#and they are canonically always getting a whif of each other

[acornered]

because I am for some reason fascinated by fragrance and scents: what do your oc’s smell like?

OH FUCK YES!!

Holly- Sweat and leather, her natural musk, the oil she uses to polish her knife.

Ama- Cinnamon and clove, lavender and bergamot, musty linen and pipe tobacco, smoky and nostalgic.

Rae- Heady like rotting wood or stormy air, rich soil and burning leaves.

Sarah- Cigarette smoke and cheap floral perfume, hints of shimmer lights conditioner, occasionally sunscreen.

Adele- Old, classy perfumes, lilac and linen and citrus.

BONUS THAT ONLY YOU WILL CARE ABOUT:

Solaris- fruity body wash and citronella with hints of dirt and petrichor

[kimwexlers-brownhair]

What kills me is that a conflict between Sansa and Daenerys has so much potential for character development on both sides, but the writers completely whiffed it. 

It makes sense that Sansa is incredibly wary of Daenerys at first. She knows her family’s history with Targaryens. She has her own terrible experiences with rulers from other Houses. She has fought hard for an independent North. She’s learned not to trust all the songs, so I can see her skeptical about all the reports of Dany freeing slaves and the romantic image of her as the Mother of Dragons. I think Sansa’s distrust on the outset is very much justified.

But the writers do a terrible disservice to both Dany and Sansa by making Sansa 100% right here. For one thing, it turns Daenerys into a completely different character just to make Sansa right. For another, it’s clear D&D and their staff never understood canon Sansa. 

Remember how Sansa comforted the ladies during the Battle of the Blackwater? Turns out that was immature and naive, and it’s far more Badass TM to casually saunter into the crypts during the Battle of the Long Night and only make snarky comments about the Dragon Queen and not even contemplate Missandei’s retort. Remember how Sansa said, just the season before, that she was sure cutting off heads was very satisfying but it wasn’t the way to get people to work together? Let’s forget this crucial diplomatic side of her character and make her that Sassy Queen who’s openly snide about Daenerys, the Dothraki, and the dragons in front of all of Winterfell.

I have my suspicions about why the writers took this turn with Sansa. When the show first came out, let’s not forget how unpopular Sansa was with the general audience. Let’s not forget that this was Sophie Turner’s first professional role and that she subsequently suffered depression. (She was fifteen!)

Then the whole shit with Ramsay went down, and we all went understandably batshit.

Did the writers feel a pang of conscience when faced with this backlash, and about putting Sophie Turner through all this? I don’t know if I’d go that far, but they really seemed to think the way to turn it all around was by then remolding Sansa into their vision of the perfect female character. See, she’s now properly LeArNeD from her trauma, and is now cold, calculating, sarcastic, and not willing to put up with any fools.

She’s also incapable of making any more mistakes now. That means Daenerys is the fanboy's new dumb bitch who thinks too highly of herself. There has to be one, and it can’t always be Cersei.

I don’t want to sit here and dictate how a “good” trauma victim should behave. There’s no such thing as a “good” trauma victim. I don’t think it’s particularly progressive for Sansa to be passively kind and forgiving of her abusers, hell no. But as the writers have no clue how to properly convey a character recovering from abuse, they decided to completely whitewash and rewrite Sansa’s character. 

How about Sansa rethink some things after Dany saves everybody’s asses, and after witnessing how genuinely devoted Dany’s people are to her? How about Dany seriously considering the legitimacy of Sansa’s desire for an independent North, and maybe deciding six kingdoms to rule over ain’t that bad? Or maybe how Meereen and the East need her rule more than Westeros? How about having BOTH of them seriously look at and reconsider their points of view?

I’m not saying they had to end the series in perfect agreement, or as the Very Best of Friends (even though secretly deep down that’s what I YEARN FOR). But a grudging respect and a gruff camaraderie are far more in character than what we’re left with: Daenerys the Murdered Mad Queen and Sansa the Always Right Queen. Why are characters like Jon and Stannis allowed to have a relationship of mutual understanding despite often being at odds with each other, but Sansa and Daenerys aren’t?

I love both those ladies so much. I’m aggravated that one of them was elevated so much higher over the other by the end. This ending isn’t the morally complex gray area Game of Thrones used to boast and that GRRM is going for. It’s just frank favoritism, and it’s bad, lazy writing. 

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Moooore Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow stuff, courtesy of another Tom King interview: 

King was on the Supergirl Radio podcast this week, and while a lot of it is just a repeat of what was said in the previous interview on ComicPop Elseworlds Exchange, there were still some interesting bits, IMO!

They opened with some general questions--how did he start writing, when did he get into superhero comics, etc. 

And then, the Supergirl portion!

The hosts asked where he first encountered Supergirl, and as before, he said that Supergirl is one of those characters that everyone just knows, like Batman and Superman. So he felt there was never a time where he wasn’t at least aware of her.

If forced to pinpoint something specific, though: the cartoons (Superman: The Animated Series and JLU) and for Kara Zor-El in particular, hardcover trades of the 70s stuff.

He had some AWESOME Carmine Infantino art, from the issue where Supergirl fights a bunch of mini-supergirls, in Daring New Adventures.

When asked if he used any of those stories for this new project, King again said that he went back to the ORIGINAL origin, in the Silver Age Otto Binder stuff.

Because he’s written Superman, the hosts asked if he thinks about the differences/similarities between the two when writing Supergirl.

He said that Kara’s more of a survivor than Clark, she’s been through more; he feels that Superman is always striving to be the icon that is Superman, whereas Kara can just be herself. 

He describes her as harder, more cynical, ‘she’ll drop an F-bomb here or there,’ she’s ‘old and crusty.’

The hosts asked him how he came to be on the book and while it’s basically the same story he told on the other podcast, there were a few additional details he mentioned here.

He specifically said that editors were frustrated, because there is this. Thought? Among creators, that Supergirl is perfect, and there are no fun Supergirl stories to tell. 

(Brief, opinionated interjection here: HOGWASH!)

He again brought up the idea that people can be precious with Supergirl; he said she is precious, but she’s also badass.

When asked if there was any particular piece of Supergirl mythology that he wanted/was excited to use, King said that this book isn’t really about that--he again used the expression of stripping off the barnacles that have built up on the characters over the years, really getting at the most basic, pure take on them.

He was like, ‘we keep the dog, maybe the horse if we can make time for him, because [Comet] is the weirdest thing in all of comics.’

Elaborating on the book/lack of Supergirl mythology: He put her in space, gave her a simple mission, and let the story be a thesis on why Supergirl is awesome.

Next question was about the comic writing process.

King said there’s no set way to write a comic script; he tends to write ‘full scripts’; they resemble movie scripts in that there’s panel descriptions for each page, as well as the dialogue for each panel.

His descriptions are light, though. For example, he’ll simply put: ‘Supergirl encounters a Space Dragon’, and leave the rest up to Bilquis.

Again had nothing but praise and excitement re: working with Evely and Lopes. 

Said Evely adds such depth and emotion and storytelling to the artwork.

Then there was a question from the live chat; the listener noted that a lot of King’s work contains romance/is focused on romantic love. They asked if this book would also be about romantic love, or another kind of love.

King: This is not a romance. The love in this comic is a friendship love, between Kara and Ruthye.

When asked if other pre-existing characters would make an appearance: There will be shout-outs, but this is first and foremost a book about Supergirl; she is at the center of the book.

The goal is to make her one of the pillars of DC Comics.

On the subject of the ‘western’ part of the space western: Again mentioned True Grit, as well as The Searchers, and Red River.

Compared Kara to John Wayne.

Likes the idea of a character who has a simple mission, needs to go somewhere, and travels through various lands to get there, like the Odyssey.

Initially, he was going to have Kara be a sort of ingenue who learns to be tough as she goes on this journey, but his editor said, ‘No, she should be the teacher, instructing this young girl on how to be tough’ b/c Kara has the life experience. And King was like, ‘yeah! Let’s do that!’

And of course, because it is Supergirl Radio, they asked if he’s watched the show.

He watched the 1st and 2nd seasons with his daughter, then they fell behind/stopped watching because she moved on to other things, but he loved it! Specifically loved that he could watch a superhero show with her; good bonding time.

They asked him about incorporating stuff from the show and he said that he opted not to do that, as it’s sometimes not done well/feels forced. The example he used is that it’s very hard to get something like Calista Flockhart’s performance from the TV show into the comics, both in terms of the actual writing, and also in terms of legal stuff like the likeness rights, etc. 

Then they talked about KRYPTO! And King’s own dog, Roxy. 

Because King is a dog owner, he said he found it very hard to write Krypto sometimes, because he never wanted to put him in danger.

He also said that you can feel like a dog is a family member, and that is how Kara views Krypto; he is not a pet, or a tool, but a member of her family.

Another live chat question: Does he think of Kara differently, now that he’s written her?

King said she’s a much tougher character, than he initially thought.

Compared her to Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark; you don’t see him become Indy, he just already IS Indy, and he’s done this stuff a hundred times over.

And then he shared a little bit of issue 2 to illustrate this point: Ruthye and Kara encounter a guy who has beef with Superman, so he decides to take it out on Kara, and Kara easily dispatches him; Ruthye (the narrator of the book) marvels at how this happens everywhere they go, and it’s just a daily occurrence for Kara, because everyone thinks she’s the weak link/a way to get back at Clark.

Final question was about what he hopes is his legacy/the takeaway of this book.

King said he wants it to do well, and convince DC/the editors that there ALWAYS needs to be a Supergirl book on the stands.

And now, SOME THOUGHTS!

As mentioned, a lot of this stuff was already covered in the prior podcast, BUT! There are some new details here that build on those points.

For instance: King is really committing to a harder, cynical Kara. Who knows if she’ll remain that way by journey’s end, but that’s the take he’s going with.

(And, as before: not my preferred/ideal Kara! But I am open to seeing this. Largely because it is rooted in like. Character backstory/history; he’s not being edgy for edge's sake.)

Also, NO ROMANCE. 

*insert happy muppet flailing here*

I will admit that I had the extremely cursed thought that he’d bring back Comet, or worse, 90s Comet as some sort of guest star--and maybe he will, who knows! But I don’t get that vibe, really. Like, maybe as a fun shout-out, but not a full-on character in the story.

I do like that he repeatedly emphasized that this is a very simple book, with Kara at the center, and that it’s basically about Supergirl, and why she’s awesome.

Especially given how Future State whiffed that one.

That said, was a little dismayed to learn that Ruthye will be the narrator of the whole thing. It brings back horrible visions of Future State, and it’s harder for the reader to get into a character’s head when you’ve got someone else narrating the whole thing, but. We’ll see.

(What might take the edge off of this narrative choice is Evely’s art, since you can better determine Kara’s emotions/thoughts/etc.)

Interestingly, King didn’t want to comment too much on this book’s potential connection to Future State: Superwoman which...has me a little concerned.

(Please, never let that book be canon. PLEASE.)

The further details on the BTS stuff is disappointing, but not surprising. ‘Supergirl is too perfect/boring’ is a take that 1.) mirrors the same nonsense you see about Superman, and why everyone would rather be writing Batman and 2.) has existed FOREVER, and was particularly prevalent after the introduction of Power Girl. 

(It’s also flat-out wrong, in the same way that ‘Superman is boring’ is wrong.)

Other little things: Love that King says Kara views Krypto as a family member (because he totally is), and the Camine Infantino art was SO COOL.

SO, OVERALL: Gonna have to get used to the idea of an old, crusty Kara.

(Honestly I can’t even be mad at that description because I kinda find it funny? I mean, what with the Superman Fortnite announcement recently, I’m feeling pretty old and crusty, ngl. XD)

But I like a lot of the stuff King’s said so far.

Some of it does give me a little pause--like the heavy emphasis on the Supergirl part of her identity, as opposed to Kara, and how she’s just this awesome badass, with no real mention of other aspects of her character--but.

As should be very clear by now, I’m not in it for the writing.

Rather. I am here primarily because of

*takes a deep breath*

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!