#wheel of time meta? on MY blog?

[onaperduamedee]

Notes on The Great Hunt

Very strong beginning rife with political intrigue and stealth break-in. Also, you cannot get a stronger opening than with the arrival of the Amyrlin Seat herself.

Siuan must be the most imposing character I have read in a while. She radiates such intelligence and power, it's the most incredible experience. I was also really looking forward to her reunion with Moiraine and it did not disappoint, particularly with how they are written as conspirators. And were ready to blast Verin out of existence. I don't think I grasp yet how much of radicals Moiraine and Siuan are within the White Tower. Although their actions do not lead to systemic changes, it's fundamentally rebellious and extreme.

Smart move on the show's end to move the Horn's theft to S1. It builds anticipation and allows more room for the power dynamics shifting around Rand in early B2 and that were exemplified by this unspoken tug-war between Shienar and Tar Valon for influence over Rand.

The white cloaks and Bayle Domon chapters... I keep thinking these books need more thorough editing and these are strong arguments in favor. Bayle Domon is a fun character and I enjoy the way he is used as a very external point of view character who wants little if not nothing to do with the plot. Which is a fine cool concept, but it seems a tad contrite to me in the context of such a breadth of POV characters. At times, it felt like arbitrary switching between POVs to show how it looked from a different angle and create tension.

Am unexpectedly annoyed with Lan, who managed to fall down to the bottom of my favourite character's list after this book. I do not like how he acts with Rand, Nynaeve, even Moiraine. I loathe manly superhero hypocrisy and he has it in spades: he's no more helping Rand than Moiraine is, just shaping him into a warlord, a future ally in his war against the Shadows. A whole other meta is in progress about Moiraine and Lan as two contrasting mentor figures in this book and how Rand uses parts of their teachings, but I have just an epidermal reaction to how he is written. It doesn't help that he seems to be leading Nynaeve on. I preferred him when he was barely talking.

On the other end of the spectrum, I cannot wax enough poetry about Siuan. Going into the books, I was sure I could not love her more than her show personification and I was so wrong. She is the very definition of a force of nature and to witness her fine mind clicking like a well-oiled delicate clock is a privilege. I adore how Robert Jordan makes you feel the power of her mind and the way she weighs and turns people. I will need to mourn for a week if the Amyrlin casually dropping off to teach Nynaeve and Egwene, then getting slammed against a wall because she successfully angered Nynaeve into using her power is not included in the show. I will be distraught.

Thom dropping by to go "lol, I hate you guys, you were the worst experience of my life, I am never helping you ever again" was funny.

The Lan/Moiraine scene was super interesting for reasons I will maybe expand on another time, but what struck me most is that not that long ago, Aginor mopped the floor with Moiraine. Truly, beat her so brutally they had to carry her on a stretcher, and neither Lan's presence, nor strong channelers' like Nynaeve or Rand, was enough to spare her. Her decision has been strongly driven by the brutality with which she was reminded of her own mortality, of how weak she is compared to the new players. Her death - a debt for the quest she had accepted to pay a long time ago - is very much about to be paid and in a way that she might have not suspected would hurt so much.

Was disappointed in Nynaeve's Accepted test and Moiraine's fight against the Draghkar. The former came much too soon after the girls' arrival to the Tower, to the point where I didn't get why Nyn was even going with it and why she should care, or worse, why the reader should care. The latter was downright expedited. This was the first time we were seeing from up close those truly terrifying creatures and it was just over in an instant.

Verin was everything the fandom let her out to be. I love that sly old fox who is far more observant than she lets everyone believe but is also absolutely in the clouds.

Loved the venture into the parallel universe and the steading most. These books are never better than when they turn into travel journals, except in odd and magical realms. Same with the description of that monstrosity being unburied that Rand passed by. Have you ever heard of nuclear waste Chekhov's gun ? Because that's how it felt.

Padan Fain is a self-serving bastard and I love him for that: soft retconning the first book helps discard the more classist aspects of his character as well.

The hunt in itself was really engrossing. Because of the title, I was somehow expecting a Wild Hunt from European folklore to turn up but technically we get two! One in the form of the Trolloc party, the other with the Seanchan. Which means the heroes are following the steps of a Wild Hunt rather than fighting or fleeing it. It's a nifty twist on the archetype. And it pays off stunningly when the horn is blown and an army of the dead rises to fight the Seanchan.

Despite knowing Ingtar was a fan favourite, I found him extremely suspicious from the start and the narrative didn't exactly spare hints to show he was obsessed with the horn. So, when the revelation came, it was a) expected but good, b) trying because Rand shows FAR more sympathy toward men doing bad things trying to do the right thing than women.

The description of the battle over Falme itself was impressionistic at best, so like the Ways and TEotW, I bet people are going to complain about the screen adaptation, no matter how obviously unadaptable to the screen it is. I don't care. It was so enjoyable in the books and it'll be good but different in the show. I was really looking forward to it and it went beyond my expectations.

Now the Seanchan... I've got to admit I had to stop reading for a few days after encountering Damane for the first time. On one hand kudos to Jordan for creating antagonists who are genuinely abhorrent and terrifying. Like one hundred percent, bloody hell, hats off, I was not expecting that level of cruelty and political commentary. On the other hand, I have now sizeable concerns about how well a white American author can handle writing about slavery where the victims are so far in the books mostly white. In the same vein, I am very concerned with how it will translate to the screen given the numbers of black and brown channelers involved. If you add on top the fact that this violence seems suspiciously gendered... I am afraid.

Nynaeve and the Seanchan though, hell yes. Everything about that encounter was breath-holdingly good, from her righteous fury to her ability to hold it back not to kick someone who was already down and would get her punishment anyway. It almost makes up for the fact the girls fell for such an obvious trap.

Egwene and the Seanchan too. It honestly hurts too much to think about what she went through and how it will impact her development as a character. She's going through too many traumatic experiences in the span of a few months for it not to leave painful scars.

Oh, the chills I got from the sounding of the Horn of Valere. Seriously. Chills. Beyond that, I am In Love with the concept of the heroes of the horn, the idea of great warriors and heroes from the past walking the world again, some more legends than history. Reminds me of the myth incarnations in Mythago Wood.

Overall, this book was a little frustrating. Frustrating because I knew this was the book where the story was really supposed to pick up the pace and expand lore, so I was looking forward to getting a taste of the series onwards. And it started off really well - Rand, Mat, Perrin and Loial on the hunt, Nynaeve and Egwene on their way to the Tower, Lan and Moiraine doing research, and then it petered out into nothing much. Oh, things happened, but among everything that was set up, only Rand's path was really fleshed out in the middle. I was expecting much more of Nyn and Egwene at the White Tower, and it was treated as a sort of palate cleanser between swaths of Rand chapters. Mat and Perrin didn't have anything to do. Even Lan and Moiraine got more done in the few chapters they were in.

I guess Mat was there as an incentive for Rand and Perrin got to use his powers in a way that would make him feel less monsterized which was actually quite neat, but it's pillow fluffing compared to how much of the story was Rand's.

Even when the girls finally got to do something it was entirely driven by Rand. I get he is the main character and I truly enjoyed his journey across worlds and cities, but part of what spurred me to read the book was the promise of an ensemble, with the characters each having their own story. So far, this doesn't cut it.

THAT said, despite the soft middle, the finale was incredible, much like TEotW. The pacing increased drastically in the last chapters, as well as the tension. It felt like a series finale more than a book finale. I'm starting to see a pattern in Jordan's writing: intriguing steady start, meandering middle and bombastic finale. I am not entirely sure the frustration of the middle part justifies the payoff for me because those are long books, but Robert Jordan knows how to set all the fireworks to make sure the lasting images are the biggest, loudest finale you can imagine. Overall, I did enjoy this one more than TEotW, but less than NS.

Edited: I completely forgot to add I really like Hurin. Much like Loial in TEotW, he gets the archetypal anti-hero treatment from Jordan, and with a lot of benevolence and honesty. It's kinda heartwarming. For his interest in chosen ones and exceptional heroes, Robert Jordan shines most to me when he writes about average people.

[jadagul]

So there's this idea I've seen circulating periodically of "don't tag your hate", that fandom tags are for being positive about the fandom and if you're going to say negative things about a work you shouldn't tag it and harsh the vibe of the fans.

And this is, like, utterly baffling to me. If I'm a fan of something I want to see critical analysis! And some of that will say good things and some will say bad things. Unmitigated positivity mostly just pisses me off for being shallow.

Like, the first thing I ever really did with the internet was join a Wheel of Time fan community. But I also spent time looking for negative comments about the books. (I just didn't find any that made sense! The two critiques were "it's too long", which like fair enough but I was a bored speedreader in high school; and "all the female characters are indistinguishable", which may be one of the most incorrect claims about a work of literature that I've read.)

If I post meta about a work of literature, I'd kinda like people to argue with me! That's fun and engaging. (As long as the things they're saying aren't stupid, obviously, but stupid responses are annoying regardless of whether they're positive or negative.) And when I search for commentary, I'd like both positive and negative commentary.

I kind of suspect that I just don't do "fandom" in the sense that people who are part of fandom think and talk about it.

Of course, the weirdest one is that in the early days of this blog, I did a lot of criticism of effective altruism, and I got asked not to tag it "effective altruism" because that tag was for positive stuff about EA. Which is why my tag for effective altruism discussion is still "ea cw".

[highladyluck]

This is a personal blog but I post a lot about Wheel of Time, specifically Mat, Tuon, and their relationship! If you'd like to archive dive, I've gathered the highlights below.

Influences My Major Meta My Minor Meta My Jokes

[therealvinelle]

This has been picking my squishy little thought organ.

Submitted to several others for a wide range of potential awnsers

If Jalice had a kid, what are some hypothetical gifts it could have?

I could see it having the gift of giving hallucinations.

(that previous ANON got me thinking, clearly)

Because of his emotional ability--> making them believable. [Fool the emotions all else will follow.] Her visions are quite sporadic at times. ---> crafting the mental space devoted to that.

Environmental Factors---> Bella & her daughter can project, and I think environmental factors will give the gift a push to be able to be casted. INSTEAD of actually just ending up with hyperaphantasia.

"People with hyperphantasia can imagine scenes, sounds, smells, tastes, and sensations with great clarity and detail. They may also have enhanced abilities in creativity, memory, and empathy."

Alice & Bella are besties, so they'll spend a considerable amount of time together interacting. So, I think the block Renesme has on the visions will be a giant factor too.

Despite Bella and Alice just not being close it will happen anyway. Cause there's nowhere realistically for her to go.

She's stuck and Alice probably isn't going to get a vision going oh, now is the right time to leave.

Even if you could argue oh, they'll never fight. Most likely right unless we wanna go even more Au... {Which I am 100% ok with}

But I think Alice's slight harboring of resentment for Renesme for blocking her visions will be the key in the lock for this to all work out right.

She isn't going to stop blocking them. Alice already has had time to get over her gift dependency so much but like she won't do that.

Jasper's gift can't be blocked by a shield, but I imagine he's a little immune to Renesme's gift. (Realistically not...? But it's a silly little Tumblr post I don't want to think about the power scale too hard and implode.)

I was hoping you could pick up where I left off about how things realistically work in Twilight.

Besides the whole vampires have a kid despite one being infertile.

But I think this would be a hell-on-wheels problem. Cause while Jasper I'd argue! Has a more moral conscious (at least in the ways we see it.) than Alice. But they're both pretty grey.

Which means they're both pretty ruthless. Like Bella and Edward are for their child.

All i know is this offspring would have to be so lucky to not be snatched by the Volturi.

I think this kid would fare better than Renesme in the short and long term. Even if they were both hybrids. This kid would have parents that would in my opinion actually teach it more.

I think Bella and Edward don't teach Renesme. much.

I think Jasper would make sure his kid had the skills should they be needed to be used. And Alice would support this or just let it happen. I think he's a more active parent than her but that's 100% different bullshit Au type of discussion and I just needed to drop this meta off to blogs for their thoughts.

I am driving myself crazy. I would like to sleep.

Well, I'm not entirely sure how this child would come to be in the first place as Jasper and Alice can't have one.

Assuming, though, that God bestowed one upon them, I subscribe to @smallcatwoman's fellow who has the gift of seeing emotional outcomes, the child would be as delightfully alien as Alice only in a very different way (optimal future-oriented Alice versus happiest outcome-seeker Greige).

As for how the child is raised, I imagine it would have much the same upbringing as Renesmee. If Jasper and Alice are interested in teaching a child, Renesmee is right there and is, by all accounts, The Cullen Child™. They are all devoting every resource to her, raising her communnaly for all that she is officially Bella and Edward's.

A second child with a different set of parents would, if possible, be even more Cullen Communal Property than Renesmee: Bella, at least, had an interest in her child, Alice screams childfree. Oh, she'll be the cool aunt and take the kid shopping, no problem, but parenting? Motherhood?

Esme and Rosalie can do the hard parts, and Jasper and Carlisle too if they want. Alice will be pointing out that God making the child genetically hers was simply a matter of good taste, doesn't mean she should be raising the damn thing.

And the child gets to live in the shadow of Renesmee, who was wanted by her mother, the first and miraculous baby everybody and their cousin were willing to die for, and has a guy imprinted on her. Renesmee, by all accounts, would be the golden child and the other one would be... the other one.

Wasn't supposed to exist, his mother foisted him off and prefers to dress up Renesmee anyway, and his gift is only able to tell him that he can't be happy around his family, so he ignores it.

Perhaps Greige will love Renesmee, but I prefer the timeline where he resents her too much to recognise his cousin for just as unhappy as he is, and Renesmee has no idea why but only knows that she can't meaningfully connect to him.

Drama is had.

[queenburd]

okay okay here’s a rough outline for the hypothetical fic, like 3/4 developed, in an order that makes sense narratively. it’s kind of a mess, because it’s bits and pieces of what I’ve talked about on my blog, but in a Narrative structure.

-

If I had the mental capacity I would write a whole TSP fic that gets severely meta and Stanley and the Curator are the only ones in on just how meta it is

I definitely wanna preface that this thing isnt a completely 100 percent developed story, its like. 70 percent? idk. but my thinking, or hunch, is that this whole thing started because the Player came back and did a Real Person run. it’s been a long, LONG time since they showed up, so when Suddenly Stanley isnt responding the the Narrator, the fellow cant inhabit his model and is forced to be a voice that run (after a long time of the pair of them by themselves, doing what they like), it shakes them both up pretty badly.

so the Narrator decides that since he can inhabit a model, he’s getting Stanley to that escape pod to get the hell out of dodge.

alone.

the narrator is not planning on coming with him.

and this…. doesnt go over well.

So a big theme about this whole story is the fear of abandonment. The Narrator is terrified of it, 432 has experienced it, Stanley feels like that’s what the Narrator is doing to him with the whole Escape Pod thing. (Stanley may also have some. unprocessed feelings abt the collectibles ending and epilogue.)

and this is all the Narrator’s fault btw. he made a bad decision early in the fic out of fear so he and Stanley have been dealing with that the ENTIRE TIME.

When the Narrator makes the decision to “let Stanley go”, Stanley doesn’t take it well, and 432 projects onto him pretty strongly–it’s hard not to! There’s a lot of overlap. That, plus the fact that the wheel has to keep turning, spurs 432 into action. He acts out in what he thinks is mutual anger both he and Stanley feel towards the Narrator.

They’re doing it because he’s projecting onto Stanley big time, under the assumption the Narrator made this protagonist and is now going to throw him aside and make a new one. This falls in line too closely with their memories.

Memories including a Narrator who wanted to make a big story about mind control and choice and freedom. Who jumped headfirst into a project that he only half-completed, because he got lazy and didn’t want to put all the work in, so he dumbed his story down.

Memories of half-finished NPCs disappearing and changing halls and a protagonist, designed to solve a mystery, instead becoming paranoid and disappearing.

432 is a sympathetic….. antagonist. not a villain lmao but an opposing force to the narrator in the sense they find the narrator to be lazy and probably stupid.

The narrator even describes himself pre-Parable as a person who got lazy, and made a character to make decisions for him, because decisions are complicated and difficult. He made the bucket instead of rewriting the game. he made a bunch of gags in the hope it would be a story.

As for 432… well. I think the narrator had initially planned a more complicated true ending. NPCs, a more complex storyline to figure out the mystery of mind control, and an inquisitive protagonist designed in game to be allowed the mental freedom to question. Documents and lore abt 432 show he was an exception for the mind control experiment.

But the narrator was finding this story and the choices too unwieldy. Making all these 2dimensional npcs, outlining this complicated storyline, he found it was not what he wanted. It was hard. So he cut it down a lot.

But 432 was not designed for this much simpler environment. The inquisitiveness turned to paranoia. The self awareness turned to game awareness. He knew what his role was but he didn’t fit it anymore, not the way the narrator needed him to.

And then he disappeared.

Did the narrator erase him? Did he find his own way to slip into the code? Who can say? But the narrator’s memory of 432 is fuzzy at best, and he made a new protagonist, one much simpler. One who wouldn’t ask hard questions unless prompted. One who simply desired happiness.

And then, of course, like any good protagonist, Stanley changed.

432 is, sadly, a lil bit of a hypocrite, because they too don’t want to go through making an entirely new video game. that’s hard. but, it also has to be said that it was not their job to make a video game, it was their job to be the protagonist. It was their job to play the game, again, and again. Keep the wheel turning.

they make the door to the skip button disappear. they make the door to the steam reviews, that they know will drive the narrator mad. they are the time keeper, and time between skip presses increases and increases.

but they bring the parable back, as well as push it “forward”.

the narrator is prone to fixate, get stuck, and not progress, without a protagonist. 432 knows this. when Stanley is frozen in the Skip, the narrator keeps playing and playing and playing it all over in his head until he decides to try to make decisions for himself again. even then, he cannot do it. he wants to play one more time.

the wheel must keep turning.

In truth, Stanley wants freedom. The narrator want Stanley to be free, but he also wants to tell his story, and I don’t think he INTENDED Stanley to become self aware and aware of the multiple endings and restarts, etc etc. I think he expected Stanley to be like a normal game protagonist, wiped clean, and it should be easy because Stanley is supposed to be a simple character.

432 on their part wants to keep the game functioning. He, like Stanley, became aware of his role of protagonist, but unlike Stanley, 432 doesn’t want freedom. 432 wants the loops. Wants the eternity. They’re right, the game is not a sacred thing that needs to be frozen in time. They want to play AND change.

They honestly would be the ideal protagonist for the narrator if he hadn’t goofed it so bad. or if they didn’t want to antagonize him so bad.

432 at one point becomes the storyteller, forcing Stanley and the Narrator to do the story, only “new and improved” (and the worst part is the story 432 makes IS more compelling than the narrator’s and it’s upsetting!!!)

I want to emphasize that 432 does not at any point harm a single character and is actually quite chill even as the antagonist. they LIKE stanley, and want to be friends with Stanley, even if there’s a lil bit of envy. it’s not Stanley’s fault they’re in this mess anyway.

they tell a compelling story about mind control, choices, abandonment and power grabbing. the story this parable SHOULD have been from the start.

they spend a lot of the time just telling Stanley a fun story about mind control and stuff (just to rub it in the Narrators face

and all the while they tell Stanley, just make whatever decision feels right. we’ll have fun with it. there’s always something new to learn.

they dont do anything to physically hurt the pair of them, but they consistently question Stanley’s choice to support the narrator after everything, and eventually he and Stanley make a bet that in a moment of high pressure the Narrator will/will not be able to make a decision. and if 432 wins they get to use Stanley’s model for a run.

and then they sabotage the choice to make the narrator so cripplingly scared of his choices that they win.

when 432 snags the model, he doesnt impersonate Stanley–he’s more interested in using Stanley’s face to taunt the narrator.

432 while in Stanley’s body (and Stanley has been made into a consciousness that’s just stuck in the museum for a run) just consistently makes the Narrator doubt that Stanley could ever really properly care about him, because the Narrator is a bad person, who can’t even make a choice when everything depends on it, and gosh, he really thinks Stanley could love him after everything?

the Narrator wont even let him leave the parable, despite having a body and being able to leave now! does he really think Stanley’s going to want to be with him forever?

no. they need to get back to the story. tell the story with me, narrator. this is all you’re good for.

so let’s just generally say that 432 gets to have a run in Stanley’s body more than once, and DOES give it back and only takes it when it’s been discussed beforehand (like the bet)

432 starts breaking Stanleys model pretty entirely unintentionally until the narrator desperately reminds them that they swore they wouldn’t hurt Stanley. They choose to end that run and their round with Stanleys body.

also there might have been a run where 432 puts the narrator through the skip button again. idk

So the Skip button is the most visceral example of this concept. (A theory is that 432 is the one that made the time between skips get longer and took the door away.) They’re doing this for catharsis. They’re doing it to emphasize this is how it feels.

it wouldn’t be a 1:1 experience of how we or Stanley experience the Skip button. The Narrator wouldn’t have the same rants, or the same reactions. his deterioration would be obvious through clothing, physical tics, stuff like that.

432 is immovable. At least until the reset, and Stanley is NOT HAPPY.

anyway when Stanley is booted out of the model entirely he doesn’t take it too well! it’s not a nice time being alone in the settings! but the curator, being able to see the entirety of the story and seeing this has gone WILDLY OFF TRACK, pulls his code out of the void and makes a copy of his model that she drops into the museum. it’s…. like it’s BETTER but it’s not GOOD. he’s pretty panicked about everything tbf.

uncertain as to if the Skip happens while he is in the Museum with the Curator, interacting with the comments, or if those happen the same run. the answer would change the specifics of how the run functions.

if he’s in the museum, than Stanley is aware of it. The Curator tells him it’s happening. for them, time moves the same way it would for the player, not for the Narrator.

If he’s dealing with the comments, then he’s probably on some level aware of it and is trying to prepare for the worst and the resolution. time passes for him equivalent to how it would pass for us the readers (like, update schedule wise. if it take a week for a new chapter, then he’d experience a week in the comments. only he wouldn’t have a full awareness of the time, bc that’s not really a thing in the void he’s working in.)

either way, he doesn’t have the power to stop it.

The Curator’s job is to oversee the Museum, and she knows the truth of the game, and the meta aspects. As the fic nears its climactic point, she’s the one who reveals this all to Stanley-

Diegetically, the narrator “created” the parable, the story, Stanley, 432, the skip button, etc etc. he’s a godlike entity who made a video game for the sake of art. He has full control of the parable, save for certain key moments.

Nondiegetically, a video game company named CrowsCrowsCrows made the video game called the Stanley parable, and hired kevan brighting to voice a character. The video game company developed every aspect and asset. The narrator is nothing more than a character.

And yet, diegetically, this is acknowledged in several places in story. The most obvious aspect is the Museum ending, though the Confusion ending is also a pretty big one. The new “bottom of the mind control facility” ending also acknowledges these developers who had to resolve the bug.

The clash between diegetic and non diegetic, the insertion of non diegetic into the diegetic, is one of the most beloved points of the game, since from its immediate loadin, the narrator (an aspect that is nondiegetic in most other stories that have one) is inserted into his own story. He’s breaking his own “in-story” consistency.

So you have a story within a story within a story. The narrators story/video game he is telling and trying to make, the story of the narrator clashing with Stanley/the player, and then the real world application of CrowsCrowsCrows making this video game abt all of it.

How fucking confusing is that? Me just trying to explain all of this as simply as possible. That’s why it’s been so hard to figure out how to talk about it. But all of this has to be covered for this next part to really make sense.

Because I’ve talked about how I think the implication is the narrator made 432 but then changed his story and 432 didn’t fit anymore, and this led to 432’s disappearance and their own condescension of him.

Memories which are, unfortunately, false. Because in the end, all of them are just a fiction. All of them are simply in a game made by Crows Crows Crows.

But by the time this finally gets out, 432’s sunk way too much anger and hurt into this. Doesn’t really feel like they can go back and still feels secondary. So they don’t intend to stop.

That they’re all just in someone else’s story, and always have been. Even she and the Narrator are not above Stanley, and never have been. She’s always protected that truth, and she only ever makes sure its assets stay safe–which is why when Stanley gets booted out of his model, she intervenes.

she sympathizes with all of them, but she doesn’t (can’t?) intervene, so she just watches and hopes.

and that one of these runs, Stanley would get to have a go at talking to the comments section of the fic. which would be integral to the climax and resolution of the fic.

me thinkin abt fic every night like '432 would be an incredible antagonist to write all they want is to show the narrator that they shouldnt have been left to the wayside so they go out of their way to prove they can make a better story than he can all while being not actually hostile but just an opposing force that makes stanley and the narrator doubt themselves and each other and at the end of the day 432's frustration is that they dont get to be a protagonist people know or care about and then of course the entire fic itself would get super meta because the curator would reveal the full meta narrative to stanley and then any fanfic comments and reactions would be something that he finds a way to share with 432 because 432 IS LOVED BY THE DANG WEBSITE' I am a massive sap every day of my life.

I think my own stubbornness is shouting “there has to be another option. there’s always another way” to the idea that the only way to beat the game is to not play. i think my brain keeps going back to the idea that the game is meant to be loved by its audience, because in its self awareness, if it can know it’s a loved thing, it knows it can be changed.

“to be loved is to be changed” “transformative nature of love” listen. Listen.

432, in the climax of the fic, learns about the audience/comments or the fic and realizes how absolutely adored they are and that they aren’t alone. They’re seen. And that is what they wanted and how they make peace and get closure.

Which would lead to them helping stanley and the narrator in their escape while making sure the parable still runs, because it has to

With the implication that they would do the story with the help of the audience from then on

Stanley and the Narrator escape the Parable after making arrangements with 432, who takes Stanley’s place as protagonist so the wheel can keep turning, and has the narrator tapes, but like I dont know how satisfied i am with that cos 432 by themself makes me sad but the curator does not want to narrate the whole game

but anyway 432 uses a Stanley model but tweaks it only a little

(you made it to the bottom of this post! Good Job, you did it! Good Job, you did it!)

[fuckmeyer]

This has been picking my squishy little thought organ.

If Jalice had a kid, what are some hypothetical gifts it could have?

I could see it having the gift of giving hallucinations.

(that previous ANON got me thinking, clearly)

Because of his emotional ability--> making them believable. [Fool the emotions all else will follow.] Her visions are quite sporadic at times. ---> crafting the mental space devoted to that.

Environmental Factors---> Bella & her daughter can project, and I think environmental factors will give the gift a push to be able to be casted. INSTEAD of actually just ending up with hyperaphantasia.

Alice & Bella are besties, so they'll spend a considerable amount of time together interacting. So, I think the block Renesme has on the visions will be a giant factor too.

Despite Bella and Alice just not being close it will happen anyway. Cause there's nowhere realistically for her to go.

She's stuck and Alice probably isn't going to get a vision going oh, now is the right time to leave.

Even if you could argue oh, they'll never fight. Most likely right unless we wanna go even more Au... {Which I am 100% ok with}

But I think Alice's slight harboring of resentment for Renesme for blocking her visions will be the key in the lock for this to all work out right.

She isn't going to stop blocking them. Alice already has had time to get over her gift dependency so much but like she won't do that.

Jasper's gift can't be blocked by a shield, but I imagine he's a little immune to Renesme's gift. (Realistically not...? But it's a silly little Tumblr post I don't want to think about the power scale too hard and implode.)

I was hoping you could pick up where I left off about how things realistically work in Twilight.

Besides the whole vampires have a kid despite one being infertile.

But I think this would be a hell-on-wheels problem. Cause while Jasper I'd argue! Has a more moral conscious (at least in the ways we see it.) than Alice. But they're both pretty grey.

Which means they're both pretty ruthless. Like Bella and Edward are for their child.

All i know is this offspring would have to be so lucky to not be snatched by the Volturi.

I think this kid would fare better than Renesme in the short and long term. Even if they were both hybrids. This kid would have parents that would in my opinion actually teach it more.

I think Bella and Edward don't teach Renesme. much.

I think Jasper would make sure his kid had the skills should they be needed to be used. And Alice would support this or just let it happen. I think he's a more active parent than her but that's 100% different bullshit Au type of discussion and I just needed to drop this meta off to blogs for their thoughts.

I am driving myself crazy. I would like to sleep.

On Gifts

something to consider: based on Bella's daughter, we can assume the demon spawn's gift will

have a combination of the mother & father's gifts that is

the opposite of the parents' gifts

Bella had a shield. Edward can read minds. therefore, Daughter can bypass any shield & can project thoughts onto others

so, Jalice Spawn would have

opposite of future sight. past sight? i.e., Spawn can see into memories or the history of certain objects It touches?

opposite of mood control. tf is that? emotional dysregulation? since the core of Jasper's power lies in detection & manipulation, perhaps Spawn is a mood scrambler/destabilizer, but can't control it & can't detect emotions

i propose: Spawn sees memories & scrambles emotions associated with them. (e.g. congrats, the painful memory of your mother's death now gives you warm fuzzies.) alternatively, It can alter the emotions associated with an object. (e.g., Spawn can touch a cherished teddy bear, see memories associated with it, & turn it into a reviled object.) caveat: It can't choose which emotion to change or what it changes to.

emotional dysregulation of memories. boom.

Avoiding Fuckshit

once Jalice become parents, all they need to do is keep Spawn's existence secret from the Volturi. (that's all they can do; bestie, they are BAD parents.) could be hard; post BD, the Volturi have their eye on the Cullens. could be easy; the Volturi have obvi turned a blind eye on geopolitics long enough to not see a mutiny. lol whoops

likely, the latter. bc Aro can already see every thought ever thunked, so past sight is useless. & if the Volturi wanted to fuck with people's emotions, they could recruit Jasper who can actually control his gift. so, not only do they not know about Spawn's existence, they don't care

IF they care (they don't), now what? Alice & Jasper would leave the Cullens ASAP. let's face it: Bella is a troublemaker & danger magnet. Jasper DEF wouldn't risk it; you bag the Spawn, you bag Alice.

so, they leave. Cullens have no idea why. Alice & Jasper hide in obscurity, teaching Spawn how to not be fucking useless.

years pass. Spawn is useless. all is well. until the Volturi clap back on the vampire world lmao DEUCES Cullen clan

Just Kidding All Is Not Well

Spawn is fucking useless, bestie. it'll take time for It to be able to control Its gift, if It can at all. in the meantime, whenever Spawn touches Jalice (A&J's gifts work remotely, so Spawn needs contact), It alters memories.

suddenly, Alice & Jasper's wedding day is rife with pain. Alice & Jasper are disgusted with the Cullens. Jasper falls in love with María (hueheu 👀). Spawn doesn't understand what the fuck is going on bc It can't detect the scrambled emotions, but ok, per Alice & Jasper's request, It will start walking around with gloves at all times.

too late! Alice & Jasper have too many scrambled memories. try as he may, Jasper can't change emotional associations of the past, only the present. things fall apart. they divorce. unable to return to the family they now hate, Alice & Jasper abandon Spawn & become nomads.

(Aro jumps for joy; he is one step closer at nabbing Alice)

Spawn ruins lives. including Its own. the end

[wot-tidbits]

10 Years Anniversary

PART 9

What is the future?

It has been 10 years. 10 years is a long time. I wondered several times through the years when it is gonna be the end of my journey? Because the end is inevitable after all. I cannot do it forever.

And right now on the mark of 10 years, I think is the right time to stop.

Well, not full stop but something needs to change.

The exhausting mentality of craving every single piece of WoT content must stop.

The mentality to make posts every day must stop. The mentality to say that it is OK and the world won’t end if I miss something in the WoT tag must stop. It is not sustainable for my health to keep doing it with such level of intensity.

Do not fear, I will never delete this blog and I still has the wish to log in.

But change is inevitable.

At the first weeks probably you won't notice it. I want to keep some routines - I still enjoy checking for the memes so that won't change. I will post sometimes new art or reblog stuff. But not with the same regularity.

While I decrease my attention in one detail, I want to go back in time and start bringing back forgotten emeralds from the archives. Here are newcomers who probably will enjoy the old unseen content as brand new.

I also want to dedicate more focus on the Bulgarian community - where I still have more positive reputation and reaction for what I do.

I want to take time and finally sit down to write my own meta. I keep some posts in the drafts which never got my full attention. Most of it probably you won't like it as it is mostly asking stupid questions about the TV show.

This is mostly lost cause on Tumblr so no more wondering whether I should poke the TV show and the fandom. You either die a hero, or you live long enough to become the asshole. And I have been the Asshole since the early days. I have been canceled dozen times on Tumblr. One more time won't make a change. Do not worry. I won't write these ideas to change anyone's mind. Your mind is already made up. The division did a great job to establish it. I just want to write for the freedom and for the peace of my own mind.

We will see what the new turning of the Wheel will bring for this blog.

Maybe nothing will change or maybe I will end it for good.

In either case for me it was an honor to be called Wheel of Time fan and to share my nerdiness with you.

Let the Light keep you safe

LightOne

[aliceismypixie]

This has been picking my squishy little thought organ.

If Jalice had a kid, what are some hypothetical gifts it could have?

I could see it having the gift of giving hallucinations.

(that previous ANON got me thinking, clearly)

Because of his emotional ability--> making them believable. [Fool the emotions all else will follow.] Her visions are quite sporadic at times. ---> crafting the mental space devoted to that.

Environmental Factors---> Bella & her daughter can project, and I think environmental factors will give the gift a push to be able to be casted. INSTEAD of actually just ending up with hyperaphantasia.

Alice & Bella are besties, so they'll spend a considerable amount of time together interacting. So, I think the block Renesme has on the visions will be a giant factor too.

Despite Bella and Alice just not being close it will happen anyway. Cause there's nowhere realistically for her to go.

She's stuck and Alice probably isn't going to get a vision going oh, now is the right time to leave.

Even if you could argue oh, they'll never fight. Most likely right unless we wanna go even more Au... {Which I am 100% ok with}

But I think Alice's slight harboring of resentment for Renesme for blocking her visions will be the key in the lock for this to all work out right.

She isn't going to stop blocking them. Alice already has had time to get over her gift dependency so much but like she won't do that.

Jasper's gift can't be blocked by a shield, but I imagine he's a little immune to Renesme's gift. (Realistically not...? But it's a silly little Tumblr post I don't want to think about the power scale too hard and implode.)

I was hoping you could pick up where I left off about how things realistically work in Twilight.

Besides the whole vampires have a kid despite one being infertile.

But I think this would be a hell-on-wheels problem. Cause while Jasper I'd argue! Has a more moral conscious (at least in the ways we see it.) than Alice. But they're both pretty grey.

Which means they're both pretty ruthless. Like Bella and Edward are for their child.

All i know is this offspring would have to be so lucky to not be snatched by the Volturi.

I think this kid would fare better than Renesme in the short and long term. Even if they were both hybrids. This kid would have parents that would in my opinion actually teach it more.

I think Bella and Edward don't teach Renesme. much.

I think Jasper would make sure his kid had the skills should they be needed to be used. And Alice would support this or just let it happen. I think he's a more active parent than her but that's 100% different bullshit Au type of discussion and I just needed to drop this meta off to blogs for their thoughts.

I am driving myself crazy. I would like to sleep.

I think that if Jalice hypothetically had a gift, it could be be related to feel the emotions of the people had in the past/will have in the future. Considerating the fact that Renesmee has a gift pretty complicated as an hybrid, it could be possible that every gifted hybrid has a gift more complicated than a normal vampire. The kid (Jalice's) would also, probably, block their mother's power but would slowly unblock it for their mother overtime. Because somehow, they are linked considerating the fact that in SM's Twilight world, the links are pretty strong bond, related to family or.

I can say that for most part I agree with you. Seeing how Alice and Bella were during Breaking-Dawn Part 1, it was already pretty hard for them both to get along and agree due to the fact that Alice couldn't see Renesmee's nor Bella's future. As you said, it could be the key for a potential fight to happen between the two.

As for Jalice having a kid. I would agree that the kid would probably be taught more, their father was an ex-soldier and their mother would probably want them to be able to defend themselves in the future as she would not be able to see anything due to being an hybrid. However, I think that this kid would also had easier way to understand what/who they are since Renesmee would be born before them and the whole family would be ready. Therefore, everyone would already know how to deal with an hybrid kid in the house with the supernatural grow, being able to eat human food ect.

I don't know if like I correctly answer but I tried my best to fill your hunger ^^' (you got me thinking for twenty minutes there)

[demonslayedher]

Why do you like Demon Slayer so much?

I---I don't know, Anon, w-why do you like breathing so much?

...because BREATH TECHNIQUE LOOKS WICKED AWESOME AMIRITE!??!!?

UFOTABLE MADE SUCH A FREAKING COOL LOOKING ANIME that both looks and sounds amazing with all that care put into it HOW COULD I NOT LOVE IT!? Such good source material too, ALL HAIL WANI-SENSEI!!!!

Or rather, to more eloquently express myself, I'll answer this in two parts: the "why" and "so much."

Why do I like it?

- Simplicity

It's a classic Good .vs. Evil story, a triumph of working hard and working together. It's Coming of Age and Hero's Journey, all themes that never get old because they're really good themes. KnY isn't even that fresh of a take if you boil it down to this, but it didn't need to reinvent the wheel, it just needed to be a good wheel to keep the story going.

I was grateful it ended when it did, it had a goal to accomplish and everything in the story worked toward that goal. I've fallen away from adventure shounen because I can never stay interested in super long series that get mercilessly extended past their natural life as cash cows. Not to sound like a Swamp Demon here, but this manga got to end while it was still young and beautiful.

The fighting mechanisms are complex enough to be fun to explore, but it's not as complicated as other shounen series, making the barrier to entry lower for first-time anime viewers. That's part of why I think it's been so successful. Plus, even though we get things like Red Blades and Marks later, their existence as ultimate techniques was in place from the start, so they felt believably set up and paid off. They made sense within the world building, even if they had to be dropped on the readers later so as to weekly serialization interesting.

It tackles deep themes, but doesn't overcomplicate them. Muzan being a simple villain and Tanjiro simply being good-hearted created interesting tension just fine, the motivations throughout the cast keep the story nicely driven.

- Depth

Although the story, world, and characters are simple enough for people of all ages and familiarity with anime to enjoy, if you want to scratch deeper than the surface level, the hundreds of thousands of words of meta and cultural background throughout my blog go to show that it's very, very easy to bury yourself deeper in it. In my case I already have years of obsession with Japanese culture to build on, so KnY fit very nicely into my niche. I already love samurai and oni and swords and such so that was already playing to my knowledge, but as a passionate nerd, it's also given me lots and lots of exciting new material to learn more about. But more about that later, suffice to say here that Gotouge is a very, very knowledgeable gator.

- Characters

THEY ARE JUST GOOD AND FUN AND UNIQUE DESIGNS IN THE FIRST PLACE, but also, I don’t feel like I already know these characters from other anime. Many of them defy being typecast, and even the ones that do feel like like other characters in a plethora of anime have such a unique spin to make them stand out in my heart. I'm sure I could be a nerd for plenty of other series, but it takes the right characters to make a fangirl.

Also, my emotions got manipulated excellently; I like Tanjiro and immediately wanted to root for him, but I ha-a-a-ated most of the rest of the cast until I got to spend a teeny-tiny bit more time with them, and then I liked them hopelessly. I got totally strung along and I love it when I can get strung along like this.

Why do I like it so much?

A lot of that comes down to my personal recipe of brain soup and the situation I already felt stuck in by the time I got into KnY, a few months prior to the pandemic. Watching the anime and feeling really into it came as a comfort while I was finding myself in what felt more like a situation than a good career move and feeling frustrated with the second draft of a novel which wasn't working. Then just as I had hoped there might be some improvements to my situation which I was holding out for, the pandemic changed everyone's plans.

Simply put, the isolation and stress in those early stages of the pandemic both gave me lots of time to explore and write fanfic and made me rely a lot on the joy I got out of KnY, and then I got so practiced at making KnY fanwork that this blog became like my bonsai I could cultivate in peace while most other things in life have continued to feel out of control. And dang it, I'm good at cultivating this bonsai of a blog! It's gratifying to feel good at something when real life is making you feel otherwise!

Hopefully the upcoming new start in a new city and in a new job that'll hopefully make me feel good at things again and provide some smidge more control over my life will make me less reliant on KnY for such a big share of my happy hormones, but...

THE HYPE IS PART OF WHAT I LOVE

IT IS

SO MUCH FUN BEING OBSESSED WITH A MAINSTREAM PHENOMENON

THERE ARE THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY EVERYWHERE

I SAY THESE CHARACTER NAMES AND EVERYONE KNOWS WHO I'M TALKING ABOUT AND THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED TO ME

IT STAYS ON MY BRAIN BECAUSE IT IS EVERYWHERE

AND THIS IS SO COOL

[gffa]

I posted 7,130 times in 2022

1,463 posts created (21%)

5,667 posts reblogged (79%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@gffa

@thetorontokid

@allthingskenobi

@binaryeclipse

@bi-wan

I tagged 7,065 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#obi wan kenobi - 2,529 posts

#anakin skywalker - 2,513 posts

#meta - 934 posts

#ahsoka tano - 551 posts

#jedi order - 549 posts

#obikin - 498 posts

#obi wan kenobi spoilers - 489 posts

#luke skywalker - 472 posts

#leia organa - 412 posts

#lumi.txt - 393 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#the part of 'you think you're just burping out your thoughts but what you're actually doing is putting on a uniform to fight a fandom battle

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

See the full post

14,991 notes - Posted April 8, 2022

#4

Every time I think about, “Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis The Wise? I thought not. It’s not a story the Jedi would tell you. It’s a Sith legend.” I start laughing because IT HAPPENED LIKE TWELVE YEARS AGO and THE ONLY PEOPLE THERE WERE SIDIOUS AND PLAGUEIS like there’s no way for the Jedi to even know this story existed, it’s not a millennia old tale, it was INCREDIBLY RECENT and they were Sith Lords IN HIDING, yet Palpatine just says that entire story with his whole chest like Anakin’s never going to go go the Jedi and say, “Hey, what’s up with never telling me about that Sith Legend Darth Plagueis?” so the Jedi can go “who the fuck is Darth Plagueis????” and Palpatine is RIGHT, Anakin’s brain is just like a hamster on a squeaky wheel, “oh okay I don’t know enough to tell if that’s true or not but I’m just gonna believe it”.  ABOUT A STORY THAT HAPPENED A DECADE AGO, NOT SOME ANCIENT HISTORY.  The absolute gall of Sheev Palpatine, there will never be another villain like him, he’s the bestworst.

22,327 notes - Posted June 29, 2022

#3

I have feelings about a fictional character and I’m about to make it everyone else’s problem.

25,972 notes - Posted June 27, 2022

#2

Bored.  Want something to do.  No, not that.  Not that either.  No, that doesn’t sound fun.  No, not that one, no, no, no.  No.  No.  Hmm.  No.  Bored.  Want something to do.  Anything.  Booooored.  No, not that.  Not that either.  No, that doesn’t sound fun.  No, not that one, no, no, no.  No--

30,805 notes - Posted August 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I am not even a little bit sorry for the person I become when there’s new content about my favorite fictional character.  You live by the fictional character hyperfixation, you die by the twenty plus posts I’m forcing you all to see about my Blorbo.

40,967 notes - Posted July 26, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[asha-mage]

Spoiler Tagging Guide For Filtering This Blog

I tag all my Wheel of Time posts either #WoT (for the book series) or #WoT On Prime (for the show).

I use #WoT Book Spoilers to cover anything the show has not reached yet, but I ALSO tag for specific books to the best of my ability, using the initals of that book. The Great Hunt spoilers are tagged #TGH Spoilers, The Dragon Reborn spoilers, #TDR Spoilers and so on.

I always use the most advanced book as a reference point. A post that contains spoilers for both TGH and AMOL will have #AMOL Spoilers, just to be on the safe side.

I tag the most recent season to denote spoilers for that i.e 'wot s2'.is my tag for Season 2 spoilers.

I have tags for, Fanart, Musing, Meta posts, Memes, and shitposts, all written WoT Fanart, WoT Musing, and so on. I do my best to tag these with which medium they are from (book or show) as well as with spoiler tags.

[iviarellereads]

A query!

We're coming up on the end of Harrow and about to start Nona the Ninth. Nona will wrap some time in July, but I like to have a lot of lead time to settle the details of projects, so here's a question for everyone following here:

Do you think there's a book or book series that would benefit from this kind of close read, looking for references, foreshadowing, and theme?

(I'm not looking for book recs generally, this is specific to this blog's format. And ideally I want to read something at least slightly lesser known, not the big 4 or 5 names of cishet white dudes that get thrown around whenever someone asks for recs.)

As I say in my first, pinned post, I've done the Wheel of Time in this format for some friends and shared the rough cut notes with a few Discord servers focused around that series. It wouldn't be a particular hardship to reread and refine those notes for posting here. Indeed, the Wheel of Time and the Locked Tomb have a lot of DNA in common, and not just the chapter icons. It would be the easy answer, and I think a lot of TLT fans would find that they enjoy WOT more than they expect to based on the premise. An epic fantasy political saga that takes place across a whole continent, told significantly from women's points of view within the world (after the first book which is 80% one dude), written by a man who was trying, in the 1990s, to upend misogyny without quite understanding what misogyny was. It's imperfect, but incredible, and his setup/payoff, foreshadowing, and worldbuilding have some great and terrible lessons to be taken into the next generation of epic fantasy. This would be my fourth time through the series and I wouldn't regret or resent it.

But, I've also considered doing this for other stories. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Naomi Novik's Scholomance (recent as they are, they've stuck in my head as examinations of chosen hero and fated villain tropes). Perhaps something like Michael Ende's The Neverending Story, or get real meta with William Goldman's The Princess Bride, in conversation with its genre trappings and the film adaptation, or John Scalzi's Redshirts, in conversation with the Star Trek franchise.

Then there are the books I don't feel qualified to examine in my way, or that I feel my particular analysis would fall short of doing justice to. I'm not so well versed in any mythology to address any of the various, wide-ranging modern takes we've seen of particularly Greek mythology in recent decades. A lot of stories don't have as much in the way of long-term arc foreshadowing or references to pop culture for me to feel confident interpreting in this format. And then, some stories like Becky Chambers's Monk and Robot which is both too short and too self-explanatory, there's little for someone like me to add.

There are stories I'd love to deep dive into one chapter at a time for indulgence's sake, but wouldn't necessarily add much value to the series unless you count detailed chapter summaries existing.

So, I ask the people who have come to see my format: what do you think I should deep read next? Can you think of a series that fits my vibe better than my thoughts above? Let me know in the replies or an ask!

[highladyluck]

These Are Jokes But I'm Serious About Them

Part 4 of my Reference Posts series! A lot of my meta comes from overthinking a joke I or someone else made. So here's a bunch of my humor posts! Categories:

Tuon

Mat

Mat/Tuon

Crackships

Other Characters

The Forsaken

The Seanchan

Collaborative Threads

Other

Tuon https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/718751918372093952 rip to marath'damane but I'm different

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/728450353532731392 Tuon expected more T&A from this venue

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/644042651297054720/gaslight-you-would-be-much-happier-with-us gaslight gatekeep girlboss Tuon

https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/648671292772548608/wheel-of-time-characters-with-really-bad-vibes-an Bad Vibes

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/641321330898305024/tuon-athaem-kore-paendrag-learned-how-to-have tuon worked hard for that Resting Bitch Face

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/680980440022155264/tuon-i-can-accept-fantasy-racism-analogue-but she draws the line at deadnaming

https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/648536558392262656 Every day I yearn to let Tuon loose in Sindhol

Mat https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/645645666073329664/rand-learns-about-duty-perrin-learns-about-duty Mat learns about consequences

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/735067522906406912/how-different-characters-see-the-horn-of-valere horny jail

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/634319567943057408/highladyluck-cant-stop-wont-stop-making-memes Matrim's hierarchy of needs

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/628837621924347904/i-was-listening-to-everybodyhatesrand-and-this slaps roof of car meme

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/648758256815259648 that's Semirhage, Mat

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/729741390014201856/mat-cauthon-stays-winning which ta'veren is most likely to rescue you

https://www.tumblr.com/matgpt/734538049234599936/this-is-a-joke-i-highladyluck-am-taking-too

^^^@matgpt

Mat/Tuon https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/654655938337341440/average-wheel-of-time-character-weddings-take matrimony cauthon is an outlier adn should not have been counted

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/719124935156596736 is this peak unselfawareness?

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/689981331323699200/i-am-sick-of-people-saying-tuon-is-not-a-good Fun date activities

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/687603938369929216 Mat stop wiping food grease on your coat challenge

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/681188672884932608/readers-reacting-to-mats-found-family-former Readers react to Mat's Found Family

https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/643572113966596096/mats-type-is-sharp-powerful-and-a-constant Mat’s type (seed of Knife Wife Theory)

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/724752030229479424/tuon-is-a-possum-and-mat-is-a-raccoon-and-they-can she plays dead, he steals shit: mat/tuon is possum/raccoon

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/652015329573273600/have-a-care-with-joline-teslyn-said-suddenly Please don't take my man, Joline

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/648129393534894080/luckily-she-did-not-insist-that-he-repeat-the Mat and Tuon's 'we hate books' moments

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/644044503126343680/manipulate-mat-scoured-his-mind-for-a-way-to-keep manipulate mansplain malewife Mat Cauthon

https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/680558204205318144/not-to-belabor-the-point-but-its-literally-her "war criminal pussy got me acting unwise" - Tuon

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/660317779262603264/highladyluck-i-had-this-thought-at-4-am-so-youll Selkie Tuon

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/635527252787052544/wheel-of-time-playlist Mat Cauthon/Tuon Paendrag: The Soundtrack

Crackships https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/644251995646148608/i-normally-just-skim-all-the-mat-povs-in-the my obsession with Mat/Lanfear started here

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/647718286825521152/this-blog-has-decided-to-just-accept-the Mat/Lanfear: why it's great

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/686188130139815936/will-you-go-to-prom-with-me-i-dont-see-that-i Mat/Lanfear: the promposal

https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/642764801123270657/new-crackship-dropped-lanfearmachin-shin-heres Lanfear/Machin Shin

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2491589/1/Reversed-PolarityLanfear/Galad

Lanfear/Galad

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/711714475702681600/how-egwene-feels-about-tuon-one-part-biting-and Tuon/Egwene: "this better not awaken anything in me"

Other Characters https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/683956447513591808 https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/677988150318137345/gawyn-died-doing-what-he-loved-mistakes-egwene https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/650073894289637376/im-not-saying-im-happy-about-egwene-alveres https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/674561140557299712/its-because-shes-guinevere Egwene's taste in men is bad for a reason

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/644957397525381120/gaslight-she-was-accepted-yet-had-pretended-to gaslight gatekeep girlboss Egwene

https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/666300626416943104/wot-on-prime WoT on Prime trailer characterizations

https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/657900986823786496/the-fires-of-heaven-chapter-3-rand-the-other Rand’s haunted

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43838274 Filk: Al'Thor by Asha'mouth (All-Star by Smash Mouth)

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/649744699383578625/holding-out-for-a-myrddraal Filk: Holding Out For A Myrddraal (Holding Out For A Hero from Narg's POV)

The Forsaken https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/633004240710795264/filk-forsaken-piano-man Filk: Forsaken Piano Man

https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/692703927546822656/made-a-silly-forsaken-playlist-on-a-whim-enjoy Forsaken Mixtape

https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/669555859951665152/how-all-the-forsaken-react-to-their-votive How the Forsaken react to their votive statuettes

https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/646632938617913344/gonna-die-on-this-incorrect-hill-nakomi-is Nakomi is Lanfear (DO NOT TELL ME THE REAL ANSWER I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW)

The Seanchan https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/713689734793297920/robert-jordan-was-homophobic-when-he-gave-all-the why must the people with the gay haircuts be evil

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/737369117802266624 horrible Seanchan step pyramid my beloved

https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/730402655921438720/it-is-a-cardinal-rule-of-wot-that-if-you-try-to The ocean is not a garbage disposal

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/707377199050801152/queenofmalkier-thank-you-for-reminding-me-about I just want to ride a weird beastie

Collaborative Threads

https://www.tumblr.com/gunkreads/651012677526798337/i-had-time-to-make-this-one-these-are-just-who Is every woman in WoT the same? No. Are they all girlboss? Yes.

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/676001137418272768/elayne-is-absolutely-that-friend-who-would-help WoT Hide The Body Thread (You'll want to go through all the reblogs on these, the point is that multiple people took my prompt and ran with it)

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/693617346414362624/ways-mat-cauthon-is-like-gollum-cursed-magic Gollum comparisons thread (You'll want to go through all the reblogs on these, the point is that multiple people took my prompt and ran with it)

Other https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/649985056414334976/mat-rand-perrin-nynaeve Wheel of Time characters as my collage art

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/670515289962774528/998-ne-wisdom-conference 998 NE Wisdom Conference

https://highladyluck.tumblr.com/post/644508952623792128/how-do-you-go-from-our-holier-than-thou-neighbors Be careful or you'll stain the Age Lace

https://www.tumblr.com/highladyluck/731074582215294976/unpopular-opinion-the-sharom-is-incredibly-stupid The Sharom is Not Safe For Work (for more details see gunk's Age of Legends OSHA trilogy)

[edwardsvirtue]

This has been picking my squishy little thought organ.

If Jalice had a kid, what are some hypothetical gifts it could have?

I could see it having the gift of giving hallucinations.

(that previous ANON got me thinking, clearly)

Because of his emotional ability--> making them believable. [Fool the emotions all else will follow.] Her visions are quite sporadic at times. ---> crafting the mental space devoted to that.

Environmental Factors---> Bella & her daughter can project, and I think environmental factors will give the gift a push to be able to be casted. INSTEAD of actually just ending up with hyperaphantasia.

Alice & Bella are besties, so they'll spend a considerable amount of time together interacting. So, I think the block Renesme has on the visions will be a giant factor too.

Despite Bella and Alice just not being close it will happen anyway. Cause there's nowhere realistically for her to go.

She's stuck and Alice probably isn't going to get a vision going oh, now is the right time to leave.

Even if you could argue oh, they'll never fight. Most likely right unless we wanna go even more Au... {Which I am 100% ok with}

But I think Alice's slight harboring of resentment for Renesme for blocking her visions will be the key in the lock for this to all work out right.

She isn't going to stop blocking them. Alice already has had time to get over her gift dependency so much but like she won't do that.

Jasper's gift can't be blocked by a shield, but I imagine he's a little immune to Renesme's gift. (Realistically not...? But it's a silly little Tumblr post I don't want to think about the power scale too hard and implode.)

I was hoping you could pick up where I left off about how things realistically work in Twilight.

Besides the whole vampires have a kid despite one being infertile.

But I think this would be a hell-on-wheels problem. Cause while Jasper I'd argue! Has a more moral conscious (at least in the ways we see it.) than Alice. But they're both pretty grey.

Which means they're both pretty ruthless. Like Bella and Edward are for their child.

All i know is this offspring would have to be so lucky to not be snatched by the Volturi.

I think this kid would fare better than Renesme in the short and long term. Even if they were both hybrids. This kid would have parents that would in my opinion actually teach it more.

I think Bella and Edward don't teach Renesme. much.

I think Jasper would make sure his kid had the skills should they be needed to be used. And Alice would support this or just let it happen. I think he's a more active parent than her but that's 100% different bullshit Au type of discussion and I just needed to drop this meta off to blogs for their thoughts.

I am driving myself crazy. I would like to sleep.

lol anon there's a lot to unpack here, and I don't generally have many jalice thoughts, but I dig your energy, so here's what I'm thinking:

imo alice and jasper would make HORRENDOUS parents, and I say that lovingly. they just embody the roles of aunt & uncle too perfectly. alice is the aunt who doesn't know how to relate to children, so she over-compensates by spending an inappropriate amount of money on clothes and toys. and jasper is the uncle who you're low-key scared to talk to because you're always hearing the other grown ups vaguely whispering about his "troubled past" and you're not sure if you really want to know what that's all about.

that being said, I'm sure their potential spawn would be loved and cared for and protected (and yeah, probably very gifted in some way). but their whole family dynamic would be absolutely unhinged.

[bookshelfdreams]

I posted 2,492 times in 2022

That's 419 more posts than 2021!

422 posts created (17%)

2,070 posts reblogged (83%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@swords-n-spindles

@mikimeiko

@bookshelfdreams

@snake-snack-stede

@knowlesian

I tagged 2,449 of my posts in 2022

Only 2% of my posts had no tags

#our flag means death - 1,010 posts

#esc - 340 posts

#message - 101 posts

#crafts - 101 posts

#thoughts - 74 posts

#ofmd reader - 68 posts

#german stuff - 51 posts

#!!!! - 47 posts

#anonymaus - 41 posts

#fic - 31 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#baby. theres spinning wheels for over 1000€ what makes you think you're gonna be met with thousands of ppl starved for things they can buy

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

random ofmd thought: I love that Stede is so cringe.

He's just. Awkward. Ridiculous. Unapologetically weird at all times and he never gets any cooler. Every episode has at least one Stede moment that causes me physical pain and I love that.

Because usually, if a character is this embarrassing, their arc is about learning to be less so, to be like anyone else, to be more normal, and Stede never does. He learns to be more confident, yes, but he never stops unapologetically being his awkward self, and that's so good to see? He's fine the way he is? He doesn't have to become less himself, he just has to learn how to own it better and that's so healing to see

2,133 notes - Posted May 14, 2022

#4

ofmd reader

aka Holy Shit Everyone In This Fandom Is The Smartest Person On Earth

aka a collection of my favourite meta, feel free to add your own faves!

(note that most of these don't actually have titles, I just tried my best to sum up the contents)

✬ On masculinity in ofmd by @edwardsilkheart

✬ The different genres various characters are in, and how they clash and synthesize by @fuckyeahisawthat (THIS is required reading and the reason this show works so well, all these different & contrasting flavours combined into something truly delicious. If you read nothing else on this list, read this)

✬ yk that Stede didn't actually have an evil plan to leave Ed all along right by @polyamoryprincess (on what really happened in Stede's head that night)

✬ these two posts by @mikimeiko about Ed and the mortifying ordeal of being known

✬ How does Ed like his eggs? by @forpiratereasons (on mirroring, learning how to be yourself and self-acceptance as the path to true love)

✬ Listen, I know everyone and their mother disliked Ed without the beard but I actually loved it. by @ruletogether

✬ Izzy Hands and the tenderness of violence, directed at him but not perpetuated by him by @ellicler with additional tags from @knowlesian

✬ Another one about Izzy, internalized homophobia, and subtextual queerness by @knowlesian

✬ The thing that ACTUALLY made Stede run away by @quillyfied

✬ Ed and the language of face-touching by @amuseoffyre

✬ anachronistinc costume design as a sotrytelling device by @ambassadorquark

✬ The Bathtub Scene (analyzing Ed's body language) by @orangechickenpillow plus this follow-up. I also recommend their post on clothes sharing

✬ beard media by @all-chickens-are-trans

4,851 notes - Posted April 11, 2022

#3

Crocheted Important Blue Internet Checkmark. Because why the fuck not.

(Pattern under the cut)

See the full post

4,982 notes - Posted November 11, 2022

#2

A brief conversation I had with @mikimeiko on their lovely meta about the motive of loss and abandonment made me think about miscommunication some more, and how horrible Calico Jack was to Stede.

When Stede meets Calico Jack for the first time this is what he says to him:

Who's the big gal?

Off to a terrible start, and it only goes downhill from there.

As others have pointed out, this is a very mean thing to say in general and absolutely unacceptable to say to a queer man in particular, and Ed knows that. He's trying to do damage control

See the full post

7,364 notes - Posted April 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

oh but I adore how everyone in this stupid pirate show is just a guy

I haven't seen ppl talk about it much but. the absolute lack of shredded abs. people show tummy and cleavage and there's not the barest hint of muscle definition anywhere

obviously some of them are very fit but it never leaves "works a physically demanding job and happens to be naturally thin" territory

and guys are fat! guys have bellies and rounded shoulders and chubby cheeks and imperfect teeth and thinning hair and are styled weirdly (that's a whole different post but the crew especially look so unprofessional styled it's great)

and they are still all hot! they are hot and desirable and find each other hot and desirable and I love that

I love to see it! nobody in this show looks like they had a personal trainer. and not just the side characters, not just a token fat guy - obv Taika Waititi is the most beautiful man you've ever seen and that little bit of tummy pudge spilling out of his crop top made us all lose our collective minds. but it's everyone else too; and it's not the extend of it either. no other show would have let black pete within 10 feet of a romance arc, much less been this sweet and sincere about it

this show is so comfortable with the human body in all it's glorious imperfection and I am in love with it

29,716 notes - Posted April 3, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[teaandatale]

I posted 969 times in 2022

45 posts created (5%)

924 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@theawkwardterrier

@captainjimothycarter

@steggyfanevents

@agentsweetdreams

@lyrslair

I tagged 428 of my posts in 2022

#steggy - 88 posts

#peggy carter - 18 posts

#tessa virtue - 9 posts

#about me - 9 posts

#to read - 8 posts

#meme - 7 posts

#the most wonderful time of the year - 7 posts

#the wheel of time - 7 posts

#personal - 6 posts

#awesome art - 5 posts

Longest Tag: 135 characters

#like i said this is more of a test preview but i really like some of the ideas i came up with even if i didnt finish them to completion

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Last day of April check in @steggyfanevents​! I have not been able to complete my #steggyfanficchallenge like I expected but I did manage 4 bingos!

I didn’t realize how much I never got around to reading while fighting with my own writing muse, but I tried to really widen my reading and hope to continue it on. I also planned to leave comments on every fic, and a few of you are still owed some AO3 comments from me ASAP 😉

I have tried to tag everyone’s tumblr I could find below. If you haven’t been tagged and see your fic, feel free to let me know to tag you.

Less than 10k Words

Five Times Steve Did Not Realize Someone Was Trying To Pick Him Up (And One Time He Did) by @buckywiththegoodhair86​

Comments: A great use of the 5+1 fic trope, where the different situations are written with so much humor and pitch perfect voices.

Baby Fic

Build Ourselves Together by fluffernutter8 / @theawkwardterrier​

Comments: An incredibly thoughtful, warm, and fun Modern AU where Steve and Peggy have an odd meetcute that turns into a wonderful show of love and community.

 “Best Girl”

There is nothing for me but to love you by AnaRose

Comments: This may be an unfinished fic, but it doesn’t leave you on a cliff hanger, and provides a lovely chance for Steve & Peggy to get their dance.

Multichapter Fic

Stork Sweet Shoppe by CapandCarter

Comments: An incredibly fun AU where Peggy goes to visit her Aunt in Brooklyn for the summer and befriends Steve throughout their childhood and beyond.

Mutual Pining

A HUGE misunderstanding by @captainjimothycarter​

Comments: A lovely little one-shot where both Steve and Peggy are pining idiots

Post-Canon

The Competition by KorrohShipper

Comments: Steve and Peggy one up each for the significant days in their lives, because they got their second chance, and it’s worth living live to the fullest.

Published in 2021 or later

That Red Dress by @elzibub​

Comments: A lovely one-shot revisiting our favorite pub scene in CA:TFA

Skinny Steve

Lightning Strike by Brenda / @brendaonao3​

Comments: A Skinny Steve & Peggy meetcute that is both sweet and very fitting of their characters.

Letters

so I wait for you like a lonely house by @whilewewereyetsinners​

Comments: Tony Stark hatches a plan, Natasha is impressed by a 1940s SSR Agent, Howard writes a faithful (if perhaps poorly judged) letter, and a lovely Steggy reunion of course.

See the full post

40 notes - Posted April 30, 2022

#4

Return to Sender

Steggy Week 2022 – Day 3 (Tuesday): Headcanons and Meta

Headcanon: A stolen (with permission) but very beloved headcanon from @dorrinverrakai1, that at the end of Endgame, when Steve returns to Peggy, in his impatience to see her, she is most certainly just awake still in her robe and curlers.

Title: Return to Sender

Summary: Steve tried hard to be patient, to wait until an acceptable hour of the morning, one that could not be deemed inappropriate. But the sun was shining bright if only still beginning to rise, the birds busy with their morning songs, and though many human beings were fast asleep, Steve couldn’t bear to wait another minute to be reunited with Peggy.

READ IN FULL AT AO3

Sneaking around in the bushes is not exactly how he would ascribe his behavior on a pre-dawn Sunday morning, though if presented with the facts, it wouldn’t be far off.

It had taken a little time for him to get here, but now, with nearly a day to get his feet under him, finding the right place, he couldn’t wait any longer. Not this time. No longer.

No, this was specifically his plan, and for a former man-with-a-plan, he was putting off his well laid plans for nothing and no one.

40 notes - Posted July 26, 2022

#3

See the full post

43 notes - Posted July 30, 2022

#2

OMG DERRY GIRLS IS TOO GOOD. I AM ALL FOR SHOWS ENDING ON ITS OWN TERMS BUT CAN LISA MCGEE PLEASE GET ALL THE MONEY TO MAKE MORE SHOWS BECAUSE THIS SEASON IS FIRE AND I NEED MORE OF THIS JOYFUL NONSENSE IN MY LIFE

105 notes - Posted April 21, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

get yourself a woman who can do both

156 notes - Posted May 19, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →