#also like i can understand changes from the book. going from a first person novel to a show is difficult and you have to make changes.

[toddtakefive]

btw todd’s reluctance to join the dps because he doesn’t want to read (which is then accommodated for) and is scared to put himself out there (which is also worked through) being read as todd not wanting to go AT ALL, and thus neil making the proper accommodations (“todd anderson, who prefers not to read, will keep the minutes of the meetings”) and encouraging him to step out of the box that stifles him being seen as ‘forceful’ or like he can’t take no for an answer makes me insane with rage

[silvery-stars]

would it be sacrilege of me to say that i am kinda hashtag Underwhelmed by the percy jackson show

[supersoakerfullofblood]

Point of View: the Biggest Thing You're Missing!

Point of view is one of the most important elements of narrative fiction, especially in our modern writing climate, but you rarely hear it seriously discussed unless you go to school for writing; rarely do help blogs or channels hit on it, and when they do, it's never as in-depth as it should be. This is my intro to POV: what you're probably missing out on right now and why it matters. There are three essential parts of POV that we'll discuss.

Person: This is the easiest part to understand and the part you probably know already. You can write in first person (I/me), second (You), and third person (He/she/they). You might hear people talk about how first person brings the reader closer to the central character, and third person keeps them further away, but this isn't true (and will be talked about in the third part of this post!) You can keep the reader at an intimate or alien distance to a character regardless of which person you write in. The only difference--and this is arguable--is that first person necessitates this intimacy where third person doesn't, but you still can create this intimacy in third person just as easily. In general, third person was the dominant (and really the only) tense until the late 19th century, and first person grew in popularity with the advent of modernism, and nowadays, many children's/YA/NA books are written in first person (though this of course doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't write those genres in the third person). Second person is the bastard child. Don't touch it, even if you think you're clever, for anything the length of a novel. Shorter experimental pieces can use it well, but for anything long, its sounds more like a gimmick than a genuine stylistic choice.

Viewpoint Character: This is a simple idea that's difficult in practice. Ask yourself who is telling your story. This is typically the main character, but it needn't be. Books like The Book Thief, The Great Gatsby, Rebecca, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the Sherlock series are told from the perspective of a side character who isn't of chief importance to the narrative. Your viewpoint character is this side character, the character the reader is seeing the world through, so the main character has to be described through them. This isn't a super popular narrative choice because authors usually like to write from the perspective of their most interesting character, but if you think this choice could fit your story, go for it! You can also swap viewpoint characters throughout a story! A word of warning on that: only change your viewpoint character during a scene/chapter break. Switching mid-scene without alerting the reader (and even when you do alert the reader) will cause confusion. I guarantee it.

Means of Perception; or, the Camera: This part ties the first two together. If you've ever heard people talk about an omniscient, limited, etc. narrator, this is what they mean. This part also includes the level of intimacy the reader has with the viewpoint character: are we in their heads, reading their thoughts, or are we so far away that we can only see their actions? If your story is in a limited means of perception, you only have access to your character's head, eyes, and interpretations, where an omniscient narrator sees through all characters' heads at once. (This doesn't eliminate the viewpoint character--most of your writing will still be in that character's head, but you're allowed to reach into other characters' thoughts when needed. You could also be Virginia Woolf, who does fluidly move through everyone's perspectives without a solid viewpoint character, but I would advise against this unless you really are a master of the craft.) Older novels skew towards third person omniscient narration, where contemporary novels skew towards first person limited. You also have a spectrum of "distant" and "close." If omniscient and limited are a spectrum of where the camera can swivel to, distant and close is a spectrum of how much the camera can zoom in and out. Distant only has access to the physical realities of the world and can come off as cold, and close accesses your character's (or characters', if omniscient) thoughts. Notice how I said narration. Your means of perception dramatically effects how your story can be told! Here's a scene from one of my stories rewritten in third-person distant omniscient. The scene is a high school football game:

“Sometimes,” he said. “Not much anymore.” “It’s not better, then?” She shivered; the wind blew in. “A little.” His tone lifted. “I don’t know if it’ll ever be better, though.” She placed a hand on his arm, stuttered there, and slipped her arm around his waist. “Did it help to be on your own?” He raised an eyebrow. “You were there.” “Yes and no.” “And the guys, the leaders.” “Come on,” she heckled. “Okay, okay.” Carmen sighed. “Yeah, it helped. I don’t think—I don’t know—I’d be me if they’d fixed it all.” She grinned. “And who might you be?” “Oh, you know. Scared, lonely.” He fired them haphazardly, and a bout of laughter possessed him which Piper mirrored. “Impatient.” “And that’s a good thing?” “No.” He sat straight. “Gosh, no. But I don’t want to be like him, either.” He pointed to the field; Devon recovered a fumbled ball. “He’s never been hurt in his life.” She met his eyes, which he pulled away. “You don’t mean that," Piper said. “Maybe not. He’s too confident, though.” The cloth of Carmen's uniform caved and expanded under Piper's fingers.

With distant-omniscient, we only get the bare actions of the scene: the wind blows in, Piper shivers, the cloth rises and falls, Carmen points, etc. But you can tell there's some emotional and romantic tension in the scene, so let's highlight that with a first person limited close POV:

“Sometimes,” he said. “Not much anymore.” “It’s not better, then?” Frost spread up from her legs and filled her as if she were perforated rock, froze and expanded against herself so that any motion would disturb a world far greater than her, would drop needles through the mind’s fabric. A misplaced word would shatter her, shatter him. “A little.” His tone lifted. “I don’t know if it’ll ever be better, though.” She placed a hand on his arm, thought better, and slipped her arm around his waist. “Did it help to be on your own?” He raised an eyebrow. “You were there.” “Yes and no.” “And the guys, the leaders.” “Come on,” she heckled. “Okay, okay.” Carmen sighed. “Yeah, it helped. I don’t think—I don’t know—I’d be me if they’d fixed it all.” She grinned. “And who might you be?” “Oh, you know. Scared, lonely.” He fired them haphazardly, and a bout of laughter possessed him which Piper mirrored. “Impatient.” “And that’s a good thing?” “No.” He sat straight. “Gosh, no. But I don’t want to be like him, either.” He pointed to the field; Devon recovered a fumbled ball. “He’s never been hurt in his life.” “You don’t mean that.” She spoke like a jaded mother, spoke with some level of implied authority, and reminded herself again to stop. “Maybe not. He’s too confident, though.” Piper felt the cloth of his waist cave and expand under her fingers and thought: is this not confidence?

Here, we get into Piper's thoughts and physical sensations: how the frost rises up her, and how this sensation of cold is really her body expressing her nervous fears; how she "thought better" and put her arm around his waist; her thought "is this not confidence?"; and how she reminds herself not to talk like a mother. Since I was writing from the close, limited perspective of a nervous high schooler, I wrote like one. If I was writing from the same perspective but with a child or an older person, I would write like them. If you're writing from those perspectives in distant narration, however, you don't need to write with those tones but with the authorial tone of "the narrator."

This is a lot of info, so let's synthesize this into easy bullet points to remember.

Limited vs. Omniscient. Are you stuck to one character's perspective per scene or many?

Close vs. Distant. Can you read your characters' thoughts or only their external worlds? Remember: if you can read your character's thoughts, you also need to write like you are that character experiencing the story. If child, write like child; if teen, write like teen; etc.

Here's another way to look at it!

This is a confusing and complex topics, so if you have any questions, hit up my ask box, and I'll answer as best I can. The long and short of it is to understand which POV you're writing from and to ruthlessly stick to it. If you're writing in limited close, under no circumstances should you describe how a character other than your viewpoint character is feeling. Maintaining a solid POV is necessary to keeping the dream in the reader's head. Don't make them stumble by tripping up on POV!

[notedchampagne]

What makes a tlt au work for you? Do u have any favourites out there/that you’ve thought of?

its hard because it can go down to the writing! i have a huge bias for things that put focus on the characters acting awful and driving the story forward- if a story has a plot thats great, but its the difference between "gideon and harrow keep meeting up at parties and fall a little bit in love every time" and "gideons angry she lost her childhood to the cult so she attends a party with the tridentarii to shotgun adolescent experiences, and harrowhark, frustrated that gideon is pulling on her metaphorical leash, follows to stalk her". the former retains a 5+1 fic format and is more bite-size, while the latter puts more focus into their growth as characters. im not great at articulating what i like specifically, but ill put my favorite fics below:

what if nona was dogs tugs at my heart: its post-canon, slice-of-life, and has a unique concept (said in the title). i judged a book by its cover because i thought the premise seemed too silly at first but ive been made a fool and its pet clown. it feels so true to nona the way its about all the things nona loves and how she gets to explore the world through new eyes. i love the way it explores characters softening up and getting hurt through a third person pov

we have always lived in the apartment by @thatneoncrisis i keep saying this but for the love of GOD guys this au is so good it makes me cry and feel such a deep catharsis from it. it takes gideon and harrow and the ninth as a cult and explores their struggle to adapt to a modern society when noone ever gets a break (WOW ITS JUST LIKE IN REAL L-). quinn writes the sides of griddlehark i think go overlooked in fanfic often: their codependency, their tendency to lash out when theyre defensive, their mutual paranoia and different coping mechanisms, harrows psychosis and gideons bitterness, their relationships to each other as being the only other person who really understands what the other suffered through. god. i feel lightheaded.

"but SAM, i dont like angst but i want to see this writing!" read gap between a tragedy and a comedy

"SAM, i also like when gideon and harrow are horrible because theyre maladjusted teenagers! but i want more antics where the characters drive things forward over angst!" read whats eating gideon nav

you just aint receiving is one of my FAVORITE modern aus of all time (and i heavily recommend the authors other fics as well!) if you really want to see how much i love this fic the fact that my comments take up the entire phone screen probably says a lot. its hard to put it concisely: it keeps harrows air of misanthropy and cruelty but redefines it as the result of her upbringing and personal struggle to live in a university while dealing with a backpack of mental illness and frustration. it changes gideons personality as the daughter of john gaius in a way that makes sense having her grow up with johns middling parenting skills and getting everything she ever wanted (connecting it back to kirionas personality in ntn!). it brings in side characters (specially palamedes. my beautiful boy palamedes) in ways that compliment harrow and gideon but not so obviously that they only exist to be supports. they have their own lives and ideals. its a modern au that brings in the boiling politics of johns cult uprising once again in a really novel way

semi charmed kinda life by @griddlebait. jesuchristo and all his middle names this fic is GREAT for you if you want a slice of life, coming of age type modern au that explores what its like for gideon and harrow if they actually got the space to see who theyd become outside of the stifling fate tlt has for them. as far as modern aus go im usually very hesitant to read them because im afraid modernizing the characters takes features away from their core but i really love and respect the way the author treats the 69ers with care and draws distinct lines that shows me how their grow and change while keeping a line to the anchor. also they write HIDEOUS (complimentary) PINING. DISGUSTING. some of these chapters were so chock full of dyke drama that they made me nauseous and whimsical. i think once a friend said this fic felt like if gh could be reincarnated and i like that descriptor a lot

til the cows come home is another postcanon fic that made me feel sick and crybabyish about it- i would definitely recommend it if you want to explore a happier ending with griddlehark! with this and what if nona was dogs the thing i like most about them is that they mix up vulnerability with pain and fear, so it feels more lifelike that way if that makes sense. i lost my taste in fluff fics over time but when its interspersed with struggle and characters causing problems because they cant cope with themselves it feels much more earnest and raw

this became very long. im not sorry

[silviakundera]

How's duke Su different in the books from the show?

Short answer: perhaps we can consider novel!ML as the person drama!ML has liked to imagine he is

Long answer:

original flavor novel Duke Su is not gonna be caught crying a single perfect poignant tear for NOBODY

the man is cold as a chinese celebrity's career who hasn't paid taxes in 10 years

infamously gave a lukewarm review on novel FL's original self, the city's Most Beautiful (3 1/2 stars: attractive enough but no X factor)

(note: novel!FL was a calamitous beauty in Life 1, not the Most Talented. She was super talented but was conforming to convention and hiding her brilliance to fit the role of a proper official's wife)

(this bland review is not actually a point of resentment for FL, whose POV is, 'yeah fair enough, you could call me overrated')

(the Jiang Li's body is not Shockingly Most Beautiful like in Life 1; she doesn't miss being outrageously hot, as it was mostly a nuisance)

Duke Su is still dramatic af and lives for theatre

Still loves fans & gorgeous clothes (the man wears butterflies on his cloak) (he loves beauty so much he only staffs exceptionally attractive servants and has elite gardeners to ensure THE MOST GLORIOUS FLOWERS IN THE DUKE SU MANSION ONLY THE BEST FOR THIS LORD)

(like I really must emphasize how little chill novel!ML has: at one point FL notes that a new resident rented down the street from the Ye family, with hot ass servants and blaring opera non-stop, it's clearly Duke Su for some godforsaken reason)(and she's right)

Still suspecting FL's identity and amused at her bravado

But has zero inclination to ease her pains or preserve her life

Before FL gets to the mines subplot to come rescue her dad, he has been just sipping tea and enjoying the show (despite her fucking up a couple of his plans - he loves a good public play and tbh he is confident enough not to be pressed about some minor deviations)

he doesn't reach out to lend a hand until she FORCES him to act

By loudly exposing to a group of assassins that Duke Su has obviously been plotting a long game in the shadows for years to destabilize and split the court, raising Wang Chang, the Princess, Li family, Jiang family et al to gain power & fight each other and trouble the throne - so Duke Su becomes the 1 most powerful & trusted councilor to the emperor.

(Yes we have a Story of Kunning Palace situation here, where the drama adaption tweaks the ML's motives and aims so he's going in the same direction but is pro-emperor instead of scheming & manipulating for his own personal interests)

Duke Su was ready to literally watch FL be horribly violated & murdered, but then she spilled the tea and he had to drop bodies to destroy the evidence

He's gonna kill her too but like in a quick & polite manner, he's a gentleman

But she was super understanding about the whole situation and so he ended up hearing her out: how about just let me get my revenge first? Very convenient to you, here's a suicide voucher, could we come back to this at a later date? 2 to 3 good plays included. xoxo

Now he's got a voucher for 1 (one) strange teenage girl

Who doesn't appear to be a teenage girl.

She's also completely won over his sidekicks.

This is gonna take a lot of fans.

[higgsbison]

where can i start reading disc world?

(tl;dr version: Either with Guards!Guards! if you want angry urban fantasy or Wyrd Sisters if you want angry rural fantasy, then follow the list for that sub-series)

Oh anon brace yourself, there are in fact several ways people have big opinions on.

These are mine:

1. My least favorite way is from the start in chronological order

the trouble here is the first few Discworld novels were written as these kinda silly goofy fantasy/dnd parodies that weren't even supposed to be a part of a bigger thing and they honestly aren't that good, especially not compared to later books. That's the way I started and I just dropped the series for a few years cause of it, so I really don't recommend it. The author himself said he wasn't that good of a writer back then which is understandable, cause it was like 40 books ago.

2. What I reccomend is in chronological order based on different sub-series

Discworld novels all happen in the same world, but they follow different groups of characters, so you have several sub-series.

I'll post a list here, but it's pretty confusing so I'll also explain two of my favs below.

City Novels (Watch novels and Industrial Revolution novels)

About a huge, terrible metropolis and the people that help it run, stumble and sometimes trip over the years.

People normally split this into watch novels which follow the city watch and are crime procedurals/adventure books with a ton of social commentary and industrial revolution novels which are about the city speedrunning from medieval to industrial era via several inventions and follow different main characters who are mostly all there against their will.

To me, the main character is the city itself and I super recommend reading these from start to finish in order to see how it changes with time.

starting book: Guards! Guards!

Witches Novels

About three witches doing witch things in a small mountain kingdom, unless they're going on a trip somewhere.

Incredible horrid old lady characters, a lot of exploration of fantasy tropes, some deep emotional beats, very warm human phlosophy and personal responsibility themes.

There's a semi-seperate "YA" series about a younger witch (Tiffany Aching novels), but don't let that fool you, because those hit just as hard as the "adult" ones.

starting book: Wyrd Sisters (technically Equal Rites, but that's also in the awkward early books period for me)

As for the others, the death novels are also very very good, Small Gods is an amazing standalone book and I'd literally just avoid the Rincewind novels until you're already hooked on the series, but they probably have their fans too.

3. Just pick up a random book you see in the library

A tried and tested method a lot of people swear by, most of the books are standalone enough for this to work, BUT my personal opinion is at least the city books should be read in order (especially Night Watch) and there's several less than stellar books you could pick up first by mistake this way (Color of Magic, Light Fantastic, Interesting Times and Faust being the worst imo).

[raevnq]

I've been seeing people shame mxtx for writing sex scenes in her own books. They say things like "it's so unnecessary" or "she's fetishizing them" but I don't think so. In fact if you analyze her books you understand it actually helps develop/expand more on their relationships and the characters themselves.

I'll go down the line starting with svsss

This was her first book published. The first time luo binghe and Shen qingqiu get.... Intimate it's because Shen qingqiu wants to help binghe. We already know Shen qingqiu holds him in high regard though some doubt he actually is in love with binghe. To me the scene shows his devotion and love for binghe. Luo binghe when the scene first begins isn't himself. Shen yuan knows this as well. Throughout the whole story he had been in some sort of denial. Saying things like he himself is straight or luo binghe is destined for a harem. Leading up to the scene we read Shen yuan kinda realizing/acknowledging he has feelings for binghe. While it's not spelled out plain as day it is there.

Svsss has the most backlash when read. From people saying the main couple has no chemistry to the papapa scenes. This scene and another (🍾 if ya know ya know🫡) get the MOST criticism. Now I'm not gonna lie and say I got why she wrote these scenes right as I read them. I'm also not saying people aren't allowed to have opinions. I am just tired of mxtx being painted as a weird person for writing these scenes cause some people don't like to analyze things.....

Anyway sorry I got off track😅 the scene between binghe and Shen yuan develops Shen yuans relationships and character. It's the final interaction between them that makes it click to Shen yuan that binghe is a real person who struggles and not just the character in his favorite(most hated) novel. He sees binghe as a person and wants to help. People say the scene was very non-consensual but Shen yuan is the one to initiate. He starts kissing binghe to distract him and when it starts becoming more than kissing he's okay with it. When binghe snaps out of his trance-like state he's HORRIFIED by what he did. Luo binghe would never harm Shen yuan. He asks why Shen yuan didn't push him away or kill him(🙁) and they have a heartfelt scene where Shen yuan tells luo binghe he matters and is loved.

Svsss is a tragedy written as a comedy. Most scenes are overlooked because Shen yuan's way of coping is humor. We only see things from his pov and he also likes to overlook or push past things when they get serious. This scene gets the most criticism because even he can't joke his way through it. He can't be light hearted because it's like a flip is switched and he realizes this is real, these people are real, and I care for them. Not to say he didn't know there were times he was like "oh, this is my life now" but subconsciously he's not taking things seriously. This scene cements this for him. Which is why the scene is so heartbreaking. It's not just "oh we had sex and saved the world" it's him seeing things as not a game clearly. Even if he jokes about it later you can see the change in his mindset. He loves and cares for these people and now they don't just feel like NPCs to him. They are not just a means to an end. They are REAL and that scene helps it finally click for him.

I was gonna do all of them but I'm actually starting to get mad soooo the next two will be later 😅

[sarascamander]

Reading the cursed child (scorbus, norvelize version in a03). I read the script years ago when I was 11 (funfact it was the first harry potter book I've ever bought). So I'm rereading it again because I have a scorbus brainrot suddenly (11 y/o me shipped Scorpius and Rose so hard but now I grew up let just say my taste had change lmao).

List of thought gonna go longer as I read:

- yo Albus surly personality is basically me when I was 15 it was like looking into a mirror. Hold on there baby I understand you 😭

- I want to write a whole essay on Albus and Harry's relationship. They both are so precious but they just have a hard time with each other.

- Scorpius is the sunshine most sunshine cinnamon role ever. I would kill for him. I would die for him.

- ALL THOSE BULLY BETTER STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY OUTCASTS BABIES.

- “And be my good friend.” what if I die.

- why do people love to torture the cinnamon roll??? I want to hug Scorpio so bad like baby you deserve the moon and the sky and the world. And the fact that he's still trying to be so cheerful and optimistic. THE WORLD DOESN'T DESERVE HIM.

- Albus and Harry's father and son angst is killing me but it is also so delicious I relish in it (it's just so complicated I love it).

- "you’re kind, Scorpius. From the depths of your belly, to the tips of your fingers." Is the sweetest thing I've ever heard anyone said. I love this quote so much I want it tattooed on my forehead.

- Again, Scorpius deserve the fucking world.

- Scorpius and Draco's relationship is SO GOOD, SO PURE, SO SOFT. They love each other so much 😭

- brb I'm going to cry at the fact that Dark AU Ron and Hermione die in such a terrible way a few minutes after they finally confess their feelings (they were scared). 😭😭😭😭😭😭

- Snape is so dramatic. Girl "you're giving up your kingdom for Albus... All it takes is one person." he made it sound like they're in a romance fantasy novel (they are).

- Head empty. Scorpius happiest memory with Albus is strong enough for him to produce a patronus.

- Scorpius is once, again, a cutie pie that deserves everything.

- Delphi is more manipulative than I realized when I first read this lmao.

- GIRL the way Albus said that he and Scorpius ran away to start a new life in the muggle world as an excuse — what do you mean you're eloping at 14??? (Out of chronological order but I just remembered this)

- Delphi when I catch you —

- Never thought I'd be rooting for Draco and Harry duo yet here we are (did I say I love Draco as a dad?? I don't think he's appreciated enough. He's a brilliant dad! THIS is his best redemption arc).

- "What did you say to our son, Harry?" GO OFF QUEEN (Albus is a confirmed mommy boy)

- RON WANT TO MARRY HERMIONE AGAIN. I don't quite ship them in the book/movie but they're just the sweetest in here 😩😩

- I just had the sudden realisation that Scorbus might be the only couple that I ship in hp that is so close to canon (and was canonised by some play if I heard correctly).

- that time where they were in godric hollow and Scorpius was surprised that Albus never knew the full story of his grandparents or visited the place just bc he was being a petty, moody uninterested teenager hit so hard (he is me and I am him). And the shame he felt was real too. I always regret those years in my life where I acted like that and I don't even have a daddy issue like Al did, what's my bloody excuse lmao (I blame fucking hormones) 😩😭

- okay so finished it!! When I was a kid I don't quite like the time travel thingy and find it very confusing but I think it's because it's a screenplay yk, and it was meant to be watched not read. But the novel version did help a lot (and I give the author my hundreds of gratitude, her writing is absolutely beautiful! And she captured the characters perfectly! If you're scared to read The Cursed Child, read her novel version in ao3!!!).

I'm surprised that I actually love the plot more than I thought I would. Yeah it can get a bit unrealistic at times but all in all it's very entertaining and Albus and Scorpius are very well written, very rounded and nuanced characters that carry the book. I'm glad their parents didn't overshadow their personality etc (like them being mini-copies of Harry and Draco). They're their own person and I love that about them!!

They're not Drarry or even Jegulus as I've seen people say, they're in their own league. There are no enemies or hatred or tension between them; Scorpius and Albus genuinely like each other so much from the first they laid their eyes on each other and I adore them for it.

I read a theory that Albus was sent in Slytherin because he subconsciously wanted to be in a house with this kind boy met on the train and it made me want to cry (they were made for each other). (Although I do think Albus have many Slytherin traits, Scorpius I was less sure he screamed Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw to me but admittedly he can be cunning to).

So yeah, I don't think it's that bad as everyone said (and my 11 y/o self). It's fun and I actually cried a lot at the end of it (I have to watch Jily die, do you have any idea what that did to me???) (I don't even ship them but i swear this book set me to default back to canon).

I really want to watch the play, would die for it but it's impossible and I can only dream.xoxo

[mixelation]

Literally all i know about wicked is the poster bc i think its nice. Can i ask you what its a fic of? Or just about?

uuuuh so wicked is actually weirdly complicated in terms of being a fic/adpatation/whatever. it's a fanfic of the wizard of oz but it gets weird:

the wonderful wizard of oz is a children's book published in 1900. it went on to have 13 sequels by the original author, and then literally tens more sequels by other authors. most of the books are about someone going on a journey and assembling a party of strange magical people and creatures and running into various strange places and occasionally dodging things trying to kill them. this means that there is a LOT of lore and zany characters to draw from.

the book is of course not nearly as famous as the 1939 movie, which is what most people think of when they think of the wizard of oz. the movie adaptation has the same basic plot outline as the first book, but streamlined and-- most importantly for understanding wicked-- it changed a lot of aesthetic details. the reason for this is that color movies were new, and they wanted to show off, so everything is ultra bright and colorful. in the book, the dorothy's magic shoes are silver. they changed them to ruby red because it pops more. also in the book, everything in the emerald city is white, but everyone entering the city must wear glasses to make everything appear green (for emeralds, you see). the movie producers were evidently like "what the fuck?" and instead made the emerald city extra color and bright and loud. oh, and the movie made the wicked witch green. in the book, she was not green and instead had one magic eye.

wicked is a 1995 novel which is of a specific genre which basically asks: what if the villain of the story secretly had a sympathetic backstory this whole time? what if the good guys weren't that good and the wicked witch was actually kind of the better person?! i did really like these as a kid, but they kind of appeal to me less now outside of nostalgia because as takes they're usually.... kind of immature? or else come off like they dislike the source material. anyway, wicked is about the origin story of the wicked witch of the west (now named elphaba), who is born green and discriminated against for it. i read the book back in high school and therefore don't remember a ton of details about the plot, but the world building involved feels like a bizarre fever dream and sort of lazy in its lack of canonical detail if you're an oz fan. i remember finding it especially bizarre because there's details drawn from the books, but the main premise is entirely in movie land, and a lot of major book details are basically just discarded/never acknowledged. this is what makes it, imho, a bad fanfic. i won't comment on the writing because it's been too long, but in terms of being a fanfic..... yeah, it's weird & kind of bad?

however, i don't think most wicked fans have read the book. most people talking about wicked mean the 2003 musical (which will have a movie adaptation this month and why i'm thinking about it). like the movie, the musical is more streamlined than the book it's based on, and fun songs are added!!! i've seen it twice and literally don't remember the plot. i do think the actually spectacle of it is cool, but i don't like most of the songs, and again, it feels like it hates the source material. some of the weirder things, off the top of my head:

i cannot begin to stress how being green is one of the more normal physical differences to have in oz. like i get that the "hated because she's GREEN" thing is just a vehicle for the metaphor, but what is the point of intentionally picking this setting if you're just going to discard it?

there's a subplot about the talking animals wanting rights. this could actually be super interesting to explore, because the status of animals in the land of Oz is never made super clear? it's stated that they can all talk, and yet we see farmers and people eat animal products. there are animal characters who are treated equal to humans, and animal characters that are very explicitly pets. yet wicked does not engage with this in any interesting way (at least in the musical -- in the book i just remember an animal sex club?!); it's just a very generic "we want rights!!!" thing happening without the actual method and system of discrimination being made clear

glinda's function in the books is to be a wise adult figure. she rides around in a flying chariot pulled by swans and hires only beautiful women to work for her and gives them swords. in wicked, she's a shallow prep character. i get it's supposed to be an ~origin story~ or whatever but my feeling was that there's no foundation for her future character being laid. unless you're only going with "pink, appears in a bubble" as your basis for character

the book and the musical are both set against highly political backdrops, but most of the politics are made up wholecloth because canonical oz is.... chaos. the land of oz is more like a bunch fo loosely tied city-states, many of which are so isolated they probably don't know they have a ruler. again, "the politics of oz" is something i think would be interesting to explore in a fanfic, but wicked seems to just want to have some politics around and slapped a vaguely oz aesthetic on it, making it feel shallow and preventing any sort of conversation with the source material

like i'm not saying that all fanfic NEEDS to be in conversation with the source material; i'm just saying, why write a fanfic if you literally only want the aesthetics of the movie? to help sell copies? sure. and i don't even think that automatically makes a piece of work bad (no hate, wicked fans), it's just makes it frustrating and unpleasant to consume if you're a fan of the source material

[frandomgorl]

I’ve decided to write about my Outsiders pet peeves

TRIGGER WARNING: Dally’s suicide

1. Saying that Ponyboy is bratty or over dramatic. First of all, he’s a freshman in high school. Mostly everyone I know was annoying as a freshman too. He JUST turned 14 in the book, so yeah some of the things he says are petty or rude, but he’s a child. Not only is he a child, but he’s established from the beginning as a character that feels things deeply, he contemplates things that he can’t really vocalize with a majority of the people around him. He has no parents, and he feels lonely after their death. I personally have siblings but if my parents died, especially at a young age, I’d feel lost and lonely too. Him having brothers doesn’t make the gravity of his parents death any less saddening.

2. People who watched the musical and said anything along the lines of “I don’t like that Dally committed Suicide”. Because he committed suicide in the book too. And it wasn’t like some secret that he did it, it wasn’t “heavily implied”. He wasn’t just lost and confused so he made trouble and was reckless. Because Dally was not unintelligent. He knew if he robbed the store, the cops would come after him. He knew that if he pointed the gun at the police, they’d shoot him. There was nothing accidental about his death, and to imply that is insulting the characters intelligence and minimizing his feelings. Assisted suicide is still suicide.

3. Anyone who demonizes Darry, wasn’t paying enough attention to what ever version of the Outsiders that were reading or watching. I mentioned earlier that I didn’t like how some people talk about Pony, but Darry also tends to get demonized by a lot of people. A lot of people think that you can’t like both Darry and Pony, but that’s not true. Darry was doing his best in his circumstance and always had Ponyboy and Soda at the top of his list of priorities.

4. People who write Dally in a way that glorifies his actions in life. I understand that everyone wants to think of the gang as these sweet little guys with an adorable found family. Hell, I love those fanfictions, but you can love a character and also understand that objectively they aren’t a good person. I love Dally, and I’m sympathetic to him because of his past, but I won’t justify the things he does. Dally does, and has done a lot of bad things in his life, and he has a lot of flaws. I’m not going to make excuses for him. I can be sympathetic to him, and also truthful about him.

5. I have seen some people talk about Randy’s redemption in a negative light. A lot of people saying it felt like too little too late. However, Randy having that redemption is so important because it emphasizes the similarities is the social classes. His arc also serves as a reminder that’s the docs were human too. He was an example of positive change within the series.

6. I understand if the outsiders isn’t your cup of tea, but just because you don’t like it doesn’t make it bad. I don’t like rom coms, but that’s not because they are bad, it’s because they are rom coms, I can’t sit through the genre. The outsiders is at its core a coming of age novel that still rings true for a lot of people today. So my last pet peeve is people saying it’s “it’s just a school assignment”. At its core it is an assignment but a lot of people see themselves in these characters and that’s something no one should feel bad about.

Thanks for coming to my TED TALK

[carriesthewind]

I can't stop thinking about the notes on this rage-bait post about To Kill a Mockingbird.

Some of it is the sheer number of people falling for the bait and believing that the school district in question banned the novel:

But there's also this...tone to so many of the notes that I find fascinating. And I think two sets of comments illustrate why:

Every time I look at these tags I feel like there is something more to unpack. If I am being kind of flip, I can roll my eyes at someone "sigh[ing] at the lack of reading comprehension" while falling for outrage bait.

But more seriously, I feel like this comment is completely right about needing to be uncomfortable and leave sterile environments in order to grown and change...but that comment exists in the context of the writer being so deeply uncomfortable at the mere idea that an over 60 year old book will no longer be taught to some children that they completely fail to interrogate the underlying story. There's a failure to take the next step. It's possible the writer was uncomfortable when they first read the novel, but to quote a tag I didn't capture here, it's "one of [their] favorite books." The book doesn't make *them* uncomfortable at all. The writer is not willing to interrogate that the school district might have had good reasons for switching the book out of the curriculum. Instead, they assume that the reasons are because "people don't understand" the book - the writer "see[s] what they look for."

I love To Kill a Mockingbird. (Hell, I'm one of those white future-public defenders who read the book and saw the movie and watched Atticus with my soul in my throat and, while I was not directly inspired by him, he resonated with a deep part of me.) It would be an uphill debate to convince me to remove it from a teaching curriculum - but then again, I'm not in charge of any teaching curriculum and have zero relevant expertise. I've read now a number of different articles and reactions to this incident, and the reactions rarely have anything to do with the reality of what decisions were made and why. You have to jump through numerous links to find what appears to be the original parent complaint:

Yolanda Williams said she found out that students were saying the N-word and laughing in the classroom, and it was offensive. “Students were laughing out loud at the teacher’s response. That’s unacceptable to me,” she told the board. “Is there not a better way to teach about that era and the horrors of that era, other than having kids laughing in class when the N-word is said? It should not be required reading for all students. My child shouldn’t have to sit in that class like that.” “It’s not a conducive environment,” Yolanda Williams said. “It’s not just the book, but supplemental material that had the N-word.

(How much do we value, how do we weigh, one way of learning about the history of racism, against the pain of a black child? Whose comfort are we willing to sacrifice, and for what?)

The second comment I come back to is much shorter, but I feel like it's where everything fell in to place for me:

Were the people made uncomfortable by the book white people? How many of them? I don't know for sure - although I know at least one of the parents, as quoted above, was black - and neither do any of the commenters.

Why do we read "people" and see "white people?" And in a way, I'm asking a rhetorical question - because of course we do, because the tweet is set up that day. And, even more so, of course we do - because the people the book is for are white people.

To go back to the previous comment, the one I can't stop unpacking: the writer quotes a famous line from the book, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

And yes, I love this quote.

But.

But.

To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee, a white woman.

The narrator of the book is Scout, a white child.

The hero of the book is Atticus, her white father.

The embodiment of the theme, the person whose skin Scout tries to step into, is Boo Radley, another white man.

Do you remember, the man who was murdered? Do you see him in that picture at the top of the post? How long does it take you to remember his name?

When do we step into his skin? When do we walk around with his perspective?

I love To Kill a Mockingbird. But if a school district wanted to teach a book to embody this quote, aren't there so many better ones?

Another commenter on the post appears to have actual lived experience with this book being removed from the teaching curriculum.

[salpho]

Current plans (rambles and ideas) for the DCTL redrawn project

First off, I just came up with that title on the spot and it works super well so I'll stick with that probably pffh. Follow the tag if interested in participating !! Anyways, here's my rambles.

I wanna do some more research on Chris Hastings. Fellow Bendy wiki staff have pointed out that he adapts the books rather than illustrate them, which I didn't realise had any difference beforehand. Basically means directing stuff like backgrounds, setting, etc from my knowledge. They sourced this user that seems to know a thing or two about him and his work, along with getting an early copy of the graphic novel. I'll do proper research and make a seperate post soon for this.

Moving onto the project itself, I've got some jumbled thoughts I'll try and make sense of-

I'll reread DCTL to understand the book properly, all work going foreward from there

Design work will start after this, all characters will have set, universal designs based off of canon, official (such as meatly's word), book descriptions and more, such as racecoding (I'll do justice for Thomas and Norman) and time period. I'll likely be designing them alone, but I may listen to other participant inputs and ideas to make sure they're the best they can be.

This novel will be drawn from scratch !! We won't base or reference anything off of the original graphic novel, we'll only be using the original DCTL book and its word.

Every page will act as a "map part", basically having one artist do an entire page/pages. Some may want to collaborate with others (such as one person doing the backgrounds with the other doing characters) for their pages which is more than welcome.

Newer/less skilled artists are more than welcome to offer to participate, please don't let your skill level or own perception of your art discourage you !! I'd love to give you all a chance.

I may be pinging those who said they'd be happy to participate once I make the call post. Once ready to make that post, I'll be starting a discord server for communication. This will also include a google doc or something similar so we can get full quality pages from everyone rather than compressed images from the app.

The project's novel will begin with foreword. This will include background for why it was started, clearly state it was made as a protest against the original graphic novel, Mike's view of minorities in fiction and will also state it was made because we care and love this series, and want it to do better. It will credit and link to the artist who drew the original and explain why we believe the artist was mistreated and should've had more time and pay. Stuff of that sort.

Every page will have the artist's signatures/@'s in the margins, and the novel will have a glossary of all who participated.

Things may change, we'll see, but these are the rough plans I've got so far. Would love to hear your thoughts and ideas as usual !!

[budd-ie]

I’ve seen people complain before that hualian doesn’t need sexual themes in it and that it would be fine (or better) without it, and this opinion is completely valid to have and it’s completely fine to ignore the sexual themes to better your own enjoyment if it adds to the individual experience, though I also think it’s important to acknowledge sometimes that hualian does have a sexual relationship and that those sexual themes are prevalent throughout the novel and it’s okay for this to be the case. My personal opinion is that I think these themes are really cool and actually help us gauge character growth in a plot relevant way, especially for Xie Lian.

(Some book 7/8 spoilers ahead)

Along these lines, I’ve also seen people question why Jun Wu is so fixated on Xie Lian’s virginity. It’s true that it feels like a weird and specific thing to fixate on, though I’m sure the plot relevant answer to that has to do with Xie Lian’s cultivation. His cultivation style requires a pure mind and body, and maintaining cultivation rewards one with more spiritual energy. The short and simple answer is that by ruining his cultivation Xie Lian will be weakened in both power and mind, and attacking his virginity is the fastest route to achieve this (such as in the land of the tenders). As true as this is though, it really isn’t everything. Remember that Xie Lian begged to join the temple before he was of age because he was so determined to start cultivation. Not only did he take it extremely seriously, but his commitment to cultivation was one of the reasons (besides hating his dad) that he basically lived at the temple and wouldn’t come home for months at a time. Otherwise, he never found interest in consorts or getting married and starts chanting Dao De Jing if he even suspects something has the potential to start messing with him in order to maintain his steady heart and pure soul. Thus, cultivation is fun and rewarding to him.

This was before and during ascension, but what about after? After his second banishment, I honestly can’t imagine he’s actually trying to ascend again, so why cultivate?

Isn’t the answer there just because wants to?

At its heart, Xie Lian’s cultivation is something that seems to help ground him; it makes him feel comfortable and gives him something to focus on. Furthermore, it’s one of the last things Xie Lian actually has control over, isn’t it? Especially after falling so far into despair during his first banishment, cultivating is his way of rebuilding and holding on to himself, like a way of healing.

Thus, as it coincides with his cultivation, virginity is also extremely important to Xie Lian, simply because he chooses for it to be. Maintaining these principles is one of the main things that makes him feel like he’s still doing okay and is still in control.

All that being said, why did Jun Wu have a virginity detecting sword? If we really want to speculate a Xie Lian-centric answer to this, let’s establish that Jun Wu knows enough about Xie Lian to understand his individual relationship to cultivation. If Xie Lian is not a virgin during the Lan Chang in heaven scene, that means he has broken his cultivation. If Xie Lian’s cultivation is broken and he is genuinely unbothered by it, that means that Xie Lian has grown into a different, much stronger person than Jun Wu anticipated. It also means that controlling him by targeting his cultivation/virginity specifically isn’t going to be as effective as it might have been in the past. That’s what I think makes it matter so much to Jun Wu strictly from a plot perspective.

Following this logic can take us further too, because everybody who read extra chapters knows that Xie Lian does NOT leave this plot a virgin, but he’s very okay about it, which is also not at all where he starts. Xie Lian’s relationship with his own sexual nature is something that is constantly evolving throughout the novel, and it’s something that he struggles with tremendously that causes him a lot of torment whenever it’s challenged. Impurity isn’t just bad to him, it starts off as nearly catastrophic. As he learns to accept his feelings for Hua Cheng though, he starts to come to terms with that side of himself, as hard as it is for him to accept it.

Suddenly this scene (from the clearnoodle translation of the revised) comes to mind:

The whole alcohol scene is easy to play off as a mix of silly virginity joke and desperate need for a diversion, but there’s a lot of good stuff here. The first part clearly shows his stance about cultivation and where his priorities lie (in which absolute celibacy is more important than absolute sobriety). The second part, Hua Cheng’s response, is something like foreshadowing, isn’t it?

“Okay. However, I think that the Tao follows nature, and precepts and abstinences are inconsistent with Taoists’ free nature. What do you think, gege?”

If breaking his cultivation would be like losing a pillar of support, then his ability to rely on Hua Cheng is like adding another impenetrable, immovable, unbreakable pillar of infinite support. If he doesn’t have to worry about losing himself through indulgence becuase of this new immovable pillar….then what’s there to be afraid of? Isn’t he free to explore how he pleases?

If Xie Lian can break his cultivation without breaking his spirit, this symbolizes the ultimate growth and reclamation of power over himself. That’s why Xie Lian’s sexuality is something I think is extremely significant to both him and the story overall. He spends so much time tied down to the expectations he has of himself, but by the end of the novel he really does get literally and figuratively freed from this. Who knew it could all tie back to his virginity! Regardless, let’s take this as a psa that sexual stories are good and deserve to be told just as much as non sexual ones. Xie Lian DESERVES his freaky ghost sex and is in fact an icon of healing and growth for it!

[maxdibert]

Hi, I really like your blog. I have two questions. Why is Gryffindor supposedly "good" and Slytherin supposedly bad?

What about the other Hogwarts houses?

I think Rowling didn't anticipate that her saga would become so popular and probably had an idea of how she wanted to approach it at the beginning, which revolved around classic English children's literature, heavily inspired by Dickens or Dahl. We can see this in how the characters are initially presented in a completely one-dimensional way, with the magical world serving as a backdrop, a fantasy lacking depth, simply meant to make not only Harry but also the readers (who are children too) dream through Harry's eyes. The good characters are very good, and the bad characters are very bad—there's not much more to it. This is where Slytherin comes in as the rival house, the nemesis, the representation of the place where the bad guys go, like Voldemort, Draco (who is the typical character that irrationally antagonizes the protagonist, the rich bully), or Snape (the teacher that the protagonist hates because he has it out for him). It’s a concept that works for a children’s book because you don’t expect children’s literature to delve much deeper into the dichotomy between good and evil, as that’s how children’s literature is. This works in the second book as well, which maintains the tone, and even in the third. But starting from the fourth, this becomes quite problematic because Rowling begins to give her work, her world, and her characters a greater depth. Rowling transitions from children’s books to young adult books, and as the plot thickens, that complexity should also extend to the characters and worldbuilding. However, this is an area where Rowling fails miserably because she has laid down very solid foundations regarding the world she has created. Breaking those foundations and making them more complex would require a lot of work, and I simply believe she wanted to move forward, finish the saga more or less as she had conceived it, and that was it.

There are many things that fail, such as the fact that the dichotomy between good and evil is so present, with "gray" characters that are not fully developed, alongside the insistence on portraying characters who are not good or ethical (James, Dumbledore, Sirius) as if they are. This creates a constant cognitive dissonance. For example, I firmly believe that Rowling did not plan for James and Sirius to be so utterly unpleasant, disgusting, and violent at first, but she needed the reader to feel sympathy for Snape somehow or to understand where his hatred came from. So, she turns them into despicable bullies, the same ones she previously presented as examples. At the same time, we have to believe that Lily, who is the epitome of goodness and morality as presented at the beginning of the saga, ended up marrying a bully. These are plot holes; they don’t make sense at all. These are things she could have justified by giving those characters more nuances, more personality, and providing us with more references, but she chooses not to because that would break certain foundations she established in the early novels that she doesn’t want to touch. Thus, we are left without coherent explanations for certain events.

The same thing happens with the houses. I mean, it’s understandable that a child Harry would see Slytherin as the worst hole in the world, but a teenage Harry, a 15 or 16-year-old Harry, should have a broader perspective. Rowling doesn’t do this because she already had in mind who the bad guys would be from the start; including good characters in that house would mean having to change the very rules she established at the beginning of the story or even having to alter the course of some of her characters. While this is perfectly possible, attainable, and can be done, it requires a lot of work and development of the world and the characters, and we are talking about someone who doesn’t stop to complicate those things. She follows her narrative course to the end, even though there are issues that we have to accept despite their multiple inconsistencies.

Gryffindor is supposed to be the good house because they are brave, but the reality is that most characters who truly exemplify Gryffindor qualities are complete jerks. James and Sirius are bullies, Remus is a coward who goes around impregnating twenty-somethings and abandoning them, Peter is a traitor, Dumbledore is a manipulator who doesn’t give a damn about his students unless they serve a purpose in his plans, Hagrid is an irresponsible figure for his students, Ginny ends up being something like the popular girl, and in reality, she’s a resentful brat who martyrs everyone who says something she doesn’t like. I know you love the twins, but their pranks are terrible; I wouldn’t have tolerated people like that in my class, and many of them are dangerous.

In Western culture, there has always been that ideal of the hero, the knight who goes to war and either dies or triumphs, always wielding a sword. This is a bit like Gryffindor. I understand using that at the beginning of the saga because it was for children, but it ages very poorly. And it does because Rowling doesn’t want to step out of her dichotomy of good versus evil. There are Gryffindors who are just as bad or worse than many Slytherins, but their actions are never condemned, nor does the narrative treat them as something completely negative (because they make excuses or justifications) simply because Rowling established from the beginning that those characters were good, and therefore they had to remain good until the end, even though many of their actions are inconsistent with that discourse. On the other hand, Rowling herself was surprised when Draco Malfoy ended up having several fans because she had established that Draco was horrible, was bad, and had no redeeming qualities. But at the same time, she presents a 16-year-old boy terrified because a psychopath is threatening his family and he feels compelled to kill (something he doesn’t want to do) because otherwise, they will kill his parents, and Rowling expects us not to feel empathy? That we think that boy is a horrible monster? That’s what I mean by the cognitive dissonance with her own rules and characters; it simply doesn’t make sense.

The characters from other houses are merely extras or barely matter until almost the end of the saga (Luna doesn’t appear until the fifth book) because clearly, Rowling didn’t give importance to the other houses; they weren’t part of her good versus evil dichotomy; they were just part of the decoration. Then she realizes she has to give them something, so in the fourth book, we have Cedric, and in the fifth, we have Luna and Tonks, because, of course, the story is no longer for children; the story is no longer just about Gryffindor vs. Slytherin (although it still is), but she again fails because she is not able to turn around the established foundations, and her attempt remains just that: an attempt.

[mundanemodulus]

in the spirit of living like jordaiden has a thriving 2010s tumblr era following, I felt compelled to fill out a ship meme for them...

cleaner crop, more insights, and a blank template under the cut xoxo

Age/Height

JORDI'S AGE/HEIGHT NEVER GET REVEALED!!!! I just made it up based on what my heart wanted, and my heart wants Jordi to both be slightly taller and a little older than Aiden bc it makes for a cuter dynamic. Annoying old man bothers similarly old, but slightly younger, man.

How it Happens

I don't think either of them fully intend for it to happen, nor does it happen particularly quickly because, in Scotty's words:

“What is it about your generation? Why can’t you just talk to one another?”

Jordi inadvertently trips face first into having Genuine Feelings for Aiden because for some inexplicable reason, he cannot stay away from Aiden for long. He makes excuses for himself all the time but we all know what he is (🌈🌈).

Aiden is slightly different in that he doesn't actively try to create opportunities to see Jordi... it just so... happens to work out... their schedules align and Jordi crashes into his life... or something goes sideways and he needs Jordi's help... and then post Legion DLC he gets his fanfic-esque "Oh" moment.

Handling Conflict

RESIDENT SHIT STIRRER JORDI REPORTING IN. HE LITERALLY TRIED TO KILL AIDEN LMFAO. He moved on real quick from the attempt too LOL, bro doesn't take anything That Seriously. He's not always difficult for difficult's sake though—Jordi and Aiden have frequent ideological disagreements but I imagine that time tempers them both... and in the end, Jordi goes where Aiden does...

And we know how Aiden feels about disagreements. He still hangs on to Lena's death and pursues revenge rather doggedly... also, I think it's really funny if he just keeps bringing up the fact that Jordi tried to kill him Once. Aiden isn't completely conflict averse though and we see him butt heads quite a few times in the Stars and Stripes novel.

Relationship Attitude

ok. so Jordi has a reputation of being a hotshot playboy that never commits to anything and strings all his lovers along bc commitment isn't really his style. UNTIL AIDEN.

Jordi forgets all about his flings and somehow falls FACE FIRST into monogamy bc all he thinks of anymore is Aiden and the only person he booty calls is Aiden. So yes, he is Very Committed to Aiden EVEN IF HE TELLS HIMSELF HE ISN'T.

Aiden is... Aiden. He's never letting Jordi go.

Attachment

this one is funny to me bc I KNOW Jordi doesn't think himself as being protective of Aiden AND YET HE COMES RUNNING BACK TO SAVE AIDEN AT THE VERY END OF THE BOOK, AND THREATENS WRENCH DURING LEGION WHEN HE THINKS HE'S HOLDING AIDEN HOSTAGE.

Aiden is once again Aiden. I don't think Jordi can top that. We saw the lengths he went to protect Nicky and avenge Lena.

First to apologize after a fight

Jordi's pride is riding on the line at all times and he doesn't think he's wrong most of the time LMFAOOOO so Aiden usually ends up apologizing first... <3

The best caregiver when the other is sick

Jordi simultaneously has horrific and amazing bedside manners. Aiden is pretty consistently pleasant though... and it comes from caring for Nicky when she was sick, and then later Jackson and Lena when they got sick...

Designated driver

they both fight over this one tbh LMFAOOO Jordi does most of the driving in the novel but I just knooooooow Aiden hates being a passenger princess if he can help it... same thing for Jordi... both just feel more at Control when they're the one behind the wheel

(drunk or otherwise)

Sensitive to changes in their partner

The entire novel is a WEALTH of tidbits where Jordi and Aiden just Wordlessly Understand each other. They know what the other is thinking, how they operate, what they want, and so so much more GOD I CANNOT GET OVER IT THEY'RE OPEN BOOKS TO EACH OTHER

The one who proposes

Jordi "I have nightmarish commitment issues the likes of no one you've ever known before" Chin struggles to say "I love you" let alone "Will you marry me?" so the responsibility falls on Aiden both times HAHAHAH the proposal happens post legion, btw <3

Template:

[brujaluas]

TAROT READING - WHAT YOU NEED TO HEAR, THE UNIVERSE WANTS TO SAY

Disclaimer: Don't blame me for maybe not listening to something you'd like to hear, english is not my first language so there may be spelling mistakes, I'm sorry

CHOOSE YOUR FAVORITE ART

PILE 1

I see that you have a tendency to take hasty actions and act too much in the heat of emotion, without thinking much about the future. I see that you are going to experience a very prosperous moment in your life, even if you don't believe it at the moment, because I feel that some are going through difficult moments…

I see there needs to be closure, the universe asks you to put an end to something, something needs to be left behind and I feel most people know what I'm talking about. you need to protect yourself energetically, because I feel that in the future you may have a bit of heavy energy to deal with, someone may disappoint you and you may end up going on unpleasant dates, that's why you need to control your personality and your actions, so as not to fall into provocations. this is no time to sabotage yourself.

PILE 2

things are hard, right baby? I feel that you have been very strong and have endured things that you would not have thought you could, your faith, more than ever, is being put to the test. I can't tell you that you will have very happy moments in the next few weeks, but some things will change.

I feel that you went through a very strong disappointment, or even a surgery, which caused you a lot of pain, something not healed has been keeping you up at night, for some who identified with this pile, I see that you have remained strong like a tree. your mind is very confused, as if you didn't know what to think at the moment, because there are a lot of transient things, a very serious commitment will be made with you in the future. take care of yourself, your physical health may be in need of real attention, keeping you praying a lot and staying away from people who have been feeding on your energy. need to remember that this suffering will be temporary.

PILE 3

you've been dreaming a lot, right? some have already tried to practice the law of attraction, even though they don't have much experience, I also see that they can fall in love with a person, but beware, even if in the next few weeks you have a lot of love to give and receive, and many achievements to accomplish, don't stay too stuck in idealizations, remember that the universe did not go according to what you always wanted.

have you been feeling better? I need to tell you that the spiritual guides that accompany you have given you a lot of love or want to give you a lot of love, thank them, because there is a very affectionate energy here, you may be meeting someone who left you in the clouds or if you haven't met them yet met, I see a person with a lot of love to give you, he will have the feel novel you read in books, I say books because I feel that there are many readers who are fans of period novels here in this pile, but beware of illusions, remember- if in the world not everything is happiness or flowers, I'm not throwing cold water, I'm just trying to let you know that sometimes someone can act differently than you expect and that doesn't mean that person is bad, or the universe can give you something that doesn't moment you can not understand, but do not be discouraged.