andromeda-lv

[andromeda-lv]

The way parents present their religion to children as the only true worldview, I will present my ocs as the only true characters and stories. Fuck Elsa, it's high elves at bedtime. Here's a corresponding Pinterest board, kiddo.

[andromeda-lv]

They say you'll pray to God when you'll be in pain.

But I call no God when I am weak or sad

And I call no God when matters fall apart

And I call no God to change or fix my life.

I call no God to free me, nor to give me strength

No God to forgive, to ease through the intense,

Not to fill the void, to find purpose for the mind,

I only pray to God at one specific time:

When I see two trans boys, may be as old as twelve

Playing by the swings, sometimes holding hands,

I pray to every God, to heaven, hell and earth.

To keep them somewhere warm,

I fear: only God can.

English is my very second language so it's crap but I wanted to put this experience into the most accessible words to me atm.

[andromeda-lv]

rings of power had a budget of half a billion dollars and yet wheel of time with a FRACTION of that is out here giving us unparalleled artistry and costuming that hasn't been seen since in this entire decade of television

if they don't win an Emmy for this i'm rioting

[andromeda-lv]

My HUD is permanently blocked by a giant pop-up:

You can throw in THIS FUN FACT from your special interest into the conversation RIGHT NOW!!!

It's like these annoying banners that get scrolled with you're scrolling and the only thing that I can still get to is Google Maps (I have embedded gps with localisation always turned on).

[andromeda-lv]

I can't believe they threw away all the male gaze present in Ciri's design from Witcher 3 for the sake of creating THE MOST SAPPHIC ASS BUFF MOMMY.

I am truly moved.

[andromeda-lv]

As a fellow autistic, my fridge is shrieking like a ghoul toddler sometimes. Maybe IT IS haunted by previous tenants in the end 🤔

As a neurodivergent person with sensory issues, it is so fucking funny that Renarin's first thought/reaction to his shardplate literally screaming in his head was just to blame his autism. Like honestly that would have been my reaction too. Sometimes you just put on a sweater & it feels like death.

[andromeda-lv]

Y'all can say what you want about Elhokar but it takes balls to walk up to the gates of your occupied home city in full drag. This guy grew up in a ridiculously gendered society and was intended for THE most socially masculine role within it. His role models for manhood were the literal Blackthorn and Gavilar (who we also know was emotionally abusive). We know Elhokar is deeply insecure about not living up to those expectations, it's pretty much his whole Thing in WoK and WoR. He knows he's too weak for Alethi kingship and nobody takes him seriously. He practically begged Kaladin to teach him how to be a man. He daydreamed about returning to Kholinar a hero and a king and instead he got to return to it dressed up as a woman, which probably would have made Gavilar turn in his grave. And he did it without a single complaint because the mission required it!! And yes we can and should talk about the inherent queerness of that scene (Shallan saying that Elhokar would be most convincing as a woman because he has gay body language "a regal bearing", the way Elhokar took to the part so naturally, etc). But also we should just acknowledge that it was extremely fucking brave of him!!! Can you imagine the amount of internalized misogyny and homophobia that he probably had to fight in order to do that!! It's such a powerful moment of standing up against everything he was taught he should be, and stepping out of Gavilar's shadow. Elhokar's redemption arc is deeply tied to gender nonconformity. In this essay I will

[andromeda-lv]

the way kaladin is like. the only character who gets an arc relating to overcoming his prejudices but it’s…him overcoming his “prejudices” against lighteyes…like huh……?

[andromeda-lv]

When Navani and the Sibling are talking about whether she's enslaving spren and whether it's okay I wish the story would acknowledge that she was fine being queen of a kingdom that enslaves humans.

[andromeda-lv]

The vorin church arc really sticks out to me like a sore thumb. At first it's such a realistic, well construed religion but then it's... Not. Like you're telling me TWO most powerful people in the country are heretics, one of them has a blasphemous marriage, and there are almost ZERO consequences??? I get that ardents are supposed to be servants and all but you're telling me among thousands of them there isn't a single charismatic egomaniac willing to team up with opponents of the Kholins to gain power through "traditional values" campaign? Not a single one using religious teachings to gain significant political momentum, especially in troubled times? At least in my opinion this is not how religion works especially not state religion practiced by PRETTY MUCH ENTIRE NATION. Like regular people would be pissed irl and someone WOULD utilise it. And even if it would be too much to add to the story it's really weird for me how no one gives an f about vorin church anymore, even in passing. Religion is powerful and it influences societies a lot. Even with Alethi being presented as not so pious, this still feels bizarrely inaccurate.

[andromeda-lv]

The main reason I want a live action Stormlight adaptation is for the edits.

More specifically, I need to see 1000 edits of ‘My father thinks I’m a better man than he is. Unfortunately for you, he’s wrong’ followed by every Adolin Kholin duel scene in existence.

[andromeda-lv]

Disclaimer: I've only read Stormlight and Mistborn era one, but I'm sensing a pattern in Brando Sandos strengths and weaknesses as a writer (people who've read more of the cosmere than me feel free to tell me if I'm on to something or talking nonsense)

Sando is really strong when it comes to writing internal conflict (Kaldins struggles with depression or Sazeds crisis of faith) and small scale interpersonal conflict (Vin and Elend 's insecurities in their relationship or Adolins resentment/hero worship of Dalinar)

But, where he tends to drop the ball is in handling the large scale social conflicts. For instance, Kaldins arc about structural classism gets less and less page time each book. The singers/listeners and the whole plot line of their enslavement and near total genocide often feels like set dressing to the main conflict of the books. And of course all the hand wringing about how the Lord ruler meant well and was good deep down actually (despite engineering multiple genocides and instituting wide scale slavery)

It kinda feels like the larger scale the problem is, the more difficulty Sando has writing about it proportionally

I'm still looking forward to reading Mistborn era 2 and the next Stormlight book because I love the characters and world building in these books but I'm nervously watching for this trend now

[andromeda-lv]

Just found they won't prolongate my employment contract which expires in *checks notes* 3 business days excuse me while I succumb to mental illness and poverty.

[andromeda-lv]

If a place in the Physical Realm gets permanently and artificially flooded, does it become land in Shadesmar? Because it would make really convenient Shadehighways.

[andromeda-lv]

How Shallan, Adolin, & Kaladin would Divide up Chores (If They Lived Together)

If these three were roommates (reader's choice as to whether they also share a bedroom ha ha) and also lived in the modern world, here is how I think they would divide up the house chores.

1. Laundry: Adolin

This is because Kaladin & Shallan would both look disdainfully at the "gentle cycle" or "dry clean only" instructions on a piece of clothing, shove it directly into the washer with everything else, and dump on some bargain-brand detergent. "Clothes that cannot survive this are too weak for me," Kaladin would intone and Shallan would be like, "Yeah, if they die, they die." And Adolin in the background would scream, "OKAY I DO THE LAUNDRY FROM NOW ON."

2. Dishes: Kaladin

I'm just thinking back to Kaladin's surgeon training and how his dad was like, "We must wash our hands son" and Kaladin was like, "Nobody else washes their hands are we sure that rotspren even exist" and Lirin was like, "It is the wisdom of the heralds, my son." Or something like that. Anyway, Kaladin seems to be uniquely trained in hygiene and avoiding sickness, so he should take care of the dishes.

3. Dusting: Shallan

Shallan would fill the house with art, and she wouldn't want it to get dusty (plus, I'm feeling knick-knacks from her), so I think she would be the one to make sure all of the art and books and other stuff stays dust-free.

4. Cooking: Shared

I don't think any of the three is a stand-out cook, so they should just take turns. Shallan-as-Radiant follows recipes very exactly, Kaladin keeps making soup, and Adolin is pretty sure adding wine makes any dish fancy.

...Sometimes Rock cooks for them and then they have good food.

5. Paying Bills: Kaladin

Kaladin scoffs that no lighteyes know the value of money and that Shallan & Adolin won't budget correctly, so he'll take care of any shared household finances like paying utilities. I bet he balances checkbooks, too.

6. Taking out trash: Adolin

"You can handle gross things. You poop yourself all the time," says Shallan, a wording that Adolin does not appreciate but cannot argue with.

7. Vacuuming: Shallan

Pattern likes it when the vacuum makes neat lines in the carpet and hums excitedly the whole time.

8. Grocery Shopping: Shared

No particular reason. I just think it would be cute if they all went to the grocery store together.

9. Cleaning gutters: Kaladin

It's high up there, but Kaladin is not afraid of heights. He kinda likes being on the roof. It's like chipping crem off of a roof, only it's leaves. It makes sense.

10. Answering the door: Adolin

When the doorbell rings, the resident extrovert is sent to deal with it while Shallan and Kaladin hide behind the couch.

11. Getting rid of scary bugs: Shallan

If there is a spider or a big moth or even a centipede, it is Shallan who handles it because, as a wise tumblr poster once said, "Cremlings is bugs."

[andromeda-lv]

little sketch of Finwë

[andromeda-lv]

The few last points perfectly highlight why I don't like his redemption arc. The book and other stuff ultimately serves HIM (to feel like a honest, humble, apologetic guy) while doing NOTHING for his family and those he had actually hurt.

Dalinar, Amazing Dad to Everyone But His Kids

Ok, so I love the man as much as the rest of the fandom, but I think we need to discuss how much Dalinar dropped the ball as a father to his own kids (and still kind of does!) @andromeda-lv nailed it on the absenteeism and the alcoholism.

-He left his wife alone for her pregnancy with his second kid, and then just griped about the name.

-He made no meaningful attempt to bond with his youngest, especially after he developed medical problems around age 1.

-Then he took his 6 year old war camping for half his childhood, separating him from his sick brother and exposing him to danger AND violence.

-Then that kid got to watch his parents have incredibly dysfunctional interactions and probably overheard a bunch of arguments.

-He also got to watch his mother spiral into depression because she was a pacifist foreigner in a war camp and she was uma le to be an effective scribe because she was not a native speaker/ was probably left handed in a society that pretty much removed all use of left hands for women.

-He left his sick kid back at home in an intensely unforgiving society that would have no tolerance for a "defective" child in the line of succession (Given how the Alethi are, Renarin was probably the victim of assassination attempts as a baby to "cleanse the bloodline")

-Then he moved on to being fully absentee as the boys got older, leaving Adolin to protect a kid who absolutely got bullied while he walked around being obviously half foreign in a society that is aggressively nativist. Could have used dad, but war gotta war.

-AND kept their mom away from them a lot of the time, but it's not like kids need parents, they were only (checks notes) elementary school aged.

-Then he got their mom, the only loving and functional parent they had, killed in a genocidal rage.

-And fell hard into alcoholism while they were grieving, leaving a 9 year old Renarin scared and isolated while Adolin tried to care for him at 13.

-And fell hard into self pity until his brother was murdered and he decided to repress all of that.

-Oh and hid all of that nonsense until he published a book about it and never bothered to warn them before the prerelease got leaked.

-And he's still patronizing to Renarin.

-And incredibly judgemental and demanding of Adolin.

-And the whole family needs therapy. Bad.

-This doesn't even include the stuff about their uncle being abusive to his wife at minimum, their cousin being treated like a madwoman and then excommunicated, and both of them going to war while they were teenagers.

So yeah. Dadlinar is great. But remember he absolutely failed his two rather stellar kids and gets treated like the god of Fatherhood.

Let's see more fics exploring their backstories. Adolin started sword training with a master at 6 when the norm is 10, you think protecting his brother might have been part of that? Having the royal family bully their mother openly, did that impact them? Being left alone together so much, and separated so often? Being used to one kid nearly dying from illness, and the other one just seeing that as a child? Their parents mostly arguing via spanreen?

Just... seriously, get those boys some therapy.