#Work on reading comprehension

[beetroot-merchant]

petition to make cishetallo the norm instead of just cishet please

edit: badly phrased post, apparently. my point is when referring to non-queer people, if you're not going to say non-queer, put an 'allo' somewhere in there. where you put it does not matter.

edit 2: the 'het' does not exclude ace people. demisexual homosexual: someone who only feels attraction to people of the same gender after they have formed an emotional connection.

[kippipies]

What are your favorite tomarry fics?

hahaha oh boy, what a question. i feel like there's so much talent in this fandom that i could just sit here and list fics for hours and I wouldn't even be scratching the surface of everything amazing out there. But I'll just try and list some of my faves off the top of my head....

What He Grows to Be and And the Living Will Envy the Dead by Severus_Divides_into_H

Of Your Making and When the Phoenix Cries by Purplewitch156

Mind Magic and Blood Magic by Snickerdoodlepop

Dead Leaves on a Wet October Day by trello

Hauntingly and No Glory by ObsidianPen

draw me after you (let us run) and love is touching souls (surely you touched mine) by ToAStranger

Of Kings, of Pawns, and of Men by Mads999

Too old to be this young by Nadia_castillo

Lover's Spit by Amelinda, k3u

Tender Reigns Our Night by noumena

Eat Your Heart Out by evaleon70

My Name is Tom by VanillaGhost

Literally everything by Mosiva lol, but my personal favorite is The Way to a Man's Heart

Also everything by Ailora hahaha, but my personal favorite is Inventing Paradoxes

[onejellyfishplease]

[passion8alot]

I am reading a book on Algebraic Geometry (The Rising Sea by Ravi Vakil) along with a group (i am behind on the readings but oh well).

And I am going to dedicate this post to all my favourite quotes from the book.

beginning with the preface:

all time winner:

[dykeofmisfortune]

doing this thing i call "reading every class high school lit book i missed out on" partially because as an english minor i feel like a lot of ppl in my english lectures have already read these books in higschool partially because high school english classes suck balls and i think the way they taught kids to read books was lame and dumb as hell and killed love for reading and i think some of these books they make kids read should never be experienced in a classroom setting

[crow-caller]

I read a lot of YouTube comments, and I respond to a lot of them too. I don't know if this is... uncouth or whatever, but I do.

Sometimes, I get comments which are wrong. Sometimes they're abrasive. People who think trigger warnings are excessive, or that something I've called racist/ableist/antisemitic, Isn't. I do talk back to comments like this. And you know?

A Lot of the time, it works.

Most people who reply back consider what I say, and I've changed their minds. It's not that I'm some great writer, it's often that they are genuinely... confused.

A lot of people simply do not know Why trigger warnings matter, because their only context is mockery and extreme examples.

A lot of people don't know what institutional racism is. If you talk to people about things they don't understand, you won't have a scholarly debate— you'll have an argument where both sides thinks the other is an idiot. I had this recently.

I come at people with sympathy and then, gently, advise them. Do not talk to them like they're idiots or scum if you want to change anything. The above comment is saying "ableism isn't real", but what they unintentionally mean is "I don't know what ableism is so I don't think it's real." This is the case a lot of the time, because people's only context for what these terms mean is increasingly mockery, memes, and political ploys.

I was once a mod on the discord of a large gaming youtuber, a phenomenally half-toxic place— most regulars chill, most random lurkers posting the most atrocious memes and not getting why it was a problem. The head mod understood protecting lgbt+ people in the rules, but didn't Get nonbinary people — he was under the interpretation they were real, but the majority were attention seekers. He cited an account on tiktok, whose schtick was gathering and reacting to "blue hair pronouns" cringe. This was his only context beyond the moral instruction "our rules should protect lgbt+ people". He would have put that rule up either way, but only through discussing it did mods realize this was his opinion, and could explain why it was wrong.

I'm not advising everyone has to talk to everyone this way, I'm saying if you're going to engage, consider trying rather than venting.

[reading-comp-posting]

Is this a gimmick blog? Like is it intended to be silly? Or is it intended to be thought provoking or insightful and it just feels silly because it's tumblr posts

To answer your question: both, sort of.

I definitely consider this blog to be mostly silly, but I do (with obvious exceptions) take the reading comprehension part seriously. I think that posts as works are generally overlooked, and some of that feeling was definitely also a reason I started doing this.

[myokk]

Eloise fucking Babbit.

Her name - her full name - kept replaying in his mind over and over as he practically ran through the castle in a furious haze. The other students parted around him with ease, clearly not wanting to get in his way. It was so obvious. How had he missed it?

Why did she have to be a Babbit? Why couldn't she just have had Hubert Abbot or...or Valerius Prince as a brother instead? He thought that he could deal with her having an absolutely boring Hufflepuff or even a Gryffindor as a sibling instead of Leo Babbit.

Yes, yes. Slytherins stick together, and all that. They were supposed to show a unified front against the rest of the houses. But some people were just so insufferable that he had a difficult time remembering that one specific unspoken rule.

(But he wouldn't think about last year, now, would he?)

Seeing her next to them, the family resemblance was clear. She looked just like her brother. The same unruly hair, hazel eyes. They could be twins. But...instead of seeing those hazel eyes filled with barely controlled hatred, today they had been looking at him warmly and mischievously and with trust. Maybe that's how she had tricked him into letting his guard down around her. How she had somehow hoodwinked him into not realizing who she was.

Sebastian had always prided himself on his astute observation skills, his intuition, his quick thinking. It wasn't pride - at least that's what he told himself. (If it was pride, it was well-earned.) He didn't think it was necessarily a bad thing to be aware of his own strengths and acknowledge them. Not like those stupid Gryffindors, for example, who were extremely prideful (the bad kind) and yet falsely humble at the same time. Who preached morality and good without even thinking of nuance, who thought of themselves as above the rest just because they weren't willing to push the limits of what magic was capable of.

It didn't matter that Eloise had frozen in her tracks as soon as she'd heard her mother's voice. Or that flash of fear he'd seen in her widening eyes when she looked up at him. Or the look that she'd given him as her mother had dragged her away from him. Or the twinging feeling he'd felt in his chest at that look.

Or or or.

It didn't matter. She was a fucking Babbit and he knew what that meant. He couldn't trust her. He had even told her about Anne. Anne. Maybe it was a good thing Eloise was a Babbit, after all. He had let himself forget about his sister's curse for a small while, back when he was talking to Eloise on their walk to Hogsmeade. Never mind that it actually felt kind of nice to just talk without those thoughts lingering in the background of his mind. He needed to stay focused.

Sebastian blinked and realized he'd ended up in the Undercroft. He hadn't entered it since last term and the emotions he had felt all of last year threatened to overwhelm him. That obsession. The fear and uncertainty and urgency that shadowed every moment. He let the feelings wash over him again, using them to his advantage to push all thoughts of Eloise to the back of his mind. Yes, it was much better that she turned out to be Babbit's sister. He had almost let himself get distracted today.

He took some calming breaths and then sat down and began to scour through the books he had piled up in the Undercroft, looking for any and all mentions of shrivelfigs and taking meticulous notes.

Shrivelfigs:

Native to Abyssinia - unclear when they were first discovered due to the traditions of passing down knowledge orally

Hardy plants that can thrive in virtually any condition, including subzero temperatures (note: research growing conditions in relation to healing)

Used in the Shrinking Solution, Elixir to Induce Euphoria, Thunderbrew…

(escorting Eloise to Hogsmeade had been the most fun he'd had in ages)

Egyptians have the first recorded use of the shrivelfig in their experiments (note: not the first uses…)

They recorded its medicinal properties, which include:

Removing pain - properties in the leaves (note: unclear if truly gets rid of pain, or just the perception of pain);

When its purple juice is combined with any part of the billywig, has the property to induce euphoria;

Cannot be mixed with powdered horn of a bicorn in any way (note: examine the arithmancy charts for these two ingredients to see just why they cannot be mixed)

Egyptians first introduced the shrivelfig to the Greeks

(he hadn't even minded being bested by her in the duel)

Alizon Pendragon (note: relation to Merlin?) cursed his children and used shrivelfig properties to cure them. Unclear what else he used in these cures…(this part underlined and starred and what else…what else…)

Sebastian stopped writing and stared at his notes. His handwriting was small and precise and neat: another thing he was proud of. His parents had impressed upon him and Anne the importance of education and his mother was very strict with how they wrote. But thinking about them made his insides twist up and his heart burn so he quickly put his quill back to the paper and worked on his notes.

He really did try to be engrossed in the research. He had taken out the shrivelfig and placed it on the desk before him as he worked, as a physical reminder of what he was doing. However, as he moved on to the arithmancy charts for the shrivelfig (quite interesting, really), he found he couldn't concentrate like he normally did.

His traitorous mind kept wandering back to her.

Last night, contrary to what he had said, he hadn't really paid attention when the new student rushed in and caused a stir among the students. As was becoming a more often occurrence, he was in a terribly awful mood.

Saying goodbye to Anne for another year was almost more than he could handle. It was just another mark against him, more proof that he was a failure. Even his twin was telling him to stop stop stop trying to find a cure. That she'd accepted her fate. He should, too.

Utter bullshit.

(But really, did she think those empty words were good enough? Hadn't she known him her whole life? Was it a lack of respect that made her think he would believe her? That she actually thought he didn't know she was trying to fool him? She had been poisoned by him. Giving up because of that man's words.)

Anne tried telling him that she'd accepted her fate. That she could see how his newest obsession was slowly ruining his life. And wasn't it horribly unfair that as she was slowly wasting away, that he, the perfectly healthy twin, was doing it to himself, too? Of his own volition?

Obsession. What a funny word. When Sebastian was younger, it was a word used fondly amongst his family. For his whole life, there had always been something. Something that would keep him occupied and have his interest. As a child, he remembered when it was the magical creatures living around their hamlet. One summer, when he and Anne were eight, they had spend days on end staking out a bowtruckle nest in the little copse next to their house.

Their parents had been charmed by their nightly updates, and had bought them books on magical creatures and empty notebooks to jot down their observations and draw. Every night, they would gather around the notebooks and he would watch in wonder as his father pulled out his wand to enchant the drawings to move and -

(No. He had already told himself that thoughts of them were off limits.)

He had truly noticed the new student when she was already sitting on the stool with the sorting hat on her head. Ominis would later tell him that she had caused quite the entrance. (He wouldn't know, stewing in his own fury and disgusting self-pity as he had been). The Great Hall was completely silent, everyone watching the spectacle that was a new fifth-year be sorted.

She sat there for five minutes.

Nobody sat there for five minutes.

When they hat finally shouted out "SLYTHERIN!" nobody clapped. Whispers everywhere. They all stared at her - had her name even been mentioned?

And Imelda, of course it was Imelda, had called her over because of course she couldn't sit with the first-years. Maybe in a different year at a different time, Sebastian would have been the one to notice and call her over. He had always been good at that sort of thing. Before. The girl was one of them now, after all. Slytherins stick together and whatnot.

The girl - Eloise - was quiet at the dinner table, seemingly more content to listen than to speak. Sebastian could just tell that she was hiding something.

Ominis had given him a look (how did he even do it?) and Sebastian had tried to make an effort. Although he couldn't have remembered what he said that night even if he were being threatened at the end of someone's wand. He did remember reminding her to eat, as lost as she was in her thoughts. What was making her so melancholy?

Ominis and Anne, working together to try and restore Sebastian back to the boy he had been before.

Everything was supposed to be normal.

Except, it wasn't.

Still, Sebastian was content to play the role assigned to him, content to try and make this a good year. He knew it was futile and when that bitch Victoria just had to go and mention Anne...well. Sebastian wasn't stupid. He could feel the limits of his patience beginning to crack and wasn't it better to just get up and leave rather than stay and curse her?

All in all, he thought he had done just fine for the first night of the second year without Anne.

Sebastian blinked blearily at his notes. He had been working on the shrivelfig arithmancy charts - maybe there would be useful information for him to be found in them. He was doing the advanced charts - that included more precise measurements and more complicated methodology. NEWT level. Sebastian had always had a head for numbers, though. He supposed that they were another of his obsessions.

Calm nights, crickets chirping, a floating candle behind them as Sebastian and his mother worked through arithmatic equations. The smell of bread baking, the click of knitting needles making sweaters. He was always very curious as a child, and his mother very patient with him and his endless questions. She would give him equations to work on while she was at school teaching, and every night they would work through the problems together.

(No. Focus on the arithmancy).

Numbers were comforting. As was dueling. With both, he had complete control and knew what the outcome would be. He wasn't the best duelist in their year without reason. Maybe he was strange (definitely), but he loved the comfort and rhythm of a good duel. It always followed a certain pattern, a code of conduct.

That was the second time he saw her and the first time he truly noticed her. Eloise.

For some unfathomable reason, Professor Hecat had put Sebastian against the new girl. He, the best duelist in their year, possibly the school, against a girl whose was gripping her second-hand wand so tightly her knuckles were white. She seemed nervous, but of course he said that he wanted to give her a proper Hogwarts welcome and god why had he even said that, but he had to stick to his word and so he sent out a hex towards her as soon as he heard Professor Hecat say they could start. Maybe it would be better the quicker she was defeated.

But she blocked his attack and gave as good as she got.

He hadn't felt so thrilled in a long time. Maybe not in over a year. Maybe not ever. As they fought, the rest of the students faded into the background and it was just the two of them. A brilliant game of cat and mouse...but who was which was the question that needed answering. Staring into her unfathomable hazel eyes (how had he not recognized them?) and answering and responding to every jinx and hex they hurled at each other. It was exhilarating.

In the end, Eloise beat him using an underhanded trick. Maybe if Sebastian had been a Gryffindor he would have called foul and demanded a rematch but he was a Slytherin and couldn't help but admire her for it. Truth be told, he almost wished that he was the one who had thought of it, but he had been enjoying their duel so much that even if he had thought of it he wouldn't have done it.

When she smirked up at him and said, "Slytherin," his stomach did a weird little flip and he felt his face flush. He needed to get to know this girl better. How had she learned to duel like that?

(Of course, now he knew the answer. With a family like that...it was a wonder she even knew how to smile. Or pretend warmth).

Like a stupid little puppy, he followed her after the class, desperate to keep talking to her. Even inviting her to be his guest at Crossed Wands. But every smile Eloise directed at him made him feel warm and she was like the sun and he thought that maybe if they fought together or even against each other again, maybe he could figure out what it was that was so mesmerizing to him.

In the library after that class, he had kept replaying their interactions with each other, not being able to help the stupid smile that grew on his face. Even letting his guard down, and not noticing when Madam Scribner started walking over. He supposed that he was being suspiciously quiet, and she did have good cause to be suspicious of him as he had forgotten to charm the cover of the book he had opened to something more innocuous.

But, miraculously, he had been saved by Eloise and yes, maybe he had been a little theatrical with his escape. Sebastian couldn't explain why, but just seeing her again and waiting for him and knowing that she had chosen him had made him smile despite himself, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world to grab her hand as they escaped together.

She was more intriguing the longer they talked, not least because she could also see thestrals. When she opened up to him about the dragon attack (in hindsight just a tactic to get to him no doubt) he felt a surge of protection previously only felt towards Anne.

When she had fallen into the crates after being hit by the troll he couldn't help the emotions that were twisting up his insides and making his heart start beating at an insane pace. Had she been killed? Oh god please - He was worthless. He had failed her.

But then - faster than his mind could even comprehend - she had somehow gotten up and before he could reach her the troll had been completely and utterly destroyed. He couldn't help but be in awe of her power - this girl who didn't look intimidating and who seemed so unsure of herself until she was fighting - but then she was shaking and hunched over in pain and what could he do? Another reminder of his failure to protect Anne - no, Eloise - and those fucking aurors were nowhere in sight.

(Had she ended up going to the Hospital Wing? He hoped so.)

Ominis found him that night still in the Undercroft. The candle floating behind Sebastian had almost completely extinguished, and the long shadows flickering through the huge open space gave it an ominous feeling. He had started analyzing the meticulous notes he had taken to look for something, anything that could help his sister. His friend slowly made his way forward, guided by his wand, and put his hand on Sebastian's shoulder.

"Sebastian? I heard about the troll attack. Are you fine?"

Sebastian looked up to Ominis, relieved that his friend couldn't see the desperation in his face. He hated himself for not being able to keep it out of his voice, though. "Did you know?"

Ominis sighed. "I think there is more to her than meets the eye. I know -"

"Stop." Sebastian hated how strangled his voice sounded. He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands and cast a tempus charm to check the time. It was much later than he had thought, and Ominis had probably come to accompany him back to the Slytherin dungeons before he could get detention for breaking curfew.

He didn't bother tidying up the desk before getting up and following Ominis out of the Undercroft. Sebastian couldn't be mad at the other boy - he knew him too well, and knew that Ominis had kept the information to himself for some strange reason known only to him.

That night, Sebastian dreamt of chasing after something just out of his reach and the sound of crickets and the smell of baked bread and remembered nothing when he woke up.

He had always been an early riser. Even after many late-night forays into the restricted section of the library the year before, he had never had the ability to sleep in. Maybe he could head to the Great Hall early - eating breakfast alone was his favorite start to the day.

Walking up the stairs leading out of the boys' dormitories, he saw that the main fire in the common room had already been lit. And - she was sitting by the fire, curled up with a huge stack of books by her side. Sebastian froze - why did she have to be awake right now? Eloise was leaning against the arm of the sofa, her cheek resting in her hand as she read the huge tome in her lap. Her brow was furrowed in concentration. It was her pink lips that his eyes went to, though, her teeth biting the lower one as her eyes moved across the page.

He hated that he was drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

He told himself that it was just because he was curious about what she was reading, especially after their conversation the day before.

As Sebastian approached, she sighed dramatically and shoved the book in her lap to the side. She rubbed her eyes and grabbed the next book from the stack next to her.

"I'm assuming that isn't one of the interesting books we talked about yesterday."

"Sebastian! What are you doing up already?"

"I could say the same to you," he replied, sitting down next to her and nonchalantly grabbing the book she had just discarded. He made a sound of disgust as he flipped through the pages, stopping at one in the middle. "'A good hostess is always aware of what is being said at her party; no topic of absorbing interest must be admitted to polite conversation.' What is this dribble?"

Eloise snatched the book away from him, a deep flush sweeping over her cheeks. (The flush was not bringing out the green in her eyes and he did not notice it). "For your information, that book was lying there because I found it completely and utterly boring and it's hard enough staying awake right now as it is. This one isn't much better, though." She sighed and threw the book she had just opened, A Wizarding Society's Guide to the Pureblood Customs, to the side. "My mother's making me read all of these so that I can have a smooth introduction to society."

"Ah yes, you're a Babbit," he said, sitting back and putting his hands behind his head. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't stop the words coming out of his mouth just as he couldn't stop the bitterness seeping into every word. (She deserved it, after all, for tricking him). "Ominis told me last night that he'd known all along." He shook his head. "Why he didn't think to tell me before we had our little adventure yesterday, I'll never know."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Eloise angrily. Her hair was starting to escape her braid and puff up around her head. He vaguely thought about how she had obliterated the troll yesterday and maybe it wasn't a good idea to provoke her but instead of being silent he just had to keep speaking. Because he was angry. Because he felt betrayed. Which was completely ridiculous because he barely knew this girl.

"It means," he retorted, "that had I known, I wouldn't have let you get under my skin. I would never risk my life for a Babbit."

Eloise looked so shocked by his confession that she didn't say a single word in defense of herself. He saw her start blinking furiously and her breathing became shallow. (Was he wrong about the situation?)

(He couldn't stop talking.)

"And now," he continued, "I understand why you beat me yesterday in our duel. You've probably spent your whole life practicing."

Eloise stood up quickly and furiously and looked down at him. Her words came out in an angry hiss.

"For your information, I never wanted anything to do with my family. They thought I was a squib and until a few days ago, I was at a muggle finishing school, being prepared to be married off to the most advantageous buyer. I was burned off my family tree when I was eleven. The shameful secret that nobody outside of my family had ever heard of until now. And now, they come back, expecting me to fulfill their image of the perfect daughter." She spat out those last words. (Maybe he had been wrong). "So no, I never practiced dueling because I've spent the last five years living with muggles. I spent my whole life in shame because I never had magic. And now that I finally have everything I wished for my whole life, Ranrok is trying to murder me and has already almost been successful twice. I don't know what sort of problem you have with my family but I assure you that I have no part in it whatsoever. Haven't you learned yet that I'm not to be judged by your faulty assumptions, based on small pieces of the whole picture?"

With that, she turned on her heel and stormed up the spiral staircase, leaving the Slytherin common room and an awestruck Sebastian in her wake.

Sebastian really hates Eloise!!!!!!!

Chapter 7 of my fic, where you get to see his first impressions of her😇😇😇😇😇😇😇

[deathlonging]

tbh skipping long/difficult paragraphs is neither uncommon nor permanent like if you tend towards impatience or restlessness chances are your eyes will dart down even when skimming is unnecessary and advised against. but probably if you're a professed hobbyist of reading it serves to learn to enjoy as much of its process as possible

[hunxi-after-hours]

"Qin Zhou's" throat trembled as he quietly closed his eyes, no longer looking at those souls. "I will protect all of you." "Qin Zhou" slowly spoke his promise. In this moment, everyone heard only the promise, but Mu Sichen heard the words that Qin Zhou could not say out loud. "I will protect all of you, so that no divine monster can harm any of you, including myself." Accompanying these words, all of Qin Zhou's emotions vanished. Even desire, even aspiration, even hope — silently, he obliterated them all. All that was left in his soul was that promise. From this moment, he became Him.

ok ok ok I'll admit I haven't read many books that regularly use 祂 ta (the divine third-person pronoun) so maybe this is me 少见多怪 but GENUINELY this was such a cool moment. I almost had to take a lap around the subway car because this was so well done

[spoonietimelordy]

Staff:

Also Staff after people massively complained:

Ahah lol it's a misunderstanding, we never said we would touch your main dash, all good 👍

[averlym]

ghost story premiere day! check @melliotwrites for more info

[statementlou]

https://www.tumblr.com/louisupdates/754934426217152513/goodbye-faith-in-the-future-world-tour-272024?source=share

did he or did he not lose fans then?

I will answer this because this anon actually brings a concrete question to the table rather than just "hurhur but you're a larrie??" (tell me you can't actually refute any of our points…). Anyway this post shows the decrease in Louis instagram followers between the screenshots taken directly after the release of Faith in the Future in Nov '22, when he changed his bio to promote that album and the tour tickets, and now, when he changed it again to mention the current release. But I'm putting that response under a cut because I'm tired of the actual POINT of all this nonsense getting lost in a sea of made up things people insist are important:

There is no rational argument you can make to say that Louis has less fans now than he did 2, 4, or 6 years ago. You don't need a spreadsheet of details you need to USE YOUR EYES! He has gone from filling theaters to filling arenas and stadiums. His second album made a higher chart position than his first album. His festival has doubled in size EVERY year of its existence. And for that matter: his insta post engagement numbers remain about the same (despite the fact that older posts should have way MORE likes due to having been there longer, even aside from follower counts.) SO WHO FUCKING CARES ABOUT HIS INSTA FOLLOWER NUMBER???? Serious question: what does the word "fans" mean if these things aren't what matters? ALL of this quibbling about what he should do to make things better and people can't even see that THINGS AREN'T BAD.

Anyway to address the specific question- (con't......)

NO- HE DID NOT LOSE FANS. HE LOST SOME INSTA FOLLOWERS. THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. As I said above, literally what does it mean to lose fans if that number change coincides with him having higher sales, more audience members, and higher engagement than ever before? Whatever he lost ISN'T FANS. I wouldn't be surprised if a significant factor was something like a bot purge, but also yes: I'm sure a lot of casuals followed him around the time of his big album release and later unfollowed him. That's extremely normal because that's how casual engagement works, and why the definition of fan really matters. Louis and his team understand this and have referenced it repeatedly, talking about how lucky he is to have *us* specifically, to have the kind of dedicated fanbase he has, to have the KIND of fans he does who will allow him to do what HE wants. @dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram named the issue of depth vs breadth with regard to fans a long time ago, and pointed out why having DEPTH is so much more important. It's like this- artists who are on top 40 radio have more numbers on things like insta follows, and for a time on sales and tickets. But those aren't FANS- they're people with a casual interest. And as soon as that person isn't being forced in their ears 10x a day, those people lose interest and stop supporting them, stop buying stuff and unfollow, and those artists end up doing the 'opener on the jingle ball' circuit rather than their own tours. One Direction as a whole, and Louis maybe most of all or near to at this point, have something MUCH MORE VALUABLE than that- DEPTH FANS. Louis has fans who will support him even if he takes years to release music, or stops parading around with a pretend girlfriend to stay in the headlines at least once a month, or completely changes his image and genre, and that is UNHEARD OF. It's ASTONISHING and worth SO MUCH MORE. And they get that! THAT is why he always bragging about us, why industry people he works with are always so agog about us, why he will do anything for US- not for randos. He is also growing his breadth- and it's OBVIOUSLY WORKING whatever his follower counts are, but that is always going to be secondary to doing things for THE FANDOM because that is his sustainable business model. That is what keeps him onstage and reaching number one. And not coincidentally, the things they do are also working to grow that- much more valuable- commodity. So the fact that that's exactly what these chuckleheads complain about- that he does things that are just fandom facing or serving rather than everything being aimed at recruiting casual fans- does nothing but betray how completely they, unlike Louis and his team, misunderstand the actual drivers of his (actual, existing, happening) success. Luckily for Louis, he and his team rely on their own data harvesting (they do a LOT of it) and growth metrics (they're off the charts) rather than the smug assumptions of random (mostly quite new to this) fans and the few bitter people leading the complaining about everything Louis does.

[greenerteacups]

oooh please someday tell us what you think of GOT

oh, no, it's my fatal weakness! it's [checks notes] literally just the bare modicum of temptation! okay you got me.

SO. in order to tell what's wrong with game of thrones you kind of have to have read the books, because the books are the reason the show goes off the rails. i actually blame the showrunners relatively little in proportion to GRRM for how bad the show was (which I'm not gonna rehash here because if you're interested in GOT in any capacity you've already seen that horse flogged to death). people debate when GOT "got bad" in terms of writing, but regardless of when you think it dropped off, everyone agrees the quality declined sharply in season 8, and to a certain extent, season 7. these are the seasons that are more or less entirely spun from whole cloth, because season 7 marks the beginning of what will, if we ever see it, be the Winds of Winter storyline. it's the first part that isn't based on a book by George R.R. Martin. it's said that he gave the showrunners plot outlines, but we don't know how detailed they were, or how much the writers diverged from the blueprint — and honestly, considering the cumulative changes made to the story by that point, some stark divergence would have been required. (there's a reason for this. i'll get there in a sec.)

so far, i'm not saying anything all that original. a lot of people recognized how bad the show got as soon as they ran out of Book to adapt. (I think it's kind of weird that they agreed to make a show about an unfinished series in the first place — did GRRM figure that this was his one shot at a really good HBO adaptation, and forego misgivings about his ability to write two full books in however many years it took to adapt? did he think they would wait for him? did he not care that the series would eventually spoil his magnum opus, which he's spent the last three decades of his life writing? perplexing.) but the more interesting question is why the show got bad once it ran out of Book, because in my mind, that's not a given. a lot of great shows depart from the books they were based on. fanfiction does exactly that, all the time! if you have good writers who understand the characters they're working with, departure means a different story, not a worse one. now, the natural reply would be to say that the writers of GOT just aren't good, or at least aren't good at the things that make for great television, and that's why they needed the books as a structure, but I don't think that's true or fair, either. books and television are very different things. the pacing of a book is totally different from the pacing of a television show, and even an episodic book like ASOIAF is going to need a lot of work before it's remotely watchable as a series. bad writers cannot make great series of television, regardless of how good their source material is. sure, they didn't invent the characters of tyrion lannister and daenerys targaryen, but they sure as hell understood story structure well enough to write a damn compelling season of TV about them!

so but then: what gives? i actually do think it's a problem with the books! the show starts out as very faithful to the early books (namely, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) to the point that most plotlines are copied beat-for-beat. the story is constructed a little differently, and it's definitely condensed, but the meat is still there. and not surprisingly, the early books in ASOIAF are very tightly written. for how long they are, you wouldn't expect it, but on every page of those books, the plot is racing. you can practically watch george trying to beat the fucking clock. and he does! useful context here is that he originally thought GOT was going to be a trilogy, and so the scope of most threads in the first book or two would have been much smaller. it also helps that the first three books are in some respects self-contained stories. the first book is a mystery, the second and third are espionage and war dramas — and they're kept tight in order to serve those respective plots.

the trouble begins with A Feast for Crows, and arguably A Storm of Swords, because GRRM starts multiplying plotlines and treating the series as a story, rather than each individual book. he also massively underestimated the number of pages it would take him to get through certain plot beats — an assumption whose foundation is unclear, because from a reader's standpoint, there is a fucke tonne of shit in Feast and Dance that's spurious. I'm not talking about Brienne's Riverlands storyline (which I adore thematically but speaking honestly should have been its own novella, not a part of Feast proper). I'm talking about whole chapters where Tyrion is sitting on his ass in the river, just talking to people. (will I eat crow about this if these pay off in hugely satisfying ways in Winds or Dream? oh, totally. my brothers, i will gorge myself on sweet sweet corvid. i will wear a dunce cap in the square, and gleefully, if these turn out to not have been wastes of time. the fact that i am writing this means i am willing to stake a non-negligible amount of pride on the prediction that that will not happen). I'm talking about scenes where the characters stare at each other and talk idly about things that have already happened while the author describes things we already have seen in excruciating detail. i'm talking about threads that, while forgivable in a different novel, are unforgivable in this one, because you are neglecting your main characters and their story. and don't tell me you think that a day-by-day account tyrion's river cruise is necessary to telling his story, because in the count of monte cristo, the main guy disappears for nine years and comes hurtling back into the story as a vengeful aristocrat! and while time jumps like that don't work for everything, they certainly do work if what you're talking about isn't a major story thread!

now put aside whether or not all these meandering, unconcluded threads are enjoyable to read (as, in fairness, they often are!). think about them as if you're a tv showrunner. these bad boys are your worst nightmare. because while you know the author put them in for a reason, you haven't read the conclusion to the arc, so you don't know what that reason is. and even if the author tells you in broad strokes how things are going to end for any particular character (and this is a big "if," because GRRM's whole style is that he lets plots "develop as he goes," so I'm not actually convinced that he does have endings written out for most major characters), that still doesn't help you get them from point A (meandering storyline) to point B (actual conclusion). oh, and by the way, you have under a year to write this full season of television, while GRRM has been thinking about how to end the books for at least 10. all of this means you have to basically call an audible on whether or not certain arcs are going to pay off, and, if they are, whether they make for good television, and hence are worth writing. and you have to do that for every. single. unfinished. story. in the books.

here's an example: in the books, Quentin Martell goes on a quest to marry Daenerys and gain a dragon. many chapters are spent detailing this quest. spoiler alert: he fails, and he gets charbroiled by dragons. GRRM includes this plot to set up the actions of House Martell in Winds, but the problem is that we don't know what House Martell does in Winds, because (see above) the book DNE. So, although we can reliably bet that the showrunners understand (1) Daenerys is coming to Westeros with her 3 fantasy nukes, and (2) at some point they're gonna have to deal with the invasion of frozombies from Canada, that DOESN'T mean they necessarily know exactly what's going to happen to Dorne, or House Martell. i mean, fuck! we don't even know if Martin knows what's going to happen to Dorne or House Martell, because he's said he's the kind of writer who doesn't set shit out beforehand! so for every "Cersei defaults on millions of dragons in loans from the notorious Bank of Nobody Fucks With Us, assumes this will have no repercussions for her reign or Westerosi politics in general" plotline — which might as well have a big glaring THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT stamp on top of the chapter heading — you have Arianne Martell trying to do a coup/parent trap switcheroo with Myrcella, or Euron the Goffick Antichrist, or Faegon Targaryen and JonCon preparing a Blackfyre restoration, or anything else that might pan out — but might not! And while that uncertainty about what's important to the "overall story" might be a realistic way of depicting human beings in a world ruled by chance and not Destiny, it makes for much better reading than viewing, because Game of Thrones as a fantasy television series was based on the first three books, which are much more traditional "there is a plot and main characters and you can generally tell who they are" kind of book. I see Feast and Dance as a kind of soft reboot for the series in this respect, because they recenter the story around a much larger cast and cast a much broader net in terms of which characters "deserve" narrative attention.

but if you're making a season of television, you can't do that, because you've already set up the basic premise and pacing of your story, and you can't suddenly pivot into a long-form tone poem about the horrors of war. so you have to cut something. but what are you gonna cut? bear in mind that you can't just Forget About Dorne, or the Iron Islands, or the Vale, or the North, or pretty much any region of the story, because it's all interconnected, but to fit in everything from the books would require pacing of the sort that no reasonable audience would ever tolerate. and bear in mind that the later books sprout a lot more of these baby-plots that could go somewhere, but also might end up being secondary or tertiary to the "main story," which, at the end of the day, is about dragons and ice zombies and the rot at the heart of the feudal power system glorified in classical fantasy. that's the story that you as the showrunner absolutely must give them an end to, and that's the story that should be your priority 1.

so you do a hack and slash job, and you mortar over whatever you cut out with storylines that you cook up yourself, but you can't go too far afield, because you still need all the characters more or less in place for the final showdown. so you pinch here and push credulity there, and you do your best to put the characters in more or less the same place they would have been if you kept the original, but on a shorter timeframe. and is it as good as the first seasons? of course not! because the material that you have is not suited to TV like the first seasons are. and not only that, but you are now working with source material that is actively fighting your attempt to constrain a linear and well-paced narrative on it. the text that you're working with changed structure when you weren't looking, and now you have to find some way to shanghai this new sprawling behemoth of a Thing into a television show. oh, and by the way, don't think that the (living) author of the source material will be any help with this, because even though he's got years of experience working in television writing, he doesn't actually know how all of these threads will tie together, which is possibly the reason that the next book has taken over 8 years (now 13 and counting) to write. oh and also, your showrunners are sick of this (in fairness, very difficult) job and they want to go write for star wars instead, so they've refused the extra time the studio offered them for pre-production and pushed through a bunch of first-draft scripts, creating a crunch culture of the type that spawns entirely avoidable mistakes, like, say, some poor set designer leaving a starbucks cup in frame.

anyway, that's what I think went wrong with game of thrones.

[shirokuart]

LEAK ALERT

The new album it's endinh with me

TATSUMI GAAAGHHHH

[not-poignant]

Every now and then I just get the kind of comment that makes me stop working on a fic and just has me going 'how about you write it since you're so concerned with correcting me on this one tiny thing that doesn't matter because it's fanfiction actually'

And like, I do want to work on this fic, but damn, not today.