#willayork

[captainnaustralia]

sidekick gets seduced by the villain 1000000%

I'm already working on it 😈

I'm excited to work on it honestly! I have COVID right now so I've not got a lot else going on, thought this could be a fun way to relax while I'm recovering

(also hi, hello, how are you??)

[phosphorescent-naidheachd]

@willayork replied to your post:

b/c he's boring, has been given no storyline that he actually engages in, everything happens around him, and sometimes in spite of him, and he doesn't seem to care. It's actually the same issue with Dany where IDK if it's shit writing or shit acting (or prob) where the character doesn't seem to EVer. Express. An. Emotion AND there's been not much progression for Bran, at the very least the audience has seen Jon and Dany do things but Bran just goes along with Meera&Jojen

(Which is not to say that I disagree b/c I DO but for people who've only seen the show & aren't aware of a) the things left out and b) the larger world GRRM wrote... I get it)

Yeah, GOT has really struggled with letting Bran show feelings or have any interiority at all starting around, idk, Season 4ish and on? (...Which, come to think of it, is around the time Dany stopped being allowed to show emotions regularly too. Huh.) I haven’t seen any of IHW’s oeuvre outside of GOT, but from his performance in earlier seasons (think about excited bb!Bran scrambling the walls of WF, or Bran’s reaction to Rodrik Cassel’s death), I’m inclined to lay most of the blame for Bran’s emotionlessness with the directors and writers rather than the actor. 

Eh, I agree and disagree as far as Bran not being seen to do anything on the show. If nothing else, there were those two Very Dramatic Scenes where he warged into poor Hodor. And while his vision sequences weren’t centered around Bran himself---their primary purpose was to provide the audience with exposition dumps, and the show never seriously tried to mask that lol---the very fact that he’s (as far as I recall) the only still-living character on the show to have seen visions ought to say something about his narrative importance. But you’re right to say that he definitely hasn’t been a proactive character, and he hasn’t seemed to care about anything happening in his own storyline for several seasons now. 

Add in the fact that GOT has done, at best, an extremely uneven job at showing Bran’s progressing journeys, and I can 1000% see where a casual viewer could walk away with the impression that he isn’t crucial to the show’s endgame. Miss a couple of key episodes---or just let them recede in your memory---and Bran’s significance isn’t terribly obvious in comparison to Jon and Dany’s. But that’s the key here---casual viewers. And your average casual viewer isn’t going to be posting their fan theories on actual GOT threads, complete with show quotes, y’know?

But this is mainly just me being grumpy lol. I do mainly understand how a show-only fan might get the impression that Jon and Dany are the only characters who matter in the Battle for the Dawn, and I don’t look down on them for that... it’s just this (seemingly) sudden surge of fans who feel this way that baffles me. But to be fair, it’s entirely possible that there were fans who made posts like this in previous years that I never saw, and it’s also very possible that there are fans who believed this in years past but only recently got around to posting about it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

[rejectedprincesses]

Hey- I live ~45 min from Vassar college (&work even closer) I have no idea how one "checks the records" but if you want me to go look & see if she was valedictorian I'd be happy to do so

Aw, thank you! That’s not necessary, but it’s very sweet of you to offer.

Honestly - and this is where I diverge from outlets like @missedinhistory or @askhistorians - this is an example of a place where, to me, that point is not overly important. Let me explain:

RP is me trying to illustrate, with words and pictures, a historical (or occasionally mythical) tale. I am not trying to provide the official record. That’s much better left to the precision of historians, of people who cross all Ts and dot all Is.

My goal is to tell a story, and to make a case that said story should be remembered and celebrated. I know I’m not going to get every detail right. I tried to do so for about two years and drove myself crazy in the process.

In the context of storytelling, saying Sutematsu was valedictorian is shorthand for “she was a very good student” - that’s the information being conveyed. I can just as easily reword to say she got to speak in front of her class at graduation and the same point is conveyed. Whether she was the smartest is largely irrelevant to the point I’m trying to make.

It’s like playing a piece of music and one note is just slightly off, to the point where only a handful of people can pick up on it. It’s like getting someone’s eye color or dominant hand wrong - unless it’s at the crux of their story, I’m sorry to say it’s not getting my full attention. I’ve got too much music to play and I need to keep going.

I understand and respect those details are important to some, and I’m super glad said people exist. They write amazing books with amazing insight, and I attempt to do their work (and their subjects) justice with my summaries and illustrations. It is entirely understandable that said population would care so much and look over my work with such a fine-tooth comb.

Where I take issue is when that level of note-perfect precision is demanded of everyone who’d engage with the material. It is entirely understandable that historians would take umbrage at inaccuracies. Hell, I get furious at bullshit like Braveheart or 300: Rise of an Empire. I even get that some historians can take one or two off notes as grounds to dismiss my entire body of work. I find it a harsh conclusion, but that’s their informed prerogative. 

My frustration lies in instances where a historian will declare, to people who cannot themselves hear the off notes, that my work is atonal and worthless - and that by virtue of their training, this conclusion is the only worthwhile one. That getting a minor point wrong puts me on the same footing as Disney’s Pocahontas. 

To me, it’s a derivation of the Internet’s favorite game, Perfect or Hitler - it’s the game where you’re perfect…. or you’re Hitler. It’s the game where everyone loses.

Anyways, that’s my take on it. Your mileage may vary, and that’s okay. I’m doing my best and that’s all I can do.

[stonefreeak]

willayork replied to your post: saturnineaqua: imanes: zanabism: ...

He watched a TV show ‘last night’ about BAD THINGS b/c refugees in sweden. HE watched it. On TV. Last night.

....... I’m just... gonna put my face in my hands and scream for a bit, aight?

He’s making up terrorist attacks to further his hateful, grotesque agenda and... he saw it on TV?! 

[independence1776]

Weekly Kudos Thanks

Thank you to moonchild_94, freeforall, RobinLorin, CopperFox, ariaelwen, WillaYork, shakespeares_kate, Eternal_Snow_Of_Life, kiwi_shell, Antigrammatically, and three anons for leaving kudos on my fics last week.

[bedlamsbard]

willayork replied to your post “My cell phone (I’ve got a Samsung Galaxy SIII mini) only charged to...”

Hmmm, my 1 year old, Samsung Galazy S3 is having similar problems

Ugh, phones.

[lectorel]

willayork replied to your post: hamelin-born asked:You know, Forc...

So is the idea here that Anakin doesn’t tell her he’s her father? Like, both Anakin and Bennu *know* it to be true but he can’t bring himself to *say* it to her both for the cultural and personal reasons?

More or less. Although to be precise, what both Bennu and Anakin know is that a DNA test would show they’re related. Because they both know that Bennu Has No Father.

It’s a really difficult situation to explain, and I’m thinking it mostly is this awkward, painful thing which is never talked about.

[fialleril]

Ok so following up on your Vaders agency/position in the Empire: if, as you seem to imply (and I agree) Vaders behind-the-scenes job was mostly to hunt down the surviving Jedi (and not just force-sensitives since I highly doubt Vader was providing1/2

Palps his Hands) then do you think that the imminent end of that task was the reason Palps was so ready to replace Vader with Luke as an apprentice? With Yoda& Obi Wan gone what does Palps needed a shadowy enforcer for? Luke could be visible 2/2

Well, I don’t know. That could be it, certainly, though I also think that Vader could have transitioned into a more visible role if Palpatine had wanted him to.

Ultimately, though, my own opinion is that Palpatine was just bored with Vader and wanted a change of apprentice. Actually, Palpatine’s bored with everything. I think a part of him misses the days of the old Republic, the days of manipulating and fooling everyone and tricking people into destroying themselves and then getting to laugh about it. He can’t do that anymore. He’s in the open now. And certainly he likes being Emperor, and intends to remain Emperor for…possibly forever. But he wants that thrill of corrupting someone again.

And besides, Vader is washed up and despairing and he just doesn’t really care about anything - except Luke.

And that’s dangerous. Vader in ESB came really close to rebelling, and I think it’s evident that sometime between ESB and ROTJ, Palpatine beat all the fight out of him and made sure he knew his place. But the fact remains that he did consider rebellion, took active steps toward it, and no matter how beaten he is now, Palpatine can’t forget that.

And in the end I think Palpatine did a simple cost-benefit analysis. The truth is he doesn’t need Vader any more. Luke is, from Palpatine’s point of view, the only real threat left. (He’s wrong about that, of course, but as Luke says, his overconfidence is his weakness.) And Luke is a Skywalker, with all that incredible Force potential and all those lovely emotions and easily manipulated good intentions, and Palpatine has played this game before. It will be easy.

So he can keep Vader, who has already done basically all he’s ever going to do, who is washed up and rusty and lost all his fire years ago, and who only shows sparks of that fire when he’s thinking of rebellion - or he can trade up.

The crucial thing about Luke, and probably Palpatine’s greatest mistake (though that’s hard to say, because he actually makes quite a lot of mistakes in ROTJ) is that he thinks of Luke as Skywalker 2.0. He tries to play Luke off of his father in exactly the same way he played Anakin off of Dooku, and completely fails to account for the very different relationship between Anakin and Luke. He tries to use all the same tactics on Luke that he used on Anakin in ROTS, and in his eagerness to finally be playing this game of manipulation and converting a new apprentice again, he apparently forgets all about the fact that, with Anakin, he had nearly fifteen years of emotional manipulation and abuse and outright conditioning in place before he actually made his move, and with Luke he doesn’t have any of that.

But that’s not the end of his mistakes. He’s so angry (and, I think, so surprised) when Luke refuses him that he doesn’t stop to calculate - he just acts on his anger. If Luke insists on being a Jedi, fine. He’ll die like all the other Jedi.

And then he makes his last mistake. He forgets about Anakin.

Because Anakin is washed up. And he’s just been thoroughly beaten by Luke. And he has a lifetime of conditioning. For twenty years (baring that brief and quickly squashed moment of rebellion at Bespin) he’s obeyed his Master without question. And he’s on a full body life support system. He’s not a threat. So Palpatine just completely forgets about him.

Which, as it turns out, was a really bad idea.

[captainnaustralia]

Based on your fanfiction I assumed you were a very cool person that I definitely wanted to be friends with. And also that you *weren't* a crazy axe-murderer and that it was safe to meet you in person :D

What a relief 😂😂

[phosphorescent-naidheachd]

 @willayork replied to your post:

I agree with all of this BUT I also wonder about the expectations of "relevant to the show's endgame means" Yes, Bran has seen visions and, Yes, it makes sense that Bran will be important but I think that the way the show is setting it up can easily seem like he's going to show up, ~exposition~ (R+L=J; the Children created the Others; stop them by X) and then he'll be done.  My worry is that the show had not set him up to DO anything actively or of his own agency

Ughhh, unfortunately I can see you being right there. From my (admittedly book-lensed) standpoint, it seems so obvious that Bran is meant to play a role beyond ‘just’ seeing visions in order to exposition to Our Heroes(TM) and the audience, but it’s true that the show hasn’t done the greatest job of setting that up. 

On one hand, cutting out half of the necessary groundwork for Bran’s endgame role would certainly fit within D&D’s established pattern of cutting out foreshadowing/set-up in order to increase audience shock over plot directions. On the other hand, I can also easily see D&D thinking that using Bran as a narrative exposition robot would be the best way to condense an unwieldy narrative and provide the audience with a more interesting visual experience. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ultimately, we’re just going to have to wait and see how GOT chooses to play it.

[garrulus]

What about "Fitzizzie" for Elizabeth/Darcy? His first name's actally Fitzwilliam and I've always liked that she's called Lizzie.... So Fitz+izzie

Yeah that can work too :DD

[bedlamsbard]

willayork replied to your post:Damn, I can’t believe that even the EU never gave...

Maybe, Admiral is his first name. “Admiral Admiral Ackbar”??

Apparently, it’s Gial.

[lectorel]

Willayork replied to your post: Preliminary design for a quilt. I was ...

I’d suggest a few stand-alone square trailing from the edges of the spirals maybe? Make it a little more diverse and organic-y? (I do get “galaxy” but only…after you tell me so)

That's next on the list of things to do, actually! This is just the center-piece of the quilt, and once that's put together we're going to see what works on the background fabric we choose.

harshcutieszoos replied to your post: Preliminary design for a quilt. I was ...

I’d move that lower left “arm” out a little more toward the edge. It’s a little close to the main body of the galaxy? Otherwise it looks like a pretty solid design!

Thank you! I did that, and you're right, it looks much better that way!

[koryos]

What's your opinion of the Julie of the Wolves series then?

I loved the series as a kid, and I still do. The pack structure it outlines is of course completely outdated, but the first book was written in 1972 and the last in 1997. The research that corrected the alpha-omega model of wolf pack structure came out in 1999. The author, Jean Craighead George, was using the most accurate research that existed at the time and I find no fault with her.

The books hold up in other ways in any case.

[phosphorescent-naidheachd]

 @willayork replied to your post:

But, but where is the fic?

To quote my tags on the post:

#yes yes i know the likelihood of the mountain leaving elia alive is almost nonexistent... shhhh #also i'm probably never going to write this fic b/c if i follow the concept through to its natural conclusion #then the fic will either end in a targ restoration (likely w/ viserys on the throne) or in tragedy... or both #and frankly neither of those endings appeals to me #tho i suppose the inevitable fight against the Others could change the former? #drat it if i don't love the premise of this fic despite all of that

;-)

I have too many far-too-slowly-moving WIPs at the moment to start a new one anyways. That said, if I were to write such a fic, it would include:

Elia reminiscing about Rhaella, who also Deserved Better(TM) from canon

Elia finding a way to make bb!Viserys and bb!Daenerys’ childhood less traumatic. IDK if she’d be able to take them in herself---if she did that, King Robert would assume that the Martells planned on eventually launching a war to reseat a Targaryen on the Iron Throne (and LBH, he probably wouldn’t be wrong in his fears) and react very poorly to such a thing---but she’d subtly send some funds with a few trusted, discreet minor nobles and/or servants in their direction. So if/when Willem Darry died, at least the kids wouldn’t be out on the streets begging.

Elia getting to be bitter about her husband’s shitty choices

Elia getting to be bitter about Lyanna while also pitying her

Elia interacting with her siblings!!!

Elia interacting with her nieces, nephews, and assorted other family members!!!

Elia reminiscing about her mother (who really deserves a canonical name, GRRM, just saying)

Elia thinking about Ashara and dealing with her tragic end

Elia reminiscing about her Uncle Lewyn and dealing with his death

Elia grieving and raging and feeling guilt about being unable to prevent her children’s brutal deaths

ALL the nightmares about Aerys and Gregor Clegane

Elia dealing with major depression and PTSD, and slowly and imperfectly going through the healing process

Elia having extremely tangled, ugly, complicated feelings about the Rebellion and its main players

Lots of internal and external Dornish politics

Elia reuniting with old friends and making new ones

Elia eventually getting to fall in love with someone who appreciates her and loves her back

The consequences of Tywin’s brutalities coming home to roost a lot sooner than they did in canon

Anything further than that, I can’t say, partially because we know so little about canon!Elia. For instance, we know that Elia was “kind and clever, with a gentle heart and a sweet wit”, but that doesn’t tell us if she would want revenge against the Lannister-Baratheon-Stark-Tully contingent or if she would she lean more towards Ellaria Sand’s perspective on matters. Revenge aside, if given the (admittedly unfair) choice between true justice and peace, which would she pick? It feels reductive to place her solely in either category, and I doubt her desires would remain static over the years; either way, that’s something that I’d have to decide and develop over the course of the story. 

Similarly, while Elia living would change some things, there are many others that it absolutely wouldn’t change. The disaster-in-the-making that is the Baratheon-Lannister marriage and the Lannister twincest are two such events that wouldn’t be changed. Ditto to Littlefinger’s ambition, obsession with Catelyn,  and deep-rooted desire for revenge against Hoster Tully and the Starks. Ditto to the oncoming threat of the Others. And so on. A lot of the smaller stuff, though, is open to debate, especially once the Ripple Effect takes hold. So that’s something I’d have to sketch out before starting the story, and continue to develop as the story---and thus the changes---gradually grew larger.

And---well, you get the picture lol.

[heartslogos]

If you can't merge without applying your brakes then you're NOT ALLOWED TO CHANGE LANES. God #roadragerobin=me

FUNNY STORY DUDES

today as I was driving to school it was heavy traffic, but people were still merging and changing lanes when there was no room

THE SECOND TIME IT HAPPENED TO ME

THE CD IN MY CAR SWITCHED FROM JAMES BOND THEME SONGS

TO MUSE

AND STARTED SINGING ABOUT DESTROYING THE ENEMY AND WINNING THE RACE YOU WON'T PULL AHEAD

IT WAS THE BEST

ROAD RAGE SOUND TRACK

EVER