#Worldbuilding is usually HARD for me but this has come so easily to me for some reason??

[peteytheparrot]

So Pecker and Co. live in a cactus, and they live in the cactus. They have rooms in the cactus. I'm going to assume they fly to get to their rooms (being that ladders are rare). Does Pecker need a ladder or stairs? Does Meadow have to put those in or smth?

After Peckers incident they had to modify the cactus a decent amount for him to go around the place without it being a big hassle for him to do. On the outside of the cactus they added stairs going up to Pecker’s room, as shown here! Although, it takes awhile for him to walk up all of those steps as it wraps around the cactus. (I’m probably gonna redesign the stairs into more of a ramp wrapping around, because just planks of wood seems hard to walk on without falling lmao) Sadly he can’t go to Meadow or Violets rooms on the outside though.

And now onto the inside of the cactus, besides that the bar itself is pretty fine to Peckers needs (besides some perches he just can’t fly up to), but behind where Meadow works it gets a little more complicated!

In order to grab most drinks you have to be able to fly up to grab them, so they implemented a little ladder Pecker can use if he ever wants to work in the bar a bit! And in order to go up into any of their rooms, it used to be that they would just fly up into them, but after the incident they added ladders, BUT I’m also thinking for easier reasons for Pecker (and it looks cooler) I mighttt make it a spiral staircase with platforms that go into each room? But that would probably make it harder for Meadow and Violet to fly up into their rooms without accidentally bumping into something… Shrugs lol

The rooms themselves probably aren’t too bad for Peckers needs and tbh Meadow and Violets rooms don’t really need to be that catered to him, they probably have like, a hammock up high, some tall shelves, and some perches? I could see Violet having a couple of those hammocks for toys hanging around high in her room… Pecker’s room itself is pretty much just an average room non-flying wise lmfao- I could see them having to change his room a lot after his incident due to him probably constantly wanting to fly and having high up places in there, but probably nothing too severe.

I’d like to make some pretty drawings of the bar and their rooms someday in full detail :) and also add more bird elements into some places! This isn’t fully finalized yet!

[transformers-spike]

(Not a request)

I’ve been like honestly thinking, what would certain bots call their little human partners? Like I could imagine TFA megs being “my darling” but like at the same time I don’t. Just a random ramble I hope you could help me out here bc it’s been on my mind for a while🥲

I've been discussing this question with @drunkeninlovesailor this morning and we've brainstormed a bunch - so keep in mind we've also come up with a bit of extra worldbuilding (since we don't always vibe with official sources) Honestly, it depends on how well a bot is acquainted with/willing to use human terms. TFA Megatron for example would only use "my darling" if he knows it terribly flusters the human. He obviously looks down on humanity (and this includes everyone but his human - whom he still looks down upon to a degree but shhhhh). If his planet's terms don't have the same impact, then "darling" it is. But if he were to use a Cybertronian term, he would go for "my spark" (meaning "person I cannot live without"). TFP Megatron always goes for something that's a thin line between affectionate and demeaning. Things like "little one" where you're really questioning if he views you as someone he loves or a glorified pet. To be fair he's weird with everyone - any affection he has is mixed with murderous intent. TFP Optimus would call you something that shows his respect and appreciation for you. Not big on nicknames, but I'm sure you can get him to adopt something - be it Cybertronian or human lingo TFP Bulkhead and Breakdown are well-acquainted with human media (thanks to Miko and Knock Out) - but the nicknames they choose are either obscure references or sickeningly sweet to a point it gets ridiculous. Are they aware of this? Mostly Bulkhead - Breakdown would call you cotton candy with a straight face because it's sweet so it must be affectionate, right? TFP Ratchet would refer to you as his associate and later friend until he finally figures out his feelings and admits to himself he's been pining for so long it's starting to take a toll on him. Then he'll start calling his human "my spark" in private, because he's old as balls. But also "sweetspark" if he's feeling playful. Although he's willing to adopt some human terms as well and lovingly mock you by using the most grotesquely cute nicknames when you're alone. TFP Starscream? Absolute disaster. He tries so hard but he's too self-aware about how weird it sounds to call you anything affectionate. Usually everything he uses sounds demeaning even if he starts them with "my" - ie: my fleshbag. Unless you're in private and he's feeling particularly generous, at which point he's going to see if he can use some of the human lingo he learned while scouring the internet. He's testing them out to see which ones work - this can either make or break your boner. He's trying to seduce you not call you his "honey bear" TFP Smokescreen is a virgin who's never been with anyone before (you can pry this headcanon from my cold dead hands) so he's navigating the land of pet names with even less experience. Don't let him use the internet though because he'll probably end up calling you his bitch and see nothing wrong with that. Cybertronian terms tend to be easier. He says sweetspark and acts smooth to impress you, but all it takes is a sultry voice and his entire system needs to reboot. TFP Knock Out has a good grip of human lingo and is the best at mixing human and Cybertronian nicknames. He can easily switch between sweetspark and love - my spark and darling. Heck if he wants to be a smug bitch he'll call you kid/kiddo by saying Newspark.

[velnna]

The more I learn about your comic... The more I fall in love with it. Especially your bugs! Like can you explain more about them? I'm really curious about them (from the full bugs to the hybrids and anything else that comes to mind).

Anyway your art is wonderful and I adore seeing it on my dash. And you can info-dump too. If you want ofc.

Thank you!

The worldbuilding is a work in progress (as it always is, but the first chunk of the comic itself is pretty self-contained so we've been slowly tinkering at the rest of the world and creatures as we go without affecting it much), so we mostly have loose rules and ideas for the bugs as a species. Or anything in between for that matter.

For all intended purposes, bug people are all the same species and can usually cross-breed within mechanical constraints, as well as mix with the elves we threw into the mix. Genetics? Don't know her. We operate on Sims logic here.

A full bug has roughly a human lifespan, with some variation depending on the type of bug it's closer to and some type-specific quirks. The one we've explorer the most, as it pertains to Ashton and the latest batch out of the oven, is the ability that some types might have to undergo metamorphosis, usually at the expense of lifespan. This is Ashton btw

And this is Ashton pre-metamorphosis:

Something like this isn't super common tho! So despite me drawing a bunch of butterfly or moth people they generally don't get to that point and stay looking more like funky lizards with many arms

Bugs can have many arms or legs or eyes, funky colours, exoskeletal bits, antennae, or look pretty close to your average human/elf with hidden bug features. Dahlia for instance is a vaguely spidery bug but can easily hide a bunch of her eyes and secretes venom thru hidden glandes so you could mistake her for an elf

Meanwhile it'd be very hard to mistake someone like this guy for anything other than a horned bug

If u catch my drift.

Some bugs are small! Some are huge. Some are out there committing atrocities

Some dont look like bugs at all

They're generally not as physically strong as the average elf but more resilient in a cockroach kinda way. They can have a chaotic range of circulatory systems and internal organs that sometimes just make them really hard to kill and its also pretty hard to keep track of every variation of the species and their quirks.

That being said in a lot of places they're super common and coexist with elves just fine, mix up and it's also not super uncommon to have half breeds like our man Staeve (the ThUG edition). The closer you get to elf the longer you live and less "non human" traits you have. There's also a bunch of different types of regular ass elf and it all falls under the elf category unless we decide to name them something else down the line.

Then you've got a smaller category of super elves that have been isolated for so long they never blended with anything else, are more attuned to magic and in general have a sort of mythical status amongst everyone else. They also have the longest lifespan at around 250 ish years.

That's sort of the TL;DR for now! Ollie and I have started to put all the info we've got into a single repository and do want to start sharing it (probably as patreon posts for now) because comics are slow and the scope might not encompass that much of what we want to explore of this world. And the chaotic idea machine never stops

Here's a metamorphosis meme for ya

[starryskiesahead]

So…

I may have just found a new anime to obsess over.

Yep. The Case Study of Vanitas is easily one of my new favorites.

My goodness, I don’t ever think I’ve fallen in love with a piece of media this fast. From the first episode, I adored every second, every minute of it. I fell in love with the animation/visuals, the music, the character dynamics, the worldbuilding and lore, the story…I’m just so invested in it and love it absolutely. Noé and Vanitas have an absolutely amazing dynamic and their relationship is one of my favorites that I’ve ever seen. They have easily earned their spot in my Top 5 fictional faves.

Parts of it actually kinda surprised me? For one thing, it's a lot more comedic than I expected. Like I mean. A lot of times it gets dark and fucked up bc all the characters are traumatized and have their own tragic backstories that are made of their trauma and suffering. But it's also not all serious and grim all the time like I initially thought it would be based on my initial assumption. There's a lot of cute, comedic chibi moments (iconic tbh), which I didn't expect from this anime. Also the OP, which I expected to be chock-full of darkness and blood and symbolism and motifs and action and angsty visuals, is essentially VaniNoe going on a date.

In that aspect it's completely different from what I expected but also not too far off from what I've expected, a guy and his soulma-er, partner going on dark fantasy adventures around 19th-century-steampunk France. I really like the concept of Vanitas being a doctor curing the curses that corrupt vampires' true names into malnomens, turning them into forms like monsters - when he pulls out The Book of Vanitas and activates the magic grimoire, it sends a flurry of beautiful, sparkling magical constellations to purify the afflicted like he's a magical girl in a mahou shoujo anime using her special attack to save the day from the monster of the week.

ALSO also... holy shit never before have I shipped ANY fictional pairing as hard as I’ve shipped Vanitas and Noe. I don’t even ship hard 99% of the time AT ALL, the closest was two of my OCs, who are my own original characters so they don't count.

BUT THESE TWO?

THEY’RE JUST SO PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL AND AMAZING AND AWESOME TOGETHER AND WHY THE HELL AREN’T THE TWO OF THEM KISSING YET?!

like.

I mean I get that Vanitas x Jeanne is canon (don’t care for the ship that much, but I can accept it I guess though I’ll never be super into it) and Noé could have a thing with Domi, but honestly? They’ll never hit the way Vanoé does for me. Even if they never become canon in the end, their relationship, while not necessarily romantic, is nonetheless a dynamic I treasure and the way their personalities play off of each other is my favorite part of the series.

(And even if you disagree with me and don’t see the romance you can’t argue that their relationship certainly did come off that way to a good deal of the fandom, judging by all the Vanoe content I’ve seen. Honestly with the dancing scene, the way they look at each other and are super pretty in each other’s POV, the fact Noé wants a taste of Vanitas’ blood so much when blood-drinking is usually framed as a sexual thing in this series, the first ending song being them reaching out to each other while lyrics like “you made me whole” play in the background….yeah I think someone has to definitely know what they’re doing at this point, right?)

This anime was a blast from start to finish. I was instantly entranced, enthralled, enchanted by it, and I simply can’t get enough, so I ended up binge-reading the entire manga in one day. And I loved and adored it as well! The cover art with all the watercolors is so *chefs kiss* stunning, lovely and beautiful and the mangaka did amazing with it. So talented, wtf?

Love it! 💙🩵💜💖

I do have some criticisms such as I feel the story (mostly in season 1, I feel like it got better around season 2) is kind of…jumping around between plots a bit? I was expecting the main conflict to just be. The problem of cursebearers that Vanitas and Noé mostly go around curing, with a few extra shenanigans here and there. Like the whole thing with Roland and the Chasseurs and the whole encounter at Dr. Moreau’s lab felt like it was a bit rushed or resolved kinda quickly for my tastes? and the ending of S1 with the encounter between Lord Ruthven and Noe right about as we’re about to begin the Gévaudan arc, and just an episode after Jeanne and Vanitas’ little date…And like I mentioned before, I don’t really care for this pairing - though I like both of them as individual characters, and I can accept that this is canon, but I don’t particularly have too much investment in the ship. No hate to anyone who likes it though. And well it’s important enough to the story to not be really ignored, it’s also kinda just. Okay. They like each other. At least it’s a subplot and there’s other things going on, so for me I don’t have to be too into VaniJeanne as a pairing to enjoy the story. Also I’m personally really not fond of the fact both of the times they kiss were forced on each other. But that’s just my two cents. (Toss in Noé and Dominique into the equation and the shipping/romance love square does get more messy/complex, though like I said, I’m glad it’s not a constant will-they-won’t-they love drama thing all the time (no hate to ppl who like it, but not personally fond of those). Relationships are definitely a very important part of this series, and that includes the romance stuff but at least to me it doesn't feel like constant dragged out melodrama all the time.) Also I lowkey do wish Jeanne and Domi got more chance to shine in the first season outside of their connection with the guys. They do get good character development in season 2, and though a good amount of said development does seem to be pretty linked with their relationships with Vanitas and Noé respectively, I can forgive it as after all, the relationships and dynamics are an important part of this series and at least they have entertaining, fun, and likable personalities and their own backstories and lore outside of just being "the girls who are there to be the guys' love interests".

Honestly the pacing to me feels much better in the manga than in the anime - idk if it’s the different format and the fact that I can read it at my own pace, but it just feels less fast and easier to understand. I know for the anime some people found it a bit confusing, and while I partially agree/can see it on some parts it’s not THAT confusing for me and I can still understand the plot okay. But that being said, I think the manga is a bit better at this and in some ways, easier to follow than the anime.

Also, while I love the chibi comedy moments, I feel like sometimes they can be a bit overused from time to time? Especially when it's shortly after a mostly serious moment, it kinda throws me off. The truly serious, dark moments, focusing more on the characters' backstories and trauma, at least don't get interrupted randomly by the chibis, but still it does feel a little jarring when the style randomly switches.

That being said, the problems or flaws this series has/my criticisms don't really take away my enjoyment at all, and I still loved and enjoyed the experience as a whole even when there were somethings I wasn't too keen on , so I can honestly still say that it was such a wonderful, magnificent experience for me. I do hope there'll be Season 3, but I think there's not enough manga chapters to adapt into the anime and the author is on hiatus I believe. Either was, this series has sunk its fangs into me and won't let go, and I look forward to seeing it the whole way through and being there for this journey, beginning to end, I am TOTALLY hooked.

I'm totally along for the ride, and until then, will be looking at all the fabulous Vanitas and Noé art by all the amazingly talented artists out there (keep up your good work, love you!)

(Also Noé might now be my #2 favorite character of all time, up there with Arlo from Number Days. Yes, he's simply that powerful.)

[disturbnot]

— ALL IS VIOLENT, ALL IS BRIGHT

TIMESKIP ASH KETCHUM ; a quasi - oc. mutuals only. 21+. est. july 2013 — re-est. sept 2023 — fka ferociter. low activity / slow replies. lore / worldbuild heavy. crossover friendly / verses available ; no prior pkmn knowledge required ( this is my canon now ) reflecting all the stark contrasts between the coexisting horror and splendour of the pokémon world — broken realities, cosmic horror, a jagged deconstruction of protagonist syndrome, the absurdity of rebellion against immortality, and the indomitable power of connection.

— written and drawn ad infinitum by shan. ( 31 / any pronouns / GMT )

CARRD. COMMON KNOWLEDGE. VERSES. SPOTIFY. MUN.

BASICS

▸ hiiii. i'm shan. nice to meet you :) and if you're an old follower coming back? (kurtis conner vc) ✨ what's up, how's it going? it's very good to see you again, i hope you're doing well! ✨ ▸ nobody under the age of 21, please. i'm in my 30s, i have no business with teenagers. here's £5, go see a skibidi. ▸ no weirdos in general. or bigots or whatever. but i feel like that goes without saying these days. and please don't steal my stuff! all art on this blog is by me for the purpose of this general project and this blog only. ▸ otherwise, i like to believe i'm a pretty candid and easy-going person (well, besides the auDHD. i'm just a silly little guy); i'm not too easily bothered by things and i don't have any personal triggers, but i will always let you know if any kind of issue pops up :) ▸ general warnings apply for dark and mature content; there will probably be themes of (or at least allusions to) death, immortality, alcoholism/addiction, unreality, natural disasters, blood and violence, etc. i will tag things to the best of my ability, but if you need something specific tagged, just let me know. ▸ there will be occasional and tame nsfw here, usually on sundays. ash is nearly 40 and he looks and acts it; he's more like an oc simply sharing ash's name atp. anything zesty will be appropriately tagged and tucked under a readmore. ▸ i post ooc often but also tend to delete it afterward, so it's usually only ever temporary clutter on the dash. it's my blog anyway. i get to do the yapping. and i try not to take any of this stuff too seriously. i truly am out here just Saying Things.

INTERACTING

▸ this is a mutuals only blog; meaning i will only write and interact with mutual followers. i do tend to follow first if i find a blog i like, but if you don't want to follow back, i will usually unfollow after a couple of days to keep my dash trim! i also tend to be slow and selective with follow backs, in part because i am wary of overloading myself with too many potential ideas and friends at once; it's hard to split focus between too many people with all this golden retriever energy. ▸ i am SLOW. i work 42hrs a week, have my own place to maintain, unmedicated adhd, anemia, and a dear dad with alzheimer's i help take care of. i love rp, but it's not my be-all and end-all (despite the fact i still keep winding up here!) ▸ i am out of practice. it's been a very long time since i've been able to write prose consistently and i am a little rusty with things. your patience will sow interesting rewards, i hope. ▸ i'm usually juggling many convo threads and lose messages easily—double messaging is okay if you think i've missed something! ▸ i like others' ooc posts a lot; like a friendly nod so folks know i've seen them. if this isn't cool with you, let me know! ▸ i am very flexible when it comes to establishing crossovers and au verses! ash currently has verses for star trek, the boys, supernatural, RGG, fandomless, and other verses you can read more about here. ▸ i love shipping, but it's not the total focus of the blog; the chemistry and vibe has to be right, and ash is not always the easiest muse in the world to ship with, i will warn you in advance. still ... pspspspsps dare you to try your luck! (muses aged 25+ only!)

WISHLIST

watch this space :)c

[touchstoneaf]

So, I finally finished the book. And, well... I kind of wish I had read it before I saw the show, because I can't fully appreciate it for what it is now. I feel as if I would have been able to get more out of it before I had watched the show, but because that isn't the case, and because we now have such a wealth given to us in the show, such extra depth and so many beautiful little touches, so much love and interaction with so much gratifying fanservice ad representation, that I can't fully enjoy the novel for what it is. Which is kind of sad, but also it's pretty amazing, what we have now.

This is one of the very few times in my life where I would actually say that I think the TV production or film is objectively *better* than the book. I am also a film buff... but despite that, I very seldom say that. I'm usually a snooty purist who tends to prefer books above and beyond anything you could remotely produce using a camera... but this time, and given the way it all comes together, I don't think I can say that.

I do believe that given with the subtext-hunting (which I think becomes quite blatant at the end of the book if nowhere else), it would have been one of my favorites for searching for that sort of thing, if not as textual as for instance the victorious book that is Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, wherein the film couldn't go as hard as the book did (because 80s). It's sort of the opposite experience in that in this case, we had to wait for the show to give it to us flat out, whereas in the other example, the book gave it to us flat out, while the film had to make it an interpretation situation where you could as easily say, 'yes, they could be best friends, or they could be a couple?'

It's just...

I'm just so *glad* we have what we have now. I still can't fathom people complaining about what we have gotten. I love this show SO much that I can't imagine loving the book more, and that's almost incomprehensible to me.

I enjoyed the novel for what it does. It's irreverent, it's entertaining, clever and witty...it was a nice way to pass a few days and get my head on straight... but it wasn't as.... meaty. I probably would never have treasured it to the level I treasure the show even if I had seen it first. Because while subtext-hunting is its own reward, and I've spent a lifetime doing it gleefully... sometimes you want something more deliciously real; something you can wallow in. Like the last couple seasons of Xena, for instance. Or this show.

There's just something so very special about the blatant love story going on here, and how it's one of the best of those ever scripted (because honestly, it has everything), and certainly one of the best ever acted. There's so much about the worldbuilding, the scope, the focus on characters who in the book were more of a Rosencrantz and Gildenstern than they were main characters (because that's who the audience connected with, and you want your audience to continue to connect in the show, so you give them more of what they already connected with. Perfectly done), and the extra information about the passage of time that makes it a wonder.

Eventually I also hope to be able to listen to the radio production, but... I am extremely grateful... No, grateful doesn't even cover it. There's not a word for the fact that Neil went in full-bore and gave us so much MORE than we had with the book. Such a feast to linger over for as long as we wish, seeking out all the little flavors and all the clever bits we might have missed the first time... or the fifth time.

I definitely don't regret reading the novel, And it was certainly a nice first taste of Terry, because I haven't gotten to him yet... and while I do wonder what my experience of it would have been if I had read it years ago, since I didn't, all I can say is that for now, it's a nice companion novel with a Douglas Adams kind of feel... but the show is one of the best things I've ever experienced in my entire life. Period. It was, and remains, a life-changing event, and I simply I cannot wait to get more from this piece of media and this team; this loving, wondrous group of dedicated people who are giving us such a beautiful, one-of-a-kind gift.

[wondereads]

Weekly Reading Update (04/22/24)

Reviews and thoughts under the cut

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang (5/10)

This book was a huge disappointment for me. It's flaws are many, despite the interesting concept, and it ultimately lays in how underdeveloped this book is. It could have used so much editing when it comes to the writing, which is repetitive and trying far too hard to be flowery. The main character and the love interest had a lot of potential in the set-up, but the main character is just sort of bland and blank with an easily manipulated moral code and the love interest is...a manipulative asshole but it's okay because he likes her? The worldbuilding grabbed my interest, but it's inserted in such awkward ways and not explored nearly as much as I'd like. If you'd like to see more in-depth thoughts about this book, check out my full review here.

Wolf Gone Wild by Juliette Cross (4/10)

Half this book is marketing for other franchises. Get this woman a sponsorship with Marvel and Star Wars stat. There are only so many times you can reference pop culture and have the main character gush about her favorite ship (Reylo) or superhero (Wolverine) before I start to feel completely detached from the story since more time is devoted to pitching other media than plot or character development. This story is far too drawn out and obviously has just the barest semblance of plot just to keep the main characters from happiness for a bit longer, which leads to a contrived and boring twist. There are a lot of scenes devoted to obviously setting up all the other couples in this series, and there's just really nothing original about the story. At least the leads had some chemistry.

The Summer Queen by Rochelle Hassan (9/10)

This is the sequel to The Buried and the Bound, and I definitely enjoyed myself. As usual, the dynamics between the main three are really good, platonically and romantically, and I think getting each of their perspectives really contributes to that. I loved how much direct faerie interaction there was in this book, and we got to learn a lot more about how magic works, especially Aziza's. I thought the Hunt would be a much larger part of the book than it was---it felt a little rushed---but other than that this was a strong novel! It also has more of a direct line into what will eventually be the third book, giving it more of an overarching plot.

Island of Graves by Lisa McMann (CR, 18%)

I haven't touched this in a week :D

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (CR, 10%)

I'm trying with this one, I really am, but I'm not sure if it's the writing or that I'm still not sure what the actual plot of this is, but so far this book is astronomically boring. I probably would have DNF'd it by now if it weren't for a book club.

The Sunshine Court by Nora Sakavic (CR, 1%)

I've just barely opened this one, but I'm really excited. My relationship with All for the Game is a complicated one because I both love it and think it is horrendously written, but one thing I love about it is the characters, so I'm ready to see them again! I can't wait to learn about Jean and get his story.

[cabezadeperro]

hi friend! any of 🎈💞🪄💌 for the fic writer asks? (man some of these emojis are hard to find lol)

lmao i know

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

i think it is very fixed by now, honestly. i like messing around with tone and things like that but i'm pretty sure you can tell something is mine easily lol

and i'm very bad at describing my own style, but i'd say it is pretty sparse and visceral at the same time: i focus a lot on how things feel for the characters, not on how the characters feel, if that makes sense.

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

pacing, style and character coherence i think? i like Plot in my stories both as a writer and as a reader but i'm much more invested in VibesTM and in keeping character development coherent and interesting and entertaining.

🪄what is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you've finished a fic?

i start refreshing ao3 like an insane person while i wait for feedback, of course.

after that, i usually rush to start a new fic lmao. writing (and especially writing fic) is a hobby, it's something that makes me happy, so usually my reward is more writing.

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

so the thing i'm working on right now is my may the 4th assignment, and for obvious reasons i can't share that, and i haven't had the time to start the kenfetti longfic yet. however! i have this other fic i started a couple weeks ago and ended up putting in the (metaphorical) drawer. it's very rough, but i like this section

untitled codakin/cody & anakin wip:

The helmet is heavier than Anakin expected. It’s kind of hard to hold it with just one hand, but he does his best. There’s a small dent on the right side, barely a scratch on the white plasteel. “Got dinged a couple engagements ago,” Cody explains. He’s sitting very still on his chair, hands palm down on his thighs. “It didn’t start giving me trouble until yesterday.” He doesn’t like Anakin handling his helmet. Anakin leaves it back on the table.  “What do you mean?” he asks.  Rex has let him poke at his helmet—at his bucket—more than once. They really are very different. Cody shrugs. “The HUD keeps shorting out. It’s probably nothing, but—” Anakin nods, already thinking. He starts putting the insides back together, holding each piece up to the light to inspect it for cracks. It’s been a while, but he only gets it wrong once. He holds one of the motherboards to Cody. “Clean this out for me—can’t with one hand.” The commander sighs and complies. This close, Anakin can smell him—blaster oil and tibanna.

[thrawns-backrest]

Writer Q&A Game

ooh I like this one very much! thank you @vibratingbonesbis!

1. What motivates you to write?

usually reading someone else's work or discussing characters and plots with other people. so it's either 'this is so cool, I want to write like this!' or 'this is so cool, I want to write it!'

2. A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

never finished it but I had a oneshot idea about crosshair and I lowkey really like this line

Sometimes we find the strength to survive in things that have nothing to do with survival.

3. Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them and what are they like?

my current favorite child is my chiss son Rhiuh'vek. seemingly poised and has his shit together on the surface but is actually a petty little bastard

4. What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

those little moments when I reach for my phone because a snippet flows really well in my head and I've been able to hold on to it long enough to type it out

5. What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

dialogue, hands down. most of my fic notes are dialogue because it comes most naturally to me and I crank it out before anything else

6. What is something in the writeblr community is most enjoyable?

going through the writing tag and seeing everyone complain about how hard writing is. it's nice to know you're not the only one writhing in agony (pun intended) and complaining about it is even better

7. A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

hemingwayapp.com! my goal is to write more concise and this is a huge help. even if you aren't necessarily aiming for a concise style, it's really good at highlighting all kinds of stuff like sentence length, adverbs, alternatives, etc.

8. A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

chiss clothing oh my god, I could write a whole encyclopaedia at this point but I need to illustrate it and that'll take ages. I'm a fashion history nerd and the chiss are pretty much free real estate so my brain just goes brrr

9. What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

find an author or style you want to emulate and read a bit of that before writing. it rewires your brain to think in that same style and the words come out much more easily after

10. Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters

@random-user753 and @russiandeathcup have been so consistently supportive and honestly this blog wouldn't the same without you guys 😘

[miss-m-winks]

It definitely throws me directly out of immersion when a story that feels set in an older european frame suddenly has things like "oranges as a common and boring breakfast fruit" or "chocolate candy is super normal and easily obtained for cheap" or "everyone drinks coffee" all without any attempt to make it match the rest of the setting.

It throws me out of immersion because it feels like the author didn't think about how to write a cohesive setting. It feels like they just picked the most standard fantasy setting and then applied their own modern assumptions to it.

I feel the same when they write about wars that last for centuries and never acknowledge the impact it would have on the population or their resources. These are authors who just assume their characters would have the exact same life experiences as a modern person in a large modern country (usually America) but they slap on the fantasy setting they're used to reading.

I don't feel the same about books that intentionally blend diffent time periods and settings to make something new and cohesive in it's own way. Like Discworld. There's intention and thought and care put into how that setting is written, so it's cohesive and it doesn't totally throw me out of immersion when something vaguely modern is brought up.

I myself am trying to write a fantasy set in the region where I live, which is a temperate forest with snowy mountains, in the pacific northwest. It is a post-humanity earth, so sometimes I allow a few non native crops like apples and wheat, things left behind when humanity went extinct. But I also make a point to research native edible plants like ground cones and sunflowers and chicory root. And I make up new things like domesticated purple cave snails and domesticated versions of native animals like mountain goats and pine grouse.

It's not hard to do a little research to make your worldbuilding more interesting and cohesive. Heck, you don't even have to leave the fantasy Europe setting to research what native plants and animals would make for interesting and unique additions to your world. Maybe a little intentional mention of imports and trade, even! Especially if your setting is near the ocean!! International ports for trade are a big deal! Make them part of your setting!

I feel like this should go double for settings that are explicitly not intended to be our real earth. You've got so much space to come up with new things if you're writing a whole new fantasy planet.

👀

[13eyond13]

Hi! Hope you’re doing well!

Do you have any unpopular opinions about DN in general or character-wise?

I sometimes forget what the unpopular opinions in this fandom are since I've been in it for so long now and most of my interactions with other fans are from the laid-back long-term ones here on Tumblr, but hmmm... -I think Light's an extremely interesting and entertaining character and the whole reason this story is a classic and works as well as it does, and nothing he does annoys me in the least even when it's terrible or frustrating to watch because it's also always iconic no matter what. Some of my fandom friends truly detest Light, and every time I hear that they find him so annoying or whatever I'm just like oh, sorry can't relate. Much of the fandom does appreciate him, but much of the fandom also hates him, too. And at some points in the fandom hating on Light with zero sense of humour about it or acknowledgements of his more nuanced character qualities or the good writing behind his character etc. was a pretty popular thing to do, and still remains a big part of the fandom now -I like the original premise from the manga the best, where there are no special eternal consequences for using a death note, and everybody goes to Mu after they die no matter how they behaved on earth, and they can't come back from the dead again no matter what. Not because I'm trying to be an edgelord or something, but because I think that bit of the worldbuilding needs to be included so that none of the characters are slotted into moral categories by the writer for the audience. This way the audience has to draw their own conclusions about the morality of the characters and who they choose to sympathize with or root for or condemn. And not bringing any of the characters back to life is a pretty ballsy decision from Ohba as well that adds a lot more dramatic stakes to things than if they could easily be resurrected just to keep the series going longer or whatever else.

-I also think it was a good decision for Ohba to kill L off when he did, and am glad that Near was the one facing off with Light in the warehouse instead of L (though if I had only watched the anime this probably wouldn't be the case, since I didn't like Near in the anime when I first watched it and only liked him once I read the manga too). I of course also think it would be very interesting to see L and Light actually be able to talk freely to each other in a situation like that, but I don't feel like it would be that satisfying narratively to me since L wasn't really meant to be viewed as the righteous hero of the story originally. And I feel like Near was in a better position narratively to do this since he wasn't just trying to win for his own glory like most of the other geniuses arguably were

-I feel like my takes on some of the characters can be a bit unpopular at times? For example, L is my fave character of all time, but I often find it hard to feel on the same page with other big L stans and the way they see him for some reason. I actually find myself vibing with the fans that dislike him based on his negative personality traits more often than I find myself agreeing with big L stans, lol. And I usually find it much easier to click with Light stans than L stans when making fandom friends, too. I'm not sure exactly what the disconnect is for me? But it seems fairly popular to see L as a tragic hero of sorts, and also as a much nicer person than Light (which is very debatable to me). I think it's rare to find L fans who view him as as much of a shady and sly and complicated and prickly character as he actually is to me in the manga much of the time, maybe

[battleangelaelita]

Worldbuilding in Cinder, Part 1

I figured I’d give some insights to my worldbuilding choices in my fanfic Cinder for the readers who’ve been following me here on tumblr. Unlike some of my past works, I’ve been trying hard to make the text itself stand on its own without the need for marginalia and notes to hold the reader’s hand. But nonetheless, this is always a fun subject for me to talk about.

Neither this blog nor the fic itself is meant as any sort of criticism of the worldbuilding in the canon show. For the most part, the setting changes I’ve made I’ve tried to either be just lore expansions from the original, or changes to fit the more mature tone of the fic. Because it’s ultimately in service to telling a compelling story.

The Fire Nation

This is probably where I’ve bucked the usual trends the most. Most fanon accentuates the parallels to between the Fire Nation and Japan, particularly the post-Meiji restoration Imperial Japan. There’s nothing wrong with this in itself, but I think there’s a danger in constructing a fantasy culture too closely to any one real world culture. Such depictions can easily fall into caricature, or pull the fantastic setting too close to real world and rob some of the magic of fantasy.

Instead, mostly for my own amusement I drew on the aesthetic connection to South Asian cultures from the show, drawing on India and Hinduism’s immense influence. I chose this because India has been an interest of mine since I was a teenager, so I already had a good knowledge base, and this gave me an impetus to read and learn more.

There’s a lot of disparate artistic influences portrayed in the art, clothing, architecture, food and culture of the Fire Nation. I think it’s fair to say, especially since the comics and the Kyoshi novels, they’ve probably had the most canonical interest, with a lot of cooks in that kitchen. Zuko is the fan-favorite, and as the primary antagonists of the original, so this was natural. In fleshing out the fictional history of the Fire Nation, a parallel to the Indo-Aryan migrations seemed a natural way to tie together that diversity.

As a quick aside, I must vent about my frustration with the 20th century’s most malicious case of cultural appropriation with regard to that word ‘Aryan’--the abuse of ancient Indian culture and symbols by 20th century Nazis has unfortunately made this a perilous exercise, and I have no choice but to write around it. The word ‘swastika’ itself comes from Sanskrit, meaning “conducive to well-being”, part of the very common iconography of sun wheels. ‘Aryan’ was an endonym shared among many peoples across ancient Iran and northern India, and connoted adherence to a shared set of values and way of life, having linguistic roots in words for nobility.

Unfortunately I can’t undo this plundering, nor can I just pretend it never happened, but limitations breed creativity. There’s an upcoming scene where after a hunt with some other young warriors of the Northern Water Tribe, Azula is asked to share a tale of her people, and wanting to use this to exposit on how the Fire Nation came to be a fusion of an Indian and a Japanese inspired culture, I ended up finding some interesting ways to adapt a thread from the Rigveda and Mahābhārata for her tale. And if you can guess what that is, you get a cookie.

This world-building has come to the fore most directly with religion. Hinduism’s deep influence on East Asian religion and culture is often overlooked, but through the expansion of Buddhism into the Sino-sphere, a large number of Hindu gods, cultural practices and values left their mark. Buddhist deities almost invariably correspond directly with a Hindu equivalent, and Buddhism’s influence was perhaps strongest in Japan, where syncretism between Buddhism and native Shinto is so thorough it is often impossible to separate the two traditions.

There’s an added bonus that a Sanskrit substrate also helps explain all the words and names in the Fire Nation that really don’t fit, most fittingly Azula and Azulon’s names. This, I must stress, is just my idle amusement, drawing an etymology through Sanskrit’s sister tongue of Old Persian, the ultimate source of words like ‘azure’/’azul’ in Europe, back into whatever language they speak in the present world of the Avatar.

Language

Another idle amusement I’ve found is how language works in the world of Avatar. And I think there being a dominant lingua franca that has displaced older languages makes a great deal of sense. Because there’s a pretty compelling figure that at least in theory ties all the nations together: the Avatar themself.

Chinese logograms are omnipresent in the show, from the title cards to diegetic text. This makes a great deal of sense. Hanzi in their purest form are pronunciation independent. They convey an idea directly, and so long as sender and receiver know what the symbol is supposed to mean, they can communicate.

This is important because the idea of a Chinese language is sort of a fiction even at present. Local dialects of Mandarin Chinese even now have the kind of variation you’d expect of a culture with 5,000 years of history, in spite of the long record of central governments trying to promote cultural homogeneity in China. These dialects of Mandarin (without even getting into the other Sinitic languages like Cantonese) have major pronunciation and grammatical differences, to the point where they can be as distinct from each other as the Romance languages are from each other or Latin.

Why is one a dialect and another a language? As Yiddish linguist Max Heinrich famously quipped, “a language is a dialect with an army and a navy.”

The dominant Chinese language, Mandarin, gets its name not from any particular ethnic group or region in China, but from a class of functionaries who spoke and wrote it, the guān of Imperial China, who came to be known as mandarins in Europe through a game of linguistic telephone through the Malay language ultimately to to the Sanskrit mantri, meaning counselor or minister, and also sharing the same root as the word mantra. It’s that bureaucracy that kept China functioning as a single state, even as dynasties came and went, the country was conquered by foreign nomads multiple times.

To me, the most obvious reason why at the ‘present’ that the world speaks one language, whatever the local variations, is because its a project done by the Avatar over generations to promote balance in the world. Other languages exist and are even still spoken; the ancestral languages of the Northern and Southern Water Tribes hold deep cultural significance, to the point where in the North in particular it is still used in daily life. In the Fire Nation, the old tongue, a Sanskrit like language, is still a language of the privileged, used for literature, poetry, and religion, even as daily life has more or less switched over to the “common tongue”, though the former has come to be written with hanzi instead, with the once elegant writing system now living on as the furigana-like pronunciation guides and vulgate used by those without full, classical education.

I figure this common language has its origins in the Ba Sing Se upper ring dialect, likely beginning some untold generations ago with an Earth Kingdom Avatar, promoted by their successors--and Earth Kingdom imperialism--to the point that it is a fact of life in present day. Accordingly, it has displaced local languages most thoroughly in the Earth Kingdom itself, the most ethnically diverse of all the four nations by virtue of size and geographic diversity.

Other fics I’ve read have tacked the opposite direction, giving each culture their own language and finding other ways to explain how our heroes communicate, usually by making them polyglots. It’s certainly a valid approach, but it’s also more work than I’m willing to do when there’s an easier option just staring me in the face.

Having Fun

Like I said before, this stuff has mostly been about me having fun and giving texture to the story I’m writing. It’s not a bible on doing worldbuilding in the Avatar setting, but if you see ideas you like from here or in my fic, by all means don’t be ashamed to borrow. I am doing this as a hobby and see no reason to be defensive about it.

There have been plenty of other blogs on here about how fan culture does tend to approach various cultures in an Orientalizing or Othering fashion, especially the Water Tribe. When I do another one whenever and talk more about some of the worldbuilding I did for the Water Tribe, I’ll touch on that then, with links to the originals which I highly recommend reading. Until then, have a good one.

[adhduskull]

Bro danny phantom is so cool n stuff, infodump man!!!! Just,, yeet ur feelings about it. I love fanart n stuff of danny so gimy ur thoughts on it!!!

!!!!

Well, so first off I have a whole sideblog for it @superphlyduskull :3c if ur interested

Second this is straight up like. The most invested I've ever been in a fandom tbh, it's the first time I've posted anything and the first time I've attempted fanfiction!! (tho I haven't finished or posted anything yet) I recently thought up a headcanon that ghosts see more of the light spectrum than we do and that thats also how they become invisible, by only reflecting light humans can't see. I'd like to make a little fic abt it I think! Maybe one where a bunch of bugs follow him around bc I think it'd be cute

I think what really gets me about this fandom is the potential for worldbuilding. The show did close to fuck all in terms of exploring its own lore, but there were hints everywhere of how the world might work, and it's SO FUN to play with!! It leads to so many interpretations that are all equally plausible! Plus the huge amount of AUs inspired just by the source material... the way it lends itself to crossovers super easily as well, considering Clockwork has sent Danny into a different universe in the show (yknow, to stop the timeline where his family and friends and teacher die because he cheated on a test, eventually leading to him destroying the world...... there are some interesting morals in the show)

The angst potential is also insane, and I'm actually interacting with angst a lot more in this fandom than I usually would bc its so beautifully handled a lot of the time. Between identity reveals going wrong and the Guys in White getting a hold of him and Vlad being a shitbag to Danny being the GHOST KING

Ghost King Danny is probably one of my favorite AUs, I think partially bc its really fun to explore how insane it is for poor Danny to be saddled with this huge responsibility, and also to see how much power that gives him? Like on the one hand thats too much for a kid his age to handle and I feel like I might be projecting a bit since I was responsible for more than I would've liked from a young age, but also it reeeally spices up identity reveal scenarios and can save him too much grief in others bc depending on the take, a huge amount of the ghost zone has his back!! Like uhhh No, you are NOT going to mess with our King, [insert possible antagonist here]

It's also super fun to think of what ghost culture might be like, as well as just how ghosts work! We see glimpses in the show, but again, nothing is explored much? I love the universally accepted headcanon that ghosts have a vital organ called a core (though how it works varies greatly from person to person), and the idea that there are multiple ways a ghost forms (like from a being dying, or just forming from ectoplasm and strong emotions or big concepts, or being straight up born??). I've also seen the idea that a lot of ghosts don't really mean harm to Danny and that ghost culture is generally more violent bc they're not as squishy as humans!

Also!! There's gonna be a new graphic novel which is sick as hell! We don't know much more than that, but hopefully Nickolodeon doesn't mess too much with the creative team, because I'm really interested to see where they take it (especially since I think bitch fartman doesn't have any say in decisions? I'm not sure on that tho). Either way it's new content and I'm excited to see where the fandom goes with it too!

I have also realized the reason I don't infodump much is because I'm terrible at explaining things and trip over my words and am hard to follow lmao, particularly in person. You'd think that as an actor I'd be a little better with words but naaah lmao. I need to rehearse them for them to come out right apparently

Anyway idk how coherent that was but if u ever want to hear me ramble about dp feel free to send me more asks! Esp on my sideblog, I'm Always down down yell abt it!! Thank u for sending me that ask btw, it was really nice to do a bit of infodumping!!!💜💜💜

[artemistorm]

It came along gradually over the last 5 years. The first step was the organization of my file folder when I ended up with too many stories in my story folder--fanfiction, original fiction, story ideas and particles, abandoned stories, poetry, storywriting resources, etc so I sorted and organized them into my current format.

Then came the organization of my individual story documents--I would have random scenes, outlines, random thoughts scattered throughout the document and it was hard to find anything so I reorganized the doc with outline first, then notes and ideas, then story. It took a long time to convert all my stories to that new format. Once I started posting on AO3, I would have trouble figuring out summaries, tags, and author's notes on the fly so I started putting them in the beginning of the document before the outline so they're the first thing you see when you open the document.

Strands has been a thing for the last 2-3 years but I mostly only use it for my main longfic. I've only been using stimuwrite 2 for the last year but it really helps me reach my word count goal every day and I was able to write 148k words last year, according to ao3. The color coding the document has been only the last year as well. I was having trouble sorting out a fic with scenes of 3 different groups of people so I color coded each section so I could see it better and it helped so much I adapted it to help me easily see what I had completed and not completed.

So in summary, for every thing, I start with a mess and then I reorganize it, and then adopt and adopt the solution to all of my storywriting documents.

What program do you write with? Your traffic light table of contents looks very Apple. (I'm a PC gal.) So brainstorming for you is a separate step? For me I don't intentionally brainstorm for the most part (except for the inital story worldbuilding which happens pre-outline), it usually just happens while I'm cooking and listening to music or sewing or driving somewhere, I'll mull over a part of a story and then come up with ideas. Do you have a routine for when you sit down to write?

OK, so I was inspired and now I wanna start a bigger conversation and I wanna know: fic writers, comic makers, au creators, etc. how do you do it? How do you go from plot bunny or story idea to completed chapters/story/comic update? What's your process? What programs do you use? Do you draft stuff? Outline? Storyboard? Do you chart or sketch? How do you settle on characters and characterizations? How do you plot (or do you)? I wanna know all the nitty gritty details. It's just so interesting because everyone does it so differently.

[therealvinelle]

The illustrious then-@keerka, who now goes by @troquantary, sent me the following ask. Tumblr, of course, ate it, but luckily for us all I store all my asks on an outside server, so it wasn’t lost.

(A moment of silence for the fact that I took so long to answer this one that the ask was eaten and the asker got a new blog in the meantime.)

This was the ask:

Hi! When you have time, I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on the worldbuilding in Twilight and its logical consistency (if that's not too vague a question to even pose). For me it's almost hard to assess because the canon universe feels very...sparse? Kind of undeveloped? But that also means more room to develop headcanons, so I'm not complaining. Curious to know what you think, though!

This is my answer:

I think I’ll divide my answer in two sections, first I’ll give you an example of a franchise that has poor worldbuilding, then get into my thoughts on Meyer’s worldbuilding.

Supernatural.

Low-hanging fruit, but all the better an example for it. 

Supernatural introduces us to a world where everything is real. Everything that goes bump in the night, every myth and every monster, it’s all real, and 99% of them are out to hurt people. Who will stand against this evil, you may ask? Why, a scruffy but all-American bunch of self-declared hunters. These people are not organized, in fact most of them work alone. They are all outlaws. Their expertise is questionable, as Bobby Singer is considered remarkable for the fact that he usually knows what something is.

That’s it.

These people, all of them independent, most of them weird as fuck, are it. You’re in 21st century America, your country wields the most formidable military force in the world, and if something supernatural is wreaking havoc in your town you’d best hope one of these hunter nutjobs happens to have spotted the right newspaper clipping.

We’re offered no explanation as to why the American government doesn’t know about the supernatural, or why the world doesn’t look completely different. In our world, people don’t believe in ghosts because ghosts aren’t real, but in the world of Supernatural, people don’t believe in ghosts because [footage not found].

There’s no demon nor government conspiracy to keep the world at large ignorant, in fact this subject is never broached.

Hunters would make sense if they were bountyhunters, but they’re not. The secrecy could make sense if the angels were behind it, but they’re not.

“Maybe the military does know!” you might say, “it’s just that they don’t let the hunters know they know!” Well, we would have found out in season 5. Dean and Sam were caught up in the apocalypse, the government would definitely have gotten involved with that one.

Then we have the fact that the supernatural entities aren’t internally consistent either. We have angels, demons, humans - good, got it. I know what these three are in relation to each other. But, wait, we have wendigos, banshees, ghosts, witches, vampires, and tricksters as well. How do they all fit into the same world? How does the Christian God and every pagan pantheon, both of which are canon per Supernatural, fit into the same world? Who knows? Not Supernatural.

Supernatural is a world that is written on an episode-to-episode basis, by writers who wanted that gritty bounty-hunter aesthetic for their show about supernatural marks.

Back to Twilight.

Twilight, by comparison, makes a great deal of sense to me. 

I’ll admit that some of this is me reading into the text a lot, but I do that with every fandom I’m in. Twilight is a rare one where I can find an answer to every question.

We have these insanely powerful vampires whose exploits leave no survivors and whose numbers are kept low because it’s so hard to create a new one. They’re kept in line by a powerful organization no one can fight, and new laws are created as Aro discovers new threats (Immortal children, his debate on what to do with Renesmée). There are at least two other supernatural species out there, but of the two mentioned one is in place to protect humans, and the other was run extinct by the very organization that keeps vampires in line as well. None of this is fantheory, this is canon as Meyer created it.

Of course, I’ve gone some strange places in guessing why the Volturi exist, why the world of Twilight looks the same as ours, and why the supernatural world appears so limited. However, all of these things are extrapolated from canon. And I can extrapolate very easily because Twilight canon is consistent.

And this here segues into section two of my reply to you, as I imagine you (and many others reading this) are now saying “It’s not solid worldbuilding if the fans are doing all the work!”

Well, again - the difference between her and a lot of other authors is that when I overthink her work I find satisfying answers. That’s not a given, for instance I can’t do that with GRRM’s A Song and Ice and Fire, and half the point of that series is the worldbuilding! (My complains are many, I had to cut them from this meta, but the big one: why don’t the peasants revolt?)

I can’t think of a single plot hole in Twilight, nor of a logical inconsistency. Something either makes sense right off the bat, or I can look a little closer and easily piece together a logical explanation.

More, there’s no excess. I suppose this is what others don’t like about Meyer’s worldbuilding, but I enjoy it. Characters don’t prattle fun facts about things that ultimately don’t matter to the story, and if they do then it turns out later that yes, it did matter. Quite notably, when Carlisle gives Bella a crash course on vampire history, Meyer skips all of it except the part about immortal children, because that’s what was important. Later in that same book we meet Amun and the Romanians, and learn what the world used to be like, so it’s not like Meyer hadn’t come up with it. She left it out because it would have been off-topic and meandering.

This is where Meyer’s approach to worldbuilding comes in. It seems to me that she created the people and the story first, and then let the world they lived in fall into place around them, rather than the other way around. Now, there’s no right way to worldbuild, but I personally prefer authors who do it this way. To my tastes it generally leads to better stories, as this kind of author will show you the world through the story. We discover it as we go along and it becomes relevant to our characters, and if we don’t learn everything about it then that’s fine, though we’ve been given enough clues to guess. Consistency is key in this.

By contrast, authors who do it the other way around and build the world in full detail first, usually end up with worse stories. They get lost in their worldbuilding more often than not, their worlds end up so complex they’re inconsistent, and the story gets off-topic. Too much worldbuilding distracts from the story while adding nothing.

(There are of course exceptions to both, and I have more thoughts on this, but overall this has been my experience with fiction. Too much worldbuilding is in fact too much.)

The world should always serve the story, not the other way around.

(Again gonna use GRRM as an example. I don’t give a fuck about Aragorn’s tax policy. It’s not important to the story.)

So, these are my rambly thoughts on how I think.

There’s also the fact that, judging by Twilight and The Host, Meyer is just plain good at worldbuilding. She gets very good ideas, and she’s intelligent enough to successfully implement them into a story (look to Supernatural for an un-intelligent way of impleneting good ideas). And that’s all I ask.

[thickenmyblood]

I’ll confess my sins. When I skipped the first chapters of Capri I got stuck on Laurent’s description as spoiled and similar to overripe fruit. So i was like ah. Royal Dudley Dursley with a blonde curly wig. Sounds about right. I finally saw some fan art and was like??? Who is this anemic Victorian vampire legolas persona?? Honestly tho in an alternate universe where Auguste doesn’t die and Laurent still dislikes sports but enjoys Veres sweet meats and his metabolism is only the slightest bit slower Laurent is absolutely getting chubby. And Damen. Smh he manages to be shadiest bitch while also being appreciating. Would he insult an overweight courtier who never touched a sword? Absolutely. Would he respect a meaty sumo ringer able to throw Damen around like a rag doll? Absolutely. He seems to appreciate multiple types of bodies just fine (muscled gladiators, frail slaves, sturdy vaskian women) so I feel like he’d also appreciate curvier partners as long as they. Well know how to use their body yk. Oh and what about chubby jokaste? We don’t know enough about akielon beauty standards at all. Sure slaves are probably mostly slender and frail to add to the submissive aesthetic (tho I do remember damens fixation on his female slaves big boobs, dude is far from subtle as always). But if it’s Ancient Greek inspired beauty standards jokaste most definitely rocks some tummy rolls. Either that or she’s got super toned abs from the Pilates classes she visits with the other trophy concubines. and akielon man are properly ripped but is it king-Leonidas-washboard-abs ripped?? Or more chunky functional muscle mass ripped? Perhaps akielon noble women are even trained like Spartan women and egeria was the one with the washboard abs. Also there absolutely was a time in Vere where the chubbier the pet = the wealthier it’s owner. Im so so sorry for rambling but your post got me t h i n k i n g

This is not only hilarious but also one of the best takes I’ve ever read. There is so much to unpack here that I truly don’t know where to start.

You mentioned Dudley, whose weight and fat (derogatory) tendencies are accentuated throughout the entire Harry Potter saga. I think—and this is my personal belief, it is not something anyone else has to agree with—that part of what makes Laurent interesting and redeemable to many readers has to do with the fact that he’s beautiful*. I don’t think many people would be willing to admit that, but Laurent’s pretty privilege as a fictional character is similar to Draco Malfoy’s (in fanon) or other morally grey villains/characters’. Ugly characters are harder to forgive, for some reason.

This got me thinking that had Pacat written Laurent as canonically fat, there would be a lot of stuff going on in Damen’s head that I don’t think we’d be able to excuse as easily as we excuse other (quite horrible) thoughts of his. But also, like I mentioned above, I think Laurent would have a harder time proving to some readers that he’s not Dudley, that he’s not just a stereotype of selfishness and greed and other things fatness is associated with (like childishness or an inability to take accountability for one’s actions). This would happen not because he’s fat, but rather because we see the world through Damen’s eyes. And Damen is. . . Quite opinionated.

You mentioned Damen would be judgmental of someone’s weight based on their ability to fight. So, like you pointed out, he’d make fun of a useless in battle courtier but not of a Sumo wrestler. I think in Book 1 Damen would make fun of anything and everyone, but I do understand where you’re coming from with that statement. It makes me wonder what Damen would think of people with a mobility/physical disability. Or even with learning difficulties. Or just about anyone that, according to him, doesn’t contribute to society. If you can’t be a warrior or a bed slave, and if you’re not in a condition to be a peasant and plow fields, and if you don’t have royal blood in your veins. . . I have a hard time picturing Damen being sympathetic.

Chubby Jokaste. . . I think I’ve always thought of her as a muscled woman, given the fact that Laurent can pose as her in Book 3. There’s been a lot of discourse lately on whether Laurent is muscled or a twigly twink, which I will not get into because I. . . do not know enough about gender and/or gender expression to add anything to any argument. I am also not a gay man, so I don’t know what could be considered offensive. I am also very stupid. I also do not know what the word 'twink' means anymore.

Your ask has made me think a lot about many things I’m usually not interested in. I think it would be interesting to see a chubby Laurent who still knows how to fight, who trains, who does things other than eat and hate. Canon Laurent is slender, and yet he never manages to beat Damen in combat, so I don’t think his ability to fight would suffer much from gaining some pounds. It would be interesting to see chubby Jokaste too, even though I don’t particularly enjoy the parallels between her and Laurent in canon. It would also be interesting to see. . . different types of bodies. You mentioned the Vaskian ladies, which I like a lot, but I don’t think I’ve read or come across any fics that focus on them. I think Vannes’ pet is also described as muscular and big, but I’m afraid I don’t remember the quote and I don’t own the books, so I can’t be sure.

What I liked the most was the ending of your ask, where you went on to add little worldbuilding details. Like I said yesterday, I wish canon was more detailed so we could maybe have something to hold onto when we make certain claims. It’s hard to say which parts of Damen’s thought process are entirely his (as a prince with a lot of privilege) and which ones have to do with his culture. Pacat has pointed out some to us, like the fact that Akielons don’t enjoy certain “spectacles” of the body, like pet rings or public sex, but they do enjoy staring at bodies when they’re wrestling or performing physical activities unrelated to sex. Other things remain little mysteries, in my opinion. Do all bed slaves have the same body type? Do women wrestle? How does marriage work in Akielos? What is everyone else’s opinion on fat people? I’m sure not everyone is like Damen, who we speculate cares about having a healthy body so he can fight and. . . stuff.

I am not saying Damen is the only character who, in the historic period where Captive Prince is set, would have fatphobic thoughts. If Damen was fat, Laurent would be the first one to use that against him, especially in Book 1. I just think Damen fits the fatphobic mold better because he’s described as this hypermasculine character, very into war (I think the blurb of the book calls him a warrior prince?) and manly things. Which is not to say war is inherently manly. Which is not to say Laurent isn’t manly. Which is not to say. . . whatever.

Captive Prince is a fantasy trilogy, set in. . . the past. Concepts such as fatphobia or toxic masculinity are not exactly applicable, but I think it’s fun to explore Damen’s character through his flaws. Laurent has a lot of flaws, but Damen’s are sometimes confused with virtues. In my opinion, they’re at their best when they’re being disgustingly horrible to each other.

I’m sorry for writing you a 90 paragraph response.

* He's almost universally beautiful in the Captive Prince world. Damen finds him pretty, and Torveld, and Jord (we've read that 'cute' quote where he describes Laurent at 15 to Aimeric). Not saying fat = ugly. I'm saying it seems like the 'hegemonic' body type for pretty is Laurent's, otherwise. . . why would everyone he comes in contact with comment on his pretty looks?