#<- they are canon only in a mother's devotion. not in my fanon

[dr-fizzovich]

i have burning hatred for cabtube and words cannot describe how massive it is. /srs

anywaysiessss i'm getting a custom acrylic keychain of Armoire in around a month or two ^_^

it's gonna be this design which i made in just 15 minutes. Waow. :D

[klarolinexluv]

It really bothers me when people say stuff like “when people hate Peter but love Barty, Evan and Regulus.”

Like, I love Peter. Hogwarts era Peter. I have nothing against him. I don’t like the person Peter grows into.

I love Barty and Evan and Regulus. I also don’t like that Barty and Evan grow into Death Eaters.

BUT REGULUS?! I will NEVER hate that man. He made some terrible decisions but at the end of the day he tried to do good, he tried to help defeat Voldemort. I don’t care what anyone says, Regulus was given a bad lot in life and at the end of it, tried to be good.

Peter, Barty and Evan (WHO WE KNOW LITERALLY NOTHING ABOUT) these three characters have no character development (towards being good or better people.)

In my opinion, Regulus and Peter have opposite story’s. More so than people might think.

We have no idea how Peter grow up but as a fandom we have mostly agreed that his home life is kind and good (of course, some people believe his mum has expectations for him that he can’t quite live up to but that’s up to you.) He fell in with James, Sirius and Remus. He became a Gryffindor.

We have some idea how Regulus grew up. His home life was cruel and strict, oppressive. His mother had very set ideals and expected her children to act accordingly. From canon, or at least from Sirius’ POV, Regulus believed it all, he was as devoted as any death eater.

Peter, during Hogwarts, showed no signs of being or becoming a death eater. In actuality, we have no idea why he became one.

With Regulus, it’s the opposite. He showed every sign of believing in pureblood supremacy and later, a death eater.

It’s after Hogwarts where these things switch. Peter becomes an Order member and a death eater. He is a spy. He feeds Voldemort information and it gets his friends killed. We have no idea how he truely felt about this, only what Harry saw and thought.

After Hogwarts, (or even during, in 1979) Regulus defects. From what we know, it can be inferred that Sirius knew that Regulus was going to or was trying to leave the death eaters. We all know that he did, or at least he tried, he went against Voldemort in an attempt to make him mortal.

These characters, to me are opposites. Peter grew up surrounded by good and kindness and still he became a death eater and got his friends killed. Regulus grew up surrounded by cruelty and racism and all these bad things that came with being born into an abusive supremists household, and he chose to try and do the right thing in the end.

What we know is that both these characters changed, one for the better, one for worse. Really, we don’t know much about them and their experiences, what lead them to these positions.

Was Peter ever really good or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Was he afraid for his life and that’s why he did what he did, out of survival?

Did Regulus ever truely believe in the pureblood bullshit his parents and peers spewed? Was he a victim of circumstance? (Was Peter?) Why did Regulus choose to betray Voldemort? Was he always going to?

I fear I’ve gotten a little off track but that’s just my thoughts on the Peter and Regulus front.

With Barty. We know a bit about him. He was a good student. Smart. He was on his way to be exactly like his father. We know that he must have snapped and he joined the death eaters. We know he went on to be one of the worst. (This is just my knowledge of him, if I’m wrong please tell me) anyway- I don’t like the person Barty became but we don’t know anything about him at school so yes, I love Barty, I love him as a character. I don’t like the person he becomes but I still love his character.

Evan is different. We know next to nothing about him. We know he became a death eater, dueled Moody and then died. That’s literally all we know about him. So yes, I love Evan as a character, I don’t like that he became a death eater but I love what fanon has done to develop him.

Regulus. I’ve said what I’ve said about him. Nothing could ever change my opinion about him. He serves cunt.

Peter. We probably know the most about him but at the same time we don’t. He was a marauder, an order member (then ex order member) and a death eater. We don’t know his motivations, or reasons.

In fact we don’t know any of these four characters motivations or reasonings. Not really. We know what Harry thinks and what Sirius thinks, what Remus thinks. We know what Hermione and Ron think, what every other character that was close to Harry, what they think but we have no idea how Barty thinks, how Peter thinks, how Evan thinks or how Regulus thinks.

Which brings me to my final point, we know nothing about these characters or at least we know so LITTLE about them. Most of the fics I read are set at Hogwarts before all these characters have to make that life changing decision. And all the fics I read do these characters the justice I think they deserve.

So yes. I love Peter and Barty and Evan and Regulus. Yes I also hate them sometimes. These things don’t have to be mutually exclusive. All of these characters are complex and it’s okay to love them just as it’s okay to hate them.

THEY ARE FICTIONAL.

Thank you.

[saintsenara]

What do you think about Tom Riddle Sr?And your thoughts on Tom Riddle Sr/Merope Gaunt as a ship? I read some of your answers on Merope Gaunt and I just adore your fic 'Enchanter's Nightshade'. I was curious as to what your thoughts are on his canon character, the way that he is treated in fanon and if you have any headcanons on his character

thank you very much for the asks, pal - and i'm sorry that i'd entirely forgotten that i had an answer for the first sitting in my drafts until the second arrived in my inbox...

[thank you also for the very kind shoutout to enchanter's nightshade!]

and i find tom sr. extremely interesting as a character, and he's someone i think quite a lot of compelling stuff can be done with in fanfiction - particularly in how fic writers can take a sledgehammer to how he's treated by the canon narrative...

which - of course - means that there is a trigger warning for a discussion of rape in what follows, which is under the cut.

tom and merope

it's worth starting by emphasising that the series never thinks of tom sr. as a victim. it treats love potions as benign and broadly amusing [the only time we ever see someone under the influence of one - ron in half-blood prince - it's played for laughs], describes merope's drugging of tom sr. as something she would consider "romantic", and never acknowledges that she was his rapist.

[although it is important to point out that the fanon that voldemort's issues with love come from the circumstances of his conception is something jkr never said. and i also think that it's important, when thinking about tom and merope's relationship, to recognise that all the evidence of canon is that she is subjected to incestuous sexual violence at the hands of her brother and/or father - she is an abused teenager with no meaningful understanding of consent or bodily autonomy, and she evidently views her "relationship", as she sees it, with tom as a means of escaping a life which is undeniable, unrelenting misery.]

[which is to say - i find tom and merope interesting as a pairing because of this inherent nuance, tragedy and violence.]

the series also criticises tom sr. for leaving the relationship - in line both with its broader disdain for absent fathers and idealisation of devoted mothers, and with its prioritisation of love-as-suffering and love-as-sacrifice over forms of love which are more self-indulgent. its view is evidently that tom sr. should have gritted his teeth and remained in merope's life in some way or another [maybe not as her husband, but also not as her survivor] in order to have been involved in his son's life.

indeed, it always stands out to me that - when discussing tom sr. fleeing his abusive relationship - dumbledore refers to merope as "merope riddle". emphasising that the two were married underscores the fact that the text views tom sr. as straightforwardly unadmirable - a husband and father who abandoned his family.

[and he gets his comeuppance. i think it's worth noting that the narrative isn't sympathetic at all about his death - the opening chapter of goblet of fire, where voldemort's murder of the riddles is described, states plainly that nobody likes them - and he finds himself unable to outrun the son he left behind when that son uses his bones in his resurrection ritual... the subtext is clear: abandoning your son was the wrong move, and since good people - like james and lily - don't abandon their son even after their deaths, tom sr. is therefore a bad person.]

that both dumbledore and harry see him like this makes sense within their watsonian characterisations. harry has - as he says when lupin tries to walk out on the pregnant tonks - the view that parents should never abandon their children unless they have literally no choice, which is a perfectly understandable opinion for an orphan who lost their parents in such traumatic circumstances to hold [he also takes a very dim view on merope for dying]. dumbledore, who recognises the dangerous paths overwhelming desire can lead one down, sees himself in merope, and is therefore less willing to examine the cruelty of her actions.

voldemort also thinks of him in this vein - his view of his father, expressed during his resurrection scene in goblet of fire, is that he abandoned merope [with whom he had a consensual relationship] in a fit of pique when she confessed to him that she was a witch. voldemort thinks of his father as a deadbeat who left him to rot - and the series never takes issue with him holding this view, even as it works to prove many of the other things he believes about himself, magic, and power wrong.

tom and voldemort

the role tom sr. plays in voldemort's narrative arc, then, is pretty much unconnected to his experiences at merope's hands - he is not considered by the text to be a warning about the corrosive, oppressive, violent potential of using magic against muggles which voldemort follows his mother in doing, for example.

his role in his son's arc across the seven-book canon is to underscore that voldemort will never successfully outrun his muggle heritage - the fact that his son has his face and his name [and the fact that dumbledore, and then harry, insist on using this name for him after voldemort sheds it, which is - and we should call it what it is, especially given jkr's stance on such things - deadnaming] serves as a way for the text to criticise and humiliate voldemort, undermining his belief that he's something pure and special [and undermining his pride in his descent from slytherin] by making clear that, when all is said and done, he's just an ordinary man with a muggle father.

and so his death occurs purely to enable this narrative treatment of voldemort. he has to kill his dad - because he's trying to eradicate anything muggle from himself - and so the action becomes all about him. tom is basically just there.

but this is something i really like playing with in my own work. i always end up writing tom sr. as not only physically resembling his son - except for the fact, and i'll die on the hill that this is the canon text's intention, that voldemort has his mother's eyes - but as being the source of his mannerisms and many of his non-childhood-trauma-induced personality traits.

partially this is because i think we might as well take the series' belief that voldemort can't escape the riddle genes and go the whole hog with it.

but it's also because i think it's worth skewering the series' view of voldemort's slytherin heritage as - essentially - dooming him to be incapable of change in either positive or negative directions. the way the gaunts are described in canon - violent, unstable, grandiose etc. - is set up to suggest that voldemort gets these aspects of his personality from them, that - like the parseltongue - being a terrorist with delusions of grandeur is just something the heirs of slytherin are bound to inherit.

but i like idea of these traits coming from the less mystical branch of voldemort's lineage - and his decision to indulge them being nothing more than deliberate choice.

tom riddle sr. character notes and headcanons

which leads us to the question of what tom sr. is like as a character separate from merope and voldemort.

we only see him once in canon - where he's talking in a carrying voice to cecilia about how much land his dad owns and correctly identifying morfin as a danger to society - and he's only mentioned a handful more times: his whirlwind marriage; his return home a few months later, which he explains as him having realised he'd been "hoodwinked"; the fact that he's considered even worse than his "rich, snobbish, and rude" parents by the villagers of little hangleton in the period immediately before his death; and that he dies in his evening clothes with a look of pure terror on his face.

his gravestone in the goblet of fire film has him born in 1905, and i like this [although i push his date of birth back a couple of years in order for him to have finished university when he's attacked by merope] because it enables him to be a stereotypical "bright young thing" - the sort of dissolute aristocrat, untroubled both by his father's victorian morals and by the devastating impact of the first world war on men a decade or so older than him, whose exploits dominate our image of the roaring twenties [or - at least - the roaring twenties in britain]. at the start of 1925, before his life all goes wrong, i like him as idle, profligate, bohemian, constantly partying, a keen user of cocaine, promiscuous, vain, and incredibly rude to his servants, tradesmen, and policemen and so on - spending his days in a whirlwind of hangovers, tennis, elaborate fancy-dress balls, modern novels, dining at his club, and piles of liberated flappers, vile bodies [and jeeves and wooster...] style.

and i do think the idea of him as lazy, convinced of his own brilliance, and complacent [personality traits not helped by an education at eton and oxford - he takes a fourth, the lowest-possible passing classification, on a degree in greats - which he has neither the intellect nor the work ethic to succeed at without the power of daddy's money] offers a really interesting side to him being preyed on by merope.

i like him as someone who thinks of himself as rational, cheerfully irreligious, and far too modern and well-bred to waste his time on the silly superstitions of the boring, ordinary people in the village. him mentioning to cecilia about the stories the villagers tell about morfin can be read as him being condescendingly amused by local folklore surrounding the gaunts - a sort of "would you believe it, one of our gardeners is convinced they're wizards! too, too funny!" vibe - and i really like writing him as someone whose total rejection of the possibility of magic and conviction that the gaunts are just pitiable and disgusting, rather than dangerous [the view of the rest of the village], means that when merope offers him a glass of shimmering water he thinks "why, what a lark!" instead of running.

when he returns home, however, i imagine him as profoundly changed - paranoid, beset by nightmares, increasingly superstitious [voldemort's own rather... catholic leanings being mirrored in his father going full sebastian flyte is delicious to me], unwilling to eat or drink anything he hasn't seen prepared [one of the reasons, perhaps, why the servants at the riddle house dislike him so much], unable to go anywhere near the stables and see the horse he was riding when evil befell him, unwilling to talk to anyone or receive visitors [hence his reputation for being snobbish and rude - the villagers interpret this as him thinking them beneath him], unwilling to spend money or give gifts because he's afraid of unwittingly finding himself ensnared again [giving him a reputation for being rather miserly], and so on.

i like the idea of him becoming incredibly reclusive, losing his interest in the social life he once enjoyed overnight, and spending his days sleeping poorly and staying inside. i imagine his parents being supportive to the best of their ability, but that tom's inability to speak openly what happened to him [he, like his son, doesn't like doctors because he fears they will accuse him of being mad] means they can only do so much. their understanding of tom's marriage is the same as the rest of the village's - that tom consensually slept with merope, she told him she was pregnant, he "did the right thing" and married her, and he then discovered she was lying.

[he knows - of course - that she was pregnant, and he is convinced in his bones that the child will one day find and destroy him...]

tom's obvious post-traumatic stress disorder would undoubtedly have been enough to exempt him from conscription when the second world war broke out - although, of course, his medical unfitness wouldn't have been described in these terms.

and i think it's really interesting to consider how this would be received in the village - especially since the riddles would have gone out of their way to conceal his mental state from the public [hence their performance of the rituals of aristocratic life - including taking their dinner in full evening dress - even after he comes home a changed man]. i really like the idea of the general view being that - unlike the ordinary, hard-working men of little hangleton - tom managed to buy his way out of service [not only in the army but also on the home front], and that, to be quite honest, it was no wonder wounded war-hero frank bryce snapped and killed him.

which is a nice segue into the fact that frank bryce/tom riddle sr. is a concept i've recently become completely convinced by. frank staying in the riddle house after he's eliminated as a suspect in the riddles' deaths is something i find really quite moving - not only because of what it says about the disconnect between the historical memory many brits have of the war and the war's reality that a disabled veteran would find himself with nowhere else to go, but because it must indicate a genuine affection for the riddles which nobody else shared. the garden bringing some comfort to tom sr. on his worst days triggering a solemn, steadfast love for him in frank [requited or not] which endured past his death really compels me.

[and i also think that frank having some deeper connection with tom sr. - rather than just being his gardener - provides a more satisfactory explanation for why voldemort uses him as a horcrux murder than we get in canon. voldemort seeing - in his father's mind or frank's - that the two were entangled in some way would only increase his fury that tom sr. abandoned him and his mother...]

i'm also hugely convinced by the potential of shipping tom sr. with dumbledore. i don't particularly like stories in which voldemort is collected from the orphanage and raised by his father - firstly, because most of the things i find interesting about him are so heavily rooted in his orphanhood, and secondly, because i think that tom sr.'s move would be to place his son as the ward of someone he felt certain he could pay to keep quiet rather than bringing him up himself. but i can see dumbledore becoming aware of a magical child lurking in a london orphanage years earlier than in canon, having some sort of misguided belief that he should track down said child's family, turning up on the doorstep of the riddle house with a sinister toddler glowering in his arms, and insinuating himself into tom sr.'s life in a way which is either very funny or very dark.

cecilia is also an incidental character i'm unjustifiably obsessed with. i like her as tom's casual girlfriend in 1925 - with neither of them imagining for a second that the relationship will ever be serious - who then turns into the only friend from his glamorous set who remains in contact with him when he comes home.

and - i'm afraid to say - the plot-bunny of cecilia deciding to try and unravel the mystery of what's made tom so ill and scouring london orphanages until she discovers tom jr. has now bounced into my head... joining the other tom sr. fic i would pay cash to see, a rebecca-style caper where the second mrs riddle is haunted everywhere she goes by the spectre of merope...

[bitterrobin]

I loooove expanding on the al Ghuls. IDK in both canon and fanon they're always exclusively villains with little nuance to them unless its the sole focus of a story arc. Even then, its pretty much only Ras and Talia that get their (deserved) due.

*pushing up my nerd glasses* which is why I have fun writing GRAVEYARD because I can yap about my al Ghuls headcanons left and right. For example, Melisande is primarily a French name. But since Talia's mother is often described as mixed Arab/Chinese, I figured I would look for why she would have a French name (other than the writer's decision, maybe they thought it was just pretty). I came up with this: Algeria has history of French usage through its colonization, so Melisande has a French first name but an Arabic middle name (Fadhma). Since she met Ras in Woodstock, she'd have to have been a teenager/young adult by then, and thus been raised in the 1950s/60s. I figured the connotations of Woodstock, her mixed heritage, the then-current state of Algeria etc, the 1969 oil spill in the US, she would have visited America with curiosity about the counter-culture. (how? idk that's why this still in the works) In my au,

Melisande already held views on nature and environmental protection before meeting Ras. Her views were fierce, but probably a little naive compared to Ras' own views. Nonetheless, they clicked intellectually, with Melisande debating theories and politics, which eventually led to their marriage. I don't think Melisande would've liked America (and obviously neither did Ras) so they did not stay there. I considered writing Melisande having Kayble Amazigh heritage to further fuel her desire for change and revolution and because Ras is implied to have Bedouin/Berber origins, but since I don't know much about those cultures beyond some research - I figured I shouldn't include it. Also, because Melisande died when Talia was young, so I don't think she'd have the time to impart a lot of her specific culture onto her daughter, adding to Talia's isolation/loneliness. Melisande is a mother who's killed in both of her iterations, I just wanted to add more significance to her connection with Talia. Something about meeting an intellectual and then being doomed, one way or another, to be absorbed into his mythos. She's a blip in Ras's history, not even his first wife or his first lover - but she's important to Talia.

Same kinda applied to Dusan. He's only in several comics as the White Ghost because Ras needed a new body. He's albino. He's extremely devoted to his father despite not receiving the same attention, and he was born to connect Ras to some lost culture or people. Dusan, to my knowledge is not an Arab name. From research, in some areas, its a Czech/Slovak/Serbian name. This is interesting to me since, besides Nyssa, it implies he's the only other non-Arabic member of the family. Nyssa (depends on translation, is either Greek or Hebrew, which makes sense considering she is Jewish) is of Russian descent. So in my hc, Dusan is of Slovak descent, connected to some fictional peoples. Considering Ras' history, Dusan's mother was probably connected to some type of specific science or magic culture that Ras wanted his hands on. He seems detached to Talia, despite being her brother, so my hc is that he's much older than her and so they don't have a connection in the way that Nyssa created between them. Because Ras was successfully able to transfer his mind/soul to Dusan's body in Resurrection, we can glean that Dusan might've had this magical connection too. Bringing Mara into this, we don't get a lot of content surrounding what her relationship w her father was. Still, my hc is that her red hair streak is actually dyed, and she has inherited her father's albinism but has yet to show it outside of her hair. Mara is also not an Arabic name. In Hebrew it means bitter, but my hc is that she nicknamed herself Mara. Besides Nyssa, I don't think any other member of the al Ghuls are Jewish - so Mara just took the meaning as a way to symbolize her bitterness over her father. Her full name was Maram, which means "wish" or "desire" in Arabic. Whether it was Dusan or her mother that named her this, I'm not fully sure yet but I think it'd be more heartbreaking if it was Dusan. Despite spending so long attached to his father's crusade, I think it'd be sad if for a moment - he had independence and happiness w Mara. Maybe he wanted a son, just as Ras wanted a son, but he once loved her just as fiercely as Talia loves Damian. But again, the al Ghuls are Ouroboros. They cannot ever break the family curse, so in the end, Dusan was once again driven to his father's side w fervor, his lover or wife left him, and Mara was left (as many in the family) alone.

[birlwrites]

can i ask which families are in the sacred 28? and if they're light/dark and what their specialties are? and also their lords and ladies' names (if you've come up w them) because you've been breaking out names i have never heard before

i don't have them for everyone as that would be a lot of names and i've devoted most of that energy to making up hogwarts students, but i have. far more of them than would ever be necessary for this story! bolded the given names i know i made up, entirely possible some of the other ones are fanon. also bolded the dark families. 'light' families aren't really a thing, as there's no such thing as light magic in atfhv - only dark

also this list of the sacred 28 is from my brain and i know for a fact it's not consistent with canon, we're vibing

list of specialties

ok families. hoo boy here goes

MOSTE ANCIENTE

BLACK: lord orion black, lady walburga black

ANCIENTE

BULSTRODE: lord [maeve's dad] bulstrode, lady [maeve's mom] bulstrode

MALFOY: lord abraxas malfoy, lady sabine malfoy

ZABINI: lord valentio zabini, lady ortensia zabini

PARKINSON: lord peregrine parkinson, lady lavinia parkinson

WEASLEY: don't even claim their wizengamot seat smh :// how dare they not be part of the idle leisure class

ROSIER: lord william rosier, lady aurelia rosier

BROWN: lord hawthorn brown, lady eleanor brown

NOTT: lord [theophania's dad] nott, lady [theophania's mom] nott

GREENGRASS: lord [???] greengrass, lady [???] greengrass

LESTRANGE: lord [bellatrix's father-in-law] lestrange, lady [bellatrix's mother-in-law] lestrange

NOBLE

OLLIVANDER: ?????

POTTER: fleamont and euphemia baybeeeeeeeeee

YAXLEY: lord [charlotte's grandfather] yaxley, lady [charlotte's grandmother] yaxley

MACMILLAN: lord [arnold's father] macmillan, lady [arnold's mother] macmillan

SMITH: ?????

SHAFIQ: ?????

SELWYN: lord [larissa selwyn who was mentioned like one time's grandfather] selwyn, lady [larissa selwyn's grandmother] selwyn

VANITY: lord jacob vanity, no lady vanity, emma's mom basically has that role, she does not have a given name

MCKINNON: lord martin mckinnon, lady benceline mckinnon

PRINCE: died out

CARROW: ?????

LONGBOTTOM: ?????

GOYLE: ?????

SHACKLEBOLT: ?????

MARCHBANKS: lord [pandora's father] marchbanks, lady [pandora's mother] marchbanks

CRABBE: ?????

PREWETT: lord ignatius prewett, lady lucretia prewett

the other dark families are duncan, avery, flint, goodwin, young, lovett, hooper, and archer

[edutainer2022]

11- Tell me a ship you love and a ship you hate

@mrmustachious Thanks for the ask. Ooooh, dangerous waters, as, I'm sure, I have quite unpopular or unconventional opinions on ships in Thunderfandom (TAG-verse). But here goes nothing. If it earns me unfollows - so be it.

A caveat, though: the Thunderbirds are foremost about brothers' and father-sons' relationships for me, so I'm a lot more open to ideas of 'ships' on the periphery of those primary relationships, than I would normally be in a different fandom.

Caveat #2: I know what headcanons and elements of fanon I subscribe to and don't. Those are my personal opinions exclusively. The fanon/fic-canon I don't agree with may or may not be a deal breaker for me to read (or keep reading) a story, mostly it depends if the characters in question are explored in depth.

Ships I like. I appears, Scott Tracy is the only character in the long range of my Tall, Dark and Emotionally Compromised favorites, whom I quite liberally multiship. I would usually stick to an OTP. Since my go-to OTP for Scott is peace of mind, laying down his burdens, knowing he's enough and knowing he's loved (by Dad, mostly) without having to martyr himself to earn it, I go a little more loose in the ship department.

Scott and Kayo make sense to me on many levels. I still remember the time there were 1,5 Scayo fics in the days of TAG run and I was parched, waiting for an update. I actually think they're the kind of ship that would end up together years down the line, even having pursued other relationships and/or marriages. He's the Sun, she's the Shadow.

That said, I can see merit in what the canon wheeled out or hinted at for Scott - Jane Carter the pilot, Marion (this one actually has ample dramatic and comedic potential, where I'm concerned - I'm glad they brought Marion back to showcase Scott). I think one of TAG's creators identified her as a potential LI for Scott in S3, so I'm rolling with that - 10 Things I Hate About You, and all. Pure fic territory, but journalist Kat, Lemaire's wife, Professor Qawrk and Havoc are fun to explore as well. For various reasons. Heck, so are Tyco Reeves and Cameron the Shakleton Guard. People meet Scott - people get inspired by Scott - people get a thing for Scott and kinda carry a torch. That leaves a vast untapped potential for Scott and the Mechanic. I don't personally ship them, but the ground to be covered from resentment to respect to a working relationship/friendship is quite fertile.

I am not sure I'm opposed to the idea of Scott and Penelope having been an on again-off again sort of thing when they were younger. Now it's just a really fond friendship.

I'm also mostly fine with the ideas the show kinda put on the table for John and Virgil - Ridley and Cass. Cass in particular, as I think she ticks many boxes Virgil would need to seek in a relationship (any relationship, not only romantic). I know the fandom generally dislikes Ridley and John/Ridley (or John/anyone) - I don't. The show went for it in no uncertain terms, all Tracy boys definitely have a thing for strong, capable, assertive (and slightly reckless) women. I always wondered if Virgil and Kip Harris could be explored - in a May-December "impossible" sort of way (maybe one-sided).

Going underwater in TB2 really, really made me give Virgil and Penny a long, hard look. I really enjoyed their rapport and banter. The sweet Lumberjack may be awkward eating cookies in a castle, but he's a man of fine arts and music. That's more of Penelope's scene. But I wouldn't want unrequited love or anguish over "brotherly code" for Virgil - he deserves being the first choice. Then again, maybe Penelope too deserves to not feel shackled by obligation to Gordon's undying and unwavering devotion. Either way - Legends of the Fall territory, very unlikely to end mess-free.

I'm rather amused by several ship options for Brains - Moffie, Tycho Reeves, the Mechanic.

The mother of his five sons is, of course, Jeff's one true love, but I am not exactly against the idea of him growing closer to Col. Casey (especially after his return, as the now adult boys pursue their own personal lives more). I've read a fic to that effect and... life is a complicated thing. Especially life after so many losses. If anyone is gonna understand and respect the love he has for his children and for his late wife, and be fiercely protective of his family, that gotta be Casey. I'd read more about their friendship (or something deeper).

Ships I don't like. Well, foremost, I gotta say there's A LOT (sometimes contradictory or mutually exclusive things) I would read in fic, if the characters are done justice or some facets of character/conflict are explored in a fascinating way. Some of these things I would file as "that totally happened, headcanon accepted" , some would go "oh, I can see that!", some go "huh? Never would have thought that, but hey...". Some things make sense only in the coordinates and for versions of characters established in a particular story.

Some things keep not making sense to me even after I gave them a lot of thought and have read a lot of excellent exploration of them in fic. Like Gordon and Penelope. I don't ship them. I exist. They ARE the canon pairing and part of the plot, of course. I don't ship them with anyone else, not really. They will live happily ever after. Well, realistically, I can't help but see them as a trainwreck waiting to happen, as the long-distance honeymoon (highschool) stage of romance is over, but it was not a very realistic story to begin with. There's that, as far as my willing engagement with this ship is concerned. I got fascinated by them in Tunnels of Time and am rather vexed how the show went about actually bringing them together, eventually. I understand it's an "opposites attract" trope, I understand they went for "Princess and the Scoundrel", or "couples' costumes are kinda cute" (since Penelope is all of a sudden in the aquatic rescue business now), but... I just don't see it doing justice to Gordon and his journey to maturity (and I'm kinda annoyed with the loyal page/lapdog vibe, sorry). In my experience it never ends well when ALL parties in a relationship think in earnest one is out of the other's league and agree which one. I've read remarkable explorations of Penny's emotional journey, or their mutual journey in fic to make it more captivating but... that's just too much heavy cognitive lifting for me for the two characters I relate least of all in the story overall. I don't actively seek to read fic with their pairing, and if it's a default in other stories, I appreciate it and read through/around it to the parts more focused on other family relationships and dynamics.

It used to be a rather popular fanon ship in early TAG fandom, but I don't really dig Virgil and Brains. It has nothing to do with headcanons on any characters' sexualities, but mostly to do with character dynamics the way I read it. Virgil's "fatal flaw" is lack of confidence and pursuit of approval, and so is Brain's. So to me, there're not enough complimentary or contrasting aspects these characters can bring to the table in a relationship to build each other up (unless Virgil is depicted confident, assertive and suave, which is... an OOC Virgil). Their working dynamics could be quite fascinating. I know some of my followers ship them... Well, these are my personal opinions. I mostly do with Virgil/Brains in fic what I do with Pen and Ink - appreciate them as an established fact of this story version and quietly read around them to other relationships and dynamics (if I like the overall story and want to engage with it, regardless of the ship).

Another popular fanon ship that I don't quite get is Virgil and Kayo. Well, I can SEE it - they're remarkably hot individuals. I can see Virgil falling in love (bless him). I've seen it explored along interesting avenues in fic, but I have to make a conscious effort to suspend disbelief. There's just not enough in their interactions and characterization in the show for me to get the vibe. I dunno... Maybe I can see Kayo going along with Virgil's crush (the boi is precious and breathtakingly handsome), but then withdraw because he's "too good and pure for her"? I dunno... Lots of heartbreak for Virgil. Don't wanna a heartbroken Virgil.

Which brings us to my, probably, only no-fly ship zone - OC ships. If there's a Tracy Brother/OC ship on the tin... I may test the waters, but am very unlikely to engage or read further. Sadly, I am yet to see OC ships with the boys that are not tumbling their way headfirst into Mary Sue/Gary Stu Bella Swan wish fulfillment territory. Except for, maybe, a couple of dramatic, painful "past relationship" stories for the boys. I read A LOT of fic (for fun and for research). I give many stories many chances, but I am yet to be proven wrong in my initial assumption. Do I have secret bosom OC ships in the bottom drawer of my Thunderheadcanons? Of course. Would I wanna read it, fully aware of the demerits and limitations of OC ship as a genre? No, thank you. To each their own, of course.

[thebemoon]

I wish I had advice for this person, because what they're going through is distressingly common. In a big fandom it's so difficult to stand out. I can say that I feel this writer's pain with this part: I don’t care about rude or unflattering comments on my fics, but definitely fewer people kudos my fics when I try to write the characters how I see them instead of fanon characterization. In my fandom, there's a guy named Theo Nott who has only one line in canon but a huge fandom presence. In most fanfic, he's funny, witty, generous and a devoted best friend. He's often wacky and the life of the party. Our fandom loves him and rightfully so.

When I put Theo in my stories, however, I always make him different from fanon. In my first story he was a handsome, elegant, suspicious, smooth-talking operator with a secret agenda. In my second story he was a short pudgy guy who was scheming to put his group back on top, who was ruthless and yet a bit of a coward during the war. Yet he wasn't a villain and was okay at heart.

Neither Theo fits fanon and I've gotten flak for that. I also get some flak for how I write a mother named Narcissa who is frankly pretty terrible in canon except for one courageous act. I often keep her pretty unpleasant, and people get upset because they like a sweeter and more accepting Narcissa.

In both cases, it's all fine -- people can have expectations. Going against the grain has consequences and I'm willing to accept them. It's a hard choice, and I'd never judge anybody who crafted their characters a bit to suit fanon.

Best of luck.

How do you build confidence as a writer and start to feel okay with your own writing, as well as the stats your writing gets? I’m not a new writer, and I don’t think I’m a bad one, but I am really bad with capturing the fandom zeitgeist, and a lot of the times when I try to write characters based on how they acted in canon, I get accused of bashing them. I don’t care about rude or unflattering comments on my fics, but definitely fewer people kudos my fics when I try to write the characters how I see them instead of fanon characterization, and it sucks to know I don’t make fic recs lists or even get casually recced for anything I’ve ever written on Discord because of my writing choices. More and more often, I feel like I shouldn’t write because I know my fics will never get the praise and attention BNFs do, and then I feel guilty for not writing. But I also know that if I do, I’ll just end up with more fic readers won’t want, and let’s face it: it’s not like anyone will choose my fics when they could have a BNF’s. Is there any way for me to accept that no one will ever love my fic as much as they love fics by BNFs, and to stay motivated in spite of feeling like my writing is just permanently unwanted? Or would giving up at this point be kinder to myself if I can’t stop comparing? (I know frequent advice in these cases is to focus on building friendships and finding a community, but IME, people in fandom either aren’t interested, don’t reach out, or already have had their friends circle since the LJ days and don’t want to bother with you. Any advice on where I’d even begin?)

*hugs* Oof. That's a rough spot to be in, anon, and you're definitely not alone 💗

I think in this situation, you need to figure out what exactly it is that you're looking for. You start by asking how to get confidence as a writer, but I think you already have it. You know what stories you want to tell, and you write those stories the way you want to tell them. To me, that means that you have plenty of confidence. You have a clear vision and goal, and you write with them in mind.

Next, you mention stats but I don't think that's the issue either - except inasmuch as they can be a sign of other things. Stats on their own, however, are just numbers attached to your works. If seeing those numbers on your works and the works of others causes you distress or annoyance or another emotion you'd rather not experience, then I strongly recommend using a site skin to hide them.

The bulk of your message is about what it sounds like the issue really is: attention, praise, and yes community. You want people to get excited with about your works. You want people to talk to other people about the things that you write. You want to feel loved, or at least appreciated. You're not alone in wanting those things either.

I think the writing side of things is going well - at least from the information you've provided here. The part that isn't working for you is the posting. Putting your work up on AO3 is not only dissatisfying, it's actively discouraging you from writing more.

I'm going to make my own suggestion and then I'll leave the floor open for the blog to add in their thoughts: Have you considered role playing instead of fic writing? For the last several years, I've tucked my writing away in a discord server with my fandom bestie. We've written thousands of stories and millions of words, almost none of which have ever been posted to AO3. We don't feel the need for comments and kudos because we're both having so much fun collaborating with our blorbos and each other, writing things to make the other one happy (or sad or laugh etc), that what other people might think about it doesn't actually matter.

She also RPs in various servers with friends and strangers alike, but I haven't enjoyed that as much as just shooting replies back and forth with her. Your mileage may vary, as they say, but that might be one way to get the feedback and excitement that you're craving - whether it's in a big server with lots going on or just a little corner of 2 or 3 people.

What do the rest of you think?

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

The Songs That Would Fit Lucifer & Archeia Lucille (And What If It Was Part Of A Fanon AU Of Hazbin Hotel)

[Don’t Reblog Without Permission, also no need to take this weird theory or the whole Archeia Lucille seriously...I get weird thoughts, and this is one of my weird ones I guess.]

as weird as it might sound, if Lucifer who was or I guess might still be technically a Archangel, I don’t know...maybe not...

but if the other Archangels have Archeia counterparts, then it would make sense I guess, if Lucifer had one too...

and in my weird headcanon & theory way, I think her name would be Lucille.

the song that I think would fit their separation, would be Taylor Swift’s song

“We Are Never Getting Back Together”, Carrie Wood’s Song “Before He Cheats”, “Burn” from that Hamilton Musical.

and in the song “Congratulation” from Hamilton Musical,

it would be Eve singing the part of Angelica, while Lucille is the Eliza,

and Lucifer is the Alexander...

Lucifer and Lilith would match the song “Say No To This” from Hamilton Musical.

and Adam (Lilith’s Ex) is the sleazy husband, who blackmails Lucifer that if he doesn’t pay him, he will tell his Twin Flame Archeia Lucille.

of course unlike in that musical, Lucifer will end up together with Lilith, getting married and living together for all their eternal lives.

if the twin flames were meeting at a type of ball, which was arranged by Heavenly Father & Earthly Mother (like a Hazbin Hotel AU versions of them)

Archeia Lucille could be singing the song “Helpless” from Hamilton Musical.

and Lilith being the “Angelica” in that song, and saying that she should share him.

the “him” of course being Lucifer (Charlie’s Dad)...

 of course even if that song did fit a lovesick Lucille, it wouldn’t last forever.

another song that would match Lucille being hurt by Lucifer,

would be “Hopelessly Devoted To You” By Olivia Newton-John.

and if Archeia Lucille did fall in love again some centuries later, at some point after or during Charlie becomes the founder of the Happy Hotel to Redeem and Rehabilitate Sinners...

the song that would fit that whole Lucille falling in love again,

would be “I Wont Say I’m In Love” from that Disney’s Hercules Movie.

even if the Archeia existed in the Hazbin Hotel & Helluva Boss Timeline, it would be the Fanon Timeline and in a type of AU...

which Archeia Lucille would be in the Fanon Timeline & AU...

so she wouldn’t be canon, and is like a theory...

and even if I call myself “Eveningstar” as well, it’s suppose to be in a funny sense I guess, cause I had found out my Mom NEVER got morning sickness with me, and she only got evening sickness, and we can not take it seriously and just see it as something that is kind of funny...

but I guess in theory, if Archeia Lucille was real, she would be the true Eveningstar....so in other words, she would be Lucille Eveningstar.

I also use the name “Eveningstar” as part of my tumblr page....that and the word “Twilightner” which has to do with Deltarune.

anyway I’m going to post Undertale and FNAF theories next after this...

and no one has to take this one seriously, it is just a theory and also what if type of thing.          

also if it were true that Lucifer did have a Twin Flame named Lucille,

I’m going to guess they could still be in a estranged relationship.

it’s just a guess, I don’t have to be right...like I said, the whole “Archeia Lucille” is just a theory, just remember this is just a theory and some parts of it that would be like a what if thought of Archeia Lucille being in a Fanon Timeline of a Hazbin Hotel AU, would be Noncanon and would be fanon only...

anyway I’m going to write a Undertale theory now...               

[okayair]

Review: The Shoebox Project (Wolfstar + Jily)

Fandom: Harry Potter

Ship: Wolfstar (with some Jily)

Title/Link: The Shoebox Project

Authors: Lady Jaida & Dorkorific

Length: 35 multimedia PDFs -- unsure on word count, but it's definitely a full length fic

Content Rating: Mature (?)

Era: Hogwarts 5th Year to First War with Voldemort

Main Tags: Marauders Era, first war with Voldemort, get together, slow burn, friends to lovers, character growth, fandom classic, POV alternates between many characters but mostly Remus & Sirius, non-graphic violence

Summary: "The fic begins during summer vacation in 1975, when Sirius, Remus and the gang is sixteen ... The fanfiction depicts not only depict Sirius and Remus falling for each other, but shows James turning from a rich kid asshole into the courageous leader of a resistance. It gave Lily Evans, Harry’s mother, depth, and gave context to Peter Pettigrew’s eventual betrayal. In my mind, the fic wasn’t just a derivative work. Reading The Shoebox Project made more sense than Harry Potter’s actual canon at times. It healed a wound in my thirteen year old heart." (Description taken from this article)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Thoughts: I first encountered and read this fic in early January of 2021 (a late bloomer, I know), and I just now reread this article about the project and felt like I was going to cry. Figured that meant it’s time for a review.

It’s The Shoebox Project. What do you even say? This is one of (if not the) definitive works in wolfstar fanon. It does a stunning job telling the story of the Marauders from the summer before their 5th year to the beginning of their dissolution in the face of the first war. It’s funny, heartbreaking, and beautifully crafted. The article I linked describes the piece much better than I can. Suffice to say, I can’t recommend this work enough. I’m sure I had more precise thoughts on it immediately after reading, and maybe small critiques, but sadly they have disappeared into the recesses of my memory. I just know I really loved it, and it's mandatory reading for all wolfstar and Marauder fans.

It also makes me ache for an era of fanfiction that I was too young to participate in, and for fanfiction community in general. I read so much fanfic, but I do it in near complete isolation. As I read author's notes and comments and such, I can see the vibrant fan community that exists around the works I care about, and it's odd and a little sad not really being a part of that. Maybe this blog is an attempt to rectify that loneliness. I'm also kind of a dick in my reviews, though, so I don't know if I'm actually creating anything here that could connect me to the communities I find myself observing and longing for. Only reading complete fics also feels like a division separating me from active fan culture. Lonely feelings and pining aside, The Shoebox Project is a testament not only to the vivacity and depth of the Marauders and their story, but to the devotion and literary accomplishment of fan communities and especially the artists and writers that form the backbone of networks.

Notes on the Smut: Honestly I even don’t remember how spicy or not spicy this fic is. That was’t really the point, and for once that didn’t bother me. It’s probably M, but I couldn’t say for sure and don’t really care.

My (Frankly Not Subjective This Time) Enjoyment Rating: 5 stars

Or, (out of thumbs down, thumbs up, two thumbs up), two thumbs up

[namikiheights]

Sinon's family

DISCLAIMER: This is all fanon! All names are in given name-family name order when written in English, but family name-given name order when written in Japanese.

I was inspired by @/transboykirito to get out all my ideas, so here they are! This is just the run-down on my fanon for Sinon's immediate family, but maybe I'll make more of these in the future. Enjoy!

Youtarou Asada 朝田陽太郎

Shino's grandfather, born in 1962.

Youtarou works full time at a big-box store in Toyama, the next town over. He rides his Super Cub to work. He can be strict and old fashioned at times, but he’s a good guy despite his resting bitch face. He doesn’t quite understand his daughter nor his granddaughter, but he tries to help them in any way he can. To sum it up, he's quick to anger but just as quick to cave in.

Youtarou means sunny son. I wanted it have something to do with the color red, since the only description of him in the books is when he’s pretty dang angry. I couldn’t think of anything good, though. Then I remembered the angry sun from Super Mario Bros. 3, so I made his name sun and slapped on a classic-sounding male suffix.

Shizuku Asada 朝田雫

Shino's grandmother, born in 1963.

She's a stay-at-home wife and mother. She wasn’t really given any other option; just Shouwa period things. Both her daughter and granddaughter have a lot going on, though, so at least that meant Shizuku was able to really devote herself to raising them. But that paired with societal burdens gave her a short fuse, a few complexes, and an odd temperament. At least, that’s my justification for how she's described in the books! Still, she apologizes after squabbles and is there to take care of her family when they’re down.

Shizuku means droplet, like a teardrop or dewdrop. I picked it for the teardrop imagery, since she's described as weepy. I stole that pun from Ace Attorney.

Hitomi Asada 朝田日登美

Shino's mother, born in 1983.

I see Hitomi as a quiet woman, since she’s described as fragile. I think she’d speak politely, but with her sentences having an immature feel to them due to her age regressing. Still, she’s able to handle her own finances since she went to the post office to do so, so I don’t think she’s an adult ward, but I would assume she has a disability certificate. That being said, there may not be job opportunities for her in particular in such a small town. I think she’d work from home due to not being good with strangers, maybe an online freelance gig.

Hitomi comes from the word hitomishiri, which means shyness. I picked the kanji at random, although now I’m thinking maybe I should’ve gone for the typical spelling which means eye as the emotions she expresses through them are important to the story. But I like the kanji I have, since the first one means sun. I think it's wholesome that her name matches with her father's in that sense; perhaps it was on purpose! The other kanji in her name mean ascending and beauty, so I guess I’d interpret her name as meaning “the beauty of dawn”.

BONUS: Manabu Katagiri 片桐学

Shino's father, born in 1983.

He was a kind, determined, and reliable man who was always smiling. He talked kinda loud, though. Canonically, he met Hitomi in college so I picture that he thought she was super cool for moving from so far by herself to further her education (he respected hard work). He did most of the talking at first and they bonded over a shared interest (keeping what it was hidden for now).

Manabu asked Hitomi out on a date pretty quickly and, after a few more dates, they were in a relationship. They got married a year after graduating college, and had Shino two years after that. He talked to baby Shino normally, no baby talk, as though she could understand the life advice he was giving. He was a bit quirky like that.

Still, Manabu was a sociable and positively gleaming guy. That contrast with Hitomi’s reserved personality is what made her pretty reliant on him (picture them as the EXCUSE ME SHE ASKED FOR NO PICKLES meme), which is my fanon explanation for why she was so devastated by his loss (aside from having watched him die and not having been able to do anything).

Manabu means studious, and he was decently so. He worked hard at it and got good marks, but he was no genius. As for Katagiri, I wanted it to have an estranged feel. Kata means a part of something. And while the kanji for giri in his surname means paulownia, giri/kiri can also mean cut. Patting myself on the back for the phonetic wordplay making his surname mean “the part [of Shino's family] that was cut off”. You know, like when Hitomi destroyed all reminders of him.

[anarchistauthor]

I treat the phrase "best boy" as a specific type of character, not just "the male I like most." So, this isn't a representation of how much I like the character, though I do like most of them. In no particular order:

From My Hero Academia, I feel like there's only two people who actually qualify: Tenya Iida and Izuku Midoriya. Of the two, I tend to think Izuku wins, mostly because of the Stain arc where Tenya loses his cool and tries to kill someone. I don't think he would have, but that's still a mark. Izuku has lost control, but even at his worst he's ALWAYS motivated to protect. Also, my bestie OP argues for Shoto despite the fact that neither of us even believe that person is a boy, which is a disqualification IMO!

In terms of RWBY, it's harder. Mostly because of issues in the fandom and how people treat certain characters. But, despite fanon, the canon version of Jaune is clearly the best boy to me. Even if he's now traumatized as fuck.

Next up, Persona 5. Royal, not Royal, doesn't really make a difference in this case, because we're not arguing about best girls. But, as for the boys, I have to go with Yuuki Mishima. He's a supportive character, he's a good kid, he goes kinda crazy at one point, but so does everyone in P5. I really feel like the Phantom Thieves are meaner to him than they should be.

Now we're getting into stuff I'm less sure my followers are familiar with: Yu Yu Hakusho. My most nostalgic anime, a show I still love 111 episodes of, and home of my second-favorite anime boy (after Katsuki Bakugo,) Hiei. But Hiei's not a best boy, his boyfriend Kurama is. Kurama is good and pure, unless you threaten his human mother.

It took me a long time to come up with a fifth fandom, but I guess it's Seven Deadly Sins. A show I really like, but which is basically impossible to recommend because of its, uh...issues. Meliodas is all it takes to turn most reasonable people off. However, Escanor is an incredible best boy, especially at night when he's scrawny. He's supportive, devoted to his friends, (especially Merlin,) and ready to die to help them. There's no other choice.

So I'm long-winded. I'm an author!

Who are your top 5 “best boys” across your fandoms?

That's...a really interesting question to ask me considering my general disinterest in dudes across media lol but there are boys I do like and care about.

5. Guel Jeturk - Witch From Mercury - Look, I'm surprised as anyone but he turned out to be really kind to Suletta and was her wingman.

4. Shoto Todoroki - My Hero Academia - In my fic they're a trans girl but in canon they might come off as cold but he's honestly a very sweet, good boi.

3. Garrus Vakarian - Mass Effect Series - There's no Shepard without Vakarian. My Shepard's best friend and wingman.

2. Genjuro Kazanari - Symphogear - Best dad in a series with a LOT of shitty dads.

Lie Ren - RWBY - He's had his ups and downs but I love the boy and am proud of how he's matured.

[dr-fizzovich]

i keep forgetting to write this down and i am doing it now in the most inappropriate and unacceptable timing

So uh.

the A Mother's Devotion canon and my own silly little fanon are two completely different canons/fanons

so Cabbie and Cupboard are not present in my own fanon, they are only canon in A Mother's Devotion :3

hope i made this clear for yall fans of a mother's devotion. And oops, i keep forgetting to post how Cabbie and Cupboard look like. So i will just say, Cabbie is just. Cabby with a gray tint. And Cupboard is a black cupboard with 3 drawers. Hope i made this clear ^_^

[chispas-and-broken-bindings]

Lmao 🤣 I know to which post you are replying about them being besties . That scene always gave me more ominous vibes than actually something that would ignite friendship . Also the title of " Usurper's Dog " isn't something @ry@ is going to take lightly .

Ha! I actually didn't have any particular post in mind. The Dany/Arya friendship is just something that I see float around the fandom from time to time and it drives me absolutely bonkers (not fanon. feel free to explore all your platonic dreams with these two in fanon. Go wild. You do you.)

If we are talking canon though, I can't think of a single character that has more anti-Targ foreshadowing in their chapters than Arya (even Jon comes in second place). I actually started pasting bits of Arya's chapters into a word document awhile ago, because I couldn't believe how much GRRM uses her POV to detail the horrors of fire and burning...it's almost comical how heavy-handed he is with it.

And yet...

After I saw this ask in my inbox, I looked at the Arya Stark tag and immediately found a post about Dany and Arya being best friends.

So.

Here we are:

A Storm of Swords - Arya I

Later they passed through a burned village, threading their way carefully between the shells of blackened hovels and past the bones of a dozen dead men hanging from a row of apple trees. When Hot Pie saw them he began to pray, a thin whispered plea for the Mother's mercy, repeated over and over. Arya looked up at the fleshless dead in their wet rotting clothes and said her own prayer. Ser Gregor, it went, Dunsen, Polliver, Raff the Sweetling. The Tickler and the Hound. Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei. She ended it with valar morghulis, touched Jaqen's coin where it nestled under her belt, and then reached up and plucked an apple from among the dead men as she rode beneath them. It was mushy and overripe, but she ate it worms and all.

That was the day without a dawn. Slowly the sky lightened around them, but they never saw the sun. Black turned to grey, and colors crept timidly back into the world. The soldier pines were dressed in somber greens, the broadleafs in russets and faded golds already beginning to brown.

Hot Pie opened his mouth and closed it. He did not fall off his horse. The rain began again a short time later. They still had not seen so much as a glimpse of the sun. It was growing colder, and pale white mists were threading between the pines and blowing across the bare burned fields.

A Storm of Swords - Arya III

That night they sheltered in a burned, abandoned village.

A Storm of Swords - Arya IV

The next night they found shelter beneath the scorched shell of a sept, in a burned village called Sallydance. Only shards remained of its windows of leaded glass, and the aged septon who greeted them said the looters had even made off with the Mother's costly robes, the Crone's gilded lantern, and the silver crown the Father had worn. "They hacked the Maiden's breasts off too, though those were only wood," he told them. "And the eyes, the eyes were jet and lapis and mother-of-pearl, they pried them out with their knives. May the Mother have mercy on them all."

A Storm of Swords Arya VI

"Please," Sandor Clegane rasped, cradling his arm. "I'm burned. Help me. Someone. Help me." He was crying. "Please."

Arya looked at him in astonishment. He's crying like a little baby, she thought.

Clegane tried to stand, but as he moved a piece of burned flesh sloughed right off his arm, and his knees went out from under him. Tom caught him by his good arm and held him up.

His arm, Arya thought, and his face. But he was the Hound. He deserved to burn in a fiery hell. The knife felt heavy in her hand. She gripped it tighter. "You killed Mycah," she said once more, daring him to deny it. "Tell them. You did. You did."

"I did." His whole face twisted. "I rode him down and cut him in half, and laughed. I watched them beat your sister bloody too, watched them cut your father's head off."

Lem grabbed her wrist and twisted, wrenching the dagger away. She kicked at him, but he would not give it back. "You go to hell, Hound," she screamed at Sandor Clegane in helpless empty-handed rage. "You just go to hell!"

(Okay, so she's not exactly sympathetic to the Hound's plight here, but still...another reference to burning, and a pretty graphic one at that)

A Storm of Swords - Arya VII

Jack-Be-Lucky, Harwin, and Merrit o' Moontown braved the burning septry to search for captives. They emerged from the smoke and flames a few moments later with eight brown brothers, one so weak that Merrit had to carry him across a shoulder.

The septry soon collapsed in a roar of smoke and flame, its walls no longer able to support the weight of its heavy slate roof. The eight brown brothers watched with resignation. They were all that remained, explained the eldest, who wore a small iron hammer on a thong about his neck to signify his devotion to the Smith. "Before the war we were four-and-forty, and this was a prosperous place. We had a dozen milk cows and a bull, a hundred beehives, a vineyard and an apple arbor. But when the lions came through they took all our wine and milk and honey, slaughtered the cows, and put our vineyard to the torch.

A Storm of Swords - Arya XI

"Dead," he shouted back at her. "Do you think they'd slaughter his men and leave him alive?" He turned his head back toward the camp. "Look. Look, damn you."

The camp had become a battlefield. No, a butcher's den. The flames from the feasting tents reached halfway up the sky. Some of the barracks tents were burning too, and half a hundred silk pavilions. Everywhere swords were singing. And now the rains weep o'er his hall, with not a soul to hear. She saw two knights ride down a running man. A wooden barrel came crashing onto one of the burning tents and burst apart, and the flames leapt twice as high. A catapult, she knew. The castle was flinging oil or pitch or something.

"Come with me." Sandor Clegane reached down a hand. "We have to get away from here, and now." Stranger tossed his head impatiently, his nostrils flaring at the scent of blood. The song was done. There was only one solitary drum, its slow monotonous beats echoing across the river like the pounding of some monstrous heart. The black sky wept, the river grumbled, men cursed and died. Arya had mud in her teeth and her face was wet. Rain. It's only rain. That's all it is. "We're here," she shouted. Her voice sounded thin and scared, a little girl's voice. "Robb's just in the castle, and my mother. The gate's even open." There were no more Freys riding out. I came so far. "We have to go get my mother."

(heart: broken)

Look, there is a lot to say about fire and about rain in Arya's chapters, particularly in A Storm of Swords. I don't have the energy for it, so I'm just dumping quotes. Draw your own conclusions.

This collection is by no means exhaustive, and I'm sure there is someone more dedicated than I am, who has written something about this symbolism. (If anyone has it, send me a link).

All I'm saying is that GRRM isn't throwing all this devastation by fire and blood into Arya's chapters as positive foreshadowing for how she'll feel when a certain conqueror cross the Narrow Sea with her dragons.

[oraclemilf]

ok but i'm loving your takes on the female characters - like it's very disconcerting to watch this show with a lot of girls and then have almost none of them be actual friends, and when they interact they're either fighting or it's about a boy. a lot of them r reduced to stereotypes too like with sam and her "i'm not like other girls" spiel and paulina's... entire thing lol. i'd say at least valerie is well rounded but she never rly interacts with the other girls positively :/

“and like it's an older show where those kinds of messages were everywhere in kids media especially but it still sucks lol at least we can take what we like from fanon and totally change it into our own because butch really did them dirty” 2/2  

Yeah exactly. Not to be feminist on main but holy fuck do the girls in DP have issues. Like I get the whole argument that “it's an early 2000s show what can you do” and “all of the characters were shittily written” but the reason most of the female characters are bad in DP is specifically because they were written through a misogynistic lens. Like the show presents itself as having strong female characters but really all they do to break the gender binary is being able to fight. (I will give them points for letting the girls get kicked and punched the same as the men but that is the ONLY praise they are getting out of me.)

To expand on the “takes” in my previous ask: 

 -Dora, Ember, Desiree, Kitty, and Spectra all had boy/appearance-based backstories. Like seriously, the only female ghost I can think of whose backstory wasn’t entirely based on a man was Pandora and she appears in literally one episode for literally half the episode. (Also if you look at the myth of Pandora it's literally about a woman created by the gods to be the downfall of man so she doesn’t get any feminism points either.) Like listen. I’m not arguing that all the female ghosts should be totally retconned so they never interact with men at all. In fact, I think Kitty,though she has a heteronormative ultimate power, Dora, and Desiree’s backstories work really well for their characters. But Ember and Spectra? Why should Ember die because “she was so sad she was stood up she slept through a house fire” wtf?That literally doesn’t really work with her musician motif at all? How would that even work? Bitch did you have no alarms? Nobody was screaming or anything? Like its so astronomically stupid.  @grimgrinningghoul​ has some cool ideas for alternate Spectra motivations in this post so I really won’t get into that here but women being only motivated by their appearance is such a stale take. 

-Maddie legit says "behind every genius woman is a genius man" This is self explanatory really. Like come on girl seriously. But yeah, to elaborate on Maddie they could have had a great strong mother figure. I mean she was a scientist and a black belt for crying out loud! Then they kind of back track because you can’t make women too self-sufficient and have her practice traditional housewife roles, always take a back seat to Jack (even though she’s usually in the right) and have her put up with Vlad’s creepy advances far too much. Not ALL of these things are bad mind you and I probably wouldn’t mind her character too much besides for this one line but looking at it from a broader perspective it doesn’t really come together to make the best picture you know? Also, her sister Alicia - who was probably the most gender-non-conforming character in the show, is treated like she’s a joke or trashy by the narrative. (Don’t even get me started on the constant body-shaming either)

Paulina, Sam, Valerie, Jazz and Dani’s arcs all center around another male character (Danny) Ok this one is a tad more controversial because like yes, I understand Danny is the main character. It makes sense that most character growth is facilitated through him. Hell, even really progressive shows like Steven Universe filter character growth through the main male character. However, there are a couple key distinctions I’d like to point out. For example, Steven Universe has a Third-person limited omniscient POV. meaning all actions in SU are filtered directly through Steven’s perspective. This isn’t the case Danny Phantom, which has a Third-person objective POV, meaning that the story can follow many characters separate from each other, not just Danny. Also the female characters in Steven Universe are already 3 dimensional fully established characters without Steven and it’s even touched on in universe that the characters learn and grow without Steven’s help. This isn’t the case in DP. Paulina's main narrative shift is from being crazy about boys in general to being a devoted fan of Phantom. Sam’s whole arc is about getting together with Danny. Jazz’s arc is about learning how to best support Danny in ghost hunting. Val and Dani were probably two of the better female characters - despite still having Danny-centric arcs. Unfortunately, not only were their plans for character development cut short but any girl-power lines they may have had (something about there being no weak girls idk I’m too lazy to find it) feels fake and pander-y because of all the previous bad examples. 

TL;DR I know it's easy to be like “who cares we don’t even respect canon anyway” but I think when source material perpetrates bad messages it’s important to view the content you are working with through a critical lens so you don’t maintain harmful ideas within your own work.

((sorry I hijacked your ask to get on a soap box but I had THOUGHTS about this topic))

[padme-amitabha]

Just popping in to say, I agree with you on the Master/Padawan ships being ew. But, as an Obidala shipper, I kinda want to ask that anon why Obidala would mean not understanding the characters? I mean, I've read books upon books in the EU and have a fairly good grasp on the two of them and I feel like they're more compatible personality& morality wise than anidala. (Not saying anidala is bad, because it's not. I ship it, too, just not as much as obidala). Plus there's just the whole part in the RotS novel where Padmé realizes that although she loves Anakin, she doesn't trust him. But she trusts Obi-Wan. Which, for me, is why I ship Obidala just a bit more than anidala because trust is everything, and it's canon that anidala keeps so many secrets from each other.

Also just... Insert that tik tok that's like "So you're telling me Padmé Amidala, former queen of naboo..." Here

I don’t know about the other anon but the reason I don’t ship Obidala is because I don’t think they are compatible. I view Obi-Wan as someone who puts duty and the Jedi council above everything else (I mean it literally took Anakin being burned alive for Obi-Wan to tell him he loved him) and also him being alright with lying to Luke about Vader being his father. Also, both in canon and legends, he chose duty over love (with Siri and Satine). Obi-Wan falls in love with them, that’s for sure, but it’s very different from Anakin as he notes in the book Secrets of the Jedi: 

But the way Obi-Wan had spoken had been so measured. With a temperament like that, it was impossible to love, Anakin was sure.

Padme, on the other hand, is someone who puts love above duty and chose that many times (especially when she decided to marry Anakin, and then overlooking his crimes on Mustafar and giving him a chance to be with her). Anakin has the same sense of compassion and values love more than duty and I think that’s what she admires about Anakin too. I think Anakin and Padme have a lot in common than she could ever have with Obi-Wan. I see Obi-Wan as the type to value the order he’s in whereas Padme (from AOTC novelization) also longed for a life free of responsibilities but ultimately couldn't because she felt she had a duty. But you are entitled to your own opinion so it’s cool.

Even Anakin notes they are very similar in AOTC novelization: 

Anakin shook his head doubtfully, but he wasn’t bothered by the possibility. In a strange way, he was glad that Padmé knew the rhyme, glad that it was a common gift from mothers to their children. And glad, especially, that he and Padmé had yet another thing in common.

 Ah yes. I remember that Tik Tok about what Padme ever saw in Anakin but I think there’s a lot of admirable qualities in Anakin (especially in movies, I don’t mean in TCW because I don’t like TCW’s take on their relationship which fundamentally changed their characters from the movies) so we may be talking about completely different versions of the characters here. 

Here’s some excerpts from novelizations regarding what made Padme fall for Anakin: 

She could see him now, not as a Jedi Padawan and her protector, but just as a young man. A handsome young man, and one whose actions repeatedly professed his love for her. A dangerous young man, to be sure, a Jedi who was thinking about things he should not. A man who was inevitably following the call of his heart above that of pragmatism and propriety. And all for her. Padmé couldn’t deny the attractiveness of that. 

But still, as she stood there looking upon him, his face now serene, she couldn’t deny the attraction. He seemed to her like a young hero, a budding Jedi—and she had no doubt that he would be among the greatest that great Order had ever known. And at the same time, he seemed to her to be the same little kid she had known during the war with the Trade Federation, inquisitive and impetuous, aggravating and charming all at once. 

She loved the way he was reacting to this place, to all of Naboo, his simple joys forcing her to see things as she had when she was younger, before the real world had pushed her to a place of responsibility. It surprised her that a Jedi Padawan would be so ... She couldn’t think of the word. Carefree? Joyous? Spirited? Some combination of the three?

Padmé’s hand slowly dropped to her side and she sat listening in amazement at how honestly he was opening up before her, baring his heart though he knew she might tear it asunder with a single word. She was honored by the thought, and truly touched.

A man who knew exactly what he wanted and was honest enough to simply ask for it; a man strong enough to unroll his deepest feelings before her without fear and without shame. A man who had loved her for a decade, with faithful and patient heart, while he waited for the act of destiny he was sure would someday open her own heart to the fire in his.

He is not a perfect man: he is prideful, and moody, and quick to anger—but these faults only make her love him the more, for his every flaw is more than balanced by the greatness within him, his capacity for joy and cleansing laughter, his extraordinary generosity of spirit, his passionate devotion not only to her but also in the service of every living being.

So, Padme loved Anakin for all his honesty, recklessness and flaws, and I think they were both people who loved too wholeheartedly (and maybe a little selfishly), wanted a family together, and idealized each other which made them overlook each other’s flaws. I don’t really agree they didn’t trust each other. There were many lines at the beginning of ROTS about them trusting each other. 

He could feel her patience, and her trust, and he was so grateful for both that tears welled once more.

I don’t think they started keeping secrets until the very end of ROTS because Padme had given her word to the other Senators to keep all the Rebellion stuff a secret and even then she wanted to tell Anakin but he was siding with Palpatine and refused to listen. And even then she was very uncomfortable about having to keep a secret from Anakin so it’s safe to guess they didn’t have a habit of keeping secrets from the other. 

Don’t make me lie to my husband was her unspoken plea. She tried to convey it with her eyes. Please, Bail. Don’t make me lie to him. It will break his heart.

Also, Anakin in ROTS was really unstable and sleep-deprived and he was constantly being manipulated by Palpatine and the Jedi weren’t helping either. Obi-Wan is more collected and reliable and they were good friends so it makes sense why Padme trusted Obi-Wan about this more than Anakin. Also, didn’t Obi-Wan sneak into her ship and betrayed her in a sense? 

That said, I am not against Obidala and it could work in fanon but I personally don’t see them growing close in the actual story. 

[spockandawe]

Oh, would you look at that, is it fish book pitch o’clock again? IT SURE IS!!

So, here’s my angle du jour. I’m a sucker for a feral and/or unsocialized fictional character, especially if the story puts them in a position where they either need or want to catch up to their peers on the social front. I didn’t really click with Jin Zixuan until I saw a post breaking down how his awkwardness made a lot of sense in terms of growing up isolated and undersocialized, and I really love takes on young Lan Wangji that really lean into him not knowing how to play with the other children. It’s more fanon than canon, given screentime, but I love takes on Mobei-jun that do the same thing. And! Outside of the cnovel world altogether, it’s part of why i would Die for both Gideon Nav and Harrowhark Nonagesimus. It’s so tasty! 

And Jing-wang is a version of this that I don’t think I’ve seen before. I’ve had this bouncing around in my head for a while, but I can’t quite come up with any parallels. Jing-wang grew up isolated in one way because he was an imperial prince, with a dead mother and no surviving siblings. The boy doesn’t have many peers, and things are... messy with his half-brothers. But since he’s mute, he’s (theoretically) not in the running for the throne, and he’s not involved in as much political wheeling and dealing as the other princes. And also since he’s mute, communication with other people is a bit of an ordeal, and only a few people who are very close to him are good at interpreting him, outside of him writing things down. I get the idea that he does very well for himself at understanding and steering the political playing field, even if he’s not mixed up deeply in things himself, but he’s.... very not good when it comes to connecting with anyone on any kind of personal level.

But what delights me the most is that this mainly gets expressed through him being 1) a very devoted and well-meaning pet owner, 2) who is very BAD at being a pet owner.

It gets expressed in little funny ways that go by quickly, like in a stressful meeting, where Jing-wang is squeezing Li Yu’s back in a self-soothing way, and Li Yu is like ‘ow, OW, TOO HARD’ and swims away, and Jing-wang is like >:( for two seconds before Li Yu comes back and starts swimming through his fingers again, and Jing-wang realizes he was squeezing too hard. Or later on, after Li Yu’s been living in a huge tank, Jing-wang is like ‘okay, you live in this bottle now, so i can bring you Everywhere with me’ and Li Yu has to fake being unwell so that Jing-wang realizes that the bottle is way too small to be a permanent fish residence. Very quick little empathy things, where Jing-wang gets the intended message pretty darn quickly, but he still had to be taught the lesson in the first place.

But there’s also like... also early on, Li Yu gets a side quest to steal a pearl from the headdress of the Emperor’s favorite concubine. In the process of doing so, he soaks Jing-wang in front of the Emperor, accidentally slaps the concubine in the face, freaks her out, freaks her son out, accidentally frames the two of them for trying to hurt Jing-wang’s pet fish, and knocks the pearl loose... but sends it to the floor. Fortunately, Jing-wang notices that the fish seems REAL interested in this pearl, and retrieves it, but he’s also pissed at the fish for causing so much trouble.

So what does he do? He’s like ‘OKAY. FINE. You want this pearl? Well what I’m going to do is seal this pearl TIGHT inside a glass vial, and then I’m going to put that vial RIGHT in your tank, so you can see the pearl, but you can NEVER HAVE IT’, you know, like a normal human way to treat your pet fish. Only then, Li Yu had already felt bad about causing such a big scene, and sets up a whole apology where he offers Jing-wang his food (because it’s the only thing he has) and tries bowing in apology, and Jing-wang thinks something like ‘...as long as someone was willing to deal with him sincerely, even if they were a fish, he would treat them sincerely in return’ and he gives Li Yu the pearl.

First of all, I never knew I so desperately needed a book where a man tries to play psychological games with his pet fish, second of all, Li Yu is the sketchiest “““fish””” of all time, and third, oh my god Jing-wang how sheltered are you, how do you not realize that this is nowhere in the vicinity of being normal fish behavior??

(to be fair to him, it doesn’t take him that long to realize things are suspicious, and by the thirty-somethingth chapter he has a decent hypothesis for what the fock is going on with his pet fish)

And later in the book, after he knows that this fish is at least sometimes human-shaped, I’d already been pleasantly taken by surprise (in the mtl chapters) to realize that the relationship development involved Li Yu laying down boundaries and holding Jing-wang accountable when he tried getting around them. And like with the squeezing plot point, Jing-wang is very quick to get the message that something he did made this fish/person unhappy, to realize that he doesn’t want them to be unhappy, and to make a very serious effort to change his behavior so he doesn’t make that mistake again. I just hadn’t quite connected the dots to realizing that Li Yu was coaching him through a number of basic emotional development steps even before things reached the point of sex and consent, haha

(in fairness to me, I think Li Yu is extremely oblivious to all of this. which is one of my favorite flavors of character development in fiction, honestly? i love seeing this growth that’s driven by another person, but unintentionally so, so that two people end up drifting closer and closer, and becoming more and more important to each other, without that ever being something they deliberately work towards)

And I think that the idea that Li Yu is coaching Jing-wang through the steps of emotional growth is honestly supported by the other characters in the novel. In the “original” book, Jing-wang falls in love with and marries Chu Yanyu, who very definitely is not in love with him, and is happy to let Jing-wang get hurt and suffer on his behalf, through what sounds like a very unhappy, toxic relationship. In the book we get, all it takes is a little affection and attention from a pet fish, for Jing-wang to totally ignore what should have been Chu Yanyu’s entry into his life, and for him to continue ignoring Chu Yanyu no matter how many times he’s thrown/throws himself into Jing-wang’s path.

Jing-wang does have some people who care about him, but those relationships are... either unequal, or not-mutual, or made difficult in other ways. The Emperor cares about him, but has complicated feelings, since the Empress died shortly after Jing-wang’s birth, where she was already in poor health after losing two other sons, and it seemed like her health got worse after Jing-wang was born mute. The Emperor also tries not to pay him too much attention, because he’s ineligible to inherit the throne anyways, and paying him attention would make him more of a political target. Jing-wang’s main servant, Wang Xi, cares about him deeply, and is the most reliable interpreter for his nonverbal communication, but is also a servant, not a peer. And Jing-wang’s cousin (on his mother’s side) likes him a lot, but their temperaments are highly incompatible, and Jing-wang tends to get annoyed and throw him out when he comes to visit. (the rest of his mother’s family cares about him too, but Jing-wang isn’t a social beast, and doesn’t make himself terribly accessible either)

And like, early, early in the book, at that stressful meeting where Jing-wang squeezes the fish too hard, before things get stressful, the Emperor is completely derailed from the initial purpose of the meeting, because he’s so pleased that Jing-wang has something he cares about, even if it’s just a little pet fish. He continues to be increasingly pleased with this fish as the book goes on, and it’s both hella charming, but also very :( for what it says about how detached Jing-wang was from the world for the last twenty years of his life. And as of chapter 27, Li Yu is trying to meddle with the book plot to save Jing-wang’s cousin from a scheme that will ultimately see him dead, and Jing-wang just agreed to go with his cousin to the imperial palace, to keep an eye on him. And Wang Xi is so moved by this outreach from Jing-wang that he legit tears up. 

Jing-wang is so isolated! Jing-wang is able to play politics, but he does not know how to deal with other people on a friendly social level, and Li Yu is accidentally helping him catch up! I was invested purely on the basis of ‘oh my godddd, jing-wang loves his fish so much,’ which he absolutely does, taking care of his fish is basically his number one priority, but that’s not nearly all there is to this situation! I’m so excited to read the chapters covering the initial relationship development as translated by a human, rather than a machine, because I just know there’s tasty, tasty emotional content in there. 

I could have been totally happy with a book where Jing-wang remained cold and detached with one (1) exception, and that’s a relationship paradigm I totally enjoy reading, but seeing Li Yu accidentally teach him to open up and form attachments to other people too is so rewarding and I love it! I know later on, his cousin is falling in love at the same time he is, he has more dealings with his father, and his mother’s family enters the scene here and there, and I badly need to read it. This is just the best comfort food I could have asked for right now. It’s a lovely balance of cute, moving, and absolutely ridiculous, and has character development more gripping than I could have ever expected. I love it so much, you guys ;u;