#also giving me. a person obsessed with dragons not one. but TWO?? and explaining flight mechanics

[sleepdeprived-idiot]

catching up to the newest op episode and I'm going so so insane

[scarlet--wiccan]

your ideal billy/teddy duo comic (plot, character designs, artists and writers involved etc)

One thing that I've always wanted to see is a comic about Billy and/or Teddy that was produced entirely by mlm creators. Vecchio, Robles and Gracia are all gay artists who've worked with the characters on recent titles, and I'm eager to see more from them. While none of these artists have ever shown the characters in a way that exactly suits my wants, they've each demonstrated a clear personal vision of who Billy and Teddy are that I can respect. I find that Vecchio and Robles, as illustrators, both articulate a gay sensibility in their designs and are able to represent a range of gay identities and expressions with not only dignity, but real love, which is frustratingly hard to come by. Oh, also, Kevin Wada covers, because duh.

Writers are a little bit more difficult for me. I love Anthony Oliviera and I know that he's got a lot of ideas for the characters, so I'd be delighted to see anything that he might pitch. Vecchio also does write, and his creator-owned series, Sereno, is an urban superhero story in a modern fantasy setting-- something he describes as Batman Beyond meets Sailor Moon. Based on that, I think he'd do a great job telling a story about a witch and shapeshifter from New York. I know that Sina doesn't work for Marvel anymore, but I've always wished he could've done Billy and Teddy in a sweet little rom-com miniseries, or even just a single issue special. He's particularly good at writing tender, funny, and just unapologetically gay characters who signal authentic elements of our culture and community without making them cheap or laughable. That is a quality which I find essential for Billy and Teddy, and it's part of why I want more mlm creators to work with them.

If you had asked me this question last year, I would have had an easier time pitching ideas for these characters. I'm eager to see what the future holds for them, but "rulers of an interplanetary nation" was never part of my vision for how Billy and Teddy would be spending their early twenties. I did have this idea for an ongoing series about their "college years", wherein Billy would be studying magic with Wanda and Agatha, and Teddy would work part time with Carol or Alpha Flight while attending community college or learning a trade, like piercing or tattoo artistry. The idea was that they'd often spend time apart, as they'd each be focusing on their own careers and having individual storylines, but they'd always come home to each other at the end of the day and lend each other support, in ways both mundane and super-heroic.

I used to imagine that they'd stay in that nice apartment Sunspot got them, which would act as sort of a crash pad/base of operations for a revolving cast of their friends. They could convert one of the rooms into a magical sanctum for Billy, and another into a study room or art studio for Teddy. Tommy, America, Kate, or whoever could crash on their sofa whenever they're in town or need to do a team-up. Wanda could help Billy ward the apartment so that he and America are the only ones who can portal in and out, but then Loki would find a way to get around the wards and cause trouble, and there'd be a whole dramatic reunion. The whole idea could easily be adapted as a Young Avengers ongoing if you widened the focus from the main couple and treated it as an ensemble piece with individually chunked plot-arcs, much like the original series.

Unfortunately, that idea no longer holds as much water as I'd like because, for one thing, they lost that apartment and never explained why-- it seems like it was passively retconned out in between New Avengers and Death's Head. More importantly, they now live in space, with Teddy being a busy ruler of an interstellar Alliance, and Billy his prince-consort.

I would still like to explore the idea of them pursuing separate goals and working in separate fields while never being truly apart. Empyre introduced a clever plot device wherein Billy is now able to sense Teddy's location and teleport to him instantly, no matter the distance, which, I assume, works in reverse as well. This feat of magic is made possible by their marriage, which binds them symbolically and draws on the power of their love. They can go anywhere and do anything on their own, and still be together again at a moments' notice, which is super romantic and also affords them more flexibility than most superhero couples. I would still pitch a series about Billy doing magic work on Earth while Teddy does diplomacy in space, and one can always warp to the other when they need backup fighting a bad guy. They could even switch back and forth between staying on Teddy's throne-ship, and getting cozy at Billy's little Manhattan apartment when they want to get away from it all.

I guess my final answer is that I want the two of them to be fully realized, individual characters whose love is illustrated through mutual support rather than, like, being glued to each other's hips. The things that I want to see Billy doing are very far removed from the things that I want to see Teddy doing. Superhero characters tend to lose momentum when you marry them off, and superhero couples tend to fizzle when you keep them apart, but Billy and Teddy's unique strength is that they're never truly apart, and their relationship never seems to lose steam-- they've been a pair from the start, and... they're a little obsessed with each other.

The Billy story that I most want to see right now is a full Maximoff team-up. It could go in one of two directions: A) a quest to uncover Natalya's history and finally vanquish the Emerald Warlock, in which they're waylaid by Doom and other magic villains from their past, while teaming up with their magical friends around the world-- basically a sequel to Scarlet Witch; or, B) a showdown with Krakoa and a resolution of their relationship with Erik, which, best case scenario, partially reverses the Axis retcon and proves once and for all that the Maximoffs are mutants. If we got a longer series, we could actually do both plots-- they learn something about Natalya which leads them back to Erik, and the two arcs become a larger story.

The Teddy story that I most want to see is a Guardians-esque space romp with political elements featuring Teddy, Xavin and Noh-Varr as, like, a sexy-alien-boys version of the Gullwings from Final Fantasy X. Does that make sense? I don't have a great grasp on the political landscape of Marvel Space so it's a little hard for me to come up with details, but I know that the status quo has been totally upended, so there are going to be different factions and movements springing up, and likely no shortage of villains and space monsters rearing their heads when the dust of the war has fully settled. Teddy's a monarch now, but he's also been set up as this Arthurian hero-king, so I think there's still room for him to go on adventures and fight his own battles with his magic sword and, maybe, a crew of loyal space knights.

Having said aaaallll of that, I would absolutely die for a full-on fantasy adventure story with Billy and Teddy. I mean, Teddy's a king with a magic sword and his husband is a super-powerful witch. It's gotta happen. I'd actually be into them having a rematch with Mother, who is a pretty adaptable villain, in that her abilities and motives will differ depending on how she's been summoned. I'd also really like them to have a chance to go up against Sequoia directly, and on more even grounds. Quoi is such a great enemy for them because they represent the same generation of Avengers babies, and, actually, Quoi's origins are directly tied to Billy's-- their respective parents had a double wedding together. Sequoia and Teddy's arcs in Empyre paralleled and contrasted each other beautifully, but the two characters had no meaningful interactions. I want to see thems as arch rivals, and maybe, begrudgingly.... friends? Plus, I love that they're both alien princes who live in sci-fi stories, but whose aesthetics and powers are pure fantasy-- Quoi's a dryad wizard and Teddy is King Arthur, if King Arthur was a gay anthropomorphic dragon.

Anyways, that's my Wiccan+Hulkling pitch. The first arc is Billy and Teddy facing off against Sequoia in a magic forest that he's grown on his new planet, only to find out that they've been set up by Mother.

In the second arc, the three of them grudgingly team up against Mother while hashing out their shared backstories and giving Quoi, who's literally never had peers to relate to, a chance to fully come to grips with the way he was conditioned and manipulated by his father. Instead of conjuring dead parents, Mother seems to be able to summon dead children, which makes her particularly dangerous around the Cotati, Kree and Skrull, who've just emerged from a war and have countless recent dead.

In the third arc, Mother has freed R'kll and they've set their sights on Earth. Billy heads out with America and Tommy to ask Loki for advice on defeating her, while Teddy brings Sequoia before the Avengers as his charge in order to ensure that Quoi receives provisional immunity.

Loki is able to provide insight on how Mother might have been summoned and what the parameters might be for breaking the spell that's tethering her to Earth-616. It turns out that Mother is essentially holding Anelle's soul hostage and has been appearing to R'kll in her form. Mother's hold, at this point, has spread to the entire Alliance, and Teddy will have to defeat her or else she'll use it to destroy Earth and decimate his nation in the process.

Teddy recruits Wanda to help face Mother down. (side note, I'm desperate to see more of their relationship as in-laws.) Wanda agrees to work with Sequoia but insists on calling Mantis and making them talk.

The final showdown is the three boys, plus Wanda and Mantis, against Mother, R'kll, and an army of dead alien soldiers. Mantis and Wanda are able to pull Anelle's soul from Mother's grasp, but this doesn't banish her-- Mother's true anchor was R'kll, who'd been carrying Anelle's ghost in her heart ever since the destruction of Tarnax.

R'kll believes that she's always acted in the best interest of her nation, and she thought that bringing back Teddy's mother would finally make him see her way. Anelle and Teddy have a tearful reunion, but he admits that the only mother he's really mourned was the woman who raised him.

Wanda, Mantis, and Anelle, as a trio of mothers united with their lost sons, are able to reverse and seal Mother's power, which was based on lost children. They are not able to banish her, however, until R'kll steps forward and sacrifices herself, believing now that the best she can do for her nation is to rid the Alliance of the curse she brought upon it.

R'kll and Anelle begin to dissipate, but R'kll's sacrifice has called forth the spirit of Mrs. Altman, who is finally granted some closure and dignity in death by getting a chance to see how far Teddy's come and the peace that he's built in her memory.

Lots of crying! I made this sad. I'm sorry.

[letterboxd]

The Package.

As the bonkers genre thrill-ride Shadow in the Cloud blasts into the new year, writer and director Roseanne Liang unpacks her love of Terminator 2, watching Chloë Grace Moretz’s face for hours, and the life lesson she learned from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Cheng Pei-Pei.

Roseanne Liang’s TIFF Midnight Madness winner Shadow in the Cloud landed with a blast of fresh genre energy on VOD platforms on New Year’s Day. It’s A-class action in a B-grade body, cramming plenty into its taut 83 minutes, including: a top-secret package, a freakish gremlin, a hostile bunch of Air Force dudes, outrageous stunts, dogfights and a fake wartime PSA that feels remarkably real.

Throughout, the camera is focused mostly on one face—Chloë Grace Moretz’s, playing British flight officer Maude Garrett—as she tackles all of the above from a claustrophobic ball turret hanging under a B-17 Flying Fortress, on a classified mission over the Pacific Ocean during World War II.

While the film’s tonal swings are confusing to some, schlock enthusiasts and genre lovers on Letterboxd have embraced the film’s intentionally outlandish sensibility, which “makes excellent use of its genre mash to create an unpredictable, guilty pleasure,” says Mirza. Fajar writes that “it felt like the people involved in this project knew how ridiculous it is and gave a hundred and ten percent to make it work. Someday, it will become a cult classic.” Mawbey agrees: “It really goes off the rails in all the best ways during the final third, and the last couple of shots are just perfect.”

Chloë Grace Moretz and her top-secret package in ‘Shadow in the Cloud’.

To most of the world, Liang is a so-called “emerging” director, when in fact, the mother-of-two, born in New Zealand to Chinese parents, has been at this game for the past two decades. She has helmed a documentary and a romantic drama, both based on her own marriage; a 2008 short called Take 3, which preceded Hollywood’s current conversation about representation and harassment; and Do No Harm, the splatter-tastic 2017 short in which her technical chops and fluid feel for action were on full display, and, as recorded in multiple Letterboxd reviews, established her as one to watch.

Do No Harm scored Liang valuable Hollywood representation, whereupon producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones brought Shadow in the Cloud to her, thinking she might connect with the material. “It did connect with me on a level that is very personal,” Liang tells me. “As a woman of color, as a mother who juggles a lot.” She says Kavanaugh-Jones then went through the process of removing original writer Max Landis from the project. “He felt that Max was not a good fit for this project, or for how we like to run things. We like to be respectful and courteous and kind to each other…”

In several interviews, Liang has said she’s comfortable with film lovers choosing not to watch Shadow in the Cloud based on Landis’s early involvement. What she’s not comfortable with is her own contribution—and that of her cast and crew—being erased. While WGA rules have his name attached firmly to the project, the credit belies the reality: his thin script, reportedly stretched out to 70 pages by using a larger-than-usual font, was expanded and deepened by Liang and her collaborators.

Writer-director Roseanne Liang. / Photo by Dean O’Gorman

That team includes editor Tom Eagles, Oscar nominated for Jojo Rabbit, actor Nick Robinson (the titular Simon in Love, Simon) and Beulah Koale, a star of the Hawaii Five-Oh series. The opening newsreel was created by award-winning New Zealand animation studio Mukpuddy, after a small test audience got weirded out by the sight of a gremlin in a war film, despite well-documented WWI and WWII gremlin mythology. It’s an unnecessary but happy addition. The cartoon style was inspired by Private Snafu, a series of WWII educational cartoons scripted by none other than Dr. Seuss and directed by Looney Tunes legend Chuck Jones.

But the film ultimately hangs on Chloë Grace Moretz, who overcame cabin fever to drive home an adrenaline rush of screen craft, in which the very limits of what’s humanly possible in mid-air are tested (in ways, it must be said, that wouldn’t be questioned if it were Tom Cruise in the role). Liang would often send directions to Moretz’s ball turret via text, while her cast members delivered live dialogue from an off-set shipping container rigged with microphones. “I just never got sick of Chloë’s face and I’ve watched her hundreds, if not thousands of times. You feel her, you are her, she just engages you in a way that a huge fighting scene might not, if it’s not designed well. Giant empty spectacle is less interesting than one person in one spot, sometimes.”

Ambitious and nerdy about film in equal measure, it’s clear there’s much more to come from Liang, and I’m interested in what her most valuable lesson has been so far. Turns out, it’s a great story involving Chinese veteran Cheng Pei-Pei (Come Drink With Me’s Golden Swallow, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Jade Fox), whose film training includes a tradition of remaining on set throughout filming.

Roseanne Liang on the set of ‘Shadow in the Cloud’.

That meant that, during filming of Liang’s My Wedding and Other Secrets, Cheng would stay on set when she wasn’t required. “In New Zealand, trailers are a luxury,” Liang explains. “I said ‘Don’t you want to go to the trailer that we arranged for you?’ ‘No, I just want to sit and watch.’ ‘Why do you want to watch it, you’ve seen it hundreds of times!’ And she said ‘I learn something new every time’. To Pei-Pei, the secret of life is constant education and curiosity and learning. Movies are her work and her craft and her life, and she never gets bored. If I can be like her, that’s the life, right?”

Speaking of which, it’s time we put Liang through our Life in Film interrogation.

What’s the film that made you want to become a filmmaker? Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the movie that is at the top of the mountain that I’m climbing. To me it’s the perfect blend of spectacle, action design, smarts and heart. It poses the theory that if a robot can learn the value of humanity then maybe there’s hope for the ships that are us. That’s perennial, and possibly even more pertinent today. It holds a very special place in my heart, along with Aliens, Mad Max: Fury Road, Die Hard, La Femme Nikita and Léon: The Professional.

What’s your earliest memory of watching a film? I have a cassette tape that my dad made for my grandma in 1981 (he’d send tapes back to his mother in Hong Kong). I was three years old and he had just taken us to see The Empire Strikes Back in the cinema. And he can’t talk to my grandma because I’m just going on and on about R2-D2. I will not shut up about R2-D2 and he’s like, “Yes, yes I’m trying to talk to your grandmother,” and I’m like, “But Dad! Dad! R2-D2!” So it’s actually an archive, but it’s become my memory.

What’s the most romantic film you’ve ever seen? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It’s not the sexiest, but it’s the most romantic. That last scene, those last words where she goes “But you’re gonna be like this forever and I’m gonna be like this forever…” and he just goes “okay”. That to me is one of the most romantic scenes I’ve ever seen. It is a perfect movie.

And the scariest? If it’s a horror movie, the most scared I’ve been is The Ring. I was watching it on a VHS and I was lying on a beanbag on the floor and I was paralyzed with fear. I couldn’t move, because I felt that if I moved she’d see me! Also, American Psycho just came to me this year. I caught the twentieth anniversary of that movie, which is a terrifying film, and again, possibly more relevant now than when it was made. The scariest film that’s not a horror is Joker. It scared me how much I liked it. When I came out of the movie, I was like, “I’m scared because I kind of love it, but it’s horrible. It’s so irresponsible. I don’t wanna like this movie but goddamn, I feel it.” Like, I wanted to go on the streets and rage. In a way we’re all the Joker, we’re all the Batman. That duality, that yin and yang, is inside everyone of us. It’s universal.

What is the film that slays you every time, leaving you in a heap of tears? This is a classic one, the opening sequence of Up. The first ten minutes of Up just destroy me every time. I also saw Soul a couple of days ago and I was with the whole family and I, just, if I wasn’t with the whole family I would have been ugly-sobbing. I had a real ache in my throat after the movie because I was trying to stop [myself] from sobbing.

Tell me your favorite coming-of-age film, the film that first gave you ‘teenage feelings’? Pump Up the Volume. Christian Slater! Off the back of Pump Up the Volume, I fancied myself as a prophet and wrote a theater piece called Lemmings. Obviously the main character was a person who could see through the façade, and everyone else was following norms. “No one understands me, I’m a prophet!” So clearly I have this shitty, Joker-style megalomaniac inside of me. It was the worst play, and I don’t know why my teachers agreed for us to do a staging of it!

Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis in ‘Pump Up the Volume’ (1990).

Is there a film that you and your family love to rewatch? We’ve tried to impose our taste on our children, but they’re too young. We showed them The Princess Bride—they didn’t get it. We literally showed our babies Star Wars in their cribs. That’s how obsessive Star Wars fans we were.

Name a director and/or writer that you deeply admire for their use of the artform. I have a slightly weird answer for this. Can I just give love to Every Frame a Painting by Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos? They are my film school. I was thinking of my love of Edgar Wright, but then I thought of their video essay on Edgar Wright and how to film comedy, and his essay on Jackie Chan and the rhythm of action and then their essay on the Coen Brothers and Shot Reverse Shot. I must have watched that 30 times ahead of the TV show that I’m making now. I started out in editorial and Tony Zhou is an editor and he talks about when to make the cut: it’s an instinct, it’s a feeling, it’s a rhythm. I realized the one thing in common that I could mention about all the films I’ve loved is Every Frame a Painting. It’s their love of movies that comes bubbling out of every single essay that they made that I just wanna shout out at this part of my career.

Were there any crucial films that you turned to in your development for Shadow in the Cloud? Indiana Jones was something that Chloë brought up—she likes the spiffiness and the humor of Indiana Jones. Sarah Connor was our touchstone for the female character. For one-person-in-one-space type stories, I watched Locke quite a lot, to figure out how they shaped tension and story and [kept] us on the edge of our seats when it’s only one person in one space. In terms of superheroes, I came back to Aliens. Not Alien. Aliens. You know, there are two types of people in this world—people who prefer Alien over Aliens, and people who prefer Aliens over Alien. But actually I think I vacillate for different reasons.

Can there be a third type of person, who thinks they’re both great, but Alien³, just, no? Maybe that’s the best group to be in. We don’t need to fight about this, we can love both of them! I was having an argument with James Wan’s company about this, because there’s a rift inside the company of people who prefer Alien over Aliens.

Okay, program a triple feature with your film as one of the three. I don’t know. Ask Ant Timpson!

I’ll ask Ant Timpson. [We did, and he replied: “Well, one has to be the Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. And then either Life (2017) or Altitude (2010).”]

Thank you Ant! I used to go to his all-nighters as a university student. He is the king of programming things.

Jake Gyllenhaal in ‘Life’ (2017).

It’s strange that we never met at one of his events! Ant would make me dress up in strange outfits and do weird skits between films. (For those who don’t know, Timpson ran the Incredibly Strange Film Festival for many years—now part of the New Zealand International Film Festival—and still runs an annual 24-Hour Movie Marathon.) So what’s a film from those events that sticks in your head as the perfect genre experience with a crowd? It was a movie about a man protecting a woman who was the girlfriend of a mafia boss: A Bittersweet Life. Not only does it have one of the sexiest Korean actors, sorry, not to objectify, but also I actually screenshot a lot of that film for pitch documents. And, do you remember a crazy Japanese movie where someone’s sitting on the floor with a clear umbrella and a woman is lactating milk? Visitor Q by Takashi Miike. I remember just how fucking crazy that was.

Finally, what was the best film you saw in 2020? I haven’t seen Nomadland yet, so keep in mind that I haven’t seen all the films this year. I have three: The Invisible Man, which I thought was just amazing. I thought [writer-director] Leigh Whannell did such a great job. The Half of It by Alice Wu, a quiet movie that I simply just adored. And then the last movie I saw at the cinema was Promising Young Woman. The hype is real.

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‘Shadow in the Cloud’ is available in select theaters and on video on demand now.

[zardoru]

A Dragon Fan Takes A Pernese Dragon Ride

I’m not sure where to start. 

I’ve lately been reading the Pern series. A phenomenon that back in 1999 had a whole track in DragonCon called the Weyrfest, back when fandom was something that you had to get out of your way to get to. But more importantly, it’s a series written by Anne McCaffrey that has a writing style that I loathe, but that has masterful worldbuilding, stories, and ideas that changed the face of fantasy -- even considering that technically, the series is science fantasy, not fantasy! I’m not going to give you details as to why, so that that statement makes you curious.

I’m what you would call a modern dragon fan. Love ‘em. The variety, the personalities, power, flight, you name it, there’s just so much to love! With series such as Wings of Fire, How To Train Your Dragon, or Temerarie there’s no shortage of series that put dragons front and center as heroes and sensible characters that you can relate to rather than humongous beasts to be killed. I can’t really explain my obsession with dragons, but my friends can bear witness to it, to my potential chagrin. I’ve written OC-based fanfiction in the Wings of Fire universe, and am, at the time of writing, doing my own original story with a dragon protagonist.

So as such, I had heard of how Pern had been a Harry Potter equivalent of like, 1967, where people pretended to bond with a dragon (called Impressing in the Pernese world) or fire lizards, small, feisty and chittering wyrms, doing the duties of musicians called Harpers, or Holders, the masters of the land, or Riders that fought the quintessential threat of the world of Pern, called Thread. I had to give the series a shot, if only to see what people had been enamored with and how it paved the way for me, a modern dragon fan, as well as understanding the treaded tropes of yesteryear in my quest to write more about dragons.

I don’t mean to review the books as much as talking a bit about notable aspects of the series as a whole. At the time of writing, I’ve only completed the original trilogy, Harper’s Hall, Moreta and Nerilka’s story, plus the epilogue that is Beyond Between. 

There’s a few notable aspects. The series gives a great deal of importance to the intimacy between Rider and Dragon through a highly prominent narration of the acts of intercourse that occur among dragons -- of which the rider is not only witness, but a remote participant, even living the events through the eyes and scales of their mostly intelligent partner. Anne doesn’t describe the processes of linked minds, that is, the experience of their ability to have a transparent mind to each other, though it is stated that both parts of the relationship simply know how the other feels. This has led to a joke of lovingly nicknaming the series Dragonriders of Porn.

Of course, not only a special group of people are able to join in the magic; fire lizards, basically small dragons, also Impress. That means that most common people of Pern has a chance to have the experience of being friends with a small dragon. You can probably see the appeal of that.

The intelligence of dragons and fire lizards isn’t equivalent to that of a human, but they’re not animalistic either. It’s somewhere in between, though fire lizards are incapable of communicating verbally; not that they can’t communicate at all! Both fire lizard and dragon eyes change color according to how they feel. 

I don’t want to spoil all of the details of the worldbuliding, because you don’t really fall in love with the characters. Not quite. You fall in love with the world, and getting to know it, and the experiences of the people that live in it, is the appeal of most of the books. Not to mention that it is expansive enough to warrant a huge wiki!

Unfortunately, the series doesn’t have a dragon protagonist. It is mainly about the humans that inhabit Pern. But rejoice, Wings of Fire was a series inspired by inverting this choice, so it is not all bad. That said, it doesn’t make the series any less valuable for those fans that love the idea of good dragon characters. Give The White Dragon a chance. Ruth, the deuteragonist, is the titular White Dragon, and happens to be exemplary, and particularly disinterested in the frisky activities of his peers. Wink. Or give Moreta a chance, where the interactions between Moreta and her dragon Orlith are quite special, appearing almost as lovers.

It can be tedious at times. Not really because of what happens, but because of the choice of vocabulary and style, and long winded paragraphs of relentless description that may have you searching the words febrifuge, perfidy, zestful, or paroxysm. Give me some credit if these are common words, though, English is my second language! Not that any of my friends have ever used any of those words. 

The series starts rough. Dragonflight was originally separate stories rolled into one. To say “it shows” is as tautological as being redundant, dealing with the fall of a villain, the impression, and Lessa’s um, heroics, to be as loose as possible, should you decide to read it. Dragonquest underwent heavy rewriting, and while some scenes were incredible (Brekke! My heart! You deserved better!) the main theme of the conflict between the old ways and the new ways was not particularly appealing to me. 

Apparently, some details become contradictory. I have not read carefully enough for any of these details to jump at me. That said, the Harpers Hall series, particularly the first two books, are beyond excellent if you want an introduction, dealing with the struggles of Menolly, fighting against the idea that ladies were not meant to be Harpers. The third one is weaker, but can still be a welcome addition. If you want to reference something from these books, let it be Piemur’s love of fresh-out-of-the-oven bubbly pies. Wink again.

At the time, the Pern series was fairly progressive, though there’s a few modern sensitivities that don’t quite agree with some parts of the first book especially, having a hero considering the um, forceful relationship (exaggerate that in your head to its logical conclusion) he wanted to give to Lessa after their dragons “flew,” an euphemism for things you can probably imagine.

The views Anne had on homosexuality were, uh, not ideal, and I’ll skip over them, but given the circumstances, they do exist in Pern. They are treated fairly and have become the riders of female dragons that were not originally engineered to allow for that to be the case. There’s bi riders as well. There’s a notable absence of Trans representation, but given the time it was written in… I believe Anne would’ve liked for everyone to be comfortable in Pern, hardships and all. Reach out to me if you’ve got thoughts on this.

For Anne, the series had begun as an attempt to have empowered women and good dragons. It started a phenomenon, and her son, Todd, said she “first set dragons free on Pern and then was herself freed by her dragons,” due to the financial success and stability it brought her. I must admit that as someone that is trying to turn an obsession into stories, Pern is a reflection of the hope I have that perhaps one day I might write something for other dragon fans that will touch their imaginations. One day…

Of course, I also think Pern’s also significantly contributed to the overall idea that fantasy, as a genre, is extremely horny under the surface. I don’t know what to add to this idea that would be productive, but if you read it, you’ll probably know why.

Wow! That’s a lot of words. I haven’t even gone into the details of the stories or the blog Anne kept where she kept a very welcoming and warm disposition to the Pern fandom, not only endorsing fan activities, but even giving guidelines as to how to perform them respectfully, praising the lengths that people had taken Pern to, saying that she herself couldn’t have ever matched it. Nor talked about my favourite characters, which, again, I kin Ruth. Sorry kids, he’s taken. But if I may take away something from all this, it would be that Pern has cemented a special place in my heart, right under the thatching and walls that Wings of Fire put up for me, inspiring me to read once more.

Maybe it will, or it already has in yours too.

[fiive-second-cookies]

Spooky Dreams and Dragon Witches- Sanders Sides Spooky Month

A/N: Honestly, this story kinda went all over the place, and I’m not that happy with it. However, I had the idea in my head for a while, and I knew I wanted to participate in Spooky Month at least one more time, so I went with it. I also realized that I struggle with writing Logan. And Patton. And Roman. Basically I’m only good at writing Virgil (which makes sense since I relate to him most). Either way, I hope someone out there enjoys this. This is for the prompts ‘Spooky Dreams’ and ‘Dragon Witch’ over on @sanderssidesspook

Summary: Roman has a nightmare that Virgil, Logan, and Patton have died because of the evil Dragon Witch. (it’s meant to be a human au, but technically it doesn’t have to be) (also Logan is the one with a streak of blue hair, if that’s confusing)

Pairing: intended Romantic LAMP, but can be read as platonic

Word Count: About 2k

Warnings: angst with a fluffy ending, nightmares, blood, injury, death, food mention, cursing(one word), (please let me know if there are any others)

“Take that, you foul beast!” The Dragon Witch let out a loud roar as Roman swung his sword. The creature swerved sharply, a large gash opening where the sword had struck. Seizing his chance, Roman took hold of his sword tightly. The prince lunged forward.

The Dragon Witch lifted suddenly, causing him to miss his target. However, he did manage to slice the creature’s wing, hindering it’s attempts at flight. “You shall leave this village alone!” Roman once again lifted his sword with a flourish. The Dragon Witch continued to bellow as the sharp weapon slashed it’s legs and torso.

After a few minutes, Roman raised his sword to serve the final blow. “You shall never disturb these innocent villagers again!” he shouted firmly. But the Dragon Witch had already left when he looked up. It was flying shakily towards the mountains in the distance. The prince lowered his sword slowly, confused about the sudden surrender from his enemy. Shrugging, he pushes his hair out of his face. He turns and starts walking back to the village. “Do not worry, lovely people. I have taken ca-”

A loud cry broke through his reassurances. Roman whips his head around to the source of the noise. Another pained shout is heard. The noises are coming from towards the mountains. Towards where the Dragon Witch had disappeared. “Shit,” Roman says under his breath. He quickly takes off, unsheathing his sword once again. As he runs across the field and over the hill, he hears the sounds of wings flapping. Looking up, he watches the Dragon Witch rise into the air, and fly off to the mountain tops.

Finally making it over the hill, Roman spots a large black heap a few yards away. He rushes over to it. “Hello?” he calls as he approaches. “Are you alright?” The sky grows darker, and clouds roll in. Skidding to a stop, Roman kneels down carefully. The figure is groaning in agony.. “Excuse me, I’m here to help. Are you alr-” his breath hitches in his throat. Leaning closer, the familiar purple hair becomes more clear. “No,” he breathes out. Gently rolling the figure over, Roman lets out a gasp.

Virgil’s face is covered is scrapes and he has fresh bruises along his forehead and cheeks. His lip is bleeding steadily. “My Shadowling?” Roman asks softly. He gets no response. A soft whimper comes from behind him, and he glances around. Lying behind him is another figure. This one has a streak of dark blue in their hair, and tears spring into Roman’s eyes. “No,” he lets out again. He reaches over and turns the second body over.

Logan’s face is less bruised than Virgil’s, but he has far more cuts. His glasses dangle off his nose, twisted and the lenses shattered, apparently the cause of the multitude of cuts. “No,” Roman says as the tears start to run down his cheeks. “No, no, no, no.” He pulls Logan into his arms. “Starlight, please. Come on, Lo. Wake up.” He grabs Virgil too, holding them both close.

When Roman sees the body wearing a light blue polo appear beside him, a loud sob escapes his lips. Patton’s arm is twisted at an odd angle, and blood is pooling below his right leg. There’s no rise and fall of his chest. Roman leaps over, grabbing Patton’s hand and pulling it to his chest, checking for a pulse at the same time. When he doesn’t feel a thump-thump below his fingers, Roman lets out a strangled cry. “Not you, too, Sunshine.” The hot tears fall quickly, blurring his vision. He turns to get help, but the village has disappeared. He’s in a clearing surrounded by tall, thick trees. He has nothing to attend to their wounds. No way to save them.

“No!” Roman tries shaking them awake. He tries to stop the blood flow with his sash. He tries giving them mouth-to-mouth. They all remain unresponsive. His sobs forcefully shake his body with their strength. The wind has picked up in the clearing, making him shiver. Eventually, large raindrops begin to fall, the cold droplets a strange contrast as they mix with the prince’s hot tears. “I’m sorry!” he wails as he pulls their lifeless bodies close to him. “I should have saved you. I should have slain that evil creature. This is all my fault! I’m so sorry, my loves.”

The wind makes his body sway. He gets tossed back and forth, but refuses to let the three bodies go. “Roman,” the wind seems to whisper. “Roooomaan,” it calls to him. It begs him to let them go.

“No!” Roman shouts back through his cries. “No, I won’t leave them! I have to save them! It’s my fault! It’s all my fault.” He starts mumbling to himself, “All my fault, all my fault, all my f-”

“ROMAN!”

Logan sighed softly as he took a sip out of his glass. The kitchen was dark, the only light coming from above the stove, emitting a dim glow across the room. Glancing at the oven, Logan sighed once again. Three in the morning. He pulls off his glasses to rub his eyes.

The kitchen door swings open, making Logan jump slightly. Placing his glasses back on his face, he sees Virgil standing in the doorway, clearly surprised that the room was not empty. “Salutations, Virgil.”

“I, uh,” he glances around. “Sorry, I can just- I’ll go.”

“No, it is quite alright,” Logan assures the other man.  He beckons him over. Virgil awkwardly walks over, hopping onto the counter top. “I will never comprehend your peculiar obsession with sitting on objects not meant for sitting,” Logan says, amused. Virgil smiles and shrugs.“Virgil, I would like to point out that it is not healthy for a person to be up at such hours.”

“Yeah, you’re one to talk,” Virgil says back. “You were here before I was. What’s up, Lo?”

“I was merely unable to sleep. Too many thoughts and unanswered questions. I came out here because Patton has suggested before that warm milk helps, and I decided to continue reading my book,” Logan explains. Virgil gets off the counter and walks to the fridge. “What is the reason for your inability to sleep at this, for lack of a better word, ungodly hour?”

Virgil turns back around, holding a bottle of water and a plate of cookies. He sits down across from Logan at the table. “Meh,” he shrugs. “Same as usual, I guess. I felt anxious. I couldn’t stop thinking about the past. I couldn’t relax.” He pops a cookie into his mouth.

“You do know that it is unwise to eat at this time, correct? Not only will it ruin your natural eating schedule, making you not hungry at the proper breakfast time, but it will also make it more difficult to fall asleep anytime soon,” Logan points out. Virgil shrugs again. Logan reaches over to grab the other man’s hand. He gives Virgil a small smile, then returns to reading his book. Eventually, Logan begins reading softly aloud to the anxious man. Virgil relaxes and leans back into his chair, squeezing the hand holding his.

A muffled sound cuts off Logan mid-sentence, several minutes later. He shares a worried glance with Virgil. There’s another muffled sound, followed by what sounds like a whimper. Logan places his book on the table. He stands up, pulling Virgil up with him. Together, the two walk out of the kitchen and down the hall. Logan squeezes the other man’s hand reassuringly. There’s another whimper, and a muffled shout. They both quicken their pace.

Stopping at Patton’s door, they both pause and listen. There’s just soft breathing coming from the other side. Virgil turns to Logan, worry in his eyes. “That means it’s Ro-” he’s cut off by a shout, louder than the last one. Without thinking, he breaks into a run towards the extravagant man’s door, Logan quickly following behind him. He can hear the rustling of sheets from the inside, and the whimpers are more clear now.

“Roman?” He knocks on the door loudly. Logan comes up beside him. “Ro, are you awake?” he calls.  Another shout comes from inside the room, and Logan opens the door. They both gasp when they enter. Roman is thrashing around on his bed, flailing his arms. His face is stained with tears, and he’s covered in a sheen of sweat. Virgil rushes forward quickly, climbing onto the bed. He has to dodge Roman’s hits, and gently grabs onto the sleeping man’s arms to steady them. “Roman!” He shakes him carefully.

Roman lets out an agonized “No!” and continues to thrash around. Logan walks over stiffly. “He appears to be having a nightmare,” he states obviously.

“Yeah, no kidding, Lo,” Virgil replies sharply.

“Guys? What’s happeni- Oh!” Patton gasps as he walks in. He hurries forward quickly, brushing past Logan, and stops beside the bed.

“Pat, I need you to go get a wet washcloth, quickly,” Virgil says firmly. He keeps a hold on Roman’s arms to ensure he doesn’t hurt himself or Virgil. Patton runs off quickly. “Logan,” he turns to the man standing frozen behind him and looking helpless. “Go get a glass of water for when he wakes up.” The logical man nods and walks off.

“Ro, wake up,” Virgil says, turning back to the flailing man.  He shakes him roughly. “Roman!”

“No!” Roman yells, struggling harder against the hands shaking him. “It’s my fault,” he mumbles. “It’s all my fault.”

Virgil blinks back the tears that had sprung to his eyes. Patton comes back, and begins dabbing the cool washcloth across Roman’s forehead. Virgil shakes the man again. “Roman, wake up. C’mon, Ro, it’s just a dream. Roman!” He shouts loudly.

Roman’s eyes fly open. He glances around panickedly, gasping. Slowly, he stops thrashing his body, and his arms relax. When his eyes focus on the face in front of him, he pulls Virgil into his arms. “You’re alive,” he says relieved.

“Of course I’m alive, love.” Virgil falls into the other’s embrace. “It was just a bad dream. You’re okay. We’re all okay. It wasn’t real.” He carefully rocks Roman in his arms. Patton wraps his arms around the two men, joining the hug. Roman looks up and he lets out a breath when he sees Patton.

“My Shadowling and my Sunshine,” Roman says. Patton rubs soothing circles on his back, as Virgil runs his fingers through his hair, and Roman slowly calms down. Eventually, Virgil turns on a small bedside lamp. He helps Roman sit up, and sits down beside him, keeping his arms around the other man’s shoulders. Patton sits in front of Roman, gently wiping away the dried tears with the cloth. When Logan returns, he places the glass of water on the bedside table.

He stays standing, but reaches out to hold Roman’s hand. “I would like to remind you that dreams are usually highly illogical, and that whatever happened in your dream probably has a very unlikely probability of happening in real life.” Roman gives him a smile, knowing that he’s trying, and that this isn’t exactly Logan’s area of expertise.

“So you mean,” Patton smirks slightly, “the chance is infinitesimal?” Logan groans, while the other three chuckle.

As it neared four a.m, Virgil moved to stand up. “No!” Roman shouts. Virgil glances at him, raising an eyebrow. Roman’s cheeks flush slightly. “Sorry, but, uh… could you stay here with me? All of you? Can you please sleep in here?” Patton nods excitedly, and Virgil sinks back onto the bed. Logan, however, looks around awkwardly.

Roman smirks, scooting over on the bed. “C’mon, Specs, I want you in this, too.” Patton scoots over as well. He pulls Logan into the space between him and Roman. Patton fits himself under Logan’s arm, snuggling into his side. Roman throws one of his arms around Logan’s shoulders, snaking his other one around Virgil, pulling him to lay on his chest. Logan relaxes slowly, and Virgil grabs his hand, squeezing it tightly. “Thank you,” Roman whispers sleepily. Together the four men fall asleep, safe in each other’s arms.

A/N: I could have ended it at the infinitesimal joke, but I wanted to add some fluff. Leave tips if you want. Hope you enjoyed. Happy Spooky Times! Much love <3

[els-writes]

Dragonflight Review

Overall Rating:  ★★★★

An exciting and immersing start to the titanic Pern series (you know, without the deadly sinking in the ice cold Atlantic...). Getting into this book took a few tries back when I was a teenager, but McCaffrey’s style is easy to fall in love with, and draws you into the immense and amazing Pern so quickly, you’ll not look back. A massive recommendation from me. 

Note on the stars, however; whilst at the time I first read this, I would have given it a full five stars straight off the bat, upon delving deeper into the series and reading other books, it no longer tops my favourites in the series, and thus I’ll only give it four stars, purely to save the fives for the real high-flyers (in my opinion). 

Read below for a more in-depth review! 

Writing Style: ★★★★

Let’s not beat around the bush, McCaffrey’s style is full of impressive vocabulary, and fantastical-made-up-word-heavy. As an avid fan, I’m not oblivious to the fact that the introduction alone might put off some readers, and the start of the first chapter probably doesn’t help that much either. What I will say is that once you get through a little bit, it becomes a lot easier to read, and my own vocabulary is so much bigger thanks to these books. My own feelings towards this writing style are probably skewed after reading the books for so long, because frankly, I adore it. There’s something very individual about the style, and it’s one that has become almost reassuringly familiar to me over the years. 

McCaffrey is very good at drip-feeding you the information you need, without overloading you with exposition (something I’ll look at more during the world-building aspect, as this is where it mostly comes into play). She doesn’t lead you through the story or the world by the hand, but instead coaxes you from a distance, letting you notice what you think you need to notice. A second reading of this book is where you really start to notice the little hints and pieces of foreshadowing you overlooked at first. 

Some sections of her writing can feel a little stuffy or hard to get through every now and then, but I find this is a result of the book’s age and genre more than anything else.

Characters: ★★★

If I’m perfectly honest, I came into this review assuming the characters would get a much higher rating then this, but the more I look over the ones present in the first book at least, it becomes apparent that in Dragonflight, the characters are not as strong or as fleshed out as they are in other books. 

Firstly, the Pern series as a whole is packed with characters - some memorable, some tiny, all important in one way or another. Any book that has to have lists of characters and information about who they are, clearly has a character-overload problem. That isn’t so apparent within Dragonflight as it is in later books, but there are a lot of characters that don’t get as much ‘screen-time’, if you will, as they probably should. As a whole, I’d say the characters are interesting and individual, but not introduced as fully as I would prefer them to be. The handful of characters that take most of the spotlight do deserve it, but even so, a lot of their development comes in later books, not in this first one. 

F’lar and Lessa probably get the most attention in this book (rightly so, it is named Dragonflight after the mating flight between F’lar and Lessa’s dragons, Mnementh and Ramoth), and as a couple they are extremely well-written. Their personalities mix well, clashing at the right points, and working in perfect tandem at others. The partnership of personalities is the type that keeps you on your toes, as you’re never quite sure whether they’ll match up perfectly or end up burning one another down. The way their characters grow, and learn to trust and care about one another is realistic, though perhaps a little rushed in places. 

Lessa’s fiery passion and her stubborn and independent nature make her an interesting candidate for the role of Weyrwoman, and the reader getting to learn what’s expected of one alongside Lessa helps you connect more with her as you realise just how unsuited to the role she initially seems. 

F’lar’s steady and calm exterior balances Lessa well, as does his sly and tactical way of thinking that, once revealed, shows that F’lar is always just one step ahead of everyone - even the reader. His clever ways giving him an edge over everyone also make it that much more exciting to read whenever Lessa’s impulsive and passionate choices get the better of him. 

Out of even these two, it’s Lessa that gets the development over F’lar, but I can forgive the book for this, as Dragonflight does seem very heavily focused on Lessa and Ramoth’s journey in maturing into the Weyrwoman of Pern. Her character growth is definitely a nice one to see, however; showing her learn and mature, without actually changing those key parts that make Lessa, Lessa. 

Aside from these two, only a few others stand out as memorable, but none are particularly explored or grow in this book. Even more character names are mentioned and then vanish into the mass of Pern names - but with such a large and expansive world, I can’t bring myself to mind that too much (though the lists of names are very much needed). 

Plot: ★★★★

For the first book in a giant series, the plot of Dragonflight is excellent. It’s a tale of someone falling into power, struggling to assimilate, and then committing a heroic act to prove that they were meant for the position all along; it’s a story that could seem cliched or mary-sueish but somehow, with all the twists and the backdrop of Pern, it just works. Lessa is not your typical blushing damsel who has suddenly been given all this power, in fact, she’s already a pretty independent woman who has goals and ambition of her own.

In fact, Lessa’s journey is quite refreshing. She is someone fighting for what is hers by blood right, something she should have because of her family lineage, but the steps she makes in Dragonflight and what she acheives are because of who she is, not who her family were. It’s quite a nice message for the plot to hold. (Yes, it is implied that it’s because of her Ruathan blood that she’s a suitable gold candidate, but we all know that’s not the sole reason Ramoth would have picked her). 

Without spoiling too much of the rest of the plot, because I think it’s a fantastic mystery to delve into and experience by yourself, McCaffrey is great and pulling seemingly unconnected plot points and tying them together. The climax of the book is the perfect mission for the characters involved, pulling you to the edge of your seat and actually making you doubt whether it will all work out or not. 

Perhaps the only problem with the plot of Dragonflight is that it’s very talk-heavy. A lot of debating, conversation, important people arguing over what to do and how to fix it. It’s necessary for the plot however, and though I’m putting it down as a negative (purely because it gets a little difficult for me to get through at times), I wouldn’t know how else McCaffrey could have moved the plot along as she needed to. This is mostly down to personal preference, and it doesn’t really take away from the enjoyment I get out of this book. 

World Building: ★★★★★

Oh come on, I am never not going to give this book the best possible rating for world building. Let it be known, I am hugely biased on this point, because I am so obsessed with the Pern series, so take what I say with a pinch of salt. 

I’d love to know how long it took McCaffrey to build Pern in her mind, because it is so detailed and intricate that it’s unlike any other world I’ve ever read. She’s thought of even the tiniest details, from the words that would end up being used commonly, to tiny parts of history that can be referenced without needing full explanation. Of course, the world becomes fuller and more vibrant the more of the series you read, but Dragonflight along gives you such an in-depth look at Weyrlife, that you feel entirely immersed. 

She doesn’t bombard you with too much exposition about why the world is the way it is, but instead, just sprinkles little things throughout the text that make Pern feel more fleshed out and alive without needing an entirely separate book to explain each part of the world (which... I mean, there is now books like that, but you don’t need to read them). 

Dragonflight in particular is very good at only including details that you need to know. McCaffrey doesn’t overload you with information about the crafthalls or the detailed history of each individual Weyr, because you don’t need to know it for the plot. It makes the reading experience both easier to get through, and means there’s always something new you can learn in the next book. For the first book in a series, Dragonflight gives you just enough of the world to feel immersed, without scaring you off from the rest of the series. 

Feels: ★★

As much as I adored this book, there was never really a moment that I was massively emotionally affected by the plot. I was involved and invested, for sure, but there were no ‘feels’ moments aside from during the very climax - even then, I felt more the effects of an exciting bit of action as opposed any real fear or sadness for the characters involved. Dragonflight has no real heart-wrenching moments, though it doesn’t necessarily lose drive because of that; it simply doesn’t need them. 

What Dragonflight does do, is make you start to feel unfairly attached to the characters you first meet and get to know in this book... because then you’re all the more affected by them in the books that are yet to come... 

Strong Independent Women Who Doesn’t Necessarily Need Any Men, But Might Have One If She Feels Like It: ★★★★★★

Lessa is not the perfect character, but damn, her confidence and independence is a thing of beauty.