#Real life vs. Fantasy

[hood-ex]

Also first issue for Dick vs. Jason is interesting because for Dick, he was like, "This darkness I'm facing has weight and I'm being pulled down with it, and maybe I deserve to be here. I'd rather live in the fantasy world of being Bruce's partner rather than facing the reality that my parents are dead. But at least I'm not alone anymore."

And then for Jason it was like, "I finally get revenge. I get to fight back. I'm done hiding. I'm done being scared. I'm going to make them scared instead. I'll never be scared or hurt again. I am a weapon."

So Dick was trying to drown out his grief by engaging more with the "fantasy" life that was being Robin. When he was training to be Robin, he didn't have the time to get sucked into more depressing thoughts. However, when he was at school and living out a normal life, that's when he started to spiral into a darker headspace.

Meanwhile, Jason had a different mentality when engaging with Robin. Unlike Dick who was using Robin as an outlet to focus his attention on something other than grief, and who enjoyed the companionship Bruce offered him, Jason was using Robin to regain control and power in his life.

It's a safety thing. Jason doesn't feel safe so he wants to lash out against others to protect himself. He wants to be the sword that is drawn first and makes the incapacitating blow, he doesn't want to be the shield that gets beat on over and over.

The problem with this is that Jason is going to lash out because his fear is pushing him to defend himself by any means necessary. He may not stop until he feels safe.

This shows that Dick and Jason both fear reality but in different ways. Dick doesn't want to face what reality is without his parents. Jason is scared of the things in reality that can hurt him, and he wants to protect himself from whatever those things may be.

[holmsister]

The way some people are really. Saw people talking about how Kiki and Kaka being brown is 'tokenism' months ago still haven't recovered...

Thistle: POC, white family, transracial "adoption" (long-lived child > short-lived family)

Kabru: POC, white family, transracial adoption (short-lived child > long-lived mother)

Kiki and Kaka: POC, white family, transracial adoption (short-lived children > long-lived parents)

Like. Is this too subtle for you still do you need like. A Venn diagram. Which would be a circle

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

It's not a dino thing, but this ark thing reminds me of the antipathy I have for Jean M. Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear series, which is just *screaming biting maiming and throwing up*

I'm a paleoanthropologist and prehistoric archaeologist and it just makes me furious. The worst part is if you look the books up, they say 'thoughtfully researched.' She's an erotica author who visited Altamira and then wrote her books.

Also, she characters are neanderthals (what's happening in the books would have to be ~90kya, though I doubt she knows that), and Altamira is only 30kya

oh I can only imagine how terrible that book series is for you, I'm so sorry. holy shit.

[amywritesthings]

with the american election day looming (my anxieties have been tied to that for weeks now) i just want to remind my fellow americans to take it easy on themselves and don't forget their routines/self care outlets for mental health as this week is going to be really nerve-wrecking and scary.

also vote. for the love of fucking god, vote.

[ace-and-ranty]

Wicked, the book, feels in theory like something I could really love. Unfortunately, I did read it, and I did not like it.

[rrat-king]

Personally I think even if he was "just" there to kill a different innocent person it still proves he's an asshole because he would be completely fucking over the girl he supposedly has a crush on's academic chances.

oh for sure he sucks. but i was just pointing out that there is a difference between like… wanting to screw over a girl you like so she can’t graduate vs like actively wanting her dead. though i suppose if he knew that kipperlilly was stealing the revivify crystals that would end with adaine dead anyway with no one surviving the last stand before.

but again, he could have just thought kipperlilly was there to kill the proctor not knowing that she would steal the crystals and thinking the proctor wouldn’t super die, he would just die enough to hurt the bad kids academically.

the fact that we dont know for sure is what’s makes this so interesting and infuriating, plus the rage that kipperlilly seems infested with along with the existence of devils nectar makes the idea of reality and truth hard to grasp.

this is actually me being an accidental rat grinders defender cuz i can’t get them out of my head so sorry

[ohbandera]

sona vs artist owo

[ztenzila]

COSPLAY versus AI of

Ztenzila !!!

WHO WINS ... you decide ?

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

🍖 How to Build a Culture Without Just Inventing Spices and Necklaces

(a worldbuilding roast. with love.)

So. You’re building a fantasy world, and you’ve just invented: → Three types of ceremonial jewelry → A spice that tastes like cinnamon if it were bitter and cursed → A holiday where everyone wears gold and screams at dawn

Cute. But that’s not culture. That’s aesthetics.

And if your worldbuilding is all outfits, dances, and spice blends with vaguely mystical names, your story’s probably going to feel like a cosplay convention held inside a Pinterest board.

Here’s how to fix that—aka: how to build a real, functioning culture that shapes your story, not just its vibes.

─────── ✦ ───────

🔗 Culture Is Built on Power, Not Just Style

Ask yourself: → Who’s in charge, and why? → Who has land? Who doesn’t? → What’s considered taboo, sacred, or punishable by death?

Culture is shaped by who gets to make the rules and who gets crushed by them. That’s where things like religion, family structure, class divisions, gender roles, and social expectations actually come from.

Start there. Not at the embroidery.

─────── ✦ ───────

2.🪓 Culture Comes From Conflict

Did this society evolve peacefully? Was it colonized? Did it colonize? Was it rebuilt after a war? Is it still in one?

→ What was destroyed and mythologized? → What do the survivors still whisper about? → What do children get taught in school that’s… suspiciously sanitized?

No culture is neutral. Every tradition has a history, and that history should taste like blood, loss, or propaganda.

─────── ✦ ───────

3.🧠 Belief Systems > Customs Lists

Sure, rituals and holidays are cool. But what do people believe about: → Death? → Love? → Time? → The natural world? → Justice?

Example: A society that believes time is cyclical vs. one that sees time as linear will approach everything—from prison sentences to grief—completely differently.

You don’t need to invent 80 gods. You need to know what those gods mean to the people who pray to them.

─────── ✦ ───────

4.🫀 Culture Controls Behavior (Quietly)

Culture shows up in: → What people apologize for → What insults cut deepest → What people are embarrassed about → What’s praised publicly vs. what’s hidden privately

For instance: → A culture obsessed with stoicism won’t say “I love you.” They’ll say “Have you eaten?” → A culture built on legacy might prioritize ancestor veneration, archival writing, name inheritance.

This stuff? Way more immersive than giving everyone matching earrings.

─────── ✦ ───────

5. 🏠 Culture = Daily Life, Not Just Festivals

Sure, your MC might attend a funeral where people paint their faces blue. But what about: → Breakfast routines? → How people greet each other on the street? → Who cooks, and who eats first? → What’s considered “clean” or “proper”? → How is parenting handled? Divorce?

Culture is what happens between plot points. It should shape your character’s assumptions, language, fears, and habits—whether or not a festival is going on.

─────── ✦ ───────

6. 💬 Let Your Characters Disagree With Their Own Culture

A culture isn’t a monolith.

Even in deeply traditional societies, people: → Rebel → Question → Break rules → Misinterpret laws → Mock sacred things → Act hypocritically → Weaponize or resist what’s expected

Let your characters wrestle with the culture around them. That’s where realism (and tension) lives.

─────── ✦ ───────

7.🧼 Beware the “Pretty = Good” Trap

Worldbuilding gets boring fast when: → The protagonist’s homeland is beautiful and pure → The enemy’s culture is dark and “barbaric” → Every detail just reinforces who the reader should like

You can—and should—challenge the aesthetic hierarchy. → Let ugly things be beloved. → Let beautiful things be corrupt. → Let your MC romanticize their culture and then get disillusioned by it later.

─────── ✦ ───────

📍 TL;DR (but like, spicy): → Culture is not food and jewelry. → Culture is power, fear, memory, contradiction. → Stop inventing spices until you know who starved last winter. → Let your world feel lived in, not curated.

The best cultural worldbuilding doesn’t look like a list. It feels like a system. A pressure. A presence your characters can’t escape—even if they try.

Now go. Build something real. (You can add spices later.)

—rin t. // writing advice for worldbuilders with rage and range // thewriteadviceforwriters

Sometimes the problem isn’t your plot. It’s your first 5 pages. Fix it here → 🖤 Free eBook: 5 Opening Pages Mistakes to Stop Making:

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:

[skullzanta]

Assuming single combat, could a Fantasy World's Adventurer retaining their magic alchemy and all, kill a real life Polar Bear?

I genuinely wonder if this is realistic or not, the question came to me when I thought about the monsterhunting exploits of fantasy sound extremely dangerous, and like a polarbear would die in minutes there, but then I remembered the bear advice:

"If it's brown, lay down. If it's black, fight back. If it's white, goodnight",

And was wondering how realistic it is for adventurers with their tools and abilities to ACTUALLY fight monsters like this, curious about how you feel about it.

I DO prefer a serious answer here, but I wouldnt mind some silly polar bear vs dragon art(less likely to show up than a diamond in a blizzard tho)

[tearlessrain]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

[casper-perry]

Walking With My Eyes Open

author:

Killthespare

summary: “I’m dying,” Senkuu said in the same tone he used for minor inconveniences.   Or, in other words, Senkuu gets a fun new experiment by way of contracting lethal Hanahaki Disease and somehow Gen’s still the one who suffers.

[borathae]

The Hunted | JJK x f.Reader

“The lands you were born in long stopped being homes of dragons. Once seen as gods until the humans turned on them. Poverty, war and famine is blamed on them, hatred and prejudices are thrown at them. The so-called Hunters were born out of the human necessity to annihilate anything which doesn’t fit their standards. The true blooded dragons left for better lands, while their half-blood offspring was left behind and persecuted. You were such an offspring. Born on a stormy, cold night, you were abandoned the moment you took your first breath. Jungkook was a Hunter hellbent on claiming your last breath. Unless, funny little destiny plays into his cards.”

Pairing: Monster Hunter!Jungkook x f. Dragonborn!Reader

Genre: Fantasy!AU, e2l!AU, Dark Romance, Angst, Hurt & Comfort, Smut, Fluff in later chapters

Disclaimer: This story contains fantasy racism (humans vs. dragons), very strong language and violence as well as heavy themes of non-con drugging and talks about death in childbirth. It also includes themes of loss & abandonment as well as mentions of violent sex crimes (not by Jungkook). The author does not endorse these actions. On a lighter note, it also includes consensual & very descriptive sexual scenes as well as genuine character development and soft fluff scenes as the story progresses. If you are sensitive to such topics, I advise you read with care. This is a work of fiction and does not correlate with any real-life people.

Wordcount: in progress | updated weekly on Wednesday 5pm CET

#01 - Long Roads

#02 - Coin, Kings & History

#03 - A Question Answered

#04 - A Small Patch of Home

#05 - The Wandering Market

#06 - Run, Little Dragon, Run

#07 - It Means Nothing, It Doesn’t.

#08 - So History Doesn‘t Repeat Itself

#09 - Bounty

[loredrinker]

The story of Lavellan and Solas tickles my Tolkien-influenced love for fantasy. It falls into the category of Beren and Lúthien - a love story that, by all real-world logic, is absolutely batshit insane. And yet, placed within the mythic frame of fantasy, it fits perfectly. It belongs there. These are the kinds of stories that only make sense in a world comfortable with myths, legends, ancient beings, monsters, supernatural war and absurdity - where love doesn’t follow rules, it transcends them.

That’s what I love: the illogical. Because love isn’t logical. For every argument I’ve seen that says it “makes no sense” for Lavellan and Solas to fall in love over the course of Inquisition, or that waiting that many years to be together is unrealistic. I sit back and laugh. Really? Love needs a timeline? In a fantasy?

Beren took one look at Lúthien dancing and fell irrevocably in love - and Lúthien was all in too. They didn’t take three years to build a foundation of trust and talk about boundaries or what they saw in each other. Their version of courtship was joining forces to battle literal evil so they could earn the right to be together. It was reckless, wild, insane, illogical and absolutely delicious. 

Lavellan and Solas hit that same mythic nerve for me. Their story - two people drawn together across time, fate, and existential stakes - feels like something out of The Silmarillion.

I don’t need these stories of love and pain and tragedy and trauma and desire to be logical in the real-world sense. It was never meant to be. Like all mythological love stories, it speaks to something eternal, irrational, and luminous.

There are themes and tropes woven through Lavellan and Solas’ story that utterly captivate me. And it’s partly to do with the fact that their love story isn't a comfortable one. It asks something of you. It asks you to reconcile contradiction: love and betrayal, hope and despair, violence and tenderness, destiny and choice, love as performance vs love as presence.

I’ve uncovered themes and archetypes that fit perfectly in this world of fantasy and discovered new ones in conversations with fellow Solas and Lavellan lovers as well. Here’s my attempt to weave some of those tropes and themes together. 

Their story carries what I like to call the Tolkien Effect: elven atmosphere where immortals and mortals fall in love and brave inconceivable odds just to be together. It’s the story of a man tormented by the choice between duty and love - Solas’ self-imposed responsibility to mend the world demands that he sacrifice his heart, while Lavellan’s bond with him is forged within that very conflict. He stands as the tragic anti-hero: prideful, guilt-ridden, withdrawing into self-destructive isolation because he’s convinced only he can set things right. She, meanwhile, plays Beauty to his Beast - seeing the fractured soul beneath the would-be destroyer and, by loving him, becoming the mirror that reflects his lost humanity. In classic fashion, they are star-crossed lovers - she's a mortal leader of the present, he's an immortal haunted by his past. Their timelines are misaligned, their love a sacrifice in the face of fate.

Their relationship goes from prejudice to passion. At first, Solas sees Lavellan as a biased curiosity - a product of a world he resents. But curiosity gives way to respect, respect deepens into desire, and desire transforms into love overwhelming it's held in restraint. He tries to resist her, but she becomes a gravitational force pulling him into her orbit.

Here, love becomes existential salvation or existential disruption. Lavellan offers Solas something terrifying: a path out of the endless cycle of destruction. It's a chance to choose life and yet instead he chooses to run from it, fleeing the love that might transform his path.

He tries to let her go, believing he must shield her from the darkness he carries. But he's the immortal who can't let go. He visits her dreams. Writes to her. Remembers her. Because this is love across time - a mythic bond that survives years, silence, betrayal, and distance. A love that endures even after everything else has fallen.

He's the lonely immortal whose memories stretch back to betrayals no one else can comprehend. Lavellan is shaped in the mold of Tolkien’s quiet heroes - Frodo’s endurance, Aragorn’s purpose, Éowyn’s resolve - meeting unearthly stakes with a resilience that refuses to break, even when love itself feels like punishment.

In the end, wisdom and mercy override vengeance. Lavellan’s forgiveness doesn’t excuse but provides a path to healing. She has taken on the role of mortal muse of the divine. A single, fleeting human heart - fragile, finite - a key that might yet save an ancient, wounded soul. And so great is this ancient being’s pain, so immense the guilt and fear he carries, that it takes a fellowship to save Thedas, to save him - the mortal and immortal working together. And at the end, the star-crossed lovers are reunited, a bittersweet ending as they experienced so much pain to get there. They ascend together into another world, stepping outside the boundaries of Thedas, likely to inspire new legends in the years to come. 

Should I go on? There are more themes and tropes I’ve pulled from this story - more patterns of myth and meaning that keep drawing me back. And now, with the story of Lavellan and Solas together in the Fade, it begs for new narratives, new archetypes, new emotional terrain.

The story isn’t over. It’s only deepening.

[homunculus-argument]

You know how there's people you only ever saw once, but still remember years later? This one time like ten years ago, I was travelling by train and sitting opposite of me was some dude with one single streak of silvery white hair on his forehead. He could not have been over 25, and it wasn't just a few grey hairs but a distinct white forelock, something that I had not even known can actually happen in real life. And it was not bleached, it was definitely real natural hair. I've been dying my hair since I was 12 and mine has been everything from black to white and red to green, I can tell when nordic hair is dyed vs natural.

And he didn't look like the type to dye his hair. He was the type that would wear a fedora with cargo pants, socks with sandals type of guy that you wouldn't be surprised to hear owns a katana. Long hair on a ponytail, but with that distinct white streak running through it. I did my best not to stare while I thought, how fucking cool is that? This one specific type of a guy who would know how cool it is to have a trait that only happens to characters in fantasy books just naturally has that, and keeps his hair long to show it off.

I was still living with my family at the time, and once I got home I told them about this guy I saw on the train. Like yeah I had been to university entrance exams and that didn't go well, but I wanted to tell them about the cool anime hair of this guy I saw on the train. And my family's first question was: Are you sure? No way that would actually happen, specifically not with some guy like that, he would have dyed it just to look cool. Eventually I got tired of childishly insisting that I Know What I Saw, and just gave up and let them convince me that maybe it wasn't real after all.

Until years later, I discovered that it is a real thing that happens to people! It's called poliosis and the there's plenty of pictures of people online who have it, whose hair look just like that. I was right all along. And I don't know if he'll ever hear it, but if the dude with the Main Character Hair, who was reading a fantasy book the size of a brick travelling by train in sothern Finland somewhere in the early 2010s, I hope you still know that your hair is cool as fuck.

[audliminal]

So, the thing about disability, that nobody really likes to talk about, is that it actually is innately tied to cultural context. To be disabled means, on the most basic level, that you are incapable of performing actions that are expected of your 'standard' individual. This is a concept that is extremely easy to understand when you're referring to a wheelchair user or someone who struggles with basic math, but when you get into the weeds with it, you'll find that it quickly becomes very difficult to find the line in the sand.

A person who can't walk at all is obviously disabled, but what about someone who can walk but only for 30 minutes at a time? Or an hour? Or two hours? How long is a standard person capable of walking for? Or what about someone who can do basic math but can't do algebra? Or what if they can do algebra but not geometry? Everybody is going to have a different idea of what the 'standard' person should be capable of.

So, it's really not surprising to find such disagreement about the glasses thing. Sure humans have the potential for 20/20 vision, but if most people don't reach that standard, does it really make sense to expect the standard human to have perfect vision? And if not, where do you draw the line of abled vision vs disabled vision? Undoubtedly, your opinion is going to be influenced by many things, from the percentage of people you know who need glasses, to your own perception of the concept of disability, to your own innate degree of vision, and your personal experience with glasses.

But really in the end, there's an extremely easy answer to this question: if an individual person views their need for glasses as a disability, then it is one, and if they don't, then it's not.

Thanks, Anon!

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