#even daenerys centric and generally daenerys positive ones

[damn-i-really-am-bored-huh]

Me reading fanfics with Daenerys in them: "She would NOT fucking say that."

[sweetnightlullaby]

As I was watching shang-chi (which was a great and entertaining movie btw, some spoilers below) I realised how we need more female centric films, even blockbuster ones that aren't just oh a masculine lady who can kick ass.

No I mean a whole character heroine journey (the Joseph Campbell way) about maturing and finding her way and all the variations that can imply.

Give me the story through the woman's perspective, the growth, the anger, the grief, the grey morality everything male action protagonists have been praised upon and women (look at Daenerys or Wanda) have been called as *shock face* mad villains.That's some bulshit right there and a shallow understanding of a multi leveled character but because their stories are been told through male writers ( yeah I see you g.r.r martin) or through a male protagonist the male audience must identify with (and the female audience has learned to do as well), we never truly explore or bother to understand the women in films.

God how can a woman be anything more than a secondary character, a loving mother, a mad bloodthritsy man hating (most of the times abused) woman, a sexualised teenager etc.

Back to shang-chi for a sec. Imagine a film with xialing as it's main character, we never saw much behind her badass image (which was pretty satisfying I must say), to her own trauma, her own head to head meeting with her father, her own grief about her mother, her journey of leaving as a kid a traumatic life and finding her way to the top. It's just.. frustrating.

Because we have seen the father and son archetype and clash and reconciliation many many times in cimena (which is predominantly male dominated) but never the mother and daughter archetype and relationship, the clash also, the kindness and all the emotional depth. The matriarch and her heir.

There's just so much unexplored space there and so many young girls and women who are thirsty for something to identify and ponder with, to see themselves and take pride in.

I'm sorry but even tho it was a good movie and we need this representation of asian culture, it could be so much better if marvel just stopped being marvel for a sec. I rolled my eyes so many times when his father was literally abusing him but never got called on his bulshit by either him or his sister and we got a montage of them locking eyes in the end as he gave him the ten rings (like thanks dad but what about all the psychological and physical pain I endured through my childhood, guess we'll never mention it again).

A part I did like was how the siblings switched places a bit, with shang-chi taking his mother's caring role and xialing taking her father's leadership (which again would have more impact if she developed a relationship with him, negative or positive).

Okay I'm done rumbling. The summary of that is that we need more action packed blockbusters about young girls and women and their journey of finding themselves. Also more films about women in general and the portrayal of abused women, angry women, vengeful women without bias (there's been a slight shift in that), also the portrayal of queer women with loving realationships (just imagine a black widow film where Yelena and Natasha weren't sisters but friends to lovers, okay I will stop now).

Finally, this all ties back to the first ever morally grey woman I saw on tv. That's Morgana from BBC's Merlin and of course she is viewed as a villain through our main characters lenses and good vs evil philosophy but she was such an interesting character, both kind and cruel. Just imagine an ending *potential spoilers*of Merlin and Arthur fucking of in the distance to become farmers and be gay together( like please) and Morgana with a*you can't change my mind*heavily queer coded Morgause rule Camelot together with acceptance of magic and a fresh chapter in fantasy and mythology and storytelling . It isn't hard. Of course one would argue this isn't how the original tales go, but this is art, it's fiction based on the Arthurian legends and you can expand and shift them as you desire, in fact you should explore their many sides(which the green knight with dev Patel did really well).

Okay I'm done for real now!

[where-theres-smoak-2]

With the way antis have taken advantage of Alina being half Shu on the show in order to use it against Darklina I’m wondering would more people take the Grisha persecution and really discuss it rather than parroting the same “Ohh,they did such a good job with Mal on the show and the Darkling is so evil”if Aleksander was a POC on the show since Demon in the Woods heavily implies that he probably has some Shu blood since he can pass as one. I mean personally I think it feels super forced to insert 21st century (mostly American centric) racism where you already have a fantasy group as representation for discrimination and persecution but there’s no doubt in my mind that if he has been played by a POC actor those fake some fans would immediately start defending him. I think in general there should def be more discussions online about the way Grisha as a minority group has been presented and how the narrative represents them because yes Alina keeping her powers and the Darkling getting some sort of redemption would be amazing but that doesn’t solve the bigger issue of how Aleksander is vilified for doing everything he can to protect his people against a system that’s been abusing and enslaving them for centuries while Alina is so anti Grisha and spends half of her life hiding who she is(hello assimilation and co dependency so she can be the perfect “normal”girl her jerk of a “best friend”could love)and then it ends up being permanently stripped from her because the story can’t have a powerful woman learning of the unjust system that’s been commuting genocide on her people and deciding to put a stop to it. Instead we need someone like Zoya who has no leadership or political abilities to be queen and is very much pro monarchy(aka the system that oppresses her people)and her becoming a queen has to be because of her white saviour boyfriends decided she’s the best fit for it because characters like Daenerys from GOT and Aleksandr are deemed “too extreme/dangerous /ambitious”when they try to change the status quo because they’re “too violent”.But if you make another character a WOC(then change her to white passing scree you capitalised on POC buying your books)and give her how many powers basically turning her into a Mary Sue and make her a queen without her doing anything to gain it or even wanting to be one (because they would make her greedy and violent/evil)people will so not notice and root for her because performative diversity/activism solves everything. Anyway sorry for the rant I just had to vent for a bit,lol.

That's ok rant away, I think having a good rant is healthy sometimes. You've raised an interesting question in if Aleks was played by a POC would antis have actually defended him and would that have made people discuss the oppression of the grisha more. I mean I don't know the answer to it. I do feel like antis will use pretty much anything to paint darklinas as bad people. I actually talked a bit about the fact that in the books m*l is white and Aleks is the one that is presented as potentially being a POC when some antis started accusing darklinas of being racist for not shipping m*lina making the claim that they only ship darklina because archie is a MOC and Ben is white. Considering most darklinas have openly admitted that show m*l is 100% better than book m*l and how alot of people liked him in the show but just prefer the chemistry between darklina, the argument that we are all racist doesn't make much sense. Unfortunately I do think that antis use racism as a weapon in ship wars far too often and this I find worrying because if the subject of racism comes up in a more serious discussion are people just going to shrug and say its just antis being antis instead of engaging in what needs to be an important and educational discussion.

The fact that Aleks as a leader of a oppressed minority group is villainised the way he is in the books is something that has always frustrated me and made me kind of angry too. I honestly don't feel like the show villainised this character even with the bad things he does in the show. They did a very good job, in my opinion, of showing that he was a man who had spent hundreds of years watching his people suffer and was now committing these dark acts out of desperation, he feels like he has tried every other way and now fear is the only weapon he has left to use. They go to great lengths to show you why he is doing these things making him more of a morally grey character than an outright villain, which is why I think the character has even more support post release of the show. I mean I wasn't part of the fandom when it was just a book fandom but from what I've seen others saying the darklina fandom has grown bigger as people are watching the show and are just being drawn to Aleks' character and the darklina ship. This isn't something that happens in the books where he is just depicted as being evil to his core pretty much and its very hard to understand his motives and I also don't feel like he gets much development as a character he's just kind of there in the background doing villain things. Most of his development in my opinion is in demon in the woods and I kind of wish she had actually written that into the actual book trilogy.

As for Zoya I don't know much about her character past the grisha trilogy so I can't really form a personal opinion on how her character is developed past that point. But from what others have said I get the impression that LB tried to fix the mistakes she made with Alina with Zoya in that people didn't like that Alina lost her powers so she makes Zoya really powerful, they wanted Alina more involved in politics and maybe even as a grisha queen so she made Zoya a grisha queen. In some ways this is good because it shows growth and that she took on criticism and tried to fix it. Unfortunately it does make Alina's fate an even more bitter pill to swallow because Zoya's journey really should have been Alina's. In my opinion Alina should have ended the series with her powers and in a position of power so that she can help better her people's situation. Whether that position of power is as the new queen or whether they decide to get rid of the monarchy altogether and form a council or government instead that includes both otkazat'sya and grisha working together.

[starksinthenorth]

...

I’ve been pretty absent from Tumblr and AO3 over the last month or so. In that time I: moved back to the city my school is in from where my parents live, started a new job, dealt with my city’s race riots/protests happening right outside my building (the stores on the first floor got broken into two nights in a row and a neighbor got maced by a cop while watching from their balcony, a friend got arrested for violating curfew - and that’s just a few things that happened), and started a new job. I live alone with a cat and dealing with the emotional isolation from friends and family has been more draining than I anticipated. My apologies for not responding, but with all the personal shit I just did not have the emotional energy to deal with ship wars and people’s adamant defenses of their faves.

This post is an address to a series of comments on my fic, Brave, Gentle, Strong, on AO3 by someone who has (generally) been respectful until recently, when the comments got somewhat more demanding and entitled. In fairness, I did promise to answer but just did not have the emotional space to deal with this. There’s a lot in those comments, so I’ll be addressing them in chunks. Here goes.

Request to tag fic “Sansa-centric”: I’m not going to be doing this. This fic is not Sansa-centric, I have fans of J, S, and D who have all enjoyed it and are sticking around despite controversial decisions I’ve made. While it’s mostly a romantic angst fic, the political plot thus far has been wholly dedicated to Dany finding a way to get her throne. The ending will be successful in that endeavor. If you do a “find” search on the “entire work” option, Dany appears 569 times, Daenerys 153 (total = 722); Sansa 837; and Jon 732. I have a horrible habit of using epithets, and “queen” appears an additional 197 times, most of which are “the queen” or “his queen” in reference to Dany.

Advocating for Dany is encouraged, not discouraged: I never said I don’t want people to advocate for their faves. Especially since I’m still not as familiar with Dany, I don’t mind people calling out areas I’ve miswritten her. Someone mentioned that I only have Sansa and Jon reflect on Dany’s beauty and not her strength and accomplishments. That’s not entirely true, but a reread did show me I have ways to go on making that more evident. Part of the difference with her and Sansa being appreciated by the other/Jon was two-fold: 1) Sansa was coming into the already established relationship of Jonerys, and 2) Sansa gets trashed a lot more in fanfic that I’ve read. When I was mostly into Jonsa it was a few years back and writers were still kind to Dany. When I got into Jonerys fic, it was during/after S8 and the writers were absolutely TERRIBLE to Sansa. I had my reasons for making Sansa appeared loved by the other two; but it’s on my list of things to add in on edits to show ways that J and S appreciate her more than just being pretty.

The reason that comment was made was some threatening and uncomfortable comments made by Dany stans.: I got some pretty awful comments from other Dany stans and it made me very adverse to reading any comments about her because of it.

I am a fan of Dany.: I really hate having to defend myself to people just because Sansa is my fave. I wrote this fic in anticipation of the horrible things to come after 804: Who Would Ever Want to be Queen?, a decent amount of fics with D/S as the premier couple in a happy way, and even some J/S fics where she’s featured positively. I’ve also written plenty of meta, rants, and defenses of her on tumblr: book!Dany and saving Missandei; how Dany could have been pro-slavery out of bitterness and wasn’t; Jon won’t kill Dany; GRRM Does Not Want Us to Think Negatively of Daenerys in ADWD; How Dany + Sansa will meet; Way D&D Fucked Up Daenerys Targaryen #32423423; and more. Like, just because bad things are happening to a character doesn’t mean the author hates them.

 This OT3 is made of characters I deeply care for. I just also really like angst. This fic is tagged heavy angst and we’re only 2/3 of the way through part 1 of 2.  

OT3’s future together:

1) Dany’s first child. I’m confused why you think Dany is “unhappy” when she leaves them at King’s Landing. She’s concerned to realize she’s pregnant – she stutters through her excuses to go away before puking; Missandei describes Dany as thus: “The look on Dany’s face nearly breaks her Hand’s heart. The joy and worry mixed with so much pain. She’s already lost two children. Must she lose a third?” Dany is severely worried that this child will die and explicitly doesn’t “want to pain [Jon and Sansa] with the news” that they could lose a child. Dany is an incredibly giving, loving character, but she also has an aloofness to her. This isn’t necessarily a negative thing, but it’s something she’s dealt with in canon: “Do all gods feel so lonely? Some must, surely.” (ASOS, Dany VI). And while they’re happy, she’s still dealing with that and learning to trust her partners. That’s why she goes to Dragonstone to give birth.

2) Writing Health poly relationships: You point out “Poly relationships that are healthy, have three or more people who love and respect each other. Equally.” And that’s what I’m working towards. The problem between how we each view this is in that exact statement: I am working towards a healthy relationship. They aren’t in one yet. Everyone has some personal and plot issues to work through before they can get together. And for that to happen, various plot devices needed to occur. It is not the purposeful “destruction and misery of one [partner]” in this fic from the other partners’ POVs. It’s an authorial decision to make everyone pretty miserable before they can be triumphant. I’ve written a fair amount of angst and fics that are literally just characters suffering. It’s a dynamic I like to explore and this has been labeled Heavy Angst since the first chapter was posted, back when it was just Dany taking a nap and chatting with Sansa. If angst isn’t your thing, this isn’t the story for you. I’ve said it since the beginning. I’ve been doing reading in on this and how to write it better, but at the end of the day they aren’t a couple yet. They’re each individual parties thinking as individuals about their individual interests. They still need to realize they’re better together, and they aren’t there yet. If you want to know how that looks, checkout The Price of a Princess, a newer fic about their future as parents and rulers together.

3) Authorial plot devices do not equate abuse character behaviors. You said it was “abuse” that I had a plot device (the miscarriage) that is going to cause character and romantic development. That’s not abusive behavior. The characters are unaware of the events as they occur. A living human cannot abuse fictional characters. You might disagree with the choices I made about this plot, but it’s not abusive because only one of us is actually a person.

[coaldustcanary]

2016 Fanfic Masterpost

I’ve seen some posts from folks I follow in a number of different fandoms doing a bit of an end-of-the-year writing roundup, and I really like that idea, so here we are. 

I’ve been fannish for a long time now - over 20 years at this point, which is more than a little terrifying to consider, let me tell you. But my fannish writing has been very intermittent over those years for the most part, and my participation in fandom was relatively narrow, particularly when I was working on my PhD. Through 2014 I wrote, on average, one fanwork a year for the previous 5 years, as usually I could be counted upon to participate in at least one A Song of Ice and Fire and/or Game of Thrones fanfic exchange, but not much beyond that. I also wrote a smattering of fic prior to 2009, much of it lost to the ages besides some random pieces I managed to get up on AO3. (I really need to take some time to go back and properly back-date those older works, oof. And dig up a few more on LJ communities that I couldn’t find when I did my original looking, if I can.)

But in the past year and a half or so I’ve come back to fandom in a much more enthusiastic way than I have since I was a teenager, thanks to falling hard for the Dragon Age games and then faceplanting into Once Upon a Time fandom. And in the past seven months I’ve written if not a lot of fic, definitely more than I have in a long, long time. It’s been a trip, in both good and bad ways, but I’m glad to be doing it.

The master list in chronological order with brief commentary:

Always Already (Dragon Age: Inquisition) Incomplete Planned eventual M rating, nothing above T in the current chapter tumblr link, AO3 link, 6025 words The Academic Conference AU that started it all this summer. I just could not let this headcanon go until I wrote this first chapter. I haven’t touched it since then for a variety of reasons, but even if I never get back to it I’m pleased with the chapter that exists and it got me back writing. It’s meant to be a massive DA:I ensemble AU, with this particular multi-chapter story involving some eventual Female Trevelyan/Cullen Rutherford, but mostly I just want to finish this particular arc so I can just write snippets in the AU every time I need to say something cathartic about working at a university.

Hunger (Dragon Age: Origins) Rated G, Gen, Alistair & Female Brosca friendship tumblr link, AO3 link, 1835 words A short, introspective piece about one of my Dragon Age OCs. When you grow up without enough food, hungry all the time, what happens when the effects of blood magic make you even hungrier? Natia thinks about her life and her choices and finds common ground with her fellow Grey Warden.

Before a Fall (Game of Thrones) Mature, Yara Greyjoy/Daenerys Targaryen, GoT 6x09 post-ep scene tumblr link, AO3 link, 2698 words Written for the Game of Ships Seven Hells Challenge based off of the prompt “Pride”. I watched 6x09 on the Sunday night when it aired and swooned over Yara and Dany’s interaction. I wrote this intimate encounter the following Monday evening in one sitting. I ship Iron Dragon so very, very much. This fic took only about a month to become my most commented and kudosed fic ever on AO3, and I’m pretty happy with it.

Savior Fair - Princess (Once Upon a Time) Rated T, Captain Swan tumblr link, AO3 link, 2501 words My first OUAT fic, based on the August 2016 OUAT positivity challenge that tlynnwords put together. (I put all my pieces for this in a single work on AO3 called Savior Fair, since they’re Emma-centric.) Fluffy CS pillow talk set post-S5 before I’d much looked at S6 spoilers. I like this fic’s premise and flow, but I totally missed the mark with Emma’s voice in it. Her voice is tough for me, but I think I’m getting better.

Savior Fair - Smile (Once Upon a Time) Rated T, SwanFire tumblr link, AO3 link, 938 words My goal with the OUAT positivity fics was to focus on the best parts of Emma’s relationships with other characters. I think Neal is a fascinating character (and though I don’t ship SF, I’ve been a fan of Michael Raymond-James for a long time and I think he brings a lot of interesting nuance to the guy) and I think a lot about the time they spent together and what it would have meant to 17 year old Emma to have someone smile at her and mean it.

Savior Fair - Heart (Once Upon a Time) Rated T, Captain Swan, 4x12 missing scene tumblr link, AO3 link, 1274 words I needed a scene to bridge the gap between the conclusion to the showdown in the clock tower and Emma replacing Killian’s heart in his chest. Just a little feels-laden ficlet. (Apparently the original script had a line in the latter scene with Emma saying she felt strange holding his heart, and Killian replying that she’s already held it for ages, though I didn’t know that until after I wrote this bit, and it tends in a similar direction.)

Savior Fair - Trust (Once Upon a Time) Rated T, Emma & Milah, 5x14 missing scene tumblr link, AO3 link, 1647 words The last of the positivity prompts I got to (August is a tough time with the semester beginning, so much for my ambitions) and the one of which I’m the most proud. I have A Lot of Feelings about Milah and the way she’s treated in a many corners of OUAT fandom, and I’m still really mad about 5x14. Emma and Milah needed more time to talk. So they mostly talk about what they have in common. (And, honestly, Killian is only a small part of their similarities.) I am certain they would be friends, given the chance.

Steadfast (A Song of Ice and Fire) Rated T, Stannis Baratheon/Davos Seaworth, canon divergence/future fic AO3 link, 4071 words I did three fanfiction exchanges due in September this year, and I wrote this fic for thedevilchicken for the Game of Thrones exchange. Despite the name, this one is open to both book-verse and show-verse fics, and this one is an AU of the former. For some reason I seem to really like writing Stannis-as-king future AUs with a Davos POV, and nothing says Stannis/Davos loyalty than a retelling of a shockingly sad Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a broken toy that is loyal to his distant and unattainable love until he’s melted into scrap. (Spoiler alert: This version has a happier ending.)

Distracted (Dragon Age) Explicit, Anders/Karl Thekla AO3 link, 3094 words Smutty roleplaying with spanking written for green_sphynx for The Black Emporium, a Dragon Age rarepair exchange. Playful and porny PWP set sometime well before everything was terrible in Dragon Age 2.

Starstruck (Agent Carter/Doctor Who) Rated G, Gen, Tenth Doctor & Donna Noble, Peggy Carter & Angie Martinelli tumblr link, AO3 link,  3425 words Written for Grey_Cardinal for the Crossovering exchange. Ten and Donna cause a bit of a scene at the restaurant where Angie works. I quite like the premise of this fic and it was fun to write, though I really ought to have come up with more for Peggy to do in it.

Spectator Sport (Once Upon a Time) Rated G, Gen, Hooked Queen friendship, future fic tumblr link, AO3 link, 1063 words After having a really crummy day a few months back, I asked for some fic prompts (pairings and a word/idea) to take my mind off it and my lovely friends delivered. This is just a little vague future fic based on mryddinwilt’s prompt for Hooked Queen + parenting. However much they viciously snark at one another, I think they understand one another pretty well, too. And the mental image of them enduring discomfort to watch Henry’s high school soccer game was too good to pass up.

Wrapping (Game of Thrones) Rated T,  Yara Greyjoy/Daenerys Targaryen, University AU tumblr link, AO3 link, 1379 words Written for the Game of Ships “Until Hell Freezes Over” holiday/winter-themed event. I’m actually the advisor for a service learning club at my university, and those valiant students get run ragged as they try to finish up the term and also do good for their communities. Somehow I imagine that Dany would be that kind of overachiever, and Yara would just as clearly be her dubious but devoted girlfriend. I’ve been leery before of writing student AUs because I’m a teacher and it feels a bit odd, but I liked this AU a lot and might come back to it for writing more Iron Dragon because I’m sure canon is going to be a shit-show next season.

Clarity (Lucifer) Rated T, Gen, Linda Martin & Mazikeen friendship, 2x07 missing scene AO3 link, 2785 words I participated in Yuletide for the first time this year (yes, I know, I’ve somehow been in fandom for-freaking-ever and never done it before) and I matched on one of my newish fandom delights, Lucifer. Though this fandom is growing and probably won’t be eligible next year, sign-ups were before most of the season had aired, and my recipient, Lenore, requested Linda and Maze having a conversation about Heaven and Hell. Well, without getting too deep in to spoiler territory, canon pretty definitively implied that such a conversation occurred sometime between 2x07 and 2x08, so I decided it needed writing. Linda is my favorite character on Lucifer, and Maze is an utter gift. Writing this was a bit stressful (I was making last-minute edits the night before reveals from a hotel room) but I’m happy to have written it and received some lovely comments from folks, including the recipient.

So, all told, per my AO3 stats page I wrote 32,736 words of fanfic this year, which is far more than I’ve ever written in a year before. I also am starting to get a grip on what my strengths and weaknesses are as a writer, which is pretty wild but also motivating. My general approach to writing has long been “use deadlines as motivation, panic at the last minute, write frantically, throw it at the world like a grenade and take cover” and while I’m a good enough writer for that not to be as terrible as it sounds, I know I could be a lot better if I continue to change my approach to writing and write more frequently and steadily. Honestly, because I’m an academic by trade, this applies to my professional writing as well, and fanfic is good practice for me to refine my writing habits, which have vastly improved this year, even if they’re still not where I want them to be in the end. Here’s hoping I can keep it up in 2017.