#I want 2 make this my fourth piece in the art show

[glitterhoof]

my final art project ( i am not good at realism don’t yell at me )

[incorrect-riordanverse]

It's really disheartening that Rick Riordan stance on the war I understand that he wants to be neutral on this stance but in my opinion by becoming neutral he only worsening the issue as many Palestines are dying that are mostly children, how the majority of Israeli are supporting the Genocide of Palestine, and how the government is trying so hard (but miserably failing) to justified the genocide. I will hold him accountable for what he said on this issue as during this period the choice is basically "you are with us or against us."

Part of me wishes he will realize what he said was wrong and understand the bigger issue that plays at hand. I will criticism for his actions as how can a man who promotes LGBTQIA and representation of minorities and disabilities in his books turn a blind eyes to Genocide of people. However we can only wait and see on his next move.

One last thing about your previous you said you don't group Riordan with other authors where do you would group him with? Also this is more on an opinion base answer but many people are boycotting companies that support Israel there as been another post on Twitter on boycotting authors. Rick Riordan happens to be one of them. Do you believed that he should be boycotted with other authors or he should be properly educated and apologized for his previous statement? If you believed he should be boycotted what do tou have to say to those who might have the mentality of "separate the art from the artist"

thank you for this ask, and i completely agree with you! it is extremely hypocritical of him considering what he preaches for in his books. i think he’s convinced he has properly addressed the apartheid by using very vague language that can be applied to anything, and in doing so, he’s addressed nothing really.

your first question on who i would group him with— probably other authors who are doing the exact same as him in their virtue signalling. i always like to link my other blogs to each other, so i don’t think it’s a secret that i have a red queen account and i’m pretty passionate about that. unfortunately, victoria aveyard is another fantasy author who has literally wrote a whole four-book series on the uprising against oppression but is now playing neutral in her address of the apartheid. rebecca yarros is in the same boat, although i haven’t read ‘fourth wing,’ fans have said there are large themes of oppression within the book. so if i had to group riordan it would probably be in the ‘i-like-to-write-about-it-for-profit-and-praise-only’ group.

in terms of boycotting, i think that’s a great idea! i would also like to remind everyone that the percy jackson tv show is coming out in a little over a month, but disney is a huge industry financially supporting israel as well ($2 million in funding), which is obviously far more damning than a poorly written address by one person. there is a boycott happening for disney as well— and the pjo show will be released on disney + . i implore everyone to not watch it on that platform!! personally i will be pirating it online (idk if i’ll get into trouble saying that here but lol oh well), because im pretty sure the boycott is only for withdrawing financial support, not simply consuming media.

i feel like separating art from the artist only works if that artist is… like, dead, and you’re using that art and its values as a historical insight to how the world was during its time. you can still like a piece of work that has a problematic artist, you can engage with the work (to an extent). but separating art from the artist barely works because either:

to engage with the art is to support the artist in some way, so that artist is making money based on your interaction with that (particularly in the case for singers and streaming of songs)

that artists’ views and values are so rancid that it’s literally embedded within the text itself. to ignore it is harmful.

harry potter is my all-time favourite example to use, because jkr is the scum of the earth, and her views are entrenched in her work. a lesser known example is sarah j maas and her books (she’s also not as dogshit as jkr, but then again, its not hard to be a better person than her). i’m not going to bag on these people for liking things by problematic people (would be hypocritical of me), i just think it’s cowardly not to address it when you come across it, or at least admit to it. to simply write things off as ‘separate to the artist’ is like purposefully turning off your critical thinking skills.

on whether boycotting or an apology is enough— if riordan did apologise and used specific language and not the nonsense he had in that blog, expressed his remorse for his ignorance and then actually did or said something to support the people of palestine then, yeah. that’s fine and that’s how we learn ig. but he should educate himself, too many activists, people from the arab community and especially palestinians are expected to be all-knowing and to educate everyone else on an already draining and personal tragedy. it’s been exhausting for me, i can’t imagine what they’re going through. if riordan (or anyone) needs to be educated, he should do it himself, and (at least in my opinion) i don’t think the info is very hard to find now. it’s just about weeding out the misinformation.

i think boycotting is a good idea as of now. it can serve to be a catalyst for self reflection for many people. also, as much as i hate most online discourses, talking about it online needs to happen. i don’t want these authors to forget, for a moment, about the ignorance they posted online during a time of international crisis.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Justice for Barty Crouch Jr: Part 1/2

(Part 2)

This is a bit of a weird theory, and I'll confess, some of the evidence is not all that conclusive. But I didn't see anyone mention anything about this anywhere else...

When I reread the books recently, I noticed I really liked Mad-Eye Moody in Goblet of Fire. Moody in the fourth book is actually one of my favorite characters, he makes the top 10. But then I reached Order of the Phoenix and realized (again) that I hate Moody's guts.

The only conclusion I could draw was that I really liked Barty Crouch Jr. because, Moody in book 4, wasn't really Moody. So, I went back to Goblet of Fire to try and find out who Barty is, how his behavior as Moody, differed from the real deal in the later books, and why I liked him when I didn't like the real Moody.

And let's just say, I came to some interesting conclusions...

This post ended up being pretty long, so I've divided it up into two. But my thesis is:

Barty was a Death eater, but he didn't torture the Longbottoms.

He didn't want Harry to be hurt during the Tornoment and actually cared about him.

And I can prove it!

Reasons for Doubt

When reviewing all the scenes of Barty Jr, it was made clear pretty quickly that Barty wasn't really trying to fool anyone. Actually, he seemed to be actively sabotaging himself.

“Maybe someone’s hoping Potter is going to die for it,” said Moody, with the merest trace of a growl. An extremely tense silence followed these words. Ludo Bagman, who was looking very anxious indeed, bounced nervously up and down on his feet and said, “Moody, old man ... what a thing to say!” “We all know Professor Moody considers the morning wasted if he hasn’t discovered six plots to murder him before lunchtime,” said Karkaroff loudly. “Apparently he is now teaching his students to fear assassination too. An odd quality in a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dumbledore, but no doubt you had your reasons.”

(Goblet of Fire, page 279)

From the very beginning, Barty is outright telling everyone what happened. And exactly how:

“Because they hoodwinked a very powerful magical object!” said Moody. “It would have needed an exceptionally strong Confundus Charm to bamboozle that goblet into forgetting that only three schools compete in the tournament. ... I’m guessing they submitted Potter’s name under a fourth school, to make sure he was the only one in his category. ...” “You seem to have given this a great deal of thought, Moody,” said Karkaroff coldly, “and a very ingenious theory it is — though of course, I heard you recently got it into your head that one of your birthday presents contained a cunningly disguised basilisk egg, and smashed it to pieces before realizing it was a carriage clock. So you’ll understand if we don’t take you entirely seriously. ...”

(Goblet of Fire, pages 279-280)

He goes as far as to explain how he got Harry into the tournament. To the point even Karkaroff thinks it's strange Moody would bother putting so much thought into it. And he's right, it is super strange.

Barty shouldn't be explaining that to the people he is supposedly trying to deceive. It's so incredibly revealing and counterproductive. And it's not that Barty is stupid, he shows he is both intelligent and competent to a degree it's clear that if he really wanted to not be discovered he wouldn't be (he transfigured his father's corpse to a bone and buried it in the forest when he didn't wish to be found out, clearly, he can get away with murder when he wants to). So why all of this? Why try so hard to tell them exactly what's going on? Why is he showing his hand?

It won't be out of character for Moody to not mention all of it. He could not go into as much detail easily. But, he chooses to go into detail about the very method he used to get Harry chosen for the tournament. Like he's trying to get himself caught.

“So . . . whoever conjured the Dark Mark . . .” said Hermione slowly, “were they doing it to show support for the Death Eaters, or to scare them away?” “Your guess is as good as ours, Hermione,” said Mr. Weasley. “But I’ll tell you this . . . it was only the Death Eaters who ever knew how to conjure it. I���d be very surprised if the person who did it hadn’t been a Death Eater once, even if they’re not now. . . .

(Goblet of Fire, page 143)

This is an earlier note from Hermione, and I agree with her 100%. The goal of Barty when casting the Dark Mark isn't clear. We know he is a marked Death Eater, but so are Regulus and Snape. We know not all Death Eaters agreed with everything they did, and some of them had regrets. And it's kind of interesting this idea that Barty cast the Dark Mark to scare the attackers off was planted this early in the book.

“What — what are you doing?” said Professor McGonagall, her eyes following the bouncing ferret’s progress through the air. “Teaching,” said Moody. “Teach — Moody, is that a student?” shrieked Professor McGonagall, the books spilling out of her arms. “Yep,” said Moody.

(Goblet of Fire, page 206)

I wanted to add this scene just because of the "yep" as his response to McGonagall, but this entire conversation, actually is noteworthy. Why? Well, the mannerism.

Moody whom we meet in book 5 and onwards doesn't speak or act like this. The mannerisms and speech patterns we see in this conversation are 100% Barty Crouch Jr. And this isn't the only scene in which his own mannerisms peek through because he isn't putting much effort into his act.

Here are some examples of how Moody talks in book 5, for comparison:

“Well, congratulations,” said Moody, still glaring at Ron with his normal eye, “authority figures always attract trouble, but I suppose Dumbledore thinks you can withstand most major jinxes or he wouldn’t have appointed you. . . .”

(Order of the Pheonix, page 169)

“Yeah, well,” said Moody, “there’s something funny about the Potter kid, we all know that.” “Dumbledore seemed worried about Harry when I spoke to him this morning,” whispered Mrs. Weasley. “ ’Course he’s worried,” growled Moody. “The boy’s seeing things from inside You-Know-Who’s snake. . . . Obviously, Potter doesn’t realize what that means, but if You-Know-Who’s possessing him —”

(Order of the Pheonix, page 491)

He's more gruff, more blunt, more paranoid. He isn't as gentle with Harry and Ron as Barty was (I'll showcase some of these moments later). And he shows full faith in Dumbledore's decisions. Something, Barty doesn't do even when pretending to be Moody.

Some Background

I want to talk about Barty's trial and Azkaban sentence for a bit, along with his relationship with his father as it explains a lot about him as a character...

and a boy in his late teens, who looked nothing short of petrified. He was shivering, his straw-colored hair all over his face, his freckled skin milk-white. The wispy little witch beside Crouch began to rock backward and forward in her seat, whimpering into her handkerchief. Crouch stood up. He looked down upon the four in front of him, and there was pure hatred in his face. “You have been brought here before the Council of Magical Law,” he said clearly, “so that we may pass judgment on you, for a crime so heinous —” “Father,” said the boy with the straw-colored hair. “Father . . . please . . .” “— that we have rarely heard the like of it within this court,” said Crouch, speaking more loudly, drowning out his son’s voice. “We have heard the evidence against you. The four of you stand accused of capturing an Auror — Frank Longbottom — and subjecting him to the Cruciatus Curse, believing him to have knowledge of the present whereabouts of your exiled master, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named —” “Father, I didn’t!” shrieked the boy in chains below. “I didn’t, I swear it, Father, don’t send me back to the dementors —”

(Goblet of Fire, page 594)

Does this look like a hardened Death Eater who was happy to torture the Longbottoms and proud to serve his lord?

No, this is a terrified nineteen-year-old kid who was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people.

Barty continues and calls:

“Mother!” screamed the boy below, and the wispy little witch beside Crouch began to sob, rocking backward and forward. “Mother, stop him, Mother, I didn’t do it, it wasn’t me!”

...

“No! Mother, no! I didn’t do it, I didn’t do it, I didn’t know! Don’t send me there, don’t let him!”

(Goblet of Fire, page 595)

Barty calls this as Bellatrix and the Lestranges are completely calm, taking credit for torturing the Longbottoms. Shouting at Crouch Sr, that Voldemort would return. Barty isn't doing that, he isn't the fanatic Death Eaters, he's a scared boy:

But the boy was trying to fight off the dementors, even though Harry could see their cold, draining power starting to affect him. The crowd was jeering, some of them on their feet, as the woman swept out of the dungeon, and the boy continued to struggle. “I’m your son!” he screamed up at Crouch. “I’m your son!” “You are no son of mine!” bellowed Mr. Crouch, his eyes bulging suddenly. “I have no son!” The wispy witch beside him gave a great gasp and slumped in her seat. She had fainted. Crouch appeared not to have noticed. “Take them away!” Crouch roared at the dementors, spit flying from his mouth. “Take them away, and may they rot there!” “Father! Father, I wasn’t involved! No! No! Father, please!”

(Goblet of Fire, page 596)

Barty keeps swearing he wasn't involved and that he didn't do it. that it wasn't him. Compared to how calm the three Lestranges are — it's clear something's up.

I think Barty is telling the truth here. I think he really didn't torture the Longbottoms.

Barty was still acting as a scared boy, just like in his trial, even in front of only dementors and Death Eaters, when there was no need to act. He is described by Sirius when he arrived in Azkaban:

I saw the dementors bringing him in, watched them through the bars in my cell door. He can’t have been more than nineteen. They took him into a cell near mine. He was screaming for his mother by nightfall. He went quiet after a few days, though . . . they all went quiet in the end . . . except when they shrieked in their sleep. . . .

(Goblet of Fire, page 528)

Barty was young and scared and kept to the same behavior even with no audience to convince — which means it wasn't a lie. It wasn't an act. He really didn't do it.

Sirius talks a little bit about Braty's childhood, his relationship with Crouch Sr and the events leading up to his trial:

“Crouch’s own son was caught with a group of Death Eaters who’d managed to talk their way out of Azkaban. Apparently they were trying to find Voldemort and return him to power.”

...

“Nasty little shock for old Barty, I’d imagine. Should have spent a bit more time at home with his family, shouldn’t he? Ought to have left the office early once in a while . . . gotten to know his own son.” He began to wolf down large pieces of bread. “Was his son a Death Eater?” said Harry. “No idea,” said Sirius, still stuffing down bread. “I was in Azkaban myself when he was brought in. This is mostly stuff I’ve found out since I got out. The boy was definitely caught in the company of people I’d bet my life were Death Eaters — but he might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like the house-elf.”

...

“...Crouch’s fatherly affection stretched just far enough to give his son a trial, and by all accounts, it wasn’t much more than an excuse for Crouch to show how much he hated the boy . . . then he sent him straight to Azkaban.”

(Goblet of Fire, page 528)

Barty, at the time of his trial and sentence, wasn't even for sure a Death Eater. He wasn't actually caught doing anything, he was caught with Death Eaters who escaped an Azkaban sentence, which means Death Eaters other than the Lestranges. This means he wasn't even caught on the scene of the Longbottoms torture, but somewhere else and unrelated. It proves even more that Barty was innocent regarding the torture of Frank and Alice.

We know he was a Death Eater because he could cast the Dark Mark. But, I think he wasn't involved in torturing the Longbottoms or anyone, for that matter. I don't think he had it in him before Azkaban and years of torment by his father.

The other thing of note is Crouch's treatment of his son. He was an absent father, caring more for his ministry position than his family. And we see later in GoF that Barty despises his father. I think he disliked him even before being kept under the imperious curse for years. I think that's what pushed Barty to become a Death Eater, it was something to spite his father. To create a distance between them.

His murder of his father during GoF is probably the only murder he wanted a part of. Actually, his father is the only person we know he killed. He didn't get the chance to kill the real Moody, and he never killed anyone else.

Once the boy [Barty Jr] had died, people started feeling a bit more sympathetic toward the son and started asking how a nice young lad from a good family had gone so badly astray. The conclusion was that his father never cared much for him

(Goblet of Fire, page 529)

More from Sirius that strengthens my former point. Barty joined the Death Eaters, in large to go against his father.

This vendetta against his father is the main reason I believe Barty chooses this plan to aid Voldemort. Well, there are some other reasons, but using the tournament is a good way for him to mess with his father's reputation. That same reputation that was more important to him than his own son.

As a Teacher and Mentor

A lot of fans like to say Remus Lupin was the best DADA teacher Harry had, I'd actually argue it was Moody (aka Barty). I'm saying that because Barty-as-Moody was the one who taught Harry many of the techniques and approaches he keeps going back to in the books.

The constant vigilance that saves him multiple times is from Barty, not the real Moody.

His resistance to the imperious curse.

When Harry quotes Moody in his head under certain situations for the advice he was given, it's not advice from the real Moody but from Barty:

He raised the cup to his lips and then, just as suddenly, lowered it. One of the horrible painted kittens behind Umbridge had great round blue eyes just like Mad-Eye Moody’s magical one, and it had just occurred to Harry what Mad-Eye would say if he ever heard that Harry had drunk anything offered by a known enemy

(Order of the Phoenix, page 630)

This above quote is based on Barty's advice in GoF, not the real Moody.

Barty made Harry think of becoming an auror. He was the one who convinced him he could become one:

“You ever thought of a career as an Auror, Potter?” “No,” said Harry, taken aback. “You want to consider it,” said Moody, nodding and looking at Harry thoughtfully. “Yes, indeed . . . and incidentally . . . I’m guessing you weren’t just taking that egg for a walk tonight?” “Er — no,” said Harry, grinning. “I’ve been working out the clue.” Moody winked at him, his magical eye going haywire again. “Nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas, Potter. . . . See you in the morning. . . .”

(Goblet of Fire, pages 477-478)

Barty did more for Harry's self-esteem than any other teacher.

“Now, that’s more like it!” growled Moody’s voice, and suddenly, Harry felt the empty, echoing feeling in his head disappear. He remembered exactly what was happening, and the pain in his knees seemed to double. “Look at that, you lot ... Potter fought! He fought it, and he damn near beat it! We’ll try that again, Potter, and the rest of you, pay attention — watch his eyes, that’s where you see it — very good, Potter, very good indeed! They’ll have trouble controlling you!”

(Goblet of Fire, page 232)

In the above scene, Barty is delighted by Harry's resistance of the imperious. He is so proud and fond. I already mentioned and will continue showing how Barty did very little acting when he pretended to be Moody, as such, I don't think he's pretending here either. I think he actually is delighted.

And, I mean, think about it, why would a servant loyal to Voldemort teach Harry Potter how to resist the imperius? Why would he keep practicing with him throughout the year to make sure he was good at it? Why make sure Harry knows people would want to control him and he should make it hard for them?

The only conclusion I can come to is that he is trying to help Harry from a limited position. Why and How will be discussed later.

Neville was standing alone, halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall opposite him with the same horrified, wide-eyed look he had worn when Moody had demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse. “Neville?” Hermione said gently. “Neville, what — ?” But an odd clunking noise sounded behind them, and they turned to see Professor Moody limping toward them. All four of them fell silent, watching him apprehensively, but when he spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler growl than they had yet heard. “It’s all right, sonny,” he said to Neville. “Why don’t you come up to my office? Come on . . . we can have a cup of tea. ...” Neville looked even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Moody. He neither moved nor spoke. Moody turned his magical eye upon Harry. “You all right, are you, Potter?” “Yes,” said Harry, almost defiantly. Moody’s blue eye quivered slightly in its socket as it surveyed Harry. Then he said, “You’ve got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you’ve got to know. No point pretending ... well ... come on, Longbottom, I’ve got some books that might interest you.”

(Goblet of Fire, page 219)

And he wasn't only the best DADA teacher for Harry, he was the best teacher for Neville too. He actually helped the son of the Longbottoms he was sent to Azkaban for torturing.

Just, he is the only adult attempting to build up Neville's confidence in himself and his abilities. He encourages Neville's love of Herbology and doesn't ridicule him like most other adults in Neville's life.

Also in the above quote, he clearly wants to tell Harry more. "but you’ve got to know", he says. He is trying to prepare Harry for what's to come. Why would he do that if he wants him dead?

As a Defender of Harry

To continue off Barty actually steps up to defend Harry a lot throughout the book. Even at times, he won't necessarily have to. I mean, the real Moody was never this protective of Harry. Sure, he kept him safe, but he didn't really care for Harry's feelings and self-esteem. Barty did.

“Yeah, that’s Harry Potter,” said a growling voice from behind them. Professor Karkaroff spun around. Mad-Eye Moody was standing there, leaning heavily on his staff, his magical eye glaring unblinkingly at the Durmstrang headmaster. The color drained from Karkaroff’s face as Harry watched. A terrible look of mingled fury and fear came over him

(Goblet of Fire, page 258)

He's scaring Karkaroff and the Durmstrang students away from Harry. The moment before this quote had the Durmstrang students and Karkaroff noticing Harry for the first time as they were leaving the Great Hall on the day they arrived at Hogwarts. They all freeze and stare at Harry, knowing his story and probably about to ask him questions, it's not like Karkaroff would've done anything in the Great Hall. But Moody (Barty) steps in to fend off Harry's discomfort! Hes not even in actual physical danger! Just discomfort!

Harry hesitated. He’d been afraid of this — but he hadn’t told Cedric, and he certainly wasn’t going to tell Moody, that Hagrid had broken the rules. “It’s all right,” said Moody, sitting down and stretching out his wooden leg with a groan. “Cheating’s a traditional part of the Tri-wizard Tournament and always has been.” “I didn’t cheat,” said Harry sharply. “It was — a sort of accident that I found out.” Moody grinned. “I wasn’t accusing you, laddie. I’ve been telling Dumbledore from the start, he can be as high-minded as he likes, but you can bet old Karkaroff and Maxime won’t be. They’ll have told their champions everything they can. They want to win. They want to beat Dumbledore. They’d like to prove he’s only human.”

(Goblet of Fire, pages 343-344)

Moody is glad Harry knows about the dragons, and that could be explained by wanting him to win so he could get to the graveyard (that plan had so many problems in it that I'll get to later) but that isn't the only thing he reveals here. He calls out Dumbledore and his attitude. He shows his dislike towards Dumbledore and his moral flexibility regarding cheating - two things the real Moody will never say. And he would definitely not phrase them like this. This whole conversation — that's all Barty.

Barty, who is actually encouraging Harry and belittling Dumbledore.

That sentence about proving Dumbledore's human, I think Barty shares that feeling. He agrees with the other headmasters on that. Even if he hates Karkaroff's guts.

Because he actually does hate all the Death Eaters that got away genuinely, but not for the same reasons as, let's say, Bellatrix. Bellatrix dislikes them for their lack of loyalty to their lord; Barty hates them out of envy.

Barty was sent to Azkaban for his mark even if he never tortured or killed anyone. And these other Death Eaters, ones he might know killed or tortured, got out scott-free. He was fought alongside them and still sent to the dementors instead of being let go. And he is bitter.

Also, important to remember, that a year in Azkaban and then twelve years under the Imperius curse didn't leave him unscathed. He is not mentally or emotionally well or anything close to it when we meet him in the books.

“Well, I’m not going to tell you,” said Moody gruffly. “I don’t show favoritism, me. I’m just going to give you some good, general advice. And the first bit is — play to your strengths.” “I haven’t got any,” said Harry, before he could stop himself. “Excuse me,” growled Moody, “you’ve got strengths if I say you’ve got them. Think now. What are you best at?”

(Goblet of Fire, page 344)

I love this scene. Like, this is the first ever time an adult with authority, a teacher, tells Harry how great he is. I talked about the fact Harry is clever and magically powerful but has really low self-esteem. And Barty actually argues with him. Bart (as Moody) makes him believe he could become something. That he has things he is good at.

One of this book's antagonists is the first person to tell Harry he has strengths. That's just all levels of messed up.

It shows Barty Crouch Jr actually does more for Harry's emotional well-being than any other professor he had. More than McGonagall, more than Lupin. Actually, the only adult who tries to help Harry with more care than Barty, is Sirius Black, Harry's godfather. It's just insane that Barty, a Death Eater, actually understood Harry and went out of his way to help with his insecurities and make him comfortable more than Molly Weasley did.

Now, let's talk about the Farret Incident because it's interesting too. both regarding his defense of Harry and his hatred of the Death Eaters that got away.

“I don’t think so!” roared Moody, pointing his wand at the ferret again — it flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upward once more. “I don’t like people who attack when their opponent’s back’s turned,” growled Moody as the ferret bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain. “Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do. ...”

(Goblet of Fire, page 205)

Barty steps in to defend Harry because he does it a lot. It's why I placed this moment in this section. One would expect someone who wants Harry to die to not mind if he was cursed a bit, it's not like Draco was about to kill him, but no, he defends him even when no one sees him there.

But specifically in this incident, I want to mention how personal he gets about this. Barty's disdain towards the Death Eaters that escaped Azkaban is very real and very dangerous to Draco. He's furious they didn't need to spend a year in hell on earth only to then be enslaved by a curse for 12 years by their father who kept them like a dirty secret in the basement.

As I mentioned above, I don't think Barty is mentally sound, but I think he genuinely cares about Harry and didn't torture the Longbottoms.

In the next post, I go through the final scene of Barty in the book, and explain the whole plan Barty had.

Part 2 >>

[lovemyths]

hear me out: zosan pro wrestling au

i'm a huge wrestling fangirl and i've been thinking about how zosan really fits into this. let me lay out my argument:

pro wrestling is a mix of sports + theater/entertainment right? so while there is a sports element, pro wrestling has storylines, characters, and wrestlers engage in more dialogue-based scenes (promos) outside of the ring. HOWEVER pro wrestling as an art form has the blurriest fourth wall EVER. they often blend reality and fiction. things in storyline are represented as Real. but more often or not, Reality is brought into storyline. a big example of this is that when 2 wrestlers dislike each other irl, good business practice is to turn it into a storyline. so a feud can be a mix of fictional elements mixed with real animosity. MESSY!!

also because it's scripted, everyone in the match/storyline has to agree. which means you have to be willing to lose, or "put someone over" (make them look good). obvs if there's real beef between 2 wrestlers the politics of that can get testy

similar to acting wrestling has CHEMISTRY. it's very clear when 2 wrestlers just click in the ring. in fact there is a term called wrestling soulmates, which people use to describe a pair of wrestlers who simply bring out the best in each other naturally.

so. zosan.

often rivalries have a babyface (hero) and a villain (heel). i have so many one piece pro wrestling au Opinions and scenarios, but my ideal one for zosan is:

it takes place in the indies. babyface!sanji (nicknamed black leg) and heel!zoro come up in the business around the same time. they wrestle for different promotions (companies; side note: indie wrestlers are not contracted like in wwe so they can wrestle wherever whenever) for several years before they so happen to be booked for the same show. because they're both rising stars, they are scheduled for a match together. they're already familiar with each other's work, but there's an immediate tension there bc they are both trying to be The Indie Wrestler of their era. and their personalities clash. they clash a LOT while planning the layout of their match together.

but when they get in the ring, it's magic. inexplicably it's as smooth as butter when they wrestle each other.

which is good for both their careers, but also bad, because they hate each other and now companies all over the country want to book them together. so they're stuck in a storyline together, and unfortunately, it's the best work they've done in their careers so far. the wrestling is great, and their promos against each other are heated and leave crowds coming back for more beause they can't tell what's real or not. backstage though they get along like cats and dogs, especially when it comes to deciding who wins each match + how they can still look strong in defeat. the bookers don't mind they're both such divas because they put on a damn good match whenever the bell rings

but obvs working so closely together leads to bonding anyways, not to mention the intimacy of wrestling as a sport. some wrestling rivalries last multiple years, or decades, and rivals often are forced to team up for storyline purposes to.

what i'm saying is that maybe their storyline ends up leading to them being a tag team and going on the run of the century. maybe sanji turns heel and they're just an evil wrestling duo wreaking havoc around the country (they're both nice people irl).

i have a gajillion thoughts on this but i will stop here.

[sketchmre]

do you have a favorite piece of venture maidens fanart you've drawn???

This is a great question! Honestly, I've been wanting to make a environmental piece with whimsy, food, and fashion, for like.. 2 years? when thats done it will probably be my favorite piece LMAO but for the time being? let me go through my venture maidens folder

read more break because im going to be going on and on

This applies to most aspects of my life, but I don't really have a top "favorite" thing in most areas! I mean, Madoka Magica Rebellion is my favorite movie (very closely rivaled by Coraline), but that's an outlier. In every other case, I have a collection of my favorites with one coming out on top depending on how I'm feeling that day.

It's also influenced by eras, I think. I don't want to compare my most recent art to my venture maiden 2020 art, because I've improved and will prefer my newer style. However, there's still a sense of nostalgia and homeliness to some of my old art that can bring it above the rest, you know?

Going through my venture maiden campaign 1 folder, here's probably my favorites:

These two are from 9/3/20 ("sawYEAH.png") and 11/23/22 ("arent you tired of being nice.png"). I think Sawyeh's relatively simple design has always lend itself well to gesture drawing, especially with the relatively simple silhouette shape. Theyre just fun :) I like them a lot.

I don't know if I'd rank a lot of my campaign 1 art among my favorites, not because I think less of the campaign but because a lot of that time period was me feeling my way into an art style. I see it as the time period after I started feeling confident in my art, but before I kind of became the "unique facial features and color jitter" artist.

For fun (and food), here's some of my unposted campaign 1 stuff.

10/23/20 and 10/27/20 (gidget and vlad, back when i was drawing in paint tool sai!)

1/2/21, 1/5/21, 6/18/21 || 1/6/21 (put out of order because i like this image composition more).

Here's some 2020 (and 2019, apparently?) photoshop files! I like some more than others. None of them have previews since they're photoshop files, so I'm opening them blind in krita. Note the layers/colors may seem off, it's probably because the clipping masks and editing layers break between programs.

8/12/19, 8/21/20, 8/31/20 || 9/5/20 || 10/23/20, 10/23/20, 10/28/20 || 11/4/20

From 10/21/20, technically in 2020 but close to 2021. I think it's unique because it starts to show a shift to more.. unique concepts, I guess? It was of a water elemental who uses an ice mask to mimic having a face. It's cool, I should revisit it.

3/17/21, 3/18/21

I think that's pretty much it for the art while campaign 1 was going on. Here's some post-campaign 1 stuff from 2023 that maybeee got put on the discord?

8/16/23, 8/25/23.

GREAT now I'm moving on to campaign 2.

My favorite? My favorite piece of artwork so far? It's of a one-off npc, the garlic princess. I was studying old strawberry shortcake designs for her. It was a lot of fun.

9/10/23

My other favorites? Probably any art of Tandy

1/2/23 || 1/2/23

I also really enjoy these unfinished sketches: the first being a wildes-influenced lu, inspired by butterflies and gemstones; the second being Toni and a Wyrd sister ("thats no angel.png"); the third being halloween outfit designs; and the fourth being aoife and toni going clubbing in the wildes;

7/11/21, 10/11/22, 9/2/23 || 1/26/24

As for unposted sketches? Oh boy, I've got a lot more for this campaign. So much that I have reached the image limit per post, whoops. I'll add them in a reblog.

[exactly-another-one-piece-blog]

Random question. Do you ever feel guilty about supporting One Piece?

It's something I've been going back and fourth on lately since October because of the BDS movement. Like I love the story so much (Luffy is best boy), but I stopped supporting so many other things this year because I cannot condone seperating art from the artist when the artist is literally making the world worse for people to live in. For example, like how supporting JKR means her money will probably go to anti-trans organizing at some point. I'm trying to figure out if this is something that deserves the same level of treatment.

I don't know. One Piece has a lot of issues and I don't love that he stood up for the author of Ruroni Kenshin.

But I'd genuinely love to hear your thoughts. Sorry for this long ask.

Okay so I’m going to answer this completely honestly. I am just hearing of both of those things right now in this ask.

I generally try not to seek out information of an author/artists personal life or get attached to them as people because 1) I want to appreciate the art for what it is and not let my feelings of the artist color my opinion of the art itself 2) I feel like it’s asking to be let down at some point. Even if it’s not a JKR situation sometimes artists just can’t capture the same spark twice or their work varies so much. For example, the Percy Jackson series holds a special place in my heart but I was very disappointed with the TV show despite Disney using author Rick Riordan’s involvement as a kind of seal of approval because the show fundamentally misunderstood several key plot points and characters. And I saw how people defended the show with their LIVES even as this became apparent because they would not allow anyone to question “Uncle Rick’s Vision”.

So I guess to answer your question: no. I enjoy One Piece without guilt but I admit I’m not exactly looking my for skeleton’s in Oda’s closet that might change that.

[seffien]

okay. i know this is a lot of things highlighted and I had more but these ones I was the most clueless about and very curious ???!!!!???? color pulse in Octo expansion bad ending I am most curious bout

again. sorry i highlighted a lot I just… gotta absorb the sploon information I gotta

no problem

'when i die i want my team to lower me into my grave so they can let me down one last time' - a popular meme/miiverse post in the community complaining about teammates. it resonates with me.

'octo-kraken' - if one were to hack themselves to be an octoling and use the kraken special, the lower tentacles of the kraken would be curly!

'4 and 8 in rotm' - concept art in the artbook shows that 4 and 8 were supposed to make a return in 3's story mode but, for whatever reason, didn't. i guess the idea was scrapped, which is super unfortunate

splatoon tumblr disappearance and octo oven origins

'do not go in' - in the music that plays after the blender is completed, speaking can be heard. in reality, it's a new years countdown played backwards, but it sounds like 'do not go in', which is really, really eerie

'toni kensa identity' - there's an interview out there with the guy himself, but we still don't know much about him. we just know that he's an inkling and, well, a he.

'great zapfish flying' - sometimes, when you'd boot up the game or leave the lobby, the great zapfish would fly around the lobby and make its funny little noise. in splatoon 3, though, the zapfish is seemingly completely stationary.

'pearl's electrocution' - apparently, pearl was electrocuted when she blew out the speakers at that singing contest, was electrocuted in the process, and had her growth stunted. ...or at least, she would've, if that info wasn't just a mistranslation. at least i think it is. im very profressional.

'glenna' - an alternate name for paruko/harmony before her actual name was revealed. i have 0 idea where it came from, but it was used in the siivagunner community since she was called that in the KFAD (king for a day) tournament.

'rocket announcements' <- click for more info, although it does kinda contain splatoon 3 spoilers. i find this super creepy because...uh...

'bisk's girlfriend' - the 6th sunken scroll in splatoon 2 features bisk embracing another spider crab in a dress, confirmed in a developer interview to be his ex-girlfriend. i guess i can remove that question mark now.

'koloktos' - from the trivia section of museum d'alfonsio's inkipedia page: These laughter sounds have been present in other Nintendo games, such as upon defeating the boss Koloktos in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

'sentient idols' - not only do the idols sometimes break the fourth wall for comedic effect, but from another interview: ...it just might be that during those moments of Splatfest, they may have an occasional inkling that they are characters in some sort of a virtual space in the world of a video game.

'no.9'

'color pulse in octo expansion bad ending' - in the bad ending of octo expansion, a faint melody can be heard during the cutscene that plays. turns out, its a broken reprise of color pulse. there is a video, but i'm not going to link it because i want to sleep tonight and i imagine you do too.

judd mask - unused piece of gear that, strangely enough, appears in splatoon 2's salmon run employee handbook

'inklings on the moon' - in splatoon 2 (idk if its visible in 3), the moon is sometimes visible, and apparently, people saw that there was a little squid mark on it, leading to theories that inklings went to the moon before. here's a fun little video from rizirone covering the theory.

[fishylife]

I watched this documentary series on the making of Creation of the Gods. These are just my reactions to it and not a synopsis.

Episode 1

It's cool seeing just how many people were involved in the making of this movie(s)

The writer Ran Jia'nan was saying that they had to cut out stuff from the story that might not have made sense (to a wider audience) or perhaps was not so relevant to the main plot, and the example she used was that when Ji Chang threw up the bits of Bo Yikao that he had eaten, those pieces became rabbits. After a long time of mulling it over they decided to cut that from the story.

The actors had to learn to ride horses, combat, archery.

Training montage!!!!!

Most of those chosen had not performed professionally so they needed to train in acting and performing too.

Their first lesson was in drums. Not sure how to put it into words, but basically the teacher said that drums are an instrument that can match our pulse, and that in battle, the rhythm at which we fight is the rhythm of our pulse. That's kind of hype, they look cool.

Second lesson was combat but they also had to work out a lot too.

Third lesson was horseback riding.

Rad that one of their trainers is like, a cowboy lol.

Not only did they train in horse riding, but horse riding while fighting.

Fourth lesson was culture/history class, including a classical Chinese education. Probably to give them a deeper appreciation and understanding of the characters and story.

Wuershan was more focused on whether the actors could relate to their characters.

Ji Fa's clothes look so good.

The scenes when Ji Fa was riding back home in the end of the first movie were filmed in Xinjiang. Those scenes were sooo good.

I appreciate that Wuershan wanted a very foxlike Daji and had Naran study fox behaviour. She watched fox videos but also went to the zoo to watch foxes :3

Speaking of Naran, I think she trained to be fluent in Mandarin for this movie which is so amazing :3

Daji's appearance right after she is possessed by the demon is so...wow. The long hair, the flowing robes. She didn't die in those clothes, but as the fox it's like, a little primitive. She's wearing very basic robes. She is not the original Daji, that's for sure.

The guys pumping in preparation for the dance scene :P

The dance performance was shot in one go! :3

They're literally rewatching and admiring their muscles here lol

Episode 2

The concept art is so cool. Wuershan emphasized the good vs evil battle so the one with the very clear yin-yang outline probably emphasized that the best.

The process by which they decided on the aesthetic for this movie series was interesting. Investiture of the Gods is based on a very ancient time, but the novel itself was written in the Ming Dynasty. Add to that the mythical elements that should in theory transcend time. What do you get? In the end, they went for a 70% 水陸畫 style (which is an artistic style and not a time period) and 30% 殷商 (which refers to the Yin and Shang dynasties), plus a bit of Song Dynasty 山水 art style (which I guess is referring to that style of landscape/nature art).

Wuershan really liked a mural that was in Yongle Gong and wanted the aesthetics of the movie to emulate that style.

Concept art for the outfits. According to Wuershan, in the Shang Dynasty, white was considered a regal colour.

Empress Jiang and her family were from the east, by the ocean, so that was why they wore blue.

The duke from the south was thought to have come from a hot place, so that was why he wore red robes.

The northerners wore gray, as their lands were thought to be kind of...vast and gray.

Then lastly the folks from the west, including Ji Chang, wore yellow, though here of course it looks more like a muted yellow, a brown. Anything too bright and it would remind people too much of an emperor.

So the team put effort into fleshing out the world, even though we only saw a bit of it (at least in the first movie). But it kind of shows how ambitious Wuershan is about making this an "epic" movie series, not in the sense that it's super great, but in the sense that this is a big world with a lot going on. Even though this movie wasn't even that long, I did feel that sense of magnitude, that there were a lot of things going on even if we were just focused on the top.

Bo Yikao <3

Hell yeah Yang Jian in front of the blue screen

It's interesting that Wuershan is so involved in every aspect of the movie. He was discussing clothing materials with Tim Yip. He is the director, but I think he's just really passionate about the world he's building and he wants it to be as immersive as possible.

Naran's interpretations of her outfits was interesting. When she was still the real Su Daji, she was dressed in furs, and it gave a feeling of being protected and loved by her family. When she was possess by the fox demon, she wore a very thin purple outfit. She wore it while in the dead of winter, and it would give people a feeling that something was off. Then she wore a bright red outfit when she was dancing and it represented ambition. In the last scene of the first movie when Daji revived Yin Shou, Daji wore another very thin dress, this time in pink. Naran felt that at that time, Daji sincerely cared for Yin Shou (whether it was "love" or not is another question), so she would have been sad at seeing him dead. And so Naran associated pink with sadness.

Kris Phillips was raving about Tim Yip's outfits for Yin Shou in this part :P

Oh this is cool I think they are sculpting Lei Zhenzi here.

And other monsters.

The concept artist Siji said that he appreciated that the concept artists were given enough time to develop and create the concept art.

I didn't even realize the fox demon had different forms. Siji was explaining that initially, the fox demon was more ghost-like, and only began to develop a form after eating enough people.

Hell yeah more monsters

So we move on to the set and Wuershan puts just as much detail into building the set, which is very understandable. If your set is lame then it doesn't matter how beautiful your costumes are tbh. They went so far as to discuss the patterns of the beams, and what kinds of visual motifs would be on them.

Tim Yip was explaining how some of the structures they came up with would never have existed in history. But they did it for the aesthetics lol.

For some of the fight scenes, they did the storyboard by animating it in 3d because it would be easier to work with. In the example shown, the camera was constantly rotating around the character so I imagine that it would have been difficult to explain the constant motion of the camera with a normal drawn storyboard.

We got to the animation of Lei Zhenzi. The animator did a 360 view of what he would look like, and then another view where he would be carrying Ji Chang on his back, which he pointed out probably would not work if the wings were also on his back.

It looks like the entire movie was created in that Previz 3d animation system. Which makes sense. There's a lot that goes into filming and you might as well get a feel for the scenes, so that you can see if they actually deliver the intended impact.

Wu Yibei who I think is a special effects producer was talking about Lei Zhenzi. Basically it was really important for them to get all of the details of Lei Zhenzi right because he was going to be an important character in the second and third movies, and would interact with actors, would have feelings, etc.

This is super cool, this seems to be concept art for how Lei Zhenzi would have grown, how his wings would have developed as he grew up from a baby to an adult.

I saw this from another video that interviewed a special effects advisor for the movie. Douglas Smith had mentioned that Wuershan didn't really want Lei Zhenzi to be like a bird or a bat, and in the end, they settled for more of a fish feeling to Lei Zhenzi. Wuershan says this too in this documentary series.

Other than the physics of Lei Zhenzi's flight, I thought it was neat that Wuershan and the animators were discussing how his lightning powers would look like.

Wuershan had called up Han Pengyi and asked him if he'd wanted to be China's Andy Serkis lol. Han Pengyi served as the motion capture actor for Lei Zhenzi.

Oh wow Wuershan and Han Pengyi actually met Serkis and got to ask him about motion capture acting :o

So apparently when they animated Lei Zhenzi they hadn't really animated him blinking so Douglas Smith and team were figuring out how they could make use of other skin around Lei Zhenzi's eyes to express certain emotions.

Episode 3

Wow the craftspeople are carving the parts of the set by hand.

Look at this!!! Even just the concept art is amazing.

Wuershan did a lot of studying on the Lord of the Rings and consulted people who worked on that which is cool.

There was a discussion where Wuershan was discussing how the Lord of the Rings used more practical effects (in this case having a bunch of extras actually fighting in a battle) whereas by the time the Hobbit came around, they didn't consider this option anymore.

They spent a lot of time explaining how they came to film Shen Gong Bao's scene in which his head came apart from his body.

This was super blurry so I'm not going to screencap it but Ji Chang's actor Li Xuejian said "兒子演得不錯" and Wuershan patted Yu Shi's head in a 'did you hear that?' kind of way Yu Shi was all like humble like "noooo i'm not" hehe.

Apparently it was Father's day so Yu Shi wished Wuershan and Wang Yu a Happy Father's day lol.

They were trying to shoot a shot of five of the warriors on horseback jumping over a hurdle, while the horses were blindfolded. I'm not sure why the horses were blindfolded tbh but it was difficult because of that and the fact that they wanted the horses to jump together. Looked awesome though. And they got fistbump from one of the trainers for getting it done in two takes.

Taking care of the horses after a hard day's work.

Yu Shi explained that when they first started learning to ride horses, they were paired with any horse. After they got the hang of it, they were paired with a specific horse so that they could build a good relationship, and the actors would have to care for that horse too.

Ji Fa's character especially had a special relationship with his horse because he was a gift from his family and a symbol of home. And we saw them filming the scene near the end of the first movie where his horse was trying to get him to wake up so that they could go home.

Archery was something that challenged Yu Shi a lot so he practised it a lot and watched videos of archers.

Check out this diagram lol. I think they were trying to explain the setting to Gordy Haab who worked on the music.

We saw Gordy checking out Chinese artifacts and listening to Chinese music. Yu Fei who was a music producer said that he had a good deal of interest in the culture.

It looks like they're having some musicians play outside at one of the sites? I'm not sure if they were actually playing though.

The male bass singers were very cool. Are they throat singing?

Looks like they're playing scenes from the movie on the screen

Me, an ex-oboist, doing the Dicaprio pointing meme to these oboists

Wuershan is a fan of Penderecki. I don't know this composer so I had to look him up.

Wuershan delivering flowers to the various cast members :3

What a fun series!!!! I have some other behind the scenes videos to watch relating to this movie so I am excited :3

[antigone-ks]

Finally got inspired to write something again. Did I finish any of my WIPs? Of course not. Anyway, this is a scene from the Lantern-of-Evil-verse that just doesn't fit anywhere else.

Affirmation

You've never asked before, not of anyone. What if the answer was no? Worse, what if they were annoyed and decided you were too needy, to desperate, too much? If they weren't going to say it, you weren't going to prompt them. Mostly, they didn't say it.

You didn't ask Steve, either. He does say it, though, at least once a day when he's able to - when he's home, or isn't in such deep cover he can't have a phone. It's the last thing he says at night, curled up around your little spoon, your head tucked up against the base of his throat, your back to his chest so you can feel it rumbling through you like a little earthquake. He says it over the phone when he's away on a mission or just at the compound, voice soft, floating down the line like a leaf on a stream.

He says it without words, a hug from behind, a kiss to your temple, a hip check while you're standing in the big communal kitchen listening to Tony and Rhodey bicker (Rhodey’s right. Rhodey's always right and Tony just argues to hear himself.) It's him taking your hand, lips quirked, after he's heard the third version of Shostakovich's Waltz #2 leak from your earbuds (you keep it low, but he can pick up almost anything above a 2) and figures you want to dance. It's the way he still has to count out a waltz, but does it anyway.

It's Steve personally calling a newspaper publisher, getting hung up on because they didn't believe he was, like, him, then getting an AI PR rep to call back through official channels, after their online edition ran a picture of the two of you at a gallery in the city, one so small neither of you expected to be noticed. You hadn't bothered to be cautious, and the pic showed his hand curled around your hip, your heads bent together. Blatant it might have been, but a solid 90% of commenters insisted you and Steve were just friends, obviously (“my god how could anyone infer romance from that pose?”). Or no, you were his assistant, just professionally cuddled up to Captain America (“it's true I saw her in the background of an avengers event pic talking to Pepper Potts, so obviously she works with them”). Or no, you were just a random art lover, and Steve was kindly explaining something about the piece in front of you - which launched a tangent about whether the commenters would tolerate mansplaining from Captain America, and if putting his arm around a stranger was creepy. You were semi-gratified to see a reasonable consensus of no for the first and yes for the second, and more hurt than you'd admit to anyone by the much-larger consensus that Steve would definitely never have a woman who looked like you. But around the fourth time you refreshed the page to torture yourself with new comments, the story disappeared, and Nat told you later that Steve had used his Captain-America-Is-Disappointed voice to tell the publisher that if they ever ran an unauthorized pic, ever published your name or information, ever allowed personal comments, Steve would personally make sure that no publication owned by their group would be allowed into an Avengers event or interview ever again. (Nat then took great pleasure in describing his Captain-America-Will-Rip-Off-Your-Head-And-Shit-Down-Your-Neck voice when the publisher proved to be a little recalcitrant).

That led to the second time he suggested you move in together, into one of the single-family homes for AI personnel that Tony was building on the other side of the lake. The two of you could have it designed just for yourselves, with anything you'd want. “You could have a pantry,” he’d crooned right into your ear as he held you stretched out on top of him. “A big, big pantry. Full Wilder,” and honestly, that was him saying it just as obviously as if he used the words, because how else would he have paid attention to your 30-minute info dump about Laura Ingalls Wilder's custom-made pantry? “A cold cellar too,” he added, and you could have married him right then just for remembering.

So you know he does. You don't have to ask. But because you know, you can.

He's sitting on the couch, watching teams he doesn't actually care about (you asked him how he felt about the Dodgers these days; he made an uncategorizable noise, but he watches every game), and makes a quizzical sound when you clamber into his lap, straddling him and resting your head on his shoulder. “You okay there, pretty girl?” he asks, more amused than concerned, arms already wrapping around you.

You nod and nuzzle in. “D’you lumme?”

He huffs a laugh, and squeezes tight. “Yeah. I lummu.”

[sapphosewrites]

It's time again for my one true love... an ask game. Thank you for the tag @o0anapher0o! This is one I have done before and I am sure as hell not going to let that stop me from talking about myself.

How many works do you have on AO3?

143! The next big milestone will be 150 if I ever post again lol

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

436,802 holy cow that is a lot of words.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

It's DS9 all day over here right now! I have also written for Good Omens, Queen's Thief, Tales of Symphonia, and Next Gen and Lower Decks.

4. Top 5 Fics By Kudos

I'm always interested in if the answer to this has changed, because sometimes it does in unexpected ways. Confess Nothing always tops the list, but this time it's only ahead by 2 with All's Fair in Love, War, and Show Business close behind. I'm really surprised to see Personnel Review in third place, because Garak doesn't even personally show up in that one and I always got the sense TNG was much less popular. Fourth place is Lost in Translation, which is not at all surprising. But fifth place does surprise me: It Isn't Perfect (But It's Ours)! Those Good Omens fics really snuck up there while I wasn't looking. (I think Season 2 release, even if I haven't posted anything new, did drive a spike in that fandom.)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to and I want to but there are 200 unread comments in my inbox right now and I simply have too much ADHD to deal with that, and then I don't respond to new ones because it's overwhelming and the problem is self-perpetuating. I've read them all in my email notifications, and they've made me smile and laugh and experience great joy! But I am overwhelmed about the idea of trying to reply.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Last time I answered this I hadn't ever written something with an angsty ending, but now with certainty I can say it's Like a pain, the truth is mine in the Terok Nor AU, which is all about Garak's developing addiction to the wire and exploration of self-harm to trigger it. Second place goes to I'd Like to Give Up Now and When All Kindness Has Gone. The interesting thing about all of these, though, is that they exist within the larger framework of what the reader already knows will happen next in canon, which is Garak will survive and make connections with others on the station and it isn't the end of the world that it feels like for him. So does that still count?

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Not coincidentally, I'd probably say it's my two most kudos'd DS9 fics, Confess Nothing and Lost in Translation.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

The closest I've ever come to hate is someone commenting that I had a major tonal shift in the middle of a piece of writing, and they were correct. I have found the fandom to be incredibly kind, supportive, and generous.

9. Do you write smut?

SO once upon a time the answer to this was no but now we are inching our way towards a yes. I made a sock puppet account where I could experiment with writing more explicitly (it's lovely to have so many user subscriptions but also feels like a lot of pressure) and what I've found is there's simply not much more explicit that I'll go, but I'm trying.

10. Craziest crossover

The entirety of Thief Space 9, and of those specifically probably Spaceships and Gods.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. Again, lovely fandom, beautiful people! I also have a standing policy that my works are a sandbox anyone can play in, so I have had remixes and things inspired by my work, but that's done with full permission and people bringing their own creative twists.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, that's the last thing outstanding on my 'bucket list', so to speak! My dreams were to have my fic inspire art, other fic, podfic, and translation, and we've achieved all but the last.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes and I'm a very bad co-author because there's a fic that's sat unfinished for actual literal years now and I'm not doing my part to finish it.

14. All time favorite ship?

I think I have an all-time favorite ship dynamic, which is any ship where one character could with both deep love and complete sincerity say to the other "I hate you, you're the worst person I know" as a form of foreplay.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I fear we're living in a world where I never finish anything ever again, but in particular there's one fic I posted to aforementioned sock puppet account specifically because I thought it might get permanently abandoned and I didn't want people knowing it was me if that happened because I am a coward

16. What are your writing strengths?

You know, the answer to this has changed! It used to just be dialogue, but now I'd like to think it's also my willingness to experiment with form/format and use even little moments to poke at big questions.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Look, I'm never going to be a writer of lush descriptions. We've come a long way, but settings are actually the worst.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Hasn't changed- translate it if your POV character would understand it, leave it untranslated if they wouldn't. The point of how you write is to communicate information and convey emotion and whatever else to your audience, not to show off your conlang abilities.

19. First fandom you wrote in?

I think I've shared this before, but I wrote a self-insert ship fic with Shadow the Hedgehog for my older sibling for Sonic Adventure 2 Battle when I was far too young.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I can't answer this. This is a cruel question. Um, at this exact moment in time, possibly Comparative Literature?

Well, there's more information than anyone wanted or needed, but now you have it! You all should do it too so I look slightly less narcissistic. @hellostuffedtiger @ectogeo-rebubbles @ernmark but also you know, anyone who wants to! Whenever I have to tag I immediately forget every single person who exists on this website.

[artpo]

fic stats meme

Rules: Give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most bookmarks, fourth most comments, fifth most words, and your fic with the least amount of words.

thank you so much for the tag bestie @b1uetrees <3

i haven't written much and i'm working on things, slowly, but here goes:

Most hits: Under the lights tonight, KinnPorsche (Pt.1 of KP meet-cute in a club series)

“You were staring.” Tay crosses his arms. Kinn shakes his head. “No. We just happened to have awkward eye contact, that’s all.” “You’ve been checking him out ever since we got back from the car,” Tay says. “No, I have been looking around in general.” “Oh Kinn, cut the crap. He’s hot, you were looking and that’s completely normal,” Time says. Tay nods. “Yeah, this is a night out. You’re bound to meet a handsome stranger. You should dance with him!”

Second most kudos: Lights on, KinnPorsche (Pt.2 of KP meet-cute in a club series)

Each time they meet, Porsche’s proximity feels like a short season that melts away before Kinn notices. But Kinn knows there is something there. Physically, he was always left wanting more. Emotionally, maybe he did too. Porsche enchanted him under the lights of the club, but Kinn wants to desire him with the lights on too. What scares him is that he also enjoys getting to know him. He is delighted by each new discovery of what makes him smile, what he does, what makes him tick.

Third most bookmarks: World In My Eyes, KinnPorsche

“As if you know anything about me.” Kinn scoffs and shakes his head. "I'll tell ya what. Let me get to know you. Starting tomorrow, we have seven days.” Porsche grins, resembling a kid that just shared his newest idea with their parent. He holds out a hand for Kinn. “Okay. Show me the world through your eyes, Porsche.” Kinn takes Porsche’s hand and shakes it. “And you show me the world through yours, Kinn.” Porsche squeezes his hand and Kinn thinks he might be blushing for the first time in a while. Or Porsche is an artist who saved up his whole life to travel to Italy and see the art pieces he's only ever seen in books in his room in Bangkok. Being an orphan with a tough childhood and a younger brother to take care of, he didn't dare to go, but his loved ones urged him to do something for himself. Kinn is a CEO who wants to expand his hotel chain business to Rome. They meet on a bus from Florence to Rome and decide to spend their free time together in Rome to experience the life through each others' eyes. Where will this journey take them?

Fifth most words: You can run away with me anytime you want, KinnPorsche

"Porsche...I don't want to go back to the life that I didn't choose." "Kinn..." Porsche looked at him sadly, still searching for the right words to comfort him. There was a deep sorrow in Kinn's eyes. Suddenly confidence overtook him, he wanted to open up again, to share his intruding thoughts with Porsche while he still could, while he still dared to hope. His eyes were burning with determination. Porsche kept studying him in wonder. "Porsche...run away with me." Kinn looked him dead in the eyes, making it clear to Porsche that he was not joking in the slightest. Like before, Porsche was tense. His leg was shaking uncontrollably, and his lips formed a tight line. He shook his head. "You know we can't, Kinn." ... Episode 6 but before Kinn lets Porsche go, he proposes they run away together. Also includes Kinn's POV of the conversation they had when they were stuck in the pit.

Least amount of words: Let me take care of you again, KinnPorsche

Chay fiddles with the hem of his sweater. “I have been thinking. I want you to quit this job.” Porsche stiffens. “Chay…I…it’s…” “I know what you are going to say…It’s good money, it can pay for my university fee. But I don’t care. I don’t want you to go back there.” Chay looks at Porsche. His lips are in a tight line and his leg starts shaking again. Chay can feel the vibrations in the couch beneath him, waves of Porsche’s nervousness washing over him. Porsche hates talking about his thoughts and feelings. But Chay is done indulging him with obedience. Or: Conversations between Porsche and Chay which I wish we had more of in the show. This would happen between Chay's kidnapping and Chay coming to live with the main family.

no pressure tags @martynaxao3, @tians-heart, @emberfaye, and @stoeptepel, have fun with this guys <3

[theressomethinghappeninginparis]

I have some more photos of the Louvre and then I'm done with that, for now. I hope I won't have to seet a foot in there ever again, I just at every sound. All people I found were unconscious on the floor so I could just rush by, but trust me, there are more pleasant things than forcing your eyes shut and keep on walking.

Transcript of the first page: So: I didn't make it to the big door I have mentioned earlier, it would have required me to do some climbing and I don't think I'm able to do that (and live). What I saw from afar was this thing - a switch- on top of the door and lots of symbols. I assume someone used the correct ones already or they're still pondering over that, I couldn't see a place it leads to. Suggestion: it's Brother Obscura's tomb. He is indeed buried in Paris even though he was Spanish. So if that's him, someone wanted to make sure it stayed sealed. If this really is his tomb and the LV had ties to him, did they perhaps also hide the paintings there? I can only throw in tinfoils. The yellow paper is a page I found on one of the tables showing two correct symbols already. It shows this weird door and some text concearning the opening.

Transcript of the second page: Here's two pictures: the first one is a photo of what I found under a rock scanner, among other stuff in the mineral block like bones, rubble and probably rubbish, too. The second shows one of the containers next to the excavation. On the screens were articles talking about Nephilim and that they could shape-shift (wth), and the last one was speculated to have been found in Turkey, from the Jurhum tribe.

Transcript of the third and fourth page: I forgot to add this to the collection of pictures I have legally taken from Carvier's office. It is maybe the most information on the paintings I have collected so far. So, the paintings were indeed painted by Pieter van Eckhardt! Overpainted later by Brother Obscura for showing pure evil. He did it in the 1300s or 1400s and would hide the Sanglyph in them, probably in 5 pieces and that spread onto 5 paintings. I made this into a chart on the next page since it's so much I need to take into consideration now. My idea so far: 1. Eckhardt is super evil and has a pact with the Nephilim who make him immortal so he can live long enough to resurrect them and rebreed their race 2. He created the paintings and hides the five parts in them for some reason 3. The Lux Veritatis are having none of that and steal the paintings, let Obscura paint over them and hide them afterwards 4. Something happens, Eckhardt is silent for 500 years, I suspect they really tied him up in the castle Bouzor and he starts missing his art 5. For some reason, the engravings resurface from the monastery in Spain. Eckhardt hears this and wants them back. The LV will want to stop him, but he's on the run now as far as the monstrum kilings tell us. So how do you kill an immortal?

Transcript of the fifth page: Fayolah answered me. Finally. Bless this woman. She might be the key I needed and now everything I know has an almost solid base. Next to the mail I also put up a scan from the library, more on that later. Here's her mail first. She says she'll tell me anything she can about the Lux Veritatis. Mainly she works in Turkey, Cappadocia (where the remains of the stone in the Louvre come from) and there have been churches carved into rocks for Christians to hide in. They also had a tunnel system like Paris has today. A colleague of hers also stepped in to add the LV were part of the Templars, dissolved or not no one knows, and they also used weapons that referred to theri name: splinters of a talisman were used, blessed by the monks, named Periapt Shards. I have confirmation on what I know so far. In addition, he mentioned the looksd of them: the handle shows a lion, probably the Golden Lion mentioned in Nephilim prophecy, and the shards were given from one conqueror to the other. Three of them are mentioned, and the bible always uses numbers like 3 as lucky ones. Also, remember the depiction of the figure with the three knives around it in Fayolah's first mail? I think that's them. And they were inherited from father to son, I wonder if there's a son left today?

Transcript of the sixth page: Here's a picture of a sketch of a shard. I can't read whatever is supposedly written there but it fits the description of the look: an angry head, a splinter of a rock or gem, and the fanciness in general. The idea is that the LV needed a tool to destroy black magic and thus made the Shards. These go from father-son within the LV, material is unknown, it shows the Golden Lion for some reason, three shards are needed to kill evil OR are shared evenly within the Lux Veritatis every now and then to equip everyone with it, and they are splitters of some talisman/shiny rock/whaterever. The LV have wounded Eckhardt but not kill him as he's stilla round. Did they keep him alive on purpose or was it an accident he survived? He couldn't remove them himself I assume, it must haven been to holy to hold, right? Where do you leep a person like this you don't want anyone to see? At your own private party place? Or in the castle that's conceniently owned by your order... Yeah I'm not sure how I can prove that. I must have overlooked something I guess, I'll go through all my notes again. Meanwhile I haven't heard anything on Vasiley. What's he up to?

[onmymasa22]

Important notice

I have officially converted.

I have been a member of the church of tasters choice for the past few years. And i have realized the error of my ways. And when Jacobs found me, I was confused and alone. I was told to just buy the green bottle and all my tasters choice past would be forgiven. I hope that you, too, know, if u are ever at your lowest, jacobs will save you, with a coffee that smells more like coffee.

Can we just take a second. Why is there not a stand up bit on donald trumps fifty names? Could his parents not decide?

So im a girl who would much rather be called funny than pretty. Funny takes work, funny risks things. I will make a total and utter fool of myself to get whoever to laugh. I will

Unless im with u, i dont need to be called pretty. Favorite compliments: i love and cant get enough of for a boost: wow, ur really funny. And "hey, i remember u, u were the nicest one there"

Unless im with u, there

U know what compliments girls cant get enough of?

Being acknowledged for how smart we are.

Yes, im a ditz sometimes, especially if theres something funny there, but someone acknowledging that im smart is a surefire way to become my favorite.

When people remember you for being nice. My grandmother told me since i was about 5, U r pretty. Its a fact. Ur never gonna have to worry about boys liking u. U just need to work on ur insided. Work on being nice. Its more important to be nice than right i was told. Make sure ur inside is a nice place to be. And i constantly work on being nice, being a good person, loving myself and spreading that to loving others. Its not easy when ur trying to find the balance between having debilitating social anxiety where talking outloud is not something easy, and having a

One time i was at a party and something funny happened spur of the moment, and i made

Oh how i love getting to be a fourth year art student who can say- this is my screw it era. Screw it, i want to make the art art that i want to make, screw it, screw u, screw it all. You get one shot at living the dream of going to art school. Plenty of ppl can think "what if i studied what i really wanted instead of whatever majes money" and u know what? The bachelors of fine arts i will have in july is really a culmination of taking 4 years to learn about myself. To stydy the way i think about things. To be better at comunicating my ideas proficiently and eloquently.

These 4 years, while also being hard, having days that i cried at the end or in the middle of it, days that i yelled, days that i wanted to slam all the doors that exist in the world. They were also days of dancing, days of long hugs, days of music playing while we sat in the sun drawing trees with charcoal. Days we joked, days we told stories. Days we had real honest to gd conversations, infront of everyone, or privately. Our class wasnt like any other class that shared the building with us. I can say that in college, i went to school with 15 of my best friends. We were all best friends. We all started the day giving hugs. We all ended the week on a tuesday of Wednesday saying good shabbos. We shared dinners and cake and breakfast. We helped eachother out, with thought processes, building stuff, or watching everyone's kids. We saw our friends have babies. We danced at weddings. We held eachother during breakdowns or panic attacks. From coffee dates, to pizza, ice cream, trips to the kotel, gan Sacher, museums, trains, buses, cars, galleries, homes, grocery stores, holidays. Taken test together. We have all given pieces of ourselves to eachother. What an honor. When they tell us that we had a good class, thats really what it is, we had a really good class.

U know what i love about going to a religious college? That when i whatsapp my favorite teacher that I'll be showing up 2 weeks late because of flight cancelations, the first thing she says is "r u by rabbeinu?"

U want for life to be dofferent and u hate ur life. But ur ok. U will do what u want to do. Go buy the chiffon u want. Make the shawl u want. Be the girl you want. Do what you want. Be as much you as u can. This was a bad trip. Ok. Some r good. Some r bad. It happens. Now in a week u get to get up. Amd just be u. Ull paint a scarf in greece on the beach. Before u know it, ull b having a blast in israel.

Whst do u do wjen u have been using the excuse of "sorry, im not in the country right now" to get out of seeing ppl u dint want to see, when u go back to real life? Can someone give a

New motto: I can't, I have plans tonight.

When ur writing a paper on jewish history and art and u have so many gaps is ur geography and history knowledge. Like all of navi has no sequence in my brain. All i know is that we were in the desert 40 years and a bunch of years later, we were in exile.

When you are trying to figure out jewish history cuz the last time they actually tried to teach u navi was fourth grade and u were probably doodling, so theres a huge gap, where ur like "why did we want a king" and "where did we all go" amd "why were we so divided"

After leaving egypt, we were in the desert for 40 years. Yehoshua led bnei yisrael to canaan, conquered and divided it. After yehoshua dies, we have judges as leaders because we were struggling after yehoshua died. We kept getting conquered by surrounding nations during these times. The judges included otniel- the king of kush messopotamia conquered us for 8 years. we defeated the 8 year oppression of kush, then we had 40 years of peace. Then ehud- we defeated moav oppression.

The jews were tired of the cycles of judges and wanted a king like the other nations

and kings. Shaul. Then dovid. Then shlomo, we got forst beis hamikdash.

I feel like anxiety is when ur taking too much control. Or the affects of anxiety. Ur taking more control.

Im sitting here crying because as a fourth year art student, my mom wants me to stamp with an onion. Im so hurt and frustrated. Im an artist. Im not going to stamp with an onion.

Im going to buy the silk. And ill paint it in greece because i want to. I like the texture of it. I see something in it that others might not see. And thats it.

U know what. Maybe its not what she wants. But this is what i want. We did that assignment already and i didnt like it the first time.

[unearthlycat]

jumping on this bandwagon i guess (part 2 here)

#rain world

2 notes

🌀 trans-scension 🔁 goldenjetfish

✨ yeekoftheweek Follow

[Image: Navigation directions for a road with a roundabout. An alternate route goes directly through the roundabout. It is labeled "if you;re not a coward ;)"]

got this from my drone nav today

is my iterator fucking okay

👤 herecomestherainagain-deactivated1529700 Go home No Significant Harassment, you're drunk.

🪈 pipe--yard okay im like 99% sure this is fake but i just gotta highlight the audacity of saying "go home" to the guy whose house youre literally driving on top of

🪈 pipe--yard edit: IT'S REAL??!?!

wild-flower-ride-deactivated1532056 void and saints below yall really live like this

📿 guardianknittingneedles-deactivated1534459 Happy one solar-cycle anniversary to the drunk No Significant Harassment post

🪱 cutest-lil-pipe-beast Follow i've only seen this post in screenshots and i still can't believe it's real

🟩 nsh-heritage-posts Certified No Significant Harassment Heritage Post

#rule of laughter #happy 7 sol-cycle anniversary to the drunk nsh post everyone #tumbling stones heritage posts

89,762 notes

☁️ fourteenblueclouds

[image description: Two painterly images of the sky, as viewed from a Metropolis balcony on Five Pebbles during a dry spell. The first shows the sky, uninterrupted save for the spires of distant communications towers. The other, a single figure leaned over the railing of a balcony, looking out over the cityscape.]

the summers up on pebbles were always the worst, but as the end approaches i'm coming to miss them

#original art #artists of tumbling stones #my artwork #painting

342 notes

🗡️ nine-sharp-stones it really feels like everyone is ascending these days. this place is a ghost town. i just wish i could join them but i know i'll never be enough. there's too much of me. if i go it'll twist me into something i don't want to be. and all i can do is be afraid.

i miss my parents. i miss everyone. my best friend ascended last cycle. we couldn't be friends anymore because i was "holding them back".

i just wish i could have gone with them.

#vent #do not reblog #delete later

0 notes

🌀 trans-scension 🔁 halo-of-seven-suns

⛆ raindeerstampede-deactivated1534012 It still gets me every time that even living up here with an abundance of water, we choose to maintain a system of pipes to ensure access to it.

I have to pay a water bill.

It rains so hard every night my balcony has a hands-breadth of standing water when the shields unroll in the morning.

Does nobody see the contradiction here?

🪻 metropolitanghost Follow op have you ever heard of a drainage system

do you like. realize how nasy that water gets

and you want to DRINK it?

🧃 five-pebbsi-official Follow Why drink rainwater when you could be drinking Five Pebbsi, the official drink of the Five Pebbles Metropolitan Zone?

[five-pebbsi-advertisement.jpg]

Quench your thirst and contract 0 intestinal parasites! None!

🪈 pipe--yard

#wow thanks five pebbsi official brand account that doesn't sound suspicious at all

#thank you five pebbles official you sound very trustworthy #i am sure your drink contains nothing else that would be of concern

#what an incredibly trustable source! i am sure if i perform a search query for five pebbsi i will definitely not find anything concerning on the ingredient list!

🖸 pleading-intellects-hot-robot-bod

#it has WHAT IN IT

i would like to wish everyone finding out about the ingredients of five pebbsi from this post my Deepest Condolences but also, Rest In Pieces

#rule of laughter

35,045 notes

🪨 one-cup-of-pebbles 🔁 memes-to-make-you-ascend

[screencap: a greyscale photo of a cup of gravel tea, with two twigs artfully arranged on a plate. Caption reads, "Working on denying the fourth urge this week! #fourthurge #gluttony #graveltea #dietarypurge #releasethe4"]

these guys have got to be stopped

#i am losing my mind over this

4,823 notes

💬 wondering-ottoman 🔁 leviafantastic

🌘 lingeringluna Follow

[Image: a shiny chitinous box containing unidentifiable bluish-white mush.]

living block just got the new ration shipment today. what the [2].

🌘 lingeringluna this is what they feed the iterator technicians i think

👤 beyondthewinds-deactivated1528045 Technical side of Tumbling Stones, can you confirm?

🧮 sixgrains-official Follow yes i am a real iterator technician and i eat this every day,, for my lunch and for dinner i eat neuron flies. hope this helps

👤 beyondthewinds-deactivated1528045 Thank you, definitely official account of famous iterator architect Six Grains of Gravel, Mountains Abound

#this is an old and humorously meant post i know but… #but no really what?! #i knew it was bad for the stragglers but i had no idea… #at least once we all ascend it'll be a bygone worry i suppose… #tw gluttony

29,761 notes

🌀 trans-scension 🔁 halo-of-seven-suns

⛓️ atopthespires becoming an iterator technician with high ambitions but i'm incredibly clumsy, introduced to them on the first day of the job and i am simply so charming they cannot help but fall in love with me for "research purposes" and i become their specialist little technician attending their every whim despite being the least qualified individual to do so <3

⛓️ atopthespires some of you are very confused what i mean by this, so let me make it clear: i want to [U.] the iterator

⛓️ atopthespires

#op do you understand that the puppet is just a simulacrum of a body? #they are much vaster than your reproduction-addled mind can concieve of i promise you that

the simulacrum being puppeted by a vast inconcievable machine is part of the appeal. whats not clicking

⛓️ atopthespires

#you realize the councils would literally throw you into the void fluid vats for that right #if you don't get excommunicated first

might i introduce you to this Wondrous New Skill called: lying

#rule of laughter #heresy tw #not safe for worshippers

1,672 notes

[mariaoglesbyart]

I spent most of my free time the last few months making 15 sample pages, a ton of character art/tournarounds, and finalizing the script for my MG fantasy graphic novel pitch. I’ve been querying agents for the fourth time, and while I know it’s an insanely competitive industry, I’m determined that by sheer stubbornness and consistently creating projects I’ll eventually break into the industry. My hope is to one day sell my backlog so I’ve generally refrained from posting any of my pitches online, but I spent so many hours on this one, I at least wanted to post a paneled IG piece that shows off a spread (I did 15 pages for the pitch, this is pages 8 and 9 I believe). I did this one entirely in procreate, but am aiming to learn the basics of CSP and do my next pitch in that instead. It took me maybe 2 years to really feel like I was 100% confident in procreate and knew every tool and function, I’m hoping since there’s a decent amount of overlap on CSP from both procreate and photoshop it’ll be a faster transition. Here’s to many more sample pages and projects ahead! . . . . . . . . . #mariaoglesbyart #graphicnovel #graphicnovelart #childrensbookillustration #childrensbooks #writingcommunity #artistcommunity #childrensart #artistoninstagram #procreateillustration #procreateart https://www.instagram.com/p/CrV-QGlOwtR/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[writing-with-olive]

How to write essays fast

I've been writing a lot of papers, so that's what's on my mind.

So this mostly applies to your standard 5-paragraph paper, though it's fairly straightforward to adapt it to longer (or sometimes shorter) assignments.

One of the main things to note is that essays are VERY formulaic, so knowing the formula and being able to write down your ideas in a way that fit into the formula is probably the number one way to get stuff done fast. Because of that, most of what I’m covering is breaking down the formulas so they’re more accessable.

Also this got very long. If there’s anything you want me to expand on just let me know in the comments or send me an ask/DM and I’ll make another post that goes more in-depth about it.

Structure (I hate this step, so I’ve figured out how to do it very fast becuase it’s still important)

The first thing to consider is prewriting and structure. To start, there are two major paper structures I usually consider. The first goes

Introduction

Main point #1

Main point #2

Main point #3

Conclusion

This is good if you have a lot to say on the topic, or if it's something closer to a summary essay where there's not really an opposing side. In something where there are distinct sides, (or if you have less to say to support your own side), you may want something that looks like

Introduction

Main point #1

Main point #2

Why the other side is wrong

Conclusion

The "why the other side is wrong" side is involves thinking through the MOST credible arguments the other side might make, and methodically breaking them down to show how they don't work. The stronger the argument you choose, the more effective this is.

Since I personally hate prewriting with a passion, I usually do this step very fast and end up with an outline that looks like

Intro [insert thesis statement]

P1: [three word summary]

P2: [three word summary]

P3: [three word summary]

Conclusion

(thesis statement, introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion tips are all below the cut)

Usually, this is enough so when I look at my outline, I can see what I'm trying to focus on for each paragraph - and do so without straying from my main point.

For the prewriting, the main things to do are identify with basic structure of the two will serve your purposes better, and write a thesis statement that solidly supports your argument.

Thesis Statement

There are so many guides about creating thesis statements that are powerful, but I'm just going to quickly go over how to be fast about it.

The first thing to know is that a thesis statement is usually a complex sentence: it's your entire essay distilled down to a single line. The general formula I follow goes something like this:

"In their [media type] [name of specific piece], [creator's full name] explored/demonstrated/other verb [theme you're going to be arguing about] demonstrated/using/as evidenced/as shown by [example 1], [example 2], and [optional example 3]."

For example, a thesis statement that follows this format might go

“In his short film Job at Place, David Davidson explored the manifestations of human stupidity through the absurdity of the main character’s home, school, and office.”

Or, if you're writing a historical piece, it might look something like this:

"In [place/time period], [thing you're arguing was happening]: they had to/the conditions were such that/other thing to set up a list [example 1], [example 2], and [example 3]."

For example, a thesis statement that follows this format might go

“During the Tusken Invasion of 32nd century Tatooine, it was the lives of the children that were most affected, from their social development and connections with others to more personal struggles they didn’t yet have the tools to overcome.”

The examples you give are going to correlate to your paragraphs - example 1 is for body paragraph 1, and so on. 

Introduction

I like to think of the introduction as a funnel that gets more and more specific.

First, write a broad statement that touches on whatever theme you’re referencing. 

Job at Place is about human stupidity, so something like “while great minds have flourished throughout the ages, so have the not-so-great.”

Tatooine is about war, and about child development, so something like “children’s development has always been impacted by the state of the world around them.” or “war has many effects, many of which impact those not directly involved with the conflict.”

The idea is that it’s a broad statement that can almost be looked at like a universal truth.

Next, you’re going to go deeper - two sentences that narrow down the time and place you’re talking about specifically, and how that time and place fit into your universal statement. 

The fourth sentence gets even more specific - introducing how the thesis sentence fits into your first three sentences.

Then the last line is your thesis statements. 

Body Paragraphs

Your three main body paragraphs all follow the same formula. (I’ll get to the “why the other side is wrong” paragraph in a minute)

The first sentence you’re going to want is a topic sentence. For this, you’re going to want to look at the example you gave in your thesis statement that corresponds to this paragraph, and see how it relates to your central claim. 

If we’re going with the Job at Place example from above, for the second paragraph, you might open with a line like:

“A striking characteristic of Davidson’s short film was the abnormality of the main character’s school, used to showcase exactly what happens when poor decisions get taken too far.”

Everything within the paragraph will then back up the claim you’re making in the topic sentence (which in turn is backing up your thesis). 

For each paragraph, you’re probably going to want about three pieces of evidence, either in the form of direct quotes (plucking words directly from the source) or paraphrased quotes (summarizing what happened in your own words). The quote should be used to directly support your argument.

After each piece of evidence, you’re going to want about... twoish lines of analysis (this number can change as you need it to, but two lines is something solid to fall back to). 

While analysis can take all kinds of forms, one pattern you can use if you’re stuck is

evidence sentence 

what it means

how that meaning ties back into your main point

Following this pattern, a piece of analysis of Job at Place might look like:

“One of the first images of the private school is that it’s a tall spire with creaking stairs and loose floorboards. Despite this, the principal has eight personal cars parked outside on full display. While the first glimpse of the school might indicate that there is little money to care for the structural integrity, the notion is directly negated by the principal’s actions. By using these two images, Davidson demonstrates what can happen to the youth when those in power let greed carry them away.”

After you write your analysis, include some kind of transition phrase, and go onto the next piece of evidence.

The last line of your paragraph is going to transition into the next paragraph while also summing up the main point of what you talked about in the current one. (This line can also get moved down and tacked onto the beginning of the next paragraph, before the topic sentence, but I have found it tends to look less cohesive that way).

You might choose something like:

“While the school was a disaster in its own right, it wasn’t the only example of human folly.”

If you’re writing a “this is why the other side is wrong” you’re going to want to think about the MOST compelling arguments the other side could make. Take the top one (or two), and figure out ways to crack them apart using evidence from your source material.

In this case, your topic sentence might start off with something like

“While opponents might say [insert compelling counterargument], their reasoning breaks down when one takes into account the evidence.”

At this point, you’re going to follow the same formula as above. The main thing to keep in mind is that for the duration of this paragraph, your point is that the other side’s claim of X is wrong.

Conclusion!

If you know what you’re doing, this is actually the easiest part.

(wait, what??????)

The thing is, you NEVER want to introduce new ideas into your conclusion. Instead, you’re summarizing your main points.

The formula I follow per sentence is:

Thesis statement but reworded (you can change the sentence structure too)

Topic sentence for paragraph 2 or 3, but reworded (I’ll explain why you shouldn’t do the sentence for P1 in just a sec)

Topic sentence for paragraph 1 or 3 but reworded

Topic sentence for paragraph 1 or 2 but reworded

Wow sentence or question (i’ll get to this too)

The idea for the middle three sentences is you don’t want them to read as repetitive, so you’re going to mix up the order so it doesn’t match the order of the rest of the essay. This will help to keep it fresh.

The wow sentence is basically the last impression you get to make. I find it’s usually a good idea to go just a tad dramatic (it sounds dumb, but it has never failed me). If I can’t think of anything, a declarative statement on whatever major theme was being discussed throughout the essay usually does the trick.

Examples:

All of this shows that in the absence of friendships and platonic love, humanity will falter.

Fiction may seem far fetched now, but if the world falls into those same mistakes, it’s only a matter of time until it becomes a reality.

Art has existed for as long as humans have populated the earth; it’s not going away any time soon.

A lesson everyone must understand is the most powerful weapon isn’t anything physical or tangeable: it’s the ideas that exist in the minds of those who care.

(I told you they were going to be dramatic) A way I look at it is if you can’t imagine dropping the mic on the last line, it needs to be stronger (yes I found that plagiarized with not even a whisper of credit on Pinterest, but it works).

If you wrote a SOLID essay, consider ending with a question aimed at the reader (this will push your essay in the direction of either the positive or negative extreme: a strong essay will become stronger, a weak essay will become weaker). Questions can be a call to action or rhetorical as a means to drive home your final point. Becuase they’re more nuanced to the content of the essay, I don’t really have great examples to give you though (sorry).

Hopefully this is useful to at least some of you - good luck!

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