#c: woodsman

[mjjune]

Hi mj

How well do your characters interact with children? Rank them please.

Oh boy lol I'll do twtr because they actually do interact with children a bit on the page!!

I'll just do the main recurring cast and good guys <3

Red is super good with kids and loves them. Very wholesome, very affectionate and playful and A+ mom material in the future tbh.

Riya Maya is very Grandma™ energy for a reason and she also is a good teacher. A blend of parental sternness and good at setting age-appropriate boundaries but also being warm and showing compassion

Avery is by no means bad with kids he just has a bit of the tism awkwardness around them and doesn't know quite what to do. Once he warms up though he is actually quite good with them and kids find him refreshing and trust him quickly because he doesn't do that child talk/fakeness that a lot of adults do (also he's a knight and kids think he's Cool™)

Magnus is like one of those strict sports coaches in high school lol he has softened a bit with age by the time the book starts and he does show a bit more affection, but especially when he was younger he was very stern and unrelenting, definitely impatient

Thanks for the ask!!

[mjjune]

This is the last of my twtr commissions for the year!!! My betas should know what scene this is 👀

Also tagging @vacantgodling again because again, this is you're magnificent ax design!!!!

TWTR TAGLIST: (message or comment below to be +/-) @aether-wasteland-s @annetilney @artbyeloquent @bebewrites @cljordan-imperium @dogmomwrites @dustylovelyrun @elijahrichardwrites @eventideintrigue @faithfire @flowerprose @forthesanityofstorytellers @ghafasinej @helioscenic @isabellebissonrouthierhie @jamieanovels @lexiklecksi @little-mouse-gardensn @marrowwife @mr-writes @macabremoons @perasperaadastrawriting @phantomnations @thyroidhormones @verba-writing @vsnotresponding @wildswrites @wip-nook

commission for my bestie @mjjune !

find me: insta ▪︎ patreon ▪︎ linktree

commission me here!

[askwoodsman33]

Hey! Hey Greifer!

*N U T.*

*P U N C H.*

“000000WWWWWWWW WH47 7H3 F###?!?!??” He groans in pain, doubling over, “4UUUUUUUUUUUU66666666HHHHHHHhhhhh!!!!!!!!!1!1!1!!!”

“WH47 7H3 H3LL DUD3?!!?!!?! 637 0V3R H3R3 Y0U L177L3 5H17!!!!!!!!!!!” He yells, chasing after the anon while groaning in pain and clutching his… nuts.

“Y0U’R3- Y0U’R3 LuCKY 1 JU57 3XH4U573D MY53LF FR0M F16H71N6 Y0U L177L3 5H17!!!!” He yells after them.

“?” :(

“What Happen To Crowbar Guy?” 33 wonders, watching this from the tree.

[boypied]

WHAT IS THIS FEELING?

pairings: boq woodsman x male reader

summary: male reader asks boq to help him out with him homework, but really it is the readers way of getting close to the munchinkin boy.

requested by: me

mentions: desperate for attention, ignored.

Boq couldn't take his eyes off of her. She was absolute perfection; Galinda Upland. Even her name gave him butterflies, the way she toss-tossed her hair, the way her lips were always bubble gum pink, and she always smelled like roses. Boq almost never took his eyes off of her, which is why he never noticed Y/N Upland, Galinda's slightly younger brother. You never took your eyes off of him unless if you were caught daydreaming in class and Dr. Dillamond would call on you for being stuck in your head.

You constantly took notice of the fact that Boq never once looked your way. You could be staring at him for minutes, and he wouldn't even bat an eye at you. It's as if you're invisible. You slowly strut over to him, using the moves that your sister uses on all the boys to get the attention she so desperately wants. "H-Hey Boq!" You say in an upbeat tone as you toss-toss your hair, which ultimately didn't have the same effect. Boq finally breaks eye contact with her and turns to face you, "H-Hey Y/N," he says softly to you.

"Oh my Oz!" You mumble under your breath as you look back at up him, your stomach twisting and turning into knots as the butterflies that were originally flying around in there have probably been squashed. "C-Could you... help me with my homework!" You blurt out, almost as if you didn't have control of your own mouth. Boq's eyes soften slightly. "Yeah, sure!" He says in an upbeat tone, different from his usual love sick voice he speaks when he's speaking to someone but actually looking directly at Galinda.

Boq finally shows up at your dormitory, and you immediately let him in, your blush coating your face. "Hey!" He says in an upbeat tone as he walks inside your dorm, slouched over ever so slightly. He sits down at your desk, and he pulls out the chair next to him, which is him inviting you to sit down. You sit down next to him and pull out the sheet of homework that Dr. Dillamond had given you in the lesson before. You both continue working.

"I'm struggling with this one," you say softly to him as your eyes leave his face and go back down to follow your finger as you point to the question that has you more confused then ever. "Oh! So what you gave to do is..." He says in a gentle tone as he starts to help you through the tough question that Dr. Dillamond handed out to the whole class. After you finally finished the homework that had you stumped, you slump down against the chair, and you turn to face him.

Your eyes meet with his soft orbs, his hand slowly brought up to your face as he caresses your cheek. "I should probably get going," he says softly to you as you both look in eachothers eyes for a good while until you lean in and peck him on the lips. Boq pulls away startled, and you stare back at him as your face is flushed with embarrassment. Boq slowly leans back more and more until he awkwardly leaves the dormitory.

You stare at the door as Boq shuts it behind him, leaving you alone as the darkness of your room consumes you. The cute munchkin boy who you've had a crush on for so long pulled away from your lips once they had finally connected to his. You bring your knees up to your chin and you push your face into your legs, as your tears begin to pour down your face as the sun begins to go down leaving your dorm room in the utmost darkness.

taglist ~ @starboye @mailmango @ghostking4m @kingchaospostsstuff @crispysoup318 @inhumanshadows @its-ares @gayaristocrat @cronasluvr @irlsamcarpenter @lucerothings1 @gaefaeyae @dqrkhold @sluttyhusband

[thalialunacy]

(back to rec index) (pt 1) (pt 2) (pt 3) (pt 4) (pt 5)

#

100 ways to say 'I love you' by teatrolley

26 Pieces by Lanning

34 Minutes by bendingsignpost

49. Take off your shirt. by KittenKin

50. Be You. No one else can. by KittenKin

A

A Case of Identity (Selfish, Private, and Easily Bored) by Iwantthatcoat

About Sleep and Coffee and the Existence of Fate by Atiki

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder by cypress_tree

Acceptable Behaviour by bbcatemysoul

An Acceptable Reaction by EchoSilverWolf

Adjacent by weeesi

Adored by chellefic

Adrift by BakerTumblings

The Adventure of the Last Will and Testament by JRow

Afghan Bullets, Beards, and Unlocked Bedroom Doors by addicted2hugh

Albion and the Woodsman by Glenmore

The Alchemy of Sea Glass by reveling_in_mayhem

All That I Have by the_arc5

Alternative Facts by SwissMiss

Amenable by Resonant

and stand there at the edge of my affection by coloredink

Another Country by Chryse

Another Auld Lang Syne by DiscordantWords

Anytime by SilentAuror

Applied Linguistics by what_alchemy

Appreciation by JRow

As long as it takes by PlainJane

At the Bottom of the Pool by philalethia

At the Edge of Desire by philalethia

At the Heart of it All by SilentAuror

Atrium by kali_asleep

B

Bagged & Tagged by Regency

Bath Time by standbygo

Becoming Us (A reunion in three parts) by addicted2hugh

The Best Things in Life by Calais_Reno

A Better Fate Than Wisdom by flawedamythyst

Between Friends by SilentAuror

Beautiful Pictures by JRow

Blanket Burrito by All_I_Need

Bloody But Unbowed by BeautifulFiction

A Brand of Gold by aquabelacqua

Bridges by sussexbound

The Burning of the Leaves by blueink3

Burning Low by Mildredandbobbin

Burnished Bright by mydwynter

C

Captured by Mad_Maudlin

Carry Me Home by StellaCartography

Carry On by Mazarin221b

carrying up his morning tea by darcylindbergh

The Case of the Freudian Dick Pic Slip by expoduck

Casualty by Silvergirl

Celestial Bodies by songlin

the cherry on top by simplyclockwork

Closeted by sussexbound

Come Home by hudders-and-hiddles

Come Name the Stars With Me by Azrael

A Comprehensive Taxonomy of Tobacco-Ash by Silvergirl

Confidential by sussexbound

The Contingency Plan by mightypog

Corpus Hominis by mycapeisplaid

cupboard love by simplyclockwork

The Curious Case of the Mysteriously Missing Birthday by darcylindbergh

D

Darkest Days, Finest Hours by blueink3

The Death of Doubt by Gingerhermit

Deductive Reasoning by cormoranth

The Devil You Know by PipMer

A different kind of adventure by curiousbees

Division by MrsNoggin

Do More Than Belong by cleflink

Don't Read the Last Page by Raina_at

Drawstring by May_Shepard

Dreamscapes by Goddess_of_the_Night

Drive by lifeonmars

Dropping the Act by jadztone

Dunk Drialing by Berty

Duvet (green) by Mazarin221b

E

Electric Pink Hand Grenade by BeautifulFiction

The Emergency Contact Series by blueink3

Entanglement by orphan_account

Equilibrium by augustbird

Ex by Itsallfine

Excerpts From Purgatory by reapersun & what_alchemy

Eye of the Beholder by SailorChibi

(pt 1) (pt 2) (pt 3) (pt 4) (pt 5) (back to rec index)

[ichiwashername-o]

I can't wait for Part 2 to absolutely emotionally WRECK me :')

A new WICKED featurette about Boq and his relationship with Nessa.

[fatecolossal]

TWIN PEAKS (2017) || Part 18 x Part 8. "This would look nice on your wall." Post on this painting above the bed in P18's motel, & how it evokes specific desert imagery from P8…

While the P18 desert painting features v. similar imagery to that of P8, it's not identical, & imagery of an empty desert is arguably generic enough to make any similarities incidental & not worth further comment. So why consider them linked? Well, b/c of further similarities...

Most overtly, the P18 motel sequence features the same song by The Platters, "My Prayer," that is also prominently featured in the 1956 segment of P8...

It's worth noting that the P8 desert scene that features similar desert imagery to the P18 painting is the same one where the Woodsmen materialize out of thin air. Is there, then, some suggestion of a kind of symbolic link being drawn between Cooper in P18 and the Woodsmen?

Notably, Cooper's line here—"turn off the light"—plays with the same "light" concept featured in the primary Woodsman's main line of dialogue (outside of his "poem"), "got a light?"

The connection between Coop & Diane in P18 itself arguably evokes the scenes between the Girl & Boy in P8's 1956 segment. To start, they both meet outside among trees & are framed similarly at times (as here, w the female character viewed over the male character's right shoulder)

In both, the male character asks the female character for a kiss, and again, they're framed similarly. (They arguably also share this with P1's Sam & Tracey sequence—another segment of the show w/ an apparent specific link to the show's mysterious "Judy" figure/concept, fwiw...)

After Coop & Diane sleep together, he wakes sleeping on his left side, framed similarly to the sleeping Girl from P8. Both sleeps are transformative—he wakes in a new space, by "Judy's" diner, & is called a new name, while she is violated by a creature seemingly birthed by Judy.

The remainder of P18 also shares significant elements with P8, exploring similar or the same abstractions & metaphors...

Ofc, the $1m question is what these overlapping concepts & imagery amount to; what, if anything, they might most fruitfully be said to symbolize, & how they fit together. As this all ties in to similar overarching questions about the entire TP saga, it's beyond the scope of this post, alas...

[the-patchwork-girl-of-oz]

I saw someone complain about the wicked cast being too old to play teenagers, which I don’t really mind because

A. Their ages change throughout the story

B. They are university students and the musical keeps their ages vague, plus you can tell they changed some of them from the book

C. The original cast was also in their 30s

But it kinda made me think of The Woodsman, another (super underrated) Oz stage prequel about the tin man’s backstory, where baby Nick Chopper is just played by adult Nick Chopper, in the exact same costume, just on his knees.

[thenightling]

Over The Garden wall = People aren’t as bad as you think

Earlier today I stumbled upon a Youtube video analyzing the animated mini-series Over the Garden Wall.  For those unfamiliar with it, Ove the Garden Wall is an animated TV mini-series from 2014 that told the story of two boys, Greg and Wirt, lost in a mysterious forest called “The Unknown.”  The story that plays out is very Wizard of Oz-esque and nearly all the visuals are based on vintage, turn of the century, New England postcards- particularly postcards from the late nineteenth century to 1930s for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and even Christmas, though mostly depicting autumn.  The characters and visuals from these vintage postcards adds to the surrealness of the setting.             Now this particular Youtuber happened to be a very Christian individual who seemed pretty certain that the black cat (Enoch) that we first see in the Pottsfield story was actually God.  And though I understood why this Youtuber believed this I did not agree with this particular stance.

Yes, the people of Pottsfield are dead and happily enjoying their afterlife much like the dead in Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride but I do not think Enoch is meant to be God.  Again, I understand how he came to that conclusion but not everyone is C. S. Lewis.  

One thing the Youtuber pointed out that I DO agree with, however, is the stance that Over the Garden Wall teaches us that people aren’t as bad as we’ve been made to think, that things aren’t always what they seem and aren’t always as dark or as sinister as they seem and I was a little surprised at myself that I hadn’t quite realized this was a recurring theme throughout the mini-series.  But as soon as he said it I knew it was true.      I hadn’t even consciously made this realization before but yes, this is one of the many reasons I love that mini-series. It’s so anti-cynical and wholesome. 

Pretty much everyone and everything that Greg and Wirt encounter and Wirt thinks is a threat turns out to be benign, or out-right good, kind, and helpful.  The only characters that actually turn out to be evil and dangerous are Adelaide of The Pasture and The Beast.  

First Greg and Wirt come across the suspicious woodsman and he’s just a sad old man being manipulated by The Beast.  Even the creature that attacks them is just a semi-possessed dog (Beatrice’s dog).  And the dog is harmless and no longer possessed by the end of the tale.

When the boys come to Pottsfield, first Wirt thinks the towns people are going to severely punish them for what they did. Instead they get a very minor punishment.  Also when Wirt thinks Greg and Beatrice have abandoned him, they were still there helping him get free.  And in the end the residents of Pottsfield were not a threat at all (despite the reveal that they were all skeletons wearing Pumpkin and straw bodies). Even at the tail end of the Pottsfield adventure, when the boys are invited to stay there’s no pressure or threat to it. The Pottsfield residents are genuinely decent (though dead) people.

Soon the boys find the old-fashioned schoolhouse with anthropometric animal students playing out a Shirley Temple-esque movie scenario.  It, at first, looks like the school teacher’s father is a classic style bad guy of the story.  Also the teacher’s lover has run off on her and abandoned her.  By the end of this story you find out her lover was just stuck in a gorilla costume that he had been wearing to earn money to marry her and her father had actually been afraid they’d have to close down the school. The school is saved by a charity concert and the teacher and her lover live happily ever after.

In the next chapter of Over the Garden Wall, the boys get to The Dark Lantern Inn.  And at first it looks like the people in the inn might be a threat.  Nope. The innkeeper is a Betty Boop-esque character and all her patrons seem to be self-aware storybook characters who expect everyone to be playing a particular (though easily explained) character role.  And they are eager to help you find your role in your story.    

 Then the boys meet the wealthy (and very eccentric) Quincy Endicott (who may or may not be a ghost as you see his tombstone later in the “Real world”).  Endicott thinks his mansion is haunted.  Fred the Horse (yes, a talking horse) is very suspicious and briefly gets Wirt to believe that Endicott might be a murderer who killed the lady of the house and will murder them.  No, he’s just a lonely old man who ends up falling in love with his business competitor (they both run tea companies and their mansions are accidentally connected).

Then we come to Adelaide of The Pasture who actually is evil.  When we, the viewers, meet Adelaide, it appears to us that she’s deceiving poor Beatrice. Not only does she want the boys as her slaves but also we get the chilling thought (as most modern viewers may) that she’s lying about the magical scissors that would turn Beatrice and her family human again (they were cursed to be bluebirds).  The easy assumption is that Adelaide was cruelly lying and that cutting off Beatrice’s wings (and her family’s wings) won’t turn them human.  It will just leave them mutilated birds who cannot fly.  But even the sinister Adelaide is not as bad as we are lead to think.  Yes, she’s a villain.  Yes, she wants the boys as her slaves.  But even her darkness is limited.

After Adelaide is defeated Wirt takes the magical scissors and later gives them to Beatrice.  He only withheld them from her for so long because he was angry at her near betrayal.  And if we trust the epilogue in the last episode of Over the Garden wall, the scissors actually worked and Beatrice and her family are human again.

 Now we meet Lorna and Auntie Whispers.  At first it looks like the very weird looking  Auntie Whispers is a Baba Yaga-style witch who has been eating people and using Lorna for slave labor.  She even reveals that the evil Adelaide is her sister. The fact that Aunt Whispers is voiced by Tim Curry, who usually plays villains, also aids in the illusion.    Again we are misdirected.  Auntie Whispers is just trying to reign in the demon that is inside Lorna. She has been controlling it with the aid of a magical Bell. At first she looks like a cannibalistic witch or even crazed religious fanatic who has convinced Lorna that she’s evil, or somehow both.  No, she was just trying to protect Lorna from herself and others and to keep Lorna from killing other people.  She just didn’t consider that perhaps the magical bell to compel the demon might also be be used to banish the demon but Wirt figured it out. 

It’s also revealed that Auntie Whispers is really just lonely and wanted Lorna to stay as her live-in companion and ultimately that’s the quiet life Lorna chooses. 

When the Woodsman finally finds out where the Adlewood trees really come from he turns against The Beast to help our protagonists.

Even Jason Funderberker, who Wirt kept building up as an attractive jock that he was jealous of, and insecure against as a rival, was revealed to be nothing more than an awkward nerd and not at all the way Wirt described or saw him.

Over the Garden Wall pretty much shows you that Greg’s innocent and trusting mindset is the better view to have.  It’s the opposite of most stories that tell you to be suspicious and to embrace cynicism.  And pretty much every time Wirt assumed the worst about someone (except in regard to Adelaide and The Beast) he was wrong. 

  Over the Garden Wall teaches you that often people are not as bad as you think.  Things aren’t always as they seem.  And though there are terrible people out there like Adelaide and The Beast, usually people aren’t as bad as you think they are.

I think this precious lesson has been lost for a long time.  People aren’t as bad as you think once you really get to know them.  No wonder I think of Over the Garden wall as comforting and chicken soup for the soul. 

[dreadfutures]

Would you ever write a fairytale AU? If so, which would you do (and for which fandom)? c:

I love, but am very picky about, fairytale aus. I tend to be more attracted to fairytales about responsibility and personal heroism than ones about marriages and seeing someone truly, etc.

I really love @rosella-writes "Green Knight AU" of Virelan Lavellan red is the colour of lust (but green is what lust leaves behind), for example.

One genuine fairy tale I have had knocking around are Mighty Mikko: The Story of a Poor Woodsman and a Grateful Fox. The story has a personal interpretation that means a lot to me, about giving until you have nothing left, for the sake of someone else's happiness, about "you can't pour from an empty cup." In my version, the fox gives its own pelt to Mikko's new wife, and Mikko never realized that that's where his dear friend the fox disappeared to. The fox would be the main character, of course. This one feels like it would be a Zelda fic--thinking of both OOT Link, and TP Link, and how they sacrifice everything for Zelda and get nothing in return in the end but grief.

And it's not a traditional fairy tale but it's written as one (in verse): The 13 Clocks by James Thurber would make a really fun one to adapt. The 13 Clocks is one of my favorite stories in the world, period. I don't know what fandom it would be for -- at the moment I don't have any damsels I want to lock away in a tower.

[mjjune]

Guess who got commissions!!!!!!!

MASSIVE thanks to the artists @littlestpersimmon and @akiwitch (respectively) for making these beautiful pieces of art!! You definitely need to check them out.

For those who don't know, this is The Woodsman and Red from my Little Red Riding Hood retelling!! click for the official wip page <3

[adarkrainbow]

The Grimm fairytales: Little Red Riding Hood

After making a whole post about Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood, I had to make one about the version of the Brothers Grimm!: 

What is quite fascinating is that everybody thinks they know Little Red Riding Hood story - the German one, and they basically sum it up as “Like Perrault’s, but a woodsman comes and save the day in the end”. However things are a.... bit more complicated than that. 

So, the German Little Red Riding Hood, by the Brothers Grimm, is usually translated in English as “Little Red Cap”, Rotkäppchen . Again, the “riding hood” is not seen, just like in the French version, this seems to be a purely English expression. To do this recap I will mostly focus on the differences between the Grimm version and Perrault’s.

The beginning is quite similar, describing the little girl as a child beloved by everyone but especially by her grandmother, who gives her a “little cap of red velvet”, that the girl loves so much she doesn’t wear anything else, hence her name Little Red-Cap. [Interestingly we have here an actual transliteration of the “chaperon rouge” of the original French tale, as an ornamental red velvet headwear, though the ribbon turns into a cap]. The way the mother sends her child into the forest is however VERY different. In Perrault’s tale, the mother says that she heard the grandmother was ill and thus sends her child with some a small cake and a pot of butter to check on her - but that’s it. In the Grimm fairytale, the mother KNOWS the grandmother is ill and sends her child with a small cake and a bottle of wine (maybe a remnant of the oral versions of France?) to make her better. Not only that but, unlike in Perrault’s version, the mother of the Grimm versions gives her daughter precise instructions and advice before she sets alone for the woods - “set out before it gets hot”, “walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path”, “don’t forget to say Good-morning”, “don’t peep into every corner”, etc... So the motif of Perrault’s original tale (a mother spoiling her child and not giving her the right advice and information about life) is removed and changed to a “breaking of the rules” story. Because this is the mother’s order to “not run off the path” that is broken by Little Red-Cap per the wolf’s temptation. And so, from a Petit Chaperon Rouge victim of her mother and grandmother’s mistakes, we have now a Little Red-Cap somehow “punished” for breaking the “rules”. 

Similarly, when the wolf appears in front of the little girl, in Perrault’s tale the little girl was said to ignore “that it was dangerous to listen to wolves” - while here the text rather claims that the little girl ignored that it was a “wicked creature”, and thus was not afraid of him. The situation of the grandmother’s house is also changed in the Grimm stories - in Perrault’s version the grandmother lived at the edge of a village, on the other side of the wood ; in the Grimm’s, she lives deep into the woods, “under the three large oak-trees”, right below the nut-trees.What is also quite fascinating is that the wolf seems to want to eat the grandmother first - since it is what motivates him to ask where the grandmother lives... But he then notices how of a “nice plump mouthful” the little girl is, and thus decides to eat her alongside the grandmother. (This is the reverse of the Perrault story, where the wolf wants primarily to eat the girl, and only gulps the grandmother as a collateral damage, so to speak). Instead of a sort of race between two paths, and the wolf encouraging the little girl to take the longest path, the wolf of the Grimm rather encourages the girl to stay off the path by pointing out the pretty flowers, the singing birds and the merry woods. Ultimately Little Red-Cap decides to run off the path into the woods to pick flowers, to make a “fresh nosegay” for her grandmother. 

The wolf runs to the grandmother’s house, and the iconic French sentence “Tire la chevillette et la bobinette cherra” is turned into a mere “Lift the latch”. Another massive difference occurs when it comes to the arrival of the girl. In Perrault’s story, the wolf thinks of locking back the door behind him, and the girl is surprised by the deep voice that welcomes her but places it on account of her grandmother’s cold. Here, the wolf forgets to close the door, which the girl notices, and while the “deep voice” element is removed, the girl expressedly says that she feels uneasy walking into the house, unlike what she feels when she usually goes to her grandmother’s. The wolf is in bed, the cap of the grandmother “pulled down over her face”.  The dialogue with the grandma-wolf is also changed, into the iconic exchange known by everyone today. Or almost...

“Oh grandmother, what big ears you have!” “The better to hear you with, my child.”

“But grandmother, what big eyes you have!” “The better to see you with my dear.”

“But grandmother, what large hands you have!” “The better to hug you with.”

“Oh! But grandmother, what a terrible big mouth you have!” “The better to eat you with!”

It is quite interesting to see that the dialogue between the wolf and Little Red Riding Hood people know about is usually a mix of the Grimm’s and the Perrault’s dialogues. 

At this point we reach the most famous addition of the Brothers Grimm, who continue the tale beyond Perrault’s original ending. The wolf falls asleep in the bed, snoring loudly. A huntsman passing nearby hears the very loud snores coming out of the house, and thinking it is “the old woman” he decides to check f she needs anything - but is amazed to find the wolf on the bed. Interestingly, the hunter exclaims that he has been looking for the wretched creature for quite some times, indicating that the huntsman was literaly hunting the wolf... Another interesting detail: most people recall the savior of the protagonists as being a woodsman with an axe, but here it is a huntsman with a rifle, who is about to shoot at the wolf before he realizes that maybe the wolf devoured the old woman of the house. So he takes a pair fo scissors, and cuts open the belly of the sleeping wolf (yes, this wolf has a DEEP sleep). When he cuts, he notices the “shining red cap”, which encourages him to dig deeper until he delivers the girl, and then the grandma (another interesting detail - how the Grimm versions uses the red cap as an actual story tool, rather than it just being an ornamental wordplay like in Perrault’s). Another thing people often get wrong with the story: they remember that the one who puts stones in the belly of the wolf is the woodsman/huntsman. Nope... it is Little Red Cap herself with picks up the rocks and places them in the belly, so that when the wolf awakes and tries to run away, he falls down dead.  

Everybody is happy. The hunter takes the skin of the wolf and returns home wth it. The grandmother eats the cake and drinks the wine and heals thanks to it. And Red Cap promises herself “As long as I live, I will never by myself leave the path, to run into the wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so.” Again, here the shift of the moral is clear - the Perrault concept of a girl dying/endangered because she was badly raised becomes “a girl is taught a lesson for dissobeying to her parents”. 

But what is even more fascinating is that the tale of the Brothers Grimm doesn’t stop here - there is another part of the story that has dropped from people’s memory. It is added that another day, as Red-Cap was again bringing cakes to her grandmother, another wolf came to speak to her and tried to convince her to stray off the path. But Red-Cap, having learned her lesson, refused to do so, and upon arriving at her grandmother’s house told her about meeting the wolf. She adds that he had such a wicked look in his eyes, she was quite certain if they hadn’t been on a “public road” he would have eaten her (this is a leftover of the Perrault’s version, where the wolf doesn’t eat the girl in the woods because he fears the wood-cutters). The grandmother than shuts the door so the wolf may not enter, and they do good because the wolf arrives and tries to pass off as Red-Cap to have the door opened. Since the two girls do not answer or react to the wolf’s knocking, the beast decides to jump on the roof and wait until the evening falls - so that when Little Red-Cap leaves the house, he might devour her in the darkness. The grandmother, however, quickly guesses what the wolf is doing and prepares a plan...

In front of her house is a great stone trough. She tells her grandchild to take the water in which she boiled some sausages yesterday, and to fill with it the trough. When the wolf smells the scent of sausages, he sniffs and peeps down, stretching himself by the side of the roof - until he loses his footing, falls into the trough, and drowns in the water (when comparing this to the French oral variant where the washerwomen drown the wolf in the water, it seems fairytale wolves do not know how to swim). 

The story ends on a sentence that is... quite bizarre. “But Red-Cap went joyously home, and never did anything to harm any one”. Wait, what? Why would Red-Cap harm people? Well... to be fair the story showed her having an un-childlike behavior, as she came up with the stone in the belly idea, and participated in the drowning of a wolf - so maybe the narration tries to reassure us that all the massacres are done, and the murders are not needed anymore, and the little girl won’t grow up to become a serial-killer? 

While this is the full story as recorded by the Grimms, as present in many English translations of their märchen collection, and unchanged from the first edition (while I do not like Jack Zipes’ treatment of Perrault, his work on the first edition of the Brothers Grimm’s fairytales is a precious treasure), I heard that in ulterior publications - the 1857 edition of the book for example - they had shortened and simplified the story (for example removing the second wolf’s part), to reach the version most widespread and known today. I am not sure of this, but I’ll leave it here, and if someone can compare the various editions of the Grimms, don’t hesitate to correct me!

I already talked heavily of the shift in “morality” the Grimms created, by turning the “example tale” of Perrault where the girl’s fate is the one of a tragic victim, into a “teaching tale” where the girl’s fate is a lesson to better behave. 

The reason there are two wolves in this tale is because the brothers Grimm ended up being told two different versions by two members of a same family, Jeanette Hassenpflug and Marie Hassenpflug. They ultimately decided to make Jeanette’s version the main story, and Marie’s an addendum at the end. But what is extremely relevant here is that the two women were part of a family of French descent, and thus a lot of the stories they brought to the Grimm were actually French-flavored (I’ll get more about this when I’ll talk about the Grimms in general). Most obviously, it is quite clear that the story of “Little Red-Cap” is actually a slightly modified version of Perrault’s fairytale. Except for the happy ending with the huntsman - but Michèle Simonsen studied the evolution of the story, and she has concluded that this “hunter-ending” was actually the invention of miss Hassenpflug. Simonsen actually believes that miss Hassenpflug found this ending from a theater play that was very popular in Germany at the time, and that was a modified version of the famous “The wolf and the seven goats/kids” story. This is notably why the Grimms themselves, and many other people afterward, drew parallels and relationships between the AT 333 (Little Red Riding Hood) and the AT 123 (The wolf and the seven goats). 

The transition from France to Germany of the “little red cap” seems to have been easy due to a particular custom typical of the Hesse region, where the Grimms collected most of their tales: in this region, the traditional outfit for women included a little velvet cap. And said cap changed color depending on the age and condition of the person wearing it: when a woman was married, she wore a green cap, when she was a widow the cap was black, and when the woman was a child or a young girl, a maiden... Then she wore a red cap. 

Speaking of red, I want to evoke here the topic of “why is the cap red?”. Many, many interpretations have gone by. The “naturalist” or “weather” theory so prevalent in many fairytales is that the cap is red to symbolize that the little girl is a solar symbol, a diurnal character that has to be rescued from the wolf with a belly “so dark” (it is the main complaint of the girl upon leaving it, the darkness inside, while it is the shining red of her cap that allows the hunter to save her) he seems to be an embodiment of night - so the story is read as a remnant of the ancestral myths of “the ravishing of the sun/the return of the sun” ; or in a variation as another story of “the spring/summer female deity that has to be returned from the world/monster of winter”. It is a very common interpretation... but a false one given we know that the “red cap” seems to have appeared with Perrault. Other people, picking up on the sexual subtext (or sexual text for oral variations) of the story, proposed that “red” was chosen by Perrault due to it being a color of sexuality and romance. Which is also a very common intepretation (many people see the “red” as a menstrual blood symbolism)... but just as anachronic, because the idea of red being a color of sexuality is younger than Perrault’s tale - Michel Pastoureau, the French experts on colors nowadays (he published several studies on the colors, their use, history and symbolism), proved that the color of sexuality, at the time of Perrault’s, was actually green and not red. So where does this red comes from?

A concept we find in both the Grimm’s versions and the oldest written version of the tale (which I talked about in my previous post) are those of protection, religious protection - as red was for a time a very common color for baptism outfits, and the red cap “protects” the girl in those tales (the red dress protects the girl from the cubs, the red cap allows the hunter to get her out of the belly). This is doubled by the Hessian tradition of colored caps I talked about previously, which highlights the red as a color of youth, innocence and virginity. But this all can’t possibly work for Perrault, since in his tale the “chaperon” precisely fails to protect or shield the girl in any way (see the wordplay on chaperon/chaperone I talked about in my Perrault post). So... a mystery? Not quite. There is actually a solution that has been brought forward by my research director quite recently - as she proposed a “proverbial reading” of the fairytales of Perrault, and by doing so found out the very possible reason Perrault chose the color red. But I’ll reveal that in a later post, when I’ll talk of her work.

A last note about the Grimm version: the addition of the huntsman introduced another main actor in the story, or more precisely another male character in the story, a benevolent masculine force counterring the negative masculinity of the wolf. Even more - we can easily read his character as a paternal figure, since he is the only other human character in this group of exclusively female ones. The idea of him being a paternal figure is heavily tied to the saving of the little girl and the grandmother, which many have noted to appear as a scene of “birth” or “rebirth”. Either a grotesque parody of natural birth, either a more allegorical, if not religious, scene of resurrection, of being reborn as a better person - it depends on what you prefer. But the imagery is quite clear: a little girl that is removed from a dark belly and brought into the light, a belly that is cut open with scissors by a paternal figure... After the death of a girl that disobeyed, we find the return to life of a girl who learned her lesson... 

[askwoodsman33]

Oh? Hello there Woodman, how have you been in the hallow?

We hope you have been well! Though there's not much for us to say.

-C

"Hallo!!! Me's Is Good!!! Thankings You's!!!!"

"Big Big Tree!!! Happies!!!! Me's Having Waters!!!!!! How You's?" :D

[incrediblyfastfilms]

T H E C A S T

K y l e M a c l a c h l a n a s FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , Cooper's Doppleganger and Dougie Jones

N a o m i W a t t s a s Janey - E Jones

L a u r a D e r n as Diane Evans

R o b e r t F o r s t e r a s Sheriff Frank Truman

J e n n i f e r J a s o n L e i g h a s Chantel Hutchens

T i m R o t h a s Gary "Hutch" Hutchens

T o m S i z e m o r e a s Anthony Sinclair

R o b e r t K n e p p e r a s Rodney Mitchum and J i m B e l u s i a s Bradley Mithchum

M i g u e l F e r r e r FBI Agent Albert Rosenfield and D a v i d L y n c h a s FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole

C h r y s t a B e l l a s FBI Agent Tamara "Tammy" Preston

M a t t h e w L i l l a r d a s Bill Hastings

P a t r i c k F i s c h l e r a s Duncan Todd

D o n M u r r a y a s Bushnell Mullins

A m y S h i e l s a s Candie

H a r r y G o a z a s Police Deputy Andy Brennan M i c h a e l C e r a a s Wally Brennan K i m m y R o b e r t s o n a s Lucy Brennan

M i c h a e l H o r s e a s Deputy Police Chief Hawk

C a t h e r i n e C o u l s o n a s Margaret Lanterman, or "the Log Lady"

D a n a A s h b r o o k a s Police Deputy Robert Briggs

M a d c h e n A m i c k a s Shelly Briggs

S h e r i l y n F e n n a s Audrey Horne

A s h l e y J u d d a s Beverley Paige R i c h a r d B e y m e r a s Ben Horne & D a v i d P a t r i c k K e l l y a s Jerry Horne

R u s s T a m b l y n a s Dr. Lawrence Jacoby

P e g g y L i p t o n a s Norma Jennings

H a r r y D e a n S t a n t o n a s Carl Rodd

R o b e r t B r o s k i a s Woodsman

S h e r y l L e e a s Laura Palmer and Carrie Page

G R E A T MO V I E & T E L E V I S I O N C A S T S

David Lynch's third season of TWIN PEAKS, TWIN PEAKS the Return (2017; a limited series event) written by Mark Frost and David Lynch directed by David Lynch from Showtime

[troublemakingrebel]

Fanfic Tag Game

Ayyy, @krankittoeleven, thanks for tagging! Love these little lists!

1. How many fics do you have on AO3?

34! (I used to write in two languages, but for this game i count only the English ones)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

295,814... (~1.5 times more words than "Fellowship of the Ring" by JRR Tolkien *sweating*)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Totally obsessed with Assassin's Creed (Valhalla in particular), but also have some WIPs for Cyberpunk 2077.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Right Behind You (Witcher 3), a piece about epic friendship & love between Geralt of Rivia and the absolute husband material Emiel Regis

10 years apart, no more (AC Valhalla), a fix-it for the fLicKEriNg flame nonsense (if you know you know...)

Shall We? (AC Syndicate), another fix-it that makes Maxwell Roth survive the fire as there's no fire at all

The Truth (The Wolf Among Us), about shaky relationship between the Big Bad Wolf and the Woodsman (i'm so surprised it made it to the top-5!!)

In the Belly of the Beast (AC Valhalla), about Ivarr Ragnarsson eating the forbidden Saxon fruit while no one is watching hehe

5. Do you respond to comments?

Of course! Can't leave them hanging there in silence!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Usually, I don't do sad endings, but the most bitter-sweet one is Pebble (Dragon Age: Inquisition) about a kossith who cuts his massive horns off to look more like a human so he could follow his lover to the city where kossith race isn't welcome :c Although I don't think his lover would let him go there anyway......

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Haha every other one :D But Sun, Rum and Gunpowder (AC Black Flag) has the happiest and the most carefree vibes whatsoever!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not on the fics, but the ships! I just delete those because why is it an author's problem suddenly that some people don't know how filters work??

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Oh, I sure do ;> It's not extremely explicit (no holes in sight, but dicks and balls can be spotted) and is mostly focused on emotions and dialogues.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Nope, but I write AUs sometimes to spice things up! Modern days AUs are the bane of my existence, and still... somehow... I keep making them...

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, but I noticed my lines and phrases in the stories of fellow writers. I appreciate it!!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah!! Out of all possible fics, it was The Remnants of a Ruined Past, a Mad Max (the game!) story translated into Polish. Love it lots!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Never as i am incapable to work in groups haha. I did some challenges though, such as picking a theme and writing something small with a fren to compare the results later. It's very fun and helps to keep your brain gears spinning!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Like, the one and only ship that I could bring along if I was stuck on a desert island? Or the one I don't even write for anymore but carry in my heart daily? The former would be Hawke x Varric (Dragon Age 2) because they're a comfort ship with many possibilities for plots. The latter is Ezio x Leonardo (AC II + Brotherhood + Revelations) and Arthur x Eames (Inception) because they started it all hehe.

15. What’s a fic you’d like to finish but don’t think you ever will?

It's a compilation of drabbles written for a very niche CGI Resident Evil movie (Damnation) & very rare pair that i was planning to continue for as long as the planet keeps spinning, but got overwhelmed with the amount of ideas I had in mind :c

16. What are your writing strengths?

Humor and dialogues!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Everything el– 🥲 Deep character studies, believable politics and fights.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

A big yes from me, it ads depth and character when used correctly. Also, it's very interesting to keep an evening reading about the language you're planning to use, even it's for a few simple words.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

It was an attempt to mimic Marie Corelli and write a ficlet for her novel "The Sorrows of Satan". And then Assassin's Creed took my soul and I've never seen it since! Kinda ironic, huh...

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I'm gonna cheat bc I'm quite proud about Beautiful Decline, a series of four fics written for Assassin's Creed Valhalla. It's an enormous project that was never meant to break out from its confinements and produce three more stories lmao.

Tagging @firefly-partyn and @krankittoeleven if you wanna join!

[ike-mcswains-mortician]

hello hello fellow lovely and talented artist that I happened to be mutuals with, can I learn more about your ocs? /nf they look so skrunkly and precious snndndndndndnrkelsofk /pos

HI HELLO!!! first off let me say that you’re so sweet wtf?? thank youuu gah i love my sillies and im honestly honored people want to hear abt them c:

second, sorry this took so long to answer hehe i wanted to post ref sheets for my characters and i realized i. dont have them. SO i had to doodle em up hehe

OKAYYYY first on the docket is wynn!

she’s my cleric in @locke-n-k3y’s campaign and she is pathetic <3. she has never stepped on a crunchy leaf and she just wants to Go Home. i can’t say much more cause of plot spoilers (glares at my other moots in the campaign /lh) but mayhap i will flood ur dms!

-

next is my character from my first ever campaign and her armpiece boyfriend! hehe

so fun fact they both hold titles: queen and bishop respectively, because the campaign took place in a demon’s chess game!! it was super fun hehe and max was originally an npc from leonora’s backstory BUT my dm brought him into the campaign proper and then i stole his character sheet so he’s MINE NOW.

leonora is actually the niece of the BBEG and her father was the patron of our party’s warlock! so some fun family dynamics there. max is rumored to be an insane necrophile because leonora is legally dead! fun!! and there’s a whole lot of backstory stuff i bombarded @thedndgoblinwholivesinyourwalls with hehe so they’re linked here, here, and here.

-

next are some characters i love dearly but haven’t posted about much! starting with lorelei

…whose character playlist is 80% carrie underwood. if that gives you any indication of her vibes hehe. rambunctious child to a pious, uptight family, lorelei is off to discover herself and prove herself out of SPITE!! she’s a college of chance bard to be specific and she’s kind of just here for a good time not for a long time. also i accidentally made it canon that she has in fact fucked a dragon.

-

and finishing off the roster of characters i’ve finished refs for: casimir (and his daughter veda!!)

so casimir is a necromancer whose wife left him after he was Consumed By The Horrors!! but his daughter stuck around and accidentally saw some stuff she wasn’t supposed to see, so his mentor had her killed as a way to teach casimir his place so to speak. he intended to give up his studies but then her ghost started appearing to him, and now it’s almost like she never left! also he is very much drowned cat in the dumpster energy as well. i love him dearly.

-

i have some more characters but i didn’t get a chance to draw refs for them but i’ll sum them up briefly!!

j. “backfire” hicks is a pact of the trigger warlock who is quite literally just jimmy from the young riders but with magic guns instead of real ones lol. slightly altered backstory but not by much

and i have another warlock named derowyn, whose info is here! loosely based on the woodsman from over the garden wall, but a satyr whose brothers soul is in the lantern and if she tries to back out of the deal THEY becomes a tree hehe

-

AAAH THAT WAS SO LONG SORRYYYYYY but i love getting able to talk about my sillies :D thank you for letting me infodump hehe