberties taken by (or forced onto) the cql production team, which have had in my opinion two consequences: 1) cql does not manage to establish how quick-witted and savvy wwx is, which is compounded by the fact that it chose to play the troublemaker persona straight  2) the fact that wwx and lwj’s relationship is entirely subtext actually ends up making wwx look oblivious (at least to people applying a queer reading/bl-danmei reading to their interactions--people who are obvious to or choose to ignore the subtext certainly wouldn’t come to the same conclusions). 

So, the first issue. In the novel, wwx’s intelligence is more of a focal point in the narrative because it is a crucial part of the dramatic irony/tragedy of his death: as a result it cannot help being more important to the themes of the novel. After all, he is ultimately hunted down because of and killed by his inventions. The man created an entirely new field of cultivation! In cql, this is somewhat lost due to the fact that he does not invent modao nor does he create the yin hufu, and his death is more of a suicide than a sacrifice (i am still not over the fact that he throws the yin hufu at the crowd to let them wage war over it? that’s the complete thematic opposite of his death in the novel...). 

The novel, as well, is better at establishing that wwx’s antics are generally not because he’s just being a troublemaker, but that they are a way in which he garners information, gets people to act the way he needs them to or misdirect them. For instance, in cql, when lwj destroys wwx’s (well, nhs’s) spring book in the library, wwx looks genuinely pained and affronted--in the novel, it is clearly shown that, when wwx realized lwj intended to bring the spring book to lqr, he intentionally made him angry so that he would destroy the evidence himself. the point of the prank was also to not only get a reaction out of lwj, but also (reading btw the lines) wwx’s way of trying to leave a lasting impression on lwj now that his punishment was over. Differently put, while wwx can do directionless pranks,  more often than not, they have an underlying meaning/goal instead of just being for Attention(TM) in general. In contrast, the web series is full of missed opportunities in terms of characterisation, and is so from the very beginning (I find extremely disappointing how they decided to adapt the mo mansion and dafan mountain arcs because of how important they are to establishing wwx’s character for the readers/viewers. Through these arcs, we get acquainted with the way he thinks and deduces information, and how he uses people’s perceptions of him and others to his advantage. If you can only read English, @pumpkinpaix‘s translation of the first few chapters might help get a better sense of the nuances). 

I’m not saying that wwx is portrayed as dumb in cql: but that his characterization is a lot more fuzzy and inconsistent, and that his intelligence is utilized mostly when wwx goes into his detective mode. As a result, I do feel like it undermines how analytical wwx is in all aspects of his life, making it easy to see him as, you know, someone who’s, like, half-smart, half-super-dumb. 

As for issue #2, part of it boils down to the fact that most of the obstacles to wangxian’s relationship had to be erased due to censorship. There no longer is homophobia/internalized homophobia to motivate moments of denial or internal conflict; there is no longer the phoenix mountain kiss to explain lwj’s reluctance to respond to wwx’s flirting after his rebirth (as I explored in one of my other meta post); there is no longer lwj’s failed confession and lwj’s mistaken belief that wwx knows of his feelings, etc. These vectors of tension help contextualise and explain why it takes so long for wwx to realize lwj’s feelings towards him (but let’s not forget that he does: after jinlintai, he starts to realize that lwj treats him especially well, which becomes a certainty after the second siege). the cql production team had no choice but to take these elements away. 

that being said, by adding new or by changing moments to support the subtext and to please (bl-danmei) fans, the show actually takes away even more vectors of tension/misunderstanding between wwx and lwj, and makes wwx’s crush seem even more obvious and straight-forward. Take for instance the mo mansion arc. In the novel, wwx sees the Lan disciples’ white robes and has this moment of reflection that he recognizes the robes, and sees danger in the fact that the Lan sect is involved, thinking he should leave but knowing he can’t until he resolves the curse. in cql, we get a slow-pan flash-back of wwx’s first encounter with lwj, leaving him clearly emotional. The novel sets up the association as: white robes -> Lan Sect (subtext, Lan Zhan) -> orthodox/sticklers to rules/people i’ve met in my previous life who disapproved of modao -> danger! In cql, we have instead: whites robes -> Lan Zhan -> emotional reaction/I miss him. That fact is further driven home when wwx starts playing wuji on a blade of grass, ending with a soulfully whispered “lan zhan”. In terms of subtext, it sure lays it on thick: wwx does look like he has a big crush on lwj! But that destroys a big source of tension between them at the beginning: when wwx is summoned into mxy’s body, he thinks lwj hates him and disapproves of his methods and wants to bring him to gusu to punish him. That’s why he wants to run away at first, why he doesn’t disclose his identity to him and why it takes him a moment to understand lwj’s intentions. cql does not do a great job of setting that up. And the changes they make to the events of wwx’s first life, including changes to the timeline through which we are introduced to what happened in the past, makes it even more difficult to see how wwx could have misunderstood lwj’s intentions or his own feelings (again, in a queer or danmei-bl reading of the subtext). They go on a mission together! Spend a lot of time working together toward a similar goal!Lwj calls him his zhiji (”soulmate” as is often translated)! Lwj literally tries to save him from dying! The last thing wwx would remember when he wakes up in mxy’s body would be lwj holding onto his hand and screaming his name when he let go! Again, it does great for the subtext--but it makes it really difficult to understand why wwx would misunderstand lwj’s intentions and feelings, and it makes his own feelings toward lwj seem quite obvious. 

Overall, the changes in the themes, genre, events, narrative timeline, characterisation and much more in adapting mdzs into cql have been an important influence explaining why the fandom has this vision of wwx as dumb/oblivious. It reminds me of the way some people on tumblr like to talk about Mr. Darcy as “shy” and “awkward” based on the movie pride and prejudice 2005, which totally misses the point of Mr Darcy and his character as portrayed by Jane Austen--but, if people have only or mainly engaged with this specific adaptation, it is not necessarily surprising that they hold this frankly misguided interpretation due to the choices made by the film production team. 

In contrast, in the novel, we are shown a lot to help us understand why wwx comes to the wrong conclusions or might not understand his own feelings and reactions. But that’s for all for another post!

[sortasirius]

Nah actually I’m not done, I’m seeing too many bad takes to shut up about it.

SO many people seem to agree with the sentiment that “sTrAiGhT mEn cAnT bE fRiEnDs AnYmOrE” which is…….incredibly stupid on a lot of levels.

I get the idea, people shipping everything in fandom can be annoying I guess, although I really don’t understand how that effects people who aren’t involved in fandom, but the idea that men can’t go to a bar anymore because people are “exploiting” queer people is absolutely laughable.

People shipping straight characters isn’t exploiting homosexuality, it’s searching for representation in a place where there is none. If two people have chemistry, people are going to ship them, that’s truly just the way fandom is, there is no point policing it. And funny how it’s never an issue when people ship a heterosexual couple, but as soon as it’s gay it’s exploitation and fetishization.

And let’s not forget….the whole show in question is theoretically about men being friends with each other and having deep and impactful relationships with one another. And there’s. Not a single. Queer person. In the show. In fact, there hasn’t been a single queer person in any of the shows or movies in the MCU (yes I AM ignoring Anthony Russo in Endgame lol). That’s not an actor’s fault, not at all, but to say that people are somehow making it impossible for men to be friends is a wildly stupid take.

I get it, lines get crossed between fandom and reality all the time. People don’t understand boundaries and parasocialize with their favorite celebrities without their consent. I’m not saying that it’s wrong to not see a relationship as being platonic. (As many people have brought up, Chris Evans has said things similar to that in the past). The issue is not “shipping”, the issue is that statements like queer relationships being “pure” and pesky fans “twisting” things that aren’t actually there, is that it gives rise to the hordes of people who now feel perfectly happy spewing their own prejudices about queer fans and queer people.

Also, I don’t like the idea that queer relationships are inherently “pure” because they aren’t. I’ve been in queer relationships, they had their shitty moments just like anyone else’s do. They can be toxic and abusive and awful, because they aren’t “pure” they’re human relationships that are flawed.

I get it, I’m a fierce defender of fandom. I found so many friends and a safe place in dark times in fandom. So I get that I may be speaking from a defensive place, but I don’t think so. All I can see is another man who’s uncomfortable with queer fandom spaces trying to make it seem like queer people are somehow victims when people want to see two characters hold hands. Yeah sure, there’s explicit fanfic written about these characters, but seriously, you’ve got to actively seek that out to see it, a random passerby isn’t going to somehow fall into the deep depths of AO3.

There are plenty of issues in fandom, plenty of issues with the sexualization of characters and shipping culture. But wanting to see a couple of men or women holding hands is not one of those issues. People are allowed to want to see representation in their favorite characters, and it’s not “exploiting homosexuality” to create your own fanon about those characters.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to poor wording and leading questions, I do understand what he was supposed to be getting at, but it’s opened the floodgates of people now saying that all shipping is gross, only straight women ship things and they’re all fetishizers. That’s the problem here. It’s not about shipping. It’s about the way fandom gets constantly demonized for just wanting to vibe with their favorite characters and see themselves represented in media.

[bae-science]

it’s t-t-t-t-time for another newt bae-science fic rec extravabonanza! same rules, same boys, same bullshit! let’s get into it:

a beginning; a second chance by @dykesword

other newt and i have a long and intricate ritualistic battle to become the alpha newt, but i gotta give credit where it’s due. if you like to annotate your books for fun, this fic will give you a looooong comment you’ll want to write, and for good reason! there’s a lot of really well done metaphor and character detail in here, while still keeping a very soft, melancholy but with a hopeful edge tone. and also, like, the care and detail in which newt’s mental state in the aftermath of the precursors’ abuse is depicted is so so good, and delightful to read

husbandly duties by @kingeiszler

i am soooo biased with this one bc technically it was made for me but GODDAMN it’s good. this shit has everything: gottlieb trio sibling dynamics, vanessa in giant femme earrings, hermann yearning, newt and karla infodumping together, newt’s terrible and accurate gaydar, gay crime, the newmann dynamic and why it works boiled down to its bare essentials, pride and prejudice glasses touch, and neon green acrylics. required reading for the vanessaverse

Say That Again by @robertfrobisherslover

WOOF. if you like mutual pining and lack of communication from men with rocks for their emotional processing centers, and guncle (gay uncle) newt and hermann and KILLER artsy sex scenes, and themes of words unsaid in a story about LANGUAGE..... oogoogogoogouhufug. the writing style is clear and well paced, i LOVE little mako’s scene she’s such a cutie, and there’s like. a line. that’s a play on the whole “it’s always been you” trope. that lives in my mind rent free forever.

speak right to my heart without saying a word by @thekaidonovskys

i’m just gonna paste the comment i left on it here, because that sums up what is so absolutely incredible about this fic the best:

so sometimes you stumble on a piece of fiction that you add to your little collection of stuff you would show a person if you wanted them to understand a part of you that you can't quite explain eloquently, or it would take too long, etc etc, and i've never really found something like that for my autism until now, which, like, poggers. and i'll be as straight up as i can while still being the biggest lesbian in the great state of ohio (not a hard feat but alan invented computers so i love continuing on the autistic tradition of being a living miracle), the chameleon effect hit me like a mack truck. catholic school in the deep south is the most potent and effective form of ABA therapy imaginable :/. so sometimes i wonder what i would be like if i didn't have such a strong ability to pass, and here's where we finally get to the part of this comment where i just vomit compliments at you: you nailed it. you got it. i don't know if you're on the spectrum, but either way, well fucking done. trauma therapy research talks a lot about healing fantasies, which are fantasies, usually in the form of daydreams, that abused/neglected/traumatized/etc people create that directly address a struggle they have and take the form of a scenario in which that struggle is helped in some way. it could be an abusive parent repenting and showering them with the love they never had, or someone finding them during a panic attack and somehow knowing how best to comfort them without having to ask, or being intimate with someone and having a scar or physical deformity they've been shamed for be given attention and care. and i think you have created the ultimate perfect healing fantasy for autistic people, or at least those with """"high functioning"""" autism. it has a character who is visibly and undeniably on the spectrum having the pain and trauma going through life like that causes being acknowledged and validated, they are purposefully paid attention to because person b genuinely likes them and wants to understand and respect who they are and how they function in the world, and thus get The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known as well as the eventual rewards of being loved, person b makes a genuine effort to help teach them social skills in a way they can understand and learn through and is there for them when these skills are being practiced, their space and boundaries are respected but they aren't infantilized or thought of as an emotionless robot, and they receive love and comfort on their own terms not despite of but because of who they are, even specifically being asked not to change the way they are because that way is lovable. they are openly desired. writing is my fucking JOB and it's still difficult to put into words how much you got 100000% right about the dream with this fic. i have been in the EXACT and i mean EXACT same situation as hermann when he asked newt if it was his personality itself that made people not like him, because i deadass made a spreadsheet of all my personality attributes i thought could be preventing me from making friends in college, and then asked my fellow nd friend to see if there was anything i was missing. so i guess what i'm trying to say is that this amazing, and i'm bookmarking it and putting it on my next fic rec post, and maybe one day way way in the future if i ever get a partner i want to explain the whole autism thing to, i'm gonna have them read this.

The Facts With Newton Geiszler, PhD by what_alchemy (NSFW)

storytime: i read this fic a few years ago, completely forgot the title and author, and ended up thinking about the part where hermann admits to having fucked a trailer hitch when he was a teenager, at least once a week. last november, i say to my friend samara on twitter, head of the BSHCU (buttslut hermann cinematic universe), hey this seems like something you’d have read, do you remember a fic where... and samara says FUCK i do know what you’re talking about lemme find it. so if the fact that i have been looking for this fic for like, two years, and that it contains a moment so iconic all i had to say is, “hermann says he fucked a trailer hitch” and she IMMEDIATELY knew what i was talking about, does not convince you to read this... go back to catholic school i guess.

Feeling Blue by TempusPetrichor

fics where newt goes back to work as a biologist, especially a xenobiologist, post pru are really interesting, and usually have something neat to say about recovery, how it isn’t linear, how it often involves us returning to things we love for comfort, etc. this one sure does! some good emotional and physical h/c, LOVE the use of the ghost drift, and it’s always fun to see post pru fics use dialogue very obviously taken from dbt, trauma-specific therapeutical texts, and anything that shows the author has experience with, or did their research on, ptsd therapies.

You’re Everyone That Ever Cared by KlavierWrites

you know a fic is good when it’s an only 9k slowburn and still manages to reach infinite regress levels of are you fucking KIDDING GO TO THERAPY. newt “acts of service” geiszler may have a little misplaced misogyny due to his broken woman-centric gaydar. as a treat. the fucking. post-drift scene where hermann subtextually screams “LOOK IN OUR BRAINS YOU FUCK I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU I JUST HAVE AUTISM AND CAREER IN STEM DISORDER” is soooooo. god just hermann in general in that scene is great. if you like classic mid 2010s era newmann, ghost drift romance, and good ole mutual pining, this is a treat.

Baby, You're Hotter than my Bunsen Burner by SkySongMA

moronosexual hermann representation is something that can actually be so personal

Times of Stress by RadioMoth

the boys are processinggggggg. man what a good, quick and powerful punch to the gut. if you like post-pr1 catharsis and physical h/c, AND are the one friend that likes to comment at the end of the movie that hey newt got beat the fuck UP, check this one out.

black tea by @faggotcas

okay first of all, god fucking tier url, lee. second of all, food as a love language is my SHIT. i love the very slow relationship development here, where you see them making a genuine effort to get along and that in turn leading to feelings reigniting. it’s such a sweet little moment of a fic, with a nice atmosphere and tone to fit it

now here’s the part where i usually drop my latest fic, but i haven’t written one this month because i’ve been busy launching an audio drama! you can find it here, it’ll be right up your alley if you like cryptids and gay scientists and enemies to lovers and good ole americana, but since this is a newmann post, i’m gonna recommend the pacific rim audio drama duology i did a while back! part one is called conversations from the brink, and it’s a little slice of the pr3 we better fucking get from streaming that godawful looking anime. love and lesbians to everyone ❤️

[blue-shaded]

Home Alone 2 is problematic

I hate Home Alone 2 and think the DJT cameo is the least of its political problems. I am going to make this as short as possible because, as my beleaguered friends can attest, this is a rant I have gone on repeatedly recently. While this is one of my hottest of takes usually reserved only for private circles, I will finally present my thesis publicly. I will take not questions and make no follow up posts. Thank you.

Home Alone 2 is fucked up. It is a degenerate's holiday film.

Kevin McAllister is a rich, white, suburban American kid whose stupid family is obscenely wealthy. Not just his immediate family, but his extended family as well. Not only is the McAllister dynasty wealthy enough to support a Parisian vacation over the holidays with 11 horrible children, but the other McAllister terror cell they are visiting is rich enough to be kicking it back in Paris while their entire multifloor Manhattan townhouse undergoes extensive renovations. This is a family whose wealth knows no measure or limit. The financial security Kevin enjoys as an upper class young boy cannot be overstated. Kevin McAllister is a boy with no concept whatsoever of want besides superficial desires like cheese pizza.

In Home Alone 2, Kevin finds himself lost in Manhattan with his father's credit card. For all intents and purposes, Kevin has unlimited money to do whatever he wants. So he does. He goes to The Plaza Hotel, one of the most luxurious hotels in the city, and tricks the staff in to giving him a room. While we are meant to be impressed with Kevin's antics, this is only the beginning of a long series of humiliations he exerts over the service workers at this hotel as Kevin lords over them all with his generational wealth.

While Home Alone 1 has Kevin defending himself from would be home invaders in a life threatening situation, the service staff at The Plaza poses no such threat to him. They are not invading his space, he is invading theirs. Every single one of them are there because it's their job to be. They are doing their jobs - over the holidays no less - as Kevin manipulates them to fulfill his luxurious whims. We are meant to find it hilarious how he degrades and debases them. He doesn't tip them, he subjects them to repeated embarrassment, and ultimately makes them afraid for their lives as he simulates a mass shooting. We saw a glimpse of this in Home Alone 1 with the pizza delivery boy, but in Home Alone 2, Kevin's treatment of the wage staff at this hotel is inhumane. What we see here is that upper class Kevin exerting unearned dominance over the working class with extreme prejudice.

There is not a single hotel employee that has done anything to earn Kevin's abuse beyond do their jobs. Yet he makes them afraid they will be murdered if they dare step out of line. This is shameful.

However, where the movie is really beyond the pale is in regards to Kevin's relationship with "the pigeon lady." This homeless woman isn't even given the dignity of a name in this film. At first, Kevin perceives her with fear and disgust. He attempts to run from her but fumbles and becomes stuck. She helps him and Kevin momentarily shows a glimmer of humanity as he realizes it was wrong to be afraid of her. This moment of empathy is brief however as Kevin's selfishness and sociopathy does not allow for any actual understanding of anyone below his social class.

This woman explains that she wasn't always homeless. She once had a home and a man she loved very much but it ended badly. This incident gave her PTSD and now she is distrustful of others and is unable to function in society. She calmly and bravely opens up to Kevin about her past trauma and her subsequent dehumanization in an uncaring society that forsakes the mentally ill. And do you know how Kevin responds? He says yeah, he gets it, because he's the youngest in his disgusting family. He then tells her to get over it and that only by opening herself up to love again will she ever not be a homeless lady covered in bird shit again. Straight up, to her vulnerable face, Kevin tells a homeless woman that she is responsible for her own prolonged destitution and that if she wants people to treat her better she needs to get over her mental illness. Kevin then goes home to his luxury hotel where he has every whim of his indulged by service workers he humiliates.

Seriously, he has unlimited money. He couldn't have gotten her a place to stay? Or invited her to stay with him? He couldn't share his unlimited food with her? He didn't even offer to let her take a shower. He descends from his nearly-llteral ivory tower, blames a shit covered mentally ill homeless woman who suffers nonstop dehumanization that she needs to get over her PTSD, and at the end of a movie he gives her a fucking bird ornament to show her how much he cares about her. How does he sleep at night in his king size bed at The Plaza Hotel knowing that someone who opened up to him about her inescapable poverty and trauma is sleeping on the street in the cold? What is wrong with this monster?

Home Alone 2 is a perverse Christmas Carol. It is the story of a spoiled rich young boy whose time with the working class and the poor motivates him to torment or abandon them. Even his supposedly virtuous gesture of preventing the toy store robbery costs him nothing. It's not his money. It's not his donation. Kevin does nothing except take a tour of what it's like to be less fortunate than him and live it up in a Trump Hotel. The Wet Bandits were right to want to kill Kevin and I always hope they catch him.

It is a disgraceful film and I hate it with my life. It is perfect that Trump is in this movie. Perfect.

this is an interesting thread.

[madsdefencesquad]

So, and since this is a defence squad for our gal Madison: any headcanons about her? Who's Madison, after all? Why isn't she close with her family? Is Kate her only friend? Let's talk... :D

A CONVO ABOUT MY GIRL IS THE BEST CONVO THERE IS! (ILYYYY) Fair warning though, this is going to get looooooong hahah

Okay so, who is this delightfully quirky lady that just so happened to charm her way into our hearts and Kate’s and eventual-love-of-her-life Kevin’s?

It’s actually quite interesting trying to piece together a full picture of who Madison really is since the very beginning when we first meet her to now as a mama to her soon-to-be miracle twinnies. Initially, I actually thought she was just going to be there as the comic relief; the quirky best friend who’ll probably end up sleeping with the hot brother and then that’s it, but my goodness am I glad to be proven wrong on that front haha

From all the instances that we’ve seen her and from the facts that we do know about her, I see Madison, above all, as a severely underestimated and prejudiced person, who is beyond selfless and generous to the point that it hurts to think that through that seemingly upbeat confidence of hers, she ultimately has such an insecurity about herself about being loved and accepted for who she is.

And I think that does stem from her childhood/family/school. Her ED history began in middle school so she was obviously already having such a rough time even as a child. Bulimia can be caused by a number of factors, but judging from the way she talked about how she couldn’t call her family when she fainted and hurt herself, it could mean that they are a pretty significant reason as to why she has ED. That and/or school/bullying issues that her family didn’t take seriously. I can imagine her not being taken seriously because no one really does take her seriously at all throughout the show until Kate did and that was because she was at her lowest point (getting herself physically hurt).

But despite that, Madison was head cheerleader and “one of those Bar Mitzvah party starters in college” type of girls, so I can totally imagine pre-judging her as that super cute but rather vapid blonde girl, who laughs and smiles too easily and is an absolute party-animal (and drunk snorer LOL!) that no one takes seriously. And you know what, she pretty much was! But like every character we see in every teen drama show/movie who seem to have it all together, Madison was everything but.

And that’s why she’s never had a real best friend except for Kate and a lasting romantic relationship. Friends-wise, we know she has “friends” who’ve set her up on dates before, but really, they’re just acquaintances whom she “befriends” and are “super tight” with because she’s charming and bubbly and again, would give everything and everyone her 100% attention and care. They take and take from Madison, but at the same time, she just gives and gives and gives. Like girl, stop and just TREAT YO SELF.

It’s the same with romantic relationships. She charms them with her usual perky and appealing self and the fact that she’s also really gorgeous, but then that’s it for them. They’re not giving her a chance to show them who she truly is with all her insights and quirks and flaws. They just want what she’s showing them and like old Kevin, once it gets too complicated or deep, they’re out.

From what we’ve seen of Madison, I see her as someone who genuinely cares for others so much to the point that it actually clashes from the person that we’re expected to associate her with - someone who does it because she’s just a people-pleaser, attention-seeker, etc. BUT SHE JUST ISN’T. And that’s what makes her so nuanced for just a recurring character. Every instance since her and Kate became friends, she has shown nothing but genuine care, affection and love for Kate and for baby Jack and to some extent, the Pearsons. She goes out of her way for them, she uses her own funds, and her own time, and all without getting anything in return (still low-key mad at Kevin for being mean to her at The Waiting Room and for the Pearsons for not standing up to her except for Miguel!!!).

People make fun of her but she brushes it off (her taking Kate dress-shopping still gets me in my uwu) but she keeps trying, she keeps being there, and she keeps improving herself so she can be there for them. Like, she listens to relationship podcasts all the time because she wants to make it work. She craves intimacy, but the true kind where nothing is hidden and you aren’t judged for it and you can just love and be loved in return. Girl, errbody wants that!

But where she really shines is where her heart truly is. Even when she’s hurt, she’ll still put others’ need above hers (i.e. inviting Kevin over tea even though she was hurting and Kevin’s not exactly her favourite person lol), and how she values true, genuine relationships over anything else (i.e. telling Kate she slept with Kevin because she didn’t want to lose her best friend over a mind-blowing but selfish night with the hot brother). 

Her crying at the doctor’s office because she can’t believe that she’s pregnant is a testament to just how incredible she is as a person. She’s struggled all her life to find people who will accept her and love her as she is and she then she finally does with Kate! But of course, she stuffs it up by getting pregnant with her brother. And she thinks that’s it. Everything has fallen apart. But then, then she gets her miracle babies. The only two (little) people she knows who will love her and accept for who she is because she’s their mother. And despite her expectation of losing her best friend and being outwardly rejected by the father of her children, after a nudge to see past one’s prejudice of people (of which she has been suffering from all her life!!!!), she risks it and tells Kevin and all without expecting anything from him. Like damn, Madison. Damn.

Also, she is actually so witty and her humour is spot on. Sure, she can be a little in your face (that upside down comment still gets me howling every time), and she may have trouble reading the room a little bit (again, The Waiting Room), but we also need to understand that she has no idea that there are deep issues running within the Pearsons, and/or that they’re in the middle of fights or whatever. She’s really just trying her best to provide some light and life and humour, even if does come across as her being a little stupid (that toothpaste comment omgg).

I could go on and on but seriously, Madison is one of my favourite characters in the show for those reasons above. She is the epitome of sacrificial love, and honestly, as much as I love Kevin, if he so much as hurts Madison even once, he is going to get it hahah but also seriously. Do not try me, number one!

[thebastardofgloucester]

So...The Rise of Skywalker (Spoilers, obviously)

No Star Wars movie is anywhere close to perfect. Frankly, they all have serious flaws of logistics or plot logic or characterisation changes or deus ex machinas or lack of originality (which includes A New Hope when you look at its inspirations). It's pointless and silly to pretend otherwise. At its best, Star Wars overcomes that with captivating characters, glorious spectacle, and John Williams.

I think you'll all be familiar with how much I disliked The Last Jedi (and chafed at being lumped in for disliking the movie in with bigots, unimaginative fanboys, and the like).

I liked The Rise of Skywalker. A lot. It had more than enough to offset its major shortcomings, in my opinion. It was not 'soulless,' it was not a complete recreation of Return of the Jedi anymore than The Last Jedi was a rough retelling of The Empire Strikes Back, and it was not as bad or incoherent as Attack of the Clones, jfc are you high

There are certain areas where I am more sympathetic to that not being the case for some people than others. I don't think it completely junked The Last Jedi, but it did demonstrate a huge gap in creative visions, preferred plot structures, and other priorities. Blame for that should not lie with JJ Abrams (or Chris Terrio) or Rian Johnson, who did what they thought was best, and what they were hired to do, and what they thought audiences would enjoy. It should lie with the Lucasfilm story group and Kathleen Kennedy, who had every opportunity to make a trilogy with a united vision and simply declined to do so. (There are a set of different issues with Disney that I'll get to)

Anyway, here's my take on individual components.

Rey ‘Palpatine’

We might as well start with the single most contentious part of the film, and where it is perceived (wrongly, in my opinion) to clash the most with The Last Jedi: Rey being of the Palpatine bloodline.

Rey's arc was about pushing past her own past traumas and doubts and the repeated attempts of other people to define who she was to make her own identity. It is about the refutation of destiny, of genetic determinism. I'm not really sure how anyone really came away with a different impression. I understand being annoyed that Rey couldn't just come from nothing, but call me an annoying fanboy - I wanted some explanation for how Rey was a match for the grandson of literal Space Jesus. Anakin being the most powerful Jedi ever born (and how he was failed by those who were supposed to guide him to that destiny) is kind of central to the entire mythology of Star Wars. Is it reductive and elitist? I guess. I certainly enjoy having Jedi not born of the Skywalker bloodline in the old EU and the Clone Wars/Rebels story. I was frustrated by killing off all of Luke's students as part of resetting the universe in The Force Awakens, and never learning anything about them.

Honestly, as somebody who was in the Rey Skywalker camp (and wrote fanfiction to that effect!), I was glad to be wrong. This was better. It gave Rey more agency, and emphasized found family.

The exposition is weird and clunky. JJ clearly meant for Rey to have some kind of blood link to the previous mythology of the series - you cannot watch the sequence in Maz's castle and tell me otherwise. Rian didn't want to tell that story. JJ did. Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm threw their hands up in the air and Disney raked in the cash. Looking at that Maz castle beat, there's a very good case to be made that Rey was supposed to be either a Skywalker or a Solo, and Palpatine was JJ's attempt to not completely throw out Rian's idea (that her parents went into hiding, becoming 'no one,' abandoning her and being killed somewhere else - their motivations in TLJ (drunks ditching her) are imputed by Kylo and Rey's own fears of abandonment, remember).

Weirdly, I think that of the outcomes, Palpatine was the best one. Explaining how Rey ends up alone on Jakku when she's related to either Luke or Leia is pretty hard without further damaging their characters. Palpatine having lovers, mistresses, whatever before Mace melted his face is gross but entirely plausible. The timeline is...confusing - I guess there's enough basis for Palpatine still having agents running around, chasing down Rey, that even years after his death Rey's parents would leave her behind in an attempt to protect her. It's a bit muddy, but so was Anakin being Luke and Leia's father before we had the prequels. A novel here would probably help if it is written competently)

The point is that Rey's arc refutes genetic destiny. Instead of being afraid of her, as the Jedi were of Anakin (and to an extent, the Skywalkers were of Ben) Luke and Leia (specifically Leia) allow her to grow into her own person, and ultimately she chooses to take the name Skywalker to honor them (and Ben's sacrifice). The problem in my mind is less that Rey is a Palpatine by blood or a Skywalker by choice, and more that she's the only Jedi standing at the end of the trilogy. Making Finn's absolutely obvious force sensitivity a bigger deal narratively in TROS would have helped a lot (more on that later). And we still have the important implications of Broom Boy! He's not erased from existence, there simply wasn't room for his story in these 2.5 hours.

The First Act (and a bit)

The first 30 minutes or so of The Rise of Skywalker are...nuts. They feel less like a movie and more like a series of trailers or a 'previously on' for a movie we never saw. It's about as well done as it could be at establishing plot threads, the situation of the Resistance v the First Order, and where characters are starting from, as you could reasonably expect, but it's like cramming the entirety of the Jabba's Palace segment of Return of the Jedi into about half its runtime, at most.

What it comes down to, and I said this at the time, is that The Last Jedi is a very bad sequel to The Force Awakens. That doesn't (REPEAT: DOES NOT) make it bad film, or even a bad Star Wars film. But in terms of what the middle movie of a planned trilogy should be. It is. Not Good. JJ had seeded hints of Rey's origins and opened a bunch of mysteries. You can contend that he never intended or was never capable of answering them, and I think that's entirely unfair and reducing JJ's opus to the unsatisfying ending of 'Lost' is stupid and lazy, but they were there. The Last Jedi threw all of that out with extreme prejudice. I deeply disliked that; other people didn't. Either way, you had a problem (and you would have had even more of a problem if Colin Trevorrow had directed Episode IX as planned - this could have been SO. MUCH. WORSE.). The Rise of Skywalker is a natural sequel to The Force Awakens, though Palpatine's return could have been foreshadowed much better (or at all, if we're honest?) and it really makes me wonder how much changed from the first drafts of The Force Awakens to the version of The Rise of Skywalker we saw on screen.

I saw some criticisms that we had to read the tie-in material (including a bit from Fortnite??) to understand all the specifics of what planets these were, who Kylo Ren was murdering, etc...I don’t really think any of that was particularly important. It actually opens up a ton of new storytelling opportunities and made the universe feel big again, which The Last Jedi didn’t, at least for me. Apparently the planet Kylo is fighting on is Mustafar. That...doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense (maybe we finally have a Star Wars world that isn’t a single biome?) but it wasn’t actually that important. We saw Kylo searching for the Sith Wayfinder and murdering anybody in his way, we saw Poe and Finn being pursued from one end of the universe to another, and we got the 16 hour deadline before the fleet was ready (which was...weird, admittedly, but not in the slightest less weird that the fleet running out of fuel on a slow-motion chase or needing to fly off to an entirely different system to find a ‘code breaker’ to counter a techo gadget thing that let you trace people through hyperspace.

And yeah, if you are going to forgive The Last Jedi the dumb codebreaker/fuel shit which led to the detached Canto Bight B plot, you have to just acknowledge the Wayfinder thing as a macguffin that gets the plot moving in a certain direction and gives a clear path from narrative point a to narrative point b. Rian is not ahead of JJ on this aspect.

The subsequent fetch quest is less about the macguffin and more about the character beats on the way. Kylo and his boy band pursue Rey, Rey realizes her powers are kinda scary and hella impressive (including the healing mechanic, which is entirely precedented in past canon), you get to see some brilliant, funny, and touching moments between the trio we were not allowed in The Last Jedi, Rey discovers hints about her past, and Lando shows up.

We also get to my least favorite part of the film.

Poe Dameron is Better Than This

I do not understand why they ret-conned Poe into having a past as a smuggler, or why Keri Russell’s character was even necessary. You could explain it as youthful rebellion, maybe after Poe’s mom Shara Bey died (both his parents were Rebel veterans - that’s a lot of pressure), but it fits awkwardly into the established timeline.

The one good thing that came out of it was a moment where Poe is tempted to leave the Resistance, but that only makes sense because of Poe’s terrible hotheaded, reckless characterization in The Last Jedi, neither of which at all fit with his portrayal in the Poe Dameron comics (which are excellent). Poe eventually gets where he needs to be, and the conversation with Lando after Leia passes is one of the best moments of the film, and justified bringing Lando all by itself. Oscar Isaac is apparently really frustrated with Poe’s character and I cannot blame him. Rian Johnson started this weirdness, and it is one of the greatest flaws of The Last Jedi and more people need to acknowledge how racist it was to reduce a 30-something brown-skinned veteran to an impulsive, out of control idiot who gets physically and verbally smacked around by two white women, and JJ didn’t really try to fix it. I guess his arc kinda works in a vacuum. I still deeply dislike it. Cutting that entire section down to the bare bones would have made more room for...

Finn and the Triad

The dynamic between Finn, Poe, and Rey was fantastic. There is abundant basis for Finn and Poe to be canon romantic interests, and I cannot conclude it was anything but Disney’s cowardice that prevented that from happening (and honestly, same for Finn and Rey). JJ is no more to blame than Rian - I genuinely believe this came from higher up. It sucks. A lot. What we do get is precious, and frankly makes Rian’s argument for separating them (that they would get along and it would be boring) kinda silly. They are also incredibly funny together - John, Isaac, and Daisy play off each other so damn well, and I was cackling when the Falcon was on fire and Poe was mad about BB-8.

Finn is absolutely force sensitive. It is apparently what he was trying to say to Rey, he has feelings that turn out to be correct like three times, he wielded a lightsaber with some proficiency in The Force Awakens. It’s canon. Why it isn’t explicit is a function of the Force User plot becoming divorced from Finn and Poe in The Last Jedi. JJ and Terrio also could have fixed that, and chose not to.

We got a tantalizing glimpse of what could have been with Janna and the other defectors. It was really good, but it wasn’t nearly enough, and I am Mad about it. To borrow from some great ideas on twitter, Janna could have revealed that her unit heard about Finn on Jakku and it inspired them to defect. They could have together swayed a bunch of reluctant stormtroopers to rebel (they were otherwise just treated as facist canon-fodder, which, not great when a lot of them are child soldiers!). It was perfectly set up from TFA and they just...dropped the ball.

Like I said, I’m Mad. TLJ did nothing with Finn as a defector or the child soldier thing in general, and TROS did the bare minimum. Huge, huge wasted opportunity. We got promises that we’d get to find out more about who Finn is and...we didn’t, or at least, not in the theatrical cut. TLJ had a scene of Finn and Phasma talking about his being a traitor/defector. Rian cut it down to a fight scene and the ‘Rebel Scum’ line. Writers jail for both of them, tbh, though JJ clearly cared about Finn (he’s why the character exists as he does, as why Boyega was cast, and maybe if TLJ doesn’t make Kylo into Rey’s co-protagonist we get something different. I'm not going to blame Rian for something JJ could have fixed if he cared to.

And least we got something, I guess.

Kylo Ben

I think the first time I actually cared about Ben Solo as a character was when Kylo symbolically ‘died,’ and Ben was saved by Rey’s healing abilities. That was excellent writing, even if it was not subtle. I liked Leia and Han (as part of Ben’s memories) have a role in helping him find some sort of redemption. I was frustrated and mad that Anakin Skywalker’s grandkid could be a straight up space fascist with even fewer redeeming qualities. He still deserved to die. He had no family to go back to and he was directly responsible for thousands of innocent deaths and closely linked to the death of trillions. Like Vader, you don’t just come back from that.

Like Anakin, Ben made his own choices. Was he manipulated by Snoke/Palpatine? Sure. He still had multiple occasions to chose differently and did not. It’s part of his flaws as a character. Han and Leia did their best as parents - we find out Leia even abandoned her Jedi training because she was afraid for her son. Ben’s inevitable fall (which mirrors that of Jacen Solo, a truly fascinating character who I will always be Mad about) soured the sequel trilogy from the start in some ways, but it is hard to envision it without Ben turning. I don’t know. I think without Ben being who he was we simply have a different set of movies.

The kiss is...I don’t even know. Rey clearly cared about Ben, and believed he could change, but also refused to compromise who she was in order to pull him back to the light. I would have vastly preferred a forehead kiss or something along those lines.

On balance I’m glad he got a Vader redemption. I think Palpatine came back in part because Ben simply was not a particularly captivating villain, and without him to provide contrast and make the stakes clear, Ben’s redemption is not possible, and that’s arguably an even worse outcome, especially given how he was manipulated so much at an impressionable age. I’m really glad Leia had a chance to influence his turn as her final act in this life (Carrie deserved a better ending but it was the best they could do after Carrie’s death imo).

Grandpa Palps

First, Palpatine finding a way to survive and setting up multiple contingency plans to return to power is completely in keeping with his portrayal in both the old and Nu EUs (a big part of the post-Endor stuff is Operation Cinder, where Palpatine posthumously ordered the scouring of dozens of Imperial loyalist worlds to spread fear and prevent the Empire from continuing without him). Palpatine also LOVES his superweapons - he built two Death Stars, ffs. A fleet of them is not exactly a stretch in terms of strategy. The Rise of Skywalker definitely felt like it owed a debt to one of the more divisive bits of the old Star Wars EU - the Dark Empire series of comics by Tom Veitch and Kevin J Anderson, which have cloned Palpatines, Luke turning to the Dark Side, an ungodly number of superweapons, and a planet where Palpatine hides and builds them after his defeat.

I don’t think his survival ruins Anakin’s arc - Anakin’s actions still destroyed Palpatine’s Empire (that he helped to build) and its 26 year reign of terror. The galaxy got 30 years of relative peace and then a war that was not nearly as destructive or large scale as the Galactic Civil War. People saying it makes Anakin’s arc irrelevant are just being silly.

Retconning Snoke to a cloned puppet (probably an unwitting one) is actually not a bad writing choice. It explains why he was such a cardboard cut-out villain, and why he was so easily defeated. Honestly, I’m far more okay with how he died in The Last Jedi now that I know this (even if the pacing and the placement of that scene is still utterly bizarre).

The new EU set up cults and fanatics around the Dark Side and its avatars in the emperor and Vader. None of that felt particularly implausible to me as a result.

Legacies in the Sequel Trilogy

I really loved the ‘thousand generations live in you’ conceit. I loved the power of the old Jedi, snuffed out by Palpatine, helping Rey defeat him one last time (including my girl Ahsoka, RIP, I'm sure you went out like a badass). These are legacies and powers that don’t require blood ties or dynasties, they just rely on the force spanning the whole of the GFFA.

Ben is offered the chance to either turn away from his grandfather’s dark path early enough to warrant redemption, or to follow it through until the end. He actually chooses to do neither. With Leia’s dying intercession, he ends up following Anakin’s path to an extent, but his story is ultimately about the tragedy of expectations, fears, and the immense weight of the Skywalker name and legacy. All of his family are caught up in it. Rey is mostly apart from it, and then explicitly subverts her destiny to be Palpatine’s heir, and faces her fear of ending up there, by intent or just fate. As Luke says, some things are stronger than blood. Rey’s story is the ultimate testament to that, and it’s a pretty powerful message.

Leia. Oh god. I was absolutely thrilled when we found out she trained as a Jedi, and then served as Rey’s Jedi Master after Luke failed Rey so badly (after failing Ben). I think Luke’s story from TLJ to TROS is easily the most consistent, honestly. He made mistakes, both with Ben, and then with Rey, and he recognized it. The Rise of Skywalker acknowledges that Luke wasn’t right in how he handled training Rey either, and that went a long way to making me better accept how Rian portrayed him as flippant and dismissive and cynical.

Carrie’s absence was so badly felt. As I’ve said previously, I think they did the best job they could with the footage they held back and Carrie’s recorded audio. They managed to give her a relatively coherent story and an effect on the plot which she didn’t really have in The Last Jedi. I’ve seen speculation that it was supposed to be Leia, not Luke, who gave Rey that pep talk on Ahch-To, and in some ways it might have made more sense. Selfishly, I’m still glad it was Luke, because it helped reconcile my feelings about him in The Last Jedi. But they really did a great job in a really, really tough situation.

Rose Tico

Let’s just get it out there: the film’s treatment of Rose Tico and Kelly Marie Tran was inexcusably bad. Whether her character was a great addition to the cast in the Last Jedi or not, KMT faced horrendous abuse from various bigots and assholes, and after making a lot of public promises they reduced her to barely a minute of screen-time and no real impact on the plot. It’s shitty, it’s bad, and JJ and Disney should feel bad.

Introducing a character like Rose mid-way through a trilogy is risky, and while it worked with Lando, JJ clearly had no idea what to do with her. It’s just a mess, it’s the biggest black mark on the film, and on the sequel trilogy more broadly. Nobody comes out looking good here, and Rose Tico needs a Disney + series of her own or something. Protect Kelly Marie Tran at all costs.

The Rest

- Lando was great. So great. I wish we’d gotten the line that his daughter had been stolen by the First Order (and thus was potentially Janna) - we’d better get a book or a film or something. Lando’s conversation with Poe salvaged his character arc. Billy Dee Williams did a damn good job getting in shape for the role. He came out as genderfluid recently. He’s an absolute treasure and thank god they didn’t waste him.

- I just wanted to reiterate how HAPPY I AM THAT JJ ABRAMS MADE LEIA A JEDI HOLY SHIT

- It was a blink and you’ll miss it moment for people who didn’t read Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath series, but the death of Temmin ‘Snap’ Wexley in a battle where his step-dad (Wedge Antilles) made a brief appearance was devastating and I still don’t know how to feel about it.

- The space battles were awesome. Lando and Chewie bringing in the cavalry was what we were so cruelly teased for in The Last Jedi, which I am still mad about. Forget the logistics, forget the story logic, it was awesome. Maybe in the future I’ll be more annoyed. I honestly doubt it.

- Hux lives (and dies) for drama. He’s the pettiest son of a bitch in the GFFA, he would absolutely turn informant to win his fight with Kylo Ren, especially if he suspected that Kylo had killed Snoke and then was an incompetent child. His dying shortly thereafter is honestly exactly what the character deserved.

- On the cavalry moment, and the galaxy rising to destroy the First Order - I loved it in Return of the Jedi’s special edition, I love it here. There’s a thematic resonance with our heroes overcoming their fear and the galaxy at large being stirred to action. I just wish we’d gotten a few ragtag forces to show up at Crait, but that was a choice Rian made. I’m glad JJ chose differently. It was incredibly Star Wars.

- The 3PO stuff was weird, especially given how emotionally centred it was in the final trailers. It was also tied up in the Poe stuff I disliked. I don’t really know what else to say. At least R2D2, BB-8, and him felt like characters, not purely plot devices.

- Chewie - his reaction to losing Leia was absolutely devastating, his relationship with the next gen trio was great, and his death fake-out was...weird. I could go either way with that - killing him would have been a huge risk I could have respected, on the other hand if he was going to go out he deserved better than that (like, say, a moon getting dropped on him saving the life of Han Solo's kid). His ‘death’ did set up a crucial character beat for Rey. And there were, in fact, two transports, I remember that.

TLDR;

It was a fun movie! It tried to do way too much because The Last Jedi was not an effective sequel to The Force Awakens, and that’s on Kennedy and the LFL story group more than anyone else. It nailed the broad strokes of the Jedi/Force plot in my opinion, including subverting genetic destiny and the power of blood ties over everything else. In the process, it let a number of characters down, who were unfortunately also the characters of color, which is: not great.

I found it rewarding as a fan. It rewarded my faith in the goodness of the denizens of the GFFA and the power of found family. I’ve loved Rey from the start and I’m thrilled with how her arc ended with her burying the Skywalker legacy and making a new start with her new family in Poe and Finn (and Rose, damn it). I’m glad it made me feel better about Luke Skywalker and finally made Leia a bona-fide lightsaber wielding Jedi. I was exhilarated coming out of it, instead of exhausted and frustrated like I was in The Last Jedi. It didn’t make me hate Star Wars. It had extreme Return of the Jedi energy, and that is literally all I needed out of this film.

Here’s to a load of more complex, nuanced, and adventurous storytelling that the Skywalker saga never really allowed. I’m still excited for the prospect of Rian working with his own characters in the universe. I think JJ should probably be done.

Chuck Wendig said that the Star Wars universe was junk. Fun, whimsical, exciting, but ultimately not really a well-crafted piece of art. I’m inclined to agree.

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

The Second Law Chapter 10 Review Replies

Thanks to the following awesome people for reviewing last time: Longpig, Carol_Pau, UltraFirelily, Veronica, anything_past_or_present, EtherealPrince, Shorthairedme, hallowhead, mutedtempest, SpinningGround, GabsSherri, TiffanyBlue, that_emo_kid_in_the_corner, PetulantPanda, sophiebystarlight, garbage_dono, Nagisa94, Teehee, AfroditeOhki, NickyADon, Angela, Touched, DestiniesEntwined, Dasha, StarrBryte, VeronikaR, Lady Experiment, LordMortem, Miss_Lily, Discordia_s_Novelist, ahyeon, reyechan, KairaB, Amanda, Tsuyu Ryu, Little Sarafina, Pen, ukellyle, katicab, barbitone, Rosenthorne, KokoaKirkland, Ammaviel, COCO_HIMECHAN, ccdancer2003, Kaytoko, Blah, pinkychan, Cherryqueem, etienne18, lucyrne, analyticamethyst, EV_Oleander, Qwennie_simon, Hiccstridlover14, lehbarnes, notEriX, GrapeIcies, and Durolin. I appreciate your support and all of your kind words and questions, so much!

You can read individual review replies below! :)

Longpig: Actual Disney Princess Lotor ™. I just love the concept. Haha, I’m glad you do too!

Carol_Pau: Thank you for your kind review! I’m not usually one for romance movies myself, but Pride and Prejudice really stood out to me. I totally agree it’s fantastic! And ahhh, I’m so happy you enjoyed Lance’s tears, haha. feel like Lance would be the type of person who would cry during movies, because he’s just so open about his emotions, even when he tries not to be. As far as other ships, some might come into play. Zonerva (Zarkon/Honerva) will definitely affect the plot going forward. But that’s about the only ship that I can really guarantee at this point. I can guarantee that James Griffin will at least appear in TSL. Thanks again for reviewing!

UltraFirelily: Thank you for reviewing as always! I’m so glad you liked Disney Princess Lotor! He’s a precious bab, and I don’t think even Lance or Romelle can entirely deny that, haha. Thank you again for your kind words and support!

Veronica: Heya, thanks for letting me know about the name change, and for providing your ongoing support for this story! I am doing better now and trying to move past the events of last fall, although sometimes I still get down about it. I’m not letting it keep me down, though! I appreciate your kind words so much!

Anything_past_or_present: Ahh, TSL Lotor really does need all the cuddles he can get!  I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the silliness of this latest chapter—I love to see the paladins and Lotor having fun, and it was such a blast to write it, haha. Thank you for reviewing and providing support as always! It means a lot!

EtherealPrince: Bless you for enjoying the platonic Lotor and Pidge shenanigans! I’ll admit when I started TSL, it was purely with Lotura goals in mind. Since then, I’ve really come to enjoy writing the paladin shenanigans and Lotor and Pidge’s friendship. In fact, I probably enjoy writing that as much as I do Lotura, haha. I’m so glad you enjoy it too! Thanks again for reviewing!

Shorthairedme: Thank you for your review and support! Introduce Lotor to the wonders of cake, you say? What kind of cake? Maybe ALL the cakes? He’s skin and bones, so I think he could afford the extra calories at this point, haha. XD Thanks for the idea!

Hallowhead: Thank you for reviewing! I appreciate your kind words and your support! Here’s to more Disney Princess Lotor in the future!

Mutedtempest: I think you’re wonderful too! Thank you so much for your support and kindness. It means so much to me! And I’m so glad to hear you’re still enjoying the story. I hope future chapters continue to provide you a good time! And yas, I do love me some good Lotor and animal bonding time too! I hope you’re doing well, and thanks again for your review!

SpinningGround: Oh, thank you so much for your well wishes. I am doing better and trying to move past the, uh, past, haha. TSL has been a good outlet for me. And ahh, that’s hilarious that you identify with Keith in this situation of having to watch romance movies! I’m very picky about them myself. I’ve been so amused that Lotor’s voice actor, AJ, said at a recent convention that romance movies would be Lotor’s favorite. Poor Keith might have to deal with more than just Pride and Prejudice, haha. Anyway, thank you again!

GabsSherri: Muito obrigado! ^_^

TIffanyBlue: Thank you for your kind words! Yes, it does seem that no matter the platform, social media has the problem of no moral or personal accountability for words spoken anonymously. I tried to be as understanding as possible despite how the tumblr posts/reviews escalated into something exceptionally violent and personal (and illegal), because I knew there were real human beings in that mess somewhere. I just hope no one else ever has to deal with that! The whole event still leaves me in a state of loss and awe, especially over a story that was going to end in slave!Allura taking down Zarkon’s empire and turning Lotor to her side? (I figured I could spoil it for you here, since you mentioned interest in it, and spoilers just don’t matter anymore, haha.) But regardless, I will not let the past year keep me from enjoying writing, or from interacting with you all. I very much appreciate your reviews and support through these chapters for TSL. It means so much to me!

That_emo_kid_in_the_corner: Thank you for your review! And you give very sound advice about media, haha. I appreciate your support! (And I’m so glad you like Disney Princess Lotor haha.)

PetulantPanda: Oh, the space dust was everywhere for me as well! Thank you as always for your reviews!

Sophiebystarlight: Thank you for your kind review! Your note made my week great. I hope you’re having a great week as well!

Garbage_dono: Ahhh, thank you so much for your review and your well wishes. I am slowly getting to a better place, haha.  And I hope you enjoy where I take Honerva’s character in TSL. She was my favorite thing to come out of s8, and I want to do right by her. She’s a very fascinating big bad and just in general a really intriguing character. Thanks again for your support!

Nagisa94: Congrats on the new AO3 account! I’m happy to see you’re still around in the fandom as well! Things are getting better now and hopefully will stay that way now that VLD is complete. I would absolutely LOVE for Lotor to adopt Pidge? Or for Pidge to adopt Lotor? Either way, haha. And I think as far as Romelle goes, VLD did her character a bit of an injustice by not having her grow or evolve in any way, for as important as she was to the s6 plot. Even though she’s still a bit of a background character in TSL, I hope to show evolution in her character along with the other. Thanks so much for reviewing, as always! I really appreciate it.

Teehee: Bwahaha, I hope you eventually got around to reading the chapter and enjoying it. Bless you for your scream of excitement. And thank you for your kind words as well. <3

AfroditeOhki: LOL, bless you for your bullets of things you enjoyed about this chapter! I’m so glad you like the Lotor and Pidge dynamics. I enjoy writing their friendship as much as I do writing Lotura even, haha. You mentioned batter fights and shampoo wars and animal magnet Lotor, and all I can say is YES PLEASE. Thank you for your review!

NickyADon: Thank you for your review, as always! I’m so happy you thought I captured Keith and Lance’s bickering correctly, haha. I love them both and how they needle each other in so many ways. Regarding s8, I ended up laughing with a few people that I predicted the most unlikely things of all via the dead and decayed Lotors in chapter 1, haha. I hope you managed to survive the season okay. Thanks again for your ongoing support! It means so much!

Ángela: Oh, wow. Thank you so much for your well-wishes, and your kind note about dropping TSL if it would make me feel better. I’ll admit, I have days where it’s really hard for me interact with VLD content or think about writing Allura. I had a lot of chats with some professionals about the harassment experience and whether I handled the accusations correctly. I think in the end, I feel good about how I responded with taking down the story in question, as a sign of good faith that I’m not trying to hurt or trigger anyone. I just wish they would have seen the story in its full to understand it had a nuanced plot ultimately moving toward an empowered Allura and eye-opened Lotor. But, oh well. Thank you again for caring about my well-being, even at the expense of possibly losing a story! In good news, I don’t imagine I’ll be deleting TSL anytime soon! Lotor is definitely a trooper in this story for putting up with all that he does, haha. And yes, I fully believe Lance could cry in front of the other paladins, and they’d understand! I really enjoy the deep bonds of friendship that the paladins have together. Thank you again for your ongoing support and reviews!

Touched: Bless you for your kind words! Your review put a smile on my face and gave me a helpful sense of peace. I really appreciate that. Thank you so much for your support!

DestiniesEntwined: Bwahaha, bless you for being an Allura nagging Lotor over the tea. It’s appreciated, and I thank you. And ahh, no one’s ever compared me to Hunk before, but I got a huge smile from that. I adore Hunk and take that as a serious compliment. Thanks so much!

Dash: Thanks for reviewing! And no worries about the question, haha. As it turns out, I do have a few drabbles of Lotor watching other movies with the paladins, which you can find here on tumblr. At present, I have one where he watches The Mummy, and another with Indiana Jones. I’m not certain when I’ll continue this miniseries further, but I do very much appreciate your interest in it and any requests you might have for a movie or show!

StarrBryte: Thank you for your review! I’m so glad you’re still enjoying the story!

VeronikaR: Hello! In good news, I haven’t stopped writing yet, haha. And I hope to keep writing for a long time still. Thank you so much for your review and support! I really appreciate it.

Lady_Experiment: *reserves spot to reply later* >8D (If you did end up reading ch 10 by now, I hope you enjoyed it, bwahaha.)

LordMortem: Ah, your review made me feel blessed! Thank you so much for your kind words.

Miss_Lily: Thank you for keeping up the hope that I would someday update, haha. Apologies that chapter 11 has been slow coming as well. But it’ll be here soon! I’m so happy you enjoy cinnamon roll Lotor (with a dark past haha). I really have fun writing his character within the parameters of the clone!theory. And Romelle—I’m still kinda working to understand her character since she became such a minor or even forgotten character in s7 and s8 haha. I hope to do her justice here as well. Thanks again for your review!

Discordia_s_Novelist: Thank you for your kind words. I’m so glad you enjoyed this latest chapter, and I really appreciate your support!

Ahyeon: I’m glad you enjoyed the update! And yeah, people are questionable sometimes, haha. But I’m doing better now! Thanks again for your kind note.

Reyechan: Bwahaha, have I taken a spot on your mind couch? That’s fantastic! I love fluff as much as I love angst and action and everything else, so I had a lot of fun with the last chapter and am so happy to hear you enjoyed it too. And thanks for your support in regards to criticism of work. Your words mean a lot to me!

KairaB: I very much appreciate your sweet review and your support! I’m so glad you enjoyed the Lotura flirting and brownie batter scene—those parts made me giggle to write, because I was having fun too, haha. And ahh, if Lotor ever sees that picture from Pidge, I’m sure his heart would have a skipping moment. XD Regarding S8, I did see it and had been waiting for more information about Honerva before I wrote her further. So you’ll definitely see s8 elements as we  move forward. Thank you for the warm welcome back to the fandom!

Amanda: Haha, no need to apologize for real life! I completely understand how things get busy. But thank you so much for returning to read and review as always! I’m coming to understand the importance of taking care of myself, and a part of that was realizing how much creative writing means to me, and how I shouldn’t let anyone take that away from me. I might still need to take breaks at times, but for now, I’m steaming forward with TSL and AR. I’m so happy you loved this latest chapter! I hope you continue to enjoy future updates, and thanks again for your ongoing support!

Tsuyu Ryu: Thank you for your interest in my story! I know Lotor’s canon arc was not quite what a lot of people hoped to see, and I struggled with it as well due to the plot holes behind the whole instigator for his death and his subsequent, unexplained s8 redemption as a good-ish guy by Allura who hated him? Haha. I hope to provide him a little more consistency in TSL at least, and I hope to continue making Romelle a likeable character in some way. Thank you again for your review and your support!

Little_Sarafina: Bless you for leaving a review, when I know just how easy it is to remain a silent reader only, haha. (Guilty as charged in many fandoms.) Thank you so much for your kind words about this story. I really appreciate it!

Pen: Oh, wow, thank you for your high praise! I feel humbled by that and am so glad you enjoyed the chapter. I appreciate your kind words and support!

Ukellyle: Thank you for the compliment on TSL Lotor! I try really hard to keep him within the realm of his canon character, even though his circumstances in TSL are vastly different. It’s a struggle, so I’m happy you like him! Thank you for the review!

Katicab: You binged all these chapters in two days? Well bless your heart for your dedication, haha. Thank you for your kind words! There’s so much expanse within Lotor’s character—I have a lot of fun exploring what he would do in any given situation. I do try to keep him from being OOC, though, and sometimes that’s hard with hurt/comfort haha. I’m glad you enjoy this! Thank you again for your review!

Barbitone: Thanks for your reviews! Sorry I ripped your heart out at one point, haha. Lotor does that to me as well. XD

Rosenthorne: Hello, and thank you for reading and reviewing. Wow, you read it all at one time—that’s impressive considering how much I ramble while writing. XD I appreciate your kind words and hope you like where the plot goes with Honerva’s appearance in chapter 11!

KokoaKirkland: Thank you for your review!

Ammaviel: Ahh, I hope you have survived! Thanks so much for your review!

COCO_HIMECHAN: Thank you so much for both your high praise in your AO3 review and in your message here on Tumblr! Apologies I’ve not gotten to the tumblr message yet—I’ve been sequestered working on chapters, haha. My hope is to catch up on my tumblr inbox after I update. Please know your kind words mean so much to me, and thank you for your support!

Ccdancer2003: Ahh don’t cry! *Offers a tissue and a blankie and some chocolate.* Lotor melts my heart a little too, haha. Thank you for reading and reviewing!

Kaytoko: Thank you for your review and for your compliments on how I write the paladins! I really enjoy Hunk as a character and want to do right by him, haha. He’s such a precious cinnamon roll! I appreciate your support!

Blah: Yooooooo. XD Hey, thanks for reviewing, even if you thought the story was sad, haha.

Pinkychan: Thank you for reviewing! Haha, I’m so glad you liked that brownie batter and chocolate virginity scene. I feel like the paladins would definitely have these kinds of inside jokes and teasing all the time. XD I’m hoping the paladins can introduce Lotor to other Earth things—so if you have any requests there, let me know. Thanks again!

Cherryqueem: Ah, yes, s8 was definitely a heavy-hitting season. I’m so happy you found what you were looking for in my story. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!

Etienne18: Bless you for continuing to participate in the fandom even after s8, and ahhh it means so much that you’ve chosen to re-read my story! Slow burn Lotura is definitely a favorite of mine. I’m glad you enjoy it too! Thank you for reading and reviewing!

Lucyrne: Oh, thank you so much for your high praise on Allura and Lance’s characterization! I really do love Allura, and I think the canon series didn’t give her a chance to actively reflect on the avalanche that was s6. I think it would have been natural for her to have conflicted feelings for Lotor, even in knowing what he had done. I think in a better world, Allura would have understood the political implications of killing an emperor in secret—and would have wanted a guilty!Lotor to pay for his crimes the right and open way, through a court trial before the universe. That’s the Allura I was trying to channel in chapter 1, and I’m so glad you enjoyed her conflict and her ultimate decision! And for as much as a lot of people rag on Lance, I really like that boy. I think he’s precious for a lot of reasons, haha. XD Regarding Lotor, I really try to portray stories of abuse in a serious manner, because I know so often it’s not treated that way, and in doing so hurts people. I’m glad you found my portrayal satisfactory! And for real, thank you so much for all of your wonderful reviews as you read through the story up to this point. I really appreciate it!

Analyticamethyst: Bless you for binging this story, omg haha. For as much as I love Lotura, I equally adore platonic bonding between Lotor and other characters and am so glad you enjoy that too. The dude needs positive friendships desperately, haha. Thank you so much for your review!

EV_Oleander: Thank you for reading and reviewing! I hope you enjoy future chapters as well!

Qwennie_simon: Thank you for your compliments and for your support! :)

Hiccstridlover14: Oh, wow, that is a high compliment. The Lotura archive contains many great stories, so it means a lot to me that you would place this one so high on your list. Thank you so much for reading and for your support!

Lehbarnes: Oh, thank you for reading both Second Law and Adrenaline Rush! I’m so happy to hear that you enjoy these stories, and I really appreciate you reviewing. Thank you!!

NotEriX: Oh my goodness, bless your heart for binging this in one go and staying up super late into the night to read, at the expense of valuable sleep. I do hope you managed to get some sleep after that! And I really appreciate your high compliments in regards to my emotion/humor cadence. It’s harder in some situations than others, but I try not to let one be completely unchecked by the other. I find that real life is a curious balance of both, and often at the same time, haha. Anyway, thank you again for your kind review and support!

GrapeIcies: Thank you for reviewing! And yeah, the canon show could never seem to decide whether Lotor’s ultimate ethos was a sly, genocidal maniac or actually just a good person stuck in an impossible Trolley Problem. I agree that the result was a sticky mess from which I could see no consistent atonement/justice (if he were truly guilty) or genuine redemption of his character (if he were truly innocent/an ultimately good antagonist or antihero). Through TSL, I hope to offer a deeper exploration into and progressive evolution of Lotor’s character. TSL might not always have Lotor getting therapy and lots of hugs, but I can guarantee that I will do my best to show his full range. Thank you again for your review!

Durolin: Oh wow, thank you for your very kind words! Your review put a smile on my face and inspired me to trudge through a bout of writer’s block. I really appreciate your review and support!

[dracereads]

So I want to talk about a little bit about reviewing books. This one is a long-winded one, so grab a snack because I can talk your fucking ear off.

So I think the best way to get started with a reviewing process is to basically introduce who I am and what I know about books, authors, and writing.

So. Let's start there. Hello, my name is Drace and I'm an AG/NB person who is 28 years old as of the time of writing this intro at least. I use they-them pronouns primarily, but I'm not one to chew your head off if you use the wrong ones. Because It's probably not done with ill intent.

In this contextual world of books and academia, I define myself as a writer. I've written a full manuscript or two in the past. However, I never thought my skill was good enough to pursue publishing them, and it definitely wasn't. No Loss There, LMAO. I don't actively regret that choice either as I will explain later.

I consider myself to be obsessed with storytelling, and I've been telling stories since I've been able to talk. I was always making my dolls into different characters and putting them through various crafty and crazy scenarios.

My passion to tell a good story only grew as I got older, with my nose buried deep in books, or playing video games (especially RPGS), watching anime, cartoons, and movies. As I made friends, I found myself surrounded with creative types who loved to read, write, and draw as much as I did. Together we wrote fanfiction, made stupid comics, and spent countless hours role-playing original characters, canon characters... or whatever the hell stupid kids come up with.

I am not a stranger to a good story and the emotions that come with them. There is nothing more intimate than a story that resonates inside, and you hold onto it like fragments of a dream you accidentally woke up from in the middle of the night. But like... life has a tendency to happen, right? I'm no different from anyone else when it comes to suffering trauma, tragedy, and the pain of growing up.

However, I've never really had good coping or relationship skills due to my issues, and eventually when I turned 17 I had an extremely bad burn out. What's worse is that I had no idea what was going on, no real words to explain it, and nobody who had the ability to recognize the issues within me as I explained them.

I used to think that what I experienced was just... a deep depression. However, looking back on it. It was so much worse. To use words now; it was like being stuck at the bottom of an endless abyss where I genuinely thought I would never get out of again. There was a time where I thought I was not going to live to see my 20s, and I was prepared to die then and there.

I dropped my academic aspirations and I nearly flunked out of high school. I did NOT care anymore. About myself or the world around me, and I just. let myself be swept up in the current of my parents, teachers, counselors, and remedial educators dragging me along to finish school while I waited to die. I spent most of my time burying my nose in classic books like Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice to get me through work I didn't have the emotional or mental capacity to handle.

I ultimately chose not to pursue higher education because I didn't know what was wrong with me... or why what was happening did. I was always so afraid of the thought that I would get myself unstuck, only to end up sinking back into the pit because I didn't know what put me there in the first place. 

Also, this was also the time in my life that my chronic issue-- illness? I'm not sure what to describe it as. Also started to manifest. So I leaned into that because it was the justifiable excuse that everyone seemed to accept. Mental illness was unacceptable, but a physical illness? Wow that a lot. Please keep in mind that I grew up in a rather conservative area and household, and that mental illness is very stigmatized as a result.

Most people don't understand what burn out is exactly until it happens to them. I hope for your sake, dear reader. That you don't have to go through it and my words reach you in some way if that's the path you're on. I will try to put this in an allegory, but leave no uncertain terms. Think of your mind as a forest.

All your interests, passions, creativity weave together to form a tapestry of interconnected skills, values, aspirations, and dreams that form the trees, shrubs and canopy of your mind. That's what protects you from the outside world and helps you define your sense of self.

Depression in my experience is a dead tree or two, and in the worst case of it. Many dead trees that need to be clear cut away to help the ones still thriving remain. However even with the trees removed, you still have stumps, logs, branches and leaf debris to remind you that there was something there once. You can start again because you still have landmarks in your mind. Your brain will heal itself over time if you nurture it back to health. If you have dead trees in your mind, you need to take care of them. You need to take care of yourself to ensure that you still have plenty of living trees in your head.

Burnout is a fucking forest fire. Not only does it destroy dead trees, it ravages and eats away at the living ones. Eventually it will raze everything in your mind. You are left with nothing but an empty canvas. With barely any reminders of what existed before, and how it existed. You exist solely in the despair and blackened remains of who you were.

There is hope though. Even through all that. We all carry the capacity to heal. New things take root... and you work through it. You start over again. And I genuinely tried.

However, I quickly lost traction and fell back into despair. I had come to lose my mental acuity, one treasure I didn't know I had until it was gone. I had moved out of my parents home and lived a few sucky years trying to work through my burn out while working an adult job. One morning going to my shitty job resulted in a devastating car accident, which caused a traumatic brain injury.

Suddenly this world I was at least used to navigating had changed again. I lost all connection to who I was before my accident. I was an imposter in my own skin, barely recalling memories that supposedly belonged to me. It was like viewing your life as fragments of a dream you barely remember.

The stories that I could tell before and simple things like vocabulary and forming complete sentences or thoughts became excruciatingly difficult, if not impossible at times. I struggled to find simple words and circled my thoughts around and around trying to find coherency. It was agonizing. 

I tried to bury myself in familiar habits and places, essentially "faking it until I make it back to myself" sort of thing. However, it became clear to me that I was never going to be who I was again. It was time to let that person pass away. So I spiraled. again.

On my downward trend, I happened upon an editor's blog who recommended a book by Rebecca Syme called "Dear Writer are you in burnout?" And i bought it because why the fuck not. Maybe she could tell me why my stories had fallen out of my grasp and maybe give me tips on how to reach a little further than what I could currently.

To put it bluntly: It was the first time anyone had put my situation into perspective for me without hearing a damn word I had said. She described it to a tee. Believe it or not, she was also the first person who bluntly told me to go seek professional help for it, because it would be beyond my ability to recover by myself.

So I did. I've learned so much since then and I am open and willing to share that trauma with you all now. Because I'm in a better place and I feel like it's not oversharing to explain that I'm not exactly conventional in what you would expect behind a keyboard on a blog about books.

Part of my progress is bluntly just to rediscover and discover passions again. I know for a fact that despite it all, I'm still a slut for a good story.

I spent the better part of the pandemic studying my ass off with books about reading, about writing, about character crafting, about literary design. I took a few courses in what I could online for free. A lot of that work suggested I pick up reading as a habit and a hobby again.

The theory is that you start building up a repertoire of stuff you like and dislike. Eventually that stuff will spark a fire in my imagination and eventually reignite my creativity to write. Theone thing I want to do more than fucking anything.

So that brings me to reviews now. Given my struggles I absolutely want to stay the fuck away from brutual critique. I am not here to tear anyone down. This is especially coming from a place where I have done so in the past to myself and others. It's toxic and I'm not about it.

I can tell you from experience that writing is stupidly hard. Good writing is about 10 times as difficult as that! Cruelty should have no place in creative spaces meant for creators. That's what I strive to be. So we'll be having none of it here thank-you. However, that does not mean to say some authors and writers do not deserve a good kick in the ass from time to time. We're all human. We all make mistakes. I feel like most people deserve grace. So no brutality does not mean no critique.

I know for a fact there are some authors and writers that are real pieces of human feces out there, and they are actively seeking a punch in the face and I can get behind them getting what they deserve. I'm going to avoid the hell out of these people if I can help it.

However, this facet of writing is 1000% new to me. I don't have a discerning eye for bad apples and troublesome people yet. To be honest, the only time I ever researched authors, literary agents, or publishers was for school papers. I sort of read and consumed whatever the fuck without stopping to consider who wrote it and why for the majority of my life.

That has changed with the start of this blog. Here I am, jumping feet first into this part of the process. I am fairly confident in my ability to swim and I think I'll be fine. But please forgive me if I sink and drink a few times while I'm learning the ropes. Patience and kindness is much appreciated in advance. Thank-you.

So. Now I want to make a discernment in terms. I do not consider being an author and a writer to be entirely synonymous. They are two entirely different beasts.

I feel like the author tends to refer to the business side of writing. It's the stuff you do in order to market your book. It's the editing, publishers, agents, book-covers, interviews, jacket sleeves. It's about the person and their works as a brand.

Saying you're a writer refers to your skill at writing. This is your story itself, its characters. Its themes. it's the deeply rooted psychological trauma and biases that you slip into your work without your notice kinda stuff.

Now. You can be shit at being an author, and you can be shit at being a writer. They are two entirely different connotations.

Examples:

C.S. Pacat, the writer of the Captive Prince series is a SHIT author. She's doing much better now, but when she first came out. The books were hard AF to find, and there was next to nothing you could do in terms of research on her or her views. She was a damn ghost.

GREAT WRITER. SHIT. Author.

The reverse of that is Stephenie Meyer. Steph is arguably a mediocre and high-school level writer. I've met role-players who could logic circles around that woman and still use Linkin Park as an inspiration for a scene.

However, I think Stephenie Meyer is a great example of a kick-ass author. She had a superb marketing team who put her into the hands of her target audience, and had such a captivating presence with her fans that they took her viral. They were rabid. I still remember my sister going to the releases for Breaking Dawn when the book was published.

What I wouldn't give for Stephenie Meyer to write a tell all on Twilight... but like she could skip all her writing advice. I just want to know what it was like to be that badass of an author. Give me the deets on what you did after your manu girlie.

Anyway, I'm starting to digress from my point. Which was author =/= writer.

So while I may not know jack-all about the author side of this shindig, I can hold my own on the writing side.

Writing is a skill. I've worked with good writers, bad writers. I've read bad stories. I've celebrated good stories with bad writers who grew into writing them. I've won academic awards. I won amateur contests. I've tutored in writing. I've done peer reviewing. I've done brainstorming sessions.

There are probably a few people who would go "OMG NO. THIS BITCH AINT" and an equal amount of people who would go "OMG DRACE HAS FINALLY DONE IT. I'M SCREAMING" in a hypothetical reaction to this blog. I've been awful. I've been good. I've been here a long fucking time.

So. I love. love. love. writing. And not being able to do what I love kills me.

So when people write and especially get through the hell and tribulations that is getting a manuscript published, I feel like I need to be able to handle their artwork like it's fragile. I want to handle my thoughts with precision and care. I want to be able to tell you what I think without making it my mission to make it be the only thing you think about a piece. Just enough to pique your own curiosity without telling you how to think on it for yourself.

Oh. and another thing I should mention: I absolutely love bad books. It's always so fascinating to me to dissect them and figure out what went wrong. What is it exactly that's not working right? Is it just not to my taste? Am I just too stupid or too traumatized for this piece? 

Because of that, some things you would consider bad I might gloss over or not give a grievance to. I am very gentle with flaws, plot holes, and bad characters, and shit premises. Good writing is hard. They're making the effort to put themselves out there. I can be kind.

Don’t get me wrong though. There are some books out there that are so bad that even my kindness can’t save them. I’ve got plenty of 1 & 2 star books that have been finished. What I do with them is set it to the side and skip over writing about them. I’d rather push out 3-Star and above books at the moment. 

It is eventually my intent to start trickling “bad” books into the mix. Those are going to be books that are going to get a lot of written attention because those are going to be more instrumental in my own growth as a writer. That’s not to say that I’m not growing more powerful as a writer on the dopamine hits that the good ones provide. This is a good time to mention that when I read books, I actively take notes when I read. I have a notebook and pen with me all the time. If I don’t, I literally have a phone with a built in stylus so that I can start scribbling down plot points, arguments, and thoughts that I have at any time. Something funny? Annotate. A stupid meme idea? Write that shit down for later. Copy a sentence down and start riffing off of that section and be like “wait no what why” like a damn margin. Abso-fucking-lutely. 

Not only that but I do have some 5-star piece reviews that I have crafted and fully written out in my notebook. I sort of just slop them down in the same fashion as this piece you’re reading right now, and do a lot of editing, tweaking, and restructuring when I transcribe them digitally. However, I feel like I’m not technically qualified to share my opinion on some of those pieces without doing more research. I’d rather do the research and grow my opinion from reliable research than homebrew it from life experiences. So they’re probably going to be a lot different after the editing is over. And that doesn’t concern me in the slightest. I’m not really in any rush to just slam out work I’m not ready to share yet. However, everything that I’ve done so far has been so much fun. I don’t want to ruin that fun by trying to force myself through something I’m not feeling at the moment. 

I already wrote a piece about realistic expectations on this blog. However, the part I failed to mention is that I’m a bird with attention issues. So sometimes you’re going to get nothing at all for weeks. And then sometimes you’ll get a piece like this where my passion strikes me and Heat of the Moment by Asia blares in my head as I slam my fingers on a 3k before editing and altering monstrosity. I’m sorry, inspiration and motivation just infects me strangely. 

Anyway, I’ve had a blast working on this piece this weekend, from the writing, and now the editing.  Though really I  think I need to shut the hell up because like I said, this has already gone over 3,000 words. I absolutely make no promises, but these heart-to-heart deep talking things might become more of a thing. Especially if I get an example of something I want to think at length about. That would be something similar to that deep dive into All Boys Go To Jupiter that I did. I really do need more of that in my life. 

Tdlr; Drace gives you their tragic introduction as your narrator, I share my thoughts on authors vs writers and how they’re different. I also explain why I tend to seem “nicer” and most stuff I end up sharing gets 3+ stars, and that I’m a goofy goober who gets random spurts of inspiration for no real discernible reason. 

Peace and Love till next time, Lovelies!

[tazzmanien]

Ten Shipping Questions

@scoundrels-in-love  tagged me. Thank you cutie! Sorry it took me forever. Also you might be disappointed with the answers. I’m not a shipping master, I absorb all sorts of ships on a regular basis and forget about most fairly quickly. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ultimate otp: I don't think I have such a thing. The list is way too big to pick only one. But if I had to I would say Kate and Luc from French Kiss. Yes, that's an old one. Well I just like the vibe they radiate. Other noteworthy ships: Elizabeth and Darcy in any Pride and Prejudice version Margaret and Thornton in North & South Belle and Beast in Beauty and the Beast (1991 Disney)

Ship you’ll always love: Wow, again too many. But I guess all the ones with good character and love development or/and enemies to lovers or/and forbidden love.

Current obsession: Hmmm not a true obsession, but I love seeing Ae and Pete from Love by chance. Oh and my last true obsession was human Nam Shin and Ji Young Hoon Are you human too?! Still not over them. And no, I do not only obsess over BL ships, but currently there seems not to be anything better to obsess with...

Ship you never thought you’d like: No such thing. I'm open to everything, as long as the ship feels natural. I don't think I would be able to ship gross stuff like real abuse (not two enemies fighting, but one stronger person abusing a weaker one), rape, ships with children and adults or ships with humans and animals or stuff like that and I never had.

Ship you liked but don’t anymore: Can't remember. As soon as I stop liking something I just drop it and forget about it. But there are probably many.

Ship that should be canon: Sooooo many hahaha, but I can't remember now ... As my brain seems to block out all those disappointments I felt, I'll just repeat human Nam Shin and Ji Young Hoon from Are you human too? Oh and Zuko and Katara in Avatar and Deadpool and Siryn (well they started, but just stopped like nothing happened :/). And shit how could I forget Ying Kong Shi and Yan Da in Ice Fantasy (I mean they kinda were, but not enough for my taste)!!

Canon ship you hate: It almost never gets to that point where I would hate something. I mean if something starts to bother me I just either skip the show/movie or ignore it. I have no energy for or joy in hating fictional pairings. I'd rather have fun liking something else instead. But I do hate the fact when a main lead gets the girl even though the 2nd lead was waaaaaaaay better. OH shit, how could I forget this one though, Deadpool and Copycat/Vanessa. Yes, yes, I know she is all nice and fluffy and really likeable in the movies, but in the comics she is a huge bitch and I hate her guts. So I guess I hate one ship!

Pair I’ve been shipping for years: Reylo and Chat Noir/Adrian & Ladybug/Marinette (all 4 versions ;)), there are more, but these are the recent ones

Ship everyone loves but you don’t: Many I guess. It's just not that prominent to me. Like, I'm watching/reading stories for more reasons than only a ship. So either I feel like there is a ship I really like or I will just be ignorant to it completely and focus on the other aspects of the story. I think the only ships I truly don't like, are those forced ones, that don't fit in a story, but were written there to supposedly attract female audiences. Which I'll never understand btw. It always sounds like we women cannot enjoy any other story if there is no romance involved. If that were true, than those cheap "let's kiss ones because someone in the story has to" love stories would definitely not attract a single female, as we mostly like either good love development or cheesy stuff that takes forever and not only a 5 second kiss! I`m aware this does not answer the question... Well, it's just that while I'm watching them I'm annoyed. Few days later I still get irritated when I see people shipping them, but then again I don't use my energy on remembering them... so I forget. And I guess haven't seen any in the last few days ;)

Fav rare pair: Again, I’m not aware of that. I don't search for how famous ships are. So, I wouldn't know what a rare pair is. Maybe I’ve had some in the past, but I forgot.

I'm tagging: @pottagaldrars @kech-k @dorkshadows @lavenderbyun @shipperholic-me @lilkisara @leejinks @letsflytoasiarenata @vivere-militare-est-1991 @marimo-san @cllgood  and everyone who wants to do this.

[allenmendezsr]

Royalties University - How You Can Earn Ongoing Royalties

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/royalties-university-how-you-can-earn-ongoing-royalties/

Royalties University - How You Can Earn Ongoing Royalties

 Buy Now

    Learn the simplest way to get monthly recurring income without trading time for money. In fact…

All You Need is One Virtual Property And In Seven Days You Can Be Earning Royalties… And That’s Just the Beginning

Yes, we are open now…

Only one percent of the world’s population understand how royalties work. You can join that group by enrolling in Royalties University™ today.

From: Christopher Westra Re: Royalties University™ Nine Month Education Program

Dear Friend,

Learning how you can earn royalties is perhaps the BEST education you can receive. Just imagine the ultimate benefits you get –

You create or obtain a valuable resource ONCE and then you continue selling it over and over again, for years to come!

With Royalties, you get ongoing income.

Let’s say you create an education program you sell for $20 profit.

At 50 Sold Per Month, that’s $1000 Monthly Profit

And that’s just from one product! Then you can go on to create another “virtual” or intellectual property to get royalties from.

Example: I’ve created 13 virtual properties and sold thousands of copies over the last few years. I’ve made over $100,000 in sales each year from these books and education programs.

I live off of royalties completely, and provide a living for my wife and five boys off of ongoing royalties for the virtual products I create.

Royalties are the only way to go for me, but it’s not for everyone.

Five Benefits of Earning Virtual Royalties

1 Continue to receive income long after you do the work

Yes, you will continue to receive profits for years, for virtual properties you create now.

2 Achieve Unlimited Income

You have no limits to the number of times you can sell the same item, when selling virtual (digital) products.

With real estate, you can only rent a property to one person at a time. On the other hand, with virtual properties you can sell to as many buyers as you can reach. This means your income is unlimited!

3 Receive more leisure time for you and your family

When you receive royalties, you can take a vacation or time off whenever you wish. Your “Royalty Income System” has already been set up.

4 Enjoy established expertise in the field of your choice

Because you have created a virtual property of packaged information, you are considered an expert in the field. Being an Author and Creator is fun.

Don’t worry. We will show you how to compile and create your virtual property.

5 Experience the Freedom Lifestyle with your family

Beyond just vacations, the freedom lifestyle means you can work on the projects you want to. You can wear what you want and eat when you want.

You can design your own high-energy working environment!

Note – You don’t have to use your royalties to replace a 9 to 5 job. Some people just want a little ongoing supplementary income and you can have that too.

(These are just a few comments, there are many more stories)

“An amazing aspect of earning a passive residual income is that this opportunity is open to practically anyone.

If you decide to write a book about your area of expertise, no longer are you limited by the whims of publishers.

You are free to create what you’d like and offer it to your audience.”

Apryl Jensen Author of Creating Consciously CreatingConsciously.com

“Some days I spend a lot of time on my business and other days I do nothing at all. I love the freedom and flexibility this opportunity provides me!

I spent the past two weeks vacationing with my family and while we were gone I still earned royalties on my e-books through Clickbank.

When I returned from vacation, there were SIX Clickbank checks waiting for me!”

Wendy Jensen Author of Positive Parenting FirstRateFamily.com

“This was the smartest move I could have made. I am an internet marketing guy, not a warehouse manager.

So, basically, I continued doing the same thing, only I eliminated my responsibilities at running a warehouse and now spend approximately 1-2 hours/day on my business.

I make around $4-5K in profits every month.”

Richard Webb Owner MannaHarvest.net

“One of the greatest benefits of building a successful business is the person you’ll become… and life will never be the same again.

Two years ago I started following my dreams of a life of freedom. For nearly a year, I never earned a single cent but throughout this I never gave up.

Just a year later, and I now make more money on automatic pilot than I ever did in a regular job… and the freedom feels great.”

Iain Legg Author and Developer – Real Mind Power Secrets (Super Mind System) RealMindPowerSecrets.com

Add your story of royalties by Joining Royalties University™ today.

What are Royalties, Anyway?

Have you ever read the book Pride and Prejudice, or seen the movie? Jane Austen’s novels are filled with people who don’t have to work for a living. Why don’t they work?

The “upper class” in England, France and other countries owned all the land, and received a continuous passive income from the “rent” of the tenants.

Because the people who received these ongoing payments were the Princes, Dukes, and Earls, the payments came to be called “Royalties”.

The royalty knew how to “rent” their property yet still retain ownership!

Royalties are “rents” paid to you for the use of your property

You can generate royalties from any useful property. It doesn’t have to be real estate. You can get royalties from any form of intellectual property, such as books, audios, videos, movies, education programs, and even ideas.

These are called “Virtual” properties because they only exist in computer files and databases and on the internet.

Does this mean they aren’t real?

Of course not! People gladly pay for the information that enriches their life.

Virtual properties are actually so much easier to earn royalties with because there is no delivery cost on your end. The virtual products are delivered automatically and immediately through the internet!

Just Imagine the Following Happening to You….

Receiving a phone call from a pleased customer and fan, who says, “Thanks for writing your book, I just finished reading it. I can’t believe I actually got you on the phone…“

Breaking your record for daily profits, and excitedly telling a loved one about it.

Relaxing on vacation, confident that the royalties from your virtual products are bringing you hundreds of dollars per day.

Launching a new virtual product and feeling so eager to see how it is selling that you can hardly wait until after breakfast!

Waking up on an icy winter morning, and rejoicing that you don’t have to go outside because your home office is only 30 feet away.

If and when hard times come, enjoying the relief and security of having several streams of royalties that see you through.

Laughing inside at the interesting looks people give you when they ask you what you do for a job and you say, “I sell virtual properties for ongoing royalties.“

I’ve experienced all of the scenarios above, and you can too.

Royalties Can See You Through Hard Times

To show you what royalties can do, I’ll tell you about the mystery illness that struck me between 2006 and 2008.

For those three years I went to doctor after doctor, spending thousands on tests and doctor’s fees. We looked into sleep apnea, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Chron’s disease, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue, and more.

Every day I was in pain – in my joints and in my intestines. My fatigue was so bad that I had to take four naps during each day just to get through. Many nights when I went to bed, I hoped I would die in the night.

Finally, after three years, I found out I had Lyme disease.

Now that I know what I have, I’m getting better. The reason I’m sharing this is because during this time I couldn’t have held a full time job. Yet the royalties from my virtual products kept coming in.

Oh, I still worked. I could work about an hour and a half before the fatigue put me down for another nap. Our family was able to come through financially due to the Lord’s blessings and the ongoing payments from the products I had created.

Earning Royalties During Vacations!

My next example was a lot more fun. I took my wife to Hawaii for eight days for our fourteenth anniversary. During that time I didn’t even touch a computer or do any work.

Yet during those eight days I made $2362 in profit from royalties!

It’s not magic… I had the “royalties architecture” in place before I went. When you enroll in Royalties University™, you will learn how to earn royalties yourself.

One of the great benefits to royalties is that you can do it from any location or country in the world. As long as you have access to the internet, you can create digital products, sell them to the world, and collect payments.

I have friends in Malaysia, Singapore, Costa Rica, New Zealand, and the Isle of Man who are receiving royalties from their virtual creations.

The world is your market, and there are a lot of people in the world!

A world class education about Royalties and how to earn them.

40 weekly lessons delivered to your email covering these topics.

How to start small right where you are.

The easiest automated payment systems to use.

How to promote and sell your virtual properties.

Simple ways to research and package useful information.

Basic principles of human persuasion (selling).

How to build your properties around your interests and likes.

The different types of virtual products that sell best on the web.

The best ways of getting traffic and customers for your products.

Weekly motivation and reminders via the weekly lessons.

Hundreds of ideas for virtual products that will sell.

How to enjoy your additional leisure time.

Ways to refurbish “Public Domain” properties for royalties.

You Will Receive One 3-5 Page Weekly Lesson for 40 Weeks in Downloadable .PDF Format

Web design instruction. (You can learn that elsewhere).

A ready made product to sell. (You create your own).

Extensive personal consultation. (But I can point you to resources).

Enlightenment. (Although you’ll have more leisure time to reach it).

Royalties University™ gives you the keys to financial prosperity. It won’t cure all your problems or improve your relationships.

But it sure won’t hurt, either!

We all have unique talents and interests. Those who enjoy gardening should spend time doing it. Base your royalty product on YOUR passions and interests.

Here are some ideas:

How to Build a better Engine.

Potty Training in a Day.

The Ultimate Tomato Growing Video Collection.

Homeschooling with the Four-Year Plan.

Guide to Trail Running Vacations in the U.S.

How to Build Your Own Solar Panels.

Low Cost Advertising Methods.

How to Become a Kickboxing Instructor.

114 Fun Date Ideas.

Lose Weight With the Harmony Earth 30 Day Energy Diet.

Enjoy the Night Sky (Astronomy Lessons).

Herbal Treatment for Common Illnesses.

How to Teach Your Children About Sex.

Overcome Procrastination.

The Easy Guide to Writing a Book.

Nine Principles of Expert Persuasion.

How to Cultivate Health from Within (Probiotics).

I don’t write a book about how to build a better engine. I know nothing about that kind of stuff!

I create virtual properties (products) around the topics and subjects I love. One of the first bonus items you will receive is a booklet containing 559 ideas for products.

1

Provide Short and Useful Content

Each weekly lesson is three to five pages long and contains clear and useful helps for earning royalties. You can easily put into practice the tips, principles, and techniques in each lesson.

2

Include a Specific Assignment to Complete

After each weekly lesson, you’ll get a specific assignment to complete. These assignments are strategically created to lead you to results. It’s up to you to follow through with action.

3

Build on the Previous Lessons

Each lesson you receive builds on the previous weekly royalty lessons. In this way you transition from beginning principles to advanced ideas over the months.

4

Give You Incremental Knowledge and Motivation

Your Royalties University™ lessons are given to you in portions you can digest and then act on. When you get weekly content, reminders, and assignments in this way, you can succeed in setting up your own royalty streams.

5

Open Your Mind to New Possibilities for Royalties

Week after week, you will receive new ideas, methods, principles, and keys to creating royalties. By consistent action, you will discover topics and niches where your personal talents and abilities shine!

The first lesson is coming your way immediately upon completing your enrollment. Included in the first lesson is…

Royalties University™ Lesson #1

The Four Essential Items You Need to Earn Royalties

A 10 Step Startup “Checklist” of your first action steps

The Benefits of selling Virtual Estate rather than Real Estate

How to Increase Your Money Magnetism for Royalties

Five Different types of Virtual Properties you can Build

Note – You will receive this lesson immediately. If you know how to buy a web domain and host it, you could be receiving your first royalties in as little as seven days.

If you lack some basic computer skills and web knowledge, then it may take you a few weeks longer.

You’ve probably seen the “Make Money” programs that cost thousands of dollars. I’ve talked to customers who joined those programs and they tell me it wasn’t worth it.

You work hard for your money, so spend it wisely.

I created Royalties University™ to be affordable to nearly everyone, even people in the “poorer” countries in the world. I’m not going to charge the thousands of dollars that I could for this education program.

If I did charge $1500 per person, then many of the people who most need this Royalties education wouldn’t be able to afford it!

I’ve been there. I didn’t start learning about earning royalties until I was 38 years old. Until then I traded time for money and lived paycheck to paycheck also. This is why I’m making this affordable for every budget.

In fact the enrollment cost for Royalties University™ is just $19 per month. The education program is nine months long, the same as a typical school year or two University Semesters.

I’ve got a years worth of lessons on earning royalties, but I’ll compress them into nine months to save you money.

You can cancel your enrollment at any time. If you aren’t getting results, then it doesn’t cost you anything.

“Christopher, that’s a real deal… wow!

… so what’s the catch?”

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[motherboxing]

Sorry this is not the meme you asked for, but I remember you said Kitty Pryde is a favorite of yours? What comics would you rec for good Kitty content? (I've only read Uncanny X-Men 199 and 200 but she's SO GOOD in those)

Yeah! I fuckin’ love Kitty. Before I talk about the Kitty stories I like, I feel like I should clarify some things about what I like about Kitty, versus when I feel like she’s been done a disservice by dude writers who don’t really “get” her. 

So the thing about Kitty is she is just kind of a deeply sincere person. She can be sarcastic and even very occasionally cynical, and she can definitely be exhausted and beleaguered and pissed off, but ultimately Kitty is someone with a deep and abiding sense of who she is, what her own values are, and what she expects from the people around her. She became an X-Man very young - much like Jubilee - and filled a similar role, for a while, to the role that Jubilee has also at various points filled, and so I think there’s a tendency to compare the two (and also to compare those two to Rogue) and I think that does both characters a disservice because it always ends up being about, like, who people want to be their girlfriend. (I once got really mad at The Flophouse for doing an extended bit about how Rogue was like, the sexy taboo girl who you as a teenager wanted but couldn’t touch, and Kitty was a Nice Girl Who You Could Bring Home To Your Mother. SIGH.) (I get feeling that way when you’re like a straight fourteen year old boy but you are grown ass men now!!! why!!!!!!!!!!)

That’s the problem with a lot of - maybe the majority of - takes on Kitty. A certain kind of dude has a tendency to just write Kitty as his ideal girlfriend. I know this is like, a documented phenomenon (see also: In The Garage by Weezer - “I’ve got Kitty Pryde/waiting there for me”) and I mean, I get that it has a lot to do with Kitty being initially written as this very approachable teenage girl character, which appealed to a lot of teenage boys at the time, because she was a superhero girl but she didn’t seem like she’d react badly to some nerdy kid asking her out, you know? But at the same time, as a young girl reading comics, I related very strongly to Kitty in a very different way. And it frustrates me to no end that these dudes never seem to be able to let go of their initial youth-informed impressions of Kitty even when they’re, like, writing her. 

Subsequently I tend to be really wary of stories about Kitty that feature a romantic plot or subplot, although I do feel like to some extent she works well as a romantic heroine. It’s just that when she’s in a romantic story, writers tend to view her entirely through the eyes of the person she’s dating, instead of getting into her own head.

SO. TO THAT END. If you liked Uncanny X-Men 199 and 200 (that’s where she goes to the Holocaust Museum with Magneto, right? To honour her aunt?), I’d def recommend checking out her first appearance - it’s in a three-issue arc that was part of the Dark Phoenix Saga. This story gets referenced in a few other Kitty stories, so reading it will give you a good frame of reference for other stuff, too. The events of that story (watching the X-Men, who have taken her in during a really confusing time in her life and shown her that she’s not alone, literally caged by the Hellfire Club) are clearly super formative for her, and the story does a good job of establishing her overall voice and attitude (at least of that time). That’s in Uncanny X-Men 129-131.

Days Of Future Past is also probably essential Kitty reading - that’s Uncanny X-Men 141 and 142. The movie did not do that story justice and I’m irritable about it but whatever. Continuing with Claremont et al and Uncanny X-Men for a minute, there’s also Uncanny X-Men 168, which you should read just for the iconic “Professor Xavier is a JERK!” moment that gets referenced constantly. 

A lot of people liked Kitty Pryde And Wolverine but I find it kind of uncomfortable, I dunno. There’s an unfortunate period where Marvel decided that Kitty should take a level in badass or whatever by become, like, a ninja? That was weird. We don’t really speak of it.

I like some of the stuff with her and Pete Wisdom (who was certainly better for her than Colossus, I’m sorry, I love Colossus but DUDE! She was FOURTEEN! A fourteen year old dating a nineteen year old is a very different situation than, like, a 28 year old dating a 32 year old, you know? I wouldn’t say that their relationship was like, necessarily abusive or anything but it clearly was not healthy, it was a tumultuous first love that hurt them both but mostly hurt her, and while that appeals to me on one level* as someone who’s been a young woman in a similar situation, I am very uncomfortable with the explicit framing of their early relationship as the beginning of a great and enduring love affair.) - that happened in Excalibur, and also they had a series (miniseries?) for a while called Pryde And Wisdom that had some fun moments. I know Warren Ellis got a lot of flak for the fact that Wisdom was really obviously his self-insert Gary Stu and people didn’t like seeing him with Kitty but like… her last relationship before that was Colossus! At least Pete was, like, age-appropriate and didn’t dump her by falling for a woman who he LITERALLY could not have a conversation with. 

I’d skip a bunch of the Kitty In College stuff because during that period there was a glut of scenes where writers just made Kitty this extremely heavy-handed political mouthpiece for their own liberalism, and it aggravates me (a couple of times she uses the n-word because, like, it’s basically the same as someone calling her a “mutie”, right? No, Kitty. No.) But it has a few moments that are interesting in that you get to see this young woman who has been through a lot of literally unbelievable shit, but when it comes to, like, interpersonal relationships etc, it ultimately fairly naive and even sheltered. (To that end I could totally see like, Kitty being a kid in her first year of college who DOES, for a hot second, think it’s okay to say the n-word if she’s making a point about prejudice - I just don’t like that she never gets corrected and never gets a chance to like, realize that’s shitty and racist of her, you know? I’d be fine if it was like, “this young woman has had a very, very weird teenagehood and while she means well she’s prone to sticking her foot in her mouth in sometimes really awful ways, but when she does we as readers understand this as something she needs to get past in order to grow as a person” - but it’s not, so, like, whatever.) I forget what books that stuff took place in, though, you’d have to look it up. There was a story where she worked as a bartender or something.

I’m really loathe to recommend anything by Whedon but if I’m being totally, completely honest with myself, I did enjoy the Gifted storyline in his run of Astonishing X-Men. It has some moments that I cannot stand, and it has a LOT of Whedon’s obnoxious quippiness, but, I dunno, it has it’s charms. Everything Whedon does after that on that book is… ugh. UGH. So much of Whedon’s bog-fucking-standard issues (pregnancy horror, etc) and Kitty more and more just becomes Buffy and it’s gross. If you can tolerate Whedon dialogue I’d say like, torrrent Gifted or something (don’t pay for it lol) but beyond that you can skip everything he’s done with her. People make a big deal about how she phased a bullet through the Earth but trust me when I say that was just really stupid.

This got really long, I hope this is helpful!! I have a lot of feelings about Kitty.

*basically, catharsis

[thecinephale]

The Wachowski Sisters and the Importance of Behind-the-Scenes Representation

The second season of Sense8 came out a week after I did. Well, sort of. The first two episodes of the season had been released as a holiday special and by “came out” I mean I told my girlfriend, my best friend, and my therapist that I was genderqueer but unsure to what capacity. We both chose a gradual release strategy. 

I’ve seen portrayals of transness and gender nonconformity in film & television over the years. And, in fact, I blame many of these portrayals for why it took until now for me to begin coming out. It’s hard to watch Silence of the Lambs, as great of a movie as it may be otherwise, and go “Oh yeah! That’s me!” Instead I turned to the work of cis women filmmakers for identification. I just sort of accepted that for some reason I was a 15-year-old boy who found my closest identifiers in the work of Jane Campion.

The first time I truly felt a deep connection to a genderqueer character was watching Transparent, and I can’t help but connect that to Jill Soloway being themselves genderqueer and making a point of hiring cast and crew who are trans. That first week after coming out I turned to films because that’s how I cope. I was depressed by how little of myself I saw in The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and then surprised to tears how much I did see myself in Ed Wood’s misunderstood, I’d now call it a masterpiece, Glen or Glenda.

Before I turn back to Lana and Lilly Wachowski and Sense8, an important clarification should be made. Of course artists for centuries have told stories about people with different experiences than themselves and many have succeeded. There are no rules here. I’m sure Priscilla means a lot to some people who are trans and alternatively I know others can’t stand Transparent either due to the immense class and race privilege most of the characters have or due to the casting of Jeffrey Tambor, a cis man to play the lead. In addition, Soloway, Wood, and the Wachowskis deserve recognition purely as artists beyond their gender identity. I’m just speaking personally. When you’re rarely seen on screen, and even more rarely seen positively, there is power going into a work knowing the artist understands on a personal level. It’s a matter of trust and a matter of safety. I feel safe when I’m watching the Wachowskis’ work.

The Wachowskis began their career with the wildly entertaining and subtly subversive film noir, Bound. It’s a truly remarkable debut that takes a classic film noir story but centers on two women (and includes the Wachowskis’ burgeoning unique visual style). Due to the explicit queerness of this first film, the desire to approach all of their work from a queer perspective feels appropriate even if nothing was known about their personal lives. Suddenly the confectionary colors of Speed Racer feel less kids-only and the acting styles in Jupiter Ascending feel less accidental. And Cloud Atlas requires just about no depth of thought to see how its cast of gender-bending (and more problematically race-bending) characters represent transness. Rather their entire filmography begins to fit nicely into the ever-evolving, impossible to define, oft-limiting, oft-necessary umbrella category of Queer Cinema. Brigit McCone’s wonderful essay “Dysphoria Dystopias in The Matrix and Glen or Glenda” does an excellent job explaining these connections in the Wachowskis’ most famous work (Read that essay here! http://www.btchflcks.com/2015/09/dysphoria-dystopias-in-the-matrix-and-glen-or-glenda.html#.WWrmi9PyuL9).

Then in 2015 they released the first season of Sense8 which is just about the most Wachowski work the Wachowskis could ever dream of Wachowski-ing. And it is glorious. The show follows eight individuals from all around the world who share a metaphysical connection that ultimately allows them to inhabit each other’s bodies. The action is incredible, of course. There are sequences throughout the series that rank among the very best I’ve ever seen. The ways that the characters are able to jump in and out of each other’s bodies creates new opportunities allowing the show to completely reinvent the action sequence much the way the Wachowskis did a decade and a half earlier when they combined Hong Kong action, anime, and Hollywood SFX in The Matrix.

The craft in these sequences is impeccable but what truly makes them captivating is how much we care about the characters involved. The eight main “sensates” are complex and empathetic and the show spends at least as much time on their individual stories as it does the interconnected plot. These eight individuals share equal screen time but for me, and it seems for the Wachowskis, the two characters that matter most are both queer: Lito, the closeted gay actor from Mexico, and Nomi, the trans woman hacker from San Francisco (portrayed by a trans woman, Jamie Clayton, who is so good in the role that anything less than full blown movie stardom in her career will be proof of the industry’s prejudice). Both characters have partners so supportive that I’d suggest it was unrealistic if I wasn’t so fortunate to have a partner like that myself. Lito’s boyfriend, Hernando, is by his side as he begins the process of coming out under the public eye. And Nomi’s girlfriend, Amanita, is by her side as she runs away from the evil corporation trying to hunt all of them but especially her. 

It’s hardly a coincidence that in season one the sensate that is hunted down most vigorously is Nomi. The villains use Nomi’s transness and our society’s prejudices towards her identity as a way of holding her captive. They succeed in convincing Nomi’s mother that Nomi needs a lobotomy because her mother already believes her gender identity is a mental illness. The show is honest about the dangers trans people face while also using Amanita and the other sensates as a safety net so we feel hopeful instead of hopeless.

Towards the end of the second season Nomi expresses her gratitude to Amanita for supporting her through all of the danger that comes with being a sensate. Nomi: Is this our new normal? Amanita: I can think of a worse normal. Nomi: Are you okay with it? Amanita: What do you mean? Nomi: I mean, you didn’t sign up for all this. Amanita: It’s not like you did either. Nomi: But I didn’t have a choice. These voices are in my head whether I want them or not. Amanita: True. But when I think back I don’t remember being given a choice either. When this nerdy girl walked into City Lights and this voice in my head was telling me, “Whatever you do, do not let her go until you get her number.”

Sitting on the couch watching this scene next to my partner, it didn’t require a lot of deep thinking to read this exchange about coming out as a sensate as a metaphor for coming out as trans. The show it takes place in was co-created by two trans women and the scene stars a trans woman. The dialogue might be as corny as a scene from The Danish Girl but here it’s real corny. The kind of corny that’s been allowed in scenes between cis-het people since the beginning of cinema. I believe this scene, and this show, and this body of work, is a more accurate portrayal of transness than most Hollywood attempts. But maybe it just goes back to the trust I have in these women telling their own stories. And even if that trust is the only difference I don’t think it’s any less important.

Last year at the GLAAD Media Awards, Lilly Wachowski made the following statement: “There’s a critical eye being cast back on Lana and I’s work through the lens of our transness. This is a cool thing because it’s an excellent reminder that art is never static. And while the ideas of identity and transformation are critical components in our work the bedrock that all ideas rest upon is love.” 

As I’ve obsessed over their work these past few months, I felt this love. And I needed this love. I’m just really grateful that two unique, visionary trans women filmmakers are out there allowing me to feel seen. 

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Across the Face of the Bored

by Dan H

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

Dan feels like he's kicking a puppy.~

Ferretbrain regulars should already know about my sordid love affair with Trudi Canavan, an Australian novelist whose work I am guiltily fond of (I'm anxiously looking forward to the paperback release of the Black Magician prequels). Trudi writes wonderful, pacey books about spunky heroines with magic powers which are amazing fun and never get boring (well, Last of the Wilds sagged a bit if I'm honest). It was on her recommendation (well, her blurb, which isn't quite the same thing) that I picked up Russell Kirkpatrick's Across the Face of the World. 

I'll admit, I was also attracted to the sheer old-school nature of it. It's called “Across the Face of the World” for a start, and the cover depicts five people on horses riding in front of a gigantic moon. There are no fewer than five maps at the front, and at the back is a glossary which is only two pages shorter than the first chapter. It's the product of “fifteen years of careful worldbuilding” and when I say “worldbuilding” I mean “this guy is a professor of geography and boy does it show.”

So I kind of knew what I was getting into when I started it. But it came with the Trudi Canavan seal of approval, so I figured it would be slightly cheesy but good fun.

It was not good fun.

Oh, spoilers, FYI.

The story concerns a boy called Leith who lives in a remote village where he isn't terribly popular because he's slightly smaller and weaker than the other children. He has a crush on a girl called Stella (yes, Stella) but she is betrothed to another boy called ... Druin? I think? Not really sure. He is miraculously cast opposite her in the Midwinter play, and gets to do flirty improv theatre with her, before getting dragged away by his mysteriously-returned father, who has brought Terrible Danger with him.

So Leith's father and mother get kidnapped by the Lords of Fear (I kind of feel that I should have bolded that. I mean dudes: Lords of Fear) and Leith, his crippled brother Hal, the village “Haufuth” (think elder or headman) and a Simple Farmer Who Is More Than He Seems named Kurr set off to find them, and to warn the people of Faltha that they are about to be invaded by Bhrudwo.

Finding the names confusing yet? Just wait.

Stella stumbles upon the council of war, and since Leith and Hal are supposed to be dead, and they can't have anybody spreading rumours about their plan, they decide to take her with them (why no, she doesn't get any say in this, why do you ask?) when they head out to do their mission.

They pursue the Bhrudwans across the face of the ... well you get the picture. They do this very, very slowly. Very, very, very slowly.

Kirkpatrick has mapped out his world in exhaustive detail, and he leads you through every inch of it. Down every glaciated valley, past every erratic boulder, up every fold mountain and over every waterfall into every plunge pool. The single biggest impression you get from the text is “gosh, this person knows a lot about geography.” The second biggest impression you get from the text is “gosh, this dialogue is terrible and stilted and these characters are wooden and poorly realised.”

Sorry, that was bitchy of me, and I feel genuinely bad about saying it, because Russell Kirkpatrick comes across as a lovely man who has a genuine enthusiasm for his world and his story. The flyleaf informs us that:

“Russell Kirkpatrick's love of literature and a chance encounter with fantasy novels as a teenager opened up a vast number of possibilities to him. The idea that he could marry storytelling and mapmaking (his other passion) into one project grabbed him and wouldn't let go.”

How sweet is that? Unfortunately while Kirkpatrick's love of mapmaking has translated into an ability to draw pretty good maps, his love of storytelling has failed to yield similar results.

Where to begin.

Destiny Is Not A Virtue God Damn It

Throughout Across the Face of the World there is talk of “The Right Hand of God” (not to be confused with the Left Hand of God, which is Hugh Jackman). This is a dude who is totally destined to rise up and unite the disparate kingdoms of Faltha and fight off the evil Bhrudwans and defeat the Destroyer and generally be Awesomeness Personified.

The Right Hand is pretty clearly Leith. There are gigantic hints about this, almost to the extent of people coming up to him and saying “Leith Mahnumsen, You Are The Right Hand of God”.

It does not, in fact, bother me that nobody works out this extremely obvious fact. It does not bother me that Leith remains totally oblivious to the idea that he might be the Right Hand, despite meeting (a) a seer who says “you have a great destiny and will become a great leader of men” and (b) a bard who says “Hi, I'm looking for the Right Hand, who is destined to be a great leader of men, I think he might come from your home town.”

What bothers me is the fact that I am expected to give a crap.

I really hate destiny in fantasy. It's so often used to avoid explaining how a character was actually capable of achieving something. I don't mind the young orphan boy being able to pull the sword from the stone. I do mind him being able to use the damned thing without any training.

Leith has nothing to recommend him as a character. He's mopey, miserable, self-pitying and indecisive. He doesn't have hidden leadership qualities (or if he does they are fantastically wellhidden) he doesn't even have tremendous compassion (his adoptive brother Hal does, but he's clearly an angel which is kinda cheating) or unusual courage. Hell, he doesn't even get described as possessing any of these quantities. All he does is mope about the fact that Stella seems to fancy somebody else and display a vague determination to get his parents back.

I wouldn't object to this if I thought it was deliberate, if I thought somebody was going to sit Leith down and say “seriously dude, stop being such a douche” and he was going to realise that dag nammit he had a kingdom to save I'd be okay with that, but it seems very unlikely at this stage.

The thing is I do understand why you get so many fantasy heroes like this. He's an everyman or, more precisely an everygeek. He's the speccy outsider who isn't very good at sports and is no good with girls, but who is secretly special because of some innate quality which is never really explained, and which he never has to demonstrate. The recognition and validation of your individual special-unique-snowflake-ness is basically every geeks ultimate fantasy (hell it's why I write these articles, I fully expect to be given a column in the Times any day now) and like Leith we expect this validation to come not as a result of anything we have done but in recognition of who we are. It's the slightly tragic result of being picked on at school.

Where was I? Oh yes: Leith is boring, self-pitying and has the leadership potential of a pillow with an anxiety disorder. He's going to wind up saving the world and I really don't care.

Stella By Starlight

Across the Face of the World almost avoids making it onto the Fantasy Rape Watch list, but not quite. I'm not going to talk about that quite yet, though. Instead I'm going to talk about Stella.

Since pretty much forever, there's been a strong tradition in literature (particularly heroic literature – including fantasy novels and action movies) of female characters whose sole function is to act as a reward for the hero. The fact that I'm not particularly squicked out by the fact that our society sees “getting the girl” as a natural consequence of “killing the baddies” (rather than anything the “girl” has – y'know – a choice about) is one of those things which makes me rather ashamed of my own internalised prejudices. It's a trope that comes up time and again in pretty much every book you've ever read and every film you've ever seen. It should bother me more than it does, frankly, and for some reason it really bothers me here.

Maybe it's because I really didn't like Leith, but the idea that this girl had been created purely so that, at the end of the series, she could complete the protagonist's wish-fulfilment fantasy by winding up with him had me beating my head against the wall. I wouldn't mind but he isn't even particularly nice to her. He shows no actual interest in her as a person, they don't have a relationship, he sees her as a trophy just as much as Druin, the boy she's betrothed to and terrified of.

Oh yes, about that.

Stella starts the story being abducted by the company because they want to keep her quiet. This is, itself, all kinds of fucked up. I mean, I get that it's better that nobody in the village know where you're going (they say it's for the safety of the village, but seriously, when has ignorance protected anybody from anything – if Dark Lord Psychopathus thinks you know something, he'll torture you to death, period) but seriously, you guys were the ones who had a secret meeting in a public building with no locks on the doors. The fact that they won't trust her not to tell anybody (because her mother's a gossip, apparently) is also a bit iffy, it's got slight overtones of “women need to learn to keep their mouths shut” - sorry, I'm Minority Warrioring again – so, yes, abduction.

Stella does not get a choice about joining the company on their quest, but she goes along with it in the end because the alternative is to marry Druin, and be subjected to a lifetime of socially sanctioned marital rape. Being the courageous, self-actualising fantasy heroine that she is, Stella sees her abduction by the company as an opportunity to throw herself at somebody else, so she can be subjected to a lifetime of socially sanctioned marital rape by somebody less horrible.

It doesn't occur to her that she could – y'know – make a life for herself in the enormous cosmopolitan city they're going to. I know she's a girl from a small village and was probably raised with a very narrow view of her future, but I think once you've broadened your prospects to include “saving the world” I really don't think “living without a man” is too much of a stretch.

Ethnic Jokes Are So Uncouth

So the basic plot of AtFotW is that the proud lands of Faltha are home to the First Men, the chosen of God who screwed up n-thousand years ago but who are destined to reclaim their rightful place as the Chosen of the Most High and redeem the world and stuff.

Anybody want to guess what their defining racial characteristics are? I'll give you a clue, it isn't dark hair and brown eyes.

The enemy of the First Men is the evil empire of Bhrudwo. Now I'll admit here that I've not seen much actual description of Bhrudwan ethnic characteristics but they do seem to live in a desert, is all I'm saying.

Now I know making allegations of racism about a fantasy novel is, as a great man once put it, about as difficult as putting on a hat. But when your novel has as its premise that some races of people are better than other races of people, you need to be really careful before making your chosen people look quite that much like Nazi poster children.

This again probably wouldn't bother me as much as it does, but Kirkpatrick seems to have actually noticed the problem and sort-of-not-quite tried to address it. There's quite a lot of evil races in his world (the Bhrudwans, the Widuz), but Kirkpatrick keeps making embarrassingly perfunctory efforts to pretend that they are not, in fact, totally evil. Mahnum (the protagonist's father) explains at great and patronising length how the common people of Bhrudwo are really excellent people no different from you or me, before explaining how he was captured by them, tortured by them, then rescued by one of them who, when said rescuer discovered that he was not as rich as he had pretended, betrayed him to the Lords of Fear. Similarly, when the Companions encounter the Widuz, we are told carefully that they have been cruelly treated by the other people of their land, and driven ever further into the most inhospitable parts of Faltha, only to be subjected to a sequence in which the Widuz line up dozens of naked, drugged captives and throw them into a dormant volcano to appease a hungry god. And lest we forget, there is only one God that canonically exists in the setting, so while they're ill-treated they're also violent, barbaric and wrong.

Now I admit, I've only read the first book, and it's possible that it will defy all my expectations and preconceptions. It's possible that Leith will grow the hell up and show some kind of leadership qualities. It's possible that Stella will learn that she doesn't actually need to get married, and will reject Leith on the grounds that she doesn't fancy him. But I'm unlikely to find out because I'm unlikely to want to wade through another twelve hundred pages of tedious geography for the privilege.

And finally:

Fantasy Rape Watch

Approximate Number of Named Characters Who Travel with the Company: 12

Of Which Female: 3

Of Whom Have Dialogue: 2

Of Whom Motivated by Past Sexual Abuse: 1

Of Whom Motivated by Fear of Future Sexual Abuse: 1

Of Whom Die: 1

Total Deaths Among Company: 2

Number of Women Abducted by Villains: 1

Number of Women Abducted by Heroes: 1

Number of Societies Encountered in Which Women Are Treated Literally As Property: 1

Number of Male Characters Who Object To This: 0

Number of Female Characters Who Object To This: 0

Reaction of Party Member On Being Told That His Wife Is Now The Property Of Another Man: “Oh good, he'll look after her until I get back”Themes:

Fantasy Rape Watch

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Books

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Sci-fi / Fantasy

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Judging Books By Their Covers

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http://serenoli.livejournal.com/

at 12:00 on 2009-04-15Lol the last line. Like, seriously?

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Rami

at 13:52 on 2009-04-15I was mostly struck by the resemblance of the cover to

a Wheel Of Time book

, when I first saw it...

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Arthur B

at 13:57 on 2009-04-15Hey, I remember that cover - it was on the only

Wheel of Time

book I ever attempted to read.

I got halfway through the prologue before I gave up.

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Rami

at 14:26 on 2009-04-15Don't worry, you won't have to miss out entirely -- it's allegedly coming to the big screen in 2011!

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Wardog

at 16:00 on 2009-04-15They're making a movie from The Wheel of Time? Wtf?! It isn't even finished... and it's really boring...

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Arthur B

at 16:07 on 2009-04-15The long and boring nature of the Wheel of Time is actually helpful there: if they film everything then they'll still be on schedule even if the final book isn't published until 2050...

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Rami

at 16:14 on 2009-04-15You never know, they could do something miraculous and tighten it up a lot (like the LOTR films, for instance, were tightened up) into a reasonable story...

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Shim

at 16:19 on 2009-04-15I can see that. I mean, if you cut out most of the characters and all the sitting around angsting, it would be manageable.

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Guy

at 16:22 on 2009-04-15I understand that, since Jordan is now writing generic fantasy for the angels, they have found someone else to finish the Wheel for him. Who was intending to write one book, but, haha, said that there was far too much stuff to wrap up in just one book so he is going to write a concluding *trilogy*.

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Dan H

at 20:16 on 2009-04-15

Lol the last line. Like, seriously?

Seriously, but deliberately taken out of context for maximum d'oh value. Said character is, in fact, a member of the treats-women-as-property community (albeit an adopted one) so it's not like his wife was just snatched away from him by people they met on the road, and he does know the guy she's given to personally so it's not completely psychotic. So the line is more "I know X will take good care of her". It's still kind of messed up though.

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Dan H

at 20:38 on 2009-04-15

there was far too much stuff to wrap up in just one book so he is going to write a concluding *trilogy*

You know what's going to happen, don't you?

He's going to write books one and two, and then die horrifically, at which point somebody else will get brought in to finish the trilogy, and decide that actually they'll need to divide the final volume into two parts, finish the first part and then they'll die as well at which point somebody else...

It'll become this terrifying horror story about the fantasy series that kills anybody who touches it.

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Guy

at 03:56 on 2009-04-16I thought you were going to say, he's going to write books one and two, then realise that one book just really isn't *quite* enough to wrap up everything that needs to be wrapped up, so he'll extend the series by just a few more books... &c... but I like your version too. :)

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http://pozorvlak.livejournal.com/

at 11:51 on 2009-04-16I just wanted to say that Leith is the name of where I live. I don't know if that's a coincidence or further evidence of Kirkpatrick's deep love of geography, but it made the review rather confusing for me to read.

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http://sistermagpie.livejournal.com/

at 21:02 on 2009-04-21Awww. It really is kind of a textbook fantasy book. I find myself liking the author even while cringing at the thought of reading the book.

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Rami

at 10:54 on 2009-04-22

liking the author even while cringing

Yeah, me too. If he spends that long lovingly building a fantasy world I get the feeling it'd be really fun to be sitting there exploring it with him, just riffing on ideas like what the people in the desert kingdom to the south wear.

On the other hand, that has very little to do with actually writing a good book :-(

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Dan H

at 13:31 on 2009-04-22There's a rather cute bit on his website where he says that writing his books takes roughly 500 hours to write, with a further *thousand* hours of worldbuilding...

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Wardog

at 14:38 on 2009-04-22Sigh. I'm pretty damn sure it should be the other way round ...

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http://scipiosmith.livejournal.com/

at 18:23 on 2012-04-03

Now I admit, I've only read the first book, and it's possible that it will defy all my expectations and preconceptions. It's possible that Leith will grow the hell up and show some kind of leadership qualities. It's possible that Stella will learn that she doesn't actually need to get married, and will reject Leith on the grounds that she doesn't fancy him. But I'm unlikely to find out because I'm unlikely to want to wade through another twelve hundred pages of tedious geography for the privilege.

Kind of, as far as Leith goes. Instead of displaying any fantastic qualities book 3 becomes a rather hilarious deconstruction/parody of the idea of the Chosen One, as he leads his followers from one epic fail to the next before God and Hal save the day at the last possible second.

Stella on the other hand is treated rather savagely; by the end of the trilogy she's been seduced by the Dark Lord's trusted lieutenant (whom she does, in fairness, cause to be killed by the Dark Lord), then prematurely aged and palsied down one side by the Dark Lord during his enslavement of her, develops kind-of Stockholm syndrome before being rescued by God, and still marries Leith at the end.

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Dan H

at 18:11 on 2012-04-04

Instead of displaying any fantastic qualities book 3 becomes a rather hilarious deconstruction/parody of the idea of the Chosen One, as he leads his followers from one epic fail to the next before God and Hal save the day at the last possible second.

Obviously I've not read the book, but based on this very loose description, I'm not sure that constitutes a parody or deconstruction, so much as a fairly straight implementation of the trope. Sometimes it's authorial fiat, rather than a literal divine intervention, but the way the Chosen One narrative usually works (in my experience) is that they fuck up continuously for most of the story, then have everything come out alright at the last possible minute.

c.f. John Sheridan, Harry Potter, later Buffy, and so on.

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James D

at 20:10 on 2012-04-04Yes, a better deconstruction of the trope would have the "Chosen One" be actually worthy of the title, but simply lose because the enemy is better at fighting and it was stupid to expect to win or even try to fight. The bad guys end up being magnanimous in defeat and things go back to the way they were, which wasn't so bad anyway, minus a bunch of warmongering rebels. The End. Maybe throw in a dash of how the former Confederate US is with its "The South Will Rise Agin!" mantra, playing up big gubmint being evil, states' rights being good, and conveniently lionizing the rebels while whitewashing the whole slavery issue. I guess the protagonist could be some sort of impressionable youth who buys the whole story.

There are probably already a hundred authors who've deconstructed the trope at length, to the point where its deconstruction is itself a trope. Such is modern fantasy. To be perfectly honest though, it just doesn't seem like a particularly interesting trope to deconstruct, because once examined at all it becomes so transparently stupid that hardly any deconstruction is required to lay that inherent stupidity bare. As mentioned in the review, the concept of a "Chosen One" is just more bald-faced adolescent wish-fulfillment fantasy.

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http://scipiosmith.livejournal.com/

at 17:45 on 2012-04-05

Obviously I've not read the book, but based on this very loose description, I'm not sure that constitutes a parody or deconstruction, so much as a fairly straight implementation of the trope. Sometimes it's authorial fiat, rather than a literal divine intervention, but the way the Chosen One narrative usually works (in my experience) is that they fuck up continuously for most of the story, then have everything come out alright at the last possible minute.

I think the difference is one of textual support. You can read the later Harry Potter books as the story of someone bumbling from one disaster to another, but that is not supported by the text which insists that Harry is a Hero with capital H to the point that even after his apparent defeat and death people remain loyal to his memory.

On the other hand, when Leith is loudly called out for every mistake he makes, called out for sulking about getting called out, and by the end of the war is getting pissed on by the common soldiery for his suckage (even Charlie Brown thinks he's a loser by this point) it's hard to argue that 'Leith is Useless' is not what the text expects you to take away.

It's also possible to interpret that Hal, who bears his brother's accusations of treason without complaint, dies in Leith's place and then comes back to life temporarily in time to save the day, was the real Right Hand of God all along, but then Leith was the one hearing God's voice in book 2 so that would be strange.

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Tamara

at 23:08 on 2014-01-28How geekily-particular is it that what bothers me about this review is the implication that geographers make for tedious worldbuilding? I'm not-so-many credits away from a geography degree and love it to pieces, and it's totally obvious to me that the use of a solid foundation in geography in fantasy worldbuilding should be one of experimentation and exploration of spaces and landscapes that can't exist in reality, not the fussy construction of super-accurate worlds. The City and The City or The Half Made World is my idea of a great geography porn genre book, not something with really nicely mapped drainage basins. Just needed to say that, oh very old article about a series long since off the radar.