#book spoilers under the cut

[daily-odile]

everything is the same except Odile is the one looping

oh. heheheheh. muahahahaha. hold on *digs through my pile of disorganized sketches*

Odile loops au; a sketch compilation!!

Some old fic drabbles + associated sketches under cut (a6 secret spoilers):

hc: Since equipment carries over, as long as Odile uses her book in a fight, she can write down notes and have it carry over loops

toxic doomed yuri (for a more fleshed out fic I highly recommend The Sweetest Thing by soreimoon, it's amazing)

[quantumfeat72]

But unlike you, who gave up on your wish, and almost destroyed the world in the process...

I gave up on my wish, and destroyed myself.

[cait-sith]

Day 19: Glass

Background details hidden by the bottle under the cut.

[chosenasmodean]

Forsaken Week Day Two: Aginor

Not much to say for his look, he gets a torn lab coat and a hooded cloak. I do like how his sunken eyes look in a silly little chibi style.

Spoilers under the cut. Knife of Dreams chapter 3 is where it's laid out on-page, but it's possible to know sooner. If you know, you know.

Of course I also had to do Osan'gar! He's actually one of my favourite characters. I was reeling after Fires of Heaven and immediately latched onto Osan'gar in the Lord of Chaos prologue... and then again onto Dashiva in Crown of Swords all the while having no idea it was the same character lol

The premise for him was 'disheveled', so he's got a scraggy beard and moustache and an unbrushed mop on his head.

The Asha'man outfit is basically just a World War I jacket. At the Forsaken Coffee Hour he's described as wearing a coat with too much embroidery, so I drew that too.

It's fun looking back on Eye of the World after seeing a lot of Osan'gar. Agnior ends up reading less like a stock villain and more like a complete dork lol

[armandslestat]

The backstory crumbs we got in this episode for Armand...

not to be a Marius hater on main how annoying right but I hate Marius so much and I always have and I hope this is a good sign that they will not be just skipping over the shitty no good noncery of his character I was genuinely concerned due to the long standing fandom love of him (i am not talking with the last 2 - 5 years btw i am fully aware how fandom has shifted on this - do not even try me). Marius is a character that is vital to the chronicles, he is even a character I can tolerate reading the POV from, he absolutely is interesting and has nuance and... I hate him. All of these things can exist at once.

What I am trying to say, however, is... OK AMC I see you are not shying away from it, now let's see how you actually handle it...

[toomanylizzes]

Theories about Foretelling

My own personal theory about Foretelling is that it’s the Wheel and the Pattern’s way of making sure that things that MUST happen DID happen.

You can’t tell me there’s any way, shape, or form that the Daughter-Heir of Andor would leave her royal duties and young son to take the strangest life route possible unless a fucking Aes Sedai with the Foretelling told her to do so or else the world would literally end.

Likewise when we see Rand looking back through his ancestors’ eyes after the Breaking, we see all the various Foretellings pointing towards Rand and all the ways Rand must fulfill his destiny, as well as all the very specific things people did to make sure certain things are set up 3000 years in the future.

There are, of course, individual choices that affects your life and future (as we see in Dreaming , the Wise One’s first test, and Min’s visions) but there are certain things that Have to Be. Rand has to be born, and born under very specific circumstances - Gitara tells Tigraine to leave, which sets off a chain of events leading to the Aiel War. Tigraine becomes Aiel herself, falls in love, gets pregnant, fights, dies, and her son is found by Fantasy Father of the Year Every Year (with a bonus red-headed wife) to be spirited away in secret and raised in seclusion with a fairly idyllic childhood. Gitara’s Foretelling in front of Siuan, Moiraine, and Tamra then sets off the search because Rand eventually has to be found and leave his village.

Meanwhile Elaida’s Foretellings set up Rand’s eventual (many) adversarial conflicts with the Tower since having Too Good of a relationship with the Tower would probably not lead to the creation of the Black Tower or a Truce with the Seanchan, while leaving Rand more vulnerable to the Black Ajah. In this case it had to be Elaida, specifically, that had these Foretellings because she’s as ambitious and vindictive as you can be without being a Darkfriend, while simultaneously being smart enough to be dangerous but not smart enough to ever consider that she may be wrong. Others may be much more introspective and/or altruistic about telling the future but since it’s Elaida, she tells no one about her Foretelling the royal house of Andor being key to the Last Battle. She then misinterprets this - because Elaida is always a little bit off - and attaches herself to House Trakand as a sheer power play, which of course leads to her eventually meeting Rand face to face, ditching Morgase for her own purposes, fracturing the Tower, and then rising to Amyrlin.

In contrast Min’s visions show the difference between things that Will Be and the things that Can Be. Not everyone has these images, and certain visions only appear or become clear once a decision has been made by someone somewhere. Brigitte has to reincarnate over and over again, and always with Gaidal - but at one point it would have shifted to a May/December romance. Elayne has to become Queen, but since she doesn’t take the contraceptive tea she’s going to have twins. Gawyn could save Egwene or he could kill her, and as a bonus he does both.

The act of telling these visions may also have an effect as well, at least with certain people. Perrin, for example, carefully examines everything, and takes Min very seriously when she talks about an Aiel in a cage and a Tinker with a sword. The Wise Ones put a lot of weight in Min’s words which inadvertently leads to her kidnapping by the Shaido, which leads Rand to becoming super pissed off at her kidnapping, which then leads to The Box.

TLDR if physics tells us the act of observing something changes the outcome, maybe the act of observing the future sets it in stone.

(Bonus because I am sleep deprived: I think having both Moiraine and Siuan witness Gitara’s foretelling means Siuan could have been the one to find Rand and we could potentially have the same outcome. We’re told over and over that they are equals in intelligence and skill, and if we see one as better suited to the advisor role than the other, it’s important to note that we are seeing them at twenty years in their respective roles: one who has been out in the world interacting with people doing social justice and political work, aka Causes, and the other building a spy network and a political network while rising among the ranks.)

(Oh, and another thing: I think Nicola’s Foretelling would have played a bigger role to make her a thorn in Egwene’s side, but that just got lost with RJ’s death.)

[officialbillhader]

Ok hes definitely dead now bc we're in achilles pov

[knickety]

WAIT ONE MORE POST

warriors graphic novel stuff below

assorted ss that I liked.

Cindepaw my baby girl

Graystripe cringefail rizz (Silverstream is into it)

SANDPAW YAY

[smokewars]

made these for funsies. extra two blinkies under the cut (f2u credit appreciated but not needed)

[three--rings]

Oh oh and another thing

Now that we have the Talamasca and "Raglan James" involved (which, like, what? is THAT the time? OH WAIT...holdon

OKAY no, wait, brainstorm cancelled. I was getting the scene at the end of Memnoch the Devil where Lestat returns and goes to the penthouse after returning from Heaven confused with the end of Body Thief. So, nevermind. Also I have only the vaguest of memories of that book I read it once, hated it and that was upon release in 96 or whatever. Memnoch I mean.

I was like, wait what if at the end of this season fucking Lestat shows up like, OH BOY you'll never believe what I've been up to, I was in some fuckers body.

But also what if Lestat shows up and it's NOT LESTAT. I mean they're setting SOMETHING up with this Raglan James shit, right?

ANYWAY what I started typing to say was WHERE IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER DAVID FUCKING TALBOT???

I need him. I want to see David.

[destroy-some-evil]

I wonder if the main conflict of part two of this season will be

finding out about Lady Whistledown or if it's going to be Colin being jealous about Pen's writing like what I remember from the book. Though maybe it wasn't that big of a deal in the book either because, honestly, I don't remember much about what I read.

The only thing I remember was Colin being upset because he couldn't hold in his head that his writing might be good but it could still use an edit.

[bitegore]

woah I just finished reading licanius and I'm feeling lightheaded. do you want to yell about licanius because I want to hear you yell about it. I'm prepared to be so so normal about nethgalla

GOD. AHAHAHAHAA. i always want to yell about licanius

okay first my personal hashtag licanius hashtag experience is worth adding because it explains a lot about which parts i am most insane about. So I first found the first book Shadow of What was Lost back in the ancient years of like 2015 or 2016 or whatever before Islington got his book deal while it was still self-published on Kindle Unlimited instead of being published by any kind of publisher. Back in these years it was just the first book and the others weren't out.

....and surelyt you remember that fucking epilogue thing that Islington loves to do where he puts the Big Reveal right at the end of the book, right? So i spent like a full three or four years going absolutely Bat Shit about just the whole "caeden is also aarkein devaed" bit and then . book 2 comes out and. AUGH. AUUUUUUUGHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAAAAA the fucking. MALSHASH is CAEDEN is AARKEIN DEVAED is TAL'KAMAR why does this man need to be every character. and THEN the fact that CAEDEN DOES NOT KILL DAVIAN. HE GETS HIM FUCKING SELF.

insane. this series makes me insane. literally foaming at the mouth insane.

nethgalla was just like. okay actually i cant lie i kind of love that she fucked up every romantic plotline caeden/tal could've been involved in because i am so glad he did not have any actual romance plot with karaliene or anyone else but how do you invent a character as cool as The Demon Shapeshifter From The Torture Dimension and then fuck it up by being like "and she's obsessed with this guy and exists mostly to be a femme fatale" like come ON. come ON you FLUBBED it. i wish she had more going on with her because even just the idea that she's tied to bhim because he summoned her by fucking up resurrecting his dead wife is like spicy as fuck but then the actual execution is so. like. mid at best? it truly saddens me especially because when Tal shows up she's lame about him but every other time she is SO badass. when she's pretending to be that one hunter she was so badass. when she was tormenting ashalia in the name of making her stronger that kicked ass. they should've kissed. i said what i said

also FUCK LMAO MELDIER AND ALARIC AND ISILIAR AND THE OTHER VENERATE i am SO not normal about them I am obsessed with them I want to put them in my mouth and EAT THEM. i wrote a crossover where Vortex gets recruited into their ranks for an exvent once. i love them so dearly. i spent multiple years bullying my girlfriends into reading the books exclusively so i could get them to write fanfiction about them for me. i love them i want them so dead i'm so glad the story went the way it did but also they deserved better and i wish it didn't happen in the first place. literally the best fucking tragedy ever. i wish we got to watch Wereth's death and Andrael's betrayal and i also wish everything were worse and there was more bad. i am so normal about them.they are so important to me

the fucking shape of this narrative also. this is so circles ever. it makes me lose my fucking mind. look at it it is a self-contained loop (derogatory) (aspirational) this thing is soooooooo the chicken and the egg. its so. its so! i am normal and not insane about it i promise come closer etc etc

[homosekularnost]

leech by hiron ennes truly the only book ever ever ever

rape as assault not on ones purity but on ones autonomy solidarity among people robbed of it through coercion the illusion of consent present within a power imballance abusers humanity acknowledged and discarded as irrelevant abusers humanity recognized as a vehicle for their violence the slow realization the abuser had full control of narrative Her voice cutting through nonetheless Her voice taking the narrative back...............................

[themagnificentmags]

Saving this for fun later: a month ago I read a book (Out of the Dark by David Weber) and did not like it. and then I wrote an essay about it in the group chat.

I'm gonna actually give a book ANTI-rec here because I finished it last night and I'm still thinking about it: Out of the Dark by David Weber. tl;dr the last 10% of the book wrenches the genre away from hard sci fi in a way that undercuts the first 90% of the book and comes across as a huge ass-pull

The premise: aliens (the Shongairi) are attempting to invade modern-day Earth to bring it into the fold as one of their many pre-FTL slave/"client" states

The first 90% of the book is basically a brutal beatdown of humanity. The Shongairi start off by destroying every major city and military base via orbital kinetic strikes, then move in with ground troops across the world. Since it's military sci-fi there's a lot of enthusiasm over all the cool military tech humans have (fighter jets, tanks, machine guns) and some dubious politics about US intervention in afghanistan/iran (again par for the course), but the overarching theme, over and over, is that despite any individual battles humans win, they always are losing overall -- even if the Shongairi are comically unused to fighting anything more sophisticated than crossbows and plate armor, they always control orbit and frequently use more orbital bombardment to deal with human insurrection. Again: it is brought up by basically every POV character that it is completely impossible for humans to win the war, but every human of course chooses to go down fighting. (There are a lot of sad dads with dead wives and children.)

Eventually the Shongairi decide to cut their losses and start working on how to kill all humans without getting in trouble with their bosses (they try to develop a bioweapon and are thwarted, then they decide to pull out their troops and just crack the planet with massive bombardment). However, only now, like 4 months into the invasion, 90% of the way through the book, does one of the secondary characters show up with a solution: actually, the entire time, he's been Vlad-the-Impaler Dracula, and he has magic powers that can kill entire Shongairi bases, steal their retreating ships, and capture their flagship (including "neural education" tech to train humans in galactic tech and the intended industrial base for Earth-the-client-state.

So instead of, like, a heavy and kinda depressing alien invasion novel, we get an 11th hour shift to fantasy when it was not remotely foreshadowed (yeah he's good at woodcraft/stealth, yeah he's a little weird and possessive of the POV character that interacted with him but TBH I thought he was just gay, yeah I looked it up after and it says the name he gives is one of Vlad's brothers/father/whatever) and like! Why now! Why not 4 months ago before billions more people died! Who gives a shit what the rest of the cast have been doing, them trying to survive in the unpopulated wilderness of South Carolina/Russia/Romania literally doesn't matter when fuckin Dracula could have saved the day any time! It just completely undercut the stakes of the rest of the novel.

also at the very end of the novel someone had squished a full mosquito between the pages. chefs kiss

if it had been the middle of the book turning point (or, to be fair, if it wasn't rather dry military sci fi that I was already skimming the "play with military toys" bits), I think I could have enjoyed the twist, even! like it's a cool concept! You just can't do it in hard sci fi yknow?

I think there's also a connection somewhere between the Ur-Fascism [Fascist societies rhetorically cast their enemies as "at the same time too strong and too weak".] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism#Umberto_Eco) with how the Shongairi occupy the equal categories of hypercompetent interstellar conquerors and comedically incompetent commanders and footsoldiers, who throughout the course of the novel never even discover that humans can hear their stealth drones coming and react to counter them. They're strong when the story calls for humans to lose, and weak when the story calls for humans to win.

Ok I should get back to work but I have one more gripe. The pacing on the Dracula reveal is also fucked. The reveal, from the reader's POV, is: Romania POV character has most of the civilians he's protecting killed by Shongairi and he nearly dies. Dracula-as-human says "ok we're [me and my elite Romanian army unit] gonna Really kick their ass now" and POV army guy demands to go with them. Cut to aliens getting killed mysteriously. Cut to aliens in orbit saying "they were killed so mysteriously, go on high alert! Also they stole some tech and tortured the lead scientist alien for info". Cut to some Carolina crew filler. Cut to aliens getting killed mysteriously, this time the soon to be dead alien sees some gas, maybe it's a gas? Some speculation about illusory hologram humans being backed by other alien factions. Cut to aliens in orbit saying "fuck this, everybody leave and we'll glass the planet." Cut to aliens in orbit realizing some of the returning alien ships were highjacked, and then Dracula and Co rock up to the alien flagship, magically paralyze everyone but the commander, and save the day wooooo!!!

In a different, better book, we could have spent so much more time on like getting to know Dracula and his newly made vamps, doing prep and buildup for highjacking the ships, etc, but instead the writing is contorted to preserve the twist for the reader as long as possible. No dramatic irony, no tension on "but can they make it?", no possiblity to do character building with Dracula since preserving the twist is more important.

[rocicrew]

head goes brr brr abt nolden again

ive been thinking abt this since i read pr, to make a piece that's you know that last scene where naomi is looking towards the sky from freehold thinking if she and holden are looking at the same stars, and it'll be half naomi on freehold leaning against the roci and half holden at laconia looking out the tiny window of his cell

[bioaccumulation]

I hate james cameron i hate that man why did that greedy dumbass have to go on making sequels to a movie made in 2009 that only did so well because it was ahead of its time in graphics and thats it Bailey Bass from interview with the vampire isnt coming back for season 2 (presumably, it wasnt disclosed) because shes going to be filming the next two fucking stupid avatar movies