#I'd also LIKE to publish the aforementioned story

[missremember]

Wooo it only took two months but here's an update to Memento!

Now that I have a grasp on what the plotline is actually going to be, these should be a bit quicker to update now, and will hopefully read better than Radial Crack, which was written in 2 weeks and...should be edited before I publish the next story in its verse.

...Oh yeah. There's another story I'm writing in its verse. Anyway.

Happy birthday to me! Or, happy birthday weekend to me! As a celebration I'm hoping to update both of my multi-chapter stories in a grand update-a-palooza! Yahoo!

Will I be able to do it?? Who knows?? Enjoy this for now, at least!

[genericpuff]

The Elephant in the Room - Queer Erasure and Westernization in Lore Olympus (and all its horrid stepchildren)

This is one people have been asking me for a while now, and I've been waiting for the right inspiration to hit, as is required for my ADHD hyperfixation-fueled rants. After recently watching a video that did an objective review of Cait Corrain's Crown of Starlight, I felt now was the time, because Crown of Starlight effectively proves exactly what Lore Olympus - and other Greek myth interpretations like it - has issues with.

And I want to preface this post with one question - why do we keep getting these Greek myth adaptations written by queer women that still wind up perpetuating toxic heteronormative culture?

Buckle up, because this one's HEFTY.

In that aforementioned review of A Crown of Starlight, there were a lot of points that came up about how Cait wrote the female protagonist - Ariadne, wife of Dionysus - where I immediately stopped and went, "Wait, this sounds awfully familiar."

It should be mentioned briefly for anyone who's unaware - Cait Corrain is an author who was recently (and still) under fire for using sock puppet accounts on GoodReads to intentionally sabotage the ratings of other debut authors, many of whom were her own peers or from the same publishing imprint as her (Del Rey), and most of whom were POC. I mentioned in that previous essay that I just linked that Cait Corrain is a fan of Lore Olympus and decided to give it 5 star ratings from these alt accounts, not just de-legitimizing the reputation of the books she bombed, but also the ones that she praised (including her own book, because of course she had to leave an obvious calling card LMAO). I felt it necessary to tie Cait into my discussion of white feminism in LO and its fanbase because people like Cait are exactly who we're talking about when we dissect the intent and consequences of LO's writing - much of its brand of "feminism" seems to only be catered to a specific kind of woman (i.e. white women who fetishize queer people/relationships) and seem to encourage/embrace violence towards women if those women aren't "behaving correctly" or just aren't fortunate enough to be white and rich - and so Cait choosing to give Lore Olympus 5 stars in her hate-raiding and even have it visibly in the background of her headshot photos was... not exactly disproving my argument that these are the types of people LO caters to and encourages, to say the least.

But then I watched Read with Rachel's "Did It Deserve 1 Star" review of Crown of Starlight and it cemented my assumptions and concerns regarding Cait's intentions and influences even more.

As a brief tangent, I've read A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Claire. It very obviously is using Lore Olympus as its blueprints, but it's not super obvious that if you didn't read Lore Olympus or weren't aware of it, you probably wouldn't notice. It's still not a great book on its own, it's riddled with writing problems, but at least it can call itself its own thing to some degree.

Crown of Starlight is just blatant Lore Olympus fanfiction pretending to be original, even down to its marketing (which I'll get to shortly) but swapping out Hades and Persephone with Dionysus and Ariadne, and setting the entire story in space. Why is it in space? There doesn't seem to be any actual necessary reason for this, it just is, go with it. I'd be willing to accept this because changing up the setting of pre-existing stories can be fun (god knows I loved the premise enough of Lore Olympus being a modern day Greek myth retelling that I had to go and make my own version of it that's still in that modern setting) but as RWR says in her review:

"... we're told that it's the 'island' of Crete, but then we talk about commbands, airlocks, [holo-shields] and it wasn't really written in a way that I felt meshed 'Greek retelling' and 'sci-fi' in a cohesive way."

Needless to say, Crown of Starlight unsurprisingly suffers from the same problems Lore Olympus does, where it will try to "subvert" the original myths by changing their setting and characters and then doing absolutely nothing interesting with them to justify those changes.

To really drive my point home that Crown of Starlight is undoubtedly Lore Olympus fanfiction, Lore Olympus was literally used as a comparison point in Crown of Starlight's marketing which is a fair tactic to use to advertise to a specific niche or demographic, and while some have argued that Cait isn't technically the one to come up with that marketing jargon, it's made much more clear that she used that comparison herself when writing and pitching the book because it is quite literally just Lore Olympus with a different couple in space, right down to the main female protagonist being part of a purity cult. And of course it wouldn't be a bad Wattpad romance if it didn't have our main female protagonist Ariadne talking about how inconvenient her MASSIVE BREASTS are and of COURSE Ariadne is a poor innocent uwu babygirl who needs a man to come in and rescue her from the evil purity cult and of COURSE it hints at them eventually having raunchy sex just for it to wind up being milquetoast bondage and of COURSE it all just winds up taking traditionally queer characters and stories and turning them into this sanitized Disney-esque plotline where the boy and girl were always meant to be together and nothing else matters except their love-

And that, at its core, really just screams "this is bad LO fanfiction". From the stylization of the book's writing which never outgrew its "adorkable fanfiction writing" phase-

"Realizing that I'm being gaslit by my entire world doesn't make it easier to deal with, but hey, at least I still have some part of my soul!" - an excerpt from Crown of Starlight quoted from RWR's review timestamp 13:03

-to the "creative" choices made to turn Ariadne into a chastity cult girl whose resolution is obviously going to be to have what's implied to be dirty raunchy sex just for it to be like... the most tame level one bondage stuff;

-to the classic "she breasted boobily down the stairs" focus on Ariadne's body and breasts and sex appeal that's being kept in check by that pesky purity club.

And that's really disappointing because I had seen people say, "Yeah, Cait did an awful thing and deserves to be removed from her publishing schedule, but it's a shame that that book was written by Cait because it's actually a really good book!" because now it's just making me even more sus of people's Greek myth adaption recommendations (I'm still mad at BookTok for convincing me that A Touch of Darkness was worth reading). All I could think while listening to some of the excerpts quoted by RWR was that if I didn't know about Cait Corrain and read Crown of Starlight blind, I'd undoubtedly assume it was being written by a heterocis guy... but it's in fact being written by a queer woman.

And this is where I segue into talking about the root of this problem, where the calls are really coming from - Lore Olympus and its erasure of queer identities and relationships, despite also being written by a queer woman who should know better.

I could think of no better character to help carry this essay than Eros.

Unlike many of the characters in LO that Rachel has managed to straightwash by changing their motives entirely or straight up changing their identity from the source material (ex. Zeus, Apollo, Crocus who was turned into a flower nymph, Dionysus and Achilles because they're both literally babies, the list goes on), Eros has largely remained the same on paper who had zero reason to not be queer within the story.

Eros is still the god of love in this, he's still a guy and presumed to be an adult, but we NEVER see or explore him having relationships with anyone other than Psyche, aside from a brief mention of organizing orgies in the beginning that's used as a quick joke and then promptly never mentioned again.

Just like with Crown of Starlight and A Touch of Darkness and all these other "dark romance" stories, it's that brand of "pretends to be sexually liberating but isn't actually" writing, where they'll briefly mention orgies or sex-related things and then beat around the bush or avoid involving them entirely like a kid at Sunday school who doesn't want to say the word "penis".

(fr out of all the corny and awful slang for genitals I've seen used in stories like this, "a certain part of my anatomy" is definitely one of the most boring and stupid, like for god's sakes Hades you're both adults and at the beginning of this comic you thought she wanted to bang in the kitchen, why are you suddenly talking like a 7 year old boy LOL)

All that aside, while Eros might still be hinted at being queer and sex-positive, it's only as vaguely as possible so that the story can quickly move on to focus on him and Psyche or, better yet, Hades and Persephone. When Eros isn't deadset on finding Psyche, he's being the gay best friend for Persephone, who he has NO right having a friendship with when he introduced himself by intentionally getting her as drunk as possible with the intent of dumping her in Hades' car as per his mom's command. It's brushed off later as "well Aphrodite maaade him do it, for Psycheee!" but Eros still agreed to potentially put Persephone in danger over a relationship that had NOTHING to do with her and was also mostly his fault in its fallout (which Artemis calls him out for, but of course, like all the other times characters have called out the actual issues in the story they're inhabiting, they get brushed aside so that Persephone can talk about Hades):

Now, the Eros and Psyche plotline is one I've talked about before here and not the focus of this essay so I'll keep this tangent brief, but it's absolutely wild to me that Rachel took a story about a woman going to the ends of the earth to prove her love for someone whose trust she broke (a common theme in a lot of Greek myth stories, such as the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice) and turned it into... woman of color gets turned into a nymph slave for Aphrodite to 'test' Eros, a test that isn't clear at all in what it's trying to achieve, and wait hold up, didn't Eros actually fail that test by kissing Ampelus while completely unaware that it was Psyche-

This is just that episode of Family Guy where Peter justifies emotionally cheating and eventually physically cheating on Lois because "well you were the phone sex lady the whole time so no harm done!", isn't it? (×﹏×)

Anyways. It's all very convenient that the comic will hint at queer rep just to either have it be a constant question of whether or not they're actually queer (ex. Morpheus) OR to have it be promptly swept under the rug to make way for other characters/plot points. It's like when mongie tried to be "inclusive" by writing a stereotypical vaguely Asian character with no specific ethnicity just to get angry at her fanbase for calling her out on this that you can't just call a vaguely Asian character "representation" of anything (because Asia is MASSIVE and covers so many different ethnicities and languages and cultures).

Eros is only as gay as he needs to be to fill the role of "gay best friend" for Persephone.

Krokos is no longer a male lover of Hermes but a flower nymph created by Persephone because... apparently we can't dare imply that Hermes would be into anyone besides his unrequited childhood love, Persephone.

Achilles is introduced as a baby even though it makes no sense in the comic's own timeline where Odysseus is presumably already a well-known hero in Olympus, so much so that he was invited to the Panathenea.

Apollo is turned into a flat-out rapist who's only concerned with getting Persephone at all costs and when that doesn't work, he tries to get ANOTHER flower nymph (Daphne) who's actually genuinely interested in him (contrary to the original myth, there's that "swap it subversion" Rachel is known for) to cut her hair so she'll resemble Persephone more because we can't have a single plot point not resolve around Persephone.

Despite there being loads of genderbent characters already, Morpheus is supposedly the only one we're supposed to assume is specifically trans and not just a gender-flipped version of a Greek myth character. Why? Not because Rachel stated so explicitly, not because the comic has actually explored her identity as a trans woman, but because the readers just assumed it in good faith and Rachel was clearly fine with taking credit for trans representation that's only there via assumption (and only confirmed via her mods in Discord, which is... not how you establish canon information in your comic, Rachel.)

Hestia and Athena are part of a chastity club, until uh oh how convenient that they're secretly in a relationship with each other even though it further vilifies them and their morals, particularly Hestia who was promptly called out for being a hypocrite for taking Persephone's coat gifted to her from Hades while secretly being in a relationship the whole time. Not only does the Hestia and Athena relationship manage to commit queer erasure - of two gods who are considered icons in the aroace communities - but it also makes the only two lesbians in the story come across as assholes AND ON TOP OF THAT ALSO manages to somehow invalidate queer sex and relationships as being legitimate due to the even deeper implication that breaking their chastity vows "doesn't count" because it's not a male x female relationship. It's the 'ole poophole loophole all over again.

And then there's Artemis, who has MORE REASON THAN EVER TO BE IN THE PLOT but keeps being conveniently ignored. Her finding out about Hestia and Athena doesn't get any more screentime than her going "oh you're in a relationship, okay" , we never see her question the true intentions of TGOEM or what it means to her, we never see her have any opportunity to carve out her identity beyond just being Apollo's twin sister (it tries to at times, but then immediately goes nowhere with it, amounting to just poetic word salad), and she really just comes across as what a lot of people assume aroace people to be - alone and standoffish, because obviously someone who's nice and a good person would be in a relationship, there has to be a reason they don't want to have sex or fall in love, and that reason obviously has to be that they just hate everyone and want to be alone forever (￢_￢;) Then again, like many of the queer characters in LO, I don't know if I can definitively call her aroace because it's kept as vague as possible, and - going by Rachel's answers to these questions way back in her Tumblr era - apparently people can't be gay and ace at the same time-

There are undoubtedly loads more examples that I could cover here but that goes for practically any essay I write about LO - the more you peel it apart, the more you start unearthing some really questionable and frankly mean-spirited stuff. Queer people feel largely ignored in LO, alongside many of its derivative offspring such as A Touch of Darkness and Crown of Starlight, and it really speaks to how so many people - queer women, no less - have somehow managed to bastardize and sanitize what were traditionally very queer stories with queer characters. It's like these people think "olden times" and can only get as far as "women were slaves and men were rich assholes". Like, yeah, okay, that was the case for many cultures, but not all of them, and for some of them it wasn't as clear cut as that, many had misogynist power struggles in them while also still celebrating women and queer people in their own way. Greek myth is full of stories of women being forced into marriage or being made the victims of assault, but many of them are supportive of women and their struggles, unlike works like LO that somehow manage to be less feminist and sympathetic to women and queer people than these works from thousands of years ago.

This is another topic that's surely meant for another post, but it really speaks not only to the straightwashing and whitewashing of Greek myth, but also the Westernizing of it. That's not to say Rachel Smythe and Cait Corrain and Scarlett St. Claire are intentionally trying to whitewash another culture's works here, but if you're raised predominantly on Western media, you're undoubtedly going to absentmindedly adopt ideas about society that are primarily molded around Western beliefs .

And this is apparent in LO, while Rachel is from New Zealand, you can tell she grew up on a lot of Western media and its influences are sorely showing through LO's worldbuilding, character designs, and narrative choices. That "modern setting" that I mentioned before is much less Greek and a lot more adjacent to The Kardashians which lends to the theories that most of the media that Rachel consumes is American. Rather than actually going to the effort of doing her research on Greek culture, she seems to just prefer defaulting to the easiest assumption of how modern society is across the board - a generic Los Angeles clone with big glass skyscrapers and pavement walkways. She rarely ever draws food or clothing from those time periods; despite this story being about gods she's spent so little time on the people who passed on the stories about those gods, the mortals, and the gods themselves rarely feel like gods, rather just like Hollywood celebrities covered in body paint. The clothing feels very generic and uninspired with often very little Greek influence, even though Greek clothing is designed around Mediterranean living which you could do a lot with, to such an egregiously Western degree that Hades and Persephone's wedding was Christian-coded. The food... well, there ISN'T any because as we've seen, like the stereotypical American child, Persephone apparently only wants chicken nuggies and Skittles for dinner, so we never see her eat; and not only do we not see Persephone eat, but Rachel weirdly tries to use Persephone's vegetarianism as some kind of anti-capitalist characterization when much of the Greek diet is predominantly vegetarian. It's NOT HARD or uncommon to be a vegetarian in Greece!

(it looks like they're literally all eating the same thing so IDK what Hera is referring to here, it looks like they're all eating toast and lettuce LMAO)

All that's to say, much of LO - and the books like it that I've gone over here - are written with this idea that every culture - including the one that it's trying to adapt - was subject to the same ideas that Western culture lives by in the modern day - that being a vegetarian is "counterculture" in every culture, that the notion of sexual purity is enforced in the same way it's enforced in the Western education system (cough Christianity cough), that queer or otherwise "unconventional" relationships should stay inside the bedroom and not be seen. As much as Rachel claims she wants to "fight the patriarchy" and "deconstruct purity culture", all she winds up doing is reinforcing it through a Westernized lens, which is, as I've talked about before, very indicative of right-leaning white feminism and what it embraces and promotes - being a "good woman" who follows the rules and willingly becomes part of the system that's oppressing them because that's what "good women" do. Women who are confidant in their sexuality are evil and should be shunned for being "sluts". Women who are in relationships with other women "don't count" as real relationships the same way heteronormative relationships do, and cannot be trusted because they're likely trying to spread an agenda that's designed to brainwash heterocis women. Women should only aim to achieve marriage and their entire personality has to be built around their true love. Women are allowed to be kinky, but only as kinky as roleplaying the exact same gender structures that puts the man in a position to dominate a woman, and it should always and only ever be with her first love who she marries immediately, no one else.

This is exactly what the critics are getting at when they hold LO - and its creator - accountable for the messages it's been sending for five years to its audience of middle aged women and young girls. Having a demographic is fine, if this were just a comic for girls it would be fine, but it becomes a lot more problematic when that demographic is being fed toxic power fantasy stories based on a culture that's being gentrified and sanitized of all its original messaging and characterization right before our eyes. It feels blatantly misinformed from the very beginning in its intention to be a "feminist retelling" of Greek myth, because somehow Lore Olympus manages to be less feminist than these stories drafted and written by men from 2000+ years ago.

I opened this essay with a question: why do we keep getting these Greek myth adaptations written by queer women that still wind up perpetuating toxic heteronormative culture?

I think cases like these really highlight how deep the heteronormative brainwashing from childhood onward goes. That, despite these writers being queer or women, still manage to reinforce the same ideas and tropes and harmful predisposed notions that were designed to be used explicitly against queer people and women. These are things that we can't ever stop challenging, and asking, and truly deconstructing, because it runs deep in many of us who grew up on popular media even as innocent as Disney. Learning about more complex social concepts like sexism and misogyny and queerphobia doesn't automatically absolve us of those very same biases that have been both blatantly and subtly ingrained into us since childhood. All that said, Rachel being bisexual does not mean she's not capable of straightwashing; Cait Corrain being a queer debut author with a POC main character didn't stop them from targeting other POC debut authors at their own imprint; being part of any minority group or identifier does not automatically protect you from perpetuating the cycle that you, too, likely had enforced upon you at some point or another in your life. The fact that these creators and writers are still perpetuating that cycle to begin with is indicative of why it's a cycle at all - it takes work to break on a subconscious level because those cycles are specifically designed to target and hijack the subconscious.

At its worst, do you really think Lore Olympus can claim to be a feminist retelling that's "deconstructing purity culture" when the creator herself admittedly never fully identified or understood sexism until her mid-30's and has the audacity to say her audience is "harsh" on the female characters that she constantly vilifies through her own narrative?

"I feel like female characters in general, people will be a little harsher on them and sometimes way harsher on them, and I used to be like.. before I started writing the story and like making a story I was like yeah, sexism is not that bad, and [now] I was like oh it's bad. It's quite bad [laughs], so like, I don't know, I feel like the female characters in the story don't get so much of a pass. But this isn't consistent across the board, it's not all the time" - Rachel Smythe, in an interview with Girl Wonder Webtoon Podcast

If Lore Olympus truly was just a series meant to be for fun "no thoughts head empty" drama and spice, that would be fine. I've said it time and time before on this blog and I'll say it again: I wouldn't have an issue if Rachel was just writing a story exclusively revolving around heterocis men and women. I'm just frustrated and tired and annoyed that she keeps lying about it, and doubly so that this comic and its creator who claim to be "feminist" have inspired other people in the same headspace to continue to perpetuate that cycle through works that are clearly inspired by LO and never challenged the things LO promoted - violence towards "unconventional" women, violence towards POC, and erasure of queer people. And worst of all, for writers like Cait Corrain, it's more than just writing a really bad book with really bad messaging, it's going so far as intentionally targeting those same groups of people that are regularly vilified in works like LO - people who are just existing, who don't pose a threat to anyone, but had the misfortune of becoming the target of a white woman's insecurity.

I don't know what the answer to this problem is. I don't know what form the solution will come in, if any, to address the ongoing issues with Greek myth adaptions that are being sorely written through an "America as the default" point of view and praised for "rewriting the script of Greek mythology", quite literally cultural appropriation happening live right before our eyes all for the sake of cheap entertainment. Maybe it'll take the failings of works like Crown of Starlight to really get people talking about it. But so long as the roots of these works - such as Lore Olympus - are still being protected and marketed en masse by the same kinds of people who don't see the issue in Americanizing other cultures and their stories, then Lore Olympus and Crown of Starlight will not be the last ones to cause harm to the source material - and the cultures that source material is born from and a part of - they're taking from.

I opened this post with a question, and I'm going to close it with another to really leave it as food for thought. That question comes from another video that I'll link here for you to watch at your convenience that spends even more time diving into and discussing the nature of works like this that have seemingly attempted to "deconstruct" the very dogmas that they still wind up reinforcing all the same.

Does the romance genre have a white supremacy problem?

(yes. yes, it does.)

[grandhotelabyss]

Advice/hard truths for writers?

The best piece of practical advice I know is a classic from Hemingway (qtd. here):

The most important thing I’ve learned about writing is never write too much at a time… Never pump yourself dry. Leave a little for the next day. The main thing is to know when to stop. Don’t wait till you’ve written yourself out. When you’re still going good and you come to an interesting place and you know what’s going to happen next, that’s the time to stop. Then leave it alone and don’t think about it; let your subconscious mind do the work.

Also, especially if you're young, you should read more than you write. If you're serious about writing, you'll want to write more than you read when you get old; you need, then, to lay the important books as your foundation early. I like this passage from Samuel R. Delany's "Some Advice for the Intermediate and Advanced Creative Writing Student" (collected in both Shorter Views and About Writing):

You need to read Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert, and Zola; you need to read Austen, Thackeray, the Brontes, Dickens, George Eliot, and Hardy; you need to read Hawthorne, Melville, James, Woolf, Joyce, and Faulkner; you need to read Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, Goncherov, Gogol, Bely, Khlebnikov, and Flaubert; you need to read Stephen Crane, Mark Twain, Edward Dahlberg, John Steinbeck, Jean Rhys, Glenway Wescott, John O'Hara, James Gould Cozzens, Angus Wilson, Patrick White, Alexander Trocchi, Iris Murdoch, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell, Vladimir Nabokov; you need to read Nella Larsen, Knut Hamsun, Edwin Demby, Saul Bellow, Lawrence Durrell, John Updike, John Barth, Philip Roth, Coleman Dowell, William Gaddis, William Gass, Marguerite Young, Thomas Pynchon, Paul West, Bertha Harris, Melvin Dixon, Daryll Pinckney, Darryl Ponicsan, and John Keene, Jr.; you need to read Thomas M. Disch, Joanna Russ, Richard Powers, Carroll Maso, Edmund White, Jayne Ann Phillips, Robert Gluck, and Julian Barnes—you need to read them and a whole lot more; you need to read them not so that you will know what they have written about, but so that you can begin to absorb some of the more ambitious models for what the novel can be.

Note: I haven't read every single writer on that list; there are even three I've literally never heard of; I can think of others I'd recommend in place of some he's cited; but still, his general point—that you need to read the major and minor classics—is correct.

The best piece of general advice I know, and not only about writing, comes from Dr. Johnson, The Rambler #63:

The traveller that resolutely follows a rough and winding path, will sooner reach the end of his journey, than he that is always changing his direction, and wastes the hours of day-light in looking for smoother ground and shorter passages.

I've known too many young writers over the years who sabotaged themselves by overthinking and therefore never finishing or sharing their projects; this stems, I assume, from a lack of self-trust or, more grandly, trust in the universe (the Muses, God, etc.). But what professors always tell Ph.D. students about dissertations is also true of novels, stories, poems, plays, comic books, screenplays, etc: There are only two kinds of dissertations—finished and unfinished. Relatedly, this is the age of online—an age when 20th-century institutions are collapsing, and 21st-century ones have not yet been invented. Unless you have serious connections in New York or Iowa, publish your work yourself and don't bother with the gatekeepers.

Other than the above, I find most writing advice useless because over-generalized or else stemming from arbitrary culture-specific or field-specific biases, e.g., Orwell's extremely English and extremely journalistic strictures, not necessarily germane to the non-English or non-journalistic writer. "Don't use adverbs," they always say. Why the hell shouldn't I? It's absurd. "Show, don't tell," they insist. Fine for the aforementioned Orwell and Hemingway, but irrelevant to Edith Wharton and Thomas Mann. Freytag's Pyramid? Spare me. Every new book is a leap in the dark. Your project may be singular; you may need to make your own map as your traverse the unexplored territory.

Hard truths? There's one. I know it's a hard truth because I hesitate even to type it. It will insult our faith in egalitarianism and the rewards of earnest labor. And yet, I suspect the hard truth is this: ineffables like inspiration and genius count for a lot. If they didn't, if application were all it took, then everybody would write works of genius all day long. But even the greatest geniuses usually only got the gift of one or two all-time great work. This doesn't have to be a counsel of despair, though: you can always try to place yourself wherever you think lightning is likeliest to strike. That's what I do, anyway. Good luck!

[tobi-smp]

well ! if I'm posting about my other interests ! have a little how-to guide for getting into marble hornets:

firstly, what is it.

that's an answer in two parts! it's a foundational indie horror web series on youtube that was beloved in its time for its mystery, atmosphere, and editing (pioneering or popularizing many of the techniques that you'll see more commonly now in the analogue horror genre, just with the budget of college students in 2009).

and it's remembered fondly Now for its fascinating representation of mental health (in how it subverts the harmful ways that horror tends to depict more stigmatized disorders, but Also in how it depicts mental and physical health in general), and the underlying queer themes that While subtext at the time have ultimately been confirmed as intentional as one co creators (and actor for the main character) has come out as bisexual!

it is Also a wildly creative and beautiful comic series. written solely by troy wagner (the aforementioned co-creator) and illustrated by jackie reynolds (a long time fan of the series and insanely talented illustrator). taking place after the events of the webseries, the comics take full advantage of this new visual medium to express the horror, atmosphere, and emotions of the series in a more visceral way. and being self published they're free to make whatever they'd like

done entirely in water color and ink, it builds beautifully on what was laid down with the original series and carves out its own identity and legacy.

it's also just very lovely seeing queer creators who were once writing subtext be able to just. Be Open about it. both about themselves and their characters. it's a horror story that happens to have queer characters mind, but it's just ! nice.

.

now ! being internet horror that's sat in that weird space between args and analogue horror (nightmind would call it Unfiction, but unfortunately that term hasn't caught on as much as I'd have liked) it's not as simple to get into as just like, Watching A Show.

that's not to say you Can't just watch it, but rather I have ways to help you get more out of it :>

1: The full chronological playlist for the marble hornets web series, including the totheark replies: [Link]

this is exactly what it says on the tin ! the entire series in order, I've even included the dvd extras at the end of each season !

two notes: firstly, the full series is captioned, and I think they're very nice captions! and secondly, there's a lot of loud noises in the series, which the captions help mitigate a bit. this is due in part to the nature of the kind of horror it is (though it doesn't have straight up jumpscares), but Also because troy wagner was HoH at the time he was doing the audio editing for the series.

there's significantly fewer issues with the audio as the series goes on (troy actually got surgery for his hearing!) but for the most part it's fine just keeping it Somewhat lower. except entry five. entry five is so very loud <3

.

2: The in-character twitter for jay merrick (the main character of marble hornets): [Link]

much like the youtube channel is presented as being ran by the main character/pov character of the series (jay merrick), the twitter was created to run along-side the main series! it mostly exists to give us further insight into jay's mental state and personal life that you don't get in the main series, especially early on!

it's a little cumbersome nowadays, especially since twitter doesn't Like being archival. but you kind of just have to scroll all the way to the bottom to when the twitter was created and scroll up to follow along jlkfasdjlkfdas

this is made a Little more difficult because the account got hacked in 2020 and reinstated 2021, so all of the dates are wrong now. but the account always posted when new entries were uploaded so it's easy to watch an entry, check what was posted after it was uploaded, and then see the link for the next entry and know to stop until you've watched.

you don't Have to do it this way, but I think it's the way to get the most out of it!

.

3: All of the translated codes for totheark/tta listed in order: [Link]

back in the day, youtube allowed you to make Video Replies, which would be displayed Under whatever video you were responding to! this feature was ultimately removed because of the tendency to do make clickbait in response to whatever was currently popular, but it was Wonderful in this instance !

the youtube channel and twitter were presented as in character, and they took advantage of this by having a second channel created (named totheark) start Replying to the entries as they were uploaded. these videos were highly edited and contained codes and secrets that were meant as messages to the main character (and the audience)!

there was a dedicated community for code breaking throughout the show's entire life, and this list here goes through every one! I like this one in particular because it Also gives us information on How the codes were broken, in a digestible way.

.

4: Nightmind's marble hornets explained series: [Link]

this is definitely Optional. it's obviously not official media, is outdated now that the comics have started, and I'd say was flawed even at its release. (it's not a spoiler if nobody knows what I'm talking about, so I'll say now that I'm not a fan of his theory with masky, and the seth theory is very famously silly).

BUT! I Do think it's a very good resource when it comes to putting certain crucial things together. as the whole point of the series is that it's a Mystery. you see nearly everything out of order and you're intentionally limited in what you know about characters and their motivations. this series works as a good jumping off point in that it helps to put things into Context and change your perspective on certain events and character With the benefit of said context!

like I said, it's not Required, it might just be helpful! a starting point to help chew on things once you've watched the web series in full for the first time.

.

Comics!: [Link]

comics ! they're all available on troy wagner's personal website! (along with other goodies that are periodically available!) you can buy them either physically Or digitally ! personally I'd recommend digital, as it's cheaper, instantly available, and the digital extras are wonderful!

they come with the script for the comics, a commentary version (including comments from troy and jackie on every page), and other extras like backgrounds, behind the scenes sketches, character art, etc!

I would very much so suggest buying the comics if you're interested. this is an indie project being ran and funded by two people (and again! there's other goodies in the store that are worth looking at). buttttttt, my friends may dm me <3

.

Extras! [Extras]

Anniversary streams [Link] on a few different anniversaries for the series several of the creators have done streams rewatching the series and reacting to it live ! this is a playlist where I've collected all of the instances that I could find :>

I Also included the dvd commentary here ! the format is different, but it's a similar concept so, why not ljkfsdajklfasd

.

Interviews, QnA's, and con appearances: [Link] exactly what it sounds like !

I was, at one point, overtaken by some kind of madness and hunted down for every single Person Records Marble Hornets Creators Talking About Marble Hornets thing I could find, and then attempted to put it in order. this is just ! for fun. I do so adore it though, I have one con panel that was recorded on someone's 3ds.

.

My silly posts:

some analysis posts I've main on my main account since having watched the series ! these all contain spoilers so I wouldn't suggest watching them until you've seen the show (though I Would suggest reading them if you do choose to watch the explained series)

this is my post going into what I think masky is supposed to be/represent, and why it's Important [Link] which I think pairs nicely with this post by tim sutton (one of marble hornet's actors) [Link]

my discussions on jay's mental health and behavior and how they're often misunderstood (which won't necessarily be needed if you've read through his twitter jlkfasdlkjafds) [Link 1, Link 2]

confirmation that jay is canonically queer :> [Link]

.

Social Media

Social media for various marble hornets creatives !

Troy wagner (co-creator, actor for jay): Tumblr [Link] Twitter [Link] Instagram [Link]

Jackie Reynolds (main artist for the comics): Tumblr [Link] Twitter [Link] Instagram [Link] Linktree [Link]

Tim Sutton (actor for tim (I know)): Tumblr (inactive): [Link] Twitter: [Link]

Joseph DeLage (co-creator, actor for alex): Twitter [Link]

.

and here's art jackie drew of masky marble hornets punching richard spencer in the face <3

[pistatsia]

My first book is out!

HI HELLO EVERYONE, my debut book is finally out and available for purchase!

The exact way I (and you, hopefully) like it: not actually that bad traumatised young people making terrible decisions and then dealing with the consequences while digging up through their entire mentality and life patterns in parallel. This time in a mystery wrapper. Also there's football, because of course there's football. I didn't write the stupid kids kicking the ball these past two years in order to just cast those skills off.

Of course, this is not everything - I love to think that this book is about the need of overcoming yourself, the right of a human for their own fight, impossibility for a child to harm an adult on an equal level, understanding of responsibility, and, most importantly, acceptance of oneself and one's past even in those things that cannot be undone or fixed, - but let me be funny for once.

Once upon a time, a boy meets a girl… And then one of them kills her father. Thirteen years later they both confess to the murder. Who exactly is the real killer? That's a good question, and you have the unique chance to acquire that sacred knowledge for only 3 euro 83 cents. A deal of a lifetime, if you ask me.

So, come read “Louder Than Lies”. In addition to the little hell of psychological themes highlighted, here we have:

Heterobaiting (should be impossible to write but here we are);

Psychopath character study (I wish I was joking);

Childhood friends trope gone WRONG.

And, of course, the main cast, starring:

The gem of all annoying character archetypes, literal wiki trope thinking he's the hell of originality, born to slay but forced to take antipsychotics, crime suspect in reality but an actor in heart. That actually says the truth but only after blabbering on about his stupid life for two hours (And is also wittingly manipulating the investigation)

His childhood friend, unreliable narrator of her own life, waiting for the aforementioned disgrace of a humankind to ruin the rest of what's left of her already ruined life. A suspect in killing, but POLITE because hypercomensation does wonders to a human being (And is also unwittingly manipulating the investigation)

“Holy hell, call the police! Fuck, wdym I'm the police” main character guy trying to uncover this mess, extraordinare Kai "no my mommy issues absolutely DO NOT interfere with the investigation please trust" Laas

If my reputation as a ficwriter matters to you in any way, I'm betting it all on this book. Seriously. I realise that even for someone whose work you know, it can be uncomfortable to throw money away like that. That's why I'm opening up asks again, and will periodically post book-related stuff on my blog, as well as the fragments from the book - so you'll have a chance to ask, rate, giggle, cry, and decide. In addition, a preview snippet should be available on Amazon - you can also give the idea of reading the book a shot after reading it. I will also upload some extra stories on ao3.

On top of that, since I'm not promoting the book in full mode yet because I want to finish the second part first, in comparison to future readers you have a unique opportunity to build on your theories, solve the few lines remaining before I'll publish. And even rant about it with me, so who knows? Maybe you'll influence the way the plot would be embodied. I'd say it's worth the stakes.

Obviously, buying my book will mean a lot to me (especially if you've also read some of the 270k ao3 words I posted in all this time). Thank you for your trust and for reaching the end this post; I really do hope all those hairs lost from nerves in the process of writing it will tip the scales of the decision in my favour.

GET THE BOOK

Cover artist

[gracebethartacc]

You've been answering a buncha mlp asks so I thought maybe I'd send something :3

Kinda wondering if you'd want to talk more about your version of Spike? Ideas you might have for a character arc or smaller plotlines, maybe? Or maybe just talk about the Sparkle family in general, like how his relationship to Twilight is throughout the series

I just like some of the ideas you've mentioned with him before, so I was wondering if there's anything else you might wanna say about him :)) yay

YAYYY I LOVE ASKSSSS

I LOVE SPIKE HRAHHHHH WEREWOLF SHIRT RIP I HATE HOW HES TREATED IN THE SHOW AND FANDOM SOBSSSSS

Not thought too hard on an overall arc but i definitely would enjoy a spike coming into his own away from twilight plot in which twilight has to cope with the idea of spike not always being by her side like this isn’t Just her assistant this is her little sibling who has been attached at the hip for her since she was a filly but it also would be good for spike bc aforementioned spike gets regulated to just assistant/helper a lot so them sort of finding their own identity would be really sweet methinks, also would love to have spike interact with the others more like I only ever remember him being paired with twilight rarity or AJ that was IT I never remember seeing a spike and flutters or spike and RD plot why did we not get him w the others more but then i remember the show didn’t treat him like a main character and I go ohhhh ok that’s why ALSO IN MY RW IM KILLING THE RARITY CRUSH DEAD. EXPLODE. GIVE HIM A ACTUAL CHARACTER BESIDES LITTLE BOY WITH CRUSH ON ADULT PLZ.. maybe if I used it it can yk actually be used for a lesson about boundaries/why it’s ok for a kid to have a crush on someone older but the older person shouldn’t have to play along/have communication between the two instead of. Yk. Rarity leading him on….. Why Did Girl Do That💀

I def think I wanna play into my spike being an aspiring author, maybe would have a thing similar to rainbow wanting to join the wonderbolts of spike writing a story they want to actually get published and it end up happening late series !! :3 smth like that, maybe we follow them adding plot points or things inspired by the adventures they and the mane six go on like uses irl events as inspo for the book etc

aforementioned I def wanna have more spike and other characters interacting bc it didn’t happen much, also I kinda like the idea of maybe bc twi had to hatch him that perhaps all the students at tias school have dragons or little familiars to be their assistants/helpers, but bc twi was younger/prob a child prodigy in some way her family all took care of spike like a second kid than like a assistant, also adds to like an almost witch theme w the school bc i love mlp being more fantasy esc :3 like just imagine this huge magic school campus with ponies walking around alongside dragons and phoenix’s and breezies trailing behind or alongside them that sounds so fun visually ITS A MAGIC SCHOOL DAMMIT LET IT LOOK MAGICAL !!!! <3

[alister312]

The Origins of "DeLorne": An Update, A New Mystery, and Fandom History

So I've had this little thing among my pinned posts for a while, but basically, I've been curious where "DeLorne" (Christophe's almost universally agreed upon last name in the fandom) comes from. Previously, the earliest instance I'd found was on a dA art post in 2006, but I've since done more research and uncovered incredible pieces of fandom history, as well as a mystery! It's a pretty long story, but if you're interested in South Park fandom history at all (especially pertaining to Gregory and Christophe), I think you'll find it all fascinating. Let me rope you into the journey I've found myself on.

While I've been curious about "DeLorne" for a while, this particular phase of my research initiated from another pet project of mine— that being to read and archive all Gregstophe fics on FFN should the site go down someday. The oldest Gregstophe fic you can find just using filters was published in August 2005 and is called There's Always Tomorrow by Bagatelle. While this is the only Gregstophe fic on their FFN account, I've come to learn through sources I'll mention later that Bagatelle was a prolific Gregstophe author.

Anyway, the important thing to know for now is that I thought There's Always Tomorrow might actually be the true originator of "DeLorne" for a bit, as it uses it for Christophe's last name.

The author's intro of the first chapter cites two fics as inspiration for their own: Fierte Dedans (supposedly by KyleBroflovskiFan) and Parable of a Boy Named Gregory (supposedly by someone named either Oyaji or Zidane 2003). They also refer to Qindarka, aka the author of the famous Creek fic Aisle 10, as "my love" which is just an extra fun piece of fandom history to me.

With these other fics serving as a reference to There's Always Tomorrow, I figured they might also have "DeLorne". I went looking and discovered Fierte Dedans, which turned out to have been published in May 2005 by Saboteuse (their deviantArt name was KyleBroflovskiFan which is likely why they were called as such earlier). It's an unfinished fic, only getting two chapters and one sect of the love quadrangle(?) in (the fic was set to be a Gregstophe/Tophlovski/Style fic). In the first chapter, however, during a role call scene, it used "DeLorne" as Christophe's last name.

This was very exciting— I'd found a new origin point!

The author hadn't uploaded a fic since early 2014, but I decided "fuck it" and sent them a PM on FFN, asking if they were the first to use "DeLorne" or if they'd gotten it from somewhere. Miraculously, I got a message back!

So, not an origin, but at least it was a definitive answer! It also raised a new question, that being about Gregory's old fanon last name "Thorne". The aforementioned fic There's Always Tomorrow also uses "Thorne" as Gregory's last name and mentioned taking it directly from one of their inspirations— Parable of a Boy Named Gregory. I mentioned this to Saboteuse, who said that fic was definitely what they associate "Thorne" with but they weren't sure if it was the originator or simply popularized it.

Naturally, I had to find what I could about this Parable fic. Google was mostly a dead end though, only giving me its shoutout in There's Always Tomorrow and a mention of it in the Tropedia article on Celebrity Paradox. I learned it was a Pip/Gregory fic, that it was "of epic length", and there was a plot point involving a North Korean invasion. Put a pin in Parable, we'll circle back around to it.

Back on the trail of the origins of "DeLorne", thanks to @/stankvle's help, there seemed to be a new potential origin point:

February 2005 was now the earliest Christophe had been given the last name "DeLorne". This made me curious and I searched "christophe delorne" on deviantArt. This sketch was the earliest published thing in the search results, but I decided to check out other works and came to a fic from Jan 2006 called Brimstone by BassistArtistLoser. In the description, I found this:

This to me seemed to imply that "Twitch" could've been the first to use the name and everyone else copied them. I had to find Twitch.

Among the comments was a user named "twitchablewiz", who I assumed to be the same Twitch. Their deviantArt was mostly empty, seemingly wiped clean, save for a few posts including a poll asking what their final fic they published to FFN should be. I went searching and found one of those fics mentioned in the poll. I didn't care about that fic; instead I was more interested in another fic on their profile: a Tophlovski fic from December 2005. I had hoped to find "DeLorne" there, concrete evidence that they indeed used that last name.

Sadly, this fic with almost completely gutted because it was a smut fic and FFN was apparently cracking down on those back then. Twitch claimed they would reupload the fic on "FOSFF dot net" aka Freedom of Speech Fan Fiction Archive but apparently that entire site was wiped clean in 2013.

The interesting takeaway, however, was this bit:

There was another mention of Oyaji, the supposed author of Parable of a Boy Named Gregory, aka the possible origin of "Thorne"! I had tried searching "Oyaji" and "Zidane 2003" before to no avail, but now I had a new name to try. With this, I was able to find Oyaji's deviantArt. In scrolling through their past posts, I discovered this:

So here we have it: the reason why Parable was impossible to find before was because Oyaji intended on publishing it! This fic that might be the origin of "Thorne", Gregory's old fanon last name, might have been turned into a real novel. Oyaji says nothing in any of their other posts about whether or not they were actually able to publish. What they did provide though, as you can see, is their email.

So I emailed them, asking about Parable— if it got published, if I could read the original, if it truly was the origin of "Thorne". And, since Gregory and Christophe have been intrinsically linked to one another since their inception in 1999, I also asked if Oyaji might know anything about the origin of "DeLorne". I had hoped that I could get a response like I had when I messaged Saboteuse but, sadly... it seems that email account has been deleted.

As of March 12th, 2023, this is where the story ends. I feel like I'm so close to solving this fandom mystery, but there's still so many questions remaining. Is me-ladie the one who originated "DeLorne" as Christophe's last name, or was it Twitchy, or was it someone else entirely? Is there even an origin at all, or was it just collectively agreed upon by all the Christophe fans back in the early 2000s as Saboteuse supposes? Does "Thorne" come from Parable of a Boy Named Gregory, and did it actually get reworked and published as an original novel? Does anyone out there have a copy, or is it lost to time forever? I still don't know, and may never, but I wanted to get what I have thus far out there.

In looking for the origins "DeLorne", I came across this: the very first fic to tag Christophe on FFN.

It was published in October 2003, less than five years after Bigger, Longer, and Uncut premiered. It's mindblowing to me that people were loving Christophe and writing about him all the way back then! And yet... this is only the idea of history, since the author gutted the fic. I appreciate it remaining up in a way, though I wish there was a way to find and read this honestly historic fic.

So much of fandom history is forever lost to time as the web and vibe of the fandom evolves, especially something as little as popular fanon last names of one-off characters from South Park. Even if some of it isn't relevant anymore ("Thorne" hasn't been popular for Gregory in years), to let it be lost or pretend current fandom is all that matters feels sad to me. Even if what we have now might be better, I think it's important to appreciate or at least take the time to really understand where what we have came from.

[geostatonary]

What's the relationship between CMWGE, Nobilis, and Glitch? The bits of understanding I think I've picked up so far are that they're all (diceless?) ttrpgs and are in vaguely the same setting but at least one's setting is an AU of another one's? They sound really cool, but really confusing, but really cool despite and/or because of the really confusing, and continuing to just pick up the random bits that tumbl my way is Not Enough. Help?

Okay!

Let's talk a bit about publishing for background

In 1999, Jenna Moran (formerly R. Sean Borgstrom) published the first edition of Nobilis through Pharos Press, resulting in what is often called the "Little Pink Book". This was a small run, and it proved successful/interesting enough to get picked up by Hogshead Publishing in 2002, resulting in the second edition of Nobilis, which is often called the "Great White Book". This is the one a lot of people think about when they think "Nobilis", and really put it on the map in the tabletop gamer consciousness. In 2011, the third edition of Nobilis was released through EOS Press. There was a lot of drama involving the publishers and distributors for the last two editions but that's not relevant to your question. Also, a fourth edition is in the works.

Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (CMWGE) was released in 2015 after a successful kickstarter, initially through EOS Press and then through Jenna's own efforts and the support of a generous benefactor due to her separating from EOS for some of the aforementioned publisher drama. Its technically a multimedia project that also has two associated novels, The Fable of the Swan (2012) and The Night-Bird's Feather (2022).

Finally, Glitch: A Story of the Not was self published in 2022 after another successful kickstarter. This is the most recent of her games within the collective game line, sometimes referred to as "gluubilis" or "the Ash Tree Engine".

Why'd you tell me all that?

So you'd have context for this.

Mechanically, each of these games represents a development on the preceeding works; every later game iterates and develops on the previous games and concepts. This looks something like this

1e/2e Nobilis > 3e Nobilis > CMWGE > Glitch/4e

in terms of major mechanical divisions and advancements.

All the systems are diceless and there's a lot we could say here, but probably the biggest single innovation would be the introduction of Arcs and Quests starting in CMWGE, providing a strong narrative xp framework for all the future games to engage with and be built around.

In terms of the setting, all the games except CMWGE take place on the Ash-Tree Earth in which the universe is a big tree in a cup of fire that's presently at war with the forces of the Void. Nobilis explores play as the Nobilis, individuals empowered by the rulers of Creation to defend it against the Excrucians, the representatives of the Void. Glitch flips this around and has you play as one of those Void beings who used to fight in the war, but is now abstaining from it for any number of reasons.

CMWGE takes place in a world that was drowned in a sort of ontological uncertainty called the Outside. It's set in a possible future where the war of Nobilis and Glitch doesn't reach a conclusive end, but rather the world was cast into an interregnum during which any number of things are possible and also you can have slice of life adventures and shit. None of that background is actually necessary to know to play CMWGE, but I think it's enriching and also it'll help explain some of the various otherwise insane things we the players and fans will say about it. Again, though, nothing actually like. Holds you to that if you wanna do something of your own. CMWGE is notable for being the most customizable of these systems by far.

What's next?

A couple recommendations!

First, I'd recommend reading some of these games! Glitch and Nobilis 3e are imo the most accessible of the game books + they're ones still in use, but CMWGE is also absolutely worth checking out; just be aware that it's handing you a toolbox, so there's a lot more big chunks of mechanics to work through. Honestly, don't be afraid to skip around these books and look at whatever catches your interest. They're very rewarding reads! If you want to read fiction, The Fable of the Swan and The Night-Bird's Feather are both also really good starting points.

Next, talk with people about them! The scene is kinda scattered, but you can still find people on tumblr, Twitter, and cohost at the very least who're talking about this stuff. There's also an official discord and an older fan discord (you can ask me for an invite to that one) where people are pretty active.

Also, just, try playing the games! A lot of the apparent complications are a lot easier to parse and understand when you actually see them in play, and they're fun games.

Finally, don't be afraid to keep asking questions! Given the chance, a lot of us won't shut up about these games, myself included.

[theopolis]

hello!! im sure youve gotten this question before but im having a Harry Moment and want to get Even Weirder about it SO !! i was wondering if you have a recommendation for approaching the original comics, where to start, which runs you think are the best reads for capturing his story, stuff like that!! your blogs a joy to browse, thanks so much!!!

Hello fellow Harold enthusiast!! I have in fact gotten this question before but I'm actually quite happy to receive it again as I've long been meaning to create a Harry reading list that would (hopefully) allow people to follow his entire story up to his death

In this chronological guide I've attempted to capture Harry's journey as a character, narrowed down from my own 616 reading experience.

I tried to stay focused on Harry-centric storylines and issues, but I couldn't resist adding some casual appearances particularly during the Silver Age because 1) I think of it as foundational to just about everything that matters in Spider-Man comics and 2) Harry-centric storylines tend to show him at his most distressed. They're important and often brilliant, but reading only those issues feels like a disservice to his kind and loving qualities. It's important to experience the smaller, calmer moments with him as well to truly understand his character.

Personal favorites are bolded, if you care for my bias.

Due to the numerous Spider-Man mags that were at times running simultaneously and ping-ponging storylines between one another, titles will be abbreviated as follows;

The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) = TASM63

The Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) = TSSM76

Web of Spider-Man (1985) = WOSM85

Now let's get into it!

Harry Osborn Reading List

Flashbacks

These were published more recently, but take place before Harry's first appearance in the comics

Short about Harry's childhood and Norman's failings as a father. One of the best depictions of their relationship, in my opinion

Nice Things from Amazing Spider-Man Extra! #3

Gwen-centric miniseries set during her time in high school and giving some insight on her and Harry's longlasting friendship

Giant Size Gwen Stacy

From introduction to deathbed

Watch Harry evolve from goofy background character to Peter's most important narrative foil!

First establishing of Harry's character and his dynamics with other key personages such as Peter and Norman

TASM63 #31, #34, #39, #40

Further development of all aforementioned things. The highs and lows of Peter and Harry's life as roommates. Daddy issues. Romantic drama. Drug addiction subplot. Anything you could ask

TASM63 #46, #47, #53, #54, #57, #59, #60, #61, #62, #63, #66, #74, #82, #95, #96, #98, #105, #110, #118

The storyline that changed everything

TASM63 #119, #120, #121, #122

Harry grows increasingly suspicious and paranoid around Peter following his father's death

TASM63 #123, #124, #126, #127, #129, #134, #135

Now... here's a disclaimer for the following issues: Despite the aforementioned buildup being very well executed, the result is not exactly so and has more to do with giving the Goblin as a concept another hurrah, rather than delving into Harry's character. In fact I'd even argue they're out of character for Harry, as his behavior in them is just cartoonishly diabolical and in stark contrast to both his previously established personality and subsequent depictions of his Goblin. So yeah, these issues are technically important to the grander picture of what is happening with Harry and why, but don't expect insight lol

TASM63 #136, #137

Harry's back and his friends are more than happy to welcome him. He even moves in with Flash

TASM63 #151, #152, #153

Harry and Liz Allan enter a romance and quickly move on to engagement. He is also seen seeking psychiatric treatment

TASM63 #156, #157, #163, #166, #167

The happiness was not to last: Liz' stepbrother, Mark Raxton aka the Molten Man stirs up trouble, and she leaves the city in the aftermath. Harry seeks fault within himself and appears to be on his way to going green again – but is all as it seems?

TASM63 #172, #173, #174, #175, #179, #180

Harry and Liz have settled into the suburbs. In come more Molten Man and more insecurities!

TSSM76 #63

A mysterious foe known as the Hobgoblin has been attacking the company Harry inherited from his father and even blackmailing him with Norman's secret identity. During this troubled time, Liz and Harry are also having a baby

TASM63 #239, #244, TSSM76 #85, TASM63 #249, #250, #251, #260, #261, #263, TSSM76 #146, WOSM85 #47, TASM63 #312, TSSM76 #147

Molten Man, take three – this time with a wholesome twist

WOSM85 #61, #62

Harry briefly attempts to turn the Green Goblin into a superhero

WOSM85 #66, #67

The final Green Goblin Jr Saga – an absolute Must Read. If I could recommend just one Harry storyline, it would definitely be this one

TSSM76 #178, #179, #180, #181, #182, #183, #184, #189, #200

Post OMD Revival/"Clone Harry"

Full disclosure, I don't read much Post OMD Spider-Man. One day I might venture into it despite my gripes and add more to this section. Until then: I'd sort of be amiss not to include these two at the very least in a Harry Osborn reading list, even if recent nonsensical twists have revealed Post OMD Harry to have been a clone all along

Harry and Peter's reunion

Amazing Spider-Man Family #4

Harry cutting ties with his father. While I think this story could have been improved in numerous ways, watching Harry leave Norman behind is still pretty satisfying and I enjoy the way his relationship with Peter is portrayed in this

TASM63 #595, #596, #597, #598, #599

[yeowninefive]

My 2024 Art Retrospective (Part 1)

Sorry for this lackluster introduction, but I've worked on this for quite some time and this is (once again) super long as it stands. So here goes.

Fanart: Last year I talked about how at the start of 2023, I had a decent start in drawing fanart; only for it to fall at the wayside due to my work on OC projects at the time. The story is pretty identical for 2024 where an OC project I worked on for the spring (Mime En Blanche) and some big major changes IRL (taking up on a new job following my degree completion/graduation) ended up scuttling my plans quite a bit to do more fanart work. I do think I tried to make up for it somewhat in that for the rest of the year, I made quite a few works of my OCs in the appearance or attire of characters from notable works (and at least a couple works featuring the other way around).

Nonetheless, still not too satisfied with that outcome; so what I'm hoping to do is take a "one for me and one for them" attitude with my art for 2025; where I actively make sure to have a more even production cycle of art of my OCs and art of works I like or have a passing interest in.

Animation: Again, similar to 2023, I made some pretty small results, though I think they represent some notable advances. *batteries were included (as part of my Mime En Blanche project) was an interesting one where it was originally supposed to be just artwork, but somehow I managed to find time to develop it further into a short animation, so that was cool. It may not be too surprising that it was made at the same time as the bigger --and standout animation project-- Pan Rebanado, which I actually took additional steps to expand it into a very small video (with some technical elements such as a camera pan and later added sound effects). Both of these also fulfilled a goal I wanted to do for 2024 where both animations were done in color.

Unfortunately, this is pretty much where my animation efforts for the year end for 2024. Both of these animations were from the spring, and my aforementioned job pushed it way towards the back in terms of priority. There is/was one other animation that I only barely started and haven't done much with. Moreover, all of these were in Clip Studio Paint, I didn't do much --if anything-- with OpenToonz.

My hope for 2025 is that I try and work on animation more consistently, in more casual/small doses. To that end, I hope to address that by getting back into learning animation more, publishing more "WIP" works for stuff I started on but didn't/haven't finished, and trying my hand at animatics when not publishing small/simple animations/doodles.

Backgrounds/environments: I think my focus on backgrounds/environments weren't quite as strong as last year (which I feel was a better return to form after the dip in 2022), but it was still a pretty good effort. Namely with some of my character-specific artwork (Name, Come On Home, and Strum Against the Storm to list as highlights) and some of the environments I made for my Mime En Blanche project, though I also got at least one landscape (Merge) and mixed media artwork (Zoe and Coffee) in for this year as well. As a negative, meanwhile, I again didn't get to try and revisit any of my previous landscapes for a remake, unfortunately. I'll be surprised if I ever get around to making one at any point for 2025.

Speaking of my mixed media artwork, one of the goals I mentioned I wanted to do was to produce more mixed media work with my OCs, as I still have photos left over from my 2023 Canada trip I haven't gotten around to yet. As a matter of fact--I actually have *more* photos from another trip from this year that I'd like to use for my art as well. So my goal is return to those photos and start cranking out more of those throughout 2025--this will probably be a domain The Commodities OC band will be occupied in for quite a while. (I also imagine any additional landscape/environment work I do will be showcased in future comics, which I'll talk about in my next section.)

Comics/stories/OC projects: The aforementioned Mime En Blanche (MEB) project was my landmark for this year; and while I'm still pretty pleased with it, I do wish it garnered a little more interest like my Clock Robin Caper did. (Part of it I feel is besides a smaller OC roster, I honestly don't know if one of the creators of the featured OCs ever saw or noticed it.) I probably would had gotten another OC project done this year, but my new job disrupted a lot of my art plans.

In the meantime, I also do like the handful of comic strips and one-page cartoons I also made, the main thing I like about them is that a good number of them had pretty short production turnarounds—the path fro idea to product for at least two (Woe Betide Deu in particular, which was actually reworked from an older idea for a comic strip) was actually pretty brief, compared to numerous other ideas that still remain on the shelf.

My goal for 2024 was the hope to improve my time management to get more of my ideas/stories I've written done adapted into an artform (via illustration, comic, or animation/animatic); and it's pretty much the same goal for 2025. Though at this point, I feel like anything I get done at the rate things are going is going to be a win inof itself. I'm going to elaborate about this in length later.

Art trades/commissions: Pretty much the same as before--no real movement towards commissions, and any art trades I wanted to do was taken up by my MEB project, and then later by my current job. (I did get a couple of art done in lieu of then-current trends, but that was before I got my main job.)

The main difference I would say going into 2025 is that in light of my current job (in that it's not related to either my recent education/studies or my hobbies) I think I feel confident enough that I want to do some kind of standalone test run for some sort of commission/freelance work. I'll probably end up doing some research or asking some other creators for advice. On a related note, I might also open a Patreon, Ko-fi, or some other equivalent. I just want to try and force some movement in this area, especially if pushes me in a direction to be more conscious in how I arrange my time.

Art output/reception: Honestly, my job and changes regarding art platforms has changed things enough to the point that the best I can do is point to individual/specific achievements and use that as a yardstick to show any evidence of growth. Normally I would be been able to produce a tally of the total art I made in 2024, calculate the total number of interactions (based on certain metrics), and compare it to previous years to show the differences; but I simply haven't had the time and/or interest. This is where I will active give tumblr some genuine credit here in that it's actually been telling me in my art notifications certain milestones I've crossed with my likes and my reblogs (with at least over 2000 reblogs and over 2500 likes across all of my blogs, if I understand correctly). Maybe I will submit a post out of the blue somewhere in 2025 that does this (or at least compares that point in 2025 instead of 2024's end), but I'd advise not to hold your breath.

The one thing I can say is that in 2024, I wanted to try and take a step back from my art for my other hobbies; as well as start adhering to a more predicable art publishing schedule. I'd unfortunately say I failed on both aspects, though I definitely think my current job situation played a factor in both aspects. (I feel that I did net myself a minor win in discovering and starting to regularly use PostyBirb+ to publish my art across multiple platforms, although at times it certainly feels like it takes almost as much time publishing art individually to other platforms. I also do have to publish individually sometimes, since there are certain features PostyBirb+ doesn't support.)

So my desire to spend less my time on my art feels like it's hit a major crossroad with my art goals for 2025, which I feel would demand genuine time for me to develop certain skills and make certain accomplishments (like the animation and comics/stories stuff). I feel like the best scenario I can come up with is try and take more of a monthly (if not weekly) scheduled approach, where I try and focus on a particular goal for each month. (You may have noticed that try is a major key component of this retrospective.)

–

Much like with last year, I think this has gotten long enough that I’m splitting this up into two parts (I was trying my damnedest to avoid doing so, but one section just spiraled out of control). A link to the second part should eventually show up here. Here is my genuine gratitude to whomever that bothered to parse the whole thing (so far). Normally I would say "have a Happy New Year's Eve/Happy New Year's Day," but we're past both days. So I'll just say for now, have a Happy New Year...or at least, have a 2025 that's as least-awful as possible.

[omentranslates]

Owari no Seraph volume 32 author's afterword english fan translation

Howdy, the long awaited afterword is here. I say as if my volume didn't arrive literally 2 hrs ago. Anyways, thanks for working with me.

Also I included the volume comments this time XP and I translated the back promotional page too just bc I haven't seen anyone else post it yet?? But I don't pay super close attention to the teasers usually so don't come for me if it's just the same text as the last few.

"Afterword

Wow, this is it, the climax! Writing it gets as lonely as it is fun, and it's as fun as it gets lonely, among other things! To everyone who's followed along this long, I'm truly grateful.

From here on out, I'm going to have a new editor. Owari no Seraph has thus far been blessed with nothing but the best and brightest in editors, all full of motivation. From Hosono-san (the sharpest blade in Shueisha) to Kosuge-san (the industry's top Nice Guy) to Kasai-san (who played it straight but turned out to be a total weirdo). And now, exploding onto the scene to take the baton from those three absolute characters, and his name issssss.......Okuyama-saaaaaannnn!!!!!

Now, this new guy in charge is truly amazing, he's got enough motivation to take me aback! He goes, "Kagami-san! We could have the whole world!! Nono, the whole universe!!! From now on just leave it all to meeeeee!!!! There's no doubt we'll do great things together, so just leave it all to me okayyyyyy!!!!" He's been yelling like that since we first met. He brought so much of that heat to the venue we were going to have our first meeting over dinner at and we ended up getting chased out and banned from coming back! It ended up being a whole incident, we really started off with a bang.....is what I'd like to put here, but I'm actually working on this afterword before that aforementioned meeting so I decided to just write my heart. The truth is that we actually haven't met yet! (Say what?)

Everyone, look forward to the next volume, where I tell you all how our introductions went! The one I'm writing now will actually probably pass through my new editor Okuyama-san's hands before we do meet, so I'm kinda scared about how that's gonna go, I'm like shaking (lol). But I'll definitely have a story to tell for next afterword! So on that note, I hope to see you all here again next volume, for those who just wanted to be done reading before it gets deep, I'll say goodbye to you here. I'll see you all next volume!!!!!

So, then, about myself recently. I put to rest some things that have been bothering me as a creator for sooo many years. Yayyyyy!! Wondering how I'm going to live and who I should become. As I'm facing up my works, and also my experiences as a person, as I'm experiencing the lives and deaths of those precious to me, what does it make of me? My characters grow up, am I working hard enough to keep up with them? I suddenly feel like I'm approaching my answers. And wow, what a ride it's been. What a ride being a creator is.

There was a time I was writing so many projects, but I've been rather spending my days studying since encountering those worrisome thoughts. But I've finished my studies and at long last arrived at just being thankful. It took a lot out of me to get here. And having Owari no Seraph publishing monthly, I think it was something that really managed to keep me as a creative grounded through it all. Writing is what I love most of all, I've been able to realize that it's who I am. For that, I am truly grateful to everyone. Yamamoto-san, Furuya-san, every one of my readers, to those in charge here and my editorial staff and everyone else who associates with me and every member of my family, I'm deeply thankful for the one of a kind, precious ties that bring us together in this world.

Which is all to say, I've returned to my extremely prolific writing habits, so I'll be glad if you all read what I've got to say!!!

Huh, I guess that wasn't too heavy afterall. Anyways, everyone, I'll see you next volume! Oh, and the finale of "Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu" is also happening after six long years. If any of you have ever read it, I hope you enjoy that too!

So then, see you in volume 33!!!!

Kagami Takaya"

Kagami Sensei's volume comment: "I'm writing so much! Back to the drafts!"

Yamamoto Sensei's volume comment: "We've reached volume 32. Yuuichirou and Mikaela, the Shinoa Squad, Ferid and Crowley, a lot of different stories have really taken off. I hope you're all excited!"

Promo page in the back (text only):

"On the move to make their own dreams come true...

All of these different stories speeding up towards the final battle!?"

The next volume is planned for October 2024

[erseac]

With that last story out of the way, let's do a little recap of 2024 in terms of me writing smut. This is only the second year that I've done it, and god, I've written so much. I don't think I'll keep up this pace next year. Or maybe I will, who knows.

I published a total of 19 new stories of very different lengths, for 72,999 new words in total. Some highlights in terms of writing:

I took part in the Rare Kink Buffet event and posted six stories for it: Go Fuck Yourself (one of only three Ladybug/Shadybug stories, but I think that's mostly due to other people tagging things differently), The Full Black Cat Experience, which is fairly popular yet somehow got zero comments, Hand Stuff, The Go-Between and Cozy for Miraculous, and Other Uses for Blood Bending as my first work in another fandom (Avatar the Last Airbender).

I took part in a thanksgiving-focused event (the idea being to produce smut that americans can secretly read at the thanksgiving dinner table) with A Lady's Secret.

For the Miraculous Ladybug Hurt/Comfort Prompt Meme I wrote Sprained Relationship.

The ML Kink Meme run by @fuckyeahladybug took off, getting a lot of new works by several writers, and I added three of them: My House, My Company, My Nathalie, featuring toxic post-resurrection AU Eminath; Venom, featuring Zoénette doing some experiments, and Playing the Part, featuring some illicit sex between Tom Dupain and (adult) Alya Césaire. Especially the latter is absolutely not everybody's cup of tea, and that's okay, but it was a very interesting writing challenge. Only one of them is a self prompt fill, but I'm not going to state which one.

Apart from the Zoénette one, there's also been a lot of Chloé this year: When Friends Come From Afar, published just a few hours ago, and Smile!, my first planned multi-chapter smut story (though really it's not much longer than some of my one-shots), both with Adrien, Marinette and Chloé. There's also A Thief's Punishment, which is just Marinette and Chloé and some accidental (but well-deserved) bondage.

My passion for stupid Marigami continued with Make-Up and Hair Cuts and also showed up in Dance Floors and Dragons, which I wrote to create some more canonical ship tags.

I branched out into some different fandoms, with the aforementioned "Other Uses for Blood Bending" and Secret of the Stone for Tomb Raider (reboot era), which I wrote on a whim. I wonder whether people would be upset if I wrote a second version of this in the Miraculous Ladybug universe with Nathalie instead…

Not fitting into any of the categories I just made up on the spot are Phones Must Stay Off During Movie Night, a fun thing to write but I have no idea where it'll go next, and Sleepy, written because I was sleepy.

Last but not least, For Science! got an update, but I can't really take credit for it, as @akumatisedhamster contributed some great art for it. Thank you so much!

As for next year: I promise absolutely nothing. However, I want to continue writing. I have a lot of WIPs, both new ones I started this year and old ones I've had in my mind (and partially on the page) for ages. There is some Adrinette, Ladynoir, Marichat, Chlobrina and a lot of other things brewing; we'll see where they get to. And I definitely want to get into some relationship tags I haven't used yet. Alyanette, for example.

I think Miraculous Ladybug will remain my main fandom, but I don't think it'll be my only one. We'll see what ideas hit me. I'd also like to participate in some more fandom events, but no specific plans yet. I have ideas for more fills for ML Kink Meme prompts as well.

And it's also possible that I just won't write very much, since I do have other hobbies as well. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, thank you so much for all the kudos and comments and bookmarks. I've had way more fun writing smutty stories than I ever expected thanks to you all!

[finalgirlminamurray]

alright i'm gonna do it. my tcm fanfics:

The Sawyer Sisters, Fifty Years Later. the first one i posted which i wanted to get done in time for the 50th anniversary of the events of the first movie (not the movie itself, that was this year). consider it an introduction of sorts to the setting and characters of my gender-swapped au. written as an in-universe journalistic article but the kind that someone may have written out, sat down and looked at for a while, then discarded. i wrote it a few weeks before posting and i think it came out well enough. i felt like i should do something to celebrate the date and also establish my ideas.

The Texas Chainsaw Tarot. a conceptual piece that just consists of my descriptions of what i'd imagine a tcm-themed tarot deck would look like. i'm interested in tarot from an artistic/symbolic perspective and designing fandom-themed tarot decks is always fun, but i can't draw so i have to write it out instead. i'm glad i posted it on ao3 because it got some decent engagement. i still stand by all my choices.

don't question the virtue names: the sawyer sisters saga. this is my collection of all the sawyer sisters-verse fics i've posted. i'd already had these written but i did some significant edits before posting, and i think they turned out alright. still it's a very niche thing to have written so i didn't expect much of an audience. it's possible to read these like original fiction, but it would be too much to make the necessary changes to make it actual original fiction, you know? anyway what i've posted so far is focused on chastity (chop top's counterpart) and what she was doing in 1969-1973, because i felt that needed the most elaboration in this universe, and it turned into a whole thing because i just kept writing more and more detailed lore. i'll probably post more stories focused on other characters and time periods at some point, but for now we have a three-part history. (chass has kind of become my blorbo from my brain due to how much i've expended on her story, and she's not even really my favorite of the sort-of ocs!)

features a lot of 60s-70s cult stuff, partly inspired by some of the true crime literature i read around this time for "research", and partly by just the general vibe of the era. i deliberately didn't want this directly based off of any real-life things even though it's impossible not to be influenced, just as real cult leaders were probably inspired by the tactics of others before them. also features a lot of ocs.

i actually wrote these in reverse order of how they ended up being posted. i just kept going further back in the timeline while i wrote

ace of swords, or the rhythm of life (is a powerful beat). the first in the aforementioned series. chastity goes to la, meets and eats a girl, joins a new community, meets another girl, and... this was just meant to establish how she got to the final point, but it became its own thing soon enough. 2 chapters, 14k words.

hit the floor (and crawl to your mama). chastity goes to a party and has her first negative experience with the cult, then goes home, but not for long. originally written as an interlude of sorts. the last chapter takes place later in the timeline than everything else that's been posted so far, because again, these were written in reverse order. 3 chapters, 12k words.

the flesh failures (let the sun shine in). the last part...for now. chastity does something she's not proud of and unintentionally performs a heroic action, then gets her head bashed in for it. 3 chapters, 14k words.

more to come if i ever post the rest, and then...who knows? i'd also really like to expand on this verse here in ways that wouldn't fit into a published fanfic, regardless of whether anyone else cares lol.

[dynamic-k]

Me me has a quetions :3 when did you start writing and where do your ideas come from?

-BK

Ooh, that's a tough one.

Hmm. Well, I know I started getting a like for writing in the 3rd grade. I'd done some random school two-paragraph assignment and Mrs. Meusen, my lovely teacher whom I still remember to this day, had returned everyone's papers with our grades.

And she liked to write custom messages along with the overall score and stars.

She told me in her little markered note at the top of my paper, that my writing was well structured and I make a good author. Something like that, I don't remember exactly how it was phrased, but it was a compliment to my writing.

I have no memory of what I wrote, though. It wasn't significant.

That was probably the first jump-start encouragement I got, though how it affected me in the future was probably subconscious for the most part. It's not the driving force that I remember on a regular basis as "Ah, yes, this event here is what started it all."

That long ago compliment just came to mind when I really started thinking about what the answer to your inquiry was.

My ideas just spawned into existence from my imagination. I was always the kid that found immense joy in reading books and also staring off into space. The wall. The ceiling. Out a window.

I once got lost in space during my 2nd grade Spanish class, while we were doing TESTS.

And I was lost in space, not really looking at what I was looking at... Well, I was apparently looking at someone else's test, lol. Got scolded. XD

My dreams were often the source of cool ideas also. I had entire MOVIES worth of action and everything. Sleeping was always a well anticipated privilege...

I wonder why. 👉👈

I remember my very first fanfiction was written for a comic series, Mega Man by Ian Flynn.

Cool robots, action, adventure, fights, suspense, a whole assortment of my favorite types of things to enjoy from any media, be it novel, comic, or movie.

It was... really bad. My family tells me it was good for my age at the time. The ONE friend I randomly decided to share the old google Docs with also gives me positive feedback, but... ehhhhhh.

There's reasons I haven't continued it further for years. It was pretty bad, in my eyes. I definitely had so much fun writing it though. It was a self-insert, sort of? But with an OC that had cool characteristics I just liked. Not really me, but a character that was an amalgamation of ninja skills, smarts, and powers. And was very much, as the term goes [that I would learn about just a few years later], a "Mary Sue". An overpowered character.

At least, my character still had a plethora of issues, and as the story progressed, I found ways to insert Nora [the aforementioned OC] into problems and lessen the overpowered aspects a bit.

I learned from that work. A lot.

I guess, if anyone is really interested, I can post the links to the old docs. I don't suppose I mind all that much, though I'm warning you all. I ATTEMPTED ROMANCE.

AND IF YOU ALL KNOW ME AND MY CURRENT HABITS... YOU KNOW I SAY ON A REGULAR BASIS THAT I CAN'T WRITE ROMANCE.

It was written by 13-year-old Scarlett. She doesn't exist anymore.

I think I somehow got off topic, why am I talking about my first fanfic...

Anyway!

I wrote a lot of other stories also.

I had originals.

I had fanfics. [My hyperfixation on Beyblade Metal Fusion remains dormant to this day, but I still remember all the ideas I never wrote down yet]

I had dreams that I attempted to normalize and remove dream-weirdness from for story material.

I had school assignments that were fairly tame as far as action, but I kept the docs anyway.

And then I tried to publish stuff.

[By this, I mean, on the Archive. I had technically posted fanfiction before on fanfiction.net but we don't talk about those abominations...]

I was in a Lego Monkie Kid hyperfixation at the time, and was currently on the cliffhanger of season 4. [Before the special came out, I mean.]

And I had a very very vivid dream scenario one night, where my brain decided to imagination its own ending and wrapped up plot for the cliffhanger of season 4.

I decided to post it. And I still have more ideas that I have yet to sort out and add more chapters to the fic, but that was the first published work on the Archive, I think.

And... it was romantic focused, actually. The one OC was a character that fit well into the series, and wasn't just an annoying rendition of overpowered characteristics. (I TELL YOU. I LEARNED FROM "NORA")

And, well, my dreams are good at imaginating romantic scenes. It's just my brain doesn't know how to make it sound good with words yet.

I'll get there... 😅

To get back to the point I seem to keep deviating from as I reminisce over older works and my author journey as a whole: I have come very far.

My first Alan Becker fanfic, was A Second's Tale. Which, until Super Sticks appeared, remained my most popular fic.

It started so SO simply. All I knew was, "NEW HYPERFIXATION GO BRRR!" and "I wanna write a fanfic and post it"

Then it escalated.

The AVA/AVM fandom is still my all-time favorite, and I think it's honestly going to stay that way forever. It's definitely the longest fixation I've ever had.

All my others are dormant, or active in spurts. I have a list of like, 60? 65? fandoms I'm into, lol.

Uhm, anyways, yeah.

That's the summary.

Man, that's another thing I suck at. Summarization.

Look at this long schpiel of words!!

No one gonna read this. XD

TL;DR

I have come far from the 3rd grade.

I still aim to make a difference. Make someone's day with my weird unique sense of humor. Make others inspired. ;]

And my imagination go brrrr for ideas. Dreams are just the best thing ever.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk--

[polutrope]

Not a character ask, but I hope it's ok? Anyways, wanted to drop by and thank you for articulating why recently it has been itching me whenever fics/posts/etc put Maedhros as the best and better parent of the E&E twins! And on a related note, do you have any thoughts whether (going with the narrative idea of cascading events starting with sparing the twins) searching for Elured & Elurin shouldn't have been also connected to those, and technically therefore should've been attributed to Maglor in the published Silm (or rather, connected to aforementioned chain events), as well?

(In reference to this.)

Totally okay, and thank you! I am happy to see from the reception of that post that I am not alone.

I love this insight! It certainly fits with the themes of pity and repentance in the series of events I talked about (i.e., pitying and raising Elros and Elrond, being glad at the appearance of the Silmaril in the sky, "Less evil shall we do in the breaking", and finally casting the Silmaril away and wandering in pain and regret).

I like your term "cascade" for these events. I talk at the end of the this bio about pathos and why I think these four events are a large part of why readers finish the Silm especially sympathetic to Maglor.* In that vein, let's dub this the "Pathos Cascade" 😁.

*Not all readers, of course. Without judgment of either pathway, I'd be curious to see how reception (of Maglor, but also more broadly) changes depending on whether someone came to the Silm via fandom or not.

I had thought in my original post that the only mention of Maedhros searching for Dior's sons came from a marginal note on the Tale of Years -- the briefly sketched annals that Tolkien revised in the 1950s, published in War of the Jewels -- in which it is Maidros/Maedhros who fosters Elros and Elrond. Which would support the hypothesis that it's part of the "Pathos Cascade"!

But Christopher in a footnote reminded me that the "failed search" element actually first entered the story in The Later Annals of Beleriand (written sometime between 1930-37, published in The Lost Road):

"The young sons of Dior, Elboron and Elbereth, were taken captive by the evil men of Maidros' following, and they were left to starve in the woods; but Maidros lamented the cruel deed, and sought unavailingly for them." (Annal 306[506])

(Yes, Elured and Elurin's names changed a lot. The servants became Celegorm's in The Tale of Years.)

In the Later Annals, Maglor is still the one fostering Elrond ("Elrond was taken to nurture by Maglor," Annal 329[529]; Elros conceptually existed by 1937, but Tolkien never added him to this particular text). So that's a point against the hypothesis.

However, we're talking about evolving and unfinished drafts, so it doesn't mean Tolkien might not have reassigned the search to whichever brother he eventually decided should get the "Pathos Cascade". Or not.

(Sidenote: It's not like either Maedhros or Maglor is unrepentant in any version -- they are both the "sympathetic Feanorians" -- but still, in every draft only one of them is firmly connected to the sort of pity and "letting go" we see in the "Pathos Cascade".)

Regardless of Tolkien's intentions, it fits well, and I like it as a way to support my take that all four surviving brothers search for the sons of Dior (for complicated reasons that I won't get into). Perhaps it's hypocritical of me to simultaneously insist that only Maglor should be a parental figure to Elros and Elrond, but it helps me make sense of events. As the discussion around this has shown, there are other ways to do so, but this one works for me.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about the Silm's textual history. I know dissecting this stuff is not everyone's cup of tea, but I love it.

[thestupidhelmet]

Brown from your ask game please

🤎 Brown: How did you decide to write (or why are you writing) a certain fanfic?

Answering a variation of this question. 😁

One, I'm creatively curious. I ask myself questions about what would happen if X were different -- like if Hyde had gone to Kelso's uncle's ice shack with everyone else. Then I imagine the characters' interactions and plot arising from them. If it's interesting and creatively inspiring enough, I write the story. Those are the One Difference stories.

Two, I fall in creative love with a non-T7S show or movie and wonder how the T7S characters would react under these circumstances and stressors. How they might change the T7S characters. The plot is affected by the T7S characters and their choices, too, and changes accordingly -- and I try to put as much originally into the story as possible.

Reflections Through the Glass was my first T7S fanfic, and its plot hews closely to the source material (The 10th Kingdom) while still having plenty of original elements because the T7S characters' internal and relationship conflicts are different than the characters from the source material.

Then I wrote a sequel, Beneath a Shattered Sky, and the plot is original to me. The fantastical elements are original to me but exist in the world of the source material. I have a deep knowledge of fairy tales and folklore, so that helps. I also came up with completely original fantastical elements, one of which I'm particularly fond of. ��

Hyde's Long Way Home takes Groundhog Day's time loop concept and sticks Hyde into it. Except for the time loop and the why of it (Hyde must grow and change), the story is original to me. (I wrote this fic before time loop stories became a trope in fanfic, traditionally published novels, and derivative movies.)

The Understudy was inspired by a favorite film, but my story is so different that it would be difficult for someone to guess which movie inspired it (and I'm not telling 😂).

Those Who Play with Demons is inspired by both a TV show and an unrelated movie. I combined the two and created something new.

Three, a story idea pops into my head. Either from the soup of my subconscious or interests I'm conscious of. Or both.

Jackie Stargazer is the epitome of the above -- although the original, scrapped idea (baaad) was inspired by several T7S fics by heatherlea75. The story I ultimately wrote (over the course of a decade) is all from me own noggin'. I'd seen too many T7S fics use trauma as angst porn. I chose to write a story that explores trauma and its aftermath realistically and -- crucially -- how the healing process works.

Writing is wonderful, but an author has a responsibility to do research (sometimes extensive) -- even on subjects the author has experience with (despite how much or how little). A mundane example from Hyde's Long Way Home: Hyde learns how to horseback ride. I had horseback riding lessons for many years in my childhood, both English and Western style. I still did research to make sure I got the details right in the story. ... And I have yet to correct the French in that story. 🤦 I have the corrections, but I haven't made them.

To end this detailed answer on a positive note, the character arcs, overall plot, and the plots feeding into the overall plot of Those Who Play with Demons bring me so much joy to write that I've stuck with the story for a decade; my excitement to continue writing it helped me through a major, traumatic life change I had no control over, during which I had to put the story aside; and the moment I regained enough muscle strength after almost losing my life last year (unrelated to the aforementioned life change), I continued to write the story until I finished the first draft.

Inspiration, passion, internal and external mental-emotional exploration, curiosity, joy, and a desire to give readers some kind of healing or peace or happiness is why I write the stories I write. ♥️