#and i told her as much in the meeting

[six-of-ravens]

I would really like a single office day where I don't come home and play an evening-long game of Am I The Asshole?

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 247

Danny grumbles, going limp as the Spirit plucked him up, holding him out like some sort of stray cat. Their golden eyes stared across him, white hair shimmering and bloodied feathers rustling as they tilted their head. 

“You sure he’s not somehow ours?” Bludhaven asks again, setting him down once more to circle. Amity laughs, wild hair the color of wheat fluttering in a non-existent breeze and portal pulsing like a heart as she rests a hand on his head. 

“Well darlin’, I am asking if you would be open to adopting,” the Spirit laughs, the sound as familiar as the birds outside his window in the mornings. “Well, I suppose I could always ask your dear sister Arkham-” 

“No no, I would be honored,” Bludhaven smiled a literally sharp grin, something mischievous and violent about it in a way Danny was slowly growing used to. “I’m just- look at the little ghostling! He looks like he could be from ours! My hair, your eyes… he’s just missing markings…” 

“Markings he’ll get once you give me an answer darlin’...”

“OH- Yes, of course! Sorry, I got whelmed there.” 

“You have been stalking your vigilante a bit too much there Blud.” 

[introspectivememories]

sorry but do you ever think about the fact that the bernard we have today is a direct amalgamation of everything that happened in his past and i know that sound like such an obvious statement to say but it actually kills me to know that you can draw a direct line from who he is today all the way back to that sixteen year old boy who watched his best friend bleed out. like it is the defining moment in his life. it fundamentally shaped who he is and the person he's become. he is the bernard we know and love not despite the grieves shooting but because of it. because the gangs all got together and shot up his school. because tim walked out of that room with nothing but a baseball bat. because his darla got shot. because he watched her gasp and cry as she died. because he watched the blood coagulate around the wound. because he sat there and held her hand as her life drained out of her. because he walked into school that day with a joke he knew would make her laugh and her nose would scrunch up and she'd snort a little and tim would roll his eyes at him and call him ridiculous and instead he walked out with a bloody white shirt, blood under his fingernails, and two friends less. because, even now, almost half a decade out from the shooting, he thinks that if he closes his eyes, he will always be that stupid, scared little sixteen year old, holding the cooling body of dead best friend.

[sometimesmaybespoof]

When she Half on my Life till I 2

[anethiawoods]

playing slay the princess as intended (watching your friend stream it and then roleplaying as improvised ocs for each of ur runs)

[greenerteacups]

oooh please someday tell us what you think of GOT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[theborzoiarebackintown]

Margo likes to sit on the stoop gazing out into the yard when she’s ready to come in, but then she heard me trying to take a pic of her.

[hella1975]

it's been pointed out on here before that a lot of terf arguments are actually rooted in sexist idealology that feminists fought and died to unnormalise decades ago and that's its own kettle of fish but one thing i also find very frustrating about this so called 'radical' feminism is that it's so... defeatist? like the moment you categorically label an entire section of society as Bad and Inherently Evil then there's also the implication that nothing can be done about it, and it completely takes all accountability away. saying all men are evil is just another way of saying boys will be boys. he raped her because he's a man. he hit her because he's a man. he didn't listen because he's a man - it's almost offensively oversimplified. there's no point trying to fix this issue in society because men are just Like That, okay! so now what? it's not like they're going anywhere, so you just accept that 50% of the population are evil and will forever treat you terribly and there's nothing to be done about it bc they're biologically predisposed to it? like is that fr the argument here? you're soooo radical for that

[willyhoos]

a very self indulgent twipri au i made... vampire!zelda x vampire hunter!link..

in which a rancher from ordon is suddenly afflicted with lycanthropy, and hunts down the cursed hylian queen who is absolutely, DEFINITELY responsible for it...

(spoilers: he's Mega Wrong)

a bit more info about the au below the cut!

"Link, go assassinate the Hylian queen so we can go back to living normally." instructions unclear i have fallen in love with her

midna is somewhere probably maybe once i figure out what to do with her .

[sysig]

Go play pretend on your own (Patreon)

[artheresy]

I haven't finished the quests from 2.4 just yet, but I have already so many thoughts that I can just barely keep contained especially about Huaiyan, Yunli, Yingxing and just sm too much in fact, I'm dying rn

[aurorangen]

After graduation came a break before work started for Renee. It was also Jay and Miracle's wedding! Renee and Vincent travelled all the way to Chestnut Ridge for this special occasion and it was such a joy to see Jay again! Though Vincent felt a bit light-headed upon arriving. He was just tired from the long journey, right? But don't worry he felt a lot better after a nap on the bench.

Transcript:

Renee: Finally we are here! Now where are we meant to meet Jay and Miracle? Vincent: Uhh my head [takes a moment to respond] Didn't he say New Appaloosa? The town centre? Renee: Let me check google maps again. Aha! We are in New Appaloosa.

[Renee continues looking. She zooms out to Oasis Springs, to an area of endless desert…just out of curiosity] Renee: I guess they couldn't update the map as there's no evidence. So this place must be Strangervil-

[Vincent's mind goes blank for a second and suddenly Renee's voice seems so far away. His head sways to one side and his eyes struggle to stay open. He could see Renee but everything looks blurry] Renee: Vince! Are you ok? [she grabs hold of him and they walk towards a bench to sit down]

Vincent: Shit. I just blanked out for a sec. God, I'm so knackered from the flight. Renee: Here have some water. We'll rest for a bit longer, there's time [snuggles close to him] Vincent: [smiles and rests his eyes] What would I do without you Renee?

Jay: [clears throat] Ahem still recognise me? Renee: Jay!?! Ahh Jay, it really is you! Damn, it's been so long! Jay: You're the same as always! I missed you, Renee.

Renee: And Miracle [squeals] Woah you're so beautiful in person! Miracle: Thanks gorgeous! You're exactly how Jay had described! [sees Vincent resting] Oh is Vincent OK? Renee: Yeah he's just tired. Hey Vince look who's arrived.

Vincent: Oh it's Jay and Miracle! Sorry, my head's a bit [he blinks a few times] It's so good to finally meet you two, just call me Vince, any friend of Renee is a friend of mine! And congrats, we can't wait for the big day! Jay: We've been dreaming about it forever, right Mir? And I've heard so much about you Vince.

[The guys continue walking as they get to know more about each other] Vincent: [nudges him] Oh god what did Renee tell you? Hopefully only good things eh? Jay: Well…interesting to say the least [they laugh together]

[saturdaynightghostclub]

This is totally just about my personal life and I can’t necessarily generalize it, but I do feel like I’m encountering a certain sort of insecure standoffish behavior more and more in people my age and it’s really bugging me.

So many people I know approach new acquaintances and social situations with this attitude of “Well, they probably won’t like me anyway, so I won’t even try,” which I find both really juvenile and really unkind. And don’t get me wrong, I do think there’s a time and a place for not caring what people think of you, but when it comes to your attitude and the way you treat other people, you absolutely SHOULD care what they think. You SHOULD want people to like you, or at least not actively hate you, and assuming that everyone you meet is the type of person who won’t is frankly pretty mean. Obviously not everyone is going to like you or want to be your friend, but that doesn’t mean you get to enter every potential relationship like an antisocial ghoul and then be mad that you have no friends? Make this make sense.

It goes hand in hand with this super annoying deal where people throw all their energy into resisting whatever’s popular for the sake of being interesting, failing to realize that not only are they unoriginal but they’re a complete bummer to be around as well. I really assumed we’d all grown out of this, but I’m well into my twenties and encountering people relatively frequently who cannot stand to have anyone think of them as “basic” or “like the rest” or what have you, and I can’t help but wonder if they’re happy with themselves. It’s so corny to say, but the most interesting people are those who like what they like, wear what they want, etc without feeling like they need to justify it to everyone. Nobody is paying close enough attention to you to judge you for half the shit you’re convinced you’re being judged for, I promise.

[bluerosefox]

Comes in Twos

........You know if we play around with the timeline we could have Danny and Jason die at the same age. Sure Danny half died at 14 and Jason at 15 (according to sources) BUT what if they died at the same age... on the same day...

And what if we make them twins.

Only instead of Danny being the one adopted it was Jason... only he wasn't adopted but stolen the night he and Danny were born (funnily enough they were both born in Gotham because Maddie refused to miss out on a Ghost convention happening, believed she had a few more months to go before their birth but twins are notorious to be born early). He was stolen by Sheila to pass off as Willis son (the one she had either never was real or the baby didn't live long) in order to get money from him and she ran off the moment the cash was in her hands. Willis, never thinking different due to a very convincing fake birth certificate or had the cash to do an DNA test, took Jason in believing he was his son.

The adult Fentons tried everything to find their missing son but due to Gotham corruption and dead ends had to leave the dark city and grieved over him. It's why Jazz took over taking care of Danny when he was a baby/toddler for a while, their parents sometimes felt to heartbroken when they would look at him and know they're was supposed to be an identical one with Danny. It got easier over the years though.

It would also explain how Jason would come back after dying, he was exposed to high levels of ectoplasm along with Danny when Maddie and Jack would experiment with the stuff, and unlike Danny who was immediately brought back by the portal zap its why Jason took longer to come back.

Basically a twins AU where Danny isn't adopted, it was Jason (he totally has Jack's strong build and height btw after he takes a dip in the pit, and Maddie's smarts has always been there) and I felt like wouldn’t it be something if they both were born and later died on the same day because they’re twins.

[faaun]

pls i need to provide updates

[captainjonnitkessler]

My posts about participating in your union apply to everyone except for Jane*, the woman in the union subcommittee I chair who just tried for the third time to unilaterally shut down an event she doesn't actually run because she didn't like someone's "attitude" towards her. Jane should actually participate in my union significantly less