#but a subtle tale it is Not

[laurasimonsdaughter]

Ironically, I think one fairy tale antagonist (namely, the bad sister from Diamonds and Toads) could actually have benefitted from one of the Terrible Tales morals (specifically that of Rapunzel, which is, "If envy makes you a nasty thug, your only friend will be a slug.").

Hahaha, that is certainly more to the point than the (second) moral Perrault gave for The Fairies/Diamonds and Toads:

Though -- when otherwise inclined -- It's a trouble to be kind, Often it will bring you good When you least believed it could.

But then Perrault's fairy tales are a meant to be flowery, and so are his morals. I think if you tried to add a moral to some of the Grimms' more overtly moral tales, it would end up like:

"Do you understand?? The kind, hardworking girl was showered with GOLD and the mean, lazy girl was showered with TAR. This is symbolism. Those who are GOOD will be REWARDED and those who are BAD will be PUNISHED. What do you mean this has to rhyme? Rhyming would obfuscate the Important Lesson."

[nick-nellson]

A TALE OF THOUSAND STARS | episode two

[telltaletypist]

watching nimona and wow this is the hardest trans allegory any trans allegory has ever trans allegory'd

[fagbearentertainment]

People on twitter are discovering and discussing that ford was a bad person before weirdmageddon if this causes weird discourse I’m gonna do something drastic

[vana-tee]

I ❤️ Subtle foreshadowing

[box-dwelling]

With all love in the world to fic writers, and this isn't a set criticism just a trend, being a British person and seeing what colloquialism people have Wyll use will absolutely take me out of a fic at points. Like this is difficult and I'm not gonna hold it against any writer who does this but I very much do notice it. I don't even have advice because so much of it is a weird feel thing of the type of age of the people who use certain slang.

Wyll talks with pretty archaic British slang. It's not too ancient. It's still like stuff you might hear an older guy say, but it gives a certain feel to him speech of it being kinda old fashioned.

But sometimes people either don't get this or, honestly more common in what I see because most of the fics I read are from people who do understand him, people who, fairly because they aren't from here so wouldn't know, use slang that feels a little too modern and it just reads like Astarion just called someone bro.

But I don't know how to explain that lad singular is a word he does use in canon and makes sense, but lads plural feels so fundamentally wrong.

[gingermintpepper]

I spent something like six and a half hours in the hospital today so day 6 of my challenge is being further postponed but, in the lieu of not doing any drawing, I did end up rereading Ovid's Metamorphoses in between waiting and I just wanted to offer some of my favourite underrated bits.

Cadmus and Harmonia's twin transformations into snakes is so gentle? Cadmus goes first, transformed mid plea for his wife to caress him one last time before his face is completely covered in scales, then he rests gently between her boobs and wraps around her neck and shoulders like a big snake gorget. Harmonia follows him shortly and the two snakes intertwine with each other before gently slithering off into the bushes and I love that actually mwah mwah mwah (I also appreciate the sweet irony of Cadmus who slew a snake for his glory becoming a snake, toothless and gentle in the last of his days)

Everything about Perseus was hilarious. Like, I'm sorry - I've never done a lot of reading into Perseus but I did always remember the banquet massacre and the Andromeda rescuing and like, bro I know it's not meant to be funny but Perseus is funny. I think it's his politeness honestly? He goes up to Atlas and is like "hello kind sir, may I please stay a night in your lands? I've travelled an awful long way and I am weary and hungry. If you only accept noble guests, rest assured, I am of noblest birth and have completed the noblest of deeds. 🥺" and Atlas takes one look at him, has a That's So Raven vision about the one time Themis gave him a prophecy about a son of Jove stealing his apples and then told Perseus to kick rocks. So Perseus, like the well adjusted and noble individual that he is, turns Atlas into a mountain with Medusa's head. This is how a great many of Perseus' stories unfold. It is actually hysterical.

I am going to give a special shoutout to Athis and Lycabas who were two young lovers in attendance at Perseus and Andromeda's blood wedding. Athis died first - a skilled archer who never got to shoot and was burnt and bludgeoned across the face with a wedding brazier. When Lycabas saw that his dear friend's beauty was ruined, he picked up the fight against Perseus himself in Athis' name and was slashed to strips by Perseus' sword. Lycabas managed to drag himself over to Athis in his last moments and died beside him, so I thought that was a particularly touching bit of beauty in the otherwise extremely tragic blood wedding.

No one can ever make me feel bad for Niobe. In a lot of the Greek accounts I've read and heard, because they tend to be much shorter or references in a wider narrative, it's hard to really grasp how insanely disrespectful she was to Leto (not that her boasting she should be the goddess of motherhood to the actual goddess of motherhood isn't worthy of death and destruction enough) but Ovid really did go the extra mile to dig it home how far down her throat this lady put her foot because even at her sons' seven way funeral she did not stop boasting about how she was still glorious. I did find it interesting that the seemingly innocuous detail of Apollo killing off the boys first and then Artemis killing the girls was kept cross-culturally, I assume it's because boys were more auspicious than girls in both cultures.

The detail of Athena bonking Arachne constantly with a wooden box and her being transformed into a spider because she begged to not be bonked to death. Also very interestingly, in Ovid's account, it's not a clear victory for Athena against Arachne - she gets flustered at the depictions of her relatives' affairs and rips the tapestry up - the judges didn't actually get a chance to opine. This is in contrast to the contest the Muses sang about where their representative Calliope unilaterally won against the daughters of Pierus.

The account of Apollo and Marsyas was much shorter than I remember it being. I recall it being touted as one of the more vicious and visceral tales in Metamorphoses' collection but it included neither the details of Marsyas' contest against Apollo, nor Apollo's feelings (or even any dialogue from him!) throughout his peeling of Marsyas' skin. Instead it is wholly focused on Marsyas - on describing the physical gore of his exposed veins and contracting muscles and the grief of the rustic crowd as they mourned his loss - which is curious indeed since the entire theme of the poems of Book 6 is divine punishment and it is otherwise filled with rather full accounts of these contests and insults.

Byblis and Caunus made me want to reread Euripedes' Hippolytus for the twelve thousandth time. Caunus made the right call of course but I also very much hoped he would have a huge big speech about incest being bad instead of just smacking the messenger.

And lastly, for now, Jove's speech as Hercules lay burning atop his death pyre where he addresses the host of his gods and goes "Man, wasn't Hercules a great guy? Look, there goes all his mortal attributes burning away in the fire, now he is all my son and surely we are all in agreement that any divine son of mine deserves a place on Olympus :)" was very endearing. I always feel quite bad for Deianira because she truly didn't mean any harm by her gift and I've always wished for an account of Heracles/Hercules' death from her perspective. There could scarcely be a thing more awful, especially given how long and drawn out and incredibly painful Hercules' death was.

Lowkey, I want to take a day and compare Ovid and Euripedes' Medeas. They're both very different women and they both handle their situations very differently. Partially for my own vindication - I adore Medea and Jason equally and since popular fiction cannot speak about Medea without flattening her or making Jason completely monstrous, this is just one of those things I'll have to do myself sometime.

[rex101111]

Velvet: Hmm, I need to make sure that Eleanor isn't being a damn snitch for the Abbey. Fine, since I need to keep an eye on her at all times, there's no choice. I need to bathe with her. Magilou: Uh. You don't. I can probably- Velvet, already taking a towel and picking scented candles: No choice.

[kof1128]

When will I see you again?

[aureentuluva70]

What do a beautiful elf princess and an evil demon spider have in common? Surprisingly, quite a bit.

Both weave cloaks of shadow in their dwellings, Ungoliant's from her webs and Lùthien's from her own hair(Lùthien in the Leithian even describes her cloak as a web. "I will weave within my web that hell/nor all the powers of dread shall break") Ungoliant's webs and Lùthien's cloak hold a magical effect over things and people, Ungoliant's bringing blindness while Lùthien's brings drowsiness. Out of the same material both create ropes, Ungoliant climbing up to leave Avathar and Lùthien climbing down from Hirilorn. Ungoliant climbs up to Hyarmentir, "the highest mountain in that region of the world", while the great tree Hirilorn is called "greatest of all the trees in the Forest of Neldoreth" and the Leithian describes the tree as "the mightiest vault of leaf and bough / from world's beginning until now." Ungoliant later makes her way to the Two Trees with Melkor, while Lùthien escapes from a tree to rescue Beren.

There's similarities between the places that Lùthien and Ungoliant escape from too, being Doriath and Valinor respectively. Both of them are described as being surrounded by a great barrier of "shadow(s) and bewilderment". (There are also mentions of only one person being able to make it through said barriers, being Beren and Earendil.)

Both Lùthien and Ungoliant help Beren and Melkor in stealing the silmarils, and by help I mean assisting to the point that it is them who seem to be doing most of the actual work. (Beren literally just needs to sit back and watch as Lùthien puts all of Angband to sleep singlehandedly. It is Ungoliant who does most of the actual darkening in the darkening of Valinor, and in an earlier version Ungoliant destroys the Two Trees all by herself. Melkor isn't even there.)

And it's all rather funny looking at this because though they have these similarities they could not be more different. Lùthien is a beautiful elf princess who defeats both Sauron and Morgoth through the power of ✨️True Love✨️ who personally couldn't care less for the silmarils, and Ungoliant is a gigantic hideous demon spider who eats light itself like a black hole and nearly devours Melkor alive when he doesn't give her the silmarils(talk about toxic relationship lol). Lùthien heals, Ungoliant poisons. Lùthien brings Light, Ungoliant brings Darkness(or rather Unlight). Lùthien acts out of love, Ungoliant acts out of selfishness.

They could not be more, completely different. Lùthien is the Anti-Ungoliant. Ungoliant is the Anti-Lùthien. And yet they have these subtle similarities and it drives me insane.

IT'S ABOUT THE SIMILARITIES AND YET STARK CONTRASTS

[ancient-day]

Okay, so… I’ve seen it said a good few times that in 3rd semester, Akechi is the only sway Joker really has to consider staying in Maruki’s reality, and that’s not the whole truth. There are two points that can lead to the “Stay” ending.

The first prompt happens when Joker and Crow go to rescue Sumire from Maruki on 1/9. Maruki asks if Joker can accept this reality, and after flashing through all his friends’ words over the past week, he can choose to accept it. This is the part of him that places the needs of others above his own. The part of him who loves his friends so dearly that he would be willing to set aside himself to save them. He can choose Maruki’s reality for their sakes because their happiness is incredibly important to him.

What makes the “Stay” ending hit so much harder for a lot of us on 2/2 is probably because that’s the more selfish part of Joker that we rarely see outside of his thieving habits. Wanting Akechi to live is something that he wants specifically, and it has nothing to do with the greater good or anyone else’s feelings. He can pretend it’s for Akechi’s sake, but when Akechi’s standing his ground so fiercely about how much he doesn’t want that, it’s hard to keep up that lie.

While I personally think that 2/2 is more compelling, I think it does Joker a bit of a disservice to say that it’s the only time he considers giving up on reality. He loves his friends, and he loves Akechi. He loves them all and wants them all beside him, happy and healthy and safe.

[a-candle-for-sherlock]

The Sherlock & Co Sign of Four eps made me feel everything. What an incredible feat of storytelling.

[celebratetheclassics]

[broitsf-ckingfreezing]

You know what

I think it’s really sad the way we treat Dooku as a Jedi Master. Not as a Sith, fuck that guy; he fell to the dark side and he fell HARD. He is irredeemable in that respect.

I’m talking about Jedi Master Dooku, who only interacts with Qui-Gon Jinn in Legends and fanon (because in TOTJ he had already fallen and was actively taking steps towards the downfall of the Jedi/Republic and becoming the apprentice). *Even then, I don’t really respect TOTJ as canon because of the awful way it paints the Jedi, but I will concede it as canon from the perspective of Dooku as an unreliable narrator. I just hate THAT bit where he straight up THROWS Qui-Gon and force chokes a guy and GETS AWAY WITH IT because “uwu the Jedi awe bad and cowwupt and Dooku was a victim 👉👈”

I always hated that because Obi and Dooku meet for the first time in AOTC, then clearly Enlightened MaverickTM Qui-Gon (see my opinions on THIS in @antianakins beautifully worded post) must have been abused by his master and kept Obi-Wan away from him to “protect him from evil” yadda yadda yadda, whatever. That Qui-Gon specialised in Ataru instead of Makashi like his master because Dooku was EvilTM and Qui-Gon wanted to “get back at him” or “escape trauma” or some shit like that, never because it is perfectly normal for a Jedi to find their strength in a form that is different from their teacher’s (see Anakin, Obi-Wan, WINDU, Dooku himself).

Or that because Master Dooku wore relatively regal looking robes (again, the only canonical proof of this we have is in TOTJ and COUNT Dooku, AKA ruler of Serenno) then he had a taste for “the finer things in life,” words used by EVERY fanfiction author, and was always either straight up a Sith the entire time or, at the very least, a bad Jedi who followed his own rules like Anakin. I disagree.

It has NEVER been canonically established that Dooku was an abusive man. In fact, remember that the Jedi consider Dooku a FRIEND? Even in AOTC when Padme rightly accuses Dooku of attempting to assassinate her, they extend to him the benefit of the doubt. Because he was a Jedi Master. A good one. So good, in fact, that when he outright aligns himself with a faction looking to actively separate from the Republic and the Jedi, they trust that his judgement is that he is doing right by his people. Not that he is plotting a galaxy-wide takeover.

(Don’t even get me started on Ki-Adi Mundi, the voice of reason, frequently being abused by the fans just because SOMEONE had to say this line. Clearly he’s evil! He’s an idiot! He’s corrupt! *rolls eyes*)

But why then did Dooku never meet Obi-Wan as a padawan, you ask?

It HAS been canonically established that Obi-Wan is a powerful Jedi and a powerful diplomat even before he became The Negotiator (they wouldn’t send any run-of-the-mill padawan and master duo to dispute the Naboo conflict, they sent DIPLOMATS). And he is Busy As Fuck. Remember, as a padawan he spent a YEAR on the run with Satine and Qui-Gon. And if you were to accept the Melida/Daan and Bandomeer arcs from Legends as canon, that probably adds up to another YEAR spent away from the temple, NOT including recovery time after those periods because we don’t have any real basis for how long it takes a Jedi, or even just Obi-Wan, to bounce back from the physical, mental, and Force trauma induced by these hefty skirmishes. Don’t forget, in two of these instances, Obi-Wan is only 13-14, and in the other he’s presumably about 18. And bacta tanks aren’t a magical fix-all. They don’t heal starvation, extremely long-term physical neglect/hurts, just like they don’t grow back limbs.

Dooku was also probably busy as hell. It is very likely that the two teams were never in the temple at the same time, or if they were, they were probably busy. Like teaching their respective padawans (remember a master can have more than one padawan, just not at the same time, and now that I think about it, it is pretty odd we never (hardly ever?) canonically see masters who have clearly had more than one padawan in their lifetime). Or healing from traumas. Or hanging out with friends. Or researching, or writing reports, or literally ANYTHING that could make someone busy enough to forgo introducing a child to their grandmaster. I mean, how many times did you visit your grandparents as a teenager? Probably not very often compared to the big picture that is your life.

Why didn’t they meet when Obi-Wan was knighted, then? Well, TOTJ shows us that Qui-Gon’s death was at least a little traumatic for his master, and that was his last straw. Dooku left. And after that, he probably didn’t want to see the child Qui-Gon raised. The boy who got to hear his pseudo-son’s final words and who died IN HIS ARMS. We also have NO IDEA in canon exactly how many missions Obi-Wan and Anakin went on, nor how long they lasted, but we can guess that they were an extremely busy pair knowing Obi-Wan’s prowess in diplomacy PLUS the recent reemergence of the literal thought-extinct Sith PLUS the frankly horrific ratio of Jedi to Force Null beings in the galaxy (meaning there just aren’t enough Jedi to get around to all these places) PLUS teaching a rescued slave child with childhood memories of the outer rim the ways of the Jedi and core worlds. We also know that by the time of AOTC, Anakin being probably about 17-18, possibly on the cusp of 19 which is his Knighting age, the pair have been on at least 9 missions where Anakin had to rescue Obi-Wan. Knowing Obi-WAN’s skill and power, and that these missions most likely occurred when Anakin was old enough to do things like save Obi-Wan from a whole NEST of gundarks, this is NOT a common occurrence. Even if consistently in 1 of every 5 missions Obi-Wan has to be rescued by Anakin, that adds to at least 40 missions where he didn’t. That’s a lot of missions in a ten year span on top of all the other things Jedi have to do that aren’t considered missions, again, like teaching, attending functions, researching and learning because Jedi must be a wellspring of knowledge to successfully mediate/placate/please whomever it is they’re interacting with.

[cheeseplants]

I wrote a little fairy tale fable fic for the awesome @startledplatypus's birthday! Art by @fuzzygoblin

Then the rain came

Rating: G

Word count: 1,422

Summary

What is a Wizard to do when a very wet demon turns up on his doorstep?

Excerpt

The village of Whickber was the most wonderful place, or so it was said. The grass was always green, the sky was always blue, and the sun was always out.

The Great Fell, the kindest and goodest Wizard in all the lands, lived alone in his tower where he watched over the village.

He worked very hard to make sure nothing ever went wrong in Whickber.

Then the demon showed up.

He heard the demon before he saw him.

He heard the patter of something against his windows; the droplets bouncing on the ground outside.

He heard the yells of the villagers and a knock on his door.

The Great Fell peered out to see a demon on his doorstep; a very wet demon in dark glasses with a small rain cloud above his head. The demon had a shock of red hair, wore dark clothes, and had a scowl on his face.

The rain cloud followed him wherever he stood.

This would not do. This was a special place, a good place; it did not rain in Whickber.

The Great Fell stood on his doorstep and shooed the demon.

The demon pulled up a stool and did not move.

The rain continued.

The Great Fell did everything he could to rid his house of the demon. He yelled at it and spelled at it. The demon raised his eyebrows and shrugged. The demon did not budge.

The rain continued. Read here on AO3.

Thanks to @happynachohologram for the beta! @goodomensafterdark

[thedomesticanthropologist]

"You never kissed anyone until you were 15?!" Astarion scoffs at Wyll.

Later that evening, at camp, the topic comes up again.

((Under the cut for vague hint at underage/noncon))

"So what was YOUR first kiss like then, Astarion?"

The vampire scoffs, back on his heels a bit.

"I can't remember, to be honest. But it *certainly* wasn't at fifteen, I'll tell you that. How about the rest of our little troupe, mm? Hmm.... Karlach?"

A bright red head with tousled hair pops up from where the barbarian was laying on the ground by her tent and she shuffles over towards the fire to join in.

"Thirteen, with my mates. Spin the bottle, you know. Got my first three kisses that day, from three different genders. Ha! Fun times. How about you, Gale?"

"Oh please, Darling, he probably only kissed the pages of his books until the very Goddess of Magic herself picked him up for whatever reason." Astarion interjected, and Gales pointer finger shot up to correct him.

"I'll have you know that THAT is a bold faced lie. But... a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell. I'll be keeping my kisses to myself, thank you."

"Didn't know you were that flexible, darling,"

"Oh shut your- you j- how about you, Mira?"

Their fearless leader had been smiling, stirring the pot over the fire needlessly as she listened in.

"Hmm," she said, "what counts as a first kiss?"

Astarion rolled his eyes,

"You're dodging."

She shook her head, "I'm not! I'm not. I just mean did it have to be Consensual? If it was Consensual did it have to be..." she flustered, waving the spoon around as her arms flailed about while she searched for words,

"Did it have to be from attraction? Or just someone else's lips on yours? I've got three ages for you depending on the answer."

The camp went quiet, and Gale cleared his throat. Surprisingly it was Astarion who spoke next, his voice a little softer,

"How about the one you want to remember?"

"Then... fourteen. When I met my husband. But it wasn't my first kiss, so it doesn't count really, honestly."

"It counts." He said, surprisingly firmly, and with no hint of the teasing he had given Wyll earlier that night.