#canon has so many hidden parts that are never explored in the worldbuilding and are just great terrain to sow seeds of fanon content
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i-dare-say ¡ 5 months ago
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Is anyone going to talk about the annual Twelve Peaks' martial arts tournament that's only ever mentioned in the qijiu extra?
Like, who exactly can compete? Is everyone able to enter? Or do you have to have reached a certain level of cultivation?
Do the peak lords also compete? 'Cause that would have certainly been mentioned during the earlier parts of the novel.
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elamarth-calmagol ¡ 3 years ago
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What actually is LACE? (an informal essay)
What’s LACE?
Laws and Customs among the Eldar, or LACE, is the most popular section of the History of Middle Earth books.  It's available online as a PDF here: http://faculty.smu.edu/bwheeler/tolkien/online_reader/T-LawsandCustoms.pdf .  There’s a lot of LACE analysis in the fandom, Silmarillion smut fics are usually labeled “LACE compliant” or “not LACE compliant”, and I’ve been seeing the document itself show up in actual fics, meaning that the characters themselves are discussing it.
LACE is an unfinished, non-canonical essay split into several parts.  It covers the sexuality of elves, which is mostly what people talk about.  It also covers elvish naming (which I want to make a whole different post about), the speed at which elves grow up, changes that happen throughout their lives, their death and rebirth, and finally the legal and moral issues of Finwe remarrying after Miriel’s death.  The discussion about rebirth conflicts with Tolkien’s later writings about Glorfindel’s re-embodiment, but to the best of my knowledge, LACE is the best or only source for most of the topics it covers.
However, LACE is not canon since it doesn’t show up in the Silmarillion.  Counting all of the History of Middle Earth as canon is literally impossible, considering Tolkien contradicts himself all over the place.  It is only useful because it has so much information that is never discussed in the actual canon.  Many people consider it canon out of convenience.
Another important thing to remember is that, other than presumably the discussion of the growth of elvish children, the information is only supposed to apply to the Eldar (meaning the Vanyar, Noldor, Teleri, and Sindar) and not the dark-elves such as the Silvan elves and Avari.
The rest is behind the cut to avoid clogging your feeds.
Problems with LACE interpretations
But because it’s hidden in the History of Middle Earth (volume 10, Morgoth’s Ring), barely anyone actually gets the opportunity to read it.  I don’t think most people are aware that you can get it online, so it doesn't get read much.
I feel like this leads to a handful of people saying something about LACE and everyone else going along with it.  I definitely did this.  I was amazed by all the things that were in the actual essay that nobody had ever told me about, or had told me incorrectly.  For example, most people seem to believe that elves become married at the completion of sexual intercourse (whatever that means to the fic author).  In fact, LACE explicitly says that elves must take an oath using the name of Eru in order to be legally married.  Specifically: 
It was the act of bodily union that achieved marriage, and after which the indissoluble bond was complete… [I]t was at all times lawful for any of the Eldar, being both unwed, to marry thus of free consent one to another without ceremony or witness (save blessings exchanged and the naming of the Name); and the union so joined was alike indissoluble.
I’ve seen a marriage oath being included in a few stories recently, but most writers leave out the oath entirely and just have sex be automatically equivalent to marriage.  What would happen if elves had sex without swearing an oath?  I don’t know, but I’d love to see it explored.
Then there’s a footnote that might explicitly deny the existence of transgender elves... or not, but I’ve literally only seen it mentioned once or twice.  Overall, I feel like all of LACE is filtered through the handful of people who read it, and we’re missing out on a lot of metanalysis and interpretations that we could have because most fans never see the actual document.
Who wrote LACE?
I mean within the mythology of Middle Earth, of course.  Since LACE appears in the History of Middle Earth and not the Silmarillion, we can be pretty sure that J.R.R. Tolkien himself wrote it and it wasn’t added to by Christopher Tolkien.  But that’s not the question here.  Remember that Tolkien’s frame narrative for all of his Middle Earth work is that he is a scholar of ancient times and is translating documents from Westron and Sindarin for modern audiences to read and understand.  The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings come from the Red Book of Westmarch, and I believe The Silmarillion is meant to be Tolkien’s own writings based on his research (though it might also be an adaption of Bilbo’s “Translations from the Elvish”, but I haven't looked into that).  So what does LACE come from?
Christopher Tolkien admits in his notes that he doesn’t know.  He says, “It is clear in any case that this is presented as the work, not of one of the Eldar, but of a Man,” and I agree, because of the way it seems to be written as an ethnographic study rather than by someone who lives in the culture.  Honestly, it talks too much about how elves are seen by Men (e.g. speculating that elf-children might look like the children of Men) to be written by an elf.  This changes once it gets to the Doom of Finwe and Miriel, but that could be, and probably is, a story told to the writer by an elf who was there at the time.
Tolkien actually references Aelfwine in the second version of the text.  The original story behind The Lost Tales, which was the abandoned first version of the Silmarillion, was that a man from the Viking period named Aelfwine/Eriol stumbled onto the Straight Road and found himself on Tol Eressea.  He spoke to the elves and brought back their stories to England with him.  So it makes a lot of sense that Aelfwine would also write about the lives and customs of the elves for an audience of his own people.
Does LACE exist in Middle Earth?
I keep finding fics where first age elves discuss “the Laws and Customs” openly, as if it’s a text in their own world.  I usually get the impression that it was brought by the Noldor from Valinor.  But did the document actually exist in that time period?  For me, the answer is definitely not.
First of all, LACE was probably written by a Man, meaning it could not have dated back to Valinor in the years of the Trees, because Men hadn’t awaked yet.  In fact, the closest thing to an established frame narrative for it is that it was written by Aelfwine, who comes from the time period around 1000 CE (though Tolkien doesn’t seem to have pinned him down).  This is at least the fifth age, if not later.
But what if you don’t believe that it was written by a Man?  It still couldn’t have been written in the First Age, because it discusses the way the relationship between elves’ bodies and souls changes as ages go by.  For example:
As ages passed the dominance of their fear ever increased, ‘consuming’ their bodies... The end of this process is their ‘fading’, as Men have called it.
A lot of time has to go by in order for elves to get to the point of fading.  As a bonus, here’s another reference to the perspective of Men. LACE also discusses the dangers that “houseless feas”, which are souls of elves who do not go to Mandos after their bodies died, pose to Men.  How would they have known about that in the First Age?  It further says that “more than one rebirth is seldom recorded” (which isn’t contradicted anywhere I know of), and that’s not something you would know during your life of joy in Valinor, where almost nobody dies.  That’s something you learn after millennia of war.  This has to be a document written well after the Silmarillion ends.
So what about the sex part?  That’s all we care about, right?  Well, it is entirely possible that this was written down by the elves and Aelfwine translated it (though my impression is that he mostly recorded stories told orally to him and that elves were not very much into writing, at least in Valinor where you could get stories directly from someone who experienced them).  However, why would the elves write this down?  They know how quickly their children grow up.  They’ve seen actual marriages.  They don’t need that described to them.  And if they did have a specific document or story explaining the expectations of them when it comes to sex and marriage, why would they call it “Laws and Customs”?  That’s a very strange name for a set of rules for conduct.  I’m sure they had a list of laws written out somewhere in great detail, like our own state or national laws (that seems very in character for the Noldor, at least).  But I seriously doubt that those laws are what we’ve been given to read. LACE is not an elvish or Valinoran document.
Is LACE prescriptive or descriptive?
Here’s the other big question I’m interested in.  Prescriptive means that the document describes the way people should behave.  Descriptive means that it describes how people do behave.  And the more I worldbuild for Middle Earth and the culture of elves, the more I want to say that LACE is prescriptive in its discussion of sex, marriage, and gender roles.
But wait.  I’ve been saying for paragraphs that I think LACE is Aelfwine or another Man’s ethnographic study of elvish culture.  Then it has to be descriptive, right?
Does it?  How long do we think Aelfwine stayed with the elves?  Did he wait fifty years to see a child grow up?  Did he get to witness a wedding ceremony?  Did he meet houseless fea?  I don’t think he could have done all of that.  Maybe a different Man who spent his entire life with the elves could, but then when was this written?  When the elves were still marrying and having children in Middle Earth or when so much time had gone by that they had begun to fade already?
Whoever wrote this was told a lot of information by elves instead of experiencing it firsthand, the same way he heard the stories from the First Age from the elves instead of being there.  Maybe it was one elf who talked to him, maybe several different ones.  But did those elves accurately describe their society the way it was, give him the easiest description, or explain the way it was supposed to be?  If I was describing modern-day America, would I discuss premarital sex or just our dating and marriage customs?  Maybe people would come away from a talk with me thinking that moving in together equated to marriage for Americans in the early 21st century.  And I don’t even have an agenda to show America in a certain way, I'm just bad at explaining.  Did the elves talking to what may have been the first Man they had seen in millennia have an agenda in the way they presented themselves?
Or did the writer himself have an agenda?  Imagine going to see these beautiful, mythical, perfect beings, and you find out that they behave in the same immoral ways Men do.  Do you want to share the truth back home?  Or do you leave out things that don't match your worldview? Did Aelfwine come back wanting to tell people what elves were really like?  Or did he want to say “this is how you can be holy and perfect like an elf”?
Anyone studying the Age of Exploration will tell you that Europeans neber wrote about new cultures objectively, and often things were made up to fit the writer’s idea of what savages looked like. For example, my Native American history teacher in college told a story of how explorers described one tribe who (sensibly) didn't wear clothes as cannibals, because cannibalism and going around naked went together in their minds and not because of any actual incident.  Unbiased scholarship barely existed yet. Even Tolkien was extremely biased and tended to be imperialistic, as we all know.  There’s absolutely no reason to think that Aelfwine wasn’t biased in his own way.  (Of course, now we have to consider what biases a Danish or English man from the centuries around 1000 would have when it comes to things like gender roles. I assume he would have been more into divorce and female warriors than the elves are said to be.)
But is that what Tolkien intended? Probably not. He probably wanted LACE to be descriptive. But he also never got much of a chance to analyse the essay after the fact, which might have led to him discussing its accuracy and even the exact issues I just pointed out about explorers. Anyway, we know he's biased, and honestly, what he intended has never slowed down the fandom before.
Conclusion
In short, I take LACE to be a prescriptive document describing the way elvish culture is supposed to be, not a blueprint I have to stick to in order to correctly portray elves.  I also don’t believe the document that’s available for us to read existed even in the early Fourth Age, where The Lord of the Rings leaves off.  There maybe have been some document outlining the moral behavior of elves, as a set of laws, but thats not the Laws and Customs we have.
Of course, canon is up to you to interpret.  If you want Feanor discussing LACE with someone back in Valinor, go ahead.  If you want to throw out LACE entirely, go ahead.  It’s not even a canonical essay.  All of this analysis is honestly useless when you consider the fact that no part of LACE exists in any canonical book.
But that’s Tolkien analysis for you.
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army-of-mai-lovers ¡ 4 years ago
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Jet and Yue’s Deaths: Were They Necessary?
Two of the most common ideas I see for aus in this fandom are the Jet lives au, and the Yue lives au. I’ve written both of these myself, and I’ve seen many others write them. And while yes, fanfiction can be a great way to explore ideas that didn’t necessarily have to be explored in canon (I’m mad at bryke for a lot of things, but not including a Toph and Bumi I friendship is not one of them, even though I wrote a fic about it), it seems to me that people are mad that Yue and Jet are dead, to varying degrees. There’s a lot to talk about regarding their deaths from a sociopolitical perspective (the fact that two of the darker-skinned characters in the show are the ones that died, and all the light-skinned characters lived, is ah... an interesting choice), but I don’t want to look at it that way, at least for right now. I want to look at it as a writer, and discuss whether these deaths were a) necessary for the plot and themes of ATLA in any way whatsoever and b) whether it was necessary for them to unfold in the way that they did, or if they would have been more impactful had they occurred in a different way. 
(meta under the cut, this got really, really, really long)
Death in Children’s Media
When I first started thinking about this meta, I had this idea to compare Jet and Yue’s deaths to deaths in an animated children’s show that I found satisfying. And in theory, that was a great idea. Problem is: there aren’t very many permanent deaths in children’s animation, and the ones that do exist aren’t especially well-written. This may be an odd thing to say in what is ostensibly a piece of atla crit, but Yue’s death is probably the best written death in a piece of children’s animation that I can think of. That’s not a compliment. Rather, it’s a condemnation of the way other pieces of children’s animation featuring permanent character death have handled their storylines. 
I’ve talked about this before, but my favorite show growing up was Young Justice, and my favorite character on that show was far and away Mr. Wally West. So when he died at the end of season 2, it broke me emotionally. Shortly thereafter, Cartoon Network canceled the show, and I started getting on fan forums to mourn. Everybody on these fan forums was convinced that had Cartoon Network not canceled the show, Wally would have been brought back. And that is a narrative that I internalized for years. Eventually, the show was brought back via DC’s new streaming service, and I tuned in, waiting for Wally to also be brought back, only to discover that that wasn’t in the cards. Wally was dead. Permanently. 
So now that I know that, I can talk about why killing him off was fucking stupid. Wally’s death occurs at the end of season 2, after the main s2 conflict, the Reach, has been defeated, save for these pods that they set up all over the world to destroy Earth. Our heroes split up in teams of two to destroy the pods, and they destroy all of them, except for a secret one in Antartica. It can only be neutralized by speedsters, so Wally, Bart, and Barry team up to destroy it. It’s established in canon that Wally is slower than Bart and Barry, and it’s been played for laughs earlier in the season, but for reasons unexplained, the pod is better able to target Wally because he’s slower than Bart and Barry, and it kills him. After the emotional arc of the season has wrapped up, a literal main character dies. There’s some indication at the end of that season that his death is going to cause Artemis to spiral and become a villain, but when season 3 picks up, she’s doing the right thing, with seemingly no qualms about her position in life as a hero. In the comics, something like this happens to Wally, but then he goes into the Speed Force and becomes faster and stronger even than Barry, in which case, yes, this would have advanced the plot, but that’s probably not in the cards either. 
In summary, Wally’s death doesn’t work as a story beat, not because it made me mad, but because it doesn’t advance the plot, nor does it develop character. Only including things that advance plot or develop character is one of the golden rules of writing. Like most golden rules of writing, however, it’s not absolute. There is a lot of fun to be had in jokey little one off adventures (in atla, Sokka’s haiku competition) or in fun worldbuilding threads that add depth to your setting but don’t really come up (in atla, the existence of Whaletail Island, which is described in really juicy ways, even though the characters never go there.) But in general, when it comes to things like character death, events should happen to develop the plot or advance character. Avatar, for all of its flaws, is really well structured, and a lot of its story beats advance plot and develop character at the same time. However, the show also bears the burden of being a show directed at children, and thus needing to be appropriate for children. And as we know, Nickelodeon and bryke butted heads over this: the death scene that we see for Jet is a compromise, one that implicitly confirms his death without explicitly showing it. So bryke tasked themselves with creating a show about imperialism and war that would do those themes justice while also being appropriate for American children and palatable to their parents. 
The Themes of Avatar vs. Its Audience
So, Avatar is a show about a lone survivor of genocide stopping an imperialist patriarchal society from decimating the rest of the world. It’s also a show about found family and staying true to yourself and doing your best to improve the world. These don’t necessarily conflict with each other, and it is possible for children to understand and enjoy shows about complex themes. And in a lot of cases, bryke doesn’t hold back in showing what the costs of war against an imperialist nation are: losing loved ones, losing yourself, prison, etc. But when it comes to death, the show is incredibly hesitant. None of the main characters that we’ve spent a lot of time getting to know die (not even Iroh, even though he was old and it would have made sense and his VA died before the show was over--but that’s a topic for another day.) This makes sense. I can totally imagine a seven year-old watching Avatar as it was coming out and feeling really sad or scared if a major character died. I was six years older than that when Wally died, and it’s still sad and terrifying to me to this day. However, in a show about war, it would be unrealistic to have no one die. Bryke’s stated reason for killing off Jet is to show the costs of war. I’ve seen a lot of posts about Jet’s death that reiterate some version of this same point--that the great tragedy of his character is that he spent his life fighting the Fire Nation, only to die at the hands of his own country. Similarly, I’ve seen people argue in favor of Yue’s death by saying that it was a great tragedy, but it showed the sacrifices that must be made in a war effort. 
Yue
When we first meet Yue, she is a somewhat reserved, kind individual held back by the rigid social structures of the NWT*. She and Sokka have an immediate attraction to one another, but Yue reveals that she is engaged to Hahn. The Fire Nation invasion happens, Zhao kills Tui, and Yue gives up her life to save her people and the world, and to restore balance. Since we didn’t have a lot of time to get to know Yue, this is framed less as Yue’s sacrifice and more as Sokka’s loss. Sokka is the one who cares for Yue, Sokka is the only one of the gaang who really interacts a lot with Yue on screen, and Sokka is the one we’ve spent a whole season getting to know. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call Yue a prop character (i.e. a character who could be replaced by an object with little change to the narrative), she is certainly underdeveloped. She exists to be unambiguously likable and good, so we can root for her and Sokka, and feel Sokka’s pain when she dies. In my opinion, this is probably also why a lot of fic that features Yue depicts her as a Mary Sue--because as she is depicted in the show, she kind of is. We don’t get to see her hidden depths because she is written to die. 
In light of what we’ve established earlier in this meta, this makes sense. Killing off a fully-realized character whom the audience has really gotten to know and care about on their own terms, rather than through the eyes of another character, could be really sad and scary for the kids watching, but not killing anyone off would be an unrealistic depiction of war and imperialism. On the face of it, killing off an underdeveloped, unambiguously likable and good character, whom one of our MCs has a deep but short connection with, is the perfect compromise. 
But let’s go back to the golden rule for a second. Does Yue’s death a) advance the plot, and/or b) develop character? The answer to the first is yes: Yue’s death prompts Aang to use the Avatar State to fight off the Fire navy, which has implications for his ability to control the Avatar State that form one of the major arcs of book 2. The answer to the second? A little more ambiguous. You would think that Yue’s death would have some lasting impact on Sokka that is explored as part of his character arc in book 2, that he may be more afraid to trust, more scared of losing the people he loves, but outside of a few episodes (really, just one I can think of, “The Swamp”) it doesn’t seem to affect him that much. He even asks about Suki in a way that is clearly romantically motivated in “Avatar Day.” I don’t know about you, but if someone I loved sacrificed herself to become the moon, I don’t think I would be seeking out another romantic entanglement a few weeks after her death. Of course, everybody processes grief differently, and one could argue that Sokka has already lost important people in his life, and thus would be accustomed to moving on from that loss and not letting himself dwell on it. But to that, I’d say that moving on by throwing himself into protecting others has already shown itself to be an unhealthy coping mechanism. Remember, Sokka’s misogyny at the beginning of b1 is in part motivated by the fact that his mother died at the hands of the Fire Nation and his father left shortly thereafter to fight the Fire Nation, and he responds to those things by throwing himself into the role of being the “man” of the village and protecting the people he loves who are still with him. Like with Yue, he doesn’t allow himself to dwell on his mother’s death. This could have been the beginning of a really interesting b2 arc for Sokka, in which he throws himself into being the Avatar’s companion to get away from the grief of losing Yue, but this time, through the events of the show, he’s forced to acknowledge that this is an unhealthy coping mechanism. And maybe this is what bryke was going for with “The Swamp”, but this confines his whole process of grief to one episode, where it could have been a season-long arc that really emphasized the effect Yue’s had on his life. 
In the case of Yue, I do lean toward saying that her death was necessary for the story that they wanted to tell (although, I will never turn down a good old-fashioned Yue lives au that really gets into her dynamism as a character, those are awesome.) However, the way they wrote Sokka following Yue’s death reduced her significance. The fact that Yue seemed to have so little impact on Sokka is precisely what makes her death feel unnecessary, even if it isn’t. 
Jet
Okay. Here we go. 
If you know my blog, you know I love Jet. You know I love Jet lives aus. Perhaps you know that I’m in the process of writing a multichapter Jet fic in which he lives after Lake Laogai. So it’s reasonable to assume that, in a discussion of whether or not Jet’s death was necessary, I’m gonna be mega-biased. And yeah, that’s probably true. But up until recently, I wasn’t really all that mad about Jet dying, at least conceptually. As I said earlier, bryke says that in the case of Jet’s death, they wanted to kill a character off that people knew and would care about, so that they could further show the tragedies of war and imperialism. Okay. That is not, in and of itself, a bad idea. 
My issue lies with the execution of said idea. First of all, the framing of Jet’s original episode is so bad. Jet is part of a long line of cartoon villains who resist imperialism and other forms of oppression through violence and are punished for it. This is actually a really common sort of villain for atla/lok, as we see this play out again with Hama, Amon, and the Red Lotus. To paraphrase hbomberguy’s description of this type of villain, basically liberal white creators are saying, “yeah, oppression is bad, but have you tried writing to your Congressman about it?” With Jet, since we have so little information about the village he’s trying to flood, there are a number of different angles that would explain his actions and give them more nuance. My preferred hc is that the citizens of Gaipan are a mix of Earth civilians, Fire citizens, and FN soldiers, and that the Earth citizens refused to feed or house Jet and the other Freedom Fighters because they were orphans and, as we see in the Kyoshi Novels, Earth families stick to their own. Thus, when Jet decides to flood Gaipan, he’s focused on ridding the valley of Fire Nation, but he doesn’t really care about what happens to the Earth citizens of Gaipan because they actively wronged him when he was a kid. That’s just one interpretation, and there have been others: Gaipan was fully Fire Nation, Gaipan was both Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation but Jet decided that the benefits of flooding the valley and getting rid of the Fire Nation outweighed the costs of losing the EK families, etc, etc. There are ways to rewrite that scenario so that Jet is not framed as an unambiguously bloodthirsty monster. In the context of Jet’s death, this initial framing reduces the possible impact that his death could have. Where Yue was unambiguously good, Jet is at the very least morally gray when we see him again in the ferry. And where we are connected to Yue through Sokka, the gaang’s active hatred of Jet hinders our ability to connect with him. This isn’t impossible to overcome--the gaang hates Zuko, and yet to an extent the audience roots for him--but Jet’s lack of screentime and nuanced framing (both of which Zuko gets in all three seasons) makes overcoming his initially flawed framing really difficult. 
So how much can it really be said, that by the time we get to Jet’s death, he’s a character that we know and care about? So much about him is still unknown (what happened to the Freedom Fighters? what prompted Jet’s offscreen redemption? who knows, fam, who knows.) Moreover, most of what we see of him in Ba Sing Se is him actively opposing Zuko and Iroh. These are both characters that at the very least the show wants us to care about. At this point, we know almost everything there is to know about them, we’ve been following them and to an extent rooting for them for two seasons, and who have had nuanced and often sympathetic framing a number of times. So much of the argument I’ve seen regarding Jet centers around the fact that he was right to expose Zuko and Iroh as Firebenders, but the reason we have to have that argument in the first place is because it’s not framed in Jet’s favor. In terms of who the audience cares about more, who the audience has more of an emotional attachment towards, Zuko and Iroh win every time. Whether Jet’s actually in the right or not is irrelevant, because emotionally speaking, we’re primed to root for Zuko and Iroh. In terms of who the framing is biased towards, Jet may as well be Zhao. So when he’s taken by the Dai Li and brainwashed, the audience isn’t necessarily going to see this as a bad thing, because it means Zuko and Iroh are safe.
The only real bit of sympathetic framing Jet gets are those initial moments on the ferry, and the moments after he and the gaang meet again. So about five, ten minutes of the show, total. And then, he sacrifices himself for the gaang. And just like Yue, his death has little to no impact on the characters in the episodes following. Katara is shown crying for four frames immediately following his death, and they bring him up once in “The Southern Raiders” to call him a monster, and once in “The Ember Island Players”, a joke episode in which his death is a joke. 
So, let’s ask again. Does this a) advance the plot, and/or b) develop character? The answer to both is no. It shows that the Dai Li is super evil and cruel, which we already knew and which basically becomes irrelevant in book 3, and that is really the only plot-significant thing I can think of. As far as character, well, it could have been a really interesting moment in Katara’s development in forgiving someone who hurt her in the past, which could have foreshadowed her forgiving Zuko in b3, but considering she calls Jet a monster in TSR, that doesn’t track. There could have been something with Sokka realizing that his snap judgment of Jet in b1 was wrong, but considering that he brings up Jet to criticize Katara in TSR, that also does not track. And honestly, neither of these possible character arcs require Jet to die. What requires Jet to die is the ~themes~. 
Let’s look at this theme again, shall we? The cost of war. We already covered it with Yue, but it’s clearly something that bryke wants to return to and shed new light on. The obvious angle they’re going for is that sometimes, you don’t know who your real enemy is. Jet thought that his enemy was the Fire Nation, but in the end, he was taken down by his own countryman. Wow. So deep. Except, while it’s clear that Jet was always fighting against the Fire Nation, I never got the sense that Jet was fighting for the Earth Kingdom. After all, isn’t the whole bad thing about him in the beginning is that he wants to kill civilians, some of whom we assume to be Earth Kingdom? Why would it matter then that he got killed by an EK leader, when he didn’t seem to ever be too hot on those dudes? But okay, maybe the angle is not that he was killed by someone from the Earth Kingdom, but that he wasn’t killed by someone from the Fire Nation. Okay, but we’ve already seen him be diametrically opposed to the only living Air Nomad and people from the Water Tribes. Jet fighting with and losing to people who aren’t Fire Nation is not a new and exciting development for him. Jet has been enemies with non-FN characters for most of the show’s run at this point. There is no thematic level on which the execution of this holds any water. 
The reason I got to thinking about this, really analyzing what Jet’s death means (and doesn’t mean) for the show, was this conversation I was having with @the-hot-zone in discord dms. We were talking about book 2 and ways it could have been better, and Zone said that they thought that Jet would have been a stronger character to parallel with Zuko’s redemption than Iroh and that seeing more of the narrative from Jet’s perspective could have strengthened the show’s themes. And when it came to the question of Jet’s death, they said, “And if we are going with Jet dying, then I want it to hurt. I want it to hurt just as much as if a main character like Sokka had died. I want the viewer to see Jet's struggles, his triumphs, the facets of Jet that make him compelling and important to the show.” And all of that just hit me. Because we don’t get that, do we? Jet’s death barely leaves a mark. Jet himself barely leaves a mark. His death isn’t plot-significant, doesn’t inspire character growth in any of our MCs, and doesn’t even accomplish the thematic relevance that it claims to. So what was the point? 
Conclusion
Much as I dislike it, Yue’s death actually added something to atla. It could have added much, much more, in the hands of writers who gave more of a shit about their Brown female characters and were less intent on seeing them suffer and knocking them down a peg, but, in my opinion, it did work for what it was trying to do. Jet? Jet? Nah, fam. Jet never got the chance to really develop into a likable character because he was always put at odds with characters we already liked, and the framing skewed their way, not his. The dude never really had a chance.        
*multiple people have spoken about how the NWT as depicted in atla is not reminiscent of real life Inuit and Yupik people and culture. I am not the person to go into detail about this, but I encourage you to check out Native-run blogs for more info!
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thedykeprincess ¡ 4 years ago
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So you were disappointed in Throne of Glass...
 (DISCLAIMER: This post does not intend to offend anyone who loves ToG. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and likes and dislikes and is allowed to express that. This post is meant to share books that have similar qualities to ToG for people who were disappointed in the series, like myself, but anyone who does like ToG can absolutely find great recs here! However, if you don’t want to hear anything ToG critical I recommend skipping over this post. Thank you!)
So last week I finally got rid of all my ToG books. I was mostly relieved that I now have more room on my bookshelf but I also felt a little sad. It was a series I really enjoyed when I first read it two years ago, and on some level it will always have a special place for me. It was one of the many books that got me back into reading after a five year slump, it’s the reason I became friends with the wonderful Nicole (@/rainbowbooktheif on Instagram) who was the first person irl to make me feel less alone as a bookish nerd, and it, unintentionally, helped me hone my critical reading skills. However, I slowly began to care less and less for the story and characters as the series progressed and ended up not reading the last two books because I just stopped caring. I wondered why a series that I loved so much in the beginning went down hill so fast for me, but in the process of falling out of love with ToG I realized I wasn’t the only one who felt this way about the series! The lack of diversity (and misrepresentation/mistreatment of diverse characters when they were there), sexism, lazy editing and lackluster world building, among other things, came up many times for me and other former ToG fans when discussing why we became disappointed in the series. But the pitch for the book (badass morally gray assassin taking down a tyrant king for her freedom, so cool!) and some of the elements (romance, female friendships, magic, trials) sounded so amazing even though in the end it was executed poorly. So, I decided to compile a list of books that I have read and loved that have some elements and themes of ToG. This list is by no means exhaustive and is limited by the books that I have read (which is not many when you look at how many books exist in the world) so I would love to see your recommendations! Please feel free to add onto this post any recs that you have! Now onto the list!
1) Graceling by Kristin Cashore
I read this book the summer before I started ToG and completely loved it. It was one of the early books that got me back into reading and it was honestly the perfect book for that. It was exciting and I couldn’t put it down. It follows an assassin for a tyrannical king who begins to realize her own gifts for killing are more then she ever thought they could be. Cashore does a fantastic job developing the lead character Katsa and the ways that she dolls out information to the readers slowly is impeccable. While this book is technically the first in a trilogy of books taking place in the Graceling world, it can be read as a standalone fantasy (which I feel like are very rare). Another part of this book that I really loved was the romance. I usually don’t read very many straight romances (due to the sexist/problematic aspects many of the ones that I’ve read have) but the relationship between Katsa and Po is honestly a breath of fresh air when you’re used to a lot of toxicity and sexism with cishet romances in books. The two take care of each other and their relationship is very balanced. There are no gender roles pushed on either of them and they truly grow to become a team throughout the story and it’s wonderful to see! I would consider Katsa and Po, while canonically cis (there isn’t any explicit queer rep in this book), both quite androgynous characters who often express themselves in a fluid manner which I really appreciate. Over all this is an amazing classic YA fantasy that everyone should check out!
Synopsis: “Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.
She never expects to fall in love with beautiful Prince Po.
She never expects to learn the truth behind her Grace—or the terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.
With elegant, evocative prose and a cast of unforgettable characters, debut author Kristin Cashore creates a mesmerizing world, a death-defying adventure, and a heart-racing romance that will consume you, hold you captive, and leave you wanting more.”
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2) Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
This book is the first in a five book series about three royal sisters raised to battle it out for the throne. I must admit the first book in the series is a little lackluster due to the fact that it’s setting up a lot but the second book just blows everything out of the water in a fantastic way. This series is dark and bloody and intriguing. I got completely hooked on this series and it brought out a lot of emotion to the point where I was gasping and shouting and throwing my book around as I was reading it (I got very invested)! I think that’s one of the things SJM can do well is get you hooked on her characters and Kendare can do the same (if not better). I love the dynamic between the sisters, this book does a great job at exploring the darker side of familial and female/female relationships (mostly platonic.. there isn’t very much queer rep unfortunately) that I really appreciate. The magic system and wolrdbuliding are also something that I enjoyed and I though was quite well done. Kendare does a good job at weaving in worldbuilding and magic system seamlessly into the story and I love that so much. Three Dark Crowns is just a fun and exciting series that I think anyone who loves fantasy YA should check out!
Synopsis: “ In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born—three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions.
But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins.
The last queen standing gets the crown. “
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3) The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
So a little disclaimer, this book is one of my favorite fantasy books of all time. I read it over the span of a few months last summer (its a long one guys...800+ pages) and it was one of the greatest, most well thought out fantasy books I’d ever had the pleasure of reading. I loved the characters, the world, the plot, the magic system etc. I loved everything! There’s some great political intrigue, dragon riders, epic battles, prophecies, weddings, funerals, romance and just general badassery and kickassery happening. Shannon clearly put so much time and effort into this book and it shows. That kind of dedication that shows is something that I really appreciate in a book, especially a fantasy book. Another aspect that I loved so so much is the diversity in this book. It came so naturally and didn’t at all feel like tokenism. The characters, with their differing genders, ethnicities, sexualities, ages, and nationalities etc, and their relationships with each other are truly what made the story. This book also has one of the BEST f/f romances I’ve ever read (as a queer woman I really loved that representation so much and felt very connected to both of those characters). Priory is a long one but if you have the time I highly recommend it.
Synopsis: “ A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, TanĂŠ has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep. “
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4) Truthwitch by Susan Dennard
As a queer woman, I’m always a little on edge when someone mentions f/f friendship in a book. This is entirely because of the erasure many many f/f romances experience when they are just brushed off as friendships (we’ve all heard the term “gal pals”). It’s frustrating and even though I love a good f/f friendship when the f/f romances get erased and replaced by friendships it gets exhausting. However, Truthwitch is a true f/f friendship that I can fully get behind! Dennard is an author that I had been following for writing tips for a while before I finally picked up her book. I knew that she’s someone who is invested in making her series diverse, even if she herself doesn’t fit into those categories, and accepts criticism because she want’s to do her characters justice. That’s something I really appreciate seeing from white cishet authors and is one of the reasons I picked up Truthwitch. It’s so much fun and the heart of the story truly is the relationship between the two leads Safi and Iseult. Their friendship reminds me a lot of my relationship with my friends. Books about f/f relationships (romantic or otherwise) are few and far between so I really love that this book exists. Strong platonic relationships are so often pushed aside for cishet romantic ones so it’s SO refreshing to see a series where the book would not exist without Safi and Iseult’s bond. They are truly soulmates and their relationship with each other is the most important one in their lives and that is just beautiful. Not to mention this book has got an awesome magic system and is building up to an amazing fantasy series! There’s pirates, priestesses, princes and, of course, witches! It’s loads of fun all around!
Synopsis: “ Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.
Safi must avoid capture at all costs as she's a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden - lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult's true powers are hidden even from herself.
In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls' heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike. For some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch. “
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5) Monstress by Marjorie Liu (Writer) and Sana Takeda (Illustrator) 
Another disclaimer! This book is my favorite graphic novel, period. There is really nothing like Monstress out there and I think that it’s criminally underrated. Liu and Takeda are the perfect combo of writer/artist to make this GN come together. I’m constantly in awe of the world, characters, and story Liu built and the frankly stunning art Takeda creates to go along with it. It’s steampunk and dark and dirty and beautiful. The lead character, Maika, is one of the few truly morally gray characters that I’ve read. Her decisions will make you question if you’re a good person because you still love her despite the fact that she just killed that guy... and that guy... and those other guys. This graphic novel series is very reflective of the dark animes (like Tokyo Ghoul and Castlevania) that we are seeing more recently and I personally believe Monstress would make a fantastic animated series if it were ever to get an adaption. This book has also some great representation of queer women (Maika herself is a queer, disabled, WoC). It’s totally the norm for the world and all of the lead female characters are queer, which I just love. This story has amazing woldbulding, magic, characters etc. It’ll give you everything from giant dead gods, to talking cats with multiple tails, to demonically possessed teenage girls who need to eat people. It’s honestly amazing. (I would give a major trigger warning for blood/gore so as long as you know you can handle that I think you should check it out!)
Synopsis: “ Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900's Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steam punk, MONSTRESS tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, and who shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both and make them the target of both human and otherworldly powers. “
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6) The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen
I never thought I would love a cishet romance as much as I love this one but here I am. The Bridge Kingdom is not really the kind of book I would normally pick up but it was on sale on kindle so I thought “why not!” And I was not disappointed. This story follows the assassin princess, Lara, who was raised to be married off to her fathers rival kingdom and kill the king. However, things get sticky when she begins to actually fall for the king and starts to realize that her father isn’t exactly who he says he is. Not only was this romance steamy as hell (this is an ADULT book folks so there are some explicit sex scenes, beware) but the world is super cool. The political intrigue was something I really enjoyed and I loved to see the world unfold from Lara’s eyes. I also totally loved Lara’s character. She’s complicated and cutthroat but ultimately want’s to do what’s right and is a character made to change and develop. I usually don’t go for that character trope that Lara fits into (beautiful and badass and despite being the MCs they somehow end up being very bland...) but Jensen managed to create a very mature and ever changing version of the YA trope that I ended up loving completely. If you love steamy fantasy romances with cool worlds and intriguing characters this is absolutely the book for you!
Synopsis: “ Lara has only one thought for her husband on their wedding day: I will bring your kingdom to its knees. A princess trained from childhood to be a lethal spy, Lara knows that the Bridge Kingdom represents both legendary evil - and legendary promise. The only route through a storm-ravaged world, the Bridge Kingdom controls all trade and travel between lands, allowing its ruler to enrich himself and deprive his enemies, including Lara's homeland. So when she is sent as a bride under the guise of fulfilling a treaty of peace, Lara is prepared to do whatever it takes to fracture the defenses of the impenetrable Bridge Kingdom.
But as she infiltrates her new home - a lush paradise surrounded by tempest seas - and comes to know her new husband, Aren, Lara begins to question where the true evil resides. Around her, she sees a kingdom fighting for survival, and in Aren, a man fiercely protective of his people. As her mission drives her to deeper understanding of the fight to possess the bridge, Lara finds the simmering attraction between her and Aren impossible to ignore. Her goal nearly within reach, Lara will have to decide her own fate: Will she be the destroyer of a king or the savior of her people? “
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kiraziwrites ¡ 4 years ago
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J/B Smut Swap Recs
Okay, I’m still stumbling toward the finish line in my effort to read and comment on all the glorious banging in the @jb-smut-swap exchange by 9:00 AM tomorrow—but I’m going to go ahead and post this rec list now, just in case I don’t manage to get to them all before the author reveals.
I kept trying—and failing—to narrow this list down, so I’m keeping these brief. See below the fold for some of my favorites, awarded by category. In no particular order:
My favorite sex bruises fic: my wonderful gift, a grip so tight i couldn’t tear it apart (I’ll do a proper post linking & thanking the author tomorrow!) with an honorable mention to crosslines, the scratches and stains. I love how these both managed to take the same prompt in different directions, one focused on the pleasure of flaunting marks as proof of the relationship, the other on savoring them as a hidden, exciting secret.
My favorite first-time fic: Thrust Exercises. I would adore this for the invention of strip-sparring alone (and the joyfully thotty Jaime) but it’s also the perfect balance of hot, funny, and tender. I think it’s probably my favorite wedding-night fic for these two ever.
My favorite prose: we used to wait. This fic is moody and atmospheric and has an incredible sense of place—the smut and story are great too, but I was captured by the way the experience of reading it felt almost cinematic.
My favorite clothing-porn fic: This has got to be a tie between Clothes (un)Make the Man and Light My Fire, both of which are sizzling explorations of how garments can be as hot—or even hotter—than full nakedness. 
My favorite feelings in the porn-with-feelings: with those who know secret things. Look, everyone else has already rec’d this one, and I don’t need to tell you why. It’s a masterpiece of characterization-via-sexual encounter, and also my favorite use of dom/sub elements in the exchange.
My favorite threesome fic: Second Chances. This is a fic as much about anticipating sex as it is about having it, and the crackling tension between Brienne, Jaime, and Addam was as much a pleasure to read about as its eventual realization. (All the threesome fics were great, though—honorable mention to I’ll never let you go (if you promise not to fade away) for making the tricky premise of Jaime/Brienne/Cersei work so well.)
My favorite use of a sex toy: what is dark in me illumine. Okay, there’s a lot more to this one than just the vibrating butt plug, but whew did I enjoy the vibrating butt plug (and everything else about this, from the sexual implications of Jaime’s supernatural abilities to the perfect union of worldbuilding and characterization).  
My favorite blowjob: Nights Avoiding Things Unholy. My comments on Discord may have badgered the author into adding a cock worship tag to this one, and I stand by that opinion—but the worship goes both ways, and the whole thing is 🔥.
My favorite use of temporality: Today Will Die Tomorrow. I loved the way this tender, searing look at a first-time on the verge of apocalypse modulated back and forth between two moments in the same evening, until they came together with a bang (just like Jaime and Brienne). 
My favorite banter: Binary Explosive. I could read these two talk (and fuck) for another 5000 words. The electricity between them here leaps off the page, and not just because they’re literally wired to a bomb.
My favorite sex in a body of water: Apart, Together, Together Apart. There’s a lot more to this lovely, tender post-canon fic than just the waterfall scene, but as a Jaime x Brienne x Baths aficionado, I’m awarding it for that part alone. 
My favorite dirty talk: Good Long Line of Praises. The smut swap features many terrific explorations of Jaime being mouthy (in every sense of the word) but I especially loved this fic for flipping the script and focusing on what Brienne has to say once she realizes just how much of a praise kink he’s got.
My favorite pegging fic: what you'd do to me tonight. Okay, technically the only pegging fic, but I’m always going to go for Brienne bending Jaime over a desk, and I love the easy, comfortable, happily-married (but still horny) vibes in this. 
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mappinglasirena ¡ 5 years ago
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Mapping La Sirena
Welcome one and all to the Mapping La Sirena Project!
If you are a fan of Star Trek: Picard and you would like to know more about the show’s most prominent ship, to check out floor plans and screencaps, and to discuss theories about the layout of this magnificent vessel, this is will be the place for you!
(Long, slightly rambly introduction and masterpost after the cut ;] )
Hi! My name is Lili and I’ve been a fan of pretty much all things Star Trek ever since I started watching Voyager at the tender age of 6. Besides the sometimes goofy, often brilliant storytelling and the wonderful characters, I always loved the worldbuilding of these shows - and in particularly the starships.
When Star Trek: Picard started airing a  few months ago, I was immediately drawn to the main ship, La Sirena. The mixture of the monumental physical set, judiciously used CGI, and sheer attention to detail made me fall madly in love with this little mermaid, and I wanted to find out every little thing about her that I possibly could. And since I imagine, I’m not the only one who feels this way, I decided to take you all on this journey with me!
What am I doing here?
As a reader and writer of fanfic, I know how helpful it can be to have a clear sense of the location your story is set in. When I realized that a good month after the final episode of ST:PIC season one aired, there still was no floor plan of La Sirena easily found on the web (easily = using my very limited googling-skills), I figured somebody had to sit down and do it. And apparently, that somebody was me. (May the gods help us all =D)
So, I sat myself down, and over the course of a few long days screencapped every single last scrap of Sirena that appears on the show. I now have a library of reference images and will post my progress as I work through them, trying to determine questions about the general layout of this ship, the details of its architecture and furnishings and all the questions that still remain. By the end of it, I am pretty confident that I will have a mostly accurate floorplan of the set that was used on the show (at least the parts of it that were shown to us thus far). We might even end up with the basis for a plan of the ship as it would exist in-universe (more on the movie set vs. “real place” issue later).
The following soon-to-be-links might give you an idea of what I plan to post over the next few months and I’ll keep adding links to this post as I go. So, without (even more) ado: Have fun exploring La Sirena!
Schematics & Floor Plans
A very crude first sketch
Official Set plan
We finally have an official set plan from the Ready Room!
A First Deeper Look at the Ready Room set plans
Centred Floor Plans from Set Me Up + cross section & more designs
Layout of the Captain’s Quarters
Shape and size
How large is La Sirena as seen on the show and is she larger on the inside?
Upper Deck
The Bridge
Where is the Holodeck?
Picard���s Study
Transporter Pad and Engine
The Trouble with Locating the Quarters/Conference Room
Crew Quarters
Captain’s Quarters
A closer Look at the windows
Conference room
The Mysterious Back End of the Ship
Crates, Tanks, Boxes, and Miscellania
Lower Deck
The Mess
Sickbay: Pt. 1: Size and Construction; Pt. 2: Furniture
So Many Nets
The Wall Problem, aka. Mysterious Nonexistent Corridors
Cargo Bay and other Speculative Spaces
Is there a dedicated cargo bay at the back of the ship?
Where are the rest of the crew quarters hidden?
Overall Design and Technological Aspects
A quick rundown of the Engine placement and history
Some Considerations
Tv Set vs . Starship
The set of La Sirena is just that, a tv set. When building a set, there are many constraints of time, budget, and practicality that will force the creatives to make decisions that will not always make sense when mapped onto a “real” starship. Take, for example, the fact that the Captain’s Quarters and the Conference Room were likely filmed in the same physical set, just redressed for the occasion.
Of course, there can always be Watsonian explanations for these kinds of incongruities and I’d love to hear people’s takes or read fics about them (after all, the entirety of La Sirena is apparently equipped with holoemitters, so I suppose technically, anything is possible).
But I am sticking with the Doylian “it’s a movie set” approach and will generally ignore these kinds of problems when trying to draft an in-universe-accurate floorplan of what we can know of the ship so far. I will be very diligent about pointing out whenever I handwave anything, though, so if you want to stick as closely to what we actually see on the whoe, you’ll know which parts of my analysis/headcanon to disregard ;)
Questions about “silly little details”
I have spend a ridiculous amount of time on this little project so far and in the course of it have gotten pretty familiar with a lot of aspects of the interior and exterior of this amazing starship. If you have any questions regarding details about what we can see of La Sirena on the show, please ask me and I will do my best to help! I absolutely love digging into the really nitpicky, tiny little scraps of information, and at this point, I can probably tell you straight away which scene might provide the info you’re looking for or whether there likely is no answer and you’ll have to get creative. So if you don’t feel like scrubbing through the entire 10 episodes of Picard to find out, say, the colour of the plates produced by Sirena’s replicators, please shoot me an ask, I’m always utterly delighted to help! (They’re white, btw.)
And just to make clear what I mean by “tiny little details”: in the course of writing some of my stories, I have collected answers to such important questions as
On which side of the desk does Rios have his chair? (Both)
How many cups are on the shelf next to the replicators? (4, even when one of them is currently in use)
Could a football roll under the railing on the upper deck and fall down into the mess hall anywhere but where the stairs go down? (No, there is a raised edge all around the rim that would catch it. Bouncing would work, though, since the space between the railing bars is large enough.)
Could I just say “Fuck it, I’ll just write it however, because it really doesn’t matter at all?” Yes. Would it be better for my sanity? Probably. Will I still keep trying to figure out as much about this crazy little ship as I possibly can at every turn? You betcha! So, no question is too silly, please ask away!!
A Quick Thought on Fanfic and “Accuracy”
This whole project started because whenever I write fanfic or make up stories set on La Sirena, my brain keeps insisting that we need to know which side of the mess hall the replicators are on! We need to know where exactly the holodeck is located and whether a football could fall to the lower deck through the railing. I would never hold anyone to these standards of “accuracy” - in fact I frequently don’t hold myself to these standards. Fic is for creative expression, so if in your imagination, La Sirena is twice the size of what we see in the show and has a ton of additional rooms and features, I would love to read that story! I want to create a resource for anyone looking for Sirena references to get inspired, not to point out inconsistencies or canon-divergence in lovingly created fanworks. I hope it comes across that way =)
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adamantiii ¡ 5 years ago
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(*°ー°)ノ -slides everything else on that Munday meme here- do it~♡
@tcpsytxrvy​
† Do you portray your muse as religious? Why or why not? How does your own religion (or lack thereof) influence this?
I do not portray Delia as religious and there are two reasons for it. The first, and the most prominent reason, is her personality and attitude in general. I just can’t see her being the type of person who’d really follow one, honestly. It has less to do with her beliefs in a god or higher power and more her free-spirited nature; she does not like being told how to live her life, especially by other people. She would not take well to being told she has to act, think, or live a certain way - she gets enough of that from her aunt as it is. 
My own tendency towards non-religion does have some part in it as, because it’s not a huge part of my life, it doesn’t seem like it would be something significant. There is also the fact that I do not trust internet sources on the matter of religion or culture ( I can’t tell you how many time I’ve read something and then had someone who is actually part of that religion or culture explain that it’s inaccurate or incorrect), and would rather not make it an aspect of my character than run the risk of misportraying it. 
☑ What is a plot idea you’re willing to play with virtually any partner? What makes that plot so special to you?
I don’t do plot ideas, per say. I mean, I have them, but any idea I would want to do stems from original works of mine that, as a result of past issues (read: people lifting stuff off my old dA account and trying to sell it on Amazon), I’d rather not put online. Let’s just say I have the worst luck when it comes to theft and I’ve gotten extremely stingy about posting original content or mentioning it to people. But I’m always up for AUs, especially anything Star Wars or Fantasy related.
✰ How did you decide your muse’s skills and talents? Do they relate to their occupation in some way?
In most cases, I look at their personality and occupation and figure out what fits best with it, but with Delia, I wanted to step outside of the norm, at least in my case. Most of Delia’s however, are learned and mostly self-taught. Like, she’s that person who gets bored and spends hours binge-watching internet tutorials on some of the most random things. One or two things may be a natural talent, such as her artistic ability, or taught, like her figure skating ability, but the rest are mostly  She sees something that sparks her interest and she just does it.
Except cooking. No matter how many times she’s tried, she just cannot grasp the concept. She can barely make toast without burning it. 
Ⅶ If you have multiple blogs and/or muses, which one is your favorite? Why?
I’ve had numerous blogs but one of my One Piece OCs will always be my favorite. I put years of work into her and her personality and general set up isn’t like most characters I normally write. She’s not my first, by far, but she’s definitely the one I’m most proud of. (I’m actually in the process of working out her BNHA verse, even if she would be Midnight 2.0…).
✎ When choosing a name for your muse, did you pick something special or meaningful in some way?
I’m a huge sucker for hidden meaning and symbolism, and in most cases, there usually is some underlying meaning in my characters’ names, but with Delia, it was less meaning and more “I like how that sounds”.  That, and finding English names that work with Japanese surnames is harder than you’d think. 
☺ If you have a faceclaim for your muse, why did you choose them? Are you satisfied with your fc, or would you rather find a different one?
The short answer is I already had icons when I used her for a previous OC. As for satisfied? I’m never satisfied, lmao. But honestly, finding an FC for a character that isn’t too expressive, but not completely stoic, that also doesn’t look twelve is a lot harder than it seems. Especially for me, considering how picky I am with art style.
♥ When it comes to shipping, what factors are absolutely necessary for a ship to develop?
This ain’t tinder, y’all. There’s none of that this ain’t working and bail with the breadsticks twenty minutes into it. Chemistry is an absolute must. I know my character and I know what types of people she does and doesn’t like and if I feel that a ship won’t work, it most likely won’t. Of course, the actual development is also important, but if that initial “spark” isn’t there, then there’s already a problem.
Communication and discussion between partners is also super important. I get very invested in my ships and, to be 100% transparent, easily discouraged if I feel my partners aren’t as interested. 
❝ ❞ Is it easy for you to write dialog for your muse? Do their speech patterns come naturally to you while writing?
Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. My main issue is keeping a couple of things in mind when writing her dialogue. Delia’s a little tricky because she’s bilingual and she’s pretty obvious about it, but her Japanese isn’t perfect. It’s basically textbook Japanese with some phrases or wordings she’s picked up over the years and she has a habit of throwing English words into the middle of her sentences (I italicize them and she does this to try and cover up the fact that she doesn’t actually know the word she’s looking for). The hardest part, as my knowledge of Japanese is limited to maybe three or four words, is knowing which words she’d mispronounce - because it’s supposed to happen a lot, especially with the ones that rely heavily on emphasis. Like, if she ever says “bridge” out of nowhere, she probably actually meant “chopsticks”.
Normally, I wouldn’t bother with that, but it is a big part of her character (she gets really defensive if someone points it out), and it makes replies a bit difficult to do at times. 
❀ What is a muse you want to play but haven’t? Why haven’t you played them yet?
I considered Shinsou at one point, but the whole canon privilege issue I talked about in an earlier ask is pretty much what stopped me from doing so.
✸ Tell us about any NPCs on your blog. Who are they to your muse? What do they contribute to your blog?
I’ll be honest with you, I don’t even know what could be considered an NPC in reference to tumblr roleplaying…
✼ When it comes to worldbuilding, what are some ideas you’d like to explore in rp?
Just about anything, really. Like, literally any scenario brings the potential for development in general and I’m always down for that.
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rickktish ¡ 6 years ago
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Necessity is the mother of invention, and therefore nothing calls to the creative mind quite so strongly as that which has been left half-formed and abandoned, where it seems just a few touches more will shape it into something that makes actual sense. Every concept in Naruto is like this: given a good base, but left abandoned after that with the hope that “it looks like a backstory, it sounds like a backstory, it probably fills in enough holes to cover any questions left, yes?”
And I do mean every. single. concept. I challenge you to find a single thing in the Naruto world, whether it be a character backstory or a piece of lore or some fundamental worldbuilding piece like the very nature of the hidden villages that isn’t  missing major, key parts to make it actually make sense. 
Tech? whacked. Government and economy? what the fuck. Education system? ...how? History? uhhh... lemme try to do some math-- nope, nothing fits quite right. Physics? I mean... no. Just no.
It’s not just that it’s a near hit-and-miss perfect story. It’s that literally everything in it is so close and they all miss so very narrowly. Every piece of the Narutoverse exhibits the very necessity that leads to the greatest of inventions.
The problem is thus:
There are two parts to any science: the what and the why.
what happens in Gravity?
Things go down.
why do things go down?
Matter is attracted to matter. (this is an extreme simplification, don’t kill me please)
So let’s try applying this to Narutoverse lore:
what does chakra do in the body?
it moves around natural currents within the body, based in the tenketsu points demonstrated in lovely, clear diagram by Byakugan Vision.
why does chakra do this in the body?
a/nLWJF,M .err Kishimoto.exe has stopped report probleal;kdn,gasmakdjfh A goddess with bunny ears ate a magic fruit and there was this tree from space and 
that. That is the problem. Kishimoto is very, very good at the what. He gives us diagrams, he gives us explanations, he shows us how the magic moves. Do you know how many authors show us how the magic moves? like, Kishimoto, Terry Pratchett, and maybe like two others. We’re lowly readers, we don’t get to see how magic moves, we just need to see that it does. And the fact that he lets us see it happen? is epic and gives us the foundation we need to turn it into the D&D sandbox arena described by @ghostlykaijutsu above. 
And the characters only make it better!
Kishimoto has what is, while perhaps not a unique problem to his work alone, certainly the most rampant and well-known example of it in the world of media: too many characters with well-developed stories and personalities and not nearly enough time to explore them. Even the undeveloped ones have just enough information that the fandom has been able to make them into real people. Izumo and Kotetsu? If you’ve been in the fandom for at least long enough to read the manga, even if you never learned their names in the actual work, you know that they’re the gate guards and are best friends and probably gay for each other. Either way one does not exist without the other. Raido and Genma just kind of go together, who even knows why. Genma sucks on senbon, and is therefore probably a precision poison specialist. Heck, we’ve made up stories about Kakashi’s dogs and had them become generally accepted as fanon (fandom canon, we can’t even tell if it was in the original work anymore because everyone just knows it’s true). And let’s not even get started on the female characters, who have very clear RIDICULOUS AMOUNTS OF POWER and also personalities but no backstories whatsoever so we just?? don’t?? know?? why?? As a fan, How in Fuck do you expect me to leave that untapped? You can’t reasonably imagine we’re just going to let that go.
Kishimoto’s work is singular in just how near a miss his near miss is. A lot of works have everything right but there are just one or two pieces that ruin it. That’s the typical work; everyone has a complaint about at least one thing, even in their absolute favorite media in the world. Kishimoto broke that stereotype by getting absolutely everything to where it’s fascinating, dynamic, effective-- but rather than having one point that screws it up, literally everything is just slightly... skewed. Off-kilter. He didn’t just have the work as a whole come close, every aspect of it is so well developed and clearly put that the glaring holes become discombobulating. It’s like looking at a copy of an Escher painting where instead of reconnecting, the lines have been left just a little bit too long and go off to one side just slightly, or a replica of Van Gogh’s Starry Night where the yellows are just barely too green and the blue is less than half a shade too light and the whole thing has been twisted, ever so slightly, to the left at the top so there’s an awkward white space on one edge of the canvas that only goes halfway down. It doesn’t make sense; how can it be so good, so close to being good, and manage to fall short at just the last minute?
That’s why we keep coming back to Naruto. We love to fix broken things, and there’s nothing so attractive as that which declares it’s wholeness with a bright “dattebayo!!” and tries so badly to hide it’s broken bits behind animal masks without changing hairstyles at all. Some part of ourselves keeps believing: If I read it just once more, if I look just a little harder, ther must be some kind of sense hidden in here; but it keeps falling short. It keeps being broken, and it’s so close, we find that we all just have this need, this urge...
to fix it.
we’re all sensible people. we’ve all seen good anime with good writing, with good characters, with strong female characters having moving stories. they have all the good things that we look for in a story. so why. why does it always come back to fuckin naruto
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rankstuck ¡ 8 years ago
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Recent anon's Rankstuck world-building headcanon shenanigans
Title of this is pretty self explanatory; I’m the anon who started to adore this AU more than I probably should and just came up with a bunch of headcanons for it because I love worldbuilding…… and saw the panels from the Rankstuck origin with the random troll and human designs and figured to drag my fankid and fantroll trash into the mix.  This large headcanon of mine is of an entire separate society and culture that resides within the Infinite Forest of the Horrorterrors.  But why would anyone want to live their considering how never-ending and dangerous they are to all who enter?  Because a powerful Aspecter took what the Condesce's “You are welcome to live in the Horrorterror forest if you disagree,"  seriously.  The person who is to be accredited with these people was a man by the name of Liam Haze. A Mage of Void who was one of the Aspecters discovered by the Handmaid, Condesce, and Hass Harley; and newfound abilities allowed him to detect the hidden powers of wayward Aspecters, and guide the original trio to them prior to the creation of the Rankstuck world. Upon arriving with the rest of the Rankstuck world "colonists”, he felt betrayed by his former teachers and decided to take his newfound friends’ fate into his own hands and free them of a life of just being “breeding fodder” and have truly meaningful lives. And many years later more found their way to him by running into the forest to avoid punishment for telling the banned stories of their old universe homes. As the years went on these new nomads of both Aspecters and aspectless people began to form their own traveling society within the vast expanses of the forest. The first many years were INCREDIBLY hazardous and trying to Liam and his followers; but he used his powers of learning, the unknown, and mystery to grasp what the founding three and the other loyal citizens of the kingdoms would find impossible to comprehend.  They created gates; pathways only identifiable by Liam and those he taught could navigate and detect. The Aspecters who were skilled in Heart, Hope, Life, Light, and Mind worked tirelessly with classes known for creation to create ghostly guides called sprites that could assist when one was separated from their migrant bands or advice from a third party. To tap into the potential of the dream bubbles that the horrorterrors would glub into shelters or communicate with others over a long distance.  Liam and his followers had become what would be known to this world as the Skaia people.  Despite Liam Haze's long Aspecter lifespan though; after many, many generations he eventually died. On his deathbed though, he was happy it turned out this way. As it ensured that the people he taught to survive in this harsh forest would not only stay out of the clutches of who he deemed to be ‘traitors’… but also pass down their knowledge and wisdom to the future generations of Skaians, and allow the new generations to explore their powers without preconceptions and bias as to how strong/weak they are. Since their numbers grew quite large for many a generation; they were no longer able to travel as one incredibly large band and sustain and share all the resources they had at the same time. This contributed to the creation of Sessions. Much smaller groups that could range from 2 to 48 people that were all trolls or humans; so they could share their findings with each other and not have most of the group go hungry; as well as to continue to reproduce humanity and troll lineages. However all still to this day will travel to the final resting place of Liam known to all Skians as the Medium to celebrate the Ultimate Reward Festival. A big event that’s kind of like the Fourth of July, a county fair, and religious holiday all rolled into one that celebrates what they deem to be their ultimate reward: Freedom from the Handmaid, Condesce, and Hass Harley. Other parts of the Skaian culture developed without Liam as well. When young Skaians reach the age of 13 years or 6 sweeps of age; they go on Quests.Travels that are mandatory for young Aspecters to reach the full potential of their powers and for those who are aspectless to prove they can help their Sessions and survive on their own. During this time the Aspecters become Servers; protecting and directing the powerless on their Quest that could mortally harm them. While the aspectless become Clients, who must be like the aspectless tools against the aspect-immune Horrorterrors and gather important resources for their Sessions.  Neither Aspector or aspectless can be considered adults and official members of their Session until they complete their respective group’s Quest. These tests are also very important for those who have already past though; as it allows them to map out more of their incomprehensibly infinite world; find the locations and nests of Underlings or Horrorterrors or even Dream Bubbles, and create new paths for Sessions to stick to on their never-ending journeys.  But for the many generations before the Kingdom rebellions began, Hass Harley and the Condesce had no idea the Skaia people even existed. As they lived incredibly deep into the Horrorterror Forest and rarely went to the edge of it by choice. However they would sometimes mock their old student and friend, by claiming Liam’s abandonment of them to be outright disrespectful and that he was like an oil slick that caused many people to slip into death prematurely. They even coined their old friend’s modern day nickname: Bilious Slick: “The Speaker of the Vast Croak.” But during the revolution; they noticed that some of the rebels were getting supplies from unknown sources. After many, MANY generations had gone by the Empire and Dominion discovered their existence.  The Skaians originally had only slight contempt for those who lived in the two kingdoms. They were scared of the new world as much as they were, and felt they needed good leaders. They were lead astray from actual freedom and were what they would deem to be very confused. But when a Session discovered wounded rebels that ran deep into the woods to hide from those who wished to stop them; they decided to come to their aid, in hopes that those in the Kingdoms could attain the freedom they now achieved.  But after the rebellion died down due to Redglare’s “influence”, the two immortal rulers thought that these newly discovered “uncivilized people” needed to be dealt with. One of the many things that weakened Redglare was her control of Aspecters to “slay” the horrorterrors that could harm their lands. But seeing as they were being control and had no say in their actions, these people failed to realize that they were killing Skaians as well. This became known as to the Skaians as The Reckoning and since then it has caused more contempt and hatred to the “insiders” of the two kingdoms than Liam ever had. To this day this part of the deep forest is a sacred memorial burial ground for Skaians known as the Battlefield. And it is not uncommon to see a Session traveling through this area to pay respects to those who lost their lives on that day. With the ranking system now in play during the current time of this AU; Skaians are now regarded as dangerous illusions conjured by the Horrorterrors and their Underlings. Rare, powerful, and realistic Human and Troll like mirages conjured by the beats to let fighters guards down. Bilious Slickis finally known to the citizens of both Human and Troll kingdoms in their taught history; but his actual origin of being a human Void Aspecter had been revised. Both Hass and the Condesce made Liam out to be the first traitorous and insidious outcast. Who lured hundreds of innocent weak doom, heart, void Aspecters and lower ranked classes to their deaths; by promising their already “weak” abilities could reach the level of power that Life or Hope Aspecters had. This propaganda about Bilious being an outright villain has made the word “slick” the worst insult one could call another Aspecter. And sometimes the more foul-mouthed citizens of the Empire and Domain use this as a swear word to insult and demean banished outcasts.  On the topic of who the Skians would be in this AU; I think that troll and human version of the Carapaces would be appropriate aspectless Skians. But I also personally imagine some of my aforementioned fankids and trolls would be as well. But for another quick note on Skian Aspecter culture: Skians ideas on how aspects and classes work is highly reminiscent of what we are familiar with in Homestuck canon. All aspects and classes are equally powerful, but how they manifest themselves powerwise is up to the development, training and ingenuity of the Aspecter wielding them. Skians also have the belief that aspects have inversions and what not, like how with Light and Void are opposites, etc. They don’t have bias caused by the ranking system as they were never exposed to it. In regards to the potential plot of the Rankstuck AU, I really like the idea that one day Dirk or Roxy wander off during their first month of being in the Magenta Shadows team and encounter a Session of Skians for the first time; with the Session containing human or troll versions of the Aimless Renegade, The Mayor, PM, and maaaybe the White Queen?? I have no idea what their human or troll names would be though; as well if they themselves would all be Aspecters or aspectless. Or maybe they’d be a mix of both??  Also imagine the Midnight Crew as a Skian Session that are known criminals. And they hate the Kingdoms so much that they plan heists against them and give the supplies to other Sessions like Ronin Hood and his Merry Men. Only they’re more stabby and violent. Also if you’re curious as to why I chose Bilious Slick, the name of the genesis frog to be a human Aspecter who started all the shenanigans; it’s because I wanted to make a reference to Homestuck canon and how the “evil royalty” hates the Genesis Frog. I also chose him as to create some transformation symbolism; the Aspecters figuratively changed from tadpoles in schools following the Handmaid and pals only to become frogs that were free from the constraints of the pond. There’s also some frog cannibalism symbolism in there if you squint hard enough too. Frogs in nature will kill their own; which is shown here by the Humane Domain and the Alternian Empire killing off Aspecters from a different society. As for the reason for making Slick’s original name to be Liam Haze though. Liam is a diminutive of William. Bill is a nickname for William; and you can hear “Bill” as the first syllable in “Bilious”. Bilious can also mean irritable or distasteful. Which ties back to his disgust and anger in regards to his fellow Aspecters being brought to the Rankstuck world as breeding fodder. But also reflects the modern day Rankstuck kingdom’s hatred of him, too. The Vast Croak is also a pun. Because croak can also be slang for being dead or dying?? Get it?? Ha ha?? my puns are hilarious what are you talking about Haze can refer to an actual haze or fog, which obscures things like his Void aspect. But it can also be a nickname for Hazel. Hazel refers to the hazel tree; and Liam lead his people into a forest. But in Celtic mythology; hazel trees are known to have very magical properties. And hazel tree wood was often made to make helpful magical objects like walking sticks or staffs to help others.  This post is a very and incredibly long infodump for just one little headcanon; but I hope you like what I came up with and read everything I thank you from the bottom of my nerdy Homestuck-loving trash heart. I really enjoyed messing around and building upon your AU’s fantastic history and lore!! I hope that you can do more things with it soon!!   : D And who knows maybe I’ll pop in again with more ideas or exposition on my HS fanchars in this AU, ha ha.
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i promise to write a more coherent response later when i’m not busy - but right now i just want to say that it’s really really cool, your ideas fit with the world very well, and i just LOVE everything about it
thank you so much for writing this headcanon! or should i say fanfic ;)
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beyondthetemples ¡ 4 years ago
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{{ Mun: Portrayal Meme
1. Do you like how you portray your muse? I mean, it’s all subjective, but from my perspective, I do like how I portray her, yes. c: Gentle but fierce in the right moment (which hasn’t been explored much on this blog, but is absolutely a part of who she is). I manage to condense her worlds of thought into words, and I portray a wide variety of reactions and situations and emotions, and even now and then, the RP goes on long enough to even EXPLORE it more!
That’s the only downfall of my portrayal though. It’s hard for me to move a scene past the introductory stages, just because it’s hard for me to write sometimes, so a lot of threads only get into Phase 1 and 2 of story, and never gets to the climax much, let alone a resolution. :P And because it’s hard for me to move a scene there, it’s hard to get Dove to a climactic and resolving place as well.
2. Do you think you do your muse justice? For the most part, yeah. I feel like, due to the halting stop-and-go nature of Tumblr rps, it's really hard to move her past the point she's at. (That's why I ultimately decided to stop using a default timeline where Dove had just found the Titans, and decided to bump her up to the point after DDD and The Final Journey where she'd had her first unofficial "mission" and had already joined the team in their heroics. Plus, there's a lot more potential for Action Plots now that Dove (I don't think I'm leveraging that potential for her growth very much, though... hmmm.)
3. Do you portray your muse differently to the general fandom? Obviously, Dove is my baby, so nobody else portrays her, exactly. There are a lot of fan characters with the barest concept being similar to Dove, though. Of course, I found out after I created a character to be Raven's sister, that was actually a very common trope in TT fanfiction circa 2006. Even the name "Dove" for fancharacters wasn't totally unique, I'd learn later. But my Dove is the only one I've found that's anything like her.
The vast majority of Raven-sibling OCs tend to do dark magic, wear dark clothes, have a temper, and oftentimes have some kind of royalty or Chosen One thing going on. On the other hand, Dove's power is telepathy, she’s garbed in a white dress much more suited to her Azarathean heritage, and she’s so painfully shy, you wouldn’t know she’s a superhero until you see her in the moment of Actual Action. The canon of the comics re: Azarath also informed Dove’s character quite a bit, so there’s a lot of spirituality in her-- even if she completely sucks at magic and meditation (the former, basically forever, but at least she gets better at meditation...) And that’s another thing; Dove’s stories (and RPs?) start her off much earlier in the developement of her powers. She doesn’t know how to control them yet, because her mother never figured out how, and Dove’s place among the team is very much that of a student or little siblings tagging along for the ride, moreso than the “Chosen One” type of story.
4. What aspects of your muse do you most want to explore? Her growth through her relationships!
5. Are you looking to write any particular relationships with your muse? I mean, I'm willing to explore a romantic relationship with her and Caleb so obviously I'm excited for that! But also the platonic relationships, friends, acquaintances, maybe a few enemies. People she might be able to help, being a hero in more pacifistic ways.
6. Is your muse canon-divergent? How? Why? Dove was painstakingly developed specifically with canon in mind! (Mostly the comics, because it was adamantly stated that Trigon went after Raven so hard because she was THE ONLY child of his to survive! That's why Dove was kept a secret, kept hidden-- from the Watsonian perspective, it was because Dove's mother didn't want them to treat her child the way they treated Raven. But the Doylist explanation, the meta reason, boils down to the fact that Trigon, canonically, isn't supposed to have any other children, at all. and that canonical fact is why the "Sons of Trigon" storyline makes me SO ANGRY, but that's a rant for another time.
7. Is there a controversy or fandom disagreement revolving around your muse that has changed how you portray them? (I mean, she's an OC, kinda hard to have controversy when I only ever interact with like 5 people tops. 8F)
8. Do you use narrative text differently between muses, or does your writing stay the same style for everybody? Oh yes! My writing style changes dramatically based on mood and the character that's "narrating" the scene. ~ Dove's are usually very considerate, careful contemplation, so she tends to get a lot of words, and she's very quiet, so there's very little dialogue. ~ Kary's tends to be more "scoffy" and judgemental, physically and verbally expressive, and if she's contemplating, it's emotionally reactive. ~ Srentha is both bubbly and analytical, so his narrations tend to be eager and optimistic with a curious thought usually followed by a ton of questions or conclusions. ~ I haven't quite figured out what Leyla's style is yet, probably a mixed bag of contemplation and expression? ~ For grounded and perceptive Raven, I write brief and stark sentences, quick and to the point. (With the occasional thoughtful paragraph, because she's snarky, but she also has a lot going on internally.)
9. What thread types (e.g. angst, fluff) do you think portrays your character at their most genuine? Angst, horror, and hurt/comfort especially! For me, writing about Dove isn't about agonizing over her suffering, it's about how she heals from it and comes back stronger. It's about the people she's with who are willing to help her. It's about the COMFORT, not necessarily the hurt for me. (Though I'm always down for some delicious drama. As long as we can show them Being Better Afterwards, too.)
10. Are there any crossovers you’d be especially interested in writing? Dove on the Infinity Train? Whoooo boy, that could get interesting super fast! (So many opportunities for worldbuilding and character development!)
11. Do you write drabbles/headcanons for your character? Do you discuss them OOC, away from Tumblr? I talk about Dove all the time, okay. I don't think I have a single friend who doesn't know about Dove. Even my family knows about Dove.
12. Do you think your muse would act differently if they had interacted with different characters in the past? OH yeah. One of Dove's biggest struggles is social anxiety born from never interacting with anyone except her mother (and secretly Srentha every now and again). If Dove's situation was any different, she'd have much more confidence in social situations, and she'd be more at ease and more verbal. She'd show her calm, "zen" side to a lot more people.
13. Do you have any plans for the future of your muse? Would you like to see them grow a certain way? Shipping with Caleb will already fulfill one of my curiosities. But I'd really like to write about her Getting Over Her Fears in battle. She doubts herself and hesitates, which is a terrible thing to do in the heat of battle. She doubts her abilities and either tries way too hard and blows things up, or doubts her control and tries to do something way too lightly which becomes totally ineffective. I'd LOVE for her to interact with muses that have the kinds of minds that can become psychological horror with Dove, considering she's a telepath! I got a taste of that once with an old friend's OC, and it was so FASINATING! Intriguing! Dove didn't know what to do with herself! I think in general, just putting Dove in a New Situation and making her figure out how to cope (or: how to GET OUT ALIVE!) sounds PHENOMENAL.
14. Do you wish you had a better grasp on a certain aspect of your muse? I've been writing with Dove endlessly since 2005. And a few years before then, there are action-figure-based stories I was playing through with her. So what I'm saying is, there's not much I don't already know about her, and well enough to babble about for a collegiate-length essay if you let me! The only thing that's not explored Especially Much is Dove when she's in a romantic mindset. And that's largely because I'm aro, so I don't... really know how to write about that. Oops.
15. If you could start your blog again with a clean slate, what would you do differently with your muse? Would you change any of their base principles? Dove's base principles are firmly rooted in the character I wanted to explore, so everything about her core concept stays! The only thing I'd change is that maybe I'd write more further down in her timeline, instead of making every single rp a story about Dove struggling even to interact. Sometimes it worked to the story's advantage. But most of the time, it just made interactions feel like I was playing the same thing over and over. I wish I'd known about pre-established relationships being a thing earlier on, then I feel like some much more interesting stories could have been written! (And that, my friends, is why I write with her post-TFJ, as an active-duty Teen Titan, and not just a meek houseguest. With rare exceptions, but Hero Dove is the default!)
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miss-m-calling ¡ 7 years ago
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Yuletide 2017 letter
Dear writer,
Thank you for writing for me! I hope my prompts inspire you, I am very eager to read whatever you write.
Fair warning: my prompts can get pretty verbose, and there are spoilers.
My AO3 page
The Marianne Trilogy - Sheri S. Tepper
Characters: any (Marianne Zahmani, Makr Avehl Zahmani, Aghrehond, Therat)
What is this canon: Low fantasy, feminist trilogy about Marianne, a student at an American university who comes from the tiny, fictional country of Alphenlicht, wedged in between Turkey and Iran, with a native religion that vaguely resembles Zoroastrianism, a long tradition of both light and dark magic, and civil conflict with echoes of the Cold War (one part of the country seceded with Soviet help). Marianne is financially dependent on her abusive older brother Harvey, but trying to assert her independence. Then she meets Makr Avehl, a cousin and de facto president of Alphenlicht, who’s both a mage and a charmer. And then Marianne gets targeted by dark magic and has to become self-assertive and figure out how to save herself, even as Makr Avehl also tries to save her (and sweep her off her feet), often with more complicated results than he intended. Every book introduces a different set of magical challenges, most of which transport Marianne to a different constructed/magical realm, with disturbing parallels to the cruelties of the real world and some interesting meta commentary on gender relations. Also in the mix are Aghrehond, Makr Avehl’s loyal retainer, chauffeur, and all-around kind soul, and Therat, an intense young mage in training.
While I have a like-get-annoyed relationship with most of Tepper’s work I’ve read, I adore this trilogy unreservedly. I love the mixture of dark fantasy, sly humor, creepiness, complex magical systems and surreal constructed/parallel/hidden worlds described in just enough detail while remaining, for lack of a better word, magical, the intersection of old and new and invented worlds... I adore Marianne, whose lives (it makes sense in context) have made her many things: the traumatized yet defiant survivor, the semi-skillful player of the game of life and magic, the lover and wife and mover-and-shaker in her own right. Her relationship with the other characters - romantic, sometimes overbearing, arrogant, yet loving and lovable Makr Avehl; intense and dedicated Therat; loyal, warm, kind, humorous Aghrehond - are so rich and wonderful. I love all the playing with and inverting and deconstruction of tropes and cliches, the aforementioned magical/constructed/parallel worlds of whimsy and creepiness that riff on ordinary aspects of the real world while also running on their own internal logic…
Some prompts:
Any/all of these characters visit the Cave of Light and then try to solve a problem or complete a quest (however grand, mundane or cracky) according to its message.
Road trips with Aghrehond - exploring Alphenlicht and/or magical realms.
Marianne said at the end of the last book that Therat may be surprised – I’d love to see what might surprise Therat, in addition to Marianne and Makr Avehl’s firstborn sharing her name. Or give me Makr Avehl having to work closely with Therat due to some magical/mystical/political issue, given that he’s always dropping unsubtle hints about her scary eyes. Or Aghrehond being deferential yet unintimidated by Therat - and maybe even making Therat laugh.
Any/all of these characters end up visiting fields on the board-game from book 3 which the book didn’t describe – what kind of a place do they encounter? What (probably dangerous, troubling, and/or creepy) adventures do they have?
Marianne promised to meet Queen Buttercup for a meal at Frab Junction’s Marveling Galosh – magical promises are serious things, so what happens when Marianne has to make the date and the others come to save her and possibly get in each other’s way more than they help?
I loved how canon gently sent up Makr Avehl’s image of himself as Marianne’s protector/lover/white knight in the first and third books’ magical worlds. Actually, Makr Avehl as the Freudian chimera in book 1 and as the hapless hero in book 3 are my favorite things about this canon, beside the general worldbuilding and Marianne’s character development. So I’d love to see more variations on that theme - Makr Avehl as Marianne’s hero, both swoony and ridiculous, gentle yet lecherous, intense and funny with it - either in the real world or in some new (and sinister) magical realm (you can tell that I would love worldbuilding for this canon).
As a general note, I do ship Marianne/Makr Avehl, but I would prefer any shippiness to remain at the books’ level, so nothing too explicit and nothing that overwhelms the non-shippy plot, please. I’m more into this canon for the worldbuilding and the inventive magic, and I like how the books mix the shippiness with adventure, magical horror, and often-meta humor. Oh, and I would prefer not to have Harvey Zahmani or Madame Delubovoska appear in the story - they can be mentioned, just no walk-on parts for them please. Walk-on parts for Marianne’s parents or aunt, or for Makr Avehl’s sister are fine.
Starred Up
Characters: Oliver Baumer, Eric Love
What is this canon: British prison movie, very pared back and austere and yet super emotional in how the relationships between the main characters play out. Eric Love (played by Jack O’Connell) is a 19yo who gets “starred up” (i.e. transferred from a young offenders’ institution to an adult prison before he’s 21) for being too violent for juvvie. On his first day, he’s involved in a violent incident and crosses the path of Oliver Baumer (played by Rupert Friend), a volunteer counselor who runs an anger-management group for the prisoners and decides Eric would benefit from being in his group. Also in the mix is Eric’s father Neville (played by Ben Mendelsohn), a lifer who pushes Eric toward a harder mode of masculinity. The father-son relationship is the movie’s main emotional axis, but so is the relationship between Eric and Oliver (and Eric’s growing friendships with some of the other men in the group).
Yes I do ship it, I do, I do!
Ahem. Don’t get me wrong, I liked what the movie did with the father-son relationship and its influence on both men’s character development -- but I really wish they hadn’t got Oliver out of the action before the story’s climax (not like that!). The final denouement with Love father and Love son was great, as was the hint at the end that Eric learned something in anger-management group and has a support network that will help him a lot, but I would have wanted to see more of the intriguing dynamic between Eric and Oliver - the intelligent, semi-feral, yet not-incorrigible, young thug and the educated, dedicated, kind yet aware of his own potential for violence, slightly older counselor.
The confrontational and oddly flirtatious way Eric quickly gets a rise out of Oliver when Oliver comes to pick him up from his cell, the way Oliver immediately jumps to Eric’s defense when they meet under such adverse circumstances and keeps sticking up for Eric again and again, how Eric barely puts on a front before he lets Oliver and the group influence him, Oliver’s far-too-involved “I want him” and Eric telling his father that Oliver’s a better man than Neville – it all made me want more. I would love to see Oliver return to holding his group in prison, so the two of them can interact more, either in the movie’s immediate aftermath or years down the line (it was hinted that Eric will be serving a very long sentence - more than thirteen years, and probably for killing his mom’s asshole boyfriend, if I understood Neville’s oblique reference right).
Some prompts – if you’d prefer to keep it smut-free and relatively sublimated, I’d love more scenes from anger management or the free-flowing conversations in group, either with the other men present (because I loved their group dynamics, their training in anger management techniques, and their ribald, un-PC, yet constructive talk) or in a one-on-one session between Oliver and Eric, as they deal with their personal histories and experiences (we know quite a bit about Eric’s crappy life, but why does Oliver, by his own admission, NEED to be there, volunteering in a prison? Did/do his own violent impulses spill over despite his acute awareness of them?) If you could work in an oblique or open-but-undramatic admission/declaration that they both know there’s something there but they probably don’t want to name it, get into the details, and it’s too frustrating given their circumstances, but they both know and accept it’s there - well, I would love that.
If you want to write smut, the logistics may be tricky, but I suspect an emergency in the prison might require a lock-down, so Oliver gets temporarily stuck in Eric’s cell or another room with only Eric for company. Or Eric is eventually released and crashes with Oliver while he adjusts (with difficulty) to the outside world, and there’s awkwardness, probably some male chest-thumping, and eventually fucking with the realization that they’ll never be complete equals in terms of the power dynamic between them (in the sense that Oliver is more educated and of a better social status BUT Eric would win in a fight, so it’s a constant push-pull rather than one of them always having the upper hand).
If it happens in prison, it could be a few months after the movie, or it could be after Eric has had some time to become a fully mature adult – and has spent enough time in prison to accept the truth of his father’s taunt about the appeal of a tight, hairy asshole. (On a side note, while Neville had no idea whether his son was a virgin or not, this would definitely be either Eric’s first time or his first time in a really long time. And I do headcanon Oliver as either gay or bi, his comment about sex with women more to save face in front of the group than anything else, but you can “play” their sexual histories any way you like, if they’re even relevant to what you want to write.) Eric might seem like the logical initiator and/or dominant partner, but then Oliver might (or might not!) surprise him and is definitely the one more in touch with himself. Is it ha-ha-we’re-locked-in/stuck-together-as-housemates, I-dare-you-to-pass-the-time-and/or-help-my-emotional-stability-with-a-fuck – or is it hell-shit-fuck-something-has-been-percolating-between-us-and-now-we’re-locked-in-together, possibly with a side of cry-me-a-river-you-want-to-know-how-long-it’s-been-for-me-well-I’m-not-telling?
In any scenario, I think there could definitely be some verbal taunting/flirting about who wants/is eager to do what or is good at doing something. There may be some sniping comments about logistics and (lack of) condoms and barebacking and what men get up to in prison. There probably wouldn’t be deep discussions about sexual identity - if anything, one of them might try to taunt or tease the other in order to keep defenses up, only to get a “yeah, that’s true actually, what are you going to do about it” kind of disarming answer. The sex could be pretty rough or go-for-it-no-frills, yet enthusiastic and eager and unexpectedly tender (even if either or both don’t want to admit it), in that way the canon has of jerking the characters from violent confrontation to something deeper and gentler without warning. (Again, a non-binding headcanon of mine: I do have this idea that, at some point, probably not their first time but when they’re used to each other and have a chance to take their time and have real privacy, Oliver would ignore Eric’s come-on-already and go super slow, to make Eric fall apart with pleasure *and* have an actual emotional reaction to sexual intimacy, which he wouldn’t be able to brush off as just of the moment.) There could be a progression/escalation of sexual contact over a series of encounters, possibly starting with just words or masturbation (of oneself or the other or mutual) or some other form of arousal, to blowjobs and who already knows how to give them and who expects them as a given and who learns how to give them, and ending in full-on screwing.
The Village (TV)
Characters: Clem Allingham, Stephen Bairstow
What is this canon: BBC show that ran for two six-episode seasons in 2013-2014 (never officially cancelled but unlikely to continue, it ends with some resolution as well as plenty of loose ends for fic continuation). The titular Derbyshire village serves as a cross-section of British rural society in the early twentieth century - S1 covers World War I, while S2 goes through the early 1920s. There’s an ensemble cast, lots of political, social, and private drama (think Downtown but actually semi-realistic), and we spend equal amounts of time with a hardscrabble farming family, the Allingham clan who own the local ‘big house’ and have demons of their own, and various assorted villagers (the Methodist preacher and his idealistic daughter, the socialist schoolteacher, the social-climber shopkeeper and his snooty wife, etc.). The two characters I nominated and requested are the Allingham family matriarch (played by Juliet Stevenson) and the brash Yorkshireman (played by Joe Armstrong) who arrives at the village as a police detective then gradually makes himself indispensable to the Allinghams.
My surprise ship from a show I didn’t expect to have any ships for! For real, the show can get pretty dreary and awful things happen to everyone (much like in life), but these two had such a great dynamic, and I thought the actors had wonderful chemistry, and I also like older woman/younger man ships as well as ships with a class difference (not so that one holds all the power over the other, more so that there’s always tension springing from differences of upbringing and life expectations). I just love how they only manage to be themselves with each other (their frank talk in the chapel on the day of Edmund’s wedding), I love the class tension and spikiness (they go from Bairstow grabbing Lady A’s wrist while she sputters in outrage in one of their first encounters to her playfully threatening to send him back to Yorkshire if he continues to swear in her presence and bopping him on the nose for good measure toward the end of S2!), and common-cause camaraderie of their relationship.
They’re both such rich characters, and together they’re a kind of quiet fireworks. Lady Allingham tries to keep up appearances and good cheer and be the perfect Edwardian hostess, but she has a sense of humor and is a lot savvier than you'd expect. People dismiss her as old-fashioned and out of touch, she can be a drama queen, but she's no fool, although she lets some unfortunate things happen in her family. And Bairstow is really kind of a dick (his treatment of Agnes the factory girl made me want to slap him), but he too is funny, extremely competent, not above manipulating and blackmailing just about anyone, plays up his working-class Northern origins while claiming that the war erased class distinctions until he gets a painful reminder that it didn't. He's dismissive of most people, but shows his softer side with several village women coping with their sons' war trauma - and with Lady A. I’d even say he always plays straight with her, rather than manipulating her (for example, their conversation in the library about needing to get Edmund hitched), because while they snipe at each other all the time, they also appreciate what each brings to the table, and by the end of S2 they've become allies or co-conspirators. And Lady A in turn allows her mischievous side to come through when dealing with Bairstow, like in the “impotentia coeundi” scene - she takes all of half a second to start volleying double entendres at the clueless Hankins while Bairstow grins on the sidelines.
In terms of prompts, I would love to see some recognition on both their parts that, despite all their differences, they’re a natural match.
Maybe Lady A tries to express her gratitude for Bairstow organizing the return of her grandson and that opens the way for them to get closer. Bairstow, who doesn’t like talking about himself if he can get others spilling secrets, could reveal more of his background to Lady A - the few clues canon provides are tantalizing. Lady A could reveal more about her marriage and how she has retained a girlish love of Jane Austen-esque romance through it. Maybe you can bring the story forward, into the late 1920s/early 1930s, to show how their relationship evolves and deepens when the Allinghams and Britain encounter a new dark period. Their relationship could remain as unspoken/sublimated or as out in the open as you want to make it.
Or heck, I would love something as outrageous as Lady A, who made it clear after her husband’s suicide that she has limited patience for hypocrisy and social expectations, deciding to throw caution to the wind and elope or embark on a torrid affair with Bairstow, and all the scandal and family drama that would cause (seeing George, Edmund, Harriet, and Caro’s reactions or the commentary from the villagers would be welcome but not obligatory). Bairstow holds an ambiguous social position, sort of between a servant, an employee, and a poor family member/hanger-on, but he is definitely not a socially acceptable partner for a widowed, aristocratic matron. And that’s what I love about the idea!
If you decided on smut or something smut-adjacent, I could see a lot of push-pull, some gentle (or not so gentle, though they’d know at once if they went too far) mockery and giggles, neither wanting to show vulnerability but doing it anyway, some negotiation - in the sense of working up and psyching themselves up to the main event - between the guy with the bum leg who’s used to using his lovers rather than treating them as equals and the woman from a buttoned-up era whose only experience of sex may well have been with her unstable husband. Or just show me these two giving each other support and continuing to enjoy flirting/sniping/confiding in each other/putting each other in their respective places, as they do.
LIKES:
I love pre-canon, canon, post-canon, canon-divergent, and “missing scene from canon” stories. I love character-driven and plot-driven stories equally, and I love fics which mix humor and angst/serious business when appropriate for the canon.
I love irony, snark, 5+1 stories, bittersweet endings, hopeful endings, happy endings, unhappy-but-stoic (in terms of where the characters end up) endings, ambiguous or and-the-adventure-continues endings, canon-fitting humor, characters who are their own worst enemies as well as those who learn to get over themselves, characters with conflicting values which may or may not be reconciled/resolved in a believable and IC way, characters who treat each other with respect and as equals even if they hate/annoy/can’t stand/love to dislike each other.
I love workplace stories (this can mean anything from an office/procedural setting to anything that revolves around the canon world in which the characters live) in which the characters are competent and dedicated to the job, and while they may not be exactly friends and they may well irritate one another, they still manage to rub along to get the job done and maybe even grow to care about one another (much to their surprise and sometimes reluctance/discomfort). For friendship and family dynamics, I love to see how the many layers long relationships of this kind can play out: the recrimination, the regrets, the humor, the love.
In terms of ship dynamics, I love (where it fits the characters) banter, competitiveness or antagonism shading into attraction (this tension need not be resolved), bickering yet loving couples, faithfulness, characters who are serious about their romantic interests, characters who think they are much better at flirtation than they actually are, characters forced to work together only to prove much more compatible than they initially assumed, fics which mix an exploration of characters’ professional and everyday lives with shipping.
I don’t have any very specific likes for smut, other than smut fitting the characters – show me how their canon dynamics spill over into the bedroom (or other place of congress). Oral, vaginal, anal, manual (ifyouknowwhatImean) – it’s all good, go as veiled or as explicit as you like. I also like sexual scenarios that subvert expectations a little and surprise the characters themselves (e.g., the person who’s usually quiet or more passive taking charge, the more aggressive person goes with it possibly snarking or commenting on it as long as they can). And I like sexual scenarios that contain an element of competition, antagonism, people having to overcome their own inhibitions or insecurity by just bulling through to where they can let themselves enjoy it, oh-god-this-is-a-bad-idea-but-we’re-going-for-it, I-hate-that-I-want-you-oooh-don’t-stop, not wanting to admit feelings or show vulnerability except oops it happens anyway, whether the characters acknowledge it or not, or just people getting way more into it or being more affected by it than they thought they would. Also situations in which people have been acting competitive or fine-fine-shut-up-already and then jump into the sex with great enthusiasm even if still snarking. Also situations in which people who’ve wanted each other for a long time but couldn’t admit or act on it for reasons - and maybe weren’t sure or wouldn’t let themselves believe the desire was mutual - finally get a chance to do it, and it’s intense and emotional.
DNWs:
Hard kinks, MPREG, A/B/O, knotting, D/s, incest, genderswap and genderbent characters, non-con, dub-con, torture and abuse, dwelling on bodily fluids (mentions of gore and come are fine, but no loving detail please), vore, toilet humor, character bashing, soulmates and soul marks, major character death (unless it’s canon), pregnancy and children as the lynchpin of the story, characters agonizing over/analyzing/dwelling on their or others’ sexuality as if it’s the sum total of their existence, secondary characters acting like shipping the main pair is their be all and end all, teeth-rotting fluff and schmoop, issuefic, fic written in the first or second person, holiday setting or theme, fics which revolve around weddings and birthdays, AUs which have nothing to do with canon (cop characters working in a coffee shop, high-school janitor characters in space, etc.)
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