#a series of unfortunate events edit

[fuckinglemoniestoflemon]

VFD Yearbook

[queerstudiesnatural]

A Series Of Unfortunate Events

By Lemony Snicket

[aseriesofunfortunatetexts]

asoue + tumblr

[lokiprincess]

Lemony Snicket, The Beatrice Letters

[bittwitchy]

Malina Weissman as Violet Baudelaire A Series Of Unfortunate Events

[least-carpet]

Hiiii, if it's not too much, can you describe the biggest differences between the live action characters and the novel characters in MDZS? They are a lot, so I will love even the difference between few of them! I haven't seen the live action and I don't know if I will ever, but I am curious, considering all the meta. Anyway, thank you in general, even if you don't answer!

Hello anon! This has been in the inbox forever because there are soooo many ways to answer this! However, let me be transparent that I've watched maybe like 1/10 of CQL. Among other obstacles, I simply do not care that much about Lan Wangji and he's always there (even though Wang Yibo is giving it his all... it's not his fault I'm a hater...). Chewing through a book with Ms. Mxtx's commentary was just more enjoyable to me, and even then, to be honest, I still liked SVSSS better. (I just love Shen Yuan/Shen Qingqiu so much. That dude is wild.)

Still, the live action definitely affected how I understood certain characters (...primarily Nie Huaisang) and made me interested in relationships that I didn't pay any attention to in the novel. (I freely admit that the nieyao brainrot is 100% CQL's fault.) Also I found Wang Zhuocheng's Jiang Cheng very cute and loveable. It definitely contributed to my Jiang Cheng Brain Disease.

LISTEN. HE HAS BIG SAD EYES AND THE MEANEST SNEER AND HE MIGHT BURST INTO TEARS AT ANY TIME. HE IS A BABY. A baby who could kill you with his terrifying lightning whip! But a baby nonetheless, to me.

So if you want someone with a real and knowledgeable opinion on the live action, I'm probably not the right person for that! However, here's one difference that changed a bunch of stuff about the characters that I found compelling in the novel: the second flautist.

CQL adds Su She as a second flautist doing unorthodox cultivation in a couple of different places, including at Qiongqi Path, where he seizes control of Wen Ning and is therefore responsible for Jin Zixuan's death. Removing the responsibility for Jin Zixuan's death from Wei Wuxian creates a bunch of cascading character and relationship implications that I don't love.

Firstly, all of the people who cautioned Wei Wuxian against his unorthodox cultivation are now... wrong. If he never lost control, then actually his assessment that he could maintain control wasn't overconfidence, it was just true, and he was persecuted because the Jin needed a scapegoat and wanted the Yin Tiger Tally, not because his cultivation path actually involved significant risks and drawbacks. (To be fair, the Jins actively exploited those drawbacks, the public perception of his cultivation, and Wei Wuxian's failure to manage his reputation. But it matters whether the risks exist or are just made up.)

Secondly, removing his responsibility for Jin Zixuan's death transforms both Wei Wuxian's character and how we understand his relationships with Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng, and Jin Ling. Because, in the novel, he kills Jin Zixuan under duress but also after a lifetime of conflict with him. Like, he hates the dude, he doesn't think he's worthy of Jiang Yanli, and he's not willing to examine his hatred and resentment even though Jiang Yanli loves Jin Zixuan and wants to marry him, even after she marries him and has a child with him. (I would argue that a lot of the resentment is because of the eventual marriage; by marrying Jiang Yanli, Jin Zixuan becomes legally recognized family to the Jiang siblings, while Wei Wuxian's relationship with them has no social recognition; I think Wei Wuxian is deeply threatened by that but can't articulate it.) It's a huge failure! Like, dude, you loved someone and you killed that person's beloved spouse. That points to a certain degree of repressed jealousy, possessiveness, longing, arrogance, the list goes on... I am so compelled by that conflict, and the adaptation just erases it.

This also affects how we read Jin Ling's relationship with Wei Wuxian. In one scenario, a teenage Jin Ling is (eventually, minus one little stab) ending the cycle of violence by not seeking vengeance for his father's murder. In the other, it was actually someone associated with Jin Ling's paternal family that killed his father, and he's maybe just... coming to terms with that? One of these scenarios is so much richer and more interesting.

How it affects the relationship between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian is a little more subtle. It locates the responsibility for a lot of the harm done to the Jiang siblings with the Jin sect, not with Wei Wuxian, removing some of Wei Wuxian's culpability in the devolution of his relationship with Jiang Cheng. If Wei Wuxian isn't guilty of wronging the Jiang family (and instead is also a victim of the Jin sect), then all of Jiang Cheng's rage and betrayal was misdirected. They were both tricked. In some ways, maybe that's easier to patch up after canon? (I wonder if this is why many CQL yunmeng shuangjie reconciliation fics have Jiang Cheng apologize to Wei Wuxian, but not the other way around?) But it's so much less interesting to me!

Finally, it removes Wei Wuxian's tragic flaw! Dude is legitimately a genius but he's got hubris coming out of his ears and it fucks him up big time! This is classic stuff. Please stop flattening my boy!!

[badlydrawndrawnings]

~Our latch string is hanging out/For true friends, old and new/You're welcome here, so come inside/We saved a place for you~ ... ~When we drive away in secret/You'll be a volunteer/So don't scream when we take you/~

The Secret Organization You Should Not Know About

[1unpunishable1]

The beauty of Elfquest <3

[poorsapadvocate]

So remember how the Netflix adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events went out of its way to work out some of the more problematic elements of the series? Like the Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender went from being a collection of transphobic (and fatphobic!) tropes to scare the kids to being a normal androgynous person that would actually exist in real life. but they also become one of the more sympathetic characters, get some of the best jokes in the show, survive the fire that killed them in the book, and go on to have one of the more unambiguously happy endings? Or how Charles was re-contextualized to be queer for the show, but rather than that just being used for cheap diversity points, he actually gets to escape his abusive relationship with Sir and find happiness with Jerome?

Remember how Lemony Snicket and his “editor” Daniel Handler really only had one chance to adapt his works for a larger audience (the feature film came out before the books were finished, and by all accounts they hate it) but we keep tripping over ourselves to give JK Rowling more and more chances to turn her works into vehicles for transphobia?

[afterthegreatunknown]

Violet Baudelaire and Isadora Quagmire: A Sweet Calm Together

[fuckinglemoniestoflemon]

Sugar bowl generation edit

My tiktok :)

[annaholak]

Not all witches' gear is created equal. Some* brooms are more temperamental than others.

Inktober prompt 30: Gear

*Granny's is the only broom in existence that requires bump starting

[aseriesofunfortunatetexts]

asoue + tumblr

[knighttakesqueen]

i can feel your pulse in the pages

— edit by me

[snicketstrange]

The Chronological Plot Hole of the Sugar Bowl

Well, I've already explained that the sugar in the Sugar Bowl (SB), as depicted in the Netflix series, cures not just the Medusoid Mycelium (MM) disease but all diseases. However, there's still a chronological plot hole to address."If Beatrice developed the sugar-based medication that cured all diseases while she was on the island, how could that sugar be in the SB if Esmé had it around the time of Beatrice's almost-marriage to Lemony, which occurred before she went to the island?"Now it's time to delve into the territory of TBBRE—a step I take reluctantly but justifiably, given Netflix's extensive use of TBBRE content. From Finnish pirates meeting the Baudelaires to the children's fateful trip to the beach at their parents' insistence, the Netflix adaptation acknowledges TBBRE as canon.According to TBBRE, the island of TE had an enigmatic law forbidding the export of its apples (see Note #31 in Chapter 13). Basically, no one could leave the island with an apple. Apparently, at some point in the past, the island was socially advanced enough to have a legal system. But why prohibit taking apples from the island?Here's my theoretical answer: at some point, the island's apple tree bore the fruit of life, capable of curing almost all diseases.Naturally, a law emerged forbidding anyone from taking these miraculous apples away. The islanders surely realized the risks of widely disseminating this information.However, someone, at some point, managed to sidestep this law by converting the apples into sugar. This sugar then became a valuable commodity, held by VFD and safeguarded by Esmé in her Sugar Bowl (SB). Beatrice stole the SB not for its artistry but to replicate the life-saving sugar, aiming to alleviate human suffering. Alas, she could never recreate the exact sugar elsewhere, and it was consumed in various trials. Beatrice then set out for the island where the original apple tree stood. By this time, the island's regulatory systems had collapsed, allowing her to successfully reproduce the curative sugar. In essence, only the island's tree of life could produce this potent fruit. To fortify its properties, perhaps to counteract the deadly Medusoid Mycelium, Beatrice added horseradish to the roots, making the apple's curative powers even more comprehensive. Though she successfully manufactured a superior sugar on the island, the unique tree remained the sole source of this panacea.That's why the SB is so precious: almost no one knows about the apple tree, but they do know about the curative sugar inside the SB.

[hanukkahbingo]

Panfandom Hanukkah Bingo

WHAT: A fanworks bingo celebrating Jewish (and Jew-ish) characters across any and all fandoms. Write fanfiction and/or create graphics (moodboards, edits, vids, whatever you like) to fill prompts on this overall bingo card. During the 8 nights of Hanukkah, submit your fills to the AO3 collection and/or post them on Tumblr to be reblogged and added to the Bingo Masterpost.

WHY: Jewish characters and Jewish fans are often overlooked or erased during the Winter Holiday Season in favor of “Secret Santa” exchanges, Christmas-themed fics, and the idea that ~Hanukkah is Jewish Christmas~ (which spoiler for all fics in this bingo: it’s not). This panfandom Bingo challenge is to celebrate Hanukkah on its own terms and give Jewish characters and fans a place to breathe. :)

MORE INFO!