#Middle Earth Reimagined Project

[meluiloth]

Tauriel Rewrite, pt 3

part 1 part 2

This project is very long!! I am reimagining Tauriel's story in The Hobbit movies, and so far I've outlined everything from the start of her story to when she and Legolas go to Gundabad. I don't know how many parts this will be, so let's get right into it!

The ride to Gundabad takes a full day, and Legolas hardly says a word; Tauriel knows this place bothers him, and she asks if he really wants to do this. He nods resolutely and says that his mother's ghost needs to be put to rest. When they reach the fortress, her stomach turns in horror; it is an ugly, jagged structure in the midst of colorless crags - but it is not abandoned. She points to a flickering light in the distance, and Legolas says they will wait for nightfall to advance.

When the time comes, it turns out that infiltration is not necessary - Tauriel wakes Legolas, who had been resting, and they both stare up at a swarm of bats that are filling the sky. Those bats are bred for war - and shortly after their appearance, the gates of Gundabad swing open and out comes a massive army of Orcs. Tauriel's heart drops into her stomach, and she says that the Elves must be warned of this. They may already be too late.

When they return to Mirkwood, however, they find it nearly emptied - every able-bodied warrior has gone to Erebor; now that Smaug is dead, the Elvenking went to the aid of the homeless Laketown-dwellers, and also to try and bargain with Thorin, King-Under-The-Mountain, for some of the gold which once belonged to the Elves. Tauriel found herself disgusted by that notion - the Elves had hid in the shadows of the Wood for centuries, only to emerge for the greed of gold? Never before had her faith in her people faltered, but now it did.

Still, she has to warn them about the oncoming army of Orcs, and so she and Legolas set off toward the Mountain, hoping they aren't too late. When they arrive, however, they find it already besieged by Orcs and a whole host of Dwarves alike; the Elves and the Men of Laketown are fighting hard for their lives against two armies. Amidst the turmoil, Tauriel's keen eyes catch sight of Thranduil, leading his troops with unwavering authority; she rushes to his aid, and though he looks a bit surprised to see her, there is no place in this situation to talk about her little rebellion.

Though she fights hard, cutting through the enemy ranks with grace and ferocity, the Elves are losing ground; the flash of their golden armor is dwindling as more and more are cut down by Orcs. Thranduil sees this, and fear glimmers in his eyes. He orders the Elves to fall back towards Mirkwood, fighting all the way, but he has chosen the lives of his own people above the lives of the others. Tauriel is disgusted by this, and she loses her temper. She calls him a coward, in front of everyone, and condemns his selfishness and reclusiveness, accusing him of doing what is right for himself rather than his people. Thranduil's face becomes a mask of anger, and he tells her that she knows nothing of leadership, or what it means to lose someone - and they both stop dead. Tauriel is reeling; she lost both of her parents, and her entire life was dedicated to protecting the people of Mirkwood so no one else had to suffer like that. Thranduil, for his part, clearly regrets his words, but regains his composure and orders her to return with their people. Tauriel blinks away the tears of anger and instead turns away. If she cannot fight for Mirkwood, she will fight for all of Middle-Earth.

In the distance, she catches sight of Kili and his fellow Dwarves climbing up the slope of Ravenhill, following a band of Orcs. She breaks into a run, determined to reach them before anything can happen to them. Fighting her way to the top is no easy feat, but she accomplishes it - just in time to see the leader of the Orcs run Kili's brother through and drop him to the ground; the young Dwarf is dead before he can hit the ground. Kili falls to his knees, uttering a howl of pain, and does not see as an Orc comes up behind him and prepares to plunge its sword into his back. Tauriel leaps into action, cutting the Orc down before it can kill Kili, and he looks up in surprise at her. She yells at him to keep fighting, for his brother's memory, and he nods and stands to his feet.

The battle rages on, and Tauriel finds herself surrounded by a never-ebbing wave of Orcs. If she kills one, two more jump forth to take its place, and she begins to panic, knowing she cannot fight forever. She raises her sword to strike at an enemy, but a heavy blow from the side catches her unawares and throws her into the stone wall. White explodes in her vision and she tries to stagger to her feet as a huge Orc advances upon her, a malicious grin on his face. She reaches for her sword, but he kicks it aside and prepares to swing at her again - but before the blow reaches her, Kili jumps in front of the blade, taking it in the chest. As he slumps down beside her, the life already leaving his eyes, she screams out in horror and scrambles to her feet, hatred filling her. Forgetting her pain, she launches herself at the Orc, and they tumble down the slope, grappling with each other; after an intense struggle, she finally vanquishes the Orc, and she runs back up to where Kili is.

Kili is already dead, and tears fill Tauriel's eyes; she hadn't known him very well, but he was a good, hopeful person, and he had helped her realize that what she had been told about the world wasn't all true. She was his friend, and ... had the circumstances been different ... they might even have been something more, someday. But now that friendship has been brutally cut short.

The battle slowly dies down, the Orcs having been defeated by the combined forces of the Elves, Dwarves, and Men, but Tauriel remains by Kili's side, not knowing what to do with herself. She assumes she has been banished from Mirkwood, and she has no future. The Dwarves mourn the death of their King, Kili's brother, and Kili, and say they will bury them; Tauriel takes this as a gentle prompting to leave, and she reluctantly nods. They stop her for another moment and tell her she was a friend to them as well as Kili, and that, even though she is an Elf, she will be welcome in Erebor.

As Tauriel makes her way silently down the cliffside, she sees Thranduil climbing up towards her; they both stop, regarding each other with apprehension, before Thranduil looks down; Tauriel sees tears in his eyes. She opens her mouth to say something - a defense or an apology, she hasn't decided yet - but the King interrupts her. She was right, he says - he has let his bitterness overcome any desire to allow the rest of the world in. Tauriel blinks in shock; Thranduil is not the kind of person to admit his faults, especially to someone who has been so disloyal to him. He goes on to say that, while she has shown a great amount of disrespect to him as of late, it was perhaps not unfounded. Tauriel apologizes for her rebelliousness in her turn; tears are blurring in her eyes now. She pauses a moment before she says that, though she will always love Thranduil as a father and Legolas as a brother, her heart is not in Mirkwood anymore. She wants to expand her horizons and see what good she can do in the world around her. Thranduil looks grieved by this decision, but he nods and gives her his blessing. He says she will always have a place in Eryn Galen if she yearns for home, and he opens his arms to her. Tauriel embraces him and calls him Ada for the first time.

When she parts from him, she finds Legolas a short way away; his eyes are red-rimmed, but he grins at her and says he's proud of her for leaving the nest. He also says he will be terribly bored without her, and she tells him he'll find someone else to bother in time. He gives her a short embrace and goes to his father.

Tauriel leaves Mirkwood behind and becomes a lone warrior in Middle-Earth, always appearing where she is needed, never staying in one place for long, but doing as much good as she can while she is there. It is many years before she sees Mirkwood again.

Several years later, an ambassador from Eryn Galen arrives in Rivendell, escorting the Prince; she does not say much in the Council of Elrond, but she is recognized by many there as the Daughter of the Forest, the wandering hero.

Well, that's the end of my rewrite of Tauriel! I had so much fun writing this, and I hope you had fun reading it!

[deadmountaindaughter]

Hi! I’m Emi! I’m an 18 19-year-old transfem who cracked at least 30% because of tumblr and therefore naturally was obligated to inflict myself on y'all.

I'll be honest I was about to talk about what I'll mostly be posting here when I realized I have no clue. So instead here are various things I might post/mention:

-funny things from my life #emi irl

-writing/oc ideas, tagged with my project names(see below) or just #emi writes

-being weirdly introspective randomly out of nowhere and then going back to rbing memes #emi thinks

-overanalyzing songs, with or without fandoms attached #songs reimagined

occasionally mentioning:

-#the council of moms, for my 2 moms

-#that fucker, for That Fucker (you'll figure it out)

-#AK47, for my best friend

and here's some fandoms *deep inhale*:

Paranatural, The Locked Tomb, Homestuck, The Legend of Eli Monpress, Rolling with Difficulty, School Bus Graveyard, Aurora, El Goonish Shive, xkcd, Castoff, Cosmere, Earth 2068, Minecraft, Dark Matter, MTMTE/Lost Light, SCP, Owl House, Gravity Falls, Alan Becker, Greenglass House, and probably more I'm forgetting

I'm an aspiring writer, so you'll probably see stuff tagged/mentioning some of these(putting this under a cut if i can figure it out):

Aberrant: A three-ish part series(as in, there are three full series within this universe) about a bunch of queer magic teenagers doing their best to fix the world. So far the parts are Acclimation, Antiques, and Apocalypse, but those names might change. Aberrant is my biggest/main project. Literally begging you to ask me about this so I can infodump about my gay superhero babies.

Driftless: what if we put eldritch gods in Mean Girls and they were lesbians about it. In other words, the four de facto queens of their public school(who all hate each other) are abruptly given the powers and godly forms of four (mostly) dead eldritch deities, and it goes from there. Only two arcs plotted so far but I have a feeling tumblr will like this one so maybe you can bully me into writing more of it(please)

Mayview Middle and the Three-Body Problem(working title): my Paranatural fanfiction. Basically covering "what if the other two major clubs/groups at MM, the Journalism Club and Johnny's gang, ended up as spectrals as well". So far I have one arc, thirteen chapters(around 1k-2k each), fully written, and incredibly vague plans for three more arcs maybe? For some reason I can literally only write this while not taking notes during chem class, which is why I haven't written more. Now on AO3!

The Unliving Learning Community: less an actual writing project and more a collection of OCs. They're a small dorm/polycule made up of various supers who can't quite be considered human, or alive, or both, anymore. They're fun.

Orbit: Not much to this one yet. Basically just a high fantasy setting I'll eventually figure out something to do with.

[languageoftheether]

In continuation of this post: Link

So far from what I've observed, first quarter moons definitely don't feel has heavy as third quarters. I'm attributing that to the fact first quarters are waxing & developing, whereas third quarters are waning & shedding. Though, there's definitely still this feeling of resisting something & "pushing ahead".

Capricorn Sun square Aries moon right now feels like "getting real" with something and moving forward anyways despite any real or perceived limits in front of our faces. And all the support Aries has right now, especially newfound Venus in Sagittarius, outnumbers whatever Sun in Capricorn is trying to get us to look at.

Sun in Capricorn in the middle of all this fire and air is def like an elephant in the room though. I think the elephant will just get louder when the Capricorn stellium builds within the next month.

That elephant specifically being: the tangible, material consequences of how long the collective has been disregarding and ignoring covid. The Capricorn stellium pushing a haaarrd square on Aries Jupiter seems like pressure! Much needed pressure on Aries to sloooww the fuck down from running rampant. This marks the last time Jupiter in Aries will get prolonged support and enablement from it's bestie Sagittarius 😭 (besides with moons).

Jupiter in Aries answering to Mars in Capricorn whilst Mars stands on Jupiter's neck with that earth-fire square is giving power imbalance galore 🚨. Hard limits and restrictions being set & folks going in an uproar about how it conflicts the story they've been telling themself this whole time, possibly?

Also with the knowledge of this covid surge being spoken about in the news more seriously (look to posts like this) this general time seems like the equivalent to a record scratch, especially after all this fire in the sky rn. A record scratch around what exactly? I'm not sure precisely, because I don't want to hold my breath for any solid mandates to come back, but it just feels like that maaay be the case with stuff like mask mandates already slowly coming back in some locations & institutions.

There's also the lunar nodes pointing to Jupiter in Aries and Mercury in Capricorn next month; the amplified voices and stories about the cold, dark reality of this ongoing pandemic we're still in will directly & impactfully challenge the all-consuming broken record that tells us every man is for himself when it comes to public health.

I'm curious to what's going to take root in the when the moon joins the Capricorn stellium and culminates to a new moon. Saturn is in Aquarius; maybe new language for what we call and/or how we describe long covid? Reimagining of where we can possibly go from here? I'm projecting ahead of time of course, so I suppose we'll see when the time comes.

[crieativity]

And now back to business as usual with Elrond just not being down for Gandalf doing this insane thing cause Mithrandir, we really don’t wanna deal with this rn w h y

[muddyorbsblr]

masterlist

AO3 Library here

Collections/Celebrations

500 follower celebration 1000 follower celebration Song-inspired Stories Drabbles Masterlist

Tales Reimagined

Events

14 Days of Valentines 2023 [Community Project] Kinktober 2023

Series

a heart like yours – Loki x Reader (eventually) // Steve x Reader (briefly)

On a mission to Sorsogon, Philippines to apprehend a healer performing extreme acts of vigilante justice, you get compromised with a curse placed on your heart. Now the team must break the curse or risk losing you forever.

relinquish the crown – dark!Loki x Reader

Loki surrenders his claim to the throne on one condition: He be betrothed to you, as was once tradition in your family’s ancestry. You…are Thor’s daughter.

secret notes – Loki x Reader

You’re an Avenger leading a secret life as a faceless content creator, singing covers on YouTube, choosing songs that you specifically dedicate to Loki. It’s the best way you can get your feelings out without risking getting hurt. So what happens when you start going viral and suddenly your teammates are so keen to find out who “The Lonely Avenger” on YouTube really is?

man of the month – Loki x Reader

The Avengers are making a calendar for charity and you're the designated photographer. Will you be able to keep your thoughts and hands to yourself around the guys as they make their attraction to you known? Will they?

rules of conduct – Loki x Reader

SHIELD has decided that it would be in everyone's best interest if Loki were more acclimated to the ways of Midgard/Earth since he has been residing there for the last few years to make amends for his attack on New York. Stark decided to draw names out of a hat to see who would be stuck with the task. Your name was drawn.

let me hear you – Loki x Reader

A curse has been placed on the entire world wherein the only ones that can speak your name are those that love you completely. And if they break your trust, your name gets wiped from their memory completely.

Multi-Part (5 parts or less)

talking in your sleep – Loki x Reader part 2

Loki returns from a recon mission to discover you hadn't slept since he left. Four days ago. based on the prompt "i haven't slept for four days"

sworn fealty – King!Loki x Asgardian Soldier!Reader

You're the soldier designated to tell King Loki that Lady Sif and the Warriors Three have left for Midgard to bring Thor home.

the right partner – Loki x Reader

You had no intentions of joining Stark's party, considering that your ex had just dumped you two days ago and he was already announcing his new relationship. And then along came Loki, offering to be your date for the night…

onyx – Loki x Reader part 1 part 2

You're stuck in the Avengers Compound because of an injury from your last mission, and you come across an adorable and affectionate little kitten.

Oneshots

what's today again? – Loki x Reader

Thor tries to wake you up to keep you from getting fired, but you refuse to believe that it's not Saturday, so he calls his brother for help.

revisiting Stuttgart – Loki x Reader

You presented Loki with an idea to go around places where he had less than favorable memories and you two can make new, better ones together. You start with Stuttgart, Germany. part of the Invade Me Chronicles

heaven sent – Loki x Reader

The guys try a bunch of angel-themed pick up lines on you to see which one makes you fold.

little darling – Loki x Reader

You find out that Loki made a joke about you being helpless without him because of your height, and you attempt to exact your revenge

men like you – Loki x Reader

prequel to 'revisiting Stuttgart'. You were tasked to perform crowd control in Stuttgart, Germany, disguising yourself as a gala attendee. This is how you and Loki met.

mission first, right? – Loki x Reader

You're plagued with doubts when Loki goes radio silent in the middle of a mission after being tasked to acquire intelligence in the possession of a drop dead gorgeous woman.

lavender haze – Loki x Reader

When a video of you and Loki goes viral, the world weighs in on your relationship. One comment in particular grates at Loki because it came from your mother.

excuses & opportunities – Loki x Reader

Loki has some questions about the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe. Part of the Winter Warmers Collection

observing. learning. fantasizing. – Virgin!Loki x Reader

Loki's just been made King of Asgard and he needs to make sure that he tells you vital piece of information about him before you hear it from gossip mongerers among the realm

all wrapped up – Loki x Reader

You unwittingly gave Loki advice on how to seduce you. Part of the Winter Warmers Collection

all i could give you – Loki x Reader

It seems that the entirety of Asgard had forgotten that today was supposed to be a day of celebration. Everyone but you, at least.

what makes a princess – Loki x Reader

Morgan asks a question about Jane's royalty status that leads to her revealing one of Loki's secrets

timeless – TVA!Loki x TVA!Reader

While doing some research to help out Mobius on a 'moonshot project', you and Loki come across a startling revelation about your lives. All your lives.

slipping between future and past – Timeslipping TVA!Loki x Reader

You give your friend a few pointers on what to know about Yule, and come across a familiar looking stranger in your bookstore.

a helping hand – Crime Lord!Loki x Reader (friendship/platonic)

When Loki enters the office and sees you visibly shaken with your eyes swollen, he takes it upon himself to find out what's wrong and how he could help

gestures & rain checks – Loki x Reader

It feels like your friends are getting plucked away from you one by one as their respective (or in Nat's case prospective) partners make grand gestures to ask them to be their Valentine.

bad feeling – Loki x Reader

Loki's entrance into the Avengers Compound depends on your approval

Multi-Part (5 parts or less)

a startling realization – Oakley x Reader part 1 part 2

Oakley returns to campus after a trip with his mates and steadily comes to realize he's developed feelings for you

Oneshots

just another memory – Oakley x Reader

It's a few weeks before graduation and your best friend, Oakley, has some questions about what will happen afterward.

Collections

the 'one look and they'll know' collection – Tom Hiddleston x Reader

The stories that follow the couple of 'one look and they'll know', before and after that fateful day on set that kickstarted their relationship; includes the Soccer Aid Hiddles collection

Multi-Part (5 parts or less)

feels like mine – Tom Hiddleston x Reader part 1 part 2 part 3

You wake up in a bed that isn't your own, living a life that seems to be pulled straight out of your wildest dreams

Oneshots

don't make the sounds – Tom Hiddleston x Reader

During a press junket interview, Tom uses one of the questions addressed to him to his advantage and distracts you from your peculiar mood.

Oneshots

you deserve better – James Conrad x Monarch Scientist!Reader

When all the plans you'd made for today go down the drain, the last person you expected shows up at your door to try turning the night around

Non-Writing Stuff

the SAS vernacular – a visual dictionary of all things SAS

the horny bitches initiative – master post of all the horny bitches cuts

monthly wrap-ups – master post of all my monthly wrap ups

story recs navigation post

photo gallery directory – where we can find all the high def mango peach pics

thots & theories – i'm not always whoring out, sometimes there are other thoughts in this thotty lil brain of mine

[qqueenofhades]

20+ Books That You (Might Actually Want) To Read During Pride Month!

Right, so. I got annoyed after seeing the list referenced in this post last night, told myself that my books are all packed up so I couldn’t do anything about it, and lasted all of a whopping 10 minutes before picking up my phone and attempting to make my own list instead. Behold, my from-memory attempt to present 20 books with strong LGBTQ plots, characters, and/or authors, that DON’T just rely on Suffering and Identity Politics and are... you know... fun.

Listed in alphabetical order by title. Links take you to Bookshop.org, where you can buy them from your local independent bookstore at a discount and NOT from the evil empire.

1. A Master of Djinn – P. Djeli Clark * author of color * steampunk Cairo in 1912 * djinn! magic! murder mystery! * butch Arab lesbian main character * devout hijabi Muslim badass assistant * anticolonial alternate history

2. An Accident of Stars – Foz Meadows (Sequel: A Tyranny of Queens) * trans author * bi, pan, trans, aro representation * racially diverse characters * all female POV characters * high-fantasy world adventures

3. Boyfriend Material – Alexis Hall * queer author * look I love this book SO MUCH and have absolutely screamed about it before but also I LOVE IT SO MUCH * contemporary M/M fake dating in modern London, complete with full cast of disaster found-family queer friends * it is. fucking. HILARIOUS. I almost died the first time reading it * there is a sequel called HUSBAND MATERIAL scheduled to be released in 2022; I am a normal amount of excited for this book

4. Gideon the Ninth – Tamsyn Muir (Sequel: Harrow the Ninth) * the book cover says “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted palace in space!” * that is exactly what you get * slow-burn enemies-to-lovers F/F main romance * I cannot describe this book, it is dark, genre-bendy, science fiction-y, Hunger-Games-with-lesbian-necromancers-in space? Kinda? I have literally never read anything like it * also fucking HILARIOUS

5. One Last Stop – Casey McQuiston * queer author (who wrote Red White and Royal Blue) * bisexual fat girl from the South/lesbian-daughter-of-Chinese immigrants from the 1970s-riot-grrl main romance * time traveling mystery involving the Q train in Brooklyn (mentions Brighton Beach ahem) * magical realism * many more found-family chaotic queers including a trans Latino psychic and a Black accountant by day/drag queen by night and the mean little gay disaster who has a hopeless crush on them

6. Parasol Protectorate (series) – Gail Carriger * this is one of my favorite series, and there are five books: Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, and Timeless * steampunk vampires/werewolves late Victorian London, like Jane Austen crossed with P.G. Wodehouse (they are all fucking hilarious) * pretty much everyone is queer; we got your flamboyantly camp gay vampires (Lord Akeldama ftw!) We got your gay werewolves! We got your lesbian French inventors! We got your big disaster idiot werewolf main male love interest! We got your crazy adventures! You name it we got it! * two spin-off novellas: Romancing the Werewolf (M/M) and Romancing the Inventor (F/F) * she has a ton more books in this same universe and writes sexy queer supernatural romance as G.L. Carriger

7. Plain Bad Heroines – Emily M. Danforth * queer author * historical horror-comedy set between a haunted girls’ school in early-1900s New England and in the modern day * all sapphic female main characters * plays with style/form/voice, a story within a story within a story

8. Red White and Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston * you’ve probably heard of it but here I am reccing it again * the biracial son of the first female POTUS falls in love with the Prince of England; shenanigans absolutely ensue * yes, the British monarchy still absolutely sucks a big fat dick * hilarious, heartfelt, reads like fanfic, just go get it, it will change your life

9. Rosaline Palmer Takes The Cake – Alexis Hall * same author as Boyfriend Material, this is his newest * bisexual female protagonist * absolutely perfect satire of The Great British Bake Off (you can tell this man has watched EVERY SINGLE SERIES and all of the holiday specials) * sweet and surprisingly thoughtful

10. Starless – Jacqueline Carey * genderqueer/transmasculine main character of color * almost all main characters are brown people! * lush Middle Eastern/India-inspired fantasy world * gods, prophecies, monsters * the best Oh God Why Me I Am A Horrible Mentor wise-old-mentor

11. The Future of Another Timeline – Annalee Newitz * nonbinary (they/them) author * time travel but make it The Handmaid’s Tale * will probably make your head explode * feminist, queer, subversive * diverse characters

12. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue – Mackenzi Lee * queer author * technically YA but historical/magical adventure set in the 1700s * bisexual disaster main protagonist and love interest of color * (mis)adventures across Europe * has a sequel (see below) with the badass asexual sister of the protagonist

13. The Hate Project – Kris Ripper * nonbinary/genderqueer author * M/M enemies to lovers/sex with no strings attached (spoiler alert: strings attached) * HECKING HILARIOUS * sweet, escapist, and very low stakes * diverse characters, including fat protagonist with realistic anxiety disorder

14. The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy – Mackenzi Lee * PIRATES, obviously * sequel to Gentleman’s Guide * asexual female protagonist * strong queerplatonic f/f friendship * more historical/magical 18th century adventures

15. The Last Rune (series) – Mark Anthony * Imma be real with you chief, I haven’t read this series since I was a clueless teenager with no idea why I liked Gay Stuff so much, so if it does turn out to suck now, don’t throw rotten veggies at me * but especially since it was written in the NINETIES, this series was hella progressive?! * gay characters, disabled characters, characters of color, all playing significant and heroic roles in six-book epic fantasy cycle * people from Earth end up in high-fantasy world of Eldh * endgame M/M romance for the main character * books out of print, I think, but you can find them cheap somewhere like AbeBooks; first one (Beyond the Pale) linked above

16. The Library of the Unwritten – A.J. Hackwith * queer author * heaven-hell-Valhalla supernatural adventures * The Good Place x Good Omens x Lucifer x The Librarians * Pansexual Black badass female heroine * Queer found families * The Sassiest TM Bisexual Villain Turned Reluctant Hero (is he my favorite? Why on earth would you think that.)

17. The Priory of the Orange Tree – Samantha Shannon * epic doorstopper science fiction/historical fantasy set in a vaguely 16th-century world * main F/F romance between a queen and her sorceress bodyguard * sassy old gay alchemist whose backstory will give you Feelings * so many strong women and characters of color * no homophobia! marriage is fully gender-neutral, spouses are called “companions”

18. The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller * likewise one you have probably heard of but still * a little light on the myth/historical part imho, but the writing is beautiful and will give you many feelings * M/M romance between Achilles and Patroclus  * reimagining of The Iliad (her other book Circe is also really good)

19 The Stars are Legion – Kameron Hurley * all-female apocalyptic space opera * messy messy antiheroines * grimdark war fantasy * queer sci-fi drama

20. Witchmark – C.L. Polk * author of color * M/M romance * main character is a veteran and a doctor dealing with his own hidden magic and repressed war trauma * gaslamp fantasy set in a world reminiscent of post-WWI England * strong sibling relationship

[karmakaze]

Artist Leia Han (https://leiaham.com/#/new-page/) did a serious of Lord of the Rings fanart in the style of ancient China. "LOTR: Tale of the Middle Kingdom is a personal project that reimagines J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth in a Chinese setting. China is called 中国 (Zhōngguó) - meaning ‘‘The Middle Kingdom". Taking inspiration from the books, movies, ancient Chinese artefacts and paintings, this project is a love letter to my own Chinese heritage, seen through the lens of medieval fantasy and historical design." I want that hobbit house so much, even more than the British Isles version.

[redheadgleek]

Books read (July-September)

July: Struck By Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal. My last of Chris Colfer’s audiobooks and his first book. Not sure that a journal really was the best format, but I’m going to miss his voice. The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA’s Double Helix. In honor of the 70 year anniversary coming up, I’ve been reading a lot of books on the discovery of DNA. There was some uncomfortable fixation of Rosalind’s sexuality (much like Brenda Maddox books but she came to a completely different conclusion), and I truly loath James Watson now. Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher. Oooh. A short, dark fairy tale. Highly recommend. Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo. The last book published (so far) of the Gishaverse. Definitely not a stand alone novel, but overall, a satisfying end to the series and leaving room for more books. On Rotation by Shirlene Obuobi. There really aren’t that many good fictional books about being a doctor, much less about going through medical school. This really captured the stress and drama of med school. The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrows. Reimagined history, some strong characters (although maybe a wee bit too much of leaning into the maiden, mother, crone archetypes), beautiful story telling. Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World by Nina Kraus. Audiobook. Fascinating insights into how our ears and brain receive and perceive sound, and how it influences our language and cognitive development, if a bit redundant at times. Orphan Black: The Next Chapter. Maybe a little bit of a cheat, since it’s a  episodic podcast, but it was on goodreads. I rewatched Orphan Black this spring and was eager to listen. Tatiana’s voices were amazing and I loved the new characters (her male voices were the weakest. 

August: Heat Wave (The Extraordinaries, #3) by TJ Klune. An excellent conclusion to the trilogy and so much familial love. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher. I’m not a big horror person, but I adore T’s writing. A retelling of the Fall of the House of Usher, with some cool biological explanations. A Middle-Earth Traveller: Sketches from Bag End to Mordor  by John Howe. I loved his work for the Lord of the Rings movies, so I thought this would be a good introduction to my next audio project. Lovely sketches, some lovely behind the scenes insights. Orphan Black: The Next Chapter (Season 2). This time, Jordan, Kristian, and Evelyn returned to voice their roles. I hope there’s another. A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall. A fun little regency romp involving a trans heroine. Lots of feelings. Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall. The story opens with one of my least favorite tropes: lying outrageously and then getting caught and I almost didn’t finish it, but I’m glad I stuck with it, because it really had all of the charm of the Great British Bake Off in a novel. Husband Material by Alexis Hall. (All of my library books became available at the same time, so I read three of Alexis’s books in a week period). I had been charmed by Boyfriend Material; it wasn’t the best fake dating book that I’ve ever read, but I was invested enough that I looked for the sequel and I liked it even better than the first one. Laugh out loud hysterical, following the plot of Four Weddings and Funeral while still giving it at twist. Looking forward to Father Material. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, read by Andy Serkis. This will be my listening project for the next year probably. Andy Serkis’s voice is amazing – deep and rich in timbre. I haven’t reread this one since early in college, it was much darker than what I remembered. You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar. Terrible stories, presented in a light-hearted, easy to approach manner. I’m planning on introducing it to my family and friends because it’s a really great way to highlight the pervasiveness of racism.

September The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin. I really wanted to like this book as it was written by an emergency medicine doctor about a group of medical school friends. And I didn’t. There were parts that truly resonated, such as when one of the main characters loses a patient, but the drama was so over the top. Ramón and Julieta by Alana Albertson. Just a sweet little Romeo and Juliet retelling. A fluffy, easy to read romance which was just want I was craving. The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin. I checked out all three of her books at the same time, so I was really hopeful that this one would be better. And it was, but it still felt lacking. It also felt like the author was trying too hard to emphasize that “not all Christians” are homophobic, but there was still homophobic and transphobic views (one character was the definition of sassy gay friend) that belied that conclusion. East by Edith Pattou. A reread because I found out that a sequel had been written and it had been literal years. Almost as good as I remembered, an excellent retelling of the fairy tale “East of the Sun West of the Moon. West by Edith Pattou. I’m not sure that East really needed a sequel, but this one was well done and it completed the story. Felix Silver, Teaspoons & Witches by Harry Cook. My god, did this book need better editors. So many sloppy mistakes. So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo. I started reading this 2 years ago and got distracted. A practical book, with some great real-time examples, but I’m not sure that it really made it easier to talk about race with some of my white relatives for example. Doctors and Friends by Kimmery Martin. I almost didn’t read this because I had been so disappointed by her previous books, but I’m so glad that I did because it was the best of the 3. She started writing this book back in 2019, about a pandemic that affected the world, and it was a much deeper, emotional story than the other two (although many of the same characters were in it). George (Melissa’s Story) by Alex Gore. Picked it up as part of Banned Books Week and you guys, I’m just tired of fake outrage. It was cute. The Theft of Sunlight by Intisar Khanani. Sequel to Thorn, which I read earlier this year. Thorn was good, but this really developed the world. I’m excited for the 3rd book. I may make it to a 100 books this year. *crosses fingers*

[squirrelwrangler]

I was tagged by @kazaera to share titles of WIPs and, if sent an ask, a snippet from them, and that sounded like a fun way to start the morning. I’ll include a brief description and note which have no title - not everything does. Some ideas have a sentence at most written

Some are the AO3 familiars:

Of Ingwë Ingweron - Pre-Great Journey elves, focus on Ingwë. Yes I haven’t forgotten this and yes the next chapter is the preparation to send the Three Ambassadors to Valinor

‘Barn-raising’ - Young Bucks of Cuiviénen short story in which Ingwë and Finwë help Elwë’s tribe build a house, excuse for fluff

‘That AU where Ingu and Elwë swap plots and Ravennë leads the Minyar’ - what it says on the tin

‘That AU where Ravennë fucks Ingwë before Alaco dies and the meet-the-parents post-wedding feast is awkward’ - exactly what it says on the tin

‘Hound of Morwë’ - Morwë rebels against Tata because he is a loving young boy who questions authority and when he is executed the Tatyar splinter from the dying Cuiviénen

 - Morgoth’s favorite elven spirit twisted into a loyal lieutenant meets Mornacu on the battlefield of the Nirnaeth. Not a happy reunion

Service to the Dead - Gorlim and Aegnor’s Ghost Buddy Cop Adventure

In Need of a Cold Shower - Two OCs project lust at each other while travelling with Elrond to investigate why the Arda’s Far North is have a biodiversity crisis - the romantic comedy born out of my frustration with the lack of fic for a FFXIV pairing.

‘In Need of a Baby Shower’ - any follow-up to Cold Shower focused on Seregeithon and Helcerían’s married life

 - that ‘Vingilot looks like the ghost of the Swanships’ interlude that I need to post as a ficlet

‘Cherry Blossoms’ - Elrond and Elros escape from their kidnappers and are rescued by Orothaiben

‘Fille du Regiment’ - Bortë of Númenor backstory

Warpath Home - Bân of Band of the Red Hand adjusts to civilian peacetimes in the Second Age by travelling with his lover to Númenor to assist in the colonization. I might roll in the ‘Faron is summoned back to Middle-earth by Gil-galad’ plot hook, Seregeithon would be hanging in the background of that, as part of the overall theme

Bân and Fân’s Excellent Adventure - Band of the Red Hand plus friends have a camping trip, comedy which serves as a primer for

‘The Hangover, staring Faron, Finrod, and friends’ - exactly what it sounds like. And I’m not the first person to have the idea to combine The Hangover and Finrod’s 2nd Age Wedding, so the wedding will not Finrod and Amarië but one of the other couples. 

‘Findis and Heledir write Voltron’ - Findis and Heledir brainstorm their next joint project. Where I might also include details about the Batman comics as in-universe Númenorean stories

‘Princess Tutu fusion’ - Little Duck is a Maia of Ossë in Alqualondë who wants to dance and heal the hearts of the returning elves

The Great Fever of Dorthonion - Baragund and Belegund spend the summer with Great-Aunt Andreth

Boromir in the Swamps - continuing the settlement of Dorthonion

Vagabond Gondor - Rurouni Kenshin reimagined during the Kin-strife of Gondor

[theculturedmarxist]

My dad was born in 1917. Somehow, he survived the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919, but an outbreak of whooping cough in 1923 claimed his baby sister, Clementina. One of my dad’s first memories was seeing his sister’s tiny white casket. Another sister was permanently marked by scarlet fever. In 1923, my dad was hit by a car and spent two weeks in a hospital with a fractured skull as well as a lacerated thumb. His immigrant parents had no medical insurance, but the driver of the car gave his father $50 toward the medical bills. The only lasting effect was the scar my father carried for the rest of his life on his right thumb.

The year 1929 brought the Great Depression and lean times. My father’s father had left the family, so my dad, then 12, had to pitch in. He got a newspaper route, which he kept for four years, quitting high school after tenth grade so he could earn money for the family. In 1935, like millions of other young men of that era, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a creation of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal that offered work on environmental projects of many kinds. He battled forest fires in Oregon for two years before returning to his family and factory work. In 1942, he was drafted into the Army, going back to a factory job when World War II ended. Times grew a little less lean in 1951 when he became a firefighter, after which he felt he could afford to buy a house and start a family.

I’m offering all this personal history as the context for a prediction of my dad’s that, for obvious reasons, came to my mind again recently. When I was a teenager, he liked to tell me: “I had it tough in the beginning and easy in the end. You, Willy, have had it easy in the beginning, but will likely have it tough in the end.” His prophecy stayed with me, perhaps because even then, somewhere deep down, I already suspected that my dad was right.

The COVID-19 pandemic is now grabbing the headlines, all of them, and a global recession, if not a depression, seems like a near-certainty. The stock market has been tanking and people’s lives are being disrupted in fundamental and scary ways. My dad knew the experience of losing a loved one to disease, of working hard to make ends meet during times of great scarcity, of sacrificing for the good of one’s family. Compared to him, it’s true that, so far, I’ve had an easier life as an officer in the Air Force and then a college teacher and historian. But at age 57, am I finally ready for the hard times to come? Are any of us?

And keep in mind that this is just the beginning. Climate change (recall Australia’s recent and massive wildfires) promises yet more upheavals, more chaos, more diseases. America’s wanton militarism and lying politicians promise more wars. What’s to be done to avert or at least attenuate the tough times to come, assuming my dad’s prediction is indeed now coming true? What can we do?

It’s Time to Reimagine America

Here’s the one thing about major disruptions to normalcy: they can create opportunities for dramatic change. (Disaster capitalists know this, too, unfortunately.) President Franklin Roosevelt recognized this in the 1930s and orchestrated his New Deal to revive the economy and put Americans like my dad back to work.

In 2001, the administration of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney capitalized on the shock-and-awe disruption of the 9/11 attacks to inflict on the world their vision of a Pax Americana, effectively a militarized imperium justified (falsely) as enabling greater freedom for all. The inherent contradiction in such a dreamscape was so absurd as to make future calamity inevitable. Recall what an aide to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld scribbled down, only hours after the attack on the Pentagon and the collapse of the Twin Towers, as his boss’s instructions (especially when it came to looking for evidence of Iraqi involvement): “Go massive — sweep it all up, things related and not.” And indeed they would do just that, with an emphasis on the “not,” including, of course, the calamitous invasion of Iraq in 2003.

To progressive-minded people thinking about this moment of crisis, what kind of opportunities might open to us when (or rather if) Donald Trump is gone from the White House? Perhaps this coronaviral moment is the perfect time to consider what it would mean for us to go truly big, but without the usual hubris or those disastrous invasions of foreign countries. To respond to COVID-19, climate change, and the staggering wealth inequities in this country that, when combined, will cause unbelievable levels of needless suffering, what’s needed is a drastic reordering of our national priorities.

Remember, the Fed’s first move was to inject $1.5 trillion into the stock market. (That would have been enough to forgive all current student debt.) The Trump administration has also promised to help airlines, hotels, and above all oil companies and the fracking industry, a perfect storm when it comes to trying to sustain and enrich those upholding a kleptocratic and amoral status quo.

This should be a time for a genuinely new approach, one fit for a world of rising disruption and disaster, one that would define a new, more democratic, less bellicose America. To that end, here are seven suggestions, focusing — since I’m a retired military officer — mainly on the U.S. military, a subject that continues to preoccupy me, especially since, at present, that military and the rest of the national security state swallow up roughly 60% of federal discretionary spending:

1. If ever there was a time to reduce our massive and wasteful military spending, this is it. There was never, for example, any sense in investing up to $1.7 trillion over the next 30 years to “modernize” America’s nuclear arsenal. (Why are new weapons needed to exterminate humanity when the “old” ones still work just fine?) Hundreds of stealth fighters and bombers — it’s estimated that Lockheed Martin’s disappointing F-35 jet fighter alone will cost $1.5 trillion over its life span — do nothing to secure us from pandemics, the devastating effects of climate change, or other all-too-pressing threats. Such weaponry only emboldens a militaristic and chauvinistic foreign policy that will facilitate yet more wars and blowback problems of every sort. And speaking of wars, isn’t it finally time to end U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan? More than $6 trillion has already been wasted on those wars and, in this time of global peril, even more is being wasted on this country’s forever conflicts across the Greater Middle East and Africa. (Roughly $4 billion a month continues to be spent on Afghanistan alone, despite all the talk about “peace” there.)

2. Along with ending profligate weapons programs and quagmire wars, isn’t it time for the U.S. to begin dramatically reducing its military “footprint” on this planet? Roughly 800 U.S. military bases circle the globe in a historically unprecedented fashion at a yearly cost somewhere north of $100 billion. Cutting such numbers in half over the next decade would be a more than achievable goal. Permanently cutting provocative “war games” in South Korea, Europe, and elsewhere would be no less sensible. Are North Korea and Russia truly deterred by such dramatic displays of destructive military might?

3. Come to think of it, why does the U.S. need the immediate military capacity to fight two major foreign wars simultaneously, as the Pentagon continues to insist we do and plan for, in the name of “defending” our country? Here’s a radical proposal: if you add 70,000 Special Operations forces to 186,000 Marine Corps personnel, the U.S. already possesses a potent quick-strike force of roughly 250,000 troops. Now, add in the Army’s 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions and the 10th Mountain Division. What you have is more than enough military power to provide for America’s actual national security. All other Army divisions could be reduced to cadres, expandable only if our borders are directly threatened by war. Similarly, restructure the Air Force and Navy to de-emphasize the present “global strike” vision of those services, while getting rid of Donald Trump’s newest service, the Space Force, and the absurdist idea of taking war into low earth orbit. Doesn’t America already have enough war here on this small planet of ours?

4. Bring back the draft, just not for military purposes. Make it part of a national service program for improving America. It’s time for a new Civilian Conservation Corps focused on fostering a Green New Deal. It’s time for a new Works Progress Administration to rebuild America’s infrastructure and reinvigorate our culture, as that organization did in the Great Depression years. It’s time to engage young people in service to this country. Tackling COVID-19 or future pandemics would be far easier if there were quickly trained medical aides who could help free doctors and nurses to focus on the more difficult cases. Tackling climate change will likely require more young men and women fighting forest fires on the west coast, as my dad did while in the CCC — and in a climate-changing world there will be no shortage of other necessary projects to save our planet. Isn’t it time America’s youth answered a call to service? Better yet, isn’t it time we offered them the opportunity to truly put America, rather than themselves, first?

5. And speaking of “America First,” that eternal Trumpian catch-phrase, isn’t it time for all Americans to recognize that global pandemics and climate change make a mockery of walls and go-it-alone nationalism, not to speak of politics that divide, distract, and keep so many down? President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said that only Americans can truly hurt America, but there’s a corollary to that: only Americans can truly save America — by uniting, focusing on our common problems, and uplifting one another. To do so, it’s vitally necessary to put an end to fear-mongering (and warmongering). As President Roosevelt famously said in his first inaugural address in the depths of the Great Depression, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Fear inhibits our ability to think clearly, to cooperate fully, to change things radically as a community.

6. To cite Yoda, the Jedi master, we must unlearn what we have learned. For example, America’s real heroes shouldn’t be “warriors” who kill or sports stars who throw footballs and dunk basketballs. We’re witnessing our true heroes in action right now: our doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel, together with our first responders, and those workers who stay in grocery stores, pharmacies, and the like and continue to serve us all despite the danger of contracting the coronavirus from customers. They are all selflessly resisting a threat too many of us either didn’t foresee or refused to treat seriously, most notably, of course, President Donald Trump: a pandemic that transcends borders and boundaries. But can Americans transcend the increasingly harsh and divisive borders and boundaries of our own minds? Can we come to work selflessly to save and improve the lives of others? Can we become, in a sense, lovers of humanity?

7. Finally, we must extend our love to encompass nature, our planet. For if we keep treating our lands, our waters, and our skies like a set of trash cans and garbage bins, our children and their children will inherit far harder times than the present moment, hard as it may be.

What these seven suggestions really amount to is rejecting a militarized mindset of aggression and a corporate mindset of exploitation for one that sees humanity and this planet more holistically. Isn’t it time to regain that vision of the earth we shared collectively during the Apollo moon missions: a fragile blue sanctuary floating in the velvety darkness of space, an irreplaceable home to be cared for and respected since there’s no other place for us to go? Otherwise, I fear that my father’s prediction will come true not just for me, but for generations to come and in ways that even he couldn’t have imagined.

[dustedmagazine]

The Soft Pink Truth — Am I Free to Go? (Self Released)

Photo by Drew Daniel

Am I Free To Go? by The Soft Pink Truth

When one hears the Soft Pink Truth, the name of Drew Daniel’s long-running solo project, “crust punk” might not be the very next phrase to come to mind. The project’s recently released Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? shimmers and pulses with the sometimes R&B-inflected, sometimes house-and-jungle-driven electronic music that has most consistently informed the Soft Pink Truth’s sound. But if you’ve been keeping up with the project’s collected output, you’ll know that an EP of covers of crust punk songs doesn’t entirely come out of left field (though maybe out of the general field of ideological leftism…). In 2014, the Soft Pink Truth released Why Do the Heathen Rage?, a terrific LP that reimagines black metal songs by Beherit, Venom and others. And one of the project’s first albums was Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Soft Pink Truth? (2004). The title name checks a song from the Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime (1984), and the record features covers of punk and hardcore songs by Crass, Minor Threat and Swell Maps.

Am I Free to Go? demonstrates extensive knowledge of and appreciation for crust. Songs by a few of the genre’s usual suspects, who have moved toward broad(-ish) cultural recognition, are included. Discharge’s “Protest and Survive” closes the EP, and its longest track is an interpretation of Nausea’s “Cybergod”; Daniel interpolates nightmarish, digitally altered recitations of the song’s lyrics with skits that narrate a bourgeois’ dream-tour of Manhattan’s sights, including Trump Tower. When the skits’ characters enter the building’s lobby, you can hear Trump declaiming, “I can stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody….” Beyond those tracks, the record dives more deeply, including a spastic, glitched-techno rendition of Skitsystem’s “Profithysteri” and an enraged, electro version of Totalitär’s “Multinationella Mordäre,” which may be the best thing on the EP. Daniel splices samples from a news story on working conditions in Amazon warehouses into the track, as well as a snippet from what sounds like a 911 call, responding to an Amazon order picker collapsed from total exhaustion.  

Historically crust punk has shared the sharply radical, anti-capitalist, leftist politics indicated by Daniel’s alterations and augmentations of the songs. Some additional titles are illustrative: “Fuck Nazi Sympathy” (originally by Aus Rotten), “Death Earth” (by the excellent, excoriating Gloom). Daniel’s inclusion of Doom’s “Police Bastard” is especially timely. But as that timeliness suggests, history doesn’t stand still. One of the EP’s tracks is titled “Space Formerly Occupied by an Amebix Cover But Fuck That Guy for Being a Holocaust Denier,” which refers to Rob Miller’s recent public approval of Gerard Menuhin’s Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil (2015), an anti-Semitic screed that calls the Holocaust “the biggest lie in history.” It’s a shame to flush all of Amebix’s music down the crusty toilet; Stig Miller, Amebix co-founder and estranged brother of Rob, remains a stand-up dude. But these are serious times, that allow for little wavering.  

In any case, Daniel accompanies the EP’s cultural and political gestures with meaningful action. All profits earned by Am I Free to Go? will be donated to the International Anti-Fascist Legal Defense Fund. Given the way that terms like “antifa” and “anarchy” are currently being abused, misused and misunderstood, it’s likely that the Fund will be especially busy in coming months. In any case, it’s excellent to hear some music that displays an agile understanding of crust, and engages it with such intelligence and creative spirit. Say it along with the Soft Pink Truth: Fuck Nazi sympathy!  

Jonathan Shaw

[musicgoon]

Recommended Reading

Providing A Freshly Curated, Weekly Link List on Christianity & Culture.

Find my weekly recommended reading with the RR tag. Dedicated link posts with personal commentary can be found through the link tag. Real-time news and article sharing happens on Twitter and my Facebook page.

I love seeing new things on the Internet and reading and your comments, so please keep in touch. And to get all of my articles, exclusive insight, and more from my many projects, subscribe to my newsletter.

On Fridays, I contribute a curated link column specifically for SOLA Network readers. I hope to highlight articles related to Asian American issues and blog posts written by Asian American authors. You can read my 12th roundup from last Friday.

Christianity

7 Things to Do When You’ve Blown It (Again) with Your Kids

4 Prayers to Pray when You’re Waiting

If We Could See Sunday from Heaven

End-of-Life Comfort Measures: A Realistic Assessment

A Fresh Look at the 5 Missionary Martyrs in Ecuador

Songs in the Night

Jesus Sympathizes With Moms

What Does Job 31:13-15 Tell Us About the Unborn?

Taiwan Becomes First Asian Nation to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage: What’s Behind the Headline

To Be Human Is to Crave a Satisfying End to the Story: A Look at the Nihilistic Worldview of George R. R. Martin and the Quest for an Ending

A Reluctant Missionary

Podcast: Why You Probably Need a Digital Detox (Tony Reinke)

The Impact of School Culture

His Scars Will Never Fade: The Wounds Christ Took to Heaven

John Calvin Starter Kit

3 Ways to Steward Good Seasons

For the Freshmen of Tomorrow: Six Guiding Lessons for Graduates

Why Good Theology Is Not Enough

A Better Mom is a Broken Mom

What does the Bible say about God’s high calling for moms?

How Can We Use Blogs and Social Media to the Glory of God?

Why Do We Sing? 3 Reasons

Paul Martin on Family Worship

The Person Behind the Eating Disorder

It’s Time for Christians to Confront White Supremacy in Our Churches

A Village with My Name

Exercise for More of God: Five Reasons to Train Your Body

Meet the Maker of Middle-Earth: The Magic in Tolkien’s Story

On Reading Scripture Well: Some Recommended Resources on Hermeneutics

Why Churches Languish under Cowardly Pastors

How Should Christians Respond to Attacks and Insults?

Reclaiming Friendship in the Social Media Age

This Mystery is Profound

PBS depicts gay wedding on ‘Arthur’: How the sexual revolution seeks to normalize its own morality by targeting children

Lexham Press Announces New Publishing Partnership with Christianity Today

The Year My World Fell Apart: My War with Spiritual Depression

God Doesn’t Need Us

8 Ways for Men to Make the Friends They Won’t Admit They Need

Have the arts replaced Christianity as the primary change agent of society?

2 Principles for Formulating Advance Directives

I will leave for Spain by way of you

The Spirit of Adoption

Women Preaching

Scrambling for the Light: Christian Depression and the Use of Medication

Motherhood

8 Marks of Authentic Worship

A Gentle and Quiet Woman

Why Christianity Quit Growing in Korea

Check Your Digital Self-Image

Seeking God for International Student Ministry in China

Abraham Kuyper on Christian Conduct in the World

How Do I Evangelize Someone Who Says That They Don’t Trust the Bible?

How Does My Marriage Impact Others?

Culture

Shopping for (Obscene Amounts of) Candy With Carly Rae Jepsen

My Thought Process Behind Styling the Internet’s Favorite Pop Star

‘Aladdin’ Early Buzz: Despite Questionable Trailers, The Disney Remake is Surprisingly Good

VOTD: Darth Vader Tears Through Hoth Rebel Base in Animated ‘Empire Strikes Back’ Reimagining

Thai Heist Thriller ‘Bad Genius’ is the Latest Criminally Underseen Movie to Get a Hollywood Remake

‘Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers’ Movie To Be Directed By The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer

5 Things to Know about Spotify’s Latest Test

Carly Rae Jepsen – “Too Much” Video

Carly Rae Jepsen Performs on Corden

On Spoilers, Tension, and Endgames

Dan Tepfer’s player piano is his composing partner

Carly Rae Jepsen: The People's Pop Star

Call Me, Meme Me: The Resilience of Carly Rae Jepsen

Carly Rae Jepsen: Dedicated

More Than Ever, Creativity Demands Courage

Do spoilers actually ruin stories?

Artificial intelligence can now make art. Artists, don’t panic.

YouTube's Defunctland chronicles the creation and evolution of The Muppet Show

Taiwan approves same-sex marriage in first for Asia

SAT To Score Students' 'Disadvantages' To Try To Even The Playing Field

New Disney Legends Include Robert Downey Jr., Ming-Na Wen, Hans Zimmer

The Real Mandarin Will Show Up At Some Point in the MCU, Kevin Feige Confirms

Screenland: The Pleasure of Watching Others Confront Their Own Incompetence

Should You Watch … Cinemax’s ‘Warrior’?

Why Brands are Turning to Spotify as the Next Big Social Platform

Kids’ TV rarely shows same-sex marriage. On Arthur, wonderfully, it’s no big deal.

Roy Choi Doesn’t Want to Be Tokenized

Podcast episodes will now show up in Google searches. Helpful discovery mechanism or a shot in the Platform Wars?

Nicholas Fulcher

What’s next for the indie podcast studio?

[themyskira]

Wonder Woman: Earth One, Vol 2 - Part 2

Previously, Morrison’s Amazons are the same awful people we met in book one, now with added mind control. Diana wonders whether her mission might be easier if she just conquered the world and forced everybody to follow the Amazon way.

This time, Doctor Psycho the pickup artist gets his hooks into Wonder Woman.

Steve is test-piloting a cutting-edge experimental aircraft. He races Diana in her vagina plane, struggling to keep up with her. The effort of maintaining the speed causes Steve’s plane to explode, and Diana rescues him.

Steve tries to explain to Diana that the military’s top brass perceive her as a potential threat and that she needs to tread carefully.

Steve: And on that subject… you still planning on leading that big angry ladies march?

um, excuse you?

Big angry ladies march?

What was wrong with ‘women’s march’? Why did Morrison feel the need to colour this line with sexist language? Is he suggesting that Steve Trevor believes that women who take part in political protest are angry and hysterical? Or was he just so busy polishing off his Homeric meter that he didn’t even notice he was being a sexist arse?

Well, all of it goes in one ear and out the other, anyway. Diana just shrugs and goes, ‘welp, they can’t hurt me, and if they provoke us then we’ll just crush them, soooooo…’

The military asks for Diana’s help rescuing an American negotiator who was captured by terrorists while attempting to secure the release of a group of hostages in the Middle East. She gets another very cool outfit for the mission:

She saves both the negotiator and the hostages with ease, of course. Afterwards, back at a US military camp, she shares a bottle of whisky with the hostage negotiator.

He’s interested in discussing Amazon philosophies. Submission to loving authority as a model for all human relationships, for instance. Surely that would be dangerous, unless one could be assured that the authority was benevolent. “Well, of course,” says Diana blithely. “That’s why women are best placed to lead.”

He points out that she comes from a civilisation that practices eugenics and uses mind control technology. That, moreover, she’s an outsider who comes to this world from a place of hyperprivilege, with no understanding of the societies she’s trying to transform. “How can you hope to understand us, let along change us?”

(Those of you who’ve figured out who this guy is yet, please join me in facepalming over the fact that this evil slug of a human being has managed to talk more sense in one and a half pages than Diana has in the entire book.)

At one point he also asks her if she’s “ever thought about submitting to the loving authority of a man”, and somehow it doesn’t end with his face being punched in.

Before they part, they exchange contact details, agreeing to meet up again in DC. Diana tells him, “I’ve enjoyed our adventure together, Dr Zeiko.”

Yeah. This is Morrison’s take on Doctor Psycho. While I have problems with the execution, it’s actually a reasonable base concept. Whereas Marston’s Doctor Psycho uses hypnosis, mediums and ectoplasmic illusions to deceive and manipulate people, Morrison’s Zeiko is a pickup artist-type who works in psy-ops, employing a combination of scientific techniques, staged simulation and good old-fashioned manipulation to identify and get inside people’s defences, and destroy them.

Zeiko: ‘Wonder Woman’. They’re all just the same. < by dr-psycho > If I had just one piece of advice, one precious axiom to impart to you losers, cucks and gamma dudes, it would be THAT singular nugget. Beautiful, smart, wise, powerful, principled. They’re all just the same.

There are a few things I like about this: it reimagines Doctor Psycho’s misogyny and his manipulation of women in a form that is both recognisable and relevant to today. Whereas the original is a cartoonishly depraved gremlin -- an exaggerated, ableist caricature of a misogynist who hates women because they laughed at his ugliness — this Psycho cuts a far more recognisable figure: a white, able-bodied, heterosexual man who abuses his position of power to manipulate women.

But it bothers me that Zeiko’s ability to control people draws so liberally from the pickup artist’s playbook. According to Morrison,

We really went deep with it in the sequences between Psycho and Diana. When he sits and talks to her, it's based on the actual script used by pickup artists with the movements he makes, he mirrors all her gestures, he makes this 'casting off' gesture every time he wants her to perceive something as negative. It was really tightly worked out to follow those scripts.

Pickup artist tactics are rooted in thoroughly debunked pseudoscience like neurolinguistic programming (which is specifically referenced as Zeiko’s field of expertise) and evolutionary psychology. Yes, these are men who prey on and seek to manipulate women, but let’s not afford them any more power or legitimacy than they’re due. By basing Zeiko’s power over women in his mastery of pickup artist theory, and ultimately having him successfully use these tactics to overpower Wonder Woman, Morrison appears to validate some very toxic, pseudoscientific ideas.

In the same interview quote above, Morrison says that he sought to draw awareness to this kind of predatory behaviour:

Part of it was my revenge on having seen [this level of manipulation] actually done to someone. You can see the narcissist type, the sociopath type and how easy it is for them get to people -- people you wouldn't even imagine could be that manipulated by anything. It's a very real problem for young people in the world. There are people out there who are quite willing to use these techniques so I kind of wanted to draw attention to it, but, you know, on the Wonder Woman scale where the guy is a supervillain. I wanted to put these paragon of femininity up against that threat and see how she deals with it -- because even paragons of intelligence and grace I've watched having real trouble with people like this. Here are the techniques. If you see anyone using these techniques against you, the warnings should go off.

Here’s where I think he goes wrong with this.

First, as I mentioned, he attributes Zeiko’s ability to get in Diana’s head directly to bullshit pickup artist theory and neurolinguistic programming. Morrison’s intention may have been to express disapproval and alert readers to predatory behaviour, but he’s nonetheless presenting pickup artist tactics as highly effective, affording them a level of power that’s neither warranted nor constructive.

This is where I think it’s helpful for Doctor Psycho to retain a measure of supernatural power. A writer can still incorporate manipulative and gaslighting behaviours and phrases that are familiar to women into such a character. His uncanny abilities may afford him a greater capacity to inflict wide-scale hurt than the average abuser, but at his core are attitudes and behaviours that many people will recognise. And rather than deriving a near-mystical ability to control women from the vile, pseudoscientific ideas of a real-life community of misogynists, he’s just another creep who abuses his power over people. It might not be a power that exists in our world, but it’s power all the same.

That’s the first problem. The second is that — spoilers — Zeiko kind of wins.

Well, okay, he does end up being captured by the Holliday Girls and sent to Amazonia for brainwashing, so it doesn’t end great for him personally. But ultimately, he achieves everything he sets out to do in the book. He plays Diana like a fiddle, he gloats over her weakness, and she only breaks free of him when it’s far too late to change anything. She is never allowed to triumph over him.

At the start of the book, Zeiko says he’s never met a woman that he couldn’t break, and this book proves him right. His methods never fail.

So at this point, it’s clear that the entire rescue mission was a set-up. General Darnell, we discover, has been ordered to go along with it, and he’s not happy. Even less so when he’s introduced to the secretive Project A.R.E.S.

It’s basically exactly what it sounds: a project aimed at producing highly advanced war machines capable of taking on even the Amazons. Max Lord shows Darnell the fruits of their labours: the Armed Response Environment Suit. It’s now being produced en masse.

A horrified Darnell confides in Steve what he’s seen.

Next, we cut to Amazonia. After some gratuitous perving on naked ladies as Hippolyta and Nubia bathe in the Fountain of Youth, Mala arrives with a bound Paula in tow. The temple was found vandalised again with a swastika, and Paula was found lurking in Hippolyta’s chambers. When asked to explain herself, Paula will only say that she yearns for Diana, her idol. Okay...?

Hippolyta consults the Fates, and returns to Nubia and Mala looking grave and resigned. It’s not explicitly stated, but it’s clear from her reaction that her death has been foretold.

Hippolyta: How I love you, Nubia. Your skin, your mind, your great heart. The time we’ve spent together. And Mala, sisters both, and lovers, and my friends ‘bove all. I’ll miss you all so much.

wait, Hippolyta is sleeping with her daughter’s ex-girlfriend? That is nasty.

(In fact, come to think of it, Nubia was originally Diana’s twin sister. Just to add an extra layer of ick.)

Back at Holliday College, Etta and Steve warn Diana that the government is out to get her, and Zeiko is part of it.

Steve: They’re onto you, Diana. Powerful, dangerous people. Think about how you’ve changed since you started hanging around with this Zeiko dude.

How she’s changed?

No, piss off, mate. Diana literally has not appeared on page since her first meeting with Zeiko. It’s not just that we’ve seen no change in her behaviour, we haven’t seen her at all. I realise that you’re working with limited page space, but if your characters are going to stage an intervention, then you need to at least make a token effort at seeding the warning signs.

Steve tells Diana that Zeiko is deep into psy-ops, mind control, neurolinguistic programming (which is NOT A FUCKING THING), the works. Diana laughs and surmises that Steve simply doesn’t like Zeiko.

Later, Diana hangs out with Zeiko at the firing range, inviting him to shoot at her while she deflects the bullets with her bracelets. When they’re done, Zeiko appears troubled. He feels sick to his stomach, he says! That he — who hates weapons — could so easily talk himself into firing a gun at a woman! At somebody who means so much to him!!

Yeah, Morrison is going there.

Zeiko kisses Diana, then immediately leaps back apologising, saying he doesn’t know what got into him. Diana’s just amused — is that what the men of this world consider a kiss? She decides to school him with a real kiss, and Zeiko bemoans that he feels like he has no control over his actions when she’s around. Oh god, he’s so confused! He’s saying all the wrong things! He doesn’t usually get close to anyone, not like this! He needs to prove that she can trust her!!

ugh, god, this is gross.

Anyway, it ends in Zeiko, under the power of the Lasso, revealing just enough of the truth to serve his ends: that the US military thinks she’s an advance scout for an Amazon invasion, that he was brought in to compromise her and uncover her weaknesses, and that he’s tried to tell them there’s a better way.

Diana runs off, devastated. Zeiko gloats.

< by dr-psycho > Target achieved. Wonder Woman emotional meltdown. Beat that, boys! God, I love my job. She’ll take off in her magical jet. No one treats a princess this way! But she’ll blame HERSELF — superior types always think it must be THEIR fault things went wrong. It has to her her fault for misunderstanding the rules of “Man’s World”. What will she have to do to be treated with the respect she deserves? This princess, this super-10. This prey of the day. What will she give up? How can she prove to me she’s for real…? At her speed… I give her 20 minutes. She gives me 19. Pushover.

PS, we’re eighty-odd pages into the graphic novel, and thus far Diana has done nothing but hit a baseball and get yanked around by the villains.

[crieativity]

And of course, we have Thorin in BotFA but this time someone got him to admit he was being a stupid fartface

Someone get parks and rec away from me

[crimethinc]

We Don’t Forget: Support Joseph Dibee, Environmentalist Accused of Sabotage

After 12 years of fruitless searching, federal agents have captured Joseph Dibee, accused participant in the Earth Liberation Front. Dibee is charged with arson and conspiracy. The following statement from our collective, It’s Going Down, and a network of anti-fascist groups explores why his case matters today.

In the 1990s, environmentalists and animal rights activists engaged in campaigns to put a stop to climate change, animal exploitation, and the destruction of biodiversity. They shut down board meetings, interrupted construction projects, organized demonstrations and sit-ins, held public outreach events at punk shows and vegan potlucks, liberated animals from captivity, and occasionally utilized vandalism, sabotage, and arson against corporations involved in particularly egregious behavior. Across the world, informally organized groups claimed anonymous actions in the names of the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts.

International networks grew out of these movements. Struggles emerged against superhighways, gold mines, luxury ski resorts, old-growth logging, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and animal testing facilities on several continents. For years, corporate profiteers had cause to fear that they would face consequences when they perpetrated ecological harm. At that time, it was still possible to imagine that humanity could avert the catastrophe that is unfolding today in the form of ever-rising temperatures, hurricanes, droughts, forest fires, and mass extinctions.

At the turn of the century, federal authorities counterattacked, launching a campaign of repression to crush the Earth Liberation Front and subdue environmental movements of all kinds. Their goal was to protect business interests at any expense��even if that meant making the world uninhabitable. At the same time, increasing attention on climate change from the likes of Al Gore served to professionalize environmental activism, imposing the logic of the non-profit industry and bribing activists to moderate their tactics and targets in return for salaries. This two-pronged assault set back environmental movements a full generation or more.

The cataclysm that is unfolding today can be laid at the doorstep of the law enforcement agencies that have paved the way for it by making it so difficult for ordinary people to defend themselves against ecological devastation. If we don’t stop them, they will frogmarch us directly into the apocalypse, profiting all the way—and when the last well is poisoned and the last forest burns up, they will be the last to die.

The remains of the Cavel West horse meat packing plant after it burned down in 1997, allegedly with the assistance of Joseph Dibee. The plant never reopened.

The Green Scare

At the end of 2005, the FBI escalated its assault on earth and animal liberation movements with a new wave of indictments. This offensive, dubbed Operation Backfire, was intended to obtain convictions for many of the unsolved Earth Liberation Front arsons of the preceding ten years.

Of those arrested in Operation Backfire, 12 of the accused became federal informants, collaborating with the authorities against their former comrades and the struggle against catastrophic climate change. The collaborators arrested include Stanislas Meyerhoff, Kevin Tubbs, Chelsea Dawn Gerlach, Suzanne Savoie, Kendall Tankersley, Jennifer Kolar, Lacey Phillabaum, Darren Thurston, and, much later, Briana Waters. Daniel McGowan, Jonathan Paul, Nathan Block, Joyanna Zacher, Justin Solondz, and Rebecca Rubin all refused to collaborate. William “Avalon” Rodgers passed away in an apparent suicide following his arrest.

This case took place alongside a variety of similar operations, including the proseuctions of Marius Mason, who is still serving a 22-year sentence for environmental sabotage of a GMO facility, Eric McDavid, who served 9 years of a two-decade sentence before a judge threw out his conviction because the prosecution had withheld thousands of pages of exonerating evidence, and other earth and animal liberation prisoners, including Rod Coronado, Jeff “Free” Luers, and Chrisopher McIntosh. The campaign “Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty” faced multiple waves of repression, including the infamous SHAC 7 case, in which all six of the accused served up to six years in prison for maintaining a website. Other people refused to testify before grand juries, a commonly used tool for repressing autonomous movements, and served time for resisting FBI fishing expeditions against environmental activists.

For many years, federal authorities ranked anarchist environmental activism over white supremacist mass shootings and abortion clinic bombings as the number one domestic threat—even though it involved no injuries to human beings whatsoever. Yet despite all the resources they invested in this witch hunt, it took the FBI decades to capture some of their targets. Operation Backfire target Joseph Dibee remained free until August 9, 2018. As of this writing, one of the accused remains at liberty. Our thoughts are with them, wherever they are.

Operation Backfire Defendant Joseph Dibee Arrested in Joint Cuban-US Operation

At 4:53 pm, on August 9, 2018, Joseph Dibee, 50, was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center by federal agents. Detained by authorities at an airport in Cuba, he was brought to Oregon via a secretive international policing operation. The next day, Billy J. Williams, US Attorney for Oregon, announced his arrest. Williams received Donald Trump’s support in 2017 and advocates for even more aggressive repression of undocumented immigrants.

Joseph Dibee is accused of participating in environmental direct action in the 1990s with the Earth/Animal Liberation Front. Specifically, he is accused of participating in the sabotage of a horse slaughtering facility that resulted in the permanent closure of the company. His charges include arson, conspiracy to commit arson, and destruction of an energy facility.

He has been wanted by federal authorities for 12 years, during which he is alleged to have traveled in Mexico, El Salvador, Cuba, Lebanon, Syria, and Russia.

Defend Joseph Dibee—Defend Autonomous Movements

Why is the state still persecuting environmentalists nearly twenty years after actions that never injured anyone? Because as the consequences of resource accumulation and ecological collapse intensify, cracking down on resistance is becoming an ever more urgent priority for the authorities. In The Dawn, Friedrich Nietzsche suggests that you can measure the health of a society according to the number of parasites it can tolerate; today, the custodians of order know that they cannot tolerate any resistance whatsoever, on pain of insurrection.

As prisoners across the country prepare for a nationwide strike against forced labor and undignified conditions, the authorities are preemptively cracking down on organizers. Many rebellious black protesters are imprisoned for attempting to engage in proportionate response to racist extrajudicial police murders in Ferguson, Baltimore, Charlotte, Milwaukee, and elsewhere around the US. Indigenous and non-native water protectors faced unprecedented violence from state counterinsurgency forces and private security firms during the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock, North Dakota. Over 200 anarchists and other anti-fascists faced eight or more felony charges apiece in one of the largest conspiracy cases in US history on account of participating in protests against the inauguration of President Donald Trump, during which anarchists smashed the windows of corporate storefronts, clashed with police, and burned a limousine. Those charges were finally dropped in July after a year and a half of punitive mass intimidation directed at the arrestees.

The state is pouring all its resources into repression at a time when self-organized revolt and mutual aid are needed more than ever. Fascists and neo-Nazis are targeting hurricane relief organizers while Facebook and Google censor radical content online. Tech giants like Amazon and Palantir are working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to capture undocumented people while landlords and developers collaborate with IBM and finance capitalists to reimagine cities emptied of the working class, transforming vibrant and rebellious communities into enclaves for the wealthy.

Joseph Dibee was arrested with the collaboration of Cuban authorities in a coordination between rival authoritarian powers that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. As climate chaos, popular uprisings, and economic uncertainty continue to shake the globe, we are witnessing unprecedented collaboration between states in policing and extradition. It remains to be seen what this means for other rebels from previous eras—such as Assata Shakur, who has lived in Cuba for many decades despite being at the top of the FBI’s “most wanted” list. What is clear is that all who oppose the coordinated international suppression of resistance must organize now to defend those who are currently being targeted, lest the authorities be emboldened to expand their scope still further.

Imagining a New Horizon of Struggle

The resurgence of street-level fascism in the US on the coattails of the Trump campaign is merely the tip of the iceberg. Worldwide, we have seen a wave of reactionary populism that will continue to circumscribe the popular imagination for a number of years. As sea levels rise and natural disasters continue to displace poor and working class people in Latin America, the Middle East, Indochina, and Oceania, warlords, right-wing gangs, xenophobic governments, and broad sections of the wealthy and ruling classes will collaborate to produce fanatical nationalist and life-denying discourses. Refugees from across the world are already being denied safe passage into the gated communities of the global north.

It is no longer realistic to imagine that climate change and ecological chaos can be prevented. But this only makes it more paramount to defend what wildness remains, impose consequences for the most environmentally destructive activity, and defend those who take risks to make the world hospitable for both human and nonhuman life. If we do not want to spend the next century locked in ethno-nationalist, religious, and racial warfare, we have to foster new struggles against climate change and ecological destruction, we have to build mutual aid networks capable of surviving in disaster zones, and we have to resolutely defend everyone who fights for a world without cages. Free Joseph Dibee.

You can send letters of care and encouragement to Joseph. DO NOT write about his case or reference anything illegal. Write him here:

Joseph Dibee #812133 Multnomah County Detention Center 11540 NE Inverness Drive Portland, Oregon 97220

We don’t forget those who fight.

Further Reading

“Green Scare Defendant Apprehended in Cuba After 12 Years“—statement from Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center

The SHAC Campaign

Green Scared?—A comprehensive overview of the Green Scare and the lessons it holds for today’s activists.

Desert: Reflections on the implications of unstoppable global climate change for ecologist strategy.

We borrowed the header image from Steve Cup, a radical artist based in New York City.

[warburtonstoryaddict]

Adapting to Adaptations

     Some people say this is the golden age of television. Netflix Hulu and Amazon are developing their own original series to much critical acclaim and much of what spring-boarded them into success was adapting pre-existing works from other formats. House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, and Hemlock Grove, some of Netflix’s earlier and more successful series were all based on books, and more and more cable networks are optioning scripted series to compete with streaming services and the likes of HBO and Showtime.  Others say that we’re in an endless age of recycling the same thing over and over. That the lack of originality is killing more creative works by sucking all the oxygen out of the room. When Disney, a company already astute at milking series for all they were worth, acquired the mega-franchises of Marvel Comics and Star-Wars, they guaranteed that both creative universes would live forever. This is great news for the fans, who can now look forward to reboot after reboot of their favorite stories, but when theaters have to compete for every hard-earned dollar an increasingly selective audience will spend at the box office, rehashing the same blockbusters repeatedly means that other, more esoteric movies will not even be shown. Despite the challenges these trends present for new writers, I feel that overall, the proliferation of adaptations and the fragmentation of the media market are good for creators.

     Let me explain why.

     When I was growing up, three media franchises had a profound effect on me. Looking back on them now, I realize they each had their own unique gifts to give me, not only as a consumer of stories but as a student of storytelling.

FRANCHISE 1: Pokémon - Video Games and World Building serve as a springboard for fiction.

     Featuring a video game world of lavish detail and intricate mechanics for its time, the Pokémon franchise was created by a game journalist named Satoshi Tajiri as a passion project. Pokémon has turned into one of the most successful video game and media franchises in the world.

     The concept of the games is simple, Tajiri wanted to capture the spirit of insect collecting that he had enjoyed as a child, but with a fantasy angle. In the game, children go on quests to capture and train “pocket monsters.” Elemental beasts that inhabit the world instead of wild animals. Pokémon trainers can trade their Pokémon with each other or pit them against one another in (kid friendly) gladiatorial battles. The battles are turn-based and much of the strategy, like in other RPGs requires you to play to the monsters’ strength or weakness types and stats. For example, Fire beats Grass, etc.

     My first experience with Pokémon though was not the video games, but with the Trading Card Game, which brought the idea of strategic collecting and battling to the real world. I became interested in the show and games shortly after that, but if it weren’t for adaptation of the Pokémon games into other media, my experience would have been different.

     The exploration of the created system inspires the player to imbue the tasks they undertake with added meaning or drama. Building on the fundamental plot of the video games, the player enhances the addictive gameplay with personal meaning. Fans of the series, loving the world, creatures and concepts Tajiri created, went on to adapt the world of Pokemon into Manga (comics), Anime (animated TV series), Feature Animated Films, a Wildly popular Trading Card Game. The scaffolding provided by Tajiri provides the basis for players, myself included, to attach their own epic quests to the repetitive strategic tasks of the gameplay. The video game mechanics lend themselves to replay value and inspire storytelling through other media, in the same fictional world.

FRANCHISE 2: Harry Potter - Addictively good fiction leads to empire building franchises; If you tell a good story, they will come.

     I don’t need to tell you what Harry Potter is, or how huge a phenomenon it is. Really, Harry Potter and Pokémon need little to no introduction. Still, the fictional world of Harry Potter is compelling on multiple levels. It’s compelling because it follows the typical hero’s journey in a unique and more modern way, drawing on other classic fantasy works already in the collective cultural deposits and making them accessible to everyone. It’s compelling because author J.K. Rowling’s world-building is as in-depth as Tajiri's, allowing fans to immerse themselves in her created space and stake out their own nooks to explore through fanfiction, and cross-media adaptation. Third, the story of Harry Potter is compelling because, in many ways, it mirrors the journey of its creator. Harry Potter is a rags-to-riches, coming-of-age story about a young boy who rises out of a lowly situation to become famous and beloved. Similar to the eponymous hero, J.K. Rowling brought the story of Harry Potter to life as a struggling single mother who was rejected by multiple publishing houses, only to turn it into one of, if not THE most successful book series in the world. The smash success of the books spawned adaptations to film, video games and various additional merchandise, such as board games, clothes and toys inspired by the “Wizarding World.”

     Rowling’s modern-fantasy reimagining of the Hero’s Journey has captured the imaginations of millions. Like Pokémon, Harry Potter is an excellent example of world building. Unlike Pokémon, the mechanical structure of media like video games was not the main driver of its success but contributed to that success and was further built upon as created works proliferated, inspired by the excellent fiction writing skills of J.K. Rowling.

FRANCHISE 3: Middle Earth – World building at an unparalleled level, coupled with excellent fiction writing and adaptation skills, leads to the creation of a classic.

     J.R.R. Tolkien’s story-universe Middle Earth, the setting of famous The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings tales as well as many other stories is one of my most beloved worlds to explore. I first encountered Middle-Earth because of adaptation. I was first introduced to The Hobbit through a radio dramatization of the book. After that, I read the novel and later, The Lord of the Rings. I listened to the audiobooks, watched and own all of the movies, and have played several of the video games. The video games that I felt were the worthiest contributions to the franchise were the ones that were either direct adaptations of the source material or entirely new works based on the same world. In recent news, Amazon will be creating a new series based on the world of Middle Earth.

     Tolkien’s world-building has inspired many. Aside from the various adaptations mentioned already, it is also credited as the inspiration of the popular tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons, not to mention the countless “high-fantasy” or “sword and sorcery” titles that have followed and owe it a debt. Tolkien did not create The Lord of the Rings in a vacuum, however; he borrowed heavily from Anglo-Saxon mythology, Norse Mythology, and Judeo-Christian Mythology. Interpreting and compiling them with his love of languages, Tolkien labored to create his own languages and build the world and peoples that would have created them. The point is, that Tolkien himself was an “adapter,” in fact, he translated one of the versions of Beowulf that we have today. Tolkien’s adaptations spawned other adaptations of his work and inspired many others. The reason his works are so beloved and of such high quality is because of his fantastic world-building abilities, his ability to spin a tale, and his own skills at riffing on the cultural heritage available to him. This combination ensures stories that a wide audience can engage and explore.

     The idea that this increase in rebooting or adapting of existing works is a new problem, or even a problem at all, is a fallacy. There is “nothing new under the sun,” as the saying goes. The increased reimagining of work is to be welcomed. It provides an opportunity for new creators to flex their muscles while paying tribute to the works they admire. It could be a problem if, as stated previously, adaptations were all that was being created at the expense of all other content. Fortunately, though, the media market is shifting, and there are now more ways than ever to produce and publish content. So, let the major production companies rehash the stories that we already know and love. They have money to do it right and to do them justice. The rise of new streaming services and original television or web-series programming empowers creators to produce their own original works and expose them to the public eye in due time. I, for one, am glad to be along for the ride.