#especially so for being a travesty of SUCH a good book

[stripedtabbycat]

as a Bookish Child i ended up watching a lot of movies that were adapted from books after already reading the books first, so i was used to the idea that movies often changed things from the book. this didn't really bother me as a kid because i understood on some level that these were different versions that were telling different stories, sometimes mostly similar and sometimes just doing their own thing. i didn't question it too much.

then i got older and realized at some point that for a lot of people (and i mean a LOT of people), the movie adaptation of something would be the only version of the story they would ever experience and what they would always think of as that story, and then bad adaptations started to bother me a whole lot more. and i began to become pretentious and annoying about it. this is my villain origin story

[luthordamnvers]

I still think I need to watch the entire show again, but I'm gonna try and collect some very scattered thoughts because the ~discourse is appalling, tbh.

Idk who needs to hear this, but every single marvel project has been about the widening of the marvel cinematic universe. And it's fucking insane, that people are reducing this show as "just a way to get Wiccan" when it was so much more, especially for a show that wasn't even supposed to exist. It was a show spearheaded by a showrunner who initially pitched it because she loved Agatha, and Kathryn's portrayal of Agatha. One that happens to be a woman, btw (one that happens to had been at the forefront of both Captain Marvel [Uncredited] and been responsible for the first past of Black Widow [Story by, credits]).

Don't get me wrong, the MCU certainly has misogynistic undertones, the fact that we had to wait to have a woman led movie, or a movie director, as long as we did is a travesty. That without even going into the intersectionality that we are still missing in the wider MCU. And one that's inherent in the comic book world, if we are being honest. But guess what, THIS is the type of show that changes that narrative.

The fact that wandavision is still regarded the best Marvel-Disney+ show. So good that got an spin off focused on "a nanny". Show that delivered on a show being about her, and yet not the entire story, with outstanding narrative, direction and storytelling. And some swats of fandom are diminishing it left and right. The dudebros because it was about a woman, about a middle-aged woman, about a queer middle-aged woman. And others in the fandom because it wasn't as queer as they wanted, or focused on what they wanted.

And let's be honest, I'm amazed the show was as unapologetically and canonically queer as it was. Thanks to the efforts of Jac, Kathryn and the team behind it.

Agatha is based on a character that's been around for 50 years, and has being nothing but a nanny/governess for superpowered kids because she happens to be a witch, until relatively recently. Even when we had had part of her back story for decades, she was never that important, and she isn't even evil. Dare I say, she hasn't been that relevant until her run with the Scarlet Witch, and Kathryn Hanh's interpretation of her.

Agatha All Along, is not only an spin off of Wandavision, but also part 2 of the whole story. OF COURSE, Billy would be a very important part of her story, something that was touched upon in WV, but was also part of her (and I'm using this word very loosely) redemption arc.

She shared a kinship with Billy in WV, because he was magick. She wanted to understand how he worked, because she knew what Wanda did, and she wanted Wanda's powers. The fact that she could identify Billy immediately, even when she hoped it was Nicky, was important, but people were to busy whining about Billy having an episode. One episode that was also relevant to the ending of the show. And the full arc of the saga's mythology.

Is the show perfect? Not at all. Did I enjoy the heck out of it and can appreciate what it actually did? Absolutely yes. Can I appreciate how GOOD it was at storytelling? Hell yes.

It was a show absolutely centered in women. Good women, bad women, women of color, old women, younger women. The one man was a queer, three-year old in the body of a 16 year old. And mind you, this character has been making queer history, since his very recent creation (2005). This show is unapologetically queer, we had a huge ass Trans flag that said Protect trans kid in huge black letters being very prominent in the shots. It's HUGE, and not even by marvel/disney standards. The show had nothing to do with coming out, or acceptance, or people dealing with phobia. It was about queer people existing and being queer. Hell, you could make a case that they were saying "being a witch" is an allegory of being queer.

Every single member of the coven could be queer. They hinted at it with Jen, at the very least.

Let's talk about the rest of the coven. Who for me were the absolute highlight of the show.

Alice, generational trauma, the protection witch. The most tragic to me. She saw her curse, as a lie. As something her mother made to neglect her. And yet she couldn't keep a job, she resented her mother, and she had to be reminded of her every moment because her mom was a famous Rockstar. She goes to the road, she comes to terms with her mom's love for her, how her mom's version of the ballad was a protection spell, as much as Alice hated it, and she manages to defeat her curse. She protects her coven. Only to immediately die. Her dialogue with Death was devastating:

Alice: That's it? That's all the... That's all the time I get? Death: If I had a nickel... Alice: This can't be the end. It has to be the beginning. I finally broke the curse. I mean, I can really do something with my life now. Death: You're a Protection Witch. Alice: Yeah. Death: You died protecting someone. You ready? Alice: No.

Heart wrenching, unjust, and beautiful.

Lilia, who was plagued by the gift/curse of seeing her and others destiny. Ignoring it for over half her life, staying stagnant, because she was reeling from the fact that she saw the death of her family, her entire coven, she told them and it changed nothing. She was chased out of villages because she could see the tragedies coming. Who refused to be with a coven, love a coven because the heartbreak of losing her first was too much. Who decided that cheap tricks, was better than seeing the tragedies coming, and refused her gifts. She hated the appropriation of her culture, but when the time came, she accepted it, and moved on. She goes to the road, and finds her coven. "I needed you, my coven." And she died, going back to the start, because she'd rather relieve it all again, the good, the bad and the ugly, that keep neglenting herself. "I loved being a witch".

That without going into the absolute masterpiece that was episode 7. Pulling a non-linear story, as solidly as they did, is certainly not easy. And they did it, beautifully.

Jennifer, who was magick-bound for over a century, to the point that she doubted her knowledge and herself. And yet she made a name for herself, she was a successful entrepreneur (she cheated a little, but you know capitalism is the true villain here). A black woman who was outstanding at her craft, healing and being a midwife, to the point that she became an inconvenience to the fragile, egomaniacal, white men in the medical field. Where they sought out a way to stop her indefinitely. And yet she kept going, and survived. Even at the end of the road. She looked at the person who bound her, and said: "I deny your power over me. You hold nothing." And she unbounded herself, and got out. Not because of Billy or even Agatha but in spite of her. Jennifer survived, just like she has been doing for however many centuries, and she flew towards the sunset. Because 'She's the path ahead'. The growth she had, from being selfish the first few episodes, because that's how she survived, to screaming for Lilia when she decided to stay behind. Jennifer clawed her way out of the road, the bound. And she deserved it.

As for Billy... he's so much like her mother. He accidentally created the road, because he's equally, if not more, unaware of his powers as Wanda. Wanda at least thought she got powers from Hydra's experimentation. Billy isn't even supposed to exist. Billy who was "10 years old" but, realistically like 2 weeks old. Who got thrown into the body of this guy, who he doesn't know, and who doesn't even knows himself, because he doesn't remembers, with powers he doesn't quite understands and then he starts piercing moments of his life together, because he feels this massive hole in his being. And finds his answers on Agatha. He truly believes the road is real, that can take him to someone who while not have the answers, might feel the same way as him. Who was his other half, he doesn't remembers it, but he feels it.

His magick, is like Wanda's, Chaos magick, it manifests without his real knowledge or intention, but by his feelings. He created the road, with all the knowledge he thought he had, the road follows the rules Agatha and Nicky created when they made the ballad. Even if he doesn't know it.

Is the show about Billy? Not necessarily. Billy is important to Agatha, because Billy is Agatha's son now. Not by blood, not even by magic, but by choice. As much as she denies it, her "calculated risk", had something to do in the way she saw Billy, and how she wanted to protect him, in a way she couldn't protect Nicky.

And finally, Agatha. Agatha who built a reputation of killing all her covens. Starting with her mother's. Because her mother sentenced her to death, because she was born evil. And she took that and ran with it. She connived, and betrayed, but she survived, something she's extremely proud of. Do I wish we had seen more of her past? 100%. I wanted to know how she got the Darkhold, how she actually met Rio, how they fell in love. Does not really knowing diminish her storyline? Not at all. Because what we got was really nuanced, and it's going down the hill with people focusing only in the romantic relationship aspect. If anything, I think this is being reductive of Agatha, not Billy. The fact that she needs the love interest for people to focus on her, regardless if that love interest is a man or a woman.

But even then, what did people think it would happen? Agatha Harkness had a romantic relationship with Death itself. It was never going to be a romance, it was always a tragedy. Death who took her son away, Death who gave her time with her son, but never specify how much time. Who then followed her around, torturing her with its presence, and we know Agatha is resentful and can hold a grudge.

Death who kindly stopped for her.

Rio knew Agatha would always resent her, even when she gave Nicky more time, because at the end of the day, she would always had to take him away. As much as it was a kindness to let him be born, to take him while he and Agatha were asleep. She had to take him anyways, and Agatha would never forgive her.

Agatha letting the witchfolk think that she exchanged her son for the Darkhold, or made a deal with Mephisto, and saying it was because "the truth was much worse" had nothing to do with *our* perception of worse. But hers. A powerful witch who couldn't save her son, a woman who couldn't keep her son alive. A witch who let her lover take her son away. Using her son to lure more witches. Then using the song, that her son lovingly created for themselves, to lure even more witches to their doom, just for her to be more powerful and keep living (and potentially still looking relatively young). A song that was special to them, corrupted, because she wanted more power and killing witches, something she knew Nicky didn't like. Witchfolk thinking Agatha got the Darkhold trading her son, was better than what she thought of herself.

She saw Nicky in Billy, how he didn't like killing witches (as accidentally as Billy did), how he mourned, how he somehow still believed in Agatha, even with his barbs at her.

She sacrificed herself, not necessarily because of Billy. But because of Nicky, her boy she couldn't save. And yet here is another boy she loved, not the same but very similarly, one she could save.

Billy didn't manipulate her, (and even if he were to, Agatha would probably be proud of him for that) he's been consistent in wanting to understand Agatha. He's curious. Hell, he didn't even need to come back for Agatha, he had gotten out (wherever out was for him) but he came back, because he cared about Agatha. And if some people can't see that, because he happens to be a he... well, no matter what had happened in the show, those people wouldn't see it any other way.

Agatha becoming a ghost, and immediately seeking Billy, because she loves him, and she likes the way he sees her, not good or innocent, but knowledgeable, and with the potential to do good. And she sees Nicky in him, and his potential too.

There is so much more analysis, and I might share more thoughts later, but for now, this is it. I still wanted more, Agatha's story with the Darkhold, the Salem seven, more of the coven, yet not necessarily for the show or the episodes to be longer, but I would love to see if they expand on this, on another spinoff.

[o-uncle-newt]

We don't talk enough about the Petherbridge/Walter adaptations of the Wimsey/Vane novels.

(Well, we probably talk EXACTLY enough about Gaudy Night, which is really pretty bad, but besides for that...)

(Sorry, just a warning, Richard Morant as Bunter is fine but I won't have much to say about him here. I just really like this picture.)

The casting is basically perfect, especially Harriet Walter as Harriet Vane. I no longer see the book character in any other way- the only notable difference is that in the book she's noted as having a deep voice, but Walter's has a distinctive enough tone that I think it works regardless. She is just so, so, so good- captures the character beautifully, sells everything she does whether mundane or ridiculous (probably the best/most realistic reaction of someone finding a body I have EVER seen in Have His Carcase), makes the most of every limited minute she's on screen in Strong Poison and leaves her mark every minute that she isn't... and she looks AMAZING doing all of it. Just perfect, could not imagine better casting.

Edward Petherbridge I don't hold up to that level of perfection- I think that, try as he might, he's not really able to capture Wimsey's dynamism (possibly because he's a bit too old for the role) and is a bit overly caricatured in many of his mannerisms. But overall he does a pretty good job, in addition to looking quite a lot like how I'd imagined Wimsey- but in particular, I think he does a really lovely job of selling a lot of the emotion that he has to convey in some scenes that feel like they SHOULDN'T be adaptable from the book- specifically the scenes of him and Harriet. Him proposing to Harriet, him being disappointed when she (completely reasonably) turns him down... those shouldn't work on screen with real humans rather than in Sayers's calculated prose, but it DOES work and in no small part because he's great at selling Wimsey's feelings as being genuine even when his actions seem over the top. And, of course, Harriet Walter sells her end of the scenes right back. All in all, I think I have mixed feelings about Petherbridge as Lord Peter Wimsey the detective, but I'm a fan of him as Peter, the man who has feelings for Harriet.

Overall, though, both are, I think, very successful in capturing these characters- the fact that they take these people who even in the book can sometimes push the boundaries of likeability (which to be clear, is part of what I love about reading them) and make them eminently watchable is a great achievement. And also, in addition to their really looking like their characters individually, they're very well matched as a pair in the way that one pictures them from the book. They're even of very similar height and build, which we know is canonically true from Gaudy Night, and thus at least a somewhat relevant element of their dynamic.

Now, the adaptations are very uneven, and that's even without talking about Gaudy Night because, while it has about as good a rendition of the punting scene as I think we were ever going to get, most of the rest of it is crap and massively expands on what I think are serious problems to Peter and Harriet's relationship that the series as a whole had (not to mention cutting the character of St George, which is a travesty). None of the adaptations are perfect, and mess with aspects of their relationship in negative ways- for example, the ending of Strong Poison is exactly backward in a really awful way. I'll get back to this.

But when the show gets the two of them right, it gets them RIGHT, even when it's adapting Sayers's text/creating new dialogue. There are scenes in this one that I love almost as much as the canon text, like this one:

I don't think any of this is in the book, and there are things that happen here that I don't think Sayers would have ever written. But at the same time, a combination of the dialogue and the actors makes it COMPLETELY believable as these two people, and it captures a moment that is just really key for Peter as he faces his limitations and his feelings- something that in the book is conveyed through a lot of internal narrative on Peter's part that would be impossible to adapt as is, but that in the world of the show needed to happen in a much more visual and narrative way. Not all of the dialogue that this series chooses to fill in those gaps works, but even when it doesn't the actors do their best to sell the heck out of it, and when the dialogue DOES work it is seriously brilliant.

Probably my favorite of the adaptations is Have His Carcase, and scenes like this one are a big part of the reason why:

They change the location, but otherwise it's EXTRAORDINARILY faithful to the equivalent scene in the book, and honestly it shouldn't have worked with real people doing it and yet it does. It's just acted perfectly, given just enough arch and silly humor (particularly with the spinning door) that we don't attempt to take it too seriously, while also conveying the relevant emotions so well. The actors in the scene through only their faces and ways of speaking convey subtext that Sayers, in the book, conveyed a lot later on as actual text in the characters' thoughts, and there's something pretty great about that.

Other Have His Carcase scenes are less good (the dance scene is mediocre at best, I think), but if there's another Have His Carcase scene that I think illustrates how great Walter and Petherbridge are at selling the human sides of their characters, it's That Argument- seen here:

The Argument is a pale imitation of that in the book- the one in the book is, in fact, probably unadaptable as is- but it is still just so good because the actors are so good at selling it. Walter is just brilliant in the role and utterly inhabits it while also imbuing it with her own spin, and makes us feel Harriet's pain- and Petherbridge, through some relatively subtle facial expressions and reactions, is able just as well to make US understand what all of this means to him and how he feels. It's actually really remarkable that, just like how Sayers writes a relationship dynamic that only feels like it works because she's the one who wrote it that very specific way, this scene feels like it only works because these two actors play it in this specific way. Could two other actors do it? Very possibly, but it would feel super different and I wonder if it would feel this authentic. (I do want to note though that this scene made me really wish that we'd seen a Frasier-era David Hyde Pierce in the role of a younger and spryer, but equally posh, witty, and vulnerable, Wimsey. It just gave me vibes of something that he'd do beautifully.)

Now, as I said above, this doesn't get EVERYTHING right. In fact, quite a lot of their relationship ends up going pretty wrong- as I think a major mistake is their throughline which emphasizes Peter's continued pursuit of Harriet as not just reiterating his interest to make it clear that he hasn't changed his mind, but actively taking advantage of moments and situations in a romantic sense, taking a much more specific role in engaging with her physically, commenting on her appearance, saying how difficult it is for him to NOT pursue her more, etc. It makes the whole thing feel a lot more cat-and-mouse rather than a budding relationship of equals, and one where Peter acknowledges the whole time that they HAVE to be equals for a) Harriet to feel comfortable with him and b) them to be good together. In fact, however good the Argument above is, it's kind of undercut by this very pattern- he makes the book's point about him treating his feelings like something out of a comic opera, but he also at that point in the story has had a few much more oppressively serious scenes with her that clearly make her uncomfortable- nothing like anything in a comic opera. It's like the show misses the point a little.

I think the place where this really starts is at the end of Strong Poison. (I could see an argument to be made that it starts earlier, in a few smaller nuances of their jailhouse scenes, but I like those enough that I choose not to read into them too much lol.) After what I think is a great addition to the final jailhouse scene (one that I loved so much I repurposed it for a fic)- "it's supposed to be about love, isn't it" and some excellent reactions from Petherbridge- Harriet goes to court, her charges are dismissed, and unlike in the book, when it's Wimsey who leaves first (which Eiluned and Sylvia point out is a sign of his decency in not waiting for Harriet to thank him), here Wimsey is the one who watches as Harriet rejects him and walks away from him- the beginning of the chase. But nothing about their relationship is meant to be a chase! It's so frustrating to watch as that proceeds to be a continuing issue to a limited degree in Have His Carcase (where it's at least balanced by enough good moments that it doesn't matter so much) and to a MASSIVE, genuinely uncomfortable degree in Gaudy Night.

The only praise I will give it is that while the punt scene in the book is unfilmable, I think this adaptation did its best here and it's pretty good.

I'm not going to spend much time talking about Gaudy Night otherwise, because I'd need all day for it and also I'd probably need to rewatch it to make sure I get the details right and I have zero interest in doing that, but the way that it has Wimsey imposing himself and his feelings/hopes on Harriet to a really ridiculous degree, in a way that he never, ever does in the book, is just so so discomfiting and makes me feel terrible for Harriet. She doesn't deserve that. If I recall correctly, in that scene at the dance at the beginning, she's so happy just being with him and then he's all "oh so this means you want to marry me" and she just droops. He's so aggressive!

And that's what makes the worst part so bad, because not only does this miniseries not depict Wimsey's apology as the book does- one of the best scenes in a book full of brilliant scenes- it would actually be weird if it did, because this show doesn't imply that there's ANYTHING for Wimsey to be apologizing for! In fact, unlike in the books where we see Wimsey growing and deconstructing the parts of himself that had been demanding of Harriet, in the series we only see him get more demanding- until finally he wins. It's honestly infuriating and I hate it- the actors do their best to sell it (and apparently they were given bad enough material that they actually had to rewrite some of it themselves, though I have mixed feelings about the results) but it is just massively disappointing. Basically the whole emotional journey between the two of them is not just neutered but twisted.

For all of my criticisms of the adaptations' all around approach to their relationship, I do have to reiterate- Walter and Petherbridge do a wonderful, wonderful job. (Especially Walter.) When they're given good material to work with, and even often when they aren't, they are able to sell it so well- and particularly in the case of Walter, I genuinely can't think of the character as anyone but her rendition now. She IS Harriet Vane for me. And, for all the flaws that the series has, that's something pretty dang special.

Anyway, for anyone who read through this whole thing and hasn't seen these adaptations, I DO recommend Strong Poison and Have His Carcase- but not Gaudy Night unless you're either really curious or a glutton for punishment. The first two, though, have very good supporting casts, are quite faithful plot wise (sometimes to a fault- another flaw is that they are really devoted to conveying the whole mystery with all its clues sometimes to the point of dragginess, but will drop sideplots like, for example, Parker and Mary- which is totally reasonable, but still vaguely disappointing as those sideplots tend to add some levity/characterization), and just generally are an overall good time. (Some standout characters for me are Miss Climpson in Strong Poison and Mrs Lefranc in Have His Carcase.) And, of course, the best part is seeing the little snippets of Peter and Harriet that come through- less so their journey, vs in the book where that's central, but so many scenes where we just see the two of them together as they are in that moment and it's so satisfying.

[thevelaryons]

Before the airing of season 1 of House Of The Dragon, the showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik said Laenor would be a good portrayal of a gay character. Then they made him have internalized homophobia. Then they had him abandon his grieving family to live a free gay life in Essos. He even abandoned his dragon because that was stopping him from being a happy gay man with his lover. As a gay person, it’s one of the worst gay representations I’ve seen in media. The showrunners made their gay character into a terrible selfish person who helps agree to kill one of his family servants so that he can run off with his lover. His allies, Rhaenyra and Daemon, are terrible people too. Laenor was just awful gay representation and ever other gay relationship from the book was erased (I’m glad about it or they would be ruined too).

To be fair, Laenor left because he craved the violence of the battlefield over the mundane life mixed with court politics (not that it’s a much better excuse), but yeah, what the show did to him is a travesty.

I think depicting stories where the gay characters have internalized homophobia is not necessarily an issue. Opinions may vary on this, but as a gay person myself, I’ve enjoyed the kind of stories that tackle the issue of homophobia, so long as it’s well written. Laenor’s story in HOTD is not well written. Especially because that internalized homophobia only exists to make other characters, like Rhaenyra, look good. The reason why Laenor comes off as bad gay rep on the show is because his character is just there to prop up others versus the book portrayal which afforded him integrity as an individual (despite him being a minor character).

That scene in season one/episode seven where Laenor talks about how much he hates himself and then Rhaenyra comforts him by saying that he is a “honourable man with a good heart” is only for Rhaenyra’s benefit. Because Laenor can say in that scene that he wants to be there for his family but then next thing we see is him orchestrating his escape. He’s basically forced out of his own life and the show frames it all as a good thing courtesy of Rhaenyra’s kindness. The window scene between Laenor and Rhaenyra even portrays Rhaenyra with a halo of light around her because it’s not just the writing on this show that’s manipulative but the direction too.

Even just the way Laenor is depicted onscreen is downright offensive. His characterization was changed completely to being a hypermasculine drunk who apparently spends all his time fucking around. He makes vulgar comments about his wife in front of others too. All of it is meant to portray him as a selfish person who is disrespectful while his wife is tirelessly suffering the burdens of having to fulfill her duty. In Fire & Blood, neither of them really gave a damn about each other or about their duty. But the show changes it so that Rhaenyra looks like the good one while throwing Laenor’s character completely under the bus.

Despite Laenor being a rather minor character in the book, GRRM actually gave him some character development. Laenor started out as being somewhat distant from his wife/kids (he was living comfortably on Driftmark while his wife/kids all faced the tense court rivalry by themselves for the most part) but after the rising political tensions between the Blacks and the Greens, Laenor is the one who makes an effort to be there for his family at last, and he did not need to sacrifice his personal life to do so:

“Do keep trying,” Queen Alicent told Ser Laenor, according to Mushroom, “soon or late, you may get one who looks like you.” And the rivalry between the greens and blacks grew deeper, finally reaching the point where the queen and the princess could scarce suffer each other’s presence. Thereafter Queen Alicent kept to the Red Keep, whilst the princess spent her days on Dragonstone, attended by her ladies, Mushroom, and her champion, Ser Harwin Strong. Her husband, Ser Laenor, was said to visit “frequently.”

— Fire & Blood, Heirs of the Dragon

Compare that to what the show did and it’s the complete opposite. Laenor has been living in King’s Landing the whole time and he’s miserable about it. After feeling antagonized by Alicent in season one/episode six, Laenor decides he wants to run away. So Rhaenyra has to tearfully admonish him for his behaviour and plead with him to stay with his family:

I’ve been saying this for a while, but the changes on the show are always deliberately done. It’s not a case of “ambiguous narrator” or “false history” when each time the changes only serve certain characters and screw over others. There’s a clear bias in the writing on HOTD.

[astarion-can-spawn-me]

Tenderness Upon the Breeze

Gale x Blind!Bard!Reader

summary: cute overload shit bitches

List of Works

You know how every epic upon this floating rock ends in the end. It wouldn’t make much sense for such a magnificent epic to end in such a travesty, if you really think of the details. An Elderbrain threatening your very existence upon the earth you cherished and adored. An Elderbrain meticulously planning every single step of every warm or cold blooded creature that even DARED to be in the vicinity. It was an epic that couldn’t even entertain the thought of failure, not for a single second. 

Rejoicing, it always follows the end of a tale, where every protagonist gives one hardy pat on the shoulder before returning to Gods knows where. That is usually when listeners and devourers of books usually stop, now hungrily searching for another story of heroes to indulge.

Gale of course knew exactly what he was going to do, go back to the homely tower in Waterdeep, where he could already feel his books and scrolls beckoning him home, Beckoning him to once again stay curled and hidden within those limestone walls and fine tapestries. His heart absolutely yearned to have those familiar walls back up around him, especially now that the selfish mistake he had made before was now dealt with. Tara would now have a much needed break of being to snuggle up to her tomes by the hearth instead of having to venture far and wide to obtain those magical artifacts that quenched the orb’s thirst for the weave. 

What a selfish person he once was. How the memories always bring his brow into a furrow and a scowl. The bitterness those memories left in his mouth, the knots it left in his stomach. 

Waterdeep almost felt alien to him the minute he came back from his journey, his epic, his life purpose. It did not matter to him of the title, he would leave it for the historians to put a label to it. Waterdeep was so lively, he knew it was always like that, but all those hours, days, and months squandered away in his tower, only a mere weak shadow of the man he was before the moment he let his pride and hunger take over, before he became a walking bomb. Even that tower of his was a sight to behold.

It was exactly the same way he left it, of course Tara trying her best to keep up with the place like the good familiar and companion she was. It just made him feel sickly and melancholic at the sight of those old rooms, not even a soft glow from the fire cured his sorrows. Gale was being haunted by old memories of himself, how pathetically cowardly he was behind  closed doors of his beloved tower. How he would sob away like a poor child yearning for his mother’s comfort. He couldn't do it with those old ghosts taunting him, he couldn’t get a single minute of sleep that first night he had returned home. Tara’s soft purrs couldn’t even lull him to sleep as he could only stare at the moonlit ceiling of his bedroom. 

The wizard prodigy took no time to rise from those sheets once the sun broke past the horizon’s of his adored Waterdeep. 

Change, that’s what he decided on as he got dressed for the day. 

A spring cleaning if you would like to call it such. The windows were beckoned open with a simple flick of his wrist, lulling the warm, balmy air of waterdeep inside, cleansing the air of the heavy memories that lingered and festered on that once old and stale air. Books not being placed back where they should have been and not stacked in their haphazard piles around every single room. Those piles made him feel bitter anyway, all he could see was the old images of himself screaming into those empty rooms as he could never fill the hole within himself, no matter how much he consumed everything he could get his fingers on.

None the matter though, he could feel the very faint feeling of relief ebbing away at the back of his brain as he continued to shoo those memories away as he made his space once again livable. It was his once more again, his to claim, live in, own, be free. 

Though a faint noise caught his attention as his fingers gently caressed his plants that sat cuddle together beneath one of the windows of his tower. Gale almost simply ignored it as he continued to fret over the slightly droopy petals of the flowers that loomed and swayed in their planter amongst that balmy breeze. Noises were no stranger to Waterdeep, not with the bustling city sprawling amongst its little area of the coast. Even with Gale being settled amongst the outskirts of the city, the noise of bustling folk never ceased to float up and into his ears, carried by the breeze from the salty sea. 

The noise was…different perhaps? It was soft and gentle, but it sounded way closer than the towns folk further out into the city. It was close enough for Gale to warrant a  quick glance to the dirt road the winded past his tower and into the outskirts of water deep, traveling out and to the houses and towers that were spread out far and wide from each other amongst the lush green plains. Farms surrounded those quaint homes and a possible brooding wizard in those ancient towers. 

A tender melody floated upon that breeze and a quick sweep of his gaze revealed an individual down below. They were obviously humming away a soft tune on their journey, a soft tune that brought a soft smile to Gale’s lips as he leant upon the stone ledge of the window he was standing at, the sea air whipping around his hair messily. 

“Good morning, saer! Or should I say evening? I dare say time is already eluding me!” he called out merrily to the figure below. They halted lamely in their tracks, almost a delayed reaction to look up to Gale, but a gorgeous smile crawled upon their lips. 

“I would say you have maybe a few more minutes of this fine morning before we must make room for the evening!” You called back up to the man above you. Well you assumed it was a man by the sound of his voice. 

You were just a mere citizen of Faerûn, but now it was your time to shine. You grew up on a farm, with loving parents and loving siblings, but it was almost suffocating in the end. You lost your eyesight at a young age, though you were at a point in life that you couldn’t scoop up a single memory of what the world truly looked like around you, those memories were only shadows in your imagination. It was depressing, but your family tried to help the best they could, but it only made that helplessness fester within you when you always had to have someone else's hand in your own, always having to have someone else’s voice speak up for you. Childhood was spent hovering over notches in your brailed books, or your fingers softly plucking away at a lute. 

You became a very talented musician as you got older, you thought you were good, but you also told yourself that because deep down within the folds of your brain, you thought that those admirers and fans only pitied you because of the state of you pale and sightless eyes. 

That led to being in Waterdeep, you were given the chance to move out here, to finally be on your own, to finally just rely on yourself. It was rich in culture, it was rich with the weave. It allowed you to meditate, to write music, poetry, the emotions that always came and went in that empathic heart of yours. Waterdeep was a very successful little place to live this past six months for you.

“I do have to admit, I thought this place was abandoned” you admitted with a laugh as you hands clutched on the stick that was aiding you on your little walk down that dirt road. “I apologize for being a lousy neighbor and never introducing myself!” 

“Oh no worries, I was on a little business trip these past months, so I think that makes me the lousy neighbor” Gale joked back as he tucked a rogue strand of hair that threatened to land in his eye. “ I actually only just got back last night, definitely greetings are in order, give me a second to come down there” his voice called excitedly down, his feat already scrambling down the cold stone deeps down the few flights down to his front door from the floor he was standing on. Feet taking him across his front yard of slightly overgrown grass and weeds that still clutched on the very slight remnants of dew from the early morning. It was then that he noticed those pale and milky white eyes of yours. He tried not to be shocked despite the fact he assumed you really couldn’t see him. 

“Gale Dekarios, I would say of Waterdeep, but these six months [1] have proven to make me a stranger once again to this place” Gale spoke out as he softly took your hand to give it a gentle squeeze which you reciprocated, even jokingly giving a maybe slightly wobbly curtsy with a giggle as you introduced yourself to the wizard. 

“Very pleased to finally meet you, Gale Dekarious, not acquainted with Waterdeep” you teased. 

You always had a tenderness floating about you. An intimacy like no other. Gale could have simply been outside trying to revive his herb garden and that tenderness upon that seabreeze would poke and proud at his senses to make his gaze search for you or let his ears try to hear whatever tune you were trying to shape with that sweet voice of yours or tried to piece together the honeyed words of whatever poem or script you were trying to piece together or simply reciting to that tender weave that surrounded you. Whatever it was, it always led Gale to meet you at his front gate, a window that was nearest to him, the front door. Hell he would even lean over the ledge of the very tip of his tower if he had to. You were quick with your slightly clumsy steps, already those steps forming their small little trails. A few notable ones stood prominent upon the grass of his front yard, one that lead to the first reachable window where if he called from their, you would lean up and listen to his excited words over what adventure he taken upon that day, all mundane adventures however, definitely not an Elderbrain. Another one led to his little overgrown garden of herbs and certain alchemical ingredients. You spent many of hours underneath the warm sun reciting a poem or a song for a client and asking for the wizards opinion on your lyrics and versus as he prodded away at his plants, soul always soothed by your bardic grace as he did those meticulous tasks in his humble garden. And two trails were starting to lead to his front door. One was designated to you and one to him by the countless times he has lead you through the front door of his tower when he invited you in for tea, brunch, lunch, dinner, whichever time you had stumbled upon him on your sporadic walks in front of his tower that slowly started to become Waterdeep’s old friend once more. You have even become acquainted with Tara, his resident Tressym, you were extremely careful to not refer to Tara as ‘Gale’s’ as he was so particular about it. Gale was also the one to accompany you when it came to the bustling areas of Waterdeep, spending days when life allowed you and Gale to find the most obscure and hidden places of beloved Waterdeep. 

How the time would just meld all together as it went on in your presence. Gale specifically thrived on those late evenings spent with you within the confines of his cozy library. It was so intimate to him. He always found himself lounging upon the grande carpet in front of the fire, you sat upon his slightly worn couch, playing sweet and somber tunes on your lute. That or you would ramble on in deep conversations that lead to endless routes where your thoughts could run to. Gale would take those moments to admire your face as you stared ahead, voice a sweet lullaby as you spoke, always loving how the soft hues of the fire danced upon your face. 

Sometimes the two of you would sit in silence in the warmth of the flames of the hearth, meditate and focus on the weave, Gale always there to help lead your hands in intricate movements together, the weave to lace and pulse through your caressed hands.Those were your favorite moments. You could just sense every essence of his being during those moments. It was those moments where you felt like you could see him the most. You still couldn’t exactly see him, but the weave that would pulse between you just almost felt like he was just bare before you and possibly the same for you being bare before him in the weave. Racing hearts and all. 

“Give me your hands…” Gale spoke out gently, it was one of those late nights again, Tara purring away off to the side on her much deserved pile of warm pillows and you gentle and soft before him. You obeyed as your calloused rested upon his familiar fingertips. His were calloused too, a scar here and there that you could faintly trace out with your fingertips, the touch always springing the memories of him giving the stories behind those brave wounds.

The minute your hands touched you could feel the shift in the weave as he started to mumble the invocation, your hands in his, the weave once again bouncing with so much powerful energy between the both of you. 

You had to squint your eyes, the weave coming to a steady hum between the two of you. Something was flickering in your eyes, is that what flickering was? You could see something before you, your brain just couldn’t piece it together. 

“That’s you” Gale said with a gentle rumble of a chuckle, “I may have been studying an invocation that allows you to use my eyesight. Now it's not permanent, of course, but I thought you would have been curious about my interior decorating” You couldn’t help but snort, cringing as you saw the image of yourself snorting before you. Leave it to Gale to be so selfless. How far he has come on his journey of evolution. 

“Oh goodness, I look like that?” you said with another sort, careful reaching your hands to Gale’s face, caressing his cheeks you slowly moved his head around to move his eyes to look at different parts of his cozy library. Some reason, the environment didn’t come as a shock to your lack of sight. It just seemed to all fit your expectations, even if you honestly didn’t have any. 

“Come my dear, let’s go on a little stroll” he spoke softly, helping you up and offering you his arm. You caught the sight of his casual robes he wore. The colors vibrant under the hues of the fire and of the moon that pierced through the windows. He leads you through his tower, showing off the many artifacts he has mentioned over the months of knowing each other, the portraits of his friends, showing off the few remnants he had of his youth. He flipped through old thesis and writings of his prodigy youth and you got to see through his eyes. 

“Wait a minute…” you muttered out as you stopped him in his tracks, something in his eyes caught your attention as you gently reached a hand up to grab his chin to guide his eyes to look at what stopped you. Two figures you saw on the wall, moving with your movements, you really couldn’t see it too well in the dimness of the hallway the two of you slowly walked through. As the two of you got closer you realized it was a reflection of the two of you.

“And that is me, I hope I’m not too horrible to look at” The grin upon his face sent your heart skipping as he guided his face closer to the mirror, guiding your hands to touch his chin, allowing you to move his face in different angles, allowing your fingertips to trace over the hair of his eyebrows, the bridge of his nose, the shape of his lips wear his facial hair gentle scratched the tips of your fingers. “This is me, Gale Dekarios…” His voice carried out as a whisper, a voice too scared to speak too loudly to not startle this delicate moment away in this wholesome tower of Waterdeep. 

“Gale Dekarios, I would assume you are what people would call handsome…” You spoke out as you watched yourself creep closer to his side, not able to clearly see your face and his face in the mirror, his hand now cupping your cheeks gently. 

Maybe it was your tender hearts running miles a minute that started to mess with the invocation since the images before you faded away like many of those sweet memories you once had in your mind. Gale had your hands back in his again as he guided you, your hands resting upon his body, the heat radiating through his robes and onto your hands. His hands cupped your cheeks as he guided your head closer to his.

His lips were upon yours in a sweet kiss, gentle and soft. You let your body melt into his embrace as his arms supported you as he kissed you deeply underneath the silvery moon that threatened to disappear as the first rays of morning began to make their way beyond the horizon once more. 

You broke away from a breath, hands clumsy as they buried themselves within his hair, an airy laugh escaping your wet lips as you embraced each other. Perfect harmony. Your tenderness engulfed his entire being, which he accepted with open arms.

Gale had to say, he was happy with how his little epic ended. A soft gentle ending to this chapter of his life, but with you there now by his side, he could feel the blossoming of the next chapter already begin to flourish between the two of you as he pulled away from you. 

“Come my love, the sun is breaking past the horizon and we still haven’t slept” Gale spoke out as he began to lead you through those hallways.

“Like that has ever stopped us…..”

[snow-system-wol]

Fluffcember 2024: Day 13 -- Middle

(snowcember prompt list)

(Timing: ambiguously post ShB. Spoilers: N/A)

G'raha fidgeted with his cup of tea, barely still attempting to read the open book in front of him. Most of his attention was devoted to carefully listening – not to the chatter of other Scions around the lounge, not to the sound of a push-up competition happening in the storage area or whatever travesty of a conversation was happening by the bar, but simply listening for the sound of the door.

His ears perked up at a familiar bell jingling, turning around in his seat. S'ria waved at him, still in his traveling clothes – a smile on his face despite clear tiredness.

“You don't have to wait around for me, you know. Even with Mor Dhona being in such a convenient location to the other city states, it can take a little while to get back sometimes.”

There was the unspoken understanding that of course it would be faster to use the Aetheryte, but S'ria only really chose to if necessary – especially without a companion. With one, it was far easier.

G'raha abandoned all pretense and closed the book. His attempts at reading had been so lackluster that he didn't even bother marking the page. “I do not have to, no – but I wish to.”

He reached for S'ria, pausing when his partner drew back. S'ria laughed warmly, shaking his head. “I'm fine, just – I smell like chocobo. You're welcome to wait in my room, but I do need to bathe before I get comfortable.”

G'raha followed him down the hall with a chuckle. “I'm sure Sea smells fine, you take good care of her.”

“I assure you, after a day of riding she does not.”

[positivelybeastly]

As much as I'm glad Hank back to being a good guy, personally I'm still not thrilled with the decision. For one it just reads as damage control over Hank's characterization over the years, two it comes at the cost of a decent chunk of his history, and three ig feels to little too late. And it probably wouldn't have come to this if they had an actually good writer on x-force.

"I'm - not quite certain I am a good guy, now. I had always thought that a certainty, that no matter where I was, no matter what I was asked to do, that I would eventually make the right decision. But now? Now I'm, not so sure."

I mean, I've not been thrilled with almost any choice wrt Hank's characterisation and story for the past 10-11 years, so when this possibility popped up, I was like, yeah, that's about the worst way to damage control it. In the end, I'm going to accept it because at least this way I don't have to go into the X-Men Reddit and see people screaming about how Beast is the worst anymore, or panels posted of the latest X-Force travesty, but it's not how I would have done it.

I especially sympathise with the loss of so much history. He loses X-Factor, he loses 90s X-Men, he loses X-Treme X-Men, he loses New X-Men, he loses Astonishing X-Men, he loses S.W.O.R.D, he loses Uncanny Avengers, etc, etc. Yeah, we cut loose all the necrotic garbage that is All-New, X-Force, etc, but . . .

Feline Hank is the Hank I fell in love with, and this Hank is fundamentally not that man. He doesn't know what that Hank went through. He doesn't remember a word of it. If he sees Abigail Brand, he won't blink twice. If he sees Emma Frost, he just thinks, Hellfire Club. If he sees Broo, he'll just think, aaah, Brood! And that just.

Sucks.

I hope, even now, that there's a chance for him to get old Beast's memories. It would hurt him, deeply, to know what he's done, but it would make him whole again, and give him new perspective that would make his journey going forward self-motivated, rather than just at the end of a sharp stick wielded by other people.

But.

Even if that doesn't happen under Percy, there's always a chance it can happen under another writer. There can always be an arc of Beast trying to get his old memories back, dealing with X-Men trying to stop him (either out of fear of him or for him), there can always be a The Crossing style fix like there was for Tony Stark.

All it takes is one good writer, honestly. All it takes is for someone to pick him up, shake off the dust, and put some shine on him. Because do you know how good it felt to open up that comic book, and see him say 'oh my stars and garters' again? To see him chatty, and hanging off ceilings, and being just fucking cute? The idea of getting that, for multiple issues going forward, is just - it's goddamn catnip, man.

Yeah, it's too little too late. Yeah, this is the worst way it could have been done. Yeah, this could have been avoided, were it not for Ben Percy sucking eggs. Yeah, it reads as damage control.

But at the end of the day, Hank is in a better place today than he was yesterday. And so long as he's going up, then I'll take it.

In fact, let me talk to you about something.

Are you familiar with the Japanese practice of kintsugi? From Wikipedia:

"Kintsugi, also known as kintsukuroi, is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with urushi lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.

As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise."

Comic book characters do not belong to us. That is, unfortunately, the truth of them. They belong to massive media corporations who treat them not as valued parts of a story, but a licence to print money. They belong, momentarily, to writers, who treat them not as beloved icons, but as tools within a story. They belong to the fandom, but only in a fleeting, ephemeral, transformative state.

Comic book characters get broken all the time. But by the same token, all it takes is for the right writer to come along and fix them. You can allow yourself to get bogged down in the history, in the injustice, in the poor writing decisions, or you can allow yourself to see a beautiful pot inlaid with gold, with silver, with platinum.

Beast is on the road to recovery. It's in the shittiest way possible, the pot is broken and we're missing a few pieces, but we can always find them again and add them back in.

And who knows? Someone amazing might come along and use this to tell the single best Beast story ever told.

X-Force could have been that story - I've talked at length about how this could have been a Greek tragedy, a reflection on a life ruined by throwing one's self at the world's problems and being struck down for caring too much, but it isn't. It's a spy thriller with a Bond villain. But it could have been. There's almost no such thing as a bad story (unless you're Chuck Austen), just bad execution. X-Force was bad for Beast. Okay.

But what if the next story is the best one he's ever had?

And I'm gonna leave you with this. You know how you should never read the comments? Well.

"I do admit i missed him, tho."

"Oh shit! I was JOKING that they'd bring back Stars-And-Garters Beast to beat modern beast! HELL YEAH"

"I'm honestly happy they are. I'm so tired of the "Beast is a bad guy" storyline."

"I'm so glad Happy-Go-Lucky, child-like wonder Hank is back! It's why he's one of my top 5 X-Men."

"This is the Beast we kmew. It's nice to have him back for now. As expected. Him crying at the end over all the files present Beast has written, shows that this is the old beast, from way back then."

"Yaaay non-genocidal maniac Beast is back."

"Welcome back, real Beast."

When was the last time you saw so many random strangers on the internet be happy about Beast, man? Celebrate this. The 5 years are almost over.

Well. Unless things go horribly wrong in the next two issues.

Knock on wood.

[ladyhawke]

we should have gotten a show about two factions of the same family lead by two ambitious women fighting for the throne but instead we got a reductive good vs. evil game of thrones prequelTM that still doesn’t know how to write interesting female characters

detailed under the cut if anyone’s interested i just need to vent

aging down alicent and creating a relationship between her and rhaenyra was the show’s best decision, it added depth and emotional charge to the story but what’s the point of creating a wonderful backstory if you never get to the actual story? they refuse to allow the two of them to actually break apart and have something rotten sprout of what once was love and friendship and that compromised the whole show. the fact that they clearly wanted to keep the two of them interacting resulted in two of worst scenes of the show (especially the first one cause god that was unbelievably cringe)

i liked that they made alys rivers a weird witch instead of the obvious hot seductress

i love mysaria possibly being a agent for the smallfolk, it’s one the book’s most important themes “when the lords play their game of thrones it is the common people who lose” and if she understood that and is just using her position the help them would be amazing but i’m not very optimistic about that

helaena being a dreamer was also nice and i liked that they gave her neuroatypical traits but hated the distance they put between her and her dragon, her being neurodivergent should make her even more attached to dreamfyre if anything. i understand her not wanting to fight in a war and kill people but she doesn’t even ride? bullshit

mostly i hate how they refused to let their main female characters be bad, rhaenyra is a perfect saint and not a bit spiteful or rancorous and alicent was just a dumb bitch with no agency and permanent downturned lips. having aegon as king was a misunderstanding and she wasn’t even aware of the green council until it began, they should have allowed her to be ambitious especially because it would fit the young alicent so well!!! the girl who always followed the rules and did everything right didn’t get rewarded in the end while rhaenyra who was always being transgressive never faced the consequences, remember “Where is duty? Where is sacrifice? It’s trampled under your pretty foot again.” it would have been incredible to see her going “well i’m gona do whatever i want now cause apparently that’s how it works” and them drive herself into a tragedy, but at least a tragedy *she* chose, doomed by herself

blood and cheese was terribly written and shot, seriously what the fuck was that?

nettles is the doubt over whether or not targaryens are the only ones who can ride a dragon but since the show made the velaryons of all people black i don’t think she would have had the same effect. i still think they did it to soften the connotation that would come with super pale white people obsessed with blood purity btw

i tried not to give into the “targ stan” argument because i quite dislike the targaryens so i know i’m biased but now seeing that even people who are team black are complaining that the show killed all nuance by making it greens = bad and blacks = good i have to agree

this is truly a show for daenery’s widows (the last episode shamelessly confirms it) they were constantly forcing this rhaenyra and daenerys connection and that really annoyed me (syrax being the mom of dany’s dragons confirmed by a director or producer is so ????)

actually all the connections to game of thrones annoy me deeply THAT FUCKING DAGGER!!!!!! the prophecy thing is so boring and simplistic (and when you consider the travesty that was the long night in the series i really don’t understand why they want to remind the audiences of that) i really dislike all the cheap fan service scenes

it’s still the same issue they had with got, this epic-ness complex, they didn’t have to tie this so directly to daenerys and the long night. all they had to do was tell the story of the dance, with good consistent characters and themes and good writing and of course cool action and dragon scenes but i guess that’s not interesting enough for them

also what’s with the rhythm of this show? season 1 ended on a cliffhanger that went nowhere since we didn’t see angry rhaenyra seeking vengeance at all and now the we spend several minutes of fun and laughter at essos with tyland in a season finale? that once again ends with the promise of conflict? and what conflict is that if alicent just gave away everything?

[agentnorthdakota]

Daydreams, sunkissed, whisper, pencil, clouds, strawberry

Aww thanks James!! ^o^

daydreams - if you could be anything or anyone, who would you be?

If I could be anything, I’d want to reincarnate into a bird (tho I don’t technically believe in reincarnation, but I like the idea). Raven’s End is one of my all-time favourite books I read growing up, and it’s a beautiful story set in the Canadian Rockies about the protagonist being reincarnated as a raven. Needless to say the boon had a big impact on me. So a raven or a large (non-game) bird is what I’d choose!

sunkissed - autumn or spring?

Definitely autumn! Cooler weather, all the bugs dying, pretty trees, you can’t go wrong lol

whisper - how much sleep do you get?

Not enough :p On a weeknight probably 6-7 hours, but I still wake up dead tired. On the weekends I’ve been getting more like 9-10 hours of sleep, and regrettably I suspect that’s more what my body needs especially thanks to a build up of burnout and fatigue u.u 

pencil - do you own a journal?

Well, I own several notebooks for DnD, which kinda counts? :p But nah not really, tho I do have a couple notes on my phone for journaling, but I haven’t been using it much lately 

clouds - describe one of your favorite dreams?

My favourite dreams are the rare dreams where the entire thing is like, a whole fictional story that plays out in my head. They’re so in depth and have great characterization and a full story line! But I only get them very rarely. I recall one from when I was a teenager about a gay romance with a couple characters I made up in the dream, I don’t recall a ton about it but there was a beautiful sunset scene and it made me very happy! And then a few years back I had a dream in which I basically re-wrote the whole second season of Gen/l0ck to be way fucking better (I love the first season, the second season was a travesty), with a final battle and heartwarming end credits and everything!! It was fantastic

strawberry - favorite fruit?

Mmm peaches and mangoes go hard! And if I’m getting a flavoured anything (bubble tea, lemonade, etc), they’re my go to :p If I’m going more generic then apples are good too

[odetodilfs]

There are next to no Hopper/Murray smutfics out there, which is a travesty. If you’re up for it would you be willing to write Hopper/Murray first time with Hopper bottoming? Bonus if it’s his first time ever bottoming.

First time for everything

Now now, first of all, I want to clarify I love Jopper so don't crucify me for this, but Hop and Murray were too hot to not make them fuck.

Pairings: Jim Hopper (bottom) x Murray Bauman (top) No warnings, just smut.

Hopper would’ve never expected to go out with one of his closest friends, let alone Murray Bauman, but oh well, things happen and here they were, two months into a relationship.

Hopper and Murray were at Hopper’s cabin, both of them on his bed, as Murray finished building a model for something and Hopper was reading a book, Murray was a very… straightforward guy and it was shocking how open he could be, especially when it came to sex, “I wanna fuck” Murray said, Hopper almost spit out the water he was drinking, “You wanna what now?” he asked, still recovering from the shock, “Well… we’ve been dating for two months, and I was thinking… yeah, but it’s okay, we don’t have to do it now,” Hopper loved that Murray was so understanding, 

“No no, I kinda… want to” he found himself saying, “Really?” “Yeah,” Hopper smiled, “Spread your legs Jim…” he started saying seductively, “No sucking first?” “No, I’ve wanted my cock in that tight hole for a while now and I’m desperate,” “Okay then” Hopper said, taking off his pants and spreading his legs, Murray gently took off Hopper’s shirt as he gave gentle kisses across Jim’s forehead.

“Fucking hell, Jim, your hole looks so sexy like this… I wanna fuck it…” “Then do it…” “Right…” Murray put lube on his cock, as his quivering fingers put it back in its place, taking off his shirt as well “This your first time? Bottoming I mean” “Yeah… my first time” Jim said, smiling but scared, “Don’t worry Hop, you’re gonna be moaning so loud and it’ll feel good, I’m gonna be gentle,” Murray said as his finger slid past Jim’s sphincter,

“Fuck!” Jim almost screamed as it popped through, “Shhh, shhh, it’s okay, you can take it love…” Murray said reassuringly as Jim moaned and writhed under him. 

“Deeper- fuck yeah put it deeper!” Hopper screamed at the top of his lungs, Murray saw this as a sign to push in a second finger, causing Hopper to moan even louder at the feeling of being stretched, “F-fuck Murray- please- give me your cock already…” “Not yet, I need to prepare you first” the black haired man said, smiling at him then turning his fingers to look at Jim’s widened pucker, “Don’t you think it’s taking me all my self control to not go in and ravage your tight little hole? Be the first one inside you?” in an attempt to make Hopper even hornier, he understood and laid back moaning as Murray fingered him.

Five minutes later, he withdrew them, Hopper let out a whimper at the feeling of being empty, “N-no-” “Shhh, I’m gonna give you my dick okay?” “Fuck yeah, do it please…” “Gonna ravage this hole until you can’t even sit, and you’re gonna have to sit on my lap-” “Murray, you’re talking too much,” Hopper said, cutting him off, reminding him of the urgency and the need to have Murray’s cock inside him, “Shut up, you love that about me” Murray kept teasing, “For fuck’s sake, put it in already I want it so bad it’s starting to fucking hurt!” Hopper pleaded, Murray smirked, “Good, that’s what I like to hear…” he said as the tip of his dick popped through.

“Fuck Murray…” Hopper moaned as the other man slid his dick deeper inside his most intimate place, “Enjoying yourself?”  “Fuck yes- come on faster-” Hopper was very eager to have Murray fuck him by now, “Christ, like a bitch in heat, Jim” Murray said as he started thrusting, “Fuck!” was all Hopper could say after every thrust, Murray started sucking on his nipples and lick his chest, dusted with a bit of brown hair, “You’re so hot” Murray said, matter of factly, “Thank you-” Jim said, more focused on how good Murray’s cock felt in his guts.

After a while, Murray started jamming it into Hopper as his almost wild screams made Murray start going even faster, while Jim kept begging him to do it harder, “Jesus, it’s your first time and you can already take that much?” Murray said, teasingly, “Yes, jam it in there, destroy my hole, make it yours!” Hopper screamed as he got fucked. “Good boy” Murray said, this made something twitch inside Hopper, in fact it pushed him over the edge, “Fuck! Murray!” he screamed as his cum squirted from his dick, landing all over Murray’s chest, he didn’t seem to mind as the cum clung to his chest hair and continued fucking Hopper’s tight hole, “Fuck yes, so tight” he hissed as he unloaded with one final thrust, breeding Hopper’s ass, making it his.

“Fuck… that was good…” Murray said as he smiled and withdrew his cock from Hopper’s slightly gaping ass, his cum started to leak out, “It’s leaking…” Hopper pointed out “Leave it, it’s hot,” “It feels good,” Jim moaned, “We should shower,” he said, looking rather sad they had to shower, “Not yet, I wanna cuddle” Murray said almost like a little kid,

“Fine, half an hour alright?” he said chuckling as well,

“Alright” Murray said, curling himself up in Jim’s arms.

[bobapril]

Could it have been sustained, though? I've been a Star Trek fan for decades, long enough to be very familiar with the horrible bigotry baked into the Original Series. A colonial mindset, mono-culture aliens that evoke racist tropes, rampant sexism both in the scripts and behind the scenes. And frankly, it got even worse when TNG came out, with the anti-Semitic creation of the Ferengi, that horrifying travesty of Code of Honor, and the ridiculous show-runner conclusion that there were "too many women" that led to the loss of Denise Crosby and the sidelining of Gates McFadden. It's honestly a miracle that we found enough good in it to keep it alive through to now. But I think it's saved by two things. One, that TOS, at least, was groundbreaking for the time. Uhura was both a token Black and token woman - but she was on the Bridge, part of the leadership, something shocking enough at the time to make Whoopi Goldberg and even Dr. M. L. King Jr. sit up and take notice. We had a Japanese guy and later even a Russian right there with the Captain, too. But second and even more important, Star Trek consciously worked against the very bigotry that it expressed subconsciously. It displayed casual and societal bigotry against Blacks, women, Communists, the Chinese, and so on - but it actively tried to represent all of them as important parts of the team, and also wrote "bonk bonk on the head"-level messages of peace and diversity into the scripts. The show was clearly TRYING for something better, reaching for a better future, even as it was still mired in the muck of the era. I don't think Rowling ever managed that. Her bigotry was on full display, especially with the anti-Semitic goblins, happy slaves, and racist names. We managed to excuse that unconscious bigotry in Star Trek - but where's the part where she tried to subvert it? Hermione tried to rescue the slaves from their pitiful lot - and was roundly mocked for it, and opposed by the slaves themselves. Dobby was the singular exception, but even he wound up being basically a happy slave to a new and more caring master. Griphook gets accepted as part of the team - and then betrays the team. The whole culture is a secret enclave within our own modern world, but the revolution led by Harry and his friends doesn't change that at all, it just puts different people in charge. That was all going to be noticed eventually. Pottermania certainly hit the zeitgeist, and spawned a huge following. But I honestly don't think it had the fundamental strength to carry on indefinitely, even apart from Rowling's vicious anti-trans attacks. Maybe if she had retired after Book 7 and let others carry on...but her late and tepid acceptance of Dumbledore as gay suggests that as long as she remained the source, she was going to create more problems.

What makes JKR's shitshow even harder to process is that she didn't just ruin a book series. Harry Potter was an entire subculture. Like Star Wars and Star Trek fans, Harry Potter fans dedicated their lives and careers to the series. I don't know if I'd call it "underground," but liking Harry Potter got you beaten up when I was in school, so it was more of a dedicated indie culture than a mass-appeal fanbase.

Harry Potter was so huge that fan works developed their own followings. Potter Puppet Pals racked up hundreds of thousands of followers and was nearly as relevant as the series itself. For fanfiction, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality got so big that it has a Wikipedia page. The band Harry and the Potters spawned the wizard rock music genre. A Very Potter Musical developed a fanbase and launched Darren Criss's career.

Harry Potter also has extensive ties to fandom history. Everyone in my generation (millennials) remembers coming home from school to read Harry Potter fanfiction on the Internet. Today, most people just post their stories on Wattpad or Archive of Our Own. But at the time, the fanbase was splintered between fanfiction.net and dozens of individual websites and forums, some made for specific ships. Since they all had individual hosts, a lot of those sites have been lost to time.

And there's the infamous My Immortal fanfiction, which is an Internet legend with people still searching for the author. Everybody read that one (and laughed at it) in middle school.

Pre-social media, fan sites like The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet had massive followings because they were one of few sources for news, theories, essays and fan content. Some of these sites still exist after being around for over a decade and building their own legacy.

Before Deathly Hallows came out, fans were so desperate to know what happened that Mugglenet published a book called What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End? Yep...Harry Potter was so big that people wrote separate books about what would happen in an upcoming book.

And that's not mentioning all the book release parties, Harry Potter-themed events, monuments, fan films, restaurants and even a theme park. A lot of fandoms have those, but Harry Potter infiltrated every aspect of popular culture.

Today, there's a thriving culture of "Harry Potter adults" with themed weddings, baby showers and Etsy stores. Putting your Hogwarts house in your Instagram bio is pretty much a prerequisite for joining the "bookish" community. Warner still produces new content, like the Fantastic Beasts series, although we've all seen what a disaster that's been.

Everyone has at least a few memories associated with Harry Potter even if it's just watching the movies. I had great memories associated with Harry Potter. But looking back at the subculture, history and thousands of fan works, it doesn't seem fun anymore. Studying the fandom or being part of it comes with an awkward tension because you don't want to seem like you're condoning JKR's bigotry but can't divorce her from the series. This subculture was spawned by a woman who turned her legacy of magic and wonder into one of abuse and hatred.

I don't expect people to write paragraphs about how much they hate JKR every time they post about Harry Potter, but it's still uncomfortable to see people make new content or wear their Harry Potter Etsy tote bags like nothing happened. Even if they clarify that they don't support her, it's just a weird, tense situation for everybody.

People dedicated years of their lives to running Harry Potter fan sites, writing fanfiction, cosplaying characters and making fan movies. If I were in that situation, I'd have a mild identity crisis. I'd ask myself "Did I waste all those years? Should I delete my content? Where do I go from here?"

So ultimately, JKR didn't ruin "just" a book series or even "just" a fandom. She tanked an entire culture, which inspired people to look at Harry Potter more critically. The issues that people brought to the light tainted the series's legacy even without JKR's personal issues.

Once, Harry Potter was a series for generations. Now, former fans hope that the series fades into irrelevancy. Unfortunately, JKR didn't just tarnish her legacy--she took decades of history, millions of fans and a worldwide subculture along with her.

[invisiblegarters]

I agree with you about the actors - idt they really have the preference towards Khao that last anon said they did. If anything they seem pretty evenly split which is natural imo - like book is clearly closer to first than Khao, for example, but that’s normal in friendships. But anyways it’s so crazy you mention the gaipa crying scene because while I do think khaotung was INCREDIBLY amazing as gaipa I had the same level of shock regarding the reception to first as you did 😭 it’s especially strange looking back bc MLC is how I got to know Firstkhao and it was first’s performance as Alan specifically that made me interested in following them so I’m just?

About the directors - honestly, after seeing bts material it kind of feels like Nuchy is the only recent ish one who actually is aware of First’s abilities and what to do with them which is kind of sad imo.

On another note, I haven’t read the novel. Can you elaborate on the Kant thing? I’ve seen mixed thoughts but I’m leaning towards believing the bad reviews after the OF novel lol. If it’s rlly bad then that’s concerning - I was already hesitant about how he would be given Jojo’s general tendency to focus extensively on Khao but now I’m getting anxious LMFAO

That's hilarious because I would have said Book was closer to Khaotung if asked. But that said, I think that again, it might be because tumblr is where I live, and tumblr for whatever reason mostly brings me stuff about Khaotung. Can't see stuff if I'm not in the right places to look for it! But yeah I think trying to piece together who loves whom more in their personal lives is…a lot. I'm not going there. It's just none of my business.

I actually didn't say anything about Gaipa v. Alan, that was the anon, lol. I'm mostly pissed that Earth didn't get the credit he deserved for that series. The more I think about it the more it annoys me. I won't pretend I don't think that they tend to hand Khaotung the big, dramatic scene or scenes that tend to get people talking and win the awards and I'm not saying he's not good at them. What I am saying there's more to acting than that, and the fact that Earth's amazing, nuanced performance as Jim was not recognized makes me impotently furious. Like it's just a travesty what on earth (heh) is wrong with people.

This is not a diss against Khaotung, btw - I don't do that. His style of acting isn't my favorite but you'll never hear me say he's not good at it. It's just me lamenting that the style I tend to gravitate to seems to be considered if not bad, then less deserving. IMO Sand was a masterclass for First but most of what I saw while the show was airing was disparagement of either the character or the actor himself. It was a rough time for me, lol. I say again, people are really just casually really nasty about First sometimes and I don't get it.

I really can't speak too much to the director thing any more than I already have, but I keep bringing it back to being that for whatever reason, First's style of acting isn't it to them, and it shows. I don't know if there is anything that can be done about that.

Oh, the novel. The novel. Let's just say that finding out the author only wanted to do it because of Khaotung explained so much, lol. I got a little carried away, but in case you only wanted Kant spoilers I will post them first, with a warning about the rest.

And this should go without saying, but all these opinions and observations are entirely subjective, okay? Okay.

Kant: I wanted to like him, I did, but he's nothing. There's literally nothing to him. He could be replaced by a block of pretty wood and I don’t think anyone would know the difference. He has all the personality of a wet rag, and it gets worse once he "falls in love" with Bison. Has a little brother that he has two whole scenes with, one to establish why he needs money that he's being offered to track down and inform on Fadel & Bison and one that's mainly there to have Bison save the day and showcase how awesome he is. Please don't think I'm kidding that is it. And once he falls for Bison he basically just fawns over him and forgets how to be competent. Much is made of his skills as a thief but when it comes down to it it's basically Bison who has to do everything. The only emotion I could work up about this dude was rage that this is the character that my favorite actor is going to play. Feels like he's in the novel least but it could also be that he's such a nothing I've just forgotten times when he did show up. Block of wood, I tell you.  Khaotung's apparent obsession with this dude is incomprehensible to me (I still say he's attempting to gaslight us into thinking he matters at all).

And because I am on a roll, here' have impressions of the other characters, too. Feel free to stop here if you don't wanna know.

MORE SPOILERS BELOW

Bison: douchey in a way that I personally can't stand. Always made out to be the best and most interesting in the room, even when he's not. Also, not sure he even liked Kant much? Idk their dynamic bugged me. It wasn't the BDSM, it was just the way he thought about him and treated him. Once they get together Kant is fawning in a really cringy way and while Bison takes the praise he just seems to be like…above it, I guess you could say. Like he was there to be worshipped but not actually to return any of the devotion. In the end he turned out to be my least favorite character. I was relieved for the increasingly few chapters where he didn't appear.  Maybe he got better by the very end but frankly by then I was so done with him that I was just skimming to get to things I wanted to read.

Style: Fun but also…there are some questionable choices made about his character that got on my nerves.  His and Fadel's storyline is very school BL and parts of it annoyed the hell out of me. He is funny though, and I think if they tone down some of the more egregious childishness and relationship stuff, he will be a lot of fun. He's persistent and when he and Fadel really got going I liked the mutual devotion thing they were doing. Genuinely the one I would be looking forward to the most in the show.

Fadel: In the end, my favorite character. Funny enough I think that not being The Crush and not being The Designated Love Interest of The Crush really helped both Fadel and Style out, character wise, Fadel especially because thanks to being Bison's brother he gets more time devoted to him. I mean don't get me wrong it's still fairly shallow (as is everyone's, even Bison's although I'd say the author put the most effort into him), but he had a whole arc and everything, and his particular archetype is one of my favorites, I won't lie. I'm just a sucker for the dude who says he doesn't want a thing but it turns out he actually really does, he just doesn't think he can have it. I had the most fun with him and Style and if I were to watch (which to be frank I don't think is in the cards for me at this juncture, I'll wait to let my mutuals fill me in on whether First gets to do more than look pretty (he's so pretty but I also love to watch him do his thing, you know) and maybe either play catch up if I get intrigued enough or binge it when it's over) it would probably be for them.

Maybe I am being harsher than I should be, idk. Sometimes I get mad and when I do, I can become a bit of a dick. But the novel is up, you can read it for yourself. You tell me (and if you do read, please make sure to thank the person who translated it. They did it super fast and it was just a lovely thing for them to have done). Also apparently more extensive reviews than my ranting are coming in and they're…not favorable, although I haven't seen any myself.

Whether you think the show will be like the novel really depends on how you feel about everyone involved (I am a cynic from a long line of them, I am going to feel free to assume that while the story beats might not be entirely the same and while it will hopefully be better written, the care paid to the characters probably will be very close. I absolutely think we're in for The Bison Show, guest starring Fadel and sometimes Style. I don't really think they've been subtle about this lol).

But also, I think that there will be a lot of people who will like the show I am expecting. There are people who have already said they only want to watch for Khaotung, or are mainly here for JoongDunk doing a new thing, or to see First simp, and those people I think will be happy, and good for them, honestly. It's awesome when something you are looking forward to gives you exactly what you want. If the show felt like it were going to give me what I wanted I'd be there with bells on.

But since I don't feel that way, I can just not watch. Simple, easy, effective. Although I will be sad to lose my Wednesday watch.

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary163

2/24-25/2024

saturday - sunday

heard three gunshots just now.

i'm not like freaked out or whatever but i always wonder what's going on with that. i wonder i guess if it's the armed security around all the apartment complexes around here, sounds too far to be ours but near enough to be like, around here. like why do you need to fire 3 times. idk. i just feel like i guess if you're shooting a gun 3 times you're definitely trying to kill somebody, i hope nobody is being killed, especially by random security people. or maybe there doesn't need to be an especially. it's grotesque i guess to act like any death would be better, it's just a travesty in the first place that people think the security is necessary, that is an awful part stuck to all this. i think i'll basically be fine as long as i'm not wandering around at 2 am and stuff, obviously. it's most likely, i guess, just people shooting guns to shoot guns, so it's not a big deal i suppose. it's interesting, i've always been near-ish gunshots basically, but the frequency was like, a couple times a month, it wasn't uncommon but it also wasn't like, crazy, there were a few times where stuff ramped up and i'd see things like shells on my way to the school bus or to college but that didn't really phase me, i guess because more of a picture appeared by morning when i was out walking, i'd see the police cars out there, i knew who was shooting at who basically so it wasn't like, a question of why/what, and when it was at its normal rate, it just wasn't especially interesting i guess, there was more distance + it really did seem like that'd be the rate at which people just shoot randomly. like, oh, i wanna shoot my gun into the air lol, and then they go back inside. since it's closer it just punctuates more i guess, i mean it does that crazy thing where like, there's a vacuum of sound in the echo, it's not so close that it like, actually sounds like 0/nothing, but the echo carries that shape, if you know what i mean. it's also probably because i'm tired from work and stuff, my head hurts, i worked too long today, i wasn't even supposed to i just had to. it doesn't matter though, i am home now. but it's hard to go and work on music rn. i am soo tired and i only ate when i got home today, i woke up at like, 11:30-ish, and i got home and ate at about 10:40, so that's like 11 hours and ten mins of not eating (i worked from 4:30 to 10:16ish). it's kind of good i guess, to me, idk, maybe that's bad or whatever but it's not too bad to me, to not eat a lot, idk, it feels useful, like idk, i do just want to stay skinny. idk. i do eat so it's not like, very bad, it's just intermittent fasting or whatever, honest (not cope i swear not coping (lol)), it's not like that every day, i just use work to do that sometimes, esp since i need to pay to eat there and the food looks disgusting basically. it's like, idk, i kind of like going long without things. i guess it's because of being raised catholic or whatever, you get this thing where you get off on withholding things from yourself and suffering, taking on suffering, that kind of thing.

listening to the problem song now, i am certain that there's something in the low-end that needs to be eq-ed out, this weird resonance, it might be something super specific i need to eq out, if it is, that's good, i thinkk.

anyway i am really tired, i am just sitting here listening to combatwoundedveteran and feeling tired, they really made perfect music, for a certain sort of person. even if my head hurts i can listen to this shit. i just like it that much.

oh, one last thing, about reading, i've gotten to the part of cybernetic hypothesis that's about ways/methods/lines of flight (as the book puts it) that open up possibility, essentially guerilla methods, one hand is the taking pleasure in desire perversely, and then shutting one self up, volunteering nothing, they reference bartleby here with "i would prefer not to," that kind of oscillating, as well as actual references to what wider/more materially aggressive sorts of tactics might be. this kind of all coalescing around the idea that basically many cybernetic apparatuses are geared to, at extremes, manage panic, and so, panic being the nightmare of cybernetic organizing/management, we ought to open ourselves up to panic/fear in some way. i would like to articulate that better/how i read it better, but i'm just so tired. it's hard. but essentially it recalls bataille to me (who they criticize at points in the book (rightfully, as much as i love him, he is wrong in certain ways (even baudrillard has gone here and it's very fascinating))), anyway, it recalls the necessity of horror, or the experience of horror, not even necessarily in its attachment to sacrifice (which is one thing specifically criticized, the idea that sacrifice could/would be this thing that could deliver us/provide an escape from capitalism, this fantasy of pre-capital return, basically (here too is where baudrillard saw issue with bataille)), but horror as an opening up to, sensation of everything, where you absorb so much, you are sent elsewhere, you are taken out of yourself, as the book puts it, the crowd disintegrates in the crowd, we all horrified, we do not withdraw, but we exit, we exit ourselves, and then we exit sociality. here is a convergence with the carnivalesque, where the obscene and grotesque is held at such length to perturb and captivate, a stage where one might engage perversely, and then to shut up, a silence which will not tell on itself, only absorbing or even discarding everything but the intensities surrounding oneself. this is an oscillation, necessarily, sticking oneself to an oscillation of this nature means, among other things, productivity in the regular sense would be impossible, at least in terms of appraisal by our managers/meter/measures.

(there is a level where i wonder about a critique of tiqqun here, i suppose, or maybe a defense from a critique that would accuse them of being squarely reactionary here (i cannot parse what i think, but my sense that what they seek is aligned more w/ the carnivalesque and grotesque (and asking one to not turn away but embrace these rather than to embrace what wipes these away/would seek to absorb the signs/symbols of these things back into itself as defanged and speaking regularly, normalizing in a way so as to force it into discourse w/ the normal/using cybernetic apparatuses of agitation to coax these things into some kind of guilty conscience, shame, whatever) i do not think they are reactionary) i suppose i have come across my answer to this problem here in this aside, already, or at least some of the answer. i am not sure.)

another thing, i guess, is reaching this point, i see why a friend didn't like it, but i think accusing this book of being neo-luddite theory is squarely wrong + idk, she is honestly quite obsessed w/ efficiency as it is laid out in the cybernetic sense. i do like her, but her aspiration is to be a manager, in some way, a manager of flows, thought, and so on. she wants to direct. i suppose one could accuse her of desiring being an apparatus, but i don't think it's squarely true, i think she wants to want to be, is ashamed and ashamed of being ashamed of it, it's a complex, basically, i suppose.

anyway i also read this:

this was quite good, it's hard to articulate my thoughts/what it says, so i will instead talk about what i would like to absorb from it, where its end is quite strong and everything, and leaves much to think over, i think many of the historical insights it offers are the meat, or i guess they obviously are, but they can be approached from so many angles, reused, essentially he puts valuable information there, i hope to remember it. i'm not sure why this is sticking to me, this thought about what i want to learn, it's good i think, but it's also i guess kind of neurotic. i fear, very often, that i am really quite stupid. i would like to not be, i think this is just part of that. anyway, i am very glad will's writing/thinking is something i've been exposed to recently, because he is bringing me back to foucault, who i'd read in the past and learned much from, and now there is more to learn. it's just nice to be reunited i suppose, with the man.

so now i really do have to sleep, sso

byebye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[yautjalover]

Strap in for this rant. ☺️

As a writer, there are always going to be those who have shitty takes and opinions on my work. It’s just how it is. It’s natural.

However, there is one thing that really bothers me. I’ve had people claim that I’m “filling the diversity quota” and “ticking off the boxes”. The fact that some people have taken the time out of their day to leave that comment is just abhorrent. It’s part of that close minded racist and homophobic shit that I wish would just die out already.

When I write my fanfiction and originals, I set out to just write. I make a cast of realistic people who could be your neighbor, your sister, your loved one, or even your enemy. There is no “box” or “quota”. Please fuck off with that shit. There are more than just straight, white, cisgender people out there!

My latest character was inspired by Lex from Alien versus Predator (2004) and I had pictured this every day woman who would come to find her place in a new world. She could be that person you know in your real life who’s just trying to make it day to day. Being inspired by Lex, of course I would make her Black, because it just made sense. She’s directly influenced by her! ☺️ Unlike other writers would’ve done, I just created a real woman that didn’t focus on checking whatever boxes they say exist…whatever the fuck that means! She’s a person first and foremost. Ashaki isn’t a quota. She’s a person!

For those who don’t know me personally, I am a very inclusive person and will not put up with that racist shit. Those types of people need to fuck right off! I was out every day protesting that summer that George Floyd died. I was out there with my sign and a broken wrist (that really fucking hurt) in the heat actively fighting racism with my presence. I am a white transman, but I will fight tooth and nail for my BIPOC fellow humans. I combat it every time family or fellow whites say/do that shit. It’s exhausting but it’s necessary in such a cruel world.

And yes, I will have LGBT+ characters. We exist and are real, so there they will be in my stories. They’ll especially be in my Predator stories, because it’s impossible for an entire species to not have LGBT+ folks. It’s just dumb and ignorant and homophobic.

As I knew would happen, I got people mad that the current Yautja main character, Dhare, turned out to be Bisexual.

Oh the horror! He likes both males and females! What a travesty! Ahhh!

Fuck off!

“If he likes men then I don’t wanna read the next book. This disgusted me.” - Direct quote from someone.

Good fucking riddance! I don’t want homophobes to read my shit anyways! I really hope that any fellow Bisexuals have found representation in that! It also made sense for his character, so fuck right off with that “diversity quota” bullshit.

Actually, racists and homophobes can personally fight me in a Burger King parking lot. I’ll lose followers over this, inevitably, but I see it as I’m culling the field. I’ll just gain them back when I finally finish some drafts.

So, in essence…

✨FUCK OFF RACISTS AND HOMOPHOBES. THIS IS NOT YOUR SAFE SPACE.✨

[mysticaltora8276]

OK I have read these book series quite extensively and let me just say this. Yeah he is abusive to Obi-Wan especially at the beginning. And it is never formally addressed. And this isn’t the first time that a master and Padawan relationship is shown to be abusive. See Karen Traviss’ travesty of master apprentices in her novel. Evidently, according to her, they are so bad that they can leave a Padawan with absolutely no self-confidence whatsoever, and for some reason, the Jedi don’t do a thing about it. At least for the other example that I now think of Timothy Zahn’s example, it’s highly indicated that quite a few Jedi are aware of this and they are very uncomfortable with this. Even if they “can’t do anything about it.“ Which I find to be a bunch of BS considering they’re freaking order and yes, they can do something about it and that they noticed that he’s that bad then they I would think they would certainly put their foot down and go “heck no, we are not allowing this to get away from her.” Yeah legends has that big problem which in Canon they do a lot better job of showing supportive master apprentice and the issues that can come up as well as showing the order as a whole being depicted a lot better in there. Now I’m not gonna say that every organization that is explicitly aligned with the good guy thing has to be squeaky clean but there has to be a reason why they’re considered the good guys. And in Canon it’s very clear why they’re the good guys. They’re not perfect but they try to be their best and they help people as best as they can. Legends half the time it just features the Jedi order messing up spectacularly, and, quite a few of them are depict it with so many jerks that you’re just wondering “how on earth does anybody consider them the good guys when half of them are jerks?”

I’ve seen a couple posts floating around about the Jedi Apprentice books- (which I’ve only absorbed via fandom osmosis) -and the relationship between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon in fics, so I just figured I’d toss in my two cents.

Personally, I don’t really have any particular opinion on Qui-Gon, he’s a very middle ground character for me—I don’t love him, I don’t hate him, I just think he’s neat. This gives me the advantage of being able to read any number of fics with him in it and his relationships with other characters can be varied, and none of it will really affect my enjoyment of the fic.

However, there is a particular characterization I like above all the rest.

I love the characterization of- "Qui-Gon is trying his best to do the right thing and be a good master for Obi-Wan."

----------

The- "Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan's relationship was always perfect" -characterization of their relationship is just plain boring, in my opinion---but so is the- "Qui-Gon was just a shitty master and never actually cared about Obi-Wan" -characterization.

The former just leaves a very small sandbox to play in, in my opinion, especially in regards to angst---since I know we all love to put Obi-Wan through the ringer. Perfect things, in general, tend to leave very little wiggle room, so I generally don't really like them.

The latter, though, just...doesn't make sense for Qui-Gon's character or the Jedi in general. Qui-Gon, in the movies and even in the SW novelizations by Matthew Stover, never really comes across as someone who would be actively abusive.

Someone who sometimes makes decisions that hurt those around them, which is a normal human thing? Yes.

Someone who abuses and hurts their padawan intentionally for...reasons unbeknownst to me? Definitely not.

Plus, the Jedi aren't stupid. They would, very easily I'd say, be able to tell if someone was being abused---and like hell they would allow that to go on and not immediately remove that padawan from their abusers care. There's just no way.

----------

For me, the perfect characterization in fics is that Qui-Gon is always trying.

He's not perfect, no one is, but he's trying so hard to be a good master and to give Obi-Wan the support and care he needs. Obviously there are mistakes from both sometimes, that's just the nature of being a person, but every time Qui-Gon tries so hard to make the right decisions for the greater good and Obi-Wan.

This, of course, leaves room for Qui-Gon to make the wrong decisions sometimes---which means double the angst on both sides, which is always fun to write---plus, more importantly, it leaves room for both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to grow.

It means that they don't have to stay stagnant, stuck either being perfect or horrible, with no room in between.

It means that Obi-Wan can still have his Traumatic Past Events™️ without having to bash Qui-Gon to do it.

And it means that they can mess up sometimes, but still make up and be the master-padawan duo that we all enjoyed seeing in TPM.

----------

So yeah, those are just my thoughts---take them as you will.

[ooops-i-arted]

I'm relieved to see that at least some other Star Wars fans are as sick of Ahsoka Tano as I am. Do you think there'll ever be a point where Dave Filoni will ever get rid of the annoying orange for good? With him literally breaking the space contiuum to save her from what would have been a fitting end for her character, I think it's doubtful.

No, not as long as he's in charge of Star Wars and as long as the majority keeps eating up his version of Star Wars. Everything he touches has to be part of his Ahsoka & TCW Extended Universe. (I'll spare you an essay on how much anxiety I have over Mandalorian season 3 just being another season of Din being pingponged between Filoni's favorite plot arcs instead of the story being about him and Grogu. I miss the freshness of season 1 so much, with all its new planets and characters I fell in love with, just being consumed by TCW plots/characters. Bo-Katan & the potential of the Mandalore storyline excite me but I am just so worried it'll be about what Filoni cares about rather than what's best for the story and Din's arc.)

Ahsoka won't die unless Filoni comes up with what, to him, is an epic and worthy death (probably where she saves the galaxy, stops Order 66, and can live happily ever after in an alternate universe with Anakin forever; Padme and her importance to Anakin are completely ignored, of course) and even then he'll just go back and write EVEN MORE fanfic about her life like more Tales of the Jedi stuff about her past, or a whole What If series focused on her, or something else equally ridiculous. Imo he's basically a fanfic writer promoted to canon and he's gonna make all of us look at his sooper speshul awesome OC until the end of time.

Not intended as a diss on fanfic writers or anything, just that his attitude is the same I had when working on my super amazing powerful perfect Jedi OC when I was eleven. Which was great! I loved it! I had so much fun! But I was eleven. I have higher quality writing now. Like, No Prison Can Hold was just the adult version of me playing with my action figures, but I still wanted to tell a story with a beginning/middle/end, have a character arc for Din, and keep all characters aligned with canon once I decided it was a story that should be that way (and in fanfic you don't have to do that! in canon you do!). If I wrote like Filoni, Din would be rescued by my super amazing Jedi OC from childhood, she would hold his hand and lead him through the whole rescue and always be right, and the climax would be how SHE felt about Din and Grogu's reunion. It would be a much less satisfying and well-written story if I sacrificed the story itself at the altar of my favorite OC.

Tl;dr I have Concerns about the writing quality and I see Ahsoka as the canary in the coal mine for it. Especially after Book of Boba Fett, where Din was the Super Special OC taking over the show (Din is just a more balanced character, he has flaws and doubts and a more realistic skill level; 14 year old Din wasn't beating General Grievous for example), but of course we had to shove Ahsoka in there too, and Cad Bane to finish an arc THAT WAS NEVER EVEN IN TCW AND I NEVER WOULD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT WITHOUT TUMBLR, so I'm guessing the average audience member didn't know about it, and DIN AND GROGU ARE REUNITED IN NOT EVEN THEIR OWN SHOW, a HUGE moment and like ten minutes after being separated which was a big deal so it doesn't even feel earned, like this was a travesty of writing. Ahsoka is just one of the more obvious symptoms of writing whatever you want instead of planning a coherent arc and caring more about connecting your show to another show instead of focusing on your main character and making the story actually about them.

....I guess you got an essay after all. Oops. Like I said I have strong feelings on this. If I, a fanfic writer with a full time job on my hands (being paid WAY less than Filoni, I assume), can make the time to write with consistency and character arcs and focusing on the main character and all that, surely Filoni should be able to when it is literally his job.